I think I'll be planting my garden this weekend. I have to decide what to put in it! Once again this year I'll be buying plants - I wanted to try to start seedlings, but I don't really have anyplace to do that at the moment. I'm hoping to finally replace the missing pane of glass in the porch, and next year I can start seedlings there, as it gets really warm and greenhouse-like when all the windows are shut.

I'll plant tomatoes, of course. And last year the zucchini did really well, so I'll have those, too. I'm going to try cucumber again this year - two years ago I planted cucumber, but something would randomly bite them (not eat them, just bite them), so I couldn't get anything. I'm hoping that since the zucchini was left alone last year, the cucumber will be left alone when it's planted near the zucchini. I want to start some lettuce, and green onions, too. And there's likely to be room for a couple other plants, but I don't know what I want yet. I guess I'll just see what's there that strikes my fancy.

For the herb garden, I've already got mint and chives. I will plant basil again, because YUM! Maybe only one dill plant this year, though, which would leave room for one other herb...or two, if I get rid of one of the chives (I didn't use the chives much last year). I'm not sure what other herb I want. I guess I'll just take a look and see what I can find.

I want to plant a couple flower gardens, too...I'm thinking along one side of the walkway to the front door, and along the side of the fence in the backyard. That already has some peonies, and a bunch of weeds - once I clear out the weeds, there should be a lot of room for a flower garden. I don't know if I want a more structured garden, or just a mix of stuff like the two beds already out front (a co-worker asked what was planted in there, and the only things I can identify are peonies, lily of the valley, day lilies, tulips and daffodils. I have no idea what the rest of it is!) - our neighbours have really nice gardens, so it makes me wish I was good at the structured ones like theres. It's just so much easier for it to be more wild! I admit it, I am a lazy gardener. I guess I'll just wait and see what I can find, and go from there.

I'll attempt to post photos - I can't find my camera cord at the moment, but Scott's got a card reader, so I'm sure somehow, I'll get them up eventually.

Back in October, I wrote about the crazy stuff happening with my brother.

I never answered any comments, but I am very grateful to the people who did leave them. So, thanks to you.

And update on my nephew's situation - we're hoping that it's most likely that he is a klutz like my brother and I (I get random bruises all over that I have no idea where they came from, or can't narrow down what caused them because I'm always tripping or smashing into things). But in November my mother got an email from my brother - my nephew is now attending daycare (the evil one's mother, who used to take care of him, broke some body part so she doesn't look after him anymore). That means that there are now other people outside of the families that can notice any signs of potential abuse, which is slightly reassuring.

I have not contacted my brother yet. Still. I'm at a loss for how to get started. I just think it will go badly, since everyone else's contact has gone badly. But what if I'm the one who could get through to him? Not that I think I am, but I shouldn't leave that to chance, right? And I suppose, with Christmas being here, I could use that as an excuse for contacting him. I just don't know where to go from here.

But I guess I could think about it while completing my list of stuff do, conveniently found in my previous entry.

I've only been a little productive today, my first day of "Christmas Vacation".

I've slept in, made some oatmeal, fed the cat and cleaned around her dishes (she is a very messy eater), watched Little Miss Sunshine (on our new tv! It's pretty giant) while very slowly cleaning the living room (still not finished), and watched Against Me!: We're Never Going Home.

I need to:
finish cleaning the living room
clean the dining room There was vacuuming! And bonus front hall cleaning! And then I cleaned the vacuum!
clean the bathroom
do the dishes with bonus drain de-clogging!
clean the kitchen
bake: gingersnaps and snowballs (the regular kinds, and the kinds for my sister, with no wheat and no eggs)
make cranberry pistachio white chocolate bark
shower
get dressed
clean Kaylee's litter box
wrap presents
pack for Christmas outings to my parents' and Scott's parents' places

Let's see what I can do.

I like to send mail. If you would like a holiday card (I don't care if you'd rather not send one back; that's cool), fill out my poll!

Poll #1302068 Cards! Cardy cards cards.
This poll is closed.
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

You want a card this December? I'd like your name and address!

Need more room?

Any particular requests? (Like, "I don't do religion!") Do you celebrate anything in particular that you want me to know?

Anything else I need to know?

The first ripe vegetables from my garden!

The tomatoes (they are supposed to be small) were super delicious. I have not yet eaten the zucchini.

My garden is getting so exciting! Things are growing, and I am just waiting to eat them. It will be good!

