Category: Uncategorized

A Vintage Affair, 56/104; Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, 57/104; Boneshaker 58/104

The last thing I would ever want would for this blog to turn into one of those blogs where every six months there’s a post that says “Wow! It’s been so long since my last post! I’ve just been really busy with my life and I’ll definitely start posting again soon!” and then nothing for another six months. So. Back to real posting for me! I have a What I’ve Been Reading that needs to get up but first let’s recap the last week.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who gave their condolences for Tina Fey (the hamster, no the comedienne)’s passing. He will be missed. Yesterday morning we buried him in the box from a DIY nesting doll kit from Urban Outfitters, and Symphony made a gravestone by writing “RIP” on a piece of slate I found.

Now, you may recall me saying the reason I wasn’t posting was because I threw my neck out and it hurt too much to sit here typing, and that I possibly did it while moving furniture. That’s because last Sunday Taylor and I finally bought the new couch I’ve been pining over! I asked them how long it would take to be delivered and first they said 4-6 weeks. I was like, Hmm, that’s kind of long, but at least I’ll have time to get rid of the old couch!, but then they were like “Oh we mean one week.” I figured that since this week was a short one (holiday Monday and all) That it would arrive early next week, which would still give me enough time to get rid of the old one.

Welp. It came on Wednesday.

Wednesday was actually the WORST possible day for furniture delivery. Normally I get trucks to go down the alley since it’s closer to my apartment, but the west end of the alley was blocked because they were filming a tv show, and the east end was blocked because like, a tree fell or something. So the delivery truck had to park out front, blocking the whole street and causing lots of screaming and wrath from impatient drivers.

Now, BEFORE the couch was delivered I had to get the old one out of the way, so Tuesday was spent heaving tons of furniture around by myself while Taylor was sleeping (hence the sore neck). Sym and I made a cozy of pillows, blankets and beanbags in the newly-empty living room, where we snuggled up with some dogs to watch Mulan.

Georgie had several baths this week. The first was after she spent and hour wrestling with a Yorkie in the park and came home covered in slobber. The second was after I took her to the dog-specific off-leash area. There were big puppies there and she got so scared when they chased her that she peed herself and then rolled in the pee-mud. And on my feet. Lovely.

She also had her last distemper shot on Wednesday, and weighed in at an impressive 4lbs12oz. My little girl is growing up!

One thing I felt bad about was that I’d promised Sym we’d do fun stuff, but between the furniture chaos and the crippling neck pain I couldn’t really do anything. I made it up to her yesterday by inviting her best friend Ali over and taking them and a girl who just moved in upstairs, Ana Lucia, to the new playground at Emery Barnes Park in Yaletown. The playground is really awesome, but it was quite hot and they are CRAZY, so they ended up spending most of the afternoon playing in the fountain. By the time we came home they were all soaked.

Emery Barnes Park is only a few blocks east of where we live in the West End, but Yaletown people really are different from Davie Village people. At one point the girls were crossing back and forth over some stepping stones across the fountain (it’s actually a series of fountains, waterfalls and pools along a stream). I was on one side and on the other side were some street youths. Now, I’ve had issues with street youths. I don’t like when they scream at me or leave gross messes in the park, and one time Dougal and I were attacked, unprovoked, by a vicious street dog the unapologetic owner had allowed to roam around off leash. However. The street youths in Emery Barnes Park weren’t doing anything. They were just hanging out in the shade, talking amongst themselves and petting their well-behaved dogs. If there had been loud swearing or drinking or drug use I would’ve taken the girls to play in a different area, but there wasn’t, so to me, that’s fine. Then some snooty woman comes over to me and haughtily says “If those were MY kids, I would NEVER let them play near THOSE PEOPLE.” I just gave her one of these:

… and walked away. Later, when the girls were wading in the (chlorinated, comes from the same source as our tap water) fountain stream, some yuppie dad walked by, gave me a look and said loudly to his kids, “No you can’t go in the water, that’s dirty and disgusting.” Whatever, dude, my kids are having ACTUAL fun while yours are just sweltering and miserable.

