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!

I should have packed a sweater...

I flew into Edmonton Saturday afternoon (after spending the first portion of the flight waiting on the runway for an hour until the airport found baggage handlers to come load our luggage and then having a flight-long conversation with my seatmate, an arborist, whese name I never got). I was picked up by my sister, and as all good vacations start we promptly went shopping. Saturday night we went to Taste of Edmonton, which was great, but Normands was out of buffalo kebobs, so I was bummed about that.

Yesterday we went to the Callingwood Farmer's Market, and I overcompensated for the lack of buffalo the night before by buying buffalo sausage and buffalo pepperoni (and chicken satay and teriyaki beef and one of those delicious and painfully sweet peanut butter marshmallow squares) Susan was also there selling her hot sauces so I got a sweet chili sauce and her "somewhat spicy hot sauce"

Have I mentioned how cold it is here yet? And rainy? It's like fall! I don't think I packed enough warm clothes. Good thing I've come prepared to shop! I think it only made it to about 13 degrees celsius yesterday, and it started pouring a little after lunch time. It's supposed to be cool and rainy all week, which makes me kind of happy, as I see that Philly is having disgusting heat and is under a heat advisory now. My folks and I and a family friend went around the city to see all six Front Yards in Bloom finalists. We had to make a couple of stops for people to pull on sweaters and socks. Nature can be very pretty, but by the last few houses Esther and I were staying in the car and experiencing nature from a dry distance. Today I wear my rainboots and carry an umbrella. Good thing I packed my rain gear!

Westward Ho!

I'm about to fly off for my annual pilgrimage to food festival mecca. If you're around Edmonton next week, drop me a line if you haven't already and schedule in some quality Dena time!

Happy birthday to me!

Yup, today is my actual birthday, even though due to scheduling we're not celebrating for a couple of weeks. I do have to go in to work, as I'm using all my vacation time next week to fly back home. But Karin is bringing me a birthday tiara to wear, so it will be a festive day nonetheless.

I love birthdays!

UPDATE: I just got a box in the mail at work. Inside was a set of founding father bobblehead dolls from Hyperion Books for Children. There's nothing else in the box, but I'm guessing I probably won them from ALA. What perfect timing, eh?












UPDATE: I have acheived birthday princess-hood with the addition of a birthday tiara:

Understated, yet fabulous
(and in the background you can just make out the four bobblehead dolls I got today)

Reading Terminal Market, how do I love thee?

I had my very first butcher experience this weekend. I fully believe that meat grows in plastic wrap at the grocery store, but Micaela decided to educate me otherwise and took me to her butcher at Reading Terminal Market. Super cheap ground lamb, custom cut stew meat, and the fun of watching the butcher flirt like crazy with Micaela. As an added bonus, the quality of the meat was superb.

We also went to Iovine's to pick up random vegetables and fruits. It's crazy cheap, and they had amazing mangoes on sale for 2/$1.49. But the best thing was the container of dried apple rings I picked up on a whim. Wow, those things are like crack! I just went back today to get two more containers because they disappear way too fast. I'm taking a chance and trying the dried pears as well. Yes, my life is that exciting.

p.s. Happy Birthday Jen!

Two things learned before breakfast today

One: It is wise to follow the directions on the side of the migraine medication bottle. I took a couple of pills at five this morning on an empty stomach and although the headache is gone, it has been replaced with an awful queasiness. When something tells you to take with food, it's a good idea to follow the instructions.

Two: While wearing a 50's-style skirt, avoid walking over air vents. I had an unexpected Marilyn Monroe incident this morning on the way to work, so my lesson is learned.

Books of the Week

So far this week I've read two very good books. They're both continuations of series (one much more so than the other) and they both kept me up way too late reading them.


First we have Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey. Carey wrote a magnificent trilogy a few years ago about a kind of alternate renaissance Europe, full of political machinations, intrigue, treachery, sex, and grand battles. This is the first of a new trilogy that moves the narration from Phedre (the heroine of the first trilogy) to Imriel (her adopted son). I recommend reading the first trilogy (Kushiel's Dart, Kushiel's Chosen, Kushiel's Avatar) before this one. This is a series you really do have to read in order.


Second is Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes. This book is the fourth to follow the Walsh sisters of Dublin. This time it's Anna who gets her own book. It's hard to explain this one without giving away the plot twists, but Anna has sustained some serious injuries and her husband isn't returning any of her emails or calls. Keyes' books about the Walsh sisters transcend the stereotypical chick-lit genre. Other books about the Walshes include Watermelon, Rachel's Holiday, and Angels. It doesn't much matter which order you read these books, but chronologically (and publication date-wise) Watermelon is first.

And on a totally unrelated note, it is stupid hot outside today. High of 38 Celsius (99 Fahrenheit). And humid. I can't wait for autumn!

Great animation

The National Film Board of Canada just made available online 50 classic animated shorts. It's free to view, and they've got some great ones to see, like "The Cat Came Back" which totally creeped me out as a kid, and still does to this day.

I saw Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room! at the ALA/CLA conference in Toronto a few years ago (I also totally scared my hero, Robert Munsch, at the same conference). I still love it, so check it out and see why. This one is for mom and dad, who spent years trying to get me to clean my room!

Birthday girl!

I have a birthday coming up (July 26th, party on August 11th), and for those of you who feel the need to get me a present (although it's not necessary), I've tried to make the job easier for you by making a registry that has some of the types of things I like on it to give you an idea. Check it out!

Petty Theft...

...or, yet another straw on the back of my faith in the inherent goodness of humanity.

Today I went to the laundromat. I've been following the same routine for over five years now - Wash clothes while reading, then put them in the dryer and go to the grocery store to do some shopping in the 28 minutes before the dry cycle is done. I leave my little old lady laundry cart, laundry bags, and detergent in the laundromat while I do this. I've never had a problem before. Today when I got back from stocking up on summer essentials (2 pints of blueberries, mango nectar, apricot nectar, and blackcurrant nectar) someone had walked off with my laundry detergent! There was only one person in the laudromat when I left, and no-one when I got back. The laundry lady who runs the place didn't notice him take it, but she said no-one else had come in while I was gone for 15 minutes.

So, Mr. Bright yellow shirt and dreadlocks, I hope you enjoy your 2/3 empty bottle of detergent.

Anyone have an empty laundry detergent jug I can have instead of you throwing it out?