You've Got to Listen to This!

I'm sure I've heard "Mexican Radio" a zillion times and just thought it was some cute novelty song...then I heard this version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire", and I became hooked on Wall of Voodoo! Click on the link to listen!

William Ware Theiss at the Beauty Counter

I'd been aware at some level that this product existed, but never actually stumbled across it 'til I was in Shoppers buying a toothbrush today. Special tape to, you know, tape your clothes to your skin to avoid gaping, slipping, etc. I'm sure more than a few of us have already used this trick but let's face it, if you're wearing something you have to tape on, you're probably not exactly modestly dressed to begin with.

Just Because You're Not That Into Me Doesn't Mean We Can't Fool Around, Right?

Actually, no, that isn't what that means.

Just a public service announcement, hope it helps somebody out sometime.

Finished reading Drowning Ruth, an Oprah Book Club Selection. I swore I would stay away from those things but the book sounded pretty good, and it was okay, I guess. The whole premise, though, hinges on what one woman does just after giving birth, and honey, I don't know anyone that would be capable of THAT.

I need a serious dose of reality. Maybe it's time for some more Philip K. Dick.

It Feels Like December 6

I found about the yesterday's shootings in Montreal when I walked into a store that had CBC Newsworld on. I just stood and stared at it, feeling sick. Put the words "Montreal", "school" and "shootings" together and you just bring back memories of December 6, 1989, and fourteen women murdered for being women. You bring back the fear that it could happen to me. I was a couple of years away from attending university at the time, and while I'm not an engineer, I was in engineering courses and buildings with engineering students and profs. Just throw in some crazy guy with a gun and crappy grades, and....people I know have bullets in them. Maybe myself as well.

I heard last year that a lot of university-aged women didn't know about the women killed at L'ecole Polytech; shocking, because for older women, the date is enough to bring a chill, a look of fear, a twist to the stomach.

Yesterday's shootings seem to be more a Columbine/Taber/(insert your favourite case of a horribly maladjusted, bullied individual here) thing. Somehow, I don't know, they don't hit me as hard. Like somebody coming in and shooting up their workplace. Bad if you're there, but you work with really nice people who don't have guns, right?

Back in Black

...which is of course, covered in cat hair.

Pretty good summer, I guess. I've been going to my parents' as often as I can, trying to help them out as my dad is getting so frail. I painted the living room (including ceiling) and started working on the trim. Doing other stuff to help out, which is hard because they both think of me as a child. I was telling my sister about the guy that came up to my apartment and threatened me last year (somehow came up in conversation) and told her not to tell my dad. She said, "Yeah, if he heard that he'd come and get you and drag you home." And that, boys and girls, is why I live 100 miles away from my parents.


My brother and his wife have a new little boy, Patrick, very small and dark compared to his brother. Here is is wrapped un in the quilt his favourite aunt (me) made for him. I rarely get a picture of my projects before I give them away because I'm always finishing them at the last minute. I finished sewing on the binding at my parents' the day before I gave him the quilt. It's really difficult to feel bad about that kind of thing because my sister brought the cross-stitch birth announcement she was making for him and finished it there too. You can't escape genetics!

I read a hell of a lot in July. Have to come up with a list or something. I just read and read, trying to ignore the heat, but I broke down and bought an air conditioner. I've only had it on once or twice. People say to me, you don't pay for hydro so why not? Sometimes I feel like a sucker for doing what I can to cut down on energy use, but really I don't understand why others don't do more. It's so easy, but so many people are concerned with themselves and not society as a whole. I'm reading John Ralston Saul's The Unconscious Civilization and he goes in to that a little. Individuals get so wrapped up in themselves that they ignore the fact they are part of an entire society, and essentially become passive consumers.

Hmmm....maybe I shouldn't be sitting here just blogging about myself!