Things I Think Are Awesome: Part One

I’ve seen these lists posts on other blogs so I decided to do one here... mostly because I really don’t know how to segue through all the things I want to talk about. Although normally I think a well-crafted segue is awesome.

Not segways, though. They kinda suck.

(The only good thing to come from segways was G.O.B.)

1. Stir It Up

I wanted to give some love to a new-to-me restaurant in Fernwood, Stir It Up. I was finally enticed into trying the restaurant one day after smelling of their delicious food. It's Jamaican and Caribbean food. Sadly, the kitchen is very small and does not allow for prep in the space so some of the items are premade and then reheated but it tasted so delicious, I got over that very quickly.

GET IN MY BELLY!!

[Photo from their site]

It is cash only so hit up the ATM before you go (there's one across the street at the Fernwood Inn, so, you know...) and you either need to go on a sunny day when you can sit outside or get take out as the inside has about two 'cozy' seats. Meals run about $10.

2. XKCD

So, this webcomic is something that I always love but I was a little enamoured with this particular comic:

[Permanently borrowed from XKCD]

I know I may get some haters but based on the people I know who attend Burning Man, I have come to decision that the majority of attendees are socially obnoxious d-bags. Also, based on the number of stories those same people have told me about cheating or being cheated on at Burning Man, they're d-bags who can't stay faithful so... yeah...

3. THR

This falls into the list of things I always love but THR (who is also crafty) is back from her trip Down Under to see her family and she linked up to a great link of free organization tools. I thought it was so awesome, I decided it needed to be shared over here too. She linked to some crafty person who also had links to fee name tags/crafty items. The part I liked most is here. It's all free and all cute. What's not to love?

4. Star Trek (TOS)

Thanks to Darla over at Bakingdom (that girl is seriously talented and you should all have her in your reader even if only to look at the pretty pictures of things you'll never make... like me!) I learned that today is the 45th anniversary of the airing of very first episode of Star Trek.

I don't know if you guys have noticed but I am a huge nerd! I watched every single episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation growing up. I read a couple of the books (which I would only read at home so I wouldn't accidentally be caught with one by a 'cool' kid and mercilessly mocked for) and even dressed up as Counselor Troi for Halloween one year.

I dyed my hair black with one of those 'one wash' dyes and then I curled it.

The curls were gone in about 30 minutes (stupid poker straight hair) and

I was still washing the black dye out two weeks later. One wash my *ss!

I was a late-comer to The Original Series (called  TOS by those 'in the know' aka geeks) only starting to watch it about five years ago. I love it. Some day, when I meet my sugar daddy (so, you know, never), I plan to buy the entire series on DVD because I'm nerdy awesome like that.

Back to Darla's awesomeness. Also being of the geek-persuasion, Darla made these awesome TOS sugar cookies.

[Credit: shamelessly stolen from Bakingdom]

Seeing them in my reader this morning made my heart go pitter-patter! Also, she insinuated she was going to make some Firefly baked goods so that's my day made.

Captain Mal in edible form? If you insist!

So, those are some things I think are awesome right now. I have more to talk about but a) I have a lunch meeting I have to get to and b) The Guild isn't going to watch itself in the next 20 minutes before I have to leave, so, you know...

Shoot for the Moon. Earth's Gravitational Pull Will Prevent You From Obtaining Orbit But Maybe You'll Land Somewhere Interesting.

After a fabulous weekend in Nanaimo during which we visited Gabriola for the Theatre Festival, played a total of 11 games of rummy (so, roughly 100 hands), drank a few bottles of wine, drank a few gallons of tea, and discovered I had injured myself, the rest of Summer has flown by.
Did you know it's September 1st today?

I know!

I realised that out of all my plans for the summer, very few of them actually happened but I'm okay with that.

Camping plans fell through at the last minute. Hiking plans never happened due to something else happening pretty much every weekend. Travel to Vancouver and Seattle never materialised for the same reason. I did a lot of running but conflicting schedules and then injury stopped my goal of four-times-a-week.

I did get to catch up with some old friends at Shawnigan. I sat in the gardens at Government House and read a good book. I had multiple BBQs with awesome people. I verbally committed to going to Guinea in December 2012 and teaching the Kubian village ladies to sew school uniforms.

Wait, what?

Yeah, you read that right. But don't worry, go back and reread it just to make sure. I'll wait.

Through the magic of links, I'll remind you of the time I said:

5) MoonDance is talking about going back to Guinea for another dance/drum intensive learning holiday in 2012. Actually, Lynn suggested it a few years ago and then later said it wasn't a firm plan. Tonight Erin and I decided that we're just going to talk about it like it's happening because then it will. So, I'm totally going to Guinea in 2012. You heard it here first.

Erin and I were (sort of) joking but it worked. Moondance is going to Guinea in 2012 for dance and drum lessons. (While I have verbally committed to doing this, I will refrain from saying I'm actually going until I can sit down and do some accounting math and planning.)

Moondance is very closely related to Matoto as Matoto was born out of Moondance's last trip to Guinea. At at working bee last week, we were discussing our school in Kubian which will begin teaching students this October! (very excited about that) when the topic of school uniforms came up. I remembered a project in Tanzania where the local women were taught to sew the uniforms which in turn gave the additional income to the mostly single women.

Why can't we do that?

Except we need someone who sews.

And that, my friends, is how I ended up verbally committing to going to Guinea.

