Bacon Marmalade

Weird.

Hanging Out and Things Found

Though tempted to stay in bed for the rest of the day, nice weather pushed me outside - to put our first batch of laundry on the line! 

It managed 3 pairs of jeans, some shirts and more!  It's definitely heavy duty.  Horray!

The good weather also attracted an ice cream truck and people out to cut their lawns. 

(Right: Yes, a John Deere!  Guess it wouldn't have been completely crazy if we'd gotten one :P)

Sunshine Sketches

I was still sleepy and really didn't notice, but Paul did.  What were those shapes on wall? 

Through some testing, he'd found that our curtain that day was in just the right position to turn our room into a pin-hole camera.  The image above (rotated 180 degrees) was the mirror image of this outdoors:

Cool! 

The lighting, of course, also had to be right.  A nice sunny day and us in bed past 8:30 a.m.  Sleeping-in has it's advantages. 

Water Marks and Wood Carved

We took a much needed walk after dinner to work off some of the grease.  Paul takes us to the bridge and we can see just how much higher the river is compared to usual. 

 

Left: Message on the bridge

Right: Man in the tree

Lucky, Spoon

This morning was on a high level a repeat of yesterday's.  I woke up finding Jackie awake and enjoying her book.  We gardened and checked out some garage sales... but we also made some spectacular finds: 

1. Two four-leaf clovers!  Just outside our side door!   

2. A pig with wings!  

Or perhaps a submarine? An angler fish?  Or a runaway rhino with a sack on its back? 

I am almost regretting not buying the spoon.  

Assorted Kisses

On sale by the bag. 

Vacation Daze

I have the rest of week off, but I almost didn't know what to do with myself. 

Yes, there's housework, but this is also my chance to go out and see and do things, right?  At once I'm free to do anything, but then I'm not free to do nothing because I'd be wasting it... brain was so tired. 

Sarah saved me by arranging a lunch date.  We met up at her office, she gave me tour, showed me a flower box that was blooming like crazy, before taking me to a nice (very efficient, catering especially to the downtown lunch hour)Italian restaurant. 

And then, with no distractions or a band playing behind us, we talked.  She told me about her weekend -- she was in Calgary too!  But our paths (obviously) didn't cross.  I told her about ours and how we actually went to see a movie.  She shared some of her friends' "vacation only" activities (shopping, eating out...) 

Now that Grant's graduating soon and looking for a post doc outside of Edmonton, they've taken to having weekend "staycations" to explore more of Edmonton (such as the farmers' market only blocks away from their current place).  It's pretty cool, too bad it's taking an impending move to make it happen. 

I felt a bit lost again once our lunch was over, but felt immediately better when I took on Sarah's advice: Just take a walk.  And so I did.  I found a bit of art on a dumpster in the alley and that made me smile.  I visited a bookstore.  Not necessarily purposeful and it was a bit windy, but not bad at all. 

Kijiji Kindness

I've been keeping eye out again on Kijiji for free furniture.  On Saturday, I hit the jackpot.  Someone was moving and listed two lovely green wingback chairs with the note that more things will end up on their lawn as they sift through their stuff. 

I wrote down the address, started driving, and stopped... right across the street from Theresa's.  Um... that's kind of awkward.  I know my family's take on second hand items and I was in full view.   (Please don't rat me out to my parents.)

Anyway, I spoke to Vicky who had placed the advert and found the chairs had gone.  But after introducing me to her husband, Terry, I was fully welcomed to take things on the lawn and free to walk around the house and ask if I saw something I needed.  Wow.  I certainly didn't expect that. 

As I loaded small bookshelves into the car and rummaged through their kitchen cupboards, I found out more about their situation: The house had sold, possession day was a few days away, they didn't have a new place to move into (it seemed they were headed to opposite sides of the country, her east, him west), and they had a lot of stuff. 

Their adult children, Carson and Mac, were taking some of the items (along with the very sweet kitty who wanted a lot of attention), but otherwise things just needed to go. 

