Sadie Says

2009-06-14T16:37:00.005-05:00

Well, here it is June 14th and I really have not accomplished as much as I'd hoped. The weather has been very wet--making it hard to do a lot of the messy stuff that needs to be down outside. However, I did get quite a lot done this weekend... most notably.. the chair! Well, truth be told, there is a tiny bit to be done on the back of the back rest. But other than that, it's done.

Remember the before?

And here's the after.

I stripped the dark stain off as best I could and then varathaned it with a clear, satin finish. I decided to go light because of some other mid-century furniture I have in the room. But I think it would have looked cool painted black, as well.

The fabric is from Ikea. I bought it last year to make a blind but got way more than I needed--which turned out to be wonderful mistake as I had plenty to make a blind AND cover the chair. I made some major rookie mistakes with the upholstering job--the main one being cutting the fabric too short. D'oh. I realize now that you need to cut it larger than the template and just trim when you are done. Ugh, I ended up having to hand sew extra length onto the sides--but it all worked out ok with most of the screw-ups hidden. I definitely would not want anyone to look too closely though!

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm also glad it's done. Whew!

2009-05-25T13:09:00.012-05:00

I have a whole week off to do projects around the house! I hope the weather cooperates--some of my projects involve messy steps that need to be done outside.

The list includes (among other things):

1. Spray painting the 4 frames I bought at the Elegant Garage Sale. And sourcing out some matt board and someone with a matt cutter who will be so kind to lend it to me.

2. Gardening, gardening and more gardening. Ugh, it's a jungle out there.

3. Beginning to work on the last bedroom upstairs. Unfortunately, I wont' be able to do much of that due to my arm problems (work related repetitive strain). Thankfully, my husband is willing to do it without my help.

4. Refinishing and reupholstering a great new chair I just bought for $50.

Here's some photos:

First the chair. It has great lines. It just really needs some TLC.

And then there is the last spare bedroom upstairs. It's going to be my craft room/studio. We've left it this long because of the nightmarish walls that will need a lot of work.

Yep. Stalactite stucco. Watch you don't hit the wall as you walk by--you'll require stitches. This is all going to have to come out to be replaced by drywall. It's the only room where we couldn't save the plaster. It makes me sad, but trying to sand all of this down will make me sadder.

The floors were covered by carpet and old linoleum (taken out years ago by us). The wood floors aren't in bad shape at all. I plan to paint them. You can see the bare wood square in the middle. This was in all of the bedrooms upstairs. I'm guessing they had a linoleum or canvas floor cloth there when the house was built.

The closet will stay, but get a makeover. I also hope to put an organizing system inside.

The upper portion of the closet still has the old wallpaper from ? maybe the 50's. I love it and it must stay. Yay to Robin Hood.

I don't, however, love the ceiling fixture. That must go.

As you can see, there's a lot of work involved in this one--even though it's a small room. The plaster walls have to come out, drywall has to go in, be sanded, primed and painted. The floor and closet also have to be primed and painted. New doors need to be made for the upper portion and a curtain will replace the main doors (that fall on your toe on a regular basis--just like all of the closet doors upstairs).

Whew!

2009-05-08T08:39:00.008-05:00

It's spring! And with spring comes the possibility of new home projects. My question is, when does the money roll in to finance these house projects. Argggg.

I haven't started anything yet but I'm torn between fixing up the yard (a huge mess) and tackling the remaining spare bedroom--soon to become my craft room. Stay tuned...

In other news, I've been keeping my eye out for some remaining items for my kitchen. Recent purchases include:

A much coveted Fire King polka dot bowl. I'd love to have a set of these (like the photo above) but I want to find them at rummage sales. Ebay is too expensive now with the dollar so low and shipping so high. I purchased mine at "The Bag Lady". A cute neighbourhood lunch place/vintage shop.

Black Cat sugar and creamer circa the 1950's. I actually bought them for my sister, who has the teapot. But she had them already. It turned out to be a bonus for me because they look awesome in my kitchen.

And three reproduction posters from postercartel.com (a fantastic Canadian poster company).

We mainly tried to stick with WWII propoganda posters but we couldn't resist the WWI Navy poster (Gee, I wish I was a man).

This afternoon I'm going to the "Elegant Rummage Sale"--a huge rummage sale put on by the Rotary Club at the fairgrounds. I'm in the market for frames, but I'm secretly hoping I find lots of red polkadot fire king items :-)

2008-11-27T21:10:00.002-05:00

I bought this poster last week as an early birthday present to myself. It arrived today... and yep, I'm as happy as a bird with a french fry over it. I can't wait to frame it and hang it on my wall.

I bought it from Studio Mela's Etsy shop. I have my eye on several of her other prints-- But I must pace myself...

2008-11-09T10:55:00.009-05:00

About 8 Years ago, the hospital building that I work in closed down. A new one had been built on the grounds and after a short search, they weren't able to find someone that wanted to take over the old building for another purpose. It has been sitting empty all this time, waiting for demolition. It was built in 1951 to house the chronically ill.

The patients moved into the lovely and modern new building and the offices moved into other buildings. On moving day, I decided to take a chance and ask if I could take the old coffee table that had been sitting in the elevator lobby on our floor for so many years. Its finish was worn and water damaged and its style was considered very old fashioned. I was worried it would just go in the garbage. I made a few calls and happily, I was given the coffee table!

Fast forward to the present. I still have the lovely mid-century modern coffee table in my living room. Shamefully, I still haven't refinished it. For some reason I've grown sentimental about the old days working in the old building. Perhaps its because I just received my 20 year long service gift--so I've been thinking about those old days. With that on my mind, I took an extra long look the other day at the old photos hanging in the lobby of the new building. The photos depict the opening day of the old building in 1951. The front lobby is pictured with it's large, rounded front desk. I sat there 20 years ago and answered the switchboard--my first job there. And there it is in 1951 looking almost the same. Except as I look at little closer I see the cool lobby furniture and curtains. Looking closer still, I see my table! Of course I nearly screamed. How cool is that? Its possible that they bought more than one of those tables--but still, it's the same model.

Our staff photographer is looking for the negatives for me so I can have a copy of the photo. Hopefully he finds it! I took photos of the photos to post here. Sorry about the quality.

I used to sit behind that desk. The door leads to a small bathroom. I had to RUN to the bathroom and hope the switchboard didn't ring while I was in there.

I wonder if that is a time clock hanging on the wall? By the time I came along, that wall was covered in fire alarm panels.

One of the patient lounges. What I wouldn't do to get my hands on some of that furniture. Most of it was gone, especially anything uphostered, but there was still a few things hanging around at the time we moved out. Now I wish I had tried to get more. And now it's all gone for sure. A few years ago the building was opened to a charity that removed all of the contents that they deemed saleable. Because it's been sitting empty without heat and water for so long, nobody is allowed inside of it anymore. Too dangerous. Oh well, I'm glad for my little coffee table. And you can be sure its moved to first on my project list for the spring.

And here's the table today. A little worse for wear, but still intact and much loved.

2008-11-09T10:41:00.003-05:00

Well, we slogged through it and the kitchen is done! And I am proud to say that there aren't any little things left to do that we've swept under the carpet (so to speak). It was my goal to finish each and every little thing--I can happily say we did.

I will admit, that sometime in the future I plan to have the old cupboard doors reworked to hold glass. The money ran out, so we will wait on that. For now, I'm quite fine with the open cupboards and how it compells us to keep them clean :-)

The best part of all, of course, is the dishwasher. Having a clean counter 24/7 makes me very, very happy.

You can see the full set of pictures from beginning to end here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22383&l=0b947&id=617416888

2008-06-16T20:04:00.005-05:00

Well, while we wait on the flooring to be delivered, I got bored and started doing a little online searching for more information about William, Ida and Robert--the owners of my house from 1899 - 1939.

If you'll remember from my previous post about them here (Scroll to Jan 2, 2007):
William John Wright and Ida Kate Wright moved into the house in 1899 with their son, John. Soon after, Otis Home Wright was born. I like to think his middle name was in celebration of him being born soon after they moved into their brand new house. The very next year, William died.

I found William's death registration. It says he died from "brain fever" lasting one week. He died September 17, 1900 and was 37 years old. Who knows what in the world he really died from, but that's a very quick illness. And if that's not bad enough, I found out that Ida was pregnant when William died. It gets worse--she lost the baby. There's a registration for a still born female, born April 21, 1901. Seven months after William died.

In one year, she lost her husband and her baby girl. Why isn't my house haunted? If anything, there should be a sad woman walking the halls looking for her daughter, or kneeling by her husband's sick bed. I like to think that her life ended happy, so her spirit didn't linger. Two years later she was married to Robert Thomas, the barber, who moved into the house with his son and daughter. And the best happy ending of all? They had a daughter together in 1906, Ida Doris Thomas. Ida Kate would have been 43 when she had her--quite a late pregnancy for those days (and the age I am now!). But how nice for her to be able to start a new family after all of that sadness 5 years prior.

I learned lots of other helpful information including Ida's full name and maiden name (Graham), parent names for all three of them and their exact wedding dates. I also found the birth registrations for all of the children except for one (John Wright).

Some questions I still have: When did Robert and Ida die? Death records are not available online later than 1937 and Robert is still listed as living in the house until 1939 (they only list the man in the city directories). I hope I'll find this info as well as their headstone someday.

I still can't really figure out much about Robert's former wife. On the marriage registration for Ida, he's listed as a widower. On the 1901 census he was just listed as single. On the birth registrations for his 2 children, the mother is listed as Nettie Sageman. However, I can't find any death registration for her--or anything else for that matter. So some of the mysteries continue...

2008-06-08T19:51:00.010-05:00

Well, the kitchen saga continues. Are you bored yet? I'm not!

The next stage involved ripping out the bottom cabinets. We had it all planned for Saturday morning. I emptied everything out on Friday and set up a little temporary food prep station in the dining room complete with disposable plates and cutlery.

I got up around 7:30 on Saturday morning, and Pete had the whole thing pretty much done. So much for getting a chance to smash something!

I was surprised to see more of the wood planking behind the cabinet. It's pretty darn old if it was there before the kitchen cabinets were put in.

Under the right side of the cabinets, we found this flooring. It must have been the original floor. It was removed from the rest of the kitchen sometime after the base cabinets went in. That's a lot of green paint for one room!

We found this linoleum under the other side of the cabinets. It was on top of another, plainer piece. I think they just used it to shim up the cabinets and cover a big hole in the wood floor on that side. Isn't it cool? It was so dirty you could barely see the pattern. I cleaned it up so I could see what it looked like. Very art deco, I'd say.

This is the other piece of lino. I like this one too. Of all of the lino I've found in the house, I haven't seen either of these patterns. This one is actually square tiles instead of sheets.

So then Rob N. came over and we finished the kitchen. Here it is. Isn't it beautiful?

Just kidding. Rob and Pete built a temporary sink so we'd at least have some water until we do the flooring.

We ordered some flooring called "Cushion Step", made by Armstrong. It's sort of spongy so it will be warm on the feet. Pete thinks we can lay it ourselves so we'll be saving a lot of money.

Next steps: Wait for the flooring to arrive. Put down a new subfloor. Put drywall in behind cabinets. Put in new cabinets and counter. Install dishwasher. Paint top cupboards, walls and ceilings. Hmm... that's a lot of work ahead of us!

And just so you don't think I live in complete squalor all of the time. Look at my garden! I'm so happy with the flowers I bought for the pot on the steps and in the hanging basket this year.

2008-05-23T12:30:00.010-05:00

Admitedly, this isn't a very exciting post. But I do want to document the whole process, so here we are ripping up the old floor, marvelling at the weirdness, puzzling over what to do and finally being disappointed by the price of making it look nice. How will this all turn out? You'll just have to stay tuned.

