some more snow

Well, all the weather forecasts agreed on some semblance of a storm, and they happened to be fairly accurate for a change. Sunday morning I looked out the window and thought it had been yet another overenthusiastic forecast. But I guess my third-floor view can make even the snow cover seem puny.

We headed off to church through at least a few inches of freshly fallen snow. Everyone was driving was pretty slowly. Except maybe one car. On the freeway (and all other divided roads), everyone seemed to stay in the right lanes, but since the plow trucks tend to throw snow right rather than left, the leftmost lane was in the best shape. The car seemed to tend floatily toward various incorrect directions but after some time I realized that was the doing of the wind and not a slippery surface.

We got to church only 6 minutes late and rounded out the morning's attendance of 25 souls (a third of the usual). After church we had to reschedule a planned visit due to the weather and did a less rural visit instead. The snow kept coming down, so to wait for it to be over would be futile (or at least rather lengthy). Heading home later that afternoon, the freeway was almost invisible due to drifting snow. One thing I'm not crazy about seeing glimpses of in those rare bare patches of road is the solid white line on the left side of my car.

The drive home wasn't terribly fast, but again the leftmost lane was the best of the bunch. (Oh, and I've reaffirmed my belief that the sensation of speeding is relative: it felt rewarding 'zipping' by all the other cars at over 70 km/h.) More than once we'd 'zip' by a freeway on-ramp, and there would be 8 or so vehicles lined up and stopped; a handful of people would be pushing the lead vehicle through the mounds of plow-displaced snow until it could carry on under its own steam, after which they would get behind the next car in line and push some more...

We disturbed some snow mounds getting through to our off-ramp, and then stopped to help a minivan that had gotten stuck. Then off to home, adventure over.

Or not. Our common paved area on the condo grounds hadn't been plowed yet, so we got hung up fairly quickly. I had suspected this would happen, but there was no harm in trying. So off I went to trade my Sunday shoes for boots. A few friendly neighbours were outside shovelling, and they came over to help. Another neighbour took his all-wheel-drive Subaru and broke a trail to my carport, and without too much effort we had the car parked in very little time. Yay for nice neighbours!

By the time it was over, it was a 37cm snowfall. Not too bad in my books, although it's still a little short of the 95cm we had in a single snowfall four years ago in Halifax. Good times, good times...

Accumulation on some garden furniture in our backyard...


Some blurry pics showing accumulation on the deck...


So Elaine, I imagine your hubby wasn't as impressed as we are... :)

Pictureless update

Okay, I couldn't do a completely artless post... bear with my fantastic drawing-with-mouse skillz...

Life's been relaxing and fairly routine. Carrie's mom was in town for a conference so she stayed over for a couple of weekends. Our first out-of-town visitor... and after living here only a month!

I got a little addicted to websites for used stuff over the last few weeks. I tried to sell some things online but have managed to sell only one item so far. Buying stuff, on the other hand, goes a lot easier. Among the things I picked up is a fake Christmas tree. (Let's face it -- being from where I'm from, I couldn't very well stoop to paying for a real tree!) Our first tree! It's a little bare but I have big and exciting plans: each year buy $5 worth of junk to hang on it, and within a few decades it will be as well decorated as the best of them. My only regret is that our living room is 10 feet high and I only bought a 7' tree. But I guess that means we can take it with us if/when we move. Oh, and if I come across a big fat 3-foot star it will make a great tree-topper.


Last week Saturday we thought we'd go cross-country skiing in Gatineau Park, which is just across the bridge on the dark side in Quebec. It's maybe a 20-minute drive so rather convenient. But it turned out that the rental place there wasn't renting skis until this weekend, so our other option was to go snowshoeing. Unfortunately the footwear I'd chosen for the day were my Nike runners since I expected to be changing into ski boots. And though I've heard often enough that my shoes could double as skis or snowshoes, I wasn't eager to test that theory. By being a little cautious and staying on the semi-packed trail, I didn't get too much snow in my shoes. The outsides got very wet, but I was surprised to find that they were quite waterproof indeed.


After a short excursion we went for a drive to see the area. We drove along Meech Lake. (I heard of this back in current events classes in school back in the olden days, but hadn't--and still largely haven't--a clue what that was all about.) We had an old disposable camera with us that was a relic from our Europe trip, so went about about filling it that day. No sooner was it full than we had several up-close deer sightings. Oh well, we now know that there's some sizeable wildlife not far from the city.

