The Nut-Shells of Mr and Mrs KJM

Only a week and a half later! And I have pictures. I think it has taken that long for me to get over my one and only attempt at "jet-setting". I really, really don't know how Boston can do it.

My trip back to Toronto was short, yet filled with (albeit brief) visits. I have Photologged the whole damned thing.

I landed in the Tdot at exactly 11:56pm on Thursday evening. While I was going to go to Cleavers, a text from Boston sent me scrambling to the Tap, where a white wine (courtesy Jay the bartender), and good times awaited. There was a goal, as Boston was leaving for China at 7:20am the following morning (we have a tendency to keep her awake until she takes her flight... I blame her). In bed by about 6:40am, which gave Boston exactly 26 minutes to rest before she took off around the globe.

I, on the other hand, woke up at 12:38pm (long after she left). I spent the afternoon doing what I do best, wandering Toronto and purchasing 4 t-shirts in Chinatown to the tune of $10 (I've had so many compliments on those shirts....). Cleavers had to WORK (sucker), so I needed to wait until she was done to meet up. But meet up we did, for a tour de Duke of York to meet with the NeuroSarah, Fletch, Vick and Dave. We were entertained with British poo stories along with an existential moment where Fletch claimed to see Yin and Yang in his pint.



Also, I was able to gravel across the floor, and may have almost made amends with the Noblest person I know (aka NeuroSarah). Her stories from Ethopia actually made me want to visit. And make me feel even worse for not contacting her for her duration there (PLEASE NeuroSarah... take this as a public apology for being an asswipe friend!!!)

Seeing as Boston kept me up for so goddamned long the night before, I needed to sleep at a reasonable hour to prepare for the whole reason I went home.

KJM (aka UberGeek)'S WEDDING:

Now for the Gold. Saturday Morning, took off for Guelph to attend the event to kill all events. Met with Myth and Yani at Yorkdale in a rented car to head out... Bless both of them for having organizational skills that far surpass mine. Even without a map, nor any indication for an address for where we would be staying for the night, we were able to make it in one piece to Guelph. We even made it a full 45 minutes before the ceremony (where pictures weren't allowed, so I couldn't even get photographic evidence of Ubergeek crying in a skirt.... (sorry dude, had to say it)).

All joking aside though, it an amazing ceremony. Beautiful. I've been to a lot of weddings (not mine, much to my parents chagrin), and most of the time you are just waiting it out for the reception. But this was one of the rare instances where you are just honoured to be in the same room as two people who are celebrating the rest of their lives together. And there are no two people who deserved that moment more. Congratulations guys. You did it.

Now I can joke again.

Then we drank. Bless the Scot's and their open bar (although truth be told, Myth and I couldn't wait that extra 20 minutes for the bar to open, and we purchased some wine before everything started). We went through dinner (great... I had my first Quiche... it didn't have egg in it!), speeches (for the first time, somebody thanked ME for coming a long distance!! Usually I'm just travelling down the 401), and we got down to the first dance (sorry for the quality/lack of zoom):



The bride was blushing:



And looked even better when placed next to the Amazonian woman:



Even a photop next to the Groom didn't seem to feminize Amazonian woman:




Although it did spur a conversation at a wedding that has probably NEVER occured before:



Where Groom (let's revert back to Ubergeek at this point) wanted to look at the code for one of our collaborative works together. Yes, his computer was there:



Lets not tell Mrs. Ubergeek. Once again, there should NEVER EVER be more than one vision scientist per room. We have established this on many occasions.

At this point, things got fuzzy. I remember begging Ubergeek's advisor and husband not to leave. I think I was then poured onto a shuttle bus back to the hotel, where I slept blissfully for several hours.

Which was good, as Don and Eva picked me up for the airport at 9am the next morning. Yep, even got to see the folks for 3 hours on my trip home. Bless them (I'm pretty sure noone from the wedding was going to drive me back at that time of the morning, although Yani offered). On the plane, and home again, a mere 72 hours after I left.

And so UberGeek is hitched. Thy will be done. Although it was a tiring trip, I am so very glad that I was able to be there for it.

I will need to next post about last weekend, where Chiquita mimiced Molly Ringwald from the Breakfast Club. You know the scene... the one with the lipstick. Only it wasn't Molly Ringwald, it was Chiquita.

And it wasn't lipstick, it was a pint of beer.

Yeah, you read that right.

And we have the picture to prove it.

Googlewhackblatt

OK... I haven't posted picts from Geeks wedding yet, but I will very soon. I just had to add this RIGHT NOW as I am very excited... it appears that I have stumbled across a Googlewhackblatt. Don't know what that is? Check it out on Wikipedia (I erroneously thought that I had found a GoogleWhack, but it seems that this may even be rarer).

The Googlewhackblatt term?

Wiperlab.

Of course, by blogging this, I reign supreme, as this term will now exist on two websites, and no longer exist as a Googlewhackblatt (aka the Googlewhackblatt paradox). And I can be secure in the knowledge that I will be the one and only person who can claim this title in the entire interweb universe.

I feel like I just won the Oscar.

A Weekend O' Rexall

I'm working right now, so I shouldn't blog. But I will because I have pictures.

