The Adventures of Gladys and Harold Quimby

Random Monday

2012-01-23T17:44:00.000-08:00

Mmmmm! Bread!

The cats, contributing their part to the running of the household:

Singe supervises Mr.Q's stairs-trigonometry homework, and helps:

And I made a hat! A birthday gift for my niece, who is far too old today. The photo does not nearly capture the shiny, sparkly, awesomeness of that pink button. (It does, however, capture the bird poop I failed to notice at the time. I promise, sister-dearest, that your daughter's hat never touched it!)

Happy Monday!

Tuesday Tidbits

2012-01-17T19:58:00.000-08:00

I've been in the throes of domestic goddess-hood for the past few weeks, and have had many good intentions of photographing the bounty of my kitchen, for blogging purposes....but got too bogged down in clean-up (and eating!) to remember. So please imagine, if you will: cupcakes, soups, bread, pies, scones, stews, stir-fries, and a ham twice the size of Mr.Q's head. (Thank Bob I'm brilliant at Tetris, or my freezer wouldn't be able to contain all the leftovers!) There has also been Life Outside the Kitchen: parties, coffee dates, movie double-dates, and of course, work.

Lots of baking & cooking = time for introspection, while stirring, kneading, beating, pouring, timing, and washing up. Some truths about Life, the Universe, and Everything have been either discovered or re-affirmed...

Raspberry jam in chocolate cupcakes is a brilliant idea, in theory. In practice, it sinks to the bottom & sticks to the paper during baking. If one's goal is a Martha Stewart cupcake, one has failed. If, however, one loves an excuse to lick the crumbs off the paper liner, this becomes an unqualified success!
Tin-foil tiaras are even more fun at 39 than they were at 9. And somewhere in the intervening years, I have lost any inhibitions about wearing one in public. Under the right circumstances. (Publicly weilding a giant wooden spoon as a "sceptre" at the same time will undoubtedly generate comments of a...saucy...nature.)
A pastry mat is a brilliant thing for rolling out pie crusts. For kneading bread: not so much.
I like knitting.
A lot.
I have a lot of yarn.
Grammar is cool. And I am an unashamed grammar geek.
Listening to a guy on the bus try to explain to his friend the difference between "Let's eat, Grandpa!" and "Let's eat Grandpa!" is probably a lot funnier to English teachers and grammar geeks than to most other people. (Punctuation saves lives!)
Murphy's law in action: if you change the bedding, and use the last set of clean sheets to do so (because the dryer's broken, and you just haven't had room to hang the clean sheets to dry in your wee apartment yet) - this is the day you will come home again and find that a cat has vomited on your clean sheets. And your pillows.
A phone call from the doctor's office reminding you that it's time for your date with the stainless steel duck lips of doom is never going to generate feelings of warm fuzziness.
Weather that's finally cold enough to wear wool socks, however, does generate feelings of warm fuzziness, both figurative and literal.
Snow is pretty! And watching people from hot climates watch the first snowfall of the season - and it was a perfect snowfall: great, huge, fluffy flakes - is highly entertaining.
Those great huge fluffly flakes bring out an irresistable urge to catch them on my tongue. Never mind that I'm in public. I wish they really did taste like white chocolate, though!

Best laid plans...

2012-01-02T12:02:00.000-08:00

I had intended to post yesterday: get the New Year off to a good start and all that. Heck, I'd intended to do a lot of things yesterday that just...didn't happen! Waking up with a wicked sinus cold put the kaibosh on most of my day.

I had planned an idyllic New Year's Day that included putting a roast in the slow-cooker for dinner, and baking scones as a vehicle for the apple jelly my sister sent us for Christmas. Those, I did accomplish, albeit somewhat later than intended. (The scones were going to happen come hell or high water, dammit, as the quest for Devonshire cream to go with them was rather epic!) But the kitchen-ing wore me out, and the fanatbulous New Year's brunch I had envisioned (scones, eggs, bacon, mimosas, etc) remained, sadly, quite imaginary.

Instead of spending a lovely afternoon in my Magic Room, knitting & finally picking up the ukelele Mr.Q got me for Christmas...well, I sort of had a 4-hour nap and woke up again at 5:30, just in time for dinner. No problem; I could still spend a couple hours knitting & plucking, before sitting down to a game of cards with Mr.Q before bed. After all, I'd had a 4-hour nap, so surely I'd be up late!

I got as far as the couch in the Magic Room & promptly dozed off again. I managed to bestir myself just enough to crawl back into bed well before 8:00, and slept another 12 hours. I guess I needed it. And if yesterday was any indication, I guess the theme for 2012 lies somewhere between "The best-laid plans, etc. etc.", "Go with the flow," and "Naps! Good!"

Today, I Have Been Told. I am under strict orders to do nothing but doze and knit, and holler when I want something. Mr.Q is about to make me a bacon sandwich for lunch, and then I think I shall have another nap. Days like this, I don't mind playing the dutiful, obedient wife & doing what I'm told!

(And yes, Mr.Q has indeed cut off his hair. I had mixed feelings about it when he left to get it done, but I, umm....well, I really like it on him! Much better than the last time he shaved it all short, without telling me. On the morning of our wedding! Though this time around, it was a bit shocking for the first couple of days, waking up next to him and not quite recognizing him in the initial dazed not-quite-conscious seconds of the morning!)

Out with the old...

2011-12-31T20:43:00.000-08:00

Right. So, here it is, New Year's Eve, and I'm trying to cross as many things off my To-Do List before I dash out of the house in about 40 minutes. Coming home from the trip was...an adjustment! Not the jet lag (that wasn't actually too bad) but realigning ourselves with Real Life. It was a bit hard to come back to rain & early morning bus commutes in the dark, all the while thinking things like:

"This time last week we were standing in front of the David!"

"All this rain, and just a few days ago we were getting sunburned while climbing around Roman ruins in a Tuscan hill town!"

"Dear Bob, why is beer here so expensive? And where is the CHEESE?"

Mysteriously, our friends and associates were not terribly sympathetic. So Mr.Q coped by overloading his schedule with rock & roll, and I threw myself into domestic goddess-hood with great vigor. (A little too much vigor, really, considering the size our freezer isn't.)

I did try to emulate the gorgonzola sauce we had in Florence. It wasn't even close, but it was still tasty!

Of course, there has been mad knitting. My Secret Santa giftee at work is also a Dr.Who fan, so I knit him up a few dishcloths:

That last one really does say Bad Wolf, I promise. I made it all vague and stripey on purpose. Happily, there are a number of knitters on staff now, so he didn't know it was me right away. (Though when he finally clued in to the Dr.Who images, it was a dead giveaway.)

We made an attempt at a few Christmas cards, with a great deal of help from the beasties:

And I went..slightly overboard on the baking this year...I even made marshmallows! Surprisingly easy, and generally a hit. I may have overestimated the need for spritz cookies, though:

(And I iced them all! What was I thinking!)

Speaking of overboard - we booked ourselves onto a Carol Cruise one evening. We got a great deal, and it was way more fun than we'd anticipated, largely due to the unadvertised fun.

It was billed as a "Three Hour Tour", for which we took not a little ribbing from one of my friends. The decorations were paltry and sad, the dinner plates were cold, and the food was mediocre at best. However, our table companions were a blast, and the carolling was great fun - lusty, off key, and awesome.

Until it was cut short by a blown fuse. And then the back-up generator blew its fuse. So we were stuck in the dark. In the middle of the harbour, with all kinds of container ships and other dinner boats. And no lights. Whee! The engines still worked, but we had a good half-hour until we got back to dock. I was so impressed with the staff. Candles were set out in record time, and one of the crew entertained us (I use the word loosely) with her amateur stand-up routine. It was...corny. But she was very enthusiastic. And then our purser, a rough-spoken, burly Maritimer fisherman, gave us a lecture on the life-cycle of Pacific salmon. He was a delightful story-teller, and it was as edifying as it was entertaining.

The rest of the Christmas season was mellow and low-key. Lots of spending time with friends and eating a ridiculous amount of food. (Then there was the cooking up of the ridiculous amounts of leftovers....Food for a small army in our inadequate freezer now!)

Just off to a friend's for New Year's Eve...Mr.Q left early, to escape the seemingly unending housework, I think. I have a notion that it's a good idea to end the year as one means to go into the next one. Not really a superstition, but setting intentions. And I want a year of clean floors and a tidy kitchen! One last small batch of dishes to wash, the garbage to go out, and then I'm out the door.

May 2012 be full of magic and wonderment for all!

Rome, if you want to...

2011-11-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

Rome...was not at the top of my "Favourite Places to Visit, Ever. Or Again." I found it almost immediately unwelcoming (taxi driver at the train station laughed at us; our hotel was too close for him to bother. Never mind that it was a 20+ minute walk, with luggage, for us...) It's a big, grungy, noisy, busy city, teeming with insane drivers, and crawling with tourists (not travelers, and I swear to Bob there's a distinction! We try really hard to fall into the latter category!)

By the time we got to the hotel, I wanted to crawl into bed and not come out until it was time to get to the airport. (We had an argument with our host about that, too - he tried to convince us we wanted to leave too early, and then he set us up with a ride for the time we wanted....only we found out, when we got to the airport, that we could have paid about 10-15 Euros less...)

However, we were only a few short blocks from the Coliseum, and Mr.Q had been looking forward to this all summer and fall, as the capstone of our trip. So, I had a bit of a lie-down, and we went out in search of Ancient History.

To get there, we had to run a gauntlet of very aggressive vendors, and make our way through a huge crowd of tourists. To top it all off, there was a line at least an hour long to get in. We fortified ourselves with a colossal donut at the top of the hill, before making our way down to the far end of the Very Long Line.

We had to stop on the way so Mr.Q could fondle the columns....

As we were walking to the back of the line, we were approached by a tour rep, who told us that for a small fee, we could join a tour group, which would allow us to bypass the line, and get a guided tour inside. It was a pretty sweet little gig for them, and we could see a number of other tours doing a brisk business with the same set-up. We decided we'd buck up for the convenience factor, and it turned out to be worth it. Our guide really knew his stuff, and was quite obviously passionate about what he did.

Also, it meant we got to see a Gladiator!

Coming up to the entrance:

A cool mosaic:

An elevator rig:

View from inside...at which point it was patently obvious that a) the extra fee to get in was well worth it; and b) this place was Really Fucking Cool. MASSIVE, and mind-melty at the ingenuity of the human brain.

By this point, it was getting really hot and muggy, and I had definitely had enough of People. We made our way back to the hotel, via a corner store for a bottle of cold white wine. I cracked it as soon as we got in the door, with the intention of really hiding for the rest of the day. However, we got a message shortly after - Mr.Q's band-mates were, coincidentally, on the same flight we were, and had arrived in Rome the day before, having had their own adventures after Berlin. Would we be interested in dinner together, on our collective last night in Europe?

I have to say, the wine greatly improved my mood, and we met up for a wander in search of dinner. Which we found on a side-street a few blocks from the hotel...We did our best to replicate the feasts of glory days gone by...

(And, I'm pretty sure, got shafted by the waiters; the bill was rather larger than it ought to have been. I had already come to expect that as par for the course in this city, so I just let it go.) Off for a bit of a walk in the warm night...a few last souvenirs, some cheesy Polaroid photos at Trevi Fountain...

A talk on the Spanish Steps (and a few more unpleasant interactions with waiters and street vendors trying to rip off the tourists...fortunately, there had been more wine with dinner, so I was somewhat inoculated.) A too-late night, and a too-early morning, made somewhat more bearable by the surprisingly efficient and pleasant navigation of the airport; we had been led to expect much more chaos than there was. And we were on a flight home again.

