Avon eBrochure

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Click the link below for my Avon e-Brochure and be sure to let me know of your orders!

Avon eBrochure

an Avon rep! and summer =)

Today seriously feels like summer. I couldn't quite brave the midday heat, so I stayed indoors, but I had my dinner outside and took the dog out for a nice walk.

Dinner and my Avon catalogs!

Another highlight of today was my officially signing of the papers to become an Avon rep!

I can take orders for those who live in the Guelph area. But for those who don't live in Guelph, fear not, I can still be your rep! Just follow these 3 easy steps!

1. Shop online at the Avon website.
2. Input my phone number at checkout (I won't post it for fear of telemarketers, but ask me!).
3. Receive your order in the mail!

The great thing about this, is that I can track your orders and let you know about new products coming out that matches how you shop. As an Avon rep, I get access to products before they are released, and I can get samples for things you want to try out!

Give me a shout, I'll help you out!

PA Xmas Party

My department was holding our Christmas party on December 9 at the Delta Hotel. I got tickets for Adam and me to go, and we had to get there a bit early since I told Gale I would come help out a bit earlier than the start. We got there just after 7 and the laptop and podium was already all set up and ready for me. I loaded all the powerpoint presentations onto the computer and tested out the microphone and positioning.


Hurray for bring the MC for the evening.

The place looked great, and the food was delicious! The room filled up quite quickly, and the live music (from D Eve Archer) was absolutely fantastic. Diane did 3 sets of 45 minutes and another of 30 minutes, and she definitely kept the crowd growing. Heck, even people from the real estate party down the hall came to crash ours because ours was better! And I'm not gonna lie, I was very impressed and proud to have been part of organizing the event. It was superb, and I had a ton of fun at it.

In between all the music sessions, we had some speaking notes (from Peter), prizes and the agriculture trivia event that the girls helped gather the questions and answers for. The prizes for that were fun too, and there were a lot of bags of chocolate and candy going around the room. I was surprised by how quickly people knew the answers to the questions too. Darn Monica for knowing virtually all the answers!

Regardless, my feet were extremely tired wearing those super tall heels, but I had so much fun I didn't want to stop dancing. Gale loosened up a bit for it too and had quite a few drinks in him too. Him and Eric Lyons were dancing up a storm on the dance floor, along with the 80 year old man with the 60 something year old women from the real estate party. What a hoot!

Time? What time?

Clearly I have no time for this...

With 4 graduate courses (taking 2, auditing 2), and TAing a 2nd year course. PLUS lab work and field harvest, that leaves me without time to sleep!

I am under the assumptions this will be the last post for a while to come... But in the mean time, intramural soccer started up 2 weeks ago. We've had 2 games and... 2 losses... =(

beeeeezeeeeee

I know I post about this a lot, but I actually am really busy. Aside from this past Thursday until now, I have spent most of the last 3 weeks in the lab. Aka., I have 12+ hour days indoors where I wouldn't see the sun if it weren't for windows.

On top of doing work in the lab, it's pedal to the metal for orientation day in my department. Ildiko has been super busy doing her work, so I've been pushing my limit and doing GSLC logistical and organizational things in the evenings.

When I'm not doing either of those things, I can either be found sleeping, or sacrificing my sleep to hang out with friendse and catch up. Talk about not having a moment to spare!

I will get back into the blogging when I come up with the time. In the meantime, filler posts will take up most of my webspace.

Stay tuned...

Ohio State University

From Jul 6-8, a bunch of us grad students and some professors made the road trip down to Wooster Ohio to visit the agricultural department and facilities that are a part of the Ohio State University.

We rented 3 vans and plopped 18 people in them for the ~7 hour drive down. We made it in time for a late dinner, where we went to a pub type place and sat out on the patio. Dr. Clay Sneller, our host for the trip, joined us there and we had our dinner with drinks and talked. The TVs were playing highlights of the semi-final game earlier that occurred in the day, so we got our fill of soccer that way. After that, a few of us made the way down to the pool at the hotel and splashed around until about midnight. With an early morning start ahead of us, it was already quite late.

