Is there a federal holiday in Junetober?

0. My parents had their birthday party last month at the cottage. It was super fun and super cute. Birthday float!

1. You know, it's totally useless to know that a difference exists, but not be able to explain the difference. Like, bugs are an actual different classification than insects. You just sound like an idiot when you bring it up, without being able to go further. What the hell?

2. We figured out how to hack a veg McDonalds burger (with the added bonus of being without chemical induced rage we get when we eat at McD's...we got grilled cheese in Australia and then had a blowout fight about...paradise? Not sure.). Yves burger, melted on top cheese slice (Kraft-style), pickles, mustard and ketchup and lettuce form outside and cheapest possible white bun. Awesome. We've been making cole slaw with it. Perfect.

3. We went camping at sandbanks provincial park. It's about halfway between waterloo and ottawa. It was super fun and they weren't kidding about the sand. Beaches and dunes. Good times.

4. Listening to: Weezer The Red Album. I love it (most of it). Ballads can suck it. It's the summer, time for driving tunes and anthems.

5. We have two big boxes I am slowly filling up with stuff to give away. The less we take with us, you know? We've also got a bunch of stuff to list on kijiji too. Next on the block: waffle maker. I sometimes worry about how much actual joy I get from doing these two things.

6. Oh my god, is that the same ant I've seen 4 times or do I have a freaking problem in here!? UGH.

7. Junetober is the best month because every day I think, oh I better go water the garden, and then it rains instead and I'm saved the bike ride.

8. Swheat Scoop natural cat litter now comes in multi cat. Excitement!

9. Yesterday I demolished a to-do list of random chores around the apartment. t was really nice and super easy. Is there a way to make yourself be in certain moods? Other than mellow (vicodin?). Anyway, it felt good. I will make another list today.

10. We've probably had like 5 "plans" (ideas, really) of What's Next, but we seem to have swung back to my favourite option, the long distance bike ride. Who wants to potentially semi adopt our cats for like 6 months? We'll get you the food and litter and we'll insure them with PC and pay for everything. No, don't say anything just yet. Think about it. *wink* Anyway, as always it's an idea until it happens and details are as scarce as actual facts about the idea. So, as always, I guess wait and see.

11. 'sup with y'all?

so.

'Sup?

In the past little while I got to do some fun stuff! I did my first 5k "run" a few weekends ago. It wasn't really a run, because as you may know, I don't really go there, but I did the race on my longboard. I felt badass for sure carving corners in the suburbs of the Wellesly Apple Butter and Cheese Festival 5k! It was cool, except 2 days later when my right (pushing) leg seized up from my hip to my ankle. Ah well, it's the price you gotta pay.

We got fresh roma tomatoes, onions and butternut squash from a local organic mennonite farm and we made salsa. Yum.

I went home for thanksgiving and ate very well as usual. The culinary highlight: we tried the Tofurkey kit and it's VERY VERY good. It comes with apple cranberry dumplings and gravy and it all really rocked. Taste and texture, people!

An open note to the household cats:

Dear cats,

I love you. But if you start whining for your food any earlier in the day than you do now, I will kick your heads in.

Sincerely,

M

Next up: Oktoberfest weekend with the fam! We're going to have a vegan bratwurst and vegan beer sausage BBQ out back. Should be scrumptious. Oh, not forgetting the local preservative free and non-pasteurized beer. Life is good.

Thank the Great Pumpkin it's finally getting colder. Autumn is the season that justifies all my freaking hobbies, so this is a time of great excitement/fulfillment for me. Very good. Ummmmmmmm, what else?

Not much at the moment. I'm knitting like mad these days which is very gratifying. I'm working on a sock for Rob. It's a tube sock since I still don't understand heels, BUT I have found a tutorial on YouTube which should get me over my issues. I mean, knitted tube socks?

Rob is constructing a drum kit in the office which is nice for him but a little iffy for me. He plays when I'm not there but holy hannah, our place is cozy! Ah well, such is life and I'm definitely responsible for my share of clutter. I'm just happy that neither of us are dedicated butter sculpters or something. That would be expensive, on a bunch of levels.

