Not-knitting catch up

I’ve been receiving requests to see the new floor.  Here it is, in an empty room (with a strangely sad looking Vorlon):

Here it is, with new furniture:

Ok, not the best picture, and it doesn’t put the floor to best advantage, but you get the idea.

The jury’s still out on the furniture.  It’s super comfy, but I think it’s a little large for the space.  That could just be the fact that it was very spartan in there for over a month, so this is a big contrast.  We still need to paint.  That should be an adventure.  My dad (Thanks, Dad!) helped me paint the red accent wall.  Three coats of a colour that was fairly close to the colour that was already there, and still I think it needs another coat.  Crazy.  The rest will be done in nice, light colours, so hopefully two coats will do.

The garden, you ask?  The squirrels are really enjoying it.  Or it could be the bunnies.  Or both. Anyway, my beans are pathetic, my carrot tops are all down to little nubs, and the radishes all had claw marks in them (I ate them anyway).

That’s the bed with the squash, beans and corn.  (There’s some garlic you can see in the lower right corner).  Something’s eating holes in the beans.  The corn is also getting nibbled on and the squash would probably be getting nibbled on too, if it had actually germinated.  Even the sweet peas are all holey and weird.  Not the best crop this year, I’m afraid.

See?  Lots of nice bushy radishes (a week later, they were decimated) near the top.  There are some carrots there, trust me.  And one of the fennel plants got eaten up.  I think I’m just going to throw a bunch of annual flowers in there for this year and call it a day.  However:

Those are my tomatoes and basil.  They seem to be doing well.  They’re getting lots of sun, and either the critters haven’t found them yet, or tomatoes are just not that interesting until the fruit is out.  They’re not EarthTainers as I had originally intended (I mentioned those a few posts back).  I wasn’t able to find all the parts I needed, so I just drilled holes in the bottom of the Rubbermaid bins for drainage and treated them like regular containers.  I have Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, and some kind of Delicious tomato.  I’m looking forward to my crop.  It’s all I have left!

Also of note: The saskatoons are slowly ripening.  And the smell of the Mock Orange next to my front door makes me happy every time I go by. Ecogrrl is back in town!  Zebula did a fine job at her end of year piano recital (as did all the other students), and Vorlon is finished with Preschool.  There are four days of grade 1 left for Zebula and the weather is finally gorgeous.  Happy summer solstice!

Knitting catch-up

After my last post, Dr. Thingo mentioned something he’d read in one of the blogs he subscribes to.  The author claims there are three kinds of blog posts. The “Hello!  This is my blog!” post, the “Sorry I haven’t posted in a while” post, and pictures of the blogger’s cat.  My last post was the second type, apparently.  This one too.

I haven’t really been all that productive with the knitting.  It seems like I’ve been working on socks forever.  I finally stabilized the neckline of the No-Gap Wrap (there’s a picture here.  Scroll down a little).  I didn’t manage to take any pictures of myself in it that didn’t suck.  The neckline, though it was great when I first put the sweater on that morning, continued to grow throughout the day.  I’m hoping that washing it helped that.  Though last time I washed it, I hung it up outside, and then it poured rain, so it’s all stretched out of proportion.  I have to re-block it.  Then we’ll see if that neck stretching was permanent.

Aside:  Is Environment Canada having its summer interns make the weather predictions lately??  Sheesh!  That day that I hung the load of laundry I was talking about, the prediction was for a sunny day around 20 degrees with no mention of rain.  Turns out it poured for over three hours.  The whole week was out of whack like that.

I worked on a great project for Spinrite.  Some socks:

They look like tasty desserts all lined up like that.  I really enjoyed working on these, mostly because there was no way to tell from looking at the ball what the striping was going to look like.  Excuse me while I indulge in lots and lots of unnecessary pictures:

Would you have been able to guess how they were going to turn out??  If only I could remember what the yarn was.

