Greg and Kat's blog

Yippee! The plans are not as expensive as I thought they would be.

$60 a month gets you 400 MB, 150 weekday minutes and 75 text messages.

I’m a little upset that I have to pay an extra $7 a month for call display, but whatever.

I figured the data portion of the plans wouldn’t be unlimited like the US plan, but since Rogers has dropped the price of their data plans, the monthly cost of having a functioning iPhone isn’t astronomical. I’m also secretly happy that I’ll have more data than Greg. Heh.

As most people know, I’m back in Vancouver. It’s nice being back. Not only do I get to be in the same city as Greg and the majority of my family and friends, but it’s also not stinking hot here.

For the last week I’ve been busy getting settled. I’ve unpacked all of my clothes, gotten rid of a lot of clothes I don’t wear (mostly because they no longer fit in the tiny closets of our home), started in my new postdoc lab, and hung out with friends and family. So, all in all it’s been a good week.

It’s a bit strange being back though. While I am “familiar” with life in Vancouver, it’s a little strange because obviously some things have changed in the two years I’ve been gone. I think SFU is probably the biggest change. The last of my grad cohort are defending in the next month, so it’s all new faces. It’s a strange feeling coming back. I’m also in a new lab, so that’s also taking some getting used to. But, so far it’s been great. I’ve already learned how to isolate mRNA and make cDNA. Heh, in a week I’ve become a molecular biologist! 😀

As Greg blogged about earlier, we’re looking for new cell phones. Greg got a Blackberry Pearl yesterday, but I think I’m going to wait for the iPhone. Greg got a pretty good data plan on his phone – apparently Rogers (and probably the other carriers) are dropping the prices of their data plans, so I’m banking on the iPhone plan being not too much more than the plan in the US. I was *this close* to standing in line in NC to get one a year ago, so I guess I’ll be standing in line in 2.5 weeks. The iPhone may be dead to Greg, but the simplicity of syncing with my Mac and the beauty of the phone it totally worth the price for me. Plus I figure we’re down to paying rent on only one place, so I can afford an iPhone! 😀 (Yes, I am trying to justify getting one.)

The only negative from the cross-country move was that a box of papers that was supposed to be couriered here accidentally got shipped with the rest of my papers to my mom’s place in Seattle. The box has papers that I need to finish my starling manuscript, and I specifically sent it here so that I could start writing asap. However, it looks as though there was some miscommunication at the UPS store, and I didn’t notice the mistake on my receipt/tracking slip. At least in the end I paid to get it shipped to Seattle and not here.

In case anyone is wondering, we decided that the moving bet I had with Greg was a tie. I was ~1 lb over on each bag, but the woman at the counter did not make me repack the bags.

When Greg was last here in March, we went to the Carolina Brewing Company’s Saturday tour with Brian, Lisa, Lisa’s mom Ann, Danielle and Gary. It’s great – it’s kinda like the Granville Island Brewery tour but more inspiring and overall, just better. To start, it’s free! And, they open the taps before and after the tour. The brewing company is run by a few guys that decided they liked beer and wanted to make it for a living. It was really fascinating because it was all so science-y! There was yeast and temperature control and sterilization and tweeking the “protocol” (i.e., recipe) until the right things happen (the science-geek in me was happy). It’s science, but then in the end you get beer!

So yeah, needless to say, it seemed like a really good idea to start a microbrewery. Brian mentioned that whenever he goes on this tour, he also gets the same brilliant idea. There are relatively few independent microbreweries in Vancouver (at least for the city’s size). Portland, which I think is fairly comparable to Vancouver in size, has WAY more microbreweries. Yes… *tents fingers*

Greg, being the sometimes-more-practical one, said that maybe I should try brewing a beer first before I go out and set up a microbrewery. Silly Greg.

Now, Brian has been home-brewing for a while now, but I have never tried it. So last weekend Brian and I started brewing a porter that Brian named “Porter Dispute“. :D  I think we bottle it in another two weeks and then can try it two weeks after that. I’m excited!

If it tastes good I might be able to convince Greg to let me at least buy home brewing equipment. We don’t have a lot of room, but I’m sure I can find a place to put it! I’d even think about getting rid of a craft box or two… maybe…

All microbreweries have to start somewhere, right?

I’m giving this Friday’s Lunch Bunch talk in the department. For those of you at SFU, it’s like BISC’s Les Ecologists seminar. Today is Monday, and I just started working on my talk this morning. I’m supposed to give a practice talk to the lab on Wednesday afternoon.

