pixxiefish in the sea

Everything in its own time...

2012-01-22T21:53:00.000-05:00

So with the exception of 15 months in 2006-07, I have lived in Ottawa since September 2004. That's almost 7 1/2 years now. And you know what I did today for the FIRST TIME?

Yes, I know. Amazing, and kind of sad, all at once.*

I have walked across the Canal once or twice in the wintertime in my boots. But I don't think I ever went skating. Maaaaaybe once, but I don't even think so.

So today, after Settlers' brunch,** I walked down to my friend Emily's place in the Glebe, and we went to the Canal. We got on near Fifth Avenue, and skated all the way up to the National Arts Centre, where this photo was taken (as well as the following ones). Then we skated all the way back down to the Bank Street Bridge, which is as far as the Canal is currently open, then back up to Fifth.

It was awesome, and I plan on going a few more times in the next couple of weeks for sure.

* And as an aside to myself, next time I get my picture snapped whilst wearing my backpack, take off the waist strap. It is just not flattering over a puffy winter jacket.

** Some friends of mine have been meeting every Sunday for 2+ years for brunch at one of the pubs on Elgin Street to play Settlers of Catan (Cities & Knights). I started going in mid-November. Such a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

Nom nom nom.*

2012-01-14T01:46:00.003-05:00

This evening, a friend of mine posted on her Facebook page about these awesome sweet-yet-spicy cupcakes she had just made. And it turns out that, while I thought I was feeling relaxed, sleepy (having just gone swimming at the local pool), and ready to turn in for the night, I was actually feeling highly suggestible.

Seriously. What am I going to do with 24 cupcakes?**

The recipe is an all-vegan one, and it just happened I had all the ingredients to make both the cupcakes and the icing.

Or so I thought.

Recipes aren't actually meant to be followed, are they? I thought my actual "challenge" would be the fact that I had no cocoa powder, just unsweetened chocolate squares. Not such a challenge, actually: Unsweetened Chocolate Squares, meet Food Processor! Well, to be more specific, meet Food Processor Whom I Have Owned For At Least 18 Months But Have Never Used. Which meant I had to go (dig out of an as-yet unpacked box and) introduce myself to the manual for said Food Processor.***

Once I got the food processor up and running, I realized I also had no icing sugar for the frosting, just regular sugar, the icing sugar having met its fate a couple of weeks previously in some Christmas and New Year's desserts. So thus began the long evening of Googling various baking substitutes.

To wit:

Icing sugar can be made by blending regular sugar.
When you stupidly use all your regular sugar to make icing sugar, you can then substitute brown sugar for regular sugar.
Baking powder instead of baking soda, but only if you use 3-4 times the amount called for, and never the other way around.
Butter instead of margarine is always recommended, but when you run out of butter halfway through your substitution, you're screwed. Or, like I did, you can use some canola/vegetable oil to top up.
When you run out of canola oil, you can top up using margarine (don't ask).
No vanilla extract? Yeah, too bad.

The above list is the sort of reason why I think I make a better librarian than baker.

However. The cupcakes turned out fantastic! Sooooo tasty. The cayenne pepper dances lightly on your tongue, yet they are sweet. Lovely.

But the icing! Alas. When I made the icing sugar, I hadn't had quite enough regular organic sugar, so I mixed it with raw turbinado. Apparently I haven't learned my lesson from Christmas when I managed to muff up the Best Brownies In The World recipe, which I have been making for 25+ years, by using turbinado instead of regular sugar. Those members of my family who tried to eat the resulting brownie might find the following picture of the icing familiar.

While it looked pretty, it tasted like someone put sucre à crème directly on top. Granular and crunchy, not in a good way.

Tomorrow I have to go to the grocery store - having managed to exhaust my supply of 2 different kinds of sugar, vanilla extract, flour, vegetable oil and butter, all in one night**** - and I have decided that what these cupcakes really, truly need is cream cheese icing. Probably from Betty Crocker; my kitchen is enough of a mess now, thank you.

* Alternately titled, The Benefit Of Living Alone Is That No One Knows You Baked And Ate Cupcakes After Spending The Evening Swimming At The Pool.

** Well, 23 cupcakes now. But who's counting?

*** I first tried to figure it out sans manual. But it turns out my parents were right when they told my grade-9 Industrial Technology teacher that "Julie just has no head for machines".

**** Plus I need chili powder and beans for my next foray into strange and unusual cooking.

And now, for something completely different

2012-01-13T19:33:00.000-05:00

I am totally addicted to the sad adventures of Misery Bear, brought to us by some brilliant minds at BBC.

You can access all his films on his website and on YouTube (I note there are some listed on YouTube that aren't on his website). My favourite, of course, is Dawn of the Ted:

Genius. Though I have to admit, the Red Nose Day special with Kate Moss* comes a close second, because of the ironic-yet-oh-so-clever twist at the end.* Not to mention it starts and finishes with one of the best songs EVER**.

OMG am I ever addicted; I just spent a ton of time exploring his website and discovered that Misery Bear even has his own Twitter feed, which I am now (of course) subscribed to.

And THEN, as if that wasn't exciting enough, I discovered Misery Bear has a WEBCAM!!! I am never going to get anything done, ever again.***

* Red Nose Day is apparently a national day of fundraising by doing something funny.

** Seriously, I can't express how much I love this song - I honestly can listen to it over and over and over again. And the video is so lovely, all 9 minutes of it.

*** OK, maybe the fact I like the Kate Moss episode so much is a sign of something more...disturbing...

All's quiet on --SPLAT!

2012-01-09T22:38:00.002-05:00

Last night I went to Trailer Park Bingo for the first time ever. A couple of friends of mine go almost every week. This week, Kate and I decided to go as well (she has been before).

I won a bingo! Very exciting. I had to roll a ring down the "Blingo" board to see what my prize would be.

There's loads of great and not-so-great prizes you can win. Old board games, VHS movies, tacky wall hangings, etc. Mostly, the prizes have the "kitsch that's kind of kitschy but is so ending up back at Goodwill" factor. But no. I don't win one of those. No way. Nothing quite so pedestrian for me.

Twice my Blingo ended up on "Mystery Box", but there weren't any boxes left. Then I ended up on "Nut", which is where you pick a number out of this large wooden nut, and then Flash Cadillac, the Bingo caller, matches up the number off his list of prizes. I won "PIE". Then, I had to pick out of a second, smaller nut, to see whom I would be pie-ing. The piece of paper said "EWE".

There's sheep at Trailer Park Bingo???

... ...

Aww, crap.

Yup, on my very first-ever Trailer Park Bingo, I managed to win, via a very circuitous, labyrinthine route, the prize of being pied in the face. C.P., one of the guys who works the bar, got to do the honours.

My post-pie reaction? "Mmm, tasty!" It was whipped cream and raspberry/strawberry drizzle. I am apparently lucky - one of the guys we were with, Alex, has been pied in the past, and his pie was alphagetti and grenadine. Kinda ick.

After helping me clean up, C.P. gave me a free beer and shots for my table.* I debated drinking them all myself, but I was nice, and shared with the 4 people I used to consider my friends.

For the record, whipped cream detritus makes your hair really crunchy and stiff. It also makes you smell nice, if a little flowery :)

* Alex also said he didn't get any free booze after being pied. So I win!

You Bought A Zoo! I Went Swimming!

2012-01-05T23:10:00.000-05:00

When I moved to my new neighbourhood in October, my good friend Kate, who lives right near here, made me promise that we would go swimming on a regular basis at the newly-renovated community centre pool which is literally a 2-minute walk from my place (and about 7 minutes from her place). Absolutely, I said!

Well, as you can probably guess, what then ensued was a weeks-long-turned-months-long set of creative excuses, day after day, why one or the other of us couldn't go swimming the next day. As Kate said at one point, we're such hipsters we stopped swimming before we even started. Ha.

But now! We are swimming! Last Friday, we actually made it out. Kate went another time this week as well, and then we went again tonight. And while I don't remember swimming ever being this...EXHAUSTING...it's fun! Tonight after work, I bought swim goggles because I realized last week that I'm slightly panicked about putting my head in the water and not being able to see (I wear contacts so I have to close my eyes).* I'm used to snorkeling and scuba-diving, see, and a key feature of those activities is that YOU CAN SEE. That's kind of the point, actually. My new goggles rock! Though it turns out I am TERRIBLE at swimming. It's a lot of work when you don't have a BCD or flippers! I may look into remedial adult-swim classes later this winter. In the meantime, there's absolutely no shame in swimming with a flutterboard in the slow lane, right?

* Wearing contacts, which I only started doing just over a year ago, is a definite plus. One of the reasons I was always reluctant to go swimming in the past is that I couldn't find my way around. Swimming is no fun when you can't tell the swimmers from the sharks in the pool.**

** When I was a kid, I was convinced that if I took my eyes off the deep end, a shark would swim out of one of the water-exchange grills. This was particularly a danger at the pool at my grandmaman's old condo in Quebec City, which was kind of dark, shadowy and mysterious, at least to a 10-year-old.

Rion the Extra-Terrier

2012-01-03T22:13:00.001-05:00

I leave my dog alone all day and when I get home, I can't find him because he's doing his best E.T. impression.*

But that's not the best shot from today. No, that prize goes to "Would someone get this frackin' paparazzi out of my face already!"

I love my dog :)

* All together now: "Ell-ee-ott. Owww."

Last night of vacation!

2012-01-02T22:06:00.002-05:00

Tonight is my last night of vacation, and my best guy and I got all dolled up for a night out on the town!

After getting lost in the townhouse complex on Primrose, however, we decided to call it a night and head home.*

This morning, I busted Rion out of prison,** then we had a 2-hour nap,*** then we had pretzels for lunch and played on the computer all the rest of the afternoon. It's been an almost perfect last day of vacation.

I have Rion for at least the rest of the week, so we'll have to see what madcap adventures we can have over the next few days. At the very least, I'd like to get him hooked on Arrested Development.

* Getting lost on Primrose takes talent if you know what a short block this end of Primrose is.

** aka the kennel. Though I suspect he wouldn't have been sad if I hadn't come to get him, since he absolutely loves it there. And there are way more dogs at the kennel than there are at my house.

*** Actual length: 2 1/2 hours. It was the best decision I made all day.

Happy New Year 2012!

2012-01-01T23:24:00.000-05:00

Visual representation of how I felt this morning when I woke up:

And further visual representation of the post-NYE morning (well, early afternoon) debauchery:

aka breakfast cereal and coffee with friends, complete with invitation to zombie movie marathon (alas, i did not make it)

Happy New Year 2012!
this is pixxiefish in the sea, making no promises for the year to come :)

What's she building in there?*

2011-08-16T23:06:00.001-04:00

Recently spotted in my bedroom. What could it be???

Too small for a hat.

Too round for a pair of socks.

The stumpiest, most unattached gloves you ever did see?

A ball for the dog, perhaps?

Complete with oozing green stuff.

But yes, of course, it's another Elefante!

I made this one for my friends Rebecca and Jonathan's little girl, Jada. I love this yarn. It's self-striping sock yarn, so it looks more complicated than my last Elefante, but it wasn't. This one is smaller. The ears went on a little wonky, however, so it looks a bit more like a mouse with a very long nose than an elephant. But so easy! And so much fun to knit! I'm planning to make at least two more in the near future.

* With apologies to Tom Waits.

So this one time? In Vancouver?

2011-08-11T19:10:00.010-04:00

I went to a conference in Prince George, B.C.,* near the end of June, and afterwards, spent a day and a half in Vancouver visiting with my good friend Donna.

I first met Donna 18 years ago when my family moved to Thornhill. We used to walk home from school together, about a 40-minute walk.** Donna and I have not lived in the same city for well over 12 years now - probably longer - so I only get to see her once or, if I'm lucky, twice a year. Not nearly enough.

Arriving late in Vancouver on a Friday night and then leaving just after lunch on Sunday afternoon means you call your visit "a day and a half in length", but it really is just one day. We had grand plans for our day together, the majority of which were quickly scuttled by car troubles. Doing the Grouse Grind*** had to give way to walking to the Canadian Tire to buy a new car battery and then walking back to Donna's place with the car battery in the baby stroller and the baby strapped to his mom.**** In the rain.

But we did get to chat till late together, and we did get to go for breakfast together (twice!), and we did get to wander the streets together, and we did get to generally hang out and catch up. Later on the Saturday, once the car problems were resolved, the sun was coming out so we drove out to West Vancouver to meet up with Donna's husband Matt once he got off work, and we walked the seawall.

That was the point when I remembered I had packed a camera:

I think something is wrong with my camera, however. Because other than the one I posted above, the only picture I got of my lovely hosts is of their backsides:

And despite him being one of my favourite babies of all time, I didn't manage to get a single photo of little Jacob, though I did manage to get no less than 5 - five! - shots of this little guy:

Neither as cute nor as cuddly, not by a long shot.

You can see the full set of West Vancouver seawall photos, including a surprise a little cuddlier than the giant slug, on my Flickr pages.

* It rained the entire time in PG. And my hotel was in the middle of nowhere. The conference was about copyright issues, so not very photographic. So I have no pictures of PG, other than my hotel room.

** We never walked to school together, just home. I think because I mostly would get a ride down with my dad in the mornings. There was also a school bus that I avoided like the plague - I think I took it to school about 3 times in one year.

*** I'm not saying we would have done the Grouse Grind, just that it quickly became not-an-option.

**** I got to pretend I had a child, as I pushed the stroller, albeit a child with wires and acid. LOL :)

(Knitting) update

2011-07-07T18:33:00.000-04:00

So remember back in April? When I posted that I had 6 days to finish a certain project for a certain baby?

Goodness gracious, great ball of --???

I was supposed to bring this as part of a baby shower gift...happening the day after I took this picture. From the advanced state in which it is clearly in, needless to say, it didn't get finished in time.

I ended up working on it only occasionally, and then finished it in time for a trip out West in late June, where my friend lives. Of course, being me, I did the final touches at about midnight the night before seeing her!

Hey li'l guy, why so shy and scared?

Awww, no wonder he's so shy and scared. He can't hear or see!

Ahhhh, that's better.

This is Jacob's Elefante. I love him so much, I want to make 17 more. But I'll probably stick to 2 or 3 for now.

I even made him a buddy!

Or, well, maybe not.

Jacob's Elefante discovers mirrors, though his skill with sink taps is not yet very well developed.

Happy Day!

2011-05-26T23:32:00.001-04:00

I was away for about 10 days this month, and when I got back, there were two letters waiting for me.

Let me make it clear: The. Two. Best. Letters. Ever.

Making May 23, 2011, despite being the day I returned to Ottawa from a wonderful vacation out west, The. Best. Day. Ever.

pixxiefish in the sea: The Food Network Edition*

2011-05-01T22:55:00.015-04:00

About once a month, I ~~blog~~ ...er, cook.

Since it was May Day, I figured I should get the monthly cooking duty over with.**

When we were at Costco the weekend before last, we bought a 3-pack of tofu. Now, we like tofu. But I think the amount of times we have cooked with tofu at home is also in the neighbourhood of 3. But! Between last night's dinner and tonight's, we are now down to only ONE block of tofu remaining :)

I found a recipe online for tofu with peanut-ginger sauce. Now I have a distinct memory of us having bought a peanut sauce a while back, but my pantry is apparently so well-organized that I couldn't find it. However, this recipe was so easy, it didn't matter.

Here's how I made it:

Sauce

I ended up making 1.5 times the amount of sauce the recipe called for, since I threw in so many more vegetables than it called for (see below). I eyeballed the .5 ...and I should have just doubled it, in retrospect (though it was still dee-lish).

7.5 tablespoons water
6 tablespoons natural peanut butter (recipe called for smooth but I only had chunky)
1.5 tablespoons white vinegar
3 teaspoons soy sauce (due to eyeballing, I put in almost 4)
3 teaspoons honey
3 teaspoons minced ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced

Mix all sauce ingredients in a small bowl, and set aside.

Tofu and vegetables

4 cups baby spinach (I used the more accurate measurement called "5 handfuls")
random veggies in the fridge: sugar snap peas; baby carrots, chopped; broccoli; tomatoes;*** 1 white onion.

15 ounces extra-firm tofu (I used one 10.5 pack plus the remaining half of another, leftover from dinner the night before)
olive oil

Drain and rinse tofu; pat dry. (I put it on paper towel on a plate and squished it under another plate. I also realize, as I look at this again, that I totally skipped the "rinse" step. Meh.) Cut into approximately 1/2-inch thick cubes.

Heat oil in wok over high heat. Add tofu and cook in a single layer, without stirring, until the pieces begin to turn golden brown on the bottom, about 5 minutes. Then stir and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until all sides are golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes more.

Add onions and carrots. Then add green beans, spinach, and peanut sauce. Then panic that green beans were added too early, and pick them out one at a time. Once green beans completely removed, realize it is time to put them back in. Put them back in. At least the in-and-out kept you busy for 90 seconds.**** Add the other veggies.

Oh, yes - very important: Use the lid that is still too small for the wok to help steam the veggies.

Make quinoa***** to accompany on the side.

Eat, enjoy, and learn to take better photographs of food.

Makes 4 servings - yay for leftovers!

* aka "Pigs Are Flying! Julie Is Cooking!"
** This photograph is also an excuse to show off (albeit poorly) the new haircut. So! Short!
*** Yes! Me! I know! I hate tomatoes! And you know what? I didn't die!
**** And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I don't cook on a regular basis.
***** Quinoa = my new favourite thing.

A whole lot of...

2011-04-17T23:07:00.001-04:00

I can't tell you what this is yet. But I should be able to by Saturday. Y'know, the day this knitting project needs to be done by.

"Good evening, shoppers. There is a seniors' special in Aisle 7."

2011-03-23T20:35:00.003-04:00

When I bought this a few weeks ago, Randal said out loud what I had been secretly fearing in my heart - that a day-of-the-week pill dispenser is what old people buy. Yup, this is now the only way I can keep track of what day it is - Tuesday: have I had my pills yet today? (Don't worry; I took this photo yesterday - yes, I know today is Wednesday.)

sigh - I'm sure Depends, dinner at 4 p.m., and people ceding their seat to me on the bus is not far behind.*

Something else to which I have resorted in my old age: liquid diets:

Yeah, OK, maybe not.

Jerome and Nadia came over the weekend before last with a bunch of things they had brought back for us from my parents' house in Toronto, and to thank them, we made cream soda ice cream floats. They were so pretty! And tasty, too. As if that needs to be pointed out.

Finally, I am now going to post what is hopefully the last photo with snow in it for this winter.**

Compare last week Tuesday with this week Tuesday:

There's hope yet, no?

* Seriously, though, I am currently on anti-coagulants for a blood clot I suffered on the flight home from Egypt (yeah, as if going to Egypt in January wasn't exciting enough on its own), and I have to take a different amount of pills most days, so in my defence, this really is the only way I can keep track. At least, that's what I will tell the social services people when they try to cart me away to a long-term care home.

** Dang. I just jinxed myself real good, didn't I?

"ALL SHALL LOVE ME AND DESPAIR---!"

