Stitch and Click

Losing my hair ... on purpose!

2007-05-28T11:12:00.001-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. Oops. I've had post ideas pass through my head, but I'm so far behind I don't know where to start. Since the most awesome JenEx just directed a boatload of people this direction, I thought it would be prudent to update. Of course, that means I had to remember the new blogger/google login, since I'm writing at work.

A few weeks back, I travelled to NYC once again for TARCon and related events with my TARflies peeps. I hung out with and roomed with JenEx, and we decided that we had obviously been separated at birth ... which of us is the good twin and which is the evil twin I'll leave to y'all to decide!

On to the actual topic at hand (or head?):
I will be participating in a Relay for Life next week. As many of you may know, these events are held annually in cities and towns throughout Canada and the US as fundraisers for the cancer societies. Registration is via teams, and at least one person from each team is expected to be walking/running/moving along the track throughout the event (you know, a relay). Oh, did I mention that the relay is 12 hours long? That's a lot of walking! As part of the evening, there will also be a Cops for Cancer event, which I think is a Canadian-specific drive that was started by police officers, but has spread to the general public. Participants will have their heads shaved, again as a fundraiser for the cancer society, but also as a sign of solidarity with those battling cancer, etc.

Several women that I knew lost their lives to cancer this winter, and in their memory I've chosen to participate in both events. Yup, that means that the hair that I've been growing out for the past 2-3 years is coming off (and it should be long enough to be donated to Locks of Love). For those who don't know me and/or haven't seen me recently, here's a picture of my hair as of 6 months ago (I don't have many pictures of the back of my head, it seems, and this one was stolen with permission from miri.

If you're interested in making a donation, you can do so here. Again, both events are in support of the Canadian Cancer Society, and since I don't know of an online donation link for the CfC, I'll ask that online donations be made on the RfL page. The local event had one of the highest per-capita totals in Canada last year, to my understanding, and by harnessing the power of teh internets, I'd love to blow that out of the water this year. Donations are used to fund cancer research, education and prevention programs, and local programs to help individuals and families dealing with cancer.

As I told some of you, two young friends of mine (ages 6 and 7) emptied out their piggybanks and we counted up nickels and dimes (and some larger coins and bills) which they donated to the cause (approx. $12 from each of them). For those of you who are interested and able to do so, I'd challenge you to match or beat those donations. I promise to post pics of my possibly-lumpy bald noggin, if that'll be an incentive to donate. Thanks!!

Yummy food, part two

2007-04-13T21:39:00.000-05:00

This was tonight's dinner:

Baby potatoes roasted with a bit of olive oil, garlic, and spices (oregano, basil, and rosemary, I think) - roasted at 425 for about 30 minutes, then at 350ish for another 10-15 after I added the asparagus (brushed with a bit of olive oil, seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper and a bit of rosemary). The potato skins were nicely roasted, and the asparagus was cooked but still had a bit of crunch (not a big fan of over-cooked green veggies).
The tofu was marinated in a mixture of balsamic vinegar and olive oil with a bit of pepper (and maybe some other spices - sorry, I've forgotten already), then pan grilled until done (5 or 10 minutes).

And to finish, more cupcakes!

These were so good (and so cute!) I made them twice in two days, for a birthday party and an Easter dinner. I thought the colours worked well for both (bright spring colours ... and I think they're also the Dora colours). I found some mini cupcake liners when I was in the city last month (already had the mini muffin tins), and thought they'd work well in this case. These are the Golden Vanilla Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, baked for about 18 minutes given the smaller size. The recipe makes two dozen minis, and there's enough batter left over for 2 or 3 fullsized cupcakes. My stove is small/narrow, so I baked those in little ramekens squeezed in beside the muffin pans.
The icing recipe is that for the mint icing of the chocolate mint cupcakes in VCTOTW (minus the mint extract, naturally), which is not quite as rich as the buttercream frosting (which is also delicious, but wasn't quite what I was looking for). It worked well for both spreading and piping the flowers which are just the cutest little things ever!

Lastly, these are the peanut butter cupcakes from VCTOTW, also made as mini cupcakes. Other than the shorter baking time (again, about 18 minutes), no modifications were needed. These were also tasty, and quite a hit with the kids (made these for a Good Friday dinner with friends).

Yummy food

2007-04-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

I've been taking pics of various meals and cupcakes over the past couple months, and have finally posted a few of them on flickr.

