Things I Forgot to Mention

Sometimes when I'm writing a post, I'll forget some detail that I wanted to mention. Or something noteworthy will happen that I wanted to share here, but I didn't think it would generate enough discussion to. Here, I'm going to go over a list of some of these topics that I thought were interesting but got by me.

Continually Weird Weather

I talked about how this past November was the snowiest it's been in 75 years, but we had a flash frost right before Christmas followed by a Boxing Day blizzard. Well, as I was typing that, I was unaware that we were experiencing another flash frost, which would be followed by another blizzard. It's like a different season every day here.

 

 

 

 Trees encased in ice from the flash thaw/freeze. Dangerous, but somehow pretty.

 

The very next day, everything is covered again.

Leaves on the Snow 

Following this theme, the first snowfall of the season hit us hard and suddenly. So much so that it took the trees by surprise. I noticed that there were leaves on the snow. A rare phenomenon, since usually most of them have fallen and get blanketed at the change of the season.

Falalalocal

In Kitchener, we've seen the development of a lot of high-rise condo buildings. A frequent commonality is that their first floor usually has some dedicated commercial space to host businesses. I don't think any of the newer places has managed any though, which creates kind of a bleak, liminal feel.

Well, recently, the self-titled "Bright Building" opened up it's space to a temporary store. We didn't get around to visiting it, but today noticed that it was still open. So we dropped by.

The sign in the front said "Falalalocal", but on the inside it's apparently known as KWFamous. Bunch of stuff from local artists, including product from some of the vendors that I regretted not buying from at Christkindl market. I got my clay pot and a book of paintings of nostalgic Kitchener locations. I still need a wooden yo-yo.

Weird QR Code Video 

A different condo building, called Station Park, had a big QR code on it that connected to a video. I scanned it and basically it brought me to a commercial. It was a weird one though. A guy riding the Go Train was heading into Kitchener, texting a friend about why he should invest. The background music was really intense like an action movie. The person in the video never smiled. In his conversation, he mentioned the projected housing disparity and increases in rent as if it were a positive. The video cut to atmospheric scenes that I would usually consider happy, such as Kitchener Market and Victoria Park, but it was still playing that intense music as if it were some dystopian reality, clipping back to the same unsmiling man. I guess this is how investors like to see themselves and the world. 

Saw a Coyote

Just last week, when I was in Brampton, I was in a car with Lee-Anne and her parents and a coyote ran across the street. It was my first time ever seeing one. I've heard people report sightings in Brampton and Guelph. Still none in Waterloo Region yet, but I think they're coming.

I picture coyotes as being small and mangey, but this one was about as big as a meium-sized dog and quite majestic. I know I shouldn't be happy to see one, but I was. 

Cats Reunited

When me and Lee-Anne were in Kenabeek, my mother and brother brought their cats over for a visit. I think their building was testing alarms or something, and they wanted to get them away from the noise. 

We have two cats of our own, and when the fire happened, for a time all four had to share space in our basement apartment. There was always a curiosity about whether the two sets would remember each other, and it turns out they did. Probably the fact that the humans of each household visit each others space frequently causes us to treck over some scent, keeping the cats aware of each other.

Met MJ's Owner

In a post about local outdoor cats, I mentioned a particularly sociable one named MJ. We knew his name from an encounter with his owner. We asked the cat's name, but forgot to enquire about the human's. Well, we ran into him again and finally learned. For confidentiality, I will not repeat it on this blog.

Intermittent Fasting

I could probably hold off and just talk about this on my New Year's Resolution post, but I tried intermittent fasting this year. Basically, I would skip breakfast and not have anything after dinner. The main takeaway I got from the experience was surprising, and not one I'd heard anyone mention before. 

A few days into it, I woke up one morning feeling refreshed, having slept better than I'd had in years. The next night was also phenomenal. On the third, I had to reflect and think if I'd been doing anything differently. It was the fasting.

I've since fallen off and on, but everytime, on about the third night of fasting my sleep gets exponentially better. Hasn't done much for my weight. 

Bowl

I might have mentioned that, during our wedding shower we were supposed to get a wooden salad bowl from a guy that I'd bought from before. It couldn't be done in time for the event, and wound up getting postponed over and over again. Well, we finally got it. Not super recently, I kind of forget when that happened, but this was on my list of things to talk about. I bought some charcuterie boards from him at the last Frederick Art Walk. 

Finch Report

I've been aware of something called the Finch App for some time. It's a self-care tool that is friendly to, but not exclusively for, neurodivergent people. I resisted downloading it for some time because the first person that pitched it to me described it in kind of a creepy way. But on January 31 of this year I took the plunge and gave it a try.

Basically, you hatch a cartoon finch that becomes your companion. You get to name it and choose its colours. I made mine purple and named it Phoenix, as it stuck with the mythological theming of my own name, and because it's avian in nature.

The game gives you some self-care goals and as you complete them, you earn Rainbow Stones. With these you can buy things like clothes and furniture. You also earn Energy which, if you get enough of it, sends your Finch on an adventure. This gets you a bonus item and an experience which can build your Finch's personality.

The goals are customizable. There are a bunch of other cool features, such as a mood map that if you fill, it tells you what times of day you feel most happy or motivated. I was surprised to learn that I feel best on Mondays and worst on Fridays. I would have guessed much differently, but it turns out that I start every week with optimism and by the end, I'm used up.

You can share goals with friends, which adds a bit of soft pressure. Lee-Anne has downloaded it as well, and we share an exercise goal, for example.

You can select a special goal that will hatch a Micropet for your Finch if you do it enough times. Right now mine is about working on hobbies. Blogging counts.

Basically, it game-ifies some of the more mundane elements of life that are difficult to focus on. It creates the sense that you are doing it for someone else, as it can be difficult to perceive delayed gratification as being for oneself, and it gives a sense of chronology to improvement. I might write a longer review at some point, but I wanted to make this update about my first annual Finch Report. It just gave me a list of my accomplishments this year.

