Even the orchestra is beautiful!
Remember I wrote about the Google ‘next’ button a while ago? And the ’subscribe’ button? Amazon’s gone ahead and topped those. There’s an ‘add to wishlist’ button for your browser now. It automatically adds whatever piece of amazingness to your wishlist so it’s one stop shopping. Love it.
Turdy is still in the pond. While I haven’t seen him with my own eyes, by all accounts, he’s there.
I’ve spent the last couple weeks loading up my tumblr account. I got a page the second I heard of it so I have a great url, but until I am 100% comfy with it, I won’t reveal. I am really using it as a flickr page for all my pictures. Most of which have already been posted here. But I will say that I LOVE it.
Yesterday was my last day to swim outdoors at the public pool I go to regularly. Because of the extended city strike, I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I should have and that makes me sad. It’s a great pool and being paid to swim with my boss is a super sweet deal.
As I type the airshow planes are zooming overhead creating quite a racket. Normally I don’t like excessive noise, but this sound makes my heart pound and I want to run outside everytime I hear them coming to wave at the sky.
Going to the Ex tomorrow. Will bring camera.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love my DS? We got cards for them and right now I have 72 games loaded up. Love it just that much more today.
It seems, in hot weather, I let a lot of things slide. Don’t worry, Treyci and Jana, I haven’t forgotten about you or your acorns. Largely, they’re done, I just need more caps-which seems to be a problem right now. There are lots of things I’ve been meaning to blog about and now’s as good a time as any. Right?
1 My Hair. People still want to know how it’s going, and it’s still great. No shampoo since December and it looks super. My hair regimen goes like this: Sunday morning, I brush my hair out and then hop into a shower, rinse, use conditioner (Suave is the cheapest no-cone one I can find) and rinse with cold water. Then I squeeze as much water out of it as I can and wrap it in a microfiber towel for half an hour to soak up whatever is left. Don’t worry, it’s still really wet after that. Then I use a squirt of Badur’s vegan leave-in conditioner (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE). And I scrunch my hair to encourage curliness and that’s it. Mid week, like, Thursday, I often rinse again, but don’t condition, and use the leave-in. My hair is getting crazy long, it’s almost to my waist when wet. I am kind of dying for a hair cut but I’m scared to see a stylist who’s all hung up on washing the shit out of it and wrecking my 6+ months of no ‘poo.
2 Punk Medics. So, Badur generously gave me 2 big bottles of his new bath products line in the hopes that I would write a kind review. Well, it took me long enough, eh? It’s super great stuff, both the leave-in and the Body Wash. Took me a bit to wrap my head around using products with no perfumes in them, but now I am a convert. The body wash is so nice, it’s soft and makes your skin feel super clean. And I will only use that leave-in from now on. And vegan? Yes please!
3 Ha ha. Yesterday we were stopped at a red light beside this red Viper that took off like a bat out of hell when the light turned green. Shannon was in the middle of saying how dollar for dollar that car is the best deal out there when a police car pulled him over. I guess the cop was hidden behind the big old truck. We all had a good laugh.
4 Sprinkle city. Ari and her good pal Cassie (”It’s short for Cassandra!”) love ice cream and they especially love ice cream that’s been encrusted with sprinkles. Shannon found this vat at the grocery store and I can’t wait to see Ari’s face when she sees it. Pure joy.
5 And the rest. I found the goat milk yogurt I’ve been looking for since I was in Montreal. It’s by Liberty and it’s so intense, sour and delicious. I might turn it into cheese. I also found a pop that I like and that Shannon does not like so I am guaranteed a glass of it when I want it. Our space is getting hot and I think it’s time to invest in a couple more tarps to cover the sun intensifying windows. We’ve loaned our main space to the girls next door who are aerial acrobats, they’ve hung a giant chandelier and have been doing their stuff….Any questions?
ps 2 more things-I made Shannon’s favourite summer salad (the chickpea, pasta, dill, lemon, feta one) and I am planning on making this pizza for dinner with a few substitutions…heck yesss!
