Christmas is over

Man, I think it takes just as long or maybe even longer to un-decorate the house from Christmas. We took our tree down on Sunday and of course that entailed lots of pine needle vacuuming. But we all know we'll be finding needles in the strangest of places all the way to July!
And so the bare tree still lies in front of the house as the city hasn't picked it up yet. At least ours didn't blow away in the wind like the neighbour's from across the street.

Planning and shopping for the kitchen

The weekend saw us starting to shop around for various elements we shall be requiring for our new kitchen. Sink, faucet, stove, dishwasher, vent hood. Thank goodness we can look up a lot of this stuff online...we found the same sink that we saw here at Lowes in the States and can get it there fo $200 cheaper even after the exchange. Yay for a strong Canadian dollar!
We also pillaged the Colby household and got a tall cabinet that fits perfectly in the dining room to use as a temporary pantry and also various tools that will be required once demolition/construction begins.

Return to the scene of the crime

Last Friday I spent the day at Lallemand as my presence was urgently requested to go in to do some analyses! I also went in this past Tuesday. It'll make me a few bucks and not make me feel so guilty about procrastinating about finding a job!
Yes, although I had told myself I would definitely start hard core job searching this week, it hasn't really happened other than me sending out a few CVs...so (dare I say this) you all have permission to make me feel guilty and nag me about it! (but be gentle!)

MEC

Last Thursday Gillian came into town and we took a trip to MEC and France tagged along too. It was nice to see Gill and spend some time together as the last time we saw each other was last May! And after all these years I finally got my own MEC membership! I never saw the need before as I have always gone with someone who has one and it would mean receiving 2 catalogues at home. But they've now wised up and only send 1 catalogue per household. For a while there we were even getting catalogues addressed to Colby, Tim and Rozon, Chris which I thought was pretty funny although I don't think Tim did! Anyhow, I got 3 cheap tops for cycling and/or hiking and then we went for lunch at Futenbulle on Bernard. Quite good although they did not have my first choice of beer La Chouffe
so I missed out on a free glass as they had been giving them away as a promotion when you got a bottle of the golden ale. We then walked along Mount-Royal so Gill could get some used cds at L'Echange. I hadn't been around there in ages!

I spent that evening making a variation of this soup recipe that Jacquie sent me...very tasty...Sweet potato and clementine bisque

Nappy Yew Hear

Well even Moose has finally updated his blog to wish everyone a Happy New Year so I guess I should do the same...

May you all have a great 2006 and may all your wishes come true!

That said, what have I been up to in the last week? This, that and the other, I guess...

Tim worked last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday much like the rest of you employed people so I took the time to do some errands while the stores were somewhat empty before the pre-New Year's rush. The exciting purchase was a new Welcome mat for the front door! I got it when I finally checked out Warshaw's Home down by the Atwater Market. Lots of good bargains on household items are to be had there.

Saturday was spent preparing for the evening celebrations as New Year's festivities were to be held at Columbia Avenue after a 2 year hiatus. We were 16 in all, including Elise and a very quiet Arianne and a good time was had by all (or so I believe!)
No photos of the event appear to have been taken with my camera so I have none to share, sorry!
But here's one of Olaf & Tim playing in the park the following day...


Steph & Olaf slept over so they could both enjoy the fine wine we served and wouldn't have to drive all the way back to Rigaud after the party, smart move! ANd they also got treated to french toast the following morning.

Sunday evening was turkey dinner with my family and after a late start, we enjoyed a fine meal that was definitely worth the wait. We even got some leftover turkey to bring home for yummy sandwiches.

And what would New Year's be without the traditional vegging out in front of the television for a marathon viewing of 24. Monday we got in 11 episodes of season 4 and yesterday after a trip to Ikea (CRAZY!) to buy a reading lamp for the corner by the couch we squeezed in another 9 episodes.
We seem to have inadvertently passed on the tradition to Steph & Olaf as they borrowed season 1 and proceeded to watch 10 hours on Monday.

So such is life...

Omi

We took a drive out to Rigaud yesterday and surprised Steph & Olaf. This is their allergy-causing furball, all curled up in the sun under the Christmas tree. AAHCHOO!