I had started making a sock from the sock blank I dyed for myself with the kids last fall.  I really don’t like the way it knits up very much.  Plus, the pattern I was using totally didn’t work, so I’m going to unravel it.  And I would have taken a picture of it to show you, but I am embarrassed to say I don’t remember where I put it and couldn’t find it in the usual places, which is a good indicator of the way things are looking around here.  I’m thinking of making them into this.  They may still be kind of ugly, but the pattern looks really interesting to work up.

I’ve also been working exclusively on some gift socks for the past two weeks:

(Those are representatives of two different pairs, of course.  I’m not that mean.)  The yarn is Meilenweit Mega Boots.  I love the long colour changes.  Plain sock pattern.  And at 9 st/in, they’re a bit of a slog to work through.  And I’m not very good at knitting exclusively on one project at a time, so of course I’m seeing all kinds of patterns I’d rather be starting.  But I’m almost done (one pair done and almost half of another).

Oh, and this:

Isn’t it hideous?  It’s too bad, because the pattern is kind of neat. It’s the Cushion Conglomeration Caper, by Ashforth/Plummer.  It’s all garter stitch geometrical shapes based on one square (you can see it in the upper left).  You start by making that square, using whatever yarn you want, and then using the number of stitches you get on the diagonal of that square as your basis, you make the rest of the shapes.  The yarn is this assortment of stuff left over from a zillion previous projects, or just random stash, cut up into approximately 1 metre lengths for another long-abandoned project.  It might yet become a cushion and live downstairs where hardly anybody will ever see it.  Or a doll blanket for Zebula.  Or I’ll make it bigger, felt it a little, and donate it to a pet shelter for them to use as a doggie blanket.   Something.

And that’s it.  I feel something big coming on next.  Like this (for me).  Or maybe this (for Zebula.  I don’t know that I would look very good in this kind of thing.).  Or this (for… Somebody.  I probably can’t pull this off either, but, pretty!)

Stuff

How’d that happen?  I blinked, and suddenly more than three weeks have gone by.

Highlights (non-knitting):  New floor, Vorlon turns four, two (count ‘em!) visits from my parents, one from Dr. Thingo’s parents, moving of furniture, and a most excellent weekend away with some fabulous ladies.

Highlights (knitting):  Completely finished the No Gap Wrap by crocheting around the neckline to stabilize (no photos yet) and sample socks for Spinrite, started an ugly cushion cover, an ugly pair of socks, and a not ugly pair of socks.

Highlights (garden): planted corn, beans and squash, and a few have sprouted.  Squirrels have eaten most of the carrot tops, herbs doing nicely.

I’ve given up on posting the garden photos, but if you really want, you can see the progression on my Flickr account here.

Details and photos about some of the above items to come later.  I will post more regularly from now on, I promise!

New floor coming tomorrow

The living/dining room is completely empty:

the office, not so much:

Channelling her inner Laura

Zebula has been reading (and having bits read to her) the Little House books for the past few weeks.  I read and re-read those books when I was a kid, and they’re great!  It’s nice to relive them through her.  Zebula’s friend A, who has also been reading the Little House books, incidentally, has a great sunbonnet that a relative of hers made.  Zebula asked me ages ago to make her one.  And a few times since starting the “Laura books”.  So when I mentioned this afternoon that I might do a little sewing, she asked again.  So I dug up a pattern, and here was the result, a couple of hours later:

I would like to point out that nobody but Zebula was responsible for her clothing choices today.

The pattern was apparently printed somewhere in the 70’s, and had been passed on to the author by her grandmother.  It’s straightforward, and now that I have the pattern pieces drafted on paper and cut out, I can easily make more.  The only change I made is that instead of using three layers of stiff muslin between the brim layers, I used heavy fusible interfacing.  Not exactly traditional.  I liked making it, and Zebula seems pretty happy with the result – she was disappointed when she went biking later that she couldn’t wear it under her helmet.

