| Husbandry |
[Saturday 7 June, 2008 8h52] |
Who knows just how well this translates into modern terms:
Due to the advent of modern role flexibility, I bring you this, too:
It seems a lot pickier. I bet I lost points for walking around the house in sock feet. |
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| Wedding photos |
[Wednesday 4 June, 2008 22h34] |
On Saturday, Elizabeth and I got married out in Ormstown, and celebrated with a bunch of family and friends.
Elizabeth has already posted some of her thoughts here, I'll add a few things for now, starting with pictures.
( photos )
The ceremony was intimate and intense: Elizabeth and I both were on the verge of tears while we made our vows. We'd both known Ellie Hummel before we asked her to officiate, and it showed in how she did things. We'd planned on getting married outside under the apple tree, but it was threatening to rain, so we packed everyone into the basement of André's farmhouse, which felt like a tiny church, crypt or castle, with stone walls and metal and painted decorations. It was pretty hot, and very crowded, but it felt right. We did burst out to the yard with the tree for a toast and pictures afterward.
Later on, Owen had picked out a poem involving love and Scrabble for us at the cake-cutting, which was quite appropriate. I'll try and get the author and title. The folks at StatCan Scrabble Club will be impressed.
The day as a whole went really, really fast, and sort of unfolded before us due to all the help and merriness from everyone. |
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| Daily Living in Hull |
[Tuesday 8 April, 2008 20h27] |
Today I saw a pick-up truck with a rear spoiler almost as high as the cab.
I also ate some poutine at La Pataterie Hulloise. When I told my supervisor Elizabeth and I were going to look at houses in Wrightville, he exclaimed that it meant we would be close to there. The fries were excellent, but the gravy wasn't really my thing, being a little too like hot turkey sandwich gravy and not nearly blisteringly salty enough — they also have a secret vegetarian menu and fry their fries in vegetable oil, for any vegetarian Hullians out there (of which there may have been, as a pretty bohemian-looking car-load in a rusty little Honda came by for take-out, seemed to realize they'd forgotten one of their number, went away, came back and got their brown paper bags of casse-croûte goodness).
We also found some kitty litter made out of corn cobs at Maxi — Noisette has been using wheat-based stuff but it seems like a good idea to leave the wheat for folks to eat now (and the wheat stuff is hard to come by). |
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| good/blah and other stuff |
[Thursday 3 April, 2008 20h43] |
Elizabeth and I read really differently. Whether it's a book or a magazine, I tend to read stuff straight through; I at least have to take a crack at a chapter or article and give up on it before moving on to the next one. She moves around the volume and picks out what appeals to her. With good books, we both read the same amount of stuff.
( good/blah ) |
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| Roadie conclusion and back at home |
[Monday 24 March, 2008 21h33] |
The final show in Elizabeth's tour was a house show in Bedford. The place was cozy and bright, and our hosts were very welcoming. Their kids were around for the show and wandered in and out, their elder son concluded the concert with a piano rendition of a Green Day song. Monique and George sent us (including Dusty Keeler, the other performer) home with a bottle of wine and smiles all 'round. I also found out that George uses some survey data that my unit at work deals with from time to time, and that he's looking forward to the results of some of my record linkage projects.
We had a relaxed evening at Dusty's place, crashed there, and then returned the car and caught our flight back the next morning. Returning on Monday, Elizabeth taught in the evening and I celebrated the 29th birthdays of two of my co-workers (the first 29th for one, the second 29th for the other).
Consequently, I had a short week at work this week: two days as I took a vacation day on Tuesday in case of exhaustion or delay — it was a good idea, I think. It looks like I'll be sharing my thesis with my division sometime soon, and I had a manageable pile of interesting work (and 84 unread e-mails) waiting for me upon my return. Next month, I'll help supervise some visiting interns from France.
