(p)ants!

so I came home last week and tried the sweater on Mike... it fits - barely. Blocking the sleeves made them long enough, but then Mike thought the body was a bit short for his liking. So I re-blocked, and stretched the body, but of course the added length meant for a reduction in the width, so now the sweater looks a little funny on him. ETA: Here's Mikey in his too-small sweater, looking very much like its Saturday morning, and he still hasn't had his morning coffee... ignore the white letters showing through on his chest: they're on the t-shirt he's wearing underneath and I guess the flash made them shine through...
SO, its off to the frog pond for that one, and then I'll knit it again after I measure, re-measure, and then triple measure every dimension of Mike that might affect how the sweater will fit him. I won't be back in Canada till August, so this time the numbers better be right! (btw, I did consider steeking each side of the sweater and adding in a panel at either side of the body, but I think that would be more work than just re-doing the sweater, especially because I can re-use the sleeves, which means I just need to make a new body and yoke...)

In some ways, the too-small jumper wasn't that big of a disaster, since sweater-weather has quickly vanished from Ottawa. This past weekend, the temperatures went double-digit - we've had the windows open all weekend (the new-since December flat has new, sans-storm window windows - YAY!), even at night! Skiing (downhill or cross-country) would've been amazing, but with Mike's cracked collarbone, we had to be a little less energetic... what's left? Bring on the snowshoes!
We went up to Gatineau Park, our usual fall-back location for a day in the woods. (culture-shock note: see that big flat expanse of white, just past the cars? yeah, that's a lake. there was a lot of snow here this winter!) The weather was fabulous, so all our warm layers were qiuckly rendered pointless. The long-sleeve I'm sporting in this photo is the same lightweight, quick-dry one that I wear over my bathing suit when we're out canoeing in the summers!
Our post-brunch excursion meant that we only had a couple of hours for snowshoeing. But that didn't stop us from throwing ourselves up the side of a (mini-)mountain. Along the way, we passed numerous creeks that were full with the spring melt.Here's part of the view from the top, looking sort of south-east toward Hull and the east side of Ottawa.

(finally, a photo of the two of us that's actually presentable!)

With all of this fabulous weather, we decided that it was time to kick off the spring season properly - and what better way than with fresh steaks on the barbeque! :)
Our big BBQ from the other house got left behind in the move, but this new porch-sized one is much better for our new place anyway. (funny thing, when I first met Mike, this black & decker workmate table was being used in his kitchen as a microwave stand, and now its our BBQ stand. I think I have yet to see it actually used as shop/wood/garage work stand!)

and here's our beloved chef, looking oh-so-suave in his cook's finery. :)
As for the ants factor of today's post title, that's thanks to the little crawly bastards that have taken advantage of the spring weather to come out of hiding and invade my house. And I'm not talking about those teeny little "I'm only here for the food, and my access route is easy to track down and eradicate" type either. ETA: See!?!
No, these are the big, ugly, looks like a spider when I don't have my glasses on and only see it quickly, "I'm gonna climb all over your house and into your bedroom and up your laptop cord even while its sitting on your lap to freak you out" kind of carpenter ant. EWWWW! I think we may have to call the landlord so he can make sure our floors and walls aren't being chewed to pieces. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go make sure my stash is safely sealed up in plastic boxes!