I finished my No-Gap Wrap.  That’s the one I complained last week was too long.  I ended up washing and drying it, and now the length is perfect, but it’s still a little loose in the neckline.  I’ll stabilize it with a row of crochet.  Someday.

And I made slipper socks for C, who drives me to choir.  Quick and easy.  When asked what colour she likes, she said “not green”.  This ought to do:

The flower is one of the tulips I planted last fall, and then forgot all about until they just started growing a few weeks ago.  They’re pretty, but only about 25 cm tall.

Speaking of gardening, I got all excited about this yesterday.  Cheap and easy!  I’m going to make three.  Apparenly, the yield is great, and it’s just the thing to do for the south-facing side of my house, where the tomatoes are going to go.  That part is all pavement, which is a shame, since it gets tonnes of sunlight.

Here’s the garden last Sunday:

And last, but not least (I know, I should post more often so there aren’t so many pictures every time…), I need to mark a departure:

See that?  That’s the corner where our Poang chair used to be.  After more than 10 years of faithful service, it finally gave up.  While I was sitting in it.  Yep.  It broke.  With an impressive set of warning cracks.  Those who were at Lauzon Lake with us last summer will understand why this is giving me a complex.

It’s spring!

Yesterday was amazingly beautiful!  I woke up early, went to the Farmer’s market (by bus.  Much better than going by car – you don’t have to deal with the ridiculously inadequate parking lot that way), had apple fritters while there, came home, hung up some laundry, did some yard work, had lunch, sat in the sun knitting and drinking beer, hung out, went out for sushi with some friends for dinner, ate to the point of discomfort (ok, that last part was great up to the discomfort part).  All while wearing just jeans and a t-shirt for most of it.  No socks!  No coats!  No hats (well, a sunhat for some of it)!

I love weather like yesterday.  The high was 21 Celsius.  The whole summer would be like that, if I ruled the world.

I’m a little weather-giddy.  Today is cooler (high of about 12) and windy, but still sunny, and tomorrow will be about as warm, but rainy.  I’m glad about the rain, actually, because the garden is very dry.

Another thing that happened yesterday is that Zebula got holes poked into her ears.  She took it very well, and claims today that it doesn’t hurt anymore.

She looks so grown up it makes me a little sad.  It’s not just the earrings.  Yesterday we went shopping for clothes for her, and she’s almost outgrown the local (ie. that I can walk to) kids’ store.

I am *this* close to having finished the No-Gap Wrap.  Looking back in my posts, I see that I didn’t mention this one at all!  That’s what happens when I post this sporadically, I guess.  I started it in early March out of Sublime Soya Cotton DK.  I got most of the way through the body and saw that it suffers from the same problem most sweaters built for ‘big girls’ do.  The shoulders are ridiculously far apart.  You can even see it in a lot of photos – the shoulders in a cap-sleeved sweater falling off the model’s shoulder.  Which is all silly, because most people’s shoulders are about the same distance apart (with some variation for people like swimmers, people who have bigger frames, etc.).  It doesn’t follow that if a person is carrying some extra pounds, their shoulder bones suddenly spread farther apart.    Anyway, I took an inch off either side by making the armholes a little deeper, and it helped.  The back neckline is lace, and so it’s a little loose.  I’m going to stabilize it with some single crochet to see if it firms it up a little.  Also, the sleeves are really long.  I’m going to recheck the gauge (sure, now that it’s all done…  For the record, I did do a gauge swatch and everything was hunky-dory).

Here’s the front yard as of today:

See that red in the periwinkle?  That’s a tulip!

Stuff

After a short bout of moodiness, I think Spring has come to stay.  We got tantalizingly warm weather late last week, leading us to believe the weather was changing for the better, and then last Monday we woke to about 10 cm of snow.  I know, I know, we get an early April snowstorm every year, and yet we’re always surprised.  Anyway, that was all gone by Wednesday, and it’s been nice, though chilly, since.

