brisk

LOTR log updated

In Blatherchat, Paul asked if the cottage was the same as a boathouse. Not everyone may use these terms the same way as I do, so I figured I should do some explaining and maybe offer a bit o' history.


Our cottage is on leased land in Algonquin Park. After the war, the government decided to open up the park and offer leases. Jeff's grandparents took out two leases and began building in 1950, using logs from an old barn about 50 miles away. First they built one cabin (which is now used by Jeff's aunt and uncle), then added a boathouse on the lot beside it. Jeff can correct me if I'm wrong here, but every lot could have a limited number of structures built on it, and one of those structures could be a boathouse. Boathouses are for boat storage, but many cottagers also use them as regular people-type cabins.


Our boathouse is used to store the canoes in the winter, but also is the main gathering place. It has a living room area with a fireplace, kitchen, small storage room. It's been gradually renovated over the years, with a dining room area added (where I'm sitting now). In fact, let me take a photo of it right now so you can see where I'm typing my Blatherings this morning:









The only sound is the lapping of waves against the dock, and some water starting to boil on the stove for my tea. Jeff's still sleeping, so I have the cabin to myself right now. :-)


Anyway, over the years, several sleeping cabins were built on the lot. Jeff and I built ours about ten years ago, a simple one-room cabin. We made it insulated so we could use it in the winter.


In answer to Jim's question...yes, the cottage can only be accessed by water. All the furniture and building supplies had to be transported by motor boat. I remember having to do this when we built our cabin. The lumber was deposited on the dock on the other side of the lake (and we had to trust that no one would steal it before we picked it up). We tied two motor boats together to make a sort of barge, and transported the lumber that way. I remember lying on top of the lumber pile, trying to keep any from sliding off into the water. :-)


Brrrrr...still chilly. I think I'll go put another log on the fire.







Today's Blatherpics:

I took these at about 6:30 a.m. this morning, mainly because I liked how everything looked in the morning light. Pretty chilly! Thermometer read 3 degrees Celsius, about 33 degrees Farenheit. I lit a fire to warm up the boathouse.


Poll:

Do you consider yourself a cat person?

first flash

I've updated my LOTR log. I'm actually enjoying the book so far.


Did some work on my Writer's Digest article yesterday, then spent the rest of the day napping, sitting out on the dock reading, practising guitar flatpicking, and playing with Macromedia Flash. I went through all the tutorials yesterday, and created my first Flash animation today. If you're curious, feel free to check out:




Debbie's First Flash Movie!




Jeff built a birdfeeder to hang on the tree outside our cottage window. So far I've seen two crows and a pudgy chipmunk on it.


We aren't putting in the water system until we're sure the risk of frost is past (water pipes could freeze and burst otherwise), so all our washing-up water has to be lugged in pails from the lake, heated up over the stove. Sounds like a pain, but you'd be amazed at how quickly one adapts.


Weather's been pretty undecided. Boiling hot one day, chilly the next. We have a fire going right now, and are bundled up in sweatshirts and fleece. Jeff's optimistic about the day clearing, though, which is probably why he's still wearing shorts. :-)

My favourite cottage sounds

Loons calling to each other from different lakes late at night.

Silence.

My least favourite cottage sound

Mysterious rustling noises in the forest when I'm heading up to the outhouse in the middle of the night. The most unnerving incident took place years ago when the rustling noise was so loud that I turned around halfway and went back to the boathouse to tell Jeff. Jeff smirked and said it was probably just a raccoon or a squirrel, said he'd walk me out to the outhouse. We got partway up the hill when the rustling started again. "Hm," said Jeff, "That's bigger than a raccoon." Then the rustling paused, and began heading quickly towards us (!!). Jeff grabbed my hand and we ran back to the boathouse as fast as we could, slamming the door behind us. We never did find out what the animal was for sure, though we now suspect it might have been a dog from one of the cottagers down the shore. Either that or a rabid black bear. :-)


Today's Blatherpic:

The boathouse, a few minutes ago. Jeff is writing some e-mail on his laptop. My laptop is on the table in the background. We are such geekheads. :-)


Poll:

Do you have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer? (Were you able to see my movie?)

cottage

Reading LOTR updated.




