Kelley Bromley

After a day of shopping to pick up some more silicone bakeware we visited friends of Lionel’s parents. They were lovely people who reminded me of Nan and Pop when they were younger. We sat down to a lovely set table with china tea cups and had a bowl of homemade turkey soup which reminded me of the tastes of home. We also had a lovely homemade cheese ball on crackers, and freshly made blueberry muffins - delicious! Charles took picture of some of Evelyn’s recipes for us, and Evelyn showed us some of the homemade quilts she had collected and some of the beautiful craft pieces she was given during her years as a teacher. I also saw the scrapbook album Linda gave her as a gift! She’s pretty good! overall it was an enjoyable visit and I look forward to seeing them again the next time we’re here :)

After doing some laundry and knitting some more of my red scarf, we headed off to the all you can eat sushi place here in Calgary. Johan and Trudie were going to join us, but didn’t come after due to the flu. What a meal! We had miso soup, yam and shrimp tempura, BBQ spicy Korean pork, spicy gyoza (pork dumplings), several types of maki sushi (eel, salmon, tuna, rainbow, california, tempura shrimp), lovely masago (smelt roe) nigri sushi and tamago (omelet) nigri for desert. WOW. My stomach hurt so much, LOL. But man, was it ever good!!

Lionel and I set the alarm for 5:30am but got up at 6:30am to go to the boxing day sales! We arrived at Michael’s by 8am and I got a large lightbox for 50% off!! Yippie! So that is what Sam and Sharene gave me for Christmas, hehe. I also picked up Slab 6 since it was $14.88 (regularly $30), and a set of Knifty Knitter looms - those things are so cool! I started a scarf using some Allure string which was also on sale 50% off and it feels lovely - and it goes QUICK!

We also picked up Lionel’s new computer from Memory Express - dual core AMD 4400+, Asus A8N-E motherboard, and EVGA GForce 7800 GT video card. Unfortunately they didn’t have the right RAM so he’ll have to get that in Vancouver from NCIX… and also nothing was on sale *sigh* oh well! It’s a great machine though, and we’ll be able to record our shows on it :)

Since we weren’t going to Newfoundland for the holidays, we wanted to webcam with everyone back home when they opened presents. So, at 5:30am Calgary time, 9am Newfoundland time, we got the call. It was so nice to see Emma open her gifts! At first Sharene had to coax her to dig into her stocking… it was so cute! Sharene would pull the gift out a little ways, then Emma would look at it and look away, and Sharene would pull it out a little more. By the time she was halfway through the stocking she had gotten the hang of it! She was digging her whole arm in! It was adorable! When she moved on to the presents she would get such a look of surprise when the wrapping came off to reveal toys and whatnot underneath, hehe. I can’t believe how big she’s gotten!!

After the gift openings, the laptop was carried around Sam and Sharene’s new house by Sam and Dad and I got the grand tour - it’s such a lovely house, in a great neighbourhood. Lionel and I hope we can find something as nice when we move back :)

Lionel and I went to bed after 3 hours of webcaming, and got up later in the day for Mom, Dad, and Steve to open the gifts we sent them at Mom and Dad’s house. They really liked the picture frame I mod podged for them! I’ll put a picture of it in the gallery when I get home. We also opened the gifts Charles and Linda got us. Both of our stockings had delicious hot chocolate, lindors, and Christmas ornaments. They also gave us lovely memory foam pillows for our chairs with removable covers so I can wash them, a chenille earth-toned throw for me, and Asterix comic books for Lionel. They really linked the music collection we gave them and the mod podged frame :)

The supper Linda made was lovely… a deliciously moist turkey, fried sweet potatoes with cinnamon, spinach salad, roasted potatoes, and delicious gravy. And vinegar pudding with condensed milk custard for dessert! YUM!

While I had a great time, I still really miss home… every other time we came to Calgary we always went home to St. John’s, so it feels like we will be going home soon… but alas, it is back to Vancouver we go

I just added the pictures from our Vancouver Christmas via webcam to St. John’s on Dec 15, 2005. It was nice to be able to see each other, but nothing beats actually being there… I miss them very much - I’m really looking forward to going home next year! I described the webcam session in the gallery :)

Tuesday was very busy… I finished the genetics assignment, Lionel went to Chapters, I passed in the assignment which involved manuvering several security doors in a new building, heh, made Christmas cards, wrapped Christmas presents, and packed everything to be shipped off the St. John’s! Then as we were getting in the elevator to deliver the package we realized we forgot to put mom’s birthday present in…. oi! So we unpacked it and sealed it back up with LOTS of tape, and off it went. We got sushi for supper (miso soup, yam tempura roll, BBQ eel, which is yummier than you might think, california and salmon rolls, mmm). Then I backed up all my pics and data on DVD in case someone stole our computers over the holidays

Lionel went to bed at midnight, but I didn’t crawl in until 2:30am… got up at 3:30am, showered, packed, finished off our milk, and then got a cab to the airport - $35! Yikes! Anywho, we arrived in Calgary at 9:15am, had breakfast, and then a nice nap. And here I am :)

Now for tomorrow… and having to wash all the dirty laundry we brought with us cause I didn’t have time before we left

The Christie lab got together today to make a card for Dr. Christie. I brought in my pigment ink, embossing powder, and the Christmas Slab I bought yesterday and everyone loved embossing! We had a great time, and the card came out looking awesome. Alina had some really nice corrugated paper that looked AMAZING! I just have to get some of it! It really made the card pop!

