Uses for Binder Clips: Cat Doors and ODD

When you install your screened-in porch, you may find that your cat is reluctant to use her new swinging cat door.

At first, our cat Magi did not at all seem to like the idea of pushing against the screen flap.

Holding her and pushing her through resulted in very unpleasant struggles.

Young Zander tried to demonstrate by pushing his own head through. But perhaps because the rest of his body would not go through or perhaps because Magi suffers from Oppositional Defiance Disorder like everyone else in this household, Magi still did not take to the new door.

After Manon put a binder clip on the flap to keep it partly open, Magi got the idea she could enter and leave the porch on her own with no assistance. The binder clip was adjusted to have the flap lower and lower and now, Magi is in and out like she owns the place. With no assistance and no binder clip.

This should cut down on scratching damage to the screen door and demonstrates that sometimes the best way to deal with the oppositionally defiant is to let them come to the right decision in their own time.

Looks like Steampunk is mainstream

Bad news for all you kids who thought steampunk is the cool insider cult thing. It's gone mainstream.

How do I know? What's my proof?

Judge the evidence for yourself.

Steampunk is costume idea #8 in Value Village's Alter your Ego campaign. It comes with its own little info sheet on a rack in between "Cowboy" and "Ninja".

We have too much stuff

There are many signs that our society has become too materialistic.
The top-rated show on A&E is Storage Wars where we watch a group of colourful characters buy and sell the contents of storage lockers whose owners have defaulted on the monthly rent.
The top show on History TV is Pawn Stars where we watch a colourful Las Vegas family buy interesting items from people who never admit they're desperate to pay gambling debts.
History also has American Pickers and Canadian Pickers which each follow two guys who drive around buying stuff that fits the expression "one man's trash is another man's treasure."
Spike's highest rated show is Auction Hunters, another storage locker buying show.
A&E's Hoarders is also doing really well. If you're like me, you watch Hoarders and say, "at least I'm not that bad."
There are many more shows about acquiring stuff. The ones I know about and usually enjoy include Hardcore Pawn, Antiques Road Show (UK, US, Canada), Auction Kings, What the Sell, the very weird Oddities, and Pawnathon Canada.
But here's something that hit me this morning when we were on Catherine Street dropping Zander off at the bus station. See this storage locker building that is a block from Bank Street:

It used to be a bowling alley.
I'm not saying that a bowling alley is the absolute best use of downtown real estate, but it makes me sad that it was more economical for the owners of 270 Catherine to rip out the lanes, pins and ball returns and put in storage lockers.
Shouldn't we be bowling instead of acquiring so much stuff that it won't fit in our homes so we have to rent storage lockers?

Our Screened-in Porch

One of the things that has distracted me from blogging for the past two months has been all the work being done on the ScrimChateau and Manonsion.

Last week, three projects got finished. The one that has made Manon the happiest is our porch. As you can see it is not just a porch. It is a screened-in porch. And it has been finished in time for her to sip tea, read a depressing novel and enjoy the sunset before winter sets in.

The carpenter who did the work is Kevin Miller. Lots of people, especially other trades workers, who have seen the work have told us they're really impressed. One element of craftmanship you can see in the photo - notice how the wood next to the wall matches the curves in the stucco? I don't know how he even did that.

Do you have a screened-in porch? It's a big deal in certain circles we hang out in.

Uses for Binder Clips: Wedding Presents

The box of binder clips Real Grouchy gave Manon and me for our wedding was an excellent gift that keeps on giving.

What makes it especially good is that they were free binder clips. Real Grouchy has a relative who works somewhere that receives lots of documents. Apparently even though they tell the people submitting the documents not to clip them together, the submitters ignore the instructions and send in their documents with all manner and sizes of binder clips attaching them together.

Instead of throwing all these unneeded clips in the garbage, the relative saves them for Real Grouchy and he was able to spare some for us.

At his workplace back in May, Real Grouchy had an identity card machine. This meant he was able to make Manon and I official wedding cards.

I carry mine in my pocket.

Another Weekend, Another Festival

We took the opportunity of being in Montreal this weekend to take in another festival. A downtown Montreal festival has a very different vibe from a festival in rural Eastern Ontario.

Or maybe it's just a different vibe because of the differences you find between a fashion crowd and a folk crowd.

In any case, we enjoyed our visit to the Festival Mode & Design. In a small way it makes up for Slice still not showing the new season of Project Runway.

The Big Star at Blue Skies 2011

The 20-somethings were super-excited about one of the performers at Blue Skies this year. I'd heard of him, but somehow I never got exposed to his work before.

Fred Penner told us he's doing really well on the college and university campus scene these days.

Mind you, he does have fans who are closer to my age.

On Sunday, Fred gave a workshop titled Respect and Connect with your Audience. His first tip was to demonstrate two ways of taking a drink of water. The wrong way is to have the water bottle on the floor. Stop talking. Bend down. Stand up. Open the bottle. Take a drink. Close the bottle. Bend down. Put the bottle back on the floor. Then resume the show.

The Fred Penner way is to have the bottle at waist height on a stand or stool. While talking to the audience and looking at them, take the bottle and open it. Say "cheers" while raising the bottle. Take your drink while the audience is saying "cheers" back to you. Continue talking to the audience while you put the bottle back.

Besides maintaining a connection with the audience for the whole procedure, this method also avoids displaying any thinning that might be taking place on the top of your head.

(Photos from Blue Skies taken by me and Manon are up on Flickr)