FINALLY
2005-07-31— Posted by: allegra
I finished the homily. Now all I have to do is deliver it without turning into a big puddle of tears.
guppa guppa guppa guppa
2005-07-31— Posted by: allegra
Okay, so I me making babbling noises. I experienced joy and also a family reunion story telling contest, in which my cousin Wyona was the undisputed champeen. She started off the family reminiscences with a story so Rabelaisian that my mandibles collapsed under the strain. Then there was a roomful of weird, low-key THWOKing as everybody else’s jaw hit the floor. I’d repeat it if I thought I had a snaeball’s chance of doing it justice.
Lessee, for my musical friends (and you KNOW who you are) Lexi pulled out that sweet black Nakamine she’s been abusing these odd few years, and she and I and cousin Laurel all sang together for the first time in front of a small crowd of adoring relatives. And WHAT did we sing? Uh, I’ll Fly Away. And then Peace Like a River. In three part harmony, at least some of the time, unrehearsed. It was like ballooning on acid with God.
Earlier in the day, Lexi told me she’d been in a corporate box for a Motley Crue concert (please insert umlaut, although it is up to you where yu insert it).
Now I really have to write that sermon. ‘Scuse me.
visiting
2005-07-30— Posted by: allegra
So yesterday morning got up, ate dry cereal for brekkie, and went to the Agricultural Hall of the Saanich Fair Grounds. I took pix but no USB cable, I forgot to pack the spare from work, so I have no way to upload them until I get home.
Unhappy mutterings from behind me (I’m in my brother’s game room, having spent the night here) as my brother does the shaky fisty at the Firefox development team. He reported a major bug and it’s apparently not going to get fixed before the beta 4 version. I said, all alarmed – as you will notice I tend to get rather easily – should I stop using it and he said, no, but I don’t use it because it’s buggier n hell and they tend to break thing a in the process of patching thing b. I’ve never had so much as a hiccup, belch or blast of flatus from Firefox, and IE crashed, popped up garbage and passed through scum all the gorram time, so now I dunno what to do.
Saw Shaun of the Dead last night – as promised, at least one zombie movie per visit – and laughed myself silly. A brilliant, brilliant script brought to magical life by the charm of the principals, even as they beat zombies back to death with cricket bats. Enough scary bits to be a real zombie movie, and more laughs per minute than supposedly hit US comedies. Must see The Aristocrats soon. I know I shouldn’t be rewatching movies while I’m here, but Katie had never seen Van Helsing. Or Bubba Hotep. And I just love the lead vampire in Van Helsing, he’s so over the top I want to put him in my pocket and love him to death.
I suppose I should drag the POV back over to the family reunion. The point of contention is that most of the people attending are Bible believing Christians, and alert readers will note that we just had our first gay wedding in the family, yay Rawd and Graham, and Yes, despite the fact that I am an anarchist (non violent variety) and I Personally have No Love for the Institution of Marriage blah de hopping blah, I cherish the rights of my fellow creatures, and if they want matching corsages and the right to write their own vows that is cool by me. Okay, that was catty, but overall, an accurate take on my feelings on the subject. And I did like the wedding pix I got and I put them in a photo album right away, which I, like, never do, so you can tell even as I’m poking fun I’m taking it pretty seriously. Where was I. So OF COURSE the gay marriage is not flying particularly well with those who know about it and will make large groups of elderly mostly female relatives scorching mad, and it’s my job to find the middle ground on the subject, of which there is vanishingly little, unless you reframe the whole thing rather dramatically. Now other people would quail at such a prospect but I don’t, because I am NOT a dualistic thinker. The theological, interpersonal/family dynamic, sociological, legal, moral and logistical implications, not to mention the sheer gorram humour value of all this, impress themselves on me just about equally, so really, I’m prob’ly the only person in the family who COULD do this. I will be holed up in a corner working on the homily likely today at the reunion, and actualllly, I should go work on it now. Remember, a sermon / homily is easy. Tell em what you’re gonna tell em. Tell em. Tell em what you told em. Do it in less than 20 minutes, and break into a really good hymn immediately afterward. Or a Beatles song, if you can’t remember any hymns. If you’ve got a really rough crowd, a beer commercial will do; but the homily shouldn’t be over 10 minutes and you should keep packages of peanuts handy to ping the hecklers with.
