10/29/07
Jammer Fan
I'm like a teenage girl. I was in Toronto last week for some events, and while I was at a prize event at - ahem - the Gladstone Hotel, I turned around and who was standing right beside me, playing with his umbrella? One of the Food Jammers guys. But dagnabbit it was during the speeches so I couldn't introduce myself, and he disappeared soon after. Rats. That's my brush with fame for the year.
10/26/07
Falltime.
I can't come up with a title. My brain is zapped.
My work schedule is completely bananas right now so I don't even know why I'm doing this - if I'm near a computer I ought to be working but whatever. I have events coming up - big events - November 12,14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 and December 5-7, 11, 12, and 13. I just finished events Sept 30 - Oct 4, Oct. 16, 17, 19, and 23. Can you believe that schedule? It's totally nuts but I'm not allowed to complain.
Things are super busy at home too. Fall is a nice time, but man is it a lot of work. Seriously it's the time of year when we should just hire a live-in helper to do manual labour around the house. We got a big load of firewood the other day that needs to be sorted, split, and stacked in the shed. We bought a car (a Vibe. I love it.), and need to sell the old one. I have a box full of bulbs that need to go into the ground this weekend. And on top of everything, we've been experimenting in the kitchen AND having wildlife issues - yet again.
My kitchen experimentation has taken on a whole new level. I have now, thanks in large part to the Kingsolver family's excellent book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , and the totally fun New England Cheesemaking Supply , been experimenting with making my own cheese. Turns out it's not that tough. But that's not where the story begins.
We had a really great apple harvest this year. So great, that one day when a copy of ReadyMade magazine came in the mail and included a recipe for homemade apple cider, we had the brainwave "why don't we make cider!?" It wasn't really a question though. We filled the downstairs fridge with apples, we had pillowcases full of apples in the doorways, bowls of apples on the counter, rows of apples lined up on our deck railings and picnic table, and half-eaten apples scattered all over our lawn.
My little brother (not so little actually, but younger), who is very much mechanically inclined and gifted, decided to make me an apple cider press for my birthday, which is September 4. He made this heavy-duty press out of carbon steel and a bottle jack, and the design was pretty great. It had a box with a spout, and my mom made us some hemp press bags to go along with it. But I had to core and grind the apples first, which was hugely messy and took a long time and gave me fingers so sore I couldn't use my fingertips for a few days. When we got the ground apples into the press box, we found we couldn't squeeze them hard enough for all the juice to come out, that the juice actually ended up going over the top and soaking back in.
After many permutations, a few jacks, and a lot of swearing, we finally resorted to the following method: throw the apple chunks into the juicer. When the juicer has had enough, put the apple juice into the press bag and squeeze it through into the bucket. Then scrape out the leftover apple from the juicer, put it into a press bag, and press the shit out of it by hand. This method was both very effective and gave my husband nice biceps.
We got 12 litres of juice and stopped there, because that is the size of the carboy we bought, plus our hands were stained dark brown. And also because I had to cook a 19lb turkey for four people later that day. We'd gone to the winemaking supply place and gotten all kinds of little bottles of chemically powders and things, followed the winemaker's recipe (the readymade one proved too small-scale and unreliable), and now, two weeks later, we have a 12 litre carboy of beautiful cider bubbling away in our back room, which we check every 5 minutes and treat like a pet.
But what to do with the press? I had, in the meantime, been reading about the Kingsolvers' adventures in homemade food, and decided to check out the cheesemaking supply place after reading that they make their own mozzarella and it only takes 30 minutes. What a fun site. If I'd had fun with the cider chemicals, cheesemaking is a whole new kind of science, and we eat a lot of mozzarella - we are big into homemade pizzas. I ordered the kit and was like a kid at Christmas when it came in the mail. I watched the video twice. I will watch it again.
My first mozza was extremely tasty, but a bit soft. Hubby used it on a pizza while I was away for work for a week, and enjoyed it quite a bit. The next mozza was larger (a full recipe) and still a bit soft for my liking, needs more salt, and I didn't like the taste as much which I think is due to using a different brand of milk. The experiments continue, and now I'm about to start thinking about Farmhouse Cheddar, which I have to get on before Christmas. I get to make a whole new order from the cheesemaking supply, which is great since our dollar is currently so high. So the press will now transition from being a cider press to being a cheese press, and I have bought the accoutrements to make that happen in the near future.
We've also had squirrel troubles, which seem to have solved themselves. Er. Let's just say that nobody wants a black squirrel IN the house. It's bad enough to have squirrels in the attic and near your wires, but to come home and find your living room ransacked is another thing. Seriously - the little creep crushed my beloved banana plant! It's over four feet tall! Thankfully it's bouncing back, but I can't say the same for the antique teacups and old salvaged bottle collection, a few of which met their maker. He smashed plant pots, and left chewed up apple all over the place. He shat in my thanksgiving roasting pan, chewed the lip off of my flour pail, chewed the mesh of my flour seive, and tried to chew through the frame of the basement window.
My husband bought one of those Have-A-Heart critter traps, which trap the creature alive so you can release it back into the wild somewhere far away. We had intentions of doing this, and hubby was even concerned that perhaps he wouldn't have a chance to build an adequate nest and food stash before winter. We baited the trap with apples and peanut butter and went off to work. I then made the mistake of calling my mom and asking them to go and check the trap later in the day. At about 3 p.m. I received the following phone call:
"Hi there." (it's my mom, we need no introductions)
"Hi?"
"Dad caught a squirrel."
"Oh yeah?"
"a BLACK squirrel!"
"a BLACK SQUIRREL??? No shit!" (we are rural - black squirrels are kind of urban.)
"Yeah."
"What did he do?"
"He got rid of him."
"like how."
"Um, he shot him."
"He what?"
"He shot him. He took the cage outside and shot him."
"Point blank?"
"Yep."
"Holy shit. Where's the body?"
"He disposed of it."
"How?"
"I don't know. He disposed of it."
My parents are fantastic. My dad is kind of a redneck and my mom's pretty urbane, and together they are like a rollicking vaudeville routine. I love them so much. But that squirrel ran into the wrong family member. I'm so glad we spent the money on a HAVE-A-HEART trap. Just don't tell PETA. Also don't tell my neighbors or my garbage man because as it turns out 'disposing' of it, according to my dad, means driving it down the road and sticking it in someone else's garbage can. Disgusting, I know. Don't judge me.
So it's a madhouse, as usual. I don't honestly know how kids will ever fit into this mix.
My work schedule is completely bananas right now so I don't even know why I'm doing this - if I'm near a computer I ought to be working but whatever. I have events coming up - big events - November 12,14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 and December 5-7, 11, 12, and 13. I just finished events Sept 30 - Oct 4, Oct. 16, 17, 19, and 23. Can you believe that schedule? It's totally nuts but I'm not allowed to complain.
Things are super busy at home too. Fall is a nice time, but man is it a lot of work. Seriously it's the time of year when we should just hire a live-in helper to do manual labour around the house. We got a big load of firewood the other day that needs to be sorted, split, and stacked in the shed. We bought a car (a Vibe. I love it.), and need to sell the old one. I have a box full of bulbs that need to go into the ground this weekend. And on top of everything, we've been experimenting in the kitchen AND having wildlife issues - yet again.
My kitchen experimentation has taken on a whole new level. I have now, thanks in large part to the Kingsolver family's excellent book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle , and the totally fun New England Cheesemaking Supply , been experimenting with making my own cheese. Turns out it's not that tough. But that's not where the story begins.
We had a really great apple harvest this year. So great, that one day when a copy of ReadyMade magazine came in the mail and included a recipe for homemade apple cider, we had the brainwave "why don't we make cider!?" It wasn't really a question though. We filled the downstairs fridge with apples, we had pillowcases full of apples in the doorways, bowls of apples on the counter, rows of apples lined up on our deck railings and picnic table, and half-eaten apples scattered all over our lawn.
My little brother (not so little actually, but younger), who is very much mechanically inclined and gifted, decided to make me an apple cider press for my birthday, which is September 4. He made this heavy-duty press out of carbon steel and a bottle jack, and the design was pretty great. It had a box with a spout, and my mom made us some hemp press bags to go along with it. But I had to core and grind the apples first, which was hugely messy and took a long time and gave me fingers so sore I couldn't use my fingertips for a few days. When we got the ground apples into the press box, we found we couldn't squeeze them hard enough for all the juice to come out, that the juice actually ended up going over the top and soaking back in.
After many permutations, a few jacks, and a lot of swearing, we finally resorted to the following method: throw the apple chunks into the juicer. When the juicer has had enough, put the apple juice into the press bag and squeeze it through into the bucket. Then scrape out the leftover apple from the juicer, put it into a press bag, and press the shit out of it by hand. This method was both very effective and gave my husband nice biceps.
We got 12 litres of juice and stopped there, because that is the size of the carboy we bought, plus our hands were stained dark brown. And also because I had to cook a 19lb turkey for four people later that day. We'd gone to the winemaking supply place and gotten all kinds of little bottles of chemically powders and things, followed the winemaker's recipe (the readymade one proved too small-scale and unreliable), and now, two weeks later, we have a 12 litre carboy of beautiful cider bubbling away in our back room, which we check every 5 minutes and treat like a pet.
But what to do with the press? I had, in the meantime, been reading about the Kingsolvers' adventures in homemade food, and decided to check out the cheesemaking supply place after reading that they make their own mozzarella and it only takes 30 minutes. What a fun site. If I'd had fun with the cider chemicals, cheesemaking is a whole new kind of science, and we eat a lot of mozzarella - we are big into homemade pizzas. I ordered the kit and was like a kid at Christmas when it came in the mail. I watched the video twice. I will watch it again.
My first mozza was extremely tasty, but a bit soft. Hubby used it on a pizza while I was away for work for a week, and enjoyed it quite a bit. The next mozza was larger (a full recipe) and still a bit soft for my liking, needs more salt, and I didn't like the taste as much which I think is due to using a different brand of milk. The experiments continue, and now I'm about to start thinking about Farmhouse Cheddar, which I have to get on before Christmas. I get to make a whole new order from the cheesemaking supply, which is great since our dollar is currently so high. So the press will now transition from being a cider press to being a cheese press, and I have bought the accoutrements to make that happen in the near future.
We've also had squirrel troubles, which seem to have solved themselves. Er. Let's just say that nobody wants a black squirrel IN the house. It's bad enough to have squirrels in the attic and near your wires, but to come home and find your living room ransacked is another thing. Seriously - the little creep crushed my beloved banana plant! It's over four feet tall! Thankfully it's bouncing back, but I can't say the same for the antique teacups and old salvaged bottle collection, a few of which met their maker. He smashed plant pots, and left chewed up apple all over the place. He shat in my thanksgiving roasting pan, chewed the lip off of my flour pail, chewed the mesh of my flour seive, and tried to chew through the frame of the basement window.
My husband bought one of those Have-A-Heart critter traps, which trap the creature alive so you can release it back into the wild somewhere far away. We had intentions of doing this, and hubby was even concerned that perhaps he wouldn't have a chance to build an adequate nest and food stash before winter. We baited the trap with apples and peanut butter and went off to work. I then made the mistake of calling my mom and asking them to go and check the trap later in the day. At about 3 p.m. I received the following phone call:
"Hi there." (it's my mom, we need no introductions)
"Hi?"
"Dad caught a squirrel."
"Oh yeah?"
"a BLACK squirrel!"
"a BLACK SQUIRREL??? No shit!" (we are rural - black squirrels are kind of urban.)
"Yeah."
"What did he do?"
"He got rid of him."
"like how."
"Um, he shot him."
"He what?"
"He shot him. He took the cage outside and shot him."
"Point blank?"
"Yep."
"Holy shit. Where's the body?"
"He disposed of it."
"How?"
"I don't know. He disposed of it."
My parents are fantastic. My dad is kind of a redneck and my mom's pretty urbane, and together they are like a rollicking vaudeville routine. I love them so much. But that squirrel ran into the wrong family member. I'm so glad we spent the money on a HAVE-A-HEART trap. Just don't tell PETA. Also don't tell my neighbors or my garbage man because as it turns out 'disposing' of it, according to my dad, means driving it down the road and sticking it in someone else's garbage can. Disgusting, I know. Don't judge me.
So it's a madhouse, as usual. I don't honestly know how kids will ever fit into this mix.
8/28/07
Is This Considered An Advertisement?
This is the best thing on television: Behold, FOOD JAMMERS.
It almost makes me wish I lived in Toronto. I would hang around the 'warehouse' wherever it is and wait for the delicious treats. Maybe they need a girl in the cast. It's right up my alley.
In fact, we're chewing on ideas for how to make cider at home, and last night I was thrilled to turn on the tv and see an episode called "I'm So Ex-Cidered". Their elaborate rig was much more than what I'll be doing at home (which basically involves old countertop and C-clamps) but still, it was inspiring, and hubby took notes.
I heart the Food Jammers. They're my new best friends and they don't even know it.
That show follows "Ace of Cakes" which is pretty cool as well, but somehow makes me never want to eat cake again.
It almost makes me wish I lived in Toronto. I would hang around the 'warehouse' wherever it is and wait for the delicious treats. Maybe they need a girl in the cast. It's right up my alley.
In fact, we're chewing on ideas for how to make cider at home, and last night I was thrilled to turn on the tv and see an episode called "I'm So Ex-Cidered". Their elaborate rig was much more than what I'll be doing at home (which basically involves old countertop and C-clamps) but still, it was inspiring, and hubby took notes.
I heart the Food Jammers. They're my new best friends and they don't even know it.
That show follows "Ace of Cakes" which is pretty cool as well, but somehow makes me never want to eat cake again.
8/22/07
The Pollination Association
The other day a work colleague of mine told me all about her new adventures in bee-keeping. She knew I'd be interested; anything vaguely animal-or-nature-related is right up my alley, and especially when they intersect with food production and Do-It-Yourselfism. I just made that up. Did I just make that up?
Anyway, it got me to thinking. I don't think I'm quite prepared, time-wise or financially, to devote myself to bee-keeping, though I do believe it's in my future somewhere. I started to think about the ecology of my yard, and about who's doing all the work in it. I have a lot of bumblebees. Since my entire perennial garden is overtaken by oregano each year, and it blooms at about this time, the garden is currently one giant buzzing engine of pollination and productivity. Incidentally, I'll bet that oregano honey is marvellous. In the spring, when the apple trees are in bloom, the buzzing comes from overhead and I used to find it disconcerting but not anymore. Those bees are too busy to notice me.
