Category: cCanada

Dominion Day Roundup

Stop gay marriage or straight women will have no husbands!!!! Eeek.

Folks, even if that is all true, how can the accompanying drop in the birthrate be bad for the planet? I love how bigotry gets dressed in ‘utilitarian’ arguments.  That said, any time I detect bigotry in others, I allow myself a quiet moment to reflect on my own.  Sigh.  It is hard to be a grownup.  PS, Mr. Berman (as reprinted by Mr. Klinghoffer), sex toy technology has come a long way since the Roman Empire.  Your concern for my satisfaction and prospect of landing a sperm donor is touching, but completely unnecessary.  After all, the POINT of marriage (the cart, after all, needing to come behind the horse) is BABIES.  And those I can get – did get – without recourse to marriage at ALL.

Oh look, Dan Savage linked to the above noted link and Klinghoffer says that Dan Savage can’t be a good father because he uses bad language!

One of these days I’ll have to find that bit of writing “How to Teach Your Children to Swear.”  What we didn’t teach the kids, back when, was that swearing is a class issue.  The very most self-controlled and self-willed people do not curse, because it shows either lack of breeding or lack of self-control. And self-control, narrowly defined, is a necessary precursor to maintaining control over others.  That’s what it’s all there for.  Swearing as far as I’m concerned is part of the palette of human communication; blunt, uncompromising, emotional, limbic, genuine.  Disgusting, disturbing, vile, creepy and disrespectful, too.  Swearing is a signpost toward the things we find most frightening and, let’s face it, human. As blasphemy, it is anti-hierarchical and owns of no master; as language charged with sexuality and excretions, it voices what we strive to keep silent in daily life; as racial and ethnic slur it speaks to how easily we fall back into our emotional enclaves to lash out at a world of strange/different/smelly&rude.

Best things about Canada.  Apart from Hockey, mea culpa, I’m in.

Look at that… Miss Margot has decided to like raspberry jam.  This is a cat from MARS.

I can now see large swathes of my bedroom floor, but more cleaning and laundry delights await me.  Later I hope to go to the Burnaby Village Museum – it’s free today, and in homage to John, who never paid for a damned thing he could get for free, and to celebrate being Canadian, I thought a step back into the days of my foremothers might not go amiss.

Cinnamon buns are medicinal.

Having said that, I’d better get a batch of bread dough on…. Jeff is highly suggestible about any hinted-at treats.  And I have to sign off so he can update wordpress.  Have a great Canada Day, everyone!

I have finally listened to John and Brooke’s album.  It’s really, really good.  It’s also, coincidentally, among the top sellers on CDbaby right now!  Katie and I listened in the CanCar yesterday.

Barbecue and family ties

Jeff and Paul and the kids and I watched the season finale of CSI, and had a barbecue last night.  It was really great to get the ‘cue out again.  The back yard is still a disaster, but at least it’s flat again.  Paul and I went for a walk and saw some very remarkable houses. Broken marble floor tiles paving a back yard?  This is an odd neighbourhood, but very quiet, and Paul is appreciating peace and quiet right now.

I called Kim yesterday and the house in Burnaby is about 1 week from being  ready for occupancy. Katie’s coming over Monday to help me pack and clean things.

I am not exactly full of energy, but at least I’m not in lying around crying mode, and I consider that an improvement.  Spoke to Ruth last night.  She said a couple of things that broke my heart with pity, but I was expecting it.  Ruth and John had a very special sibling bond, and were always very loving and supportive to each other.  (Well, after they stopped living at home and being teenagers, and we all know what I mean by that.)  And he was her big brother.  I never had one… until John came along. I sure feel like I appreciate Jeff more all of a sudden; it’s showing it in any meaningful and constructive way that remains a challenge.

If there’s anything that can break your heart more than family, I don’t know what it is.

Gizmo went for a walk with Jeff and then decided he found something worth investigating and hasn’t come home yet.

New Youtube video

I’ve posted the video I took of the Burnaby Central train ride I took yesterday.  It’s 10 minutes long and you really need to be a bigass fan of trains to watch it, but it is a real steam train going through tunnels and across bridges, and it was a glorious day.  Here’s a pic….

Now, I have some more chores. I’m really glad I got out yesterday, because it’s DISGUSTING today, pouring rain and gray and miserable.

