Is the river pensive? Ask the River. Thinking about Calgary's Bow River.

I got out for a run this weekend, along the Bow River Pathway here in Calgary. And it was a beautiful run for this late in the season. But I wanted to share with you one of my favourite little things about the Bow River here in town.

Along the banks of the Bow and Elbow river, affixed to stormwater outfall signs, an artist group in Calgary poses questions about the river.

And you can't help but ponder the answers when you see them.

The signs direct you to www.asktheriver.infohttp://www.asktheriver.info/, where you can get a little bit of backstory. The artists in question? Broken City Lab. and the signs were put up as a part of Calgary's Watershed+ Program. And you can click those links if you want to learn more about all that.

As for me, I'm just glad the signs are there, with their understated questions.

I typically run without music or company, just the sounds of my slightly wheezing breath and my own thoughts. I love that running can be a somewhat meditative process for me (in a way that sitting still often can't), and these questions can sometimes be the prompts you need for some self reflection.

Why not rephrase the questions. Am I dramatic? Am I hopeless? Am I breaking? and that's enough to give you something to ruminate on for the next few kilometers.

So next time you're out along the Bow or Elbow River paths, keep an eye out for these signs.

Ninja Master Prep Food Processor Review: Chops fruit, veggies, ice and fingers

Let the title of this post be a warning, things might get a little graphic.

Once upon a time, when I was a young undergrad student, I had a magic bullet. 

And long story short, it sucked.

It struggled with frozen fruit, often just spinning chunks around without blending them. Ice was another no go. And don't get me started on the time I tried to make hummus in it.

So pretty much I was left with a cupboard full of cups and rims and lids and disappointment.

So I let it go, and moved on to a very regular blender. Like the 19 dollar variety from Walmart. And for a while life was good. It made smoothies, soups and sauces with ease. And on the weekend? well let me just say welcome to MargaritaVille.

But eventually I grew tired of the pain it was to clean the stupid thing. the space it took on my counter, and it's true inability to make a green smoothie. Rather than blend spinach or kale into the smoothie making it a beautiful green colour, I'd end up with a sad pink smoothie with little bits of green leaf throughout.

Plus I began to dream of bigger and better things, a true food processor. Something that I could through vegetables into, without anything else and chop them up into itty bitty pieces. So when Kevin moved to Medicine Hat, I sent my blender friend with him, to start a new life making protein smoothies post workout.

And last month I treated myself to a Ninja.

A Ninja Master Prep to be specific. Something that could dual function as both a blender and a food processor. Something that comes apart for cleaning easily. Something that I immediately fell in love with. And on sale for only $40, how could I say no.

Right away a put it to the test, and it breezed through crushing ice, making fruit smoothies and chopping onions. I pushed him further, into the world of pumpkin puree, hummus, cauliflower rice. And never an issue.

It seemed those gleaming ninja blades could slice through anything like butter.

And I had no idea how right I was about that.

The damn thing sliced right through my finger.

So now we've settled into a working relationship where I have a healthy dose of caution and respect for my ninja. He does his work for me, and I never let my guard down.

Thoughts from October 1...at 1 AM

I've been awake for 23 hours y'all.

I want to say y'all there because I'm reading Jenny Lawson's new book, 'Furiously Happy', and as she's from West Texas, I, as a Canadian, naturally imagine that 'Y'all' would be a thing she would say. Despite copious evidence from her books and blogs to indicate otherwise.


Wait... I googled it.... she totally says 'y'all'...y'all. (I couldn't help myself, apparently when I'm sleep deprived I think I'm funny.)

Anyways, I wrote about her when I read her first book (the first time) and how it left me feeling inspired to write more, and write my own one day. (post here). And again I am certainly overwhelmed with that feeling, but not yet. 

Although I really do have an idea that's been percolating for about a year in my brain.

Ironic word choice since I don't drink coffee.

Even more irony then that I am awake at now 2:00 am.

24 hours Y'all!