The soup is the velvety carrot and ginger soup from The Candle Cafe Cookbook, and it was delicious. It's light but filling, and has a great flavour. I had enough for 3 or 4 meals, and brought it for lunch a couple times. The bread is the Honey Whole Wheat recipe from More With Less (I had some honey left that I'd bought a few years ago) and it was okay. I think I baked this one a couple minutes too long as the upper crust was a bit too dark (my bread pans aren't exactly the same size, and the smaller loaf was just a bit too dark). the flavour is fine, but not as good as some of the other recipes in the same book.

I decided to make an Indian meal last weekend (and was watching Supersize Me while cooking - how's that for motivation to make homecooked vegan meals?), and pulled out these recipes. I've made the chapatis before (from More With Less), and they're quick and easy to make, except the dough needs to sit for an hour between kneading and baking (which is fine if you let it do so while making something else). I cook them stovetop, using a cast iron pan.
The curry is from The Angelica Home Kitchen (curried chickpea and vegetable stew). I didn't have a few of the veggies it calls for (zucchini, celery, spinach), so I used a bit more of others (mainly, carrot, potato, and cauliflower) in addition to the chickpeas (cooked instead of from a can, for once). I remember liking this recipe more in the past - maybe it was the substitutions, but it ended up too thin/watery, and I had to reduce the remainder for a while which left the potatoes way too soft. The flavour was also lacking, though I used more spices than were called for, which again might have been because there weren't the other veggies adding flavour. That's what I get for not planning ahead and picking up the necessary ingredients.

Getting back on track

2007-03-23T19:16:00.000-05:00

With the broken foot and subsequent recovery (which for the most part seem a distant memory, except for the occasional ache in that joint), I wasn't able/allowed to run for a few months. I was told to wait about a month after getting the cast off to do so - which would have been the end of February. For those capable of reading a calendar or counting, you'll realize that that was a good three weeks ago. A combination of travelling, weather, and busyness/laziness have prevented me from actually getting out and doing much of anything in the way of activity since then. I was helping out at a camp day last week, which involved various running and playing-type activities, and let me tell you that I felt it the next day. Today I was finally home and free during daylight hours (yay for increased daylight hours!), and managed to get out for a 20 minute run.
In the past year or two, I've slacked off on the physical activity, and I know it. I know that I need to actually practice what I preach for my own health and well-being, so here's to first steps.

Cute pics!

2007-02-12T13:20:00.000-06:00

Looking at my stats, it seems that a lot of people do google searches related to broken feet, casts, crutches, and the like. My favourite would have to be "purple bruise on a big toe." Is there someone out there with a bruise fetish? Or perhaps someone out there had a purple toe and was wondering whether they should get it checked out? Whatever the case, belated welcome to random people from the UK, Australia and Israel who checked out my broken foot.

On the topic of the foot, I've now had the cast/boot off for over two weeks, and it's doing okay. The sprained side is much less stiff than it was, and I'm able to walk normally.

I admit that it's hard to think of something to blog about on a regular basis, which is likely a combination of not having the usual blog-fillers (cute kids, wacky pets, or amusing work anecdotes that I'm at liberty to post) and laziness/forgetfulness - either not taking or not uploading pictures of recent baking or knitting projects. But now look! Cute kids *and* baking!

Green Tea Cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Enjoying the last bite of cupcake

And to leave your mouth watering for some chocolate, some chocolate cupcakes (recipe also from VCTOTW) - I want to reach through the screen and grab one!

Progress

2007-01-23T22:25:00.000-06:00

And I seem to have slipped back into the forgetting-to-write mode yet again. Oops. I've taken a few cooking and baking pictures, now I just need to, you know, post them and write about them. Yeah.

So as a first step, here's a look at my pretty purple foot a few days after the break:

Note the classy tracking of the bruising along the big toe, and the classy sausage toes. I thought I'd capture the look for posterity before getting a cast. I was a Good Patient that first week, hopping around on crutches and Not.Walking.At.All. and the swelling went down (really, that's better than it was). Since I had to get back to work I figured I should get a real cast put on, so had that done on the 31st. Except ... well... I'm not sure if the person who put it on had ever put on a fibreglass cast before ... and well... see for yourself:

