No Cascade Saddle trip report to post from March, so maybe I can get this one out in the two remaining days in April, although I still have papers I’m working on, including a May 1st deadline for SAS (which I wouldn’t attend, but my coauthors would).
The bulk of the teaching work was earlier in the term, but there was still some teaching prep, plus Assignment 3 and a final. Still less than Assignment 2 and a midterm. Sometimes, thankfully, I just had to prepare slides from the notes I’d prepared earlier, though that was also in the evening after refereeing in Edmonton.
And, yes, there was the Edmonton International and Pacific International judo tournaments.
Health news
Not too much across my radar this month, but I did see this:
- A Unique Pandemic Control Trial: even the least effective CoronaVac vaccine reduced hospitalizations quite a bit.
Professional
Just on the last day of March, I was super relieved to find that I got an NSERC Discovery award this time, after two unsuccessful applications. It’s more money than I’ve ever received from NSERC before. This is consistent with my understanding: it is harder to get NSERC than it used to be, but the amounts are higher. (I also had an Amazon Research Award rejected.)
A not very reasonable count of work on 28 days (lectures on 14 days), though not all of the 28 days were 8 hour days. There are 22 work days in March.
Teaching
Finished an SE 465 lecture early on a nice day in March and brought the class outside for remaining 30 minutes. The other thing I did was damage control on the SE465 midterm, which induced some student anxiety at the time.
Grad students/mentees/collaborators
Up a bit from last month (4) to 6, which is closer to my long-term average. March involved prep for Alex’s comprehensive exam. And, I looked at potential grad student files again.
Collegiality/Service
In a throwback to 2019 and my service as SE Director, I ran a panel for SE 2026 on life after graduation, inviting three alumni to speak. As usual, FAUW governance work. Also did a Walks as a Service for two ECE 459 students, attended the ECE grad toast, and did some SCAM organizing. Had a bunch of lunches with colleagues throughout the term. Went to a hiring talk. Read a PhD thesis and attended the corresponding defence (as a committee member). Congrats to Dr. Tafese!
Trips
Back from Wellington on March 1 (later than expected), then to Edmonton, Vancouver, and Peterborough for weekends.
Edmonton, March 6 to 8
The thing about going to referee at the West Edmonton Mall is that it’s possible to stay all weekend in the mall. I do try to stay not in the mall, but there isn’t much free time otherwise. In this case, due to teaching until 4pm on Friday, it really is in-and-out. Last year I had a couple of extra days in Edmonton. At the tournament, my friends helped me with some video critiques of how I refereed my matches.
I drove to YYZ, parked there, and then took an Uber from YEG to West Edmonton Mall for about $50, which is cheaper than renting a car. On Sunday night I got a ride back to the airport and stayed at a cheap airport hotel ($80?), which was fully adequate, and left at 5am on Monday morning, getting back in time for 1pm lecture.
Both this week and next, I got lucky with changing to an earlier flight on the westbound leg, because the flights I originally booked arrived at 3 or 4 in the morning local time due to massive delays. Yikes.
There was a rumour that the age limit for the Continental referee grade was changed from 45 to 50, but it’s not yet substantiated. I hope it does.
Vancouver, March 13 to 15
Since the Pacific International moved back from Abbotsford to Richmond, the logistics are far easier, and the air quality isn’t horrific. At the Richmond Olympic Oval there was also the provincial youth climbing championships, which I watched a bit. I also watched a lot of judo, of course, since I was refereeing.
I did take an Uber to my airbnb on the Friday night, and back to YVR on Sunday. I left slightly before the end because the next flight would have been the red-eye. It’s punishing to take a 4hr redeye and arrive at YYZ at 6am. I also forgot my charger at the airbnb but had enough time to make a stop there and pick it up. The airbnb host had a bunch of medals from marathons and ultras.
There was also a good walk to the venue in the morning. Nice to be outside a bit.
I tried to take City Cabs to YYZ but waited 45 minutes in the snow. That was poor. Don’t advertise airport service if you can’t provide it.
Peterborough, March 27 to 28
Could have driven two hours in the morning on the Saturday to referee at the Golden North Open, but thought it would be wiser to go on Friday night and sleep in a bit. This tournament was much bigger than last year and well-run. I was chief referee but didn’t have any complaints to deal with.
Travel Planning
I did buy my ticket to New Zealand this month. Also, NEXUS renewal came through the day after I applied.
Movement statistics
Almost no walking this month, though a good amount of biking.
Movement statistics:
- πΆ Walking: 21km on 9 days (probably a bit more with the cross-campus teaching walk, but that’s hard to measure)
- π² Biking: 190km on 24 days
- π Driving: 779km on 8 days: YYZ to Waterloo; round-trip to YYZ for flight to YEG; Peterborough
- π Taxi: 233km on 3 days (YEG to West Edmonton; round-trip to YYZ)
- π Bus: 3km on 1 day (actually an airport shuttle to YEG)
- β Plane: 15492km (YVR-YYZ; YYZ-YEG roundtrip; YYZ-YVR roundtrip); miles still not credited on 3 of the segments.
Transit? Basically zero. Walking also quite close to zero, alas.
Pictures
Let’s just combine March and April. In May I should actually have free time after work again and hopefully be able to address the backlog.
Miscellaneous
In other life maintenance news, I started removing carpet, with flooring to be installed in mid-April. Also gave away our least favourite sofa bed. Still have one sofa bed and an extra bed beyond that. Took delivery of 40 boxes of engineered hardwood to the garage and slowly moved them upstairs.
One of the days I was biking to school, the water was above my pedals. My feet got wet. Ugh.
Posts
None.
Acquisitions
- Rab Adrift 30L Day Pack: replaced a similar-sized Osprey pack which had a zipper failure.
I also sent shoes for resoling at Ontario Resoles and a sleeping bag for washing (Rab now provides this service for about $100, which is pricey, but it is a pain to wash sleeping bags.)
Sports
GRR 5Γ, judo 4Γ, but the last visit to UW judo was a doozy and I pulled something in my back which was painful for 3 weeks. At the time I didn’t think I was even trying very hard.
Food
Quite few new restaurant visits.
- Yunshang Rice Noodle (Waterloo) δΊε°η±³ηΊΏ, in University Plaza: free ice cream. Was fine.
- Pho Capital, Richmond BC: didn’t want a lot of food, but a banh mi was just about right. Would do again.
- Hub Burritos, FreakShakes and Paletta (Ice-cream), Waterloo: Almost the closest restaurant to my place. I’ve been back a couple of times for ice cream as well. Definitely worth a visit.
- The Nguyen’s Viet Express, Cambridge: yet another banh mi place, this time on the way to Toronto, with apparently a fairly large and ethnically diverse staff; if it were closer I would go more often. Better than the place near campus, not as good as Givral.
Not new: Banh mi Givral was back from vacation, but then they had some sort of electrical problem.
Volunteering
Same as usual. Spoke to a new OAC Treasurer. Started working on new OAC by-laws; the new Ontario ONCA regime for nonprofits is actually reasonably different from before and also from NZ. (CLEO’s by-law builder creates FAQ-style bylaws, which is weird.)
Conclusion
I thought that after classes were over I’d have more free time. Well, a bit. Anyway, this was the third and final month of lectures for Winter 2026, plus two weekends in Western Canada and a day in Peterborough.