hello- my name is jack

hello- my name is jack, originally uploaded by jill y.

regime

Take a large container suitable for a hand mixer to use a blender.

Add 1/4 cup uncooked oatmeal
Add various amounts of:
pecans
walnuts
almonds
sunflower seeds
pumpkin seeds
flax seeds

Cover with water plus 1/2 more, cover with a plate and soak over night.

In the morning, blend nut and seed mixture with:
1 banana
1/4 cup of berries
2 tbsp of fish oil or my favorite: Udo's Oil
a handful of raw spinach

Blend the shit out of it.

Drink it all or share it.

IT ROCKS MY WORLD

I've got a smile for every one I meet.

I rode to work yesterday. I thought it would stay sunny and warm all day. I wore fleece pants and a hoodie, gloves and headed off to work. Somewhere through the day the sunny skies turned grey and quickly ugly with impending Vancouver showers. I knew the ride home would be difficult, dark and filled with traffic.

Keep on. Keep on. Just push that peddle down. You can do this.

"Middle of the road is trying to find me. I'm standing in the middle of the road..."

The Pretenders, "Middle of the Road" , tune kicks in to the ear buds just I'm cresting the top of the 20 block climb.

"Come on baby. Get in the road. Come on now..in the middle of the road now..yeah."

Just what I needed. A good does of Chrissie Hynde pumping through my Ipod, to get me through the rest of the ride. Vancouver is blessed with a mild climate and rarely any snow. We get a lot of rain though. Nevertheless, we have a large community of cyclists and thankfully bike routes the snake through the city. I keep to these as much as possible. Safety in numbers.

"In the middle of the road, you see the darnest things."

Coming down Ontario Street on the other side of the hill I have climbed, I join the pack of blinking lights. About 30 cyclists are making their way down the road, navigating through and alongside the park cars, the ones in motion, and the piles of leaves that have been pummeled to a soggy bran flake consistency.

Bright steady headlights blinding. Small blinking little lights reassuring. Proud to be one of the fleet of tiny lights of self propelled power, I followed the gliding stream infront of me through the dark and rain until safely home.

"yeah.."

now you know my ABC's

A- Diane Arbus is an inspiration to me on being fearless with a camera.
B-Thanks Bess for buying me black radishes.
C-Cheese baby- I may be dairy free right now but bring my my applewood smoked cheddar.
D-I snatched this idea from Daisies.
E-My home town is Edmonton.
F-I make decisions based mostly on how I feel.
G-Want to know a secret- I LOVE giraffes. No one knows this except you.
H- I don't like it when the weather is hot. I like Spring and Fall the best when the air is cooler.
I- The devil makes work for idle hands.
J- One of my favorite names is Jack because it's a great old school, 1930's farm boy kind of name. It would be impossible to date a Jack though. Too bad.
K-I once won a kite flying contest in Grade 3. I kept the laminated "certificate" for a long time.
L-I no longer have a lipoma.
M- My favorite cheeses are Manchego & Mimolette
N-NaBloPoMo, all the way.
O-I ate Octopus once when I was about 15 and never ever, ever did it again. No, it did not taste like chicken
P- I love the prairies.
Q- My grandmother on my father's side, before she passed away, gave me spoons commemorating the Dionne Quintuplets. I still have them. I cherish them.
R- I have tattooed rosebuds on my right arm.
S-My mother's side of the family is from Scotland. I changed my last name to my mother's maiden name after visiting Scotland with my mother and her mother when I was 23. I went back 3 years later and lived in Edinburgh for a while.
T- I collect spools of thread. Sometimes I will buy thread for some "project" in the future and can spend a long time carefully matching thread to swaths of fabric. I keep them all in a giant glass apple on a shelf in my kitchen.
U- Uculet on Vancouver Island is a very boring place. I went there once when Michael and I went to Long Beach. We were in Uculet for maybe an hour, but only because there was a kooky antique shop with a boat out front. I took this photo.
V- I will probably never own another vehicle but the one I did have was a 1969 Plymouth valiant that I named Rose.
W- Another favorite photographer is Weegee. He was a crime scene photographer in NYC in the 30's. Named Weegee for "Ouija" as he seemed to get to events before anybody else. Really- he had a police radio in his car. He received fame for his habit of photographing the crowd response to the crime scene or involving it somehow. When I was in NY, I happened to see an exhibit of over 300 of his original photographs. I almost shit.
X- I have x-rays of my teeth. I wish I could have a whole body x-ray emailed to me in pieces.
Y-I wish I practiced Yoga. I used to and then I stopped. Sometimes I miss it.
Z- When I ride my bike to work, 1/2 the commute is downhill. I ZOOM.

