I have been seriously lazy these past few days. Not by choice but that's how it works out sometimes. I woke up in a pretty hyper mood on boxing day morning. It was raining. I really wanted to go x-country skiing, snowshowing or anything outside but within a couple of hours I was back in bed with the flu. I guess it's a good thing I didn't just jump in the car to head up north. That would have been a pretty miserable couple of hours once the, uh, ailment kicked in. I slept for the entire day, woke up around 7 pm, watched a movie and then went back to bed for another solid 8 hours. I can't remember what the movie was, I was so out of it. Oh yeah, Run, Fat Boy, Run. Pretty funny.

Yesterday morning was warm and rainy, as promised. I was at the gym by 8 am and at Sherway gardens by 10 am.

I've been thinking about getting a Macbook so headed for the Apple Store. Of course, when I say "headed for", it's implied that it was via French Connection, Josef,
Lululemon, Tristan, Lacoste and Banana Republic. I was in a mood to shop. No purchases though. I'd like to say it's because I'm a smart shopper but reality is that I'm about 20 pounds overweight right now and, unfortunately, I don't carry it in a way that's going to get me my own reality show. I wasn't about to spend money on clothes because as anyone knows, the minute you buy the NEXT SIZE UP, you are admitting that is your actual size and it's game over.

Anyway, I finally got to my intended destination. I decided to think about the Macbook a little longer but ended up with a Bose sound dock for home, an iPhone/iPod radio adaptor for my car stereo and Nike sport headphones for the gym. The car adaptor doesn't work very well - imagine an am radio when you're going through a tunnel - so I'm returning it next week.

OHMYGOD! It's unbelievably windy right now. I checked the weathernetwork but didn't really need it to tell me we're experiencing gusts up to 76km/h. The top floor of the house is actually shaking with the bigger gusts. But I can see some blue sky out there and I am desperate to get out of this house. The lake must be CRAZY right now. I'm going down to take a look.

Later!

Ouch. Eve was boarding on the weekend and broke her arm. Dmitri posted some pics up on fb so I emailed her to find out what happened. She broke her radius just below the epicondyle and the bone slid on top of the epicondyle. She says it's been a really painful experience. Urgh. Just the description makes me shudder.

Unbelievable.
On my way home tonight, I stopped at Battaglia's in Lorne Park to pick up something for dinner. I was checking out behind an obviously affluent, 60-ish couple. She had on a $1500 ski jacket ( I know because I've been shopping around) that has never seen snow and he was wearing a cashmere overcoat. While they waited for the checkout girl to bag their groceries, the woman was surreptitiously scooping up stacks of brown paper bags (lunchbag size) that they have at the checkout, folding them and stuffing them into the grocery bags that were already packed. While the checkout girl was busy filling the last of the bags, she walked over to the next aisle which was closed, did a kind of swoop and turn and scooped up another stack, hiding it at her side and stuffing it into the final bag. Seriously, she thought nobody could see her, like she was wearing the 'cloak of invisibility" or something! The whole time she kept an inane conversation going with her husband as a distraction (I guess). Sickness!

When they left, the checkout girl and I looked at each other and shook our heads. I said, "I guess they need lunch bags". She said, "Yeah, weirdest thing I've seen today." Really, I thought it was decent of her to pretend she didn't see anything.

When I went out to my car, I saw the couple loading up the last of their groceries in their 2008 Range Rover. I was behind them going down Lorne Park Rd and watched them drive into Lorne Park Estates. You know, the pretend gated community running south of Lakeshore at Lorne Park Road?

Okay, I know, brown paper bags, no big deal but seriously - they couldn't throw down $3.00 for the lunch bags the grocery store sells? What do you think? She's got to be lifting bigger things when she's out at the mall...

I think we stay connected to friends in more ways than we realize.

All day I've been thinking about calling an old friend, Patty. We haven't seen each other in a long time but were good friends through the 80s and 90s. She was one of my bridesmaids and not one of those, you know, that you pick just because you're friends at the time of your wedding and then don't see a year later. We just gradually lost touch - marriage, geography, children, Life! We connected on facebook this past spring and sent emails back and forth, both of us saying let's find time to get together.

Today, out of the blue she kept popping into my thoughts so I decided to call and see if she had free time over the holidays. I didn't call right away - partly procrastination and partly shyness brought on by the years between - I told myself, "she's probably going away to spend christmas with her brothers or sister", "I'll find out what days I'm available and then call her"...you know how it goes.

Anyway, tonight I got a message from Patty that her father, John Ryan - known as John Boy to everyone including his children - passed away last night. He was a pretty dynamic guy. He and his much younger wife Kay had six children. Wow, I just realized that he must have been close to 90 this year but still living on his own and travelling to the cottage on summer weekends. His birthday parties were epic and everyone who grew up in their neighbourhood was in awe of him. I didn't start hanging out with those guys until my mid-20s so didn't get to know him well. I was close to several of his kids though and they're all pretty fantastic. For anyone who knew John, this is the end of an era.

So, it seems, I'll be getting together with a lot of old friends over Christmas. Not the circumstances I would wish for but it will certainly be a celebration. John Boy wouldn't have it any other way!

SNL has been pretty boring since the election so I stopped watching again. Last, night I got home shortly after midnight. I can never go right to bed after a night out so I tuned into SNL - Bonus! Hugh Laurie was host.

