A Sunday out

After all the baby goodness early in the weekend we took a grown up day (lol) and went to go see the auto show downtown. (Not before blasting through some work earlier in the morning...phew!) We have a tradition of having lunch at a teenie hole-in-the-wall mongolian bbq restaurant on Denman before we set foot in auto show (must be well fueled!). This time was no different, and we scored an awesome parking spot behind the restaurant to boot (sun + Stanley Park + weekend = no parking anywhere). I know a few people who read this blog that will drool over this photo:(ps - it was just as good as it looked!)
We went to the auto show after that at BC Place and hiked through the crowds to sniff some cars. Trevor took some time to drool over the BMW booth (actually, we stopped by there TWICE). This is as close as he'll get to a 7 series BMW. Ah, he can dream!

We met the new little lady last night!

She's ADORABLE! Chubby little cheeks, froggy little legs and loads of hair (and quiet like a mouse too...). :) We snuck in after visiting hours and got to hang out far past the 15 minutes we were told by the nurse. Mom and dad looked great...and I must say, mom in particular looked FAB. There's no way I would have guessed that she had given birth 12 hours before. Wow.

(And I am still in disbelief that it's A GIRL!!!! Woot!)

There's a new girl in town!

Big congrats to Mike and Cynthia on the arrival of their little Daisy. :)
(And guess who TOTALLY won the baby pool...ME!!!!)

Being crafty

I would love to be crafty enough to make something like that. How cool looking is that little dude? I have a feeling all the stuff I would make would look like crap and just clutter the house. But maybe one day...

Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

Foux De Fa Fa by Flight of the Conchords

oooon hoo hoooooh, bagette!

You know the world is coming to an end when...

...chicken fried bacon exists (complete with gravy). My arteries are hardening.

Is this what I've come to?

As overheard on a phone conversation with someone who doesn't know I have a blog:

"I think blogs are for people who are very lonely and have nothing else to do."

Guess who will never be invited to see my blog? hahaha!

Foodie obsession

Some of you may know that the two of us aren't into wine. We've both tried it, and tried to figure out the hype, but no luck. What we have discovered though, is our LOVE of balsamic vinegars and good olive oils. Others might plonk down $30-40 for a nice bottle of wine, well we'll do that for a balsamic vinegar. And just like wine, you get what you pay for. Recently we splurged on a new balsamic (and an olive oil) from Whole Foods (which has a really good selection) that are sooooo good.

The balsamic is a Gocce Italiane, aged 6 years (not aged that long, but a 10 year aged one wasn't in the budget!), and the olive oil is a B.R. Cohn extra virgin olive oil from California. (The other balsamic in the shot is O Balsamic, aged 10 years, but lower quality than the Gocce.) The Gocce is amazing, acidic and sweet -- almost a hint syrupy. You can tell that this balsamic was given some love over those six years! And the B.R. Cohn is buttery and smooth....mmmm-mmmm!

We can't wait to sample even more when we head to Italy in the fall, I hope FedEx can handle shipping barrels back!

Could it be possible to make a living as a prop stylist?

I don't know, but here are two who put up some good arguments (and photographs like the above to drool over!):

http://www.amortola.com

http://www.jengotch.com/

Happy Holi

I think that this may be the best festival/holiday that I've ever heard of but don't get to celebrate (it started March 22 and ends today). It's called Holi, and is is the festival that carries India and its people into the bright days of summer. (yes, I cut and pasted that part in...I can't describe it better than that)

But the best part is what they do on Holi. Coloured powder (Gulal) is bought and prepared, long syringes called 'pichkaris' are made ready and water balloons are bought and filled. Preparations are made to cook the special food items that are exclusively meant for this festival.

Children, friends and neighbours gather on the streets and a riot of colour takes over. Coloured powders called 'abeer' or 'gulal' are thrown into the air and smeared on faces and bodies. 'Pichkaris' are filled with coloured water and this is spurted onto people. Water balloons are thrown at friends and neighbours in the spirit of fun. Sometimes, mud baths are prepared and people are 'dunked' into this amidst much laughter and teasing. The visitors carry 'abeer' or 'gulal' to pay their respects to elders by sprinkling some on their feet. The younger crowd is drenched with buckets of coloured water and pummeled with water balloons. 'Dholaks' or Indian drums are heard everywhere and the songs of Holi are carried by the voices of these merry-makers. (More cutting and pasting...hey, I'm no expert on this!)
Women with gulal on them.
I'm sitting here jealous that I don't live in India for the first time in my life. How much fun does that sound? How amazing would all those colours flying all over the place look? I suppose I'll just have to sit here and look at pictures. *sigh*

If you're a keener like I am, read a bit more about it here.

