Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes...

It's been awhile since I've written and there's been a lot on my mind lately...but most of that tends to get put in my journal instead of on the blog. Since I last wrote I got a new part-time job working with Disability Services at U of M, had a birthday, continue with my internship at AFM, and am still finishing up one final course for my degree this semester. Needless to say, I'm very busy and hope, as John Sauder the weatherman predicted on the news tonite, that it snows buckets so I don't have to risk my neck on the highway tomorrow and instead can to sit around all day.

Anyways...I'm writing to inform everyone that there are going to be some monumental changes in the blogosphere. Spurred on by Gillian's decision to start her own blog, I've decided to start my own as well (even though between the two of us I'm the only one who's ever written on this one). We'll update this one sporadically regarding news with us and the mundane peculiarties that life throws at us, however, I invite you to check out our other blogs as well now (yes, the world doesn't yet have quite enough blogs).

Hi...I'm in Delaware

So after spending a wonderful month with friends and family drinking good wine, playing an excess of Scrabble and Cranium, traveling to New Brunswick and back, watching episodes of Degrassi the Next Generation online (yes, I'm aware), lazy Saturday mornings spent eating out for breakfast, reading great books, and growing accustomed to the cat that recently moved in with us (see previous post), the dreaded January has arrived. [And I know you're thinking that January arrived well over 2 weeks ago, but I only go back to school this week so for me the January mindset has only just arrived.]

I am not a fan of January. For me, it has always been the large, useless gap of time between Christmas and my birthday. When I was a kid it was the endless six week wait to get all the accessories for the toys I had gotten for Christmas! I think that if December can be likened to Texas or New York with all of the grandiose pizazz, January feels more like Delaware...or southern Manitoba in January. It's grey, it's an emotional let-down from the holidays, and it's cold. Soooo cold.

I woke up Thursday morning and as I was about to hook up the dishwasher I found that our kitchen faucet and the adjoining pipes were frozen solid. I decided to patiently wait it out until later in the day, assuming that pipes can't stay frozen for long...after all, they are inside the house. However, later came and still no water appeared. This went on for four days until yesterday when I was finally forced to spread peanut butter with the butt-end of a spoon because all the knives were dirty. I decided that one way or another, like blood from a stone, I was going to squeeze water from my pipes (sounds like a medical procedure).

Opting not to be reduced to the ever popular method of holding the hairdryer up to the pipes, especially armed with the knowledge that every year in Winnipeg a frozen-pipe-induced-hairdryer-fire seems to be the culprit behind some poor soul burning their house down, I decided instead to jam a space-heater under the floor-boards. As bad an idea as that may sound, to make a long story short, yesterday afternoon at around 1 pm my kitchen faucet's springs burst forth once again and I enjoyed a cool, refreshing glass of water. And we were able to start getting rid of the gargantuan stack of dishes on the counter.

Other than that life's been passing by pretty much as planned lately. My internship is going well...although most days it feels like I've been thrown into the fire, so to speak. It's been a welcome change to finally get out of the classroom and it's affirmed that all this school I've done has been worth it. Gillian's loving her job which is never short of its challenges. And Morley has become intrigued with plumbing and house plants...he spends most of his time swatting drops that escape from the bathtub faucet and ripping leaves off of our plant; whom we affectionately named Robert (i.e. Robert Plant).

Notice: For fear of this turning into some sort of bizarre "cat blog" I will abstain from posting any further pictures of Morley for a while...but not necessarily of Robert Plant with his shirt off.

The new cat in town

This is Morley...a 3 year old tabby who recently joined our family.

This is a public service announcement!

First of all, I'd like to announce that two days ago I completed writing the 16th and final paper of my last full-time semester in school. In January I begin an internship with The Addictions Foundation and start looking for a job; thus, this holiday season feels like a time of great transition for myself. As well, Gillian is still thoroughly enjoying her job, yet we are both looking forward to some much needed downtime with her family out in New Brunswick over the holidays.

Anyways...this past semester one of my favorite classes was Ethics and Counselling. Part of the course work entailed that we familiarize ourselves with the Canadian Criminal Code; I guess so we don't get sued. So, after checking it out I thought I'd warn people of some of the stuff that's still illegal to do in this fine land of ours.

Prize Fighting:
83. (1) Every one who
(a) engages as a principal in a prize fight,
(b) advises, encourages or promotes a prize fight, or
(c) is present at a prize fight as an aid, second, surgeon, umpire, backer or reporter,
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.

