Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Everyone Loves Me!

Today I was spolied. It was my last day of work at one of my jobs and I was showered with gifts, cards and then was taken out for coffee this afternoon instead of working.

I am one of those people who do tend to get gifts as they leave a workplace - but today I recieved the oddest workplace goodbye gift I have ever heard of anyone getting...

Anyone care to guess?

UPDATE: After alot of great guesses, Rook got the right one!

Monday, March 29, 2004

Keep on Bloggin in the Free World

I have Blogger's Block. And Duncan is sick. I need to go pamper him.

That is all.

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Sometimes a picture says it all



Via: CBC
Hat Tip: Gateway Blog

Friday, March 26, 2004

Attitude is in the eye of the beholder



It's the attitude that says "Please, kick my ass."

And now, for a mere $995.00, you too can have all the cool kids push you off your bike. Wow!


The things you find on Google...



I was a little surprised to find our picture in the March 2004 issue of PC Talk. Another brief moment of fame (I wonder if they all add up to make you actually famous?). I wish it was a better picture, but it was taken at the end of a very long day, and I well deserved that weary appearance...

Thursday, March 25, 2004

Great Minds Thinking Alike...

I have been compared to Chomsky.

Via: Trite Remarks.

UPDATE: Thanks to Mir at Dim Sum Diaries, I now know Noam Chomsky has a blog!

Life's like that, sometimes...

It is true I have often been guilty of being (or at least appearing) flippant in many different types of situations, however inappropriate my flippancy might have been. It may be the part of me that my East Londoner father is responsible for, or the part of me desensitized by years of learning to kill people. Or it may, finally, actually be an acceptance of the way life is, borne from years of experience with a lot of hard knocks along the way.

I am still undecided.

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Short or long, everything that is alive has a lifetime to finish. Living is dying as well. Death really is our only birthright in this sometimes unpredictable world. I have oft wondered these past few years why our society insists on hiding it away like it is some type of failure, filing it into places like hospitals, morgues, funeral homes and cemetaries. It's like death has become a spectator sport to distance ourselves from, to gaze upon with the same type of curiousity that one would have watching to see if someone would jump when they are standing on the edge of somewhere high.

You know you would watch too. But what would you be thinking?

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Fun at the Mall...



Living beside the World's Largest Mall can be fun sometimes. After a work day like I have had, I deserve some fun.

Today at work, just when we thought the work day was over, a call comes in from the U of A hospital. A suicidal male with a gun. 4:00 in the afternoon, and the entire university is about to go home. So everyone has to help out, people have to be emailed so they know not to leave certain buildings by certain entrances, traffic has to be re routed, buses need to be stopped. EPS has snipers on the rooftops, just in case. It was an odd time of morbid excitement mixed in with geniune serious concern. I was just thinking it might actually end well when over the radio a voice said "shots fired in the hospital bay." And then it was over, done, resolved.

Life's like that sometimes.

Monday, March 22, 2004

Greek Mythology

Fantastically compelling stories full of passion, intrigue, magic, adventure, suspense and tragedy.

Sounds a lot like my life!

Oh... did I mention I hate the Royal Bank?

THIS HEADLINE IS INVALID

And so is this Election.

It was the decision of the Review Board at the U of C SU to dismiss the results of the 2004 SU Election.

Pursuant to section 96(3)(a) of the Election Bylaw, the Students' Union election of 2004 is declared invalid and the Board hereby orders a new election to be held.

It's like a train wreck you can't help but watch... Student politics can be very interesting at times. In the words of Jeff Foxworthy... "Here's your sign..."

Liberation?

A year after the beginning of the "war" on Iraq... the words of an Iraqi woman say it better than I could...

"Last year, on this day, the war started during the early hours of the morning... The tears started falling with the first few thuds... It was a familiar feeling because it wasn't, after all, the first time America was bombing us. It didn’t seem fair that it was such a familiar feeling."

"That was the beginning of the 'liberation'… a liberation from sovereignty, a certain sort of peace, a certain measure of dignity. We've been liberated from our jobs, and our streets and the sanctity of our homes… some of us have even been liberated from the members of our family and friends."

"But we've learned a lot. We've learned that terrorism isn't actually the act of creating terror. It isn't the act of killing innocent people and frightening others… no, you see, that's called a 'liberation'. It doesn't matter what you burn or who you kill- if you wear khaki, ride a tank or Apache or fighter plane and drop missiles and bombs, then you're not a terrorist- you're a liberator."

"The war on terror is a joke… Madrid was proof of that last week… Iraq is proof of that everyday. I hope someone feels safer, because we certainly don't."

Read all of her blog post at Baghdad Burning.


