The Great White North

Evenin' friends:) It's been a while since I've posted, and for mostly good reason...it's Spring Break! Many of you recall Spring Breaks of yore that included scantily clad buff bods, doing body shots and shooters till the wee hours of the morning, letting the buzz kill the pain of getting sunburnt in a country full of white sand and turquoise water. I remember those days too. Note that the Spring Break of grad school differs ever so slightly. The only white sand and turquoise waters I see now are on my desktop wallpaper, and unless people can start getting burnt from 60-watt lightbulbs illuminating me typing up my dissertation proposal.

But I guess even I'm being dramatically unfair to the vacation I've had so far. Last Friday the Canadian and I did get out of town for a few days by driving up to the Great White North so I could meet his fam and relax for a few days. Nerve-wracking as "meeting the parents" always is, I must say that it went pretty well. His family was so chatty and sweet to me and his little sister like the little sister I never had. The only bummer of it all is that the Canadian himself came down with a wretched cold/flu thing. At one point, his temp was up to 103, though I wasn't able to tell that at first since I was unable to read the thermometer in Celsius. Doh! I'm happy to report that he's doing fine now once the fever broke. Anyhow, since the Canadian was out of commission for a few days, we didn't really get to go anywhere in Toronto until the 3rd day of our visit. Therefore I was pretty psyched when we were able to venture out. We hit up the mall in actual good stores, something we don't have here in S.C., and walked downtown a bit. Then we headed to a sweet brewery/restaurant called C'est What? (you can read more about their brews in my latest post on the 365 Beer blog) There we met up with one of his college buddies and his girlfriend for a while. So it was good times all around. We decided to head back to the States the next day, but not before stopping in Buffalo, NY at the Anchor Bar, home of the buffalo wing. Survey says--> excellent wings, though overpriced. Anyhow, we got in super late at night on Monday and I was pretty much tapped out the next day. Since we've been back, it's been back to the grind, though we may go to NYC this weekend to visit some friends. I do so love spending St. Paddy's Day in the City.

Oh, just a reminder, if you haven't signed up for the second annual NOSE/Red Red Rine March Madness Tournament Challenge, you can still do so before noon tomorrow when the tourney starts. Okay, to register yourself in our group you can go to this website:

Group Name: NOSE/Red Red Rine
Group ID: 548
Password: beer