Jenno’s Ool

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Five Questions

There is an interesting meme happening on LiveJournal where a friend will ask you five random questions and you answer them. A friend asked me questions from why I teach to who my favourite authors are to what my favourite Arrogant Worms song is. Here they are.

Posted by Jennifer at 5:47 PM | Comments (0)

Saturday, August 02, 2008

New bike

I used to bike a lot. When I was still living in New Brunswick, I'd bike through Rockwood Park with buddies from the YMCA on the weekends. This type of biking required a fairly small, agile mountain bike. I bought a Giant ATX 760 to suit the terrain and uses; it's a good bike and has served me well.

In recent years, I've not been doing any "single tracking" but rather commuting to and from work or general errand running on the bike. The Giant is the wrong bike for these purposes. I found I was leaning too far forward on the bike and there was a lot of pressure being put on my wrists and arms. In short, the bike wasn't comfortable to ride; it hurt. The end result is that I slowly stopped biking.

To start up the biking again required that I get a new bike, one more suited to the tasks and trails I'm likely to ride now. I needed a bike with a more upright stance and less pressure on the arms, wrists and shoulders. The result? A comfort-hybrid bike. The model I finally chose was a Mondano comfort bike from Opus.

This particular model has front shocks as well as a seat post shock absorber. I upgraded the hand grips to minimize the pressure on the palms. This is a great bike! I've not done any long riding on it yet as it has been rather, erm, damp here but even the toodling around town has been positive! I'm much more upright and the shocks make quite a difference in the quality of the ride. Looks like I'm back in the saddle again! Yay!

Posted by Jennifer at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)

Monday, April 14, 2008

New Office

A couple weekends ago we rearranged part of the upstairs and library; the result? A new office space for me out of the bedroom.

We had downsized the snake collection enough so that we could take one of the shelves in the snake room down and reassemble it in the basement. Removing that shelf caused a cascade effect and allowed for a bookshelf (with the snake/reptile reference books and my school books) and my desk to be brought in.

I've also brought the majority of my art supplies into the office now, including my easel and paints. The room gets a lot of afternoon sun which is a nice quality of light for, well, anything but certainly for painting.

We also bought some storage shelves for art, school and reptile supplies to cut down on the clutter on window sills and other surfaces. All in all, it is quite the cozy little hide out for me. I'm really going to like it in here!

Posted by Jennifer at 8:50 PM | Comments (1)

Saturday, March 22, 2008

I Can Has Totoro?

Way back when I was shopping in Chinatown for supplies for our Chinese New Year party, I came across a shop with a number of plush characters. One that caught my eye was a Totoro, a forest spirit, from the movie "My Neighbor Totoro".

I did not buy the plush at that time but when I told Jon about it, I had regrets for NOT getting him from then on... The next time I was in Chinatown I went back to the store but it was closed for the week. I looked in other stores in the area but to no avail, no one else had any Totoros. In some cases, the shop owners didn't know what I was talking about though that could have just been a language issue.

Last Thursday I was meeting Jon in Ottawa and decided to try the shop again. They were open this time but the original Totoro I saw had been sold. They had this guy in his place.

The original plush was somewhat flatter and more pillow like. He also had more soot sprites on his shoulders than the one here. I didn't hesitate this time but picked him up at once. Then I made the mistake of looking around some more. They had a number of other Totoro inspired items from cell phone holders to slippers to door mats.

I restrained myself from going overboard and settled for just the one Totoro ... this time!

Labels: plush, totoro

Posted by Jennifer at 5:36 PM | Comments (0)

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Science: The Musical

Well, not really a musical but there are a LOT of different science topics covered and set to jaunty little tunes. Singing Science Records are described as "science-themed folk songs" and cover many of the topics in the current school curriculum.

These were originally recorded in the late 50s and early 60s for kids. One of my favourite and admittedly quirky bands, They Might Be Giants (TMBG), did a cover of one of these songs: "Why Does The Sun Shine?" on one of their children's albums "No!".

On a somewhat tangential note, John Hodgman issued a challenge to TMBG thus upping the already high cool factor of the band by pure association!

Posted by Jennifer at 7:39 PM | Comments (0)

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Goober and Doofus

Doofus is getting bigger all the time. Goober still tolerates Doofus literally walking all over him and bouncing off his head. The vet has warned us that he'll be about as big as Goober once he reaches full size. I can just imagine what waking up to two of these beasts on my stomach'll be like then!

Posted by Jennifer at 12:37 PM | Comments (0)

Telescopic Goodness

With a rare combination of not-too-cold temperatures and not-too-cloudy skies last night we decided to pull the telescope out and do some observing. Saturn was in opposition last night so it was our main target; though by no means our ONLY target. Our summer observing spot isn't available in the winter as it turns into a snow mobile route so we set up off our back steps.

Jon was able to do a fairly quick alignment once we got the 'scope levelled out and Saturn jumped into view. It was small but the rings were clearly visible as were at least two of its moons. The longer I looked at Saturn the more definition I could see in the rings to the point I could see the space between the rings and the planet's surface (but not the Cassini Division). I got so excited about Saturn that, without checking the time first, I knocked on our neighbour's door so they could also see . Fortunately everyone was up (it was after 10 pm, but not by much) and they were eager to come out and sky watch with us.

After Saturn, Jon pointed the telescope at various different points: the moon, the Pleiades, Mars and the Orion Nebula. We tried for the Rosette Nebula but couldn't find it. I always love looking at the Pleiades but last night the real winner for me was the Orion Nebula! We tried out one of the nebula filters I got Jon for Christmas and the view was magnificent: I'm still in awe this morning. My first thought was: "It looks like an angel with up-stretched wings." The second thought was: "I can't wait till it's warm enough for me to sit out here with my sketch pad and drawing materials!"

I thought I wanted to draw mainly the moon and other large bodies, but after last night, nebulae are now on my list too! So much stuff, too cold to sit out for hours yet! Fortunately our telescope is a good "jack of all trades" tool and can lend itself fairly easily to all sorts of observing. This is good and I can foresee a lot of late nights in the summer!

Jon's post on last night's observing can be found here.

Labels: astronomy, nebulae, Saturn, telescope

Posted by Jennifer at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Chinese New Year

Last Thursday was the start of the Chinese New Year: the year of the Rat. The rat is the first in the Chinese zodiac and is generally, among other things, thought to bring good luck and wealth (prosperity) to households.

To celebrate the new year, Jon and I decided to throw a dim sum party. Hey, any excuse is as good as another to get people together in February isn't it? Not as many people came as we had expected, but there were a lot of last minute cancellations due to sickness; it is that time of year after all! However, I think those who did make it out enjoyed themselves.

I went to Chinatown (in Ottawa) last week to pick up some decorations, red envelopes as parting gifts and dishes so the place would be festive. I also very nearly came out of the store with a plush Totoro complete with soot sprites! If he's still there the next time I'm in Chinatown, I'll pick him up for sure!

Jon made a variety of dim sum for our bamboo steamers; although, we did cheat a bit and got some frozen dim sum too. Because not as many people showed up, some items were cut from the menu and there are a few leftovers in the fridge. Ah well, if the urge to have dim sum strikes again, we've got lots!

Next year is the year of the Ox which is my zodiac sign - not sure if we'll do another party or not though... time will tell!

Labels: chinese new year, dim sum, rat

Posted by Jennifer at 9:11 PM | Comments (0)