So let's bring this round circle. Right now I've got the Bloggess on my mind not only because I'm reading her new book, but because in said book she talks about struggles with insomnia. And hello, 24 hours awake (which I know doesn't even remotely compare, but I'm feeling a little kindred right now).

Also she talks about a trip she took to Japan. And I literally was just there! I mean I got back yesterday... wait technically it's Thursday now... I got back on Tuesday.

Also she talks about the seriously strange things going on with the toilets in Japan... and that my friends is a post for tomorrow.....or maybe I really just mean later today?

Anyways. The point I'm trying to get to, (you see my thought process above has all been very clear and linear to this point) is that I'm going to write more.

So thanks for the motivation Jenny. Now I'm off to tweet this post at you, so I can imagine we are internet friends or something.

Really I need to go to sleep.

~~~~~~~

Related side note.

I bought one of those fancy wake up light alarm clocks today, and I am super excited to try it out. The idea is that it starts getting brighter a half hour before your alarm to mimic sunrise (important here in Calgary since we've entered the season of crappily short days) and then you wake up all magical and relaxed and refreshed.

And I'm assuming feeling like Cinderella when her bird and mice friends sign her awake.

Not sure how refreshed I'll be when it starts it's thing in 4 hours tho...so yeah, more feedback on this to follow.

~~~~~~

And before I forget, please go buy and read Jenny's books. They are wildly hilarious, incredibly honest, and whether or not you've ever struggled with depression, anxiety, mental health etc., I promise you will find something in her to relate to.

Also, holy crap! It's October already. Frig this year is flying by!

The Rock I've been Under

Holy tumbleweeds Batman! This blog's been quite for days!

So in no particular order let me tell you about the rock I've been under.

Spinning the old way, on  drop spindles. You can see the progression I made from the home made CD spindle to nicer spindles and nicer yarns. However, spinning on a spindle only left me wanting more, so I upgraded to a Spinning Wheel.

And yes, I am aware that this purchase officially makes me a 'Spinster'....I guess I just need 7 or 12 cats and I'm set! (Thank god Kevin loves me.)

After one quick practice yarn I blended up some colours and spun myself this beautiful rainbow gradient 2-ply yarn.

Isn't it pretty! I know... maybe you only appreciate something like this if you're a Yarny like me, but if you want to follow along with my spinning/knitting/crochet/yarn adventures, you can do so over at www.YarnLab.ca and I'll try not to bore you all with it too much over here.

So when I'm not wrapped up in wool at home, I've been spending every day in the lab at the myograph checking experiments off my todo list.

This corner of a shared lab has been my home for the past month, and will continue to be for probably the rest of my degree....It's where I'm writing this post right now in fact.

It hasn't been all work and yarn tho, I do get out of the house sometimes, and this Saturday, Kevin and I went out to see a Roughnecks game. A spontaneous decision, enhanced by our luck in getting the last two seats together in the bottom bowl...which just so happened to be in the second row.

The game was a lot of fun, even if they lost to the Rock in the end. Also it just so happened to be 'Red Neck' night, and we were additionally treated to a hill billy beer cooler relay, that had me laughing uncontrollably.

Finally, I've been enjoying all of the beautiful spring weather here in Calgary, much to the dismay of my family back out East who are still under a blanket of snow. It feels like summer is right around the corner, and I can't wait!

Snow's Melting

Here's to days getting longer, and a great Chinook here in Calgary making them warmer. We've had several days of above freezing temperatures in a row now, and it just feels great!

On the other hand, all the snow that was on the roads in town has been melting and refreezing into ruts and bumps, making parking on the street a huge pain in the a$$. Oh well, if that's the price to be paid for warmer weather inn January, then I'll happily pay it. (Or maybe the City of Calgary will one day get it's act together on snow removal).

All this melting snow reminded me of some pictures I've been meaning to share (as per the request of someone I stole this gift from).

