scott potluck

Fun potluck at Scott's last night. Sadly, Parki wasn't able to make it, but Reid and Luisa were there as well as Scott's sister, Heather.

My Moroccan Chicken turned out pretty well even though the sauce on the pan burnt in the oven and set off Scott's fire alarm (!).





After dinner, we watched some homemade claymation-type of movies that Scott had done when he was a little kid. Wow, I was impressed! I liked the first one the best, where a big clay ball with eyes was being bugged by four little guys. It finally ate the little guys but got indigestion, spewed them out, and in revenge they ate him. The whole thing was animated to the tune of the "Sugarplum Fairy". :-)

The second film was about a (toy) plane that crashed and caught fire (plasticine flames). The pilot was rushed to a clay hospital. A bus crashed and caught fire. At this point, Scott said he started experimenting with setting fire to lighter fluid for flames instead of using clay. He obviously was really entranced by this because the last half of the film was mostly of various objects in his basement being set on fire (the toy bus, the pilot, etc.).

I have to wonder if his parents ever saw this footage. :-)





I was also super-impressed by how far Scott has gotten in his guitar playing! He's only had the thing for two weeks, after all. He already knows nearly 20 chords (including a barre chord!) and how to fingerpick. Suburban Curtains may be ready to go on tour sooner than later.

Having brunch with Parki, Alison & Jeff today, then finishing off my current bit for the Michelle short story collab.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Part of Scott's extensive Mickey Mouse collection.
	Pot luck group: Scott, Reid, Jeff, Luisa, and Heather.
	Scott's sister, Heather.
	Scott & Reid ham it up with one of Scott's swords.

sara and annie

Today's entry was written as this month's assignment for On Display: "Describe someone you love." I've chosen to write about my nieces Sara (7 years old) and Annie (5 years old).

Sara was the first of our nieces, the first baby I've gotten to know, the first diaper I've changed. I remember being terrified the first time I held her; she seemed so fragile, like a porcelain doll that would break if I accidentally dropped her.

Sometimes I'll look at Annie and marvel that I saw her being born. I was my sister's labour room partner, the closest experience I'll likely ever have to being a mother myself. I saw Annie before my sister did. :-) I remember Annie's look of irritation as her head appeared, as if to say, Dammit, I was comfortable...what are you doing? Put me back!

Sara and Annie are half Japanese (from Ruth) and half Estonian (from Kaarel, who is blonde). Sara's hair is a dark brown, Annie's is lighter.





Sara appears outgoing but is somewhat shy and cautious. She is the more emotionally complex of the two. Her desires and fears simmer together with a fear of appearing too vulnerable, and she's learning how to hide her feelings.

Annie, on the other hand, wears her heart on her sleeve. When she's angry, she radiates fury, storm clouds thundering, her voice (surprising bass for such a little girl) carries pretty far. When she's happy, her smile is infectious, pulling you in. She's also the more physically affectionate of the two, more openly cuddly. Annie adores Sara, seeks to emulate her.

Sara is long-limbed, graceful, eager for adventure. Annie is still somewhat toddler-awkward but doesn't want to be left behind. They both squabble like regular siblings but are also fiercely protective of each other.

It scares me sometimes, how much I love both these girls. How do you take it, you parents out there? It verges on physical pain, this feeling I have for Sara and Annie, and I am overwhelmed by a need to keep them safe, to protect them from anything bad in the world. I can't imagine what it would be like as a parent, sending these little ones out the door every day for school, exposing them to everything and everyone out there.

When I look at Sara and Annie, I'm reminded of how Ruth and I were when we were little. That both scares and comforts me, thinking about the things we've both been through, but also knowing how close we are now.





Links/Updates:

Many thanks to Helen ("AntonLerchner" in Blatherchat :-)) for the card and birthday gifts, which arrived in the mail yesterday! More details and photos later this week.

I'll be offline most of the day, working on the short story collab with Michelle. I reallyreally *love* what she's sent me so far. I'm going to try to send her my next bit by tomorrow morning, perhaps even later today.

Going to a potluck at Scott's tonight. I'm making Moroccan Chicken for the first time, wish me luck. :-)

Today's Blatherpics:

	Annie and Sara at their first lemonade stand.
	For Christmas last year, Annie decided to give herself as a gift to her parents. Sara helped her write the sign she taped onto her chest ("To Mom and Dad - Merry Christmas, Love Annie") and presented Annie on Christmas morning.
	Annie and Sara with Jeff and me at Deerhurst Inn earlier this year.

