A closed-door policy

Those who own cats may be familiar with this phenomenon – when you hear a noise in the middle of the night, think “Oh, that must be the cats”… and then realise that both the cats are sleeping soundly on the bed with you. Uh oh.

Which is why when hubby goes away, more often than not I impose a closed-door policy. The kitties are locked out of the bedroom before I go to sleep, and if I do hear a noise at night, I can still confidently claim that “It’s probably the cats”.

[Someone was grumpy when I woke her up with my picture-taking]

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Another amazing video

We all know I’m a sucker for high-res time-lapse videos. Here is another one, a compilation of videos shot from the ISS. That’s right, as in the International Space Station, zooming around the Earth. The whole thing is spectacular, but I find the video around the 1-minute mark particularly impressive, as the camera flies almost straight through an aurora.

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Martinis!

Earlier this week, a few of the girls and I went to a Martini-making course. The premise was that you get to learn a little bit about the history of the martini, try your hand at making a few different kinds, and of course sample. Count me in! The course start with the usual group ice-breakers, and then we moved on to the history. I actually did learn a few things! Like the amusing fact that Sex and the City pretty much ushered in the era of the modern girlie-drink, any flavour combination martini – in contrast to the traditional “shaken, not stirred” martini of the manly Bond era.

For a quick review of the course – I would consider it an OK deal when purchased as a LivingSocial voucher like we did, but I wouldn’t pay the full price ($99 for a 2.5 hour course). The first thing that disappointed us was the tasting aspect – or lack thereof. Of the half-dozen different martinis they went over, I think we only tried 3 different ones. And these came in little shot glasses. The tastings didn’t start until more than halfway through the course, which just seemed wrong – we took the course on a weeknight, and after a full workday you kind of want to have a drink in hand before you’re ready to start absorbing information. On a positive side – the instructors were personable, we got to learn lots of little techniques (and explanations behind them, which I always appreciate), and it was just a fun opportunity to socialize.

So, with hubby out of town for the weekend, what girl wouldn’t jump on the opportunity to try out her new martini-making skills? I’d love to be able to say that as soon as hubby was outside the city boundaries, I called a smashing party and started handing out killer martinis. But to tell the truth – it’s just me and the cats, after a quick stop at the liquor store. And only one of us has a martini.

I liked the lychee martini that I tried at the course, and thought I would start with that.

They recommended the lychee juice in the recipe, but we already had an opened pack of mango juice, so I thought that would do (it did, yum). Lychee liqueur itself is like heaven in a bottle. Really, you need to go get some. It’s the perfect combination of sweetness and flavour, and the smell is unbelievable – I swear I could just sit there with my nose over the bottle, without ever taking a sip, and be perfectly content.

At the course, they had pourer caps on the liquor bottles, and a count system to measure out 1/4 oz measures (so if you’re pouring an ounce, you count to 4). We’re not that fancy here, so I resorted to measuring using the glass (maybe you can’t see, but it has ticks at 1/2 oz increments along the side. One thing we learned at the course was to chill the martini glass with iced soda water before pouring the drink into it; I just used plain iced water, and it turns out they were right – the bubbles somehow seem to help the glass cool faster. [Side note: we only seem to own one martini glass. What's up with that? This will have to be rectified before Christmas season.]

The end result?

Pretty colour and delicious taste. Although it’s definitely missing a maraschino cherry… or five.

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Christmas tree skirt

Finally – a craft to talk about!

I had started this project over a year ago, after reading about it here. I actually got about halfway – sewing the strips of fabric together (the first time).

And that’s where I got stuck – because I didn’t have the magical contraption known as a “wedge ruler”, and I didn’t feel like buying a $20 gadget for the sake of one project. It took me a year to pull myself together and dust off my trigonometry. And today, the three sheets of fabric strips sewn together became stacks of two types of alternating wedges.

At around 12:36 PM, the final key component made an entrance, and things really started rolling.

Isn’t she purdy?

If I were to do it again, I would make a few process improvements – mostly to make sure that the strips, when flipped, line up better. I still need to put a few finishing touches on it, like hemming the unfinished edges and sewing on some ties so I can secure it around the tree. But overall, I’m pretty happy – and even more excited for two weekends for now, when we’ll be going to hunt our Christmas tree, and I get to start using the tree skirt.

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Box: take 2

Not satisfied with his previous claim to fame, Shakey decided to take it up a notch by hiding in a box inside of another box the other day.

Whoa. Tell me your mind is not blown by this development.

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Model train show in Montreal

A few weekends ago, Dan and I went to see a model train railroad in Montreal. Not so much a show, as an open house – there’s apparently a space where model train enthusiasts had been working for decades on a model railroad. They’re now having to move because of rent issues, so it was pretty neat to be able to see it before the whole thing had to get dismantled.

They had everything!

Mountains,

a lake,

agriculture,

a big fancy downtown,

a small homey downtown,

a tennis match,

and even jokes I can use on my coworker Fred.

It was a good time, even though I’m not as into model railroads as Dan is. The rest of the pictures are here.

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Halloween wrap-up

It was a very successful night yesterday – 49 kids! I think that beat the last two years at the old house put together. Also – boxes of individual portion chip packets are great for keeping count.

Here’s what our house looked like on Halloween night.

The ghosts were hung up by husband that day. The fact that the only spot by which they could be hung were their “necks” added a bit to the creepiness of the tableau.

I had a few hands coming out of the (freshly wheelbarrowed in!) soil. I think I’m going to need more hands and other body parts sticking out of the ground next year… I like the effect.

The remaining ghost swung under the branches of the weeping tree as you were walking up to the house.

And at the door itself, we had cobwebs and bats gallore. I didn’t get a picture of the pumpkins since we had already brought them in (something about Dan worrying that kids go around and smash them up overnight) – but I was promised that pictures exist, nonetheless. Not as creepy as nighttime pictures, but unfortunately I never got around to taking them the night before.

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