In a Christmas gift swap at my friend Sarah's this year, the gift I took home included a snowman that you can build over and over again, and watch him melt each time (In opening the box I promptly lost one of his eyeballs). Here he is at 4:45pm, looking snazzy in his scarf and hat.

Only 3 minutes later he has begun to melt. He's looking like he's had a few too many drinks.

Another 10 minutes gone by and he's leaning waaaaay back.

Later that night, at 11PM he was fully melted, and a little bit dusty. So you can just pull the plastic parts off, and build him again.


Anyways, it's Tuesday, and it's already been a busy week in the Lab. Plus I'm headed to Thuderbay for the weekend on Thursday night, so I have a feeling this week is just going to fly by!

Thoughts from the Myograph

I'm at the pressure myograph all afternoon in the lab today, tomorrow, Friday, all next week, all the following week, all next month... forever basically.

What that means is a do about 20minutes of some complicated work under a microscope, and then I watch a black line move across this screen for the next 3 hours while periodically turnings nobs or refilling the buffer. Also I watch out for bubbles disturbing the reading.

All and all, it's very thrilling (actually sometimes it is, but I think it's an acquired taste lol). Which gives me plenty of time for working on school work, or piddling around on the interwebs. I try to find a balance between the two so I don't go insane.

Here are a few of today's thoughts from the Myograph.

1) Recently a pharmacist pleasantly surprised me. Usually when you go to refill your birth control prescription (even if the pharmacy is dead, and they are clearly not doing anything...once he was even just sitting there playing candy crush on his phone), the pharmacist says sure, I'll have that ready for you in 20 minutes. 20 Minutes! come on, this is not something you need to count or weigh, all you have to do is grab the boxes of a shelf and stick them in a bag with the receipt.  This is really a ploy you see, often time the pharmacist has a stake in the company (many of them are franchise owners) so the 20 minutes gives you time to browse the store, hopefully spending some money. This time however, she said "I'll get that for you right now." Grabbed 3 boxes off the shelf, shoved it in the bag, printed the receipt and sent me on my way.

2) I need to buy more wooden matches. Last night I spent an hour lighting, blowing out, and gluing about 100 of them. Looks like I need about 300 more to finish this project.

3) Speaking of pinterest worthy art projects, have you ever watched Man VS Pin on YouTube? because you should. It's a show produced by the lovely people at ThreadBanger, and I'd say it's both educational and entertaining, plus it shows you just how garbage about half of Pinterest DIYs really are. Here's a cool one for a personalized Easter Egg Note. Why Easter? Because following the trend of XMas stuff going up in stores before Halloween, I thought we should just skip right on past Valentines Day to Easter.



4) One size fits all shops (not just for the apple store anymore....ok that's my own personal view). But one size fits all women's clothing shops are springing up everywhere. We got one of these in the form of Brandy Melville here in Calgary at Market Mall this summer, and I even bought two t-shirts there, which I love. Both 'one size fits all', interestingly while I fit into some OSFA items from this store, I did not fit into others. Hmmmmm. So please watch this amazing video by Buzz Feed, where a group of beautiful, unique, women prove that 'One Size' doesn't even fit most.


5) While I was writing this post and running this experiment, we had a fire alarm and had to evacuate the building for about 15 minutes. When I came back I found $5 on the floor in my very deserted hallway. Is it terrible if I keep it? Weigh in in the comments. Hope you all are having a lovely Tuesday!

Five things Friday: #Selfie Troubles

It's the weekend! And I have a beer in my hand and dinner in my belly. So here's five things on Friday.

1) I made broccoli stuffed chicken breasts for dinner. So good, so moist. Forgot to take a picture, but all you do is mince up a head of broccoli, fine chop half an onion, mix with a can of low fat cream of broccoli soup, and a little bit of shredded cheese. Stuff it into 4 boneless/skinless chicken breasts (just cut pockets into them), spoon the rest on top and bake for 30 min at 350'.  So moist and delicious. So easy.

2) This morning after I got ready for work I thought to myself, you look great! You should take a selfie for your blog.

