puff and gone (the weekend that is)

Friday was a career day. A few talks from different fields - academia, research institute, patent law, and some sort of government thing. One I know for sure - I will not become a patent lawyer - even though there's lots of interesting, it doesn't seem like made for me.
The best part was the "symposia" in the end of the day with a free drink. I had a busy day, but all the free drinks need to be carefully collected. The beer was GOOD. And then the second was very good too. Actually I didn't want the second. But some people wanted more free tickets, and when I was trying to make this happen, I got one of our profs to buy (!) me a beer. So nice of him:)
After two beers it was very interesting to go back to the lab to finish three experiments concurrently, while being under time pressure (we had a restaurant table booked by 6).

So at 6 we had our labs Christmas dinner. It was at Baton Rouge - known for its good ribs. And the ribs were delicious indeed. So was my appletini (apple martini). Of course David heard something completely different when Adam asked me, how is my "tini" (David heard: how are my titties. but that's David for ya.).

When I got home, I called Peter (Peter the politician), as we had planned to do something. He told me to dress warmly, and be ready in 10 min. So I had my jeans, and my snow pants, and my semi long black coat. It's a good universal coat - good for tobogganing and good for going to a nice resto.
We drove for a while, and I had no idea what is going to happen. He also kept joking that he will "abduct" me and take me to wilderness. I was laughing along, but a part of me was thinking hard, that what would I do if I would be stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Anyway. We made it. To the little village. And - we went skidoing! Skido is like a snowmobil or a "mootorsaan". It is a very canadian thing to do (like hockey). So I got a helmet (a real big helmet), and instructions to hold on tight (!) and lean whenever he does. And off we went.
Wow! This was SO cool! It was midnight, snowing big snowflakes, and going very fast on this instrument. The wind was blowing at times so hard, that I thought I'm going to lose my head along with the helmet. But I didnt. I was also trying to think how fast we are going. Estimating the speed how the trees came and passed, it seemed quite fast. It was later, when I found out that we went 175 km/hour. This is INSANE! Especially considering, that on this thing there is nothing holding you in place. He was holding onto the handle bars, and I hold onto him. But at the time of a jump, the seat went missing under me, and for a few times I was quite worries that I won't land on the seat, but the pile of snow. Thankfully I didn't. But what a muscle work. My thighs had to work SO hard, to keep me clamped onto this skido seat. It's Sunday now, and I have still difficulties walking. Oh, and in the end my muscles were so tired, so in one curve, where I had to lean, my toe slipped, and I was halfway off the skido. And how do you signal something like this? I couldnt let neither of my hands go, cos then I would have been stranded in the bushes... I did get back to the saddle though.
Oh, and the other funny part was, that my hat kept covering my eyes after every jump. So basically half of our drive, I wasn't able to see where we are going. So imagine - you are going 175 km/h, you can't see anything, and you are not attached to the crazy machine anyhow (except the muscle power). Not the safest sport! But - SO MUCH FUN! Kadi, I'm sure you agree - motorbikes must give a similar feeling I think!

We got back at 2 am. or 2.30. And then we went to the hot-tub. Outdoors hot-tub. Imagine - you have been just going very fast for a while, and being hot from adrenaline, and your muscles are exhausted, and then you just sit in the hot-tub, and the snow is quietly falling onto your face. It was SO, SO, SO nice!

I got to bed at 4.30, I think. And I had to be up at 9, as Leslie and I had decided to go and buy all the presents for the BMIGSA Christmas party. We were prodcutive - we spent close to 500 dollars on candies and spices (I want to prepare spice mixes for glogg as one of the presents) and some random items as presents. Among the other things I bought a nice pair of boots, and a set of acrylic paints (as I'm inspired by the movie I saw - the one about the abstract art. Of course - I even don't know what is the difference between acrylic and oil paints, but - I'll experiment:))!

The rest of Saturday passed VERY quietly, as my energy was gone.

Half of Sunday got spent on recovering as well. And then I made it to work and grocery shopping. And then I got a message from Adam, that he got us the tickets for the Nutcracker ballet. It was beautiful!!! This music, and all these pretty dresses and dances. I loved it!
Even though - one guy got hurt pretty bad - he was spinning, and then somehow fell, and then he was carried away. Poor guy. But other than that it was wonderful.

I even had time to do dishes and prepare dinner. But I think thats all for today. I need to do some more resting, and then maybe tomorrow I can clean my house and make some "glogg potion".

It has been a WONDERFUL weekend though:)