19/52

Chris at the May cookoff (with Kristina in the background). I won, with a macadamia nut & cashew cream tiramisu. It was a lot of work but was totally worth it!

12x12: April

Ohhhh my god I am overwhelmingly behind on photos, it's a little anxiety-inducing. BUT here are my twelve shots from April. The colour ones are Kodak Portra & Fuji Instax; the black & white are Kodak TMax.

Jeff & Dad, when we had him and Sharon over for a dinner of risotto & halibut.

I did a maternity shoot with Madeleine; who was about six months along at the time. She did not want me to share nudes on the internet, but we shot some film and a handful of digital exposures, some of which turned out quite nicely.

The view from Madeleine's apartment.

Bo & Su in the backyard, where we spent the afternoon eating snacks and drinking booze and then retiring inside to watch the Purple Wedding episode of Game of Thrones, where we cheered & clutched each other in horror & joy.

Gregg looking like a cool dad.


Obviously I didn't actually take this photo of myself in my ridiculous gardening hat (Gregg did), but I like it too much not to share.
Family dinner! I always forget how much I miss Riley until he's in town and we laugh so much.

18/52

Jeff claims to hate the cats, but Zeus has developed some kind of bond with him regardless: when Jeff comes home, the cat flops down on the floor and waits for him to come pet him, or follows him around the house for at least ten minutes if he doesn't.

Liang's birthday was on May 5th; she picked me up and we drove out to Horseshoe Bay for dinner, and then went for a wander on a secret beach in Lions Bay, and had a lovely drive home at twilight.

17/52

Met up with Su for donuts & chats, a visit to the library, and so I could help her not be afraid to take photos with the Holga. The next day I met up with MaryAnne, whom I hadn't seen in many many moons. It was a lot like our adventures of old, though — cheap food & a drink followed by city wanderings, beach sunsets, and covert paper bag beer.

16/52

Dinner at my mom's with the family. Riley was in town from the Island, and it always takes him coming to visit to realise how much I miss him (we usually only see him 2-3 times a year). He and Jimm picked me up on the way back from the ferry in the afternoon, so we hung out for awhile just doing stuff around the house, which made me feel a little nostalgic for those after-school, before-dinner times when we were in high school.

Started reading the Lord of the Rings series for the first time since early high school; it was almost like reading them for the first time in that I'd forgotten the smaller details and wanted to do pretty much nothing except sit under the blanket with the book and some snacks.

15/52

Bo, Su, Gregg, & Anita came to hang out in the backyard and drink eat stuff with me! I did a little gardening but mostly we just ate hummus and drank scotch and beer until it was time to watch Game of Thrones (Purple Wedding episode! so satisfying).

14/52

I usually tell people not to pose when I'm taking their picture, which sometimes results in hilarious mid-sentence photos like this one. Also my dad's cool moustache is making its first return since the late '90s. Jeff and I made dinner and he brought us several bottles of wine, since we hadn't seen him & Sharon since before Christmas so there was a slight backlog of gifts.

12x12: March

Jeff & I went to the 500th beer list party at the Alibi Room. We went on the second day so a lot of the special casks and taps they'd opened on the previous night had already sold out, but there was still a veritable book of beers to choose from.

Someone brought a piñata...

One must presume this error is on purpose.

First time I noticed the creepy stuffed owl thing behind the bar.

Someone brushed past me as I was taking this, and in the low light, it was enough to make it turn out like this, apparently.

COOL STORY TIME: A grey cat kept coming around our yard for a few days looking skinny and sad and wanting to come inside, so we fed him and Tamara set up a box so he would have someplace to sleep. I figured before calling a shelter I'd look on craigslist for lost pets, and found one that fit the description in our neighbourhood. He was an indoor cat who'd escaped almost two weeks before — no wonder he was so skinny! I emailed her and she came over right away to pick him up. She cried with happiness and asked if she could give me a hug. A few days later I found this pot of yellow roses on the front stoop from her. Such a sweet gesture; I was just happy to help someone get their lost pet home. I've since planted them in the front yard, hoping they get some roots and turn into a bush. (The pink daisies are from a wedding Sarah went to.)

A neat thing about making stout cake is you get to drink the leftover stout.

I trimmed this and did some weeding; it's out of control again now though.

13/52

Ran into someone I'd met at the last cookoff at the pub, ended up staying for four hours talking with him and his friend over beers. Weeded the garden. Made cupcakes. Ate waffles and went to the movies with Jeff on a rare Sunday off together, then had beers at Portland Craft while talking about the movie (12 Years a Slave).

12/52

A stray cat was coming around our yard for a few days; he was really skinny and sad looking so Tamara gave him some food. Before calling a shelter I decided to check craigslist for lost cats in the area and found one that fit the description. He was 17 years old and escaped from a house about a block away and had been gone for 12 days! His owner had pretty much lost home, so when she came to pick him up she was so happy she cried and hugged me. It felt amazing to be able to help someone get their lost pet back!

Other things: coconut cookoff, watching 90s movies, spring equinox, tattoo work, meeting new friends, hockey sadness/rage, culling and donating awful cookbooks in our collection.