Fall.

This past week has been gorgeous, with the exception of a rainy day. It's warm enough not to require a jacket in the afternoons, but it's not so warm that you're sweating buckets. Perfect.

And the colours are amazing. It makes me so happy to look out my picture windows to see my neighbour's tree across the street. I can't remember the specifics, but I do believe it's over 100 years old.

I started the day biking over to my physio appointment. After getting rear-ended by a tow truck last year my back has been giving me issues. We got it under control for quite a while with physio last year. However, after a summer of sitting and reading/writing for the thesis, the back pain has returned.

People always say biking is so dangerous. Isn't it ironic that you can basically ask anybody and they have either personally been involved in a motor vehicle collision or else they know somebody who has? Being in a car collision is so ubiquitous, I wonder why people don't make the same degree of fuss over the safety of cars.

Funny, since we were rear-ended in my little mazda sedan with a four month-old Dexter in the back seat. By a tow truck! When people see me riding a bike they often ask about whether it's scary and how it doesn't seem safe. But get smashed to the point where your car is a total write-off? With a baby in the back? Oh yeah, that happens all the time! Oh well.

Seems kind of ridiculous to me.

So yeah, my back hurts!

In other news, I biked to Southgate after physio to run some errands. I realized that I had not eaten breakfast yet so I treated myself to a cinnamon bun.

Fall means time to wear blouses. They make me feel like such a lady.

In this season even my gutters look pretty.

It seems as though good weather cures all. It could be the busiest time with back pain and you know what? With the fabulous weather it's still easy to smile throughout it all.

:)

Birthdays.

I celebrated two birthdays with friends today, one for Lisa and the other for Dan! I ended the evening riding home in new all-purpose pumps and thick, opaque leggings, but the day began with Lisa's birthday lunch at Holt's Café.

I love that this lunch space is out-of-the-way. It's not a feeding frenzy. No lines. Just good light and a simple setting. I also like that the wall of windows looks onto my old hair salon across the way (I've since then changed places since my girl moved to Saskatchewan).

Happy Birthday, Lisa!

I liked her birthday cardigan/belt combo.

We had lemonade that was flavoured with rosemary and lavender.

Lunch special.

Panini special.

Then after work Don and I biked the scenic route to dinner at Culina. I haven't been here in ages and I really miss it. Dinner was very very delicious.

Leanne wore houndstooth with really great earrings.

Decor.

Wine.

Birthday boy, Dan.

Me.

Nielsen's hands and his dinner.

Leanne made cupcakes for dessert. Carrot cake with yum-yum frosting. I ate two.

I'm back to wearing an old favourite shoulder bag. It's too wide to fit in my basket so I clamp it down on my rear rack.

So, the utilitarian pumps. Our winters are SO BRUTAL here. The snow is just ridiculous and then there's the sand too. Beautiful shoes really get abused. Many of my pretty shoes are non-snow only or else I bring them and change into them when I get to my destination. These pumps I found are great because they're really grippy on the bottom and they're not precious. Synthetic leather? In this case? Yes, please. And the heel is robust too. No snapping off or wobbling around when trekking through snow.

And leggings. Man, I'm sort of eating my own words here, but allow me to provide some context. I think when skinny jeans first came out there was an onslaught of inappropriate body types donning the trend. It just comes down to fit. Regardless the trend, if it doesn't fit, it's not going to look good.

Now most of the legging no-nos that I have seen are when the leggings are more like pyjama or underwear type leggings. One of the main distinctions here is whether the leggings are opaque. Particularly when they're stretched across somebody's bum. If you can see flesh peaking through? Um... those aren't pants.

So I found this pair that is super thick, and more comfortable than jeans. I am willing to concede that these pant-style leggings are acceptable to wear on their own but I will still exercise caution when pairing them with tops. Coordinates will have to be tunic-length. I'm not kidding myself. I have a shapely booty and thighs to match so one must wear such things with caution.

Honestly, one of the most convenient things about thick leggings is that they're wonderful to wear while riding bikes. Warm, no catching on bike-parts, and very stretchy. When it snows I am going to love easily tucking theses into my various boots.

