Moments in the snow

Blogging took a back seat this week to visiting researchers, student panic, home improvements and family obligations. It was sitting in the final midterm (invigilating again) that I was able to slow down for a minute. Looking about the room, there was one toque for every baseball cap. We are currently experiencing our St.Patrick's Day storm, and it looks like this outside:

Toques not unexpected, really.

The bonus question on the midterm today was: "Today is the Ides of March. Explain the quote [Beware the Ides of March], including as much detail as possible." Despite not having read Julius Caesar in high school, the "Ides of March" has been referenced in our culture enough that I googled it in the past, and am aware of it's significance in the Shakespeare play. Not so the first student to pass in her midterm, who answered the question with a tip-off to St.Patrick himself. She wrote that since it was two days before St.Patrick's Day, one must beware of people rushing around getting liquor before the big day. I'll let you guess how many of the real biochem questions she bothered to answer.

I went looking in my iTunes for an appropriate song, and this is what I found.

His bit at the beginning is a hoot "...whether the dancers needed a break"

Coup

I've been singing Ben Caplan's Conduit in my head all day. He has managed to successfully dislodge David Simard. Check out his fantastic music player on the lower right of his website. When he played Conduit live in the kitchen, we all sang back to him and stomped the floor. I haven't had that much fun at a show in ages. We talked to the violin player later, nice guy who was jealous we were gutting an old farm house :)

Ben Caplan & The Casual Smokers - Forty Days And Forty Nights from HEAVYWEATHER on Vimeo.

Underfoot and overhead

So the plaster board is all up (as much as we can do, anyway) and the plaster people have been notified. We're on their schedule to get the veneer done in the next few weeks, and I'm excited to see the transformation from the dark grey walls to a light bright white. It's been extra cosy - since the plastering is easier when there aren't switches or plates in place, we've had no overhead lighting for weeks. The change from grey to white (and from plugged in lamps) to ceiling mounted lights is going to be bright!

Will this be us in a month?

Next step is flooring. Last time I talked about it, we were tottering between snazzy bamboo and rustic barnboards. In the interim, we acquired a sand-blasting tool able to shoot out walnut shells to refinish the wood, a softer alternative to sand blasting. Despite doing quick calculations confirming we have enough wood in the barn to do the first floor, we've run into some problems - the sand blaster requires an air compressor 6 times more powerful than the one we own and 2 times more powerful than the biggest compressor we could rent from the hardware store. Additionally, the wood might end up that bright orange-y gold colour after stripping, it's hard to say in advance.

Rhuh-rhoh...

Pros: wood is free, rustic planks from on-site (5" by 14' in some cases) add to the whimsy and eco-friendliness of reclaimed barnboard floors, we would have enough to do the whole house if we wanted to

Cons: Don't know what we are doing or how the finished product might look (aka this could turn into a four month project), the cost of renting tools to do the job might negate the "free materials" aspect, the colour might be ugly, the softwood would wear down more than a commercial finish

With this in mind, we did a quick tour of commercially available products that aren't outrageously expensive. The bamboo flooring mentioned upthread is $4/sq ft (our first floor is about 900 sq ft) so it doesn't matter how lovely the look, how long the boards or how hard wearing the finish is - it's outside our budget (sigh...up until last week I was still cyber stalking that product...). We did find a replacement product at a discount lumber store nearby: a maple pre-finished hardwood that has a strikingly similar colour range as our beloved bamboo. The catch (of course) is that the $2/sq ft product is basically made up of factory ends. When A-grade maple hardwood is marred by knots, gashes or other "unsightly" blemishes, the manufacturer just cuts off the offending bits into a pile of tiny interesting pieces. Since I'm daft and forgot to bring my phone with me, I don't have an image of the 4 foot x 3 foot panel the retailer had made up, although husband and I both thought it looked much like the varigated bamboo. Here are three pieces of sample together as a sample (top option):

Is it eco-friendly if you install end-pieces?

What's the problem? Buy the available maple product, have a lovely floor that stays within budget, get a kitchen.

My problem is that I'm a wood snob, and I have a paradigm that nice hardwood floors = expansive lengths of wood with few visible seams. I can't break the stigma in my head that installing a bajillion 1 foot long (or less!) off cut pieces of maple in my first floor is going to look super cheap and awful.

It boils down to having expensive tastes and no money (again...). It will take a few weeks and a few failed attempts at refinishing the softwood barn boards to change my mind, I expect. Til then!

Too Cute

I know, this is old and so cliche but this video puts a smile on my face every time. Makes me wish I was a better performer :)

This one too:

Wolfmother - Woman

Oh those funny feminists

I sometimes have difficulty explaining my reaction to what I perceive as stupidly sexist things to my husband, but we did agree that the move in the United States to basically ban access by employees (or even employee dependents) to birth control pills by certain religious schools, universities and hospitals is ridiculous. According to these institutions, doing so would go against their religious freedoms.

