Princess Tuborg

Woods Rum

2008-02-25T15:03:00.002-08:00

so you can't get woods old navy rum in canada anymore. it sucks. i emailed woods to inquire.

BUT you can get it in the Heathrow airport in the Duty free. it's in the Rum section.

good thing i have friends who go places.

so for the record: Woods rum, get it at Heathrow Duty free (Rum Section).

YAY for matt!

trailer trash

2007-10-22T23:45:00.001-07:00

i saw mr.leahy and randy last week!!! how utterly cool is that??!?!?!???!?!
there are more pictures HERE!

and besides learning the "wrap-around" and becoming a beer troll there have been apple festivals, tea drinking, yarn field trips, fiber field trips, neutron stars and lots and lots of knitting. i FINALLY finished that grey Rowan sweater... too bad the neck didn't turn out like the picture... le sigh

i don't get it....

2007-07-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

hello all that read this thing.
could one of you please explain to me how the edmonton oilers make GOOD decisions when trading? cuz i'm just thinking they are at some crack party and i wasn't invited to.

in other news: i finished a pair of TOFU socks!!! pictures to come!

and i tried a new tea house here in van. well new to me. i got some yum yum white tea!!! and i think there is a new tea drinking place to open tomorrow!!! YEEEEHAW! and it's right down the street from me!!!!!

now it's time to see some fireworks. while sitting on a beach. happy canada day.

adventures!

2007-06-01T15:58:00.001-07:00

did you see? danny michel is having a colouring contest! i totally entered.
so did a bunch of other peoples here at UBC. in fact the Drinking club of astronomers and physics folks had an activity of colouring!

this was my entry.

danny loves us.
i didn't make that up.
he told us so.

so fun times ahead with going to ottawa tomorrow!
there will be more train adventures! and and and at some point i will end up in toronto where i will go on a lovely yarn crawl. following what the yarnharlot did.
but until then i will just have to survive the communal showers at the conference i'm heading to in kingston...

it's been awhile...

2007-05-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

yeah... so i guess i got a little caught up in that "school" thing. and then i was recovering from it being over (need to remember not to go into the MOST lab with chris otherwise i might not ever like gin again!)

so there's been stuff that's happened.
most notably there was a birthday. MY birthday.
i think that this basically sums it up:

something about if we leave newspapers on the table in 310 (where all the astro offices are) then people might move in! and use newspapers as a blanket!

there have also been mis-adventures walking home from a party at thomas's place. there was a big ole golf course that was walked past. i think i will leave it at that. oh! and goodness how could i forget! there was the MAGIC which was Coconut. it's called coconut because when you enter the grounds you are given a coconut to drink out of! ever so fun! the key is to hollow out the coconut so that you get more than your fill. that became even more important when the cops came and took away all the booze, except for the 2 kegs which were already open.

so now it's almost back to life as normal. you know, knitting and murder she wrote watching and beer clubbing and hitting my head on a solid surface as the programs that i am writing fail. CURSES! but it's no longer living and breathing cosmology.

i've also been starting to take pictures of stuff that i've knit. they should be posted at some point...
and hey! there will be adventures for me in ottawa and montreal this summer. can you say yay? i sure can!!!

smitty... pouty face

2007-03-04T23:57:00.000-08:00

so there has been some super fun things going on in the life of princess tuborg, i went to montreal (i'll post pictures soon-ish), i was once again back in thomson house, there was really good poutine, there were hugs from david, there was sleeping with marjorie, sangria with alex, meeting rhiannon's man-friend, knitting at cindy's, arts and crafts with audrey (well i watched), seeing johan, rene wearing funny hats, shopping with patricia (we finally did it! after wanting to for so long!), cupcake eating with megan, having mom-type drinks with jason (that's right mom! i've been drinking those ciders that you really like, but have you considered trying some apple vodka in some tonic water, that's pretty good too!) and i've found a new yarn store (one my supervisor told me about) that has SOLID coloured sock yarn! and to top everything off i'm drinking tea that has CHILI peppers in it! can you say CRAZY talk?

unfortunately this has all been overshadowed by the trade of ryan smyth. can you say BOOO? it pains me to see him in and islander's uniform. did you see him crying? so so so so sad! i wish him the best and hope that we get him back in the off season.

i will just reiterate: it's pretty crazy to have chili peppers in your tea. i see one there, it's crazy.

i did have a story!

2007-02-19T09:13:00.000-08:00

so silly silly me. i got so excited in my last entry about my integration stuff getting figured out that i forgot to tell the story of something that happened on the deerhoof night. something that was rather odd.
so were walking down the street in downtown vancouver and there was a sign in front of a house that said "life for sale- everything must go. see this 101 year old house before it's destroyed. come inside" something like that.
rob thought it was a good idea to go inside. i thought it seemed like the beginning of a horror movie.
but we survived.
yeah, that was a really great story. i'm sure that you are glad that you waited for that.

oh here's another great story, it's called kelsey and Jason try to make cinnamon buns.
so JASON was in charge of the bread like thing for the buns. and it was taking really quite long to rise...
when trying to roll them there was massive sticking to the counter. so there was lots and lots of flour used.
and then the butter was rather difficult to spread. so yeah, there is lots of that too. at anyrate, this is what the buns looked like before putting them in the oven. i was rather hopeful about what they were going to look like in the end. i envisioned big fluffy yum yum buns.

this is what they end up like. they smelt really good. and they were pretty tasty right out of the oven. but then they got all hard and stuff. instead of buns i call them pucks. but they do make an alright chaser to a shot of tequila.

so there has been some kitchen adventures in the life of kelsey. and increasing my "pink stuff" consumption (that's rose wine to you!) that's been fun. and knitting adventures and getting really excited with the ladies at the knitting store about a pair of socks. and planning my christmas knitting. i figure if i start knitting now then someone might actually get a christmas present.

and i write this from montreal. i have left the land of spring to the land of winter. and i had a very wonderful surprise yesterday when i ran into no-other than laura perry on the street corner on my way to cindy's for some stitching and bitching. YEAH!

and tonight there will be poutine. yum yum yum

the stuff and the things

2007-02-04T23:09:00.000-08:00

something ever so exciting has just happened!!! for the last, oh MONTH and MORE i've been fighting with this silly silly integration program problem. should of been simple, just go to NR and get the subroutine, yeah. simple.
and the princess is ever so slow.
but some playing with things has made it finally WORK!
it was an issue with the NR subroutine i took. GAH! silly me trusting that.

