Seriously - we got our first snow in the night, not just a little dusting but the real thing, and it changed to rain around 7am while still retaining a 'feels like' rating of -6 C. So I'm looking out the window at about an inch of pristine slushy goo and looking even less forward than usual to my mandatory trip for exercise and groceries.
Fortunately, I have exactly the right boots for the occasion: Bogs.
The are not pretty, but they are insanely warm and comfy, and on a day like this, whew! that's all that matters.
That and finding a can of my hot chocolate of choice, which none of my local retailers seem to be carrying any more...
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Unintentional procrastination
MAN. I just did a bus/subway trip to get some holiday shopping done and it was a complete bust! I have a tube of toothpaste to show for a 90 minute investment. (do you think anybody would enjoy a nicely wrapped tube of toothpaste?)
And I forgot to bring my knitting with me. The knitting that is meant to be gifts I am running out of time to finish.
Well, now I remember why I make most of my presents and shop online for the rest...
And I forgot to bring my knitting with me. The knitting that is meant to be gifts I am running out of time to finish.
Well, now I remember why I make most of my presents and shop online for the rest...
Monday, December 7, 2009
Midway through the mitten frenzy
No pictures today - I realized there is just a slim chance that somebody due to receive a pair might actually read this.
However, you will be thrilled to know that I managed to come up with a girl-sized pattern in the better-fitting style I discovered last weekend, which involved much ripping and resewing and trimming and ripping again, so as to make a paper pattern of the result.
Plus, I:
bought a ton more sweaters to felt (ton = 7.)
cut out all the remaining outer mittens and liner mittens needed for the entire Frenzy.
cleaned up all the wool dust from the washer and dryer where I did said cutting.
managed to cram all the sweater remains - enough to make any number of little bags and slippers and so forth if I could only decide how - into a giant green plastic garbage bag to do something with later.
put the remaining 5 uncut sweaters into my crafty cupboard as a start for next year's festive frenzy, whatever that might prove to be.
resisted ice cream.
Man. Do I ever need a holiday.
However, you will be thrilled to know that I managed to come up with a girl-sized pattern in the better-fitting style I discovered last weekend, which involved much ripping and resewing and trimming and ripping again, so as to make a paper pattern of the result.
Plus, I:
bought a ton more sweaters to felt (ton = 7.)
cut out all the remaining outer mittens and liner mittens needed for the entire Frenzy.
cleaned up all the wool dust from the washer and dryer where I did said cutting.
managed to cram all the sweater remains - enough to make any number of little bags and slippers and so forth if I could only decide how - into a giant green plastic garbage bag to do something with later.
put the remaining 5 uncut sweaters into my crafty cupboard as a start for next year's festive frenzy, whatever that might prove to be.
resisted ice cream.
Man. Do I ever need a holiday.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Holiday lights on wheels
The trip to see the CP Holiday Train was great (as was my haircut). The music, furnished live by Odds, was fabulous and the lights breathtaking. Tons of people were walking (or rolling along in strollers) alongside this big long train and about 90% of them had either cameras or tripods in hand, and sometimes both.
I hope they had better cameras than I do, though, because the only other picture I took that worked out was this one:
But that's okay. The real thrill is seeing it in person, and I get to do that again next year. Think I'll have written any fiction at all between now and then?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Midnight snack
I've always been intrigued by those fancy cake things you see in the grocery stores around this time of the year. They have big ribbons on them and they're wrapped up (or boxed prettily) and they say things in Italian on the side.
But I never thought of buying one until last year when my friend Bob said are you KIDDING? they are FANTASTIC, you have to get the TRE MARIE brand!
So this year I kinda hunted around different chain grocers until I found one that sold Tre Marie. And I bought one.
Around 11 o'clock that night I got hungry.
I decided that this is a very big cake. Except that it looks more like bread than cake. And 1/12th of it is 300 calories, except do I really want to eat 1/12th of a chocolate-free breadlike cake in one sitting? Having discovered a nutritional breakdown in English on the underside of the wrapping, I am thinking no. I am also thinking it's good that I don't hate sultanas.
A very thin slice is enough.
The next day, various friends of Italian descent or Italian-by-marriageness informed me that panettone keeps forever, and is in fact meant as a bread thing to eat with coffee or tea or something otherwise breakfasty. So I tried it again in the afternoon and thought of tea (which I was not in a position to drink at the time) and I liked it better...
... though not as much as I think I'd like the smaller Tre Marie panettone I saw in the store - the one with the custard-looking filling.
h'mmmmm.
(Nah. It still wouldn't have any chocolate in it.)
But I never thought of buying one until last year when my friend Bob said are you KIDDING? they are FANTASTIC, you have to get the TRE MARIE brand!
So this year I kinda hunted around different chain grocers until I found one that sold Tre Marie. And I bought one.
Around 11 o'clock that night I got hungry.
I decided that this is a very big cake. Except that it looks more like bread than cake. And 1/12th of it is 300 calories, except do I really want to eat 1/12th of a chocolate-free breadlike cake in one sitting? Having discovered a nutritional breakdown in English on the underside of the wrapping, I am thinking no. I am also thinking it's good that I don't hate sultanas.
