Poems

Today is the Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading. The idea is to celebrate the Pagan Goddess Brigid during imbolic by selecting and posting a poem that you like. Although I've never celebrated Brigid or any other goddess before, I thought it would be fun to post some poetry. In a form, true to myself, I couldn't choose just one. When I think of poems that I've enjoyed, the two that are most memorable are these.

The first selection is a poem by Rumi captures how I feel about love, and my husband in particular. The second selection is a poem by Margaret Atwood that I read in high school and it's always stuck. I read a lot of Atwood in highschool. I really love the rhythm of it and the darkness of it.

Enjoy!

-------------

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere,
they're in each other all along.

(by Rumi)
--------------

THIS IS A PHOTOGRAPH OF ME

It was taken some time ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;

then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion

but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.)
------------------------------------

Worlds Collide

Last week, I was listening to a scientist from the UK talk about how his company manufactures one of their wound dressing products. It’s kind of a fibrous dressing that ends up sort of matted. The fibre is a derivative of a natural plant fibre, similar to cotton or paper. Anyway, the thing that’s kind of fun is that they spin the fibre and then, essentially, needle felt it to form the wound dressing fabric. The guy was talking about drum carders and spinners, and pronged needles. All the stuff I’ve been learning about over these past few months but with regard to animal fibres (sheep in particular). They’ve even tried making a roving out of this cellulose (roving is the stuff I used to line the insides of Gramps’ mitts) to use as wound packing material.

It’s amazing to me how after hundreds of years of manufacturing expertise, the method for producing fabric like this – for one of the world’s most advanced wound dressings – is essentially the same technique that’s been used since the middle ages.

All of this on the same order of ‘cool’ as getting a tour of the DuPont plant in Kingston. Science is fun!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Pip, pip, and cheerio!

Yep, you guessed it - I'm making an enitrely lame reference to England. "Why, would I do such a thing?", you must be wondering. Well, it's because I'm trying to make my heating system feel more at home with us. That's right. You heard me. Our heating system is English.

After nearly losing it yesterday, I sort of pinned down my contractor. He came by to do some more work on the bathroom and I was able to talk to him about what had been happening (or not happening) with the heat since Saturday. After a bit of investigation, it was definite that during the renovation process about three of our heating panels were damaged. That's a big part of the problem, since we likely have only about 6 or so others in the house. It's hard to say really, what the total is because we don't really know much about the heating in our house. And sadly, we what did know was mostly misinformation from the sellers.

Ok, ok .. so that's the bad news. But the good news is this: we know a whole lot more today. For example, we know that the heating in our house is made by a company called ESWA. I know that the type of heating we have is flexible radiant ceiling heating. This type of heating has never exactly been popular in Ontario but it was available about 25 - 30 years ago as an alternative heating option. It's still used widely in England, Norway, and Germany. In fact, the German website has the best description of the system. The more I learn about it, the more that I think it's actually kind of a cool system.

World - meet my heating system. Heaters, meet the world.

No final decision yet on what our plan is for moving forward. Although, it looks likely that we'll be getting some more ESWA panels shipped to us from London. For now, we bought some more ceramic heaters and we've got the temperature up to 20C in most of the rooms.

Talk to you soon,

B

Brrr ...

I realize that I live in Canada. And I realize that it's January. But it is unseasonably cold ... inside my house! Brrr... According to a thermometer I've been carrying around today, it is 5 C (40F) on the first floor, 8 C (46F) on the 2nd floor and about 10C - 15C (50-58F) on the third floor. Our thermostats are all set to 30C - which - a couple of weeks ago (before the cold snap and before the remodeling) would have meant that it was "just right" on the first floor, but too hot everywhere else.

I don't know what the problem is. And, since a recent dropping of external temperatures has coincided with electrical work in one of the rooms in our house, which coincided with a piece of insulation being temporarily removed from our top floor. And, since I don't really know what is 'normal' for this house in winter, I feel that there are too many confouding circumstances to say for sure what needs to happen in order to fix the problem.

I suspect that it's actually a result of all of this. That our heating system is just not strong enough to accommodate for all the extra work it's being asked to do. That what heat it is producing is escaping through the roof. That our house is one of those homes that absolutely requires some 'winterizing' since we have so many large windows. I'm not sure I'll know for sure until the remodelling is done whether it's having an effect. I'm not even completely sure that the electrician didn't turn off the heat on the 2nd and 3rd floors (although, Rob thinks that he can feel the heat coming from the heater on both of these floors).

Frankly, it's too cold in here to do anything other than sit under a blanket. I currently can't get by without double socks, long johns under my pants, and a t-shirt + long sleeved shirt + hoodie for a top. I'm pretty sure that the temperatures in here are what passes for "winter"California. If there was someone from California sitting in my living room, she'd likely need a warmer jacket than she owns, I swear! We're also making do with a couple of space heaters in whatever room we're sitting in (which bumps any room temperature up about 3 degrees).

My sister-in-law arrives in 1 week and 3 days. Holy crap, it better be fixed by then! In fact, let's see if we can fix it before I become a blubbering mess about the whole business.

Talk to you soon,

B.
P.S. - The mean temperature in Sacremento in January (30 year average) is 46.6F.

Who am I Kidding?

You know what? I've been carrying a partially knitted sock around in my commuting bag for a couple of weeks. Every day, I try to knit on the streetcar but it's too crowded. And every day I figure I'll work on it at lunch, but I don't. And every day, I bring the bag home and take the sock out of my bag and my needles have slipped out of the stitches. And every day I get them back on again and knit just enough to catch-up, back to where I was. But that's all the time I have to work on it. And then I start all over again.

So, I'm going to stop kidding myself. Tomorrow, I'm leaving the sock in the living room. I think I'll read Toronto Live on the streetcar.

Talk to you soon,

B.

P.S. - I bumped into Sue Erikson on College Street today. She said that she's gonna try to check out the blog. But I have to get a camera first!

Back at it

Well, it seems I'm almost back in my routine after a couple of weeks of pleasant disruption. I love Christmas and most of the busy-ness. And New Year's is always pretty fun. And this week, I had Tuesday off of work so Rob and I goofed off quite a bit and continued most of that goofing off all week.

This weekend was all about getting back on track. On Friday, Rob and I went to Yorkdale mall and grabbed a fabulous little shell for my new iPod and bought a bathroom ceiling fan at Sears (we had $50 in gift cards that were 2 years old and about to expire). Then, to the movies. We saw "The Good Sheppard" starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Joe Pesci, and Billy Crudup. Rob and I liked it a lot. There were close to 20 others in our theatre though, who hated it enough to walk out. I can see how it's not for everyone. It looked to us as though there was a collection of people who were under the impression that the movie was going to be some sort of Jerry Bruckheimer, action-packed spy movie. It wasn't. It was a movie much more a character film. And the lead character (played by Matt Damon) was known for being somewhat emotionless. So, the movie was incredibly somber and the plot was slow moving. But the acting and the insight was what keeps you 'in it'.

Yesterday was more action packed for us. We're trying to get things moving with the bathroom renovation. Our contractor said that he can start soon. Rob and I went out to try to tie up some of the loose ends in our design. We went back to Roman Bath and Tile to get a new quote for the tub, sink, and faucet. We went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore (a brilliant, brilliant idea for reselling used or leftover homebuilding supplies) and saw some really great doors, windows, and fireplace mantles but nothing we could use today. We went to Home Depot and got a quote on the countertop. I think we're not going to get marble after all. It'll be Corian for us. While there, we picked up the shower head and the water control handle for the tub and shower. As well as the waste/overflow for the tub. We also looked at lighting but went to Ikea to buy it. We bought two vanity lights and some recessed lighting for the rest of the bathroom. Also at Ikea we picked out the wall cabinets that we're going to hang and inquired about base cabinets for our very unusual spot under the counter. We're still going to have to talk to our contractor about how he wants to do that .. but at the very least, the guy at Ikea made it sound pretty straightforward. So - we're moving along really well. We even found time yesterday to go to Future Shop and The Brick but sadly, they were both out of stock of what we were looking for.

On our way home, we stopped at this vegetarian Chinese restaurant we like to pick up dinner. Made a quick stop in at the Starbucks while our dinner was cooking. We arrived home around 7:30 to a phone call from Kevin and Su inviting us over. We turned it around on them and about 30 minutes later, Karen, Kevin, and Su came over here. They brought snacks and "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School". Movie was nice. It's a great story and was fun to watch, even if the acting was a little weird.

Today, I have some cleaning-up to do around the house. Mainly, I want to take down all the Christmas decorations and the Christmas tree. I think it's time to get back to normal.

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you folks I haven't seen yet!