A full day's events at the university campus in Wooster surely did tire a few of us out. From 8 straight until 430, with the afternoon being spent in the 92F boiling heat and sun, we sure made a dent in the cooler in the back of the van.

We had some time in between that and dinner, so there was another gathering at the hotel pool. More people this time, and copious more amounts of beer. Thanks to Amy, I learned to dive and do handstands in the pool. Properly. W00t w00t!

Dinner was a catered event that should have happened at their arboretum, but because of the intense heat, it was moved into the main building instead. Afterward, we headed to Clay's house where he graciously hosted us in his backyard. There was homebrewed beer from one of the professors (too hop-py for my tastes).

Clay's house is a bit of a way's from campus, but was a stunning house. The backyard was huge, and I saw a ton of fireflies! Having never really seen them up close like that before, I was in awe at the number. A bunch of them even landed on my legs and arms while I was swinging away leisurely on the tree-swing. You can maybe make out the fireflies all lit up in the photo.

The trip was a ton of fun, and I learned a lot. About agriculture and how things operate in the MidWest, about my fellow grad student colleagues and professors, and about swimming!

Canada Day "Long" Weekend

So it was a long weekend for some, but obviously not for the university. We went to the beach on Canada Day, but it was back to work for us on Friday. I'm sure most people took it off to go away for the weekend, but I stuck it out and actually worked every single day this weekend.

I went in Friday and managed to get in 2 full assay runs. I wanted to use my time efficiently so I felt accomplished by the time I made it to Fawn's for her birthday. We sat around in their lovely backyard in the shade and had BBQ and chatted. It was a beautiful evening out but we all had to head home. I was planning a lengthy day in the lab the next, and Kendra was heading to Toronto.

Saturday was another full day with 2 assay runs (while watching FIFA of course!), before going home, catching up with people on skype, and then going to Ann's to head to eBar. A night out dancing is always fun, and it was great that Paco showed up as well! Despite a super creepy acquaintance, who shall remain unnamed, the night was a blast. Luis, Paco and I caught a cab home, which was much better than my typical route of walking the hour+ long walk home from downtown. I settled in nicely into bed, only to be roused awake at 8am the next morning. Why oh why do I plan a full day at the lab when I know I'll be absolutely exhausted!?!?!

I couldn't get in a full day at the lab because I ran out of sterilized water. I just barely managed one full run, but I was welcoming the thought of going home early with open arms. I watched some tv, weeded my garden, all before Kendra came over. Since we missed her at the fireworks on Canada Day, we haven't really talked, and there was much to catch up about... We got it all out in about an hour, before it was time to hit the sack.

That brings us to Monday, where I *tried* to sleep in before going in to school.

Off to Ohio tomorrow!

June pt.2

Another busy week, I don't know how I ended up with all these appointments in the same week...

Monday: follow up doctor's appointment. It isn't much, but it does take up time

Tuesday: I had an appointment for a consult at the Sears beauty counters. She did up a nice job for me and convinced (conned) me into buying a whole shwackload of makeup... Afterward, we had make-your-own-pizza night at Ann's, followed by Glee finale. it was a day full of not really doing a whole lot.

Wednesday: final Relay meeting before the big event, I got there early and did some random checking of supplies and equipment to make sure things ran smoothly. The meeting took about 2 hours and I got home exhausted and definitely NOT in the mood to go to salsa night.

Thursday: a day off?

Friday: Relay!

Of course mixed among this is a lot of working in the lab. I'm just so glad Laura is optimistic about all the (boring) lab work I have her doing.. =)

June!

I've had a super busy week this week at school and outside that as well, I haven't had much time to write anything here.

Throughout the week I was training one of the summer students on laboratory work. Laura's working with me the whole summer to help me get all my digestibility assays completed, so it was a long week of accompanying her in the lab getting work done.

Monday: I had an appointment at Estee Lauder for a revamp of skin care for summer.

Tuesday: Walter came over with a guitar and keyboard for a music jamming session. We hammered through quite a few songs and I got to exercise my keyboard (not piano) skills. It made me yearn for a keyboard again.

