Face-Off

I am looking after a little dog right now. A bichon crossed with something that likely results in a cutsey vaguely rude breed name. In any case, he is small and curly and white. and extremely well behaved. i have never seen a small dog so un-yippy as this one. I didn't even know he made noise until we played "destroy the stuffy" on the first night. His name is Hercules.

In any case, because i have not brought much food over to his house, and he lives just down the street, we spend a lot of time at my parents house. We come, we eat lunch, I use the computer, and we leave to feed him his dinner. He loves it here because he gets three times more attention, and he gets to observe the rabbit.

He starts out his visit now by sitting and staring at the cage until Baz gets annoyed and comes out to check out what is going on. Then Herc slowly walks up to the cage with his tail making little sweeps back and forth, and they meet, nose to nose through the cage. Then Herc starts to walk around the cage, and Baz keeps right up with him. We then call Herc back to the table, and Baz gets annoyed and starts trying to pull her cage apart and rip up newspaper. Herc, even though he is a small dog, is almost twice the size of Baz (which isn't difficult as she only weighs 6 pounds)

Today, we decided to let them meet face to face outside of the cage. I opened up Baz's cage so she could get back in quickly, and lifted her out and brought her out to the carpet where mom was holding Herc. I let Baz go, she hopped up to Herc, gave him one smell, and then hopped away to explore. Yup, that's my girl, completely ignore the guy who is so desperate to meet you he is quivering.

So we let Herc go with his retractable leash on, and he was able to get close enough to say hi again a few more times, and got punched in the face for his efforts. poor boy. no blood thank heavens, but just enough of a hit to make him back off but remain really interested. He feels much better about investigating her now that she is back in her cage.

Oh, Baz is definitely my girl. Raised her right.

E-I-E-I-O

This weekend was College Royal, the big open house at the U of Goo.  It is a time when everybody shows off what they can do.  Everybody except the college of arts.  in fact the only arty thing is a juried art show.  most people are there for the science stuff.  In fact, throughout most of my undergrad at this university most of my fellow students thought that College Royal was just the name of the big prom-like dance that happens the weekend before to kick off the celebrations.  I haven't been in about 5 or 6 years, so i decided i needed to go this weekend.  plus i need to prove to you all in BC that there really are cows (and horses and sheep and pigs) a 5 minute walk away from my house.

So I will now take you on a tour of "Old MacDonald's New Farm"

Food time in the Dairy Barn, oh so tiring this eating.

These two little piggies were desperately trying to get back in with the big mama sow.  Either that or there was something really tasty on that grill!

These little guys were pretty much the only guys making noise.  I was so cute to see the little children jump and giggle when they suddenly realized that sheep actually go "baaaa"

and, last but not least, la piece de resistance, Snowball, the cow with a hole in her side!  The man did stick his hand all the way in, but he did it very quickly and my camera was running out of batteries, so I got him clearing the grassy cud away to put her plug back in.  The hole goes right into her largest stomach and it doesn't hurt her at all because she has grown up with it in her side.  this hole is really just for teaching and research purposes, but they have put smaller holes in other cows who have troubles with getting rid of gasses.  They currently have three cows with these holes.

This brings us to the end of our tour.  There were also piglets, lots more sheep, donkeys, horses, chickens, ornamental ducks, and rainbow trout, but they weren't very photogenic. Things have definitely changed, we used to be able to walk right into the Dairy Barn, and we used to be able to pet all the animals, and people used to be allowed to stick their hand inside the cow, but now everything is cordoned off and only demonstrated.  So sad this emphasis on safety.  

Spring is sprung!

Spring is here!  These picture were taken a few days ago.  it is not so nice and sunshiny today, but we can still claim spring!  the plants think so at least!

Soon, these guys will be cut down and we can stop having little grass stars stuck to our coats and start being attacked by a new crop of thick blades of ornamental grass on bare legs.  oh spring, what marvels you bring!
this is one of two snowdrop plants that are out.  they are the only thing flowering right now. so cute!  they are also up in one of our neighbour's gardens, the only live plants in her beds all year, once they are gone she will plant her silk flower garden for the season.
someone practiced her hiding to gear up for Easter while her ma took pictures.  i figured if i couldn't get at her she was safe from the local predator, Leo the cat.  plus Leo has a bell, so i figured i would hear him coming.  then i remembered that baz has a bell as well.  then baz got dragged out from under the bush. she was not happy.  she has been making her displeasure known for the rest of the week in the production of other "treasures".

and what else comes with spring?  finally a few more thesis revisions and permission to send things to my second reader!  huzzah!

grrr

well, i have just been informed by my thesis advisor that it will be impossible to defend my thesis before the end of term. that means no june graduation. that means one more semester of tuition. that means no job at the archives, unless i can convince them that being finished and passed but not convocated is the same thing as being graduated. not that i have heard anything from them in any case.

i thought i could get this done and over with! i have been in limbo for almost a week and a half waiting to get any feedback from my advisor and it took forwarding an email from the grad secretary asking telling me when i had to have things in by to get anything out of him, and he still hasn't sent me the revisions.

grrrrrr.

I did it!

I am now officially in grown-up territory! successfully completed the interview without revealing how much i probably couldn't do the job. although my french rendition might have given me away! she actually liked one of the things i said in my mock interpretation, and wrote it down to use later. so even if i don't get the job, my words will likely live on in their newsletter.

in any case, i feel that i did as well as i could, and so now the ball is in their court to see if i move on to the next stage or not. the next stage of course, is the french language testing, which will reveal all.

plus at the end i got a private tour of the house which was alot of fun. the girl took the velvet ropes off the the doors and we were able to walk inside the rooms, ah yes, the perks i will enjoy if i ever work there! behind velvet rope access!

help!

Argh!!!

I have a job interview.

on wednesday.

i have never had a job interview before.

help!

you'd think i would have realized that this is a logical progression of putting in job applications. that i would be expecting this. that i might be a little prepared.

but no.

this is the part that i was blocking out so that i would actually put in those job applications. this is the part i am not good at. when i meet new people i like to listen to them and figure out the lay of the land first before i open my mouth. those who have been in a class with me know that it takes almost an entire semester before i will talk in class. now i have to give them a five minute presentation about myself. likely some of the interview will be in french too.

i also have this thing where i want them to have the best person for the job. i feel guilty about taking up their time because i am just a masters student, and i can't even really do that right. i know i can do the job, but what if there was someone better?

argh!

umm......

Scene: Me and mom brushing our teeth in the bathroom

Me: Have you looked at the tap?

Mom: Yeah, i know. Its disgusting! I have never liked that tap!

Me: Yeah... Wait. What?

Mom: =muttering= Big ol' phalic symbol!

Me: I was just going to point out the ring of crud around it and the gross barnacle looking things it seems to be growing like one of the cursed sailors in Pirates of the Carribean.*

Mom: ... Oh.....



*this is not a lax cleaning thing, we just have seriously hard water here