when looking to catch a fish- throw a really big net.

See.. just when you thought the Internet was a waste of time and full of seemingly irrelevant and inaccurate facts.. you forgive yourself for ever thinking so. For, when one day someone uses it as a giant "Looking for you ad."

So sweet.

I called Patrick to say good luck and if you find her make sure to let the Internet know. You should call him too.

Because the boy in blue said so.

IMGP6804.JPG, originally uploaded by jill y.

Found this gem walking around the neighborhood today. had to walk onto someone's porch to "take a closer look".

5 things

1. I like to crotchet, sew and embroider.
2. I have a small collection of small birds like my grandmother.
3. I like photography because I can't draw or paint.
4. I would like to have a garden but I'm afraid I'd neglect it and it would die.
5. The nutmeg grater my mother gave me if my favorite kitchen tool.

on a rainy night coming down Victoria Drive

on a rainy night comming down Victoria Drive, originally uploaded by jill y.

black radishes

black radishes, originally uploaded by jill y.

so funny I laughed out loud

via Jenguin

saving daylight

Some say it is good. It gives us longer summer hours and longer days of light in the winter. Some say bollocks and point their pointy fingers at the increase in auto accidents as people adjust to time changes. Other's pity and plight for the ones with sleeping disorders who face serious upset to their already precarious routines. The rest of us either relish in the "extra hr to sleep in" though or mildly grip about "having to get up one hr earlier".

In any case...don't forget to put your clocks back 1 hr sometimes between midnight tonight and 3 am tonight.

Things you can do when you bored or otherwise known as blogging is taking over my life.

I just found a curious little website called X365- Basically it's to write 40 words (no more, no less) every day for a year, about a different person who touched your life. But it can't be just anyone, it has to be someone you've actually met in person, AND someone whose name you still remember. Is this even possible. What if you suck at remembering names? I do. I have been know to walk up to people I have known for years and completely gaped on their names. You know and thinking about this- I'd have to possibly make up those names and pull up random experiences and "called them touching".

I mean- there was that woman in the neighborhood who used to give me cookies. I remember sitting in her living room on the patterned couch upholstered in some sort of fabric like velour where it was smooth one way and rough the other. My tiny feet on the thick blue shag carpet. Tassels tied back the long heavy beige curtains draping the front pane glass living room window. A film of dust meandered through a sunbeam. A plate on the lacquered table had chocolate chip cookies and a tall glass of milk stood near by like a beloved companion. I remember all of those things (and embellish them with my 36 year old mind) and that it touched my little 4 year old heart to get free cookies but her name? Forget it.

But I am inspired to write about how people have "touched" my life by reading the delightful, insightful, ponderosa meanderings of Schmutzie who has quickly become one of my favorite blogs. Do go and take a look- but here's an example:

When I came over to play on Sundays, you apologized for your parents making me help clean and take part in the family nap, but I secretly loved it. It was quiet, equanimous, so different than my house. There was nothing quite like lying with all the others in silence.

Inspiring stuff. Makes me think of life in whimsical ways.

