I’m hit! I’m hit!

This was in my mail today:

Doesn’t look like a weapon of destruction, does it?  Although, perhaps the duct tape should have been a tip off.  Inside:

Oh yeah, I’m down and out for hat wars kids.  However, I do have a lovely warm burgundy hat for the coming winter that was knit for me by the lovely Sophie of See Sophie Knit.

Oh yeah, one last thing, I was home sick today and the postman rang the bell.  Needed me to sign for a package.  As he was leaving he says, “You sure must knit a lot!  You get A LOT of wool!”  Awesome…and creepy…all at the same time.

I’m going to put my new hat on and crawl into bed.  Night, night.

Look at it this way, 20% of the working week is now over!

Yeah, and then we all sang Loverboy!

Oops, showing my age again.  Teehee.

And now, let me show the most perfect apple in the world.  Picked not 20 minutes ago from a tree in the backyard:

Then Mr. B got at it:

We’re also drowning in tomatoes.  Every other day I’m picking a bowl like this:

We only have two plants but wow, are ever producing.  They are so amazingly tasty too.  WAY better than anything from the grocery store.

Mr. B also got back to working on the kitchen.  After living with the HUMONGOUS five foot by six foot island for 6 weeks we decided it was just way too big.  We downgraded from Beentsalia to more of a peninsula.  I’m calling it Bonavista Peninsula.

Now it’s only 39.5 inches wide and will finish out being about 72 inches long.  much more logical.  We can now pass things to each other instead of having to walk around because we can’t reach over it!  LOL.  Now that I look at it in a picture form instead of just being in the room it looks a bit yuppy loft to me.  Hmmmmm.  Yaletown comes to Whalley!  Snort.  Sorry, those of you not living here won’t get that one.

Not much else going on really.  Supposed to be a thunder and lightening storm tonight/tomorrow that I’m sort of looking forward to.  I have a few more Homeric hymns to read over and absorb.  Then a bit o’ knitting.  Added bonus to it being Monday?  It’s House night!  Love me some Hugh Laurie.  I prefer him as Percy in the Black Adder series, but this is fun too.   Night all.

Sunday, already?

I just do not understand how the week can feel a year long and the weekend only seems about 10 minutes long?  So not fair!  Anyway, finished my first paper of the semester and subbed it.  The Homeric Hymn of Demeter as an Allegory for the Cycle of the Seasons.  Really?  Allegory?  Anyway, not the type of course I’m used to so that’s probably a good thing.  Spreading one’s wings and all that.

I also went knitting with the girls today.   I wanted to pick up one more skein of Classy to make sure I had enough for Em’s cardigan.  I’ve decided to give it a hood so that’s at least a half an extra skein.  I took skytrain and came across this sign:

Well, that’s got to inspire some confidence in your personal safety, right?  Snort.  I’m going to keep my valuables in my sock!

The best part about a new week is that one of my co-workers will be coming back from three weeks holiday.  She got married and then went to Jamaica.  Sweet!  I really hope she had a good time, ’cause when she gets back she’s going to find out that our other co-worker went on an indefinite leave two weeks ago due to childcare issues.  I’m just so happy she’ll be back and I won’t be on my own anymore!  Huzzah!

Okay, it’s Sunday night and I’m going to do some reading and some knitting.   I want to finish the first Sookie Stackhouse book tonight so I can take it back to the library tomorrow.  There are 15 people behind me waiting for it.  Then I’ll pick up this book.  Oh yeah!

Points I need to pay attention to

This is all about transit.  You folks who drive, move along, nothing to see here.  Honest.

I’ve been having some epiphanies lately about transit.  Here they are;

1. Don’t make eye contact.  I cannot stress this enough.
2. If you are reading a book of classic Greek mythology, teenage and pre-teen boys will laugh at the picture of the naked man on the cover.  Sigh, get over it.
3. Wear your ipod, even if you’re not actually listening to anything.  It keeps the crazy crack lady from trying to talk to you.   Sometimes.
4. When you see a man peeing on the bench at the bus stop at 6:10 am it’s only good manners to berate him and then throw a copy of the daily free newspaper over the urine so hopefully no one will sit on it later.  Blech!  (**See note below)
5. Randomly grin and giggle.  This works best when you’re not wearing the ipod, then they think it’s just the voices in your head making you giggle.  If you’re too shy to do it without the ipod, start with it on and work your way up to no ipod.  We all mature at different rates, transitswise.
6. When the nasty bully of a man swats his kid and is mad at him and you for taking ‘his‘ seat, it’s best to just get off that damn bus and wait the 7 minutes for the next one.  If you stay he is going to just be a total rude jerk making inappropriate comments and giving you the hairy eyeball all the way to your stop.
7. If you are a particularly Brave Little Toaster, you can turn the rude bully of a man and tell him to stuff it, shut up, sit down, and to try and raise his son to be a better human being than he is currently being.  (What?  The Brave Little Toaster is 22 years old?  Oy.  I need a nap.  That explains # 8 then.)
8. After #7, you’re prolly going to need to check the schedules for a new bus to get you home.  Bully men do not like to be told about their shortcomings.  Ever.  Thankfully he wasn’t drinking.  Will I never learn to shut my mouth.
9. On the plus side, the new bus I’m taking is MUCH nicer than the other one.  I don’t care that it takes 10 minutes longer.  There are no crackheads or bullies.  Just seniors, students, and people going home from work.

