Bebop

Ah, just got caught in the stairwell awkwardly pseudo-raving by some undergrads while I was in my lab coat and listening to Daft Punk way too loudly on my headphones.

iPod oblivion:1, Natalie:0

Hello Autumn

Yesterday morning we woke up to a barely risen sun. The sky above the tree line on the other side of the lake behind our house was just the most amazing colour: An aqua blue sky with a stripe of orange/red. The blue was being reflected on the dark waters, so the picture outside our window was blue- black- orange- aqua. Astounding, I tried to get a photo with my crappy digital camera but of course the washed out colours don't really impress so much on (digital) film.

This is my rough photoshop representation, based entirely on memory (and created entirely without skill):


Nature knows how to balance the colour wheel so well, non?

Frivolous Things

Current novel: Catch-22 (ten pages from being done)

Thing that I do when I'm supposed to be working on the house: We are into week 2 (Season 2) of Battlestar Gallactica mania

Current soundtrack: Ane Brun. Unable to get rid of her and her hauntingly catchy songs. It's been a month+ of constant rotation in my CD player/mp3 player/iTunes list.

Thing that I would buy if I had $1500 in disposable cash: an impossibly trendy Herve Leger bandage dress in grey. Like this one, 'cept I would rock it harder because I have actual curves:



(I had to cut off her sad, emaciated head because her cheekbones were disturbing me, not because I like to objectify woman by chopping their bodies into chunks without heads or brains). Sigh.

Geek Chic

I came across this website while browsing Slate. It was mentioned in an article about buying prescription glasses online, and I was intrigued being the poor, near-sighted student that I am. The essence of the article is that buying online prescription glasses is just the next step in online consumerism, and that astronomically high mark-ups in the brick-and-mortar stores can be side-stepped in favor of deeply discounted but essentially identical glasses bought online. This means people like me, who have been putting off a very important thing (proper sight) because of the cost ($300-ish), now have options.

This article is particularly timely because the last few months I have been bugging my husband that it's time for new specs (these ones I currently wear - my only pair- are about five years old) but the truth is new glasses are on the bottom of our priority list at the moment. But I love me some bargains, and I love going online shopping. Some of the more sophisticated sites listed on the GlassyEyes blog allow you to virtually "try on" a pair of glasses using an uploaded close-up headshot. So guess what I've been doing for the past week? I've got it narrowed to my favorite half-dozen frames, but my next priority is getting a current prescription. So I'm going to call up my optician and see if I can't get that done asap, and then scrounge around for $50 for a brand new pair of glasses.

In the kitchen

I baked four things this weekend and burnt not a single item.

That is surely a record for me.

First up was an upside down cake made with blackberries we picked on Saturday from Duncan's Cove (my favoritest of favorite local nature spots).



(Aside: I started baking at 10 pm on Saturday night. Lifelong habit that used to drive my mom bananas. I guess I'm a night hawk?) The cake itself turned out as it was supposed to (so I'm told by my loving and very smart husband) but I wasn't really digging it. Until I put ice cream on it, and then it was gold.



I also picked about 7 cups of huckleberries, which are like blueberries but are a darker colour, less sweet and contain tiny seeds like a raspberry.


When we first moved here and started hiking at Duncan's Cove, I was absolutely floored with the number of huckleberry bushes. Acres and acres - everywhere! More than anyone could ever pick, or any animal could ever eat. Apparently they are not commercially cultivated and not amenable to domestication because they are finicky growers. Since I find berry picking uber-relaxing, I picked enough this past weekend to make two pies (and have some in my cereal too!)





I hope to go back at least one more time, and get enough for a few more fresh berry pies as well as some I could freeze to use later in muffins. My sweet tooth and my thrifty pocket all agree this is a good plan.

Landscaper's Dream

Weekend before last the in-laws came down to help with the house. On the agenda was cleaning the basement and seeding the rest of the back-yard. We decided to seed instead of sod because we ran out of money and seeding is much less labour-intensive, freeing up our time to get other things done. Like finishing the last sets of curtains and cleaning the basement (which has been a huge boost in out attempt at decluttering). I feel like we are no longer living above a seething mess, and thanks to my mother-in-law, we now have a sizeable place to finish other carpentry projects (like the mantel piece for the fireplace, the design for which we have completed this past weekend). So the Saturday I seeded it was beautiful weather. My father-in-law warned me that by the next day, there would probably be dozens of birds at the all-you-can-eat grass seed buffet.

Beg to differ:




Ah, a beautiful August Sunday afternoon in the Maritimes. Awesome.