At the cottage! Jeff and I spent the first full day doing cottage-opening type of stuff...putting out the deck furniture, making small repairs, cleaning cupboards, washing all the dishes, cutlery, pots, etc. before replacing them on the shelves. We only found one dead mouse this year, lying in a corner of the kitchen where it must have expired over the winter. I had to pry the corpse off the floor before dumping it in the garbage (yuck).


We visited the Portage Store on the other side of the lake to get some drinking water; it wasn't officially open yet, but they let us fill out containers in the restaurant kitchen. While we cleaned, we listened to CDs on the ghetto blaster...including Ookla's new CD, "Smell No Evil". Really great album! I highly recommend that you all order this right away, if you haven't already. Jeff's favourite track is "Me and My Monkey". I'm torn between "Hockey Monkey Song", "Son Of Kong", and "Conquest". Also listened to two Aimee Mann CDs (after recommendations from Rand and Parki), Sam Baardman's "The Rookery", a Celtic harp CD by Therese Honey (birthday present from Tom Jeffers), some Dave Matthews.









Last night, Jeff made dinner (AND cleaned up, woohoo!)...steak cooked on the grill, rice, salad, served by candlelight. :-) We've gotten into the habit of having our steak with slices of blue cheese. My sister-in-law's boyfriend (a professional chef) introduced us to this combination, and now we're both hooked.


Took a sauna before dinner to wash up after all the messing about with dust and grime and dead mice. Jeff put a big cooking put full of water on the coals to heat up, then we filled up a portable shower (the same kind we used on our Nahanni canoe trip) and took turns holding the bag above each other so we could wash our hair. Ordinarily, we'd jump in the lake after, but the water's still pretty cold...the ice just thawed off the lake last Monday!


Very quiet on the lake; not many people are here. That will change this weekend, I'm sure. :-)


Today's Blatherpics:

I took this photo this morning.

Loading up the boat just before heading across the lake to the cottage.


Poll:

You are buying a few souvenirs at a small tourist shop while on holiday. The clerk gives you too much change. Would you point out his/her mistake?

picture books

Updates: For those interested, I've updated Reading Lord of the Rings...The Final Attempt. Also, Bill Sutton has updated his column, Another QuarterNote Heard From.


Nearly finished packing for the cottage. The most difficult part is deciding what books to bring. It's going to be difficult being without Gwyneth Paltrow for three weeks, but I'm bringing the Therese Honey harp CD that Tom Jeffers gave me for my birthday. Also bringing my guitar and a pile of manuscript paper. :-)





Beckett pointed out in Blatherchat that "oobleck" is a Dr. Seuss word. She looked up the Amazon blurb for Bartholomew and the Oobleck:



"Bartholomew Cubbins serves thanklessly as pageboy to King Derwin of Didd, a headstrong man who's decided he isn't satisfied with mere sun, fog, rain, and snow. ('Humph! The things that come down from my sky!') He wants something else, something uniquely his own, so he calls in his royal magicians ("Shuffle, duffle, muzzle, muff. Fista, wista, mista-cuff. We are men of groans and howls, mystic men who eat boiled owls"). Happy to oblige, the magicians tell the king they can make 'oobleck' fall from the sky, only nobody--not even the magicians--knows just what oobleck is. But after a night of arcane incantations, everyone in the kingdom gets a taste of the stuff (in the case of the Captain of the Guard, literally!), as the green, gluey goo gums up everything in sight. Of course, Bartholomew tries to help, but it's up to the king to save the day, as he learns to utter not magic words but simple words with magic in them: 'I'm sorry.'"



I've never heard of this book before...I had only read The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. My favourite Dr. Seuss book was Horton Hears A Who, mainly because I found the whole idea of a world being within a world being within a world fascinating. Hm. Sounds a lot like an sf plot, doesn't it?