(Actually, I told them that if I am able to make the trip to Guinea, I would teach sewing but that the *if* is quite substantial at this time. They gave me a 'uh-huh' look which clearly states they expect me to fully make it happen. I do, after all , have 15 months to get it sorted.)

Something else I need to get sorted out in that time? French.

Guinea's only offical language is French. While I know that many of our teachers will have some English and many of my fellow travellers will have some French, I'd like to be able to do most of the teaching with as little translation as possible. In other words, I should have started learning French yesterday.

I'm nothing if not ambitious... and slightly crazy.

Mostly crazy.

Dribs and Drabs

It's been over a week since I last posted and the list of items I want to talk about just grows longer and longer. There is no smooth way to segue from item to item so I'm going with ye olde list option. And because the list is a little on the long (and boring) side, I'm throwing in some random pictures BECAUSE I CAN!

Spring is finally here! Sorta... still a bit cooler than normal but hey! Flowers!

1. I didn't read a single book in March. Not one. It was just not a good month for getting anything done that wasn't 'essential' (eating is essential, bathing is essential, reading is not essential). That puts me at roughly three books behind for my two a month goal, but I know I can make it up because I'm halfway through three books as we speak. I never really was one for reading on book at a time.

That's me getting arrested for not reading.Mounties totally do that right?

Arrest children for not reading enough?

Because they probably should.

2. My Aunt Joan who reads this (Hi Joan!) put me in touch with her friend who is going to Ghana to volunteer. Her friend was looking for information about volunteering. I was hesitant at first because I really didn't think I could be that helpful having volunteered in Tanzania (it's like asking for information about Vancouver from someone who's only been to Toronto). Through our email exchanges, however, I realised that there's a lot of information that I have about volunteering in Tanzania that can be applied to volunteering overseas in general (and especially in developing countries).

As a result of this, I'm going to work on a volunteer page for this blog which will contain this information. It is currently a work in progress and it may be a good month before I actually get it up, but if you have volunteered overseas and have any tips, tricks, secrets, hints, suggestions, or warnings, please share.

This was before I realised his diaper was leaking and he had peed all down my back.

True story.

3. In the same vein, a huge, HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported Matoto in our Ten Days event. We are still collecting all the money before we confirm out total (it's a chicks hatching thing), but we are eternally grateful for all the support we have received. I nu wali.

Education helps level the playing field.

(I really need a drummer to just follow me around.)

(BUT IT'S TRUE!)

4. Shannon started doing OrgJunkie's 52 week organize challenge. I had a few too many things on my plate to start the challenge at the time but kept it in the back of my mind for later. Well, it's later. On Friday, I had to conduct a search under the bathroom sink for *ahem* feminine hygiene products. I'm sure the cupboard under my bathroom sink is like many other such cupboards: plenty of items go in but toilet paper, the aforementioned FHP, and cheap bulk purchase toothpaste are the only items that come out. After five minutes, I finally found some FHP. They weren't mine. I can only assume they were my roommates. She moved out three years ago this June. Note taken; 52 week Org Challenge will start shortly (although I will not be doing the weekly blogging questions, I will occasionally talk about it on here).

Important question: do I organise these alphabetically or by amount of geek-cred they give me?

5. Last year, my old high school started an Alumni Band. We practiced for about six weeks and then opened for the current senior and jazz bands at the annual Mother's Day concert. Well, they decided to do it again and I decided to rejoin. Let this be a lesson for you children: once a geek, always a geek.

I miss band trips. Why couldn't we redo that part of high school band?

Who wouldn't want to be stuck on a bus for 10 hours with

people you barely talked to 15 years ago?

6. Playoffs are in full swing. For those who are not Canadian, I'm referring to ice hockey playoffs. (Seriously? Do the Americans really need to specify ice hockey on their broadcasts? When was the last time they televised a field hockey game on national television?) My boys were doing really well until last night (when they got trounced 7-2 by Chicago but when you obviously forget to show up to a game, that's what happens). Assuming they don't completely choke tomorrow night, expect a few hockey-related, beer-fueled posts on here. Just a warning.

The Canucks' skill level on Tuesday was somewhat akin to these guys.

Still, love my boys. My dad told me to cheer for the underdogs because when they win, it's a sweeter victory.

I have suffered through a lot of bad years and it really has made this year so rewarding.

M dad also told me not to be a damn fool about it which is why I don't cheer for the Leafs.

7. I have to speak German in three weeks. Granted, this lady speaks English but where would the fun be in that? Ich muss Deutsch sprechen!

YAY GERMANY!

Wait, this is the flag of the Swiss Canton Wallis. My bad.

I can't wait until she starts laughing at my Canadian-Swiss accent in German.

Grueesächt! Chuchichäschtli! Chässchuechli!

8. There's more but I haven't been in bed before midnight once in the last week. I might have been able to pull of working on five hours sleep when I was twenty but now it just makes me moody and short-tempered. Actually, it did that to me in my twenty's as well but we were all so sleep-deprived and hopped up on caffeine that we didn't notice each other's foul moods.

8.a. I'm a little obsessed with the mini-series on HBO called Game of Thrones (of which I am currently reading the book--almost done--and am also obsessed with) plus Doctor Who starts up this weekend... I'm just saying that my writing might be a little distracted and/or very sci-fi/fantasy/hockey heavy for the next few weeks/months. I'm sorry but I'm a dork. You all knew this when you started reading this... unless you're new here in which case: hello!

I got chills when I first saw this and not just because Winter Is Coming!