Rolodex Love

Growing up I often asked for very...utilitarian...Christmas and birthday gifts.  Dustbusters, rolodexes.  So, I've had (and loved) this rolodex for many years, but because I just can't leave stuff alone once I get in in my head that it might be spray-paintable I did a little rolodex makeover this weekend.  All it involved was spraying the dividers with my favourite blue paint and affixing cork letters.  Easy and so much cuter now.

Little things that make my day better

I love customizing the spaces that I occupy; however, I once read an article that said people will view you as unprofessional if you have too many personal artifacts in your work space.  These two things are butting heads.  So, I have to be sneaky in my customization.  And it is the little things that bring me tiny bits of joy throughout the day.  Some of them are obvious and some of them more clandestine.  So today I stealthily snapped some photos of them and here they are, starting from the left upperhand corner:

• A plant from my dear friend Karen (plants are innocuous enough, right?), with a card from my dear co-worker Amy stuck on a card pick.  
• Next, a totally vintage tape dispenser that I found (to my extreme joy) in the reject cupboard at work.  I quickly grabbed it and switched it with my black plastic one.  It rocks.  
• Natasha's show postcard from last year, and a red polka dot nail file that I keep on hand to prevent those pesky rough edges that send me into nail biting fits.  
• My desk phone, which I frequently use to call Amy (who, coincidentally is leaving me for another job at the end of next week.  Sadness.  Amy if you are reading this: I WILL MISS YOU and our daily chats).
  
• My many pairs of shoes.  Usually hidden in a filling cabinet, but some of them end up on the floor under my desk.
• A felt bird I made last year before Christmas and put up as a decoration.  I could never bear to take it down.  Plus it looked so cute with the typewriter key thumbtacks.
• Framed Emily Carr postcard from Lisa.  I love it.  Had it at my last job too, but I recently painted the frame.

So, there you have it.  A little tour of the things that make me smile throughout the workday.  

The mounting obsession with coconut

I decided last minute that Joel must have coconut cupcakes for his birthday, so I headed to the grocery store over my lunch break in search of some vanilla cupcake ingredients.  I planned to just buy some coconut and sprinkle it on top of them as a finishing touch, since the two of us have been egging each other on in our coconut obsessions.  In the cake section, I found a boxed 'Barefoot Contessa' coconut cupcake mix, so I took it as a sign and bought it.  It was amazing.  And the cupcakes were beautiful.  

 

And the birthday boy was happy.

Parkour!

I took a quick trip east this past week to visit my old friend and former co-editor of the Chronicle, Lisa DeMoor. I blame our shared history of ridiculously late nights spent bonding in the Chronicle office for the silliness that eventually ensued. But I'll get to that later. First I have to mention a few of the other things that I did while I was away.

Firstly, we drove straight from the airport to Toronto to see U2 play a show at the skydome. It was awesome. They had the roof rolled back, which meant that the CN Tower was visible right next to us, all lit up in (slightly tacky) coloured lights. Summary of the concert: Bono's still got it. Photo of the concert = don't have one, so you'll have to settle for one of me reading a review the next day on the train.



The next day was tickle trunk day! We went to the CBC museum and saw it. For reals. It's amazing. They had old clips of Mr. Dressup shows and other such delights. No puppets of Casey and Finnegan though. Other item of note: Mr. Dressup's glasses back in the day were essentially the same as Joel's current glasses. I feel that Freud would have something to say about that. Gotta love him.

The rest of the day was spent going up the CN Tower, shopping, wandering through Chinatown, finding the best coffee of our lives, seeing Kensington Market, and being taken out for a lovely French meal by my cousin Aaron and his fiance Karen. They took us to an art opening after dinner. We are so scene.

Next day we drove back to Ottawa. I cheated on the Lush pact* because I was seduced by a coconut scented product and then caught up on the season premiere of The Office. Well worth it, considering our activities the next day when we decided on a whim to head to Montreal (because we could) and spend the day wandering around. We managed to see a bit of the waterfront and Old Montreal before we regressed into a fit of parkour madness, inspired by The Office. In the end, we didn't actually see a whole lot of Montreal. But we sure had a great day.

Parliament the next day, where we crashed a suffragettes tea party and then I sat on Lester B. Pearson's lap. And then we headed off to eat some sandwiches. Apparently I am a big jerk for wanting swiss cheese on mine, but I suppose that was evident already with my choice of a red sports car avec spoiler for a rental. And that's the summary of my most excellent trip east.


* Lush Pact is a vow to never shop at Lush that I made with Joel some time ago. We made the pact because the store stinks and we hate it. Well, mostly hate it. Except this one product.

summer pout

we went for a lovely picnic on the pedestrian bridge by louise mckinney park tonight. i forget how exactly i offended joel before this picture, but that is a real pout my friends. ahh the magic of summer evenings.

Camp Counsellor

Today I sorted through a huge box of letters and notes that I had stored at my parents' house. I figured it was time to get them out of there and get rid of some of them. You can see the bag full of recycle next to me, and the consolidated letters sorted into shoeboxes.


Of course in the process a few gems were discovered. Like this picture, drawn by Tash. She hates cats. The sketch below is a cat being run over by a truck that says "devil patrol" on it.


I threw away most of the letters from people I have lost touch with totally, and a lot from summer camp friends. But I couldn't bear to get rid of one letter...most of you know that at one time I was a summer camp counsellor. Those were some of my glory summers, and one of my favourite campers was a 10 year old girl who came to the 'roughin' it' camp out at the tipis, where we lived away from the main camp and cooked our meals over a fire and played in the creek and all that good stuff. Anyways, this letter wins points for cuteness. Click on each page to view it larger - it's much more readable that way.

Our very own town troubadour

ALL CAPS UPDATE: HE PLAYED 'ALL AROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH' AGAIN THE OTHER DAY, AND THEN LINDA FREAKING DUNCAN WALKED UP AND GREETED HIM LIKE AN OLD FRIEND. I STARED. AND MISSED MY FRIEND KERRY.

One of my favourite things about Churchill Square on weekdays is the busker on the corner who calls himself "The Electronic Busker". Most days he's out there with his silver sequined suit jacket and his flowing grey hair. He is often playing familiar riffs from classic rock or whatever he feels like. One time, two or three days after I had a conversation about the song "Ghost riders in the sky" with Lewis, he played that very song as if he knew. Today it was "All around the mulberry bush". Made my day.

I didn't know this, but I just checked and he sure does have a website, with an entire album available for download. Check him out.