Firsts

I think I'm still in that mode where September feels like the beginning of a new year. I know that I'm not in school anymore - haven't been for ages .. but it just feels like a beginning. It's when I want to start things. Sometimes, it feels weird that every September I'm on a mission for something new, ready and excited for big change, feeling my most productive and fruitful - while the nature around me is getting ready to nap for 6 months or to just "drop dead" until Spring.

This Fall has been no different. I've been ready to tackle all sorts of new projects. But the biggest and best "first for Fall" happened last night. It was the first rehearsal of the PushPull 06/07 Season. Holy Crap! It's our THIRD season! You could knock me over with a feather if I think about it too hard. The show's already cast and it's gonna be a great season. I'll try to forgive Kelly for scheduling it so that the first dance I'm learning is to Aerosmith.

Another first for me this week will be getting an RSS reader. I've decided that it's time. I scan about 10 different blogs now, looking for new posts and I think it's high time to get updates instead of running through my list every morning. If anyone knows of a good way to do this, let me know. I'm still not sure what the best readers are. If I figure anything out, I'll post an update.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

B.

For Christian

I’m knitting a blanket that I hope will be for the first baby of my brother’s very close friends. That's my brother over there on the left. How I ended up on this project when I have 5 unfinished projects in my knitting basket is, as it often is, a result of prodding from my mum, my interest in doing stuff for people I like, and avoidance/procrastination of projects already underway. When we found out that Jeff and Dina were pregnant my mum suggested that I offer to Christian that I could knit something for them. Which is what I did. Of course, Christian didn’t want to trouble me in the slightest and was hoping that it wouldn’t be a pain in my neck to do something like this. I then had to beg and plead with Christian to let me knit something for this baby – something that would get me away from all of the complicated knitting projects that were yelling at me from my knitting corner. I didn’t want to calculate the armscye decreases for the sweater I’m designing/making for Rob’s dad, the stranded knitting I’m doing for baby Nathan’s sweater is kind of scary, my mum’s sweater is in this perpetual state of question about whether the sleeves are long enough yet, and my scarf requires constant stitch counting and a freaking lot of short rows. I wanted a nice simple project.

Christian relented and let me knit a sweater for his friends. That’s right. He said I could knit a baby sweater. I know what you’re thinking…you’re thinking “I could have sworn she said that she’s knitting a blanket for this baby. Did I misread? Was there a typo?” Nope – no typo. I tell ya – I wanted such a simple project to knit that I required that the project be square. Square it had to be. Row upon row of the exact same stitch pattern. I didn’t care if it took twice as long to knit – dammit – I wanted it to be mind numbing!!

And boy oh boy did it fit the bill. It has taken me a very long time to knit. I started working on it on August 18 and by the end of this week it will be finished. I’ve only got 8 more garter stitch rows to go. It’s a blanket of my own design, so to speak. My inspiration was the fact that the baby going to be born in Niagara right around harvest time and The Grape and Wine Festival. The blanket is about 2.5 feet square with a 2 inch garter stitch border all the way around and a trinity stitch lace pattern for the main body of it that gives it a bumpy texture. I even figured out a really cool way to solve the puckering problem that happens because garter stitch scrunches up and trinity lace stretches out (short row one row of the border every 4 rows).

So – now – I need to break it to my brother that I’ve knitted a lace blanket for him to give to his friends. I tried emailing pictures but it didn’t work very well. Christian – here’s what the blanket looked like when it was one third of the way done and here’s a close-up of the stitch pattern and border. If you like it – lemme know how to get it to Jeff and Dina for you. If you would be embarrassed to give them such a purple-y object, I won’t mind. It was a really fun knit. And there are babies sprouting around here like crazy! I’m sure I could find someone to give it to.

Love,

B.

New Drawers

I was on a stealth mission to Ikea the other day. It was stealth because I was trying not to have to mention to Rob about the spending of more money. I just vowed to be as conservative as humanly possible. But, I mean, come on – I need drawers. Right now I don’t have any. Rob has the dresser (which I beautifully refinished for him) and one half of our new (it came with the house) Pax closet system. And I have the other half of the closet. I can see how the system would be fantastic except that this one had two hanger bars and that’s it. And I’m not so much a hanging my clothes kind of girl. I really, really need drawers.