Sunday, March 21, 2004

Is the eternal search for meaning Destiny or Legacy?

I am who I am, aren't I? Always changing, growing, living. Tomorrow I will be someone different, yet still me at my core. Will you remember me?

Everything I write is different, yet I recognize myself in everything; it is afterall, the same as what I wrote before, and will write - again.

Life is full of many questions, and the answers all lead to yet more questions. Answers and questions always the same, perpetually generating our myth of who we are.

So...

Who are we? Why are why here? Why do we believe the things we believe? How do we know the things we think we know? Who gave us our values? What is the purpose of it all? When is it too late?

Inspired by: Run Lola Run

Friday, March 19, 2004

It's a risky prospect

A night of RISK and Scotch (interspersed at times with some Sherry) makes for fun times...

Update: am fairly drunk now. I forgot to mention that today was report card day. Mostly A's and a couple of B's shared between them, we are happy parents. And, we are drunk parents.

Backk to the game.

Monday, March 15, 2004

Maddox and the Appraisal of Children's Artwork

Jon was right... Maddox's children's art collection is a complete blast. I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. And then when I did catch some air, all I could do was laugh until I couldn't see the commentary anymore. My favourite is the firetruck...

WARNING! Baby Jesus cries when I blog about Sex.

This site belongs to an adult, sexually active woman and sometimes I might talk about sex. I might even talk about sex all of the time, if I wanted to. It's my blog, and I will post what I feel like at any given moment. People visit and choose to return, or not, depending on what they find here, as with any other page on the internet. It's commonly referred to as "free will."

If you are under 18 and can't handle sexual or suggestive content, just don't come back. Don't bother to leave me a comment lecturing me/us on restricting my/our content or what type of sexual conduct you believe is appropriate with my adult partner (drawn of course from your immense sexual experience I am sure).

If you can't run with the big dogs, just stay on the porch.

Saturday, March 13, 2004

Whomever said it was a dog's life...



Has never met our cat!

"Where is my husband?"



Tragedy, pain, fear, courage and pride all mixed together was what I felt this morning reading the Globe and Mail, safe in my comfortable home, drinking my morning coffee that my lovely partner, the love of my life had made me. The cover story touched me.

In Madrid and other places across Spain yesterday, over 1.5 million people took to the streets in a strong defiance to protest the sensless deaths of 200 of their countrymen killed in the terrorist bombing last Thursday.



The day after this huge tragedy, in the midst of their grief and anger, I admire and find myself inspired by the spirit of these people. Carrying signs that said "Murderers" and chanting "We were all on that train" their caring and solidarity has awakened within me something I don't think we often feel here in the North Americas. My humanity, as far as it goes that I share the same worries, fears, joys and fate of every other human on this earth. A sense of family, brotherhood, sisterhood. A sort of defiant security within the insecurity of this world that we share.

"We" really were all on that train. But do we know where we are going?

Friday, March 12, 2004

One Rule Book to Rule them all



Thanks to Quynn, who gave me LORD OF THE RINGS RISK for my birthday, we had a great evening. And even though Duncan had the rule book, and was "in charge" of interpretting the rules, Quynn still won.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

Cry Me A River Bertuzzi




Mr Bertuzzi may be a good hockey player, one of the best even. But he sucks at being an NHL player. Bertuzzi, poor baby, with all his fake crocodile tears, really didn't incite much sympathy from myself.

What he did was bad. If I did that in my office, to someone I worked with (or in opposition to), I'd be leaving in handcuffs, and rightly so. If the majority of people can act within a norm of decency then I think we can and should expect that from highly paid professional athletes. I like a good fight as much as the next Canadian hockey fan, but thats not what happened here.

It disgusts me when our stars decide to act out in this way because, as a hockey parent, it's hard enough worrying about the safety of little bodies without the worry that somebody will try to imitate their hero in similiar fashion. No one needs to see someone dead on the ice in the midst of our greatest game.

Then it really is game over.

Story Number Two

Via: The Gateway, U of Alberta

Student stabbed on campus

Story Number One

Via: The Gauntlet, U of Calgary.

Library Stabbing at the U of A

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

I sometimes don't know how I do it.

Life gets interesting when you walk those grey areas of "off the record" - "on the record." Especially when the situation involves a criminal investigation that, by virtue of my journalistic integrity, I don't want to compromise in any way. (Yet so many juicy details...)

Since the stabbing yesterday I have been a busy beaver. I have just finished writing articles for two newspapers. This has entailed that I spend large amounts of my time today (and yesterday) interviewing all sorts of people, listening to many rumors and gruesome stories, following blood splatter trails, and conversing with people who enjoy exciting careers in investigation and forensics. As well, I worked both days, and somehow last night found the time to watch Schindler's List with Duncan. Afterwards we talked until 230am. Who needs sleep?

