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Seven Quick Takes Friday
- It's been a tough week. I surrendered our dog, Wilson, to Toronto Animal Services yesterday after a biting incident earlier this summer. He's a terrier mix, with a lot of Jack Russell in him, and he charged and bit a letter carrier after he got off-leash. It was a horrible accident (although the bite was a minor injury), but I realized that his behaviour was too unpredictable for us to manage. Every visitor to our house was a stress. We have no yard at our current home, unlike when we adopted him in Georgia, and even with 3-4 walks a day, we were unable to provide him with sufficient opportunities to burn off energy. I've been weepy all week, and broke down at the shelter when I took him in. My greatest hope is that they can find a home for him where he will be able to be the dog that he is. I can't really say any more.
- I got my hair cut after my trip to Animal Services yesterday. It felt kind of like mourning, but at the same time a fresh start. It's shoulder length and layered a bit. And I feel so silly writing about it now.
- Last night, we attended the Season Opener for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, a wonderful program including Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, and a commission from Toronto Composer Larysa Kezmenko called Behold the Night, based on a Midsummer's Night Dream. The second half was William Walton's Henry V: A Shakespeare Scenario featuring actor Christopher Plummer (who also arranged this work) reciting parts of the play from memory. Walton scored Larurence Olivier's film Henry V, from which this work is derived. It was spectacular, and great finish to what had been a very sad day. The evening was capped by the TSO's after party featuring the Heavyweights Brass Band in the lobby of Roy Thomson Hall.
- Z and I head to Orlando on Sunday where he is attending a conference and I will take five days to relax in the sun. I was able to score a very cheap flight and there's no upcharge for me to stay at the (very nice) hotel hosting the conference.
- Michael auditioned for and was accepted into the Hannaford Youth Band and Jazz.fm Youth Big Band, both of which he played in last year. These ensembles are wonderful ways for him to get experience performing repertoire on both the tube (Hannaford) and bass trombone (Jazz.fm) and I'm pleased that he'll be playing with them again this year.
- While we were downtown yesterday, we picked up tickets for Noel Coward's Private Lives, now in previews at the Royal Alexandra. Starring Paul Gross and Kim Cattrall, it's been getting a lot of positive buzz. Mirvish is also bringing War Horse to Toronto in the new year and I'm looking forward to that as well.
- Friends from our parish were featured on the front page of the Star this week. John and Kathleen Rudolph are both professional musicians. John is Principal Percussionist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Kathleen teaches flute at the Glenn Gould School and University of Western Ontario. Kathleen and I are altos in the parish choir, and Kathleen often fills in on the organ. Their daughter, Theresa, was just hired by the TSO, their first parent-child pair. The piece in The Star is lovely and worth a read.
More Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary.
TIFF is coming: my first weekend lineup.
The Toronto International Film Festival, that is.
This year, I'm jumping in with both feet, seeing 5 films with my spouse when he's not at work, and ....ahem... 20 on my own during the day. Because we're "castmembers" at TIFF, we got our order processed early and got 23 out of 25 of our first picks, 1 second pick, and one voucher. I'm hoping to get another ticket (with my voucher) to Habibi so that Z can come with me to that screening (it's a Saturday morning at 9 am.) It's a recasting of a classical 9th century Arabic tragic love epic, Mad for Layla (Majnoun Layla), set in modern day Gaza.
On the first weekend (Sep 9-11), this is my lineup:
Friday afternoon: Urbanized - Documentary on Urban Design
Saturday morning: Ides of March - George Clooney and Ryan Gosling star in this polical drama about a presidential primary.
Saturday afternoon: House of Tolerance - A look at a fin-de-siecle brothel in Paris.
Sunday noon: Take This Waltz - Sarah Polley directs (and wrote) this romantic drama.
My fears about having to run from venue to venue have been allayed as I have at least 45 minutes between any two films, so with my TTC pass and comfy shoes, I'm good to go!
Seven Quick Takes Friday
- I was interviewed by a writer from the Wall Street Journal yesterday for a piece on white noise apps. I had blogged about it at some point
(although I can't seem to find the piece now) and she contacted me by telephone. While white noise machines have been around for a long time for use in helping people sleep, the emergence of apps for smartphones is relatively recent and she's exploring what people do with them. My main uses are to block out noise when I am trying to read (in a waiting room, on the subway, etc.) or to help me sleep when I'm in a noisy environment like a plane or train. The app I use is White Noise and it's available from the App Store on iTunes. - I dropped by the Oakwood branch of the Toronto Public Library for the first time this week.Michael was at a trombone lesson nearby and it offered comfy chairs in a lovely light-filled space. Check out the door handles!