Wednesday: Diego's thesis defense in the morning followed by some grad lounge drinking. I had a Relay meeting so I had to leave the grad lounge early to make it to that. During the meeting, I was informed salsa night at eBar was cancelled until next week, so I got to head home and make dinner at a unGodly hour... Everyone else went to Diego's house after grad lounge, and then eventually to Doogie's, but I was absolutely exhausted and in no mood to party on a Wednesday night.

Thursday: a free day? really? I spent time in the lab looking for a keyboard. By nightfall, I had made contact with one girl in Cambridge selling one that I am supposed to go see in the morning. Thank goodness for Jerlene and her ability to drive me there...

Friday: Jerlene and I went to Cambridge to look at the keyboard. Given the brand and the price, I pretty much already knew I was going to get the keyboard, but you must always look like you are very much only considering it. We picked it up for cheaper than the listing price, and headed to Party Packagers to get loot gear for Jerlene's birthday dinner that night.

Dinner was at Ben Thanh Viet/Thai out on Woodlawn. I made it to Kendra's where she drove. I got helium balloons, and Jerlene was showered with numerous gifts. Dinner was good, it was actually a decent vietnamese restaurant for once. Good choice! Afterward, we went to Jerlene's where she opened her gifts and chatted. Then we went home.

Saturday: kegger party! Kendra and I went to the mall to pick up a couple things for the 90s party (think: butterfly tattoos and 90s jewelry). Afterward, we spent a couple hours making the music playlist for the party. I clearly spent the larger portion of the rest of the day (and yesterday afternoon) playing around with my new keyboard. Rob came after 9 to take the bus to Ann's, where we got there after 10. The party was fun, flip cup and beer pong galore. Of course Gillian and the twins were there as well so I got to hang out with them again as well.

Sunday: post keg party recovery. I am currently sitting here eating and watching 7th Heaven on my laptop. Awesome...

Field Field Field

3 days in the field, and I've mastered quite the ugly tan. Bikini top , spaghetti strap AND wife beater tan lines up top. I don't have sock or shorts tan lines, but I definitely have the starting definition of a watch tan, and quite a DISTINCT ring tan...

A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

3 days in the field, 3 trial locations. Done and done.

Phew!

Now, I just have to go back to all my field sites in a few weeks to do stand counts, and maybe check on them a couple more times throughout the growing season. I won't have to do much field work until harvest in September, so it's into the lab for me!

Exercise: Jan 2010

I know I spent the last 4 months (majorly) slacking off when it came to DayZero #55 (Exercise at least twice a week)... but I've been trying very hard since I came back after Christmas!

For starters, my brother and I bought a treadmill for my parents for Christmas, and we received it just shy of the new year. I got to test it out, using it (at a low intensity level due to my lack of running shoes). While I was at home, I also managed to sneak in around 5 or so elliptical sessions in the morning.

But my regime for the school year thus far:

Tuesday mornings 7:15am-8:15am AQUAFIT
Thursday lunches: 12:00pm-1:00pm STEP

I started January 7, with STEP class and started January 19 with AQUAFIT. It hasn't been long, but I haven't missed a class yet. I tried to attend the Saturday morning sessions, but the schedule changed on me, and I ended up being an hour early. It got in my way of getting things done that day, so I skipped out on it to get work done instead. But once I get into a more regular routine with my lab work, I will start attending kickboxing or zumba or something else with high intensity during my off hours.

I paid $51 for my fitness pass, and I intend to make very good use of it this semester.

Fredericton

The day after Halloween, I was schedule to fly out to Fredericton, New Brunswick for a 2 day conference. As a master's student working with the potato crop, I am part of the BioPotato Network. There are yearly conferences for everyone in the network to meet and discuss current activities etc. I was lucky enough to have started my master's just in time to make it to the meeting, so I flew out from Toronto Sunday night with my advisor and many others coming from all around the Toronto region.

