grammar grudge

People, these days, are saying "never" when they should say, "did not."

"I never called you a hippopotamus today."

"I never ate the last rice krispie square."

or this one, actually heard on the radio:

"Authorities at Vancouver Airport never disciplined any of the staff involved in the tasering incident."

"Never" is for ever, a substantially long time. It is not for a single incident of not doing something, or even a day or a week, or even a year or more. It is for ever.

I wish people would just talk plain like thayre mamas larned them to.

question: why is this word worm stuck in my ear?

mompoet - getting my grumpies out before a happy day

haiku about a country crossover song that I don't like but the fitness teacher keeps playing in the cycle class

Carrie Underwood
demolishing her boyfriend's
car is just plain sad

Mompoet at Thundering Word

On Feb 15 I had the pleasure and honour of featuring at Thundering Word, a wonderful open mic evening at Cafe Montmartre in Vancouver. Here are a couple of photos of hosts Wanda Nowicky and Bill McNamara and me, after the show.

Bill and Wanda are awesome hosts, and their show attracts audience and artists who love an evening of music and words. The night I was there, we saw and heard singers, guitar players, spoken word artists, a banjo player, harmonica player and Jill with her new rock-ulele - an electric ukulele. I had a tremendously lovely evening and even remembered all of the poems and the story that I prepared. The highlight for me was performing my "Dear Valentine" story that I posted here last Valentine's Day. The audience responded so warmly to it I felt like I was walking on air.

Thank you to everyone, friends and family who came out to Vancouver from Burnaby, Port Moody, Pitt Meadows and other great places to see the show. Thank you to my Vancouver poetry friends who came too. I felt surrounded by love. Thank you Bill, Wanda and lovely Diana (Bill's wife) who gave us all treats of her personal warmth as well as Valentine candies to sweeten the evening.

question: do you hear the thunder?

mompoet - walking on air (still)

secretary or chairperson?

I received this email today from my friend Diane:

Hi, Just to let you know that you are the new Secretary for Congregational meetings.

Thanks for standing for that position.

I had to leave our church AGM Sunday before the elections, but I let my name stand. I have agreed to be the secretary for next year's AGM, and for any other special congregational meetings that are called between now and then. It's a small job, but one that needs to be filled. I am happy to be able to help.

I have been secretary for a number of organizations over the years, and I like the role. Recording the proceedings forces me to be very attentive and to think about the most important aspects of the business being conducted. I also get to do a bit of steering if things are getting so murky I can't follow well enough to record. Usually, I'll ask a clarifying question: "So, have we agreed to do XYZ? and who will be taking what actions?" When it works well, I support whoever is facilitating the meeting if that person is struggling to keep order. People may tune out the chair, but they usual stop and be clear and polite if the secretary asks for clarification.

I have also been chairperson/president for a number of groups over the years. I think I'm pretty good at that job. Often I am called to chair or facilitate a meeting at work too. I like the challenge of leading the group through the agenda, making sure people are all heard, helping the conversation to stay on track etc. It's a good feeling to have a friendly, balanced, productive meeting that gets done on time. When a meeting is unruly, emotional, a bit wild, it's also a satisfying challenge to get the group through it. As a facilitator, I like it when I can move the group into a place of effective communication and help a job get done, despite interruptions, distractions and opposing positions. Finding shared interest is an art. I can't say I'm a consensus-builder, but I can usually get a group to find some common ground and work out ways to keep going with whatever it is doing in an honest and authentic manner.

I've been thinking about being a chair and being a secretary. I find chairing emotionally draining. Even a simple meeting filled with agreeable people can be complex to facilitate. It's hard work, and even though I'm good at it, I often leave wondering if I could have done a better job.

When I'm secretary, I'm confident that I can do a really good job every time. I like the supporting role. I like that the secretary helps to lead without being the main person pushing other people toward an orderly conclusion. I like not being responsible for the list of what needs to get done.

I'm stepping down from a couple of my chairing roles in the next year. Maybe I'll be secretary a bit more frequently. It feels like a secretary-ish time for me. When life's busy and complicated, I prefer being able to take a co-pilot seat and make sure everything is seen and noted, with everyone getting good information out of the event. Sometimes I have to chair, and that's okay too - but right now, given the choice, I'll take the minutes.

question: secretary or chairperson?

mompoet - never, ever, treasurer

haiku

driving home from work
it was light outside - I love
the way the earth tilts

inventory

I spent the whole day inside my house yesterday (except for driving Fiona to rehearsal, and going out for supper with Andy after staying inside the house all day). I had not cleaned the house in probably 3 weeks. Sure, I did the bathrooms last weekend, and vacuumed the floor the weekend before, and I'd kept the dishes turning around in the dishwasher so we could eat, but that was about it. Nobody here is a clean freak. I'm ambivalent about clean (some say borderline split personality), so most of the time, if it gets done, great! If not, so what?

Sometimes though, it just feels good to muck out. The place feels so much better after I do it, and the doing of it is therapeutic: look, I can impose order on something, even if it's temporary and trivial. Yesterday was such a day. I made a big list on a small piece of paper, sorting tasks by room, and I cleaned and crossed out, cleaned and crossed out.

Now I'm finishing my coffee, getting ready to go to church, and I'm thinking about what got done and what's left to do in the cleaning the house department:

• The laundry is clean and ready to wear, just so long as you don't mind finding it in the basket and getting dressed in the laundry room.
• The carpets have been deodorized and vacuumed and the hard floors washed. Look out for the rice krispies on the kitchen floor (a recent addition) while you enjoy your rice krispie square.
• The stairways are free of clutter. Please look out for the small pile of former clutter at the foot of each person's bed.
• The sheets have been changed. And there's no deficit or downside to that. Clean sheets are just mmmmmmmm!
• I didn't clean the bathrooms yet. I think I will do that while Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sashay around tonight in designer wear at the Oscars. I will wave to them with a toilet brush.
• The kitchen counters have been cleaned. I am considering making a seed and pasta collage with the stuff I found behind the toaster oven, coffee maker and utensil jar. (by the way, did you notice that we have barely any kitchen counters?)
• I put new arrangements of bowls and candles and rocks and such out on the coffee table and dining room table. If anyone notices and compliments these, I will kiss him or her.
• I emptied and cleaned the cat litter box and cleaned up the back yard after the dog and took a big heavy bag of "animal waste" up to the dumpster. Thank you everyone, for not running screaming from the basement while I did this job. Thank you also for not advising me that the odour of cat litter was clinging to my sweater. I have since showered and put the scented clothing through the wash, so it's all good again.
• I uncluttered the computer desks. Please don't ask me where your cd is, or your connector cord. Maybe it's in that pile of stuff at the foot of your bed.
• I did not cook anything for anyone all day. Okay, I made egg in a hole for Alex for breakfast, but that's because he's been sick all weekend. Otherwise it was "fend for yourself while I clean." Thank you Andy, for taking me out for supper. It was especially nice to come home to a clean house and light the candles in the lovely new artistic arrangement on the coffee table (hint hint).
• I just realised how dirty the windows are. This is the only bad thing I can think of that comes with a sunny day. I think I will begin writing a new list.

So there it is. My house is (temporarily) (almost) clean. Today I will not clean it - except for the Angelina toilet scrub some time this evening. I'm off to church and shopping for a light fixture for our downstairs bathroom reno (coming up) then to actually cook Sunday supper.

