Nov 16, 2009

Sorry about that – kinda fell off the blogosphere for a bit there. But, I have lots of news!

I gave a really well received talk at a prion meeting in Greece – to students, on how to give a talk (the irony being I threw it together at the last minute). It was so great to fire off the Heritage grant and then lie by the Aegean Sea for a bit. Okay, only for 2 days before the conference, but still, better than nothing. I’ll have to take a real vacation one of these days… I also gave a presentation in Vancouver, to the PrioNet crowd, updating my progress to date. It went very well, but was really mostly show, and not data…

I’ve started curling every week – another great way to break from the stress (and no, I don’t just mean the alcohol component). I’m still playing music with TEMPO (a string chamber group) too – and will be playing a solo with them at our Dec 6th concert, but haven’t made it back to any celtic jam sessions recently. I’ll have to try to resurrect that…

I did some poster judging at summer student research day, which was fun but exhausting. Maybe I’ll have my own summer student next summer – if I can get around to actually reading the CVs I have been sent. As it is, I may also wind up with some high school students for a few months December through April. We’ll see…

I am adding to my committee responsibilities, but so far only ones I think will be fun. I am now on the advisory board for WISEST, and the residency training committee (for Neurology). I think the best committee name so far though, is the one we are developing for the Centre for Prions, to facilitate outside users who wish to use the containment areas. We have named this committee the “Facility Use Committee”… I won’t spell out the acronym for you…

But my biggest news? I’ve finally hired a lab tech – she started today. Yay! And she clearly knows her stuff. Already pieces of equipment are appearing in new locations and we are going to start spending money and doing experiments!