Talk to you soon,

B

Excuses

I can't write a blog entry tonight because it's already past my bedtime. I had dance rehearsal tonight that went until 9:30. I got in a fairly good sized argument with the Creative Director of the company tonight at the rehearsal so when I got home I had to spend some time drafting a follow-up email to her. Then Eve called and we talked on the phone for just a little over an hour. Now it's past my bedtime. So, that's why I can't post a blog entry tonight.

Talk to you soon,

B.

Nice Jeans

Today, I thought that I noticed my coworker wearing a new pair of jeans. I find that working together day in and day out, we really get to know eachother's wardrobes. And around our office, it's not very unusual to comment if you notice someone sporting some new clothes. So, I spotted the jeans and said to my male coworker/supervisor, "Hey, are those new jeans?". I said, to my male coworker/supervisor, "Hey, are those new jeans?" while walking behind him. Ahem. He explained that he got them in September, actually, and so I said "Well, they're nice jeans!". Only then did it occur to me what I'd done and that in some companies, it could've got me in trouble.

Anyway, it's ok. This same coworker remarked on Tuesday, while I was stretching my arms over my head, that my belt looked "like a party"!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Monday hits Hard

I was hit harder today than usual by the beginning of the work week. I think I'm pretty wiped out from all the activity this weekend. All the activity and all the sugar I ate! Yesterday, I had a few friends over (all women) for a cookie exchange. There were Rolo cookies, Iced sugar cookies, Cranberry shortbread, Thimble cookies, Linzer cookies, Skor brittle, Cornflake cookies, Caramel Apple cookies, and Peanut butter chocolate crisp squares. I haven't tried them all yet but Rob ate one of each while I was out at dancing. He said they're all delicious! Can't wait to dig in.

I served brunch at the party and was pretty well pleased with myself for not going to crazy with the preparation. There was a lot of food but it was mostly prepared by someone who is not me. I made a Potato Leek soup in the slow-cooker and whipped up a simple salade of mixed greens, granny smith apples, and chopped pecans in a balsamic vinaigrette. I also served what I'd purchased, sourdough bread, scones, croissants, and bagels, yogurt, granola, and thawed berries, fresh fruit (some chopped by me, some whole), prosciutto, samosas, orange juice, cinnamon coffee and Earl Grey Tea.

See you tomorrow when I've recovered from insulin shock!

B.

One of My Favourite "Holiday Events"

One of my favourite holiday events (even though I've only done it twice now) is to hear The Northern Lights concert. In case you don't know, at any given moment over the past quite a few years, at least one of my good friends has been a member of a Toronto men's a capella chorus. The chorus, The Northern Lights, puts on a show every Spring and every December in addition to the competitions they enter. I don't see them perform very often, but tonight I was fortunate enough to attend their Christmas concert. It's the guys singing Christmas carols as well as some invited guests. This year the guests were The Oriana women's choir, Dr. Patricia Wright (organist) and Tammy Snow-Johnston (soloist). To top it off, the concert is held in one of Toronto's finest churches, The Metropolitan United Church. It was a beautiful concert. I hope that I get to go hear those guys sing every year for a long long time.

The rest of today was extremely busy. It was a classic Saturday for me. I take a bunch of things that I really like to do but try to cram them into a tight schedule, throw in some deadlines, and kind of suck some of the fun out of the whole experience. I managed to keep it together today, more or less, but it could have been even more fun if I wasn't trying to juggle so many things. The big motivation is that tomorrow (or, well, I guess officially today now), I'm throwing a Christmas cookie exchange party. So today, I baked the 80 Linzer cookies, went to Kensington and bought the groceries for brunch tomorrow, stopped in a The Dude show looking for gifts, met Rob for dinner and Terroni, and then went to the concert. I was also supposed to have gone to an open-house party at my friends' place but I didn't make it. I didn't finish baking until 2:30 (I started at 8:30), was showered and out of the house by 3:00, done at Kensington at 5:00, at the craft show for half an hour, and then met Rob at the restaurant at 5:40. That's at four of my favourite things (baking, walking through the market, shopping at a craft show, and listening to the TNL concert) all in one day!!!!

Last night Rob and I decorated the tree and the house for Christmas. We're not done yet, but at least it's mostly ready for guests. I have a bit of tidying up to do in the morning. And I need to package up my cookies. Then pull together the brunch and set out plates etc.. All before 11. So - I should be off to bed so I can get some good sleep before it's time to get started. Luckily, the event is small and the attendees close enough friends that they wouldn't complain if I was preparing food while they were arriving (or if they discovered that the clean laundry is in fact, not put away in drawers, but haphazardly stuffed in baskets and shoved in closets).

Talk to you soon,

B.

Block

I have choreographers block. I'm supposed to be working on a duet to "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Paul McCartney. My original concept was to write a love story but I never did settle on which part of the story. I mean, it's only a 3 minute song. What mood or feeling or idea do I want to capture? I want the piece to be beautiful and to feel like being in love when it's watched. But I don't want that feeling of blinding love or early insecure love. I want it to be something more developed and mature. I thought of playing with the theme of independence and relationships. How two whole individuals have their own paths but then somehow find a path that they follow together without losing themselves as individuals. It's an idea that would need some more fleshing out. In dance, it's difficult to convey anything this subtle. I usually need many, many words to do that. It's also not really a wise move for choreographers and dancers as inexperienced as we are, to try to do something subtle like that. So, I'd be concerned that any movement I did to show them choosing a path and following a path together would end up looking negative, like "tied down" not "tied together".

I think that the block is perhaps fueled by a bit of fear of disappointing myself. Is that what creative blocks are normally fueled by? I want this piece to be really good. I want it to be one that stands out and that people will talk about well after the show is over. I want it to be beautiful and a testament to a strong bond between two people. I just don't really know if I can do that. I don't really feel confident that I'll be able to achieve what I'm trying to do. And so - I'm supposed to be choreographing tomorrow but I have nothing ready. Oh dear.

I've been using all the Christmas preamble and house work to procrastinate on the choreographing too. Tonight I mixed the dough for some Lintzer cookies that I'm going to bake on Saturday.

Talk to you soon,

B

"Watch It's A Wonderful Life"

You guessed it - that's what was on the Advent calendar this morning. So, that's what Rob and I did tonight after dinner and before he left for hockey. It's Rob's all time favourite Christmas movie. I'm not sure which is my favourite holiday movie, "White Christmas" or "A Miracle on 34th Street". Jimmy Stewart sure is good in this one though. It's becoming a Christmas tradition for Rob and I to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" and I think it's really growing on me.

Yesterday was pretty fun too. Breakfast at Ikea followed by some shopping at Ikea. Then home to upack and head out straight to the laundromat. Yesterday's calendar "event" was for us to purchase some small surprise gift for eachother. Rob bought me 5 songs from iTunes and I got Rob some of his favourite snacks from the bulk food store. We were only allowed to spend $5! When we got home we had curtains to hang, a house to clean, dinner to cook and eat. We didn't really stop until about an hour too late, when patience was very low.

So that pretty much sums it up. Boring for you guys to read about. Fun for me to have lived!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Saying Nothing At All

You know how your mother always told you "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all"? That's the lesson I'm going to be following in regards to my morning and most of my afternoon. And a little bit of the evening.

In other new - the den is painted and the furniture is all moved back in!

Talk to you soon,

B.

"Listen to Christmas Music"

Although today is not technically the first day of Advent (Sunday is), it is the first day of December and the first day of opening up the Advent calendar that Rob and I made. I was giddy with anticipation when I woke up this morning, just thinking about it. Have I mentioned how much I love Advent calendars? {If you want to play, there are a couple of online Advent Calendars that Wikipedia recommends here and here.} Anyway, before I left for work, we opened up the top box - the box with the big #1 on it. Inside was one of the note pages we'd written a holiday activity on. The rule is, whatever the activity is, that's what we have to do together that day. "Listen to Christmas Music" was the instruction. So, today at work I programmed my Pandora account for some holiday tunes and I've been listening all day. Now, Rob and I are listening to carols and festive songs as we unwind from the week.

Here are some examples of what we've heard so far:
"Go Tell It On the Mountain" by the Gas House Gang
"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by Christina Aguilera
"White Christmas" by Diana Krall
"Christmas All Over Again" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by Jane Monheit
"Happy Christmas" by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

I'm absolutely into the Christmas spirit! And tonight, while Rob plays poker with some of the guys, I'm going shopping for Christmas decorations for the house.

What a happy day!

Talk to you soon,

B.

The End of NaBloPoMo

Today marks the end of National Blog Posting Month. So, I sit in my office eating my warm and cozy Italian seasoned coucous with chickpeas, TVP, and zuccini, preparing to write my final post of the month-long marathon.