I will probably clean the house again some time in March, whether it needs it or not.

question: are you a clean machine? a laissez-faire homemaker? or something in between?

mompoet - never quite sure which one I'll be until I wake up and smell the Vim

anonymous

I came in to work late on Friday, after taking the dog to the vet. I work at a rec centre, in the area for people 55 years and over - formerly called "seniors" now called "people 55 and over." I love this work. It mostly involves facilitating able and active people as they work together to do community work and have fun together.

I walked into the lounge - a living room coffee bar area. I was greeted by T and R, the two hostesses who serve the coffee Friday mornings, and K, the Treasurer from the Board of Directors. K was finishing his weekly accounting tasks. T and K were chatting with the people in the lounge.

R: Hi Sue - Do you know how to spell "anonymous?"

MP: I think so - you mean the word "anonymous?"

R: No you ninny - the something else "anonymous." What do you think? of course the word!

MP: Sorry, I just thought you might be asking me a trick question.

R: No, I just want you to tell me how you think the word "anonymous" is spelled."

MP: a-n-o-n-y-m-o-u-s

R: Wrong!

K: Wrong!

T: We thought it was spelled that way, but K asked V. V is a very good speller and she said it has 2 "n"s.

MP: Of course it does, one before the o, and the other after.

T: No - two before the o, then another one after, so 3 ns really.

MP: That can't be. I'm a good speller and I'm sure...

At this point, everyone in the lounge starts chiming in about how to spell anonymous, their own spelling ability, good spellers they know, and why there is no dictionary on the bookshelf in the lounge. MP goes out to her office to look up the word on dictionary dot com.

a few minutes later

MP: Here we go: We had it right. V must have been mistaken (show the printed page from dictionary dot com to R, T and K).

T: I knew it.

R: I knew it.

K: Oh well. I just sealed up my letter, so "anonymous" is spelled wrong. That's okay.

MP: You just wrote an anonymous letter?

K: No, I wrote a letter to "Anonymous." Somebody wrote me an anonymous letter so I wrote a letter back and addressed it "Dear Anonymous."

MP: Who would write you an anonymous letter? That's awful! What was it? How do you know where to send the reply?

K: I got this letter about the money collected for the dance next week, asking me to leave some funds in the safe for buying refreshments, but it wasn't signed. So I'm leaving the money in the safe with a note: "Dear Anonymous, here is the money."

MP: Ooops...

K, T and R begin to laugh as MP's face turns red.

MP: I think I forgot to sign the note that I left for you - asking for money for refreshments for the dance.

K, T and R are now killing themselves laughing.

MP: Okay, you can call me "Anonymous" from now on.




question: did you ever send or receive an anonymous note?

mompoet - just did, will try not to in the future - at least I can spell anonymous

amazing story

I just finished Misfortune by Wesley Stace. I was gasping and tearing up in the staffroom at work, where I happened to finish it seeing as I have been lugging it around and grabbing reads for the past few days.

I recommend it. Also his second novel By George.

question: how good can a book get?

mompoet - mighty good books, yup

the show

My show on Sunday went really well. I will write a post about it, but I'm waiting to get around some computer limitations that are preventing me from uploading some photos.

stay tuned

too stained

more later

lore mater

that's all for now, said Saul the cow

vote for Kristene and Fred to get the best job in the world

My friends Kristene and Fred are living in the Cook Islands right now, managing a small beach resort. They'll finish their job there later this year, and are hoping to get this dream assignment to live and work on Hamilton Island in Australia.

Please check out their contest entry website page and rate it by filling in the stars where it says "RATE ME" (hint - 5 is best). You can help them win this dream job by giving them stars.

Kristene is also a spectacular short fiction-writer. She's one of the long-distance members of Shoreline Writers Society, and a regular contributor to our chapbooks, even when she's living on the other side of the earth.

vote vote vote!

question: what would be the best job in the world for you?

mompoet - I meant to say that Kristene is a writer of short fiction (not a fiction writer who is short)

valentine's day

Andy and I have decided to skip Valentine supper at a restaurant this year. It's crowded and cliche, and we don't need it this year. We've decided to go out for lunch at a cafe near our house, one that we have been meaning to try out for some time. We'll go together for haircuts in the afternoon (very romantic!) then stay home Valentine's night - maybe get a dvd and curl up with a glass of wine.

We don't exchange gifts either, but we do give each other Valentine cards. I have also bought some little treats for Andy and for the kids. It's nice to get something sweet on Valentine's Day.

I don't know what the kids have planned. I guess I'll find out when the day comes, nothing that I know of yet. I think Alex will be working that evening.

Maybe I will bake some cookies. Other than that, life is already sweet, so I will just try to relax and appreciate it. The next day is a busy one - church, Shoreline Writers, then Thundering Word in the evening.

question: will you do something special for Valentine's Day?

mompoet - looking forward to simplicity and staying close to home

the show

I have been talking to myself everywhere I go for 2 weeks, practising my poems and my story for the 30 minute feature set that I will perform at Thundering Word on the weekend. I have 7 poems (some short and some slam length) and a story getting ready to go. If I had to do it today, I'd be okay. By Sunday, I will be solid. I don't feel terribly nervous because I know, a lot of my friends will be there, and the venue and audience is generally warm, friendly and encouraging. Besides, I love being up on stage, and the luxury of not having to squish into a 3 minute time slot or have points deducted (poetry slam rules), is a real treat. I hope that my set will be a real treat for the audience, and I am looking forward to enjoying the open mic performers who will go up before and after I do.

I will try to get a few photos taken while I'm there, and I'll take some before and after, of the people I know who go there. I'm grateful to Bill and Wanda for inviting me. I'm confident now I can bring a good, entertaining performance to the Thundering Word stage on Sunday.

In case you have missed my emails and facebook messages:

Thundering Word
Sunday Feb 15 8pm (open mic signup at 7:30)
Cafe Montemartre on Main St. near 27th in Vancouver

question: have you ever memorized a poem for recitation?

mompoet - almost ready to go

pajamas - they're out there

Do you remember the blue flannel pajamas that I mailed to my friend Rhonda? and how Rhonda wore them in Egypt? Well, there's an update: Rhonda gave them to her friend Lorna, who took them to Paris and wore them in two of the royal bedrooms at Versailles. Check the pajama blog for the photographs.

question: where will the pajamas go next?

mompoet - all warm and flannelly with delight

I met Pearl

Pearl Pirie is a poet who lives in Ottawa. I read her food blog and her personal blog regularly. We met in Carol's Friends of the Friendless Marching Band a couple years ago, when Carol invited us (via blog comment) to join this group of bloggers who had few comments but lots of interesting stuff to say. The band agreed to visit one another on "Friendly Friday's" and many of us became friends.

A couple of years later, Carol has taken a break from blogging. I have stayed in touch with Pearl, Imran, Stephen and Daisy.

This week, Pearl came to Vancouver with her husband, Brian. Pearl knows my friend Warren from when he lived in Ottawa too. Pearl read from her chapbook boathouse (pronounced "oath in the boathouse") at Pulp Fiction bookstore. She read some experimental and form poems, demonstrating a love for the intersection of sound and meaning that is poetry. Other poems came from a train trip from Ottawa to Detroit and back, dedicated to writing on the train. These ones were lovely snapshots of the people and sights found along the way. There were other poems too - one that sticks in my head is a recounting of the conversations of relatives brought together at a funeral.

I am so glad that I heard Pearl read, and met her in "3D" as she put it.

question: did you ever know someone for a while, before you met them?

mompoet - the world is small, and we are all connected

mompoet at the montemartre

I'll be the feature performer at the wonderful Thundering Word open mic night at Cafe Montemartre in Vancouver on Sunday February 15. Hosts Wanda Nowicki and Bill McNamara and Bill's lovely wife Diana have invited me to do a 30 minute poem and story set at the show.

I'm super excited, especially after I saw the show last night. The night's feature, sketch duo The Dead Understudies, was hilarious. The open mic was fabulous too. I saw some great musicians and singers and a stand-up comedian before I had to sneak out the door. I wish I could have stayed to the end.

The cafe is an awesome spot too, flavoured like turn-of-the century Paris - very bohemian. I enjoyed a delish chocolate and orange crepe before the show began.

Anyway, here's the promo poster. I'm still giggling about being dubbed a "luscious suburban mom."

question: do you thunder?

mompoet - I hope you'll come to the show

dreambit

I am driving my car. It's a school zone. I am driving too fast. The motorcycle police officer motions me to the side of the road. I park next to the high school. It is Whistler Village - no, you can't drive in Whistler Village - it is a high school in Newport Village, in Port Moody.

I feel resigned to getting a ticket. I should not have been driving so fast past a school. But I know it will be expensive. Oh well.

I roll down my window. The police officer looks in and says. "Did you know you have birthday cake on your glasses?"

WHAT?

"Take of your glasses and look," the officer insists. I take them off. They are crusted with white and blue frosting and yellow cake crumbs. I explain that I can still see fine to drive. The officer says I'm getting a ticket for having dirty glasses.

I wake up.

question: birthday cake?

mompoet - not sure what it means

silly silly silly

Yesterday was Silly Lunch Day. Maybe you remember, my friends and I had one of these last year? Well, we did it again. It was really silly of us to wait for so long.

About a dozen of us got together. We wore silly clothes, told silly jokes, assumed silly names, and behaved in as silly a manner as we could think of at lunch time in a Burnaby restaurant.

Our silly names were very silly, like Monkeeta Fungus-Fizz and Bathilda Vein-Sauerkraut. There was a silly raffle, with tickets one for $1, 3 for 25 cents and 42 for 11 cents. The grand prize was a library book, The Idiot's Guide to Pro Wrestling. We gave the money from the raffle to our waitress for putting up with our noisy silliness. There was also a "Silly Lunch Expose" contest, where we guessed who did what silly thing in her past. Who would know that Dispsy Dorky Chucklefanny was a once candidate for Cherry Fiesta Queen? or that Boleo Blowbottom, at the age of 21, traveled through the US, following the Professional Bull Riding Association, landing up at the Pro Bull Riding Championship in Las Vegas?

There were rules of course. We all wore silly nametags with our silly names. Any person silly enough to call another by her real (not silly) name had to get up and go all the way around the table impersonating a animal called out by the others. I got to be a cat. We also had a chicken, two trapeze artists and a giant squid.

It was just the right thing for a dreary time of year. We laughed and laughed, and remembered that most of what's happening is pretty silly, so we might as well be that way too.

question: how silly are you?

mompoet (aka Nostrilia Scallybottom) - silly is good

permanent homeless shelter (slow cooker version)

It looks like plans for a homeless shelter in Coquitlam are going ahead, but at an unreasonably slow place. This article in Wednesday's Tri City News indicates that the stumbling block is trouble getting a memo of understanding with BC Housing. We have the land and the building, the public will and the support of people all over Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody - and the homeless people needing a safe place to stay, where they can get help to more permanent recovery and housing.

It just doesn't make sense that this is being held up for procedural reasons.

We do have temporary shelters for the winter months, but sleeping on mats on a church floor, then going out to shiver in the cold from 7am-9pm is not satisfactory for our homeless community members. And what about the months of April - October? We know that people are living in tents in parks, and that they are sick, hungry, and sometimes victimized during night.

Hurry up and let's get this done!

question: why not?

mompoet - impatient

Australia Day Celebration

Our Aussie friend Stephen invited us to his home for an Australia day celebration, complete with Lamingtons, Australia beer, meat pies, ACDC, the Australian National Anthem and a chilly flag-raising ceremony. I was the only person there dressed as a marsupial.

question: do you come from the land down under?

mompoet - marveling at the convergence of Burns, Oz, and Lunar New Year

"my first haggis" haiku

re-warmed on Sunday
warm, oaty mystery meat
Scottish Grandma food

question - have you tried it?

mompoet - I have met the haggis, tasted it, and live to tell the tale

me and obama and chinese new year

I heard on the radio that Barack Obama was born in the year of the Ox, so I looked it up, and sure enough, Obama's birthday is August 4, 1961. That makes him just a few months older than I am, and he shares a birthdate with my sister, except she's two years younger than he is.

Growing up and older, there was a good part of my life when I was usually the youngest person doing whatever it is I was doing (taking certain university courses, hanging out with older friends). This was a comfortable place for me. I enjoy looking up to people, and being with people to whom I look up.

Simultaneously, as I grew, I unfurled these amazing leadership skills - that's not a brag, just a fact. I got used to the situation pretty early. People look up to me. At work and at school and in the community, I am often chosen (or volunteer) to organize, teach, mentor, herd, whatever is required to make sure a group gets done whatever they want to do.

This looking up and being looked up to are simultaneous and mutually agreeable. In fact, I have the most difficulty side-to-side, relating to people on an equal level. Frequently I convert equal relationsips to something I can understand better by setting up an internal teeter-totter understanding about my peers. It goes like this: "She is an amazingly generous and hospitable person. I rely on her to get every detail right when we are taking care of people together. I have the ability to go with the flow in a hectic situation. I help her stay calm when things get crazy. "

All of this does connect to Barack Obama and me sharing a birth year. You see, for the longest time, people with authority and expertise upon whom I rely, and in whom I trust, have been older than me. My doctor, dentist, boss at work - they are (or were until recently) older than me, and I looked up to them because of this. Now I find myself more and more frequently looking up to people who are younger than I am. My doctor retired a few years ago, and my new doctor is just a bit younger than I am. My dentist? Same thing. My boss at work is pretty much the same age as I am. My Member of Parliament is older. My MLA is younger. The Prime Minister is only 2 years older (although he seems a lot older than that to me). I am getting used to being one of the older ones in every crowd. I guess it's good I'm working for another year at the seniors recreation centre. It helps me put age into perspective. Everyone there thinks I am very young.

I am delighted to be the same age as the President of the United States. And getting back to the year of the Ox, I can tell you, he is well equipped to be both a strong and appreciative leader, if you set any store by Chinese Horoscopes.

And I guess this means that my parents are now old enough to be the parents of a US President. But if they want that, they'll have to wait on my sister or brother because I'm not running. I've got ox work to do, with people who I admire and admire me, and friends with whom I enjoy mutually beneficial relationships.

Happy Lunar New Year, especially to the oxen. I think the world needs us now more than ever.

question: what is your Chinese Horoscope sign?

mompoet - the flower that grows through the crack in the cement

Movie Night

Andy and Alex went out to see Yes Man at the Theatre. Fiona worked on her video project for school. I watched a delightful movie that my friend Diane recommended. Children of Heaven came out in 1997, but somehow I missed it. I'm glad Diane told me to watch it. Made in Iran, it is sweet and seemingly simple story of a brother and sister who agree to share one pair of shoes when the sister's shoes are lost. It is a lovely, lovely film.

question: have you found any old treasures lately?

mompoet - glad that libraries and video stores have long memories

yarn bombing

Two Vancouver knitters, Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain were featured on CBC Radio 1 this morning. They have a book due out in the Fall. I had never heard of this. Now I am hoping to see some knit graffiti soon.

