rainbow fish, wood stain and dr. who

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there.

As I've mentioned before, we've been doing a lot of House Stuff lately in preparation for house renovations; we get possession of the house in 19 days (!). Yesterday, for example, Jeff and I went looking at doors and stains and sinks.

At this point, I need to point out that despite my enthusiasm for our new house, I don't tend to be the type of person that gets excited about doors and stains and sinks. In fact, as long as they all work and don't explode on me, I don't care a great deal about what they look like.

This isn't necessarily a desirable trait. If I lived alone, I'm sure my home would be an interior designer's horror nightmare. My focus has always been on practicality rather than design, though I've always preferred bright and cheerful colours rather than elegant pale pastels or the broodingly dark and dramatic.

Trilliums in Luisa's garden.

If I moved into the World's Ugliest Apartment, I would likely notice its ugliness for a few days in a sort of irritated "where did that bruise come from" sort of way. But then it would fade into the background and I'd go on happily living my life, only remember my ugly surroundings by the shocked and horrified looks of friends when they came to visit.

If any of you come visit our new house, you will likely notice that my basement office does not match the rest of the house in style, colours or pretty much any other aspect other than the coincidence of location. Jeff and I have a deal that I can "design" my office pretty much any way I'd like without worrying about how it fits with the rest of the house. It's one of the reasons I opted for the basement office rather than a much prettier and sunnier upstairs office.

I'm SO looking forward to being able to go down into my little cave and closing the door, shutting out the rest of the world while I work on my secret plans to take over the universe. (insert maniacal cackle here)

In addition to doing housestuff, yesterday involved seeing friends we haven't had a chance to hang out with in a while. Jeff and I had brunch with our friends Alison and Jeff at Chai, a wonderful little Asian restaurant in what will be our new neighbourhood, and afterward we went across the street to browse the Sleuth of Baker Street (mystery book store) and get some Mate-Chino (my current tea fave) from the Tea Emporium.

Reid and his stepson Michael.

After a visit to Home Depot, we went to visit Reid and Luisa in Scarborough. I lusted over Luisa's garden while Jeff tested different stain colours of one of the kitchen cupboard doors from our new house; the owner was kind enough to let Jeff take one even though the house isn't officially ours yet.

In the evening at Reid's and Luisa's, we watched a recorded penultimate episode of Enterprise as well an episode of the new Dr. Who series everyone's been talking about. I had never watched the old series, and hadn't seen any of the new series; I quite liked the episode I saw, which was called "Daleks." I had to ask Reid what the Daleks were as well as what the deal was with the telephone booth. Really liked Christopher Eccleston as Dr. Who, whom I recognized as the deliciously evil Duke of Norfolk in Elizabeth. A pity he's not staying with the show.

Thanks for the advice on how to check out the IP address of an anonymous poster! (n particular: 209.60.102.107) I'm going to summarize all the useful info into an upcoming Blathering entry. If you have additional ideas, please feel free to post them in LJ or Blatherchat.

I'm very happy with Backpack so far (see my review in Blatherings) and have started using my main page as my "Today's Tasks and Projects" list. Any longer term items get spun off into satellite pages. Here's a Backpack Forum message I posted about how I currently organize my Pages, for those interested.

I'm starting to post some of my favourite photos in Inkygirl in addition to cartoons and doodles, by the way. I figure the top-right section is basically going to be my image playground, with the image being linked to its source in my Flickr photo collection. Cool to see Inkygirl visits quadrupling since I began updating again in March.

Hope you're all having a great weekend! I'm doing some more writing today but plan to take off part of the afternoon to go for a walk along the lake, or perhaps up in our new neighbourhood.

Jeff testing different wood stains yesterday on Reid's and Luisa's back deck.

May 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

Writing, Inkygirl, my famous sister

For those that missed my post on the weekend, ice-out has officially been called for last Thursday. Jeff has updated the Ice-out page.

