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(Preamble here.)
A vermin problem (mostly bats) in the basement of our property (which is apparently a rented home now) leads us to hiring a swami to perform the extermination.
He has a special technique, what with him being a swami and all: he uses a raven. An extremely tame, friendly raven that alights upon me, worms its way into the crook of my arm, and nuzzles me ceaselessly. Also: grooms my arms with its beak, clack-clack-clack.
I tell the property owners of my excellent initiative and proactive nature, and they are a bit apprehensive. Actually, they're worried that the swami's method of pest control may contravene some animal welfare regulations and labour laws.
Instead of hiring the swami, they suggest I fill the basement in with concrete instead.
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(Preamble here.)
I'm in New York looking for a stationery store (name unknown) and end up wandering through the countless corridors, stairways, and back alleys of the NYU campus. I think the campus was partially the University of Ottawa campus and partially the product of my twisted imagination.
While searching I meet a "famous internet blogger" (name withheld to protect the innocent), to whom I tearfully admit that I love New York SO MUCH.
I never do find the stationery store.
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(Preamble here.)
Olivia and I are making popcorn with Rosie O'Donnell and Oprah's friend Gayle. We use two machines: one of them looks like a teal coffee mill, the other one is one of those brown standard-looking ones.
The popcorn it makes is that vivid, electric yellow variety that you get in movie theatres.
Rosie insists that we pop this corn to write off as a business expense.Current Music: Frank Zappa - Absolutely Free |
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Man, we know so many pretty people. |
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(Preamble here.)
Less a quantitative dream, and more a qualitative one.
I have this vague feeling all night that I exist only to solve problems, acting as a cog in a giant machine. I receive tasks and physically feel myself move as I solve them. The action of movement is the most rewarding part of the solving.
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(Preamble here.)
Olivia and I are partying in a nightclub that's all stainless steel and black glass. Closing time approaches, and the owner asks us to lock up for him, giving us the code for the security system. A white, bearded regular offers us the rest of his beer, since he can't finish it himself.
When we get ready to close the place, Olivia admits that she's forgotten the security code. I get SO ANGRY, but then I realize that I can't remember it either and calm down a bit.
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(Preamble here.)
It's winter, and it's snowed two feet overnight at my parents' place. Not only that, everybody's forgotten how to drive.
(You know, now that I think of it this doesn't sound so much like a dream as reality.)
A car gets stuck in the snowbank near the house, leading to disaster. This is because there's a transport truck trying to back into the driveway to pick up old tires, but can't. A collision is certain! But then I wake up.
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(Preamble here.)
I'm running around a field with lush rolling green hills, and also an electric fence, which I touch several times to try it out. I tell some horrendously bad jokes (sadly, my dream didn't mention what the jokes actually were) and then eat a stupendous triple-decker peanut butter, strawberry jam, and banana sandwich.Current Music: The Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knocking |
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(Preamble here.)
I scour high and low for a recipe that will satisfy all my cravings: oat and sausage soup. Apparently it's just, errr, oats, breakfast links, and frankfurters. But there's a recipe somewhere.
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We're back from our three-week honeymoon in India, a country with a known risk of malaria. As a result, we've been on Lariam (mefloquine) for the last month, and will be taking them for another month in order to keep the little nasties at bay.
Wikipedia has this to say about Lariam:
Mefloquine may have severe and permanent adverse side-effects. It is known to cause severe depression, anxiety, paranoia, aggression, nightmares, insomnia, seizures, birth defects, peripheral motor-sensory neuropathy, vestibular (balance) damage and central nervous system problems. For a complete list of adverse physical and psychological effects — including suicidal ideation — see the most recent product information. Central nervous system events occur in up to 25% of people taking Lariam, such as dizziness, headache, insomnia, and vivid dreams.
What was that last part again?
Vivid dreams.
Let me tell you. They aren't kidding.
The dreams I've had over the last three weeks have been likely the most fun I've had while asleep. I'm pretty sure I dreamt in colours that don't even exist. Definitely something to share while putting off looking at our wedding photos, and culling the 700-odd pictures we took in India to a more manageable amount.
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Hey everybody! I've been married for just more than a week now!
The couple of weeks leading up to the event were a bit hectic, and we didn't buy many groceries, but it's less hectic now and we're slowly crawling back to normalcy.
I predict we'll almost be ready to rejoin society juuuuuust before we leave for our honeymoon on Friday. Whoops.
Annnyway, everything happened in and around Hamilton, with the ceremony taking place at her parents' church, and performed by her uncle (yes, he is a priest). The reception took place at Maplewood: a tiny little reception hall snuggled up in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area, and surrounded by trees and waterfalls and several deer.