Though I don't really think I need to encourage the bees any further, since they actually seem to have colonized my yard without any effort, I came across designs on the internet for bee houses. It came about through my research into where exactly bumblebees nest, what the nests look like and whether or not they produce honey. I didn't get any great answers to the first questions -- though the nests do tend to look gross, like bubbling wax or lava, on the inside -- I did learn that bumblebees don't produce much honey, only enough to feed their young.
At any rate, I looked up the designs for bee houses, so I can observe their lifecycle sometime in the future. I'm not inclined to buy bumblebees, since I have so many already, but they say that if you put the houses out in the spring, they'll find them themselves, since they spend a good chunk of time searching for an appropriate nest at the beginning of the season. I doodled this design in PaintBrush: 
I read that bumblebees seem to prefer mauve and yellow, so I will paint the area around the entry pipe in a mauve and yellow flower-pattern. This also gets a hinged lid/roof, which will overhang a bit. The pink stuff is fibreglass insulation. And how civilized are they? The first room is a 'vestibule', which they use as a washroom so they don't have to poo in the nest. I know humans dirtier than that.
I read that bumblebees seem to prefer mauve and yellow, so I will paint the area around the entry pipe in a mauve and yellow flower-pattern. This also gets a hinged lid/roof, which will overhang a bit. The pink stuff is fibreglass insulation. And how civilized are they? The first room is a 'vestibule', which they use as a washroom so they don't have to poo in the nest. I know humans dirtier than that.
So over the winter I'm going to make a few of these and stick them all around the property. I'll see what happens - I'm almost happy with whatever decides to use them, unless they're earwigs.
On the more complex side, Lee Valley tools has a pattern for making bat houses. Bats are such terrific little creatures: they pollinate certain plants, but mostly they're an awesome form of mosquito control. If we sit out on the deck at night we can feel/see/hear them flapping by overhead, protecting us from our buggy scourge. Bat houses aren't simple to make - they are governed by some strict rules - and they have to be placed in tricky spots away from busy areas. I'm thinking mine would have to be up in a tree somewhere. Bats are shy. But I think it would be neat to provide homes for them and encourage them to stick around. Maybe if the winter's really long and dull I'll get to that.
My colleague has promised me a field trip to her friend's hives. She's got two, apparently, and produces a LOT of honey out of them. It seems that one could become overwhelmed by the quantity of honey produced, especially if you're not inclined to eat it often. But honey is a great, natural, organic and ecologically-sound sugar substitute - I even read that it can be used to sweeten cider - so it might be worth it to anyone interested in the 100 mile diet-type food sourcing ethos, as I am. How great would it be to get all your sugar from the back yard? Pair that with maple syrup, which my brother's friends make, for a bit of variety and all your sweetening needs can be covered within 10 miles.
I look forward to seeing what's involved in the hives, and whether or not it would be do-able to have just one in my back yard. We're trying to create a small orchard area in the back, as I planted a cherry tree this past spring which looks nice and healthy, and next year I think it'll be a plum tree, to replace the sickly one in the front yard. Stick a bee hive under those and away we go. She told me that it needs attention every two weeks, and that sounds like a maintenance plan that even I could stick with, especially since it's only for half the year.
Back to cider: I think we're going to try to tackle cider this year. We have two varieties of apple growing in the yard, and more scattered around the neighborhood (the area used to be an orchard, many many years ago). The ones in the yard are pretty cultivated, not crab-appley or wormy at all. I have MacIntoshes but also another kind, which are huge and juicy but oh-so-tart. I figure a mix of these two will suffice, with maybe some sour wild ones thrown in, but my big question is whether or not I can extract the juice using an electric juicer. I don't really feel like building a press, especially since I don't have all that much time this fall. The apples are almost ready to pick so it's going to become an issue soon, and I need an answer. Then I need to go to the wine making place and get a carboy, and an airlock, and then I need to source some old Grolsch bottles that I can clean up and use for bottling. I think there's a closet in the basement with "Cider-Factory" written all over it. We're going to make hard cider (duh) and carbonate it so it'll be nice and fizzy and ready to drink by Thanksgiving or Christmas. I can't think of what else to do with my apples, I really have too many each year, and I never have the energy to make more than one or two pies. I think I still have apple juice in the freezer from last year. God it's such a mess.
So stay tuned for food-production tales. In the meantime, here's a story I wrote a few years ago for YouGrowGirl on my home-canning adventures.
8/16/07
Evaluation (with photos!)
I decided that today would be the day that I finally got around to using the nifty little USB drive thingie that I got for free from the Quebec City Tourism people to put my photos onto this here blog. I've been saving up.
And now some of these photos are making me sad. I went into the garden last night and realized that I might have some more problems again this year - on close inspection, I do believe that once again, the earwigs have gotten into my peppers. Also, they are selling sweet corn everywhere along the highways of this province and others, and yet my corn has tufts but nothing else. No hint of a cob anywhere. I have one pumpkin, and that's all I think I'm going to get from my 5 vines. I have one cayenne pepper, because the beans overtook the little wee homegrown plants, and the beans are dunzo. The romaine lettuce went bitter so I've let it go to seed, and the cilantro's finally completely done and gone to seed as well. I ripped out all the potatoes I could find, which weren't many because I didn't plant them correctly this year. The garlic's done, and I don't have a bumper crop of tomatoes - of the ones I've got, none of them have started to ripen yet.
Anyway, it's not all doom and gloom, behold the photographs:
I am so proud of this garlic it's sick. And I can't wait to plant three times as much in fall, for next year. What a satisfying thing to grow! And here I thought I wasn't able - this year turned everything around, perhaps because I bought good quality seed garlic from Vesey's.
And now some of these photos are making me sad. I went into the garden last night and realized that I might have some more problems again this year - on close inspection, I do believe that once again, the earwigs have gotten into my peppers. Also, they are selling sweet corn everywhere along the highways of this province and others, and yet my corn has tufts but nothing else. No hint of a cob anywhere. I have one pumpkin, and that's all I think I'm going to get from my 5 vines. I have one cayenne pepper, because the beans overtook the little wee homegrown plants, and the beans are dunzo. The romaine lettuce went bitter so I've let it go to seed, and the cilantro's finally completely done and gone to seed as well. I ripped out all the potatoes I could find, which weren't many because I didn't plant them correctly this year. The garlic's done, and I don't have a bumper crop of tomatoes - of the ones I've got, none of them have started to ripen yet.
Anyway, it's not all doom and gloom, behold the photographs:
I am so proud of this garlic it's sick. And I can't wait to plant three times as much in fall, for next year. What a satisfying thing to grow! And here I thought I wasn't able - this year turned everything around, perhaps because I bought good quality seed garlic from Vesey's.
This is one side of the garden about a month ago. The big dirty bare patch is where the garlic and cilantro used to live, but have since been ripped out. I'm taking suggestions as to what to plant there for fall: spinach? Definitely more garlic, for next year.
My darling peppers, pre-earwig. How on earth can I (naturally) repel these disgusting little terrors? Do you want to know the grossest thing? I eat the peppers anyway. I wash them all out first and cut off the bad bits, but I don't waste a thing dammit.
I think this was actually last year. Yeah, looks too tidy to have been this year. Anyway, this was obviously early June, because of the peonies, but it's my front hill garden in its full messy glory.
I took this one the other morning. I had ONE mutant giant blue morning glory. That's no miracle of perspective - the other ones in the photo are normal size.
Aside from all the rotten garden news, I do have a few successes to report. My turnips are adorable and yummy, though I do have to pull them all out soon. My kale is doing well, despite the slugs on the lower leaves, which I just remove anyway. I did get a hell of a lot of cilantro and garlic and basil, and there's still a good lot of basil that I grew from seed. My one pumpkin is lovely, and I will still get some good tomatoes. I've been eating cherry tomatoes, 2 a day, every day for a few weeks now, so I guess I can count that a success too. I may still get corn, some decent peppers, and one eggplant. I may also get a couple of cucumbers, despite the cucumber beetles I keep finding.
At this rate, I won't be self-sufficient for a very long time.
So here's what I have to do differently next year:
- Fertilize with more compost. I didn't turn anything into my dirt this year and it shows.
- Try rows, instead of this over-abundant free-flowing design which only seems to encourage bugs and slugs. Since the stick ornament may be on its last legs this year (it falls apart if I so much as breathe on it), I can gut the garden in fall and re-design it.
- Mulch with straw.
- Grow more than one ground cherry, eggplant, cherry tomato, and thai basil plant.
- Plant my potatoes properly, and use real seed potatoes.
- Use floating row covers or something right off the bat to protect against cucumber beetles.
- Pay more attention to why my pumpkins are falling off at 1 inch big, and remedy it.
- Harvest beans more regularly. Move back to the purple bush beans.
- Contain the mint.
- Contain the cilantro.
- Grow more spinach.
- Don't let the lettuce get bitter. Why did I do that? I like salads.
- Let the strawberries flourish and spread.
- Put more bug-repelling ornamentals in the garden.
- Pay attention to what's going to shade what when it all grows up.
- Don't try to grow so many weird and exotic things that I don't know what to do with.
- Plant in mounds/raised rows.
- Use landscape fabric to keep the weeds out.
- Put flagstones in the entrance.
Every year is a learning experience. One of these years I'm going to get it right.
8/13/07
The Lumber Yard and Wilderness Tails
Well, didn't I have to go and perform more minor surgery on my arm this weekend.
The splinter I got a week ago was still greenish and festering in my arm, and I figured it had gone on just a bit too long. Finally, I cleaned it all out, sterilized a pin, and pulled out the cause of the problem. And didn't I have a 2 x 4 in my arm. OK maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was definitely kindling-worthy chunk of wood. Now that it's gone, I'm healing nicely.
On Saturday we had one of those idyllic summer days at the beach with friends. We got there on the late side of the proposed meeting time, and were the first ones there. A half hour later, up paddles another friend, one that we in error hadn't thought to invite, with his two kids. Then the others started to trickle in, and the entire day was spent as follows: heat up on the sand, then cool down in the water (repeat as needed). We ate, we drank, we floated, we tanned, and at the end of it all, as the sun went down, we all retired back to our place and ordered delicious local gourmet-type pizza and watched for meteors (we saw a spectacular one). By 11:30 everyone was gone home and the house was cleaner than it had been that morning. A perfect day.
Yesterday was hot. We did small around-the-house things. Then last night we had mouse adventures: I heard one chewing at the wall in the kitchen, behind an electrical outlet. We have mice in that spot constantly, and only in that spot, and they all seem to have the same goal in mind: chew through the drywall and get onto the counter. Did they all read the same memo? How many mice are in the house anyway? I don't have a problem with it because I've got to re-tile the kitchen anyway, and then the problem will be solved, but it's a bit irritating and gross if they eventually make it out onto the counter. I called hubby, because he is the mouse whisperer, and enjoys catching them by the tail and putting them outside alive. One night last summer he caught two after I went to bed, and dashed upstairs for show and tell. I had no idea what he was doing, so when he showed up in the bedroom with a wriggling paper bag and said "WANNA SEE WHAT I'VE GOT????" I wasn't really prepared for the two-mouse midnight experience.
This particular one, however, must have snuck some grounds out of the coffee maker, because not only was he chewing so voraciously that I heard it in the living room, but he made a speedy break for it, running under the fridge, the microwave cart, the counters, and eluded hubby. All of a sudden the cat had a mouse in the living room. We got it away from her, but it took off to the back of the house. Behind the computer it went. Then into the bathroom. Then up into the bathroom vanity. Then into the inner bathroom. Then out and into the t.v. room. I got wise and stood in the door of the t.v. room shaking a blanket so it wouldn't get out, and hubby chased it around and around the room, like, six times. It was seriously adorable, like a little wind-up toy, and hubby broke a sweat. It had the upper hand for sure. Finally it got onto the window frame, where it was trapped, and hubby picked it up by the tail, all wriggly and cute, and put it outside near the shed.
But this morning when we got up, there was a dead mouse on the living room floor. The same one? Were there two? I think there was a kitchen mouse and a living room mouse, and the kitchen mouse bit the biscuit. Neither of the cats claimed responsibility, but they both looked pretty self-satisfied this morning.
In other news, on Friday night I finally went to investigate the tree from which we heard intense screaming nearly a week before. I had been looking for the cat late at night, and apparently set this creature off, scaring it pretty bad. I located the sound just across the street from us and up a tree. When hubby went crashing through the forest with his flashlight to investigate and see if any of our cats were in trouble (Sasha was still out) it got hysterical and screamed and screamed. When we all went back onto our deck, it continued to whimper for about an hour (Sasha had, in the meantime, wandered innocently onto the deck and been put inside). Shining the flashlight upwards produced no glowing eyes, and it had pretty strong vocal cords, so when my cousin went "it almost sounds like a scared baby bear, calling for its mother", I hollered at my dear husband to exit the woods, stat. It did indeed sound like a scared baby animal crying, with good solid vocal cords, from up a tree. While on the deck we listened for momma's rescue, and we did hear crunching gravel on the road between us and the tree. Anyway, Friday evening in the daylight I went to check it out, and sure enough, among the stand of hardwood from whence the crying came, there was one tree with little climbing claw marks all up it, about one week old. Sharp claw marks. With an apple tree at its base. When we looked in the nature book we learned that bears are born in January/February, but perhaps this one was still small enough to be up a tree of about 8-9 inches in diametre. Anyway, it was sobering. So now I have new worries: momma bears in my yard, and eastern cougars in the 'hood. Do big cats eat little cats? I'm sure a bear would freak a little cat out. Add that to my list of menacing wildlife in my immediate vicinity (wolves, coyotes, fishers, bears, cougars, oh my).
Sometimes living in the country puts you face to face with just a bit too much life. At least it's never dull.
The splinter I got a week ago was still greenish and festering in my arm, and I figured it had gone on just a bit too long. Finally, I cleaned it all out, sterilized a pin, and pulled out the cause of the problem. And didn't I have a 2 x 4 in my arm. OK maybe that's an exaggeration, but it was definitely kindling-worthy chunk of wood. Now that it's gone, I'm healing nicely.
On Saturday we had one of those idyllic summer days at the beach with friends. We got there on the late side of the proposed meeting time, and were the first ones there. A half hour later, up paddles another friend, one that we in error hadn't thought to invite, with his two kids. Then the others started to trickle in, and the entire day was spent as follows: heat up on the sand, then cool down in the water (repeat as needed). We ate, we drank, we floated, we tanned, and at the end of it all, as the sun went down, we all retired back to our place and ordered delicious local gourmet-type pizza and watched for meteors (we saw a spectacular one). By 11:30 everyone was gone home and the house was cleaner than it had been that morning. A perfect day.