Greenland, from the plane - in darkness on the way over; beautiful on the way home:

Getting through customs at YVR was fast and painless. When we finally got home, the cats were (mostly) glad to see their regular food supply, though clearly they had not suffered neglect or deprivation in our absence! Jet lag wasn't too bad (fortunately, as we both jumped right back into work the next day!) though it was nice to have the weekend without much to do, and an extra hour of sleep!

(We did go up to Commercial Drive on Saturday for espresso in one of the many Italian cafes. Funny, to look at the 4-ft plaster David and think: That's so much tinier than the real thing!)

It's good to be home! Though we're already talking about the next Grand Adventure. He wants Scandinavia; I'd love to see Morocco. Or Prague. Or Paris...Les Miserables! There's my literary connection there...

Under the Tuscan Sun

2011-11-07T05:48:00.001-08:00

We went up to Fiesole one sunny morning, looking for George Emerson in a field of flowers. We didn't find him, but we did find some very cool Roman & Etruscan ruins: an amphiteatre, baths, and a Roman temple built atop an Etruscan one. There were a couple of small (very well-behaved!) school groups there at the same time, and I thought: how cool is that, to have something like this in your back yard for field trips? It would make history lessons so much more interesting! We also watched a group do a recital of sorts for their chaperone, standing in a line at centre "stage"...which we watched while sitting on 2000+ year-old seats, and thought: I wonder how many times these stones have seen something like that? Then we spent a couple of hours climbing around the grounds and getting a sunburn.

Then we had lunch: a picnic of pizza, pears, pecorino, and pastries. Perfect!

Amphiteatre (we never did figure out which pile of stones was the vomitorium...sad!):

The baths (I believe the arches were the entrance to the latrines.)

Temple: Etruscan altar:

Temple ruins:

From the hill top, baths:

And amphitheatre:

Olives! From a tree! And here I thought they came from a bucket at the Italian deli...

And finally, lunch!

Italy's pernicious charm...

2011-11-06T05:44:00.000-08:00

When we arrived in Firenze, I had Expectations.

Expectations of being seduced by a magical Renaissance city. (Instead, I got crazy traffic, near-death pedestrian experiences, and loud drunken arguments keeping us up all night. Also, it was near-impossible to navigate.)

Of taking a day trip or two out into the hills of Tuscany, and wandering through vineyards and olive groves. (Spendy, the weather was somewhat crap, and we had to make reservations for the main galleries, which seriously cut into our available wandering time. And trying to navigate the English transit website required arcane knowledge which we lacked, and possibly a sacrifice to Neptune or something.)

Of spending hours sitting outside a cafe in one Piazza or another, sipping espresso and watching Italy go by. (There are very few benches or public sitting space, and you get charged way more for sitting down in a cafe; we got absolutely fleeced once or twice. And there were too many tourists between us and our view of Italy.)

Of course, by the time we arrived in Florence, we were tired and a little overwhelmed by all the Stuff we'd seen and done in a mere 10 days. (Also, I managed to get us rather lost on the way from the train station to the hotel....oops!) So it's no wonder the city was a bit of a let-down.

At first.

We got to our room, were warmly greeted by our host (who sort of reminded me of an ADHD chipmunk on speed) and had a bit of a rest before heading out to get ourselves oriented.

We kept it pretty mellow the first day, and the next morning we had reservations for the Uffizi gallery...Seeing the Botticelli paintings up close and personal was pretty cool, if a bit high-brow for us non-artists. Mr.Q was more interested in the statuary, and I was more interested in finding a good cup of coffee. Since it was a cold, rainy day, we decided to pop into the Galileo Science Museum around the corner.

That's about when things started to shift. My mind, it was blown. All kinds of old scientific instruments - astrolabes, compasses, maps, globes - terrestrial and celestial, hygrometers, thermometers (some of them 2m high)...all beautifully handcrafted, often engraved or otherwise decorated with delicate, intricate designs. Instruments of beauty as well as functionality. Behind one glass case: two of the telescopes that Galileo built, with his own hands. Under another piece of glass: part of Galileo's right hand. As in, actual bones and a fingernail and fragments of tissue. It would have been morbid, except looking from that back to the telescopes across the room, and considering what impact those bones and tubes had on our world...it felt more like visiting a shrine, with a saint's relic on display. At that point, I quit trying to "understand" Florence, and just started to sponge it up.

While we were in the museum, the sun came out, and we exited into a very different city.

It was...a jumble. So much to absorb: windy streets, old architecture, art, science, artisanal genius (we walked by a violin-maker's tiny shop, and could see him at work through the window...there was also a cobbler, with wooden forms hanging from string in the window...paper-makers, leather work, print-makers, book-binders, bakers, chocolatiers...)

We spent one very early morning at the Galleria Accademia, which houses the David...Again, mind-blowing to see that in person! So perfect in all the tiny details: sinews, veins, knobbly knees and ugly feet. (I liked that a lot, actually: many of the paintings and sculptures we saw featured Ideal Beauty in the form of perfectly-sculpted forms, clear-skinned goddesses with knowing smiles, etc...but they all had feet that looked like...feet.)

Better than the David, though, was the gauntlet of unfinished sculptures by Michelangelo, that you had to walk through to get to the featured exhibit. There were maybe 8 or 10 enormous blocks of marble, with rudimentary forms starting to emerge through the rough chisel gouges, as though they were frozen in the act of trying to burst out of the stone. It was one thing to see the perfect, polished, final statue of David. It was something else, literally awe-some, to stand there and think: "That gouge, right there, and that one, and that one...were actually made by Michelangelo's own hand."

After that, any plans beyond the book photo-op went out the window, and we spent four days wandering wherever the city took us. An afternoon meandering through the artisans' quarter ended up in a picnic lunch on a bench. A morning in Fiesole with a view of the city from one side; the same evening, a lurching bus ride up the hills on the other side of the city, to see the Duomo at sunset. We became regulars at the Fratelli Degl' Innocenti cafe, down the street from our hostel, and at one particular baker's stand at the Central Mercato. A quest for all the record stores in Florence (there are three worth visiting, apparently) led to the discovery of a paper-maker's studio/shop, where I found the marbled paper I'd been looking for; and at much better prices than the Big Name shops on the more touristy streets. Finding Santa Croce (and the tombs of both Michelangelo and Galileo, among others), we also found real, live Rom (Gypsy) street musicians: a jazz trio, featuring a violinist who could make you dance while he broke your heart under the sunny sky.

A jumble of images....

A view of Fiesole from our room (We had a Room With a View! And it was all painted and tiled in blue. Perfect!)

Piazza della Republica, featuring a carousel, street vendors, street musicians, artists...

Street art, in the artisans' quarter:

An odd door:

View from Oltrarno (the "other side" of the Arno)

Ponte Vecchio:

Florence at dusk, from the Piazzele Michelangiolo:

Galileo's tomb, inside Santa Croce (the irony of a church-sanctioned tomb, with figures representing Astronomy, was not lost on me!)

Mr.Q in the Piazza di Santa Croce, listening to the Rom band - he got to play the upright bass during a break, which thrilled him to no end!

Red bicycle in the sun:

Basilica of Santa Croce:

The Duomo at sunset:

Mr.Q waiting for dinner at Guido's Trattoria...amazing food, and they were very kind about our lack of Italian. They took turns to come out and talk to us, I think to practice their English. We played "stupid tourist"and totally over-tipped.

Cheese plate, before dinner, with pears and honey. I would never have thought of adding honey to the mix, but it turns out that, drizzled over a bit of Gorgonzola and a slice of pear...it is divine!

And last, a sideways video; I couldn't figure out how to re-orient it - but the visual's not so important. We sat on a cold bench for rather awhile to capture the 6:00 bells...

A bit more on Fiesole, then Rome...then home!

To live as Miss Honeychurch plays...

2011-11-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

A very long time ago, when I was a fresh-faced college student, I took an Introduction to English Lit course. I was wary: I had come to expect "Lit" classes to really be about micro-examining a text until it was a dessicated husk of its former self, shrivelled and lifeless. Also, Heart of Darkness was on the syllabus, and, well...just...ugh.

However, I got lucky. The instructor was quite young, and loved English literature in all its shapes and forms. She didn't want to put it under a microscope; she wanted to suck the marrow out of every juicy word. She even went so far as to make Chaucer interesting, by getting a friend who specialized in Medieval literature to read us some of the saucier bits. We shared similar tastes, and she introduced me to E.M. Forster. She suggested I start with her favourite book, A Room With a View.

Being the keener I was, I hied me down to the local Book Shoppe and picked me up a copy. I scarfed it down in one sleepless night. I convinced the instructor to let me write my term paper on RWaV, rather than Heart of Darkness, and she agreed. (For which I will be eternally grateful, if only for saving me from the tedium of reading HoD again...oy!) A closer reading of RWaV intrigued me...Shortly afterward, I saw the Merchant Ivory film, and I fell in love. Someday, dammitall, someday I was going to go to Florence and stand on that bridge over the River Arno! Stated with all the idealistic fervor of that young college student, of course, so perhaps destined to....not.

Then this Berlin trip was proposed, and Mr.Q and I started talking about where I might want to go afterward. An enticement, to coax me on board. Simultaneously, the loosely organized book club at work were looking for a new read, and someone suggested Room With A View.

Ding ding ding ding ding!

If you haven't read the book or seen the film, this post may be completely lacking in context. But I did pack my beat-up, dog-eared copy of the book, and Mr.Q and I spent a lovely day tracking down the key sites in the story....

The Ponte Vecchio, over the Arno...sans bloody packet of postcards:

The Piazza della Signoria, where we (accidentally) had gelato the size of our heads (I really did order a single scoop! She put a good half-litre on each cone! I wanted a pic, but the logistics were impossible.)

I also made a point of buying a nude Venus postcard here.

The fountain in the Piazza, where the stabbing took place, and where Lucy fainted:

The Hotel degli Orafi stands on the former site of the real, live Pension Bertollini:

On the steps of Santa Croce, without her Baedeker:

And inside the church, with some of Della Robbia's babies:

We did go to Fiesole as well, but I forgot to bring the book with me. And the ruins there deserve a post of their own. For those who are maybe not quite the geek that I am, I'll give you more of Florence in a another post. Meanwhile...already trying to decide on the next literary travel adventure! Hideous Kinky, and Morocco? (The film was meh, but visually stunning.) Chocolat, and Provence? The possibilities are endless!

Venezia

2011-10-25T22:40:00.000-07:00

Venice was....unexpected. I wasn't all that keen on going; I would rather have spent the extra two days exploring more of Tuscany. Also, hotels and hostels are really expensive, and it's a total tourist trap. But Mr.Q was in Venice as a teenager, for one afternoon, and he really, really wanted to go back. So, dutiful spouse that I am, I humoured him.

We landed on the mainland after a traumatic airport experience in Berlin, on a hazy, overcast afternoon. We were exhausted both physically (up far too late the night before, saying our last good-byes to the city and the people we knew there) and mentally (we put every ounce of energy we had into experiencing Berlin, and it drained us....it's an odd city: the site is old, but many of the buildings are new. Neighbourhoods of glass and concrete, not unlike Vancouver, erected since 1945, or even since 1989. So it feels very young in parts, and it's discombobulating. You know there's something older below that shiny new exterior, but you'd have to stay a lot longer to really see it. We sure tried though!)

Mr.Q had his heart set on taking a water-bus across, insisting that the view of the city from the water would be breathtaking. Me? I was more concerned about how spendy it was, and the dull day & salt-stained windows of the boat did nothing to spur any enthusiasm. Plus, I had directions to get to the hostel via bus; not a boat coming in from the opposite direction.