January 31 - Hatched Phoenix

Took care of self for 334 days

I think it counts a successful self-care day as when you complete enough goals to send your Finch on an adventure. I think I managed it every day. It's almost a little weird that I was able to get enough of a signal at my grandparents place on the Canadian Shield to keep my streak going.

It counted these as my three most frequently completed tasks: 

Take Meds - 308 times

I have "Take Meds" as something that needs to happen twice a day to count as complete. So I think most of the days that are missed, I still remembered once. I found that if I were eating somewhere other than home, it made it easier to forget my second dose. Apparently this happened 26 times.

Put on Deodorant - 218 times 

I'm thinking of getting rid of this goal. I have a "Brush Teeth" one that I need to complete twice to get credit. I might merge the two, as they kind of go together and I wouldn't remember one and forget the other. The issue with this is that while I brush my teeth twice I only apply deodorant once.  But I think I could just use common sense.

I'm surprised that I supposedly forgot to apply deodorant 116 times. Potentially, I just forgot to tell the app that I did it. 

Make Coffee - 214 times

I usually make coffee before I leave for work. I get up a little before Lee-Anne, so I make enough for her as well. I don't always do it on the weekends, as there's a chance that she gets up first, or else this number would be higher.

3 Self-Kindness Goals Completed

This was a function that the app tried and at least for me, didn't really take off. They suggested separating your goals into categories, one of which was Self-Kindness. They pushed it for about a week, and I checked it three times I guess, but otherwise didn't pay much attention to this feature.

I definitely have goals that involve self-kindness. I just don't bother to put them into categories so they aren't counted here. 

20 Locations Visited

When you send your Finch on adventures, you can choose to book a plane ticket to different parts of the world. Some of the items that randomly show up in shops will be specific to your location. It also sometimes impacts the interactions you have with your Finch at the end of their adventures. 

Every day that you complete earns 2% of exploration wherever you happen to be. Despite having visited 20 locations, I'm not at 100% for any of them. I simply don't have the patience to stay in one place for that long. Since plane tickets cost Rainbow Stones, I think it's more frugal to complete one location before moving on. 

But I don't think the game is meant to be beaten (which is a good thing), so unless you keep traveling, they will likely continue to add places faster than you can finish them. I would like to eventually have at least started each option.

599 Items Collected

I mentioned it earlier, but these are either clothing items or furniture options for your "bird nest". Phoenix has a bit of a wizard theme, and he lives in a treehouse. 

453 Good Vibes Shared

There is a friending system, and you can send preset positive messages to them, such as a High-Five, Comfort, Water, Encouragement etc. You get a bit of energy for a Good Vibe once per friend per day. I mentioned that Lee-Anne is on Finch. So is my mother and brother, and some of my coworkers.

Though, the person I sent the most Good Vibes to is someone I don't know. At one point, they gave us the option to adopt a friend that didn't have any. The person I got from that is who I've exchanged the most Good Vibes with. 

Deleting Emails

Since it's the end of the year and I want to fulfill my 35 post annual quota to this blog, I'm likely going to be posting daily until the New Year. 

Recently I got a notice from Google saying that I've used up 72% of the space alotted to my free account. Looking into it, this is divided between my Drive, Photos, Gmail, and Other. Since then, I've lowered it to 64% just by deleting emails.

This isn't so disturbing. I've had the same address since I was a teenager, so even if I neglected to react to the issue entirely, I should still have a number of years before I have to worry about this. Still, it's recently become a project of mine to see if I can lower it to less than 50%

Gmail has an automatic system filtering messages into categories. Much of the useless content appears to be stored between Social, Updates, and Promotions. Because it defaults to showing me my base Inbox and there is precious little of interest in these other sections, it's been pretty easy to neglect.

At first I just moved through them in chronological order, selecting one-by-one which emails I wanted to delete. I'm a bit of a hoarder, so I did want to retain anything with a semblance of sentimental value. But I noticed that some sources sent very reliably unnoteable messages. So by searching these, I've been able to delete in clusters of 50 at a time. I'll describe some of these here. 

Pizza Nova: I used to go here for a slice now and again for the short period that I was enrolled at University of Waterloo. I subscribed to their newsletter in return for access to their WiFi. This was a bit more critical back when Data was more expensive.

It turns out that if you hit the "Unsubscribe" button provided by Gmail, it  doesn't actually complete the command. Instead, it sends a request on your behalf to the site in question. Pizza Nova has not been complient with this, so even though I was able to delete a large bank of messages, I continue to get a steady stream of them.

Twitter:  I created an account on this platform back when it was the rising star of social media, when it was attempting to be a viable alternative to Facebook. This place was always the worst, even before Musk got his hooks in it. I remember thinking that it was like Facebook, except restricted to just being the status update function. This meant that there was no opportunity to add nuance to discussion or commentary, forcing everything to be reduced to pithy one-liners. I noticed that it brought out the worst in me, causing my more intrusive thoughts to flow to the screen. 

I was disturbed that people paid more attention to my account there than to my blogs. I'm not sure if that was a more realistic expectation at that time, but it certainly isn't now. 

I blocked my account and it has been left sitting vacant since my teenage years. I've only logged in to vote on a poll on the Pokemon Go account. 

Of course, Twitter has since been bought by Elon Musk and semi-rebranded to X, somehow mutating into something even worse. After the takeover, it was announced that all inactive accounts would be deleted. This was the one thing I was grateful to Musk for, but I keep getting emails saying that someone is trying to hack my account. So either those are a product of a phishing scam, or there wasn't any follow through. I haven't bothered to look into it.

At one point, Twitter was sending out individual emails everytime someone that you were subscribed to Tweeted. I deleted them all.

FaceBook: I was a little more discerning with this one. I deleted everything that wasn't targeted to me. This means that I kept all the notices of messages and comments related to my account. I probably don't need all of those, but there's still so much to get rid of that I wanted to see if I could lower my storage beneath 50% while only getting rid of things fully detatched from myself.

I made an exception for some messages from the Social Work group where they were talking about a classmate that had passed tragically young. I kept those.

