Garmin Forerunner and FKO part 3

Inspired by conversations with Greg McMullan (back at GAfilk) and Tanya Huff, I went out and used some of my birthday money to buy a Garmin Forerunner 205, which is a GPS-enabled pedometer/trainer.

I've found that tracking progress is a big motivator in my exercise, but I haven't had much luck with my pedometers. One stopped working and I accidentally dropped another into an indoor fountain. :-( The Forerunner tracks all kinds of data without me having to do anything other than turn the device on and off. When I get home after a run or a walk, I just stick the device on a cradle connected to a USB port on my computer, and the stats are uploaded.

Yesterday, for example, I was out for two walks: 5.22 km (1:02 hours, avg speed 5.1 km/hr, burned 322 calories) and 2.45 km (26 min, avg speed 5.6 km/hr, burned 123 calories). I can track my progress locally on my computer, or on the MotionBased Web site.



But back to FilKONtario. So far I've posted Part 1 and
Part 2. Allison's finished posting her FKO reports at:

FilKONtario '08 - Part 1: concom thanks, Tony birthday conspiracy, rehearsals, Marilyn Miller
FilKONtario '08 - Part 2: Tom and Sue's wedding
FilKONtario '08 - Part 3: Urban Tapestry concert
FilKONtario '08 - Part 4: Friday night concerts, one-shots
FilKONtario '08 - Part 5: Thirteen and Desserts and Auctions and Anvils.
FilKONtario '08 - Part 6: Orgami Penguins and Art Slideshows and Harbors and Home.

As Allison mentioned, it was fun to help Vixy with her birthday conspiracy. Jodi found a cute stuffed moose and card, and I brought along some balloons and other birthday party gear. I didn't have time to make a cake plus knew I wouldn't be able to carry one with my other luggage, so I improvised with store-bought cupcakes.



The wedding was wonderful. Like Tom and Sue, the ceremony was relaxed and full of joy. People were encouraged to wear medieval costumes, and the celebratory atmosphere was punctuated by colour and laughter throughout. Sue had made her own costume, and Tom's and Dave's costumes were made by France Andrews.



Music was provided by Al Thomson and Dave Clement, two of Tom's closest friends. I hadn't seen Al in a while, and it was great to hang out with him a bit during the rest of the weekend as well as see him perform in open filk. Dave and Al perform in Curraugh back in Winnipeg. Also great to see Elizabeth (Dave Clement's wife), Doug, and David Rivers from Winnipeg again!



Above: Merle putting the finishing touches on the wedding cake. Merle von Thorn and Marah Searle-Kovacevic did a fantastic job in the con suite as well. Their dessert buffet after the Filk Hall of Fame Banquet was a feast, including homemade caramel apple squares, harvest bars (cranberries, apricots, walnuts, white chocolate), brownies, magic bars, rice krispy treats, apple pie, strawberries cardinal, fruit, veggies, brie, havarti, chocolate truffles, Laura Secora chocolate, and butter tarts. Yum.

I didn't get a chance to sample the wedding dessert buffet table because Allison, Jodi and I had to go warm up for our concert, but those desserts looked pretty amazing as well!


Photo by Korak

One of the things I loved most about the wedding: the focus on the joy of the occasion rather than the details.



The handfasting ceremony was lovely, simple, and deeply moving. You can read a description of it in Allison's Livejournal entry about the wedding.



You can see more photos from the wedding and the convention in my Flickr set, plus Korak and Phil Mills took some great wedding photos.



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FKO part 2: Magic's In The Air

Photo by Phil Mills


I'm writing this report while sipping vanilla jasmine tea from Colleen Savitsky and munching on some lovely dark chili-cherry chocolate from David P. and Marilisa. Mmmm.

Allison has been posting some great reports of FilKONtario over on her Livejournal, for those interested. Last I checked, she had the following up so far:

FilKONtario '08 - Part 1: concom thanks, Tony birthday conspiracy, rehearsals, Marilyn Miller
FilKONtario '08 - Part 2: Tom and Sue's wedding
FilKONtario '08 - Part 3: Urban Tapestry concert
FilKONtario '08 - Part 4: Friday night concerts, one-shots

Rather than duplicate content, I'm just going to expand on bits of Allison's reports. It was so great to be able to finally hang out with Michelle Dockrey one-on-one before the convention started; I knew I wouldn't get much of a chance later on because she'd be involved in GoH duties.

Michelle/Vixy and I have a lot of overlapping interests, I've found, not the least of which is artstuff. Wish we lived closer. Anyway, I think we managed to squeeze in a lot of topics into the hour or so we had together. :-)


Photos by Phil Mills

Many thanks to Phil for letting me use his photos for today's Blathering. The photo at the top is from our Friday night concert, which was fun. It was great to perform Another Round with Juliane, the composer of the song, and be able to do the round with all four parts! Thanks also to Dave Clement for helping us out on Phantom Doll and Green Hills Of Harmony.

And many thanks to our friend Walter for agreeing to be our Seventies Guy! I admit I didn't think he'd do it when Allison and Jodi suggested his name; though I've known Walter for longer than they have, I figured he'd say no.