Yesterday was hot. We did small around-the-house things. Then last night we had mouse adventures: I heard one chewing at the wall in the kitchen, behind an electrical outlet. We have mice in that spot constantly, and only in that spot, and they all seem to have the same goal in mind: chew through the drywall and get onto the counter. Did they all read the same memo? How many mice are in the house anyway? I don't have a problem with it because I've got to re-tile the kitchen anyway, and then the problem will be solved, but it's a bit irritating and gross if they eventually make it out onto the counter. I called hubby, because he is the mouse whisperer, and enjoys catching them by the tail and putting them outside alive. One night last summer he caught two after I went to bed, and dashed upstairs for show and tell. I had no idea what he was doing, so when he showed up in the bedroom with a wriggling paper bag and said "WANNA SEE WHAT I'VE GOT????" I wasn't really prepared for the two-mouse midnight experience.
This particular one, however, must have snuck some grounds out of the coffee maker, because not only was he chewing so voraciously that I heard it in the living room, but he made a speedy break for it, running under the fridge, the microwave cart, the counters, and eluded hubby. All of a sudden the cat had a mouse in the living room. We got it away from her, but it took off to the back of the house. Behind the computer it went. Then into the bathroom. Then up into the bathroom vanity. Then into the inner bathroom. Then out and into the t.v. room. I got wise and stood in the door of the t.v. room shaking a blanket so it wouldn't get out, and hubby chased it around and around the room, like, six times. It was seriously adorable, like a little wind-up toy, and hubby broke a sweat. It had the upper hand for sure. Finally it got onto the window frame, where it was trapped, and hubby picked it up by the tail, all wriggly and cute, and put it outside near the shed.
But this morning when we got up, there was a dead mouse on the living room floor. The same one? Were there two? I think there was a kitchen mouse and a living room mouse, and the kitchen mouse bit the biscuit. Neither of the cats claimed responsibility, but they both looked pretty self-satisfied this morning.
In other news, on Friday night I finally went to investigate the tree from which we heard intense screaming nearly a week before. I had been looking for the cat late at night, and apparently set this creature off, scaring it pretty bad. I located the sound just across the street from us and up a tree. When hubby went crashing through the forest with his flashlight to investigate and see if any of our cats were in trouble (Sasha was still out) it got hysterical and screamed and screamed. When we all went back onto our deck, it continued to whimper for about an hour (Sasha had, in the meantime, wandered innocently onto the deck and been put inside). Shining the flashlight upwards produced no glowing eyes, and it had pretty strong vocal cords, so when my cousin went "it almost sounds like a scared baby bear, calling for its mother", I hollered at my dear husband to exit the woods, stat. It did indeed sound like a scared baby animal crying, with good solid vocal cords, from up a tree. While on the deck we listened for momma's rescue, and we did hear crunching gravel on the road between us and the tree. Anyway, Friday evening in the daylight I went to check it out, and sure enough, among the stand of hardwood from whence the crying came, there was one tree with little climbing claw marks all up it, about one week old. Sharp claw marks. With an apple tree at its base. When we looked in the nature book we learned that bears are born in January/February, but perhaps this one was still small enough to be up a tree of about 8-9 inches in diametre. Anyway, it was sobering. So now I have new worries: momma bears in my yard, and eastern cougars in the 'hood. Do big cats eat little cats? I'm sure a bear would freak a little cat out. Add that to my list of menacing wildlife in my immediate vicinity (wolves, coyotes, fishers, bears, cougars, oh my).
Sometimes living in the country puts you face to face with just a bit too much life. At least it's never dull.
8/10/07
Batting a Thousand
I had the weirdest, most injurious week last week. I was off, on my last bit of vacation of the summer, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. One would think that all of that would add up to a great little holiday.
However, at the beginning of the week I was dealing with the effects of a strange medical thing. Somehow, I super-reacted to my low dose of Clomid, and developed many giant follicles/cysts on my ovaries, which led to visible bloating, pain and discomfort. Also I was thirsty and spin-heady. None of my clothes fit properly and I was grouchy, and also worried that any sexy time would lead to, like, quintuplets (ack!) so I was keeping my distance from hubby.
Monday and Tuesday, I was starting to ramp up the weirdness with a few crazy mis-haps. We were dog-sitting for my boss, whose 17-year-old terrier mutt came to live with us for the week. She was very sweet, a great houseguest. However, I guess we didn't hear her urgent little barks early Tuesday morning, because we woke up to little liquid and solid treats on our tile floor. No problem. With a sigh and some bleachy cleaner I rectified that as soon as I woke up. I believe she was apologetic, and I held no bad feelings.
But then as the week progressed I started doing really spazzy things. I went to make an espresso and didn't replace the espresso grounds, so ran it through with old grounds. Yuck.
I watered the garden with the sprinkler, left it on too long, and ran out of water for the rest of the day(we're on a well).
I stepped, barefoot, into one of the dog's little gifts in the long grass of our lawn. With my brother as witness. Har har.
My dad yanked a section of old chimney out of our concrete wall, and I was sitting on the ground and it fell squarely onto my leg. I now have a lovely large green bruise on my calf.
Then my mom came over and I made coffee, and forgot to pour the water into the coffee maker. The machine was not happy about that.
On Friday I was expecting my cousin's long-weekend visit, and was cleaning the bathroom. For some reason, I flushed a sock down the toilet. The toilet was not happy about that. I guess the sock probably isn't either, wherever it is.
I got a barn-board splinter inside my house, which is still greenish and festering in my arm, even after the minor surgery I performed to remove the largest piece.
On Saturday morning, as we were working on the siding, and right after I'd astutely proclaimed that stepping on a certain part of the deck was unsafe because of the way the boards had been replaced after a repair, I proceeded to step on that very spot and fall through the deck. Luckily I also fell backwards, so most of my body actually fell down a couple of stairs, and only my legs went through the deck. I thought for sure something was broken, but alas, only bruised and slightly scratched.
And then the coup de grâce - on Sunday we went boating on 31-mile Lake, north of our place, and as I went to spread gooey sunscreen on my arms I absent-mindedly pulled off my wedding rings. Stupid move. I tossed my engagement ring right overboard, off of a moving boat, into 100 feet of water. Gone. What a totally sick feeling. It wasn't enormously valuable in terms of money but had tremendous sentimental value to me, and I miss it a lot. I feel naked. I loved that ring, it was so me. Hopefully I can have a friend re-create it, thereby instilling the new one with its own meaning. (sniff)
Then we left my husband's glasses on my parents' boat, which stays up at the lake. Which is an hour away from our house.
Monday was a chilled-out day. Nothing went very wrong, except that my mom and I had to take 3 hours and a significant amount of gasoline to drive up and get the glasses (hubby could hardly see through his old ones), and almost didn't make it back in time for my boss to pick up her dog.
I tell you, I was almost happy to come back to work. Knock on wood, nothing has been overly weird since. My husband said "yeah I wasn't going to say anything but I wasn't so crazy about you driving last week." He was right to be worried; I was truly a danger unto myself.
We're getting ready for another weekend. Tomorrow is a beach day with a bunch of friends, and I am leaving my wedding ring at home and bringing band-aids.
However, at the beginning of the week I was dealing with the effects of a strange medical thing. Somehow, I super-reacted to my low dose of Clomid, and developed many giant follicles/cysts on my ovaries, which led to visible bloating, pain and discomfort. Also I was thirsty and spin-heady. None of my clothes fit properly and I was grouchy, and also worried that any sexy time would lead to, like, quintuplets (ack!) so I was keeping my distance from hubby.
Monday and Tuesday, I was starting to ramp up the weirdness with a few crazy mis-haps. We were dog-sitting for my boss, whose 17-year-old terrier mutt came to live with us for the week. She was very sweet, a great houseguest. However, I guess we didn't hear her urgent little barks early Tuesday morning, because we woke up to little liquid and solid treats on our tile floor. No problem. With a sigh and some bleachy cleaner I rectified that as soon as I woke up. I believe she was apologetic, and I held no bad feelings.
But then as the week progressed I started doing really spazzy things. I went to make an espresso and didn't replace the espresso grounds, so ran it through with old grounds. Yuck.
I watered the garden with the sprinkler, left it on too long, and ran out of water for the rest of the day(we're on a well).
I stepped, barefoot, into one of the dog's little gifts in the long grass of our lawn. With my brother as witness. Har har.
My dad yanked a section of old chimney out of our concrete wall, and I was sitting on the ground and it fell squarely onto my leg. I now have a lovely large green bruise on my calf.
Then my mom came over and I made coffee, and forgot to pour the water into the coffee maker. The machine was not happy about that.
On Friday I was expecting my cousin's long-weekend visit, and was cleaning the bathroom. For some reason, I flushed a sock down the toilet. The toilet was not happy about that. I guess the sock probably isn't either, wherever it is.
I got a barn-board splinter inside my house, which is still greenish and festering in my arm, even after the minor surgery I performed to remove the largest piece.
On Saturday morning, as we were working on the siding, and right after I'd astutely proclaimed that stepping on a certain part of the deck was unsafe because of the way the boards had been replaced after a repair, I proceeded to step on that very spot and fall through the deck. Luckily I also fell backwards, so most of my body actually fell down a couple of stairs, and only my legs went through the deck. I thought for sure something was broken, but alas, only bruised and slightly scratched.
And then the coup de grâce - on Sunday we went boating on 31-mile Lake, north of our place, and as I went to spread gooey sunscreen on my arms I absent-mindedly pulled off my wedding rings. Stupid move. I tossed my engagement ring right overboard, off of a moving boat, into 100 feet of water. Gone. What a totally sick feeling. It wasn't enormously valuable in terms of money but had tremendous sentimental value to me, and I miss it a lot. I feel naked. I loved that ring, it was so me. Hopefully I can have a friend re-create it, thereby instilling the new one with its own meaning. (sniff)
Then we left my husband's glasses on my parents' boat, which stays up at the lake. Which is an hour away from our house.
Monday was a chilled-out day. Nothing went very wrong, except that my mom and I had to take 3 hours and a significant amount of gasoline to drive up and get the glasses (hubby could hardly see through his old ones), and almost didn't make it back in time for my boss to pick up her dog.
I tell you, I was almost happy to come back to work. Knock on wood, nothing has been overly weird since. My husband said "yeah I wasn't going to say anything but I wasn't so crazy about you driving last week." He was right to be worried; I was truly a danger unto myself.
We're getting ready for another weekend. Tomorrow is a beach day with a bunch of friends, and I am leaving my wedding ring at home and bringing band-aids.
7/20/07
Fall Down Go Boom
Today I had to visit the physiotherapist's office, to take care of my 90-year-old hip. She's a very nice young woman named Stephanie and it's kind of fun to go there in a sciencey way, but it's about a 15 minute walk from work, and today it was pouring rain. Like pouring.
As I am a genius, I decided this morning that instead of getting my nice leather sandals all wet, I would wear my rubber flip-flops and bring the sandals along. Well there was commotion before we left the house; the cat insisted on going out and then just sat under the picnic table, and we had to get her back in because 12 hours under a picnic table is no fun for anyone. I had to remember my brother's birthday present, and put it in a bag because of the rain. I had to find a raincoat. Hubby went out the wrong door to bring out the compost so I had to bring both coffees and lock up. So long story long, I forgot my nice sandals completely and I've been stuck in my yucky, stinky, flattened, paint-spattered flip-flops all day and I'm bitter about it.
Flip-flops are terrible in the rain. Your feet slide all around in them, side to side, and it's difficult to walk with any dignity. All they do is offer a layer of protection from the dirty pavement. They're especially no fun in the lobby of my building on a rainy day, as the floors are a polished marble, and soaking wet. That near-disaster should have been my first warning.
Anyway, again long story very long, I was walking to the physiotherapist's office at lunch, hating every minute of it, bracing my umbrella against the wind and pelting rain, when I slipped IN MY SHOES and fell down right in the middle of the street. As I was crossing. A rather handsome stranger rushed up and said "are you alright?" and I was like "oh yeah, fine, thanks" feeling like a complete idiot. I got up, brushed the bits of crud off of my soaking wet jeans, and pretended to carry on as though I was just fine, even though my bare toes had been crunched against the pavement and I believed that I could have been bleeding from one or both of my knees. Thanks to my red toenail polish I thought perhaps I was bleeding, but turns out I just put the polish on in the bumpy car this morning and it was all over my toes. Ha ha everything's fine folks!
It was an interesting fall. Falling is interesting, period. It's like it happened in slow motion. If you could read my interior monologue, it would have sounded something like this:
"oh dear, I'm falling.
Shit, what now?
Oh man, I'm STILL falling!
I can't believe it!
Oops, ok, tried to break my fall. That didn't work.
OK I am apparently still falling.
Oh, ok, watch the umbrella. Don't let go. Don't break it.
Oh no my bag's getting wet!
Wow ok I'm on the pavement. Guess it's time to get up again."
Does my mind work faster than most? Slower? It seemed like I was falling for about 10 minutes. OK not really. I got to physio and took off my pants and my left knee was skinned, but not bleeding. I proceeded to get a bit of acupuncture, but since it was my first time I moved, and my leg muscles went all weird and it felt like I had the jimmy legs. When I walked out of there, I felt like I was dragging it behind me kind of. I was afraid I'd fall down again.
I got back to the office, soaking wet and freezing, and then proceeded to slap peanut-sauce-covered noodles all over my face. (sigh). TGIF. Shit did I ever wash my face?
As I am a genius, I decided this morning that instead of getting my nice leather sandals all wet, I would wear my rubber flip-flops and bring the sandals along. Well there was commotion before we left the house; the cat insisted on going out and then just sat under the picnic table, and we had to get her back in because 12 hours under a picnic table is no fun for anyone. I had to remember my brother's birthday present, and put it in a bag because of the rain. I had to find a raincoat. Hubby went out the wrong door to bring out the compost so I had to bring both coffees and lock up. So long story long, I forgot my nice sandals completely and I've been stuck in my yucky, stinky, flattened, paint-spattered flip-flops all day and I'm bitter about it.
Flip-flops are terrible in the rain. Your feet slide all around in them, side to side, and it's difficult to walk with any dignity. All they do is offer a layer of protection from the dirty pavement. They're especially no fun in the lobby of my building on a rainy day, as the floors are a polished marble, and soaking wet. That near-disaster should have been my first warning.
Anyway, again long story very long, I was walking to the physiotherapist's office at lunch, hating every minute of it, bracing my umbrella against the wind and pelting rain, when I slipped IN MY SHOES and fell down right in the middle of the street. As I was crossing. A rather handsome stranger rushed up and said "are you alright?" and I was like "oh yeah, fine, thanks" feeling like a complete idiot. I got up, brushed the bits of crud off of my soaking wet jeans, and pretended to carry on as though I was just fine, even though my bare toes had been crunched against the pavement and I believed that I could have been bleeding from one or both of my knees. Thanks to my red toenail polish I thought perhaps I was bleeding, but turns out I just put the polish on in the bumpy car this morning and it was all over my toes. Ha ha everything's fine folks!