Plenty of Fish and OKCupid: These are the two dating sites I used back in college. I remember thinking that the women at Plenty of Fish were boring compared to those that frequented OKCupid. They would totally lean on you to maintain conversation and only respond in single sentences that were difficult to build off. This is retrospectively funny because Lee-Anne has informed me that, oblivious to myself, this was actually a Christian dating site. So my criticisms became more targeted.

I don't know the fate of either of these platforms. Nowadays I hear about Tinder, Bumbl, and... Maybe those are the only two I can name. Obviously these systems have no use to me now. 

Qora: This is a question-and-answer site akin to Yahoo Answers or a worse version of Reddit.  It's kind of difficult to discern if the place is active, or if it's mostly haunted by AI. Like Pizza Nova, despite having very little impact on my life, it sends a disproportionately high number of emails and has made it difficult to unsubscribe.

LinkedIn: This place is pretty bad for sending unnecessary emails. I did however get an article suggestion from them that caught my eye. It was called "Is AI The Worst Mistake In Human History?" In fact, the link is still active. If you're interested, here it is: 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-worst-mistake-human-history-john-battelle?trk=eml-b2_content_ecosystem_digest-hero-14-null&midToken=AQHyOMv0mXNbGQ&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=3XpAjxR-ax2s41 

It's easy to think of this technology as only making an impact from the year 2022 onward, but this was written in 2016.

The title references a quote from Stephen Hawking, in which he said that AI would be the last human invention. In the article, it frames Google and Facebook as these evil mega-corporations that have been hoarding the technology from the common person. In contrast, it speaks to an up-and-coming group called OpenAI, comprised of individuals such as Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who want to open it up to the world.

This is an interesting perspective in reflection, since now we know now that OpenAI would release ChatGPT, the forerunning system that would force Google and Facebook (actually Alphabet and Meta) to open their technology to the public in response. Yes, in a sense this has empowered the common person, but it has also created a ton of opportunity to scrape information from people, it has enabled and almost necessitated widescale plagiarism in schools, acted as a tool for the spread of propaganda, eroded career paths, and has created deep environmental concerns due to the amount of water needed for their cooling systems. If I'm being charitable, the best you can say about it is that it's been a double-edged sword.

Christmas 2025

This year, Ontario got hit by winter real hard. In fact, statistically the last time we had a November this snowy was 75 years ago. Weirdly, this didn't guarantee a white Christmas, as we sprung up to below freezing temperatures for a few days. It wasn't enough to melt everything, but the buildup was a little less dramatic than anticipated.

Traditionally, me and Lee-Anne go up to Brampton for her family's celebration on Boxing Day, which we upheld this year. Before leaving, we had a kind of Christmassy dinner with my mother and brother. I made fried ham, scalloped potatoes, and Brussels sprouts. The situation with mom's temporary loss of mobility has given an opportunity for me, Lee-Anne, and my brother to showcase our culinary skills. We've been meal planning together and rotating dinner duties between the three of us.

A couple weeks ago, Mom even volunteered to take a turn once per week doing something simple, as she's been feeling well enough for it. Her mobility has been gradually and steadily improving.  She can get around the house and onto the patio using a walker. She's been able to shower with a shower chair, and was proud to be able to change her bedsheets on her own. She's allowed to bend her knee now, and put a little bit of pressure on it.

This family unit didn't do a gift exchange this year. Necessity has had us showing good will to one another regularly, so if felt redundant.

Me and Lee-Anne left for Brampton on the 24th. They don't do their main celebration on Christmas Day, but they do have a family breakfast, featuring their signature Breakfast Casserole. We had a traditional turkey dinner that night, just us and her parents.

Then, despite the subdued weather up to that point, there was a ferocious blizzard on Boxing Day. 

 

Unfortunately, this meant that the furthest household that was planning to come wasn't able to make it due to safety. They're visiting on the day of this post to make up for it, but our paths won't cross this year as we've returned to Kitchener.

Lee-Anne's mother puts a lot of effort into Christmas gifts. The occasion is mostly for her numerous grandchildren, but the adults get treated pretty lavishly too. This year, she packed everyone's bundle into individual, giant gift bags.

I got a new pair of headphones, as I'd recently broken mine. I got a Joy of Painting DVD, as we're trying to use streaming services less and focus more on physical media. And I got a bird bath. Yes, this means the bag was large enough to contain a bird bath.

Currywurst is the Worst

Last Thursday I went to Christkindl Market with the WALES members. Me and Lee-Anne went last year and I did a blog post on it. It's a Christmas-based German celebration that takes place over four days.

I'm going to retread some territory now, because it concerns the completion of a year-long journey. Last time we went, me and Lee-Anne got schnitzel from a German food truck. The menu was hand-written and only posted at the front of the line, so we stuck with a safe choice. But when we were ordering, I noticed that one of the items was something called "currywurst" and touted to be Germany's most eaten street food. This gave us buyer's remorse, as we would have liked to try this thing we've never had, which was supposedly their specialty.

Later that year, this food truck was at the Canada Day celebration in Waterloo Park. It was the only one with decent meal options, all the others being just snacks. So it had a ridiculous line and me and Lee-Anne waited like an hour and a half. But we wanted that currywurst. When we got to the front they didn't have it. Totally not worth the wait.

They were at the Cherry Festival as well and it wasn't on their menu.

I looked up recipes for it online, thinking that I might make it if that were the only option. I wrote it on our whiteboard, on our list of recipes to try. It's basically cut up sausage on fries with sauce. I was a little skeptical, because one of the main ingredients is ketchup and I notoriously dislike it. But I know that it can sometimes be used as an ingredient without ruining the overall impression of a dish. 

Christmas was approaching and I thought I'd hold off to see if maybe this food truck specifically does it for Christkindl Market, as it's the only celebration where people might be enticed to leave their culinary comfort zones for something German. Maybe Oktoberfest too, but we never participate in that.

So this year, when I went during the day with WALES members, I snuck a peak at this food truck's menu. Indeed, they had currywurst.

