I seem to have run out of steam a little in March. No reading to speak of – although I did catch up on my newspapers and magazines (mostly The Atlantic). I had a trial subscription to Texture that was going to expire at the end of March so I did a fair bit of poking around on there and then concluded I wasn’t going to miss it when the trial was over so that was good to know.
There was lego of course! The Curiosity Rover 🙂 it fits nicely with my Saturn V rocket.
Oh and Chicago too:
mostly sorted…
And I finished up a cross-stitch that I have to put some final touches on and then send out to a good friend’s daughter to remind her that there is always an adventure to be had:
adventure awaits
And if I really want to stretch it, I got a hair cut 😉
No movies were watched actually, for the very good reason that I have a HUGE winter Olympics obsession.
from the CBC
We’re pretty multi-cultural in our house – well, mostly within Europe in any event. While Q and I were born in Canada, Toby and his dad were born in Great Britain, my mother-in-law is from Denmark, my maternal grandmother was born in Poland and my maternal grandfather was born in Latvia. Heck, there was even a Maltese skier this time! Also, that’s a HECK of a lot of red and white (and some purple and some blue):
There was some reading though: Bellweather Rhapsody (mostly thanks to reading a months’ old NYT book review Dear Match Book article) and also the Big Sleep – the first Philip Marlowe book by Raymond Chandler; which would have been a great movie to try and watch but such was not to be. And a translation of Beowulf (which I wrote about a bit here).
And of course, there was some LEGO: Buckingham Palace, and Berlin and the Brick Bank! Lots more pictures will be posted here: [insert February LEGO post] but first I have to take them!
And beer! First, trying something completely new and out of my comfort zone, I bought four bottles of a barrel aged kriek beer from Big Rock brewery. And was introduced to another Brewery closer to home: Muddy York Brewing. You can read more about the beer part here.
I’m almost 45 years old and there are a few things I know about myself with absolute certainty:
I prefer my coffee black.
I love Toby and Q <3
My guys
Where was I? Oh right, things I am sure of:
I like hoppy beer. I’m not fond of stouts.
Whisky is good. So is bacon.
I work best with a plan – no matter how weird or loosey goosey.
Sometime in December it occurred to me what my next “plan” would be – I’d follow the alphabet! So January = A, February = B, March = C and so on. And yes, I know it’s weird. And January has been fun.
I had somehow got it in my head to read All the President’s Men. That was amazing. And my big takeaway was basically plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose! I also got the movie but as of today (January 31 no less) I still haven’t watched it. Maybe on the weekend.
I watched Apocalypse Now. I don’t remember watching it before and it’s one of the “greatest movies ever” according to a bunch of lists so I watched it. Weird doesn’t begin to cut it. And the making of it was possibly even weirder! (grave robbing, an overweight Brando, a drunk Sheen…)
Toby also got me to finally watch The Accountant, which a friend described as a “total nerdgasm with eye candy” lol. And my big lesson from this is that I should listen to Toby more often when he says he has a movie I might like (the last one was John Wick!) Violence, math and a mystery! Woohoo!
One of our new friends Andy, who himself could be an A for January but for the fact that we met on Christmas Eve, suggested this awesome song to listen to: Flatbush Waltz – by another Andy (Statman).
And I thought I was done…I was hoping to squeeze in a quick Agatha Christie read (And Then There Were None if you’re curious) but none of the local library branches had it in. Instead I found The Alienist. I’m only about 80 pages in so there’s no way I’m finishing it in January but so far it’s awesome. I had no idea it was also a new show. Hmmm It’s going to have to wait! I’m out of time.
Oh and of course there was LEGO: at a stretch the Apollo Saturn V (as opposed to having to wait until July 2019)
there’s a quarter in there for scale
What’s next? Why B of course. My boss suggested Beowulf. And it turns out the Toronto Public Library has an English-to-English translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic! And a couple of friends have suggested movies: Brave and Brigadoon, neither of which I’ve seen so I’m starting there. Let me know if you have any other ideas!
In honour of the 4th and my U.S. friends, a timely diversion.
At the startsorted
adding the roof
And we’re done:
Love the little flag!
Happy Q:
I know they box says 12+ but this four year old loves it. He likes sorting the pieces and then following along with the instructions. The very small pieces – especially the plate singles – are still really difficult for him to do but he is great with all of the bricks 🙂
So, I’ve recently confessed my fondness for Lego. I figured I should show some of the stuff I’ve worked on. The first of the architecture series that I got and put together was Big Ben.
But first I have to confess. It wasn’t that long ago when I looked at some of the stuff on the lego website and couldn’t understand the draw of some of the “themes.” What would be the attraction for a kit to build some spaceship, I mean, what else could you do with the bricks once the spaceship lost its allure? Then Toby pointed out the architecture series and I was (almost) speechless. How cool! I want them all really but I told Toby I’d limit it to places I’ve been to, which really only means he has to take me to way more places.
But back to Big Ben. Here it is, in pictures. Hope you enjoy.
The pieces come all split up in little bags
which I then sort….’cause well, it’s what I do.
A fuzzy base
Getting to a point where you can definitely see more structure:
And there are so many pieces I’ve never seen before – the cylinders, those nifty bar pieces. So nifty.
And the roof is installed over the low portion of the building:
Until finally:
I had a lot of fun that evening. And I’ve already been working on the next one with Q. Of course that will get it’s own post eventually.
Oh and Chicago too:
