Sunday, July 30, 2006

All kinds of delicious

Nothing big or important to report, just a collage of delicious things that I noticed or that happened around me during the past few days...

  • At Costco (which is not my idea of delicious, but I needed salad and they have those big boxes for next to nothing) there are always ladies in hairnets and aprons serving tidbits of whatever's new or yummy. I never take the tidbits. It's so contrary to my idea of how food should be consumed (slowly, definitely sitting down, and noticed). But there was one of those same ladies (they all look the same - youngish grandma types) demonstrating a karaoke machine. When I came in she was singing "Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on? Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?" She was actually pretty good, and I've just never seen anything like that, least of all at Costco.
  • Fi received a birthday email from her cousins who are vacationing in South Africa which included an announcement from her twin cousin Lukas (born on the same day as Fi).
    Hey FIFI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! guess what? At precicely 12 o'clock last night, I woke up and I felt like I had changes in my physical structure. I went to the the washroom and I looked in the mirror. Guess I what I saw!!!Yes excactly! I had grown 10 feet ( both ways), I had a wonderful moustache like Hercule Poirot, and a magnificent beard just like Abe Lincoln!! I quikly went and borrowed my dad's razor and cut my nose off by accident. SO I went to the plastic surgeon's house and asked if he had a replica of Michael Jackson's nose. He had one so he glued the nose on and gave me a boob job too. Then he shaved off my beard but left my moustache. Now I look like a mixture of Michael J. , Pamela Anderson and my hero Alex. My parents were thrilled!!! So I walked out into the street and right away every person in Johannessburg started whistling and winking at me and saying '' you're hot!!!''!!!!!!!!!!! So, did your physical structure change as much as mine did? Did you leave your moustache like Alex's? Anyways, HHHHHHAAAAAAPPPPPYYYYYYY BBBBBIIIIIRRRRTTTTTTHHHHHDDDDDAAAAAYYYYY TTTTOOOOOO YYYYYYOOOOUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd just like to wish you a very merry b-day and a joyful summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE END,
  • My friend Irene Livingston emailed me to say that this white bird that comes to her place every year only on fireworks nights is back. Nobody can tell where the bird comes from or where he/she goes. It's just one of life's sweet mysteries.
  • I'm reading this very good book.
  • I was sleeping Sunday morning and dreamed about my friend Louise's kitchen. Andy and I were visiting her at her old house. We were looking out the window and there was thunder then a hole opened up in the sky and fire was shooting down from the sky to the earth. It was spectacular, and we felt no sense of danger. I hurried up to finish loading the dishwasher, which was in the living room, where there are no windows, so I could wheel it into the kitchen to hook it up and continue looking out the kitchen window with Louise and Andy. I had to roll it down a step into the kitchen, so they helped me. That's my second pushing things with wheels dream. I'm curious about what it means. When I woke up there was real thunder. It was 6am, so I let the dog into our bedroom so she wouldn't be scared. She wanted to come into the bed but she's way too big.
  • Later Sunday morning it bucketed during the service at church. What a gorgeous feeling to be inside listening to it running down both sides of the tall roof of the church.
  • I wore my pajamas until 12:30pm on Saturday.
  • Alex drove the car 4 times this weekend with me as co-pilot. Getting better each time.
  • Andy and I watched Syriana on Saturday night. Not really delicious, but glad I got to see it. Lots to think about there, especially with current developments in Israel and Lebanon.
  • Mom and Dad brought us 10lbs of cantaloupes from Lynden WA. I like cantaloupes.
  • Fiona's show was spectacular, awesome, wonderful. Not just from a mom. The precision and consistency of the ensemble work singing and dancing was next to unbelievable from children and teens so young and so many - there were 60 on the stage at many times during the show. Sure I cried, but mostly I cheered. What a good experience they had and what a magnificent accomplishment.
  • Andy bought us a new tent today. We're back to tenting now that we don't have anything to pull our tent trailer. We're going for 3 nights on the BC Day weekend, to Fort Ebey on Whidbey Island. Now we have a tent big enough to park an elephant (and all to ourselves because Fi's staying with friends so she can go see Phantom of the Opera, and Alex has slept in his own tent since he was about 10 because he doesn't like somebody's snoring - I'm not saying whose - oh, we will have the dog with us in our tent. Oh well).
Well, I had better go, I have a couple of letters to write. Just needed to spill my jelly beans on the table and admire them. Life is sweet.

