This week in photos: Pets, pals and the utter failure of spring

It looks like I completely forgot putting up a post last week for the daily photos, which were pretty much all puppy pictures anyway. So here’s this week’s photos and a few leftovers from last week, too.

I love this photo of Simon and his best buddy, snapped quickly in the school parking lot after school. Much as a cringe when people compliment my camera (“your camera takes lovely photos!”) I have to admit that a good camera can turn even the quickest snaps into a wonderful portrait!

BFFs

Poor kids can’t even eat breakfast in peace without someone turning a lens on them…

Backlit breakfast

… so I spend a LOT of time taking pictures of the not-much-more-patient-with-my-camera pets! 🙂

#fromwhereistand - with a dog on my feet!

Floppy ears

A tired puppy is a good puppy. We have done a LOT of walking these past few weeks!

Tristan and Bella

Bella and Willie have not exactly become friends, despite Bella’s best intentions. (Intentions to chase Willie all over the house, that is!)

Bella and Willie, not quite a love story

I was making a recipe that called for two cups of wildebeest, but wouldn’t you know it, we ran out of wildebeest just last week, so I substituted a lemon and a cup and a half of cat.

Two cups of cat

I was delighted earlier this week to discover what I thought were crocuses (croci?) blooming in the garden, but apparently these are mini-irises. Who knew? Anyway, poor things are now buried under 10 cm of snow and ice pellets. Hope they’re hardy!!

Crocuses! (ahem, apparently NOT crocuses. Miniature Irises!!)

And while the vast majority of Ottawa (and most of Eastern Canada, likely) complained bitterly about a snow storm in mid-April, Bella alone was delighted. Born on Christmas day, she’s only ever seen snow-covered ground, and I think she’s been perplexed by its absence this past week or two. You can see how delighted she is to have her snowy ground cover back!

Not everybody hated that it snowed today.

It’s a good thing I ran out of pictures, because as I type Bella is walking around the living room clearly looking for mischief. Here’s hoping next week’s photos are filled with more flowers and less snow! 😉

Bloggy inspiration: Ingredient of the week

This is not a food blog. You might have noticed that. (snort) I may be a good writer, a decent photographer, a loving mother and a loyal friend, but I am hopeless in the kitchen. I cook because we need to eat and since I’ve already got Beloved doing the rest of the menial chores around the house (god love him) until one of the boys is old enough to take over the task, keeping the family from starving will fall on my shoulders.

I’m not exactly an adventurous eater, let alone a creative chef. I have a dozen, maybe 20 meals I can cook, and we loop through the top 10 randomly. I believe in whole foods over processed and if I can grill something I will. Also, I am rarely interested in or able to spend more than 30 minutes on meal preparation.

CSA share in the fridge

So with that in mind, here’s my new idea, inspired by a conversation on Facebook. Yesterday, I posted this as my status update:

Thanks to grocery store samples, I have discovered and become obsessed with Parmesan Reggiano cheese. OMG so good. But aside from grating it over pasta and eating it until I give myself a stomach ache, what else can I do with it?

And to my mouth-watering astonishment, these are the replies I got (stripped of real names to protect the culinary able):

  • Use it to top off soup, chili, casseroles, in wraps, …
  • Who doesn’t love cheese?!
  • Also good in salads, bruschetta, dips and on steamed veggies
  • Cut up a head of cauliflower, toss it in some olive oil, then toss it in some grated parm and roast for about 40 mins at 425 (turning the pieces half way). Sooooo good!
  • over steamed broccoli. And where have you been?!!! lol
  • It’s very good shaved over arugula sprinkled with salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.
  • Jason likes it grated into a HOT pan, then removing and cooling. It’s used as a garnish, but he eats it like chips.
  • We grate it into our bread-crumb / butter mac and cheese topping.
  • Oooh, yes. We’re boring, that’s all we do with it too. But what about over grilled asparagus? Before or after it goes in the oven? I might have to try that myself…
  • (me:) Oh my god you guys. Forget ME cooking it, I’m coming over to all of YOUR houses for dinner. Who’s first??
  • It transforms brussel sprouts into something my kids will tolerate.
  • I have a recipe for baked pork chops that uses a lot of parm-reggiano in the breading. It is an excellent recipe. I’ll dig it up at home tonight and message you.
  • Ok, ok, what about sprinkling it on that kale you tricked me into buying?? Like, Kale Chips Reggiano????
  • Mix with crushed ritz crackers and sprinkle on fried zucchini (before removing from heat). Mix with mayo to coat chicken before coating with cornflakes and baking. Add to creamy risotto made with chicken broth.
  • (in reply to above) OMG, I thought that was all one recipe at first…
  • Defintely a must on top of ceasar salad!
  • I like to shave a few pieces onto grilled steak, or grilled portobello mushrooms and drizzle with a really good balsamic vinegar.
    Make pesto with it.
  • (me:) Okay seriously, I either need to learn to cook or have friends who are less creative in the kitchen, because this thread is making me feel woefully inadequate. I am going to make EVERY SINGLE ONE of these recipes. And I might not even ruin one or two of them in the process.
  • parmesan tuiles? … our wine blogger’s family recipe for carbonara calls for reggiano, not pecorino… there is very LITTLE cooking involved for carbonara!