I have come up with a business for myself to do with knitting and recycled yarns. It's called Rewind (tag line: be kind, rewind). I'm having fun thinking of how it will work. Don't steal my idea okay? I'm attached. I think I can collect stuff and sell at the festivals Rob and I attend for his stuff, and I think I have other options for a low key, hobby-business which I can maintain for the freaking fun of it. Yee haw!

Everybody know what they plan on doing for Hallowe'en? My friend is having a super fun party (as she does every year) and this year they are also putting on a play Oct 27th is it? whichever day the saturday is). Let me know if you wanna party in the "loo this year, though costumes are required. We have a fancy double futon and two loving, squirmy, furry cushions for ya. ( and real pillows, I was kidding about the cats. mostly). I htin kmy costume will be fantastic. I had apow wow with my family and they brainstormed me up a doozy. It required knitting and saran wrap which, in my mind, is already the making or a real winner.

until next time peeps.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Shopping spreeeee!

A little Clone High humour there.

So, we went hog wild on Kijiji and bought a futon and a chest freezer this week. The futon I've mentioned. We've been wanting one for a while now and it fits in the office perfectly. The chest freezer I've been looking into it for a while, since I'm involved in a couple of farms and having frozen veggies I get end-of-season is so nice and so much cheaper, I wanted more than our fridge-freezer could handle.

There were three listed online, we picked one out, made an offer and bought it. We hope it lasts. They used it only a couple of months a year for Christmas cookies, so we hope it works all season. We shall see. And, by basically total luck, it fit in right beside the new futon with not a centimeter to spare. See? ( Yes, it opens, it's not flush against the wall for ventilation and room to plug it in).

So, that's awesome. We think it's perfect, if a little too big for right now, but we'll definitely grow into it, and you never know, maybe it'll all work out. Now, I can make apple cider and freeze it, not just applesauce and fruit roll-ups (which we have enough of to last forever, essentially). And sale items will fit, and I can make 4-5 loaves of bread at once and freeze them to save time and money. Oh yes, it'll pay for itself. Now, to fill it up with delicious and cheap local produce. And sayonara wintertime scurvy and vitamin deficiency!

What you don't see in the picture is the massive mound of...stuff that I haven't figured out what to do with yet. I had to shove it all out of the way to make room for the new acquisitions. It's charming, trust me.

So, the odyssey continues: if it's not in use...it's in storage (or goodwill). When this place is ship-shape I will post triumphant pictures. Wait for it...

Have a wicked day!

PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!

Time

Did you ever spend time thinking about what time really is? How in some cultures, time is a commodity that can be spent, saved, kept or portioned out? And in others, time is circular, there is no rush and time is a fuzzy notion that cannot govern? Weird.

Stuff I'm doing:

1. Listening to a neighbour blast music that makes me think that either a) little girls are practising an awesome new, home-made dance routine on the awn (Beyonce, Avril, Lily Allen) or b) 14 year olds are trying to have a party (Sweet Home Alabama, ZZ Top, other classic rock-top-40 stuff).

What is it when it's all mixed together?

2. Participating in a discussion about environmental stewardship with fundamental Christians on a quiverfull site (people who believe God will regulate how many kids they have, and no birth control of any method is practiced...this family has 13 kids, one on the way). This discussion is obviously going nowhere, but I can't help myself. I need a miracle, haha! ARGH.

3. Planting my herb garden. I have sage, thyme, rosemary and oregano, plus basil coming up from seed. the rest are plants. Most of it's organic, whee!

4. Went to the organic garden today to help with picking the food for the food baskets for the CSA (crop share program). I got free organic lettuce, onions, oregano (see above) and basil and pint of organic strawberries. Kind of a lean take, but as the season progresses there will be more for us to enjoy as well. I like volunteering however the free organic food is such a nice reward. We will soon no longer need to buy any fresh greens at all, and well be in lettuce and spinach and kale and chard till September. Wheeeeeee!

5. writing on my blog. This helps keep me off the ethics site, though that is today's goal: get y application ready to roll. Or as much as is possible.

I guess I'll "do the twist" with my neighbour until they decide to play some reasonable music and get on with it...enjoy the longest say of the year! Depressing observations about days getting shorter to follow ;-)
xoxo!

