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February, 2008

  1. Lunar Eclipse

    February 20, 2008 by Gail

    at the end of the eclipse

    If I were paying attention, I would’ve taken the camera out earlier! I just caught the tail end of the lunar eclipse, and I ought to have waited longer for the eclipse to fade out except my fingers were freezing, I had no tripod, and I was holding David’s heavy 80-200mm (fully manual) SLR lens. The longest autofocus lens I have is the 28-135mm and I had to focus manually with it, anyway, so this is as close as I got. The next lunar eclipse is 2010, and at the rate I’m buying lenses (i.e., very slowly), I should own a 300mm right about then!

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    Posted in Photography | 7 Comments

  2. Family Day

    February 19, 2008 by Gail

    Monday, February 18 was declared a statutory holiday in Ontario last October by Premier Dalton McGuinty, a day already observed in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I always wished for it in BC while I lived there, since the span of time between New Year’s Day and Easter was FAR too long to go without a holiday. Especially since winter is the toughest season to get through — it seems to go on forever.

    Since I have no family here, I spent it with the rest of the House of Fielding: the Caster kids, and Kate from Vancouver, who’s staying at the HoF for a few months. Kate and I completely rearranged two rooms and the place looks great!

    All that housework deserved some spicy comfort food, so I brought Kate to the place where I like to indulge my lemongrass and chili cravings: Xe Lua on Spadina.

    curried chicken with noodles
    Kate had the curried chicken with noodles

    lemongrass chicken with chilies
    I had my lemongrass fix, with chicken and chilies

    With unlimited free tea our total bill came to $13, and Kate had to take some of her food home. You can see why I keep coming back — there’s no way we could make two big meals like this for $6.50 each!

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    Posted in Food + Drink | No Comments

  3. Reluctant Bedfellows

    February 17, 2008 by Gail

    reluctant bedfellows

    Beano was there first, and to my amazement Xena actually deigned to lie beside him.

    A new milestone today: I injected Beano BY MYSELF, for the first time, completely unassisted! Kate’s been helping me for the past couple of weeks by holding him while I did the injections, but this morning I told her I would try and do it alone and call her if I needed backup. I’ve finally worked up to the point where I can hold him, inject him, get the line drip going, continue to hold him, and finish up without the aid of a second pair of hands.

    Hurrah!

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    Posted in Critters + Creatures, Xena & Beano | 5 Comments

  4. My Love Affair With Food

    February 17, 2008 by Gail

    my love affair with food

    With the colder winter we’re having, I can’t stop eating… at work it seems I’m constantly eating, and I remarked on it last Friday with a colleague who never seems to eat all (I’m sure he does, just not as openly or at my leisurely pace) — how I’ve always got a piece of fruit on the go or a container of yogurt on my desk or chewing something while poring over a file. It’s healthy food, not junk, but I’m not as physically active in the winter and don’t burn off all the extra food I’m consuming the more the barometer drops. I just pile on more clothing and think of how much activity I’ll have to make up by spring when the shedding of layers begins and I face up to all this weight gain!

    But obviously it mustn’t bother me terribly much when my appetite meets with a homecooked meal… especially when made by someone else. Oh gosh, no, I am always grateful when someone takes the time and energy to cook; any ideas of “cutting back” are put aside and I tuck right in…

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    Posted in Food + Drink | 1 Comment

  5. Introducing Dida and the Back Half of Oscar

    February 17, 2008 by Gail

    introducing Dida

    Hailing from Venezuela, the elegant Dida has her own throne, as you can see.

    View On Black

    A black and white variation here.

    This is about all Oscar would allow me to take of him:

    about all Oscar would allow me to take of him

    Maybe next time he’ll permit me to take his portrait. I’m banking on my patience over his shyness.

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    Posted in Critters + Creatures | 4 Comments

  6. Winter By The Lake

    February 17, 2008 by Gail

    I had to run some errands yesterday, but made a couple of pitstops in places along the lakeshore that reminded me of Arliin: the Argonaut Rowing Club and the National Yacht Club. I wanted to take advantage of the break in the wintry weather of late and try out the polarizing filter I bought last weekend for the engagement shoot, in slightly warmer conditions. Usually there’s a bitter wind off the lake, but yesterday was quite bearable. Both of these shots were taken by the rowing club (the dock’s been pulled up in the upper picture).

    winter by the rowing club

    by the lake

    I’d like to do more winter shots, but today it’s raining and tomorrow isn’t looking any better…

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    Posted in The Great Outdoors | 1 Comment

  7. Arliin, In Her Own Words – 2007

    February 16, 2008 by Gail

    The 2007 index of Arliin’s comments has been a long time coming; I found putting together 2007 was more difficult than 2006 because it was getting closer to the present reality that there would never be any more words from Arliin.

    I also had the impression that Arliin wrote fewer comments in 2007 compared to 2006, but as you can see this list has 30 comments, two more than 2006. I thought it would be vice versa, because in 2007 Arliin and I went on far more outings together and I wrote far fewer posts. But no, Arliin was — as she was known to be — very consistent, even when she wasn’t trying to be.

    As with 2006, most of Arliin’s comment were brief, and some of the longer ones are behind passwords in protected posts.

    (more…)

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    Posted in Friends | No Comments

  8. Indulge My Curiosity While I Do Laundry

    February 15, 2008 by Gail

    I’m done with winter. Why? Only in this current wild and woolly Toronto Winter of 07/08 would doing laundry require crampons to prevent a treacherous fall while stepping outside carrying a laundry bag before going down to the basement to use the washing machine. Even the raccoons are smart enough to stay away from the side of the house, which is a veritable skating rink. Either that or the ‘coons are sharpening their skates.

    I’ve got one more load to go, and I have this question for you about Facebook, whether you’re on it or not. (I’m not. Well, sort of — I entered my name last year and immediately tried to delete it but Facebook won’t allow account deletions. A Facelessbook? A FacelessNonBook?)

    1. If you’re on Facebook, what’s the draw for you?

      2. or

    2. If you aren’t on Facebook, what’s the drawback (or deterrent) for you?

    Just wondering while wiling away the spin cycle. Arliin and I had several discussions about this over a game of baseball and, later, beer.

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    Posted in Memes, Polls, Quizzes | 9 Comments

  9. With Love From the House of Fielding (and the Beatles)

    February 14, 2008 by Gail

    Now that the day is nearly finished, I’m feeling a little less anti-Valentine’s. When I got home the pets rushed to greet me and all was well again. So here’s a little tribute to the unconditional love from pets, some super-early Beatles:

    zany Xena
    zany Xena

    *scritch scritch*
    Old Bean

    And, from me, one of my favourite Beatles tunes, because of the harmonies and its sing-a-long-ness:

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    Posted in Critters + Creatures, Music, Xena & Beano | 3 Comments

  10. Valentines Day Chocolate (Redux)

    February 14, 2008 by Gail

    Happy Valentine's Day

    A redux from 2005, because this photo gets a lot of hits every year around this time.

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    Posted in Redux | No Comments

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