AT ANYRATE!
there is fireball machine at the Pit, i FINALLY talked tyron into trying the good stuff that comes out of it. i didn't think that it would be so hard to talk him into it.... but just like programming sometimes things take some effort.
it was pretty fun. fireball. from a machine. it has a button that says "press here". Wo0T! it has the same effect as putting fireball in the fridge, but recall: button.

AND there was some MUSIC! saw Deerhoof on friday night avec rob. super fun. had a friendship opportunity. if you listen to the deerhoof you might be laughing right now. or perhaps just chuckling... super fun!

i saw the latest version of pride and Prejudice. got to say, not much beats the A&E version. but it's good when you don't exactly have 6 hours to devot to a movie.

i was knitting a shawl. i found out that i THINK i dropped a stitch, i don't know what i did, but it doesn't look all that nice. now i'm forced to tink (you know knit backwards.. oh ha ha ha i'm on fire tonight!) not all that fun, but i will be much happier with the finished product.

and i'm thinking there may be some vancouver poutine in my near future. it will get me warmed up for when i return to montreal.

oh! and there have been socks finished. i just have to take the pictures...
and did you see the new interweave? some very fun socks in there!

well into the new year....

2007-01-23T23:24:00.000-08:00

yeah, so it's a new year. i made a bunch of resolutions. i think i've broke them ALL! i knew that was going to happen, don't know why i even bother! oh well.

and yeah, so i was in edmonton. and then i was in vancouver. and then i was in SEATTLE! oh what FUN! i was there for some learning (it was a conference) but there was lots of fun to happen. like this:

This is me and laura and dres on a pig at the pike market. i don't get the things with the pigs. but, hey FUN!

and of course i went to a yarn store! YEAH! had to get laura addicted to sock knitting!

We took the train down there (super fun! better to drink in the train then in a car! YEAH!) there was the first night of not being able to find a place for a drink (stupid shopping district...) but it turned out that i was back in the land where i could get drinks at a corner store (SWEET!)

oh! and if you are ever in the seattle area totally go on the tour of the underground. it was really really neat-oh fun. and i guess if you like that coffee drink i could point out where the first starbucks is. rob and i had a little adventure. here's a hint: it's near a cheese shop. oh! ever so hard to resist pulling out the monty python upon entering a cheese shop.

so seattle: there was learning, yarn shopping (and other shopping), eventually there was drinking (the comet has booze, i found this very funny after some beer. i took some posters home with me that said JUST that), and overall it was a great bonding experience with the UBC crew. YEAH! bonding! i even made a new super-best pal. she's my pal whether she likes it or not.. hmmm i wonder if there was a reason she didn't call a couple weekends ago...

then i was back in van once again. back to the schooling and the beer clubbing. oh and starting up a Stitch and bitch. we meet at tea shops. i feel that my tea collection is soon going to take over my entire kitchen as opposed to just the one cupboard that i reserve for tea.

AND i guess my BIG happy NEWS is that i bought plane tickets for montreal!!! YIPPIE! David, remember all those hugs you promised? well, now i'm coming to collect!!

new special friend!!! (and smashy-smashy!!)

2006-12-30T21:05:00.000-08:00

so last night i went out with some friends, you know keeping to my weekly drinking schedule (wednesday fireball, well and thursdays and fridays...) to have a friday beer club (who cares if i'm not in vancouver! "habits" die hard). we were at this irish pub here in sherwood park and well, gosh the face turns rather smiley at this... but tea hee! i meet someone!! he's one smooth guy with enough spice to entice. his name was bob and well, it was rather sad when he left... but perhaps the two of us will meet again... that would be lovely, cuz gosh darn it, i sure do like beer! yeah... bob... le sigh... bob... bucket o'beer.... YUM! have you seen those hoegaarden glasses! they are like buckets of beer! or bob for short.

and then tonight there was some smashy-smashy.
ken took me for some greek food. yum yum. and get this: there was a belly dancer! and she danced to one of the songs that i had learned a dance to! craZy talk! and the BEST part was when the waiter guy was tossing plates on the ground. smashy-smashy. that's the way to appreciate good belly dancing. YEAH!

back in the E-town (for now)

2006-12-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

so it is the christmas time. a time for rum, pressies and family. as such i headed my way back to the E-town (or more precisely, the Sherwood Forest park place). but it wasn't just "okay pack, gotta get back". oh no.
when i was suppose to be packing on the 18th, i was really drinking with the MOST boys and getting smashy-smashy with a baseball bat on a computer and watching people throw stuff out a window (Jason tried to throw his supervisor out the window!!! naughy naughty!) but i must say, it was a great way to spend the evening
so that left me needing to get my packing done before my flight on the 19. but first brunch with rob, CINDY and Aaron was to be had!!! fun fun fun fun! it was a great way to start the day off. then i had to get to the airport. and ran into none other then Mr. Kory Stevens on the bus! we had planned to meet at the airport, but there he was getting on my bus! sweet!
then well, getting home and being greeted by something ever so wonderful. yay for my brother!

like i said: YAY! you all know what that is right?

