Beaver Tales

Moving day!

2008-01-30T16:16:00.000-05:00

To anyone who still checks this blog for updates,

I originally began this blog as a way of journaling my year living in England. It was a great year and a fun blog, but for some reason it didn't seem to carry over very well once I was home. I never felt the urge to write in it and when I did, I would feel too guilty about how much time had passed and that would keep me away. I've decided that I need a whole new blog to journal my life in Toronto. Please come over and visit me at Broccoli in Toronto where I will be writing about the chaos of trying to plan 2 simultaneous weddings!

I hope to see you there!

Everyday super powers

2007-02-23T14:27:00.000-05:00

A lot of people have mini-super powers; above average abilities at things that are kind of mundane and everyday, but no less useful for their banality. My darling Nyron is one such. Unlike Brent Butt's Shirt Powers, Nyron's super power is more pratical and less self-centred; he has Concert Ticket Powers. Whenever we decide we would like to go to a show, no matter how hard it is to get tickets, Nyron somehow manages to do everything right and at exactly the right time. The Ticketmaster gods smiled upon him when he got Radiohead tickets that sold out almost immediately. They smiled upon him again this afternoon when he got Arcade Fire tickets for their concert this May. Life is good. :)

o( )__

Science according to George Strombolopolous

2007-02-21T21:16:00.000-05:00

On The Hour tonight George talked about a study done in London that shows that using email decreases a person's IQ by 10%. The funny thing about that is that scientific studies have also shown that using pot only decreases your IQ by 5%. Makes you think. So stay off the email and rock the gange instead! Makes me wonder why I quit...

o( )__

Setting up shop

2007-02-11T10:40:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was spent almost entirely working on my studio. The paint colours look great and Nyron assembled a great big corner shelving unit that we got from Ikea. The wood is untreated softwood, so I had to spend some time sanding the splinters off the boards. I've decided to leave it unpated for now, since I like to look of the raw wood with the earthy green tones of the walls.

I got most of the larger items and things already in boxes or cases on the shelves, but I need some storage systems for all the loose items that got piled into the closet through all this. I'm trying to be as cost-effective as possible and since my business is about upcycling I thought it would be best to try and make my own storage containers. I've sent Nyron around his store in search of books on basketweaving and I'm going to try and make storage boxes by weaving rolled-up lengths of newspaper. I don't subscribe to any newspapers, since I never bother reading them, but every neighbourhood in Toronto has a local paper that gets delivered to every door, whether you subscribe to it or not. I'd been using them for my vermicomposter, but that's on hold while I make some necessary adjustments to the composter, so they'll do nicely. If anyone knows of any websites with good beginner instructions for basketweaving, please let me know.

Once I get my studio set up all I need to do is start producing product. I've found a website, Etsy.com, that provides online stores to people who make and sell hand-made products. Online stores provided by servers like Yahoo!, where you get a cookie-cutter webpage, are expensive and buying a .com means having to hire a web-developer, two options that I don't have the money for right now. Etsy is great because there is no cost to set up the store and no monthly fee, you just have to pay per item listed and purchased, which is excellent for someone just starting out.

Now all I need is a name. Nyron has suggested Dam That Beaver Designs and my dad has thought of Second Chance. If any of you can think of anything, let me know. I'll keep you updated as I work this out and you can be sure there will be a prominent link once it's up and running.

o( )__

Who says Americans live in a culture of fear?

2007-02-02T18:28:00.000-05:00

Since I don't watch the news, this lovely bit of mass hysteria didn't catch up with me until today. A few weeks ago two artists were hired to make and distribute advertisements for the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. For those of you who don't obsessively watch Teletoon at 10:00 every night, Aqua Teen Hunger Force is a 15 minute cartoon show created by the wonderfully subversive minds at Adult Swim. The cartoon consist of human-sized fast-food creatures: a milk shake, a round ball of ground meat (which is something that probably hasn't existed in a fast food place since the 40s, since all fast food hamburgers arrive already shaped and frozen), and an order of fries that sports a goatee and shoots lazers out of his eyes. The show follows these three as they hang around thier run-down house, torment their white-trash neighbour, Carl, and ocassionally get pestered themselves by a litany of strange side-characters.

The advertisements took the form of throwies (think Light Brite) of the Mooninites, a pair of popular side characters. The throwies were magnetic and were displayed around the cities of Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia for weeks, apparently without much notice. Almost made it a bust as an advertising campaing, until Thursday morning when a woman on a bus noticed one of the throwies on a bridge in boston and called the police to report a "suspicious deivce".

