Jack Sprat

I've always thought the nursery rhyme about Jack Sprat was stupid. You know the one:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean;
And so, between the two of them,
They licked the platter clean.

Some very, very brief research has shown me that this rhyme could really be a jest about Charles I of England and his wife Henrietta Maria in regards to the financing of a war with Spain. I don't want to get into that. Instead, I'd like to propose the following: I think it's about Darren I of St. Catharines and his wife Larissa Joy in regards to the Christmas snack mix.

When Leona was here visiting for the weekend we made a half batch of her (received from Margie Gilmore) White Chocolate Christmas Mix. I made this for a couple of reasons.
1. I know that Darren loves white chocolate.
2. It makes a nice Christmas-y snack.

I planned to serve it at our small group meeting on Thursday, but I wanted Darren to try a little first. [sidenote: It took him 3 days to finally oblige me and taste the mix. For some reason he was afraid of it. I can't figure him out sometimes.] When he did finally try the mix we discovered - and this is how it relates to Jack and his wife - that while I love the pretzels and dislike the M&Ms, Darren feels exactly the opposite.

So, in other words Darren Conley could eat no pretzels, his wife could eat no M&Ms. And so between the two of them they finished all the snack mix.

Sorry, small group!

Bonne fete! Feliz cumpleanos! Sretan rodzendan!

I love my birthday! I don't mind getting old (any more - once I came to terms with 25, it's been much easier!!) and I love having a day when everything really is about me. There are few days in a year when one can expect others to do the things they usually do - like the dishes, for example. Oh, and there's the special outings associated with birthdays, too.

This year I particularly enjoyed my birthday. Somehow I was able to work on Monday and Tuesday but still feel like they were both vacation days for me. My husband, determined to make sure that it was a fabulous day, succeeded brilliantly. I'm really a blessed one!

Having spent the weekend relaxing, celebrating and doing a little work, I feel rested enough to deal with the end of term madness that is just around the corner. There are exams to be created, given and then marked. There are final projects to be collected and evaluated. There are meetings to attend and lessons that still need to be planned. There's even a summative reflective essay that I need to write ('cause I'm taking a few courses on the side, too!) But I feel like I have the energy and motivation to tackle them - if I can stop writing on this crazy blog, that is!

Sidenote: (I'm doing this a lot lately, eh?)
I used to believe that 24 was the perfect age. That was until I turned 27 and celebrated my champagne birthday, and then I had to adjust the "perfect age" by 3. But I must say, so far I love being 28!

Our Halfiversary

Yesterday was what Darren and I like to call our halfiversary. The term "sixth mesiversary" seemed a little drab for such a special occasion; we believe it warranted the creation of a new word.

Anyway, I thought I would take this opportunity to consider the past 6 months.

I love being married. I think it's wonderful to share a home with someone I love. I appreciate having someone who knows me well enough to be able to help me when I'm freaking out. I'm so thankful that "Good night" is now followed by rolling over and going to sleep rather than driving 45 minutes to get home. And I love knowing that there are two of us who are committed to dealing with whatever comes our way.

Being married means being supported and supportive, understood and understanding, loved and loving...you get the point. It's a lot of work, but it has a lot of rewards.

The first 6 months of being married have been fabulous, but not easy. If you were to ask Darren about his impressions of married life, he'd likely say something along the lines of "some things that we thought would be easy to adjust to have been difficult, and some things we thought would be harder to deal with have been easy." I think that's a pretty accurate description.

If someone were to ask me what to expect when they got married, I'd say this: Expect to have all your expectations destroyed. The majority of the conflict we've experienced has been a direct result of an unfulfilled/unrealistic expectation of some sort. But I'm very thankful for times of conflict because there is great joy and closeness in the resolution of them. And it's encouraging to see both the frequency of mini conflicts and the time needed to reach a resolution diminishing!

