My neighbourhood

Despite the snow that just keeps falling and falling around me, the houses seem to just keep growing and growing. Actually, it'd probably be more accurate to say, “appearing and appearing”.

As you can see from my posts between July 2004 and October 2004, I had the opportunity to drive out to the site, see my home being built, week-to-week... first the foundation, then the walls, then this and that. It was wonderfully fun and it allows you the time to realize that someday, you'll be living inside these walls. In fact, everyone I know who has bought a new house remembers doing this as well. Hell, when I moved into my last house I was only eleven, but even then I went with my family, out to the site, and took photos of the construction. I even put them together in a photo album (which I still have today).

So, what did I mean by “appearing and appearing”? Well, some builders have taken to building the frame inside giant buildings (think: airplane hanger) and then moving the completed frame to the site. I've seen them move homes twice now, but neither time with camera in-hand. Once the frame is on-site, they can finish the siding, tile the roof, and start putting in the doors and windows within a week. If you see only the basement foundation at your site one weekend, you could very well be locked out of your two-story, framed, roofed, windowed and doored home the next!

My point today is two-fold: people moving into these homes miss out on the experience of seeing their home being built and people living in the neighbourhood can be easily confused when they come home from work at night to find the landscape dramatically changed! For me, as someone already living in the construction zone, it is very weird to come home and think, “Hey- there wasn't a house there this morning!” as I drive past my street where I should have turned.

Supposedly, having your frame built indoors is much, much better, so I imagine that this practice will not stop any time soon. So, my goal now is, as it has been for weeks, to catch the house-mover on film... er, pixels. If it ever happens, I'll be sure to put it up here.

What else could go wrong?

Buying a new house certainly has its perks: the new house smell, the brand new carpet, the brand new tile, the brand new... well, everything. However, life in a new development (at least one still under construction) has very few benefits - at least none that I'm aware of at the moment. “How so?” you ask? Well let me tell you about my day so far (it is, after all, only 1:00pm).

Last night the weatherman called for 1-2cm of snow; nothing to be worried about, right? Well, he was (again) wrong. And because of the increased snowfall, what is normally a 50min drive to work, took 2.5 hours this morning. For those who will start counting, this is #1. While I was sitting on the highway, some nice person pointed out to me that my front tire was low... very low. It would seem that I'd picked up a staple (used for aluminum siding I believe) in my tire. #2. And then, just before I arrived at work, my gas light came on. And of course gas isn't all that cheap today. #3.

So, I'm at work now - late - and while walking into the building, I somehow managed to spill my hot chocolate on me (the guy I carpool with picked up the drinks while I was re-filling my tire... don't start thinking that we took the scenic route to work!). #4. Now, although I'm late for work, I did make it in time for my meeting, so I stayed around for that. I have to say, the meeting went surprisingly well given the rest of the day. Following that I headed back out, filled up my car, and went to the dealership. Worked out what needed to be done and apart from the routine maintenance which I'd planned to do tonight anyhow, nothing surprising there. So, I arranged to get the shuttle back to work, and while waiting for that I grabbed my cell phone to call work. It was dead (battery had run out). #5. Not a big deal, I'm going back to work... just check the time and... my watch had stopped. Apparently it's 9:14... yesterday. #6.

They say that bad things come in threes. Maybe I'm being too liberal in my counting, or maybe I'm shooting for three-threes, I don't know. After all, the last thing on my 30-day list was supposed to be fixed yesterday, and it wasn't. I've called the builder once already this morning about this (since it's the second time that an appointment was made and nothing has been done) - does this count as #7? I hope not...

As it stands, I have some work to do this afternoon and then I'm hoping to get the shuttle back here later to pick-up myself (and my fellow carpooler) so that we can be back on the road in reasonable time. Looking outside, the slushy snow is still coming down, so I half expect it to change to freezing rain just as I'm getting my car back.

Fun, fun. Hope your day is going better than mine!

Life in the kitchen

Cooking is not one of those things that I have a lot of experience with. Not because I'm a guy, but because I've never really had to do much cooking. Living at home with my parents for the last few years, I was lucky enough to have most meals prepared for me. I did help clean-up afterwards, but with a dishwasher going, that didn't amount to too much work.

So, now what? Well, I'm not completely useless in the kitchen - in fact, I've managed get take-out less than once a week since I've been here. That said, my meal selection has been nothing special - admittedly a few more frozen, prepared meals (e.g., chicken fingers and fries) than I'd like, but also some soups, pasta dishes and I've even marinated pork chops on occasion. The question today is, where to go from here?

What have other first-time or 'new to the kitchen' chefs done to improve their meals? Cooking classes at a local college or uber-grocery store? Found a great cookbook that full of good recipes? A good show on the Food Network or similar station? Ideas for a twist on traditional cuisine?