For the past week or so I’ve been wondering when my friend, The Fear, would show up. Well, it finally got here today.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, picture this. You have a large assignment, exam, paper, or *ahem* dissertation due soon, but for whatever reason, you procrastinate… a lot. Then at some point, generally close to the due date, it finally dawns on you that you have JUST enough time to finish said project. You get this feeling of dread. What if you don’t finish? No… you HAVE to finish. Crap! Yup, you have what Greg and I have termed “The Fear”.

Sadly, it seems like I have made an academic career out of facing The Fear. It started with studying the night before exams. No problem. Then it was waiting until the last minute to write my MSc thesis. I cut it a bit close, but really, who doesn’t leave the printing of the thesis until the day that it’s due? The crowning glory to my increasingly unhealthy relationship with The Fear came the night before my dissertation was due; by 11 pm that night I had yet to write the introductory and conclusion chapters. I think I broke down at around 2 am and cried, but in the end, I made it. The dissertation was turned in on time (thank you Tina, Oli, and Em for last-minute proof-reading and help with printing!).

So now with the last talk I’ll ever give at UNC looming, I think I’ve finally got it down to where The Fear is showing up at the appropriate time. I think I can prep this talk in about 3 days, and technically I have 4 days until I have to give the talk. So maybe I’m heading back towards the more supportive (sometimes you just need a little push to get started) and less psychotic relationship that I had with The Fear when I was an undergrad. I hope so. I’m getting old, and the stress associated with The Fear is really starting to kick my ass.

Ask me on Friday whether today was a good day for The Fear to show up, or if it should have been here last week.

It took a few tries (2 to NIH, 1 to CIHR, 1 to UNC, 1 to AAWS and 2 to NSERC) but I finally got a post-doc fellowship! YAY!!!!! So it looks as though I’m going to be able to work in Vancouver for the next two years starting this summer.

When do tickets for 2010 hockey and curling go on sale?

The HPLC is $*#&%^@ broken… again.

Got home and found a papercut.

Why does life hate me so?

I like blogging with six words.

I like this 6-word thing. If you don’t want to read this post, you get the jist of it from the 6-word title. Maybe this will be my blog schtick.

It was cold last night, and apparently because yesterday was a holiday, nobody at UNC thought about salting the brick walkways. I, along with other people, was sliding around trying to get to work this morning. My foot slipped behind me and I went down onto my knee. The good things are that I managed to stay upright and that nobody was around to see me being less than graceful. The bad thing, my knee kinda hurt for most of the day and now I have a big bruise.

Damn you UNC for not salting!!!!

See Greg, I told you I needed those Lee Valley spiky shoe things!

So Greg told me about a WIRED article where they asked famous people to write a 6-word story. Well, I’m not famous, but here’s how I spent my Martin Luther King Day in 6 words:

Watched birds sit.  All day.  $*#&%^!

This joint blog seems to have turned into Greg’s blog lately. So since Greg has decided to blog at least 3 times a week, I’ve decided to try to blog at least once a week. Let’s see how long I can keep it up.

So this has been a bad car week.

Last weekend Lisa’s car started to die. It would not start, and then when it did start, it would stop as she was driving it. Her dad thinks it’s the alternator not staying in place, and so the car thinks she’s taken the key out when she’s driving. Not good!

She called Brian to pick her up, and he had a flat tire. So, she ended up driving it home, but is going to get it checked.

Then today, I went to our aviary to check on the birds. It had snowed yesterday (a dusting, really) and had gotten really cold out, so I wanted to make sure the birds were okay for food and water. As most of you know, I’ve named my car Rusty. He’s EXTREMELY rusty to the point of having my back right shock rusted-stuck. Well, today I think the back left shock joined its right friend. Every time I hit a small pothole or bump in the road with the left side of my car, the entire back end felt like it was… well… not right. I’m hoping something was just frozen because of the cold, but I think that’s probably wishful thinking. I guess it was too much to ask for Rusty to last the final 5 months of my stay here.

So now two of the three cars around seem to be out of commission. 🙁

UPDATE: Monday, January 21

My car is fine. Maybe I was crazy… maybe there was actually something like a piece of ice wedged in my left back shock… who knows. But now my car is perfectly fine. Well… as fine as a crappy car can be! YAY!