Ferry conversations

While we were in the line up for the ferry over the weekend, Trevor and I had some entertaining conversations. Whenever we go on a road trip (or just a longer car trip) we seem to come up with the strangest ideas. And this time was no different.

On the way over to the island we discussed the brilliant idea of the ferries being subsidized by gambling...on board! Most likely slot machines rather than table games, for sure.
Me: *pulling imaginary slot machine arm* 'ooooohhh Queen of Nanaimo......Queen of Nanaimo......awwwww....Queen of Saanich'
Trevor: *his turn pulling* 'ohhhhhhh....sunshine breakfast.....sunshine breakfast.....white spot burger'

And on the way back, after spotting a 7-11 with an advertisement of cheese smokies stating that they were 'cheesetastic!', we thought about other descriptors that could be added to words to make them more...super.

Here are the descriptors that we came up with:
- '-normous'
- '-tastic'
- '-licious'
- '-rrific'

Example: 'I had a cheesenormous paninitastic sandwichrrific lunchalicious.'

Phew.

The littlest Milne

Here's the little cutie!

Merry Easter!

Tomorrow we get to hop on the ferry over to Victoria (fingers crossed we're not waiting forever either!) to go see the fam...and the NEW EDITION to the fam! We're very excited about that. He might not be home from the hospital yet, but at least we get to see him and say hi. Plus he gets to finally see and or use all the treats we have for him!
Say a who what where?

Have a merry easter! :)

Evolution of a logo - part 2

After doing some sketches, I move on to the computer and start to recreate some of the things I've come up with on paper. This point is always a little tricky (and sometimes makes me go out of my mind, because I always question what the heck I'm going to do, and if I can do it). The computer can help, but can be frustrating. It can either show you options you haven't thought of, or it can show you that you need to go back and do more sketches. Most of the time I do a little bit of back and forth just to get all the options I'm thinking about out of my head.

I have a good-size library in my office of books, magazines, samples and odds and ends that I'll rustle into as well. I'll also look online a bit at anything from stock photos, paintings, drawings...you name it.

This time around I was really inspired by a font. In most cases I'll go through 10-50 fonts for the logo wording, but I knew what I wanted to see for this logo. Something simple, rounded, sans serif and a little different. Enter Estillo! (That's the font name for those of you who don't know.) It's a lot of fun to play around with and has a lot of interesting little glyphs that I can sub out certain letters for.

I tend not to work in colour at this stage either. It complicates things and can take away from the form of the logo, not letting you see what you're really doing. Plus, if it works in greyscale, well it can only get better in colour.

I can be at this point for a 4-12 hours or so (spread over a few days to a week), but sometimes it's quicker than that.

DIY Croutons

I've made my own croutons before, but here's the recipe I used last night:

Stale loaf of bread
Extra virgin olive oil (enough to lightly coat all the pieces)
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
Rosemary (with leaves chopped or torn by hand)
Pinch or two of garlic powder

Mix in a bowl until evenly coated. Pop in an oven on low heat (I had mine at 250F) for an hour or so*.

(*Don't do what I did and go to bed, almost fall asleep and then realize that the oven is still on with the croutons in them. But at that low heat, they didn't burn -- even though they were in for almost 3 hours!!! LOL!)

Sushi Fun

I saw these and had to post them!

I think I might be onto a bit of a food theme here

After two YouTube posts of crappy food, and food that doesn't play nice, I figured I should do a post! I made a chicken pot pie from scratch last night (overshot the time it was going to be ready by about an hour and a half...oh well), and I went grocery store today, so I guess there's food on the brain happening. I did have problems in the store though. Now that I'm becoming more aware of all the things that have bad preservatives and crappy ingredients in things, I can't just pick up things that I normally would.

