A Home: The Making of

The first few days of moving into a new home, whether it be a mansion, a humble 2-story house, a studio apartment, or a weather-beaten cardboard box wedged under a freeway overpass, are important in establishing positive energy for years to come. A crucial step in establishing that energy is deciding where everything goes. Which drawer do the eating utensils go in? Where will we keep the olive oil? What corner will the TV sit in? And under which false floorboard will we hide the bathroom monkey? These are all important factors to take into consideration when laying out your living space.

Luckily, C and I couldn't give a crap where things went and just started unpacking boxes and throwing things around haphazardly. After all was said and done, we were quite happy with the results.

Viola! Instant cozy living room.

Dining room converts easily into a low-stakes poker room!

We unpacked everything at a nice, sane pace (unlike our maniacal loading and unloading frenzy we undertook a couple days before) and the more we unpacked, the more the house started to feel like a home.

A charming kitchen.

The kitchen turned out to be one that even Martha Stewart would feel comfortable cooking in, meaning it's roughly the same size as the cramped prison cell she did time in. Ha ha! No, it's actually really nice and C and I love how it turned out.

I feel like I'm in a log cabin. Coooool.

The den or "office" is nice too. Nothing inspires hard work and creativity like wood panelling. Hey look, that's me taking our newly installed wireless internet out for a spin. "Oh my gawd! I'm so far behind on my Lindsey Lohan blogs!"

Attack of the Juicy Tomatoes!

We found some nice tomato plants in the backyard. When C watered them, they came up sprouting with dozens of nice, juicy tomatoes. They're growing so fast that we're worried that we won't be able to keep up with them. I guess it's a good problem to have.


The weather has been pretty mild up here. It's typically on the chilly side in the morning and warming upwards to around 20 or 25 degrees C by the afternoon. It stays warm until about 11 or midnight when it starts to dip down around 5 degrees C again. It hasn't gotten "chilly" enough at night for us to close the windows upstairs when we go to bed though. Every few days or so it'll get up around 30 degrees in the afternoon, but they're becoming less and less frequent.

How do you say "It's hot" in Canadian?

One nice surprise I happened upon was a televised Oakland A's game. Sweet! They were playing the Toronto Blue Jays and all Blue Jay games are televised up here. Nothing soothes those homesick pangs like watching the A's sweep the Blue Jays in a three game series live on TV!

"C-A-B-L-E! Cable TV! Cable TV! GoooOOOOOO CABLE TV!"

Even R2-D2 was excited to see Loaiza pitching so well! "That's right, R2. He's really got his slider working today!" Yeeaaah!

Another cool surprise was when C was out by the shed in the backyard and found a live bat sleeping inside the door! Cool! It had attached itself to the inside of the shed door and when she dragged me out to come look at it, it plopped most ungracefully to the ground.

"Hello, Mr. Bat! Nice Face-Meets-Dirt technique."

The only bats I've ever seen in Oakland are the ones made of wood and they're usually smashing through your windshield. That's not entirely true. The Oakland Zoo has a very impressive bat exhibit that I've been to numerous times. But even those bats will steal your car stereo if you turned your back on 'em for a second.

"Watch it man, that thing'll tear your face off."

Mr. Bat is hopefully one of many interesting neighbours we meet while we're here. And probably not the only one with rabies. When C tried to deftly scoot it aside with a stick, it bid her a fine afternoon with a short series of agitated squeaks and then fluttered angrily away. Presumably to go calling on another dark, dingy and quieter tool shed. "So long, Mr. Bat! Come again soon!"

Until next time...adventure!
R-