#21: class

Thought you might like to see where I work. This is Colonel By B205, the classroom for Calculus II this term. All the courses I "computer interpret" for right now are science courses. I try to get to all the classes early so that I can stake out a spot near the front. You can see my coat and laptop bag, second row, far right.

students' view

In this class, I've also chosen my seat so that I can slip out the door easily at 11:15am on Monday. The student I work for gave me permission to do that, because this class ends at 11:20, and the following one begins at 11:30--right across campus, which takes about 15 minutes to walk. (Yes, it takes even me that long. I have slowed down a bit, but only because I'm weighed down by my laptop and everything-in-an-emergency backpack I carry with me.) The last few weeks I've worked smarter, not harder: I've caught a bus from the Campus stop to the Laurier stop, thereby saving myself 5-10 min.

instructor's perspective

I've noticed that many uOttawa buildings have motion-sensor lighting installed. It's rather neat: I entered B205 and there was light! and I saw! and it was good!

I took these photos with my Mac again, but I found the "flip this photo" feature in PhotoBooth before I imported them into iPhoto, so you're seeing things in exactly the same direction as I saw them--no imaginary inverting required.

#20: humid & catatonic

We bought a humidifier yesterday, which we hope will positively impact our hardwood floors. There are a few places where the edges have roughened up. It's a fine line: moisture in the air is good; moisture directly in contact with the floor is bad. That's why the humidifier is now installed in the kitchen. (Like I need one more item to maneuver around in there.) I'm still hoping to find a piece of furniture of some sort with drawers or doors to put against my non-cupboarded, angled wall. Either that, or I need to rearrange my cupboards' contents again to make room. I wish, wish, wish that everybody built corner cabinets on an angle, so that the corners were more accessible. I'm having trouble fitting everything in: strange, because I thought that with all the moving I've done, I'd gotten rid of many things. Apparently it's Ruan's Law (see #7 on linked page).

Our humidifer is a poser: with its high-tech buttons, it bears a striking resemblance to a computer case.

Speaking of posers...


...guess who was jealous of all the attention the humidifier received? They must've heard of all those fellow felines cropping up on others' blogs lately.

#19: flattery & flowers

"Imitation is the sincerest of flattery." ~ Charles Caleb Colton

In imitation of fellow bloggers' recent demonstrations of flower power – tulips here (Feb 24) and here (Feb 25), and what I think are snowdrops here (Feb 21) – here are my humble offerings. Hope you're duly flattered!


Truth is, they were on sale at Farm Boy, and I just couldn't resist a foretaste of spring. Am I ever glad I bought them, because they gave me something to snap today. The alternative would have been us shovelling the fresh snowfall to which we awoke, and I'm sure you're tired of all my whining and griping about precipitation (I know I sure am). So tulips it is. They haven't fully opened yet; I seem to have selected two bunches of late bloomers.

#18: chicken soup with rice

More accurately, it was chicken noodle soup. A bout of the sniffles has descended upon our household, so we're combatting them as best we know how. I wanted to make a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup--after all, I went to all that trouble to mail myself the requisite Rede-Made Noodles ("Just like Grandma's old-fashioned egg noodles") at Christmastime--but I have yet to call Mom for her list of seasonings. So I had to make do with his & hers: Campbell and Lipton. (The texture of chicken meat in soup has never appealed to me, and I'm leaning more toward a meatless diet these days, anyway.)

Thanks to Maurice Sendak's long-standing children's book, it's rare for me to hear "chicken soup" and not mentally tack on "with rice." Its full title is Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months (Harper & Row, 1962). It must have been republished, because certain sites I stumbled upon gave the date as 1987 and 1991. Thanks, UM Libraries' Bison catalogue, for identifying the earlier publication date, because I was quite certain I'd first heard it read aloud in grade one or on Friendly Giant. Its rhythm and rhymes made a lasting impression. I searched around a bit and found the following animation, directed by Sendak with music composed by Carole King. Cool! That oughta' get me through the next couple of days--that and the following stockpile. We defy you, germs!



