Seven Random Thoughts

In the spirit of Rawbean and Invisible G., here are some random thoughts I've had over the past couple days.

1. I actually really like Giada De Laurentiis, in fact I just wrote down one of her recipes for Saturday night. But does she ever wear another style of shirt other than empire waist?
2. Check out the new insert I made for my trusty coffee travel mug. Rawbean, this cartoon would look good anywhere.



3. My Stagette was seriously kick ass.
4. I haven't had a Starbucks coffee in about 2 weeks. Did I just say that? Yesterday something really great happened to me, so I went and bought a celebratory coffee. Damn, it was good.
5. Last night I got in the car with Brad and asked him what music he wanted to hear. His reply: "anything but electronica". I looked through my Ipod - hmph. I think I need to diversify....good thing my-all-time-favourite-Tom-Waits is a permanent fixture on my Ipod.
6. My wedding was seriously kick ass.
7. I have a gift certificate for Michael's burning a hole in my pocket. Any suggestions? (Not yarn.)

Thanks Petchy

Last Friday afternoon I was planning on getting some letter-writing in but I got side tracked with a project I stumbled across on this blog.






Oliver (yes, I named my Ipod) finally has a travelling case. The poor little guy got smashed up at the end of the party we had for our wedding. I accidently dropped him on the CONCRETE floor. Awhh!!

Anyway - super easy, and I had these scrap fabric pieces laying around - including the ribbon. My tickle trunk is out. of. control.

I made a trip out to FabricLand today, it's the only fabric store in Victoria. Yikes. I've never been to FabricLand before - it's okay but not nearly as good as Fabricana in Richmond. I think I might be coming into Vancouver to do my fabric shopping - ladies, take note!

Anyway as the sales girl is TOTALLY pressuring me to buy the membership ($20 for a year, I don't think so) and after the 4th time of saying I wasn't interested....I finally threw this line at her:
Listen, I just got laid off.

That shut her up.

Stop PANICKING!!

I'm a huge fan of the Food Network - but the actual cooking shows, not stupid shows like Restaurant Make Over or that annoying bleach blonde guy that goes around visiting American diners every Friday. Ugh.*

So, I can't help it...I have to put together my list of All the Reasons Why I Can't Stand Rachel Ray. (sorry Sassy S)

1. I just don't believe these meals actually take 30 minutes to create! The only thing I give her is that does all her own chopping, but so do Jamie Oliver and Giada De Laurentiis. It's just that Rachel is always so frantic by the end of the show - I feel like I have to get up and pace.
2. EVOO and GB - seriously. This woman has so little time in her show that she feels she can't articulate the words "extra virgin olive oil" and "garbage bowl"? Spare me.
3. Why does she insist on carrying all the shit in one big pile that's about to fall over at any second? God, how annoying. I realize it's "her thing" but it's weak. Just sayin'.
4. I hate to criticize something she has no control over, but her hands are MASSIVE. Every time she handles a wee tender cherry tomato or little garlic clove I shudder to think of what might happen.
5. Every episode - and I mean every episode - she's left with at LEAST three pots and pans. God - who the hell wants to clean up all that crap?! When was the last time you ran more than two burners on your stove?
6. At the end of her show, as she's frantically trying to finish off her meal, she always slops the food down quickly and haphazardly on a plate - I've even seen her drop bits of mashed potato or whatever all over the counter she's so panicked to get it done. But I guess when you're trying to squeeze in a meal that takes more like 45 minutes to make into a 30 minute show.....

My favourite show is Jamie Oliver. On one of his shows - in the time between commercials - he made a great meal** and he was outside. Now I make it all the time - uses one pan, one knife and a cutting board rather than every kitchen utensil, pot and pan you own.

*Now that I'm laid off and bumming around - I know that Rachel Ray and that annoying bleach blonde guy are on between 1:00 a nd 2:00 every weekday. At least they put those two together and get them over with.
**I don't use the lemon juice or make the parsley salad. Plus, if you are cooking for one, just use three eggs, one chorizo sausage link and one potato. Also, make sure your pan doesn't have a plastic handle if you are putting it into the oven.

The Hook

Since I've seen this coming and it's now confirmed (two more weeks!) I've had some time to think about this:

A List of all the Things I'm going to do when I get laid off

1. Blog more and improve my writing/content skills. I'm self conscious about my bad writing/bad content!
2. At least one letter a day to at least one of my few letter-writing nerdy friends.
3. Finish up old, thrown-aside knitting projects. Yes, even that stupid crappy sweater that has the worst pattern ever and I'm going to have to make up most of it. Hmph.
4. Same as above with substitute "sewing" for "knitting".
5. Volunteer - I've already seen two postings in seniors homes that I could TOTALLY do. I love seniors, I have the biggest, deepest squishiest soft spot ever for them.
6. Walk - there is a sea wall literally 200 feet from my building. Dude.
7. Bake. I want to makes pies damnit.
   