First off, I want to say that my choir did itself proud on Friday.  I’ve sung the St. Matthew Passion twice now, and this one was by far the better one.  The soloists were fantastic, and the choir did a fabulous job.   On to the next show, in less than a month!

I’m learning Java, both because my brain needs to resolidify after almost 7 years of slowly turning to goo, and because I might be gainfully employed in the fall, and need to upgrade my skillset.  I haven’t done any kind of programming in ages, and it’s proving difficult for me to wrap my mind around it.  But it feels good, in a weird way.

The annual egg hunt happened this morning for Easter, though it was jelly beans rather than chocolate eggs.  Those things that pass for chocolate eggs are either disgusting or too expensive to buy in large quantities and scatter around the house.  So I, I mean, the Easter Bunny opted for the jelly beans and the kids got a chocolate bunny at the end.  Except that the Easter Bunny didn’t get anything for me (I got something for Dr. Thingo, and my parents who were visiting, and never thought to get something for myself).  Zebula noticed right away and wondered why I would have been missed.  The Easter Bunny needs to get his act together by next year, or he’s going to blow his cover.

I finally tore out the carpet in my living/dining room a couple of weeks ago.  It only took a few hours, and the result was surprisingly good!

I can’t believe a) the previous owners covered this up and b) it took us so long to get rid of the carpet.  Dr. Thingo was very apprehensive, but this is actually tolerable until we get around to having it repaired and refinished (or replaced), which, given how fast things usually happen around here, could be a while.  But I’m very happy about it all.  The floor is much easier to clean up (really, why would anybody want to carpet an eating area??), and the light and the mood of the room are much better.

I have finished knitted things!

This is the Necco Wafer Hoodie (I have no idea why it’s called that…)

I like it!  It’s cute!  I might make a bigger version for Vorlon.

This is a finishing job I got from a fellow choir member. She had started it many years ago for her son.  She found it recently, and was wondering if I could finish it for her, so that she could give it to her granddaughter (yes, the daugther of the boy it was originally intended for).  The yarn is Patons Astra, and the pattern was from a booklet I didn’t have the good sense to photograph before I gave it back.  The pattern is obviously a little dated – the sleeves are tighter than what we do now, and the ribbing is more form-fitting, making for some significant blousing.  But it turned out well.  The pieces were all done, but for half of one sleeve.  I had to redo one of the front pieces because the ribbing had been done with the larger needle, and was therefore bigger than the ribbing on the rest.  Also, the armholes were all about an inch too short, so I redid those.  Then I made the collar and finished it up.  Luckily, my gauge was close enough to hers that I didnt’ need to fiddle with needle sizes.  It turned out pretty well!  And I got some delicious smelling lotion from Hawaii as a thank you!  Yum!

Oh, here’s the garden as of last Sunday (April 5).  Not much change from the week before, though you can see the crocuses if you squint, to the right of the front steps.

I have started my herbs, and some border flowers, and the seedlings are working more or less well.  I also started tomatoes on Friday (two from Seeds of Diversity:  Delicious (which bodes well, no?), which is a big tomato, apparently like Brandywine, and Sweet 100, which was modified by a Toronto gardener and is a cherry tomato) .  Tomorrow, I’m sowing my carrots and sweet peas.  It’s nice to see stuff turning green again.

Out like a lamb

It’s been a pretty nice March!  There hasn’t been any snow for weeks.  The weather is now consistently above zero during the day (mostly single digits) with cold nights.  Can’t complain!  The month feels like it’s been busy, but I don’t have much to show for it.  Ravelry says I have four projects on the go, so it could just be that I’m spreading myself kind of thin.  Also, I spent an embarrassing amount of time watching past seasons of Scrubs in the evening.  It makes me laugh at the same time as I recognize the bad sitcomness of it.