I was amused by the photo above, which Steve Brinich took while walking through his neighbourhood. I checked out their Web site, but it looks like OHI is an acronym rather than a last name. Darn, thought I found a new relative. :-)

Knowing that housestuff (we get possession in 26 days!) is likely going to be cutting into my writing time, I've been focussing on fiction writing lately, with a goal of getting Puck's Hollow finished and sent off to my agent. This is the novel I wrote for Nanowrimo a couple of years ago before my tendinitis hit, and I liked it enough to want to edit/polish it for publication. With the various setbacks I've encountered since (including a sprained elbow and a detached retina), it's been a bit of a struggle and it's sometimes been hard to stay positive throughout. Viavoice was fine for nonfiction, but agonizing for fiction writing.

BUT things are getting better, and continue to improve.



My article in the current issue of Country Connections magazine.


Now that my tendinitis has improved enough so I can do solid stints of writing at a time, I'm VERY keen to get this book finished so I can start/finish editing other fiction projects. I carry my laptop around and work whenever and wherever I can; I take soundproof headphones with me to block out whatever chaos is going on. I set my computer alarm to force me to take arm breaks every 30 minutes. I've been spending much time offline, and (as some of you have already become aware, I know) my personal e-mail and blog-reading have fallen behind. Thanks for your patience.

I still comb the freelance writing job boards for opportunities and update Inkygirl when I do. If any of you have writer-type friends, please do tell them about Inkygirl; I've only recently started to update regularly. Inkygirl is a weblog for writers who work from home, and I post telecommuting jobs for writers, resources, writing-related editorial, cartoons and Painter experiments (the latter is part of my ongoing prep for illustration work).



By the way, Joy Kogawa's Naomi's Road has been rereleased with a brand-new cover and interior illustrations...by my sister! From Amazon.ca's reviews: "Based on her award-winning adult novel, Obasan, Joy Kogawa's Naomi's Road takes younger readers on a remarkable journey into the life and times of six-year-old Naomi Nakane as she grows up in the shadow of one of the darkest moments in Canadian history."

While you're ordering Joy's book, of course, you should also buy a copy of Ruth's new book, Me and My Sister, which is only $5.95 on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.

Ruth just got back from her book tour in Ottawa and is getting interviewed by YTV as I post this Blathering, by the way. I believe she'll be appearing on a show called This is Daniel Cook. I'll post more airing schedule info when I know more.

May 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

spring, woohoo!

(Update: There is a good chance that the ice-out article might run in Saturday's issue of The Toronto Star.)

Echoing what Becca Allen said in a recent LJ post: I love spring!

Ok, so autumn is still my favourite season. But spring is SO appealing after what seems like an eternally long Toronto winter. I swear, I was about ready to strangle myself with my own mitten strings. Now that better weather has arrived, I've been doing a lot more power walking and regular walking outside, plan to start running again now that my cold is finally gone. Jeff and I opted to walk home from the Home Show last weekend instead of driving or taking the TTC; it took us about an hour and a half. Felt great, and the walk by the lake was pretty; we also checked out the Toronto Music Garden.

Love this time of year, when it feels like the city is waking up: stretching its winter-tired muscles, shaking off the gray slush, taking a deep breath of fresh air. The joggers and rollerbladers are out on the Martin Goodman Trail; there's an extra spring to everyone's step, and smiles come more easily. Yay for spring!

With my dad-in-law at ice-out several years ago. Note the floating ice still on the lake!

It's been over three months since Jeff and I gave up cable tv. I miss it less and less as time goes on, and we're now considering continuing our tv-lessness when we move into our new house. We may eventually switch back, but for now it's a good experiment. We still watch some tv shows, but only after an entire season has come out on DVD; we may miss out on the excitement of first airings, but this way we have more flexibility over when we watch and how we watch.

I'm filling up tv time with other stuff instead, like reading and walking outside and writing studying German and drawing as well as playing and writing music. There always seems to be so many interesting things to do and too little time. Even if/when we do switch back to cable, this whole experience has taught me a lot about time management and being more active instead of passive; I'll be much more aware of when I switch on the television.

I think that sometimes it was too easy to use it as a mental pacifier ("I'm too tired to do anything else; I'd rather watch this show I don't actually enjoy because I can't be bothered to do anything else..."). I think watching too much TV encourages us to get used to being entertained while we just passively sit there, rather than going out seeking or creating our own entertainment. Down with passivity, I say! Life is too short.

