Burning Down The House

A little while ago, I noticed a slight smoky odour in the apartment. I wandered around, looking for possibilities. The stove was off, nothing was touching the lights, appliances weren’t running… so I just assumed it was one of the neighbours, burning their lunch or something.

Then the odour kept getting stronger, so I did the rounds again. Nope, nothing burning. I had washed a load of dishes earlier this morning, so I decided to check the dishwasher, just in case.

Mr. Jones And Me Tell Each Other Fairy Tales

Monday night, we went to see Indiana Jones. We decided to wait until Monday in order to miss the crowds over the weekend. Wrong! We got into the theatre shortly after the previews started and found one of the last pairs of seats together.

This is the first Indy movie I’ve seen in the theatre, and I really enjoyed it. Sure, it had it’s over-the-top moments, but so did all the others!

The one thing we both found really distracting was the actor who played Indy’s sidekick, Ray Winstone. Throughout the whole movie I was trying to figure out where I’d seen him before, his voice was so familiar to me. E figured it out pretty quickly, but decided not to mention it to me because it kind of distracted him from the story.  We’d seen him ages ago in Sexy Beast. Quite the memorable role/movie, with him relaxing out by the pool in his Speedo before Ben Kingsley shows up to raise hell.

All in all it’s a great movie to see on the big screen! It didn’t surpass my favourite Indy movie, The Last Crusade, but really, how can one top the Holy Grail/Arthur legend???

Experience Is Cheap, I Should Have Listened To The Warning

I have become a very bad blogger. I haven’t updated in ages, despite having things to talk about. It’s been so long since I last updated my blog that the awesome people at WordPress have completely changed the layout of the posting page and included some cool new features.

So I guess I should mention that I am unemployed again, I was laid off in April from my new job. The short story is that three months after I was hired there was some major restructuring in my department, and they laid off half the department. Basically I shouldn’t have been hired in the first place, they didn’t have enough work/money in the budget to support that many people in our department.

I’m disappointed that this happened, I really enjoyed the job and I really liked people I worked with, the commute was great, but I’m not nearly as upset about being laid off as I was the last time. Mostly because other than the obvious short-sightedness in their overall business plan, everything was handled in a very professional manner.

Really, I’m just annoyed that I have to go through the job search process again so soon. At least now I know what to expect from the job search (LOTS of searching/waiting), so hopefully this time I can enjoy my unscheduled vacation time a little bit more. At least the weather is nicer this time around! But if you know of anyone that is looking for a sales admin/office manager extraordinaire in the Toronto area, let me know!

Head Over Heels

Holy crap.

Blue, Here Is A Shell For You

The Tuscany shawl? Is finished!

In The Bleak Mid-Winter Frosty Winds May Blow

ENOUGH.

Seriously.

Nothing Like That Italian Plastic

Let me put my knit-geek hat on for a second.

Janet, her cousin and I all went back to the Purple Purl this past weekend. The plan was to go to provide Janet’s cousin with moral support in her yarn purchase, and for me not to actually purchase any myself. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well. I haven’t had a chance to photograph it yet (due to my apartment having huge holes in multiple walls it at the moment - they’re replacing the hot water pipes or something), but I picked up a sweater’s worth of a lovely organic merino/angora blend from Quebec, in an oatmeal colour.

The best part, however, was the knitting circle at the Purl. That was the first time I knit anywhere other than the subway or at home, and it was so much fun! I can see why people attend knit nights now. Sitting in comfy chairs, surrounded by pretty pretty yarn and chatting with other knitters.

I had decided to bring my almost finished Tuscany shawl along with me to work on that afternoon. I’m starting to get to that point where I’m really determined to just get it finished now. So I’m happily knitting away, and I looked up to see a customer walk in the door. Not just any customer, but Amy Singer. You know, editor/founder of knitty.com? You know, the author of No Sheep For You? You know, the designer of the shawl I was working on?

And then, and then! She sat down and started working on her project, and started chatting with us. She’s just as nice and charming and witty as I thought she’d be. After a while, she looked around at what we were all working on and she did a bit of a double-take when she noticed my project. She said she thought it was lovely, and couldn’t wait to see it when it was finished. So.cool! Now I’m doubly determined to get it off the needles.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Good lord, it’s cold outside. Not quite as cold as the day I took this picture, but close.

This photo was taken around this time last year, and just looking at it makes me shiver. We made the mistake of going down to Niagara Falls on the coldest day of the year last year, because we thought it would be fun? cool? to take photos of the ice formations around the falls. I wouldn’t say it was fun, but it was definitely memorable. It was so cold, that I swear my legs stopped working properly after being outside for 10 minutes.

I know I said I wasn’t sick of winter yet in my last post, but this cold weather is beginning to make me change my mind. Brrrrr.

What Was Going Through My Head #1908753

Wow. It’s been a while since I updated this, huh? Here’s what I’ve been up to, randomly:

• The new job is going well so far, I’m still trying to get the feel of the place.
• It’s been kind of nice to have my car back full-time (E and I were sharing one car before when I was working downtown, but now we both need our own for work), but I do kind of miss the subway commute. No, really. I miss the reading/podcast-listening/knitting time.
• We’ve had what, over four feet of snow so far this year? I’m not sick of it yet. Famous last words? Maybe. I think it’s because it’s snowed often enough for it to stay all pretty and white and not turn that disgusting brown/black colour.
• I am, however, already sick of all the potholes. They’re spectacularly bad this year - there are a few on my commute that are big enough to swallow a car.
• I went on a yarn crawl last weekend with Janet and her cousin, and we discovered a new favourite LYS - The Purple Purl. What a lovely yarn shop! Jennifer and Miko made us feel so welcome - they have beautiful yarns, and great coffee as well. We can’t wait to go back.
• I’m trying to finish some of my UFOs before starting any new projects. I’ve had a few false re-starts on my Tuscany shawl the past couple days, so I’ve had to rip back more times than I care to admit. Thank goodness I decided to continue using lifelines after every pattern repeat.
• I also want to get back to taking more photographs, I’ve been pretty uninspired lately. Today would have been a good day to go out to photograph some snowy scenes in the sun, but my stupid head decided otherwise. I ended up spending my day inside, nursing a bad sinus headache.
• E and I had a lovely, quiet Valentine’s this year - beautiful red roses, yummy chocolate truffles, a nice dinner with wine. What more do you need?
• And lastly, hallelujah! Lost is back! And still awesome!

She Called Up And Gave Me The News

My three and a half months of unemployment are over. I got a job! Yay!

I won’t say much about it after this post as I don’t like to talk about work on my blog (see: dooced), but I didn’t think I was still in the running for the job when the interviewer REALLY misunderstood one of the questions I asked in my first interview at the company. It was the most uncomfortable (yet amusing, after the fact) five minutes of my professional life.