pegasus nominations

Ruth reports that she was driving Sara and Annie somewhere in the car when 5-year-old Sara suddenly asked the following question: "Mommy, do Good People always win against Bad People? I know they do in books and movies, but do they in real life?"

Dear lord...how do you parents handle these kinds of questions???

Larry Fisher reports that the strings are on my harp now; he's playing it every day to wear them in. Kim Robertson was by his shop for a visit recently, and played on my harp for a bit (I just bought a Kim Robertson harp songbook on eBay!). Larry's report: "She remarked later that it sounded good for being so new, and that's a good sign, as it only gets better from here." :-) He's putting the sharpening levers on my harp this morning. The harp should be ready for delivery in a couple of weeks. (!!!!!)

I've been informed that my song, My Jalapeno Man, has been nominated for a Pegasus Award. I'm very honoured...thanks to those who nominated it. I'm updating the OVFF web page this weekend to reflect the Pegasus nominations (I'm waiting for approval from Diana and Lori before linking up the official ballots). FYI, here is the ballot:

Best Filk Song:
A Simple Country Doctor, by Matt Leger
Fire in the Sky, by Jordin Kare
Sam's Song, by Zander & Soren Nyrond
Uplift, by Andy Eigel
Velvet, by Talis Kimberley

Best Performer:
Echo's Children
Ookla the Mok
Puzzlebox
W Scott "Cosmo" Snyder
Talis Kimberley

Best Writer/Composer:
Bob Kanefsky
Dave Weingart
Paul Kwinn
Talis Kimberley
Zander Nyrond

Best End of the World Song:
Cosmic Drain, by Sally Childs-Helton
Falling Down on New Jersey,
by Mitchell Burnside Clapp
One Last Dance, by Bill Roper
Out of the Clear Blue Sky,
by Dr Jane Robinson
Serious Steel, by Leslie Fish

Best Food/Drink Song;
307 Ale, by Tom Smith
Beware of the Sentient Chili, by Chris Weber
Dairy Queen, by Barbara Higgins
Little Fuzzy Vegetables, by Mark Mandel
My Jalapeno Man, by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Sorry for the lack of Blatherings...things have become rather
interesting in my life lately. I hope to be able to update you
fully very soon.

childhood hobbies

So I made my first Bad Purchase on eBay.

Bolstered by my success with buying a copy of The Borrowers as well as a harp music book on eBay for extremely reasonable prices, I bought a Mulan DVD. It arrived in perfect condition, sealed, and the title on the DVD was Mulan...but it was a Mulan ripoff version, animated, but not the Disney version. Sigh...my fault for not reading the description closely enough, and for not asking the seller detailed questions about the product.

Recently finished Michael Crichton's Airframe, which was a quick and entertaining read (I made a point of reading most of it while in the airport and on the plane). I have an autographed, handwritten letter from Michael Crichton from years back when I was writing to my favourite authors. Also have one from Stephen King (typed letter with liquid papered mistakes, written before he became really well-known), Zenna Henderson (long, handwritten letter), autographs from Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley, others.

My other two childhood hobbies were (1) collecting stamps (don't we all?), and (2) editing a family newsletter called Family Weekly, which I forced my sister and brother to contribute to, and that I taped up on the wall of the upstairs bathroom (because I knew everyone would see it there). I guess I've always had the editor's bug in my blood since I can't remember a time when I haven't been the editor of some newsletter, even when the circulation was only one. :-) Family Weekly was a pretty elaborate affair, considering the venue. I'd include exciting local news ("We had pizza for dinner!" "Ruth's teddy bears were hanged!" etc.) as well as cartoons (I drew a comic strip about a baby called Boppy. I have no idea what I called it Boppy.) and contests with prizes. My dad still has a bunch of issues in his basement; I'l have to dig them up and scan a sample for the Web.

Oh wait, I remember another childhood hobby...collecting spoons. My family used to go on long car trips every summer, across Canada and the United States. During that time, I used to collect tacky little souvenir spoons geared towards the tourists. My Yellowstone Park spoon had a bear on it, for example (or was it a geyser? I can't remember). I was very proud of that collection. Mom used the spoons when visitors came for stirring milk and sugar into their tea, and that made me even prouder (since it was obviously an *important* hobby). :-)

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ice cream

Hope you Americans had a good long weekend!

Metro Square is starting to host interesting events...it seems like every time I look out my home office window, there is a marching band warming up or a choir or an orchestra. I can usually hear a muffled rendition of the music; if it sounds halfway decent, I open my window. If it sounds REALLY good, then I'll go down for a few minutes and listen.

Allison is commenting on ice cream in Blatherchat, saying she recently saw Ben and Jerry's "Bovinity Divinity" ice cream in the grocery store. Sounds yummy, I must go search for that. My favourite ice cream flavour at present is Haagen Dazs Caramel. As I discussed in Blatherchat ages ago, my favourite brand of ice cream is Greg's ice cream, a homemade ice cream shop on St. George Street, on the University of Toronto campus...I loved his Oreo Cookie ice cream (Lissa, you must look for this next time you're in Toronto) and his Pear & Ginger ice cream. The flavours change every day. On hot summer evenings, there's always a long lineup winding its way out onto the sidewalk, but it's definitely worth the wait.

