i suck at blogging

So, yeah... one post every six months... not too good at this, am I?

To recap the highlights of the second half of 2005:

- Finished school. Never again.
- Started a real job at Anishnawbe Mushkiki, Thunder Bay's aboriginal community health centre. I'm also working out of town occasionally.
- Andy's still doing his masters. Hopefully will be done this time next year. Knock on wood.
- Went to Japan for 2 weeks in October. A wonderful trip. Here's a picture of Hakone, a spa town we visited.
- Got engaged!

We were back in Winnipeg for a week over Christmas and managed to hook up with a lot of friends and family. The plan is to come back to the Peg pretty soon (hopefully next year), and every time we come back it reaffirms that that'll be the right move for us.

it's time for holidays again

So, I had two weeks off, worked a whole week, and now it's time for two more weeks off. Ahhh... it's so nice to be finished school. Folk Fest was great (well, could have done without the mud), although it was immediately evident from the lineup that they had a new artistic director this year.

Next up is two weddings in Toronto, fortunately on consecutive weekends. That worked out really nicely -- my thanks to both couples for being so thoughtful as to coordinate this. (Well, my thanks to Providence more than anything, since there is absolutely no connection between the Happy Couples.) We're going to Stratford to see a couple of plays (As You Like It, with music by the Barenaked Ladies, and The Brothers Karamazov) while we're in the neighbourhood, and we'll do some camping and hiking and stuff too.

done and done

So Monday was the first day of my post-school life. For the first time in twenty-two years, I'm not a student of any institution anywhere. Wacky. So to start off my post-formal-education life, I'm... taking two weeks off!

Folk Fest is next week! Four days of music (including last year's hit from Down Under, Xavier Rudd, and Winnipeg's own The Weakerthans) and camping. This year, we're bringing a Thunder Bay contingent along, and I expect that this'll become an early-July ritual for them too. The food dehydrator is going to be going full blast for the rest of the week -- I'm making fruit, tomatoes, beef jerky and maybe some chili or stew as well. If I can think of anything else to make, I will.

new house!

So Andy and I just moved into our new apartment. It has two - count 'em, two - bedrooms, so Andy no longer has to call a closet his "office." Also, while our living room still serves as the guest bedroom, it is no longer also my office and the kitchen. Moving up in the world.

In other news... so, the big Watergate source, the man who kept Woodward on the inside track, the man who put Nixon on the map, turns out to be none other than the FBI's second in command, Mark Felt. I just finished All the President's Men, Woodward and Bernstein's account of their Watergate investigation. Man, the shit they were getting away with... Kind of makes you wish the press was keeping things honest these days.

Non Sequitur (24 May 2005) 

sleepy time

So... here I am... in the sleepy little town of Atikokan, Ontario. Things are pretty quiet around here these days -- snowmobiling/hockey season is over for all but a few diehards (it's not so much snowmobiling as much as gravelmobiling; that can't be good for those sleds), but canoeing season has yet to start. Quetico Provinicial Park is just down the road, but unless we get some serious melting here, there will be no canoeing until late July.

Things are so hectic here that I've taken to actually studying for my exam at the end of the month. It's the last one, ever. The Big One. For All The Marbles. We Need To Come Out Firing On All Cylinders And Really Take It To The Next Level. This Is What You Play For. Every Kid In The Country Dreams About This Moment -- This Is What Makes All Those Six A.M. Practices Worthwhile. Our Destiny Is In Our Own Hands Which Is All We Can Ask For. It's Going To Take 110% From Everybody In That Dressing Room For Us To Get Where We Want To Be. We Can't Underestimate Our Opponent Here. We've Faced Adversity Before And It's Made Us Stronger, So We'll Have To Use That And Take Full Advantage Of Any Little Mistakes They Give Us. We Need To Do The Fundamental Stuff Right, Pay Attention To The Little Things, Hopefully Get A Few Bounces Going Our Way And We'll Be Okay. Thanks, Bob.

don't panic

So The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is to be released in movie format (see the site) on April 29. Haven't read the trilogy of five books? DON'T PANIC -- there's still time!

42.

Happy dog 

the squirmy squiggly wiggly puppy

So I'm writing a children's book. It's going to be called The Squirmy Squiggly Wiggly Puppy (based on, you guessed it, Griffin) and it's going to chronicle the exploits of, well, a puppy who really wants someone to play with him. Very sappy, kind of formulaic and full of repetition -- just what every four-year-old wants in a book!

I'm off to Atikokan for two months. I'm not sure what Atikokan's going to be like, but it bills itself as The Canoeing Capital of Canada and has a population of 4 000. That's pretty darn small. I'll let you know -- I promise to be better about posts.