Tis the Season

I can't believe that Christmas is this Saturday! What happened to 2010? I feel very underprepared for the holidays this year. Typically, I don't do much shopping until I make it back to Michigan to visit my family. This year is no different, but I would normally already be back in the states at this time, and I don't actually fly out until the 21st this year. I guess I'll be part of the mad dash to buy presents at the last minute. Really, though, I can't get terribly worked up about the commercial aspects of Christmas, because that's not really what it's supposed to be about.

Last year was not a good Christmas for me. E and I were going through a really rough period relationship-wise. We chose to drive to MI, which is a pretty stressful 2 day trip no matter what the circumstances are. The trip was ok, mostly because E and I never really stopped being best friends regardless of what was going on with our romantic relationship. The family part of Christmas, however, was TERRIBLE. How do you answer questions about your life when you are unhappy and unsure about the future?

Without spilling a bunch of relationship details that aren't completely mine to divulge, E and I obviously worked things out. Frankly, E has always known what he doesn't want in life. I spent the first 7 years of our relationship hoping that he would change his mind and want the things that I want. It took me about 6 months of turmoil before I realized that I couldn't be happy without E, regardless of the finer distinctions of our relationship. And now, I am happy not because I've gotten what I want, but because I want what I have. Not to mention that I am also thankful for all the good things in my life other than E.

This Christmas promises to be much better than the last.

How it feels to be a PhD candidate

In a word: FANTASTIC!

Although everyone tried to assure me otherwise, I was really convinced up until my oral comprehensive examination started that it was still possible for me to fail. After the third of my six committee members told me that I did a great job answering his question, I think I realized that it was really going to happen. In the end, every single one of my committee members let me know that I had done a good job answering their questions. None of them really asked me any questions that I didn't know the answers to or tried to trip me up. The whole process was actually quite painless.

Now that the business of comprehensive exams is behind me, I feel like I may actually finish this degree. Granted I have A LOT to do before I can defend my dissertation, but the only thing standing between me and being a Doctor of Philosophy is lab work and writing.

A Story About My Comprehensives...and some other stuff

Well, I handed in my written comps almost two weeks ago. Don't ask me what I've been doing since then that kept me from blogging, because I have basically been wasting time in a rather unfortunate way. Aside from having 2 wisdom teeth extracted and spending one day cross-country skiing, I have accomplished absolutely nothing lately. Not even work. Not even a little.

The whole wisdom teeth deal really wasn't as terrible as I thought it was going to be. I didn't want to go the whole go to sleep and have all 4 removed route, so I just had the two on the left side of my mouth extracted. While I was awake. With only local anesthesia. It sounds terrible, but it was actually not bad at all. The worst part of the whole thing was when the dentist walked into the room, and I saw that he was about 24 years old. But he was really good. And also cute.

I do have to go back to have the other 2 wisdom teeth pulled at some point. I am definitely going to have it done since my bottom wisdom teeth are/were both partially covered by my gums at the back of my mouth. This led to a GIANT cavity in the bottom wisdom tooth that was already removed, and will probably do the same in the remaining one. Since I actually have great dental coverage right now as E's common-law spouse, it's the time to do it.

By the way, I have had $1700 worth of dental work done in the last couple of months. The last 2 wisdom teeth will be another $600. Dentistry isn't actually covered by Canada's universal health care system, so I'm very lucky that E works for an employer that carries a generous supplemental package. (Plus, we can get free massage therapy!!!)

Last Sunday, E and I took the two German students that are currently visiting our lab to Prince Albert to go cross-country skiing for the day at Little Red River Park. I am going to try to download our pictures and write a little essay about that to post here this weekend.

Currently, I'm not actually sure how I did on my comps. My committee did agree to schedule my oral exams (this is a good sign), but they don't actually have to return my scores until Monday of next week. Since the exam is pass/fail, it's unlikely that I'll ever know exactly how I did, but I do have to score at least a 70% on every question to even qualify for the orals. I guess the committee members were pretty sure I would pass the writtens (hence, orals were scheduled), but it's not a done deal yet!

I did get a little comprehensive-related surprise today though.

One of my committee members was assigned a question with the (fairly broad) topic of mechanism of action. He asked me a question about metals and how they interact with the aquatic environment and with fish. This is NOT my area of study at all, but I figured that it was a fair enough question. Comps are supposed to evaluate your general knowledge of toxicology after all.

So, this prof stopped me in the hallway today and asked whether I thought his question was a little strange. I told him that it wasn't really in my area of expertise, but that it was definitely a mechanistic question so I just went with it. Well, it turns out that he had written that question for a different student that does work with metals, and the administrative assistant that compiled my questions accidentally used that one instead of the one written for me. So, I answered a question from someone else's comprehensive exam!!!