Anyway, that’s basically it, I didn’t really do anything crazy-exciting with my week off. In addition to the WIBR post I have a pending post about a long-overdue project I’m working on, so that’ll hopefully be up soon as well. Now I’m just waiting around for some dude who’s supposed to be coming to look at the two chaises from my old couch (I sold the ottoman already this morning). Anyway, have a great weekend!

My hamster died :/ Last night I noticed he was lying in a weird spot and breathing really heavily, but when I opened his house he hopped up and started hamming like normal, but I just checked him and he was all stiff and dead with his eyes and mouth open in the creepiest fashion possible. He was pretty old for a hamster, about 2 1/2, and I think he had a good life. He escaped from his house a bunch of times and survived falling off the shelf and a houseful of cats and dogs who were keen on eating him. One time he escaped and hid behind the cat’s litterbox, ie the only place in the house the cat WOULDN’T look for juicy ham morsels. So smart. He was never one of those cuddly hamsters who likes pets and can be carried in pockets, but he never bit anyone either.

REST IN PEACE TINA FEY THE HAMSTER. YOU WILL BE MISSED.

Five days without a post? It’s like I don’t even know myself anymore. I’d planned on making a proper one today but I either threw my neck out moving furniture yesterday or maybe I slept on it funny or some combination of the two. Whatever the reason I’m in, like, INTENSE CRIPPLING PAIN and I can’t sit here for very long so a real post will have to wait. Instead here is a story from last week.

On Wednesday before the fireworks I wanted to make something fast and easy for dinner, so I decided to go with grilled salmon and a couscous salad with peas and bumatoes.

The couscous turned out well but I didn’t really like the salmon- it was somehow flabby and less delicious than when I’ve baked it. Everyone else finished theirs though, so maybe it was just me. Anyway, Symphony was having issues with eating her couscous and somehow managed to scatter it all across the table, which led to the following conversation:

Sym: Couscous is messy!
Me: (joking) You’re messy!
Sym: (looks disappointed; shakes her head) That’s cold. Even for you.

I tweeted that a mere three hours ago and guess what! My Cuckoo Clock print tank top AND grey jorts both came! THANKS MAILMAN!

As you can see, I’m really werkin the “bag of rags” look I’ve spent so long cultivating. Especially my hair today.

Yeesh. I swear, it looks great when I blowdry it but let’s face it: it’s too hot for that. Last time I made the effort I was so sweaty afterwards I needed to have a shower. Once it gets longer I can let it airdry and it’ll be nice and wavy instead of frizzy and weird but until then: Bag of rags. Own it.

I was actually going to make this post yesterday, but I thought the dogs-locked-in-hot- cars post was more important to get out there, so I put this one off, and now I have MORE to post about anyway so I think it’s worked out for the best!

On Wednesday night we FINALLY made it out to the fireworks. For those of you who don’t know, every summer Vancouver hosts a four-nights-in-two-weeks international fireworks competition.

Since 1990, Vancouver has been home to the Celebration of Light (originally known as the Symphony of Fire). This international pyro-musical fireworks competition has attracted the world’s leading fireworks designers and is seen as a highly prestigious event. The fireworks festival creates an exciting arena where spectators can enjoy each country’s representatives unveil their latest techniques and use the most innovative fireworks materials as they compete to be crowned the winner.

Basically for two Wednesdays and two Saturdays, hundreds of thousands of people pour through our neighborhood to get to the beaches, hooting and screaming and drinking. Since I’ve lived almost exclusively in the West End since I was 17 I’m pretty used to it/over it and don’t generally go to every night of the competition. Symphony really wanted to go though, and since she was too asleep on Saturday I figured we’d go down for the Mexican team’s show on Wednesday.

The usually start around ten pm, so after taking the dogs for one last walk we walked down to Sunset Beach (it’s closer to our house and less crowded than English Bay). It was pretty fun, although for some reason fireworks seem to bring out the existentialist in Sym so I usually spend the whole show answering her weird questions.

Taylor took these using his knee as a tripod so he thinks they came out to blurry but WHATEVER MAN, I still like them. I made the third last one my desktop background.