2011-03-22T18:31:00.003-04:00

Darth Vader discovers what the Emperor does all day long, sitting alone in the Death Star.

I'm sure if the Emperor had any real colour left in his skin, he'd be blushing right now.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

2011-03-21T21:03:00.001-04:00

At least I didn't wait till Saint Paddy's Day to take the tree down this year.

No, sirree! It came down on March 13, a full 4 days earlier! (This picture, and others from the night before.)

For those of you who care to track these things, that's a full 8 days earlier than last year.

Yay me!

Oh, and you know what my reward for taking the tree down was? THIS:

Yeah, more snow. That was last Tuesday, AFTER a period of melting. This past weekend, more melting,* but then, what did today give us? You got it: MORE SNOW.

*sigh*

I hear they are looking for a law librarian in the Bahamas. ...À propos of completely nothing.

* or so I hear. I was in Toronto. It was lovely, shirt-sleeves weather there. Hey, Mom and Dad! You sure you want to move to this frozen outpost???

Be careful what you wish for...

2011-03-11T21:28:00.000-05:00

OK, the extreme snow has sucked. But on the other hand, the extreme rain that we got overnight last night plus some heavy-duty melting today...has not led to green grass but rather, extreme wet socks and doggy paws.

Another week of Yuck, and we might be good. However, I hear it's supposed to snow again on Sunday.

After today's squooshing walk through the snow*, I'm not sure if that's actually a bad thing anymore. We could use some snow to fill in those horrid wet spots. *sigh*

* Or rather, the white substance bearing a passing resemblance to snow which actually is a front for a peculiarly Canadian springtime torture device called the Footwear Ultra-Soaker.

"UNCLE!"*

2011-03-10T22:07:00.000-05:00

It's almost mid-March, and despite having its usual less-than-humane temperatures for most of the winter months, Ottawa is experiencing the bulk of its winter NOW. It's been largely (snow)packed into the last week and a half.

Our car, after a week and a half of non-use. It took us well over 40 minutes to shovel the darn thing out. And that, despite not even having a driveway to shovel as well! There was a thick layer of snow, then a thick layer of heavy slush from some mid-week freezing rain, then another thick layer of snow. First we shoveled around the front and along the two sides. Then we swept the bulk of the snow off the top of the car. This led to us then having to shovel around the front and sides again. In the meantime, it was starting to lightly snow. We did a second sweep of the car and then - yup, you got it - had to shovel around and in front a third time. We didn't even shovel out the back part of the space. I figure we don't really need to access the trunk before spring. (*sob*)

So, just in case you live in southern Ontario or somewhere else where they are actually starting to see green grass and crocuses, here is a reminder what the rest of us Canadians are still doing:

Icicles hanging off the front of our house. We get these every year...though usually in January!

Me, carefully picking my way across the icy sidewalk earlier this week.

Rion resting on a picnic bench after a swim through the deep snow in the park.

Our backyard. There's a garden waiting, somewhere way deep down.

See more at Flickr.

* a.k.a. "Please send backup."

Dog Wearing Hat: A (Thankfully) Short-Lived Series

2011-03-10T20:41:00.002-05:00

I don't know if Rion can look any sadder than this.

Oh, wait - yes, he can.

Explanation: My mom was here over the Family Day weekend in mid-February. She'd brought a bunch of things for me. This felt hat, which she had made for one of my Cabbage Patch Kids when I was a kid as part of a medieval outfit, somehow got mixed into the bag of stuff. It was perfectly doggy-sized. Rion was ecstatic when he saw that my mom took the hat back with her to Toronto.*

* He better not get too comfy in his current hat-less state. She is moving here this fall, after all, so that hat just might make its way back onto his head.

pixxiefish in the sea: The HGTV Edition

2011-03-09T19:13:00.000-05:00

Our basement is half-finished, and the main room has some exercise equipment (an elliptical machine which, yes, I do use sometimes, and a bunch of free weights which I don't touch but Randal has been known to), as well as an old desk of mine, our old TV, an area that I keep intending to use for sewing and other crafts, and all of our tools.

There's just one problem.

It's a mess and has been in various stages of mess for the last 3 years.

Tools here are on the left, and my sewing area on the right. It doesn't look sooooo bad, but that's mostly because I'd already pulled a few things out of the way before remembering to take a picture. Trust me - it was bad. The sewing area, not so much, but we couldn't find a single tool without a huge hunt. In fact, Randal had taken to keeping many tools in his computer room upstairs, so that we could actually find them when we needed them!

Saturday afternoon, I worked up the motivation necessary to finally, properly organize this space.

We bought some great resin shelving from Costco and I put 4 out of the 5 shelves in the tools area. Now we actually have space to store our tools properly!*

We moved the (old) TV from a side wall where it had languished for the past two years, to a wall facing the elliptical machine. Fancy that - I can now go on the elliptical machine and actually watch TV without having to crane my neck at a 45-degree angle!**

Look! I can see my desktop! I even got really ambitious and finally hung the shelf that had been sitting, waiting to be hung, on the table for 3 years. And look! There's even room on the shelf for more junk!

There's still a lot to be done, including the second half of this room (which is partially done but not ready for the Big Reveal yet, but I am so happy we finally got around to this. For more magnificence/detail, click on any of these photos to go to my Flickr site.

* The former "tool cabinet" was housed in an array of bins and bags that lived in an old TV stand that the former tenants had left behind. After 3 years of trying to make it functional, it has now finally met the garbage truck.

** Note to self: Go on elliptical machine. Now.

As promised...on the LEFT!

2011-03-08T18:46:00.002-05:00

Rion, checking to see if the clock says it is time to get up yet. I swear you would think this dog was human. I also swear I didn't stage this photo. I often get up in the morning, go take a shower, then come back in the bedroom to find my pillow and side of the bed...otherwise occupied.

Oh, look. Camera settings!

2011-03-07T20:01:00.001-05:00

I was reading about how to improve my digital photos the other day. In addition to, oh, I don't know, TAKING BETTER PHOTOS, one of the pieces of advice was particularly interesting: Play with your camera's settings. Don't just take shots of everything on automatic. ...Which is what I normally do.

So, lying in bed the other night, in a room with just one dim light on, I took my camera out* and took this shot, on regular setting with no flash:

Then I switched the setting to "Night" and took the shot again, also with no flash:

Kind of neat, but you also have absolutely no idea that this shot was taken in a fairly dark room. Which, in this particular case, doesn't matter, but other times you might lose some really neat atmosphere, so I think the "Night" setting should be used quite judiciously. Also, you have to hold the camera ri-DONK-ulously still for about 3 whole seconds. Which doesn't sound like a long time but when you're trying to be über-still, it's an eternity.

Anyway, I took these shots while lying in bed, looking to the right. (And yes, Mom, I have since cleaned up that corner.) Lying in bed looking straight across, this is what I see:

I love that wall. Some of my favourite things are there. I love that red painting. The grill on the left has 5 candles, and when you light them, the flames dance over the room, and the latticework design is like a beautiful Islamic mosaic. The cherry blossoms scroll (paint on fabric) is from my first trip to Japan in 2004, and the grey tea ceremony bowl on the left is from the year we spent there (2006-07). The hanging lamp is from northern Thailand (we have a larger one hanging in our dining room). Oh, and the folded scarf sitting on top of the pile of junk (since cleaned away) is from Egypt. The wall , however, is painted a chocolate brown, which certainly does not show here.

Next time, on pixxiefish in the sea: What Julie sees when she lies in bed and looks...to the LEFT!

* Upon writing this sentence, it struck me as perhaps weird that whilst lying in bed, one might have one's camera somewhere within arm's reach. Is it? Anyway, I don't always, but I did that night. So there.

Dear Santa

2011-03-01T23:55:00.004-05:00

All I want for Christmas is a wok with a proper lid.[1]

When I was a kid, my mom decided that my older brother and I had to learn how to cook, and so she instituted a twice-a-week plan where one of us had to cook dinner for the family, and then the other. A few months later, after one Kraft dinner too many, she admitted defeat.[2]

Around the same time, we had a conversation in which she asked me how on earth I was going to take care of myself when I moved out of the house if I didn't even know how to cook. In my 10-year-old wisdom, I replied, "Easy. I'm going to marry a chef."

She pointed out that someone who cooked all day long in a restaurant probably wouldn't want to come home and cook some more. "You're better off marrying a lawyer who likes to cook as a hobby."

So, some dozen-or-so years later, I decided to do one better, and went to law school myself. No, not to find myself a husband! In fact, I had a non-law boyfriend most of the time I was there. Who - purely coincidentally, I swear - loved to cook. His idea of "relaxing" was reading Thackeray's Vanity Fair whilst occasionally stirring a pot of something delicious-smelling.

Post-law school, I picked up some tips from one of my best friends who was my roommate in Toronto. That is also when I developed the 7 different forms of pan-fried chicken for which I am famous.

Then I hooked up with a lawyer who cooks. And the rest, as they say, is history.

However. In an obvious sign of the impending Apocalypse, I have cooked dinner 3 times in the last 3 days. Yay me. Sunday night, we decided to "scrounge" and make our own separate dinners. I was about to reach for the Mr. Noodles package when I suddenly decided to try something different. I made shake-n-bake chicken drumsticks with tandoori masala mixed into the crumbs, an instant curry rice package (yes, cheating), and edamame. It was delicious. And tonight[3], I'd been going through the dozen or so cookbooks that we own, and decided I should find something simple to make for dinner. From a book on casseroles, I picked "Orange Ginger Chicken & Rice", since I figured I had most of the ingredients already in the house.

Well, not quite. Since it is a casserole book called Favorite Name Brand Recipes, everything recipe includes one or more name brand ingredients.[4] Including, in my case, Rice-A-Roni. I've never had Rice-A-Roni, and to be honest, the concept seems slightly suspect to me, but I figured what the heck? I quickly Googled a recipe for a Rice-A-Roni substitute. But then I didn't have everything it needed, nor did I want to make as much as the recipe said. So I decided to just kinda...wing it. I wasn't supposed to use instant rice, but that's all I had. I was supposed to use vermicelli, but all I had was rice vermicelli - same thing, right?[5] I had no onion powder, so went without, and used minced garlic instead of garlic powder.[6] I also only made about half of what the recipe called for.

Fake Rice-A-Roni. Don't put the full 2 1/4 cups called for, as I did here - too watery! Also, forgetting to add the thyme until the last minute does not negatively affect the taste. However, I put in 6 packets of chicken bouillon, which measured out to about 3 tablespoons, and it was TOO SALTY. I will try just 4 or 5 next time.

I chopped up some carrots. Yup, when I go all out, I really go all out.

I had some frozen chicken thighs, so I defrosted them, sliced them into bite-sized strips, and fried them up with some 5-Alive (was supposed to be OJ, but beggars can't be choosers)[7], minced garlic, ground ginger, and dried red pepper flakes.

Then I remembered the poor carrots, still sitting, lonely, on the cutting board!

So in they went.

Anyway, it all took about an hour (I'm slow at prep, and that also includes looking on the Internet for substitutions, etc.), and it was delicious! There may be hope for me yet.

What it was supposed to look like, and what it actually looked like. (Though they cheated and used the more colourful broccoli instead of carrots. I would have too, but we seem to have a paucity of green veggies in the house at the moment.) Now that I've (obviously) mastered cooking, I just have to work on my food presentation skills.

[1] Actually, if you don't mind, Santa, I'd like it a bit earlier, since Christmas is almost 10 months away and I'll probably (hopefully) cook again before then. Maybe you could work out some kind of exchange-deal with the Easter Bunny? (I'm not Irish, so I guess that leprechaun dude won't be interested in helping me out.)

[2] In our defence, I was only maybe 10, and my brother, 12. Kraft dinner truly is an enjoyable meal meant to be oft-repeated at that age.

[3] What's that? I neglected to mention what I made last night (the 2nd night)? Umm, there is no photographic evidence, but they really were deluxe tuna melts. With pickles chopped up into the mix, and real cheese rather than the usual Kraft slices. Yes, I'm proud.

[4] We got it at Costco, and it was cheap.

[5] In retrospect, rice vermicelli is nothing like vermicelli. It also makes a frickin' mess all over your countertop when you try to measure a half-cup of rice vermicelli broken into small pieces. Just trust me on that one.

[6] Those of you who are related to me or who are otherwise familiar with my mom's style of cooking may find these substitutions amusing. My mom is known for making meals like "orange ginger chicken with rice, but I didn't have any oranges so I used apples instead, and I was out of ginger so I put some raisins in, and I had no chicken but pork is a white meat too so what's the difference, and I didn't have enough rice so I made mashed potatoes instead."

[7] See note 6.

Definition: "some"

2011-02-21T11:52:00.005-05:00

My mom used to be a big knitter, but has not done so in over 25 years. She came to visit me this weekend, and a couple of days before coming, she asked me, "I have some old knitting needles - do you want me to bring them?"

"Sure!", I replied. "Plus any interesting yarn you might still have kicking around."

...Apparently her definition of "some" is not the same as my definition of "some". That's a TRUCKLOAD of knitting needles. There's got to be at least 30 different pairs of straight needles in there, at least 10 sets of double-pointed, and a handful of circular needles, as well as a bunch of crochet hooks thrown in there for good luck. There's even a Mexican fiesta hat point protector! I feel like I have hit the knitting needle jackpot. Now if only someone could help me with all the knitting I want to do. So many needles, so little time...

The Curse of the Pharaoh

2011-02-19T11:15:00.000-05:00

Butterfly hair clips make a good sling closure to keep one's icepack flush against one's injured leg. Also, beware of loose wooden bed slats that may try to randomly attack the back of your calves; the bruising that follows is quick, painful, and ugly. Warning: Under no circumstances should you do any of the above whilst on blood-thinners. That would be stupid and foolhardy. ...Aww, crap.

(Uploaded from my mobile phone last night to Facebook at 1:33 a.m. (Sorry, Facebookers, for the duplicate posting.)

My mom is visiting this weekend, and she and I were making her bed, which is a queen pushed into a corner of the spare room. This means that in order to put a fitted sheet on, you must squeeze into the corner between the bed and the wall near the head of the bed. While I was lifting the mattress to put the fitted sheet on, I had my foot resting (as I usually do), on one of the bed slats. Unfortunately, we lost, many years ago, the wooden pin that keeps the slats taut in place. And so, my foot slipped and the wooden slat it had been resting on came flipping up and smacked the backside of my left calf. I'm sure if nothing else has gotten the blood moving in that leg over the last two weeks*, that certainly did.

Over the last two weeks, when I have been supposed to be trying to avoid injuries, I have managed to pull a muscle in my left-hand thumb (or something; I just know it's been sore for over two weeks now), slice my right-hand pointer finger with the nastiest cardboard cut you ever did see, bash my knuckle under the right pinky finger, and strain my muscles so badly after a gym visit on Monday that by Wednesday morning, even laughing hurt (all better now, and yesterday's gym visit seems to have not left me with the same problem - guess that's what I get for not going to the gym for over a month**). So, really, attempting to karate-chop off my leg by whacking it with a board (aren't karate-chops supposed to work the other way around???***) is par for the course around here these days.

So I am staying away from sharp and/or heavy objects, perhaps indefinitely. Actually, paper and cardboard should probably be avoided, too. The first week I was on blood-thinners (i.e., last week), Randal was sure I was going to slip and fall outside and be knocked unconscious and then bleed to death (unable to tell people I was on blood-thinners so they wouldn't apply the extra pressure necessary to my bleeding body parts, y'know?), so he escorted me everywhere.

And now I am off to spend the day in my padded room.

* I had a blood clot in my left leg coming back from Egypt; did this blog know this? I'm on medication for it now, so it's getting better, thankfully.

** In my defence, I was in Egypt for 2.5 weeks, and unable to walk for another week, so am really only guilt-worthy of gym-nonattendance for one week's worth.

*** What's that? You karate-chop with your hands, not your legs??? ...Oh, now you tell me!

Who has time to post about Egypt?

2011-02-16T20:56:00.003-05:00

When there are so many fabulous books to read?

And when there is yarn needing to be re-wound and then knit into something?

A two-drink kind of night

2011-02-12T12:37:00.002-05:00

Campari and tonic in front, white wine in back.

(I took this picture last night but then forgot to post it before going to bed. I am currently on anti-coagulants, so can only have 1-2 drinks a day. This is not a problem, since I certainly do not drink every day, and when I do, I don't normally have more than 1-2 anyway. But I find certain drinks are hitting me harder than others right now, so I must think very carefully about what I do and do not drink. One beer now leaves me half-conscious. Same for two glasses of wine, though one on its own is not quite enough. But, as the older version of Goldilocks might say, one apéritif and one glass of wine is juuuust right.)

You Know What We Did Last Month? (#2)

2011-02-10T22:13:00.003-05:00

We climbed up and into some really old pyramids. I mean, really, really old. This is the so-called "Bent Pyramid". It dates back to about 2600 B.C., during the reign of the pharaoh Sneferu, and is one of the earlier pyramids. It's "bent" because they realized partway through that the angle was wrong and had to be changed. It was too steep initially. It was built at 55 degrees but partway through was changed to 43 degrees. A second, nearby pyramid (the "Red Pyramid") built shortly afterwards also by Sneferu was at 43 degrees.

Ironically (or maybe not), this is not actually one of the pyramids we climbed inside. It's not currently open to tourists.

I will start putting some pictures up this weekend. I promise.

3 Views of Snowstorm, Orléans

2011-02-09T22:01:00.003-05:00

Discuss.

Normal exposure levels:

Exposure changed to make photo darker than original. I love the gloomy, sombre look of this:

Exposure changed to make photo brighter than original. I like the mid-snowstorm effect this gives (and it was snowing, so not so far from actual!):

Obviously if I did this kind of tinkering on all my photos, I would never get anything posted. But here, I think the two alternate versions are both more interesting than the original (which isn't bad, though a little grey and dull). What do you think about this kind of digital alteration? I'm not taking anything out or adding anything, but it certainly does change the mood of the scene. Cheating, or no?

What I didn't do yesterday...

2011-02-06T14:27:00.001-05:00

I forgot to call my dad to wish him a Happy Birthday! I'm such a bad daughter.

It's not like it was an important birthday or anything...he only turned 65.

My hard drive is out of commission at the moment (nothing serious; I just need to relocate the power bar it used to be plugged into), so I didn't have access to old pictures of my dad. However, I think I may have done one better by locating and pulling out this (plus, of course, now having digitally preserved it*):

This is my dad's lasting contribution to my autograph book, signed about 25 years ago in 1986. I got an autograph book in 1986 shortly before heading off to Choir Camp in Berwick, N.S.,** and got my family members to sign it. I may post more of these in the future -- some are pretty funny.

So my dad is now 65. He will be retiring at the end of the summer, and my parents have decided to move to Ottawa. They are looking at buying a condo in the same building as my aunt, right near U of O. This is a bit crazy for me to get my head around. It will be fun having my parents back in the same city as me; however, it will be strange not having my parents in Toronto, which is where I am used to them being. Toronto has been "home" for me for many years, and that is going to change. Robert and Judy will be staying in Toronto (despite mine and Jerome's numerous entreaties to move to Ottawa), and I still have many friends who live in Toronto, but without a bedroom to call my own when I get there, it's just not going to be the same.