I slept on the floor last night, and believe it or not, I slept FINE. Maybe I will be able to go camping after all.
I forgot to pack black tights. I have 24 hours to locate same.
No, duh
2005-07-29— Posted by: allegra
First thing my mother does this morning is look for my blog. Hm, I’m in Victoria and haven’t had a chance to get to a computer, so unless I’ve magically transported to the 29th century and uploaded it with the sheer energy of my widdy brain, don’t see How That’s Possible.
Much sturming und dranging over an aspect of the family reunion which is Potentially Dire. Fortunately, although I haven’t been mentioning it in my blog, I had been thinking about precisely the problem my mother presented me this morning with for the last two weeks with what spare brain cells I have. I will be covering the issue in my homily on Sunday – and reposting the homily if anybody is interested. Now I have to write it; hopefully the words will flow, because I’ve made no fewer than three attempts to start it and I’m having a heck of a time. I was even thinking of doing it ex tempore but my mother’s aura started pulsing “Warning Will Robinson”.
Love each other while you can and keep singing.
Thanks Randy
2005-07-29— Posted by: allegra
For your pleasure, the all new, totally free Red Neck Grill.
Allegedly true
2005-07-28— Posted by: allegra
Okay, this is probably a hoax, but it’s a damned good one. This is SUPPOSED to be a real sign from the London Tube System.
Happy Birthday Mike
2005-07-28— Posted by: allegra
Mike is some undetermined age now. He’s still younger than me though. Tori gave him a very nice birthday present, unspecified.
I have to pack and git out of here tonight, Paul is driving me to the ferry.
I don’t know why, but even though I got plenty of sleep, I feel really tired.
Pokey, despite the fact we are letting him out, is still hanging around the house a lot. I suspect he actually misses John and doesn’t want to be gone when he reappears.
Revenue flight
2005-07-28— Posted by: allegra
Okay, Paul sent me this and I MUST repost it. Note the ‘repair’ on aircraft engine, which got grounded in Frankfurt after an ‘unscheduled fuel stop’ and a damned good thing too.
Best. Customer. Contact. This. Week
2005-07-27— Posted by: allegra
Picked up the phone and got “Hi! this is Bill “I have read the manual thoroughly” So-and-So.” Thought I’d die laughing. (This is a repeat caller). Told him that was a great way to start the day. He also told me that I was on speed dial, and after I quit laughing – again – I said “Words customer service people dread to hear.” What a guy. Have a great vacation, dude!
I must make my writing more terse. Laconic, even.
2005-07-27— Posted by: allegra
My brother sent me this link. I think my favourite is the condensed works of Stephen King. http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/sff.shtml
enough sleep
2005-07-27— Posted by: allegra
Keith is off to work – at an ungodly hour, but such is life.
Paul’s doing yoga, and Katie’s unconscious.
Katie and I went to work out at Canada Games Pool yesterday; tried to invite Tom and Peggy forgetting that they had to be up Very Early this morning for their trip out east. Bon Voyajee as Bugs Bunny would say. My mother has pretty much finished my Jayne Cobb hat, and you can just Eat Your Liver!
Scrappy little fairies
2005-07-27— Posted by: allegra
I don’t know about YOUR neck of the woods, but in Vancouver, the fairies are very very scrappy. When they aren’t granting wishes, some of which are easy to manage, and some of which are downright difficult, they are writing letters to the editor and playing the banjo and scratching skunks behind the ears. Some of us are very envious of the fairies, and supportive of their mysterious activities whether in Trout Lake Park or the bottom of the garden or mopping up the dark matter between the stars: I know I am! but others have laid in a supply of Brownie B Gone. We know who THEY are, and we hates them. Okay, we dislikes them intensely. Okay, after a few beers we feels sorry for them. In the meantime, here is a specially truncated picture of a real live wish granting fairy, I do believe in fairies, I do, I do.
Reminiscing – from Lexi
2005-07-27— Posted by: allegra
Long John Baldry – it’s due to him that my name evolved from Alexis to Lexi.
I first met him when he played at a bar in about 1991 or maybe 1992 in Watson Lake, Yukon (The Belvedere – a fine establishment of sustenance and good cheer, if anyone is heading that way. Tell Pat Irvin I say hi…) I was assistant manager there and he and all these fantastic musicians descended on us and rocked our world for a weekend. He put on a brilliant show.
