operonscript.com

So what’s new: Evelyn recognises some words now, specifically “trip” (i.e. going outside) and “story” and of course her name. Every night I read her “Pat the bunny” and she knows all the actions (patting the bunny, putting her finger through the ring etc). She is also trying to pull herself out of the crib as I type this, so it’s time to lower it.

She still has a cold and has been so congested that she couldn’t nurse since Friday. I am hoping it will start to go away tomorrow. I’m really tired of having to hold her down to put saline in her nose and use a bulb to try and get out the mucus. She hates it and screams like a banshee the whole time, and worst of all is still congested after!

Dan’s writing a music history essay on “Boards of Canada” and is almost done his semester. I’m going through a bit of a mid-life post baby crisis trying to figure out what the future holds.

We watched 1984 yesterday. It was good.

I finally found a crib toy that I think is sufficiently entertaining for Kicky without being annoyingly flashy. The butterfly has a rattle in it and the blue thing has a mirror. The one in the middle is springy and can be pulled on. I think it should be a lot of fun to play with!

Also see here for the picture of the stroller, which folds up into something about the same size as a hankercheif.

This Tuesday will be week 37 of 40, at which point fetuses are considered full term. Most women give birth within 2 weeks of their due date (before or after) and mine is April 10th. We will see what happens - I get the feeling she will be early but I hope it will be after the 29th at least, as I have quite a few things lined up after I stop work on the 23rd.

Sad to say I have some stretch marks. Already. Given that they are right around by belly button and Kicky is quite insistent that this is her favourite toy, I can’t help but wonder if they came from her stretching her legs and arms so much! Now things are quite cramped for her and she can’t stretch her legs out like she used to, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t trying.

It’s been quite chaotic trying to prepare things at work since both our major projects hit a snag a week or so ago. It makes it somewhat hard to leave instructions when the results from the next few weeks could change the way we approach things. What I can say without a doubt is that qPCR is the most difficult thing I have ever tried to do and it has a wicked learning curve.

My co-workers had a little party for me on Friday featuring a homemade carrot cake, tortilla chips & salsa (my favourite snack), muffins and probiotic juice. They pooled to get me a very useful gift - a gift certificate to my favourite clothing store, so I can get some T-shirts after, since my existing shirts have been stretched somewhat.

Dan’s off on March break this week so it looks like he will be working on a composition (for his composition class), some troubleshooting to get two pieces of electronics to talk to each other, and helping me out with groceries and cooking. Dan’s mom will be arriving the 31st of March, so I will have plenty of help getting things ready here.

The provincial election isn’t very far away and I really don’t know who I am voting for yet. I looked at the platforms of the 3 main parties and ruled out the PQ already (”Bien sûr, notre objectif fondamental est de réaliser la souveraineté nationale du Québec. Nous en réitérons ici la nécessité. Ce grand objectif, qui transcende tous les autres, permettra au Québec, nous en sommes profondément convaincus, de réaliser des progrès plus substantiels et plus rapides.”). Hmm. The ADQ are running on the “adequiste” plantform which insists that Quebec is a nation inside Canada and that is very important to “defend Quebec’s borders” from the policies of Ottawa. It’s hard to believe that Quebec could be any more different than the rest of the country than it already is. I’m not sure what to think about that one. In the end, I will likely vote for the Liberal party even though everyone seems to complain that they didn’t do much of anything this last term. With respect to personalities, some the PQ and ADQ candidates seem to be experts at making fools out of themselves and can’t seem to understand that making racist, sexist or homophobic comments is not a good idea during campaign time.

We have had absolutely no luck finding tap filters in Montreal - everywhere that sells them is sold out!

I just finished reading The man who was Thursday yesterday. Quite an amazing book - I’m not sure what to think yet. We also watched Star Trek III (the Search for Spock) on Friday and enjoyed it as much now as back when it first came out.