So, leggings. They exist in a fashion grey area for me. I am now venturing into uncharted territory and will tread and ride, carefully.

Volunteer Appreciation.

The weekend has been an itinerary of work and play. Campaign stuff. Dexter fun. Some non-obligatory relaxing on Saturday night (these evenings are in very short supply). And volunteer appreciation!

The last campaign we used our Malmo bungalow as a mustering point and headquarters. It was conveniently located and there was plenty of space so it worked out quite well. By the end of the campaign I had become accustomed to having the house littered with friends and volunteers after a day of door knocking and flyering. I remember getting up early before teaching on weekends to make breakfast casserole for people to snack on and coming home to my duties as barista. It was really fun to see friendly faces all the time.

Now that I work from home and we have the baby, it's just not as feasible to use the Belgravia bungalow the same way we did the Malmo one. As a result the bungalow acts more as a sanctuary this time around. The downside to this is not seeing the volunteers as often.

So we hosted a volunteer appreciation event! Just some beers and snacks at the Brewsters in Century Park. We picked the location because of its accessibility via train and it was across the street from where Don was door knocking this afternoon. Dan, Leanne, and I biked to the station. Then locked up and took the train.

Here are some volunteer name tags that we use when our people are out and about.

Fruit beers seemed to be a favourite tonight.

Leanne coordinates our volunteers and had the opportunity to put a lot of names to faces.

And there were some regular members of my crew hanging around.

Lisa's name tag dubbed her, "Webmistress".

Dollansky!

Leanne signs people up for our epic flyering and door knocking endeavours in the next three weeks.

Chit-chatting over brew.

Sable, both super sister and volunteer extraordinaire. You don't even want to imagine the hours this girl banked in 2007 when we first ran.

Tables.

Campaign wife.

Sunset.

Snacks.

Chris, Jason, Leisha.

The corner where our tables were reserved had this arcade game, "Big Buck".

Chris was (surprisingly) appallingly good at it.

His win was on behalf of team Iveson.

Don looks on proudly. It takes a great effort from a lot of people to give a campaign its heart. Fatigue, personalities, and mountains of work aside... the campaign only works because of our volunteers.

What a great cap to the weekend. Kicking back with our fine people and taking a little time to appreciate each other over a drink. Good times don't have to be complicated. And they're often one bike or train ride away.

Bike a Little.

Things are pretty mundane here. Busy, but mundane.

Don rode the foldy to meet me at physio today. Then we threw the bike in the car and went to pick up little D.

We don't have the fanciest foldy, but for our purposes (guest bike, one-way trips, super portability), the Dahon Curve has been very good to us. I wouldn't ride it across the country or anything, but I'd still consider taking it on vacation.

Little D is being cared for by a host of family and friends over this campaign period while I'm teaching. Don's usual child-care is on hiatus since pretty much every waking moment is spent either doing the day job, knocking on doors, or other campaign-related things. I won't bore you with more lists.

So after we dropped Dexter off at an auntie's for babysitting we swung by elm briefly, to stuff some sustenance into our hyper-drive bodies.

Nate and Sarah at elm make such delicious coffees.

And sammies. We also picked up some beans since we're guzzling espresso at the bungalow.

Even though we're super busy, it doesn't mean bikes and the train disappear for our little family. Luckily the train takes Don all the way up and down the ward he is running in so he's been doing the train/bike combo regularly.

I've actually been quite homebound lately. Work is here. Campaign meets here. I'M here.

I suppose making little to no trips at all is one of way of being mindful of motor vehicle emissions?

Dexter. Teach. Campaign. Eat. Sometimes sleep.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Nomination Day (b&w)

Forgive me for the recent lack of pretty dresses and bikes. Campaign life is all-consuming. That means canceling my drinks after work and replacing them with campaign meetings. Sad, but necessary and temporary.

In lieu of bikey goodness I thought I'd share nomination day in black and white.

Our team members all accidentally showed up looking ready to work on Wall Street.




The (little) man of the hour.




Dan and Dave Cournoyer.



Raffaella was there in an official capacity, taking photos for the city.



Don waiting for something.




More news crews.



Baby and mom.




Team Iveson.



Okay, enough blogging. Need to go talk more campaign!