When I first moved here to Vancouver in early 1993, I was trying to be a songwriter. All my friends were musicians – several of them, including Kathi MacD, were members of the various bands he had over the years, and I looked them up when I arrived. I was sofa-surfing with one of them in a house on Kits Point right across the alley from his penthouse apartment. We would occasionally all hang out at Baldry’s place (or Uncle Bobby’s, as Kathi used to call him) for drinks etc. He was as much a performer in a Kitsilano apartment as he was on the stage — a raconteur of great skill – and a little eccentric. (He kept rabbits in a hutch on his rooftop deck!) He never could remember my name as Alexis – it was Lexi right from the get-go. Eventually everyone in that circle started calling me Lexi as well, and the name stuck. Although I had vehemently objected to Lexi ever since I’d decided as a little girl that I was a big girl now and insisted on being called by my full name, I just had to let it go. When someone with his kind of charisma and presence decides something, you kind of just have to go with it…
I’ve not seen or talked to him in over ten years, but being on the fringes of that group of people at that time in my life is something I will treasure always.
Thanks, Lexi.
That’s no moon – that’s a sponge!
2005-07-26— Posted by: allegra
All right, all right. I know that they’re trying to save money, but taking a blurry picture of a sponge on a black background and claiming it that it’s the moon Hyperion is RAhhhlLY stretching it.
enough sleep
2005-07-26— Posted by: allegra
enough sleep
2005-07-26— Posted by: allegra
Pokey alert
2005-07-26— Posted by: allegra
Dang! The cat with More Personality Than Brains is at it again. This time it’s a phone call – “You own a cat?” “Oh yes,” I say. “A big furry dumb orange one? Blue tag? Green collar?”
Of course, when I get there, Pokey is not interested at ALL in even looking at me, being well absorbed in suckin’ back a big bowl of milk. I tried carrying him home, but he turned on me – politely, gave me PLENTY of warning of his intentions – so I put him down and he jog trotted back into the house after me, and I fed him. Many thanks to the neighbours at 14th Ave who now know where he lives and kept him occupied for a while. PS to John… the tag is a little worn. You’ll be wanting to be investigating a new one, perhaps something a little sturdier. And he’s in for the night.
enough sleep
2005-07-26— Posted by: allegra
My blog now gets 10,000 hits a month now… Hint. It isn’t all my mother. I just listed, in an extremely stupid and self congratulatory manner, all the reasons why I’m getting hits, and I accidentally deleted it. Sometimes, the Goddess smiles at me, usually while she’s treading on my toes and elbowing my ribs.
Note to the wish fairy; have you considered what naked pix of you will do to your mother’s political prospects? I mean, one could be pro, and one could be con. But the internet is forever, and Mal doesn’t hand ammo to his enemies, last I checked.
I know, I know; I haven’t come clean about all the things I’M interested in, but that’s because I still have minor children at home; although I can imagine them giving a spirited and cogent defense of my various ‘life-style’ choices were anyone brave enough to ask for their opinions. Three things have to happen before this blog will get REALLY eyepopping (ie, I will no longer be constrained by the last shreds of common sense, good taste and puerile self-interest) and they are all, thank goodness, a long way from crossing my life event horizon. Although, looking back on my life, and the history of changes therein, it seems clear to me that all my prerequisites for a truly, monumentally tasteless blog will likely happen in the same week. I am the Heron Woman; many long hours of standing around breathing, followed by lightning like movement and little frogs wriggling.
I light a candle to honour the departure from this life of Long John Baldry. I saw him live at Fryfogle’s in London ONT many many many years ago, and he was a great stage presence and a solid entertainer. They don’t seem to make ’em like they used to. Lexi, if you have anything elegaic to say, I will gladly cross post.
Love each other and sing while you can.
Radio Free Saturn
2005-07-26— Posted by: allegra
The Cassini mission grabbed some radio transmissions from Saturn. I urge you to check it out, it’s bloody amazing.
http://cassini.physics.uiowa.edu/space-audio/cassini/SKR1/SKR-03-324.wav I’m listening to this right now, and it’s so eerie, and so wonderful… think of the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet and the hair on your arms will stand up. They are actually ‘aurora noises’.
enough sleep
2005-07-25— Posted by: allegra
Feel like animatronic scrap this morning thanks to a canoe outing yesterday at Widgeon Creek. We only have one canoe; I rented another one at Ayla canoes and then the four of us canoed across the Pitt River and went, by stages, over about an hour and a half, to the Widgeon Creek campsite. There must have been fifty canoes dragged up on the bank when we got there, it was quite entertaining to see, but past that point nothing but a very shallow draft kayak could get through as the creek dries up any farther up. There were so many people on the Creek that there was no wildlife to be seen, but it was still a wonderful trip and you can’t beat the scenery.