Note the odd lumpiness and weird twist to my foot. And, yeah, there were weird lumps inside too, digging into the ankle/back of my heel. The good news, though, was that when we actually looked at the Xray copy (that the doc in the city gave me to take home) I realized that the break was actually in the big toe, not the longer bone (the metatarsal). With all the "you must you crutches! This is your big toe, you must not walk on it!" from the first doc, I was thinking it was the metatarsal, which is a worse break. But no, it was on the other side, though going into the joint. So the doc I saw was all "of course you can walk on this!" So I decided to look it up for a tiebreaker vote, and the ortho textbook agreed that for a big toe break it's 4 weeks of a walking cast. So, I walked on it a bit (although for longer distances I used crutches as they were faster), and in about a week had caused the heel to crack apart:

I figured that anything being held together by duct tape probably wasn't the most effective support ever (not to mention the ankle rubbing) and after about a week got it taken off, and switched to this:

which I had leftover from when I broke my ankle a few years ago (I figure once I've paid for the thing I might as well keep it in case ... and good thing I did). The boot is much more comfortable and easier to walk in (ditched the crutches two weeks ago), and allows me to take it off and wiggle my ankle a bit. It's surprising how quickly you lose muscle mass - after two weeks in a splint/cast my calf had turned to jello ... nasty. After a few days of doing some ankle movements (keeping my toe still - really) it was a little less pathetic.

My four weeks are now up (as of a few days ago) and I'll have a followup Xray/visit this week and am fairly sure that I'll be set free. The broken part of the toe doesn't hurt, but the other side of the big toe must've had a nasty sprain, since it's still stiff and sore if I move it. As long as the bone's healing reasonably, though, which I think it is, I think I can at least get the boot off. Here's hoping!

I've heard that purple is "in" ...

2006-12-27T22:33:00.000-06:00

... but since when did my foot have to be fashionable?

Yup, I slipped down a few stairs on the top of my foot. On Christmas Eve (morning). Went to get it X-rayed on Christmas Day (and it's true that an ER on Christmas is quite quiet). Get to hop around on crutches for the near future. Yay. Still determined to Get Things Done while in the city, thus the aching muscles from navigating stores, malls, coffee shops, etc.

I was going to post a picture of my purple foot, but I seem to have forgotten to pack my USB cable so it'll get posted once I get home, along with the 57000 other pictures I need to post. The good news is that the knitting project (a knitted log cabin quilt-pattern afghan) is nearing completion, though I don't know if all the ends will get sewn in before I leave.

Three days to go...

2006-12-22T00:39:00.000-06:00

and I'm feeling the time crunch. I'm frantically trying to finish up some knitting for Christmas (don't even want to mention the fact that I still haven't bought gifts for several people), and might have the major project presentable, if not 100% done, on time. Photos to come after Christmas...

Finally watched the Survivor finale (and a few other random shows, like the OC and an Ugly Betty rerun) while working on said knit project, and right about now I really dislike Jeff Probst, what with his obvious favouritism, hatred of certain contestants, and the usual misogyny. Quite unprofessional, and along with the snorefest that was this season (other than the Yul/underdog victory bit), I think I might call it quits on this show. Really, I can't stand the guy right about now, and it's not worth sitting through his idiocy to get sucked into another crapfest season.

"unbelievably disturbing"

2006-12-15T15:24:00.000-06:00

Ooh, the real editor is back. And about time, since I was coming here to post this link.
Yet another reason to like Kate.

Unimpressed with blogger's service, part two

2006-12-01T01:13:00.000-06:00

I don't know if this is part of blogger's plan to force users to switch to their new beta accounts, but I'm not impressed. If the new google plan in a beta (ie. still in testing) they shouldn't be stripping everything but the barebones features from the standard accounts, without any explanation to be found anywhere on their "help" page. Did I mention that I'm not impressed? I had wanted to blog a few pictures, but it seems as though I'm no longer able to do so. I'm not in the mood to sign up for a new account now, though, and as I have no intentions of linking a personal blog to my work gmail account I'll be forced to do so at some point soon. So not in the mood for this at this time of night.

(What a way to end off the month...though I suppose I still have a few catch-up posts to go)

Stupid blogger

2006-11-29T23:34:00.000-06:00

seems to be kaput today. I'd planned to post about the baking I did this weekend, but it won't allow me to include photos today (and the editing buttons have completely disappeared too). Well, I'll post the entry and try and edit to add photos tomorrow.