Side note: I just figured out that Hugh Laurie really reminds me of Dick Van Dyke. Or I should say DVD's portrayal of anyone British.

Anyway, the sketches on SNL were disappointing at best, especially considering the comic genius they had hosting the show (they should have let Laurie write) but Kanye West's performance was outstanding.
I bought Kanye's first cd - really liked it - but lost interest over the years because I wasn't hearing anything outstanding or the only time I saw media items about him, he was portrayed as a giant, ego-maniacal jackass, I'm not sure.

Anyway, last night's performance, in spite of technical difficulties like no Auto-Tune at the beginning, made me a huge fan again. Love the song, love the screen, love the graphics, THE JACKET he's wearing, oh my god, LVZIT! All I can find out is that it's from Kanye's own line, Past Tell (or Pastelle depending on which site you read), possibly created by Kim Jones. I think it's actually grey wool but it's difficult to tell because the jacket changes colour with the lighting. Anyway, sorry if this link doesn't work - I have to keep changing them as they disappear due to copyright infringement




Keep in mind the colours weren't so muddy on tv - everything's washed out on uploaded stuff. And the visuals were most likely set up for the studio audience so you don't always get the full effect of him dancing in front of the screen (e.g. head cut off). It looks way better when the cameera's shooting from low down. Can you imagine what this looked like live?

I know, my blog has been stagnant lately. It's because I've had too much to write about and not enough time to make it worthwhile. I'll catch things up asap, I promise, especially now that things are calming down at work. In the meantime, please check out the Aniboom student animation contest entries. They are pretty impressive.

Our Wonderful Nature - very funny





and The Clocktower...

Today's word is 'Prorogation'

Brought to you by the letters GG

Amateur Hour in Canada
Did you watch the Prime Minister & opposition's address to the nation last night? I laughed when Stéphane Dion's broadcast started. High school A/V club? Youtube video? Speakers Corner?? Was there actually a book called 'Hot Air' visible behind his shoulder? All this may seem trivial in light of what's happening in the country but it's kind of, if we weren't laughing we'd be crying.
So, is Stéphane Dion our Sarah Palin? I think he might be.
Stephen Harper's bradcast wasn't much better but at least he was in focus. It looked like they had set up the shot in front of a folding closet door. There was a weird camera angle that made him look down at the camera the entire time. He looked like Principal Skinner giving Bart a talking-to in his office. On the radio this morning, they played a clip of Harper and then one of Joel Matlin, of the Alarm Force commercials. Identical!
Just when the U.S. seems to be getting their act together, Canada is becoming a circus. Perfect.
Later that night, when I was condemning an american show's portrayal of a couple of Canadians as gormless, Hawaiian shirt wearing, "eh" spewing hicks, I realized that they just might be right.

ps I did notice the typo "bradcast" but decided to leave it. I think it should be an industry term for any country-clubbing, Lacoste-wearing, martini-drinking talking head. Seriously, if Stephen Harper isn't a "Brad", I don't know who is.

Love Usher. I stayed up so I could watch him perform on some show.
Oh yeah, and there were a bunch of girls wearing wings, trees, lingerie and stuff. Okay, I'm kidding. Loved the whole show - it was so fun!

I have to say, I no longer want Heather Locklear's publicisit when I become a celebrity. Whoever is handling Jason Lewis' career is on the ball. He was front and centre in most of the shots in the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion show. Don't remember who he is?

Well tonight he looked like this...

but mentioning his alter-ego, Smith Jerrod, gives me an excuse to post this...

Do you remember him now?

Whoa, weird. I was flipping through the channels tonight and something caught my eye on channel 21 (I later found out it's ShopTV Canada), a name I recognized...
It was Catherine Garceau giving a testimonial for this product . It was so random. For a few years after the 2000 Olympics, I used to run into her at the PC Starbucks. She wasn't up to much and was yo-yoing between 10-20 extra pounds but now she looks fantastic. Back to the way she looked when Tommy was dating her and she used to come to our spin sessions at Gears. Hey, wasn't she double-jointed or something too?
Double whoa, I just did a quick google and she really has her shiat together. Click on her name for her website. Aside from being a performer in some exotic underwater show at a resort somewhere, she's doing a bunch of stuff and even found time to write her memoir “Fish Out of Water, an Olympian’s Journey back to Amazing Grace” which is set to be published next year. Very nice, I wish her the best.

Even though I wasn't particularly tired this morning, I stayed in bed until 11am. I have the most comfortable, down-filled bed in the WORLD and no early morning plans sooo ...why would I get up? Anyway...oh did I mention that I'm cat-sitting? Yes. This is Bijou. If you aren't out of bed by 8am, she has something to say about it. She has a quiet meow and isn't aggressively obnoxious, so that's nice but every 20 minutes or so, she'll jump on the bed and meow, walk around a bit, stare into your eyes about 1 inch from your face and then charge down the stairs.

