Happy St. Patrick's Day

When I was 16, I used to wear a button on my backpack that said World's cutest leprechaun. I was pretty cool. Today I'm wearing a plastic shamrock that has been in our family for many years. Michael is wearing another button I dug up, one that claims he is an Honourary leprechaun. He also gets to attend a St. Paddy's Day potluck at lunch. Lucky. He made a corned beef, potato and sauerkraut dish in our slow cooker over night, which was a strange smell to wake up to. Aside from sampling the beef, I honoured the day by reading Belfast's 'new troubles' are really no trouble from the Saturday Globe & Mail over breakfast, an optimistic story. If you want to get up to something a little cheerier, I recommend making these chocolate whiskey and beer cupcakes and sharing one with me.

Steve Martin and Me

I want to say several things quickly. Most of those things have something to do with Steve Martin and/or tentative plans.

First, I don't know what's up with Steve Martin. I want to love him, but I have a hard time making it happen. I didn't really like his over-the-top performance in 30 Rock last week. It was too much! Most of his recent performances have been too much! I remember loving him dearly, so Michael and I have tentative plans to watch L.A. Story to see if we can rekindle the feeling.

Second, I was thinking about The Jerk (starring Steve Martin) because Zoe and Dan were talking about it, and that reminded me of the song You Belong to Me. I tracked it down and I thought I would post the clip here because it's my dad's birthday and he loves this song too. Don't you want to gobble up Bernadette Peters? And what about the trumpet? And Steve Martin's reaction to the trumpet?



Finally, while I was looking for that song, I found this:



It looks like I'm going to learn how to play the ukulele from a teacher named boozelele and it's all thanks to Steve Martin. That's the tentative plan anyway.

Living skies

The licence plates in Saskatchewan claim the province is the land of the living skies. Hear, hear! This photo was taken behind Rosetown Central High School during our visit home for Thanksgiving. Isn't it strange to think that I once watched football on those same bleachers? Wearing my matching Rosetown Royals hoody and jogging pants? That's what happens when you're in grade eight and you have a crush on a footall player. Don't let it happen to you!


We had lots of family time, including two Thanksgiving dinners, but our camera was focussed on our nephew for the most part. Can you blame us?

Birthday update: I didn't bake anything for Michael's birthday, but I did take him to Pure Vanilla, an amazing bakery in Oak Bay, on Sunday. The cakes were tempting, but he opted for a selection of cookies (pumpkin cookies with maple icing, anyone?).

Tonight, tonight won't be just any night...

I've been blogging in my head for the last week or so, but I guess that doesn't count. I'm posting this photo to hold you over until I get around to a real post (tomorrow! or the next day!):


I'm watching West Side Story tonight! Some of us have been making tentative plans to (re)watch this movie for a long time (years). It's finally happening. Look at those outfits!

Even though it means winter is around the corner

Can I just say that I love fall? Every day has been beautiful since we got back a week ago. I get some kind of weird energy from the feeling in the air at this time of the year. This morning I was all, "Let's go camping this weekend...let's go to Vancouver sometime soon...do you want to go to Tofino next week?" It's making me crazy, but in an enduring way.

On Northern Ireland from Siena

Even though I was encouraged to take a break from the blog while on holiday, I can't stay away. Today I will share a few photos from Ireland, but I'll leave it at that. I foresee a lot of reflecting once I get home.

This is my favorite photo from Northern Ireland. As you will see from the photo below, Ireland is THAT green. It's green because it rains ALL the time. We spent two days in Templepatrick, which is near Belfast, and five days in Portrush, a vacation town on the north coast. All of the family time, including the wedding, was wonderful. The only bad parts were the jet lag (which I suffered from more than the others) and the stress my poor dad experienced as he drove us around. None of us wanted to share the responsibility.

Sheep! Another Irish cliché that is based on truth.

We took this photo at Ballintoy Harbour, a place that I visited during my solo trip to Ireland 10 years ago. I was happy to have a buddy with me this time around.

There's too much to capture in this one post, so maybe I'll tell you about our Black Cab tour of Belfast and our trip to Derry another time. Maybe not.

Down with the old canoe

Sometimes I'm sad that Hollywood took over some of my childhood passions. The Lord of the Rings can't be mentioned without images of Orlando Bloom and Liv Tyler coming to mind. Similarly, the Titanic can't be referenced without acknowledging the 1997 mammoth blockbuster that starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Although I love Winslet and I'm partial to DiCaprio, I did not like that movie. I didn't like it because it was based on a fictional love story when fiction wasn't necessary. There was plenty of real heart-break to communicate. Also, that song by Celine Dion sucked.