For now, here's their blog. Be sure to keep scrolling down and see the bus cozy.

question: who would ever imagine?

mompoet - amazed and admiring

inauguration

Still here...

"Mom! you have not posted your blog for a long time!"

Okay, here goes...

Since I last posted I have:

• hosted the Bingo Slam at Van Slam. My friend Lisa and I took on the personae of Bingo Dabber Betty and Edna Freezepot, the Bingo Ladies. Riffing on a cool idea we'd heard from our Slam Master Sean about a bingo slam in Atlanta, we crossed a poetry slam with bingo night and enjoyed a rough and tumble funny/artistic/silly alt slam evening. There's a YouTube compilation by our friend WD Fulton, but only go there if you can stand the sight/sound of Edna (that's my bingo lady character) dropping an F-bomb (swear word) in the first few seconds of the video. If you want to continue thinking that I am nice and virtuous all the time, don't look. Besides that though, there's samples of the poet's efforts to defy slam cliches and be as original and bingo-resistant as possible. Old lady hats off to my partner in bad taste, BD Betty, and the amazing poets of Team Tall, Team Short and Team Awesome.
• recuperated from the first week back to work - I couldn't figure out why I was so tired going into week two, then I remembered, I was up at 5 each morning, and out past 9 every evening all week long. Luckily this week turned out to be more cozy-homey after Monday's excitement at the slam.
• Saw The Wrestler with Alex. It's a very good movie. Alex was worried about me during the most brutal fight scene, but I reassured him I was okay. He is a very considerate person to see a movie with. What I loved about the movie was the theme of living it/faking it and how the line gets blurry sometimes so we aren't sure ourselves. The situation and characters swooped everyone in totally. There was a moment when I think everyone in the audience was holding his/her breath. Everything about this movie felt real. It's sad, funny, frightening and amazing.
• Sewed on the costume some more. The fabrics are a challenge. Making someone look good in a velvet tea cozy is about the best way I can describe it. I'm making progress.
• Put the Christmas ornament boxes away under the stairs (crawling where the spiders are born, oh, my favourite).
• Went with Michele to see Les Yeux Noir at Capilano University on Sunday Night - frenetic, soulful, amazing gypsy fusion in French, Yiddish and Russian. I loved it. I love that Michele will go with me to see something knowing nothing about it except that it might be interesting.
  
• Got into Wesley Stace's novel Misfortune after enjoying By George over the holiday. I love to read about a life so apart from my own, told by a storyteller so wonderfully gifted.
• Took pictures of my rubber duck all over the place. I'm trying to win a trip from CityTV's BTV to Acapulco for Andy and me.
• Felt sad about the death of Steve Sauve, an Ottawa poet and lovely man who I met when he came to Vancouver for the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2005. Steve had a soft spot for women who wear glasses. That's just one of the reasons I like him. Tonight we had a moment of noise for Steve at the Vancouver Slam. He will be missed, and remembered.

question: so what have you been doing all week? (not checking my blog, I hope)

mompoet - just checked again - yup, still here

Gran Torino

Andy and I saw Gran Torino last night. Clint Eastwood directed and stars in this movie about a widowed Korean War veteran, living in Detroit. Eastwood's protagonist is not a sensitive new age guy. He's a grumpy old-timer who smokes and drinks too much, is on prickly terms with his grown sons and their families, estranged from his church community, and resentful of the immigrant population that prevails in his once white, middle class neighbourhood.

The story unfolds as gang violence threatens the safety of the neighbourhood, and Eastwood's character develops a grudging mentor relationship with the boy who tries to steal his car. The movie explores themes of faith, family relationship, urban violence and war.

Clint Eastwood is as remarkably wonderful as ever - still a powerful and compelling screen presence, now in his 70s. He also knows how to direct a movie. This movie is good storytelling that addresses big moral questions without seeming didactic or ponderous. Events unfold convincingly and the action kept the whole theatre responding together as the story unfolded. There was a fair amount of violence, but none gratuitous. I recommend it.

question: do you like Clint Eastwood?

mompoet - ps. he is still handsome as ever, and he sings during the credits

The Opera at the Movie Theatre

Mom and I saw the opera at the movie theatre on Saturday morning. It was a live simul-cast from the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York. The opera was La Rondine by Puccini, a love story with comic sub-plot. This was my first opera (not counting ones I had listened to on CD) and I loved it.

The performance began at 10am. We brought our own coffees to the theatre, having heard that the concession wouldn't be ready for us. We arrived just before show time, and were surprised to find the large auditorium mostly full. On the screen, we could see the audience filing in to the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, for the matinee performance.

Just before the show began, we saw Renee Fleming, who is an opera star herself. She introduced the production with a short talk about background and history. Then we got a backstage glimpse of the maestro being called to the orchestra pit as the lights dimmed in the theatre, and the opera began.

The music was beautiful, and the performers were stunningly wonderful singers as well as fine actors. The story was easy to follow via an info sheet that we received on our way into the theatre and subtitles on the screen. Of course, the sets and costumes were spectacular. There must have been cameras everywhere, because it felt like we were on the stage, following every bit of the action up close. In this sense I think it must be a more intimate experience than actually being there, especially if you can't afford the best seats.

There were 2 breaks. During the first, short one, we saw sets being moved, and the performers moving offstage, then back into position for the second act. We watched them transform from their characters into ordinary people, then back again when the curtain came up. The second intermission was longer. It began with interviews with the principal performers. We saw Angela Gheorghiu and Roberta Alagna, who are married in real life, and played lovers in the opera, and also Marius Brenciu and Lisette Oropesa. They spoke about how they became opera performers and the experience of performing for the cameras and the audience for the live broadcasts. We also found out about a charitable program in the US that brings the opera to schools all over the country at no charge to the students. After that there was a 20 minute break during which many people in the movie theatre stepped out to the bathroom or got some popcorn from the concession stand.

I was impressed with the grand scale, and the friendliness, and the business sense that this all makes. It seems like, through the broadcasts, they are doing a great job of making opera more accessible, while they generate good will and a larger paying audience. I am more inclined now to go see a live opera performance. If I'm lucky enough to go to New York I will try to get to the Met. I am certain that I will go back to the movie theatre for more live broadcasts.

I had the image of opera as something performed in another language, for a specialized audience, by cartoon character performers. But it was nothing at all like that. It was exciting, and beautiful and filled up my senses and emotions.

question: have you seen opera?

mompoet - so much to discover

small blessings

Back to work week has been survivable. It has been hectic. I have been out at a meeting or work every night except Monday. And on Monday I was out anyway, driving Fiona to singing class and dance lessons. Here's a short list of saving graces:

• Monday night's driving included Andy. We took Fiona to her lessons and got some supper together in between, and watched the Canadians win the World Junior hockey championship.
  
• The snow is melting. There's tons of rain, but I like rain. It's okay. And did I mention? the snow is melting.
• The garbage truck came yesterday - its first visit since December 22. All week, a man in a bobcat has been scraping, dumping and gradually widening the roadways in our complex. Despite the constant melt since Monday, we still have 6 foot tall piles of snow outside of every house, but it's getting better, and finally good enough for the garbage truck to venture up our hill and around our corners - yayyy!
  