Around 11, the phone rang twice and then stopped. It said "Jackie". This happened a couple of weeks ago - Sydney had gotten hold of the phone and dialed the first contact on the list. I thought it was the same today until I got a text saying Jackie was at Starbuck's in PC. I met her and Sydney there (Blake was in a meeting at Helen's). Liz & Chris Lightbound joined us and we also ran into Clare and Monique who had just finished db practice at MCC.
When I got home, I checked email and noticed my son's FB status said something about "an interesting experience on the way to renting a video last night". I thought it was odd he didn't mention anything when he came over but figured it was just something related to his group of friends. He called me later and filled me in....
After he left my house last night, he decided to return the Wanted video we watched and get something else. He went to his favourite neighbourhood video store. As he was about to go in, a young guy carrying a giant knapsack busted out of the store, pushed past him and ran across the parking lot. Ryan knows everyone working there and the clerk, an 18 year old girl, met him at the door saying, "That guy just stole all of our video games. What should I do?" Ryan told her to call 911 and he'd call her in a few minutes. Ryan saw the kid travelling along Major Mac so, going along behind the neighbourhood plazas and sidestreets, Ryan tracked him for a few kilometres until he stopped to wait at a bus stop. Ryan called the police on his cell and told them exactly where they could pick him up. He continued along a sidestreet, coming out past the bus stop, on the opposite side from the store. The kid never even noticed him. As Ryan was walking past the bus stop, three cruisers and an unmarked car came flying up for the takedown. He said the kid, who turned out to be 15, put up a pretty awesome fight considering what the crime was, his size and how many cops were there. He had a couple thousand dollars of merchandise in the knapsack so the store employees were pretty grateful that it was recovered. I think the cops reacted as quickly as they did because one of the stores in this video chain was robbed at gunpoint a couple of weeks ago. I'm just grateful Ryan didn't tackle this kid on his own.

Today was my personal start of Christmas. I didn't plan it that way, it just happened.
I went into Oakville early because I need a blender. The one I have is basically useless and the carafe is made of plastic. I want a steroid-induced, ice-crushing blender that keeps margaritas cold and doesn't add toxins to my breakfast smoothy. Canadian Tire just can't provide that kind of selection so I had to go to a bonafide kitchen store and I knew of one in Oakville. Little did I know that the Christmas season would bite me in the butt. And to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd... cha-ching.
Let me say up front that I did not come home with a blender. However, since I was infused with the spirit of giving by then, it didn't really matter.
The traffic going into Oakville was pretty heavy. Since it was only 9am, I'm guessing a lot of people were getting a jump on seasonal shopping - possibly induced by crazed shopping stories of our neighbours in the US. Thanksgiving is such a tragic time for them.
The weather was beautiful - sunny and 4 degrees (felt like 10) and I didn't mind strolling along main street, waiting for the stores to open. I had my Starbucks.
My favourite store, House Warmings, wasn't open yet but the kitchen store next door was so I thought perfect, get the blender issue out of the way asap. Unfortunately, they only had 2 types of blenders - one with too many options and the other with too few. I scoped out some christmas-ey table settings though and by the time I left, House Warmings was open.
This store never disappoints me. Many of my so-called Christmas presents to self come from this store and this year was no different. Most notable though was the addition of the GLAM line to their shelves. I found the most amazing gift for two of my teenaged nieces! They don't read this so I can post here that I got them these stylish usb drives (and one for myself too). The 1gig drive folds in so I'm thinking just add a chain and they're a pretty nice pendant (you can't see it in the pic but each is embellished with rhinestones). And at $35 they are a deal. I bought an extra one of the black & white for myself.


After that store, it's pretty much a shopping-induced blur. All I know is I came home with a bunch of decorations, wrapping paper, novelty Christmas crackers for the dinner table, several other gifts and a new red coat. More impressive is what I didn't buy considering I was in lighting stores, Lululemon, B2, etc...
Later in the afternoon, Ryan came over. We went for a walk in the marsh where we skipped stones into the lake, a tradition that hasn't changed since he was two, and checked out the snack selection at the local convenience store. After helping me hang a couple of pictures (which we later decided would look much better at his place) we watched a dvd - Wanted - and ate junk food. We ordered in Spoon and Fork for dinner.
It was a pretty awesome day all round!

My car is not only a money pit, it's a constant source of guilt. In 'An Inconvenient Truth', Al Gore made me feel so guilty about driving an SUV and my personal carbon footprint that I went and looked at new (smaller) cars the next day. Then this morning I saw a bumpersticker on the back of a Ford suv (driving towards the Oakville Ford plant) that said "Lost your job yet? Keep buying foreign".
Meh, I was probably just more vulnerable to the guilt because it was 6am. Trust me, if I could afford to ditch the Pathfinder, I would. In a second. I've never liked that car. Ever. i bought it so I could cart two big dogas and a C-1 around.
Even if I could, it's unlikely I'd buy something domestic anyway.

I'm always talking about wanting to paddle in Hawaii so Larry forwarded some recent photos of a 14' tiger shark feasting on a turtle at Hawaii Kai. I've been on shore around this spot but Larry has paddled here. Since it's right at a buoy, it's easy to pinpoint the location.
The shark photos were taken on Monday November 10, 2008. Larry wasn't there but this is a popular paddling/surfing spot. The first photo is that location, from his last trip. He's actually in the water turning on his video camera - about 10 feet from where the shark was spotted. It's kind of reassuring that the occurance was unusual enough to make the news but still...


Now, I'm fully aware that the ocean presents very different life forms from those found in Lake Ontario and am willing to risk it in order to paddle there. However, I would still be completely freaked out to see this, even from a distance.