The fish continue to entertain me. I know this will sound terrible, but I think I love them more than I love Rose. Well, maybe not, but once they start letting me pat them, that will be true. I love how weirdly unpredictable they are: after the little red fish died, they didn’t eat at all for 2 days. Then the filter was cleaned and they cheered up and now their appetites seem insatiable. Yesterday I fed them in the morning (and the white fish was so excited she swam CRASH into the side of the pond), then gave them 2 snacks at night. TWO. Pigs. How did I know they were so hungry last night? We were watching my dance show and suddenly we heard SLOSH SLOSH SPLASH!!! Looked over, and there was what amounted to probably a large glass of water on the floor, 2 feet out. Hint hint.
Also, did you know fish nap? Me either. But they did yesterday, after a busy morning of…swimming and eating.
How cute are they? I have to say, I’m no photographer, much less photo editor (especially compared to Shannon) but I love this picture and I am thinking about painting it.
I got nicer coffee for my French press: it’s a President’s Choice one, their West coast blend. Hot diggety, it’s some kind of good. LOVE it. It’s cheap and delicious, and I am worried that it will just disappear and I will have to go back to drinking less…good…coffee.
And yes, I made another cozy. If you want one, tell me, they’d be cheap.
Finally, on my way to work yesterday there were tons of cops lumping around Bloor and Lansdowne (not unusual, I guess) and when I got to the corner I saw this:
I am assuming that the enormous crane truck was making a wide right turn and the dingaling in the Buick tried to squeeze through and got caught. Very cool.
A day in my life.
I don’t normally work on Thursdays so I get to do whatever pleases me. Today I signed up with Daring Kitchen, but I won’t get the next recipe until June so I am not under any real pressure with that. However, I am considering making the gnocchi recipe from May because it looks good and I’ve never made it before.
Then I finished packing Ari’s travel bags and realized she’d left her markers behind on her last trip, so I decided to go to the Dufferin Mall and get some new supplies. I showered and then couldn’t figure out what to wear so I took a bunch of self portraits and tried to look like I’ve had botox.
I don’t want botox. I don’t care if my forehead crinkles when I smile. This face was hard to do properly.
Ok, so then I dressed and slopped around on the couch for a while because I didn’t want to leave too early. So I took another picture. Or two.
Some of those books are mine. Yes, I’ve been brushing my hair, but I still haven’t used shampoo since December.
Ok, so I left and managed to forget my phone and had to turn back. Something about this place makes me scattered and I forget at least one important thing on my way out every day. It’s awful and I don’t know why my brain’s doing this to me. So I left again with my umbrella because the sky was pretty dark.
That’s at Landsdowne and Bloor. Believe it or not, it never did rain, not while I was out. D-Mall was great, as usual, got Ari a new dress and shorts that were on sale at H&M, then got 2 colouring books at that big store there, then walked home. I went the extra block around because I’d noticed this crack in the sidewalk last week that made me happy.
Is it weird that a crack in the sidewalk can make me happy?
Then L came over and she taught me the ins and outs of the indoor fishpond and cleaned the (completely revolting) filter. It’s good to know all this stuff, I’d been agonizing over it since we adopted these fish, and the death of Kelly. And one of the new red fish-got sucked into the intake tube-tragically yesterday. Pretty gross, that, I had to unplug the filter and shake her out and she was all stretched and flattened and, well, dead. Since then, the other 2 goldfish have been on a hunger strike. I also topped up the pond with three buckets of water and arranged Elephant Junior’s leaves over the water to provide shade and privacy.
I’d wanted to go to the airport but wound up staying home due to an unexpected bout of gut rot. While I didn’t end up properly throwing up, I did puke in my mouth, which I LOVE. I have no idea what brought this on, maybe some of the disgusting glorp from the filter got in my mouth somehow.
Now I am just waiting for Shannon to come home and take care of me.
I know, I’m the last person you’d expect computing help from, but I am here to tell you I learned about something that’s changed how I use the internets.
Two words: Google Reader. I think I first read about this via Dooce (or maybe linked from her blog) and I immediately followed all instructions and now I never miss anything on the blogs I read regularly. It’s super simple, just plug in the blogs (or whatever) you read regularly and slide the Next button to your bookmarks bar and you’re done. Just click on that next button and it automatically zips to the entries you haven’t seen yet. Seriously, so easy.
Here is google reader settings, you click the goodies tab and you drag the “Next” button up to your bookmarks bar. Then go here to paste in the blogs you want to stay up to date on (I am up to 12, so far). Done!
