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Okay, so yet another hiatus.
Well, a lot has happened since last Jan. The thesis is done! And, officially accepted. The summer was spent with family in Seattle. Now I’m working on Thesis #2 in BC.
Sums up pretty quickly, doesn’t it? Well BC is turning out to be absolutely fantastic! School is going well and the people I’m meeting are wonderful. Since I’ve arrived I’ve been out to concerts, theater and symphonies; river walks, canoe trips, fishing, and hiking! And I’ve managed to keep up in school as well 
The hiking trip to Mt Patchett was amazing! The first time I’ve ever done a real hiking trip without a trail to follow. We scrambled up the side of the mountain on all fours, walked along the ridge, wandered down meadows and into a forest and then back out where we had started. The wind nearly threw us off the mountain at the top and we saw lots of grizzly scat (but no grizzly). The experience was definitely one to be repeated!
 As we start out, Lisha battles with past hiking injuries!
As we start out, Lisha battles with past hiking injuries!
 Part of the ridge, where we eventually walked across (I think?)
Part of the ridge, where we eventually walked across (I think?)
 Energetic and enthusiastic!
Energetic and enthusiastic!
 Things start to get vertical
Things start to get vertical
 Looking down on Lisha
Looking down on Lisha
 Perching on an angle
Perching on an angle
 Alex is powering up
Alex is powering up
 Looking waaaay down on Lisha
Looking waaaay down on Lisha
 I made it to the top!
I made it to the top!
 The Cariboos
The Cariboos
 That middle, more gradual slope is definitely the meadow we came down in
That middle, more gradual slope is definitely the meadow we came down in
 Now that we made it to the ridge, we need to make it to the top!
Now that we made it to the ridge, we need to make it to the top!
 The rocky slopes behind and just to the right of Lisha are where we climbed up
The rocky slopes behind and just to the right of Lisha are where we climbed up
 Close up on the Cariboos
Close up on the Cariboos
 Just before the wind hit
Just before the wind hit
 Eating lunch on the ridge (pumpkin pie!)
Eating lunch on the ridge (pumpkin pie!)
 The wind hit (hence the coats and hoods)
The wind hit (hence the coats and hoods)
 Climbing forever up!
Climbing forever up!
 And we made it to the summit! (the pile of rocks and the survey pole are proof )
And we made it to the summit! (the pile of rocks and the survey pole are proof )
 Contemplating the view?
Contemplating the view?
 Happy not to have been blown off the mountain?
Happy not to have been blown off the mountain?
 Happy to have made it to the top!
Happy to have made it to the top!
 Where we came from (right side of photo, a third of the way up is where we climbed up, the ridges are what we walked across)
Where we came from (right side of photo, a third of the way up is where we climbed up, the ridges are what we walked across)
 Lichen!
Lichen!
 Balancing in the wind
Balancing in the wind
 Heading down the meadow
Heading down the meadow
 A different kind of climbing
A different kind of climbing
 The slope we climbed at the beginning (in the middle, between the first two outcrops of rock)
The slope we climbed at the beginning (in the middle, between the first two outcrops of rock)
While finishing the thesis I’ve become insanely addicted to online web comics and web graphic comics. I’m blazing through Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell and came across the best pigeon dancing ever!
 Wikimedia commons Five minutes… just five minutes, I really need to rant!
I enjoy research, I really do. Most of time. Some of the time, surely. Right now, I just want to go open a bakery somewhere with a spinning complement and never see another chipmunk, line of R script or mixed model ever again. I don’t even want start on structural equation models.
It’s not the work that gets me, it’s the un-work that is driving me nuts! I have no problem running SEMs or mixed models or sitting in a tree watching chippies for hours on end. What I can’t stand is the feeling of despair as I run in to yet another bloody error in the analysis or reason why my stats are no good, or find yet another thing that I can’t do, for the simple reason that no one so far has tried to do it! Then I sit and stare at the computer, look up a bazillion references and start all over again with yet another technique, confident that THIS time it will work.
 This is another hydra. Not quite the one I was talking about, but definitely a sign that I've been TAing too much, as well. These guys are awesome, though! You should see them eat Daphnia! Credit to Stephanie Guertin http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hydravulgaris.jpg Seriously, this is like fighting the hydra! Each new technique illuminates more intricacies and more things I should have controlled for, analyzed or somehow must account for. I feel for Hercules, it’s bloody frustrating to see what you thought was a simple problem (i.e. one neck) grow new problems faster than you can solve them (or, once again, heads or necks, what ever you prefer). I guess I just have to find a way to cauterize them. But, from what I hear, Hercules had help so that doesn’t seem fair (I’m conveniently forgetting all the time my lab mates have spent explaining various statistical tools to me, because I’m officially “Feeling-sorry-for-myself”).
While, there is no doubt that this is an incredible learning experience, I want finish my thesis! I want to actually be WRITING my results, not re and re and re and re and re-analyzing everything YET AGAIN!
Sigh, I’m done.
xkcd is a great webcomic, but this is by FAR my favourite dream!
Well September was eventful! Not a lot of thesis advancement, but at least I got my NSERC application in and it looks damn nice, too! Even if I do say so myself.
