Leader of Men

sneak peek: the 2008 Richmond Olympic Speed Skating Oval

Last Friday I was invited to the Construction Appreciation party for the 2008 Olympic Speed Skating Oval in Richmond, since I was part of the project team. It was a pretty snazzy event, with food and drinks, shaking the Premier's hand, and trying out the ice. Unfortunately I wasn't able to skate myself, having injured my knee a few weeks ago, so I busied myself taking pictures of the magnificent architecture.

The exterior and certain parts of the interior aren't quite finished yet, but remarkable nonetheless. You can see the exterior in progess here. It is the 3rd largest of its kind in the world, and capable of holding 4 DC-10 aircraft wingtip to wingtip - 33,000 square metres of space. The architect is Cannon Johnston.

Part of the entry lobby.

 

View from the centre to the west end of the ice

 

View from the west end of the ice.

 

These beams span 100m, and the roof itself is approximately 6.5 acres in size.

 

The ceiling is an incredible work of art. It contains over one million board feet of pine beetle kill wood from the B.C. interior.

 

The building rear exterior. Unfortunately it was pouring with rain and too dark out to take any more photos than this.

 

Good advice for our star athletes.

As I mentioned above, the weather was atrocious and it was pitch black out, which was a pity, since the exterior of the building is fantastic, as is the landscape. Hopefully there will be a spot of sunny weather soon so I can get back and take more pics.

the next generation of hybrids

 

 

This sexy l'il number has a "decayed gold" finish on the feet and takes a 60W bulb. Only £662.99 from LightingWeb.co.uk.

ten valuable things i learned from the U.S. election

1. Wolf forelegs are more valuable than you think.

2. Russia is closer than you think.

3. Never sit on charity boards with retired terrorists if you can help it.

4. Everyone has a crazy preacher in their past.

5. Always dress nicely. Not TOO nicely, though.

6. Smirking does not win you any points.

7. But folksy does.

8. Muslin confuses people.

9. Katie Couric is SO MEAN.

10. Canadian politics are really, really dull. I mean, come on.

(My friend FunkyQuail sent me the Obama tshirt and some political buttons from Kateblack. I'm saving them for 2012.)

incompetent cooking: curried lentil soup

Welcome to the second installment of my cooking series for those folks fearful of all things culinary. As with all recipes in this series, you can make this even if you can barely tell a spoon from a fork. I do, however, recommend you know which end of a knife to hold. *Insert standard legal disclaimer against all slicing and cutting mishaps that may or may not result in hospital visits*

Now that the legal stuff is out of the way, on to the grub. This recipe is for curried lentil soup, a great comfort food for chilly late autumn days. It makes a fairly big batch and freezes well. The most exotic ingredient in it is madras curry powder, which can be found in most supermarkets, but pretty much any curry blend will do. If you're a vegetarian, you can replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock. It'll taste a little different (less poultry-ish) but still good.

Ingredients:

3 cups chicken stock

1 cup water

1 14-oz can of lentils, thoroughly rinsed

2 medium russet potatoes, chopped into 1" pieces

1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped

1 cup chopped carrots

1 14-oz can of crushed tomatoes

1 tbsp madras curry power

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp salt or to taste

pepper to taste

Get yourself a whopping big pot, stick on the stovetop, add a generous dollop of oil to the bottom, and heat it up. Fry up the onions, potatoes, curry, cumin, and cayenne together until the onions start to turn golden and translucent. Then dump in everything else but the carrots. Bring to a high boil, then turn down to a simmer and cover. Cook for twenty minutes. Add carrots, then cook for twenty more minutes, stirring regularly. The end.

This is a really flexible recipe that you can easily adjust to your specific taste. It's got a good spicy bite to it, but if you don't like hot foods, cut back the curry, cumin and cayenne by half. If you like your carrots ultra-mushy, put them in with the potatoes at the start. If you prefer a soupier consistency, add another cup of water/stock. If you like a more stew-like thickness, cook slightly longer and stir like a crazy person. Add different veggies if you think you might be getting rickets and need more vitamins. Etc etc etc.

Enjoy!

she finds seashells near the sea shore

Last spring, walking to work, I spied something peculiar in the gutter. I went over to take a look, and found a 10-inch long conch shell, a bit chipped and rough around the edges, but still beautiful. It was strange thing to find in a gutter on rainy morning in March. I mean, I do live eight blocks from the beach, but c'mon. That's a long way uphill for a seashell. I took it home, cleaned it up, and now it sits on my desk.

 

happy birthday to me (almost)

It's my birthday on Sunday, and I'm having a sale! For this weekend, 16% everything in my store (discount to be refunded after purchase).

No, I won't tell you how old I am.

triptych: quail eggs

More experimenting with the new camera.

 

 

incompetent cooking: banana muffins

This is the first part of my series for the culinary-challenged: Incompetent Cooking. If you're like me, and don't have either the time or the inclination to cook much, and this lack of practice leaves you a total moron in the kitchen, these recipes are for you. They are not fancy and generally require one bowl, one pot, or one process. They require an absolute minimum of effort. They are really, really hard to screw up. They are not IMPOSSIBLE to screw up, of course (believe me, I know), but you stand a better chance of not poisoning yourself with these than a lot of other dishes.

Our first recipe is banana muffins. Not fancy cardamom-poppyseed-nutmeg-whatever banana muffins, just plain old fruity-bread type muffins. This is my mom's recipe and I used to make it when I was ten, so if you screw it up accept that you are hopeless and should order takeout. But while they are plain, they are also very very tasty.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1 cup white sugar

1-1/2 cups all-purpose white flour

1 cup mashed bananas (approx. 2)

1 tsp baking soda

1tbsp hot water

1 egg

dash of salt

No, it doesn't matter whether you use margarine or butter. And yes, that's a helluva lot of sugar. I didn't say these recipes were healthy, just easy.

Now, heat your oven up to 425 degrees. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Stick little paper muffin cups into your muffin baking tray. Fill the cups about 3/4 full. Stick 'em in the oven for 15 minutes. The end.

This recipe is supposed to make 12 medium muffins, but you know that recipes always LIE when it comes to how much they make. So you can expect maybe 11 or possibly 10.75 muffins from this one.

Enjoy!

apocalypse ring

I made this on a whim, for those pessimistic days.

no rabbits were harmed in the making of this blog

I finally splurged out and bought a new camera the other day, so I took a few quick practice shots on a very unwilling subject.

He's pretty wiggly, so only his nose is in focus. But it's a cute nose.