I ran 5K today

Interrobang?! Jonathan Adler!

My new(ish) job is located close to The Artworks, a very cool store located in downtown Edmonton. When my one friend at work is busy at lunch time, I sometimes wander over there to check out their very hip, sometimes expensive jewelery, cards, flowers and decor items. A past trip there resulted in the impulse acquisition of a Jonathan Adler mug.


As time passes, my feelings for this mug are only increasing. To the point where I have considered naming the sweet girl and boy faces that grace its opposite sides, and where I felt the least I could do was introduce them to you all. Pictured on the left is Mabel, on the right is Frederick, and in the middle, is the mug sitting on a chair that Joel recently purchased at one of my favourite haunts, the good ol' VV. The chair, which is modeled after a "Tulip" chair by a designer, would be worth over $1,000 if it was brand name. But brand name chairs are a whole separate blog post.

So I will leave you with the question: do you know what the INTERROBANG is? I thought it was a grammatical myth until Nate pointed me towards its Wikipedia entry, which of course proved to me that it was very, very real. Check it out HERE. While I have a real distaste for the "?!", I feel I could, with time, come to love the interrobang.

One step forward, one step back.

This week has been saturated with municipality.

Our own dear Edmonton announced earlier in the week that it was thinking of delaying the opening of the south LRT stations to save themselves a measly $4 or 5 million bucks. My exemplary boyfriend decided to respond to the call of civic duty and write a little letter to the city outlining some of his thoughts on the matter. It was a good letter. I hoped that someone would take notice.

So, it was with this news in mind that I went over to my parents' house for dinner the next night. When I got there, I noticed a rather large set of wicked-witch-of-the-west legs sans the ruby slippers being featured on the front page of the journal. As I picked it up to read the story, my mom filled me in on what she thought was a ridiculous and terrible thing that was going to happen at the new Southgate LRT station. This ridiculous and terrible thing was, in fact, the city's awesome 1% to public art policy gone awfully wrong: a set of GIANT feet and legs set next to the new LRT station.


She was practically livid, which set me laughing pretty hard and telling her that it wasn't so bad because they could use them as a sort of landmark. "Hang a larry at the first intersection after the big legs and follow it around to Malmo Road..."

Her livid-ness (lividity?) drove her to write a missive to the mayor, which was then published in the Journal this week!

More than anything, I was awestruck by the decision to construct giant legs lopped off at the knees at Southgate LRT stop, and it got me thinking about public art. I was trying to think of what I would actually like them to put in that spot.

The first thing that came to mind was Chicago's Cloud Gate, which is beautiful and incredible and really considers the space around it. Google image search it. It is amazing. But I don't know if an LRT stop at Southgate merits such an awesome piece.

I think what irks me is that when I think about the big legs and clogs they are going to put in as public art, I feel fairly certain that they came to the decision via the following dialogue.

Person #1: Hey, we need to get some public art
Person #2: Right, I forgot about that whole 1% thing
Person #3: Hmmm, well, let's just get something really big
Person #1: Okay, like what?
Person #3: Doesn't matter, just make sure it's big
Person #2: Hey, do you guys want to come over tonight and watch "The Wizard of Oz"?

That's my prediction on how they came up with it.

Oh, Edmonton.

The good news is that Joel got a response from a city councillor who says he doesn't think they are going to delay them after all. One step forward, into a future filled with mosaic-tiled clog feet and striped stockings.

A Vicious Act

Joel's labmate Janet made him a big foam fish out of upholstery foam as a gift. He plans to hang it above his desk in the lab. It's all complete, except that Janet didn't have time to get eyes for the fish, so Joel said that he would take care of it. This is what led he and I to drag our sorry strep-throat butts out of bed on Sunday and down to Michael's at South Edmonton Common to buy some eyes.

After much searching, all we could find were googly eyes. We scoured the creepy doll-making aisle, with all of its iron on faces and bags of curly hair, but to no avail. As we were getting ready to give up, I came up with the brilliant plan of going to Value Village and buying a stuffed animal to harvest the eyes from. Joel reluctantly agreed and we headed to the nearest VV. The foam fish is actually huge, so we needed some pretty big eyes to complete it. The only stuffed animal we could find with the right kind of eyes that were big enough was a soft, plushy hippopotamus with a hippo baby clinging to its side.



