Weekly Update: First Days of Vacation

• Current Scholastic Vacation Pursuits
• You'd think vacation would be easy. Some people take lying on a beach and doing nothing the same way a duckling takes to the pond for its first swim... I, however, am no duckling. I cannot lie on a beach for more than 15 seconds before I (a) receive a sun burn that will guarantee my early death by melanoma; (b) am immediately attacked by sand flies; (c) start to feel nauseous from anxiety because I'm not accomplishing anything. Some habits are hard to break... and always doing stuff is one of my most formidable penchants.
• To this end, since my exam last Wed, I have done the following:
• purged the apartment and donated a bunch of stuff to GoodWill, the Humane Society, and my dearest friends
• achieved a lifelong dream of flying a helicopter- Great Lakes Helicopter put me in the pilot's seat of an R22 helicopter last Thursday for about an hour. I got to have complete control of the machine while at 3000 ft and remarkably, I'm pretty damn good at flying! My instructor was a little awe struck at how naturally I came to flying until I told him how similar it was to driving a colonoscope. lol.

• rescued a golden retriever puppy that was wandering down the center line of a 4-lane, 100km/h highway
• driven to the North Land to visit Penguin and our families
• helped set up a surprise party that was very surprising, indeed!
• gone to the gym
• bought paint for refurnishing some old furniture that I'm taking with me to Winnipeg
• bought fabric for redoing the pillows I use on my couch
• researched recipes
• caught up on our TV shows (The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother)
• slept in
• See? By sleeping in, I have proven myself capable of "taking it easy" - right?!
• Anyway, only 5 more weeks to go before this whole vacation thing is over and I get back to work. Here's hoping I'll 'make' the most of it! :P

• Recipe I've Been Drooling Over
• There are about 15 recipes I've collected while studying that I'm dying to try out but as the first order of business, what I really wanted was a taste of home... and that taste comes in the form of one of the best (and easiest!) recipes Penguin taught me during the first year we were dating: lemon cream chicken pasta. Check out this link for the bare bones of the recipe: we mix it up with different spices, add tons of veggies, and always make an effort to use happy chickens. So, feel free to mix and match with whatever you've got in your fridge... just don't ever substitute anything for the fresh lemons. They have to be fresh. It just isn't the same otherwise!

• Favourite Thing on Etsy this Week
• Here's great print on Etsy called "Among Friends No. 1" by maechevrette

• What I'm Reading Right Now
• I haven't figured out what I'm going to read over the summer break yet but I'm looking forward to going to Chapters and finding some good books! I'll keep you posted!

• TED Talk I Watched This Week
• This is a story about Paul Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer and some of his arctic and antarctic experiences... at the end of the talk, after some amazing images, he offers an invitation to the crowd... I think you can guess how I answered... "Paul Nicklen, I will swim with you any day! As soon as I find your email on the world wide web, you'll be receiving my acceptance to that invitation!"

• Song of the Week
• Give a Little Love by Noah and the Whale

• Thing I'm Most Grateful for This Week
• Being done!!!! YAYAY!!!!!!!

• Thing I'm Most Looking Forward to This Week
• Packing everything up in the Tropical Tundra so that I'll be free to enjoy my vacation without worrying about the move and getting everything out of the house.

• Bunny Photo of the Week
• I'm not the only one who disapproves of being uprooted from house and home, regular schedules, and a happy busy lifestyle all in the name of vacation... looks like I have an ally in this "disapproving of vacation" scheme.