Month: July 2008

Off to Mission.

I won’t be posting until after I get home from Mission tomorrow; it’s time for the festival out there with my current and previous coworkers, including no fewer than two bosses, and which involves stringed instruments, alcohol and the World’s Best Campfireâ„¢. Continue reading Off to Mission.

Family website

My m0m and Jeff have toiled tirelessly at the family website, so I posted a pic and commented on one of m0m’s posts to her blog (she’s blogging, ha) this morning.

Thomas Disch is dead. He was despondent after the death of his life partner, being thrown out of his rent-controlled apartment, and he did not have medical insurance. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… how can people with the intelligence and industry of the Americans not look after their people? It’s as if the Christianity of the prairie populists in Canada, which spoke with such power and persuasiveness about how medical care for all would make Canada a better place, could never penetrate the I got mine style of Christianity so popular south of the border. What a world. Anyway he’s gone, and he had a really cool Livejournal where he posted really good poetry. I left an RIP there.

interesting

For a variety of reasons I can’t really talk about my evening but I can offer some observations. It was a classic example of what happens when you get people drinking across seniority, departmental and home office lines.  In other words, we shared our experiences, feelings, predictions and analyses without playing a lot of politics, and as a result this morning I feel better about going to work than I have in a very long while – and I hadn’t been doing too too badly.  I will say one thing – it was midnight before I got in.  Such was the fascination of the conversation and our desire to keep it rolling while we were together….

The Transporter

Not much to report except I am reacting to some pollen currently in the air.  I just get real tired and want to shut my eyes, and then when I wake up they’re stuck shut.  Keith and Jeff and I watched Transporter last night.  Jason Statham has the kind of bod to make a gay guy drum his foot on the ground and howl and a straight gal to skip thoughts of dinner and drinks and head straight for the procreative activities. The movie was fun enough.

Right side up

I guess, apart from the Ongoing Irritations, of which I blog so consistently, my life is pretty good right now.  I’m working on three choons simultaneously, including one which started with Paul saying, “I have this nice chord progression – see if you can keep up!” which was not at all what happened in real life but gets to the point swiftly and it sure got me doing things with the mandolin I’ve never done before.  Musically, thanks.

There was also an incredible amount of watching family videos this weekend.  One entire dvd – like 90 minutes – is Katie running around in a diaper (a cloth diaper held together with Snibbs, I note cheerfully) followed with the all seeing eye of her adoring grandpa, who lenses her beating up computers, playing ‘incredible baby monster’ which was a game she and Keith used to play, being thrown around like six big beanbags sewn together by yours truly, being cuddled by two different adoring grandmas, and in general being active and in a good mood.  At the very end of the tape she gets stuffed into a snowsuit and stands there like a Barbie pink version of the Michelin Tire Man.  I look like I’m having a good time, too, which is pleasant. Then there is the before and after video of the plane crash we were in when I was pregnant with Katie.  Erk.  There’s a beautiful landing on Lake Weslemkoon, and then grainy, dark video, illuminated by the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles, trying to recover the aircraft and get Buttonville Airport open again.  I came as close to dying that night – that I know of – as I ever did so far.  I’d forgotten there was video. That was sobering.

I spent about six fruitless hours trying to get the dvds onto my hard drive in a format I can edit.  I know it’s possible, but with my combo of software, native wit and input from Jeff, it still didn’t work, so my idear of getting a friend some pix from the old days is not working – I’ll have to copy the entire thing.  I also commented on a detective novel I was given a couple of weeks ago.  That took about a six hour chunk out of my weekend too – I was busy… really busy this weekend.  I was so busy that when I literally thought Saturday was Sunday when I was talking to Jeff …. he looked at me Like I Am Crazy, which is a fairly common occurence around here.

I did four loads of laundry AND put it away.  I made banana chocolate hazelnut muffins, and they are SO fine.  I saw Wall-E with Jeff, Paul and the kids.  We ate Thai afterwards.  We had no trouble finding parking (I really like the 5th Ave). I had a good weekend.

Oh… I suppose I should review Wall-E.  Please see it on the big screen if you can.  It’s a great piece of family entertainment.  It starts out with the single most brilliant cartoon I’ve ever seen (I’m going to have to watch it about a hundred times to get all the timing and set up) about a magician named Presto Digitatione and his wascally wabbit.  I laughed SO HARD watching this that I was entirely astounded. If I tell you that, knowing what I know, I’d pay the same amount of money to see Presto again that I paid to get into Wall-E, would you run out and see both movies?  Believe the hype.  I didn’t even know about Presto before I went to see Wall-E.  It will take you to that magic space you inhabited the first time you watched What’s Opera Doc or Duck Amuck.  And it does it all without a word of dialogue.  Man, does Pixar know animation!

