said you'd give me light but you never told me about the fire

the year i was born. my dad was obsessed with fleetwood mac and i would not be surprised if my name choice was influenced by this. guess i'll never know. or i could ask my mom.

all-sorts

this week has been really busy, life is full. have been getting ready for a weekend at a cottage in honour of one of my favourite people in the world marrying her lovely fiance. i have a couple tricks up my sleeve and am really excited. mostly just excited to spend so much time with people i love so much.

this is what i look like when i'm excited for dinner.

quality deck time with a quality book and a quality cat.











quality couch time etc. etc.










new dress



new-old plant. grow little buddy. i watered him last night.



work



yesterday i lost track of time and missed my spin class by five minutes so i took it outside in the heat for a run up to casa loma. i run up the stairs, then jog around and down the hill then up the stairs again (and again and again). my major milestone this time was that i pushed myself to just jog from the top of the stairs instead of walking to recover. they are KILLER, so much so that regular running is actually relief. hard to keep moving though when your limbs don't want to go anymore and your lungs are screaming and there's a water fountain right there but drinking from it is too hard unless you catch your breath a bit.

these are really in no particular order. that's what you get at the end of the week when my mind is scrambled (i want to pick up cucumber and finn crisps and parsley at lunch DON'T FORGET THE PARSLEY).



i've got the ipod cord and the lighter adaptor charger thingy, a flashlight and bedding. hat and sandals. running stuff in case i'm not dead from a hangover.



and the rum and vodka and wine and whiskey NOTE TO SELF GET BEER and don't forget the sunscreen!

put this down in the living room, turned around for one second, look back and guess who just had to investigate. going to have to wash that out again, i know where your feet have been. thanks for giving me one more thing to do! who am i kidding, it was worth it look at that face.

extra peachy

a couple randoms from the ex. so much happening, all the time. i could never work there, it would be way too much stimulation and my head would explode.

i really liked this one. it's the anticipation. you have no idea when you're going to hear that click.



ah, my old friend the zipper. i should have known not to get on it. there are people in those things! let them out!



here is how you break rules:



it's the little things. moving along. lets make a peach cobbler. this is actually the exact same way you would make an apple brown betty. so, not so much a cobbler as a peach brown betty (but that doesn't really have the same ring to it). anyway, we've been making these in my family for...forever. pretty sure i've posted this before but whatevah.

take your fruit(s) of any kind(s), in this case half a basket of peaches on the brink of being overripe. slice as pictured:



i like to cut a few pieces into smaller bits to fill in the gaps. if you're using a smaller fruit as well (berries of some kind) don't bother doing this.



you can toss them in some cinnamon or lemon juice if you want but not necessary. stick em in a baking dish. i used a foil pan so that i wouldn't have to wash a dish then ended up washing it anyway. recycle, reduce, re-use and close the loop.

make a topping out of butter, oats, and brown sugar. just use enough oats that you think will make enough to cover it, then add soft butter until it's sticky enough to kind of clump together, the sugar is to taste. i stopped taking photos at this point because i use my hands to mix the topping.

stick it in the oven with foil on top for 25 minutes. when you take it out to check it, see if the juices are sizzling/bubbling, that's how you know it's cooked enough, also the smell should tell you. give her another 15-20 with the foil off, then if desired, you can blast it for a few minutes under the broiler to put the "brown" in the brown betty.

final product:



this was honestly so, so sososososooooooooooo good. the peaches are like candy right now. and this is so easy to make. you have no excuses not to trick your friends into thinking you're a really good cook!

work hobbies

it's a livin' thing

friday night friend bbq. so nice to catch up and to see good people doing good things.

woke up on saturday with a sore body from a near miss while biking home from parkdale. someone decided they did not want to wait for cyclists before making their left turn and i had to emergency brake. the bike stopped, but my body kept going and although i landed on my feet and still had my hands on the handlebars, i wrenched my shoulder pretty bad and have a giant, disgusting purple/black bruise on my upper thigh from my bike seat.



the ice pack helped. sleeping on the futon probably did not. the day was lovely so i ate breakfast in the sun and then lazed around on the deck.







to the bike path!



ended up at glory hole donuts alas they were sold out by 1pm. all i could think about were donuts after that. i just wanted something donutty. oh well.

saturday night was epic birthday ho-down at the get well. it was really fun. too much fun? here i am deciding what shoes to wear. black won.



this is the only photo i took. it might be karen talking to chip but i'm not sure. such a good time.



despite getting to bed at 3:30am with a million drinks in my belly (including shots of jager, WHYYYYY), i dragged my sorry, hungover ass out of bed at 8:15 to get to the 9:30 ferry to the island with the hope of catching stephen finish his triathlon. the thing about these events is that even if you're not technically participating it is still a fucking ordeal to a) get to it b) find the finish and c) not die of thirst/hangover/hunger/noise aversion. essentially, a triathlon in itself. WHERE IS MY MEDAL?



do you understand? less than 5 hours of sleep. biggest hangover of life. half hour bike ride to ferry in heat.



once there, the ferry was very enjoyable. i was sitting there, facing into the cabin and the engine starts. five minutes later i'm like "can we get going already i am going to die of heat-nausea in here" and i turn around and we're halfway across already haha.



ok, i made it. i even found a spot right at the finish.



being a cheerer-onner is a very important job and i take it seriously.



i needed intense hydration for my own athletic event of what i like to call "surviving".

these guys did a great job. i yelled chris' name and he looked around confusedly because he couldn't see me.




other things i yelled were:

"YEAH, YOU'RE ALMOST THERE!" "TAKE IT HOME BUDDY, YOU GOT THIS" and "RUN IT DOWN, JUST CRUSH IT, YOU'RE DOING IT!" all in all i think i did a pretty good job all things considered. i would yell enthusiastically for the 20 seconds they'd be running by then have to recover.

the light at the end of that tunnel was this colonial sticky bun from fanny chadwicks. they heal all wounds.

this giant thing helped too. there were pistachios.



got home and set to planting some stuff. had to go get two types of soil for various projects. it's good to do this stuff in the summer because if you're like me and only have outdoor storage space for planting stuff your soil freezes and it's annoying. might just make a bunch of pots all ready to go and bring them inside to thaw when needed. i've started propogating plants at work. i'm obsessed! if you have any plants you want to give me cuttings of i will happily accept them.



i planted the cuttings from the angelwing begonia that died, i'm hoping so badly that they take. started them in a brand new small pot with new soil. a fresh start. i'm going to talk lovingly to them every day.

also put together a bunch of cacti-scapes, some for work, some for home, some as gifts. i know the whole world is going crazy for terrariums right now but if you've seen my kitchen window shelf, you'll know my succulent love runs deep. i did not mean that sentence to sound that way but whatever.



i also hope these don't die. i hate when plants die. i should have spent more time gardening with my dad. he had the best green thumb, just knew everything there was to know. i'm not starting from scratch because i was around it so much, but there is a lot to learn. 

pseudo-presence