The Experiment(s).

So this summer I tried two (2) experiments. Hypotheses were as follows:

1. I can make pickles. A lot of pickles.

2. I can grow potatoes in a pot.

Both hypotheses were verified, as shown in the following pictures:

tremors

So tonight I found myself on the other side of the interview table, for the first time in my life. I must be moving "up" in the world. It feels weird to be old.

pulverization

I had forgotten that going swimming with junior high kids is a full-contact sport. I think I have cuts and bruises on every limb. My right leg is suffering the most, with at least 8 new bruises and a sporty new cut on the knee. As if they weren't scarred enough from the myriad times I have tripped over my toes, rollerbladed into rock piles, or flipped my bike. I'm mildly surprised to actually have all my limbs and my brain in working order after the many accidents I've had. I was recently teaching a piano student and I moved my chair backwards for some un-remembered reason...unfortunately the reason was so un-remembered that the moment after I moved the chair, I went to sit back down and was surprised to find myself sitting on the floor, in front of my chair. Or how about the time I hit a rock the size of my fist while on my bike and went head-over-heels...causing my bike wheel to look like a potato chip and leaving my knobby portions looking like freshly pulverized meat. Or the time I wasn't paying attention on rollerblades and painfully discovered that a section of the sidewalk was out and had been replaced with rocks. Or the time I looked up from rollerblading and ran into a biker going the other way, causing permanent hip disfunction. Or the time I apparently got in the way on the sledding hill and ended up taking a most interesting trip to the hospital in the ambulance.

I'm somewhat ashamed that my accidents never happen because I'm doing a sweet wheelie or a triple-axle on my blades. Nope, no glory for me. Just guts.

spring snow - midnight

It snowed on Tuesday night, and it was wet so it stuck heavily to every tree. Walking around at midnight was eerie - ghostly trees and muffled sounds...all that could be heard was the sound of snow drops falling off trees, and the occassional howl of a coyote. I sat outside the cabin and let my imagination roam...

~~~~
The night traveler meets a path through the woods, unrecognizable to him. Boughs lean downward, bearing the weight upon them as an aged king bears his worries. The traveler bends his head in deference to their regal bearing. He lifts his head to see bare branches, laden not with spring buds, but with a heavy snow. The lady of the willow stretches out her fair arms above him as a canopy. The proud birch lends her string of pearls, slender as iridescent webs arching over his weary head. Giant poplars tower over, silent specters in the moonless night. And in silence, there is sorrow as the queen loses her celestial headpiece; each jewel turning to liquid and falling to the floor of the earth. Her subjects mourn for her loss as her luminous tiara melts into the shadows. He smells only their tears, as a world pregnant with expectation of the otherworldly. Brooding, waiting for the veil to life. Beauty, swiftly attained and slowly bidding farewell. There is no time, only silence. His eyes close, every limb holding pose, as if to move would cause the shattering of the world. More is here than snow and trees and dripping water. The Other is here, watching over the scene even as the specters watch from on high.

He sees, in the distance, a small band of light gleaming in the dark. He hastens on, breaking the silent enchantment. But more is here.

~~~~
After that, I heard a whole pack of coyotes so I dashed inside, visions of otherwordly beasts nearly visible in my mind.

spring snow - the morning after

piano

Any idea what a decent rate for a piano teacher with 2 years of teaching experience and a grade 9 RCM level would be? I'm trying to decide what to charge next year. Right now it's $10 for a 1/2 hour lesson, but everyone keeps telling me that I'm undercharging. What would be normal charging??

backyard bobsledding

Our backyard has a fairly steep hill in the back, so we finally tried sledding on it. It was marvellous...the snow was quite crunchy on top, so it was like bobsledding. The only problem is that there is a fence at the bottom of the hill... aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!





Ready to fly!

Heather and I at the top of the run...

Going down... It doesn't look very steep in this picture, does it? Also, you can't really tell, but the snow is about knee-deep in most places. Gotta love northern alberta!!

car troubles

Before reading this story, you need to know that we only have one car.

The other day it was an incredible spring day. Sun-rays were calling me outside for a walk, so I dropped the car off at my better half's job, tossed my keys in the glove compartment so I didn't have to lug them around, and walked home. But I neglected to tell him that the car was at work, so a few hours later he walked on home and into the house and asked "where's the car?" Oops. So we had to get our friends to drive us over there to pick up the car.