I'm far too disconnected to write a coherent vendor list, so I will conclude with some choice tidbits.
Choice tidbits:- Contrary to popular belief, there isn't always something that goes wrong on your wedding day. (Well, the food was there a half-hour late and was a bit cool, but those aren't deal-breakers, because the food itself was fantastic.)
- The thrill of buying a large quantity of alcohol and scoring a large quantity of Air Miles pales in comparison to the relief of returning 40% of that large quantity unconsumed.
- Do not buy shoes off of the internet until you've worn the brand and can get the size right. I cannot stress this enough. (Luckily I was able to find alternate shoes the day before we left for Hamilton.)
- Getting your seating chart printed out on a 20" x 30" sheet at Staples and mounted on foamcore is far classier than gluing 8.5" x 11" sheets on bristol board
- It's true: you don't really need to eat or drink much on your wedding day. My lunch was a glass of water, a single french fry, and a mint.
- People get on the dance floor, and stay on the dance floor, if you start the dancing right after the bridal party enters (we also cut the cake and had our first dance at that point), rather than waiting until after dinner.
- A gallery link of one form or another will be put up once we get our pictures back from the photog, the lovely and talented Heather Fritz.
- It's very surreal attending your own wedding! All this stuff happens and then you realize it's all for you!
TL;DR version = Whee!
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I've had four coffees this morning (two French press, two Nespresso lattes), which I'm sure isn't all that healthy butIfeelfinethankyouverymuch.
Recently I've gotten back into Warhammer. In high school and the first couple years of university (?) I played quite a lot of Fantasy. It was uproariously fun, but I sucked at it. This time around, though, Warhammer 40,000 is what's grabbed my attention.
Why Warhammer 40k? And why now?
I can't put a finger on it. I mean, I don't have much time to dedicate to playing on anywhere close to a regular basis. And I certainly don't have the time to paint things.
But, dangit, I love rolling dice so much.
And it's given me a project.
Warhammer's supposed to be played on a 6' x 4' playing surface. One thing that has become glaringly apparent, though, is that nobody has a 6' x 4' table anywhere.
I've taken it upon myself to change that, by making every table into a 6' x 4' table.
The idea is thus: what we need is an overlay that can be placed on top of any table to turn it into a sufficiently large surface. Since lugging around a single 6' x 4' piece of anything is a bad idea, I've decided to make two 6' x 2' pieces, each folding down to 3' x 2'. Not bad.
Here's the idea:- Take four pieces of 3' x 2' particle board
- Seal on all sides with polyurethane
- Back with cork, to cushion it and keep it from slipping around
- Flock the playing surface, to make it look less ghetto and keep figures from slipping around
- Fasten with piano hinges along the 2' side.
I have the feeling that, all told, it's set me back $250. Totally appropriate, given how overpriced everything in Warhammer is.Current Music: The Beatles - Savoy Truffle |
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Leave a comment and I will give you a letter. Then, write 10 things that you love starting with that letter. Post the list in your journal. Give out letters to those who comment in return.
I was given the letter "P" by your friend and mine, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) fiercekitty:- Port
- Poutine
- Planning my finances
- Philosophizing
- Power Stone 2
- Pouss (i.e. rhymes with "grouse": the act of kissing while pouting. I guess you'd have to be there)
- Portishead
- Pinot Noir
- Photography
- Pens (fountain or otherwise)
Current Mood:  recumbent Current Music: Flanders And Swann - Songs For Our Time |
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(Cross-posted from my post to Ottawa Foodies. So you may have seen this already.)
So our intrepid group of explorers headed down to Niagara-on-the-Lake last month for our annual wine tour. Two days, eight wineries. Well, nine, but we were making a pickup at one and didn't try any, so I'll conveniently ignore that part.
For the fifth year in a row, we booked the first day's tour with Crush on Niagara, and drove for the second day. We were told after the fact that we are officially Crush Veterans, because people hardly ever go back for a second tour. I guess we take our wine buying/designated driving more seriously than most!
Once again, we stuck to "The Bench" for our Crush tour, and went to Niagara-on-the-Lake (AKA "The Swamp") for the second leg. One of these days we'll start exploring things east of Jordan, I promise.
(LJ exclusive: it doesn't look like I did a post after the last wine tour. Sorry, internet! I'll try to find something to talk about.)
Without further ado: ( Cut for great justice )Current Mood: complacent Current Music: F1 Hungarian Grand Prix |
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Hey Internet. Long time no see.
So Metric played at Bluesfest tonight, as they usually do. But this time we were smart and not only went, but brought a camera. Behold!
There's something magical about watching Emily Haines go insane on stage.
