Nicole Richie's Halloween Plea

I know I defiantly do not appreciate the profs who recycles their assignments and exams. It is just not fair to new students. It is about 2 hours that I have realized in one of my courses the instructor has used the exact same questions for midterms and assignments so far. Do not ask how I realized that but that did not made me happy:(

Well, the life has not been that bad today as I had my favourite food both at lunch and dinner. Teriyaki salmon. During weekend we bought a big salmon from Costco and I marinated the whole thing with garlic, teriyaki sauce, salt, paper, and fresh lemon juice. I had it over salad with Renee Honey Dijon.

Our first run is with my running buddy is scheduled for Thursday. I am so much looking forward to it. 

I read about Nicole Richie's Halloween Plea. I found it so stupid to say the least. Nicole, I am not 

sure if you can know it or not but dressing slutty is very relative and it depends who is judging. Sometimes

very regular dress is much more slutty than a slutty dress that many of us wear for any occasion. Do all of us

a favour, would you? stop being concerned about our dress!

Running buddy

Today was a great day for Maggie as I was totally in the mood to walk her around the neighbourhood. She enjoyed sniffing every thing she could. Now that I have no major upcoming deadline (with the exception of one mini assignment) I want to plan to be prepared for the finals and one term paper which is due almost at the same time that I have a final scheduled. BUT I have enough time and if I plan I can do it. For breakie today I had two of these yogurts. They are so good.

I am starting to get hold of things at school. Some people are really nice and that is what matters. One of my office mates is a runner (jackpot) and she lives close to school and preparing for her second half marathon (double jackpot). When I realized it I asked her if she likes to go for runs together and she liked the idea. I am trilled. It means that I have somebody to run with, yoooohooooo. I love running but I am one of those people need a buddy to push me and I think I just find the right person:)

No Halloween Spirit

Today has been by far the coldest day this year (seriously what's up with the weather?!) I had an early appointment with my dentist for pre-crowing of my tooth. I am not one of those people who hate the dentist office and I guess that is not a good thing. Since I figure if you complain a lot dentist tend to take a better care of you! My appointment went well. Then a long commute to school as usual. By the time I got to my office I was starving and so made myself a cup of coffee and had one of my Liberte greek yogurt. I love these. So creamy and delicious. Both hubby and I are in love with them so every trip to Costco includes two boxes of these bad boys:)

There is no Halloween spirit on campus whatsoever. Not even one single person with orange shirt or something. One of my office mate came in with kind of costume and interestingly she was complaining about the same thing. I guess that's what midterm does to you. Need to get back to studying.

Halloween

After two midterm exam and not perspective of any school related work (exam, assignment, etc.) it really feels good to spend the weekend with Hubby and Maggie. There were some house cleaning overdue today morning was kind of spent cleaning, dusting, vacuuming, etc. Since precious Maggie is part of family, we have a Bissell's ProHeat 2X Pet® cleaning machines. It has saved our life ever since we bought it from Costco almost four years ago. So it was put in a good use this morning for cleaning the kitchen floor. 

Last night we were invited to a friend house for a Halloween party, a great one I must add. I was great get together. Lots of new faces but that is the whole purpose of a party right?! We are going out tonight too but I am not going to wear any costumes. 

Hello, I am the Engineer and I am a sugar addict!

Well, two assignments and one project later, here I am preparing for my first midterm on Thursday. I am nervoussssss, as these marks are very important to me. I have my office now and everything is set but a bit too late, since for the first couple of weeks everything was very disorganized and kind of delayed my study. Anyhow, now everything is fine and that is the important part.

One of the cheapest coffee shops in the world (well Canada) is in the next building where I filled up my coffee mug. A large coffee for 60 cents (tax included!!!!), unbeatable. It has lots of other things such as sandwiches and stuff too (again very cheap) but I am not very interested as I am (drum roll please) on the 17 day diet! I need to lose some weight but I am mainly doing this for sugar detox as I have realized that I am really addicted to sugar. I am on the second day and it is not easy for me as I love my desert and I cannot have any.

source

Hopefully things will be easier in couple of days as so many people had the same experience. Lets see. 