First impression: a dingy, grungy city. Peeling paint, and plaster flaking off walls in chunks. Lagoons and canals murky, not with the wealth-bringing jade of a Feng Shui garden, but with boat fuel and probably sewage. Foundations exposed at low tide were slimy with algae and mold. Not so much the magical city of Mr.Q's recollections.

We docked, closer to the hotel than I had expected: an encouraging sign. The bridge between us and Campo San Geremia, where we needed to be, was jam-packed full of tourists. Less encouraging. The throng was fairly easy to navigate: the pendulum swung up again. The hostel was somewhat dingy looking...less thrilling. The Italian hipster at the front desk was cheerful and welcoming....Good. Four narrow, twisty flights of marble stairs to our room, which had a view of mildewed rooftoops and a shower the width and breadth of a refrigerator...somewhat discouraging. But it was clean, and painted a warm yellow, and I only had to endure it for two days, and what the hell - let's go outside and see what we could see.

We immediately found a trattoria with cheap, tasty panini to eat while we walked back over the bridge. The sun had come out, and the city looked a little brighter. We stumbled almost immediately across a gondolier, who was honest about the price he quoted. I don't think we even looked at each other, let alone discussed it we just got in the boat.

Because we were staying in Cannaregio, the old Jewish quarter, it was a bit less frenetic than the more central, touristy parts of the city. Glidng down some of the smaller back "streets", it was almost completely silent. The late afternoon sun gilded the buildings, so the city looked less dingy, and more like a dowager duchess, defiantly clinging to the elegance of her youth.

It's a city that has to be seen from the water to be appreciated.

After the gondola ride, we just wandered the streets as the sun set, and stayed out till well after dark.

Dinner was eaten here: a slice of pizza, enjoyed while listening to a trio of violinists play Vivaldi...and then some rag-time tunes.

Day the second: armed with day passes for the city water buses (vaporetto) and a city map, we decided to just get on a boat and see where we ended up. We got turned around and sort of lost a couple times, but that was part of the adventure: you can only go so far before you hit the water, either the Gran Canal or the surrounding lagoon, and there are vaporetto stops at regular intervals.

(The idea that somebody actually mapped the city is amusing, given that some of the "streets" are maybe 3 feet wide, and a few dozen feet in length. Whoever took the time to do the job must have laughed their asses off at the idea of tourists trying to decipher the warrens laid out on paper....)

A street performer, playing Ave Maria on water glasses. The idea sounds cheesy, but the reality sounded exquisitely pure.

Last sights of the city...

The weather began to turn as we got back to our hotel, and we left the city the next morning as the rain started. It seems to have followed us to Florence....More about our arrival here later; we have museum reservations: off to see some Renaissance art!

So, we took Berlin...

2011-10-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

Clearly, the time in Berlin got away from us. We tried to cram as much as we could into the few days we had...and it wasn't nearly enough! A few highlights from our last 3 days there...

Thursday was my birthday (I think I like this habit of spending the day somewhere new!) So Mr.Q took me to a castle:

Where there was even a Knight in Shining Armour:

And a ballet performance:

Then we went down to Museum Island, and looked at some really cool buildings, including the Berlin Cathedral:

Mr.Q's German was not up to the task of translating the warning sign on the elevator at the train station:

So we've decided it means: "Do Not Use Elevator When Giant Space Slugs Attack! Achtung!"

Finally, at the end of the day, the band had a show at a really cool pub. The bartender was a sweet, funny Willie Nelson look-alike, and when he heard it was my birthday, he gave me a bunch of silk roses and a glass of sparkling wine:

Friday, we went to Potsdam to poke around, but were SO tired and overwhelmed that we ended up on a bus tour. It was perfect, actually, because even though it was pretty quick, and we didn't have a lot of time for exploring - it got us to some places we wouldn't otherwise have seen. (For next time!) Including a windmill:

And the summer palace and gardens at Sanssouci:

Back in Berlin, we wandered for a bit around Oranienburger, where we saw (and just missed entry into) the Neue Synagogue, an absolutely stunning building:

And Mr.Q found the Ramones museum:

He didn't actually go inside, as he wanted to make sure he had enough time to go for some "real" German food, which he enjoyed immensely:

Saturday, our last day, we spent wandering around, saying good-bye to the city. We stopped back at the cafe we'd discovered on our first day, for another Nutella Dream coffee:

Then found ourselves on a boat tour of the Spree river - a German tour, but we didn't care; I just wanted to see part of the city from the water, and they served us beer & gluhwein. Happy-making!

We wandered around a bit more, and I sat on a bench and knit outside Humboldt University

While Mr.Q rummaged through the used books for sale on the sidewalk. (He only bought one! Impressive restraint!)

Then the band's last (and best!) show, where a lot of German teenagers listened attentively to (and maybe made out to) the tunes...

And that, as they say, is all she wrote. Up at a ridiculous hour to tidy our rented flat, take a taxi to the airport (we did NOT like Schoenfeld Airport...NOT the best airport ever! We're quite lucky in Vancouver!) Now in Venice, woken up several times last night by the silence. Took me awhile to figure it own, then I was like: Duh! NO CARS!

Now for breakfast & an explore of some of those twisty, narrow cobblestone paths!

Size Matters

2011-10-19T15:23:00.001-07:00

In my very limited observation, I have noticed that Berliners like small cars, small parking spaces (with lots of creative parking!), and small cups of coffee. But everything else is Pretty Darned Big. Huge recycling bins for glass. Long trains. Big bratwurst sausages. And so on. For example:

Mr.Q with his Very Big Breakfast Beer:

Brandenburg Gate is Really Frickin' Huge (with red-sweatered Viking for scale:

And there's a Really Big Monument on top of it:

The Reichstag is Ginormous! (Sadly, we failed to make reservations, so we didn't get to go inside and see the Not-So-Wee dome)

There are even Brobdignagian Bubbles:

Brondignagian Bubbles, blown by a Viking, for scale:

Even Massive Lego Sculptures, like this life-sized giraffe (made out of Duplo blocks, mostly, to be totally accurate)

The eyelashes slay me:

I'm sure I'll find more big things tomorrow. A couple last images from the day...

The track of the Berlin Wall running through the city:

Including right under my seat at a cafe:

Pretty trippy!

I also had the strangest hot dog of my life tonight. A very thin cheese sauce, diced tomatoes, and what I had expected to be pickles (given the "gherkin" on the menu) turned out to be diced cucumber soaked in vinegar. It was...odd! Fortunately, I had some good cider afterward, to take the edge off.

A History Lesson

2011-10-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

So, the weird thing about being in Berlin is that being in Berlin isn't weird. I realize we've only seen a tiny slice of the city, but so far, it really doesn't feel that foreign. A lot of the buildings are newer than those in Vancouver, which is a youngster on the scene. People speak a gamut of different languages - just like in Vancouver. There are a huge variety of ethnic restaurants, and oodles of coffee shops. Again, just like back home! Of course, there are lots of differences. Our public transit system can't hold a candle to the system here. Also, you can buy a beer from a corner store at 10:00 a.m. and drink it while walking down the street. A fact which Mr.Q finds quite...charming!

But so far, much of what we've seen lacks a sense of the true history of this corner of the world. I certainly had more of a feeling of history as a presence in the twisted cobblestone streets of Old Montreal last fall. Today, though, we got a bit of that sense in Berlin. On the recommendation of my yarny-enabling pal Anne, we booked a walking tour of important Third Reich sites. Mr.Q is quite the history buff, especially with WWII, so this was right up our alley. We had to imagine a lot of what was, seeing as many of the sites didn't survive the war or the years afterward, but a few buildings were intact.

This used to be part of Goebbel's Ministry of Propaganda:

The Finance Ministry now was originally built to house the Air Ministry, out of which the Luftwaffe were commanded by Goering and his merry band of goose-steppers:

A piece of the Berlin wall, built over the ruins of the Gestapo Headquarters (we were walking in the "Dead Zone" between East & West Berlin):

An interpretive site, over the foundations of the Gestapo Headquarters, in the empty space behind the Wall:

A building which is now an art gallery, whose purpose to the Third Reich has escaped me (There was a LOT of information!)

Bullet holes, riddling the stone walls of the building above:

Bombed-out remains of a huge train station...whose war-time duties included ferrying Jews and other Undesirables to "Re-education Camps."

A quick shot of Potsdamer Platz from behind the Canadian Embassy (Our guide chose to take us there because he needed a quiet space to continue the lesson, and as he said, it's always quiet where the Canadians are. I may have annoyed the Tea Partier in our group when I commented that yes, being Canadian was why we were so polite getting on the bus...oh well!)

The tour wrapped up at the location of Hitler's infamous bunker. A sign with some essential information marked the spot....

...but that was the only indication of what was under our feet. Our group, on the packed dirt and sparse grass, is standing right over what rubble remains of the bunker.

It was very....surreal. To say the least. It was a really interesting experience; quite the mind-fuck, actually. But it gave us a totally different perspective of - and appreciation for - the city.

Heading back "home" for some dinner before Mr.Q's gig, we found ourselves feeling almost like pros at maneuvering the transit system.

The pic was taken moments before Mr.Q shifted over to make room for an elderly woman. When she thanked him in German, he told her (in German) that we were tourists from Canada, staying in Prenzlauer-Berg. Her face lit up, she pulled a photocopied picture out of her bag, of Prenzlauer Allee (The main street near us), about 100 years ago. She talked and chirped at him for the rest of our ride; telling him about growing up in the same neighbourhood. She was quite sweet, and very concerned that we were getting off at the wrong stop. I told her it was OK, we were going to a restaurant for dinner, and she looked very relieved. It felt like we'd been briefly adopted or something: a perfect, magic moment!

Back to "our" 'Wurst stand, where Mr.Q tried the famous Berliner currywurst:

The verdict:

(He was actually way more impressed than he looks!)

Now: out the door to a gig! Life is so surreal...Awesome, but bizarre!

Achtung, Baby!

2011-10-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

Mr.Q had to get a couple musician-y things for his gigs, and a friend-of-a-friend recommended a local music store. We made our way to the location given by google maps, and were confounded to find ourselves in the middle this huge stone and brick complex:

The Kulturbrauerie, full of artists' spaces, culture-oriented business, performance spaces, and of course - a huge pub. Quite cool!

On the way to the U-Bahn, a very good question:

Zoo Station! Making it even better: the train we had to ride to get there: the U2. (I am, perhaps, far too easily amused!)

At the Zoo....Elephants are cool!

Giraffes are also cool!

Monkeys are also cool, but a bit smellier. Also, cheeky! This little fellow & Mr.Q spent about 5 minutes making faces at each other:

When he'd had enough, he leaped up onto a rope, waggled his backside in Mr.Q's direction (while fondling an emerging poo) and climbed away.

Even stinkier than monkeys: R.O.U.S.es!

This one made my brain hurt a little. I didn't realize we had bison on the west coast...Cultural stereotypes, much?

Finally, some cheeky otters, who were climbing onto the wall to check out a young boy who was chattering at them. They were awesome! So playful and mischievous.

Finally, on our way home, Mr.Q expressed a desire for "Real German Food" (Berlin is more multicultural than Vancouver, and there are an abundance of ethnic restaurants.) We settled on a 'Wurst stand, under one of the U-Bahn stations. We mistakenly ordered potato salad instead of fries, but it was really good potato salad, so that was alright! Also, they had mugs of gluhwein (hot mulled red wine) available. So tasty!

....And then, we'll take Berlin!

2011-10-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

A long few days preceding take-off, including more than one trip to the vet which really borked up our timetable! Not least because I was trying madly to finish a sweater to take with me.

