My friends Nigel, Deepinder, and I have been voting on the Oscars each year since 2003 (I think). One of these days I swear we’re going to have an Oscar party! Bascially we vote beforehand and then keep track who guessed the most correctly. It tends to make the long event more fun for the lesser-known Oscars. Every year Deepinder also tries to watch all the films nominated for Best Picture, but with 10 nominees this year I don’t think he made it.

Let me preface my guesses by the fact that I flip-flop between who I want to win and who I think will win.

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I know this post is a bit late, but a couple weekends ago the BookCrossers went on a daytrip to Granville Island during the Olympics. Our pretense was to deposit books… but I forgot to bring them. Instead, here are some highlights and photos from the trip. If you’d like to see all the photos, visit my Flickr set. Also, Marina got some fantastic photos too… I hope she doesn’t mine if I post a few here!

Marina snapped this shot of us sitting on The Bench art installation. I’m crouching in a swoopy-crevice that was oddly comfortable.

We met at the Olympic Village skytrain station where the city has borrowed a streetcar from Brussels. We rode the lovely, efficient, sleek, sexy Bombardier tram to Granville Island. The Bombardier “Olympic Line” had been running since February 1st and in just 30 days had over 300,000 riders! I wish we could keep it… but we have to return them to Brussels as they are far too expensive for Vancouver to keep.

We arrive at Granville Island and began wandering around. Here is the pond beside the Kids Market.

Wandering around the Public Market… to our left and behind were lines and lines of people waiting to get into Atlantic House.

Marina got interviewed by Slovak TV on who was going to be in the Gold Medal Hockey game.

Oh yea and we left books to roam…

Red and white admiring the Burrard Street Bridge.

Me basking in the Spring (February!!) sun

Marina snapped a shot of me scratching the Swiss mountain goat’s ears… and Dale is grabbing it by the horns.

Then we wandered around Place de la Francophonie (The French Quarter).

All in all it was a lovely day!

Here’s a video I took of the tram leaving Granville Island. Please excuse the shaky camera, I was reaching up a wall and under a fence to film this.

We cats must inspect everything that enters our domain. We must approve of it before it is allowed to stay. Recently, mommy brought home these weirdo green things. They don’t taste as good as that bamboo-y stuff at mommy’s mom’s house…. don’t worry, I tried it. I guess they can stick around. All these silly things do is sit there anyway. They’re no fun. kthnxbai ~ Love Henry

P.S. The plants are here to stay. I went to Home Depot Garden Centre and asked for plants that needed either a.) no sunlight or b.) minimal sunlight. The smaller plant is a Money Tree with a beautiful braided trunk. It needs minimal light and lives on my kitchen window sill (I’m in a basement suite). The larger plant is a Peace Lily and needs nearly no natural light. It is in the living room.

P.P.S. I did an art project with these new arrivals. Photos of that shortly.

A few months ago, Sara (aka wenchlette) asked us if we’d make flowers for her wedding bouquet in the summer. Sara has asked the flowers to be purple or teal and prefers natural fibres. Of course we all whole-heartedly agreed. We thought it was a fantastic idea! Janel is on leaves (click for her Ravelry project) and last night I whipped out the Cascade 220 I had leftover from my sister’s toque.

See my Ravelry project page for details.

Yarn: Cascade 220, 100% wool, Italian Plum (purple)
Hook: H hook (5.00 mm)
Pattern: none, but I watched this “how to” video

Here’s a close-up of the general design of the five-petal crochet flower.

This is one of two “wrong” flowers. I was inserting the hook into only the back of the stitch for the petals. This created sort of a circle around the center.

These are a couple variations I tried. I’m not impressed with the two-toned one, although it has the potential to be very eye-catching (in different colours).

Chan recently lost a dear friend to breast cancer. Sissy and Gretchen, being the supportive furkids they are, initiated the Pink Parade to help raise awareness for breast cancer. Henry and I decided to help out… unfortunately he doesn’t like to dress up as much as Chan’s girls do! You can easily join in too! Visit Sissy and Gretchen’s post to learn about the initiative (you don’t have to use pets).

My first idea was Henry’s hot pink mouse… but he is not a very independent player. It took a few tosses to get this shot, and after the mouse fell he looked at me like “okay, now what?”