- We've been loving our new grill! I can't believe how much more I am willing to cook in the summer when it does't involve heating up the house. We've made some great steaks, chicken, lots of grilled veggies with onion and mushrooms, and tonight we've got some wild salmon that I think I'll do in foil. Corn is in season, so I've also been enjoying that, although I haven't grilled any yet. I'm going to try that tonight using the advice from the National Post, which is to just shuck it, brush the cobs lightly with oil and pop it directly on the grill. Easy peasy.
- A couple of pieces from Zen Habits have really struck me this week. The first is a guest post by Chris of Zen to Fitness called Four Simple Fitness Fundamentals in which he encourages people to focus on the basics of living a fit life before getting all fancy. These include (1) using your bodyweight (squats, pushups); (2) not hyperfocussing on cardio; (3) walk and stretch every day; and (4) live an invigorating life.The second piece, written by Leo Babauta (the host of Zen Habits) is The Amazing Power of Being Present. So many people have monkey-brain these days, and spend a lot of time worrying about what they SHOULD be doing instead of focussing on what they ARE doing. There is definitely a lesson for me here, and practicing this, along with using the brain dump(pdf) recommended in Getting Things Done, are probably crucial to moving forward the million projects I have spinning around in my head.
I'm looking orward to living an invigorating life when the temperature drops a bit!
- I just discovered Val McDermid, a writer of rather gory police procedurals set in England. I've read the first two Tony Hill and Carol Jordan mysteries namely The Mermaids Singing
and Wire In The Blood
. Very gory. But hard to put down. I put them down when I needed a break from the gore and then picked them back up again.
- Another discovery this week: we have free on-demand stuff with our cable* service. Maybe it's a new thing, but there are quite a few decent movies and a bunch of series that we can get. I watched the HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce earlier this week and it was fantastic! Starring Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce, it is apparently a more accurate portrayal of the James M. Cain novel than the 1945 film starring Joan Crawford. I'm now catching up on Season 3 of Nurse Jackie that I somehow completely missed. Makes ironing pass quickly!
*[Edited to correct: we don't have cable per se. We have IPTV or internet television. Glorious HD over a telephone wire.] - My current reads are:
Book: Bech: A Bookby John Updike. I haven't read any of the Bech novels, so am looking forward to this one.
Audio: Apple Turnover Murderby Joanne Fluke. Slightly better than I was expecting, plus bonus recipes for baked goods.
Kindle: Alice Adamsby Booth Tarkington. Haven't actually started this yet, but it's on my Goodreads list to finish by the end of August.
Pop on over to Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes!
- Posted from ON and Toronto, Canada
The Simple Woman's Daybook - Black Dog Edition
FOR TODAY, July 26th, 2011...
Outside my window... .
..it's grey, but cool. The oppressive heat and humidity of the past weeks seems to be subsiding and I hope to spend more time outside.
I am thinking...
Churchill's black dog has returned. I've had a couple of periods of depression over the past ten years and I seem to be in the middle of another. For this reason, I have backed out of the trip to Stockholm that Z and I were planning and he will go alone, to be with his family, on the anniversary of his mother's death. This was not easy for me to do, and I know that it was a significant disappointment to him, but the thought of being away from home for 10 days was simply overwhelming. I need to make some calls and get some advice and counsel. Adjust my meds. More exercise. Keep off alcohol (as I've been doing for a few weeks now) and improve my diet.
I am thankful...
for my supportive family, for a husband who understands as best he can, for a sense that my life is valuable.
In the kitchen...
...I made Pioneer Woman's delicious meat loaf last night, with potatoes and carrots in the roasting pan. Michael made a meatloaf sandwich for his lunch today, and we had a discussion about why I'd never made meat loaf when he was younger, and how he probably would't have liked it back then!
I am wearing...
...my pyjamas. 'Nuff said.
I am creating...
...not a lot these days. Creative projects have fallen by the wayside.
I am going...
...to take a long walk with Wilson at Sherwood Park today, in the off-leash area.
I am wondering...
...if I will ever lose the habit of putting two spaces after a period when I'm typing. Apparetly, it REALLY annoys some people.
I am reading...
...The Untold Story by Monica Ali. It's a kind of thought-experiment, wherein the author imagines an alternate world where Princess Diana did not die but rather escapes anonymously to the American Midwest and assumes another identity. Riveting! I've loved Ali's previous novels and this one is no exeption. I'm also listening to an audiobook by Elizabeth Peters called Devil-May-Care. A young woman housesits a haunted mansion belonging to her elderly aunt. I"ve read a couple of Peter's Egyptian mysteries, and this one seems enjoyable so far.
I am hoping...
I am hopeful.
I am looking forward to...
...checking things off my to-do list.
I am hearing...
...the hum of the air conditioner and the tapping of a mason working on a driveway down the street.
Around the house...
