Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Monday, December 25, 2006

...never a catapult










"Bags of moist and many-colored jelly babies and a folded flag and a false nose and a tram-conductor's cap and a machine that punched tickets and rang a bell; never a catapult; once, by mistake that no one could explain, a little hatchet; and a celluloid duck that made, when you pressed it, a most unducklike sound, a mewing moo that an ambitious cat might make who wished to be a cow; and a painting book in which I could make the grass, the trees, the sea and the animals any colour I pleased, and still the dazzling sky-blue sheep are grazing in the red field under the rainbow-billed and pea-green birds." -Dylan Thomas


























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Sunday, December 24, 2006

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Sometimes the best intentions don't quite work out the way we envisioned. Terry Pratchett says the bricks that make up the road to Hell all have little sayings on them like "I just wanted to have some fun" and "I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt".

McKay is coming to grips with the concept of mortality. He is aware that things, including people, can die. This is starting to become a globally applicable concept so it's not just plants and animals that can die, but people too. His people.

Also, we have told McKay many times that the way he gets big and strong is by getting good rest, eating good food and getting good exercise. He knows candy is a special treat that he can have once in a while, but not too often because it doesn't do anything to help him grow, regardless of how tasty it is.

It being Christmas eve, we (and as it turns out, a multitude of other parents) were looking for something to do to let McKay burn off some of the nervous energy he had about the impending arrival of the Jolly Old Man. So we went to Science World, which is always good for a rainy afternoon (or holiday eve) of running around. On our way out, we decided that he could have some cotton candy as a treat.

This all ties together. I promise.

McKay and I had the following conversation in the car while we were waiting for Lorraine to get out of a quick shop in the grocery store. The scene: McKay sitting in the back seat, snacking on some of his spun blue sugar, I in the driver's seat.

M: Dad, when are you going to die?

D: Not for a long lot of years.

M: Why not for long?

D: Well, because I try to stay healthy. I get good rest and eat good food to try to stay healthy. One of the things people believe is that the healthier you are, the longer you'll live, so I try to stay healthy.

M: (ten second pause) I'm going to stop eating my cotton candy.

D: (Oh crap, I think to myself.) Why, honey?

M: Because I don't want to die when I get older.

D: Oh nononononono, honey, don't worry about it. You get candy every once in a while, and you always eat such good food. Don't worry about it, this won't make you sick. A little treat every once in a while is just fine.

M: (another ten second pause) Okay.

Then he started eating the cotton candy again. I couldn't help but feel like I'd dodged a bullet on that one.

As an aside, a two pint tub of cotton candy only has about 54 calories in it. That's better than a candy bar. And yes, this was a "there are eggs and milk in chocolate cake!" moment for me.


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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Wassail

Not being Christian, we've pondered alot lately about how to talk to McKay about why and how we celebrate "Christmas". One of our carol albums (BareNakedLadies) has Happy Birthday dear Jesus on it...so we told him the traditional Christmas story about a baby being born.

To try to shift the emphasis of the season towards something without so many conflicting messages we've started to also focus on the solstice. Last night we spent the evening by candlelight, eating, playing games and squinting. After dinner we joined a parade of over 1000 people along Falsecreek. There were drummers, mummers and everyone was carrying lanterns. Kids were everywhere. Met one woman who's little one was 6 days old. Several large parades all joined up at the FalseCreek community centre where we were met by a fabulous choir of MorrisMen, fire dances and general carousing. We drank hot chocolate, square danced (Mckay can Dosedo and Promenade), and watched the Morrismen put on a play.


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Friday, December 22, 2006

Love presents

Coming home from school yesterday and talking about christmas and baking and everything. McKay just starts SOBBING from the back seat. We stop the car and try to figure out what is going on. He finally (in several soggy takes) manages to say, "But WHEN am I going to get my LOVE presents? I've been waiting so l-l-long!".

Dan and I are both perplexed, and get him to repeat it a few times not having a clue what he is talking about.

