downtown

I joined Trish and Cassandra for a trip downtown. We headed over to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see the Ought Apartment show. It was the cheap (or by donation) night - because how else can people afford to get into the gallery? The general admission price seems really expensive to me. Anyway, we showed up rather late which meant we only had about 25 minutes to walk around. You can't take pictures of the exhibition but I did steal a picture of one of the lower level gallery spaces! The last time I'd been at the gallery they were just in the midst of installing the Ought Apartment and now you can actually walk around some of the different levels. It's so great! I wish I could steal away the couch on the 50s floor and an armchair from the 60s.

After we were kicked out of the gallery we went down to the Templeton for some snacks - chocolate orange milkshake, anyone? The Granville Street redesign is still ongoing so they haven't replaced all the trees yet. I find it weird to see a street completely lacking in trees. But it gives you a good view of the buildings.

reality vs. responsibility

BERRIES, BIKES, BIRTHDAYS

Last Saturday morning I answered the phone and heard this: "Kiki, do you want to come out for a ride with us?" Well, who would turn down a lovely invitation from a 4 1/2 year old? Not me. I headed over to the West End and joined up with Shawn & Gray for a ride through the park and a chance to feed the birds. It's berry season and there's nothing Gray likes more than having his Papa head into the bushes to pick berries for him. It's a good thing he's so damn tall.

The chickadees were out and definitely seemed to prefer to eat out of Gray's hand on this visit - although that is my giant hand in the close-up. We even had a rather impertinent squirrel come up and try to get into the seed bag. Eventually we had to head back so that we could get everyone ready for Gray's 4 1/2 birthday party. Can you believe the way he rides his bike? No fear and all about speed and leaning into the corners. Just wait until the training wheels come off...

The party was a great event with relatively few meltdowns and then the evening was capped off with a beautiful double rainbow. (And then some of us adults got to go out for drinks and dinner after the birthday boy went to bed!)

FAMILY HISTORY

This won't be very exciting for too many people but it was really exciting for me. I had gone out for brunch with Trish & Jessica and on our way back we stopped in at Stepback. It had been awhile since I'd checked out their vintage goods - right now they have a large selection of wooden boxes and in the back I found the one pictured here. The cool thing is that Thorkelsson Ltd. was my grandfather's company. So crazy! Of course I had to buy it and I'm sure my mom will be pretty surprised at my find.

SUPER SWEET, ROT YOUR TEETH

In yet another stellar attempt to avoid studying, I decided to try and make these chocolate-chip meringue kisses. I was going through my little stash of Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazines and thought it seemed like an easy enough treat to whip up. This was in issue #3 May/June 2003. They are incredibly sweet and I guess the good thing about that is you won't really feel the need to eat several of them in one sitting.

I took them into work and was pleasantly surprised to get this response:

That was the most delightful snack i've had this year. A wee bit of crunch on the outside, then the softness on the inside with the sweet explosion of the chocolate chips when you chew. You get an E for excellent.

Thanks David!