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.)