OH MY GOSH.

My life has been an utter whirlwind since I got back to Canada. I started working just a couple days after I got back, and between that, trying to visit with everyone I haven’t seen for years, and having a frustratingly spotty internet connection, I’ve hardly had time to update!

I am so in love with this song–the first one on the video, “something on your mind”

Now I’m living this strange Corner Gas existence–really and truly, some days I feel like I am stuck in that sitcom. It’s been so pleasant to be out of the city, to see the stars at night and to have space for Buzz to run around. It’s not been so pleasant to be stuck in a small town for weeks at a time, though. My mom has been scheduling Greg and I back-to-back so even if one of us isn’t working, the other is. We haven’t been out of town for a couple weeks and it’s so lame. But this weekend is our twenty fifth birthday celebration (mine on Friday, his on Monday) so we’re getting the F out of dodge. We’re headed to Calgary, staying at the swankster Palliser, shopping and looking for a place to live. I can’t wait to get into our own place, as much as I love seeing my mom & other family so often.

It took a few weeks, but finally I feel a little tug on my heart, San Diego pulling me from far away. I always knew I’d be leaving. I moved there knowing it would be temporary (though it lasted two and a half years) and it was very easy to leave. I’d be lying, though, if I said I didn’t miss the sun and the beach and the burritos and the few people I grew to love. Someday I’ll be back in California (it’s in my blood and my heart now) but for now I’m content to be in Canada.

Big fucking surprise: deet is a neurotoxin . Guess I’ll be throwing out that can of super-strength deet jungle juice that I found in the back of the bathroom cabinet yesterday!!

Just add another product to the list of things corporations have sold us that turn out to kill us slowly. Our love of plastics and chemicals is going to be the death of us. No wonder we have a cancer epidemic.

Oh! I think this blog needs a bit more cat-and-dog.

an epic cuddle party

Buzz catching some rays on Fiesta Island last weekend.

Stealing Buzz’s bed to host a cat-themed cuddle party on it.

Pepin’s tentative overtures of friendship. Buzz is trying really hard not to be scared of him.

Oh, scaredy-cat Henry hiding in a towel fort.

I have to get all this stuff done. Memo to myself: stop being so lazy & flopping around everywhere!!

- do the laundry!
- do the dishes!
- Take Buzz for his vaccinations
- make a mini felt turtle
- fashion show @ 6pm!
+ packing & cleaning

AHHHHHHHH

Yesterday was another lovely day. I did a 9 am photoshoot at the ocean (photos to follow), and I think it went really well. I had so much fun doing the shoot and spending a few hours in such a beautiful place lifted my mood. I relaxed with the cats and read in the afternoon, and with my evening I packed a bunch more stuff, baked a couple loaves of bread, and got pad thai takeout for supper.

Today I got up late but I’ve already done a bit of moving-work. All this planning ahead is new for me. I’m usually a procrastination queen so I end up trying to squeeze all the packing/cleaning into the last three or four days before the move. If you have ever done that, you know that it sucks and it’s too stressful and by the end of it you want to kill someone. My move is already going to be stressful, since we are driving 2000 miles over 3 days with our pets and Greg’s parents, and we have to cross a border involving visas and Very Important Paperwork. All of G’s travel documents arrived on Friday, so that is another hurdle passed.

Oh, some cool science news: did you know toucans’ beaks are thermoregulation machines? HELL YES THEY ARE.

Double-cool science news of the day? Humans emit a weak visible light . I love the thought of everything surrounded by a tiny soft glow.

I am not so into packing, but I love finding little bits and pieces of things I forgot about. For example, this drunk-diary note I wrote in 2005! My friend Courtney and I used to write drunk diaries all the time. We had some hilarity the night we wrote this.

The note is as follows. For reference, we were all at my mom’s, she & my step dad Bern were asleep while all this was going on. Devin is my brother, Josh was my then-boyfriend, and Cirdt is drunkspeak for Courtney.

“
06 July 145 am
Drunk diary v. 4875b
Cirdt is passing out on the couch. Some would call that “party pooping”. We are eating hoagies with glue cheese. Le fromage colle-ecole. Jawsh is drinking teh pilsner. Devin wants us to start a bonfire but we are lazy. Also under fear of Bern’s wrath. PILSENER PILSENER. I think Cirdt’s gonna barf.

I CALLED IT. She’s barfing. She said not to expect her participation in this diary but I think she’s participating all right. At least there’s no tub for her to puke in.

