mom – Imaginary Sunshine

Happy Mother’s Day

Michelle — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:06:29 +0000

Nothing quite says “I love you, mommy” like baking cupcakes for her. Plain white cupcakes as she couldn’t decide on a recipe that she liked, plus buttercream frosting with a little bit of red gel colouring.

(Oh, I also got new pastry tips… and was experimenting with them with my sisters, J and D… which is why they all look like a small child decorated them – because one did, hah ;))

Smile! My sister J was changing tips all the time and decided that it looked like my mom (lol!). My dad agreed (two eyes, one nose, one smile and hair).

Heart (by my sister, D) and… something?? (by my sister, J)

Flower (decorated by me) and a snail (by my sister, D).

Michelle makes a friend, gets mail and worries a lot

Michelle — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:09:24 +0000

So I had my first plants biology lab this week and it went really well. The awkward thing is that I walked into the room and didn’t know a single person (besides of the instructors, because she’s also one of my profs and I had her for my plants biology lab last term as well). And then a girl sits down next to me and introduces herself and guess who’s got a new lab partner? That’s right, me! It turns out that we both took the same plants biology course last term and we figured out where we sort of recognized each other from – we also had the same plants biology lab. Total fail for memory, I know. She’s also in my invertebrates zoology class and she’s in my invertebrates zoology lab as well. I know people! I know people! Oh, also turns out that she is in my biochemistry lecture as well, so hopefully a good resource and will be my friend? I feel so awkward when I say crap like that though.

Makes me sound like a little kid going “Will you let me take a look at your notes? I’ll be your bestest friend forever.”

I also have two TAs in that plants lab – one’s a Masters student, the other is an undergrad (and same age as me o_O). Plus we did a few cross-sectionings today and my slide of my stained yam (yes, I said yam – stained it to look at the starch) got photographed for the class website. Yeah, total dorkish moment there. But it was cool. I got asked if I had taken the plants class last term because I was using tips I had gotten then for making my cross-sections (the answer, of course, was yes).

Ahem, Besides my major biology geekery there ^… I’ve spent money lately, for two lab manuals and custom courseware. What I hate is how my school handles stuff like lab manuals and custom courseware. If it’s lab manuals for science classes or custom course materials for science classes – they’re not available through the school’s bookstore. Instead, they’re available through a somewhat related student club. For instance, I had to track down the biology club in order to buy my invertebrates zoology lab manual, I went to the microbiology club’s room to buy my biochemistry custom courseware and I had to get my plants lab manual directly from my professor (because the botany club doesn’t handle sales?). In previous years, when I had to get (required) custom course materials for classes like chemistry, some biology classes and English, I could get everything through my school’s bookstore – meaning one stop, one line-up, one swipe of the credit card rather than needing exact change in small bills. /rant.

Anyways… Things have been going pretty well thus far (then again, only the fourth day of school, so who knows?). I did, however, realize that in my last week of classes before the spring/reading break that I get, I have 3 lecture midterms and 1 lab midterm. Which would be fine if I didn’t have two midterms on the same day (lab and lecture) but the lecture midterm is in the late evening (7-9pm) and the next morning (at 8am), I have another lecture midterm =/ Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? I’m going to ask my prof (for the 7-9pm midterm) if it will be possible to write it at another time, since I do live off campus and I’d be a) getting home at around 11pm and b) needing to wake up at 5:30am. And while I would really love to suffer and go through sleep deprivation for the sake of getting something that resembles a grade, I’m going to see if I can write it on another day, like on Wednesday or something. So I don’t fall asleep during my morning midterm or something.

Gah. I need to stop talking about school.

Umm… I got mail? (Finally?!) I ordered my sister D’s Christmas present back in December. I got a notice that it had shipped (from Hong Kong) on December 8th (the label on the package says December 7th) and it arrived yesterday. So my mom said that it was probably sent via surface mail (chugging along the ocean on a boat or something), but there’s like three different stamps on it that states that it was sent by air mail. So either the postage system in Hong Kong is incredibly slow, or Canadian customs is incredibly slow or Canada Post is incredibly slow. Or some combination of the three (I’m guessing all three). You know those Rubik’s cubes? I found one online (that’s not an “official” Rubik’s product) that is 4x4x4 rather than the traditional 3x3x3 for my sister’s gift. Needless to say, she really likes it – even if it did take forever to arrive. =)

Also, my mom’s been having vision problems lately and she’s had an appointment with the optometrist. He claims that the issues that she’s been having are “normal” though? And only to be worried if it persists or worsens. I’m really concerned since my mom does drive to and from work on Mondays and Tuesdays (she carpools with my sister for the rest of the week)… But my mom doesn’t seem too concerned? So I don’t know if I’m just worrying over nothing right now. I mean, even the doctor said that it was normal and it wasn’t anything to be worried about. =/ Not sure how I feel about that, honestly. I mean, while he does have a medical degree and specializes in eyes, it just seems weird to have a doctor tell someone that the vision problems that they’re experiencing aren’t anything to be worried about.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thursday. I’m looking forward to the weekend already…

Internets, meet my formerly denomic gnomes.

