Midge's Blog

Apartment Photos!

Alrighty! As promised, the much anticipated apartment photos are here! (But don't get distracted and forget to look at the plant photos in my previous post!) Will try to get some shots of the rest of the UniverCity development soon...

Alright, let's get started with a cool shot of a foggy morning a while back:

Here's our kitchen...and gas stove, yay!

And the bar counter that separates our kitchen and dining/living area:

Here's our dining and living rooms (sorry, it's kinda messy!)

Notice our new blue couch,

and the gas fireplace...mmm, toasty!

Off the side of the living room is our office

Now, down the hallway, first we have a bathroom

with shower.

And on the other side of the hall, our very own insuite washer and dryer!!! So great, so great!

Ok, now at the end of the hallway is our bedroom. Here are our new bed,

and dresser.

And here is the little reading area in front of the window:

Also in our bedroom, we have a walk-in closet, and luckily we have a good amount of closet space throughout the place, because we don't have a storage locker, so all our camping stuff, winter tires, etc. (except bikes) is in the apartment.

And then we have a second insuite bathroom off our bedroom,

it has a pretty good sized soaker tub

and I finally got to install the biker toilet seat that I made ages ago.

Finally, the balcony. It's small but there's room for lounging

and for our great new little bbq. It's a Weber Baby Q, which comes off the stand so we can take it camping, etc. But it's as sturdy as a real bbq, and will actually last for many years unlike the other little portable ones that we had before (and had to chuck every couple years).

Oh, and one more, a shot of the pond outside in the courtyard.

So there ya go! We're pretty happy with the place all in all, and it's great being able to walk to school/work, as well as the new restaurants and stuff in the Cornerstone bldg. Anyway, gotta run and have some lunch. All that posting made me hungry!

midge.

new plants!

Scott, Deb, Bliss, and I went down to the VanDusen plant sale yesterday. Meet my new little friends, and some old ones that you've seen before! (Stay tuned for the much awaited apartment photos!)

New little friends!

Strawberry plant

has moved in with the peas that survived the winter

look, a new little pea!

A lot of the you grow girl crowd has been raving about chocolate mint, and I actually found some at the sale:

Got some other new herbs too...dill

and parsley

moved in with the chives, that are happily budding away.

And finally, I got some nasturtiums, which are not only gorgeous and colourful when they bloom, but tasty in salads!

The nasturtium moved in with the lavender, which is growing like crazy!

And don't forget about Figgy! Figgy's starting to bud, and gearing up for another summer, and another attempt to actually make some figs!

Well, that's the garden report for now. I just rented a garden plot at the SFU community gardens last week, so I'll make sure to document that once I get it started.

Happy gardening season!
midge.

insect id?

holy cow, this huge-assed bug flew in the patio door. i was super freaked out, but more than that, i wanted to know what it was. i grabbed my camera and it had disappeared. (assuming that there was only the one,) it had flown out onto the bbq where i got a photo of it. does anyone know what this is? (it was nearly 2 inches long).

never you mind.

just uploading some avatar action to use on the buffboard.

food additives

Ech. Has anyone else heard about this new chemical called "senomyx"? It's a food flavour enhancer that has been made with the idea that it would allow less salt and sugar to be used in foods, as well as replace MSG. There's an article about it in the N.Y. Times. It has gone through minimal testing on rats, but doesn't have to be passed by the FDA because it is powerful and only a teeny amount needs to be added. Because of this, it also won't need to be listed on labels, it will simply be clumped under the heading of artificial flavouring. Lets hope people aren't allergic to it--what a nightmare! According to the article, and some other websites, the companies that are jumping on board to use this include Kraft, Nestle, Coca-cola, V8 (like the veggie juice), Campbell's Soup, Pepperidge Farms...

The weirdest part is that they developed it after genetic research into how our taste receptors work, so from what i understand, it is basically either promoting or blocking certain taste receptors. Because of this, it will potentially be used in air fresheners, cough syrups, etc. etc.

Let's just hope it requires better regulation in Canada! I couldn't find any info...