There’s a theory that exists in field of behavioral psychology that says “it takes about three weeks to develop a habit”. Similarly it takes about three weeks to break one. So, I wonder how many of us, who have participated by writing every day, have developed the habit?

One of the things that I’ve enjoyed so far about this past month, is that I got to read Kern’s, Kristin’s, and Gina’s blogs before writing my own post. At first I found it daunting but I got over it really quickly. I had a lot of trouble sticking with my original post idea, though. Many days I really wanted to comment on something that one of them had said already in their post. I decided that was kind of cheating, so I didn’t do it until yesterday. And of course, now I’m going to do it today. I’d like to comment about what the others had to say about NaBloPoMo.

Gina said that she feels like we’ve been on a trip together. I totally agree. There were times where it felt like we were all in the same room having a conversation. Which is funny because none of us were talking about the same things and all of us live in separate countries. But sharing our experiences with each other did feel a bit like a shared experience.

Kristin commented on the ease in generating ideas for the blog posts but the difficulty in getting them posted. I had the same experience. I often had more than one idea of what I’d want to write about in any given day. I really enjoyed mentally composing my posts on my commute into work or commute home from work. I usually forced myself to select just one topic and flesh it out a bit in order to get something coherent. Of course, on quite a few days it wasn’t so coherent. Those were usually the days when time was extremely limited. Just like Kristin says, when there’s a time crunch the blog posting kind of goes to hell. Luckily, I was often able to find an hour to do it. Until that mess from a couple of days ago .. but lets not talk about that again. Yikes!

Kern says that this past month has been an interesting experience that he’s glad to see the end of. Not sure that I agree exactly. I have quite enjoyed the writing experience. Some nights, of course, it was a bit more a chore than others but even then, I enjoyed the idea of ‘making myself write’ with the idea in mind of habit forming. I didn’t ever feel a loss of free will. I mean, it’s just blogging, no one would care if I didn’t post. But the truth is, as much as I like to rise to a challenge (Thanks, Kristin), I chose to do it for myself and for developing myself as a better writer. It’s easy to 'coerce myself' do a chore when somewhere deep down I know that the final outcome will be satisfying.

So – overall, I’m really glad that I did it. I’m really glad that my friends joined in so that I could hear their voices a bit more than usual. But I’m not really convinced that I’ve formed a new habit. Time will tell!

Now, I need to go and write a 200 word abstract submission for a conference. Those 200 words will likely take me 3 times as long to compose as these 630 did! Blog posting has not, in any way whatsoever, helped me get better at technical writing! Oh well, no system is perfect.

(We’ll now return you to your regularly scheduled program)

Talk to you soon,

B.

Cold Season

Kern's sick, I'm sick, apparently Blogger is sick. Sorry about yesterday's debacle of an entry. I'll try to redeem myself today.

Last night I was working on our den (yes, that's right, it's still not finished)and intended to finish up around 10. Well, I was kind of on a roll and I wanted to finish all of the paint in the tray before I called it quits for the night. So, I didn't get done until 11:30. Then, I had to quickly blog. I figured it'd be ok, since I had already written half of my entry in Word and could just finish the other half. I openened up Blogger, copied in the text and then tried to finish writing. I got finished at 11:55, which I'm prety sure was with Rob's help (he would periodically look at the clock and say 'uh oh. you'd better hurry up!'). So, I hit the button to publish, but it wouldn't go. There was something wrong with the way the text copied and pasted. There were little html text nibblets inserted all over the place. Blogger wouldn't let me publish or save the text!! Now, it's 11:57. In a panic, I completed deleted all of the text, wrote that little cop-out blurb, and published at 11:59 by my clock. On the post, the time stamp says 11:27! I consider working on it for another half hour and then reposting, but didn't think that'd be within the rules of NaBloPoMo. Besides, I was tired and I'm sick (as I mentioned).

So, without further ado, here's the essay that I meant to post yesterday, more or less:

{Warning: lots of opinion ahead. little factual information to follow}

The essay was meant to support my argument about the statement that Kern made in his blog yesterday. Kern says that typically, he is adverse to doctors and medicine in general. He has adopted the philosophy that "Under most conditions, the human body is an incredible self-righting machine". To this end, Kern has chosen to allow his body to right itself in most circumstances and to interfere with medicine as little as possible.

I would say that I also have adopted this philosophy but I think I take the "under most conditions" a little more to heart than most. Sadly, I hear of stories of people who use the body's natural homeostatic process to defend what I would consider irresponsible behaviour. For example, a prominent medical speaker gave a talk at Convocation Hall last year, touting the phenomenon that is the human physiology and in fact, indicating the marvel of homeostasis. His example, was in weight gain. A person could consume in one week 5x the calories that he would normally consume and there would be a relatively insignificant weight gain as a result. Conversely, a person could consume 0.2x the calories that he would normally consume in one week and could still survive and function and the weight change would be again, relatively insignificant. A colleauge of mine used this point to argue that the fact that he's 40 lbs overweight isn't really an effect of his eating habits but in fact, it was his body's 'natural weight' and that his body was maintaining it's proper homeostatic state. He felt that he should continue with his high fat, high calorie diet, that it wouldn't have an effect on his weight. He also used this argument to claim that dieting never works - and the reason is homeostasis.

This man truly believed that if he controlled his caloric intake for a year, that he would not maintain a healthy weight. This kind of logic, is to me like being a fatalist. Would you stand in the middle of a road and wait for cars to come by and then argue if you were hit, that it must have been fated? That it was outside of your control? Since, if you were fated to live, no cars would have hit you? Too me, the logic is the same.

Your body is an amazing piece of equipment. It balances or "self-rights" when it needs to and completely adpats when that is required also. It will let you feed it toxins in large amounts and the only effect is a hangover. You can function well in temperatures from 15 degrees to 35 degrees. But it can't function properly if it's not given the rest and food and water that it needs.

I think that's all for now.

Talk to you soon,

B.

Screwed

I just wrote a 300 word essay about the medical field and Blogger lost it.

AHHH!

talk to you soon,
B

Couch Hunting

I’m on the lookout for a new couch to go with the freshly painted den on our 2nd floor. I haven’t ever purchased a couch before so I’m not really sure where to look. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ve seen a few that I like. Of course, the first couch that I really, really loved was at Montauk. But then I saw the price tag! Here are the ones that I’ve seen that are front-runners for now:

Salema at EQ3 in Jack (tan or mocha) or Deacon (pumice)
Flip at Urban Barn (I like the Van Gogh sofas)

I still want to go to that furniture store on Dupont at Ossington before I decide.

Talk to you soon,

B.

Action Packed Weekend

Tired. Tired. Tired today. I’m getting beaten up a little by this cold I have. I’ve been out most of today. First, to see “Grease!” at the Leah Poslun’s Theatre, produced by The Yorkmistrels. There were quite a few cast members from when I did “West Side Story” in “Grease!”. Of a cast of around 24, I have performed with 17 of them before. Great show! Lots of fun! Brought back lots of fond memories of those guys and of course, the stage. We all went out for dinner afterward before I had to head off to class. Tonight’s class was “Stretch and Strengthen” – essentially Pilates. I’m stretched and strengthened, now!

Meanwhile, back at home, Rob’s been painting! He finished two coats on the walls. With that done, there’s only touch-up left to do and then the pulling off of the masking tape. I always find the masking tape part a little nerve racking. “Did the paint drip underneath? Will it look ok? Will the latex peel and ruin it all?” We’ll see! I’m liking the colour a lot. It just smells really stinky in here.

Yesterday Sue came here with here baby Cecilia and we tromped around the city. We had coffee at Starbucks, shopped at Trove, Midoco, the Annex Craft Fair (at the Tranzac Club), and at Lettuce Knit (twice). We lunched at The Rice Bar. When we shopped at Lettuce Knit, Cecilia got to model the cool poncho that Sue knit for her (based on Knitting Pure and Simple's Child's poncho #243 but in rainbow stripes). It was great, great fun!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Advent Calendar

Since I had originally intended to keep this blog going by posting all my fun crafty endeavours and it’s been a while since I’ve posted about some crafty endeavours, I thought I’d better do so before it gets any later into NaBloPoMo.

Last night I made a refillable advent calendar for Rob and I. It was a really fun project and only took me about an hour and a half. Sadly, I don’t have my digital camera so I can’t show too many pictures as I describe what I did. Bear with me.