What were your favourite picture books as a child? You can post your answer in Blatherchat.


I add "as a child" because I'm sure if I asked you what your current faves were, you'd all pick my sister's books, right? :-)













Today's Blatherpics:

- Mimi's restaurant, where we had brunch on Sunday.

- Parki, Jeff, Lindsay, and Wendy.

- Part of the window display at Mimi's.


Link of the Day:

Amuse-o-Matic Songs. "Be a depressed, rich songwriter!" Just fill in the blanks, and lyrics are automatically generated. If you have time to waste, it's definitely worth checking out the rest of Amused.com (a.k.a. "Centre For The Easily Amused").


Poll:

Do you keep a personal journal? (either online or offline)

oobleck

Had brunch at Mimi's yesterday with Lindsay, Wendy, Parki, and Jeff. Very good blintzes (what a great word that is..."blintzes").


Visited with Sara and Annie in the afternoon. Jeff showed them a science experiment based on one he saw on the Discovery channel, involving a mixture of cornstarch (lots) and water. The resulting goo takes on unusual properties, tending to solidify when pressure is applied, but going back to being runny when you take the pressure away.


You can thus scoop up a handful of the stuff and squeeze it into a solid ball that melts back into liquid when you open up your hand. Or slap down hard on the surface of the liquid and not have any splash out of the container.





Apparently the stuff is called "oobleck", composed of both a solid and a liquid, and containing properties of both. Most scientists classify this mixture as a non-Newtonian liquid. The uncooked cornstarch particles have both crystalline and non-crystalline structures. When you slowly mix them with water, the non-crystalline bits absorb most of the water (hence resulting in runny goo). When you smack it or otherwise apply quick pressure, you increase the temperature and pressure on the mixture, which causes more non-crystalline structures to form. The non-crystalline bits absorb more water and the mixture becomes more solid.


VERY cool...you all must try this, if you haven't already. Jeff did this twice yesterday, once for Sara and Annie, and once for one of our other nieces, Brittany.


Later in the afternoon, we went to Brittany's birthday party in Alton. Brittany is -very- much into Barbies as evidenced by her gifts, decorations, and cake. The cake was a Barbie in a party dress. Because Barbie's legs are so long, the pastry chef had to remove the doll's legs and just use the torso and head. It was a little gruesome to see the legless Barbie discarded on a plate after cake-cutting. Even Brittany referred to it as "the dead Barbie" later on.









Jeff and I gave Brittany an ant farm (I love being an aunt), a kite, and two books which it turned out she already had. :-( One of her most intriguing gifts was a Dream Baby, from her mom. This doll was sort of like a highly advanced Tamogatchi (remember those cyber-pets?). It starts out acting like a newborn, crying when it's hungry or needs its diaper change, cooing and gurgling when it's happy, making sucking sounds when you stick a bottle in its mouth. Over time, it apparently "learns" to crawl, talk, respond to its name and other stimuli, and eventually walks. To tell you the truth, it kind of gave me the creeps (reminded me too much of certain horror films I've seen in the past!), but it was pretty impressive from a technological toy point of view.


'Twas highly entertaining to see Jeff bent over the doll and its accompanying instructions, brow furrowed as he tried to figure out how to activate it, while Brittany danced around him asking, "Uncle Jeff, can I change its diaper now? Can I give it a bottle? What are you doing?"


Working on my Writer's Digest article today, and packing for our 3-week cottage stay, which starts tomorrow. I'm taking my laptop with me but may not be online as much as I am right now, especially if the weather's nice. :-)









Today's Blatherpic:

- Barbie torso from Brittany's birthday cake.

- Jeff teaching Annie and Sara about non-Newtonian liquids.

- Jeff studying the instructions for Dream Doll.

- Brittany, at her birthday party yesterday.


Link of the Day:

Techno Personality Test. (Post your results in Blatherchat)


Poll:

Did you own a home computer before 1981?