So – out I went wandering around Eden, such as it is, carefully selecting some drawers, a set of drawer organizers, some new pillows for the den, and those damn lightbulbs that you can only buy at Ikea that only fit Ikea lamps. Then, I realized that my Visa was at home. Damn! So, I called Rob and he put money into my account and I got a bit scolded for buying unimportant stuff.

When I got home we got it all sorted out and – while the drawers were definitely, in his books extraneous – he offered to help me assemble them and get them into my closet. Sweet boy. This same sweet boy started noticing how pretty the drawers were, how high-tech and fancy. The boy wanted drawers of his own. Suddenly, the drawers had become an absolute necessity – who could live without drawers in their closet?!? It was absurd!! He needed the drawers. He had closet envy.

I laughed at him. He’s trying to hold back .. but I suspect I’ll be going back to Ikea any day now.

Home Owning

So - it's been a couple of weeks of being homeowners now. I figured I'd better fill you in on what's new.

Our move went very very smoothly. We had a lot of help from family and friends, which makes all the difference. We rented a 16 foot cube van from Discount on Thursday. I drove (you should all know how happy it makes me to drive a big truck around town)! Derek and Susanna came over on Thursday night so that Su and I could finish up with the last of boxing things up and Derek and Rob could put all the heavy things in the truck. On Friday, Rob and I moved the last of our things into the truck. We were done that by about noon. We cleaned up our place and got it in good shape for the new tenants by 1:30. Then, we took our lunch break and went to the lawyers office to fax some documents. While we were there, she gave us the keys to the new place on the promise that we wouldn't go in until closing. So we had a coffee and Rob got a haircut and we just chilled out. By 3:30 we still hadn't closed. I was a bit nervous about driving the truck (as much as I love it) in Friday afternoon traffic. So - I went over to the house to park out front until we heard from our lawyer. Rob was picking up the dolly and meeting me there.

When I arrived at the new house, it was about 4 and I decided to call my mum to let her know that she should leave St. Catharines and head on over. I grabbed the newspaper and another coffee to wait for the lawyer's call. Walking back to the house, I see Mac in my front yard. Mum and Ron had decided to not to wait and had left St. Catharines early. They brought presents! Rob arrived about 10 minutes later with the news that we'd closed - the lawyer had called not a minute earlier. How 'bout that for timing! So - with the help of Ron and Karen and Susanna, we unloaded everything into the house. Mum and Mac unpacked. And we were all drinking beer and having snacks on the deck by 8:30.

On Saturday, we added Aunt Dorothy, Grandpa Randy, and Aunt Evelyn to the volunteer list. The bunch of us unpacked boxes, moved the closets, assembled furniture. And we were pretty well done (as done as could be) by dinner. On Sunday, Rob and I bought a new BBQ and picked up food and bevvie - our friends joined us in warming our house Sunday night and it was FABULOUS! And on Monday - we rested.

Since then, we've been slowly tackling some projects. I wasn't sure we'd get much done, given how much ultimate needed to be played and how much dancing needed to be done. But we've made more progress than I thought. There's also a lot more to do than I thought!

Since the move, we've been here about 6 times and we've been here, here, and here.

And we spent quite a few free evenings, doing this (you should really read this one if you have time .. it's good)

It couldn't be better!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Newfoundland

In case you didn’t know already – Rob and I went to Newfoundland in August with some of our friends. While this group had all lived together at some time or another we’d not ever traveled together as a group. Well, we car camped together a few summers ago but that’s just not the same and a real, honest to goodness vacation away. So – we started plotting and planning and settled on traveling to the rock by plane and then all over the rock in the luxurious comfort of a minivan (that’s everyone, there sans Kevin who’s taking the photo and is world renowned for being camera-shy).

