Ohhooo my.

If it were December, we'd be having a very white Christmas. Take a look.

The clouds must have been listening when I shouted for snow because 5 or 10 minutes later I peeked out and snow was coming down! Oh, no, NOW it's coming down, with flakes the size of Texas! The winds have calmed down now but OH MY GOD it's beautiful!

My digital camera only does up to 400 speed so I had to take movies.

Oh, and it's STICKING. :-D

Freeze the snow with Flash. Yes, I went outside!

What settings got this, I don't know! But you can see how fast it was coming down.

A very excited Erika!

My first snowflake of the season. I put it up as soon as I saw it snowing!

Movies:

1 (2.85mb)
2 (4.11mb) sorry, not the best camerawoman ;)
3 (1.34mb)
4 (3.55mb)
5 (1.63mb)
AVI format opens in QuickTime.

Man, oh, man. I thought the streetlamp outside wasn't going to reveal much, but that was when we had tiny little sparse flakes. I can't believe this! Wow!

I wish I had a better view. I keep having to stand up to get the best view out the window (I'm in a basement), so I'm not going to get any work done! Oh well! It's gorgeous outside. Time for a walk?

Ooh, actually, I CAN watch it seated, through my window if I look up because the flakes are so big. I think the lights upstairs are illuminating them somewhat. Yay!

*Update 9:20 PM: The snow has made it so bright that it seems more like 4:00. I can see the snow quite well from where I'm sitting now. We have at least an inch on the ground. Nothing like a snowfall to get you in a merry mood!

You know, it's funny. When I go to the produce market and come back with two bags of goods instead of one (proudly knowing I spent less than $15, by the way), it's usually because I've spotted several items that I've just got to have, whether they were on my list or not. When I'm there, I pick up an item because I know it tastes — or should taste — really good. Fresh corn on the cob, peaches, plums, strawberries, asparagus. Just gotta have 'em. It makes me salivate, and I run around that place doing my usual half-drool "hhhhh" and eagerly bagging things... unless I'm not sure. If I doubt at all the quality, especially if I've had bad experiences before (no more kiwis, nuh-uh), then I'll take 2 or 3 and see how it goes. I got 3 mandarin oranges a week or two ago, and they turned out tasty, so I got some more. (Hand-chosen 69c/lb by the way. Don't be fooled by inexpensive-looking boxes!) I've had bad peaches that tasted like nail polish remover, and terribly unripe plums whose delicious home-grown cousins came from my parents' tree.

A dreary day for a dried corn stalk at the market

I gingerly bought two red plums today that were from California. Yes, imported. Shame on me!

I buy these fruits because I like how they taste and I enjoy them. So when I bite into a plum, or any fruit, and am greeted sourly with a hard, pithy, tasteless, dry fruit, I am not impressed, California.

And let me say that your grapes lasted 1/10th as long as my local ones, which started becoming raisins in my fridge eventually (after a month or more?), and still tasted as delicious as the first day, when yours would have been mouldy and doomed to the trash (or compost) long before.

Oh sure, your grapes tasted fine
But I think you'd better stick to wine.
I'm not paying another dime:
You've shipped your grapes too far this time.

That said, I think Cal-i-forn-i-a will be the first one to change!

Wednesday afternoon, we got up rather late. I don't know why, but I've been sleeping 10 - 12 hours/night, and I'll be feeling it later when I start having to sleep 4 hours/night to get my grad project done. At any rate, we didn't get up until 1pm on Wednesday. I went to the bathroom, and shortly thereafter the lights dimmed a bit. Once, twice... off... then on... then off, and they would not come on again until 5:00 the next morning. It was an exciting day. My guilt for having slept in pretty much disappeared when I realised that a) there was nothing I could do about it now, and b) had I actually gotten up when I was supposed to, I might have lost tons of work by the computer shutting down. So I consider myself lucky.

Our living room and fish tanks decked out with candles.
Photo taken by my boyfriend.

It's been raining sideways in the Lower Mainland. That day we left before it got dark, with the intent of driving as far as we needed to in order to find a place with power. It was an exciting prospect, but I suggested we see if our local commercial area had power, and it did. After all, the roads were a mess with long lines of traffic and tree bits all over the place. We found a dollar store and somehow managed to spend $18! With extra candles and more matches, we went to dinner at Ricky's around 4:30. Fortunately for us, too. Everyone started piling in in greater numbers after 5:00, to that bright oasis in the darkness. It continued to rain, and even when the rain died down, the wind continued to smack into the city. Over 200,000 homes were without power. We lost ours for 16 hours, and I think other neighbourhoods fared worse.

I had some observations recently regarding tomato choices, prices, and quality. And trust me, the $1.00/lb+ tomatoes are hardly better than the $0.99/lb ones that used to be over $1. They pretty much all taste like... well... really old, unripe tomatoes. They look ripe, but don't be fooled. That's why my project was called Tomatoes don't grow on trees. You might think they do, but when it comes to non-organic tomatoes, more likely than not, they're picked green and then gassed to turn red — which is not the same as ripening. BC Hot House, however, says on their website:

All BC Hot House produce is hand picked when the timing is perfect-which means the fruit has been given the opportunity to vine-ripen naturally. Careful hand picking helps prevent bruising.

But why do some pictures such as the one on this page show unripe tomatoes?

An article in today's Province talks about the new giant Wal-Mart stores to open in Canada, up to 17 of them. I am positive that Vancouver City would strongly oppose opening one here.

I found this part interesting.

''Our goal is to become the one-stop shop for customers,'' said Mario Pilozzi, chief executive of Wal-Mart Canada, gesturing at palettes of impeccable, unbruised produce.

''You see how fresh that is today? We are going to maintain that freshness in these stores.''

Tomato season is over in the city and, it seems, for my project title.

"Tomatoes don't grow on trees: The decline of the quality of food in North America" (phew, *rests tongue a moment*) is not going to be the title anymore.

Instead, it will be ............ ? Sorry, I don't know yet. I've mulled over a few and so far nothing is doing the job of a) communicating what it's about, b) offering a web-searchable title, c) being emotional enough instead of scholastic.

My friend pointed out the name of this one as being a good example. That's good.

Thirteen cent tomato.

HA...

I think part of the reason is my influence from books. The End of Food. The Omnivore's Dilemma. The Hundred-Year Lie. Food Politics. The Crazy Makers. Food Fight. Actually, the last two are closer to what I'm supposed to be getting at. Someone suggested Food Fight in class, and I said no, that's already a book! (By Brownell & Horgen.) And, ah crud, they're all due back on Tuesday! (except 100-year lie and Omnivore's because I bought them.)

I'm not going to change the address of the site/blog because moving everything over and changing image URLs etc. is just not worth the time right now. The good news is, the navigation is now cross-browser compatible, after the resolution of a very simple glitch. Yay! (Thanks, Alex!)

I don't know where it will head from its current state, but if you happen across it and it looks like utter chaos, you can bet I'm in the middle of something. However, if you'd like to leave a comment or offer some guest authoring, I would be greatly grateful. You know where to go!