My next idea was my hair! I dyed my hair purple several months ago and then lightened it up over the holidays. Henry loves sitting on my shoulder like this and rubbing his head into me. He also likes to chew on my ponytail too. But I still didn’t think this quite conveyed what I wanted to.

So I subjected Henry to his least favourite activity: dress up. Mainly it just confuses him. He has never liked to be “under” or “within” things like blankets or covers or outfits.

Princess Henry

However, if you catch him asleep and unawares… you can do what you like! [This is an old photo] (In real life, his tiara is pink)

I’ve been home a week today (it feels like much longer) and once I got home, I scooped up my kitty and gave him a snuggle. I texted once the plane landed and my dad picked me up from the airport. We met my mom at my apartment where they’d just finished cleaning up (after the kitchen reno — more on that later) and brought back my boys.

My mom said that once they brought Henry back to my apartment, he scoured the apartment for me and when he couldn’t find me, he looked at mom and just. kept. meowing. He looked at her like, “okay, I’m back. Now where is MY mom?” (according to my mom’s interpretation).

While I was gone my parents took very good care of both Henry and Chico (my chinchilla). Dad and Chico bonded and on the way home from the airport, dad told me how Chico’s new favourite treat is walnuts. He said once he tried to give Chico a piece of fresh banana, and he wouldn’t even touch it until he’d had a walnut.

HAPPY WHISKERS ON WEDNESDAY

I know I haven’t posted much on the blog lately, but I’ve been quite the traveller with limited internet access. I’ve seen lots of England, which was my original intention: Stratford-Upon-Avon, Bristol, Bath, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Leeds, and tomorrow the destination is York. Here are a few photos as I don’t have time to relate all my travels yet.

That will have to satisfy for now. My flight home is on Wednesday and I’m planning to spend as much time as possible with my boyfriend until then. Cheerio!

Here are some photos Craig and I took of the dogs when it began to snow last week. I really enjoy taking them out and the snow makes it even more fun. Happy Dogs on Thursday!

8 inches of snow on the Racecourse

On the path at Peel Park near the University of Salford

Making a snow angel while the dogs lick my face and jump over me.

Snow snuggles with Oscar

Oscar sporting new Snow Boots

Just a quick post from a quiet house here in Manchester… we’ll be ringing in the New Year in just over 30 minutes. It’s hard to do a reflective post when put on the spot (even if it’s my own fault). I can’t even begin to think what 2009 held…. I guess that’s what the blog is for!

Here’s hoping 2010 is fantastic for everyone. I plan to begin the year with some travelling and then I go home to a newly renovated kitchen, so that bodes well for me. The only thing I’m concerned about is the Vancouver Olympics. Other than that, I’m hopeful that 2010 will be a great year.

Best wishes for everyone else in the New Year!

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season celebrating (Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, Festivus, Solstace, etc.) and are excited to bring in the new year.

Things went well here, besides the food coma Craig and I ended up in. On Christmas morning we’d already exchanged gifts (iTouch for me and new camera for him) so we went downstairs to greet Craig’s dad, girlfriend, and her family. We opened some presents with them, had a quick cup of tea, then headed over to the Care Home to visit Grandma Rose. Then we went to Craig’s aunt’s house for present-giving with Craig’s mom’s side of the family. One aunt has three small boys so present-giving is always quite the affair. After that, we headed back to Craig’s dad’s house for Christmas Lunch at about 4:00pm. By 7:00pm we were back at Aunty Lisa’s having Christmas Dinner. As I said, food coma… but lots of great company and everything went smoothly.

Now that all the Christmas rush is over, I’m preparing to do my travelling in the new year. I’m planning to travel from January 4th to 22nd while Craig is revising for his exam(s). I’ve got a long list of places to go, but on the top of the list is Stratford-Upon-Avon, Stonehenge, Bath, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, and York. I’ll come back to Manchester a couple times and I have to use London as a travel-base for some of the cities, but it should be all right. The trains are superb here (compared to at home) and as it is the off season, I don’t need to book hostels far in advance.

I’ve got a lot that I need to blog about, so keep your eyes peeled and locked on the blog. I didn’t bring my laptop here (as I’ll be travelling) so Craig is kindly sharing his with me.