Closure
Today, I finished the two year project of redoing my kitchen cupboards.
Two years.
Now, that's not entirely procrastination. There have been other projects that took priority due to urgency, like the gaping hole in the girls' bathroom wall. There have been restrictive economic conditions. There have been children. There have been motivational issues. There has been every impediment imaginable preventing me from finishing what I started in the first few weeks of us moving in here. That was in February 2000.
I hesitate, too, to say that I'm finished, because I'm not. Not really. They still need handles, and some minor finishing touches, but the doors, which were the largest portion of the job, are finally up.
And it's strange. After two years of not having to open a cupboard door, of being able to look at everything we have at a glance, it's weird to do it now. Pictures soon.
• • •
A few nights ago the fire alarm went off. It's annoyingly loud, and when it goes off, it's generally in the middle of the night, and for no apparent reason. I've been so tired lately; not getting sleep,
for a variety of reasons. It seems, I slept through an entire half hour of the alarm, oblivious. We
actually have one of those red fire station/school bells right in our unit. Didn't hear it.
It didn't worry me, though. I explained to the girls, thoroughly condescending of their ignorance, that the chances of a fire ever affecting our house are so remote that it's not even worth considering. "Concrete block," I said. "These walls are made from concrete block, and poured concrete floors. Don't even think worry about it."
Sheesh.
Did I mention that, earlier today, clothes in my dryer caught on fire?
Powered by Schlager
Have you ever tried Cinnamon Schnapps?
We have something called Goldschlager and I do believe it is perhaps the greastest liquid on earth. I call it the Happymaker. In terms of legal chemical happiness, Goldschlager is your best bang for the buck. If you've never seen it, it has tiny flecks of actual gold floating around in it. It sounds strange but you don't feel them when you drink it. Two shots of it was enough to convince me to go out with Julia's sister Amy, who was meeting friends, even though I swore I was going to get a decent night's sleep for once. Warm belly....nice.
It was a pretty uneventful evening. Lots of dancing; very tired now. Two girls danced up to me near the end of the night, very obviously in that post-last-call desperation to make the evening worthwhile. They were a bit aggressive; one girl ran her hand down my chest and stomach. When I didn't respond, they stalked away, and I overheard one say to the other "
Gay!" Yelling after them "No, no! Not gay, married!" would have been no better, so I let it go, though I had wanted to set the record straight.
In the end, I don't suppose it matters much.
Don't scratch
When I was a kid, I got a scar on my left knee from fallng onto a board with a nail in it. It wasn't much of an event; stitches and scars were a matter of course for me. I haven't thought of it much since then.
Today, for some inexplicable reason, that scar became furiously itchy. I scratched it, but it wouldn't stop. It seemd the more I went at it, the worse it got. I finally had to just ignore it. Eventually, the sensation subsided and it stopped bothering me.
My sister MaryEllen, and her kids came by today to visit. Julia and MaryEllen always get to talking, comparing as they do, her family's upbringing and ours. Remarking on similarities, amazed at the differences, they always seem to surface the incidents that hurt the most. Usually things we had forgotten and are better off for not remembering.
I realized that even though old scars can itch sometimes, they're often better left untouched.
I am the metronome
Jaimeson is sick today. She cried for hours. Julia had the look of someone who had been tried beyond their breaking point. She had that Clockwork Orange glaze without the mindless peacefulness.
We were able to attend our Memorial, though (it's the annual observance of Jesus' death; what Jehovah's Witnesses celebrate rather than Easter). Jaimeson slept, thankfully, for a good portion of it.
When we got home, I tried to put her to sleep. When she cries, I tend to resort to the same tricks I used for Jordan. Some of them work, some of them don't. I used to bounce, in a deep knee-bends sort of way to get Jord to sleep. That's not so easy anymore. Now I just rock back and forth. I caught myself in the mirror, tick tocking, all stiff and straight. It was very unnatural and more than a bit funny looking.
In the end, I chose practicality over narcissism. The girl sleeps.
You know what's great about honey?
It's a natural sweetener. It tastes great. It's good for you. I think it even has antiseptic properties and it can boost your immune system.
You know what's not so great about honey?
It's bee vomit.
I noticed today that Blogger is holding a contest to attend a web usability workshop hosted by
Adaptive Path. One of the founders of Adaptive Path is Jeffrey Veen, a noted usability expert. I know that because he was one of the speakers at RGD Ontario's
designTHINKERS conference in October.
He was an interesting and suprisingly engaging speaker, especially for a bona fide web geek. He commented on the irony in the lack of control that designer's have in the web arena, compared to that of traditional layout. I quote: "Imagine sending a job to print and saying 'Use Verdana, and ...well...if you don't have it just swap in Arial or Helvetica...and at the very least, any sans serif font will do.' " (Okay, technically that's not irony, but you catch my drift.) He predicts a future of full scalability, user-defined interfaces, and robust design control. I, for one, hope he's right.