In just 6 months we've learned a lot, grown a lot, laughed a lot and even caught each other acting like our parents at least once. Does it feel like I've been married for half a year? The answer: I don't know what being married for half a year is supposed to feel like. Darren and I have both commented that sometimes it feels like we've been together for a long time, and other times it feels so new.

Either way, it's good.

Halloween Update

So only 2 people at the entire party correctly guessed what I was dressed as although my students had multiple thoughts. I got everything from a baby to a pregnant lady to blank stares and shrugs. I thought Darren's costume would give it away, but it didn't. I'm going to write this off not as an experiment gone wrong, but as an example of cultural misunderstanding. :)

Oh, and next time I'll have to either use a box, paper with balloons or the words "Happy birthday" on it, a store-bought bow for my head or put a large To:/From: tag on.
Sigh...live and learn.


By the way, Darren's hat says HAPPY BIRTHDAY on it and his badge says #1 Birthday Boy. And yes, that is his birthday suit. :)

I've got it!

As Chrissy suggested in her comment on my previous post, I was going to write about my Hallowe'en costume woes. But then I thought "Hey, didn't I do that last year?"

Yesterday I wrote her a desperate email begging for costume idas. Since she works at a party store, I figure she's my best bet for such information. Try as she may, I was unsatisfied with her suggestions, although I toyed with the idea of dressing as an ESL teacher. (You're very funny, Chrissy!)

Last night I spent a good chunk of time browsing this website and found a solution to my costume dilemma. I was quite impressed with the ideas therein. There were lots of great ideas for homemade costumes and also lots of lame pun-based costumes like a babysitter in which one ties a doll to his/her rear end. LAME!!

Eventually I decided on a costume that meets my criteria:

1. It's cute and/or fun.
2. It's easy to make/put together.
3. All the components are easy to get.
4. It's at least semi-comfortable.
   

And voila! My costume:

(Please tell me you know what I am!!)

All I have to say is that Darren's lucky. If we had had big boxes laying around I would have forced him to dress up with me as a pair of dice. Or maybe a magnet, and I'd wrap myself in tin foil. But this way his entire costume consists of a birthday hat and noisemaker (besides a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.) That should appease his "I don't like dressing up and especially not in constrictive getups" side.

I've never been this ready costume-wise for the work Hallowe'en party before. I guess it pays to plan a little ahead. This way I can look forward to Friday rather than dread the stress-filled moments before the party as I run around the apartment searching for anything that resembles anything but me!

Shame on me

I'm a bad sister. Alaina is in Mombassa, Kenya right now at a YWAM Discipleship Training School. She left in September and won't be home until February. This is her first time away from all of her friends and family for an extended period of time.

Since she's been in Africa, I have chatted with her on MSN messenger once and joined in on the family's phone call to her at Thanksgiving. But I haven't sent a single email.

She has a blog and I read it faithfully. Acually, I do more than read it; I'm her editor. It's my job to add photos and formatting since she it's more challenging from via her Internet connection. So I feel like I'm somewhat involved in her life there, but I still haven't written an email!

I should know better. Every time I've been abroad, I have longed for word from home. Even though I loved what I was involved in, I always wanted to stay connected to the community I had left. I would leave comments at the end of group emails (blogs weren't popular back then) that hinted at my desire to receive "status reports" from my friends and family, (ok, I probably should say begged...) but few people would respond with emails.

Now I realize that most people were thinking, "There's not much going on here. What does she want me to write about...what I had for supper?" That's a fair argument, and actually the one that I use every time I think about writing and don't. But the correct answer is: YES! Yes, she wants me to write about what I had for supper or the fact that I got my midterm grades completed or that my husband wrote a paper on blogging in the classroom or that I had a funny conversation yesterday. It may seem dumb and insignificant, but it's just so nice to be remembered and included in the day-to-day business that you're missing.

Shame on me! I know the value of getting some news, albeit mundane news, from the homeland and I don't do it. But I will. I'm off to send an email!