For example: caesar salad dressing.
The issue? Frozen yolk in the ingredients. Frozen yolk from farmed chickens. So that was out, and now I have to find a good home made dressing (which I don't mind).

The next example: oatmeal bars.
The issue? An ingredient list a MILE long. On one of the peanut butter 'high fibre' bars (new at the store), it didn't even contain PEANUT BUTTER. It was made from 'peanut butter flavored chips'. Come on now people, when they can't even use REAL peanut butter in something there's a problem.

And the last example: Special K 'Satisfaction' cereal.
The issue? Call me crazy, but they advertised it right on the front of the box: Contains sugar, soy protein and sucralose (Splenda) to keep you fuller, longer. WTF? Why, if they have sugar in it already, do they need to add sucralose? I rolled my eyes and wandered to the Life cereal instead.

I don't want to become one of these people who pickets outside KFC or wears hippie clothes, I just want to be aware of what these manufacturing companies put in their food. Talk about opening up a can of worms.

Food Fight

I like the potstickers!

Super Size Me - Fastfood Test

Just for Jon

Every client should own one of these

Around the office this morning

Sometimes it's strange the way I see things. Amongst all the clutter and disarray in my little office I can see little vignettes of items that keep me company all day long.

Things to grow

I went to Home Depot yesterday (surprise, surprise) and picked up some seeds to start indoors. We're trying out some veggies from scratch this year (last year we bought ones that were started at a nursery). We tried some broccoli, tomatoes and some zucchini last year; the tomatoes worked well, the broccoli and zucchini did not. I am hell-bent on getting the zucchini to work this time (I'm tired of hearing that they grow so fast and so easily), so I'm putting it in the garden instead of a container and hoping for more luck with that. I'm also going gung-ho and trying out some pumpkins and watermelons in the garden (along the edge, we'll see how that plan goes). The rest are going in the containers.

As seen in the garden

Evolution of a logo

Just for those of you who appreciate the creative process! I'm working on a logo for the new and up-and-coming Lunar Logic (a fab .NET developer/programmer/computer whiz company). When I get a logo/branding project, I always start out with some sketches...
And then move on to the computer design of ones that work. (Coming soon!)

Van study

Taken while on our trip to 9 Home Depots last weekend.
Here a van...
There a van...
Everywhere a van van...

While peppermint oil cooks my brain...

(I have a headache, going both barrels of medical - Advil, and theraputic - the oil, bare with me, the tingling coolness is good!) Class was good today, it was pretty packed in which makes me happy that I arrive there with about 20 minutes to spare to grab my nice cozy spot in the back corner. I've done classes up front and it's no biggie, but I really like the wall space to dump my stuff, and there's no 'flailers' beside me then.

Today was a different day at class though...the rarely spotted MAN in the class was there. It was like seeing an extinct animal walk in, I had to double check that it wasn't just a manly-woman coming through the door. But no, it really was A MAN. I knew he hadn't been to this class before because he didn't now how to look at the instructor's stash to see what items we would need that day. So he dragged out every item in the storage room he thought he would need (which was kind of cute to watch), when all he needed was a mat and some weights.

There were some newbies that didn't fess up about it (the instructor asks if she sees new people). I don't understand why people pretend; I'm the first on to put up my hand to say that I don't know a thing so HELP ME. Maybe they're scared the instructor will chew their heads off, but she's not like that (believe me, I've had one).

And I've also got a buddy there now too, which is nice! It's a girl around my age, so we complain together that we think we're going to die. LOL! It's always good to have a partner that feels the way you do. And someone you can make faces at in class like 'I-really-think-I'm-going-to-die-now'.

Other than that fine action, we (yes me AND Trevor!) are looking into some classes TOGETHER. Amazing, I know. Actually, I will give Trevor some props, he has tried some things with me (an aerobics class...that I still laugh about), so don't think that he never tries. He tries once, getting the second and third try on deck is much harder because he now knows what he's in for. Anywhoo, he's been told to reduce stress from work by getting some more physical activity, but because of his whole itchy-alergic-to-his-own-sweat deal (and no, I'm totally serious, it's an actual condition, even though it sounds like a really funny excuse), he only rides a bike (really fast and really far), he needs something else to do when he can't ride a bike.