What you’ll need:

24 Lee Valley’s watchmaker cases, size 70mm
Red construction paper
Green construction paper
Silver gel pen
Nice (high quality) writing paper
Scrap paper
Scissors
Various candies, chocolates, treats that you like

How to do it:

Trace the lid of a watchmaker case onto the scrap paper and cut it out. Trim a few millimeters off the circle so that it’s just slightly smaller. Check to see that it fits inside the lid of the watchmaker’s case. If it does, you’re set. If not, trim a bit more until it fits. Now, using the template, cut 12 green circles and 12 red circles out of the construction paper. Using the silver gel pen, write the numbers from 1 to 24 on the construction paper circles. (Aside: I was going to try to find pre-numbered stickers but couldn’t. There are many ways to get numbers onto the circles, including number stickers. I just couldn’t find any that weren’t black). Put the numbered circles into the lids of the cases. It should look a little bit like the schematic I have drawn there.

Now comes the fun part. Fill half of the tins with the treats or candies that you picked out. For the other half of the boxes, you’re going to use your high quality writing paper. On 12, 4”x5” (6 cm x 12.5 cm) pieces of this paper write some fun Christmas activities (one per piece of paper). Fold up this paper and fill the other half of the tins.

Put the lids back on the cases randomly (or ask someone else to do it for you as a surprise). Stack or pile the boxes (with the 24 on the bottom and the 1 on the top) on top of a pretty plate. I used a silver cake plate. And … done!

Here are some ideas for the ‘holiday activities’ that we put inside our tins:

• Go Christmas shopping
• Eat something festive for dinner
• Read a Christmas story
• Listen to Christmas carols
• Drink peppermint hot chocolate
• Bake gingerbread
• Etc.

Talk to you soon,

B.

I didn’t want to be a baker today

I have this longstanding dream that someday I’ll open my own bakery. I have a business name and a very basic marketing strategy and a sort of a high-level plan. Some days I think about it a lot, strategizing about how to reach my goal in 5 or 10 years. Some days I worry that I keep talking about it but never do it and that maybe I should, ‘ahem’, or get off the pot. I really like daydreaming about my bakery and imagining working there. I like planning it out and working out some of the details. I even get really upset whenever anyone even suggests that it might be a bad idea. I think mostly though, that the truth is, I really like knowing that I have a back-up plan. I like nurturing the idea that at any given moment if I decide I don’t like science or I’m not enjoying my job, I could leave. Walk away and go somewhere else. I’m doing this job because I want to. I don’t need it.

“Don’t mess with me science ‘cause I have another love. Break my heart and
I’ll just move on to my bakery."

I think that the truth is that I have a precarious relationship with my scientific career and it’s comforting for me to know that I go to my job every day because I choose to. And if the day ever comes that it’s too hard to go to that job – I don’t have to.

Today, I didn’t imagine my bakery at all. I didn’t think about how I’d do things the same or differently than ‘this’ if I had my bakery. Today, I didn’t want to be a baker. Today I wanted a career in the medical/engineering field. That’s how I know that today was a really good day at work.

Talk to you soon,

B.

Isn’t technology fun?

Technology is great isn’t it? I’m working on my blog on my laptop while I watch “Lost: Season Two” on Rob’s computer. Since we don’t have the Xbox I’ve been watching DVDs on Rob’s computer.

So – speaking of technology, have you crazy live-abroad types heard of Craig’s list yet? Craig’s list is super fantastico! And today, I had my first Craig’s list exhange. Here’s how it went down. Remember how I decided to change the paint colour of the trim in the den? Remember how I had a whole gallon of ceiling paint that I’d already had mixed to match the trim colour that I don’t like anymore? Well, how ‘bout that – I don’t have it any more! And ya know what, I have a crisp $20 bill instead. I listed my can of paint at 3:00 today and it was sold by 5:00. The exchange went down at 7:30.

I’m thoroughly impressed with how well the whole thing went.

You guys should give it a try. There's even a Craigslist for Berlin, Japan, Denmark, Vancouver, or Montreal.

Talk to you soon,

B

Top 10 Things I Learned from Beauty and Fashion ‘Experts’ that I Applied Today and Use Regularly, Even Though Some of it Seems Dumb.

(in no particular order)

1. Never use hot water to wash your face. Splash with cool water after a warm water wash to close pores.
2. Don’t wear white after Labour Day or before Memorial Day.
3. Your hemline should be darker than your hose.
4. Always use brushes when applying your make-up, not fingers
5. When you use your fingers to apply creams and such near your eyes, use your fourth finger. It has the lightest touch of all the fingers and will be more careful around the delicate skin in the eye area.
6. If you’re going to skip foundation, apply cover-up under eyes, around base of nose, and on chin, then apply powder.
   
7. Blow-dry your hair in the opposite direction of how you’ll wear it for more volume. Set the do with a cooler air blast. Preserve your hairdo in your winter hat by arranging hair. thoughtfully into hat, piling top section in opposite direction of how you wear it (preserving volume) and laying front sections flat.
8. Create a vertical line with clothing choices to add “length”.
9. The skinnier the pant leg, the more delicate the shoe. Similarly, the less fabric in the dress, the more delicate the shoe.
10. Apply face products in an upwardly motion to help counteract the effects of gravity.

Colour Theory

Did anyone go to the Benjamin Moore site the other day and check out my paint choices? I've looked at them a lot on the website. The colours are definitely different on my screen than on the paint chips. I figured it was a colour conversion/monitor specific kind of thing. That colour theory seems to be only about 50% true. The green is on the wall just like I imagined it would look (which is more olive than it appears on my screen). Sadly, the trim colour is horridly yellow-ish, just like on my monitor.

The colour crisis started yesterday evening when Rob started painting the trim. I could tell it was more yellow than I wanted. I hoped that this was a result of a) the bad lighting we currently have in the room, b) it being only the first coat, c) the paint still being wet, or d) some combination of the above. I looked at it today dry and in the daylight and knew that no second coat could cure it. And I, of course, would always know that it was far too yellow a shade of beige. I had to change it.

Unfortunately, yet again, I made this firm decision soundly after eating dinner. This was after I'd already been to Home Depot to get more paint trays and had returned home. So - back out we went. I stood at the wall of chips for quite some time trying to make a decision. I begged the man at the paint counter to help me choose between "Swiss Coffee" and "Parchment". I knew I needed something with a lot more brown in it than I'd already chosen and I knew I didn't want white. I even brought the couch cushion that I'm trying to coordinate with.

His answer to the problem - interestingly - was to add about 1 tsp of my wall colour to a pint of pure white paint to achieve the shade of "non-white" I was looking for. Have you heard of this? He claimed that decorators and designers do this all the time but I've never seen that on Trading Spaces. I've decided to call the technique 'the hair of the dog that bit ya'. I went home, trying to trust the expertise of the Home Depot paint dude. I followed his instructions, adding 1 tsp at a time until I'd achieved "not-white" enough. I added the first spoonful but could barely see an effect. I added the 2nd. Rob thought it was good, so - I added another 1/2 tsp. Rob and I decided it looked pretty good. I stared at it a bit more and then added another 1/2 tsp while Rob's back was turned. Shazam! PERFECTION! In total - 3 tsps of "Georgian Green" to my pint of pure white trim paint. We finished painting all of the trim tonight and we're both much happier with it. All this for the perfect shade of "non-white" that everyone will look at and think is white anyway. Ah, that is the insanity that's me. I'm just glad that it won't look yellow.

And for safety sake, I painted a large patch of green on the wall so that I could be sure I still liked it. I do. It's great. Dark and great!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Selective Memory

I can remember that I was wearing my black fleece coat last Monday.
I can remember that On October 19^th, I taught a really terrible tap class.
I can remember that last November, I was rehearsing West Side Story and knitting a vest.
I can remember that in October 1994, I spent a week at Rhys’ house because his mom was away and wanted me to keep an eye on him.
I can remember that in Kindergarten, I got sent out to the hall for sharing a pot of paint with Peter, which we spilled when he was handing it back to me.

And yet I am surprised this year and every year by how dark it is in the Fall and Winter.

Talk to you soon,

B.

Trade-offs

I was talking with my friend Sue this afternoon. I really like talking with Sue about life. She's pretty good at it. We were talking about our husbands and marriages a bit and the kind of funny trades you make with your spouse. Or at least, the funny trades we make with our spouses. This is why I like talking to Sue, especially, because she never holds back 'the good stuff'. She's not one of those people who you think must live in some kind of magazine feature. You know she lives like a real life person, just like the rest of us, and it's very enjoyable for me to share experiences with her and to know that even though life is messy and weird that she still loves hers and I love mine (lives and husbands).

Today, Rob and I had to do some 'trading'. I traded going with Rob to visit his sick aunt for putting primer on the ceiling and sanding the last of the nitpicking spots in the windowsill. I painted, he visited alone. It's one of those trades where everyone wins, I think.

