Archers, fletchers, and bowyers, oh my!

Hello guys!

Look, look, I'm posting again! Go me. :) It's a good day - I went through my 'Clinical Completion Checklist' for this term's clinic, and I ticked off all of the boxes - done! What a great feeling to have all of those loose ends tied up. Tomorrow is CUP's Community-Based Research Workshop #2 - Doing CBR Well: Ethically and with Rigor. I'm presenting a morning section on the traditional/conventional ethics system, and I'm going to have to spend some time this afternoon going over what it is that I want to say. I'm looking forward to it - these workshops are very cool, and I've enjoyed every one that I've been to. And come about 4.30, when it's all wrapped up... then CUP will be done, too - at least until July. *grin*

On Tuesday, we had some "Auntie, Jason, Jacob" time, and we took ourselves down to the Sherwood Park Archery Lanes. I cannot recommend this place enough. We showed up knowing pretty near to nothing, and they were so helpful. The gentleman set us up with rental gear, showed us how to do everything, and let us try it a few times to get started. Then he came back over, made things a little tougher (but better!), gave us a few more tips, and let us try it a few more times. He continued to do that throughout the evening - give us something new to try, then go away and let us try it. He was so patient and so kind - a truly excellent teacher. Also, when Jason turned out to be too big for the rental bows, he allowed J. to use a non-rental bow (whether it was his own or perhaps a store model?) that was worth about $1000. After about 2 hours, I went to pay, and they only charged us for the rentals and ONE hour, saying that they were just glad we'd come out to give it a try, and they hoped to see us again. Jason had eight zillion questions about the different types of bow (compound vs. recurve, men's vs. women's), and the man answered every one of them patiently and intelligently, and he never pushed us to buy a thing.

Jason and I went to our respective jobs on Wedensday, and we both were telling our co-workers about our evening's activity. My co-worker said "Awesome - old school bad-assery!" Jason's co-worker said "Hey, I want to go! Are you free Friday?" So we're going to check out a Spruce Grove Archery place tomorrow night. I'm pretty pumped! Jason (of course) caught on to the whole thing really fast, and he was pretty darn accurate after a couple hours. I wasn't nearly as good, but the vast majority of my arrows were on the target (let's not discuss how close to the middle!), and I really enjoyed it. And Jake, despite having a bow that was a bit big for him (they must not rent to very many kids), did a great job, too. It was such a fun time, and I'm excited to go again tomorrow. Jason and I are even batting around the idea of buying our own bows - we'll just have to see!

But that's tomorrow - and first there's tonight! We're having a CUP girls' night, starting at the Chocoholics' Buffet at the Sutton Place Hotel. Mmmm, chocolate. Good thing I've been running and weight-training again! Then we're going to play video games, which should be lots of fun.

Well, I'm off to practice my workshop presentation - wish me luck!

Ela

Lovely, lovely

Good morning friends!

It's a beautiful morning here - in fact, the whole weekend was gorgeous. It's funny how Alberta can go from -40* to above freezing in just a week or two.

We had a long weekend this weekend, which was fantastic. Jason and I took Jacob snowboarding twice, and we all had a good time. Jake is just learning, so I wasn't feeling totally left behind, but it made it harder for Jason to try and teach me to carve - a teacher can only teach so many students! One lady actually asked Jason what time his lesson was done at, I think in the hopes that he might be available to teach her child a thing or two. :) My carving is not carving yet - I'm still working on learning to turn, and that's not going so well. I'm much better than I was before, but I still chicken out and cancel lots of my turns halfway through. Someone needs to get over her fears. Oh well - I'll just keep going and practicing, and one day I'll get it!

