Why I Don't Live in a Desert

This just happened yesterday. I thought these things only happened in the movies or books like Dune.

The Phoenix Haboob of July 5th, 2011 from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

My Favorite Apartment Ever!

If I could find a place like this it would be amazing.
Too bad no one in North America can grasp the concept of being small, efficient, sustainable, clean, simple, modern etc. All of those concepts are hard to find in North American residences.

One of the best parts is that there is no yard to take care of. Also, the view is amazing and the lack of an elevator makes for some seriously good exercise.

Water to Steam in -30deg

So we replicated that youtube video that has been going around the internet for the last little while of those people in Yellowknife. Thanks to some insanely cold weather in Ottawa we had the privilege of experiencing it first hand.Thanks for the idea Heidi.

20 Interesting Apartments

Here is a great list of cool/strange/wierd apartments of the world. Just as a side note can you guess which album features these neat honeycomb buildings on the cover?

3rd Annual Enjoyment Awards

It is the new year and although it started more than a month ago I figure that I should continue my annual tradition which was started in 2007 and miraculously also happened for 2008. So this is my most enjoyed random stuff of 2009.
Once again, I am not confining my list to music and it is not necessarily only from this year. My list is all about the stuff I got the most enjoyment out of in 2009.
Anyways, here it is:

My most enjoyed artist of 2009 was:
I gotta say Bon Iver. His album came highly recommended to me and I definitely did not regret spending the money on that one.

Some runners up were Sufjan Stevens (of course - after seeing him live), Joel Plaskett and Andrew Bird.

My most enjoyed album of 2009 was:
It is a 3-way tie between 'Noble Beast' by Andrew Bird, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' by Bon Iver and Joel Plaskett's album 'Three'.

Some runners up:
Jenn Grant - 'Echoes'
Great Lake Swimmers - 'Lost Channels'
M. Ward - 'Transistor Radio' and 'Post-War'
The Welcome Wagon - 'Welcome to the Welcome Wagon'

My most enjoyed compilation album of 2009 was:
'Dark Was the Night' which features Sufjan, Iron & Wine, Bon Iver, My Brightest Diamond and Canadians Feist, Arcade Fire and Buck 65 (among many others). It was put together mostly by the guys from The National as an AIDS benefit album. If there is one indie album you should buy this year it is this one because it gives you a great slice of the sounds and bands who are really doing cool stuff right now.

My most enjoyed song of 2009 was:
I always find this one so tough because it bounces around so much. I have to make a list:
'In the Blue Moonlight' - Joel Plaskett
'Tough City' - Oh Susanna!
'You'll Go Far' - Jenn Grant
'White Winter Hymnal' - Fleet Foxes
'Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa' - Vampire Weekend
and so many more.....

My most enjoyed live performance of 2009 was:
Sooooooo many to choose from! Joel Plaskett, Jenn Grant, Sufjan Stevens. Nope I can't really choose between those three.
The spring was a good time for concerts in Ottawa.

My most enjoyed Local Band (Greater Ottawa Area) of 2009 was:
I guess I haven't got into to many local bands this year but as far as Canadian Indie acts go I'd have to pick Octoberman and Dan Mangan - and both have strong ties to the west coast.

My most enjoyed music venue of 2009 was:
It's a tough choice between the First Baptist Church downtown and the Black Sheep Inn out in Wakefield. I'm going to the Church again in a few weeks to see Basia Bulat so maybe that will make up my mind.

My most enjoyed quote of 2009 was:
"I've downloaded hundreds of records....why would I care someone downloads ours? That is such a petty thing to care about. I mean, how much money does one person need?"- Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes when asked when asked whether he minded if people 'stole' his albums.

My most enjoyed beer of 2009 was:
Well I have enjoyed Beau's Lug Tread several times this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Here is a picture of me enjoying said beer!

My most enjoyed TV show of 2009 was:
Firefly. I know it was made several years ago but I didn't get to watch it until this year. I absolutely love it. Don't think you have to be a sci-fi nerd to watch it either.

Also, I can't remember if I watched Battlstar Galactica this year or last year. It should be a close tie.

My most enjoyed movie of 2009 was:
Maybe the Where the Wild Things Are adaptation. It was pretty cool.

