If It Isn't One Thing, It's Another:
Lesson of the day: Hippopotamus sweat is a natural sunscreen.
Maybe it's just been a long winter, or I need a refresher course on applying sunscreen. No sooner had my hand burns started peeling away, I go and burn myself again. First, on both my arms in a single band, right where my t-shirt sleeve ended and the apparent sunscreen protection began. And also...on the top of my head. Yes friends, I have sunburned my scalp. That's going to look great when it starts to peel.
So how did I let this happen? I was at my good friend Jocelyn's first horse show this weekend and I neglected to bring a hat. Who knew we were going to be sitting out in an open field with no shade for about five hours? At least I was smart enough to copy some of the other spectators and get the umbrella out of my car. Otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to touch the top of my head for a week. But other than the potential skin cancer it was a fun day. Jocelyn did as well as could be expected with an ornery horse and really subjective judging. I'm sure next time we'll be able to entirely cover her outfit with ribbons.
So the photos of that day are in the process of being developed, and yes, I am STILL in the process of getting those other photos up on my website. But...in the meantime, here's a little something I was finally able to scan for your viewing pleasure. (Kev, this one's for you)
P.S. In case anyone wants to kill me for some reason, I just want to point out that the only link to the photo is through this blog...so this internet experience will be somewhat contained.
"And I'm so sad, like a good book I can't put this day back, a sorta fairytale with you"
Monday, May 31, 2004
Thursday, May 20, 2004
As Though It Never Happened:
Hello one and all. Well, some stuff has been going on lately, but due to work, social encounters, a weekend out of town, and a very brief but violent bout with nausea, I haven't been able to keep this blog up to date. So here we go.
This past weekend I went with my good friends Emily and Jocelyn to Warsaw (Ontario, not Poland), just north of Peterborough, as they prepared to do their first adventure race, Storm the Trent. 4km run, followed by 16km bike, followed by 10km paddle (canoe, not doggie). Since it wasn't set up as the most ideal spectator sport, I got into volunteering to help the organizers (my specialty, I guess you could say).
The race started early Sunday morning, so we headed out Saturday afternoon/evening to Em's friend Ryan's place just outside of Peterborough. Since we were a little late getting on the road, Ryan and his fiancee Stacey had gone out by the time we got to their place. But they left us their key and their dog Tripper to keep us company. We watched the ends of "Point Break" and "Harry Potter" on TV before we realized that it was 11pm and we had to get to bed soon if we were going to be able to get up at 6 and be on the road by 7. Now...keep in mind that I have never met these people before, so it was extremely weird wandering through their house, looking for the bathroom or some kind of sign of where they expected us to spend the night. The basement was unfinished, but we found some sleeping pads so we quietly borrowed them to sleep on the living room floor. After learning that the cold water faucet in the bathroom doesn't shut off properly, I went to sleep wary that at some point in the night Tripper was going to bound off the chair and land on my head. But not long after lights out Ryan and Stacey returned and took Tripper with them up to their bedroom. In the morning, we tried to make as little noise as possible as we let ourselves out. That was the weirdest overnight visit I've ever had. Not only did I never get to meet the owners of the house, we left the place almost exactly the way we had found it. It's as if we were never there...
The overcast sky worried us a little, but it turned out to be an awesome day. Not as many bugs as I had feared, but much more sun than I had anticipated (Lesson of the Day: Remember to put sunscreen on the back of your hands). As with any event, the initial registration was the most chaotic part of the day, but I was able to hold my own against a sea of eager racers. When they all left on the buses to the starting point, it was eerily quiet. I hung out with the other volunteers (very nice ladies) and walked around and took photos. After about an hour and a half the first bikers started to arrive. I got worried when most of the people had already checked in and taken their canoes and Ema and Jocelyn were nowhere to be seen. Finally I saw their matching red bike helmets. After they took off in the canoe, Sean (the main organizer guy) asked me to man the Wall. This thing was pretty impressive given that I think Sean and his dad built it on their own. It was a roughly 12-foot wall, with two bells attached to levers at the top. There was also a small climbing wall right next to it with a bell at the top. The 2- and 4-person teams had to work together to boost one of their teammates up and ring one of the bells at the end of the race. Solo competitors got to climb the wall. My job was to be at the top of the wall (there was scaffolding behind it) and help out the teams by pushing the bell a little lower if they were having a hard time reaching it. I have to say, it was the best part of the race for me. For some reason, when the person rang the bell, it was like a signal for the person/people at the bottom to just let go. Luckily, nobody got hurt really badly, and I started to caution the teams about letting them down a little more gently.
