HOW TO LOWER TEST ANXIETY:

Ok, so two more days until THE BIG COMPREHENSIVE EXAM (i.e., exam based on all first year grad courses)! This one's for my classmates...(thanks Teresa for sending this to me in email - I just thought it was SO awesome!)

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint it goes like this:

What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that while Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top

Happy Birthday Meena!

Meena's sister, Manju, threw a surprise birthday lunch for her at The Olive Garden today.


Meena: One year older and wiser, but still as beautiful as ever! ;o)

Suzy, Dan, Roz, Meens, Jeff, Eli, Robert, Cody's gf, Cody, Mr and Mrs Enjati, Mrs Gramma Enjati, and Meena's sister, Manju

Fun at Dante's!

On Friday evening, Dan, Andrea, Leif and I were suppoes to go watch Christy's boyfriend, Chris, fight in an Ultimate Fighting Challenge competition at the Shaw Conference Centre. Unfortunately, we were too late and all the $25 tickets were sold out, and the next available ones were out of our price range. So instead, we headed over to Dante's, where the afterparty was going to be. Chris and Christy never showed up because the show took longer than expected. The good news is, Chris won the fight! And we heard that he was fighting someone 30lbs heavier than him! Congrats Chris!

So onto the pictures of our fun night...(ok ok, they are mostly of Dan and I) but first...here's a couple pictures of my engagement ring:

Here's a look at my engagement ring!

Here's a view of my engagement ring.

Leif, Andrea, Roz and Dan. We couldn't believe they had these cheesy beds everywhere inside the bar Dante's! Talk about trying to bring back the Sex Revolution! Anyways, at least they were comfortable!

Andrea and I on the cheesy zebra print bed! ACK! I swear we weren't trying to be porno!

Andrea, Roz, Michelle making Dan's fantasy come true (har har!)

Having a good laugh

I can fly!

Dan...that's...a...little too tight, honey!

WEST COAST TRAIL TRIP!
August 14-21

The trip was AMAZING. And by now, most of you know what the highlight of our trip was...

OUR ENGAGEMENT! (details below)

The trip started out awesome! Dan's parents were in Edmonton visiting from Qualicum Beach (which is on Vancouver Island). So we drove back with them on Saturday early in the morning, and spent the night at their place.

Early Sunday morning, they drove us out to the trail, where we had to take an hour orientation about the West Coast Trail. We started at Port Renfrew and went north all the way towards Bamfield, which goes from most difficult to easier trails. (Honestly, I have no idea how people can start out easier then continue towards the harder end, since feet easily blister after hiking for a few days straight!).


West Coast Trail (someone made that out of rocks, twigs, buoys, and anything else they could find on the beach)

This is a hardcore, backcountry type of hike, in which we took SEVEN days to complete. We must carry all our food, clothes, sleeping gear, etc. They recommended that women's backpacks are a 1/4 of their weight, while men's should be about a 1/3 of their own weight. So I carried about 35lbs (of mostly food!) and Dan carried about 45lbs. Somehow it seems that I had to carry much more weight overall (if we're considering proportion of backpack weight to bodyweight)!

It was such a great time! I got to pig out on my fave foods- PEANUT BUTTER, trail mix, and chocolate - and I still managed to lose most of my lil' love handles! Whoohoo! Teehee. Dan lost about 5lbs and leaned out quite a bit. We hiked for an average of 6-8 hours a day. And yes...our feet did get sore and blistery.

*muah* FYI: we're standing in an area where the nitrogen levels are lowest in the west coast area. WOW.

On our first night, Dan and I met two wonderful groups of people (see below), and since we were all heading the same direction everyday, we ended up camping with each other every night. It was such a blast! Thanks to the new friends we made from Vancouver and Victoria! You guys totally made our trip even more memorable!!!!

The Military men from Victoria: AJ, Glen, Tom and Rob

The Vancouver group: Wade, Sheila, Sandra, Elaine and Karen

The WCT campfire group!

THE STORY OF OUR ENGAGEMENT
Tsusiat Falls: Dan proposed to me right here

AUGUST 18, 2005 (fifth day on WCT)
6PM BC Time
Dan and I were just finishing bathing in the surprisingly warm waterfall, and as we were drying off, he picks up his hiking shorts from the ground.

DAN: I have a surprise for you, pick a pocket

ROZ: Hmm...left!

D: pulls out a huge sparkling wine bottle from left pocket of hiking shorts

R: Ohmigod! How did you hide that from me for five days!?!?

D: I had it in the top flap of my bag the whole time...I knew you wouldn't look there!

R: WOW! NO WONDER it was so damn heavy!!!

D: I have another surprise to go along with this...(pulls out ring box, and begins to nervously stutter the following words) You are the most beautiful girl in the world, I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I want to marry you...(almost forgets to go down on one knee, and quicly kneels in front of me and starts slipping on the ring)

R: YES! (Answers even though Dan didn't officially ask)
D: Oh yeah...so will you marry me?

R: I said yes!

D: OH sorry, I didn't hear you because of the waterfall!

We opened the bottle of sparkling wine (which tasted like sweet champagne) and shared half of it. We started to head back to our campsite to tell our new friends about our engagement. Tom, Wade and Sheila had beat us to it, and started heading over. All they could see at first was of course, the big huge bottle of sparkling wine (does this mean the rock wasn't big enough!? haha!) When we announced our engagement, Wade and Tom were estatic for us. Sheila, who was a bit behind and couldn't hear over the waterfall, was still amazed by the bottle. She thought Dan had found it and went on and on about it. Meanwhile, all of us are trying to point to the ring...in which Sheila finally clued in (Sheila, you're hilarious! I'll never forget that!) and everyone else started to come over to congratulate us and take pictures for us. It was an absolutely beautiful moment, and we'll never forget it for the rest of our lives!

Dan had said he meant to propose to me in Waterton, but b/c he had the ring custom made, they had made a mistake and the ring was not ready on time. Awww, but I'm so happy that it happened this way. The ring is quite unique...it's a simple, elegant princess cut Canadian diamond(.55k) with asymmetrical white gold bands. I'll take a picture of it soon...

In the meantime...please go HERE to VIEW ALL PHOTOS OF OUR TRIP!!!!!