Stormy weather

Rainy days always make me want to hole up in my apartment with a good book/movie. What I should be snuggling up with is my thesis. It is funny how I can't concentrate on work at home if my apartment is a mess. I get around this by going to the library on occasion, but that is happening less and less often right now.

I clipped Myrah's claws last night and today. It was quite the ordeal as she was screaming bloody murder and struggling fiercely. She never protested as much the last time I did it, and I took off less claw this time than last time. How can something this cute be so darn fussy?


I caught up recently with my friend and fellow cheesy movie lover, Jimmy. He is living in Oregon right now, but might be moving again soon as he is in the middle of an intensive job hunt. In our extensive conversation, he also gave me a new cheesy horror movie recommendation... a foreign flick from Japan called Battle Royale. It looks like a great way to waste an evening. I have been told that I must watch it and report back.


I have also caught up on my pictures from my camping trip in July, so if you want to check them out you can find them here.

Is summer almost over already?

I am beginning to feel the pressure of the end of summer. The pressure of applying for jobs (I hope I get another section to teach next term), the pressure of getting the thesis done (just keep working), and the pressure of my own desires to take care of other areas of my life long neglected (too many to list right now). The summer will be officially over for me when I get back from a brief trip to see my parents and help out a bit. August is officially half over now. Where did the summer go? It went by so quick, yet strangely it seems like it lasted so long with so many great things happening during it.

I am looking forward to getting back into a regular schedule with work and such, but I am missing the anticipation of a new course load. Oh well, I should be looking forward to getting the thesis done. I can take more fun courses after the thesis is written. I have a list of things I am going to do as soon as it is written. Until then, I will write...

Uh, hi everyone... here is The Update...

I know, I know... there will be about 50 bazillion people letting out an exasperated sigh and saying "FINALLY!" at the sight of this post (okay, maybe the number is closer to 5 people, but they are a loyal and loving readership!) It has been over a month since my last post and I will try to give a quick update of all the highlights of the past month or so.

• My birthday has come and gone... July 13th... and I am one year older according to my drivers license (which I have now held for over a year... woot!) It was an amazing day! I spent the morning being treated like a princess at Spa Ahava, complete with full body scrub, massage, manicure, pedicure, hydrotherapy tub, and facial. I still have my fancy birthday toes. That night I was treated to a fabulous homemade gourmet dinner a la Brennan and a wonderful rendition of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. It was the best!
  
• The day after my birthday, I was given a surprise birthday party that totally caught me off guard. It was all pink too. Thanks so much Becky for organizing it and thanks again to everyone who showed up. It really meant a lot to me!
  
• I have been working diligently on my thesis regularly and spending a lot of spare time at the library writing. I get soooo much more done there than I do at home. Some freaky black furry thing keeps wanting my attention... the big suck! :o)
  
• A few of us went on a fabulous camping trip to Lower Fishing Lake and stayed at a cabin. It was so nice and quiet up there. It was a wonderful weekend. It is nice to know that I got a little bit of camping in this year. Pictures to come.
  
• My car broke down and was in the shop for 2 weeks. Luckily, I have a fantastic secret mechanic who charged me next to nothing for all the work he did. The car is up and running again, thank goodness... I missed her.
  
• I did a bit of Fringing this year. I checked out 2 plays (Pinocchio and GEEK!) and many street events. It was very cool as well. I love all the cultural stuff that goes on in Saskatoon during the summer.
  
• Since my original gym, Women in Motion, closed down in June, I have been slacking off on my workouts. So after some searching around, asking some questions, and taking a few tours, I decided to join Quantum Fitness. These guys have the best classes ever! I took the BodyPump class on Tuesday and really got a great burn working the muscles. The BodyCombat class I took yesterday was super fun as well, lots of great kicks and punching combos. The instructors are super high energy and really enthusiastic, which makes going a lot of fun. I am going to try the BodyStep class today.
  
• I am currently housesitting a couple of kitties on the other side of town. One of them needs ear medication everyday, but she is the most skittish little girl I have even encountered, so each day I have to find a creative way of cornering her to goop up her ears. Poor thing.
  

I think that might just about cover it for now. I am going to make some lunch and get back to work now. Toodles :o)

Work, work, work...

This week has been pretty productive. I have:

• done overdue research at Special Collections
  
• finished watching all of the first 8 seasons of This Hour Has 22 Minutes and determined which sketches and episodes I will focus on more closely
  
• revisited the thesis introduction and worked on a new plan of attack
  
• read other Canadian identity sources for Ch 1 & 2 of thesis
  
• determined formatting guidelines accepted by CGSR
  

And tomorrow I will be taping episodes of 22 Min in order to do thorough analysis for Ch 5 and to provide additional examples for Ch 3 & 4. Sometimes I don't feel like I have really made much progress until I take a look back at what I actually did get done. I feel pretty good and motivated to keep working. I like this.

Happy Canada Day!!

Happy Canada Day!!

Although I will be going out tonight to celebrate Canada Day, today I will be showing my patriotism by studying and writing about Canadian identity for Chapter 5 of my thesis. Yay!

Cute and evil... who woulda thunk it?

I can't believe this exists. Hello Kitty meets H.P. Lovecraft.

Election 2004 and Weekend Report

I voted today and now I am just watching the results. It looks like a Liberal minority with the balance of power being held by the NDP. That is not too bad, I suppose.