Sidenote: It worked out well for me that Darren wasn't one of those people who thought his life was insignificant. When I was in Chile he wrote me long, informative emails that helped me feel less abandoned by my Canadian consort. Of course it helped that he thought I was interested in him...but that's a longer story for another time.

Thankfully oblivious to the storm

For the past 2 days I have been especially thankful that I live in St. Catharines.

Before moving to this city in January 2005, I was a pseudo-resident of Fort Erie. For 2 years (off and on) I worked as the night manager at a refugee shelter there. So my "permanent residence" and most of my stuff was elsewhere, but I slept in Fort Erie 6 nights a week.

When I finished working there, I started squatting at my friend's house. She was working at the shelter during the day and living down the street by herself in a 4-bedroom house. I would often "visit" her for the night, bringing a change of clothes and toiletries with me, and then eventually I just moved into one of the bedrooms. It was a great system - she was from Virginia and didn't have many friends in the area and (I think) appreciated my company, and I was living rent-free...although I did offer! Sigh...sometimes I miss those days.

While in Fort Erie, I experienced my fair share of snow storms. It seemed like every morning for weeks at a time I'd have to clean the snow off of my car and drive extra cautiously on the roads to Welland. I also remember getting stuck in the snow at least once and having to get Ashley out of bed to help me shovel out my Mikko in her pajamas. (What a good friend, eh?)

Residents of Fort Erie are used to dealing with snow, but not this early in the fall. According to this CBC report, yesterday's storm left record amounts of snowfall for October and while most of the city should have its electricity working by now, there are some parts of the city that will probably be without power for 2-4 days. The Peace Bridge and parts of the QEW were closed - in essence, the city was shut down...on October 13th!!

Back here at the Conley apartment, we watched the snowflakes fall yesterday morning with the excitement of little children. I didn't realize that there were places in the area that had accumulated snow until I started passing cars with significant amounts of the white stuff on their roofs and hoods. Of course, a little freak out episode accompanied each one. :)

Yes, it's good to live in St. Catharines!

Jesse Cook and cognative process

One of the benefits of teaching an advanced listening class is that I'm constantly seeking interesting things to watch in class. We have a textbook but I like to supplement it with other audio or audio-visial documents on related topics.

I realize that "constantly seeking interesting things to watch in class" may not sound much like a benefit, but it is because it forces me to make the time to preview documentaries on various subjects and keep up to date on international goings-on (web news video clips), as well as get a firmer grasp on the plethora of online audio resources.

So I've been going to the library on a regular basis. One week I took out a stack of videos (yes, videos - we actually went out and bought a VCR because neither Darren nor I owned one) on Canadian geography; the next week, documentaries on Koko the gorilla and a man who speaks with wolves; the following week, the Inuit; and this week, memory. Usually I can find only one good clip from my stack of videos, but I enjoy watching them nonetheless.

Two library visits ago I stopped by the CD stacks and picked up Jesse Cook's album Nomad. We listened to it in the car for 2 weeks straight. There are a number of songs we like, but I must say our favourite is incomprehensible to us. It's called Quadukka-L-Mayyas, it's in Arabic and it's SO catchy! (Listen to a clip of the song here.)

The moment I heard this song, my memory brought me back to a day in our friends, the Peters', living room when their 4-year-old-daughter sang the entire song for me. I don't know if you remember from the previous paragraph, but it's in Arabic. And she sang it word for word.

This blew my mind then and does so even more now that I've listened to the song probably 20 times and the only words I can make out are the English words I superimpose onto the Arabic lyrics. (I'm convinced the singer says, "I know I have been efficient enough". Seriously - go back and listen; you'll hear it too!)

There are a couple of hypotheses I'd like to propose based on Ceilidh's and my interaction with this piece of music. (This is the result of my second-hand reading of academic stuff.) First, I think it's normal to seek meaning in sounds or text. I didn't try to turn the song into English; my brain naturally interpreted it that way. Secondly, I think this process doesn't start until after early childhood. Ceilidh was able to immitate or reproduce the Arabic sounds she heard in the song even though some of them were foreign and none of them made sense to her. I, on the other hand, am still struggling to sing along; my brain just won't let nonsensical words come out of my mouth.

