No AC

On this glorious first weekend of warm weather I went for an amazing 7 mile hike here:

Yes, the whole trail is rock steps and hills. It kicked my ass.

I am really lucky that I have a hiking buddy but she's leaving for grad school on the East Coast in July and I will need to find someone else to hike with... I'm also going to be far away from one of my closest gal-pals and I'm going to miss her a lot. It's rare that I have friends who are self-identified women who I am actually close to and it always sucks when they go away (even if they have great educational opportunities awaiting them). 

The temperatures are hitting the 80's which means it is time to turn on the AC! This is not the first time we've turner on the air this year (the first time was when we had 80+ temps in March and 50 people over for a party) so we knew it was working. So we turn on the air and... it's not getting cooler in the house. Bummer. We found an AC repair company on Angie's List and they're coming out tomorrow to have a look but in the mean time we are just a bit too warm. All the windows are open and the fan is on so it's not as bad as it could be but sleeping was difficult last night. 

In other exciting news, I am making a silk bliaut for recreationist fun! The dress is brown silk, about the color of my hair with a pale pink linen underdress (the pink is just about the color of my skin) and it has a dark blue, almost black, silk lining the maunches (giant sleaves) and edging the neckline. I'm basing the cut of the dress off of the woman on the left here:

 My maunches are going to be slightly longer though. 

I also plan to get hair extensions to make my 'braids' as long as hers and twine ribbon in them like hers. I hope to make a pair of turn shoes out of leather to go with the outfit as well so I have the whole thing. I am currently thinking of using either the forest-green leather or the dark purple leather that we already have for the shoes... I guess I will decide based on how much I have of each. 

Yay for crafting and hikes, boo for no AC.

Feeling like a grown up

Today I feel very old. I went to class, ran errands and sat on the phone for many hours getting life insurance quotes, mortgage refinancing quotes and discussing IRA and mutual fund options... I am such an adult. It's almost gross. 

In more exciting news, my cousin just had a healthy baby girl! Now my dad and his brother are spending most of their time talking about how great it is to be grandpas. They're such dorks. The baby weighed 2.2 kilos and was born on the 28th. I am 90% super happy and about 10% bummed that we can't go meet her right away (that whole them being a 15 hour (god knows how expensive) plane ride away and all). Half of my family has yet to meet my 7 month old nephew (7 months!?!) and it's just weird to have family I don't yet know. That's what sucks the most about being a 1st gener, being far away from family. 

Mexico, a new semester and getting things done

This year began well with a much needed week long vacation in Mexico. No pics yet due to Linux-Camera issues. I'll post them soon though. 

We spent the week just south of Cancun in a mostly empty resort (~70 guests and the place had a 2000 capacity). 

As you can see, the pools and ocean were gorgeous.

We swam, ate, read, and cuddled for a week while hanging out with the *entire* population of London, Ontario. It's the type of thing I could see myself getting used to.

Once home, the semester started. I am in a new practicum at The Clinic which I am enjoying. I am still in training since part of my job is to explain various procedures, medications, and medical devices to patients I need to bone up on my knowledge of those medical doo-hickeys and make sure that I know all of the price information (and which org/insurance will cover what for whom) as well as the forms and consents we need to help the clients sign. That's not the main part of the job but it's definitely the most specific and knowledge - as opposed to skills - based aspect. 

In addition to my internship, I am taking two classes that meet once a week and one weekend class - just like last semester. The classes should be interesting and so far the work load seems reasonable. It's so nice though to have things to do and places to be. I have been more productive around the house and with my various crafting and sewing projects this week than almost all of last semester when I only had three classes and fewer demands on my time. 

Also, my nephew, Eitan is basically the custest person ever. Now that he's past those first trying 6 months of life I really enjoy being around him because he is fun and not because he is genetically related to me. 

Crazy Town

Since we last saw our heroine she has become an aunt and bought a house! How the time flies!

So first, let me introduce Eitan (pronounced ayt-on)!
He's adorable and looks just like me as a baby. This is him at one month.

Next, allow me to introduce my house!This is our ancient oven, which is btw older than my mother. We are working on a kitchen remodel as we speak.

In terms of school, due to an unfortunate chain of events I have moved my graduation date three more months into the future, but that's ok as it means that my semesters are much less hectic (9-11-5 instead of 12-13).

I may be the only one

I have come to a realization courtesy of Questionable Content that I may be the only woman in my class and educational cohort whose ideal man is NOT Mr. Darcy.  I find Darcy vaguely obnoxious, for all that he is sure that he is better than everyone else, he's not as smart as Elizabeth and he doesn't show himself to be introspective or an intellectual (in the current sense of the term). Thinking about it, I get the feeling that my "ideal" man does not, and perhaps could not, exist in literature. At least, not in good or interesting literature.

I prefer the people I associate with to communicate openly, honestly and authentically and let's be real, good communication kills a good plot 9 times out of 10.  My idea of a romantic partner is someone who makes me laugh and is unabashedly honest; all of this witty back and forth and all of the intrigue and he-said/she-said is great on the page, but bores me in real life.

Why My Hummus is Mild

For lunch today I decided to put my cuisinart to use and make some hummus, Boybee got me canned hummus-pea-things (what are these called in English?) and we garlic and lemon juice so I got to cuisinarting.

Just as I was adding the whole garlic gloves (in addition to the garlic olive oil we made from Jules) and the lemon juice to my partially cuisinarted hummus, a GIANT black spider jumped out from behind the toaster oven! I called the cats in to get it and they came but the spider had already darted *in to my cabinets* - ick!!! At that point, the hummus was done, and if it wasn't, I was done with the kitchen so I took my carrot sticks and my ~hummus and left. It isn't that bad since most of the garlic got chopped up, but it would be better if there weren't still almost whole bits floating around and instead being mushed and diffusing their deliciousness throughout the hummus.

The moral of this story is, if you don't like spiders don't live in a 100-year-old building in the spring.

The End of the Semester

It is official, this semester is about 9x10^3984598 times better than last semester.

By this week marker last semester I had written over 100 pages worth of papers that I barely cared about (painful for me and my poor professors) and could only sleep a few hours a night before I had to get back to the grindstone. This semester, I have written a few boring papers, but they were at least short and had a lot of relevance to what I want to do with my life and most of my assignments have been interesting and increased my learning. I have four major papers left to the semester and I have already started one of them (due in a week). After Friday of next week I have work left and will have work left until the last day to turn in grades for the semester, but at least I wont be killing myself and I will enjoy doing a lot of it.

I will keep my practicum at the Hospital, which I *love,* until the end of the summer. Right now I am starting the process of finding a practicum for next year and already have a few leads. Next year's practicum will have a big influence on my course work and my job prospects after graduation so it's really exciting.