Lost Art of Canning and Preserving

I'm going to sign up for this workshop in August. Let me know if you want to join me!

A Musical Quandary

I can't stop listening to this Angela Desveaux song. I keep thinking it's Martha Wainwright though. Can you hear it too?

Music poses a bit of a quandary for the project, does it not? Music, as it's played live is not a tangible or physical object but when it comes to reproducing its sound, it's inextricably connected to raw materials such as vinyl, polycarbonate, and other plastics. And in this sense it is a "thing"--a record in a jacket, a cassette or a CD in a jewel case.

The recent emergence of the mp3 format has changed things entirely. An mp3 file is not nothing, but it's no longer something that requires manufacturing, packaging, shipping, and eventual disposal. It's a sound byte, a lossy algorithm, compressed digital data stored in a virtual universe. Yeah, trippy. So what does this mean for the project? Is music stuff, or isn't it?

Vote and discuss.

poll by twiigs.com

Bad Hair Day

Life is pretty bad without conditioner. In fact, without conditioner this girl's a ratty, tangled, and static mess who's just emerged from a wind tunnel. And as if the hair gods weren't having enough of a laugh already, my hair blower died today. I even went so far as to scout out a viable replacement at Value Village but all I saw was a tangled mess of cords and dead hair in appliances resembling this one:



And to add insult to injury, it appears as if C now has the best hair of his life. We're talking epic hair. Amazing hair. R-Patz hair. It's wavy and tousled and HOT. I'm trying very hard to be happy for him.

Bells' Angels

Today we took the whole fam damily down to High Park for the 2009 Bells On Bloor protest event. Not sure how many riders turned up, but a seemingly endless stream of cyclists poured out of the park, taking over Bloor St. on our way down to Queen's Park. Amazingly amidst the chanting, singing, and ringing of bells, Ezra still fell asleep right off the mark.

WHAT DO WE WANT? BIKE LANES!!!
WHERE DO WE WANT 'EM? HERE!!!
WHEN DO WE WANT 'EM? NOW!!!

RING A DING DING AMEN!!!




Here's the view from behind. Guess I should have told C to hike up his pants...

I don't recommend anyone simultaneously film, ring a bell, and steer a bike. Sorry for the wobbly footage.

Biblio-Blues

Summer is the season for juicy paperback novels. You know the kind. The kind you can't bring yourself to pull out on the subway. The bad kind. The totally embarrassing kind. The kind you don't even want to read in front of your husband. Because he is a non-fiction/literature type; a Ralston-Saul-Rohinton Mistry-reading man who can crack walnuts with his enormous brain. He would not be interested in a book that could quite possibly kill brain cells. Unlike myself.

The latest book to strike my fancy is entitled Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, and is the first book in The Southern Vampire Mysteries (yes, the same books that inspired HBO's True Blood). But getting my hands on this one is easier said than done. I can no longer zip into my local Chapters and stock up on some light reading with the leftover Christmas gift cards littering my wallet. Now I only have one place to go. And it's called the public library.

It will be a long time before Sookie Stackhouse and I are reunited. I'm number 44 in the queue. At this rate, I'll be able to author my own fan fiction, entitled Dead Until Your Fines Are Paid For That Damaged Copy Of The Very Hungry Caterpillar". Or something like that.

Lucky Me

I should really buy lottery tickets because I always win free stuff. And the timing couldn't be worse. Carine and I checked out the Spring Handmade market a couple of weeks ago at the Gladstone. I went to get inspiring gift ideas that I could make and sew myself. I didn't expect to win the damn door prize.

So now I have a voucher for a piece of jewelry from Zippan Designs. This tree pendant is so purdy. I can see it dangling before my eyes, temporarily hypnotizing me. But alas, time to snap myself awake and let it go.



So which of you readers would like the voucher? Write me a haiku and I'll choose a lucky friend!

One Month Sum Up

One month down. To be completely honest, it hasn't felt like much of a challenge so far. And strangely enough, I'm kind of disappointed about that. I keep thinking to myself, is this too easy? Should we dream up other sadistic ways of depriving ourselves? But then I remember; like all long distance runners, we're in the zone right now. Right off the mark, we're sailing, we're optimistic, and we've barely broken a sweat. I imagine that in a few months we'll be looking to the sidelines for a cup of water, some Icy Hot, and a bag of frozen peas to soothe the burning holes in our pockets. Apparently it's as painful as a couple of torn hamstrings. OK, so that analogy can only go so far. But you do see my point. To borrow a line from the Carpenters, "We've only just begun".

That said, we have still endured some minor hardships this month, namely giving up paper towel and plastic wrap. Paper towel is just so handy for cleaning toddler messes off the floors and walls--like mashed up pieces of banana, sticky mango wedges, and chewed up pieces of eggplant. Who wants to handle that?

Saran wrap has also been greatly missed, and there are now a million old yogurt containers in the fridge harbouring everything from mystery leftovers to green peppers and onion halves. I have to brace myself every time I open one. Nothing like going for a little leftover lentil soup and finding a piece of moldy tempeh. As for cheese, it now lives in old bread bags and I'm not sure how effective this method is. Suggestions?

C has something else to refer to the Complaint Department but he intends to write an appeal of his own. I'll tip you off: the new Bob Dylan album just came out. What's a fanatic to do?

Update: Thanks to Trudy for loaning us a cheese keeper. These mice sure appreciate it!

Tossed and Found

It is with mixed feelings that I announce the end of my relationship with my beloved Delilah. Sniff sniff. We had some great times together, her and I. I will miss skidding around on her coaster brakes. And doubling my drunk friends on her back. And the cheerful ding dong of her giant bell that made me feel like I was driving the damn Dairy Belle. I will not however, miss Christopher yelling at me to keep up the pace. Or having to drag her 100 lb metal ass up every incline.



I will be moving on to greener pastures (quite literally). Delilah will be replaced by this sweet new bike I found leaning against a tree for someone to adopt. Behold this 70s girly Peugot. With gears. Now I only need to find the perfect name.

Picnic Dress

Summer is upon us and it's time to evaluate the wardrobe situation. We have a couple of weddings/parties coming up so I have to plan ahead. I picked up a couple of used dresses that I thought had some potential. Christopher is not a fan of either dress, and referred to this one as particularly "heinous".

Admittedly, this dress is a bit...dated, for lack of a better word. I have been tossing around the idea of shortening it, and doing away with the whole picnic motif. I can't decide. Let's put it to a vote!

poll by twiigs.com

White Teeth

This morning we officially squeezed the very last pearl of toothpaste out of the tube. Luckily, it took exactly a minute to whip up this easy formula found at Pioneer Thinking.

6 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
4 tsp vegetable glycerin
15 drops essential oil such as peppermint, wintergreen, or anise.

Mix, brush, and spit!

Update: Hmmm, it's kind of salty when you brush but the minty aftertaste is refreshing. Feels clean and polished too. I guess you can't go wrong with baking soda--same as I use for cleaning my sinks!