Talk to you soon,

B.

HC-115 and HC-27

I'm practically leaving painted finger smudges on the keyboard. Rob and I finally finished the prep work on our den today. The walls were in really bad shape. It's a bit crazy-making trying to fix every hole, drip, and bump left behind by the previous owners of this place. We really want to do a great job but every time we thought we'd got it all, we'd find another. Sheesh. So - about 2 hours ago, we called it quits. No more prepping! We don't care if there are 200 holes we missed! The primer is on the walls!

Ahem - and now we need to make a quick 'it's 7 pm and the store closes at 8' run to Home Depot to buy more primer ..

I really wish I could post some before and after pics. Sadly, I cannot. And it doesn't look like there's gonna be a new cammy here anytime soon. So - you'll have to satisfy your curiosity by going to the Benjamin Moore site.

I can't figure out a way of saving a chip and posting it, so just look through the 'Historical Colour' pallette.

Wall colour: HC-115, Georgian Green
Trim and ceiling colour: HC-27, Monterey White

Talk to you soon,

B.

Random Wednesday, I mean Friday

One of the blogs that I read, every once in a while, has “Random Wednesday”. It’s a day where she lets herself off the hook from composing something cohesive and just blurts out however many random things she feels like.

For me, today is “Random Wednesday”, except that it’s Friday, and these are the 5 random things that I felt like talking about today.

1. Heroes

Rob and I have been watching a show on tv this season called “Heroes”. I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here before or not. It’s definitely my favorite show this season and I think it might be one of the highest rated of the new shows. It’s essentially about a (large and growing) group of people who are discovering that they have some very unique capabilities. You could describe them perhaps as the next evolution of humans. And yes, just like X-men, some of them are trying to use their abilities to save the world and others are, well, not. The show transitions from one character to another and tells the story in an almost comic book or “story board” fashion. In any given episode, you might not even see all of the characters. In some cases, the paths of the various characters cross. The episodes are always intense and exciting and generally focus on ethics and how an otherwise ‘average’ person react to finding out that they can suddenly change the world. What’s extra fun for me is to find out that when I called Christian last Monday night and he was desperate to get off the phone, it wasn’t because he was on his way out but because I’d called during “Heroes”.

2. Christian

Christian came to Toronto to visit Rob and me on Tuesday. It was fantastic to see him. He met me after work and then we went to the house. After that, we all met up with his friend Jen and went for all-you-can-eat-sushi. Yum, yum. I insisted on paying for dinner – which I now worry was offensive to Christian. It’s just that he’s my younger brother and he’s talking about how the next year is gonna be financially difficult and it just seemed like the right thing to do. Maybe next time, I’ll insist that he buy me dinner. Anyway, we had a good visit. He stayed over, we ate breakfast together, and then both of us had to get to work.

3. iPods

Somebody told me last night that he heard that the new generation of Apple Shuffles has a defect. Well, he said that he heard that something like 50% of all shipped Shuffles have a constant low hiss when playing. I’m trying to find out if there’s any truth to the rumour. If that’s the case, I’m definitely getting a refurbed 1^st generation shuffle. I found this today.

4. Outlook

My outlook is much sunnier today. I’m feeling better and am looking forward to a weekend full of painting.

5. Dancing

Last night was the end of “Round 2” at PushPull. Our season is divided into six “rounds” where we rehearse 4 or 5 pieces in each round, getting 4 1-hour rehearsals per piece in that round. At the end of each round we have a “review night” where we have 10 or so minutes to perform all of the pieces we should know by now. So far, I’ve “learned” 5 of the pieces that I’m in this year. Not bad, considering I’m only in 10. And of the 4 pieces I’m choreographing, I’ve finished 1. That was the large group beginner tap piece. I did something similar last year. This year we're dancing to "Don't You Tell Me" by Sapphire: The Uppity Blues Women(check them out if you like Blues. These ladies rock!). The dancers worked just as hard, if not harder, this year and it already sounds pretty good in parts. Last night was the last teaching rehearsal. I think I like it – although it’s hard to tell so far since we’re all just barely remembering it at this point. I can’t wait to see it come together over the rest of the year.

Talk to you soon,

B.

Compliments and Insults

The Story: Part One

A few weeks ago, PushPull Dance performed at the Arts and Letters Club. I produced the show and performed at the event. After our performance, we were asked to come and meet the club members for a sort of “meet and greet”. I think this was in part to allow us to sell our story to a captive audience as well as for them to try to talk to us about the benefits of joining the club and perhaps imbue the group with some youth. A small group of us went up and had a nice chat with quite a few of the club members – many of whom really enjoyed the show and some who were recalling their ‘dancing days’.

Afterward, one of the dancers (a much more insightful one than I) said how nice it was that we were able to come up and meet the audience post-performance. And I said “Yeah, it’s really great for us to be able to receive all the compliments. After all of our hard work, it’s very satisfying to know that the audience enjoyed and appreciated the effort”. And she said “No, I meant, how nice for the audience to actually be able to connect with the performers they had just watched. It must be nice for them to get that kind of energy from us. You don’t normally get that at a performance, since the stage can be so abstract and detached.” I really like compliments and had pretty well missed a key point, her point.

The Story: Part Two

As I mentioned, I had a particularly crappy day yesterday. I know that it is in part because conditions at work this week have been a bit less than ideal. But really – I think the main reason that I had such a hard time is because I got reprimanded twice and yelled at once. There’s about a year of back story to this, which I’m not going to get into right now. The bottom line is, I’ve gotten on the wrong side of a ‘Sarah Cherian-like’ colleague who just doesn’t like me anymore. I get no slack from her. She reports every single one of my mistakes to my supervisor and boss in a loud and angry fashion, demands that they speak to me about these issues and concerns, and then leaves angry email and phone messages for me. And out of all of this, the thing that bothers me most about the whole thing, is that negative (and in some cases erroneous) things are being said about me. Someone doesn’t like what I do, what I say, or how I act and this someone is not afraid to let the world know about it. It leaves me feeling upset – a heavy pit in my stomach – with the fear that somehow she’s going to convince other people that she’s right after all. In an attempt to placate and pacify, my boss sends me email asking me not make the same mistake in the future. Granted – it’s mostly a hollow reprimand meant for placating and pacifying a noisemaker. But it is a reprimand. I really hate being reprimanded.

The Story: Part Three

I figure, it’s high time to make a change. It used to be that I wouldn’t believe someone if they gave me a compliment. I just assumed that they were being nice because they felt like they had to be or that they were bias or something. But if someone said something mean – you’d bet I’d listen! I’ve mostly grown out of that. But still – at my age – I can’t seem to shake the effect that other people’s words have on me. I know that we should all strive to remember the compliments and forget the insults but is that realistic? Can it be done? More importantly, will I ever get there? Is my notion of success or failure still too closely entangled with what other people’s views are? Is yours? What if we never heard compliments or insults, could we derive our own sense of beauty, success, good?

If a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear?

(Blog warning - those are 6 links up there of varying degrees of 'entertaining' and the last link there has explicit words in it. Beware.)

Talk to you soon,

B.

My Love of Grocery Shopping

Blech. It’s been one of those days. It’s been the kind of day where I end up feeling pretty bummed. It started really great. I mean, I had breakfast with Christian. That should say it all! But things went badly very quickly after breakfast.

I want to tell you all about it – but I think not right now. Instead, I’ll tell you that I decided to remedy the problem with comfort food. I ate a really nice sausage, fried onion, and perogy dinner and then I went grocery shopping . So – in a whirl of absolute inanity on par with writing about my dinner, I’m going to tell you what I bought at the grocery store. I'm enamoured with grocery shopping. It's my favourite household chore. I like to stroll through the aisles and look through all of the options, taking in all the colours of the fruits and vegetables. I like to dream about the meals I could cook, the treats I could bake. I went grocery shopping today to make up for a bad day - 'nuff said

(By the way – I would love to hear about what you bought at the last time you were grocery shopping. I think it would be a fun little glimpse into your world)

The List:

1 bag elbow macaroni
block of old cheddar
4 croissants
raisins
dried cranberries
PC Organics Mac and Cheese
12 bottles of carbonated water
sun dried tomatoes
veggie salami slices
havarti
provolone
chicken slices
tomato soup
mandarin oranges
5 Alive
Limeade
grapes
chestnuts (for roasting)
apple sauce
cottage cheese
dishwasher detergent
4 L chocolate ice cream
pistachios
almonds

I would have bought Corn Bran (which I haven’t eaten in years but was feeling nostalgic) but the store I was at didn’t have any.

Talk to you tomorrow with what will hopefully be a much more exciting post.

B.