A very thin slice is enough.
The next day, various friends of Italian descent or Italian-by-marriageness informed me that panettone keeps forever, and is in fact meant as a bread thing to eat with coffee or tea or something otherwise breakfasty. So I tried it again in the afternoon and thought of tea (which I was not in a position to drink at the time) and I liked it better...
... though not as much as I think I'd like the smaller Tre Marie panettone I saw in the store - the one with the custard-looking filling.
h'mmmmm.
(Nah. It still wouldn't have any chocolate in it.)
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Fire alarm
Yesterday I came in from an exciting trip to the garage to find the house was filled with the smell of burning plastic.
Horrors!
In these situations, I always panic about the source of the problem. Did I leave a giant plastic storage tub on the stove again? (don't ask.) Is it wafting over from somebody else's house under construction? Might there be a sudden problem with the wiring?
No smoke, no fire, no clue.
I raced around the house opening the windows, sniffing carefully in every room, unsure where the smell was worst. But pretty soon I'd narrowed it down to the ceiling fixture in my office, huzzah. A minor evacuation (hard drive, camera, knitting in progress) ensued, and then I tried to figure out which breaker sends power to that particular light.
It was while I was racing up and downstairs from the fuse box to see whether the secondary light in that room had gone out yet that I thought to turn on the ceiling light again and hope that the power had been cut.
It hadn't. And that is how I discovered one of the high-efficiency bulbs in it had burned out.
These bulbs have a peculiar habit if they burn out and get left in the fixture, even for a few seconds.
You may not be able to make out the little grey oval patch of melted plastic on the left there, but you can probably see the blackened bottoms of the tubes. Smells like the dickens and can't be very wholesome for your lungs, to say nothing of the hours (14 and counting) it takes to get the smell out of the house - if, like me, you forget what the problem is from the last time and take an extra fifteen minutes to get it out.
Yep, this has happened to me before. Just once, but it should have been enough!
Goes against my grain to waste energy, but I'm thinking it's time to switch back to the old style bulb for a while... or at least a different brand of this kind.
Horrors!
In these situations, I always panic about the source of the problem. Did I leave a giant plastic storage tub on the stove again? (don't ask.) Is it wafting over from somebody else's house under construction? Might there be a sudden problem with the wiring?
No smoke, no fire, no clue.
I raced around the house opening the windows, sniffing carefully in every room, unsure where the smell was worst. But pretty soon I'd narrowed it down to the ceiling fixture in my office, huzzah. A minor evacuation (hard drive, camera, knitting in progress) ensued, and then I tried to figure out which breaker sends power to that particular light.
It was while I was racing up and downstairs from the fuse box to see whether the secondary light in that room had gone out yet that I thought to turn on the ceiling light again and hope that the power had been cut.
It hadn't. And that is how I discovered one of the high-efficiency bulbs in it had burned out.
These bulbs have a peculiar habit if they burn out and get left in the fixture, even for a few seconds.
You may not be able to make out the little grey oval patch of melted plastic on the left there, but you can probably see the blackened bottoms of the tubes. Smells like the dickens and can't be very wholesome for your lungs, to say nothing of the hours (14 and counting) it takes to get the smell out of the house - if, like me, you forget what the problem is from the last time and take an extra fifteen minutes to get it out.
Yep, this has happened to me before. Just once, but it should have been enough!
Goes against my grain to waste energy, but I'm thinking it's time to switch back to the old style bulb for a while... or at least a different brand of this kind.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Train and a haircut
Well, I don't know what's more exciting today - my much-anticipated haircut (if you are a longtime reader, you may recall last year's disasters on that front, from which my hair has finally, officially, Grown Out)
or the CP Holiday Train.
I first noticed the train a few years ago when I was getting a lift downtown for, appropriately enough, a holiday party. This train rumbled past on the tracks alongside the road I was on - and what a train! All lit up with bells and bows, cars and cars of it. I'd never seen anything like it, and believe me, I've seen my share of trains.
The train crosses North America just above and below the Canada/US border, stopping periodically to open up a boxcar that serves as a stage for a band. The band plays, and people who've come out to hear it donate money and canned food for local food banks.
Plus, it looks really really awesome. Or did I mention that part already?
You can find out more at the Holiday Train Blog, and if you decide you just have to check it out in person, you can find the train's schedule, for both the US and Canada, here.
or the CP Holiday Train.
I first noticed the train a few years ago when I was getting a lift downtown for, appropriately enough, a holiday party. This train rumbled past on the tracks alongside the road I was on - and what a train! All lit up with bells and bows, cars and cars of it. I'd never seen anything like it, and believe me, I've seen my share of trains.
The train crosses North America just above and below the Canada/US border, stopping periodically to open up a boxcar that serves as a stage for a band. The band plays, and people who've come out to hear it donate money and canned food for local food banks.
Plus, it looks really really awesome. Or did I mention that part already?
You can find out more at the Holiday Train Blog, and if you decide you just have to check it out in person, you can find the train's schedule, for both the US and Canada, here.
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