Where you been, Mr Lee?

So, there's a German guy who got a tiny key chain camera, jacked it up somehow to take pictures every few minutes, and fastened it to his cat's collar to see where he goes all day. The cat, Mr. Lee has been on 4 recorded trips and it's something to see. Also, for those interested especially in computer/electrical stuff, he (the guy, not the cat) did a photo blog of how exactly he modified the camera, complete with circuit diagrams.

Check out Mr. Lee's travels here.

Cool. A cat-cam.

have a good day! We're packing for our first camping trip of the season made extra exciting because we're using our bikes, not a car. One way of dealing with cars is to make them obsolete!

See ya later alligators.

201

Hey, my last post was my 200th!

It's back to hot hot hot weather here. The reprieve of downright cool and rainy weather was much appreciated, but short lived. My plants are starting! My little heads of lettuce are going to have to get thinned since all the seeds seem to be sprouting. My pessimistic side planted a bunch just in case. well, PC organic seeds seem to be pretty good for coming up!

We got the newest Feist, Modest Mouse and G-Love (On Jack Johnson's label) album recently. Normally we don't buy CD's, but we decided to bring in a stack of CD's we don't listen to at a local buy-sell shop. They give you 20 percent more in store credit. They took a pile of the cd's, maybe 2/3 and offered us a $57 credit! We couldn't believe it, but I guess we were lucky. So, three albums later and an $18 credit left. We can trade that in for $15 in real money if we want, so it's a good deal. The leftovers will go to a local pawn shop for whatever they'll give us. Yay clearing extra crap out WHILE making a little green too!

I have an ongoing value village pile. I went through the records, the plates/glassware *still have lots left, I guess it's a weakness), clothes and other bits and bobs. I hope to keep adding to it and paring down the extra paraphernalia we have kicking around. Our apartment is small and always looks busy, which is fine because that's us but at the same time, we don't really need to cart around every little thing we've collected. The more I look around, the more I see that's a nice little thing, or a convenience, but I wouldn't miss it if it were gone. Like the rotating pencil holder thing. I have something I like that's small and does the trick. It's fun!

I'm becoming more intrigued by people who go on long holiday trips with only a regular backpack. No luggage. Sounds awesome eh? Just a carry-on and you, no airport struggles with baggage and waiting, and a light freedom that comes with being totally mobile at any time. I guess that's harder if you are camping, but I'll keep an eye on it. I hope that if we transition to travelling planning on staying in established places the whole time, that we'll consider day pack travel. It sounds so good. I guess you wash your underwear out every night and bring/buy travel shampoos and stuff? I'll have to read up on it. I guess I have travel on the brain. C&M are considering an awesome trip next summer that sounds amazing. I think that as long as I defend in a reasonable time in spring (and not dragging through the summer), we'll do something too. And maybe move, too. Try somewhere new. Any suggestions?

back on the wagon

I picked up the needles recently and have decided to finally start the Fugl sweater/jacket I'm so enamored with. Even though I collected enough second hand and new(through second hand stores) wool to do it, the main colour I found was not the one I wanted, and it was in kind of ratty shape. So, unprecedented for me, I went out and bout both the needles I needed AND the rest of the wool I needed too. Usually I'm totally against buying new wool, sinple because it's too expensive for me to enjoy knitting, but since 1/3 of the stuff I need was scavenged, and I really want this to turnout well, I feel good about it. I have the body done up to the belly buttn about, though I changed the colour pattern a bit. It feels good to be back on that!

Also, it look slike we are in the dreamy state of thinking baout our next trip. It ws too early before, sicne we had two years here, but tht time is dwindling, and the hazy future is looking more plausable. And, and time a lease is up, I consider it a sign to go out and do something. Hopefully somthing different than I'v eever done before, but like I say..it's hazy ;-)

School is good. I went to a green building meeting yesterday and my sister is helping me out with her mad research skills and her plum job connection, so I feel better about it than ever before. And my dreams have gotten less weird, and less stressed, so hopefully that's a good sign. Sad to say, not much else going on over here. Rob's got some nice gigs lined up which is great. We're hopin go go camping hte weekend after next. Things are good. See ya!!!