If you are so inclined, I recommend checking out Jimmy Fallon's ongoing spoof. I really dislike late night talk shows, but on occasion a funny little gem comes out of the monotony, and that's what Youtube is for.
Enjoy.
Pink & Green Ideas |
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As Corwin pointed out, Downton Abbey is back, bitches. If you are so inclined, I recommend checking out Jimmy Fallon's ongoing spoof. I really dislike late night talk shows, but on occasion a funny little gem comes out of the monotony, and that's what Youtube is for. Enjoy.
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Barrie is participating in Culture Days (as is most of the country, I guess). This is news to me, but I'm glad I found out one weekend before it happened - I usually find these things out one weekend after. The schedule of events for Barrie looks pretty neat, so if anyone is interested in coming for a visit consider this your open invitation. Art Ce Soir (on Saturday night) is run by our friends downtown and it should be pretty cool. Usually we miss this event because we are in Toronto or some other place, but this year I think we'll actually be home. Speaking of culture - we also have a whole pile of FY!Bellalexanders to distribute courtesy of Corwin, so if you're interested let us know, since we missed Supercrawl in Hamilton. Sorry guys. Amy and Mike and Megan decided to organize a cottage holiday for the end of summer waaaaayyyyy back in June. The end of summer arrived much sooner than I thought and last weekend we were off to the shores of Lake Huron to Amy’s uncle’s rental cottage. You have to see this place. It. Is. Gorgeous. When we walked in shortly after the supper hour we saw a beautiful sunset over the lake just outside of the large glass sliding door at the rear of the cottage. Photos don’t really do this place any justice, but suffice it to say if you ever get a chance to visit the area you totally should because it is spectacular and relaxing and wonderful. We spent our days cooking, eating, and planning what to cook and eat (including but not limited to 3 lbs of bacon – see images of Chef Michael Smith’s Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart below). We also went for a few walks down the beach to the local Provincial Park and to visit Amy’s aunt. She showed us the log cabin that her grandfather built in the 1940s. It was wild – and I didn’t get any photos. Booo! This place looks like something right out of Little House on the Prairie and is meticulously maintained. The best part is you can rent it and stay there. Amazing! We talked about going back next year with a larger crew, and I hope we do. This place had everything - including a visit from the elusive Corwin. We also went kayaking, swimming, antiquing, and then we had a beach fire and made smores and banana boats. Now I need to go to the gym. To see more photographic evidence of our grand adventure, check out flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66471111@N00/ I'm sad that Pixar has been absorbed into the black hole of children's cinema that is the Disney machine, but I am hopeful that some unique and entertaining tales might still come out of the partnership - that is, some gems that are a bit more Pixar and a bit less Disney, if you know what I mean. The latest trailer for Wreck-it-Ralph looks fun, at least. Groundbreaking might be a bit of a stretch. I'm thinking I probably won't weep openly like I did during the first part of Up! (admit it, you did too), but hopefully it will deliver a few laughs and some classic video game shout-outs. Is this on your "to watch" list? Recently we discovered that awesome pizza can be made at home. Well, really we already knew this but we didn't often use our pizza stone simply because we didn't usually have pizza dough lying around. Now we frequently make a point of putting dough on the shopping list (yes, I know we could make our own but honestly we're making progress here), and now we always have yummy homemade pizza with delicious toppings as a dinner option. It's also a great way to use leftovers. So much better than delivery. Really. _ Two weekends ago we headed up to Steve and Janelle Morley's cottage for a day. We'd been before, but this was our first visit with Emmett. The cottage is right on Lake Muskoka, just outside of Bala. The place is lovely and so relaxing, and the weather was perfect. We ate bbq, went for a swim, and Emmett had his first boat ride ever! (photographic evidence of "baby boat face" below. Apparently it's a thing). Thanks Steve, Janelle & boys for an awesome day. Highlight for Emmett: being surrounded by 4 boys between 2-3 years old jumping up and down yelling "happy happy happy". Crazy baby. Regan and I had our two year anniversary on Sept. 4th. We didn't do anything big and fancy (I went to a union meeting and Regan hung out with Emmett), but Regan did bring me pink and green flowers. :) The night before we tried out Pie the wood-fired pizza joint. Then we went to see Hope Springs because, well, Meryl Streep and Steve Carrell are in it. It's a lot more subtle than the trailer lets on. It was still a decent little movie, if only for Steve Carrell's wardrobe of handsome blazers and knit ties. Regan and I approved. Later we remembered that we had our two year anniversary cards to open from our wedding. Last year Lindsay and Stu wrote the cards (it had been their two week anniversary at the time), and for year two we had Craig and Josalyn's lovely words to read. Wait. Make that, we had Josalyn's lovely words and Craig's computer code. What's that you say? Yes, computer code (see images below). I am SO thankful that a) we gave them year TWO, and b) that Regan is still around to decipher such things. And decipher it he did. Regan loved this card, I can tell you that much, and it kept him busy for two days! This sets the bar pretty high for the rest of you, but apparently Corwin needn't worry too much about it since he alleges he highjacked multiple cards and crafted a variety of messages. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I don't really pay a lot of attention to music and I'm terrible with song names and album titles, etc, but I generally can recognize a song played to me and sing a bit of it and I can usually tell who the artist is. This is especially true of radio songs and pop culture classics, even if the music is terrible or something I would never purchase or listen to voluntarily. For this reason I was sort of amazed that The Beatles are responsible for "Twist and Shout" and I had absolutely no clue. None. But there you go, Youtube doesn't lie. Now that Emmett naps reliably I have some time to read. Aside from books for book club, I've been reading some that I picked up at the library after seeing them recommended in our quarterly teaching magazine Professionally Speaking. Right now I'm just getting in to and really enjoying Brain Rules for Baby and Raising Boys in a New Kind of World (which was written by a man who is a father and teacher locally in Caledon East, ON). This book was published in 2011. I am finding his observations about behaviours in school right on the money - and not just for boys. However his suggestions about how to change schools are . I suppose he makes the grand sweeping claim that all schools still require classes to sit silently and listen to the teacher to illustrate his points, but this is far from true for many classrooms (at least in my school). Granted, I guess statistically classrooms are still set up in "sage on the stage" style, but teachers are constantly adding to their arsenal of lessons that incorporate movement. I already do almost all of the things Reist suggests, but in the larger context of the "do what I say" culture (much of which comes from parents) it is a constant uphill battle to say the least. I understand that we're the adults, and as the adults it's our job to change what's not working, but at some point I hope the kids decide to throw us a bone. |