laser regatta and camera lust

Above: Jeff and Gord Gibson.

Just got back from the cottage, where Jeff and I had fun hanging out with various nephews and nieces as well as attending the annual cottagers' Laser Regatta at the Gibsons'. This year's regatta was different in Dan Gibson's absence...Dan was always the heart and soul of the event, after all. His fun-loving and enthusiastic spirit still pervaded throughout, and it was a wonderful afternoon.

Dan's oldest son, Danny, wielded his father's megaphone this year, while Jeff kept time and score:



Before the annual regatta began, participants did a "sail by" at noon in memory of Dan:



Gord let me use his camera during the event. I don't even want to speculate how expensive that piece equipment was, but I soooooooooo loved taking pictures with it! Darned heavy, though...not the kind of thing I could stick it my backpack and sling around the way I do my own camera. Anyway, all the photos on the page except for the one below were taken with Gord's camera.



My dad-in-law, during the regatta:



JBR was injured during the event, the first physical injury in the history of this regatta. He had finished one of the races and was floating in his boat, waiting for the others, when he started thinking about Dan and stopped paying proper attention to the wind...got smacked in the head with the boom as a result, and the boat overturned. He got a nasty cut and bruises around his eye as a result, but after getting patched up back at the dock, he went back out and sailed the rest of the races.

Ducks, flying overhead:



My brother-in-law, Case:



Jeff (looking darned cute, in my opinion):




Gord:



Willi Powell, who won most of the races:



It was a fine afternoon, with lots of laughter and fun-spirited ribbing, catching up with fellow cottagers and friends, and the weather smiled on us throughout.

I can't help but think that Dan Gibson would have been pleased.

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pluto-less and daikon cranes and BABIES!

Congratulations to John & Kristen Chew on the birth of their baby boy yesterday!!

Above: Thanks to Antonia T. (and Monty Python, of course) for the text in the comic above. I was inspired by a comment she posted in response to my LJ entry about Pluto no longer being an official planet.

From the LJ discussion, I learned that many children had been taught the phrase "My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets" to learn the names of the (then) nine planets. In German, this was apparently "Mein Vater Erklärt Mir Jeden Samstag Unsere Neun Planeten" ("My father explains to me every Saturday our nine planets"). In the UK: "Mother Very Eagerly Made A Jam Sandwich Under No Protest (Heinlein had 'Jelly' rather than 'Jam', and I believe E was different as well). A for Asteroids..." (from keristor)


Suggestions for a new mnemonic sentence that came from the discussion:

"My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles" (from vixyish)

"My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nothing." (from peteralway)

"Mother Very Eagerly Made a Jam Sandwich Using Nutella." (from technoshaman)

That last suggestion, of course, evolved into a heartfelt discussion about Nutella. I love LJ. :-)

Some of you have been asking if it's ok to link to the comic above or the one below. Sure, feel free.




Thanks for the anniversary congrats, everyone. Jeff and I had a wonderful time at Hashimoto's last night...definitely one of my all-time favourite dining experiences.

I will be posting a detailed report with sumptuous descriptions and photos soon, but here's just one of the eight courses that were served during this incredible, unforgettable meal:



In the larger bowl: two delectable pieces of king crab wrapped in a thin layer of cooked egg, delicately flavoured hamo (pike conger fish) wrapped in seaweed, crunchy deep-fried corn on top. I'm sorry, but I don't know the proper Japanese names.

The crane sculpture was hand-carved from daikon by the chef and was so gorgeous that it took an act of will to finally dismember it and dip the tangy pieces in the mouthwatering carrot sauce in the smaller bowl. Note the "Happy Anniversary to Debbie and Jeff" mini-banner across the dipping sauce. :-)

More details in an upcoming Blathering!

You can find out more about the restaurant at http://www.kaiseki.ca/ but if you're going to be viewing the site at work, be sure to turn off your sound first (the main page is accompanied by fairly loud music, unfortunately).

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anniversary

(Above: Jeff and me during our honeymoon in Algonquin Park, 15 years ago. Check out my funky glasses! Photo by Gord Gibson.)

So my friend John Chew has smugly forwarded a Tropical Storm Debby warning. The "smugly" was implied because there was no personal comment added, just the official bulletin from the National Hurricane Centre. But I can imagine his expression as he forwarded it. :-)



Jeff and I have been married 15 years as of today. Jeff has happily pointed out that this month also marks the 15th anniversary of the birth of the World Wide Web. We are such glorious nerds.

