Kelly Date October 18, 2009

Hello Again!

As predicted this past week was crazy busy, but enjoyable nonetheless! I left Wolfville very early Tuesday morning to catch a 7:00 flight to Toronto. And, I do mean early! I had to be up by 3:00a.m. but was so excited about the trip I'm pretty sure I didn't get to sleep until 2:00a.m. Oh well, I did manage to get some sleep en route and felt up to a full day on arriving in Toronto.

Chelsey and Trevor were there to pick me up as

planned and we spent the day wandering around downtown Toronto enjoying the sights and sounds. I took my camera along so I was even able to get some good photographs. The funniest thing was a large group of people dancing for a Cadbury chocolate bar promotional gig they had going on right in the centre of the business district.

People had to dance on a large purple mat in order to win a 'purple goodie bag'! Of course Chelsey wanted one but there was no talking her into participating so I decided to take up the cause and danced my way across the mat in exchange for the prize. Too funny...Chelsey is now the proud owner of all things purple... t-shirt, chocolate, bag, etc. I took the pictures on either side as an example of some of the contestants, but I thought I out jigged them all lol. Well, maybe not but it certainly got some smiles from Chelsey and Trevor.

Next morning, we were up and on our way to Geulph for my conference,

actually arriving a bit early as the traffic was better than anticipated. I spent the rest of the morning hanging out with Rob who I knew from some work I did with him in central BC this past spring. It's always nice to know someone when you go to new places.

Late in the afternoon, I joined a tour group to take in several points of interest in and around Guelph including, the Wellington micro brewery, a potato research station, a small rural tourist town, and a local food market. They were all interesting stops and it was especially nice to get out and see a bit more of Ontario other than the urban centers. I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely the fall colors were and had a great time exploring. Oh yes, I ate some of the best cheese ever at the local food market. Tis a very good thing I don't live anywhere near the place or I'd be my own best/worst customer lol.

The rest of the week was spent taking part in the conference and of course my first attempt to present at this type of venue. It went well, or so I felt, but it was just as stressful as I had imagined it might be. But I had worked very hard to have the information flow and make sense and thought I accomplished that in spades.

One night I went out with a group of delegates and had a great time and the next I wandered around taking photographs of downtown Guelph. They have some amazing architecture there and beautiful old churches and bridges as you can see from the photographs.

I ended up in a nearby pub to get some food and a brew and ended up chatting with a local by the name of Burl Levine who is an amazing poet. He quoted some of his best work and actually honored me with a copy of his published book entitled 'Inklings About Relationships'. It was a real treat and great fun.

The next morning I was up early again and off to catch a ride into Toronto with some newfound friends from the Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia; Harold and Cindy. We managed to get lost but did make it on time in the end.

I am now back at home in Wolfville and I cannot tell you how excited Mr. Finnigan was to see me! Wow, he was over the top wiggly lol. What a wonderful pooch. It's good to be home - it was a great week and a wonderful experience, but as I say...."Home is a good place to be."

Chat next week.....

Kelly Date October 12, 2009t

Well I had good intentions of doing the blog last night, but between a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at Susan and John's place and the lateness of the evening I decided to put it off until today. Isn't it funny how you can go through a whole week of getting up, eating, doing things, and the general chaos of it all, but when you sit down to write about it you can't seem to remember much of anything at all.

In attempting to recollect my week it was a busy one. I did

manage to get out for a couple of nice bike rides to enjoy the fall colors, finished up a huge data project for one the profs, and shuffled several of my projects along as well. The fall colours are amazing and I've included a couple of pictures. I went for a walk with John (supervisor) at one point and he took several nice photos. One in particular (right) of the leaves on the ground

that is a perfect as a fall screensaver.

I did take Mr. Finnigan out for a long walk late one afternoon and found a new trail to wander along very near to where I'm staying. Such a nice day and the sun was shining and there

was even an agreeable little squirrel who allowed me to get close enough to get some nice pictures of him eating his lunch. This

trail ends up in another of the schools gardens with a charming little bridge and huge trees draped along the creek.

Today I am busy getting ready to leave tomorrow morning. I seriously cannot think why I booked the flight for 7:00 in the morning which means I have to be up at 3:30 tomorrow. I mean I did this to myself on purpose with no ill intent whatsoever and for no particular reason. The one good thing is that I can sleep on the plane and I can spend the whole day with Chelsey and Trevor in Toronto which I know will be fun. I am so looking forward to spending time with her. I hadn't really thought I'd be able to see anyone for at least a year while I was here so this is a major treat.