Michelle — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:09:18 +0000

Today is Day 12 of my winter holiday break.

Tomorrow is Day 13 of my winter holiday break.

Which is also my last day of winter holiday break as term 2 (which has, as of today, been paid for!) starts on Monday.

Which means I’ll be waking up at 5:00am in order to go to school (on time) because I have a class at 8am.

(Which also means that I will cry as I will no longer be able to sleep in, and I’ll have to go to bed at a decent time. And also cry because I only had 13 days off. I know many someones who had 20+ days off. I hate loathe dislike envy you all.)

Actually, I start at 8am on Tuesdays as well. Along with Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Fudge.*

I’m taking four classes this (very) upcoming term:

Invertebrates biology – really looking forward to this class as it involves awesome things like worms, insects, crustaceans, etc. I took Vertebrates Biology last year, term 1, and absolutely loved the class – this one is similarly structured

Vascular plants biology – also really looking forward to this class, I took the ‘sister class’ [Non-Vascular Plants] in term 1 and loved it, and the teaching team!

Cell Biology II– essentially an introduction to biochemistry – I liked Cell Biology I, which I had just finished, so this should be interesting!

Calculus – ahem, retaking this and incredibly determined to kick ass**, and abuse my professor’s office hours and tutorial time, for this class

12 hours of lectures per week, along with 6 hours of lab time (for Invertebrates and Vascular Plants). Coupled with a total of 5.5 hours of breaks (spread out throughout all days, of course) and 3 hours of travel time per day. Making it a grand total of 38.5 hours per week for school and travel. Not including studying time, of course. Haven’t bought any of my textbooks yet (still waiting for the booklist to update, as there’s no textbook listed for Cell Biology II) and I know I will have to at least buy a textbook for calculus (a little difficult to do my homework without it, I would think).

And now, the end of my school talk – because I’ll be posting about what I think of my new professors on Monday/Tuesday.

I went out with one of my sisters (D) and my mom today, we had to go to the bank (to pay for my tuition – my school is, thankfully, awesome and hooked up with one of the major banking institutions so I can authorize a direct deposit into the school’s account with my money… I also suddenly feel poor) and then to the mall.

First off, at Zellers there was still some holiday stuff that hadn’t been sold yet. On Boxing Day, my mom said it was at 50% off. Today, well, being as it is January 2nd… everything was at 90%.

Look! Gnome ornaments! From left to right: gnome with frog, gnome with turtle and mushroom, gnome with mushrooms, gnome with squirrel and mushroom. Original price was $1.99/each, they rang up at $0.20/each. Swoon. I love these. When I first found them (found the one with the squirrel first) I held it up to my sister and went “LOOK! It’s a denomic looking gnome with a squirrel and a SHROOM!”. Now I no longer think they look denomic, they just look awesome.

Other wonderful holiday goodies that were deeply discounted including a snowman nightlight (my mom found it, it rang up at $0.01 but apparently they weren’t supposed to sell it at that price and it wasn’t even supposed to be available to us, but we got it for $0.20 as well), a door hanger that says ‘Welcome’ and has a snowman, a penguin and a ‘Santa’ hanging below it in a row (original $12.99, paid $1.30), two boxes of dull silver glass ornaments (original $3.99, paid $0.40/box), taper candles! (original $1.50, paid $0.10/each) and, the best find of all, this musical figurine! When you wind it up, a little penguin spins around and it plays the tune of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”. We later found out that it was missing another ‘dancer’, but the original price was $24.99 and we paid $2.50 for it so my mom just said that the other dancer was too expensive for us (given that it was nearly $22, hehehe).

We had 4 bags of things. All of the things mentioned above plus 6 boxes of cereal. In total, we spent < $18 at Zellars (and $12 was on the cereal). Oh, how I love discounted holiday goodies. Especially formerly referred to as denomic gnomes with squirrels on their backs holding onto giant shrooms.

Besides holiday goodies shopping, the Disney Store in the mall was closing.

So naturally I went in. And naturally I ooohed and ahhhed over cute Disney-related things.

And naturally I may have bought some things.

Like those? The mini Wall-E in the front I had originally (I actually bought two! One was given to Clay as part of his birthday gift last year and I kept the other one, because I wanted one.). I got Eve (Eeeee-vah?), “U-Repair Wall-E” (which has fully articulated hands! and opens up! and can move his head up and down and tilt all the way back! and zomg awesomeness!) and also Mo (Microbe Obliterator). I figured if I was getting a (bigger) Wall-E and wanted to get an Eve to go with him, I couldn’t leave Mo behind, right?