So the race results are posted up at the website, and Team Triboluminescence came in 68 out of 85 in the 2-person team category with a time of 4:04:02 and no time penalties. Add on to that the fact that Em won a t-shirt and socks in the draw, and I'd have to say it was a pretty successful race. I don't have access to my scanner right now, plus I haven't gotten the photos developed yet, but once things are sorted out I'll post some on my website. And I SWEAR I will get the dogsledding photos and stories up as soon as I can. Kev, I'll let you know when I've got the OTHER photo scanned too. =)
Oh, I guess you're wondering about that nausea thing I talked about earlier. Well, it seems to be a unanimous diagnosis at work that I suffered some kind of heatstroke on Sunday that didn't hit me until 10am on Tuesday when I was at work. I couldn't handle it and barely made my way home at lunch (had to pull over on the 401, but fortunately the traffic was slow). I collapsed on my couch for a couple of hours before my mother fed me some water and the nausea really kicked in. Funny thing about me is that once I get it out, I'm 100% okay, as if I had never been ill in the first place. I'm a weirdo.
Finally, in a really unrelated way, congrats are in order for Laboni! She secured herself a teaching position in Mississauga, which means she can enjoy the summer knowing that kids will be waiting for her in September. Wait...is that a good thing?
"Between my fire sighs and my burning eyes, my heart burns wildly in his eyes, he's just a drunken, gambling man, dealing with the hands of desire's game, I'm gonna shuffle his deck clean"
Hello one and all. Well, some stuff has been going on lately, but due to work, social encounters, a weekend out of town, and a very brief but violent bout with nausea, I haven't been able to keep this blog up to date. So here we go.
This past weekend I went with my good friends Emily and Jocelyn to Warsaw (Ontario, not Poland), just north of Peterborough, as they prepared to do their first adventure race, Storm the Trent. 4km run, followed by 16km bike, followed by 10km paddle (canoe, not doggie). Since it wasn't set up as the most ideal spectator sport, I got into volunteering to help the organizers (my specialty, I guess you could say).
The race started early Sunday morning, so we headed out Saturday afternoon/evening to Em's friend Ryan's place just outside of Peterborough. Since we were a little late getting on the road, Ryan and his fiancee Stacey had gone out by the time we got to their place. But they left us their key and their dog Tripper to keep us company. We watched the ends of "Point Break" and "Harry Potter" on TV before we realized that it was 11pm and we had to get to bed soon if we were going to be able to get up at 6 and be on the road by 7. Now...keep in mind that I have never met these people before, so it was extremely weird wandering through their house, looking for the bathroom or some kind of sign of where they expected us to spend the night. The basement was unfinished, but we found some sleeping pads so we quietly borrowed them to sleep on the living room floor. After learning that the cold water faucet in the bathroom doesn't shut off properly, I went to sleep wary that at some point in the night Tripper was going to bound off the chair and land on my head. But not long after lights out Ryan and Stacey returned and took Tripper with them up to their bedroom. In the morning, we tried to make as little noise as possible as we let ourselves out. That was the weirdest overnight visit I've ever had. Not only did I never get to meet the owners of the house, we left the place almost exactly the way we had found it. It's as if we were never there...