My brother had been going to make dinner but was feeling sick, leaving me and Lee-Anne without plans. It seemed opportune, so we decided to go that evening.

We also took our time to wander about and look at things. A big part of the festivities were hosted inside Kitchener City Hall. As something separate from the market, this place always has a display for a local artist. It just so happened that this time it featured the person that we bought a painting of citrus fruits from. I believe I posted about that when I talked about the Central Art Walk.

I guess it's okay to share the artist's name since she's a public figure. It's Lee Anngold. When I tried to explain why I was excited to see her work to the WALES members, they said "Lee-Anne made that?!" confusing the artist with my wife, who they know. I wasn't able to clarify effectively.

On the evening trip, Lee-Anne bought a little gnome to put on our Christmas tree. This year, we have a two dimensional display as an attempt to avoid our cats from messing with it. It's working okay, but they still bat at the ornaments.

We bought some flavoured fudge. Last year we tried the eggnog version and something else that I forget. This time we bought lemon meringue and peanutbutter crunch. Pretty good!

There was someone selling small novelty plant pots. I kind of wanted to get one for propagating a succulent. I have a jade plant that I got during my first year at my current job. Someone was giving out cuttings, coincidentally on my birthday and seven years later mine is the only one still alive. I managed to propagate a cutting from it, which I keep at work. 

But we have another succulent now, one that we got from Lee-Anne's late grandmother's house. It's done well over here, to the point of getting a little overgrown for the one small window that the cats can't get to. Randomly, one day we found a piece of it on the floor, looking cleanly severed. Not having a proper plant pot, we filled a jam jar with soil and some small rocks at the bottom for drainage. This has worked out okay, but I would like to transplant it or maybe get a cutting from the main one to propagate at work.

 There was someone selling oldschool games and toys. I noticed that they had yoyos. Back when I was a child, randomly one year yoyos were trending. But they were automatic ones which I thought were stupid. Kids would buy them and watch them do tricks, as if this somehow reflected their skill. I really wanted just a normal one, and I'm pretty sure the ones this vendor had were just wood and string.

Anyway, I was too shy to buy a plant pot or a yoyo. Maybe I just need to keep going for a few years, until I develop enough familiarity to buy things, like at the Art Walks.

Anyway, we did eventually buy some currywurst. It was bitterly cold, and the person standing at the front seemed almost delirious from exposure to the elements. He seemed to be in an almost frantic state of adrenaline, being extremely jovial and personable despite losing track of orders, prices, and not being able to operate the card machine

Eventually we got our currywurst. It was pretty gross. I kept a brave face and didn't complain until finishing, though, as I knew this was dinner and something highly anticipated. The fries and sausage were fine. The sauce literally seemed to be ketchup with some curry powder sprinkled on.

I haven't had anything so ketchup-heavy since I reconciled my disdain for the condiment. Giving it a good try once more, I won't let those "ketchup is just barbeque sauce" arguers have any leverage anymore. Clearly, there is a vast and significant difference between the two, even in their closer variants.

But I'm still happy I tried it, as it sated the curiosity I'd developed last year when we failed to get "Germany's most popular street food". As it turns out, currywurst is the worst.

Mom's Out of the Hospital

Mom got out of the hospital a week ago today. She had knee surgery the Thursday of that week. They were hoping to get her out by Saturday, but Lee-Anne and I had difficulty finding some of the items needed for her to be discharged.

They wanted us to buy a walker and rent a wheelchair with an elevated left leg rest. Unfortunately, most pharmacies are closed on the weekends and the places that were open didn't have a wheelchair to her specifications. On Sunday, we discussed the situation with the specialist at the hospital, and she agreed that we could bring her home so long as we had a walker and a travel wheelchair, and promised to get her a standard one with an elevated left leg rest the next day. I think they really needed the bed.

If you want to know what a travel wheelchair is, it's one that doesn't have the big wheels in front, so the person can't move themselves and they need someone to push them. We did rent a proper one with an elevated left leg rest the next day, as well as an elevated toilet seat and a grabbing stick. We're fortunate that we already had a shower chair.

I must say, I was surprised that everything was as cheap as it was. At work, I hear members talking about how their accessibility equipment costs thousands of dollars. So I was a little intimidated, and surprised that renting the travel wheelchair for a week was only $40. Buying it would have been $400, which is still cheaper than I expected. The walker cost $60. 

I suppose the people I know that use accessibility tools have had modifications done, and got better quality versions because of the long-term nature of their expected use. That probably pushes the price up, and we got pretty entry-level stuff.

Although we'll be using these things a bit longer than short term. She's projected to need a brace for the next six months or so.

We're lucky that they live as near to us as they do, and that they live on the ground floor of their apartment. Me, Lee-Anne and my brother have alternated going out for walks with her. If this had happened in Guelph and they were still in their basement apartment, that would have been rough.

Of course, then you think that if she had been in Guelph she wouldn't have been hit in the first place. I tend to find ways to blame myself, so I was thinking that maybe the driving in Kitchener is just not what she's used to. But really, this wasn't a situation typical of the city. It could have happened anywhere.

Mom Broke Her Knee

 Last Tuesday evening, I'm sitting at home when I hear someone hammering on our door. "Gryphon! Mom's in the hospital!" my brother's voice shouts.

I run to the door and he briefs me. Fortunately, we live about a five minute walk from the hospital. Unfortunately, this has been convenient for me enough times that I'm versed with what people want when they unexpectedly find themselves there.

I quickly bag some snacks, a bottle of water, and an external battery. We scamper up to the hospital.

She isn't taking visitors right away. When she is, it's one at a time, and I tell my brother to go ahead of me. After he's left, I hear someone call my name. It's somebody that I know. I tell them that it's always odd to run into someone you know under such circumstances. We trade stories about what brought us there.

Eventually, it's my turn. She's on a stretcher in the hallway. I give her the bundle that I'd made for her. She seems okay, except that her knee is unusable. She has retrograde amnesia, with no memory of the event.