It was an interesting fall. Falling is interesting, period. It's like it happened in slow motion. If you could read my interior monologue, it would have sounded something like this:
"oh dear, I'm falling.
Shit, what now?
Oh man, I'm STILL falling!
I can't believe it!
Oops, ok, tried to break my fall. That didn't work.
OK I am apparently still falling.
Oh, ok, watch the umbrella. Don't let go. Don't break it.
Oh no my bag's getting wet!
Wow ok I'm on the pavement. Guess it's time to get up again."
Does my mind work faster than most? Slower? It seemed like I was falling for about 10 minutes. OK not really. I got to physio and took off my pants and my left knee was skinned, but not bleeding. I proceeded to get a bit of acupuncture, but since it was my first time I moved, and my leg muscles went all weird and it felt like I had the jimmy legs. When I walked out of there, I felt like I was dragging it behind me kind of. I was afraid I'd fall down again.
I got back to the office, soaking wet and freezing, and then proceeded to slap peanut-sauce-covered noodles all over my face. (sigh). TGIF. Shit did I ever wash my face?
7/19/07
It's a Jungle out There
Wow has it ever been a rainy summer.
Last night I went out back to try to stain a few more boards, and as I went to the wood pile for some fresh ones, I noticed that everywhere I looked, in every frame, there were at least four or five slugs.
The slugs aren't so so bad just yet - they're about an inch or an inch and a half long, and while I have found a few in the veggie garden, so far the damage is minimal. But man are they gross. Have you ever tried to get slug slime off of your hands? It's nearly impossible! And seeing three or four of them feasting on a dead dandelion is one of the grossest things ever. I don't know why, they look like little turds or something, all slimy and brown and gluttonous. Blech.
And the grass is super long again, much to hubby's chagrin. For awhile it rained every day, and because we use a manual reel mower , it's really a mess to mow when it's wet. Now it's so long that it sees the mower coming and lies down. Poor hubby's had to hack at it with a scythe to get it tame enough to mow.
The flower garden is, on average, about 5 feet tall. I have cosmos this year that are approaching six feet before blooming. I don't know what that is - an abundance of nitrogen? - but it's kind of scary and where the cosmos were meant to be part of a nice planted pot, they're now more of a hedge. The apples will be huge this year, and we've collected nearly 5 lbs of black raspberries and a pound of red currants. All from the perennial garden.
The veggie garden's also doing well - the turnips are huge, and the pumpkins are blooming like crazy though there's not much fruiting going on. I have the dreaded cucumber beetle again. Next year I must buy proper seed potatoes, because the store-bought ones that I planted aren't blooming. There are tiny potatoes in the dirt, and I've unearthed one pretty big one (about 4" long), but the plants haven't bloomed and I was under the impression that harvest should only start once the plant has bloomed and started dying back. If I'm wrong, please let me know because I'm tempted to just eat all the little delicious marble-sized potatoes right away.
My grandmother gave me kale, for making boerenkool, and it has taken off. I was worried about deer, so I covered it in dog hair from a visiting Toulouse, but most of it has washed away. I've had no deer activity so far, thank god, and my kale harvest will be bountiful come September. My corn is about 2 feet tall, and I've been eating cherry tomatoes the last couple of days. The regular sized tomatoes haven't come yet. The beans are ready to pick, and I'm going to harvest them tonight for our cottage weekend (we're going away for a couple of days to Skootamatta lake, with a big gang of friends). The cilantro has all started to bloom, which is fine with me - I'll let it re-seed itself again this year, because it's really fun to have and really easy to pull out if it's a nuisance. My red peppers are coming along, but my cayennes are shrimpy this year. My romaine went bitter, I think. So far, my cucumbers are doing better than they were last summer, when the cucumber beetles got them from the get-go. I've been brutal about killing those little bastards, so maybe my efforts are finally paying off. And finally, the canna lilies are starting to unfurl their beautiful zebra-striped leaves, and I can't wait to see them towering over my garden.
Once I get a chance to get in there and clean things up, I will take some photos for sure.
And once the lawn is finally mowed, perhaps the yard will also be more presentable.
I finally learned the correct way to prune raspberry bushes. I think I had been confused about what it was that I'm growing for a number of years, but finally I figured it all out, and hopefully next year's batch won't be so painful to harvest but will still be equally bountiful. My arms are so scratched up I look like Courtney Love in 1994.
Last night I went out back to try to stain a few more boards, and as I went to the wood pile for some fresh ones, I noticed that everywhere I looked, in every frame, there were at least four or five slugs.
The slugs aren't so so bad just yet - they're about an inch or an inch and a half long, and while I have found a few in the veggie garden, so far the damage is minimal. But man are they gross. Have you ever tried to get slug slime off of your hands? It's nearly impossible! And seeing three or four of them feasting on a dead dandelion is one of the grossest things ever. I don't know why, they look like little turds or something, all slimy and brown and gluttonous. Blech.
And the grass is super long again, much to hubby's chagrin. For awhile it rained every day, and because we use a manual reel mower , it's really a mess to mow when it's wet. Now it's so long that it sees the mower coming and lies down. Poor hubby's had to hack at it with a scythe to get it tame enough to mow.
The flower garden is, on average, about 5 feet tall. I have cosmos this year that are approaching six feet before blooming. I don't know what that is - an abundance of nitrogen? - but it's kind of scary and where the cosmos were meant to be part of a nice planted pot, they're now more of a hedge. The apples will be huge this year, and we've collected nearly 5 lbs of black raspberries and a pound of red currants. All from the perennial garden.
The veggie garden's also doing well - the turnips are huge, and the pumpkins are blooming like crazy though there's not much fruiting going on. I have the dreaded cucumber beetle again. Next year I must buy proper seed potatoes, because the store-bought ones that I planted aren't blooming. There are tiny potatoes in the dirt, and I've unearthed one pretty big one (about 4" long), but the plants haven't bloomed and I was under the impression that harvest should only start once the plant has bloomed and started dying back. If I'm wrong, please let me know because I'm tempted to just eat all the little delicious marble-sized potatoes right away.
My grandmother gave me kale, for making boerenkool, and it has taken off. I was worried about deer, so I covered it in dog hair from a visiting Toulouse, but most of it has washed away. I've had no deer activity so far, thank god, and my kale harvest will be bountiful come September. My corn is about 2 feet tall, and I've been eating cherry tomatoes the last couple of days. The regular sized tomatoes haven't come yet. The beans are ready to pick, and I'm going to harvest them tonight for our cottage weekend (we're going away for a couple of days to Skootamatta lake, with a big gang of friends). The cilantro has all started to bloom, which is fine with me - I'll let it re-seed itself again this year, because it's really fun to have and really easy to pull out if it's a nuisance. My red peppers are coming along, but my cayennes are shrimpy this year. My romaine went bitter, I think. So far, my cucumbers are doing better than they were last summer, when the cucumber beetles got them from the get-go. I've been brutal about killing those little bastards, so maybe my efforts are finally paying off. And finally, the canna lilies are starting to unfurl their beautiful zebra-striped leaves, and I can't wait to see them towering over my garden.
Once I get a chance to get in there and clean things up, I will take some photos for sure.
And once the lawn is finally mowed, perhaps the yard will also be more presentable.
I finally learned the correct way to prune raspberry bushes. I think I had been confused about what it was that I'm growing for a number of years, but finally I figured it all out, and hopefully next year's batch won't be so painful to harvest but will still be equally bountiful. My arms are so scratched up I look like Courtney Love in 1994.
7/16/07
What I Did With My Summer Vacation, by Gennyland
I was trying to come up with some clever caption for this photo, but was unable. I've been struck dumb by the sight of blue stain on rough-cut pine.
But it will aaaaalll be worth it in the end.
The weekend was spent listening to more good tunes at the Bluesfest (Metric, Edie Brickell, Kanye West), and staining. And putting up boards with the super-fun nail gun. I am thrilled with how it is starting to shape up, but dang, I am tired of staining. I have a kink in my neck and I dream of wet paint.
.... and my husband is dreaming of blackberries. Here's a terrible shot of one evening's harvest - two tubs full. And we got another giant tub full the next night, and the night before. It's tyranny! I swear to you, it is stressful. All of the good ones are hidden, and the bugs eat you alive. These tubs represent a whole lotta hard work.
And to cap it off, since I don't want to be all doom-and-gloom, here's a shot of my lilies. Back story: I got these as a bonus for ordering such-and-such amount of bulbs one year (I believe it was the wedding year) and they were supposed to be white. They were white for the first year, I don't remember last year, but this year they look like this:
Which suits me just fine.
7/13/07
Tangled up in Blue
I've been back at work for two weeks, and the new-siding project has suffered considerably.
So far, I've only managed to stain a handful of boards. We've encountered setbacks: the delivery kept getting pushed back, it rained and rained, we had to stain only the boards that fit under the large screen tent we have set up in the yard, and we've been out at Bluesfest every single night.
Just to let you know, in case you were wondering, I'm not a blues fan. So before I get tarred with that 4/4 brush, while I can certainly appreciate the classics and the true Delta Blues, I'm not in any way a fan of contemporary blues music. In fact it repels me. However, this year our local bluesfest has benefitted from outside-the-box programming, and we have so far seen: Bob Dylan, Manu Chao, Michael Franti and Spearhead, The White Stripes (the best blues I've personally ever heard live), City and Colour, Femi Kuti, George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars, the Steve Miller band, Cat Power, tonight we'll see Tokyo Police Club, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, and Metric, and tomorrow night is DJ Champion and Kanye West. So you can see that our evenings have been filled and our feet sore from dancing.
When I'm not out bluesfesting, I'm staining boards blue. So I have a theme colour this week.
The house is going to look fabulous when it's done - I can hardly wait. Already my dad nailed up a few boards and it just looks so tidy and solid that I could cry. We will be warm this winter, dammit, what with all that styrofoam.
Nothing much else is new. I'm tired all the time from work and bluesfest and from constant cloudy rainy weather, the house is a mess, and the cat has started staying out all night again recently. Just when I thought he was cured of his evil spirits. The two of them have been rangy lately, probably because their routine is disrupted by our staying out late. The grass is too long; it seems to be the first thing that goes, but in all fairness, it's only because every day it's been too wet to mow. It seriously rains every single day. I haven't watered the garden or any of my pots in ages.
Thank god bluesfest is over soon so I can get some rest and get that siding up.
So far, I've only managed to stain a handful of boards. We've encountered setbacks: the delivery kept getting pushed back, it rained and rained, we had to stain only the boards that fit under the large screen tent we have set up in the yard, and we've been out at Bluesfest every single night.
Just to let you know, in case you were wondering, I'm not a blues fan. So before I get tarred with that 4/4 brush, while I can certainly appreciate the classics and the true Delta Blues, I'm not in any way a fan of contemporary blues music. In fact it repels me. However, this year our local bluesfest has benefitted from outside-the-box programming, and we have so far seen: Bob Dylan, Manu Chao, Michael Franti and Spearhead, The White Stripes (the best blues I've personally ever heard live), City and Colour, Femi Kuti, George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars, the Steve Miller band, Cat Power, tonight we'll see Tokyo Police Club, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, and Metric, and tomorrow night is DJ Champion and Kanye West. So you can see that our evenings have been filled and our feet sore from dancing.
When I'm not out bluesfesting, I'm staining boards blue. So I have a theme colour this week.
The house is going to look fabulous when it's done - I can hardly wait. Already my dad nailed up a few boards and it just looks so tidy and solid that I could cry. We will be warm this winter, dammit, what with all that styrofoam.
Nothing much else is new. I'm tired all the time from work and bluesfest and from constant cloudy rainy weather, the house is a mess, and the cat has started staying out all night again recently. Just when I thought he was cured of his evil spirits. The two of them have been rangy lately, probably because their routine is disrupted by our staying out late. The grass is too long; it seems to be the first thing that goes, but in all fairness, it's only because every day it's been too wet to mow. It seriously rains every single day. I haven't watered the garden or any of my pots in ages.
Thank god bluesfest is over soon so I can get some rest and get that siding up.
7/4/07
I'm back
Awright the fun's over.
I had to come back to work yesterday, kicking and screaming. It's cold here, and very quiet, and it makes me sleepy, and my eyes hurt 'cause the only thing to look at is the computer. I hear the muffled sounds of traffic all day, alternating with construction noises. People want things of me.
At home, it was usually the right temperature (I learned to regulate it pretty well, with fans and windows) or at least I could change clothes to adjust, it was a different kind of quiet, less muffled and more full of birds chirping and bees buzzing, and I had so many things to look at that my eyes weren't big enough. I regained my natural rhythms: I slept whenever I was tired, worked when I had energy, ate when I was hungry, woke up when I was good and ready and did whatever activity struck my fancy at the time. The weather wasn't fantastic, but that's ok, because when it rained I did indoor things that needed doing. We made good progress on several of our ongoing projects; indeed some of them grew as we worked. Here's an update on how I did with my vacation to-do list (as I write, hysterical sirens pass outside my office window. So peaceful):
1. We did indeed tear off the siding from the back wall of our house. We were limited for awhile by the length of our borrowed ladders, but thanks to the kindness of a fireman neighbor, we now have the use of a really really long solid one that got the job done. We tore off the siding, put up styrofoam, strapping, and ordered the new siding, which is going to cost more than I thought but require less work. I also bought the stains in very appealing colours, as intended. The siding was slow to arrive so we're stalled, but it should come today, then we can start staining.
2. We went to the spa. I made off like a bandit - there was nobody available to do my pre-arranged pedicure so they gave me a gift certificate for one, at a $75 value, without my even asking. Then I had a one-hour massage, which I can claim through my health plan at work. The masseuse also told me that both of my hips need work, and not to delay a trip to the physiotherapist. So that I must do today. Afterwards we went for lunch and a bit of shopping and we had a lovely day.
3. I stuck a few perennials in the older terraced beds, and they seem to be working out. We'll see. I still need mulch.
4. I removed the dirt from the laneway. I thought I would need a garbage can to hold it all, and made my dad bring over an old one of his, but turns out it was more like a garbage can PLUS 9 loads in the wheelbarrow to a remote part of my yard to get the job done. Took me an hour or more and I was filthy.
5. I haven't sold the chimney yet, but re-did the ad and re-posted it yesterday.
6. I don't know yet if our attempts at conception were successful, but I did everything I was supposed to, including two blood tests and some yucky drugs that gave me hot flashes.
7. We ixnayed the ampingcay. The weather was crummy and our friends were all busy. We stayed home and bummed around instead.