Now, I'm in Ormstown at my parents' place, with cooking smells in the air and the woodstove popping and breathing nearby. Back to another short week on Tuesday, and then my first Scrabble tournament next Saturday. |
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| Roadie Day 4 |
[Sunday 16 March, 2008 11h28] |
It snowed again in Halifax, driving in was pretty slushy but uneventful. Elizabeth and I wandered around downtown for a bit, picking up some plane food at Freak Lunchbox (to balance out the stuff we got at the health food store in Truro) and browsing through the books and goodies along Barrington street.
We ate at a pub where the table next to us had an ever-increasing gaggle of young Tories in blue everything. The beer there was mercifully very good, and the food was satisfying.
Ginger's was pretty quiet, probably due to the weather, but one of the artists, who goes by Le Skiv, had a dedicated local fanbase who braved the "snow and shit" (which became a running stage-banter theme). Elizabeth had a real piano (I guess apartment-sized) to play, so the set included piano-molesting songs. She played under a couple of spots with a little shaded table lamp for extra light and atmosphere (unfortunately my camera is borked, so no photos unless someone else took some). After a goofy set by Richard/Thomas, we then made our way to Ryan the promoter's place, where we were loaned a big mattress behind a closed door: couch surfing gold.
This afternoon: the last show of the tour — house show in Bedford, with bonus homemade soup! |
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| Roadie Day 3 |
[Saturday 15 March, 2008 13h21] |
We drove from Liverpool to Truro today, for Elizabeth to be a featured guest at the Truro Fair Trade Community Café open mic night. It turns out there are two FTCCs in Truro. We hit the original one on Prince Street.
We explored a bit, and Truro has a maybe-surprising number of health food, yoga, organic stuff and other hippie-ish shops. Later, our host Ray explained that the agricultural college here (one of the biggest in Canada) has a major organic food institute. Truro also has lots of nice red brick buildings and a really pretty park an easy walk from downtown.
The open mic night was a bit disparate: everyone else was singing mostly country, spirituals and hymns, and then late in the evening, a Cape Breton fiddler came in and wowed everyone. Folk-pop piano stuff was a bit out of the envelope, but it was still a really fun evening hosted by really welcoming people. Ray reminds me a bit of ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ramou in many ways (even his haircut is sort of similar), and he runs a really nice café. During the open mic, an older couple, maybe in their seventies, got up and danced every once in a while. Eventually, Elizabeth took me by the hand and we followed in their footsteps.
Today, bolstered by excellent coffee and blueberry-flax-apple pancakes, we will journey back to Halifax for a 10 PM show at Ginger's Tavern on Barrington Street. |
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| Roadie Day 2 |
[Friday 14 March, 2008 11h38] |
The show at Mersey House was a success musically. We had a moderately full room of people who were really attentive, participated (thank you, volunteer last-minute Soundman Stu) and generally warm. The two openers, Kristen Murray and Krystele Leveque Liverpool is really pretty, as was the drive up: it looked like autumn, and once we were out of Halifax, it was dead simple (actually, Halifax wasn't too bad either, although Saint Margaret's Bay Road is a bit twisty).
Next stop: Truro and the Fair Trade Café (I think it has more adjectives in there, but how many fair trade cafés with Friday night music can there be in a small town?). |
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| Roadie day 1 |
[Thursday 13 March, 2008 10h28] |
Elizabeth and I got to Halifax yesterday in a little 50-seat plane, it was sunny and a little chilly with no snow on the ground.
Every transportation person we met was nice, from the flight attendant to the bus driver to Young Alex the rental car guy. The agency was out of compact cars, though, so they gave us a big black Magnum station wagon. The keyboard fits really well in the back but it does feel like driving a bunker.
We wandered around downtown Halifax a bit after arriving, picked up the keyboard from the rental place, climbed up to the Citadel gate, looked in a couple of shops, had a supper of nice fresh sushi and then proceeded to Gus' Pub. Somewhere in there it started to snow. Starting from dry pavement it didn't pile up too high, but it seemed to put a damper on Haligonians coming out on a Wednesday night to the North End. The music, courtesy of The Fool, Oh Dinah and Elizabeth, was fun despite the small turnout. I took some pictures but left my camera cable at home, so there'll be a big photo post in a few days.
