my visit to the dentist

News/Updates/Links (10:03 am EST) - (Wired) Jedi an official religion in New Zealand? - (Dandelion Report) Filk Forte update from Allison: What songs have moved you emotionally and why?

Some of my friends have asked what my typical day is, now that I'm on sabbatical. I haven't really had a typical day at home yet, so I can't really answer that. We spent three weeks at the cottage, and right now I'm purging and reorganizing my home office. Going to the gym pretty much every day. Trying to spend more time outdoors. Doing more reading. Last night, Jeff and I decided to do something radical and just READ (no computers, no television, no movies). I'm reading Lord of the Rings and The Subtle Knife (by Philip Pullman).





I had a dentist's appointment yesterday. I used to hate going to the dentist. My childhood dentist was a large man with big hands and a gruff voice. He didn't use anaesthetic during fillings, and would quietly say, "shut up" if I started whimpering during treatment. He was supposedly very competent, however, and well-known in his field.





I love my current dentist; she's great! Although I still can't honestly say that I get excited about going to my dental appointments, I don't dread them anymore. Sometimes I even doze off during the treatment. They treat children as well as adults, and this is reflected in the decor...a giant toothbrush in the corner, cartoon stickers, toys in the waiting room, etc.





You have to feel sorry for dentists, in a way. Like lawyers, they have to endure a society-induced stigma even though their basic job is to help people. It must be somewhat worse for children's dentists; imagine having to treat a child who is genuinely scared of you, and knowing that you will have to cause them pain (even if it is for their own good). I don't know if I'd have the emotional stamina; I'm too much of a wimp. Good thing I'm not a dentist...my patients would all be reeling about in agony, their teeth falling out and plaque build-up so bad that they'd have to eat all their meals through a straw.


But enough about plaque.





Anyway, did I mention how much I'm looking forward to Andrea's visit? She arrives tomorrow, woohoo! :-) I'm hoping she'll be willing to do a Guest Blathering or two while she's here.




Today's Blatherpics:

These photos were taken yesterday when I went for my dental appointment. The staff were highly amused. :-)

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:

Do you floss regularly?

intriguing mementoes

Woohoo, slept in until 6:30 this morning!


Update on my Lord of the Rings attempt: Hey, I've actually finished The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers! And I'm really enjoying it. I've also started a comic strip called Waiting For Frodo about a guy waiting in line for the Lord of the Rings movie in December. The comic strip will only run until December, obviously. :-)


The entire strip will take place in line, but I think it'll be fun figuring out stuff that can happen to him. If any of you have suggestions (even non-Tolkien people can contribute, though no killing off of the main character allowed! :-)), feel free to post them on the message board or e-mail me privately. Anyone who contributes will be listed in the credits.


Continuing to purge, and am coming across something interesting stuff (Jeff would call it junk, but I think I'd rather call it "intriguing mementoes of the past" :-)). The photo at the top of the page is an example. I used this template in one of my early summer jobs during school. "CIF 4649" was the project code, I believe, and I was teaching myself Fortran during slack hours as a computer operator at the Ministry of Labour about 20 years ago. That was my first office job, where I printed out elevator certificates (the ones saying that the elevator has passed certain guidelines).









The picture above is of my office as it is now. Wow, empty shelves!! The neatness is deceptive, however, since most of my office stuff is still lying all over the living room. I like the extra space, and being able to look out my office window. Too bad I can't just leave my junk out in the living room. >:-) I'll take another photo in a few days for comparison, once I've managed to get everything back in. The photo below is of my junk piled on our piano. There is also junk on and beneath the dining room table, just outside my office on the floor, on the coffee table, piled up in front of our television stand. Jeff has been very patient throughout.









I actually have managed to throw out a lot of stuff during this process. Papers, books (whimper of pain), old cassette tapes. Managed to compress three full boxes of tapes to less than one. Came across some gems which I refuse to throw out, like the first tape Allison ever gave me (she was Allison Drury back then) with recordings of the early filk songs she had written. Recordings of stuff we did when we were a foursome instead of a trio, and called "Northern Retreat" instead of "Urban Tapestry". I have resisted the urge to listen to these so far...I'll save them until after I've finished purging my office. I also came across a bunch of old filk tapes that I will likely donate to Interfilk.


You would be amused to compare Jeff's home office to mine. Jeff's is always clean, spare, with everything at right angles. The books are all lined up with straight spines. Most of the furniture is black.


