Craving me some lululemon

Right now I am seriously craving something new from lululemon. I know I can run in a 5 dollar cotton tee just as well as I can in this No Limit Tank.

But I don't wanna.

And I certainly don't see why I would need a running skirt, but this Back on Track Skirt is just hot!

I do however need a good pair of track pants to just pull on over top of shorts after the gym or soccer, so how about the Studio Pant II?

My ass can totally look good in these!

Alright, so maybe I already have a stack of lulu stuff in my dresser, but I really do wear all of it (except for one pair of leggings I bought of the sale rack cause you couldn't beat the price...even if they were a size 4 and I'm a 6, I can suction myself into them if I want to).

But lulu, when I go visit your chinook center store tomorrow, please have a cute tank or tee in green. Cause I need one for soccer, and the nike one I saw today was almost cute enough.

Fascinated on Fridays: Sexy Yoga Ads

So, if you don't already, and you're into yoga at all, you should be following Yoga Dork.

Really, go there now.

Well read what I have to say first.

Lately there's been alot of 'talk' (putting it mildly) in the world of Yogi's (which clearly I'd like to be one, but am not) about using sex/nudity/whatever to sell Yoga products/anything.

As if Yoga is somehow different/more enlightened/whatever than any other product out there.

Don't think Yoga is a product..... look again.

But that's cool anyways, cause I am soooo buying it (lulu I love you....hopelessly)

This week tho, I'm fascinated by these two videos brought to my attention by Yoga Dork.




So, first, clearly I want to be her. I mean she totally rocks a sick handstand. Second, based on this commercial alone, if I was in a store, and Equinox Undies were to be had, I'd probably buy them, on the basis of this ad. and Third, is it just me or does it kinda look like she has a gentleman caller snoozing in that bed? Well the Yogi in the video is Briohny Smyth, check out some of her instructional videos, like this one where she shows you how to rock those handstands.




Video numero 2, Now he really rocks this shiat! So good, and worth a chuckle... then another one. Anyways, the Yogi in question this time around is Michael A. Stusser, and he does a mean parody, and an even better arm balance.

Anyways hope you enjoyed this just as much as I did... and now I need to make myself actually go to a Yoga class this week....so much easier to do in summer.

My Chick Bad

I wanna be Lauren in this SYTYCD number... one of my all time favourites.

Unfortunately for me, I have as much coordination and swag as ....well as none at all.

Ballet's always been my thing.... unfortunately this was the last time I full on rocked those shoes...2009ish...ignore the obvious hoard in my room behind me... I swear my current apartment doesn't look like that... I swear.

So I'm feeling like maybe I should put some sort of Hip Hop class on the 25 before 25 list I'm working on.

Anyways.... ran 5km tonight in 38min... yeah! just need to start shaving some time off that number/increasing the distance.

Sexier on Saturdays : Dailymile!

Alright...so I haven't Zumba'd as much as I promised. In my defense it was really....really cold this week, so when I got home at night I took food to my bed, and a cocoon of blankets, and called it a day.

On the other hand, I spend 10km moving my ass this week! My friend Sarah and I have committed to the half marathon goal together.

We are holding each other accountable.

And so we went forth and ran, on 3 separate occasions this week.

I'm tracking it all on Daily Mile.

This is a pretty accurate summary of my 2011 physical fittness. Sure I did some hiking, played some ultimate Frisbee, and ran on like 3 separate occasions. But over all it's fair to say a whole lot of zeros.

So anyways, if you're on dailymile, come say hello. If you're not, but are interested in taking up something like running, check it out, and if you're like "the title of this post made me hope to see a hot chick in a bathing suit" well then maybe you're at the wrong place, but if you stick around long enough that hot chick will be me!

mmmmm muffins

I love to use my Pinterest Foods and Drinks board to keep track of tasty looking things on the internet and later come back and try to make them myself. Last week I rocked Inside-Out Carrot Cake Muffins, recipe from King Arthur Flour.

Now you can see from their pictures the batter is supposed to look more like cake mix, something you can pour.

My batter however, was definitely of the the sticky muffin type.

Now this may well be because I subbed whole wheat flour for regular stuff. Or I've heard rumors that Calgary is so dry you need to up the moisture in recipes, but previously I've had no problem with this. The above pic shows how thick the batter was, after I added an extra 1/3cup water.

Anyways, problem easily dealt with, I used a spoon to press the batter into little cups, and spread more on top of the filling after.

