lunch with annie

I picked Annie up at school a couple days ago so Ruth could be a Pizza Mom at Sara's school. Waiting outside Annie's classroom door with the other moms/caretakers, I was greeted twice by mothers or teachers who thought I was Ruth. A little boy came up to me with a grin and said, "Hi! My name is Jonathan!" Without waiting for me to answer, he continued, "Do you want me to spell Jonathan?" I said yes, of course. "J-o-n-a-t-h-a-n," he said proudly. "The th sound is made with the letters 't' and 'h'." Then Annie came out, bundled up in her winter gear, proudly holding the craft she had made that day. She looked so small, so trusting. I was glad to see the teachers carefully checking out each adult before handing over their child. "You look a lot like your sister," Annie's teacher told me. Sort of sad to think how much things have changed when I was in kindergarten. I remembered walking home by myself, and it not being a big deal. Has the world just generally gotten nastier, or have we all just become more aware of the dangers? We start walking home, and Annie tells me about her day. She starts off shyly, but then gets excited, gesticulating with her arms. "Auntie Debbie, will you please walk slower?" Annie asks, and I guiltily suddenly realize that I've been walking at my usual pace, with Annie having to run a bit to keep up. Augh, what a horrible aunt I am. At home, I heat up some Dino-thingies (can't remember the name, but they're dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets) and tomato soup. While we're waiting for lunch, Annie and I play a game of Labyrinth. "Guess what I have in my hand?" Annie asks at one point during the game. "I give up." She pulls her hand from behind her back and slowly opens it up. There is a small 'gold' ring in the middle of her palm, and I recognize it as the one that dangled from the Lord of the Rings bookmark I gave her a long while back. "This is the One Ring," she intones, "Forged by the Dark Lord Sauron." She makes her voice scary-sounding at the end, and then grins at me. "I sounded like Sauron, didn't I?" It's so cool being an aunt. Blatherpic: Annie and Sara and Jeff. Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

staticgirl

Congratulations to Bryan and Elizabeth, who are engaged to be married!

Elizabeth says that at least part of this is my fault, because of TheBryanProject.com. As some of you may recall, Christine Pilkington and I started this site to help Bryan find a romantic partner. It had alluring photos of Bryan, a bio and quotes, and testimonials from his family and friends. And it worked, woohoo!

Hey, this could be a whole 'nuther career venture for Christine and me...hm....

(Debbie ducks as her friends throw things at the idea of her starting up another project)

But onto the main subject of today's Blathering:

Static.

I really, really hate it right now. It seems like it doesn't matter what I wear: I'm a walking, talking static machine. I'll go to the kitchen to make myself a cup of cinnamon tea and touch the door handle to my office..ZAP.

I zap myself every time I touch a light switch, when I get out of the car, whenever I touch my husband. I think Jeff and I kissed each other once in the past three weeks, and that was a shocking experience.

My clothes crackle whenever I put them on or off, my hair floats around my head, plastering itself across my eyes and mouth, Van de Graf generator-like.

I'm considering spraying my entire body with Static Guard(tm), but surely there must be a less toxic solution out there somewhere. Any suggestions would be very welcome.

Links/News:

TagBoard is an interesting option for those who want to add a chat-like message board to their blogs. Free and upgrade versions.

In the mornings while I'm doing my daily publishing news surfing, updating Market Watch and Blatherings, I'd love to be able to listen to interesting music (stuff I haven't heard before, ideally) and news via the Internet on my headphones. Ideally, I would not have to download any special software to listen.

Does anyone have any suggestions about sites I should visit? Internet radio shows I should listen to?

Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

curry experiment

Despite the -10 deg weather yesterday, I went running outside. It was my first run with my new neck gaiter (thanks to Lissa and Andrea for the advice!) and it worked wonderfully. Didn't wheeze even once. I ran along the waterfront in the late afternoon sunshine and passed a few other cold-weather runners along the way. Very cool to see the frozen stillness of the lake, jig-jag pieces frozen into place, threaded with tiny cracks and icy bubbles. Must bring my camera during one of these runs. Last night, Ruth came over for dinner. Intrigued by Rand's success with using curry paste, I decided to give it a shot. Except I didn't follow his instructions exactly, with...er...unfortunate results. For one thing, I used lowfat coconut milk instead of the regular kind because I couldn't FIND the regular kind. I also forgot to taste the simmering coconut curry before adding the chicken, so didn't realize how hot it was. Ruth found out, though. You can see the results in today's My Life In A Nutshell strip. :-) It's pretty close to what happened. Ruth was so sweet, though, struggling valiantly to pretend she was enjoying the first few mouthfuls. "It's great, Deb, really!" she said enthusiastically, trying not to gasp for breath, her forehead perspiring. "A little on the hot side, maybe..." On the other hand, my Soba Noodle Salad (recipe from the Moosewood cookbook) turned out great. So to all of you who so enthusiastically volunteered to be my cooking experiment guinea pigs...be warned that they don't always turn out exactly as I hope! :-D Lyanne had pointed out that she has an old band picture from 1995 very similar to the one I posted on Jan.18, and was kind enough to send it to me (circled figure is Lyanne): Links/News: Allison and John have found a new apartment! See her Livejournal entry. Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

