these are not my walls

This is a completely accurate and anatomically correct picture of my brand new nephew, as portrayed by his six-year-old sister:



That's some home-schoolin' goodness for ya right there. You ain't never gonna see real folk art like that in no institution of The Man, yo!

In case you didn't already know, Vinny and Tasha won the baby race.

Sara Elizabeth Vincent was born on February 22, 2007.


Ryland Thomas McKay, who does not have a blog (nor even any pictures up yet!) so I'm linking to his mother's blog, was born on February 24, 2007.

Both babies were due on Valentine's Day, but chose fashionable lateness instead.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to T.O. I go...

For about 30 hours. Wheee!

People, it is the dawn of a new era (or at least the recurrence of a better era): I walked to work this morning!! So. much. BETTER than driving. The long-term forecast calls for walkable weather for the next couple of weeks - wheee!

Also, I learned something of great interest today. As you probably know, ignorance of the law is no defence. If you don't know, let me be the first to tell you. It's not just common law, it's in the Criminal Code.

That's not what I learned, though. I'm pretty sure we covered that in first year. I mean, uh, I *totally* knew that before I went to law school.

No, what I learned today is that it is a crime to pretend to do witchcraft. And this is the information that I think will be of use to you, my actor friends. If you pretend to be a witch, you better damn well be able to actually do an enchantment or two.

Spinning class #3: it's true, my ass does hurt less. You speak the truth, ziola!

Because I have nothing of great excitement to report (other than the fact that they are calling for a high of -2 tomorrow - MINUS TWO DEGREES, PEOPLE!!) here are more pictures. Several thousand words' worth.

This is my kitchen:



This is what you see when you come in the door. Interesting note: the light switch is on the wall to the left of the door. The door opens to the left. So you have to walk inside and shut the door behind you so you can turn on the light. Some clever planning, that.

Oh, and that fridge? Is where the FREAKING MOUSE I SAW ON SATURDAY scampered after I scared it with my shrieking and frantic arm-waving.

Here is the side of my kitchen, which you would see if you came in the door and turned your head slightly to the left:



I actually own that table, unlike most of the furniture in my apartment. My Only Friend in Sudbury (tm) picked it up for me at the Ikea in Vaughn. That door on the far left of the picture is the door to the bathroom. Which I assume is located awkwardly off the kitchen because they wanted to keep the plumbing in the same place.

This is the view of my kitchen from the other side, standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room:



There's the aforementioned bathroom, alright. Also, if you look closely, you can see my most important appliance: the espresso maker. :D

Here is the view from my kitchen window, which is between the fridge and the stove:



It would be a nice view, if it wasn't for that deathtrap of a fire escape in the way. I have no plans to ever climb on that thing, by the way, so I mostly just hope there's never a fire.

Here is the view into my living room from the kitchen:



All the furniture you see here is borrowed from a judge. That's right, I'm livin' it up highbrow style in Sudbury! You can also see my carefully crafted decorating style here. I call it "pictures from two calendars I bought at the National Art Gallery" mixed with "things stored in boxes so I don't have to waste money on furniture for 10 months". It works for me.

This is a picture of the area in which I was standing to take the previous picture:



This second picture was taken with natural light, whereas the one above it was taken with the curtains closed and the light on. Man, I have a crappy camera.

The desk on the right was donated by my building super, who saw me sitting on the floor typing on my laptop one day and felt sorry for me. That's me: inspiring pity in strangers since 1976.

Underneath that desk is where I first saw THE FREAKING MOUSE!!

This is the view from my living room window:



Doesn't it look picturesque?

This is my bedroom, from the doorway from the living room (so, 180 degrees from the second living room picture):



I own the crappy futon bed as well. Not that all futon beds are crappy, but this one is. That's work all over the bed, by the way. Don't try and magnify it or anything, it's probably confidential. The door on the right is to a very large but also very uninsulated storage closet that leaks freezing cold air in the winter, so the floor area next to my bed is always freezing. The space is handy, though.

This is the left hand side of the bedroom:



So you can see that I have a closet and a dresser. Which I also own.

There's a nook with a window to the right when you first come in the bedroom, but I couldn't get a good picture of it. You'll just have to take my word for it. The view from the bedroom window is basically the same as the view from the living room.

