Year: 2010
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Companion cube
Fiona and I had a lot of fun making this for Noah. We made a five-sided box from mat board and cut a hole for the kleenex. Then we used foam sheets to make the shapes to cover it with. If you aren’t familiar with the Portal computer game, the term “companion cube” will mean […]
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My blacksmith
Look what my personal blacksmith got me for Christmas! It’s a special tool which attaches to the angled lip of my new baking sheets to allow me to insert and retrieve bread from the oven without further singeing the faux-fur on my winter jacket, or my eyebrows for that matter. He custom-made it for me, […]
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Slightly demented Christmas decorations
Christmas is a time of traditions, of course, and teenagers and pre-teens hold onto those traditions at least as tightly as the rest of us. I suppose it’s partly nostalgia on their part, but also the alluring excuse to be completely childish. Still, some things change. Case in point #1: the Playmobil advent calendar, used […]
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Holidays
I slept in this morning! We were up late last night, and today had absolutely nothing scheduled. Last night was the community choir concert. Sophie is doing her first season with the ensemble. Unfortunately she was put in the middle riser so that her sense of pitch could help those in the first row. Which […]
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This girl’s a keeper
It was Erin & Noah’s last Corazón rehearsal of the year, and I needed to do grocery shopping, buy dog food, help Fiona with her Christmas shopping and do my own last-minute gift-garnering. Roads were slushy, and nights come early these days. It was a Tuesday I wasn’t looking forward to, especially since Chuck had […]
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Symphony of the Kootenays
What a difference for the kids, Erin especially. It has been years since she hasn’t been if not the most advanced violinist in whatever orchestra she’s playing in, at least one of the most advanced handful, patiently waiting for others to figure out where the E-flats and shifts and syncopations are. The last time I […]
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Over-extended-dom
I think I’ve been much better about not over-extending myself recently. But things are piling up a little now. Running has been put on hold. I’ve been able to squeeze rink maintenance in, but nothing else. Tomorrow the giant wholesale dried fruit & nut order needs to be sorted and delivered. I spent all evening […]
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The big recital
It’s been more than a week since Erin played her big local recital. It went very well. She was amazing. The community hall was full: maybe 150 people? Not bad for a community of under a thousand! The concert was a fund-raiser for the Valhalla Fine Arts Society, the organization which among other things backs […]
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Outside at our place
From daylight to dusk and through into the night. Ridiculous games, obstacle courses, conversation and laughter. Friends over, various combinations of siblings. And the smell of baking bread, to boot.
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Early Math Nostalgia
A week or so Fiona started Singapore Primary Math Grade 5 work and I realized that our “early math” days are gone forever in this family. These days the kids are busy with obtuse angles, polynomials and repeating decimals. Gone are the days of “different ways to make 7” and “constructing and deconstructing tens.” Today […]
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Backyard Skating
I got three floods in before dusk and then had to deal with dinner and group class. When I got home it had started to snow a bit. Sophie and I went to check the rink out and decided that with it already pretty smooth in most places we didn’t want to flood and ruin […]
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The unprecedented November rink
We’re not skating quite yet. There are still a few wrinkles and bumps in the corners and along the edges at the far end of the lawn where the ground is a bit higher. But I think another three or four floods will give us a passable surface on which to start skating. With the […]
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The gazinta bar
Ah, the family lexicon. Ours is bizarre and extensive, including such neologisms as “threehead,” “agilitous,” “wobbits” and “clape.” We come by it honestly. My dad referred to the white residue left on one’s toothbrush as “spinge.” We carry that one forward in homage. For the most part we remember where the words came from and […]
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Seasons turning on a dime
A week ago I put the snow tires on only because I was driving a bunch of kids up and over the Monashee Pass, where I thought there might be snow. It’s been a warm wet fall and if we hadn’t been going over the pass I would have left the all-season tires on for […]
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Piggies play in the snow
I recently joined the Barefoot Runner’s Society’s Canadian chapter. There are a handful of us there, most of us recent converts to this “less is more” approach to running, most of us trying to figure out how we’re going to get through the winter without losing what conditioning our feet and legs have acquired. The […]