Vélo!

I remembered that I really like working on my bike (I am starting to buy some tools!). I remembered, too, how absolutely freeing it is to be able to ride a bike to get around- I can do more things in a day, I'm less exhausted at the end of it, and I can take my time before and after transporting my own self. I'm falling in love all over again. I wheel down the road with a goofy grin on my face, sometimes singing, because: can't anyone else understand how important this little machine is?

That being said, the roads are icy and gritty as hell. I do my best to avoid the rough patches, but to avoid wett-butt I made this nice little fender friend out of old cider bottles and electrical tape. Pack-rat wins again! I'm going to make one to attach to the downtube, to protect my precious shins, and maybe paint it. Mustard or silver?

discounts and dill

I got home from Rouyn-Noranda a new and cuter woman. I made a lifelong pledge to dill, and so when I got around to groceries I figured it was high time I buy some. Spring is coming: the sun is shining, I took my first bike ride yesterday!

Dill is, I think, one of my favourite summertime herbs- a nice break from all of the sage and cinnamon I've been using to warm myself up. Plus, my grandparents' house always smells a little bit like dill and something else. Where this all comes from, though, was the idea of post a lovely little recipe for a simple springtime medley. It's really all about the dill. And cheap produce that you have to eat up, 'cause those collards were already starting to smell.

My favourite grocery store has excellent discounted produce, which means I buy a lot of vegetables, and a lot of vegetables that need to be eaten quickly. I am trying to simplify again, to stress less (including about food) and to take my time. I need constant reminders, but I'll get there. Last night I couldn't sleep until 3am, thinking about all of the things I could do and should do and how to get them done, moving over or moving away. What I need to remember is that things are going to be very, very fine and I know that I have good things to eat.

Discount & Dill Sautée

(for one, so use however much vegetables you wanna)

1 tbsp butter or coconut oil

1/4 onion, sliced

a little handful of yellow beans

a big handful of collard greens, cut up into manageable, eatable pieces

1 huge clove of garlic

about a tbsp of fresh dill, chopped

about a tbsp of sesame seeds

about a tbsp of sunflower seeds

juice of 1/4 lemon

Sautée the onions in the butter until translucent (or crispy brown, but I did that by accident. Translucent is probably better). Add the seeds to the pan and toast them a little bit by pushing the onions off to the side for a minute or two. Add in the garlic, yellow beans, dill, collards, and lemon juice. Turn the heat down low and put a lid on it to cook the beans until crisp-tender and the collards until wilted. Put it on rice! Sprinkle some pepper on it! If you are a dill fiend, like me, add some extra on top of the whole deal.

March Break was great- no fire ants, no MTV-whipped-cream-bikini-human-tacos (vivid memories of our annual family trips of Florida)- but today it's back to work. Back to the real world.

all night long

I've been listening to a Tom Cochrane concert on Radio 2, through that hockey song- Big League- and through his on-stage banter, all too comfortable so that it comes around to uncomfortable again. All of that for this moment:

I'm going north, to Rouyn-Noranda. I've got my semaine de relâche all mixed up- the whole famdamily used to go south every March to this song!

Maybe you had to be there

Kate is making a great zine about all of the games that our friends play. I can't even put into words my appreciation for this idea and also for playing games. I've been thinking a lot about fun and having it lately; I need more games in my life.

So, I made a goofy comic about "The Cousin Game", a roadtrip favourite that works exactly how illustrated (though maybe with less investment in the idea of someone being named Darrylb [we were so convinced that Jordaan was just so wrong when he said No; so fucking sure that Darrylb was, in fact, the name of his cousin]). I took myself out on a breakfast date this Friday and doodled and I had a nice time.

Today was a snow day, also, and my weekend has been five days long. Soon enough I'll be heading way north for March Break! What ever happened to Cuba?

What I done did

I have been getting some things done these days. Want to see?

