I am Chorus

Attachment

2012-01-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

I can't wear my wedding ring any more.

I was fairly certain that this day would arrive sooner than later and I turned out to be right. I can still wear the engagement ring, but even it is not long for my left hand, I fear.

It's not a big deal and I know that it's temporary, but I was much more sad about it than I thought I would be.

I love my rings. I look at them every day and think about my husband and my marriage and our home and our life together. They're a constant corner-of-my-eye reminder of how lucky I am to have what I have.

I know that they are just "things," and that in the grand scheme of things, they don't matter. I know that if we had no material symbols of our marriage at all, we would still be happy and committed to each other. I know all these things.

But I miss my ring.

But then, eventually, I feel a might boot to the side of my abdomen and I'm reminded why it is that the rings will be in a box on my dresser and not on my hand.

And that's a pretty nifty thing.

Catching up, catching up

2012-01-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well, my dear friends, aside from being a negligent blogger, life continues on apace!

We are now almost 28 weeks pregnant, so just at the beginning of our third trimester. I feel bigger every day, and every time that I think that this baby can't get any stronger, he/she delivers a kick stronger than any I've felt before.

I have absolutely loved being pregnant.

Relative to many, I think that I have had a pretty easy pregnancy. Some morning sickness that extended almost all of the way through my second trimester, but nothing too bad or too disruptive to every day life. I've been lucky to have had no medical complications (knock on wood) thus far. My doctor is confident that the pregnancy and the birth will be straightforward and low risk. I have grown and gained weight at pretty standard rates and the little one has done all the things he/she is expected to approximately when he/she was expected to do them.

So we have had lots of time to simply enjoy the experience, for which I am immensely grateful. I try to spend some time every day just watching my stomach move or feeling the kicks and punches and rolls without doing anything else. Just taking that time is part of a general intent in my life to uncomplicate and slow down before the baby comes.

Slowing down seems to have resulted in more time for things like cooking, planning the nursery, shopping and reading, all of which I'm enjoying.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that life isn't busy, but it's a very fun and interesting kind of busy!

Hope to blog more in the near future about it!

Friday Five! Scattered...

2011-10-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Revkjarla at the Rev Gals gives us a scattered Friday Five today!

1. What is something you are chronically looking for, if anything?

There are two things that WH and I seem to have difficulty keeping in one agreed-upon location are our cheque book and our passports. They seem to migrate from one place to another and are never exactly where we need them to be when we need them to be there!

2. What movie are you looking forward to watching sometime in the future?

Sometime in the future I would really like to sit down and watch the first two Godfather movies. Never seen them!

3. What is one of your favorite comfort foods? (me, pizza. hands down).

Easy! Chips and dip.

4. Story time. Tell us a story of one your favorite people that has touched, blessed your life.

Oh gosh... there are way too many people to think of just one!
5. What do you do to focus or calm or center yourself? (please, I need ideas!!!)

I'm a big fan of deeeeeeeeeeeep breaths.

BONUS: Share the first thing (or second thing) that comes to your mind after your read this!

It's time for the ~~first~~ second snack of the day!

Turning the Page

2011-10-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

Hello blogospere! Nice to see you again!

GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT??

We are having a BAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBYYYYYYYYYYY!

Sorry, I tried to think of a soft and gentle and clever way to make that announcement but nothing seemed to quite encapsulate how I feel about it the way that capital letters do.

We had the best summer vacation ever and the very best part about it was our discovery about mid-August that we're expecting our first little one. We are now about 13 weeks along and everything seems to be going well. I have had a little bit of nausea in the first months, but nothing really to complain about. I'm hopeful that those issues will soon be over! Bring on the 2nd trimester, I say!

It's very exciting and my heart is totally and entirely full at the thought of all the people who already love our little lima bean and can't wait to meet him or her. I feel very, very blessed! And very, very thankful!

Stay tuned!

In which Chorus looks ahead to vacation...

2011-06-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

I AM READY FOR A VACATION.

I WANT TO LEAVE FOR VACATION RIGHT-FREAKING-TODAY.

Anyhoo, we are leaving for vacation in a week and I am looking forward AAAAAAAAH WHY CAN'T WE LEAVE TODAY.

We will be driving across this great and beautiful country and a little bit of the great country to the south of us, stopping here and there and everywhere to play golf. Our first destination point is Georgian Bay for three nights with my dad and his wife, then we will head to Ottawa for a week with WH's family, then home via Toronto for our annual Blue Jays game. This year, we'll see the Yankees (Boo!).

Right now, we are flood watching. We did have a hotel reservation in Minot, ND, but the hotel is right in the middle of the area that is recently evacuated, so we've had to shift our plans a bit. We have a hotel reservation and a golf reservation in Grand Forks as well, so we're keeping an eye there too.

It's a beautiful day today in Prairie City, sunny and warm and MAYBE IF WE CAN'T LEAVE FOR VACATION TODAY I COULD JUST GO LAY DOWN IN THE GRASS SOMEWHERE INSTEAD.

I'm finding it hard to focus on work. You might have guessed that.

This weekend

2011-06-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

We are nearing the end of WH's latest examining trip to Closeby Province and I am very, very ready for him to come home. After he's home, the only travel in our near future involves both of us, together, and I can't wait for that.

Fortunately, I have good friends taking care of me while he is away. Yesterday, I went to two baseball games in which the son of our friends, J and D, was playing. LittleJ is five and just about the cutest thing you've ever seen (trust me), and I had a wonderful time watching him play. It's amazing at that age, you know, because from the beginning of the first game to the end of the second game, I could almost SEE him learning things and then applying them. They have a great format in Prairie Hamlet's league; they play two innings, all the kids get to bat each inning, half the kids play in the field each inning and the other half go out into the outfield and practice their batting. The kids get four swings at pitches thrown by a machine, and then they get to hit off the tee. So it's a great balance between ensuring that all of the kids have a positive experience while still learning the skills of the game.

Too much fun, and it was a beautiful day, and this morning I can see all of the places where I missed the sunscreen.

Last night, I attended Prairie City's high school theatre awards and was thoroughly inspired by the quality of young talent that was on display. Our friend D, father of the baseball pro mentioned above, is a drama teacher in Prairie Hamlet, and his students' December production of a Christmas Carol was many times nominated. And, in the end, were the successful winners of the awards for best set design, best costumes, best featured actor (for the young man who played Jacob Marley) and best lead actor (for Scrooge). It was a great thing to witness!

I'm having a quiet morning today, still in bed at 11am sipping my coffee with Mama Cat asleep under the covers, purring so loudly that she's actually vocalizing. Also pushing laundry, so it's not totally lazy. This afternoon is a Princess-themed birthday party for J and D's daughter, S, so I guess I have some wrapping to do. And I just heard the dryer buzz, so I should move things along in that direction too.

Hope you're having a relaxing weekend!

Water on the hosta

2011-06-08T07:40:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons we love our new hostas.

Hey look!

2011-06-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

It's a blog! Fancy that...

Anyhoo, WH is away for the next couple of weeks examining piano exams, bless his heart, so Chorus is on her own. Of course, I have Mama Cat and Baby Cat, who, somewhat inexplicably, take up the same amount of space on the bed as WH, including his portion of covers. I actually woke up at one point last night, sat up, looked at them both and said, "Seriously??" They didn't seem embarassed.

Here we are in June and the weather has been beautiful for the last couple of weeks, but tonight there is a frost warning and a chance of snow. Harumph. I have brought the potted annuals inside and covered the tomatoes and the herbs with pillow cases and that will have to do.

We have had an exciting spring in the garden here at one-oh-six, spending the equivalent of two car payments on perennials for the new garden that WH built me last year. We have this new obsession with hostas; it's quite cute. We also bought 5 trees and as soon as WH is back from his adventure, the trees will go into the ground.

I hope that you're all doing well!

Vegas, Baby!

2011-03-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

Last week, I went to Las Vegas with my best friend and her sister for a girls' weekend! We had a lovely time, and saw a lot of amazing things and spent a fair amount of money! Here are a few scattered thoughts:

We went to see Ka, the Cirque de Soleil show at the MGM Grand. Oh, my friends, if you have the opportunity to see this one, you absolutely must. I actually had a visseral reaction to all the amazing acrobatic work and the jaw-dropping technical aspects of the show. The experience is simply astonishing.
The combination of St. Patrick's Day, March Madness and Spring Break create quite an insane atmosphere on the strip. Whee!
I bought a red hat and red shoes.
I don't think we paid full price for anything that we bought because there are so many coupon books and special deals available. Along that same theme, three words: Premium. Outlet. Mall.
I saw at least four Elvises. (Elvi?)
We ate at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant. It was yummy. We also ate tapas. The tapas was also yummy.
I did not purchase a yardstick plastic drinking vessel that requires a lanyard to be carried. Aren't you proud?
We put a tasteful quantity of money into slot machines while we were there and had fun losing all of it. At one point, we were up $20... but not at the end point.
There were a lot of young women on the strip wearing mini-dresses that didn't fit them properly and ridiculous shoes. I wore capri pants and comfy shoes and was happy.

Adventures in Interior Design cont.

2011-03-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

WH and I continue to wrestle with what to put up on a number of our walls.

This morning, we had the following conversation:

WH: Here's a crazy idea. What if we made our own artwork?
Me: [pause]
WH: No, wait, it would be great! We could take a class on making a canvas and then we could just paint them!
Me: But what if we don't like them?
WH: Then we won't put them up!
Me: But what if I don't like yours and you really like it?
WH: Then we'll put it up. Because I worked hard on it.

Me: Aw, honey... Thanks for writing my blog post for me this morning.

I am addicted to...

2011-02-18T15:13:00.000-08:00

... HGTV.

A couple of recent stays at home during the day have meant finding that HGTV is a really inspiring and lovely way to spend TV-watching time. And as a result of countless episodes of home buying and home decor shows watched in the last couple of months, WH and I are a little bit more motivated to complete some of the home decorating projects that have been trickling along since we moved in.

We went to an antique superstore in Prairie City and found a really nice antique buffet. It needs a little bit of refinishing work but otherwise, it's exactly what we've described wanting for a long time. It's dark wood, with cabinet space big enough to hold our liquor cabinet, small drawers for wine stoppers, corkscrews, coasters, the guest book, etc., and a big drawer for linens. It fits in really nicely with the space and we love it!

Today, we tired to do some more antique shopping for decor items but the local store wasn't open so instead we went to Home Sense, where we found three large wooden candle holders to put next to our fireplace downstairs. Then off to Michael's to buy nice big candles for them!

We are now also on a pretty active search for artwork for the walls in our living room. We were looking at a design website this morning that had a neat shelving idea that we think we can do on one of the big and currently-bare walls in our upstairs family room, but we really want to do a couple of similar modern-ish paintings in the living room. We're also looking for either a long and narrow painting or for a series of repeating decor pieces to go over the fireplace. We don't have a mantle but we're trying to think a little bit outside the box for the fireplace space. A mantle is a possibility though too!

We have interest in three-dimensional decor pieces for smaller wall spaces, things like plates or masks.

It's fun! We're having a good time!

Quiet Morning

2011-01-30T10:27:00.000-08:00

I'm enjoying a quiet morning at One-Oh-Six today. WH is at church while I stay home recovering from a minor surgical procedure that I had on Friday. I'm feeling better today than I did yesterday, but still a bit sore, especially when I twist or stretch more than I should.