Testing out the car seat…

We got an email from our friend Wentworth (who we know through Lisa, who has since fled to the warmer climes of Vancouver) that there was a public lecture by none other than Dr. Marvin Minksky Thursday. I have prenatal yoga classes on Thursday but finally decided it was better to skip and attend this once-in-a-lifetime lecture. After we met up in the metro we went to the building only to find that the lecture hall had just filled up. But no problem, there was a second room where there would be a video broadcast of the lecture. Even that room filled up very quickly. The first 5 minutes of the lecture went well and then we started having video problems. After 15 minutes, the organizers gave up and everyone left (including, eventually, us). The ironic thing about this was that this lecture was organized and hosted by the computing science and engineering department. Worse, they were running the video off an external web server on a Windows machine. Once the video started to cut out, they were incabable of fixing it. Maybe it’s just me, but I think something like this shouldn’t be happening in this department. Needless to say, we were all disappointed and it was too late to go to my yoga class.

Last weekend I succeeded in buying two nursing bras after much difficulty. I went to the maternity clothing store and tried every type of bra they had. Unfortunately I have always been on the lower edge of available bra sizes (except when I went to France, as I discovered an entire size smaller that is not available in North America!) and aparently, despite the tremendous growth involved in the process of having a child, bra makers have assumed that nobody who is nursing has breasts smaller than a 36C. I tried on the bras there and immediately noticed two major problems. First, at this stage there should be some extra space in the bra since there will be quite a bit of growth during the first few weeks. This itself is fine, but the bra makers decided most of this growth would occur around the nipples. Needless to say, I don’t think this is where the milk will be stored nor do I think an extra couple of inch of textile in that particular spot is useful or becoming. The second problem was that the cups were so huge that they could be seen on my chest sticking out of the top of my shirt. The worst part about this was how frustrating the sales lady was since she insisted this was normal and her attempt to solve the problem was to try and find a shirt with a higher neckline (they were all insufficient in the end, I did try them). Even if they tripled in size it wouldn’t have been enough to pull the cups down to where they should be. Not only was this incredibly ugly, but it was also very uncomfortable. I have never felt like I was being choked by a bra before. Despite the pressure I received, I decided these bras would not be sufficient and decided I would try my luck elsewhere. Next I tried the Bay. The Bay on St. Catherine has 8 floors of merchandise, including an entire floor for women’s pyjamas and underclothing. Eventually I did find what I was looking for and I have to say the ones I bought there were much nicer than the ones at the maternity clothing store too.

We watched Stranger than Fiction last week. It was very good.

Finally this past weekend I didn’t have to go out anywhere and was able to take care of a few important things at home. I even started donig the taxes.

Well Montreal has announced that some houses in our neighbourhood may have lead pipes. Apparently because we live in abuilding that has more than 8 units in it, it probably does not have a lead pipe. Oh, but just to be sure, pregnant women should be drinking filtered water. Thanks for telling me now, you *****rds. How about 8 months ago, or a year ago, or maybe 20 years ago? Actually come to think of it, how the heck did this ever become an issue anyway? Surely the dangers of lead poisoning were known when these building were built. We do have a filter jug at home, but what about water we use for cooking and making juice? I guess I will put everything through the filter from now on. What about eating out at restaurants? Is the water there safe? I will call our landlord next week to see if she has checked out pipe yet. This is so typical of Montreal. The building standards here are so lax it’s amazing some buildings are still holding together. I am sure if inspections were conducted across the city most apartment buildings would fail to meet today’s basic building codes.

Today we have to get on the list of electors to be eligible to vote. I don’t know who I am voting for yet.

Lisa came over last night and we had supper and watched an episode of The IT Crowd and then the Montreal/Toronto Amazing race episode from way back this summer. Actually I found it quite accurate for the first bit - when they land in Montreal they’re stunned there is no real shuttle/bus to get downtown and have to take a taxi. Well technially if you walk 15 minutes to the Dorval terminus there is a bus, but in a race that wouldn’t do! So then they had to find Square Victoria metro station and find a clue in the underground city. So either the editing took about 90% of the aimless wandering or they were given a really easy location to find, but they didn’t seem to have too much trouble. I’d rate it a 4 out of 10 on the “lost in the underground city” scale. Later they had to go to the Biosphere built by none other than Mr. Geodesic dome, Bucksminsterfuller, himself. Again, cool stuff. They also had to go to the trapezium and swing from a trapeze and be caught by gymnast - well that’s reminiscent of Cirque de Soleil so that’s right on. Ok so you’d expect some kind of exciting Montreal-esque thing to happen next like going to Schartz’s at lunch time, visiting Marché Jean-Talon, going on Mount Royal, or maybe finding a Jazz club or something. Oh no! We’re in Canada now, so bring on the clichés …let’s participate in one of two “popular Canadain sports” - curling and log rolling. The curling was fine (except those poor suckers had to go to the MacDonald campus like me, lucky for them they had a taxi driver) and they actually had a lot of fun with it. But log rolling?? Excuse me?? One of the families chose this instead of curling and I have to say they looked miserable. Their last task was to look for clues in the olympic stadium - there were threee clue boxes attached to any of the seats. They were there for hours and again, were completely miserable.

