Summer 2019 - a.k.a. Catch Up for Kent

July 11, 2019

Okay, so you know about my New Zealand trip and my ongoing coffee obsession, but now that I am off G+ and Facebook, has my daily life stopped? Nope.

Work

The most straight forward part of my life is work. At least I feel that it has the fewest subheadings ;)

I continue to work part-time at the library. Mostly, I am based out of the JS Wood Branch, but I find myself doing story times or special projects all around Saskatoon’s nine public branches. Much of my time is spent doing preparation and training for some of our newer programming staff and the rest is working with the public as a facilitator for paint nights, story times, robotics interactions, etc...

I am currently working on a couple of special shows. One for the Remai Modern. I am doing a puppet show for them in September and the following week I am doing a workshop on shadow puppetry for teens. Another is for the Festival of Trees. The library will provide feature storytelling and puppetry at the end of the Boom Town Main Street. Lastly, I am working on a show to take place between Christmas and New Years. It will take place at three different branches over two days.

I still have some frustration with the slowness of getting things going during the libraries lengthy transition process, but it feels like things are starting to take off, so to speak.

Home

Garden

Beware. The video below is about 12-13 minutes. Make sure you have something to relax with while it plays, if you decide that you really want to see Wendy’s entire garden as of early June.

If you don’t want to watch the video, I understand and am providing a few photos below:

Renovations

We aren’t quite done, but here is what has happened in our kitchen.

So, Wendy has hated the oak since we moved in 17 years ago and much of the hardware (hinges in particular) were broken or failing. A few weeks back, we decided that it couldn’t wait one day more.

Wendy chose a “chalk paint” which adheres to old finishes nicely and still allows some of the grain to show through, although you can’t really see in these photos. We changed to black handles and hinges to help my espresso machine and grinder fit into the overall look better.

It looks way cleaner and brighter now. We still may add some tile and we have to paint the window frame.

Not sure how I convinced her, but to add some whimsy to the kitchen, I am adding a series of inner and outer chalk surfaces that we are customizing with chalk pens. Let the fun begin!

Family

Both of our kids are here working full time over the summer for SEDA. They are very lucky to have flexible hours and working locations. Nothing like my summer jobs selling burgers for MacDonalds. Not a lot of time for us to do things together. It’s an adjustment for sure as they enter adult life. A bit of arguing about what it means to be adults and just who gets to decide on the definitions. A work in progress.

Wendy is thriving at her new job at The Gwenna Moss Institute at the U of S. She is “killing it,” as they say.

Adventures

Vancouver

Wendy had a conference in Vancouver. I drove us there, tagged along and took photos! In addition to attending my first Apple Today event (where I leaned about a video technique called “jump cuts”)...