Tonight, upon arriving home, we discovered that we had a message detailing emergent plans to dine with Murray and Quynn, asap. Not being one to ever turn down the Minister (or Quynn for that matter) I quickly changed out of work clothes, encouraged my children to bathe and dress appropriately, and tried to do some work on the stories before leaving. Dinner was great - both the company and the conversation was pleasurable, and well worth the harrassing I endured from my editor after I got home to finish the story.

In my spare time I also managed to acquire a second job with the university, which begins Friday (tomorrow I am attending a Public Relations and Affairs Workshop). Its part time, but pays as much as my fulltime job did, and maybe a bit more. I may or may not continue working two part time jobs. We shall see.

Right now I am a little tired, as all the action winds down. But suddenly the world seems, well, oddly, quiet and stress free.

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Oh My god.

Somebody was just stabbed here at the U of A.

Spring mornings at last!

I love snuggling with Duncan in the mornings. We lay there in bed, bodies together, fingers intertwined, breathing in each other, snoozing and pushing the snooze button "just one more time."

These mornings are even better now that the sun is up before the alarm goes off. It doesn't seem like so much theft of sleep now when that buzzing happens. Spring always makes me feel better, but this was the hardest and coldest winter ever, so I appreciate it all that more!

Sunday, March 07, 2004

Gonna be 18 'til I die!

My lovely fiance serenaded me this morning, with a big (and mischievious) smile on his face... These are the words he sang to me, courtesy of Paul Simon:

The first time I heard "Peggy Sue"
I was 12 years old
Russians up in rocket ships
and the war was cold
now many wars have come and gone
Genocide still goes on
Buddy Holly still goes on
but his catalog was sold

First time I smoked
guess what - paranoid
First time I heard "Satisfaction"
I was young and unemployed
Down the decades every year
Summer leaves and my birthday's here
And all my friends stand up and cheer
And say man you're old
Getting old, Old, Getting old

We celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas day
And Buddha found Nirvana along the Lotus Way
About 1,500 years ago the messenger Mohammed spoke
And his wisdom like a river flowed
Through hills of gold
Wisdom is old
The Koran is old
The Bible is old
Greatest story ever told

Disagreements?
Work 'em out

The human race walked the Earth for 2.7 million
And we estimate the universe about 13-14 billion
When all these numbers tumble into your imagination
Consider that the Lord was there before creation
God is old, We're not old, God is old
He made the mold


It was so sweet. I have been well spoiled today. My wonderful daughter even made me coffee this morning (and I didn't know she knew how to operate the coffee machine) and despite some trepidation it was actually quite good! I had to get up very early (hockey Mom) with my darling son and the very first thing he said to me was "happy birthday Mommy." I went back to bed after he left and woke up with presents on my bed. We just finished birthday brunch and now I can play with my presents before Sushi tonght!

Happy Birthday to Me! I am the happiest woman in the world!

Saturday, March 06, 2004

Suddenly, light as a feather, she flutters...

I am excited because tonight Duncan is taking me to see Madame Butterfly, a love story told as an opera in two acts. I love the Opera.


"Every bunny loves some bunny sometime"



He's my Hunny-Bunny...

Friday, March 05, 2004

We have breached 10,000!

I have reached that blogger milestone that excites each and every blogger, and I am kind of tickled. It's a nice touch to my weekend, as the festivities for my birthday begins. Today I was treated like a princess at work and was taken for lunch at a delightful little resturant called the Happy Garden. It was very nice. The weekend is full of promise and I am excited and looking forward to The Opera on Saturday and sharing Sushi Sunday evening with friends and my kidlets.

Thursday, March 04, 2004

Is that Sarcasm on her face?

When Zoe is out of water this is how she decides to garner our attention and induce enough guilt to produce the desired effect (water in her bowl).







I have no idea how long the water has to be empty before she employs this strategy.


Wednesday, March 03, 2004

Sometimes the greatest news comes via email!

My regular readers are likely vaguley aware that every once in a while I talk about trying to find my friend Shawn (with whom I lost touch with when I left BC). Well, I have been looking, and a couple of days ago I found a reference to her on the web from 2001 - so I sent emails to everyone at the organization to see if they remembered her. Today I got an answer - and my email has been forwarded to Shawn's last known email address.

So now I cross my fingers in anticipation and hope, and wait a while for a response.

UPDATE: Success! I got an email from Shawn! Now, the catching up begins...

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Aging gracefully, or not...

There remains FIVE days until my birthday.

Yes. I am a Pisces. Does that surprise you?