And finish it, I did. The shoulder seams are less-than-perfect, as are the last 3 inches of the second side (I was seaming on the SkyTrain to the airport!) When we got to YVR, Mr.Q had lunch while I finished weaving in the ends, before we went through security.

Waiting to board...KLM was a delight to fly with! And not only because of the free booze.

A long, long layover in Amsterdam...Mr.Q slept in a lounge chair while I gawked at the many, many cheeses for sale. (I also had a bit of a nap, but not nearly as epic as his!) Passport Control was painless (and cute! As in, adorable. I swear the guy was only about 20.)

Waiting near our gate, I had a very fine cup of coffee (with complimentary chocolate bon bon!)

Arrival in Berlin last night was also painless, and the taxi driver (unlike what we're used to in Vancouver!) didn't try to kill us. We've rented a studio apartment for the week, and our hostess was most helpful in getting us settled. Before she left, she made sure we knew how to get to a nearby grocery, which we hit up for some essentials before we went to bed: cheese, bread, wine, beer, and some breakfast fixings. A quick snack when we got back, and we fell into a coma.

Happily, we seem to have largely escaped jet lag, and we woke up to a sunny day, and a view of the courtyard we hadn't seen in daylight.

(My derp! moment of the day: waking up, looking out the window, and exclaiming "It's so quaint! So charming! It looks so European!" Mr.Q just gave me a look. "Oh, right. Hahaha! We are in Europe!"

Cooked up a hearty breakfast, put on our walking shoes, and headed out to explore the neighbourhood. Found a lovely little cafe, whose baristas were most understanding & helpful when Mr.Q ordered for us...See, he speaks a little high school German, enough to get by, but not much more. Me? I tell him what I want, and he translates for me. So the baristas were quite accomodating. One spoke some English; the other spoke German very slowly, with many gestures. We ended up with some fine coffee, and a sidewalk view of Prenzlauer-Berg on a Sunday.

(Thing I loved best about the place: the fleece wraps laying over the backs of the outside chairs!)

Back "home" for a bit of a nap for me, while Mr.Q went out exploring for a bit on his own. He came back with flowers, and more beer.

Now getting ready to head out to his first gig...and our first attempt at using transit here! The adventure continues!

Antici.....

2011-10-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

I sense a pattern here...

2011-09-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning. Mr.Q is out buying cat food so they don't eat us in our sleep, the greedy beasts. I have the place to myself, and can do anything I want. Anything. Secret things, all juicy and luscious.

Like this!

French bread, lightly toasted; a thin slip of mayo, some 1-year-old white cheddar, and thick, messy slices of a "black" tomato the size of a baby's head. Dust it all with a hint of fresh-ground sea salt. Let eyes roll back into head while eating, to enhance the experience. Consider hiding the other half of the tomato, for a repeat performance tomorrow.

(Hey, I shared the pear, didn't I?)

Heaven is a place on Earth...

2011-09-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

...and that place is in my mouth!

Specifically, this bit of tasty is - or rather, was - in my mouth:

That, my friends, is a saffron-poached pear. I think there was white wine and honey and some cinnamon involved, too. (No, I did not make it myself: I bought it at Whole Paycheque today, and it was worth every (surprisingly reasonable) penny!)

If ever Mr.Q doubts that I love him, I shall direct him to this post. Which I would like to close by pointing out that I saved half of this for him. Because I am just that awesome.

(But sweetie, you should probably stop reading here, because I can't guarantee that there will be any of that heirloom tomato left for you, and I'd rather keep that dark little secret to myself. It's not you, it's me. And my unreasonable, irresistible lust for summer tomatoes. I always come back to you, though!)

Where have you been, Billy Boy?

2011-09-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I post a few teasers of Sock Summit, and I fall off the face of the earth again. (Sorry, Dad!) (Who may be the only person who still checks in here from time to time!)

In my defense, Sock Summit took some recovery time. And then it got me in trouble again. (Or, rather, SS09 did, as it re-awoke a taste for adventure & travelling, & the willingness to live on tuna casserole for months at a time in order to save the necessary pennies...)

First, there was SS09. Then, there was Rhinebeck & Montreal. Then, there was SS11 (with a few wee road trips & winery tours thrown in for local colour.) Since I came back from Portland this time, I've been largely occupied with knitting myself a new cardigan. When not tangled up in skeins and skeins of yarn (delicious Miss Babs, from SS09!), I have been doing a ridiculous amount of internet research and planning, so as to have the best time possible while wearing this new sweater.

It turns out that this fall, we are going here for a week, and then spending another week going here, and here, and finally here.

The degree to which I am excited is ridonkulous. I am trying to only talk about it half the time, rather than all the time. There is regular flailing, of the Kermit variety, chez Q.

So, that's where I've been. And where I'm going!

Pictures and words and stuff

2011-08-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

So I've been home from Sock Summit 2011 for almost 2 weeks, and I've been trying to distill the whole experience into a coherent post or two.

Not happening!

Instead, here are some of the more representative pics I took. You'll have to use your imagination to fill it all in. I promise you, it was even geekier than it looks, and at least twice as awesome as you could possibly imagine.

I can hardly wait till 2013!

The Party's Over

2011-08-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

On a north-bound train, about 3 hours out of Portland...with far too much stuff to manage gracefully getting to the train station. I was actually quite restrained with the yarn purchases (though not necessarily with other "infrastructure" - needles, project bags, etc!) However, the big box of Voodoo Doughnuts may have been overkill - rather a bitch to juggle with all my luggage! Glad to be going home; I'm tired, and ready for my own bed. It's been a crazy few days! I can't wait to see the pics - I still haven't figured out the photo software on my netbook, so looking at the pics will have to wait till tomorrow at home.

It was odd - somehow this Sock Summit was less "Exciting" - it didn't have all the shiny newness of the last (first!) Gathering of the Tribe two years ago. Yet, somehow it was also more satisfying - I had a better idea of how to pace myself, and took a lot of time to just hang, visit with people, and explore Portland a little more. And I had a chance to connect with folks who I'd met last time around, some of whom have become good friends in the meantime. Of course, there were also ample opportunities to meet new people, and to put real faces and voices to internet names. And because I was a little more oriented this time around, I got a lot more out of the classes I took and the brains I got to pick!

I had a funny moment in the taxi after the Sock Hop on Saturday. The driver was making small talk, as they do, and he asked if I was in town for a conference. "Yep. It's a sock knitting convention."

His head actually tilted sideways. "What?"

"A sock knitting conference."

Head tilted the other way. "What?!"

"It's called Sock Summit. It's the second one that's been held here."

"So you....get together and knit socks? Do you talk about knitting socks?"

"Yep! There are a few thousand people here, from all over the world."

"Do you...like...take classes and stuff?"

"Oh, yeah! I've had some great classes!" So I told him about the photography class and the ergonomics class, and the Sock Hop, and getting together with friends from the opposite side of the continent, and the trip down on the train, and how much I enjoy Portland....And by the time we got to the hotel, he was sold on the idea. "That's pretty neat!" he said, more than once.

As I was getting out of the taxi, I couldn't resist adding, in my chipper-est voice: "And on Sunday, there will be sheep!"

Poor guy did an epic headtilt. I hope he didn't injure himself! And I sure hope he saw the full-page spread in today's Oregonian.

Saturday Sundries

2011-07-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

No classes until this evening, so I've had a few hours to do some Portland exploring. Wandered the Saturday Market for an hour or so with a couple of the roomies, finished off with a lovely fresh-squeezed limeade, and then a Vietnamese iced coffee. We all scattered on our separate ways, and I trekked up to Powells books. I was shockingly restrained, and thus Mr.Q will not find himself fielding an angry call from our landlord about an NSF rent cheque.

Yet.

After the bookstore, I sat under an awning and savoured a fabulous Italian custard gelato, while listening to a 14-year-old violinist busking across the street. A perfect summer afternoon!

Off to the Convention Center shortly, for a secret...then a lecture, then a birthday celebration for GlennaC at a restaurant blessedly close to our hotel. (I have a feeling we won't be taking transit back! And I'm pretty sure i won't regret (much) the lack of a knitting light.)

(Or will I?)

Operation Awesome Sox

2011-07-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

So I have some fun pics to share...but I'm using my wee netbook, and I haven't tried to upload photos from my camera to it before, and I don't understand the program it uses, so the pics are HUGE. So. Y'all may have to wait till I get home, where I know how to resize them! (I'm sure it's quite simple, but frankly, I don't have time for technical futzery just now! There are classes to take, and knitters to knit with, and Portland to hang out!) There were even vendors who accepted Canadian Tire money!

Day 1 was, unsurprisingly, awesome! I took a class on "Photographing Your Fiber" from Franklin Habit (who was wearing a utili-kilt. He was even cooler in person than I had expected!). There was a mother ship full of knitters, disguised as a convention center - and more of us than the IT conference around the corner, which kind of freaked them out. There was tasty food (a waffle "taco" folded around sausage patties with maple cream...OMFG!), great company, friends discovering the magic of Sock Summit for the first time, and reunions with veteran pals. There was Hipster-spotting Bingo (yarnpiggy won!) and freaking out the poor guy in the hotel elevator, when 4 of us wandered up to another knitter's room...in our PJs and slippers, with bottles of beer and boxes of crackers. Poor guy.

Right! Off to breakfast, then coffee, then a class on ergonomics for knitters, then...the world!

Because really, I am 12

2011-07-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

Sign on the train, which amused me far more than it should have.

Apparently, sleep deprivation & yarn fumes bring out my inner twelve-year-old boy!

I'm on a train

2011-07-27T06:17:00.000-07:00

Commence the live blogging! I have had very little sleep, only one cup of coffee, a banana inhaled at the entrance to customs (can't bring fruit across the border!), and rather a little confusion trying to figure out TECHNOLOGY at the butt-crack of dawn.

Release the hounds!

Our car is already half-full of knitters. I think the customs agents were a little shell-shocked. I just hope we don't get kicked off the train!

Going a-viking

2011-07-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

Normally, on a Sunday morning, Mr.Q will take the grocery bags (or the wheeled cart, depending on the week's list) up to the neighbourhood, to do the grocery shopping. It's a task he took on some time ago, and one I was more than happy to surrender! He likes the solitary walk, and we both like me not having to deal with crowded shops. So, it's a win-win! Sometimes, he'll come home with a bit of a surprise - a case lot of mushroom soup, or an experimental brand of peanut butter, because they were on sale. (I was a bit shocked the day he came home with 3 big bottles of dish detergent; but delighted last week when I thought we'd run out, but lo! there was another bottle under the sink!)

On the occasional weekend, though, I'll join him, as I did today. I was on the hunt for some last-minute necessaries for Sock Summit (three more sleeps!) and didn't really think Mr.Q needed to be the one looking for neon nail polish or blue eyeshadow. So, off we went, and had a lovely walk in the sun. We got up to the neighbourhood, and after accomplishing a few of our joint errands, we separated for a bit: me, into the dollar store, looking for a cosmetics bag to hold my knitting needles; him, to the butcher shop for some lunch meat.

When we met up on the sidewalk after about 15 minutes, he had quite the swagger on him, and he was positively smirking. Of course, I had to ask.

Apparently the woman at the butcher shop did a double take when he walked in. "I know you from somewhere," she insisted. Not a gig (the obvious scenario)...."I know! I've seen you on Ravelry!"

"But I'm not a knitter!"

"No, really, I've seen pictures of you on Ravelry, modelling hats and sweaters and stuff!"

"Oh! That would be my wife's knitting!" He was quite proud, both because he was recognized, and that it was because of my yarny habits.