Maybe Serenity, because the finale to that Firefly series sure is better after you watch the series.

My most enjoyed proud uncle moment was:

When my neice, Elyssa, got over her fear of the Vespa (if even for an afternoon) at the Nepean Sailing Club!

My most enjoyed technology of 2009 was:
The continuing world domination by Google which just so happens to be extremely convenient for me since I use almost all their products.

Or maybe the news that foreign owned cellphone companies are coming to Canada. Hopefully I can get the Google Nexus One!!!!

My most enjoyed purchase of 2009:
The new kitchen even though it isn't done yet.

My most enjoyed city of 2009 was:
Kingston, ON Canada - Lots of history, tons of awesome restaurants, small enough to walk around, big enough to spend money on the downtown. Yes I was impressed. Don't judge it by the view you get from the 401.

I have to say that Memphis could have won this. Maybe if I spent more time there and got a better feel for the city.
The other close second had to be Boston. That is definitely a city I could live in (if I could afford it) if not drive in. The roads are insane - almost as bad (read: awesome) as an old European city - but there is lots of beautiful coastal spots and some fantastic architecture. Kingston just won because I really felt like I understood the city after staying there. Boston would take a little longer - must go back!

My most enjoyed architecture of 2009:

It has got to be MIT in Cambridge by Canadian Frank Gehry.

My most enjoyed book of 2009:

It was probably 'Brave New World' by Auldous Huxley which we read for our book club. I have read it before but getting to discuss it was just fantastic.

Other than that I'd have to say 'Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss which is a remarkably well written fantasy story that I picked up on a whim on my way home from Memphis. I say remarkable because usually fantasy books are not all that well written.

Either way this year promises to be great for reading thanks to the Jubilee Book Club I joined.

My most enjoyed Jubilee Church event of 2009:

Probably the Soup'n'Socks initiative that we have going on right now. We run around downtown handing out free soup and socks to anyone who needs it (especially homeless people).

My most enjoyed news item of 2009:

Climategate.

My most enjoyed sport of 2009:
Definitely snowboarding, I don’t have any other regular sports.

Most enjoyed website of 2009:
Definitely xkcd but Neatorama is pretty close. Yup, I'm a geek.

And last but not least my most enjoyed person of 2009 was:
Irene - she wins it again!?! incredible!!!! I'm sensing a trend, is this rigged you think?

Kitchen: Phase 1 is Complete

So we will finally be back in our kitchen just as soon as I can wrangle up some muscle to help me move the appliances back into place.
Here are some pics of the renovation over the past several weeks.

The orginal floor. This turned out to be a rather hard job to remove.

The original Dinette area. Very useless space - too small for any real use.

The new pantry/desk unit. Still a couple cabinets left to install here.

New ceiling. Yes it is curved.

Original pantry.

Original cabinets.
New Cabinets and larger openings in the wall.

New cabinets, window, tap, flooring and ceiling.

Our Kitchen Renovation

For the past week our kitchen has been under construction.

If you want the play by play commentary (with pictures!) you can go to Irene's blog:

The beginning.

The destruction continues.

And finally construction begins.

On Saturday my Dad and I continued the construction of the openings and running ductwork and electrical wiring.

This week the plumbing and electrical has to be done along with the final floor prep.

Kitchen Faucets: Decision Time

So if you read Irene's blog you probably know that we are redoing our kitchen.

The latest decision we have to make is on the kitchen faucet and it has come down to these two choices.

The American Standard Arch:

It's cheaper and has a nice detail on the arch. Irene prefers this one (for those reasons). The side sprayer is made of plastic but it is a fairly decent fixture.

I prefer the Grohe Eurostyle:

I really like the minimalist style and the amazing engineering. There is no plastic on the outside of this fixture. It is a little more expensive though and that is the only thing holding me back.

What do you think?

Free Aerial Photography

A couple months ago Microsoft launched another attempt to take back from Google. Personally it is too little too late. At this point it is obvious that Google will be the most cutting edge company on the internet for the forseeable future.

However, one of their attempts is pretty cool. Bing tries to provide all the same services that Google provides but under Microsoft control. So of course they had to copy Google Maps but they did one better and added aerial photography to the mix. Yes, Google has Streetview which is cooler but it's only certain cities and not in Canada yet.