( Pictures! )

Since I didn't get my garden pics up yesterday, and I won't get them up until at least later tonight, I have decided to instead give you this bit of fun: Ed Begley vs. Bill Nye: It's a green war!

I am totally excited that Dr. Henry Morgentaler has been named to the Order of Canada. The Govenor General has been getting a lot of flack from anti-choice/anti-abortion/whatever you want to call them forces. Please consider contacting her let her know that you support their decision.

Contact information is:

E-mail: info@gg.ca
Phone: 613-993-8200
Toll-free: 1-800-465-6890
Fax: 613-998-8760

Mail:
Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean
Governor General of Canada
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A1

Listening to Scott and his friend play Rock Band is pretty hilarious. His friend is definitely not a singer. Heh.

Ooo, Scott's going to sing now. That'll be fun. His friend is making him sing Ballroom Blitz. Heh, also amusingly bad.

I was all excited to ride my bike to work today, and then of course, my bike lock appears to be jammed! I cannot open it. I am sad. I hope it's just because I was all flustered and in a rush to get to work, and not that there's something wrong.

So I call a cab to get to work, and it took half an hour to get me! (Although, perhaps I should have just walked the block and a bit to the other cab company to grab one. Next time...) BAH to that! But then I think the cabbie realized I was little "GET ME TO WORK NOW! Please!" so he went quickly. And he seemed surprised when I gave him a nice tip. (But dude, why are all sorts of school children taking cabs? Where are the school buses? But what do I know; I grew up in an area that had one cab company, with possibly only two cabs.)

Luckily, my boss is awesome, and was all, "Don't worry about it! I'm just glad you're here." I'm sure it helps I was only 7 minutes late.

Anyway. Here's hoping today improves. Please? I don't want it to get worse. Thanks.

I have a topic to write about, thanks to turtle_head!

What I will be reading at my new Friday job and how I choose it:

I read all sorts of stuff - non-fiction, fiction, young adult novels, pretty much anything really. I am more picky about magazines (I regularly read Bitch, BUST, and Real Simple, and then every once in a while I'll read Quill & Quire, UTNE Reader, and New Internationalist, among others), but I'll read just about any book (which is odd, since the time commitment for a book is much greater than for a magazine. And yes, I do continue to read books that I am not enjoying, probably because I hope that it will improve. It's rare that I actually give up on a book).

I have a list of books I'd like to read, and it's all over the map. Because my list is so long, I definitely have to go to the library for most of them (there are certain authors, however, that I do buy the book for, since I end up reading the books quite often). The only trouble with the library is that I do end up picking up random books that look interesting, so my list of books I want to read never really gets much shorter!

I am currently in the middle of a YA series, thanks to lagustar lending me the books. It's the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I've read the first two, and will start the third one shortly. They're pretty entertaining, although it took me a while to get into the first one (15 chapters, actually). I find that it's pretty hard for books about vampires to avoid being cheesey, but these aren't too bad in that way.

Next up, I'll read Everything is Illuminated, which was also lent to me by lagustar. I've been wanting to read it for a while, so it'll be nice to finally do that.

Also, I'd like to read Lock And Key by Sarah Dessen when it comes out on Tuesday, but her books have a way of making me bawl my eyes out, which would not be good at work. (I did read part of Just Listen on the bus ride to my other job a few weeks ago, even though I knew I was likely getting close to the place that would make me cry. And I totally did. At least it was sunny and I could hide the tears behind my sunglasses. And thankfully I didn't bawl, just leaked a little.) She is one of the authors I have to own books by, as I read them often. (I tend to do that with YA books. Why am I not a children's librarian?)

After that, I think I may need a non-fiction spree. I could attempt to keep going on Naomi Klien's The Shock Doctrine, but I have a hardcover copy, and if I don't have to drag it around with me, I'd prefer not to. Plus, I spent an awful lot of time swearing at the first chapter, because I found it so disturbing. Again, not the best thing to be doing on the job (but apparently it was okay to do so at a curling rink, which is where I was when I started reading it. But I was the only one watching, so it's not like anyone heard me). I'd really like to read The Official Punk Rock Book of Lists, or Rock On: An Office Power Ballad. I shall have to see if my local library has them. (And I should check if I can reserve things online. I doubt it, though. Or I can be bad, and use my Toronto Library card. I'd have to find the nearest library to my work besides the TRL, I'm guessing.) (Huh. I just realized that an awful lot of the non-fiction I read has to do with music, and especially punk music.)

