Yay bike ride!

With beautiful weather, and recent rains clearing the air, I couldn't resist a bike ride this afternoon!

I rode over to and up the bike path along the former rail tracks to Chief Peguis Trail, noticed there was a path along CPT and so rode it to Rothesay (it is just gravel, and so not as nice as the bike path), then came back home via Rothesay, Roch, and Brazier.

First flower of the season:

(Crazy early spring!)

New Mittens

Another thing I'm feeling unreasonably pleased about:


This pair of mittens I just finished. Crochet top, knit ribbed cuffs. These are now the light mittens that live in my spring/fall/rain jacket, for those cool, would-be-nice-to-be-wearing-mittens days. (My old pair is probably around ten years old now, and is getting thin. I've already patched them once using yarn that I begged off someone with some in their stash. I feel guilty about begging for more. They're pre- "save leftovers for patching" mittens.)

Garden

I took this photo of my garden on Saturday:

It's probably looking rather whiter and fluffier now.

The cardboard is where I stood while planting my garlic, so that I didn't sink (as much) into the mud. The area between the cardboard and railroad tie is planted with two rows of garlic and/or onions, plus one row of random perennials (next to the tie) from a neighbour. The part starting just past the cardboard still needs to be dug. Looks like that will be spring, now. ;)

Lilacs

I love the smell of lilacs in the spring!

Update

Manitoba is soggy. Send ark.

I'm still sick. I was supposed to go sandbagging today.

Dad called this morning, four minutes before my alarm was set to wake me up. He needed e-mail tech support. Bonus to doing Saturday morning tech support: my croaking convinced him that he didn't really need me for sandbagging. Downside: croaking is hard on the throat. (I sure hope I'm better before students start descending in hoards.)

Not being needed for sandbagging is good, because, besides the fact that my lungs are crap, my back has been acting up today. (For some reason, the ribs around and below my right shoulder blade hurt.)

A second CFL died tonight. (The first one died a week or so ago.) However, unlike the first one, this one is a more-expensive, tri-light bulb. It did prompt me to finally remove both bulbs, rinse the dust and dead bugs from the shades (the shades on both cup under the bulbs), and put a fresh bulb in the office. (I had been getting by on one.) However, I don't keep backup tri-light bulbs (expensive, and sold as singles), so that one will have to wait. Luckily I have an alternate light in the living room, although on the opposite side of the room from where I sit to knit and watch TV.

Dad called again for follow-up e-mail tech support. He was having dinner. Unlike when my brother does tech support for my mom & step-dad, who always gets a meal provided when he does tech support, apparently dinner isn't on offer to me. When I tried to weasel in on dinner, dad revealed he was calling from a restaurant, and wouldn't be home for an hour or so. *sigh* Since I want to do the follow-up support from his place, I told him to call again when he got home.

I forgot to ask if he got the dike high enough.

The apartment hallway smells foul. It's like a mixture of spilled alcohol, scented cleaning products, and smoke... but whether from cigarette or cigar (or something else), I can't tell. Between the smell and my back, this hasn't been my favourite day to be tromping to and from the laundry room.

Oh, and a follow-up on the taxes: apparently I shouldn't do computer taxes while sleep deprived (no one else had the software switch them to French), the government will send me a new Notice of Assessment in a language I *can* read, and the nice lady on the phone says my cereal box French is not that bad. (I tried reading out certain lines I had questions about.)

I am slowly going crazy...

It is very definitely day. Snow is travelling horizontally, from west to east. Although it is day, I'm not sure it is May. It looks more like December. (There aren't the huge snowbanks that we'd have if it were January.) However, I can't tell if it's last December, or next December.

I finished the design, printed it, and assembled it. I was about to start tracing, when I realized I was famished. I decided to stop for... is cereal eaten at 7 am breakfast even if you haven't slept in 21 hours?

I decided to leave pills for second breakfast, which I assume will happen after some sleep. (Please let there be sleep!)

Okay, off to trace, then to apply resist.

Beds Are For Sleeping? Really?

So tired!

(Yes, the clock does say 5:07, and that's AM, not PM.)

Sometimes I question my sanity. Like when I'm up at 5:07 AM, preparing for a demo. Or when it's May 1, and it's snowing outside, and a few days ago I was wishing my window ACs were installed. (Yes, snow is falling. West of here, highways are closed. It's ridiculous!)

Tomorrow (today?) is a *long* day. Pick up at 12:20, demo at 1:00, running credit cards for purchases 2:00 - 4:00, take-down 4:00 until complete... then figuring out what I can cook for dinner (pots and pans are all dirty again) and doing laundry... minimum two loads (bedding), but it's looking like more than four to get it all done. (How does an art show produce *laundry*?!?!) Monday I start back to work, and it would probably be a good idea to have clean laundry.