8. I visited my friend and her baby, who is crabby, and toured their new house and it's fabulous. The baby's cute though, even though she's a crabby crabster.
9. I took some wonderful photos, but then realized that there was no film in the camera. I proceeded to take more pictures but none of them equal the bottle bugs doing it or the toad pooping that I had on my first phantom role.
10. I finished up pottery class and had a wonderful dinner evening, and all of my projects came out of the kiln beautifully save for one little disappointing rough spot that I may still have re-glazed.
11. Went shopping with mom, and it was one of those bad shopping days where you can't find anything. We left pretty much empty-handed, except for a lovely skirt that i strong-armed mom into buying. She loves it now like I knew she would.
12. I perfected the vietnamese salad rolls, and brought them to the pottery potluck, where they were a hit.
13. I finished up my sweater, and it's ok. It fits weirdly at the bottom, it kind of goes wide at the hem. But I did start the new one, to my chagrin, and it is a challenge. Heavy too.
14. I read two books by Barbara Kingsolver, who is one of my favourites: The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven. Both excellent reads.
15. I don't know if my friend got her license. I was supposed to call her Friday and forgot to and now I feel like a deadbeat and am embarrassed to call. I am like that.
16. I ignored the boomerang garden completely.
17. I got a glowy tan. Not a dark tan, though my arms are pretty dark, but my face has a pleasant glow which is enough for me.
18. I made that CD the first day I had at home alone.
19. The wiring in my house is not appropriate for that light fixture and it's a halogen, as it turns out, and I hate how every single light fixture in my house takes different bulbs. So I'm going to return it. But as I went to put it in the car yesterday to return it, I dropped it and broke the (unprotected, thank you Ikea) glass shade. Now what?
20. We went fishing twice, and cleaned up. Each time we brought home two bass, which was way less than what we caught, for dinner. Mmm fresh fish fry for dinner is delicious with homemade french fries and garden-grown salad.
21. I didn't buy mulch but I should still. See #3.
22. I didn't get flagstone either. Seems I was more ambitious on the first part of my list.
23. I didn't dare move the furniture. Looking around, it didn't make a lot of sense, and hubby hates it when I move stuff around.
24. I did all the laundry (twice? Felt like it.) and caught up on all of my ironing, and even had to buy new hangers to accommodate my bursting closets. Now I can set to messing everything up and getting overwhelmed all over again.
25. I stained the stairs, but had the wind taken out of my sails when my overall plan changed halfway through. So now the stair surfaces has one coat of stain, but I need to sand the risers and stain them too, and paint the sides of the stairs the same colour as the walls. I think. Not sure. Plus the stain takes a lot longer to dry than I thought, and there are only so many days where I can afford not to go up to the second floor all day long.
I was busy on my holiday. Very busy. I also seemed to have lost 3 pounds or so - likely through manual labour, went to Lindsay to my cousin's bridal shower, had a friend from high school visit whom I haven't seen in 15 years, since graduation, who now lives in Minnesota (we reconnected through facebook), worked on the veggie garden quite a bit, cleaned house, organized my knitting stuff, played with my new digital camera, got to know my cats a bit better and chilled out in general. It felt so good. We also got new mailboxes, for which I campaigned my M.P. and the people at Canada Post for several years to get, so I feel vindicated and so happy. I am a minor activist. I need to send a nice thank-you card to the fellow at Canada Post with whom I was in regular communication.
Sigh. Now I am back to work and there was just an explosion outside of my window, preceded by three really loud whistles, thanks to the construction site next door. It's so relaxing.
I had to come back to work yesterday, kicking and screaming. It's cold here, and very quiet, and it makes me sleepy, and my eyes hurt 'cause the only thing to look at is the computer. I hear the muffled sounds of traffic all day, alternating with construction noises. People want things of me.
At home, it was usually the right temperature (I learned to regulate it pretty well, with fans and windows) or at least I could change clothes to adjust, it was a different kind of quiet, less muffled and more full of birds chirping and bees buzzing, and I had so many things to look at that my eyes weren't big enough. I regained my natural rhythms: I slept whenever I was tired, worked when I had energy, ate when I was hungry, woke up when I was good and ready and did whatever activity struck my fancy at the time. The weather wasn't fantastic, but that's ok, because when it rained I did indoor things that needed doing. We made good progress on several of our ongoing projects; indeed some of them grew as we worked. Here's an update on how I did with my vacation to-do list (as I write, hysterical sirens pass outside my office window. So peaceful):
1. We did indeed tear off the siding from the back wall of our house. We were limited for awhile by the length of our borrowed ladders, but thanks to the kindness of a fireman neighbor, we now have the use of a really really long solid one that got the job done. We tore off the siding, put up styrofoam, strapping, and ordered the new siding, which is going to cost more than I thought but require less work. I also bought the stains in very appealing colours, as intended. The siding was slow to arrive so we're stalled, but it should come today, then we can start staining.
2. We went to the spa. I made off like a bandit - there was nobody available to do my pre-arranged pedicure so they gave me a gift certificate for one, at a $75 value, without my even asking. Then I had a one-hour massage, which I can claim through my health plan at work. The masseuse also told me that both of my hips need work, and not to delay a trip to the physiotherapist. So that I must do today. Afterwards we went for lunch and a bit of shopping and we had a lovely day.
3. I stuck a few perennials in the older terraced beds, and they seem to be working out. We'll see. I still need mulch.
4. I removed the dirt from the laneway. I thought I would need a garbage can to hold it all, and made my dad bring over an old one of his, but turns out it was more like a garbage can PLUS 9 loads in the wheelbarrow to a remote part of my yard to get the job done. Took me an hour or more and I was filthy.
5. I haven't sold the chimney yet, but re-did the ad and re-posted it yesterday.
6. I don't know yet if our attempts at conception were successful, but I did everything I was supposed to, including two blood tests and some yucky drugs that gave me hot flashes.
7. We ixnayed the ampingcay. The weather was crummy and our friends were all busy. We stayed home and bummed around instead.
8. I visited my friend and her baby, who is crabby, and toured their new house and it's fabulous. The baby's cute though, even though she's a crabby crabster.
9. I took some wonderful photos, but then realized that there was no film in the camera. I proceeded to take more pictures but none of them equal the bottle bugs doing it or the toad pooping that I had on my first phantom role.
10. I finished up pottery class and had a wonderful dinner evening, and all of my projects came out of the kiln beautifully save for one little disappointing rough spot that I may still have re-glazed.
11. Went shopping with mom, and it was one of those bad shopping days where you can't find anything. We left pretty much empty-handed, except for a lovely skirt that i strong-armed mom into buying. She loves it now like I knew she would.
12. I perfected the vietnamese salad rolls, and brought them to the pottery potluck, where they were a hit.
13. I finished up my sweater, and it's ok. It fits weirdly at the bottom, it kind of goes wide at the hem. But I did start the new one, to my chagrin, and it is a challenge. Heavy too.
14. I read two books by Barbara Kingsolver, who is one of my favourites: The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven. Both excellent reads.
15. I don't know if my friend got her license. I was supposed to call her Friday and forgot to and now I feel like a deadbeat and am embarrassed to call. I am like that.
16. I ignored the boomerang garden completely.
17. I got a glowy tan. Not a dark tan, though my arms are pretty dark, but my face has a pleasant glow which is enough for me.
18. I made that CD the first day I had at home alone.
19. The wiring in my house is not appropriate for that light fixture and it's a halogen, as it turns out, and I hate how every single light fixture in my house takes different bulbs. So I'm going to return it. But as I went to put it in the car yesterday to return it, I dropped it and broke the (unprotected, thank you Ikea) glass shade. Now what?
20. We went fishing twice, and cleaned up. Each time we brought home two bass, which was way less than what we caught, for dinner. Mmm fresh fish fry for dinner is delicious with homemade french fries and garden-grown salad.
21. I didn't buy mulch but I should still. See #3.
22. I didn't get flagstone either. Seems I was more ambitious on the first part of my list.
23. I didn't dare move the furniture. Looking around, it didn't make a lot of sense, and hubby hates it when I move stuff around.
24. I did all the laundry (twice? Felt like it.) and caught up on all of my ironing, and even had to buy new hangers to accommodate my bursting closets. Now I can set to messing everything up and getting overwhelmed all over again.
25. I stained the stairs, but had the wind taken out of my sails when my overall plan changed halfway through. So now the stair surfaces has one coat of stain, but I need to sand the risers and stain them too, and paint the sides of the stairs the same colour as the walls. I think. Not sure. Plus the stain takes a lot longer to dry than I thought, and there are only so many days where I can afford not to go up to the second floor all day long.
I was busy on my holiday. Very busy. I also seemed to have lost 3 pounds or so - likely through manual labour, went to Lindsay to my cousin's bridal shower, had a friend from high school visit whom I haven't seen in 15 years, since graduation, who now lives in Minnesota (we reconnected through facebook), worked on the veggie garden quite a bit, cleaned house, organized my knitting stuff, played with my new digital camera, got to know my cats a bit better and chilled out in general. It felt so good. We also got new mailboxes, for which I campaigned my M.P. and the people at Canada Post for several years to get, so I feel vindicated and so happy. I am a minor activist. I need to send a nice thank-you card to the fellow at Canada Post with whom I was in regular communication.
Sigh. Now I am back to work and there was just an explosion outside of my window, preceded by three really loud whistles, thanks to the construction site next door. It's so relaxing.
6/14/07
Gone Fishin'
There are 12.5 hours of work between me and vacation.
Normally this would be a really good time, and I would be cheerily counting down yadda yadda, but this time my vacation is long overdue and I have no cheer left. My brain shut off a month ago. I am killing those hours between me and my vacation dead.
I will be away two weeks. Part of me feels that it's too early in the summer to take my vacation, that I shouldn't be blowing my proverbial wad when July and August still stretch before me, but the secret is this: I have more time to take, and I'm gonna take it. I'm going to take a week in July. Maybe a week in August. I'm going to distrubute it so that it counts. I'm going to take lots of long weekends.
And of course, because I am who I am and who I am is a serious list-maker, I have drawn up a list of things to do during my vacation:
1. Remove the siding from 2 sides of my house, and start putting up styrofoam.
2. Go to the spa with my sister-in-sort-of-law for a massage and pedicure.
3. Plant more perennials in my two-year-old terraced beds, which are not looking so hot.
4. Clean up the pile of dirt and tarps in the laneway.
5. Sell the old chimney behind the house.
6. Get pregnant.
7. Go camping for Canada Day weekend.
8. Visit a friend who has a new baby.
9. Take lots of photos of bugs doing it. Have them printed and blown up because I'm a pervert.
10. Finish up pottery class - make something for the potluck dinner, and bring home my stuff.
11. Go shopping with my mom, get her to buy herself a new dress (I am her own personal Stacey London).
12. Learn to make vietnamese salad rolls properly.
13. Finish the sweater I am knitting. Think seriously about the next one.
14. Read a book. Perhaps A Confederacy of Dunces ?
15. Hope my friend gets her driver's license so she can come to my house and shoot my bb gun.
16. Finish weeding and rehabilitating my 'boomerang' garden. Add dirt and plants.
17. Get a tan.
18. Download and make a CD of all the old-school rap music I loved in high school.
19. Install the new light fixture in the basement.
20. Go fishing.
21. Think about mulch for the terraced garden.
22. Possibly scam some free flagstone with my truck, so I can build that patio that I want around my firepit. Then I want those side-by-side muskoka chairs from Costco with the little drink table in the middle. I am woman of simple needs.
23. Move the furniture in the bedroom around.
24. Catch up on laundry and ironing.
25. Stain my staircase.
So not too lofty, right? I think that's a reasonable list. If I break it into time fragments, some of those are pretty tiny fragments. Some are evening activities, some are not. The trick will be to wake up at the same time as hubby and stay up, and not let myself get droopy during the day. I will of course keep you apprised of my progress when I return.
If I keep writing I will kill more of that pesky time. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Tonight I'm going to the Reno Depot to look at two things: Styrofoam and plants. I realize that I have one big galvanized tub on my deck that I filled with soil and then forgot about, so it needs something. Also I need to get some sunflower seeds because mine didn't come up, and if they still have some scraggly cucumber seedlings I may as well pick those up too because mine haven't shown their faces yet. I also want to look at shorty perennials for the terraced bed.
And here is a pic of my veggie garden taken this very morning. My garden is 30% weeds, 30% stuff I planted on purpose, and 30% cilantro, which re-seeds itself each year.
I will be away two weeks. Part of me feels that it's too early in the summer to take my vacation, that I shouldn't be blowing my proverbial wad when July and August still stretch before me, but the secret is this: I have more time to take, and I'm gonna take it. I'm going to take a week in July. Maybe a week in August. I'm going to distrubute it so that it counts. I'm going to take lots of long weekends.
And of course, because I am who I am and who I am is a serious list-maker, I have drawn up a list of things to do during my vacation:
1. Remove the siding from 2 sides of my house, and start putting up styrofoam.
2. Go to the spa with my sister-in-sort-of-law for a massage and pedicure.
3. Plant more perennials in my two-year-old terraced beds, which are not looking so hot.
4. Clean up the pile of dirt and tarps in the laneway.
5. Sell the old chimney behind the house.
6. Get pregnant.
7. Go camping for Canada Day weekend.
8. Visit a friend who has a new baby.
9. Take lots of photos of bugs doing it. Have them printed and blown up because I'm a pervert.
10. Finish up pottery class - make something for the potluck dinner, and bring home my stuff.
11. Go shopping with my mom, get her to buy herself a new dress (I am her own personal Stacey London).
12. Learn to make vietnamese salad rolls properly.
13. Finish the sweater I am knitting. Think seriously about the next one.
14. Read a book. Perhaps A Confederacy of Dunces ?
15. Hope my friend gets her driver's license so she can come to my house and shoot my bb gun.
16. Finish weeding and rehabilitating my 'boomerang' garden. Add dirt and plants.
17. Get a tan.
18. Download and make a CD of all the old-school rap music I loved in high school.
19. Install the new light fixture in the basement.
20. Go fishing.
21. Think about mulch for the terraced garden.
22. Possibly scam some free flagstone with my truck, so I can build that patio that I want around my firepit. Then I want those side-by-side muskoka chairs from Costco with the little drink table in the middle. I am woman of simple needs.
23. Move the furniture in the bedroom around.
24. Catch up on laundry and ironing.
25. Stain my staircase.
So not too lofty, right? I think that's a reasonable list. If I break it into time fragments, some of those are pretty tiny fragments. Some are evening activities, some are not. The trick will be to wake up at the same time as hubby and stay up, and not let myself get droopy during the day. I will of course keep you apprised of my progress when I return.