Joel absolutely could not bear the thought of viciously tearing the eyes out of a momma hippo, so I volunteered, on the condition that I would blog about it and force him to look at the pictures.


I was quite surprised about how bad I actually felt when I started the operation. I mean, it was just a stuffed animal, but the eyes looking at me were so disturbing.

It didn't help much that the intact baby was looking at me with imploring, beady little eyes as it clung to its mother's side.

The result of the operation is below. Further cleanup to follow, and perhaps a picture of the completed foam fish.
Conclusion: eye removal from stuffed animals is not for the faint of heart.

Can anyone guess where I went on vacation?

Keeping them on probation

Well, folks, it's been 16 days since my last post, as Natasha so kindly pointed out. I guess it's not so fun to blog when things are kind of crappy. It hasn't been my best few weeks, but there have been good times through it all. In short, the verdict is still out on the new job. I don't want to say a whole lot more because:

1) I have probably complained to you personally about it already,
2) I want to try to keep a good attitude, and
3) I don't want to be one of those people who gets fired over what they post on their blog. Or maybe I do, because the one I am thinking of actually became a famous blogger as a result. Anyone read Dooce?

On a more fun note, my lovely friend and former roommate Lisa was in town for the weekend, and it was a weekend filled with, well, girls. In the best way. We went for breakfast at the Sugarbowl, talked for hours, saw the Sex and the City movie again, snuck ridiculous amounts of food into the movie with us (including Megan's Heineken complete with a swirly straw), learned the meaning of some raunchy urban expressions from Lisa, played rock band, and drank tea with Tim Tams.

I have also been talking lots with Marney over lunches at work about her upcoming wedding, which has been lots of fun. And I get to make buttons for it, which is so exciting! I will post some of them on here when they are finished.

I am about to go clean out the third bedroom in preparation for the lovely Jamie to move in this weekend! But before I do, I would like to leave you with this lovely image courtesy of Natasha:

Dream House, Almost

Design*Sponge is my favourite blog (other than ones that my friendly friends write). And my most-visited website, after email and google and fb and such. I like the internet, but I am not as 'good' at it as mr. jk is. I run out of websites to check really fast, or just can't find ones that keep my interest. However, D*S definitely delivers on that point.

Every week the blog does a sneak peek of a different house or apartment or studio space and while there are usually random things in each sneak peek that I like they aren't usually exactly my tastes. Of course, that is not that surprising since we are all different people (r. dieter original), but today, someone who is not me came up with something alarmingly close to my ideal.

Photo borrowed from www.designspongeonline.com

More photos of my almost dream home can be found right here. I love the farmhouse charm and that it achieves it without being too kitschy. Of course there are a few things I would do a bit different, but not many, actually.

Three more cheers for D*S, and a touch of jealousy that I am not a design blogger.

Likes, Dislikes

Likes: Riding my bike and eating a fudgescicle at the same time.

Dislikes: Starting new jobs.

It's not that it's bad, it's just new, and disorganized, and I miss my old friends down on 124th Street. Also I have to dress nicer.

I always go through this when I start a new job, so stay tuned for a cheerier update in the coming weeks.

What to do with free time

Fact: I seem to have some extra time on my hands for the next two weeks. I can't express via blog how excited I am about this fact, but, as a start, here are some of the things I have done since Friday afternoon.

1. Went out for 50% off martinis at Vintage Lounge on 124 Street. Proceeded to drink three martinis in less than one hour. Er, had a good time. Then went for dinner and continued to have a good time.
2. Got caught in two rainstorms: one alone, and one with a friend. Both enjoyable.
3. Had an amazing waffle brunch followed by a blood donation that was completed in record time (5 minutes flat)!
4. Got a haircut. A substantial haircut.
5. Booked flights to Halifax for September. Holla!
6. Went to the artery to see Illfit Outfit and D.B. Buxton Revue play shows. But mostly to see Jenni play the drums. Pop Pop Pop!
   