 

LATER – I’ve posted the link above.

Juno

Jeff and I watched Juno last night and I loved it.  The script, the acting – a wonderful movie, and Ellen Page and Michael Cera make my Canadian heart explode with pride.  Also, it makes fun of Unitarianism.

Yesterday I prepped my MacBook for working with Windows software by installing a virtual machine.  We’ll see how this plays out… Jeff’s going to help me with an XP install  With any luck I won’t have to turn it into a Vista machine.  The long term point of this is to allow me to work from home, as the contact management and call center software is all Windows and internet based.

My payroll problem has been straightened out.

Gizmo and the downstairs dog, Meadow, are getting to know each other.  Meadow is so anxious for someone to play with that it’s very cute.  Gizmo’s body language says it all.  Scornful, not the slightest bit scared.  Eddie made tracks like his little black tail was on fire as soon as he poked his head through the door and saw the dog.

I have now entirely s-canned my original homily, as well as the two subsequent attempts, and I’m staring at the screen with disbelieving horror… can my normal fluency have deserted me for this most important topic?  Can I restrain my usual desire to turn everything into a gag?  Will I find myself in the pulpit on Sunday next, eyes like dog’s balls, stammering, incoherent and bereft of a single cogent sentence?  Stay tuned.  On the plus side, there will be jazz at the service, most likely.

I would just like to tell the universe, briefly, that I’m tired of getting what I need and would like to get what I want for a change.  Okay, back to the homily.

So I get off the bus and walk down the hill

And the first thing I see is some flags.  The building I used to live in is out of the picture on the left.

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And then I see this really bizarre railing.  There’s something… wrong…. about it.  I guess those rounded metal prongs are there for a reason, but what???

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I keep walking down the hill. Blechhhh.  Who’s been throwing crap in the fountain?

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Damn, I just noticed my battery is REALLY low.  More later.

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social it be

Jeff and I went to see Jerome and Shannon last night for a barbecue. Shannon made Jerome a birthday cake that had whipped cream icing, two kinds. And chocolate. And raspberries. I only report this so my mother, who is dieting in perpetuity, can go OOOOO.  Best Cake Ever.  The barbq itself was stellar.
There were a whole bunch of other people there including (this is just weird) another brother sister combo. As is usual everybody attending was smart, funny and good-natured. Rob (the Baumfest Rob, not RobofNine) and his two adorable, active childer, Elise and Arden, were there, and also, another kid, Maya (spelling?) who apparently learned to talk overnight recently and was saying, in that adorable high pitched voice “unca jrome? unca jrome?” and did a variety of other cute things that had me saying goo. Maya had a mom and a nice older brother Julian, who couldn’t be four yet, but he didn’t do that “I will scowl at you for about ten seconds and THEN smile at you thing” which Maya has down to a science and is guaranteed to melt the heart of anybody who wasn’t a sociopath to begin with.  There was also one other child there, an adorable, just barely walking tot named Isaac (who is the spirit and image of his dad, another coworker named Kevin).  Mike and Heather were there as well – Mike made Yam Fries.  Oh, and when Maya and Julian had to go, Julian said in response to somebody else saying “You’re going?” “The car has to go back,” so I instantly knew mom had a CAN car.
Yeah, it was a good time.

Yesterday, besides prepping veggies for the partay, I made mac and cheese from scratch, spaghetti sauce, cookies, and we did a shop in the morning which made all that possible. I also unpacked a couple of boxes, but I still need to do more.  I guess I’m thinking that I don’t want to do more until more space magically appears; I should transfer stuff into boxes and put it in storage, not mess up the middle room with it.

The breakfast nook is now delightful – there is a big enough table and in the morning it’s beautiful and airy and bright.  I’m thinking I should blog out here, then I can watch the cats at the end of the street have a convention.

All of the neighbouring dogs, with the exception of Meadow, the brindle Boston terrier in the basement,  bark like sons of bitches.  The landlord’s dog is brutally loud and will bark at you if she even sees you in the kitchen window from her vantage point on the deck across the alley.

More cooking and puttering today.  I kinda sorta hafta go to church today… an optics thing.  I am hoping I’ll get a lift home.  Now to figure out which bus to take to get out there, as I’m trying to reduce expenses somewhat.