A couple of weekends ago, Sara and Annie made homemade ice cream (with help from Jeff). They were too impatient to wait until it froze completely, so the result was more like ice cream soup than ice cream...but it was delicious!

So an ice cream poll...when you take a small tub of ice cream out of the freezer, are you the type that is patient enough to let it soften a few minutes, or do you hammer away at it with a spoon because you can't wait? You can guess which camp I fall into. I have also tried microwaving it for a few seconds; this actually does work sometimes, though it tends to turn the ice cream around the sides of container soft while leaving the middle hard, and you tend to get more freezer burn after (or at least that's what I've found).

re: Kodo Drums. Lissa, you should check whether the Kodo Drummers are in town when you visit! They do a great show. I went to see a Kodo drummer workshop at the Winnipeg Folk Festival a while back.

And finally, Mr. Jelly Belly has sent me a sample of his new Jelly Belly flavour line...Jelly Belly SOURS: blueberry, peach, raspberry, strawberry, and watermelon. Lissa and Phil signed me up for The Taste Bud Club ages ago, and I've been getting the Mr. Jelly Belly newsletter ever since. :-) (Thanks, Phil & Lissa!)

sara & annie perform west side story

Mission Impossible 2 was a fun flick; I liked it better than the first one, which I thought was so-so. I'm not generally a Tom Cruise fan, but the Bad Guy in this movie was pretty good. Lots of explosions and male posturing and Bond-type acrobatics...highly entertaining. I think Scott thought some of it was overdone but isn't that the POINT of this sort of movie? I almost didn't recognize Scott when he met me on the street, by the way...he's cut his hair short and wasn't wearing black!

Worked at home on my book edits all weekend; total length is about 88,000 words. I think my eyes are going to fall out. Sending it off to my editor on Monday.

I had dinner at my sister's tonight; my Dad was there, too...he's home from Japan and is still suffering from jetlag. After dinner, Sara and Annie performed some songs from West Side Story for me. Both of them love the story and songs from the movie, though Ruth's careful not to show them the scary/gorey bits. They know the words to most of the songs (Sara knows how to roll her R's when singing the "America" song), and attempt the choreography as well. Sara put on her Cinderella gown and Annie wore her Snow White outfit for the performance. I clapped very hard.

Jeff's coming home tonight, yay! He's been on a canoe trip in Algonquin Park with Helen, Amanda, and Kate. He called from Huntsville a couple of hours ago and should be home any minute.

Woohoo, Larry said he put the strings on my harp today!

ode to jodi's gerbil

Working on my book edits this weekend. Yes, another working weekend. I am rewarding myself by going to see Mission Impossible 2 with Scott Murray tonight (he called from his New Car late last night). We might do Fune, depending on how my book is going by dinnertime. If I still need to work, Scott says he'll get take-out and bring it over! What a sweetie!! I can't believe he's still single. Or maybe this is all just a ruse to cover up his true intentions towards Jeff (see his April 29th entry in his Scribbles).

Hung out with Allison and Jodi last night in Richmond Hill. Did the usual dinner at the Pickle Barrel at Centerpoint Mall, wandered around the mall afterwards. We all bought peasant skirts. :-) I got to ride in Jodi's new car for the first time! Very cool, though I kinda missed the continual roar and rattle of her old Firefly. Jodi says she doesn't miss it at all. I even wrote a poem about the Gerbil (her nickname for it):

ODE TO JODI'S GERBIL
by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

O Gerbil dear, you've served us fine
We drink a toast of good plum wine
to your rusted innards, we
love your soft upholstery,
We yell to be heard above your roar
and fiddle with your cranky door
But yet we feel a special bond
and we'll miss you when you're gone.

THE END

Jodi printed the poem out and keeps it in her new car.

I've resolved to start filling in some of the huge gaps in my General Knowledge of the World. I never seemed to absorb certain facts that other people did during their developmental years, like basic history and geography (the Yellow and Blue pie pieces always eluded me in Trivial Pursuit). So I went out and bought The Complete Idiot's Guide To American History. I'm sure my friend Scott Dixon (history prof in the UK) would be horrified; I'll have to make sure I hide the book when he comes visit this summer. Jeff was horrified, too (he says I could have at least bought the Idiot's Guide to world history).

Ironically, I always got A+ in history back in school...that was more because of my ability to memorize than from a true love of the subject. I didn't retain anything useful from those courses, sadly, except for the vague memory that we seemed to spend far more time studying the War of 1812 than the duration of the War itself. Then again, I always had the impression that Canada didn't have nearly as exciting a history as the U.S., so perhaps there wasn't anything else for our teacher to talk about.

Anyway, I've been shocked to find out that history is actually much more interesting than I previously thought. I'm up to the 1600s now.

I'd also be interested in hearing from any of you who can recommend interesting, non-academic books related to history that might help someone like me, particularly a general world history overview. Also BASIC GEOGRAPHY (my next big self-education project).

p.s. Larry Fisher has been send pics of his progress on my harp, so I'll be posting those as well as photos from my Dad's Japan trip.