Wow! I have a blog!

Nana Mouskouri Comes to Town

Yes, that Nana Mouskouri.

Three Years of Blogging at Alma's Soulfood!

...there's been highs and lows and everything in between. (Ok, mostly stuff in between, but whatever.) And remember my readers, whatever happens I am here for you.

Boo!

Yawn...

Yawn...

No time to blog right now....

... but I'm with you in spirit!

At'ta Boy!

Not much time for blogging these days, though I do snap off a quick tweet now and then, so watch the Twitter box in the right column or go here. (I mean, if you're that fasinated with my life, and who wouldn't be?) And like 100 million other people, I am also on Facebook.

Ok, just time for a quick joke (with apologies to my friend Rudy and a hat tip to Andrew Sullivan):

From Peggy Noonan, Wall St. Journal:

By the way, the best line of the convention so far? Ted Strickland of Ohio, when he echoed the 1988 Democratic convention joke about George H.W. Bush, that he was born on third and thought he hit a triple. Strickland said of George W. Bush that he was born on third and then stole second.

(Yes, that's a picture of lil' W above.)

We're Back from the Lake

...oops, not that lake, but you know what I mean.

Contrary to Popular Belief...

...this blog has not been completely abandoned! I'm back from Califfornia and getting back into the swing of things. I hope to do some posting soon...including everybody's favourite: vacation pictures!

Gone Surfing

I'm submerged with work these days, so I might as well grab a board and make an adventure out of it. See you back at the beach!

North of Pearblossom

Sometimes the desert looks so inviting (click to make big). Don't know what those little dibbits are along the road on the bottom. Maybe my brother will go and check 'em out for me?

Easter Weekend

There's something in the light that tells you spring is coming. But it's not here yet, even in southern Ontario. Coots Paradise (above), in Hamilton where Wendy's parents live, is still pretty much frozen, though if you look closely you can see a sliver of open water on the far shore. Tomorrow we are scheduled to get another snowfall, inching ever closer to the snowfall record for one season.

One great thing about Canada is that many people get a four-day weekend at Easter. It's a big family holiday here, more so than in the States I think. We had a great time seeing folks and catching up on sleep (and if you don't care to hear the details of what we did all weekend, feel free to stop reading now!):

Good Friday: Wendy went to a service at St. John's Anglican up the street. Amado has been sick and we missed a lot of sleep this past week (actually, I don't think we slept much at all), so I stayed home with the kid and we took a long nap. Later I took him for a stroller ride outside, but he just wanted to jump in puddles, even though he wasn't dressed for it.

Saturday: We woke up early and drove about 30 miles to Guelph for a play date with Simone, the daughter of our friends Beverley and Pat who is the same age as Amado. We had a fantastic Mexican breakfast, then Amado and Simone played in their indoor playground, which I guess is something Canadian kids do when it's cold out. After we got home, Wendy did some laundry, I went grocery shopping - mistakenly ending up at a pretentious rich person's strip mall. I found what I needed, but paid the price. I stayed up late cooking lamb stew.

Easter: We all woke up late, then went to church at Emmanuel-Howard Park United Church. Amado isn't totally comfortable in the Sunday School yet, so I stayed in the nursery with him. Wendy didn't find the service to be what she expected (I think she posted her review on Facebook, for those of you who use it). Afterwards, we had subs and took a nap. Then we went to a great family dinner at Wendy's sister's house. Amado was being a pill though, so we left early.

Easter Monday: We woke up early and took off with the lamb stew to Wendy's parent's in Hamilton. It had snowed a bit on Sunday night, and we had some scary sliding on the ice as we left our neighbourhood. But we made it and had a great visit and great lunch. On the way home, there was a crash right next to us on the Queen E. At home, Wendy went grocery shopping and I played with Amado, who's learning words at a rapid rate. Also, our friend Brett Grainger's new book arrived and Wendy and I both started digging into it. It looks like it's going to be really great. I will post something on it later.

Update: I just had to go soothe Amado back to sleep. There was a single moonbeam shining directly in his eye though a crack in the curtains.

Grid Lock

Sorry for the lull in my blogging activities... I wandered into the grid of my life and couldn't get out! I'll be back soon.

Weekend Update

1. Gun Moll: In 1972, after watching the movie, Bonnie and Clyde (above, the real deal), I raced around the streets on my bicycle for a couple of weeks wearing a beret and a scarf tied around my neck playing cops and robbers. Of course, I imagined I was Bonnie. I don't know where that came from, though it was hard to miss the fact that she had a killer instinct for fashion.

2. Family Day: As a reward for voting him into a second term as Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty gave the people of Ontario a new holiday, Family Day, which was celebrated today for the first time. There was widespread confusion in Ontario about what we were supposed to do on Family Day, but as for my family, we celebrated quietly, exchanging family heirlooms and enjoying a family dinner while sitting beneath the family tree.

3. Weather Update: We're having a great winter this year, with tons of snow and some bitter cold temperatures. As a native Californian, I still find the Canadian winter exotic and totally exciting. Of course I live in an apartment and don't have to set my alarm clock to dig my car out in the morning. I also live very close to my office and don't have to spend a couple extra hours commuting on snow days. However, I do spend an extra half-hour getting our two-year-old dressed every day, including snowpants, snowboots, scarfs, mittens, hats, etc. You don't have to do that in LA, now do you.

4. Spring is Coming.... And I've got two field-level tickets to the Blue Jays opening home game vs. the Red Sox on April 4. Oh yeah.

5. Oscars: We watched Juno the other night on DVD (I know it's not out yet, but we have our sources). It's a really, really sweet movie and I loved it. But I can't see it winning picture of the year, though of course I don't keep up with the movies so I have no idea what it's up against.

6. Beans: I may have had one too many double tall lattes at Starbucks this afternoon.

Some Post-Birthday Reflections

1) "As the drop poured into the ocean is the ocean, not the ocean the drop, so the soul drawn into God is God, not God the soul. The soul is in God as God is in God." --Meister Eckhart
2) I need to remember I was born an artist.
3) Don't forget where I came from.
4) Don't forget where I'm going.
5) Honour my temple (which is Christianese for "a little exercise wouldn't kill you").
6) Yesterday, the moment Wendy threw her back out, I knew that our weekend was not going to go as planned. She's still in bed and in a lot of pain. I definitely know what she is going through, having been there before.
7) I'm sorry I won't be able to go to the Santa Cruz flea market again.
8) I am thankful for my birthday gifts: a blender, Raptor tickets, Ondaatje's Divisadero, some great phone calls from family, among other cool things.
9) Amado and I have had a bad cold for a week now. That should be long enough.
10) The Toronto Argonauts are playing the Winnipeg Bombers for the CFL Eastern Championship right at the moment (2nd quarter, Winnipeg leads 11-1). I wonder why I am rooting for Winnipeg, when I live in Toronto and the game is happening just down the road. Worse, why am I more interested in the Detroit Lions game on the other channel?

Above, Huntington Beach, Calif. in happier days.