To celebrate (our anniversary, that is), we are going to Kaiseki Yu-zen Hashimoto Restaurant (6435 Dixie Rd., 905-670-5559). Hashimoto is one of my all-time favourite restaurants. From what I understand (kaiseki experts out there should feel free to correct me), kaiseki usually consists of a number of small courses, chef's choice, which use seasonal fresh ingredients. Here's a Toronto Life review, and if you're interested, you can also read my Blathering after a visit in 2002.

Drool.

Will Write For Chocolate has been updated. Congrats to Teri Walsh for coming up with Who's Laughing Now, the title of Mimi's new horror novel.



Thanks for all the encouragement after I Blathered about rejections. Tanya Huff's post was especially appreciated:

As a general rule, if an editor takes the time to make detailed comments what they're actually saying is "if you make these changes, I would love to consider the book again, more seriously". They've already given you the commitment of their time but because they're not willing to offer a more concrete commitment, they can't ask. To a certain extent, they're wondering if you're capable of rewriting to editorial demand. Unless you vehemently disagree with the changes they've suggested, it might be worth your while to email them and find out if this is one of those times.

When Sheila first read CHILD OF THE GROVE, she sent me a detailed two page letter explaining what she liked and didn't like about it. I phoned her, thanked her for taking the time and asked her if I rewrote taking her points under consideration would she be willing to read it again. And she said, "Duh."

This observation intrigued me enough that I've talked to my agent, and she's going to find out if the editor would be willing to re-read my manuscript if I revised it to incorporate her comments. Even if the editor still decides to pass, I'm going to look at this kind of rejection letter differently from now on, as a possible editorial test rather than a flat rejection. Thanks, Tanya. :-)

Thanks also to those of you who posted stories of successful fiction writers who have experienced multiple rejections. I'm going to start accumulating these stories on this page, both for my own inspiration and other writers who may be going through something similar. :-)

In my CSS course on Lynda.com, so far I've learned about XHTML, validation and error correction, browser and user styles, different types of author styles (inline, imbedded, linked and imported), conflict resolution in CSS. Both the instructors are involved with the Web Standards Project. Jeff (the sweetie) is also lending me his copy of O'Reilly's Cascading Style Sheets book.

I've been checking out Wordpress more thoroughly, and I'm disappointed by the fact that there currently seems to be no reliable way to administer multiple blogs from ONE administrative interface. This could be a make-or-break factor for me when it comes to switching from MT to Wordpress. Any Wordpress users out there have advice?

10 more hours until Hashimoto...



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Recording session

Hey, check out my first corporate illustration sale above (the thyme cartoon)! The media company found my cartoon in Flickr.



This night, Ken Lalonde drove from Whitby with some recording gear so I could add a flute part to one of Judith Hayman's upcoming CD tracks. He set up in our dining room. After running through the song once ("Maid of the Mist," a gorgeous song written by Judith), we recorded two versions of my flute part.

I'm happy to report that everything went smoothly, and Ken was able to pack up his gear for the drive back before it got too late. Thanks, Ken!





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Ego-bruising

Above photo: Jeff brings in two rented canoes one early misty morning at the cottage.

Ouch...got a rejection letter from a publisher today, the first for the novel that I sent out through my agent earlier this month. I was bracing myself, but it was still a bit of an ego-bruise. On the positive front, the editor did read until the very end, liked the premise of the story. She enjoyed some aspects but not others; the latter was enough to make her reject the mss.

Though I'm not happy about being rejected, I am grateful for the detailed comments and suggestions for improvement in the letter; this editor obviously took considerable time with my story. After reading through her letter several times, I carefully filed it away and went back to my other work, fighting the impulse to immediately revise my novel to incorporate her suggestions. Do other fiction writers go through this?

If I start getting similar pattern of comments from other editors, however, I'll likely take a hard look at the story again and do some revising. I am utterly determined to get this story published, dangit, and I'm mentally prepared to weather the necessary ego-bruising (probably a lot of it) along the way and do whatever work is necessary to make it happen.

Meanwhile, onwards and upwards. Got another illustration inquiry today; this potential client found me through my Flickr pics. I'm also nearly finished the webzines article for Writer's Digest after interviewing editors from Nerve, Slate, Wired, Salon, McSweeney's, Dragonfire, Strange Horizons, Grist, and Chow.com. Some of these editors were somewhat difficult to get hold of, but I found that my strategy of polite persistence usually worked. :-)

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