Negativity is Exhausting

Man - I am seriously, seriously tired tonight. It feels like it's been a really really long couple of days. It's weird though - because when I think it over there wasn't anything particularly tiring going on. We moved at work again, as I mentioned yesterday. So - I was lifting boxes yesterday and today was spent mostly just setting up the new desk and computers. Lifting boxes could be tiring but there weren't any really very heavy ones. And setting up new desks and computers can be mentally very tiring but I took a long lunch and eased myself through it.

So - I gave this a bit more thought and then I think I figured it out. The last two days have been really cranky at work. Morale has been low and there's been more than the necessary amount of grumping around. In some ways they've been typical days in terms of workload it's just that everyone at work has been really unhappy. The vibe was very contagious. So I'm pretty sure that it's the 'energy' at work that's left me feeling 'low on energy'. It feels really hard to drag yourself through the day when everyone around you is all frustrated and complaining. Luckily, things are looking up for tomorrow. We can get back to doing our jobs (which people like) and we're gonna break out the new coffee maker (french press) in the afternoon. Now - if only we had an internet connection ...

Talk to you soon,

B.

A Wrench or Two

Wrench #1: There will be no Internet access at work for at least a week.
This is going to make my daily NaBloPoMo posts a bit more of a challenge than usual. It also means that more than likely, I’ll be posting late in the evening (much like this evening). The reason there won’t be Internet access at work is because we moved, again! We’re back up on campus for now. It’s a short lease but I think they’ll renew it. It’s also a brand new building, a brand new lab, a chair that’s never been sat in, and a desk that’s never been written on.

Wrench #2: Apple redesigned the Shuffle
I went looking around for a new iPod on the weekend, only to discover that Apple redesigned the Shuffle. Sadly, I’m not particularly impressed with the redesign. I suppose I could maybe get used to it but I really did like my old Shuffle. This throws my plans of quickly replacing my mp3 player into a bit of a spin. I’m not sure what to do now: get a refurbished early design shuffle or try to love the new redesign?

That’s more wrenches that I have in my toolbox!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Scary

Rob's been making me watch Season One of Lost. He got it as a present for his birthday. It's one of the scariest tv shows I've ever seen. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. It gives me nightmares and it makes my heart beat very fast. Last night I screamed. I'm not sure I'm ever going to get to the point where scary stuff on tv doesn't have an effect on me. Have any of you guys seen this show? It's been a pretty big hit by American standards. I mean - it's no '24' or anything - but it's had a lot of success. I don't remember there being anything that scary on tv when I was small.

Today I'm going to keep working on the den. Then, I'll be heading out to a baby shower. After that, it's on to rehearsal.

Have a nice Sunday everybody!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Anne, Glenn, Samantha, and Phillip

Rob and I took a break away from our redecorating the den to visit with “The Chongs”. They were in Ontario for work and took some time out of their very busy schedule to ‘slum it’ in the big, bad city.

It’s always nice to seem them when they’re in town. We see them only every 4-6 months – whenever they’re in the area for work. Glenn cracks me up a bit because he never really remembers what was happening the last time he was here. This visit, he swore that the last time we were here we were thinking of moving to a new city. And we haven’t considered leaving town since before Rob got his job here, which was at least 2 1/2 years ago. On the other hand, I am equally if not worse in recalling some of the events of their past few months. I know the kids’ birthdays and the names of their dogs but I can never really remember where they’re living now (45 minutes outside of Red Deer?) or how big their house is (a 1 ½ story bungalow; and very large) or how many properties they own for business (at least 1 but I think they’re up to 2 or 3 at least now). What I realize though, that’s one of the comforting things when you’ve known someone for over 10 years is that the reason we can never remember these details is because they don’t matter. I know that he’s loving being a dad and that he work is doing well and that he’s more relaxed now than I’ve seen him in years. I know that Anne is a confident and calm mom, that she still can’t hear well out of her right ear but that she speaks softly now anyway, and that she enjoys the independence they have living where they live. I can see Samantha’s stubbornness, that she misses her puppy, and likes drawing with purple pencils. I know that Phillip is the first redheaded Chinese kid I’ve ever seen, that he’s plump and likes to smile, and that he’ll have even more personality the next time I see him. And I know that they can see that Rob and I love our house, our cats, our city, and each other. The rest don’t matter.

Talk to you soon,

B.

And I Was Worried

Yesterday, we leave the house at 8 am. After work, there is ultimate and dancing (you can guess which of us was doing what), and we don’t get home until about 10:30. Walking across the deck in back, I notice that our back door is swung wide open. I holler to Rob: “Hey Rob, the door’s wide open”. “I’m sure that I locked it when we left this morning. You were there with me when I did.” So, we pull ourselves together and venture on in to see what’s waiting for us.

Luckily, the first “things” waiting for us are Molly and Mackerel and we sigh a bit in relief: neither of them has escaped and gotten lost in the neighbourhood. We walk through the main floor and realize that our front window is also wide open, and we both know that we haven’t opened that window since the fall chill hit Toronto weeks ago. Obviously, someone had found their way into our house through the front window and found their way out through the back. We hurriedly make our way through the rest of the house. Rob notices right away that his iPod is gone – he’d forgotten to bring it to work (for the first time in weeks) and left it on the table near the front door. On the second floor, the office door is closed, and everything in it (computer, PSP, cell phone) is still inside. To the den – the Xbox is gone. Upstairs – everything on the third floor is still intact. No mess, no ransacking. I check through my jewellery box anyway. My most expensive piece is still sitting perched on my dresser. The others are where I left them. We head back downstairs and close the back door and head back to the window – trying to force it to close to stop the cold air from coming in. Immediately I realize what I’ve done. I’ve touched all of the evidence. I would have thought that I’d watched enough CSI not to make such a common mistake.

We call the police and they offer to send a car over shortly. We decide to focus on looking through the rest of the house for anything we might have overlooked the first time and settled in upstairs to wait. The cats are acting strange. I’m certain that Mackerel spent a good portion of the day outside. And there is a neighbourhood cat hanging around the backdoor in a way that implies we’ve had some four-legged intruders in the house too. At around 11:30 there is a kind of thumping noise from downstairs. Rob goes down to investigate and discovers that the thump was the thump of a very fat cat jumping out the open first floor window. As soon as he sees Rob, he darts. The next hour is spent employing ‘the usual methods’ to lure him back in. Any approaching humans send him running. Throughout the hour we intermittently hear the strange howl Mackerel makes when he’s scared, sick, or injured coming from the direction of the neighbour’s yard. I just don’t understand why, if he’s so frightened, he won’t come back in the house. Eventually, we leave him be, and I he comes home to eat some of the bait near the back door. Both cats get locked away until we can fix the window.

We are barely able to stay awake long enough for the police to arrive. Finally, it’s 1:30 and they’re here. They are extremely friendly and really great at helping us feel relaxed. One of the constables gets a few really nice fingerprints from the window glass (not mine, phew!) while the detective gets our statement and a list of the missing property. They speculate that a) (based on the size of the hand making the prints) it was a male adult OR very large handed female; b) the thief got spooked, which cut the ‘shopping spree’ short; c) it’s likely that the prints won’t come up in AFIS because thieves who’s prints are on file from prior arrests usually wear gloves. Who knows, though; maybe 10 years from now, we’ll get a call telling us that somebody got busted for some crime, and their fingerprints are a match for these. They advise us to change the locks and have the window secured. The male officer also entertains us with a hilarious impression of Horatio Cain.

Today, I have the day off of work to focus my attention on safekeeping our house. I go looking for my camera to take pictures of the fingerprinting for the blog and I can’t find it. I suddenly and sadly remember that, despite carrying it around in my purse for the last 2 weeks, I took it out and left it on the dining room table yesterday morning. It’s not there now. Instead, I grab for “George”, my iPod Shuffle so that I can work on some choreography. Both George and the neoprene case I normally keep him in are not here. Caroline says they aren’t at work either. I try desperately to remember where I last saw them. I’m still not sure but assume they were part of the losses. I call the police again and add two more items to the list of missing property. Derek comes over to housesit while I go to Home Depot to pick up the items I need. Five hours later, our house has new locks on both doors, the back door has a new door handle, and our first floor windows are completely inoperable. If someone wants in now, they’re going to have to break some serious glass.

Rob spends part of the day at work pricing out replacement iPods and researching home alarm systems. And I was worried that I’d have nothing to post about today. Today is the first day of NaBloPoMo that I didn’t have a story in mind at least a day ahead.

Talk to you soon,

B.

"The List"

Speaking of Christmas ...

As requested by our families, I'm posting the 'Official Christmas Wish Lists' of Rob and I. Warning: this list is apt to grow and be fine tuned over next few days/weeks.

