Milk actually used to be delivered by a man with a horse-drawn carriage. In the winter it was a sleigh and the horse’s droppings (road apples) made for excellent hockey pucks.
Never underestimate the power of a hot water bottle at the foot of your bed on a cold night.
Just because he used to tell stories about “when I was a boy” it doesn’t suit his little daughter to walk around telling people stories about when she “was a boy”.
Spiders are protected by a universal catch and release program.
Being pulled up the stairs in a sleeping bag and then being allowed to slide back down in said soft blankety parcel is extremely fun.
When I was 10 he could run faster backwards, than I could forwards.
Bears won’t come near our campsite. The tent is safe and the story mom told about squirrels being able to open peanut butter jars is false.
Those are just a few of the fun things. My dad would give piggy backs, never serve us junk food, teach us to be polite and quiet, although when we misbehaved his English accent came out in his stern “first, middle, last name” call for us.
I’d like to think of him as a walking, talking Wikipedia or Google. Whenever I have a questions about anything in the universe #1 just ask my dad, #2 try Google.
He also always knows the best place in any town nearby to get a hearty breakfast for under 5 bucks.
Despite the fact that he would pick me up from school in a big embarrassing delivery van… coming right up to the doors yeah… right in front of all the cool kids… he would wake up at 5am to make me breakfast and take me to school early for my morning running club meets. He’d attend every rugby game (and we’d win every one he attended) and taught me everything about anything that I know. During those troubling teen years, he was always there for me even though our lives were both going topsy turvy.
He didn’t even freak out when I came back from a trip and told him I was in love with a boy from Iowa.
Today is his birthday. I’d like to take him for breakfast or for some fish and chips. Unfortunately, my life got even more crazy lately so for several reasons, I won’t be seeing him. I hope he knows just how much I appreciate him and maybe I’ll be able to catch him next week… maybe he’ll bake us a loaf of his multigrain bread, and I’ll be able to tell him I love him and wish him a happy birthday.
Did it ever screw you up as a kid when voices of cartoon characters would change up? Most recently this happens when you watch season one episodes of Family Guy [wiki], which feature a different actress doing Meg’s voice.
We were watching it today [Episode Wiki] and Stewie said the following: “Jim Henson had a wait and see attitude, and look what happened to him. Now we’ve got wrong-sounding Muppets.” A clip then plays, showing Kermit talking in a funky voice (obviously not his own). Then the Swedish Chef enters and starts talking to him in an American accent. This bit cracked me up and I wish I could find it on You Tube but in its place, there’s another Kermit on Family Guy clip below.
This reminded me of a couple other cartoons I used to watch where the voices for characters changed. The most noticeable for me was Bugs Bunny [wiki], after the passing of Mel Blanc. It was so weird to hear Bugs but not Bugs’ voice.
You get used to the new voices then you start associating episodes with the voice, “oh that one was with old so and so.” Although cartoons’ voices change less frequently than actors playing a child on a soap opera, it can still throw you off.
I’m pretty behind on a lot of bloggy things and since we’re up to SO much within the next week I’ll compose a little list below of links and activities.
Taken at the Fogg on Friday. I got home from work so aggravated I told John we were heading out to watch the game. At some point I commandeered his cell phone and this was the result – interesting.
I met today with a student from a university back East that is writing her thesis on blogging (along the lines of a why do you blog kinda thing). She’s looking for a couple more bloggers to interview so with a lack of a list off the top of my head I pointed her in the direction of my blogroll. I’m sure she’ll gather some really interesting perspectives on the medium and I’m pretty excited about being a part of something like that.
Thursday is my father’s birthday so I’ll be posting the mandatory sappy, cheesy, dedication to the man that taught me so much including knowledge of local history and how to kick ass in rugby.
As previously noted, John and I were thinking about attending Northern Voice. We’ve been able to purchase his admission for both days, and I’ll just be going on Saturday. We never did hear back about volunteering, but splitting it up like this helped us save a little money at least.
