Wednesday...

In Toronto, it goes from winter to summer in about a week. Actually, it goes from winter to spring, to winter, to summer...

All that to say, last week was freezing, and this week is HOT! I hauled out the old window unit AC the other day, so that we can sleep at night. Our landlord assures us that there will be new skylights in our place at some point, ones that vent... Perhaps I should show him the following diagram, in an attempt to move the process along...


That front room, with the door to the balcony, is our living room. The back room is our bedroom... That would be the one with absolutely no airflow through the room at all. With one little opening in the roof, we could be living large...

In other news, Leah picked up this mic yesterday. Stay tuned as she starts putting that bad boy to work...

Morning

So, as part of the biking to the work week, I can get into the Goodlife gym downstairs from my office for free, so that I can shower before work. Today I figured I would go in early and use the gym too.

However, since my chain came off my bike twice, and since one of those times it got horribly caught between the gears of my bike and took quite some time to remove, I didn't make it in quite as early as I planned. Also, I walked around in the gym for a few minutes, and remembered that I don't really like gyms at all. This one is shiny and new, and is crammed really full of machines. The fake lighting and the gym muzak and the gym people...

Anyway - I just took a shower, and since I was about 15 minutes early for work, I decided to just get a coffee and go and sit in the park for about 10 minutes.

Blah blah blah

So today, for bike-yo-ass-to-work week, my office had this guy in to do bike tune-ups. He parked his van outside and set up a mobile bike tune-up shop. He makes a living by fixing bikes in Toronto during the summer, and fixing boats in Florida in the winter. Pretty sweet deal, if you are into bikes as much as this dude is.

Also, its a pretty sweet deal for me - since I had the bike-man pimp my ride for free. He raised the handle bars, tuned the gear cables, stopped the brakes from squealing etc...

In other news, the elders meeting that we went to on Friday night meant that I missed out on a site visit to the new wing of Pearson airport. I wouldn't generally care too much, but this one would have been pretty sweet - there is a new Richard Serra sculpture in the new wing that folks got to see...
Judging by pictures, it looks pretty cool.


Of course it is only a matter of time until the rest of the world (those that fly, at least) will get to see it too.

Monday

Today is one of those days that I forgot to bring my headphones to work.
It is also the first day of bike-yo-ass-to-work week in Toronto. To celebrate (not really, I think it had something to do with unions fighting managements), the TTC staged a surprise Monday morning strike. This means that all the of the inexperienced bikers (like myself) had to deal with bumper to bumper irate drivers. Luckily I take the 'back roads', and I didn't even notice a difference until I emerged from the cemetary onto Mt Pleasant. The endless stream of southbound traffic actually made it easier to cross the street and continue on my northbound way.

So - the weekend!?

Friday - running around... groceries... elders' meeting...
Saturday - running around buying a juicer (used), a bike helmet (necessary), a microphone (except the store was closed... so no microphone), visiting Debbie at her new apartment (pimped - rooftop patio overlooking Future's bakery)... etc...
Sunday - more running around, to Kinkos (evil), buying a bike lock (expensive), and then to church (good, as usual, and I didn't have to run sound 'cause Justin wanted to - special bonus was listening to Johnny Cash sing his devil-music for most of setup)... Afterwards we went to Fresh (with the yuppie/artster/hipster crowd) for dinner...

That is all...

Bring the God Rock

A somewhat interesting interview on the uncomfortable subject of 'Christian' Music.

Why does Pedro the Lion keep coming up when he clearly told us in Toronto that he is 'not !@#$%#*& Christian'?

Long Weekend...

Here goes...

Friday - heaps of laundry, and then we went over to Kevin and Don's. We looked through Kevin and Jen's sweet pictures of France. Don and Mike never made it back from playing frisbee with some teachers...

Saturday - Jen (a different Jen) and Adrienne came over for brunch... pancakes, fruit and coffee. Other fools that didn't make it missed out on that deliciousness. Afterwards we went to Yorkdale and watched Poseidon. It is about a ship that sinks, and every nightmarish underwater scenario that you can imagine. We also picked up Other Songs, by Ron Sexsmith, and Johnny Cash live at Folsom Prison...