I was in the mood to bake again this Sunday afternoon, and once I got started I just kept going. The good thing is that I have had enough to last me all week, which helps with the last-minute-morning-rush.
I started with the oatmeal bread (again from the More-with-less cookbook), which I'd made a few years ago and tried again. It has a nice flavour, and I've been enjoying it. I was thinking of making some rye bread, but there was no rye flour to be found anywhere in the grocery store (though they do have more unusual stuff like teff or spelt flour. go figure).
I then made the carrot-raisin muffins from VWAV, and while looking for that recipe, saw one for orange-glazed scones that looked good too, so I made those as well. I'm running really low on flour, so unless I buy some brandname stuff (and find some free time in the next week, which is highly unlikely) I won't be doing much baking until I can make it to the city and buy more organic flour (and 57 other ingredients).

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried...

2006-11-28T11:50:00.000-06:00

The Stealthy Insect Sensor Project. Methinks someone's been watching a bit too much late-night sci-fi programming.

Yet another reason to be vegetarian

2006-11-27T17:14:00.000-06:00

Red Meat link to breast cancers
Of course the meat industry types are quick to play down the risk, or to acknowledge that feeding growth hormones to animals has any impact. This study was done in the US and, as the BBC points out, animals in the US are treated with growth hormones which are not allowed in the UK/Europe. It'd be interesting to see a similar longitudinal study done in Europe to see if the lack of growth hormones has any effect. Of course, what's the chance that the American beef/meat industry would be willing to lose a few cents profit for the sake of their consumers' health?

12 days of Christmas

2006-11-27T16:08:00.000-06:00

All you need to prove your affection to your True Love is a measly $85,233.What a bargain.

Christmas cards

2006-11-26T01:16:00.000-06:00

In the past few days, I've received a couple of emails/IMs to confirm my current mailing address, presumably for The Great Card-mailing Lists. This has made me wonder where the tradition of sending cards originated (yes, I'm sure I could look it up on wikipedia but where's the fun in that if I can just randomly speculate?). It's nice to hear from people from time to time, and to hear updates from those keen enough to write Annual Letters (I am not one of those people), but what I find interesting is that (other than family) the few cards I receive tend to be from non-believers, who obviously feel that Christmas (or the generic "the holidays") is a time for family/friends (and it is nice to be remembered).

The cynic in me wonders if the whole concept of Christmas cards was invented by the consumer industry, along with the ridiculous pressure associated with Christmas gifts and consumerism and spending!money! that are so far removed from the story of God in human form (and a peasant human who taught a lot more about compassion than about the accumulation of wealth and stuff) that it is really rather absurd.

Mmm, cupcakes

2006-11-25T01:12:00.000-06:00

I made the Gingerbread cupcakes (with real crystalized ginger, mind you) with Lemony buttercream frosting (yup, real lemon zest there too) today for an early Christmas get-together hosted by a friend. They were really delicious, and quite the hit. Vegan Cupcakes *will* take over the world, I'm sure of it!
(I forgot to take a pic, though, and now they're all gone - guess I'll have to bake them again...)

Reconnecting

2006-11-24T01:27:00.000-06:00

In the spirit of the holiday south of the border, I'm thankful for all the friends I've met online over the years. Even though I've lost touch with some of them, it's still a pleasant surprise to reconnect from time to time. Just this evening, I got an IM from an old friend with whom I hadn't spoken in ages, possibly a couple years, and we ended up chatting for quite a while. Yay, internets.

Since I have so much spare time...

2006-11-22T23:01:00.000-06:00

I've been hearing good things about the new TV show Heroes, and decided to check it out. I just watched this week's episode, and was sufficiently intrigued to tune in again next week. Just what I need - another show to watch. Of course, I am so sick of most of the shows that I used to enjoy that have now become repetitive/boring/ridiculous, so maybe I'll finally get around to dropping some of them for good in exchange for a new one.

Yesterday's post

2006-11-22T22:53:00.000-06:00

I was working last night and didn't get a chance to blog, but here's an interesting post that caught my eye yesterday.

Rick Mercer (sort of like a Canadian Jon Stewart for the non-Canandians out there) is co-chairing a campaign called Spread the Net with interesting focus - to help prevent the spread of malaria by providing mosquito nets to African families with small children. It's an interesting project, and it's great to see more attention paid to one of the great killers of children worldwide that receives far too little attention from the Western media.

Falling off the bandwagon

2006-11-20T23:49:00.000-06:00

I was out of town for nearly a week (work, then a church-related camp weekend with 100 teens) with minimal internet time, so sadly fell behind on the blogging. Maybe I'll extend the streak into December to compensate for that break.