Here's a photo of the old tiles and copious amounts of floor leveling compound being removed. The floor leveling compound has the consistency of cement. Over the years the old tile has cracked in places causing little bits of the cement to spill out. Needless to say, stepping on these pieces is very painful and I, for one, cannot wait to rid the house of them forever.

We ended up just taking up the tile and stuff on the right side of the kitchen. That's where the problem was. The other side seems stable and straight. Besides that, the tile wouldn't come off and I got sick of it!

There are several areas in the floor with pretty big gaps. You can look right down into the crawl space. I try not to think about it...

Speaking of the crawl space. Pete had to go in there a couple of times to find the joists that we have to reattach the subfloor to. I was thrilled when he found a couple of things in there and brought them out for me.

A nice piece of china that seems to have been part of a tea cup saucer at one time. How it ended up in the crawl space I'll never know. And why only one piece?

He also found this old whiskey bottle that was repurposed for Methyl Hydrate (wood alcohol). It has a nice old label from Lumb Hardware on Adelaide Street. I'm not totally sure where that was but I'll have to jot the address down and take a look next time I'm in that area. The old phone number indicates it's at least from the 50's (not exactly sure when phone numbers turned to 8 digits?)

So now we're at a bit of a standstill (after we fix the subfloor) because the quote came in for the flooring and it's going to be WAY more than we expected. I guess I have expensive taste because the main cost is for the product itself. You can see the sample in the background behind the bottle and china shard above. Subtle, but retro--with a really nice thickness to it. It's made by Domco. However, I think it's going to just be too expensive for us. So I think it's back to the drawing board. We'll be doing some shopping on the weekend for alternatives. Hopefully we can find something that's a little more affordable, but just as nice (and durable).

Stay tuned...

2008-05-14T18:07:00.012-05:00

Here's the progress so far on the kitchen. What turned into a "let's fix it up as best we can" project has turned into "rip it all out!" Well, everything but the top cupboards and the ceiling. We can thank Rob N's frankness for the turnaround. He called the present kitchen an abomination. Yep, that's about right.

I'm actually happy to keep the top cupboards. I like the retro 40's set up with the sink under the sunny window and the scrolly stuff up above. Besides, complimenting the retro-ness will help us make decisions about decor and it will fit into the rest of the house better.

We are now finished stage two--drywall. Let's summarize, shall we?

We went from knotty pine walls installed by an obviously drunk handyman in the 70's:

To original painted plank walls. We might well be looking at the original 110 year old walls. It was very exciting to see. The middle shelf moulding is gone, but you can see that it used to be wainscotting with horizontal planks above. I could easily picture how this kitchen might have looked so long ago. I could also picture bats flying out of all of those holes... so we couldn't get on to stage 2 quick enough...

Stage 2 included drywalling and taping. We left the old wood underneath. It went suprisingly well, considering nothing is straight and drunk handyman in the 70's did some majorly bone-headed door framing to cause us extra work.

Oy, the sanding and the mess and the sanding...

The cats are so totally over it. They hide as soon as the tools come out.

If you just can't get enough of these photos-- you can find the rest of them here.

Next stage: Ripping out the bottom cabinets and then new flooring. The man came today to look at the floor and give us an estimate. He discovered some wonky problem that we have to fix before he can do anything (part of the sub floor is not attached to the joist blah blah blah). Of.Course. The joys of an old house that has been violated by a drunk handyman from the 70's.

Stay tuned...

2008-05-09T12:55:00.004-05:00

If you’re snoopy, like me, you’ll enjoy this website: The Old Bailey Online
It's the proceedings of The Old Bailey, London’s central criminal court from 1674 – 1917

The transcripts are all typed out to make them easier to read, but each page actually has a scan of the original document that you can view as well.

There’s lots of everyday crimes like thefts, libel and fisticuffs—but of course it’s the murder and mayhem that are the most interesting (and sometimes astonishing) to read. There also seems to be quite an obsession with sodomy. Speaking of which, you can read the entire transcripts of Oscar Wilde’s trial (although I haven’t found that one yet).

If you go to the advanced search page you can type in actual names (in case you want to see if any of your ancestors were involved in the courts), case number and crime category (which is the most fun, I think). You can even search by date (who was tried on your birthday in 1674?)

Here’s a quote from a trial in 1679 for a woman that killed her baby:
“This Sessions beginning in the Old Bailey, 26 February, the first person brought to Tryal, was an unhappy Wench , whom the Devil had seduced to endeavour, to cover the filthy sin of Fornication, with the Scarlet Mantle of Murder, having made away her own new-born Bastard-Child.”.

Whoa.

Another website for snoopers is http://www.pepys.info/
The diaries of Samuel Pepys, a 17th century diarist who lived in London, England. He wrote entries every day for several years and all of these entries can be read on the website. I read an entry each day in the National Post.

The olde english is hard to understand most of the time, and most of his entries are rather mundane, but every once and awhile something exciting happens—like the day he stole a kiss from a colleague’s maid (against her will I’m sure!), or the fight that he had with his wife over a pair of earrings she bought without his consent. He also had an affair with his wife’s companion/maid. The week his wife caught him was just as good as TV.

2008-05-07T14:31:00.005-05:00

Oh my gawd... The last time I wrote something was last August? Damn you Facebook!

Jenny, you've inspired me to start it back up. And Wendy, you're very persuasive. I've linked to all three of you so we can encourage each other to keep it up.

I don't have much to say today, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? So I want to share with you the Skull a Day website. Have you seen it? The writer made a committment to make some kind of skull image and post it every day. It's facinating!

2007-08-14T19:42:00.000-05:00

"I hate that fucking song." (Keith Whittaker)

So get this, Bullseye Records of Canada, is releasing an album of 12 demos that Keith Whittaker recorded in the early 90's (with Steven Davey). For those of you not familiar with the Canadian music scene, Keith's band The Demics (born in London, Ontario) was a Canadian punk rock band in the late 70's and early 80's. They recorded the infamous song "New York City" which was rated "The Greatest Canadian Rock song of all time" in a 1996 reader poll by music magazine "Chart". Keith Whittaker died in 1996.

The new album "Drink to Me" will be celebrated August 20th at a release party in Toronto.

What I have heard so far is amazing. You can hear it for yourself at Keith's myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/keithwhittakermusic

2007-07-30T21:37:00.000-05:00

The stairway from hell has now been made more angelic! Its pretty much done except for a few touch-ups. Behold the pictures:

Before: cheap baseboards, carpet glue and water stains...

make way for sanded floors and fancy trim. We discovered the corner blocks when we realized our mitre box was too small to cut the larger baseboards (which are more appropriate to the age of the house). Thankfully we found reproductions at a building centre in town. This stairway is not orginal to the house, it was added on in the 70's when the house was turned into 2 apartments for awhile. You can see the former brick exterior wall on the right side of the stairs in the pictures below.

A new mat from Ikea to hide the shoddy workmanship on the bottom landing (by a previous owner!)

Hideous fake brass lamp and water-stained primer painted walls....

make way for clean khaki walls, an unassuming Ikea lamp and a crisp white roman shade.

"I highly disapprove of this mess."

Oh but, hello lovely white stairs without any carpet glue!

2007-07-15T19:05:00.000-05:00

As promised, here are some pictures of the (almost) completed bedroom. The only thing left is to buy and hang some art and a mirror.

The before pictures are here.

This green with red is one of my favorite colour combos (although I'm not sure everyone's monitors will reflect the true colours) so I've been wanting to try doing a room with them. The white on the woodwork really freshens it up.

The shelves are an Ikea find and I'm very happy with how they turned out. They are sturdy enough to hold a few treasures, but not so heavy as to burden the delicate plaster walls too much. (Those of us with old houses know that sometimes one nail can cause a disaster lol)

The floor turned out pretty good. I painted it dark brown and covered the dodgy parts with a white mat. I also put down a mats on either side of the bed (or rather, on one side a mat and the other side a sheepskin).

The baseboards cleaned up with quarter-round added. No more creepy holes!

This isn't a great picture, but I painted this old buffet white, which is now my dresser, and left a bit of the old blue showing through on the handles. This is a really lovely piece that has seen some pretty awful finishes during it's lifetime--but I think the white really suits it.

And that's about it. There's nothing like a clean new room to go to sleep in every night :-)

The stairwell is almost finished. I'll post some before/after pictures of that in a few days.

2007-07-12T12:38:00.000-05:00

Oh right, I have a blog.

I've finally let myself calm down and enjoy summer. I had this frantic list of things that had to get done... and a "what the heck am I doing sitting here when things need to be done?" attitude. I got some major stuff done, but I still did a lot of sitting and feeling guilty about it. So neurotic.

But now I'm in full on summer mode. What's that you say? There's a pile of mulch outside to be spread around? The hallway needs to be caulked and painted? I still haven't bought a mirror and framed some artwork for the bedroom? The garden needs weeding? Sorry, I can't hear you.

It all started when Pete stated that we were going to the beach a couple of Sunday's ago AND that we were going to go to the beach once every weekend. At first my eyes opened widely and I started to shake and stutter. But but but but... how? I begrudgingly went along with him to the beach. When we got there I was suddenly and completely hypnotized. Yes... yes we will do this.... every weekend.

List? What list.

2007-06-22T10:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a few great things I've come across on the web lately when I should have been: a) cleaning the house, b) working, c) weeding, d) etc.

Beuys Bunny
A bunny crafted out of felt, based on the Joseph Beuys performance How To Explain Pictures To A Dead Hare . A baby gift for the nerdyist of art history majors. He's only $15.00 (US) and you can buy him here.

A hilarious (and interesting) interview with designer Jonathan Adler (from DesignSponge)
"It made me think of all those straight guys who wear Dockers and golf shirts and strap their cellphones to their belts and lead greige lives. They're like dreary extras on the film set of life."

Planet Unicorn HEY!!
This one is especially for Louise, but it's really for anyone that loves animated videos about gay unicorns. The voices just kill me. Click here to view. (from Cute Overload)

2007-06-14T14:43:00.000-05:00

Work, work, work... etc. My house is disaster--but soon it will be beautiful, right? right? ugh

And then of course, the yard and weeds march on outside because I'm not there to hack it all down. I took a break from plaster dust and paint fumes on the weekend to do a little weeding in the back.

Of course, I ended up digging a big hole again and doing a little more backyard archeaology (see what happened on my last adventure here). This hole was jam packed with pieces of pottery and glass--every darn shovel full. It almost came to: "Oh, another piece of china. Yawn." Here are some photos of only part of the haul. There was so much that I left a lot of it in the hole and only pulled out some of the pieces with patterns I hadn't seen before.

In this picture you can see part of what looks like a pitcher and a small piece of blue patterned pottery that, so far, I've only found at the front of the house.There were lots of simple white china as well. You'll also see the remains of a large bottle.

In this picture you can see a little piece of milk glass in a basket weave pattern. As well, there are some pieces with a light pink pattern with gold accents. Some of the white pieces also have gold accents. Amazing that those accents are still there after all these years.

The best two finds of the day were a marble (that matches another marble I found in this vicinity last year--white with orange and yellow specks). And... another fully intact bottle! Not sure what was in it but it says "Purity Oxwaco". I couldn't find anything on the internet, so for now, it's a mystery.

Lastly, here is the hole--right by the shovel is a bone. Dont worry, I'm sure it belonged to a turn-of-the-century cow.

Also, I finally got the bucket out of the hole from last year. It turned out to be an enameled cooking pot. It's in pretty rough shape but a pretty cool find indeed (forgot to take a picture of it!)

Now I have to figure out what to do with all of this stuff!

