They're Married!

My little brother married a wonderful woman on September 3rd. I've just been waiting to get my hands on a good picture to blog about it! I'm so happy for them, and so happy to have a new sister-in-law who's so much fun :-) He's all grown up!

Studious Cat

Seriously - could she be any cuter? This is what happens when I try to study in the livingroom. She is laying on top of all my study materials...and a minute or so after I took this, while I was typing, she put her head down on my computer and snuggled up to it.

Maybe if I send this to my prof, he'll agree there was simply no way I could study and will erase whatever mark I get on todays test?

Home Comforts

Ginger peach green tea with Matcha.
Curled up on my own couch in my own comfy yoga pants studying.
My cat crawling all over my studying and rubbing her head on my computer.
Unpacking all my toiletries!
Grocery shopping (still to come).
Cleaning.
Cooking.

I'm happy to be home for a solid couple of weeks. Right now I'm trying not to stress out about how behind I am in everything, and focus on studying for the test I have to write later today. The rest of the catching up will have to come later.

But right now, I'm happy to be studying on my couch, drinking tea, in my cat's company, and looking forward to dinner at home with my husband :-)

Incidentally...the title of this blog post is also the title of a great book: Home Comforts.

Just a few...

Just a few minutes to update my blog. I've been totally absent from it. But, I've been absent in general as I've been away from home so much lately for work. This weekend will be the last for a bit- when I get home on Monday, I'll be home for nearly 2 weeks straight, aside from day trips during the week to work on the mainland.

I had great plans to accomplish much today, as I have the day off, and am at a friends' house, who is giving me the use of her BEAUTIFUL office for the day (I worked yesterday on over here on the mainland and have a meeting tomorrow). I needed to go to Ikea to look for something for a client though. M. came with me, and though I didn't find what I needed for the client, I did find a whole new duvet cover/sheet set for our bed! I'm so excited to set it up. The sheets and duvet cover we have now is almost 5 years old, very very faded and sad. I also got the standard napkins and bits and pieces I usually get while at Ikea, a bedside lamp to match the one we already have, and a bin to store my assessment materials in (currently they are in a massive mess in giant Ikea bags in the truck). Of course, M. and I also had the uber cheap Ikea lunch before we shopped, as well as the cinammon bun before leaving :-).

Now I'm very tired, and it's 4pm!! But, I am going to sit down and try to get some of my ridiculous amount of back log taken care of, so that hopefully when I get home Monday night, I can just hang out with my husband...who I miss!

sad

This is belated news (I found out a week or so ago, but can't let go of it!).

Simi Sara and Dave Gerry have been fired from breakfast television. Simi is gone from city cooks too.

I know this is a bit sad, but they've become a staple in my morning routine. It's all wrong without them.

I've always been a loyal morning news person - it fits well as I am one of those people who needs to have time to have breakfast, check email, watch the news and take my time getting ready for the day. BTV has been my morning news show of choice for the last few years. Sad. they were SO good.

Gems

A few gems from my course readings this week:

"...we have grossly overemphasized the importance of simple possession. Neither happiness nor the survival of the group depends on the satisfaction derived from having things."
- B.F. Skinner from "The ethics of helping people."

"Solidarity is a willingness to make respectful common cause with the vulnerable, but for Farmer [another author], pragmatic solidarity goes beyond this by contributing through the active exercise of one's power and privileged status as scientist, scholar and/or practitioner toward ensuring that the rights of the vulnerable are honored, actively focusing one's work on relief of suffering in ways that are consonant with the vision of the vulnerable themselves."
- Mattaini, M.A. Editorial: Human Rights, Pragmatic Solidarity, and Behavior Science (2006). Behavior and Social Issues, 15, 1-4.

and

"Intellectual recognition is only a necessary first step toward pragmatic solidarity, that is, toward taking a stand by the side of those who suffer most from an increasingly hard 'new world order'"
- Paul Farmer, Quoted in Mattaini, 2006 (cited above).

The course I'm taking this semester is called Social Bases of Behavior and delves much more into the theoretical, philosophical and ethical realms of behavior analysis. Loving it!

The last summer weekend

Well I am home for two days now until we go to the mainlnad for my little brother's wedding on Thursday.

I was working in Courtenay last week, and we had a wedding to go to on Denman island on Sunday. So, D. took the train down from Victoria on Saturday and we spent the weekend in Courtenay/Denman.

It was a very long, exhausting work-week, as I started on the mainland on Monday, travelled to Courtenay Monday night, then worked looong days Tuesday to Friday. Friday night tbough, I went for dinner with my supervisor at a really neat restaurant called Locals.This restaurant serves only local products - everything from the veggies, to the wine, to the meat is grown and produced in the Comox Valley and th island. The food was scrumptious, and it was a wonderful dinner. I then had a wonderful, quiet sleep in morning on Saturday, had time to sort myself out, organize the truck and clean my dear friends house I had been staying in before leaving. I picked D. up at the train at about 1pm.

At Locals I had a glass of Ortega from a winery called Beaufort Winery. It was so wonderful, I googled them when I got home. It turned out the winery was in Courtenay, and this weekend was the last weekend they were open for tasting. So D. and I decieded to stop in there to do a tasting. It's a wonderful little winery. They have a nice picnic area, and provide cheeses and other snacks that pair wel l with their wines. You can then buy a bottle of wine and snacks and have a picnic there. The cheeses are natural pastures cheeses, which is in the comox valley as well. We tasted some other wines and bought a few bottles. In general, in the comox valley there seems to be such a community focus - and a much greater focus on buying local than elsewhere.

Saturday and Sunday night we stayed here. The Old House Village was a beautiful place to stay, and was such a treat. We did a "stay and dine" package the first night and had dinner at Tomato Tomato. The food was great as well.

The wedding on denman island was beautiful on Sunday, and we had one more relaxing night at the hotel before driving home yesterday.

Overall, it was a wonderful way to find a mini-break in the midst of such a crazy month. Despite the fact that it was only 2 nights, it felt like a real break. I HIGHLY recommend the comox valley for holidays, and the Old House as a place to stay!