Once we get the film developed (wow that sounded strange and old-fashioned) we'll finally get to see how our pictures turned out from the Cinque Terre, five villages on the northwestern coast of Italy. These towns are connected by rail and hiking trails, and we found that area to have some of the most beautiful scenery we would encounter in Europe. And I had to go and forget to take my real camera that day.

Our minister and his family have moved to Taber, AB so there were multiple Christmas-program-slash-farewell evenings to see them off. Ottawa was his first congregation and he's been here nine years; it's clear they will be sorely missed.

It's been snowing off and on so there's a fair bit of snow and it seems to be here to stay. We thought we'd take advantage of this and go snowboarding on 2-for-1 Tuesday evenings at a local ski hill in Gatineau Park. We had driven by the ski *hill* on Saturday and I must say I wasn't exactly eager to hit those quasi-slopes, but Carrie's mom managed to bring both our snowboards from B.C. when she visited, so we're quite determined to use them one way or another. A friend of mine quit work early and headed over to our place; sadly the fact that it was snowing out (and people must still not be too steady on their winter legs/tires) meant a usually-40-minute drive took him two hours! Meanwhile Carrie had headed out with our car to the hill with a coworker; what should have taken maybe 25 minutes took over an hour, and that only got them to where she hit the ditch. Another hour wait for a tow truck (a booming business that night), and finally off to the slopes for a couple hours of fun. (Since they ran aground not 3 minutes from the ski hill, it was a no-brainer to decide to carry on with the original plan. Plus on 2-for-1 night a lift ticket costs $12.50 a person so that's not so bad.) Since the 2-hr-drive friend's tires were even worse than our car's, we decided to enjoy the après-ski beer and pizza without the ski (or board) element.


Our inside-scoop unofficial weather guy from church has me pumped for the snowfall expected tomorrow. I expect many feet of fluffy goodness. Okay, maybe half that, but hopefully lots anyway. It will interesting to see what the driving conditions will be.


Well that post was way too long.

Gearing up for that white Christmas

Finally a real snowfall! It's not 3 feet, but it's a start.

This morning I thought I'd walk Carrie to work, just to get some exercise before my gruelling <cough> day of work. I got a nice unflattering shot of the Lester B. Pearson Building where she works on the top floor. These buildings are highly secure; I got in a few weeks ago by flashing my driver's license. Okay, Carrie's presence may have helped but I expected more.



Some scenery at some bridge somewhere along the way. Ahhh... looks like real winter; no green to be seen.... just white and grey and a few shades in between.



What else is new? I found a filing cabinet and an Ikea bed frame for fairly cheap on craigslist and kijiji; then I got the prices down by a third and borrowed a friend and his trailer on Saturday to pick the stuff up. It's a bartering first for me; usually I pay full price, with the temptation to pay more just so the seller won't think I'm a cheapo.

The filing cabinet is nice and big. I'll have to quit getting electronic statements just so I can fill this thing up. Alternatively I could be a little less city and a little more redneck... use it for firewood or booze. Or both. We shall see.



It isn't easy buying big stuff. First you have to find--or choose--something you like (I found 3 candidate filing cabinets and suddenly had to choose without driving all over the countryside). Then you have to ship it somehow; I don't have roof racks on the car, but even if I did I'd subject the car roof only to certain things, like air and maybe a snowboard. Oh to have a decrepit car again...

On the upside, anyone deciding to stay overnight has now been upgraded from classy cardboard on the floor to a real bed. You're welcome. If you don't like Ikea, well I still have the cardboard.

The tour

You'd better study the above diagram or I'll lose you on this most glorious of tours. Notice that there are seven different levels in the place. So basically we're renting a giant StairMaster (if you don't know what that is, c'mon over!... just bring your workout clothes). Stairs in and of themselves aren't a big deal; on the upside, if my cellphone rings upstairs and I'm in the kitchen I'll hear it because everything is so open (stair steps have no backs); on the downside I have to climb half a dozen flights of stairs so I can reach my phone just in time to hear the caller politely hang up after too many rings. Admittedly, a flight can be anywhere from 3 to 11 steps.