Enter...water running! This way, there's no itchy-ness in the water, and it's something we can do together. ooooo togetherrrrr. LOL It starts April 1st, and I still have to sign us up for it. I wonder how interesting that will be...

A new class

So yesterday I went to a new class at the rec centre called 'ABT' (abs, butt, thighs...*rolling eyes* I think that name sucks, but whatever -- sounds like a sandwich). The instructor from the Thursday class teaches it, and she cornered me last Thursday (okay, I was last out of the class so she started talking to me) and told me that she wants to see me at her Tuesday ABT class. Being an equal-opportunity sort of person (and being scared of her and her threats, LOL, no, kidding) I went and checked it out. WELL, let me tell you, I thought the 'A' of 'ABT' might have referred to me laughing more than anything. There were some interesting people there that I don't see on Thursdays (and some I do) that had me hiding my face in my arm to try not to laugh.

You see, there are different types of people who come to these classes.
Here are the ones that showed up yesterday:

- The uncoordinated person. I kid you not, this one woman did EVERYTHING exactly opposite to how everyone else was doing it. We go left, she would go right. Our arms would be up, hers would be down.

- The sweatbands-are-still-cool person. (Also should be jheri curls are still cool too...) She wore a headband. I could not believe it.

- The over-exert-er. This was the worst one for me to see out the corner of my eye and not laugh. I know there are people who do the more difficult or more strenuous moves, but this woman was taking it to a new level. Big arm swings, curving her spine in, thrusting, leg flailing. Oh, and she dropped a heavy bar on the floor once too.

For the most part, everybody there flies under the radar and just goes with the flow. It's not a place or class that people look you up and down with sniffs of dissatisfaction. We all know we're there to jump around, sweat and look ugly. (LOL!) I just like to point out the local colour.

Looks what's coming in the mail soon!

Jamie Oliver's new book! Hurrah! It's a must have on my kitchen bookshelf because in this one he's got tips on growing your own veggies and recipes. Good timing number one, because it's almost spring, and number two, because we've recently decided to steer away from the mega-processed meats, especially those animals who are treated very poorly with horrible living conditions (mass market meat). We visited a butcher in town (Heritage Meats) that only carry organic, non-medicated, free run animals that have had good lives. Plus they prepare everything there, which is even better!

We cooked up some steaks last night from there and they were FAB. Amazing flavour, texture and quality. Add in some corn on the cob and some baked organic russet potatoes (which were insanely good...they had a hint of sweetness, which is something I don't equate with a potato).

Too add to all of that, we're going to have a few more vegetarian meals (going to try out some Yves Veggie products), to offset the cost of the better quality meats. It's a good balance, and who needs to eat meat at every meal anyways?

Now to start preparing the veggie garden for the spring. Time to find some seeds!

Poor Dan

This is what he's looking at today. (silent laugh)

Kermit's back

There's a little frog that likes to hang out around the side of our house (it's nice and wet around there), and I hadn't heard any croaking most of the winter...until today! Looks like he (or she!) is back for a little croaky singing this afternoon. Makes me feel like my office is in the bayoooooouuuuu. LOL

How to spend your day going to 9 Home Depots

Saturday was busy. We planned on starting the bathroom tiling and had a curve ball thrown at us by the ever so helpful people at Home Depot. You see, the last time we were there, we picked up the tile that we wanted to use, but only two and a half boxes. We checked with the flooring desk to make sure there were more in stock or coming to the store, and the woman scanned the SKU in and said 'oh yes, these are standard tiles, I have a delivery coming next week with more'. So that's why we were a little puzzled on Saturday when we went there and the DOUCHEBAG working the tile section treated me like a retard when I asked him about the tile. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: 'I'm looking for this tile, it's from Daltile. I was told there was a delivery coming this week with more stock.'

DOUCHBAG: 'Huh, oh yeah, we have lots of those in stock.'

Me; (surprised) 'Oh! Okay, well, this is a Daltile and we only saw tile there made by another company'

DB: (walking to the section) 'Okay, here it is.' (picking up the other company's tile)

Me: 'That's not a Daltile tile, that's by another company. I'm trying to match this one because it's an off-white colour'

DB: 'Huh, well they both have the same SKU now, so that's it.'