We're crashing at one of the musicians' place, breakfast should be soonish and then we're off to LiverpoolTruro and Mersey House for show #2. |
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[Sunday 2 March, 2008 22h58] |
In a little over a week, I will be off with rottenfruit to Halifax, being a general-purpose roadie, merch salesman, companion and driver on the Nova Scotia bit of the Eastern Tour (I'll probably be at the Cagibi show in Montreal, too). I'm still a bit worried that the rental agency will look at the vintage of my license and tell me "no car for you," but I've got the age, usually calm demeanour and untarnished-if-short driving record going for me.
Wedding planning is going well: I think we have most of the details at least sketched out, even if we still have to set one of the readings, post banns, and attend to many details. We finished a marriage prep course last week. It was fun at times and kind of intense at others. Our instructor seemed pretty positive about us, and we're still positive about us too! Coming home from one of our sessions, we took the bus in the wrong direction and the driver was new and got a little lost. Neither of us, nor the only other passenger, had any idea where to go. After a plea for help, the driver just stopped at a corner for a while and collected his thoughts — we got to South Keys eventually. We were hungry enough to decide to eat at Denny's in the parking lot, served beer, lumberjack breakfast and a veggie burger and beer by a chipper doctoral student before heading home.
At work, things are going well... last month I participated in the employee choir singing a Beatles medley, and I'm feeling pretty happy with my co-workers and my work. My unit is going to lose its supervisor (he got promoted), and I haven't found out who will replace him, but we've still got some time before he disappears (he clears out completely for July 1st). In any case, I'm getting to teach, write, tinker and snuffle through the library, and they're paying me for it. This week I'll be taking a couple of days for the public-service-wide orientation course (how we relate to the government, accountability, etc.) — it'll start early, but they're feeding us breakfast. I'm not sure how much will be new to me, but it'll be a different perspective from my rather specialized day-to-day context. |
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| Non-Mac FTP advice |
[Saturday 19 January, 2008 21h21] |
I'm looking for recommendations for a Windows FTP program, preferably a simple, Free Software or freeware utility that lets users drag and drop from their usual explorer windows and won't be too scary for people who might be new to FTP: I'm going to teach a workshop soon and I want people on each platform to be running the same software (I'm a Mac person, but it's a big tent). Any suggestions are appreciated!
Also, on the off chance that there exists such a thing as a Linux user who wants to learn very basic HTML, what are the (again, free in one way or another) text editor and FTP client that Just Work and are good for beginners on there? |
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| Driving news |
[Thursday 10 January, 2008 20h14] |
| [ | Tags | | | driving | ] |
| [ | headspace |
| |  relieved | ] |
Despite heavy fog (about half a block's visibility at times), rush hour and kids crossing the street everywhere (my test started at 3:20), I passed my road test Tuesday. Plastified ID with goofy photo to follow. It took three tries to get a good one. |
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| Ceci n'est pas un post |
[Thursday 13 December, 2007 19h39] |
Two tests this afternoon... but I’m slow to tie up the loose ends are still out there. Well, here's my surrender to not getting a grammar written today.
Very much looking forward to it.
Celebrated Mother’s Day last weekend with as many mothers from my mom's side of the family in one place as possible. There was lots of food, and us older kids kept tabs on the younger kids as we took a constitutional walk around a farm my cousin has put an offer on.
This week so far, I've debriefed with Matt on this year's run of 256, programmed, met with Emily about Lies revisited (watching the other programmer work is like having an out-of-body experience: we have the same cycle and rhythm, narrate debugging the same way, gesture the same... all he needs is more hair and no glasses... that's ME you're being there, except in PHP instead of ActionScript! Stop it!), practiced yoga, tried to straighten out a two month overlap between leases, and talked and kissed and stuff.
