enidjane_

02:39 pm

I've read 49 of the 100 books on the list. What a strange selection of books!

I'm off to Istanbul for a couple of weeks. Cheers, team!

12:22 pm

I was sitting at a light at Jane and St. Clair and it suddenly occurred to me that I named myself "enidjane" after the songs Enid and Jane by the Barenaked Ladies, and that Jane in the song is named Jane St. Clair, presumably after the streets in Toronto, since the band is from Toronto, and now I live in Toronto right near Jane St.

Actually, I live pretty much at the intersection of Jane and Annette, so maybe I should change my name to annettejane.

09:23 pm - Blogity blog

I'm not good at updating here. I never have anything of interest to say - all is well! Photos are here. Youtube videos are here. All is great. Cooper is wonderful! Here's my unremarkable day:

7:00am Cooper wakes up. I change him and bring him to bed with me to try to convince him to sleep some more.

7:30am I get breakfast ready for Cooper. We have a guest staying with us (a co-author of Peter's, originally from Bangladesh, now living in Vancouver. Hilarious, fun, new father, smart) and so I make a nice breakfast - a frittata with smoked chicken sausage and goat cheese. We eat and chat and play with Cooper.

9:00am The nanny arrives and I get to work answering emails. A few students want to see their exams because their mark is unexpectedly low. Whatever. The contractor has a quote to renovate the basement which looks good (the floor needs to be lowered, and we want to install a bathroom). I also do some preparation for the presentation I'm making tomorrow to a group of 70 high school girls about careers in commercial real estate.

10:00am I take a break and play with Cooper while the nanny packs up a bag and gets the stroller ready. We have a family + caregiver pass to the Royal Ontario Museum and she's taking him there with her nanny friend and little charge. (Later she tells me that Cooper showed a keen interest in Buddhist artefacts.)

11:00am I try to start working on the census datafile that my research assistant sent me, but I realize that I have an outdated version of the statistical software here at home. I decide to go to school. Our houseguest has a lunch date so Peter and I make plans to go for sushi at the little neighborhood joint at noon. I read the user guide to the datafile and learn that I'll have over 500,000 data points. This is fabulous!

12:00pm I eat a bento box with tofu teriaki, shrimp tempura, salad and a tuna roll. And then I drive to work.

1:00pm I stop for gas and chat with the man at the next pump over. For the first time in my life, a man asks me for my phone number out of the blue. This is the highlight of my day and I call Peter to tell him immediately. He was a pretty nice looking man, too. Although he put exactly $7.00 of gas in his car which I found odd.

1:30pm I get to work and load up the datafile. I'm interested in immigrant housing and my goal is to make recommendations for mortgage and housing policies to the government of Canada for newly arrived immigrants. The first step is to document how immigrants are housed as compared to non-immigrants. I learn quickly that the year of immigration is very important. After 15 years in Canada, immigrants seem to be better housed than non-immigrants.

5:00pm I leave work to go to a dinner to thank the outgoing president of the Real Estate Club. I get stuck in traffic, but Toronto is still new to me and I don't really mind inching along and eyeballing the neighborhoods. I still end up arriving 15 minutes early, and I see a little shop called the Paperie and buy some blank cards with puppies on them. I print out pictures of Cooper and mail them to my parents once a month or so - I'll use these cards.

6:00pm I have seafood linguine with marinara sauce and a glass of Pinot Grigio at Capocaccia. The MBA students seem interested in the new course that I'm developing (it's called Asset Securitization).

8:30pm Cooper greets me enthusiastically when I get home. Maybe this is actually the highlight of my day. Peter and our houseguest leave to go to the neighborhood pub for some burgers and beer. I feed Cooper and he falls asleep immediately.

9:30pm I write a livejournal entry.

10:00pm I take a shower tonight instead of the morning since I'll be riding the subway early tomorrow to go to that high school girl event. I'll go lay in bed and read my Istanbul travel books (I have a conference there this summer).

11:00pm I fall asleep (hopefully).

10:46 am

My Personality

05:00 pm - NEWSFLASHH!HH!!

Cooper had a big huge developmental leap weekend. He now has teeth and can crawl reliably forward. And he has started solving simple partial differential equations.

Photos of teeth: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cooperdarke/

03:42 pm - Meme

Ok, I get the concept that we post the empty meme and invite our friends to post the answers in the comments. But pardon me, isn't that quite silly? Do I post my answers in every one of my friend's comment sections? Do I pick my favorite friend and post it there? Doesn't it make more sense for us to each post our answers in our own blogs and then friends can comment on it? I just want efficiency here, people.

1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
A. Yes, married.

2) What was your dream growing up?
A. To be a veterinarian, or a ballerina.