If I keep writing I will kill more of that pesky time. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Tonight I'm going to the Reno Depot to look at two things: Styrofoam and plants. I realize that I have one big galvanized tub on my deck that I filled with soil and then forgot about, so it needs something. Also I need to get some sunflower seeds because mine didn't come up, and if they still have some scraggly cucumber seedlings I may as well pick those up too because mine haven't shown their faces yet. I also want to look at shorty perennials for the terraced bed.
And here is a pic of my veggie garden taken this very morning. My garden is 30% weeds, 30% stuff I planted on purpose, and 30% cilantro, which re-seeds itself each year.
So it's very green, mostly because the entry is infested with a mix of clover (not the nice stuff, the tall gangly stuff), quack grass, and cilantro. Literally there is cilantro everywhere. I need to control that a bit better this year, nip those seeds and scatter them myself. Flagstones would look super nice there.
This is my favourite time of the year in the garden. Well, I guess this and early September, when everything's being harvested. But check out the colours going on right now: the bright fuschia of the spiderwort, the gray-green of the iris leaves, the dark blue-purple of the irises, I have the emerging electric-red of a poppy coming up, the bright orange nasturtiums and marigolds, and soon some yellow lilies, pink anemones, hot pink geraniums, red bergamot, purple bergamot, and yellow something-or-other-that-I-don't know. I am trying to work on leaf texture too - I am going to plant some colocasia that I grew in a pot into the ground, which makes huge leaves. I think I'll put them in that gap in front of the veggie garden on the right, between the marigolds and the irises. There were strawberries there, but they preferred the veggie garden so they migrated to the far right, about 10 feet away, and now stay there full-time. I let them choose - I am very relaxed about such things (see: cilantro).
Ack! There's a man in my garden! In this photo, L to R: rhubarb, pumpkins, catnip, turnips that need to be thinned, emerging basil, marigolds, beans, and a whole lotta quackgrass.
My baby boy. Man do I ever need kids. Oops I mean - more kids! Sorry Loki! This cat is the best cat ever. He's smarter than any animal I've known, and he's enormous - he weighs about 18 lbs, but I believe he's slimming down during summer - so he's substantial to cuddle when he lets me. He's just dense - he has big bones. When he smacks you, you feel it. But he also has a good sense of humour and a pretty face. And he's got great manners and knows the rules and comes when he's called, right at dinner time. Our other cat, Sasha, is adorable and cute and everything Loki isn't. They fill in each others' gaps. Sasha is affectionate and cuddly and a little bit dumb but sweet as heck. Loki is a party cat, he loves strangers and especially those wearing men's cologne, but Sasha hides under the bed. Loki doesn't fear from water - Sasha fears from lots of stuff. But Sasha's a lap cat, and chatty, and pure sweet sugar.
Phew! Sorry, got off track there. Hooray I'm at 12 hours now! See? Hang in there people! Nobody can ramble like I can!
6/7/07
Nice weather, if you're a duck
Today is a sad day.
The weather's been uncooperative the past few days, as the other night we actually had a risk of frost. It was 3.5 degrees C when we woke up. That's not enough degrees. I had to cover selected plants with sheets, mostly those on the deck, and just hope for the best, because I have planted so many frost-sensitive things that I'd need a one-acre sheet to cover it all. And it's been raining raining raining for the past week or so. Sunday was a nice day, but I managed to get a nasty sunburn, and then it rained again in the evening.
Thanks to a really dumb financial screw-up, we've been a bit broke for the past few days. It's been kind of interesting to watch our pennies in this way, but luckily hubby's paid tomorrow so we can start living the high life again. I'm kidding, of course; we never stopped living the high life.
And to top it all off, my team lost the Stanley Cup last night. Booo Hisss. I'm not even a hockey fan. I take bandwagon-jumping to new lengths, and during Stanley Cup playoffs (somewhere around the first series), I become a hockey fan. We watched all of the games, picked some favourite players (I unimaginatively chose Alfredsson and Fisher), and were seriously rooting for the Senators, but alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, Disneylan-er-I mean Anaheim, won Canada's biggest prize. Now I like Teemu Selanne as much as the next woman, but it would have been nice had my underdogs been the ones to raise the cup. Ah well. I look forward to next year, when perhaps I'll start watching in the regular season.
This morning we drove by a dead mallard duck on the highway. How sadly un-ironic. What a missed opportunity.
The weather's been uncooperative the past few days, as the other night we actually had a risk of frost. It was 3.5 degrees C when we woke up. That's not enough degrees. I had to cover selected plants with sheets, mostly those on the deck, and just hope for the best, because I have planted so many frost-sensitive things that I'd need a one-acre sheet to cover it all. And it's been raining raining raining for the past week or so. Sunday was a nice day, but I managed to get a nasty sunburn, and then it rained again in the evening.
Thanks to a really dumb financial screw-up, we've been a bit broke for the past few days. It's been kind of interesting to watch our pennies in this way, but luckily hubby's paid tomorrow so we can start living the high life again. I'm kidding, of course; we never stopped living the high life.
And to top it all off, my team lost the Stanley Cup last night. Booo Hisss. I'm not even a hockey fan. I take bandwagon-jumping to new lengths, and during Stanley Cup playoffs (somewhere around the first series), I become a hockey fan. We watched all of the games, picked some favourite players (I unimaginatively chose Alfredsson and Fisher), and were seriously rooting for the Senators, but alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, Disneylan-er-I mean Anaheim, won Canada's biggest prize. Now I like Teemu Selanne as much as the next woman, but it would have been nice had my underdogs been the ones to raise the cup. Ah well. I look forward to next year, when perhaps I'll start watching in the regular season.
This morning we drove by a dead mallard duck on the highway. How sadly un-ironic. What a missed opportunity.
6/1/07
We now interrupt our regular subject matter...
I am not a big fan of the Police, and so I think that guy in the middle has to calm that shit down. He's dressed like Lance Armstrong from the waist up, and a 15 year old girl from the waist down, with the face of a middle-aged physics teacher. Even Sting disapproves, and he's worn some questionable things in the past. He's all like "does this drummer make me look gay?" The accountant on the right can barely contain his laughter.
Only a very select few can pull off white pants.
I am awesome.
This is the post in which I toot my own horn.
I was thinking this morning, as I lay on the bed waiting for the self-tanner to dry on my legs (seriously, I have zombie legs. Thanks Dad.), that I've done a number of things in the past year about which I am really proud. And at the risk of sounding like a braggert, because nobody likes a braggert, I thought I'd put them down for posterity since this blog is more like a journal that I use to amuse myself.
I drove in Paris
I was scared shitless, and some jerk backed into my car within 5 minutes of being out on the streets, but I did it, and found my way around, and figured out the whole people-coming-from-the-right-have-priority thing well enough. And on our way back into Paris, I, along with my trusty co-pilot-slash-husband, managed to not only navigate a rather expensive car through the most incredible gridlock patch of traffic I've ever seen in my life (it must have looked like a tight patchwork quilt from above. Cobblestones, no lanes, 8 directions merging into one - imagine it), but I found the rental car station no problem and managed to do it all in good time.
Then I drove the Autobahn
I know for millions of Europeans and other inhabitants of the world, that's no big thing and they use it as a morning commute. But for me, getting the car to 180 kmh in the slow lane and not pooping myself was a terrific accomplishment. I came back with a particularly leaden foot.
I organized a concert
... in cooperation with colleagues of course, but I played a major role in organizing a 50th anniversary classical music concert at the NAC a month ago, and it went off very smoothly. Afterwards, my brain officially hung up the "Gone Fishin'" sign and shut down for the summer.
I renovated a room, and built shelves
I've documented that process in these pages before, but every time I walk into that back room I love it, and it's been just over a year. Everything worked, miraculously. The shelves are still holding up (though a few have sagged ever so slightly - the combination of heavy books and MDF isn't necessarily a good one), the orange wall is still awesome, and now that we have new windows in there, the entire thing looks like a brand new house.
I built a garden
I terraced the front garden in no time flat this year. It went creepily smoothly.
I learned some German
I ate stuff for the first time
In the last three years, I ate the following foods for the very first time:
- lobster (hard to believe, but I am landlocked and hated seafood for years)
- foie gras (I can translate, and it doesn't appeal. I didn't love it)
- beef tartare (I loved it too much. Perhaps I'm a vampire?)
- truffles. (the fungus kind) Mmmm truffles.
- King crab legs (thanks Rob - my friend in Kelowna hates seafood, or 'fish product' as she calls it, but her hubby loves it, so he's happy to cook for the two of us when I visit and Nat has to do her own thing. tee hee.)
I grouted.
'Nuff said.
I knit an awesome sweater
I knit this sweater ...
...for myself last fall, and it was so incredibly enjoyable that I almost went right back to the beginning and knit it again in another colour. Mine is a dark mossy green tweed. Kate Gilbert is an amazing knitting designer, and I love everything she does. She hails from Montreal, I believe, and is now living in Paris, so obviously she's a woman of impeccable taste. I have ordered 2 more back-issues of Interweave Knits so that I can make a couple more of her designs.
I put down my cat
This took a lot of nerve, and was among the hardest things I've ever had to do. I love my cats like they're my children, and watching Peter decline was truly horrible. I made the decision to put her down after watching her fail for four days. She tried desperately to get outside, go down the front stairs, and get under the deck, even though she couldn't walk and ended up flopping down in the dirt, eyes all big and scared. That was my sign that she was ready to go, because Peter never ever hung out under the deck. I took her to the vet, and they gave her a needle to calm her before giving her the final injection, but that first needle was all she needed - she died really peacefully while I held her, with her chin resting on my arm as I stroked her boney back. When the vet came in to ask if she'd relaxed, I told her I didn't think she was with me anymore, and she wasn't. It was so difficult that I have a big lump in my throat right now just writing about it so I'm going to stop. R.I.P. Peter. I was going to post a picture in her honour but it's just too sad.
I subjected myself to crazy medical tests
We are currently in treatment at a Fertility Clinic (mostly because I'm impatient; there's nothing super wrong with us except I may have PCOS so I'm a bad ovulater), and I have had more blood tests this year than in my entire life added up. Then I had a sugar test, where I had to chugalug this weird Orange Crush x 1,000 that nearly killed me, and two crazy weird ultrasounds, one of which enabled me to see my eggs and fallopian tubes. That may be TMI, but I don't care - I am a science nerd and there were 3 complete strangers in the room and so you may as well know too. For all of you out there who are interested, I am in possession of a rather beautiful uterus, and my plumbing is fine.
I smuggled wisteria seeds back from Austria, which grew
Don't tell the cops. Thank god this blog is anonymous ha ha ha. My brother-in-law has a beautiful and huge wisteria vine growing up his super-cool house in Graz, and I couldn't resist picking off one of the 3-inch-long moss-green velvety pods. They're so beautiful and fuzzy. He told me "that will never work" but stillI brought it home in my suitcase, stuck it in the freezer for the rest of the winter, then planted the seeds in my greenhouse this spring. I am now the proud mama of a 7-inch-tall wisteria vine, and I couldn't be more smug.
I made this thing in pottery class
It's kind of a birdbath-slash-garden ornament. It's about a foot in diametre, and it stands on a copper pipe pole. I seem to have a wee knack for pottery, though my teacher might disagree (I am a bit impulsive on the wheel) and one of my classmates has borrowed my design to make a platter for cheese and crackers. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I love pottery class so much and fantasize about it all day long, and am really really sad that it ends in three weeks. My instructor has been added to my (quite short) list of really-remarkably-fabulous-people-I-have-known.
I was thinking this morning, as I lay on the bed waiting for the self-tanner to dry on my legs (seriously, I have zombie legs. Thanks Dad.), that I've done a number of things in the past year about which I am really proud. And at the risk of sounding like a braggert, because nobody likes a braggert, I thought I'd put them down for posterity since this blog is more like a journal that I use to amuse myself.
I drove in Paris
I was scared shitless, and some jerk backed into my car within 5 minutes of being out on the streets, but I did it, and found my way around, and figured out the whole people-coming-from-the-right-have-priority thing well enough. And on our way back into Paris, I, along with my trusty co-pilot-slash-husband, managed to not only navigate a rather expensive car through the most incredible gridlock patch of traffic I've ever seen in my life (it must have looked like a tight patchwork quilt from above. Cobblestones, no lanes, 8 directions merging into one - imagine it), but I found the rental car station no problem and managed to do it all in good time.
Then I drove the Autobahn
I know for millions of Europeans and other inhabitants of the world, that's no big thing and they use it as a morning commute. But for me, getting the car to 180 kmh in the slow lane and not pooping myself was a terrific accomplishment. I came back with a particularly leaden foot.
I organized a concert
... in cooperation with colleagues of course, but I played a major role in organizing a 50th anniversary classical music concert at the NAC a month ago, and it went off very smoothly. Afterwards, my brain officially hung up the "Gone Fishin'" sign and shut down for the summer.
I renovated a room, and built shelves
I've documented that process in these pages before, but every time I walk into that back room I love it, and it's been just over a year. Everything worked, miraculously. The shelves are still holding up (though a few have sagged ever so slightly - the combination of heavy books and MDF isn't necessarily a good one), the orange wall is still awesome, and now that we have new windows in there, the entire thing looks like a brand new house.
I built a garden
I terraced the front garden in no time flat this year. It went creepily smoothly.
I learned some German
I ate stuff for the first time
In the last three years, I ate the following foods for the very first time:
- lobster (hard to believe, but I am landlocked and hated seafood for years)
- foie gras (I can translate, and it doesn't appeal. I didn't love it)
- beef tartare (I loved it too much. Perhaps I'm a vampire?)
- truffles. (the fungus kind) Mmmm truffles.
- King crab legs (thanks Rob - my friend in Kelowna hates seafood, or 'fish product' as she calls it, but her hubby loves it, so he's happy to cook for the two of us when I visit and Nat has to do her own thing. tee hee.)
I grouted.
'Nuff said.
I knit an awesome sweater
I knit this sweater ...
...for myself last fall, and it was so incredibly enjoyable that I almost went right back to the beginning and knit it again in another colour. Mine is a dark mossy green tweed. Kate Gilbert is an amazing knitting designer, and I love everything she does. She hails from Montreal, I believe, and is now living in Paris, so obviously she's a woman of impeccable taste. I have ordered 2 more back-issues of Interweave Knits so that I can make a couple more of her designs.
