From the Very Good Taste blog:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) *Asterisk and Italicize any items you’d be interested in trying but have not yet.*
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. *Nettle tea*
3. Huevos rancheros
4. *Steak tartare*
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. *Epoisses*
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. *Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper*
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. *Bagna cauda*
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. *Clotted cream tea*
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. *Phaal*
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. *Fugu*
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. *Umeboshi*
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. *Currywurst*
65. Durian
66. *Frogs’ legs*
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. *Chitterlings, or andouillette*
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. *Louche absinthe*
74. *Gjetost, or brunost*
75. Roadkill
76. *Baijiu*
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. *Lapsang souchong*
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. *Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.*
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. *Criollo chocolate*
91. Spam
92. *Soft shell crab*
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. *Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee*
100. *Snake*

I’m a bit disappointed in myself admitting that I’d never eat bugs, or durian, or roadkill (I’m that person who thinks everyone should try everything at least once) - but… ew. I hate bugs, I’ve smelled durian, and I’ve changed enough tires to be pretty wary of roadkill.

Anything you’d just never, ever try?

(**props to you who figure out where the title came from and why I chose it for this post**)

So if the weather here lately is any indication, summer is sadly already on its way out of Vancouver, which means the cycle-commuter season is also wrapping up. For most people anyhow.

So how did my first season biking to work go?

Well enough that I’d still rather ride in the rain than take the bus. I am a bit of a pretty princess, so that says a lot. It’s a lot faster than taking the bus, and I feel better doing it. I’m going to be seriously crabby once the show comes and/or it gets too icy to ride.

Observations:

Riding in the bike lanes and along bike routes is a lot less harrowing than one would initially think. They’re definitely wide enough to feel comfortable in, and are generally pretty well-respected by the rest of traffic. I wish there were more of them, since cyclists outside bike lanes are generally NOT well-respected by the rest of traffic, and it feels a lot more dangerous.

Bike maintenance is important! I’m not really used to using my bike as a regular mode of transportation, so I’ve been treating it like every other bike I’ve owned: annual tune-ups. My tires were feeling a bit squishy last week, so I finally went and inflated them. They were at 20 psi. They should be around 80 for optimal traffic riding. My brake cables are so loose the levers actually wobble. The bike’s going into the shop today for a bit of love. Commuter cyclists: weekly maintenance should be your mantra!

Secure bike parking and comfortable shower facilities at work are HUGE perks for cyclists. If I didn’t have both of these at my office, there’s no way I’d keep riding in. And now that I really enjoy biking to work it’s going to be a hard sell for me to take any job in the future that doesn’t have these things. It’s like going back to regimented hours once you’ve gotten used to flex time.

The pack you choose will make or break you. I have a backpack that’s got a mesh back and some stiff framing to keep the bulk of the pack away from my body. It works pretty darned well, but is still a thing on my back. Which is hot and sweaty-making - especially on the days I haul my computer back and forth. For my birthday I got a rack and set of panniers - I far prefer them to the backpack. I have to be careful, since I can cram a lot of heavy crap into them, but they make the ride a lot more pleasant. I highly recommend them to anyone who wants to bike to work on a regular basis (and doesn’t just keep an entire wardrobe at the office like my colleague Jeff).

When I drive now, I am much more aware of cyclists on the road. I think everyone who drives in Vancouver should have to bike through the city a few times (and drive in Europe, and on major US Highways) - if that were a licensing requirement, I think we’d have a lot fewer accidents.

HOWEVER, there are as many jackass cyclists as there are jackass drivers, and I fully understand why auto drivers get so antsy about the “psycholist” breed of cyclist. I can not stress enough the importance of riding defensively while asserting one’s space on the road. I notice I’ve gotten a lot more respect on the road by being respectful of all traffic (cars, pedestrians, hoverboarders, whatever) by just following the rules of traffic (signalling, staying in the correct place on the road, stopping at stop-signs, etc.). I think if more cyclists would ride the way they wish cars would drive, it would be much more effective than the generally disruptive and traffic-blocking Critical Mass rides, which seems unlikely to draw much, if any, sympathy to the cyclist cause.

Any questions from would-be bikers? Other feedback from cyclists out there? Tips I haven’t figured out yet?

So I wrote about Good Space not too long ago (which, for clarification, I was in no way compensated or received any sort of discount or special privilege for), and Neil and I have slowly been implementing parts of the plan.

We’ve had closet organizers installed (post and pictures to come at a later date), and have acquired a few of the recommended design elements.