* This is also my submission for the Shutterbug Challenge for today.

** My brother's ex-wife also attended that same Choir Camp in 1986. I can't remember how we actually discovered this, but sure enough, there she is in a corner of the group photo we took. She wasn't in my cabin, but it's entirely possible I spoke to her at some point (there was maybe only 100 kids there). Crazy!

You Know What We Did Last Month?

2011-02-06T12:34:00.004-05:00

We were in Cairo! There were markets! There were no protests! Kate and Sally were there, too! It was humid and rainy and dusty and FANTASTIC!

Pictures will slowly follow. I have been sick and under the weather since our return. I will also blog about some of our trip, as it was quite blog-worthy (even without protests threatening our departure). However, I am also going to pick one photo from each day to continue the Shutterbug Challenge which I set myself at the beginning of the year.

T minus 5-point-5

2011-01-12T09:53:00.002-05:00

Guess I should stop goofing around on the computer and finish packing, huh?

(Click on the photo to go to the original page to see all the items in their detailed glory.)

i can haz cheezburger?

2011-01-09T17:18:00.003-05:00

The best photography lesson I've learned so far: let Randal take them. Yeah, sorry; today I am entirely cheating. These are pictures from last night (January 8) of my brother's cat, Wednesday. They were better than any I attempted, so here they are!

Series In Yellow: Cat

puppydog eyes

2011-01-09T13:15:00.003-05:00

January 5's photo. I like the dark to light contrast. Could have probably fiddled with it - strategically used the flash, etc. - but I like this how it came out anyway.

Then I skipped a couple of days. Trust me; you don't really want to see any of the horribly mundane photos I took January 6-7. (I deleted them all; they were even putting ME to sleep.)

So I get home from work and look what I discover...

2011-01-04T20:40:00.002-05:00

I'm pretty sure one of the minimized windows reads "Daily Kitty".

BUSTED!

photography lesson*

2011-01-04T09:35:00.004-05:00

Ignoring the fact that I obviously needed to crop the photo a little bit more at the bottom, I think this is a much better attempt at Lucky Cat's portrait than my first attempt, which was face-on, and how I take way too many of my photos of objects. Don't you think?

vs.

Probably higher shadow contrast would have been even better. But I think the 1/4 profile shot makes Lucky Cat look almost, y'know, a little wistful...

* This is my somewhat-daily photo, a day late. I would have posted last night but I started running all my virus scanners and so had to wait till today. Deal with it. This blog makes no claims or guarantees of timeliness.

pixxiefish, egyptian walker

2011-01-02T17:51:00.004-05:00

We leave for Egypt in 10 days.* I can't wait to ride the rollercoasters around the pyramids!!!

* Did I mention we're going to Egypt? ...Uhh, we're going to Egypt!

New Year, Day One

2011-01-01T23:46:00.003-05:00

I don't really have any real New Year's Resolutions. New Year's Resolutions are just made to be broken, so I don't want to make any!

However, things I will aspire to this year:

1) Drink more water. (That one is recycled from 2008. It lasted a decent while before I got slack again.)

2) Take better care of myself. (Is that loosey-goosey enough for you?) This will take place on a number of fronts, including food and exercise, plus I want to get more arts-and-crafty.

3) Endeavour to post pictures within a year of having taken them. This one will be a challenge, but I figure if nothing else, it will help me blog more often, the one resolution I have consistently refused to make!

I have also decided that I want to take more pictures. Those of you who are familiar with my GIANT, never-ending Flickr stream of 1,001 photos of the Arc de Triomphe and other vacation stand-by photos, are thinking, "What??? That's not even possible, is it?" But what I want to do is take more photos, and get better at doing so, and including pictures of the everyday. I'm going to try to take at least one photo a day, even if it's stupidly mundane, and many of these, if not all (I have learned to not promise more than I can actually offer), I will post here.

So here, just before the stroke of midnight, let me offer you Picture Number One. However, it's your lucky day. I couldn't decide between two very different pictures, so I am giving you a two-for-one deal.

The Festive:

And Loving Boy Meets Evil Dog:

New Year, New Blog Post

2011-01-01T16:11:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope you all rang the new year in in style. We decided to take it easy and stay home (my brother had invited us over, but we'll go next weekend instead). We ordered Indian take-away, which I went to pick up around 6:45. The excitement of the evening was that when I arrived at the restaurant, I realized I had a purse but no wallet. Gah. So I drove home (luckily not too far) and then back out again. The second excitement of the evening was that, while I was inside the restaurant picking up the food, someone parked and blocked the exit to the parking lot where I was. Double gah. Luckily it was a larger lot and I could exit from another spot. But it was annoying!

And you see - THIS is why I don't blog on a daily basis. But I'm going to try to be better. (No, that is not a New Year's Resolution. If it is, it's DOOMED to be broken.)

Anyway, so we ate Indian take-away - very dee-lish and lots of leftovers await us. We started watching a new (to us) TV show, called Avatar: The Last Air Bender. It's a Nickelodeon cartoon that ran a few years ago for 3 seasons, and they recently made a live-action movie which is apparently terrible. But the cartoon was great! I highly recommend it.

Then it was 9:30, so we decided to watch The Matrix. I hadn't seen it in a year or two, and it's aged quite well. What a great film. We are debating whether to watch the other two Matrix movies this weekend as well...they're not as good...

At 11:58, we managed to get a live Internet feed of the ball dropping in Times Square on the TV via my computer. (Almost didn't make it!) Somewhat anti-climactic, I found. I seem to remember in the past that the ball dropped much farther, for much longer. This was a short drop (yes, still spread over 10 seconds), with a bunch of distracting advertising. Blech. I think I am just turning into a cranky grump.

I called my mom, and then we watched more cartoons. First, another episode of Air Bender. Then, one of the craziest, most twisted things I have ever seen, Happy Tree Friends. I still shudder slightly thinking about it. It stars a bunch of cute, cuddly, happy cartoon animals...and I'm just starting to wonder if this is a show for kids or not...when all of a sudden one of the bears gets pinned on a giant stick and his heart is torn right out. Uh, yeah. Not for kids. Got it. LOL.

After that, we needed something to cheer us up again. We put on a show called Invader Zim, which was bizarre and amusing. But one of the characters sounded just like Kevin McDonald, from Kids in the Hall, another show we started re-watching recently, and it was driving us CRAZY! Turns out, yup, it's Kevin McDonald. Cool.

Anyhow, that was New Year's.

So...I haven't been blogging but I really should have been. I've been busy as a beaver for the last month or so putting up old pictures on Flickr. This was spurred by two things: (1) I felt guilty, and (2) I was worried following a hard drive crash that Randal suffered sometime in November. He has lost most of his photos from Japan onward! I figured if I get them up on Flickr, at least I will always have a copy available in some form.

So what do I have?

- a TON of photos from Paris and Strasbourg, where we went in June 2009. That collection is almost complete, two days left to go! I might blog about some of it separately, at some point. (Don't hold your breath.)

- camping at Charleston Lake, camping at Bon Echo, camping at Voyageur. We also went camping at Murphy's Point, but, alas, the photos from that trip were on Randal's hard drive.

- my family proves they are able to do more together than play Rockband, and we all go hiking in Gatineau Park on the Thanksgiving weekend.

- I've also done a TON of knitting, if you're into that kind of thing.

I plan on blogging again later today about my New Year's Resolutions...not that I have any...not that I'm not perfect already...plus what we did at Christmas.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

2010-10-31T01:48:00.001-04:00

Guess it's time to bring the patio furniture inside, huh?

We were outside earlier today running errands and it was half-raining, half-snowing, but melting instantly upon hitting the ground. A few hours spent indoors not paying attention to the weather outside, and look what happens!

These lumps of white with green sticking out? Yeah, those used to be plants with really colourful wildflowers popping out all over...

Every year, I manage to be surprised at the first snowfall. But this year is earlier than the last few, for sure.

Our winter tires go on just next weekend. And I suppose I should stop procrastinating, and pull out the winter coats and boots... *sigh* Mon pays, c'est l'hiver. The crazy thing (or not, considering it's Canada and highly unpredictable weather sometimes) is that I was outside on Friday afternoon a few times just in short sleeves! (But then the temperature plummeted just a few hours later, so I should have known.)

Flubbed shot, my a$$

2010-10-04T18:57:00.004-04:00

Sorry. Coming on the electronic heels of my previous story (yeah, 6 weeks later, I know), I had to laugh when I saw this:

Tiger Woods flubs shot and gives us the best golf shot you'll ever see.

Read the full story on Yahoo! Sports here.

Freakin' déjà vu. Except I, of course, never saw what hit me. Literally. And I suspect Tiger's flubbed shot was not quite as powerful as the one that hit me, else we probably wouldn't be able to view this picture at all.

Yes, I will post proper news again someday. Someday. Something interesting has to happen first, that's the catch, see?

Meet Bruisie. We're friends.

2010-08-20T14:04:00.002-04:00

Take it from me, golf balls and nearby appendages do not mix.

Bruisie brought along a friend, Swelling Sack of Fluid. (You can't really see so well here, but my forearm was quite swollen below the elbow. It was a beneath-the-skin, hard sack of pain.)

From here, Bruisie looks like a giant razz-berry. How cute.

Day 2. Bruisie's new look. Kinda Goth, n'est-ce pas?

Swelling Sack went home sometime overnight, thankfully. I won't miss the little bugger, though he did leave his little brothers Tender and Sore behind to keep Bruisie company.

Golf is a dangerous game.

We had our annual Golf Day at work yesterday. I got hit by a freak shot at the tee-off for the 3rd or 4th hole. We were playing in teams of 4, and after having made my fist non-sucky shot of the day (I made it halfway down to the hole), I retreated to the sidelines to chat with my boss while our last team player, her husband, took his shot. We were off to the side, next to our carts, and somehow Greg managed to totally mess up his tee-off, and winged the ball straight toward us at a sharp 30-40 degree angle. All I remember was him calling, "Watch out!", me turning my head to look down the fairway to see where his ball had gone (yeah, I'm a dumbass), and then WHUMP! -something hitting my arm.* And then burning. And Margo saying, "Are you OK?", and Mary getting an icepack and asking me if I wanted to sit down, which I did, and which were probably the smartest two things I did all day.

Then there was lots of phone-calling (Mary to her husband, who had driven us there and was shopping nearby, to come back to the golf course to pick me up and take me to the walk-in clinic; me to Randal to get him to go home to get the car to meet me at the clinic), driving (from Gatineau to Orleans, which is not that far but we kept hitting traffic and construction), waiting (first at the clinic, which was not taking walk-ins till 3 (thankfully it was almost 2:20 when I got there); then at home, while Randal searched for a new ice pack (he ended up giving me a Mr. Freeze); then at the X-ray clinic; then at Shoppers to get my prescriptions filled, where the pharmacy was the busiest I'd ever seen), and icing, lots and lots of icing.

Thankfully, the doctor called this morning to say the X-ray was clean and there was no sign of a break or other abnormality. I stayed home today, and the arm has gone back to almost its normal size, though I have the strangest little wound ever. Maybe I should get a tattoo?

Oh, and the (somewhat) ironic part? Because my teammate struck me instead of the fairway, and we were playing "best ball" (where you play each subsequent shot based on where the closest ball ended up) MY ball was the best one that round, and so when I insisted they keep playing without me, my teammates continued on my ball.

* My arms being crossed over my chest at the time. I don't even want to think of what might have happened if my arms had not been crossed there.

Steppendog

2010-07-07T20:03:00.004-04:00

Rion, Born to be Wild, on Gickr.com

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way...

You so know that's the mental soundtrack playing in his head.

How I missed the Ottawa Tulip Fest again

2010-07-06T18:48:00.002-04:00

I started to write this post a few weeks ago, about the two back-to-back conferences that I went to in May. But then the entry started to get longer and longer, as I went through more and more of my conference notes. I have 10 pages of typed notes so far, and I'm not even on conference #2! So I'm not going to post any of that here, though if anyone is interested, I can send you my notes.

Then it occurred to me that, perhaps far more interesting than the conferences themselves, was the fact that, while I have lived in Ottawa almost 3 years now since returning from Japan (and for 2 years before that), I have managed to miss Tulip Fest almost every single spring of those three years. Or, rather, I have indulged in tulips elsewhere.

In May 2008, we were in Quebec City.

In May 2009, I was in Halifax.

In May 2010, I was in Hamilton (and also Windsor, but I didn't see any tulips there).*

Following this realization, I completely forgot (again) to finish this draft post. The pictures made it up on Flickr but this entry sat here, unfinished but not unloved. Until now.

So anyway, from May 8-12, I was in Windsor, Ontario, at the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Law Librarians. It was, comme toujours,** a great conference. I didn't particularly like the venue (Caesar's casino in Windsor), and the city of Windsor was uber-depressing,*** but the sessions themselves were fantastic, and I came out with some good ideas and inspiration.

My boss Margo and I, doing a good job of pretending it wasn't wicked cold and windy.**** Click here for a few more pics of Windsor-Detroit.

I left CALL early on the last day to hightail it up to Hamilton, for the Workshop in Instruction in Library Use (WILU). This is an awkwardly named conference, but it was incredibly excellent. It's basically for librarians (and others) interested in information literacy, and I'm thinking I'd like to add it to my annual conference repertoire.

WILU finished at lunchtime on Friday. Afterwards, my colleague Andrée and I went to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, and then, since we were both headed to various corners of Toronto for the weekend, Andrée gave me a ride into town.

Hot! Lovely! Beautiful! ...The weather was sunny and pleasant, too, and the tulips were colourful. Click here for the full set.

And that, albeit in a less literary fashion than Mr. Dickens, is my Tale of Two Cities. And I'm going to post it before forgetting about it again. Will attempt to be more interesting next time. ...Well, there's always hope.

* For the record, if anyone cares, in May 2005, which was my first spring here, we were in Amsterdam, but after its tulip season. In May 2006, I think I may have caught a tulip or two between three (3!) visits to Toronto (mentioned here and here. In May 2007, we were in Japan with nary a tulip to be seen (they're in bloom in March and April).

** "Comme toujours" = all two times I have been.

*** We were originally going to go to Detroit to sit in a pub to watch a Detroit Red Wings game. The Wings got eliminated right before the conference began, however, so we didn't bother crossing the border, though it was right there, and I have trouble ignoring borders that are, like, right there. After hearing from a few people who did cross over to Detroit, I have decided it really wouldn't have been worth it. Although it looks pretty from across the river, with big shiny buildings, it's apparently as desolate and depressing as Windsor. Sorry Windsor-Detroit.

**** I'm not sure why, but Margo and I seem to be starting an annual tradition of travelling to cold places together.

This is awesome

2010-06-29T12:21:00.006-04:00

Why? Because we're camping in Bon Echo this long weekend, so really, the weather could not be any more perfect than this. :)

Earthquake!

2010-06-23T21:18:00.001-04:00

EARTHQUAKE! ...OK, this was faked.

Yup, it's true.*

At 1:41 this afternoon, we had an earthquake. It was first listed on CBC at 5.5, but I see that they are now listing it at 5.0 and the USGS confirms this.

Take that L.A.! Our blue box is bigger than (all of) your blue box(es)!

The epicenter happened about 30km north of Buckingham, which is almost directly across the river from Cumberland, which is the next town over from Orléans where we live, so within 40km of Ottawa proper.

I was in training this afternoon, at a different building on campus from usual. At the first rumble, we stopped our work but weren't concerned yet. Then the rumble got louder and the shaking stronger, and the windows started rattling. Then the building really jumped, if you know what I mean, about 4 times, then more rumbling. It didn't last very long, maybe 10-15 seconds in total, maybe longer I'm not sure, but having been in a number of earthquakes in the past, I can tell you that even 15 seconds feels like a very long time. Luckily, since I am somewhat knowledgeable about earthquakes (or like to think I am), I was not too worried, but I think some of the other people in my group (U of O profs) were starting to get a bit concerned. Then it stopped. Someone said, "Earthquake?" One of the trainers thought that perhaps it was an explosion, either from the ongoing construction in the building next door or elsewhere, but we decided no, it was definitely an earthquake. We didn't know what to do. Someone said maybe we should go outside. Someone else said we should stay inside. We decided to go outside, which I remember having been told to do in Japan, though I saw later online that the recommendation actually depends on how earthquake-proof your building is.**

Outside it was a bit disorderly. No one was in charge. No one knew what to do. Not even everyone had left the building. It sounds like this was the case across most of campus. Hopefully this will make the university revisit its disaster/emergency plans. We tried to call other people. One of the profs I was with has a brother-in-law in media, so he tried to call him, but got his voicemail. Some people couldn't get through on their phones at all. (Turns out some of the networks went down. Surprise, surprise.) We could see the Parliament buildings from where we were, so we decided it had not been an explosion (since that would be the most logical target, no?) but an earthquake. One woman got through to her kids at home in Barrhaven, which is about 35-40 minutes southwest of downtown Ottawa, and they had felt it there too.

Anyway, after about 25 minutes, since no one had told any of us what to do, we eventually went back in to the building and finished our training. In retrospect, I'm a bit annoyed about that - there needs to be clearer policies. I was somewhat amused when, about an hour later, I went back to the law library, and after chatting with my colleagues about it, I went to check my email, and we had an email from the main communications office of the university advising us that there had been an earthquake, that no one was hurt, that there was no damage to any building, and that if we noticed "any physical changes in the building" to notify them. Well, I guess no buildings collapsed, if you call that "no damage". But at the law library, a light fixture had become partially detached on the second floor, and things (obviously) had been knocked around. In town, windows had broken at City Hall and (according to a co-worker) at the Rideau Centre, as well as a chimney that had collapsed at a building next to City Hall. A number of government buildings had been evacuated and people sent home until inspections were completed. I found it slightly cavalier that we were just sent back to work and told to keep our eyes open for any anomalies.

After reading about various damages, I decided I had to leave. It was 3:45 so not that much earlier. But we already have a broken window here at home (caused by moisture over the window), and I wanted to make sure we didn't have any others. Plus I couldn't get in touch with Randal, who was out in the west end of the city today at a departmental summer party (he had left his phone in his office).

Everything at home was fine. The dog was a bit more anxious than usual. I saw a number of things that had shifted position, and I'm sure it was bouncing around a bit here. Poor dog. A big metal tin had fallen to the floor in Randal's computer room. A pair of earrings slid off a shelf, and a framed picture was knocked over. The painting over our bed was noticeably askew. A jar (luckily plastic) had fallen off a shelf in the basement to the floor, and another had fallen over (luckily *not* to the floor, as it was glass and would surely have broken). The medicine cabinet door was ajar. But nothing broke, so that's good. I have heard reports of houses on the Quebec side of the river (and we are only a 10-minute walk from the river) that have cracks in their walls now, so I'll take the many pairs of shoes that slid off a shelving unit and gladly place them carefully back on it. There was also serious damage in the town of Gracefield, about 40km west of the epicentre (for comparison, Orléans is about 40km south) - a church steeple collapsed, as well as some walls at a local restaurant and a community centre. This makes me doubly sad since, though I am not sure I have ever actually been to Gracefield, my paternal grandparents were from there.