Thanks to my best friend, who stocked me up with an excellent selection of trashy magazines, I have caught up on all of my celebrity gossip and I have satisfying chocolates close at hand. I'm not pushing myself too hard, but I think that some laundry is in order. Today is a day for shuffling around the house at a leisurely pace, I think!

I had my second shower this morning since the surgery and I still can't get all of the iodine stains off my skin. They sure don't skimp on that stuff, which is probably good.

The cats aren't sure what they did to be so lucky to have humans home for long periods of time over the last couple of days. They are celebrating by sleeping deeply. That seems to be their default response to any situation, now that I think about it. Happy? Have a deep sleep. Sad? Have a deep sleep. Hungry? Meow a lot and then have a deep sleep. Sleepy? Well, that's definitely deep sleep time. They are nothing if not predictable.

Anyway, let the shuffling begin!

Digital Nativity

2010-12-14T11:12:00.000-08:00

No free write today - just this really sweet video. Enjoy!

Production

2010-12-11T15:45:00.001-08:00

I like being productive. This morning, I got up not-too-early but not-too-late, made it to the local decor store before it was a frothing maelstrom of Christmas shoppers, got all the shopping done for our friends, got to the grocery store before IT was chaos, got home before lunch, wrapped presents, did laundry, etc.

And I have more to do this weekend that I will happily do! And I can go to bed tonight knowing that it was both a restful day and a useful one.

I'm just waiting for WH to get home from a caroling gig at a shopping mall in a town close to ours. We have been having the most incredibly busy December, so I think that we are looking forward to an evening ...

... pause for cat to get comfortable in my lap...

... at home together. I took some pork tenderloin out of the freezer earlier, so there will even be dinner. Hallelujah.

And now I hear the dryer buzzing its completion, so back to it!

Back at it!

2010-12-06T11:46:00.001-08:00

So, in the spirit of trying to get back into a disciplined blogging, I'm taking a page from Crimson Rambler and working towards a regular (maybe daily, but that's optimistic), short free write exercise.

It is the Advent season, or Almostchristmas, as it might be more aptly-named from a secular point of view. I love this time of year for a number of reasons, including the amazing Advent music that we get to sing at church, the process of turning our home into something festive and wonderful, the planning process for FOOD, etc. I don't even mind the shopping, though I was thinking in the mall yesterday that shopping might be more enjoyable if people could arrange their facial expressions to something other than MEAN and ANGRY.

We will be having our second-annual Edible Christmas at One-Oh-Six this year with the family and dear friends. We came up with this last year; as a replacement for running around buying presents for each other, we would run around and buy food and then eat it all together at the same table. We cook together, we clean up together... it's a grand old time. And we play Apples to Apples, the greatest game ever.

Did get Christmas shopping finished (or close to it) for the husband-unit yesterday and am pleased and excited about that!

Looking very much forward to our annual trip to the mountains after Christmas to sit still, play cribbage, eat and drink nice things and rest. In the meantime, there are concerts and carolling gigs and preparations and all of that kind of thing left to do!

Movie Night: Part 2

2010-10-14T11:34:00.001-07:00

The movie night commitment is holding strong, and since I posted about It's Complicated, WH and I have seen the following:

We have seen a really interesting range of movies from the intense (Harry Brown) to the visually splendid (Sherlock Holmes) to the enjoyably silly (Prince of Persia) to the dark (Leaves of Grass).

It's my turn to pick again next week! I'm interested in seeing The Experiment, but I'll take other recommendations!

In which I fall in love...

2010-10-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

... with these.

Mega-WANT.

Movie Night: Part 1

2010-09-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

WH and I both have Tuesday evenings at home this fall. When we realized that that was going to be the case, we decided that we would commit to devoting Tuesday evenings to each other and to doing something that wasn't related to choral music or work or housecleaning etc. We settled on movie nights.

These are the parameters:
- movies can be watched at home or by going to the theatre.
- for ease of decision-making, we will alternate picking the movie.
- no blackberries, no iPhones, no computers!

So, last Tuesday, I chose It's Complicated, starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

We both enjoyed this movie! I don't think that the movie challenged any of the three main actors very much, but they were at home and comfortable in their roles. Particularly impressive was Steve Martin's performance, which was contained, gentle and fragile. Jon Krasinski (of The Office) was refreshing and funny as the soon-to-be son-in-law who knows more than he wishes he did.

Visually, the movie is delightful. Beautiful scenery, beautiful homes and a STUNNING bakery owned by Meryl Streep. (WANT!) I was pleased to find that, part-way through the movie, I actually wasn't sure how it was going to end. This is not a typical feature of romantic comedies, so it was a nice surprise! It was a great first movie night!

WH gets to choose next week's flick, and he's talking about Sherlock Holmes... Whee!

More good decisions

2010-08-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

I am taking Fridays in August off.

Four long weekends in a row, all lovely opportunities to sleep in, golf, get the last of the summer housework done and maybe get out of town for a couple of days, depending how the housework goes.

So this morning, I'm sitting in bed at 9am having a cup of coffee (coffee in bed is one of my favourite things), with cats on either side of me, contemplating getting my oil changed and doing some serious cleaning in the basement. It doesn't sound very glamourous, but I am grateful to have the extra time to do the things that need doing!!

Good decisions

2010-08-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

The husband and I made a really good decision last winter. We got a cleaning lady. Two cleaning ladies, in fact! For the purposes of this blog, I think that I shall refer to them as our Angels.

One of the difficulties of my having a day job and WH having a job that requires a lot of evening hours is that there really isn't a lot of time that we spend together at home during the school year. We made the decision to employ our Angels because we didn't want to be spending most of what little time we're both here cleaning the house. The Angels come every two weeks and do the floors and the kitchen and the bathrooms, they dust and brush the cat hair off the couches, they empty and clean the garbage and compost bins... they really are amazing. Having them has also provided a good disciplinary practice for WH and I. The night before they come, we go through the house and do all the tidying, put everything away, and sort through any piles of "stuff" that have accumulated in the last two weeks. The practice goes a long way to keeping us in control of our space, which is so gratifying.

Last week, we came home after the Angels were here to find the house full of flowers. Turns out that one of our cleaning ladies is an award-winning gardener, and she had brought flowers from her garden for our house. She left a note offering ongoing access to any clippings from her perennials. How kind is that?!

I have a crush on...

2010-08-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

...U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker.

An excerpt from this article on Time.com:

Allowing gays to marry, he reasoned, doesn't change marriage; it simply reflects a better understanding of gender and gender roles in society. "The evidence shows that the movement of marriage away from a gendered institution and toward an institution free from state-mandated gender roles reflects an evolution in the understanding of gender rather than a change in marriage. The exclusion [of gays from marriage] exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage. That time has passed."

August Ramblings

2010-08-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's so amazing to me that August has rolled around again. What happened to July, or to May and June, for that matter?

WH and I are having a really lovely summer. We had a great trip east to visit his family, a trip that included TWO baseball games, lots of swimming, lots of laughs and lots of relaxation. We have golfed a lot, eaten good food and drunk good drink. I can't remember a summer that I've loved as much as this one... and so much of that happiness came from simply sitting in the sunshine. And now we've reached that part of the summer where the mind can't help but start to poke at the things that need to be done before September, the choir to-do list, the last yard work, etc.

In an effort to make the most of the last few weeks of summer, I've opted to take Fridays in August off, which should allow us to get a few more rounds in and to spend some dedicated time on the yard. We'll be digging out a flower garden in the back yard, planting a few trees and replacing the garden space next to our front door, at the very least. We may get around to a few more cosmetic details while we're at it.

I hope that your summer is going well and that you, too, are getting a chance to enjoy the sun!

Conversations

2010-07-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

This morning, at roughly 6am:

Me: Good morning Mama Cat. We are going to put you up for adoption, ok?
Mama Cat: Meow.
Me: We are going to put out a notice today that says, "FREE TO A GOOD HOME. OR EVEN A BAD HOME. REALLY, FREE TO ANY HOME AT ALL."
MC: Meow.
Me: And if that doesn't work, we may just move and leave you here for the new owners to deal with.
MC: Meow.
Me: Or, we might drive you out to the provincial bison park and drop you off to there to fend for yourself against the bison.
MC: Meow Meow
Me: Because bison probably don't care when you get up at 2am and decide to knock golf tees off the bedside table and then chase them around the room. Bison don't care... no they don't!
MC: Meow
Me: They might care when you attack their toes while they're sleeping though.
MC: Meow
Me: Sigh
...
...
...
Me: You're awfully cute, you know that?
MC: Meow.

Blogging Update

2010-07-24T17:08:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

So, after a brief bloggy break during which I put this blog away for a little while, I'm back! I was struggling to find things to blog about, but as soon as I put the blog away, a flood of topics came to mind. So we're back on the horse.

A couple of things have changed! You'll notice that I'm no longer blogging as Chorus, though the blog title remains the same. I've decided that I really don't have a reason to be anonymous in my blogging. So here I am! My name is Kathleen!

I've also started a new blog about food titled in water, in butter and in wine to add to Observed by Watching, my blog about sports. This blog here at I am Chorus will continue to be dedicated to the everyday life, the things that I see and experience and want to unpack a little bit.

Good to be back!

Weekend in Review

2010-04-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

A gooder, I think, all in all...

Helped WH with recording a student recital (nice to hear a genuINE alto, for once) at MHU on Friday night. And by help, I mean arrived after he had set everything up, sat with him in the booth during the recital, put away three things after the recital, and then put my coat on in a meaningful manner... USEFUL! Popped over to the home of some dear friends afterwards to have a glass of wine and get caught up. Much amused by their little boy, who has discovered the little suction cup toys that you press down and then wait to see them shoot up into the air when the suction cup releases. No matter how many times he played, he took great joy in the whole process every time, right up to the peals of giggling at the end. Great joy.

Saturday, we had a very productive Chamber Choir retreat in preparation for a very large project being done in partnership with another chamber choir in the province. We have officially turned the corner with the music, so that feels great! Then back over to the home of the same dear friends to present the little boy with his birthday present. (He's FOUR! Already! Hard to believe I held him when he was only 12 hours old.) Then WH off to record another student recital and me off to grocery shop.

The Sunday morning service at MHU was one of those services where eight things go wrong but in the end, you go home satisfied anyway. There was reading confusion, and psalm confusion, and confusion in the mind of the intercessor about where last weeks' mining accident had occurred (West Virginia... Kentucky... whatev). But we got a smoker of a sermon from our Hon. Ass't that felt pointedly directed at ME (because it's all about ME), so there was much to reflect on that made the rest of the morning's oopsies seem irrelevant.

And then last night, another student recital, one that I'll list among the very best of the (many) that I've heard. Tough repertoire, maturely delivered, demonstrating the most incredible ability to be both restrained and LOOKATMYBIGVOICE that you could possibly imagine.

So a good weekend leading into another long week.

How are you?

Augenblick Update

2010-03-09T20:13:00.000-08:00

Surgery went well and recovery is proceeding apace.

I'm a little bit ... bored, I guess, but the fact that the surgically repaired eye is not yet working together with the good eye means that I can't read, I can't really spend any more than 15 minutes on the internet at one time, I can't play any of the games that usually occupy my free time... I can watch TV, however, so that's what I've been doing. And napping.

Tomorrow, I hope to get out for a walk with WH to get some fresh air. Maybe if I'm feeling really ambitious, I'll do laundry!

Speaking of WH, he's been entirely lovely in the TLC department, fetching things to and fro and keeping me laughing and cheerful at every turn. He has also been totally non-judgmental when, to the question of what I want to eat, I have responded with, "Chips. And spring rolls. And tater tots."