2007-06-07T07:46:00.000-05:00

I know, I know. I've taken far too long to update. Funny how when you're bored you want to write in your blog, but when you're busy and have lots more to say, you just can't think of a thing to talk about.

The bedroom is done--for the most part. But I went to Ikea on Saturday to buy a few things... and I came home with the wrong lamps. They were boxed and I guess I grabbed the wrong box. I grabbed the one called: fhaekhdkfjaodhj instead of the one I really wanted called: dkjflahfefieuwyr (with a funny accent over the u). The thing is, I can't bring myself to put the old lamps back in there. It would just be... wrong. So now I have to wait until a) I can convince Pete to take me to Ikea or b) I find some in town. I'll take pics once we're done and post them here.

So enough about the bedroom. I'm going to get really domestic on you for a minute and talk about a cookbook. I'm really not a cook. I like to eat but I don't like to prepare it (usually becuase I'm tired and lack imagination). But I bought the BEST cookbook I have ever used in my life. I've bought lots of cookbooks, and they are ok, but we never RAVE about the food like we have been with every single thing we've made out of this one.

Everyday Food
(From the Kitchens of Martha Stewart Living)

The recipes are sorted by season, so you're eating food that's in season and fresh (and you can buy locally). The flavours are varied and delicious and the recipes are so simple, healthy and fast (nothing over 45 mins including cooking time).

Our favourites so far include:

Fish Tacos (a healthy version, unlike the ones we got hooked on in San Diego from Rubios!)
Cashew Chicken
Salmon with lemon relish

I hate to admit it, but I actually look forward to making dinner now. But don't tell anyone...

Apparently this book is based on a magazine and a TV show--and it looks like we get it on PBS in our area. The website lists the fish taco recipe (be sure to toast the tortilla--it's KEY to the deliciousness).

2007-05-22T14:32:00.000-05:00

I am not a fan of Michael Moore or the "opinionated documentary" genre in general (I just made up that name--but is there a name for that type of film yet?). However, curiosity... and more than a little civic and employment pride might compell me to see his upcoming release "Sicko"--about the U.S. health care system.

The London Free Press is reporting that London and the very hospital I work at has a "sizable portion" in the film and that MM is considering a London premier. The Canadian portions were filmed in order to compare the two health care systems.

Read the article here for all of the details (cause everyone should sample the incredible journalism of the LFP once in their life).

p.s. I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks it's hilarious that the Canadian patient in the story had his fingers severed by a hockey puck.

2007-05-15T20:25:00.000-05:00

Well, it's time for some more renovations. Maybe once this weather decides between winter/summer I'll do some work outside. But until then, I'm finally tackling our bedroom.

Two days into the reno and I've cleared out the furniture, ripped out the flooring and painted the walls. Here's some before pictures to keep me motivated (and I promise to post after pictures when I'm done).

Once again, this room is painted entirely in white primer (woodwork included). But this time we have the added bonus of sand-like stucco on the walls. It's so romantic to have sandpaper on your bedroom walls, isn't it? And even more romantic to consistenly scrape your skin off when you accidently hit the walls while making a night-time bathroom run. Unfortunately I'm not feeling into knocking out all of the plaster and putting up drywall... so the sandpaper stays. This room also has some lovely purple carpeting.

There were three layers of flooring--thankfully none of them were glued to the wood. First we had ugly purple carpeting with "rexoleum" underneath--circa 1956 as evidenced by the newspapers under it.

Under the newspapers was another layer of this retro linoleum (no trademark on the back of this one though). I have to say that this layer was in such good condition it looked like it had been waxed yesterday. And strangely enough in amongst the newspapers was a receipt for the rental of a floor polisher! (dated 1956).

The newspapers under this layer were dated 1940 and 1944. Very exciting! I tried to keep as many pieces as I could--most were in excellent condition but some were stuck to the floor and they ripped.

The last layer was the (almost) pristine subfloor. I was so impressed by the great condition of the wood... until I got to the most travelled area. There are a few patches that are really rough. I'm hoping I can fix these areas well enough with calking and wood filler so I can paint it. I had to smile at the ingenuity of an early homeowner who had filled some of the cracks and splinters with parafin wax. I smiled until I realized I'd have to get that all off before I could paint. Yikes.

Here are some of the newspapers. The first two are dated 1956. The colours are so vibrant on this weekend magazine!

Forget plasma screens. I'd much rather have A Directional TV with a Zoom-A-Tenna.

This is the front page of the Toronto Star, April 13, 1940.

And the work continues...

2007-05-01T08:13:00.000-05:00

History: Let's play with it!
Fun and interesting online games from the McCord Museum in Montreal. (I especially like the "Mind Your Manners" and fashion games.)

Photography by Tim Flach
You've never seen horses like this before (or bats, or people... etc)

Art by Kenichi Hoshine
Beautiful/haunting drawings and paintings.

Photo set of the Michigan Theatre
A beautiful old theatre that is now being used a parking lot. It's sad and awesome all at the same time. (These photos were taken by the owner of Sweet Juniper! , a great blog about living in Detroit)

p.s. I can't remember where I found all of these links to give credit. I'll do better next time!

2007-04-20T08:55:00.000-05:00

Not just for teenagers anymore.

As you all know, Kurt Vonnegut died last week. I was (am) truly saddened to hear the news. He is one of a series of artists and writers that blew my small teenage mind wide open. Only 2 years before his death, he wrote a book of essays. One of my favorite thoughts from that book was his threat to sue the tobacco companies for promising on all of their packaging that smoking would kill him, yet, at 82, he was still alive.

One thing that I’ve noticed—as I read the copious remembrances of him in the press and on private blogs, is that people seem to file him in their “teenage” file. What about now? When is the last time you’ve read a Vonnegut book? About 4 years ago I had the sudden urge to re-read Bluebeard. I have no idea why, I’m not one for re-reading books, but I followed the urge anyway. Maybe I was feeling a little like the main character, whose critically acclaimed paintings were all disintegrating because of the unstable paint mixture that he used. I’ll admit I was feeling uninspired and stuck and the book was what I needed: whole new worlds, again... etc. I loved it even more than the first time. And so it goes.

Breakfast of Champions, it’s been a long time. How would you like to leave the shelf for awhile?

Here’s a great remembrance of Kurt Vonnegut by John Irving.

2007-04-18T08:54:00.000-05:00

Behold my new poster, and mantra. Please excuse the crappy picture--do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a picture?

This is a reproduction of one of a series of posters put out by the British Government during World War II. Keep that stiff upper lip, citizens! Not only are they wise and obvious words, but whenever I'm feeling stressed about my silly life, I can say "At least bombs aren't falling on my head."

I bought the poster online from Barter Books in Northumberland, England and I should also thank Anna at Twelve22 for calling my attention to it in the first place by posting about it on her blog.

2007-04-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

Here I am! I've been in Chicago for the past week. My first time there and I loved it. Unfortunately it was a business trip so I had very little time to see the city. Thankfully my hotel was downtown (in the "loop) so I got to do some walking around in the core.

The "El" (the famous elevated train) is a very strange sight, though. It's really quite ugly, obscuring the buildings on either side and making it very dark down below--but it's also cool at the same time--especially the first time you see a train going by. I try to think how this must have been greeted by citizens of Chicago when it was first built!

We also had some fantastic meals. I think my favorite was at Shaw's Crab House. It was so reminiscent of the 30's/40's that we were certain Al Capone was about to walk in the door. Oh, and the crabcakes were divine. On the way to the restaurant I spotted the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album cover! Which I now know as the Marina City towers (my picture above).

And of course, I got in some shopping. The Marshall Field's Building (Macy's) was quite amazing (8 floors!), but I certainly didn't find any bargains there. However, I did find some great deals and came home with a new scarf, bikini and red boots (which would be quite an outfit if worn all at the same time).

The only unfortunate thing was that I woke up with a cold on the second last day-- making the the last two days miserable. Then, when I tried to buy some cold medication I nearly had to promise my first born to get it. I had to show my passport, give my date of birth and address and sign something. And then, while my head is pounding, my nose running and I'm sweating under my winter gear, the pharmacist can't enter my postal code because "the system won't accept letters in the zip". Anyway, I finally got the drugs and went back to my meth lab for a night of hard work.

Chicago, I loved you. I hope to be back sometime soon to see more.

2007-04-02T08:36:00.000-05:00

Ever since I discovered Alfred Hitchcock films, I’ve been in love with the art form that is Title Sequences. Saul Bass is famous for his title sequences for Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, John Frankenheimer and the one that started it all: Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm. Read more about Saul Bass here.

One of my favorites lately, is the end title for the film “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. I went to see it at the theatre and thankfully, stayed for the mesmerizing end titles. The movie is good and the set design is amazing, but those end titles made we want to buy it when it came out on DVD. Read more about the producer here.

All this to say that last week I came across a website highlighting title sequence art in movies. You can actually view the sequences right online. Check it out here: http://www.submarinechannel.com/titlesequences/

What are your favorite movie title or end sequences?

2007-03-30T10:14:00.000-05:00

When I first heard The Police were touring, I immediately thought about the Police Picnic’s we attended in the early 80’s and all of the fun we had at them. I even thought I would like to go to one of the current shows if they came around here—and thinking how cool it would be to get everyone together again to go.

But it would seem that Synchronicity (get it?) was working its magic and the same thoughts were occurring way over in the U.K. So our beloved Phil contacted Wen and she contacted me to say he’d contacted her and then… well, I did a lot of thinking about long ago events. I laughed out loud thinking about sleeping in the Henry Moore Sculpture in front of the AGO. I don’t think I was even there for that one (Was I?) But it was a typical adventure. I have very strong memories of “surfing” our Chinese Mary Jane shoes over the subway grates beside City Hall at 3:00 in the morning. Oh and playing the made-up “St. Francis of Assisi” game when trying to fall asleep.

I even looked at the tour schedule. The summer dates in Toronto are already sold out. There’s a third date in November of 2007 that still has seats—but it’s in the Air Canada Centre and we’d be practically sitting in Mississauga. Besides that, I don’t think we could get away with trying to bring in a vodka soaked watermelon.

Edited to add the above picture circa... 1981 maybe?

And for everyone else still reading this, sorry about all of that lame memory crap. I think that’s what you do when you get old, right? Yep. Soon I’ll be telling all of my old stories to strangers in malls and supermarkets.

Well, here’s some little things you never knew you needed:

Egg Pants!

A knitted Jacob Marley Chain!

Chandelier earrings!

2007-03-23T10:32:00.000-05:00

One of the music posting boards I read has gotten off topic lately. There's been post after post about designer handbags. This whole topic in general turns me into a werewolf (truly-- hair standing on end, claws coming out...) but I've been good and kept quiet. But then today... TODAY, someone posted a link to a particular handbag that costs $2,085.00 U.S. dollars. THEN this person said that they thought it was so attractive, it was one of the few that are worth the money. Worth it. That's what she said.

Incidently, I love how the price isn't an even two thousand bucks. They had to add that 85 dollars to the price. "Yeah, it's definitely worth more than two grand. Let's add another 85. A hundred bucks might be a little much... we don't want to seem greedy."

But seriously now. This purse is worth 2 mortage payments (4 if you're paying bi-weekly). I'd expect it to be woven from the pubic hair of unicorns. Instead it's made out of regular old dead cow skin with special lacy details obviously punched out with a machine. The problem is that this isn't even an anomoly. There are hundreds of these purses out there for sale, and for some reason, people buy them AND think they are worth the money.

Don't get me wrong, I love a nice bag, but if I ever have so much money to burn that I feel the need to buy a 2 thousand dollar purse, I hope someone punches me in the face.

