"Absent minded professor"

I just arrived back from the basement with a load of laundry to hang and found Aaron standing in the kitchen looking mystified. He told me he'd lost something. I asked what, and he made me promise not to laugh. It was the dish towel that he'd been using when I'd gone to get the laundry. I stared for a couple of seconds, trying to keep a straight face, and then admitted that there was no way I wasn't going to crack up. And that I also wasn't going to tell him anything, but simply stand and watch him try to find it. He had a sort of wild look on his face as he checked his shoulders and neck to make sure it wasn't over one of them. I tried to get my camera to save the moment for posterity. By the time I had it out and was back in the kitchen, Aaron was sheepishly standing there. Holding the dish towel.

The dish towel that had been scrunched up inside the glass he'd been holding in his hand the entire time.

Apparently, wildlife doesn't matter

And to think that just yesterday I was saying that the Harper government hadn't really managed to do anything outstanding to either impress me or piss me off. This one pissed me off, just for the record:

Environment Canada budget cuts threaten wildlife programs

So very very tired

I walked into the cafe I go to for wireless internet, get through the door, and spot Joe and Amelia staring at me with amazed looks on their faces.
"What are you doing in my coffee shop?!" I asked.
"YOUR coffee shop? This is OUR coffee shop!"
Apparently they're living just outside Orillia working on shrikes and have been coming here for some time. We've always been here at different times until today though. So we had a nice chat and exchanged updates. Then as they were heading out, a familiar voice said "That sounds like a familiar voice!". And there was Sara, who went to Guelph and was in a few classes with me, and who thankfully admitted that she couldn't quite remember my name so I could then admit that I couldn't remember hers. So now I'm wondering if I'll run into anyone else before heading home!

I slept in until 1:20pm today and I'm still tired. We didn't get back to Centre until almost 11:30pm last night. We're doing shows at the Sudbury libraries all week, travelling back and forth every day. On top of that, we have our regular resort shows, and Dale and Jody (my bosses) are doing film work, so nobody at work is getting much rest this week. I'd already worked 6 days in a row before starting at 5:30am Monday. Thankfully, Laura took over driving halfway to Sudbury and I took a much need nap the rest of the way their. We had three shows, the last at 4pm, so we actually got back here while there was still light. Yesterday we had no such good fortune. The last show was at 6:30pm, and it's over 3 hours to get back to the Centre.

Since I'd already done one day in Sudbury, Krystal had taken the first shift driving. She'd asked me about how to get there, and I had assumed she knew more about the general route at the start than she did, and she'd assumed that I'd given all the details. So I fell fast asleep within about 30 seconds of getting into the truck, only to awake over an hour later with Krystal going "um, are we supposed to be here?" We were heading to North Bay since I hadn't mentioned anything about needing to take 169 through Gravenhurst to reach the highway. So I pulled out the map book and found a road to cut across, and we broke the speed limit by more that a little and were very thankful we'd left ourselves about 45 minutes extra drive time. We arrived 15 minutes before the first show.

There really isn't much to do in Sudbury, at least not with spending way too much money. So we spent most of the time between shows asleep in the truck. At our second show of the day, there was a reporter there from the local news station who filmed a lot of the show, and interviewed Krystal. She has family in Sudbury so I said she should do it since they'd be far more likely to see the piece than anyone I know. After the interview, which was less than 5 minutes, she decided she should have made me do it. All because she couldn't remember the falcon.

When Krystal and I arrived back at the Centre, which is normally deserted that late at night, there were vehicles everywhere and film equipment and actors and directors filled the building. We had to tuck animals back into their enclosures in between takes and then be super quiet. I was staring at Jody trying to figure out what was strange about her and finally realized she was wearing makeup. Jody said it was necessary to save wildlife.

