Month: December 2007

2007 in review

In January I did some standup, got a charley horse, whinged about my daughter & got told to stay with Paul by my kids. Molly Ivins died, which was why I couldn’t find her posts any more. Of breast cancer, which was, even then, brushing closer to my life. I wrote “Ingathering”. My year looked like this.

February I went to Toronto and had a glorious visit with my friends.

March I wrote Slimfast and Methadone. I also saw Guy Clark, John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett and Joe Ely. I played with a Wii for the first time. I wrote a birthday song for Scary Clown and saw Cory Doctorow.

April I was tired and emotional, and packed to move out. New broadloom and paint happened.

May I ate slept worked and and helped prep the Augur Inn for sale. Keith got mugged but it all turned out okay. The house went up for sale.

June I went to Jericho Beach folk club and read a lot of Patrick O’Brian.

July the house closed.  I dated a  bit.
August a number of us made the plan to go see the eclipse in Russia in 2008.  I found out my mom has – and now it’s the past tense – had cancer.  I also kicked libertarianism in the ‘nads and had a fantastic visit with my brother. August had lots of stuff in it. I dated a bit.
September Keith started his course.  Katie got a job at Village de Valeur.
October we finally signed the separation agreement and got the proceeds from the house.

November I went to the Dominican Republic with daughter Katie and to the company Chrissimas partay with Kopper.
December – I met a nice man who’s at least as crazy as me.   I really really really hated my job.  But it will be better next year….I found out that my nephew Jesse is back in the babydaddy business.  Happy sigh!  And the best news of alllllll   Katie decided to come to Jarmo’s for New Year’s.  My life is now an awesome place, and it’s the best best way to finish the year!!!

So much for copyright!!!

If the copyright notice is so small you can’t f*cking read it, that’s not much protection. Anyway, this panel from Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise was an immediate favourite of librarians everywhere. Too bad you can’t tell it’s his. I just emailed him, partly to give him a heads’ up, and partly because I wanted to vent about how the large size digests I want to buy are no longer available anywhere and instead there are the dinky and uselessly tiny paperbacks.  Grrrr.

Precis

New Year’s at Susanna and Jarmo’s Stannomancy Hut (Keith is accompanying, wOOt.)  Kopper’s visit was mellow, low key and instructional (I am now exposed to David Lynch’s euro version of the pilot for Twin Peaks).  Keith and Kopper got to view each other IRL.  Keith’s visit included a brief workout downstairs – I joined him.  I immediately felt worse but I feel okay now.  Look what Kopper’s got pencilled in for New Year’s Day – firing arrows at targets….  I hearts a woman who can silently put effective holes in things at a distance.

spending money again

I love the week after Christmas. Picked up a nice jacket to replace the third hand John Deere jacket Keith’s been wearing for the best part of ten years at the Bay yesterday… half price. Picked up a laptop snare and have fallen deeply in love with it, as it produces a starting depth and variety of percussive noise. Picked up a button which says Beer is my comfort food, and a couple of others equally snide, and watched Keith zone out in a comic book store (the height of entertainment). Also picked up the Collectors Serenity. Keith wanted it for the cast commentary… I didn’t find it all that gripping, so I went to bed. We also watched Pan’s Labyrinth and I have to say although it was good and creepy, I am not getting what all the oohs and aahs were about when it came out. I guess watching somebody innocent die at the end wasn’t my idea of a good time.

Today I’m going to wheedle Keith into helping me move more furniture and maybe do an abbreviated shop.

