I'm sitting here enjoying a cup of tea as I type (basic orange pekoe, Salada, I think), reflecting on a busy weekend.
Friday night was pizza and a movie (date night -- we went to see Daybreakers). We almost gave up when we got to the theatre; a combination of the credit union debit card system being down across BC and the armies of people buying tickets for Avatar (when we arrived at 7, all showings up to 10:30 were sold out; by the time we left, it was sold out until sometime on Saturday) the line-ups stretched almost to the parking lot. We persevered though and saw the movie which, I am not sure was worth the full admission price (now up to $11.50).
Saturday started off nice and lazy but worked up to a small panic when we realized the dryer was no longer working (after weeks of the washing machine limping along, I never guessed the dryer would give up first). We have purchased a new set and are awaiting their delivery later in the week.
We also found time to see another movie on Saturday, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (whole family, at Cinecenta -- btw, you need to check out their new website, it seriously rocks) -- which was better than I had been expecting.
Today, while Hubby helped a friend film a short subject, Kiddo and I went shopping (with a purpose -- she needs some boots with heels for riding). We struck out at the mall (in all of Mayfair there were only two places selling kids shoes in her sizes and neither had anything close to appropriate footwear) and after some consideration, decided to bus into town to check Value Village -- I should have checked there first! We found two pairs of short boots (but with the right heels, hooray!) and a few other things that, together, cost less than one pair of boots new would have cost, even on sale. Yay!
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
10 January 2010
03 May 2009
Food in the city
Tonight, I made dinner. I felt the need to make up for my last attempt at dinner when I saw something on the internet and thought it would be fun -- stupid internet. So tonight, I made a nice Greek-style chicken, rice, dilled carrots and a cucumber and tomato salad with tzatziki.
I've been thinking a lot about food this weekend. Aside from the garden always being on my mind, yesterday I spent quite a bit of time working on rebuilding my restaurant guide (for the newer review style see Don Mee, Bard & Banker and Floyds 2). Thinking about meals past and future made me quite hungry. When I went back to it today, I stumbled across a couple of food blogs I had no idea existed: the Victoria Buffet Blog and the Victoria Burger Blog. Locally, there is also The Little Piggy reviews -- I know about them but I tend not to check them too often as I find they come at the reviews from a much different perspective. Surfing further, I got sucked into the forums at Vibrant Victoria so I got little else done this evening.
Earlier in the day was also food-centric; this afternoon we watched The Future of Food -- nice because it helped us explain to Kiddo why the backyard garden is so important to us, beyond thestandard eco-speak she gets fed by media and through the curriculum. Of course, it also scares the hell out of me -- especially as I have relatives farming Monsanto grains. The most startling fact presented is that roughly 97% of all the varieties of seeds grown at the start of the 20th century are now extinct. Even allowing for a survival of the fittest mindset, assuming that some varieties wouldn't be suitable for North American climates, or that some varieties would essentially become invasive weed species, 97% is a lot to lose. As I said to Kiddo this afternoon, it's why I am planting some heritage varieties of seeds. I suspect Kiddo will be spreading that fact to her friends tomorrow -- I probably should check if it's accurate.
I've been thinking a lot about food this weekend. Aside from the garden always being on my mind, yesterday I spent quite a bit of time working on rebuilding my restaurant guide (for the newer review style see Don Mee, Bard & Banker and Floyds 2). Thinking about meals past and future made me quite hungry. When I went back to it today, I stumbled across a couple of food blogs I had no idea existed: the Victoria Buffet Blog and the Victoria Burger Blog. Locally, there is also The Little Piggy reviews -- I know about them but I tend not to check them too often as I find they come at the reviews from a much different perspective. Surfing further, I got sucked into the forums at Vibrant Victoria so I got little else done this evening.
Earlier in the day was also food-centric; this afternoon we watched The Future of Food -- nice because it helped us explain to Kiddo why the backyard garden is so important to us, beyond thestandard eco-speak she gets fed by media and through the curriculum. Of course, it also scares the hell out of me -- especially as I have relatives farming Monsanto grains. The most startling fact presented is that roughly 97% of all the varieties of seeds grown at the start of the 20th century are now extinct. Even allowing for a survival of the fittest mindset, assuming that some varieties wouldn't be suitable for North American climates, or that some varieties would essentially become invasive weed species, 97% is a lot to lose. As I said to Kiddo this afternoon, it's why I am planting some heritage varieties of seeds. I suspect Kiddo will be spreading that fact to her friends tomorrow -- I probably should check if it's accurate.