So firstly I had to check out what my house looks like. Hmmmm that's an old picture from before we did the patio and the garden and the cedar hedge. Yup, this is pretty much right after we bought the place.
How about my office. Hey I'm not at work yet. Looks like Simon and Brian are there though.
And Parliament Hill.
How about the ROM addition in Toronto.
And I really wanted to see how it works with a tall building so why not check out the CN Tower.
That was interestingly hard to find because of the size and when you rotate it is totally not in view anymore. Cool stuff.

Start exploring for yourself here.

My Poor Blogging

Sorry for the lack of insightful, informative and interesting blog posts that you may have become used to if you read other peoples blogs.
This blog has never really tried to be either of those things to anybody but myself. Either way the lack of blog posting is quite dismal and I take full blame for it. But I do plead insanity since there is tons going on right now. I am on too many committees to name for church, plus work is crazy right now and we are also trying to re-drywall much of our house before our taper moves to Holland.
So I am busy.

It is not an excuse just an explanation. Now go find an insightful, informative or interesting blog to read.

The Beams are GONE! aka Free Wood

Yes people, we are finally taking the plunge and starting the renovation of the main living space of our house. We have never painted it because the tape joints were so bad and we simply had to fix those first.I decided that the first step would be to remove the crazy 'beams'. They were definitely a talking point/conversation starter but you never quite knew what people thought of them. Some people tried to make compliments about them but you were always pretty sure that they were thinking the same thing we were: Why?
What had always held me back from ripping them out right away was the question of what they were covering. I wanted to do the whole room at once instead of having some glaring ripped up ceiling to look at for half a year. And my suspicions were correct. They were covering up some seriously mangled tape joints in the stipple ceiling. (Stippled ceilings, if you must know, are another one of the reasons I hate suburbs - more on that some other time.)
One was even glued on.And this the end result....Does anybody want some free wood? I'm serious, I'll be throwing it out but it is perfectly acceptable burning material for people who do that kind of thing.The next step: Scraping every bit of stipple off that ceiling. I sure hope it comes off as easy at the tape joints did.

Yes it is very cold today.
This was our thermometer when I woke up this morning.
It's almost too cold for snowboarding.

Vespa Ride in My Neighborhood

I put together a video of myself riding around in my neighborhood on my new Vespa S150. During the ride I surpassed 1000 kms. Time for it's first service.

And yes it is quite fun.

Freestyling House Model

I just whipped up a model of my house in SketchUp. I did it to try and visualize my front patio and then it just went from there. I also was to lazy to actually measure anything so it is probably off a bit.
I also wanted to model of my potential shed so I can sketch on it. Sheds are pretty tough to design because they often turn out pretty dorky looking. Its all about the scale. You can't really change the door size or the ceiling height which makes it hard. I plan to do faux board and batten finish so I can do things like make smaller battens and put them closer together. But we shall see. The patio is the first step. We are thinking of some type of rectangular pavers with some decent texture. If anybody has any advice...... I'll take it.

The Snow Wall to End All Snow Walls

This guy over on the east end of Ottawa in Orleans (we try not to go over there) has built this insane snow wall. I guess you have to do something with it. It definitely is the most efficient way of piling it but he is going to have snow in his front yard till July.
There are more pics of the wall here.
I wonder if Pink Floyd ever used snow.......

Snowstorm of March 2008

Last weekend we were hit with a monstrous snowstorm. I have seen blogs from people in Southern Ontario describing how much snow they got and showing pictures but c'mon guys. That was nothing. Ottawa really got dumped on. We are now 30cm from the all time record in 1971. Ottawa's record is over 400cm and Toronto's record is about 200cm. So yeah......quitcherwhinen already.
Anyway, I put together a short video of me trying to walk around my house in the snow. It was hilarious and Irene was trying so hard not to laugh while holding the camera.

The song in the video is the same one that I blogged about a week ago.

JSH Renovations

I added a link to my Dad's new website on my sidebar. He recently started contracting on his own again and apparently business is quite brisk.
My brother designed it and a friend of mine uploaded it.
You can check out some of his work in the photos section. I think it turned out pretty good overall. Its simple and concise. Just what you want in this sort of website.

