Blog Squad Application

Down to the wire...the Blog Squad Application for the 2011 IACUC Conference is due tomorrow.

I've enlisted the fine artistic talent of Tim Brown to do the comic illustrations to go along with my 'statement of purpose'. It's been said that a "picture is worth a thousand words". In the case of this application, I'm limited to 500 words, so we'll see what happens! Please remember all images are copyright of Tim Brown.

Take Life by the Handlebars

In December when I ordered a lifetime subscription to Momentum magazine, I also received this great "Take Life by the Handlebars" t-shirt!

Momentum provides urban cyclists with the inspiration, information and resources to fully enjoy their riding experience and connect with local and global cycling communities. They have a couple blogs on their site, one specifically for Families on Bikes that is written by Kathleen Wilker from Ottawa. Once all the snow here in Saskatoon has finally melted (perhaps May or so!), I'll send in a post for Families on Bikes to highlight the adventures of riding my new Dahon MU UNO folding bicycle with our kids.

As Luck Would Have It...

In December, I bought for Tim a lifetime subscription to Momentum - the magazine for self-propelled people and my name was entered into a draw for a Dahon folding bike. What an amazing surprise to receive (on Finnegan's birthday) an email from the office manager at Momentum and learn I had won the bike! Today, a lovely new Dahon MU UNO folding bicycle arrived.

Keira and Finnegan were surprised to know that a bike could actually fit into a box this small!



It certainly folds up small and looks awesome when unfolded! I can't wait to try it out, although it may have to wait until the spring. I will likely bring it with me when I visit my good friend Natalie, in Ottawa this summer.

Tim is impressed by the fancy Schwalbe marathon racer tires. He did a review of them for BicycleSmile and it's on his bike blog as well.

Thanks so very much to Momentum and Dahon for this great new bike!

IACUC Blog Squad

Blog Squad applications must also submit a writing sample relating to animal care and use and research ethics. While not a blog, here’s a link to our UCACS Animal Care Course Registration / Login Information which is used to give animal users details about our Education and Training Program and the process for registering and logging in for the online course that all animals users must complete before their protocol is approved. Also relating to training, on the Research Ethics Office website, one can find a poster I developed to highlight our program - Meeting Responsibilities: The institutional animal user education and training program at the University of Saskatchewan (which was even presented at the 2009 IACUC Conference in San Diego, CA).

2011 IACUC Conference - I'd like to join the Blog Quad!

In late March, I will be attending the 2011 IACUC Conference in Chicago, IL. In my current position, as the Animal Ethics Research Facilitator in the Research Ethics Office at theUniversity of Saskatchewan, this is a great opportunity to meet with others in field of research ethics administration. This is a conference sponsored by Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R), an organization dedicated to advancing the highest ethical standards in the conduct of research.

This year, they are putting together a PRIM&R Blog Squad. While I don’t normally blog about research ethics issues (my only other blog to date has been the one I created last year to track my fundraising marathon for my niece, Alivia), I am keen to give it a whirl, especially since the blog squad members receive a complimentary registration to PRIM&R's 2011 IACUC Conference! The PRIM&R Blog Squad will post articles, or other information about IACUC Conference speakers, events, and the city of Chicago. All posts will appear on PRIM&R's blog, Ampersand.

So as part of my application to be considered as member of the PRIM&R Blog Squad, in the coming days I’m going to post my ‘statement of purpose’ to let the PRIM&R conference coordinators know why I would be a great addition to their Blog Squad.

Please note that all artwork from the comic panels is copyright of Tim Brown – artist and bike geek extraordinaire!

Yoga for Little People

Today, I biked over to the Refinery to teach a Yoga for Little People (and their parents!) class but unfortunately no one showed up! Having taught three sessions now for the Riversdale Community Association on Monday evenings from 6:00-6:45 pm, where only my kids, plus my neighbour and sometimes one or two other families would show up, I thought a class during the day might be of more interest to people – perhaps not! Mind you, it was the first time this type of class has been offered at the Refinery so perhaps a bit more patience is needed to spark some interest. Hopefully we will try again in the spring and then the fall. I am totally keen to lead a young children’s class, so I would be interested to know the preferred times and days that would suit family schedule’s best! This JOOS-Y class (as with all the yoga classes at the Refinery) was coordinated through Jivamukti guru, Jan Henrikson, at Joos Yoga Downtown – another fabulous place to practice yoga!

Winter Wonderland

Winter certainly brings its share of challenges when living in Saskatoon and trying to walk, bike or bus as much as possible. On the weekend, Keira and I headed out to catch a bus to get to dance class at the University and after about 20 minutes of waiting I figured we had either missed the bus or had the schedule wrong (Note to self - always check the bus schedule the night before instead of just assuming you know otherwise you could be waiting for a long time if the buses only run every hour!!).

So we headed back home, grabbed helmets and hauled it over to Miss Tina's creative dance class - better late than never.

It was a fair bit of effort to pull just one child over to campus and certainly gave me renewed appreciation for Tim's efforts in chauffeuring the kids around to all their activities on the yuba!

Yoga Training

I recently completed teacher training at Hot Yoga on 20th after an intensive three month program instructed by Dallas Kruszelnicki. Hot Yoga on 20th is a beautiful purpose-built yoga studio which just opened up over a year ago and is conveniently only a 10 minute walk from my house. As of the New Year, there are many new classes being offered (check out their schedule), and new students can go to unlimited classes for a week for just $20 which is an awesome deal. I taught my first class there last Tuesday and will hopefully continue to teach every other Tuesday night at 8 pm; alternating with Wendy, one of the other five fabulous teacher trainees with whom I completed the training.

What really got me started on this yoga teaching journey was my two children. I had been practicing yoga on and off for a few years and somehow picked up a few children’s yoga videos to do with Finnegan and Keira. One thing lead to another and I decided I’d like to offer a class for young kids in our neighbourhood and arrangements were easily made with our local community association to host a class. Having committed myself to teaching a class it quickly dawned on me that though I enjoyed practicing yoga, I really had no clue about teaching it! Fate must have played a hand as I serendipitously learned about Kathleen’s Yoga Studio – Namaskar Yoga and a Level 1 workshop was being offered with perfect timing. While I was crazy nervous at that first workshop, the yoga teaching bug stuck and I’ve been working towards a 200 hour RYT certificate for the past year and a half. This weekend I’ll be completing the 8th out of ten 20 hour workshops.