08 March 2009
Busy busy....
After a lot of tinkering and content building, we have a good start on the movie pages at Game-boyz where you'll find me posting movie reviews and news in the coming months.
This week we've also been busy building bookshelves, replacing the awkward pine storage shelves we originally purchased for the basement. Hubby did 90% of the work -- I pitched in by moving the stuff off the old shelves and pushing other stuff around; I also did some of the cuts with the circular saw. The result is a double-sided set of shelving made to accommodate our books -- now we can retrieve the remaining boxes from storage, YAY!
The shelving was one part of trying to tidy and rearrange the house a bit, in part to welcome friends visiting from New Zealand this week and in part to prepare for kiddo's pending birthday party. This weekend, I took two hours to help her clean her bedroom, removing two small bags of garbage, one large bag of mixed paper for recycling and a full load of laundry. Sigh. I also re-worked things to give her a little more space. Finally, I put up some more posters on her wall then mounted another bulletin board and magnet board so she can post all her bits of paper.
Today was a nice day out and about including brunch with friends, a wander through town, and a jaunt through this month's grid (part of Fernwood) before returning home. More puttering, both online and off, capped off a busy weekend.
This week we've also been busy building bookshelves, replacing the awkward pine storage shelves we originally purchased for the basement. Hubby did 90% of the work -- I pitched in by moving the stuff off the old shelves and pushing other stuff around; I also did some of the cuts with the circular saw. The result is a double-sided set of shelving made to accommodate our books -- now we can retrieve the remaining boxes from storage, YAY!
The shelving was one part of trying to tidy and rearrange the house a bit, in part to welcome friends visiting from New Zealand this week and in part to prepare for kiddo's pending birthday party. This weekend, I took two hours to help her clean her bedroom, removing two small bags of garbage, one large bag of mixed paper for recycling and a full load of laundry. Sigh. I also re-worked things to give her a little more space. Finally, I put up some more posters on her wall then mounted another bulletin board and magnet board so she can post all her bits of paper.
Today was a nice day out and about including brunch with friends, a wander through town, and a jaunt through this month's grid (part of Fernwood) before returning home. More puttering, both online and off, capped off a busy weekend.
19 January 2008
Deadlines all around me.
The week started with a deadline -- our current project was looking even more daunting than I had pessimistically anticipated. The full project requires the digitization of 5 maps, 8 photographs, and approximately 1375 pages of text which includes a handwritten diary and several handwritten manuscripts.
In the midst of this I was handed another deadline (basically "We need this yesterday!!") and as I gathered the data, I found that one of the archival scans had been corrupted -- and the backup had been scrubbed from my desktop some time ago -- so I had to re-do the work, putting back my ability to deliver by another day.
Outside of work there were two more deadlines looming: the need to write a review this week for the Brother printer we've had on loan to test for the last two months and the need to submit an application for PlushYou 2008, the deadline for which had been extended to January 20th.
Everything started to come together late Thursday -- by 4:00 I had shipped off the critical data and that evening I wrote my printer review (Hubby wrote his review today).
By Friday afternoon I was feeling pretty good about it all -- I assessed what we had accomplished at work and I think we are at least half done the basic scanning! We have completed one map, two books (over 300 pages together), the diary (600 pages) and one manuscript. In the midst of it all, I have markedly improved my scanning and photography skills and probably tripled my Photoshop™ knowledge.
Today, though, that was the icing on the cake. Before I applied for PlushYou, I had wanted to have a dedicated Creative Miscellany site in place. Luckily, a few weeks ago we picked up some 99 cent .info domain names, including two to be dedicated to my crafting. Last night, Hubby suggested a quick way to do a splash page using Fireworks image slicing, and I was off. I whipped up the front page last night and a bio page today: http://www.creativemiscellany.info.
