New Year’s Eve

Yesterday we went to Ikea, first we were planning on renting a car, but we decided that it was better to just go and see if we were going to buy anything, and maybe take a cab back, if we needed to carry things. Someone gave me a $100 Ikea gift card and I wanted to get a dining room set. I didn’t find any dining room set that I liked, but I found a nice bookcase. When we got downstairs the bookcase wasn’t there in the warehouse. They didn’t have it, so we ended up just buying a small sidetable, I asked and my gift card is valid until 2087, so no rush in spending it, though I think I’ll die before that. Thankfully we hadn’t rented the car! We took the subway back and stopped at Yonge and Eglinton to go to Lewiscraft and get some knitting equipment. We ate at Mandarin (delicious, it’s definitely the best buffet in town), and also caught Meet the Fockers, funny movie, a little bit off tone, but nothing spectacular.

Tonight we are going to Nathan Phillips Square for the new year celebration.

Happy 2005 everyone, 2004 was a good year and I wish everyone has a good 2005!

The weirdest weather

What’s with the spring-like weather? It’s 6 degrees now and will be around 4 at midnight!

Four hurricanes in Florida this summer, flooding in Peterborough, deadly tsunamis in Asia, is this really all an effect of global warming? Is this The Day After Tomorrow? Makes us want to stop our busy lives and reflect on everything that’s happening.

Anything we can do to help

The Star has published a list of agencies receiving donations for South and South East Asia. No donation is too small and it will be greatly appreciated.

My mom arrived in Toronto last night

I went with my brother to pick her up at Terminal 3 of Pearson Airport, and it took her one whole hour since she got out of the plane just to pick up her luggage.

Today we went and checked out Romni Wools, great yarn store, I think it is the biggest in town, we didn’t buy anything but now I know what they have in case I need it (OK, they have absolutely everything, they’re great). Afterwards we went to the St. Lawrence Market and got a ton of cheese and bread and wine and seafood and had an early dinner (since we hadn’t had any lunch).

Now I know how I can “get rid of my mother”, just give her two glasses of wine and she’ll pass out in no time! (she doesn’t even get drunk, she just falls asleep)

Condolences

In this happy time for some of us: Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s; 11 23 thousand people are dead in South and South East Asia. I send my sympathy for them and their families, may everything be all right for you.

Christmas morning

A real Nutcracker

Merry Christmas!!!

Well, I am feeling a bit better today (got a Christmas bonus today). I am excited about my mom arriving on Monday and the week ahead: vacation!



MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Hand-made Christmas gifts

I am done with the knitting of my mom’s and sister’s gifts. For my mom, I made a set of scarf and hat:

My mom’s scarf and hat

For my sister I made a fluffy scarf with two strands of yarn, one boa and one eyelash, both in dark red. Here are two pictures of how it looks:

My sister’s scarf (detail)

Another picture of my sister’s scarf

Meanwhile, for my brother I got Civilization III, it’s been out for a couple of years, but he doesn’t have it and it is a nice present, I’m sure he will enjoy it.

My own Christmas present will be a Pac Man Collection game for the Game Boy Advance. I also started working on a sweater for myself, it’s from the Paton’s Next Steps Knitting Guidebook, it’s a beginners sweater and I’m pretty excited about it.

I started making this sweater

From The Toronto Star

The temperature will drop to around minus-9C, so that everything that is slushy on the streets today will freeze overnight.

How clueless are these people? Do they realize that they just said it will be plus nine tonight? I’m sure they have no idea. A similar thing was published yesterday and I thought it was just an error for not being careful, but today’s article confirmed that they just have no idea what they’re saying. Too bad, that’ll show them for not having me in their Community Editorial Board (see post from September 27, 2004).