toot toot

Check out this video.

question: none for the time being.

mompoet - gotta go take a call

ps Thanx Dad!

wordless wednesday

tasty tuesday list of delicious

The Red Hot Chili Peppers tickets came in the mail. I profess not to worry about stuff, but I admit I was worried they wouldn't, that there had been a mistake or maybe someone stole them from my mailbox (!!!) but they came. We will have to carry oxygen for high altitudes, our seats are so far up in the stadium, but we'll be about eye level with the jumbo-tron, and the people-watching will be fabulous. I think I have worn out the new Peppers cd Stadium Arcadium, listening to it over and over. It is very good. I'm also listening to their music from the 80s and 90s and enjoying the progression. The concert's on September 14, so there's some more time to anticipate the fun.

Alex left his cell phone in his jeans pocket when he did his laundry (hey, that's delicious all by itself, my kids do their own laundry). Anyway, the phone went through a whole wash, rinse and spin cycle. Andy advised him to leave it to dry out for a week. Alex tried it last night. Guess what? It works!

I went to an Italian wedding shower on Sunday. My friend Kathy's son Robert is getting married this summer. Lucy, his fiancee, is Italian. I was maid of honour in an Italian wedding once, so I was prepared. The shower was at an Italian restaurant with 50 women. Everything was beautiful. I knew about the food part, so I ate only 1/2 of everything that was served to me, and made it through the meal while others who were uninitiated to Italian banquet eating dropped like stuffed flies around me. The food was delicious, but even more delicious? At our table there were six Marias! Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria and Maria...ahhhhh!

I saw the Da Vinci Code on Sunday evening with Alex and I actually liked it. It's been pretty much panned by the critics, but I decided to give it a try, and Alex was dying to see it so he could talk to his friends about it at school on Monday. If you watch it as a study of character and intention it's actually pretty good. What makes each person go? Oh! It was very good in that sense, or as good as a movie can be. As a thriller/mystery or compelling statement of a controversial theory, I'm not so sure, but I'm not much of a judge of such things. About people's stories I know, and it was good in that way. I also admire how Tom Hanks is okay with not looking beautiful. Good man.

Andy and I saw Fiona in The Wizard of Oz on Saturday. It was her "off cast" meaning she was playing a chorus part. The show is "double-cast" meaning each actor learns two parts, a main role and a chorus part. We'll see her playing the Cowardly Lion this coming Saturday. She is a star. We are so proud of her.

That's my delicious life so far.

question: what's good for you today?

mompoet - full of yummy

Garage Sale Impressions

Our townhouse complex had its annual garage sale this weekend. I unloaded a bit of junk, had a great visit with our old neighbour Neana who always comes back and sets up shop for the day with us. I spent only $2 (1 brand new propane tank for the barbeque and a brand new queen size bed comforter), and the potluck supper was great at the end of the day.

question: what's your best garage sale or thrift shop find lately?

mompoet - not a shopper but I love the weirdness of people buying each other's junk

I could get my "L" in real life

And now for an email from the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia after I tried the online practice "L" driver's test:

Congratulations on completing your practice knowledge test.

Here is your test summary:

You scored 88%. The passing score on the real test is 80%.

An analysis of your test results indicates that you need to focus

your study in the following subject areas in RoadSense for Drivers.

Chapter 3: Signs, Signals and Road Markings - Pg. 27; Chapter 5: See - Think - Do - Pg. 55;

Use your test notes to review the questions you answered and visit icbc.com to take the

practice knowledge test again.

The ICBC practice knowledge test is @: link here

Good luck!

**********************************************************************************************

Did you know that in setting insurance premiums, ICBC does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex or marital status?

question: why not try it?

mompoet - fair to middling driver, glad I don't have to start over again

Here's the Link for the Real Practice L Test

Can you get your L?

question: would we be able to get our licenses if we had to start all over?

mompoet - sharing the road

Trick Question Learner's Licence Driving Quiz

Alex and his 16 year old friends are speculating about the questions on the Learner's Licence Driver Quiz. They are positive that trick questions will be included. In their imaginations, it will look like this. Find out if you have what it takes to get your "L."

