Sometimes life isn't glamorous, David

Song of the Day: The Cuckoo, Gretchen Lohse

London Stuff: A filmmaking duo asked strangers quite intimate questions...while they were running. Watch the eleven minute spot here. Read about it here. And, if you're interested in a stroll through the past, here are some Underground pictures from the '50s and '60s. 

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I was complaining to my friend, Nancy, earlier today, saying that this week's blog post wouldn't have anything new or exciting and that it feels like I have the same five photographs from the past three weeks. Her response: Life isn't always full of awesome day trips, amazing shows, and fabulous food. Sometimes life isn't glamorous, David. Some of us just want to see y'all's faces. 

Fair enough. 

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The big news of the week isn't ours, per se. Whitney, McKenzie's sister, got engaged! 

Congratulations, Whitney and Michael! 

Kenz has already begun her maid of honor duties, shopping for absurdly overpriced bridal magazines here in London. Apparently that's fun. 

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Just over three months ago, during Friendsgiving, our coatrack broke because it's unreasonable to expect that an Ikea coatrack can withstand eighteen winter coats. We'd resigned ourselves to hanging jackets over the mezzanine or simply folding them by the door. Kenz eventually grew tired of that reality and purchased a new one. That was January. She finally put it together this week. 

To be fair, it may have taken her three months to do so, but I would've never gotten around to doing it. 

Just in time for spring!

This past weekend, I registered for an Olympic Weightlifting competition on a lark. At the end of the day, it's an absurd endeavor, but I succumbed to the pressure of some of my gym friends. I figured it was all well and good until I had to register for a specific weight class. Maybe it was the remnants of the wrestler in me, maybe it was an act of delusion - either way, I registered for the weight class below where I am right now. I came home that Sunday afternoon to tell Kenz how much weight I'd have to lose in the next four weeks.

What did she do? She laughed, ate chocolate, and cooked pancakes.

She laughed even harder when I showed her the singlet I'll have to wear (and, no, I don't imagine any photos of that will make it to the blog).

Chocolate eyes!

Look at the size of those pancakes!

And homemade, too!  

Later that evening, our building's fire alarm went off. By the time I'd lost the "who's gonna go investigate" debate with my wife, there were about seven people downstairs trying to figure out how to stop it. It took us about fifteen minutes to disable the alarm. Some jackleg had thrown the alarm and simply walked away. Happy Sunday night to you, too, buddy.

Lots of folks in pajamas, muttering under their breath.

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Kenz has been receiving glimpses of validation on her work over the past few days. There'll be more on that in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I'll share two quick tidbits:

First off, she got a B+ on her thesis. High fives were exchanged.

One of her lecturers essentially retired from creating art of his own, saying that he doesn't really "believe" in it any more, claiming that it's often a "waste of time." He now focuses on art criticism and lecturing at her university.

Last week, he pulled Kenz aside before he left for the day. He asked her to talk to him about one of her current projects saying, I really love it. It's quite interesting. She floated home that day.

She's still working on various iterations of braiding rope, prepping for the chair...

...which forces her out of the (cramped) studio.

She has also begun making some bronze casts.

Again, it's best to email her for explanations...

She was in such a good mood when she came home the other day that she opted to help me unpack and freeze my most recent shipment of meatstuffs.

This is the worst, David.

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The first part of this week reminded me that spring is on its way. I saw few blossoms emerging in Burgess Park on Monday. The sun has made an appearance on Tuesday. I shed my winter coat for a lighter layer on Wednesday. By Thursday, I was even considering a short sleeved t-shirt.

And then I left the house this morning, light layers, baseball cap instead of toboggan, and was blasted with the cold reality that it's still winter. Even though I've been home for the past three hours, my fingers are still cold. As I mentioned in the first post back in January: I'm okay with winter until this time of year - the thrill is gone. It's time for spring.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!