Trilobite

There was a huge earthquake in Indonesia this morning and I was quite worried about Celine until I called home and spoke with Gisele. She reassured me that the quake itself was thousands of kilometers away from where she is staying, and that she would be safe from the tsunamis because all of Sumatra is between Jakarta and the epicentre. Wow. Very nerve wracking.

On Saturday I made the beigli while I was waiting for Peter and Gina to arrive. I had trouble, as usual, with the poppy seeds. I borrowed mortars and pestles from both Christine and Rheni but neither one did a good enough job. I’ll try again in Montreal, where they have a real poppy seed grinder.

Sunday we spent the morning relaxing, and Banjo and I enjoyed spending a last little bit of time with Celine before her big trip. Later we drove to Victor’s house to celebrate Dad’s 65th birthday. Victor lives in an old red brick schoolhouse out in the middle of nowhere. Photos: Dad & Victor, gambas al ajillo, Peter & Gina, piled on the couch, birthday boy, morning espresso.

Celine left yesterday for Toronto, the first stop on her way to Jakarta. She spent the night in a hotel and then woke up at 5:00am to go the airport. She called me a couple hours later, while she was waiting to board the plane, to say goodbye again. That was nice. Have a great trip, Celine!

The basement at the house was left unfinished to save money, so there is still lots of work to be done down there. Mohamad has started by painting the floor.

This is the last post I’m going to make about the construction of the house. I’m sure many of you would like to have seen more pictures, and even more of you would like to have seen less. For those of you in the first group, don’t worry, there’s still landscaping!

Yippee! The holidays are here. I am going to spend some time relaxing on a whirlwind five city tour of family gatherings. Celine is going to Indonesia to attend her cousin’s wedding. Today Peter and Gina are driving up from Pittsburgh, and I’m going to make some beilgli. I think I might even post some old photos and try to bring the blog up to date!

If anybody out there is geeky enough to know what it means for a web site to be syndicated, then rejoice! Our blog is now Atom enabled! The site feed is at http://michael.lehotay.com/trilobite/atom.xml

Well, the construction of the house is finally finished and Celine’s parents have moved into their new home. Welcome to Kingston, Gisele and Mohamad!

Dad came to Toronto for a conference. After it was over we drove to Kingston and picked up Christine, then went on to Montreal to visit Grandma and Mesh. I was a bit sad to see the convenience store around the corner, which had been there since I was born, had been turned into a day care.

November 6:
I won a game of NetHack, my favourite computer game. It’s a very hard game. I’ve been playing for about 10 years, and this was the third time I’ve won.

November 10:
I decided it was time to try the field rations. Everything came packaged separately in little pouches, and the directions said to boil the package containing the meat. I was kind of scared, but it actually wasn’t that bad. The pears were the best part. [dinner, dessert]

November 13:
Celine came to visit me in Toronto and we went out for coffee and croissants with Jennifer and Roy. That was nice. [inside, outside]

November 20:
There is a fridge in the kitchen on my floor in the dorm, but if you leave any food in it somebody else will either eat it or spill goo on it. So I had been keeping my food near my window instead. Today I bought a fridge from the guy across the hall, who was moving out.

November 28:
On my way to the bus station to go home I stopped in Chinatown and bought a durian to give to Celine’s parents. I had wanted to try one for a while, but didn’t feel brave enough to do it by myself. When Mohamad cut it open the smell of festering garbage filled the whole apartment. Banjo was very interested! Inside the fruit is like little sacks of custard. Really gross. I tried to keep an open mind but I didn’t like the taste at all. Celine liked it a bit better than I did, but not by much. Mohamad and Gisele loved it!

The finishing touches were put on the house this week. The carpets were put in. The closet shelves and deck railing were built. The pump for the jacuzzi jets was installed. So were the central vacuum outlets, but there won’t be any vacuum pump for now. And finally, the refrigerator was brought in.

Another one of those big claw machines came to move the boulders around.

Watch for Redan St. developments in October!
I have added a few new dates and if you go back you might find a few new photos on the older ones.