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This image is called megishungry.jpeg. Hahahahahahahahahhaahahahahhahahaa

We put the U in Ucluelet

For some reason, I really like this picture taken through the screen door. In Ucluelet we had our own private deck, complete with private hot tub. The stars have never looked so good or so steamy! If anyone is looking for a brilliant, chilled out weekend, stay at Point West Cottages. They only have three cottages to let but they are each self-contained units with hot tubs and kitchens. The owners are really nice and they also know to leave you be. Walk the Wild Pacific Trail, see the lighthouse, rent a bike for an afternoon, and you could even do all those things we didn't do like like go surfing or kayaking or drive up to Tofino to check that place out. More pics will appear as they become availble!

Elevenses

Ok, eleven days since my last post. My bad. I tried to find an animated gif finger wagging at me but my search skills among animated gifs need to be sharpened.

What have I been up to in all this time? Having more super visitors, taking off to Ucluelet for a long weekend (bliss) and raking myself over the coals academically. At very short notice I had to give a presentation to my department, 20 minutes of presenting garnered me an entire course grade, and September always marks the emotional trauma of putting together scholarship applications that might come through next year. Handed that last piece in today and now I might go find myself a beer for my trouble!

This is a short and oh-so-sweet post (wouldn't you agree?) just to let you know I'm still alive. I won't leave you hanging though, I found something to entertain you while I construct a more elaborate post replete with images of Ucluelet, etc. I've just found out some very good news, you see. A recent update to wikipedia has alerted me that there is a movie coming out in 2008 we should go see, in fact, buy your tickets now before they sell out!

I'm sorry the image is so small but essentially the message is that Meg, a novel about a prehistoric, terrifying shark (the Megalodon) is being made into a movie! I never thought it would happen! Rocco found the terrible, predictable, really nauseatingly bad book at a Salvation Army store for a quarter and brought it home as a gift for me. I've had photocopies of the cover posted around my office, and often force the book upon unsuspecting friends. Can you believe they are making the movie for a novel whose tagline reads: If you see her glow... it's too late!? Now there's something to look forward to! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Two for tea!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Our parents were very generous in conveniently spacing their birthdays only a day apart for their scatter-brained daughters. When we were all younger and all living in the same house, we used to get two cakes! Nowadays people are too concerned about waistlines, etc, to even bother with one cake. Still, birthdays are a thing to celebrate.

Here are some sweetpeas for my dad. I hope you have a super day, make that a super week. Lots of love, dad!

You're aging well!

Happy Birthday Mom! Mom's favourite flower used to be, and may well still be, fresia, so here is a virtual birthday fresia. I hope you have a fabulous day, mom. You deserve it. Lots of love.

Techno wizzes

If you look closely at the (1983) television screen you will see two images, one on the left and one on the right, and a smaller image at the bottom, boxed in. C d iddy biddy webcam and Mac Mini on top of the tv? Not only did Rocco arrange for the webcam to video chat through the ancient tv set, we also managed to establish a three way chat with mom and dad in Lethbridge and my sister in Edmonton. Ma and Pa are on the left, K is on the right, and their view of us is in the little box at the bottom of the screen. There was a slight problem synching all three views and audio tracks up at the beginning (much humourous sign display ensued) but overall the experiment was successful. V. cool, as some would say.

Happy times

Wowzers, the past week has been busy, busy with fantastic visitors. Having people visiting means I get to explore more of the city in order to show them around and to keep everyone entertained. The Duchess and I rented electric bikes and putted around Stanley Park. For anyone out there in Vancouver trying to dream up an activity to entertain themselves or visitors, electric bikes are the way to go! I stole this picture of the Duchess on the electric cruiser from her blog so it will look familiar to some folks:
She's now on her way to Alberta then on to San Diego for a week of surfing with her cousin. We gave her a good send-off here with lots of pseudo-meat, beer, and Sega Genesis, of all things!