  • Oh, one more! Myrna booked this for the ladeez trip. deeelicious
question: what's good for you right now?

mompoet - branches drooping with happy froots

Saturday, July 29, 2006

first time in traffic

We celebrated Fi's birthday with the family at Andy's mom's place last night. Friends Robin, Ralph and Emma came too. It was just what Fiona wanted, everyone there. Everyone brought part of the meal, which is good. Totally yummy, the work is shared, and everyone's part of making the celebration.

Alex wanted to drive there, but that was rush hour, and involved merging onto and turning off of the Barnet Highway, so I suggested he drive home instead. He had his first "on the road" 90 minute lesson with a driving school instructor on Wednesday, so he was raring to go somewhere besides the church parking lot in my car.

To say I was nervous would be understating it. But we need to start and I trust my son and the other drivers. It's like when I first learned to ice skate I had to tell myself, "Those other people don't want to crash into me so I just have to go with the flow and trust that everyone's trying their best." I know, this is not a foolproof rule when applied to vehicle traffic, but it's a starting point anyway. The bottom line is, as co-pilot in my own car without my own brake pedal and steering wheel, I am not in control.

Alex drove home very well. He managed two lane changes, lots of smooth stops, a couple pulling out onto busy streets from stop signs, and the dreaded 360 degree ramp from the waterfront road (we took the back route home) up to the main drag. I tried not to give him too much advice except to encourage him to look way ahead. "Look as far down the road as you can, and your brain will automatically tell your hands what to do with the steering wheel for the road just in front of us." This seemed to help on that ramp. When we got home, he was ecstatic. Even better, the next-door neighbours, Rhonda and Chris, were driving behind us for part of the trip. Rhonda realised it was Alex when she saw my car with the Learner magnet on the back. Her comment?

"You did very well. If there wasn't an L on the car I would have just thought you were a senior." Alex liked that just fine.

question: have you recently found the need to examine the balance between trust and control?

mompoet - 2.5 practice hours logged, 57.5 to go

weebl and bob weather cartoon

It's pretty good. If you like weebl and bob.

question: how do you stay cool?

mompoet - water is always good, liquid or solid

Thursday, July 27, 2006

the real show is backstage

If the audience could only see. A moment before the curtain opens and the lights come up, there are actors sliding, skidding, spinning, mugging, panto-farting, goggling, tangoing with dust-mops. Then the cue and presto! they are all together dancing and singing their hearts out. It's amazing to see.

Fiona's show opened last night for a two night run, celebrating the conclusion of a four-week musical theatre intensive. I helped at the dress rehearsal Tuesday and will see the show tonight. It's a "splooge" (our family's code for a spoof) called Oceans Eleven and a half. It's funny, with good singing and dancing (the camp is called Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance) and I will cry.

I cry when art starts, and not out of proud Mommy sentimentality. At the beginning of any performance with which I feel emotionally connected, I am swept by a force that is astonishing and overwhelming. And I cry. It's just during those first moments when I feel like I am being pulled through some portal into the world of the show. It's like a living thing that the players have created and the opening music or the silence before the curtain moves move me in a way that's hard to explain. I think it's not a coincidence that I went into labour with both babies at a show (Alex at John Grey's Rock and Roll at the Vancouver Playhouse, and Fi at a movie version of some Shakespeare play with Emma Thompson in it - I can't remember which.) It just gets me.