Well, my 15 minutes is up...

Augenblick

2010-03-07T15:41:00.000-08:00

Some of you may recall this post about about my cataract problem from last April.

Well, tomorrow the cataract is coming out! I have some anxieties about the surgery itself, but nothing serious, and I'm looking forward to having the week that follows off to rest. And I'm very much looking forward to the results, which I understand from others to be pretty much instantaneous. In the meantime, I'm figuring out the pre and post-operative eye drop schedule, which a person almost needs an excel spreadsheet to track. Is there an app for that??

Wish me luck!

Our cat.

2010-02-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

Definitely, OUR cat.

Submission to the Parish Newsletter

2010-02-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

It’s a very difficult thing to try and communicate a relationship with music in only a few words. But I’ll try.

When my mother was appointed rector at Most Holy and Undivided, I didn’t immediately make the transition to the new parish. Rather, I professed a desire to stay at Little Cottage Church. I believe that my intention to stay at LCC came largely from a desire to define a relationship with the church that wasn’t simply that of PK.

That said, and despite my declarations of loyalty to LCC, I stopped attending services there. I didn’t attend LCC; I didn’t attend MHU. My push for an independent attachment to the church had resulted in no attachment at all. I was, in effect, without church.

I happened to be at MHU for a Sunday morning service in December 2003 and through a variety of circumstances, found myself the subject of choral hounding at coffee hour by then-Music Director KW.

So I joined the choir.

And by the grace of God, and thanks to William Byrd and Anglican chant, my rupture from the church began to heal. And the more I sang, the more I understood that the relationship with the church and with God that I had abandoned was a relationship communicated through music. Music, to me, was prayer.

It was helpful, of course, that I thought the choir’s conductor was a handsome and nifty fellow. In my case, not only did the choir’s music prove to be a healing force, so too did the musician.

So here I am again, ten years later, at another crossroads in complicated relationship between me and church. My mother’s retirement, while a joyful event that she has very much earned, has incited in me moments of panic as I try to imagine what it means to be a parishioner at a church not led by her. I know that this feeling, too, shall pass.

Because I’ll just keep singing.

Friday Five: Winter Olympic Edition

2010-02-26T11:17:00.001-08:00

We loves the Winter Olympics, yes we do. To the Friday Five, then!

1) Which of the Winter Olympic sports is your favorite to watch?

Oh, I like watching them all, but I do get very nervous watching any of the sports where a Canadian is vying for a win. The women's bobsled the other night almost killed me. I've been known to leave the room when it gets really exciting and WH always says, "You have to watch!" And I always say, "You can't make me!"

2)Some of the uniforms have attracted attention this year, such as the US Snowboarders' pseudo-flannel shirts and the Norwegian Curling team's -- ahem -- pants. Who do you think had the best-looking uniforms?

I'll take anything in red and white! With a maple leaf on it, that is. The Swiss red and white is all wrong.

3)And Curling. Really? What's up with that?

What is up with curling is that it is awesome. And, truthfully, one of the best televised sports in the world. The cameras can get very close, you can see every shot, and the competitors talk strategy so you know what's going on all the time! Seriously, check it out!

4) Define Nordic Combined. Don't look it up. Take a guess if you must.

Oh pooh... I think that cross-country skiing is involved, but I can never remember what it's combined with. I know that it's not shooting because that's biathlon. (Sidebar... can you imagine participating in a sport in which your competitors all had loaded weapons? That's motivation, for ya.)

Ok, confession time. I looked it up. And CR was right! It is ski jumping!

5) If you could be a Winter Olympics Champion just by wishing for it, which sport would you choose for winning your Gold Medal?

In this country, it would have to be hockey. Or curling. Hmmmm... if it was curling, I'd get to do more shouting, so let's go with that!

More cookery...

2010-02-21T17:53:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a smashing success. Our little freezer is packed full of delicious food (we had some taste tests) and more even that, the three of us had a wonderful time together, laughing and teasing and enjoying each other's company.

Tonight I'm making myself a cornish game hen. If I like this recipe, I'll make it again after WH gets back. I did make hens once before with mixed success so I thought it was time to try again. I've stuff the cavity with orange and rosemary and will make a sauce out of white wine, garlic and chicken stock. Here's the recipe, by the way.

The theme in the kitchen for 2010 is based on three principles: adventure, good planning and making use out of what we have. So we have been working on a project to develop a series of week-long meal plans that balance new recipes with old favourites, that allow us to cook new things about once a week and that involve a weekly survey of the food that is in our fridge, freezer and pantry and how we can incorporate those. Almost two months in, things are working out really well!

Except that the power just went out. If electricity ruins my game hen... I'm gonna be ticked.

Update - long power outage, but the food survived!

Gettin' ready to get my cook on!

2010-02-20T07:30:00.001-08:00

Today is COOKING day.

Two friends, J and G, and I are getting together this afternoon to cook approximately 7 gillion meals that we can freeze to feed our families when we're too busy to cook something from scratch. On the menu are:

Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken en Croute (Freeze wonderfully and cook so amazingly from frozen)
Beef Stroganoff
Meatballs
Butternut Squash Soup with Sour Cream
Easy Pizza Spread

I did the grocery shopping last night, which included wonderful things like 7lbs of mushrooms, 24 chicken breasts, 9 boxes of chicken stock, and so on. I need to make one more stop at the grocery store today to get rotisserie chickens and to replace two containers of sour cream that came to a sad end on our driveway when we were unloading last night.

And by we, I mean MU and I. She provided great assistance in converting recipe measurements to grocery store units, suggesting replacements for Monterrey Jack cheese and generally keeping me from going off the rails when I couldn't find what I was looking for.
___

We have been beset upon by fog this year in Prairie City and Prairie Hamlet, more than I can ever remember previously. It makes for nervous driving, but the frost on the trees that results is so beautiful. So I'm sitting here with my cup of hot coffee and the cats looking outside at a world that looks perfectly frozen.

Lovely.

Touching Base

2010-02-18T18:59:00.000-08:00

Hey there, neglecterinos.

I'm still here.

Life chugs along apace, busy and stressful work, busy but lovely choral responsibilities, fulfilling and happy life at home.

And I am watching lots of Olympics, which I love.

WH is away these two weeks adjudicating in another province so we are learning the wonders of Skype. How nifty is that?!

The cats are the same - needy, but sweet.

And on we go.

I hope to write more profound things in the coming days, but we'll see.

2010-01-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

2009-12-31T17:48:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas in Review

2009-12-26T17:14:00.000-08:00

We are enjoying our traditional boxing day celebration, which involves not leaving the house, watching our newest DVD of the previous season of The Office (a regular Christmas present), enjoying a nice bottle of wine and eating treats from Christmas Day.

Speaking of Christmas Day, it was also lovely. We had the family over for the afternoon and for dinner, we made rum balls, we played Wii, we laughed a lot... it was grand. Other highlights of the week included a fantastic cheese fondu dinner with good friends, a huge Christmas Eve choir, and lots of peace and quiet.

This entirely positive review of this year's Christmas season comes despite having been accused by a fellow member of our church choir of a myriad of things about 5 minutes before the late service, including being rude, insensitive, shoving her and ruining two Christmases in a row. Yup, I did all that, simply by virtue of having asked her to move over to make room for a guest singer. Awesome.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T12:12:00.000-08:00

We have made the rum ball dough, which we'll roll into balls and coat tomorrow afternoon all together as a family.

The cranberry sauce is beginning to think about boiling on the stove.

Handel's Messiah is on the stereo.

There are mysterious parcels wrapped and under the tree.

The snow is deep.

The cats can't believe their luck that we have been home all day.

It's Christmas.

Blessings to you!

Cold

2009-12-16T20:59:00.001-08:00

I just thought y'all should know that on Deceber 13th, Prairie City was the second coldest place... IN THE WORLD.

IN.

THE.

WORLD.

Which means that unless you were in Siberia, you best not be complainin' about how cold you were on December 13th.

Warmer now though...

On Falling

2009-12-02T18:35:00.000-08:00

I was walking down the stairs at the church the other day when I caught the heel of my high-heeled shoe in the hem of my pant leg.

The next half second felt like it lasted about 45 minutes.

Somehow, I landed on my feet, but on the landing about four stairs below where I had been heading. My whole body felt like it had been twisted, like none of my joints where in their right places.

And I ripped the hem of my pants.

I'm fine now, but it struck me how different the experience of an adult falling is from a child. Just the night before, I'd been babysitting three little ones, a baby and two toddlers. And the two toddlers got into hugging each other with a fair amount of verve and tumbled over backwards. Heads were bumped. Crying occurred. Then about 10 seconds later, it was over and forgotten as if nothing had happened and then were back to their active play.

Sigh.

Podcast Review - Crimes Against Food

2009-11-25T20:53:00.001-08:00

So I've decided that I'm going to be something of a podcast reviewer. Podcasts are a relatively new thing for me, so I'm very much on a journey of discovery. I'd also be very happy to receive YOUR recommendations for good podcasts to listen to.

I'll listen to anything twice before I review it.

So! Today, a review of Crimes Against Food.

The facts:
Who: Gloria and Mia, two ladies from Leeds
What: Gloria and Mia talk food and the hideous things that people do to it. That, at least, seems to be the intent
How long: Just under an hour
Format: Audio

Each episode of this podcast delves into a "kind" of food; for example, the two episodes I've heard so far have explored Pies and Curry, respectively. First thing that you should know about this podcast is that it is about British food. So, for example, the Pie episode was only about meat pies, not about "Tarts." Initially, I was a bit disappointed, because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to relate to the topics. But the ladies do such a good job of putting the food in context for non-British listeners that you can't help enjoy it, whether or not the information is directly relevant to your own culinary experience.

Crimes Against Food is very funny and very charming. Their exploration of food is filled with honest, visceral and passionate descriptions of food, both good and bad. There are moments when they both dissolve into laughter, which did make me feel a little bit like I was an awkward listener to an inside joke, but those moments are not frequent.

The "Crimes" part of their mandate gets lost a little bit in their own excitement about all the great things there are to say about food. That, at least, was true of the curry episode. The pie episode contained a terrifyingly memorable sequence involving a Goblin meat pie in a can. I can't even really describe it, other than to say that there was a lot of gagging (theirs and mine).

Not for children this one (language, off-colour humour), but good fun if you like foodie types of things and/or British types of things.

Rating... 3.5 out of 5

One of those stories...

2009-11-18T19:24:00.000-08:00

... that seems to me, completely incomprehensible. I heard this story on the radio this evening on my way home and I didn't take note of the woman's name, so the story is articulated here more impersonally than may be ideal. In addition, I've really only heard one side of the story, as told by the woman's lawyer to the interviewer. There is, of course, the possibility that there is more to the story that I simply haven't heard.

The subject of this story is a 21-year old cook in the American armed forces. She is also the single mother of a 10-month old son. She received notice that she would be deployed to Afghanistan for a year. Her mother offered to take care of the boy for the period of her deployment so the boy was moved to his grandmother's home in advance of the deployment date in order to give him some time to adjust.

Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances in the grandmother's life, she decided that she could not, in fact, care for the boy for the year. The armed forces informed the mother that she could delay her deployment date in order to have additional time to find a care arrangement for her son. When the boy was returned to his mother, a week before the original deployment date, she was informed that there would, in fact, be no extension and that she was to report for deployment as originally scheduled.

