June 23rd:
Hey, I'm going on vacation. I'll be back in July.

~Louise

June 18th:
From Skirt Mag, (I love that place) a new fun way to waste time: Download your own Skirt! Interactive Girlfriend. Actually, it's a few girls, and they pop up on their own little screen. My favorite is Sophie, the iBook-toting mermaid who says things like, "You're a goddess," and "I take my laptop everywhere." Although Lola, the fire-breathing devil girl, says, "I love being a diva," which is also too cool.

I downloaded it for my kid. No, really.

Did you watch The NHL Awards? Well, we did. I thought that just maybe I'd get a glimpse of Hasek or Satan, and I wanted to hear what everyone had to say about Maurice. My comments on the whole thing? First of all, it's weird for an awards show not to run over its time-slot. Gomez was just too damn adorable and I was thrilled to see that he (like so many of the players they showed) brought his mom to the awards! I think Jagr was relieved not to win the Hart because it saved him another speech. (Why does he get so nervous up there? He's a damn hero.) I want to thank Olie for remembering to thank Hasek, and Cujo, while he is a great guy, shouldn't have been nominated for the Vezina at all.

Oh, and I know this might not make sense, but how could Pronger win MVP when his coach and another teammate won awards? That should've been Pavel's. And you know, I was so touched with the difference between Quenniville's acceptance speech for Turik (obviously written and rehearsed) and his own where he thanked Roger Nielson (raw and full of emotion).

Over the weekend I went to my first CFL game. The Montreal Allouettes beat the Toronto Argonauts. So, the Canadian Football League. As far as I can tell the three down thing contributes not to passing, but to field goals and punting. The game went to OT (which it would've whether or not they'd tied, but anyway) and I can not believe the new OT rules in the league:

1. Two players meet at midfield for a coin toss and the winner gets to pick offense, defense or which side of the field to play on. (They only use one half of it!)
2. First team gets the ball on the 35 yard line and makes a drive until a) they score, or b) they're stopped.
3. Second teams gets the ball on the 35 for the same thing. (Regardless of whether or not the first team scored.)
4. Repeat as necessary.

I am not making this up! Who the hell came up with that? What happens if the ball is intercepted? I mean, they're only playing on one-half of the field, so if someone from the defense intercepts, which way does he run? Or does that just stop the whole thing and that team gets possession? If so, do they start from the 35, or from that less some amount relative to where he caught the ball? Why don't they just have each kicker attempt a FG from the 35? Decide the game on a kick-out.

June 13th:
I am not a target market. But dads are, didn't you know? (As I write this that annoying car commercial -- the Dodge Intrepid one with the dad giving his kid in the backseat some sunglasses -- is on, and it all seems top eerie.) Are dads just a bunch of untapped consumers? Does Brian feel like merely a Leonard Cohen in these raunchy days of Liam Gallaghers?

We watched "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," and Amelia went crazy for the song that played while Austin battled the fembots. Yes, I mean the song, "I touch myself," by the Divinyls. I tried to pretend I didn't know the song, but she watched the damn credits to find out who wrote and performed it! She wanted Brian to "find it on the computer for her." He didn't get a Divinyls mp3, but instead found a jhu mental notes cover of the song. It's a peppy Andrews sisters sort of thing -- too funny.

Although the lyrics are still the same and if Amelia gets caught singing, "I don't want anybody else... when I think about you I touch myself," in public it's going to be much worse than when she sang, "I know I've got a bad reputation, and it isn't just talk, talk, talk." (Although not as bad as when she went around singing, "Johnny, are you queer?")

So, following along with the parenting theme I've started here... check out Anti-Anti-Child Webring. It includes Childfree -- Proving the Theory of Natural Selection One Non-parent at a Time!

And finally... this black and white sketch is a pretty accurate picture of what things look like in my house lately. Well, except my kid is making Da Vinci-esque dioramas instead of squirming around face down in a tub of water, but you get the idea... Thanks Jessica for the great image.

June 8th:
Yes, I watched the Britney Spears special last night, and then I read what K.D. Lang had to say about her and her contemporaries. I think K.D. has some good points. The over-rehearsed dance moves don't impress me and if you don't know what it's like to drink cold coffee, your music might be missing big chunks of emotion. You can't have soul til you've had your heart broken.

So, someone is taking credit for a photo I took. Although I can't imagine why. If you look at the picture called "Me" there's no photo credit given, and then he takes credit for "all images" at the bottom. Since he's so cute I'll let this one slide...

I think that TV listings like this one have a lot to do with why I don't watch much tv. Although, yeah, a sitcom called "Uncle Dad" might be kind of funny...

I am quickly becoming eddicted to epinions. It's so easy! It's so fun! Instead of just ranting at the streetcar stop about how much I hate netscape mail, or telling everyone at the laundromat that they must read "Headhunter" I can write a little piece and get 20 cents (and no strange looks) for it. Plus I find the best books and recipes there...

