6, carry the 9, plus the square root of 74

Aye, captain that is land ahead

Not quite sure what's going on

It's not paranonia if they really are watching you

New fall coat

We went to the park on Saturday to see our friends play ultimate. He also had a new nikon 6mp SLR with a telephoto. Hilarity ensues.

My Wonderful Wife

My wife through her persistence managed to exchange my dead Palm for a
brand new one at London Drugs. Kudos to them for excellent customer
service and kudos to my wife for her hard work. Going a week without
the Palm really made me realize how much information I store in that
device and how often (20+ times a day) I go to refer to it. My wife is
so smart. :-)

On the folly of technology

My shiny portable brain suffered a stroke last night. We had a nice dinner with my wife at a charming Indian restaurant in Maple Ridge. We laughed, we cried, we updated the to do list in a few quick strokes of the stylus. I came home, tucked my portable brain safely into its cubbyhole and wished it good night.  This morning it was cold and unresponsive.  Rigor mortis had set in. Soft resets, hard resets, direct power line hookups, nothing worked.  Darkness had fallen over the land.  ... Editor's note: A little over the top but we prefer not to use profanity in blog posts particularly when discussing certain companies that only offer a 90 day warranty on consumer items costing multiple hundreds of dollars.  5 months of operation followed by a sudden death is unacceptable.  I am now cutting and pasting templated forms to index cards to make a Hipster PDA.  I need to stop typing.  I am getting spots in front of my eyes as my blood pressure rises when I consider this situation.

S.

I dream of puppies

I walk into my daughter's room this afternoon to wake her from her
overly long nap. I walk up to the bed, she stirs, rubs her eyes and
blurts out without prompting, "I dream puppies."

I am not brainwashing her, honest. :-)

Normally, the answer to the question of what do the puppies look like is
"pink...and blue". I see a future for her in modern art.

The sights and scenes in Gaza Strip immediately after the Israeli troop pullback Monday, Sept 12, filled Israel’s defense leaders with dread. Total loss of control was manifested by the Palestinian Authority and the Egyptian border police, who stood by as tens of thousands of Palestinians indulged in a wild orgy of destruction, burning, looting and hurling themselves back and forth across the Gazan-Egyptian border unchecked.

Long months of painstaking negotiations with Egypt, the Palestinians and the United States for coordination on post-evacuation security were trampled underfoot. IDF sources estimated Tuesday night, Sept 13, that in two days, about 20,000 Palestinians had flocked into Egyptian Sinai from the Gaza Strip – most intending to stay there - and 3,000 Palestinians had crossed into the Gaza Strip.

Not a single Palestinian security officer was visible on the horizon. Egyptian border police, deployed under a binding protocol with Israel to block the border to unauthorized traffic, obligingly helped infiltrators clamber over the wall marking the frontier.

Hey Summer Breathers

We won the Wednesday night SPIRIT award for the last trimester. The VUL is very spirit orientated so we get a fantastic prize...a 19L KEG OF BEER!

I guess all those dirty limericks, songs and games paied off..not to mention our player of the game beer award and friendly competitive attitude. Stay tuned for a future e-mail regarding Heavy Breathing and friends party so we can enjoy our prize.

I've included VUL's announcement of our prize below for your interest

Steve

As trimester spirit award winners, you are awarded the fabled **pony of R&B beer**. Cherish it. Treat it like your own. Drink it while it's cold. (if you want it for this week, call them - blame me, they'll probably do you the favour).

A daily Starbucks purchase has become a ritual in our family. I tried to fight it. I tried to resist. I tried not to become another one of those suburbanites who spends upwards of $100 a month on designer caffeine. That plan died on the vine the day that Kimi and I attempted to replace our Venti lattes with a couple strong cups of drip coffee. Four hours later, we were parked in the Starbucks drive-thru, holding our aching heads in our hands.

I took out my nipple ring for the first time in 4664 days today. I had to get a chest x-ray and the technician asked it be removed. I didn't even know that I could get it out. I feel positively unbalanced. I have been wearing that piece of jewelery since I was 19 years old. It's been through my undergrad, my MA, trips to europe and latin america, various girlfriends and my now wife and many incredulous conversations.

You have to remember the cultural context of 1992 to understand the gesture somewhat. In Maple Ridge when I walked out with a steel ring in my chest to teach the first waterfit class of the new year with 50+ women there were some interesting reactions. This just wasn't done. Multiple earrings were still strange and body piercing was a long way from the main stream.

I got it done upstairs in Mac Leathers when it used to be on Granville by a somewhat sadistic burly piercier. My middle class illusions were shattered when he asked if I wanted the sharp needle or the dull one. The sharp one consisting of 8 gauge wire sharpened on a grindstone. I was also somewhat disturbed to discover that the freezing went on the end of the wire - something about horses and barns came to mind. After viewing, the clamp, pierce, and jewlery insertion my friend Jon suddenly lost his appetite for body piercing. Each to their own. Apparently my face matched my white shirt.

The silver has worn off and somehow it represents the lessons I"ve learned over the years. Shaped and molded by experience. Symbols are a powerful trigger to memory.

My beautiful wife with my daughter.

Playing peek-a-boo under the kitchen table.

We went to Saltspring Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to stay with family and catch up. We played cards, picked apples and plums from the trees and fresh tomatoes from the garden. Felicity followed the cat around and got to kiss it several times amongts adomitions of gentle, gentle. I am not sure if we were talking to her or the cat. We made music with family and reconnected around the minutiae of everyday life, kids, houses, bills, and food. As well, Felicity got to go on a big boat and run up the front with her hair streaming and chortle.

And the odds of me getting a girly girl who just loves high heeled shoes?

Now lean into that, girl. This ain't no namby pamby state sponsored orphanage. It's time to earn your keep. And none of that 'please sir, can I have some more.'

Apparently it is only against the law if you tape the box shut.

I look like my dad, yes I do. (Not that we keep track of these things) :-)

mmmm....doughnut

In between temper tantrums at the PNE