Me: (looking at two COMPLETELY different SKUs) 'But I'm trying to match this one...'

DB: 'Well then I guess it's discontinued' (walking away in true douchebaggery style)

Me: (to Trevor) '#$*&#@(*#&)@(#*!!!! DOUCHE!!! You can do it, we can help my ass! It's more like You can do it, we might help!'

I'm still gritting my teeth about that loser. Arrrrrrggghhh. So it was off to the Abbotsford Home Depot to see if there was any tile at that store (not quite believing the DB at the Langley store). No tile to be found in Abbotsford. So off to the Coquitlam store. No tile there. Then to the Port Coquitlam store, where we saw a box and a half on the discontinued shelf, so we instantly got out hot little hands on them. On to the Burnaby store where we found another 69 tiles. Then to the Vancouver store, no tiles there. And then to the Richmond store. No tiles there. On to the first Surrey store, no tiles. And finally, the last Surrey store, where we came up with nothing as well. So, without heading to the West Van store (which is a bit of a prissy store if you ask me) and the Squamish store, we have officially purged the lower mainland of all Daltile bone subway tiles. And we don't think we have enough.

SIGH. So much for something being easy for once.

Friday kitties

There are my girls...lounging on MY chair of course. I had another meeting in the office here yesterday with a paper rep and Lulu loves her paper. The sound of it makes her nose through it, lay across it and become one with the paper. Good thing my paper rep likes cats. Preparing for the meeting was a little more interesting. I didn't have time to put things away properly so I took a leaf out of Trevor's book and hid everything. The laundry room was my hiding area of choice (and needs to be unloaded, or de-hid this morning). I crammed so much stuff in there that the office was echoing while I was talking on the phone to Cynthia (which we laughed about!). It looks so much better in here that I would be tempted to keep it hidden if it wasn't for a load of dirty laundry needing the space! (Oh bad, shame on me I know!)

This weekend is going to be interesting. For once, it's a quiet weekend, which means that we can get our little hands on the bathroom tile and start in that room. Goodbye cement floors, hello tiles! It's going to be our first tiling experience, so fingers crossed that it's not going to be crazy difficult. (Worst nightmare scenario: Getting ticked off that we smash all the tiles and go 'mosaic' style on everything, LOL!!!)

Soon it will be a functioning bathroom...SOON!

Espionage

Here's the view from my purse at step class today. Looking up to the ceiling at the very odd garbage can placement. Did this pass inspection???

Spring?

As seen in the front yard yesterday afternoon.

Shoes anyone?

I wore these to a meeting yesterday and walked 5 blocks in pain. Nice.
They're size 8.5, worn once (maybe twice, can't remember) -- just in case anyone wants dibs on them before I chuck them in the bag for the clothing donation place.

Shoes that do this are evil.

Busy time at the hive

I have a really bad habit of getting all nervy and disjointed when work seems to slow down. After getting rid of the 'bad boyfriend' client I thought there might be the sounds of crickets in my office. Not so. This week has been crazy busy with new projects and things are buzzing. And here's where I go into the panic mode of making sure I have enough time to get it done (and have everything organized). One of the more interesting projects is organizing a photo shoot that's going to be outdoors with office props. I'm already trying to fit my head around the logistics of that, not to mention how much time it's going to take to scout out sites to shoot. And questions like, 'do we need a stylist?', 'do these people know how to model?'. Whew. One step at a time there -- finding a photographer is going to be the first task.

I'm also going on a spy mission this morning at class. Every week I look up at the ceiling and see a pipe that has a strange beige rubbermaid garbage can bolted to the ceiling where the pipe goes up into the next floor. Even stranger knowing that the building is brand new, AND houses the Township departments (particularly that of the engineering and building inspection). I don't know how that passed inspection ('garbage can bolted to cement ceiling, that's to code -- check!'). So I'm going to sneak a photo of it to show Trevor as he's highly interested in what I'm talking about. lol.

I'll be back later with the evidence!

My favorite quote from the week

'Did you know that some mushrooms are carnivorous? ...no, they're not.'

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Sometimes I like watching 'How I Met Your Mother' too much. :)

The safety deposit box at the karma bank

It's been a busy day! I went out and got my hair do-ed this morning (fresh colour and a nice new cut, ahhhhh!) and went and did a little good in the world to boot.