He adds a few more details, then says, "My LOVE presents....like...like, like, your puppy Mama."

Oh. I had posted awhile ago about a conversation I had with him, about how not only Santa brings presents, but that in our family, we also bought gifts for people we love.

Love presents.



(No, I'm not getting a puppy...it's just what I always answer when he/Dan asks me what I want).


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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Playin' with Plastic Tauntauns

Now you won't be able to get it out of YOUR head either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up-eRyp5e0A
Credit to Matt Bagshaw


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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Here comes the sun!


Ok...tomorrow is the shortest day of the year for those of us here in the Northern Hemisphere. Huzzah.

Dec 21, 2006 8:05 AM 4:16 PM 8h 11m 31s − 0m 03s
Dec 22, 2006 8:05 AM 4:17 PM 8h 11m 33s + 0m 02s
Dec 23, 2006 8:06 AM 4:17 PM 8h 11m 41s + 0m 07s

You know what made me realize how extremely very hugely far north we are? Nope...not the 8 hours 11 minutes of daylight quoted above...but this cool script that lets me see where I would come out if I dug a hole straight through the earth. Egads. We end up south east of Madagascar.
Try it, it's fun. http://map.pequenopolis.com/


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Sunday, December 17, 2006

People of the Internets UNITE!

Ok...this is so much cooler than having an e-mail show up on Neil Gaiman's site.

Time has named me you us The Person of the Year.
We rock.

"for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."


Persons of the Year

* 1927: Charles Lindbergh (1902–1974) (first person chosen)
* 1928: Walter Chrysler (1875–1940)
* 1929: Owen Young (1874–1962)
* 1930: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) (first non-American and first non-white person)
* 1931: Pierre Laval (1883–1945)
* 1932: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945)
* 1933: Hugh Johnson (1882–1942)
* 1934: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) (2nd time)
* 1935: Haile Selassie I (1892–1975)
* 1936: Wallis Simpson (1896–1986) (first female chosen)
* 1937: Chiang Kai-Shek (1887–1975) and Soong May-ling (1898–2003) (first couple chosen)
* 1938: Adolf Hitler (1889–1945)
* 1939: Joseph Stalin (1879–1953)
* 1940: Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
* 1941: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) (3rd time)
* 1942: Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) (2nd time)
* 1943: George Marshall (1880–1959)
* 1944: Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969)
* 1945: Harry Truman (1884–1972)
* 1946: James F. Byrnes (1879–1972)
* 1947: George Marshall (1880–1959) (2nd time)
* 1948: Harry Truman (1884–1972) (2nd time)
* 1949: Winston Churchill (1874–1965) (2nd time) ("Man of the Half-Century"
* 1950: The American Fighting-Man (first "abstract" chosen)
* 1951: Mohammed Mossadegh (1882–1967)
* 1952: Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926)
* 1953: Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967)
* 1954: John Dulles (1888–1959)
* 1955: Harlow Curtice (1893–1962)
* 1956: Hungarian Freedom Fighter
* 1957: Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971)
* 1958: Charles De Gaulle (1890–1970)
* 1959: Dwight Eisenhower (1890–1969) (2nd time)
* 1960: U.S. scientists (represented by Linus Pauling, Isidor Rabi, Edward Teller, Adam Fisher, Donald A. Glaser, Willard Libby, Robert Woodward, Charles Draper, William Shockley, Emilio Segre, John Enders, Charles Townes, George Beadle, James Van Allen and Edward Purcell)
* 1961: John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)
* 1962: Pope John XXIII (1881–1963)
* 1963: Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968)
* 1964: Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973)
* 1965: William Westmoreland (1914–2005)
* 1966: The Generation Twenty-Five and Under
* 1967: Lyndon Johnson (1908–1973) (2nd time)
* 1968: The Astronauts; Frank Borman (b. 1928), Jim Lovell (b. 1928), William Anders (b. 1933)
* 1969: The Middle Americans
* 1970: Willy Brandt (1913–1992)
* 1971: Richard Nixon (1913–1994)
* 1972: Richard Nixon (1913–1994) (2nd time) and Henry Kissinger (b. 1923)
* 1973: John Sirica (1904–1992)
* 1974: King Faisal (1906–1975)
* 1975: American Women (represented by Betty Ford, Carla Hills, Ella Grasso, Barbara Jordan, Susie Sharp, Jill Conway, Billy Jean King, Susan Brownmiller, Addie Wyatt, Kathleen Byerly, Carol Sutton and Alison Cheek)
* 1976: Jimmy Carter (b. 1924)
* 1977: Anwar Sadat (1918–1981)
* 1978: Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997)
* 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini (1902–1989)
* 1980: Ronald Reagan (1911–2004)
* 1981: Lech Wałęsa (b. 1943)
* 1982: The Computer (first non-human "abstract" chosen)
* 1983: Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) (2nd time) and Yuri Andropov (1914–1984)
* 1984: Peter Ueberroth (b. 1937)
* 1985: Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997) (2nd time)
* 1986: Corazón Aquino (b. 1933)
* 1987: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (b. 1931)
* 1988: Endangered Earth ("Planet of the Year")
* 1989: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (b. 1931) (Man of the Decade)
* 1990: George H. W. Bush (b. 1924) ("The Two George Bushes")
* 1991: Ted Turner (b. 1938)
* 1992: Bill Clinton (b. 1946)
* 1993: The Peacemakers: Nelson Mandela (b. 1918), F.W. de Klerk (b. 1936), Yasser Arafat (1929–2004), and Yitzhak Rabin (1922–1995)
* 1994: Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)
* 1995: Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
* 1996: David Ho (b. 1952)
* 1997: Andy Grove (b. 1936)
* 1998: Bill Clinton (b. 1946) (2nd time) and Kenneth Starr (b. 1946)
* 1999: Jeffrey P. Bezos (b. 1964)
* 2000: George W. Bush (b. 1946)
* 2001: Rudolph Giuliani (b. 1944)
* 2002: The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper of Worldcom (b. 1963), Sherron Watkins of Enron (b. 1959), and Coleen Rowley of the FBI (b. 1954)
* 2003: The American Soldier (2nd time)
* 2004: George W. Bush (b. 1946) (2nd time)
* 2005: The Good Samaritans: Bono (b. 1960), Bill Gates (b. 1955), and Melinda Gates (b. 1964)
* 2006: You


