Merry Christmas!

Ho ho ho, happy holidays!

Winter woes

I decided to be my mother's nurse during her recuperation. However, as of this afternoon I too am an invalid. I was outside shoveling snow and about half way through a swing, I felt a crack in my back followed by a not-so-pleasant stabbing pain.

That's right, I threw out my back. Again. I've been laying around with an ice pack on my back and have been taking pain killers. I also tried some cream for arthritis pain and nothing's helping. :( I tried to have a nap in my bed this afternoon, but trying to emerge from my blankets and get back up was ridiculously painful - my back started spasming and I actually cried - and I never cry with pain.

My parents are taking pity on me and fetching me whatever I need and are helping me to get up and out of various chairs.

I can't wait for this to be over.

My newest sibling

Two weeks ago my mom finally relented and allowed my father to get a new cat. They adopted a long haired grey cat from the animal shelter and brought it home... Where it promptly disappeared. Searches later revealed it to be hiding behind the dryer. Later it was under a couch. Then it was under a bed.

My father would have to lie on his stomach to coax the feline out from its hiding places, and this has been the pattern for two weeks. (The creature had been a stray, and then locked up in a cage for 5 months, so some shyness was expected.) He's been working on essentially "taming" the cat for human company.

The funny thing is though, the cat has decided to like everyone BUT my father (for whom the cat was purchased in the first place). A few days ago, when my parents were lying it bed, apparently the cat jumped up and was sucking up to my mother (who hates cats) and totally ignored my father's overtures.

For my first 24 hours at home, I didn't see the cat either. I heard it eating food and using its litterbox, but never laid eyes on it. Then yesterday, in the middle of the night while my parents were out of the house, I woke up to find a black mass at the bottom of my bed.

It was a bit disturbing to realize there's a creature on my bed that I've never lay eyes on. I managed to coax it within hand reach whereupon I started to pet it. The next thing I know, the cat is with me for 2 hours, cuddling, etc. I finally got up and went downstairs just as my parents came home. The cat disappeared again. The stupid feline hisses and growls when she sees him.

We're trying to think of names for the cat now. The people at the shelter called it "Mumsy" because it recently had a litter of kittens.

Our potential names include:

• Invisi-cat
  
• Phantom
  
• Reaper (because my mom used to tell my dad he could get a cat when she was dead.)
  
• AWOL
  
• Houdini
  

Kids say the darndest things

Bwhahahahahaa. My niece made me laugh tonight. I was talking with her on the phone tonight and then I asked if she had heard the news about her grandmother. (My mom has a kidney stone.)

Cara tells me, "Yeah, mom said something about grandma's kidneys being stoned."

I kinda paused, wondering if she was joking, and then I realized she wasn't. LOL. I laughed and laughed at that.

Perils of being a grad student

Last night I helped my friend Meg find our professor's office so she could drop off a paper. We couldn't find the professor's drop box, so she decided to slide the paper under the prof's office door. Her paper was 25 pages long and was in a file folder.

It wouldn't slide under the door.

We started laughing hysterically. "Holy shit! It's too thick! It won't fit under the door!!!" She managed to slide it under finally, but she had to remove the file folder and even then it was a tight squeeze.

It's crazy when your final papers are so big they won't even slide under a door anymore.

Lost on a straight line

Once in awhile I get the urge to go for a long walk. I can walk for a long time, provided I keep a quick pace and don't get distracted or stop for anything. (If I do, I suddenly get tired and lose motivation to walk.)

Today was one of those days. I finished my last exam, the sun was shining, I had a cup of coffee, and felt like walking around the city. You can see on the map below the path I took. all in all, it took me around 2 hours? But they were coooooold hours. It was only -4 today, but the wind was pretty miserable!


I was initially planning on just walking around the Byward Market, but I've been there so often, it seemed boring. Then I considered walking to the National Art Gallery, but I really didn't feel like it (although I did walk right beside it briefly). Then I walked behind the Parliament buildings and was going to walk beside the Ottawa River, but the pathway wasn't cleared and I didn't feel like slipping and sliding everywhere.

Finally, I decided to walk along the Rideau Canal back to my residence. The canal runs from the Ottawa river, through the city, all the way to my university. I can see the canal from my window! The walk was very nice, but as mentioned, cold. And I was also bitter at the lack of public washrooms along the path! About half way through my walk, my coffee came back to haunt me. (I did find one set of public washrooms, but they were locked - what the hell? I guess the city thinks people don't urinate during the winter.) By the time I got to Lansdowne Park though, I really needed to use a bathroom, so I found my way back to a major street and managed to get back to my residence before I burst.

It was a very pleasant walk, but I think I might wait until the spring before I walk it again. (But of course I'll be skating on the canal when it finally opens up...)

Apologies

I owe an apology to the masses. For years, I've been hearing stories of "the web/application ate my homework!" I've always assumed it was sheer incompetence on their part.

I hereby formally apologize, because I finally understand that even the technically savvy (aka: me) can suffer glitches.

I had to submit my final paper over the internet to my professor. We have to use this online software, WebCT, to do so. So I submitted my paper on Wednesday and chilled out for the rest of the night, basking in the glory that is having nothing to do.

The next day one of my classmates mentioned that the prof had already started submitting grades online. I spent all of Thursday morning/afternoon stalking WebCT, hoping for a mark. Finally I thought, "Maybe my mark is appearing on a different page..." I navigated through the site and found myself on the "Assignment Submission" page. That's when I noticed that beside the submission link, it read, "Status: Individual Not Started (Due December 5, 2007 15:00 Late)". Wait! What the hell?!

I immediately emailed my prof to ask whether he received my paper... I pounced on my computer everytime I heard the "Ding, you've got new mail" sound. Finally I got a reply and discovered that no, my prof hadn't received my assignment. Talk about a freakout. Luckily he accepted my assignment as on time anyways.

Therefore, I would like to apologize to everyone I've ever doubted before.

A portrait of Mau

... It's me!

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.