Rob

Book: “Against the Day” by Thomas Pynchon
Size 9.5 Nike cross trainers
Book: “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy
Book: "The Echo Maker" by Richard Powers
DVD Set (Widescreen version): "West Wing: Season 7"
DVD Set (Regular version): "Columbo" - any of the seasons
A Winter Coat

Me

Personalized address stamp with the new address
Brown boots
Bedside tables (dark/chocolate brown)
Fun looking mailbox
Christmas decorations, in particular a refillable advent calendar
Dryer Balls
Earrings
Gift certificate - Yarn store, RW&Co, Home Depot, Ikea, iTunes
Car stereo with aux hookup for mp3 players
Eyeshadow from MAC (not the kind in the container but the magnetic one .. I have a holder)

Sean Doyle is a Dad!

Yesterday, I bumped into Sean and Cheryl at a Second Cup downtown. Since I hadn’t seen them since before their wedding (2 years ago) we tried to briefly catch-up. Sean’s been working at the same insurance agency as before. Cheryl has been working her same “real-money” job while continuing to teach yoga and pilates. They bought a condo in the east end. And they have a 6-week-old son named Liam. They say “hi” to everyone.

Their friend Irene was also there – who has asked me to say ‘hello’ to any of the Haigers she knows who I might now.

Talk to you soon,

B

Sean Doyle is a Dad!

Progress

I really like lists. And I like checking things off of lists. Remember this post (October 18)? I've decided to post my progress to date on these items. I'm starting to get even more realistic in accepting that some of this might not be 100% done. Obviously, some items are more urgent or deadline driven than others. Also - I've added a few new items to the bottom of the list (in green). While they are new things that I want to try to do before the end of December, they are things that I really really enjoy doing. I'm including them because they're going to make the next few weeks all the more fun if I include them. The tasks I've managed to complete have been striken through (woo hoo!)

1. Let Rob buy a washing machine and dryer by himself and help him get it installed (stalled until we hire the contractor)(0%)
2. Buy the tub, the sink, the faucets, counter, cabinetry and remaining odds and ends for our 3rd floor bathroom (stalled until we hire the contractor)(0%)
3. Find the necessary people to do the functional half of the renovation for our 3rd floor bathroom and leave the esthetic half (painting, new shelves) for winter. (20%)
4. Fix the muffler on the car (before we drive to Montreal)(100%)
5. Paint the den (25%, paint is purchased. Will start this weekend)
6. Get Christian to come to Toronto (0%; still haven’t called)
7. Go to Meredith’s wedding party in Montreal (100%)
8. Make 50 candy apples and a pumpkin cake for the party (100%)
9. Knit some mitts for Gramps (12%)
10. Produce and perform in a dance show (100%)
11. Teach 2, one-hour dance classes (100%)
12. Choreograph and teach a 4 minute beginner tap piece (over 4 weeks from Oct – Nov) (75%)
13. Choreograph and teach a 4 minute modern duet (over 4 weeks from Nov – Dec) (0%)
14. Attend rehearsals for 3 new dances (66%)
15. Submit an application for FIDA (0%)
16. Buy everyone Christmas presents (10%)
17. Buy Birthday presents (50%)
18. Write and mail Christmas cards (5%)
19. Plan and Prepare Christmas Dinner
20. Organize a cookie exchange party
21. Attend a baby shower and buy a baby shower gift (Nov. 12)
22. Meet with Anne and Glenn
23. Go to the William Ashley Warehouse (see item 16 and 17)
24. Go to the “One of a Kind” Craft Show (see item 16 and 17)
25. Buy and decorate a tree
26. Decorate the house

Escape!

At approximately 5:10 pm, yesterday afternoon, one of the prisoners from the Riverdale Lockdown escaped. After a 20 minute search, the escapee was located by one of the guards and was lured back into the prison with food.

The escapee, known to the public only as “Mackerel” has been held in prison for the past 5 years. At 6 months of age he was committed to a full life sentence on charges of being too damn cute. Yesterday was the second escape attempt by this particular prisoner. The first occurred on September 8, 2006 and lasted a mere 45 seconds.

There has been a “no comment” statement issued from the guards at the prison. Their lawyers had been working quickly to assemble a request for a publicity ban on the issue. Fortunately, their request was denied.

Evidence collected by this reporter suggests that there was quite a bit of movement inside and outside of the prison yesterday, mainly by the female guard. A witness told reporters that the male guard left the jail for a nearby Laundromat at approximately 5:05, yesterday, followed by the female guard only 2 minutes later. Evidence seems to indicate that earlier activity, in and out of the prison, resulted in the back door being left open (purportedly by the female guard) and unattended by either guard who were attending to household chores. The state is declining to press negligence charges at this time.

Incidentally, upon returning to the prison and realizing the error, the female guard sounded the alarm and proceeded to extensively search within the prison for Mackerel, who she thought may be hiding. Initial attempts at luring the prisoner with treats failed (said largesse incidentally delighting mackerel's fellow prisoner, thus confirming Mackerel's escape by his non-appearance. Let me remind you that to date, this standard operating procedure has never failed in locating a prisoner from within the confines of the jail. The search continued outside on the grounds and in the surrounding area while treat bags were shaken and the standard call to the prisoner “mengowww” was made. It was this last call that identified the location of the escapee during his first escape attempt.

Fortunately, the prisoner made the mistake of returning to the prison grounds, most likely in an attempt to free his fellow convict. The guards made contact immediately and tricked the prisoner into returning by pouring his favorite kibble into his bowl. Mackerel has never been proved capable of running away from food.

The escapee spent the rest of the day recovering from the incident by eating twice as much kibble as usual and by sleeping in his preferred bed. Punishment for the escape has not been disclosed to reporters but will likely consist of some strongly worded lectures by the guards. A local prisoner's rights organization has suggested that they will be keeping a close eye on the prison and advocate that regular walks on leashes have reduced escape attempts at other prisons by 50%.

If anyone has any further information in regards to this crime or evidence to support potential future escape attempts, the guards should be notified immediately.

Otherwise Occupied

My brain is otherwise occupied today. Yesterday, it was almost completely occupied with three things: the head-scratching caramel question from yesterday, how to get the house ready for guests by Wednesday when I had no interest in cleaning whatsoever (see Gina's post today), and holiday card-making. Today, it's almost completely occupied by this, this, this, this, this, and this. In otherwords, the card-making that teased me both Friday and yesterday has completely taken over my brain. I have nothing else to offer you today. I have to make a choice by Monday. Caroline and I are going to order the stamps and ink or cutters or whatever on Monday so that we'll be able to make greeting cards in time for the holiday mailout.

So many choices, so little time!

Now - when you get your cards come December -- you'll know it took me almost an entire weekend to finally choose that design. I hope you like it!

Talk to you soon,

B

Caramel

As I was saying yesterday, I made caramel apples for Meredith and Doug’s wedding. I’ve been making caramel apples with Jo for many Halloweens now. I think we’ve learned a lot over the years. It became apparent to me when I was talking to Meredith’s sister, who also made caramel apples for the wedding but had a terrible experience. So, here’s my recipe and some tips if you ever want to make some foolproof caramel apples:

Some tips:
• Make your own caramel. Many recipes recommend unwrapping the pre-made caramel squares and then melting them with a bit of milk or water. It takes so long to unwrap those things that you could have made a pot of caramel twice over.
• Follow this link. It a really excellent description for making caramel in as foolproof way as possible.
• Use a candy thermometer. The old ‘drop a ball of sugar in cold water’ trick isn’t effective – by the time you test the sugar it will already have cooked past the stage.
• Focus on reaching the softball stage and then pouring the caramel into a new bowl immediately. Keeping the caramel from getting any firmer than softball stage means that the caramel will be chewy when eaten and will lengthen the time you have to work on pressing the goodies into the caramel.
• Even if you don’t like the recipe that I’ve used (a modified version of this one) stick with a brown sugar based recipe. White sugar makes an excellent candy but you just can’t get the right flavour and colour without the molasses from the brown sugar.
• Use a tart, almost sour apple for dipping. The contrast between the bold crisp apple and sweet, creamy caramel is what really makes the difference. I use Granny Smith.
• Wash the apples well and scrub them a bit when drying them. The wax that most farmers coat the apples with these days will prevent the caramel from sticking.
• Craft-style popsicle sticks make the most sturdy support for the apples but for a decorative touch, I use cinnamon sticks. You need to sort of “pre-drill” a whole for the cinnamon sticks using a chopstick or something similar. I use a meat thermometer.

So now – for the recipe (makes 24 - 30 apples).