Christmas

Thank goodness I wasn't doing Christmas this year cos I was busy enough as it was last week. Lots of baking and some shopping. Tim and I did have my folks & brother over on Christmas morning for brunch but that's nothing compared to 12 for turkey dinner, way to go Cathy!

After the snowfall

Sunday after the big snowstorm we took advantage of the beautiful day and went toboganning in Lasalle. Unfortunately they had yet to mark out the usual lanes down the hil so things were a bit bumpy and Tim was our first casualty after only the first run down! He apparently drove himself home without incident to ice his leg and was walking normally again by Wednesday, I believe it was. Tuesday night's curling game took some improvising in the hack though!

Last day at Dawson

On Friday the 16th I had to brave the 2 blocks up to Westmount Square in the snowstorm to make my way to school for my stage presentation. All went well even if I was cut a bit short and couldn't show the pictures I had prepared which you can check out at Lallemand
(if you are a registered user, that is!)

We got a nice little reception with a bunch of people (deans of various dpts) we didn't know and our program coordinator took off before everyone had given their presentation and Sam who was our teacher for most of the classes was AWOL.

Stage

I guess I haven't blogged in a while as the month was busy but rather uneventful nonetheless. Here you can catch a glimpse of what I did during my stage at the yeast company. The bags are yeast samples that came in probably from the production plant in Estonia and I had to weigh out smaller quantities and send them to an outside lab for analysis (microbiological testing for things like Salmonella, mold, coliforms, you know, all that good stuff you don't want to be ingesting in food products!)

The stage was good but not relevant enough to my field so I will have to start job searching in the new year. I will try and see if maybe the bacteria division of the company will have something for me though. I figure I will take a long deserved break during the holidays as no one is interested in job interviews at this time of year...

Indian cooking class

3 Saturdays ago (already, how time flies!), we attended an Indian cooking class and learnt how to make all kinds of yummy dishes. Chole masala (chick pea curry), zucchini and green pepper curry, pakodas (vegetable fritters) and especially cool was cooking the puri (fried bread) and seeing it puff up in the oil. Unfortunately I had to settle for Kit Kats for sweets as dessert was topra pak, basically dried coconut (icky, icky, yuck!) covered in chocolate. We all went home stuffed and smelling of frying. Tim and I have yet to try recreating the dishes as we will have to take a trip to an Indian grocery before doing so. Bhanu, our teacher was great and has a very interesting background, she's a third generation Ugandan of Indian origin and she speaks something like 7 languages.

Where did those feet go?

A couple of weeks ago or so (and not on the day that it hit 17 degrees) as I was walking through the tunnel from Westmount Square to the metro, I glanced down to see a trail of wet footprints from someone walking barefoot. The trail kept up til almost the end where I was sure to see some homeless guy to explain it all. Yet the guy passed out in the corner was wearing shoes. It was not raining or snowing either. Where did the feet vanish to? We shall never know...

Three weeks later

Well my stage is coming along nicely. Lise, my supervisor, gives me the necessary instructions and then pretty much leaves me on my own to do what I have to do. Today I got to do the glutathione assay with the other stagiere and tomorrow I'll get to do it on my own so we'll see how that goes. It's not complicated but just involves a lot of mixing and timing things properly and the protocol is not written out too clearly.
A couple of Fridays ago, the bakers treated us to pizza and cinnamon buns for lunch and I brought home some olive & onion foccacia too, that was yummy. For some reason even if I really don't like olives, I like olive bread. Go figure!

I think I mentioned that my food processor died. Well, we shopped around to see the cost of a replacement but it turns out that no one makes an equivalent machine to the one we have. Ours is a mixer/blender/food processor all in one but they don't seem to exist anymore. I guess companies got wise to the fact that they can make more money if you have to buy 3 separate appliances. So the $125 to get the motor replaced in the old one seems like a bargain. The loser at Centre du Rasoir says it might take til January to fix it though. Good thing I don't plan on doing any major cooking for Christmas this year.

I finished re-reading the 4th Harry Potter & we went to see the movie for Ysabel's birthday and I even managed to stay awake the whole time! Now if France can only finish the 5th book, I need some reading material for the metro...I've been reading Popular Science magazine instead to pass the time. Zubbles are cool!