2007-03-16T10:05:00.000-05:00

I don't often wish I could knit. Actually I can knit, but I don't enjoy it much and I haven't progressed to the point where I've actually made something. Wait, I think I made a sweater once... hmmm... As you can see, it wasn't memorable.

But if I could knit like Eunny, I'd knit until my fingers fell off. Actually, I think an even better wish would be to just have Eunny knit things for me... and keep my fingers.

Here's 5 Things You Didn't Know About Me (maybe)

(and after this, you're all tagged)

1. I dislike sandwiches. In fact, I'm likely responsible for a squirrel/racoon/skunk population boom in the 70's because of all of those lunches I tossed into the schoolyard garbage bin.

2. I used to dream about starting my own business as a personal shopper. But then big box malls came along and the downtown died. Now I have to ask people where to buy simple household items. I'm no longer the shopper know-it-all.

3. I'm always teaching a graphic design workshop in my head. I especially love it when I find a really bad example that I could use for a class critique. I especially love the local sports store who's logo and store design is so bad you'd swear it was a chicken take out place... or the Italian restaurant that nobody ever goes into because their logo makes it seem like they only sell ice cream. My obsession with design is the same reason I have a crush on Starbucks, even though I hate their coffee.

4. I've been thinking about what would happen to my cats if Pete and I both died. I'd like to arrange for them to go to some kind of kitty sanctuary and not have to be adopted out or seperated. I'm slowly turning into the crazy cat lady and that's ok with me. I don't have kids to embarass.

5. When I was younger, I had a bad problem with dislocating my knees... a LOT. I had an operation on one of them but I don't really know if it worked because I'm so careful about them. I don't allow anyone to come near them and I quickly move away from dancing / flailing people. I also never spin on one foot--it makes me wince when I see ballet dancers do that.

2007-03-01T09:08:00.000-05:00

From the FAO Shwartz website: (via mightygoods)

"You can now own an exquisitely detailed scale model of your own home, beach house, or ski chalet. Sounds amazing? It's all that and more. Here's how we do it: the design team makes an appointment to come to your home. Then it's back to the studio, where highly skilled artisans recreate every inch of your home in 1-inch-to-1-foot scale. This includes the wallpaper, paint color, lighting - even the actual fabric of your furniture through real swatches or recreated fabric! (Starting at $10,000)"

Firstly, I want one! Secondly, how do I get a job there?

I wonder if they'd put in the sagging kitchen floor, crumbling mortar and teeny tiny bats in the attic?

In other news. A new cell phone arrive in the mail yesterday. One of those flip phones with a colour screen and access to the internet. All for free. Why? Because we're so cell phone-aphobic that our current (analogue) cell phone is so old that it will no longer work as of May 1st. Apparently Rogers is not going to support the analogue lines (?) waves (?)... whatever they are, any longer. So they gave us a new phone. Pretty good deal, huh? Well, as fancy as this phone is, I'm still going to use it about 4 times a year. I refuse to carry it with me and sign up for some plan. It's for travelling and emergencies only. But I must say it was hard to stop flipping it open and looking at the pretty pretty screen last night...

Which reminds me. What do you do with your old phone? You can't throw it in the garbage, right?

2007-02-26T10:18:00.000-05:00

A reoccurring thought in my head always starts with “What if aliens came down and saw…( ).?” I have a few of these conversation starters for myself (as I like to call them), including “What if I had known this ( ) years ago?” and “Where am I?” The one I like to say to myself when I’m traveling and find myself in a place I’d never thought I’d be, i.e. standing in front of Target in Atlanta, waiting for the hotel van to pick me up, or buying tampons at the liquor store in Mission Beach, San Diego.

I used the aliens one on Sunday when we went skating. We have a standing skating date every Sunday. It centers around the kids, but various family members show up and each week someone else gets the guts to get their skates on again after 10, 20, even 30 years. After Jake (and my ankles) had had enough we went out into the observation area and got ourselves a treat. As I watched the skaters going around, many more teetering and falling than actually skating. I thought of the aliens. What would they think of these strange people who put shiny blades on their feet and then get on the most slippery substance known to man and try and move around on it. Why Why Why? Obviously when you get good enough, it feels fantastic to fly around on the ice. But before that happens, it’s really not that fun. And who thought of this anyway? I bet it was a kid. Now that I think back, when I was learning to skate, I thought it was fun regardless of how many times I fell. At this point in my life, I’m an ok skater…a little bit stiff and afraid to fall. But when I take my husband’s arm and we fly around the rink, it really is like a drug. Another one, for the aliens to ponder, I guess.

p.s. I took the above picture in 2004 at the rink in Victoria Park

2007-02-24T16:17:00.000-05:00

One good thing about winter--you have an alternative refrigerator in your backyard. We came home to a dead fridge on Friday. I opened up the freezer and inside I found a soggy, leaky mess. I opened the fridge part and found a stinky, leaky mess. Yuck!

The repairman was just here and delivered the bad news. It's not worth fixing. We're having to go with a used model because a new one is just out of the question (do you know how much refrigerators are? yeeesh!). So add to the list of bummers, the unexpected cost and the inconvenience of no fridge until possibly Tuesday or Wednesday. Right now we are making use of the unheated sunporch as our fridge and enjoying almost frozen milk and yogurt. Hurray!

So it's times like these when I always wonder just what it is about winter that brings on the debilitating expenses every year? Car breakdowns, roof problems, veterinary emergencies, appliance breakdown... I can name one for just about every year we've lived here. I don't want to manifest my own destiny by putting this in print.... but I'm starting to get really leary of the months of January and February now!

Well anyway, I shall not dwell. Everyone is healthy and happy and this too shall pass. Let's just bathe in the sun...

2007-02-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

Well, the main part of the room is finished... as of last night. Are we ever really finished though? I still need some more art to warm up the walls and a mirror to hang over the washstand.. oh yes, and some new knobs for the washstand (which isn't really in any of the pics).

But look, look! Beautiful baseboards and floor... and no holes! The picture is way over exposed due to the flash, but the holes in in the floor were solved by using a piece of beveled trim laid flat on the floor, flush up to the baseboard. Then I put quarter round on top. It ended up looking like it was all part of (the now) fancy baseboard.

The most dramatic difference is the 70's closet. The pegboard was banished and I made new doors and attached new knobs that match the curtain rod. I also removed the toe smashing slider doors down below and replaced them with curtains. Oh and I filled about 10 thousand cracks and one very scary hole in the wall inside the closet.

These pictures did not turn out well--but here is another shot to show the part I cut off in the earlier photo. I should have taken one that showed the floor in front of the closet--now tar stain free and painted a lovely chocolate brown. I also added trim around the bottom of the closet so it looks more "built in".

The room started taking on an ethnic feel after I bought the lovely (and very onsale duvet cover). So now I'm looking for a nice tapestry to hang over the bed as a pseudo headboard and some bigger art to warm up the bare walls.

A natural colour wool rug from Ikea really finishes the room off and adds some cushy warmth. These pictures do not do the colour justice. Unfortunately I had to use flash.

I'm pretty happy with how it's all turning out. And I am doing very well with my budget--especially yesterday. A quick budget to date:

Wool Rug: traded from a friend for a twist doorbell and $50

Paint: $70.00 approx

Extra trim: $50.00 approx

Duvet cover and 2 pillow cases: $20.00 (deal!)

Feather pillow: $8:99 (hello? super deal)

Curtains for closet: ($10.00! Scavenged from the bottom of a sales bin at the Sears Outlet store)

Curtain Rod and cupboard knobs: $20.00

Blind: $19.95

Clock on nightstand: $9.95

Pictures, furniture, rollaway bed: already owned

But now my own bedroom looks even crappier in comparison! Depending on logistics (like where in heck I'll store the bed while we work on the floor!), that might have to be the next project.

2007-02-16T13:19:00.000-05:00

The bedroom looks simply beautiful--compared to what it used to look like, at least! I'm pretty proud of it because I didn't even get one bit of help from Pete. Ok, he did help me put the screws in for the curtain rod because I just could NOT get them in and I was stripping the screws.

How pathetic!

Anyway, it's not *quite* done yet, so I'll save the after pictures until it's completely finished. But I thought I'd post some "before" shots to set the scene.

I should also say that I'm not sure these before pictures do the hellishness justice. And this is one of the better rooms!

The room was painted in flat white paint--likely primer. The entire room... woodwork, baseboards, light switch... you name it. It's like a can of primer exploded in there. There are many cracks (and a couple of holes) in the wall--as well as many bad patch jobs.

You'll see I have socks stuffed in the creepy holes in the floor in the above picture, with a zoomed in shot below (sans socks). The floor covering is some kind of composite acting as an underlay to the orange shag rug that was on top (that we ripped up and shoved out the window the first night we were in the house).

I don't know when these ugly ugly closets were put in... but I'm going to guess it was some time in the 70's. There were a lot of cool design elements in the 70's... but so many more bad ones. Before I took this picture we had removed the 50 pound wooden sliding doors covered in sickly yellowed shellac (and that fell out of their track and onto your foot every other day). I considered ripping out this closet, but I kind of need it. As well, the ceiling above the top shelf is in bad shape and has been patched (very badly) with drywall. If we ever do rip this out, we'll need to do some serious wall work afterwards. Note the pegboard doors at the top. Classy! (there was also a very scary/creepy hole in the wall inside the closet.

The ceiling of the closet (behind the pegboard doors). There's much more damage below where the picture stops. I took this to show the old paint colour and a tiny border of wallpaper. Not sure what era this might be from. The bottom part of the closet is painted green. (with about 20 years worth of dirt on top).

But it's not all bad. Those baseboards are beautiful and original and so is the door. And look how pretty the original hardware is! I'm not kidding when I say that one of the reasons I wanted to buy this house was because of those hinges.

2007-02-08T14:00:00.000-05:00

Isn’t this the best bumper sticker ever? The best part of the whole thing is the 1 stuck in the middle of the !!!!!!’s (Bumper sticker brought to you by cute overload.)

So I’ve been doing some fixing up and decorating of the spare bedroom for the past week. The entire upstairs of the house was painted in flat white cheap paint (which I suspect is just primer) and here we are 6 years later, and it still is. (Except for my exceptionally beautiful bathroom).

I want things to look nice, I have a vision, I do a little planning. But then I want it done… NOW. So I’m terrible at cutting corners. A little dust in the corner? Paint over it. Nail holes? Just pile on more paint to fill them up. It gets much worse about half way through when I really want it to be done so I start rushing through things that I shouldn’t. I must say that I was much better with this project (which still isn’t quite done but coming a long nicely). This room needed some tender loving care. I dusted the walls and swept the floor several times even! I filled cracks and nail holes and even big holes (that I’m glad I didn’t realize where there because they freaked me out!). Did I also mention I get freaked out easily? I even waited for things to dry before I did a second coat (plaster, paint, etc) It’s not going to be perfect, but what old house can be? (unless you rip everything out and start again which I would never want to do).

There were deep holes in the floor boards where the wall meets the floor. They’ll be covered by trim soon, but I had to stuff socks in them until then—too creepy. However, I did get up some nerve on the weekend to take out the socks and shine a flashlight down there. What if there was something really good, hidden for decades? No such luck. Just some antique dust bunnies.

Just a few more things to do and then I’ll post some before/after pictures. Won’t that be fun?

2007-02-02T09:51:00.000-05:00

Product Love Post #5 (Final)

Food is so personal, just like books. You can't really recommend either, you just never know. However, I can't think of a last product to post about so I'm breaking my own unspoken rule.

