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.