7. Saw the "Body Worlds" exhibit and followed it up with a hearty brunch (Joel: "The muscles look like beef jerky...I'm getting really hungry.")
8. Yardwork, visited brother, visited newphew and sister in law, visited parents, cleaned house, called sister, called Lisa DeMoor, visited with Kerry, watched lots and lots of Sex and the City online.
9. Got my very own library card and used it to check out books on eastern Canada.
10. Did some sewing.
11. Bought some drinking glasses that I definitely don't need, but that were begging me to buy them. You will understand if you see them.
    

Background to fact: The reason I have extra time on my hands is that I GOT A NEW JOB!

Explanation: Up until this past month, I had only ever dreamed that I could get someone else to look for a job on my behalf, but approximately three weeks ago, that dream became a reality. I contacted a staffing agency that my friend Marney had recently found a good job through. I thought it was at least worth a shot, so I sent my resume and an email explaining what I was doing in my current job and the type of job that I was hoping to find. I said I wanted something more creative and that would be based in some sort of communications field.

The woman in charge of permanent and executive placements responded right away with a job that she thought I might be interested in. Fast forward through the usual job interview angst and the existential crises that tend to go along with them, toss in a few new outfits for good measure, and the outcome is a brand new job.

There is no way that I would have been offered an interview for this position if I had applied through the ad in the Journal or something, but since I had her to vouch for me, they invited me for an interview. Apparently the other candidates they we talking to had extensive communications/PR experience and/or schooling. But I guess I was able to convince them that my experiences fit together in a way that would work for this type of job because I was offered a position as a Public Relations Coordinator. It looks challenging and, even better, really fun. It's in the communications department, and will involve lots of writing, editing, media relations, advertising coordination, conference materials publishing, and other fun things. Aside from being an awesome job, it has some definite perks including kickass vacation time, among other desireables.

So, these past two weeks have been a real flurry of wrapping things up at my current job. It hasn't really hit me that I won't be going back there. My excitement kind of just pushed me through the last two weeks, but when I slow down a little, I feel a bit sad about leaving the friends I made at Komex. I don't think I'm just being dramatic when I say that I'm not sure I will ever have work friends quite like the ones I met there. Part of me is glad that it took me so long to find the right job because it gave those friendships more time to solidify. I will miss our daily chats dearly.

So, that's me. And now I have two weeks between jobs. Yahoo!

Nutritional Yoga

For the past 10 days, I have been doing a voluntary herbal detox. My detox of choice is the "Wild Rose Herbal D-tox". I had a few different reasons for doing it...

I usually eat what I want to eat, and just try to be healthy about it. This has worked well for me so far, but I have always wished that I would be more intentional about cooking for myself from scratch and had noticed a building trend towards convenience food in recent months. More granola bars for breakfast, going out for dinner, and that sort of thing. So when my friend Rebecca decided it was time to do "the cleanse", I decided to join her.

Basically, the cleanse entails cutting out all dairy, sugar, flours, tropical or dried fruits, reducing meat intake, and some other stuff. Mostly just eat lots of veggies and brown rice. Also you have to take herbs and tinctures twice a day. I felt like a total hypochondriac popping six pills before breakfast and dinner every day, but have gotten over it, and have improved my pill-swallowing technique in the process. I used to try to drop it into the back of my mouth to minimize yucky tastes, but realized the other day that if you let your tongue deal with the task of moving it to the back of your throat, then it takes care of orienting it properly to your esophagus and all that. Fascinating, the way our bodies work.

So anyways, I went on the cleanse without doing too much pre-planning, but it has been easier than I anticipated. Making cleanse-friendly meals takes a little bit more planning, but ended up being a really good exercise in eating better for me. I have been cooking lots of fish, eating things without dousing them in sauce, and have kicked the habit of eating something for dessert most nights (for now, we will see if that lasts).

I guess it has taught me that a lot of my food choices are out of habit or laziness, and not even because of strong cravings. I've hardly craved anything throughout. I think that knowing it wasn't an option made it a lot easier for me to say no. Especially since I knew there would be an end in sight.

