the perfect combination

Currently watching Kurt Browning's Gotta Skate VII.

I love Kurt Browning. Don't care much to watch anyone else skate, but he does it as naturally as breathing, and no one compares.

When his Gotta Skate show is ALSO around a Motown theme ... Gotta Watch.

Talk to you later!

what did I just say?

I must have overused my verbal abilities. That's my only excuse.

I had said plenty of profound things over the previous twelve hours. We had a friend over, one of those people with whom you can get into really intelligent conversations. (Maybe the conversations are not particularly intelligent, but WE feel they are, and that's what matters.)

We discussed religion ... culture ... politics ... friendships ... music ... how his perfect baby girl has changed his life ....

In matters of friendship, we talked about how friends are supposed to stick together "through thick and thin" and I said, "Yeah, but in the long-run, we need more thick, less thin," and he thought that was pretty brilliant.

All in all, many witty and thoughtful observations were made by Spike, me and our friend. Those around us, I'm sure, moved in closer to listen to, and be enlightened by, our wisdom.

And then our friend left.

And my brain turned to mush, and neglected to warn my mouth of that fact.

Spike and I went to get him a new bank card, and we got chatting with the banking rep, a stranger who seemed nice enough. And I thought I would chime in with a really thought-provoking remark. It was supposed to start off with, "Yes, just recently, I was saying to someone I work with...."

But what came out was, "Yes, just recently, I was saying to someone I woke up with...."

So I'm not talking any more today.

six words

I saw it on another blog.

The Challenge: Write a 6-word autobiography.

Could you do it? Summarize all of your existence in 6 words? I don't think I can.

But I'm willing to try! Let's see....

Look like Mom, act like Dad.

Lover of nature, words, and music.

Small-town girl turned rocker's urban wife.

(Hey, this is fun!)

I watch, I learn, I grow.

(That one's too serious, maybe.)

J, J and R's Cool Aunt!

(I had to mention that - they might be lurking here!)

Content with today, dreaming for tomorrow.

I like that one, I think!.

Wanna try?

off the top of my head

(alternate title: scraping the bottom of my mind)

Subject: Teeter-Totters (aka seesaws)

Remember playing on those? Did you enjoy them? I did not. Too little. Whoever was on the other end was almost certainly heavier than me, and therefore in complete control.

Fun for the teeter-totter controller: holding me up in the air indefinitely

Even more fun for the teeter-totter controller: seeing how fast you can fling me up IN the air, without sending me actually flying THROUGH the air.

Subject: The Patrick Roy & Son Incident

Perhaps you saw this on Saturday. The incident where Patrick Roy, Infamous Montreal Canadiens Goalie, coached his goalie son to go beat the snot out of the other goalie.

Disturbing: Watching someone beat on someone else long after the someone else has turtled.

Even More Disturbing: Hearing that Pop Patrick says he had nothing to do with it, when we all saw him signal his son to go get him. That's nice. Hang your boy out to dry.

Subject: Christians and Easter

This was almost amusing, although the front-page headline doesn't show in the online version. The headline was something like, "Why Christians Don't Like Easter". Please. You have to read the article, but let me say that just because the Easter Bunny doesn't get Santa Claus's huge ratings, does NOT mean that Christians don't embrace Easter. It may mean we haven't LOST Easter.

Subject: FT Coffee or Not FT Coffee?

Fair Trade Coffee. Good for farmers and the environment. Bad for my wallet. I've been back and forth a few times. Today I reached a compromise. Bought two bags of coffee beans. One is Fair Trade (Kicking Horse Coffee, if you must know). The other is not, but it's twice as big, and way cheaper. I'm going one-third Fair Trade. It's what I can afford, and it's better than nothing.

Subject: Earth Hour

Are you turning out your lights for an hour on Saturday night? Have you heard about this? Do you find it meaningful? Will you participate?

And that, my friends, is all that's going on in this pretty little head today.

red green got baptized

Today, in between grocery shopping, cooking, listening to Spike nail baseboards into place, and watching Spike caulk the shower, I flipped by Red Green. Literally flipped by, and kept right on going.

Then...I paused in the flipping...what did I just see?

Back to Red Green, who is creating a boat trailer out of duct tape, after cutting off the back end of his car.

Something looks familiar....

A mental flashback ... "name of the Father, name of the Son..."