8. Cook - I will cook dinner lots of nights for my hubby. If I can keep him out of the kitchen, he likes to cook too.
9. Draw my apartment in Revit. I want to learn things I don't know yet, I wonder if I can teach myself....
10. Put a couple of yoga mat bags on Etsy. I've always wanted to see where this takes me.

In other news, Rawbean was here on Saturday!!



This was our "trial visit" where we iron out details like where we park cars and which ferries are best.

The Torture Chamber (said in a cute high falsetto voice) was super sweet. Who the hell? Why? What? So disturbing, but what was most disturbing was walking from the Torture Chamber (again, said in a cute high falsetto voice) straight into Disney character town. But then again - this detail added to the mentalness of the situation.I'm so glad we went.

We also hit the smallest store ever - Smoking Lilly. The store is literally the size of a large accessible washroom. I'm still thinking about that gorgeous bag.....

Yup, after a dinner of giant pretzels and cocktails we drove out to the ferry terminal with Brad in the backseat mumbling about football (his comments were half-heartedly acknowledged, don't worry), us two in the front frantically trying to get in listens to Rawbean's new music faves....it was a great day.

Today I'm having an INCREDIBLY hard time focusing on work. It's the weirdest feeling KNOWING that your company doesn't want you anymore, but you are locked into this dance and the song is taking forever because of a super long, monotonous guitar solo.

Omicron West - The Victoria Office

So, I thought I'd get this post in before the "Omicron West" office disappears. Awh! Yes, it's sad but true and I feel it coming - the big Lay Off.

This is where I spend my weekdays. I would like to point out a few things about this photo:

1. Do you see the state of my "office chair"? Yes, this is Brad's chair. It's the only thing in the house that I allow and sometimes encourage Ziggy to scratch on. It's surprisingly more comfortable than it looks. But 8 hours a day, 5 days a week? Yeah....
2. That's me sitting in the chair.
3. Two computers - the monitor on the left is for work ONLY. The one on the right is our personal computer which is on whenever I'm working. I would DIE without MSN and Itunes. (Strangely for now: in that order.)
   
4. Tuffy (a great Christmas gift from Rawbean) is always present, and always staring. See if you can find him
5. I actually listen to CBC Radio a lot. You can learn tons of interesting things - everything from current news to local musicians and just hearing interesting ideas and insights. Yesterday they did a story about how to blog and had points about how to improve you blog. I made a list.
6. Working from home is over rated and actually kind of sucks. Refer to my earlier post, I would put one of those fancy links, but I don't know how yet. Where is Brad when I need him?
   

Today during my breaks, I worked on a playlist for Rawbean's visit on Saturday. We both share a huge passion for music, so this is essential. And it's fun driving out to the ferry terminal with your current favourite tunes blasting.

Wax museum here we come! Torture chamber.....and tons of laughs and mentalness I'm sure.

Galiano Island

We decided to go to Galiano Island on the weekend for a "mini honeymoon" since we didn't get to go anywhere after our wedding in August.
Brad found this really rustic cabin - it's actually an original cabin that they've reinforced and updated with power, running water, hot tub - you know - the essentials for survival.



So, we actually got to go on a short hike, which was incredible for me because with the state of my knees I honestly thought I'd never get to see another forest again! And as you can see, we saw some Orange Aliens so it was worth it. (I know none of you know what I'm talking about, but Chris sure does!)



We hiked down to a beach called Pebble Beach, it had some really great tide pools and the entire beach was made up of super cool rocks. So awesome, it was fun exploring and watching Brad skip rocks. Although for some reason I always feel guilty when I pick up a rock and throw it back into the water. Like the rock is saying "...but it took me 100 years to make it this far up the beach!"



Another crazy fact about the cabin we stayed at is that it had the smallest sink I've EVER seen in the bathroom. Check it out, we figure it's a sink off a boat or something.



It was a great little island, everything was closed up for the season - not that there is much going on there anyway. But a great place to get away to. And I'm pretty sure there is a ferry that goes directly to Galiano from Vancouver. We had to island hop on the way there (Mayne and Pender) and on the way back (Mayne).

Still, there's nothing like spending a weekend away, relaxing, playing cards, drinking red wine and sitting in a hot tub.

Bread!

Yesterday, Brad and I decided to try our hands at making bread. I found a great recipe on one of my favourite blogs Bread and Honey (http://bread-and-honey.blogspot.com/) and it was seriously the easiest thing EVER and my bread TOTALLY turned out!



I haven't been so proud and so excited about anything in the kitchen like I was of my first loaf. Seriously - look at how perfect it is!! And it tastes HEAVENLY.



Oooh! As if I'm not making my own bread all the time now! And who needs a breadmaker cluttering up their pantry? Not me!!

Here is a link to the recipe I used: http://bread-and-honey.blogspot.com/2008/10/country-crust-bread-and-love-of-old.html

Try it out, there is nothing more satisfying.