Earlier in the day, Krystal and I received a rather frantic phone call from Laura about a salamander to be used in the film work. Jody had asked me to see if Jenny had one she could rent in case they couldn't find one, but I hadn't heard anything since saying there was one. Apparently Jody had called Jenny and arranged for me to take one with me in the morning, but since I got home so late and left so earlier, the message didn't get to me. So Laura called from the doorstep to see what was up since no one was home to let her in. I ended up giving her instructions on finding the spare key and getting the salamander from the basement. She was freaking out about "breaking and entering" even while I tried to explain that it's not B&E if someone who lives there tells you where the key is and says you can go in. And besides, in that house, even if someone did get home and "catch" her, it probably would have gone along the lines of:
"Oh hello, didn't know anyone would be here. I'm _____. So what are you here for?"
"A salamander eh? Yup, right in there. Say, why don't you take a couple of corn snakes too? No really, here you go. Want anything to eat? A swim?"
And then Laura would have left with a salamander, followed by yells of "you're SURE you don't want a corn snake? Boa maybe???"

Tomorrow is going to be another long day, but at least our first show isn't until 1:30pm instead of 10:30am, so I'll get to "sleep in". And I want some dinner so I'm going to head home.

The Experiment

The study failed due the experimenter's inability to remain an independent observer. This problem should have been noted and addressed prior to design and launch of said study, which was doomed to failure even before it was conceived. Her dependence on the faciliities for maintaining her own personal hygiene led to a breakdown in observations at approximately 11pm this evening, when she was supposed to be preparing for bed. Unfortunately, the result is that we will never know exactly how long it would have taken for another party to clean the washroom.

THE poster

There's a "Snakes of Ontario" poster that I've been wanting for years, put out by the Massassauga Recovery Team the Toronto Zoo, and various other groups. It has proved impossible to track down, despite me knowing several people who already have one and despite searching for it at the Zoo and on every website of the organizations involved in producing it. I am not the only one who has had difficulty procuring one. You would think it would be relatively simple, especially given the "for more information" section at the bottom of the poster. Oddly enough, nobody seems to know where exactly they obtained it. There's a copy of the poster on the wall at work, and it's been driving me nuts. Just this morning, I was checking the Recovery Team's website again in an effort to get one. I gave up and headed back downstairs to my room. Justin had the path blocked by stacks and stacks of info sheets, newspapers, flyers, and various other paper type paraphernalia related to "Kids For Turtles" shows, which he was in the process of sorting out of the giant rubbermaid bin they've been lugging to shows without really knowing what was in it. Curious to see what was there, I started poking around (no, not making more of a mess - I kindly sorted what I found). Something caught my eye in a cardboard box next to the bin. And right there, in a box that has been about 3 feet from my bedroom door for a month and a half, was the "Snakes of Ontario" poster. Further digging revealed not one, but several of these posters. And Justin said I, and James who has also been trying to find one, could help ourselves. We were probably slightly more ecstatic than the situation really called for, but if you've never tried to find one of these posters, you simply can't understand.

 

Why on Earth couldn't I have looked in that box a month and a half ago???

Porcupines and stormy weather

It was the kind of storm I absolutely love when curled up on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, with a nice mug of tea. It was the kind of storm I'm not so fond of when huddled in a van that could hydroplane at any second with one wrong move, trying not to touch anything metallic, at the end of what would be a 16 1/2 hour day. The animals seemed blissfully unaware in their kennels at the back of the van as periodic flashes of lightening lit up the drowning road ahead as though it was mid day.

 

The storm had started about halfway through the show Nick and I were presenting at one of several resorts we regularly visit. Thankfully, the rain had been anticipated and we were inside the lodge instead of out on the lawn as usual. But it got nothing but worse as we headed back to the centre to put the animals away for the night. Returning all the animals to their enclosures wouldn't have been such a depressing prospect if not for poor Quilber, the porcupine, and the only one who of our crew who lived out on the trail and not within the building right next to where we could park the van. Nick commented that he almost felt bad for Quilber being put back in the middle of the pouring rain. I agreed.

