I have a desk! It is desky and wonderful and holds my computer! I also found a backpack that can hold my laptop. It was a little pricier than I would have liked for a purchase I'm making under duress, but I don't exactly have a choice. The laptop is three kilograms and the buses go on strike next Monday. (Remind me again why they're allowed to do that? The people who are counting on transit to get to work or school don't control the contract, and we're the ones getting screwed over. That's just not fair.) Even with a backpack, there's no way carrying it to campus (about a forty minute walk when not weighed down) is going to even come close to not sucking.

Also, I totally never posted pictures of our Halloween costumes!

( So I shall remedy that )

You know what's awesome? Dishwashers. I used ours for the first time last night. I have CLEAN BOWLS without having to scrub! I pushed a button and walked away and the dishes did themselves. This is the GREATEST THING EVER!

Not so great? A screw popping out of my glasses. So first I had to find my repair kit. Then I had to use the tiny screwdriver with the bitty screw. Without my glasses. Yep, this is brilliant. :p

Also, the Halloween Buffy ripoff event in Glaxcin is awesome. Any even that makes Admiral Bill Adama say "Arr, there be no crackers in this here cell" is made of win. :p

So, I bought The Plan last Tuesday. Today I finally watched it. :p

( And thus there are spoilers )

We are in the new place! It was... quite the adventure. Ryan left to get the UHaul at 7:30 AM because we only had it from 8 until noon. The depot is downtown, so half an hour seemed wisest. Paul and Jiacheng arrived at eight and we started carrying furniture into the lobby while we waited for Ryan. Around 8:20 there was a call to Ryan's cellphone, but it was packed and we couldn't find it. Around 8:30 I started to wonder where Ryan was. We tried calling the depot but they kept not answering... and then the battery on the cellphone ran out. Paul and Jiacheng took a load of boxes to Laura's (the new place) in Paul's car while I continued trying to contact the depot. By the time they got back it was almost nine and I was starting to worry Ryan had gotten into an accident or something. Paul went off to try to borrow his parents' minivan.

Ryan showed up at nine, explaining that the guy at the depot was half an hour late showing up because he... overslept. And no, we didn't get a half hour extension on the UHaul rental.

Fortunately, those boys are AMAZING and we managed to get everything done in time. We wound up setting it up so that they would drive the UHaul to Laura's and unload everything onto the main floor except bedroom furniture that definitely went upstairs. We managed to get the UHaul back to the depot on the stroke of noon. We totally owe those boys pizza, there's no WAY we could have done it without them. Especially since heavy lifting and I don't get along.

There were still a few things left to bring over in the car after we returned the UHaul, and of course I had to clean the apartment once it was empty. But that didn't take too long. We got the last load, including one terrified kitty in at two... exactly when the phone/internet/cable guy showed up.

As for the state of unpacking... the kitchen is more or less unpacked, the bathroom is more or less unpacked and the computer network is up and running. Our priorities are very much in order. I'm currently sitting on the floor, but I have internet! Books/DVDs and clothing are staying in boxes/suitcases until we decide where we want the furniture. :p

Trufa'ax.

It took hours and I hit my thumb with a hammer more times than I care to count (there was a big purple bump. Then I hit it again and it started bleeding :p), but my Halloween costume now laces up!

And the cat decided that the ribbon was a toy. :p

QotD

Tess: also, man, the voices in my head freaked me out the first time I heard them


She really ought to know better than to say things like that. They always get quoted out of context!

Happy Mole Day everyone!

QotD

non_horation: All I could think when I was trying to figure out if Sephiroth had wings was that he was twice as absorbent as a regular Sephiroth


(See, I even fixed your typos!)

Laura is now Dr. Laura, go her! Apparently she had one of the cleanest theses her committee had ever seen. I guess that means if this whole chemistry thing doesn't work out for me, I can always go into proofreading, eh? :p

Yesterday I discovered the Grad Club actually has a schmancy goblet for the new PhD to have their one free drink out of called the Cup of Knowledge. It was missing last week when Paul finished. It's pretty cool. :p

I think the students were amused that I kept telling them they needed to finish the lab on time because I had drinking and nachos to get to. It's valid! They didn't quite all get out on time, but there was time needed to organize the whole "getting to the Grad Club" thing anyway, so the timing worked out well. :p

Oh, and apparently the labour dispute at LTC didn't get resolved back in September like I thought it did when we stopped hearing about it. The drivers are in a strike position as of tomorrow. I... really hope a strike doesn't happen. It's only about a half hour's walk to campus, but I've been having to bring my laptop in a lot. There's no way I can haul this thing on foot. Plus... the weather's been unpleasant. Ugh.