Jeff on ice.

Had a fun whistle lesson last night, and spent part of it transcribing "Paige's Polka," a new tune that Dave Clement taught me at FilKONtario, which he learned from Al Thomson. Karen quite likes it and has encouraged me to teach it to the Tranzac session people, so I think I will! I would get a huge kick out hearing the tune start to be played in Toronto. Karen's going to photocopy the transcription; when she does, I'll post it to Flickr so others can learn it as well.

A reporter from the Toronto Star e-mailed yesterday to ask if he could interview Jeff and me about our ice-out ritual; I directed him to Jeff since he's the Ice-Out King, but also pointed him to my Blathering on the topic. When/if the article appears, I'll let you know.

Speaking of fame, Ruth got interviewed by YTV! I'll post details about airing schedule when I know them. Ruth's new picture book, "Me and My Sister" was favourably reviewed by the Globe & Mail recently, and she was interviewed by the CBC when she was doing her book tour in Alberta a couple weeks back. My sister is so cool.



I'm getting much more writing done lately than usual, for several reasons:

(1) We're not househunting or packing or unpacking or moving. Yet.

(2) My tendinitis is much improved.

(3) I'm spending more time offline. I started doing this because of the noisy construction upstairs but y'know, it's good for my productivity. I'm doing my writing during non-meals hours in a nearby hotel lounge with tables and power outlets. I order an herbal tea, pay for it right away, and then the staff leave me alone. My noise reduction headphones block out the irritating muzak. So...I may be behind on LJ and general e-mail, but I'm getting a lot of writing done. Sending out more queries, too.



Eek, apologies for the longish and rather rambling Blather. This will likely be my last post until next week, since I'll either be at Eeriecon or at the cottage for ice-out on the weekend; apparently the ice on Canoe Lake is turning black, which is one of the early signs. Only a week left until Walter and I go see the Lord of the Rings One-Man Show! And only 37 days until we get possession of our house. Turns out I miscalculated before, so have adjusted the countdown...I'm telling you because I KNOW you care.

Have a great weekend, everyone. :-)

p.s. The two sketches on the third page of my handwritten Blathering yesterday were indeed of John Hall and Becca Allen. I was honestly shocked that any of you recognized them. BUT it's a start, and I hope to gradually improve in my reference photo drawings.

April 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

spring, LOTR one-man show, letter from Clark

Corel Painter 8 experiment. Played around with the digital watercolour brushes for the first time. (have only experimented with the regular Painter watercolour brushes before)

Geez, it's supposed to go up to 27 degrees Celsius in Toronto today, breaking the record set in 1976. Jeff was kind enough to get out some of my summer clothes from the storage locker, so I'm no longer stuck with my winter stuff, yay! I'm a huge fan of peasant skirts, and wear them as much as possible during warm weather.

I suppose I'm not a typical woman in that I don't wear make-up and don't enjoy clothes shopping, but I do have a weakness for peasant skirts. They're comfortable, inexpensive, and I like how the cloth feels swishing around my legs when I walk.

Toronto's winter has seemed waaaay too long this year.

HEY, I got tickets to the Lord of the Rings One-Man Show for next Thursday! My friend Walter ("Lord Korak" in Blatherchat) has kindly agreed to go with me. I'm really looking forward to seeing this. Jeff and I are already planning to take Sara and Annie to the Lord of the Rings musical next year. The fact that Jeff is voluntarily going to see a musical (a musical of Lord of the Rings, no less) is further proof of how much he loves his nieces.

More good news: Flickr is rewarding its Beta customers as well as improving its Free and Pro packages. Which means I get my subscription extended to TWO years instead of one year (those who paid for a 2 year Pro account get 4 years) as well as two Pro accounts to give away. In addition, but all free and Pro accounts get their upload limits doubled, which means free accounts get 200 MB a month, Pro accounts get 2 GB.