With no place to take her son, she missed her deployment flight.

She reported to the base the day after the scheduled deployment to meet with her superiors and explain her circumstances. She was arrested and placed under supervised confinement at the base. Her son was placed in the care of child protective services. Charges have not yet been filed, but there remain a number of possible scenarios, including that she will face a court martial and jail time. Fortunately, her son has been returned to her grandmother and will not remain with protective services.

Telling this story is not intended as a criticism specfically of the American military, as there are certainly other employers out there who do not provide adequate family-related support to their employees. But I have a hard time understanding how it could possibly be excusable to ask anybody, no matter the import of their employment, to abandon their child without other option. How does a decision like that get made? What on earth did they expect her to do with her little boy?!

Has anybody else heard about this story? Have any other information?

The Combatives Room

2009-11-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

I was rushing through the Faculty of Physical Education at Colourful University the other day and came across The Combatives Room.

Immediately, my mind goes to what I think a Combatives Room should be for. I should be able to take whatever issue, person, situation or conflict that is causing me grief into The Combatives Room, beat it into submission and come out with resolution. Yeah!

Miscommunication with coworkers? Combatives Room!
Bad skin? COMBATIVES ROOM!
Get in there, people who don't show up for choir rehearsal!

Doesn't that sound ideal?

Anyway, turns out that the room is for teaching karate and judo and other combative sports. I GUESS that makes sense.

But I think think my idea is more useful.

Updates, Updates, Updates

2009-10-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

What I've been up to: lots of work, getting ready for the beginning of concert season, trying to rest when I can, keeping up with both So You Think You Can Dance and So You Think You Can Dance Canada, being sat on by cats.

What I'm reading : Serious Eats. (Seriously, prepare to drool)

What I'm listening to: lots of Bach and lots of Mendelssohn, in preparation for Chamber Choir's first concert of the season.

And life rolls on...

There are lots of posts brewing, so hopefully I get some more time to blog more often.

Chilly and Chili

2009-10-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a weird fall here in Prairie Hamlet.

Two weeks ago, it was +30C (86F for my American chums) and today it is -7C (20F) and there is the first dusting of snow on the ground. And WIND.

Because it was so hot so late in September, the leaves haven't really turned, and because the leaves haven't turned, they haven't fallen off. Until the last couple of days when, still green, they froze and dropped.

So it feels a little bit like we haven't had any autumn at all, that we've just skipped it. And I like autumn, not only because it can be so beautiful, but mostly because it's my opportunity to get the crankiness about the cold out of the way before the first flakes fall. Ah well.

Tomorrow is our annual hockey pool day, complete with traditional chili. We have some cleaning and tidying to do in the morning, and then the folks will arrive early in the afternoon and start picking teams at about 3pm.

And then Sunday is Canadian Thanksgiving!! So the turkey is thawing in the fridge and we got the rest of the grocery shopping done this evening. It's my first turkey here in the new house, and I'm looking forward to cooking it in a kitchen that's got great counter space! YAY!

My neglected blog

2009-09-27T13:34:00.001-07:00

Oh poor blog; how I have neglected thee... Such is the current busy-ness of life, I suppose!

I'm sitting in the sunny living room this afternoon while WH plays what may be his last golf round of the year. I have a glass of champagne, and a cat sleeping behind my head on the back of the couch, and the TV humming along quietly in front of me.

And I'm thinking about being thirty, which I'll be, as of Tuesday. (Hurray for Michaelmas!)

Thirty is an age that excites me. I think about where I was heading into my twenties, not knowing what end was up, where I would be, what I would do, how I would get there, how I would pay for it, etc. etc. And here I am at thirty, married to my perfect partner, living in a house that I love, doing work that is challenging and fulfilling, enjoying a tremendously busy extra-curricular life of my own choosing, surrounded by the most amazing group of family and friends... What, on earth, could I possibly think to complain about? It is practically an embarrassment of riches...

Some of you may recall that WH and I have the same birthday, but because this was a big birthday for me, WH threw me a party last night. We had burgers and munchies, lots of wonderful things to drink, and many of the friends and family mentioned above were able to come and celebrate. What a blast! And the party even had an informal theme!

Let me explain...

I always wanted a Mr. Potato Head when I was a child. Of any toy, it was the one I craved the most. (MU would point out here that I never uttered this desire, which is probably true...) I hadn't thought about this yearning until a couple of months ago, when I said to myself, suddenly one day, "Dammit, I am almost thirty, and I WILL HAVE A MR. POTATO HEAD." So I asked WH for one for my birthday, and he came through, so now I have one. And my lovely friend S brought me the little mini Mr. Potato Head that comes with the doggie and kitty as well, so now I have FOUR Mr. Potato Head figures.

And to top it all off, our friend G baked this:I know, right?! Amazing!

Needless to say, I had a great time.

So on Tuesday, WH and I will both celebrate our birthdays and the year of our life that has now past. I can't wait to see what's to come down the road!

And now, my champagne glass is empty and the laundry needs pushing. Tra la la...

Dear Weight Watchers...

2009-09-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

... In almost all ways, you are a fantastic program. I appreciate all the things that you do to allow people who are working to lose weight to eat as close to normally as possible. We have had WW in our lives for the last year, and have had lots of success.

That said, I have a concern with your Gnocchi with Pesto recipe. Low fat or not, you cannot make a pesto sauce with two tablespoons of water instead of the traditional oil. I know; I tried. And it tastes like sand.

And life is too damn short to eat sandy gnocchi.

Word.

My Saturday Morning Grocery Routine

2009-09-12T13:16:00.000-07:00

I had the best morning at the grocery store today.

In the last little while, I've gotten into the habit of going grocery shopping early in the morning on Saturdays and it works out wonderfully. The store is quiet, the shelves are fully stocked, I get a good cart, and the staff haven't had time to be cranky yet. It's great.

This morning, not only did I have the usual benefits of early morning shopping, but I also had the following:

$12 worth of coupons
$20 worth of bank credits
Brand-name, two-ply, double roll, 24 packs of toilet paper at NINE DOLLARS OFF EACH. I bought two.

So between the coupons and the tp sale, I figure I saved $50 today. FIFTY BUCKS!!

On top of all of that, before I went to the grocery store I did my Wii Fit yoga routine, which means I felt all stretched and relaxed and balanced and centered while I was shopping.

Best. Saturday. Ever.

Funny Cat

2009-09-08T18:41:00.001-07:00

Trader Tuesday: Rejuvenated Rice

2009-09-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

It's almost impossible to make exactly the right amount of rice for two people. One of the most depressing things that I usually have to pull out of the fridge and throw away is the miserable lump of dried out leftover rice.

But recently, WH found a wonderful recipe for reconstituted rice, via the BBQ.

Take a long piece of aluminum foil and fold it in half to give it extra strength. Using your fist, make the foil into a pouch-shape. Spoon a serving of rice into the pouch and add half a small onion, chopped. Sprinkle with salt, and add a dash of Worcester sauce. Add some water... about a quarter cup for a cup of rice. Dab the rice with butter. Fold the corners of the pouch together to form a closure. Place the pouch on the BBQ for 20 minutes.

And voila! Beautiful, moist, flavourful rice!

Letting 'er Rip

2009-08-30T20:19:00.001-07:00

During the summer while the Church Choir is on holidays, we often have guest singers on Sunday mornings to lead the psalm and sing an aria or two during communion and at the end of the service. I usually volunteer for one or two of these Sundays and this morning was my day.

One of the side effects of being the soloist on any given Sunday is that I sit up right next to the organ where WH is playing. And one of the nice things about being right next to the organ is that I can sing hymns absolutely as loud as I want to because nobody can hear me. Correspondingly, I cannot hear anybody BUT myself, so it's like my own solo hymn-sing with full pipe organ, complete with last verse re-harmonizations.

Hurray!

Trader Tuesdays: The Apple Blue Cheese Pizza

2009-08-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

The apple blue cheese pizza is too good not to share. It's from the Blue Flame Kitchen Favorites Cookbook.

I use individuals pre-baked pizza crust, usually found in the deli department of your local grocery store. I had a hard time finding them the first time , so you may have to ask somebody. Brush with olive oil. Thinly slice an apple, and lay the slices on the crust. Sprinkle crumbled blue cheese on the apple. Top with grated Monterey Jack cheese and chopped walnuts. Bake according to the instructions provided with the pizza crust, usually something like a 400F oven for 15 minutes, or until cheese melted.

Could I bone a duck?

2009-08-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

MU and I went to see Julie & Julia on Monday night.

Thoroughly wonderful. I have heard that the book by the same title was a trifle annoying -- perhaps along the same vein as this one -- but the movie is simply delightful. Meryl Streep is an absolute treasure.

And of course, the movie has got me wondering how I would fare doing a similar experiment. Could I cook through the entire Mastering the Art of French Cooking, both volumes?

Could I put a lobster out of its misery?

Would I burn the Boeuf Bourguignon?

Do I crowd my mushrooms?

Could I bone a duck?

Cat Scratch Fever

2009-08-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

We bought some new furniture last week for our new living room, a beautiful buckskin couch and loveseat set from The Brick.

It took Mama Cat and Baby Cat about an hour to identify the new furniture as "scratchable material." We are determined... DETERMINED... to break them of this habit before they ruin these couches too.

To that end, we have purchased these.

They are, essentially, soft plastic shells that are adhered over top of the cats' claws. Apparently, they are safe, non-toxic and the cats won't notice them or care that they are there. We bought a red set for Mama Cat and a pink set for Baby Cat. They will look ridiculous, but they already look ridiculous, so this will be no big change. I will post pictures as soon as the Soft Claws arrive and as soon as we wrangle them on the unsuspecting kittehs.

We also bought them a scratching post.

So, we have employed both diversionary and preventative tactics today.

WE WILL NOT BE DEFEATED.

Horse and Handel

2009-08-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

WH and I took a whirlwind road trip to our neighbour province to the east this weekend, arriving home to a newly painted house last night. I have a couple of posts brewing about how much I love driving on the prairie highway, but first, a scene from our drive home for you.

For much of our trip home, we played Horse. If it's not a game you're familiar with, all it involves is calling out for every horse that you see on the trip. When you see a cemetery, you call out DEAD HORSE, and the other person loses all the horses they've accumulated to that point. The person who ends the trip with the most horses, wins.

With about two and a half hours left on the road yesterday, we decided that we'd let Messiah bring us home, so the car ride sounded something like this:

For unto us a child is bo-orn - HORSE - unto us, a son is - HORSEHORSE - given...

And the glory, the glory of the - HORSE - Lord. Shall be redee-ee-ee-HORSEHORSEHORSEHORSE-ee-ee-med...

Hallelujah, Hallel-HORSE-ujah, Hallelujah - HORSE - Hallel- HAHATHATWASACOW-ujah, Halle-e-lu-jah.

Worthy is the Lamb, that was - DEADHORSE - DAMMIT - slain...

Getting Started on the Week

2009-08-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

This was the commuting music for this morning. A pretty wonderful way to get settled into the week!

What are you listening to today?

An Offer He Can't Refuse

2009-07-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

On Bakeries

2009-07-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

At The Wee House, we were sadly bereft of a good local bakery. There was a bakery at the local chain grocery store but never once in the two and a half years that we lived there did I have a good experience at that bakery. There was the time that the woman working on the other side of the counter (about 3 feet from me) just kept working and pretended I wasn't there. There was the time that the two employees argued about which one of them had to serve me. There was the time that they dropped my desserts on the floor... It was a sad, sad place.