That last one is from Don from foodiePrints. Seriously, I don’t even know what a “tuiles” is – clearly my culinary aptitude has been misrepresented in some way! 😉

So after reading all of that (and while drooling in a most unseemly fashion) I was inspired by a new bloggy creative flash! (See? Excellent blogger. Lousy cook.) What if we do this every week most weeks on random occasions here on the blog? I’ll post an ingredient and we can share food preparation ideas, and then I’ll leave them up for you to come back when you’re feeling uninspired and looking for something new?

What do you think? Fun idea? Now what ELSE can we do with parmesean reggianno? (I hope it’s still on sale at Farm Boy, it’s gonna take a LOT OF CHEESE to work my way through all these suggestions!!)

What do you do when school rules and your rules don’t agree?

So here’s a question for you: what do you do when you disagree with the unofficial policies of your child’s school?

Today’s question is inspired in part by a note that came home yesterday insisting all students must wear splash or wind pants in the school yard or be kept inside at recess. This is the first I’ve heard of this requirement, and I have neither the resources nor, frankly, the inclination to try to find splash pants for all three of them. Midweek, no less. And spending $20 plus, multiplied by three, for something they’ll wear for a week or two does not appeal to me either. I sent a note back to the school to that effect, and each boy packed a pair of dry pants as a concilliatory gesture and “just in case” measure – but I trust them enough to believe that when they promise to stay out of the mud and puddles, they will do so.

To me, this gets into the grey area between school rules and parenting. I sympathize with the school’s desire to keep the muck and mud outside, but if they’re going to make splash pants mandatory, I’d like more than a day’s notice. An example that slips even further outside the zone of school responsibility, IMHO, was the time last fall when one boy had a piece of candy taken away the day after Halloween. A note came home saying the teachers did not feel that amount of sugar was appropriate for a morning snack. (In my defense, I had ALSO packed a piece of fruit. And I didn’t realize that Beloved had also slipped a piece of candy into each child’s lunch box, in addition to the treat I’d permitted. Regardless, I truly believe that unless I am packing varsol-filled thermoses and asbestos sandwiches, the school has no right to judge or interfere with what I put in their lunch boxes.)

I’m leery to even talk about these examples on the blog because I adore the boys’ school and the staff. I think they’re hard-working and kind and we’re lucky to be part of such a great community. But I’m curious as to how you handle these types of conflict because I am torn. For the most part, I’m happy to follow the rules even when I disagree with them and think it’s important that the kids see me respecting authority. Rules are in place for a good reason – most of the time. However, another part of me wonders if there isn’t value in teaching them to question authority when authority clearly oversteps its bounds (as I believe it has, in these two examples at least.) And finally, a part of me worries that causing trouble will somehow make the kids’ relationship with their teachers and school authorities more difficult than it should be or has to be. I don’t want them to be labled as troublemakers, even if by proxy.

125:365 Puddle jumper

(FWIW, I think the splash pants rule is maybe more acceptable for the littlest kids. I will continue to send Lucas in his ski pants, partly because he goes in the morning when it’s still cool and partly because I don’t think a four-year-old has the same ability to resist a puddle that a nine- or eleven-year-old might have.)

So what do you think? Would you let these things go or speak up? For the candy incident, I let it go. It was a well-intentioned action, even if it left me feeling judged and more than a little annoyed. For the splash pants, I simply can’t comply but I tried to offer up a reasonable compromise. Do you think there is value in talking back when you disagree with unofficial policies and rules like this, or is it better for community harmony to shrug it off and comply?

(Edited to add: in no way is this post intended to reflect poorly on the boys’ school or its administration. They have a difficult role balancing many competing priorities and I have nothing but respect and even affection for them. Even if I disagree with an occasional policy or two, I can’t say enough nice things about how lucky we are to be a part of such a great community and this post was in no way meant to be critical of them. I used these examples simply to illustrate a larger issue that I think many parents face, regardless of which school their children attend.)

