tomorrow in foods class, Kirsten will be making grilled cheese sandwiches. I told her that when I was in high school my Home Ec teacher was a very large lady, and she said that her teacher is also voluminous. She said that her teacher eats most of what they cook, to test it, you know. And I was thinking, what a cool job; forcing teenagers to feed you. Sweet revenge.

Well. I've been wading through statistical research methods for over a month now, struggling frantically to put together a paper that makes sense so that I could pretend I knew what I was talking about. The paper was due on Thursday, and on Tuesday I went to class and the professor decided that TWO DAYS before the paper was due was a good time to talk about EXACTLY what he wanted us to do for the paper. Needless to say, without prior direction I had not done half of it, had gotten a wrong-headed notion about some of the applicable tests, and had to stay up all night Tuesday in order to hand it in as planned on Wednesday afternoon. (I'm not on campus on Thursdays).

I'm too old for all-nighters, and of course on Wednesday I had to go get on buses and ferries and skytrains for the trek to Burnaby. It was spring break for the kids, and when I was wandering around the house after 90 minutes sleep Wednesday morning, Kirsten said to me, "Why don't you take Rachel to school with you, she can be your guide dog, since you're stunned". So I did, and we had a very nice day. I just went up and handed in my paper, which Rachel thought was funny; "We came all the way up here to staple your paper in the library and put it in a box???" I took her to MacDonalds for lunch, her choice, and we were early back to Horseshoe Bay to catch the ferry, and she played on the playground for a while. One of the cool things I discovered earlier this term is that since both my lectures are in the big halls, the university records the lectures and puts them on the net, so I can listen to them at my leisure if I don't feel like going. I still have to go to my seminars and labs, but on Wednesdays all I have had is the one lecture, so I've skipped it quite a bit and listened to it at home. There's no video, but the audio's good, and it's great to be able to pause, and to be able to sit in my pajamas with all my stuff spread out, instead of in a little seat with a tiny table surrounded by people who talk and fidget and smell of perfume...

However. I am almost done. Next Monday and Tuesday are my last exams, for which I am studying pretty hard as they're both hard courses. Then next Wednesday Miguel and I are going to England, to see my Grannie. And some art galleries, including the Whistler/Turner/Monet exhibition at the Tate in London. We're only going for ten days, as I can't see leaving the kids with my parents longer than that. Then I have to come back and look for work.