I suspect I'll be buying lunches next week. (Of course, that requires that I obtain cash.)

*sigh*... back to work. I can't rest yet. There's a bit more of the design to complete, then printing, assembling, tracing, and applying resist. *whimper*

I hope I get to have *some* sleep, to punctuate "today" before "tomorrow".

Wonky

It's 20 C out, 25 C in my apartment (I *soooo* want to put the AC in), and there's a winter weather watch, with snow forecast for tomorrow. Who set the weather settings to "random"?

Change of seasons

You know winter is over when construction hits. There was a plague of it downtown yesterday.

Sorry I caused the weather to turn cold overnight... I left my windows open all night. (It was *brisk* today, inside *and* out!)

Social Cooties

Winnipeg is in it's dusty season, where the snow has melted, leaving behind a season's worth of road grime, ground down sand (and probably road too), salt, and snow mold. I'm recovering from my cold, and still have a hacking cough.

So that my cough isn't exacerbated by the dust, I've been wearing dust masks.

People look at me strange, and I've noticed the seat next to me staying empty longer. I ignore the looks, and enjoy the space. ;)

Miscellany

March 1 the overnight parking ban on snow routes was lifted. It seemed crazy... after all, to all appearances, we were in the depths of winter. That week, the words "bitterly cold" were used to describe the forecast. Today, I was confused by my thermometer, because it wasn't using a minus sign. (+6? How can it be +6? Must be heat leaking through my cheap apartment windows.) Although the weather web page isn't saying it is as warm as my thermometer, it also isn't using a minus sign.

There is, however, a blizzard warning for today. The pain in my sinuses appears to confirm that.

Oh joy... sounds like the engineering "band" is playing in the atrium. (Drums, cowbells, some sort of brass wind instruments. Only approximations of "music", in the loosest sense.)

It appears that I'm *not* scheduled to meet with the student I tutor this morning. He wasn't where we usually meet, and none of his e-mails mention today... but I don't remember hearing the words "we aren't meeting tomorrow". However, I think he has a midterm today, so the fact that we aren't meeting isn't that surprising. I guess I should do a better job at confirming these things.

Too bad my marking is at home. However, I have a program I'm working on, and can use the time for that.

I think my angora "ice queen" thing sheds fur in my eyes. I seem to have problems on days I'm wearing it. I washed my eye when I got in, and put some drops in. (Those drops are *expensive* for such tiny little bottles!)

A friend of mine has family stationed in Japan... does anyone know the condition of the US military bases there? I haven't heard much about the levels of damage yet, just that an emergency number has been set up, and that phone lines are tied up. My sympathies to all who are affected by the earthquake and after-effects.

Miscellany

The calendula had me rather worried when several days had passed and only one of the five had sprouted, but a second sprouted yesterday, and another this morning. *phew*

The dianthus started popping up yesterday or the day before too. :)

I just discovered something really cool... McNally Robinson books are much cheaper online (I suspect to compete with Amazon), and if you choose to pick up the book in-store, there's no shipping! Woo-hoo! I looked there for Ann Feitelson's "The Art of Fair Isle Knitting", because KnitPicks didn't have it (a friend is doing a KnitPicks order, and KnitPicks has their 40% off book sale until the end of the week), and so it occurred to me to check McNally. McNally is Canadian, and lets us knit there once a month (even moving things and putting out chairs), so I like to support them. I can't afford to do so very often, but I did order this book. :) (They didn't have it in stock, and so said it will be a week or I could cancel my order... however, since knitting is there next week, if I'm lucky, I can pick it up when I'm there anyway!)

Yesterday I listened to an interesting podcast episode of CBC's Ideas, Aboriginals and New Canadians: The Missing Conversation. It talked about the effect that aboriginal culture had in shaping Canadian culture (among other things). It made a lot of sense, and explained a bunch about why Canadians are different than Americans.

Impatient

I'm impatient. Remember my May Day seed starting? Even though I *know* there's no chance that anything has sprouted yet, I keep peeking. Unbelievably, today there was something:

Thank you, poppies! (Isn't it amazing how you can get a plant from a seed so small?!?)

PS: If you still can't see them, even though I've posted the "medium" rather than "small" size, you can click through to "all sizes" to see the largest size. The seedlings are rather puny, on this, their first day.

Spring is Springing

As I suspected, the daffodils at mom's have started to open up. The tulips are almost there, but not quite. The forecast is for 23C today, so today might be the day.

Walking home from dinner last night, though, I was surprised to see the daffodils at another house on the street in full bloom... our house is normally the first! Oh well.

Miscellany

Wow, a thunderstorm. With the temperature hovering just a few degrees above zero today, my mind is having trouble reconciling thunder with the cold temperatures. Thunderstorms are a summer event. In spring, rain tends to be soft.

There's some small hail too, and the forecast says the rain will switch to snow overnight.