Sunday - we went to church, and then a birthday party...

Monday - we rearranged the kitchen, and moved the desk and computer out of our bedroom. There is actually a little room in our bedroom now. Leah went to teach the flute, and I went shopping for Leah-friendly food for dinner. I also managed to make some Leah-friendly cookies, which is no mean feat... they are gluten, dairy, and sugar-free (they do have honey and maple syrup), and they actually taste good. After dinner, Leah went to Don and Kevin's to 'lay down some tracks'. I threw the new Danielson onto my walkman, bought a decaf coffee, and went for a walk. I managed to avoid getting my face shot off by fireworks wielding maniacs.
Ships is pretty sweet, by the way, in a Danielson kind of way...

Oh yeah - it is freakin' winter in Canada, folks.

Radiation Vibe

Lists like this are kinda scary...

I don't currently have a cellphone. Of course, I sit about 18 inches from a CRT aimed directly at my head for about 7.5 hours a day.

Thursday

Currently listening to 'Busting up a Starbucks [live at KEXP]', by Mike Doughty.

I can't seem to shake the tiredness of this week. I overslept today (I got up at 7.34 and managed to arrive at my desk by 8.34... pretty impressive, if you ask me.)

Tomorrow is the first Friday of our summer hours - which means I will get off work around lunchtime. I predict that the afternoon will be spent on laundry and other such activities... and then it is the long weekend.

Let's see... anything interesting to tell?...

Yesterday on the bus to work, this old black man was quietly singing songs - 'Then sings my soul, my Saviour, God, to Thee, how great Thou art...'

Also, check out the ghetto recording of a new Leah Hunter song here...

Sufjan interview

For those who didn't see this yesterday...

The Weekend

Friday night we went to Dylan's apartment to watch a movie with a bunch of church folks. At Blockbuster, the video-store girl took my Blockbuster card, and before I realized what was happening, she was on the phone with the store in St. Elmo's, in Chattanooga. I guess she wanted to verify something or other... anyway - while she was on hold I told her that I hadn't been to the Chat-town video store in about 7 years... so she hung up and called our usual Blockbuster (in Toronto...)

On the way back from the video store, Adrienne realized that she was not wearing the diamond ring that was from her grandmother. When we got back to the apartment, we searched everywhere for it. Eventually she and D took the flashlight and decided to retrace their steps...

Being a bunch of church kids, we prayed quickly before they set out, although I felt a little bit silly doing so. The rest of us kept looking around the apartment while they were gone. After about half an hour, they returned WITH THE RING! They found it lying beside the curb where we had crossed Spadina. Nobody could believe it. I'm pretty sure it was a real-deal miracle. A) they found it, in the dark, along the half a mile or so stretch that we had walked... B) nobody found it before them, on Spadina, on a Friday night.

Eventually, we watched the movie - the Jacket. It was a pretty good time-travel movie (despite the few holes and unexplained/irrelevant things that could have been tied together a little more.)

Saturday - we went to Jamie's housewarming party, which was fun.

Sunday - I ran sound at church (which means church took up the whole afternoon and evening...) It's funny that all of the non-volunteer sound running at my previous church prepared me for helping out at Freedomize...

Game

Check out this game.

The day that is Thurday

So we presented our proposal for the Orphan Spaces design competition at the Design Exchange yesterday. I was pretty pleased with our project, overall. I think we managed to pull off a fairly interesting idea, after being assigned a rather uninteresting site. Our panels looked great and our presentation went well. I definitely thought that we were one of the best 3 projects... (one of the other 2 actually ended up winning).

Afterwards, I was part of a discussion panel moderated by Ian Chodikoff (editor of Canadian Architect). Overall it went pretty well. I was pleased that Matt Blackett, of the m@b comic (and Spacing Magazine creative director and publisher - the guys that came up with the genius subway station buttons) was also on the panel.