After all, it’s really funny to hold him up to my sister and go “foreign contaminant” in a robotic-ish voice. I am an awesome sister, she threw a cushion at my head.

But they are just so much fun. My sister arranged this scene after they were all out of their packaging:

Clearly Eve looks like she’s hormonal and looking to kill something.

Other purchases include clothes (boring things, you wouldn’t be interested and I wouldn’t want you to be all like “omg, you bought WHAT? You cannot wear those in public” like my sister did) and grocery-type foods.

All in all, it was a fairly good day. Got to spend with my sister and my mom, pay for school (bleh), ransack the dregs of holiday clearance, hunt through Disney Store goods and go clothes shopping. Oh, as well as getting the most delicious ice cream ever in a waffle cone (chocolate hazelnut with a sprinkling of chocolate shavings on top… in a waffle cone).

Anyways…. I hope everyone had an awesome day today. And if you’ve read all of this, you deserve a cookie (or two).

* Honestly, I should have used something stronger here, but my sister has made me a bet that I can’t a day without swearing. So I’m trying my darnest not to swear. It’s not working out very well for me as now I really want fudge.

** I don’t consider ‘ass’ to be a curse word. I know some people do, and more power to you. But honestly, another phrase for a donkey is an ass. And that thing you sit on? Same thing. Cheers!

In which it was a pretty good Sunday

Michelle — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:30:29 +0000

@ Kelsey – I suppose it could be a sign that we should get a dog. Or that people should invest in leashes. Or train their little canine friends a little bit more.

But speaking of dogs… Today at volunteering, someone who was visiting their mom (for Mother’s Day, of course), brought in their dog (a lot of people do this, provided they get permission first) and the dog ran off and came near me because I was sitting in an area where some of the residents had dropped lots of crumbs. So I look down, and there’s this furry medium-sized dog snarfing up pastry crumbs around my feet. I reach down calmly, snatch up the leash and give the dog a little tug as I’m getting up so I can take it back to it’s owner. The dog looks up at me for a moment and then goes and stands up on it’s hind legs and puts it’s front paws on my legs. It was kinda cute. I mean, badly behaved and went straight for pastries (although, I must confess, I like pastries too), but still cute. When I relaxed a little, he tried to run back towards the crumbs and I nearly let go of the leash, but I held onto it and it whimpered when it couldn’t run anymore. But the most important thing? I didn’t freak out over being around a dog! And the dog didn’t try to bite me! Score one for getting over my fear of dogs.

Mother’s Day went well in my house. I made breakfast (French toast!) and my family went out for lunch (without me, asI had volunteering at 1pm). Then for dinner my sister cooked (… she never cooks, so it was kind of weird) and she cooked halibut with tomatoes, which was really good (my dad helped her). So that was cool. For my mommy’s Mother’s Day gift, besides the meals, my sister and I paid for a set of new gardening tools for her. She likes gardening (despite her many allergies, some of which include allergies to certain types of trees, grasses and flowers), and the hand tools that she had were from before I was even born so… We got her new ones. And she likes them! The old ones had hard plastic handles, these ones are a little bit more friendly towards using them for long periods of time. So she likes them, which is awesome. We also got her pink pastries (… it was a spur of the moment kind of thing).

And… May 10th is also my non-anniversary anniversary with the Boyfriend! Confused? (It’s okay, half the time I am too!). Last year, I asked him out on May 10th (and if what I wrote was correct, it was like sometime just past midnight). I annoyed my very wonderful friend K to death about it, going back and forth on if I was going to ask him out or not. And kept her up while doing it as well (the crazy girl loves company?). So I asked him out. And… he took on his own sweet time getting back to me on that one. Or what seemed like an incredibly long time (everything seems a lot longer when you’re anticipating an answer and you’re not quite sure of it’s going to be a positive or a negative answer). So, I kept her up and kept myself up while I was at it. Obviously, he agreed to go out with me (or else I wouldn’t be referring to him as anything besides “That Guy From Work Who Rejected Me” – althought that’s a bit long, I’d probably just call him “C”). And K stayed up with me until I got an answer. =) Granted, we didn’t go out on our first date until after the summer was over and until I started up school again (… in September). So technically, not our anniversary (which was decided on back in… March – we take our own sweet time doing things) but I’m a complete dork and have to mention it anyways! Mostly because I’m a complete dork and mostly because I wanted to show off what I gave him!

You may have already seen the photos over at Chelle-Chelle.com (where I mentioned a little bit about the construction and yarn fibers) or seen on my Flickr (if you happen to be following me) or over on my sidebar (when I uploaded them earlier, prior to volunteering when I hadn’t had a chance to write this entry yet). But nonetheless, this poor guy is getting cross-posted just about everywhere.