Ok Cirdt tried to puke but was unsuccessful. Devin is here. Him & Josh are pals. Mam just woke up & went back to bed

[drawing of: skull and crossbones, hunched over figure labelled 'Cirdt who is falling asleep']

Jawsh just licked my face. Ew

Cirdt’s sleeping over. In the morning Jawsh is gonna make us french toast.

Cirdt says: I feel wibbly and the room is all spinny.

now she is pondering her drunkenness & going to barf some.

Devin & Jawsh are being man pals in the pack yard.

[Courtney's writing] I threw up. iit was madly stressful.

fantastic!
[back to me]

[drawing of the devil horns]
ROCK
p.s. mum is mad.
“

Cirdt didn’t end up sleeping over. She walked back to her parents’ house at 3 am. I don’t remember if we had french toast in the morning, but I remember the glue-cheese hoagies–whenever I drank I would buy a pizza sub from the nearest convenience store, usually the brand of sub with the Hagar-style viking on the label. So nasty, but soooooo satisfying.

Very classy. This is a prime example of how whenever I get drunk I think I’m so hilarious. sigh….

This is the first box I packed. My move has begun! Today was pretty much the most perfect summer day I could ask for and so I don’t even feel melancholy about packing. Usually it makes me all moony and remembrancey but today it felt fine. I have empty shelves and the more I pack, the more the boxes will be infringing on our tiny bit of floor space! I am so not looking forward to that part of.

I am really looking forward to finding all my “lost” stuff. I really just have a tiny apartment crammed with things, so in the nooks and crannies above eye level I found two things I had misplaced. Besides that, when I find Pepin’s stash of stolen items I will reunite a few pairs of plugs and that will be very nice.

This is serious comfort food for me. My mom made these a lot when I was growing up. Yes, corn syrup is so bad for you but I love the way these taste, so I’ll keep making them my mom’s way.

puffed wheat squares
1/4 c butter or margarine
3/4 c corn syrup (has to be corn)
1/2 c brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
8 c puffed wheat

Combine butter, syrup, sugar & cocoa in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil for 1 min, stirring often. Add puffed wheat and mix until all wheat is covered. Put into a greased 8×8 pan & press down evenly. Let cool before cutting.

I just knocked out a batch of this stuff in about fifteen minutes, start to finish. Quick desserts are the best! I whipped it together while I was waiting for the pizza dough to proof. I’m rarely coordinated to get dessert done before supper is even half-made, so I kind of feel like a kitchen superstar right now.

I love making things from scratch. Two days ago I made jam (again) and this time I took photos to share! Generally it’s easier to just buy things than make them (duh) but it’s so difficult to find jams and jellies that a) don’t have high-fructose corn syrup and b) aren’t exorbitantly expensive.

When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandma. She lives on the farm beside my dad’s, so my brother and I would go to her house after school, during the day in summer, and any other time we needed babysitting. My grandma is an old-school farm lady, so spending time with her meant doing farm stuff. We’d collect eggs, feed the cats and work in the garden. In the spring she’d let me help her plant seeds, and in the summer I’d pick (and stuff myself with) strawberries, rasperries and peas. I’d help her pull up carrots and potatoes. She made pots and pots of jam from the berries in her garden, the saskatoons at the end of the lane, from the neighbour’s rhubarb, and I’d eat gobs of her jam smeared on fresh-baked bread. Sometimes simple things are the most satisfying.

Homemade jam is obviously close to my heart. My second attempt was better than my first, because I followed my grandma’s advice and added sugar by taste.

simple strawberry jam
1lb strawberries
1-2 c sugar
1/8 c lemon juice

Hull and slice the strawberries.

Put small amounts at a time in a bowl, and crush them. When they are smashed up, it releases their natural pectin, which helps the jam jell. Crush them up more than this though, because my jam turned out a bit runny.

Combine the crushed strawberries, 1/2 c sugar and the lemon juice in a pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Stir often and add sugar until desired taste is reached. Boil until the mixture reaches 220F/105C.

Pour into hot, sterile jars. Scoop out any foam on the top. Leave 1/4-1/2 inch head space and cap. If you plan to eat it soon, you don’t need to process it in a hot water bath.

Today I stumbled across an incredibly talented crafter, joojoo! I am a sucker for tiny, cute things, so of course I fell for these:

Her stuff is insanely adorable! I hope that one day my own work can reach such ultimate sugary levels.