We were there for 8 days and put 3000km on the van, visiting St. John’s, Bay Bulls, Gros Morne, Lanse aux Meadows, Twillingate, Trinity, and Cape Spear. I think Gros Morne and Twillingate were the favourite parts of the trip for me. Twillingate might even have been the group favourite. We missed lobster, whale, and iceberg season. So – if you ever plan to go, go in July NOT in August. Even still – we got to eat some great fish, hear some great music, and see some really good art. There’s a fantastic art and craft scene in Newfoundland. I’m guessing it’s partly to do with the inspiration that is so abundant there and partly the fact that an artist can have a good standard of living even on a small income.

Here’s a little collage I made of the best pictures from the trip. For more pictures, check out my photo album over here.


Stay tuned for tales of "the move" ...

Talk to you soon,

B.

East Side Here We Come!

This is the fun part, baby! Last night Rob and I went to check out our new place (at the request of the lawyer, to ensure that they previous tenants stole nothing and did no damage on their way out) -- and it might even be better than I remember! I was so excited, I hardly slept last night! Tonight, we pick up the truck and start loading. Tomorrow - more packing, get the keys and register our deed, and then start unloading. Tomorrow, we are officially eastsiders.

I don't think there is anyway that I could use enough exlamation marks in this post to convey the excitement. I hardly slept last night and when I was asleep I dreamt of moving.

Moving is the theme this week. My lab/office is moving this week too. I'm happy to say that the house move is much, much more organized and smooth-going than the office move. 'Tis the season of change, ladies and gentleman -- the season of change!

Once I get settled in - there will be stories and pics from our vacation to Newfoundland (pronounced Noo-fun-lund).

Talk to you soon,

B.

Hooooweee!

Hey There!

It's been a while again, eh? Sheesh. Well .. I'm writing now to tell you about all the fun that I had this past weekend. Quite a weekend it was. Which pretty much goes to say that the weekends in between my last post and this one -- not so fun.

Ok - not entirely true. It's just been busy. Damn, damn, busy.

This was the highlight of my August long weekend:

(It's the most recent wedding cake I made.
It was for my co-worker's brother.)






Well, that and a little of this:












But this past weekend - it was a crazy good time. To start with, Kristin's in town from Germany. I don't think I've actually seen her in almost 2 years. So, it's been pretty damn nice having her around. And of course, I've been using her as an excuse to do all sorts of fun stuff around town. On Thursday night we went for Thai food and then headed off to Susanna's place to do some organizing of photos into albums. On Friday, Rob and I took Kristin on a walk past our new house and then up to the Danforth for "Taste of the Danforth". There were ridiculously crazy throngs of people and tonnes of tasty food. On Saturday I got up early and met up with Kelly so that the two of us could interview the last two candidates for the new choreographer positions at PushPull. It's been a very tough decision and took us a long time to figure out who to choose and if we'll have enough balance in the show. After that I stumbled into a demonstration by mostly Canadian Jews arguing for the end of Israeli occupation of Palestine. That was interesting because I'd never heard a Jewish person refer to Israel as an "occupation of Palestine" before. Then, back home for many many hours of this:




On Sunday, I drove Kristin downtown to meet up with some other folks for dim sum while I went off to see Meredith at Alley Jaunt. She was displaying her work of Giant Corsages/Miniature Parade Floats. You can find out more about Mer's work here. It was a super fun project and a pretty fun way to hang out with Meredith although too brief, as always. Her parents were there for a visit so I was catching up with them too. After that, I went to Uhaul to try to pick up some more of these -



