In the Aw, cute! category

Rare newborn albino Pygmy Marmoset monkey perches on a zookeeper's thumb at Froso Zoo in Ostersund, Sweden August 22, 2006.

It's dead, Jim!

My friend Alex taped the third (and final) season of "This is Wonderland" for me because it doesn't air in the States. He gave me the videotapes when I visited Edmonton, but I haven't had time to start watching them until today. And of course, when I go to turn on my VCR it dies a sudden and pathetic death. I suppose I shouldn't complain, as in this age of disposable electronics and designed obsolescence my VCR had worked faithfully for over ten years. Still, it's very frustrating that it happened right now, as I was looking forward to spending the evening curled up in front of the tv watching as many episodes as I could before falling asleep. Bummer.

On the plant theme

I fear that this might be my last resort if I ever get another plant:

Sayonara Bob

I was given a lovely little plant a year or so ago with the promise that there was pretty much nothing I could do to kill it. This is a very good promise, as I am able to kill just about any living plant-based life given to me. I haven't experimented on non-plant-based life, but I'm sure that the animal kingdom is grateful that I have a pet vacuum cleaner, and not an actual living thing. Anyway, Bob lived quite happily in my window for many many months, successfully surviving periodic drought (when I forgot about him) and tropical downpours (when I kept forgetting if I had watered him so kept watering him more, just in case). Last month I went away for a vacation, Philadelphia experienced disgustingly high temperatures, and poor Bob pretty much fried in his window. When I got back he looked a little brown around the edges. Over the next few weeks he became progressively more dessicated and leave started falling off in droves. I finally gave him a decent burial (well, I put him in the trash) yesterday, and Bob is no more. He lasted longer than any other plant I ever had. Longer than Betty the avocado I grew from a pit and the peanuts I tried to grow from a peanut farmer kit. It's a good thing that my tree is in the watchful care of my mother back home. Rest in Peace, Bob.

Things I didn't know, part 763

I walked to work yesterday morning with Rachel and Liz, and we took a different route than normal. We headed up Camac street, and I don’t think I’ve ever walked up that part of the street before. It was really cool because there's one part of Camac that is the last remaining wood block street in America. I didn’t have a camera, and evidently it’s not a popular image on the web, but here’s a shot of the wood blocks (in pretty bad shape in this section)

How cool is that?

Phenomenal book

I know I shouldn't be talking about this until after book club next Tuesday, but I just finished our book for this month and it was wonderful. Liz suggested The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I started reading it last night and instead of just finishing a couple of chapters, I ended up reading about a fifth of the book before realizing that would I probably need some sleep for the next day. Today I read on my breaks, at lunch, and pretty much resented anything or anyone who got between me and the book. I finished about ten minutes ago, and have just now stopped crying.
According to the publisher, "it's just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery...."

By a chapter in or so I was sucked into the power of the flow of the words. I finished the book with a tissue in one hand because I was crying for the last 75 pages. It was so beautiful and ugly and sad and powerful.
Go and take it out from your library and lock yourself away for the day or two (or more, I'm a fast reader) it takes to finish it. You won't be disappointed.

Zombie fun!

My friend Karin is a huge zombie fan. In her honour I present to you two zombie related sites:

Spelling with Zombies - type in any text and will be spelled out in zombie bodies.

Since we are within a couple of months of Halloween, this site shows you how to make realistic looking lacerations so you can make yourself into a disgusting, disfigured zombie to scare the kiddies!

The bookstore I wish I had as a kid

How cool is this?

Tonight is the big birthday banquet for me and Jen at Lee How Fook, so we're really excited about that!

Belated vacation conclusion

Right, so after my post last Thursday, I got way too busy to write anything else. Let me give you a quick summary of the final days of my Edmonton trip:

Friday: Judy arranged a birthday manicure (I have pretty pink fingernails now, like a princess!) and then gave me a birthday massage. Having a massage therapist in the family is a wonderful thing, even if she wouldn't let me complain about the INTENSE PAIN when she dug into my shoulders.
She does it because she cares, people. That evening I went for dinner with Matt at the Mongolie Grill, which I love, and even though they do not have traditional Mongolian desserts (yak milk custard, anyone?) they make a mean tiramisu. We then retired to his place and watched Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. I highly recommend the movie, even if you do not have a huge crush on Robert Downey Jr., like I do. It was hilarious and we both were laughing out loud.

Saturday: The folks and I went to the St. Albert Farmer's Market, the largest outdoor farmer's market in western Canada. Some great stuff, including dulce de leche for dad, hot sauce for me, a cool present for Jen, and some fabulous tasting throughout. It was tons of fun. That afternoon we met up with Judy and went out to Heritage Days - this year it was huge, with 58 pavilions covering about 70 cultures. We were trying not to eat too much because that night we had tickets to dinner theatre, but still we certainly tried alot. Turkey rocks! After a quick nap, we headed out to the Mayfield Dinner Theatre to see Ivanka Chews the Fat, which was cute, but it felt like an average Fringe play.