Sunday there is a podcaster meetup [audihertz], a highlight being that a host of the Canadian Podcast Buffet will be in attendance. Unfortunately, we’re not sure if we’ll go – even though we run our share of podcasts. February 25th is our 1st wedding anniversary and the reason why I’ve also taken Monday off work. I’m really interested in going but since the first part of our weekend is being monopolized by a blogging conference… so an afternoon of watching hockey, drinking wine, having a nice dinner and celebrating alone with my husband seems a little more appealing.
On a side note, lacking a laptop of my own, I have the feeling that I’ll be the only person at Northern Voice with a note pad and paper. Also, the following weekend I’ll be in Victoria for a girls weekend. Hopefully I’ll be able to have some access (local internet cafe or hijacked hotel computer) to do a blog post and post some pics of the hijinx. I promise, neither my sister or I will be shaving our heads.
A staple of Canadian television when I was growing up were those short Body Break spots featuring Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod – brought to us by ParticipACTION. The catchy little Body Break tune would chime in and you’d see Hal and Joanne eating right, power walking and telling us what we can do to live a healthy lifestyle. They were always cheery and wore matching pastel coloured track suits.
Starting in the early 1970s, the non-profit agency encouraged Canadians to get fit. The program included a series of television ads that encouraged people of all ages to “keep fit and have fun.” The program ran for three decades, until its funding was cut in 2001. [CBC]
It was announced today that the Federal government pledged $5 million (over 2 years) to renew ParticipACTION to help Canadians develop healthier lifestyles.
Not sure if the two are related, but when we were in elementary school we had the Canada Fitness Program. It was a check-list of tasks to complete including (but not limited to) long distance running, push ups, sit-ups, and of course, the all-time most-feared – the shuttle run.
Recently in an episode of Corner Gas one of the cops, Davis, was tricked into thinking there was a fitness requirement for the force so he got Brent’s dad to whip him into shape. Oscar went old-school and used the Canada Fitness program to get Davis going. It brought back so many memories, especially of the dreaded shuttle run.
Once a year the older grades would have a list of fitness activities to complete. Depending on the level of difficulty you were able to accomplish, you were given a Canada Fitness Award. They were little badges ranging from bronze, silver, gold and the BEST you could achieve was ‘excellence’. This was a most-coveted badge and in my grade 7 year I reached it. Unfortunately due to a teachers’ strike in the spring, I was never awarded my badge. Go figure.
Not that I wouldn’t want to claim these smart little cuties. John and I were just visiting with the kids this afternoon. You know that show on Life Network called Crash Test Mommy? Yeah, my sister would LOVE to sign me up for that. She raises her 3 little ones (who are 6, 4 and 2 years old) day in and day out, on top of working part-time.
John and I had my niece and nephews for a couple of hours this afternoon. If we had them tomorrow I would have taken them to the Chinese New Year Parade but we still had a pretty good time. We ate lunch, went for a walk, coloured, watched a movie and baked some cookies. They’re such well behaved kids (although don’t let their cherub-like appearance fool you) it still is challenging.
I discovered a little something about my husband’s potential parenting skills. He was around when his nieces and nephews were growing up back in Iowa and I gotta say, he’s got that whole ‘say your name once in a stern tone if you’re doing something bad, it will make you freeze in your tracks and PAY attention‘ thing down to a tee.
I also found out that I need more colouring supplies in my house. A couple of highlighters had to suffice since the only other drawing tools we have on-hand are sharpies and, well permanent marker and little kiddies just don’t mix. I printed a some pictures off a couple kids colouring sites and also discovered PBS has online colouring – perfect for my niece who knows more about computers than half the people I work with.
My sister’s probably laughing at the fact that I’m a little tired right now. Yes, she has my respect, a lot of it. She also can’t wait until I have kids so she can a) play with a new baby b) watch me lose my girlish figure c) load my kids up with sugar then send them home to us.
I’d like to think of him as a walking, talking Wikipedia or Google. Whenever I have a questions about anything in the universe #1 just ask my dad, #2 try Google.