The weekend was great! We had a big day out at Pike Lake yesterday, I am still pooped from it. A big group of us went out and had a big BBQ, played Frisbee and football, then went swimming. We topped off the night with another BBQ, smores, and singing songs around the campfire... mostly Irish drinking songs. It was just fun all around.

I have to say though, it was nice to just get back home and have a long hot shower to get the sunscreen, bug spray, and campfire smoke off of me. I was just about asleep before my head hit the pillow.

This week, I have a chapter to put a first draft of together, so my work is cut out for me.

Productive day

Geez, today I have had some pretty good concentration compared to days past. I felt like I made some decent progress on my Literature Survey. I think I am going to work some more tonight still... why stop when I am on a roll?

Music to write my thesis by today:

• U2 - The Joshua Tree
• Simon and Garfunkel - Greatest Hits
• Live - Throwing Copper
• Tori Amos - Crucify
• Tool - Opiate
• Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
• The Smiths - Best of... Vol. 1 & 2

Another silly little thing

L	Lucky
A	Awesome
U	Unusual
R	Refined
A	Ambivalent

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

Life is kinda funny

I remember a time where I was bringing my resume to my Dad for advice and guidance, and he always had sound advice. Then today my Dad phones me up to ask for some suggestions on changes he wants to make on his resume and I actually had intelligent advice to give a man with vast experience late in his career. Sometimes I sit back and wonder... when exactly did life change so much?

Une question...

Qui est W.H.?

Fun weekend :o)

Saturday was great. We went to the Matthew Good concert. It was fantastic. He has great stage energy. He even played almost all of my favourite songs. It was a great time. Even the opening band Wil was amazing.

Afterwards, we headed back to a house party that was already well underway. It was quite fun, but I knew it was time for me to leave when people started wearing tin foil on their heads. Too much fun for this little girl.

After such an eventful Saturday, it was nice to spend a quiet day at home on Sunday.

Just wanna know who is reading my site :o)

1.Who are you?

2.Have we ever met?

3.Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.

4.Describe me in one word.

5.What reminds you of me?

6.If you could give me anything, what would it be?

7.Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?

8.Are you going to put this on your weblog and see what I say about you?

9.What do you love like a fat kid loves cake?

10.What makes you come back here?

All work and no play makes Laura something something...

I have been locking myself in my apartment for the past week or so working pretty intensively on my thesis. It is going fairly well, and I am seeing progress being made on it, but I was getting a bit stir crazy last night, so I went to the gym. Now I haven't been to the gym since before the conference, so I am a wee bit slower than when I was going 2-3 times a week regularly. Well this morning I hurt everywhere, especially my bum and my upper arms.

I think I hurt so much I can't do any more thesis work... okay, even I don't believe that one. Back to work. I owe my supervisor a polished draft of this chapter Friday morning so I had better get back at it. But I am taking a night off on the weekend for my sanity.

Photos are finally up...

Alright, by popular demand, the photos from my trip are here.

Meet my new boyfriend, Bruno. Watch out ladies, this guy is a little flirt!

Kinda unnerving...

Apparently someone got into my car late last night and rummaged all through it. They were looking for stuff that was valuable, but there really wasn't much worth taking in my car. They left my factory tape deck and my rocking tape collection (how could they resist my "Toto's Greatest Hits" tape?!?!?), but they stole my tool box and jumper cables.

Luckily, one of my neighbours saw that my car was open and locked it up again and notified the landlord who called me this afternoon about it. Oh well, it could have been much worse, they could have hotwired the sucker and I could have been without a car at all.

Just in case you didn't already know this...

LOOK OUT! ïòð

Laura is a radioactive squirrel!!

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Okay, that made me laugh out loud, so it had to go on my site.

I'm home!!

Yay!! Photos and such to come...

Last Day in Winnipeg

Greetings all! My trip is quickly coming to a close. Staying with Jasmine these past couple of days has been great. It is so relaxing and low key which is nice after the intensity of the conference. We have gone to Osbourne Village and did a bit of excessive shopping at Winners and Jysk (pronounced [yisk]). I also got a couple of pictures of the Louis Riel statue and the freshly-cleaned Golden Boy on the top of the Legislature building. Tonight we are going to the Forks, which should also be a blast as well as a great picture taking opportunity. Tomorrow morning I fly back to Toontown. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and being back in Saskatoon.

Just a quick update, or maybe not so quick

My talk is done!!! Hooray!! It went really well. I received many thoughtful questions and lots of comments. So far 4 of our little Saskatchewan group have presented and we all have made a great showing. All those extra practices that my supervisor has led us through have really paid off for everyone. Thanks Jen!

On top of the fantastic presentation, when I registered for the conference the lady helping me told me that my name was flagged. Apparently, the media was interested in my topic and possibly wanted to talk to me about it. I was sent to a press room to leave my contact information and a copy of my notes for the talk. I don't know if they will actually contact me further, or if my talk will actually make it into the paper, but it is quite flattering to be noticed for my topic.

It has been raining constantly in Winnipeg. I am not enjoying the feeling of being constantly damp and clammy, but all the green is wonderful.

I spent the first couple of days in Manitoba well out side the bustling metropolis of Winnipeg just past a teeny town called Fannystelle. I was visiting a good friend from high school, Kestrel and her husband Jim and their 6 month old baby boy, Bruno. Bruno is such a little flirt. It was wonderful to get a chance to visit with them again. I have pictures to put up when I get home.

So, the plan for the rest of the week is to finish up the conference and support all my fellow U of S participants at their presentations. After that, I am spending a couple of days with Jazzy in the city. Talk to y'all soon!