Middle School Graduation

I didn't know they have graduation ceremonies for Middle School. Sarah's was today, at the nearby Rocky Point Park on a lovely summer afternoon (I worked from home and was able to attend), and here are pictures.

Margo and our lovely surroundings ...

Sarah shaking hands with her principal ...

Sarah chose the fabric for the dress. Margo found a design for it and made it fabulous.

Citizens

On Monday we participated in our Canadian citizenship ceremony. 74 other new Canadians took the oath with us.

It's taken us nearly ten years to become citizens. It's great to have finally achieved it.

Awesomeness

Me, on the phone with Sarah, after asking her opinions on pizza toppings for dinner: 

Oh, and by the way, you're a spanking head.

Me, in a subsequent email:

Subject: I should also mention ...

You are a smelly pants booger bottom stinky head.

Sarah's reply:

who rides a tyrannosaurus rex with laser cannons for arms controlled by a polar bear from the compass book thing with all the armour and stuff, who carries a double side lightsaber like the one darth maul had and it's not purple or blue or anything it's rainbow and the t rex is on a chariot and dragging the chariot is a unicorn who was born under the sea and raised by narwhals, and the unicorns uncle was the rock combined with the guy from old spice, and the oldspice guy had this shark as a pet, and the shark was holographic, and made of lollipops and the shark invented the typewriter which was passed on to thomas edison who is actually my great great uncle and thomas edison married da vinci so he was my great uncle too and then da vinci invented the ninja sword and became a ninja and while he was a ninja he met this wizard and he turned into a cat like in the youtube videos, like one of the sleeping angel cats, but then the wizard he met was actually david tennant and matt smiths daughter and she was awesome a taught this other person who ended up being flo from those insurance commercials who formed of monsters and men and then they passed on all the raw awesomeness to me and none to any parents and you should probably forward this because I spent like half an hour writing it have fun love you.

Fall Colours

I brought a camera with me today on a neighbourhood walk to capture some of the fall colours.

Dephoned

The other morning I booted my phone after my shower, holding down the power button and waiting for the little bump telling me it was starting up. The bump didn't come.

Lots of retries and it was still the same. Was my smartphone bricked? I did a bit of searching for solutions. I went to my service provider's site looking for warranty information and was reminded how unhelpful these can be - tons of answers about buying and adding services, but not a lot of information on solving problems.

I was feeling frustrated - I have to go to work soon; I don't have time for this. Also a bit of betrayal - how could this phone stop working after just two years? I considered that perhaps it's time for a new phone, and part of me enjoyed fantasizing about new gadgetry and features.

At any rate, after getting on with my morning, I later thought to try popping the battery out and in. I'd never opened the case so I had to search for instructions, but ... it booted right up afterwards.

I had two takeaways from the experience.

One was how quickly we're willing to forgive when technology we come to rely on suddenly works again.

Another was, on the train that morning, looking around at every other face turned down toward a glass rectangle of varying size, how naked I'd feel without one myself.

Margo's Graduation

Yesterday was Margo's graduation ceremony at UBC. Some of you saw the live webcast but here are some photo highlights.

Margo needed to get there well ahead of the ceremony, so with extra time to kill, Dave, Sarah and I visited the Museum of Anthropology. I'd not been before and it was quite impressive.

Here's Sarah doing the "I'm crushing your head!" with a totem.

Then we walked about a block to the lovely Chan Centre for the ceremony.

Margo was the very first graduate to be named. It kind of made an early climax for us as we had to sit through the procession of about a hundred other graduates. Here she is being awarded by the Vice Chancellor. The Chancellor herself is on the far right. On the far left is Margo's advisor, Richard, who also performed the duty of Macebearer, shouldering a massive ceremonial ... metal thing.

Dave meets Richard; they'd heard much of each other.

Richard and Margo.

Sarah tries on the funny hat.

And here's the paper.

School's out for the summer (For MARGO!)

Now that I have submitted my final grades, finished corresponding with students who were displeased with their grades and now, especially, that the horrible dissertation is behind me. I find myself, for the first time in a long time, with time on my hands. I have been spending it on a few different projects.

First a few photos of our early spring garden ... the bulbs are all spent by now, so yesterday I started planting some annual flowers to fill in.

Here is a view of the front garden patch, looking up towards our front door. The cherry tree in this picture is just about at full bloom. You know what is lovely? Our street, full of cherry trees, all in full bloom. Also enjoyed the swirling blizzard of blossoms a week or so later during a wind storm. You know what is not lovely? Mounds and drifts of fallen, spent, cherry blossoms EVERYWHERE for a few weeks after the blooming season.

Tulips

Tulips and bleeding hearts

I have also gotten very busy with home maintenance tasks. This week I have just about completed refinishing all of the patio furniture: 8 foot table, 6 chairs, 2 reclining armchairs, one side table. I have also begun getting the deck and porch ready for re-staining - a hideous job that involves a lot of me on my hands and knees wielding a scrub brush.  It looks like the rental of a belt sander is my immediate future.

Next up: Repainting interior trim, and stripping and repainting deck railings.

I have also been busy in the kitchen. Inspired by the Cook's Illustrated DIY cookbook, I have been dabbling in charcuterie. This week I started curing bacon, pancetta, and some duck breast prosciutto. Here are some pics:

This is the pork belly I purchased from our Italian butcher - 4.4 kilos and awaiting my inept trimming of the belly skin.

Here are the duck breasts, fat scored and ready to be cured

I toasted juniper berries, fennel, coriander, red and black peppercorns, and bay leaves

Then ground the toasted spices and blended them with salt and sugar for the duck breast cure

The duck breasts will be covered on all sides with the curing mix and chilled for 4 days, then rinsed, wrapped in cheesecloth, and hung to dry in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. Then, lots of yummy proscuitto for me! I have made this once before, and it is really, really, delicious.

This is the cure mix for the pancetta. Brown sugar, thyme, rosemary, crushed pepper, garlic, salt, curing salt. This is pretty simple - just spread the meat with the cure, refrigerate for 10 days, flipping every other day, and then rinse it, roll it up and tie it, and let it cure in the fridge for a few weeks. I will let you know how it tastes when we finally get to eat it!

  This is the pancetta, covered with the curing mix, in a glass dish, ready to be covered and refrigerated.

Here is the bacon, also in its cure, in a ziploc bag. Once it is done curing (in 10 days) I will smoke it on the grill and then portion and freeze most of it, and cook up a batch of home cured bacon!