As for the muffins, they came out a bit dense, but delicious, and the good people of the Gastrointestinal Research Group at the University of Calgary, did an awesome job at devouring them the next day.

Anywho, it's still freezing here, like in a -40 kinda way. So proud of the pretty blue car for being a trooper and starting for me, despite not being plugged in like it should be in this weather. As for my apartment, which is normally hot as balls (I think I've mentioned it here before) it's chilly today, but no worries, hot water is free, so I shower sauna'd the place.

In the mean time, my knock off spirit hood keeps me warm enough. G'night!

Two Things

1. Calgary has entered into some serious deep freeze shiat. This morning I woke up to -40 weather, and whether you're American or Canadian, that's cold. Real cold. My poor car struggled hard this morning and again tonight after work. But the worst is still to come. Tonight they're calling for -50C with the wind chill, now I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit but probably exponentially colder, certainly the coldest temperature I can remember. Mythical even. Seriously, remember this book from when you were little?

2. I love, and I mean love, Robert Downey Jr. I just came across this pic (and others) on Yoga Dork, and thought I should let you know about it.

Anyways, I ran did 3km on the treadmill today, in about 21 minutes, and didn't need to breath like all the air had gone out of the room. Felt much better than Sunday, guess the old bones took a hint and amped up the RBC production.

Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra does John Williams

Last night I went out to see the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra play a show featuring the movie masterpieces of composer John Williams.

This featured themes from:

• ET
• Jaws
• Jurassic Park
• Harry Potter
• Indiana Jones
• Schindler's List

And of course, Star Wars! Needless to say there where many nerds in attendance.

Clearly I am one of them!

Today I got off my ass and went running, it sucked, first because it's winter again in Calgary, second because my cardiovascular system is on par with one belonging to a 90 year old (or so it felt like). On the bright side, my friend Sarah plans on working up to a half marathon along with me! So yeah!

Today I...A much better day

Today I...

• Woke up at 7AM and felt ready to get out of bed (as opposed to dragging myself around my apartment with my eyes closed)
• Pressurized a vessel...with tone...and got some real, usable data points!
• Ate some very tasty chocolate cookies
• Debated over a weekend meeting/fund raising event... came to a conclusion...maybe
• Made some hepes buffers 
• Attended my first ever class as a TA.

Before the student's left they were asked to answer some questions about themselves on a card and hand it in. I looked some quickly, and saw reasonable responses, some that made me chuckle (answers intended for humour), some that reminded me of me, and one specific one that was truly inspiring.

So I eagerly look forward to getting to know these students better, and dread the first pile of marking I'll be taking home.

Tonight I will.....

• Buy apples to make this apple sharlotka
• Buy some carrots and cream cheese to make these inside-out muffins
• Type up an abstract from all my jotted down notes
• Have a drink damn it!
• And see a friend play a show with his band

Ah Grad school

Requiring an Opinion : The Jack Pine, Tom Thomson

This is the Original, The Jack Pine, by Canadian Artist Tom Thomson, completed in 1917, the year he died. Style look familiar, Tom was the influence behind a group of Canadian artists painting Ontario Landscapes post World War I. In the summer of 2003, I went to visit my uncle John in Toronto, and the Art Gallery of Ontario had a Tom Thomson exhibit, which inspired some of my love of art.

So that's the history and the original work. The current story is I happened to be in a Michaels when they were having like 70% off on canvases, and I took two home and hung them on my walls. The smaller one is still blank, the larger one currently looks like this:

So you can see there is some likeness, and their both done in oils, but clearly I've drastically changed the style.

My question now is, do I include the Jack Pine? This was my original intent, but it's been hanging as is since October now, and I do kinda like it, imperfections and all.

To help me decide, today I covered it in plastic wrap, and very, very roughed in the pine.

Apologies for the glare, hard to use the flash on plastic wrap, and I really need to get a camera stand since I'm way too shakey for low light/no flash.

But Now I need your opinion to help me out, continue and risk ending up with something I don't love with the chance at achieving greatness. Or leave it sans tree?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Get Sexier on Saturdays

Ok, so tis the new year, and as such, I'm sure I'm not the only one resolving to get a little (a lot) more in shape.

Lose a few pounds.

Run a half marathon this year.

Straight up get sexier.

Like Victoria Secret Sexier.

