This:




plus this:



equals my corner of happiness:



It's the only part of our apartment that is finished. Everything else remains a work in progress.

The tutorial for the brilliant shoe rack can be found here.

I started volunteering at the UBC Farm today. And, oh my goodness, I am so pooped after working just 2.5 hours. I spent a gorgeous late summer afternoon picking beans. LOTS of beans. My fingers already have callouses on them. My respect for farm workers has quadrupled now that I know how much physical labor goes into harvesting. I will no longer look at a piece of fruit or vegetable the same way again.

It's been about a week since we moved into our new apartment, and one thing that's definitely changed is that we eat a LOT more kimchi than we used to. I've been cooking Korean food nearly every day because it's the easiest and fastest meal to make. And I discovered that eating spicy Korean soup alleviates my allergy symptoms. Hoorah! And the Dude actually enjoys all the stinky, spicy food I've been making, which is a big relief to me. It's another indicator that I married the right person :-) It takes a special type of non-Korean to enjoy Korean cuisine, especially the kind I make.