I decided to bake bread yesterday (not sure where that whim came from), and baked a couple loaves of French bread that turned out pretty well, if I may say so myself. I used a recipe from the More with Less cookbook, and the only modification necessary was to use soy milk/canola oil instead of milk/egg for the glaze. As with most breads, it tasted a bit yeast-y yesterday, but has a nice flavour today, as evidenced by the fact that I've had ... a few ... pieces for "supper" (or whatever you call it when you finally eat at 10pm).

earworm

2006-11-14T00:20:00.000-06:00

I'm singing with a community choir that will be doing a Christmas concert in a few weeks, and we had a practice earlier this evening. Of course this means that one of the songs ('Twas in the Moon of Wintertime/The Huron Carol) has taken up residence as the earworm du jour since then. Oh well, at least it's a song that I've always liked and am not yet sick of it despite the repetition and practices.

What does it mean to be human?

2006-11-13T00:22:00.000-06:00

I came accross this article on from BBCnews the other day (Plan to create human-cow embryos), and am disturbed by the implications. If we as humans are able to create a inter-species chimera, where is the line to be drawn? This team proposes to create (and then destroy) embryos, but how long will it be before another group (legitimate or not) proposes to allow development to continue - what then? It seems as though the creations of science-fiction writers were eerily prescient ... how long until we as a race create a Frankenstein or a Cylon? I'm not able ot full formulate my thoughts on this subject quite yet, but it could certainly lead to some deep contemplation about the Big Questions, couldn't it?

Accomplishments

2006-11-12T01:01:00.000-06:00

1) Cupcakes were baked and frosted (for a church potluck tomorrow).

I taste-tested one of the vanilla ones (and some of the batter and icing...) and declare them a success. I just got a new cookbook (Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World) and am excited to try out the various options. I don't have some of the ingredients called for for some of the funkier flavours, so I started with the vanilla and chocolate ones. I'm thinking of making the Chai Latte ones tomorrow.

2) Sunny Corn-Blueberry Muffins were also baked (from Vegan with a Vengeance, the precursor to VCTOTW). Also quite yummy

3) Did dishes after the first few batches. Not so much after the muffins and frosting. Man~ana (not sure how to get the Spanish characters on here, since that's one of about three words that I know in Spanish).

4) Worked on catching up on episodes of TV shows I'd missed that were cluttering up my DVR, including a few eps of Grey's Anatomy, and one each of Gilmore Girls and Lost. Not really loving any of the above this year, which might account for the fact that they hadn't yet been watched. Maybe I'm getting picky, but the only shows I'm really excited about this season are BSG, and maybe TAR. The rest I'm still watching, but not loving.

5) Made progress on a knitting project while watching the above. It's a gift, so once it's finished and delivered to the recipient, I might post photos.

6) Sleep! Slept in, and off to sleep again. Yes, my life is boring.

Success!

2006-11-11T00:20:00.000-06:00

Drano 1, Swamp Creature 0

Yeah, I know that's quite possibly the dullest blog post of all time, but that's all I've got for today. That's what a long night/short nap/minimal brainpower day will give you. I have high hopes of actually Accomplishing Things tomorrow.

(Oh, and I'm totally counting the just-after-midnight posts as belonging to the preceding day).

Wishing I had my camera here

2006-11-09T22:29:00.000-06:00

I'm stuck at work tonight, but since I'm here posting it's obvious that it's not too busy. This is an building that's seen better decades (to put it mildly), and outside my office window is the flat roof for an extension of the main floor. For the past week or so, various maintenance/contractor-type guys have been working out there trying to fix a leak with minimal success. Tonight, they've got a tarp up, and there's a guy with a blow torch who seems to be melting some sort of tarpaper onto the roof, and there are all kinds of cool flame colours. Probably not quite as exciting as hotair balloons, but it could make for a cool shot. If, you know, I had a camera, which I do not. *sigh*

Swamp Creature

2006-11-09T16:15:00.000-06:00

There's something nasty in my sink drain, and it looks like something that could be the subject of a horror film. Let me see ... Attack of the Toothpaste-bound Hairball. Well, maybe not a horror film, but it sounds about right for the next case for Encyclopedia Brown or the Bobbsey Twins. Is either series even being written anymore, or am I revealing my age with those references?
Nope, looks like both are still being published. Guess I can't be that old, then, if at least some of the books I remember from my childhood are still in existence. Of course, I had the oldskool Bobbsey Twins books, the hardcover ones with the purple binding, that I'd inherited from my aunt.