I look forward to feeling the feeling tonight, and knowing what it looks like behind the curtain just a moment before...

question: have you felt this way?

mompoet - connected

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Sunday, July 23, 2006

dreams again

"The Wrong House" replayed, but this time we were house-sitting for another family and my whole family was there. My husband and kids were all happy and calm but I was worried again, "Who is taking care of our house?"

***

I'm at a poetry slam, waiting for my turn on stage. I realise I haven't completely memorized the brand new poem that I'm about to perform, and I don't have the words with me on paper. Mike McGee is the host of the poetry slam. He tells me not to worry. If I make a mistake and recover, the audience and judges will be on my side. I can't decide whether to risk it, or go back to one of my older poems that I know well.

***

I'm camped with a bunch of people who are not my family in a trailer in a parking lot at a provincial campground. I'm vaguely aware that the park range will kick us out soon, because we're planning to sleep over in a parking lot, and you're only allowed to stay in the designated campsites. In the meantime, the trailer (which is like an older vintage construction trailer) keeps rolling from one side of the parking lot to the other, and we have to push it by hand back to the spot where we want to park it. At one point it rolls so far out of the way that we have to take it back through the interior of a building, including up a flight of stairs and onto an elevator.

question: what's on your dream tv these days?

mompoet - hot nights, weird dreams

Friday, July 21, 2006

the beach

There are a lot of beaches in and around Vancouver, but this is the famous one. My husband goes to this beach frequently. He enjoys the unique atmosphere. I accompanied him once to find out what it was all about. I discovered that a nude sunbathers are less provocative than people in bathing suits designed to flaunt nearly naked bodies. It's a cool, counter-culture kind of feeling there, with mostly respectful behaviour, appreciation of the environment and celebration of a very special place with like-minded people. The beach is stewarded by a not-for-profit society that lobbies in the interest of the people who enjoy the beach, sponsors events and maintains the website.

The day I spent there I felt okay hanging out all day, swimming and sunning with no clothing. Everyone else is doing the same thing, and there are people of all shapes and sizes and ages. It was a lot less intimidating or embarrassing than I thought it would be.

Still, I don't go there. Partly because I don't really like lying in the sun all day. I'm more of a book in the shade person. But the main reason I don't go is that I dread meeting someone I know from work, or friends I know from the clothing-mandatory world. I think it would be embarassing to stand around and chat with people in this situation.

So there it is. I'm happy for Andy to go. I'm happy to stay away. I guess if we find a naked beach somewhere else when we are on vacation elsewhere, I would go there and be naked, but only if it was as cool as Wreck Beach.

question: do you have a nude beach near you? do you go there?

mompoet - chicken of the sea

Thursday, July 20, 2006

hot

We have headed into a heatwave that the weather forecasters say has come our way from Nevada. My office was like a pizza oven without the pizza, which is really funny because it's in a skating rink. In a couple of weeks they'll put the ice back, so I can go stand close to it in my shorts and say "ahhhh!" At work, the camp leaders took the kids to the water park and stayed wet for as long as possible. Later in the afternoon, three girls (12 & 13) dozed in my car (not air conditioned) as I wove home through baking freeway traffic from their musical theatre camp. After supper, everyone came out of the hot houses and sat on the street until it got dark and the mosquitoes chased us back inside, except the dog walkers. Everyone waited until dark to bring their dogs out. Now it's sleep time. I'm going to grab a shower and climb into bed without seriously drying off. That should help.