The good news is that I apparently did a good job answering said question. Comparable to the answer of the student that actually studies that stuff. (I'm not sure whether this means I'm smart or he's in trouble.) The even better news is that the prof told me the question he was going to ask me so that I can study up on it and talk about it for my orals. And we're just going to forget about talking about metals.

So, I'll be studying up on sex determination in amphibians for my oral comprehensive exams. By the way, my orals are scheduled for next Thursday. Wish me luck!

Things I Am Thankful For - Comprehensives Edition

I'm in the middle of writing my comprehensive exams for my PhD program. Comps are scary, stressful, and time-consuming. To finish, you live, eat, breath, and sleep comps for 2 full weeks. I'm currently on day 10, and these are the things that my comprehensive exams have made me thankful for.

#1. Food that I don't have to cook.
#2. Underground parking near the Toxicology Centre.
#3. My winter training bike class
#4. Coffee
#5. Crappy weather that makes staying inside for weeks seem like a reward
#6. Candy
#7. Diet Coke
#8. Laptop computers
#9. Sweatpants
#10. Other graduate students to complain with

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family in the US!

Things I Am Thankful For

#6. Books. I am not sure I would survive the long Saskatchewan winter without books to read. Right now, I am especially excited about reading books all winter long on my new e-reader. Electronic or paper, I am definitely thankful for books.

#7. Bikes. I like bikes. A lot. I rode bikes as a kid, but I didn't own my first 'real bike' until 5 years ago. Now I have 3 bikes. And I'm considering buying another. Some of my best friends in Saskatoon are people I met through biking. If I ever leave Saskatoon, I am going to miss my bike shop more than any other business. I like riding so much that I commute to school all year round, including when it's -30C. I want to ride a century and start bike touring next year. I am always happy when I ride my bikes. Even when I crash. Biking makes life better.

#8. Shoes with a wide toe box. I have duck feet. When I started running, I didn't realize that this was going to be a problem with many shoes. The first time I ran 7 miles (in a pair of shoes I had been training in for weeks), my pinky toes wore through the shoes, popped out of the holes they had created, and I got the most painful blisters I had ever had (at that point....there have been worse since then). So, I went and bought a pair of shoes that fit me better. As all athletes know, the search for the perfect pair of shoes is a never-ending one, but I am still thankful that I can buy shoes with a wide toe box and avoid ever having my toes on the outside of my shoes again.

#9. Peanut butter. I am pretty sure PB is one of the most perfect foods ever. It is good for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack. It goes with sweet or savory foods equally well. You can even eat it straight out of the jar. Chocolate + peanut butter is one of the most heavenly combinations ever. I heart PB.

#10. Mountains. Or even just hills, I guess. Michigan doesn't have much topography, but living in the prairies has made me appreciate that at least MI isn't completely flat. It makes me sad that I have to drive 7 hours from Saskatoon to get to the mountains, but I am thankful that that 7 hour drive puts me in the most beautiful part of the Canadian Rockies.

Things I Am Thankful For

Even though we should probably be doing it all the time, many of us relegate thinking about and appreciating the things we are thankful for to a few select days of the year. While November isn't traditionally the month associated with Thanksgiving in Canada, I thought I would let the closeted American out and do a thankfulness theme this month. I'm shooting for coming up with 3o things I'm thankful for before the end of the month. Since I've got a climbing trip, a conference, and my comprehensives (YIKES!) all going down in November, we'll see if that actually happens.

#1. My family. They are, without a doubt, the most important people in my life. I am thankful that we love each other. I am thankful that we are enough alike to be a big group of best friends in addition to being related to one another. I am thankful we vacation together. I am thankful that my sister is my very best friend. I am thankful that my mom and dad were my parents. I am thankful that my niece is the cutest kid on the planet.

#2. My friends. I am thankful that I have friends all over the world. I am thankful that we'll remain friends no matter how far apart we live or how often we talk (or don't talk). I am thankful to have friends that are pretty darn close to family.

#3. My dog. Those of you that know Niki need no further explanation. I am thankful that Niki is the best dog EVER (even if she annoys the crap out of me sometimes).

#4. Caffeine. Oh caffeine, I wish I weren't so dependent upon you, but I am thankful for your help in waking up in the morning and staying awake when I'm tired. I am extra thankful to have discovered the magical elixir that is the cafe latte.

#5. Powerpoint. My supervisors delight in telling anyone who will listen about the bad old days of giving lectures and presentations before computer-assisted graphics programs. I am thankful that we no longer use overhead and slide projectors. I do wish, however, that 'professional' color schemes included colors other than black, blue, gray, and white.