comfort rituals

Those of you who have been fretting about Jeff's toe will be overjoyed to hear that he is recovering nicely. And many thanks to our friend Ray who cheerfully suggested "Stumpy J." as an alternate nickname to my "Limpy Boy". It's been fascinating to watch the progress of the bruise on Jeff's foot as it travels from one part to another, as if testing out new digs, wondering whether or not to settle down.

Yesterday was somewhat of a crappy day. Not a bowl-me-over Bad Day, but one of those wimpy teetering-on-the-edge of Bad days when no one event is truly horrific, but more the accumulation of little grievances biting unceasingly at one's ankles. It was one of those days when I felt like burrowing down into a warm dark cave and waiting until the spring.

Whenever I feel like this, I eventually resort to one or more of the following comfort rituals:

- Going for a walk. Ideally, in the sun.

- Eating chocolate.

- Taking a bath.

- Visiting an online chat like Filkhaven or on HollyLisle.com.

- Buying something small and useless but fun for myself.

- Taking a nap.

- Reading Emergence by David Palmer or one of The Blue Sword books by Robin McKinley or Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart.

- Playing my harp.

- Drinking hot chocolate or cinnamon tea.

- Putting the Titanic DVD on in the background. Whatever my problems are, at least I can comfort myself with the fact that I'm not stuck on a doomed ship in the middle of the Atlantic with Leonardo DiCaprio.


Links/News:

Samurai was down earler this morning, in case any of you were trying to access any of my sites or the message boards.

Craig and I are lining up for Erasure tickets this Saturday! (still waiting for confirmation that the tickets are going on sale this Saturday).

Sold another article/query.

Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

aurora visit

(Some people say they're having trouble viewing my main Blatherings page. If you're one of these people, could you please let me know by e-mail or Blatherchat? Thanks.)

Jeff and I enjoyed our visit with Bryan & Elizabeth. Had lunch at Chinook, an excellent restaurant in Aurora. The toughest part was choosing what to order. Today's poll: When eating at a familiar restaurant, do you tend to order a favourite item over and over again, or want to try new things each time? If I find something I absolutely love, I tend to order the same thing. My attitude: why mess with perfection?

After lunch, we visited their house, which we both loved. I was drooling over all their storage space! While Jeff and Bryan did computerstuff, Elizabeth showed me how to play Lord of the Rings, the game. I totally suck at using the game controls. When Elizabeth played, she was clearly hitting the buttons controlling various weapons and moves with a strategy in mind. I gave that up after the first few seconds and thumbed the controls randomly, hoping that I'd hit something by accident. The background music appeared to be taken straight from the movie, and greatly enhanced the orc-bashing experience.





Links/News:

I've started working on the bookmarks to send to those who posted New Year's Resolutions in Blatherchat before the end of the year. Looks like I'll be mailing them to people in Ontario, Quebec, U.S., Malaysia, Germany, New York, Leicester (UK), Florida, Virginia, Georgia, Bedfont (UK), Ohio, California, New Zealand, Gravesend (UK), Maryland, and Colorado.

Speaking of different countries, I'm highly tickled by the number of people who have been cheering for Shane around the world! Most recent countries: Singapore, Brazil and Japan. The woman in Japan said that she was the first in line (Two Towers didn't open until January 3rd in Okinawa) and proudly wore her Waiting For Frodo sweatshirt, which was a Christmas gift from a friend.

I was also tickled to hear from Jill Cainey, who is Shane McEwan's girlfriend. She, Shane's mother and Shane's cousin apparently cheered for Shane in a theatre in Tasmania! I've pointed her to the newly updated list so she and Shane know about everyone who has been cheering for him. :-)




(Click to see larger image)


Today's Blatherpics:

	Elizabeth's and Bryan's pet gecko.
	I've always loved interesting pillows. This is one on E&B's couch. One of the silver linings about living on my own in Philly was that I didn't have to consult a second person before buying anything for my apartment, so I bought several silly and brightly coloured pillows shaped liked butterflies and fish. Looking at them was always a mood-lifter. Does anyone out there have impractical but fun things like this? My pillows didn't really go with our decor in Toronto, however, so eventually ended up in the storage closet.
	Playing Carcassonne with Sara, my Dad, Ruth, Kaarel, Annie and Jeff. My sister and her family recently bought the game after rave reviews from Jeff and me.

Jan/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