Did you know Altoids now have chocolate covered mints? I'm not sure if they are in Canada yet or not. Someone at work had been in the States and brought back one of each flavour. She offered me a taste and I chose the chocolate covered ginger. Yum yum yum!! I didn't even know they had ginger altoids (I guess they are in limited supply) but the chocolate covered ones are the most perfect flavour combination ever! Again, not for everybody... but definitely for me!

They also come in cinnamon and mint. Check out the Altoids website for more info and where to buy (and they have games to play too!)

p.s I thought I was going to get some great recommendations in reply. So far the recommendation numbers are pretty lame--one! Besides Krishna who just wants to be my friend. :-)

2007-02-01T09:07:00.000-05:00

Product Love Post #4

The jury is still out on this one. But I'm putting it here because I just discovered it, and I have very high hopes.

I've switched back to colouring my hair at home because of the expense. It certainly has been a little disappointing and it's possible I may go back to the salon. However, I'm sticking it out a little longer. One of the problems I'm having is that after about 2 weeks the top of my head is noticably lighter than the rest. It looks ridiculous. It looks like a bad dye job. Since it looks good right after I colour it, it must be fading. I use all the right shampoos and it's winter! We barely see the sun once a month! Not to mention I always wear a hat outdoors. I have no idea why this is happening. Anyway, as I said, I have high hopes for this product.

John Frieda claims his "Luminous Color Glaze" will: "infuse hair with a hint of natural-looking color while imparting multi-dimensional shine and soft, luxurious texture". After you shampoo and condition, you apply the colour glaze like a shampoo. You leave it in for 3 minutes and rinse. That's it.

I've only used it once, and the box does say that the effect builds up over two or three uses. I only applied it to the roots and top of my head, but I actually noticed how that part of my hair looked shinier--I also did notice that my colour still looked good now that we're into the second week. I'll be sure to do all of my hair the next time. We'll see!

If you're interested, you can visit the John Frieda site for more information. The product comes in shades of brown, blonde and red.

2007-01-31T09:49:00.000-05:00

Day 3 of Product Love

I'm a scent snob when it comes to body wash and shampoo. I don't want to smell like a coconut cream pie or some sort of bubblegum tropical drink! So I tend to go for the aromatherapy products because they smell a little more natural. I also like the strength of their scents.

A couple of years ago I was in Toronto for a few days on a business trip. I had forgotten to bring some shower gel so I walked over to Shoppers to get some. There, I discovered the beautiful land of Ombra bodywash. I love them, all, but my absolute favorite is the Ginger Lime. It's scent is unique, fresh--and real. I realize this might not be for everybody, but if you love aromatic shower soap, give it a try. Also recommended are the Lavender and Citrus Sage scents.

I will also add that many shower gels dry out my skin. Ombra leaves my skin feeling smooth and moisturized. (Which only lasts for a few minutes in this dry winter air!)

Ombra also makes great aromatherapy bubblebath. See their website for more info.

2007-01-30T13:07:00.000-05:00

Day 2 of my product love posts.

This one might seem like a strange one, but it's one of the very few things I've ever tried that lived up to the hype and did all it said it was going to do. It's kitty litter! No, really.

Last summer, I noticed Pinky having major problems with hairballs--not just coughing them up, but also becoming constipated and consequently getting ill. Thankfully, adding a little fiber to her food has cleared it right up (canned pumpkin!). However, it seems that her earlier painful experiences in the litter box caused her to equate the pain with the litter box and she started peeing on the floor beside the box. I didn't quite realize this until she did it right in front of me a couple of months ago. (We keep the litter in an unheated sun porch and she was just peeing on newspaper or linoleum so I didn't always smell and if it had dried up before I saw it, I wouldn't know). I keep the litter very clean due to Iggy's bladder infection problem--so I knew it wasn't that. There didnt seem to be any territorial issues and I knew she was healthy and not stressed. I tried a couple of different litters, but the problem persisted. From what I'd gatheredfrom reading about this problem--it seemed she had just picked up a habit.

Then I read about Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract Litter. It's a clay based litter with some herbal scent (that only the cat can really smell) that's supposed to attract the cat to the litter. It was made to help train kittens and get problem cats to start using their litter again. I'd read several raving reviews of it at the PetSmart online store customer boards, so I decided to give it a try.

The litter comes with a booklet that you should read thoroughly. Then follow the directions. We're going on three weeks now without one single "accident". And what is it that they always say? It takes 2 weeks to start a habit? I think we're on the right track!

I hope someone out there is helped by reading this. Too many cats are abused or surrendered to shelters every year because of this kind of problem. Dr. Elsey has different approaches for even the worst of problem cats--so with some patience, there is hope!

Visit Dr. Elsey's website to read more about their products, including Cat Attract litter. Cat Attract can be purchased at PetSmart in Canada.

2007-01-28T20:14:00.000-05:00

Arggg! After a very busy and stressful week that had me remarking "What contest in hell did I just win?" several times over... I thought I'd turn to shallow and easy topics here on the old blog. Namely, shopping.

Some of my favorite blogs right now are posting their favorite items. "Favorite toothpaste", and the like. I love posts like this. I love hearing about products that are so good, they make people a) want to rave about them to their friends and b) keep a loyal following. So, I hereby solemnly swear, that I shall make a post every day this week highlighting a product that I'm jazzed about. I hope others that read this and have a blog, will do the same. And, if you don't have one, leave some ravings in the comments. I want to spend my money!

I'll start out with Method. They make household cleaners and soaps. Boring, right? Wrong! I first noticed them because of thier beautifully designed packaging (I am a sucker)... but believe me, they are more than just a pretty face. I started with the foaming hand soaps--the Green Tea and Sweetwater scents are so beautiful you won't be able to stop sniffing your hands.

Then, after nearly passing out, yet again, while cleaning the bathrooms with Fantastic (the stench gets in my lungs and holds on for dear life!) I decided to try Method's spray cleaners. I tried the all purpose (the Grapefruit scent) and the tub and tile cleaner (to remove soap scum in the shower). Not only do they smell good, they did an excellent job--and I didn't feel like I was going to cough up my lungs or poison the water system.

But the best is yet to come... they don't test on animals. Never ever! Not with any of their products. They look good (the bottles were designed by Karim Rashid), they work good, and they don't hurt animals. That's the holy product trinity!

In Canada you can buy Method Products at Shoppers Drug Mart and Zellers. In the States you'll find them at Target.

Check the Method website for a list of their products and more about the business:

http://www.methodhome.com

2007-01-18T11:03:00.000-05:00

Wow, two days in a row. Fancy that!

Yesterday’s mail delivery spoiled me rotten. Allow me to share, without seeming overly show-offy.

The first was a box from Amazon—two gifts from my dearest husband that arrived too late for Christmas (which he expected, so he just told me to expect two extra gifts sometime in January). The first was a DVD “Let’s Rock Again”. A documentary about Joe Strummer (by Dick Rude). It contains tour footage (with the Mescaleros), exclusive interviews and music. All of this was filmed right up to his unexpected and sad death in 2002. This was on my Christmas list, but it’s something we’ll enjoy together. I have to say his death affected more than I thought I would—maybe it had something to do with losing a little of my youth. lol Oh and it happened on that sad and pathetic Christmas I mentioned yesterday. Good timing!

The other item in the box was a book: A History of Domestic Space: Privacy and the Canadian Home. This was something he found on his own, based on my crazy infatuation with the history of our home. It’s perfect! I discussed in an earlier post, my facination of everyday life. But photographs from the 1800’s and early 1900’s rarely pictured everyday life. They were often posed portraits in front of fake backgrounds. This book delves into domesticity and the evolution of how we use our homes—it has amazing pictures of people around dining room tables and sitting in their living rooms. I had to stifle my urge to get out the magnifying glass and zoom in on every item in the room! I’m sure we’ll be revisiting this book in a future entry.

And, can you believe it? There was still something else. A mysterious box from an unknown sender. It turned out to be these indescribably perfect cat glasses from Bridey-Heidi. I mean, really, could these be any cuter? I can’t decide which one is my favorite… Right now the goth in me is favoring “Bad Cat”. Very unexpected and wonderful. Thank you Heio.

I guess the holidays are officially over now. Thank you to all of my irreplaceable friends and family for making me feel like the most loved and lucky person on earth—every day of the year. (And not because you buy me awesome presents ;-))

2007-01-17T15:18:00.000-05:00

I finally got some time to go to the Library and get some more research done in the city directories. I kind of surprised myself at how anxious I was feeling as I checked each year’s entry. I found myself silently saying “please be there, please be there”. I really did not want my Thomas family to ever move! Unfortunately, 1939 is the last time they are listed as living in the house. By then they’d lived in the house for 42 years! (or at least Ida had). They make up so much of the soul of this house. I looked through the next few years’ worth of directories and I can’t find them listed anywhere! By this time, Robert was 76 old and retired for 2 years. It’s possible they found the house too large and moved in with one of their children—as no longer heads of the household, they wouldn’t be listed in the directory. I suppose one of them could have died and the remaining one sold the house, but I can’t imagine that it would happen as fast? I guess we’ll never know. And unless I can find another way to get info, I’ll never know when they died, or who died first. I wonder if Ida became a widow twice in her life?

Whatever it was that happened, the house was sold and in 1940 a new occupant is listed. John Maxwell, Chief Engineer at Imperial Oil. Unfortunately I don’t have access to any other census info after 1911, so I don’t know anything else about him, or if he had a family. I hope to get that from the Assessment Rolls at the City Clerk’s office--the next project! I suppose I have to get to know them more, but I’m still sad about losing the Thomas’ and not so excited about researching the Maxwell’s right now. I can only imagine how attached biographers must get to their subjects!

In other house news, I found a company that makes reproduction twist doorbells! I have a place on my door where there should be one, but it’s long gone. I could have held out for an antique one, but I’m going to give this a try. Now maybe we’ll actually hear when someone’s at the door! I already know the cats will hate it.

So the holidays were a long time ago, but I should mention that they were great. They always are. I can only remember one sad one and that was sad and pathetic for a number of reasons, but we made do. It’s funny how when you look back on difficult situations in your life, you wonder how you ever got through them, but in the moment, you're just doing it. Or maybe that IS the answer.

One lingering problem leftover from the holidays is the need to eat eat eat everything in sight as well as crave crave crave whatever isn’t in sight. This leads to fat fat fat! I’m trying to eat better again and get more regular with the noon-hour workouts. Today we did a Salsa Dancing workout. Fun! And Hard! My legs are hurting already and it didn’t feel like we were actually working that hard.

Well, this was a boring entry so I’ll leave you with this little gem. Those of us that grew up in Canada will remember these “Hinterland Who’s Who” spots airing on TV regularly. Here’s a funny take on those on youtube.

2007-01-02T15:33:00.001-05:00

Oh, I’ll make an entry about Christmas soon. It’s nice to have a record of it. But that’s for later.

First I want to share a little story with you. The story contains mostly facts, and some speculation… and remains unfinished. However, I’m betting that more details will reveal themselves before too long.

The story begins 110 years ago… right here, where I am. Mr. And Mrs. William J. Wright lived in a cottage on Colborne Street with their son, John. Just 4 doors down from them, they watched as a tall, yellow brick house began to take shape. Two years later, this house would be theirs. It wasn’t as fancy as some of the houses up the street, but with all of the extra room and modern conveniences, it must have felt like a mansion to them. The family moved in in 1899 and soon after, Otis was born. Their happiness was short lived however, as tragedy struck the next year, and William J. died. Ida was left a widow at 35 with 2 young boys to raise by herself.

Ida was devastated, but did her best to keep strong for the boys. Thankfully, there was some money so she was able to stay in the house without taking a job.