Dawn, Steve and Hailey were the next to pull up at Chateau O'. Look at these beautiful, happy people! Hailey is 15 months now and has mastered the word 'cat'. Let's just say Sophie was mildly traumatised by all the attention she was getting. To distract her, Rocco tried to get Hailey hooked on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Not sure why, but there seem to be zero pictures of Steve or myself during their visit. Mostly we ate really well, visited in the evenings while Hailey was passed out, and got into the wine and beer a little. Steve got totally hooked on kakuro puzzles - beware of trains and distracted engineers in Southern Alberta now!




One last pic to close out this post. Rocco was in Toronto recently, and though he had pictures of Beatrice the Volkswagen and other wild adventures on his digital camera, everyone seemed to be most taken with our toilet cat. Sophie the weirdo wins again!

Head's up!

The Duchess (of the great Yukon adventure) has started a travel blog for her Great South American Adventure. Hopefully she updates regularly so the rest of us can live vicariously. [Dee, that was a challenge, in case you didn't notice.] You'll find the link to her blog on the right sidebar of Liminal Me but it is also available right here: http://diedredavidson.wordpress.com/

Tuna breath

Yes, my cat has tuna breath. Yuck.

"It's a fair cop."

Academic admits to profane hoax on literary rival

Associated Press

LONDON — A biographer of English poet John Betjeman has confessed to writing a hoax love letter that duped a rival author, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

The Sunday Times said Bevis Hiller admitted sending the fake letter to A.N. Wilson — complete with a coded four-letter insult aimed at Wilson.

“It's a fair cop,” the newspaper quoted Hillier saying when confronted about the letter.

Wilson thought the passionate letter — ostensibly written by Betjeman to a Second World War colleague, Honor Tracy — was evidence of a previously unknown extramarital affair and included it in his recently published book Betjeman.

Wilson acknowledged the letter must be fake last week, after the Sunday Times pointed out the first letter of each sentence spelled out “A.N. Wilson is a shit.”

The newspaper quoted Hillier saying the hoax was prompted by annoyance at the attention received by Wilson's book, published after his own three-volume biography of the poet.

“When a newspaper started billing Wilson's book as ‘the big one,' it was just too much,” Hillier was quoted saying.

The two men have a history of animosity. Hillier previously denied involvement in the letter hoax but told the newspaper he thought Wilson was “despicable.”

In a 2002 book review, Wilson said Hillier's biography of Betjeman was a “hopeless mishmash of a book.”

Wilson's publisher said the letter would be removed from reprints of Betjeman.

Labour Day Madness!

Meh, not so much.

A number very close to everyone I know in Vancouver are away or otherwise occupied this long weekend, and I am the designated cat-sitter. Rocco is visiting friends in the Big Smoke, D&N are away in Alberta (their furry beasts are in my care for the duration), A&M are also away on a Rockies road trip, two friends are totally submerged in thesis hell, J has a new man who keeps her busy, so pretty much I'm left with little Sophie. Stevo is around and actually we moved him from one apartment to another on Friday and made the requisite trip to Ikea yesterday. Other than his company, it's been a very quiet weekend so far, promising to finish up much as it started.

I don't mind so much. I have this dang blasted paper to write for the folks funding my stay at UBC, so a bit of peace and quiet is not a bad thing. Have I actually been working on it, though, really? Not so much. I've got to dive into some Donna Haraway and a text called The Self and Social Psychology, and right now they look about as appealing as the load of greasy dishes by the sink and the stinky piles of runner's laundry. Ew.

I think I'll just go play with the cats. That way I'm fulfilling at least one of my duties this weekend, the cats are happy, I'm relaxed, everyone's happy except the UBC working group. But they'll get their paper before long. Just to show you how exciting it will be to write, here's the working title: Self-referential Techniques for Corporeal Awareness in Pedagogical Technologies for Sustainability: Activating action potentials*. Go me!

I should add that this weekend is the calm before the storm. As of Tuesday, we have numerous guests, some overlapping, until September 22. They are all super, duper people and I'm really excited to see all of them. It will be tricky to fit in school work and washing sheets between visitors, but it'll be a fabulous time of comraderie and eating at great restaurants!

*It's not an academic paper without a sub-title, after all. Just like it's not modern dance without some gratuitous nudity. See Marie Chouinard and butoh.