Monday, November 27, 2006
New Flour Photos
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
KIP in passport office
It's probably a bad time to have it done, but my passport is nearing expiration so I figure I'd better renewal it soon so that I can travel with peace of mind. So, I took my application form, ids, and knitting to the passport office yesterday.
The lines were ridiculously long. I was well armed. I went nearing the end of day so that it won't be as long lines as first thing in the morning (3 hours!) and went prepared with knitting. I spent in total 1h and 45 minutes waiting from start to finish. I managed to knit my way though most of it and nearly finished turning a heel on a sock; I only had two more rows left when I got home.
I looked around the waiting room many times during this wait and saw a few people reading, some books, some papers. I saw a few playing cell phone games. 4 or 5 moms needing to tend to children. Barely anyone doing business on the phone or computer. (I'm sure it's because of the office I was in, it's more residential and not in a business area.) I had to wait for nearly 100 numbers to go ahead of me and maybe 20-30 more after me all sharing the same waiting room. Of this sample, I was the only one knitting. Most people were staring off into space or whispering to some one. Most people were bored out of their brains. Some were more annoyed than others. But I swear except for a couple who were reading, no one had a more enjoyable and quicker waiting time than myself.
If you are in Canada and trying to get your passport, here's a tip I learned yesterday while in line. Wish I knew this before hand. Fill in your application online using Passport Online and then take the info to the passport office and you'll jump the line! So instead of a three hour wait, you might have to wait 15-45 minutes. And of course, when the wait lines were even shorter, you barely have to wait five minutes. It seems like a good idea.
That is, unless you need the waiting room time to catch up on your Christmas Knitting.Labels: Knitting
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The Future of Web Apps Podcasts -> Funnies
I've been listening to the Futures of Web Apps Summit pod-casts (RSS Feed). I applaud Carson Systems for putting out for all of us who couldn't attend! It's a great service and it's a great way to increase interest in future seminars. BTW, the next seminar speaker list looks awesome too!
Some of the talks are really technical. Most are really informative. Some are really surprisingly funny. Content wise, it's great exposure to web apps, web sites, technologies and what people have done and are doing on the web.
And then there's little gems like these: (via)
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
a novel idea
I have always loved reading. However, I know that sometimes it's hard to read even when you want to. I find that these days, without a commute, I actually have to make more of an effort to read.
For some people, picking up a book isn't really an option, and the folks at DailyLit.com has thought of a way to squeeze in some reading into most people's day. [via] Read some classics by email. They'll break down the book you've selected into small segments to be delivered with your daily email as per the schedule you've set. Me, I've got it coming to me with my morning coffee. I'm reading my emails, news and RSS feeds, what's a novel segment. Before I know it, I'll have finished the book.
- Various Updates:
- Cross-Stitch:
- After finishing the Paris piece, I jumped into a small Lizzie*Kate. It was quick progress until I realized a huge mistake in counting. It's been on hold ever since. I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. Rip it, try to compensate. Not fun times!
- Knitting:
- Xmas Knitting continues. [no peeking.]
- Knitting continues in the yet unseen, but previously mentioned baby blanket. I put in some bobbles on it last night. It's only on one place in the piece, but it was so much fun, I rather wish it was on some other pieces. I am rather inspired to make some thing with bobbles on it just for the heck of making them. But honestly, there's a place for bobbles and then there's stupid and childish looking. It's a fine line.
- Listening to:
- Roch Voisine - Je te serai fidèle
- Keane - Under the Iron Sea
- Audioslave - Revelations
- Just read:
- Knitting Rules! by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
- Wendy Knits by Wendy D. Johnson
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Xmas Stamps for 2007
Makes me wish I was still living in the states so I could send these out for the holidays 2007.
The Xmas Stamps from Canada Post this year isn't too bad either! I rather like the retro look.