Katie and I were in one canoe as neither of us could stand the notion of having Paul bag at us non stop for our technique, or lack of it. Apart from me cutting off a kayak three times running (did I feel like a maroon) I didn’t actually do too badly in the steering department.
My mother, who is a domestic goddess masquerading as a retired nurse, has already commenced my Jayne Cobb hat. The rest of you can just croak of envy, thanks!
Back to yesterday’s events… ah, yes, after a brief stop for veg etc at a roadside stand, we headed off to Tom and Peggy’s where we ate a fantastic dinner cooked by Brooke and sang very very very appropriately, Vive l’amour (Vive la compagnie) among many other songs. Got to watch Ben have a very public religious experience as he communed with the bass Peggy’s stellar hubby bought for her a couple of weeks back. We’re not talking electric, it’s a dirty great standup bass. And if that’s what that sucker sounds like with old strings, I’m gonna be scared to sit next to it when it’s got new ones. Amayzing bass, how sweet the sound, etc. Mike J, Agnes and #1 son Sean were there as well; I had a lovely time.
Frankly did not expect Katie to want to come home, as she’d gone of to the bf’s… but she DID want to come home, and do you know why? Harry Potter!
Pic is Paul Paez snap of a polar b’ar being treated with Gentian Violet. This matches the Green polar bear I posted earlier. Since there are now two, do you suppose they’ve started a support group for Differently Coloured Polar Bears?
Kicking and screaming
2005-07-24— Posted by: allegra
I’m off to Widgeon Creek.
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=19076.20
Knitting instructions for Jayne Cobb’s hat.
Illuminares
2005-07-24— Posted by: allegra
Went to the Lantern Festival at Trout Lake last night. I wish I could say I had a good time… let me rephrase that. I had a good time up until about 10 o’clock. After that, things kind of fell apart, and I have a really bad blister.
Briefly saw Tom, Peggy, and Brooke. Should have stuck with them but I always was a f*cking idiot when it comes to keeping promises to people.
Did the usual, put on a garment covered in Christmas lights and walked around Trout Lake with a Powerpack in my knapsack – lit up like a festive tree. Having three year old girls run up to you saying, awestruck, “You’re pretty, you’re pretty!” is balm for wounded nerves.
Mike, what did you do, turn your phone off? I had my phone with me and turned on.
Went to Stef’s to say hello to her, Patty and the dogs (Nathan’s in Toronto for the summer, and I can only pray he’s got air conditioning where he is) and hung out with her salsa buddy Diana for a while.
Missed the fireworks. Being told “They weren’t all that great this year” was not an adequate recompense, thanks.
Paul crushed his hand yesterday. He can flex it, so it’s not, as far as I can tell, livelihood threatening, but it looks like it hurts like hell.
I think I’ll go back to bed. In my current state of mind, only large amounts of unconsciousness will do.
Keith took pictures on his new used cell phone of the festival but we don’t have the right USB cable to upload them.
Troubletown
2005-07-23— Posted by: allegra
http://www.troubletown.com/cartoons/01.html
Course, the Chinese revalued the yuan, so everything’s good. Anybody want to take Mandarin lessons with me?
enough sleep
2005-07-23— Posted by: allegra
Farewell beers at the Golf Course last night for Elizabeth; quite an appropriate turnout for someone who always impressed me as both very smart and very hardworking. A couple of old timers, long since out of there, showed up as well. One of them, who shall remain nameless, was advised by a current employee to buy a round and expense it as ‘recruiting’ as his company has already poached a couple of really good hires. Just as well that nobody from HR showed up.