I did finish one thing, though:  knee socks for Zebula.  I used all but about 45 cm of the sock blank.  I like how they turned out.  The sock blank was kind of blotchy (it’s the one on the right):

But the finished sock changes colours softly, and because the dye didn’t penetrate the fibre all the way in places, the effect is heathered.  I’m really pleased.  I’m looking forward to doing the other two pairs.

I had started the Sheepy All-in-one for a friend’s new baby, and run out of yarn (I think I mentioned it, but I’m too lazy to go back and see…).  I ran out of black yarn, and it’s a warm garment, so I gave up, both because the baby is growing and the weather is getting warmer, and started something new.  The Sheepy will have to go to a future winter baby (anyone pregnant out there?)  I decided to go for the Necco Wafer Hoodie from the last Twist Collective.  I’m using Elann’s Sonata yarn, which feels strangely cardboardy until you knit it.  It has a nice, glossy sheen to it, and it’s washable.  I’m very nearly done.

I also started the Whisper Cardigan, using some leftover Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud.  The whole thing will weigh less than 150 grams when it’s done.  I like the effect, but I had a hard time getting started.  Since the yarn is so thin compared to the needles, I was having a hard time with the gap being left by the loops in my circular needle (it’s done in the round).  I tried to use DPNs, but then I had four gaps instead of two.  So I finally fixed it by using Magic loop for an inch or so, and then pulling out just one big loop from my circular, effectively making it into a tiny circular needle.  This makes a gap in one stitch, but I move it around, so it is less obvious, and corrects itself better.  Then when it’s finished, I can go back and minimize the gaps from the first little bit of it.  It’s only about 10 cm along.  I don’t work on it that often, though I did do a big chunk of that during an interminable dress rehearsal for the last concert I sang in, much to my director’s dismay.  But come on!  We sat there for two and a half hours, and sang for a total of maybe 20 minutes.  To be fair, it wasn’t our show  — it was for Opera Kitchener, a fundraising concert featuring two great soloists (Richard Margison and Eve Rachel McLeod) .  Kind of an Opera’s greatest hits.  I thought I’d hate it, but I ended up enjoying it more than I expected.  The audience certainly liked it.  But I digress…

As I mentioned, the snow’s all gone.  So here’s my first picture of ‘front garden in progress’, taken last Sunday (March 22).  This year, I’ll be taking these every week, to see the progression.

I managed to rake most of the leaves off the periwinkle last weekend, to make the garden look a little greener.  I left all the leaves on the beds as mulch, though, to try to limit the number of weeds that try to take up residence since there are still about two months left before I can plant all the herbs and veggies I want to put there.  And you can’t tell from the pictures, but there are lots and lots of crocus, daffodil and tulip shoots in the beds near the front steps.

I picked up a great book yesterday, called Fresh Food from Small Spaces by R.J. Ruppenthal.  It talks about growing veggies and herbs, mostly in containers, and also touches on growing mushrooms, fermentation, sprouting (did you know that sprouts are way more nutritious than the grains, legumes and seeds they come from?  I had no idea!) and some livestock (chickens and bees).  I don’t need containers, though I will make a few for the tomatoes this year, but I do have a fairly small space to work with, so it was worth reading.  I don’t think I’ll delve into livestock of any kind.  But having a log with shiitake mushrooms in the  basement is strangely appealing…

Zebula got a real bike!  She had outgrown her last one, so we went shopping last week.  We tried a couple on, and finally settled on this one, both because there’s room for her to grow in it, and because it’s not too pink, and so can be passed on to Vorlon when he’s bigger.  Though we did pinkify it with streamers:

It has gears and handbrakes and everything!

