Got my daily dose of clueless early today

This morning, I was stopped at a light on Woodroffe.  It's in a construction zone, but since traffic is only one way, there's not really an impact to North-bound traffic. 

Anyway, I had been stopped at the light for a while - probably at least 30 seconds - and suddenly I felt a jolt.

That's right, the crazy woman behind me (who had also been stopped - remember, I'd been there a while - suddenly rear-ended me.

I looked in my mirror, still trying to figure out what was going on, and she waved in what I assume was intended as an apology. I got out of my car to see if there was any damage, and she yelled "Sorry!" out the window.

(For the record, a shouted "Sorry!" is not the appropriate response when you rear-end someone.)

As I suspected, there was no damage, but in the meantime, the light had turned green.  I got back in the car, closed the door, and put on my seatbelt.  As soon as I started moving, she switched to the other lane, sped past me, and cut me off. 

The rib bone's connected to the ...

Last night, I went to RibFest. 

I have to say, I was shocked at how many people were there.  Outside of Canada Day, I don't think I've ever seen downtown that crowded.  I didn't really expect that.  For one thing, ribs are pretty specific.  For another, the festival was on for four days.


My default parking location downtown is World Exchange Plaza - it's easy to get to, it's conveniently located, and it's free on weekends.  Today I had to park on level 4.  I never have to park on level 4.  I actually thought there was something else going on to bring so many people downtown.

Award-Winning Ribs

I was with a friend, so we split up and got ribs at two different stands. Both of them had long lines.  (Actually, all of the stands had long lines.)  Hers was faster than mine, so she waited with me.

When we both had food, we went to the War Memorial and picked a bench.

We then swapped, so we both got to try both kinds of ribs.  They were both good, but surprisingly different.

I did not need the bib.

Dental floss would have been nice, though.

Bejewelled Collar

This morning, I got up bright and early (6:30-ish, if I remember correctly).  I took my time reading and having breakfast, and managed to almost be late to my one day jewellery-making course.

The finished project

The finished project is above.  It basically involved threading wire through each bead, bending it back over the bead, then wrapping it around the original wire to anchor it.  The ends of the wire were twisted into spirals. (I loved the spirals - you can see two of them in the next picture:

Hint: One is just above the red rectangular bead

I enjoyed making it, and I like how it turned out.  I'm already thinking about what I want to make next.

Dear Princess Peach

I'm finally on my way to rescue you.  Feel free to help.

Yours in plunging to your death when confronted with meteors, lasers, and places where you have to walk carefully,
Mario

Salad Days

Last week, I signed up for a CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) basket.  The one I chose wasn't the cheapest, but it had three points I liked:

• It delivers to my door.  Since I'm both forgetful and lazy, that was a plus.
• I can do everything online, including suspending delivery if I don't want a basket.
• It lets me specify what I don't want to get. (Peppers of any sort, I am looking at you.)

My first basket arrived today.  The contents are in the picture above - 2 full bags, containing some things I don't recognize, asparagus, potatoes, tomatoes, broccolli, mushrooms, multiple kinds of lettuce, peas, carrots, and onions. 

Yes, I had a salad for supper.

A touching story

Wanda bought a hard-cover book yesterday.

That was very exciting for me, because while she's reading a physical book, she's not reading her Kobo.  I immediately offered to keep it company, because I knew she'd bought a couple of books I wanted to read.

I have the wireless Kobo, and she has the Kobo Touch, so it took a while to get used to how to use hers.  It's much faster at page turning than mine, which resulted in me accidentally turning too many pages a few times.  It also has a dictionary feature, which lets you look up words your finger rests on for too long.  I took advantage of this functionality to accidentally look up unfamiliar words like "rule" and "it".

Over all, I really enjoyed it - not enough to go out and buy one, but it is definitely a step up from my model. 

When I was done the books I wanted to read, I went back to my Kobo and found myself tapping on the screen to turn the pages.

Things I've said while playing Super Mario Galaxy

At some point (last weekend? two weeks ago?), I started playing Super Mario Galaxy.  It's taken up more of my time than I'd like to admit. That's not why I skipped Blog Out loud last night - I had my last boxing class before summer, and if I'd gone to BOLO instead, my elbow, knee, and ankle wouldn't hurt today, so as you can see, boxing was the obvious choice.

(As an aside, two people in my department at work have required unexpected medical attention so far this week, so when my knee started bothering me last night, I thought "If I have to call in and say I'm going to miss work to go get my knee looked at, my manager is going to have a heart attack."  I fully expect her to bring rolls of bubble wrap in on Monday.)

Wanda laughs at me if she happens to be upstairs while I'm playing.  First of all, I tend to plunge to my death.  A lot. Secondly, some of the things I say are apparently weird if taken out of context.  Things like:

• Stop falling and don't get eaten by bugs. Words to live by.
• There's no "almost" in bees.
• Why can't I ... crap.
• Stupid Mario. I don't know why they call you super.
• No! I hit the button! I HIT THE BUTTON!!!

It's all worth it, of course.  If I get another 16 stars, the space station will start flying again and we can go rescue Princess Peach (who is kind of a dolt - she sends the same letter over and over again, and she really should get off her butt and rescue herself instead of waiting for Mario, who is probably plunging to his death somewhere).

Totally a good use of my summer.

3053 Words

Remember that surprise birthday party 6 weeks ago? At first, I was waiting until it deflated before I tossed it. Now I'm wondering if it will last all year.

The green cloth is shade cloth - my backyard gets a lot of sun.

The clover is a little spotty, but it's growing.

A zoo of a weekend

This weekend was Doors Open Ottawa.  Building around the city that aren't usually open to the public open their doors.  Some offer tours, others allow you to look around at your own pace.

I haven't been in several years, in part because for the last three years, some fool keeps booking Spark camp for the first weekend in June. (Yes, it is me.)

This weekend was also Spark camp at the Papanack Zoo.  We decided to make it a day camp - it's cheaper, and a lot less packing - so we all met at the zoo at 10 (except one girl who was sick, one girl who was MIA, and one girl who got scared by the rain).

It was pouring when I left my house, but when we got to the zoo, it wasn't nearly as bad.  There was some drizzle, but not too bad.

After lunch, it progressed to misting - constant really light rain. Everyone was a pretty good sport about it, but by the time we got to feeding the animals at around 3, it was raining pretty hard.  We packed it in and went for pizza early.

(We went to the Friendly Restaurant and Pizzeria in Rockland, and the pizza was really good, so keep that in mind if you're ever out that way.)

Last night, I put away most of the camping stuff (although my hiking boots really need to be cleaned and put away, and I still have a cooler of drinks in my living room), and this morning, I headed out to Doors Open Ottawa.

The old Ottawa train station was open to the public and I've always wanted to go in, so we started there. After we looked around (and ate some popcorn), we went through the tunnel to the Chateau Laurier and took a tour there.

We didn't get to look in any of the guest rooms, but saw the drawing room, heard about the history of the hotel (including the Titanic connection) and visited the pool.

As we were hearing the history of the pool, and older woman felt the need to put up her hand and say that she had swum in the pool.  That prompted two other women to tell us about how they used to swim in the pool. I didn't really care, since I naturally assumed that people I don't know had swum in the pool at some point. If not, they really didn't need to keep full of water.

Overall, it was a good weekend.  I might even make it to work tomorrow.

But I should really clean my hiking boots first.