There were too many feelings there.  They were uncovering more and more things that we could use at our place, but didn't want to rush anyone (I worried I was morphing into a vulture).  I was also overwhelmed by their kindness, generosity, and how there were truly no strings attached to the things they were giving me.*  Except, I still felt like I should be helping out, so I stuck around for a couple hours on Saturday and Sunday.  I tried to make myself useful by helping them move things from the house into the van set for either storage, the Ecostation, or Goodwill. 

During all this, I was busted.  Someone had recognised the car and Theresa, Celina, and Kevin waited for me near it.  They were surprised, but also didn't seem that bothered by my "collecting".  Instead, Theresa said she wished we'd bought the place.  The priced had dropped from $ 380 K finally to $ 320 K (in our range).  I reminded her it was a duplex (and, what I didn't say, I like our current place a lot more).

Anyway, I was still pretty amazed to get such a glimpse into these people's lives.  Near the end of it, I was sniffling from the cat dander, Terry was showing me photos from his first marriage (which he was supposed to packing) and just being sweet.  And the son and daughter, were so blase about me they just went about their business joking in front of me about the very attractive tenant who was also moving out: "Who should ask her out?"

And that was that. 

Back at home with my two carloads of stuff my goal then was to clean and "process" everything so it didn't look like completely chaos.  I think Paul was a bit stressed about it.  But now we have some really nice furniture. 

I know these kijiji experiences are rare, but it's exciting to think it could happen again ;)  Who knows what you could get from answering an advert (please no bed bugs, and don't tell my parents).

Some fun adverts I've saved up:

 

 

* The possession part a bit easier to handle - if we need to get rid of it at some point, I wouldn't feel the same amount of (any?) guilt.

Also From the Wall

His ghost-white hound.

Greenish Things

For a laugh and a smile. 

 

Finds from my latest Reuse volunteer shift:

 

- An annoyed bunny

- A hesitant belle

- An unfortunate title 

 

An update on things growing indoors:

 

- A sprout from the carefully planted

- From the mass of spilled seeds, true folliage (beyond the cotyledon which all kind of looked the same)

 

 

 

 

How do they do that?!

And all the way from England?

Oh.  Right. That's one sentence. 

Listen

The bird is back? 

Sad Gnome in the Wall

No worries.  It's not Yellow Wallpaper.

Lessons in Humour

What I'm learning from Paul (because sometimes I can be too literal):

1. Punny stuff

Me: (Something involving a pun that I don't remember any more... but I'm sure it was good.)

Paul: You're supposed to say, "No pun intended".

Me: But I did intend it.

"No pun intended," is actually to be used when you do intend the pun. But then what do you do when  you really don't? 


2. "Did you see what I did there?"

Me: Yes. 

Apparently, the phrase is rhetorical.  To be used when a joke is so obviously unclever or bad, that the speaker might get a couple of laughs from this statement, because obviously you got it, but you're not laughing... so maybe you didn't get it.  Um... at least that's what I think it means. 

3. Spoonerisms

Examples from wikipedia:

•  "Three cheers for our queer old dean!" (dear old queen, referring to Queen Victoria)
• "A well-boiled icicle" (well-oiled bicycle)

And here I thought these were just a type of Freudian Slip. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On a related note, a funny I didn't have to overthink:

...But it might be because I'm getting a little cynical. 

Plaice Alternatives

"21:00 is no respectable time for any unrespectable fish and chip shop to close.  So maybe it's too respectable for British tastes."

Despite Paul's first impressions of Brits' Fish and Chips (the rather stereotyped decor, the un-unrepectable hours...), when the food arrived, he declared it authentic! 

Except... well... perhaps a little greasier than what you'd find there... (the wax paper wrapper here not as absorbent?). 

The menu had read rather strange to me (side dishes: mushy peas, bread and butter, pickled egg...), but I guess they were standard fare. 

Paul ordered sweet curry sauce - which ended up being my favourite part of the meal. 

