Snow creatures appear

On Wednesday, it was a bit too cold.

But yesterday, it had warmed up enough to make very good packy-snow. 

And these two creatures appeared. One had trouble keeping his head.

We are curious to see how the squirrels might respond. Particularly to the noses.

Time lapse snow

We had our first snowfall of the season yesterday.

I was almost all set. The snow tires are on the car and the shovels, brushes and scrapers are all where they should be, but I did not have the time lapse set up. 

So there was a bit of accumulation before I started.

Home repair with squid tentacle

Many years ago, way back when I was a solo act, I found it necessary to cut a hole in the wall in the bedroom/office area to access some coaxial cable. I cut a rectangle out of the drywall, accessed the cable and then put the rectangle of drywall back in place with green masking tape.

This wasn't particularly obvious to the other resident who came to live here because I had a dresser, a bunch of empty boxes, a clothes tree, and a sort of nightstand thing in front of this wall. But I've been downsizing a bit and moving things into my new studio space and the taped rectangle became entirely obvious.

It was gently suggested that I replace the taped-up rectangle with an access panel. I had to agree that this was a very good idea, so I got an access panel, removed the taped-up rectangle, and enlarged the hole so the access panel would properly fit.

Alas, in doing so, removal of the tape that had been on the wall for at least 20 years caused a section of paint to also come off, and I put a longer mark on the wall than I had needed.

Some people would probably have addressed these unsightly blemishes with some sort of paint solution. But I do not know much about house paint and am not good at using it.

However, I can draw a squid tentacle with a Rotring Tikky Graphic C.7 and a set of coloured pencils on a piece of fine tooth surface sketch paper and then use an exacto knife to cut out that tentacle so it perfectly covers unsightly blemishes on a wall.

And that is what I did.

If the other resident of your home has an affection for cephalopods, this is a home repair solution that I can recommend.

 

Halloween is over

It's November 2, but before I can make my devilled eggs, the monsters had to come down.

I set the time lapse to go a little faster, so this one will only take you 12 seconds to watch.

National Deviled Egg Day is tomorrow (Nov. 2)

November 2 is National Deviled Egg Day and I will be ready for it this year. I pressure-cooked 12 eggs in the Instant Pot on 4 minutes. Alas, one of them cracked during cooking so I had to eat it with cayenne pepper after lunch. So, tomorrow, I'll only be able to make 22 devilled eggs. (Pro-tip: Always boil at least two more eggs than you will need.)

Here are recipes from Canadian Living if you need them.

Notes:

• Although Canadian Living uses "devilled", I'm going with "deviled" because that's what Grammarist says is used in Canada.
• I can't seem to find any official body that has actually declared Novemeber 2 to be "National Deviled Egg Day", so it might just be something the special-day websites have glommed onto, but I'm just happy to have a day honouring this delicious treat.
   

Previously:

• Appetizer Tip: Use the right platter (2015-02-17)
• Happy National Deviled Egg Day (2018-11-02)

Winter is coming for the Stick Library

I'm sad to say that it's that time of year.

The Stick Librarian has posted her end-of-year statistics and notice that today was the last day of 2024 for the Stick Library.

Time lapsing the monster mounting

It's late October, so time to put the monsters up on the windows.

To encourage myself, I used my new lifehack of setting up the time lapse camera.

Here I go. You might notice that after I put up a set in a narrow window, I took the monsters down and put them in the other window. This is because I used a picture taken from outside as my reference and got my left and right mixed up. This won't happen again because I've given myself a graphic guide for next year.

And here's the well-drawn, professional reminder I've attached so that in future years I'll know which monsters go on which side of the big window.