This is awesome

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

Earthquake!

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?

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

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?

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

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

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.