In the comments of some of the articles, there are stories about students who attend religiously-affiliated universities having to drive to the next town over to purchase full-priced birth control pills, and a female dependent unable to secure birth control because she is still covered by her father's insurance plan and he works as a principal at a private school with church ties. I think this is profoundly messed up in a country that claims to separate church and state.

This is the first video to mock the Congressional Republicans "experts":

and another one from Funny or Die:

Women's Health Experts Speak Out from Judd Nelson

Snow day

We're chipping away at the rooms that are left for plaster board, admittedly I had a less-than-productive weekend on account of a few parties. Ah well. I woke up with a scratchy throat this morning, potentially a cold coming on. Rose Cousins will help me feel better (her album dropped today - I put my Christmas gift certificate to good use). I've been trying to eat well lately too:

Organic mesclun greens with local goat cheese/bacon/beets and imported walnuts candied with local maple syrup. Green smoothie, kitchen drawings and The Scientist during my lunch break.

We visited a kitchen cabinet place on the weekend, who offered to draw up some plans for our space. I'm curious to see whether they look anything like what we have already done up in our heads. I'm sending the drawings of the space to her this afternoon, hopefully the turnaround is short.

A window I pass by at work on occasion. You wouldn't guess there's a foot of new snow on campus by the bright blue skies.

Weekend Warriors (my hands are blistered and sore)

With generous help from friends and family, we managed to put up 2/3 of the 12 foot boards of sheetrock this weekend - finishing the entry, front parlour, back parlour and most of the current kitchen. These are some of the photos of the work (for my brother-in-law, who is apparently sick of the number of fashion posts), there are LOTS of them.

Prior to the boards going up, I ran around like a squirrel taking pictures of exposed wiring. I figured with the spray foam insulation, any wiring done after the walls are closed will be much harder so we should have an idea of where things are running:

The front entry & stairwell, with newly framed closets for coat and cleaning supplies storage:

Curvy alcove under the stairs will eventually highlight art, and provide additional drawer storage:

A peak into the front parlour, currently housing our dining table/tool repository. Eventually destined for library status:

A peak into the back parlour from the front parlour, with the functioning washing machine (very timely repair, given all the plaster dust stuck to our clothing lately):

A little mood lighting:

And finally the new kitchen extension, with the beautiful exposed beams. If I can figure out a way to keep them like this, I will because I LOVE THEM. It might involve custom cabinetry, but if hubby is willing then so am I:

Decorated with antique butter churning bowl from in-laws:

Hidden treasure:

Finally the undone parts: alcove, pantry, closets and the back extension room that still needs extensive structural work (floors are sagging since they are under-framed):

(very excited)

Sucker for Punishment Playlist

AKA The "I'm-still-heating-samples-at-6:30-Friday-Night" playlist:



AKA The American/Canadian-female-artists-punctuated-by-the-occasional-dude-with-an-accent playlist.

It's actually happening

After a year+ of exposed spray foam insulation walls, this weekend we are actually going to put up drywall in preparation for plaster finish. Progress we can SEE. I'm so excited to be over the expensive stage of ventilation/plumbing/electrical.





Onto finishes, floors, cabinets and beyond!And today my washing machine got fixed!

hardly at all

Rose Cousins. If I'm lucky, I'll get to see her in concert for the tenth time in April.

art substitute

The art gallery on campus has a fundraiser every year on Feb.14th, where donated pieces of art are auctioned off while everyone dresses in their pink/red/purple best. Families are welcome to attend, there is a cash bar, and lovely MCs. There is also a cake walk, which is basically musical chairs but using numbered hearts around the perimeter of the room. You buy into the conga line, which snakes around the room while music plays. When it stops, a number is pulled from a basket and if you are standing on the number - you win! Meander over to a giant table full of cakes, and claim your prize.

I can't do art, but I can bake. My mother gave me the BEST chocolate cake recipe a few weeks ago (she made it for my birthday - yum!) and I used it to create this steampunk monstrosity:

It took forever because I didn't know what I was doing. Everything save for the hot ballon mesh and the various structural toothpicks is edible. It might even taste good (although miles from being healthy) since I used a marshmallow fondant recipe.

Bringing geekiness to the artists since 1984.

All these years...

...I coveted the smooth locks of others, wondering in amazement how they could tame their hair. Not even with a flat iron could I achieve the same results, so I just stopped trying and embraced my wild mane.

But lo! I know now the secret to smooth shiny hair now: a new hair dryer (I bought the Revlon RV544 mentioned here in Consumer Report review website) to replace the tiny, inefficient travel dryer I was using before. And then this amazing stuff Pequi Oil which I picked up in San Francisco last month. I had used a bunch of other similar products from other brands (Fructis, Dove, Organix) but none were as light on my fine hair.

Now I know this guy's trick.

Since we bought a new-to-use Ford Focus wagon (OMG no more piles of dog hair in the backseat, thank Chewbacca), I'm left with just a broken washing machine. Since doing laundry on campus is humiliating but possible, I decided to tackle that one last (karate chops the air).

Clearly all this sexy ride needs is some undercarriage neon lights.

season to taste

(Swearing & Orwellian themes, may not be everyone's cuppa tea)