Definition of “prize fight”
(2) In this section, “prize fight” means an encounter or fight with fists or hands between two persons who have met for that purpose by previous arrangement made by or for them, but a boxing contest between amateur sportsmen, where the contestants wear boxing gloves of not less than one hundred and forty grams each in mass, or any boxing contest held with the permission or under the authority of an athletic board or commission or similar body established by or under the authority of the legislature of a province for the control of sport within the province, shall be deemed not to be a prize fight.

[I haven't the faintest idea who Dave is in the picture but if he were caught brandishing those puppies in 2006 he'd be doing hard time!]

Vagrancy:
179. (1) Every one commits vagrancy who (a) supports himself in whole or in part by gaming or crime and has no lawful profession or calling by which to maintain himself.

Duelling:
71. Every one who
(a) challenges or attempts by any means to provoke another person to fight a duel,
(b) attempts to provoke a person to challenge another person to fight a duel, or
(c) accepts a challenge to fight a duel,
is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

High Treason:
46. (1) Every one commits high treason who, in Canada,
(a) kills or attempts to kill Her Majesty, or does her any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maims or wounds her, or imprisons or restrains her.

So, you'd better take it easy out there this holiday season...

Hey...Where's Prince?!

This weekend we decided to head down to the Twin Cities for a few days. While we've been there before several times, this trip we decided to spend less time in that bigger-than-a-regular-sized-mall they have and more time actually checking out the merits of the city. While it was a fun weekend for all the regular reasons of getting away, we also learned to appreciate 'the cities' in a new way.

On Saturday we wanted to find a cheap place to get breakfast and so we randomly headed out, ending up on Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis. We ate at the Uptown Diner and it seemed to be the place to go if you're a relatively hip, young yuppie-something. I highly recommend!

Eventually we meandered over to the Walker modern art gallery and saw all of the usual wacked-out stuff. We forgot the camera that day so I'll have have to describe it while trying not to succumb to the temptation of mocking modern art.

It seemed to us that any art can be classified as modern as long as the artist can "define" just what the hell it is they're trying to "do". We saw a plastic children's chair with a Kleenex box sitting on it (I tried to sell that very same thing to the Winnipeg Art Gallery once but should've known it was too progressive for the mid-80's), a papier mache balloon painted black and tied to a string, some empty boxes of tomato soup sitting in the middle of a big roped off area, and a huge beanbag hanging by a rope. But while some of the art in these places may be purely ridiculous, there were some interesting things too...like the photography display juxtaposing Nazi Germany with Las Vegas (isn't the connection here just a little too obvious!) By the way, is anyone aware of any modern art museums out there which don't somehow incorporate Nazis into their collection?! If you do...let me know.

On Sunday we decided to tackle St. Paul on foot. We walked down the famous Summit Avenue and I was interested to learn that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, This Side of Paradise, in this very house.

We spent some time exploring the majestic Cathedral of St. Paul; modeled after St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. Having checked out many of the famous cathedrals in Europe before (including the original) you might think I'd be tired of them by now, however each one is so unique that I find myself never tiring of them. I always end up standing in awed silence while I take in the immense amount of detail they each contain. Without getting overly theological, this time it struck me that in some way maybe all of this ornate detail says something about the perfect and flawless beauty of God's character. Or, rather than get all worked up about how much money was frivolously spent on these buildings I find it comforting to think that maybe, at least in some small way, the builders really did view their masterpiece as an offering to God.
I found it strange that there was a tap for Holy Water...do they pump this in directly from the Vatican via a pipe under the ocean, or what?!
We decided to grab brunch at a restaurant inside a swanky hotel in downtown St. Paul, called the M Street Cafe, and got swindled beyond belief (yet another reminder that if the prices aren't listed on the menu than the food is priceless...even if said place is a buffet).

And what better activity to do in a swanky hotel than to check out the swanky washrooms. Upon some convincing, along with threatening to go in and take the pictures myself, Gillian took these two beautiful shots of the women's washroom!

Then notice the third picture which fulfills my worst fears that men everywhere are getting the shaft when it comes to washrooms (the women get more lamps than we get sinks).

Finally, on the last day of our trip we briefly dropped in to check out the rad mall they have in Minneapolis. All I can say is that the highlight of the mall was in the parking garage when Gillian spotted a bumper sticker that summed up America's current position in the world, "We're making enemies faster than we can kill them!"