• It was sandwich delivery day for our sandwich-making group yesterday. Before work, I took 150 sandwiches to our downtown eastside mission, and was met with such warmth and gratitude and gracious welcome, I felt lifted up and nourished. The downtown church has recently been given a temporary permit to house up to 150 people each night, so now it is a 21 hour a day operation. Most of the sandwiches come from suburban churches (usually 2 churches deliver every morning, each church taking 1 turn per month). With the snow, they have missed some of the usual deliveries. When I showed up with 150 sandwiches, the timing was just right (Thank you sandwich ladies for your good work!)
• I got notification from the payroll department that this is my tenth full year back to work since my "baby break" so I get a "supplemental vacation week." That's a whole extra week off this year. Next time I'll get it will be year 15. I can use it now, or save it up. Hmmmm...
• Tonight is the party for all of the volunteers who worked at our temporary homeless shelter in November. I'm organizing a potluck dessert celebration. It looks like the weather will hold up and not prevent us from celebrating, and I have lots of help with baking and setup. It should be a fun evening, nice closure on the project for this year, and a chance to say thank you to everyone for their contributions.
• Tomorrow I will go to the opera - a simulcast of La Rondine from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, shown at our local movie theatre. This is at 10 in the morning. I hope it will be strange and delightful.
• Soleil the dog goes for her second chiropractor appointment today. I'm hoping she'll get some strength back into her back legs, and she doesn't seem to mind the treatment.
• I got out to two cycle classes this week, after a definite activity break over the holiday. It felt spectacularly wonderful to go flat out for an hour each time.
  

Every day something new, fresh delights and new adventures.

question: how is your back to work/school/life?

mompoet - liking what I'm back to

I am not a wimp (nor a whiner) but here's how it is

When I was a young adult, I joked with my friends about "suburban mentality." I grew up in the suburbs, and lived and worked there as a 20-something, but I felt a huge intolerance for people who said that they "don't go into the city." Going into the city meant a half hour drive or 45 minute transit ride (before we got light rail) to enjoy the parks, theatres, restaurants, galleries, nightclubs, shopping and events of our big city life. I had grown up going "into the city" to shop, see the orthodontist, go to the beach, attend workshops, and do any number of fun things. Who would miss that to live a limited existence in just Burnaby, Surrey or Port Moody? My friends and I thought this attitude was terribly provincial and dowdy.

I'm a little more charitable in my attitude these days. To each his own, I say. I still like to go to Vancouver whenever there's something there to do, or somebody there to see. It's still just a half hour drive from home, or a short skytrain ride after work or on the weekend. The suburbs are not that far away from the centre of things.

In recent days, the snow has made me cautious about going places from which I might not get safely home in reasonable time. Tonight I had a conversation with my friend Lisa. Lisa and I are planning to host the Van Slam Bingo Slam next Monday night. I had to tell Lisa that if there is a big snowfall I will not be able to come. I will have to cancel and leave her on her own to host the event. I have a car with 4 snow tires and I feel pretty confident driving in the snow, but I have some challenges about getting home in the snow. I feel like a big weinie, but here's the situation:

We live on a hill. When there's more than a bit of snow on the ground, the road up the hill gets slippery, so slippery that my car will not go up the hill. At the bottom of the hill there is a highway.

Solution #1 Drive almost all the way home and park at the bottom of the hill.
There are about 10 parking spots on the road going up the hill. I have parked there sometimes when I have not been able to drive up. I park the car and walk home. I rescue the car the next day, or whenever the snow melts.
Problem with solution number 1: The snow has accumulated over the past 2 1/2 weeks to the point where there is nowhere to park. The snowplow has left mounds of heavy compacted snow, 2 to 4 feet deep and reaching reaching a few feet out from the curb. Some people have shovelled spots for their cars, but they don't want stuck people parking there, and the spots fill in every time it snows again. There's another road, up above our house, accessible by another route, but the parking situation is equally bad up there.

Solution #2 Take the bus
Sounds good! I have my bus pass, we have 15 minute service a short walk from home. I have no "suburban" hangups about using transit. I try to use the bus whenever I don't need the car during my work day. The kids take the bus to school and university every day.
Problem with solution number 2: The bus is no longer running in our neighbourhood. At first we thought it was because of the snow, but it turns out, the bus can't safely make it around all of the cars that have been illegally parked far out from the curb along the bus route, and not dug out or moved between snowfalls. The bus whizzes by on the main road and skips our neighbourhood,

Solution #3 Walk out to the main road and take that bus
Exercise is good for us, and having a bus come into the neighbourhood is a luxury. Just walk out to the main road and catch the big bus.
Problem with solution #3: On a typical day, it's just a 10-15 minute walk to the bus stop on the main road. The kids and I do it all the time, whenever we don't want to wait for the local bus, which goes to 1/2 hour service outside of peak times. But this snow has piled up on the sidewalk along the busy highway that is the route to the bus stop. Our choice is to wade through knee deep heavy thawed and re-frozen snow for a about a kilometer, or to walk out on the highway and jump into the knee-deep heavy thawed and re-frozen snow whenever a car passes (about ever 2.5 seconds). Not safe. Not fun.

So I'm stuck. If I go out on a winter night and it snows, or if the snow is melting and it gets cold and freezes and gets icy, I have to stay in Vancouver all night. And while my family could cope with this, they prefer that I come home.

So I find myself acting like those silly suburbanites who I reviled so readily in my youth. At the threat of poor weather, I cancel my plans, rush home and stay put. Suddenly my own safety, and the safety and ease of mind of my loved ones takes precedence over adventure and cultural enrichment.

Luckily, it is only temporary. In the meantime. I'm crossing my fingers for a warm, rainy Monday evening so I can go host the BINGO SLAM!

question: do you go into the city?

mompoet - I love and accept you, either way

back to work haiku

twelve neighbours wait on
both sides of the street for the
bus that didn't come

green lasagna and thai roast chicken thighs

Here are a couple of recipes from our New Year's Eve supper. It's snowing again, and I have been sewing all day, with breaks for cooking. With the snow, I certainly have had plenty of time inside to cook, and family and friends around to enjoy it.

Thai Roast Chicken

2 lbs chicken thighs or drumsticks (bones in, skin optional)
1/4 cup lime juice
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs vegetable oil
3 Tbs Clubhouse Thai seasoning powder

Marinate the chicken in the lime/soy/oil/seasoning mix for 2 hours or longer. Arrange on 2 parchment-lined cookie sheets. Roast in a 350 oven for an hour or until golden and crispy.


Green Lasagna

9 whole grain lasagna noodles
1/4 cup fresh goat cheese
1/2 cup pesto
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese

Spinach Cheese filling
2 cups ricotta cheese
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach - thawed and excess water squeezed out
3 eggs
2 Tbs flour
salt and pepper

Whisk ingredients together.

White Sauce
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper
Melt the butter. Mix in the flour. Over medium heat, stir in the milk. Stir over low/medium until sauce thickens. Add salt and pepper.

Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water to just barely done. Drain and pat dry on a towel. Grease a 9x13 casserole or cake pan and heat oven to 350F. Assemble lasagna in the following layers:

1) 1/2 cup of white sauce spread over the bottom of the casserole dish
2) 3 noodles - side by side to cover the bottom of the dish
3) half of the spinach cheese filling
4) half of the pesto and half of the goat cheese, dotted around
5) 1/2 cup of white sauce
6) 3 more noodles
7) remaining half of the spinach cheese filling
8) pesto and goat cheese (all that's left)
9) the last 3 noodles
10) final 1 cup white sauce to cover the top

Bake at 350F for about 45 minutes, then remove from the oven, and sprinkle the top of the lasagna with parmesan cheese. Return to oven for 15 minutes more. Lasagna is cooked when it is bubbly around the edges and slightly golden on top. Let sit outside of the oven 15 - 20 minutes before cutting and serving. (This makes a lot of lasagna, and is simpler than it sounds). Can be assembled one day ahead and stored in the fridge until you're ready to cook it.

That's all for now.

question: what do you like to cook?

mompoet - chicken caesar salads for supper tonight

something about 3 weeks at home

I have been on vacation for a couple of weeks, with a few more days stretching out ahead of me before I must return to work. I have been fortunate to be able to take this extended stretch of days for the past few years at Christmas time. It feels very good.

Our family Christmas plans are always simple. We don't go overboard decorating or buying gifts, and the Christmas meal is small but delicious, with just a few family members. Our visiting and entertaining is informal and small group also, and we leave lots of time to "make it up as we go along."

Looking back, I can say that the most unexpected aspect to this vacation has been the weather. It began snowing before I started my vacation, and has snowed periodically, with enough accumulation, that it has had an effect on our lives every day. I have spent more time shoveling in these past couple of weeks than I usually do in an entire winter. The snow has also made us pick and choose where we want to go, and what we really need to do, and has resulted in even more time at home. I love this. The family relaxes. We watch a dvd or read, or take turns with the internet. I cook some delicious breakfasts and suppers. We catch up on our sleep at night and in daytime naps. It is good.

I have done a bit of organizing around the house - just a couple of cupboards and shelves that have been bugging me because I know there are things in there I cannot see, and things that we do not need and can get rid of. Unfortunately, this tidy-out phase has coincided with a lack of recycling and garbage service to our complex, due to the snow on the hill. So I have some accumulation of stuff to go out to the trash along with things to be picked up by charities. Luckily our carport shed is not heated along with the house, so the trash can wait there, double-bagged, until the garbage truck comes.

I have been out to see a couple of good movies - Benjamin Button and Marley and Me. I have also gone to see a fabulous production of Guys and Dolls at the Gateway Theatre in Richmond. We have postponed our trip to the Panto at the Metro Theatre, but we'll try again tomorrow night. I have read 2.95 novels, and will certainly finish the third tonight and very possibly read one more before I go back to work.

We have got together with friends, neighbours and family for suppers on several evenings, enjoying the company of people we love very much. We made it to church on Christmas eve (despite the snow) and I've made it all but one Sunday morning. This is my favourite time of the church year, a soul-nourishing time to spend time together with my faith community.

I have a couple of projects to work on in the final days of vacation: a costume to be sewn for Fiona, and some organizing to be done for the volunteer celebration that I'm planning for the people who helped with our shelter program at the church in November.

As the end of vacation nears, I feel rested and energized. My balance is restored and I know that I will return to the regular routine with enthusiam.

question: did you have a restful holiday time?

mompoet - leisure cells restored to capacity

why I love musical theatre

driving places in the snow

It seems like every other day, there's a big enough, bad enough snowfall to make driving dangerous and slow down transit to the point where it's just miserable to try to go anywhere. The snow is so deep and heavy and pushed up onto the sidewalks by the snowplows (when they finally come around) that walking is not a decent alternative if you want to get anywhere fast.

But as with anything tedious and troublesome, it has reached the point of absurdity that transforms it from distressing to hilariously outlandishly wonderfully weird. At least that's my spin on it.

We had a "third time's the charm" experience last night that had everything to do with driving places in the snow. The whole family is on vacation from work and school, and there's really no place we absolutely must go, but sometimes, something happens that makes you want to go anyway, despite the snow. Here are the three incidents and their silly culmination:

First time: December 21 was a night thick with snow. It had been snowing all day without cease. At least a foot of fresh snow lay on the ground. The plows and sanding trucks had been around, but they couldn't keep up. I had skipped church in the morning - it was already that snowy by 9am. Alex had called in to work to say he couldn't make it (we didn't want him to be stranded at midnight at the theatre). We had spent a homey day baking, napping and shoveling. But there was a benefit concert at a nearby church, put on by some of Fi's friends. They decided not to cancel and to go on with the show. They were raising funds for the Union Gospel Mission, and they thought even a small show was better than doing nothing. We couldn't stand to think of them playing to an empty house, so we went. Fiona and Andy and I drove out in the snow. We picked up two of Fiona's friends and we slogged and slid our way to the concert. We were glad to see about 50 other people make it, and everyone contributed generously, so $600 was raised. The show was great. We would have been sorry to miss it. And we made it home - just barely. Fi and the girls and I got out of the car and walked the last hill up to our house, while Andy churned and slithered the car up the slippery, snowy slope. We were home and safe, and glad we went out.
Second Time: Christmas Eve was another crazy snowy day. Seeing the blizzard coming, we had done our final grocery shopping for Christmas dinner the previous day. There was no reason to go out this day, except Christmas Eve service at our church. It was our minister's first Christmas Eve service with us, and her first as an ordained minister. We have never missed a Christmas Eve service, and the family was signed up to welcome people as they arrived. Fiona and I talked about walking, the roads were so bad for driving, but Andy convinced us that this plan was probably more difficult and dangerous than driving. He decided to give it a try. Dressed up in our church best, and packing snow boots, mittens and winter coats just in case we were stranded, we set out. We made it, arriving early at the church. Andy spun donuts in the parking lot. That was fun. Inside it was warm and bright. We welcomed about 25 people to the service. Usually the church is packed on Christmas Eve, but with the weather it was different. Only 2 members of the choir made it, so we could hear ourselves singing, which is always a little unnerving. But it felt very special to be there, and be part of something rare and intimate and just a little bit risky. The service was short, and we were safely home by 8pm. The road up the hill to our house was slippery again, but somehow Andy made it to the top, this time with all of us along for the ride. It was a Christmas Eve we will not forget.

