Wednesday, August 20, 2008
This morning we glued corkboard along the lengths of the ends of our bookshelves to make a good place to put all of Nefarious’s school stuff, and then spent the afternoon on a long bikeride… It took us down to the castle in High Park, on which a tree fell several weeks ago destroying half of it, as well as causing some minor injuries. On the way back we stopped off at Nefarious’s summer camp to say hi, and her friends made fun of me for riding a girl’s bike (I ride Caitlin’s bike). Then a big spaghetti dinner and a dip in the pool before bedtime stories. Pretty nice day on the whole. I’m sort of out of order here, but one of my favorite things to do is to bike to the park and hope that the ice cream truck comes… I had a wonderful childhood, but growing up rural, the music of the ice cream truck is a pleasure I never had, and I make the most of it now.
I have the world’s cheapest phone so my photo — which I’ve gone out of my way to enhance — of the trashed castle is completely useless… I saw a guy in the elevator of our building a few days ago playing with his iPhone, and it’s pretty slick looking, but I’m way past the point in my life where I have any interest in expensive gadgets. Unless it’s in the form of a boat or a car.
And now to catch up on my emails about various sorts of body modification for the upcoming books.
Went to the Science Centre today and on the way back picked up a new game… Abalone… So after supper we played that for a while. Other than that, Nefarious’s current favorite vegetable (with me in general agreement) is Brussels sprouts, so I’ve been cooking lots of them lately. For lunch we had a real simple meal of them cooked in garlic butter and rice. Takes only a few minutes and is completely delicious… I don’t know why Brussels sprouts are always on lists of hated childhood vegetables — everyone that I know loves them.
I spent six hours going on seventies-era rides at the CNE today… I made the error of drinking a giant lemonade and then going on the tilt-a-whirl (grimacing photo below) and made myself a bit ill, and then followed it up with every high g-force ride that Nefarious can now go on as she’s crossed the 42″ line.
So I went grocery shopping today and got some daikon radish (“you know who likes daikon? lesbians.” — thanks, peanut gallery) and when I got to the checkout, the girl was like, “um, do you know what this is called?” I went blank and didn’t. She’s like “it’s some kind of root I think”, and called her manager. The manager didn’t know either, so they just gave it to me for free. The people in line behind me called to their friends, “quick, go pick out all the exotic produce!”
I cooked it along with a variety of other vegetables (which Nefarious was the prep cook for), rice, and tilapia in a sweet and sour sort of sauce. Very delicious… And fantasized about eating it on a boat, as I read the Living Aboard forums and wait for Big Brother to start.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
As you know, my next dream project is sailing around the world… I came across an article by David Vann in Esquire, in which he describes his plan –
I am building a boat in my backyard. With tools from Home Depot and used sails. I’m going to sail around the world. Alone. My naval architect quit because he thinks I’ll die. I’m not going to die. I’m going to come back and tell the story…
I’m trying to spend only $25,000 for a boat that will sail nonstop around the world, covering twenty-five thousand miles in four months. It will have to sail fast in light air in the equatorial regions and also survive fifty-foot seas and hundred-knot winds in the terrifying Southern Ocean as I sail around Antarctica. And I’m building the boat myself, quickly, in a month or two, so it’s flat bottomed, with straight sides, and as skinny and light and simple as possible.
Here’s the starter article, and he’s been blogging the adventure as well, and it’s a pretty exciting read. Safe money may well be with the naval architect’s worries. The pictures of him building and sailing the boat are absolutely inspiring though — not just to do this, but to do this out of a back yard on no money…