UT practice

Had lunch with Amanda at the Hospital For Sick Children (she works there), then did some writing for a couple hours in a coffee shop on University Avenue. I've become addicted to coffee shop writing. It's the perfect work environment for me...I'm not online, there's interesting activity going on in the background but not too much, it's cozy but not too cozy. I wear headphones and listen to a harp CD on my laptop to help blur background conversations.

Today I nursed a cappuccino for two hours. The staff didn't mind because the place wasn't super-crowded. In fact, I had an amusing conversation with the two women behind the counter while I was waiting for my cappuccino about all the different kinds of coffee-related drinks and the wide variety of confusing terms. They showed me a "cheat sheet" they sometimes use under the counter. :-)

I made Chicken and Shrimp Creole for Allison and Jodi last night. It turned out pretty well despite the fact that I discovered at the last second that I only had Minute Rice in the pantry instead of regular white rice. And you know what's really weird? I'm actually starting to enjoy cooking. Cooking used to be an inconvenience to me, an annoyance that got in the way of the time I could be spending online. Now I get a real pleasure out of chopping stuff up and cooking it and having it come out edible. I suppose I've learned to appreciate downtime much more.

Just to clarify...I'm not saying I'm a good cook. But at least it's not such a chore anymore. I think it helps that I know I don't have to do it every single night. There have been days when I'm on a real roll in my writing and want to keep working until the very last minute. Then we'll order in, eat out, or Jeff will make something.

Allison, Jodi and I got a ton of practising done last night after dinner. We also recorded some songs on the tape we plan to donate to Interfilk: The Road Home (love song I wrote some years back), Hockey Monkey song, Waiting For Frodo, May It Be, Obsession (my Harry Potter song), Unforgotten (a Lawrence Dean song), and a Secret Song to be debuted at FKO. We plan to include the lyrics/chords to all the songs we put on the tape, too...does anyone know Lawrence Dean's e-mail address, by the way? If so, please do let me know, thanks (Thanks to Rick Hewett for sending me this info! - Debbie).

Jodi and I were pretty amused by Allison during our first attempt at recording Waiting For Frodo. When we got to the part where Allison's supposed to sing "only xx months to go" where xx is the number of months left until the next Lord of the Rings, Allison sang "only nine months to go" then stopped singing and playing guitar abruptly. With a delighted grin, she exclaimed, "Wow, is it really only NINE months?!"

It took us several takes after that (mainly because whenver we got to that line, we'd all break down into giggles) to get the song on tape. :-) To be fair to Allison, I had my own special way of interrupting songs. While recording "The Road Home" for the Interfilk tape, I sneezed right in the middle of a particularly tender lyric. I couldn't help it...I tried SOOOOO hard to hold back the sneeze, but of course when I tried to NOT sneeze, I had to sneeze all that much more.

Allison and Jodi wanted to keep that particular recording attempt for the Interfilk tape (the verse interrupted by my rather desperate-sounding sneeze, followed by a brief silence then an Urban Tapestry giggle meltdown) but I wouldn't let them.

I can be pretty heartless sometimes.

News/Updates

As a follow-up to yesterday's Blathering on filk newbie nervousness: Andrea's current Supporting Note column is focussed on filk newcomers and also offers tips on how to overcome performance nervousness in the filk circle.

Chris Conway reports in Blatherchat that R.A. Lafferty has died. You can also find more info about the Hugo-winning author here.

Tomorrow's the deadline for the Blatherchat Oscar Poll! There are Genuine Prizes for the top three votes (the most accurate predictions) and since only three people have voted so far, this means that Chris Conway will win a prize even though none of his predictions will come true (he didn't vote for anyone on the official ballot, though his vote list was fascinating, nonetheless :-)). This means, of course, that if you cast a vote now and no one else does, even if you're just voting for one category, like Best Picture, then you'll automatically win an ultra-cool Inkspot pen and a custom-made silly poem! Vote here (list of nominees here) and help me overcome my current secret insecurity that my offering to write poems for people has actually scared them off rather than encouraging them!

Today's Blatherpic:

Storefront in Chinatown on the weekend.

filk intro

Movable Type 2.0 is released, yay!
(You can now e-mail Blatherings,
see left-hand sidebar)

Met with my friend Michelle yesterday afternoon. We're collaborating on a short story that will appear in a DAW fantasy anthology. I'm a tad nervous (I've never collaborated on fiction before) but excited about the project, which is due April 1st.

