The most vivid memories were the 10 days in Canada's Ocean PlayGround (aka Nova Scotia). I took my mom there for her 60th bday. Although she turns 60 in November, I decided in July that I'd take her for three reasons:
1. the maritimes in November don't have the best weather
2. the November I'm finishing my thesis, thus I don't have time for a 10 day retreat (though come November that's exactly what I would wish to have)
3. summer holidays are meant to be in summer
So we had an awesome time. Spending 10 days with your mother may seem irritating, but we managed not to get on each others nerves for 9 days. The 10th day, I think we were just cranky due to the whirlwind tireness of running around the province. We did all the tourisy things, but will definitely return to the fave spots. There's a cove in the highlands with our name on it, definitely going back there! SoCal Kelly visited me again, she braved leaving her nirvana of sunny California to northern Canada. Sadly I was preoccupied with experiments, but managed to take off nights to enjoy the visit with her. We always enjoy our time together.
August... back to the bench, madly doing new experiments for a manuscript resubmission and then more experiments to leave what I'm calling a "legacy" for my lab. The data coming from it will jump start endless projects for the next decade or more. The downside is that I'll have to wait that long before getting credit for it in journal form. Woe well.
September - the return of undergrads underfoot. I think the more time you spend in university is porportional to the underlining dislike of lost undegrads. They can't help but be clueless and immature. But seriously, don't ask me to hold your hand to show you where the bathrooms are. I often just screw with their minds, "Oooooh you want THAT room... well you're in the wrong building."
The good news about fall - ice hockey begins again. I'm back in the crease. This time I'm going to improve on a few things: butterfly stops with my stick where it's SUPPOSED to be. The other is working on my weight. I'm not thin, neither pudgey. Clincally I'm obese, but I'm wanting to really work on that. Nothing drastic, just better eating and a lil more active. Who knows, I might shave off a dozen stones.
What's an intreresting blog without photos? All text and no eye candy make a scientist unpublishable (ick, need to work on catchy sayings too). So me will try to find some comics/pics that I enjoy. Maybe state my mood of the day.
I rented a van over this past weekend to pick up a TV from a friend. It had a GPS system on it (free of charge) which reminded me of this comic from XKCD.com