Sooo... we step in the door by the carport.


View of the entrance area from one level up. There is a small bathroom on the entrance level (to the left in the picture). Upon entering, if one continues straight one goes to the basement where there is an extra room, the laundry room, and a crawlspace (none of which was picture-worthy).


Next is the dining room. We finally have space for a bigger table, so we're keeping our eyes open. Things look a little bare -- we haven't spent much time hanging things yet.
   

The kitchen is a step up from that in our Toronto place. You don't know how cool it is to have two kitchen sinks until you've had to put up with only one! We brought our own microwave but this one's nicer. And although I've never had a dishwasher, now that we do it's just magical how stuff can be crammed into it to make the kitchen look spotless... now to find a way to make it start itself... and unload itself. And the fridge -- well, it's finally big enough store more yogurt than I could possibly eat. Oh, and other food and stuff.
      

Accessible from the kitchen, there is a small landing outside with steps leading down to the backyard. We haven't even touched that yet, so it's a bit of a mess.


Up the stairs to the living room. With 10-foot ceilings and an open design to the levels above and below, it feels rather spacious indeed. The glass on the south-facing wall is almost full-width, providing plenty of sunlight. Those quasi-curtains came with the place so I hung them very professionally... with speaker wire. I know, awesome huh. The sliding doors lead out to a 10'x16' nice new wooden deck (which at the moment has no sides) that will provide a great spot to enjoy a cold beverage on a hot day (pretty safe to assume it won't be this year). But back inside. We'll have to buy (ugh! maybe I'll use the landing from the backyard first) some wood for the fireplace since those days are almost upon us. It has yet to be determined whether it will save on our heating bill or be merely for the gezelligheid. Note the puppy curled up in front of the fireplace; I gave Carrie that for her birthday. The least maintenance pet ever: all he does is breathe until the batteries run out. Note also the camping chair; our T.O. place was one third the size, so we suddenly find ourselves with gaps in our furnishings. Seriously, nothing classes up one's living quarters like a no-longer-black camping chair with marshmallow smears on it.
      

One more view of the living room from the den above.


The den is the office / TV room, not much else to say. Oh, and if you notice a certain white chair that also appears in the living room, no we don't have two; I told you we're low on furniture! Oh the things I do for a blog post...
      

Up the longest stairs of them all to the bedrooms and bathroom. The reason this post took so long to materialize is that I actually had to tidy up rooms before shooting them. There was no way I was going to tackle the master bedroom, since it's a disaster... new clothes, old clothes, really old clothes, clothes from last millennium even! Clothes we'd forgotten existed. Okay, so they've only been in storage for a year but they seem to have multiplied during the hiatus. So anyway, a couple of pics of the guest bedroom will have to suffice. It's obviously totally ready for occupancy, so come on over for the weekend.
   

I hope you're happy now.

New address

I guess I should divulge our new address before we're inundated with e-mail requests.

17 - 575 Old St. Patrick Street
Ottawa, ON
K1N 9H5

Phone numbers and e-mail address haven't changed.

Hello Ottawa

Well another town another couple of years... or maybe more. Every time we move I decide that's definitely the last time, because, well, moving is the opposite of fun. But then I find myself hauling junk around yet again. Oh well, at least we try to space our moves apart by a couple of years (usually).

I resisted renting from U-Haul this time around; I've generally been fortunate in my dealings with them, but it was just unnecessarily pricy this time. I borrowed a full-sized van and rented an enclosed 6'x10' trailer and we managed to cram pretty much everything we own into them.



Marian and Brian, my sister and brother-in-law, were kind enough to offer to help us move. Actually, they may have simply lacked foresight some time last year when they casually offered to help "the next time you move". Well, little did they know...

So they ditched their son for a night and drove with us from Vineland to Ottawa. The trip took under six hours. We got there at 1AM and got to crash in an unfurnished place. Nice for the hired help -- they had brought an air mattress and got to sleep in luxury. My master plan had been to keep our big mattress accessible to be pulled out as soon as we arrived. Just a slight problem with that: I packed the trailer so well that if I pulled out such a big item, the whole trailer would be largely unloaded in a matter of seconds... and not prettily either. So we slept on the nice new hardwood floor. If dozing in discomfort for 2.5 hours can be called sleeping.