A Hymn from the Divine Hours

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Forgive our foolish ways; Reclothe us in our rightful mind, In purer lives thy service find, In deeper reverence, praise. Drop thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of thy peace. Breathe through the heats of our desire Thy coolness and thy balm; Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire; Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, O still, small voice of calm!

John G. Whittier

Folk Fest '06

We spent this past weekend volunteering at Folk Fest out at Birds Hill Park and it was tremendous...great weather, great people, great music...it's like camp for adults. Volunteers get treated like royalty receiving a free festival pass, free food (roast beef dinner, perogies, burgers, farmer sausage, and the best potato salad this side of Dallas), and backstage access the entire weekend. It was totally worth the mere 13 hours of work we put in.

We were on the backstage traffic crew (I can't believe I forgot to get a picture of myself wearing the patrol vest and holding the walkie-talkie) which meant we wielded the power to decide which vehicles were permitted in the backstage area and which vehicles were part of the "I'm-just-going-to-meet-a-friend-who's-a musician-who-invited-me-backstage-but-I'll-be-back-in-a-minute" club.

I lost a little faith in the people (hippies) who would drive up in mini-vans with no backstage pass saying something like they'd only be a "few minutes" cause they had to drop off a can opener in the dining tent, then when you question them they get all indignant saying they've been coming to Folk Fest since you were in diapers, and then after all that they don't come back through the gate for 3 hours...must've been a big can! There was also an incident where a dude on a bike with his kid on the back rushed the gate yelling, "It's okay...I'll only be a minute!" while his kid frantically yelled, "Dad, you're supposed to stop!" Great example you're setting for your child, dad..."Son, life's better when you don't trust no one and do whatever the #*%$ you please."

The highlight of the job was when a woman in a golf cart drove by and asked me where Bruce Cockburn was because she needed to pick him up and take him to his set in half-an-hour. (A few minutes later Gillian saw him tuning his guitar and warming up in his van. I wanted to go talk to him but pretty much the only things I know about him are that he had a couple hits in the 80's, it's not pronounced COCK-burn, and he sings that song, 'If A Tree Falls'. He was actually pretty good and now that I'm fast approaching thirty it's becoming socially accpetable for me to check out more of his stuff in the future.)

The highlight of camping in a field with 5000 people was when the people camping next to us decided to hold a vigorous dance party at 2 am fueled by such albums as Michael Jackson's Thriller, Daft Punk's Homework (in fairness, both of which I still own and enjoy from time to time), and The Spice Girls' Spice, in which they proceeded to sing along to the song Spice Up Your Life in unison (images of the video where they're zooming around in space were flashing through my head). However, the best part was this one guy in particular whose famous two lines of the night were, "Guys, I'm sweating so much right now that I could use my sweat to gel my hair!" and "Guys, I've been talking to random people all night...this is totally awesome!" (Chris Kattan from SNL could've played this guy perfectly). We laughed and watched this awkward situation out our tent window for half an hour or so before putting in our earplugs and going to sleep.

Biggest hype of the weekend included Bedouin Soundclash (the guys who got famous 'cause their song played on a Zellers commercial) and industrial-style utilikilts...Yeesh! If you haven't heard of these things, it's basically a kilt that doubles as a tool belt. That guy from the Canadian Tire commercials would probably wear it while changing his oil.(http://www.amishrobot.com/apathy/archives/pride2002.jpg)?!
Biggest boners of the weekend included a couple who must have been in their mid-50's who got caught trying to sneak in little bottles of alcohol concealed in fanny packs.

But let's not forget that the real meaning of Folk Fest is discovering fantastic music that you never knew you liked. This year my personal favorites were Crooked Still, a college bluegrass band from Massachusetts who intertwine the cello and stand up bass in heavenly ways; K'naan, a Somalian-born rapper for peace whose lyrics almost made me weep; Amy Rigby, an ex-punk 'chick' from NYC whose cynically realistic lyrics at times became surprisingly tender; T.O.F.U. (Tons of Fun University), three guys who wove highly informed yet inspirational poetic soliloquies into their little ditties; and Robert Belfour (think John Lee Hooker), an old bluesman from Tennessee who played the guitar for years before recording his first album at the age of 59.

Here's some pics that capture our weekend. These were taken during the main stage performances on Sunday night.

In my opinion, the best kinds of concerts are the ones where you can lounge around on a blanket!
I don't think there are many places on earth where I could feel this relaxed surrounded by 16, 000 people.
That's Matthew McConaughey in the background...I'm pretty sure.
A pristine Manitoba evening in July.
The moon rose in the background as Bruce Cockburn played the final set of the weekend.