On Thursday night I really wanted to go to the Fresh Air Cinema
screening of The (Original) Karate Kid at Ceperley Field in Stanley Park. Symphony was going with her dad (Clay) and stepmom (Colleen), so after a whirlwind visit to the gym (go us!) and a quick stop to pick up some poutine (our reward for going to the gym lol) at La Belle Patate Taylor and I went and met them. All the dogs came also. Georgie loves Daniel LaRusso. Also I may have had a crush on him when I was a little kid shh don’t tell.

It was so fun, I’m kind of bummed it was the last show of the summer! There were tons of people and kids and dogs, some people showed up carrying a COUCH to sit on, people were cheering and hooting and going “WOOooooOOOOOooooo” when Ali and Daniel kiss. We also learned some valuable lessons, like BRING CAMP CHAIRS (or a couch, haha) unless you want to kill yourself sitting awkwardly hunched on the ground for two hours. Two hours and six minutes, actually. I had no idea the movie was so long!

Now the only really mad & sad & feelin’ bad part of the evening: The movie started at 9:40 and since it was two hours (and six minutes) long, Taylor had to leave early to get to work by midnight. He left a half-hour or so before the end of the movie and missed the exciting conclusion (spoiler alert: Daniel-san wins). I stayed and watched the movie with Sym, Clay and Colleen, but I was on my blanket and they were smooshed together on theirs so I was kind of by myself. After the movie was over I walked them to their building (they live on the same street as us, seven blocks west) but then I had to walk up the hill all alone, carrying all our blankets and stuff. I was pretty depressed when I got home. You all know I try not to let this whole opposite schedules thing get to me, but when it spoils a fun evening I can’t help it.

Anyway. It’s Friday- the weekend is starting! Also it’s a long weekend (Monday is a holiday in BC), plus Taylor took Tuesday off as well because he worked on Canada Day, and anyway I’M ON VACATION NEXT WEEK. That’s right, I’m about to have NINE blissful work-free days, six of which I get to spend with my handsome husband! Hooray!!

You might no know this, but I love dogs. Big dogs, small dogs, cute dogs, ugly dogs (IS TEHRE EVEN SUCH A THING???). So to me it’s so sad and tragic how many people think it’s a super-keen idea to leave their dogs sitting in a locked car. Let me tell you a story:

At around two o’clock I was taking Georgie for a quick walk around the block and I passed a Toyota RAV4 parked on the street, in full sun, with a little fuzzy white dog inside barking his face off. I came home and printed out some “Don’t Leave Me In Here- It’s Hot!” flyers from MyDogIsCool.com and at 2:15 I went and put one on the car’s windshield (the dog was still barking his face off). I went back home and folded some laundry but I couldn’t stop thinking about that poor dog!

A little heat outside a car can quickly make it very hot inside. On a summer’s day of only 85 degrees Fahrenheit, for example, even keeping the windows slightly open won’t stop the inside temperature from climbing to 102 degrees in 10 minutes, and to 120 degrees in 20 minutes. A dog whose body temperature rises to 107-108 degrees will within a very short time suffer irreparable brain damage — or even death.
(from MyDogIsCool.com)

At 2:30 I went back up the street to check and the car was still there, but I didn’t hear any barking. I thought maybe the owner had come and taken him out, but my flyer was still there so I went up to peer in the window (they were really tinted) and the dog barked a couple more times. At this point it’d been there for AT LEAST a half hour and that’s just not acceptable, so I called Animal Control. This actually turned into a bureaucratic nightmare- I called the city to get put through to Animal Control, and after being put on hold for a couple of minutes I was told I actually had to be put through to the SPCA. I was put through to them and gave all the information about the vehicle and it’s location, only to be told I needed to talk to the City Pound, which is operated by… Animal Control. Argh. Anyway the woman at the SPCA contacted them for me, which was good because my phone was about to die anyway.

By the time all this was done it was ten to three; almost a full hour since I’d first seen the dog. I went back up at 3:20 and the RAV4 was gone, so I don’t know if the owner came back or if the city had the car (and the dog) impounded. If the owner did come back, I hope they read the flyer and took it to heart and maybe learned something. If the city got there first I guess they’ll REALLY learn their lesson!