Not that kind of girl

I just got home from a friend's Halloween party. Everyone else, including E, is continuing the party at a local bar. I really didn't want to go, so I bailed. I feel like I should have stayed. I want to want to do the social thing...but it's hard for me for some reason.

The past couple of months I have been making a concerted effort to go out more. That all kind of fell apart this week. Since last Saturday, I skipped a concert that I was really looking forward to, missed a wrap-up party for my soccer team, and I didn't dress up for Halloween for work on Friday.

Don't get me wrong, I am perfectly happy to be a homebody. I like to be here in my comfort zone. I just feel like it shouldn't be so hard for me to not stay home. I don't know. Maybe it would be easier for me if I had more friends that wanted to do anything other than drink in a noisy, crowded bar. I think I am becoming an old.

Oh dear.

And So It Begins

I ride my bike to campus every day. All seasons. All weather. It's only 2km, after all.

I made my first snow commute of the season this morning. We got just about enough of the white stuff to cover the ground and make things a little slick. Beside the -10C wind chill that I'm just not used to yet, it wasn't actually all that bad. And then it snowed all day. And the wind blew. And the snow drifted.

I left campus a little late this evening because a bunch of us got post-work drinks for my boss M's 40th birthday. So, it was pretty much dark when I headed home. It was still snowing. The wind was still blowing. The snow was still drifting. The makings of a TERRIBLE commute.

I made it across campus through the 5cm of snow and slush that was everywhere without much problem. As I leave campus on my commute, though, I have to ride across an area of fields (yes, this is right in the middle of the city). This open area creates nasty wind and weather conditions on a regular basis. Today was no exception. The wind happened to be blowing in a direction that drifted snow across the MUP I usually ride on. The bike lanes on the (very icy) road were also drifted shut.

I wound up pushing my bike through snowbanks for most of the rest of my commute.

The joys of winter in Saskatchewan.

Dental Anxiety

I'm going to the dentist today. I am not looking forward to going to the dentist.

For my whole life, I have had relatively 'good' teeth. I don't really get cavities. I think I had 1, plus 1 in a baby tooth, for my first 29 years. I'm not sure what happened, but my tooth enamel has decided to crap out on me in the last couple of years. This has led to broken/chipped teeth and cavities. It's a real bummer.

At my last checkup, which was admittedly way overdue, the dentist discovered 1 broken tooth (I knew that one was there), 1 chipped tooth (had no idea about that one), and 2 cavities! I'm headed back today to have both the broken teeth fixed and one of the cavities filled. These 3 teeth happen to be in 3 of the 4 different quadrants of my mouth, so I'm not too sure how much anesthetic they'll have to use. Plus, I haven't had ANY dental work outside of cleanings done since I was about 11, so I don't even know what to expect. I'm pretty much terrified!

The cavity that they are not dealing with today just happens to be in a wisdom tooth (I still have all of mine). It was pretty much inevitable that this tooth was going to get a cavity since my gum partially covers it and makes it impossible to clean. So, I get to go to the oral surgeon in December for an extraction. Lucky me. I have avoided wisdom tooth removal thus far because I just didn't want to do it. The dentist offered to fill it for me, but the filling probably would only be a temporary measure, so it seemed like taking the darn thing out was a better idea. I'm definitely not looking forward to that either!

Ready for winter?

There is really nothing that can prepare one for a Saskatchewan winter, but E and I are doing our best to be as prepared as possible this year. We broke down and turned the heat on in the house this week. We already turned it on for a few days during a cold-spell in September, but the weather actually stopped sucking for the rest of the fall, and the heat has been off-again until now. The weather is still quite nice for mid-October, but it's just a little too chilly to go without the furnace on these days.

This will be our fourth winter in this house. While it has some good attributes, the windows are NOT one of them. During the winter, the house always feels cold because of our single-paned, drafty, POS windows. They are bad enough that they routinely freeze from the inside. And the heat bills are atrocious. So, we decided to seal all the crappy windows with plastic this year to see if it helps.

It only took us about 2 hours to seal up 8 windows, and it was actually kind of fun. The plastic is actually shrink-wrap that you stick to the window frame with double-sided tape and then heat-shrink with a hair dryer. It amused us anyway.

We'll see if it makes any difference in comfort in the house or the heating bills!

Zumba! and other fitness-type stuff

I went to a Zumba class today with some friends from school. In spite of my total lack of dancing ability, it was pretty fun. Like I told my friend M during the class, I have definitely done things that were much less fun (treadmill, I'm looking at you!) in the name of fitness. I think Zumba is a keeper.