All that said, I am not complaining. I love the heat and the way it makes us slow down and do what's essential. Supper is later, friends are friendlier. It's easier not to be in a rush. Tomorrow I have a day off work. I'll be getting my car brakes fixed so I can't rush about. I do have to tidy up a bit for Fi's 13th birthday party on Saturday, but it would be crazy to tidy too much before the house is invaded by teenage girls. Better to do that after the party. Andy's got the day off too, but I think he is heading to the naked beach, and I don't go there. (That is another whole post, which I'll save for sometime soon.) Mostly I feel like puttering, so that's what I'll do. And tomorrow night I'm going to the movies with my mom. The air-conditioned movies. ahhhh

question: what do you do when the weather is changing?

mompoet - noticing that Friday is the 33% point along the caterpillar that is summer

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

woooordless

poetry happens in our town

Last night we held our first-ever AGM (I hope that's not the same as saying "first annual," which I know is not right) of the Vancouver Poetry House. The meeting was small, short and sweet AND impressive in the list of accomplishments made by our small but mighty organization AND by the visions articulated for the coming year.

After that it was down to Cafe Deux Soleils for the Vancouver Poetry Slam. My friend Megan came with me. She's a Grade 11 student and blossoming poet. Out of 9 competing poets, Megan came in second (first was the incomparable Norah, newest member of the VanSlam team). What a spectacular and well-deserved achievement for Megan. Her first poem, a lyrical meandering walk/flight through a world of imagined natural beauty, made the audience sit still and listen carefully. Her second, "The Saxophone Player," made me cry. I was thinking about the person who I imagine to be the subject of this poem (someone who we knew and miss) and also about the acute perception and wisdom of the poet. I was overwhelmed.

Now I am cross-eyed with tiredness and happiness for a totally successful evening. Poetry Slam nights are brutally late for me, but worth it.

I almost forgot to mention. Mighty Mike McGee was the feature poet. He brought the house down with his extended laugh-mix version of the pudding poem, with the macaroni and cheese poem mixed in. Laughing to the verge of bursting is a mighty fine feeling, and a wonderful gift that only a few can give.

question: when was the last time someone knocked your socks off?

mompoet - the world is going to be okay because there are wonderful people growing ready to take care of it

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Magnetic Red L

Alex got his learner's license last week. He's waiting for his "on the road" driving lessons to be scheduled. In the meantime, we set out together this afternoon to find a place for him to turn the key in the ignition all the way for the very first time.

We went up to university parking lot, but the security guard kicked us out. We went to the normally deserted lot between the elementary school and the outdoor pool, but as luck would have it, there was a swim meet and the place was bumper to bumper with parked vehicles and children running around in bathing suits. We debated going to the West Coast Express parking, but figured we'd get chased out of there pretty quick too. I wasn't ready to take him out in traffic - will be after the driving school teacher goes first. So we went to the church parking lot, which was finally empty by the time we got there at 3:30. (Three different churches use our worship space sequentially on Sundays, so it's a happening place most of the day).

Alex was giddy and nervous as we lurched around the lot, out into the alley, up the alley to the other driveway, back into the lot and around, and around and around. I showed him how to park it, back it up, and ease up on the brakes as the car stops so it's nicer for the passenger. By the end of the 20 minutes he was ready to give the keys back to me, so we went for a frappe and to talk about our adventure.

Unless I can figure out somewhere else deserted, we'll have to make do with the church lot for now. Pretty soon he'll have a lesson, and will be ready to drive through a quiet neighbourhood. In the meantime he has been asking me questions about collisions and insurance, so I guess he's really taking this seriously.

Andy and I took our co-pilot lesson last week at the driving school, so we have some idea about how to help Alex through our share of the 60 supervised practice hours that are required before he tests for his "N." In the meantime, we'll be getting to know Alex as a driver and learning how to be patient and encouraging in a new setting - from the passenger seat of my car.

question: how did you learn how to drive?

mompoet - easing up on the brakes a little more every time

Robert and Luci got married




Kathy and Betty and Michele and I have been together since elementary school days. On Saturday, the eldest of all of our children (Kathy's Robert - 24) got married. We had a blast at the wedding, which was an Italian extravaganza of elegance and lavish generosity. These pictures tell the story of our fun time. It's great to get together for happy days like this.

question: how do you keep in touch with old friends?

mompoet - blessed

Thursday, July 13, 2006

something about thursday night

I went to family campfire this evening, at the day camp I supervise. It was my first campfire of the 2006 summer season. I've been coordinating this camp for the past 7 years, and we don't actually have a campfire anymore, after wildfires burned homes in several other cities during past hot summers. The camp is at a park right in the middle of our city, and the fire marshall decided it was just not a good risk to light a fire, no matter how well-set and tended.