Wall-E has plot holes the size of a garage, but you and anybody you go with won’t care.  It’s a lovely movie

Coffee’s ready… time to really get a start on the day.

Happy Saturday

I have a large number of reasons to be contented at any time, but right now I’m happy because I have watched a whole bunch of family video from when the kids were little – with the kids, Paul and Dax. Hell, he’s my son-in-common-law now, and if his behaviour has cleaned up perforce mine must too. We had breakfast and then watched almost half an hour of Katie (naked – I guess that makes the video two words I’m not going to put in this post so I don’t get trawled for it) and Keith (clothed, thanks) frolicking with puppies at Red Deer Lodge. The entire soundtrack consists of me saying things like, “Put the puppy down. Put her down. Keith, don’t do that, that’s just ignorant.” Anyway, Dax laughed his ass off at some of Katie’s antics, so yup, it was a happy morning.

Keith said, while running a puppet show, that his master (he was playing a dog) behaved in a silly fashion. I said, “It sounds like your master doesn’t have many brains,” to which his hilarious response was, “Well he does, but they don’t work very well.” Who among us, etc.

Also, and this is kinda gross, Katie and Paul and I dealt with the powerful stench of cat urine in the front hallway. The difference is miraculous, and although a couple of pairs of shoes and one rug and one piece of furniture had to be sacrificed, ainsi soit-il.

Now, I think Paul and I are going to finally get down to what it was I was supposed to be over here for today, namely, singing and playing. First – beer. Then chaffing each other about what we’ll play. Then back to Geekhaven Beta for dins with Jeff.

Tomorrow, Wall-E.  Or so we hope.  It is, after all, Keith’s 22nd birthday upcoming and a sappy family oriented movie is just what the doc ordered.  If he’s free, I’ll take him out to someplace expensive for dinner this week.  PS, his job is going famously.  He’s learning stuff hand over fist, his bank balance is going to improve markedly, his coworkers are all congenial, and he’s part of a team.  How could I not be a very contented mom today.

Percy Schmeiser

My god.  There is something about Saskatchewan farmers, without which this country would be immeasurably poorer.

Anyway, he took on Monsanto and won, and Paul and I went to the VPL to hear him talk.  I have never been so inspired, so disgusted, so frightened, and so proud to be a Canadian.  It was an amazing, life changing experience.  And his wife of 55 years, Louise, sat in the back and knitted.  He doesn’t travel these days without her.  She got a big round of applause too.  Without her, he would have given up early during his decade long fight.

I don’t want to get any of it wrong, so here’s his story.

Give them some money.  Really.  That nice old man is fighting an important battle for every person on the planet.

Playing around

My new Zoom H2 arrived so I have been playing with it.  It seems pretty intuitive and comes with a kick ass quick start sheet.

Times are ‘interesting’ at work, mostly for other people, and in the sense of the Chinese curse. ScaryClown got himself a week off to think about how nuts he is.  I love him dearly, but sometimes his intense intelligence & perfectionism overpower his somewhat stunted sense of self interest.  A couple of other people have left the building, one assumes not as a result of any overpowering desire to run away.  I mean, I won’t miss either of them (one of my coworkers went so far as to play “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” through the speakers on his desk upon receipt of the email, and I did the weasel dance) but Patricia chided me on my lack of professionalism and reminded me about the adage on “the devil you know”.  She has a point, as always.

The Luddite was over last night for dins.  He cracks me up, and only rarely when he plans to.  His raspberries aren’t doing as well as he’d hoped but the strawberries he gave me are ripening nicely.  He gave technical advice to Jeff about his bike and manifested an immense mass of bitter chocolate from his bag.  Jeff cooked chicken breasts which turned out delightful and succulent.  I made chickpea salad, so I imagine we’ll all be tooting like a toy symphony for the next few days.

It’s hot.  I wore a synthetic dress to work and Jeff blanched as I approached him, so I changed when I got home.

I got a migraine sign this morning, so I should be smart and go to bed.  Buffy Season 1 is over….que l’on continue, as a famous separatist once remarked.