then there was some days of programming and watching CSI. YEAH! multi-tasking!
i saw the new James bond movie as well with my bro and riva. and of course it made me silly. oh nelly, i found the movie to be such a giggle fest! and having brunch with friends from high school. super-uber fun. it's great that we are all still in contact. this is us:

okay then there was the annual christmas eve thing at my mom's. i was able to trick getting a sweeeeet tic-tac-toe game! it's with shot glasses. YEAH!

then christmas day at my aunt's for some tasty food. wo0t!

and boxing day was spent CURLING. and get this: i did NOT make a complete fool of myself! and my team WON!!! and i fell down NEVER! i know, you don't believe me. but believe it. i didn't completely suck! and NO BRUISES! YEAH!

and then there was today. got to meet up with alex (she's in the pic up there) and had TEA! and i was gifted with a SWEEEEEET tea mug! there is this little bucket that you put the tea in and a strainer that you sip through, you know so you are not drinking the tea leaves. it's pretty darn awesome. perhaps i don't need a tea ball after all....

and check this out. i think it's pretty funny.

i hope that your seasonal time was super fantastic.

physics and porn

2006-12-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

so the physics department christmas party type thing was this past thursday night.
my office mates and i (that's them over there: jaime, me and nicole) left feeling much worse then when we arrived.
and not because we had too much chocolate. that would have been impossible since there was NO chocolate. but other reasons. like yuck.
but there were giggles.
and it was a new experience.
and well, someone brought the apple vodka.
wo0t!

friday night brought the last beer club meeting. it was much like the first, in that no one was really informed of it. but winter ale was had and that left a happy kelsey.
i also got to be nicole's date (!) to a birthday party. she sure does have fun friends. we ended up at red robins for some food type things. while at the bar i was asking about the types of vodka that they had. i was looking for some apple vodka with some tonic water. but, alas, i was told that red robins is a FAMILY restaurant, so that means they do not have apple vodka. so i had a gin and tonic. i guess gin is more family friendly??

and saturday... oh cindy!! this is basically for you! i went to a yarn store (not the one down the block, but a much farther away one) and i... well... went a little crazy.
yep, we got us some yarn porn here. yep, that's 8 skeins of koigu SOLID!!! and then some sweet georgina.
let me repeat 8 skeins of koigu SOLID.
i'm a happy camper.

a happy camper who had better get her knit on!

busy busy bee!!!

2006-12-11T23:43:00.000-08:00

first THANKS to patricia for the lovely kelsey poem!! so very nice!

so this is what has been going on as of late:

dec 1: craZy day. craZy evening. when your evening involves waiting for the firetrucks to show up, well that means: craZy! got home 6AM. ooops!

dec 2: slept very few hours so that i could be in time to see K'naan perform FOR FREE in downtown vancouver. hawksley workman was playing 5 hours after, but someone here was a very sleepy princess.

then life became completely involved with my take home E&M final exam. getting angry at STUPID bessel functions grrrrrr. once that was all handed in then it was time to GIVE out an exam and then MARK it. the examing never stops!!!

well it did stop on friday.
finished marking, had beer with nicole (i love you), made a new friend and went to Rob's B-day party (big 30). the next day was so girl that i love it!!! nicole and i went SHOE shopping!!! and i got 2 new pairs of shoes!!! look, i'm going all girl right now!!! wanting to tell the big wide inter-web about my new shoes. they have pink sparkely skull and crossbones on them!! and the others are fun boots! woot! and what girl day wouldn't be complete without some Jane Austin?? so i bought a copy of sense and sensibility. probably won't love it as much as P&P... but hey, why not give it a whirl??

and today! well, i'm not sure if i'm a silly girl or what BUT we had something called an "Astro Jamboree". I'm thinking "oh jamboree! music singing and FUN!" but turns out it's overheads and talking about research. BUT singing was encouraged.

so i wrote a song.
tea heee
and i sang it.
and people sang along to the sing a-long chorus!!! Wo0T! didn't feel so silly then!!!

these are the lyrics:
the equation of state is unknown for a neutron star
there's been lots of work but we still have to go far
measurements with pulsars give us the mass
but determining the radius can be a difficult task

chorus:
red shift blue shift what's going on?
the temperature had shifted now the radius is wrong

we observe thermal emission from the atmosphere
the spectra indicates the luminosity and the temperature
spectral models account for gravity
but not rotation, which screws up what we see

chorus

the doppler effect has certain tendencies
resulting in each side having different intensities
one side looks hotter the other looks colder
add them together and the temperature moves over

chorus

temperature and radius are related
the magnitude of radius correction is what i'm calculating
red shift blue shift what's going on
the temperature has shifted now the radius is wrong
red shift blue shift, what's going on?

i needed a bit of liquid courage to get through this.
and it started at 9:30 AM.
oops!

CrazY Van-City!

2006-11-28T00:26:00.000-08:00

so things have been a little crazy around here.
ken came for a visit, which was crazy good fun! wo0T!
but the rain that caused the tap water to be no good for drinking, that was crazy bad.
and the fact that i had to boil water for 10 days... not so fun.

but more crazy good things were on the way!
like a SNOW STORM! so much fun! it started snowing on saturday and kept on snowing on sunday (which knocked out the power at chez tuborg! meaning i couldn't boil water, nor was there heat).
but it eventually came back on. all good.
but the power didn't come back EVERYWHERE, there was power out at UBC! that meant SNOW DAY! not schooling for me on monday! super fun! super crazy fun!

so pretty....

down the street

2006-11-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

it looks a little different now with the whole "change of seasons" but i like.

Joe RULES!!!!