And because I'm curious, my list of books I want to read currently consists of 45 books, of which at least 3 are not yet released. 11 are non-fiction. The rest are fiction, and a whack of those are YA books. That is a much shorter list than the list of movies I want to see. That is potentially sad.

Next substantial post: what I am planning to grow in my garden (thanks to starfishchick for that suggestion! I am always open to suggestions of stuff to write about, should you feel the urge to suggest/ask.)

Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim? Hell yeah! Definitely a movie I will be looking forward to watching.

I just finished watching Good Will Hunting, which I haven't watched in a good long while. I'd forgotten that there were so many enjoyable things in that movie. (Ben Affleck didn't make me want to vomit! Wow.)

Not enjoyable, however, is getting distracted by the internet during the end credits so that I didn't stop the movie while it was still on "Miss Misery" by Elliot Smith, and instead, let it play to the end so that I now have "Afternoon Delight" in my freaking head. Not. Cool.

Worse still, I really only know two lines of that song. GAH.

This morning we attempted to beat the storm into Toronto, so that we could go to a memorial service for my dad's cousin. (He passed away in early January; he'd been suffering from advanced Parkinson's, as well as Alzheimer's, I believe. It was not unexpected.) We made it to the 401, where there was pretty much only one lane (as opposed to the usual three). We made it as far as the west end of Milton when we decided to turn around. You could barely see 20 feet ahead of you, and at the rate we were going, we'd be lucky to make it into the city in several hours, let alone the 45 minutes we had before the service was to start.

So I've been baking instead. I wish I could say it was in honour of my dad's cousin, but I didn't really know him all that well. He was nice and all, but I have no clue as to whether he'd even like Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies, or white cake. Well, no matter. I'll still eat a slice in Don's memory.

So now my most urgent decision (which isn't urgent at all) is whether to put chocolate or vanilla icing on my white cake. (Cake mix was on sale yesterday at the grocery store. And listersgirl had written about cake recently, so I'd been kind of craving it. Plus, there was cake at work on Tuesday, but they ran out so I didn't get a piece. I am now making up for it, I suppose.)

The Waldo Ultimatum (a parody of the Bourne movies).

Bourne Parody on FunnyOrDie.com

This lolcat is pretty damn awesome.

An update of sorts on my request for meal ideas.

So, for a few weeks after that entry, I was really good about prepping my veggies in advance so that I'd use them up. And I did use the vast majority of vegetables before they went bad, which was better than I'd been in a long time!

Then, I bought a cookbook that several people suggested: Moosewood Restaurant Daily Specials: More Than 275 Recipes for Soups, Stews, Salads & Extras. What I've been doing now is picking at least one recipe to make a week (sometimes it's one soup and one salad to make a week; since Scott won't eat anything from this cookbook, they last me at least a couple days. The other days of the week I eat whatever I can find.), and that seems to be working out well. I'm not wasting veggies, since I buy what I need for the recipe, and maybe a small assortment of other veggies to eat on the other days.

I even have a couple pictures of stuff I've made!

( Two pics behind here )
So, yes. I'm eating (I've bought those mini cereals to take to work to eat for breakfast; once a week or so I buy a small carton of milk, and keep it in the fridge at work) and it's working out pretty well. I'll potentially continue to post photos, because it's kind of fun.

Tonight, I will buy eggs, and then I can make some delicious cookies from a recipe that vitaminbootay gave me.

Henry Rollins and Heidi May are funny.

The earliest video clip contains frozen rodents and a frozen snake, if you're at all squeamish. But they're funny.

And it's interesting to see Henry Rollins' apartment. It's a lot more sparse than I would have thought.

I have taken a Snow Day today. I so did not feel like being on a bus for over 3 hours each way today, so I said fuck it.

As I was shovelling the sidewalk this morning at 8:30am, a tractor trailor got stuck in the road (at the cross street, unimaginatively called Cross Street) while trying to back up to the factory.

( Pictures and the rest of the 'drama' )

For any peeps who understand Canadian politics, if you could help me with this, I would really appreciate it.

If a bill is at its third reading in the Senate, there's no point in writing to your MP about it, right? If a bill passes the Senate, then where does it go? I cannot remember how this works, and the intarbets are not helping me at the moment.