The puppy project

To say I was unprepared for the upheaval in our lives due to the arrival of a puppy would be a bit of an understatement. A laughable understatement, really, since I’ve had dogs pretty much my whole life and puppies more than once. I have not, though, had a puppy with three kids and a cat and yard without a fence and a winter that will.not.quit. The combination is making me very, very tired.

For the most part, Bella is a great dog. She’s intelligent, has a wonderful nature, loves all the members of the family, and I think she’ll make a terrific lifelong companion. We just have to get through the puppy phase first.

Oy. Puppies. Nipping, peeing, willful, leaping, chewing, cat-chasing, obstinate puppies. It’s exhausting, the relentless puppyness of it all. Can we just fast forward to the year mark, where she’s housetrained and done teething and doesn’t keep confusing the kids’ feet with her chew toys?

It’s funny how much she (and we!) have changed since we brought her home about three and a half weeks ago. I thought at first she was on the timid and skittish side, but there’s very little trace of that left now. For the first few days, I had the hardest time just getting her outside to pee – she’d cower miserably by the door each time I tried to bring her outside. Now I have to bring her out on a leash most of the time as she so loves the yard and charging around it so much that we can’t get her back inside. She howled pitifully, trembled and was sick in her carrier the first time I brought her home in the car, and now she sits happily beside me in the passenger seat for short rides, only whining occasionally. I used to have to carry her away from the house (trembling in my arms the whole way) just so I could put her down and let her drag me back to the house — that was our version of a walk for the first week or so. She’s still terrible on leash, either pulling backwards or forwards half the time, but at least we can walk now, and she’s way better on a walk if her littermates, erm I mean, the kids, are out on a walk with her.

I think the thing that gave me most insight into her personality was bringing her for puppy class last week. We’re in a small class with only two other dogs (kind of defeats the socialization aspect, but oh well) and seeing how quick and bright and eager to please she is in the training session really gave me hope and reminded me that while it seems like we’re constantly scolding her for her puppy mischief, she’s actually a clever little girl who will do just about anything for a treat. And did I think this dog was timid? She was a little submissive with the older and larger Rottweiler (!) puppy, but while she tucked her tail and rolled on her back when he chased her, she just as quickly hopped up to chase and play with him.

I think maybe what I need is some valium. Oh, not for the puppy – for us! Our biggest challenge is not getting worked up about the puppy mischief and accepting it as both natural and (I hope) short-lived. Her worst transgressions to date have been tearing Tristan’s favourite jammies beyond repair, and peeing on a couple of beds. (How NOT to ingratiate yourself with your owners in one easy pee.) If I could snap my fingers and remove one behaviour problem, it would be nipping and jumping at the kids when she’s excited, so that’s what we’re working on the most but I’m finding it’s one of the harder ones to control because she does it out of pure excitement and joy to be with them. It’s also a huge challenge because she is at her most rambunctious in the early morning after I’ve gone to work but before the rest of them leave for school and work.

I know the responsibility is on our shoulders. We need to keep her chewing on the right things, exercising her regularly, showing her lots of love, and training her. We’ve lifted throw rugs and other things she might chew or pee on and the house is a warren of baby gates (much to the dismay of both Willie and Lucas.) Even though I’ve been through this before, though, I do not remember it being quite so exhausting! If I’m not scolding and redirecting the puppy, I’m scolding and redirecting the kids around the puppy. She sure is loveable, though. When she’s not out of her puppy mind with energy, she plays a great game of fetch (I love fetch!) and is very affectionate. She sleeps through the night with no problem in her crate and she’s getting better on leash for walks. She understands sit and stay, and is a little sketchier on ‘come here’ but we’re getting there. She’s only 14 weeks old after all!

Most adorably, her ears seem to be trying to become the stand-up shepherd ears I’ve always loved. Well, one of them is trying to stand up. Which might, after all, just amp up the cute factor.

untitled.jpg

I suppose the puppy project is just the last in a long list of obsessions over the years. Way way back it was crafty things, then woodworking, and I went through a sewing phase. More constantly in the past few years have been blogging and photography, and losing 30 lbs was another one back a couple of years ago. So if you see a little less of me online in the next little while, at least you’ll know why. I’m working on the puppy project.

Any puppy advice, oh clever bloggy peeps? Share your stories of puppy insanity and how you survived, please. I’ll read the comments on my iPhone as I pace the frozen back yard with Bella, waiting for pee and spring.