As tasty as deep fried is, I couldn't keep out of my head someone else's review: "Fast food at resturant prices".  But!  It certainly filled a craving, and the trip was good intel for future schemes. 

To help work off some of the grease, we follow the meal with a walk around the neighbourhood. 

I found some fun (and fitting) graffiti:

Paul, later, did a public service. 

And then we call it a night. 

Long Weekend

The weekend didn't slow down. 

Sunday:  My wind-up alarm clock died (given into my over enthusiastic winding?).  I wanted to take it apart, but there's so much other stuff to do.  Picked up groceries with Mom - a straight ahead, no strategem food run. Then it was the Formation dress rehearsal.  (Yikes! Less than a week to go!)  Then at some point I went to sleep, fitfully (I think I need hear the ticking clock).

Monday: Met up with Paul and went over to Erik's to take advantage of the bread machine check on it, while he's away on vacation.  On our way back from Head Case (a fun visit where we found fascinators are not for Paul) we saw this:

Watched Amelie and got teary in all the right places. And we ate another bunny...

At some other point, I go to sleep.  I know it happened, but still very, very tired. 

Year End doesn't help. 

Cold Jeans and Hot Tools

A brief stop for a strange find on the way to the TA training (a result of some new year's luck?), and then it was back on track to dance. 

Afterwards, I made a surprise Valentine's visit to Paul's.  The day before, we'd celebrated with my attempt at a Chinese-ish dish (a fish and tofu noodle-soup thing) and Paul's Chinese penmanship.  Thus, he was not expecting me on his doorstep at all. Even more surprising were the thing-within-a-things (Chinese buns - notably pineapple buns) and a heavy, wrapped rectangle - a tool kit! 

Tools are romantic, right?  Not missing a beat, Paul made me laugh.  O.k., if not romantic, they can be lewd.

Questions / Answers

At long last, someone invents "the dream VCR." This machine allows you to tape an entire evening's worth of your own dreams, which you can then watch at your leisure. However, the inventor of the dream VCR will only allow you to use this device if you agree to a strange caveat: When you watch your dreams, you must do so with your family and your closest friends in the same room. They get to watch your dreams with you. And if you don't agree to this, you can't use the dream VCR. Would you still do this?

~ Question 6 of "The twenty-three questions I ask everybody I meet in order to decide if I can really love them" from Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

I was taking pictures of shoes when Adonis appeared. This time he was wearing yoga pants and a hoodie, which I thought was ridiculous in the cold. But then again there I was stopped, with my gloves off, to take pictures of shoes...

We were back at the Second Cup, with cups of chai latte again in hand. I got the feeling that he was a little unsettled inspite taking me to visit his chess friends on the second floor before.

He tells he seems himself on a billboard. It will happen one day, he just needs to figure out what it is that will make him millions. He asks me if I know what my best friend was doing right then (I nodded, having some idea) and says "She's probably caught up in her own drama," and that each and everyone one of us is caught up in something. Drama that we create for ourselves. He's already moved on to Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, that was in my bag (I'm re-reading it again), but my brain was agreeing with what he said. How many times have I freaked out over something that was small... becoming so consumed and self-centred that it was a wonder that I could still function. All of it, just inside my head...

He's all curious about Klosterman's questions, reading them aloud and pausng at points to ask about certain words... thinking about the answers... His hands gesture expressively as he talks, and these gushes are punctuated by moments where he took hold of the paper cup and stared out of the window in silence. I still didn't understand what he's doing there. And aside from a certain amount of wondering if I could solve this puzzle, I didn't know why I was there either.

By the time I got home, I was thinking about drama again... I was caught up in a bit of it and I didn't want Adonis to be part of it anymore.

Magpie tendencies

The snow has melted. My eyes are pointed to the ground. There is garbage. There is treasure. On the way to Funky Buddha I found a brilliant cut jewel. This morning a round aquamarine coloured-crystal half encased in a silver ball, with a silver stem. I think it may have been part of a bellybutton ring. It feels strangely intimate to be holding this in my hand.