Words can not describe how big a day it was today, so (since I am tired) I will let the pictures tell the story tonight.
My life is an adventure and through all the terrific (and terrible) moments during all the years of my life, I’m proud of the person I am – and excited about whom I am becoming. I am a work in progress, evolving, ever thinking, chasing my dreams, and in many ways I hope to always be that way.
I perceive myself both growing up and being a grown up, but time is seductively illusive, and everything still seems like yesterday, or even just the day before, and I still have all the time in the world ahead of me. With a suitable inventory of experience behind me I recognize that my reality is altered significantly, sometimes even without my noticing, by the influence of each event upon my life. Memories of gentle touches and happy times are as important to who I am as my battle scars and bruises, and I welcome their impact on my love affair with life. Allow me to introduce you to the Milestones that have shaped and changed me:
I have found my new favourite place. I finally have a hair dresser of my very own again - only took two winters in this place but Edmonton is starting to be like home.
John and Jackie Knill were on vacation together in Thailand when the Tsunami struck. Sadly they were both killed by the tsunami wave.
We will never know what was going through their minds in those last few seconds of life, but they chose to take pictures of the approaching wave and leave us something of the end to their story.
As humans we often muse about our own ending, about how it might unfold, what we might think at that moment, how we will face it, or perhaps, if it will mean anything... John and Jackie Knill have left a unique illustration of their final moments and circumstances for us to see.
Governor General Adrienne Clarkson is my new Hero. She says the "Cup belongs to Canada" and that she's already petitioned Paul Martin and his cabinet about the possibility of a challenge cup outside the auspices of the NHL, saying that she feels it's her duty to fulfill the wishes of her predecessor Lord Stanley of Preston (to have the cup awarded in a challenge annually).
Clarkson further suggests the Cup be contested in a challenge between the world's best women's hockey teams – the Canadian and U.S. national squads. I guess who issues the challenge matters a little less to me, I just want to see the Stanley Cup played for and hoisted this year.
And that's Jerk with a capital "J".
The apparent master of all cheap shots, Canuck Captain Markus Naslund (aka elitist bully) took the Bertuzzi/Moore escapades to a personal and dirty level yesterday when he decided to attack Ex-Avalanche Steve Moore's character (and credentials) over his recently filed lawsuit, stopping just short of calling him a crybaby.
My Blogiversary! Summer's Daydreams is two years old!
I guess I should change my template soon...
What the HELL is wrong with Hotmail? I can't send anything, it has page errors so, it has run errors, it loses messages and it isn't sending them, it keeps making me prove I am not a webot by forcing me to type silly annoying text in a confirmation box. I mean, I know it is free, but what the hell is going on with it? Time to move up my plan for my own webmail account...
Darrin Morley Browatzke, age 30, was killed in northern Alberta when the SUV he was travelling in crashed head on into a semi trailer truck.
Minister Gary Mar, who is charged with planning our centennial celebrations, proposes making September 1 2005 (Alberta's 100th birthday) a one time statutory holiday.
That means a five day long weekend for Alberta. Bring it on!
Perhaps it is just that my imagination is biased by years of disaster films but reading an advertisment for an Alaskan Cruise today brought me pause at the grandiose description of the ship:
With the NHL Season now officially gone (RIP) it is time to start the process to get a challenge for The Cup underway.
It is Free Stanley's Firm belief that the Trustees of the cup are duty-bound to award the cup each year to the best team in the Dominion of Canada. We think that that could be you. To be counted in, you simply have to contact the Stanley Cup trustees and issue a challenge for the Cup.
Download a draft challenge letter.
Me (observing our bus driver aggressively "merging" into traffic): I'm not sure the correct term for this is "merging." It's more like we are "melding."
Duncan: Melding? That's not a word. You're making words up again.
Me: Melding is a word. You know (hand motions for emphasis indicating two things coming together), "melding."
Duncan: (mocking me) I'll bet you 10.00 that it's not a word.
Me: (perplexed) O.K.
Duncan: (more mocking)Is dictionary.com ok for our results?
I specify Alberta because dualling groundhogs across North America seem to be at odds with their contradictory predictions of when spring will make it here.
Balzac Billy makes it a Happy Groundhog Day for the people of Alberta by being so kind as to NOT see his shadow, and therefore predicting an early spring.
Thank-you Balzac Billy.
For the interested, the begginings of today's traditional Groundhog Day apparently began in 1887 in Punxsutawney, Pa, where early settler's believed that if the sun shone on February 2 then winter (and their misery) would continue another 6 weeks. This belief is based on the mythology surrounding the Catholic feast of Candlemas (Purification of the Blessed Virgin, Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple).
Is it February Already? Where on earth did January go? I guess time flies when you are having fun!
I have blogged about Terri Schiavo before, and it's really no secret how I feel about the situation. Her "husband" (read the man who abandoned her 12 years ago and is patiently waiting to officially marry his new wife with whom he has two children) seems determined to spur her death, and today it seems closer than ever.
At 66 years old, Adriana Iliescu has become the world's oldest woman to give birth. She and her daughter, Eliza Maria, are in good condition in the intensive care units at the Giulesti Maternity Hospital in Bucharest. Eliza weighed in at 3.19 pounds when she entered this world, maybe below the norm but not terrible by today's standards.
Why does so much controversy surround the choices that this woman has made? It is her body, her life, her family, and to a large degree none of our business. Yet it was the topic of much discussion for successive days in my office lunch room. I am getting very tired of it. I mean, really... what is so wrong with it?
Iliescu has lead a good life as a successful author and academic. She was artificially inseminated using sperm and egg from anonymous donors, and after nine years of trying to conceive she finally has the baby she wanted, dreamed of, longed and hoped for. This wasn't a whim of fancy.