Friday night we played games with one of Jason's co-wordkers and his family, and that was a lot of fun. It wound up being a really late night, and I was totally falling asleep at the te table, but it was worth it. Zombies!!! is such a great game. I just love it! And Carcasonne is cool, too - but I still don't understand the scoring. This makes it difficult to play with strategy. :)

Last night we went out for dinner with my familiy, and they were laughing at me and my stories about my attempts to snowboard. My mum leapt in with "but she does have some genetic anomalies...*" and Jason said "I know" in a very deadpan sort of way. I'm so glad I bring so much pleasure to my family.

So that was my weekend. I think this week is going to be a busy one. I'm meeting Karlie for tea today, then Jason and I are hanging out with Jake tonight. I need to get my defence presentation all together and ready to go, and I'd like to see if I can find some new (and affordable!) snowboard boots. Ah life!

Bye!
Ela

*I have a funny bone in my back that pushes my hips/legs out of alignment when I don't stand up straight. I also have abnormally short quads. My mum assures that this is why I look like a demented giraffe on rollerskates when I try to stand up from my bum when snowboarding. I'm not sure that's quite the reason, but I'll roll with it for now... :D

Baby it's cold outside...

Yuck. The weather has been so yucky lately. I know that I live in Edmonton, and I know that comes with some chilliness, but -47*C (-53*F) with the windchill is a little much. "My" car (as in Jason's car that I drive) won't start and doesn't have a blockheater, so I'm carless again. Oh, ETS - how I didn't miss you. At all. On the other hand, I'd forgotten how fun it is to wear ski pants (*vwip vwip, vwip vwip* all the way to school), and how neat it feels when your eyelashes freeze together. Luckily, it's warming up, so I don't have to worry about freezing any exposed skin in less than a minute!

In other news, everything else is going really well. Clinic continues to be both fun and challenging, work is interesting and enjoyable, and I'm getting work done on my thesis (ethics application and presentation for my proposal defence). These things are what the majoirty of my life is based around right now, and that's Ok by me. I'm finding this term to be just the right amount of work, and I'm feeling pretty balanced. (A little more exercise is needed, but once it warms up a bit more I'll get back to the gym with B.).

Jason and I have been hanging out with our couple friends lately, which is fun. We played Settlers of Catan with Al and her husband two weeks ago, and then we went to Kathie and Brandon's this weekend for dinner and a game of Zombies!!! As gross as it is, I kind of like this game. :D Jason and I also hung out with Jake on Tuesday, which was lots of fun. We played some video games, a round of Zombies!!! (I won!), and then some WoW. Good times were had by all (thank you Minnie Johnson of the Wetaskiwin Times Advertiser). Tish and Larissa have been trying to catch us to go out for wings with them, but we haven't managed to line our schedules up yet. And B. and her boyfriend want togo out for dinner and then learn how to play Settlers, so that's going to happen sometime in the near future too, I think.

It's kind of weird to be in a place in my life where I have couple friends. This weirdness obviously needs to be counteracted with individual friend time! And so, I had breakfast withTegan (whose real name I will use from now on, as she no longer has the same schedule as me, and you cannot stalk her via my blog) last weekend, dinner with Robin and Caitlin the week before that, and dinner with Rachel (the newest friend in my life) last night. All in all, very satisfying.

So that's where things are at right now. Hope you're all keeping warm and drinking loads of cocoa with those little mini-marshmallows.

Love,
Ela

So it's a little more 'bumpy' than 'gentle'

Hi friends,

I thought the wind up to the term would go a little more smoothly than it has, which was highly optimistic of me. :) I'm still in four classes, my thesis still needs work, and I'm still putting in at least 15 hours a week at work. I managed to go head to head with some sort of flu-thing this week, and that's got me a bit behind.

But Fridays - lovely Fridays - are now a semi-free day for me. I'm going into school at 11 to practice using the PERCI-SAR system (which used to be called PERCI-SARS... at least, until the SARS outbreak!) and to figure out where the protocol for using it came from. (You always get clients to say 'pee pee pee' and I need to know why!) Then I've got a hair appointment this afternoon, which I'm really looking forward to. I always find them so relaxing, and I like having fancy hair. It's time to do something about 67 different colors that in there, so I'm thinking I might be a slightly darker brunette come this afternoon at about 4 o'clock.