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Holy crap! How did I miss this?
Just newly dropped on Wii Ware is Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.
Bona fide sequal to the original, Yoshitaka Amano artwork and all, taking place seventeen years after the original ends.
This had better be worth my 800 Wii points.Current Music: Clinic - 2/4 |
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Here's what it takes to get me to post something in my LJ!
Looks like my complaining about buying a Flickr Pro account the month before we Rogers started handing them out for free was totally unjustified.
Starting July 1st, they're not providing the accounts for free any more.
Ah, well.
Anyway, we're going to visit friends for dinner, and I'm stuck bringing Gewürztraminer, since they're making Thai curry.
Now, I don't ascribe to the "Gewürz with spicy food" thing. I like beer or whiskey with spicy food. But at least this way I can start clearing out my back stock in preparation for the wine tour next month!Current Music: The Rolling Stones - Indian Girl |
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I was feeling all caring and decided that it was a good idea to insure my wine collection, since I'd hate to lose the $1000 deductible should anything go wrong with it.
But apparently my wine collection isn't counted as a "collection" for insurance purposes, because I actually drink the stuff. How about that? So instead it'll be insured as part of my home contents.
And here I was being all interested in how insurance works. NO MORE.Current Music: Ben Folds Five - Narcolepsy |
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untoward made me do it!
( Cut for width )Current Music: Wesley Willis - Larry Nevers/Walter Budzyn |
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Got an e-mail from my alma mater saying that they were going to be shutting down my @uwo.ca account.
Thank goodness! I've had eighteen months of nothing but ads for scientific equipment and College Pro Painters.
This will probably compromise my ability to get a student discount at the Apple Store, however.Current Mood:  blah Current Music: The Cars - All Mixed Up |
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Years ago, I bought an inkjet printer for cheap. It was a solid performer—a business-class cp1160—but eventually the print quality dropped like a rock, and no amount of replacement print heads could fix it. I still have it, but I use it as a shelf. I'll get rid of it when I buy a replacement console-type thing for my desk, just you wait.
For now, all of my printing needs are fulfilled by the tank-like LaserJet 5P. It's almost fifteen years old now, and I think the only thing that's gone wrong is that the manual feed is a bit finicky.
Build quality just ain't what it used to be.
As a reward for extended service I just shelled out $20 to boost its RAM from 2MB to 50.
Not bad, considering list price was $1100 back in the day.
And I may now be able to approach the theoretical max print speed of 6 pages per minute now, too!Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: Genesis - Tonight, Tonight, Tonight |
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Well, it's Valentine's Day, and that means . . . well, I guess it doesn't really mean much for us. It's an opportunity to be *sure* we do all the fun things that we like doing, all in one day:
- Pastries from The French Baker for breakfast, washed down with many lattés
- Kisses
- Grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch
- Kisses
- Vietnamese restaurant for dinner
- Kisses
- Stratus Red Icewine and truffles (from the delightful koko chocolates) for afterwards
- Kisses
So it's no different from any other weekend day!Current Mood: recumbent Current Music: Cake - Commissioning A Symphony In C |
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Man, I never use Facebook's note feature, but I have been a bit enamoured by the "25 Things You Didn't Know About Me" meme that's been doing its rounds.
People may know some of these, so really it should be "25 Things Only Some People Know About Me."
Not tagging anybody. Do what you will.
25 Things Only Some People Know About Me
- My main computer at home is a Mac—a lovely 20" number that OSAP paid for when I was at grad school. I'd like to think I'm not a zealot, since I try not to insist that all the world's computer problems would disappear if everybody used Macs.
Sometimes it doesn't work out so well.
- I've never broken a bone in my body (but I've definitely sprained my fair share of limbs.)
- I've never been in a car accident (but I've definitely spent my fair share on body work)
- I've got one visible scar on the inside of my right leg. Got it by crashing my bike into a post fence when I was 8 or so. It was probably the most injurious day ever for our family.
- My wine collection is currently worth more than my car. Granted, the car's a 97 Taurus, but still.
- I still cannot cook a whole chicken to save my life. I always undercook the thigh meat, since I don't want to overcook the breast meat. It's a combination of not having a thermometer and not being able to reliably identify the thickest part of the thigh when checking for doneness.
- In high school I got really angry at the RIAA's position on file sharing, since they claimed that music "piracy" was costing them billions in lost revenues. I got so angry, in fact, that I stopped both buying and downloading, thus ensuring that they couldn't blame me for their problems. (I bought every Aimee Mann album that came out, since she was independent at the time).
I gave up after about four years when I read that, not only was it legal to download stuff in Canada, but I really, really missed music.