Select your toppings (see the notes a little further down) and prepare them ahead of time, placing each in a cereal bowl for dipping apples after the caramel has been prepared.

Add the following to a heavy bottomed 4 quart saucepan
• 1kg g bag of dark brown sugar
• 1 lb of unsalted butter
• 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
• 500 ml of golden corn syrup
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 2 tsp of molasses
• ½ tsp of salt

Heat it all very slowly over low heat until the sugar is completely melted, stirring with a wooden spoon. You need to check this by taking the warmed mixture and rubbing it between your fingers. You need to feel absolute no gritty-ness. If you ensure that there are no crystals left now, it will protect you later from having your caramel crystallize.

Turn up the heat so that the ingredients reach a soft boil while stirring (use a new, clean wooden spoon). Add the candy thermometer. Continue stirring constantly yet slowly until the temperature of the sugar reaches the softball stage (236 C). I kept my caramel cooking just below a rolling boil. Some soft bubbles would be occaisonally breaking through the surface but no more than two at a time. This allows me to cook the sugar in a very controlled way, reducing my concern for developing crystals in the sugar. My best advice to you is to KEEP IT UNDER CONTROL. Otherwise, you'll never get repeatable foolproof caramel. Also - my pot only just barely contained my caramel, so it was not necessary for me to wash down the sides of the pot. If your pot is tall and you notice that the steam eminating from your caramel is cooling along the pot edges, leaving behind some solid sugar -- you can use a wet pastry brush to wash those sugar crystals back into the caramel.

Immediately pour out the caramel into a glass or metal bowl. Allow the caramel to cool to 200 C. Meanwhile, prepare 2 – 3 cookie sheets with waxed paper or parchment and very lightly butter them.

Dip all 25 apples into the caramel, one at a time and get the caramel covering the apple right up to the tip of the stick. This won’t take very long. Try to allow most of the caramel to drip off the apple before moving it to the buttered wax paper.

Then, in the order that they were dipped, pick up the first apple and reform the caramel around the bottom of the apple. It should be pliable. Quickly roll the soft caramel-coated apple into your favorite topping and return to the cookie sheet. Another good trick is to hold the apple in one hand and press the toppings into the caramel with the other. Repeat, working somewhat swiftly, for the remaining apples.

Some of the most successful toppings I’ve used are: buttered spiced almonds, s’mores (mini-chocolate chips, mini-marshmallows, and pieces of graham crackers), cinnamon sugar, mini-oreos, chocolate chips, toasted pecans, Halloween M&Ms, Skor bar pieces.

Some toppings, like the mini oreos, may require you to press them individually into the caramel.

Allow the caramel apples to cool completely to room temperature and then package.

Some other notes:

• About toppings – truly, the sky is the limit. Salty treats seem to go particularly well with the sweet caramel. Toppings may need to be coarsely chopped to make it easier to affix to the caramel apples. Pieces of larger items should be about the size of a dime or less.

• If you’d like, you can also dip the cooled caramel apples into tempered dark or milk chocolate. If you want a very decadent apple, you can dip the caramel apples with toppings attached into tempered chocolate. Yummy!

• I don’t normally do it, but a coordinating colour drizzle can be used to add a decorative touch to the apples. Temper some chocolate or reheat the leftover caramel to make it pourable, and using a spoon or knife tip, drizzle it over the apples.

• The caramel that’s leftover can be reused. It can be reheated for caramel sauce or used for dipping more apples the next day (if, say, you get tired dipping all 25 of these at once) by reheating slowly back up to 200 C.

• ½ litre gusseted candy bags are big enough to hold one apple. Tie them closed with a piece of ribbon around the stick.

Here's some inspiration and more informative links:

Erin's Apples
Caramel Apples on Wikipedia
Carmelizing Sugar at 'Ask a Scientist'

And finally a question (I'll be surprised if anybody reads this far down, so at this point I doubt I'll ever get this question anwered): I don't know why the Epicurious recipe says that it's not only ok to stir the caramel once it's boiling but it's recommended when every other caramel recipe I've read implores the cook not to stir the caramel for fear of causing crystallization in the sugar. Can anyone explain it to me?

Meredith and Doug are Hitched!

Last weekend, Rob and I were very fortunate to be able attend the very celebratory, post-ceremony party in honour of the marriage of Douglas Moffat to Meredith Carruthers. It was a smash-hit of an event, held at Lili and Olli Café in Montreal. The wine poured and the super-successful owner of the café prepared cup after cup of cappuccino, café au lait, teas, and espresso.

The café was decorated with white tablecloths, lighted white pumpkins, and vases full of Chinese lantern plants from the bride’s garden and hypericum berries. The tables were piled with delicacies from Atwater Market, including arrangements of breads and cheeses, bowls of almonds and other nuts, plates of olives and crudite, and baskets of assorted fruits. But the dessert table – if I do say so myself, it was full!

Megan’s sister and I made caramel apples, enough for 2 per guest. Mrs. Carruthers (Anne) served light and fluffy meringues, stacked high on a plate and topped with tiny lovebirds. Also served was a two-tier white wedding cake as well as a chocolate glazed cake (that I sadly missed out on). Meredith and Doug also offered their guests gold embossed boxes with treats inside to take home.

The small café was warmed with candles and the 40 or so friends and family. The weather was cold and very very wet outside which in contrast, made the event feel like the haven no one wanted to leave.

Rob and I had a great time in Montreal – wandering the streets and doing some shopping as well as lounging in our well hosted B&B.

Thanks for a lovely time guys – and Congratulations!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Me, Competitive?

I’ve been taking this NaBloPoMo a little too seriously. Gina, Krisin, and Kern all live at least 6 hours ahead of me in time. That means that before I even get a chance to think of something to write, they’ve dreamed up something fabulous and written about it and I’ve read it. Then I think: “How am I supposed to produce something so thoughtful and introspective and gloriously written?” It’s only the second day – and I already have an inferiority complex!

Well – I guess, I’ll venture forward, as I often do, with the knowledge that I will not ever be the best, and that in fact, struggling to be the best is my main only source of misery and then just GIVE IT UP AND LET IT GO AND ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE!

Even handicapped as I am with a camera that had a weird lens smudge, I will post today. And, throwing caution to the wind, I WILL post pictures. WHO THE HELL CARES IF THEY’RE BLURRY!

(BTW – many blurry pictures to come over the next couple of days. I promise to get rid of the lens smudge in my next round of photos)

– Some Halloween images to go with yesterdays post –

A Halloween Recap

Halloween was horrible fun, last night! I was so excited to get to hand out candy to the kids.

(Pictures from Halloween will come later in the week – I can’t find my camera cable!)

Since we were away in Montreal last weekend (details on that later), Rob and I left much of our decorating to the very last minute. On Sunday night, Rob carved the two pumpkins that we’d bought the previous weekend. He decided to go with more of a shape motif than with faces. One pumpkin had hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds and our other pumpkin had stars and moons on it. Mr. Caranci very kindly gave us some dried cornstalks and a bale of hay, which Rob picked up from Steve and Ann’s place on Monday night. The finishing touches were added on Tuesday night. Rob arranged the stalks, hay, gourds and one pumpkin close to our front door in a farm-like motif. I put another of the pumpkins at the end of our walk and close to the sidewalk in the hopes of luring in the trick-or-treaters walking by. We then took bits of artificial spiderweb and hung it on the fence near the sidewalk, draped it over shrubs, and hung it from the tree and the rafters like Spanish moss. The final touch were candles set back from the walk, flickering in the garden and casting moving shadows around the yard (and also to light the path a bit better).

We were worried, what with our house being set so far back from the road, that the costumed critters might not come by. Of course, it was an empty worry. There were more kids traipsing around on the west side of our nearest main street (we’re on the east side) but we got a nice handful. About 60 costumed crusaders from around 6:30 – 8:30 last night. And after that, Rob and I went for a walk around the corner where a few neighbours had pulled together their resources to put on a production of “A Nightmare before Christmas” on a stage assembled on their front lawn. We only caught the end but what we saw was fantastic! Apparently, it’s the 4th year running of their production. Quite something, I’ll tell ya.

The evening was packed full of fun but there were three big highlights for me. The first was getting to see the creativity that the kids showed in their costume making (“Captain Jack Sparrow” comes to mind first). The second part of the evening that I really enjoyed were the compliments that we received from the kids about our ‘spooky’ house and included in that is just how polite, thankful, and pleasant all of the kids were. And of course, eating pumpkin soup with my Robbie (that he made for me) and sharing in all the decorating fun with him, in our very first Halloween in our very first house, made the night all the more enjoyable.

How was your Halloween? If you or your kids got dressed-up, I wanna see the pictures!

Talk to you soon,

B.