 

We arrived back at the centre and made a mad dash to get inside, where we grabbed raincoats to keep us (mostly) dry while returning Quilber to his enclosure. With the light of a single, feeble flashlight to show us the way through almost total darkness, we carried his crate along what turned out to be a completely flooded trail. I walked right past the enclosure and had to double back. There was no sign of Thistle, the second porcupine, who was presumably curled up in one of the shelters.

 

Normally, returning Quilber is a simple affair involving putting the kennel down beside the gate, opening it up, and letting him walk in. This time, though, Nick took the kennel right inside the enclosure and then opened it. Quilber toddled out, got about three of his feet onto the ground, realised he was in the middle of a thunderstorm, and tried to get back inside. I felt terrible!

 

It wasn't really all that late, but after 16 1/2 hours, it felt like about 1am, and I still had to drive home. I was completely soaked from the knees down, and my shoes made a sloshing sound with every step. After briefly considering stripping down and driving home in my underwear, I decided that I'd never get my shoes back on, so instead I cranked up the heat and headed out. I can now say that my car handles very nicely when there's an inch of water on top of the road.

 

Crawling into a nice warm bed never felt so good.

Conclusion...

Yes, a whole two weeks. Which were mostly spent unpacking everything in the apartment. And watching the first season of Angel on DVD (we don't have cable yet and won't until fall). There was also a more thorough exploration of town than I'd managed previously - a task that doesn't take particularly long. I think that once I get used to it, I will like Seaforth very much.

So just as I was finally starting to feel like I'd accomplished something with the unpacking, I packed up again (but this time only one suitcase and a couple of small boxes). After a bittersweet goodbye to Aaron, the cat, and the geckos (the snakes came with me since Aaron won't feed them), I drove the 4 hours (including a couple of breaks) to Orillia. I arrived at Jeff and Jenny's late afternoon the day before I was starting work. It was a very cheery welcome and a bubbley Mary-Ellen, a new staff member (aka minion) this year, showed me to my new room (I'm not in the same room as when I worked with SciSnakes). I managed to get a good night's sleep before heading the half hour up the highway to the Muskoka Wildlife Centre the next morning.

Unfortunately Jody and Dale (the co-directors/owners/my bosses) were pretty busy that day, and I spent most of it unpacking and checking the inventory for the gift shop. Jody joked that I was being started on the stuffies before I could work with the real animals. I am working with the real animals now though, and it's a lot of fun. Some very long hours on the road, which aren't so much fun, but overall it's great.

My position is a wildlife interpreter, which means I'm either at the Centre greeting people, answering their questions, and doing "Meet the Creature" presentations, or on the road with our "Speaking of Wildlife" outreach shows. We bring out various animals from the Centre and tell people their stories and more about the species, giving people a chance to see them up close. I also clean enclosures, give the smaller animals their food, water plants, weed, and basically do whatever needs to get done. But mostly I introduce people to the animals.

I think that this will conclude my chronological summary update. I have stories to share and will eventually get them online, but it will take me far too long if I try to do them all in proper order!

Continued, as promised...

*** Note to Metamorphosis (ie. blog) readers: there is now a list of links to my Facebook photo albums on the side bar. I'll add links to any relevant albums with each entry. Feel free to browse. ***

Of course I accepted the interview, even though it really threw me off since I'd put myself into a frame of mind that was suitable for volunteering around Seaforth while searching for a job in June. I had to schedule the interview for after I got back from Pelee Island though. Yes, I finally found a year where I was able to go on the annual May long weekend trip organized by Jeff (of Sciensational Sssnakes!! fame)! And in my brilliance I made the interview for the Tuesday afternoon, which wouldn't give me any time to recover, instead of Wednesday, but oh well.