So I haven’t blogged in months. I haven’t really done a lot that’s exciting. Too much work, too little time to do fun things. Oh, there was the Halloween party at Brian’s. Yummy pizza (Brian makes REALLY good pizza) and a misting pumpkin. It was also Mukta’s first time carving a pumpkin. 🙂 So yeah, Halloween was definitely fun. But between Halloween and Thanksgiving, nothing much has happened.

But, this weekend is American Thanksgiving (not to be confused with Canadian Thanksgiving, which is in October). This year I was going to spend Thanksgiving with Mukta, Buddy and Jenny over at Buddy and Jenny’s place. We were going to order Chinese food on Wednesday and reheat it for dinner on Thursday. Unfortunately, there was a family emergency, and Jenny flew home to be with her family early Thursday morning.

So instead, I volunteered to cook Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve always wanted to cook Thanksgiving dinner, so this was going to be the test of whether I could do it or not. I already had a frozen turkey breast in my freezer which I thawed and brined before roasting. I also made maple-glazed acorn squash, wild rice, barley and mushroom pilaf casserole, orange-glazed sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and trifle made with chocolate cake. Mukta and Buddy came over, and we had a good time eating, drinking and hanging out. After they left (with leftovers!) I quickly went to sleep in preparation for Black Friday.

Black Friday is THE shopping day. It’s the official start of the Christmas shopping season. The name Black Friday comes from companies being “in the black” as opposed to “in the red” on this crazy shopping day. It’s comparable to Boxing Day in Canada. Stores open early, people wait outside in the cold, and inevitably people get trampled as they rush into stores for bargains.

So, the shopper that I am, I woke up at 3:30 am and went to Kohl’s for their 4 am opening. There I purchased wind-up flashlights for Greg’s parents. When I left the store at 4:20, I happened to look back at the checkout line. There must have been 80 people lined up to pay already and the store had only been open for 20 minutes! Good thing I knew exactly what I wanted, made a bee line to it, and got in line right away. It still took me a while to get through the line!

Next stop was Circuit City, which opened at 5:00. I got there at 4:30 and OMG! There must have been 200 people in line. So, I looked over my spreadsheet (yes, spreadsheet! this is serious shopping here people!) to check on the door-busters I wanted to buy and whether they were also available for the same price at the other stores. I made the strategic decision to forgo Circuit City since I probably wouldn’t get the items I wanted, and instead headed over to Staples, which had all of the things I wanted from Circuit City for the same price, and opened an hour later at 6 am. I got there just before 5 am, and was ~25th in line. On a side note, yesterday when I was inside cooking all day, it was nice and warm outside, which made my place fairly hot. However, last night a cold front rolled in, and we got sub-freezing temperatures overnight. So, this morning I waited in the cold for an hour outside of Staples. It wasn’t as bad as Boxing Day in Vancouver (which is generally warmer but wetter), but it was still pretty cold. The stores in Seattle that open freakishly early on Black Friday provide coffee and donuts. Here, not so much. My strategic planning paid off though. When the doors opened I, and everyone else, ran in and started grabbing at everything. It was pretty much “grab everything you can get your hands on and then after everything is gone, you can sort out what it was you grabbed – you can always put it back later”. I ended up buying everything on my list: a $130 webcam for $20, 4 GB jump drive for $18 and 4 GB SDHC card for $29! Needless to say the shopper in me was thrilled, and I didn’t feel too bad because none of it was for me! 🙂 Afterwards I grabbed some coffee (yup, I did all of that without having had any coffee!) and headed home to have some breakfast.

After fueling up on eggs and tater tots and then feeding the birds I decided to brave Southpoint Mall. This is the same mall that Mukta, Ryan and I went to last weekend to see the lighting of the 50′ Christmas tree. I wasn’t really expecting to buy anything at the mall. I just wanted to see what it was like (last year I didn’t go to the mall until the Saturday after Thanksgiving). After circling the parking lot about 20 times, I saw a couple holding a Build-a-Bear box. They waved me down and signaled to their parking spot. Bear people are always so nice. I must have had good shopping karma because the spot was the second space from the building, so I didn’t have to trek through the parking lot. I ended up with a shirt, a sweater and a pair of boots – all for me! 🙂

Then it was off to Target. This year there really wasn’t anything in the Target flyer that seemed like an exceptional deal, so going to Target late in the day seemed to make sense. There really wasn’t anything great there, so I ended up just getting some groceries.

And now I’m resting on the couch, attempting to recover from Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday. All in all, a very good holiday this year! 🙂