If you want to get a little more intimate with one of the great gurus of our time, check out his
personal site. Lot's of neat little functionality tricks to make you go "Hey, how'd he do that?" and make you view the source code.
If you visit, you might also notice his wife Leslie's section, a nice little blog, powered by...Blogger, of course.
The web community is getting smaller all the time.
I have a boy who won't eat.
Why is that? He's not anorexic or anything. He would eat candy till he burst. He just doesn't like eating food. Every meal is a struggle with this kid. I find myself spouting weathered cliches about starving children in far-off countries, all of who would quiver at the sheer ecstasy of a bit of rice and chicken. These stories have little or no effect but to distract the boy (long enough that he misses another few mouthfuls) and occupy the father (so that he can't shout "Jordan! Eat!").
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
At long last, two weeks after this blog's day one, we're live. Soon, I'll move the full (or at least what's there) acuo site over here. But for now, I'm happy just that it's working.
Tomorrow, I make mirror stickers. It's part of the teaser campaign leading up to
IOF Foresters brand launch. I'll tell you about it sometime, but not tonight. Definitely not tonight.
What a day. 7:30. Phone rings. 3 guys, pumped for a day on the slopes, are at my door. Am I ready? Think again.
What blows my minds is that we leave at 7:30, but don't get onto the hills until 11:30. How does that happen?
Now I'm completely exhausted, too...I just fell asleep and nearly fell right off my chair. No, I'm not joking. Anyway...how did it go, you ask? Well, I'll let you choose...
When I first strap on the board, the first thing I do is:
a) pose like a real boarder
b) jump and do a full 360º
c) fall down
At the top of the the bunny hill's lift, I:
a) cruise gracefully away toward the descent
b) flash a roguish wink at the blonde lift operator
c) fall down
As I begin to slide uncontrollably down the hill, I:
a) fall down
b) catch an edge and do a faceplant
c) fall, do a faceplant, then continue to cartwheel like a Dutch windmill
Truth be told, by the end of the day I was pretty happy with how far I'd come. I could turn both ways, stop quickly, and safely descend as quickly as the hill would allow, without falling. I was ready to move on to bigger hills, but this new ability did not come without its price. The total cost was: $55 CDN (equipment rental, beginner lesson, lift ticket), $30 CDN (gas), $? CDN (pizza slice, root beer, locker rental, other miscellaneous items), a sprained wrist, a bruised elbow, a sore neck, and a
really bruised backside.
Was it worth it? Absolutely.
Why is it so hard to force myself to go to bed, even when I'm tired? Even when I know that the longer I stay up, the more damage I'm doing to my plans for the next day?
It's ten to one, and I'm going skiing tomorrow morning. The guys wanted to show up at 7; I bargained for 7:30.
Oh, and actually, it's not skiing, I'm going to attempt to uhh... snowboard. At this point, there is little doubt that I am going to suffer.
Wish me luck.
Two cool things:
1.
Chillambience
2.
Friendship Crushes
The first is cool web radio. They play a nice stream of Electronica and Ambient.
The second, at
janeforshort, perfectly describes a phenomenon now known to me as the friendship crush. It's the perfect phrase. What, praytell, is a friendship crush? Well, it is that strange and sudden attraction/affinity/awe/ admiration that you can feel for people you've just become aquainted with. I got one for
Ariel Meadow Stallings from day one of visiting her site. I wrote her, calling it a morbid fascination, when in truth, unbeknownst to me, it was... that's right, a friendship crush. It's platonic, I assure you. Just go read Jane's description. She explains it better than I could.
Alright! Things are looking good. I can actually post now. I had to get a new hosting company to do it (
elephanthost.com) but at least it works. And Sympatico, my old nemesis, can now serve only to house stuff for me. Though, obviously, not too much with their chintzy 5 megs. It should resolve the issue of me not getting half my email, too. Stuff keeps getting returned to the senders, and the things that actually make it, generally lose their attachments.
My dislike for Sympatico continues to grow.
So here I am: alone at home for what is the first time in ages. Julia has gone to her parents with the little ones, the girls are in Florida (spring break) and it is sooo nice. I have a ton of work to do, but I can't bring myself to do it. I'm too into relaxing.
I'm listening to a techno-mixed Sarah McLachlan song, drinking a Miller Genuine Draft. I'm burning freesia incense, eating Jelly Belly beans (indisputably the best jelly beans on the planet) and trying to guess the flavours. So far I've had: pear, egg nog, popcorn, black licorice, chocolate cherry, peanut butter, coconut and something that was, quite possibly, motor oil, though I'm not positive. Admittedly, the MGD is hampering my palate somewhat.
Anyway, I've decided to implement the ragingly popular "blog" style of web-posts (weBLOG), so here it is. I hope you like it.