All five of us went for a walk just at sunset last night and we walked over to the Cariboo pedestrian bridge and back.
humph
2005-07-22— Posted by: allegra
With so many Red Deer references in my blogging world at the moment – hsifyppah among them – I am appending the following:
Stolen from the Red Deer Site:
Discover the Official Cookie of Red Deer:
Caramel Surprise
625 ml (2 � cups) flour
175 ml (3/4 cup) cocoa
5 ml (1 tsp.) baking soda
250 ml (1 cup) white sugar
250 ml (1 cup) brown sugar
250 ml (1 cup) margarine
10 ml (2 tsp.) vanilla
2 eggs
125 ml (1/2 cup) chopped pecans
40 Rolo Caramels
Topping
125 ml (1/2 cup) chopped pecans
15 ml (1 tbsp.) sugar
In a large bowl cream margarine. Beat in both the white and brown sugars until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, beat well. Add flour, cocoa and baking soda and blend well. Stir in pecans. Shape 15 ml (1 tbsp.) of dough around 1 Rolo Caramel, making sure it is completely covered.
In a bowl combine the two topping ingredients together. Press one side of each ball in the topping mixture and place nut-side up on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 180�C (350�F) for 10 minutes. Makes 40 cookies.
Note: If the cookie should spread too much while baking, add a little flour to the dough.
Enjoy!
Red Deer Sunset
2005-07-22— Posted by: allegra
Katie finally came home last night. Went to L.A. Sushi to celebrate.
Then, oh joy of joys, we sat down and watched a whole bunch of Firefly again. Then I went to bed relatively early but between Paul and Keith they were making so much noise that I wasn’t actually able to go to sleep until 11:30 so I’m very crabby this morning.
Previously deleted portions of this blog include such gems as “Dish dirt like a front end loader.” Thank You.
Pictured is a reason to go to Madawaska, ON.
Mocking the afflicted
2005-07-22— Posted by: allegra
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0721051gold1.html
NORMally I don’t bother with stuff like this, but this picture is, um, well, let’s just say I’m glad my mother raised me not to become addicted to inhalants.
I can’t hold it in any longer
2005-07-21— Posted by: allegra
Brief holiday
2005-07-21— Posted by: allegra
Okay, so this is a brief holiday. This is what Red Deer Lodge and Campground looks like. Shade, rustic cabins (not shown in this pic), sandy beaches, clean water. Sigh. I’m a long way from there right now but I thought I’d give myself a visual vacation.
Finally
2005-07-21— Posted by: allegra
China has unpegged its yuan from the US dollar, which the US has been requesting for ages now. I find the timing interesting. The Chinese tried to buy two large US companies, Unocal was one and I can’t remember the other, and was soundly rebuffed for its troubles.
As best I understand the potential negative consequences of this move, they run like this: American manufactured goods will get more expensive, quite abruptly, because most of the American brand names are now manufactured in China anyway. Also, unpegging means that currency speculators now have something to bet on; they won’t just bet that the yuan/renminbi will rise, they’ll bet on all the Asian currencies to hedge their risks, and why the hell not? The American dollar looks like an ant carrying an anvil, in terms of the amount of debt tied to it. As some economists think, this will pummel growth in Asia. Central banking reforms in the Asia Pacific region will assist in helping these economies weather the storm, but if the currencies go up too much and the exchange advantage for export goods vanishes in a wave of currency speculation, a lot of these countries may have problems. There are contrarians who say this won’t happen and that China will be careful to manage the process, but I have my doubts. The Chinese are perfectly capable of planning and executing a currency shift that smacks the hell out of some of their biggest competitors, lets them unload a pile of US dollars (which they can’t use right now because the Yanks won’t let them buy anything), dampens growth back home just enough to kill inflation without too much damage to the rest of the economy, and allows them to buy energy with less cash. Oh, and kick a lot of American manufacturers in the noogies. Yup, and when everybody is really upset and the housing bubble in the US breaks, they’ll repeg to the American dollar, but at a different rate. It is possible that the revaluation will result in hugs and puppies all ’round, but I don’t believe it for a minute, and anybody who does offshore manufacturing should be prepared for at least two quarters of hell while things adjust. I started saying six months ago that anybody who can move production back on shore should be doing it; between gas prices, earthquakes shutting down western ports (yes, I know, that’s an if AND a when), and saber rattling on the part of both the US and China I am not at all convinced that offshoring is either safe or profitable in the long term. (Then somebody said, but Allegra, all the parts are made in China too… intimating that I am a dumbass. But I stick with what I’ve predicted.) The Chinese want our timber and our energy and our cement, and they’d much rather drive us into bankruptcy for it than fight; they have the advantage of being able to shoot their own people with impunity if they complain about the homeside consequences of any economic restructuring. So I have been waiting for this move for a long time, but I don’t think it’s going to play out to my personal advantage. I await with interest what copvcia.com will have to say on the subject.
thank goodness
2005-07-21— Posted by: allegra
Nmazca.com/blog is back on line.
