rugby? who needs rugby?!?!

so on saturday, the leafs held a news conference to announce their new general manager and president Brian Burke.

i gotta say, so far, i'm impressed. i was particularly impressed with his 3 "mission points".
1. exciting & entertaining brand of hockey
2. financial prudence - it's not his money that he's spending, so he'll be careful when spending it.
3. community service - Burke says that his players will be more involved in the community than ever before and if any player is unwilling to fulfill his "civic duties" he can find another place to play. i especially like this one.

bottom line is that regardless of how exciting the leafs are, how much he spends on the payroll or how much his players give back to the community, UNFORTUNATELY brian burke's time here will be evaluated based on only one thing: the number of wins - and ultimately a stanley cup win.

*****

went to church with my friend jenn today and then chilled with my cousin justin in the afternoon. we decided to go check out a marlies game. had a great time. it was an entertaining game with the marlies winning in a shootout after the 7th shooter 4-3 over the rochester americans.

you know what the BEST part was though??? captain crunch was in the house!!! by complete chance, wendel clark was at the game signing autographs. what what!!!

best idea justin's come up with in about 6 years i think.

celebrity sighting #2.

there was a party for xyyz magazine today at roots. the event was sponsored by johnny walker.
let's just say it was a LONG night. i didn't get out of the store until a few minutes past 11pm.

the whole night wasn't a complete bummer though. why? cause k-os was in the house! he spent most of the night just chilling out & talking with some ladies & sipping on his scotch. as he was leaving, he gave me a head-nod, and i gave him a wave back. no not one of those grade 2 waves, but a hand up in the air kind of wave.

celebrities...

i had my first celebrity-sighting at roots today. well it was a little more than a sighting. i helped him pick out a couple of pairs of gloves and a couple of sweaters. even fished a size for him from the stock room. who was this mystery guest? it was peter mansbridge from CBC!
i don't mean to offend but he looked a little older and slightly chubbier than on tv. he was dressed really casually with a pair of jeans and a roots sweater & jacket from a previous purchase. he was also wearing his glasses. he looked like your average grandparent. i actually didn't recognize who he was until he spoke.
he had that soothing demeanor and still added his 'thank yous' and 'pleases' to his sentences. that's what impresses me lately. people that shop without looking at price tags but still have enough gentility to say please and thank you.

speaking of celebrities... the elves/midgets/little men/what's the correct term??? from the movie "fred claus" are going to be at the bay/bloor roots on wednesday from 4-6pm to do some gift wrapping and some holiday cookie decorations. drop by if you're in the area. i unfortunately can't be there.

i had another pretty good day in terms of sales. (i promise i'll stop bragging about my sales after this post!) i sold ~$1900 worth of stuff. considering it was a rainy monday, that's pretty darn good.

frazer vs. banting&best...

during my undergrad at uoft, we heard endlessly about insulin and how it was discovered at uoft by Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best. every human biology course mentioned this remarkable feat at least once during the course of the semester.
---all you life sci grads from uoft know what i'm talking about!

here at UQ there is something that they are even MORE proud of. if you've been keeping up with your medical journals, you'll know what i'm talking about.
i'm talking about Dr. Ian Frazer and his discovery of the cervical cancer vaccine. for a little backgroung info: cervical cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in women worldwide. the human papillomavirus (HPV) is believed to be the cause of virtually all cervical cancers. SO... just like the rubella vaccine that you get as a baby, there is now a vaccine that protects against cerival cancer (usually given around 11 or 12 years of age).

and we hear about this vaccine (Gardasil) / Ian Frazer / HPV / cervical cancer on what seems like an average of once per week. i kid you not. i swear! if i've learned just one thing this year, it's that Ian Frazer is the 2006 Australian of the Year, and he invented a vaccine for cervical cancer. that is all i know.

day 5.

Got up bright and early and caught a shuttle bus to the airport.
Flight was at 7am so I got there by 6am. And what do you know, there was a flight at 6:30am with some empty seats. I caught that instead and saved myself an extra 30 minutes of bumming around the terminal.

I really enjoyed Sydney.
It’s a mix of Boston (the harbour), New York City (Central park), a little bit of Montreal (St. Catherine’s Street) and something else. Something that I just can’t seem to place my finger on. But I like it!

So what do I have to show for my 5 day trip in Sydney?
Well…
I’m home with a full stomach of food and have satisfied my cravings for Korean.
I’ve had barrels of laughs.
Made tons of memories.
Made some good friends and strengthened my relationship with others.
Have more pictures than I could possibly print out. At last count it was around 420.
Besides that?
Well, I did pick up a little something for myself…

for those of you that REALLY know me, you’ll know that I have a bit of a soft spot for snow globes. Now I’m fully aware that they are completely useless and really a waste of space. But I’m just a sucker for a good snow globe. Now I’ve been hesitant to let too many people know about my secret love. mostly out of fear. Not fear of ridicule. But rather, fear of being cursed with horrid and ugly looking snow globes as gifts for the rest of my life. Mark my words. I do NOT want a snow globe for Christmas, for my birthday, for Valentine’s day, for father’s day (in the future) or for any other occasion!

Kudos to ethan for driving me to the airport on Wednesday morning.
Kudos and a big sloppy kiss on the cheek for jules for letting me crash at her place for the last 4 nights.

School has started up again.
I can honestly say that I am refreshed and ready to take on another block of readings, library sessions and endless PBL sessions.
I am looking forward to this block. only 7 weeks until my first mid-year exam and my WINTER break. I know, winter in june?!?!

OH!
something i forgot to mention.
on day 2 i hugged the REAL "free hugs" guy.
don't believe me? here's proof!

if you don't know who the "free hugs" guy is - how can you not know? the man has been on OPRAH for crying out loud!!! - watch the video or check out his site ( http://www.freehugscampaign.org/ ).