- and then drove to St. Catharines. Traffic was incredibly sucky. I'd been in some seriously desperate need for time alone this weekend and really tried hard to make the most of my 2.5 hours in the car on the QEW. It was a bit of a challenge though. And I was armed with a couple of pod casts and some potential music to choreograph to and everything. It took a lot of concentration not to scream at somebody. Luckily for my family, I screamed at none of them but was in quite a foul mood by the time I got there. Christian was in town for a party from Huntsville. Mackers was hanging around to spend some time with his siblings. Mum made some very tasty food. Rob stayed home so that he could get some packing done. I dropped off about 5 pieces of art that my aunt and uncle are hopefully going to get framed for me for a low price and picked up a bag full of yarn and a pattern from my other aunt. Guess what I'm supposed to do with that (it's a very delayed Christmas present actually. I gave her a gift certificate for some yarn and promised to knit up whatever she bought with it). Then, three hours after I arrived, I drove back to Toronto - quite tired of driving, frankly. It did not ease my mostly grumbly mood to discover then, that the number of packed boxes had only increased by 5 since I'd left in the morning. Ahem. The kitchen and bathroom were sparkling, though. Again - not really in the mood yesterday to focus on the positive so I finally did scream at somebody.

Ok .. so I know that I said that I had a really fun weekend. And what I described just now maybe sounded a little grumpier than fun. But I really, really, really am focusing on the positives today. I mean, I saw Kristin, Meredith and Christian all in one weekend!! And ate steak at my mum's house! Now if only the kitchen was packed up ..

(hey, I'm trying -- I didn't say I'd succeeded)

Talk to you soon,

Becky

A Week of Fun!

It's been a pretty fun 10 days or so. Last weekend (despite the freaky incident) was a pretty good time but I haven't had a chance to blog about it yet. So, now's my chance to fill you in on all the "what's what".

Ok - so, last weekend I was in Ottawa:
Kelly and I went away for a 'girl's weekend'. Kell's been taking Cathy to Vegas and Europe, so I made her go away with me somewhere. We decided to stay in Ontario ('cause we couldn't afford a flight anywhere) and since Kell can't be anywhere any less urban than Ottawa .. and any more urban than Ottawa is, well, here. We shopped, we ate, we slept in, we drank. It was fabulous and Kell and I got finally got caught up on all our stories. We didn't really do very much touristy stuff, but we did get to see Parliament.

And here's Kelly near the canal -












And here's the groundhog that visisted us while we were sitting on a bench. He was very cute and ate his lunch about 3 feet away from us -









This is kind of like a vacation slide show, so I'll try to spare you any more of those photos and go straight to the latest knitting craze -


It's a dishcloth/washcloth! It's a funky new patterned one that I got from the Mason-Dixon knitting book. Folks have been knitting them all over the place and I decided to join in. Plus, I wanted to work on something simple that I could finish quickly and then start using. I think I might make my mum one too - since I owe her a sweater but it isn't done yet. But, since she hate's green, I'm gonna have to switch up the colours. And, ya know, a hand knit dish cloth (of which she has 20 already) is almost as good as a hand knit sweater! I haven't finished any other projects lately. I've started quite a few but just can't seem to get anything finished.

Ok and now for this weekend: it was an ultimate tourney! Our team was seeded 13th and we placed tied for 9th so we were pretty happy with that. And I'm not even feeling too bad (5 games in 2 days isn't really a full tournament). Here's what I look like when I play ultimate -



and here's what Rob looks like when he plays -


I jammed the pinky on my right hand and something crazy is going on with the big toe on my left foot. It used to be bruised and I thought I was going to lose the nail but then a girl stepped on me today and now there's something leaking out of the nail bed but my toe's no longer bruised. Rob bonked his head pretty good. Otherwise we're unscathed. So also a low injury tournament.

Talk to you soon!

B.

Freaky

The weirdest thing came up yesterday and it's been bothering me ever since. I'm not sure how much public or really specific I want to say because I don't want to end up calling the wrong kind of attention. But I wanted to say something about it to you guys who check here and read what I've been up to.

So, the story goes like this (and if you know me well enough, I think you'll mostly know what I'm talking about):

I was speaking with someone I know who's job is in the legal/law enforcement profession about some volunteer work this person did when they were in school. I find talking over these kinds of things really, really fascinating. So, the volunteer work that was done involved interacting regularly with convicts. As a result of the work, there were a couple of convicts that my colleague got to know better than others. I was asking about this one particular convict that this person had spoken of more often than the others and was wondering what his story was. As my colleague revealed some of the details (no confidential information was exchanged) I realized that I actually knew of this convict. He killed a girl in my class.