Just cruise through the links sometime, they’re mindblowing.
In other news, Keith drove back from the canoe outing yesterday and Paul said his driving was ‘perfect’ end quotes, and he also learned how to operate the canoe from the stern. All in all, Keith is turning into a wonderful well rounded human being, and I’m extremely happy I’m his mom. Also, we took him to the Golf Course for a beer on Friday – but he didn’t drink it and wanted to run away a lot faster than we did. He sure was happy to get out of there. It was good seeing Matt last Friday though, and better hearing that his S/O got into speech pathology at Purdue…. Good to see Jerome, too, I really miss the old bunch of us.
This entire, extremely funny, scathing paragraph, deleted on the fierce insistence of my lawyer, who is currently pouring drinks and making Be Reasonable noises. It was about work, could you guess? I have saved the best line for use later…. eet waz a good wan.
That’s a moray
2005-07-21— Posted by: allegra
In keeping with today’s watery theme, Amore meets A moray.
This link won’t last
2005-07-20— Posted by: allegra
http://www.nbc30.com/news/4741822/detail.html
As frequent visitors doubtless know, I am a repeat offender when it comes to Octopots. This particular Octopot, a denizen of the Copenhagen Zoo, is particularly expert at opening jar lids. Sic Semper Cheez Wiz, baby! Anyway, if you come upon this when the link has expired, Google octopus Copenhagen Zoo jar lids. Which, you have to admit, is a wonderful grouping of words.
Mr. Damon
2005-07-20— Posted by: allegra
One of my top ten fave blogs, nmazca.com/blog, run by Mr. Damon, has gone off the air; I find it weird and fitting that his registration expired on Lunar Lander day. Sic transit gloria mundi, baby.
Mike, in an excess of Sanity, closed the shop on Monday and stayed at the beach instead. What a great idea, wish I could have joined him and Tori. I’m not a fool, so I won’t talk about *my* work right now.
Keith and Paul had a lovely canoe ride out to Widgeon Creek yesterday afternoon. They saw quite a variety of wildlife including beavers.
So Bush has nominated somebody with the same belief system for the Supreme Court. Yeah, so? The Supreme Court has meant nothing since the passage of the Patriot Act, except perhaps as a marker for the capacity of all the arms of the American government to make life incrementally worse for anybody who doesn’t worship money.
Pokey
2005-07-19— Posted by: allegra
A fitting end to the day
2005-07-19— Posted by: allegra
As I was about to destroy it, I realized, ah, it’s not so bad, speshfully if I take the more extraneous bits out. I look so happy, innocently spanking an inanimate Superman. He can’t feel it, and I damned near broke my finger! I am innocent no more, lemme tell you. Hard stuff is ouchy and hurty, did you ever notice that? I look at him, manfully holding up my weight on, uh, an inconveniently small amount of surface area, and wonder how many little children he viciously dumped on the terrazzo of large malls over the years of his career thus far. For his life, his death-in-life, is not over; he will continue to have slushies rammed down his skivvies, be barfed on, and be the recipient of other rude fluids besides; he will be repainted, each time looking somewhat worse, especially as nobody bothers to repaint his face anything but a garish and not very healthy looking pink. He will terrorize storefronts in very small towns. From the very front, he looks to me like a man who’s (ed note; knock it off). From the back, well, if paradise is hard and painted blue and red, his butt is a dead ringer for it. Deny that if you can!
What have we here?
2005-07-19— Posted by: allegra
And there was, o my god, a picture of me attempting to spank Superman. It too, has joined the Great Dead Pixellator in the sky, and a damned good thing, too…. However, Pokey made his opinion of events quite clear, as shown hereunder:
But wait, there’s more
2005-07-19— Posted by: allegra
In deference to commonly adhered-to standards of decency and taste, I have had to pull this next picture. It adds nothing to the fund and sum of human knowledge, and would detract from the digestions of those miserable few who viewed it. I was not born to lie curled up on an epoxy Superman. You DON’T want to see a picture of it, and I’m frying them from both the camera and hard drive in a brave and uplifting last stand against the oncoming, flux-ridden horde of nightmarish images. (Sorry, I heard “No Quarter” sung on Saturday night and some of its martial imagery stuck).