I also did the traditional failing of the first road test last Wednesday (on the first snowy day of the season!). The roads are safe from me for another month or so. |
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| Year in review, early this year |
[Thursday 6 December, 2007 20h20] |
1. What did you do in 2007 that you'd never done before?
( ... )
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"Get onto the bus!" |
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| stuff |
[Monday 26 November, 2007 20h30] |
I had a reasonable accommodation post all written up, but I hadn't updated XJournal for Jaguar. If you're a user, go download 1.06b2 before you write anything you want to keep. Aside from that, my Leopardfication has been pretty smooth, and I think that Spaces and some of the little interface enhancements and increased tweakability will be good things. The one bothersome thing is that the new window chrome is so bland that foreground windows look like a background windows (and the background windows look ghostly). It also feels a bit more responsive and zippy, which is always nice. When I have a bit more cash, I'll probably still bump the RAM up, though.
Three years ago last Sunday, Elizabeth and I took a walk to the park on Greene below the highway, and talked and kissed and started making a go of stuff. Pretty soon, we'll have two anniversaries to keep track of. On Sunday we had a nice supper at the Black Tomato and... talked and kissed and stuff.
I also did the traditional failing of the first road test last Wednesday (on the first snowy day of the season!). The roads are safe from me for another month or so. |
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| miscellany |
[Monday 12 November, 2007 14h51] |
Had breakbeat-piano-and-harpsichord musician John Kameel Farrah crashing on our couch last week, and went to his show at Avant-Garde Bar. It was a good show, if he wanders through where you are and you like energetic electronic avant-garde stuff or renaissance harpsichord, he did both on Thursday. He exudes enthusiasm about it, too.
This weekend Ellie and I zipped through Montréal and Ormstown, meeting up with a few people, celebrating loupdebois' birthday eating lots of good food and attending my second convocation.
In the week to come, I'll attempt to prove to StatCan that I'm reasonably bilingual.
I've been thinking of writing a reasonable-accommodation post at some point.
femmusic wants to know…
( 35 questions ) |
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| Photos |
[Wednesday 31 October, 2007 21h23] |
Some Hallowe'en costumed photos — alas, no kids to scare :( |
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| bring me tasty children... |
[Wednesday 31 October, 2007 19h31] |
| [ | Tags | | | food, holiday | ] |
| [ | headspace |
| | full | ] |
| [ | soundtrack |
| | Leonard Cohen. "Everybody Knows" from I'm Your Man. | ] |
Here I was thinking that us being at ground-level would bring us trick-or-treaters. We have all this candy, and no kids trick-or-treating on our street.
Boo.
Must resist the urge to nibble too much. |
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[Saturday 20 October, 2007 11h35] |
People notice what pen they're using, and the pen supply at work is made up mostly of good pens (not Rands' favourites, but I like them).
| good | blah |
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- The new place is not really so new, anymore, and it feels nice.
- The thesis is marked as accepted on my transcript. Convocation next month!.
- Work is good, I'm producing stuff and soaking up how stuff works.
- Work is paying me regularly. I splurged a little this week and got a little red iPod so I can bring my music and podcasts to work.
- There are enough interesting people at work to keep me busy.
- One of Ellie's colleagues and and her husband came over last night for supper, chatting and Catan, which was really nice.
- New D&D game up and running!
- Pumpkin carving party next Friday (details to come).
- Looking forward to the wedding, and thinking, "we can pull this off".
- Cat, laundry, worms and dishes are all doing fine. Laundry's being done in a machine we own, even, and Noisette is enjoying being alpha cat in the apartment.
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- Last little bits of freelance just don't seem to end.
- We're bracing for an expensive Hydro bill as things get colder.
- The GSA is apparently now run by the same idiots who gutted the teaching and research assistants' union, and the first thing they did was purge the competent committee appointments. At least I did my best over my term.
- Lots of my friends are still in Montreal. So is Metro Joannette.
- Push buttons at intersections still suck.
- Had to replace my back wheel due to a broken spoke that went unnoticed for too long. Boo.
- Spent the last week kind of sick.
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sick
weird
awake
artistic
automated
energetic