After the card making business was over, Lionel, Alina, and I went to get sushi for lunch - yam rolls are sooo good! Lionel wants to start eating sushi more often - I like that idea :)

I also did my first semi-unassisted surgery today! Even the anesthesia injection!! I didn’t quite get the rat on the ear bars properly, so Kyle helped me there, but after that I did the surgery part all by myself, albeit with questions posed to Kyle every now and then, hehe. It still felt like an accomplishment though! I had the signal and then lost it, so at 5pm I had to start all over again… ugh! But it worked out really well, and in 10 minutes I had a strong CA1 response again. Andrea helped me set up the software as I had missed a few details when I wrote down the instructions last time, and Kyle showed me how to twiddle the settings to make sure the response was good, and then I was on my way. I never finished until about 8:30pm, but it felt good getting back into lab work. I’m going to start another guy tomorrow and try to do it on my own - ear bars and software too if all goes well! *crosses fingers* :)

Sorry for not posting in so long - I’m recovering :) The exam actually went quite well, despite the fact that the development notes weren’t as thorough as I’d like. I only really got to read over the last chapter because I was so tired and decided that sleep would be better for problem solving - and I’m so glad I had a bit! It went really well… a choice of 3/6 questions for module 3 and 3/5 for module 4. Everyone I talked to said it was much better than the midterm, and they all thought it was a fair exam.

Everyone tried to go for beer after the exam but apparently the bar doesn’t serve at 11am, lol. I was just going to stay to chat (I don’t drink) and they were going to go back in an hour when the bar opened, but I was anti-social and headed home to have a much needed nap. Alina (of the Christie lab) said people would be recovering on Tuesday, lol, so Lionel and I went Christmas shopping and tried to get Lionel’s BC license - unfortunately the Newfoundland license wasn’t good enough and he needed his citizenship papers… they wouldn’t even accept a passport! Sheesh! And parking downtown on Robson St. was $1/20 minutes!! I fed it $2.50’s worth and we ended up just leaving *Sigh*.

The good news is we picked up Christmas gifts for Sam, Sharene, Steve, and Dad. So now all we have to do is pick up Lionel’s parents’ gift and we’re all set! I still have to get Hiu Ming something though… I saw some more of the 3D crystal things downtown - they came with light stands this time! doh! - but I gave her one of those last year… I’ll come up with something!

We actually found a half decent shopping area with real parking lots. I miss parking lots. Here you either parallel park, park on a roof, pay $7/hour at a parkade, or spontaneously teleport from your home. Crazy business. But yes, a real mall! And a nice feel to it too… set up like a little village, with a normal mall in the center. It’s called Park Royal and it’s in West Vancouver (the city, not the direction, heh :) I got the Christmas Slab III for a great deal ($10!), a 12″ paper trimmer for 37% off, and gloss heavy gel medium! Yay! The gel medium is the coolest stuff - it adds texture to your layouts and it can also be used as a glue and sealer. Can’t wait to try it on the Pearl Ex pigments (colored, acid free, powdered mica) I got on ebay!

Ok, it’s 12:30am and I have two chapters left… synpatogenesis and cell migration or something like that. The neurodevelopment module actually wasn’t that bad… although I’d rather answer questions on glia, Ca waves, and apoptosis than on the actual neurodevelopment stuff, heh. Too many names, I can never keep them in my head - I’m a pathway person. Anyway, if my approximations are correct, it will take me 4 more hours to complete studying. At least I’ll get some sleep, which is more than I can say for the midterm!

I must say though, Lionel’s been great through all the stress, heh. He made super tonight, and he was going to stay up with me until I was done studying but I noticed he had his eyes closed in his chair - turns out he had a migraine and wasn’t going to bed because he wanted to stay with me! I said it was ok and he went off to bed… but isn’t that amazing? I’m a lucky woman :)

Ok, so it’s Sunday and 3:48pm, but I’m half way done. I feel confident with module 3. Now it’s time to do development, which I’m not particularly fond of. I’m taking a much needed break right now - been studying since 10am, bleh. Ahhh… tea….

In the meantime, I’m sure my posts will become more frantic when it’s 5am and I’m still studying development

I’m so tired… but I have to get the details done at least half way through, otherwise I’ll have a hell of a lot to do tomorrow. I can barely keep my eyes open… I’m exhausted :( I think I would actually cry if someone told me we had until Tuesday or Wednesday instead of Monday - just because then I could get some sleep… I need sleep sooo bad =/ Ugh… back to the books.