Recently reviewed: Last Night, Joy Cam, The Artist's Way and Circuit of Heaven. See the movie, get the camera and read the books.

I'm off to check out The me stream.

June 4th:
Kathy Jo's new "Yinzer in Europe" column reminded me that I've been meaning to take out a personal ad in the "eye spy" section of eye magazine:

May 20th, Stratford Festival's production of Hamlet. Me: Redhead in the eighth row, black t-shirt and brightly coloured floral jumper. Completely enraptured with the story. You: On stage in the leading role. Loved the way you intently and gracefully handled Yorick's skull. Caught you looking my way. How about we meet at the Buzz Stop before your next performance?

I've been reading up on Polaroid photo emulsion stuff, and today just happened to find the White Trash Ink booth at the Beaches Arts Festival. I stood and drooled, literally. I just got a Joycam, have tried the emulsion, and now I'm already searching ebay for an SX70 so I can do those manipulations...

Here's what the magnet I bought today looks like:


©White Trash Ink, Blue Leaf, David Wiewel.

June 3rd:
Amelia, my daughter, has started a weblog of her own. It's designed for the more kid types, but she's got some cool links on there and stuff about her heroes (hockey players, scientists, artists, etc). Just go look. Be impressed by my prodigious offspring.

Hand drawn art on Post-It notes makes for good movies. I wish I were so talented. How much you wanna bet the cartoons get drawn at work? (Where else does anyone have an endless supply of tiny yellow paper?)

On CFTO news last week I saw a report about a real sword fight in Toronto. The cops broke it up before anyone one was hurt, and they showed these huge sabres and men (reportedly from rival Sikh factions) taken away in police cars. The swords they unloaded from this van were like Iñigo Montoya used in The Princess Bride. Ornate, shiny, massive and deadly looking. But I can not find anything about this anywhere on the net, dammit. Did they make up the whole thing? Did it happen? Do you know?

Get yourself a free skincare kit, and I don't use them, but Tampax was there. As long as it's not from Sallie Mae, I love to get stuff in the mail.

I heard that Ed Belfour offered the refs a million dollars to take back one of tonight's goals...

June 1st:
Two of my oldest and dearest and coolest and most loyal friends are celebrating their birthdays today. Oops, I didn't mean oldest as in their ages, but oldest as in I've been friends with them for a long, long time. Heh.

In alphabetical order:
Happy Birthday, Carmell!!
Happy Birthday, Tracy!!

If your birthday is today,
   You are ready to face just about anything this year.
   Your strength and determination will lead you in a
   direction sure to bring you the recognition and success
   that you desire. You will have the ability to convince
   others to follow your lead and support your actions.

Two fun coffee links, courtesy of Bluezfire:
Coffee drinker's daily prayer and Decaf Poopacino, a Dave Barry column that's funny, even though I sometimes do order the soy milk, vanilla, decaf double latte with cinnamon. I've never had coffee that tasted like weasel poop, but most of the time I think Starbucks' stuff tastes like roasted tobacco.

In hockey news...
My friend Cass thinks that after these excuses, Ed Belfour (left light-headed from cold medication), should do a new commercial, "Nyquil: the sniffly, sneezy, achy, fever, lame-ass excuse for letting in six goals in two periods medicine.."

And The Hockey Diaries are back, with a whole new look!

I don't know what to say about the E Coli outbreak in Ontario. I get so angry and so scared and so sad that I can't form complete sentences. How is it possible that in North America your tap water could kill you within a few days?! I think that many people are to blame, but what the hell was that guy thinking when he didn't tell anyone until people had already died? And just how the hell could this have happened at all? Please read the chronology for a good summary of events, and if you want to know more, there's sort of an E Coli home that includes articles and updates.

Maybe I was wrong about the Free Trade with China thing. Some of these expected ramifications don't look so bad.

May 30th, part 2:
So, the only thing I could find about Lindros on the Philadelphia Flyers website was, "Eric Lindros is out 4-6 weeks because of a Grade 2 concussion." I think I was half-expecting them to say, "Former Flyer Lindros..."

Do things really happen in threes?
Maurice Richard, Montreal Canadien and hero.
Eric Turner, Oakland Raiders defensive back.
Terry Nichols, defensive lineman at Texas A&M.

May 30th:
I just lost a huge entry. Grrrrrr! Anyway, lately I've noticed that in the Bizarro strip every Sunday (my favorite comic), Dan Piraro hides a piece of pie, an upside-down bird, an alien and a fishtail.

No idea what it means, or if the subliminal message is working on me.

-> Update!
It's not just Sundays... it's every day! Sometimes there's also a crown and a chicken foot! What does it all mean?