Here is my office:



I don't have to share my office, which puts me one step above the Toronto clerks. I think I'm still losing overall, though.

Notice the classy garbage bag I have placed over my window to block out the sun that otherwise glares off my computer screen for half the day, making it virtually impossible for me to work. I have been asking for blinds for 5 months. I put up the garbage bag on Friday. They bought the blinds this weekend. Coincidence?

Here is the view from my office window:



It's the parking lot. Exciting, no? You may remember I mentioned that the view from the Thunder Bay court house was much better. Here it is again, for comparison purposes:



Sigh.

In Thunder Bay, though, I bet I wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet all kinds of people who work in or pass through our building, who come to my office so they can point their car starters out my window at the parking lot.

It was still light out when I left work today! And I didn't leave work early! Oh joyous day! Calloo callay! (Or, you know, however you spell that...)

They're stocking a new vegetarian protein food product in my grocery store. They're marketing it as strips of "chicken" and "beef". I'm a little concerned they might be a little too realistic in taste and/or texture, thus causing me to throw up in my mouth, but I'm willing to give them a try. Bravery, 'tis me!

Funny story: they've got a huge sign on a stand advertising these things in the frozen foods aisle, so when I saw the sign, I started looking for them. You know, assuming they were somewhere in the frozen foods aisle. But they're not frozen. They're just refrigerated. In the vegetarian food products section. At, I kid you not, the complete other end of the store. Do you think it's some sort of prank? I mentioned it to the cashier, and she just looked at me blankly (that happens to me a lot, actually. Do I not make any sense??), so I dunno if they'll change it.

My ass still hurts. Jessica's probably right, though; I don't know if ass calluses is a look I should cultivate. Some sort of de-sensitization would be good, though. OOOH! I wonder if I can get some spray/cream that's supposed to help men with premature ejaculation problems - that's a de-sensitizer, isn't it?

So, at Jessica's request, I set up a profile on Facebook. I thought it was just for U.S. college students (which, incidentally, Jessica now is, I guess), but no! The Facebook world is for social networkers of all ilk! When I log in, it tells me in big bold letters that I have 1 friend. It's good for my ego.

My ass hurts SO. MUCH. Holy Christ. I sure hope I develop calluses or something.

I went to spinning class for the second time tonight, and I didn't think I was going to make it. Because that bike seat is a torture device. OUCH!!

Jess, I though of you when I was driving back from North Bay yesterday. It was after dark, and I came over a rise and saw the sort of light haze in the distance that indicated there was a town there (which would be Sudbury, for those of you just joining us), and rising above that light haze was the superstack. It was quite beautiful - purply blue sky, light purple haze, grey smokestack and smoke. I wished I had a better camera so I could take a picture and show you.

I just came back from spinning class. My legs may never work again.

If you were in Sudbury, you would get some:



cookies! Or maybe some:



truffles!

(Don't worry, in real life they're much less yellow-washed. And blurry. Eh, I'm too tired to try taking pictures again.)

The truffles are my very first attempt at making them, and they're infused with spicy red chile pepper deliciousness. At least, the one tiny truffle I tried was. :)

Tomorrow I'm headed to the North Bay courthouse. A field trip! Which would be more exciting if it didn't mean I'd have to be on the road by 7:30 a.m.! Well, assuming google maps didn't lead me astray...

Also, Morgan, yes it does appear to be the superstack. Judging from where wikimapia (side note: adorable name!) says that the superstack is relative to my apartment.

Also, if you click on that link and go to the map, zoom out a bit. There are other things that have been identified - including, up and to the right (or, north and east, if you prefer), the Pearl Street Water tower, which is that alien thing across the street from me. So you can see where I live relative to the exciting world that is Sudbury. Wheeeee!

On a local radio station today they passed on a warning that has apparently been put out by the Sudbury City Hall recently: if you get emails asking you to "verify" personal information, especially ones pretending to be from your bank, don't respond to them. They are fraudulent.

Nice warning. How very...timely.

Gosh, what an exciting day I have had!

Okay, not really. But I did get to go on a field trip!

I had to do some research in government docs - specifically records of the debates in the Ontario Legislative Assembly - so I got to go to the library at Laurentian University.