Some favourites of the cleanse:

Basa filets cooked in lemon juice and butter with orange slices and chives
Apple and avocado salad with almonds and lemon-oil dressing
Chicken cooked with herbs de provence
Brown rice stir fried with beef and peppers and an egg. Tastes better than it sounds.
Bean salad (chickpeas, kidney beans, etc., combined with apples, corn, and whatever else)
Almond butter
Soy milk
Cherries (dessert substitute)

I think being able to eat meat has been a real key to my success. I have been eating tons of fish and quite a bit of chicken for dinners. I might have felt pretty hungry otherwise I think. Although they recommend not eating meat for more than 20% of your diet.

All in all, I would recommend the cleanse. I don't feel physically transformed, but I do feel more aware of what I am putting into my body. It's kind of like nutritional yoga. Awareness is hugely important in the process of making better choices, I think. Also, I just said "nutritional yoga". Eww.

Gardening is Lovely

Last spring, I planted a garden. Other than a small space at the side of my childhood backyard where I used to plant snap dragons and dusty millers around a flat rock that I had carefully placed in the centre, and a fairy garden that I once meticulously planted in a plastic tray, it was my first solo attempt at gardening.

This spring, while I was planning out my next garden, I realized that in one year I learned some practical lessons about planting a garden.

1) Plant tomatoes that will yield at different times of the season so that you don't end up with hundreds of them all at once. Sitting in a box. On your kitchen floor.

2) Start your squash early, or when the frost comes, your squash will only be the size of a walnut.

3) One person can not eat the fruits of two rows of green beans, and not everybody loves green beans as much as I do.

4) Growing onions is satisfying and easy.

5) Staggering your planting is a smart thing to do. Very smart.

I never thought of starting a garden as a tribute to my heritage of farming and loving the land. It wasn't that poetic in my head. It was more driven by the sense of well-being that I get when I take the time to slow down and help things grow. I grew up with gardening parents, and a granny with a glorious flower and vegetable garden and a cold room filled with canned goods. At my granny's funeral this spring, my sister reminded me of the way that she gardened. We both have images in our minds of our granny bent over at the waist at the age of eighty, weeding, harvesting, or just appreciating her garden.

The two summers I spent working on an organic vegetable farm were two of the most lovely summers I have experienced. Few experiences have made me feel more 'present' to my life than that. Being part of the sowing, weeding, watering, harvesting, packaging, and selling of the vegetables tuned me in to the process of market gardening which, in turn, tuned me in a little more to a process that was a way of life for my parents and grandparents.

Even if my garden isn't intentionally poetic, there is an underlying romantic gesture in the act of gardening. I found this poem via Elisabeth, who I met in Switzerland. Elisabeth was a girl who brought a suitcase full of books with her on her voyage to Europe because she needed them with her just that much. She showed me Louise Gluck's book of poems, "The Wild Iris", and let me borrow it. I love Louise Gluck's poetry, especially this poem.

The Garden (Louise Gluck)

I couldn’t do it again,
I can hardly bear to look at it—

in the garden, in light rain
the young couple planting
a row of peas, as though
no one has ever done this before,
the great difficulties have never as yet
been faced and solved—

They cannot see themselves,
in fresh dirt, starting up
without perspective,
the hills behind them pale green,
clouded with flowers—

She wants to stop;
he wants to get to the end,
to stay with the thing—

Look at her, touching his cheek
to make a truce, her fingers
cool with spring rain;
in thin grass, bursts of purple crocus—

even here, even at the beginning of love,
her hand leaving his face makes
an image of departure

and they think
they are free to overlook
this sadness.


So, my own garden may not be all that poetic, but there is something lovely about participating in the process. There you have it. My conclusion: gardening is lovely.

Here are some photos of my soon to be lovely garden in its early stages this spring:

To tide you over

To do:

1) watch the whole world with glittering eyes
2) blog more
3) eat more veggies

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places."

— Roald Dahl

Chinese Trains-lation

Life has been busy!

Last week, my sister and I spent the day with my cousin Aaron, who was here from Toronto for my Granny's funeral. Kaeli, Joel and I took him on the LRT with us to go vote for Natasha's Vue Box at the art gallery. We talked a lot about the train systems in Edmonton and Toronto (and San Francisco!) as we rode the friendly rails of Edmonton's Transit System.

When I got home, I had an email from my long lost friend Abby with a link to a video of a train in China. It is insane. When I was in grade 7 social studies, I remember learning about the special "pushers" on the trains who wear white gloves, but I never could quite imagine it. Until I saw this. Incredible.

