The Voice Of Reason

You either love them or you hate them. High school reunion season is upon us. My high school years at Dartmouth High were three enjoyable years. I made lots of friends, was involved with the yearbook and generally just had fun. I got my first taste of the travel bug on a senior year tour to Rome, Paris and the French Riviera. I had some really good teachers and a couple of crap ones. No school bus for us, we were in inner city school and walked there mostly, though we could take a city bus. We never seemed to do that though. I worked part time at a department store in the local mall for my pin money. I even had a credit card for the store where i worked, though it had to be cosigned by my parents as i was under 18. I had a 300 dollar limit! I mainly used it for things like a new mattress and a new camera and school supplies and as i worked there, i could pay it off easily.

With the onset of Facebook, someone started a buzz about a reunion. It evolved into a reunion for anyone that went to DHS between 1970 and 1980 and we're now calling it That 70s Reunion (after the sitcom That 70s Show). All the organizing is done and it's all happening over the next few days. There's a golf tournament, a fun run/walk on Saturday morning, a harbour cruise tomorrow and tonight is a Monty Python night. There was a Monty club for a few years in the late 70s. Much mayhem ensued. The boys in our group started the club with a teacher sponsor who was not long out of university himself. He also coached the boys' (ice) hockey team and was nicknamed Mad Dog (Rick Swan). Perfect sort to be the staff sponsor for the Pythonites. The girls in our group joined the club to hang out with the boys of course! The boys put on skits in assemblies and were very good at it, too. I can remember stomachs aching and tears streaming, we laughed so hard. So tonight, a meet and greet, a few skits and then we'll watch Holy Grail and probably something else. I likely won't stay to the end as i do have to work tomorrow but it'll be good.

I'm also going on the harbour cruise tomorrow afternoon though the weather looks a bit iffy at the moment. The boat has an inside as well as an upper outside deck, though, so it won't matter if it rains a bit. I think we're getting the worst of the rain today. Saturday night is the finale, a big dance. I think they have over 400 going so far.

A lot of people don't like reunions, they feel self conscious about their appearance or their lives. Maybe they didn't have much fun in school and really hated it. Maybe they didn't get to know too many other people. There will be lots there i don't know but maybe i'll meet a few new people. Never a bad thing to make a new friend or two. And we all have at least one thing in common, we went to the same school and had a lot of the same teachers.

There's been a Facebook group set up for yonks and there have been a lot of diverse people posting there about their lives, their successes and their challenges. One man had a really rough time of it most of his life but seems to have come out the other side. Brave of him to talk about it and reach out, too. Most people have had similar experiences, one or more careers, one or more marraiges, one or more kids. Oh one recent claim to fame that i found out, the guy that produces the Twilight movies, Bill Bannerman is a DHS alumnus who has flown in for the reunion. He's also done a lot of directing as well. I think i went to school with his younger brother. Or at least he was at DHS when i was, though maybe he was a tad older.

I remember a lot more people than i actually knew. Being on the yearbook committee you see lots and lots of photos of people, classes, committees, clubs, sports teams. You feel almost like you knew these people when they weren't actually ever in your classes or clubs etc. There's always the people that everyone knew, of course, the school student council folk, the ones that organized and participated in all the social activities, the jocks, and the troublemakers too. Our school also put on a musical production every year and did it very well, too. Those artistic and musical folk would get well known also.

Anyway it all kicks off tonight.

Now where did i put my handkerchief? Just kidding. I only ever wore a knotted hankie once, to a hockey game and wouldn't you know it? That was the one time it was captured on film and put in the yearbook! Aggh!

It's been a nice relaxing long weekend. Mom and I went to a late lunch at a new restaurant in Dartmouth Crossing, Moxie's. Very nice. Very chic. Presentation was exquisite! Saturday was tidy up and house work day though for some reason i think i nipped out but i can't remember what i did. Sunday, Sis picked me up and we visited at Mom's for a bit. Sis brought a load of half-price Easter candy. I had a bit and though didn't go crazy with it, i don't eat choccy a lot at one sitting so those last couple of mini-eggs were really a bit much. Mom and i are going to Chapters later today and i'll probably have to get a few groceries.

Only 17 sleeps left until i land in Manchester! I did drag my suitcase out and threw some things in it that i didn't want to forget, like the hair dryer, books, maps, toiletries, plug adaptors. That sort of thing. There may not be room for clothes! lol!

Bloody hell, there's snow flying outside. Big fat flakes which probably won't last very long. Aaggh! When will it ever stop! This is typical though, of April.