Anyway I guess the point of this post is to spread the word about this very important pet safety issue. I swear I read about this in like, Ranger Rick or National Geographic World magazine when I was in elementary school. I’ve always know how dangerous it is to leave your dog locked in a parked car and it shocks me how many people don’t know this! So please, never ever do this! If you live in a place where you see people doing this, print out some flyers and keep them in your bag so you can put them on people’s cars! Figure out who you have to call in this situation so you don’t end up in a bureaucratic phone loop like me!

This is absurdly late. In my defense I DID make popsicles on Saturday morning, but then Sym was at her friend Ali’s house all afternoon/evening, and on Sunday she was at her dad’s. We actually tried them on Monday but due to my CAMERA SKILLS FAIL I had to retake all the pictures. To make up for the lateness I actually made a second kind of popsicles. That’s right. DOUBLE POPSICLE PARTY!

Popsicle #1 was made with Sun-Rype Rio Red Grapefruit juice (which I love).

It’s a blend of grapefruit and apple and/or grape and/or pear juices, so they were grapefruity yet sweet and Sym definitely liked these ones better.

Popsicle #2 was made with unsweetened pink grapefruit juice I hand squeezed. These were NOT SWEET at all, and when Sym tried it she was like “… didn’t you put any sugar in it? No? Can we trade?” I had originally planned to add some white cranberry juice to these to sweeten them up a bit but… I drank it all. Oops. They were still delicious to me though, but I really like grapefruit. I eat them like they’re oranges!


Too much pulp and seeds. I saw cheesecloth at the store the day before and I’m kicking myself for not buying it. I strained the juice through a regular (clean) dishcloth and it was very messy. Note to self: buy cheesecloth.

I used three smallish grapefruits and I got a cup of juice even after to de-pulping. This was way too much for the tiny ~fun shape~ popsicle mold so I had a glass of juice to drink as well.

I keep buying random things online, I’m waiting on about a zillion packages. I think I may have to cut myself off! Yesterday one was delivered and I was SO EXCITED I tore it right open without looking at the name and as it turned out it was something Taylor had ordered. So disappointing! Anyway here are some things I have on the way.

BDG jorts in ~smokestack~ from Urban Outfitters. For some reason I didn’t buy these when I saw them in the store even though I love them- I have the same ones in ~indigo~ and wear them basically every day (they are the ones I had on when I fell in that sludge on Saturday). ANyway when I went back to get the grey ones I couldn’t find them, which is super annoying.

Cuckoo Clock print tank top from RedPrairiePress on etsy. Because what I need is another grey tank top, lol.

Customized Team Zissou sneakers for Taylor from teamzissousneakers on ebay. I was really surprised to win this auction, the previous pair went for way more so I wasn’t even going to bid on them, but I did on sort of a whim and promptly forgot about until I got an email saying CONGRATULATIONS! They are technically for his birthday but he knows I got them because I had to ask him what his shoe size was (it’s 13, btw. GIANT FREAK FEET).

“Breakfast at Tree House” print with adorable pandas from krisblues on etsy. It took my half a day to decide which of Kristiana Parn‘s prints I wanted, they are all so cute!

Silky linen pants from J. Crew. I’m excited about these, they are like classy sweatpants. I’m a little nervous about the sizing though- I’ve never ordered from J. Crew before and I took an extra 30% discount which made them a final sale, so if they don’t fit I am Out Of Luck.

Smart Planet Mini Doughnut Maker from Amazon. This is going to be so fun, and maybe after the summer Sym and I can have Doughnut Parties instead of Popsicle Parties. Speaking of, I DID make popsicles on the weekend and I DO have a Popsicle Party post pending (omg), but none of the pictures I took are good I have to restage them (ie we all eat more popsicles) tonight.

I made this last night for Natalya of letmenatalya handmade jewelry. We’re doing a craft trade- one of her necklaces for thirty feet of bunting. Making it was kind of epic, when you think “30 feet” in your head it doesn’t seem that long but TRUST ME, it is. It took me a couple of hours to finish and I think it took even longer to figure out how to wrap it up without creasing or scrumpling any of the pennants. Right now it’s wrapped up in a bunch of tissue paper and I just need to find a box and I can mail it after work 🙂