Paper or notebook, that's the question!

I am really struggling to figure out which is better for me, paper and binder or notebook. They both have pros and cons. I know for most people the question is between taking notes by typing vs old fashion pen and paper. I am not that old fashion, however, most of my classes (I have to take four courses in total) involve mathematical equations and so fort and I think it is much easier for me to take notes old fashion way.

Binder & Paper
Pros:

• Much lighter in weight to carry around (not the binder just the paper)
• Can easily be replaced if I miss a lecture by coping others' (not that I am planning to miss any)

Cons:

• Can be lost easily
• The holes will be tore at some point

Notebook

Pros:

• Much easier to organize
• Easily can go back to previous lectures

Cons:

• Missing one lecture will be really hard to replace 

May be there are more pros and cons regarding both ways of taking notes that I have not experience and does not come to my mind at this point but I guess I am leaning more toward notebook. I might  miss one lecture probably in October and that is not a big deal. I will talk to the prof who is lecturing that course to prepare for that one.

But lets see, if the lectures have so many online materials and handouts then I will change my mind. I don't like to carry both binder full of papers and a notebook at the same time.

Dinner for one

Dinner last night turned out to be for one (instead of two) as Hubby went out with his colleagues last night.  I had relaxing night with M. Dinner was very satisfying. Teriyaki salmon with millet, yam!

Along with some salad and Renees honey dijon dressing vinaigrette. I love this dressing. It has just enough sweetness to it to do the job for me and it does not have that after taste that most honey dijon dressings have. Hubby is also a big fan of its balsamic vinaigrette dressing but I rather have olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Went for spinning class at 5:30 pm and sweat like crazy. However, by the end of the class was too tired to do any weight training. So it will happen either today or tomorrow. We have not planned anything yet for tonight or tomorrow but we should as the good warm days/nights will be gone soon. I purchased the iMucsle app the other day. Once started syncing it realized that my iphone is not compatible with this app. Huge bummer. I really liked the app as one of my friend is using it. It demonstrated all the workouts really well and you can create a  workout and save your weights too. I guess I have to figure another way for my workouts until I get the iPhone 5. Can't wait, telling ya!

Lazyyyy!

The first day of school is on Monday and I took advantage of my last day at home. This morning, when Hubby was getting ready for work, I was feeling a bit of guilt but when my M came for a cuddle, we forgot about him altogether. Then we went for a quit walk at the marina. Weather was amazing and M did lots of running and we came home to this:

Tired M is a good M.

When walking at the marina, around the beach area, a woman approached us by saying I need you pup!
I find it funny and at the same time I thought I did not understand what she said. As we started talking I realized that she has recently put her 100-lb boy lab to sleep and she was still grieving over it. I totally felt her pain. Dogs are not just pet, they are truly family. It is really hard when they are not feeling well let alone putting them in sleep. I try not think about that day.

On other note, I am trying to corrupting our neighbour into writing a blog. I believe is a perfect candidate for writing a blog. She is a very outgoing, charming single (now) lady in her 40s. She alway has too much to say and share and she just know so many things and lots of people. I think she is the kind of person I would be reading her blog (about her life) and she has the dedication for maintain the regularity of the posts.

On my agenda today:

1. Going to the gym for the cycling class and possibly some weight training
2. Make a delusions dinner for two, however Hubby might have his dinner with his colleagues tonight
3. Plan something exciting for the weekend

Planning

What a great day! I know many people complain about the rainy weather but believe it or not I really like it. It is so relaxing to wake up in a cloudy weather. That being said, I am lucky enough to live in a city that does not rain on a regular basis. Otherwise I would have have the same feeling as everyone else. We had a visit to the marina close to our place the other day. It was so sad to see the boasts are taken out of the water (don't know the correct terminology, it should have one).