The month I started downloading stuff again was, coincidentally, the first time I got a love letter from Rogers saying "you're over your bandwidth allowance for the month. How did you transfer 120 gigs of stuff in one month, anyway?"
- I really, really, really enjoy progressive rock. Genesis, Yes, Rush, King Crimson, etc. are my home boys. And for all you haters out there, Dragonforce is prog in disguise.
- I was on TV once when I was in Grade 5 (or maybe Grade 4?). CBC local news came to our school and interviewed a couple of us. I forget why. Something to do with the future. I think I looked quite dapper in my grey sweater.
- I've only been in two non-sibling fistfights. They both happened in public school, and I think they both ended in draws.
- I acquired a taste for aquavit when we were in Copenhagen last year. There's something deliciously refreshing about high-alcohol spirits that are infused with herbs and spices and served ice-cold.
- I'm not an early adopter of technology, despite my techno-joy. I held out on buying an iPod for years and years. Spent a lot of money on MiniDiscs, though, in the four or five years I used my MZ-N505. Lovely machine, but so hamstrung by Sony's software.
- The sound and feeling of a spoon being scraped through sugar weirds me out. It sets my teeth on edge and makes my hair stand on end. Walking through sand does that sometimes too.
- Everybody has a band they're ashamed to like. Mine's Ace of Base. Because I'm not ashamed of liking Kylie Minogue.
- A good breakfast pastry is a sublime thing. I was at a conference in Montréal once, and took the bus out to St. Viateur, at six in the morning and -30 temperatures, to buy bagels. I nearly burst into tears they were so good.
- I was seeing a psychologist for a span of about for months. The short version was that I couldn't understand why girls didn't like me. Which really explains a lot about why I was there, doesn't it? Man, I was lame when I was younger.
- My feet are way flat. Which is why I'll probably not try jogging again without investing a lot of money in good shoes.
- I used to play a lot of computer games as a kid/young adult/university student. I don't any more, since there are so many other things to do. However, I can't get enough Dungeon Crawl. I didn't think that any game could be better than NetHack, until I saw Dungeon Crawl. Tiles that don't look lame! Huge, semi-random maps! A clever skill system! Play balance that rewards strategy! Writing this has taken me five times longer than it should have because I swap out to vanquish a couple of foes every now and again.
- I berate myself for not being better at fighting games than I am. Given the amount of time I spent as a kid playing Street Fighter II, you'd think I'd have learned something. So, really I just play them now because it's fun to see shiny things fly across the screen.
- If I'm filling the car with gas, I have to aim for a whole dollar amount. If I overshoot, I consider it a personal failure.
- Man, I really love Twitter. But I sadly don't use it enough.
- I played soccer quasi-competitively until I was 16 or so. I ended up quitting because, long story short, I went to a different high school from everybody else and that didn't work out so well.
- Oh, and I am totally one level away from getting my black belt in tae kwon do. Maybe I should try for it, even though it's been fifteen years? I bet I could totally still break boards just by looking at them sternly.
- I have a pretty effective filing and productivity management system, based mostly on the teachings of Merlin Mann and David Allen. Ironically, I put off reading Getting Things Done for years until I was sitting in a chair on a beach in Cuba.
- The only way that I could devote time to write this was by using Evernote. I started using it a week ago, after much research and/or procrastinating, and I've fallen in love with it. Now instead of keeping random tabs open on all three computers to remind me of things, I can capture, categorize, and sync them with this one handy program.
Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: Dragonforce - The Flame Of Youth |
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After many, many years of "employee consultation" and "ensuring contract obligations are still fulfilled" and "just not frigging doing anything about it", my work has finally secured a corporate rate with GoodLife.
It brings the cost of gym membership down to something I'm actually willing to pay: about $30 a month. Shame you have to pay by the year, rather than month-by-month.
Given that there's one two blocks or so away, but I don't know how often I'll actually go, any more money than that would make me feel uggy.
Other than exercise, this provides me with an opportunity to rate as many iTunes tracks while still getting something done.Current Mood:  sleepy Current Music: Morcheeba - Over And Over |
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Oh, but I have missed the low whirr of buses running outside our apartment window. It's so soothing.
Can't use 'em to get to work yet, since service starts on the 9th and my route's a low-traffic (read: low-priority) one, but maybe in the next week. Or two. Or six.
I'm most looking forward to going back to one car fill-up every five weeks, rather than every eight days like I do now.
Actually, no. That's not true.
I'm most looking forward to having almost two hours of time per day that I used to spend driving, but now spend watching episodes of Doctor Who on my iPod.Current Mood:  pleased Current Music: Beastie Boys - The New Style |
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