Messy shoes (and more)! Oh, the inhumanity!!!

The funniest things coming out of the earthquake? The tsunami warnings on the G20 fake lake, and, in a very similar vein, my friend Paul's claim*** that the fake quake has now put the cost of the G20 at well in excess of 3 billion dollars. Welcome to Canada, eh?****

* I'd add: "And you heard it here first, but that in almost all certainty would not be true. If it is, get better news sources.
** It turns out that many of the older buildings on campus are not necessarily earthquake-proof. I was in one of those, I'm sure - and for sure the law library is in one of those - so I guess we made the right decision.
*** I don't know if he came up with it first.
**** You can find more groaners here.

Knitting help, please?

2010-06-08T19:03:00.002-04:00

I had* to go to Michael's last night because I wanted to pick up some size-5 needles for a project I am about to start. However, because I am not able to ever leave Michael's with only a reasonable number of items, I also picked up this project**.

Painted Circle Scarf

It looks fun and pretty, and a girl can never have enough scarves, right? Besides, I think I already own a bunch of the recommended yarn (albeit in a different colour), and I have no idea what else to do with it.

The instructions are 9 lines long, which is about a million lines shorter than most things I've attempted to knit recently. Though they look, on the face of it, relatively simple (reproduced below), I am a newish knitter and stumped by the following, which I've marked in italics:

Row 1 (WS): Purl.
Row 2 (RS): K17, turn; leave rem 5 sts unworked.
Row 3: P17.
Row 4: K12, turn; leave rem 10 sts unworked.
Row 5: P12.
Row 6: K7, turn; leave rem 15 sts unworked.
Row 7: P7.
Row 8: K across 22 sts.
Rep Rows 1–8 until piece measures about 56 in. (142cm) at widest point, end with a Row 8.

So, "leave remaining 5, 10, 15 stitches unworked." Fine. What do I do with those stitches? I don't understand! I'm sure I could look this up online, but it is far more amusing to see if any of you know.***

It's also just an excuse to direct my readers to some pictures of my most recent creation, an inchworm neck pillow for my friends Mala and Mark's daughter, due in mid-July.

* The term "had" is perhaps not used in its most technically accurate form here.

** It was free!

*** By "you", I really mean "Rebecca". Though other help is, of course, welcome as well. C'mon, knitters, get out of the woodwork!

Orleans' Got Talent

2010-06-06T12:02:00.000-04:00

I made a GIF of 7 pictures of Randal juggling.

randal juggling, done on Gickr.com

Yeah, I could have just filmed it, but this was way more fun.

What is this?

2010-06-05T13:06:00.003-04:00

We received our organic box last night, and amongst other easily-identifiable fruits and veggies, there was this:

What is this and how do we eat it?

It's roughly hand sized, squat, and ruffled around the edges.

The listing for this week's box provides no additional clues, since I know what the items listed that I don't think we actually received (cauliflower? nope; lettuce? nope) look like.

What's worse/better, there are 4 of them.

Any ideas? Even classifying it as a fruit or a veggie would be a start.

Roughing It In The Bush

2010-05-28T14:55:00.004-04:00

We are going camping this weekend for the first time this year. Leaving shortly, in fact.

We're headed to a new park for us, Charleston Lake. It's a bit west of Brockville, north of Gananoque, so not too far away.

Here are some photos from camping last year, this time in Murphy's Point, which was very lovely despite a harrowing encounter one night.

What is this and what is it doing in that tree???

Plus an older set I put up a few weeks ago of Rion going swimming for the very first time, in 2008, at Bon Echo (incidentally, our favourite camping spot).

Photoblog: Cthulhu in My Kitchen

2010-05-05T21:49:00.001-04:00

On October 30, 2007, my dear mate R.K. and I moved to our present lodgings. Having escaped the horrors that had unfolded on Cooper Street and subsequently overseas in Japan, we were content to see that the house, while of 1970s provenance, was solid and well-built, and located in an upstanding neighbourhood. Indeed, the man charged with maintaining the building was of a reliable sort, and we soon found ourselves fairly able to attend to life's daily routines and requirements with nary a thought to the deep, dark underside of the world we had previously glimpsed.

There were occasional reminders, usually in the form of machinery spontaneously and mechanically roaring briefly to life before falling silent once again, but these oddities we were able to ascribe to the electrical fluctuations that are an inherent part of today's frenetic, hectic lifestyle. So, too, could we casually dismiss the occasional glimpse of something moving silently through the darkness outdoors, as our newfound peace helped us to convince ourselves, and others, that these were but the most pedestrian of beings, animals forced to share our urban world: raccoons, skunks, squirrels.

The night in question of which I am writing was ordinary enough. Having consumed a hearty meal of sausage, perogie and vegetables, we retired, as was our custom, for an evening of leisure and entertainment in front of a motion picture played on our television. Now, it is true that the fare was of a harsher, somewhat macabre bent. Yes, we did watch a movie about those who are neither living nor dead and who walk the night in search of blood, but I can most definitively assure you that what I later saw that night can not be dismissed as a product of a most prodigious imagination spurred on by the viewing and discussion earlier that night! No, what I saw was much more horrible, much more disturbed and fulsome and replete with horror.

R.K. having retired to his personal study to take care of some pressing business, I started my routine of closing the house for the night. I extinguished a number of lights in the main area of the house, and then made my way to the kitchen. I was hardly prepared for the sight which I then beheld. It was a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with a head that exploded into a mass of feelers, a rubbery looking body, and a short but thick whitish tail. I had apparently surprised it, for it was about to consume an innocent party.

Aghast and paralyzed with fear, I watched as the horrible beast reared up, then began the slow process of enveloping its prey in its huge, slimy mouth.

None of my previous experiences had prepared me for the vivid and horrifying intensity of this scene. I felt myself starting to swoon, but even as my body swayed, my eyes were further opened, as if some evil force had entered and was causing me to watch though my mind was averse. Much as I wanted to avert my gaze, I was being forced to watch.

Just when I felt I could bear it no longer, the beast reared up again and made a series of retching sounds, followed by a long, low sound similar to a fog horn blowing on a lonely, dark night. Then, with one final heave, it expelled what was left of its victim.

The monster and I locked eyes, though I would not be able to describe where those eyes might have been on this fierce and horrible creature. After what felt like an eternity, I finally fell to the ground, in complete collapse at the horror of this sight. As blackness took me over, I could hear a slithering sound, which shook through me like thunder. This is where they say R.K. later found me, curled up on the cold ceramic floor in front of the dishwashing machine, a number of smashed kiwis clutched in my hands, the juice running down my shirt sleeves and onto my pants.

With apologies to H.P. Lovecraft for stealing a few of his words when describing the monster, and also for trying (poorly) to mimic his writing style. What can I say? Sometimes I get bored in the kitchen. Other times, my camera is handy.

Why I am too busy to post (Part 3 of many)

2010-05-02T01:10:00.001-04:00

Because I have been busy eating

...as well as trying to make things grow.*

I've also been busy undecorating Christmas trees**

...and tracking the early arrival*** of Ottawa's annual Tulip Festival.

All this, and more, on my Flickr site.

* Also known as "trying not to kill too many growing things", a pastime at which, alas, I am not so good.

** Or, more accurately, I've been busy taking pictures of others undecorating Christmas trees.

*** And early departure, for that matter.

Sweet Home Halifax

2010-04-19T14:35:00.002-04:00

As I start gearing up for this year's CALL (Canadian Association of Law Libraries) conference,* my thoughts turn fondly to last year's CALL conference. Or rather, more precisely, the location of last year's conference, which was in Halifax.

As most of you know, while I wasn't born there, I grew up just outside Halifax, in a now-thriving suburb of Dartmouth (itself a suburb of Halifax, or rather, more accurately, now amalgamated into the Halifax-Dartmouth moniker) called Cole Harbour. Yes, that Cole Harbour.**

We moved there when I was about 2 1/2, and we left a few months before my 12th birthday, from 1979 to 1988. Consequently, I did all my grade school there. I have very fond memories of growing up at the edge of Cole Harbour (we were almost at the boundary line for Lawrencetown).

I returned to Halifax for my graduate studies, doing both my Law degree and my Master in Library and Information Studies*** at Dalhousie from 1999-2003. I was last in Halifax in May 2003 for my graduation ceremonies,**** so it was a real treat to be able to go back last spring, in May 2009.

I took lots of pictures, which you can view on my Flickr site here. You will also perhaps remember me blogging about the first half of the trip here, here, here, here and here. But if you were basing it on the photos alone, you would almost not know I was at a conference, since all the photos are very decidedly of the tourist variety. In a nutshell:

1) I wandered the waterfront and downtown.

2) I went on the Harbour Hopper.

3) I meandered through the Public Gardens.

4) I took the ferry to Dartmouth and visited ye ol' homestead in Cole Harbour.

5) I got chilled to the bone by wind and rain at Peggy's Cove.

6) I was further drenched by wind and rain in Mahone Bay.

7) I refused to let the wind and rain dampen my spirits at the enchanting village of Blue Rocks.

8) I cheered the slight lifting of the fog***** at Lunenberg.

What the photographic record fails to confirm, however, is that in addition to water and ships and fishing villages and quaint buildings, copious amounts of martinis were also consumed in the company of good friends. My bad - I will have to make sure that the next time I travel, I bring along my camera-which-photographs-friends.

* It's in just under 3 weeks. However, even more pressing, I am doing a short presentation at CALL this year, and my slides and presentation notes are due on Friday. This means I had better start them. Like, now. This year it is in Windsor, Ontario. I can't promise 150 photos, however.

** And no, I didn't know Crosby growing up. Not everyone out East knows everyone else out East. That, and he was a year old when we moved away from Cole Harbour. He wasn't playing hockey yet. A friend of mine whose ex-boyfriend used to coach peewee hockey out there did, however, see him play numerous times, and yes, the rumours are true - he really was as good back then as we all hear now.

*** None of this IM nonsense for me.

**** And my grandmother had just passed away the day before the ceremony, so I wasn't feeling entirely festive.

***** It's the freakin' Maritimes. We'll take whatever we can get to pass for "good" weather.

The only picture I took 3 years ago today...

2010-04-13T23:06:00.001-04:00

Three years ago today,* I was on a train with Randal, bound for Takayama, a town known as "Little Kyoto", which is located a couple of hours north of Gifu City. A famous festival happens there every year, and we were lucky enough to be able to stay with our friend Nancy who was living up there, and take it all in.

* Granted, things get a bit messed up when trying to determine exactly when 3 years ago today was, because of the whole international dateline problem. However, I am not getting into the semantics of that argument - 3 years ago today, April 13, 2010, was April 13, 2007, even though I was in Japan and so really 3 years ago "today" for the Japanese should actually be April 14.

Ice, ice, baby

2010-04-08T22:32:00.002-04:00

I was going to post this last week, in celebration of the decidedly balmy 27-degree weather we were going to have on Friday. But one thing led to another and I didn't get around to it. So now, in celebration of, uh, the cold and rainy weather we had today*, pixxiefish is now floating back in time to one day this January, when it was about minus-27, and Randal and I met after work to check out the ice sculptures at Winterlude / Bal de neige.

You can view the whole set, as usual, on Flickr. But here is a selection to whet your appetite.

* I figure it's Mother Nature's way of poking fun at me for daring to remove, just this morning, my gloves and my armwarmers (thus far my crowning achievement in knitting; I should really take a picture of them and post it here) from my purse. Man, did I then ever go on to wish I was still lugging them around.

Why I am too busy to blog (Part 2 of many)

2010-04-04T22:17:00.000-04:00

We bought an ice cream maker this weekend, and used it today to make strawberry ice cream. And oh my, it was so good and fairly easy.*

I also managed to obtain proof that occasionally, men DO read the manual.

If you're interested (or wish to whet your appetite further), you can view the blow-by-blow ice-cream-making photos on Flickr starting here.

* Says she who merely spectated in the making (though she then was, as you can imagine, an integral participant in the subsequent tasting).

Snow!!!

2010-04-01T09:21:00.001-04:00

Doin' it in the dark*

2010-03-29T23:05:00.003-04:00

Earth Hour, March 27, 2010, 8:30-9:30 EST.

Though I have to say that this actually isn't too different from many Saturday nights (and others), when we dim the lights and light some candles. We ate steak (done on the BBQ), mashed potatoes, green beans, and spinach salad, with a bit of wine.

* I totally stole that title from my mom, who posted this about her activities during last year's Earth Hour, on Facebook.

Why I am too busy to blog (Part 1 of many)

2010-03-23T21:12:00.003-04:00

Last year, I decided to start baking bread. My attempts have thus far been few and far between, because it was kinda hard work.[1]

But after reading a good review of Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett[2], I decided to take the book out from the public library. About 15 pages in[3], I decided: I. Must. Own. This. Book. So I picked it up from Chapters.

After a couple of weeks of planning, prepping, and procrastinating, I took the plunge this weekend and made an easy-peasy white loaf. It was so frickin' easy, I could cry. The hardest parts, in fact, were:

realizing I had the wrong kind of yeast for the breads in the book, and having to explain to Randal (who was headed to the grocery store anyway) what the heck dry, active, fast-acting yeast was and why it would not fill the same niche as dry, active yeast (which I had in the cupboard aplenty - not that Randal was reticent to buy yeast, just that he was curious); and,

trying to keep my social life adequately in tune with my baking life for 36 hours.[4]

Not wanting to incur the wrath of the copyright gods, I am loathe to reproduce the whole recipe here. But if any of you are interested, I will send it to you directly. In the meantime, here is my paraphrased version of events.

First, you take a bit of yeast, a whole whack of flour[5], salt (I used sea salt), sugar (I used organic), and, um, some other things, and you mix it in a very large bowl with oil and water, getting a small lump perhaps the size of 3 fists, if such a thing exists. Then, for best flavour and convenience, you put it in the fridge for 3-10 hours. If you are like me, your fridge is so jam-packed that there's no way you can fit the bowl in it, so you instead put it in a small cooler with some ice packs, except the bowl is slightly wider than the cooler so you have to put the cooler on its side and then consequently tape the cooler shut.[6]

Raw dough, anyone? It's cool and refreshing!

That evening, before bed, at about 10:30, I rescued the bowl from the cooler and put it out on the counter.

I'm freeeeee!!!!

Then I promptly forgot about it (on purpose!) until the following evening. You are supposed to let it rise 15-20 hours. I came back to it at 6:30 Monday evening after getting home from work. Thankfully, I had left the plastic wrap on, so it had not yet had a chance to expand past the bowl, onto the floor and gradually into the living room, backing the dog into the furthest corner of the room. (Actually, I probably should have taken the plastic off, because I think the rising was impeded at the end.

All growed up.

At this point, I took the dough and split it into two chunks (not as easy as one might think, I should add), then put them into bread loaf pans. However, as this following picture will attest, not all bread loaf pans are equal.

Trying to make a break for it.

I have made bread numerous times in my silicone bread pan with no problems; however, I have never dealt with such springy, happy-to-rise dough. Which I guess is a good quality in dough, but it disagrees with silicone pans. So I must go buy a second regular loaf pan.

Here is where things got a bit off the rails. When I originally planned this, I had no plans Monday night. But that afternoon, a friend of mine emailed to see if Randal and I were available for dinner. "I'm baking bread" seemed worse than "I'm washing my hair", so I said sure. So I transferred the dough to the pans at 6:30, as I mentioned, and the recipe said to let it rise 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours until it is just 1/2 an inch past the top of the pan. Well, as the picture above attests, mine over-rose (about a full inch), as I was out to dinner until past 9:30. Oops.

Then you bake for about 35-40 minutes, plus some extra. I got tripped up on the "plus some extra". In the book, Baggett works it out to about 15-25 minutes extra. I didn't even do that much extra, and it was a bit too long. I think 40 minutes TOPS will do it for my bread next time.

Bread loaves, complete with Lady Gaga-esque not-so-subtle product placement in the background.

As you can see, the loaf baked in the silicone pan also looks like a boule on top, but is definitely loaf-shaped on the bottom, like a distorted mushroom. And I tried some today as an after-work snack, and other than slightly dry edges (overbaked a bit), it is quite dee-lish!

"Feed me, Seymour, I'm HUNGRY!" ...Oh, no, wait - I'm the one who ate the bread, not the monster plant in the background.

[1] For those near and dear to me, it will come as no surprise that I can be a bit of a lazy git, and am fond of taking the path of least resistance whenever possible. For the rest of you, sorry for shattering the Hard-Working Julie Illusion.

[2] I think the original review I read was in the New York Times online, but a quick 30-second Google search failed to turn the review up again, and please see the above footnote for why I am not going to look longer for it.

[3] Similar to my blog postings that ramble a lot before getting to the point, there's a lot of introductory information before the actual recipes, though in Baggett's case, it's actually useful and interesting information.

[4] Normally this would not be a problem. But, you know, once I figured out the perfect schedule for all the steps, well, life happened. But no one died, nor was any collateral damage incurred, and heck, one's bread still managed to rise.

[5] A "whack" corresponds to a "frickload", if you prefer imperial measurements.

[6] That last bit might be optional. I may just need a slightly larger cooler (a smaller bowl is not recommended, since this puppy expands a huge amount); however, since I actually already own a very large double cooler, odds are I am not going to buy a third cooler (how many coolers does a girl need?[6a]), so I think the masking tape is here to stay.

[6a] That's a rhetorical question.

Bloggy Doggy

2010-03-21T12:20:00.003-04:00

So I received the following string of emails, forwarded to me from Randal, a few weeks ago.

From: Randal Kowalchuk
Sent: Mon 22/02/2010 11:54
To: Julie Lavigne
Subject: Monday morning

Inbox (128 new messages)
R.

----------------------
From: Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion [mailto:Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion@dogmail.com]
Sent: February 22, 2010 9:05 AM
To: Randal Kowalchuk
Subject: I SAD

Where are you? Can I come?

----------------------
From: Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion [mailto:Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion@dogmail.com]
Sent: February 22, 2010 9:15 AM
To: Randal Kowalchuk
Subject: COME HOME

I have a stuffy for you.

----------------------
From: Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion [mailto:Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion@dogmail.com]
Sent: February 22, 2010 9:22 AM
To: Randal Kowalchuk
Subject: NICE OUTSIDE

It looks nice outside. Just thought you should know.

----------------------
From: Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion [mailto:Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion@dogmail.com]
Sent: February 22, 2010 9:37 AM
To: Randal Kowalchuk
Subject: HEARD A NOISE

You weren't here so I barked for you.

----------------------
From: Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion [mailto:Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion@dogmail.com]
Sent: February 22, 2010 9:53 AM
To: Randal Kowalchuk
Subject: IS IT "WEEKEND" YET?

??

----------------------
From: Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion [mailto:Kowalchuk-Lavigne.Rion@dogmail.com]
Sent: February 22, 2010 9:57 AM
To: Randal Kowalchuk
Subject: I SAD

I howled. You missed it. COME HOME.

