I was walking home from work at the beginning of October and popped into the liquor store for a per-field trip bottle of wine (I was working near Chetwynd, BC for most of the month) and discovered a display of pumpkin beers. I'd never seen them in the store before (only on tap at brew pubs) and was amazed at the variety. Prior to this, I'd only ( Read more... )

On friday (April 20th) I biked home from work. My office is a block and a half away from the art gallery. As I pulled out of the underground lot I could smell the festivities. Then I rounded the corner and went past Holt Renfrew's main floor (= perfume floor) and the air quickly changed. After another section of pot and fumes I was in Strathcona, ( Read more... )

The Smell of Spring

my moment of zen
unfolding and blossoming
with each sweet inhale

My favourite time of year.

December is always a good time in the kitchen. This year I made fruitcake for the first time, under my mother's guidance of course. I also made a couple batches of stollen. I'm living with a German girl who was hankering for some German Christmas goodness. The first batch didn't rise much but the second batch fared a little better. I think I prefer ( Read more... )

Instead of going to a dancercise class today, I went to the ice rink. Despite my best intentions, I rarely ever make it more than twice a year. But each time I walk away with a grin frozen to my face. It doesn’t melt until about an hour later, the same time that my body starts to cool down (yes you read that right. Even my hands are warm when I’m ( Read more... )

As mentioned in the last post, the last lecture of the session was actually a conversation. With all that history in mind, we discussed the relevance of cultural appropriation to bellydance and our personal interpretation and presentation of dance ( Read more... )

I’ve been taking fusion bellydance for the past few months. The last class was Monday and ended on a high note. As a value added piece, the instructors (yup, it’s an amazing set-up, there’s always 2-3 instructors but that’s a similar story) began each class with a ~10 minute lecture about one aspect of the history of bellydance. We had a group ( Read more... )

Yup. That's right. I went on a cruise ( Read more... )

Good grief. So many photos!

I thought I had already made an album of my travels in Norway, but apparently my efforts post-farming were limited to rush prep for showing my parents. So here's the full Norway Travels album.

I added four photos to the end of the Mosel album, but only for completeness. They're not great ones.

I probably won't upload the ( Read more... )

See them here.

Next up: wedding and cruise