With the website in place, I selected my favourite photos for the application and sent it along. I hope to hear back in the next month or so!
If I can keep up the level of productivity I've averaged this month all year without losing my mind, 2008 is going to be a Very Good Year.
In the midst of this I was handed another deadline (basically "We need this yesterday!!") and as I gathered the data, I found that one of the archival scans had been corrupted -- and the backup had been scrubbed from my desktop some time ago -- so I had to re-do the work, putting back my ability to deliver by another day.
Outside of work there were two more deadlines looming: the need to write a review this week for the Brother printer we've had on loan to test for the last two months and the need to submit an application for PlushYou 2008, the deadline for which had been extended to January 20th.
Everything started to come together late Thursday -- by 4:00 I had shipped off the critical data and that evening I wrote my printer review (Hubby wrote his review today).
By Friday afternoon I was feeling pretty good about it all -- I assessed what we had accomplished at work and I think we are at least half done the basic scanning! We have completed one map, two books (over 300 pages together), the diary (600 pages) and one manuscript. In the midst of it all, I have markedly improved my scanning and photography skills and probably tripled my Photoshop™ knowledge.
Today, though, that was the icing on the cake. Before I applied for PlushYou, I had wanted to have a dedicated Creative Miscellany site in place. Luckily, a few weeks ago we picked up some 99 cent .info domain names, including two to be dedicated to my crafting. Last night, Hubby suggested a quick way to do a splash page using Fireworks image slicing, and I was off. I whipped up the front page last night and a bio page today: http://www.creativemiscellany.info.
With the website in place, I selected my favourite photos for the application and sent it along. I hope to hear back in the next month or so!
If I can keep up the level of productivity I've averaged this month all year without losing my mind, 2008 is going to be a Very Good Year.
10 October 2007
Cozies Redux!
After many months of procrastination, I finally took the time to refresh the website for my CuppaJoe Cozies and Wradical Wraps. I removed some excess, tidied up some info, and totally reworked the order page. Hooray!
Of course, the trigger was another shout-out by Colin over at his CoffeeCrew blog... and today, I got an email from a local area cafe interested in selling my cozies as "a Christmas impulse item." Woo! I'll let you know how that works out.
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In other follow-up news, my review for Chuzzle Deluxe is up at Game-Boyz.com
09 September 2007
Not all films age well....
Turner Classic Movies seems to be on a Jack Lemmon binge of late -- fine with me, as he has graually become one of my favourite actors to watch. Of course, not all of his roles were as watchable as those in The Apartment (1960) or The Odd Couple (1968).
Yesterday, I watched Phffft (1954) and today, Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963). Of the two, Phfft is the more watchable, but that's not saying much (it is kind of like comparing white bread to dinner rolls).
Phffft is a "romantic farce" that opens with divorce, follows with how the couple met, and continues with how the couple really were meant to be together. (I'll let you guess how it all works out in the end.) Overall, Phffft is harmless fun which, despite its predictability, is entertaining thanks to good performances all around.
Under the Yum Yum Tree is one of the most sexist and dated comedies I've seen. Lemmon plays a creepy stalkerish landlord who only rents units in his complex to single women. And yet... I couldn't stop watching the trainwreck of a film.
What struck me about both films was their outdated look at relationships. While Phffft's version of events now looks quaint, Under the Yum Yum Tree seems insulting because it's hard to believe the situation could ever have come up.
Yesterday, I watched Phffft (1954) and today, Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963). Of the two, Phfft is the more watchable, but that's not saying much (it is kind of like comparing white bread to dinner rolls).
Phffft is a "romantic farce" that opens with divorce, follows with how the couple met, and continues with how the couple really were meant to be together. (I'll let you guess how it all works out in the end.) Overall, Phffft is harmless fun which, despite its predictability, is entertaining thanks to good performances all around.
Under the Yum Yum Tree is one of the most sexist and dated comedies I've seen. Lemmon plays a creepy stalkerish landlord who only rents units in his complex to single women. And yet... I couldn't stop watching the trainwreck of a film.
What struck me about both films was their outdated look at relationships. While Phffft's version of events now looks quaint, Under the Yum Yum Tree seems insulting because it's hard to believe the situation could ever have come up.
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