...

I think I am going to put that dog to work on my blog; it might actually then have a chance of being updated semi-regularly.

Let the countdown begin!

2010-01-22T11:41:00.003-05:00

We are going here* in 7 days, and I must say, it's lookin' mighty fine!

Current Weather Updated: Friday, January 22, 2010, 9:00 MST

28°C
Partly cloudy

Feels Like: 38
Wind: S 15km/h
Relative Humidity: 70%
Pressure: 101.16 kPa
Visibility: 11.0 km
Ceiling: 1800 ft

Long Term Forecast Updated: Friday, January 22, 2010, 3:53 MST

	Friday Jan. 22	Saturday Jan. 23	Sunday Jan. 24	Monday Jan. 25	Tuesday Jan. 26

	Sunny	Sunny	Sunny	Cloudy	Sunny
High	30°C	30°C	30°C	29°C	24°C
Low	24°C	24°C	26°C	23°C	20°C

* Where?

Photoblog: Olympic Fever!

2009-12-29T02:05:00.000-05:00

My friend Kate got the chance to be an Olympic torchbearer when the flame came through Ottawa a couple of weeks ago. Her run was at 7:45 a.m., December 14, 2009, in Orléans (east end Ottawa), right near our place.

The police get St. Joseph Blvd. blocked off.

Is that the fl- no, just a car.

Vancouver 2010 - "Flame Arrives..." something something something.

Eagerly awaiting the flame at the corner of St. Joseph and Place d'Orléans Blvd.

Kate's leg of the run was sponsored by Coca-Cola. And their people were far too perky for 7:45 a.m. on a Monday morning.

First glimpse of the flame! St. Joseph Blvd. and Edgar-Brault Street.

Go Kate! (Sorry for the blurry photo.)

Go Kate!

Kate, looking fantastic!

Kate, looking somewhat blurry.

Kate handing off the torch to the next runner.

Well done, Kate!

Photoblog: The Tale of Gnome Chumpsky [1]

2009-12-03T22:17:00.006-05:00

once upon a time, a gnome went to a quiet garden to muse about the meaning of life.

but suddenly, the garden gnome started to think that maybe this wasn't such a nice, innocuous garden after all...

time to take matters into his own hands.

... and the gnome flees the awful scene on his trusty bicycle before the police arrive on the scene.

many animals came to pay their respects to the fallen plant monster. their sympathy was tempered, however, by the ghosts of cows that the plant had consumed.

eventually the site was abandoned, as it gave everyone the willies, and signs were posted to keep out.

land prices later skyrocketed, however, and an enterprising developer built fancy condos on the site. rumour has it the beckhams and cruises have both bought units, perched high on the edge of beautiful hatchet lake.

meanwhile, somewhere in southern manitoba...

but in the end, as is their way, the mounties got their man.

his plea of self-defence having failed, he was locked away in a high-security facility with other gnome miscreants, where he is likely to stay for a very long time.

THE END [2]

And now you know, my faithful readers, why I have not been blogging these past 6 months. I've been very, very busy.

Some of you may have thought, "But you went to France this spring! You spent weekends this summer camping! Fall ushered in Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas trees and snow! People have gotten sick[3], people have gotten engaged [4], people have had babies[5]! Surely some of this was blog-worthy!"

... I understand that it was tempting to think my life is otherwise interesting. Yes, you'd think these things were blog-worthy, but well... ... ... For starters, we haven't even had any snow yet. I mean, c'mon. What else is worth writing about besides the weather?

[1] Yes, groan. But as a former communications/media studies person, I think I'm allowed.

[2] For now. Who knows what might happen when/if the gnome gets day parole? Also, I think this means I have to stop teasing my mom about her elaborate Webkinz stories, right?

[3] Not me, though both Randal and Rion have had that honour, to mention but two within my immediate household.

[4] Also not me, though my good friend Rebecca T. falls in that camp.

[5] Definitely not me, though a few people I know fit that bill, not least of all my good friend Mark and his wife Amynah who are expecting a baby girl literally any day now.

Halifax, Day Four

2009-05-26T23:07:00.003-04:00

Went to two really excellent sessions today: The Technology of Law, and Best Practices: Training Our Users. The first was a presentation by a law professor who runs the website Jurist, and was about the need to teach law students (or other legal practitioners) not only how to be information-literate, but also how to use technology to its full potential in the practice of law. Very interesting, and I plan on learning more about what is happening in this field. It has inspired me! In the "Best Practices" session, we heard from 3 speakers on tips and ideas for training library users. The first spoke about telephone training, the second about social media and Facebook and library guides, and the third about teaching across the generational gaps. Some good ideas in that session.

I skipped out on the last session with the intention of going shopping. Ran into David M. from Dal Law Library, and he joined me on my brewery and art gallery tour, then we went for a drink and a bite on the waterfront. It was so nice out, we sat out on the patio overlooking the harbour. It was just lovely. Then I headed back to the hotel, with another quick store stop or two. Dropped my stuff off at the hotel, combed my hair, then headed back to the conference hotel via cab with Margo.

This evening was the closing banquet. I made a giant mess of a delicious lobster. Then we were entertained by Irish and Scottish dancing, and regaled by a band with an extensive repertoire of Irish songs and sea shanties. We were also taught how to play the spoons, though I don't think I'm very good. Robin N. and I left around 11:30. I dropped her off at her hotel, then came back here. Now I just want to sleep, but we have to check out tomorrow, so I should probably re-pack my things first. Tomorrow morning there are a few more conference festivities, and then I am moving myself and my things over to the Dalhousie residence hall for two nights.

I don't know if I will have access to the Internet at the Dal residence, so this might be my last entry for a few days, unless I hit an Internet cafe, a wireless hotspot, or, god forbid, a library.

Lament...

2009-05-25T22:08:00.002-04:00

Halifax shouldn't have such nice weather while I am here; it makes me miss the town and miss the people and miss the sea and the harbour. The sky is blue, the tulips are all out (which is funny, since I missed most of them in Ottawa), the air was fresh and salty. Nice town.

On an unrelated note,* tonight was Martini Madness Nite at The Fireside. I was joined by Robin N., who I know from LOP, and Michelle H., who I went to library school with. Between the 3 of us, we polished off 2 club sodas, 4 martinis (though I thought hard about making it 5), a pound and a half of mussels, a bunch of garlic cheese bread, and a big pile of cheese nachos. A good time was had by all.**

* OK, a bit of a lie. Everyone who knows me knows that drinking makes me slightly nostalgic.

**An especially big thanks to Michelle who was a trooper and drove an hour from the Valley to Halifax just to hang out for a couple of hours before having to drive an hour back home. That's dedication to the martini cause. (And she didn't even have a martini, due to aforementioned driving.)

Halifax, Day Three

2009-05-25T15:50:00.003-04:00

I have less than 10 minutes before we head out of the hotel again. Thankfully, and as a direct consequence, this will be a short post.

Today dawned bright and sunny and mild. (It's still May in Halifax, so I hesitate to use the word "warm".) So I put on my sundress, my flats, a jean jacket and a big scarf, and headed out to the conference hotel with Margo around 8:00 a.m. They were serving free breakfast, so it was worth our while to get out so early.

Plenary session at 9:00. Topic was recent developments in Canada's immigration and refugee policy. Speakers were Markham MP Paul Calandra and Halifax immigration lawyer Lee Cohen. Session was interesting, though not overly informative. Calandra talked about all the great things the federal government is supposedly doing; Cohen told some heartfelt stories. I think I know too much about immigration and refugee issues, and so am a bit cynical. Sorry.

The next session I went to was on embedded librarianship. Basically, this is the idea that librarians don't need to be in the library, but are often more effective outside the library, working in their organization directly. The session was interesting, though not earth-shattering (for me, at least). Working at the Library of Parliament last year, I already was a kind of embedded librarian - I was nowhere near the actual library, and I worked alongside, with and for, the analysts in the legal division. The library, at the LOP, was more a concept or idea than an actual physical place, at least for those of us in the research divisions. Anyway, the only thing truly controversial about the session was a couple of comments the speaker made about how she didn't think library schools were taking in the right types of students. I don't think that is necessarily true, though to some degree, library schools are more interested in filling seats with bums than with brains. I think the problem is more that library schools, at least in the U.S. (where the speaker was from), do not always teach library students the wide range of skills that they will need to survive once out in the real world. Some library schools focus very closely on technical skills. Many U.S. schools do not teach management skills, or how-to-deal-with-people skills. That's the real problem, in my opinion.

Anyway, must move on.

Lunch was served in Pier 21, just behind the conference hotel. I sat with Robin N. from LOP, and Mark and Maggie, friends of mine from library school. We ate salad, chicken in a cream sauce with veggies, and a delightful custard pie of some sort for dessert. There was an awards ceremony, and thankfully all the speeches were short and sweet (a skill I must still learn, obviously). Then we were regaled by Bruce Nunn, a/k/a Mr. Nova Scotia Know-It-All. I used to listen to him on CBC Radio, and would sometimes see him on CBC News in Halifax. He was very entertaining.

Post-lunch sleepiness having kicked in, I went back to the conference hotel for a session on sharia and talmudic law. It was very informative and two areas of law I think we will need to acquire resources in over the next year or two as they become more popular.

Margo and I skipped out on the last session to come back to our hotel to unwind for a bit, but now we are heading back out for the first of two back-to-back receptions. Then I am headed to The Fireside again for post-reception food (might not be hungry for the salmon, however, depending on how much they feed us) and drinks (on the other hand, there is always room for more drinks).

Halifax, Day Two

2009-05-24T21:25:00.004-04:00

So yesterday I never made it to Spring Garden Road, as I wandered along the waterfront, taking pictures, etc. Then back to the conference for a short reception. Met some pretty cool people, including a bunch who have similar jobs and concerns to mine. If only I weren't so busy conferencing, I could sit down and have a real pow-wow with some of these folk.

Was on my own for dinner. I decided to hit Rogue's Roost on Spring Garden*, which is a restaurant with a delightful microbrewery. I had a raspberry wheat ale and chicken fingers. Then I headed back to the hotel, around 9:30.

Earlier in the day, Margo had told me she was planning on going after dinner down to The Lower Deck, where Signal Hill was playing. I was thinking about heading out again to see if I could find her when she walked in the room. She hadn't been down yet, so we headed out together. Signal Hill was great! We didn't stay very late, though, as I had an early morning ahead.

This morning I woke up at 6:00 since I had a First-Timers' Breakfast at 7:30.** Actually made it almost on time. Then I went to a meeting of the academic law libraries. It was interesting to hear the updates from the other libraries, though we didn't have time to make it through all of them.

At 9:30 a few hours of meetings of various committees were scheduled. I could have gone to some of these, but on Saturday night I had convinced Margo that we should skip these and go on the Harbour Hopper instead. It was awesome! It was cold and gray, like your typical Halifax spring day, but we had a great time. It was just Margo and I, and two older ladies on a road trip from North Carolina. Normally they won't run the Hopper with less than 8 people, but they decided to take us out anyway. For those of you who might not know, the Harbour Hopper is an amphibious vehicle which was formally an American army vehicle used in the Vietnam War, now painted with giant frogs on the side and with nicely cushioned seats installed. The tour spends 30 minutes driving around town, and then 30 minutes in the water. Pictures to follow.

We then got back to the business of conferencing, showing up back there just in time for lunch. Then I went to a bunch of mini vendor demos which lasted all afternoon. We crashed back at our hotel for about an hour (by which time it was pouring rain, but hey, at least we weren't still on the Harbour Hopper) and then went to a reception which was being held at the famous Pier 21.

Pier 21 was very cool. We watched a multimedia presentation on the history of Pier 21, which was the first port of entry for many of Canada's immigrants who arrived between 1928 and the 1960s. There was also lots of yummy food. Food and museuming, always a nice combination.

Now I am headed off to bed. Tomorrow is a full day of conferencing, followed by - count 'em - two receptions, and then I plan to go to The Fireside (yes again) for more martinis and salmon.

* So I guess I did make it there after all.

** Note to future conference organizers: Scheduling the First-Timers' Breakfast for 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning is just MEAN.

Halifax, Day One*

2009-05-23T13:42:00.000-04:00

Arrived in Halifax last night at 5:11. Margo, the director of the library where I work, was also on my flight though we did not sit together. The shuttle bus to Halifax was leaving at 5:25. Miraculously, both of our suitcases were among the first ten pieces of luggage to hit the baggage carousel, so we booted it to the shuttle bus and were on our way.

Upon check-in at the Delta Barrington, it turned out that Margo had been upgraded from a queen room (which would have two beds) to a king (I guess she forgot to tell them there were actually 2 people staying in the room). There was a queen with a pull-out available, but a bunch of hockey teams are also staying in town, and they were in that section of the hotel, and we were warned it would be loud. So we are sharing our giant bed until at least tomorrow, at which point we might switch rooms, though it doesn't really matter to me. I don't think I could even find Margo on that bed even if I wanted to! LOL

We went for dinner at The Fireside last night, which is hands-down my favourite restaurant anywhere. The Fireside alone is almost reason enough to move back to Halifax. We were joined by Sarah S., Andrea N., and David M., all of whom I went to library school with, way back when. I had my usual: pecan-encrusted salmon and MARTINIS (a melon ball and a black russian). Monday night is Martini Madness Night, so I may just have to return.

Back to the hotel by about 10:45, and managed to get the Internet working by plugging in the same cable I had tried plugging in earlier in the day. This time, for some odd reason, it worked. Yay me! Lights out by midnight.

This morning, I had a pre-conference session that I was attending on "Making and Presenting the Business Case". It was quite good. These are things that are not obvious to me - I have not yet had the pleasure\honour of having to cajole management into buying a certain product, or (heaven forbid) of having to justify my own job or my library's existence. But I have just recently embarked on a long-term project with a couple of the professors at the law school on developing some legal research materials, and I've been lucky enough to so far leave the please-give-us-money document-drafting to one of the other team members. However, it is a skill I should learn, so I found this session quite useful.

That finished at noon, and I wandered down to the waterfront just in time to be serenaded, along with many others, by a tall ship sailing slowly out of the harbour, with a band playing and all the sailors lined up and singing some songs very loudly. It was magical. I didn't have my camera on me! Boo. But I whipped out my cell phone and took a couple of bad pictures. Once I figure out how to transfer pictures to my computer (I don't have a cable, but I think I can maybe email them via phone - technology confuses me sometimes), I will post here. I believe the ship was Chilean.

Then I went to catch the end of the Farmer's Market, in the Brewery buildings. It ends at 1:00, so I just made it. I had almost no money left, unfortunately, so couldn't buy very much. I spent my last dollars on some Indian chicken curry and a samosa, plus some omiyage for my dog.

Ate my lunch in the hotel room. I have just made reservations for next Friday night to stay in a B&B in lovely Mahone Bay. I wanted to stay here, which was recommended to me by my friend Cheryl who stayed here a few months ago, but ironically they are not taking bookings for next weekend because the owners will be in Ottawa! So I am staying here.

Now I am headed out to do some shopping. First I must cross the road to Scotia Square and go book a vehicle for next Friday-Saturday. Then, since my hotel is attached to the Barrington Place Shops, that will be my next stop. Must go search out the doll house store that I loved so much as a child, except I think I did that once when I was living here during grad school and I think it might be gone now. Then across the street to the Urban Cottage, to find second-hand housewares that will fit in my suitcase. Then, if I have time, I'll wander down Spring Garden Road.

* Title not meant to imply that these entries will be daily undertakings, but I will do what I can.

YOU HAVE BEEN EATEN BY A GRUE

2009-04-22T22:07:00.006-04:00

Email sent to me at work by Randal back in November, in response to a comment I'd made about being unable to answer the phone when he'd called earlier:

>> It’s Thursday afternoon and I am at the reference desk, 10 feet away from my phone, but a locked door separates us.

> Look desk.

>> The reference desk is bare, but for a posting of the library hours and some graffiti in white out.

> Look whiteout.

>> The white out graffiti says: "Greedo shot first."

> Look door.

>> The door is locked.

> Look lock.

>> You don't have a key.

> Look

>> You sure like to look a lot, don't you?

> Look floor.

>> Standard industrial carpet. You were expecting a trap door?

> Look phone.

>> Nothing fancy, though it does have a hands-free function.

>> YOU HAVE BEEN EATEN BY A GRUE.

New Year 2009, brought to you by...

2009-01-12T23:06:00.001-05:00

It's my party...

2008-11-22T14:30:00.000-05:00

...and I'll blog about me if I want to.

I was going to post this picture of me, at the age of 2:

Somewhat frighteningly, I look largely the same now as I did then, though the hair is a little more unruly now. Add glasses and incorporate a slight decline in fashion sense (this was the best blue-and-red velvet dress there ever was), and voilà - me, 30 years later, on the same day, in 2008.

Anyway, as I was saying, I was going to post that picture of me, but I feel obliged to post the cover of the birthday card that Randal gave to me instead:

Hey, Andy Warhol couldn't have done this any better.

In other birthday-related news, today I learned another reason why the date November 22 is historically important/interesting. In addition to being the day marking both the death of JFK (in 1963) and of course the day when I first graced this earth (in 1976), it is also the day French troops crushed any hope of an independent Alsatian republic in the town of Strasbourg. Thanks to my good friend Mark of Marching Fishes fame for having friends as interested in history as him.

And to think other people's moms knit...

2008-11-02T22:48:00.004-05:00

Despite having had a computer of one type or another in the house since about 1985, my mom could still hardly use the family computer less than barely 10 years ago. I remember once telling her to look for a certain icon on "the desktop", and she complained she couldn't find it...because she was looking on - you guessed it - the top of the actual desk. However, she is inept no more. Since about the year 2000, my mom's computer skills have taken off in a number of key areas. In particular, she is quite adept at photoshopping, having made more "memory CDs"* than I can count on all my fingers and toes. She has also gotten involved in a couple of online communities.** The most notable of these has been Webkinz.

To be honest, I'd never really understood my mom's infatuation with Webkinz. I mean, it's for kids, right? The premise is that after buying a little stuffed Webkinz animal, you are then supposed to register it on the Webkinz site, from where you can then "buy" it things and set up a house for it and meet other Webkinz. Kind of like The Sims, but with dogs and penguins and cows, and your Webkinz is generally upbeat and happy-go-lucky rather than dour and depressed all the time (or were those just my Sims?).***

But my mom has been totally into it. She would even stay up till like 3 a.m. to participate in online "auctions" (no real money is exchanged) that take place on the Asian Webkinz site (which she also belongs to).****

However, she has now outdone herself, and I laugh no more - I am awed by her Webkinz accomplishments and participation. A week or so ago, I received this email from her:

Were you wondering what your mother was doing in her spare time? Wonder no more. She has morphed into Webberlily and here is her recent Magnum Opus, which has covered her in glory and rep points (that would be reputation points for the ignorati). In addition, I made the Front Page and Breaking News… twice! and got my own stickered position in the Guides & How-to section. Woot! as they now say. Peruse at your leisure and explore all links:

http://www.webkinzinsider.com/forum/have-fun-decorating-t410557.html?p=11094602

and today I finally purchased the 24th ornament and unlocked the Flickering Fireplace.