Okay. Fine. I'll go to the gym.
Monday was the last time I paddled. Zero degrees but sunny so it wasn't bad. No one else is on the water anymore, not even the Bohms or Tamas Partay. My footwell bailers are taped up and I wear warm wool socks and neoprene boots so my feet were warm but my hands, at least my baby fingers, were frozen as long as I was on the lake. When I got off the water, it took about 2 minutes for the water to form a candy coating of ice. It actually wasn't slippery to handle but when I put it down on those wooden sawhorses we have set up as racks, the bow started to slide along the crossbar. One of those crusty towels that's always hanging on things stopped it's slow drift to the edge.
Actually, I don't mind being back in the gym. The first night there, I ran into Mary Anne S.. I haven't seen her in over a year since she dropped off the women's team for health reasons. She's doing well and it was really nice to catch up on what's new.
That night I only did an easy 30 minute run and 20 minute bike but I was amazed at how much I enjoyed the running. In terms of sensation, the pleasure I felt was equal to drinking a big, cold glass of water after being extremely dehydrated and it just escalated the longer I ran. yay! I love running again (nothing like constant 6k time controls to kill any pleasure you get from an activity). I doubt I'll ever be fast again but quite frankly, I just don't care.
The next time I went to the gym, I ran into Larry. My workout was the same as last time and we both agreed it was nice to just do our own thing with no set program. The past couple of years, Larry's run a program - primarily for Kyle and Chrissy - out of Revolution. He invited a couple of us to join after awhile so it was equivalent to the high performance program at the club. This year, I'll get up early a couple of mornings a week to do a circuit or whatever but not every day - very excited at the prospect of sleeping in.

MEC in Burlington

1030 Brant Street, Burlington, Ontario L7R 0B2

The new store is located just south of the Queen Elizabeth Way. The building features a photovoltaic/thermal solar system that generates electricity, which is fed back to the Ontario Power grid. It's on track to receive LEED Gold certification.

Thursday was beautiful weather. The lake was wavy but disorganized so I only did 5km on the lake and then another 2k on the river in the dark. It's okay though. Since there's nobody else out there, I don't have to worry about getting clocked by a rower.

Friday was another nice day but no paddling - we were having a party for Cat. All those guys live in the east end so it was at a Jack Astor's by the Town Centre. I went straight from work and did some shopping in the mall before heading back to the bar to meet up with everyone. I haven't been to the Town Centre in ages - I guess it hasn't changed much over the years except for population. It was PACKED - at 5:00pm on a friday - that's pretty crazy. The party for Cat was good - a lot of people came out to congratulate him on his move to SAP-HR.



When I got home much later, there was a missed delivery notice in my mailbox - shipment of books from Australia. Yahoo! I picked them up at Turtle creek post office on Saturday. Chris' Alphabet Surf has arrived and all autographed by Chris. It's very cool. Maybe your child will get one for Christmas.
Speaking of Chris and Emily - they're expecting TWINS! Em posted this amazing ultrasound of them on fb.



Saturday, it was raining but mild so I put in 10km , coming in just before the temp dropped - just a couple of degrees but that's enough to make it...less pleasant. When I got home, I cranked up the fireplace and made a pot of tea. Laurie dropped off some products for me to try but the rest of the afternoon was spent curled up on the couch with a glass of red wine and a book. Ahh, I love my life!
On Sunday I took my dad a Tim Horton's coffee and honey cruller. He's not supposed to have either but what's the point. Really. I was oging to save it for after his breakfast but he wouldn't eat. It didn't take long to understand that he wanted the donut and not the cold scrambled eggs and watery oatmeal. I hit Chapters on the way home and picked up Crow Lake for the book club and The Master and Margarita for myself. Supposed to be one of the most important works of fiction for our generation.
I was hoping to get down to MEC to buy a drysuit to keep paddling but I completely forgot about the Santa Claus Parade. There was also a Raptor's game on at 12:30 so there was NO WAY I was driving into the city! After running some errands and doing some housework, I tried to settle in front of the fire for some more lazy reading but it never really happened. Ryan was finally coming to get his piano out of the basement and I had promised beer and pizza for the buddies who were coming to help him. He called around 4:00 to let me know what time they'd be arriving and I realized I hadn't picked up the beer. I had to get to the beer store before 5:00 (I didn't actually know it was even open on Sundays).
Ryan, Derek, Jared and Steve came over and had no trouble getting the apartment grand out of the basement and into the rental truck.
My stupid iPhone has been giving me the usual "Call Failed" problem - it lets me dial a number and stays connected just long enough for me to say hello and then it fails. Ryan gave me a couple of things to try and it seems okay now but there's definitely something wrong. We just can't determine if it's the SIM card or the network. Now Ryan says I have the 4000 series SIM but maybe I should have 4000 series, 2nd generation. We're going to look into it tomorrow.
Later, when I checked my fb, there was a wall post from Matt. They had done a downwinder out on the ocean - 5 metre swells.
He wrote, "today it was an onshore/slight cross wind, so the faces aren't really clean enough to surf. Wes just got a new boat though, he was lacking for a couple weeks, so we should be making it out a little more often for the next bit. But yes... past 5 days... perhaps sickest in history... pictures to come..."
I'll definitely post those when they come!

My advice to you for the weekend. Hell, for the whole winter...

Danielle B. fainted spectacularly during the Remembrance Day assembly at Cawthra yesterday. She wasn't feeling well going into it so tucked herself into the second row, behind some taller students. Good thing because she fell forward and then sideways before being caught by a friend. The choir of 300 performing arts students kept singing as teachers scooped her up and carried her out of the auditorium.
We were laughing about it in the changeroom tonight because a lot of people in the audience thought it was part of the performance since they were singing, "For the Fallen".
Danielle says it was a combination of too many choir practices, workouts, not enough sleep or food. She's feeling much better now, thanks for asking.

