Pig kidneys

We have pig organs in the freezer in the basement. I thought to cook one of the kidneys today. It smelled like pee, just smelled. Even after soaking in salt water as directed by The Joy of Cooking.  Even when I cut off the white inner membrane, it still just smelled, so I ditched it. Not interested in eating pee meat. And now, off and on all evening, I am getting imagined whiffs of the pee meat smell, even though I think I can't really smell it. The livers in the freezer should be good. I'll eat them.  Not today though. 

We went out to dinner tonight as a family. Got all dressed up and everything. This was the outing the kids chose to trade over half their Halloween candy for. We went to Milestone's and the Santa Claus parade went by outside as we sat in the restaurant but we could only see various flashing lights from it. We went through The Empress on the way from the car and had a look at the festival of Christmas trees. 

And because the restaurant trip was also to celebrate both T and Jeff's birthdays we got birthday desserts with sparklers. 

Then we came home and by 8:30 all but one of us were voluntarily tucked up in bed with books or iPods. That was our Saturday.

Cheers,

L

Friday November 28

Look at what showed up above the school yesterday for about five minutes. 

It was vibrant. 

L

Wednesday November 26

There's a mom at the elementary school who always has her baby in a wrap on ger back. Today she had a very nice knitted poncho on so I told her I liked it. She showed me the wrap that was hidden underneath that she had woven herself. She weaves on a 36" loom in her closet in her apartment. 

Nice baby wrap!

L

Monday November 24

I went to my dental cleaning and check up a few days ago. Whereas the hygienist spent a good forty minutes gouging, scraping and shredding away at my teeth at the gumline, the dentist comes in with his fingers like the wings of butterflies to check for decay. 

Some stuff from the white board recently. 

Recent open rehearsal for the orchestra E is in. 

What I was doing while I listened. 

L

Pro D day Friday

This is my daughter doing homework today at her friend's place. 

It is a project on Macbeth. Supposed to be a PowerPoint presentation, so they choose to do songs instead. School is more fun these days I think. 

And this is a drool worthy beautiful orange Bullit cargo bike I saw at the library today, complete with Bionx motor for E-assist. Very nice indeed!

L

Friday November 14

Here are some things observed recently during my crossing guard duty. 

2 dads very obviously looking at woman's bum in front of them as they went across the sidewalk. She had grey jeans on and her  jacket only came down to her waist. Very high heeled shoes made her have an exaggerated sashaying kind of walk. 

There was a puffy purple glove sticking out of a green backpack's side pocket. Looks like a purple some one is reaching up from the depths of the  pocket. Either just fallen in or in the process of climbing out. 

Strange forklift. Wondering where it would be used. Side pressure plates/ feet on the front of it. Extending angled forklift part. Big wheels tires. No doors on cab. Still street legal.  When would you use this machine ? Where?

Very little girl holding a rubber snake by the head. The rest of it dangling down and bounced jauntily along as she was being carried in her dad's arms. 

The wind is making all the leaves play chase with one another across the intersection and back again. 

I saw a grandpa with a quite a small  baby in a front carrier. He was patting the baby's back or bum gently as he walked along. The grandma was walking beside him with a little dog on a leash. I assumed they were coming to pick up and older sibling from school. It made me think of what it would be like to be a grandma and not being the boss of how the babies are being raised and cared for but maybe taking care of them at times. It's the first time I have had a thought about what that stage of my life might be like. 

And, for your viewing pleasure, I include two pictures taken by the breakwater from when Jeff and I went for a walk at dusk a couple of weekends ago. 

That is all. 

L 

Wednesday November 12

The daily modeling clay offering. Guess who made it? You have three guesses and the first two don't count. 

Also:

Well? Have you?

P.S. It's Sirius Black. 

We are reading through the Harry Potter books at bedtime for T. He needs to hear or read the books before we watch the movies. 

There's also this:

I didn't get the back story on this diorama, but it's definitely a wizard with a wand, or actually, on second thought, it could be Doctor Who.

And here is the knitted chain mail hood from J's Halloween costume modeled oh so ably by the head. 

L

Halloween costumes

This year my youngest is going as Dr Who, the David Tennant incarnation. 

I found a jacket to use as the overcoat at Value Village and he made a sonic screwdriver after school on Halloween day. We also found him some converse type shoes to go along with it. 

It was pretty good. 

So my daughter decided that she wanted to be a weeping Angel, also from the same Tv series. 

She made all the pieces up herself. First was the wig. 

And these will be the wings. It's foam core. 

And I helped her with sewing some curtain fabric ends and cast off grey T shirts to a thrift store dress. Irrigation hose was used to make a hoop for the bottom edge. 

And then she wore it to school on the day. 

 I'm always impressed all to heck by what she makes out of bits of this and that!

L

Farm veggies

It's really fall now. We went for a drive out to walk on the beach at Island View and walked in the rain until it got to be too wet. Then we stopped at Michell's farm on the way back for Halloween pumpkins and general veggies. They have the most beautiful Savoy cabbages. 

You almost buy them just to gaze at them. 

We have been to Value Village a few times these last few weeks looking for costume bits and some regular clothes. I noticed the details on the gate by Ocean River Sports. 

I like it. I'm not sure if it's always been there. Probably has. 

There was a vibrant rainbow that I got a picture of only after it had started to wane. 

This is a joke my daughter and her friends thought of as they stated after school to do math recently. They left it on the chalkboard. 

L