2006-10-30T21:58:00.000-08:00

OH my goodness!!!!!

i almost wish that i had a completely terrible day so that i could come home to the complete joy that was awaiting me in the mail box!
but even though i had a pretty good monday, this monday beats most!!!!!!
wow.

there were two CDs from Joe in the mailbox.

someone did a happy dance.
and that someone was me.

yay for Joe!!!

if you don't know him, check out his blog and play around with line rider. super silly fun!

thank you Joe!

so responsible

2006-10-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

there once were two TAs for a class. both these TAs were assigned marking duties of the midterm of the class. knowing that marking with someone is much more fun (though might take longer) than marking alone, the two TAs set up for marking. while diligently marking one TA is disrupted by the other's comments about how to get two pitchers of beer into the marking area. deciding that it was silly (and not very responsible) the TAs mark on.
but then the two TAs just can't get this idea of how to drink and mark out of their minds. they look at each other. then they look at the exams they are marking. then they look at each other. then they mark. then they look at each other. they both are thinking the same thing. how to best drink and mark?

in the end the two TA find themselves walking to the closest liquor store. as the walk was longer than expected it is agreed to stock up on liquor to save the two TAs from future times of having to stop marking (see very responsible).

As a result the TAs purchased about $100 of booze and went back to marking.

now instead of a filing cabinet, one TA has a liquor cabinet.

and the exams... the marking didn't quite get finished.... oops!

and this TA was NOT the one to bring up the beer in the first place.

i mean, i heard this from a friend of a friend of mine.

beer, presents, and socks

2006-10-22T00:57:00.000-07:00

This past friday was the first official PHAS beer club. i call it official since i emailed all the grad students about it. there seemed to be some confusion about the whole "social activity" thing going on. oh my!

hey! who are these strange creatures??? look at what beer club will do to you! yup yup! a princess and the swedes (you know that i will always track them down!)
Thanks to alex (mr. big head in the picture) i think i will start taking pics with my mactop of all the people that enter my office. fun times! well at least for me, the camera shy might not be too happy....

ooooooooooh does this look like something ever so exciting?? a big box with a bow (it's there really) appeared on my desk!!! what an exciting present!!!

well, that is until you open it and find 250-ish midterms that are needing to be marked.

and all that marking makes me want to procrastinate via the knitting.

lookie lookie! i finished my fist pair of toe up socks!
super-yay since it's socktober!!! wo0t!
toe-up equals super fun! don't have to worry about running out of yarn when you get to the toe!

this is part of another pair of socks (yes yes i'm a little sock obsessed). i'm pretty excited about getting these ones done. though i have been working on them for a really long time...
i keep doing the crazy "re-write pattern" thing.

but again i say: fun!

on a final note, this picture sure makes me happy.

a new club!

2006-10-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

I started a new club!
well, i really re-started an old club.
beer club is alive and well at UBC once again!
It was a last minute thing where over some free beer at a poster session on friday afternoon beer club was started. i am also proud to say that the astro-folk finished up the free drinks. GO astro!

i'd love to tell you more about what happened at the first beer club meeting... but i don't remember much of what happened. BUT i think there is a new Las Vegas club as a result. i smell ROAD TRIP!

I also discovered with Jaime that there are WAY more apples out there than i ever thought possible!!! we went to an apple festival. there was apple tasting as a part of the event. there just wasn't enough time to try all the apples! there were so MANY! at the end of the day i bought a bag of "silken" apples. yum yum yum. it was also apple day for the cubs and they selling apples on the street for donation. how healthy! no cookies! apples instead!

Also, Jaime and i will have matching socks!!!!! jungle stripe lorna's laces.

Guess who saw the who last weekend???
I did! thanks to steven who came out for a little visit. FUN FUN FUN!!!

what is not fun is this book that i'm reading. it makes me all angry and ashamed that i was ever proud to call myself canadian. I'm reading Obasan by Joy Kogawa. I am finding it painful to read. and it makes me MAD MAD MAD.

In other news. it's socktober and i'm almost done a pair of socks!

so awesome it hurts

2006-10-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

i went on a big adventure this past weekend to victoria in order to visit cindy!
there was yum yum food, such as "tasty bean curd skin" (or what i would call "fake duck"); we didn't have the dish made with "sweat sauce", moonlight walks on a windy windy beach (oh how romantic!), breakfast adventures (tofu scramble anyone?), YARN YARN OH THE SOFT YARN!, downtown wandering around, TEA with Thomas and Paula (AKA the newly-weds), knitting with lord of the rings, and then i was off to the ferry again. oh so sad.

but i will have a pin to help me remember the adventures with cindy.

yes, that is darth vader playing violin.
yes, i bought the pin from a man dressed as darth vader playing violin on the street corner.
that was so awesome.
we saw this man with a cape flying in the wind, not really understanding what was going on. we crossed the street to get a closer look. i couldn't believe my eyes.
there were many pictures taken of the man.
he called me "pin lady!"
i call him "awesome"
so awesome in fact, that it hurts.

did you know that this is the month for knitting socks? i'd better get on that!
and i will be upping the knitting content soon soon. i feel bad that i talk about "knitting under the influence" but where is the knitting? and where is the drinking?

i have a knitting related picture to share, but first i must tell you about my amazing office mate. her name is jamie. she has suggested (please note, this was her talking and not just me hearing what i wanted to hear) that she and i: go to a knitting store, go drink beer, go back to may place where we drink tea, knit and WATCH murder she wrote!!!!!!
i think it could be a plan.

also, today i got ACCUSED of "picking up" the speaker at the TRIUMF talk series! just because i slipped him my email addie and said "let's go for dinner" doesn't mean i'm picking him up! he totally initiated with the line "i saw your paper on astro-ph, by the way i'm from harvard and i'm Randy"
yes, Randy from harvard from that deos conference was in town on his way to san fran. the pulsar lunch went on a field trip to see him give a talk.
and i made up parts of the conversation.
i'm silly.

and here's further proof:

oh what a silly princess! that's wool! not real sushi!

hanging out with REM

2006-09-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

so i spent my friday evening hanging out with some folks from REM.
there was drinking there was dancing just a grand old time! i had a martini that turned my tongue blue (can you go wrong???? no!) and highballs were on special, a double for $6! nice!
the part that wasn't nice was that it was really a farewell event for my friend heather. I was all excited to move out here to van and go listen to fin music with heather, but alas, as her time with REM comes to an end so does her time in van.