And I'd like my bakery to be a happy place.

WH and I were out for one of our exploratory walks in the neighbourhood surrounding one-oh-six the other day and came across an actual honest-to-goodness, up-at-5am-baking-for-the-community, not-cakes-and-cupcakes-but-actually-bread, BAKERY.

The bakery was closed at the time of our first discovery, but we were up like a shot the following Saturday morning and headed in its direction. One cinnamon bun and one chocolate croissant later, we have found a new Saturday morning routine: a lovely walk followed by delicious fresh breakfast. Sunday morning I ventured that way again to find some beautiful rolls for family dinner.

To top it all off, the customer service at this little local bakery is stellar; they are friendly, warm and kind people.

And we feel profoundly welcomed and very, very happy.

I didn't want to have to do this...

2009-07-27T07:48:00.001-07:00

...but I've been witness to too many close-calls in the last little while, and seen too much evidence that the following is badly needed.

That being the case, please take a seat and make yourselves comfortable, whilst I explain, carefully and hopefully without too much condescension, how to navigate a round-about or, as I know it, a traffic circle.

Driving in a traffic circle should be very simple and very straight-forward, provided that everyone does it properly and doesn't act like a weenie.

Let me explain that one of the primary methods that I see employed by my fellow drivers, what I refer to as the "close my eyes and drive and hope nobody hits me" method of driving in a traffic circle is THE WRONG WAY. No good comes of this.

So here are the rules, some of which are actual rules, and some of which is just good advice:

1. People inside the traffic circle always have the right-of-way over people who are outside it. This means that nobody inside the traffic circle will stop to let you into it. Do not proceed into the traffic circle until you have an adequate window in which to do so.

2. Don't change lanes inside the traffic circle.

3. Turn signals are an important tool when navigating a traffic circle. When you are inside the traffic circle, you should be indicating a turn to the left (in North America). When you reach the quarter of the traffic circle at which you are exiting, you should be indicating a turn to the right.

4. Within the traffic circle, people in the inside lane have the right-of-way over people in the outside lane. The easiest way to manage this is to use the outside lane only if you are exiting at your first opportunity. Use the inside lane when you are exiting anytime after your first opportunity.

5. If you insist on driving in the outside lane passed your first opportunity to exit, YOU MUST (and this is key) YIELD TO DRIVERS EXITING FROM THE INSIDE LANE AT EACH EXIT. This means that each time you are passing an exit in the outside lane, you must slow down and check to see if there is anybody in your inside lane who is exiting. If there is, you must stop and let these people exit. If you don't do this, do not be surprised when that person in the inside lane runs into you with their car and then looks at you like this:
6. If you are driving in the outside lane and you yield to a person exiting from the inside lane and somebody behind you honks at you and flips you the bird, don't worry about this person. Clearly, this person is a dweeb. Drive away puffed up with pride that you have made Chorus very proud.

7. If this rule about yielding the right-of-way to the inside lane seems confusing, believe me when I say that it is much simpler if you just use the outside lane for immediate exits and the inside lane for all other exits. This way, you don't have to worry about yielding to anybody; you should just be able to drive!

I believe that a properly driven traffic circle is smoother, faster and safer than your average lit intersection. But if you drive them like a jackass, you endanger not only yourself but everyone around you. So don't do that.

Person in the dark-blue Chevy Tahoe who cut me off when I was exiting yesterday, THIS MEANS YOU.

On the Rights of Animals

2009-07-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

People who are close to me will tell you that I am an animal lover, so much so that I'm not allowed to read stories about animal abuse anymore because of how deeply I am distressed by them.

I saw this today, and thought it just perfectly summarized the way that I feel about animals.

Animals have the right to have their lives cherished and protected.
Animals have the right to social integration.
Animals have a right to a fair share of public resources.
Animals have the right to be treated humanely.
Animals have the right to act like Animals.

On Last Night's Episode of SYTYCD

2009-07-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

For those who don't watch SYTYCD, or didn't watch last night, I encourage you to take a look at the video of the second dance performed by Ade and Melissa. The piece was choreographed by Tyce Diorio, and was inspired by the impact that breast cancer has had on his life.

I've been surprised today by some of the negative feedback that has appeared on the interwebs, detailing reviewers' criticism that the dance was manipulative, that articulating the tie to cancer forced an emotional reaction from the audience and from the judges, that the piece pandered to viewers.

Here are my thoughts.

One, I thought that the piece was absolutely beautifully danced, both artistically and technically. Were this a dance about milk cartons, you couldn't find fault with their technique.

Additionally, I don't believe that the work could have been danced by any other two dancers in the show; it required Melissa's maturity and Ade's strength to really come together.

I'm struggling with those critics that stated that putting something so emotional on the stage was manipulative. My opinion is that the fact that we were moved by the dance proves its success. The dancers on SYTYCD are asked all the time to convey stories or themes or emotions to viewers; sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's not fair to state that just because the emotion of this particular dance worked, it was manipulative. One reviewer opined that as soon as the word "cancer" was introduced, everyone started crying, which was clearly not the case. The tears flowed when the dance was over, when judges tried to express how they had been affected by the dancing. That means the dance did what it was supposed to do. It moved them.

Others have whined that to give two dancers such a powerful piece all but guaranteed them a pass to next week, despite having both been in the bottom two last week. I'm not sure how this feedback can translate into something constructive... "We would have prefered if you'd danced something more boring? Funnier? Less technically difficult? Shame on you for taking an admittedly emotional theme and translating it successfully onto the stage through movement?" if by doing what they did last night they moved enough people to pick up the phone and vote for them to remain on the show, then how is that their fault? That's how the show works.

And to those people who have asserted that Melissa and Ade couldn't fail with this number, you're wrong. As successful as it was, it could have been that much of a disaster too. The dancers could have failed to connect, or danced it sloppily, and I can assure that if they had, the emotional impact would have been lost and it would have been an awkward mess.

Where I will agree with critics is in their statement that Nigel's reference to a future Emmy nomination was misplaced. It was a silly comment, but really, the guy's an executive producer. It's his job to be silly.

You can read a response to the performance here, and see the video as well.

We've arrived...

2009-07-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

... in small town living.

We took WH's car in this week to get a tune up, oil change and a bunch of other (expensive) things. But it was alllllll worth it.

Because as a "gift" for bringing his car in, WH received...

...a bottle of mustard.

Yup. It says "We Cut the Mustard" on the side of it.

All I can picture is a greasy mechanic saying, "I done fixed yer car. Here's yer mustard."

It's just awesome is what it is.

The Wheels on the Bus...

2009-07-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

Starting at the beginning of August, I'm going to take the bus to work every day!

Primarily, this change is going to save WH and me some serious cash. The commuter bus pass from The Hamlet into Prairie City costs $85 per month, compared to the $105 I spend on a monthly parking pass at Colourful U. And that's to say nothing about the cost of gas...

Taking the bus will also allow me to not have to worry about driving on the highway in the winter when the snow is blowing horizontally across the road and cars are in the ditch all over the place. I'm quite happy to sit quietly with my iPod and have the driving be someone else's problem.

And a good decision for the environment as well!

We knew, when we moved to The Hamlet, that the change in commuting patterns would be one of the biggest adjustments we'd have to make. My commute from The Wee House took about 7 minutes from door to door. To compare, the new drive in from One-Oh-Six takes about 25 minutes. But it's a pleasant commute, and the view of Prairie City is really quite lovely.

I'm kind of looking forward to becoming a bus rider again! We'll see how I feel about it when it's -30C outside and I'm waiting for the bus at 6:45am, but for the time being, I'm content!

The Storm

2009-07-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

It was very hot yesterday in The Hamlet (30C (about 90F for my friends to the south)). As is often the case on the Prairies, hot weather brings evening thunder storms. Last night's storm was a big one.

We first noticed the wind. Blowing in hard from the northwest, our neighbour's lombari poplar trees were bent almost double under its power. I was watching from the back window when the wind blew our BBQ and our outdoor chairs onto the back lawn. Lightning and hard rain followed the wind. Our power went out. I fell asleep, but was awakened by the sound of hail hitting the windows. It didn't take long before our entire back deck was covered with ice.

Mama Cat and Baby Cat were not amused.

This morning, on our way to church, we saw many victims of the storm - fallen tree branches, broken construction equipment and toppled road signs. Fortunately, there are no reports of human injuries, despite the collapse of part of a building in downtown Prairie City.

WH found this picture on twitter:

Back to Work on Monday

2009-07-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

My vacation is nearing an end.

Sigh.

Looking back, it's been a wonderful rest and time away from Colourful U. Yes, in the middle of my holidays, we moved, but the move went smoothly, we had wonderful help from good friends and family, and we are loving the new digs. In addition, because we moved in the middle of my time away, I've had this last week to put things away, clean, get settled and get comfortable.

I'm looking forward to going back to work, to getting my old job wrapped and cleaned up before the transition to the new position in August. But I'll miss the wonderful quality time that I've got to spend with WH these last two weeks, all the cuddles I've enjoyed with the kittehs and just generally being peaceful and quiet.

Life is good.

Blog Changes

2009-07-13T18:10:00.001-07:00

I think it's time to update some of the identifiers on this blog, now that The Move is all but finished.

WH and I have actually moved out of Prairie City into one of its suburbs, which I'll be referring to as Prairie Hamlet. And our house, formerly known as The Wee House, will now be One-Oh-Six.

Fun!

Enjoying the new digs

2009-07-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

The big move went well; we had lots of good friends and family give us wonderful help, both in the days leading up to Saturday and on the day itself. So we're in, and despite the relative chaos that surrounds us, we are both very happy with our new home. I'm still on vacation this week, which is great, and gives us lots of time to clean and put things away and make the space our home. But before we do that, we are headed back to the old house to get it cleaned up and move the last few things this afternoon.

Mama Cat and Baby Cat have been adjusting pretty well as well; they've been laying pretty low under the bed and I think are a bit intimidated by the size of the place, but they are gradually spending more time exploring and figuring out their new space.

I'm most looking forward to developing patterns for this new house; getting used to the space, where things are and how the house "works." I feel a little bit unsteady or unsure of myself, which I guess is expected when living in a new space. I don't remember feeling this way when we moved into The Wee House, but maybe I did.

Anyhow, back to it...

(Now that the move is over, I'll be a more regular blogger; I promise!)

Two Years Ago Today...

2009-07-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

... this is what I was up to.

Actually Chorus

Happy Anniversary, WH!

What we've been up to...

2009-07-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm on holidays from work until July 20th, so I've been enjoying my time off so far, playing golf, spending some truly lovely quality time with WH and getting preliminary cleaning and fixing done in our new house.

On the golf, I've played my first two rounds of the year, and hit the ball really well, though inconsistently. My highlight of the week so far was a drive off the 14th hole on our local city course yesterday that went 235 yards. Woo!

On the new house, we are loving it. There are lots of little things to do, cleaning and changing lightbulbs and figuring out where our things are going to go. The lady who lived in the house before we did left us a very sweet little note and a bottle of champagne in the fridge. This was a very kind act, but to be honest, I would have preferred it if she had done things like clean up the mountains of dog poop in her backyard... dog poop that she had been shovelling into her window wells for the last several years. But such is life, I guess, and we will enjoy the champagne while we work to make what was formerly hers now ours.

How much do I love...

2009-06-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

... Jenny Sanford?