I was totally delighted at how enthusiastically he threw himself into his part! Walter had shown us a few props, but not much else. During the actual performance, I laughed so hysterically at his disco outfit that I almost fell over (and quit playing my tambourine).

He got changed for his part in the adjoining kitchen after getting permission from the staff, then burst in dressed as Dr. Who after cueing a Tardis sound effect. As Allison, Jodi and I performed The Seventies Song, Walter pulled out various props including a pet rock and enlarged pictures of the Brady Bunch, etc. At the climax, he flung off his Dr. Who outfit to reveal a blinding white leisure suit.

Can't wait until his Friday night gaming guys see these pics. Heh.



Photos by Phil Mills

Allison, Jodi and I were happy to see the newly married Tom and Sue in the audience when we sang them "Magic's In The Air," part of our wedding present to the happy couple. Allison came up with the idea of having two possible endings to the song, depending on whether the audience voted for Tom kissing Sue, or Sue kissing Tom.

The audience voted for Sue to kiss Tom, but we sang them the other ending on Sunday.

MAGIC'S IN THE AIR
By Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Performed by Urban Tapestry
Dedicated to Sue Posteraro and Tom Jeffers, Apr/2008

CHORUS:
E               A
Kiss him, Sue! Sure, he may look scary
E               A
Kiss him, Sue! Don't bother to fight it
E               A
Kiss him, Sue! Yeah, he's kind of hairy, but
B
at least he's not a bear
A                     E
and magic's in the air tonight.

E                      D
Her name is Sue, she is walking in the forest
E                            D
Humming to herself as she is wont to do
E                               D
Her life's about to change, you'll find out in the chorus
E               D
And trust us, every word is true.

E           D               E            D
Five years ago, Tom was enchanted by an evil sorceress
E              D                    E    D
he ticked her off but we don't know how
A                      B
Now he's a moose, but no one knows
A                           B
'til love's true kiss lands on his nose...

CHORUS

E                           D
Sue heard a noise and her humming stopped
E                             D
some branches snapped as they are wont to do
E                         D
The moose appeared, she stared at him in shock
E                       D
Tom's heart leapt when he saw Sue.

(Jodi sings the "FIve years ago" counterpoint while Allison sings the following)

E                      D
Her name was Sue, she was walking in the forest
E                            D
Humming to herself as she is wont to do
E                             D
Her life about to change, you'll find out in the chorus
E               D
And trust us, every word is true.
A                      B
Now he's a moose, but no one knows
A                           B
'til love's true kiss lands on his nose...

CHORUS:

BRIDGE:
D                 A                   E
"Hey, he's kinda cute," thought Sue, "for a moose!"
D   A                E
Still she hesitated...he was a moose, after all.
D                  A       E
Poor Tom stood mute and hairy, feeling like a goose
A             B
But then the birds began to call...

==> At this point, ask audience which song ending they
prefer: if Tom kisses Sue, or if Sue kisses Tom.

======== if Sue kisses Tom ===============

CHORUS:
E               A
Kiss him, Sue! Sure, he may look scary
E               A
Kiss him, Sue! Don't bother to fight it
E               A
Kiss him, Sue! Yeah, he's kind of hairy
B
at least he's not a bear
A                     E
and magic's in the air tonight.

E               D
Sue gazed up into the sky, where
E                        D
stars shone as they are wont to do, "What the
E                       D
heck," she thought, "I may as well try!"
E               D
and she gave Tom a kiss so true that
A                       B
and Tom turned back into a hairy, cute guy
A                   B
and the animals started to harmonize...

==> go to FINAL chorus.

======== if Tom kisses Sue ===============

CHORUS:
E                A
Kiss her, Tom! quick before she can protest it
E                   A
Kiss her, Tom! Just do it right
A               A
Kiss her, Tom! Sure you're flea-infested but
B
at least she's not a bear
A                     E
and magic's in the air tonight.


E            D
Tom gazed into Sue's eyes, which
E                     D
sparkled as they are wont to do, "What the
E                     D
heck," he thought, "I may as well try!", and
E
magic stirred as Tom kissed Sue...

(gradually start slowing down here)
A                    B
and Sue grew hairy, her smile serene, the most
A                           B
beautiful she-moose Tom had ever seen...

============ FINAL Chorus =============

CHORUS:
E               A
Kiss him, Sue! Sure, he may look scary
E               A
Kiss her, Tom! Don't bother to fight it
E               A
Kiss him, Sue! Yeah, he's kind of hairy
B
at least he's not a bear
A              E
and magic's in the air tonight.

Photo by Phil Mills

Above: singing Home To FilKONtario at the closing ceremonies with the FKO concom.

More about FKO soon...



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Post-FKO

Back from FilKONtario, sleep-deprived but happy. A truly wonderful weekend for so many reasons. Many thanks to those of you who came up during the convention and said that you were glad that things turned ok for me re: last week -- I truly appreciated it.

Kudos to the concom for an amazing time; not only were the guests and guest performances fantastic (more on this later), but it was heartwarming to see how the convention and its people embraced the celebration of two of their own: Sue Posteraro is now Sue Jeffers, the wife of Tom Jeffers! Many heartfelt congrats to Sue and Tom.



