hockey monkey

During my report of our cottage weekend, I forgot to mention that I've corrupted Annie and Sara with the Hockey Monkey song. By the time we went home, Annie was coming up to me and asking for the "Monkey song"...Ruth reports she continued this request throughout the week as well. HAHAHAHA!

Went out for dinner with my dad last night; I took him to Fune. He talked in Japanese with the sushi chef and waitresses, hopefully not about me. :-) We came back to the apartment afterward, and watched The Matrix on DVD; he loved it. That sort of surprised me; I didn't really think it was his kind of movie.

Finished Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow on the weekend (borrowed it from my dad). For those of you who liked Ender's Game, you have to read this book! I was sort of skeptical when I heard its plot was basically a parallel of Ender's Shadow, only from Bean's point of view. Speaking of the Ender books, does anyone know of related filk songs other than Minstrel's excellent "Boy In A Room"? (Update: forgot about Julia Ecklar's "Tin Soldier", which is on Phoenix's CD, Into The Fire...thanks for pointing that out, Rick!)

Today's Blatherphoto:

Jeff in ice (To Andrea: no, I didn't jump in, too. You think I'm CRAZY??? :-))

my aunt

I talked with my aunt on the phone recently; she was diagnosed with breast cancer about fifteen years ago. Through chemo and various treatments, the cancer has basically been in remission for a long while.

It's out of remission now, and my aunt is not doing well. :-( There is another experimental treatment available, but is known to have terrible side effects. Having been through four other alternative treatments with terrible side effects already, my aunt isn't sure if she is up to going through another. She can no longer eat solid food; part of her esophagus is paralyzed, as well as her upper lip. One of her arms is in constant pain. She has stomach problems.

I find myself wondering what I would do, in similar circumstances, how I would cope. If I could cope.

When my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer ten years ago, we had barely two months with her before she was gone. She suffered terribly, and after she died I found myself torn by the desire that she had lived longer in conflict with relief that she was no longer in pain. And I felt guilty about being relieved.

It makes me feel incredibly helpless, seeing people like my aunt suffer, knowing that there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. Helpless and angry...the anger is unfocussed; there's no one to blame, I know. I'm not really sure where it's coming from, and I try to focus that emotional energy into something positive, but it's difficult.

But right now, all I can do right now is sit and feel helpless and think about the incredible bravery of people like my aunt.

interfilk package

Our FKO Interfilk package this month!

Jodi, Allison and I are putting together a fun package for the Interfilk auction at FKO for those with children or who are kids at heart. :-) (1) A casual tape (i.e. recorded in our living rooms :-)) of as many kids' songs as we can fit on the tape, including (2) lyric sheets, and a (3) gift certificate: I'll write a kids' song on any topic of the buyer's choosing (any topic suitable for kids' ears, that is :)). All I ask that you give me six months...hopefully it will take a lot less time. After I write it, Urban Tapestry will perform it on tape, and I'll send the tape and lyrics/chords to you...and we'll perform it for you next time we see you at a convention. I'm kind of excited about this songwriting assignment, to tell you the truth. We're hoping to record a kids' album someday, and we would put this song on the album if we liked it enough (and if it wasn't too specific a topic). We're also going to throw in some other fun stuff into this package.

Updates/News

Many thanks to Jodi for revamping the Urban Tapestry website (check out the main page). I'll be uploading revamped pages over the next few days; there will likely be glitches for a bit, so thanks in advance for your patience. I'll also eventually be moving the site to urbantapestry.org (thanks to Mike Whitaker for the suggestion when I mourned not being able to get urbantapestry.com).

Mike, by the way, has updated the Phoenix webpage with a new look and a bunch more info.

Paul Kwinn has posted a Consonance report on the Puzzlebox website (click on "Puzzlebits" in the navigation bar.

Today's officemusic: Chris Conways' EARTH RISING. Very cool CD! (hey, and Jodi's on two of the tracks, including one they co-wrote: "Wherever") To find out more about this super-talented musician, see his webpage.

