sushi, two more days

Two more days until we get our house. We've arranged to get the keys from the current owner around noon on Friday.

Decided to make sushi last night for dinner: norimaki this time (rolled sushi), with a filling of smoked salmon, cooked egg, cucumber. Side dishes: sunomono cucumber salad, miso soup. Yum. I wanted to add avocado to the norimake filling, but none of the avocados in the market were ripe enough. Next time I'll have to plan ahead and buy one to ripen at home.

Making sushi used to be a major chore I'd only do every couple of years, but I've found that using less time-consuming fillings makes it a more convenient meal. I like varying the ingredients each time to experiment with colours, textures, and flavours. Another added convenience is that many of the ingredients (including the nori sheets and bamboo rolling mats) can be found in big supermarkets like Dominion (!).

48 hours.

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burning schoolhouses and trebuchets

Explanation of my photo above: Jeff and I were watching a Wonderfalls DVD last night, and you can see the paused reflection of the TV screen in the centre of the photo; I didn't notice it at first until I realized that that particular building didn't -have- a giant tv screen billboard. Bizarre how it looks as if it belongs there in a Bladerunner-ish sort of way.



When I was a little kid, my dad used to light home fireworks in front of our house on O'Connor Drive. My favourite, which always came last, was the burning schoolhouse. I used to draw little paper people and put them in the schoolhouse before we set fire to it. Morbid little kid, eh?

I mention fireworks because it was Victoria Day yesterday in Canada, and Jeff and I watched the lakeshore fireworks display from his mom's condo window. I took some photos, but fireworks photos never look nearly as impressive as they should; feel free to check them out anyway, if you'd like. Took the photo at the bottom of the page after the display was over, out another window.

Cool photo link:
My friend Harald built a trebuchet! He'll be posting a report in his blog soon.

Three more days.

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Apple store Yorkdale opening

Reid, Ray, Jeff, Iain, Bob.

The photo above is of Jeff and some of our technonerdboy pals in Yorkdale Mall, there to check out the opening of the new Apple store (the first in Canada!). The line-up was HUGE; apparently some people had been waiting since the night before. We had heard rumours that a previous Apple store opening had been giving up pretty nice freebies (like iPod shuffles!), but this one seemed to only be giving out t-shirts.

We opted to just ogle a bit but then had brunch at Milestones, dropped by EfstonScience, then went to see Revenge of the Sith. I'm such a nerdgirl. :-)

More Apple store opening pics below.

FOUR MORE DAYS UNTIL WE GET OUR HOUSE.

Part of the line, which extended as far in the distance as you can see in this photo. It continued inside for at least the same length.



Our friend Craig.

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revenge of the sith

I saw the new Star Wars movie twice on the weekend. Since Allison summarized my feelings about the movie so perfectly in her own review, I'm just going to point people to read that instead of duplicating. (*Warning*: spoilers in her review, so don't read it unless you've already seen the movie)

Speaking of Allison, here's a sketch I did of her in Corel Painter:



5 more days until we get the house.

(4 days if you're reading this entry on Monday. :-) )

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ONE WEEK!

Quince tree blossoms, in our (future) NEW GARDEN.

Jeff and I had our last official house visit yesterday, along with (for varying intervals) our real estate agent, Jeff's mom, contractor and his assistant, carpet measure guy from Elte, bank assessment guy. I spent a great deal of time standing in what will be my basement office, mentally planning the layout.

Japanese maple beside our house.

The garden has changed so much since I saw it a few weeks ago. The big Japanese maple beside the house was a gorgeous red, and several of the flowers in the garden were blooming.

I'm pretty hyped about doing gardening again but I'm also realizing we have ZERO gardening gear except for the gloves and other items that Allison gave me for my birthday back in March (thanks, Allison!). Definitely need things like a shovel, rake, watering can, etc.

Bleeding heart flower.

Only SEVEN DAYS until we get possession of our new house. One week. I can't believe it. Seems like ages since we put our condo up for sale, then the whole househunting process. It's been five months since I packed up most of my home office. Driving me crazy, having to buy office supplies I KNOW are packed in our storage locker.

We won't be officially moving in until after the renovations are completed, but will be going over to the house quite frequently.

Obsessively, more like it. :-)

SEVEN DAYS.

I'm trying very hard not to gush here. Fact is, I'm so excited that my head might explode. Really. I'm not kidding. I'm thinking about spreading out a tarp just in case. But of course I can't let my head explode, because then I wouldn't be around for when we get possession of our new house.

In one week.

Okay, I'll stop now.

Not sure what kind of flower this is, but it's in our NEW GARDEN.

Going to see Revenge of the Sith later this afternoon with Ruth and my nieces, then hanging out with Allison in the evening. Yes, I know ROTS will likely be mediocre at best...but I'm excited anyway! As Allison said in her blog, "you only get to see a new Star Wars movie in the theatre six times in your life :-)."

I'll probably be offline for the next few days (it's a long weekend in Canada, eh?). Have a great weekend, everyone!

Photo below: I took this through one of my favourite windows in our new house; you can see the Japanese maple outside. I love how this looks like a painting:

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