Mr. Finnigan will be vacationing at Susan and John's while I am away. I'll drop him off this evening and I'm sure he will have a great time, but I will miss him terribly. Chelsey wanted me to bring him with me, but I can't take him on the plane easily. I really don't like putting him in cargo as it is so stressful for him. He'll be better off here and I know he'll be safe and won't have to worry about him. He even has a playmate, Barnaby, for the week at his vacation spot.

I'm looking forward to a busy week in Guelph and will report in on how it all goes. I'm taking the camera with me so I can get some pictures as well. I've never been there before so quite keen on getting out and taking it all in. Apparently there is an agro-tour planned for Wednesday so I want to get some pictures of the countryside.

You have a great week! I'm off on another adventure very very early tomorrow morning and will report back next week to let you know how it went.

Kelly Date October 4, 2009

Okay, I admit it.....I forgot to do the blog last night. In my defense I did homework until 12:00p.m. and while I would have welcomed a break I was so engrossed in what I was doing I totally forgot. So now I am scrambling to put it together quickly as I have a meeting to prepare for this afternoon.

I did manage to get some fun in this week and enjoyed a day trip to Halifax to attend a workshop at Dalhousie University. I had never been there before and I had some difficulty finding it, but it is very beautiful and very old. The workshop was great and afterwards I was able to wander around and get some photos of the main buildings.

Fall is well in swing now here in Wolfville and the pumpkin patch has expanded to include critters of the two legged variety all

in search of the perfect, big old phat pumpkin. The kids were so cute and people were lined up on the highway taking pictures, myself included.

Better yet, they have something here called pumpkin fudge - ooooh yeah....that is some wonderful stuff. I confess to having a rather large piece - I did share a bit with Mr. Finnigan, but I got the pumpkin's share so to speak. Sorry, but it disappeared way to quickly to get a picture lol.

I did get around to taking some nice garden pictures in our backyard as well and have included one to show

you. There is also a new picture of the front of my building on campus. The deep purple reds are gorgeous.

I hate to blast off, but I have much to do and feel I'm behind enough already. Enjoy the fall weather and get out and take a walk. The air seems so fresh and crisp this time of year. Wonderful stuff!

You have a great day!

Kelly Date September 27, 2009

This has been a fairly major homework week for me. In fact I have done almost nothing else except home work for the past seven days straight. All good fun though and you get your laughs and small joys as they come.

For instance, I was working away on something and went to the kitchen to get some more coffee. Upon returning to my bedroom I found Mr. Finnigan rolled up in the blankets on my bed with only his head peaking out. I burst out laughing of course, how could I not! He often surprises me with some of the funny things he does. The only problem with this is that I'm always the only one laughing. Oh well, he is the recipient of endless hugs and kisses as a result of his cuteness. In fact I entitled the picture 'Cuteness in Hiding'. Ya gotta love it.

So what does endless homework actually mean. The translation goes something like this....

Monday ='s 8 hours

Tuesday ='s 12 hours

Wednesday =' 12 hours

Thursday = 's 8 hours

Friday ='s 6 hours

Saturday ='s 10 hours

Suunday ='s 8 hours

In between all this hard work I did manage to get out for a few shorter bike rides, take Mr. Finnigan for several walks and attend a faculty function on Saturday evening. What's really scary is that we've not even gotten to the hard part of the semester yet. I seriously need to speed up or get more clever very quickly. Oh well, I'm doing my best and that is as good as it can get.

Today, I got out for a walk with Mr. Finnigan and ended up down on the boardwalk on the far side of town. I spent quite awhile playing 'get the grape' with the pooch, his favorite game ever, and have included a couple of pics of all the fun.

Fall is fast approaching and its getting colder and colder here it seems every day.

The trees have started to turn color and some of the colour are pretty amazing. The one picture is of a flower bud on a tree I found today that I couldn't help but photograph it. The reds and texture of the buds is so beautiful and there were easily two dozen of these on the one bush alone.

It's windier now it seems as well and you can here it whistling past the windows at night. I'm not looking forward to the snow at all and I'm quite sure that come November I'll be quite glad my office is only a three minute walk away.

I really have nothing else to report this week. It was a good week, but I was just so focused on working I really did almost nothing else. I won't bore you with details of my work as I didn't get any feedback on the 'new words' lol. It seems not everyone needs or wants to know what epistemology means. Tis okay, I know what it means....I think..... :)

You have a great week and I'll be back next Sunday!

