Life This Week: Library, Grande Prairie, & Lots of Food

We've reached that dark and cold time of year when snuggled in bed is where I spend most non-working hours, grilled cheese and ramen have joined the dinner rotation, and blogging has taken a backseat to just getting by. I know these lazy days will pass (just two weeks til I get to head home!) but in the meantime I'm more than happy to submit to the winter doldrums and enjoy the restorative powers of Friends reruns and one-pot pasta. Besides lazing around on the couch, here are some things I've appreciated this week:


potluck -- On Sunday I got together with family practice friends (who are all out working now, oh my gosh) for dinner. It was really nice to catch up and share in a multicultural potluck that included fried chicken, shepherd's pie, home-made dumplings, duck soup, and butter chicken pizza.

sorry, this is a terrible picture (I was trying not to get anyone in it, and unfortunately also didn't get most of the food in it :()

journal club -- On Monday evening we had an oncology journal club at The Glass Monkey, which is a pretty upscale "gastropub" hidden away in a strip mall. The talks were good, but the food stole the show. I really liked that it was served communally so we got to try around a dozen different dishes. Still thinking about their grilled portobello mushrooms!

library -- On Tuesday I actually wanted to get some work done, so headed to the library after work and was pretty productive.

the health sciences library

these are their new chairs, which don't look fancy but are actually really comfortable (small joys)

Grande Prairie -- On Wednesday after work I caught a flight to Grande Prairie for our once-a-month one-day peripheral clinic. The patients were lovely as usual. Other good things were:

1) Parking so close!! It was soooo cold out and I've never found a parking spot this close to the terminal (if you park in the EIA ValuePark lot (which is so big there's a shuttle service), you'll appreciate how exciting this is).

2) The little Grande Prairie Airport was all Christmassy.

3) Caught a nice sunset while waiting for the flight back.

Christmas baking -- On Thursday we (well, the other residents since I was still in Grande Prairie) distributed some baking we'd done around the cancer centre.

work in progress -- we put together 4 of these trays -- I made the gingersnaps (but that Chex mix was the best!)

Christmas lunch -- On Friday I happened to walk through the admin area just as the secretaries were laying out all the leftovers they'd saved from the staff ugly sweater party the night before (which I'd missed, because Grande Prairie). They gave me a plate and it was delicious.

turkey, cannelloni, caesar salad, & mashed potatoes (from Craft Beer Market)

DQ -- On Friday after work the residents in my program made an impromptu blizzard run. (And fyi DQ has their blizzards for buy-one-get-one-for-99-cents now -- probably because it's -20 °C out so sane people aren't eating them).

Turtles, yum