I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but I plan to run a marathon next year in celebration of my 30th birthday. Since I would like to complete said marathon in less than 5 hours, I have already started putting together my training plan. The marathon I would like to run is in June in Alaska, which means I have about 8 months to prepare. That may sound like a long time, but I have been dealing with a running-related knee injury all summer and fall, so I'm not in great shape at the moment.

Right now (and through the first of the year), I am focusing on speedwork/intensity and upping my hours of training per week in a reasonable manner. I have been using soccer and trail-running to work on sprinting and hill intervals. I like the 'fun factor' and the flow this allows. I threw in the Zumba class and some rock climbing this week as basic activity time. Both fall in the fun category, and the rock climbing is desperately needed at this point since I'm going on a climbing trip in early November. I think this approach will work better for me for the time being than the rigid run X days/week plan at X mileage that I normally follow when training.

I hope that my focus on fun training will take me into the new year refreshed and ready to tackle the mileage necessary to prepare for the marathon. So, I guess my fitness goals at the moment are to build a strong cardiovascular base, stay injury free, and HAVE FUN!

Still Alive

I made it back to Saskatoon on Monday. Since I visited family in Michigan over the weekend, I had to take a bus back to Toronto to catch my flight to Saskatchewan. There were no problems with the bus ride or my flight, but 22 hours is a REALLY long time to travel!

I've been feeling kind of run down since I got back here, which is sort of depressing since the weather is still beautiful. I haven't really been able to enjoy it, and I know that these warm, sunny days are numbered. I'm hoping I feel well enough to get out on my road bike tomorrow. Or maybe my mountain bike. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking!

T.O.

This week I've been getting all my ducks in a row to go to Toronto, Ontario for a meeting. I guess I'm kind of a sadist, because I repeatedly submit more than one abstract for all the meetings I go to. So, I had to prepare both a poster and a 15 minute oral presentation for this one (which actually isn't that bad, considering I had two oral presentations when I went to New Orleans last year). Anyway, the presentation is done, and the poster was printed this morning, so I'm set to go!

I'm looking forward to the trip and the meeting. A bunch of my very best girlfriends from U of S are going to be there, and we have much shopping planned. There is also a MEC a few blocks from my hotel. The meeting should be really interesting this year, since there is a brand new reptiles and amphibians session (Herpetologists Unite!). I'm actually going to this meeting to start looking for a postdoc position...so yeah.

Since Toronto is relatively close to Michigan, I decided to stay after the meeting for a long weekend with the family. I did just see most of them in August, but I always miss them terribly. Also, I haven't been back to MI any time other than Christmas since I moved to SK. Fall is one of my favorite times too. We don't have many trees here, and the ones we have only turn yellow and brown. And the leaves blow off 2 hours after they turn. So, I'm looking forward to some bright red sugar maples. And maybe some apples from the orchard. And cider. And donuts.

As an added bonus, the weather here has been GORGEOUS for the past week and is supposed to stay that way until I fly out on Sunday. Maybe I'll actually get out on my new road bike frame before I go.

Melissa's Road Race 2010

Even though I have been to Banff National Park before, I never really had the chance to stay there until E and I made the trip for Melissa's Road Race this past weekend. Love Banff. LOVE IT!

E and I left Saskatoon Friday morning to make the 8 hour drive across Saskatchewan and Alberta. We have driven across the prairie enough times now to know it's going to suck, so it actually wasn't too bad in a way. We arrived in Banff with plenty of time to check into our hotel, pick up our race bibs at Melissa's Restaurant, and grab some pre-race dinner at a Greek place right on Banff Ave. The calamari was excellent, as was the mountain view from our window table.

Now, the people at Melissa's Restaurant have devised a pretty great strategy for hosting a race. This event is mostly for fun. Start time is 10:30AM. Sure, there are some fast people who run it, but there was no 'pro' component to this race that I could tell. All the profits from the race are donated to charity. The race is capped at about 6000 people for the 10 and 22K events combined. Support on the course was minimal, but the race swag was pretty awesome (full suspension mountain bike!!!). Plus, there was a sweet afterparty at Melissa's Restaurant afterward. More on that later.

E and I wandered from our hotel over to the race site at about 10AM on Saturday morning. Since the 10 and 22K courses are completely different, the 10Kers lined up to start first.

All the crazies lined up for the 10K

I ran the 10K, so E took some pictures of me as I lined up since he was waiting for the 22K start. It was a self-seeded start. I really didn't have any goals for this race, since I haven't been training due to some motivation and IT band issues and I'm not used to running hills or at altitude. I basically wanted to keep it under a 12 minute mile just to keep myself honest (i.e. no walking). I mention this only because I couldn't figure out for the life of me why the self-seeding ended at 11 minutes. As such, I went to the back of the pack. I figured out later that this is Canada and we were seeding by km, not miles. At least I got to pass a lot of people.