We act like there's a fire though. But first, we welcome all of the campers and their parents. We let the moms and dads try archery, which is really funny because it looks a lot easier than it is. The kids impress their parents, because they've had some practice during the week. Then we play "Capture the Flag" with moms and dads chasing their kids and each other and the leaders all over the park. Then when everyone is all sweaty and giggling, we sing campfire songs and invite the groups up with their leaders to do corny campfire skits. I usually tell a story, while the leaders get ready to do their corny leader skit, which involves grown-ups dressed up like chickens and always a man dressed in a pink ballerina costume and a maniacal dairy farmer yanking on a rubber glove (I am not exaggerating). Then we all drink hot chocolate, which we used to cook over the campfire, but now we heat on a hot plate. Everyone is happy and relaxed and nostalgic about the fun we had all week. There are thank yous and hugs and "see you next summers" (or next week for the campers who have signed up for more than one week). It's a grand feeling on Thursday evening. After that, the leaders get their 3-day weekend, which is very nice and also needed because Monday to Thursday is exhausting, even for young, strong leaders. I just hang around and soak up some of that good feeling and try to let everyone know how much I appreciate what they've done during the week.

I remember for a few years, beginning with my first full-time job, I worked Sunday to Thursday at the Rec Centre. I liked having Friday off for whatever I wanted to do while everyone else was working, and I enjoyed Sunday at the office - no bosses, few phone calls, and a chance to be in charge of a team of people who mostly worked part time hours and really liked working at the rec. But I didn't know what I was missing. When I finally switched to a Monday-Friday work week I discovered the sweet loose-looniness of Friday at the office. It's like people started shedding their weekday serious-busy selves partway through the day and everyone got more casual and playful as the day went by. Being playful-to-the-bone I always tried to get people to be this way with me on other days of the week, and often they did (sometime I'll tell you about the mini-golf tournament I organized inside the office where my boss turned his office into a water hazard and mine involved a golf ball riding up to the top of a Fisher Price parking garage then rolling down the ramp). But on Friday, everyone just got that way on their own, with delicious and disarming spontanaeity. People said and did things on Friday that you'd swear on Monday must have been a dream. A silly and fun dream, that is.

Thursday at camp is like that. I love Thursday.

question: what makes your favourite day your favourite?

mompoet - still going to work Friday, but I feel like it already started

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Monday, July 10, 2006

I got a postcard

from Mike McGee in Germany - wheeee!

and it has a picture of Louis Armstrong on it, which is very cool because I have been listening to "Sunny Side of the Street" in my head for the past few days.

question: did you know that Mike is in Vancouver right now?

mompoet - I used to walk in the shade

but I love...

regional dialects

Our lovely Rev Mary at the church is a maritimer. I adore the way she says "on" instead of "un." As in: "We work together to mend what is on-just in our society."

and I met a woman at work who recently moved to BC from Oklahoma. Her words came out all warm and soft around the edges I actually kept talking with her just to listen. It was like music.

The best voices are from Ohio and Kentucky, where the letter r just gurgles along slow and lazy like there's no reason to hurry. Ohio and Kentucky are the only places where it is acceptable to say "uhhhh-huhhh" instead of "you're welcome," just because a midwestern "uhhhh-huhhhh" sounds like a big, dusky blue pillow of yum-yum. (whatever that is)

Okay, this day is almost over so I'm going to depose myself as queen of how we all should talk and go back to being irritating in more conventional ways.