Thinking back to that series as an adult, I'm mildly horrified at the inherent acceptance of racism and social division, with the black maid/servant couple. How exactly did a middle class family get the money for a pair of servants and various exotic trips? The series was one of the first that I really got into as a 7/8-year-old, so much so that I wrote a Bobbsey-style story for a writing assignment in grade 3. I guess I did a good job of imitating the style (the opening chapters were rather formulaic), as one of my classmates tried to convince the teacher that I'd plagiarized the whole thing...

A faint glimmer of hope on the horizon...

2006-11-08T23:17:00.000-06:00

...the southern horizon, that is. Not only did both levels of Congress come under Democrat control, but Rummy's out of a job. Maybe it is a democracy afterall, not just a one-party state controlled by a small group of power-mongers, and we all know what happens to them ... Now if only there was some way that this national awakening could have happened 4 or 6 years ago, and the just maybe the rest of us wouldn't have been dragged into these various messes.

Our political system isn't perfect either, but the more I read about this election south of the border, the more I am grateful for a truly multi-party system, limits to campaign financing and special-interest contributions, and a well-organized national elections bureau that has ensured that I've never had to wait in line longer than a minute or two when I've gone to vote. Yup, I'm still proud to be a Canadian.

But I refuse to accept any responsibilty for Celine Dion. Y'all can have her.

Is it possible to penetrate the La-La-land bubble?

2006-11-08T00:07:00.000-06:00

Has no one in the TV industry ever set foot outside of LA into the real world? Ever? No one in the real world would be out wandering about (and watching a rugby match) in a lightweight dress without a jacket in New England in November. Yes, Gilmore Girls, I'm looking at you. Not that I've actually ever visited Connecticut, but NOAA tells me that the forecasted low for this Friday is 38degreesF. That is not jacket-free weather.

Of course, I don't know why I've expended the energy to care about that insignificant detail, when the entire episode from beginning to end sucked. I suppose it's easier to rant about something concrete than to admit that the entire show is a tired and forced attempt to recreate what once was, and it's not working. The characters are no longer cute and quirky, they're obnoxious, needy, and if I knew them in real life, I'd be telling them to get over themselves. Except maybe Lane, and she's been sadly MIA this season. I am *this close* to removing the show from my DVR's series recording list.

And on a marginally-related topic, the "shaved head" wig they've been using on Veronica Mars is so horribly fake. It looks like they've used the same one for both the Parker and Claire characters, and it's like a blonde-coloured rug of curly fibres, while the shavees supposedly had straight hair beforehand. I've seen enough shaved heads (including a whole group of people I know who got their heads shaved at a cancer fundraiser this spring) to say that that is the fakest looking hair I've ever seen. Well, at least the storyline doesn't make me want to reach through the TV and throttle each and every character, so at least there's something for the "Pro" column.

Small steps

2006-11-06T22:55:00.000-06:00

My list of Things I Should Do is longer than I'd like, and more often than not I find myself lacking the energy or motivation to do something about it. This is only day two of this little project and I already found myself wondering what I was thinking, since my life isn't really that exciting to find something to write about on a daily basis.

So the fact that I actually accomplished something on The List is a step in the right direction. Of course, said step was to finally get around to touching up my hair colour, which should have been done about two weeks ago as some nasty roots were showing, but see above re: motivation. Who needs to put in the effort when you can pretend to hide the evidence by wearing your hair up or wearing a hairscarf? Yeah, I don't know if I was fooling anyone. At least those annoying grey roots are hidden out of sight again for a few more weeks.

NaBloPoMo

2006-11-05T16:45:00.000-06:00

I just came upon this, the non-novel-writer's version of NaNoWriMo. I have no particular desire to write a novel, and highly doubt I'd be able to corral my highly honed procrastinating skills for a whole month to do so, but I just might be able to accomplish this. Since I'm starting late, there's no prize other than a personal sense of accomplishment at having finally written something on this blog. I've had vague thoughts from time to time that I should actually write something here, but ... well, y'all can do the math.