So, Pelee Island… was very, very fun! Many members of the Wildlife Club, former SciSnakes staff, and other random herp enthusiasts were in attendance. The weekend began very, very early on Saturday morning, when Kyle and Jen (of the Wildlife Club) picked up a sleepy Christa from her apartment and 5:45am (when she hadn't gone to bed until well after midnight). We then headed over to Joe and Amelia's, only to discover a note on the front door saying they were too tired from volunteering with moose all week to go on the trip! After briefly considering going in and dragging them to the car, we began the long (~3hr) journey to the ferry while they slept in. At the ferry we met up with the rest of the group and off we went to the island!

We did a lot of volunteer work, like digging a garden for the bird observatory and carrying very large, heavy parts of a shelter for the banding station along a long, muddy trail through the forest, and pulling up/cutting down dogwood to make nesting piles for blue racers. For those who don't know, blue racers are an endangered species of snake and the only place to find them in Ontario is on Pelee Island. This is one of the main reasons I was so keen to go on the trip. The island is also one of the only places to see the Lake Erie Watersnake, which is either a unique subspecies of the watersnake, or just a pretty colour morph of the very common Northern Watersnake. For now they're a subspecies, but the debate has not been settled.

We encountered many snakes over the weekend, including fox snakes, brown snakes, garter snakes, melanistic garters (ie. all black garter snakes), Lake Erie watersnakes, and yes, the blue racer! For a while I thought I'd be going home without seeing one, but Monday afternoon was lucky! It made me very, very happy. They are a truly gorgeous snake and more than deserving of our continued efforts to protect them.

And what weekend trip would be complete without some drunken craziness? When I get back to a faster internet connection, I'll be uploading a Pelee Island photo album, and then everyone will be able to see the football that was made from a pop bottle, weeds, and duct tape. I actually scored touchdowns too! And I do not (normally) play football. All in all, it was a great weekend, even if I was totally exhausted when I got back to Guelph.

*** Update: Pelee Island 2007 Photo Album ***

Lianne had been staying at my apartment over the weekend to look after Hannah. There had been some people through to look at the apartment and I'd left a note for them asking that they make sure the cat didn't out. I'd left it on the back of the door in case I needed it again. Later, Lianne indignantly told me that she couldn't believe I'd felt that it was necessary to warn her to keep the cat from getting out. I gently explained that the note had not been aimed at her and she calmed down.

Monday night after I got home, my Mom drove me and my sister to Mississauga so I could borrow the car to get to my interview the next day. Lianne decided to keep me company on the trip and was forced to listen to me practicing my hognose talk over and over again so I'd be ready. But in return, I paid her admission to the Centre so she could look around while I had my interview. Long story short, I got the job and was absolutely thrilled.

In what suddenly seemed an incredibly short time, moving day arrived. There was still a ton to do since I'd been the only one at the apartment to pack. Aaron had of course driven to Guelph several times to help, but even his added efforts had barely made a dent. Fortunately we both have wonderful families and friends who were willing to lend their time and energy to our moving day cause. Thank you!

16 ft cube vans are fun. And useful. Unfortunately we couldn't get one until late in the afternoon, which meant we didn't make it to Seaforth until about 8pm. We carried things up to the apartment as quickly as possible, since there's almost zero soundproofing and we didn't want to disturb anyone. The poor cat was very distressed by all the commotion and being shut up in the bedroom, a cat carrier and then a new bedroom for most of the day, and then by all "her" stuff being piled haphazardly all over the place. However, she perked up considerably when I got the geckos set up. It was the absolute cutest thing. She spotted them, and then sat herself down right next to the tank where she could keep an eye on them. The geckos are pretty much Hannah's pets at this point (except that she never feeds or cleans them) and she spends much of her days staring at them and running her head into the glass trying to catch them. They don't seem to mind, and in fact they seem to enjoy taunting her by strutting around as she tries in vain to catch them through the glass. It was still pretty amazing to see how much calmer Hannah became the second she saw that the geckos were in the new apartment.