"An army of emergency vehicles responded to the scene with lights flashing, including police cruisers, fire trucks, ambulances, and the Boston Police Department bomb squad.

Police inspected the package using a truck-mounted work platform. Transit police officer Joseph Mathews from the explosive detection unit donned the thick green armor of the bomb squad an approached the object.

Matthews attached cables to the device and officials later fired the small water explosive to render the object safe. " - Boston Globe

Shortly after this made the news, Turner Broadcasting, parent company to Adult Swim, called the Boston police to assure them that they were responsible, that it was an advertising campaign and nothing threatening. They even gave them the exact locations of the other throwies. The police didn't beleive them and only treated it as "a possible lead".

After all the dust settled the police and government of Boston were very angry. Not because anything had done wrong, but because they were very embarrassed and embarassment often turns to anger: anger and the search for a scapegoat. The two artists were arrested on charges of placing a hoax device to incite panic, a felony charge that carries a five year maximum sentence, and one count of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. Even the judge seemed sceptical and the two were released on bail. They will be faced with a judicial hearing at a time that hasn't been disclosed. Turner Broadcasting has offered to pay for the inconvenience caused by the campaign, which has been estimated may cost a third of a million dollars.

The obvious question, of course, is: What the fuck? How bad has Bush got these poor people that small (no more than a foot square) magnetic Light Brites can cause such panic? The fact that this has been taken so seriously is both mind-boggling and a source of tremendous amusement to me. And many others. Here is Stephen Colbert's report, YouTube-based comedy group Zebro favoured us with their take on the situation. I'm still looking for others: there's rumour that Jimmy Kimmel did a skit and Penn Jillette discussed it on his radio show, but I'm still trying to find the links.

The final word: chill the fuck out, America!

Green Canada?

2007-02-02T16:01:00.000-05:00

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was worried about the slow appearance of snow this winter. Check this out. It's beautiful.

2007-02-01T13:50:00.000-05:00

I'm not into New Year's Resolutions, they're usually the best way to set yourself up for disappointment and add to the January Blues. However, I have made one resolution that is simple and immediate enough to keep. I've resolved to finally get my spare room turned into a creative and usable studio space.

Nyron, as usual, is being a big help in this. He has a few weekdays off this week, so he is spending that time painting the walls in two lovely shades of mossy green that I picked out. We got the paint at an independent Behr Paints dealer down the street from my home who special ordered Behr's EcoSpec low VOC paint. After all, this is supposed to be my serene, creative space; I don't want it to give me headaches and cancer!

On the weekend we're getting a set of Ikea shelves so that I can keep all my materials organized and accessible. As my birthday present, Nyron is buying me a sewing table so I can finally take my sewing machine out of the lonely box I stored it in when I went to England. I can hardly wait to be re-united with my beloved sewing machine! Oh, how I miss it! Oh, how my pants have gone sorrowfully unhemmed! I'll update with photos as soon as everything's done. I might even invite some of my crafty friends over for a studio-warming.

o( )__

I am a master chef!

2006-11-11T18:30:00.000-05:00

OK, not really. But I did cook dinner from scratch today, which is a rare and special occasion. Usually Nyron is the cook in the house and if it's up to me, we dine on fish stick and fries. But today I was idly watching Food Network which is where I get my vicarious chef fix, when I actually saw a recipe that looked simple enough for me to do well. It's a ground beef and macaroni and cheese oven baked pasta and I was able to do it with stuff I either already had in the kitchen or could get at the little grocery on the corner. The best part? I managed to do it without making an unholy mess of the kitchen, a feat Nyron has yet to accomplish. :)

o( )__

Web surf for a cure

2006-11-08T16:06:00.000-05:00

Do people even call it "surfing the web" anymore? Anyway, I discovered this new search engine on TreeHugger calld GoodTree. It's a search engine that generates money for charities. How? Companies pay good money for their websites to be part of the thousnds of hits you receive whenever you type something in to your search engine. Goodtree takes $0.01 for each search page you visit and gives this to charities of your choice. $0.01 doesn't sound like much, but it builds up, especially for people who do a lot of reaserch online or are just bored sitting in front of a computer in their office all day - ahem. There's even a place on the website to keep track of how much you've raised. The "tree" part comes from your friend tree. If you refer the website to your friends and they use it, the running total of money earned represents everyone on your friend tree.