3) What talent do you wish you had?
A. Some semblance of musical talent might be nice. I wouldn't trade away my math and volleyball, though.

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
A. I'll have champagne.

5) Favorite vegetable?
A. Beets.

6) What was the last book you read?
A. Yiddish Policeman's Union. I liked my previous read, World War Z better.

7) What zodiac sign are you?
A. Cancer. Although I think astrology is bullshit. :)

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
A. Just pierced ears.

9) Worst Habit?
A. Meme-filling.

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
A. If I recognize a friend, I'd pick them up, of course.

11) What is your favorite sport?
A. Volleyball

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
A. I'm very optimistic.

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
A. I expect I'd have a friendly conversation with anyone I'm stuck in an elevator with.

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
A. That pain is pressed down too deep to casually fling it out and around for a meme

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
A. I'm unusually organized.

16) Do you have any pets?
A. Bruno, chocolate lab, age 3. Jazzy, shepherd mutt, age 2.

17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
A. Warm welcome, big meal.

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
A. Neither.

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
A. Post-pregnancy belly skin would snap back

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
A. Conscience.

22) What color eyes do you have?
A. Brown

23) Ever been arrested?
A. No

24) Bottle or can soda?
A. Bottle. Cans taste metally.

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
A. Invest it. Or maybe my parents would take money from me if I won it.

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?
A. My house.

28) Do you believe in ghosts?
A. Not even slightly.

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
A. Play with the baby

30) Do you swear a lot?
A. No

31) Biggest pet peeve?
A. Dog hair all over the house

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
A. Woman

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
A. Sure.

35) Do you believe in God?
A. Not even slightly.

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
A. No!

05:42 pm

How did my baby grow up so fast? Look at him - he looks like a little boy already!

In other news, I feel like I'm cool because my new laptop has a little fingerprint scanner to use to login. That does make me cool, right?

12:00 am - Sock monkey pajamas! (6 months old)

05:14 pm

Ok, hey, Livejournal post! All is incredibly well for me - 2007 has been the best year of my life. The year started with me getting news from the amnio test that Cooper was genetically healthy, and then he was born and he is a DELIGHT and I moved back home to Canada and bought a great cozy, old house in an interesting neighborhood. And right now, the stockings are hung over the big fireplace and Cooper is napping in his new dinosaur pajamas (gift from Grandma) and there is a TON of snow outside, I hear Pete type-type-typing and I'm about to make some baked salmon for dinner.

Yeah, so I live in Canada now, eh. In Toronto, a fabulously large and interesting city. I miss Tallahassee not at all. Ok, I miss some friends from there and my job was fine, but Tallahassee did not endear itself to me. Now I've got opera tickets! And NBA tickets! And I can get empanadas and patties and kimchee and raisin scones and smoked arctic char and actually, ANYTHING. So the city is great. And I work for the top business school in Canada and have these incredibly accomplished students and a much larger research budget. And I got a revise-and-resubmit on that one paper at that one journal, which is a very good thing. And Peter is much, much happier here than at Florida State, which is a very, very good thing.

Cooper is the easiest, sweetest, loveliest little guy. He smiles all the time, rarely cries, sleeps and eats well and does all the developmental stuff he's supposed to. I have nothing at all to worry about with him, which is lovely. He's sitting up now and babbling "koykoykoy" and his fine motor skills look good and he does these huge belly laughs when you do something funny like tickle his side or raspberry his belly or eat his toes. Oh, and yesterday he did his first turdlike poop. Hooray! He turned 6 months old on Dec. 2nd and we've been introducing solid food - this explains the change in poopies. :) His most salient physical feature is his large size. He is BIG - way bigger than the 95th percentile, taking after his father. He is growing out of the size 12 months clothes already, to give you an idea. As far as childcare, we have a nanny who comes to our house 9 to 5, and I work at home 3 or 4 days a week. This is a a perfect childcare arrangement - I can even nurse him in the day and play with him a little when I take a break.

Yep, all is well. Everything is so damn good for me that I feel like I'm bragging just when I describe how everything is going. But I'm so, so grateful and happy.

So I'm hoping all my LJ friends have a very happy holiday season and that 2008 brings you joy and fun and accomplishments.

11:46 pm

How evil are you?

12:31 am

Howdy-doo! So somebody posted on Youtube that Stephen Colbert referenced my otters holding hands video. Did anyone see it? Is it true? Oy, I feel faint - I love Stephen!

(Bonus points for getting me a link.)

03:57 pm

02:59 pm

Ok, so we're getting set to move to Toronto - we fly out in 11 days! I don't expect to be updating very much here - but I'll be lurking now and again. :) Cheers!

Cooper's photo link is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/93933230@N00

11:26 pm

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!

I'm 40! But it isn't difficult to hit an age milestone when you are happy and have everything you ever wanted. :)

Hope all is well with all of you!

