Happy Sunday!

Well, it's sunday morning and I am NOT at work...and it feels fabulous!! I do in fact have to go to work today, but only for a few hours and I need to meet someone in the afternoon which affords me a morning of luxury.

A few hours alone with a cup of my favourite coffee, the big fat sunday newspaper and my lovely cats. Mmm, relaxation at it's best.

What makes it even better is that yesterday I only worked in the morning, so I got the opportunity to visit with my good friend and visit J & I's nephews.

The downside to this goodness is of course that I likely won't get a REAL day off until friday (maybe) and if not then, not until the next mon/tues (i.e. not tommorow!)

But hey...that's life right?! Enough of this, I'm off to enjoy my morning!

Now if only the laundry could magically be cleaned, folded and appear in the drawers...

just relax

Week one of mussel project (MP) is well under way, and although slightly tiring and stressful, we keep plugging on! I was happy to have only worked 8 hours yesterday, and arriving home at about 6:15 gave me almost an entire 4 hours to sit at home and veg by myself before j arrived home.

I put on some Jack Johnson, ran a hot bath infused with my favourite tantric lovers bath salts and let the music and the water take me away. As the water lapped over my body, I could feel the tension drain from my weary bones.

A fuzzy towel, fresh pajamas and my robe had me feeling renewed and relaxed within moments. I grabbed a huge bowl of cranberry almond cereal and a movie as I prepared myself to enjoy the rest of my evening cuddled up on the couch.

Unfortunately I'm heading to work a little early this morning, so I'm still feeling a little tired, but surely a cup of coffee can help that situation!

Stupid Mussel Project

It's baaaaaaaack!
We received 3,500 Mussels (yes the shellfish) yesterday although the project doesn't officially start until Monday. By the time Monday arrives we will have "socked" the majority of these animals into bunches of 12.

Socking: the process of placing mussels into tubes of nylon mesh and securing them (and tag identifiers) in place with zap straps.

Once socked these mussels will be taken from the lab and placed on large "frames" (which are basically squares of PVC tubing) and dispersed into specific water bodies, to be brought back to the lab quarterly over the next 12 months.

Just to confuse matters, this month's session is still technically part of last years study which means that the socks we receive for processing (starting on Monday) have been out at their specific sites approximately 1 year.

Processing: includes taking measurements of weight, length, width and height as well as the dissection of each animal. The majority will also be sexed and undergo various bloodwork procedures. Yet another group of animals will be used to determine mussel reproductive effort (how many and how big their eggs are).

Well, now that you know what I will be up to for the next two weeks, please don't be offended if I am dopey, tired or stupid when you speak to me...it will pass, it always does, but then again MP is never over for long either...

IPOD Nation...here I come

I'm getting an IPOD! I'm getting an IPOD!

My mom and I are the only people in my family without an ipod of some sort, my mom's not interested in the slightest, but I certainly am. Noticing this, my mom does some gentle prodding, and soon enough my dad has promised to order me an ipod with his airmiles.

When the ipod arrives it is the new ipod which is slimmer and has video capabilities. Unfortunatley my dad's ipod--that he ordered three months ago--is the older version which he informs me is less ideal for riding his motorcycle. Thus he wants to keep the new ipod but give me the new accessories. At this point I begin to wonder who is the parent and who is the child; I tease him for a while acting like I care, and I leave him with the freedom to do what he wants but with a sprinkling of guilt. But he knows I don't really care.

But, as I mentioned in the last post, I have NO MUSIC to fill my ipod so I would greatly appreciate any suggestions for fabulous songs I should download...

pretty please...with cherries on top?

Also, I just discovered that an itunes isn't available for windows 98...anyone know if I can download it anyways? Or how to get around this problem short of using other people's computers?

CD Jackpot!

If you have ever been in my car, you will know I have a limited amount of CD choices, many of which sound the same depending on the time of year. In the dreary winter you will find a lot of jack Johnson, David gray, mason Jennings and other mellow music. In the summer you are much more likely to find upbeat pop type music, which goes oh so well with the lazy days of summer.

When I bought my faithful little wagon, it was still equipped with a stock tape player; I am not an extravagant person, but I knew a tape player just would not do. Figuring I was going to spend the money anyways, I spent a little extra cash and bought a MP3 player...Which I love. Unfortunately I had a hell of a time burning MP3 CD's.

First I couldn't get folders into the Roxio CD's and ended up with one huge CD with no organization at all, then itunes started putting in too many folder - each song basically had it's own folder because it was automatically broken down to artist and album.

In the end I only made a few CD's and had a few made for me, and that's what I have stuck with for the last couple of years. Imagine my excitement when I found a "NEW" CD in my glovebox the other day. This CD had found its way into it's own case so despite being lost for years, its not all scratched to hell.

The CD itself simply says "MP3?" so with great excitement I slipped it into the machine and hoped something great would emerge from the speakers. It is one of the CD's without folders, but it is FABULOUS! It is a mix of 154 songs "old & new" from about two years ago. It includes mellow stuff like cat Stevens, enya, jack and David gray but also upbeat stuff like some chick country & rock & roll.

I've been listening for about three days now and am only in the mid 30's, there's still about 120 songs left to go before I get a repeat!! YAY!!

It's definitely time to download some more music and get started on the next CD (and I might be getting an IPOD from my dad!*fingers crossed*) but all in good time I guess!

4am freak out!

It's never a good thing when the phone rings in the middle of the night; I have learned that it's usually the sign of a disaster. Often a disaster involving my little brother, although occasionally other people have disasters too.

As you can imagine, when I awoke from a dead sleep at 4:30am the other day to hear the phone ringing I was immediately alarmed. What was odd, was that although the ring sounded like the house phone, the phone next to my bed remained silent. Regardless, I picked up the phone and was instantly soothed by the familiar sound of the dialtone.

The relaxation was short-lived however, when I realized that the ringing had not actually stopped. Without reaching for my glasses, I hopped out of bed and ran to the living room. When I picked up the phone, the ringing stopped though there was no sound whatsoever coming from the phone.

As soon as I replaced the phone on the cradle, the ringing began again...Weird I know.

At this point I decided it must be a battery problem with the phone, checked the messages, had a brief glance at the cell phones and then headed back to bed.

Fortunately, there was no disaster to be had, although running around like a chicken with its head cut off at that time of morning is a bit of a disaster in itself.