Trilobite

I have decided what courses I want to take this year. Fall term: CSC309, CSC343, CSC363, STA247. Spring term: CSC263, CSC324, MAT224, MAT344. All year: MAT237. Some of these are going to seem pretty familiar, but I’m sure I could use the review. The registration process begins next Monday morning and the first day of classes is September 9th. I managed to arrange my schedule so I’ll have Fridays off during the fall.

Thesia, Sheera, and Fizi are visiting from Vienna. They brought a topfengolatsche for Celine.

Today we went geocaching, which involved lots of crawling around in the bushes and walking into pine trees. Sheera and Fizi seemed to enjoy playing with our gadgets, Michael got to solve a puzzle, and we stumbled upon a huge raspberry patch. Of course, the best part was all the cool loot.

I am sleepy but I’ll post some pictures of the house before I go to bed.

About a week and a half ago some sand was put around the front and one side of the house and a sign advertising the construction company was put up, but no more work has been done. Today some wood and metal frames were delivered. I bet they will be used to build the floor.

Celine and I have been watering the smoke tree. I was surprised when she told me the water was already turned on, but I guess it makes sense. The water to mix the cement must have come from somewhere.

The trespassing, vandalizing neighbours wrote some graffiti on the side of the house. I didn’t want to at first, but eventually curiosity got the better of me and I looked up the poem. It’s about two neighbours with a wall between their properties. One of them wonders why they need a wall at all and the other says “good fences make good neighbours” because that’s what his father told him and he isn’t bright enough to think for himself.

The funny thing is that the neighbours who live in the laneway facing that wall don’t even live on Redan Street. Actually, I guess it’s not that funny. I wonder what they’ll do when they realize that’s just the basement wall and there will be an entire storey built on top of it.

I just finished moving the blog to the computer in my brother’s basement. We’ve got unlimited disk space and no forced advertising. Thanks Peter!

Celine’s sister, niece, and nephew have just arrived from Vienna. They’re staying for a month and want to visit all the places they’ve read about in the blog!

We’ve been doing lots of outdoorsy things the past week or so. I’ll post the photos later today.

The big machine that demolished the old house returned to fill the areas under the porch and garage with gravel, and to do a bit of landscaping. The front of the yard is now at the level of the sidewalk and the basement is now underground. Unfortunately, the sidewalk and one of the garage walls were damaged. Also, the smoke tree has been moved moved and needs to be replanted properly.

Last night Celine spent over an hour talking to the neighbours on Redan Street and discovered that some of them are pretty mad about the construction. As far as I can tell, the main issues are that they believe that the house is too big, that they were deceived about the size of the house, and that the pretty yard they used to enjoy looking at will be a big ugly house with no yard.

I really can’t understand how they can have a problem with somebody building a house on their own property, no matter how big it is. Do they also get mad when the city construction crews do road work? Why aren’t they mad about the ugly yard next door that’s covered with newspaper and gravel? One of the neighbours guessed that house covers 33% of the property, and since this guy “likes math” he must be right. Even if the house covered 50% or 100% of the yard, why do they care so much about it?

Oh, and they also feel they were never given the opportunity to voice their opinions before the construction began. This strikes me as very strange since there was a bright yellow notice on the front of the house for over a month advertising the meeting at city hall where they could have voiced their opinions, if they cared enough to attend. I’m starting to get overly excited. I’m going to stop writing about this.

The house has tar and fiberglass insulation stuck to it now (front, right, back, left). I guess that’s the part that’s going to be under ground. The birch tree has been cut down. I remember one winter so much ice formed on it that the top was bent down almost to the ground. Celine and I spent hours knocking the ice off until it stood up straight again. Oh well.

We went geocaching at Jones Falls the other day. Apparently sometimes the falls are fast and roaring, but today they were quite tame. Photos: looking up, looking down, swimming, sitting, waterfall.

The factory has moved to a new building. Celine took me there and showed me which office is hers. She doesn’t have a key yet, but we looked in the window. One day somebody found a very pretty moth there (a Hyalophora cecropia). It has a wingspan of 6 inches!

More geocaching photos: tank, locked, benchmark, found it, ferry, swimming, old tombstone.

We are planning to hide a new geocache soon. Near this ravine seems like a nice spot for it.

Celine took some pictures of the house this morning. It looks like the walls are finished. Now they seem to be sealing them with something. More cement, maybe? That section under the front porch is scary. I think it’s going to be completely enclosed, like a crypt. Photos: left, right, side, inside, back.

On Sunday Celine and I went to a geocaching event at Gould Lake. It was lots of fun for me, and I got to meet some people for the first time that I’ve known over the internet for years.

The walls at the house keep getting higher and higher. The concrete support structures have been built up as high as the gravel.

I took Friday off from work and we all went to Lemoine Point Conservation Area for a walk. Banjo was happy to be included. That evening we went out for schnitzel, and then had a belated birthday celebration for me and Christine.

The walls at the house are twice as high as the last time I looked. Now you can see where some of the windows will be. I find the “steps” on the outside very interesting, and also the rods and wires cemented into the walls.

Some self-righteous ass pasted a bunch of flyers to the front of the house. He must believe the house covers more than 20% of the property, and that Celine’s parents were lying in the letter they distributed to the neighbourhood before the construction began. What an idiot.

Dad and Joan and Peter came to town today. Victor is coming tomorrow. We went to dinner at Curry Village, which everybody seemed to like. Christine was reminded that it’s been four months since she won her free dinner for two there and she still hasn’t redeemed it. Weird. I would have taken about two seconds to go to Curry Village for a free dinner.

The walls at the house are going up really fast. Here’s different view. They have what looks like a small cement mixer. I’ve only ever seen people mix cement in a wheelbarrow.