Snow!

Take that Google!

Turns out that Google doesn't know everything after all! The day after Google pinpointed the fact that summer had turned to fall, the temperature immediately plunged and the leaves turned fiery reds and yellows and start to tumble en masse from the neighbourhood trees.

So it was to my incredible glee that I saw that our early transition to winter - yes, winter, it's snowing out there - went unannounced by Google. Their ability to announce that would have made me right nervous.... (but not surprised).

On the downside, it means that fall only lasted a month. We haven't even finished raking!!

What Were They Thinking?

Thing No. 68

Okay, so it's happened to all of us. You move into a new place and you slowly (or quickly!) end up discovering a lot of things that i) weren't immediately apparent pre-signing on the dotted line; and ii) make you shake your head and think "whatever was it that they were thinking?"

Well, just this week, more than a year after moving into Chez Nous, I discovered Thing No. 68: Tucked away on a small section of wall in the downstairs hallway is one of the unique-est picture hanging instruments that I have ever seen. And I do mean ever. There on the wall, neatly painted the same white as said wall, is an upside down flat thumbtack that has been glued onto the wall with its needle part sticking out offering itself as a picture nail! I'se just can't believe it!

Of course, rather than dig it out and use a regular picture nail or hook, I had to try it out. So far, so good, the picture holds. Who knows, maybe this time, they were actually on to something....

The Kitchen Chairs of my Childhood Can Now be Found in a Funky Retro-Café

Growing up, we ate all of our meals around the kitchen table. We had a big eat-in kitchen with a round melamine table which had four matching chairs. Being the fifth family member, however, my chair was the desk chair from the desk in the playroom, but I digress.... My parents had bought the set in the sixties when they married and moved into their first apartment. Yes, we were the epitome of coolness back then!

Sometime in the late nineties, the round melamine table was replaced with an even older drop-leaf antique table. The chairs, however, remained. When I moved to Ottawa in '98, I dragged the table out of the basement and brought it with me. It has been with me ever since and currently resides in the centre of my eat-in kitchen.

The chairs, on the other hand, kicked around the new old kitchen table for a while, until that table made its way into the livingroom (leaves down), to fill in the gap where the piano - which had been moved to my brother's place - had resided. Another new old kitchen table - and chairs - were acquired for the kitchen. The old chairs ended up in the basement, tableless and alone.

Just under four years ago, the chairs were again given a new life. This time with a young family that had recently immigrated to Montreal and were setting up their first Canadian home. Currently in their forty-somethingth year, the chairs and table now live 8km from each other across the Ottawa river. Just the other day, we were wondering how long the chairs would/could last....

... Enter the newest and hippest café in my quickly gentrifying neighbourhood; Raw Sugar. After months (and months) of speculation, Raw Sugar finally opened its doors two weeks ago. A bit of a cross between Café Santropol in Montreal and Leave it to Beaver, Raw Sugar offers an eclectic mix of 50s and 60s tables, chairs and furnishings. Nothing matches and everything matches. Massive Formica tables are surrounded by a hodge-podge of retro kitchen chairs, including I might add, the Kitchen Chairs of My Childhood, nestled in among the orange vinyl and purple velour.

Who knew? And suddenly, we are once again the epitome of cool!

Life in the Rat Race

Yup, that's me! :-(