Oh yeah, and then there was the monster at 3AM or so... the contractors (who weren't finished in the place yet) had left the air compressor plugged in. When you're about to cross into dreamland and an air compressor starts jack-hammering in the next room in an empty echo-y house... well, that one's gonna cause nightmares for many years to come. Never before have I run so fast in my sleep, heading toward some end-of-the-world noise in a dark unfamiliar house. With stairs. And loose doors leaning (and then falling) in the hallway.

Ah, the contractors. That's another story altogether. But they're finished now; we had to coexist (and refrain from properly setting up) only for a handful of days, until they leisurely finished what they were doing.

The next day we got to actually see what the area looked like. We've rented four times since getting married and every time we've made the move without having seen the destination. It's all part of the fun, I suppose. Here's a shot of part of the complex (there are just under 20 condos in the complex and they all look alike). And a shot of the view from our deck (the Peace Tower is just visible to the right of centre).



We managed to unload everything in a couple of hours. The deck isn't finished, so the absence of railings made throwing stuff up there a breeze.

Our first meal at the new place. With distinguished guests, no less.

CBC vs Fox

As a final outing in Toronto, we went downtown to the CBC building this morning. Carrie had learned that one can acquire free tickets to live tapings of the show The Hour with George Strombolopoulos. Today's was an off-schedule pre-taping session with a special guest.

In keeping with my low-key existence, the most celebritous person I've ever met is my dentist... or something. (Carrie's standards might be higher since she dined in the presence of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Geneva.) So today was mildly exciting, since the guest of honour was former Mexican president Vicente Fox.

We were sitting way in the back row but it was as though I could reach out and touch him. Luckily we were also sitting in the second row, so I probably could have. The audience consisted of a grand total of thirteen people, which should explain the above scenario. I sure hope the regular afternoon shows are better attended.

Vicente and George gabbed for a half hour. Then Mr. Fox came and shook hands with us the audience members and posed for a few pictures. Of course we didn't take our camera because it's so big it makes us look like tourists. We should really buy a smaller used one...

What did they talk about? Well, they discussed his new book A Revolution of Hope, which of course has much to do with his experience as president following a 72-year rule of the opposing political party. He was funny and said lots of stuff about world leaders (Bush, Putin, Castro) that I'm sure will be left on the editing floor.

Anyway, since I constantly receive harsh reprimands for not blogging, I thought I'd get this one out of the way while it was still fresh. And I thought it was blog-worthy even if there are no pictures to show for it.

We set sail tomorrow evening for the beckoning shores of Ottawa. Perhaps my next post will include pictures of the next cardboard box we will call home.

chicken coop

So a few weeks ago we were hanging out at my parents' place and somehow a plan was hatched to build a chicken coop. Carrie must have been between knitting projects or something, because she was very interested in taking on the task. My father has grand ideas, but to go along with that he has a wise wife, so what started out as floor plans for a mansion eventually evolved into plans for something not bigger than the last couple of places we've rented. Good thing they scaled down or we might have moved right in once finished.

Carrie's dad was a builder back in the day, so we figure that might explain her interest in the project; it's in her blood.

Before and after... notice that the mere presence of a snazzy coop brought the dying lawn to life.


Carrie hard at work with our Dutch cousin Tom, who probably regrets visiting Canada by now.


Cousin Tom and nephew Bradley haul some trusses.


Eventually, the coop was finished... or was it? The chickens apparently weren't happy with their living conditions, so some improvements would have to be made. The last thing anyone wants is a chicken revolt.


A would-be revolution leader... okay, so this rooster was about a third as big as the other one and would have been pecked to death if they weren't separated, but quit spoiling it already.


The demanding chickens got their domicile insulated...


...and fitted with a nice cedar door. That'll keep them happy. If not, we'll tell them all about how chicken soup is made.

Closure

What's going on here? No one ever updates this thing!

Well stuff happens on occasion but it never seems interesting enough to blog about. Until now. For those die-hards who still check this site every month, here's your reward for such persistence: we're moving to Ottawa.

It's official! It took two and a half months from sending in the paperwork to finally receiving the make-or-break phone call today. Like they say, patients are a virtue...