The next day, he walked into work so I could take the car directly from home. I was about to leave when I remembered that I had neglected to remove my keys from the glove compartment the day before! That's not a very convenient place for car keys. :o

So I called my mom at work and she took a half hour off to pick me up so we could go get Jon's key. As he passed me his key, he asked me if we still had the spare key in the house. Spare key? I didn't remember having one of those wonderful little things. But just to be sure, when I got home, I checked the most logical hiding place...and sure enough, there was the key.

good grief.

more canadian fun

The real Canadian shower.

Outdoors.

Solar-heated water.

You better believe it - it has indeed been used.

help!

I can only find 20 - can anyone find more??

There are thirty books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some friends. One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There are some names that are really easy to spot. That’s a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new sales record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, “the books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight.” Those able to find them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus. There really are 30 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found. Good luck!

the one, the only, TOQUE!

This post is for our woefully uneducated American friend who commented on the Calvin and Hobbes post.

The Toque (not Togue) is a word we stole from the French, and it refers to the knit brim-less hats we Canadians wear so that we don't lose our ears (and brain cells) in the frigid north. Actually, even when it's not that cold out, people often wear thinner toques as a fashion statement. I personally own about 5 in different shapes and colors. Let me show you my gallery!



This is the first toque I owned. I was quite proud of it. See that I am holding onto a variant on the pompom that traditionally tops the hat. It's on a string. This toque is lined with fleece so it's very warm.










This is my classy toque. I wear it with my white
scarf and black coat when I need to make a REAL fashion statement. :)













My personal favorite - the cute and the green.
An excellent choice for those not-so-cold days when you just don't feel like doing your hair. Note the absence of the traditional pompom.











This one actually has a variant on the traditional pompom - it's a fancy little knit do-dad on the top, although you can't see it in this particular shot. I don't usually wear this one because its loose knit doesn't help a lot, and as you can see, it's a bit big for my head. :) It makes it hard to see the polar bears when they are on the sidewalk in front of me.





This is the toque I use when I'm going for function over attractiveness. Notice you don't get to see my face - that's because it gets all squished up in this one. But I can't deny that it is extremely good at keeping me warm. I'm not sure if it's classified as an actual toque though, because of the ear flaps. My dad has one like this and gets teased constantly.




That's all folks! Perhaps next summer I will show you my assortment of hats that don't belong to the toque family. :)

Check out the official wikipedia definition of the greatest winter invention ever!

am i a nerd?

So I got 85% on my piano exam. Which is ok I guess, since I wasn't playing at all for about 4 years, and then tried desperately to pick it up again in 4 months. Perhaps it's the loser in me, but I've never really been satisfied with anything less than 90 in anything. It's okay, but I certainly don't get excited about it.

am i a nerd?

what do the polls say?

nonsense

i'm tired of wearing 4 shirts everytime i get out of bed. i'm tired of wearing mitts and toques and boots. i'm ready for skirts, flip-flops, and tank tops. because of this, this is what i'd like to do, just for fun. i've got cabin fever.

prayer

1) For those of you who are pray-ers, please pray for my friend's sister - she's in the hospital right now being treated for flesh-eating disease on her leg - it's VERY infectious and life-threatening.

2) Do you think God answers our prayers outside of time? For example, I was praying for a friend's pregnancy for a while, because she has a history of miscarriages and the child she does have is a miracle. Anyway, I found out a couple weeks later that she was out of the danger zone before I even found out about the pregnancy. So did God answer my prayers before I even prayed them, or did He just ignore them as being uninformed??

yet another adventure

So this morning I was digging through my purse, taking out all the loose papers. I came to a white piece of paper, folded in quarters. Naturally, I opened it up, and on it was written "Justin" with an arrow pointing to a phone number! I wracked my brain trying to figure out if I had been talking to someone named Justin who wanted to volunteer at church, but nothing came to the surface. My closest guess is that either I accidentally picked up someone else's paper when I was picking up my wallet, or that someone stuck it in there on purpose! I checked the phone number on the internet and it does exist, and the number belongs to a house that is actually quite near my church. Weird. So here's the question - should I try calling the number just to quell my curiousity? Or should I just leave it and have it be yet another weird story in the life of me? Tell me what you think!