Oh, one tip that I can provide is - as always with me - plan ahead. If you're making chicken tonight, consider tossing on an extra breast to use in a pasta, salad or lunch later in the week. Making pasta tonight? Add an extra handful to reheat for lunch tomorrow or as a sidedish to the meal you're thinking about for dinner tomorrow. When you're cooking for just one or two people, it's so much easier to make a little more to save yourself time in the kitchen later (or to provide a more balanced meal later on).

There you go - a few questions that I'm looking for answers to, and a quick, simple tip for anyone else starting out. Although it sometimes seems like I've been living here a long time, it's only been about ten weeks now, so I've still got a lot to learn!

And, if you're wondering, no - I didn't get the poster hung this weekend. Instead, I decided that I needed to give the place a good once-over, so I took a few hours on Saturday to clean everything. Maybe this week?

Momentum lost

I was going to talk about being sure that you've informed everyone about your new contact information as my MasterCard bill is still being sent to my parent's house... but I think I've complained about this before.

I was going to ramble on about how I haven't finished moving all my stuff out of my parent's house to my place (e.g., Transformers, Star Wars, board games)... but I think I mentioned this a few weeks back.

I was going to bitch about the telephone company... there is always time for that in my opinion; but if I was going to do anything like that, I should be praising the wonderful representative I spoke with regarding my mobile phone (different carrier than my land-line - no surprise there). I'll save that for another night.

I was going to say a lot of things about living in this place, but I noticed one thing tonight: I've lost my momentum.

No! Not to blog... never that. My drive to get everything in order and everything in it's place. The mirror for my new bedroom set is still sitting in cardboard against the wall. The speaker stands I bought on Boxing Day are still wrapped in their plastic blister packs. All the boxes of miscellaneous junk/ crap/ stuff that I've stored in the basement are still (for the most part) unordered. You see, I decided I'd take a day off over the Christmas break to do 'whatever' and I haven't seemed to make it back to doing 'house clean-up and organization' again.

I think that it was talking to another home-owner today at lunch that triggered this realization for me. Someone else seemed surprised that I still hadn't completely unpacked my place, to which I turned to the aforementioned friend and said, “um, have you unpacked your place yet?”. Of course, he said no. If memory serves, he's been there almost two years now.

So what to do? I have stuff that does need to be sorted, frames to hang, speakers to mount, mirrors to install, coffee tables to buy... lots of things to do. I place the blame partly on Need for Speed: Underground which managed to control my every waking moment of free time for the seven days I had it from the video store (excellent game, I must say - and I'm not a racing-game person), but that has since (sadly) been returned. How can I get back on track?

I'm hoping that acknowledging the problem is the first step... but maybe that only works for addictions. My most common excuse is that I'm waiting for the weekend to arrive, but they whip by faster than... well, I'll skip the video game analogy here. My suggestion to me is: plan and set goals. I'd start with the speakers, but I really should wait for the weekend if I'll be drilling into my walls. So... okay, here it is: hang my poster frame (complete with Pink Floyd poster) in the computer room before the week is out (stay tuned for an update later in the week).

As for everyone else, I make the unrealistic suggestion of not stopping. Yup, just move in (preferably in one day... don't drag it out) and then spend every other waking minute sorting and cleaning and organizing your place because once you stop. You are done.

Either that or buy a lot of shelving for the basement. Your call.

Going through the car wash

I don't honestly remember the last time that I went to the car wash. It must have been at least ten or twelve years ago. As long as I remember, we've been a family that gets out the ol' hose and bucket on a sunny day and washes their own cars. But, as I'm still finding, I don't have all the right tools for every job yet. In this case, the distinct lack of a hose and soap would be the culprit. (That, and I didn't want to open up the outside faucet at this time of year.)

So why wash my car in January? Well, unlike the photo shown in the previous post, we're not - at the moment - experiencing a typical Canadian winter... it's no spring day mind you, however, the mercury-substitute has been hovering about the zero degree mark recently.

But I still haven't answered my question... why a car wash in January? Because living in the middle of a construction zone - another perk to buying a new home - has left my car looking like I take some crazy off-road route to work each day. Despite my best efforts to park in the garage at all times, the dust and dirt in the air is inescapable. Although I do love the winter/snow, I have to say that I'd been waiting for a day like today to run through the car wash.

And what a fun time it was. I really wish I'd had my camera with me so I could shoot some photos from inside my car - next time for sure. I was more than a little “car wash inept”, even going so far as to buzz the people inside the gas station kiosk, thinking that it wasn't working... duh - I didn't realize that there was a car in the middle of a wash at the moment. Any how, it didn't do a super-duper hand-wash job of cleaning everything (although I have no idea how it could have missed the few spots that it did), but I must say that my car seems to be running better now.

So, without any great purpose to writing this post other than giving me a chance to wish everyone a happy new year and get back into the groove of posting here, I hope you enjoyed my little tale and I'll be back soon!