The third time: Last night - Friday. Alex was scheduled to work. He didn't want to call in "snowed out" again. Andy agreed to drive him to work. In the meantime, Fi was at Metrotown shopping with friends when the skytrain stopped operating. Her friend's mom drove out to rescue them, and Andy stopped by the friend's house on the way back from dropping Alex off, to bring Fiona home. Andy, Fi and I had reservations for the panto at the Metro Theatre - way on the other side of Vancouver. We were reluctant to cancel. The weather had hit that show hard too, and we didn't want to let them down. But while Andy drove the kids through the still-falling thick, damp snow, he realised it would be too risky to drive all that way, especially with Alex waiting for us at the theatre in Coquitlam. Now totally unable to get up the hill to our house, Andy circled around and parked the car on the roadway above our neighbourhood. We cancelled our panto seats, and decided to go out to Alex's work and catch a movie, then drive home together when he finished work. The walk up to the neighbourhood above us in a tunnel of snow was mysterious and magical. It felt like an adventure. The snow was turning to rain as we drove to the theatre around 7:30, turning the deep accumulation even more heavy and even more slippery. We arrived at the theatre to find most people hadn't risked going out to a movie. The place was uncharacteristically quiet for a Friday night at Christmas vacation time. We checked in with Alex, bought our tickets for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and settled in to enjoy the show, trying to put the snow and slippery roads out of our minds. Outside, heavy accumulations on tree tops were causing tree limbs to fall, in some cases onto power lines. Inside, just as the movie trailers finished, the power went out in the theatre. The emergency lights flashed on and then off, and a theatre employee with a dying flashlight came in to advise us to sit tight. If the lights came on soon, they would resume the show. If not, we would be evacuated in a safe and orderly manner, and issued passes to come to the movie another day. Inside the auditorium, a hundred cell phone and ipod screens lit up as people amused themselves in the dark. Someone with an impressive light source provided a hilarious shadow puppet show on the darkened theatre screen. Someone else with a laser pointer joined in, entertaining the crowd with an improvised, interactive display with the shadow puppet person. A few minutes later we were instructed to leave. As we were leaving, the electricity came back on, but it was too late to resume the show. We were informed that the theatre would close for 30 minutes, then re-open for the later round of movies. We decided to drive home. We hoped Alex would be let off early, but they needed him until 11, so Andy brought Fi and me home, then turned around to get Alex. The evening felt like a wash, and an exhausting one for Andy, the snow chauffeur, but again, we were all safe and sound. Andy parked the car up above again at 11:30pm. During the night the snow plow came, so this morning he had to dig it out. Later, he got a tow up our hill into the complex behind a neighbour's truck, then spent several hours clearing and salting the hill with a bunch of neighbours. They also had to cut away several tree limbs that had collapsed onto the road.

We hope that the third time is the charm, and that we will have no more impossible snow nights. I have promised myself that I will stay home even if something is happening that is hard to resist. Enough is enough, and we've had our three times out in the worst weather and road conditions. Now it is time for puddles and hard rain and no more snow. Too bad the weather report does not agree.

question: how have you been getting around in the snow?

mompoet - thinking a dogsled would be good about now

the mockery of the plow

I went outside mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve, to give a card and gift to our devoted grounds-keeper, Joe. He takes care of the townhouse complex we live in full-time, with some extra help in the summer. Lawns, walkways, garbage sheds, hedges, snow and ice - these are are looked after by Joe, as if our home is his own.

On Wednesday afternoon, Joe was shoveling the road up the hill, for at least the second time that day. He keeps it clear so the people who live on the upper road (my family included) can get their vehicles in and out safely and easily. I grabbed a shovel and offered my help. Then a couple of neighbours joined in. The snow was falling fast and thick as we shoveled, but in about 1 hour we had one nice wide lane cleared. We had to stop every time a car or truck went up or down the hill, so it took a bit longer that it would have otherwise. We felt great about our work, and grateful for the opportunity to help Joe.

Then the plow came by, and re-scraped our hand-scraped masterpiece. It was a bit of a let-down and also pretty funny. Joe decided he could go home then, and join his family for Christmas Eve and a few days off work.

question: do you know someone who takes special care of some thing or place for you?

mompoet - blessed

Christmas Eve Day

Another 8-10 inches of snow has fallen overnight. It was barely snowing when we went to sleep at 11. We awoke to a fresh layer on top of the already substantial accumulation of previous days. It's cold out still, and nothing has melted much in almost 2 weeks. This is unusually long and cold and white for us in the land of rain and green and more rain.

The snow has brought us peace. It muffles sound, makes the world beautiful, and forces us to decide what it is we really have to do, and what can wait.

We got a few fruits and veggies at the store yesterday, and Andy bought the croissants for Christmas breakfast, and we put them in the freezer. There was some small objection to this procedure. Croissants are supposed to be purchased as close as possible to the time of eating. But I had a hunch we might not make it to any store anywhere on a snowy Christmas Eve day, and now I'm glad.

We'll stretch our hopes out now, and say a prayer for safe and swift travel for everyone who is trying to get to loved ones somewhere - either coming here or going elsewhere. Roads and airports all over the country are not working the way they are designed to work. Some people will probably be stranded and have to give up on being where they really want to be at Christmas.

Here at home, we want to be at church this evening for 7pm service. Luckily, if we need to, we can walk there - although it may mean we'll be greeting people and handing out candles wearing snow pants and hiking boots. But having a responsibility to work as greeters means we will go there, no matter what. I think we would, regardless.

Tomorrow, we want my parents to make it to our house in the afternoon to open stockings, and we want to go together to Andy's mom's place for Christmas supper. We're roasting and bringing the turkey, so again, it's very important that we make it. I can just picture us hiking down to the highway and getting on the bus with a roast turkey, all wrapped up in aluminum foil. Oh well, we'll do it if we have to.

Christmas will be - white or green - wherever we are or aren't. It will be Christmas.

question: what are your plans for Christmas? Are they coming through?

mompoet - going with the flow

winter is beautiful

We have experienced record snowfalls in the past few days. Here are some photos from around the neighbourhood.

question: do you like the snow?

mompoet - liking the snow very much

oh, for a telescope and a clear sky on Christmas Day

Saturn's rings will be as flat as we're likely to see them in some time on Christmas day. Here's the information.

question: have you seen Saturn

mompoet - thinking maybe at the Planetarium...

The Shack

I just finished reading The Shack last night. My friend Laurie gave it to me for my birthday. She didn't say much about it - just that she knew I would love it, and I do.

It's a novel about a man who has lost a lot of himself through childhood abuse and adult tragedy. In the midst of a long, sleepwalking sadness of a life, he receives a note in his mailbox from God, inviting him to spend a weekend at a place of terrible horror - the shack where his daughter was killed.

It's a splendid story about a man's conversation with God and his discovery of his own life and its meaning. I read it in small sips, and thought about each one, each one satisfying on its own, encouraging and affirming as part of a bigger picture. This is a story about transformation, redemption and love to an infinite and barely understandable breadth and level.

I recommend it.

question: what are you reading today?

mompoet - snowy days are good for looking inward and reaching outward

tacky christmas party

Here are a few of the photos from the party at Myrna's place on Friday.

1000 piece puzzle

snug to the hillside lies
a lawn that does not see sun for 4 weeks
even on the brightest days
frost grows thick on the grass
a prehistoric forest of miniature proportion
criss-crossed by boot paths
lines of intention
lines of desire

down the street there's
the big drug mart
with 11 different choices of toblerone bars
from 12.4 grams minis
to a 4.5 kilogram mega (for display only)
some are on special
one is free
with the purchase of 2
terry's chocolate oranges
would it be christmas without them?

when it reaches minus 4 outside
trinity church opens its doors
welcoming the overflow of lost souls
to stay the night
enjoy a warm meal - no prayers attached
there are shoes and hats and gloves
dry socks
scarves knitted by the ladies fellowship
breakfast and a warm good-bye at 7
a long, cold day ahead

the longest night is electric with celebration
stretched with the tension of intention
pondering questions as old
as stories can remember

in the morning the church rings
with glad songs
the 4th candle of advent is lit
people are alive everywhere
desiring nothing but love
waiting to feel the sun

question: do you feel the sun?

mompoet - all wrapped up in advent and solstice and many questions about the world

dump cake

This recipe comes from a cookbook that my Aunt Edythe gave to my Mom. Mom is cleaning out her cookbook shelves (so she can buy some more cookbooks, I suspect) and she gave this to me. It's a typical community-made cookbook, containing homely and homey recipes for everyone's favourite comfort foods and potluck feature dishes. Typically also, there are many nearly duplicate recipes. I suspect this is because everyone knows that cousin Cheryl's broccoli-velveeta casserole is subtly different from Mary-Jane Findlay's, so it's best to publish both recipes side by side so the cook can choose.