Yeah clearly mirror selfies are not my strong suit. This is why I could never be a fashion blogger...that and many, many other reasons of course.

3. I finished reading I am Malala. The book is so good, I learned a lot about her, Pakistan, Islam and the desperate need for safe access to education by both girls and boys in so much of the world. In addition the book showed Malala's strength of character as well as her cheery demeanor, the importance of family and standing up/speaking out for your rights. Highly recommend the book.

4. I cast on some new knitting and crochet projects, one of them is even for me. A sweater kit I picked up at Mary Maxim. I also registered the blog www.YarnLab.ca where I'm going to begin to feature more of my crafting endeavors. This weekend, hopefully, I'll spend some time developing the blog.

This photo shows one of the problems with using cheap acrylic (Red Heart yarn) sometimes you find odd bits of plastic worked into the yarn. It also highlights my exceptional nail polish maintenance.

5. I went to a variety of different styles of yoga class this week to get back into the swing of things after the holidays. In our Hips and Hamstrings  class it was announced we'd be working on splits this month. Something which sucks! but also has me super excited, through yoga already I've been able to get further into the splits than I ever did in all the years of dance I did growing up.

Just to prove a point here's another crappy selfie from the yoga studio, I think my issue is that I just don't know what to do with my face.

Which reminds me of this beautiful Will Ferrell scene from Talladega Nights.

Well that's all for me tonight, I've got a beer getting warm, hope you had a great first full week of the new year. Hopefully if you made em, you're sticking to your resolutions so far. I'll be back tomorrow with a NamaSaturday Post.

Thank God for Cats on the Internet!

Sometimes you just need something to make you smile.

Or to help you get through Friday and make it to the weekend.

Or to do both.

Good Mythical Morning (on YouTube) drew my attention over to Procatinator.com just now. And I can't click away, or do I want to.

It's basically a website that loads a random GIF of a cat, set to music. And it's different every time you reload. And they are all purrfection (see what I did there?).

 So click on over to the webiste and enjoy. Then go and hug someone you love today. Have a happy Friday!

I'm about to go over to the dark side.

I am on my way out the door to get my very own Costco membership. And it makes me want to die a little inside.On the other hand, I can't wait to come home with a lifetime supply of pickles, and devour them in less than a month.

Hopefully by waiting until after dinner it won't be a zoo?

Who am I kidding, it's going to be rediculous, at least Kevin is coming for emotional support.

Some other things that happened today.

1)For the 3rd time this week I spooned jam onto my toast, then washed the spoon before spreading the jam.

2) I started reading Grace's Guide Book (the art of pretending to be a grown up) and love!

3) I bought this for a couple of bucks.... I can feel a weekend project coming on!

That's all for now, Happy Thursday!

The A-Z of Me, Part 2

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm kind of a sucker for these simple posts. I did an A-Z list back in August. This one is a bit different, and after finding it on a fellow Canadian's Blog *pixie diaries* I thought hey I'll do it again. Besides, I'm in Cuba this week, and posts like this are great for scheduled content right?

Ok, I'm not a pilot, my dad is, but I do love to fly!