**NOTE BELOW**  Also acceptable at this point – when your hubby is driving you to skytrain and you see a man peeing on the side of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, you are completely justified in yelling “You’re going to go to hell for doing that!” at him.  Hey, I’m not big on organized religion but that’s just rude.  Plus, that church has a wonderful sale once a week of perogies and cabbage rolls and all kinds of good Ukrainian foods.  How dare he!

World Wide Spin in Public Day

Our view:

A view of us:

It was lovely and warm and sunny and windy.  All of which seems to created a perfect storm sunburn.  Oh yeah, I look great.

Surrounded

Whenever I sit in my favourite spot in the kitchen I am immediately surrounded by dogs.  To the right we have a Stella:

She sleeps with her head on the hockey ball so no one can steal it from her while she’s napping.

And to the left we have an Abby:

Or, if you prefer, in the awake mode:

Note the 5 gallon buckets.  They are full of flour, rice, sugar, etc.  Hubby is sure that plague is coming and he’s been laying in a heck of a supply o’ food.

One word

Wollmeise.

Campari piccolo, Herzblut, Arlene

That is all.

Can I just say,

This is one of the nicest wines I’ve had in a long time.  I’m currently sipping the Reisling (not listed on the website, must be new.  Ohhhh!  I’m so cutting edge it hurts.)  It’s really quite lovely.  I’ve always hated that oaky flavour in wines so this is just wonderful.  Sorry, I’m probably showing myself to be a complete wine Philistine but, who cares.  I think oaky wines taste….well….like dirt and wood really.  I like my wine like I like my cider = tasting of the fruit it was made of.  I’m so common.

Okay, that’s about it for me for this fine and warm Sunday afternoon.  I’m going to wander over to Garnstudio to pick out a pattern for my friends 8 year old daughter for a cardigan or a hoodie.  They’ve moved here from Texas and the wee thing has no idea what our levels of rain and damp are.  They are living on this wee remote island with no power, no sewer or septic, and in the middle of building a structure to live in.

I must say though, she didn’t make Texas sound like a place I want to visit.  We were outside barbecueing and she got all shocked and worried that I wasn’t wearing shoes.  I told her she didn’t have to either, she could go barefoot.  She didn’t understand why I wasn’t afraid of fire ants and biting snakes and scorpions??????  I assured her that we didn’t have any of those things around here.  The most dangerous thing you might encounter was a wasp or a doggy landmine.  I did qualify that with a warning about Hobo Spiders, but odds are she won’t hit one of those.

She was enchanted and ran around barefoot all evening.  The feeling of the green grass between her toes made her absolutely squeal.  So cute.  Almost made me want one.  Almost.  Then I shook my head and moved on.    Aunty beentsy, yep, that’s the way to go!

This, that, and the other thing

It’s Sunday and I’m pooped!  It was a very long week, especially considering Monday was a holiday.  Back in class and getting used to parcelling my time into working blocks/reading blocks/knitting blocks/sleeping and eating blocks.  Okay, not quite that bad, but you get the idea.

Here’s a few things that have been going on around here.  The tomato plants have been very giving of themselves.  From them we’ve created chili, minestrone, BLT’s, and just ate them with salt.  The only thing that got its pici taken was the chili.  Nom, nom, nom.

I bought some wine, using my tried and true, ‘Oh!  Look at the label on this one!’ method.  Rigaramole and Road 13.  13 is my lucky number and the Rigaramole had a picture of a fainting goat on it!  How could I not?

Both were pretty tasty.  The Rigaramole was a bit acidic though, so has some Tums on hand, just in case.

I made a new bed for the wee dog.  Then the cat found it.  I don’t think the dog has gotten to sleep in it much at all.

That’s about it for me.  I’m going get my butt off the couch and have a shower.  I was up early and got a bunch of my chores done already so I think I’m going to head out to knitting group today and hang with my peeps.

It’s really, really, really been one of those days

How’s coming with me?  (eta:  Oy!  Or, perhaps Who’s with me???  Doh!)

Oh yeah!  Pack the snacks and the knitting and we are outta here baby!