Lining up for the start

The 10K course was mostly flat with one GIANT hill. I ran all but the very steepest portion of this mile plus climb, so I was pretty happy with my performance. After coming back down the hill (fun!), we were at about the 5K mark. Half way! I felt much better than I thought I was going to for the rest of the race. My only problem was hot spots on my feet from forgetting to lube them with Body Glide. Seems like I would have learned by now.

I crossed the finish line at 1 hour 11 minutes and change (11:41 min/mile pace). I hung around the finish line after that to wait for E to finish his 22K run. I tried to take pics of him finishing, but that is much easier said than done. He came in at 1:48:42 (7:54 minute/mile pace) which put him in the top 25% of his age group. Go E!

E's back as he finishes the 22K

After the race, we got our goodies, which were some of the most extensive I've ever gotten for a race (fruit, doughnuts, yogurt, granola bars, vitamin water, juice, slushies, beer!). We hung around the race venue to watch the age group awards and race swag giveaways. We didn't win any prizes, but there were some great ones, including 12 pairs of asics shoes and a Giant full suspension mountain bike.

As I mentioned earlier, Melissa's, the sponsor of the race, is a restaurant/bar in Banff. They hosted an afterparty in their bar aimed mostly at race patrons (we got the chance to win more free stuff). Since Eric and I had no other plans for the night, we went out to Mel's to watch the Riders' game and try to win some door prizes. Those of you that know me know I'm not a big bar goer, so you may be surprised to hear that I had a great time at Mel's. The Riders' won, the atmosphere was great, and the band was really good too! I'd probably go out a lot more if there were someplace similar in Saskatoon.

Lead singer of the Hot Tamales
dancing on the counter

One of the best parts of the afterparty was that fact that pretty much everyone who came out and stayed late won a prize of some sort. E got a $25 gift certificate to an Indian restaurant in Banff, and I won a free night's stay in a Banff hotel! We are already plotting our return to Banff to use our prizes :)

After packing up Sunday morning, we headed to the Banff Upper Hot Springs to soak away some of our DOMS in the mineral pool. I would love to say that the 29C water made me feel better, but my quads were pretty much trashed (still are).

With much regret, we left the park to head back to Saskatoon, but we have agreed that we would both love to run Melissa's Road Race again next year!

Banff...

More on Melissa's Road Race later.

Go Thundercats Go

My department is notorious for a lack of participation in extracurricular activities. Our graduate students are always too busy to show up for beer nights, steak nights, social events, or recreational sports teams. We finally had to create a trifecta with the veterinary med and biology students to get enough people to even make events worthwhile.

Surprisingly, we were able to put together a women's soccer team for the fall season. Our first game was tonight. We're called the Toxicology Thundercats. We had enough people show up that we even had a sub. Huzzah!

Even though it's been 10+ years since I played soccer (and I wasn't very good at it then!), I volunteered to play midfield. I run half marathons, so a 50 minute game shouldn't be too bad, right? Wrong! I forgot how much sprinting sucks. The worst part is that I didn't even end up running the whole game since I volunteered to take a turn in goal the second half. Playing in goal was great since I never even touched the ball, though.

The Thundercats dominated possession for most of the game, had a bunch of shots on goal, and finally scored late in the game to win 1-0!

This soccer deal was something I did as part of my 'putting myself out there' plan. I have to admit that I had a lot of fun, and I'm really glad I did it. Blogging has already had a positive influence on me ;)

PANP Half Ironman Support Report

Since I didn't actually participate in the triathlon, I can't comment too much on how that went. E says it was mostly ok, but there were definitely parts where he wondered what the heck he was thinking when he decided to do a half ironman. I wonder too!

We waited until 10AM to start the swim because it has been pretty cold here lately. In fact, the high temperature for the whole day would only be 12.6C (about 55F). I rented a kayak so that I could paddle along while E was swimming. I was in charge of staying on course, running the GPS for distance, and emergency rescue. Those of you that know me and my paddling skills know that E probably would have been SOL if he had needed a rescue, luckily he did not. (Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the swim because I didn't trust myself with a camera in the kayak!)

Water temperature was 14C (57F), which is REALLY cold, but conditions were otherwise perfect for an open water swim. Sunny and absolutely calm. Outside of a few calf cramps at about 1 mile, E had a good swim. He finished the 1.2 mile swim in 52 minutes, then spent about 7 minutes transitioning to the bike. I think the transition would have been faster had the water been a little warmer.

