This post is dedicated to Mary R., without whom there would be no Jen

OH...MY...GOSH
I don't even think I remember how to use this thing. Apologies for the lack of contact lately... Tycho and I took an extended holiday to Antarctica and only just got back, jet-lagged and parched, and Tycho is cranky because all of his pictures of the penguins came out like radioactive-white windscapes. I told you to change the exposure, Tycho! Anyway, we decided that going to see that penguins at the Biodome down the street is much less complicated, except one of the Lynx cats in the boreal forest exhibit was making eyes at T-dot last time so I need to be careful. ANYHOW we got back to find a gift waiting for us, from my dear friend and Tycho's dear auntie, who commissioned Loblaw's to put together this little piece of porcelain love:

Yup, that's Tycho's handsome mug... on a handsome mug. If you are a loyal Livewire reader, you might be aptly reminded of this picture:

Immense thanks to Jen and her artistic abilities, and to Loblaw's and it's ... uh... PhotoLab abilities. Jen, you are awesome and we both love you to the tips of our tails!

So, life has been nuts lately ... I haven't even had a chance to read other people's blogs, which is kind of a treat in a way, because I just checked Bloglines and see that there is an immense amount of catching-up for me to do, including THREE updates from Jen since I was last in this interwub space. Concordia just pulled off its annual graduate literature conference, and while my actual role in it was quite small (set up the lunch, eat the lunch) I still felt exhausted by it all. It was pretty great to spend all that time with my M-town crowd, though, and we capped off the brain-fest with a bit of a cheese'n'gravy foodfest:





Mark of Jen'n'Mark, I'm posting that poutine picture just for you! It's like porno for the tastebuds.

There was also a big celebratory end-of-year creative reading at the Buddhi Bar (which was pretty much the greatest place to read ever, thanks to its crazy, unclassifiable decor and basement-in-That-70s-Show feeling), and that was incredibly fun, and I got to pretend I was Virginia Woolf for a while, minus the pesky madness bit.

In other news, SCHOOL IS ALMOST OVER which is just about the strangest thing to think about. Every time I remember that I'm teetering on the very furthest edge of my first MA year, I get nervous little electric shocks up and down my spine. Many words have yet to be written and spoken before I can collapse back into my feather duvet and pronounce round one all over, but come Easter classes will be finished and summer will be here for me! And what a summer it'll be; I've recently picked up a gig as a slush-pile reader at Maisonneuve magazine, and I'm still doing the research thing, and the TA thing, and just the general, undefinable Megan thing ... those are a lot of things. Tycho, as usual, is doing his thing with impressive determination, which right now looks like this:


(look closely, that is some poor student's essay upon which he is drooling)

Also, I will cap this first-in-a-long-time entry with a wee bit of news... and for the sake of modesty, said bit of news will be communicated in photo form (with the help of a couple of tongues, which is appropriate, all things considered):


LOOK JEN IT IS 11:40 ON SUNDAY NIGHT WHICH MEANS I POSTED DURING THE WEEKEND JUST LIKE I SAID I WOULD WHOOOO!!!

One more thing: in addition to the dedication at the top of this blog, I would also like to extend a shout-out to my Auntie Helen, who got worried and called my mom when I didn't post for a long time. Oh man, I wish I was going home at Easter to see everyone! Eat some ham and hug some hugs for my sake, okay?

Back soon... I promise.