I have a certain respect for the many, many political wives who have come before Mrs. Sanford, who have chosen to stand next to their cheating, lying, philandering, horny, jerky husbands and who have offered quiet support and forgiveness because they believed, or had been told, that that was the only appropriate way to react. It was always more grace and respect than their husbands deserved.

But how refreshing is it to see Jenny Sanford flip her husband the political wife's equivalent of the bird, refuse to cover for him, refuse to support him, refuse to appear with him, and refuse to teach her four sons that their father's behaviour is appropriate?

RIP Billy Mays

2009-06-29T07:43:00.001-07:00

Updates, various...

2009-06-25T08:36:00.001-07:00

I realized today that I haven't had time to blog for a while, meaning that people coming to my blog have been forced to read about poop for about the last week. Time to rectify that.

(I also realized this morning that that post is the second time I've posted about poop. Might have to have its own label soon.)

Anyhoo, what all is goin' on around here these days:

We wrote an absolutely ginormous cheque to our lawyer as a part of the purchase of our new house yesterday. Isn't it funny how we lose our perspectives about quantities of money when we're buying/selling houses?
The house is currently in CHAOS. We're at that strange place where we've done some packing, we have some cleaning and sorting to do, there are piles of things waiting to be packed all over the place, you can't take 3 steps without tripping over a pile of boxes... like I said, CHAOS. But we take possession in just over a week!
The cats seem to still be blissfully unaware of the impending change. I think as more things get packed up, Mama Cat especially will get more needy even than usual. Hopefully it's not too distressing for them. We have come up with the plan for moving the cats, figuring that no matter what we do, they will have to be alone in an empty house at some point, so it's probably better if that house is the one they're at least familiar with. So when we do our big move day on July 11th, we'll cage them while we load the truck and then leave them at the house with their cages, their litter, food, water, and maybe a couple of pillows. After we've unloaded at the new house, we'll take the truck back to the depot and then pick the cats up on our way to spend the first night at the new house.
Meals are getting weird at our house, amidst the chaos. Last night was smokies and champagne.
We're also getting painfully absent-minded, as evidenced by the fact that I forgot my car at work yesterday. Long story, but at least I remembered before I phoned the police this morning and reported it stolen.
I had my interview for the new position on Tuesday and I think it went well. I should hear something before the end of the week, fingers crossed.

Have a great day, all!

On poop and perfume

2009-06-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

To the staff of this office at Colourful University;

Who use a communal one-stall bathroom;

If you go into that bathroom and make a stinky, please don't attempt to mask it by dousing the room in perfume.

I almost died in there today.

Thank you.

On Eat, Pray, Love

2009-06-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so just a forewarning for any readers out there who liked the book Eat, Pray, Love. You probably aren't going to agree with anything I say from here on in. Read on at your own risk, or go on your merry way without prejudice!

I'm coming at this blog post so long after the book was released because of the recent news that the story will be made into a movie starring Julia Roberts.

Let me start by saying that I like Elizabeth Gilbert's writing. She's witty and funny and I think she has a gift for describing beautiful things. She's good at what she does.

That being said, I was so annoyed by the time I got through Eat, Pray, Love that I could barely see straight.

My annoyance isn't really with the trip itself. The trip sounded beautiful and I'm sure was a lovely experience. It was neat to read about. I like Italian food too.

My annoyance was largely with the fact that SOMEBODY ELSE PAID FOR HER TO TAKE THE TRIP, a fact which goes by in her early chapters astonishingly quickly. And that, knowing that someone else was paying for her to have this incredible experience, she still acts like she was entitled to it.

Most of the rest of us, when our lives get messy (and they all do), work it out. We yell, and cry, and fight, and compromise, and make sacrifices, and take stock, and move on, and heal, and seek help, and brush ourselves off, and take responsibility. We figure it out. It takes time, but we do it. And maybe somewhere in there, we take ourselves on a bit of a vacation to clear our heads. A vacation that WE PAY FOR.

We don't abandon our lives and go and do whatever we want on the other side of the world, on someone else's dime.

I have no objection to the trip itself. Like I said, it sounded fascinating. I certainly believe that we are entitled to genuine adventures in our lives. And I fully appreciate (and even like!) books about people's travels around the world.

My objection was the feeling I got that the author was bereft of any sense of responsibility for the mess in her life, any sense of maturity or accountability. And because of that, to me, her healing experience isn't grounded in reality. It doesn't resonate as true. And the rapidity with which critics fawned at the profoundness of her experience irritated me no end. Because I wonder what a book would have been like detailing how the author stayed put, and worked through her issues, and took responsibility and made it work. Because those, too, are profound experiences.

It's possible that I am cold and heartless, but a complete lack of empathy and a strong desire to scream "GROW UP" into the pages somewhat diminished my ability to fully appreciate her story.

On J&K +8

2009-06-16T12:39:00.001-07:00

Yes, ok, I know. Jon and Kate and their adorable eight are getting to be old news.

But like many of my blog posts on these kinds of things, I hem and haw and toss them around in my brain until I'm ready to post about them. That process usually takes me well past the topic's best-before date. Oh well.

What has happened to this family is profoundly sad. The breakdowns of all family units are sad, but this one feels more so because we are all witnessing it, on television, on the internet, in magazines. And because this family is, in so many ways, a normal every-day North American family, with nothing exceptional about it but its size, the breakdown hits a bit close to home. The problems that are plaguing their marriage are common problems: infidelity, mis-communication, changing priorities, busy lives.

What has bothered me most about what we've witnessed and how we've responded, from the perspective of a distant viewer, is the almost total assassination of Kate's character. Let's be clear on one thing: if Jon is spending inappropriate time with women who are not his wife, then that's totally, 100%, without question on him. It is awful and shameful and cowardly. And of course, the same is true if the inappopriate time is being spent by Kate with men who are not Jon.

What has emerged, however, from the pictures of Jon and his lady friends, is increasingly detailed numeration of Kate's personality flaws. She nags him. She belittles him. She's bossy. Which all may be true, but NONE OF WHICH EXCUSES HIS BEHAVIOUR. What is most profoundly upsetting about all this is is the whisper of "How can you blame him? See what he has to live with?"

I have been particularly taken aback by how vitriolic some of the commentary along these lines has been. And I've been trying to think why. If I had guess, I would say that a significant number of women see in Kate some of the aspects of their own personalities that they dislike. The moments where husbands are lumped in with children and bossed around. Nagging. Snarky comments made under-breath. The kinds of things we all have done, and are never very proud of.

Well here we have Kate, displaying those same behaviours in HD for our public consumption, giving us a target against which to rail, desperately trying to draw attention away from the ways that we may be like her.

I don't know Jon and Kate or, really, anything about their personalities. They may be difficult, angry, disagreeable people. Their situation, including the children and the TV show and the publicity, is bizarre and surreal. But I think that at the heart of them is a family, much like yours and mine, desperately trying to figure out a way to mend what's broken.

Various...

2009-06-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

I'm home with a nasty cold today. The cat is sitting on my feet, which is preventing me from doing anything productive with regards to packing.
I need to start packing because we signed off on the conditions yesterday for our brand new house, seen below. We take possession of the new house in a little less than a month. Crazy!
Part of condition signing-off day was our inspection of the new property yesterday and it went very well. No significant problems with the place. If I may offer a little bit of advice to other folks who have new buyers coming to inspect their home. I suggest putting your dirty magazines away where the new buyers can't see them. They make the new buyer giggle, and get all distracted. "Naughty Neighbours"... tee hee hee
Back to getting some rest here...

Hope you're all well!

Friday Five: Moving!

2009-06-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

Sally at the RevGals has posted this delightful (and wonderfully appropriate for our circumstances) Friday Five about moving!

1. A big move is looming, name one thing that you could not possibly part with, it must be packed?

Last summer, WH built a wine rack for our basement that holds 96 bottles of wine. It's the kind of thing that I thought we might be asked to leave behind (it's huge), but we would have said no. Not only is it a project that he's really proud of (and should be), but it's a representation of one of the things that we do together - collect wine!

2. Name one thing that you would gladly leave behind...

You know, I can't think of anything off the top of my head... I tend to purge things that I don't like or don't use, so not a lot comes to mind.

3. How do you prepare for a move

a. practically?

Sorting, packing, throwing things out, planning, cleaning, sorting, packing, throwing things out, planning, cleaning, sorting, packing...

b. spiritually/ emotionally?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a good mover. I get cranky, I get frustrated, I get overwhelmed. I'm hoping to avoid that this time and to do a better job of keeping the goal in mind, and my excitement about our new place at the forefront of my mind.

4. What is the first thing you look for in a new place?

This time, we were looking for very specific things: nice big kitchen, double attached garage, sizeable yard, three bedrooms on the same level, more than one bathroom, etc. I think the thing I notice first about homes I'm looking at is how clean they are. I can't believe that people put their houses on the market and then leave them dirty. It must drive real estate agents crazy!

5. Do you settle in easily, or does it take time for you to find your feet in a new location?

I think the presence of some key things help me settle in quickly. Our bed, our coffee pot, our cats... that should be enough!

The bonus for today; a new opportunity has come up for you to spend 5 years in a new area, where would you go and why?

Oh my goodness, I'm just now getting my head around the new area that I will actually be moving to in a months' time!

Update and a Letter

2009-06-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

So we have put an offer on an absolutely beautiful house in a suburb just to the east of Prairie City. Our offer has been accepted, and we are now working on getting our finances set up, and our inspection done, and then the house will be ours! The new house is very different from the Wee House, but it is absolutely gorgeous and we are very excited to get the sale finalized and to move in. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can.

And now for the letter:

Dear Persons who left their ugly-ass couch in our back yard,

That was SO kind of you! Thank you so much for leaving the ugly couch, and all the crap you piled on top of it, in our yard for us to take care of. We are sooooo grateful. And we totally understand how hard it must have been for you, after you had already loaded the couch and the crap into your truck, to drive the extra THREE BLOCKS to the Eco-station to drop them off there. No, no, that would have been IMPOSSIBLE. We are entirely understanding that our backyard was the most logical choice, and we look forward to paying the junk removal guy $80 to get rid of it for us. Because really, we have nothing better to do with our time or our money.

Forever yours,

WH and Chorus.

PS You're a jackass.

We did it!

2009-05-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

We sold the house!

We held an open house last Sunday afternoon and a woman and her daughters came to view the property. Very shortly after the open house closed, she made an offer. We countered, and she accepted the counter. We have been waiting this week for her husband to come and see the property and to get the inspection done, both of which took place successfully this morning.

Great relief, all around.

They will take possession of the house in the middle of July, so WH and I have to hit the ground running to find the new place. Tomorrow will be the marathon house viewing day, and then WH is away for a week for an examining stint.

It's a good day!

Quick Update

2009-05-27T09:28:00.001-07:00

Still here, very busy, offer pending on the house...

How are y'all?

Five Reasons

2009-05-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

Why So You Think You Can Dance is a better show than American Idol

1) Quality of Contestants: I remain convinced that there are more better dancers out there than there are singers. SYTYCD and it's sister show, SYTYCD Canada, have demonstrated simply astonishing depth.

Which leads neatly into #2...

2) We get to see that depth. I get irritated by American Idol's tendency to show nothing but hideous auditions and to skim over tiny snippets of the good ones. While we're certainly not spared the awful on SYTYCD, it always feels to me like more time is spent showing really wonderful auditions.

