There Is No Excuse

I know, I know. I've decided to mosey on over to a new blogging outlet though - hope you'll come with!

• Covet & Want - postings about excellent stuff that should be mine.
  

A Season for Coats

You know me. You know I love coats. Which means I gots me a new little sister for my Mackage.

Say hello to Margo, by Soia & Kyo:





This, of course, still leaves me longing for a new fall jacket. And my eyes keep turning towards little Amelia, by Suwha. But I do think that I shall have to keep her at an arm's length. It's better for everyone that way.

Since Saturday

Movers came to pack up my things. Crossing into Canada is much more involved then crossing into the US. It includes meeting the truck at a Customs clearing house! Oh, my. So that border crossing scares me a bit, and if anything can make it go smoother, I'm all over it. Getting your mover to pack the things they carry is one of those things.

Movers came to load up their truck with my things.

I drove from Columbus, OH to Burlington, ON. Only four (count them, four) pee stops. Best songs heard on the radio: Kiss by Prince, and the three-song-spread from a station in PA that saw Kim Mitchell followed by Rush followed by Skid Row. If there was ever a musical sign that this girl made the right decision to head back into Canada, this was it. When I got to the Peace Bridge border, Immigration asked me a couple of questions and accepted my surrendor of my I-94, and Customs stamped my Canadian car re-entering the country, and allowed me to declare all of my stuff on the moving truck that will arrive on the 9th, making claiming my things at the Customs clearing house next week so much easier.

I'm staying in Burlington, at my parents' place, until my things arrive on Sept 9. Its lovely to have a welcoming home, and a bed to sleep in, while I wait!

Re-registered my car, and exchanged my OH drivers license for an ON one. While the whole moving process is more difficult, the licensing one? Much easier. No need to write a driver's knowledge test, or take a driving test. Take that, OH.

Picked up the keys to the townhouse I'm renting, and dropped off some of the things I brought over in my car.

Bought a new computer - the Dell Inspiron 1525. It is pretty and red, and I must confess a liking for the Windows Vista interface. Does that make me a fool?

Reconnected with my gym-friends here in Burlington.

Was able to get Rogers Cable to move up the appointment I have to have digital cable, internet and phone service connected from Sept 25 to Sept 12! Only 2.5 days without TV. Though, I know, that will still seem like a lifetime.

To come: meeting the movers and moving into my place in Waterloo on Sept 9. Figuring out which gym location in the region will become my new home. Exploring the cities. And starting work on Sept 15!

Two Months Ago, I Took Some Bloggity Time Off

Quiet time can be a necessary thing. And time to chatter always rolls around, sooner or later. Guess which bit I'm in the middle of right now?

Oh, dear, the things that have been going on. Since I last spread my brain over your screen, I made the decision to look for a new job, started interviewing with a number of places, and, two weeks ago, accepted a position that will take me ALLLLLLL the way back to Ontario.

New company.

New city.

New kinds of excitement.

And new kinds of sadness leaving my excellent, incomprehensibly awesome Columbus friends here when I leave. Yay, but boo, you know? Sigh.

Anyway, I leave Columbus on Wednesday.

Holy crap, I leave Columbus on Wednesday. Oh, dear.

Anyway, Canada - you have been warned.

I Think I'm Going to Let this Blog Rest for a Bit

Life is lovely, but not all that exciting right now. Cycling, working, having fun, the end!

Really, though, I am very lazy with the writing, and find it easier to microblog via Twitter, and post pictures at Flickr, while social networking it up on Facebook. So if you're interested in keeping a-track of me, here are a couple of links:

• Follow me at Twitter (updates like the ones you're seeing in the left column here)
• Flickr has pictures I upload

I'll probably start blogging again, should anything that I need to share come up!

Substitutions

When I need to get out of my head, I do something physical. I heart the exercising, but act of creating something just isn't inherent to hefting weights or cycling for a bargazillion miles, or even horseback riding.

I used to fulfill my need to create something with my hands by art. 3D collages, which I am promising myself to get back to making, and soon, and later with ceramics. Lately, though, and I'm sure you've already noticed, it's been with cooking and baking and kitchen experiments galore.

This weekend, I tried my hand at candy making, for the first time ever. When I was a child, I loved Kraft's Chocolate Caramels, and decided that that was the place for me to start. Using my new favourite cookbook, Chocolates and Confections by Peter Greweling, I set to work.

Two things that I thought would ruin the batch:

1. The power went out and stayed out for a good minute 2/3 of the way through the process, though since I didn't seemingly loose and heat from the mixture, and kept stirring away until the power came back on, I decided to finish the batch and see how they would turn out.
2. The next morning, I realized that I had used half and half instead of heavy cream, meaning a lower milk fat content in the candy.

That being said, those suckers still turned out! They're just a little softer then I had wanted, due to the accidental half and half substitution, but still tasty and lovely and chewy.

I wrapped 'em on up in wax paper and will be brining them into the office tomorrow.

So, take a look:

A Quick Tiny Mango Pie add-on

A tinyunicorn requested the recipe for the wee jar pies below. Ah, recipe.

Crust: here you go. Okay, so neither Jen or I had ever made a pie crust, and having witnessed the pain that pie crust has cause friends and relatives, and feeling like this project was too cute to allow for failure, we went with pre-made. 3 boxes will cover 24 4 oz jars.

Filling: Mango Pie at MyRecipes.com. This is the only recipe for Mango Pie that I've come across that uses the mango whole, instead of making into some odd cream pie base. In case you'd rather not visit MyRecipes, here's the lowdown for the filling:

• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
  
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 4 1/2 cups (1/2-inch-thick) mango wedges (about 4 medium)
  
• 1 tablespoon chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Now, as a lass who eats a mango a day, I know what possible disappointments can lurk inside a fresh mango. Do yourself a favour, and for this pie filling, buy frozen cut mango - we used the organic Naturally Preferred line from Kroger. 4 packs will give you enough for 24 4 oz jars.