Yeah, REM= Resource and Environmental Management, did you think i was talking about something else?

thesis corrections are getting done. i even got a red thesis binder so that i can be like patricia.
wo0t!

and i'm going to see cindy this weekend!!!!!!!
happy happy dance!

and i must say, i really really really miss fridays at thomson house!

the muffin players perform...

2006-09-19T11:06:00.000-07:00

the jason and kelsey players perform their most famous work:
"Boy meets Girl followed by a balloon tragedy"

This from way back in July, i finally got around to making the sequence that cindy had asked for. she might not even remember.

i saw "little miss sunshine" on the weekend with mel. my goodness, that was a great movie. go see it!

today i am giving a dramatic performance of how disks are formed around massive white dwarfs and the tragedy which is that these disks do not seem to form.

i'm in the jailhouse now

2006-09-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

so my mom called me last night.
she got the vancouver jail.
oh my!!!
no no no, i'm not i'm jail, i just have a phone number close the the vancouver jail.

so my work mactop has a cute little camera.
today i had some silly fun.

Steve from next door and i say hi.

And steve is sharing what his masters thesis is all about.
can you read that?

gym report

2006-09-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

i am sure there are some (perhaps 3) curious minds which would like to know what the UBC gym (aka the Birdcoop) is like. Now that i've been i can report.

first reaction: oh my goodness this place is so crammed with stuff i don't think there is anywhere for me to even walk!

Then i found the machine i was looking for and went off to do some cardio while watching tv. the nice thing about the cardio machines is that there are little receivers on each machine that let you plug in your head set so that you can listen to the tv instead of trying to read and exercise at the same time. it's a deadly combination. i have almost flown off treadmills in the past because i got so involved with trying to read what was happening on the show that i just don't keep the pace up.

there are fewer cardio machines at UBC than at McGill, but at the time i went this didn't seem to be an issue.

after some cardio i decided to walk around and see what else the gym had to offer. it had the usual big heavy weights for the people who want really big muscles. there was a room that was PACKED with those spin bikes. i think the room is called "hotwheels"or something. AND there was this room which was for climbing! i thought that was a rather neat addition.

There was also an area that was padded so i guess it was meant to be for stretching and for ball exercises and the like. there was also all these shiny new machines with instructions on how to use them. So i tried some of those. the thing was, 2 of the machines that i used often on my "leg days" at the McGill gym were NONE existent at this gym. i found that very strange.

something i really liked was how the free weights were organized. there were these big towers where the slots for the free weights were labeled! nice! makes it much easier to find the weight that one is looking for. and you are not really dropping weights on your feet looking for the one that at the bottom of the pile.

The showers are well, ucky. and one of the bathroom stalls has DANGER DANGER signs around it. it looks like something exploded in the stall. very strange.

final feelings: not like i was hoping, but it will do.

i am also trying to convince my office mate to be a gym buddy with me. wo0t!

oh, and no squash courts. CURSES!!!

debbie!!!

2006-09-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

I'm going to get to meet Debbie Bliss!!!!
she's coming to a yarn store just down the road a bit from me!!!!

are you jealous cindy????

plans...

2006-09-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

so i had all these ideas of what i should put in my next post. it was going to be very picture happy. i took pictures of socks that i finished. i took pictures of my norwegian ski socks that are a work in progress (and are taking me a really long time to make... silly me re-writing bits of the pattern) and then some pics of the nice niceness that is just down the street from me.

but i forgot the connector cable from the camera to the computer in edmonton. so the pics remain on my camera. perhaps someday i will be able to share them with you.

instead i will tell you about the physics new student welcome at UBC.
so, coming from mcgill i was expecting lots of free drinks. i mean we were going to the grad house and there was a bar RIGHT THERE. but alas no... we had to buy our own drinks... but at $3 a pint, it's not such a bad deal. Especially when, instead of free drinks there was free food! yum yum. i was told all about the really hard quantum class that all new students are suppose to take. i guess, that is, except for this new student! instead i'm taking the hard E&M class. fun!

wow, my stories are much shorter than my brother's!

i also finally got a phone!! with a sweet phone plan: unlimited phone calls anytime in north america. w0ot! now i feel more connected to the world around me.

and there is a cat that hangs out in my backyard. it's black and white like oreo, but not as cute!

Interesting paper...

2006-09-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

hmm, this looks like it could be a very interesting paper...

and i am now getting all settled into vancouver. i am sad to report that the yarn store by my place does not carry any solid coloured koigu. but i will see if i can work on that.

overdue

2006-08-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

oh my oh my... it's been quite some time since an update.
so what have i been up to?

Friday, August 4:

it was my "goodbye forever" bbq. James (and his room mates!) was ever so wonderful to open up his place for some BBQ fun. it was to be my big goodbye to everyone, but instead i kept saying "see you on monday!". after james was able to get rid of us all there was some last poutine for some (that would be me!)

i made james a scarf. it's got the double helix on it and even though it was a rather warm evening james wore it all night. i guess that he really does love DNA. and i hope that the hammock was repairable....

Saturday, August 5:
naughty naughty cindy tried to poison marjorie!!!! but ha ha ha! she tricked you and survived!!!