Good move on Flickr's part, showing Flickr users that Yahoo's acquisition of their company is a good thing by ponying up tangible rewards right away instead of making vague promises of future goodness that never pan out. Kudos to both Flickr and Yahoo; if only other acquisitions were handled as gracefully.

And finally, a posted LJ message from Clark Wierda (who is in Kuwait right now) about the surprise package that Margaret put together for him at FKO.

"It took about two weeks, but I received the package Margaret sent.

Nobody tipped that there was anything in the works when I called. If I try to thank everybody, I am sure to miss someone. To all who signed the card, thanks. To UT, thanks as well for the customized card. I was looking for your names on the first card and they were conspicuous by their absence. All was clear once I opened the next card. I claimed first review of the goodies. The rest were well received and disappeared over the next 24 hours. Kathy and Bear, your items were perfect each in their own way.

I'm not a writer, so I have not the skill to express how I felt as I was going through the package. The only way I have is thus: You guys totally blew me away.

Thanks!!!"

35 days until we get possession of our new house. We're meeting with our contractors this afternoon.

April 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments

tubs and taps

Today's photos are from visits to various tubs, taps, and rug stores yesterday with Jeff and Ginny in preparation for our upcoming renovations in our New House (possession in 39 days!). Our planned renovations include:

(1) Adding a wall to the bedroom. At present, none of the rooms above the basement currently have doors except for the bathrooms; the current owner did this to open up the house, let in more light and space. We love the result, but before we bought the house, I insisted that we agree to get a door for the bedroom for privacy but mainly for my own sanity: I tend to get up earlier than Jeff and want to be able to use the rest of the house (have breakfast, shower, etc.) without waking him up.

(2) Revamping the master bathroom. The room is quite small, with a bathtub and no stand-up shower. We're going to be replacing pretty much everything, including the bathtub and vanity, replacing the tiles and wallpaper, adding a shower.



(3) Finishing my half of the basement so I can use it as a home office. Right now the room has a concrete floor and is not insulated for regular use; it was pretty cold when we've visited, and the cold floor chilled my feet even when I had slippers on the second visit.

We'll also be doing other renovationstuff like replacing the carpet, but the changes above are the major ones.

Anyway, now we're starting to choose bathroom stuff and carpetstuff. My mom-in-law used to be an interior designer, so was a huge help in taking us to places that specialize in the kind of things we need. But wow, what an overwhelming amount of choice. I've never seen so many different types of taps in one place, for example. And holy cow, some of the showers we saw were huge elaborate things, with all kinds of nozzles and buttons and settings. Jacuzzi tubs the size of small swimming pools. Crystal basins that looked like they'd be more at home in an art gallery than a bathroom. Computerized toilets. Taps that cost the same as a new iMac.



The photo at the top of the page is of me trying out a tub for size. I'm a HUGE fan of baths, as you may have noticed from past Blatherings. One of my favourite relaxation activities is soaking in a very deep tub with a dog-eared comfort book. Sometimes I'll pass on the book and just light candles, turn off the lights, float into blissland. Anyway, I did a lot of climbing in and out of tubs yesterday.

For me, the perfect tub needs to:

a) Be deep enough for a truly satisfying soak. I hate the tubs in most hotels because they're way too shallow. They also don't tend to have good enough lighting for reading, but I digress.

b) Have a comfortable back slope to lean against. Too vertical, and you end up sitting instead of leaning...a problem with some older tubs, and some claw tubs.

Everyone goes ga-ga over jacuzzi-style tubs, but we had one at our old place and I rarely used the jacuzzi feature. Too noisy and too much of a hassle for me. They also add about $1000 to the cost of a tub, so we opted for a non-jacuzzi style.



Eventually, Jeff and I hope to put in a Japanese style tub as well as a small sauna in the basement, but that will probably have to wait a while.

The photo at the bottom of the page is of the rug I think I've decided on for my home office. I wanted a relatively inexpensive but good quality carpet that was fairly hardy and with interesting colours or texture.

Thanks for all the feedback to my Mainstream chic post, in both private e-mail and public message board. One private e-mail reminded me of something else that drives me nuts: the tendency of some people to like a song UNTIL they hear it played on a popular radio station.