2009 Books:
9. The Sisters of Henry VIII - Maria Perry
I really liked this book. You don't hear that much about Henry's sisters, Mary and Margaret but they both had an impact on the succession that people don't really think about. Mary's granddaughter was Jane Grey, the 9 Days Queen, through her daughter Lady Frances Brandon and Margaret's granddaughter was Mary, Queen of Scots. All this i knew but i didn't know a lot more and this book had a lot of information that was really well researched. There were gaps, of course, and the author also recounted what was going on in Henry's court as well, as far as the quest for the divorce and the downfall of Anne Boleyn. The biography of Jane Rochfort did all that and just stuck Jane in there as an afterthought most of the time but this book, when the narrative was not on Mary or Margaret, tended to just leave them alone. Sometimes, yes, they speculated what Mary or Margaret might have done or said but it was very unobtrusive. I thought this was well written and researched and it's definitely a keeper.

10. Neither Here nor There - Bill Bryson
I'm pretty sure i've read this before but i don't really remember much about it. I rarely laugh out loud at books even when they're meant to be funny but this one has me giggling all the time. He really has a way with words. This book is about his travels through Europe in 1990 as he retraces the backpack trip he and a high school buddy made in the 70s. You get bits of that trip along with the current one as he makes his way from the north of Europe to the south of Italy and back again. He's a funny guy.

I understand about regional accents which affect pronunciation but why can't the rules still be followed? I'm getting more and more annoyed by the pronunciation of "the"... specifically before a word starting with a vowel. You're supposed to pronounce it as "Thee" before one of those words, "thee egg", "thee evening" or "thee others" but in more and more commercials on television, it's been jumping at me, "the others" instead of "thee", over and over. I don't know if they think it's cute or down-home like but it's seriously irritating me! You might be a bit sloppy with your every day speech and say things like that but if you're trying to sell a product on the air, wouldn't it be prudent to pronounce things correctly? It's like the epidemic of misplaced apostrophes that seems to be running rife these days. Professional signs advertising "Pizza's" when they aren't talking about the something belonging to the pizza. Someone writing an email or article on a website with missing apostrophes or putting them where they don't belong. It looks unprofessional and it looks ignorant. I was in a pub in Toronto where the sign painted over the loos was "Ladie's" Sheesh!

Anyway.

Didn't go to the family party this afternoon because apparently the host isn't feeling too well either. An awful lot of people are suffering this flu this week! I thought i might be getting it back too, judging from the amount of time i spent in the loo this morning but all seems well at the moment (*knock on wood, er... porcelain?*) Tomorrow am supposed to hook up with my friend for a belated gift exchange and i *will* get out of this apartment even if the weather outside is frightful! (Well, cold, which it has been all week!)

My mailbox was filled with some quite diverse items today. In addition to a couple of bills (*paid with automatic debit*), there were a few christmas cards (Thanks kixie and naturalbornkaos), a newsletter from my MP (*bin*), and a packet of microwave popcorn! Cool!

I have lovely soft Ocean Salted and Lemony Fluttered (LUSH) hands and feet today. They feel and smell very nice! My dining room table is covered in stuff, two printers (one replaced with a new all-in-one) in various state of functionality, a cd burner (replaced by a dvd burner), a flat bed scanner (replaced with a new all-in-one), various cables and a battery charger. And ink for one of the printers. One printer needs a new print head cartridge and the other installs better with older Windows systems though it will go with XP as it was working on my puter ok. The scanner works very well. Have the software cd's for them all. What am i going to do with it all? (well, not the charger, that's new and it's not going anywhere). If anyone wants any of it, cheap, let me know.

It's quiet in LJ land today.

It's raining. I shouldn't really complain but it's been gloomy for weeks now with only brief encounters with the sun. At least it's not as cold as it was.

Watched a 2 hour crime drama about a forensic psychologist starring Robson Green. He's small and compact but he does have lovely eyes. What was it called? oh yes, Wire in the Blood. Must try to catch it next Saturday too. Some might want to compare it to Cracker and the the premise is similar. Psychologist helping the police find criminals, pretty lead detective that fancies the psychologist but the psychologist isn't as flawed as Robbie Coltrane's Cracker and much better looking. Although... couldn't you just cuddle up to Robbie on a cold night? I suppose nowadays he's Hagrid in everyone's mind but in my mind's eye, he's Cracker (not "crackers" although i wouldn't kick him out for eating crackers ... well the name and the sentence just led into that one didn't it? lol!)

Doing some serious thinking about what to pack now. will probably wear the dregs of the wardrobe this week so i can keep clean the stuff i want to take.

Won 10 dollars on the lottery ticket from last night. When i bought it i thought to myself "Ok, Dad, send down some magic... oh who am I kidding? He bought tickets for 30 years and never hit a big win. Never know t hough and i won the tenner, which is more than i usually win so that's something eh? Come to think of it, there's a free ticket going off one i bought a week or so ago and do you think i know where i put it after days of shifting it from pillar to post to pocket!