So now we get to look for a place there, after deciding where we want to be in relation to work (125 Sussex Drive) and church (1876 Merivale Road, Nepean), 17km apart.

Dad, you'll finally get your basement back (if you haven't already cleared out our stuff with yard sales over the summer).

Note: Carrie's birthday was two days ago, so this is a nice belated gift.

ESL: answers

Ever hear the story of the three wells? Well, well, well...

Diana wisely decided to take on the ESL challenge. Let's see how she did.

My original piece follows. Red numbers denote errors; blue letters denote non-errors I thought might fool her.

Since Diana (my eldest sister) loves inspecting my published works, it's a good idea to give her something to inspect (and I better not mess up this one.) (1) There's precious little chance that I'll get a mistake by her (misplaced punctuation, mispelled (2) words, etc.), although if I try hard enough I might succeed. Let's reserve judgement (a) for now.

Diana is a farmer's wife, though I can't affirm that she knows much about husbandry. I don't really need to discuss whence (b) she hailed prior to living in Ontario. Suffice it to say, whether she is from Smithers, Houston, or even from (3) the Netherlands, she hasn't always been completely aware of the geography around her. Rumour has it she once identified the Skeena River (the third (4) longest river in B.C.) as being in Florida. If such a gross error was (5) commited (6) by you or me, we would never forgive ourselves. Does she think that the Northwest Territory (c) is an American state? I wonder where she thinks Saint John, Newfoundland (7) is?

What effected (d) this interesting ineptitude in geographical detail? At the center (e) of this phenomenon might be the fact that she had less (8) years in our alma mater, Ebenezer. I went there 12 years; I think she went maybe 8 (9).

Maybe I'm not being fair. Maybe I should put up with the big sister trying to be a big sister. She only (10) corrects me to (11) able to have one up on me. But that's alright; it's an almost imperceptable (12) flaw in her otherwise perfect (13), albeit idiosyncratic, character.

Right now we're staying at my parents' (f) place (neighbouring Diana), but after she's finished tearing this post to shreds I may wish to slink away to some other people's (g) house in shame, if only to put some physical distance between me (14) and my sister the ELP (English Language Policewoman)!

So, Diana, can you find more than a dozen errors in this post? I don't doubt you'll get plenty of help.

Her results (renumbered to minimize confusion):

i. that would be FEWER years, not less years.
ii. I don't correct to have one up on you, it's for your well being, so you'll learn to write properly.
iii. your second last paragraph comes close to being a run-on sentence.
iv. Entirely too many parentheses!
v. Paragraph 2-the first two sentences have no relation to each other. your second one should be backing up your first.
vi. second last paragraph-that would be my sister and me-if you'd quit putting yourself first...
vii. I attended Ebby for 10 years, not 8. get your facts straight!
viii. first paragraph-"good idea" being a matter of opinion. get your facts straight, boy!
ix. last sentence of first paragraph-wasted words. should be more relevant to topic.
x. "committed" generally has two "t's"
xi. paragraph 2- WERE committed would actually be better than WAS committed-you're talking about more than one, no?
AND # xii... MISPELLED is spelled incorrectly; it needs another 's'.

My response to her results:

i. Correct.
ii. Although I did state this as fact, the error is the position of the word 'only'.
iii. It's either run-on or it's not, and this one is not.
iv. Nonsense.
v. Touché. This is why I have zero Pulitzers to my name.
vi. Almost correct.
vii. I was not stating a fact, so I was not in error.
viii. I stand by my opinion.
ix. Nonsense.
x. Correct.
xi. It was an error, but nothing to do with "more than one".
xii. Correct.

Not bad for an ESL immigrant! She caught four of my errors and came up with one more.

Here's the official list, excluding what she caught correctly.