Here's the story: On Sunday, I was reading through the local paper that a youth centre in Aldergrove had been broken into and robbed of their Playstation and XBox consoles, and all of the games that go with them. I looked up and Trevor and asked if he felt like being a good citizen, and we agreed to take our PS2 and XBox consoles (and a bunch of games) and donate them to the youth centre. It's not a hardship for either of us, we both got new consoles for Christmas, and the older ones weren't being used.

So the game packages were dropped off today to the centre to some very grateful youth workers (who literally lit up like 100 watt bulbs when they saw what I was carrying!). I also looked around the youth centre, which is a donated portable unit next to the high school there, and couldn't help but notice how dreary and sad the place looked. It had enough wood panelling on the walls to have a really BIG bonfire. So I mentioned that I was a graphic designer, and that if they ever needed a hand with making some signs, or improving the place to let me know. Talk about opening a can of worms! To make a long story short, they really need help because they're trying to overhaul the centre to make it more appealing for the kids who use it. I threw out a few ideas, and they've asked me to come in and be a 'guest speaker' (although I don't really like that title all that much, wayyy too formal) and speak to the kids next week at their weekly meeting.

It's kind of interesting, because I've been keeping an eye out for some pro-bono work for a little while and this is an opportunity I just stumbled across. Plus it will be fun! I'm a sucker for interior design...throw in some good graphic design and I'm there, lol!

So we'll see how the 'meeting' goes next week! But it should be interesting!

Bathroom tiles

We hit up the Home Depot on the weekend and got started on our quest for tiles. We've decided on these:
This is how it will look in the tub surround with the glass tile inlay.
Subway tiles and glass, ahhhhhh!
The bucket 'o' supplies. I'm sure we'll get to know them well.

I was surprised that we managed to find tiles that worked out of Home Depot's limited supply. We went to a tile outlet the day before and left a little frustrated because we didn't see what we wanted. We also didn't want to spend the earth on tiles either, so this was a nice balance of a little bit of *sparkle* and some nice clean tiles. I'm missing the floor tiles above there, but I'm not going into the garage to get them! But there's also going to be a nice inlay of glass tiles on the inside perimeter of the floor. Now to start...

Chloenator update

She made it through her vet visit, a little drunk and a little ticked off, but NO extractions! She's still a toothy kitty. :)

Mo' rain

That's the best blog title I could think of today, because that's what I see from my little rectangular porthole window in the basement. I can see it dripping off the neighbour's plants and a few sprinkles managing to hit the window. Speaking of neighbour, I overheard (from the office here) her having a conversation with someone who's going to be 'fixing' her garden this year. I've heard this for years from her, that she's going to get things in order this year (and another year goes by), and last year it was a big tree coming down in her front yard and more discussion of 'improvements'. Well, they never happened. She's retired now, and has managed to pour an awful looking orange-y cement in her back patio area that's stamped with a brick pattern. Her house is white, so when the sun beats down on the new-ish patio area, it reflects back on the house making it look orange. Eep.

After many years of watching for 'improvements', something might actually be happening this year. My worry is that it's going to cause more work for me. See, the thing is, even though she's retired, she doesn't really do anything in her yard except for hanging baskets and a few potted flowers. The rest is left up to me -- kind of. Many years back, she decided to use the side of her house (which also is shared as a walkway for our house) as a place to dump dead, dying and crusty plants. One of the dumped plants has managed to become an aggressive ground cover plant and has taken over her side of the path (climbing into her dryer vent, covering the bottom window...), and I'm the one who has to beat it back regularly during the summer (which is such a pain). There's also a bush on her side that likes to take over so that it makes it impossible to pass through the two houses without getting scratched, stung (it has flowers at one point) or having a spider, complete with web, get you in the face. So I regularly trim that back as well. I also mow her lawn (well, I think it's finally all moss after this winter).

So when I hear new words of 'improvements' it makes me take notice, but also get a little nervous. For some reason I think she's considering getting rid of the grass in the front yard (scary as who knows how they'll decide to take notice of the property line there). So I'm now on alert to any changes that may affect our side. At least I'm working from home so I can always man the lookout post.