My friend Dave Clement is coming to visit, so I likely won't be posting a con report for a little while. For those interested in seeing pics of the wedding and the rest of the convention, however, feel free to visit my FKO Flickr set -- I'll gradually be uploading more photos over the coming week. Allison, Jodi and I were able to arrive at the convention a day early to hang out with friends as well as rehearse with guest musicians, so I've included those photos as well.



Above: Vixy and Tony giving their very first Guest of Honour concert. More on this AMAZING performance later, but right now I just have to rave about their NEW CD, which I can already tell is going to be played many many times in our household over the next while.

Whether or not you're a filker, I strongly urge you to check out Thirteen: Vixy and Tony, the debut CD of Michelle Dockrey and Tony Fabris as a duo. You can hear sound samples on their new MySpace page. In their concert, I was especially delighted to hear a new song, Apprentice (you can hear this on their MySpace page), which is about the Firefly character, Inara.

More about Vixy and Tony in an upcoming Blathering.

Also, congrats to this year's Filk Hall Of Fame inductees: Colleen and Steve Savitsky, and Bob and Annie Passavoy.



Have a great week, everyone!





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Weddings, FKO and restaurants

My friends Tom and Sue (above) are getting married at FilKONtario this Friday! For those attending, Sue invites everyone to wear medieval garb if you have it. They're not hiring an "official" photographer, but are hoping friends take photos (I'm sure we will :-). For more info, please see Tom's blog.

I was delighted to hear that Al Thomson (from Curraugh) is flying in for the event. Al's an enormously talented musician and singer; hopefully he'll be performing in some of the open filk circles. He gave me a Northumbrian Pipes lesson back in 2002 (photo by Allison):



And here we are playing tin whistle together during Beckett's visit to the Bhigg House in Winnipeg in 2005 (photo by Beckett):



Dave Clement is coming to visit with me after the convention; I'm very much look forward to that. Below: Dave and Tom perform in an open filk circle at GAfilk:



Thanks so much for all the birthday greetings; I had a wonderful birthday. My sister and her family took me out for lunch, and Jeff and I went to Globe Bistro for dinner.

I posted on Chowhound a couple of months ago, asking for advice about where to go on my birthday. I love trying restaurants with poetic menus (y'know, the kind of menus that have over-the-top menu item descriptions that read like poetry) but Jeff isn't crazy about the atmosphere of some of those places.

After some helpful advice from Chowhound types, I decided on Colborne Lane. I left three messages over the course of several weeks, with reservation info and asking them to call to confirm...but I heard -nothing-. I tried calling during business hours, but only got the answering machine. I finally left a fourth message cancelling my reservation (if it had ever been made) and explaining why. Still heard nothing.

After cancelling on Colborne Lane, I went ahead and made reservations for Globe Bistro (again, based on recommendations from Chowhound types). Globe Bistro now has an online reservation system in place. After making the reservation online, I received a friendly phonecall confirming the reservation, and another phonecall closer to the date confirming once more.

I had asked if we could get a nice table, and they put us at a romantic table (the most romantic in the restaurant, in my opinion) in a relatively secluded corner beneath a tree on the small mid-level floor, with a lovely view overlooking the restaurant. We were both happy with our food, and I loved my dessert (lemon tart). The service was friendly and efficient. The restaurant turned off the main lights during Earth Hour. :-)



Above: view from our table at Globe Bistro (apologies for the photo quality; I only had my point-and-shoot with me).

A follow-up on Colborne Lane: I finally did receive a call from Colborne Lane ON THE DAY of my original reservation, to confirm the reservation. When we explained why we had cancelled, the person on the phone (I think he said his name was Kirby) just said that someone at the restaurant who took reservations had recently quit and besides, they had been getting SO MANY CALLS ever since Toronto Life magazine had named them one of the best restaurants in Toronto. At no point during the phone call did he apologize.

I'm sure Colborne Lane has fantastic food, but I have to admit that this incident has dampened my enthusiasm for visiting that restaurant. The quality of food is important to me, to be sure. But for me, the dining experience encompasses more than just what I'm eating.

If I had a choice between a trendy upscale restaurant with fantastic food but snobby staff and a small but friendly family-run fish and chips shop where the matriarch smiles as she hands you your change (like Penrose, for instance), I'd opt for the latter anytime.



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Music and dim sum

Had a great practice with Urban Tapestry yesterday, prepping for our concert at FilKONtario in a couple of weeks. Allison brought over some delicious homemade poppy seed bread as well as strawberries w/chocolate sauce, and Jodi provided other mouthwatering snacks including Lesser Evil Caramel Corn. Yum. Walter joined us later in the evening, and gave us each a gift in celebration of our 15th anniversary as a group. Here's what he got me. :-)

I haven't posted any food pics for a while, so here are some I took at Cha Liu recently.



The staff at the restaurant are pretty used to my photo-taking by now. I don't do restaurant reviews for blogTO anymore, so take photos purely for the fun of it. Here's my favourite dim sum dish at Cha Liu (Supreme Shrimp Dumplings):



Have a great weekend, everyone!









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