The Field Trip from Hell, or Close to it Anyway

What is worse than going on an all day field trip with a bunch of people you sort of know from school but don't really like? Going on an overnight field trip with those same people.

What could be worse than that? Coming home from said field trip with a bunch of hung over people you don't really like.

That pretty much sums up the past 2 days. Our class went to Vancouver and stayed overnight. We went to Granville Island, which is way cool, but somehow I got separated and spent most of the time there wandering around by myself. At the time I was a bit bummed but after so much "togetherness" this past few days, I'm glad I had the alone time. After Granville Island we went to Chinatown, where we had to stick together for some reason. I got some fun stuff for the kids and some cool green ink for Niko. I think it would be fun for Niko and I to take Selena there some time, there was so much neat stuff.

We also went to this big supermarket called "Urban Fare", some sort of yuppie farmers market. Very expensive! I bought some mangosteens at $6/lb (only 4, 1 for each of us to try at home). The coolest thing about that was meeting someone outside the store with a borzoi x husky. Beautiful dog. Later on we went to a nearby Milestone's for dinner. It was very disappointing, the service sucked, my steak was nice but to grisly for a New York strip and the roast potatoes tasted like they were roasted last week (the peas were nice though).

After that half the group went out to some club, the rest of us hung out for a bit, then I went to read my book. We didn't manage to get out of the hotel until 0830, which means we hit the ferry terminal at 0910 and had to wait for the 1230 ferry (being Easter weekend the lines were nuts!). I wanted to walk on but the terminal was about 2 mi from our first place in line and none of the hangover group wanted to walk that far. . . So I got home about 1500 this afternoon. All in all it wasn't a bad 2 days but I would have rather been elsewhere, especially near the end when everyone was bitchy, guys included.

Who Wrote Fahrenheit 451?

If you said Ray Bradbury, as Niko did when I asked her, you're right. Dave is wrong. So there.

Earlier today Dave was explaining to Angelina why the little satay sticks did not burn in the oven and mentioned Fahrenheit 451, the book and movie by Kurt Vonnegut. Almost instinctively, I said "It was Bradbury." Dave insisted it was Vonnegut and he knew because sci-fi is his thing. Uh-huh. I've read Fahrenheit 451 and lots of other Bradbury, but I haven't read any Vonnegut. Anyway, I gave up but asked Niko as soon as I got home. I borrowed a Bradbury book of hers with a nice pic of the Fahrenheit 451 cover to show Dave tomorrow. Not to gloat (well, maybe a little), just to say "see, I know what I'm talking about." I don't usually open my mouth unless I'm sure of my facts, although as you see by some of these posts I do spell names incorrectly from time to time.

Addendum to Recipe #1

Try adding mushrooms and carmelized onions! I'll have to ask Joey what else he put in it today, it was awesome.

A Surreal and Painful Experience (or #*$@*!!)

Maybe the title should be "A Painful and Surreal Experience" since it was painful before it was surreal. Or in other words - I cut myself again. A doozy this time.

I was slicing up romaine with a serrated knife (very sharp) and zoned out after the 5th head. Bad plan. Then I cut myself. Index finger (makes typing fun!), I thought it was just across the nail again. I went to Dave for a bandaid but because it was bleeding so much he gave me gauze and made me sit down in the office. I sit, it bleeds, I get new gauze, ice for my wrist (apparently slows the bleeding), and a paper towel to wipe blood off my hand. Okay, bigger cut than I thought. Chef comes to see if I am OK. Yes, I'm fine, everybody stop fussing.

So now I decide to look at the wound. Very bad plan. I see that I have cut off part of my nail altogether. (Remember when I last cut through a nail I wished that had happened? Well, now I regret that.) Okay, fine, let's bandage it up so I can get back to work. While I'm waiting for Dave things start to get fuzzy, I dream about being in cooking school, then next thing you know I'm sitting on the floor. Well, I may have been lying there at one point but I was sitting when I came to. Yep, I passed out. Very surreal. Everything happening in the kitchen was amplified and I could see it happening even though I was in another room.

Needless to say I sat there for a while. Erin came in for something, saw me sitting there with tears running down my face and brought me a cup of ice water. I wasn't really crying either, just these tears came. Dave says it's the shock. I guess so. The only other time I've been in shock is when my horse kicked me in the abdomen (an accident, I got in the way of his foot), I remember his hoof hitting me but I don't remember falling or how I got under the fence. I've almost fainted a few times - once giving a blood sample before Selena was born, once when Ryan was getting stitches in his thumb, and of course, once at Dad and Cat's wedding (but that was champagne and seasickness induced).