Kelly Date September 21, 2009

I have some adventures to tell you about!

The picture to the right is a sunset from my back porch. It was such a beautiful evening I had to take a picture.

It's been a busy week, but I've also had some fun with it. I simply had to go by the fields just outside of town to take some pictures of the pumpkin patch. I'm sure its one of many, but I've never seen so many pumpkins in one place lol. Rows and rows of the crazy orange spheres in all sizes. There is even a corn maze that you can wander around in and try and get lost. The leaves here are starting turn already and the colors are burnt reds and deep oranges rather than the yellow I'm more accustomed to up north and on Vancouver Island.

I guess my biggest adventure this week was to do the high ropes course at Acadia. I had a great time and what a blast the group was! I think everybody at least tried one thing and several of us tried all of the challenges. I, as always, couldn't help but try everything and I've included a couple pictures of myself and Kim who joined us for the day on my encouragement that we'd have a great time.

She wasn't exactly convinced, but at the end of the day she met and exceeded her expectations by completing one of the hardest challenges. Half way up the pole she kept

saying g she couldn't do it, but everyone was cheering her and it must have made a difference because she did it and did it well lol. It didn't hurt that her husband and two children stopped by to watch the fun. They were very encouraging as well and had lots of advice I'm not too sure she needed at all.

I did the hardest challenge by climbing a single pole up to about 35 feet and stood on the top of the pole. Once there the challenge was to jump across about 8 feet to a trapeze style bar. I didn't quite make the bar (grab it) as I didn't want to hurt my shoulder, but I did touch it with my finger tips on the way by. Yea me! The picture shows how hard I am concentrating to make that jump. The second picture is of me wobbling my way across the ropes in a strong wind which made it a lot more difficult. But I made it! This height doesn't look too scary from the ground but once you're up there it is a little intimidating.

.....

It was a good day and I spent the rest of the evening doing homework and even managed to take some time for a bike ride. It was a very nice evening out and I enjoyed myself. Finnigan as well had a great time and ran along side the bike for quite a distance. I would have to admit to having had one small mishap involving a 'new trail', a tangle of very tall grass, and a hidden pond with which I had a minor disagreement but came out of it relatively unscathed lol.

I have a very busy week ahead of me and a lot of projects to get done and behind me. I did mark my first class assignments though on Friday evening which was fun. I'd never done it before so it was a challenge to make sure I was fair and helpful in my marks and comments.

A good week overall and a better one yet to look forward to. I hope you have a great week as well.

Bye for now, Kelly

Kelly Date September 13, 2009

Hello from Nova Scotia!

This has been a crazy week here in Wolfville. Getting into the swing of things with school has been a major shift in my energy level. It's been fun though and I actually handed in the 1st of many assignments to come over the next three months. The workload so far is not too bad, but that isn't saying much as I know the heaviest part of any semester lies to the middle and end of the game plan.

The picture top/left is one sent to me by WhaleWatch in New

Zealand. As part of one of the projects I have on the go, this is one of the locations I have been researching. This picture and a few others they sent to me are amazing to say the least. Some of the other more amazing pictures from the various research areas was actually in northern Canada. Baffin Island and some of the ice fields in that area are also very beautiful. It is another area of Canada that I would very much like to visit.

My shoulder, injured in a cycling accident, is on the mend but is still quite sore. There has been a huge improvement over the week though and the cuts are pretty much healed over. It's a slow process but seems to be going well. Given my hectic week I didn't really get any opportunities to take a lot of pictures. I took some at a bbq with the students, but there are some issues with me putting them on the blog site due to privacy issues. So I will stick to text this week more than usual.

One of the things I'll be doing this Saturday is high ropes course. I will certainly get some picture of this so stay tuned. I've never done this before and it should be interesting. Apparently, the instructor makes it a whole bonding experience with the group and it is of course 'challenge by choice'. So it is up to the individual to find their comfort level and do only what they are comfortable with. I should do okay with it, but hanging onto three lines well into the tree line seems a bit daunting lol. I'm hoping my should won't impede my abilities, but I'll let you know how it goes.