Edited to add: Ha! The blog’s related post feature thinks this post about life with 14 month old Lucas, written nearly four years ago almost to the day, sounds suspiciously similar to life with 14 week old Bella. Why yes it is, clever blog. So you’re trying to tell me something? (Reading that old post brought a smile to my face. Okay, we CAN get through this, too!)

This week in pictures: Bella and the turkeys and other signs of spring

I managed to avoid taking a whole week of Bella photos again, but I was so busy working with her on housetraining and other doggie manners that I missed taking a photo a couple of days this week, and relied on quickie iPhone snaps to fill in a few more gaps.

Some photos just beg to be taken, although I do wish I’d had a little more time to play with this and maybe try to remove that glare from Beloved’s glasses. In a house full of boys, Bella has easily stolen the role of Daddy’s Girl.

Daddy's girl?

Of course, part of my dog training regimen has been teaching her to pose for the camera.

Curious Bella

Have you heard about the wild turkey problem in Barrhaven? We saw them for the first time a few months ago, and when I saw this pair stopping traffic on my way home from doing errands early one Saturday afternoon, I had to stop and snap a few photos. I thought I had a really great video of them attacking a Mazda as it backed up and tried to drive around them (they really are fearless!) but apparently I’m a better photographer than videographer – I didn’t manage to turn on the video button. Just another couple of turkeys on the fowl prowl in suburbia…

Just a pair of suburban turkeys on the prowl

And look, more signs of spring – buds on the birch trees in the back yard!

Spring sky and birch trees

And last but certainly not least, one of the surest signs of spring: Easter egg decorating!

Easter egg fun

Easter egg fun

Easter egg fun

Hope your Easter was filled with spring and sweet treats!

The skinny on “mom jeans”

Okay, peeps, we need to talk about jeans. I was going to play this one straight for comedy, but like all things that are truly funny, this cuts a little too close to the bone for me to leave my insecurities completely, ahem, behind.

I’ve been perturbed by the term “mom jeans” from just about the first time I heard it. (Another variation of this post is filled with righteous indignation, which is an excellent alternative to comedy when the truth cuts too close to the bone and you are not blessed with a sense of humour.) But seriously, why exactly do we imply high-waisted, unflattering and poorly fitting jeans are “mom” jeans? Are moms by default more slovenly and worthy of scorn? It has been many years since I went to work with baby shit smeared from my wrist to my bicep, but somehow just by being the bearer of children my choice of denim should be disrespected?

So I could get all righteous about the term “mom jeans” but truth be told, getting worked up about anything related to fashion would be completely hypocritical of me. It’s one of the major reasons I’m so relieved to have a passel of boys and no girls to worry about. I don’t really follow trends, I forget to wear makeup most days, and if I wear anything but comfortable shoes my knees ache all the way to my hips. I don’t do fashion, I do smart-casual-meets-comfortable. Jeans are my go-to staple from work to weekends. I stray occasionally into the fancy world of dress pants and even (gasp!) skirts, but the predominant fabric swathing my legs is denim.

In particular, I live in GAP jeans. I discovered the Long and Lean style about three years ago, and snap them up when they go on sale. The sticker price is around $65, but I usually only pay about half of that. Including the deep indigo wash and the midnight black ones, I think I’m up to about five pairs in my closet. I thought I was being fashion-forward. I mean, it’s the GAP, right? They’re a cool label, no?

Apparently not when it comes to mom jeans. Apparently, GAP and Old Navy are ‘gateway’ mom-jeans.

Huh.

I found that post through a friend’s Facebook page. At first I was filled with righteous rage. When are we going to get over this stupid “mom jeans” term was my first thought. Then as I was reading, I was justifying and rationalizing in my head. “Oh, this writer is American. It’s probably different there. I’m sure the fits and labels are all different.” And there, down near the bottom of the post, are my beloved Long and Lean jeans. the ones that make my legs look like they’re about 11 feet long. Or so I thought. Until I got to the bit where she said Long and Lean are “the only pair that qualified beyond Gateway and straight into Mom Jeans.”

I’m feeling very conflicted now. I’m 43 years old for god’s sake, I’m way too old and comfortable with myself to get my denim worked into a twist over this. What do I care how my jeans look, beyond the fact that I try to leave the house without too much breakfast and dog hair smudged on them? I’ve borne three babies on these hips, they’ve earned a little extra padding. And it’s not like I’m trying to impress anyone with my caboose anymore – that horse is waaaaaaay out of the barn. So why the hell should I care what some cheeky blogger things about how my ass looks?

