food and drink songs

In Blatherchat, the topic of food songs recently came up. Reason: the newest Pegasus nomination ballot has "food and drink" as one of its nomination topics. Those of you who aren't familiar with the Pegasus Awards can check this online explanation.

As most of you know, I tend to write a lot of food songs. Probably too many food songs. :-) As news of this new Pegasus nomination topic circulated at OVFF this past weekend, I had quite a few people nudge me in the ribs and joke that I had the category "locked up".

Although I understand this was all in good fun, I have to confess I felt uncomfortable whenever this happened. For one thing, there are a ton of good food and drink songs out there, many much better than mine. Topics range from cappuccino to blue cheese to chocolate to Tully to any type of food or drink you can imagine. I've been wanting to compile a list of food songs anyway, so I figure now's a good time.

So I've created a new Food and Drink Song Discussion Forum. I've created it as an regular Inkspot discussion forum (hence the Inkspot header, though this forum will NOT be listed on Inkspot discussion topic lists :-)) rather than like Blatherchat because the latter script is much more of a pain to maintain. With the Inkspot script (thanks to Brian Rickman of WritersBBS), you can delete your own listing. Old listings are automatically deleted after three months. I'll try to remember to archive everything permanently before they're deleted, but I can't guarantee it (if anyone wants to volunteer, please let me know).

Anyway, if you know of any good food/drink songs or have songs of your own, please do mention them here. :-) And don't feel you have to restrict songs to ones written by filkers...I'd be interested in hearing about ANY good food or drink songs! Who knows? Allison, Jodi and I may want to cover it if you weren't going to. :-)

looking for romance

Allison's OVFF report is nearly finished and should be posted by the end of this week.

Be sure to check out Welcome to my home page, listed in the Links Du Jour today. Thanks to Helen Waters for pointing out this wonderful page. I certainly have to admire this guy's enthusiasm and chutzpah. And he's certainly going to get a lot of responses, I'm sure, even though they may not all be the type he wants.

By the way, have I missed something or has this fellow forgotten to put his name on this page? Everything else is there, though, from his cellphone to his address and fax number.

"Who is want to come TURKEY I can invitate .....
She can stay my home ........
I speake turkish , english , rusian , I want to learn other language !
I like sex"

Who could resist? :-) Seriously, though...looking through the photo gallery on this page, you get the sense that this guy is a fun and active guy. He plays ping pong, "many many music enstrumans", enjoys travelling, swimming, basketball, photography, owns a home and a car, is multilingual (though his English spelling could use a bit of work). Either this guy is The Perfect Catch or he's a pathological liar.

Well, I wish him luck. He's had over 20,000 visitors since I checked first thing this morning....I hope one of them is The Right Woman.

(Photo courtesy Helen Waters, Photoshop Queen)

new office

Today's photo of Taunya is courtesy someone who recently posted in Blatherchat who wishes to remain anonymous. :-) (not Taunya)

Last night, Jodi, Allison and I got together at Allison's to rehash OVFF (we all had a great time at the convention...Allison says she'll have the report done this weekend) and to watch a video kindly sent to us by Al Quirt (thank you!!!). It was the first time we'd seen our concert from FKO on video...AUGH! I had no idea I looked so GOOFY doing the Neurotic Love song!!! Why didn't you all TELL ME??? =:-O

Jeff's been incredibly helpful since he left his job at National...he's done all the arranging for our Internet access, phone system, alarm system, etc. to help us get moved into our new office. Lately he's been cooking most of our meals (and doing clean-up after) as well...I feel incredibly spoiled.

I LOVE THE NEW OFFICE! And I haven't even moved in yet. Lots of table space, lots of filing and storage space; I'll have to take a photo to scan and post here. My only (minor) quibble is the noise...from my desk, I can hear the woman in our neighbouring office (very clearly, in fact), as well as neighbours above and below. Jeff's going to help me find some way of soundproofing my corner to help block some of the sound coming through. We've already met some of our other neighbours, and everyone seems super-nice. I'm next door to the National Book Network, and down the hall from SamsCD.com and Borealis Recording Company.

Jeff and I are going to be doing moving stuff tomorrow. Scott Murray (the sweetie) is going to be helping us again.

nahanni reunion

Allison's OVFF Report is available for perusal.

New Office Update

Spent most of Saturday working on our new office. As long as all the right pieces are there, IKEA furniture is fun to put together. Jeff taught me how to use his power drill. It's amazing how much POWER you can feel, wielding a power drill. Woohoo, bring on those Billy bookcases! Hey, stop looking at me that way.

Anyway, Scott M., Doug, Brian, Helen, and Amanda showed up in the afternoon. Doug put together his desk and actually started working (seated in his new Executive Leather Office Chair (tm)) while the rest of us did our best to distract him. I'm just waiting for Internet access to be installed so I can move in.

In the evening, we all had dinner at Penelope (and were joined by Cory Doctorow, Amanda's partner), a Greek restaurant on King St., then went to see Princess Mononoke.

Ruth on Tour

For those of you in western Canada, my sister Ruth is on a booksigning and school presentation tour:

Sun.Nov.7: will be signing at various bookstores, including Socrates Corner at 2 pm.

Mon.Nov.8: presentations at Elizabeth Rummel School, signing at Canmore Public Library

Tue.Nov.9: presentation at the Millican Ogden Library, evening pogram at the Memorial Park Public Library

Wed.Nov.10: Brentwood Elementary School

Nahanni reunion

Went to a get-together at my mom-in-law's yesterday afternoon, a photo exchange and trip rehashing of my friends from the Nahanni trip. Everyone was able to make it except for Dave (who is in Baja leading a sea kayaking trip) and Karen (who lives in Yellowknife; we called her to say hi). Lots of photos...I have some wonderful new ones which I want to scan and add to the website.

harry potter

Head-thumpingly busy this week, trying to get the office ready so we can move in this weekend. Doug has already moved in; he and Jeff had their first client meeting in the office a couple of nights ago. We have a fridge! A friend of ours in the building let us have their office fridge for free. Jeff put a blue light inside, very X-Fileish (and makes day-old pizza look pretty interesting). I've stocked it with fruit juice and chocolate.

Here's another article about the Harry Potter protest. This article is titled, "Harry Potter: The Language of Children? Or the Voice of Satan?" It just floors me that all this fuss is being made over these books being "dangerous". I love the Harry Potter books. I admit I started reading them with a high level of skepticism (because of all the hype), but couldn't put them down once I started.

I've heard of other instances where parents preferred that their children read only "realistic" stories, and feel incredibly sorry for these poor kids. No Narnia books? Alice in Wonderland? E. Nesbit? Susan Cooper? Parents claim that they're afraid of their children not being able to distinguish reality from fantasy. Rubbish, I say. Sure, as a child I remember wishing, deep-down, that there was such a thing as magic. I'd find a battered tin box in the attic and imagine how wonderful it would be if it could grant wishes, even half-wishes (remember the Edward Eager Half-Magic series?). But I also knew that jumping off the roof of my house would be a bad thing, no matter HOW hard I wished I could fly with that "magical" tin box in my coat pocket.

I feel very strongly about this topic and could rant and rave quite a while about it, but I will spare you. :-) Instead feel free to post opinions in an Inkspot discussion forum I've created on the topic. What do you think about the Harry Potter books? What do you think accounts for their success? And what do you think about the recent flurry of protests from some parents who denounce these books as being "dangerous"? Post your comments here