I feel kind of freaked out a bit. Obviously, my colleague hadn't put it all together that I would have known this person and I think felt bad that it upset me. Even now, thinking about it makes me really upset. I didn't expect to have such an strong emotional response - but man - it's been really bothering me all day.

When I got home last night, I read through my yearbook from that year and called someone from home to talk.

It's just kinda crazy to me.

(and hey - if you know any of the people I might be referring to, please don't post any comments with anyone's name, k?)

Talk to you soon,

B.

Summer

Today, I like summer. It feels just like summer ought to be. It's warm and sunny and I have absolutely nothing new to report because I have been up to absolutely nothing. Ahhh .. summer.

However, it did rain this week -- so badly on Monday and Wednesday that my ultimate games were cancelled.

But for now, I'm forgetting that those days happened and revelling in the warm, skirt sporting, sandal wearing, drivin' with the windows down and the breeze in your hair with the radio blasting weather. Tonight is the video party for Push Pull, so there's a good chance that in a few hours I'll be completely overwhelmed with self-loathing at my lack of real dancing skill. In particular because I've been so completely engrossed and in awe of the So You Think You Can Dance dancers. Honest -- I've cried, like 5 times this season!!

And as if the day couldn't get any better ('cause the video party is nearly the highlight of the month) I get to go to Lee Valley before I head to Cathy's place. Did you know they opened a store at King and Spadina? This will be my first time there and I'm bubbling with glee!!!

Hope you're also enjoying the lazy hazy days!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Photos from the "Unspoken Conversations"

Just a quick note today --

My inlaws are coming on the weekend and I'm moving in a couple of months and nearly every weekend is booked from now to September with something .. so .. in and amongst the ultimate and planning next years show, there has been COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF CLEANING and sorting of ABSURD VOLUMES OF THINGS TO GIVE AWAY TO CHARITY. Yick.

Meanwhile, I've been daydreaming a lot about furniture. And kind of trying to knit a sweater for a baby that's due in about 3 days (I sincerely doubt that the sweater will make it into this world before the baby).

Anyhoo, here are some pics for your entertainment. They're of the show I just finished. And I'm making a funny face in nearly all of the shots that I'm in! And there are some great shots of the fat roll around my belly! Those ones are extra nice. Don't worry, the pictures from the swing number are kinda normal. (If you really are just looking for me and not an overall view of the fantastic costumes that ML and I put together for the show, I'm in the ones that are called Producers, Don't Worry Be Happy, Salsa, Black Velvet, Swing, Hip Hop, Cell Block, Tap and Finale. And Nightswimming and tap are the pieces that I choreographed)

Talk to you soon,

B.

Al Campbell

I pulled a modified Al Campbell last night.

Al was my gramps. He was a big fan of "Canadian Tire, Wire, and Rope". He used to go by and take stock of the inventory on a weekly basis. When he retired, I think it was daily. He could spend a good two hours wandering around, checking things out.

Last night, I visited Home Depot. I don't need anything from there. I wasn't intending to buy. But I was looking for inspiration. I spent about an hour and a half wandering around the Home Depot, imagining all the fun things I could build and incorporate into the new house. And I didn't even really stop at the paint section other than to learn about waterproofing the deck. I could have easily spent another good 45 minutes if I'd hung out around paint section.

Here's where I spent most of my time:
- plywood: I'm thinking of retopping my ikea tables to make them desks
- tile: the kitchen needs some new tile. I was hoping that they'd have our tile so that I would know that we could replace a few without having to tear it all out
- wainscotting: I was thinking about fashioning a headboard out of some mdf wainscotting
- lighting: our place needs a lot of lighting
- metal framing: there's a cool bookshelf I saw made out of metal house framing
- styrofoam: HD sells big pieces of styrofoam, cheaper than the cake store, that I could use as cake bases.

It was such a fun night!!!!!

Talk to you soon,

B.

A Couple of House Pictures

Hi!