Thanks for putting up with my rant (if you're still reading) - now that would sound much better pronounced by an Ohioan, forrrr surrrre.

question: where do you find your favourite voice?

mompoet - transplanted tongue, homesick ears

If only I had know-wun

It's back, that annoying verbal fad/habit/tic. I keep hearing it on the radio, tv, in conversation. I'm too polite to say something to the person (and it would be silly to talk to the radio anyway). Here's the problem.

"I would never have bought that mp3 player had I know-wun that a cheaper one was coming out the next week."

"Research has show-un that coffee drinkers are definitely crabby in the morning before they drink their coffee."

Interestingly (or not) I think these same pronouncers do not offer their dogs a boe-wun or go out after supper on a hot night for an ice cream coe-wun. So I think it's just for words ending with o-w-n.

I know this is incredibly picky. It's my thing. It sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me. I know that I shouldn't criticize because I don't have perfect grammar or pronunciation or spelling (remember sherbert er sherbet er fruity ice cream?). It bugs me anyhow.

question - how long until I can say that this particular bug has blow-un over?

mompoet - obsessing again

Sunday, July 09, 2006

silly sites

petition.com

how to detect lies

how to wash your soccer jersey after the world cup

question: is there anything too silly for the internet?

mompoet - going to read a book

my town






















question: how's your town looking these days?

mompoet - exploring

Friday, July 07, 2006

Bestway

Alex is taking driving lessons. He has 3 full days of classroom time, followed by sessions in the driving school car. On Monday evening, Andy and I do our "co-pilot" class to learn how to accompany Alex on practice drives without popping a vein.

I'm pretty calm about it so far, especially considering he'll be practising in my car. I remember I was pretty safe and responsible new driver when I was 16. Or at least I thought I was.

It's a lot longer and harder to get a license now, which is good, I think. Alex will need to log a lot of practice hours before he can test for his "N" license, which he then keeps for 2 years before being fully licensed. The N includes restrictions on how many passengers he can carry, and it's easier to get your N revoked for bad driving than it is to have a regular license taken away. I guess that's good too.

We'll see, anyway. I'll be co-piloting soon.

question: what does your family do in the summer time?

mompoet - still coughing and sneezing

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

wash your vegetables (a haiku)

a sneeze at Safeway
glistening snot javelins
target broccoli

question: grossed out yet?

mompoet - stand back from the nose, it's loaded

what to do if you can't sleep

Teenager who will not be named: Guess what I did last night, Mom?

Mom: What did you do last night?

TWWNBN: I taught myself to snore.

Mom: Huh?

TWWNBN: It was 12:30 and I couldn't sleep so I just went snnnnzzzz snt snnnnzzz...

Mom: You did?

TWWNBN: Yup. Now I can snore.

Mom: That's good.


question: what do you do when you cannot sleep?

mompoet: beam me up, snotty

stuff on my cat

dotcom

question: what snot to love about...

mompoet - sick

Monday, July 03, 2006

dream-frags

I have been sleeping more than usual this weekend (blasted cold!) and dreaming more... Here's what's been on the dream TV as I channel surf my unconscious mind:

-I wake up in a strange room in a strange house. The kids are with me, but not my husband. The people who own the house inform me that I am in "The Wrong House." These words keep repeating in every conversation through the rest of the dream. In fact, they are the only words I can remember. I try to get the kids and me out of the "Wrong House," but there are tasks to do. The son in the other family needs help with his homework, and I have to clean up the room I wrongly slept in. When we get outside I can't remember how I got to The Wrong House, so I don't know how to get home. The kids are passive. I am in that curious, detached state of dream-believing - not really upset or distressed by the situation.