Faroese Footlets! 'Cause I wanted slippers and I wanted to practice new skills. These are my second time working in fair isle (the first was over a year ago), and I learned to crochet so I could put the edging on them (if it wasn't there, they'd be a terrible fit). These are cute and all, but I lost sight of my desire for, you know, SLIPPERS (like serious, big, cushy ones) when I saw these cute booties. The *persimmon* was a gift from Matt's mom, and the gray was the same type of yarn that I've been holding onto for a while. I'm thinking about sewing some leather to the bottom of these to make them a little more sturdy, but lookit how nice:

Just to rub all over the floor.

And so, once I figured out how to crochet, I made this little friend:

I improvised the whole thing, and I think it looks pretty nice. I even managed a little dimple for the spout!

(That's all. Just showin' off.)

So we are practicing answering machines, pretending to make a voicemail message and pretending to call one and leave a note, after the "biiiip" (as is the Québecois onomatopoeia, following the "dring dring"). One group has Tweety Bird calling Bart Simpson. Another has Miley Cirus just missing Justin Bieber. This is all very simple, until I walk up to the group that had, at first, wanted to make a message for a store called Kama Sutra. I could imagine what that was, though, so I said that I know that you know (you know, about sex and whatever) but you should know to pick something tame; this is school, after all, and I am an adult that has to keep you "in line".

I am walking toward this pair (who also faked subtle orgasms in acting out 30-second-Titanic, with a third person as a very determined and stoic boat) and they are laughing, they say it is 100% correct, they are finished and ready to present! Perfection! I don't trust it. I have to physically take the page from her grabby hands, a momentary tug-of-war that was childish and embarrassing, though I pretend I'm confident through it. "But we will just rire and rire," she says. And I have to say, 'This really isn't appropriate for school." I gave it to the real teacher and only the best parts stick in my mind:

"Hi, this is Adam. I am not home, I am having a sex time. Please leave a message. Bye!"

"Adam! Is Eve! If you want to have a sex time with me you will obligated to shave your dick. Bye!"

Biiiiiiiip

Funday Monday

Today it looked like this outside:

This is what I get in return for the not-making of a path for myself to the door. Or for the mail carrier. They scribbled 'NEIGE' across a letter and after I discerned that that was, in fact, written from the mail carrier and not the friend who wrote the letter (more difficult to decide than you might think), I started to wonder if they'd withhold mail.

Tonight I tried to shovel it away but I could only find the kind with two handles, a big scoop. It must have looked very funny, trying to push away knee-deep snow with no leverage at all. Chalk it up to my being Ontarian, or something. I hand't minded trudging to my door until it burst open this morning when I undid the lock. And hard a very hard time closing it again.

Instead of shovelling and going to my contact lens appointment, I did these things instead:

Violets for a February birthday.

Hot Toddy! That was noon, so?

And, snowy Monday soup lunch- fennel, cabbage, turnip, apples, and quinoa.

I did responsible things, also, and other craft things. I managed to get much done which was much needed, though I still manage to feel lazy.

(I think it's 'cause my butt goes numb.)

pop quiz

It's Thursday night. You're exhausted, dinner was a chore, and the house is a mess. You have a full day of classes tomorrow and it's 10:15. You just got off the phone with your best friend, but before that you might have been a bit of a grump. What do you do?

a) Go to bed.

b) Make some tea.

c) Make scones.

d) Go to bed.

The answer is...

C!

Make some scones!

Eat 'em for breakfast (with cinnamon-sprinkled steamed buttnutt and a wedge of flax/buckwheat bread- that one's very unremarkable)! I enjoy big breakfasts. I like to eat slowly and enjoy the time it takes before taking on the day. These little rituals are so important to me.

Scones, though. I'd never made scones before and I'd been wanting to and these are so delicious- hardly sweet until you run across a little nibble of a date. Perfect. The recipe's from jae steele (Domestic Affair). I didn't have enough spelt flour so I substituted about 1/2 C. rye flour, and didn't have pecans so I added in almonds. Oh, and used about 1/2 coconut oil and 1/2 butter.