Miscellania:
Finally got back to painting this morning. I've been gathering photos and pictures that would make nice paintings so i will not be short of inspiration.
Four more working days! Yay! Pedicure and massage on Friday! Yay!
Had a nice meal out with Mom last night.
Baby shower tomorrow for teaone!

Bed was delivered about mid-morning. I managed to pull the old one apart and vaccuum and i got them Tim Horton's gift certificates for a tip, hoping they'd take the old bed down to the garage where the garbage is. I just didn't have time to try to see if anyone wanted to buy it and my nephew who might have taken it, didn't have a place to keep it. Anyway. The two delivery fellows were going to take it to the garage and one of them asked if he could take it since i was just tossing it anyway. Hell yes. I'd rather know someone was going to use it than A. throw it out and B. get in trouble for leaving it in the garage. I don't know if i would get in trouble but it's rather large, and i don't know if the garbage men would take it anyway. Ah well it's not an issue now anyway. It's gone to a new home. They had to come back later though because they forgot to leave the mattress pad cover thingy. Of course i'd already put the new sheets on the bed so i'll just wait until i change the sheets to put that on.The bed has a guarantee apparently that if the mattress cover gets stained they'll replace it and if the mattress gets stained they'll clean it or replace it. Works for me.

I finally got round to using my new dvd writer the other day. I made a region free copy of my Region 2 (Europe) Creature comforts dvd for my sister. i am using DVD Shrink which may or may not be downloadable anymore. Googling seems to indicate you can probably get it. It gets around the region encoding and the copyright because i tried to use Nero to copy the dvd and it wouldn't let me because of the copyright issue. I have a dvd rom in the computer already so i set that to R2 and left the new writer to R1 since those are the two regions i am most likely to buy dvd's from and indeed already own quite a few R2 dvd's (have my player hacked to play all regions). DVD Shrink compresses to fit a 4.7 gig disk but of course if you compress it too much the quality won't be great. It has a reauthoring feature that lets you gain more space by not copying things like extras and menus and you can also burn to an image and use Nero to copy the image to a dual layer dvd if your writer does that. DVD Shrink doesn't seem to work for a dual layer but perhaps it does if the blank media is dual i don't know.

But man oh man the dual layer blank disks are expensive!!! Whew! I priced them in Staples yesterday and they were about 60 bucks for 10 ! Lightscribe disks aren't even that expensive. I have some tutorials that show you how to make the "Please insert disk 2" frame using the reauthoring feature and that way you can split up a movie by the chapters. I may have to try that sometime. Regular dvd-r disks are pretty cheap. Superstore has them 50 for $20 and Staples has 50 for $25 plus tax. I did do a file backup onto a dvd as well, using Nero. I am going to have to try to use Nero to copy a dvd to see how it goes with one that doesn't have the copyright protection. I know, i know, i'll go to hell for it. And if i'm going to hell, i might as well investigate how to download movies and convert them and write them to dvd ;) from what i understand though, that's more involved.

They're changing our heating system in the apartment building to natural gas today. It's a bit disconcerting when there's someone sitting on a chair in the hallways ... is he waiting in case something blows up? lol! I don't know! Anyway, the heating was hot water baseboard heating and the pipes were always noisy in the walls, ticking and banging sometimes when the heat would go off. I'm hoping that will be a bit quieter and at least the gas supply isn't something that has to get filled all the time like oil tanks as i believe it's a direct supply. No running out of hot water anymore like has happened now and again. That morning cold shower doesn't exactly start my day on a positive note !

And yes, we're all doing ok. We talk about Dad and remember stories and things. I'm writing down memories in a journal so i can keep that with me. We are finding that although something will get us emotional, or sad, for the most part we're doing ok. I think it's because we have spent the last few months grieving already, and little by little, letting go. Dad is not suffering anymore and we all had our chance to say good bye in our own ways. I mentioned to a friend that sometimes it still doesn't seem real and she said that your heart doesn't have to know it's real because he's always going to be with me. That made me cry but it's a nice way of thinking about it and i can just let my heart tell my head to sod off. He's only gone phsyically. It's not always easy, and i'll miss him the rest of my days but he *is* within me. I am a lot like him in my personality and temprement. I am my father's daughter.

Well they didn't last very long. Ok. some of them did.
The straps for the sheets that hold it down over the feather bed, i mean.
One kept slipping off. Today i changed the sheets and tried to attach them to the clean one.
Bloody things kept snapping off. Or i couldn't get them on. They hook on like garters do for stockings. But they're rubber. They should be metal. i guess what i'll have to do is buy some elastic and sew it on because i'm not going to fight with them again.

Caught up on a bit of housework. Started a painting. Need to make something to eat soon. I have some salmon fillets that i think i'll bake.
Fifth Element is on telly. Love that movie. :)))