I love that the kids on fb have already joined a group called "When I was your age, the first african-american president of the united states was elected". I'm not sure if they actually recognize the signfigance of the event but full credit to teh information revolution for giving them the opportunity to take ownership. I know we didn't do the same for man's first moonwalk or the assassination of Kennedy.

Google uses their incredible resources and launches the ultimate flu tracker: http://www.google.org/flutrends/
Quote: "We've found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity. Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems."
I love google. Google is genius. I want to work there.

I've been so behind on blogs lately but just want to take a second and pass on two happy announcements from the Barclay family...
Louise, Jonathon and Mia are expecting a new family member...not the baby penguin originally requested by Mia but she's equally excited about the new baby set to arrive sometime in March.
Also Dave has announced his engagement to Australian girlfriend Kara. The wedding date is set for next May.
Congratulations all 'round (especially to Linz who now has places to stay ALL over the world!)

On Saturday, Jackie and I went to the baby show. (I was telling my friend John and his first question was, "So did you buy one?").
Anyway, I don't know if they were having these when Ryan was born in '79 but if they were, I never attended one. It was actually pretty good and a fun way to spend the morning. They were giving away a lot of free stuff and after the first couple of booths, I realized they didn't know or care if I had a baby or grand-baby so I started taking some of the stuff for Carrie. Both Jax & I got some Christmas shopping done and I was constantly amazed by the innovations in babycare. My pick is the M coat which they had in a couple of colours, including a rich, chocolate brown. Seriously, I would buy this coat just for walking around.
Afterwards, I dropped up to the condo to see if Sydney was awake. She woke up while I was there (probably because I no longer have a "baby-asleep" voice) and was super-cute, as always. I haven't seen her since her birthday and she is rock solid on her feet and walking. She was a little sick with a fever but was very flirty once she was fully awake.

Sunday;
Am I the only female who can spend a couple of hours wandering around a drugstore?
I needed hair gel and since I haven't done anything physical for a couple of days, decided to walk to the Shoppers at Clarkson Crossing. The weather is overcast and windy and cold enough for me to need a jacket under my vest (but not gloves). I haven't gone drugstore shopping for awhile - I've been saving myself for a trip to Sephora - but I really enjoyed myself. I spent a lot of time checking out hair and bath products and tested all 4 Harajuku Lovers scents - not for someone my age but I was curious. They have beautiful ads and I think Gwen Stefani is amazing.

I remembered my sister telling me something about a product called Freeze which is supposed to minimize deep wrinkles. Considering that her usual skin care includes products by la mer, I was surprised when she told me she got it at Shoppers. This stuff must be good! Oh boy, I hit the skin care aisle in full spontateous purchase mode, dropping a couple of mid-range ROC products in my basket - Complete Lift Pen for eyes($34) and Lip Repair Stick ($7 - basically chapstick) - before recruiting the woman from the cosmetics counter to help me find the self-proclaimed wrinkle-eraser. She showed me two products - one from Estee Lauder (which has a tendency to curdle??), another from Dermaglow which works well under makeup - and told me about a third from Smashbox. I settled on the Dermaglow ($75. I know pricey, but seriously Botox in a jar? How fantastic is that?! Plus I can return it within 30 days if I don't like it.). And what I love about paying at the cosmetics counter is... free samples! I got a primer from Smashbox, face scrub from Avene (which I just saw rated best in some fashion mag product comparison) and Jessica Simpson's new scent Fancy (it isn't completely hideous and these little perfume vials are great for the gym bag or for travel). I remembered the hair gel at the last minutes and then threw in a 5-piece manicure purse set and a new hairbrush just because.


Here's a review of my purchases (of course I tried them all as soon as I got home); The eyelift worked immediately and the feel reminds me of a treatment my mom showed us when we were teenagers - a little egg white applied around the eyes would tighten the skin as it dried. Unfortunately egg white gets flakey under makeup, this doesn't.
The Dermaglow wrinkle freeze also showed quick results. The cosmetician said it works progressively - "training the muscles that create the wrinkles to relax" - and I'll have to use it every day to see full results. Oh, reeaaallly. I'll let you know.
The $7 lip balm seems to be worth it. I applied it as I was walking home (I've killed my lips paddling out on the lake in the sun and wind this year), 3 hours later, I've even had a drink and it's still on there, lips are smooth... Entertainment for a Sunday afternoon!

If you ever need work done on your car, I'm recommending these guys. They do great work with sincere follow-up. I just took my car back in for a post-transmission inspection and after a brief drive-around they put it up on the hoist to check nuts and bolts, that kind of stuff. They even topped up my oil - no charge! Justin will take good care of you, I promise/

Wow, it didn't take very long for people to turn on Sarah Palin. I'm recommending Jon Stewart because he does it with a smile... "Just so you know, Sarah Palin has been tagged and released back into the wild..."

