So we both went back to work yesterday. Kind of glad it's a short week.
Also glad that we survived our "vacation" last week. I use the quotes around the word because in my head, vacations are relaxing and last week was not relaxing. It was fun at times, frustrating at others, worrying and scary too.
After a whirlwind, 3-day period spent zooming up and down the 401 to see 2 Roger Waters shows, we landed back at home, pooped and happy. The shows were so fun but I had, stupidly, booked the furnace maintenance/inspector dudes to visit us at the crack of insanity on Tuesday morning. We had arrived home from Ottawa at 1:30 a.m., gone to sleep around 2:30 a.m. and were not thrilled to have to crawl out of our pit at 7:30 a.m. to await the 8 a.m. arrival of furnace guys.
I spent the morning outside with the dogs. The dogs, Sam in particular, hate it when strangers visit the house. He barks at them for what I believe are a number of reasons:
1. He’s informing us that we have allowed a stranger into our house and stranger = danger
2. He’s informing the stranger that no guff will be allowed in Sam’s watch. If that stranger gets out of line, watch out, cuz he will bark MORE at him!
3. Once it appears that the stranger is friendly and not going to cause any danger, Sam needs to tell him that he’ll protect the no-longer stranger but he needs to come here RIGHT NOW to be protected
4. When the time comes for the stranger to leave, Sam needs to let him know that it’s NOT SAFE outside and the stranger needs to stay with Sam. If he is out of Sam’s sight, Sam cannot protect him.
Simple huh? If the door to our basement was somewhere else, we could have probably been in one part or another of the house. Unfortunately, our basement door is smack in the middle of the house so the best we could would be to hide out in a bedroom and that would have been less fun than outside.
On Wednesday, Mark finally had his kidney stone surgery. We arrived at the hospital for 10 a.m., almost immediately saw the surgeon and Mark went into the OR at 11 a.m. I was told when he went in that the surgery would be about 2 hours. What they don’t tell you is that you need to factor in the time that it takes for the Anesthesiologist to get their stuff done. I later learned from a nurse that it’s normally around an hour. When the surgeon came to find me (while Mark was in recovery), he told me that the actual surgery was 2.5 hours. I’m not sure if this is a lot but the Doc told me that he used 6 laser fibers to blast the stones in Mark’s kidneys. Kinda glad that the Doctor also confided that he was a wiz at video games. I think that helped. Because Mark has sleep apnea, the Anesthesiologist and respirology folks insisted that Mark spend the night. Neither of us was happy about that but in the end, I think it was better than coming home the first night. When he did get home, he experienced some back pain (not to mention some pain peeing) for the first few days but that seems to have subsided (as well as the blood in his urine). He needs to go back to the clinic in a couple of weeks for a follow up but hopefully, after that is done, he’ll be done with the kidney stuff for a while. It’s been a really long haul, waiting for this to happen, we’re both pretty relieved that it’s over with.
So while last week wasn’t relaxing, it was productive and, at times, pretty fun. We have more time booked off in August which will see us having the roof on our house replaced and also getting a new chimney liner installed for our furnace.
The good times just keep on coming at our house!
PS Happy Birthday Hartland Covered Bridge! You are 111 years old today. I took this picture when you were still a very spry 101 years old. Hope you get some cake today to celebrate!
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
outside the wall
It was a busy weekend for us. We had a little roadtrip to Toronto on Saturday and Ottawa on Monday to see Roger Waters on his final leg of the Wall Tour.
Mark saw the first two shows of the tour in Toronto back in the fall of 2010 and then he and I saw shows together in Ottawa and Montreal.
The versions of the show we saw over the weekend were both different from those we saw in 2010. Roger has changed up some of the animation and wall projections to accommodate a much wider wall. The wider wall is used in outdoor parks and stadiums and it was used at the Rogers Centre on Saturday evening.
We got our tickets through Roger`s online fanclub, in a presale special. In Toronto, we were in the front, centre section, row 23, in the centre of the row. My seat was actually partially over the big cable which goes from the mixing board to the stage. Funny thing about the board in Toronto, it was so big, and the floor of the old Skydome so expansive, they put a portajohn in the enclosed area for the crew.
In Ottawa, the smaller wall was used inside the ScotiaBank Place. Incredibly, Mark and I sat in the front row, of the centre section, in centre seats. I say sat but we actually stood for the entire show. Front row is an amazing place to see the show from.
I have put up two sets of photos on flickr (you can find them if you click on the image here). During each performance, Roger has local students come on stage with him during Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two. It was very neat to see the kids up close last night. There were three teachers who were in the pit, in front of us, while the kids were performing. The teachers were all very vigourously doing the choreography and singing along with the kids. As we were leaving, I recognized one of the teachers and hollered at them to get their attention. I had taken quite a few photos of the kids and gave them my card so they could find them online. While I was doing that, the show promoter was nearby and gave me his card so I sent him a link today. Everyone was so friendly and lovely in Ottawa last night, it was a terrific experience.
There was one big change to the show, both nights. After the children go off stage, Roger sings a new part to Another Brick in the Wall. He`s singing about Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian engineering student who was murdered by the London Police in a tube station in 2005. He was mistaken for a terror suspect and shot in the back of the head several times.
The show is very powerful and if you have a chance to see one of these final shows, I would go. Mark is going to be at the final show of the tour, in Quebec City next month. He saw the original show in New York in 1980 so it`s a nice way for him to close this circle with Roger.
Mark saw the first two shows of the tour in Toronto back in the fall of 2010 and then he and I saw shows together in Ottawa and Montreal.