The overcast sky worried us a little, but it turned out to be an awesome day. Not as many bugs as I had feared, but much more sun than I had anticipated (Lesson of the Day: Remember to put sunscreen on the back of your hands). As with any event, the initial registration was the most chaotic part of the day, but I was able to hold my own against a sea of eager racers. When they all left on the buses to the starting point, it was eerily quiet. I hung out with the other volunteers (very nice ladies) and walked around and took photos. After about an hour and a half the first bikers started to arrive. I got worried when most of the people had already checked in and taken their canoes and Ema and Jocelyn were nowhere to be seen. Finally I saw their matching red bike helmets. After they took off in the canoe, Sean (the main organizer guy) asked me to man the Wall. This thing was pretty impressive given that I think Sean and his dad built it on their own. It was a roughly 12-foot wall, with two bells attached to levers at the top. There was also a small climbing wall right next to it with a bell at the top. The 2- and 4-person teams had to work together to boost one of their teammates up and ring one of the bells at the end of the race. Solo competitors got to climb the wall. My job was to be at the top of the wall (there was scaffolding behind it) and help out the teams by pushing the bell a little lower if they were having a hard time reaching it. I have to say, it was the best part of the race for me. For some reason, when the person rang the bell, it was like a signal for the person/people at the bottom to just let go. Luckily, nobody got hurt really badly, and I started to caution the teams about letting them down a little more gently.
So the race results are posted up at the website, and Team Triboluminescence came in 68 out of 85 in the 2-person team category with a time of 4:04:02 and no time penalties. Add on to that the fact that Em won a t-shirt and socks in the draw, and I'd have to say it was a pretty successful race. I don't have access to my scanner right now, plus I haven't gotten the photos developed yet, but once things are sorted out I'll post some on my website. And I SWEAR I will get the dogsledding photos and stories up as soon as I can. Kev, I'll let you know when I've got the OTHER photo scanned too. =)
Oh, I guess you're wondering about that nausea thing I talked about earlier. Well, it seems to be a unanimous diagnosis at work that I suffered some kind of heatstroke on Sunday that didn't hit me until 10am on Tuesday when I was at work. I couldn't handle it and barely made my way home at lunch (had to pull over on the 401, but fortunately the traffic was slow). I collapsed on my couch for a couple of hours before my mother fed me some water and the nausea really kicked in. Funny thing about me is that once I get it out, I'm 100% okay, as if I had never been ill in the first place. I'm a weirdo.
Finally, in a really unrelated way, congrats are in order for Laboni! She secured herself a teaching position in Mississauga, which means she can enjoy the summer knowing that kids will be waiting for her in September. Wait...is that a good thing?
"Between my fire sighs and my burning eyes, my heart burns wildly in his eyes, he's just a drunken, gambling man, dealing with the hands of desire's game, I'm gonna shuffle his deck clean"
Friday, May 14, 2004
High Rate of Turnover:
It's a game of musical chairs at work. Last week Tina (one of the Validation girls) left the department and went to work at the Markham site. During her farewell dinner there were some horror stories about her new boss and the plant in general (Lesson of the Day: the smell of penicillin during production will permeate everything you own). She was cool but I didn't really get a chance to talk to her. All I really know is that she loves the show "American Dreams".
This Tuesday will be Shanthini's last day. She got offered a job at OPG (hooray for nuclear power). She was kind of surprised because she had the interview in November. But a job's a job, and in particular this is an engineering job. She's kind of nervous about it and a little hesitant because she likes the pharmaceutical game, but it's not like she can't come back. So we're having her farewell dinner on Monday (I've been eating out a lot lately). I guess this means that there is yet another opening in our department. Oh, and the new summer students started last week. Jonathan's a kinesiology student, which is a little different than the rest of us, but like Monica said, this ain't rocket science. He's sort of the hobo of the group, since there weren't enough desks in our area. He's using Michael's (the night shift guy) desk right now, which works out. And all the production guys are drooling over Maria. I'll admit that she's pretty, and it was funny how some of the guys reacted when they first saw her. Especially the guys who are married and have a few kids. Actually, that's kind of dirty...
Anyway, by the end of the month the new QA office on the floor should be finished, and so half the department is moving out onto the floor and the rest of us will stay in the office. All this moving about made me think about my situation, and how I kind of feel bad about deciding to move on after my contract is up. But this is after all a contract position, and the woman I'm replacing right now will be back, so it's not like I'm leaving them with another space to fill. The most ideal situation would be to get an engineering job with this company, but I guess we'll see. I suppose I should start to get to know the engineers a little better...
"Combat baby, come back baby, fight off the lethargy, don't go quietly"
It's a game of musical chairs at work. Last week Tina (one of the Validation girls) left the department and went to work at the Markham site. During her farewell dinner there were some horror stories about her new boss and the plant in general (Lesson of the Day: the smell of penicillin during production will permeate everything you own). She was cool but I didn't really get a chance to talk to her. All I really know is that she loves the show "American Dreams".