On another only marginally-related note, the song "Chinese Translation" by M. Ward is pretty much awesome and you should listen to it. In fact, I really like the whole album. I put it on while I was hanging out at Joel's house last week while Kevin D. was giving him landscape architecture insights (very helpful and impressive insights, I might add). Since then I have been itching to buy it for myself.

In retrospect, this post didn't really address the fact that life has been busy, so I guess you will just have to take my word for it.

Love Much.

Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it.
— Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"You two just keep celebratin' your friendship"

For most of the past week, I was in San Francisco with Joel.


On the way there, I read "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd on the plane, and on the way home I read "Grace (Eventually)" by Anne Lamott. It felt great to just sit and read for hours on end. Both books were lovely by the way. Perfect for travel reading. It takes a certain kind of book I think to be a good travel companion. There has to be a certain lightness about it that can keep you interested and distracted even while you have to pee and the old lady next to you is sleeping and won't let you out. Both of these books had that without being flaky. And yes, I did have to pee and the old lady next to me was sleeping.

Other than the flights there and back being literarily satisfying, the city itself was also pretty great. Cable cars, seafood, oceans, bridges, croissants, museums, and shopping make San Francisco a very fun city to hang out in. We had some great seafood at Fisherman's Wharf and wicked sushi, and they had a sourdough bread bakery that would blow your mind even if you didn't like sourdough. We bought cable car / bus / train passes to get around with and walked a ton every day, which was extremely satisfying. It felt so good to be outside in the sunshine walking around instead of sitting on my ass. We tired ourselves out so much walking around the first day that we accidentally fell asleep at 9 p.m. and slept through to the next day. I think we made up for it by packing our days full though.

For all you who are wondering: I did not visit the Full House house. Although apparently it actually is in San Francisco. We did watch the Full House opening credits on youtube.com though. And Uncle Jesse's music video "Forever", which was not as good as I remembered. Wait a minute, I just watched it again when I inserted the link, and I take that back. It's incredible.

It was really windy almost the whole time we were there, especially when we went to the Golden Gate Bridge. As a great American city, I would rate San Francisco as a winner.

Along with all of the cool stuff in the city, we visited some sweet stores and eating establishments including:

• Tartine
• The Curiosity Shoppe
• Anthropologie
• Chez Panisse

Sweet Moon Language In Her Eyes

"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry."
- E.B. White

I spent today in an absolute frenzy of cleaning and organizing and project-ing. I have become a bit of a busy-body when I am at home these days. I haven't thought about it too much, but I think it's safe to say that my subconcious unanimously agrees that it is because I spend most of my day doing things that certainly do not bring me joy. So when I get home I go into a frenzy of doing things that I like to do: painting stuff, dreaming up projects, calling my sister, doing laundry and other HOME things, and reading.

I like my weekends and weeknights, and I love my friends at work, but hating my 9 to 5 tasks really blows, and is slowly chipping away at my sense of well-being. I think I need to find a better way to spend my weekdays.

Anyways, when I sat down at 2:45 to eat some soup and biscuits for lunch on this ridiculous day (it's April 19th and is snowing like crazy. Last weekend I was reading a book on the back porch with a t-shirt on) I picked up a book of poetry by Hafiz that my roommate had left open on the kitchen table. The poem it was open to was fantastic. Hafiz has a way of writing with a mystical touch and yet also making you feel like he is giving some directed, wise, brilliant advice and insight to you after you spent the afternoon together working in your garden and talking about life.

As I decided that this poem was worthy of being blogged about and shared I realized that Bri had probably already blogged it since she was blogging while she was at the kitchen table last night. So I checked her blog and there it was, but I figured she wouldn't mind.

With That Moon Language

Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, "Love me."
Of course you do not do this out loud,
otherwise someone would call the cops.

Still, though,
think about this,
this great pull in us to connect.

Why not become the one who lives with a full moon in each eye
that is always saying,
with that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in this world
is dying to hear?

- Hafiz

Having sweet moon language in your eyes would be such a lovely way to feel.

Tacos...in a bag

Exceeded our wildest expectations...need I say more?

I didn't think so.