HEY! Red Green is building a boat trailer out of duct tape, in the place where we hold our water baptism and church picnic every year!

There's the place where the kids catch toads and water snakes ... there's the meadow behind the picnic area ... and a little while later, I saw the sign for "Marina Pavilion" - yes, indeedy, that's where we go. The Marina Pavilion, at Christie Lake Conservation Area.

I guess that makes us famous.

it's Friday

OK, technically, it's Saturday....but the video is called It's Friday.

And I love it.




Sunday's comin'!!!

eek!!!

A note on a clipboard greeted us upon arrival at work today. The clipboard was strategically placed over a garbage can. Can you read what it says?

"Roy and Patti - Mouse in garbage pail - Bob"

the air I breathe

Spring is in the air.

It must be. Since Friday, I sniffle and sneeze, and my eyes swell up. Spike changed the furnace filter - didn't help. I've banned Millhouse from my presence - no good. I've even *gasp* dusted! Nope.

So today, I took a deep breath, and regretfully took a Claritin. I hate, HATE taking Claritin. I have ingrained into my little head that silly little allergies are nothing to self-medicate over. Plus, the first Claritin of the year always zooms me out, and I really don't like that either. Plus I'm irritated. There's still snow on the ground! How can allergies be kicking in??

I don't really know what I'm allergic to. I asked my Doctor once and she said I could do all the tests, or just figure it out myself, and either way, Claritin is the answer. Any allergy experts out there? What nasty (but incredibly beautiful) plant just opened up and spewed allergens my way? Can one have "allergies" when there is snow on the ground?

I welcome your wisdom.

However, I should let you know that since Claritin is a certain sign of spring, I also went to Terra today.

Bought some seeds.

And some soil-less mix. (No, I don't know what's in it.)

Gonna do a little plantin'.

Drew a little sketch of my plans for the front yard this summer. Spike likes my sketch, so Houston, we have clearance for lift-off!

It's a good - albeit slightly buzzed - day.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

because we're Canadian

You know how, at the first sign of spring, Canadians get weird?

What I mean is ... when it's warm enough to shovel your snow banks into the road, because MAYBE it will melt a bit (which is to say - NOT WARM!!!) we all stop getting dressed.

"I don't need a coat," we say. "Look! I don't even have to scrape frost off the windshield. Maybe I should bring my shorts, just in case I get too warm."

You know what I mean, don't you? Yes you do.

This morning, on the way to church, I saw a guy outside his house, having his morning cigarette. Not that unusual. Except he wasn't huddled in the shelter of the wall; he had strolled part way down the sidewalk to really get a nice view of the Bay.

In bare feet and nothing but a terrycloth robe.

I felt ashamed, in my sensible winter coat (though I wasn't wearing mitts). It's March, for goodness' sake - almost time to start talking about global warming again!

Can I still be considered a good Canadian if I don't wear shorts until April?

groceries on Saturday

We avoid grocery shopping on Saturdays as much as possible. Way too many people. And if you're in a No Frills - well, let's just say, space to maneuver your cart is a frill.

But we needed food. So we went.

First to Lococo's, because lately we're eating way more fruits and veggies - good for us - and they have better produce than No Frills, at cheaper prices than Fortinos. (Incidentally, Fortinos has space to maneuver, but at what cost?)

I made the mistake in No Frills of pausing to consider my cheese options. (Pausing is also a frill, unless you have unshakeable levels of self-confidence.) Spike, in charge of the cart, was involuntarily pushed forward by the mass of determined shoppers behind us. When next I glanced up, he was disappearing around the end of an aisle at the other end of the store. Gone.

I figured he would work his way back. Turns out he figured I would work my way towards him. We were both mistaken. We finally found each other again, 10 minutes later, with the help of a whiskey-bearing St. Bernard.

OK, that part isn't true.

The St. Bernard was carrying lattes.

For which we were very grateful.

Got into line, and then realized how very close we were to tragedy, for we had both neglected to grab a package of coffee beans off the shelf, and we are RIGHT OUT. Imagine us in church tomorrow, trying to be friendly, sans coffee??!!! Spike would be fine - he's off coffee right now - but me....oh, it wouldn't be pretty. Fortunately one of us remembered in time and sounded the alarm, and the other of us sprinted through the mob to the coffee aisle, and we managed to get home, safe and sound.

Now our fridge is full. It's very satisfying.