But at this time we know some stuff. She had been hit while walking to the grocery store. She had been in the right, proven by the fact that a bus full of witnesses had all seen the driver run a red. It was almost in front of the hospital. I guess if you need to be hit by a car, there's no better place for it.

I take the next day of work off, which proves to be useful as I find myself running between home and the hospital, ferrying things over to her. She has a room now, and we're told that she might be having surgery that day or the next.

We get the police report of what happened. This is where we see a plot twist.

...Unfortunately, I'm not able to share the full story by this medium. The real thing is a little weirder than I'm able to reveal here.

Remember how I said that I'd run into someone I knew in the ER? I traded stories with them and shared their company until it was my turn to visit with Mom.

It was THEM! They were the one that hit Mom in front of the hospital! They'd heard my story, I noted a strong reaction from them, but I just took it as empathy. They must have known, or at least strongly suspected that they were involved in my mom being there, but they didn't disclose.

Even if you wind up in the same Emergency Room as the person that hit your mom, what are the chances that it will be the one person in a crowd that you know outside the event? This really felt like an example of reality being stranger than fiction.

Art Walks, 2025

Me and Lee-Anne went on the two local Art Walks this year, as we usually do. The one in our neighbourhood was smaller than the one branching from downtown, which is usual. However, it seemed like the disparity was increased this year. The Central Art Walk was only eight locations, and they could be divided into two separate "clusters" with a lot of unused space between them, whereas the Frederick Art Walk was so busy that we weren't even able to complete the whole thing.

It wasn't too long ago that I would go to these things, skirt along the perimeter, snatch glances of artwork and avoid talking to anyone. This year, we were not only involved in every stop we came across, but we spent perhaps an irresponsible amount of money.

The place I got this from generously hosted several contributors, one of whom noted that I was from his neighbourhood. He was enthusiastic to explain the background of the painting to me. While it looked good in the place that I purchased it from, it doesn't quite have the same effect here. I'll find a place to display it where it's appreciated.

The top two images of the sunset and the flower vase are from someone at WALES. The bottom depiction of a cat walking by a rainbow was from someone else. They were both stationed at our office, which was hosting several artists.

We got a bunch of magnets. For some reason, these were a trend this year.

We bought a crochet cactus named Carl Tractor. Each of his line got a story associated with them, which you might see as a thought bubble floating behind him. It says: 

"He once beat an advanced computer at chess, but could never do it again. He takes his sister to the movies every Sunday."

Last year, Lee-Anne ran into someone with Girlguide cookies. She'd run out by the time we got there, but we exchanged phone numbers for when the next batch arrived. That didn't come, but when we were shopping for clay ghosts this year, the seller reminded us that she was the one that had promised cookies. Luckily, she had them in stock this time.

Stickers were also popular. Lee-Anne has been riding her bike more frequently, and she's heard that the best deterrent for theft is stickers, because they're inconvenient to remove and visually distinct. So she got a bunch on the art walks

The same guy that I buy bowls from had charcuterie boards. I wound up getting two, one for us and one for my mother and brother.

Last year I got a homemade calendar, which I was hoping to see again. The house was open, but there were no calendars this year.

Garden Update, October 2025

Weather's shifted to requiring jackets and long pants, so the garden season is mostly over and we've had our most successful year yet! 

We had 27 tomatoes over 4 plants. I usually view getting anything edible as a win. I'm resigned to the fact that this hobby will not yield enough to make a financial gain. However, 27 tomatoes is non-negligible! We've also harvested an additional 6 green ones that might ripen, and the plants are still alive and producing. Even if they don't turn red, we'll get more material for fried green tomatoes.

One of my coworkers has said that each plant should produce 100 tomatoes. Obviously we're shy of that, but I'm not going to be cynical because this is still our best year yet.

No luck with the zucchinis. They made a lot of flowers and a few began to develop but were lost before we could harvest them.

We had three bell peppers on one plant. Not great, but it was our first year trying one, so I'll consider any harvest a win.

The way that snow peas grow, it's almost impossible to count them. We had a reliable crop though. Similarly, it's hard to quantify herbs, but we managed enough mint, parsley and arugula to make several salads. We also grew chamomile and it was healthy, but we really didn't know what to do with it.

Unfortunately, none of the sunflowers that I'd highlighted as interesting survived. The one with the loop in it's stem and the one that survived getting snapped were eaten by critters. Despite that, we've had 27 blossoms, far surpassing our old record of eight.

Of these, seven were Kongs. Not bad, considering we planted ten. It wasn't a flower per plant though. I got to see the first one beheaded by a squirrel from our kitchen window. After the initial assault, some managed to produce more flowers post-beheading.

Despite blossoming, the Kongs never got to a height that distinguished them from regular sunflowers. Of them, the tallest was 4'5", just one inch larger than the biggest of the traditional batch.

And of those two that were competing for tallest, both lost their flowers, and both produced multiple additional ones in retaliation. It appears that when they lose their initial blossom, it triggers an instinct to grow multiples at once. Most of the ones that didn't get attacked were content with a single flower.

That's seven blossoms on one plant! The replacement flowers are more crinkly than the originals, and grew from darker buds. I've only managed to harvest one seed so far, and some should be well ready for harvest. I don't know why they didn't really mature properly. Still, there are more that can still produce, and they're attracting pollinators, so they are functioning to an extent.

Lee-Anne also grew some decorative flowers.

At one time, there was a variety in this pot. It really got dominated by the one plant, though I don't remember it's name.

A neighbour gave us some hostas for the front yard. We just got to know her this year from an interaction regarding her community sidewalk chalk set. She kept it in a plant pot, and one day me and Lee-Anne noticed that it was broken. We replaced it, and I guess she has a camera or something, because she saw the random act of kindness and went out of her way to thank us and introduce herself. This led to a discussion about plants and we wound up with some hostas.

They aren't really impressive at the moment but they appear to have survived. Apparently they'll come into their own next year.

Old Guelph Neighbourhood

 Last weekend, me and Lee-Anne visited Guelph and toured some of the old places that I knew growing up.