I'm sure there's tons of research that both supports and undermines my hypotheses, but there's no way we're going to have 2 people in this household doing hardcore (or even softcore) research! I'm just going to have to believe that I'm right based purely on observation.


By the way, Darren found the lyrics to this song translated into English here...and there's no mention of being sufficiently effective.

Weekend update

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are few things in life better than a long weekend, especially one that involves lovely visits and lots of laughs.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Friday was dedicated to Leona, since it was her graduation and all. Then Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving with a delicious mom-cooked turkey dinner. Our cousins joined us for the afternoon/evening and it was so nice to spend some time with them. Jen and Pauline are fabulous girls separately, but together they're absolutely hilarious! I think they could hire themselves out as entertainers at parties; just by having them on the guest list, your other guests are sure to enjoy themselves.

Sunday morning we left my parents' house early-ish and made it to Church on the Rock on time (the first time in our life together!) It was nice to see some friends there - friends we don't have time to really visit now. This was followed by Thanksgiving dinner at Swiss Chalet with Darren's immediate family. The extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas) will get together today but we ducked out of that one, needing an entire day at home to make strides on the necessary tasks of the week. On the way home from our visit, we stopped by Grandma M's place to finally get the rest of my stuff out of storage in her basement, a week before she moves to a retirement home. By the time we made 3 trips up the 4 flights of stairs, we were quite pooped but Darren managed to read an article and I was able to format a few handouts for his presentation.

I think part of why this weekend was so good was that it contained a great balance of productivity and relaxation. In Forest, whenever he had a spare moment, Darren snuck away to the upstairs computer and worked on his research (productivity) and then when company came, we visited, played games and generally enjoyed ourself (relaxation). My theory holds!

I guess that means that I'm going to have to do some cleaning at home today, or some research for a project I have to do for the culture class I'm taking. Or maybe I can count updating my blog as productivity?!? Perhaps I should begin by making some breakfast. Every little bit counts!

Graduation #4

Well, it's official - all 4 of the Morris girls have offically graudated from high school. Leona's commencement ceremony was held this Friday at North Lambton Secondary School in Forest. She came home from the University of Guelph to receive her many certificates and awards and to see her friends. (Oh, and to celebrate Thanksgiving, too).

Darren and I were pleased to attend this significant event in her life and also represent the siblings (Alicia's in Alberta and Alaina's in Kenya at present) in cheering and suporting her.

Here are a few pictures from Leona's grad. Congrats, kiddo!

Leona and Larissa

Ya-woo!

Hugs all around!

Enjoying(?) some refreshments

Here's the whole clan

Life Recently

Posts have been few and far between lately, I know, and there are a number of good reasons for that. First of all, my computer has just recently been returned to me by the kind folks at Staples, after having her inverter removed and a new one put in its place - not a fun procedure for the poor inanimate object, I'm sure.

We did do a good job of sharing Darren's computer while my laptop was away, but work took precidence over everything else, and between my teaching and his studying, we were living in a "computers-are-not-for-fun zone" for what seems like an eternity.

Speaking of Darren's studying, our home has been rather stress-filled of late. You'd think that by midterm we'd be better equipped to deal with the necessary shifts in priorities, etc., but it's simply not true. We have begun to settle into some new routines and habits of this new life of ours, however. For example, we now get up at 6:00 am (Well, that's the time Darren starts the "wake Larissa up" process) and leave for school/work at 7:30, or as soon after as possible. I'd like to say this is getting easier, but that also is simply not true. I suspect this will be an ongoing struggle for the Conleys, or at least the female half of the Conleys.

One thing we have become good at is coordinating our drop-off/pick-up times, which became a necessity when we sold my car, leaving us with just the one. I really like not having the option to stay home a little later and take my own car to work on days when Darren has an early class and I don't because it forces me into a positive routine. I also really like coming home together. We can usually get through the telling of one of our days by the time we pull into the driveway.