As I heard on the radio today, 45 days until Xmas. I guess I'd better get going on the packaging. Luckily for me this year, most of the Xmas presents are done. I just have a few more to-do and work on the presentation.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Westie Walk 2006
Back on September 17th, we went to join in the fun at the Westie Walk.
It's run by Westie Rescue of Canada and it's a fundraiser for the group. Flour had so much fun and we did too hanging around 40 some Westies and their owners. There were games and Flour won a prize for being the youngest Westie.
I took film photos for a change and just recently got them developed. Here's the photos on my flickr set. The Slideshow. Yes, some of the photos, it's a little "Where's Waldo" like with Flour, so I've made a note of where she is when it's not obvious.
The official photos. We got there late and didn't get our official photos done.
I can't wait until the 2007 walk.
Monday, November 06, 2006
New generation office
Vitamin's Article: Our Office 2.0 Experiement was rather interesting reading.
I recently put in a new hard drive on an old PC laptop so that we could get another machine to use. It's ages old, 5-6 years and I didn't want to bog it down with much in terms of applications and honestly wanted to stay as far away from as much Microsoft stuff as I could. I've been trying to figure out what's needed on the machine so that we can be productive. I need to use the machine to do PC testing for work and G needs it for basic email/word processing and browsing.
From the featured article comments, I heard about openoffice.org. I just downloaded it for my PC laptop to try out. It looks very slick and easy to use at the moment. I've got to try to put it through the paces to see. But really, had I known about it, I would likely not have purchased the Mac office suite ages ago. I really only use Excel mostly. I find that I could word process just as well on vim. In case you're also looking for cheaper, non microsoft alternatives, check out the article and take a look at openoffice.org.
Labels: Web
Sunday, November 05, 2006
The Best of Mary Maxim's at the Yonge Eglinton Centre
Yesterday I went to check out the Mary Maxim store's Grand Opening. It's in Lewiscraft's old spot and honestly, it's just like a Lewiscraft, but with less stuff. The nice part is that it does have a good amount of yarn and carry sock yarn. I had a coupon for 25% off one item and they had an sale of the day as 14% off yarns. So, I managed to pick up two balls of Regia Canadian Color 100g. The colors are great and I can't wait to knit them up. I think they will be my socks or gloves for sure.
I would say that it's a good start. It won't be any competition to the much nicer yarn stores downtown, and won't compete with the Michael's. They have a certain clientele and they were out shopping yesterday at the same time I was. Now that I've seen the store, I'm in no hurry to go back. However, I think if I'm in the neighbourhood, I'll go look for some sock yarn. If I'm in need of some dpns in sizes I don't use often and will want cheap ones, I'll go and buy it there. It's really easy for me to get to since it's right on the subway line and really close to me. On the other hand, I really do hope that they stock more items in the store soon since I think they had more 'stuff' at their booth in the creativFestival market floor.
Since they are having opening sales, I would recommend going to check it out before end of next week. I'm uncertain how long the grand opening sales are going to go for...
Labels: Knitting
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Finished! John Clayton's Paris
- Start Date:
- Can't remember. January 2006? Maybe sometime late 2005?
- Finish Date:
- November 1st, 2006
- Design:
- John Clayton International - Paris (Heritage Stitchcraft)
- Comments:
- This is a very dense piece. Every square is filled with at least one stitch. I love the fact that there is minimal back stitching. It is surprisingly complex and challenging to stitch at times, but it's also got nice bits of blocks of color up at the top. While you work on the more intricate parts, it's just a confetti of stitches and nothing looks quite right and it rather confusing. But when you step back to look at it, you see the details you don't see up close. How when you made the face of the cafe patrons, it looks odd and too dark, but when you look at it hanging from a far, it looks just right. I love how it turned out. I can't wait to tackle the next one on the list. I've got a plenty in this series to do! But the plan is to tackle all the places I've traveled to first, and maybe create a framed piece when they are all done.
Labels: Cross-Stitch