I turned my kayak back towards the marina just as the stupid wind decided to pick up. My paddling skills are pretty much nonexistent, and kayaks scare the crap out of me, so I started to panic about paddling across the open water with chop. It only took me about 23 minutes to make it back across the lake, but the waves were white-capping by then. I was in a stable recreational kayak, but I didn't have a spray skirt and was not a happy camper when the whitecaps started slopping into my cockpit. Anyway, I made it back to the marina without tipping over or having a panic attack, so I guess it was a success or something.

At the marina, I met up with the two German students that are visiting our lab right now. (They came on the trip with us because they wanted to visit the park and were going to canoe the whole day, but the wind/waves turned them off too.) We made out way back to the transition to pick up the wetsuit and other swim stuff. Then, we tracked Eric down to make sure he was ok for nutrition and clothing. We met him at about 19 miles. We then drove further down the bike route where I dropped the German girls at a trail head for a hike and set up an aid station right at the trail head.



From that point on, I basically leap-frogged him and set up aid stations so that he could get more sports drink, gels, or Clif bars when he needed them. At the 56 mile point, I set up a transition to the run. E came in at 3 hours, 27 minutes. He was only in transition for 3 minutes before he set off for the half marathon.


The run route was part of the bike route backwards, so I leap-frogged E back up the road offering aid every 3-4 miles. I picked up the German girls about 4 miles from the finish, and we all went to the 13.1 mile mark to wait for E to come in. I actually undershot the distance by about 0.05 miles, so E had to run by us to actually finish, but I guess it's the thought that counts. Run time was 1 hour, 59 minutes. As an aside, I would LOVE to be able to run a half sub-2 hours, and here E does it after swimming 1.2 miles and biking 56 miles. Not fair.


Total time: 6 hours, 27 minutes, 10 seconds, which was under his goal time of 6.5 hours by 3 minutes. Great job E!

Prince Albert National Park: Where the Wild Things Are

10 point whitetail buck

5x5 bull elk (he's only about half the size of the giant bull we saw when we didn't have the camera!)

A fox in his little hidey-hole

Waskesiu Lake at sunset

The wild things were out in full force in Prince Albert National Park during the past couple of days! Since the park animals are so habituated to people, it feels almost like cheating compared to animal viewing elsewhere.

Totals for the trip:
At least 5 bull elk, including one that charged the car and chased us
A herd of 22 cow and calf elk (along with their massive bull) on the golf course
4 whitetail bucks and a bunch of does and fawns
2 foxes
1 black bear

Northern Insanity

1.2 mile swim. 56 mile bike. 13.1 mile run. That's a half iron distance triathlon.

E finished in 6 hours, 27 minutes, and 10 seconds. He's still alive and functioning rather well. Pictures and full details to come...

The Great Saskatchewan Half Ironman

E has been training for a half iron distance triathlon since March. He was originally supposed to do one in Michigan with his brother, but plans for that fell through. In lieu of spending $1000+ dollars, driving 17 hours to Washington state, and taking 4 days off work, he decided to take me up on my offer to be race director and support person for an unofficial Half Ironman in northern Saskatchewan. We are all packed and ready to head to Candle Lake in the morning. This should be interesting!

Taking Charge of Your Fertility

Instead of the post I had originally planned about the delicious Farmer's Market dinner I cooked last night, I decided to talk a little about the book I just finished reading.

The first edition of 'Taking Charge of Your Fertility' (Toni Weschler) was published 10 years ago. I never thought it would be something that I was interested in because it seemed like the fodder of hippies and people who are actively trying to conceive a baby. Now, I may sort of be a hippie, but I have never, ever fallen into that second category. And that alone was enough to scare me away. Now that I've reached the age where my declining fertility has finally blipped onto my radar, I decided it couldn't hurt to learn a little more about how to Take Charge of My Fertility.

This book was, in a word, fascinating. I will probably never be a devotee of using the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) detailed in the book as contraception (I have a little copper friend that takes care of that for me.), but the sheer number of things you can learn about your body by taking your temperature once a day and keeping track of your cervical fluid is pretty amazing. I think it really appeals to me because I already think endocrinology is pretty awesome, and this is an easy way to get familiar with my own particular endocrine system.

I think most women (and men!) could benefit from at least reading this book.

Can't Have It All

It's the plight of just about every career woman I know - you just can't have it all. Of the women I know in academia and science, many are single (by choice or chance, I don't always know) or childless (again, not sure if it's by choice or chance). I can't speak for them, but I know that, as a woman considering a career in the academic realm, I struggle with balancing my career goals with having a life outside academia.

Here's the painful truth: I will be 30 before I finish my PhD. Before I can consider applying for a university position, I have to do 1-2 years of post-doc. If I can get an academic job by some stroke of luck, I have another 5-7 years to wait before I can apply for tenure. So, if I'm really lucky, I may get tenure before I'm 40.