04:52 pm

Our son, Cooper Cameron, was born June 2nd at 1pm. He weighed 8 lbs 15 oz and was 21.75" long. He's sleeping now (shhhhh!) and all is well here. :)

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/93933230@N00/

10:47 am

While I'm waiting for labour to start, I'm just toodling around the web wasting time.

But I found an interesting website through the BBC that tests whether you have more of a male or female brain. My brain is exactly halfway between the two. I do well on girlie tasks like reading emotions and I make the typical girlie choices when it comes to which male faces I find attractive. But I do well on some male tasks like mentally rotating 3D objects and identifying angles. I suck at verbal tasks and empathizing.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/articles/results/ageing.shtml

03:43 pm

Um, it's so smoky here that I can't go outside and it's making me nauseous. We need some rain.

CNN article

12:39 pm

17 days until the due date based off the size of the baby as seen on ultrasound. 26 more days if we use the due date based on my guess about the conception date. 33 days until the last possible date that my doctor will induce me. I would welcome labour right now. Being 9 months pregnant is UNCOMFORTABLE! I'm pretty sure the baby has dropped lower in my abdomen in preparation for birth - I can actually breathe now, although the tradeoff is searing pain in my cervical region. Too much info, I know. Also, my hands look like baseball gloves from the swelling.

And, our house is for sale even though our offers from York U aren't final yet. We have another telephone meeting with the Dean this afternoon at 4:30pm.

Advice to future self: let's do one giant life changing event at a time from now on, ok?

Want to nose around my house? Want to buy it? Our marketing materials are on my photographer's web site:
http://www.trevorhirstdesign.com/defoors/

I guess by looking at the photos you can figure out that I like decorating with neutral colours, wood and Westcoast Native art. I'm violently opposed to clutter. Also, I'm a fan of Dial hand soap. :) And I have that cute new Coach graffiti bag. And do you see Bruno peeking in a window?

I'll leave as an exercise for the student to determine how damn much we need to pay for a house in Toronto that is half as nice as our house here. One million dollars, I think *pinkie near lip*.

09:46 am

35 weeks pregnant and all is well. The baby will be here soon - anywhere from 2 weeks to 5 weeks. (My due date is in 4 weeks, my doctor won't let me go more than 5 weeks, and the boy is large, so he might be earlier.) The doctor estimates that he's almost 6 pounds already, so we've passed the danger phase of preterm labour. If he was born today, he wouldn't be classified as underweight and he probably wouldn't need any extra medical care. He kicks so hard now that when I'm laying down and he kicks at the bed, my whole body is jostled. He feels like a big burly strong boy, which is extremely likely. The baby's room is all ready (down to a new tube of diaper rash ointment) and my hospital bags are packed. (With a note on top saying "pack cell phone charger, wallet and video camera".) I'm organized!

My otter video has reached 5.5 million views. It was recently shown on some news show that American schoolchildren watch in the morning, so that brought lots of comments from kids, which was cute. I've made $1000 from it and the Vancouver Aquarium got a donation of $1500, so that's not too bad.

We have a telephone meeting with the Dean of Schulich School of Business tonight to finalize our offers. It seems I'll be teaching mainly in the MBA program, which will be excellent. I really hope there aren't any unpleasant surprises that make our acceptabce into a difficult decision. This is the top-ranked MBA school in Canada - top 20 in the world, and it'll be a new experience to teach really smart, motivated students. It's also nice to think that this will be our last move ever - we're planning to stay in Toronto for the rest of our lives. I want stability for the kid.

We've been speaking to our real estate agent here and we're doing minor repairs and renovations (if you can consider $5000 minor!!) before listing our house. Right now there's one dude putting a coat of laquer on our wooden front door, another guy on the roof replacing some cracked vinyl siding on the chimney and two dudes doing major landscaping work. They're all very gentle and sweet with me - standard male response to a very pregnant lady. The landscaper dudes are off-duty fireman, and they're young and muscular and distracting. One guy has nerdy glasses and a shaved head and biceps bulging out of his tight white t-shirt. Gawd.

So anyweay, sweaty firemen in my yard aside, all in all, two of the biggest changes in my life are right around the corner. So is my 40th birthday! But I must say that all my dreams will have come true by age 40, as long as this bouncy boy is healthy.

10:30 am - That's accurate!

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

North Central. This is what everyone calls a "Minnesota accent." If you saw "Fargo" or "Drop Dead Gorgeous" you probably didn't think the characters sounded very out of the ordinary. Some Americans may mistake you for a Canadian.

Take this quiz now - it's easy!

We're going to start with "cot" and "caught." When you say those words do they sound the same or different?

Same, no wait I mean different, maybe, a little bit different... Same Different