swimmy like a fish

oh well hello my dearies!

it's been too long. come, sit down. would you like some tea?

let me explain a little bit about why my life gets so busy every august.

in a word: work. more specifically, orientation for new incoming students. we're in the middle of a well-needed overhaul of orientation training and things are going well, but the unfortunate casualty of that is my poor blog. which is why for the next few weeks my posting will be a bit erratic ... i'll aim for three days a week. maybe four, depending on how close to september 5th it is. (september 5th is move-in as well as parent orientation day, and is thus the crux of most of our planning)

in the meanwhile, a few updates:

1. for some reason, i've been feeling the whole nautical theme lately - hence the collection above.
2. summer seems to have finally arrived here in toronto, and i couldn't be happier. while everyone else is blasting their a/c and has retreated to the coolness of their homes, i'm savouring every moment of it. i remember the minus-25 degree weather. no complaints here. just ice cream.
   
3. last saturday, i went on a re-stocking quest for a few local foods to continue my pickling/preserving mission, and bought ten pounds of beets, which are my next conquest. will update soon. (in the meanwhile - if there's ever a world beet shortage, i'm in a fantastic position to make a killer profit. or share. i guess.)
   
4. it seems that saturday was a particularly productive day - this 26 year old had her first interaction with a butcher. i generally buy my meat from the packaged meat area (instead of ordering it at the meat counter) but i seem to have had a bit more gumption that day and after him asking me three times if he could help me with anything, i explained what i wanted to cook and asked him for a recommendation. not only did he tell me the tastiest steaks to buy for my budget, but how to cook them as well. i'm considering asking him to be my new best friend.

finally, i know i've been plugging the crap out of my twitter feed, but seriously - i discovered today two people that i thought i was following that i wasn't. come and find me there - i have more free time spent on the bus travelling back and forth to work than on my computer, so tweets are easier. it's the best i can do 'til i can figure out why i can't make blogger-to-go (or whatever it's called) work on my iPhone. has anyone had this problem? any guesses how to solve it?

BIG LOVE, all! talk soon. xx

images, clockwise from top left:
urchin
octopus
life preserver
shipwreck