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Saturday, December 16, 2006

keeping watch over their flocks by night

We did it.

Left McKay with someone not family (or Kirkwood neighbours, but they really are kind of family so that didn't count) for 2.5 hours this evening. That was long enough, but we already have plans to do it again next month!

filed under: trust issues.


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Falalalala-lalalafel

Tis the season, and we're eating (or prepping) up a storm.
Dan just left to do the first set of Christmas food ingredient shopping.

1. Fig Anise cookies
2. Cranberry bread
3. Date bread
4. Fudge (by request for McKay)
5. Charlie's sugar cookies
6. spiced nuts
7. 7 layer bars

Also starting to look festive around the house warren. Got the tree up and decorated last weekend. McKay has been checking the stockings each morning "just in case Santa came". Parcels via Colorado and NorthBay (with yummy nummyies inside that Mckay says are for him and he won't share) are giving the cats a nice base of presents to sit on while they attack the ornaments. Watched the great holiday tradition ET last night (ok, I made up the tradition part) and watched my boys sit together sobbing at the end


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Tuesday, December 12, 2006

How 'Bout Pudding*

Had chili for dinner tonight.

A new recipe we came across in the fall. White beans, beer, chipotle/adobo smokiness and boneless skinless chicken thighs. Delicious. Unless you're four. He had nachos.

After dinner we were talking about a fabulous chocolate chile pudding I had eaten on the weekend and reminiscing about Chocolate Chile breadpudding from Gourmet a year or so ago.

M; "you put CHILI in pudding??? That's DISGUSTING".