I think we've also actually started to grow accustomed to the increased level of stress around the house. Please don't take that to mean that we've grown to like it. Some people thrive on stress; NOT US. We both strive to live in a stress-free environment. Since that is impossible, we try to create as much space for stress-free living as we can. In this new arrangement of MA reading and ESL preparation, we've found that times of relaxation have become special moments rather than the norm, making us take note of them and appreciate them all the more.

So there are benefits to life since September, but also much frustration. As I type this, Darren is reading an article that was written by a man whose sole purpose, as far as I can tell, is to impress and confuse the world of academia by his convoluted and complicated language. Every single sentence that Darren has read to me I have not understood. Unfortunately, the poor guy has to do a presentation on this article Friday, among other assignments this week.

I should probably start rehearsing my encouragement speech. It seems as though I get to practice it every other day, when things seem just a bit too overwhelming for my husband. But on the days between my oral support giving, I'm on the receiving end of a very similar speech. If nothing else, this year will teach Darren and I to support each other through everything.

Today's headline: Black screen leads to frustrating trivia anecdote

My computer is broken (The screen on my laptop has gone black - inverter problem?). This spells disaster for the Conleys.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to Darren that I like the fact that we're a one-TV-family and that I wanted to try to maintain that status for as long as we could. But being a one-computer-family is another story entirely.

I sure do miss my computer (name pending; I must be slipping!) It's not that I'm stranded; Darren's computer is working just fine. The problem is that he's often working on it. Over the past four months (almost) we've learned to share lots of things, but our computers were not one of them! We've grown accustomed to being able to work or play simultaneously, and that was before we were both in school.

The biggest downside is that I feel out of touch with "my people" - you know, the ones whose blogs I read daily in order to feel like I'm actually a part of their lives. Oh, and I have to actually enter my passwords on his computer. And his computer has sympatico weather bookmarked, not The Weather Network (why I'll never know!). I guess there are a few "biggest downsides."

Speaking of computers saving passwords: yesterday, when it was time to do our daily trivia game Darren didn't notice that the computer had saved my information and it was actually me who was logged in. So, he played under my name and got a good score. Well, I wanted to play, too, so I naturally played as him. For the first time in this category, I beat him, but of course HE got the win! GRRRRR...gotta fix that laptop!

Empty Nest

When I was young I remember my mom saying that she looked forward to the day that all 4 of her daughters left home. She wasn't being spiteful or anything; I think she genuinely longed for a little freedom from the busy-ness of parenting.

Personally I think this cartoon illustrates how I'll deal with the empty nest syndrome, except chances are high I'll never have a dog. But it's hard to say considering I have no children. :)

Anyway, my mom's wish has finally come true. As of Sunday, September 2, 2006, my parents are officially empty nesters. Alicia and I have been gone for years, Alaina moved out west last year and Leona got launched this weekend.

Mom, dad and I helped her move into her residence at the University of Guelph yesterday. Actually, it was second year students who helped her move in; the only thing I carried was her computer monitor and the only thing she carried was, I think, her purse!.

But we did help her unpack and settle in. Dad got her computer up and running, mom made her bed, put away clothes, etc., and I...well, I did a few random things and took pictures. I guess I was there mostly for moral support.

Leona's room is quaint and absolutely adequate for her needs. The girls on her hall seem nice and the building is gorgeous. Here are some pictures from the big move.

It was exhausting! :)

Leona will turn 17 this December, making her the youngest Morris to move out, followed by Alicia who was older, only because her birthday comes earlier in the year. I left home a few months before I turned 19. (There were 5 years of high school back in the 90s.) It sounds old compared to my sisters, but then again, I helped Darren move out of his parents' house a few months before he turned 30! In his defense I've got to say that he had lived in a number of places prior to that move, but kept coming home.

My parents are off for a little vacation and when they come home I think they'll find the house quieter and life calmer than when they had a houseful of girls. I wonder if it's time for some new hobbies? Or maybe a boarder? Who knows!?