Go to ZUBBLES

New post as per Eric's request :)

Well it's been a while and we could all use a little something to ease our minds from the recent events so here goes...
How did I spend the few days I had off before starting my stage? Think back, think waaaaaay back...
I made my 43rd blood donation, did some cleaning up of the front & back garden (I am always thankful at this time of year that we live in a row house with a small backyard, only 10 bags of leaves and garden clippings so far!), bought my first bus pass in over 11 years, celebrated Paul's birthday with a bbq and chocolate cake (and the famous macaroni salad of which Eric was very reasonable with his portion size), pureed 2 pumpkins which ended up killing our food processor and experimented with making onion rings, among other things.
Then Monday, it began, THE REAL WORLD!
It's not bad, it takes me about 45 minutes total to get to work. A longish metro ride to L'Assomption which allows me to do some reading (re-reading The Goblet of Fire before the movie comes out this week) and then a 5-10 minute bus ride to the corner of Notre-Dame and Dickson. Lise, my supervisor is quite nice. Luiza is the part-timer who was a stagière this summer and is the person who is showing me the ropes. She is quite excellent as a teacher. She explains really well and makes sure I understand even the basics without doing it in a condescending way. She really knows the theory behind the tests we do too and so I'm not just going through the motions without knowing why I am doing the steps that are required. I just wish there was more work to do. I think I had already pretty much covered all the methods used there by Wednesday. But the added bonus is the other part of the lab is the baking division and they test the yeast by baking bread so we always have a fresh loaf available in the lunch room. The atmosphere is pretty laid back and Lise gives me things to do without constantly checking up on me and lets me be so it's all good. And there's no way I clocked 35 hours last week but that doesn't seem to be an issue. The only half-unpleasant thing is having to taste the yeast. Yup, that's part of quality control, making sure the yeast has a fermented taste or a nutty roasted flavour or is slightly bitter. Yeah, I like taste-testing the bread much better.
On Saturday we got tired of the tv acting up so we took it into the shop for repairs. Turns out the water that leaked from the toilet and dripped down on it wasn't too good for it. No, really?! So it's all fixed and we even have basic cable now so no more having to deal with the intermitent snow on channels like Global and CBS. That evening I got to stuff my face on homemade sushi at France & Dave's while Tim went to his MAW softball banquet and then curled in Valleyfield at 11 pm. Crazy curlers, I say!
Sunday saw me helping Ysabel trim her tree. On one hand it got me out on my bike on a beautiful day. On the other hand it saw me climbimg up a ladder at a somewhat precarious angle. But it's been done before, only on my roof which is just as unenjoyable!


We decided we hadn't seen Eric enough in the last few days (sorry, I have to pick on someone and this time it seems to be you!) so we invited him & Cathy & Christina, Cathy's sister, over for supper to celebrate Cathy's birthday (which reminds me, there's still pumpkin cake left to be eaten, better go take care of that right now!)

Yummy! But the keyboard is a little sticky now, oops.

And all was well until early Monday morning...

Merely hours left

I've been trying not to goof off too much in the last few days, making one last effort at studying before my classes are FINALLY over! I did manage to see Jacquie & Matt (& also Penny) a couple of times while they were in town.



They found a condo on St-Urbain and hopefully everything will be in order with the inspection and they will be back to sign off on November 24th!

Lena moved out on Monday, it's as if she was never here, her room is back to how it was before she moved in and our fridge is bare! Here she is (in the middle) with Anka and Lilly, two of the other assistants before the Halloween party at their friend Sebastian's.



And I had two tests yesterday and one more to go this afternoon. I did play hookie from my lab this morning. I figured I should take advantage of this beautiful weather while I still can before heading back to the old grind next week. I took a long walk around Upper Westmount.




Here's a squirrel with a mohawk!

Is the week over yet?!

So I have accepted the stage at Lallemand, the yeast company. The work at the Neuro sounded very interesting, involving PET scans and brain tumours but it wouldn't give me enough experience in my field.