Happy Belated Earth Hour!

I bought a jar of assorted buttons at the thrift store last weekend. As you may or may not have heard, Earth Hour was observed between 8 and 9:00 pm on Saturday, March 29, 2008, by people around the world. I heard about it a few days before and decided to observe my own little earth hour at home. My friend Rebecca and I had made plans to hang out that night, and she arrived at my house just before 8:00. I had boiled water for tea, and we sat down at the table to decide what to do for our hour of lights off. I had purchased a jar full of buttons at a thrift store earlier that day, and had dumped them on the table just before she got there to check out if I scored any cute ones. We started pawing through them, switched the lights off and lit some candles at 8:00 sharp, and sorted buttons by candlelight.

1) Red Buttons
2) Grey and black buttons
3) White buttons
4) Sheesh, I ended up with a lot of white buttons
5) Big buttons
6) Yet-to-be-sorted buttons
7) Buttons we liked
8) White buttons that Rebecca liked.

Above: White buttons with no holes visible

Above: Buttons we hated

Above: Buttons we liked

Above: Buttons with apparent disabilities

We ended up sorting buttons for all of earth hour, and then for another hour afterwards. It was a good night.

accidental addiction

The pictoral evidence below will, I realize, put me in a vulnerable position. I have an addiction to cream cable-knit sweaters that had gone unnamed for years until this weekend, when I showed Joel the new cream cable-knit delight that I found on sale and he looked at it with a sort of stunned, confused expression. It was that look that made me think about the other cream sweaters that I have acquired/bought/borrowed, so I decided to lay them all out and see just how many I really have. Here is the result. Don't be too harsh, please.

Sweater: Bought on sale (the one that started it all)

Sweater: Acquired in Swap-O-Rama

Bought for full price

Bought for $7

On loan from sister

Christmas from Mom

Bought in a shoe store (also pictured above)

Far from famous but feeling a bit celebrity

Months and months ago, I got an email out of the blue about a photo of my sister that I had posted on Flickr, asking if it could be used in Knitalong, a book about the social aspects of knitting, due out in 2008. Well, the book arrived today and my image is on the cover! And my name is in the thank-yous!

Planet Earth, Mole Rat

As a contrast to the late Veda, Click HERE to see something truly terrifying. I was expecting it to be scary from the thumnail, but not this scary. Did you know that the mole rat featured in the picture at the other side of this link uses the Earth's Magnetic Field when burrowing? Fascinating.

Further in the vein of being fascinated by the creatures of the earth, I think I would like to watch more "Planet Earth". I have only seen it once before, but it was incredible. And Mel was telling me about this bar in Calgary that she went to last weekend where they had it playing on their TVs after the hockey game finished. I thought that was a classy idea.

Veda

My old dog was put down today. She was beautiful.

A preview of spring

This weekend has graciously offered the people of Edmonton a preview of spring. Now, if we are realistic about our location we know that this is not the end of winter, but we also will know that that's not the point. The point is that yesterday I walked down Whyte Ave in a T-shirt and then came home and took my bike out for the first time since November. And to top it off, after our bike ride Bri fired up the BBQ and we had steak for dinner. It was lovely.


Speaking of other nice things that happened this weekend, on Friday afternoon I decided I was going to make real dinner and emailed Bri to see if she wanted to eat it with me. Seconds after I pressed the send button my phone rang and it was Bri, calling to see if I was coming home for dinner. She hadn't read my email yet, but had just called to check if I felt like having some of the appetizers that she was going to make. It was a good moment.

Bri made her personal version of bruschetta while I made a black bean stew a la Kevin D. The stew was fantastic, but ended up being a huge pot full. Fortuitously, my parents stopped by at the end of their walk to say hello and ended up staying to have a bite. Then, within 1/2 hour of my parents leaving, a ravenous Joel and a somewhat snacky Lewis showed up and had some of the stew, which was still warm.

Now as if this isn't all good enough, when I went to put away the leftovers, they fit PERFECTLY down to the mL into the container I had chosen for them. If you are not my sister or a former or current roommate, you may not know this about me, but I get an unreal amount of gratification from finding appropriate sized containers for leftovers or bits and pieces of life. I like it when things fit.