1. What is never allowed when you are not turning off your hazard lights?

parking beside a mailbox
turning left from a one way street to an unmarked divided restricted lane
eating fried chicken and applying mascara while singing "Row Row Row your Boat"


2. Backing up without looking over your shoulder is never not prohibited when:

you have a stiff neck
you have not neglected to forget to collapse your umbrella
your underwear is on backwards


3. If you hear but don't see or see but don't hear the absence of an emergency vehicle you must:

cease stopping and refrain from yielding until you see or hear something real
pray but not out loud unless you have brushed your teeth recently
call home on the cell phone and ask your mom if she hears or sees anything


4. Which is the most worstly prohibited driving mistake?

de-constigulating in a hubris zone
artriculating in a non-artriculating interflange
gorgloning at any time


5. If you drive over a cat, what is your best next move?

drive under a dog to make it even
whatever you do, don't tell the cat
apply for a class 4 licence so you can become a school bus driver when you graduate

Congratulations, you have survived the Learner's Licence Driving Quiz. Here's what your score means:
1-5 - You have neglected to fail at passing. Try again.
6-10 - Have you considered faresavers?
11-15 - Provisional "L" for bumper cars only.

And remember, everything I have told you is a lie.

how to get it out of your head

To remove an unwanted song from your head, sing O Canada! (preferably out loud, but you can use your judgement).

O Canada! is the sorbet (or, for my dad SHERBERRRRRRT) of songs. It cleanses your brain of any bad song that won't go away. Try it.

question: ring ring ring ring ring ring ring?

mompoet - bananaphone....O Canada!

in case wordless wednesday is just a bit too quiet for you

bananaphone

question: ring ring?

mompoet - repetition is for emphasis

wordless wednesday

sewing some more

One more night of Munchkin Stitchery before tomorrow's dress rehearsal. Actually, I'm sewing a sherbert-green dress, but they don't have a lot of female munchkin images on the internet. Oh well, you can see some of them in the background.

Question: Do you remember the song from this famous scene?

mompoet - (hint) We represent the......

breathing

I’m working on breathing
Breath has the power
To power my words
Give life to my thoughts
Transform awkward impulse to song

Singing teacher says
“Fill the belly. Support your notes. Breathe strong. Breathe control.”
But I can’t tell,
Will I ever find enough air
To express the breadth of
Whatever this is
Ballooning to bursting
Inside?

Or will I suffocate
Before I can expel the truth?
And upon collapsing
Reveal an emptiness that will
Rob all oxygen from the atmosphere
Deprive those I love the best
Of the breath they need
To sustain their own songs?

I’m floundering
Gasping
It should be wet here
Bottomless
Instead, I’m drowning in my car
Windows cranked tight
I saturate myself with sound
Race from one idea to another
Windows closed tight
But music leaks
Leaves a trail behind me

The music that fills my chest with something good for now
Numbs me to the knowledge
That most of these thoughts are harmful
Toxic if inhaled and held for too long
Music that leaks
Despite windows closed tight
Leaks like sweet marinade
Follow me
Follow me

Singing teacher says
“When you have learned the breathing
The song is the same
Going out
Coming in
It’s one fluid exchange”

It should be wet here
I’m driving in a snow globe without a bubble
My ears are full so I can’t tell
Are you there?
Bring me air
Resuscitate me
We will drive and drive and drive
Until
Like breath
We disappear.

mompoet - breathing

the porridge

This is the porridge recipe that I use. I was eating it when I broke my tooth, but I don't blame the porridge. It was my tooth's expiry date, no matter what I was eating.

It comes from a CBC radio breakfast contest a long time ago. It's very good:

ARTHUR'S PORRIDGE

4 cups wheat bran

3 cups rolled oats (largest flakes)

2 cups Triticale flakes

1 cup barley flakes

1 cup wheat flakes

2 cups cracked oats (Scotch Oats)

2 cups cracked wheat

1 cup whole barley (Pot Barley)

1 cup whole oats (Oat Groats)

1 1/2 cup flax seed (BROWN variety)

Mix thoroughly all grains in a large container. Fill plastic bags or wide-mouth jars with the porridge mix. I make a gigantic recipe (quadrupled or quintupled, and store the bags in the freezer).

TO PREPARE (per serving):

Boil one cup of water in a pot. Add a pinch of salt, a small handful of

raisins (dried cranberries are good too) and 1/3 to 1/2 cup of the porridge mix.

Stir a couple of times, put lid on pot, then immediately remove pot from high heat and place on another element at lowest heat and let this stand undisturbed for approximately five minutes.

This is good with brown sugar and milk or with my personal favourite: plain yogurt and home-made strawberry jam.

Thanks Mom, for digging up the recipe when I couldn't find my copy.