Back to last weekend...Saturday morning.
K.C.'s Timbersports team from Lakehead was competing in Lindsay so Tamlyn and I decided to go watch. We arranged to catch a ride up with her parents Joanne & Blair and had to be at their place for 7:00am. I let Mac know someone needed to pick the boys up for their 8:30 practice and, since neither of them owned a watch with an alarm, woke them up when I left at 6:30.
The weather was amazing, that perfect fall day with bright sun and temperatures hovering between crisp and fresh. K.C.'s mom was filling bags with blankets, coats extra mittens and banana bread (for K.C.). I guess the last time they went it was bitter cold and she wanted to make sure no one was uncomfortable. Her concern proved well-founded. Lindsay was sunny but cold. In fact Tamlyn and I spent a big part of the day wrapped in their red Canadian Tire car blanket ($9.99!). Tamlyn even resorted to a make-out session with a coach in order to stay warm. More on that later.
These Timbersports events are some fun and reminded me of Whistler in a way, without the snow. Loud music blasting, lots of lumberjack-type people wandering around in interesting gear, the odd dog, and even a kitten (he was too small to leave home alone).

K.C.'s team was up for the Ducking competition pretty much as soon as we got there. This is a relay for 4 - one pair rolls a log down a ramp and then back up again, settling it into a notch at the top. Then they're teammates do the same. They can't touch the log with their body at any time. Fastest time wins.


Some teams had a tough time getting the log back up the ramp and you could see where the would struggle against getting their shoulder up under the log to hoist it up.



Lakehead had no trouble and finished the competition with the fastest time (although we didn't find that out until we were on our way home - no times are announced throughout the day).


We had to wait around for the vertical chop competition and from here on things fell way behind. Even though we had warm gear on, there's a lot of standing around so we were getting cold. Tamlyn and I grabbed a spot in the sun on the bleachers and I think we both actually fell asleep for a few minutes.


K.C. and her partners were pretty awesome to watch in the vertical chop and swede saw events but we were waiting for the Timbersports equivalent of senior men's war - the Water Boil.




By now, the sun was going down. I was pretty comfortable but Tamlyn was still cold. I had hiked back to the car to get my telephoto lens for the water boil and when I came back, found Tamlyn (or at least a person about Tamlyn's height covered in the red Can-tire blanket) with arms out, face first, full body pressed up against one of the team coaches... sorry, I should say bus but it's funnier the other way. Technically though it was a coach. She was right. After sitting in the sun all day, the metal sides of the bus were really warm so we hung out there until the final event.

The water boil gets pretty intense and the paramedics who had looked bored for most of the day, suddenly came to life. I could see why. What with close speed work with a hatchet, fire and boiling water, there were lots of opportunity for injury.
One guy, I think he was from UNB, cut himself through his leather glove with a misdirected chop, then basically lay in the fire while trying to get it hot enough to boil. I don't know if you can get a sense from this photo but this is him from behind, basically spooning the fire while he blows on it. A teammate patted out his smoking jacket and the medics waited until he completed the event to move in and take care of his hand.


K.C. had this one down to an art form. She was quick and economical with the time she spent on each part, splitting the log, shaving kindling, building and then stoking the fire. A large portion of time is spent blowing on the flames to get it hot enough to boil the water which is in a tin can with a bit of detergent (makes it more obvious for the judges to determine when it boils).


The whole day was fun and pretty interesting. Plus it was great to see K.C. mid-season. Her parents were a laugh on the drive.

Since I'd given my billets a key, there was tons of food in the fridge and pantry and I'd arranged for Mac to drive them home, I wasn't too worried about getting home a couple of hours later than planned. When I got there though, Ian was standing right inside the door. I guess he'd heard the garage door opener. I said "Hi, so you guys got some dinner for yourselves?" He said no. "So how do you feel about pizza?" Perfect. We ordered a couple of pies and watched another movie. This billeting thing was pretty easy! Of course, they promised to tell Mac I was providing them with well-balanced, nutritious meals!

I remember how I felt after the last presidential election, when I learned that George W. Bush had won. The overwhelming disappointment to know that an entire country had just rolled over and taken it. (my first edit was a little more concise but I didn't want to say "ass-fucking" on my blog....erm...sooo anyway...)

This feels better - brighter day and all that. Exciting times. The media are talking about the US "making history" by electing a black president. Uh huh, history in evolution. They're finally joining the rest of the planet where ethnicity, gender doesn't necessarily determine a person's ability to lead.

Countries with leaders of differing ethnicity is not as easy to boil down to a Google search but click to view a list of female presidents and prime ministers .

Since this is a work in progress, I decided to split it up.

So, where was I...? Oh yeah...

On Friday night Mac had arranged for 10 tickets to the Raptors season opener. I asked where they got the tickets and the boys said, "Mac's daughter." Did they know which one? Ian could barely contain himself, "The HOT one. She works at the ACC". Both Mac's daughters are attractive but since we're dealing with teenage boys, I knew who they meant. There weren't enough tickets for all of them so, since Yevgeniy had assignments to hand in and isn't a big fan of b-ball, he opted out. I felt bad for him. Seriously, do you have to love a sport in order to take free tix to a major league season's opener?? So I took him to the Q for dinner. Added bonus, I don't have to cook!

I should note here that both boys are typical paddlers, very outgoing and comfortable in all situations. There was no awkwardness at all as we sat talking. Yevgeniy had already asked me a couple of times what the drinking age was in Canada. I don't know why he expected it to change overnight but I told him again that it was 19 unless he wanted to take the train to Quebec. Forget that he doesn't even look 18 and 15 year old Ian had a better chance of being served!