The next day Aaron drove me back to Guelph, since my contract at the lab wasn't up yet. Since the apartment was completely empty, I stayed with my grandparents. It was really nice having Grandma cooked meals that I didn't have to worry about preparing. Thank you Grandma! And thank you to Grandpa for helping me to find a car.

Yes, you read that right. I needed a car. There was no way I could work at the Centre, which is located on Hwy 11 north of Orillia, without a vehicle to get me to there. And there was also no way I'd survive in small-town Seaforth without a car to get to other places. So Grandpa took me out to the dealership, where he knows everybody, and we found me a car. Not necessarily the most perfect car, but people on a strict timeline can't be picky. I'm quite happy with it though. A little black 4-door Pontiac Wave (basically the Chevy Aveo). Oh, and did I mention I can't afford a car but am somehow paying for it anyway? Let's just say it will be a while before I own more of my car than the bank does.

At the end of May, when my contract was finished, I finally joined Aaron in Seaforth. For a whole two weeks!

To be continued yet again because I need to go home and the entry is getting really long besides...

She lives and yes, stuff has happened!

We'll skip the part where I acknowledge that it's been awhile and make pathetic excuses and just get right into the good stuff... Ok, the beginning is a pretty dull nutshell summary, but read it anyway!!!

Not surprisingly, a lot has happened since I last wrote any sort of real update. I spent the winter semester working full time at the same job as a lab tech doing DNA barcoding that I started in the summer of 2006 while Aaron was finishing his contract as editor-in-chief at the Ontarion. Many hours were spent at a lab bench with a pipette or in my office writing email correspondence with PhDs and grad students who had sent us samples for barcoding, or analysing taxon ID trees to make sure nothing was horrible amiss with the results - and then troubleshooting when something was! Good times and great people, but unfortunately not something I could spend any extended period of my life doing, despite being all but begged not to leave.

My original plans for the immediate future, attending grad school, got pushed aside when I realised that I was entirely fed up with the academic environment and desperately needed a break before committing myself to two years in a Master's program. So I blanketed the province with resumes for an animal care/public education position while Aaron did the same for a reporter position. Ideally, we were both looking for permanent positions in the same area, but realistically I was willing to settle for a summer position and then volunteering in something wildlife related while working another job that paid the bills wherever Aaron got hired.

Before we knew it, Aaron had a job split between two weekly papers, the Huron Expositor and the Mitchell Advocate. He actually ended his job at the Ontarion two weeks early, in mid-April, in order to start at the Expositor. This meant a very long commute for about a week because the Expositor is based in Seaforth, Ontario - halfway between Stratford and Goderich. Which is only about an hour and half from Guelph, but twice a day everyday, it's long. So we went to Seaforth on the weekend and found ourselves an adorable little apartment at a really good price (rent in Seaforth is CHEAP!). So for six weeks, I was at our place in Guelph finishing up my contract, and Aaron was all alone in Seaforth with almost no stuff!

By mid-May, I'd pretty much given up on having the kind of job I wanted. I'd turned down an interview that would have had me moving to Ottawa because it was way too far from Aaron and everywhere else was either not hiring or hadn't called me. Then I finally got a call from the Muskoka Wildlife Centre, which had been my number one choice, asking me to come for an interview.

To be continued because I am starving...

Kitty in a Bag

Because I signed up for YouTube...

Hannah attempting to retrieve her ball from inside a large paper bag.

Hannah, annoyed that I put the ball into the bag yet again.

The Great Turtle Race

This is way cool: http://www.greatturtlerace.com/

"Biologists will switch on satellite trackers strapped to the backs of 11 female leatherback turtles on Monday, starting what conservationists have dubbed the "Great Turtle Race" to raise awareness of a species threatened with extinction." - Discovery Channel News, Animals (April 16, 2007) [click here for full story]

Cat, vets, stress and pet food equals relief

About two months ago, my cat Hannah developed an awful, scary looking bald patch between her shoulder blades. It was sore and she had scratched it to the point that it was bleeding a bit. She'd had some smaller bald patches that we'd been keeping an eye on, but over the course of a day this one had developed to be quite large. We got home and she just wasn't herself - she didn't talk, she didn't play, and when I picked her up she just lay in my arms. So at about 9:30pm on a Friday night, we packed her up and drove 20 minutes to the emergency vet clinic in Cambridge.