I finally had the time this evening***** to look at her guide and MAN is it impressive. In fact, it's even getting me motivated to actually finally register my own little Webkinz, a little white curly-haired terrier, which my mom gave me as a present and has sadly been sitting, unregistered, on my bookshelf next to my computer for the past few months. I just need to come up with a good name first.

* CDs of photos from vacations or old family pictures, etc., set to music and with extra animation, voice-overs, captions, and so on...

** She's even on Facebook, though you'd never know it by her low levels of activity there.

*** I never really "got" The Sims. The first character I created was called Michael. He lived in a good house and had nice neighbours and a good job, but all he knew how to do was moan and bitch about how depressed he was, no matter how many times I got people to come visit him. Then I deleted Michael and created a new house where two women lived together. They were happier - I guess because of the fact that they had built-in company, so to speak - but I ruined their happiness one day when the phone rang, and when one of the women picked it up, she was asked "Do you want to adopt a baby?", and she (I) answered, "Yes." DON'T EVER ADOPT A BABY. One of the roomies had to quit her job, both the women were always tired, and all the baby did was cry. I suspect, in fact, that this virtual event may have a direct bearing on my current and continuing state of childlessness today.

**** Before anyone makes any "Evercrack" comments, I'd like to point out she's not (entirely) addicted. Plus, she's more of a night owl than even I am, so it's not like she'd be in bed if it weren't for this site.

***** The last two weeks have been insanely busy for me at work, spilling over into my evenings and even my weekends, largely because of a new class that was suddenly added to my schedule. (I found out about it on the 21st and started teaching it on the 29th).

It's all downhill from hereon in, folks...

2008-10-27T22:29:00.004-04:00

If it wasn't such horrible, tragic news, I'd laugh out loud* at the fact that the word "humdinger" was used (with a straight face) in the following alert:

HUMDINGER MAY NOT BE A SCIENTIFIC TERM BUT IT MAY VERY WELL SUM UP THE WEATHER THAT MOTHER NATURE HAS IN STORE FOR EASTERN ONTARIO.

From the Weather Network's website.

I'm sure the weather guys' cars are egged wherever they go. Gotta love Ottawa: We can apparently expect 15-20 cm of snow between now and tomorrow night. Um, yay?

In anticipation, Randal (who had the day off today) spent the latter part of the afternoon closing up shop on our backyard patio - barbecue is closer to the house with the tarp at the ready, garden has been all uprooted and turned over in anticipation of next year, patio furniture is in the basement. He was even a real sweetheart and planted a bunch of bulbs for next spring - tulips and daffodils I hope (though he kept saying "lilies and daffodils", so hey, we'll see what we get, right?).

We better get a snow day outta this. On Wednesday (I have no classes tomorrow anyhow, so what would be the point). Either that, or I have to find my boots.

If my laptop doesn't get buried in the deluge, I'll report back...maybe even with photos, oooh.

* OK, I did laugh out loud. Twice: once when I first saw it and once in disbelief when I read it again. Then I cried a bit.

Happy Birthday, Randal

2008-10-25T10:10:00.003-04:00

The ever-elusive Mr. K.*

Today is Randal's birthday. We don't have anything crazy planned, though we did rent a car for the weekend so we could tool around town. Tonight we are going bowling with some friends, tomorrow night we are going out for a nice fancy dinner, and Randal also took Monday off from work (lucky duck - I have two classes to teach and am not so fortunate).

He is, of course, turning 27. Give or take a decade or so.

* I like the almost-artsy feel of this pic, or at least the fact I can pretend it was planned to take it that way, rather than merely a bad cropping job after-the-fact or one of those unplanned moments where the subject suddenly turns his head as the shutter snaps. Plus the fact that there seems to be (my) fingers growing from his neck adds a certain Lovecraftian element, no?

The Annual Snowfall Update

2008-10-21T22:10:00.002-04:00

Apparently there has been snow in Toronto today. I would just like to state for the record that there is no snow, as of yet, in Ottawa. Earlier today, it was raining. Right now, there is no precipitation to speak of. In fact, I'm thinking of taking a midnight stroll in my bikini top and shorts, it is so mild here.*

If I can't make fun of Hokkaido, what can I make fun of?

* Ed. note - Some blog statements may not be as accurate as claimed. Aforementioned walk may include knee-high mukluks, four scarves, and a tuque complete with pompom on top.

Groundhog Day: Part II

2008-10-11T02:53:00.002-04:00

After seeing that the groundhog was still in the park both the next morning and next afternoon (Friday), and worrying that his injury made him an easy target for dogs and other predators, both of whom would likely be out in larger numbers over this holiday weekend, I am happy to report that after Randal placed a call to the Ottawa Humane Society, they sent someone out this evening (we were late leaving for Toronto, in fact, because the Society showed up just shortly before we were going to leave) to pick up the groundhog.

It had looked dire when I saw the groundhog sleeping on the grass near the trees when I was walking up to the bus stop on Friday morning. He disappeared later in the morning, when Randal went in to work about 90 minutes later, but reappeared sleeping under a tree late that afternoon. Because we had a car that day (we had rented one for our trip to Toronto, and Randal had picked it up after work), Randal suggested that perhaps we could capture the animal and bring it to an animal shelter. We went to check out the groundhog - when he tried to scamper away from us, it was obvious his rear left leg was quite injured.

We ran back home, and after doing some quick research online, Randal called the Ottawa Humane Society. They told us they would send someone out right away to rescue the critter. Randal explained exactly where they would find the groundhog, since we were hoping to leave shortly for Toronto.

The car was finally packed and we were ready to go at about 6:30. Randal decided at this point to run across the street to check on the groundhog one last time. It had moved out of the partially-wooded area to lay down in some grass, and it was very unresponsive. (Randal got it to finally open its eyes when he clapped his hands quite near to the animal.) After warning off a man and woman who were walking two little dogs in the nearby vicinity, he suddenly noticed, further down the street, a large van with flashing lights, driving as if it were looking for something. Randal ran to it, and it was indeed the Ottawa Humane Society. With Randal's help, the wildlife protection officer was able to corner the groundhog against a fence and get it into a box for transport. Once back at the Society, the officer told us, a technician would assess the wound and they would hopefully be able to start rehabilitation.

So I've thought about this incident a lot in the past 24 hours, and the more I think about it, the more I think that the groundhog may have already been injured before he ran into Rion. From what I could tell, Rion barely had a hold of him, if at all. Any hold he might have gotten would have lasted barely a second, and I don't know if that was enough time to do the kind of damage that the groundhog seemed to have suffered. There is also the fact that, while groundhogs are aplenty in this neighbourhood, they certainly do not make a habit of letting dogs get ahold of them. Normally groundhogs keep their distance. But this guy was hiding around the edge of a tree, leading me to wonder if perhaps he wasn't already injured and so incapable of getting away fast enough.

I don't know. Anyway, all in all, it's been an exciting and exhausting end to what was already a tiring week. Work has been crazy for the last two weeks in particular, and we were already having problems with our water pipes. But I'm happy it came to a good conclusion. I feel so much better, knowing that someone is out there, taking care of the groundhog as best as they can, and I hope that, in the end, everything is okay for the little guy.

pixxiefish in the sea presents... More Mayhem and Gore, Horror and Chaos

2008-10-09T21:52:00.002-04:00

We interrupt this two-month-long blogging hiatus to bring you yet another instalment of Rion's Encounters With Wildlife, Or, Hey Ma, What's For Dinner Tonight?

I was stomping around with Rion in some leaves in the park this evening, as it was coming on to dusk, when he ran around a tree and came face-to-face with a groundhog. Or, rather, to be more exact (if things that occur in a fraction of a few sections can ever be described with a modicum of exactness), he came face-to-tail with a groundhog.

Next thing I knew, Rion was tugging on his leash (thankfully, he was already at the end of the extendable leash) and this little groundhog was pu-uuu-uulling away from him. Then it seemed to break away. I had the dog half jerked back by this point (but his leash was also half wrapped around the tree in question, so it was a tricky manoeuvre), so he didn't get back at the groundhog. The animal took a few more desperate, scurrying steps, then lay quivering in the grass. I roped Rion back in and, after taking a few minutes to try to calm him down[1], we continued on a shorter, highly-abbreviated version of our walk.

On the way back home, I passed near the Groundhog Tree. It was getting rather dark at this point, so it was hard to tell, but I was sure I could see a dark patch in the grass where the groundhog had last lain down. This was about 10 minutes after our encounter, and I felt sick to the stomach to think that the groundhog could still be there. I took the dog home then returned with a flashlight. Sweeping the area, I breathed a sigh of relief that the groundhog now seemed to be gone...until the light suddenly hit a brown bank of fur. The groundhog was still there. I couldn't quite tell if it was breathing or not, as I was too scared to get too close, but I was pretty sure it was. But I felt horrible. My innocent little baby, my little adorable dog, so soon graduated from chipmunk-scourging ...

Now, I am a city girl and so I did what any self-respecting city girl would do in these circumstances: I fled home, half-hysterical, freaked out for a while about the fact that Randal wasn't home and wouldn't be for at least another hour[2], conducted some ineffective searches on Google and the City of Ottawa webpage for ideas of what I could possibly do[3], and then I called my mother.

Now I love my mother and she is a very kind woman, but I suspect her love for groundhogs is very slim.[4] I think this may date back to when we lived in Québec City, and two little groundhogs lived under our neighbour's shed and fed themselves from the offerings in my mother's garden. We eventually trapped those groundhogs and released them in the wild very far away.[5] Anyway, after explaining the horrible events of the evening, I was quickly reassured that the groundhog was probably all right and had maybe just fainted from the shock or was busy playing possum. That made me feel better. We then went on to discuss the possibility that if the groundhog was, in fact, dead, then (a) it probably wasn't Rion's fault - maybe it was sick or injured anyway (Rion had barely caught a hold of it, if at all), and (b) sometimes it is just better to let nature take its course. That made me feel somewhat worse. But by the time we finished our phone conversation - which ran the gauntlet from the mysterious howling pipes[6] to the cute little fir tree that I was given as a present at work today[7] to the reasons why Judy's blog will always be funnier than mine[8] - I felt better.

Randal came home shortly thereafter, and I told him the story of destruction and woe. We put our jackets on and donned flashlights, and went out to explore.[9] We very soon came upon a groundhog foraging around in the leaves by a tree trunk. Now, I am not a naturalist (I know, you're all shocked), and to me, one groundhog pretty much looks like every other groundhog. This groundhog was startled by the light, and wouldn't let Randal get very close, but Randal said he thought it looked like this groundhog might have an injured leg. But he was up and about and moving, so, after watching him scurry around for a while, we decided to close the chapter on the imagined dead groundhog and just let him be. Hopefully he would get the food he was searching for, and then be able to return to his burrow and recuperate.

Sigh. And I thought moving to the 'burbs would be dull.[10]

[1] I use the verb "calm down" very loosely. I mean, have you ever tried to calm down a Jack Russell terrier after it narrowly misses catching its mobile dessert???

[2] Being from the sleepy rural landscape known as Winnipeg, he has wildlife smarts.

[3] Even in times of crisis, I am such a librarian.

[4] Hi Mom! :)

[5] To be 100% certain that those groundhogs would never return, in fact, we released them in a park on the other side of the St. Laurence River, on the south shore, outside the town of Charny. I also feel obliged to note that it was possibly my mother's affection for our beagle, Tyler, and her desire to avoid any accidental death on his part that ensured the groundhogs were humanely trapped and relocated rather than otherwise summarily dispatched.

[6] The mystery of the week. More on that later (we have almost tracked down the culprit but need one more night to be sure).

[7] Every staff member at the university got one as a present from our new university president, Allan Rock. (Yes, that Allan Rock.)

[8] But I'm not bitter. Really.

[9] This is the point in the blogging where I recall my mother having forbidden me to go back out to the park to search for the groundhog in the dark. Oops. Well, at least I can rest assured that she will never know about this part of the events, since she certainly does not read my blog...

[10] This level of excitement never occurred when we lived downtown. Well, other than the earthquake, of course, which you just can't beat. Or when Rion took up remodelling the bathroom. But here in Orléans, we haven't had any bats come to visit. I haven't been told lately that my sour cream sniffing habits are disgusting, nor has Rion howled at any ghosts, shown signs of dementia, or (unsuccessfully) tipped us off to the presence of mice in our cupboards.

So much for pleasantness and uneventfulness...

2008-08-09T10:44:00.005-04:00

Last night, Randal and I are innocently sitting, watching an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (what else is there to do on a Friday night, I ask you?). It was about 10:00 p.m. Then the dog, who had been sitting curled up on the couch with us, asked to go outside. No problem. We put the outdoor light on out back and sent him out, then went back to our show.

5-10 minutes later, we heard the weirdest noise outside. At first blush, I thought the dog had started to growl to be let in, though usually he'll give a short sharp bark. But no, this was a manic, slightly crazed constant "what-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing" kind of growl. The kind he usually gives to pieces of cardboard and plastic bags that have the temerity to move on their own, except more high-pitched and urgent.

I went to the back door and looked out, then shrieked, "Oh my god there's something in the backyard!" The dog was on the patio growling fiercely at something black and long-tailed that was cowering, back arched, under a plastic patio chair. I can't even remember who tumbled out of the house first, me or Randal, though Randal (as usual) was the braver of the bunch and went over to snag Rion and also close enough to get a glimpse of what this animal was.

As the thought crossed my mind, "Is it a cat? Or - no, not a-", Randal shouted, "It's a skunk!"

NO!

Without further delay, Randal hauled the dog back by the collar and into the house just behind my fleeing back. And within 5 seconds of getting indoors, the smell hit us. Rion had been skunked. And now the whole house was getting skunky, too.

Randal ran upstairs with the dog in tow (who followed somewhat reluctantly, as he still wanted to go outside to confront this intruder some more), and I spent the next 10 minutes running around the house, first trying to locate some tomato juice (we drink it regularly but turns out that we, of course, are almost out at the moment) with which to wash the dog, and then with an air freshener spray bottle, trying to get rid of the horrible smell.

So I am happy to report that tomato juice does, indeed, rid a dog of skunk smell, even when one only has a tiny amount of juice left (good thing Rion is a Jack Russell terrier, I guess, and not a Newfoundland dog).

Poor Rion, looking scruffy, undignified, and, well, REDDISH, post-skunk.

On the other hand, air freshener is not an effective agent against eau de skunk. Even this morning, I get occasional whiffs of skunk smell. Hopefully it's not actually too bad; i.e., we didn't just get used to the smell when in fact our house reeks. Yuck.

As for the skunk, I don't know where he came from. We've known there's a skunk around, as every few nights, there will be a distinct skunk smell in the air. I'm always a little nervous when we take night walks that we will run into him (though apparently the thing I actually needed to fear was suicidal chipmunks). But in my own backyard??? Is nothing sacred?

Today we are going to comb our yard (shouldn't take long - it's tiny) to ensure that there is no skunk hideout. Randal was doubly-brave and checked it out last night, but didn't see anything. I just want to make sure, however. Do skunks jump fences? Because I'm pretty sure they don't know how to open gates and then close them nicely behind them. How did the skunk get in here? And why? Is he stealing from our garden?

All this, and more, on an upcoming episode of Pixxiefish in the Sea...or, ahh, with any luck, NONE of this upcoming because there will NOT be any further encounters with skunks! (knock on wood)

A pleasant, uneventful evening stroll, until . . .

2008-08-04T02:34:00.008-04:00

Rion killed a chipmunk this evening. It was horrifying. It was on our evening walk, and we don't even know how he got a hold of the little guy, but the next thing we knew, he was freaking out, shaking his head wildly with something hanging from his mouth. We shouted, and the thing went flying, in (yuck!) two pieces. I was glad it was already dark out so I couldn't really make out any details of the gore. Poor Randal had to clean it up.

Pretty disgusted and turned off by the whole thing, I then remembered the story about the time my parents' old beagle, Tyler, caught a rabbit. My parents have rabbits that get into their backyard every year (they're still a'coming, and even more so now that there is no longer a dog keeping watch), and one year, Tyler caught one of the baby rabbits. I wasn't there at the time, but heard about it afterward. The rabbit squealed - apparently they can let out very high-pitched yowls when necessary - and Tyler, looking a bit stunned about his catch, let go, and the rabbit ran off.

Then I found out a few years ago that the last part was not quite what one might consider truthful; ergo, the rabbit did not make it away entirely intact or, for that matter, entirely (or even somewhat) alive.

I'm now going to go curl up in a ball in a dark corner of the house somewhere and fervently hope that I can clear all the ensuing mental imagery out of my mind. Probably I will make it out of this without years of therapy, but it's still too early to tell. Yuck, ugh, and blech.

Fêtez la Fête nationale!

2008-06-25T14:00:00.005-04:00

À l'honneur de la fête de Saint-Jean-Baptiste, j'ai mis mes photos de notre voyage à Québec en mai sur Flickr.

Any excuse is as good as another, right? Anyway, we celebrated Saint-Jean-Baptiste by driving back from Toronto to Ottawa (ie., not at all). Toronto was, as always, good, though we didn't do much. We ate sushi. We met up with our friend Shoshanah for some (more) shopping and sushi. I got my hair cut. We bought a bunch of prints for our townhouse. The dog got wet in the rain, and wetter in my mom's gardens. There was hail and a funnel cloud (didn't see either, sadly).

A good time was had by all.

This post got me to thinking, however, and I have realized that in 3 of the past 4 months of May, we have travelled somewhere.

Last year, in May 2007, it was to Kyushu.*

The strange but cool Canal City in Fukuoka.

The year before, we didn't go anywhere exotic, though I note, looking through my archives, that we did go to Toronto for a weekend right at the beginning of the month. To be fair, though, we were gearing up for a year in Japan and so not really able to take off at the drop of a hat.

In May 2005, we went to Amsterdam.

A rare, non-canal shot of Amsterdam.

So we'll have to figure out something neat for next year... Suggestions?

* I am embarrassed to note that I have completely neglected to ever finish uploading the Kyushu pictures - Nagasaki, which I think is my favourite city in all of Japan, is noticeably absent! I will rectify this oversight soon!!!

The Ghost Came Back...[1]

2008-06-17T20:59:00.007-04:00

Long-term readers of this blog (may God have mercy on your souls) may remember, in the pre-Japan days, in the old apartment on Cooper Street, we had a ghost. In particular, we had a kitchen ghost. Mostly. He occasionally strayed, but spent the majority of his time in the kitchen. But rather than mucking around, opening and closing cupboard doors, throwing pots and pans about, or rattling dishes[2], our ghost had an affinity for electronics, and, in particular, the microwave. Every now and again, our ghostly visitor would set the microwave for either 1:20 (one minute, twenty seconds) or 6:66.[3] And only ever with the touch of two buttons.

