Okay, I think I know what it is about George Stromboulop...the guy on The Hour. his interview style reminds me of Brian Linehan...without the turtleneck, blazer, munchkin-faced thing he had going. I was addicted to Linehan's interviews in the '70s & '80s. James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio?? He's a rank amateur next to Linehan's exhaustive research and smooth, smug delivery. So many times you would hear an actor respond to some little tidbit Brian had dredged up from the past with, "How on earth do you know that??". He never revealed negative things, only the positive or flattering. And the were usually superstars who had been interviewed millions of times so they appreciated that someone had gone beyond reading their press release.

Last weekend - Marisha's birthday/moving party - so many people there! It was so much fun and I wish I'd had a camera but my lithium batteries have tanked and I'm reluctant to replace them at $75 a shot. I already had to replace 1 battery + the charger after I left mine in a hostel in Budapest and now the camera is basically obsolete. Okay, I'm wiped out from training and circus school (STILL FUN!) and have to get up at 5:15am tomorrow....guhhh.

I'm really liking The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos on CBC. Maybe it's because his style and delivery are uniquely Canadian. I don't know. I just feel like I'm hanging out in his living room when I'm watching it. Great guests and content.

So, a team meeting and retirement party on the weekend. Our coach and drummer both retired. We're all really sad about it but we've had a long time to get used to the idea. Not that that makes it any easier but fortunately they are also my friends so I get to see them socially.
And no surprise, it takes two guys to fill Blake's very stylish Campers. We're really lucky to have two former Olympians as new coaches - Larry and Gavin. Gavin (aka Dr. Hot) was there for the whole meeting and got a chance to see what he's in for as coach of a women's team. When he asked jokingly about whether there would be a team shirt for him, Jess commented "I believe we've determined that a shirt will not be necessary." It's doubtful that men could ever get away with the types of things we say if roles were reversed.
We haven't even been able to come up with anyone who can replace Jackie. I can't imagine that there's anyone who could come close. The role of the drummer is crucial and I'm not even exaggerating a little when I say that Jackie defines it in this sport. Okay, I've just deleted a whole bunch of sentimental stuff about how great Jackie is because it was making me all emotional and so far, I've been able to keep a lid on it.
So.
It was really difficult to come up with an appropriate gift for these two people who have been the heart and soul and backbone and livers and kidneys of the crew (okay maybe not Blake's liver). In the end, we decided that the best gift would be a permanent, living dedication that everyone can see. We're going through the city of Toronto to have a tree dedicated to them. This is a great program - you can choose which kind of tree - Jackie I'll send you the link - write your dedication for the plaque and choose the location . We're getting it planted overlooking the racecourse at Marilyn Bell Park. It'll be great and we'll have another party once it's planted. I will let you know when that is once we know.
How crazy is that someone inspires the phrase "end of an era" when they're barely over 30 yrs old?

If you see this in time, Joss Stone is playing at the Docks tonight - $20. I wish I could go but already have plans. At 16 they were calling her the next Janis Joplin. That's a burden for a young performer but check it out for yourself - should be a good show.

Hooray for socialized medicine and easy access to prescription drugs! I feel a MILLION times better.

Ack.
I've been walking around all day with no idea of how FUGLY I look!! My day started at 4:00am because this stupid sinus infection has escalated to grosscon two. Since I had a dentist's appointment with Harley first thing and I felt like a big bag of poo I didn't bother, oh you know... brushing my hair or washing my face...or even looking in the mirror before I left the house. After the dentist's, I went to the walk-in clinic to get some antibiotics and then straight to the pharmacy where I waited for half an hour for my prescriptions before returning to the doctor's office because I'd left my health card there. As I was leaving, I caught sight of my reflection in the car window...oh my god...it was HIDEOUS! And I had subjected the general public to this for about 3 hours! No wonder Harley had put his face mask on over his eyes and that woman in Shoppers had pulled her little child out of my way...
And appropriately, I've become a hermit. I can't seem to bring myself to leave the house. I'm missing my favourite circus classes - trapeze and acrobatics. I did paddle pool on Wednesday night and it was way harder than it should have been. My heart rate was way up so I decided to skip trapeze and acro. Aside from the appointments this morning, I didn't go to work and spent the afternoon watching Bend it Like Beckham and talking to my son on the phone about whether or not my cell will work on Rogers GSM network.