One of those suggestions was to install an art ledge for photos on the wall in the hallway between the main bathroom and the second bedroom.

What you see in the picture is a photo of the wall with some framed prints on it, sans ledge.

The ledge is currently sitting in our closet, awaiting a better spot for install.

Why, you ask?

See if you can figure it out - there’s something in the picture that indicates installing a ledge at that location (complete with 3″ stud screws and toggle bolts) would be a colossally bad idea.

Give up?

THE POCKET DOOR!

The door to the bathroom opens into the vacant space behind the drywall on that wall. Installing anything other than the tiniest of picture-hanging nails there would be disastrous - either locking the door open, or closed. .

Unfortunately, sometimes these things aren’t obvious. Even professionals occasionally make mistakes, as do dunderheads like us who managed to punch three large holes into the wall for the toggle bolts, before realizing the catastrophe we were setting ourselves up for.

Just to prove how clueless we can be, two of those holes came after we carefully drew all over the wall again because the first toggle we tried to screw in stopped and got caught on the horizontal door-guide framing (we had no idea what it was - we just busted out the stud-finder and moved our measurements up a couple inches).

Thankfully the pictures we were going to put on the ledge are the perfect sizes to cover the holes and most of the scuff-marks. And it’s a very good thing we were already planning on painting (after most of the work is done, because damn but we’re rough on our walls)!

Have you ever made a home-improvement blunder? Measured once and cut twice? Painted the dog? Please share and make me feel better, because I strongly suspect this won’t be our last!

Meals eaten involving BBQ’d meat: 5

Times I had cheesecake for breakfast: 1

Hours spent cleaning our apartment top to bottom: 5

BBQs hosted: 1

BBQs attended: 2

People crammed into my apartment at once: 15

Degrees it reached in my living room while 15 people were crammed into it: 30 C (that’s 86 F)

Kilometers biked about town: 20

Pictures printed, framed and hung: 6

Holes needlessly punched in the wall: 3

Baseball games watched at the prettiest little ball park in North America: 1

Empties left in my apartment after the weekend: 4 champagne bottles, 6 wine bottles, 12 beer bottles.

Proportion of those empties consumed by me: quite a lot.

Naps I’m going to require to recover: many.

How was your weekend?

To the women in the office across the hall who use the bathroom on this floor.

In case you hadn’t noticed, this is a fairly respectable office space in downtown Vancouver. This is not the squatter in a lean-to behind some Thai Cat-House.

So please adhere to the following so we can all have a pleasant experience:

Toilet Paper, in North America, goes in the TOILET. It can be flushed here - it’s okay. You do not need to wrap it up in another seventeen yards of paper and throw it in the tiny and already overflowing sanitary napkin disposal can in the stall. Incidentally, the overflow wouldn’t be an issue at all if you’d just FLUSH IT.

Also, in regards to the “fairly respectable space” bit - this is an office, there are cleaners. They come in and wash the facilities nightly. Probably more often than your special throne at home even. So there’s no need to use most of a roll of paper wiping down the entire stall before you deign to park your dainty arse and do your thing. And there is especially no need to then throw all that paper on the floor. If you really feel you need protection from the cooties, use the seat covers.

(To that one woman who won’t touch the doorknob, and uses a piece of paper-towel to open it - quit throwing that paper towel in the plant in the elevator lobby! It’s gross. If you’re that paranoid about germs, carry it all the way back to your office - what makes you think that doorknob is any cleaner?)

I’m not sure what kind of sweatshop they’re running across the hall there, but it seems like you’re not actually allowed to speak or socialize anywhere but the bathroom. Or at least that’s what I suspect, the way you head to the bathroom in a herd and conduct some sort of symposium around the sink.

And far be it from me to take away that bit of clearly unbridled joy in your day - but I do have a small request around that particular activity: there are only two stalls, when you’re making use of them, shut the hell up, focus on the business at hand, then get the hell out. My bladder and I do not have 15 minutes to wait while you finish your conversation between grunts and wipes. Especially when there are 5 people ahead of us waiting.

In closing, please just be tidy and speedy, and I won’t have to give you death glares (or put a stink-bomb under your office door).

Love and Kisses,
-Jen (and the six other women who work in my office and must suffer your bathroom abuse)

I happen to be fortunate enough to know some truly super people doing truly super things lately.

SuperHero Drop Zone

First up on the roster is Riann. In about six weeks she’ll be rappelling down a 20-story building downtown, complete with cape, boots and underwear on the outside! All in the name of raising money for Easter Seals camps for kids with disabilities.