1. The first period should be after, not before, the closing parenthesis.
3. 'from' should be omitted.
4. The Skeena River is the second, not third, longest river in BC.
5. 'was' should be 'were' due to the use of past subjunctive mood.
7. Saint John is in New Brunswick, not Newfoundland.
9. '8' should be written out as 'eight'. (Opinions vary for the '12').
10. The oft-misplaced word 'only' should immediately precede the word(s) on which it is applying a restriction. Hence 'only corrects me to' should be 'corrects me only to'; here it rashly implied that she does nothing, other than to correct me, in order to be able to have one up on me.
11. The word 'be' is missing here. This was actually an oversight on my part.
12. 'imperceptable' is misspelled.
13. Otherwise perfect?! I can't believe your oversight of that one.
14. 'between me and my sister ...' should be 'between my sister ... and myself'

Diana didn't bite on any of these:

a. 'judgement' is not misspelled, contrary to popular belief.
b. 'whence' is often preceded by 'from', although 'whence' itself means 'from where'.
c. Our NWT is actually pluralized, but a reference to Northwest Territory is not wrong - it was an American governmental region from 1789 to 1803.
d. 'effected' is correct usage, whereas this word is commonly mistakenly used in place of 'affected'
e. 'center' is American spelling (vs. 'centre'), but I for one will allow it.
f. "parents'" is correct apostrophic usage.
g. "people's" is correct apostrophic usage.

ESL: English as a simple language

Since Diana (my eldest sister) loves inspecting my published works, it's a good idea to give her something to inspect (and I better not mess up this one.) There's precious little chance that I'll get a mistake by her (misplaced punctuation, mispelled words, etc.), although if I try hard enough I might succeed. Let's reserve judgement for now.

Diana is a farmer's wife, though I can't affirm that she knows much about husbandry. I don't really need to discuss whence she hailed prior to living in Ontario. Suffice it to say, whether she is from Smithers, Houston, or even from the Netherlands, she hasn't always been completely aware of the geography around her. Rumour has it she once identified the Skeena River (the third longest river in B.C.) as being in Florida. If such a gross error was commited by you or me, we would never forgive ourselves. Does she think that the Northwest Territory is an American state? I wonder where she thinks Saint John, Newfoundland is?

What effected this interesting ineptitude in geographical detail? At the center of this phenomenon might be the fact that she had less years in our alma mater, Ebenezer. I went there 12 years; I think she went maybe 8.

Maybe I'm not being fair. Maybe I should put up with the big sister trying to be a big sister. She only corrects me to able to have one up on me. But that's alright; it's an almost imperceptable flaw in her otherwise perfect, albeit idiosyncratic, character.

Right now we're staying at my parents' place (neighbouring Diana), but after she's finished tearing this post to shreds I may wish to slink away to some other people's house in shame, if only to put some physical distance between me and my sister the ELP (English Language Policewoman)!

So, Diana, can you find more than a dozen errors in this post? I don't doubt you'll get plenty of help.

Movie gripes

I feel like I should write more, so here's another post. My guilt subsides nicely if I post thrice in a day and then don't for weeks on end. Like I said, it's quantity I'm going for.

So some gripes about effects in movies/shows (or I'm still living in the nineties):

1. When people drive they still move the steering wheel an awful lot.
2. Tires squeal a lot less nowadays on dirt/snow/grass, but I still notice it sometimes.
3. When it's supposedly snowing, snow doesn't melt when it lands on surfaces on which it should melt; it just keeps looking like the lint the guy on the set is actually throwing around.
4. People know exactly when or when not to hang up the phone, without the use of goodbyes.
5. Air bags don't go off when vehicles are rear-ended during high-speed car chases.

There must be many more. Anyone?

...

For the record (before any of my nit-picky family members comment), I won't fix my typos and all that after I publish a post. My old(est) sister loves to read blogs and comment on spelling and grammar errors, and my dear father likes to join in. He, however, has earned the right to criticize, since he at least has a blog. I'm convinced the sister doesn't pick up on any of the content of what I write; I guess that means I can write whatever I want about her and she won't really notice. Kind of like right now. Better post this quick... before they can comment.

Rejoice, faithful readers

Well, it's been over five weeks since my last post. If that doesn't eliminate impatient would-be readers, I don't know what will. Can't think of any better repellent.

Speaking of repellents, I found a great way to eliminate bugs. House flies, that is. At my parents' place on the quail farm there reside many creatures. Flies love farms of course, since many farms produce manure and, well, who isn't attracted to manure? So there are flies galore, and they usually wait just outside the house waiting for someone to let them in. Anyone who comes over knows that the first thing one hears when walking into the house is a frantic "CLOSE THE DOOR!!" (or "DEUR DICHT!!" if one happens to be from across the pond), followed soon after by a "Hi" or "Welcome" or some other such nicety.