Here's the painful biological truth: My fertility is already slowly declining, and it will only get worse the further past 30 I get. By the time I'm 40, I would be really lucky to conceive without reproductive assistance. If I have undiagnosed fertility problems, I might have problems conceiving even if I tried today.

I'm still not sure if I even want kids. Looking at the facts, though, I've realized that it's something I really need to think about right now. Especially since my doctor makes sure to remind me that my fertility will plummet when I hit 30 every time I see her (well, maybe she doesn't say that, but it's sure what I hear!).

Any way I look at it, there is just no easy answer.

None of this even covers the question of who exactly I'll be having these imaginary children with, but I think I'll save that discussion for another day.

Labor Day Long Weekend?

I guess it wasn't really a long weekend for me since I worked today, but I had an enjoyable holiday weekend nonetheless. After a BBQ with some work friends on Friday night, I got up bright and early Saturday morning to ride my bike to the Farmer's Market, which is definitely in full swing this time of year. It seems that I learned nothing from my peach experience last weekend, since I was thisclose to buying a giant head of cabbage when my friend E called me to finalize some weekend plans. She reminded me of the peaches, and I went home cabbage-less.

I stopped at the photo shop on my way home to pick up my new camera. I won't say a lot about it now, since I'm still figuring out how to use it. It's pretty awesome though. I'm not sure whether it's the novelty or what, but I've been having a grand time taking videos when I was pretty sure I would never use the video function. I'm having fun with it anyway.

The beach (Picture taken with my fancy, new camera)

I spent the rest of the weekend at the beach, fixing the car, cooking, and actually sitting down to watch a movie. (Napolean Dynamite if you want to know. Contrary to the opinions of those that recommended it to me, I didn't think it was that funny.)

All in all, a good weekend. I still wish I could have been with friends and family for the Trufant Jubliee, though!

Local is better, right?

I try to support local businesses as much as I can on a graduate student's stipend. However, I end up at Wal-Mart/Future Shop/Canadian Tire/etc. much more often than I'd like because of expense and convenience. (Plus, even though this is totally rationalization, Wal-Mart reminds me of the US, and I like to go there when I'm homesick.)

So, I bought a new camera today. I just bought a digital SLR last year, but I realized on my recent vacation that it's not a good only-camera for me. During my 10 days in Virginia and Maryland, I took a grand total of about 20 pictures. All of them were of the same sunrise. I was too paranoid to take my expensive camera on the boat (saltwater!) or to the beach (sand!) and too lazy to dig it out the rest of the time. I guess it doesn't really matter how nice the camera is if you don't take pictures with it. I do like the SLR, I just decided that I wanted a compact point-and-shoot for those times when the SLR isn't convenient. I was on the fence about actually buying it until E offered to share the cost and the camera.

After looking around online at what was available, I decided that a compact camera with a decent zoom was what I wanted. I found a 12 megapixel Panasonic with a 12x zoom that got good reviews across the board and was on sale at every Canadian retailer I could find. I knew that was my camera!

I headed to the local/regional camera shop to make my purchase. They don't even stock that model in the store. I was able to order one from one of their shops in Manitoba, but I have to wait 2-3 business days for it to get here. Now, even though I know they can't stock every camera and that it's best to support a local business if I can, I have to admit that I thought about going to Future Shop or Best Buy where I knew I could get my camera RIGHT NOW!

At least I get to be excited about my new camera getting here for the next couple of days.

A Day at the Ranch

I spent the morning with S and her kids picking berries at the Strawberry Ranch. The fruits of our labor are in the picture. It was a beautiful day here in Saskatoon, even if the the temperature was a little below seasonal. Since picking 16L of berries doesn't actually take as long as you would think, we headed further down Valley Road to the Berry Barn for lunch.



Even though I've lived in Saskatoon for 3 years, I'd never been to the Berry Barn. I always wanted to go but just never got around to it. I did try to ride my mountain bike out there last summer (before I got my road bike) on a cold, rainy day. I got about 2/3 of the way there before I wimped out because I was wet, cold, and my SPD pedals were making my toes go numb. Now that I have a super speedy road bike, I think I'll be making another trip that way soon. The smoked farmer's sausage and perogies were delicious!

I spent the rest of today up to my elbows in peaches and strawberries. The last of the peaches are now steeping in sugar so that they can be made into preserves tomorrow. I also made a batch of strawberry freezer jam (my favorite!), froze some crushed and some whole berries, and made a fruity drink out of the leftover peaches and berries. I'm sure the drink would have tasted better if I'd had the Chincoteague frozen concoction maker though ;)

Putting myself out there

I've never been the type of person who can make friends easily. I don't think most of us are, but we all know at least one of those people that can make friends with anyone anywhere. My college bestie was one of these people. I often wondered just how she knew so many people, was invited to so many parties, and was always so busy. I have since realized that she was just really good at putting herself out there.