I hope you will try this recipe, and don't worry about your teeth. It's good for your teeth.

question: what did you have for breakfast this morning?

mompoet - breakfast matters

summer is soon

And I have passed through the portal of equinox funk to loving the light again. It always happens this way, but every year I dread the transition. phew. It's done. I even wore shorts yesterday, and I bought some new summery-salmon toe varnish. The Victoria Day long weekend begins tomorrow, and with it the official lounging in our carports season of neighbourly suburban drinking on the street while our children play hockey and ride bikes. It's one week to the giant garage sale and first mega-potluck of the outdoor eating-together season too. I've begun watering plants in the morning, and walking the dog without putting on a coat. Now I'm ready for summer. Bring me summer!

question: what's your favourite time of year?

mompoet - guess I better shave my legs, huh?

neighbour haiku

the oven was not
left on but you can call me
anytime to check

question: who has your keys?

mompoet - once my neighbour went inside my house and brought my bathing suit to the pool when I ripped a hole in the butt of the one I that I wore to the pool in the first place

wordless wednesday

ouch

I didn't mention this before, but I broke my tooth on Mother's Day. I was eating porridge (recipe to follow) and suddenly something was dreadfully wrong. After that everything I ate got jammed into a new rabbit hole that had somehow appeared between my two molars farthest back on the bottom right. ouch.

Wonderful, wonderful Dr. Bruce got me in Tuesday morning at 7:30am. Even after staying up late at the Poetry Slam Monday night, I sprang out of bed, ready to see an end to the discomfort. Well, actually I had this weird hypnogogic experience between the alarm clock and the feet on the floor which involved "Waking Up" (as an embodied state of consciousness - I think she was wearing pajamas and blue slippers) walking up a flight of stairs and seeing a hand-drawn poster that said "NO WAY!" in purple sparkly bubble letters, but I dismissed it and woke.

Turns out, I had a fearsome ragged chunk of broken-off tooth jammed deep into my gum between the two teeth since Sunday morning. Dr. Bruce showed it to me because he knows I like stuff like that. cool. No wonder it hurt when I chewed. ew.

Now I have a new filling and a new appreciation for salad, which I really wanted to eat on Monday, but I settled for squishy pasta because it didn't hurt so much. Also an appreciation for my fully functioning face after walking around for three hours with blubber cheek and manitou tongue - blubba goo goo (drool).

I guess if something about me is going to disintegrate, it's okay that it's my teeth, in minor ways like this.

question: what would you most want to chew if you had to stop chewing for a bit?

mompoet - I have a lovely bunch of broccoli and some nice chicken

the yellow brick road

It was a warm Sunday evening, so most of Port Moody was at Rocky Point Park after supper. We were there too, while some of the cast of The Wizard of Oz (May 26-June 4 at the Inlet Theatre) had publicity photos taken. Here's a sneak peek of the lion during makeup tests...trying not to scare herself...and how many people it takes to photograph a Tin Man, Scarecrow, Lion, Toto and Dorothy strolling down the pathway to Oz.

question: what did you do for Mother's Day?

mompoet - 83k mother's day

we got 'em

Myrna and I are going to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in September. I'm so excited! I haven't been to a rock concert since I was about 25, and never in a big stadium. This is going to be so much fun!

question: do you attend cultural events with the blue rinse or the blue mohawk crowd?

mompoet - somewhere in between, I guess

move for health

Wednesday was International "Move for Health Day." It took on extreme importance in the province of British Columbia where we are being challenged to improve our communities' physical fitness by 20% in time for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Well, I guess our province could start by feeding the ones who don't have enough food and providing treatment for the ones who are ill and houses for the ones who can't afford accommodation and compassionate care for the elders who built this beautiful province, but don't get me started... In the meantime, we will exercise (and also learn to read - but that's another challenge) so that we do not present the world (and network TV) with a province of illiterate fatsos in 2010. That gives me an idea. I'm going to pork up, black out a tooth, hang around Olympic venues in a sack dress and drool. Now won't that be a pretty pitcher? huh?

But anyway, in the meantime, we are exercising!!! Which is good for us for sure, regardless of what happens with the really big issues.

At the gym where I work out, our cycle class joined the seniors and elementary school students in a health walk Wednesday. About 300 people turned out. It was sunshiney, friendly and fun. We were cheered on by volunteers from the high school, and served treats upon our return. It really was very nice. Later we found out that of all the "Move for Health Day" events on Wednesday, ours was the biggest of those sponsored by the city. Hurray for the Cameron exercise people!

These pictures give you an idea of what it looked like.

question: is it okay to enjoy little triumphs before the big problems are tackled?

mompoet - vowing to be 20% more something by 2010