Thesis update

Looks like I'll be in Kingston for the summer. I had originally hoped to finish this May and head off to work somewhere exciting... or at least somewhere with better pay, but there's been the usual delays that have crushed my high hopes. I'll be done by the end of summer, so still within my 4 years. So far i think we're planning to kick around Ktown until the end of October or November — that gives me time to do post-doc NSERC applications, plus many of the oil companies swing by Queen's in October so that will give me a chance to do some interviews... and of course John & Fran are getting married in October so I'll definitely be able to catch that at least!... and I'll have a bit more flexibility this summer to go up and see the new niece or nephew.

Officially Spring

Well, it officially feels like spring now. Kali had her first bath of the season after a muddy session of wrestling at the morning puppy play-group... and I went running in shorts for the first time this year! Usually as soon as it hits 0 ˚C I'll be out in shorts, but this year there's been a lot of strong, cold wind... Friday was perfect though. +5, warm gentle breeze... couldn't ask for better weather!

Maple Madness

Six of us went out to Cataraqui Conservation Area to check out the maple bush today! It was an awesome sunny day, a balmy +2º C or so. I think it's the first time i've been out there for Maple Madness in the sun. We got to ride out there in a tractor-drawn, covered wagon. Definitely a fun, but bumpy, way to get there. Oh, and who could forget the recycle rap? I'm sure everyone who has been out there will remember it fondly... I'm not quite sure what this structure was for... but it was along the road back from the interpretive sugar bush trail. And then it was time for pancakes drenched in fresh maple syrup!! I meant to take pictures of the maply goodness, but got distracted by eating it. Oh well... I'm sure you can use your imaginations.

Agility

Just before christmas we started Kali in agility classes. She gets to do all kinds of neat stuff in agility... it's basically obstacle courses. The beginner agility class basically familiarizes the dogs with the equipment... A-frames, tunnels, chutes (a fabric tunnel), dog-walks (narrow bridges), jumping through tires, over obstacles, weave poles and teeter totters! Kali graduated beginner agility in January, and last weekend she graduated from intermediate... or rather I did... Intermediate agility mostly trains the handler how to give the proper signals to the dogs so they navigate the course in the proper order. We begin advanced agility this weekend, which will be more handler training. If we're still in Kingston this summer we're hoping to go into some beginner "fun" courses since the rules aren't as strict for these competitions. I'm hoping to get pictures of Kali on some of the equipment, but I doubt that will happen until Tom's back in town... and probably not until we get to practice outside because it's kind of close quarters with 5 other teams to worry about on the floor!

Ice Storm

We had a pretty impressive mini-ice storm about a week ago. The next afternoon I was out chipping an inch of ice off the driveway and decided to snap a few nifty scenery shots. It was a bit eerie being out there... every few minutes there would be a crash as large branches fell off the trees across the street onto the sidewalk. By mid-afternoon the sun came out and everything pretty much melted away.