Project crazy

bedside table
Originally uploaded by Janamel

I've bored too many of you with the long and tiresome details of my recent project to refurbish these bedside tables to not share with you the final results. See right.

For those of you not intimately familiar with the story of these tables, I was freshly inspired by all those TV shows and magazine spreads that tell you to "Find free stuff! Make it beautiful!" when I found two bedside tables beside a dumpster. Perfect timing.

The tables were a dull gray but have a lovely concave curve to the drawers, and I decided to add some glamour by painting them black with lovely silver pulls. I think they look great.

However, they're only going to look this great for about five minutes. Because I didn't really think through the painting process and it turns out the original grey veneer doesn't bind well to latex paint and the black colour chips off if you so much as breathe on it.

I've temporarily stalled the paint from chipping excessively by adding glass tops. However, a weekly paint touch up will be required to keep these babies looking fresh. I'll keep a can of paint in the convenient top drawer...

Wednesday Morning

The only way I convinced myself to get out of bed this morning was after I remembered there was leftover french toast in the fridge. As I crawled out of bed I told Scott I was going straight to the kitchen to eat it.

He said he had eaten it yesterday.

I said I wanted a divorce.

And went back to bed.

And then Scott made me french toast. Because, he said, making french toast was a whole lot easier than getting a divorce.

I complained that it wasn't perfect (hey, it was still morning). But he forgave me, and we're still living happily ever after. The end.

The Art of Skiing

The ski season is once again about to begin, which means it's that time of year for Scott and I to pull out our Goofy DVD and refresh our knowledge of the techniques and traditions of the sport of skiing (or "shee-ing"). Thanks to the miracle of youtube, it's now yours to enjoy too.

Goofy's yodel off the ski jump is my all time favourite. There's nothing I love hearing more than that call echoing down the hill, coming from friends who have found a fresh stash of powder somewhere in the snowy trees around me.

Lemon Meringue

Lemon Meringue
Originally uploaded by Janamel

This weekend Scott and I celebrated the annual Harvest Dinner, a tradition that we have shared with friends for a number of years. It started when we realized that, between a few of us, we had a small vertical collection of the same wine from the same winery: Pinot Gris, I think, from Grey Monk. To celebrate this happy coincidence, we prepared an elaborate multicourse dinner to go with the wine. The evening ended with everyone lying on the floor groaning and complaining of eating too much. Naturally, we had to do it again the next year.

This year, the venue was Whistler. The event has expanded to include new friends, and in a somewhat alarming development, was held over two nights. We laughed a lot, drank good wine, and over-ate delicious foods (Scott and I contributed bison roast on night one, and homemade lemon meringue pie on night two). Our pacing is a bit better, but as a symbolic gesture we had a few minutes of lying on the floor holding our stomachs.

A late-night deal was struck to hold the 10th anniversary dinner in Italy. Or was it France? Either way, good food and friends are in our future.

The view from the road

LA Century Plaza
Originally uploaded by Janamel

Travelling solo is a funny thing. On the plus side, I get to spend time as I choose (I don't think Scott would ever choose two hours in Sephora). On the minus side, the inside jokes are very, well, inside.

When I got home tonight, poor Scott got to listen to my near endless monologue about all the standout moments of my 48 hour trip to LA: "...And I totally got lost in the parkade. And there was this voice in the hotel elevator? It had this awesome midwestern accent that made me laugh every time. And then there was this guy, see, and he was wearing this 'astro boy' hat. It was super funny. Cause it totally didn't suit him. And then..."

Sigh. I guess you had to be there.

Staying in Touch

I just joined facebook, as it truly is the best way to be in touch right now with some of my extended family. But I did so with mixed feelings, as I have a whole lot of ways to communicate with people. This blog, for instance, which has more space for rambling thoughts - for better or for worse. But how many conduits for communication do I really need? (flashback to my entire university education, in which I overused the word 'conduit' excessively in a four year long, unresolved argument about the Marshall McLuhan statement 'the medium is the message.' But I digress.)

Anyhoo, I feel the same way about these 'conduits,' as the kids say, as I do about all the membership cards that clutter up my wallet: I probably don't need them all. Now, my unrelated rant about membership and loyalty cards goes on for some time so I'll spare you the details but I think my point is this: if I stop picking up the phone and calling you, please come over and slap me on the forehead and take me out for lunch. (PS Clara, I think by now I owe you lunch: what's your number, anyway?)