It's not as colourful of fancy as other search engines: very bear-bones. But it's a great idea. My favourite feature is the bookmark links. Instead of having to access the favourites drop-down in the toolbar, you can put links to your most commonly used websites right on the front page. I've made GoodTree my homepage at work and set up the links so that I can quickly access the Bank of Canada Currency Converter, which I use constantly to take Canadian dollar payments from students who were invoiced in Us dollars.

0( )__

High in the sky

2006-10-25T11:11:00.000-04:00

Christmas is far too few knitting days away and my mom has already bought my plane ticket home for the holidays. I'm not a fan of plane travel in general; it's small and cramped, the food is awful, and I always forget to buy gum and have to sit through 2 hours of ear popping. But the thing that concerns me most, of course, is the carbon emmissions. While I only take 1 or 2 return flights a year, it worries me that I'm basically counter-acting all the carbon saving I do by spending 2 hours on various means of public transportation each day.

Luckily, I'm not the only one concerned about this, as indicated in a recent article on Treehugger. They list 5 instances of environmentally conscious aviation, including a plane that runs on AA batteries! Check it out!

o( )__

Girlie time!

2006-10-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

This afternoon my friend Ana Kay, her cousin Kate, their friend Karen, and I all went for Edwardian Tea at the Spadina Museum. We got gussied up and arrived at the gorgeously restored Edwardian home of the Austin family, one of Toronto's upper-elite in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We had a table in a cozy corner of the sunroom, set with individual tea settings and a platter of assorted tea sandwiches, followed by another platter of cookies. We were offered 3 varieties of custom blends of tea named after memebers of the Austin family. I tried all three and ended up buying a little package of "Mary's Concert Blend" to take home.

After the tea, during which we mainly discussed who we thought were the hunkiest male actors in BBC adaptations of Romatic and Victorian era novels, there was a tour of the house itself. The house was donated to the city by the last member of the Austin family to live there. Although it needed a fair amount of restoration (one of the rooms required all the damask wallfabric to be remade to exactly match the original) all the furniture was donated along with the home. Some of it had to be restored, but it was wonderful to see the actual furniture instead of recreations. The furniture was all made by local furniture makers at the time, so it's good to see the Austin family being so economically and environmentally conscious. :)

My favourite part was the kitchen. I'm fascinated by antique kitchen equipment and this kitchen had it all. It had the original gas oven and the newer oven that the family bought in the 1930s, the ice cabinet that had to be filled with huge ice cubes in the summer to keep the meat from spoiling, and all the little kitchen gadgets that I love to look at at antique stores, including a wall-mounted hand-crank coffee grinder that has become one of my watch-for items when Nyron and I go antique shopping. I could have spent all day in there! I wish they taught cooking classes.

In short, I highly recomend the event, which they have a few times every fall. I wish they had it in the summer, since it would have been lovely to see the grounds, but it was worth the walk in the rain from the subway station.

o( )__

Check this out!

2006-10-03T20:33:00.000-04:00

Hey all you kids trapped in the 70s. Check out who Nyron and I got to hob nob with as part of his incredibly glamourous job of merchandising manager at Chapters.

It's Tommy Chong! He was really cool. As you can see, the camera guy caught us mid laugh. And, no; he didn't smell of patchouli. :)

o( )__

Fashion tip of the day

2006-09-26T08:32:00.000-04:00

When wearing a classic black shirt to work, don't wear a white fleese hoodie over top to keep you warm on your way to work. No matter how comfy it is.

o( )__

Covet of the Week: SolarStyle Portable Solar Charger

2006-09-22T17:50:00.000-04:00

This is definitely the next wave in personal electronics. SolarStyle has created a solar charger that's about the size of a cell phone or wallet that you can use to charge portable devises: cell phones, iPods, digital cameras. The battery holds a charge, so you can charge it during the day and use it at night. And it can be charged by indoor light as well as direct sunlight. What this means is that I can plug my iPod into it at work in my tiny, windowless office and listen to music all day long. Groovin' through the stress, oh yeah!

I'm really glad that this kind of technology is being made so readily available to people. I remember when solar electricity was only available by installing extremely large, inflexible panels that cost thousands of dollars and you had to trim the tall trees around your house to get them to work. They were basically considered experimental and impractical by most home-owners. Now, you can keep a solar panel in your purse (or on your backpack) and whip it out whenever you realize that you forgot to charge your cell phone yet again and it's on its last bar. Hey! Maybe I should get one of these for Nyron. He's always letting the batteries die down on his phone...