Oh, yes, and today marked leap year. I had the good fortune to make a purchase at the UO Bookstore (definitely not on par with UM Bookstore) and find that everything was 25% off.

#17: lunch on SITE

Poutine – perfected in French Canada;
choice of log drivers, coureurs de bois, and voyageurs for half a century

Thursdays are generally long days for me. I work only 3 classes, but I have two 3-hour breaks between them. I tend to gravitate towards either the Morisset Library, or the 2nd floor of SITE (School of Information Technology and Engineering), which you catch a glimpse of above. SITE reminds me of the RRC Princess St. Campus, except that the SITE is all brand-new, whereas RRC incorporated existing buildings. The colors are similar, though: bright reds, mustards, and metallic grays and blues. Lots of glass windows and a few open staircases in both places, and lots of places to recharge laptops.

My favorite spot is just under the stairway to the third floor; it's more private, and acts as a visor of sorts on sunny days like today. These shots are darker than I'd like, but I took them with my built-in PhotoBooth app and my limited photographic skills. And I didn't really want to drag it out; I think the students further down the counter were already eyeing me suspiciously, wondering if I had an eating disorder, or why else might I be posing my food and lovingly taking snapshots of it before I tucked into it?

These photos seem to be mirror images; just reverse everything in your minds (or not, if that requires too much effort). As I was looking out the wall of glass, the SITE sign was to my left. The building faces traffic: the lane closest to the building is a two-direction transitway; the farther lanes are the #417 leading into and out of downtown. Oh, and there's also a sidewalk before the transitway: don't worry, that person is not walking in the bus lanes.

Info on poutine
More info on poutine (even the pronunciation, which I've found varies from person to person; cautionary note: the rest of the site might be a little racy)
Still more info on poutine
And even something on midnightpoutine (not about food, but the site sounds intriguing)

#16: the road (not) taken

Lincoln Fields Station

Here's a shot of a section of transitway. It's not as entertaining as Sesame Street's Subway!, but it has its moments. I wanted to include a photo of an articulated bus, but I missed snapping one that slowed down, and it was cold--OK, not Manitoba-cold, but cold enough: -18˚C with the wind NW28-30--so I didn't relish the idea of sticking around on the Lincoln Fields bridge until another sped by. I don't usually board at this stop, but I needed the truck to run errands with a friend this afternoon, so we switched it up today.

The expression goes "you learn something new every day." I've learned the same lesson twice this week. Today reinforced, once again, that I should never, never take buses with which I'm not familiar, even though their labels might sound promising. I've done this I don't know how many times in my life--at least a handful. I should stick to routes I take every day or have looked up on the Web in advance. From downtown, I boarded the #86 Lincoln Fields, which you'd think would go straight to Lincoln Fields, right? Wrong. A leisurely, scenic drive down Wellington, across Parkdale, down Fisher, up Woodroffe, to Baseline, then finally, finally, destination Lincoln Fields. I figured I made up some of my lost time by: a.) purchasing my March pass at Lincoln Fields, where I was the line, rather than Rideau Centre, where the line extends way down the mall's hallway; and b.) pushing my trusty Pathfinder to its limit. How's that for a Pollyanna spin?!

Other good news: OC Transpo recently relocated some stops in our neighborhood, so now it takes me an estimated 5 minutes as opposed to 7 to walk to the closest stop. Realistically, I tried to leave myself a few extra minutes (which translates into "I ran every step of the way") to cross two-way, single-lane traffic on Woodroffe. I no longer have to risk life and limb to arrive at the express stop. Hurray!

#15: the cupboard under the stairs

Curli (short for Curlicue, because she has a tail that ends in a flourish downward) is our tubby acrobatic cat. She used to tightrope-walk the railing on our 3rd floor apartment balcony; now she settles for the top of the door to the laundry room, which she accesses from the adjoining "crawlspace" (larger than its name suggests).