Burrito West Blog

Our computer, which is about 4-5 years old (with various upgrades along the way), which has 3 hard drives with files spanning all the way back to 1999..... is konking out on us. I think it just needs a wipe and reinstall but dude, that's kind of a hassle. We have dancing to do. Also, who knows where all the disks for our programs are.

This is part complaint and part warning that I may be on the internet a bit less in the near future. We still have our netbook, but I can't do my photo editing on there so it'll be dry picture-less blog posts until we sort out the main computer.

In happier news.... I finished my byzantine chain! And I think I have enough rings left over to make a bracelet. I can't get over how fast that project was - I remember the first time I did chain maille, it seemed so hard and confusing..... now I find it easy, not sure why. Anyway, the necklace looks spectacular, though you'll have to take my word for it for now. ;)

Update - got the computer back to it's normal sluggish self, but at least it's working enough to edit and upload pics of the necklace! (click to see bigger)

I've never been one to covet fancy, expensive things. I shun diamonds, don't care for brand names, etc. There is, however, one exception.

John Fluevog makes the most beautiful, fun shoes on the planet and I covet them dearly. I have ever since I saw my first pair online.

Now that I live in Vancouver, home of Fluevogs, the coveting has grown even more. I walk by the Fluevog store every day on my way to and from work.

Peter got me a pair for my birthday one year, which was outrageously extravagant, but I loooove them (the maroon ones). I was initially afraid to wear them too much, lest I ruin them... but I've gotten over that!

Earlier this year fluevogs had their annual crazy sale and got excited about getting a pair for a price I could afford.... except the local stores didn't anything in stock in my sizes. *sigh* Not much in Canada actually. But, there were some in the US.

So I ordered a pair from amazon.com for $100 and a kind friend in the US did relay shipping for me (they don't ship to canada). I looove them, with their bright yellow accent and super comfy low heel.... they're the opposite of the bland, black shoes I usually wear.

So now I have two adorable pairs of Fluevogs that I love far more than I ought to.

But, like all addictions, I still want more. More cute shoes! More!

The really dangerous part is that Fluevog only makes so many of each line, then that's the end of that line and he comes up with a new shoe. So you can fall in love with a shoe and decide you're going to lay down the huge pile of cash, only to find that you actually cannot get that shoe anymore. That's heartbreak. On the flip side, he's always coming up with new shoe designs for you to fall in love with and covet.

Which he just did.

And it's a low heel height, which is very rare. Unfortunately it's also $300. !!!

Mr. Fluevog is quite the tormentor.

Don't even talk to me about the $500 yellow boots I'm in love with.

I love it when I find things are made in Canada. Sometimes I look for it, to try and support the Canadian companies and manufacturing sector, but sometimes I am just on autopilot. I was happily surprised to find that the generic green plastic pots Canadian Tire carries are not only made of 70% recycled material but were made in Ontario. (And were still dirt cheap somehow.) That was awesome. And, I'm currently stuffing my face with a tasty chip called Hardbites (which has set my mouth on fire because I picked jalapeno favour) which happens to be made in Maple Ridge, BC which is practically next door.

Good to know we still make stuff - and good stuff too!

In other news. My job currently actually requires me to spend time on Facebook and Twitter - isn't that weird? I'm enjoying it and I've been too busy with other stuff for it to become a timesuck - I check in a few times throughout the day, post a thing or two and am off on other things. I'm really enjoying my job - there's so much super interesting stuff going on in the Sustainability world, it's very exciting. I only have my fingers in a few pies, but still, just to know there are pies is nice!

In honour of Earth Day, I'm sending you to look at this beautiful, amazing 1.5minute video.