With that out of the way, here's my I Wish I Had My Camera moment for the week:
I had just come out of one of the shops in town and was getting into my vehicle when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big black head poking out of the truck parked next to me. I took another look, expecting it to be a dog of some sort. Instead, it was a huge black bird (a raven, I presume) who cocked his head at me, then went back to pecking away at the garbage bag in the truck bed. Moral of the story (other than to never leave home without a camera, that is)? Don't stop on the way to the dump, or a hungry raven will make a big mess in your truck while searching for his dinner.

cowbells and thunderstorms

2006-06-28T14:01:00.001-05:00

Yeah, that's a lame title, but oh well.

Have been in Switzerland the past few days, and it is a lovely country (and the rest of the world seems to think so, too, from the number of tourists in some places). The hostel at which I was staying 2 days ago had a little field across the road, in which there were cows with the appropriate cowbells on their collars, so we fell asleep to the sound of bells. Today, it sounsd like we'll have a goat-bell accompaniment. I was in Luzern last night, which was a bit too tourist-crowded (and hostel-crowded) , but I survived. I think I was reaching the limit of Old Towns, though, so am happy to now be in the mountains, which are beautiful.

It has been really warm this week, in the 30-35degree range (that'd be getting up around 90 for y'all Americans), , and really warm. My German Word of the Week (one of the few that I learned in my 'maybe I should brush up on German before travelling' phase): shwull (sorry, forget how to spell it, but it means humid. And it has been. So the slightly cooler, less humid weather today has been a welcome change. Walking up hills with a backpack when it's 35degrees and really humid is not so much fun.

On to World Cup Fever (as if there could be any other topic on this continent these days), I arrived in St Gallen earlier this week moments after Italy won their achtenfinalle match, and there were people everywhere celebrating in the streets - driving up and down, honking, waving flags, etc. Being a law and order country and all, the Swiss police officers were all in place already downtown in preparation for the evening match in which Switzerland was playing. I watched with a bunch of Swiss fans at the hostel (Hopp Schwiiz!), and may never get that Ole, Ole song (the one that the crowd sang the whole freakin match) out of my head ever again. It was so disappointing to see Switzerland loose in a shootout after outplaying the Ukraine for most of the evening, but we all survived, and there was no rioting in the streets or anything. If they had won, they would have played Italy in the next round, which might have caused a bit of civil discontent in multilingual Switzerland...

As I've been walking around/riding trains, etc. the past few days I've thought of all kinds of interesting things to comment on, but of course I can't remember them now. Oh well, time's almost up anyways and I've paid enough for one day, so I'll sign off for now. Tschuss!

Ridinng the rails

2006-06-25T13:03:00.000-05:00

I wasn't quite going hobo-style, but spent a good chunk of the day (like, 8 hours) on trains/in train stations. Being the geek that I am (and also not having done much Euro rail travel), I was geeked to see a snack trolley on the train (but sadly there were no pumpkin pasties or Bertie's all-flavoured beans). Sitting in a nice comfy 1st class seat (yay, eurail pass) speeding along at 150+ km/h ... not bad! Saw all these tiny huts that I'm hoping were sheds for the attached gardens, and not itsy bitsy tiny houses directly on the rail line...
gotta run, ouuta time

World Cup Fever

2006-06-24T08:57:00.000-05:00

So, I've heard that there's some sort of football competition going on this month...

Not that it's any surprise, but all of Germany is certainly affected by this condition, and it seems to be contagious. Germany came first in its group, and will be playing in the first game of the first round of the finals this afternoon. There are German flags everywhere - clipped onto car doors, hanging from the windows of houses, painted onto any visible patch of skin - you name it, it's adorned with a flag. It's as crazy (or crazier) than when Canada's in the Olympic hockey finals.

The trip's going well - have enjoyed visiting various relatives who I hadn't seen in years (and brushing up on my very rusy German ... let's just say that's still a work in progress). I'll be off to Switzerland tomorrow - 7 hours by train (including a few connections and transfers), and will apparantly be there in time for their first game of the playoffs on Monday, at which point I may have to decide where my loyalties lie. Until then,

Go Deutschland!

Bad blogger!

2006-05-25T12:34:00.000-05:00

It seems as though I've been a bad, bad blogger, since it's been over two months since my last post.

Work was insanely busy for a while, such that there wasn't much time for anything else, even the basics like sleeping and eating (you know you've been busy when you can count on one hand the number of times you've eaten something other than cereal or popcorn for dinner...). I was feeling really stressed/overwhelmed, and wondering how much longer I could keep up that pace. And then came vacation time (only had to use 3 vacation days to catch up on paperwork before I was free)!