We managed to be home again before midnight, the cat pumped full of steroids for what the vet said looked like an allergic reaction, probably to food given the symptoms and the time of year. Food allergies can take a while to develop fully, and we'd had her about 7 months. The next morning Hannah, clearly feeling more energetic, was unceremoniously packed up again for a visit to her regular vet. Long story short, she was on steroids and antibiotics for over a month, with a special hypoallergenic diet that she's still on. It was, and still is because we haven't yet been able to confirm that it's a food allergy, a stressful time. The cat spent one night throwing up, presumably due to an upset tummy from the food change, because her bloodwork the next day showed normal liver function so it wasn't liver damage from the steroids. I didn't sleep well waiting for the results. Every time Hannah scratches, I tense until she stops, afraid that the special diet isn't helping.

Then came the news of the pet food recall, and the contaminated wheat gluten. Of course I was on edge. But despite the stress I have been through, the many vet appointments, the vet bills draining my savings, as pain in the butt as this available-only-from-the-vet diet has been, never has anyone been so relieved and happy that their cat has gone through this.

Because the hypoallergenic cat food contains rice gluten.

Mutts cartoon for my cat

Halloween Party

A little delayed, but here are photos from our Halloween Party.

Halloween Party

Secondary education first

On Feb. 7 there will be a rally to reduce tuition fees and make post secondary education more accessible. A couple of the CSA execs posted it as an event on Facebook: "Guelphs [sic] February 7th Day of Action!". I truly believe that the ability to correctly use an apostrophe should be an admission requirement for post secondary education, especially if one is going to be representing university students as a whole.

Why?

You know what I love? When you've been doing steady my-eyes-are-starting-to-cross work for a solid two and half hours, and your supervisor pops his head in 2 minutes into your 5 minute "I'll play with photos" break. Now he knows I'd never just goof off when there's work to be done, but still! Why not walk by while I'm highlighting trees or plate maps? The world has an interesting sense of humour.

Little Elody

On Sunday afternoon I was at my parents' to celebrate my birthday and we ended up visiting my cousins Ryan and Liz, who had a new baby on January 12. Her name is Elody and she's adorable.

This is me with Lianne holding Elody. She was nice and calm and sleepy at this time because she'd just been fed (by me!).

Ryan made us hot chocolate after coming in from the snow with the twins. From left: me, Teia, Camryn, Lianne. The girls are drinking from their travel mugs, which they take to Starbucks, where they have their own card. I am assuming they get hot chocolate and not coffee.

Aw.

Double Aw.

Triple Aw. Liz says the girls are at the point now where they know a picture is coming and try to smile, so they end up with these adorable expressions.

One last photo.

The Elm Hurst Inn: My Birthday and Shannon's Wedding

I'm 24!

Click on the album below to view photos from this past weekend. I recommend watching the slideshow. I may or may not get around to updating this entry with actual text.

Christa's Birthday & Shannon's wedding

Grey's Anatomy rocks

Two proposals on last night's Grey's?! Seriously, this show is currently one of the absolute best on television (this statement is independent of the proposals). It never fails to make me laugh, and it never fails to make me cry. Well, get teary. It's not like I'm bawling my eyes out every episode, though there have been a couple.

So who gets married and who doesn't? Place your bets now.

AAARRRGGGG!

Can somebody please explain to me how technology has improved our lives? Because I'm just not seeing it. Of course, my view is rather clouded by the fight I've been having with my computer over whether or not it will actually copy, play, and then burn "The Life of Birds". The lab across the hall has a couple of burned discs with all the episodes from the series. 10 episodes at just under 50 minutes a piece. I think that watching the entire series will take less time than burning a copy of it.