3) Variety. I don't believe that American Idol is particularly interested in diversity of style, despite "theme" weeks. After all, contestants are asked to take specific kinds of music and "make them their own." On the other hand, SYTYCD requires that successful competitors be strong in a variety of kinds of dance from hip-hop to ballroom to contemporary to Bollywood. This makes for more interestingly diverse television, greater growth for the contestants, and a strong sense that the competition is immensely difficult. The addition of new styles each season shows that SYTYCD producers are invested in the show growing alongside dance culture.

4) Judges. The American Idol judges reached a new level of both annoying and useless this season. Fourth judge Kara added absolutely nothing to the show except a ridiculous tendency to cause the show to run long. Feedback was often contradictory, obtuse, confusing and manipulative. While the SYTYCD judges certainly do not lack personality quirks, they are consistently more accurate, more detailed, more profound and more constructive. The addition of a new guest judge from a different dance background each week reflects the show's emphasis on diversity. And yes, Mary is weird and possibly drunk and she dresses funny. But she knows her stuff and it shows.

5) And finally... Cat Deeley. Genuine, funny, loving, exciting, both gorgeous and adorable, slightly geeky, gentle, involved and never, ever condescending. Best. Host. Ever.

Bonus Reason: Group numbers that are actually good.

Friday Five: Vacations!

2009-05-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

From Mary Beth at the Revgals!

1) What did your family do for vacations when you were a child? Or did you have stay-cations at home?

My strongest memory of vacations as a child are a number of driving trips that were taken across Canada to visit family in Ontario. It's a tradition that I sincerely hope to pass on to my own children. We live in such a beautiful country, and you never really get a chance to see it the way you do from the long highway.

2) Tell us about your favorite vacation ever:

I have two. To celebrate our first anniversary, WH and I travelled to San Francisco and Sonoma. In Sonoma, we took a four day walking and wine-tasting tour of the valley. It was fantastic!

In 2005, my mother and eldest brother spent a few weeks in Italy. EB is an archaeologist with specialization in ancient Rome, so we had a built-in guide and historian on the trip. Italy is amazing. I have never eaten so much good pasta, pizza and ice cream in my life.

3) What do you do for a one-day or afternoon getaway...is there a place nearby that you escape to on a Saturday afternoon/other day off?

If we're looking for a one-day getaway, we're most likely to find a golf course and play 18 holes. I think we're developing a real love of hiking though, so the future will see us doing more of that!!

4) What's your best recommendation for a full-on vacation near you...what would you suggest to someone coming to your area? (Near - may be defined any way you wish!)

I think that if you're coming to Prairie Province, you can't not go to the Rocky Mountains. Skiing in the winter, camping and hiking in the summer, incredible breath-taking views all year around.

5) What's your DREAM VACATION?

I really hope to do more wine-touring in my life, similar to what we did in California. I would love to tour some wineries in South America and Australia, to say nothing of Europe. I think it would be fantastic to pair some of that touring with opportunities to see some great concerts in famous places.

And of course, there is my dream Baseball Tour...

So many vacations, so little time!

Meet 'n' Greet

2009-05-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

The RevGals are interviewing!

1. Where do you blog?

Well, right here at I am Chorus for day to day living, and at Observed by Watching for sports-related musing!

2. What are your favorite non-revgal blog pal blogs?

Oh, so very many to choose from. Too many to list!

3. What gives you joy?

WH, good food, good wine, baseball, choral music.

4. What is your favorite sound?

Baby Cat has never lost her little kitten mew even though she is now almost three years old. It sort of sounds like she's talking to herself. Adorable and hilarious.

5. What do you hope to hear once you enter the pearly gates?

The wonderful sound of an old hammond organ revving up Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

6. You have up to 15 words, what would you put on your tombstone?

Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word.

7. Write the first sentence of your own great ~~American~~ Canadian novel.

The smell of peanuts and beer overwhelmed her in the most comforting of ways.

8. What color do you prefer your pen?

I'm partial to my orange pen.

9. What magazines do you subscribe too?

Tidings (a wine magazine) and Choral Journal

10. What is something you want to achieve in this decade?

But this decade is so close to over! I'll say sell our house, which we're hoping to do very soon!

11. Why are you cool?

Because despite a childhood in which my classmates routinely told me how un-cool I was, I still came out a pretty confident and happy person.

12. What is one of your favorite memories?

Not that I'm biased, but I think that my wedding day was pretty amazing, and I'll remember it fondly forever.

On American Idol

2009-05-14T08:06:00.000-07:00

In honor of the final week in this season's American Idol run, and my delight in America's selection of Kris and Adam (go Glambert!) as the finalists, I had to post a link to one of my favourite videos.

To set the stage, this video was taken during the final results night last season. David Cook and David Archuleta were the finalists. The former, a hard-edged rocker whose performance of Michael Jackson's Billy-Jean may go down as one of the greatest in Idol history, and the latter a doe-eyed cutie-pie whose baby-face made him look all of 14 years old.

The girls in the video are David Archuleta fans. Watch and Enjoy.

_________________

On another Idol-related note, I just wanted to reinforce that I think that Adam Lambert is the most exciting contestant to come out of the show ever and he is the sole reason I've kept watching this long. Usually, the performance shows bore me and I tune out. Not this season! I have faithfully PVR-d every episode in order to see what the glam rocker was going to do next. I have loved him ever since he made Randy Travis uncomfortable during country music week.

Both vocally and in entertainment value, he is in a league of his own, drawing comparisons to the likes of Steven Tyler, Axel Rose, Mick Jagger and the formerly incomparable Freddie Mercury.

He's gonna be a star, that one.

Oh CNN...

2009-05-11T15:06:00.000-07:00

From CNN, my comments in blue.

(CNN) -- British model and television personality Katie Price, also known as Jordan, and her singer husband, Peter Andre, are to separate, according to a statement released Monday.

Quite honestly, I have never heard of either of these people. I stumbled on this article by accident, and found enough bizarre things in it to want to share.

Peter Andre and Katie Price, who ran the London Marathon last month, are separating.

Question: Does the fact that Katie Price ran the London Marathon last month have anything to do with the separation? I mean, if the sentence read, "Peter and Katie, who cheats on her husband regularly, are separating," I would understand the subordinate clause, but otherwise...

The couple have been married for four-and-a-half years and found romance on the reality show "I'm A Celebrity... Get me Out of Here!, " which was filmed in the Australian jungle.

I'm sorry, they met where? I don't even know what to say. Read that sentence aloud to yourself and try not to laugh at the Australian jungle part. I dare you.

The statement said: "Peter Andre and Katie Price are separating after four-and-a-half years of marriage," the British Press Association reported.

"They have both requested that the media respect their families' privacy at this difficult time."

Only last month the couple, whose reality TV show of their life features on British television, said they were trying for another child.

Ok, I'm sorry, but these people have been on both a Survivor-esque reality show AND a reality show about their lives, and NOW THEY'RE ASKING THE MEDIA TO "RESPECT" THEIR PRIVACY?? Good luck with that.

They have two children together, son Junior, three, and one-year-old daughter Princess Tiáamii.

I'm not sure what's weirder: their daughter's name, or the fact that her brother is simply named "Junior."

Price has a six-year-old son Harvey, by footballer Dwight Yorke, who is disabled.

Who's disabled, Harvey or Dwight Yorke?

And, "These are my children, Harvey, Junior and Princess Tiaamii?

Price first made her name as an English page 3 girl, but has since gone on to become a television star, author and clothes designer. She also competes in show jumping events and has her own stable of horses.

So we have: Model, Television Personality, Marathon Runner, English page 3 girl (I don't know what this is), Television STAR, Author, Clothes Designer, Show Jumper and Stable Owner. Naturally.

Andre, an Australian, came to prominence in 1996 with his international hit "Mysterious Girl."

If this was, indeed, an "international hit," it skipped Canada.

Monday, Monday

2009-05-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Updates, various...

2009-05-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

I left my entire shoulder bag at home this morning. No wallet, no iPod, no phone, no nothing. I left the house with my lunch and my coffee. At least I have my priorities straight.
It's Friday, and that's nice. The sun is shining, which is also nice.
The house is listed and we are spreading the word. It's a lovely little house and I hope we find someone who loves her as much as we do soon.
Looking for a new house is much more fun than trying to sell the old house.
Singing with the local orchestra this weekend in a performance of Holst's Planets. The choral part consists of 16 bars of "aahing" from backstage in the final movement ("Neptune"). The orchestra is performing the work while projecting NASA images of the planets on a huge screen over the musicans. I found that my response to the images was actually pretty emotional, and I'm not sure why. Neat stuff.

And that's about it from here...

The Weekend

2009-05-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

... was long, and trying.

WH and I are embroiled in a highly aggravating situation with our accountant over our taxes. High aggravating, and also highly expensive. Sparing you all the details, this situation is the source of significant worry and tension, and has some fairly major financial implications both now and in the year to come.
We were this close (you'll have to imagine me holding up my thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart) to getting a pre-list offer on our house this weekend, an offer that would have allowed us to save the commission for our real estate agent. But they phoned yesterday and backed out. They did so for entirely legitimate and understandable reasons, but still, it was disappointing.

Those are the majors and they, coupled with a few other little things, made for a difficult weekend. My reaction to these kinds of things is a strong desire to eat my body weight in jelly beans, which probably isn't helpful.

Warning! Possible TMI ahead...

2009-05-01T07:52:00.001-07:00

There are references in this blog post to feminine hygiene. The post is not ABOUT feminine hygiene though... it's really just a funny story about my cat.

Baby cat likes to play with tampons. So much so, in fact, that she will retrieve them from inside the box in the bathroom cupboard or from my bag or from my purse and then take them away downstairs and wrestle with them. One time, after a trip, I left my suitcase open in the basement while I unpacked and for WEEKS afterwards I found tampons all over the house displaying signs of having been beaten into submission by the cat.

There is nothing funnier in the whole world than the sight of Baby Cat running through the living room with a tampon in her mouth.

The problem is that we don't always know that she's done it.

A mere 15 minutes before people stopped by on Wednesday night to look at the house, I found a mangled tampon on the floor on the basement. Baby Cat was close by, looking innocent.

Fantastic.

Stand By Me

2009-04-29T08:31:00.001-07:00

A video to feed your soul today!

She's Ready!

2009-04-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

The Wee House is ready to sell.

We have cleaned and painted and patched and tidied and arranged until we could do no more; she's ready to sell.

She'll be formally listed by the end of the week; in the meantime, we are letting friends and acquaintances know and are having a little pre-listing open house tomorrow night for anybody who wants to stop by.

She's a beautiful, wonderful little house and I hope that somebody else sees that too!

You bet I did.

2009-04-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

Given the choice this morning between vegetables, fruit, sandwiches and cake left over from a retirement part on Friday afternoon, I had cake. And not just any cake, but the corner piece with all the icing. At 9:30 in the morning.

And I'd do it again.

Because I like cake.

So THERE.

Our Trip to the Eye Doctor

2009-04-24T14:44:00.001-07:00

WH and I make our eye exam appointments on the same day each time we go. We have to same optometrist, so it just makes sense to go together. The first time we went together was also the first time that either of us had been in for an examination in a very long time. We both came out of those appointments with our 20/20 vision affirmed and joking about "passing" our eye tests with flying colours. I think we even went out to dinner that night to celebrate.

Last night was Eye Appointment Night, 2009. WH passed with flying colours again. Chorus? Not so much.

At my appointment a couple of years ago, while there were no problems with my vision, the doctor remarked that I had a weird little cataract thing in my left eye that would have to be removed when I was little old lady. He framed it at the time as more of an interesting thing than something to be concerned about. I haven't given it much thought since because, hey, 20/20 right?! My eyes are awesome!