See all that righteousness? Methinks she doth protest too much. Apparently I do care, because my idle brain keeps coming back to pick at the idea like a festering scab. Maybe my ass is not as cool as I thought it was, wrapped in middle class friendly but not boutique-level denim? Maybe I need to drag Beloved to the Rideau Centre and have him trail around behind me taking pictures of my keister in Lucky Jeans and American Eagle and oh my god I’m so uncool I don’t even know what the cool stores might be! Good Christ, I’m 43 and I NEVER LEFT HIGH SCHOOL. Or perhaps more acutely, high school never left me.

In 1982, the thing I wanted more than anything in the universe was a pair of Road Runner jeans. We weren’t exactly poor but we weren’t exactly wealthy, either, and they were a little more costly than the Zellers house brand jeans I had been wearing. I remember how amazed I was when my mom actually bought me a pair. To my great dismay, I was just as unpopular in Road Runner jeans as I had been without them. It only took about 25 more years for me to really start to understand that what’s in my head is way more important than whatever label is on my jeans.

But my head keeps thinking about my ass, and wondering if maybe I’m at an age where I deserve a little help in the fit department. Clearly I’m conflicted, bloggy peeps. What say ye, oh wise and wonderful friends? There’s lots of food for thought here – mom jeans, societal expectations of women of a certain age, and my obvious inability to get my head out of my back pocket. Care to riff on any of those themes?

And, ppsssstt – where can a shallow girl of a certain age and fuller-than-waifish shape get a pair of jeans that are comfortable, flattering and on sale?

Fisher-Price Favourites: What makes a favourite toy? (With bonus coupon code!)

Do you remember the first toy you bought for your child? Aside from the bright teether toys and cuddly stuffies designed for newborns, the first actual toy I bought for Tristan was the Fisher-Price Brilliant Basics Rock-a-stack. That toy lasted through three drooling, teething, throwing, banging boys and still looked practically good as new (once I wiped it down!) the day I dropped it in the toy donation box at St Vincent de Paul. Did you know the Rock-a-stack was introduced in 1960? I’m sure I had one as a child, did you? When I think of classic toys, it’s exactly the kind of thing that comes to mind!

Popular toys come and go (from hula hoops to Cabbage Patch Kids to Tickle Me Elmo, there’s a craze every few years) but the classics never go out of style. That’s why Fisher-Price is highlighting the best of the best with the new “Fisher-Price Favourites” microsite. They’re featuring the toys and gear that families turn to year after year and generation after generation. What Makes a Fisher-Price Favourite?

  • Year after year, these toys have been favourites of moms, not just in Canada but around the world.
  • They have been tried, tested and loved by generations of kids.
  • They encourage child development and support children in achieving important milestones.

Of course the Brilliant Basics Rock-a-stack is on the list. Can you guess what other toys made the cut? Here they are:

  1. Brilliant Basics Rock a Stack
  2. Laugh & Learn Love to Play Puppy
  3. Laugh & Learn Say Please Tea Set
  4. Laugh & Learn Click ‘n Learn Remote
  5. Brilliant Basics Stroll-Along Walker
  6. Little People Wheelies Stand ‘ n Play Rampway
  7. Little People Animal Sounds Farm

So here’s another thing I like about Fisher-Price – they know that while we love their classic toys, it’s also important to keep incorporating new favourites into their line-ups. They didn’t have Bubble Guppies when I was a kid, but it is Lucas’s absolute favourite television show, and I knew he would LOVE a Bubble Guppies Rock & Roll Stage playset. This is a fun little playset with easy-to-assemble parts. It comes with a rolling Molly figure and a few accessories. You can roll Molly down the ramp and watch her spin into place on the stage. Very cute, especially if you have a Bubble Guppies fan in the house! (It’s become a bit of an inside joke crossed with an ear worm around our house. Nobody can ask “What time is it?” without someone in the family replying “It’s time for lunch!” If you have a Bubble Guppies fan in the house, you’ll get it.)

Also new this month, we had the chance to check out the DC Superfriends Wheelies Race n Chase Batcave. I thought Lucas would go crazy when he saw the Bubble Guppies set, but it was this one that had him begging me to open the box and put it together for him. This is another fun gravity-friendly playset along the lines of the much larger Wheelies Loops n Swoops set we reviewed last year. (Sometimes, smaller is good! This one is much easier to pull out and tuck away!)