Not to sure how to go about growing the 12 foot wing span tho. But you get the point. Look like you could just throw on leopard panties, a scarf round your tits and some 15 000 peacock feathers at a moments notice. And rock it.

So how does this relate to my trip to Cosco tonight you might ask?

Well they had Zumba Fitness 2, for the Wii there, and I picked it up, brought it home, and proceeded to sweat my hypothetical balls off for the next 26minutes.

 So all you have to do is strap your wii remote to you waist (belt included) push your coffee table out of the way. Open you patio door all the way (if you don't want the Birkram Yoga studio feel). And dance your butt into shape.

There's the option to do Short (20min) Med (?) and Long (?) classes (you can see which one I did) or select and individual song (which I did first).

Review, after one go, holy hot! it does certainly get you moving ladies and gents. Con, you can't pause in between songs to do things like run to the fridge to refill your glass, or open your patio door. Another con, my sofa snuck up on my twice, and almost took me out both times. (I thought zumba was a non contact sport?) Is it as good as say The Xbox Kinect Dance Central 2 (which I tried over the holidays)? Not really, it's not so accurate at picking up your moves, just hopes the wii remote is bouncing in at the same beat as the on screen character is bouncing, and didn't pick up some moves all together. Also the belt rides up your waist.

But I'm glad I bought it, it still resulted in me getting my sweat on, and my shirt off, so alls good!

Game plan, do a class every day this week. I'll let you know how that went for me next "get  sexier on Saturdays".

Cheers!

Fascinated with Fridays: Ryan Gosling Tumblrs

So I had stumbled upon one of these before, probably from a link from one of my friends (she knows who she is) and lol-ed, hard. And today, via Miss Indie's Friday's Favourite Things, OMG there's a crafty one. Then I spent the happiest hour of my day clicking around for more. So here he is ladies, Ryan, in all his glory.

F*ck Yeah! Ryan Gosling

  

Feminist Ryan Gosling

Homemade Ryan Gosling

Is Ryan Gosling Cuter than a Puppy?

There's a bunch more, very specific ones (poli sci ryan, film studies ryan, biostats ryan) find a list here.

And on an MTV interview you can watch Ryan read some of his "Hey Girl" lines.

And did I just do a post full of Ryan Gosling.... when Really I like Ryan Reynolds better? Yes...Yes I did.

So that's what's fascinating me this Friday. Cheers

Just a side note

Painting my nails always makes me realize just how not ambidextrous I am.

From We Heart It

Was going to do New Years Resolutions, but I'll save it for my birthday, and a 25 before 25 list.

Flight back to Calgary was poop. Back at work. Post holidays Blah. Feeling like this.

A look back at 2011

Happy New Year people of the interweb!

It's my last full day at home in the Soo, tomorrow I have two flights and 6 hours of layover to look forward to and then I'm back in Albertaland. But for today I thought I'd give you a recap of my year in 2011.

This was a sad blog year for me, on average I did 2 posts a month, and I'd say about half of them were just me admonishing myself for poor blog upkeep.

It was an interesting year for boys, by which, I dove too quick into a relationship, and payed for it in heartache later. You live and learn I guess.

I graduated from McMaster University, with an Honours Degree in Science in Biology and Pharmacology, Co-op. (I'm on the bottom, 3rd from the right)

I had my name on 3 peer-reviewed publications this year. Wrote and defended my honours thesis (which I am very proud of) and presented that data at a national conference in Vancouver.

I lived four months each in 3 different cities, and moved all of my worldly possessions most of the way across Canada.

I started my PhD studies at the University of Calgary, applied for a tonne of funding, received Provincial funding for Christmas, completed 2 of my 3 required classes, learned a bunch of new techniques, and banged my head against the wall trying to optimize some old ones.

I travelled to Europe for the second time, and saw some amazing and some tragic places.

I cut my hair the shortest it's ever been, and then later grew it back out and got bangs.

I turned 23 and entered my middle 20s.

I explored more of Alberta, and walked on a glacier.

And although I blogged less, I tweeted more (@Turner_SR) and Pinned more (turner_sr).

I bought 2 new computers (an HP desktop and a Toshiba laptop) and my first tablet (Blackberry Playbook) all for less than 1000 bucks total (now that's a budget!).

I did more cooking and baking than ever before, and more knitting and crafting too!

Overall, 2011 was everything I could have asked it to be, with good times and bad, high times and low, and I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for me. Tomorrow while I'm flying I'm going to finalize my list of goals for 2012, What do you have planned?