Anyway, back to the flies. Last night I felt like being productive so I went outside onto the porch and started swatting flies. You might want to liken such an activity to heading to the beach with a sponge to soak up whichever body of water adjoins said beach. But you'd be wrong. After a superfluity of swatting, the only flies left were largely two-dimensional and resting on the ground. And maybe no one has noticed, but now when I step in the door I'm not accompanied by a large outline of insects in the shape of me. Fly problem solved. Until tomorrow at least, I hope.

We're at the farm these days. Last week my old(est) sister and her family went camping at Rock Point Provincial Park so we had much of the place to ourselves. I helped out by driving her and the kids to the campground on Monday... but since my navigational/directional skills (or instincts) are just as good as hers, an intended 40-minute drive took 90 minutes; on the upside we got a good tour of Dunnville and the Haldimand area. Oops. On the way back from the campground that evening, I had the trip down to 70 minutes... accidentally visiting Port Colborne in the process. Apart from my obvious directional ineptitude, the lack of signs is mostly the problem, since in the normal parts of Canada one can get by without a map, relying solely on signs along the road. Not so everywhere, apparently. And who on earth decided that perhaps Highway 3 should intersect Regional Road 3 and just for fun let's make the signs for these look the same? Someone not looking to amuse me, that's who! Grumble, grumble.

I'd write more in this post, but I'm going for quantity over quality.

For sale

One slightly used computer power supply unit. Complete with power cord, screws, and acrid smell.

$50

computer go bang

So I was sedately working this morning when I suddenly noticed an odour, the kind that reminds you of soldering or electrical fires. I got up from my desk to wander away from the computer in the hope that the smell would get stronger the further I got. No such luck. I was just on my feet when my computer decided to shut down... after emitting a popping/electrocuting noise and a pretty plume of smoke from the back.

Those are not fun moments.

Yes I may have lost 10 minutes' worth of work. (I had the good sense just three days ago to do my first real backup in weeks; this good sense led me to back up on the same computer, but due to various redundancies three particular hard drives within would have to be fried for me to actually lose any work-related stuff.)

And yes, now the room stank like a recently passed circuit board, but that would clear eventually.

The real conundrum is to how to decide what parts have died and thus what to replace. Perhaps some handy folks can figure stuff out with a multimeter, but not I; if you see me using one it's because mine is analog and I am entertained watching the needle jump around.

I assumed (and desperately hoped) that only the power supply (PSU) was toast, although past experience (of mine and countless others) says that's not the case nearly often enough. (I knew my PSU was dead because it was the only thing that smelled and upon opening it up I saw scorch marks. Plus that's where that mushroom cloud had emanated from.)

Ideally I would find another PSU to see if that's all that failed, but since we're living nomadically the scraps I have with me don't include one of those. The next best option: drive to the store, buy a PSU, drive back home, test it and hope everything works; and if not, drive back to the store, buy the next likely victim (motherboard), drive back, test, and so on.

So I carried out that next best option, going to TigerDirect and buying a shiny new 50%-higher-wattage PSU for way too much money. Installed it and... tada!! thankfully it works like a charm. No worries of overloading this baby... yet.

Back to work... now that I can.

House-sitting again

Well, it's been three weeks without a post. I imagine that should weed out those readers who unrealistically expect weekly posts. A crazy notion indeed.

We're house-sitting somewhere else now in North York. Or is it Thornhill? Willowdale? Toronto? Not a clue. Where I've set up my work, I face a big window and have a great view of the back yard, with its abundance of squirrels, chipmunks, birds and rabbits. I have yet to decide what we'll have in the soup tomorrow. A completely unrelated thought of course.

When I'm not looking down my sights at bunnies, I'm working a good chunk of the time. Carrie's been job-hunting and hearing back from various efforts; hopefully in a few weeks we'll have some real answers. We just bought plane tickets to BC for Carrie's sister's wedding. Carrie's going for two weeks, but I'll be going for only a week. It's about time... we were get antsy sitting around for so long without a holiday!!

Well I haven't got any photos of interest, so this little true story will have to suffice...


The father of a friend of a friend (you know who you are) went for a trip overseas recently. I'll refer to him as John. While there, he encountered a special breed of chicken that interested him somewhat, given his history of bird farming. Acquaintances there were raising some of these chickens in their back yard simply for producing a few eggs for consumption.