Tonight we're going to pick up Jason's new car, which is tres exciting. I am especially excited because he is allowing me to drive his old car. We've made the switch on the insurance (I'm now the primary driver), and we're going to look for a new bumper and hood for it this weekend (it's a little beat up, but a perfect about-town car for me).

I'm feeling a little behind in my schoolwork these days, given how much time I've given to my thesis recently, but I'm hanging on to the fact that I usually wind up feeling this way at the end of every semester, and I've always made it through before! I'm really enjoying resonance (a class that is the 2nd half of "Voice and Resonance"), and since it's the topic of my thesis, I'm feeling slightly ahead of the game.

The rest of this month is looking a little hectic. There's still lots to be done on my thesis, my workplace is holding another workshop, and this time I will be one of the presenters, there are school projects and such.... And then there are the social things! It was Jake's birthday on the sixth, so we're going to his house for some cake and celebration tomorrow. Then it's Jason's and my six-month anniversary on the 17, so I think we'll probably go out for dinner. Jason's good friend Tish is getting married on the 20, so that should be a fun evening... all in all, I think the next three or four weeks are going to fly by!

Well, I should go and get cleaned up and head into school. Corks up my nostrils*, here I come!

Love you,
E.

*It's how you use the PERCI-SAR, I swear. And if I were you, I wouldn't ask too many questions unless you want to come and try it out. ;)

The weather outside is frightful

And there are no delightful fires burning in Corbett Hall - so STOP SNOWING! Blech!

And why am I at school on this, the 3rd day of a 4 day weekend? To put it bluntly, because I have to be. We have a practical exam on Friday that involves being familiar with 7 standardized tests, and I'd only looked at 2 prior to today. So I came in at around 2, expecting it to take quite a while to get through the last 5. Alas, alack, it took me only about an hour and a half, so now I'm killing time (slowly and tortuously) until I can go have a bite to eat and head to my tennis lesson! I'm really not too concerned about these tests - I've spent enough time with kids to know how to be friendly but firm, and I read really fast, so I can burn through the instructions if I get hung up on anything. ;)

Mum and I went shopping yesterday, and it was FABULOUS. The Bay at Kingsway has this wicked sale on right now, and I got some super cute clothes. If you hear me complaining about having nothing to wear in the next few weeks, smack me. My favorite new item is a snug-fitting bomber style jean jacket; it's so cute. And I got a couple of turtleneck sweaters to wear under it; very adorable. We also went to SuperStore, which has some awesome tshirts for $12 a piece, in really pretty colours. And I didn't shop just for myself - I also did most of my Christmas shopping, which is nice. I don't usually get this much done this early!!

Last night we went and saw Adrian Plass in person. He is even funnier in real life than in his books, and I laughed til I cried at some points.

"Are there any Anglicans here tonight? Put up your hands so I can see you."

A few hands went up around the sanctuary.

"How does it feel to raise your arms in a church?" *ba dum dum* "Only joking folks, only joking."

It was wonderful!!

Ooh, on Saturday Chris and I took my nephew to the Royal Alberta Museum. The Lego exhibit was on, but it was fairly mediocre. The Bob the Builder bit was really sad. Nothing particularly educational about that; more just playground equipment. But parts of the Lego were really neat - they'd built a little underwater explorer, and had a Lego toilet, milk carton, hamburger, computer, etc. all built inside of it. We also went through Wild Alberta, which is definitely the museum's strong point: no matter how many times we go and see it, it always ends up being the bit we spend the most time in. If you haven't been recently, hop to it!!

Ok, I'm out of fun things to tell you, other than that this snow is ridiculous, and it's a good thing I brought a change of socks and shoes for tennis, because I think my feet are going to be all wet. Have a great night all, and keep warm. :)

Love,
me