...I have few projects on the go. I need to choose a paint colour for the exterior of our stucco and wood trim house and I have some Behr samples to try out. I need to get a roof repair person in to work on our leaky skylight. And the decluttering continues.
I am pondering...
...how to move forward.
One of my favorite things...
...eating a popsicle while reading a book.
A few plans for the rest of the week:
Getting Michael through his summer school exam (Physics)
Getting Z off on his trip to Stockholm
Getting appointments with my doctor and other helpers.
Here is picture for thought I am sharing...
The world lost the great painter Lucian Freud this week.
Requiescat in pacem.
Seven Quick Takes Friday: Iris Murdoch Edition.
- It's the late Iris Murdoch's 92nd birthday, and I happen to be reading her novel The Nice and The Good. First published in 1968, it's a tale of a complex household in Dorset that includes a married couple (Octavian and Kate), their two children, an elderly uncle, a divorced friend of the wife whose ex-husband works for Octavian and her twins, a widow (friend of Kate) and her son, a housekeeper, a refugee scholar who lives in a cottage on the property, a cat and a dog. Also in the cast of characters is a friend of Octavians who is in love with Kate, said friend's girlfriend who he is trying to break up with, his manservant, and an ex-lover of the divorced friend. There is also a suicide (murder?) victim who works for Octavian. I had to make a little cheat sheet about 50 pages in to the novel to keep track of who everyone is. But it's a good read and I'm about halfway through.
- Our 18-year-old nephew, Marc, from France has been here for three weeks. He did two weeks of English language lessons at a terrific school here in Toronto, had done the requisite trip to Niagara Falls, spent a weekend at our cottage, and has hung out with our boys in the evenings when they're at home. He's really easy-going and has been a pleasure to host.This weekend will include the new Harry Potter movie and a day at Canada's Wonderland with Alex. He heads home on Tuesday with (I hope) great memories. We've been encouraging him to consider University of Waterloo for graduate studies (he's in Computer Engineering) and I know he'd love to return to Canada at some point. (Photo is Marc and Z at....guess where?)
- We've finally hired a cleaner to deal with our house as I have simply not been up to the task. The "deep" clean was thie past Monday and apparently we had a remarkable amount of dust throughout our house (she feigns surprise). Gleaming Glenn will be back each Monday to keep us sparkling and it will let me focus on decluttering.
- Z was a witness before the CRTC earlier this week at the Usage Based Billing (UBB) consultation. He'll be back next week for more. It brings back my old days at Bell when I was involved in a number of regulatory proceedings, responding to interrogatories and preparing witness testimony and backup. I loved that work and have enjoyed discussing the current hearings. I've been following the twitter feed with much interest (#ubb for any geeks out there.) We're such romantics!
- I've started a family history wiki, private to family members at the moment, where I am trying to compile data, photos, stories, etc about my ancestors. If you're in my family and would like an invite, drop me a line. It's still in a fairly preliminary stage and it's my first time creating a wiki (I'm using the free version of PBworks) but I think it has great potential to become a repository of multiple types of information and a way to pass on the family history after I'm gone.
- Michael is taking Grade 11 Physics at summer school to free up a period in his schedule next year to permit more practice time. He's half-way through the course and it's going very well. A tiring exercise (five days a week, 8:45-3:30), he gets a full year credit in less than a month and, frankly, keeps him occupied through the summer. The teacher is excellent and he seems very focussed on doing a great job. He'll have three weeks break, and then two weeks of music camp to top off his summer, a week of jazz with his trombone and a week of band/classical with his tuba.
- One of the big results of our visit from Gleaming Glenn was his tidying of the boys rooms. Michael was so happy, that he did a whole bunch of additional decluttering and has decided to move all his instruments upstairs, along with the digital piano. He asked for a smaller desk so that this could be accomodated, and we found one at Value Village for $14.99 (less 20% student discount):It is basically particleboard with an ugly faux wood-grain base. Two cans of RustOleum Universal spray paint (black) yielded this:
Another few hours to cure and it'll grace his room.
Read more Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary.
- Posted from Toronto, Canada
The neutrality of facts?
From Chapter 2 of my current audiobook The Last Summer (Of You and Me) by Ann Brashares. Alice and Paul are lifelong friends.
[Alice] knew things she shouldn't have known. She knew things Paul had not told her, things he probably didn't know. Alice hated that, and faulted her mother for having ever told her. Her mother was too keen on information, too quick to belive in the neutrality of facts, just because they were true.
"It's the journalist in me" her mother claimed, managing to praise herself even in apology.
This jumped out at me as I was listening, so much that I rewound and transcribed the text.
I suspect that I have this tendency myself, to use facts in ways that might be gossipy or hurtful or in other ways that have the potential to break trust. The passage reminds mne that sometimes there is a burden placed on the receiver of such facts, that are so very often far from neutral.