-I am on a fishing boat. Someone catches a fish. I jump off the boat and swim behind the fish, trying to unhook it so it can swim away. I get jabbed by the fish-hook and bit and kicked by the fish (well finned, I guess). I can't get the fish unhooked. The fish seems not to want to be unhooked. The people in the boat are yelling at me to stop.

question: what do they mean?

mompoet - weird-headed

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Mary and George's wedding

Fi had the camera at her show, so I have no photographs to share. But the pictures in my mind are wonderful. Still suffering with the awful cold, I hauled myself out to the church, lugging a jumbo water-bottle half filled with ice, which thankfully prevented any coughing fits.

The wedding was so Mary! Lovely, and small and warm. John, a member of our congregation who is licensed to perform marriage ceremonies, presided. A couple of other minister friends of Mary's did the readings and the meditation. The choir sang and our neighbour Steve (who's in the Vancouver Symphony) played his viola. There were also Marcia on the saxophone, Shelley on the organ and piano, and Chris on the drums. Mary was radiant. George looked the the cat who ate the canary. He's a quiet man, seemingly very modest, but he had this big spilling-over grin that made me want to jump up and shout with joy.

When the ceremony was finished and it was time for Mary and George to walk out of the church, Steve, Shelley, Marcia and Chris played the Maple Leaf Rag for Mary and George to dance down the aisle. What a happy day and a real expression of the creativity and love that fills our church and embodies our identity as a faith community.

I skipped the dance and reception at the legion and came home to the neighbourhood block party for Canada Day. I was starting to feel better. Some cider and some wine and some kahlua and some fireball helped me feel even better. The big water bottle made sure I even felt just fine in the morning.

Today we'll go out to the Golden Spike Day festival at Rocky Point. What a happy weekend, what a lovely Canada Day yesterday.

question: what song would you have played for your exit anthem?

mompoet - tra la la

If I were born 10 or 100 years earlier I would be all primes

Continuing in my obsession with prime numbers, I fixated on birthdays. How many people do you know who have birthdates made up of all prime numbers?

My birthday is November 29, 1961. Eleven and twenty-nine are good, but alas, 1961 is divisible. It would have been okay were I born in 1861 or 1951, but then I would have been somebody else who probably wouldn't have grasped the significance.

You can look up lots of prime numbers here.

question: how much about you is a prime number?

mompoet - 5 is still my favourite

Saturday, July 01, 2006

snot

Descriptions of illness symptoms are number three on the all-time list of "boring" (falling just behind "what I ate" and "how I slept" and followed closely by a personal toilet journal). But, I'm sick and I don't often whine, so here it is. Promise, no lists of food, poo or minutes slept, anytime in the near future.

Somebody must have took a long piece of sandpaper and threaded it in through my nostrils, up around through my nasal passages and down my throat. All of the crud that shook loose onto the sandpaper has been deposited on my tongue, where it is stuck. My face just turned into a garden slug onto which somebody has recently sprinkled salt. All of the liquids in my body are seeping out through my eyes and nose, but my lips are dry and cracked. My head is buzzing. I don't have a fever, so I warrant no sympathy.

There, phewww. That's all.

question: how do you feel today?

mompoet - I owe it to you to listen to anything, after that

tyger on youtube

Mom sent me this link, a stunning animated short film based on William Blake's Tyger.

question: how does the future look to you?

mompoet - pre-apocalyptic

happy birthday canada

You are young and beautiful, but you seem are a bit unsure and forgetful. You are Canada. These people are your people, even if the other big country over there insists that they are bad. And there is room in your big, generous self for all people of all kinds, in all kinds of relationships. If you continue to let gay people be married, some people might make fun of you, but it will be worth it. Canada, you seem to be a 16 year old boy, well meaning and earnest but not yet fully aware, and also unsure that you can (and should) do things your own way. You can grow up Canada, you can be okay.

ps You'll need to watch the junk food now, more than ever or you'll contribute to global diabetes.

question: whose birthday at your house?

mompoet - celebrating in my pajamas with a box of tissues and a glass of orange juice (from that big country over there)