Oh dear. Adam's on the auction block.
Two things I didn't realize: Adam is six feet tall and Lord Byron is now writing for the Post (I mean really, "brown of hair and eye"??)

Here's an excerpt from an article in yesterdays National Post " Most eligible single in the universe!";

"On the male side of the ledger, the hottest headliner is Oakville's Olympic gold-winning medalist Adam van Koeverden. The snoggable kayaker is brown of hair and eye, and he's 6 feet tall, in case you're wondering. As for why he's still single -- not a bad thing to wonder in these sorts of cases -- it says outright in his profile, "Adam is currently in a serious relationship with his kayak!"

Adam is Canada's own Beckham in the sense that he's put an appealing face on the sport and is a great ambassador for the country. Don't know that there'll be groupies coming out to regattas but, like Beckham, he certainly photographs well without a shirt on (you're on your own for those pics). I'm sure he'll rack up the $$$ at the Diabetes Charity auction at the Yorkville Fitness Club on February 9th.

Ugh. I am so sick, I've basically been stuck in the house all weekend. I think it's a sinus infection. Besides all the grossness that goes along with this, I've got Penaten cream smeared around my nose. It's dumb looking but completely effective if you don't want your nose to look like you took a cheese grater to it. I told my niece Tara I was going to put a bag over my head before I went outside and she thought that was a good idea. Don't want to scare little children. I will give a million dollars to anyone who brings me raspberry gelatto.
So, the most exciting news so far in 2007 is that Carrie and Attila are going to have a baby. Carrie thinks everyone's heard by now but said I can post the news just in case. Super-baby Buday (c'mon, look at the genetics) is due in July. I'm really pleased for them and the rest of the family! First baby on both sides. Alyson and Dray are also expecting their second - oh and Tammy and Greg should have their second any day now. It's a veritable paddler baby boom. The guys are probably already working out line-ups for the 2021 juvi war canoes.

Weird. I guess this is just the modern equivalent to a sarcophagus. What would your coffin look like? hmmm. I'm going to have to think about this.

"For the Ga tribe in coastal Ghana, funerals are a time of mourning, but also of celebration. The Ga people believe that when their loved ones die, they move on into another life — and the Ga make sure they do so in style. They honor their dead with brightly colored coffins that celebrate the way they lived.

The coffins are designed to represent an aspect of the dead person’s life — such as a car if they were a driver, a fish if their livelihood was the sea — or a sewing machine for a seamstress. They might also symbolize a vice — such as a bottle of beer or a cigarette."

in case you've somehow missed it...Chacaron

Random - I ran into Rob Stott while running in Rattray Marsh this afternoon. His parents live a couple of streets over so I guess they were over for dinner. We were going in opposite directions - he just starting out and me just finishing up - so didn't stop to talk - just yelled Happy New Year as we passed.
After my run, Marisha, Gavin and I ordered chinese and watched some really bad reality tv. Starting with something called "Grease: You're the One that I Want". Ugh. The Apprentice was slightly better but by then Linda had dropped by with her GIANT malamute followed by Sonya and her new puppy, Findlay. He's a "golden-doodle" (I do not like these designer dogs and the silly names they attach to them). I realized that I'm finally immune to puppy-charms. Good thing or I would be running out to get a dog. He was pretty cute though.

I'm not sure what I've been doing but all the shoes I've worn this week are spread out along the front hall, lying on their sides with the soles facing the door. If I stand at the front door, the hall looks like an illustration for some crazy dance ...