I might have ascribed this to faulty electronics; however, a while later, Rion started behaving rather strangely. He started sitting on the arm of the sofa, perched like a gargoyle[4], staring intently into empty space. His gaze would sometimes move quickly around the room, though mostly pointed toward the ceiling. He did this most often in the living room, but also occasionally in other rooms. He would lay still as anything, and then suddenly jump straight up in the air a few feet, then listen some more. I was convinced: The ghost had expanded its territory from the kitchen into the living room, and Rion was tracking it. Dogs are supposed to be more susceptible to sensing paranormal activity, so that had to be the answer.

As Rion's behaviour grew more and more erratic over the next few days, and he responded less and less to our entreaties to fix his attention elsewhere, we grew somewhat worried. Randal went online, and after some research and a posting to an online forum, we had two possibilities: the more extreme "your dog is suffering from psychosis and following imaginary things in his mind" and the positively mundane "as a Jack Russell, his impeccable hearing is tipping him off to mice in the ceiling or walls".

Good God - our dear little puppy, barely two years old, psychotic and communing with the resident ghost!

Then, one windy early summer evening, a storm brewing outside, I was sitting at my little desk in our spare room, when I became aware of an odd sound. I called Randal in, and he confirmed he could hear it too: A faint scrathing sound coming from the wall near my desk. We pulled everything away from the wall[5], and listened. Silence. And then it started again. No holes in the wall...yet. But surely it was only a matter of time before this monster mouse would claw its way out!

After a poor night's sleep, I called the superintendent in the morning and left what was undoubtedly a long and rambling message about the steps I expected him to take in order to eradicate this beast. I also, incidentally, announced our intention to give notice on the apartment.[6] A few days later, he called back to advise someone had been up in the attic to put some traps out (we were on the top floor of the building), but that he couldn't do anything about mice in the walls unless they were actually coming in to our apartment. He was hopeful, however, that the traps in the attic would also solve the mice-in-the-walls problem. I decided that - yuck - I had no choice but to also hold that hope.

That was not the last word ever from the mice - that came a number of weeks later in the form of a "so long, and thanks for all the ~~fish~~ skim milk powder" farewell gift - but it certainly did seem to reduce the dog's strange antics somewhat, if not entirely. And - double yuck - there was no more scratching from within the walls. At least as far as we could tell.

Anyway, long digression to get to the crux of my story, which, I am happy to add, has nothing to do with rodents.

So that was all in May-July of 2006. Flash forward to March 29, 2008, and, specifically, to Earth Hour, 8:00-9:00 EST.

Randal and I timed our dinner so that we would be eating by candlelight and not need to put any lights or or run anything electric. In fact, lights out occurred early, at about 7:45. We cleaned up as best as we could. It was only about 8:15 at that point, so I opened the living room blinds and went to sit on the couch in the dark. Didn't look like a lot of our neighbours were participating in Earth Hour, sadly; I could see lights and TVs on in a few other houses. Randal and Rion both eventually came to join me on the couch. We sat there, all three of us jumbled on the couch in a giant heap.[7] We didn't even talk - we just sat there and listened to the sound of a quiet neighbourhood.[8] Randal and the dog fell asleep. I was starting to feel dozy myself. It certainly gave me a fresh appreciation for why our ancestors, until relatively recently, got up and went to bed more or less with the sun.

All contemplations and ruminations were rudely interrupted at roughly 8:43, however, when the peace was abruptly shattered by two little sounds:

"Beep. Beep."

And then the microwave turned on.

We raced into the kitchen - even the dog - and hit "cancel". Perplexed, we returned to the quiet dark of the living room couch. Ten minutes later, it did it again. This time we had the presence of mind to unplug the microwave entirely. I joked to Randal that if the microwave now went off a third time, then I'd be worried.

So, hurrah - the kitchen ghost is back. I'd missed the old guy. And apparently, the 15 months he'd spent in storage with the rest of our stuff has not agreed with him. Ever since Earth Hour, he's been on a rampage, a ghost with a mission, setting and re-setting our microwave for various random lengths of time, sometimes one incident immediately following the next, and the next, with a ferocity and sense of purpose that is exhausting to me, the poor human trying to keep up with his tricks. Sometimes he even blocks the "Pause / Cancel" key so that I have to actually unplug the microwave in order to get him to cease and desist with his follies.

We have taken, in fact, to leaving the microwave unplugged. But we are only human, and prone to forgetfulness. Just the other day, the ghost set a time of 12 min 15 sec - surely his most remarkable feat to date! ... Until, that is, last night, when he one-upped himself: Rather than the usual two-beep setting, he hit FIVE buttons (count 'em, five) before hitting start. I was in the kitchen at the time, and I saw a rapid succession of things flit across the screen of the microwave - I'm pretty sure "Look behind you" was one of them.[9]

But lest you worry (as I'm sure you were) that we may have stunted the ghost's creativity by once more restricting him to misdeeds on the microwave, oh no, never you fear! He is slowly finding new outlets[10] for his talents...

Three nights in a row last week, no sooner had Rion and I happily settled in to bed for the night than we were disturbed by the sound of something falling to the floor in the bathroom. We went to investigate, and the little shade on the nightlight that we keep on in the bathroom (until Randal turns it off right before he comes to bed) had somehow popped off the nightlight and clattered to the floor. And once, sure; but three nights in a row? How strange.

There have also been a couple of items in the house that, while we were sure we knew where they were, have gone missing; though this, however, I am more willing to ascribe to a failing in our organizational abililities rather than any nocturnal wanderings of our ghost. And Rion's behaviour is as normal as it ever is.[11] But if we start to hear scratchings in the walls, my dear readers, believe you me - you will be the first to know, and there will be hell to pay. Hopefully not literally. Our ghost is a friendly one, like of the Casper variety, not something poltergeisty...

Right? Isn't he? Aren't you, Mr. Ghost? ...

[1] See? I said I would write about this someday!

[2] Which, incidentally did happen once. But science forced me to ascribe it to an earthquake, rather than the paranormal.

[3] I kid. It was only ever 1:20. Though, it would have been doubly-creepy if the ghost had been able to set such a time, eh?

[4] A cute, fluffy gargoyle.

[5] Not an easy feat in that place, as those of you who visited will maybe remember, as it was packed full of stuff.

[6] But in fairness, we were doing that anyway.

[7] We were like dogs in a pack sleeping together - one of us lying this way; another one, that; the third sprawled on top of all the others. I'll leave it to you to imagine who was where.

[8] It really is. What a change from living right downtown. It even feels relatively quiet when there's kids out playing and shrieking in the common area out back. But on this late March evening, when there was still a fair amount of snow on the ground and it was still cold enough outside to make your teeth chatter, no one was about, and so it was quieter than a mouse. There. I promised no more rodents, and it seems I lied.

[9] Actually, when it comes to strange messages on microwaves, I think this one takes the cake.

[10] Pun maybe intended.

[11] Interpret that as you wish. Is a Jack Russell Terrier ever, uh, truly "normal"?

Everything old is new again...

2008-06-16T22:27:00.002-04:00

So I gave my 10 weeks' notice today at the library. Of course, as it was pointed out to me when I made the joke about 10 weeks, I'm working on contract and am not actually obligated to give any notice. But that wouldn't be proper, and since I know how slow the library can be at hiring people, I figured 10 weeks might be just about right to get someone in to replace me. Besides, I'd recently been told that my contract was being extended for another year, till September 2009, and I bet they'd wonder where I was when I didn't show up for work after August 29 (the end of my current contract).

But I digress. Where am I going, you ask?

Back to my old (pre-Japan) job: I have accepted a contract position[1] at the University of Ottawa, at the law library. It's basically the same job I had there before, providing reference services and teaching legal research classes, except now there's more classes to teach (used to be just the civil-law students, but now the library provides research courses for the common-law program, too). And, well, thanks to recent contract negotiations, it pays much better than it did the last time I was there. And I will no longer be a lowly Librarian 1, having merited (in someone's eyes) a Librarian 2 ranking. I've also been told that, were I to stay on at the university following the end of my contract[2], I'd likely be up-ranked to Librarian 3.[3] Currently the position runs till the end of September 2009, but I have been told that the chances of it being extended at least a few months more are very good.

I will miss the Library of Parliament - I really like my job there and I really like all of my colleagues. A lot. It's some of the most interesting work I have ever done, even more than when I was articling, and mostly because, while largely legal-based, it is incredibly varied and often challenging. But it will be so nice to be back at an academic library, and teaching! As annoying as the students can sometimes be[4], it's what I love to do.

[1] Oh, that someday I might have a position I can wholly and truly call my own...

[2] There are some potential possibilities, though nothing is guaranteed, of course.

[3] For those of you not "in the know" with librarian ranking (mostly academic, but other library folk likely have an idea what this entails), just take my word for it - Librarian 2 is good, but Librarian 3 is even better. That's supervisory/management level stuff, or pretty darn close.

[4] I'll begin with the more mundane example of the students who query why they need to learn how to properly note-up (get the history of) and cite (reference) a judicial decision since they'll *for sure* have a secretary who will do all this for them once they graduate (haven't they heard of articling? what about law firms without - gasp! - a librarian, let alone perhaps even a *library*!!!), and let your imagination take it from there.

À propos of nothing whatsoever...

2008-06-10T13:44:00.002-04:00

So, despite a long, convoluted dream last night wherein I was attending Parliament in order to participate in the vote on Bill C-50 (that's the budget bill that has those pesky immigration clauses stuck in there) and Bill C-50 was actually voted down, the Liberals in fact, in real life, did not show up in great number to vote and so C-50 is now on its way to the Senate.

What a weird dream. Stephen Harper was there.[1] Mostly, though, it was a motley assortment of people I didn't recognize. I was in Parliament for the first time myself, as I'd realized it was time I did my civic duty, got involved, and voted. But then it turned out that the official representative for my position was also there, so I was bumped from the voters' list. He was a youngish guy with salt-and-pepper hair. He was nice enough, and promised to show me all the ropes, but first, we had to go listen to a few speeches and then vote on the bill. To my horror, it was like everything was predetermined. The room was partitioned into two sections, and I found myself and my rep sitting in the section of the room for the people voting "Yes" to the bill! I didn't want to vote yes, and I couldn't believe my rep was voting yes either. Plus, the "no" side of the room was fairly isolated, out of view of the speakers' podium. This didn't feel fair.

Speeches went by in a blur, and the voting (in which I did not get to participate - boo - nor with which method I was happy) was over before I knew it. But the "no" vote squeaked out a victory! I was so happy. My rep looked kind of relieved too, and somehow I found out that he'd only been voting as per party lines.[2] Anyway, for now, in the room, the mood was electric, as the vote meant: There'd be a summer election after all! Exciting.

But alas - I woke up this morning and when I saw the local newspapers did not have a giant "ELECTION" headline blazoned across their covers, I knew for sure that it was just a dream and nothing more....

[1] *shudder*
[2] I fear to know what that might possibly indicate, deep down in my subconscious, about my political affiliations.

have library, will travel*

2008-06-04T21:51:00.000-04:00

Email sent to me yesterday afternoon by Randal:

maybe there should be a whole tout industry attached to libraries the way hostels and guest houses have.

Hey where you going? I have nice book. Good quality.

Uh, I'm looking for The Rights of Refugees, 3rd edition.

Oh, that book burned up.

What?

Big fire. Here. How about this?

That's a book on torts.

Yes, good book. Very nice, very niiice.

I laughed so hard, I almost choked on the grapes I was munching at the time. LMAO.

* I came thisclose to titling this post, à la Strasmark, "Conversations funnier to the people having them, an occasional series".

This is not my beautiful house; this is not my beautiful wife...

2008-05-29T20:26:00.005-04:00

I got the most bizarre letter today, in response to a job as a librarian for an employer who shall remain unnamed, more than 7 months after I'd been interviewed.*

Dear Ms. Lavigne:

After a careful assessment of the information you have provided on your application for the above-mentioned appointment process, the persons responsible for assessment have concluded that you do not meet the following merit criteria identified for screening:

Knowledge of the principles, theories, techniques and practices of library and information science related to the delivery of research and reference services.

Consequently, you will not be considered further in this appointment process.

As you can undoubtedly imagine, this comes as quite a shock to me since, with the exception of my recent stint teaching English in Japan, I have spent the better part of the last 5 years (and more!)** labouring under the belief that I have been, in fact, delivering research and reference services to others. But apparently, I was wrong.

It turns out the library in question hired someone for the position months and months ago, and it was only recently discovered that HR had never sent letters advising the various candidates. I suspect there was a scramble, and somewhere along the way, the wrong box got ticked off next to my name, kind of like when the JET people marked me down in their database as re-contracting, instead of not. I'm not looking for sympathy - I didn't even really want the job in the first place - and in fact, I think it's the funniest thing to have happened to me yet all year!***

* Surely the mention of the extreme time-delay has given the employer away as government. And to be fair, the letter came from the Human Resources section of the particular department in question - I like to feel that the librarians at the library itself would have never branded me in that manner.

** I first started working in law library reference services in 2000, so you do the math.

*** That makes my life sound boring. Make it "this week".

So what have you done with your life?

2008-05-23T13:19:00.005-04:00

So. It occurred to me the other day that my life thus far can be largely packaged into 5-year chunks:

5 years ago, I graduated from Dalhousie.

10 years ago, I graduated from York U.

15 years ago, I graduated from Québec High School.

20 years ago, I graduated from Colonel John Stuart Elementary School.

In 1983 and 1978, I wasn't doing much of anything of any interest. Kind of, uh, like now, except now, I'm older, able to tie my shoelaces all by myself, and my mom doesn't tell me to make my bed anymore. Usually.

Finally, travelling...

2008-05-15T00:15:00.005-04:00

So we are off in the morning for 4 days in Québec City. This is our first real trip since returning from overseas, unless you count trips to visit family in Toronto and Winnipeg. Though I guess our 3-day, cross-Ontario drive to Winnipeg and back last September shouldn't be so readily discounted. Fine. This is our second real trip since returning from overseas, and the only one that involves no family component whatsoever.[1]

Randal has never been to Québec City, so it will be fun to show him around. It won't be a total Greatest Hits of Julie's Early Adolescence, since, really, I'm sure he's not that interested in the church hall where I spent countless hours rehearsing with the Québec Art Company for their latest musical, nor in Place Laurier where I spent way too much time shopping with my girlfriends and dodging boys I had crushes on[2], nor even Jessica's old house where we whiled away hours and hours in the basement putting together the QHS Scoop newspaper or watching Guns N' Roses and New Kids on the Block videos.

[As an aside, click that NKOTB link for a good laugh. They're getting back together! And, well, they're just not as cute as they used to be......]

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, the Tour of Québec City. We are staying at the Hotel Acadia, which I stayed at the last time I was in Québec City, about 8 years ago, back when it was called La Maison Acadienne. It's a hotel in a heritage home, and really, really nice. It's right in the Old Town, so we will be well-poised to visit all the Old Town sites. Don't know about a ride in a calèche, but maybe.

The ulterior motive of the Québec City trip, however, is to attend a reunion of sorts at my old high school. This is a muddled story, and it hasn't quite turned out the way I'd hoped, but oh well. See, 2008 marks 15 years since I graduated from high school. Originally, a small group of people were trying to get together some kind of reunion to take place in either Québec City or Montréal. But that fell through. Then we found out that the school itself was hosting a reunion for all alumni, Back to School 2008, as one of many events being held in Québec City over the next few months in celebration of the city's 400th anniversary. So I decided I would go, since it gives us the excuse to take a short vacation in a lovely city![3] The only problem is, now, I only know of FOUR other people from my year who are also attending. I mean, I guess there will be teachers there that I may know, and others may show up of whom I did not know they were coming, but generally, it's just not going to be the great "how-nice-to-see-you-after-15-years" event of the summer. Which, now that I think about it, is kind of okay, since I really don't want to be reminded that I am old enough to have been out of school for 15 years.

Anyway, that's where I'll be if any of you are wondering why this daily-updated blog is suddenly no longer being updated daily.

And now, without further ado, I am off to watch Grosse Point Blank, the movie that has taught me everything I need to know about how to comport myself at such an event, only I'm not actually a professional killer, so when the guy comes to bump me off because I bumped off some other guy's dog (by mistake!), I may just beat him senselessly with my shoe and cry.[4]

[1] Well, sort of. I plan on going to visit my grandparents' gravesite, but that doesn't really count, does it?

[2] OK, that only happened once. And I'm sure Jen is going to whack me upside the head the next time she sees me, for the mere fact that I still remember this incident. Also, Place Laurier had this excellent hat shop that I frequented numerous times in the hopes of finding the perfect Debbie-Gibson hat. (Not the jacket, mind you. That would have been too uncool.) But, alas, it never happened, and thus ended my dreams of a musical career.

[3] i.e., a city that isn't either Toronto or Winnipeg, though both of those are lovely cities in their own ways.

[4] It was either that or Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, and I figure that I'd just never pass for a blonde bimbo. Besides, GPB has John Cusack, and what more could I possibly want in life? :)

The Incredible Pooperama

2008-05-12T20:12:00.003-04:00

One of the big attractions of our new neighbourhood is the park across the street from our townhouse. It has a bunch of different areas - a soccer pitch, a small paved area with a basketball net, sand and a net for beach volleyball, a kids' playground complete with sandbox and swings. But our favourite part is the baseball field. See, the field is almost completely surrounded by a fence - otherwise, how would you tell that a home run has been scored, right?

We don't play baseball. But the fenced-in field means, in those times when the field is unoccupied, you can find a little white dog named Rion running free, off-leash, like a maniac, chasing his ball. We take him out there almost daily, now that the weather is nice again, to play ball, and boy oh boy does he love it. If we don't act quickly enough after returning home from a long day at work, he is bouncing off the walls[1] in anticipation of his expected walk. Woe to us on rainy days...

An interesting development, however, has been the slight expansion of Rion's ball-throwing circles. Every second time I take him to the park, or so, we are joined by one or two (or, as today, three) little kids who run over from the playground into the baseball field (usually as their parents look on trepidatiously[2]), shrieking, "Can I throw the ball? Can I throw the ball?"

As soon as we are joined by little churdlen, Rion becomes a show-off and doesn't want to give the ball up. But he eventually does, and then the child throws the ball a number of times for him[3]. He loves the attention.

Actually, as an aside, a funny thing happened the other day. I'd taken Rion out to the baseball diamond and we were throwing the ball around. Then Randal came by - I think he'd been at his swimming lesson so was coming home late. As he walked around the edge of the baseball field to where there is a small opening in the fence (along the infield, and we were playing out in the outfield), he was whooping and hollering to get Rion's attention. Rion picked up on the ruckus and starting running for Randal. Suddenly Randal is startled to see these two GIANT dogs barrelling at him from the other direction - a Saint Bernard and a Saint Bernard mix of some kind. He was swarmed with dogs. The two giants were lovely and gentle as can be, however, but it was pretty surprising, not to mention hilarious to see tiny little Rion next to these monsters. I wished I'd had my camera with me.

Anyway, today as we were playing with this boy, Tristan, who was about 11 and apparently plays football[4], and his two cousins, the younger cousin, maybe 6 years old, tells me that he wants a dog but his mom won't let him have one because "she says dogs poop all over the furniture - is that true?"