They flew to Toronto and went up the CN tower, went yachting and to the Bata Shoe Museum. “Gee we had a great time yachting in Toronto, it was sooo much better than that log rolling we had to do in Montreal!”. With that publicity, its amazing anyone would ever want to come here!

I have started reading Nanocosm by William Illsey Atkinson, who is a Canadian sci/tech jounralist. So far it has been an interesting read, although as Chris Phoenix points out in this review, there are a number of technical errors and he often makes fun of the proponents of molecular assembly (disagreeing with an idea is one thing, but making fun of the person who thought of it is another). I did agree with his argument that Drexler and Feyman seemed too enthusiastic about creating miniature gears and sockets and that at least the early research in nanoscience was more focused on engineering than chemistry or biology. A quick search through the nanodot blog reveals that current nanoscience research includes a healthy component of biology (examples: 1, 2). I am happy to see that current research includes studying biological stuctures like the flagellar motors and tubilin mictotubules and I hope we see even more ways that biologists can be involved in nanoscience.

Dan and I hope to see this film soon. Check out the review.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/water.html

Anyone who has read the Harry Potter book series knows that the sytherins are a sick bunch. They are known to have the most witches and wizards who joinged Voldemort and have more than their share of loonies. Their common room in Hogwarts is in the basement and from all accounts in crrepy and dingy. The typical slytherin is unkind and rude. So, I have to wonder what the sorting hat is up to here. If there is a dysfunctional group of students in an otherwise healthy school, wouldn’t it make sense not to put them all together so they can benefit from some positive interactions? A twisted slytherin surrounded by positive relationships and trust just might have a chance, no? But, I beleive it can be explained in two wasy - first, the British are very reluctant to change tradition and since this tradition has been going on for a few centuries, one can see why the establishment would be a bit hestitant in abolishing the group. Second, they represent archetypal traits and are therefore an essential plot device that drives the book series. Nonetheless, I find it a bit cruel, don’t you?

Last night we went to our friend Martine’s house for a Bollywood evening. We started at 4 PM so only had time for two films (given they were each about 3 hours each). We started with “I have found it”, a Bollywood adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen. It was a very good movie, great music and costumes etc. but also a very good adaptation of the story. The second movie was a Hollywood/Bollywood fusion called “Bride and Prejudice” (another Austen re-make, I will let you take a guess as to which book this is based off) which was not so good. There have been a lot of rave reviews of B&P but Dan and I both found the adaptation to be very poor, the main male character to be flat, and the addition of Hollywood values more than a little strange. For one thing, the entire movie is in English and the singing scenes sounded just awful. What would have been perfectly suitable in Hindi or another Indian languate was pure torture to listen to (and watch) in English. Especially the “No life without wife” number, which made me feel I was watching a Disney movie for kids. Ugh.

Dan and I brought vegetarian curry from our favourite restaurant (Pushap) and later on I made masala tea despite the fact that it was at least 30 degrees in her apartment and there was no fan or A/C. Dan and I also brought a copy of Veer-Zaara which is an excellent Bollywood film, but we didn’t have the time to see it. Will have to wait for the next Bollywood movie night.