My office is chaos in comparison, books and papers piled crookedly, a Patrick Stewart literacy poster taped on my door. Most of my furniture is white. I don't like bare walls, however, and I've done my best (too successfully, I think :)) in leaving as little bare wall space showing as possible, squeezing in as much colour as I can.


Jeff's office is a fair bit bigger than mine. He once offered to trade, but I said no. With the glass doors separating the office from the living room, I would have to keep my office tidy and organized since it would be in public view all the time. Ugh, no way. I've always preferred an office where I have the option of closing the door and shutting out the rest of the world if I want to. Decor and window view aren't nearly as important as the ability to have my own quiet space.


It's one of the requirements I asked for (but naively didn't insist on getting written into the deal docs) when I agreed to work in an office in Philly. It was a major culture shock to find myself plunked in the middle of a cubicle environment instead.









Every so often, I do miss the office I had on Mowat Avenue (Doug still uses it for his own business). But I'm enjoying the luxury of being able to work in my grubbies again, and being able to play my harp whenever I want. :-)


Today's Blatherpics:


- Data processing flowchart template (how many of you have ever used one of these?).


- My office right now.


- The piano right now.


- My cubicle at Xlibris.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Amanda Snyder)

Are you a neat freak?

fridge magnets

Yesterday was Lyanne's birthday...happy belated birthday, Lyanne!


I'm in the midst of the most complete home office purge I've done since we moved into this building. Claustrophobia has set in, and I need to find some more space somehow. And I've actually cleared a space in front of my window so I can actually look outside. Wow. There's a world out there.


At this moment, the contents of my office have exploded into the living room, and I'm gradually trying to fit stuff back in. Purging as much as I can, but throwing things out is difficult for me; I'm a packrat by nature. I need to at least clear the living room by the time Andrea arrives this Friday, however, else she won't have a place to sleep!


While I'm going through this spring cleaning frenzy, I'm coming across stuff I haven't seen in ages ("Oh...THAT's where that went!"). It's tough not to reminisce over every item like this, and even tougher to force myself to throw it out.


The Blatherpic at the top of the page is of Paul and Beckett's fridge. I took the photo when Allison, Jodi and I briefly visited just before Consonance a few months ago. On our fridge: one set of magnetic fridge poetry, "dress up Venus", postcard magnet from Beckett, Totoro clip magnet from our friend Ryo in Japan, Dandelion Wine biz card magnet, Moira Allen biz card magnet, doubledecker bus magnet from the UK, Greg Klyma fridge magnet, air plant, some very old pictures by Sara and Annie (one is a fingerpainting by Sara when she was two, I think), small photo magnet of me with Sara in my lap, Star Trek Enterprise magnet (I gave this to my brother in '93 after Toronto Trek, kept it after he died later that year), bits of poetry which visitors have put together (-very- interesting, hm... :-)).


So what's on your fridge right now? :-) Answer here.







Today's Blatherpics:


- Paul and Beckett's fridge.


- Our fridge.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Sherman Dorn)

Do you have anything interesting on your fridge right now?

savour

Today's poll question is: Have you ever bought groceries online? I used to, and revelled in the fact that I could do it. The novelty has worn off somewhat, however, and I have to confess that I usually prefer shopping in person.


This realization crystallized during my last shopping expedition, at the mega-Loblaws complex at Lower Jarvis and Front. Jeff offered to help, but I turned him down right away. Not because I wanted to save him the trouble, but because I had been looking forward to the solo experience. Sounds bizarre, I know, and some of you are probably wondering if I've taken this sabbatical thing too much to heart. :-)


There's something about browsing through the aisles of a supermarket, however, that is incredibly satisfying. If you're in a hurry (as most of us are most of the time), you'll view it only as an inconvenience...grabbing the items on your shopping list and getting out of there as fast as possible. If the opportunity ever arises, try going at a more leisurely pace. The best situation is if you have no real deadline, and only a few items that you have to buy. And go alone.


Last time, I mostly hung out in the produce department, surrounded by crisp lettuces, carrots, sweet-fragranced fruit, hovering over small bundles of fresh herbs like basil and spicy coriander (wishing I had an excuse to buy some). I did buy some watercress, simply because I've always wanted to try making watercress sandwiches. They always sounded so yummy in the British children's books.