Roast beef tonight!

just another Friday

Well Bob has posted twice in one day, and I am deeply impressed with that. (Not to mention that I am drooling over the cake in his #1 post today.)

Today began very early, as Millhouse felt that we should be refilling his food bowl (which is full, but not fresh enough, apparently) at about 5 AM. Remember the lovely new floor I told you about? Imagine the sound of cat claws tick-tick-ticking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, with the occasional THUD of a pillow missile that has missed its mark, and intermittent yells of "MILL!!! GO AWAY!!!"

None of it worked.

Stupid cat.

When I finally hauled myself out of bed at 6:30ish, I went into the bathroom and peered into the mirror to see if there was a visible reason that my contacts were driving my crazy. There was. My left eye was swollen almost shut, presumably because Millhouse got too close to my face in the middle of the night, or some such thing. Verrrrry attractive, let me tell you.

Stupid cat.

Went to Breakfast-W-T-P's, and if any of you readers were there, let me assure you that my still-mildly-swollen eye was just a result of allergies, not crying or anything.

Then we decided to walk to City Hall for our two meetings there. On the way it started raining. My hair un-straightens in the rain, and just randomly wings around. Plus my eye was still a bit wonky. I'm sure the City Councillor was greatly impressed. Good thing I'm smart....

Have not yet found a way to blame the cat for the rain, but I'll keep working on it.

after-the-storm pics

As I said ... we went out yesterday! First - the ski ramp for the bugs that was created by the storm....

Then we headed out to Princess Point, and did a long walk from there. We were greeted by the "doom-on-you" Canadian geese, eerie and ominous in their silent approach.

Beautiful scenery ... I love the steel and concrete of the high-level bridge, combined with the nature of the path!

And the bullrushes were just so stark against the water.

All in all - a great day!

watch this space

Spike and I went for a long after-the-storm walk today. Soooo sunny and bright outside!!!!

Spike got silently surrounded by some ominous-looking Canadian geese who have been hand-fed too many times. (Have you seen Ice Age? Kind of a "doom-on-you" dodobird moment!)

Scenery pics to come tomorrow - watch this space!

BTW, anyone forgot to change your clocks on the weekend?

shovelling

So it's snowing again. And guess who's in Niagara? That's right - Spike.

He ain't gettin' home any time soon.

So I shovelled everything at 7:40 AM this morning. Getting ready to head out again in a few minutes.

Will update as the day goes on, because I figure you're all inside for the day, in front of a computer.

TTYL!

Edit at 10:23 AM Just finished shovelling again. And by "finished" I mean I shovelled everywhere. But by the time I was done, the part I had started at needed shovelling again. And apparently the worst hasn't hit yet.

Edit at 11:06 AM Bailing out, before that option is no longer available. Packed my bags and a pillow - I'm heading up to my parents' place on the mountain. Weird, because it's further from the church ... but my street doesn't get plowed, sometimes for a few days. I'd probably never get out of my street in the morning, even if I did keep up with the shovelling. And it's becoming increasingly clear that I cannot keep up with the shovelling today! Adios - I'll check in later.

shaped meat

A few weeks ago, I went meat-shopping. This is semi-new for me - actually being organized enough to go to a butcher and buy a bunch of meat ahead of time. I was very proud.

I also felt a little ... caveman-ish. A cart loaded down with raw meat, squishy flesh, not a vegetable or whole grain in sight. I felt like my arteries were clogging up just looking at it.

Spike, on the other hand, celebrated joyfully and spontaneously -

"Wow! Look at all that meat!"

Ground meat, in particular, is weirding me out lately. Here's the issue.

Why the shapes? Why do we feel the need to pick up this big mess of squishy raw meat, with our bare (or gloved) hands, and shape it into different shapes? All the shapes taste pretty much the same - just add some bread crumbs, some tomato sauce, some spices, maybe an egg.

But sometimes it's a LOAF of meat.

If we're in the mood for some variety, it's little BALLS of meat.

Or on a really crazy day, it's meatPATTIES.

(Yes, I know, that's my name, feel free to make jokes. If you make one I haven't heard before, I'll send you a meatball.)

Of course, the meatPATTIES become burgers, which get their very own shaped bread, so that's REALLY exciting.

I also found a picture of HEARTS of meat. I guess that's for the caveman on Valentine's Day.