During this same time, Mr. Robert Thomas was experiencing some struggles of his own. He lived around the corner on Waterloo Street with his son, William (10) and daughter, Cora (13). It would seem that Mr. Thomas’ wife had left him with the two children. Nobody was really sure of the story and it wasn’t talked about in polite company. Mr. Thomas owned a Barbershop on Richmond Street and although he had a steady and respected business, it wasn’t the most lucrative of professions. To help make ends meet, he took on two lodgers, a widow and her daughter who had immigrated from England.

Perhaps it was at church, on a Sunday stroll in the neighbourhood… or maybe taking their children to school, but somehow, Mrs. Wright and Mr. Thomas became acquainted with each other. It wasn’t long before Ida Wright became Ida Thomas and her new husband and his children moved into her lovely, but modest, yellow brick house on Colborne Street. The newly merged family did their best adjust to the new changes. In 1905 the biggest change of all came when little Ida Doris was born, the couple’s only child together.

More changes came over the years and by 1911 Robert's oldest son had secured a job as a grocery salesman and moved out to lodge in a house downtown. That past year, a 24-year old niece, Bessie, immigrated from England and stayed with the family. Both Bessie and Robert’s oldest daughter, Cora (now 23) worked as furriers at a local fur business. Ida's oldest son, John (19), worked as a printer for the local newspaper.

A few changes were made to the house and grounds as well. By 1917 the family had an automobile and a stone garage was constructed in the back. As well, an unheated sun porch was added on to the back of the house.

The story stops here, for now, in 1927. The family remains in the house with 64-year-old Robert still working in his barbershop on Maple Street….

If you haven’t guessed already, the above is the history of my house so far. I did a ton of research during the holidays and discovered so much more thanks to the 1901 and 1911 Census of Canada and local city directories and fire insurance maps. There’s so much more to do. It’s unfolding so interestingly. Aren’t you dying to know what happens to the Thomas family? I’ll be so disappointed if they just move away and I lose track of them. To be continued!

p.s. If any relatives of Robert Thomas, Ida Wright (or Ida Thomas) from London, Ontario, Canada find this through genealogy research, please leave a comment. I’m desperately looking for photos and such!

2006-12-20T14:56:00.000-05:00

Wow, Christmas is busy! I forget that every year. It’s good busy, of course, but there’s definitely not a lot of time to just hang out and get bored.

Speaking of Christmas… I came across Calendario Romano 2007 on one of the shopping sites I visit for gift ideas (which I’m not linking back to for obvious reasons!). But really, is this allowed? I was so intrigued I had to know more. The calendar is put out by the photographer and is not in any way affiliated with the Catholic Church. But still! March’s photo makes me blush. You must admit, it's a lovely calendar, taboo or not.

I’m still angry that all of the snow we had (several feet!) melted in a couple of days. Now it’s warm again and ugh… the sun is shining! But I tried to ignore it and Pete and I did some shopping downtown last weekend. We had a yummy Thai lunch in the Market and then visited Eldon House to see it all done up for Christmas. For those not familiar, it’s the oldest house in London. It was owned by the Harris family until 1959 when they handed it over to the city along with most of its contents to make into a museum. I hadn’t been there since I was a teenager—and I got so much more out of it this time around! The guide told us that you could read the original diaries of several Harris women in the UWO archives (with white gloves only of course!). I need to take about a year off just so I can do that sort of stuff!

2006-12-06T11:41:00.000-05:00

Could Pinky possibly be more of a girly girl? She’s the only cat I’ve ever had that poses. If she were a human she’d be forever trying on lipgloss and prancing around the house in pink tutus. Her brother, on the other hand… let’s just say he was named after Iggy Popp for a reason (but he’s not addicted to heroin that I know of).

Speaking of addictions. I think finding the 1901 census might have been a bad thing. I’m just way too into it. I spent hours on it last night trying to find info on the 1901 occupants of certain houses in my neighborhood. I decided I wanted to look up some of the grander houses on my street (the ones closer to downtown). I actually kept a log with this information and plan to take a walk up there to look at the houses and read my notes. Is that insane? If not, it’s extremely snoopy! However, I can’t resist. These houses all listed at least one “domestic” living in the house, sometimes two. I found myself comparing their wages and tut-tutting the families that were paying the lowest wages to their "general servants" (as their occupation was titled in the census). Most of these wealthy families did not list an income and the heads of the households often didn’t hold a job. The ones that did were usually in business for themselves, a barrister or physician, etc. Then there is the mysterious “traveler”. What on earth is a traveler? I saw that listed more than once and the wages were more than double of what the cabinetmaker, engineer and publisher were making. Someone is paying them to do this job, they listed themselves as an employee. It seems like those in business for themselves were not required to report their income. Or were they allowed to refuse? I don’t know, but it put the kaibosh on further snooping.

I also can’t believe I live in this city and I’m not English, Irish or Scottish. So far I haven’t found one family in 1901 that did not immigrate from one of these places, or descend from people that did.

All right, that’s enough of that. I’m sure I’ve driven you all crazy by this point.

When I was perusing The Gibson Gallery’s artists on the weekend, I found a photographer who’s work just blew me away. Larry Towell. Please check out his work, it’s incredible.

2006-12-05T10:24:00.000-05:00

Thank goodness, the world is not ending. All has returned to normalcy… at least in the weather world. It’s pleasantly cold and snowy with a couple of centimeters of snow on the ground. I hope the bat that I saw flying around in circles over my driveway last week found a winter home. I think he woke up wondering if it was spring already!

I had a lovely weekend filled with good friends, good art, festivity and a little bit of history.

Jenny and Graeme came down for Roly and Graeme’s art opening. Roly’s painting’s and Graeme’s furniture. It was a breathtaking show and just so nice to see everyone again. After the show we went to Chaucer’s for drinks, which turned into dinner, which turned into dessert and coffee. Couldn’t have asked for a better day or better company. We missed you Wen! Check out the work on The Gibson Gallery site.

So, that takes care of the good friends and good art part of things. Getting our Christmas tree covers festivity. We buy our tree every year from the united church a couple blocks from us. Then we carry it home together. It’s so much easier than trying to tie it to your car and maneuver the crazy traffic. Besides that, the tree is bigger than our car! I love you little Kia Rio, but I do miss the boxy 1986 Toyota Camray workhorse we used to have. That car could carry or tow anything. May you rest in peace oh loyal one…. But anyway, the tree is big and beautiful. I think it’s the nicest one we have ever had.

As for the little bit of history… Jenny told me that the Canadian 1901 census is available online! I could barely contain myself. Fueled by caffeine and sugar I stayed up until past 2am on Saturday looking for my house. You can search for your city, but after that, you have to just keep looking at the handwritten pages until you find your area of town. There are two pages of info. The first one covers particulars about the house: how many rooms, how many buildings on the property, etc. The second page lists personal info about the people living in the house. I already knew it was the widow Ida Wright living in the house at the time. But I didn’t know if she had children and their names and ages. From previous research I knew that Mr. Wright had died the year prior, the same year they moved into the house. I found out that in 1901 Mrs. Wright was a widow at 35, with 2 boys, aged 9 and 2. I didn’t find out much else about the house. It lists 7/1 rooms (does that mean 7 rooms and one bathroom?). Currently we have 8 rooms and 2 bathrooms. It didn’t list any outbuildings or land size. Mrs. Wright was born in Ontario Canada, in a city, could read and write and was a Methodist. It would have been more interesting if Mr. Wright was still alive at the time of the census because they also list employment and financial information. I know he was a Pork Curer (whatever that is!) but it would have been interesting to know how much a Pork curer made. It didn’t list any income or employment for Mrs. Wright, so we can only guess she was living off money she got when her husband died. She only stayed in the house three more years. I wonder if she remarried, or perhaps could no longer afford the house?

Wanting more information I also looked up the information on the houses on either side of me and directly across the street. Those were much more interesting. On the left side of us we had a family with 2 daughters. The father ran his own publishing house in a separate building on the property. Since the house numbers skip one address, I’m guessing that his publishing house had it’s own separate address. Once it was torn down, that address went with it. He made the most money of all of the neighbours I looked up. On the other side of us lived a family with a son and daughter. The man was a cabinet maker and the son (19 years old) was a litho artist. They also had a 74-year-old lodger living with them who was an engineer. Apparently he still worked because they listed his employment and financial info for the current year.

I could go on and on but I won’t bore you! If you are interested in looking at the Canadian1901 census, you can find it here.

2006-11-28T19:05:00.000-05:00

Whew. This is starting to be a "once a week at best" blog. I think I jinxed myself when I started it out of boredom... because now I'm way too busy.

However, I decided not to take work home tonight because my mouse hand is hurting from overuse. I spent a whole day making graphics for my current e-learning project--I loved my day! But as with all things fun, there's always a consequence.

So you know that old saying "When you want something done, give it to a busy person." That was written about me. When I'm busy I will not only get your task done, I will find 10 other things that need doing and marvel at how long they've gone undone. I'm so busy right now I can't even fathom taking a bathroom break (or I think about what I can do while I'm in there)--yet when I get home, do I rest? No, I decide, out of the blue, that we need a safety deposit box and then go on a hunt for all of the important papers we should store in there and then... OMG we've never taken pictures of all of the stuff in our house! What if we got robbed? How could re prove we own 8 million CDs? Are you exhausted yet? I stopped myself from actually taking the pictures... but so neurotic!

I guess I don't really have much to say today. But I do have some things to pass on:

Don to Earth

Donald Crowdis is a 92-year-old Canadian blogger. I read an article about him in the National Post this weekend. He's led a facinating and life, but anyone who's walked this earth for 92 years would be interesting. The Post described him as "an interesting mix of Vonnegut and Yoda".

Wiretap

This is the best.show.on.radio.ever. Have you listened? It's a CBC show so those not in Canada might not have heard it yet. It's not available on podcast yet, but fans are sharing the shows online. As I was creating graphics all day, I listened to older shows--this added to loving my day. Start with this "Best of season 2" show. (I hope it works!)

Lastly, would someone please buy me this bed?

(link found at Inside a Black Apple)

2006-11-23T10:17:00.000-05:00

Well, that was long lapse. Busy took over and I had to just run with it.

I can’t even really think of much to say, but I thought I’d better make a post sooner rather than later or else I’ll get completely in the habit of not posting.

You know what I did last weekend? I went to a movie. I haven’t gone to a movie in months. I saw “Stranger Than Fiction” and I fell in love with it… totally unexpectedly. It’s just a very sweet, smart, well done movie. And I discovered some new music. I won’t ruin anything for you, but there’s a song in the movie, that’s very important to a particular scene. It starts out being sung by one of the characters and then the original recording merges in and takes over. I loved it and even stayed to watch the credits to figure out who it was (I couldn’t!). Of course P knew who it was: Wreckless Eric. “Oh he’s great” he says. And why hasn’t he said a thing about him ever? Why must I discover this guy 28 years after the fact? Sheesh! Anyway, he’s my new favorite. Go to itunes and download “Whole Wide World”—then make sure you buy an album. You’ll love him. (oh but don’t buy “Whole Wide World 4 England” which is a remake and the lyrics were changed to make it some kind of soccer anthem)

Other than that, I have to thank J.I. for showing me my new favorite house blog: 1902 Victorian. I’m reading all of the archives from the beginning and it’s making me love MY old house even more. Don’t get me wrong, I love my old house and it’s what I always wanted. But sometimes living in an old house is hard. There’s never ending work to do (with no money to do it) and lots of unique problems—and having more than one electrical outlet per room would be helpful…. But there are so many great things that outweigh the little annoyances. This blog has helped me love it even more. She just “gets it”. Thanks J!