Sunday: Back again to Heritage Days. This time we went right when it opened at 10, and mom and I lasted about 5 1/5 hours. Dad left after about 3 hours, but mom and I still had eating and shopping to do. I got some adorable finger puppets for my children's librarian friends from either the Chilean or Venezuelan pavilion (I can't remember which) and a cute pink wool bag from Nepal. Mom got some great glass perfume bottles from the Arab Cultures pavilion and a beautiful silver pendant from Mexico. And we ate so much I think I gained 10 pounds over the weekend. At the end it was getting pretty hot, and I was looking forward to taking the air-conditioned bus home. I completely forgot that Edmonton buses are heated for the winter, not air conditioned. It was a miserable ride. That evening, while I was doing laundry (because who wants to come home to the chore of going to the laundromat?), Susan came over with avocado-chili dip and fed me some more.

Monday: Lazy morning, then off to the airport. As usual, I forgot a bunch of stuff in Edmonton. Judy will be delivering a skirt, a t-shirt, and hopefully the bag of underwear that I bought then misplaced when she comes next month. And as usual the airport in Philly took forever getting our baggage to the carousel when we landed, so I got home at about midnight. Good thing I was working late the next day.

All in all, a fabulous trip, even if I did not manage to get together with Stan for my birthday spanking :) Oh well, better luck next year. Love you all, and miss you already!

Vacation, part 3

All you Philly people really need to be here this week. It's lovely! The highs are around 20 celsius (that's 68 degrees fahrenheit) and it's not humid at all. Okay, that's it for the bragging - except to say that I bought some sweaters and a jean jacket (yay! I've been looking for the perfect jean jacket for months, and I found one one - on sale for $15!) and have been wearing them. The cute little skirts have stayed in the suitcase, as have the sandals. I know, I'll pay for my hubris when I get back.

Yesterday I hitched a ride downtown with my sister at 9, so I had a morning of wandering the downtown malls (and I can hear Liz and Jen and Micaela all laughing at me right now - nothing wrong with loving malls) and going to the main library to get baby picture books in spanish for Judy to help her with her Spanish lessons. The main library in Edmonton is so nice and well laid out and miles cleaner than the Philly Central Library. And the checkout is right at the exit, so everyone has to go through it and then the turnstile to get out. Very good design there. Afterwards I met up with an old classmate from library school for lunch, so it was my library day.

Judy and I then met back up and we went down to Whyte Ave, which is like the South Street of Philly, but with less dirt and sex stores and more bars and (polite) homeless people. Both street have some great little shops and Whyte has one of the two indie movie theatres in Edmonton, the Princess.
And then the highlight of the day: birthday pizza! Judy and I have a tradition that we go to Boston Pizza every time I'm in town to have Tropical Chicken Pizza (no pineapples on my half) and wings. It was delicious, but even two extra-strength lactaids were no match for all the cheese and alfredo sauce on the pizza. We've decided to explored other foods for our new traditional dinner.
After dinner we headed to the mall to check out the sales at Bootlegger and La Vie en Rose. I got a sparkly blue zip sweater for the winter for $5. Then we went to Mark's Work Wearhouse to see if Judy could find some cheap sandals, but they were mostly gone by then. We did find adorable hoodies in sherbet orange, so now we match. Good thing we live many many miles apart!
We ended the day watching So You Think You Can Dance and then had a sleepover in Judy's lovely foam bed. On a sad note, Edmonton cable does not get Project Runway at all, so I'll have to wait 'til next week to see the episode from this week. Don't spoil me!!
Today I'm meeting the newly engaged Linda for lunch, hanging out with my mom, and then going for dinner with more friends.

Vacation part 2

Yesterday I was very stupid. I was going to see some friends whose place I had visited last time, but did not realize, even after writing down the address, that they had moved. Only once I had walked an hour to their old place (in rain boots! not comfortable) did I think to double check their address. Once I finally got there I found out that everyone but Brent is sick like a dog (I saw Dave briefly as he stumbled into the kitchen for apple juice before going back to sleep).
So I hung out in the plague house with Brent for a few hours being fed chicken and rice soup and tea and flipping between classic Star Trek and Next Generation. Talk about rediscovering my roots :) Hopefully everyone will get better soon and we can try to get together again. P.S. Happy belated birthday, Brent!

I've also become that girl who buys the same pair of shoes in three colours. After a delicious Greek dinner with Susan of the hot sauces (if you want me to bring you back fabulous homemade hot sauce, let me know before Saturday) and the lovely and talented Jillian, Jill and I went to Mark's Work Wearhouse (not just steel toed boots anymore) to use a $10 off card I got. They had really cute flip-flop sandals that are the closest things to thongs without that annoying between the toe thing. They were on sale for $3 each, so of course I had to get them. Trouble was, I could not decide what colour to get. I'm now the proud owner of pairs in lavendar, orange, and black.

Today I'm taking a holiday from my vacation. All I'm doing until 2 is lounging and reading. It's wonderful, and I have some great prepubs from the ALA conference. This afternoon is coffee with dad and his friend and then dinner at the pub with other friends, then we might all come back to my sister's place for roasting marshmallows in her fireplace. We even have all the fixing's for s'mores!