Snow

I have shovelled snow every day for the past three, and yesterday said aloud how much colder and snowier this winter is than last when it occurred to me that last year at this time I lived in a building where I didn’t have to clear the snow. One weekend last year, my car got buried under a six foot pile of snow that seemed to fall overnight, and then a snow plough went by, really packing it in there, but that was a one-time thing.

Oh snow. I haven’t made a snow-man this year. I probably should. I don’t think I’ve made a snow-man this decade.

The Smashing Pumpkins Have Reunited

If you have the opportunity, do make sure to watch the interview with the only two relevant members of The Smashing Pumpkins. Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin have sat down and talked with George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC’s The Hour. They have re-united as The Smashing Pumpkins, having decided that two out of four ain’t bad, especially when said two did ninety nine percent of the work.

I am currently blogging from my phone, so I can’t read CBC’s weekly grid properly, so I don’t know when it’s airing again, but it’s a great interview, and worth looking to see when it airs again.

Nice Weekend

Spent the whole of Sunday hanging out with my parents, and it was lovely. We saw a really neat race-car-style cart at the Home Depot, and my Dad insulated a pipe in the basement so it hopefully won’t freeze again.

Then we ordered Swiss Chalet.

What a Fun Day!

First thing yesterday morning, I realised all the pipes in my house were frozen. No tap would turn on and the toilet wouldn’t flush. Three hours with the thermostat cranked and a hair dryer to the water main did nothing, so I called a plumber, and was thanful for two things: 1) I have a job so I can (begrudgingly) pay a plumber and, 2) said job doesn’t fire me if I show up an hour late because I had to stay home to hang out in the basement for a little while.

A little lighter in the pocketbook, I got to work later in the day where there was quite a lot of work to do. Nothing abnormal though, and it was business-as-usual.

10:02pm, the power went out. Apparently the whole city block was out of power. It is now seven hours later, and though I’m home, there is still no power in that neighbourhood. I’m glad we have a generator, and though, there are apparently even more problems going on, I’ve always found power outages to be a source of fun.

I do not think this power outage, in the winter, will be anything at all like fun for anyone who isn’t so fortunate as to have a home to go into, or for anyone who has electric heat.

Nikolai Valuev in Fender Bender

How appropriate. I’m reporting on car wrecks.

Anyway, 7-foot-tall Russian boxer, Nikolai Valuev, beat Evander Holyfield in December (and there might be a re-match at some point this year!), but it looks to be all courtesy and grace as he walks with this man who hit his car earlier this month in St. Petersburg.

“Russian celebrity boxers also get into car accidents. This time Nikolai Valuev, famous Russian boxer got into road accident in his native city St.Petersburg, Russia.
People say that the guy who caused the accident could not open his mouth after finding out whose car he crashed.”

Valuev and the guy who hit him.

From English Russia

Bird

bird2

Monkey

monkey

Fish

fish

Canada Has Been Left Out

We have none of these.

ihop, wafflehouse

Yesterday Was Uneventful

By the time I got home from work, I fed the fish and found myself in in a conundrum. There I was in the kitchen, fighting -quite literally, fighting- with the wine bottle, thinking that God had made shitty hotel-style corkscrews solely for the purpose of punishing me. There is nothing quite as eloquent as putting the bottle on the floor between my feet, and hauling on the cork, hoping the  bottle opens, but praying it doesn’t open so quickly that I get a self-inflicted black eye.

I did not punch myself in the face, and I discovered that friends who own restaurants are the people to ask for wine recommendations.