Sunday, August 6:
Laura made an appearance!!! wo0t! all the way from ottawa!! though our time was little together, she did say that she was going to join on monday for some lunch lunch.

Marjorie and i, later, discovered another place to get ice cream. and it was good. i will really really miss montreal ice cream.

Monday, August 7:

This was my last day at work. and i did try to do some work. but only a bit. it was sangria lunch fun at thomson house!
this was my big teary goodbye thing. booooooooooooooooo.

sigh... then the bags were all packed and alex picked me up for my last night in montreal. I got to see her new condo. and WOW WOW WOW it is fantastic!!!!

Tuesday, August 8:
The big day of the big leaving.
i was one sad sad girl to get on that plane.
i couldn't even concentrate on my new knitting magazines!

and then i was back in edmonton.
but i was with a cat! he got involved with my knitting.

August 11 to 13:
The Edmonton Folk Music Festival!!!
So much good music. so much missed sleep!! so much rain!!! and wet feet!!
i'm starting to like music that has no singing. i'm always happy to see the waifs and i had been looking forward to sarah harmer. but there were some music treats. a long time ago i heard a lynn miles song (unravel) i had meant to buy the CD then, but didn't quite get around to it. i was happy to be reminded about how much i liked that song.

it's funny, i went into this folk fest not all that excited. there was no one that i just HAD to see, but when it all comes together, it's hard to think there can possibly a better folk fest! okay, a folk fest with less rain would be an improvement. man, that hill in the mud was rather difficult to get down!!!
Monday, August 14:
EARLY EARLY my mom and i drove off in the direction of vancouver! it was apartment hunting time!

are you getting the feeling that i've been rather busy and sleep deprived?

Tuesday, August 15:
Arrived in vancouver and booked some viewings.

I also found my way to be invited to a physics birthday party! so i got a chance to meet new physics folks! the birthday party was a the grad pub. i must say that thomson house is much much better.

Wednesday, August 16:
My mom and i went off to granville island. i got a treat for oreo and some treats from me and steve to share (yum yum granville island beer!).

then it was lease signing and celebrating with sushi and walking down to the beach. it's about 20 minute walk to the beach from my new place! and really close to a yarn store! fun!
there is also a new yarn store opening in vancouver!!! i'm looking forward to that!

Thursday, August 17:
The marathon drive from vancouver to edmonton.

but i was greeted by a cat who was very happy to get his granville island treat... cat nip!

getting close to gone!

2006-08-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

after a couple days of stress stress stress stress i can finally relax.
with huge huge thanks to these fine four individuals.
that's cindy, david, patricia, and champ (another david).
they helped me move all my boxes from my crap hole (it really is a crap-hole, i'm hoping the ceiling waits to fall in AFTER i leave).
patricia had her car filled up of boxes and champ was in charge of the over-flow boxes car. david and cindy made the whole process of getting the boxes out of my apartment as easy as jello (i'd say pie, but pie is hard to make. especially if you are me and make the crust from scratch).

So, then it was dinner at chuch with marjorie, rene, patricia, cindy and champ. it was so yummy! chuch is a thai resturant.

this is the black pepper duck... so good.
duck you say? but princess! you don't eat meat!! what is going on, you say?
it's TOFU!!!!!!!!
i have no idea what duck tastes like (i've actually been told that this is better than real duck) but oh my goodness... so so so so so so yum yum!!!

sad sad, it was my last evening with rene as he is going off on fun adventures tomorrow...

we just HAD to finish off the chuch with some ice cream. i had a scoop of lavender with a scoop of chocolate with red sea salt. oh yes, it sounds crazy, in fact i was a disbeliever. but last saturday i learnt my lesson. lavender ice cream does not taste like what i imagine my bag that i put in the dryer tastes like.

last saturday was another chuch and ice cream day. this time it was my last evening with rhiannon. booooo. but first it was montreal adventures with cindy! i got a crepe from a window. this was very exiting for me. seriously. it was on my to do list of things to do before leaving montreal. what fun. go up to a window and get a crepe!!!

ah sigh...
getting closer to my new adventures ...

rhiannon and james

rene, silly muffin.

pickles on my head

2006-07-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

tonight i put a pickle on my forehead.
so did james.
because i wasn't alone with pickles on my head, i wasn't weird. just silly.

AND whoa boy! silly! let's talk about liquor stores in the ottawa area!
not really silly, more like happy.
on the weekend i went to ottawa to visit with Laura and chris and maggie (the cat). we went on adventures to a SAQ warehouse where there are taps coming out of the wall with a never ending supply of vodka/rum/rye/... and you just fill up you bottle! crazy talk!
i think some random stranger thought i was talking the crazy when i found all these mini bottles of vodka and suggested that we buy a whole bunch and have a vodka bottle bath.
i didn't mean to take the vodka out the bottle... well only if it was to be drunk. silly stranger.

and we went on yarn store adventures. i didn't buy as much as cindy when she was off in toronto (holey-moley that crazy girl) but i'm happy with trying out my new sock yarn.

and there was more drinking and more liquor stores and there was a guy getting medical attention on the street. we were informed that he was a crack-head picking a fight. then our information bringer also said something about that being the reason he was a pothead: he would much rather be mellow. interesting point of view.

it was mucho fun to be with a kitty again.

and mucho mucho fun to have girly chat with laura until 3:30 am while drinking sangria... and doing some knitting under the influence. oh silly me.

oh! and we went on fun adventures to some place that was close to a big body of water. i like looking at boats. and there were so many ducks in the water. and on the way back to the car from the marina we come across some live music. some kind of swing-jazz type group (i'm pretty bad at putting genres on music). and then there was dancing to be had. on of the songs was about going to montreal. and yes my friends that is was i did. a couple hours after that song was played i was back on the bus to montreal after having a fantastic weekend in ottawa area with laura, chris and maggie.

