just one more

saturday morning started like this:



OH HELLO. no, i don't mind wearing you as a hat. not really, anyway. i don't feel that this arrangement is good for our hierarchy though. he's too entitled. he thinks he's people. he fights me when i try to move him.

saturday night started like this:


tea. my stomach was so bad this weekend. it is 100% the drinking. it's ok, if i drink some tea then i can go out again, right? 

so then i went out to meet some friends that were in town, which was really nice and fun. unfortunately there was a pack of girls at the bar were being SO rude and bratty, because the concept of OTHER PEOPLE being at the bar was too much for them to handle. they wanted it all to themselves. luckily i have met many a rude person, being that i've worked in customer service for most of my life, and i elected to take the high road and let their bad behaviour speak for itself. this strategy almost always puts you out on top.

here is a sample:

drunk girl clutching a half-eaten sour key and a crushed pack of smokes who just pushed her way to the bar: "WHY DON'T YOU GET SOME FUCKING CLASS"

me: "yelled the drunk girl".

as it turns out, when someone is looking to get a rise out of you and you act like the classy lady you are (as opposed to a drunken bar pig) it makes them even more angry. which is awesome. because then they make a spectacle and look like a crazy person, while simultaneously realizing that they are out of control, which makes them EVEN MORE angry! then you have won because your hands are clean and the person just did all the hard work of making themselves look ridiculous. you didn't even have to do anything. the people i was with were impressed with my handling of her and that felt good. all that getting yelled at by unreasonable people has finally paid off.

ANYWAY. sunday started like this:



biked around by myself in the sun until i met up with natalie and hit a patio. there was beer involved. it was delicious.


sunday night started like this:



that's the back gate at town moto, where i visited again. "i don't know how to sand that thing but i DO know how to take a picture and put it on the internet!"

DONE! i was rewarded with...more beer!(i think i hit a record this weekend and i am taking the week off booze).


i have more pictures from all events listed here but it's monday and it's rainy and i don't feel like going through them and wah wah.

sooo, what's going on with my cactus? see the probe it's put out? what does this mean? is it happy? unhappy?



every time i look at it all i can think is "E.T. phone home". it's tapping against the window like a forlorn child. it's even longer today.

the west end sky piled up so high

yesterday i had the opportunity to walk around the city. it was grey, and wet, and my lungs were not working. but i still enjoyed it.






after work i went by dead motorcycle house and rang all three doorbells. i guess their house is abandoned too? i will not give up. i will ring their doorbell(s) every day. i will leave notes.
here's a tip: roast some peanuts in your cast iron before adding them to your veggie stir fry. it makes them taste better and puts a delicious flavour into the pan for when you sautee up your tofu. just throw them in there! shake em around!




another tip: get yourself a dish in which you can mix a marinade AND lay out the things you're marinating. why make two dirty dishes when you can make one? most of my kitchen techniques revolve around doing as much good stuff with as little work as possible. miso/sesame oil/garlic tofu. was good.



this is a new (old) cutting block. got it at a contents sale. was never actually cut upon. i'm fixing that. that's a knife drawer. (!!!) the knives are amazing - really sharp and awesome. thanks eccentric annex residents for doing my practical antiquing for me.



here is an accidentally closed-eye photo of me with messy hairs of both the head and eyebrow sort.



it stays. HAPPY FRIDAY!!

i'd like to help a mountain find some peace

"a postcard from everywhere and nowhere at once"




check out more at the wander postcard project.

mountains. don't they just stab you in the heart?

my turn!

well i finally managed to convince someone to let me "guest" "blog" for them. check it out here!
yeaaaaahhhh. i'm excited to contribute, even in this very small way.


so, here is something:



let's be clear: i hate when people spit in public. HATE IT. but this sign connotes something entirely different. luckily the rest of my walk home was not so bossy and rude. the sun looked so beautiful hitting the new buds on this mini tree. them buds were basking.



i've taken to walking instead of biking because it means i can enjoy the scenery for longer.




so, this happened.



in fact, this happened right after a new expensive package of lightbulbs was opened and both lightbulbs flew into the air and smashed into a million pieces on the ground. at $5 each that was an expensive mess. that plastic packaging is the WORST to open.

this mess was not a dinner disaster though, there was no intention of using that pasta because it's not whole wheat and it's been sitting in the cupboard for a year. it just fell out. into the garbage it went. a pity but saved my intestines from it's refined-floury-ness at a future date.

black diamond

ok probably not diamond. most likely black spinel or black tourmaline. not sure. doesn't matter to me, really.

this was a graduation present. i picked it out. the centre stone was originally a garnet (my birthstone) but i knew i wanted a black stone. the guy at the jewellery store thought i was crazy but humoured me. he offered onyx, but i wanted a gemstone, not something completely opaque.





anyway, yesterday i did not end up inquiring about the bike because i needed wine and also because it was like this out:



you can't really tell (or maybe you can) but it's windy and cold. there was rain brewing. maybe i'll go tonight.

this is what i did instead:

wine, cat-as-scarf, couch, whatever.

hopefully tonight i get more than 4 hours of sleep.

abandoned

so, every day on my way to work, i walk or bike past this poor motorcycle that has been sitting half covered (not even) all winter. it is always in the exact same spot, i can only assume left to rust. today, i took pictures of it. tonight on my way home i'm going to knock on their door and inquire (so if i go missing, that's where i am). it seems such a shame to leave it out in the cold with no one to love it. i mean, look at her. she's one of these, and she's beautiful. she sat like this ALL WINTER, do you know how much it hurt to see her with inches upon inches of snow on her nakedness? uuuuugh. WHY?



she probably has something terribly wrong, right? why else would someone leave her to die?