Lucas loves the ramp action, and you can set it up so Batman and the Joker chase each other or race down the ramps, and there are “boulders” you can set in motion as well. Helpful for developing fine motor skills, and for figuring out “what happens when I…”, these sets are perfect for older toddlers right through to kids in the 5-6 year range. I think these Wheelies playsets are terrific, and clearly so does Lucas. Did I mention the elevator that brings the Wheelies (with the help of a little hand, of course) back up to the top of the playset so they can set off down the ramps again? This one arrived the same day as the new puppy (captured snoozing in the background in the photo below) and I’m pretty sure Lucas was more pleased with the playset than with the puppy! How’s that for an endorsement?

And now here’s a special treat for you. From March 29 through April 30, exclusively at ToysRUs.ca use the code FISHERPRICE20 and save 20% on your Fisher-Price favourites!

Do you have a favourite Fisher-Price toy, from your own childhood or one you love on your kids’ behalf?

Disclosure: I am part of the Fisher-Price Play Ambassador program with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

This week in pictures: (Almost) an entire week of puppy

You can hardly blame me. (Almost) an entire week of puppy pictures? For one thing, she’s already grown since we got her, and I’m glad I’ll have more than the two or three photos I have of Katie’s entire first year. Also, cute puppy is the low-hanging fruit of the daily photo world. Finally, the kids are breathing huge sighs of relief that I finally found someone else to follow around the house with my camera.

I think this is where they get the expression “puppy dog eyes” (sorry about the watermark in this one – sometimes I’m too lazy to go back and adjust them when they fall in a poor spot like this):

Bella again!

Mixing it up with a take on the “from where I stand” meme, with puppy shenanigans:

#fromwhereistand - puppy shenanigans

Maybe a little bit of B&W?

Bella in b&w

This was her first on-leash walk, which went pretty well. Things pretty much went downhill from here. She’s finally gotten acclimatized to playing outside in the yard, but she hates going for walks (which is unfortunate, since it’s one of the things I was most wanting out of a dog.) It’s come down to me carrying her down the street a ways, and allowing her to pull me back to the house in a desperate scramble. I’m hoping with practice and warmer temperatures (and puppy class next week) the walking-on-leash thing will improve. It also didn’t help that I was carrying her down the driveway Thursday morning before work and hit a patch of ice, launching both of us into the air before we crashed collectively to the pavement. Where exactly is spring?

Bella's first walksies

Speaking of spring, and the non-arrival thereof, here’s the only non-puppy shot of the week – dawn on the first day of spring in the backyard. Lookit those tulips and that green grass – the very picture of spring, don’t you think?

Dawn on the first day of spring

Remember I said I was taking an online photo course with Harry Nowell? The topic this month is taking photos without looking through the viewfinder. I was trying to take low-angle photos of Bella playing in the living room, but she ran towards me to jump on me every time I hunched down, so I pre-focused the camera and put it on the floor, and just reached over and pushed the shutter a few times. The ones of her playing didn’t turn out but I love this one of her sitting and watching me! (Note to self, clean floors before next photo session.)

Bella in the living room

Last but not least, you can see how Willie is adapting to life with Bella:

Willie and Bella

Funny to see the tables turned on Willie, and to see Bella pestering him the way he used to pester Katie. 🙂

A very long ramble about about the time the coffee maker died and she lost an entire Sunday to the quest for a new one

On a Sunday morning already off to a rocky start by virtue of it starting at 5:15 am, and further compromised by the need to stand barefoot outside on the frozen patio bricks in nothing but a nightgown trying to encourage a suddenly willfull puppy to pee on the outside instead of the inside of the house, you can imagine my elevated level of dismay when I poured fresh water in to the coffee maker only to have it promptly pour back out of the coffee maker and all over the countertop and the floor.

Assuming it was some sort of fluke or gravitational flux or that perhaps I had just missed the reservoir entirely, I doggedly went through the motions of trying to force water into the coffee maker three more times before giving up. Water was definitely egressing from the coffee maker from parts that never previously leaked. And that’s how I ended up at the Manotick Tim’s drive-through before six on a Sunday morning, wearing boots but no socks and mismatched flannel pants with my nightgown under my coat. Don’t judge me, I needed BOTH of the XLs I ordered.