Even more remarkable, she’ll be doing it WITH ONLY ONE ARM since she lost the use of her right arm in a skiing accident in early 2007. For bonus points, up until the accident, Riann was right-handed.

Click Here to donate to Riann’s Superhero Campaign, and show up at 999 West Hastings on September 16 to cheer her on.

Running (Wo)Man

Also coming up is Tanya, who’s running a freakin’ MARATHON in January for Diabetes Research. She’ll be heading to Orlando with the 95 Crave team to run around Epcot at Disney World. And lest you think it’s all a pleasant jog through the park, may I remind you about how much I detest Orlando and what I hole I thought Epcot was. It’s certainly (at least in my opinion) a self-sacrificing trip. Not to mention all the damn running (says she who has yet to actually finish the Couch-to-5k program)!

Click here to donate to Tanya and the 95 Crave team.

Under There!

And combining the best of both worlds: underwear on the outside, and running, Donna and Gill participated once again in The Underwear Affair on team Thunder Panties in July. Any woman (who isn’t already an underwear model) who’ll parade herself around the city in nothing but her skivvies deserves some sort of superhero title. Check out their blogs for recaps and photos of the event.

Although I missed out on the merriment while I was away, and maybe you did too, it’s not too late to donate to cancer research! The donation page for this event stays live long after it’s over, so throw a few pennies their way as well.

Since Neil and I moved into our new place (seven months ago), we’ve basically been living in a glorified storage locker. Mishmash hodgepodge furniture arrangement, no art on the walls, still a few boxes kicking around, and many many things that still have no home.

We’ve been holding off a long, LONG time on buying new furniture since we knew we’d want to make sure it was just right for the condo we had under construction (deposit put down a little over two years ago). Both of us still have much of the furniture we acquired in university (or shortly thereafter), purchased based on price and utility, rather than aesthetics and function. Furniture purchasing default, thy name is IKEA. When we moved in together, our furniture strategy was “let’s look at the duplicates, and keep whichever piece sucks least.”

And despite being HGTV junkies, we really had no idea how to purchase furniture for aesthetics and function, other than having a camera crew and hunky carpenter show up with a truck-full of MDF for three days of mayhem.

Outside, that, all we were comfortable doing without serious help was heading to a furniture showroom, purchasing every piece in a mock set-up, and have a living room that looked like a furniture showroom. Also not really the aesthetic we were looking for.

So you can imagine that I was super excited to stumble upon the fine folks at Good Space.

A full-service interior design firm in Gastown, they’ve also developed the Good Space Plan, to make great design accessible to the rest of us.

Instead of having a design company in to put together a plan, and immediately spend a bucketload of money on the recommended paint, renos, furniture and accessories in one, fell, budget-busting swoop, the Good Space plan hands over their expertise in one tidy binder, and lets you do the rest at your own pace.

After a thorough consultation process we were given a floor plan, furniture suggestions, fabric swatches and source info for all of the furnishings and accessories, along with a list of recommended stores and contractors. It’s now up to us to obtain all the pieces and put them together.

But I think my favourite part of the plan is the fact that along with the suggestions, we have just enough information to be dangerous, and can really go wild and make this plan ours.

For example, they didn’t just say “go get couch X,” they said “go get couch X or Y, or look for these manufacturing traits in any other couch, and make sure it’s built within these dimensions, in a similar fabric texture/colour, and place it thusly in the room relation to the rest of your furniture.”

In fact, knowing how much of this plan we really wanted to work on ourselves, and being very good judges of the amount and type of guidance we’d need, Good Space gave us instructions for many things to just go out and find (vintage pieces, artwork, funky lighting, accessories) that will work with some of the core pieces they recommended.

Nothing comes from the same place, everything is designed to compliment everything else, rather than coordinate and be all furniture showroom matchy-matchy. With the added bonus of all FITTING in our small space, working with our budget, being functional for our needs and pet friendly!

We’ve just started executing on the first few steps of the plan as they work for us, so I’ll try to post pictures of how the process goes. First up is having organizers installed in our storage voids so we actually have places to put things, other than in a stack in the spare room.

I really can not say enough good things about Good Space. I know the Good Space Plan has really taken off lately, and with that in addition to their full-service design work, they’re wicked busy lately - but if you’re interested in getting beyond the IKEA catalogue or the La-Z-Boy showroom for decor, they’re worth checking out, and DEFINITELY worth the wait.