The versions of the show we saw over the weekend were both different from those we saw in 2010. Roger has changed up some of the animation and wall projections to accommodate a much wider wall. The wider wall is used in outdoor parks and stadiums and it was used at the Rogers Centre on Saturday evening.
We got our tickets through Roger`s online fanclub, in a presale special. In Toronto, we were in the front, centre section, row 23, in the centre of the row. My seat was actually partially over the big cable which goes from the mixing board to the stage. Funny thing about the board in Toronto, it was so big, and the floor of the old Skydome so expansive, they put a portajohn in the enclosed area for the crew.
In Ottawa, the smaller wall was used inside the ScotiaBank Place. Incredibly, Mark and I sat in the front row, of the centre section, in centre seats. I say sat but we actually stood for the entire show. Front row is an amazing place to see the show from.
I have put up two sets of photos on flickr (you can find them if you click on the image here). During each performance, Roger has local students come on stage with him during Another Brick in the Wall, Part Two. It was very neat to see the kids up close last night. There were three teachers who were in the pit, in front of us, while the kids were performing. The teachers were all very vigourously doing the choreography and singing along with the kids. As we were leaving, I recognized one of the teachers and hollered at them to get their attention. I had taken quite a few photos of the kids and gave them my card so they could find them online. While I was doing that, the show promoter was nearby and gave me his card so I sent him a link today. Everyone was so friendly and lovely in Ottawa last night, it was a terrific experience.
There was one big change to the show, both nights. After the children go off stage, Roger sings a new part to Another Brick in the Wall. He`s singing about Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian engineering student who was murdered by the London Police in a tube station in 2005. He was mistaken for a terror suspect and shot in the back of the head several times.
The show is very powerful and if you have a chance to see one of these final shows, I would go. Mark is going to be at the final show of the tour, in Quebec City next month. He saw the original show in New York in 1980 so it`s a nice way for him to close this circle with Roger.
Monday, May 28, 2012
you may remember me
Hard to believe that it's been 14 years since Phil Hartman was murdered. Some of his "Troy McClure" lines are amongst the most often heard/said Simpsons quotes in our house, "You may remember me from such self-help videos as "Smoke Yourself Thin" and "Get Confident, Stupid"" or "Gay?! I wish! If I were gay they'd be no problem! No, what I have is a
romantic abnormality, one so unbelievable that it must be hidden from
the public at all cost." are just a couple...
I can't think of anything I ever saw Phil in that I didn't love, SNL, Newsradio, obviously the Simpsons and, of course, Pee Wee's Playhouse. I found this little clip of Pee Wee and Captain Carl, discussing women. Phil's legacy is huge, here's a small piece of it.
I can't think of anything I ever saw Phil in that I didn't love, SNL, Newsradio, obviously the Simpsons and, of course, Pee Wee's Playhouse. I found this little clip of Pee Wee and Captain Carl, discussing women. Phil's legacy is huge, here's a small piece of it.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
sad girls
From an early age, I always liked songs with hand claps and strong backing vocals. You can appreciate how much I liked Donna Summer's "Bad Girls" with it's "toot-toot, beep-beep" opening. Of course, as a young girl, I had no idea what the song was about. I just knew that I like it and I loved Donna Summer's amazing voice.
One of the first LP's I bought with my own money was "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer. I seem to recall my mother being pretty upset when she saw it. I had no idea what prostitutes were and, of course, there were photos of Donna and other women, dressed as "ladies of the evening" all over the cover I think my mum got over the shock eventually and I almost wore those records out. As a school girl in the 1970's I loved to sing along with "MacArthur Park", "Hot Stuff", "Last Dance" and (of course) "On The Radio" - Donna was the Queen of Disco and her music was infectious.
I was shocked and saddened today to hear that she'd died at the very young age of 63. She was a massive talent and her star shone very brightly. Cancer sucks and I'm very angry that it's snatched away another talent, too soon
One of the first LP's I bought with my own money was "Bad Girls" by Donna Summer. I seem to recall my mother being pretty upset when she saw it. I had no idea what prostitutes were and, of course, there were photos of Donna and other women, dressed as "ladies of the evening" all over the cover I think my mum got over the shock eventually and I almost wore those records out. As a school girl in the 1970's I loved to sing along with "MacArthur Park", "Hot Stuff", "Last Dance" and (of course) "On The Radio" - Donna was the Queen of Disco and her music was infectious.
I was shocked and saddened today to hear that she'd died at the very young age of 63. She was a massive talent and her star shone very brightly. Cancer sucks and I'm very angry that it's snatched away another talent, too soon
Monday, May 14, 2012
Yay!! Pudsey!!!
Again this year, we got totally wired to Britain's Got Talent. I had a short list of folks I was cheering for this year, Ashleigh & Pudsey, The Sugar Daddies and The Showbears. Really though, both Mark and I, dog nuts that we are, wanted to see Ashleigh & Pudsey win it. We'd cheered for Tina and Chandi in 2010 and were very disappointed that they didn't take the final. We actually cheered out loud when they called out that Ashleigh & Pudsey had won. Our dogs, who we cannot imagine every doing something like this, were totally confused at our cheering.
If you haven't seen it yet, here is the performance from Ashleigh & Pudsey during the Finals. He never takes his eyes off of Ashleigh. I sure hope he got to have a steak for dinner after that performance!!
If you haven't seen it yet, here is the performance from Ashleigh & Pudsey during the Finals. He never takes his eyes off of Ashleigh. I sure hope he got to have a steak for dinner after that performance!!
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