How randomly awesome is that?! The Viking is famous! (Or, well, infamous...but we were both pretty tickled by the whole thing!)

One week till you look at me...

2011-07-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

In just ONE WEEK, I'll be leaving for Portland, Oregon, and Sock Summit.

ONE WEEK! Squeee!

I'm kind of a little excited, if you couldn't tell.

It just so happens that the Oregon Brewers Festival is the same weekend. And it's fairly close to our hotel.

There's a whole passel of us taking the train down...and more getting on in Seattle. Trouble, with a capital T!

(If, by "trouble", you understand that I mean: Too Much Fun!)

Fruits of my labour

2011-07-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

There must be something in the water, as I've got two co-workers who are expecting babies in the next month. Their due dates are a week apart, and I know of two other impending sproglets due around the same time, give or take. So we had a double-shower for the work gals, which meant, of course, knitting. I've given up on sweaters, I think, as it turns out that babies grow really quickly when you feed them. (And it further turns out that not feeding them, even for the sake of fitting the knitting awhile longer, is frowned upon. Who knew?) So I'm back to hats. Big, stretchy hats. I knit two last week, a tomato and a blueberry:

It meant, of course, that I've fallen behind on my Sock Summit knitting (10 more sleeps!). But I'm pretty sure I can get 3/4 of a sock finished in 10 days, and the shawl I had envisioned...well, that will have to wait till the fall, I suppose. (I have a terrible feeling it's going to be more of a neck-shawlette thing, and I'm pretty cranky about it. I'm afraid to put it on longer needles to test the theory. It's in time out until I get back from Portland.)

Meanwhile, I'm busy getting my classes prepped for while I'm away (which is enough work, in and of itself, to require a holiday of its own!), and playing Susy Homemaker while Mr.Q works a ton of overtime. So...busy as usual, chez Q!

At least, for the human component. The feline members of the household are somewhat more...indolent.

Life, she is clearly full of trials and woe for our feline overlords!

Shut yer pie hole!

2011-07-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the long-ish radio silence - the spirit was willing, but the sinuses were weak. I am just getting over the worst sinus infection ever, and aside from a lot of sleeping, drooling, and staring at walls, I have been incredibly...well, stoned. Yay, decongestants! I am happily feeling almost back-to-normal after 2 1/2 weeks of extreme grumpiness. So, a wee update!

I did manage to get out for a bit on Canada Day, and had great fun watching the Arrogant Worms with yarnpiggy.

(Then, of course, I came home and napped for the rest of the day!)

Meanwhile, the cats have been getting up to all sorts of mischief. Especially Singe:

We found out a few weeks ago that he has arthritis in his lower back, and have him on glucosamine supplements that have already made a huge difference. I didn't realize how much he wasn't himself, until about 2 weeks on the supplements. He's been making up for lost time with several...offerings...of mice, in the middle of the night. Usually he brings them in live, so it's easy enough to rescue them and put them outside.

There was the night, though, when I was awoken by a very disturbing crunching noise, right outside the bedroom door. I left the carnage for Mr.Q to clean up, under a yogurt container, under a big hardcover book. Stephen King. I thought it was appropriate. Beastie was far too smug about it, too!

(Attention, cat-sitters who may be reading this! He's only done that once, and is being actively discouraged from bringing home "take-out" with a squirt bottle. It seems to be working!)

Also, I've been playing with the KitchenAid again. We went to a BBQ party last night, and I offered to bring a lemon meringue pie for dessert. I got to play with my "new" rolling pin, too - and for the first time, the pie weights that Little Sis gave me to go with it:

I can't believe I used to make meringues without a KitchenAid.

So shiny! And stiff!

Having trouble with the oven temp, though - it came out a little darker than I would have preferred:

I can only hope it tasted good, as there was so much food there that we didn't actually eat the pie!

(Mr.Q was quite sad about it, so I baked another one today...Noms!)

We had planned to go to Stanley Park today to meet beentsy & enjoy a free performance by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. It's Vancouver's 125th birthday, and the City had a whole weekend of free concerts lined up.

Unfortunately, neither transit nor traffic cooperated to get us there. After numerous thwarted attempts, we finally got on a bus...only to be told we'd be stuck in traffic for at least another 20 minutes. At that point, we gave up and went in search of beer.

Random chicken on the seawall:

And finally, beer! I had a fancy British raspberry beer, which was very pretty:

I've tried a couple other raspberry ales, and been quite pleased with the light, tart, fresh flavour - perfect for summer! This one was pretty sweet, though, and came in a REALLY big bottle, so it was a little much. Live and learn, I suppose! And I managed to console myself with a piece of lemon meringue pie when I got home. So, all in all, a successful day!

A busy couple weeks coming up, and then...Sock Summit! So stoked! Will save the squeeing for another day, though - must go medicate The Mighty Hunter!

I'm a big kid now!

2011-06-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

Before I show you my Cool New Toy, a couple more pics of Granville Street from the weekend. First, The Bay put on a big pancake breakfast for all the volunteers who had come downtown to help clean up on Thursday, and afterward. What I wish you could see in this pic from my bus: they had B-52s just blasting, and everyone on the sidewalk - servers, eaters, bystanders & cops - were all dancing. It was awesome!

The VPD car which has been on the news, with all the sticky notes...what you can't see in this pic is the big sign the VPD put on the windshield, thanking all the other agencies that had helped out on Wednesday.

And a last shot of The Bay: the plywood covered in scrawls was taken down today, and will be preserved at the Vancouver Museum. But on the weekend, people were still adding messages, and had started a line of "prayer flags" that wrapped around the block:

Downtown was packed, but mellow. As if people just wanted to be there & soak up - and add to - the community vibe. (And let me tell you, those few blocks of Granville & area have never been so clean!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...life goes on. We're "out with the old, in with the new" today @ Chez Q. We had a great, skinny old toaster that we got at a garage sale for $5 when we first moved in together. It has served us well for many years, and took up very little counter space. I'd say we've definitely got our $5 out of it. But today...today, after I'd toasted my bagel, I unplugged it, and the plug was hot. Now, I'm no electrician, but even I have a pretty good idea that a hot plug is A Bad Thing!

So after dinner, Mr.Q & I went down to London Drugs, and we bought our very first new toaster ever. It was quite exciting, and I felt, of course, that the momentous occasion needed documenting. So here it is, in all its shiny beauty:

It has a separate setting for bagels! And a pull-out crumb tray! Crazy! I feel so grown up now.

But it's going to have to wait for its maiden toasting. Today was also the first day I've seen local, in-season strawberries at the market. I'm off to gorge myself on their juicy, sweet-tart tastiness. NOM!

Well, that was...interesting!

2011-06-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

So, yeah. This hockey thing. Kind of....well, I'm still processing. The last few days have been rather a roller coaster! I've gone from this (celebratory community fun! And donuts!)

To this morning's wake-up (please note, fambly members who are prone to panicking, and you know who you are! I was nowhere near the downtown madness after the game!):

And then after work, I found this, largely due to countless volunteers, including food truck vendors who donated lunch to the clean-up crews....had I known in time, I would have early for work, with some garbage bags and work gloves, and pitched in:

And there were some pithy messages for last night's hooligans:

I think I still like hockey. And I really like what the people in Vancouver did today; best response ever to a really stupid situation. (Also, knitting at a hockey "fan zone"? Gets the best reactions ever! Will definitely be taking my knitting to the arena next season!)

And now I have to go to bed. Between the let-down of last night's game, the shit-show afterward, the emotional roller-coaster today - and the wicked cat fight outside my window just as I was falling asleep last night! But that's maybe a post for another day - I am a mighty tired Quimby.

Hello Canada...

2011-06-04T20:15:00.000-07:00

...and hockey fans, in the United States and Newfoundland!

Mr.Q got mega-brownie points today for venturing downtown to watch part of the hockey game, with about 12,000 of our new best friends. We got there early - about 3:00, the game started at 5:00 - found a sweet spot to park our chair, and had some very fine fish & chips from the Kaboom Box, one of the new food trucks hanging out around the city. (Very fine fish! A nice, light tempura batter that wasn't too heavy or greasy, and didn't overwhelm the delicate taste of the cod.)

We only stayed for the first period - it got windy and cold when the sun went behind the buildings (and I have to say, it's pretty weird watching hockey and worrying about sunscreen!). But it was So. Much. Fun! I have never sung the National Anthem with such gusto, nor heard in sung so enthusiastically.

A few pics of the adventure:

Probably just as well we left early, as getting a bus home would have been...interesting! And I was both sun- and wind-burned, & my throat is still raw.

But I 'spect I'll be back for one of the games next week. You know, since I'm downtown for work already...

Pretty in Pink

2011-05-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

Had a bit of an impulsive falling-down at the liquor store on payday. Went in for a bottle of wine for my book club (We did talk about the book....for about 15 minutes. I seem to recall lighting Sambuca on fire later in the evening, and singing along really loudly - and badly - to Tiffany and the Bangles...good times!)

Anyway. I was buying my bottle of wine, and saw a display for Granville Island's summer ale. I would have bought a 6 right then, but I was loaded down with coffee (JJ Bean is discontinuing my favourite roast e-var, so I sort of cleaned them out of what they had left...). Mr.Q kindly went out and fetched me some of the beer on Saturday, while I nursed a bit of a(n apocalyptic) hangover.

I may have waited a day or two to actually crack a bottle, but it's So. Good. NOMS!:

And so very, very pretty!

Also, quite tasty: light, and tart. Not sweet at all, but still a clear hint of raspberry at the back of the tongue. Perfectly refreshing for a hot summer day.

If, that is, we ever get a hot summer day! Or even a sort of tepid one.

My pretty beer, in the 5 minutes of sunlight we had on the weekend:

Surreality Check

2011-05-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

Bizarre:

Sitting in a chair at the salon on Sunday, getting new blue in my hair. Salon is empty, save for me, my hairdresser, and her 2 co-workers. I hadn't realized the hockey game was mid-afternoon, or I might have scheduled my appointment differently. But the customer service there is great: they turned my chair around, got a cart for my hairdresser to work from, moved the monitor on their computer so I could see the screen, and we all watched the game together. While I was getting my hair done. And knitting. And having a passionate conversation about cheese and coffee and chocolate. Talk about extreme multi-tasking!

More bizarre:

"Not watching" Tuesday's game on my laptop, sitting on the bathroom floor (because the Canucks never score when I'm actually watching the game, so I was just listening to it) with a beer in hand, having an online conversation with a friend in her bathroom (because they only score when she's in the can); a friend stuck in her bedroom (because every time she comes out, the other team scores); a friend really not watching (because they lose every time she does); and our lifeline, who seems able to watch the games without consequence. All of us knitting, of course.

When I asked Mr.Q to bring me another beer, and he realized I was in the bathroom, he was quite...confused. Poor thing. He's a bit of a delicate flower.

Most bizarre:

Being glad I couldn't wear jeans on Thursday, because it meant the Canucks made it to the finals...What have I come to?!

(Most-er bizarre: actually considering not-watching Game 1 next week - a home game - from a downtown pub....)

Not sure what's happening to me, but I think I'm enjoying the ride!

Smells like Team Spirit

2011-05-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

It may come as a shock to some of you, Gentle Readers, but I am not the world's biggest hockey fan. "Puck" is a delightful Shakespeare character; "Face Off" is a game show in the Who-vian future; "Icing" is something you put on a cake, or maybe cinnamon buns.