Salmon Chanted Evening

Well, that was entirely a slice of life. I mean, how many women in Vancouver had a date last night that included:

  • a threat to be serenaded – on triangle? (He plays well; he even has an album credit!) He plays other percussion instruments <<<--- wOOt, Catherine!  and pennywhistle too. I wants me some triangle loving from Ward's Music now. Actually today I'm buying a snare head and brushes but that's another story.
  • a listen to the album, which is lively English trad tunes?  To preserve his privacy, no link alas.
  • a trip upstairs to view…to view not etchings, but Shuffle Demon videos? Like, more than one. I got to watch Out of my House, Roach! (more than once, I loved it so much) and Spadina Bus, and there were more yet. I countered with the Dudley Moore Beethoven Sonata version of the Colonel Bogey March, which is brilliant (I think rOn sent me that link). For the life of us we couldn’t find an audio of the Peter Cook Coal Miner/Judge skit but we found the text. He countered with the Shirt Sketch from early John Cleese Graham Chapman days. And there was some other stuff in there but it was jolly good fun, like his Morris dancing road trip picture.
  • Double Chocolate Stout beer? Quoth he, I don’t know why I got given this, I never touch beer. Well I did in a rather total war kind of way, and it was yummy…
  • Leftover Chinese food from a splendid meal at Angel on Fraser? (Except the soup, the soup bit sand). Quoth he, I don’t like leftovers.  Hmmm.
  • A wonderful hour poking around books from the thirties about engineering marvels and archaeological digs?

I am now contemplating moving furniture some more and then Keith’s going to come over and we’re going to shop and try to find the Serenity DVD (director’s cut/special edition).  Tomorrow, Kopper and I will hang out.

At some point I have to figure out what the hell I’m doing for New Year’s Eve.  I have six different prospects, but I want to do stannomancy at the Dalai Jarmo’s again, and the folks say they are up for having me…. it’s also the closest.  Always a consideration.

Happy

I’ve been working on comedy routines.  The current one is “what happens when my inner Buddha meets my inner Hitler”  (hint, Buddha doesn’t always keep his teeth) and the inner Gord.  I am having lots of fun, as Gord just said something entertaining which I need to write down.

I’m off to visit the Luddite tonight and have food with him.  I tried to get him to cook for me but he made grim pronouncements about burning things so I think we’re going for Chinese.  It’s certainly a treat to meet somebody more optimistic than I am.
There’s another goddamned foot of snow on the hill here.  I am sure the ski operators are peeing their snowpants with glee but I had to heave a bundle buggy full of crockpot and crockery and food through it both ways yesterday.  I had to stop about three times coming back up the hill and check my pulse to make sure I was in the right zone for my fitness level.

Right now I am very happy.  I know that what I am about to describe will sound like the third circle of hell to some people, but my girlfriend Tammy phoned last night and we spent TWO HOURS on the phone, role-playing ‘difficult conversations with people we love’.  Tammy’s got more training in this than I do, so I’d say, blah blah need to talk to you about something are you ready to hear it, and she’d say.  Yeah.

So I’d say my thing, and she’d say, “You’re not quite getting it.  You need to only talk about one thing.”

“It is only one thing.”

“No, it’s two.  This and this.”

And I’d pout, and try again.

“You’re still trying to talk about two things at once.”

“F)ck, no I’m not!!”

“Yes you are.  There’s this… and there’s this.  Two separate issues.  You have to respect the person you’re talking to by only dealing with one issue, that you’ve thought through, at one time.”

“AAAAAAAAAAARgh.”  (More briefing?  More briefing.)
She’s right of course. I almost had the hang of one corner of it by the time we signed off.  And this morning I’m happy, because as I prepare for a ‘difficult conversation with someone I love’ I’m a little closer to getting my half of it right.  Is it a particular person?  A particular conversation?  Nope.  It’s just life.  Be prepared – and if you can’t be prepared, be present.

Cooking

Here I am cooking lunch for I don’t know how many people.  I don’t know how many because the cafeteria is closed today but there will still be people at work.  I told all my lunch buddies that I’m cooking today, but I bet they all packed lunches because, well, they’re engineering staff and they’re like that.
Anyway it’s parsnips pan fried in butter, basmati rice, an abbreviated sort of salad, and crockpot chicken thighs with basil, pepper, kashmiri red pepper, celery salt, two cloves of garlic, a bay leaf, and about a quarter teaspoon of cardamom.  The smell in here is enough to turn your salivary glands into Niagara Falls.

Now I have to figure out how to get it down the freaking hill without breaking anything.  I am not stupid, I’ll come up with something.