Anyway, here's a selection from the public postings:

Bill S.:

"You know, in the same way that just because lots of people like something it isn't necessarily GREAT, just because lots of people like something it isn't necessarily crap.

My taste is my taste, and my choices are my choices.

Of course, coming from someone who publicly admits to liking "Chevy Van" by Sammy Johns, this probably means nothing *grin*"



Annie W.:

"Mike Whitaker once threatened to make a small run of T-shirts which read something like:

"Monogamous, married, straight, vanilla christian. Dare to be different!"

I want one.

I liked 'Twister'. Enough to buy the DVD and quote great lumps of dialogue. I loved "The Da Vinci Code" too.

I remember someone once saying that they couldn't believe I was "buying into the whole 'dress girls in pink' thing". Why not? My daughter looks cute in pink!

Guess I'm mainstream too. And I like vanilla icecream the best ;-) "

From Andy:

"Re: schlock
On the one hand, as far as I am concerned, feel free to watch whatever crap you like. I enjoy watching steaming rubbish as much as anyone else. Whenever Total Recall is on TV, I always watch it, so I know schlock. However...

I have two arguments against it.

First; if all you ever get is schlock, if all you ever read is lowbrow crap, then your brain will atrophy and you will become a boring person with no deeper thoughts that "That's funny! Adam Sandler said 'poop'!". Fortunately, you have Jeff, who has pretty decent taste in things, and frequent contact with parki, whose taste is nearly as excellent as mine, so even if you wanted to live a life of pure schlock, you'd get some culture by osmosis.

Second: Movies are a business. If the people who make movies see that Charlie's Angels 2 makes a pile of money, and Eternal Sunshine doesn't, guess what kind of movies *I* will be stuck with next year? Yeah, Charlie's Angels 3. I'm the one who suffers because you like crap.

The solution? Watch it on TV, or steal crap on the internet, and spend your money on things that *I* want. Pretty good plan, eh?"

From Allison:

"It's kind of like being a "Lost" fan right now. In your heart of hearts you know there are thousands of people like you planning their lives around Wednesday at 8 p.m. but to read LJ you'd feel you're the worst kind of mainstream hack for liking the show :). Hee, I'll keep watching it, anyway.

And while I won't listen to one movie critic, I will listen to a bunch. If fifty movie critics are saying a movie is terrible (say at "Rotten Tomatoes"), odds are -really- good a movie is terrible :). Just like if those same fifty critics like a movie I might not have considered, I may just give it a chance. Once I'm there, though, I'll make up my own mind."

From chirosinger:

"Hey, I like ABBA and Titanic too. I even listen to Neil Diamond and the Carpenters! I think mainstream is just fine. But hey, we're musicians which puts us out on the edge of something, right?"

Rug for my new office!

From Lady Turpentine:

"I've said this many times: I like what I like and make no apologies! Yes, I like Hall & Oates, Goo Goo Dolls, Gin Blossoms, Kiss and Bon Jovi! And so what if I like chick lit and big, trashy novels? If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad (yes, I like Sheryl Crow, too!)."

From Erin:

"Debbie, the movie you were referring to was "13 Going on 30," which I have not only seen but own on DVD!

Like Lady Turpentine, I also unabashedly love the Goos and Bon Jovi...hey, sometimes you just need a hot front man and catchy tunes. ;)

And ABBA is great, too. Loved Mamma Mia! Heehee... "

From singlemaltsilk:

"Hey, I liked the first CA movie too, and I can't tell you how many times I've watched "Miss Congeniality" ;)

And vanilla? Allow me to quote my response to a friend who, at the time, was bemoaning her vanillitude:

"Vanilla (which comes from an orchid and is considered to be an aphrodisiac) is one of the most expensive pure spices in the world, second only to saffron. Every chocolate recipe I have that's worth a damn includes a healthy shot of vanilla, but I have plenty of vanilla recipes that stand alone without the aid of chocolate."

See? The mainstream is the rootstock of the alternative. Without us, they're just so much tinder. Neener neener neener. ;)"

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