Oooh and reading this stuff over again I just added the handy dandy subscribe button (also under goodies) to my bookmark bar too for easy insta-subscribing! HA!
Gillian had posted an Etsy link in a comments thing about dollhouse miniature food and it’s so cute, I love it. Not that I have $35 for a teeny tiny cutting board with sandwich fixings on it-I wish. Anyway, I thought I’d post the miniature things I’ve been working on.
Um. I made warm hats for my 2 babies. It even seems funny to me, but it’s just something to do when I’m relaxing at night, watching tv. I can crochet at the same time!
I also made one a diaper. It was going to be pants, but it’s body is shaped strangely and hard to work around. Below them is the new bathmat. It needs to be blocked so it will lay flat. Those hats look so ridiculously funny to me. Even Shannon agreed that they were cute.
Ok, but in the real world: we went to the new space and put up all those stickers in Ari’s new room. I have to say they look amazing. Again, thank goodness she got these as a gift, otherwise I doubt we’d have done much at all. I still need to hang the paper sun above everything, then the decorating here will be done.
Shannon had other work to do so I stuck around and cleaned up, vaccuuming (my worst chore in the world), organizing, tidying in general. I dragged furniture from point a to point b. I even created a little reading nook for little people to snug up on and read to themselves.
I also moved a counter top to where it belongs (that was easy, it’s on casters) and hung some storage things we brought from here. And I hung some paintings from the upper rail, just to see what it would look like and I think it looks great.
I swept and put the red rug from here under the coffee table. Then I met 2 of our new neighbours who signed me up to be on the tenant’s association. It’s funny that despite the fact we haven’t even moved in yet, it already seems like home to me. I guess I mean it’s a step in the direction that I feel I’ve been steering towards for a long, long time.
Every day on my way out of our building I look at this pile of sticks and laugh.
Funny huh? Maybe not, but I picture dog owners saying “Ok Fido, gimme your stick and we’ll come and get it later” and the dog reluctantly handing it over. Although my dog theory could be wrong, yesterday there was a squirrel wrestling with a stick near by.
In other news, I finally got a nice purse. Probably my first nice purse, so, in 20+ years of owning purses that cost in the $20 range, this one cost…more than that. Not hugely-I found it 50% off, but it’s hella cheaper than the one I had my eye on a couple months ago. It’s by Hedgren and I got it at Trove, a store that’s quickly becoming my favourite place to shop-if only they’d get rid of their stock of Ed Hardy junk.
I actually took that picture. Me. Anyway, it’s not too big, not too small, has enough pockets to keep stuff organized and it’s somewhat classic looking. And after years of carrying goofy junk bags (although if I could find another Bratz camo purse like I used to have…) I feel like I am finally entering the world of adults.
Nice.
As anyone could guess, it weighs a ton and took me a while to get used to. Typing was the hardest adjustment-I worried for a while that my s and w keys would be broken, but they’re fine. It’s been well received by everyone-literally everyone-who sees it in real life (and not so much online, but that’s ok. To the person who called it “hellaciously ugly”, what you say is what you are, anyone who read that comment was thinking the same of you, I promise) other than my boss’s mom who can not wrap her head around a skull ring as engagement ring. The dark acid wash has faded quite a bit, especially on the side that rubs against my pinky ring (another piece of jewelry from Shannon, made in our Stainless days). That side is bright, shiny silver. There are also a couple dings on the head from it being bashed occasionally. Like I said, it’s heavy.
2. My hair.
It’s great! We’re still going the no ‘poo method and I’ve never been less stressed about my hair. I used to battle it every day but now I just let it be. Every Saturday morning I brush it out before I get in the shower (which, I know, goes against the rules, but if I tried to comb it in the shower I’d be there for days) then I get in, wet it and lather up with conditioner (we found Suave which is cheap and smells great). I let it sit for a few minutes then rinse with cool water. I squeeze as much water out as possible, bent over the tub and sometimes I even give it one quick pat (but not a rub) with my towel. Then I plop, or, wrap my head in a clean t shirt. I hang out like this for no more than half an hour, then let it down and put some curl defining gel or cream in it. Done. I think in warmer weather I will do it twice a week, but for now, I can not leave my apartment with wet hair (it freezes). It might sound funny, but I haven’t used shampoo in almost 3 months! Yay!
