Meal prep for this week included planning for the week after when I’m away and spouse has just a couple for days before overlapping trip. Both home just in time for long weekend & I don’t want a bunch of expired stuff in my fridge while I am trying to prep last minute for Thanksgiving.

Glad kid#2 is close enough I can jump on a bus or train to visit. Coffee date with supply drop off today!

Sophie De Goede is Player of the Year!! She’s so, so good

Not a great game from Canada. Too many penalties, too many mistakes, too much of an issue with the scrum. Normal strengths are weaknesses. England will have a win today. Poop. Red roses are a force and it turns out that no one is a challenge in this tournament. Not what I wanted to see today

England was allowed to make penalty after penalty on that last push and now just wasting time. Fucking hate it.

Honestly the semi final was a better game. Let’s hope this try and time with the advantage gets us some points and back into the game. Surprised the yellow card isn’t being reviewed for a red. That was a dangerous tackle. 🇨🇦

New paper on the expression of the estrogen receptor in the marine polychaete, Capitella teleta! Congrats to @andreamurillo.bsky.social on another paper from her PhD! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Great collaboration with the Seaver lab!

Canada faces England in the finals. The #1 vs #2 in the world for gold, the #3 vs #4 for bronze. Next weekend will be some great rugby.

Canada v NZ rugby yesterday was one of the best games I’ve seen in years, men’s or women’s. Canada through to the final. Today we see who they will play but I think k it will be England. The question is by how much? Doubtful that France can take the Red Roses.

With an outstanding MSc defence today, Jack has now completed his degree. Super job!

Working in a colleagues lab today.. Introduced myself to a new student and they asked if I was a new grad student… I’m old enough that is now feels more like a compliment but the giggles from the other students who knew who I was made me laugh harder. I could not keep a straight face.

First week of term ✅ CIHR grant ✅ Exhausted ✅

First day of term & my first meeting is with our new MSc student, Molly. Laying out all the things that will make sure she has a smooth transition Welcome to the lab, Molly!

Nothing makes me happier than when a student in my lab submits their thesis! Congratulations Jack on this giant step. Onwards towards the defence!

Writing a CFI grant is the most painful thing ever. Ever.

Draft of proposal, budget & justification of grant #3 is out with Co-Is. It has some missing info but it’s a real plan. No time to celebrate bc I have edits to start tomorrow on one of the other grant apps. Research leave for me often turns into multiple grants or very big grant apps. It’s a lot

Writing retreat to focus on grants is going well. I submitted drafts for 2 and got going on #3.. But feedback is already coming back and I do not want to look. Can I just get #3 done??? Making me anxious. 😬 🫣

CCV is so bad.. I’m writing multiple grants and every time, it’s still ages to fix everything just bc it’s so clunky. Doesn’t matter I just updated for one application. Different agency, different information, the return of all the ❌ everywhere. Sigh. Change is coming.. but it’s not here now

Took the late afternoon off to swim, read, & mull my next few days. Writing retreat is successful so far but I’ve been up at 6 am every day & after getting to really good places on 2 grants & editing a bunch of thesis chapters, I need to make a switch to grant #3. The break gave me a way forward.

Team Canada with a big win today over Fiji. Fast ball, good defence, the scrum is fantastic & boy has the kicking improved. Some things to clean up of course but an excellent start with bonus points. Pool play is underway. It’s Wales up against us next weekend.

Via World Rugby: Julia Schell’s six tries for Canada vs. Fiji are the most by any player in a Rugby World Cup match since Portia Woodman-Wickliffe scored eight for New Zealand against Hong Kong in 2017.

MSc student Jack Salole is writing up & his defence is scheduled. First paper has just been published! Optimization of the RTgill-W1 assay for toxicity testing. Will be followed by studies with effluent! academic.oup.com/etc/advance-...

Opening game by the red roses was dominant, after a bit of nerves at the start. It’s what you expect from the number 1 ranked squad!The crowd was great & so good to see record attendance for women’s rugby. Let’s hope that goes through the whole tournament. Canada opens against Fiji today! 🇨🇦 💪

Women’s World Cup rugby? Why yes, that is my thing for the next 6 weeks! If you haven’t watched women’s rugby lately, you should watch some now. Canada has an amazing squad & I’m a big fan of the roses & ferns.