Honey and I decided to spend as much time as possible at Rexall this weekend. First it was the Olier game on Friday:



They lost. That sucked. Although Honey reintroduced Beer into her diet in preparation for our UK '07 tour, so that makes me happy.

Then it was off to the Edmonton Rush (Lacrosse) on Saturday:



They lost too. That sucked harder (although it was a ridiculously exciting game: the Rush scored with -0.1 seconds left, and if that were a POSITIVE integer, they would have tied it up).

With this losing streak under our belts as audience members, we were concerned with whether or not the Tragically Hip would win on Sunday:



And boy, did they win. Gordie was in fine, fine form. And they played some songs that I never thought I would ever hear live (i.e. Grace Too and Fiddler's Green). I think I cried a little bit.

All in all, one hell of a Canadian weekend.

Pharmarachnophobia

My Obvious Resolution

Need I state it? Notice how I'm back? Notice how my blog title has changed? Yes, I am confident that I will have much more time this semester, and as such, Lemmiwinks(13) has been resurrected. Bless.

The prospect of summarizing the past 5 months is far too daunting. As such, I will simply pretend that I have been abducted by aliens (ie undergrads) for the past little bit, and have only now found myself back on earth. Short summary of last semester: Awesome. Love teaching. But I look forward to NOT prepping courses this coming semester, and instead focusing on the whole research thing. As of today, my computers are ready to go. Let the coding begin!!!

So let me jump back into blogging mode through a synopsis of the holidays. I'm sure that the 2 readers that I have left will appreciate it.

The first couple of days was spent in the T-dot, at Cleavers place. Customer appreciation night at the Tap (food donations = free booze... woohoo!) served to be a most excellent (albeit brief) reintroduction to the Tdot. By the end of the night, I had given away all but 2 out of the 30 business cards that I brought back with me (including 2 to a lovely girl from Yellowknife and her boyfriend from St. Johns at 3am on Bloor St... guess who shouldn't be given business cards), and got to eat my favorite brown-people food before bed. I rolled out of bed the next morning to have a loverly brunch with Mary, then headed down to the Apple Store to meet UberGeek for a (albeit brief) happy Apple Store reunion (you may recall our fetish for Apple here . And thank God it was UberGeek I was with, for noone but Mr. WB himself would have appreciated the fact that we saw (and sort of stalked) Scott Speedman in line. I only have one word for him. And that is Yum.

After I purchased my new Mini (thanks to the kindness of loving friends who were glad to see me leave Toronto last time), we headed to the Pump for a *meeting* with British Ubergeek. We actually did work, and got some great stuff accomplished, although we all know that Beer + Vision Scientists always degrades into a sloppy mess . See?



You will all be happy to know that British UberGeek's book will be on shelves by April. I am purchasing 4.

The next day I headed out to London by train to meet up with Stink and Hessels, who flew in that night. If you DON'T read Cleavers blog, then you wouldn't know that I was mentioned in the Star (OK... so it was largely Cleavers (bottom of article), but I was the friend she was seeing off at the airport). Stink was pissed that my train was an hour late. You know what would have helped? If she had a CELL PHONE. We headed to some Weasel Pub (which wasn't there when I was at UWO) that was quite lovely. Chatted the night away over (literally) one too many pitchers (we should have stuck with 2. But no. Hessels had to get greedy). Stink drove us to Avonton the next morning, where I got to see the new kitchen:



which is lovely. Big windows to capitolize on the view of the river in the back, and countertops custom built from barn wood from the farm by Don.

Don and Eva have also taken to making their own wine. Its quite good, really. It also gives me an idea...

The rest of the trip was a bit more relaxing... watching movies (with homemade wine), eating fondue (with homemade wine), opening presents (with homemade wine). I got a lovely quilt made by Mom that now adorns my bed. I headed to Blyth with Stink on the 27th to visit the Hessels homestead (and FINALLY the Rubber Boot... yes the place does exist). I headed back to Edmonton on the 29th (after one last trip to the Apple Store for a DVI to SVid adaptor at Sherway Gardens... now I've been to every Apple store in Ontario!). Was greeted at the airport by Chiquita and Lynne (who, I'm pretty sure, were just looking for an excuse to drink, as is evidenced here : note the timestamp). But what a lovely way to arrive back into town.

The rest of my time was spent settling back in; I set up my Mini (aka Quagmire). While he doesn't have a keyboard nor mouse, he has a lovely remote which I can use to watch DVDs and listen to ma music. Eek, being all needy as she is, tried (and failed miserably) to fit into the box:




Get over it girlfriend.

Finally, I spent NYs with Gord and Chiquita. After admiring Quagmire (which I will, of course, force everyone to do for the next 2 months), we had a few beer and headed over to the Sherlock Holmes (our new local). Good times (besides all the creepy/gropey guys that were by the washroom and the fight that started at the next table. Hazzah for Gord for being able to protect us). Although Chiquita looks like she is plotting something:



Look familiar?



All in all, a good night, wrapped up by some Arrested Developement. Always a good way to enter the New Year. I was sad because I didn't get to see a certain someone, but I did receive a greeting from him today:



And, even though he doesn't know it yet, I think I might have found him a new piece of ass:




We'll see if there's a connection.