Plenty of Nothing

Evangeline Brandt "Earn the Sweatshirt"

Evangeline Brandt "Breaking News"

Evangeline Brandt "Fairies Kill the Galliano"

Evangeline Brandt "Christmas"

Winter Solstice in Cape Breton

Non-Trip Report: Days 4, 5 and 6

Let's see: it's all starting to blur together. A sign that the time off is working. 

Tuesday was hiking day chez nous.  During the transit strike Douglas' boss has been giving him a drive to and from work but wasn't able to on Tuesday.  It was relatively mild and sunny so Douglas walked the five miles.  Those long skinny legs came in handy: he made it there in an hour and a quarter.  I have short legs and I'm lazy so my walk to the Rosemount Library was much much slower. I hadn't been to the Rosemount before. It's interior--layout and fixtures--is very similar to the Rideau branch I used to visit: small oak book cases, central desk, small non-fiction annex. I left with a couple of book (I might run out, seriously, it could happen) and trundled off to the deli and bought lots and lots of chutney since Douglas has recently decided that he loooooooves chutney. And then there was some reading.

Wednesday was a snow day so shovelling and a short dash to the grocery store. And then there was some reading.

Today's what, Thursday? So far: a whole lot of nothing.

Non-trip Report: Day 3

There was slightly less laziness today as Ottawa weather turned temporarily to spring.  It was Douglas' day off so after a lazy start, we slushed our way around the neighbourhood.

Douglas got to have his biannual feed of liver and onions at the Newport. I got treated to a Heath bar from one of the three candy stores in the neighbourhood.

We hunted for a set of kitchen tongs while we boggled at the tone of a conversation between a young woman buying kitchen stuff and a young man telling her she couldn't buy this item or that item. You'd have thought she was feeding fifty dollar bills to a small bonfire in one of the store's chafing pans rather than thinking about spending fifteen bucks on a garlic chopper.  We couldn't decide if the BMW parked in front of the store was theirs or not.

We ended up in the toy store buying this fellow for our nephew with a January birthday. We were sorely tempted by a Lego Troll Assault Wagon but set it aside after visions of what his soon to-be-walking baby brother would do with the trolls.

Then home for more lazing around, more tea, and more novel reading.

Heather

Non-trip Report: Day 2

One of the few glories of my worklife is the December shutdown which this year has mated with untaken vacation days to bring forth three weeks off. And since it's been a hard 18 months or so (kidney stones, Alzheimer's, layoffs, and an eye-crossing amount of work) I'm hoarding the downtime and spending it all myself in a slow blaze of small pleasures. 

The tiny universe that is Ottawa has conspired to make it a micro-local vacation: no buses therefore no jaunts to museums, no shopping expeditions, no movies, no idle wandering around the downtown. There'll be some grumbling, especially since my library access is somewhat compromised: the one with books waiting for me is a chilly 4 mile walk and the one where I could drop books off and avoid a fine is a chilly 3.4 mile walk. Doable I suppose if I weren't so lazy and so out of shape (see above about the priorities of the last 18 months).

The smart money is on the lazy approach.  So how's it going? Not bad, not bad, considering we're still on weekend time.  So far there's been a higher than usual number of naps, some more or less unconnected whiskey drinking, some book reading (one good book and one mediocre book), and no work of any sort getting done. Sometime this week I'll need to get groceries but for today we're getting by on scratchiti (all the leftover varieties of pasta go into one pot) and leftovers. 

Heather

Juno As Cartoon Character

Juno is not just a Roman mother-goddess, she's also one of the great great-with-child characters of the movies, with good taste in music too.  "Nu-huh, 1977!"  So it's no surprise she has inspired a well-rounded body of fan art.  The lovely graphic above is by Jeremy Canceko of Cup-O-Robots.  The estimable Illustrated Movie Review gives us this portrait:

And Conner and Rae at Worship City posed for this self-portrait, based on the promotional still:

Though Ellen Page does wear other shirts in the film, it's that orange and white top from the publicity shots that people associate with Juno.  It's like Velma's orange turtleneck, or Tintin's plus fours. Strong cartoon characters tend to stick to one costume, so if Juno were thinking of becoming a Saturday morning cartoon character she's really halfway there already.  I'd watch it.  Douglas

Evangeline Brandt "Postponed"