So, when we were told some weeks ago, that we could wear jeans on game days for the play-offs, if we wore a Canucks shirt...I was all over the jeans. But I actually had to go out and buy the shirt. There was some joking about growing a "play-off beard" on my legs, but that was about it. The only reason I paid attention to the schedule & the outcomes of the games was to make sure I had clean jeans to wear at every possible opportunity - and to make sure I got out of downtown as soon as possible on home-game days. And wearing a t-shirt in that pretty blue was no hardship!

But then...something happened. As they won more games, advanced further...more people started coming out of the woodwork in their team colours on game days. It became a conversation staple with my favourite baristas, as the wall behind the espresso bar was slowly covered in photos of the players from the newspapers. People in t-shirts and jerseys making their way through the downtown core started making eye contact with each other - not done! - and even smiling in friendly acknowledgement. Canucks shirts, hats, jerseys, and scarves have slowly overtaken business suits, jackets, skirts and slacks for work attire across the city. It's a pretty interesting phenomenon to watch.

Last night I realized I was in over my head when I:

knew where to find a live webcast of the game
could accurately estimate which period they'd be in when I went to the site
knew what time the game started
watched a whole period without diverting my attention elsewhere
couldn't knit during the tense moments
cheered out loud at more than one goal
convinced Mr.Q that it might actually be fun to go watch a game at our local sports pub one night next week

I think I've been replaced by a pod person! Send help!

(But...not till after the play-offs?)

Lost in Translation

2011-05-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

An interesting day at work yesterday. Fun, as a sunny Friday often is, and I've got really great students in all of my classes - none of them are divas or princesses, they like each other, and they work well together. It doesn't happen all the time, at least not in every class at the same time, so I try to appreciate it when it does! Not minding if I make an ass of myself in front of them probably helps. Yesterday I played Patio Lanterns for one class, and then taught them the "traditional Canadian high school dance" - that awkward side to side shuffle, with maybe a little bit of hand-flailing...They were singing along by the end of the class. So. Fun!

Last class of the day is shorter on Fridays, just an hour. We usually have a pronunciation lesson, but before we started, one of the guys wanted to ask me a question. He had a notebook with a list of idioms and slang he'd heard, to ask about later. So we spent about 20 minutes talking about that, with other students piping up with their own queries. A good class discussion, really.

Right up to the part where someone asked me: "Teacher, can you use the word cock in a sentence for me?"

Me: O.o

Me: Umm.

Me: {stunned silence}

Me: Umm. Where did you hear that? Can you give me some context?

Student: I heard it on a TV show. The police arrested some guy for dealing cock.

Me: {whew!} You mean cocaine! Yes, yes I can use that in a sentence for you. But first, we should really talk about the pronunciation of that vowel sound!

So we get that sorted, and he pipes up again: "Teacher, what's a dowsh bag?"

Me: Could you repeat that, please?

Student: A dowsh bag.

Me: Could you spell it for me, or tell me where you heard it?

Student: D-O-U-C-H-E-B-A-G

Me: {bang head on wall}

So we got that sorted, too, and then I put an end to question period. I was too afraid of what they'd throw at me next! We worked on pronunciation for the rest of the class. Then I got to have a walk in the sun, a drink with some co-workers, and two of us went for poutine afterward. I had the bacon poutine. So very, very wrong. And so right! But I'll be eating celery all weekend to compensate...Holy rich cheese-curds-and-gravy noms, Batman!

Because yesterday it felt like it might be summer, someday, and because this song makes me think of summer, here's a little Kim Mitchell for your Saturday:

Bwahahahahahah!

2011-05-11T18:21:00.000-07:00

Came across this today:

Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Dead, Vader Says - Galactic Empire Times

Read the comments. Seriously. AWESOME. SAUCE.

May the force be with you!

Bah. (Actual Knitting Content!)

2011-05-10T18:41:00.000-07:00

Rivendell socks: 1, MrsQ: 0

So far, anyway. Actually, the problem isn't the socks; the pattern is quite enchanting, and as there's a video link for the tricksy cluster stitches, it's smoother sailing than I'd anticipated.

The yarn, on the other hand, is Not Playing Well With Others.

It's lovely yarn: Unique Sheep's Gradience Yarn in Silverlode (about 7 rows down, on the right-hand side) - most appropriate, I thought! And it's also quite pleasant to work with. Only, it's not "grading" as well as I'd hoped, and so the transition from silver-blue to blue-silver has a definite clunky stripe aspect to it. Not the elegant, elvish look I was hoping for!

Bah. I would just eliminate the lightest colour altogether, if I had another 50 yards of yarn, since, in the mini test sock I knit, the other 3 skeins blended together wonderfully. As it stands, though, I'm 99.97% sure I'd run out of yarn, and end up with silver toes. Also not the look I'm hoping for!

I haven't given up yet. I've got one idea that just might work...off to frog & cast on again. Wish a Quimby luck, would you?

Domestic Goddess in Residence

2011-05-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

Whelp, I guess I missed posting yesterday, which means that the whole post-a-day-in-May thing took a hit, but c'est la vie! I was busy, what can I say? Mr.Q decided he needed to mop the floors, which meant he needed me out of his way. Since the weather was far too gross for me to leave the house (or even my pajamas), I got "sent to my room" for the afternoon. This was no hardship: I had the laptop, to catch up on some Dr.Who and CSI. I had coffee (with a liberal splash of Baileys). I had lots of knitting (surprise surprise). I was almost sad when the floors were done and I was "allowed" to re-emerge!

This evening, I'm still in my PJs, and haven't left the house all weekend. Perfectly delightful! (In the interest of full disclosure, I did showered this afternoon, and put on clean pajamas after the fact. And regular tooth-brushing has occurred on schedule.) PJs aside, today I have more than made up for yesterday's indolence. I have:

baked 2 loaves of bread (half of one has already been devoured, and not by me. I'm looking at you, Q!)
made a wicked batch of melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon buns...with caramel gooeyness on the bottom. And I glazed them!
sewn 6 headbands, to keep my unruly locks off my face (not sure they all go with the blue hair, though. Hmm. Didn't quite think that through!)
made minor alterations to the previously-gappy button bands on 2 blouses, thus shifting them from "winter" wardrobe (as a camisole was needed) to "summer" - just in time for the insanity that is our lack of air conditioning at work.
done a load of my laundry, and folded a load of towels
done 2 loads of dishes
knit 2 inches on a rather complicated sock pattern
prepped tomorrow's breakfast and lunch
made sure my Canucks tee is on the top of the pile, to wear to work tomorrow.
tried out tomorrow's grammar lesson on Mr.Q, and determined that my students could kick his butt. They will be tickled when I tell them so!

Whew! Going to work tomorrow will almost seem like a holiday!

Almost. I'm not totally nuts!

A Beautiful Mind

2011-05-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

I was sitting on the bus heading home, and so glad it's the weekend...not that my week sucked; quite the opposite, but the first week of the month with loads of new students always takes a lot of energy. (Plus, there was epic cat puking last night. And as I was cleaning it up, an epically stinky litter-box poo. I changed the litter as soon as I finished with the floor...and while I was washing my hands, the cat puked again. While I was cleaning that up, he peed in the fresh litter. Not the most fun evening ever!) So there I was on the bus, tired and ready to be in my pajamas for as much as the weekend as might be humanly possible. My phone rang: Mr.Q getting off work.

Me: "Hey you! How was your day?"

Him: "Butter chicken."

Me: "Whaaaa?"

Him: "Butter. Chicken. I want some."

I knew I married me a smart man. And we make a great team: I called in the order, he picked it up on his way home.

Now: drinking an Apricot Wheat Ale, with a happy belly and leftover shahi paneer for breakfast tomorrow. I do love the way he thinks!

Approaching the Summit

2011-05-05T18:02:00.000-07:00

So...Registration for Sock Summit 2011 has come & done...with far fewer hiccups than last time, thank Bob! I am among the lucky ones who got their wish-list of classes. Though, to be honest, I had such a flexible wish-list that just about any combination would have been successful! Last time, I over-booked myself, and I didn't have a lot of time to see Portland, or energy to hang out with as many people as I would have liked. Mind you, it was still an amazing experience! But I wanted to give myself a bit more breathing room, schedule-wise.

As it is, I'm still doing something every day. Oddly, only one class (knitting toe-up socks) is actually about knitting. I've got a photography class, an ergonomics class...and, of all things, a math class! So. Busy busy. But it should still leave me lots of time for shopping, visiting, and exploring Portland's many wonders.

Including, serendipitously, the Oregon Brewfest. Located a mere 10-minute walk from our hotel, and en route from the Convention Center...sweet!

Nom Nom Nom Nom, Babies!

2011-05-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Finally - some weather mild enough to sit outside the coffee shop! Met a friend for coffee after work - I haven't seen her since she had her wee lad, 7-weeks-less-a-day ago. He is, of course, just precious. He was sleeping the whole time, and I have a cold sore, so there were no snorgles. But he looks like he smells like a Werther's! We discussed why the urge to eat him was so strong. No answers, but interesting to note that it's a common phenomenon.

(Oh! Also! Sock Summit registration! So. Excited! Will post more tomorrow.)

In the meantime, to prove the ubiquitousness of the nomming-babies urge, here's a song about it:

Oh, Canada.

2011-05-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

I am disappoint.

61% voter turnout? Puh. Leeze.

We need some major electoral change in this country. Starting with proportional representation. I really can't understand a) how 39% of votes = a majority government; and b) how people are OKAY with this?! I've heard a few "voice of the people" comments, and I have to say: bullshit. If we were looking at a minority government, with seats apportioned according to actual voter support, I'd totally be OK with that. Not happy, but I could accept it. The situation as it stands blows goats.

Also, last night I dreamed I went all Buffy the Vampire Slayer on some Tory ass. Only I was too short to really be effective. And their heads were too thick to bash. Depressing. (Though I did land a few good drop kicks!)

In real life, I'll be mailing my MP (who rocks my finest hand-knit socks off) and asking how she intends to approach accountability for Harper...and where she stands on the notion of electoral reform.

I'm gonna need a sturdier (and taller!) soap box...

I've got my Sprite....will I get my Orange Crush?

2011-05-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

Election Day. Mr.Q & I have a tradition of meeting up after work & going to the polls together. Felt a little stronger than usual about the whole thing this time around...Of course, there's all the shit going down in Syria & Libya, etc, where people are dying for the right that so many Canadians take for granted. But on a more personal note, I have a lot of Saudi women in my classes at the moment: intelligent, articulate, educated women...who aren't allowed to vote.

This one's for them.

May day! May day!

2011-05-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

I went home for Easter weekend, and was scolded by more than one person for being so lax about posting. When I said "But I have nothing to post about! I haven't really been knitting much, there's nothing exciting going on..." my father very wisely (and stubbornly) pointed out that "nothing exciting" could mean an opportunity to appreciate the every-day that much more.

(Also, I should note that after a weekend, when I ask my students what they did with their days off, they are not allowed to use the phrases "nothing much" or "nothing special"...I guess "nothing exciting" is rather along the same lines! So I'm not allowed to say it here. I've just banned that vocabulary from my blogging lexicon.)

And, it's not exactly entirely true! There have been many moments worth noting...just a problem getting myself to sit down & actually note them, especially having been out of the habit for so long. So. In order to get back into the habit, I'm calling May a blog-a-day month. I'll have to think of a decadent treat for myself if I succeed. Any suggestions would be welcome! (Other than yarn - been on a yarn diet for just over 4 months now, and don't want to break the momentum!)

Anyhoo. So. April. Not that exciting, but it had its moments! There were a few hours of sunshine in there somewhere, and the daffodils and magnolias and tulips all came out to play. The oregon grape shrub in our neighbour's back driveway bloomed, and the scent is delightful.

Also, we went to a really awesome concert: Robert Plant and his Band of Joy....AWESOME. SAUCE!