My back is mostly better today. Mom said that instead of resting, I should be using gentle movement to keep it from seizing up. So, yesterday, I walked over to the thrift shop just on the other side of the river.

The river is quite high:

That turbulent bit where the logs are caught is where the giant concrete icebreaker block is. The river looks deceptively slow where the water is deep... but you can really see it's power where it churns around the block. it's rather hypnotic, watching it.

At the thrift store, I bought two pretty 25 cent glasses, two 25 cent sewing patterns, and a 50 cent card of snaps. Here are the glasses:

I was hoping the little one would be small enough to hold an easter egg for display, but it's a bit on the big size. I tried to polish it using the baking soda, aluminum foil, and boiling water method... but although it is less tarnished now, it still isn't shiny, and some of the silver flaked off. Whoops. I wish I had left it the way it was. Most of the design is still there, but it definitely looked better before. (The photo is a before shot.) Since I don't drink shots, I'm thinking of making it into a candle. (When I get time to melt some wax.) Do you think I should use parafin wax, or beeswax? (I have both.)

DiFranza Designs has *awesome* customer service! I sent them an e-mail to find out how much it would cost (including shipping) to order the strips I needed to finish my design, and they offered to send them for free! Yay! I like to spread the word when I receive awesome customer service. :)

*whimper*

Sleep deprivation is getting worse. I got four hours of sleep last night. The night before was not much either, although, after hitting the snooze button for a bit, I decided to skip the optional morning tasks, and set my alarm for a late wake-up and arrived at work at 1:00 when my non-optional shift started. Sunday night I didn't get much sleep either. I *really* need to get caught up on my sleep... it's getting to the point where I feel like crying. However, I have a heap of things to do that I can't put off any more. :(


This morning I woke up to snow. I think my first thought upon happening to glance out the window was something incoherent like "did someone paint all the trim white overnight?" I then changed that thought to the joke "who spilled the white-out?"

In addition to creating assignments, I need to wash dishes tonight... I've used my regular dishes, and am nearly through my back-up dishes. I'm also on my last clean water bottle, and it's one that does weird things to my mouth because it's metal. I probably won't wash everything, just enough to get me through a few more days. (Time spent washing dishes is time not spent working on impending deadline work tasks or sleep.)

Please, I need to sleep! :(

Spring Forward

I *hate* the spring time change. :P

Signs of Spring

There has been a strange liquid precipitation falling from the sky recently. (And fog worthy of England.) Today appears to be sunny and bright, though.

The snow has nearly completely melted from the apartment's front lawn... the tiny bit left is where snow from shovelling was heaped. (Soon the ground will thaw, allowing me to continue digging the flower beds... should my teaching allow me the time.)

Flies have awoken from their hibernation, and are buzzing against the windows. (Or, at night, against lightbulbs.) At the moment I have six in the kitchen window (after killing two already this morning), and I think another two in my office window... although, at the moment, they're in their less-easy-to-spot walking/resting mode.

Does anyone know where in Winnipeg I can buy a venus fly trap and other carnivorous plants? I'd like to make some terrariums, changing the fly nuisance into an amusement. (Move flies from window to terrarium, watch to see what happens...)

Other sign of spring: I'm about half-way through making a pair of thrummed mittens for an elderly neighbour. (Somehow I'm always finishing these in spring, and working on them inevitably creates unusually warm weather.)

Chicken soup for the soul.

None of that printed-platitudes nonsense... this is stuff that'll *really* nourish you. (Well, me.)

Cast of characters:

(Extras to be introduced later.)

Rinse, peel, toss together:

(mushrooms will come later), add water to cover, and wait:


I *think* the heavenly scent has already started, but my sinuses aren't cooperating.

Speaking of which, update on the humidity situation:

Last night I got a small towel (ie not a bath sheet) sopping wet, and hung it from my extra shower curtain rod over the centre of the tub that I use for drip-drying certain items. Then I boiled a pot of pasta. After dinner, I rinsed the pasta pot, filled it with clean water, and set it to a low boil until it went down by an inch. (After turning it off, I moved the steaming pot to my bedroom, to get some steam there.)

I can't remember if it was 24% or 28% humidity that I got the levels up to... however, this morning it's back down to 20% (pre-shower). The sopping wet towel is bone dry. I'm off to have my shower now, and will re-wet the towel then (in addition to rain-washing the two houseplants... it will be *quite* cramped in there!)

I had a brief period of clear-breathing last night, about an hour after taking a decongestant. Since then, it's been pretty much all mouth breathing. *sigh* I think spring allergy season is once again upon us. (And it's looking like my NC-allergy-overload-induced resistance is wearing off.) I guess I need to close that last window all the way. :(

Apple Blossoms

Apple Blossoms

Something to cleanse the mind, after that last post.