The house inspector walked through the house with us yesterday. It's in pretty good shape. There are a few minor things that he recommends we take care of for prevention but nothing immediate. For example, staining the deck (but what colour?!?!).

I took a lot of pictures (!) and have moved a few them to a Yahoo album.

Check it out! (Click Here)


Here's my favorite. It's our front door --



The party starts in September!

Talk to you soon,

B

So much news!

I've had an extremely exciting day!

It can all be summed up by saying "While I was being interviewed for a documentary on PushPull, our real estate agent called to say that the offer was accepted and now we're home owners!"

Let's just start with the fact that the show was a success. The Globe and Mail article and the clip about us on CBC Metro Morning brought in a lot of new audience members. And a fair amount of press. My friend's dad, who's a filmaker, playright, conductor, director, and professor saw the show on the weekend and was so excited by it that he wanted to film a documentary about us. So, he shot 2 of the shows and has been travelling all around today talking to a few of the performers and board members (of which I am one). So he came to my lab today to ask me a few questions about my involvement in the show and with the company. As usual with me, I feel like I have a hundred stories I could tell him. I think my best moment in the footage was when I cited Alvin Ailey as an influence. I think my worst moment in the footage was when I also admitted to being influenced by Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul. Yep - that was dumb!

So, in other news - we own a house! Actually, our conditional offer was accepted. It's this crazy cool 3 story modern concrete home in Riverdale. The mls number is E922408 if you want to check it out. We'll get the house inspection tomorrow and everything should be good to go. The closing date is September 1.

Ok, gotta go!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Here it is!

Hi!

I'm extremely and terribly excited. It was opening night last night and we were recieved by an extremely warm audience. We also had this article written about us in The Globe-

Tickets are still available for the Sunday matinee!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Even more in the News

Hey,

Check out this page:
http://www.scenechanges.com/previews.htm

They make mention of our show coming up. It's alphabetical, so you have to go pretty far down the page to get to "Unspoken Conversations" -- but we're there!

And we'll be in the Globe and Mail on Friday. If it's online, I'll link to it.

Talk to you soon,

B.

More in the News

PushPull's going to be in the news!

The Globe and Mail is going to do an interview on our quirky bunch of "Dancing Professionals - not Professional Dancers". I was hoping to be part of the interview but the only time the writer can meet with us is Saturday at 3 and I'm going to be right in the middle of "Hair" (this season's big Canstage production).

But it sounds like Kel and I will be credited with founding it and we'll get our photo in the story!

I'll link to it when it gets published, if I can!

Talk to you soon,

B.

Leaders in Industry

My company won an award! Check it out;

http://www.biotecanada.ca/EN/news-May2606.html

Talk to you soon,

B.

Is it the air or is it me?

It's really hot and humid in Toronto these days. The air is definitely heavy but I think the pressure I'm feeling isn't from the weather. It's crunch time and I'm getting really tense. I'm not sleeping well and I'm having trouble keeping focus.

I thnk mostly it's pre-show nerves. We open in 9 days. The show looks kinda crappy right now (as it always does until opening night). I need to rehearse. I need to finish the costumes. I need my dancers to dance better. And I have very very little time left. And my employee evaluation is next week at work.

I think running around on the Ultimate field tomorrow is gonna be good for me.

Becky

House Hunt

Rob and I are house hunting. We've been at it about a month now. I know that seems like not such a long time but it feels like forever. We've seen about 45 houses .. and have only seen one that we both really liked (our offer fell $20k too short but I hear this is typical of the first offer). I thought house shopping would be easy -- there are so many to love! Kind of like shoes .. they're all great! But alas, it's not really like that. I've been finding it a very exhausting search. I think we're wiser now though. We have a feeling for what we're looking for so we see fewer places because we've narrowed the criteria.

Just for fun, you can check out some of the ones we've been looking at by going to www.mls.ca and entering these mls numbers in the search window:

C904669
C880075
C868222
E913042
E910005
E910254
W910215
W871950
W898174

Talk to you soon,

B.