barbie ritual

Reid has some pictures of the new office on the web. None of the pics have my office corner, though; I'll try to get one online soon. Pic#1 is of Doug and me at Doug's desk (Jeff, Doug and I were having dinner in the office). I look pretty spaced out...thanks, Reid! :) Pic#2 is a view of the office as you come in and look slightly left. You can see Jeff's office corner in this photo, as well as my new African drum on top of the bookshelf. The shelves have more books now, by the way. :) Pic#3 is of the ladder storage area...Jeff and Scott M. are very proud of this. :-) We needed somewhere to store our ladder, and J & S rigged up a cool pulley system in the ceiling.

Went to my sister's for dinner on Sunday. After dinner was the Barbie ritual (well, it's been a ritual for two weekends so far). Annie asked for the Barbie song so they put on the tape I had made Sara and we (Kaarel, Ruth, Jeff, me, Sara, Annie) all danced around in the living room at Annie's and Sara's insistence. Sara would call out instructions as if it was some kind of square dance. "Arch!" meant that Jeff and I would join hands and Ruth and Kaarel would join hands, holding them high up so Sara and Annie could run underneath. Then we had to switch partners. Afterwards, Sara and Annie jump up and down, yelling in delight, "AGAIN! AGAIN!"

I'm glad I didn't record the song more that twice in a row.

I've decided I want to buy something on eBay. Something small, it doesn't really matter what...but I want the eBay experience! I remember scoffing at the idea when I first heard about it, but friends who have used the service have been really pleased with the results.

POLL: What should the next decade be called?

kidbabble

Annie (who is almost 2) called me today. Or rather, she told Ruth she wanted to talk to me on the phone. Once on the phone, she uttered a long stream of syllables that had all the intonation of a conversation but seemed totally intelligible to me except for the random word. She paused every now and then for my response, which was usually, "Really? Wow, that's great, Annie!" or something similar. Ruth understood everything, however, and was surprised I didn't. I feel like such a crummy aunt!

I found Ben & Jerry's CHUNKY MONKEY (one of my favourites) in a store today, woohoo!! Oh joyous day...

evergreen

Andy Barrie (CBC Radio, Metro Morning show) called me this morning to ask if I wanted to be on his radio show, to talk about Inkspot. Ack! I'm immensely flattered and terrified at the same time (but of course I said yes). I'll post info about scheduling when I know more.

Things are coming together nicely in the office. I'm actually getting some solid time to work on my book, and so far I've actually been more productive than I have been at home. My mom-in-law came by yesterday and brought by a miniature evergreen tree for the office. It's perfectly pruned, with a moss base and a chic pot. I'm going to do my best to keep it alive for as long as possible; wish me luck. Jeff's brother once gave us a gorgeous full-grown and elaborately-shaped bonsai tree which must have been worth several hundred dollars. We followed the caring instructions to the letter, but it still died after a couple of months. Maybe sooner than that, but we just didn't notice...the leaves and branches are so dry already that it was hard to tell. Ginny's miniature evergreen reminds me of the bonsai that way.

I'm starting to collect Happy Meal toys along the top of my bookshelf (I -have- to start making sandwiches for lunch!). So far I have: Mr. & Mrs. Potato head, a Pokemon little guy with glowing red eyes (I think this was from Burger King), dinosaur guy from Toy Story (holds Rocket candies; if you twist his head, a candy comes sliding out of his head and down his tail, very cool).

I'd better get back to work now.

officecam

If you're logging on this evening or Saturday, try checking out the following URL:

http://216.94.194.7/OfficeCam

This is our new Officecam, which takes a picture every five minutes. We'll be moving the camera around during the officewarming.

Frebis and Duane (friends we met on the Nahanni River canoe trip) came by to visit this morning! They brought homemade beer. Other friends will be dropping by later tonight and tomorrow. I'll be having a Virtual Officewarming next week, if the rest of you are interested in visiting. :-)

officewarming

Officewarming was fun. :-) About fifty friends and relatives dropped by at various times throughout Friday evening and Saturday. I really enjoyed seeing people who mean a great deal to us meet other important people in our lives; many thanks to those of you who dropped by (I know it was a bit of a drive/commute for some of you). Visitors included: Reid & Luisa & kids Ronnie & Michael, Mr. & Mrs. Gardner (Doug's parents), Catherine (his sister) and Neil and Nicholas, Andy & Christine & Elspeth & Bronwyn (Bronwyn works in the building), Cathy Russell (whose company, Jump Communications, is doing my Inkspot logo), Jeff Latto and Alison George, Ruth & Kaarel & Sara & Annie, Bryan Fullerton, Mike Diamond, Helen and Parki, Ted Graham, Genevieve Brown and Kurt, Jeff's parents Ginny & John, Case (Jeff's brother), Cathy Rutland and her brother Glen, Mark Thompson, Scott Murray, Camille, Fred Illies.

People checked out the office, admired Brian's lights (which he made from scratch using hard disk platters and other interesting pieces; I'll have to take a close-up and post it here sometime soon), ate lots, played computer games (no Quaking until after all children had gone home).

We had our officecam going during Friday and Saturday. My friend Luisa was taking a Java class on Saturday and when I found out she was occasionally checking the officecam page, I put up a sign saying, "HI LUISA" so that it showed in the picture. Apparently her instructor was wondering why she suddenly burst out laughing in class. :-) We're going to be experimenting with the cam over the next little while.

After the party, Brian, Helen, Jeff and I went to see a late showing of "Felicia's Journey" at the Cumberland. Interesting movie (Bob Hoskins was great), though a little dark for my tastes. I'm working at the office today (see me on the officecam).

It's raining outside today, bleagh.