This Tuesday will be Shanthini's last day. She got offered a job at OPG (hooray for nuclear power). She was kind of surprised because she had the interview in November. But a job's a job, and in particular this is an engineering job. She's kind of nervous about it and a little hesitant because she likes the pharmaceutical game, but it's not like she can't come back. So we're having her farewell dinner on Monday (I've been eating out a lot lately). I guess this means that there is yet another opening in our department. Oh, and the new summer students started last week. Jonathan's a kinesiology student, which is a little different than the rest of us, but like Monica said, this ain't rocket science. He's sort of the hobo of the group, since there weren't enough desks in our area. He's using Michael's (the night shift guy) desk right now, which works out. And all the production guys are drooling over Maria. I'll admit that she's pretty, and it was funny how some of the guys reacted when they first saw her. Especially the guys who are married and have a few kids. Actually, that's kind of dirty...
Anyway, by the end of the month the new QA office on the floor should be finished, and so half the department is moving out onto the floor and the rest of us will stay in the office. All this moving about made me think about my situation, and how I kind of feel bad about deciding to move on after my contract is up. But this is after all a contract position, and the woman I'm replacing right now will be back, so it's not like I'm leaving them with another space to fill. The most ideal situation would be to get an engineering job with this company, but I guess we'll see. I suppose I should start to get to know the engineers a little better...
"Combat baby, come back baby, fight off the lethargy, don't go quietly"
Monday, May 03, 2004
Viral Chaos:
Sasser struck my workplace today, leaving most of us with little to do for the majority of the day. Funnily enough, my computer was the only one that escaped infection (hooray for Windows 95!). By mid-afternoon, the one IT guy at our site came around and patched things up.
Continuing on the topic of diseases (and, coincidentally, from my last entry), my boss got the results from her biopsy today...and as we had feared, it turned out positive. So on top of the silence in the office today from the lack of PC fans whirring, there was a sombre stillness. Oh...I suppose I should mention that she is already a breast cancer survivor, and so it's quite understandable when she mentioned last week that she would prefer NOT to go through chemo again. But it looks like that can't be avoided now. I was thinking today that she is the first person I've really personally known who has cancer. I know I talked about Vince last week, but I didn't really know that much about him, and had only talked to him sporatically. Then there are those distant family connections who have had leukemia and so on, but I didn't really know them personally either. Monica's been a really great boss, and since we have lunch together almost every day, I've gotten to know a lot about her and her life and her family. But she's a toughie, and I'm pretty confident that she'll be okay. It's just a little hard to watch sometimes and knowing that there's nothing you can do to help.
Sorry for the downer, friends. Hopefully next blog I'll have something more fun and peppy to write about.
"If I could find you now things would get better, we could leave this town and run forever"
Sasser struck my workplace today, leaving most of us with little to do for the majority of the day. Funnily enough, my computer was the only one that escaped infection (hooray for Windows 95!). By mid-afternoon, the one IT guy at our site came around and patched things up.
Continuing on the topic of diseases (and, coincidentally, from my last entry), my boss got the results from her biopsy today...and as we had feared, it turned out positive. So on top of the silence in the office today from the lack of PC fans whirring, there was a sombre stillness. Oh...I suppose I should mention that she is already a breast cancer survivor, and so it's quite understandable when she mentioned last week that she would prefer NOT to go through chemo again. But it looks like that can't be avoided now. I was thinking today that she is the first person I've really personally known who has cancer. I know I talked about Vince last week, but I didn't really know that much about him, and had only talked to him sporatically. Then there are those distant family connections who have had leukemia and so on, but I didn't really know them personally either. Monica's been a really great boss, and since we have lunch together almost every day, I've gotten to know a lot about her and her life and her family. But she's a toughie, and I'm pretty confident that she'll be okay. It's just a little hard to watch sometimes and knowing that there's nothing you can do to help.
Sorry for the downer, friends. Hopefully next blog I'll have something more fun and peppy to write about.
"If I could find you now things would get better, we could leave this town and run forever"