WHY WOULD ANYONE DO THAT???



on another note, is anyone else as excited about spring asparagus as i am?

narrow hole

i got sick just in time for the weekend. that ruled. i love working all week, looking forward to the weekend only to spend it sleeping. oh well, watched the swedish versions of girl with the dragon tattoo and the girl who played with fire (and some reality tv).

guess who sat on me?



this is what i did all day saturday. by myself. 2 catz.


other than that i did two things: went to lauren's for some drinks on friday where it was more and more of a struggle to speak because i was losing my voice so i eventually went home.  then on sunday, my big outing was to stop by town moto and supervise all these guys:



just kidding, all i did was stand around and drink a beer in the sun while being entertained by a million "pole" and "hole" jokes.



"okay, someone dig holes here" "okay". hey drill. you look lonely. i guess that's my finger.



so this is how you sink a fencepost. water! cement! a four foot hole! good stuff boys. i approve.



carry on. don't stop now.






pole: sunk. the bbq was built, and its main selling feature (besides its ability to grill food) was tested.



slight design flaw but makes for an impressive display i guess. might get tiresome.

those guys are doing a great job. it's gonna be a good one.

these blues are drivin me outta town

tired of getting caught out on that losing end

another amazing cover of a favourite.

basic bike maintenance

last night i went to the LRMC's basic bike maintenance workshop. mostly, i wanted to learn how to change a flat and also learn a bit about brakes. my rear brake doesn't work at all (i know i know stop lecturing me) so it's extra important that i know what's up with the one i do have. it works pretty well actually.

i came out of it with a basic knowledge of bike parts and the way they work. this is actually a huge deal, because if you know that something's going wrong before it actually does go wrong, you can save yourself a lot of money with preventative maintenance. it also means i will have to rely less on other people to tell me what's wrong. that feels good. really good.

there was a lot of...stuff that looked like this. it was hosted at Urbane Cyclist by three lovely bike mechanics who knew A LOT about bikes.



first we learned about proper adjustment for comfort and efficiency, and how to actually make all those adjustments. i didn't know about the secret bolt that lets you change your seat angle. COOL!



then there was a section on diagnosing problems. obviously they wouldn't be able to fit "how to be a bike mechanic and fix any problem" into an hour and a half, so they focused on "how to figure out what's wrong and maybe fix it if it's simple". did you know your brake pull should only be 50%? i didn't. if it pulls farther it's too loose. tighten that. want me to tighten it for you? haha.

turns out that the KACHUNK my bike makes when i pedal hard is a loose chain, which i now know how to measure. i can't fix it, but i can walk in and say "my chain is loose" rather than "um when i'm trying to get out of an intersection it makes a noise like this here let me show you i don't know how to explain it, sometimes it only does it when it's cold out, i don't know" then bat my eyelashes and hope they don't try to sell me a new everything.



above we are learning how to figure out what caused your flat. you do this by listening to your tube like it's whispering a secret to you. when you find the leak, check it out. two tiny holes about a centemetre apart? it's a motherfuckin staple. two slits? not vampire teeth, no no. it's your rim, girlfriend. that means you need to pump your tires more often. the helpful tidbits were plentiful.

AND SO WERE THE CLIF BARS! this event was actually sponsored by clif bars. that means we all got a box. i ate one right away (of course). dinner. it was actually delicious, and there are five more where that came from.



all in all, great workshop (as usual).

i'd go the whole wide world

In the Open: Bahamas - "Whole Wide World" from Consequence of Sound on Vimeo.

born to ramble and born to roam

tea for two. the second cup was karen's. love living so close that we can drop in. it's like friends (the show). or melrose place (which i never watched but so i've heard).



the white fabric envelope in there contains chopped up ginger. you can leave it loose but then you have to pick it out of your mouth. it was good. we drank it all.

oh look, food!



let's talk about saturday night. i wore a white coat.



white coat, black art.

speaking of which, have i ever mentioned that Brian Goldman was the emergency room doctor that i saw when i smashed my face/ruined my ankle in that bike accident? this Brian Goldman. COOL! i didn't recognize him, partly because of my state of shock/black eye but also because i'd only heard him on the radio prior to that.

bushmills! orange nailpolish! to the bar!



karen looks for her cellphone.



cellphone not found, only other stuff. oh well. 



then i put my camera away because we were too busy being charmed by an irish gentleman named Rob (Ron?). he was nice. he wanted to date us all, and told us so. there are many more details about the rest of this night - such as a (full but open) tallcan being whipped at us from a car - on Nat's blog here.

sunday (caturday)



tee hee look at her little tail!



the beginnings of homemade lara bars (dates, almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, dust from the last of the kashi crunch):



then my hands got sticky, no pictures.

last night i picked up Holden and the first stop was the park. he wanted to get down from "the fishy" by himself. he did this, they stayed stock still until i went to get him. aww hahaha. independent little bean.



ok, swing time!



swing time is the best time!



for a while we played a game where we would high-five every time he was close enough. it was fun.

he also plays the harmonica pretty darn well.



on the walk home: this building. every time.