I had (almost) two weeks off, and it was wonderful to relax and sleep and not think about work! I spent a week in NYC and DC - first attending TARCon and hanging out with various TARflies in NYC, and then I went to DC to see the baby panda, who is the cutest thing ever! I've been watching the pandacam on & off since last summer, and decided that if I wanted to see him in person before he was big and slightly-less-cute, that NYC was a lot closer to DC than I am here in the boonies, so off I went! I also saw a few other random sites and museums in both cities, and hung out with many of the awesome people from TARflies.

I took approximately eleventy-million pictures (well, over 1400 at least), and will try and start uploading them on flickr today. One of the highlights of the trip was "meeting" a certain stuffed panda who was searching for his one true love, and his exploits can be found here.

And that's about it for today - I'll try and write something more substantial soon.

bad habits

2006-03-20T23:55:00.000-06:00

We all have bad habits, or weird things that we do. Some are actually a problem, others are just stupid and/or annoying. Me? Well, I happen to chew on the inside of my lip/cheek without really thinking about it, and then there's this rough surface that makes it easier to repeat over and over... Yeah, not exactly a crisis of national proportions, but I recently saw myself on tape and realized that, yeah, I do so a lot and, yes, it is obvious.

So, I've decided to do something about it, that is, to quit. Really, I mean it this time. A good friend of mine has decided to quit smoking this week, and I figure that if he (and scores of other people) are able to quit using a phyisically addictive substance, I might be able to handle this. And so, I'm mentioning it here, because if I actually commit to something outloud (or in writing, even if there only 2 people reading), I'm more likely to stick to it. And I'm also considering the classic parenting/teaching strategy of a point system - keep track of how many times I catch myself chewing, and each infraction is worth X amount of money (maybe $.10 to start) to be donated to a charity of some sort. I think I need to toss a pack of gum in my bag. Or ten.

Feel free to laugh and/or look quizzically in my general direction...

being the newbie sucks

2006-03-06T22:47:00.000-06:00

I'm one of the more junior members of the group in which I work, both in terms of age and experience in the field. From time to time, I feel like I'm still a student or kid amongst the "grown-ups." This is one of those times.

(edited to remove some details because I'm paranoid, and because the situation settled/clarified itself)

Coming soon: from the other extreme, an attempt at personal reflections about Grandma

Land of Ice and Snow

2006-02-17T12:24:00.000-06:00

It's been cold this week. Really cold. As in, below -30 Celcius at night (it was supposed to be -44 with the windchill last night). Thank goodness for block heaters. On the positive side, this can lead to interesting effects, like a great ring around the moon (I think these are caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere) I caught last weekend. I got a couple pictures, and will try and upload them today.

Speaking of pictures, Nikon recalled a bunch of batteries, including the one for my camera. I sent off my battery on Monday and am hoping that the replacement will arrive today so I can actually use my camera this weekend. Of course, the recall was announced two months before I bought my camera so I really shouldn't have been sold one with a potentially-dangerous battery in the first place, but that would have been too simple.

On the opposite end of the customer-service scale, I ordered some coffee beans from Great Northwest Coffee two days ago and the package just arrived and smells *so* good. An independant company that sells great Fair Trade/Organic coffee at a good price and ships it with a "pay when it arrives" receipt enclosed? Almost too good to be true.

Links

2006-02-11T20:58:00.000-06:00

So why does blogger make it so difficult to add a list of links? I should not have to be editing the html template to add a freakin' list when there are buttons and links to allow everything else to be done. Oh well, at least they're now there.

Welcome

2006-01-27T11:30:00.000-06:00

Well, I decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon (or more accurately, realized that the train passed by long ago, chased it down and attempted to rejoin the 21st Century) and here I am. I don't expect to be writing brilliant and witty posts admired by the masses, but at least this gives me a forum to highlight some of the things I enjoy. As the title suggests, this includes knitting and photography. I started knitting in the fall of 2004, and I'll upload pictures of some of the projects I've completed and/or have in progress. I also enjoy taking pictures, and recently made the leap from a film SLR camera (a Nikon FG series) to a digital SLR (a Nikon D50) , and I've set up a flickr site here where I've uploaded some of those pics as well as some scanned film prints (and have good intentions of adding more as the motivation to scan them hits me).