I put down my cat
This took a lot of nerve, and was among the hardest things I've ever had to do. I love my cats like they're my children, and watching Peter decline was truly horrible. I made the decision to put her down after watching her fail for four days. She tried desperately to get outside, go down the front stairs, and get under the deck, even though she couldn't walk and ended up flopping down in the dirt, eyes all big and scared. That was my sign that she was ready to go, because Peter never ever hung out under the deck. I took her to the vet, and they gave her a needle to calm her before giving her the final injection, but that first needle was all she needed - she died really peacefully while I held her, with her chin resting on my arm as I stroked her boney back. When the vet came in to ask if she'd relaxed, I told her I didn't think she was with me anymore, and she wasn't. It was so difficult that I have a big lump in my throat right now just writing about it so I'm going to stop. R.I.P. Peter. I was going to post a picture in her honour but it's just too sad.
I subjected myself to crazy medical tests
We are currently in treatment at a Fertility Clinic (mostly because I'm impatient; there's nothing super wrong with us except I may have PCOS so I'm a bad ovulater), and I have had more blood tests this year than in my entire life added up. Then I had a sugar test, where I had to chugalug this weird Orange Crush x 1,000 that nearly killed me, and two crazy weird ultrasounds, one of which enabled me to see my eggs and fallopian tubes. That may be TMI, but I don't care - I am a science nerd and there were 3 complete strangers in the room and so you may as well know too. For all of you out there who are interested, I am in possession of a rather beautiful uterus, and my plumbing is fine.
I smuggled wisteria seeds back from Austria, which grew
Don't tell the cops. Thank god this blog is anonymous ha ha ha. My brother-in-law has a beautiful and huge wisteria vine growing up his super-cool house in Graz, and I couldn't resist picking off one of the 3-inch-long moss-green velvety pods. They're so beautiful and fuzzy. He told me "that will never work" but stillI brought it home in my suitcase, stuck it in the freezer for the rest of the winter, then planted the seeds in my greenhouse this spring. I am now the proud mama of a 7-inch-tall wisteria vine, and I couldn't be more smug.
I made this thing in pottery class
It's kind of a birdbath-slash-garden ornament. It's about a foot in diametre, and it stands on a copper pipe pole. I seem to have a wee knack for pottery, though my teacher might disagree (I am a bit impulsive on the wheel) and one of my classmates has borrowed my design to make a platter for cheese and crackers. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I love pottery class so much and fantasize about it all day long, and am really really sad that it ends in three weeks. My instructor has been added to my (quite short) list of really-remarkably-fabulous-people-I-have-known.
I lost 15 lbs.
After the doctors told me I might have PCOS and recommended that I lose a bit of weight, I embarked on a serious but healthy diet of my own construction just after the dawn of the new year. I'm not obese and I'm tallish, but I was a bit overweight, so I cut out the junk, the processed stuff, upped the vegetable content, lowered the carbs and red meat, ate smaller portions, recorded everything I ate, watched the calories and fat content of everything, skied every week, did yoga for an hour and a half on about 5 saturday mornings (I'm not as dedicated an exerciser), drank gallons of water, ate fruit as snacks, and lost 15 lbs in about 2.5 months. So far I've kept it off, even though I have started eating junk again (reluctantly - I'm going to be more disciplined soon - it's easy to slide), and I always lose in the summer anyway, from all of the manual labour and the swimming. I had to have all my pants taken in, and that felt great. I want to go another 10 0r 15 lbs, and then try to maintain that. It may sound like I'm weight-obsessed, but I see it more as a medical experiment than anything.
That's all I can think of right now. It's been a busy year. Time passes quickly with age, so it feels like it's been no time since I renovated the bathroom a year ago, but in other ways the cycle keeps rolling and everything is just right. If I didn't mention something here, it's because it was good as usual or because it wasn't so great. And I guess I am a braggert, but I always say: if you don't toot your own horn, who will?
5/30/07
My bi-annual Blog Posting (a very big deal)
Phew I'm back. Sorry, I've been all taken up with Facebook there, I lost track of time and now it's almost June. One has only so many hours of wastable time at work, you know.
The garden is in. Not bad, it's May 30 and the veggies have all been planted. Frost is done for the spring, and everything's going hog wild already. In honour of this momentous occasion, and because I need some consistent place to write these things (rather than scraps of paper lying around the house), here is my annual list of the herbs and vegetables I am growing. And a new feature for 2007 - alphabetization!
- Artichokes
- Basil, Thai
- Basil, Italian
- Beans, Green
- Cayenne Peppers
- Cherry tomatoes
- Corn
- Chives
- Cilantro (perennial - it's everywhere)
- Cucumbers
- Dill
- Eggplant
- Garlic
- Leeks
- Leaf lettuce
- Lemon thyme
- Mint (always - invasive)
- Potatoes
- Pumpkins
- Red onions
- Red sweet peppers
- Romaine lettuce
- Rosemary
- Spinach
- Thyme (perennial)
- Tomatoes (red, forget the name)
- Turnips
- Vietnamese coriander
Fruit (aside from tomatoes):
- Black raspberries or blackberries, depending on whose team you're on.
- Cherries (I got a tree!)
- MacIntosh apples
- hopefully, Plums, but methinks my tree is on its way out.
- Rhubarb, also perennial. In fact, all of these fruits are.
- Strawberries, which have naturalized in the veggie garden.
The yard is always overrun by raspberries as well, at least until the vermin get them.
Here's a photo of the veggie garden, taken May 28, 2007:
The garden is in. Not bad, it's May 30 and the veggies have all been planted. Frost is done for the spring, and everything's going hog wild already. In honour of this momentous occasion, and because I need some consistent place to write these things (rather than scraps of paper lying around the house), here is my annual list of the herbs and vegetables I am growing. And a new feature for 2007 - alphabetization!
- Artichokes
- Basil, Thai
- Basil, Italian
- Beans, Green
- Cayenne Peppers
- Cherry tomatoes
- Corn
- Chives
- Cilantro (perennial - it's everywhere)
- Cucumbers
- Dill
- Eggplant
- Garlic
- Leeks
- Leaf lettuce
- Lemon thyme
- Mint (always - invasive)
- Potatoes
- Pumpkins
- Red onions
- Red sweet peppers
- Romaine lettuce
- Rosemary
- Spinach
- Thyme (perennial)
- Tomatoes (red, forget the name)
- Turnips
- Vietnamese coriander
Fruit (aside from tomatoes):
- Black raspberries or blackberries, depending on whose team you're on.
- Cherries (I got a tree!)
- MacIntosh apples
- hopefully, Plums, but methinks my tree is on its way out.
- Rhubarb, also perennial. In fact, all of these fruits are.
- Strawberries, which have naturalized in the veggie garden.
The yard is always overrun by raspberries as well, at least until the vermin get them.
Here's a photo of the veggie garden, taken May 28, 2007:
I need a new garden gate. And superpowers.
I also planted sunflowers, canna lilies, and marigolds in the veggie garden, just for kicks. I figure, go big or go home.
That's my beautiful hand-made potato bin lurking in the background.
Keep checking back for my always-thrilling garden progress reports.
In other news, I'm still not pregnant. So no news there really. Also, my cat Peter died. We had to put her down just before Easter, they think she had cancer but she declined really really quickly. She was 18, had a good life, blah blah - I cried for 4 day straight and now she lives in this adorable wooden box in the wall unit. (ok her ashes do). The other two have adjusted to being spoiled rotten and are still fat, though they're on a hardcore diet now that Peter and her canned food are gone.
Oh I did build a new garden this year: the continuation of the terracing project from a couple of years ago. Finally I've finished it.
Turn your head sideways (to the right) to appreciate it.
I'm desperately trying to figure out what else is new and exciting but so far nothing is. We went to the Great Glebe Garage Sale on Saturday and made off like bandits with other peoples' junk. We bought an old video camera for $5 and hubby thinks perhaps it's time for a fishing show. Guess who gets to be the camera (wo)man? That's super fun.
I am knitting feverishly, even though it's essentially summer (for those who are interested, I am working on this sweater first - minus the linebacker shoulders - then I'm going to start in on this one for hubby), and I'm really enjoying the pottery class I'm taking. I've produced a few things, so far nothing's cracked badly and it's all good. We're getting three new windows as I write this, which is thrilling to me - no longer will I have to sit and watch t.v. in the winter while being blasted with arctic air through the windowsills. The frames are red, which excites me. We're looking to replace the siding of the house with board and batten (sp? Who cares) and insulate it with styrofoam underneath the siding, and then I want to paint it THIS COLOUR (sort of, more gray. Damn you Blogger!) with THIS COLOUR trim. So I started with three windows, trimmed in that colour, and we'll go from there. Fun and games! As my hubby loves to say, let's load up the money cannon!
Work is blah. I feel blah. I am burnt out and ready for a good relaxing vacation. I feel like I've been sapped, like a tree. See my fancy analogy? I guess I'm not too sapped to be an awesome poet. Again with the brilliance.
Summer's shaping up nicely. We have a bunch of concerts (Ottawa's Bluesfest and Toronto's Virgin Festival being the standouts) to attend, a few get-away camping and cottaging weekends, a wedding/beach getaway in September, a bunch of BBQ's - standard issue stuff. I have to work in between but I'm off the last two weeks in June, and still have 4 or 5 weeks of vacation that I need to take. I rack up crazy overtime, you see - hence the sapping. I don't think the Austrians are coming this year, but the Germans are later on - likely in late September. I'm sad re: the Austrians but I'm saving up my Aeroplan points to be able to fly to Vienna and visit sometime in the near future.
So yeah, those who know me can find me on facebook most days, those who don't can't unless they're like private detectives. Like Harriet the Spy. Or Ace Ventura. Good luck.
3/12/07
3/9/07
Acid Mattress *
Last Saturday I bit the bullet and went to Canadian Tire and bought this mattress, the Obus forme 8" memory foam Queen size mattress. Our previous mattress, if you could call it that, was a piece of foam so old that my parents got it when they were first married. I am 31. They got married two years before I came along, so do the math. I'd like to think of it as an antique, only foam rubber doesn't really age well, so we have basically been sleeping on the slats of our humble Ikea bed for the past 8 years.
My mom talked the poor sales guy into giving it to us for $100 off, which was the flyer price of the previous week, and so I carted the box home and hubby and I gleefully unwrapped the thing. Memory foam is interesting. It was vaccuum-packed into the box and when we cut the plastic open, it seemed to inflate itself. We lay down on the newly-unpacked mattress and it felt like lying on an inflating marshmallow.
I've now been sleeping on the mattress for 6 nights, and each night is a new acid-trip adventure.
One night I was wearing a flamenco-style skirt and peeing in a pail - the 'washroom' - behind some bookshelves at an artist-run centre. The next night, Serena Williams was being bitten by sea turtles in the ocean. I visited Tina Fey at her house, which was decorated almost entirely in toys. I had a look at the insides of my own body. I went hiking in a wintery wilderness and found elk antlers, and carted them with me, which was awkward because I had to be fearful of stalking bears (yes I know that bears hibernate). I was in an jumbo airliner flying between the buildings of Vancouver, right over the streets and almost scraping the buildings with the wingtips, but to be fair that is a dream that I've had before.
Every night, I kind of dread what's coming up, because I wake up not knowing which end is up and I'm exhausted from all of the action.
This mattress makes a lot of claims. It claims to repel allergens with some technology that involves silver somehow. It claims to boost metabolism, but I'm still waiting to see the results of that. All I can say is that it's a shocker to lay down on, because it feels like my bed is made of plywood, but it softens under me and is so super comfy that I think about it all day. My old-lady hip still hurts but I care less, and I think it's just a matter of finding the right position. The only problem is my shoulders - what do most humans do with their shoulders when they sleep? My arms are always in the way, or they're falling asleep, which is super scary - ever wake up feeling like a dead guy is groping your leg? I have. But it was my own dead arm, which took about 10 minutes to revive, even after mouth-to-mouth. Nice. My husband and I were wondering the other day what it would be like if we had detachable arms like Barbie dolls, which we could take off before sleeping and pop back on the next morning. Our only problem was how to get them back on with no arms? Teeth? Special arm racks? We spend too much time alone together, he and I.
Anyway, I guess it's no wonder my dreams are what they are.
Long story short - I love the mattress. I love it. My hip, shoulders and brain still have to get used to it, but it's nice and high, and it has the added benefit of not being older than I am.
* Also the name of my future band, which will sound a lot like a cross between Stereolab and Indian music.
My mom talked the poor sales guy into giving it to us for $100 off, which was the flyer price of the previous week, and so I carted the box home and hubby and I gleefully unwrapped the thing. Memory foam is interesting. It was vaccuum-packed into the box and when we cut the plastic open, it seemed to inflate itself. We lay down on the newly-unpacked mattress and it felt like lying on an inflating marshmallow.
I've now been sleeping on the mattress for 6 nights, and each night is a new acid-trip adventure.
One night I was wearing a flamenco-style skirt and peeing in a pail - the 'washroom' - behind some bookshelves at an artist-run centre. The next night, Serena Williams was being bitten by sea turtles in the ocean. I visited Tina Fey at her house, which was decorated almost entirely in toys. I had a look at the insides of my own body. I went hiking in a wintery wilderness and found elk antlers, and carted them with me, which was awkward because I had to be fearful of stalking bears (yes I know that bears hibernate). I was in an jumbo airliner flying between the buildings of Vancouver, right over the streets and almost scraping the buildings with the wingtips, but to be fair that is a dream that I've had before.
Every night, I kind of dread what's coming up, because I wake up not knowing which end is up and I'm exhausted from all of the action.
This mattress makes a lot of claims. It claims to repel allergens with some technology that involves silver somehow. It claims to boost metabolism, but I'm still waiting to see the results of that. All I can say is that it's a shocker to lay down on, because it feels like my bed is made of plywood, but it softens under me and is so super comfy that I think about it all day. My old-lady hip still hurts but I care less, and I think it's just a matter of finding the right position. The only problem is my shoulders - what do most humans do with their shoulders when they sleep? My arms are always in the way, or they're falling asleep, which is super scary - ever wake up feeling like a dead guy is groping your leg? I have. But it was my own dead arm, which took about 10 minutes to revive, even after mouth-to-mouth. Nice. My husband and I were wondering the other day what it would be like if we had detachable arms like Barbie dolls, which we could take off before sleeping and pop back on the next morning. Our only problem was how to get them back on with no arms? Teeth? Special arm racks? We spend too much time alone together, he and I.
Anyway, I guess it's no wonder my dreams are what they are.
Long story short - I love the mattress. I love it. My hip, shoulders and brain still have to get used to it, but it's nice and high, and it has the added benefit of not being older than I am.
* Also the name of my future band, which will sound a lot like a cross between Stereolab and Indian music.
3/2/07
Snow days
Just when I thought winter was over, today we get a snow storm. Snow and ice and all other matter is falling from the sky, and I feel like it should be a snow day, only here I am at work. Bah.