Learning for oneself

I'm a fixer. I like to fix things...no, not things. I couldn't fix a single thing around this apartment if I tried! Our currently broken toilet is a testimony to that.

I like to fix people. More accurately, I want tofix situations in such a way as to help people avoid having to learn lessons that I've already learned...the hard way.

I realize that most people don't want to be given unsolicited advice, so the culturally acceptable thing to do is sit back and watch people learn for themselves. Also, I know that a person learns best through experience. (I really do agree with Confuscius' "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.") But it's really hard.

On the other hand, when I think back on my life I can think of a few distinct instances in which I wish someone had told me I was making a bad decision. (For example, the decision to attend Bible College. Why didn't someone tell me that was a dead end choice?) There's no guarantee I would have changed my mind, but I'd like to think that I would have at least considered the decision a little more carefully.

I'm not speaking of a particular instance in which someone in my life is walking into a situation that could be better by a wave of my magical advice wand, but rather a general sense within me. Whenever I see someone in a place I have experienced and conquered (or at least survived and learned from), I want to transport him/her to the other side where I am.

I wonder if this is what being an adult is.

A week of firsts

These past few days have been filled with a bunch of firsts. Let me run dow the list:

• I received my first mid-term phone call last week in which the coordinator said to me "What are you doing next week? Nothing, good. Wanna make some money? Yes, good!" What he meant was that there was an emergency opening that they needed me to fill. So I worked for one of my vacation weeks. (Don't feel bad for me; we can use the money!)
  
• Late last week I also, for the first time, burnt banana muffins. I'm very careful when it comes to overbaking things, preferring to leave them a little raw in the inside but this time I failed. Darren doesn't think they were actually burnt, but they were far to dark for my liking. Luckily for him, he got to eat them all!
• Saturday evening Alaina, Darren and I hung out with our friends Brad and Michelle and family (that includes you, Chrissy). While there we had the pleasure of watching, for the first time ever, a 5-year-old (or maybe 6?) sing Johnny Cash. I still have the song in my head! "And it burns, burns, burns...the wing of fire"
  
• The following day Darren and I attended our first Sunday afternoon wedding. It was kind of like a Saturday wedding, but people had to rush there from church. Oh, and it was over earlier because people had to work the next day. But we enjoyed ourselves!
  
• Tuesday's first was that for the first time Darren washed and I dried/put away the dishes. Usually the roles are reversed because I'm a faster washer, but it was nice to play the less signifcant role in the dish washing for a change.
  
• On Wednesday I got my first hair critique from a student. He said, "I think you should go to the salon and ask for a new hairstyle." To be honest, I've been thinking of getting a hair cut before the fall term starts, but I've never had a student be so blunt with me before.
• When I got home I found a letter from "CANADA" and discovered that for the first time I'm being audited. They asked for some specific documents which I thought I had in a folder in our filing cabinet. But when I looked, these receipts weren't there. After a bit of searching, I found the stuff so I can prove that I am, indeed, honest.
  
• I had my first technology-related freak out on Thursday. Darren showed me some photos of a transformer from the upcoming movie and it scared me nearly to death, or at least to shouting. You see, I have a fear which I can't exactly put my finger on but it includes things like swarms of black birds and piles of scrap metal. This transformer was disgusting! (To see these pictures you'll have to go to themovieblog.com because I refuse to post such trauma.)
  
• I have never been so happy to see a group of students graduate as I was this week. This first is the first ESL graduation-induced sense of relief.
  
• For the first time Friday afternoon I put on an episode of Crusade without my husband prompting me to. I don't know what has come over me...honestly.
• Last night Darren and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine and for the first time since I can remember, I laughed and cried in the same movie. And I'm not talking about a little smirky laugh, but a real, belly-holdin' guffaw. It was a funny movie!
• And finally, this morning I am cooking eggs, bacon and toast with the intention of eating them separately, perhaps for the first time in my entire life. My favourite breakfast is an egg, cheese, and bacon sandwich, but I think I'll change it up a little today.
  