I spent yesterday morning at my friend Anne-Marie's, while she had already gone to work, reading jae steele's Ripe From Around Here and pretending I lived there, listening to Cat Stevens and enjoying her real cat, Canelle, and the look of the snow- it was falling something fierce! This, only to be followed up by boozy coffee and scrambled tofu chez Julia and Simon! To be followed up by meeting with a new friend from Trois Rivieres, the surprising success that came from this work training session which otherwise felt like frosh week. We walked through Carnaval. It's mostly lacklustre, but now I know. Next year I'll stick to the free pancakes and coffee and that'll be that. Thanks, Bonhomme.

(I used my $9 3-D effigy to get in here, to the Ice Castle. It was hardly astounding.)

What all of this comes down to, apart from my Carnaval Encounters, is that I am knowing some damn fine people lately. And also, I love scones.

I have a lot of work to do, though. You'll see!

messy apartment

Craft heaven or craft hell?

On the table (literally): Faroese footlets (one done, one 1/3 done), chunky tea cozy (with yarn I recycled from a goofy sweatervest), and a crocheted French press cozy (I finally learned to crochet and it is so great!). That big pile of mustard is a wool sweater waiting to be reclaimed- I was getting impatient with the inaccessibility of Quebec's yarn shop. I need to start working on an embroidery, too. Maybe tomorrow.

I can't believe I stopped myself from crocheting for so long, always assuming I could never get my hand to move the right way, the fluidity of it. I know two great crocheters who recently got real into knitting (and are kicking serious butt at it). These little actions can be really inspiring.

This week I had a four day weekend and I'm finally starting to feel the tinglings of inspiration running around my heart and my head. How am I ever going to deal with working full-time? How can I check my privilege when I ask that question?

SUPERBOWL XVILX000

& I know that webcams are a drag but I had a good weekend, OK? We had a SuperBowl party!

I was wearing green so, naturally, I was the GreenDay Packers. I learned that women who like football wear bras made out of cheese. My cheeseplates said, "LET'S GO CHEESEHEADS." They just kind of looked like pizzas. My Cheesehead just looked like SpongBob and also a little like Bart Simpson, nearly naked.

Matt was the Steelers. He was Gort as a Steeler, really. Or the Steelers in the Future. He was a genius and he wore a chestplate that said, "WHY HAVE A CHEESEBURGER WHEN YOU COULD HAVE A PITTSBURGER?"

Are you kidding me?

That's incredible.

So we made our oufits and also chili (and we cooked the beans this way, which was great) (and we used home-canned tomatoes from September!) and drank some of my newer cider batch. We played paper football to 20 points. I lost.

I still love SuperBowl, though.

Who won?

I couldn't figure out how to make GarageBand work in the amount of time it takes me to stay inspired to do any one thing and so I recorded it this way to send to Paul Hay, who wrote the words, earlier today. And then I just recorded it again right now but it is basically the same because I don't even want to think about what it might take for GarageBand to start working and here you can catch a glimpse of my hairs and my goofy sing song self and my s0-so-slow-growing kale. Come on, kale. I know you can do it.

Paul sent me this magical and unassuming book of poetry close to the same day I wrote a little ditty. I couldn't find my words and he has such good ones! It's called Instruments,

Bananagrams

I thought I had one exceptional round of Bananagrams.

Then came this gem of a food theme! (The only misfortune lies in "HI," but I was too invested in the others to find a better word. And don't you say "Hi," when you sit to eat?)

They all call me "MISSES"

"MISSES, WHAT DOES DICK MEAN?"

All I could think to do was say, "Dick means penis, Alexandre."

He turned red and said, "I thank you."

(All this because one had scrolled "DICK WASH" across an entire week in her agenda.)

tonight tonight

I want to look less academic and so tonight I am wearing my Arnold Schwarzenegger T-shirt. Tonight I am playing a show and I feel awful.

booty booty booty bootie

Dee got 'em so I can post 'em!

Webcams are crumby but these are cuties, I think, and they were real fun to knit. Happy Warm Feet, my love.

Sweets & Savouries All in a Tizzies

Saturday morning was one of severe indecision. Nothing/everything appealing, something unsettled. I slip into these spaces sometimes where the tiny decisions are really hard to make and the big ones are impossible to even think about. Even breakfast.