On a totally unrelated note, the kids and I took the train to Ottawa during March Break, to visit with my parents.  Can I just say that I love the train?  I love the train!  It’s such a nice way to travel.  Beats driving or flying any day!  Anyway, during dinner at my brother’s, attended by my father, stepmom, mother, her new dude, and my brother’s family, we were discussing Middle Eastern food.  My dad was born in Egypt, and his mom cooked all kinds of interesting things after they came to Canada.  My mother was reminiscing about things like basboussa, kibbeh, kunafa (my late stepfather, was, to put it mildly, not an adventurous eater).  I lamented the difficulty in finding Lebanese pita bread here (Greek style (poofy) is ubiquitous.  Lebanese (flat, dense and chewy) is harder to find, and is often not very good.  While Greek pita is excellent for dipping, it’s not great for making sandwiches, as the pocket, if there is one, is often too flimsy to handle it.  Good for wrapping, though.) And I expressed regret at not having gotten Nonna’s recipe for those cookies she used to make for dipping in coffee that she cranked out of her food mill somehow, and the other ones she made that she rolled around in icing sugar.  Anyway, all this made me crave Middle Eastern food.  I decided to go out for lunch to Al Madina, a local Egyptian restaurant, with Dr. Thingo on Wednesday, but they were closed for renovations.  So I took out an awesome cookbook from the library, and I’m going to recreate a bunch of stuff.  I apologize in advance for the garlic that will be emanating from my pores for the next little while as I satisfy my cravings.  Pickled turnips!  Lahmajoun!  Basboussa!  Here I come!  I’m not going to make baklava, though, as my brother’s is always infinitely better.  I wish I knew what he does that I don’t.  I’ve asked, and we can’t pinpoint it.

Anyway, that’s all for now.  I will go attempt to make some order in Vorlon’s room, and start my garden today (indoors).

Mardi gras!

I’m making pancakes for dinner.  Unsurprisingly, the kids are enthusiastic.

So, where have I been?  Fighthing the endless winter, it seems.  I like winter, don’t get me wrong.  But this one’s been going on since mid-November.  Though I do have new cross-country skis that I’ve yet to try out, so I should be wishing for more snow, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

There is hope, however!

Those are forsythia boughs I brought in a couple of weeks ago, to bring in some colour.  There are a couple of cuttings from my saskatoon in there too, which will hopefully bloom later.  And this:

That’s the garden. I have plans.  Oh, yes!  Most notably, I’m going to attempt a Three Sisters thing (corn/beans/squash) and see what happens.  I don’t expect a crop from the corn, since there probably won’t be enough in there for it to self-pollinate.  Though I guess I could go in there with a q-tip and help things along.  But it should be an interesting experiment.  There are a few things I’ll start indoors in the next couple of weeks.  And I want to get some Seeds of Diversity seeds too, for tomatoes.

I was kept busy with this for the past couple of weeks.

Basically, it’s a giant granny square.  I loved the colours.  Nice to work on when everything is grey around you.  In the picture, it’s about 2/3 done – the final result was huge!  Turns out this is going to be a reissue of an old pattern.  And last time I was at Len’s Mill, I saw it on a tear-out pattern, in drab beiges and browns.  This one’s way better.

I also started one of the pairs of socks from the blanks the kids and I dyed, this one for Zebula.

I like the effect!  The dye didn’t soak all the way through the fiber in most parts, and the effect is nice and heathered.  Though, given Zebula’s fondness for all things pink, there won’t be much variation in colour until we get to the other end of the blank, where she stooped to using a little purple.  I’m doing them two-at-a-time, and I had to rip them out a little yesterday because I had grossly underestimated how enormous her feet are and had happily gone ahead and done the gusset increases about 5 cm too soon.  Of course, I discovered this during yesterday’s choir rehearsal (during the break!  I don’t knit when we’re singing, lest I face the wrath of our director) and started to rip it back.  I had a pile of curly ramenlike yarn at my feet, which I quickly stuffed into my purse because the rehearsal was starting again.  I then spent twenty minutes untangling the mess when I got home.  I’m back on track now.  I think these will be knee-highs, so I can use up most of that blank.