This has been a great week, but I have spent a lot of time reading and doing assignments. The level of study is something I'm not used to quite and the wall beside my desk is a veritable dictionary of sticky notes. All new words I'm trying to learn so I understand my readings more thoroughly. Here's a couple for you to look up lol.....feel the pain mwhaaa:

1) Inductive:

2) Arbitrage:

3) Rubric:

4) Epistemology

I could go on trust me but I won't. For some reason I have a hard time getting my head around Inductive vs Deductive so if any of you could elucidate me it would be greatly appreciate. The challenge has been made, but I need more than a simple definition - be creative - help me out. I need good examples of how to apply these terms in the 'real' world.

So, its been a good week and Mr. Finnigan has been up to his usual cuteness lol. I caught him struggling to sit on the chair with Doreen a few nights ago. He has a perfectly good bed to lay on in my room, but nope he'd rather sit with Doreen when she reads. Crazy pup! Doreen can't move over easily for him either so he doesn't stay too long. But I think she enjoys the company as she reads a lot.

So I am putting the blog together early Monday morning. I totally forgot to do it last night as I was so into getting one of my assignments completed. It's quite challenging and it seems to take a lot of time for me to work through the ideas and write about them intelligently. So intelligently sometimes that I'm afraid I don't even understand what I've written lol. It's one of those 'in the moment' things where your head is in a particular space at the time. Ha, I hope the prof understandings my ramblings.

Anyway, I have to get busy and I have a billion things to do and places to see. Have a great week.

Kelly signing off from Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Kelly Date September 6, 2009

Mr. Finnigan's Fountain from last week's story.

I've had a pretty crazy week here in Wolfville....

For the most part it has been great but there have been a few challenges as well. I have been busy with school and work projects and trying to get myself organized for the coming week. I even managed to get a head start on a few projects which I'm sure will help me out over the next few months. Classes start Wednesday, but I have nothing going on until the Thursday with the exception of a couple of bbq's on Tuesday for orientation.

But enough about school and my chaotic plans and schemes. I have a tale to tell lol. As mentioned many times in past blogs I have been enjoying the bike riding here as you can go out onto the 'flats' as I call them and enjoy a wonderful afternoon using the various roads and trails to connect to little towns nearby. However, I had my first accident on the bike just the other day. I had really forgotten how much it hurts to hit the dirt on a bike. Haven't done that since I was about twelve. So, my tale starts with a glorious sunny afternoon, my bike, Mr. Finnigan, and an ice cream treat! However, on the way home from all this fun we (as in Finnigan and I), passed by a couple walking with their three big dogs. Knowing how Finnigan likes to bark at all dogs larger than he I thought to hold his collar to help him remember his manner.

All went well until we had just passed by and the couple's rather large puppy decided he wanted to do the 'meet n greet' thing with Mr. Finnigan. To accomplish this task he barreled into me at top side, hitting me in the hip at which point the bike and I parted company - it to the left and I falling forward and to the right. I hit the ground on my right shoulder, back, side, elbow, head, and knee - in that order. I have to admit I hit hard and am still amazed that I did not break my shoulder or collar bone or worse. That said - it hurt like hell!!!!! Major scratches and skin loss and an arm I could barely lift afterwards. Amidst the chaos Finnigan came out injury free with his only dilemma at the time being how to avoid the avid attention of three rather large dogs. This happened on Tuesday evening and I am still nursing a very sore arm but seeing improvement every day. Ha, next time I plan on paying more attention to the dogs until I'm completely free and clear - you gotta watch out for the large puppies especially.

Conservatory Grand Hall

Injuries aside, I did manage to take the camera out a few times this week even though it hurt to lift it up. I spent some time watching the football players practicing on the field, spent some time taking photos of the Botanical Gardens and Conservatory and the fountain Mr. Finnigan inadvertently jumped into last week. I also included a picture of Doreen my new roomy. She is a lovely lady who enjoys Mr. Finnigan and likes to read and work on the computer as much as she can. She has lived here in Wolfville since around 1955 (can't remember the exact year) and has many family and friends that stop by to visit with her. She enjoyed the walk up

our street to the gardens and sat and rested whilst I galavanted around getting pictures. I included a picture of the interior of the Conservatory as well as it so absolutely beautiful inside. Wow!

Back to the football field for a brief moment. I took a picture of a young man hanging out on the side lines tossing the football to a player on the sidelines. He was having such a good time I could tell. He'll be out there playing in the thick of things someday I'm sure. The other pics are of the team making some plays or hanging out at the water coolers.

All in all it was a good week with no insurmountable set backs. I am still intact, which is good and I plan on getting off to a good start this first week of school. Oh yea, I'm on it.....

Time Out! Scrimmage