Yesterday was a looooooong day. We started off in the lab at 8 and went pretty much all day until about 7. We did have an hour presentation from CTBR (Steph's company where I went last week) and a few breaks there in between but we were all pretty tired and hungry by the end of the day. Now I'm debating whether to skip that stupid Excel class tomorrow. I think I'll go in for 9:30 and then leave during our break!
I do have to fit in some time somewhere to decorate the house for Halloween!
And hopefully I will hear from Jacquie & Matt as they are in town again to try and find a condo so Julie can get her ass back here from Toronto. You see the plan is that J&M are going to buy a place and have Julie & David & Arianne live there. So then J&M have a place to crash at with Penny, their dog, when they come to town and Julie will have a home in Montreal with cheap rent!

Okay, neighbour's child is having a hissy fit in the backyard. I can hear her, this with the windows closed!

1000 km!

I decided to brave the cold today and headed out for what will probably end up being my final jaunt out on my bike for this year. So I've cycled over 1000 km since the spring, not bad.

Last Wednesday was my interview at CTBR. It went well and I really liked the lab manager and the work in the pharmacy lab would really suit me but unfortunately getting out to Senneville is not easily feasible. And even if they are looking to hire people too, they don't pay very well (to put it kindly!) So I'm still looking...but things look good. Today I had an interview at the company where Olaf's mom used to work and they offered me a PAID stage! And tomorrow I'm meeting with a doctor at one of the labs at the Neuro Institute. So basically now I just have to decide which would be the best opportunity for me. Yay! An added bonus to having my interview this afternoon was missing my 4 1/4 hour Excel class. Maybe I can line up another interview for Friday morning when the next class is scheduled!

So now I just have to keep myself motivated to get through these last 2 weeks of classes and assignments and exams.

I've really come to realize the power of networking while trying to find this stage...luckily I've had a few contacts that have helped me. Most people in my class aren't so lucky. I'm just thanking the stars above for the opportunities that have come my way. Let's hope the job search goes as well. That is starting to worry me. The program finishes on December 16th, not the best time to be looking for a job. And not the best time of year to not have any income coming in! But I won't worry about all that just yet. I'm going to focus on the task at hand and hope I gain some good experience from the stage and then the sky's the limit, right?!

Roadkill is dead

I've been told that people are tired of seeing "Potential Roadkill" so I am taking time out from studying (yes, such a very big sacrifice!) to post an entry even if I don't really have anything to write about!

Life is busy as usual, where has the weekend gone? Only 3 more weeks of classes left and no, I don't have my stage lined up yet...but nobody else in the class does either. There is a job fair at McGIll on Tuesday but from the companies listed on the website, it doesn't look like there are really any opportunities. But it can't hurt to try.
I also have an interview at CTBR on Wednesday (the company where Steph works) and I know that I could most probably get it but I can't say I am really interested in working there. Too many factors that add up to it not being a good fit for me.

I should be getting a letter of introduction from the college tomorrow and then I will start sending out CVs like mad!
Keep your fingers croseed for me!

Potential roadkill

The widlife I avoided on the bike path yesterday:
2 big brown fuzzy caterpillars
1 teeny snake, grayish colour

Saw lots of Canada geese too, honk, honk! (They were of the usual Canada goose plumage colour.)

Time flies!

Another week has gone by and what have I done?!
I have to learn better time management cos having labs on Wednesday and Thursday evenings is a total right off.
But I just have to keep thinking "only 5 more weeks, 5 more weeks..."
(then what???)

The couple of contacts that I tried hitting up this week for stagière positions didn't pan out but I'll keep trying.
(ANYONE OUT THERE NEED A LAB TECHNICIAN TRAINED IN BIOTECHNOLOGY?!!?)
I also sent my CV to my teacher for her to review it but she has't given me any feedback yet. (Is it that bad?!)

On Thursday, the one day that I start late and can sleep in, I still ended up getting out of bed at 6:15, mind racing a mile a minute. And do you think I accomplished anything from that time til the time I had to leave for school? Of course not! Oh, sure, I did a million things but accomplish anything, I don't think so!
Supper that evening consisted of tuna fish salad and popcorn.

Friday had me crossing off almost everything on my "to do" list, everything, that is, but schoolwork. Didn't do any of it yesterday either! So guess what I'm doing today...schoolwork!
But I will go tire myself out with a bike ride first. Maybe it will help me clear my mind. I think it helped yesterday. Certainly can't hurt to go enjoy this beautiful weather before plunking myself in front of my books...