Very bad pic, but the mop of hair centre stage is Mr.Plant himself. I make no apologies for my state of mind (and...well...the state of my panties!) watching him perform.

He strode (but didn't strut) onto stage, looked around at his band, kicked the mike stand up & grabbed it mid-air, like he was still in his 20s on a stadium stage. (Except that we were in a smallish theatre, and he just about took out the players on either side of him!) The whole evening was fantastic. The band, of course, were all phenomenal players - and aptly named. Plant was coiled up like a little kid on Christmas morning, and he was clearly delighted to be doing this new rootsy-bluegrassy-alt-country thing. They did do a few Zeppelin tunes, too, with their own flavour, which was cool, and well-done.

But my favourite part was when he would let the other musicians on stage take a song, to showcase their own music. Plant stepped back to a microphone by the drum kit and sang background vocals for them...He was obviously not used to being in that position, and if you knew what to look for, you could see that he was working hard to pay attention and sing his parts well (and probably having a hard time toning down his front-man energy!). You could also see that he was having a total blast, and that he has a lot of joy in music left in him. He wasn't there as a Legend of Rock, but as someone who loves music, and thinks it's pretty frackin' cool that he gets to do it as a day job.

And it was pretty frackin' cool that we got to be there to see it!

So there you have it - an exciting moment in April. Must caffeinate now, and see about getting out to play in the sun! Happy May Day!

The secret of genius...

2011-03-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

...is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which mean never losing your enthusiasm.

-Aldous Huxley

Today, my charming, exuberant, ever-youthful Peter Pan of a husband turns 40. He ushered in a new decade on Saturday, in his usual extravaganza of wine, women, and song. (OK, so it wasn't wine, but Pabst Blue Ribbon - to each his own!) It was a fabulous evening, full of good music and great friends. Also, some hats, the first knit by me:

Kind of cunning, isn't it? (And yes, he wore it on stage!)

And the second hat, captured on "film" by his band-mate & friend, Christina, who had some very lovely - and funny! - things to say about him:

Happy Birthday, Mr.Q! Thanks for being you. And also, for reaching things down off of high shelves. I'm a lucky gal! (And if you want to keep referring to yourself as "a pair of 20-year-olds, that's just fine with me. Coz I can tell people that's who I'm married to, which is way too much fun!)

(P.S. - I love you!)

Finally!

2011-03-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Waking up slowly on (another!) gray, rainy Saturday...spring has been later than usual for us this year, and while I continue to be grateful that I don't have to shovel the rain, or deal with (significantly) sub-zero weather....The gray does take its toll after awhile! But the flowers are starting to come out, and the robins are back. I heard the first Canada geese the other day. We had a brief respite of sunny weather a weekend or two ago, and it seemed a perfect opportunity to take my knitting out for a bit of fresh air..

Signs of spring! O Frabjous Day!

Ladybug in her rock'n'roll colours:

A sock tree! I love when they come into season:

And they were perfectly ripe, too!

(Handmaiden's Mini-Maiden...socks with cashmere....mmmmmm! Sexy feets!)

Another flower! Knit for a friend's wedding. It has a penis. I'm not sure how that happened, but there you go.

EQUALS

2011-03-08T07:16:00.000-08:00

Eavesdropping

2011-03-04T18:38:00.000-08:00

A typical conversation Chez Q, as heard tonight:

Mr.Q: Knitting makes you happy, doesn't it?

Moi: Yes, of course it does!

(pause)

Moi: Except when it makes me want to stab my eyeballs out with my knitting needles.

(horrified pause)

Mr.Q: Don't do that!

Moi: As if I really would!

(dramatic pause)

Moi: I'd get blood all over my yarn.

Things that make you go: Hmmmm!

2011-02-28T18:59:00.000-08:00

So my Papa was in town yesterday, and we went to meet him for a late lunch/early dinner kind of thing. (I kept wanting to say "lupper" but it sounded too much like "leper" - not too appetizing for a meal!) Anyhoo. We had a lovely visit, as we always do. It's especially entertaining for me when Mr.Q can join us, as he and Dad both like to "hold court," as it were...so I get to sit & knit, and listen to them both wax on (and off) about work, music, world politics, and if the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings....

(They're both pretty smart, knowledgeable, and articulate, so it's not exactly a chore to listen! Just for the record.)

Anyway. I'm sitting across the table from them, and I realize: "Hey! Look at that! They're both wearing the sweaters that I knit for them!" A warm-fuzzy knitterly moment of the best kind.

They are so sneaky!

And so serious!

And in today's WTF moment, an image from Dad's hotel room. I have Inigo Montoya in my head: I don't think that sticker means what you think it means!

The thing about knitters....

2011-02-21T18:08:00.000-08:00

...at least in the post-Ravelry world (and it's really, really hard to remember that there was a pre-Ravelry world!) is that you meet some pretty cool people. Sometimes, it's online. And sometimes, once you've got to know them in cyberspace a bit, you get the chance to meet them In Real Life once or twice. You share the excitement of something new. You find yourself taken under veterans' wings at an established event. The next thing you know, you're visiting back and forth across the continent.

Having been on the receiving end of some very generous hospitality last fall, this weekend it was my turn to play hostess. The fabulous GlennaC arrived on Friday to take the city by storm. We have walked all the places, eaten most of the food, done a lot of knitting (and talking about knitting!), and done a lot of fun touristy stuff that you never do in your own city, unless you've got out-of-town company. Things like....

A brewery tour and tasting!

Blogging a blogger blogging:

Going for brunch with knitters (First pic's for you, Dad!)

Seeing some pretty birds and flowers:

And a very big agave plant (this one's for you, Mom!)

All in all, a very fine weekend! (The kind that Spirit of the West might sing about...I feel like I need a holiday to recover!) Apparently she had a big day today, too, but I got to relax at work. (snort) Feeling a bit of a sore throat this evening (from all the gabbing, I'm assuming) so I'm off to see if there are the makings of a toddy anywhere around here...Then, likely, a bit more knitting and BSG &/or Firefly....I do enjoy having company in my knitterly geekitude!

Word.

2011-02-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

It's alive!

2011-02-19T07:43:00.000-08:00

Took my knitting out for a special treat the other day. One of my classes won a limo tour of the city. Sadly, I had to go along with them (ha!). It did mean wearing a skirt (that's me, taking one for the team!) but it was actually kind of fun. (Despite the disco lasers, really bad hip-hop music, and lack of bubbly.) And really, it's not like I would ever have had a chance to sit in a limo otherwise.

The sock had fun, too:

Also, there was off-roading:

But the best part? I was sitting in the very back, where the windows weren't tinted - so people could see into the car. And when pedestrians at stoplights realized I was knitting in the back of a limo, their eyes got really big. So very, very big. Knitting in public, for the win!

Packed full o' action

2011-01-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

A quick drive-by report on Sunday. There were half-naked men on giant unicycles (in sub-zero weather, thankyouverymuch!):

(Besides being cute, he was also quite funny. Worse ways to spend a sunny afternoon, I must say!)

And there was playing with the new appliance! Whee! First there was this:

Then there was this!:

And as soon as Mr.Q finishes the dishes tonight, I'll be busting out the chocolate chip cookie recipe. No power in the 'verse can stop me!

Wuuuuv...Twoooo Wuuuuv!

2011-01-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

A busy little bee I've been! Spent a lot of time in the kitchen over my holiday. First, I did a fairly thorough purge of the stuff on the counters, which opened up a lot more space to work with. It's actually a pleasure to cook & bake now. hen, my sister got me a rocking rolling pin - I think I have finally whipped pie pastry's arse! As evidenced by the plethora of petite pot pies, currently residing in the freezer. (Please note the awesomeness that is my new rolling pin!)

Then, after some drama worthy of a daytime soap opera (short version: Sears catalogue ordering & customer service call center blow goats. Really smelly, hairy, yucky goats!) I finally got my Xmess present to me...and I have a new best beloved! First pic shows her true colours; second one, her full, shapely glory:

I think I had originally pictured something a bit brighter - a kitschier, more vintage kind of blue. But the cobalt? Is Dead. Fracking. Sexy. (And it practically matches my current hair colour, which we all know is the first requirement of a good appliance!)

Here she is, modelling some wee baby booties:

I can hardly wait for the weekend...I see some fresh-baked bread in my future!

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye...

2010-12-31T15:05:00.000-08:00

...But not, in fact, to 2010! I mean, I could do a long introspective post about the year past and the year to come (guess what? There would be yarn! And knitting!) However, I have a different farewell to make today: My Sis and her wee fambly are girding their loins (or something, I'm not sure I want to know!) and moving across the country (well, okay, only halfway, in the end, but Canada being a Really Big Country, that's still a bit of a hike!). Her husband has a cool new job opportunity, and it's an exciting change for them.

I, however, am going to miss the camping, the family dinners, the Mexican Train Game, the laughs, and the baby snorgles. But for some reason, they didn't consult me about it. Go figure! Anyway, here they are - wish them well!

Hasta la vista, hermana mia! I know you guys are going to have a great new adventure! All of us here at Casa Quimby are sending you off with lots of love, and a free printer.

And just because I can't get too mushy, here's a glamour pic of Sis, for the road:

Whether I need to or not!

2010-12-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

It's not really that I'm down to once-a-month blogging because I've become deadly dull, I promise! Just busy, and not really with the kind of stuff that makes good (or wise) blog fodder. Mr.Q was scolding me yesterday, however, for not "putting out" (as he so tactfully phrased it!) on the blog. So here I am, with a few highlights from the last month.

Sugar Pie pumpkins were purchased, eviscerated, cooked, pulped, and frozen for future use:

Part of this one will likely end up as a key ingredient in a pumpkin cheesecake for the annual pre-Christmas dinner we have with some of Mr.Q's kindred-spirit work friends.

Keeping with the festive theme, we got ourselves an early present, in the form of tickets to see Leonard Cohen when he was here in concert three weeks ago. Please excuse the shiny threads in the pictures - that would be Mr.Q's hair, as I was using his head for a tripod.

The view from our seats on the floor:

The view beside our seats on the floor...Best place for a concert? Sitting next to the sound man!

Mr.Q, eagerly anticipating the performance:

A very poor shot of the band (fucking phenomenal, all of them! and all in suits and fedoras.) and the impish Mr.Cohen, who was charming and entertaining, and had all the energy of two men half his age:

It was an incredible show, just magical. I was...well, gobsmacked. Some friends were sitting a couple rows up from us, and we were comparing notes while waiting to exit the arena, and all we could find to say to each other was "Wow! That was just...wow!"

I almost didn't go. Cohen is one of Mr.Q's musical heroes, and I had thought maybe - you know, since I like him, but Mr.Q practically worships him - we should spend the extra money and get him a really, really good seat.

I'm really glad that idea died a quick death!

Further holiday adventures: Mr.Q tagged along with me & a crew of the knitters, on an outing to the first (?) German Christmas Market.

He was a brave soul, and it must be said - he held his own! Especially once the mulled wine started flowing. And then there were sausages, and all manner of impropriety broke out. We are...a sassy bunch. To say the least!

And there, pretty much, was the last month, Chez Q. I'm on holiday now, till after the New Year. Hooray! Braved some crowds today to finish some last-minute shopping, and treated myself to a very fine Americano as a reward. Now I'm gearing up to play Suzy Home-maker (sort of) - a few chores done, a vat of tasty pasta sauce on the stove...and about to settle down for some knitting.

Hope your holiday season is progressing smoothly, and that it's warm and full of spirit(s) wherever you are!