John decided he wanted to have some of these birds for himself, but he needed a way to get them back home safely and cheaply. Recognizing the downside of cramming live chickens into his suitcase, he figured it might be wiser to take some of the fertilized eggs with him and hope to make them hatch back home. He acquired six eggs and wrapped each one carefully in paper and cloth. And so they got on the plane and made it home without incident.

John had a friend back in his hood whom I'll call Will. Will had some laying hens whose eggs were about the same size as the ones John had found. John asked Will if he could cram his six eggs under one of Will's hens to try to hatch them. This was no problem, so the eggs were planted and the waiting began.

John didn't have long to wait. The following day he received a phone call, and the caller identified himself as an agent for Canada Border Services Agency. There was, he claimed, a problem with John's checked luggage: a routine scan of his luggage had since been checked more closely, revealing what looked very much like eggs. John listened worriedly as he was told that the agency would really like to have another look at his luggage. He wondered what the penalty for undeclared eggs would be...

"But... I've already unpacked everything..." managed John, "...what do you suggest I do?!"

At that point, Will decided to consider his prank call a success, and he identified himself. Other than a few extra grey hairs, John suffers no ill effects from the prank. He has vowed to get Will back one way or another.


And I haven't heard if those eggs ever hatched successfully... that was six weeks ago. Any news, 'John'?

House-sitting

We're house-sitting for friends for three weeks while they're off on a Baltic cruise. Although they're leaving the house to go on vacation, for us staying at their place is akin to a vacation. Nice comfy house to stay in, pool in the back yard. How does that adage go? "One man's home is another man's resort destination." Something like that.

It was fairly warm out last week, and Mom and Dad came over to test the pool. My mother enjoys water about as much as I do, so in my efforts of shooting photos of people in the water I didn't get a decent shot of her. Here's Carrie basking in the sun...



... and Dad putting up with some splashing. Then there's me, almost obscured by the pounding surf, quite obviously in need of my orange water wings; you'll notice those to the left of the pool.



No I don't have much to write; just felt obligated to post something... anything.

Some questions to consider

Since I haven't blogged for some time, I figured I should post at least something. But since where I'm at nowadays doesn't have decent upload speeds, trying to blog with pictures will be fun like pulling teeth. So instead, here are questions I found lying around.

1. Whose cruel idea was it for the word "lisp" to have an "s" in it?

2. How come abbreviated is such a long word?

3. Since Americans throw rice at weddings, do Asians throw hamburgers? (Editor's note: I've decided this is not offensive but rather downright funny.)

4. Why are they called buildings, when they're already finished? Shouldn't they be called builts?

5. Why are they called apartments, when they're all stuck together?

6. If it's zero degrees outside today and it's supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?

7. Why do banks charge you a "non-sufficient funds fee" on money they already know you don't have?

8. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to see it, do the other trees make fun of it?

The Resort

Once upon a time, our stay in Geneva had come to an end, so we decided it was time to head to the beach. We had acquired very cheap accomodations along the Costa del Sol, the southern coast of Spain on the Mediterranean Sea. Getting there took the better part of a day, using (almost) the cheapest transportation available.

Study the map well... you may be quizzed on locations one day! Our travels (in not-so-accurate red crayon) went in a roughly counterclockwise direction.


We first flew with EasyJet from Geneva to Madrid; upon arriving we tried to buy bus tickets to Malaga but were told that bus tickets were sold out until mid-afternoon. Taking the train was an option but it would have been about 70 euros each instead of 20. When we arrived in Malaga by bus almost six hours later, we took the metro to the neighbouring town of Fuengirola, at which time there were no more buses running. So the last bit we did by taxi... what's another 20 euros at the end of a long day of travelling?

Here was the view from our very large balcony:



View from the other side of the suite, and the least messy-room photo I could find:



We had to walk a few hundred metres to get to the beach, but that was close enough. As luck would have it, our week at the resort was not the warmest so we didn't end up swimming at all that week. Come to think of it, we didn't swim at all during our trip. Which is fine by me: Carrie may be life guard material, but my own swimming abilities are equivalent to those of a brick.



More some other day.