Kaylynne is heading for Kenya in the morning. (I stole this pic from her Facebook album - sorry for cropping you out Geoff!) A bunch of us took her out to a restaurant in Streetsville last night - Honey's Beestro - where Marta's working as a server - best server EVER. They have good food by the way but mostly I was glad to see KP before she took off. It was also nice to see two former paddlers - Megan and Krista! Krista's heading to south-east asia with her boyfriend in a couple of weeks - landing in Bangkok and winging it from there until her b.f. starts his job teaching english in Beijing.
After I left the restaurant, I went to Attila's for poker and a puppy fix (Lola, not the boys although I guess it could be true for either case). I finally won a game in spite of my rookie moves and the guys' habit of folding anytime I bet first. At least I broke even for the night. They were watching Jackass Two when I got there. I wasn't planning on renting it but it was really funny. In fact we watched it again after Nacho Libre, Gumball Rally and something else. I got home really early in the morning and didn't make it to practice. When I woke up I called my good friend Susi who lives in Georgina. We have apparently reverted to being teenagers (aka second childhood) and totally pissed off her daughter, Sabrina, who wanted to use the phone. We talked for close to 3 hours. Couldn't tell you what about but we were laughing a lot - probably men.

Tonight I rented Little Miss Sunshine. Great comment on the beauty pageant circuit in the states but also on family dynamics especially in relation to road trips. Reminded me of all the car trips we made across Canada as kids.

Love hurts ... but breaking in a new pair of orthotics for running hurts more.

As mentioned, my holidays were pretty uneventful but one of the fun things was helping Matt surprise his girlfriend, KC, on New Years Eve.
When we had the paddler party at my house, KC told us how she surprised Matt in Halifax for his birthday. KC goes to Lakehead in Thunder Bay and
her parents live in Oakville. Matt is from B.C. but goes to Dalhousie. So anyway, the day after she told us how great it was jumping out of some dorm-mate's closet to surprise him, Matt emails that he's flying to Toronto on December 31st and asks me to find out where KC will be on New Years Eve. The only problem was there were no set plans for New Years. For awhile it looked like it would be at my house just because nothing else was going on. I thought we finally had her pinned down as coming to my place when Pete decided to have a party, THEN I get an invitation from KC for a party at HER house. I told her I'd drop in for a bit and asked if I could bring a friend. At the last second, I added, "He's house trained." So lame. KC took that literally and decided I must be bringing a puppy.
All the usual things went wrong; Matt's ride couldn't make it to the airport, his flight was delayed for an hour in Kelowna but it was so worth it. I picked him up at terminal 1 and drove over to KC's. Matt was leaning against the door jam when she opened the door. I swear she went through 8 distinct emotions; deer-in-the-headlights for a full 45 seconds, then confusion, refusal to believe, getting in close for another look to make sure it wasn't a trick (like what? Dustin in a Matty mask?) and then full out jumping up and down screaming!! That lasted, I'm not kidding, for about 4 minutes. It was awesome! Everyone else was in the basement and came running upstairs. Dustin's reaction was only slightly less enthusiastic when he arrived a few minutes later - and, as we'd all predicted, asked within seconds, "Is Chris here too?".
I headed over to Peter's party after that. It was perfect... low key, small group of friends (I barely noticed I was the only not-a-couple) and I finally got a chance to catch up with friends I don't see nearly enough!

Here's Jack Black's other great movie take-off - Spiderman. The Yoda bit towards the end is pure comic genius.

Lord of the Rings a la Jack Black.

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm kind of lazy today - the effort of going to Timmie Ho's and Chapters was too much so I'm posting stuff that requires very little effort. I'll write about the holidays later, for now it's pure randomness...

David Armand did a mime interpretation of Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn". Simple but pretty funny so he was invited to perform it at the 2006 Secret Policeman's Ball for Amnesty International.