Reverse!

There are three things that cause me stress for no rational reason:

1) Being backed up in the laundry
2) Having un-read newspapers (being backed up in the newspaper reading department)
3) Being backed up in TV watching.

The three came together in perfect storm formation a few weeks ago when we went to visit my sisters in Calgary, and then spent a night in Kananaskis. The trimvirate of backed up things was terrible.

The good news is that I finally finished #1 last night - there is not a single load of laundry left to do in my house - a condition that will last for about a day (sadly).

I was caught up on #2, but I haven't read today's paper yet.

As for #3 - don't even ask... as a sign that we watch too much TV, I think we have 10.5 hours of recorded TV that we need to watch to catch up to last night. (D'oh!)... it's mostly because we've been wasting our nights reading Twilight to eachother (and now New Moon) - instead of just turning on the TV.

By the way, I've added some more photos to Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87609&l=af622&id=679030785

Cruel words

So, I have come to the conclusion that the two most cruel words in the English language are:

Stutter and Lisp.

Try and imagine someone with either trying to tell people about their condition. So cruel.

Then I thought - what about people who can't say their Rs. A quick Google search turned up yet another cruel word - Rhotacism. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotacism)

I'm sure some speach therapists are laughing somewhere.

Guitar Hero and the White House

Last night, while playing Guitar Hero World Tour, I played Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama". Now, this morning, all I have in my head on an endless loop is "Sweet Home For Obama".

I'm sure the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd would object to me co-opting their right-wing rant in praise of a Democratic African-American president. But, this Canadian man don't need them around anyhow.

Sorry if you sing "Sweet Home For Obama" all day now.

Rebeccisms

Rebecca never ceases to crack us up with her wackiness... here are a few examples:

Emily is big into spelling things (part of being in Grade 1 I guess), so she often calls people by spelling their names. As in "Hey, M-O-M-M-Y, can I have some milk?". Rebecca, ever the imitator of the extreme coolness of her big sister, has attempted to do this too. When we visited Janine a few months ago, she tried it out on Kathryn. Her spelling of mommy? A-N-N-O-Y.


The other day, I took some toy or something away from her because she was playing with it instead of getting her shoes and coat on. (The issues with our girls getting ready to leave the house will have to wait for a future post). In her extreme frustration, she looked at me and said: "Dad, you ...... CRANK!" - this must equate to the worst word she could think of!

Ear Chud Champion

So, I'll bet that my Thanksgiving dinner wrapped up in a way that was completely different from any of you (barring those who were there of course).

First off - to set the stage - we had Thanksgiving dinner for Kathryn's family at her sister Georgina's house. This was the first big family dinner that Gina and Matthew hosted - so props to them. Special props to Jammy for doing things the way she wanted, and not just to please everyone else (Babies of families unite!)

Anyway, I'll be that after your boring dinners, you played some games, or watched sports, or *gasp* talked to each other. BORING! Not us.

We decided - at a suggestion from Kathryn's brother, who I shall call X-opher (think X-mas) that a good after dinner entertainment would be to flush eachoter's ears with a syringe.

Yes, you read that right.

Since Georgina's a nurse - we had access to a medical-grade syringe (no turkey basters for us - although, the syringe would have made a good baster...)

The end result is that I managed to have the biggest chunk of chud flushed from my ear. Go me!

Lipstick wearing pigs

Sarah Palin scares me.

Well, as a person, she doesn't literally scare me - but her policies sure do. Case in point - she actually tried to link Sadam to Al Qaeda. Seriously? Even Bush doesn't try to pull that one any more.

But she can see Russia from her house... (oh Tina Fey, is there nothing you can't do?)

I don't understand how Republicans can buy in to the talking points without being critical - Socialized Healthcare is bad - but a Socialized fire department is OK. (and so is a socialized security force). Big government is bad, they have no business in my private life - but please Mr. (or Ms.) government, can you let me carry my gun, stop other people from having abortions, and never let those gays get married.

I'm glad that in Canada, even our conservative politicians are more or less centrists, and even sometimes left-leaning. Except for Harper - who seems to be some kind of a sweater-wearing Robot.

Anyway - the election's coming up - please go and vote.... unless you're going to vote conservative - in that case, please stay home.

Sandhu Candhu!

Ok, so, personal revelation time - I am addicted to SYTYCD. For those out-of-the-know (who I will refer to as not-cool people) - this is So You Think You Can Dance... and now the Canadian version.

Was anyone as surprised as me to see Canada's preeminent prima-donna, Emanuel Sandhu on the stage auditioning? And doing a triple-axle to boot! Isn't he already famous enough to not have to lower himself to auditioning for a reality TV show?

Anyway, other thoughts - Leah Miller is no Cat Deely - but she's not as annoying as your typical ex-Much Music VJ. We'll see if she can pronounce "judges" properly - something that deal old Cat has yet to achieve.

Finally - Calgary is home to cowboys, and Edmonton is home to homeless B-Boy gansters. Go Edmonton!

P.S. I am more than a little jealous that Kathryn is heading to Seattle this weekend to catch the live American SYTYCD tour - so lucky!