Thanks to Yorkshire Soul for reminding me that my readers await. Sorry for the hiatus.

o( )__

Turn, turn, turn

2006-08-27T09:56:00.000-04:00

Fall is coming. I can tell not just from the way I stand shivering at the bus stop every morning, but also in the way that my undeniable urge to knit has resurfaced. Although I usually mourn the passing of summer, I'm quite glad to see the change of seasons. This summer has been stressful and less than kind to me and I'm rather glad to see it go.

The knitting this season started when we heard that friends of ours in Amsterdam just had a baby boy. As with most knitters, there are few things I like to knit more than baby things. They're so soft and small! So I've designed a baby blanket in ivory and light green with musical instruments in some of the green patches. The parents are both musicians so I thought it would be fitting.

o( )__

Update: we are open afterall.

2006-05-29T08:50:00.000-04:00

Working on the assumption that people would probably be late, I called work again and was rather surprised to get a response. We're open and a smattering of students have done whatever they needed to to get to school. If only there was this much dedication in high school! But then, students didn't have to fly around the world and pay hundreds of dollars to attend high school.

I was told that even the Director doesn't think she'll be able to come in today and it's really my choice. I love the idea of another day off, but a nice quiet school day is excellent for getting work done, so I decided to at least attempt to make my way downtown. I called Nyron and woke him up, but I really didn't want to force him to drive me in if he didn't feel up to it. He went out with his friends to play basketball last night and doesn't have to be into work until 2pm, so I wasn't expecting him to jump out of bed and run to my rescue. Especially since I might have an equally hard time getting home. So here I stay until I hear that the strike has been stopped or some other plans are made.

0( )__

TTC + strike = long weekend (but how long?)

2006-05-29T07:27:00.000-04:00

This morning started like any other morning. I grumbled and groaned out of bed at 6am, got dressed, fed Spirit, watered my plants, and put some of last night's leftovers into a tupperware container for lunch. I peeked out the balcony doors in the direction of the bus stop and was relieved to see it still empty. I spent a few minutes picking a new book (I've decided to give up on my current read; life's too short for books that suck) and went outside to wait for the bus. At first I thought it a little odd that the bus stop was empty - there's usually at least one or two people waiting for the 7am bus - but I figured I must have just missed it and the next one would be along in 10 minutes. I sat down on the bench and before I'd even got a sentence into my new book I heard someone honking their horn. When I looked up I saw the driver rolling down his window as if to talk to me and figured he just wanted directions. Boy, was I surprised when he informed me that the TTC was on strike as of this morning and the bus wouldn't be running today! How the hell was I supposed to get to work?!

Luckily for me, it seems that work is closed today, like many of the city's schools I would imagine. I've called three times and got no answer, so I figured it was safe to change into jeans and a t-shirt. I wish I was the kind of person who could just crawl into bed and get back to sleep at this point, but I've been awake for too long and there's too much light seeping through the window blinds.

Right now things are fine. Nyron will probably still have to work today, since retail stores tend to stay open on days like this just in case some locals want to buy anything, but at least I'll get to see him this morning. I, however, worry about how long this strike will go on. Schools can't stay open with only a handful of students and staff. For everyday this strike goes on it's another day of classes the student's miss. Some of the students are only here for a few weeks and every class really counts. Once they've reached their last day they go home, whether they've been able to attend every class or not.

o( )__

Somebody stop the madness!

2006-05-27T15:48:00.000-04:00

I've begun reading Metro on the way to work in the mornings, largely because I'm not enjoying the novel I'm currently reading but I hate to give up on a book halfway through. After the 20 minute bus ride to the nearest subway station, I've usually had enough and grab a Metro from the news stand inside the station. I was hugely dismayed yesterday to read a tiny blurb in the international section that the US House of Representatives (that's the branch just below the Senate, right?) have voted successfully to put a bill before the Senate that will allow oil drilling in the Alaskan wildlife reserve! They've been trying this since 2005 and they don't seem to ever want to stop. So far, each time it's come before the Senate they've done right by voting it out.

What worries me, though, is that in some ways it doesn't matter how many times it gets voted out. It only needs to be passed once for the bulldozers to head north. The article said that they expect greater support this time around because Americans are so upset about the price of gas ($3 in some places, apparently). However, with typical lack of foresight, no one seems to clue into the fact that the amount of oil they'll get will only last a few years, while the damage caused will last decades and possibly be irreparable.

Please! Any Americans who are reading this, do anything you can to let your government know that you are against killing animals and destroying unique natural habitat just so that you don't have to bus it to work. You have a huge amount of power to influence the decisions your government makes; remember, they work for you, not the other way around. Make this an issue worth getting involved for and please, get involved!