I have to say that so far, the collaboration process is a lot more fun than I expected. It's exciting to develop story ideas with another person; you feed off each other's enthusiasm and creative energy.

Michelle might be attending FilKONtario in a few weeks (she's friends with both Tanya Huff and Joey Shoji). I forgot to ask if this means her husband Tom is coming, too...Tom was the person who first introduced me to filk, many years ago. It was an Ad Astra, and Tom told me about a bunch of people that got together in the evenings to sing and play music together. Sounded kind of cool, so I agreed to check it out with him.

I confess my first impression of filk was not the greatest. There was one (1) person in the filk room. He and Tom shared his copy of "Minus Ten And Counting" and hesitantly made their way through a song or two, trailing off in parts where they were unsure of the melody (Tom has a nice voice but is way too shy about it!). "So this is filk," I thought. No sign of guitars or other instruments.

At Ad Astra next year, I peeked into the filk room again, just out of curiosity. This time there was a rollicking session going on, with lots of people and fun music. Intrigued, I shyly made my way into room and sat at the back, had a great time.

The next time I attended a filk circle, I brought my flute. I sat at the back and didn't open my flute case the entire evening; I was way too shy. I repeated this process a few more times, then finally worked up the nerve to actually take out my flute (*gasp) and noodle on it as quietly as I could. I remember that I was so nervous that first time that my hands were shaking. Someone complimented me on how nice it sounded, so I was encouraged enough to keep playing.

I'd probably still be shyly noodling in the background if it wasn't for Clif Flynt. Tom and I roomed with Clif at a convention called Conclave some years back. We had never met Clif before. When Clif found out I played the flute, he and Mary Ellen started dragging me onto the stage sometimes when they performed. I was terrified! I wanted to stay out of the limelight, in the shadows where no one could see me or hear me!

But then I realized that hey, this is kind of fun. One of the first concerts I ever played in was with Clif, Mary Ellen, Julia Ecklar, and Joey Shoji. I think Allison still has the video of that concert somewhere; we watched a bit of it a few years ago, and I was shocked to be reminded of how long my hair used to be back then (down past my waist).

Anyway, I blame Tom for getting me into the whole filk scene, which is why I'm hoping he comes to FilKONtario, too.

Having lunch with Amanda today. Jodi and Allison are coming over for dinner (I'm making Shrimp and Chicken Creole from Anne Linday's Lighthearted Cookbook) and for a practice.


Two more days left in the Oscar poll!. Prizes: cool collector Inkspot pens and instapoems created just for you! Cast your vote here.


Today's Blatherpic:

A picture of Michelle from our university days, taken by our friend Andrew.

snoopy dance!

Hey, very cool...my copies of Applied Arts magazine and Harp Column magazine came in the mail yesterday! The March/April issue of Applied Arts contains my profile of Vancouver illustrator, Luc Latulippe (p40-47). Luc's artwork is featured on the cover. The March/April issue of Harp Column contains my article, "Online Resources For Harpists" (p26-31) and includes a short profile and photo of Gwen Knighton from The Weird Sisters. I interviewed Gwen on the #filkhaven IRC channel. :-)





I know I've sold other articles, but the main reason I'm so excited about these is because they're my first visible publications since Inkspot was shut down, the first sales I made after I came back from my sabbatical.





By the way, I was tickled to receive the following e-mail yesterday:

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Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 12:43:56 -0600
From: James Garrison
To: ohi@electricpenguin.com
Subject: Hello...

I visited your site "blatherings"... as a result of a search for "AlphaMassage". You are a very entertaining writer. I had a hard time leaving. :) I found your description of the AlphaMassage in the August 1998 blatherings a great description of a hard-to-describe experience.

I designed the AlphaMassage in the 90's for Sybaritic Inc. in Minneapolis. Since then it has undergone many design revisions, and has even had the distinction of being "knocked off" by a chinese company. They took molds right off of our parts and are selling them cheaper and beating us in the asian market.

We have since designed a steam unit and others, which you may see at http://www.sybaritic.com if you are inclined.

Well anyway, thanks... may I use the description you wrote as a testimonial in my own product design marketing materials?

Many thanks.

Sincerely,

James Garrison
James M. Garrison Studio

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I said yes, of course! :-)





Today's Blatherpics:

	Magazine covers of Harp Column and Applied Arts, two publications in which my articles appear this month.
	Top of the Portfolio (profile) piece I did for Applied Arts.
	First two-page spread of my Harp Column piece.
	Hey, I even get my photo and bio in the Harp Column table of contents of the current issue. :-)