Image via The Kitchn

Continuing to be my one dinner saver worldwide: scrambled eggs.

You can find them everywhere on earth, they’re easy to cook and in that moment when you think you’re going to weep from exhaustion and hunger, they’re on the table in less than 10 minutes.

In short, perfection.

P.S. if you want to learn how to make better scrambled eggs, click here or on the photo above.

Many years ago I spent a year in Germany drinking wine out of glasses like these ones. I could go on and on about how it was the best year of my life (check) how I made the best friends of my life (check) and how I learned a crapload about wine and lived with a family who had a winery (prost!). They had these glasses. Both the brown ones (as pictured) and the green ones (I’m still looking).

At any rate, for years afterwards, I moaned about finding those glasses. While other people found them quaint, old and weird, I became slightly obsessed with finding them as they reminded me of what a fantastic time I had in Germany. I looked for years.

I found them once while shopping at the Value Village in Kingston, Ontario with a dear friend of mine that I actually met as a 17-year-old exchange student in Germany. She said “buy those wine glasses.” and I said, “Ohh.. hmm… they’re $8 each… that’s kinda expensive.” And then I did that stupid thing and I didn’t buy the glasses, left and drove home to Ottawa.

Needless to say, that was about four years ago and I’m still kicking myself.

Until…. enter the Goodwill in Seattle! $1.99 each. My heart skipped a beat. I may have done a dance. And now they sit in their rightful place and continue to remind me of that time when I was a cheeky exchange student with some bad hair and even worse fashion sense.

We’ve come a long, long way since then but it’s still lovely to look back on those times and give a rueful shake of the head and a laugh at all those things that have been.

And then have a glass of wine.

This is a great documentary that you can screen online by Frontline. I’m not going to tell you what it’s about because I know once I drop in that word “derivatives,” y’all be snoring.

I implore you that it is well worth a watch. I may have watched it twice.

Pollution was something that I thought about far more in China than I do here in Canada. A lot of that was on a simple day-to-day level – when I hacked up suspicious black things and suffered from constant eye infections. Or checking the pollution ratings each day and seeing the reports of a “blue sky day” when the pollution was so thick I would have to turn on my bike light in the middle of the day to find my way home.

On a broader level, I found that I also thought about the bigger issue so much more. What was the cost of development? Was clean-up even possible? What would happen say, 10, 20, 30 years down the line? How could the infrastructure support caring for people who would suffer from the medical effects of pollution later on?

Click here or on the picture above to see some photos of the pollution in China that… I hesitate to use a word to describe them because nothing seems to fit.  Over the past week or so I keep coming back to them to flip through them again and again. They are incredible.

The photos were taken by Chinese photographer Lu Gang (卢广) who won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project, “Pollution in China.”

Today I was walking along Granville and an older man dressed in running gear stopped me.

“Hey!! how’s it going?” he asked.

I kinda figured it was someone from my new job even though I couldn’t remember him.

“Oh! Going great, just on my way to get lunch.”

“How’s work going?” he asked.

“Oh it’s great. Busy, you know,” I said, realizing that I had NO IDEA WHO THIS MAN was and was totally fudging everything.

“Awesome. Great to see you again! Give us a ring sometime. Shirley would love to get us all together for dinner.”

As I meekly nodded and ran away, I realized that I am a big FAKER and I still have no idea who that guy is and I’m sorry to the other giant blonde girl that looks like me, but you aren’t going for dinner with that fellow and his lady friend Shirley.

It was the worst line up I have ever seen in my life at the ferry. Yay!

On the upside, a nice woman behind us gave us cupcakes that had a creme cheese filling and I know that sounds so wrong, but I’m going to assure you that it was so so right. Other people laughed a lot and when the strange woman announcer said, “thank you for choosing B.C. ferries,” over the P.A. system most people yelled, “like we have a choice!”

Hee hee hee.

Walk-on passengers wait. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving folks!

I am in that stage…

Of moving into a new place…

And am stuck between waiting to find things I really want…

And buying stuff just because I kinda need it.

But really?

Sofas, bedside tables and can openers are for wussies anyways.

And lordy, lordy, I know it’s such a cliche but I freakin’ LOVE VANCOUVER.

It’s the most beautiful, livable, interesting, warm(ish) city I’ve ever lived in.

(Don’t get jealous Ottawa. I still kinda miss you too, but not all yer damn snow that I had to constantly shovel. Then again, I miss my arms from that time as well).

And I apologize. But really, there are other things on my mind. I could say, oh, it was work, or it was unpacking or it was cooking. Maybe it was that great new book I was reading.

But really, the reason I’m distracted all the time? It’s a new nephew in a very cute little blue hat.

Blue hats make the world go round, I say.

And oh lordy, I can’t wait to go home for Thanksgiving this weekend.

A friend of mine in Uganda helped put this all together where you can friend a gorilla and track their movements on  the interweb. When I lived in Uganda, I managed to see the gorillas in person — they are spectacular.

http://www.friendagorilla.org/

Another story from the New York Times here: http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/uganda-to-peddle-gorilla-tourism-online/

P.S. did you know that gorillas fart? A LOT. It’s all that vegetation they eat. All day long.

Mmm mmm…for the people who got the title, I salute you.

I’m pretty pleased with the state of my cheese drawer at the moment. Shiver me timbers. On a recent trip to the lovely city of Seattle, I stumbled upon the Tillamook sale to end all Tillamook sales (Tillamook is a delicious cheese factory that is based in Portland). Two pounds each – for $4 and something something (can’t remember exact amount). That is a BIG hunk of cheese people. Another hunk of parmesan (not Tillamook) for $5.

And it made me very sad for the plight of Canadian cheese because you know what? Canadian cheese  is SO expensive! Like ridiculously expensive. At least double, if not triple the cost. And I’m sorry but when you eat as much cheese as I do, you must be cheese frugal at times.

Luckily, I looked up my limits when crossing the border ($20 USD in value or 20 kilos of dairy, whichever comes first, for your reference). And yes, I may have gone over by about 30 cents or so but I was willing to take that risk to bask in the bliss of cheap, tasty cheese.

The only time you might have a problem bringing cheese over the border is likely if you’re bringing in something like goat cheese. Just a head’s up for all those goat cheese traffickers out there. Achtung!

And man, Tillamook is SO much better than that other stuff you get at the grocery store (Kraft and no-name brand, I’m looking at you baby).

My heart is yours, dear Tillamook. You make me swoon.