I had to play the adult card on this one, sadly - of course it's not true that dogs poop all over furniture, but I'm not going to have this kid report back to his mom that some lady in the park says she's wrong! So I mumbled some stuff about dogs being a lot of work, and you need to spend a lot of time training them and taking care of them and teaching them stuff, and that certainly not all dogs poop on furniture - my dog being a case in point - and that maybe some dogs do, but that it takes a lot of time and training to teach dogs where to poop and where not to poop, including the furniture, and not everyone has time to teach a dog these things. I mean, really - if you didn't teach your kid to poop in the toilet, they might choose the furniture to poop on, too, no?[5]

And now, I am going to go sit on my poop-free couch[6] and read my book.

[1] Almost literally. He is a Jack Russell terrier, after all.

[2] How do you even spell that word??? Gee, if only there were some technology or thing by which I could check the spelling...

[3] They also usually throw the ball better and farther than I do, the little brats.

[4] That's my excuse for why he was such a good thrower, actually. Don't ask about the other kids.

[5] I didn't actually share my thoughts on that very last bit just in case the kid decided to become a dog-pooping-rights activist and start demonstrating his ability to be poorly trained by pooping in random spots himself.

[6] Dog puke, now that's another story.

60- er, I mean, 29...

2008-04-28T20:44:00.002-04:00

Today my mom turns 60 or, as she likes to call it "29...no, make that 28."

As has (sort of) become my tradition, I present to you here a picture that I stole off her Flickr page:

The Birthday Girl, swimming with sharks, or at least, a noticeable lack thereof.

And now, if you will excuse me, instead of posting witticisms about my mother on the occasion of her birthday here, I am going to telephone her.*

* Good excuse, huh?

Sweet dreams are not made of these...

2008-04-25T13:45:00.003-04:00

So I had what was quite possibly the most frightening incident of my life last week, a near-death experience of sorts. I say "of sorts" because, in retrospect at least, it was not actually a near-death experience - at no point was I actually in danger of losing my life (or so Randal has reassured me) - however, it was quite possibly the only time thus far in my life that, instead of thinking that I might die from something or that a certain event could kill me[1], I actually thought that I was, in fact, possibly dying.[2]

Anyway, it was the middle of the night, one night last week; Monday night, I believe. I had been woken up by the dog who needed to pee, so I got up and let him outside. His business done, we went back upstairs and I quickly fell asleep. It was about 3 a.m.

I fell asleep, and soon, I began to dream. I dreamt I was in a hospital. The room was smallish, and was painted white; it was very bright with the lights on. I was lying on a bed, wearing just a hospital gown; half-sitting, actually, since the bed was in a partially-raised position. A nurse was prepping me for something; perhaps I was in there to undergo some kind of surgical procedure, I don't know. Anyway, I had one of those white pinchy things[4] on my left pointer finger, the thing that I believe they can use to monitor your heart rate. At the moment, the nurse was fitting me with some kind of tube in my mouth, that was supposed to help me breathe more easily during the procedure that was coming up.

There were two other patients in the room with me. Next to me, on another bed, was a female patient, asleep. i don't remember much about her. In a third bed, facing mine but over to the right a bit, was a man - tall, thin, slightly balding. Doesn't really matter. He was also asleep, or, more likely, under some kind of general anaesthetic. A nurse was working on him. She had a small table with a tray full of various surgical equipment by her side.

My nurse had finished fitting my tube and had moved off to a corner of the room by this point, so I was able to clearly watch the other nurse at work. It was both weird and fascinating to see. She picked a knife up off the tray - not, I might add, a proper surgical knife or a scalpel or anything like that, but what looked more like a butter knife that you'd find at the dinner table. She then pressed the blade of the knife to the man's forehead in a series of quick and precise motions. There was no slicing; she just pressed the blade to his forehead again and again, in a series of parallel lines, forming the outline of a rectangle. Then she took the tip of the blade, inserted it gently at one corner of her incisions, and quickly peeled an extraordinarily thin, translucent rectangle of skin off his forehead. She lay this in a dish on her tray, then wheeled the table over to the corner where the other nurse was standing. As I started to feel drowsy (assumedly, in preparation for my procedure, I had been given some kind of anaesthetic), I could hear them murmuring to each other in low voices.

That was when the tube in my throat slipped. I started to gag. I couldn't breathe without choking on the tube. Half-knocked out from the anaesthetic or whatever it was the nurse had given me, I was not really able to move, so I lay there, gagging, and with what little muscle-power I was able to gather, I tried moving my right hand a little bit in the direction of the nurses. Though surely they must be able to hear me gagging, I thought. I desperately needed the nurse to come re-adjust my tube. But she just continued chatting with her colleague, as I struggled to make myself heard.

Then I became aware of Randal speaking to me: "It's okay, Julie; it's just a dream." He said that many times. The bright, white hospital room faded away and was replaced by our dark bedroom. I was awake but not awake. And I couldn't breathe. Every time I tried to breathe normally, something caught, and all I could produce was this awful, ragged sound, like a snuffling (but not in a happy-dog-snuffling-the-ground kind of way). I would try to inhale, but couldn't, and then suddenly, desperately, I would intake air, mostly through my nose, in ragged succession, gasping for air. Then, after perhaps eight such rapid snorts in a row, I'd force myself to be calm and try to exhale, but it would just quickly resort back to more gasping. And I wasn't awake, or at least I wasn't sure if I was awake or not. I was dimly aware of my surroundings, and I could hear Randal talking to me, telling me to relax and that I was just dreaming, but I couldn't move or speak to him, though I wanted to. I lay there, gasping and listening, and I was trying to tell him to touch me, to tell him that touching me would get me out of this. But I couldn't move my hand to him, though I was trying, and I couldn't get any words out.

So as I lay there, dimly aware of the white lamp hanging in the corner of the room[5], but unable to speak or move or even breathe, that's when I thought, "I'm dying. This is what it's like to die. If I don't manage to get another breath in, I will die." I honestly thought that this was going to be it for me. There was no panic, just a sense of disbelief that this could be happening, and a struggling urge to not give in, to focus on getting another gasping breath in. It was truly frightening and wholly surreal, especially since, while I knew Randal really was talking to me (i.e., it wasn't just part of a dream), and while I knew I really was doing something strange with my breathing, I couldn't tell whether it was all part of some vivid dream or whether it really was happening. I was trapped in this in-between stage where I couldn't do anything to get out.

Eventually, after about 30 seconds to a minute of this, I finally woke up, or, to be more accurate perhaps, the rest of me woke up. According to my alarm clock, it was 3:33, so barely a half hour after I had last fallen asleep.

Randal reassures me that I was never in any actual danger - while my breathing was irregular and ragged, I never actually stopped breathing, nor did I actually appear to be choking on anything. Still, as you can well imagine, it was rather unsettling, and it took me quite a while to be willing to fall asleep again. I've slept fine since then.[6] Randal says I have never shown any signs of sleep apnea or anything like that, which would seem to be a logical cause of this event, so for now, I am treating it as an aberration.[7]

[1] More on those another time.

[2] I feel compelled to add the word "possibly" because, even at the time, there was a little part of my mind saying, "Of course you're not dying; you can't be dying," but then again, I wouldn't be surprised if most people who die in some sudden, traumatic way think that as they are dying (provided, of course, that death is not instantaneous, that they have a moment or two to become aware of their predicament).[3]

[3] My, my, hasn't this post become cheery?

[4] I don't know my hospital equipment terminology, sorry.

[5] It wasn't on, of course, but, as a white lamp hanging against the backdrop of a dark brown wall, it shows up quite clearly even in the dark.

[6] Well, about as "fine" as I ever do, which is never quite as good as I'd like.

[7] I have a number of weird quirks with my sleep habits, which I have been aware of for a number of years now, and I will get into that more in a post sometime in the near future. However, sleep apnea is not one of them. I also have certain dream habits or patterns - this is possibly my first hospital-based dream, which is certainly interesting, considering its not-so-rosy outcome.

Limited time offer only!*

2008-04-14T09:34:00.002-04:00

The 29 Items In My Refrigerator

This, and so much more, on Flickr. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

And yes, someday I will write a post that is longer than 3 sentences. I promise.

* OK, that's not true. The photos are in fact up for some time-frame possibly approximating (in today's Internet world) "forever".

Serves me right...

2008-04-05T02:08:00.002-04:00

What goes around, comes around, eh? Ah, well, it was fun while it lasted...

Fish on Fridays

2008-04-04T11:23:00.001-04:00

Last night, I dreamt of codfish. I dreamt that I was suffering from a strange, slowly-debilitating, mysterious disease. The only cure, I knew, was codfish. But the cod stocks in Newfoundland had been overfished, and, ultimately, there just would be no cure for me. I woke up slightly when Randal came in the room. But I pretended to be more half-asleep than I really was, as I felt guilty that I was allowing him to continue to believe I would someday be cured, when I knew perfectly well that, without cod, I would remain sick for always.

In completely unrelated news, I've been battling the flu for 10 days now. I've been having trouble sleeping*, mostly due to a very bad cough, and have had traces of a fever on one or two occasions. Oh, also à propos of nothing whatsoever, I just started reading Mark Kurlansky's fascinating book on the history and politics of codfishing called, fittingly enough, Cod.

* A state of affairs quite extraordinary for me, as those of you who went to library school or (especially) law school with me can attest.

Breaking News!

2008-04-01T22:40:00.002-04:00

I can't believe this is what passes for news these days...

Rumours of her blogging abilities were greatly exaggerated...

2008-04-01T13:56:00.003-04:00

Taking a page from Rebecca's book*, I have disappeared for over 3 weeks and now am reappearing to provide bloggified reasons as to why I haven't blogged in so long. ...Well, not really. The reasons are not very interesting, and I don't remember most of them anyway. Suffice it to say, I have been busy digging myself out of snow, traveling to Toronto to play Guitar Hero 3 to all hours of the night with the fabulous Judy**, and being sick as a dog.***

Many blog entries were written mentally in my head, usually late at night whilst unable to sleep, and promptly forgotten the next morning.

Anyhow, the point of this Meta-Blog is to create an agenda of upcoming topics of bloggation. The following shall (perhaps) be discussed:

The Ghost Who Came Back, Not The Very Next Day But About 20 Months Later

Why 19-Year-Olds Should Not Be Given Paper And Pen To Write Poetry

Books I Have Read And Loved or, Alternatively, Fiercely Hated

Blogging On The Fake Blog: Have You Visited My Flickr Lately?

Huh? I Went To Japan Last Year? No Way! Cool, Dude.

* As I am wont to do.

** And before he gets jealous, let me say that I would have included the magnificent Robert in that statement if he had a blog worth linking to...or any blog of any type at all. So there.

*** The "plus side" to being sick as a dog (by which I intend no insult to dogs at all, as I know for a fact that dogs are wonderful, loveable, unsick creatures) was that I got to stay home for 2 1/2 days from work, watching endless episodes of Buffy (I think I watched about 11 in total over 2 days), drinking hot chocolate, eating chicken noodle soup, and generally having Randal fuss over me to some degree. In other words, not so different from my usual life, minus the staying-at-home-from-work bit.

They don't call us The True North for nothing...

2008-03-07T13:51:00.005-05:00

I love The Weather Network:

Winter storm watch for: City of Ottawa
Issued at 10:00 AM EST FRIDAY 7 MARCH 2008

..WINTER STORM EXPECTED TO GIVE HEAVY SNOW SATURDAY.. THIS IS AN ALERT TO THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF DANGEROUS WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.
A STORM IS CURRENTLY OVER ALABAMA AND WILL PUSH NORTHWARD TODAY GIVING SIGNIFICANT SNOW TO MOST OF SOUTHERN ONTARIO. IT APPEARS THAT THE SNOW WILL COME IN TWO DOSES. THE FIRST ROUND WILL BEGIN AS EARLY AS THIS AFTERNOON FOR SOUTHWESTERN ONTARIO AND NIAGARA THEN LATER TODAY IN EASTERN ONTARIO. WE MAY HAVE A BRIEF REPRIEVE OVERNIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING WHERE SNOW MAY BECOME LIGHT AND MORE INTERMITTENT. THE HEAVIEST SNOWFALL IS THEN EXPECTED IN THE SECOND ROUND BEGINNING MIDDAY SATURDAY IN THE SOUTHWEST AND IN THE AFTERNOON OVER EASTERN ONTARIO. KEEP IN MIND THAT THE SNOWFALL DURATION WILL BE ABOUT 36 HOURS BUT THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL BE SATURDAY AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING. SNOWFALL WARNINGS HAVE BEEN ISSUED FROM LONG POINT TO THE NIAGARA PENINSULA DUE TO SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 15 TO 20 CENTIMETRES WITH THE FIRST DOSE. THESE AREAS WILL LIKELY BE UPGRADED TO A WINTER STORM WARNING DUE TO ADDITIONAL SNOWFALL AND BLOWING SNOW AS THE SECOND ROUND APPROACHES. STORM TOTALS MAY BE 20 TO 30 CENTIMETRES ALONG AND EAST OF A LINE FROM LONG POINT TO THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE THEN TO PETAWAWA. THERE IS POTENTIAL FOR 30 TO 50 CENTIMETRES OF SNOW OVER THE NIAGARA PENINSULA AND PARTS OF EASTERN ONTARIO. AREAS WEST OF THE LONG POINT TO PETAWAWA LINE SHOULD SEE BETWEEN 10 TO 20 CENTIMETRES WITH LESSER AMOUNTS NEAR LAKE HURON AND GEORGIAN BAY. BEHIND THIS SYSTEM STRONG NORTHERLY WINDS TO 70 KM/H ARE POSSIBLE. ON SATURDAY STRONG WINDS COMBINED WITH FRESH SNOW WILL CAUSE BLOWING SNOW TO LOWER VISIBILITIES AND CREATE DANGEROUS DRIVING CONDITIONS. WHITEOUT CONDITIONS FROM HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ARE POSSIBLE SO TRAVELLERS SHOULD BE PREPARED TO CHANGE THEIR PLANS ACCORDINGLY. TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS WILL DEPEND ON THE TRACK OF THIS SYSTEM AND THE AMOUNT OF MOISTURE AVAILABLE TO CONVERT TO SNOW. THERE IS STILL SOME UNCERTAINTY AS TO THE EXACT TRACK OF THIS STORM. ENVIRONMENT CANADA WILL CLOSELY MONITOR THIS SITUATION AND ISSUE SNOWFALL OR WINTER STORM WARNINGS AS REQUIRED WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. WINTER STORM WARNINGS ARE ISSUED WHEN SNOWFALL OF 25 CENTIMETRES IS EXPECTED IN 24 HOURS OR LESS..OR WHEN SNOWFALL COMBINED WITH BLOWING SNOW CREATES SIGNIFICANT AND POSSIBLY DANGEROUS WEATHER RELATED HAZARDS.

PLEASE REFER TO THE LATEST PUBLIC FORECASTS FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

I suspect, in fact, that the groundhog never even made it out of his hole this past Groundhog Day - and March looks more and more like a lion, than any lamb! Though of course, any comparison to Hell is somewhat misguided, no? (It's warm in Hell, from what I hear.)

Anyway, I suspect this crazy weather is just a ploy to amuse my father, who, as I'm sure most of you know by now, is weather-obsessed. The Weather Gods are just trying to greet him in style, as he returns sometime this weekend from an idyllic, sunshine-filled two-week vacation in the Caribbean with my mother.

Welcome home, folks! Hope you enjoy being holed up in Detroit!*

* I shouldn't even joke about being stuck in the Detroit airport. We almost had to spend the night in Detroit two years ago, whilst en route to Japan, when our connecting flight out of Ottawa was delayed. Thankfully, they held the plane for us in Detroit. Close call.

Last post ever.

2008-02-29T16:32:00.003-05:00

On this laptop, that is. Fred has arrived, and will be picked up tonight on my way home from work.

Wait a minute! I'm still AT work!* So I'm not even blogging on the old laptop at the moment! That would make my last post, the last post ever on the old laptop, whereas this post now becomes a post about how the main statement of the post (that it's the last post ever) isn't even true!

Which, in a way, makes this also somewhat of a pointless post. Meh - I'll submit it anyway.***

* But done for the day, so don't worry - not blogging on company time.**

** Also: I'm slightly disturbed that I started this blog post from work as casually as if I were sitting at home in my jammies. That either means I really like my job and feel comfortable there, or I am at work so much that it feels like home. *shudder*

*** If nothing else, it will keep my fans happy, as it will add to the number of times I have posted this week. LOL

That C.O.P.S. show ain't got nothin' on this...

2008-02-25T19:06:00.006-05:00

So I'm walking downtown after work, having decided to do a spot of shopping at the Rideau Centre. I'm walking down Wellington, the street that runs past the Parliament buildings, having cut over from Rideau, and I'm just across the street from the Chateau Laurier.[1]

A police car, headed in the direction of Parliament, suddenly pulls a U-ey[2] and starts heading down Wellington towards Rideau. I think nothing of it; Rideau Street and the Market area can be a tough part of town,[3] and it's also rush hour. Could be anything.

Crossing over the river and then in front of the convention centre, I see the same police car, now pulled roughly in front a small grey car. A Canada Post truck is stopped behind the grey car. Ahh, that explains it : an accident.

But then I realize the driver of the grey car is lying face down, arms spread wide, on the ground near the back of his car. Huh?

And standing a few feet away, a police officer, his gun fully drawn and pointed at the guy. Oh shit.

Though dying of curiosity, I and a few like-minded passers-by decided to just keep walking. There was a gun involved, for heaven's sake. You don't stop to look, just in case.

I went down into the underpass[4] and when I got back up, at the corner just before Rideau, there were 3 or 4 other police cars, sirens and lights ablaze, pulling on to the scene.

In the middle of rush hour! In the middle of Ottawa!!! Obviously I moved to Orleans not a moment too soon.

[1] This description is mainly for the benefit of those of you who know Ottawa, at least a little bit. For the rest of ya, come visit and I'll show you where it all goes down!

[2] God, I say that all the time, but how do you actually spell it?

[3] Again, this is Ottawa, so I use the word "tough" loosely.

[4] Yet again, the mental image will only be clear for those from (or heaven forbid, those intimately familiar with) Ottawa. (It's a really well-known underpass, and was recently the source of much controversy when city council decided to erect a fence down there, blocking off the part of it that had become very popular with homeless and beggars and other such "undesirables" as a place to get out of the cold for a while.

Introducing the newest member of my family

2008-02-23T20:07:00.004-05:00

This is Fred.

Fred is the newest member of the family, and we expect him to arrive sometime next week or early the following week (you can never be sure about these things). We looked everywhere for someone like Fred, and he's finally agreed to come to us all the way from Cornerbrook, NFLD.

I'm so excited I can barely wait. In anticipation of Fred's arrival, I bought a really cool carry-case, so I can take him around with me wherever I might choose. It isn't as interesting as Fred will be, nor does is it capable of doing as many things as Fred will be, but it has lots of zippers and pockets, and I can wear it as a handbag, over my shoulder, or like a backpack. Multi-purpose, and stylish to boot!