Side note- I just used the word ponderosa. I don't know why. The only association of have of that word is for Ponderosa Steakhouse in Edmonton. But thinking about Schmutzie's blog it rolled out of my mind like a tumbleweed on a windy prairie day and looking up the word, I think it's fitting. "Planted for timber and ornamental". (to self- Well done, Jill)

ponderosa |ˌpändəˈrōsə| (also ponderosa pine) noun a tall slender pine tree, the most widespread conifer of western North America, planted for timber and as an ornamental. • Pinus ponderosa, family Pinaceae.

bad bruise

As a result of my lipoma surgery, I have a pretty nasty bruise and underneath that bandage- 7 stitches closing a 2 inch incision. Fun stuff people. Stitches come out tomorrow and of course- MORE PHOTOS!!

reading material

When I signed on for NABLOPOMO, I was #130.

Now there are 1354 members.

Need something to read? Check out the list of blogs.

Just don't stray to far from MKP.

And if you do- My friend, Bess, is signed up and it's worth it just for pictures of her cute baby, and she's pretty cool too.

rehab

I am at it again. If you were around reading this blog last year, you might remember the whole month of November included at least one posting a day for every month. It's called NABLOPOMO or National Blog Posting Month. This is akin to running dental floss through your brain and loosing all those bits of rotting orange pulp and sinewy meat that stuck way down between the molar like synapses of your brain. Thoughts you didn't know you had start appearing as you grip the keyboard in a mad search of blog "material".

Should be a fun month. I wonder what juicy gems I'll come up with.

And to make it a little bit interesting, I'll be running a wee contest. for those of you out there (yes all 5 of you- Hi Sonia. Hi Mom. Hi Jane. Hi Bess. Hi Sis.) who post the most comments will win a specially made something from me. Last year I made a hand embroidered lavender sachet for Daisies. So, you know, it's worth it to roll those comments in for the National Blog Posting Month.

happy halloween

Diane Arbus.

shattered

get caught in a web, originally uploaded by jill y.

status

I am sore. My shoulder feels like someone sucker punched it really hard. My arm feels incapacitated as a response. Feeble and helpless. Sad. I feel crampy too. Bloated. I can't shower until after Wednesday and my boyfriend has disappeared to the Sunshine Coast for work until sometime next week. Did I mention it's cold and raining outside?

There was nothing else to do except go to MEC and buy a pair of fleece pants, do laundry and watch a movie.

cut it out

There was a pin prick and a faint numbing when the anesthetic was pushed under my skin through a tiny needle. I began to feel nauseous and nervous. I did not anticipate any of this when my wheels made the leaves crackle beneath them as I rode to the doctor's office. I felt drops of cool fluid flow into my tiny ravine made by the bones and flesh of my collar. The wetness ran across my shoulder and down my back. Dr. Irving swabbed the area with a disinfectant.

I could feel my skin separate from the pressure of the blade. I knew there was blood but couldn't feel it. The entire surface of my skin tensed and my blood rushed in an automatic response to flee this danger. I begged myself to not vomit or pass out and I screeched involuntarily as the doctor clamped and tugged and tugged and clamped. He asked me questions and my mind reeled and I spoke random thoughts, a stream of consciousness and facts came gurgling out of me..

I have a cat. She is white. Her name is Ruby. My apartment is a mess. I need to do laundry. I want to go home. This hurts. I don't like this. I don't like this. I don't like this. Can it be over now. I will not throw up. I feel like I am going to pass out. OUCH. OK. Stay calm. How much longer? Minutes or seconds? OUCH. OUCH. My arm! There was a shooting pain up down my arm. Oh my god ohmygodohmygod..

I lay there wondering if I could ever endure childbirth. I tried to actually notice that nothing was actually painful but rather just so disturbing and invasive. I knew I had an opening in my skin. I knew my skin has been clamped back and I knew someone was digging around and snipping something away from the body that created it. It was a mini, tiny C- section below my shoulder and I was begging for it to be over.

And then it was. I could feel my skin being tugged and stitched back together. I started to relax. Disinfectant squirted over the fresh wound and bit of dressing and bandages applied. That was it. It seemed like it would last forever but it was over in 5 minutes and my body no longer housed a lipoma, but I was not handed a tiny bundle wrapped in cloth.

Instead, blobs of yellowish, shiny, tissue material lay bloody on a stainless steel table looking
...deceptively... like organic chicken.

road to heaven

road to the end of the world, originally uploaded by jill y.