I am spending much of my 'free' day searching the internet for ways that I can green up my life. I don't mean with plants and stuff, but I mean to reduce my impact on the globe by living responsibly. There are a lot of bad things that we do:
- live 45 minutes away from work, requiring a vehicle and a commute
- fly around Canada a lot for work
- buy stuff, not always with the environment in mind
- eat food that comes from far far away
- use some cleaning products that aren't wonderful
- use halogen and incandescent bulbs at home
- heat with hydro and firewood
- power the house with hydro
- have three older cars, two of which don't work (don't ask)
- have renovated the house with no regard to sustainable materials
- love car races
- buy things like books and stuff online, when I could easily walk down to the bookstore at lunch.
However, there are a lot of good things that I/we do:
- recycle everything. I mean everything
- compost almost everything else
- grow our own veggies in the summer
- replacing the incandescent with CFL lighbulbs whenever they wear out
- economize on my laundry wherever possible
- dry on the line in the summer
- turn off the lights around the house when they're left on
- commute together, and don't use the two oldest vehicles
- plant trees and more plants
- garden completely organically
- catch our own fish to eat
- use non-toxic cleaning products, vinegar, baking soda, method brand stuff, when possible
- don't take a bag all of the time
- re-use plastic bags as much as possible
- clean out all milk bags, zip-locks, etc - recycle the really old ones
- take very few airplane vacations - or double-up, making work trips vacations too
- don't print emails or anything ridiculous like that
- print/write on both sides of paper
- use old envelopes as notepads
- all our water comes from a well - is unchlorinated etc and delicious
- economize water - water plants with leftover standing water glasses, etc.
- don't water my grass or garden (much) in summer
- donate old magazines to doctors' offices once in a while
- buy a lot of used things - furniture, housewares, etc. at garage sales and thrift stores.
Just writing this is giving me ideas for all of the things that I could be doing better. I could be bringing cloth tote bags to the grocery store (but then what would I use for garbage bags?). I could be riding my bicycle to my parents' in the summer instead of driving. I could be buying all cleaning products from method. I can replace the windows in my house to make it more energy efficient. I can eat more local produce and meat. I need to get rid of one of my cars, but first, I am going to teach myself simple auto repair with it. The car we use for commuting is eventually going to be switched for a hybrid - mama wants a Prius baby. That is a hot ride.
I need to influence my workplace to be more efficient - it drives me bananas to see people printing out every last email and keeping paper copies in folders, it's so weird. Those things can easily be saved to the hard drive. I take home recycled paper from the office to my house for printing, but nobody else does this, and the 'recycled paper' pile is like a foot high. Nobody uses the stuff. Also, our computers are 'sleeping' all night all over the office, and sucking power as they do. I for one am going to unplug everything every night, or put it on a smart power bar.
There's so much waste around us every day, so many things that people do thoughtlessly that can be remedied really easily. People have bad habits which can easily be broken. I am not perfect - lord knows I still shop online and eat whatever's put in front of me - but I am trying to at least be aware of my slip-ups so that one day I can pass good habits on to another generation. My little brother got down in the dumps one day about everything, the state of the world, and told my mom that it made him not want to have kids. I think the right thing to do is to go ahead and have a kid, but raise them responsibly and with awareness, so they can enact change when their time comes. Things ought get better through the generations as people become more aware. It's a responsibility to make good people to balance out the ones who will be end up being agents of waste and destruction.
I am spending much of my 'free' day searching the internet for ways that I can green up my life. I don't mean with plants and stuff, but I mean to reduce my impact on the globe by living responsibly. There are a lot of bad things that we do:
- live 45 minutes away from work, requiring a vehicle and a commute
- fly around Canada a lot for work
- buy stuff, not always with the environment in mind
- eat food that comes from far far away
- use some cleaning products that aren't wonderful
- use halogen and incandescent bulbs at home
- heat with hydro and firewood
- power the house with hydro
- have three older cars, two of which don't work (don't ask)
- have renovated the house with no regard to sustainable materials
- love car races
- buy things like books and stuff online, when I could easily walk down to the bookstore at lunch.
However, there are a lot of good things that I/we do:
- recycle everything. I mean everything
- compost almost everything else
- grow our own veggies in the summer
- replacing the incandescent with CFL lighbulbs whenever they wear out
- economize on my laundry wherever possible
- dry on the line in the summer
- turn off the lights around the house when they're left on
- commute together, and don't use the two oldest vehicles
- plant trees and more plants
- garden completely organically
- catch our own fish to eat
- use non-toxic cleaning products, vinegar, baking soda, method brand stuff, when possible
- don't take a bag all of the time
- re-use plastic bags as much as possible
- clean out all milk bags, zip-locks, etc - recycle the really old ones
- take very few airplane vacations - or double-up, making work trips vacations too
- don't print emails or anything ridiculous like that
- print/write on both sides of paper
- use old envelopes as notepads
- all our water comes from a well - is unchlorinated etc and delicious
- economize water - water plants with leftover standing water glasses, etc.
- don't water my grass or garden (much) in summer
- donate old magazines to doctors' offices once in a while
- buy a lot of used things - furniture, housewares, etc. at garage sales and thrift stores.
Just writing this is giving me ideas for all of the things that I could be doing better. I could be bringing cloth tote bags to the grocery store (but then what would I use for garbage bags?). I could be riding my bicycle to my parents' in the summer instead of driving. I could be buying all cleaning products from method. I can replace the windows in my house to make it more energy efficient. I can eat more local produce and meat. I need to get rid of one of my cars, but first, I am going to teach myself simple auto repair with it. The car we use for commuting is eventually going to be switched for a hybrid - mama wants a Prius baby. That is a hot ride.
I need to influence my workplace to be more efficient - it drives me bananas to see people printing out every last email and keeping paper copies in folders, it's so weird. Those things can easily be saved to the hard drive. I take home recycled paper from the office to my house for printing, but nobody else does this, and the 'recycled paper' pile is like a foot high. Nobody uses the stuff. Also, our computers are 'sleeping' all night all over the office, and sucking power as they do. I for one am going to unplug everything every night, or put it on a smart power bar.
There's so much waste around us every day, so many things that people do thoughtlessly that can be remedied really easily. People have bad habits which can easily be broken. I am not perfect - lord knows I still shop online and eat whatever's put in front of me - but I am trying to at least be aware of my slip-ups so that one day I can pass good habits on to another generation. My little brother got down in the dumps one day about everything, the state of the world, and told my mom that it made him not want to have kids. I think the right thing to do is to go ahead and have a kid, but raise them responsibly and with awareness, so they can enact change when their time comes. Things ought get better through the generations as people become more aware. It's a responsibility to make good people to balance out the ones who will be end up being agents of waste and destruction.
2/28/07
A good day.
Today is going to be a good day. I can feel it in my bones.
How do I know this?
My hair looks hot.
My cold/bronchitis/tuberculosis thingy is going away.
My co-worker is gone.
And this morning's tear-away Far Side Calendar cartoon is my all-time favourite: the goldfish bowl's on fire, the fish are all standing on the table, and one says "Well thank God we all made it out on time.... 'Course now we're equally screwed." Good times.
How do I know this?
My hair looks hot.
My cold/bronchitis/tuberculosis thingy is going away.
My weight loss is showing.
My co-worker is gone.
And this morning's tear-away Far Side Calendar cartoon is my all-time favourite: the goldfish bowl's on fire, the fish are all standing on the table, and one says "Well thank God we all made it out on time.... 'Course now we're equally screwed." Good times.
2/21/07
I am still alive
... I think.
So I've been off the radar for a while. Not that I have a huge readership out there worrying about me, but I have not felt the need to blog since - whoa - last July. Dang . Sadly, not much has happened in my world since then, hence the lack of blog postings. If I use my wee brain to think back to last July, I can list all of the new things and issues in my life forthwith:
September: Half-sister-in-law and husband visited from Germany. I went to Vancouver and Kelowna, came back to visit with them some more in October
October: Not much else happened in October.
November: I was unexpectedly given a large-profile project at work, added onto my regular responsibilities, and was working like a mad drooling fiend for the entire month. November 30 we left for...
December: ... our trip to Europe. We flew to Paris, stayed a couple of days with a friend there, and then rented a car (surprise! A 2007 Volkswagon Cabriolet, with glass slide-down roof, and 6 gears) to drive through Germany to Austria. We saw Neuschwanstein Castle, drove the Autobahn real fast, and delighted in the Austrian Alps in a snow-less December. We went to Graz and to Vienna. I heart Austria, and it was super to stay with the in-laws, especially over the Saint-Nicholas holiday (and Krampusnacht! wheee!).
We came home and had a Christmas party. Then more crazy work events, all in one week (Dec. 11 back from europe. Dec. 12 back to work. Dec. 13 event. Dec. 14 event. Dec. 16 party). Phew December was busy.
January: Blech. We had a new year's party at my brother's place, where I partied like I was 19. Phew I drank a lot of whisky and tried to sleep under his christmas tree. Thanks to an ice storm, none of us could drive home (he lives at the top of a hill) and so we walked to my parents' house at 5 a.m. to crash. I fell on the icy hill, and my hip has been killing me ever since. So much for feeling 19.
The snow was late, so we didn't get in any skiing until late in the month, but we've been skiing regularly since.
Also, on my doctor's recommendation, I began a diet (or regimen, as I like to call it) on Jan. 2. I am not overweight - well, I was on the border of being overweight BMI-wise - but she suspected I have a condition which could improve with a bit of weight-loss. So I have lost 15 lbs since Jan. 2, and am enjoying it quite a bit. I had all of my pants taken in, and that felt pretty darn good. I figure I'll try for another 10 lbs just to get me into bikini form, for shits and giggles, and then try to stay there (ha!). The only down-side - my wedding rings are loose now.
February: Skiing a lot. I went to Saskatchewan and then to Dawson Creek BC, which was a fabulous trip.
One of my cats (the eldest, Peter) is sick and we don't know with what, but she's 18 and has lost a lot of weight. So I spent all of my paycheques in jan. and feb. on the vet for tests that were ultimately inconclusive (sigh).
That about brings us up to speed. I have loads of photos but it all feels like too much effort to post them, or even to look at them. I am literally exhausted. I am sick today, February has gotten me down, and I'm tired of work. All I want to do is sleep for a month, or just stay home and make stuff and listen to music. Though my CD player is unreliable these days, it's on its way out, which is an endless source of anger and frustration.
Also, and I guess this is the really big nasty adventure, I seem to be infertile. We are now with the fertility clinic, so we'll see what comes out of it, or who comes out of it, but for now it's a major source of frustration and unhappiness, at least for me. We're at a year and a half of trying now, which I realize isn't a lot for some people, but I was graced with extreme beauty and not patience when I was born (ha ha ha). Hubby is enjoying the trying part, but I feel like a big flop. Everyone around me is reproducing, and I'm finding it hard to drum up the requisite enthusiasm for them - I'm kind of going through the motions, in general. Anyway, that's a topic covered on lots of other blogs, so I'll leave it to them.
Needless to say, the garden had better be fertile this year to make up for it. I have a lot of work to do come spring. I recently looked at my last spring's to-do list, and realized that I did only about 2 things on it.
So I've been off the radar for a while. Not that I have a huge readership out there worrying about me, but I have not felt the need to blog since - whoa - last July. Dang . Sadly, not much has happened in my world since then, hence the lack of blog postings. If I use my wee brain to think back to last July, I can list all of the new things and issues in my life forthwith:
September: Half-sister-in-law and husband visited from Germany. I went to Vancouver and Kelowna, came back to visit with them some more in October
October: Not much else happened in October.
November: I was unexpectedly given a large-profile project at work, added onto my regular responsibilities, and was working like a mad drooling fiend for the entire month. November 30 we left for...
December: ... our trip to Europe. We flew to Paris, stayed a couple of days with a friend there, and then rented a car (surprise! A 2007 Volkswagon Cabriolet, with glass slide-down roof, and 6 gears) to drive through Germany to Austria. We saw Neuschwanstein Castle, drove the Autobahn real fast, and delighted in the Austrian Alps in a snow-less December. We went to Graz and to Vienna. I heart Austria, and it was super to stay with the in-laws, especially over the Saint-Nicholas holiday (and Krampusnacht! wheee!).
We came home and had a Christmas party. Then more crazy work events, all in one week (Dec. 11 back from europe. Dec. 12 back to work. Dec. 13 event. Dec. 14 event. Dec. 16 party). Phew December was busy.
January: Blech. We had a new year's party at my brother's place, where I partied like I was 19. Phew I drank a lot of whisky and tried to sleep under his christmas tree. Thanks to an ice storm, none of us could drive home (he lives at the top of a hill) and so we walked to my parents' house at 5 a.m. to crash. I fell on the icy hill, and my hip has been killing me ever since. So much for feeling 19.
The snow was late, so we didn't get in any skiing until late in the month, but we've been skiing regularly since.
Also, on my doctor's recommendation, I began a diet (or regimen, as I like to call it) on Jan. 2. I am not overweight - well, I was on the border of being overweight BMI-wise - but she suspected I have a condition which could improve with a bit of weight-loss. So I have lost 15 lbs since Jan. 2, and am enjoying it quite a bit. I had all of my pants taken in, and that felt pretty darn good. I figure I'll try for another 10 lbs just to get me into bikini form, for shits and giggles, and then try to stay there (ha!). The only down-side - my wedding rings are loose now.
February: Skiing a lot. I went to Saskatchewan and then to Dawson Creek BC, which was a fabulous trip.
One of my cats (the eldest, Peter) is sick and we don't know with what, but she's 18 and has lost a lot of weight. So I spent all of my paycheques in jan. and feb. on the vet for tests that were ultimately inconclusive (sigh).
That about brings us up to speed. I have loads of photos but it all feels like too much effort to post them, or even to look at them. I am literally exhausted. I am sick today, February has gotten me down, and I'm tired of work. All I want to do is sleep for a month, or just stay home and make stuff and listen to music. Though my CD player is unreliable these days, it's on its way out, which is an endless source of anger and frustration.
Also, and I guess this is the really big nasty adventure, I seem to be infertile. We are now with the fertility clinic, so we'll see what comes out of it, or who comes out of it, but for now it's a major source of frustration and unhappiness, at least for me. We're at a year and a half of trying now, which I realize isn't a lot for some people, but I was graced with extreme beauty and not patience when I was born (ha ha ha). Hubby is enjoying the trying part, but I feel like a big flop. Everyone around me is reproducing, and I'm finding it hard to drum up the requisite enthusiasm for them - I'm kind of going through the motions, in general. Anyway, that's a topic covered on lots of other blogs, so I'll leave it to them.
Needless to say, the garden had better be fertile this year to make up for it. I have a lot of work to do come spring. I recently looked at my last spring's to-do list, and realized that I did only about 2 things on it.
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