63:365 Please play again

In the way that only the highest magnitudes of crises can do, all potential plans for Sunday were scrapped in favour of acquiring a new coffee maker. While waiting the necessary aeons for the big box stores in Barrhaven to open, I surfed the web to read reviews, compare prices and hunt for sales. Did you know the highest-end coffee maker at Best Buy retails for a stunning $2100? That’s more than I paid for my camera. Seriously, that is stupid-expensive – for that much, it better come with a Barista named Cody who serves my daily coffee in his ripped jeans and a white t-shirt. […]

What? Oh sorry, are you still here? Got distracted by something for a minute there… ahem.

Anyway, long story shorter (but sadly for both of us, not by much) I started out at Bed, Bath and Beyond because I had a coupon. In my life, it’s always about the coupon. But they had only a few models, one or two bargain basement cheapies and several more progressing from $100 up to “are you kidding me?” They had one higher-end one I liked, and I knew my mom had picked up the same one. I was nervous, though, about the re-usable filter. We’re on a septic system and I am absurdly paranoid about coffee grounds going down the drain and somehow blocking up the holes in the pipes in the septic drainage bed. (Reason #297 you should never read the Internet – septic system paranoia.) Standing in Bed Bath and Beyond trying to google whether I could use paper filters, I found out they had the same model at Costco for about $50 less. AND that I could use paper filters for it.

Hmmm. $50 savings versus Costco on a Sunday morning. At what price sanity? Ah, what the hell, Beloved has the kids, I can just nip in and out. (Are you laughing? Yeah. My ability to delude myself astonishes me.) So I get to Costco and it’s a madhouse. Like Christmas-bananas. And when I finally give up searching for this elusive deal and find a clerk to help me (no small feat in itself) I hear those dreaded words: web-only deal. So I go back to the two or three models they actually have and start googling them and realize that the one they have in stock sells for $130 at Canadian Tire but is on sale here for $70 AND I have my annual rebate cheque thingee and I’m in Scottish-Dutch heaven with the good dealiness of it all. Totally worth my sanity and the hour of my time it takes to buy one coffee maker and a container of guacamole. (I never go to Costco without buying guacamole. It’s why I have a membership. I’m not one of those people who spends $400 every time I go, but I never leave without buying my guac.)

So I’m driving home and thinking that I’m going to unpack it right away because by now it’s lunch time and I’ve been up for seven hours and had only two XL cups of coffee and that’s clearly not going to get me through the rest of the day and I really need another cup of coffee now so let’s take this baby for a test drive. And I plunk it down on the counter, slide it against the wall and grab the cord – which only reaches half way to the socket. I pull and jiggle and tug and still have only about 30 cm of cord. WTF? So I check the instructions, which helpfully tell me that my machine is equipped with a short safety cord, and is not recommended for use with an extension cord. Seriously? That’s a feature?

And so it went back in the box and I went back in the car and drove to Canadian Tire, where I stood scowling and muttering at the row of coffee makers, now willfully refusing to pay full price after having been denied my most excellent deal. I refuse to consider the higher-end machines, but after a lifetime of coffee machine buying, I know the $20 model will probably only last a year and I do not want to be spending any more time in the coffee maker aisle in the foreseeable future. I briefly consider the Black and Decker that is on sale, but when I read the reviews I remember our last two B&D carafes which poured more coffee on to the counter than in to the mugs. I pace agitatedly up and down the aisle a few more times, thinking of the 20% off coupon I still have in my pocket for Bed, Bath and Beyond across the street, and finally give up and end up back where I started three and a half hours before.

Rankled that I now seem doomed to spend $100 (minus 20%) on a coffee maker, far more than I have ever previously spend on one, I narrow down my selections to three choices, now rating models first based on cord length and second on price and throwing pretty much every other feature to the fates. I do one last set of googling and find the reviews on the one I am about to buy are terrible, with more than half the reviewers giving the model one star and the main complaint being leakage. Um, isn’t that how I ended up here in the first place? The Krups model beside it gets moderately good reviews and I find out that Future Shop next door is selling it for $85 instead of $100. I haul it up to the cashier and am pleasantly surprised when she says yes, they will pricematch if I can show them the online price. Thrilled that my $100 coffee maker will only cost me $68, which still seems pricey but perhaps necessary for a life-giving source of coffee, I triumphantly whip out my 20% off coupon and am crushed when she looks at it and says “Oh no, sorry, we can give you the price match or the coupon, not both.” Too tired and weak from the hunt to put up a fuss, I hand over my debit card. Whatever. Take whatever you need, just please let me be done shopping for coffee makers now.

By the time I get home (again) it is midafternoon. I am a little too excited when I am able to plug in the machine, and run a quick cycle of water through before actually brewing a pot. Finally, nine hours (and four stores and three coffee makers) later, I have a pot of coffee.