A. Age: 25
B. Bed size: Double. But its bigger and more comfortable than any of the bed's I'd had in the four years before moving out to Calgary.
C. Chore that you hate:Putting away laundry, especially socks. I don't mind washing it, but sometimes it takes me weeks to put it away.
D. Dogs: I have a Flurry, who is old and lumpy and lives back at home with my parents, he's a bichon frise. I can't wait to get my own puppy one day!
E. Essential start to your day: Have to brush my teeth the second I wake up, I hate morning breath taste.
F. Favorite color: Maybe turquoise?
G. Gold or Silver: Silver or better yet, white gold.
H. Height: 5'7"
I. Instruments you play: I had piano lessons when I was really, really little. I consider myself to be pretty musically challenged tho.
J. Job title: Grad student/science slave.
K. Kids: That's something for future Sara.
L. Live: Calgary, Alberta.
M. Mother’s name: Eva (hi mom! I love you! she is my biggest fan!)
N. Nicknames: ummmm not really any that stick
O. Overnight hospital stays: Probably when I was born, that's it tho.
P. Pet peeves: Bad drivers/people who drive waaaaay too slow in parkades.
Q. Quote from a movie:
Rumack: Can you fly this plane, and land it? Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious. Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.  From Airplane! the movie.
R. Right or left handed: Right.
S. Siblings: 1 younger brother, Mark.
T. Time you wake up: On good days, 6:30ish.
U. Underwear: I could hide out under there....I just made you say underwear. ~Pinch Me, the Barenaked Ladies
V. Vegetable you hate: Hot peppers. Actually I can't eat hot food period.
W. What makes you run late: When I let myself sleep in, or when I can't find something right before heading out the door.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: dental, broken fingers, lungs... I think that's it.
Y. Yummy food that you make: I'm off to bake some banana muffins right now!
Z. Zoo animal: I donno, here's a tiger from the Calgary, Zoo!

  

Blogging Prompt: Celebrating Me

This week's 20sb Blogging Prompt is to Celebrate Yourself by telling 3 things you absolutely love about yourself. We all spend too much time being overly critical of ourselves. We've been trained our whole lives to focus on the negatives, the things we need improving; rather than celebrate our strengths. Taking a minute our two each day to celebrate something positive and amazing about yourself can create a generally more Pro-You, Self-loving mindset and is certain to make you a happier person.

Three things that make me thrilled to be me lately!

1. The physical condition I am in lately! I have never considered myself to be a physically strong person. Since January however I have been doing an MMA style bootcamp at least once a week, and I've noticed some big changes.... I even think I have some muscle tone in my upper body now!

 Hiking in Hawaii, Maui in the distant valley, 2012.

2. My role as a teacher (well TA really). This past weekend I responded to nearly 100 (ok maybe a bit of an overestimation) emails from students in the 2nd year Molecular and Cell Biology Class I TA, regarding an assignment I designed to write a paper on my area of expertise (smooth muscle). It was a lot of time and work, but I was pleasantly surprized at how rewarding it was. More and more I find myself convinced that I want to have a role as a teacher at this level one day.

 (Me with tiny, half wild, kitten at my great aunt's farm in Italy, 2012)

3. The fact that furry animals love me. Ok this is maybe an over exaggeration, but the wild rabbit that hangs out near my apartment building doesn't scamper away in fear when he sees me, and he ate the pile of spinach I left him in the snow. The stray cat in my boyfriend's neighbourhood spent the whole day of my birthday celebration hanging out (I guess he knows I want a kitten of my own). On the other hand a friend of ours' dog always pees when he sees me...so maybe I'm too lovable?

What are three things you love about yourself?

Three Random Things Feb 20/13

First of all, a giant thank you to all the amazing people who came my way on Monday! Your comments and well wishes are much loved! If you haven't heard back from me yet, trust me, I'm working through, one comment and SITS-ter at a time!

Now on to Wednesday, here are three random things!

1. When I have a good sleep, I drool. Not just a little, a lot! In a wake up in a face puddle kind of way. In a turn the pillow over in the middle of the night kind of way. Today I finished up in the lab early, and came home for a much needed nap, it was beautiful....and drooly!

(image source)

2. I have been reading the Springsteen biography, appropriately titled 'Bruce' (by Peter Ames Carlin), and subsequently have been on a bigger Bruce kick than normal. Did you know that the BF's middle name is Bruce, and mine is Rose.... Rosie Come Out Tonight, can it be any more perfect?

3. Roasted Chick and Tomato Taco Soup, just as good from frozen as it was fresh! There is nothing better than those days when you come home and can just throw something, homemade, from the freezer into a pot or the oven, and have a home cooked meal 30 min later with no effort. Cozy! For the original recipe, check out the post when I first made it!

Happy Wednesday Peoples, here's to being 1 day closer to the weekend!