laura is such an angel.

marjorie, danny, and I

2006-07-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

the question becomes, who is crazier: me and marjorie or danny michel?
all that marjorie and i did was help out danny with getting 5s for change. see, the CDs were 15$ each, and everyone seems to carry around 20$. this makes 5 dollar bills very precious.
so between me and marjorie we only had 2 fives. so danny had to find a fiver to give marjorie some change.
then i thought maybe it would be nice to up danny's amount of fivers.
so i took marjorie's change, added to the other fives and got a cd. and danny calls us CRAZY!!!!
well maybe what he really said was "that was crazy".

but seriously, i think someone who knows the first verse of britney spears's "hit me one more time" song would be the crazy one. like, geez danny, i think you were a little crazy to be doing a britney spears cover.

me crazy? in this situation, danny i would have to say it's you.

the show was awesome. i'll see him again in vancouver i think.

and i saw maggie's band on saturday night. i was drawn to her music like a moth is drawn to a porch light.

other crazy talk

i think now i will bring the question, who is crazier: me or rene?
situation: it's a friday afternoon and i'm "gtalking" with cindy between cola, ice cream and rum (and cola), here's the conversation:

5:02 PM me: but raisens are weird looking
rene is asking about some "astrometric"
5:03 PM and marjorie wants to know when you are going home, then the 2 of you can get ice cream together!!!
Cindy: tell marjy probably around 6:30 or 7.
5:04 PM me: rene is waiting with baited breath about the "astrometric"
Cindy: tell rene my eyes are going buggy, trying to match up stars.
me: rene is sitting behind me breathing heavily
5:05 PM and being plain creepy
there is this strange freaky voice saying my name
and my keys are dancing around my head
Cindy: you should back up really quickly and run over his feet with your chair
5:07 PM me: check, he is now on his said [side] of the office
but now he's trying to give me cookies
i think he will stop being weird if you tell me if you are still trying to match up the 3 stars
5:08 PM please note: the cookies are not in his pants

so because cindy did not respond and save me from the cookie fiend (rene) he thought that it would be appropriate to call cindy's office and breath heavily into the phone and ask the person on the other line if they would like cookies from his pants (i guess he put cookies in his pants at some point, WEIRD)

unfortunately, cindy was not the one to answer the phone and instead an innocent bystander was assaulted with rene's bizarre question.

this strange strange man even made me answer the phone and tell his girlfriend that he was putting cookies in his pants. strange.

i am not so sure about that man.....

i think he's crazier than me.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew

2006-07-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

there is a big hole in my bathroom.

it creeps me out.

eek! pirates!

2006-07-12T07:21:00.000-07:00

my goodness, i sure do wish i was a pirate.
you get to drink rum ALL the time when you are a pirate. what fun.
but as i am not a pirate, i will just have to watch movies about pirates.
and the previews to the pirate movies. there was this one that started out so LAME, but i tell ya, it was more than meets the eye, if you know what i'm saying. tea hee!

anyways, other fun adventures include: being teased at a conference because i am going off to UBC to be a theorist (but my poster did get lots of positive attention, even with the print shop not printing the title of my poster), i had a picnic at the jazz festival with marjorie and rhiannon, i saw ANI D with patricia (i loves loves loves loves loves ani, she played a good mix of songs my favs: swim and shameless wo0t! and she put up very nicely with a crowd that yelled things like : i recycle and look at me!), at the ani show i got a new bottle opener key chain and discovered that heineken has new exciting beer bottles.

the ani d bottle opener came in handy on sunday when i went on fun driving adventures out to patricia's cottage. the cottage was surrounded by a shallow river. at one side of the cottage we would get into the river with our tubes and go for a nice relaxing ride (relaxing when you are not running into the river bank, or bailing water out of your raft with a beer bottle or playing "bumper-tube" or getting beached at a really shallow bit or getting your tube flipped over; those times are just plain FUN) which would last about 30 minutes and then we would end up on the other side of the cottage. NICE. a nice fun sunny day at the cottage. yay for patricia!!!

PS. yarrrrrr!

i'm turning into rene!!!

2006-07-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

this is my friend rene. he knows stuff about pulsars and monte carlo simulations and moose calls.
he also has special multitasking skills.

I want to be like him. baby steps with 2 straws.

getting better!!!!

i sure do like my pixies shirt. by these pictures you would think i wear it everyday!!! thanks ken!!!

and i've been told that some people don't like tuborg. that's good!!! more for me!!!!!!!

how to guide...

2006-06-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

to thesis writing!!!
what every young adventurer needs to know! since it can be a long perilous voyage to grayskull and become a master (of the universe).
so, step by step:
1) make an outline, everything is under control
2) play farm hustle
3) write a sentence
4) play some frog-jump game
5) write a couple more sentences
6) listen to hockey game, only write when the oilers win since your fate is tied with their's
7) get to stage 10 of frogger.
8) get to level 9 of farm hustle
9) feeling good about being a master of the computer games, tackle the thesis: drink lots of pots of tea and don't stop writing until the forms get signed.

that's about it. as some of you are on the same voyage to grayskull (and beyond!) i hope my words of advice can be of some use.

and when that's all done, celebrate with BEER! yum yum.
and ice cream.
hmm beer float??

bittersweet

2006-06-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

poop.

i had my first "goodbye forever" today.
Mr. "Ben" creepy pants is going off on fun adventures and by the time he gets back i should be gone.

and there are going to be more "goodbye forever"s. that gives me a pouty face.
that's the bitter.

the sweet: if i'm so sad to leave my mcgill-y friends behind, we MUST of had a whole bunch of fun in the last 22 months.

feels like just a few weeks ago that creepy pants crawled into my office wearing some strange mask and just being CREEPY. or tried to drive me crazy with random claude cohen tannoudji posters popping out everywhere. the time has just gone by and i don't think i've noticed.

oh, creepy pants get some light bulbs!

oh lookie! i'm a cheeseball muffin!!

perhaps i should thesis, instead of thinking of all the people i'm going to miss as a consequence of handing in my thesis....