Where do I plug him in?
2005-07-19— Posted by: allegra
So here I am, contemplating how Superman has finally been made real to me. A coin-operated Superman, with his own airsick bag. Okay, off the top I see three, but there must be at least ten, really odd / scary features of this photograph. Share them with friends, collect the entire set.
Superman has handles?
2005-07-19— Posted by: allegra
Cool! Johnsquared’s truck is parked in front. John says, in that quiet conspiratorial tone he uses for odd and wonderful things, I brought Superman home!
Now, how could anybody who knows John even raise an eyebrow at this. Jaded as I am with his Many Years of Durance Vile with one employer, I immediately assumed it was a bar top game, and that he had just been playing on words. But, and it’s all blissfully true, he brought home a SUPERMAN, a corporeal superman, and my elderly neighbour who walks his dog past my place just about seized up laughing when he saw me sprawled on top of him. He croons to his dog, a golden lab pup and a gorgeous one, “You wanna fly with Superman?” and then starts laughing again, shaking his head as he moves the dog along.
So enniwess, I run out there and let John take some rifrikkindiculous pictures of Superman and me. Okay, in this one, I thinking, “Wot de hell is dis?” because the untoppable man has handles, and that has a girl’s mind turning to pink skin, not that it will show through his painted shorts. I did spank him and the digitus impudicus on my right hand is squawking at me as a result, mental note, dumbass. Hey, I made it up the stairs at Wreck Beach without croaking! Not … ready … for a wheelchair.
Brief detour, Paul mentioned the other day that the only thing wrong with Wreck Beach was that it wasn’t wheelchair accessible, and all us just looked at him and said right on, and then talked about how you’d do it without destroying the ambience. Very nice moment.
Superman has handles. Happysigh.
Architectural detail
2005-07-19— Posted by: allegra
I am a big fan of rococo decorations in theatres, and Sandy sent me a very nice example of it. If you notice anything else about this picture, then you are obviously very vulgar minded.
Peak Oil
2005-07-18— Posted by: allegra
Oh, Allegra, why won’t you grow up and realize that Peak Oil is just imaginary?
Busy day then
2005-07-18— Posted by: allegra
Saturday night went to a house filk at Cindy’s which was fun, and there were a LOT of instruments there. And voices. Next day we went to the Buffy Singalong for Kelly’s birthday, we being Keith and John and I, and then Paul, who had been flying with Dan P, met us at Wreck Beach, where we got free parking in the beach side lot and met up with Mike and Tori, narrowly missing Trent, who had arrived and departed on his Zodiac, which was amusing because Keith was rereading Neal Stephenson’s Zodiac while we were at the beach. Mike liberally applied balm to my wounded nerves in the form of about half an hour of desperately needed bodywork, and despite my not so happy return trip up the stairs (I insisted we leave before sunset) I still have that languorous, boneless feeling you get after a really good massage. And of course I got completely covered in that Wreck Beach composite material, sand and sunblock, which means I have now completely exfoliated. Finished Harry Potter VI; when they said ‘it’s dark’ they are not just whistling Dixie. However, it has plenty of Rowling’s trademark combo of finely observed social commentary, ouch-that-smarts plot points and laugh out loud dialogue and descriptions of persons and behaviour. Okay, it’s 4:30, back to bed.
Monty and Tyler
2005-07-18— Posted by: allegra
From the Sun Online, via Fark, Monty the horse and Tyler the dog. Tyler learned to ride when he was quite small and now the two animals ride together pretty much every day.
Dawn Patrol
2005-07-17— Posted by: allegra
I’m about half way through the new Harry Potter. I’m off to a Buffy singalong and then Wreck afterwards. I hope to be in a better mood some time before the end of the year, but as long as Paul is doing an imitation of Eeyore as an attack therapist, I find it hard to picture.
sigh, happy sigh
2005-07-17— Posted by: allegra
Keith and Paul are singing and playing “Lousy Copilot” together on guitar and mandolin.
Pottie Harrie
2005-07-16— Posted by: allegra
Went to the world famous Coquitlam Superstore – the one that ‘uh, sorry’ released the Harry Potter VI early. Picked up a legal copy and am now attempting to negotiate a reading schedule. I want to read it aloud, but if I can’t get some freaking cooperation I’ll just hide in my bedroom with it for the rest of the day.
