Waterloo/Kitchener is not a bad place, really, and for sciences and mathematics Waterloo is pretty highly ranked. The research/teaching thing is another matter of course. It's about 50 miles from Toronto, not so bad.

And bloody-fist!Fred!!!

Meep! That was mine.

Hil, that university is really really highly rated. Waterloo, on the other hand...I basically had to pick between McGill and Waterloo for the same degree, and although there wasn't a doubt that Waterloo was better for the subject it just wasn't somewhere I could envision living.

eta: Heh. Crosspost with Brenda. I'd rate Toronto below Montreal in a heartbeat, but even so I wouldn't say Waterloo benefits from the perqs of Toronto enough to count in its favour.

Well, no, it's no Montreal. Some good restaurants there, though.

Hil, not exactly scientific, but of all the places my dad & brother visited, Botswana was a fav (I missed that week of the tour. It included, Botswana, S. Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe (under duress) and Mozambique.)

All this time I thought a cannonball was just a solid metal ball.

All this time I thought a cannonball was just a solid metal ball.

Some of them were. Some were grape-shot. Some were incendeniary. Some exploded. It depended on what you were trying to do with it.

November in Thailand? Cooling down a little, as I recall. Which is to say, still sandals-and-t-shirt weather, but more bearable. Can't just remember when the rainy season extends to, although it seems to be on the way to starting already - we've had some DOOZIES already, but not on a daily basis yet.

...to be honest, though, it's Very Fucking Hot all year round, and one gets used to/works around the rain. (I mean, it is hardcore rain - soak you to the skin within 2 seconds kind of rain, splash-through-calf-deep-water kind of rain. But eventually it stops, and then the streets are bone dry within an hour or two.)

I love Botswana, and we really tried to get posted there. That was before the AIDS rate was 95%. It's so depressing.

So part of the life weirdness continues - for those of you who don't read my blog, we discovered last week that the DH has a half-sister. Who lives about 2 hours away. Their mother is famously hard to find; we hadn't heard from her since the day Mal was born.

We tracked her down. She was thrilled to hear the news. Apparently since the advent of the Internets she's been trawling the adoption boards, seeing if there was any way to find her daughter.

Just got a note that she's flying out here next week to meet her daughter for the first time in 40+ years, and then she'll visit us and meet her grandson for the first time ever.

Just got a note that she's flying out here next week to meet her daughter for the first time in 40+ years, and then she'll visit us and meet her grandson for the first time ever.

zOMG!!!!

Here are some of the things you can see at the Maker Faire this weekend.

The recently constructed Babbage Difference Engine.

Kite Aerial Photography

Fun and Fire with the Flaming Lotus Girls

The Laser Harp

My Dinner with Android

iPhone Hacking Lab

And the cool looking Steampunk band, Abney Park.