After reading such depressing - if brief - news, I need to blog about some success in life. So I thought I'd photograph an update on my table-top greenhouses.

Here's the whole lot, with tops up so you can see all the budding green life:

OK, so you can't really see all the budding green life. That's why I've taken some close-ups of the little darlings.

*sniff* They're getting so big! Now that I look at them, I'm starting to think that these are the snow peas and that the peppers haven't started sprouting yet. I really should have labeled things. : )

Oh well. It'll be ad adventure as things grow to see what everything turns into.

There won't be a lot of guessing about this one, though. Two of these cups are chives, two are green onions, and two are chamomile. True, I can't necessarily tell which are which right now, but they'll distinguish themselves soon enough.

I feel like a mom! I'm so proud of how all my little babies are growing!

0( )__

What's this I see?

2006-05-25T21:23:00.000-04:00

Why, it's a little baby pepper plant!

Isn't he cute? I'm not sure if he's a green pepper or a red pepper, but why get hung up on colour, I say. : ) It's all part of my fledgling little table-top greenhouse community.

I put this together on the weekend with some plastic pastry containers I've saved over the last few months. The pepper plants are in the upside down muffin tray. There's also snow peas, chives, green onions, chamomile and maybe some other things. I have to admit, I don't quite remember what we planted.

And here's Nyron looking tired after a long day at work:

Doesn't he have such a cute hang-dog face? He works so hard.

o( )__

I need a rest from my long weekend : )

2006-05-22T13:38:00.000-04:00

For those of you who aren't yourself Canadians but read my blog, I assume, because you wish you were, you probably don't know about May 2-4. May 2-4 is actually Victoria Day weekend and is the first long weekend of the summer. It's coloquially called May 2-4 because it falls close to May 24th and people often celebrate the long weekend by drinking a 24 case of beer (or two, or three), often at the cottage if you are lucky enough to have one. Unfortunately, most cottage folks weren't too lucky this year, as the weekend has seen mostly rain, heavy winds and even some snow in - you guessed it - cottage country. So it seems a lot of people have decided to use the long weekend and bad weather to get spring housework done. And Nyron and I are no acception.

We've spent most of the weekend painting and now the living room matches the library downstairs. It's an entirely different process painting an oft-used room compared to a room that's mainly used as a way to get from the front door to the stairs. Our lives were disrupted for more than 24 hours as we had to unplug the computer and tv and push all the furniture into the centre of the room. You don't think it's possible to crave a couch until yours is filled with boxes and covered in plastic sheeting.

I also managed to get a bit more gardening done and the patio is looking just that much more green. A woman on freecycle offered up some strawberry plants since her's were taking over her garden. I was quick to reply and was gifted with 7 individual plants, which gave me the perfect excuse to buy some beautiful deep blue strawberry pots. It took some doing to get all the plants in and still keep the earth from falling out of the various holes, but they look great. The plan is to put them on a multi-teired stand of some kind so that they don't strangle the other plants (Strawberries: sweet but ruthless).

Here's my garden so far:

Pretty sparse, I know, but I'm working on it. The strawberries are in their lovely pots, the green pot is peppermint (I'll be moving it to a proper pot once I find one suitable), and the wooden box contains oregano and parsely.

Happy May 2-4 everyone!

0( )__

Kanye would be proud

2006-05-18T21:45:00.000-04:00

Nyron, the king of finding great stuff on the internet, came across this jewelry website by way of comic writer/artist Brian Wood's blog. It's for a company called Leber Jeweler Inc. and they make their pieces from reclaimed and recycled metals and gems that are environmentally mined and conflict free (the diamonds are Canadian). They are also really beautiful. I find a lot of jewelry I see in stores is quite gaudy, and I hate the way most engagement rings set the gem really high up, which is a surefire way for me to get it caught on everything and cut into my finger, but these rings of a subtle uniqueness that really appeals to me. Not to mention that it provides a way for Nyron and I to satisfy our need for wedding rings without having to support the unethical and earth-injuring practices of the large-market jewelry industry. I very much like the "Emma" ring for an engagement ring and Nyron and I both like "Linus" for wedding bands. Now you can "spend all you life trying to get that ice" without it costing the earth. : )

o( )__

Thinking too big

2006-05-17T22:11:00.000-04:00

This May 2-4 weekend Nyron and I plan to spend working on the house. As well as clearing out the garage in preparation for turning it into a workshop and finishing the painting (we've found a lovely hazlenut colour that already adorns our library walls) I'm hoping to find time to work on the balcony garden. Always being one for thinking ahead, I started wondering what I could do for the winter. I came up with the idea of turning my balcony into a greenhouse and started mentally designing a frame system that I could set up with metal pipes and cover with plastic sheeting that would be relatively simple to put up in the fall and take back down in the spring. That way, I'd have a year-round garden and a year-round supply of fresh vegetables.