Dump Cake (from Highland County 4-H Centennial Celebration - Published in 2002 by the Highland County 4-H Club of Hillsboro, Ohio)

1 white cake mix (I used yellow)
1 21oz can cherry pie filling
1 20oz can crushed pineapple - undrained
1 cup pecan pieces (I used halves)
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter - cut into pieces

Spread undrained pineapple in a glass 9X13 inch pan (I buttered the pan first). Spoon in pie filling evenly over pineapple. Dump dry cake mix onto the cherry layer evenly. Spread butter slices on top. Sprinkle pecan pieces on top of the butter. Bake at 350 about 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Canadian Translation
9X13 is 9X13 (we Canadians still bake imperial)
pineapple - comes in 190z cans in Canada
cherry pie filling - ditto
350 is fahrenheit of course
delicious is the same on both sides of the border - believe me, this is delicious

question: have you ever had a recipe published in a community cookbook (school, church, service club etc)?

mompoet - wondering if "strawberry pretzel salad" is good

all the stuff that's happening

It's day three of my vacation. I'm away from work until January 5. Alex finished school last week. Fiona and Andy are done work and school today.

It's been a bit of a whirl that last week or so, with getting ready to be away from the office, preparation for the holidays. I'll try to catch up in the next few days' posts, but here's a quick list of what's been up.

• At work: Christmas Lunch with the Board of the Seniors' Society and a potluck going-away for a dear co-worker who is retiring and moving to the Sunshine Coast, and Christmas lunch with my co-workers from my regular job in community. I miss them.
• Also at work: I got the news that I will stay at the seniors' centre for one more year - returning to my regular job in 2010. I look forward to actually being good at my job in the coming year, now that I have learned it. I will also look forward to a delayed reunion with my old co-workers, and resolve to see them more frequently in the coming year.
  
• Also at work: putting together gifts and food for our Christmas family. I'll help deliver the packages today.
• Also at work: the departmental Christmas meeting - a big get-together of as many people as we can fit into the pavilion at Deer Lake - and an update from our new director on priorities for the coming year. He mentioned the seniors programs at the rec centre where I work when he gave examples of "connection to purpose." The recognition felt great.
  
• Snow - after last Friday's bit of snow, we got the full meal deal on Tuesday evening. It began in Port Moody around 9:30 or 10, moving in a general westward direction. By midnight we had a couple of inches on the ground, and more fell overnight. It has stayed cold, so nothing has melted. It's beautiful outside and the roads are clear, so all is good.
  
• RC Christmas Special at Cafe Deux Soleils. I have been trying to get to this for about 3 years, and I finally made it! It was a great night of holiday fun and poking fun, with some surprise tender spots, all organized by RC Weslowski of Van Slam fame. The event raised funds for the AIDS Vancouver foodbank. I was delighted to see the Mighty Mike McGee's new puppet act. Watch for it. You will laugh and cry and you might get hugged by a puppet.
• Movies - Milk and Slumdog Millionaire so far. I am planning to join Alex for his ambitious "movie marathon day" after Christmas (a whole day from opening to closing in the mega-plex where he works, watching one movie after another).
• The Drowsy Chaperone at the Playhouse Theatre - a frothy, goofy romp of a musical that pokes fun at musical theatre.
  
• Lunch at Lalibella Ethiopian Restaurant in Burnaby - friendly and warm and delicious family-style injera platter shared and eaten by hand, scooping fillings up on lovely spongey bread.
  
• Bottling wine like a mad-woman into the middle of the night so I could take bottles to work the next day to give to friends. We are now also stocked up for the holidays. I bulk age my wine, so I had 10 gallons of ready-to-drink just sitting there smiling at me from 2 big carboys. Now it's in bottles, with pretty labels, ready to be enjoyed.
• Preparing for Myrna's Tacky Christmas party - also an AIDS food bank fundraiser, coincidentally. We'll see the carol ships come up the inlet, and share a potluck meal. I am trying for the best costume prize in my cat lady Christmas outfit. (photos to follow)
• Buying 2 Christmas trees. The first one came home, was unfurled and revealed itself to be an um, er, "distressed" tree. It is now our "outside" tree, planted in a pile of snow in the garden. In the meantime, we got tree number 2 for $20 at Rona (the local hardware store), and it's lovely and all decorated, and inside the house.
• Reading - I'm reading The Shack by Wm Paul Young. It's kind of like Sophie's World but theological and much more of a single narrative - less of a survey. Very satisfying so far.
• Experimenting with treatments for our old dog and coping with the snow, which makes it harder for her to get around. Her back legs are getting weaker and it looks like she has some kind of spinal complication of old age. She's been stumbling a lot but gets up and keeps going. We have had her x-rayed, and now she's on holistic nutritional supplements, pharmaceutical anti-inflammatories and she's gone for her first chiropractor appointment. We're conscious now that she's in her senior years, and we want to make sure she's not in pain, and able to manage our multi-level many-staired home and neighbourhood as happily as she can, for as long as she can. Last night, Fiona and I bought her snow boots to keep her paws warm in the snow and give her traction.
• Publishing the ninth Shoreline Writers' Society Chapbook. This one's called "Imagine No Heaven." It's gorgeous. If you see me, ask me, and I will give you a copy.
• Getting ready for the Shoreline Seasonal Celebration. I have to write a poem of two for the Poet-Tree, our anonymous, potluck, poetry reading. Each person picks a poem from the tree and reads it aloud. It is good fun.
• Going to church - I have signed up to greet all this month, so I arrive early and welcome friends, meet and welcome newcomers and give hugs and share laughs and check-ins as people arrive. This is a task that I find awesomely enjoyable. Sometimes volunteering is a gift to the giver. We'll attend the Christmas Eve family service on Wednesday evening. The church is usually packed with families - all of our regulars, plus all of the neighbours. We finish with a candle-light singing of Silent Night - beautiful and joyous.
• Walking, photographing, writing. Now that there's more time I can look and listen. My journal is brimming with stuff I will now go back to and tease out to something interesting. My camera is with me all the time. The world is here. I am here. I am love and creativity, so the outcome is inevitable.

So there it is, some of it anyway. Thanks for reading!

question: whatcha doin?

mompoet - ready to listen

photos from Frontline graduation

Here are some photos from last week's grad ceremony. I had gone to bed the night before feeling very sick, but after 10 hours sleep I woke up in much better shape. In the first photo, I do not have a headache, I'm just making a dramatic point while I recite the poem.

question: did anyone give you a certificate recently?

mompoet - glad to have been part of this experience with a great group of people

christmas love haiku

"impossible" but
he hung the wreath for me just
where I wanted it

It finally snowed (a little bit) and it's very cold outside

These are taken at my friend Darlene's place. She got more snow than we did. It's below freezing everywhere, and about -16C with the windchill. Winter has sneaked up on us.

Haiku Movie Reviews

For Slumdog Millionaire

Jamal's Mumbai life
crime, passion, money, love, hope
we love underdogs

For Milk

history shows us
a changed life can change the world
love is all there is

question: what have you seen lately?

mompoet - recommending both movies