Sigh. The cataract has gotten much, much worse in the last two years and the vision in my left eye has gone from 20/20 two years ago to 20/40 today. The funny thing is that I haven't noticed any problems with my eyesight. But there was no doubt when he asked me to read the littlest line of print with my left eye, that I couldn't do it. In fact, I couldn't read the second littlest either. Or the third. The first one I could read was the second biggest one, and it was still blurry.

"Hm," he said.

So here are the two sides of the decision of what to do about it. On the one hand, if we do nothing, I'm a happy camper with a cataract who feels like she can see just fine and has, to this point, not been bothered by said cataract. On the other, if I have cataract surgery, my left eye will be as good as my right eye for all things except reading, for which I would need glasses.

We're going with the first scenario until I start to be bothered by the eye. It makes me wonder if it's not so much that I haven't been bothered by the problem as it is that I have just been confident in my "perfect" eyes that I haven't noticed the problem. So I'll keep an eye on it, as it were, for the next little while and see if, now that I'm aware of the problem, it starts to bother me.

It is somewhat surreal to be considering cataract surgery at the ripe old age of 29.

About the Silliness

2009-04-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

I sing about random things. Brushing my teeth, cooking dinner, getting dressed, how ridiculous the cats are, etc.

I'm not entirely sure why, but I suspect it's for attention. Or more specifically, if I do sing long enough about something silly enough, I can make my husband laugh, one of my favourite activities.

After breakfast this morning, I was in the bathroom singing the I Have Good Hair Today song (I have good hair today because I used the straight-iron that my husband gave me for Christmas... oooh yeah... and I fixed my weird flippy thing in the back... woo woo yeah... I have good hair today).

WH was sitting in the living room with a bemused expression on his face.

Chorus: Do you ever wonder to yourself what the hell kind of crazy person you married?
WH: Nope.

Lucky for me!

Weekend Review

2009-04-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Oy, what a weekend.

Saturday morning, we headed to Giant Do-It-Yourself Store and bought the tile and accessories for our kitchen backsplash, which was the last part of the kitchen reno project from last year that we had to finish. Once we got all that home, WH headed downtown to play a wedding and I went to the fabric store to find something suitable to reupholster the ends of our couches, where the cats have done some fairly impressive damage. In the meantime, our bathroom contractor arrived to fix the two windows he broke on our front porch. By the time WH got home from the wedding, I had one end of the love seat done and looking really good! By the same time, the contractor had decided that he couldn't fix the windows afterall and had gone away again. I finished the love seat and the couch while WH started tiling. He managed to get all the non-cut tile up before we headed to a Chamber Choir Executive meeting to discuss the budget for next year. Somewhere in that afternoon the cats got out of the house (twice) and needed to be retrieved. We had a somewhat panicked 10 minutes of not being able to find Baby Cat, but she appeared out of the back alley eventually. So that was Saturday.

Sunday morning, WH leapt out of bed at an early hour and went back to Giant Do-It-Yourself-Store to rent a wet tile saw and get the rest of the tile up. (No Church Choir this week.) I got up eventually, sorted the laundry and put the first load in the washer. A few minutes later I came downstairs and discovered that the floor drain, into which the washing machine drains, was backed up and that our basement floor was very, very wet. We borrowed MB's plumbing snake, but it didn't take us very long to figure out that we were dealing with a pretty major problem. Phoned emergency plumbing place, emergency plumber arrived and needed something ridiculous like NINETY FEET of snake to find the problem. Drum roll please.... TREE ROOTS! Not quite the news a person hopes for a week before putting a house on the market. Anyway, he got the immediate problem solved; we gave him $500 for his trouble. Sigh. But the tiling got done and looks fantastic!

Then we headed to the church for a rehearsal, and concert (unrelated to the rehearsal) and our annual St. Arnold's Beer Tasting event. While WH rehearsed, I helped get the food and set-up for the beer tasting ready. Then we decided not to go up for the concert afterall, and took advantage of the time we had before the tasting to get a bunch of the set-up done for this week's church rummage sale. You see, the rummage committee was all a-flutter that we had planned a concert and the tasting on the same afternoon as their traditional set-up, so we promised to do all the set-up. We await reports this morning of all the things we have set-up incorrectly.

Anyhoo, beer tasting was a great success... lots of food, plenty of beer, and a really wonderful turn-out. Our theme this time was comparing local beers with European imports, and then pairing the beer with local food. The comparisons led to some great conversations!! Once the event was over, we tackled the massive clean-up while the rummage sale set-up was completed. WH and I went out for dinner because we were, by this point, too exhausted to think about cooking. Came home, decided we were still too tired to think about any of the items on our house to-do list, and went to bed pretty quickly.

I slept well, which was good.

How was your weekend?

Friday Five: Household Applicances

2009-04-17T07:39:00.000-07:00

Sally at the Revgals is in an domestic state of mind this morning, and asks us the following about our home appliances:

1. What is the one appliance you simply couldn't be without?

Coffee Maker Coffee Maker Coffeemakercoffeemakercoffeemakercoffeemakercoffeemaker. In a word (or two), our coffee maker. We recently had to replace the fancy one we got at our wedding but the new one works just fine. And we've started grinding our own beans too, which is fun. We both have a growing appreciation for fine coffee!

2. What if anything would you happily give up?

You know, I can't think of anything because where there are things that I would happily give up, I tend to give them up. It took me a little while to get used to the idea that we should have a meat slicer, but now that we have it and have used it a couple of times to turn roast beef or ham into good sandwich meat, I can see the value.

3. What is the most strangest household appliance you own?

Our strangest household applicance might be our popcorn maker, which isn't really an appliance at all, I guess. It's one of those stove-top poppers with the crank that you turn, and it makes the best popcorn in the whole wide world. No microwave popcorn at our house! We also have an ugly ice-crusher that we never, ever use, but still keep because it's a tie to a dream we have to build a functioning bar in our basement someday.

4. What is the most luxurious household appliance you own?

We have a creme brulee torch. This is because creme brulee and I are a match made in heaven, so we thought we should have the wherewithall to make it ourselves.

5. Tell us about your dream kitchen- the sky is the limit here....

Stop the Madness!

2009-04-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

It used to be that when nefarious and infamous people were looking for a way to make the celebrity last a bit longer or to make a few extra bucks, they would "write" a book. Meaning, they would sit down with some author or another and spill their guts or give the inside story or rat out their teammates or whatever, and the NY Times Best Sellers List would eat it up, etc. etc.

See Canseco, Jose, for a perfect example.

But now apparently, these same kinds of people have found a new and much lazier way to stretch the fifteen minutes. Reality Television.

Vick, Michael
Suleman, Nadya
Blagoyevich, Rod

WHY DO WE LET THEM DO THIS? In no way will any of these television shows improve our cultural landscape, inspire intellectual discourse, amuse us, or provide any kind of redeemable entertainment value. They are annoying, self-aggrandizing, self-pitying(to say nothing of BORING) tripe.

If Michael Vick wants to redeem himself in the public eye, then fine. But I'd have a much easier time believing the genuineness of that desire if there wasn't a fast buck to be made in the process.

Just... GO AWAY, all of you.

Easter Monday

2009-04-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

I have been a neglectful blogging friend this week, in terms of both my own posting and commenting on others. Now that Holy Week is over, I'll hopefully have more time.

Speaking of HW, the music was glorious, the services were poignant and meaningful and there was good will and community in evidence at every turn within the church choir. Easter feeds my musical soul.

We stayed in bed this morning until almost noon, watching useless TV and chatting about things we need to do this week and teasing the cats and eating nice breakfast and drinking good coffee. Then we were off to the local Do-It-Yourself-Store to pick up some tile samples for the kitchen and some paint for our afternoon project of getting all the paint-touch ups in the house complete. And we managed to do it!

We did have some excitement today when Mama Cat sauntered through the paint tray and then left about two-dozen paw-shaped paint spots all over the hardwood floor. Fortunately, we were able to get our hands on her and get her belly and paws scrubbed (which she was remarkably amenable to). Doubly fortunate, all the spots on the floor were fresh enough to come up with a cloth. Triply fortunate, she didn't jump up on the bed while she was on her little paint-covered journey. Currently, she is asleep on WH, with paint still visible on her whiskers. I think she's tuckered out from her adventure.

We're off to rehearsal with Chamber Choir in about an hour, so taking advantage of the meantime to watch a little Jays action.

~~And spring has sprung in Prairie Town!~~
Tuesday Morning Update: It is snowing and blowing and generally ugly. Stupid Prairie City.

In which Chorus...

2009-04-06T09:45:00.000-07:00

... probably overreacts, but feels good that she got her own way over something stupid and petty.

So the local Gigantic Chain Grocery Store has a deal of sorts involving their cloth re-usable bags, of which WH and I are the proud owner of seven. If you use the bags, and use your Gigantic Chain Grocery Store debit or credit card, you collect extra points towards discounts on future grocery orders. I think it would probably take a person 100 years of grocery shopping with the cloth bags to actually make up any meaningful discount... but that's beside the point.

I went grocery shopping on Saturday morning with my seven cloth bags. I bought roughly $200 worth of groceries. I took them to the checkout, where the cashier asked me if I needed plastic bags (for which they charge 2c a piece). I said that no, I didn't need plastic bags because I had seven of the cloth bags, and that I would be using my store debit card (so she would know to apply the points.)

She didn't apply them and gave me what I realize now was a dirty look.

She rang through all the groceries and told me the total. I asked, politely, if the points for my bags had been applied.

Cashier: "Well... how many do you have?"
Chorus: "Seven."
Cashier: "Well... are you going to be using ALL of them?"
Chorus: (whose smile was starting to be a bit forced) Yes, I am.

With perhaps more force than was necessary, she punched in the code for the bags.

I bagged everything up and was pushing my cart away when, and I kid you not, SHE STOPPED HELPING THE CUSTOMER BEHIND ME TO COUNT THE BAGS IN MY CART.

With full understanding that it's a stupid petty thing, it still gets under my skin. If stores want to create incentives for their customers, they shouldn't make their customers feel guilty about taking advantage of them.

This concludes a Monday Morning Rant.

In other news, Palm Sunday was GLORIOUS!

Things I'm learning...

2009-04-03T09:39:00.001-07:00

... about myself as I grow older, and hopefully a little bit wiser each day.

The fact that I didn't ask for the advice doesn't mean I shouldn't take it.
The term "mind your own business" takes on a whole new depth of meaning in adulthood. I have found few things more exhausting than trying to compare myself to other people.
In many inescapable ways, I am who my parents are. But in other ways, I am definitely not. And you know, both are ok.
I think that humans are very instinctive creatures and that we know a lot about what's best for ourselves instinctively. But I also think that we can be remarkable close-minded to the concept that our instincts might be wrong. And that if we spend a lot of time getting defensive over what has been a largely instinctive decision, it might be worthwhile giving the decision a second look.
It's not enough to make a decision based on careful weighing of pros and cons. I have to have given some thought to how to deal with the cons, which don't go away just because I made the decision.
The people who love me will continue to love me even if I change my mind about something that I was formerly adamant about.
There is really nothing wrong with not knowing what to do and asking somebody else who does.

I thought if I wrote these all down in my blog, it would help me remember them. :)

The Free Voice Lesson

2009-04-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

I keep going back and forth on whether or not this is a joke. Either way, it's funny.