Weekly Update: 4 Days 'Till We Put In at Rain Lake!

• Current Scholastic Vacation Pursuits
• That's right, there's only 4 more days until we Put In at Rain Lake to paddle 170km - West to East - across Algonquin Park! I'll be gone for 2 weeks to do this trip, so there won't be a blog update next weekend, sorry. However, if you're friends with me on Facebook, you'll be able to see our location on Google Maps as I'll be sending in daily GPS coordinates with my SPOT device.
• This is certainly going to be an epic trip - we've been planning it for years and I'm so very excited to go. There's no doubt that it will be wet and muddy. It's guaranteed that with all the rain we've had this spring, the bugs will be at their worst. And since it has rained every day this week, and every day last week, it's going to be a miracle if it doesn't rain every day of our trip. But that's ok - the title of this trip will likely bear the subtitle, "Mostly Awesome with Brief Periods of Terrible" and our mantra will be muttered a thousand times per portage, "Just Because It's Insane, Doesn't Mean It's Impossible!"

• Recipe I've Been Drooling Over
• I haven't really been drooling over anything but freeze-dried meals in the aisle at MEC since the preparations for the canoe trip have fallen squarely on my shoulders. However, rhubarb is out in the grocery stores at last and I picked up some of the juiciest stalks... I'm going to make rhubarb and rosemary crisp to bring to family dinner tonight. It'll be a self-concocted variation on this brilliant idea: the rhubarb rosemary lemon spritzer.

• Favourite Thing on Etsy this Week
• I fell in love with these origami lotus flowers... they would make the perfect place settings at some future formal dinner. Especially if those future placemats were made out of maps... honestly, how amazing would that be?!

• What I'm Reading Right Now
• I'm reading and re-reading the map across algonquin, my to-do list, and my menu planning lists to make sure everything is ready for the trip. I'm currently trying to decide which book(s) I should bring... I've added a poll to the sidebar on the right, perhaps you folks can vote for which one you think should make it into my pack?

• TED Talk I Watched This Week
• Here's a great tip on how to tie your shoes correctly - you probably think you already know how to do that but this 3 min vid might just prove to you otherwise! 

• Song of the Week
• Here's an amazing video for Jeremy Messersmith's, "A Girl, A Boy, and a Graveyard"

• Thing I'm Most Grateful for This Week
• I'm really grateful for my family- our trip across Algonquin would not be possible without the help of my Mom: she's driving us to the Put In, meeting us for a resupply halfway through, and picking us up at the Take Out PLUS looking after the buns while we're away. Thanks Mom!

• Thing I'm Most Looking Forward to This Week
• Putting In at Rain Lake!!!! YAY!

• Bunny Photo of the Week
• I have 2 couches: one seats 3 people and the other 2. I usually sit on the 2-person couch because it's just the right length for me to sprawl... which leaves the 3-person couch the default territory of the bunnies. Sometimes, they take this a little too seriously since Hoyle has been known to gently nip people who sit on "his couch" when I have company over. Here's Hoyle with his most regal expression, attempting to prove that he's King of the Couch:

Graduation Video

Hi Folks!

The graduation video is up on YouTube! Check it out:

Weekly Update: Graduated! The "holidays" continue...

• Current Scholastic Vacation Pursuits
• Convocation was on Friday this past week- so I've officially been hooded and diploma'ed! Saroja, MD. Feels pretty good. Or at least it did once my feet stopped hurting from the NINE HOUR ceremony. Good grief!
• Instead of making a speech, our valedictorian made a film by doing a series of interviews with various students from our class. I made it in to 2 of the spots! Apparently, the video will be posted on YouTube, so I'll put it up here on the blog once it becomes available. 
• Aside from that, the entire weekend has been spent packing up the apartment in preparation for the move tomorrow. I have way more stuff that I probably should. Most of it is books, which for the life of me, I just can't seem to give away.
• Happily, we did manage to make a few social occasions this weekend. The first was a BBQ at Scarlet's parents' place. Words can't really capture how lovely it was to share that evening with my surrogate parents, Scarlet, and Constellation. The next day, Scarlet and Constellation were heading off to Portugal to begin a 5 week tour of Europe. Saying goodbye at the end of the evening was one of those surreal moments that we always knew would happen but never wanted to acknowledge. It'll be a few months until I see Scarlet again but distance doesn't matter to friends- and I have a very good track record with long distance relationships! Ha! That didn't stop me from bawling most of the 2 hour drive home from the BBQ, having just said goodbye to one of my closest and dearest friends.
• The next morning, we took Mom out for a birthday brunch at the Pillar and Post in Niagara on the Lake. It was really quite lovely and we were all delighted to eat real food rather than yet another meal of crackers and jam (since that's all that's left in apartment)! They practically had to roll us out the door after brunch, we were sooo full.
• Mom left last night and Penguin and I have been plowing through the rest of the packing. The Green Machine came down from Steel City to help and, true to her name, made a serious dent in the workload. Fortunately, I didn't have to tender another tearful goodbye to her since she'll be in The North Land for my hometown goodbye party. A few others close friends dropped by as well, though, and it was hard to watch them all leave at the end of the night. Le grande sniff.

• Recipe I've Been Drooling Over
• Check out this Roasted Crepe Cake by The Three Cheeses. YUM!

• Favourite Thing on Etsy this Week
• I love love love these edible cupcake toppers! Such a brilliant idea!

• What I'm Reading Right Now
• After the move, I'm going to start biting into my summer reading. I've got a list of books I want to devour. Most notably:
• Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant by Adler Ferrani
• Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters! by JD Salinger
• The Waterproof Bible by Andrew Kaufman
• Do you have any suggestions for summer reading for me?

• TED Talk I Watched This Week
• Lying in bed yesterday morning waiting for the others to awaken, I watched this great talk about chronic pain by Elliot Krane.

• Song of the Week
• Interpol and Modest Mouse are my primary packing-up-the-apartment artists; here's Interpol's Pace is the Trick:

• Thing I'm Most Grateful for This Week
• Everyone who supported, helped, carried, fed, and pulled me through medical school. I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you.
• The love and help of my family and friends in getting the apartment packed up. 

• Thing I'm Most Looking Forward to This Week
•  Getting the move done so I can concentrate 100% on our trip through Algonquin! 10 days to go!

• Bunny Photo of the Week
• Jazz had her follow up appointment post-surgery at the vet's on Saturday. The news wasn't good. Her acquired malocclusion, while trimmed back, is likely to regrow and will need surgery again in about 6 months. And probably every 6 months thereafter. That would make her vet bills $2600 a year! In addition, she'll need to stay on antibiotics for life to deal with her chronic bilateral otitis media and nasalacrimal duct infections.
• The vet said that the "prognosis was poor" even if these interventions are carried out.
• Needless to say, this news was rather devastating. Despite her ailments, Jazz remains a spritely happy bunny who is eating well, running around, causing mischief, and generally seems unaffected by her symptoms.
• I'm going to go ahead and take both her and Hoyle with me to Winnipeg and get a second opinion from their new vet there. Fingers crossed for better news in the future.
• Here's the buns in their box at the vet's waiting for the doctor to come in...

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.