I hear good things about Laurentian. I hear it does a great job of serving the north, including partnering in the development of a Northern School of Medicine, and has a very well-developed distance learning program.

What it doesn't have? Is a great library. Oh. My. God. I feel bad dissing it, because the librarian was EXTREMELY nice and helpful, even after I told her I wasn't a Laurentian student. But if you are a university in Ontario that purports to offer a degree in History - and ohmygod apparently also a Master's degree with a focus on North American History - you might want to actually have a complete set of the debates of the provincial legislature. Mcgill has a better Ontario government docs section than Laurentian. Christ, UVic has a better Ontario government docs section than Laurentian! So. very. sad.

Anyway, I took a break for a lunch date (with last year's clerk, a very nice woman), stopped by work and got sucked in, so didn't make it back to the library today. I'll try again tomorrow.

While at work, I learned that Anna Nicole Smith had died. What a sad mess her life was. I wonder what'll happen to her daughter?

Towards the end of my workday, I looked out my window and couldn't see a darn thing. Complete whiteout. So I figured I should probably head home before the storm got any worse, gathered up my stuff, walked to my car, and got there just in time for the snow to stop. Ooookaaaay...the sky still looked ominously dark, though, so I figured going home was still the prudent plan.

I may have mentioned that I have the world's most awesome snow tires on my car. Today, as I was driving home through the piles of fresh snow, it was as though I was driving on dry road. So fabulous. Right up until I hit the STUPID HILL on which I live. Coming up the back - less steep - side of the hill, I hit a point where I was trying to find that delicate balance between going fast enough to actually get UP the hill and pushing softly enough on the gas that the tires could still grab traction. Stupid hill. I made it, though, and I'm not going out again today, dammit!

And that was my day.

Man, I am sick of being tired. And tired of being sick. Ba-da bing!

Seriously, there's some kind of sickness sweeping the courthouse, and my lungs are ickified. At least I now appear to be coughing some of it up, as opposed to those really painful semi-coughs where it just sits in your lungs and hurts like hell.

I think that if you quit smoking, you should get a free pass from lung illnesses for the rest of your life, don't you?

Here are some more pictures of Sudbury to entertain you, since there is nothing of excitement in my life to report:



This is the Grand Hotel, whose sign totally messed me up for the first few weeks I was here. I thought the sign had lost a few letters, and was an old "grand opening" sign. Turns out the Grand is only open on select days a week, and they change from week to week, and this is how they let people know. It's okay, I'm apparently about 15 years too old to hang out there, so it doesn't matter so much that the sign confused me.



This statue is in Bell Park, of which I posted pictures last time. There's something seriously disturbing about this statue, although I assume they mean it to be some delightful homage to Sudbury's history as a mining town.

Also, I apparently cannot type statue without first mistyping it as statute. That's enough law for me, folks!



This is the view across the parking lot of one of Sudbury's hospitals. It's right next to Bell Park, so that's the same lake. This is the hospital I went to when I got rear-ended in December - not that *I* thought that I needed to go to a hospital, but I can only take so much nagging from coworkers - and I actually sped through the ER waiting room quite quickly.

There's a bit of a hullaballoo going on right now about Sudbury's hospitals. A couple of doctors have come forward to talk about how the hospitals are understaffed, the equipment's old, there aren't enough beds, etc. It's being reported on as though it's a huge thing, and these two doctors are the only ones willing to come forward, but quite frankly nothing they're saying sounds remotely like news to me. Don't we all know that there aren't enough beds and equipment is old? Is it just that people in Ontario have super high expectations for their medical care? It's kind of funny. Not to mention that they're currently in the process of building a huge new hospital complex, which is set to open in a couple of years. Seems to me like they're already addressing the problem, then...



This is the big smokestack that you can see from basically everywhere in Sudbury. There are actually a couple of stacks, but this is the one that I can see everywhere, so I assume it's "the" smokestack that people refer to.

The two things I knew about Sudbury before coming here were a) big nickel, and b) this is where they faked the moon landing. I am apparently among a small minority that didn't also know c) it's got that smokestack! But now, through the power of me educating you, you will not be in that uninformed minority. You're welcome.