Yevgeniy told me about his college courses while we looked over the menu. He's in engineering - electrical - and exhibited classic engineer qualities when it came time to order. The Q has great burgers and you have 3 choices...

Titanic Burger
Handmade eight ounce sirloin beef patty/bacon/cheddar & mozzarella/sautéed onion/mushroom/green pepper/tomato/lettuce/ red onion/dill pickle/sesame bun

Mushroom Swiss Burger

Handmade eight ounce sirloin beef patty/sautéed mushroom

Swiss cheese/tomato/lettuce/red onion/dill pickle/sesame bun

Crooked Cue Burger

Handmade eight ounce sirloin beef patty/tomato

lettuce/ red onion/dill pickle/sesame bun

Jules was our server and asked if we were ready to order.

Yevgeniy: "I'll have the Titanic Burger."

Jules: "Good choice."

Yevgeniy: "But can you leave off the bacon, sauteed onions, mushrooms & green pepper?"

Jules: stares at him for a minute, pencil poised, and then says, "So you want the Crooked Cue Burger with cheese?"

Yevgeniy: "Ummmm, yeah."

This exchange really cracked me up.

I was at Laurie & Eric's house last Tuesday for a presentation and Eric mentioned he was having trouble finding billets for some kids from the USA canoe-kayak team. These are Mac's development athletes. They were arriving on Thursday afternoon so I said that if he was stuck I had room for one. He didn't think they'd need me but he'd give me a call if they did.
I hadn't heard from him by Wednesday night so didn't make any preparations (eg wash extra sheets & towels and make up the spare room, buy groceries to replace the dried up ear of corn and out-of-date Yop in my fridge) which was my own dumb fault. I should have been prepared in either case. Late Wednesday night I got an email, "Thanks for offering to billet athletes...pick yours up at the club at 6:30pm". I looked at the attached spreadsheet which indicated I would be housing David - 18.

Since I hadn't done the laundry, I ran out to Sears at lunch on Thursday and bought all new bed linens and towels. Yeah, I know. Sounds crazy but I needed them anyway. The bedding in my spare room is about 15 years old. You should have seen me sewing up a tear in it the night before Kyle's mom came for a visit. And that was 2 years ago! Anyway, I figured I'd just get something cheap that could go in the cupboard once I got something decent but I can totally live with this.


I was a little concerned about the wasp situation - they were still pouring into the house and were now showing up more often in the upstairs.

Okay, sidebar...everytime I say that wasps have invaded my house, I have a Family Guy moment and picture white anglo-saxon protestants decked out in Lacoste polo shirts, collars popped, going through my closets and wine rack while commenting in low tones about synthetic fabrics, garish taste and, horrors, domestic wine.

Anyway, the exterminator was coming back on Friday to spray the entry and exit points again but I was concerned about exposing this boy to the poison. It smells really bad (like Queen Street urine after a big saturday night in clubland) and can't be good for humans. And what if the kid's allergic to bee sting?

On Thursday, the american athletes were at the club when I came off the water. Mac introduced me and said, "We're picking up your other one at the airport later. We'll drop him off." My other one?? At this point I was really wishing I hadn't taken out the spare bed in the basement to store my parents' furniture...but I have the big comfy couch in the living room. We'd be okay.
I had a vague plan to take David to Burrito Boyz for dinner but when I asked what kind of food he liked, he said, "anything but mexican." Sooooo.... grocery shopping? He's a university student and had some assignments to work on so I created an account on my computer called David and left him to it. Ian showed up while I was cooking dinner. 15 years old and 6'4". Yikes, he was GIANT! Would I have enough food? How was he going to sleep on the couch? David (about 5'5") had dibs on the queen-size bed by arriving first but seriously... he could have swapped. Thankfully, the paddler attitude of "no problem" is universal.
The next morning as I was driving the kids to the club, I asked David something and he didn't respond. I asked him again and he said, "uh, actually my name isn't David." Okay, let's forget that he didn't stop me the 1st or 2nd or 12th time I called him that...so they must have switched billets, right? No, there's no David in the program. So what's your name? Yevgeniy. Yev...!? Okay. I felt like a dumbass even though it wasn't my fault.
You know, this is starting to sound like a Simpsons episode. Bart gets billeted with some old lady. The house smells like pee, wasps chase him around inside the place and she insists on calling him some other boy's name. All that's missing are dusty, ribbon candies stuck together in a bowl and a mangy, cross-eyed cat.

I always figure humour is the best icebreaker so once we got our meals, I suggested we go downstairs and watch a movie while we eat (it was about 8:00pm by this time). While dodging wasps, the boys picked something from the dvd collection. They wanted to watch Hot Fuzz even though they'd both seen it about 3 times. This is from the "Sean of the Dead", "Run Fat Boy Run" guy, Simon Pegg. It was hilarious but both boys crashed about 40 minutes into it. Yevgeniy is from Seattle so, even though his internal clock was about 4 hours behind, he'd gotten up really early for the flight. Ian is from Washington too but the other one, D.C.. This is when I was so glad I'd gotten the extra bedding. Otherwise Ian would have been using the little throws I have on the couch for blankets and they wouldn't even cover his feet.

Here's the slideshow Daddio put together for the boys...