M (my dog) had a great time however. The weather was amazing.

It is that time of the year for me to start planning. Planning the meals, school work, research, etc. Over the course of the time I came to really like to plan in advance. It gives me a feel of security and control. Multitasking is now envelops with everyday jobs for everyone and almost everyone has so many things on their todolist eveyday/week. And for me, if I see it written done I try my best to GET IT DONE. So on my list for today:

1. Calling CAA to renew my membership (it is a must for me as I have no idea what is going on in a car neither does hubby and I rather be safe than sorry specially with the amount driving that I will be doing this winter.

2. Calling CRA to take care of some tax related issues.

3. Taking my courses for fall semester and organized my schedule accordingly. So far it is the most important task on my agenda. I need to know which courses I will taking and their class schedules. Pretty much everything else will be schedule around them.

4. Calling my previous grad school regarding my transcript, it has not got to my recent school yet!

I have binders, papers and many other things necessary for school, however, I did some cute back to school shoppings at one of my favourite bookstores (Brock University). It has such neat items that I have not seen in other stationary stores. 

Anyway back to planning.

Labour Day!

Happy Labour day! I have developed a love/hate relationship with labour day weekend. As much as I love an extra day off in addition to weekend, the fact that Hubby and/or I have to go back to intense schedule of working hard set it all off. In addition, it is kind of end of the warm season for me which is really sad, isn't it?
We have just came back from a vacation in paradise Mexico. We had a blast. It is funny how your taste changes over the time. I always got really disgusted by Mexico vacation stereotype during my early 20s and never would have thought someday I would actually not only enjoy it but also looking forward to go back.
I cannot believe that there is only seven more days to beginning of the classes. I am actually excited that after 4 years of working in industry and going back, yayyyyy. I am going to back to school shopping tomorrow and I am really excited about that too. I really feel that it was about time for me to go back to school. We are planning to take some courses in Spanish as well to have a easier time when we are traveling in Spanish speaking countries.
My goals for this academic year is as follow:
1. Study hard and make sure that I am ahead of my lectures. It gives me so much confidence and motivations.
2. GO to gym at least three times a week. In particular what I am particularly looking forward to is a spinning class that is on Friday nights. It is a killer but at the same time it is one of the best classes I have ever had. It makes you work so hard.
3. Weight Training is one of the addition to my workout schedule that will be taken very seriously. As a matter of fact, I have a copy of "New Rules Of Lifting For Women" with me right now. I am going to make a plan and stick to it and will report my progress here every month. I am still shy for a before pictures to be posted here YET!

GoodLife

I am currently a member of GoodLife Fitness for various reasons one being it is a great facility (what is not to like, really), it is 5 min drive from my place, it has many locations across Ontario (which makes it very convenient for me when I am traveling for work), last but not least, my husband (Husband) has a corporate discount on its membership. Today plan was to put my two hours of free time in a good use. Since I love spinning, I planned to attend the 9:15 am class and then spent an hour or so in the weight room. However, universe planned another thing for me. I went to the spinning class and half way through, I realized that my head is spinning. Being the smart arse that I am, I left the class to rush to my car. I had a Gatorade waiting for me in the car. However, I did not make it. When I got to the front desk, I got cold sweats and kind of fell/lay down on the floor. They gave me a Gatorade and as much as I insisted afterwards to pay for it they refused.
I am wrapping up things at work and this week will be my last week at my current job (yay). I am not that busy but I should be available in case my colleagues who are over taking my projects have any questions or need more information.
Other than that I am keeping it low.

The beginning of my three years journey as a PhD Student!

I started this blog to document my daily new life as a PhD student. I had been student before (obviously), however, this time I want to maintain a healthy life style both physically and mentally. I truly think it is possible and just needs some in advance planing. My classes will start in September (2011). As much as I am excited about it, I am a bit stressed too. I welcome the challenges to come and am ready to meet them head on!