I guess my favourite part of September was the beginning. The resourceful biology grads organized a canoing trip! Remember that rainy summer? Well this was the one weekend of sun all summer! After a harrowing time trying to find a park that still had campsites and canoes (everyone had the same idea as us) we were off!
 Continue reading → Bears, Racoons and NSERCs
About a month ago, I went to Toronto to work, meet friends, chill with family, go to Muskoka, go see Riverdance, and go to a Nia event called the Heart of Nia.
 Katia and a very red Steffi after a particularly energetic dance It was loads of fun, especially since Katia, my mom, and my first Nia instructor, Jill, were all there. It was an extra long Nia class with a whole crowd of Nia-ers (sadly only 2 guys were brave enough to come). As mom pointed out, I’m constantly astonished at the range of ages, backgrounds, body types and fitness levels that you see in an average Nia class. When ever I push people to come, they’re always worried about being out of shape, or not knowing the moves, or not agile, etc. That’s never been a problem from what I see!
Continue reading → Heart of Nia
S o my new little visitor is officially a resident. I had a couple inquiries, but the most promising was from a lady who had a whole flock and had lost a couple budgies all at once. Since she was worried about reintroducing a potentially diseased bird back into her flock, I offered to adopt the little one, and now he/she stays with me!
After several harrowing baths (he was covered in some sort of oil, that took some getting rid of), a trip to the vet, mite treatment and bleaching of cage and toys, and 40 days in confinement (the bathroom), my visitor is ready to meet his room-mates. Happily they’re all getting along quite well, with the usual amount of squabbling. The little one’s name hasn’t been decided upon yet, though, since I’m not yet sure if it’s a girl or a boy yet. I’m thinking about Excalibur, Avalon and Guinevere, though 
On Monday, Don dropped off an old budgie cage that he and Vanessa didn’t need any more. I’m the only person they knew with budgies, so I was lucky enough to inherit the beautiful cage. My guys already have a cage, but since Morgan is NOT a morning budgie, it’d be nice to have somewhere to put Lancelot at night so I can have him covered and NOT waking me up at 5:30am. Ah well, so much for that idea!
This afternoon I got a call from the building supervisor. Are you missing any birds? PANIC! Ok, ok, one, two, check. No I’m not missing any birds. But, there’s a sad little budgie sitting on someone’s balcony down on the fifth floor!
Down I go, I mean, what’s sadder than an escaped budgie? It rained yesterday! He probably got mugged by the pigeons and teased by the sparrows. Who knows, maybe he nearly made lunch for a cat, dog, raccoon, hawk or funny-looking person (this IS Montreal, after all). So after after neatly nabbing the little guy and impressing everybody with my efficiency, I stashed him with some food, water, toys, and warm rice bags (bags of rice zapped for warmth) in the conveniently available cage.
We’ll see how he does in the next few days. Right now he’s being quarentined in the bathroom away from Morgan and Lance. Partly for their benefit, but mostly for his (Morgan would eat him alive!). I”ll put up some posters tomorrow to see if someone claims him, if not, I guess I’ve got a threesom, which will be OH so entertaining! Especially since I’m not sure if our new one is a boy or a girl (still a baby). If it’s a girl, Morgan will be really really really unimpressed!
Lancelot’s buddy
 Okay, I never expected to be the person to try baking biscotti. It looks so exotic! But when I went home for Easter, mom had a great big tin of home made biscotti. Hmmm… So I decided that I should be able to do this.
It boils down to: ANYone can do this! And they’re really really really yummy. Chocolate mmmm and they’re great with coffee, double mmmm. I think I’m going to have to wrap up this post because I want to go get a biscotti 
Here’s a yellowy picture of my yummy biscotti, complete with Italian espresso maker…. mmmmmmmmm
You can get the reciepe I used from David Lebovitz’s site
I didn’t bother with the glaze because I’m lazy and didn’t feel like using any more egg.
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Be warned… These are musings, thoughts and observations... Kids, these are NOT what your teachers want you citing!
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As we start out, Lisha battles with past hiking injuries!
Part of the ridge, where we eventually walked across (I think?)
Energetic and enthusiastic!
Things start to get vertical
If you look at the angle Alex is walking at (he’s not falling), you can see that it gets a bit steep 
Looking down on Lisha
Perching on an angle
Alex is powering up
Photos are an excuse to catch my breath 
Looking waaaay down on Lisha
I made it to the top!
The Cariboos
That middle, more gradual slope is definitely the meadow we came down in
Now that we made it to the ridge, we need to make it to the top!
The rocky slopes behind and just to the right of Lisha are where we climbed up
Close up on the Cariboos
Just before the wind hit
Eating lunch on the ridge (pumpkin pie!)
The wind hit (hence the coats and hoods)
Climbing forever up!
And we made it to the summit! (the pile of rocks and the survey pole are proof )
Contemplating the view?
Happy not to have been blown off the mountain?
Happy to have made it to the top!
Where we came from (right side of photo, a third of the way up is where we climbed up, the ridges are what we walked across)
Lichen!
Balancing in the wind
Heading down the meadow
A different kind of climbing
The slope we climbed at the beginning (in the middle, between the first two outcrops of rock)