The BioPotato Network consists of 2 government agencies, 2 industries and 7 universities across Canada:

• Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada
• NRC
• BioAtlantech
• PEI Food Technology Centre
  
• University of Guelph
• University of Toronto
• McMaster University
• Dalhousie University
  
• University of New Brunswick
• University of Prince Edward Island
• Holland College

Having scientists scattered all over Canada led to great networking while I was there. The network is not only made up of scientists, but actually has a large proportion of engineers, who are part of the BioPlastics stream.

Although I was mainly there for the conference, I still had a lot of down time in between meetings to see a bit of the city. We were staying at the Crowne Plaza Lord Beaverbrook Hotel, which is very close to the St. John River. Although I couldn't see it from the view out my window (I could see the playhouse instead), the river was only a 2 minute walk down Regent Street.

I got some good photos of downtown Fredericton, and a few of the river as well. Fredericton isn't a very big city, but it has a homey feel and makes you feel very welcome.

I perused the downtown streets with a few of the girls from the conference, and we shopped in the local stores. There are a lot of local artisans in the immediate area, and the pewter store (Aitkens Pewter) actually makes all their pewter items in the back room of the store. No wonder the Department of Canadian Heritage named Fredericton the Cultural Capital of Canada for 2009.

There were a lot of things I wish I could have seen (ie. UNB campus) and a lot of things I wish I could have bought (@Bejewel), but time and money are always the limiting factors. I did, however, spend a lot of time and money in this store:

86 Regent St. - me outside was is now one of my absolute favourite store.

All of us from Ontario were on the same flight back to Toronto, leaving Tuesday night. Most of us could be found scattered around the lobby and mezzanine area of the hotel the few hours prior to boarding the airport taxibus. It was a fun 3 day trip and I'm excited to see if these will be made biannually!

Halloween pt.1

Halloween started at school on Friday when there was the halloween party in the Crop Science office foyer. I arrived at school early, because I wanted to do some work on the computers beforehand, but I got there to find they had taken down all the computer stations to set up the candy station. Drat! But at least I got some candy.

Angie finally showed up a bit after 10 and got the costume contest line up in order. Unfortunately, because I was "in costume", I was forced to be in the line up. Obviously I didn't win (if you take a look at my costume), but it was a fun little party. Ann, Rob, Luis and I had to leave for class right away after that so we ducked out and headed to Thornbrough.

Class, of course, was boring. Rob and Ann also left at 1120 because they had a meeting with the dean of stats or something to that effect, so that left he 4 of us to discuss the rest of the paper with Ray.

After class I was in the lab again all afternoon finishing up the rest of my samples. I had 11 more to do to finish up the Simcoe plot site, so it was an easy task to do. This time I spent the time to wait around for the samples to cool, and even put them outside for a bit to get them down a little colder before putting them into the freezer. Joe came back from Elora about the time I was putting my samples away as well, so I talked to him for a bit about the upcoming weeks of work for him before we both went home.

That night was the house party at Bamsey's. I went to Ildiko's place beforehand to get ready, where her, Sarah, Ange and Amy got ready as the power rangers. We got to Bamsey's place (down College) by about 1030 and some individuals were already well on their way to extreme intoxication.

Aaron (the dolphin in the photo) was by far the funniest character that night, although Rob was a blind referee and made for some hilarious moments as well.

We were there until some time after midnight when everyone decided it was time to go to Vinyl. I didn't feel like heading out there because I already told my roommate I wouldn't be going and I didn't want to show up there afterall, plus the fact that she had probably left the bar by that point, since she told me she would be home early. Either way, the girls had to head back to Ildiko's to pick up IDs so I was dropped off at home. I needed to get some rest so that I could function Saturday and get all my work done, but as usual, that's not how my night goes. I ended up not sleeping until about 5am and getting up around 9am again...

Highlights of the night:

• Luke
• Luke asking me if I could drive stick shift
  
• Luke asking me if I could drive his car
• Luke asking me if I could drive him downtown, take his car home and return it in the morning

Oh. The silly things boys say when drinking.

Hiatus

So I realized this morning that I haven't blogged since Monday, and that was quite the irrelevant post as well.

