An Eventful 2 Weeks

I haven't had much time to blog the last few weeks as we have been super busy. I'll try and keep the update brief, but I suspect it may get a little long...

My last post was all about our little friend we have now named the Incredible Flying Doobs. This is because about 10 hours after his first jump onto a wood deck and my last post, he did it AGAIN. The second time we lost him for about 3 hours, and had all but given up hope when Marshall found him sitting on the sidewalk completely dazed and confused half way up our street. His chin had already gotten significantly worse throughout the day, and we were already concerned about his injuries from the first fall, but that didn't seem to deter him....

STOOPID CAT about 6 hours before his second leap

Once we got him in the second time, he hid under our bed a slept for 3 days, coming out only to eat. By day 3 he started to be himself again, and is perfectly fine now. Needless to say, our balconies have been kitty proofed and there is absolutely NO unsupervised balcony time for the cats. At least he has 6 lives left....

While Doobie was busy recovering, I was busy convocating. The ceremony was much more meaningful in the moment than I thought it would be. Unlike undergraduate who simply walk across the stage, PhD students are seated with the faculty on stage for the remainder of the conferring of degrees. Needless to say it was HOT under all those stage lights, but fun to watch all the undergraduates get their degrees.

For those of you reading this from south of the border: in Canada the Universities have adopted the Brittish style of Academic dress. This means we get "caped" rather than the board hats you see for undergraduate degrees. The sash you see across my shoulders is the front of my cape. It also means the academic gowns for universities have 1) red in them, and 2) are often very ornate. The red comes from the medievil tradition that honoured PhD's on the same level as Catholic Cardinals. The ornate robes also come from the fact that academics in those times often held high positions in the royal courts, and often have really cool hats as a result. Below is a picture of me with my research supervisor (I believe you call them "sponsors") who graduated from one of the older Universities in Canada that adopted a more traditional academic dress. Faculty members typically wear the robes of their graduating universities to all academic ceremonies. Concordia, being a much younger University (about 30 years) has adopted more modern regalia. I wish I had one of those hats!

I think I'll stop here for now. I'll post another update of our trip to Kingston this past weekend later this week!