2006-11-13T12:43:00.000-05:00

I had an unexpected little archaeological dig in the backyard yesterday. We were doing some "getting ready for winter" tasks outside and I was planting a couple of perrenials that I still had in pots. As soon as I started digging, I knew I had found a good hole--the dirt in these "garbage holes" always has light coloured dirt with what looks like ash--although you'd think ashes would be long gone by now. Anyway, I decided to just keep digging. I started to find the usual pottery shards and glass, but then suddenly, I saw an entirely intact bottle sitting just to the side of where I had just been ramming the shovel! I carefully took it out of the earth. Now remember, I get super excited when I find a tiny piece of a broken dish, my head nearly exploded when I found this bottle without even a crack! The bottle is greenish blue, frosted glass and the top is fairly wide. Inside are the petrified remnants of some kind of sticky yellowish stuff. I'm going to have to get a bottle brush to get it out.

I decided to keep digging, but I got rid of the shovel in case there were more goodies down there that I might accidently break. About 3 feet down I found another bottle, this one had a fancier shape--brown glass with a little stopper. When I lifted it out it had liquid inside the bottle. It smelled and looked like water, but it's hard to say what it was. I threw it out. I don't want to mess with unknown liquid! eek! The bottle is in perfect condition but the stopper is cracked in half. It's a clean break and easy to glue.

Along with the brown bottle were the broken pieces of what looks like a large tea cup saucer. I pulled out as many as I could. The exciting part about this is that two of the pieces showed almost the whole makers mark. With the help of the internet, I was able to find information about the maker AND date the piece! The mark on this dish was used between 1900 and 1913. Which means this dish probably belonged to either the Wright's (who lived here between 1900 - 1903) or the Tompson's (1904 - onward). A photo of the mark on my dish is shown at left. The mark I found on the internet can be found here (scroll down).

The last thing I found before I had to stop, was the bowl of a clay pipe. This one being such a personal item, it really gave me that jolt that I get when I start to think of how these objects connect us in time. Perhaps this pipe once belonged to Mr. Thompson--the owner of the Barber Shop?

Along with these pieces I pulled out a few crockery shards and one piece of an unidentified porcelain object that looked very fancy. I wonder if the little bubbles on it are the tiny feet for a footed bowl of some sort or maybe it was a figurine? I really can't say. I'm thinking that someone got in trouble for breaking whatever that was!

The bottle and the saucer were sitting in what looks like a metal bucket. I wasn't able to get it out--but I'm not giving up yet! I've left the hole open and will continue digging once the winter is over. Now I have to figure out how to display these things properly. (Away from curious kitties!)

2006-11-08T14:52:00.000-05:00

Ok, that is two colds now within 4 months. What is going on? I usually get a cold maybe, just maybe, once a year. However, it's a chest cold, so now I have a sexy voice.

I don’t really have much to say but I need a little break from what I’m doing.

So have you started watching Boston Legal yet? It’s the most underrated show on TV. I finally took the initiative to start taping it and I’m so in love now. William Shatner and James Spader are simply brilliant. Quirky, funny, controversial, off colour… poignant. It has it all. Watch! You’ll catch up, no need to worry about starting late.

Also, I’m officially feeling all Christmassy. Although the sun just came out and kind of ruined it. But I’m sure that will be over soon. I’m totally into the Christmas issues of magazines and checking out the stores for the Christmas displays. I know most people can’t relate to me and my enthusiasm. But don’t you think I was named appropriately? Gingerbread Lattes at Starbucks can’t come soon enough!

p.s. you can buy the lovely coasters pictured here.

2006-11-05T18:31:00.000-05:00

I started to write this on Saturday, but there’s always so much to do! And I don’t even consider my life a busy one. But we did spend a fun afternoon in Waterloo wishing Niece Gwyneth a happy 2nd birthday. And I do believe her sister, Alison, was as excited about the “ice cream” cake as the birthday girl was. (I suspect even a little more).

Well, anyway, Friday was the big night. We loaded up on garlicy food and made our way to the John Labatt Centre. Let me just say that it’s NOT a good idea to eat a lot of garlic before a long concert. We even had gum… it didn’t work. I feel sorry for the people that were around us. But, back to the story. There is just NOTHING like front row. Especially when you didn’t have to wait in line for 8 hours to get it, be in danger of losing your place if you move, or have to listen to horrible acoustics because you’re too close. We just ate like pigs and waltzed ourselves to the front of the room. Once there, we could stretch out our legs, and most importantly, not have to worry about how tall the guy in front of us might be. I can’t stress enough how important front row is. Got it?

We were a tiny bit late and missed the FooFighter’s first song—although I did hear it while I was waiting in the line to get through the gate. But let me just admit here for a moment that I’m a big judger of book covers. I have blown off the Foo’s for many years, I don’t really know why other than the fact that it sounds like Frat boys named their band. I also know I’m a snob and newish bands have to really prove something to me before I’ll even glance their way. All I can say is that they proved it! They were really, really great. All of the band members were simply fantastic players and frankly, they blew us all away. And that’s coming from someone that only recognized one of their songs.

Between sets I had the great pleasure of leaving my seat (with no fear that someone would steal it) and use the facilities, get a drink, talk to friends that were sitting elsewhere, etc. Again, so much more relaxed than General Admission.

Then Bob came on and we all stood up—and stayed that way the entire set. Nine thousand and some-odd people. There was a fair amount of space between us and the stage, and they set up the band quite far back from the front of the stage. So we weren’t within “touching” distance. Which I guess was good because the stage was quite high and that way we could see quite well without craning our necks. I’m not even going to say the show was good, or fantastic, or amazing or sublime. I mean, come on. It was Bob. I don’t think I have to waste the words. And it was most definitely all of those things. But, I will be honest and say it’s not my most favorite of Bob shows. He played the keyboards the entire night—never once picked up the guitar. I very much missed the guitar. And he was facing sideways towards the other band members, so of course it didn’t matter to us, but if you were on the right side of the stage, you’d be looking at his back all night. That would suck!

But regardless, he is so fun to watch with is funny little dance steps and intense sideways glances. And how cute is it that he still sets up his Oscar beside him on stage? The standout songs for me included Masters of War, Netty Moore, Rollin’ and Tumblin and one of my favorite songs of all time Not Dark Yet. Not to make this all mushy and sentimental, but this concert did fall on the anniversary of my mom’s death, three years ago. I shed a little bitter-sweet tear when he sang “For every beautiful thing, there’s been some kind of pain.” Ain’t it so true.

Oh and during Masters of War, which is always very intense, something made him laugh. A few of the band members laughed at his laughing (lol) and Bob had to turn his back to the audience to get his composure back. Pretty cute.

The setlist is here.

The London Free Press review is here (I think he’s right on the money)

2006-11-03T09:41:00.000-05:00

I can’t stop eating Rockets! Damn you Halloween! I’m going to gain 10 pounds and become diabetic if I don’t get this habit under control very soon. They are just soooo gooooood… Speaking of Halloween, someone at work told us that their son went to high school dressed as Rocky for Halloween (as in Rocky Horror Picture Show)—meaning the only thing he had on was a pair of gold lame short-shorts! How come boys never did that when I went to high school?

I read a lot of blogs every week and I keep finding new ones to add to the collection. One of my new favourites is called “Extended Cake Mix”. She’s bitingly funny and never fails to give me a laugh when I dial her up. I think she had me with this October 3rd short post: “I saw a hipster wearing a fanny pack today, just...walking up the street. What does that even mean? When the ultimate in wrong is now embraced like that? What's next, trucker hats?”

OH and I just remembered! “Sunken Treasure” came out on October 24th. I should just wait and ask for it for my birthday… but I don’t think I can wait! And I kid you not, Sunken Treasure, the song, just came on launch radio. What does that meeeeean?

Well, tonight is BobDylan FFR (fu*king front row!). What to wear, what to wear? And as D remarked last night (one of my fellow front row-ers) “If you’ll be there, we won’t see you—cause we’ll have our backs to… everyone.” Way to rub it in ;-)

2006-11-02T14:22:00.000-05:00

I’m back! And I was going to start the month off right by joining National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) and posting every day for the month of November. I already missed the first day! Work was busy, and then my roots had to get done, American’s Next Top Model was on, the garbage had to go out, and then bam! It was time to read my book and go to bed. I guess that means I don’t even get to put this cool banner on my blog to signify my participation.

So I was in Atlanta last week taking some Authorware training. A whole week to live in a hotel in a strange city all my myself! I took the MARTA train all by myself from the airport. I’m so proud of myself! Actually, the training, although very good, was exhausting and usually went until 5:00. I didn’t have much time or energy for exploring other than taking the hotel shuttle to the nearby mall every night. Not that I’m complaining, shopping is ALWAYS fun. I didn’t buy much, but I fell in love with Anthropologie (where I bought a fancy tea towel for my collection and an iron door stop) and J. Jill (where I bought a sweater and shirt on sale). Why can’t we have these stores? Where is the pretty store love for Canada? I shouldn’t complain. We really do have some great stores here, but one always wants what one cannot have (or that’s difficult to have).

The other reason I didn’t buy much was because I couldn’t find anything I wanted! (besides all of the stuff I couldn’t afford at Anthropologie). The sooner the fashion industry gets over the 80’s “retro look” the better. Be gone, cheap t-shirt material clothing! Be gone flouncy short skirts and un-natural fabrics! And take those huge shiny belts and peter pan boots with you!

Switching the topic to one a little less shallow… let’s talk about books. Remember those old Penguin book covers? Having worked in several bookstores in my late teens and early twenties, I had the pleasure of seeing and admiring many of them. I used to get the promo posters from the stores once they weren’t needed. I wish I still had them! Anyway, someone put up their collection of Penguin and Pelican book covers on flickr. Go see!

And have you heard of Mark Ryden? A lot of his work is a little goth-trendy™ for me. But he does have some very compelling images and his technique is impeccable. I quite like the “Meat” set.

2006-10-18T09:07:00.000-05:00

I would never win any of the Survivor challenges. I can’t hold my breath under water for very long, I can’t lift heavy weights for any length of time, and I really, really suck at puzzles. Take this morning, for example. Attached to our suite of offices is a classroom. In the classroom is a set of tables that fit together in the shape of a U. Some of the tables are shaped like a trapezoid (I think) and some are straight. You put them all together properly and you get a U shape. This morning they were scattered all over the place and I needed them to be back in the U. I called Housekeeping to help me get them back. The three of us moved tables around and around getting all kinds of crazy shapes… but no U. The Three Stooges put together a room? Finally I had to draw it out on a piece of paper. Whew! I knew that art training would come in handy. So what does that mean? I’m not a linear thinker? Something like that…

I guess that’s also the reason I can’t visualize how to put furniture in a room. I have to move it around and around until it looks right. Knowing that I’m going to be working on the upstairs of my house this winter (and for other reasons, perhaps one of them being the fact that I’m a huge spendaholic on things for my house)… I purchased a copy of “Apartment Therapy. The Eight Step Home Cure”. The book also inspired a great (and addictive) website (or maybe the website came first?) Anyway, I have high hopes and very little money. Pray for me.
Speaking of spend, spend, spend… and house, house house. D and I went on a shopping extravaganza last weekend in Toronto. Homesense, Ikea, outlet malls, Eaton’s Centre, Younge Street…. We actually shopped ourselves out. Incredible to imagine, but it’s true. I didn’t buy as much as you’d think, but am very happy with what I found.

And here’s a little tip to try. You know those sheepskins from Ikea? They cost about 35 bucks. Putting one of those on a chair instantly updates it and it looks and feels great. Not only that, for some reason, cats don’t like to sleep on it (maybe it’s just my cats?) which means I can now reclaim the two chairs in my library, previously unusable because of the dreaded cat-hair-bum you get after sitting on them. I also bought two lovely red bird Christmas decorations from Ikea. So pretty.

