Things that are mendelbrot #1:

Leap years... How fun!

Change of shift

New Change of Shift up at crzegrl.net.

All the best from the last two weeks of nurses in the blogosphere.

World press photo awards

This photo of Hungarian victims of a gay bashing won second place in the World Press Photo Awards. Here's the AP press line of the event. Interesting bit in the middle there...

July 7, 2007 BUDAPEST, Hungary:

Several hundred skinheads and right-wing activists threw rotten eggs and
smoke bombs at people participating in a gay rights parade in Hungary's capital
Saturday.Police detained several of the protesters and tried to disperse the
rest, some of whom threw beer bottles at police.


No injuries were reported.


Members of the Movement For A Better Hungary and the Hungarian National
Front said they were angry about two recent developments.On Thursday, Gabor
Szetey, a state secretary in the prime minister's office, announced he was gay
while the smaller party in the Socialist-led ruling coalition said it would seek
to legalize gay marriages.Some 2,000 people participated in Saturday's march,
which took place over several kilometers (miles), from Heroes' Square to the
foot of one of the bridges over the Danube River.

Thanks to Joe.My.God and his readers for the links & info.

Theme: Ice and Cold, Feb 12 of 12

Well, the 12th again, and that means one thing: Chad Darnell's 12 of 12 project with great pics from today from all over the place. Good good whole wheat fun. I know there're no themes this year, but I like them and well, ice and cold have been on my mind all day (as I sit here in a woolly sweater and toque typing and thinking about tea...) So, this is my bonus pic of the ice sculptures from the Winterlude winter festival here in town. (Even tho I thought it wouldn't happen last month, the canal is open for skating during the festival btw, but it was too cold tonight to get pix).

Here's my least favourite side effect of the cold: Raynaud's phenomenon. See how my finger tips are all white? They started purple, then went white & tingly, then eventually (~45 min) back to normal. In the spring and fall they bounce back to red hot & tingly. This wasn't too bad as it was only the pads rather than all the way down unbending fingers.

Would also suck to be waiting around in the -20C / -33 C windchill (-4F/ -27F) temps this morning. This is the view down the block of taxi drivers protesting in-car cameras. They filled the streets outside city hall & courthouse (the buildings in the background) and honked and refused passengers.

Very excited: New cutlery with one of the grotty old spoons in there for scale. Plastic handles on cutlery is really dumb unless you don't wash with hot water. All cracked and stained and ready for the garbage (or a give away if we can make them presentable/not a biohazard) to make way for the shiny, sleek new ones.
This is my blotter. All of these pics belong in a big collage that never got finished. All our cute friends and their cute kids.
This is the wall of family. These are things I like to look at when some blowhard makes the news with stuff like in this parody or this cartoon

This is the mountain of snow from my Dec 12 of 12 its still as tall, but as you can see in the next pic, about as big as a football field (take your pick).

This is the view from my cubicle. Notice the flag of the Syrian embassy. I'm sure they were thrilled to look across and see someone from a Govt. of Canada building taking photos of their embassy offices...

This is my cubicle. I need something for the walls. This is what I'm working on. Happy back to work Chad. We'll be glad to see some new shows (although also glad some Canadian shows got picked up... unless they get dropped again)

After work I went to the train station to pick up Leah. En route there was a very brave bicyclist at the corner of Colonel By Drive and Hawthorne near the Pretoria bridge. So, so windy at that spot and icy. The only thing is if you wiped out you might not feel anything from being numb from cold.

That's Leah in the blue jacket. She walked up to me having seen the camera and said "12 of 12?". I'm so predictable...

This is at the grocery store. I love how the promo for healthy blue label products runs across the display case. Leah's fave was the one with the dump trucks in the top left corner. I didn't have a fave because I don't like those icy rose decorations. I like the idea of a dump truck cake...

And from there it was home to have dinner, bundle up in woolly clothing and drink tea. Dinner is long gone, but the rest is ongoing.

Cheers and stay warm,

Jen