That's it for my list of firsts, which doubles as an update on the Conley household. Oh! Except that at this moment Darren is downstairs doing the laundry by himself for the first time since we've been married. What a man!

Mental absense

We haven't been home much this week. That's not to say that Darren and I haven't spent a lot of time at our apartment, for we have. But in terms of mental whereabouts, we've been elsewhere. 3 places, to be specific:

1. Henderson Hospital - My aunt was recently diagnosed with brain cancer - we found out less than a month ago - and went downhill extremely quickly. Her current residence is the hospital and visiting her breaks my heart. It's really hard to think about anything else, knowing that my family is going through such a painful time.
   My father-in-law had been staying one floor down from my aunt since Tuesday, recovering from knee replacement surgery. He's now home and working really hard to do menial, but important, tasks like going to the bathroom.
   
2. A parallel universe - Darren has been doing extensive reading about time travel. This week has been filled with ongoing, in-depth research which will culminate in 4 extremely long posts on his blog. It's been challenging listening him speak so intently about things that I (1) don't really understand and (2) don't believe are possible.
3. Niagara College - The summer semseter ends this coming Friday following a week of exams. The past week has been one of finishing up the classwork and preparing for exams, which takes more focused attention than mid-semester lesson planning. At the same time I'm preparing my challenges to be given advanced standing in the Post Graduate TESL program so I can earn this certificate by doing only 25% of the coursework. I've found out that sometimes it's hard to justify knowlege.

So that's where these Conleys have been for the past week or so. Physically, everything's good here, but I'm mentally and emotionally tired. I can't wait to see what next week brings.

Family Picnic

In an attempt to help promote my friend and his photography and highligh some of the crazy I married into, I bring you the Conley family picnic:

The Lovely Lorraine

Not our frisbee :)

When Darren gets too hot, it must be time for a swim...


...in shark-infested water???

Monkey see...

Monkey do

Frisbee fun

Last week Darren and I decided that we should own a frisbee. So we headed to the mall to run a few errands, the most important of which was buying a frisbee.

I told him to park at the back of the mall because that's where the Dollar store is, to which Darren replied quite forcefully, "We can't buy a dollar store frisbee!" I still don't think there's that much difference between a cheap and an expensive plastic flying disc, but I assumed the role of unknowledgeable one and agreed to look at Sport Check. We were pleased to find a single frisbee, discounted for the end of the season.

I don't know if I had ever thrown a frisbee before last week. It's not that I was afraid or uninterested, but I simply have never had the chance. So when Darren and I immediately took our newly-purchased frisbee to the park behind our apartment to throw it around for a bit and I discovered that I didn't suck at it, I was pleasantly surprised and rightfully proud of myself. After a good half hour of throwing and chasing (I don't suck, but I'm not amazing either) we decided to call it quits for the afternoon.

Like most purchases, this one gives great moments of enjoyment, but they are infrequent. The frisbee has been sitting in our trunk from that afternoon on. To be fair, we did do some frisbee throwing at the Conley family picnic yesterday, but not OUR frisbee. It seemed redundant to go get ours when there were 3 perfectly good frisbees at hand.

Of these 3 frisbees, only one was of similar quality to ours. The other 2 may have cost more than $1, but not necessarily. Anyway, it interested me to discover that the preferred plastic disc was the orange, lighter, cheaper one.

Quite the man

So this morning I am sitting on the couch in the living room reading my friends' blogs -- gotta keep up to date! -- and a strange thing happens. Darren comes and joins me on the couch, book in hand, saying, "I just felt like reading the [etymological] dictionary."

Then he proceeds to tell me vital pieces of information like the words hole and hollow have the same root, the use of eye for hole of a needle is widespread, in Old English the only word for big/great was micel which has completely disappeared, the Middle English word for right (as in right hand) was swither which comes from the word strong and the word meagre is derrived from the word for long.