I started a baby item, about which I will say more later.  Its recipient was born last week, much to his mom’s relief, as he was more than a week overdue.  It’s the All-in-one (Ravelry link, sorry) from one of Debbie Bliss’s baby books.  I made this for a coworker’s baby about ten years ago, and it was fun, and ridiculously cute.  I want to hurry and finish it, because it really will start getting warm soon, and I want the baby to be able to wear it for at least a little while.

My very first meme

I’ve never done a meme before on my blog.  This one’s spreading like wildfire among my Facebook friends, and appealed to me for some reason.  Enjoy!

25 Random Things

1- My last name is Arabic, and means victory.
2- I am from a very mixed background: my father was born in Egypt of a Lebanese father and Italian mother (one of whose parents was Yugoslavian, I think); my mother is French-Canadian.
3- I have played at various points in my life in school and community ensembles: the recorder, the glockenspiel, the clarinet, the bass clarinet, the saxophone, and my voice. I never learned to play the piano and kind of wish now that I had – I am now slowly learning Bach’s invention #4, and the slow bit of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. It ain’t pretty.
4- I was a database administrator before Zoë was born. I’m not sure that I want to go back to it when I start working again.
5- I knit rather a lot. I also crochet and sew.
6- I have lived in Ottawa, Waterloo (and Conestogo), Toronto and Seattle.
7- I never really wanted to get married, but ended up doing it when I was pregnant with Zoë in the US and needed medical coverage for the delivery.
8- When in the workforce, I never wanted to be any kind of manager. I’m very content doing the grunt work and will do a good job of it. I just can’t imagine that I would be very nice to employees who aren’t pulling their weight. (see #9)
9- I am not a patient woman. Sometimes, I hate that. Often, I am surprised that more people aren’t impatient about the things that frustrate me.
10- I have never owned a car. The only time I really wish I had a car to live my day-to-day existence is when it’s raining.
11- I like winter very much. But I don’t like having to bundle up the kids to go out. But I love being out in softly falling snow. But the lack of sunlight gets to me after a while. But I love to see the world all silent and covered in white. But sometimes I need more colour that white, grey, and slushy brown. Winter is apparently a time of inner conflict.
12- I will eat pretty much anything.
13- I am a very good starter of projects. I am a much less good finisher of them.
14- I’m on the cusp between Introverted and extroverted (according to Myers-Briggs). I need time by myself, but very much like to be in the company of my friends. I’m fairly shy and unassertive in situations where I know few people, but will run off at the mouth when I’m with people with whom I’m very comfortable (and for that last one, I apologize…).
15- I love to cook, especially when I have long stretches of time to plan and execute.
16- I have only lived by myself for 12 months of my life, and really enjoyed it.
17- If I had to go to university again, I would probably pursue a program in linguistics rather than the Mathematics degree I ended up getting. I love language. But when I was in high school, I was very proficient in the sciences and never even considered the possibility of Arts and Humanities as a course of study.
18- I’m one of the few people I know who had a good time in high school.
19- We haven’t had cable TV for about 8 years, and I hardly ever listen to commercial radio, so I feel very out of touch with current popular culture.
20- My very earliest memory is of me stirring scrambled eggs on the stove while standing on a chair with my brother crawling underfoot. I couldn’t have been more than 3 and a half years old.
21- I have been to only 6 Canadian provinces. Left to visit: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Territories. I’ve only spent time in three European countries: Italy, Switzerland and France. Obviously, I need to travel more.
22- I’m claustrophobic. Those scenes in movies where they lock people in car trunks for whatever reason give me the heebie-jeebies. I discovered this particular trait during my one and only time spelunking where I embarrassed myself by freaking out at having to go through a crawl space which I couldn’t see the end of.
23- I am an ok singer, and have sung solo in public (accompanied by a talented guitarist friend of mine), but prefer the safety of being in a large choir.
24- I have been with my husband for 15 years. He dated a roommate of mine in university, and I really didn’t like him at the time. Now I think he’s pretty awesome.
25- I still feel like I’m just playing at being a grown up, even though I’m 36 and have two kids and a mortgage.