The tropical fruit section is also intriguing, changing throughout the year. Every once in a while I'll indulge in a piece of fruit I've never tried before. This time I picked up a loquat. Urban Tapestry covers a song by the Indigo Girls called "Wild Wild Party In The Loquat Tree", and I've always been curious. I meant to share it with Allison when she visited last week, but forgot. Haven't eaten it yet; might do that later today.









Something else I'm trying to do is learning to taste things again. I've been too used to viewing meals mostly as a necessary inconvenience, stuffing food into my mouth without really tasting anything, anxious to get back to work. I pretty much lived on frozen Michelina dinners when I was in Philly.


Now I'm trying to make an attempt to actually focus on the appearance, taste and texture of what I'm eating. One good side effect is that this forces me to slow down my chowing down, and I only eat if I'm hungry (as opposed to automatically cleaning my plate, no matter what).


I don't think this "stop and smell the roses" trend is merely because I'm forcing myself to slow down in general. My need to get back to my own creative fiction writing has been gradually increasing. I suspect that writer part of me has been in hibernation for a while, having given up on waiting for me to disentangle myself from the whole corporate thing, and is only now just waking up. Probably muttering to itself, "It's about bloody time..." :-) In order to get back into fiction writing, I need to start noticing (REALLY noticing) the world around me again, and spending more time offline.


Speaking of writing, my editor approved the article I sent for her book, yay! My last work-related deadline is this Friday, when I have to have a cover blurb written for a new book coming out from Allworth Press: "The Writer's Guide To Queries, Pitches & Proposals" by Moira Allen. Love the book so far, and am going to be referring to it when I get back into my nonfiction writing this fall.


And I'm *really* looking forward to Andrea's visit this weekend. :-)





Today's Link: (Courtesy Jodi)


The VC:

I especially love this particular strip :-D


Today's Blatherpics:


- St. Lawrence Market on Saturday.


- Sign outside the Oak Leaf Steam Baths in Toronto.


- I took this picture at the cottage, very early in the morning, leaning over the back of the motorboat. The water was very smooth and reflected the colour of the sky just as it was starting to show signs of sunrise...amazing colour textures; the photo does not do it justice. The white splotch in the photograph is the reflection of the moon, which was half full. I miss the cottage.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:

Have you ever bought groceries online?

facepainting

LOTR and Waiting For Frodo updated.




After we had brunch with friends yesterday, Jeff went to see the Chinese Acrobatic show at Harbourfront with Kaarel, Sara, and Annie. Ruth was supposed to go, but she was sick, so Jeff used her ticket. I spent the afternoon wandering about the St. Lawrence farmers' market, reading in the park, listening to a street musician group, browsing vintage shops. For a total of $12 Cdn, I bought a first edition copy of "Cheaper By The Dozen", a first edition Nancy Drew book ("The Hidden Staircase", second book in the series), and a 1913 first edition of "The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car".


I love old books. Drop me in a used bookstore, and I could be happy for hours. My favourite used bookstore (more because of the atmosphere than because of the prices) is the David Mason bookshop on Queen Street. Wonderfully creaky floors, very quiet, browsers welcome (i.e. you don't have a salesperson at your elbow offering help every few minutes).


Jeff and I had dinner with Bryan, Rob, and Chloe at a Chinese restaurant down the street, then we went to "Shrek" at the Paramount. I loved it even more than the first time; Jeff thought the movie was okay. (he doesn't think Annie and Sara would like it). I'd be curious to hear from any of you parents who took their kids, whether they enjoyed the movie even without understanding the insider adult jokes. No spoilers, tho, please. :-)


Finished "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman, "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman, enjoyed both very much. I'm starting to ration my Lord of the Rings readings...I'm realizing that once I get to the end, that's it. Do any of you tend to do that? Starting to slow down near the end of a very good story because you don't want it to end?


I *loved* the new trailer for LOTR. There's quite a few movies coming out later this year which I'm looking forward to: A.I., LOTR, Harry Potter, Evolution (stop choking, Andy, I'm curious about David Duchovny :)), Final Fantasy, Planet of the Apes.


Still waking up at about 5 a.m. every morning, no matter what time I go to bed at night. It's driving me nuts! I want to be able to SLEEP IN for once. Not sure what to do; suggestions welcome. :-)


Hope everyone's having a great weekend...




Today's Blatherpics:


- Annie at Harbourfront, after a face-painting session. (Jeff took this picture).

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:

Do you enjoy going on rollercoaster rides?