Friday night was a triple-header for Missy - awards night, 50th anniversary and retirement party for Olympians Attila & Tamas jr..
Carrie gave me a lift and we got there around 6:30. Paddlers and parents packed the top floor of the Crooked Cue (and as Kyle says, if you've paddled, you know where that is). This was a nice change from our usual banquet halls, legions and church basements. Not that those parties weren't fun, they were, but there's an impersonal feel to that type of venue that you don't get at the Cue. And bonus: full bar and the food was pretty amazing. There was a noticable lack of 20-something paddlers - people who are away at school or have moved away to start careers and new families. We really missed you guys.

After dinner - awards, a speech by life member Mayor Hazel and then a slideshow tribute, put together by Tamas Sr, to the paddling careers of Tommy and Attila.

I was taking photos and had my back to the screen. I missed most of the slideshow but there were a lot of never-before-seen shots of the guys from when they were really young. Tommy (the emotional one) was pretty moved and not embarrassed to show it. The canoe club awarded them both lifetime memberships as thanks for their dedication, leadership and representation of the club over the years.

While I was snapping photos, I looked into the area around the bar and there were the alumni filtering in for the 50th party to follow. So many familiar faces showed up to celebrate the club.



Eric's band, Hair of the Dog, was playing and everyone was up dancing. Although I got to say a few words to everyone, I was running around taking photos thinking there'd be time later in the night to have a real conversation. It never happened. A lot of people were buying me drinks and at some point in the night I realized ...uh oh, one too many. I didn't say goodbye to anyone, just packed up my camera, jumped in a cab and went home. Apologies to those I missed in the picture taking. I never even made it to that area in front of the band. There were lots of cameras there though and we'll be able to put together albums with everyone there.

Junior Men's comeback crew of 2009 - believe it!

I'm trying to catch up my blogs but am working on minimal sleep so this is a post in progress.


In general, my life runs a smooth path - comfortable, routine and pleasant. Lucky and happy are words I use about myself most days. I have everything I could want. Every couple of decades my life will take a major detour, usually self-induced (pregnancy, divorce), that takes me in an unexpected direction. And, as is the nature of detours, the new road may not always be comfortable or scenic or have the familiar reference points and rest stops. Growth is what some people call it and when you come out the other side you have gained some things, lost others and left behind items no longer needed on the journey. Blech. Okay, I think I've killed the roadtrip analogy.
The changes for this decade are of a slightly different nature. Not exactly initiated by me. Suddenly, things in my life are breaking. Not in devastating, emotional, life-changing ways. I mean literally breaking. My house, my car, my old slr camera.
The water purifier stopped working and flooded the laundry room, my clothes dryer makes a loud rattling noise and I'm afraid to run it unless I'm home.
The dishwasher. Oh boy. It has become the equivalent of a lazy husband. You know, when you first get one there's an understanding that it'll perform certain functions and it has all the working parts to perform these functions. It's all shiny and new and jumps to attention when you turn the dials and touch the knobs. But after awhile it doesn't always perform on it's own; it wheezes and rattles and flops around when you try to get it started. You realize you'll have to do some prep each time, fiddle with some moving parts, prop up others and ultimately force it to do it's job. Even then it's only going through the motions and you end up having to REDO THE WHOLE THING YOURSELF afterwards... haha, and now I've killed the husband as appliance analogy. Moving on.
My car, which has run pretty efficiently since 2002 has basically been rebuilt in the last 2 months: new windshield, new brakes and resonators and, this week, a complete transmission with torque converter.
And, on top of all the breaking stuff, wasps have settled in the walls of my house and are coming in through the basement. Perfect. This isn't a problem so much as it's made me a party to genocide. Seriously. The first few days I just moved them outside. Then there were too many for that so I just sat very still whenever I went down to the basement. However, within a few days, there were a hundred wasps cling to the walls just metres from me. I had to call an exterminator. I felt really bad until a friend pointed out that, if I could negotiate with the wasps and they refused to move and then I brought in the weapons of mass destruction, I would be a bad person. Whatever. I still feel bad about killing something.

Adam & Ave...

Nice recognition! Oakville has named a street after Adam. Appropriately it's the one formerly known as Water Street.

I don't know about you but I don't see myself spitting out adam-van-koeverden street so it'll be either VanK Street or Adam Ave.

oh my god. He is so right.

I had always planned to have a career in film and when I was in college, it was drilled into us that we should sit through the credits of every movie... a tribute of sorts to the hundreds of people who put effort into the production. And also because (hopefully) our names would be in those lists some day. So, even now, unless I'm with friends who want to leave quickly, I sit through to the end of the credits of pretty much every movie I see, in theatres and at home.

It's actually pretty interesting. You notice things like Waiter #2 has the same last name as the lead or, in older movies, that some later-famous star had a bit part (Suzanne Somers & Harrison Ford in American Graffiti or Brad Pitt in THelma & Louise). Anyway, for me the most interesting information appears at the very end - the music credits.

Tonight I rented Leaving Sarah Marshall and let the credits roll. THere were a couple fo songs I didn't even notice during the movie, one of which was Sinead O'Connor's smash, 'Nothing Compares 2 U'. The credits reminded me of something I'd forgotten - this song was actually written by Prince. Sinead's video was one of the simplest productions of that decade, mostly because of Sinead's compelling features. I defy you to look away from her face. Especially if you've just gone through a bad breakup. Those two tears sliding down her face at the end?...salt in the wound.

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
Uploaded by MovieFanQS

More pics from Katie. These are from their pre-race changes/training run last Sunday on Kailua Bay. You can also read more at Morty's blog here.