abstract random

• I'm in! RT @infinitesummer: Autumn Leaves? Who's up for Mark Z. Danielewski's "House of Leaves" in September/October of 2010? #infsum #

• Bill Murray! http://bit.ly/dnW8s5 #

One of the many things we loved about Paris was the butter. Specifically, Échiré butter. It’s like the champagne of butter, in that to be called Échiré it has to come from a certain area in France because the local soil is geologically distinct from surrounding areas. It’s cultured, contains 84% butterfat, and is produced mostly by hand. No wonder the French keep 85% of the production for themselves.

After eating it, Canadian butter has forever been ruined for us. And, of course, we couldn’t find a place that sells Échiré here. But A didn’t give up, he had a meeting in Montreal yesterday and figured there must be a place in Montreal where he could find some.

A little googling (and a drive to the market from a fellow foodie coworker, who was also recently in France and also going through French butter withdrawal) was all it took—A came home, adorable and victorious, with a little basket of butter in his bag and a Parisian baguette tucked under his arm. We have since had it with dinner, breakfast, and lunch. I don’t want to even think about my cholesterol level right now but man, is it ever worth it.

• RT @founddesignca: Up to 50% off everything at Founddesign.ca 1192 Bank Street – Ottawa's finest mid century modern shop. #
• I can't begin to tell you how much I love this track. Crocodiles – Groove Is In the Heart/California Girls: http://bit.ly/cHuep9 #

• You must must must go see Exit Through the Gift Shop at the Bytowne this week. Brilliant. http://bit.ly/doYidj #

Jellyfish – (song is Come Back When You Can by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

• "In the middle of tomorrow, a great ribbed ghost has emerged from a distant yesterday." http://nyti.ms/cqI1H6 #

• Thai beef salad

• Chicken tostada salad

• 101 fast recipes for grilling

• Caramelized butter rice krispies treats

• Blueberry pudding cake

• Raspberry buttermilk cake

• Bystanders overestimate seriousness of injuries in "zombie" car crash: http://bit.ly/dv5DnM #

I’m terrible with math so it’s no surprise I completely miscalculated when we’ll be getting our kitten. I was thinking it would be late September/early October but no, it’s late August. Oops. I’m going to have to kitten-proof our apartment sooner than I thought. But still: yay! I’ve already started bookmarking reasonably priced non-hideous cat furniture, like this:

And this:

And this:

• Call me cynical but I'm not unconvinced that this whole Russian spy business isn't just some sort of viral marketing for Salt. #

• I'm so happy: the World Exchange whales are back! Meet me under the belugas! #

• Excellent blog post by @cmkl: Diversity of tactics = rubbish http://bit.ly/b2cEfI #
• Who's up for some gelato this evening? #

• More (but very different) photos from Paris: http://bit.ly/9VVvNi #

While in Paris I became obsessed with/inspired by all the layers you could see beneath peeling paint and especially beneath torn up ads in metro stations. One day about midway through our trip we happened upon a metro station that was once covered by a huge billboard from end to end, floor to ceiling and was now torn literally to shreds.

It was amazing, I’m sure my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw it. We were in a hurry to get somewhere that day so we couldn’t stop but we made a point of going back the next day and A very patiently waited while I ran up and down the platform taking photos. We happened to be going by again a couple of days later and it had all been pasted over with a new billboard so I’m incredibly happy we didn’t wait too long to go back and get these photos.

You can watch the slide show below or click here to get a bigger, better view on Flickr.

• Turning my attention to the Tour de France now that I'm not going to win my office World Cup pool. Bring on the crashes & doping scandals! #

So cute.

AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

• Fernando Torres – his blond highlights = no mojo. Fernando: get thee to a salon. Or, grow some fancy footballer sideburns. #

A few things we’ve enjoyed watching recently:

• Hyperdrive: A quirky, funny sort of sci-fi BBC series starring Nick Frost (you know, the guy who’s not Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz).
• Speaking of quirky, funny sci-fi, if you haven’t already seen it, do yourself a favour and rent Gentlemen Broncos.
• And I don’t know why it took us so long to get around to watching Fantastic Mr. Fox, but we finally did and loved it.

• An open letter to the person in charge of punctuation: http://bit.ly/aQAEZq (via @mcsweeneysbooks) #