Since Sunny was asking about it during last night's (AWESOME) episode of How I Met Your Mother...

Yes, the Canadian five dollar bill really does have a picture of kids playing hockey on it. But while there is a beaver on our nickle, there is no moose on any of our coins.

It's a caribou.

I love multi-fandom RPs. Because...

TOSH CALLED HOBBIE "SCI FI BOY"!

Because he mentioned the Force.

My life is MADE.

If, to ammonia one adds a metal, The solution grows real unsettled. A fine blue color is seen throughout First by Humphry Davy, no doubt. From lithium, electrons are released The density of the solution decreased! Soaked electrons are born, spins pair Until a real band forms, debonaire! Lowering the T of this ebullition Impels a liquid-liquid partition, Superconductivity? Why not? Molecular orbitals hit the spot. From blue to gold, the story unfolds.

REALLY Zurek, Edwards and Hoffman? REALLY? I know this is Angewandte and known for bad puns as subtitles, but an abstract that rhymes?

Admittedly, I giggled. And then got annoyed with all the bits that didn't quite rhyme. :p

Ugh, I really don't know why I've been getting so many headaches lately. There aren't any obvious triggers. Maybe stress? It's been busy at work trying to get actual chemistry done in among the five million group meetings because of defenses and first year reports. Not fun. Though things are really starting to come together with the chemistry. We're talking paper in the near future for a couple of the solid spectra. Andre will be first authour, but I'll still be on the paper.

I have to throw a presentation together for the division meeting tomorrow, but... five minute literature presentation. I know what paper I'm going to talk about, I can totally squeeze that in between Crystallography and the meeting. Ugh, not enough hours in the day.t I wanted to work on that tonight but, well, my head hurts and that's just not going to work.

Maybe this does make sense.

So Thanksgiving? A lot of work. I roasted turkey drumsticks (because making a whole turkey for TWO PEOPLE would mean we were eating the turkey until Christmas :p), made stovetop stuffing and mashed potatoes.

And rainbow cupcakes! A very traditional Thanksgiving food.

Then I got a headache and couldn't finish eating. Go me. That was all yesterday though, since we got the turkey on Thursday and Ryan was worried about it going bad. Today I worked on a proposal for the 900. Whoo. Exciting times. :pt

Oh, and as of Friday, Paul is now Doctor Paul! That's very exciting. Not that we ever doubted he would pass. His acknowledgments were adorable. He drew a little MS Paint heart on the first page of the one paper he and his wife are both on. Then when he finished we all went to the Grad Club for nachos. We were amused that Kim asked about whether we should get some nachos... only to be informed that the nachos were already on their way. Because the nachos are half the reason we go to the Grad Club. :p

It is officially the season of DRAFTS. Getting out of bed kinda sucks because the bedroom is drafty and and freezing. But at least I only have to endure it for 24 more days! (Hmm... maybe I should think about starting to pack soon. :p)

It's also raining again. I know we strive to imitate the cool London, but really, this is quite ridiculous. We haven't seen the sun in over a week. I don't want to go out in it. :p

I will, of course, because Paul is practicing his defense (he defends on Friday) this morning, not to mention I still have to, y'know, do chemistry. But I don't wanna. :p

Also, I love how the only thing anyone cares about when they realize I'm sick is whether it's H1N1. (It's not, it's one of my standard issue "I have a rubbish immune system" colds. :p)

QotD!

sunshine_queen: and i'm sub to a tv show. fml.


This of course brought on by the fact that Star Wars is an abusive boyfriend and Battlestar Galactica is a Dom. This TOTALLY makes sense. :p

You know what's not fun? Fire alarms while TAing. It's always an adventure getting the kids out in time because they don't LISTEN when I tell them repeatedly to do their unknown in the first batch of melting points.

So we lost about ten minutes to the fire drill. Normally it wouldn't be a big problem, but the afternoon section is always time crunched. That section ends at 5:30, and the evening section starts at 6:00. So giving them extra time screws the techs over for set up.

Yeah... for some reason all the unknowns that have high melting points mysteriously disappeared. Can't think why. :p

Man, it is NASTY out there. We're talking Rain of Pain for the second day in a row. Remind me why I have to go to work and TA instead of staying inside with my blankie and my tea?

Seriously. Outside my window? Looks like my icon. Though hopefully with less imminent betrayal. :p