My interest in the Titanic started in grade 8 when we had to read A Night to Remember, and the research hobby spiraled from there. After political science, I've probably read more about the Titanic than any other subject (although don't ask me to regurgitate any details, since this all took place years ago). My grandma also had an interest in the Titanic, and maintained that Down with the Old Canoe was the best book on the subject.I tried reading it when I was younger, but was turned off by the academic tone. It may be time to give it another try.

Last fall CBC Radio advertised the Titanic exhibit that was coming to the Royal BC Museum, and I called my grandma to share the news of our good fortune, without realizing that the exhibit wouldn't be coming until April. Once we found out, we were still excited about it, of course, and had tentative plans to go together.

As many of you know, my grandma passed away in February.

Michael brought me to the exhibit as an early birthday present, and I'm happy to report that it wasn't that good, and I know my grandma would have agreed. I was disappointed by the focus on the remnants from the wreck site. It was mildly interesting to see a plate from the first-class china set; it was specially-made for the Titanic and didn't even make it through one voyage, yet it survived on the bottom of the sea floor for decades; but while the surviving plate may bring to mind the class themes that dominate the Titanic story, it doesn't capture the main draw of the Titanic story: it was a perfect tragedy. Dozens of events lined up to create such a devastating outcome: the crew that was looking for icebergs didn't have binoculars; if the Titanic had hit the berg head on, instead of turning at the last moment, it wouldn't have sunk: if there were enough life boats, no one would have died: if the nearby ship hadn't assumed the emergency flairs were fire works, it would have been able to save hundreds of people. Those are the bits that people want to hear about.

There was one aspect of the exhibit that I did like, even though I found it a bit morbid. When we went in, Michael and I were given male and female boarding passes. They had information about who we were traveling with, our circumstances of travel and what we did for a living. At the end of the exhibit we were able to check lists of the saved and the lost to see if we made it. It was an effective way to illustrate the personal level of tragedy that resulted when the ship when down.

Michael's pass was for Richard George Hocking. He died, but his family all survived. Mine was for Charlotte Annie Tate. I survived with my baby, but my husband died. See what I mean? Fictional stories are not necessary.

Grandma

Did I stutter?

Before Christmas I was having a conversation with Michael about how I don't like parodies. It was a sweeping statement that was brought on by Weird Al Yankovic. Strangely, later that day I searched YouTube for the video of a song called Stutter Rap. I performed this song as an airband when I was 12 or 13 with a few girlfriends in Rosetown (I remember Marla was in the "band," but who else? I don't recall). We had no idea what the song was about, but we performed it with zeal during the annual airband competition at the arena. Yes, there was such a competition in Rosetown. We didn't win, but at least I found the video 14 years after the fact. I also found out that the song is a parody of the Beastie Boys. How 'bout that? It's worth watching, if only to imagine the airband version.



Another funny thing about this song is one of the "rappers" - Tony Hawks - wrote a book called Round Ireland with a Fridge, which my Ireland family gave me a few years back. It's hilarious, as you can imagine, and I highly recommend it.

Look forward to an upcoming post about a new tentative plan of mine: respect people's recommendations.

Five years of emailing Christmas greetings

2002:


2003:


2004:


2005:


2006:

Wedding number one

Marla and Ben's wedding was, for me, part wedding, part high school reunion and part drunken photo shoot. I graduated with all those kids in the top photo, and even though that particular photo is sort of blurry, maybe due to the drinks consumed by a certain Michael Bowen, I just love how Erin Coulter is getting down! I look pretty sassy myself, and that doesn't hurt. The following chandelier photos illustrate our photo theme for the evening; they got progressively worse as the night wore on, which is why they aren't all posted here. The first one of Janis, Marla's bridesmaid and one of my favorite ladies, is the one that started it all. Michael took that photo too, but I also took many photos during our vacation (the best of which I'll post over the next couple of days). I'm fulfilling one of my original tentative plans! However, I failed miserably in my goal to make perogies before my trip home. That plan was hard to fulfill since I'm not supposed to eat wheat anymore.

Way down yonder on the chattahoochee

What is a chattahoochee? Or where is it referring to? Should it be capitalized? All I know for certain is that as I bopped my head to this country gem at the first of two prairie weddings, I wished with all my heart that my west coast buddies could come to my home province for a visit. It's a different world. Right now Michael and I are in Prince Albert, where we are preparing for his sister's wedding. In between making mass quantities of potato salad and drinking sorry excuses for americanos, we've found time to explore Michael's home town on rusty bikes (without helmets, obviously) and in my parents car (we're so thankful they loaned it to us because it has provided us the ability to escape this house full of people and animals - soon to be five dogs and two cats - at a moment's notice). I'll post some pictures of our adventures next week.

Free to be you and me

I don't want to be a lazy blogger. It's easy to post a link to a fabulous video (see previous entry) and not explain exactly what this song means to me and where it comes from, but that's not what this blog is about. Friends, this blog has depth.