It's been a pretty hectic week this week. We only had class Monday and Friday, because we all went to the Gairdner Lecture on Wednesday, being given by Robert Roeder (discoverer of RNA Pol I, II and III). That was an interesting talk, and it was great to actually be present at a seminar being given by such a prominent figure in the scientific community.

Wednesday night was also Grad Trivia night again at the Grad Lounge. The host Devin remembered us from last time as well, and proceeded to make jokes at us for the rest of the night. Our team didn't end up winning (even though Jon showed up for the second round), but Mark and Eric's group on our table ended up winning with a measly score of 11/20. It was a rather brutal round...

We also managed to go skating a couple times this week as well. I'm slowly getting better, but I found on Thursday that the skates were really hurting my legs and I actually started bruising all up the front of my legs as well. Stupid skates. I think it's time to break out the warm fuzzy thick socks while going for our noon hour skates.

I also started all my lab work Thursday. My foil containers finally made their way to the department and I managed to get 36 samples done that afternoon. Vanessa and Joe showed up after coming back from Elora to see how my mess was going. It was a definite mess, which ended up taking me over an hour and a half to clean up. I left the lab at a ridiculous 615pm that night only to need to go home, spend even MORE time in a kitchen making dinner, and reading the paper for class the next day. Needless to say I skipped out on the Aggie Pub that happened that night, which was unfortunate, as I hear there were some pretty awesome stories. Such is the price I pay as a graduate student.

Friday I finished up the rest of my samples that I didn't get around to the day before. Each plot site has 47 samples, so I only did a relaxing 11 samples. That meant the kitchen stayed a whole lot cleaner than Thursday, which was a plus for me because it meant less time cleaning up.

Friday night being the start of the Halloween party weekend, means that that will all be in subsequent posts in the days to come. =)

Enjoy Halloween!

Work

I've been super busy at work this week. Mostly I'm not at the computer, which explains my absence from posting.

From Tuesday of this week until yesterday, I've been sitting in meetings. Many meetings.

There are some big changes coming up in the structure of certain aspects of the government, and one of my bosses was taking the last 3 days to update all her staff on it. So there were many meetings schedules with about 20 people per meeting, to go over the same material. I had to sit in all of these repeat meetings and make notes of the important issues that are raised and prepare a review on it.

Interesting? I wish.

6 meetings. That's how many it took to get the word out to all the staff. And that's not including anyone that I work with, that's only the staff on the other floors and in the adjacent building who's work will be directly affected by the changes. She hasn't even gone to speak to the rest of us about how it will affect us as employees. And my current state of mind really really hopes she doesn't feel compelled to do that either.

My mind is virtually exhausted. Aside from that, I still have my normal work sitting on my desk that has actually been piling up. To combat that, I actually took work home on to work on Wednesday night, a definite first for me.

Aside from work, I also have LIFE in general to deal with as well. It has definitely been a hectic week, and it's been nothing short of a struggle to balance my work and personal life. I think I've done ok on it though. With the help of sacrificing a lot of my sleep this week, I've managed to keep my personal life relatively under control, my work isn't overbearing on my life, and I've gotten some good workout sessions in this week - which I have started another post about (lucky exercise, it gets it's own post entirely).

Looking ahead to the weekend it seems like it'll be a busy one as well. There's a lot of movies I want to see, and a lot of friends who I want to see as well. I think I'm getting the hang of this thing - balancing my life. Heh.

Busy busy

I am so ridiculously busy at work it's not even funny. And for some reason I seem to have even less time when I'm at home.

Last night, I went to the Y to teach Gail how to swim. I didn't really do much of that, since she seemed to be pretty good in the water as is, but I showed her some of the basics. However, being someone who doesn't swim very well makes it a little difficult to show her how things are done. Somewhere during the night I massively pulled a major muscle. I knew it when it happened, because I felt a very sudden sharp stabbing pain in my lower back. Little did I know that pulling muscles while in the water will make it very very painful when you get OUT of the water.

We were at the pool for about an hour, and I was getting seriously wrinkly, so we headed out. The pain wasn't really setting in just yet, but once I got in my car I really started feeling it. It was a difficult drive home, and I had to make a stop at the bank too, prolonging the length of time it took to step into my shower at home. I got home, showered and washed my suit before snuggling up in sweats to watch more of How I Met Your Mother.