Recently we have gone a bit crazy with the movies we have seen. Dan saw Star-Wars III and we both saw Hitchhiker’s guide, which was good but not great. I’m glad I saw it but it could have been funnier. There were a lot of inside jokes that people who had read the books and knew them well would laugh at, but they were understated so that newbies wouldn’t feel too left out. The best one was when Zaphod and Ford see each other after Ford’s long absence on Earth and Zaphod says “Good to see you again Ix, uh, I mean Ford …”. Some of the re-written plot and added scenes were clever - for example each time the improbability drive is engaged they turn into different forms of the same type of object and at one point the entire crew becomes made our of yarn for a few minutes which was very cute and well done. Although I really wanted to see the 1000 monkeys with their re-written Hamlet who never made it into this movie.

Last night we actually rented a movie (first time in ages) - The Abyss, which I had seen when I was younger. This is a long, long movie, especially the special edition. Regardless of the relatively bad acting, cliches and 80’s movies stereotpyes it is still a really good movie. I’m watching the “making of” right now. We also bought Tin-Tin (”l’isle noir”) in an attempt to improve our french, which we watched while eating breakfast this morning. The close-captioning was on even though we didn’t turn it on, but it did help in several places when we couldn’t quite catch what they said. Nevertheless, the close-captioning was often quite different from the real dialogue. For example, Tin-Tin and his dog are running through a train chasing two criminals and the dog happens to grap a roast chicken on the way. When Tin-Tin notices this, the captions say “Not now, Snowball” but he really says “Milou, ce n’est pas temps pour le déjuner” (Snowball, its not lunchtime!). Very cute.

I have been reading Neal Stephenson’s Baroque cycle which I found at the nearby library (in reverse order, don’t ask its a long story) and have been thoroughly enjoying it. I also bought my first book in years - Harry Potter à l’école des Sorciers and have been pleasantly surprised that I understand most of it. The majority of the words that I don’t know are adjectives and adverbs and I have to say that Ms. Rowling does use some very good descriptive language which is good for children to read to improve their vocabulary; for example: ahuri means astonished.

We visited the Bibliothèque Nationale today - the large, recently constructed library near Berri Metro. After my previous experiences with Montreal libraries, I have to say this is a very pleasant surprise. Anyone in Montreal (or Quebec, for that matter) can join this library and it is huge. It has 4 large floors with what appears to be an excellent collection of books, both fiction and reference. I didn’t sign up to get a card because a) I didn’t have a a hydro Quebec bill with me and b) the line up to get a card was about 100 people long. I think I will probably get a membership one weeknight when it will be less busy and take our some more French books there. Much needed and the sheer number of people at the library today shows just how badly Montreal has needed more library services. Now if they can get the whole system networked at make inter-library loans work, it will be great.

This week my husband Dan went to see the third star wars movie. I declined to come because a) he went to an early evening show that was too early for me since I was just leaving work when it started and b) I’m not all that interested in seeing it, at least not in the theatres. I have watched all the star wars movies to date, although I was too young to see the first 3 in theatres when I was a kid, they were on TV and at least one or two people I knew owned one of the various versions of the box set which would be watched at christmas or on long weekends. I saw the other two in theatres from what I can remember and they were ok, but just not my cup of tea.

However, on Monday we will be gong to see the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy and although the reviews have been lukewarm, I think it will still be very enjoyable. Now there is something I have read since I was a child (thanks for lending me the books, Dad…) that I want to see in a theatre.

My laundry room still sucks and I have been taking my laundry to the laudromat a few blocks away lately.

Haven’t heard any more about whether Carla Homolka is moving to NDG or not.

We walked up to Monkland last night and went by the Benny Farm site where (hopefully) our condo will be in a year from now. There are quite a number of buildings being renovated on that site now and it is looking really good. I am still waiting to get official approval from the bank… Anyway we also visited our west-coast friend Janice who works at the Ten Thousand Villages there and we also bought a plant at the best store on Monkland: “Provisions Snowdon”. It’s the only store I know of that sells exclusively plants, plant pots and beer. Speaking of the west coast and alcohol, Janice’s sister lives in BC and we are in the process of asking her to ship us a case of of Gray Monk Pinot Gris that we can split … mmm Okanogan white wine …

Dan just left to go to a music festival somewhere outside the city and I am sure he will have a blog entry about it soon.

Dan is just finishing school now - only 3 tests left. He had a music theory test yesterday which I am certain he did extremely well on.

Thank goodness for long weekends!