Then, as usual, reality set in. I live in a condo-townhouse, which means I have to abide by the building management's rules. There are very strict rules about what we are allowed to make visible in the "public areas" of which the balconies are an example. We're not even allowed to hang clothes-lines. So I really can't imagine that turning my balcony into a large plastic greenhouse would go unchallenged by the powers that be. I can't wait until we win the lottery and move into a self-sustainable homestead outside of Toronto - such is the dream.

I guess I should just start thinking smaller. Like, a whole series of little greenhouses, the ones with the adjustable shelves just like the balcony-sized one in my head, but about 2 feet high. I had one of those once, years ago, which gave me the idea in the first place. How many do you think I could fit on my balcony before it's deamed "unsightly"? : )

o( )__

Even the best of intentions...

2006-05-04T12:59:00.000-04:00

I'm home sick today and watching Daily Planet to pass the time (sick days are always so boring!). They did a piece on the new collection of new wind terbines that England has built in the Irish Sea to help combat greenhouse gasses. Sounds like good news, right? Well, the piece was immediately followed by a bit about scientists in California noticing that their wind turbines have had an effect on the behaviour of the local ground squirrels. It seems that the squirrels near wind turnbines are more edgy, stressed, and more prone to diving for cover in their holes. Speculation is that the noise, or possibly the vibration, makes it difficult for the ground squirrels to hear each other's warning cries - basically, it cuts off the communication system of these very social animals.

It seems a bit of a catch-22 for us humans. Even when we try and fix some of the damage we've been doing for hundreds of years, we end up just causing other problems. As anyone who studied the chain of life in elementary school knows, this doesn't just effect ground squirrels; this also effects the animals that rely on them. For example, golden eagles.

It's hard enough, even in an age that is ever enlightening to the necessity of dealing with these environmental problems while we still can, to get support and funding for the reaserch and implimentation of "earth-friendly" forms of energy production, without finding out that they create further complications. And of course, we have no idea how far such complications could reach when the ripples stop.

Now, I'm not saying we should just stop trying. That would be ridiculous. It's an unfortunate fact of the matter that the things we do to help can also be the same things we do that hinder (just look at World Bank's dealings in the Third World). It's true that everything in this world effects its environment in some way. We've just got to find some way of striking a balance, so that we can make a positive change that isn't also tied to a negative one.

o( )__

For anyone who thinks you would only get worthless stuff on Freecycle...

2006-04-08T14:29:00.000-04:00

...I got a bike! I'd been keeping my eye out for offers of bicycles on Freecycle for a while, since I live so close to a lovely park and would like to be able to bike around my community (not to mention, to nearby Port Credit which is lovely and has some great shops!). After responding to a number of offers, I finally got picked to receive a bike that the man who posted it had found on the curb on garbage day. It's a lovely 1960s bike painted, as it happens, in my favourite shade of green. It just needs it's breaks fixed. And a carry basket. And I need a helmet. I'm currently trying to find a bike repair place close enough so that we don't have to try getting it in the back of Nyron's car again. When we picked it up it turned out to be too big for the Camry and we had to take the front wheel off just so we could close the doors. But not before getting bike grease on the upholstery. What with my cousin's cats peeing on the back seats and now this bike I fear I've done more damage to Nyron's beloved car in the last two years than all time he's had it!

Oh well. My bike is cool! I'm thinking of calling her Madeline, after "The Apology Song" by The Decemberists. If you see me cruising around South Etobicoke someday soon, give a wave!

0( )__

Climb a little higher...

2006-04-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

This April 29, I will be volunteering for the CN Tower Climb in support of WWF. That's World Wildlife Fund, by the way, not the World Wrestling Federation. : )

To participate in the climb, all you have to do is register online, then raise a minimum of $50. There is also a team climb on Thursday, April 27 for those of you who like to do it in groups. All the money raised will help WWF fight Global Warming and man-made climate change. Just think of all those smog alert days in Toronto last summer (48 - the highest on record!) if you need another eason to sign up for this great cause! Hope to see you there!

o( )__