I am not good at putting myself out there. It took me 2 years of living in Saskatoon before I made any really close friends, and some of my very best friends are people that I worked with from the day I moved here!

For the most part, I'm happy with my life, but I wonder if I'd be a little happier if I were more willing to put myself out there. So, I'm resolving to put myself out there a little more often. Mayber I'll ask people out for drinks or actually show up at other people's social events (even if they involve the bar or some ball sport!). It can't hurt me, right?

19 to go

19 lbs. of peaches, that is.

Peach and blueberry crumble. Yum.

I told myself that I was making this to take to Julie A's BBQ tonight. I only took a serving out to take a good picture for the blog, but I couldn't put it back in the pan, right? And surely it wasn't so delicious that I ate that serving and another, right? Maybe Julie can live without fruit crumble.

Peaches come from a can

I'm sitting here trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the 20 lbs. of peaches that I bought at the Farmer's Market this morning. In typical Amber fashion, I decided that I wanted to can some BC peaches, so I just went out and bought some without any regard for how many jars of peaches 20 lbs. would be. Turns out it's 20 pint jars worth. That's too many peaches! So, I guess I'll be making pies/cobblers/crisps or canning some peach jam/preserves too.

As I was perusing through The Joy of Cooking looking for recipes today, I had to stop and think about how I even got to the point where I'm canning anything. Everyone in my nuclear family, including Mom, Dad, and Sister A, can cook. They all make delicious food, always have. As a result, I never really cooked anything before I moved away for college. I didn't have to.

After 2 years eating dorm food (which I didn't like, but I had no choice in the matter), I moved into an apartment with the SO. I knew the basics of cooking, but I depended heavily on spaghetti and meal-from-a-box type stuff. In fact, I'm still not a huge fan of spaghetti since I ate so much of it back then. Same with lunchmeat and granola bars from the surplus store.

While my cooking skills improved with time, it wasn't until I moved to Saskatoon in July of 2007 that I really started progressing. You see, cost of living in Canada, especially this far north, is much higher than in Michigan. Convenience foods are typically too expensive for me to justify on my graduate student salary. So, I learned how to make a lot of stuff that I would have just bought in Michigan from scratch.

The higher cost also applies to restaurant food, which used to be a favorite luxury of mine. (Oh, how I miss East Lansing!) However, restaurant food in Saskatoon is, on the whole, pretty disappointing. I quickly figured out that I might as well learn to cook my favorite restaurant foods, since I wouldn't be happy with the restaurant version here.

Last summer, after flirting with home preservation by making various freezer jams for a couple of years, I bought everything I needed for home canning. I pretty much blame this on one of my close friends here. She made this delicious sweet basil jelly that you basically have to make at home. You can't buy it in a store. Anywhere. As long as I was canning basil jelly, I figured I would try my hand at sage jelly and dilled green beans.

My first attempt at canning went pretty well. It was hot. It was a lot of work. It didn't seem like that many jars of stuff came from all that work. Everything I canned was absolutely delicious, though. Probably worth it, I thought. Since it was pretty late in the season, I put the canner away for the winter.

And now I'm sitting here contemplating my 20 lbs. of BC peaches.

Please allow me to introduce myself

I suspect that most of the people who will read this blog already know me, but I've decided to stop cyber-stalking some of my favorite blogs and officially come out as a follower. So, I'm going to bore all of you that already know me with an introductory post in case any of these 'internet celebrities' decide to stop by.

I am a perpetual student living in the Canadian prairies working on a PhD in environmental toxicology. Since people always ask what that actually means, I basically study the fate and effects of chemicals in the environment. Specifically, I study the effects of chemicals that impact the endocrine systems of amphibians. I have always loved herps (reptiles and amphibians), and I'm fascinated by endocrinology, so I really like what I do.

I have lots of hobbies but very few that I'm terribly serious about. At the moment, biking and running lead the list. I used to do a lot of rock climbing, but living in the prairies makes vertical hobbies difficult. I like to cook. I love to read.

I was born and raised in Michigan, which I mention since I follow some blogs exclusively because their authors are Michiganders. I miss the Great Lakes State, and reading about other people's experiences there makes me feel like I'm closer to home sometimes.

This is my second attempt at maintaining a blog. I didn't update the first one regularly enough to make it worthwhile. While there were various reasons for that, I think the most important was that I wasn't writing about subjects that were personal enough. So, instead of making this blog an online journal or training diary, I am going to attempt to use it to introduce who I am In Real Life.