Sitting in my office chair was proving difficult too. I couldn't bend over, but I couldn't hyper-extend my torso either. The best I could do was sit in a relatively straight position, but there wasn't any real way of contorting myself that put zero pressure on my lower back. Alas I went to bed, but not to sleep anyway. If I thought sitting was painful on my back, I was (unhappily) surprised at how much it hurt to sleep! I finally fell asleep, but only to be rudely awaken at some Godawful hour (3am) when I knocked my phone off my night table and it smacked the floors. Hard. And loud. Eventually I woke up again around 630 to very stabbing pains in my lower back. Definitely not a good start to the morning. But unfortunately, it was time to get up. What crap.

Work wasn't much better, another day at the office, another day to screw things up. I went to lunch with Pragyan at Earls on campus. My salad was good, except for this stuff called "quinoa". Remind me never to order anything with that on it again. The waitress told me it was similar to couscous. Wikipedia is telling me it's similar to the beet plant. Yeah. Not really going to listen to what the waitress says anymore. Anyways, after lunch we walked to BioSci and ran into Billy at the beginning of HUB waiting for his math student to get there for the tutoring session. When I got to BioSci I also ran into a very very hungover (and possibly still smashed?) Aaron. Good times were had, but I needed to jet off to pick up my reference letters and official transcripts. After that I headed to Greg's.

I was horribly late, because of the ridiculous new bus schedule and routing. I had to wait 10 minutes to LRT to south campus, then wait 10 minutes at the new bus terminal for the 6 to Southgate. It costed me 20 minutes of time, making me 20 minutes late. To make up for it I ran from Southgate, which ended up costing me my toesies, as I was wearing ballet flats. To add more damage to my feet, when I was going home, the smart person I am managed to slam the car door on my foot. Apparently I don't know how to get fully in the car before closing doors.

Anyways, we got to the airport on time, Greg and Jonathon were already waiting by the carousel when we got in. We picked up their luggage and then quickly headed home. Greg showered and ate and started to unpack a little before I had to go home. The rest of the night sounds pretty tame for me, aside from the potential to play some bowling tonight. James gets back at 930 tonight as well, so maybe I'll get some interesting phone calls.

Lazy People

So one thing that's always bothered me is lazy people. I know it's a rude statement, and someone who generalizes people into a group like that is not the how I like to portray myself. But in this instance I think it really needs to be said.

I'm talking about the people who take their cars to go somewhere that is 5 blocks away. I'm talking about the people who would rather wait 5 minutes for an elevator to arrive to take them up to the 3rd floor. I'm talking specifically about the people who will press the automatic door opener even though there is someone (ME!) holding the door open for them already.

I know that everyone does these things every once in a while, but I work in a very tall building and I see things like this all the time. It never fails to amaze me the ignorance of some people in my office building. One door has an automatic open and the other doesn't. I generally go through the non-automatic door, and will hold the door for those coming through behind me. Despite all that, there is always the one person who, when there is no one else around, will still push the automatic open even though the door is already open. This absolutely amazes me. Is the other door not good enough to be graced with your presence? What is it about the automatic door that makes everyone want to walk through it? Are you in need of the door to automatically open for you? Have you lost a limb? As far as I can tell, and I see these people often, they are in perfect health and have all their fingers and toes. So why do they need to be using the automatic door? Our front doors are not heavy, they actually open very easily. It just bothers me so much.

For half of last week's work week, one of our 2 remaining elevators was out of service. This left 14 floors with only one working elevator. Signs were posted in the lobby to request those working on the lower floors to take the stairs instead, as it would be faster, but people were still too lazy to take a few flights of stairs. I have to say that a large proportion of people were taking the stairs, as I don't think I've seen it as full since the elevator was fixed, but its definitely frustrating when the elevator stops on every floor, starting at the 2nd. Who would wait more than 5 minutes for an elevator to take you up one floor, when you are perfectly capable of walking up that flight of stairs?


Exercise: you don't have time not to.
- Anon.