A Busy Week...

I have been neglecting the ol' blog lately due to some hectic craziness as of late. I am sure all of my avid blog readers really care but I am going to explain why anyways. We have kind of stopped looking at houses because of our Europe trip. Plus we need more $$$ for a down payment I think. I am also thinking we should get pre-approved for a mortgage and maybe line up a mortgage broker. Really I am new to all this and everyone seems to have their own idea of what to do.
Speaking of the Europe trip, we have been getting prepped for leaving in 22 days! I have to get an international drivers license for renting a car in France. Hopefully I don't get in any accidents with crazy French drivers.
Two weekends ago we went down to Hamilton and saw Ben Folds play the Kool Haus in Toronto. That was an amazing show - he can seriously play a Steinway.Work has been really crazy lately too. One of our biggest projects is well on its way in Brockville. I have been getting to know the millwork very intimately lately. Oh well, busy=job security as far as I'm concerned.I also helped my dad measure up his front yard to do a site plan so he could sketch some ideas for reworking the driveway. Apparently there is too many cars in the family now. (Lawren bought a sweet Grand AM with confusing electronic controls)
Last weekend my father-in-law had his organ installed. It is one sweet instrument. I want to get a video of him playing up on youtube eventually.And of course, who could forget the playoffs. Its pretty cool being in Ottawa and seeing the city come alive as they duke it out with the Pens (they are up 3-nil in game 5 as I write this). A few people I know are even at the game. I thought about it but $80 for 3rd level seats was a little steep for me.
I am trying to save up some money for a Vespa after all. Hey I'm allowed to dream right?Last of all I have to confess that I learned something about myself on Monday. I am a sucker for a big bin of pillows. We were at The Bay after sushi night with Karin and Josh and I couldn't resist leaning back on a bin of huge pillows. The problem arose when it turned out they couldn't support my weight. I started sinking in and eventually would have drowned if my wife hadn't heard my calls for help. Needless to say we left rather quickly.
What can I say - Good Times in Ottawa.

Looking at houses

I haven't posted anything lately partly because I started looking at my facebook account and actually using it. That was a mistake because apparently it gets addictive fast. Luckily it died down after finding every person I have ever known.
Anyway, the other thing I was busy with was looking at houses with my wife. We had thought we had found the deal of the century. An older house that could use some updating but with an awesome location. Perfect for flipping. But upon closer examination the structural issues with the house and the mildly creepy, on its way up, neighborhood outweighed the price. The completely unfinished dirt basement was a little unnerving too. You had to go down this tiny trap door to get there and once you were there it felt like a world war 1 trench. I mean, usually these dirt basements are at least quasi-flat.
At least it was a good experience and we still want to buy in that area. But as much as I want to live in a chic part of town with all the hip shops and awesome atmosphere and markets just outside your door I really don't want to give up the view we have every single day.
You clearly will not find this view from a lowly house in the middle of the city. That'll be hard to lose.

Our Apartment

So we are officially renting our apartment now. It is a spacious multi-room dwelling normally used by royalty but for some reason we can afford it. No actually its quite small but perfect for the two of us. The kitchen is a decent size (see the pic with Irene in it)

The apartment also sports a dining / living area thats big enough to have a decent amount of people over. Living Rm with a View^

The master (sorry) only bedroom is hopefully big enough for our bed and all of Irene's clothes. We shall see about that.

The view is a decent sunset view of the Ottawa River and the Gatineau Hills in behind which can be quite nice. The only thing with the sunset is that the apartment can get really warm in the summer.

In the basement of the apartment there is an excercise room and two squash courts, laundry room and a pool table. I need a pool cue. There is also some storage space and a bike room. We also are paying a little extra (10 bucks/month) for indoor parking. All in all it will be exciting.

We are moving all of Irene's stuff up this weekend. Packing on Friday and unloading it all on Saturday morning. Hopefully we can start to get the place set up on Saturday too.

I will be living there till the wedding. Just think, little ol' Reuben has to be a bachelor for a few weeks. Should be interesting.

Thats it for now. You could probably check Irene's blog for a more emotional and in depth look at the apartment situation if you were so inclined.

^Irene in the Kitchen (no - not where she belongs)

The Bedroom>