First thing I noticed was that Riverside Park appears to have been rebranded as Royal City Park. For some reason, Guelph is known as The Royal City. It doesn't make much intuitive sense as I think our original function was as a farming community meant to feed Toronto. There's a reason for the nickname, and I've looked it up, but I always forget.

I don't mind the rebranding. Cambridge has a Riverside Park, and it was slightly awkward that the two cities had the same name for their main parks.

We checked out the house that burned a year ago.

 It appears to be occupied now, and there's a second door at the front of the house. The top portion was always sectioned into two, but one part was only accessible via the side door.

We went all the way back to the apartment that I lived in between ages 3-16.

We lived in the one second to the top. Unfortunately, a tree that I felt a connection with as a child, that I named Spikey is no longer there. He was a young tree that I saw planted, so he must not have reached his natural lifespan.

We went to the plaza across the street.

Not much changed to be honest. Then we visited my old elementary school.

In this pic, we're standing at the top of a hill. This was the spot for sledding during winters. My old school is the small, low structure at the bottom.

Then I showed Lee-Anne an area off the side of the hill. It connected to the child author Robert Munsch's old neighbourhood. He would visit our classes on Pyjama Days and read us stories and he used to give out miniature versions of his books to Trick or Treaters on Halloween. Recently it's been made public that he has requested Medical Assistance in Dying. I think he's been unwell for awhile.

There's a patch of forest around this area that my classes would sometimes take trips to. I remember being told that one of the trees was the oldest in Guelph. I don't know how closely they're keeping track of that, but I did find the one that this claim was put to.

Then we walked to my old middle school. Everything was so familiar, like I'd been there yesterday. It almost seemed like I was in the wrong body.

We visited the old forest that I used to walk in with my friends after school. This was the main draw of the trip. Most of it had been cut down. This wasn't news to me, it happened shortly before I graduated. But when I left, the land hadn't yet been developed. Now, the area where I used to walk in the woods was covered in houses.

I knew that some of my old forest was protected wetlands, and indeed, I found a significantly sized patch.

Apparently it's known as Ellis Creek Wetland. I never knew it to have a name before. It now has a maintained path through it. The sign says that it's a "sensitive", "Provincially Significant" silver maple swamp and has guidelines for how homeowners can protect the land. It feels funny that some respect has been put on it after most of it was cut.

Sometimes I reflect on my childhood and think how there used to be lots of ladybugs, but I don't see them anymore. Since extinction of flying insects is considered one of this planets most impending threats, I thought that maybe this was due to climate change. But there were ladybugs in the forest. Also, lots of burs, which caused me some grief when I got them tangled in my then-long hair. I guess these were just staples of the wetland microclimate.

We did get off the maintained path and scrambled through the wilder area, more familiar to my memory. We saw the knobbly roots of trees accustomed to flooding. I took a rock home with me as a souvenir.

September Whirlwind

This September has been a real rough month. Not bad, just busy. That's why this is the first, and likely only, post for September this year.

Me and my coworkers hosted a wedding shower for someone on our team. They did something similar for me and Lee-Anne two years ago. We even still had one of the decorations from then still on display, although it came down after.

It was also mine and Lee-Anne's second anniversary. I made falafels and she made fattoush. Apparently September is the most popular month for weddings, and the 16th, which was when we did it, statistically has the highest rate of the entire year. 

We got two new students at work, which I'm acting as a supervisor for.

We had the annual EAFy Day event at work. It was time-themed with a bunch of optional activities. I wound up going to a museum and doing a walking tour of historical sites in Waterloo Region.

We also had the March of 1000 Umbrellas hosted by United Way. Two years ago I wound up on the front page of the newspaper. I didn't actually go this year, since we needed a couple of staff to take care of the building, but it still required some planning.

I had my three month check in with my doctor, requiring a day trip to Guelph. Because Mom now has similar issues as me, we organized it so that we could go at the same time and sat in on each other's meetings. This is likely how we'll plan it going forward.

We had the Walk or Wheel event. This is an annual fundraiser that Extend-a-Family holds. People collect pledges, and then branches of the organization are designated stations where they offer an activity for the attendants. Because of its proximity to my birthday, I've never actually attended. But this year, pretty well all the other staff were busy, so I stepped in.

Our activity was a "rock snake". This was something that became popular during the pandemic. People would paint rocks and line them up when they were socially isolated for a feeling of connection and contribution.

Because we are WALES, we made a "rock whale" instead. Doesn't make a ton of sense because it's still shaped like a snake but I thought it was fun. I made a head and tail and used the community contributions to build the body.

The event was four hours. Somehow, I decided we needed 150 rocks. Despite consistent engagement, we only needed 32. If you're the type to count how many are in the pictures you might notice we don't quite have that number. That's because two people wanted to take their rocks home.

The rocks came from our backyard. At some point, one of our neighbours had a surplus of them and offered them to Lee-Anne for free. We tried placing them in an area with a lot of weeds to try and prevent growth, but they came through even stronger. They've just been sitting there since and finally found their use. We still have more.

The WALES members are continuing to paint the leftover rocks and adding to our whalesnake.

I got both of the stuffies from a local thrift shop. I set them out with a whale painting that I did during the pandemic. Between that and the rock snake, it weirdly felt like a reflection of five years ago. 

The painting got a little marked up, but I wasn't too mad about it because it felt like it was made to show up for the event.

When it was over, I put the disrupted whale on display in my office.

It was my 36th birthday the day after. Lee-Anne bought me a couple of books: Is a River Alive, and Finding the Mother Tree. Both are kind of in the genre of "The Hidden Life of Trees". I heard a radio interview of Is a River Alive which piqued my interest, and I found Finding The Mother Tree in a local coffee shop. The latter sounds pretty similar in content to The Hidden Life of Trees, but from an Indigenous perspective. 

My mother and brother bought us an air fryer. This is helpful because it has an oven setting. The one we have now runs a little hot, so if we want to bake anything, we often go to my mother and brother's. Now we can do it at home again. I also have a stated value of not deep frying at home. To me, it's too wasteful, messy, unhealthy and dangerous to justify at a single household level. The air fryer bypasses those barriers. I'll probably learn how to make samosas and spring rolls.