There are no guarantees in life. None. How many of us can guarentee our children we will be there until they are grown? Until they have babies of their own? How many of us can guarantee we will even be around next year? We might want to be there, but that’s not always how life works. Live for the day. Love while you can. The same people that would take care of your children, the same financial planning and legal protections that you put in place for your families, all these will be there for this child too when she loses her mother. And she will lose her mother - we all will.
In a world that is so full of pain, unwanted children, abuse, extortion, anger and violence is there not room for love and acceptance? No matter how things turn out, this little girl’s life is worth it. She is here now. She deserves to be here.
Welcome Eliza.
Bush and his Administration have just Super-sized the Axis of Evil... North Korea, Cuba, Myanmar, Iran, Belarus, and Zimbabwe are now officially designated as "Outposts of Tyranny." Look out over there... the next four years have begun already.
Only one way to celebrate this warming trend... go out and buy some chocolate!!!
I just found out Wesley is going to be on CHED 630 radio on Thursday to talk about raising money for UNICEF! I am excited!
Wesley is accompanying his Principal downtown to UNICEF today to turn in his donations that he raised to help the children impacted by the Eartquake and subsequent Tsunami's. All together, including online donations, personal cash and cheque donations, and the event he held at his school (donations from student's and staff) Wesley raised just over $1200.00!! Double that with the matching funds promised by the federal government and that becomes $2400.00!!
I am so proud of him! He did an awesome job, and all in the past six days. He inspired and motivated everybody around him and certainly did manage to make a difference. Good job Wesley. Good job Canada!
The Canadian Government has promised $265 million in aid to include humanitarian aid, the deployment of Canada's DART, debt moratorium for the affected countries and $150 million to match the donations made by individual Canadians. ($150 million in personal donations made by Canadians!) A further $160 million will go toward reconstruction efforts between 2005 and 2009.
Making German musical history as the youngest artist to make the top ten (let alone number 1), 4 year old Joy Gruttman's song, "Snappy the Little Crocodile" ("Schnappi, das kleine Krokodil") is the number 1 hit song right now on the German charts. Joy made up the song and for fun her family posted it on their website. A radio station in Cologne found it, aired it and it has become a hit, even being remixed for use at German night/dance clubs.
I like it. Very Snappy.
Ah, Diplomacy. I won my first game of it, but my darling husband suggests there is more to the game than, well, just simply winning. After some research I have decided he is right. In playing Diplomacy moral posturing seems untenable and anti-social tendencies are triumphant. Diplomacy is a game of skill... the art of letting someone else have your way for you... it's like feeding a crocodile so it will eat you last and then using that time to plot how you are going to kill it before it is hungry enough to come for you (Hat tip: Winston Churchill).
Duncan and I saw the Phantom of the Opera last night with Brett and Beatrice. It was Phantastic. Although I must admit it was nothing close to seeing it performed live on stage (which I have done twice), something about the way they weave the magic of the story on the stage that just can't be captured in a movie. But, still, made me remember why I love Phantom so much... So moving, so dark, so romantic, so sad... the characters are real enough to feel yourself in them.
The Manitoba New Democrat Party government just posted a 604 million dollar deficit (despite having actual legislation to prevent them from having a deficit). This is their third consecutive deficit and the largest since 1993, when the N.D.P. in that province overspent by 822 million dollars.
No wonder those spend happy freaks are so eager to try to get into government here in Alberta. They could spend all of Alberta's riches in a heart beat. I hate the N.D.P.
Wesley is raising money for Unicef Canada to help the children affected by the Earthquake and subsequent Tsunamis. He has set a personal goal to raise 1000.00 both online and at his school. If you would like to support his efforts, click here.
All donations made by January 11 2005 will be matched by the Canadian government.
Our puppy Luna loves the snow.
She braves the cold (it's currently -21 here) to go and play, dig, frolic and eat the snow. Who would have thought that a dog that was born in Thailand, and then brought to Vancouver Island in BC, would end up loving the snow in Edmonton Alberta? If only we could all be as happy as puppies...
This is one of my favourite pictures of 2004.
Obviously taken on our wedding day, we are in Murray's office at the Legislature, kissing on the desk that used to belong to Premier Aberhart. It was a glorious day - and my favourite out of the whole year!
Sometimes I search endlessly for the right words to describe the experience of how Duncan came into my awareness, and into my world. The scope of my language is often ill equipped to render such experiences with any justice at all, and often my own understanding of it is distant - the beginning of a world with Duncan and Allie together borders on the mystical and mysterious, a realm known best by the heart and spirit... and then other times I stumble unwittingly across words that speak to me of that time in much more a powerful way than they ever intended. In Duncan's new X-Box game, Knights of the Old Republic II, the Jedi Assasin Visas says this:
Ever wonder what us Canadians do all winter long? No, they aren't x-rated photos. But yes, we do that too!
Duncan's favourite gift is his good luck dragon Kimono. As usual, he was the first one awake on Christmas morning, excited about opening his gifts, including his new Knights of the Old Republic II game, West Wing third season, the extended versions of the Lord of the Ring movies and his new board game Diplomacy... among other things!
This Christmas was one of the most beautiful and wonderful Christmas's ever, everything was perfect. Duncan, as my husband for the first Christmas ever, is the best gift I could ever dream of. He brings magic back to my Christmas's!
Raven's favourite gift is her new Barbie doll house, but she is also excited about her new board game Horseopoly and her Barbie carriage. She will never know how hard it was to find that Barbie Doll House, and how, right up to the very end, I was worried I wouldn't get her one. But, with a little faith, patience and perserverance, Duncan and I found one. And it was worth it!