I've been wanting to cook and eat more simply lately, but I often have a hard time stopping myself from adding 'just one more thing'. I told myself to buck up and just do something, finally. To pick and to do. I settled on savoury oats after having wanted to try them earlier in the week. I've also been meaning to eat less sweets.

But then I also remembered this delicious sauce that my sweet heart friends make at breakfast when I stay at their house some weekends. And so I went there so swiftly from nothing to two things and rather than racking my brain trying to sway one way or the other I enjoyed a simple and adventurous Saturday breakfast.

Steel-Cut "Egg Sandwich" Oats

-1/4 C. steel cut oats

-~1 C. water (you might need to add more, so keep an eye out)

~1 tbsp butter

Pinch of salt 'n' pepper

>Mix this all together in a small pot. Cook the steel-cuts, uncovered, on med-low. Stir often so they don't burn. They'll take about 15 or 20 minutes.

In the meantime:

-dice 1/2 a tomato

-cut up a little bunch of kale (I'd say 1-or-2-or-so leaves)

When the oats are nearly done: mix in the tomatoes and the greens. Make a small well in the middle of the oats. Break an egg in there. I like to break the yolk, too, because I don't like it runny, even a little bit. Put a lid on the oats and turn the burner down a bit to cook the egg. When the egg was mostly cooked I mixed it all up, let it sit for another minute to make sure all the yolky bits were solid, and then scooped it into a bowl. I topped it with a generous sprinkling of nutritional yeast, also.

Sweet Breakfast Buttnut Sauce (as inspired by my friend Julia as inspired by Jae Steele's "Ripe").

Mix together:

1 tbsp flax oil

1 tbsp molasses

2 tbsp tahini

1 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of sea salt

Cut some butternut squash into thin wedges, steam them until soft, and then top them with this sauce. You won't regret it. (It's also really good with sweet potatoes, apples, grapefruits, celery... Mostly anything).

I have been plugging away at the enourmous New York Times Christmas Crossword, which was a gift from Matt from the Syracuse newspaper. Unfortunately, the more I work on it the more spaces get obscured by food slop. I like to have something to do while I eat sometimes, and besides, I ain't got anyone across from me to impress with my table manners.

le fait et le fait et le fait bien

	Sky	Temp (°C)	Dewpoint	Feels Like	Wind (km/h)	Relative Humidity (%)	Pressure (kPa)	Visibility (km)	Ceiling (ft)
THU 12:00		-3	-9	-8	NW 15	63	101.67	48	4000
THU 11:00		-3	-9	-9	NW 17	63	101.70	48	3800
THU 10:00		-4	-9	-10	NW 19	68	101.68	48	3700
THU 09:00		-4	-10	-11	N 22	63	101.63	48	3700
THU 08:00		-5	-9	-11	NW 17	73	101.53	48	3700

The point is that today I got my butt out of bed and put on my techiest clothes and my cross-country socks to walk/sort-of-jog in "felt like" -11 degrees and to me, right now, this is something for me to be proud of.

Just Me & the Mr. (Mug) & Cookies

Surprise ELO Afternoon Off! I came home and I stretched and I ate some ofthese cookies that I made last night and drank some coffee and it was so good.

Seedy & Spicy Jumble Buddies! (Heavily adapted from Lynn's Mom's American Vegeterian Cookbook's Banana Date Oatmeal Jumbles)

2 big bananas, mashed

1 1/2 C. rolled oats

1/2 C. mixed seeds (I threw in sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin)

1/4 C. ground sesame seeds (I don't know how important this is, but I put them in because I'd tried to make tahini and I failed)

1/4 C. canola oil

dash of salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp vanilla, lots of cinnamon, dash nutmeg

2 tsp minced ginger

8 dates, chopped

1 tbsp honey

Mix it all together and let it all mingle for 15 minutes while the oven preheats to 350 degrees. I scooped them out by the tablespoon and flattened them with a fork to make them a little more crunchy. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden around the edges.

2011, I'm going to kick your butt. My first loaf of bread was a total disaster but I'm going to make up for that one, OK?