2006-10-13T09:18:00.000-05:00

Ooops. It’s a lapse in blogging!

I blame it on Canadian Thanksgiving for making me lazy. Actually, what really happened is that I got busy at work and took on a side job doing some online stuff. I also went into one of my crazy “throw everything out!” phases. This is rare, and I’m not really good at it. After all, I still keep that section in my closet with clothes from high school. There’s not very many of them, and they are all vintage finds from Layman House (a blast from the past for Londoners!)…but still… If it weren’t for people like me who keep things, then we’d never have any cool things to find in antique and vintage stores J I do keep a close watch on my hoarding though… I always figured I’d end up one of those ladies that they have to forcefully remove from her house filled with cats and piled up newspapers. I’m sort of not kidding…

Well, CBGB’s is closing for good. The last show is Oct. 15th. I want someone I know to be there! Unfortunately tickets are already gone. I want a splinter of wood from the bar, or a paint chip. *sigh* I find it all very sad. And reopening in Las Vegas is even sadder. I think Wendy’s idea of blowing it up after the last show is much better and fitting way to close it down.

I love this video for Iron and Wine’s “Naked as they Came”. Yay for the fish! Simple and lovely.

2006-10-05T07:59:00.000-05:00

See what I mean? Not long after I published yesterday's journal entry, I stumbled upon this article in NY Magazine:

"Scenes From the Kitchen. And the living room, and the bedroom. A scrapbook of stars in their native habitats." The photos aren't big enough for snooping in the background, though. I'll need to try and find the magazine on the newstand.

Be sure to click on the slide show for the pictures. My favorite is the one with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein in their kitchen. But I love Bob Dylan in his apartment (with the lampshade askew in the background!) and Gloria Steinem, too. But I am disappointed by Woody Allen's photo!

2006-10-04T13:27:00.000-05:00

This summer I spent some time making excuses to dig holes in my backyard in hopes that I’d find more “garbage” buried there decades ago by former owners of my house. As we all know, people used to bury their garbage way back when. Quite frequently I find pottery shards and old bits of rusted metal, wire and such. This spring I sliced my finger open on a piece of glass from who knows when. Ouch! But mindblowing as well, right? I wonder if Mr. or Mrs. so-and-so burying their garbage in 1898 could ever have fathomed that some woman in the year 2006 would cut herself on their broken bottle.

I also spent some time doing a little more research on the former owners of my house. I’m at about 1909 and we still have Mr. Thompson living there: a barber who owned a shop downtown. I even found the building where he had his barber shop. What I’d really love to see is a photo of it. I’d also die happy if I could find a photo of my house back in the day. A blurry, background glimpse even! So far I’ve been foiled. But I’m also not sure where to look…

Very old photos of the interiors of general stores or other shops have always appealed to me. The photos would be of the shop minders, but I could spend hours looking at the things in the background and trying to figure out how they spent their day. Same goes for family photos in people’s houses. I’m looking at what’s on the kitchen counters and marveling at the old TV Set. I especially love old Christmas Day photos—after the presents have been opened. I get out the magnifying glass trying to figure out what’s under the tree. These objects have a history as much as the people do. I suppose this thinking is what causes someone to be a packrat, such as myself. haha

I love it when you’ve got something on your mind and so many relevant things start popping up in front of your eyes wherever you look. Synchronicity. Yep.

Yesterday, I found this little excerpt from an essay by Gary Saul Morson ("Prosaics: An Approach to the Humanities" from volume 57 (1988) of American Scholar

"It is often the small items in the background of old photographs that most powerfully evoke elusive memories of the past. The things barely noticed at the time and included only by chance may best preserve the feeling of life as it was lived. The furniture long ago discarded, a spot on the wall, a picture we had long ignored but that now suggests the habitual life we lived beneath it — these small items remind us of how it felt to live in a room. The intended subject of a photograph can seem much less important in comparison with its background; and perhaps that is one reason why professional photos without a background so often seem to miss the very point of photography."

Well said, well said.

(click to make it bigger)
Christmas early 1960's…A miniature tin baking set in the bottom left corner (jealous!) and the tiny wooden shoes hanging on the wall in the background—I have them now and suddenly they have a history. I wasn’t born yet when this was taken. (Heidi, there's my sister, Jackie O on the right. We need a better Jackie O shot. Louise? Jo-ann?)

(click to make it bigger)
Christmas nineteen seventy something.
Cheater snow molds for making igloos!

2006-10-02T09:54:00.000-05:00

So this is weird. It smells like car exhaust is being pumped into my office. Maybe someone’s trying to kill me. I just opened my window so haha! Plan foiled!

The weekend was soooo Fallish. Cool and rainy. Perfect for cocooning. I think I’m a Goth lol. I really do love dark and dreary weather in Fall and Winter (not in summer, of course).

It was good weather for a little shopping (spent way too much!) But I organized my clothes as well. Got rid of some stuff and put the summer stuff away. I also went through all of my jewelry. I have it hidden and scattered all around the house. I’m so paranoid about getting broken into that I hide it. But then I can’t be bothered to get it out and wear any of it. It’s a ridiculous quirk of mine that I need to get over. So I took it all out and decided which would be most devastating if stolen (family heirlooms, etc) and hid that stuff. The rest I put out for me to wear. I forgot about half of the great stuff I had! I plan to start wearing it all again. I also need to get some workable jewelry boxes or something.

Another thing about the arrival of Fall means that I can concentrate more on the inside of the house again. Cleaning it might be the first step, but I’d like to start tackling some of the rooms upstairs finally. We’ve never touched any of those and my stairs are still in need of fixing and painting after we ripped up the ugly carpeting. It will have to be cheap because money is scarce. Just paint and such. I wish I could figure out what to do with this horrible and injurious stucco on the walls, though! I scraped my knuckles off on the wall yesterday again, just trying to turn the light on. Who ever thought putting sandpaper on their walls was a good idea?

I really love Zachary Rossman’s work. I wanted to buy one his drawings but my favorites were already sold. I still go back and visit them from time to time, though.

2006-09-29T09:51:00.000-05:00

Hurray it's Friday! And another bonus, is that I have nothing planned for the weekend. It harshes my sloth when I have too many things to do.

I need to start eating right (and normally) again. Is it Fall that is causing me to eat so poorly and piggishly? I swear, don't come too close to me because I shall eat you. I hearby swear that I will begin to eat properly as of today! (and look up some new recipies, and buy groceries and make some meals. No more junk!)

I must say though, we Canadians may have fake money and fake Emmy Awards, but our fake spinach is not covered in e-coli! So there! I had a delicious harvest stew this week with CANADIAN spinach (made by Peter, of course).

Speaking of food (still), when we were visiting Pete's mom in Nova Scotia, she made us "Blueberry Grunt". It's a traditional Nova Scotian dish that we totally fell in love with it. I got her to teach me how and write out the recipe and I'm making it for Christmas dinner dessert. It's warm blueberries stewed with a little sugar and some spices over dumplings. The only drawback is that everyone has blue teeth afterwards. There can be no smiling with approval. Maybe that's why it's called Grunt... cause that's all you can really do.

Well, the other Fallish thing to do is to start reading a good book. I think I found a good one to kick off cocooning season. The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. It's all Jane Erye, gothic mansions, thunderstorms and family secrets. Perfect! It has great reviews and interestingly, this is the author's first book.

I think next on my list might have to be: Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl. One reviewer said her writing was a cross between David Sedaris and Dave Eggers. Whoa. That's like being "the new Bob Dylan". We'll see.

Any other suggestions?

p.s. An addendum to the above eating proclomation. This does not cover Gingerbread and/or Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks. Cause I'm totally getting one tonight after work.

2006-09-28T09:10:00.000-05:00

With Fall well underway, my instincts turn to sloth. In other words, watching TV.

This year I am bound and determined to find a good drama to tune into every week. Something smart and interesting with some black humour thrown in there. Law and Order original, I still love you, don't worry, but where are the Six Feet Unders... and Twin Peaks!? Remember that show? Out of left field and so creepy funny. Somebody save me and allow the snuggling under covers to begin. Anybody have any suggestions?

Boston Legal is a great show, by the way. I kept missing it last season because it starts at 10:00. But I want to make a better effort. It's so worth it. Shatner, how I love thee. I'm also giving Six Degrees a good try. Here's hoping...

Speaking of TV, Naughty Naughty Pets has been nominated for 2 Gemini Awards! (the Canadian Emmy's). As if we didn't already know Wendy was a star (as we all put our collector edition pets in protective plastic wrap).

Have you tuned into the Wardrobe Remix pool at Flickr? People take a picture of an outfit they are wearing that (they believe) has turned out quite well. I find very few ideas, but I do get a kick out of it. Especially the people that put on a Gap Shirt with Gap pants and Gap shoes and a Gap belt, oh... and maybe a bag from Payless just to mix it up a bit. As if nobody else would have thought of that combination. (meow!)

Don't you just love the "Hi, I'm a Mac" commercials? Those two actors are my favorite! Here's a little interview with PC Guy--John Hodgman.

2006-09-27T07:52:00.000-05:00

Have you bought Bob Dylan's latest offering yet? Modern Times? It's fantastic and I'm loving it more every time I listen. Besides that, there's not many people with the balls (or the creativity) to rhyme "Sons of bitches" with "orphanages".

On a similar topic. Reading poems is a good thing to do when you can't sleep. I couldn't sleep last night. Anyway, I discovered this lovely poem by Auden (see below). It reminds me of something... hmmm ... what could it be?

If I Could Tell You W. H. Auden

Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

If we should weep when clowns put on their show,
If we should stumble when musicians play,
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

There are no fortunes to be told, although,
Because I love you more than I can say,
If I could tell you I would let you know.

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow,
There must be reasons why the leaves decay;
Time will say nothing but I told you so.

Perhaps the roses really want to grow,
The vision seriously intends to stay;
If I could tell you I would let you know.

Suppose all the lions get up and go,
And all the brooks and soldiers run away;
Will Time say nothing but I told you so?
If I could tell you I would let you know.

2006-09-26T13:05:00.000-05:00

It's me! Just call me a blogger because I have arrived.

Sometimes I feel the need to reach out to friends and family, but it's 2:00am or when you and I should be working. Here's how we can do it! I can bore you to death and you can leave me comments!

First on the list of things to share: Oakridge Boys. They are coming to London and I'm going. I just spend 100 bucks on the Oakridge Boys. I guess Dad's are worth it. We'll talk about wardrobe options closer to the big night, because I already know I'll need help.

Shoes! So I pulled out many a hair and uttered many swear words trying to buy these cute cute shoes over the internet.

Surely to goodness I would never find them in a shoe store here in London, right? But nobody on the whole wide web wanted my fake Canadian money nor did they want to send them to my fake Canadian country. Finally, my wonderful friend Evi (shopping Queen AND American) was there to help. The shoes arrived and cuteness prevailed! However, not 3 days later while following Pete-o into a silly athletic store I would normally never set foot in... my eyes spy owl cuteness on the shelves amongst the Nikes! Oh well, I didn't need that extra 25 bucks spent on postage and exchange, anyway. Lesson learned here people: Don't be a store snob. You just never know what cuteness might be inside.

To continue with the cute theme, have you been to Cute Overload yet? As they say, "You'll barf a rainbow!" Go there, it will make you smile, I swear (and maybe even barf!).

Oh yes, and H&M are coming to London. Opening in White Oaks Mall. That's kind of good and gross all at the same time. Suburbia does not deserve H&M and we all know that my skin will melt if I have to set foot in White Oaks. What to do?

Let's summarize:

1. Me boring/annoying = you comments
2. Cute
3. Cuter
4. Thoughtful dilemma