*not cross posted:)


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Sunday, December 10, 2006

Friday, December 08, 2006

I buyed you a T-Shirt...but I keeped it.



Both from ThinkGeek



From Threadless


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Serious Traffic

Our Foodie post got reposted to Serious Eats sometime yesterday.
When I was checking the site stats before bed last night things were looking a tad different.

Last time we had hits like that, someone* had put up a nekid baby picture and labelled it "naked helmet". Well....oh my goodness, who knew THAT would be a popular image search term.

Anyhow, welcome to anyone who makes it as far as here...and sorry for all the baby_butt pictures.


*not me


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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Breakfast Cereal Angst

Came across this earlier this week:

An independent study completed at the University of Vermont shows that Lucky Charms, the popular breakfast cereal produced by consumer foods company General Mills, may not in fact be "magically delicious". Instead, the study contends that the reason the cereal is delicious is the combination of complex sugars and additives.

See more.....at the original source: H. Fernandez

But you know, they can't go DOING this kind of stuff to us...next they're going to tell us that eating Cap'n Crunch Does NOT make me a Pirate. Becoming a pirate on the typical career path is just not something I have time for right now. Guess I'm stuck with the Flying Spaghetti Monster route.


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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Surfin' Santa

McKay wrote his letter to Santa tonight...we're still gathering catalogs for his "real" list though. Just went over to Canada Post to confirm the address. I knew it was North Pole, H0H OHO, but on the off chance Vancouver's condo craze has traveled that far, thought I should make sure there was no unit number or anything to add.

OMG..Santa has highspeed internet. And he'll e-mail back!

On a similar topic, asked M today what we should buy his dad for Christmas....
M: No, NO...Santa brings stuff.
L: well, we buy presents for people too...
M: NO MOM, really, Santa will do it.
L: well, in OUR family, we also buy stuff. Every family does things differently.
M: Oh...like I can't have a weapon for a toy?
L: Er...yes, just like that.
L: So, what should we get your Dad.
M: He sure can't have a weapon.

breaking news December 7th 9:19 am:
Just got the following reply from The North Pole. Needless to say we're very excited.

Dear Friend:

Hi, my name is Pepper Minstix and I am the special elf who helps Santa with all of the email he receives during this busy time of year.

No matter how busy Santa gets at the North Pole, I know he takes time to read all of his letters! You can expect to get an answer from Santa within the next few days.

Thank you for writing to Santa and please write to him again next year!

Happy Holidays
Elf Minstix


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Monday, December 04, 2006

Calamari & KY



<insert life motivating message of your choice here>


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Saturday, December 02, 2006

BattleStar Spanish

Sitting here watching Dan watch Battle Star Galactica.

With subtitles in Spanish.
(donde estás que va)

For deaf Spanish people.
(donde estás que va {crowd noises}).

Heh.


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Friday, December 01, 2006

Keep the Promise

Support World AIDS Day

Started in 1988, World AIDS Day is not just about raising money, but also about increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and improving education. World AIDS Day is important in reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things still to be done. Learn the facts, teach them to someone, and donate. It won't go away on its own.

World AIDS Day themes over the years have included:

* 2006 - Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise - Accountability
* 2005 - Stop AIDS; Keep the Promise
* 2004 - Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS
* 2003 - Stigma & Discrimination
* 2002 - Stigma & Discrimination
* 2001 - I care. Do you?
* 2000 - AIDS : Men make a difference
* 1999 - Listen, Learn, Live: World AIDS Campaign with Children & Young People
* 1998 - Force for Change: World AIDS Campaign With Young People
* 1997 - Children Living in a World with AIDS
* 1996 - One World, One Hope
* 1995 - Shared Rights, Shared Responsibilities
* 1994 - AIDS & the Family
* 1993 - Act
* 1992 - Community Commitment
* 1991 - Sharing the Challenge
* 1990 - Women & AIDS
* 1989 - Youth
* 1988 - Communication


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Places We've called Home: Kingston ON Chicago IL Atlanta GA Vancouver BC