Today's blatherpic: My niece Annie, who just turned three. Kinda neat to think that I saw her being born (literally). Now she calls me "Uncle Debbie" and likes to leap on me unannounced (as she did a few seconds after this digital photo was taken).

pudding guy & consonance goh

Woohoo, cool news! Urban Tapestry has been invited to be Guests of Honor at Consonance in California next March! Many thanks to Lynn Gold and the rest of the concom for the honor; we're super-excited. :-) The convention has been tentatively scheduled for the first weekend in March, still to be confirmed.

Today's blatherphoto: My brother-in-law Kaarel in the lake this past weekend during out visit at the cottage, a split second after he jumped in. Heehee, love the expression on his face. :-)

Amanda had an Osmonds CD collection at the office yesterday, so we bopped to Donny tunes all today. Jeff restrained himself and did not strangle me, not even when I put "Go Away, Little Girl" on auto-repeat. I was horrified to find that I still knew all the words...

Link(s) Du Jour Pudding Guy An unbelieveable story. You must read this. It's about a guy who found out that Healthy Choice was giving out doubled air miles in return for UPC labels. Then he found out that if he bought Healthy Choice pudding cups on sale (and in bulk), they only cost .25 each...and ended up with 12,150 cups of chocolate pudding bought for $3,140 (all doubled) for a total of 1,215,000 miles!!! He donated the pudding to several food banks in exchange for asking their help to tear the labels off (he was also able to write off the entire pudding purchase as a charitable donation). After taxes are considered, the 1,215,000 miles cost him about $2,325. Being over a million miles got him a lifetime Gold membership with American Airlines, entitling him to all kinds of upgrades and other goodies. He says his first use of "pudding" miles will be to take his family of four on a trip to Italy and Spain this Easter. His final quote: "Isn't it strange to think that the million-miler sitting next to you in First Class got there solely by buying chocolate pudding?"

cottage visit with nieces

So I tried registering the domain urbantapestry.com but found it was already taken! Sigh...I should have done this much earlier, and now it's too late. Then again, I should have registered a lot of OTHER domains much earlier. What was I thinking, back in '95 when I only registered "inkspot.com"?? Oh, for a time travel machine...

In any case, I did register "blatherings.com". :-) I was surprised it was still available, to tell you the truth. Every other English word seems to have been taken. I also have "filking.com", which I hope to eventually use as a general filk information resource and community.

Cottage visit

Jeff and I went to the cottage this past weekend with our nieces (and their parents). The cottage is only accessible by lake, so we pulled sleds of supplies across the ice. Annie and Sara sat in one sled, each looking very circular in their layers of sweaters, scarves, coats, and mitts. Annie dozed off partway across and accidentally knocked Sara out of the sled. Activities included skating, building snowforts and snowmen, exploring in the woods, snowball fights, drinking of hot chocolate. Jeff chopped a hole in the ice for drinking water (we boiled it first). Jeff and Kaarel both did a sauna and very brief dip in the icy water...I was too chicken. :-)

Coolest moment of the weekend: on our last evening, a red fox peered into the front of the cabin window! Sara had sprinkled seed around for the birds, and the fox obviously liked the snack as well. GORGEOUS animal; I've never seen a wild fox that close before.

Harp yearnings

My visit to the UK has got me thinking seriously about buying a harp, I have to confess. Between Mike Richards and Annie and Talis and the other talented harpists over there, I was a goner...I've wanted to play the harp all my life but have been suppressing the urge. Even signed up for a summer lap harp course during my high school days, but the course ended up being cancelled because of lack of interest. :-(

Today's blatherphoto

Today's blatherphoto is of Annie Walker, playing rock harp in the Phoenix set at Didgeri-Douze. Note the flute at her feet (by the way, I -have- to get one of those flute stands!!! Where can I get one, Annie?); this woman is way too talented for her own good.