Making up for my not-misspent youth

2010-11-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

You know you're maybe not getting the most out of your rebellious teenage years when your own mother suggests that you consider dressing less like a nun...But it's never too late to make up for lost time! As illustrated below:

One of these things is not like the other....

I was in the chair at the salon last night almost as long as I was at work yesterday. I may have squee-ed when the blond chunks came out of the foils. I may have just discovered a new addiction. And I feel like I have super-hero hair! Also, the satellite radio station at the salon was on the 80s channel, so I got to listen to the Cult and the Clash, and maybe a little Tears For Fears...thus enhancing, most enjoyably, the making-up-for-being-too-sensible part of the experience.

I still love it this morning!

Also, snow!

Trick or Treat!

2010-10-31T16:23:00.000-07:00

Looking for some ideas to make Hallowe'en extra-special? I have just the suggestion for you! Here's what you do: wake up stupid-early, and think “Hey! Instead of going back to sleep on my day off, I’m going to jump out of bed and make cinnamon buns!” Take your fave cinnamon bun recipe and go to town - feeling very clever that you remembered, pre-coffee, to proof the yeast!

Decide that you want to experiment with a few mods, as follows. Substitute maple sugar for a bit of the white sugar (about 1/4-1/3 of the total amount.) Toast some walnut pieces and let cool. When spreading the usual filling on the rolled out dough, add the walnuts, and sprinkle a bit more maple sugar on, for good measure. Bake, let cool slightly, drizzle with maple cream. (I got a jar at Rhinebeck, just for this purpose!) Enjoy, again and again!

Death warmed over...

2010-10-30T11:46:00.000-07:00

Dad was giving me a hard time the other day for not posting more since I've been back. But really, I came back and had to jump right into month-end marking and progress reports, and a sooper-secret knitting project, and there has been neither time nor content to make posting worthwhile.

Yesterday, however, was our annual costume contest. Which meant wearing a costume at school. Which was totally fun! I didn't actually make anyone cry this year, but I did freak a few people out. Good times!

Braaaaiiinnnnssssss!!!

Succulent, cauliflower-like BRRRAAAAIIIIINNNNNSSSSS!!!!!!

I came in second in the teachers' contest - and rightly so: the giant cardboard & duct-tape Jaws mask was brilliant! And happily, the fake blood on my chin did not stain quite as badly as I had feared, and should be fully scrubbed off by Monday.

I hope.

Le Fin

2010-10-23T05:10:00.000-07:00

My bags may be packed, but I'm not sure I'm ready to go! It's been a pretty wild week here...and I'm not sure how I feel about going back to Real Life. Though it will, of course, be good to see Mr.Q and the beasties!

The last couple days have been busy. Wednesday...did not start out as the best day ever. (Not the worst, either, mind you! But not the best.) The weather was crappy and wet. I had my Gore-tex packed, and I am from the Wet Coast, so a little rain wasn't going to deter me! It seemed like the right weather to visit the cemetery at the top of Mont Royal, and then go over to the look-out at the Chateau.

Well, I got as far as the cemetery:

And then I kind of got turned around, and thought I was somewhere I wasn't, and I sort of walked around - not lost, exactly, but kind of misplaced - for a couple of hours. In the rain. In a cemetery with very windy, convoluted paths - so I couldn't just walk straight back to the bus stop. And then I had to pee, but I couldn't find the office - I briefly considered dropping trou behind a gravestone by a shrub, but even though I'm not religious, I'm pretty sure you go straight to hell if you pee on a gravestone. So I kept walking till I found the office (and a bathroom! Thank Bob!). A very nice (Anglophone) lady pointed me down the hill....in the opposite direction from where I knew the bus to be. So I called my sister, who was conveniently both at home and near a computer, and being a dutiful younger sibling, she found me the number for Montreal transit. Then, probably to make up for that time she punched me when we were kids, she used the power of her mind to send a taxi my way.

By now, my feet were frozen and very tired, and I was not a happy camper. Then I went for lunch, which either really didn't agree with me, or actually gave me mild food poisoning. And the rain really started pouring, and the bus stop near the metro was closed so I had to walk even further...Needless to say, by the time I got back to the hotel, I was pretty cranky, and ready for a nap!

At that point, I was thinking that just staying in my room till my flight left on Saturday wouldn't be a bad idea. Happily, it was a good nap! I woke up just in time to fly out the door for a show at the Basilica of Notre Dame. It was a light/sound/film kind of thing, on the history of both the church and the city...cheesy, but fun, and we had a few minutes afterward to look around the Basilica. It's a most impressive building!

Walking back to the metro, I saw this, which amused me:

Friday, I woke up to clear skies, wishing I could have a do-over of the day before. So I went right back up Mont Royal, followed a couple tourists with guidebooks, and found the Chalet & look-out with no problems.

Inside - a Lego replica of the mountain & the Chalet:

On the way back down to the bus, some very cheeky squirrels:

It was bloody cold out, though, so I stopped to get some hot lunch before going down to Vieux Montreal for another poke around...Wandered into an old church or two, talked to a couple of artists who were selling photos on the street, bought some cheesy souvenirs, and just enjoyed the ambiance...

I've been seeing some rather amusing cheese ads in the metro; this one especially tickles my funny bone:

Finding dinner was a bit of an adventure on Friday night, but I was determined to Go Out And Have Fun on my last night here. And I did! After dinner, I actually stopped to look at a building I've walked past several times this week:

Eeek! I'm such a geek. Inside, it turns out, you can watch any of several thousand National Film Board productions...for free! (I love living in Soviet Socialist Canuckistan.) So of course, I went inside. Watched the Log Driver's Waltz short; a cool animated Inuit legend - in Inuktitut; and a documentary from the '60s on the science and legends of the Northern Lights.

And that pretty much wrapped up my night. Le sigh! It took me a long time to pack up, I just didn't want to admit the week was over.

I am looking forward to seeing Mr.Q, as I said...but I'm also a little worried. He tells me the bed is too big without me (aaaawwwwww!!!!) But I...I woke up this morning, sleeping sideways and spread-eagled, somehow managing to take up the entire king-sized bed all by myself.

I will suggest that he wear hockey pads to bed for a couple days, to minimize any injury caused during my re-acclimation to Real Life!

And that, in a nutshell (or seven!) has been my adventure Out East. Already thinking of the next one! Now to find something decadent for breakfast. If I'm lucky, I've got time for a last walk down to the river to say adieu to the city, before I have to get a cab to the airport...

Bonjour!

2010-10-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

I've been making quite the effort to practice my stunted French, and it does get easier. Yesterday my entire interaction with the waitress at dinner was en francais, and it felt pretty fantastique. Then again, I've been practicing pretty hard. Like this:

"Le (jus de) pamplempousse est sur la table."

"Le pamplemousse est sur la montagne."

"Le pamplemousse est dans l'arbre."

"Le pamplemousse est dans les feuilles."

"La tarte de sirop d'erable est sur le banc."

"Le pamplemousse va manger le tarte..."

Mais je bois le jus, et je mange la tarte!

Le NOM!

You say it's your birthday...

2010-10-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my birthday...Also, as it turns out, Viggo Mortensen's. (Though Mr.Q didn't seem nearly as interested in that tidbit as I was!) Anyway, I had a perfectly lovely day. I slept in a bit (trying for late nights & lie-abed mornings, to ease the jet lag when I go home.) I met up with a friend whom I haven't seen in a couple of years - she's been abroad, and just moved to Montreal last week - perfect timing! We met at the Atwater Market, where I had a divine pastry, and a really good cup of coffee (in all honesty, the first good cup since I left Vancouver a week ago!)

From outside the market - Oh my gourds!

After a great visit - much talk about music, I'd forgotten that we shared that love! - she went off into her day, and I went to Ariadne Knits. Where I stupidly forgot to take any pictures...but the proprietress was most friendly, and I may have bought myself a few skeins of "souvenir" yarn. Ahem. I didn't stay and chat as long as I would have liked, as I was so hungry for lunch at that point that I was about to start eating the yarn, or the small children in the store. Neither of which would have been very palatable, I'm sure: the former due to the eventual furballs, and the latter due to the absence of ketchup.

So I went back to the market, on a whim, and got myself some kind of Mediterranean bread with lots of olive oil; a round of soft cheese; and a fresh, ginormous honey crisp apple. (And a tarte au sucre for later!) Then I took my treats down to the canal, and ate lunch on a bench overlooking the water, here:

Mural spotted on the way back to the Metro:

Then back to the hotel to drop off my yarn, give my feet a bit of a rest, and figure out what to do with the rest of my day. I finally decided to do a walk up Rue St. Denis in the Quartier Latin, reputed to be a cultural hub...and very cool it was! Definitely a very European feel to the city.

And one for Mr.Q!

Birthday dinner was a mango-chicken salad with a glass of kir. Then a walk up to Juliette & Chocolat, which is far too close to my hotel for comfort! I got a cup of chocolate to bring back to my room, and didn't realize till I got here that I should have accepted the spoon I was offered...So much drinking chocolate left at the bottom of the cup, I should have stirred it into the milk...oops! I guess I'll just have to get another cup while I'm here.

Anyway, it was a fabulous birthday. And two more days of Montreal adventures ahead of me! I think I'm falling in love..

Here be dragons!

2010-10-20T19:26:00.000-07:00

Let's be honest. I have (barely) survival-level French. By which I mean, I can manage, with the aid of a lot of gesturing & sound effects (skills well-honed from years of teaching English!) I can do all the important things: not get (too) lost; order a coffee; find a bathroom. (Not necessarily in that order!) I can't have much of a conversation, beyond discussing whether a grapefruit is on, or possibly under, the table (or was that in your mother's shoes?). But I can find an exit or figure out a menu, and understand why the name of the candy store up the road (Sucre Bleu) is pretty funny.

So while I was planning this trip, and on the train up - even when I got to the hotel, then went out for dinner on Monday, I had this idea that "How very charmant! Everything is in French!"

Then I got up Tuesday morning, left my comfy hotel room, and realized: "Holy shit! Everything's in French!" So I called Mr.Q with a minor melt-down, certain that I wasn't going to get any breakfast...He steadied my nerves, and sent me out into the city to have an adventure. (And I did get breakfast: some lovely crepes, with mixed berries.)

And the French thing hasn't been a problem, because every time I try, whomever I'm talking to kind of gives me this little smile, shakes their head, and switches to English. The first person I tried to talk to in French was a very nice homeless guy, who barely spoke any English, but between us we managed, and it was quite a confidence boost. Until I ordered a coffee from a Chinese woman at a cafe, and she switched to English...oy!

I started out with a quick walk around Vieux Montreal - I'm going to have to go back, because it was all so overwhelming that I barely managed to take in a fraction of it. I went to the Pointe-a-Calliere Museum of Archaeology and saw some really old stuff.

(I also realized I'm not so good with museums, as I don't have a lot of patience to look at all the details and displays - I just like to look at the cool stuff.) It was cool - and old! Maybe not for someone in Italy, but being from Vancouver, it was practically ancient! The foundations (literally!) of the country and all that. As I said, cool!

A little more wandering, and I headed back to the hotel for a rest. Then off to the Botanical Gardens, where there was a lantern exhibit in the Chinese garden. (Also, an Insectarium with lots of cool (dead) beatles and butterflies...though disturbingly, some very large spiders as well! I'd been hoping, not being insects, they'd be excluded. Apparently French Canadians have different ideas of whath constitutes an insect!)

Below: some pics of places aroung Vieux Montreal (I have no idea of what - I just liked them!) The ones from a higher perspective were taken from the look-out at the top of the museum. The lanterns, obviously, were from the gardens - the exhibit was called "The Magic of Lanterns" and it really was magical!