Birthday!!!

2006-06-06T19:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, it is true, my birthday has come and gone a while ago. BUT there are some birthday presents WORTH waiting for. Especially when it's a whole bunch of chocolate arriving in the middle of stress-ville. I will finally get to have some tim tams after helping ken take oh so many pictures of them at Christmas time, but never getting the prize. These dangerous tim tams are stacked on top of three bags of mini kitkat bars!!!!!! mango flavored! and grape and green tea! FUN! there were oh so many treats!!! yay! for having a brother that knew to wait until the end of my thesis writing to send me pressies!

the best part was the mix cd!!! Thank you ever so much ken!!!! perhaps this will get you an acknowledgement!!! tea hee!

and OH my check this out!!
today was an exciting day.

and xmm hates me. but i will get my revenge....
in the mean time i think i will have a dangerous laison with a tim tam.

and we are not talking about hockey. GAH!

Really i do!

2006-06-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

Really really i do knit.
lookie:

It's a picture taken with my web-cam in really bad lighting.

the yarn is Lorna's laces (80% superwash wool and 20% nylon) in "Lakeview". The pattern is in Interweave Knits spring 2005.

simple ribbing with a fun cable!

thesis? let's not talk about that.

Duck Vindaloo

2006-05-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Duck vindaloo, involves cooking duck in hot oil.
which is what happened last night.

Stanley Cup finals for the oil!!!! Yippie!
I went to a party last night, i figured there was a good chance of there being a tv (i am tv-less) and i wanted to watch the game. YAY for cory! AND you knew things were going to go well when on the way david, monika and I went to pick up some beer and TUBORG was on SPECIAL!!! sweet!!! so there was tuborg, there was hockey and there were bathrooms with windows. that last part is rather strange.

AND

MARJORIE IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
she got back on friday night. patricia, cindy and i decided to surprise her at the airport! i knew the date that marjorie was getting back, and cindy knew the airline and patricia did detecting and found flight information. good thing there was only one flight coming in from london! signs were made and so were plans. cindy was to patrol the area where the travelers get out and i was to check the outside perimeter to see if marjorie was already out and patricia was to park the car. But somehow marjorie was able to sneak past the inner defenses and the OUTER patrol, good thing "eagle-eyes" patricia entered the terminal when she did. She made the comment "shouldn't we be over there where there is a girl with dark hair and a brown jacket and looks like marjorie?" might be a good idea. It was marjorie and we ran up like crazy-folk with our welcome back signs and surrounded her! HAPPY!

YEEHAW!

2006-05-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

LET'S GO OILERS!! LET'S GO!!! [clap][clap]

third period.
crazy!

comments from the computer

2006-05-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

so the other day joe had sent me this link.

it's about a computer that saves the world from a boring master's thesis.

my question: will adding a car chase to my thesis on neutron stars help to involve the reader in my work? and then, how does one add a car chase to a thesis on neutron stars? this will take some thinking.

at anyrate, this is what my computer thought of something i had written last summer:

in case you can't make out the web-cam picture of my paper, the computer decided to call my section "Observations and Analysis", "stupid Observations and Analysis".

this is not a good sign...

somehow the word "stupid" was put into my ps file of a lightcurve and it only showed up when i put this picture in a latex file.
or: blah blah blah, my computer thought the section was stupid.

in knitting news: i got the new interweave and i'm itching to make the icarus shawl. yum yum yum.

in other news: go oilers!!!

Origin of a princess

2006-05-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

in case you are wondering how it is that i became a princess, well that started on my 21st birthday when i was singing in camrose with my choir. someone had one of those crowns that comes with a kids meal and since it was my birthday, i should have a crown. i became a princess.
then we went to celebrate.

there was some strong encouragement by me for people to join in the celebration. for example: come to caddies! i'm a princess!

my favorite: buy me a drink! i'm a princess!

i think all of camrose between the college and Cadillac's knew about my birthday and about the fact i was a princess.

so where did the tuborg come from?

i moved to montreal. i started a master's. and the department really likes students and staff to be friends. so they drive us out to some far away part of mcgill (the macdonald campus) and have a bbq... with an open BAR!!!! sweeeeeeeeeeeet!
tuborg was my drink of choice that afternoon.

tuborg labels are fun. they make a good tiara! plus some of the bottles come with stickers that you can put on your watch, and then it's tuborg time!!!!

5 and 5!!!

2006-05-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

oh my oh my!!!
there are 5 weeks left before the thesis is due!
there are also 5 chapters that i still need to finish the first drafts of.

oh my.

but things are not as grim as that.
3 chapters are waiting for me to get/make pretty pictures.

but to keep me from stressing out, i've got my yarn.
or perhaps it's better to say, to keep me from writing, i've got my yarn.

on another note, the triple caramel ice cream at ben and jerry's is super yum yum.

i got another knitting book today.
notice how easy it is for me to get back to the topic of knitting?
it's all lace!!!! oh super fun!!!!!!!!!!

and this website is pretty wicked fun.
it's been rather rainy. getting me into the vancouver mind set.

oh yeah, i'm moving to vancouver after i become a master.
they have stores there that sell just cupcakes!!!

what a magical land.

also, juliette the cow was returned to rene. and thusly so was my pink ribbon of power. with the pink ribbon of power and the mysterious thesis pellets that arrived on my desk, i will be unstoppable in my conquest of "the thesis".

the time?

2006-05-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

what time is it?
i think, perhaps TUBORG TIME!

oh dear.
that is almost trouble!