And just this past week I needed to do my trainer recertification for Safe Management. This meant that I did a day trip into Oakville. Everything went smoothly but it was a long day. 

The only somewhat stressful thing left in the month is that I'm hosting a training for students tomorrow and the day after. This is pretty routine, except that we have two new facilitators for which this will be their first session. As the senior trainer, expectations will just be a bit higher for me to keep things running smoothly.

Fourth Date Redo

Mine and Lee-Anne's fourth date was doing something called Canoeing The Grand. We rented a boat and paddled down an established route through the Grand River. Despite it being entry-level, we managed to capsize. Lee-Anne has referred to this as a make-it or break-it stage in our early relationship.

We pulled our canoe to the side and were lucky enough that some more experienced people checked in on us and offered one of their paddles, since we had lost both of ours. After this, we managed to make it the rest of our way to the landing point.

This story was popular enough that, when my coworkers threw our wedding shower some four years later, we received gifts themed after it. These included chocolate boats, "Broken Canoe" branded peach drinks, and a gift certificate for "Canoeing the Grand".

It's been two years since our wedding shower. Luckily, the gift certificate didn't expire and we finally got around to it.

When we arrived, the person that met us gave some pointers on how to stear through it. She said that ripples on the water mean rocks. Makes sense. I don't remember getting this advice last time though.

When we were signing the wavers and processing the gift certificate, she gave us our emergency kit and said that on the route we were doing she "promised we wouldn't need it". It wasn't worth telling her that last time we not only managed to get ourselves in a situation where we would need it, but we also managed to lose our emergency kit in the process.

But this time we managed not to capsize! I was much more alert to potential hazards so I didn't take many photos, but here are a few.

We saw ducks, geese, and cormorants. I counted maybe 11 herons and a couple flew right by us. I think I may have seen a couple red-breasted merganser, but I don't know if I was wishful thinking. A hawk or turkey vulture followed us for a bit. There were a lot of people fishing but I only saw minnows.

We did grind to a halt in shallow waters and needed to get out and pull the canoe a bit. There were two other people that started at the same time as us and had the same issue. All in all I think today was an example of redemption.

Trip North, 2025

Me and Lee-Anne recently got back from a trip up North to see my grandparents. We did this last year too, and I made three posts about it. Since there was such a significant gulf of time between then and the last time I'd been up, there was a lot to talk about. This time I'm pretty sure I can condense it to one post.

I took two weeks off work. I often run into an issue where, because I don't like scheduling, I put it off and wind up with excess vacation time at the end of the year. I once heard someone say that taking two weeks off at a time is preferable, because if you take only one, then people postpone things until you get back. If you take two, people need to figure out how to handle it themselves.

It also just makes scheduling easier. We figured we'd be up North for about a week, and taking two off allows for some flexibility and a bit of unwinding time after getting back.

We took the bus up. Last year, we had the same driver there and back. He recommended that me and Lee-Anne get the pizza buns at the rest stop in Bracebridge, and told us to ask for them microwaved. We took his advice, and he checked in with us to see how we liked them. He said that this was his dinner every day.

The affection he had for that little rest stop and his friendliness was very sweet, and his reflection that it's his dinner every day was slightly sad. Overall, he left quite an endearing impression. He didn't drive us either way this time, but we did see him at the layover in North Bay.

Last year, we came in the Fall. This time, we aimed more at the Summer, the express reason for this being that it's more seasonal for blueberries. Unfortunately, late frosts combined with harsh heat spells made for a poor turnout. I still found some wild blueberries, enough for me and Lee-Anne to get some satisfying samples, but not enough to make into jam or pie.

If you want to see the pictures I took, I made a Gallery post here:

http://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com/2025/08/kenabeek-pics-summer-2025.html

I did some driving lessons with my grandfather. I don't remember if I posted about it or not, but last year I almost tested for my G2, but I'd needed to get an extension on my G1. I did this successfully, but I mistook the receipt for the license itself and showed up to test with the wrong documentation. So I never got to try, and just renewed my G1.

I'd planned on taking lessons through the Summer and testing again, but somehow the last couple of months feel like they've just melted away. Driving up North was my first time at it this year, but I refamiliarized pretty quick. I'm still holding out hope to get some lessons and testing for my G2 this year, but I just feel fated never to get it.

Me and Lee-Anne made dinner one of the nights, partly to showcase my growing culinary prowess. The item available was shrimp, so we did our yellow coconut curry. Based on this old recipe:

https://gryphood.blogspot.com/2022/01/yellow-coconut-curry.html

We used up their curry powder, so we made a custom spice blend to mimic it. The result was passable, but a bit sweeter than usual. I think because the honey we used was local stuff produced by one of their neighbours.

I'd finished reading The Children of Hurin on the bus ride up, which is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings based on the notes of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited and published by his son. I wrote a review of it while I was up there. Since there isn't a reliable Internet connection, I typed it into my computers Notes app and copy/pasted it into my Reviews blog when I got back. You can access it here:

http://gryphonsreviews.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-children-of-hurin-book-review.html

This led to some discussion about Middle Earth, and then me finally watching The Hobbit movies, which my grandparents have the DVDs for. I hadn't bothered to watch them previously because while The Lord of the Rings movies being a trilogy made sense because they were based on three books, doing this for The Hobbit, a singular book, just felt like a cash grab to mirror previous success. Fortunately, the films did retain the whimsy and adventure of the book instead of attempting to impose the stakes and grandeur of their previous work. Maybe I'll make a review at some point.

On coming back, we stayed overnight at a different grandmother of mine. The next day we all went to the Art Gallery of Ontario and looked at an exhibit of Joyce Weiland, a feminist Canadian artist. It included a rendition of a moving map of her brain once she'd developed dementia, showing first the impacts of the condition, and then the healing factor that took place as she did her art.