I'm going to have the smartest kids ever!

Ice cream, anyone?

When it's this hot, the only thing worth eating is ice cream.
Or should I say, someone else's ice cream?

Sitting, blogging, wishing

I hate being busy. I hate that other people are busy. I hate that there has to be lots of coordination in order to arrange a time when busy people can get together.

I'm not really a planner. Almost every time Darren and I are in the car headed somewhere I'll say, "Oh, we should have picked up something to bring along or seen if this person would be available to see us while we're in town or brought this thing along with us. But since I am a last minute person, there's never time to take care of these things.

My inability to plan ahead translates a lot of times into loneliness and boredom. Today, for example, we have absolutely nothing to do. But what are the chances that our friends are sitting around in the same predicament? So we sit here, writing on our blogs and playing Rocket Mania. If only we had thought about this on Monday or Tuesday. Grrr...

There's got to be a solution to the constant feeling I have of I'd really like to hang out with _____, but since I didn't call 4-6 days ago to arrange it, I guess it's watch-a-movie-night here again. Oh, yes, there must be a solution, and when I find it, I'll let you know.

Birthday bamboo

I know this story is a week or so old, but I thought it was worth telling.

When I got home from work on Darren's birthday, he was already here, relaxing in the heat watching TV. He said to me,

"Hey honey, look what I got at work today!" motioning to a bamboo plant wrapped in celophane with a birthday balloon attached that had been delivered to him.
"Oh, that's so nice," I replied. "Who's it from?"
"The people at work, I guess."
"You guess? Didn't you read the card?"
"There's a card?"
-Darren opens card and discovers that it's from ME!-
sheepishly "Oh, thanks, baby."

I don't really remember whether I rolled my eyes or growled under-my-breath at that point. But now Darren knows that whenever things get delivered to him his first thought should be Is this from my wife?

Little sales pitch

Anyone you know shopping for a vechicle? My aunt and uncle are looking to sell their 2004 Honda Element.

Unfortunately, we're in vehicle selling -not purchasing- mode right now, but I think this "baby Hummer" is worth a look!

It's got 4 wheel drive, tons of storage space (especially when the seats are folded down or removed), low mileage (40 000 km, I think), good reviews and like any good Honda, will hold its value. Oh, and people say it's fun to drive.

Personally, my favourite part is the suicide doors, although I don't like the name so much, that open much like French doors to allow lots of room for loading stuff or people into the back. And the fact that it's so darn cute!

I have absolutely no information on the asking price, but I can hook you up with the right people.

So that's my little sales pitch. Any takers?

Tourist scamming

I've always thought that tourist areas, where prices are inflated simply because they can be, should make accomodation for locals.

What I mean is that there should be 2 prices at a restaurant: the regular price, and the ridiculously-increased-tourist price. In Native status card-fashion, residents of the area should be given some type of identification that gives them the rip-off-less version of whatever goods or services they're purchasing.

In some countries, there is a system of duel-pricing. (For example, some guy posted about this topic related to Russia and said that major attractions like museums have a Russian price and a Foreigner price.) However, advertising two prices is admitting that tourists are being taken advantage of.

I know that when you're traveling you should go off the beaten path and look for a restaurant or shop that caters to the locals, if you are looking to avoid being ripped off, but what if there aren't any of those?

I was reminded of this when we went to Denny's in Niagara Falls. There's no way that someone should pay $14. for a hamburger; not a tourist, and espeically not a Niagran.

But my faith in the local tourist industry was restored last night. We went to Tony Roma's to celebrate Darren's birthday using his free entre card, and when we got our bill (after fixing an error) our waiter had included a local discount. He had taken about $3.50 off our bill! When he came back he said, "Now it's the price of a normal meal at a normal restaurant." How sweet.

The thing is: I didn't really notice a difference in the menu between this Tony Roma's and the one we usually go to in Stoney Creek, but I guess it was there. Sneaky tourist town!