I'll be back.
I have photos and stories to post from our travels, but I seem to have been struck by some stomach thing. It started yesterday midday and has really wiped me out. Don't know if it was plane germs, or something I ate. Should say "we" ate because my dear one also started feeling under the weather this morning.
In the meantime, here are some pictures of Folkestone where we stayed from Wednesday thru Saturday, a lovely seaside town.
The clock tower used to be a church but was destroyed in WW2, as per the plaque. A memorial on the waterfront says that during WW1, 7 million men marched through the city on their way to war. (Don't forget to click on the small pics to enlarge.)
A cure for the common cold? Yes, please...
I think I'm starting to crawl out from under this heavy blanket of my cold. My sinuses are feeling much better today and I don't have a headache, although that may be due to the migraine meds I took last night before bed. I missed the Evelyn Glennie concert because I was just too sick to get myself there and it seems like it was a wonder. Sigh.
This morning, a correspondent told me about a cure that she learned of in Cuba: a handful of mint leaves, steeped in boiling water, with some honey. I don't have any fresh mint, but she suggested dried would also work so I've consumed a great mug of that and am hoping for the best. I'm off the cold meds, but may need some pain relief if the headache returns.
Michael's last Kiwanis event with the school orchestra was this morning, so I had to get dressed and out to transport him, his tuba, and a couple of friends to the venue. I'm on call to pick him up sometime around noon when it's over and then I'll run some errands. I'm quite behind in my to-do list but I'm simply knackered with this this cold. I haven't been this ill for a long time, possibly due to the mega-doses of Vitamin C that I take for something completely different (or has that been disproven?). Z brought home fixings for dinner last night and assembled everything which was sweet. Leftovers are available for lunch so I can take it easy.
I"ll make a chicken pot pie with cornbread crust for dinner (a one-pot meal, and quite easy). I've got nothing else on until tomorrow night when the man-child has a gig with the Jazz.fm big band at Hart House (Jazz @ Oscar's, 9-11:30 pm).
Feeling like another cup of tea...
Let's just say it's been a heckuva week
I'm dog-tired.
This week has been a bit of a blur and I haven't felt up to blogging. Sunday, Michael had back-to-back rehearsals so while he was at his first one, I helped my brother out at his place as he moves into the rest of his four-plex en route to converting it into a single-family-home. I drove Michael out to his second rehearsal (way out west at Humber College) and then returned home. We went out to Seoul House for dinner after picking him up, where I forgot my cellphone and had to drive back to get it.
Monday night was his first ever gig with the Jazz.fm Youth Big Band. I took him out to the subway around 3 and then Z and I headed down to the Old MIll on the subway around 5:30. The band was backing Bucky Pizzarelli and I was bowled over by how great they sounded. I have a lot of wonderful memories from my youth playing in a big band, and I just knew how great the kids were all feeling. The house was packed, sold out, and it was a great, if late night. On the way home on the subway, we realised that there had been a mixup with Michael's trombone lesson and he had been expected that evening. He had also just broken up with his girlfriend. I had too much wine along with my terrific dinner which resulted in a migraine the next day.
Tuesday was a relatively normal day (apart from the headache), although Z didn't make it home for dinner due to work. Michael and I had a "snack supper" which usually means grilled sandwiches or cheese and crackers or popcorn or cereal. I wasn't up to preparing anything else and Michael is good-natured about all this.
On Wednesday, I had a Catholic Women's League meeting for which I was asked to prepare a reflection just an hour before-hand. I probably should have realised that I was on the hook for that, but didn't, so I pulled something Advent-y together while making dinner. We had a very good speaker from Aid to Women at the meeting, although the turnout was quite small.
Last night I had tickets to an advance screening of The Next Three Days courtesy of The National Post and there was a surprise Q&A with director and screenwriter Paul Haggis afterwards. We both very much enjoyed the movie but didn't get home until well after 10, which is late (for me).
Today, Z had a big presentation at 11 am and pretty much everything went wrong. We were supposed to meet with our financial planner at 8:30 this morning, but after receiving input from his people for the presentation in the middle of the night, Z realised that he had to cancel. He was on the phone until 10:30 and asked me to drive him downtown for his meeting. At 10:45, stuck in the hell that is Avenue Road these days, we turned around and he took the call from home, and then raced off downtown after the call to something else that couldn't be done remotely. On top of all this, he had a call early this morning to learn that his aunt had passed away. She was his mother's sister and was in the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease. It was in some ways shocking when his mother passed this summer before his aunt.
Oh, and it's his birthday today.
On the bright side, Alex turned 19 today (he shares his birthday with his father), which is "legal" in Ontario. I queried as to whether he hit a bar after midnight and received an affirmative reply. He sounds good and has been calling regularly, which makes me very happy.