Place we are staying: please don’t let your cats in the bedroom My cats at 4 am: if we rock on the door enough, can we bust in? I had to bribe them with food to get them out. Now they have a new strategy for early breakfast 😼

CIHR grant response to reviews are a bit spicy 🌶️. Not sure how many more comments I can handle about zebrafish not being translatable to humans 🙃 So many positive comments on the grant but this repeating refrain of “but it’s not a mammal” is a perennial comment.

Writing retreat at a cottage. Up at 6 am for sunrise writing session. Day 2 & enough done on draft of grant 1. now waiting on emails & quotes. Now that I’ve had breakfast, I need a swim before moving to grant 2 & thesis chapter review. (Definitely don’t recommend 3 grants at once 🙃)

Thrilled that Jack got his first thesis chapter accepted for publication with ET&C. Helps get him excited in the middle of thesis writing! Plus no editing required after the defence makes the final thesis a bit easier!

Retweet to save a life

Not sure I can even read the hockey verdict news today. I saw the headline, was not surprised, but could go no further.

Was having issues following our meal plan but I hate food waste. So I switched it up. Saturday farmers market to get all my produce. Make a meal plan around the bounty. Shop Sunday for other needs and prep for the week. Sauces, veg, protein for most meals done ahead Easy dinners though the week!

Hamilton fringe festival has started. Go support local art. Sometimes the shows are fine, but often they are really really great!

a new study found that experienced open source programmers became 19% less efficient when they used AI tools, because they spent more time prompting and reviewing AI generation output than they saved on coding.

Air quality absolutely bad tonight & I’m having some issues with breathing. Hoping tomorrow is better

Did not sleep well last night so the brain intensive tasks I wanted to tackle today were not possible.. But I have a to do list organized & training courses up to date. These seem to continue to grow & expand every year. So many online sessions 🧪

Hockey tonight and I’m excited to get back on the ice!

Starting back doing major food prep on weekends. Farmers market for fresh veg on Saturday, cook like a fiend on Sunday. Makes the week go easier and it’s actually less time in the kitchen overall

After a 1.5 years without garlic (intolerance) I just found out that garlic scapes are low in fodmaps & safe for me to eat Testing this week & so hopeful & excited. I could eat pesto!!! (Honestly, my diet change was so worth it. I’m not in constant pain with GI issues. it’s been life changing)

First day back after a looong vacation. Spent the day with students and boy have they been busy! Love to see the progress & chatting about upcoming thesis writing for people! Started clearing my inbox, only 1425 emails left… 😮‍💨

Pickled fennel.. where have you been my whole life?

Set my auto reply for research leave… No I’m not the Associate Chair No I’m not teaching No I’m not doing university admin work Talk to me in January 2026! Time to focus on research!! 🧪

Marner to Vegas. Hometown boy leaves for $1M. I thought I’d be more disappointed but I’m not. The NTC & high salary wasn’t worth it but hind sight is 20/20. An amazing regular season player but terrible playoffs. Such wasted potential. Here’s hoping the cap space gets us playoff players.

Happy Pride 🌈 Love your kids. Full stop. As a parent, that’s your biggest requirement- to love them so much, they always feel it.

OMG… so hot… so sunny… Jeez this is going to be a transition. It’s like give been turned into a cold weather vampire

Love this deal. JT at this price is a fantastic deal

It’s so amazing when I can go into a place and ask “do you have any gluten free items?”and even when they say technically no, they offer to modify things on their menu so I can eat. Today it was: We can take off the croutons on the salad, and give you avocado instead. Yes please.

Eating out is easier in Scotland than in Canada. Hands down. Sure, some places have nothing I can eat but they label foods for the 10 top allergens, so it’s easier to sort out what is safe. Many places take it seriously, with options & work arounds. Mostly it’s in the attitude though.

The boat captain, Willy, asked my spouse if he was a geologist bc “He has the beard for it” 😂 Then he found out I was a biologist.. & I spotted seals for him. What kind of biologist he asks? Me (whispers): marine

I was too in the moment to take many decent photos or video today. But I finally saw some more dolphins and they were putting on a show, splashing and jumping. But the sea eagles? Those were impressive & I did get a video. (I’m more of a watch & be in the moment person when I’m with nature)

What kind of bad luck when we have another flat tire? Pothole at a pull off parking beside the highway took out the tire. Calling rental company assist for the second time in 3 days. At least this will just need a new tire, not a new car.