Sun came out for thirty seconds – thought, that’s funny, the Sun is mooning us – and now it’s hiding again.
House filk tonight and Buffy Singalong at Pacific Cinematheque tomorrow afternoon.
Neighbour showed up to borrow a phone today; Sprint sucked her in and now she’s spitting Sprint out and going back to Telus. I’m sticking with Telus because they are the phone company that actually puts people up poles when the disaster comes.
Now I’m off to Rowlingville, see ya later.
Law Society
2005-07-15— Posted by: allegra
My spies inform me that there’s a new CEO at the Law Society of British Columbia. If his actions during his first six weeks on the job are anything to go by, I have to assume that there is going to be what they delicately refer to as a ‘housecleaning’. Considering that they don’t even currently do monthly financial reporting and there hasn’t been much in the way of corporate governance since the last CEO was s-canned for conflict of interest (in BC? never happens), it’s maybe a good thing that this gent has come on board. Oh, and a non lawyer is in charge of regulatory. Give me a break.
Came up with a good one yesterday. Patricia said, There is no I in Team, to which my immediate response was, and there’s no F in Way.
enough sleep ?
2005-07-15— Posted by: allegra
Came home last night and crashed out, I was feeling tired and having waves of weirdness and dizziness. Woke up with Paul off to work, Katie off to Youth Night, John not in evidence and Keith at Karate.
Stooged about for a while feeling sorry for myself – a weird feeling of disconnection – and then got about a third of the way through Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter, a POWerfully weird book, and then Keith came home. He wanted to watch Firefly and I refused.
Then Katie came home and said, Why the hell is it that every time I walk out of the house I end up having to talk to cops? Keith and I sagged a little, but it turns out that she watched a guy assault one of her friends. Get this. This man assaulted Billy for swearing. Seems a little harsh, don’t you think? He outweighed Billy by a factor of two to one. Katie was really angry with herself for being so stunned at how uncalled for it was that she didn’t take her camera out and snap this big guy holding Billy on the ground. And of course it’s Billy that gets tossed in the patrol car, which made Katie furious.
At that point I said, soothingly, let’s all go downstairs and watch Firefly, which we did. Three freaking episodes, didn’t get to bed until one. Inara just told Mal she’s leaving the crew (just when she’d participated in a caper, too!). Katie has definitely decided she likes the show. I just love Nathan Fillion. Now I have about thirty seconds to have a shower, or my coworkers will look askance, and no car today because we have to replace the windshield.
A corpse fell into traffic in Texas the other day. I dunno, if I saw something like that I would take it as a sign to slow down. Some employee of a funeral home didn’t secure the back door of the truck, and down will come corpsey, gurney and all.
This is Suzanne’s cat Limpet, who is missing a hind foot. (Missing foot not shown). She’s an extraordinarily pretty cat; quite tiny, and this pic does not convey the beauty of her plushtoy fur, although I must say it conveys her personality nicely.
This is a Stump Tailed Macaque. He is 7 days old. Isn’t he cute?
Snow leopards, c/o Denver Zoo.
stolen from someplace else. This is Xander’s coffee. This is Joyce’s decaf. This is Spike’s …. mmmm… blood.
but I was in a hurry.
Katie is sleeping at Dax’s, according to her mominlaw.
I don’t feel any better, but there’s no reason not to post a funny picture. Stolen from mamameow.com, which I heartily recommend if you have a cat lover on your gift list, and who doesn’t?
White Buffalo are very special. David Stephenson took the pic.
Turtle. Don’t know which species.
Paul got some great pictures.
This cow stuck her head in a tree and was still patiently standing there when the vet (John Brunner, amusingly enough), a tractor and a wholelottalube showed up. This took place near Milton, Tennessee and was reported in the Murfreesboro Tennessee Daily News Journal. Apart from a scrape to the back of one ear the cow was none the worse for her remarkable demonstration of curiosity. The hole has since been closed.
Received the sad news that Cody, Sandy’s oldest dog, died yesterday. I emailed her saying I was sorry and that he was a good dog, and her response says it all: “I beg to differ. He was a great dog.”
She’s at a zoo in Japan, and she’s apparently praying for rain. Credit Mainichi Shinbun, again. I was going to post pix of Albino Cobras, but you’d be looking at it all month long, and I prefer pussercats.