I' haven't had a lot of time to work on it, but my byzantine chain project is going faster than I expected. I also thought the tiny rings would be more fussy to deal with, but actually, they are a breeze. I could totally do smaller rings (if they were available)! I thought this project would be more frustrating, but it's turning out easy peasy. =)

What did turn out to be difficult was finding pots for my indoor plants. I have one plant that we've had for 2 years - which is a VERY long time for us. We generally kill everything quite quickly. (I think we over watered everything in the past.) We never got a proper pot for our plant because we honestly didn't expect it to last that long. I was in the garden store the other day, getting little pepper seedlings and they had my houseplant there, which was handy because I didn't know what the thing was. Turns out it's a ficus! Except it has curly leaves, so it's cuter than normal. The lady at the garden store said I should have repotted it into a larger pot when I got it 2 years ago. Whoops. So I did that last week and bought a little asparagus fern and decided they both needed proper pots because I'm not going to kill them, they're going to thrive (even though the ficus can't seem to keep it's leaves).

I discovered that there is not a terribly large selection of modern pots in downtown Vancouver. I wanted something bright and sleek - something that would pop against all our white walls. Apparently this was asking for the moon. Most pots are very earthy-styled.... muted colours, fussy designs. I spent an inordinate amount of time searching for more interesting pots (needed them in 2 sizes too, which made it even harder) - I was actually surprised that there weren't more stores selling pots that would appeal to urbanites, seems like that would be a nobrainer for Vancouver stores.

In the end, I went back to the first store I checked and got some there. The big one is a bit dinged up, but they fit the bill perfectly otherwise - bright, sleek, shiny.... and were super cheap because they're actually christmas items! Which store was the one that came through with the good selection? Canadian Tire. I know! They actually have some very good stuff, consistently. So there you go. And the fact that it was so hard to find them, makes me that much more pleased every time I look at them. ;)

For those who like to follow my crafty adventures - I just posted over on my crafty blog (http://baremaked.blogspot.com) about the project I just finished and the one I just started that involves teeny tiny silver rings.

On Friday I submitted my latest Council Report to the City Clerk's office. Anyone who has worked in a municipal setting should know that accomplishing that feat deserves a cookie. I think that when you hand over your final report, a cannon should fire, shooting streamers into the air, everyone nearby should cheer loudly, and someone should present you with a platter of cookies. Instead the clerk just goes "thanks" and then you go back to your office. Only you know what a challenge it was to create a report that pleased all 3 bosses.

On Friday I also went to the gym with my workout buddy. And today I am dying. It's been awhile. My quads and shoulders are trashed. Peter took advantage of that today in our dance lesson by crouching really low in our tango. I grimaced and danced through the pain, because I'm hardcore like that.

On my way back from some errands this afternoon I walked up Granville St - and it was hopping. It's funny. When I first moved here, Granville was kind of sketchy. Not really sketchy, just dirty and full of adult shops. Then the City started a redesign process, they shut down the street, tore it all up, and made it all new. Then we had the Olympics and Granville street was THE place to be. Now the Olympics are gone but we have a shiny new street and a new mental map of our own city where Granville St. is apparently still THE place to go. Today is the first warm, sunny Saturday we've had in a while and there are tons of people out on Granville. Because they have not yet moved the buses back on the street there are several blocks that are still closed to cars (destined to become a 'transit mall', though I think it's better the way it is now) - and so they are lovely, quiet spaces. People seem to have discovered this. As have the buskers. There were very few buskers in Vancouver prior to the Olympics, because there was no good central place to set up and do a performance. Now there is. People seem to love it. Too bad they're going to end all that by running buses up and down there (even though the buses have been rerouted for two years at this point and clearly work just fine where they are). *sigh*

Four day weekends are pretty fabulous. The only way to make them more fabulous is to have your Peter come home from his business trip on the Thursday night before it starts. =)

In an astonishing development, I have not had any easter chocolate at all this year. none. I don't know how that happened. I plan to fix this on monday.

I've been crocheting a baby blanket forever and just finished it today - whoo! I just have to weave in 673 ends, wash it, block it, find ribbon for it and then deliver it. Stay tuned - I'm hoping to do it all this weekend. I have so many lovely yarns in my stash that I'm itching to start a new project - starting a new project is like a kind of addiction.... finishing is about 100 times harder. Funny how that is.