The video is from Free to be you and me - the best show you could ever show your children. Note the famous names involved in the production, above. Marlo Thomas played Rachel's mom on Friends, FYI. The show was made in 1971 and I first watched it in grade 2 (1986-87), possibly on a film projector. I struck gold when I befriended Marla Sanderson in grade 3 because, aside from being the sharpest kid in the class and a great friend to boot, her family owned the show. They had one of these machines that plays videos that were the size of record album covers. Anyone know what kind of machine was that was? No matter, we watched the puppet babies enough to memorize bits of dialogue that have never left me:

- I'm a baby!
- Well what you think I am a loaf of bread?
- You could be, what do I know, I'm just born, I'm a baby, I don't even know if I'm under a tree or in a hospital or what, I'm just so glad to be here.
- Well, I'm a baby too.
- Have it your own way, I don't want to fight about it.

The memory of that dialogue, however faded, was too tantalizing to ignore for long. A few years back I decided to track the show down - not too hard thanks to the Internet. I ordered the dvd and prepared Michael for the wonder that is Michael Jackson as a black child. He couldn't resist the show either, but he had his own favorite song: Parents are people. It goes a little something like this:

Daddies are people
People with children
When daddies were little they used to be boys
Like some of you but then they grew
And now daddies are men
Men with children
Busy with children and things that they do
There are a lot of things a lot of daddies can do

Some daddies are writers, or grocery sellers,
Or painters or welders, or funny joke tellers,
Some daddies play cello, or sail on the sea,
Yeah, daddies can be almost anything they wanna be.

You can bet that Michael is singing the lyrics in his head as he reads them. It's a catchy song, believe me or listen to it yourself: YouTube has almost all of the show's segments available here.

I don't have the dvd anymore, which is why I'm relying on YouTube and my blog to share the good times. I gave it to Mike and Meera (in the days before we invested in a dvd burner) so they could show it to their three lovely children; I'm so glad I passed it on because now I get to imagine Manas singing and dancing to the songs, as I'm told he was wont to do.

I hope you all get a little enjoyment out of the show or the lyrics or this sentimental jibber jabber. Remember (and this one goes out to Robyn, who's about to leave her beau in London for a few months):

It's alright to cry,
Crying gets the sad out of you.
It's alright to cry,
It might make you feel better!

Well said.

Will I be on the moon?

This song is gold. Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson gold. I'll tell you more about the show this segment comes from another day. Maybe tomorrow. You'll thank me for posting it.

Meme's the word

Brie and her buddy Simone came up with their own meme a few days ago. I only had the imagination to answer a few of the questions here. If you're up to it and/or bored at work on Friday afternoon, you can copy the questions and answer them in your own blog or answer them in my comments section.

Describe your favourite pair of underwear:
Tina makes underwear and other things under the Vancouver clothing label Oona. I especially love her cinchy gitch. I have many pairs because they are very comfortable.

Favourite sandwich toppings?
I can't eat wheat right now, but when I do eat sandwiches, I love roasted veggies (onions, egg plant and red pepper), feta and fresh basil.

Four favourite desserts?
The chocolate and cherry cake I had at Long Beach Lodge will always be my favorite dessert. When I lived in Tofino we went to the hotel lounge to watch the sun set on occasion. They baked your personal-size cake fresh when you ordered and the inside was saucy, sort of like a lava cake but high class. I could eat it four times over.

Your ideal cocktail would include what ingredients?
Right now I'd like Pimm's and Ginger Ale with a slice of cucumber.

Five songs you could listen to over and over and over:
Mahgeetah - My Morning Jacket
Corner Store - Jonathan Richman
One Night in Bangkok - from Chess
Somewhere There's Music - the version from Biloxi Blues
The Coast - Paul Simon

A quote that summarizes your outlook on life:
"Is this a shifter car? I cannot drive a shifter car, alright, so we got a little situation here. I can't drive these kinda cars! What the fuck is goin' on! You think that's funny? Would you like to know, smartass? Would you like to know why I can't drive this kinda car? I'll tell you why, I'm used to luxury cars. Have you ever heard of a luxury car? You know what luxury means? Ever heard of Cadillac, Cadillac Eldorado? That's what I drive. I drive cars that shift themselves." - Billy Brown in Buffalo 66

"I never let the facts get in the way of the truth." - Farley Mowat

Bath or shower?
None of the above.

Are there mouldy things in your fridge?
I clean out my fridge every week but something always manages to go bad on me. So yes.

Percentage of time spent at work actually working:
75% on a good day, when there's actually work to do.

You’ve been given $1000 to spoil yourself with, what would you buy/do?
I'd buy a plane ticket to Ireland (which I hear go for about that much). I want to see the latest addition to the family and also the little one that's expected next year.