Oh yeah - the whole event was kicked off by a photo-op visit and short speech by David Miller.

In other news, check out Pitchfork's review of Danielson's latest effort (9.1!)

Tuesday

Yesterday the fire alarm went off at work. I grabbed my wallet and an apple and headed downstairs.
Within the next twenty minutes, five fire-trucks showed up, as well as at least 2 ambulance vehicles, and every police car on this side of the city. A while later, news people started showing up with giant cameras.
Apparantly there was some sort of fire, and an elevator had some sort of problem (I still don't know what). Anyway, we sat outside for about 2 and a half hours, and then when it finally became clear that we would not be going back into the building, I went home. I had to buy some tokens, 'cause all of my stuff was inside, including my Metro-Pass...

After the days' excitement, I went down to U of T to work on some presentation stuff for a design competition. My team will be presenting our proposal tomorrow at the Design Exchange. Today I am tired.

That is all.

Weekend Update

The usual...

Friday night - I can't remember?! I think we stayed at home and watched the rest of The Films of Charles and Ray Eames, Vol 2 (maybe)

Saturday - I went to work on a design competition with some people. Since we have to present the thing this Wednesday, and had yet to really draw anything, we pretty much worked on it for most of the day. We did swing by Kensington for lunch, which was fun (despite the cold weather that stuck around all weekend).

That evening, Leah went to pick out a kitten with an Oakwood Cat Rescue lady. Instead of picking one, she picked two - which is cool, 'cause they are brother and sister, and keep each other company. Their names are Petrie and Mable, and they are pretty darn cute... (pictures will be forthcoming).

Sunday - I went to Nove Era and read Reservation Blues, while Leah went to work. I also started work on what will become my new website. It will be pretty cool, I think, if I ever get it done.

We then went to Jeremy and Pat's house for pancakes. Afterwards, we went to church. Rik Leaf led worship, which was pretty cool. Afterwards, Jen came over to see the kittens and have some dinner.

The end.

Weekend Update

So, it's that time again when I cast my memory back over the few days past and see if I can remember anything interesting from the weekend to relate to you all...

Friday night - Leah and I walked to two hardware stores, both of which were closed. I needed some wire cutters in order to finish building a small table for our record player.

Saturday - I went back to the nearest hardware store, and asked the little old lady (?!) running the store if she had anything that would cut through steel cable. We looked at what she had on display, and then she went into the back and brought out these tres expensive wire clippers. I figured I might as well spend the extra $15 and buy the ones that would actually work.
I then went to a meeting with some other U of T students/grads to talk about our design ideas for a competition we are entering. The process involved sitting and drinking coffee, walking around, joking a lot, eating some lamb sausage hot-dogs, root-beer, gelato, and a fair amount of frustration. We came up with some pretty good ideas though.

When I went home, Leah and I finished work on the table. Actually, we almost finished work on it, and as I was doing the last bit of tightening up the steel cable, two of the clips holding everything together slipped. I tried cutting them off of the cable, so that I could reattach everything, but there was just no way. I ended up cutting the cable, leaving it 6 inches too short to be of any use. I was extremely frustrated, and will have to trek out to Canadian Tire again, at some point... The up side is that the table was looking pretty sweet before it fell apart... you can check out a sneak preview here, if you wish...

To celebrate, we worked on tax forms and a letter of recommendation that a friend needs for his grad school application...

Sunday - I finished up said letter. I also had time for some coffee/reading/annoyingly-loud lost 80s weekend radio at Nova Era...
Leah and I then went to an organ recital at the Anglican church where Leah has been rocking the flute for the last 5 years worth of Sunday mornings. Dr Willis Noble tore up some Bach and Schumann fugues for the 15 or so old folks that were in attendance. It is weird - he could be one of the best organists in Canada, and his pay-what-you-can recital rocks a pretty close to empty church.

We ended up skipping a good chunk of church. Afterwards, we went home. I went to bed, and Leah went to Sneaky's to see Julie Doiron...