Wow, that turned out kinda long for someone who can only type with one index finger today. I guess I'll live, but I must remember to put down the sharp instrument next time I start to zone. And God knows how I am going to wash my hair tonight!

Easy Fundraiser

Marian over at The Dog's Breakfast is raising funds for her local greyhound adoption group. All you have to do is comment in her blog. How easy is that?

Of course, if you have some cash flow to donate, there is a link to the group (and you get a raffle entry too!).

It's All About the Books

Niko, Mum and I went to the annual book sale put on by the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper to raise funds for literacy. It was it the old Bay building downtown, so there was lots of parking and lots of room for the tons of books. The funny thing is I was feeling the need to buy books and was thinking of doing a used book store crawl this weekend when Niko mentioned the sale.

I decided to vary my routine and not start in mystery fiction for once. I could have easily blown the budget on hardcovers (at $3 ea) but I don't have a current list of what I have and didn't want doubles. Here is my haul:

• Death of a Prankster by M.C. Beaton, McGarr and the Method of Descartes by Bartholowmew Gill, and Missing Susan by Sharyn McCrumb were my paperback mystery finds.


• Tunisia: from Protectorate to Republic by Dwight L. Ling. An oldie (1967) for my history of the Middle East and North Africa collection.


• Imagined Communities: Reflections of the Origin and Spread of Nationalism by Benedict Anderson. Recommended reading from several courses I took, but I never had time to read.


• The Political Language of Islam by Bernard Lewis.


• Bible and Sword by Barbara W. Tuchman. Another oldie (1984 reprint of a 1956 book) for the collection


• Prospects for Development in the Asia-Pacific Area edited by Robert E Bedeski and John A Schofield. This is the "Proceedings of the First Annual University of Victoria - National Sun Yat-sen University Social Science Symposium" from 1999. I attended the symposium as a student volunteer and Dr. Bedeski was my favourite professor (he gave A's).


• Glorious Treasures of the Celts by Karen Sullivan. A short, shiny book full of wonderful pictures.


• The State of the World's Refugees: The Challenge of Protection by the High Commissioner of the UNHCR, 1993. Should be interesting in historical context.


• The Travels of Marco Polo no author, editor or translator credited. Something I've always meant to read.


• Women of the Raj by Margaret MacMillan


• The English Castle by Francois Matarasso

Not quite as eclectic of a collection as Niko's but it should make for some interesting reading.

It's So Quiet

The kids are in Victoria this weekend, so I can get caught up on a few things - like blogging.

I had a blast making sandwiches this week! I got to make extra ones - clubhouse, Monte Cristo and a delicious bbq chicken pizza. I may make that bbq sauce my next recipe post. Next week I am the salad queen.

I still have my stupid cold/bronchitis but it seems to be getting better, despite a minor relapse this week. Poor Skyla girlie dog has a cough too. I've been sneaking her pills into balls of Cheez Whiz but she isn't as enthusiastic about that treat as Cuinn, so I'm not entirely sure the pills are going where they are supposed to.

My car seems to be working well these days, last weekend we took Ry to Victoria and got back again without any problems. Good thing too, since Niko and I both left our phones at home.

We spent last Sunday doing yard work. We pulled all the slash and broken branches out the trees and burned it. The Hydro crews had been going through and cutting the taller trees on the easement for years and not disposing of the slash. Last year Mum made them come and chip it. It is a major fire hazard so we are trying to haul it out before it gets too dry to burn it. The really fun bit is all the little blackberry suckers wound around the branches. I look like I lost a fight in a cattery.

The overhaul on the greenhouse is coming along slowly (like anything else John does, but at least he is out of Mum's hair for a bit), it's looking less like a refugee camp and a little more tidy. The plastic and tarps were all mismatched and torn, so it looked very, uh, festive, in the wind.

If a Tree Falls . . .

How much does it cost the neighbour? About a grand if he drops it on the power line connected to his house.

That's what our neighbour did last weekend. We were out doing yard work when we heard the chainsaw, then saw the power lines vibrating like crazy. Sure enough a few minutes later he came by to borrow a phone since the tree had ripped the power, phone and cable lines off his house. He had to get Hydro to come and turn the power off so an electrician could reattach everything. This guy works for a landscaping company! Now we know who NOT to call when we need some trees worked on.