Since it isn't in the Gallery, here's a picture of me and Lee-Anne in front of an elephant made of old couches.

Lee-Anne observed that, between the discussions on music and literature with my Northern grandparents, and the art museum in Toronto, every side of my family is "artsy". 

A Year in Kitchener

Tomorrow, me and Lee-Anne will be going up to Kenabeek. It's a little earlier this time than last, but it still marks roughly a year since my mother and brother's house burned down.

After, they stayed with us for a bit before finding a new place in the same neighbourhood. Though the circumstances were grim, it has given opportunity for them to experience the city where me and Lee-Anne live. I'll be going over some of the local highlights today.

In previous visits, they'd already been exposed to Belmont Village and the Iron Horse Trail. We live in Kitchener, but we're only about a five minute walk from the border of Waterloo. In fact, we're fairly equidistant between Downtown Kitchener and what is known as Uptown Waterloo. It makes sense then, that the locals refer to our area as Midtown. The heart of Midtown is known as Belmont Village, a strip of independent businesses. I've mentioned it on this blog a bunch of times

They had both already tried a restaraunt called Thai Bistro. Now, we introduced them to Graffiti Market, a place that does deep dish pizza in a way I've only experienced there, and Relish Shawarma, which I've talked about a lot on here. Mom has grown a deep fondness for Relish.

They had both been on the Iron Horse Trail previously as well. It's the longest paved route in the tricity and previously was a rail line for workers to get to factories. This was a prominent enough feature that the buildings that my family currently resides in were initially developed explicitly for users of the Iron Horse Rail. My mom still plays Pokemon Go (as do I) and on seeing the consistent distribution of gyms (game feature) she said "It's like being on Victory Road!" (common end location, leading up to the game's final challenge).

The first new place I showed them was Uptown Waterloo. I did this because they had some specific wants that were best served in that area. I came to regret this though, because first impressions are important and for awhile it became a comfort zone. It's a nice place, but while we have easy access to both cities, me and Lee-Anne both strongly identify as culturally Kitchener, so it just irked me a bit to see Waterloo become the baseline for my family.

My brother, needing a mattress, went to Fairview Park Mall and so got to try our Ion Light Rail. More consistant and with more frequent arrivals, it's definitely a step up from Guelph's city buses, and he has grown to enjoy its utility. Soon after this, my brother left and stayed elsewhere for a few months, so Mom got to experience a few things ahead of him. 

They became aquainted with our closest grocery, which is an independently owned place called Central Fresh Market about a 15 minute walk from where we both live.

Waterloo may have become the touchstone, but Kitchener claimed a win with it's signature park. Me and Mom went to Victoria Park and she got to try a Polish sausage cart that has some measure of fame around here. We also got to see the two swans that inhabit the area. Later, a friend of her's from Guelph would visit and this is where we would go. She said that it's better than Guelph's Riverside Park.

Here's a blurry picture of a weird, duck-like diving bird we saw. I would eventually learn that it's a cormorant, and I've seen many more since.

Mom came with me and Leee-Anne to the Bestival. I think that name is an amalgamation of Belmont Village and Festival, with the happy coincidence that it also has the word "best" in it. She got to try the Fo Cheesy food truck which frequents local events. She bought a bag from a local artist and we listened to some music.

After my brother came back, he joined me and Lee-Anne in participating in a community cleanup event and has signed up to volunteer for future things.

We all went to the Multicultural Festival together. I ran into a coworker who was coincidentally doing a show and we got to watch that. My brother got to try some spiral potato thing. 

Went to a drone show for Canada Day. Neither of them had seen one before. Me and Lee-Anne have been to a few. The first time was for a show held by our local hospital, and it was really trippy. Crazy to see all those tiny glowing robots fly around and create moving pictures in the sky. 

The second time was for Canada Day the year previous. It was pretty subdued, and I wondered if it was one of those things that is only good once. Despite the occasion, there wasn't any Canadian imagery. I think that the recent discovery of mass graves of Indigenous children beneath residential schools had soured the national image at that time, and so the celebration came across as confused and noncomittal.

However, this year patriotism has resurfaced in a big way as threats of colonization and trade wars have been issued from our neighbours to the South. So there was plenty of Canadian imagery when my mother and brother went.

First image was a Canadian flag but it was followed by Turtle Island and an Inukshuk as a gesture to Indigenous communities. Hopefully showing we haven't forgotten them after emerging worries from the South.

Waterloo is the goose-hating capital of the world, but it's become such an integral part of their identity that it's warped around to a sort of love.

Me and Lee-Anne waited an absurd amount of time at a German food truck. I'd been wanting to go to it specifically for currywurst, since me and her had tried it during Christkindl Market and we didn't know it was the featured food. But they didn't even have it this time around so we got a schnitzel sandwich and schnitzel poutine.

My brother, who came after us, was stuck in the line for the entirety of the show. Luckily, it was big enough that he could still watch it in full view.

We all went to the Cherry Park festival, which is a more targeted event to our neighbourhood. We got cherry icecream, served by our former MP, Mike Morrice. We  also got cherry tarts, strudels, and jam. We got a little clay pot, and they got some magnets by local artists. 

Recently my brother discovered an authentic East Asian grocery called New City Supermarket. I'd already been in a handful of times. He also found a health food place called Full Circle Foods, which I've been to once. He was very enthusiatic about both.

He also found a local garden store that I didn't know about. He also got his hair cut at The Green Room barbershop, where Lee-Anne has been trying to get me to go, and now he's pressuring me too.

That's what I can think of so far. They both still need to go to Christkindle Market, at least one of the Art Walks, the Kitchener Farmer's Market, and the Clay and Glass Art Gallery. I don't think they've been to the Kitchener Public Library. Mom was close, because my cousin hosted an event in the courtyard, but it was outside of library hours. Maybe The Museum should be on there, but I don't think it's anything special.

I'm the only one of the four of us to have gone to the Butterfly Sanctuary, so that's on the list too. Buskerfest, Bluesfest, and Ribfest are all big around here, and I've not been to any of them. I've no interest in the latter though.