Some things are worth waiting for!

So tell me, do you read online reviews when you’re shopping? There are some products (like coffee makers!) where I give them lots of credence, but for movies and camera equipment, I find the reviews annoy me more than they help. How much credence do you give online reviews in your decision-making process?

What to expect during a portrait session

You’d never know it to look outside, but it’s time to start gearing up for another season of porch portraits! Dear snow, please get off my photo studio!!

Now that I’ve been doing this for a few years, I’ve been meaning to write a series of blog posts with answers to common questions I get from my portrait clients. By far, the most common question is “what should we wear” but that usually comes wrapped in a larger curiousity about just how the whole porch portrait session will work. (On location sessions aren’t really all that different, to be honest, aside from being a little longer and with more shots taken.) I’ll address the what-to-wear question in another post.

When you arrive, I’ll greet you and the kids. I find that the faster I can make friends with the kids and get them interested in me, the camera and the session, the more smoothly things will run. Depending on the season, the day, the weather, and what you want, we’ll choose a spot on the porch or in the yard to get started pretty much right away. The first few pictures are mostly just to get both you and me warmed up, although it’s funny how often we get a keeper or two right away. I have a handful of favourite props we can use to pose the family, like my lovely white rocking chair:

G girls

Or the funky old-skool red wagon:

Kids on a wagon

Or the kiddie-sized white wicker furniture:

S Family 1

We can take a few shots on the porch:

Porch Portraits with energetic Everitt and his parents

Or if the weather is fine we can play on the grass:

Porch portraits - cousins!

Don’t worry about getting your kids to pose. I’ll work with them to make a mix of posed shots and candid shots of them interacting and at play. When the parents aren’t stressed about the kids behaving, the kids relax and we can get some fun shots of them at play. Really, don’t stress about the behaviour thing. I have three kids and I spend a LOT of time cajoling them with my camera! 😉 I’ve learned that trying to get a three-year-old to pose is a futile battle that I’m often doomed to lose – but that doesn’t mean we won’t get some fun pictures along the way!

Sneak Peek F family

242:365 Look what I found!

Pulling the wagon

In addition to the porch, we’ve got a big back yard with a tire swing and a tree that looks like it was designed as a photo backdrop – complete with swinging rope!

212:365 Dreaming

framed!

The porch sessions usually last about 30 minutes, although I don’t book sessions back to back, so it’s okay if we go a little bit more slowly. I’ll take a lot of pictures, and unless you ask otherwise, I aim for a good mix of candid and posed shots. I have a set of ideas, poses and props that I find work in many different situations, but I try to adapt each session to the family or individuals I’m photographing. If you want a particular shot (maybe barefoot kids in the grass, or a shot of your son up on dad’s shoulders, or one of the family holding hands walking away from the camera) just let me know and we’ll work with it. If you’ve been building a Pinterest board of favourite family-style portrait shots, send it over before the session and I’ll take a look!

Another thing to consider is what you might want to do with the photos. Are you thinking of a big canvas for over the fireplace? A set of six 10x14s in black and white? Shots for your own annual Blurb.com book? A dress-up shot because you hated the shots you got from a wedding you attended as guests? These are just a few of the requests I had last year. If you have something special in mind, let me know and I’ll work toward that. Or maybe you don’t want anything big, just an updated 8X10 of the kids because they don’t look anything like they did last year. We can do that, too!

Peekaboo kids

Once we’re done the session, I’ll spend a few hours reviewing, selecting, editing and polishing a gallery of the very best pictures for you to review. I like to have this done as soon as possible – it rarely takes me as long as a week. I’ll send you a link to your private, password-protected gallery and you can review the photos online. Feel free to send the link to Grandma, Aunt Jane and your BFF if you can’t quite decide which one you like. These photos will be watermarked and numbered and not for download or sharing. You simply give me a call or send me an e-mail and tell me which photos you like and we go from there.

If you choose to order prints, canvases or other products, I’ll place the order within a few days and you’ll have them in your hands in a couple of weeks at most. If you choose digital files, I’ve got a great new system for digital downloads and online sharing. It’s practically instant, so no more waiting for delivery of troublesome DVDs or USB keys! But if you prefer a USB key, I can do that, too, for a small fee. You’re the customer — I will try my best to make this a terrific experience for you and your family.

Do you have any questions? I’m happy to answer them via the comment box or by e-mail, so please don’t hesitate to ask if there is something you’d like to know.

Now we just need to get all that snow out of my studio…. 😉