So far, I have succeeded in getting all of the files onto my hard drive, and they all play back. Yay. What I have not succeeded in doing is getting my computer to recognize the blank DVD. My disc drive is conveniently labelled with "DVD+R DL" RW symbol. I have inserted a DVD+R DL disc. The computer refuses to acknowledge it. It did, once. My burning software was all ready to go, said I had 8.5GB of space. Then I realised I had missed one of the files. So I took out the blank DVD, put in the one I'd borrowed with the episodes on it, copied the missing file, took out the DVD, and then replaced the blank DVD.

And the disc drive made that awful grinding sound that spells doom. I took the disc out and put it back in. Several times. No luck. I rebooted. Nothing. I don't know what went wrong.

If anyone has any idea what's going on, please help me! Kyle, I'm looking at you...

Look out world

"On behalf of the University of Guelph I am pleased to inform you that your application for the Winter 2007 convocation has been approved"

Until this email landed in my inbox a few minutes ago, there was still this vague possibility that something had been horribly confused and they wouldn't let me graduate. It's now a little more real than it was before. Too bad all my friends either graduated last summer or won't be graduating until next summer.

A Christmas tale: part I

'Twas two nights before Christmas and we (my Mom, my sister and myself) had spent the day feverishly preparing for having the family over the next day. It was time to relax and the cat was determined to figure out which presents were hers. Actually, to be more accurate she had simply laid claim to everything under the tree.

Aaron was due to arrive from Shelburne at any minute. It was our first Christmas with Hannah and to be honest, I was surprised that she hadn't yet brought down the tree, or at the very least a few more of the ornaments. The poor thing had been without her favourite toy for a couple of weeks. This being because she had torn it to shreds, but nevermind that. Long story short, she was driving my family nuts with her excess energy. Apparently keeping a close watch on the evil vacuum cleaner wasn't a taxing enough job for her.


"Ooh, I think this one actually has my name on it!"

It was fast approaching happy hour (5:00pm), but we (read: my dad) resisted pouring drinks prior to Aaron's arrival. By 5:30pm, that plan went out the door and drinks were served despite the absenteeism. Not too long after, Aaron finally arrived, with his lateness satisfactorily explained by driving conditions and the bottle of wine he'd just purchased from an incredibly busy pre-Christmas LCBO. We never complain about a bottle of wine showing up at the door.


Lianne: "What are we looking at?"

So we enjoyed a lovely dinner and then settled in the living room to relax and let Hannah open a present. We'd already given it to her, unwrapped, earlier in the day when she was going crazy (oops - Aaron didn't know that!), but we pretended she didn't know what it was. I'd been at PetSmart earlier taking adavantage of a sale on catfood. And trying to replace 'the green thing' (her favourite toy) but they were completely out, in any colour. But I found something similar and crossed my fingers that it would be equally entertaining. It was. And for a while, it succeeding in keeping the cat out from under the tree (except when she used it as cover while stalking her 'prey').

So the evening consisted mostly of watching the cat discover Christmas trees. I felt it was time well spent. There was also some watching of DVDs before we finally tucked ourselves into bed. We had to wake up early enough for Christmas lunch with my dad's side of the family. But more on that in part II.

I Think I've Got It

The new layout editor really is nice to work with once you've repeatedly hit the template with a blunt object to force it into accepting your customizations, while in the meantime your blog looks ridiculous. But I think I figured it out in such a way that it will be easy to undo later and it was relatively simple in the end (just don't ask me to tell you what a "widget tag" is). That said, it won't surprise me if there are still bugs for a while or if things are displaying incorrectly on other people's screens and/or browsers. So if something in the layout seems like it might not be what I intended, please let me know and I'll dive back into the weirdo template code.

Occaisonally, work can be amusing

I'd like to hear the story of how Etheostoma tippecanoe (a fish) got its name.