I’ve been watching So You Think You Can Dance Canada, of course. And of course, I must blog about it, because it’s a dance show and by definition takes up at least 50% of my waking thoughts. But I realize that there is an even smaller audience for my Canadian dance show commentary than my American dance show commentary, so those of you with actual lives can just skip this post.

Also, warning to FameThrowa, who is like, three weeks behind in her SYTYCDC viewing, there will be spoilers. I drink your milkshake!

Continue reading “So You Think You Can Dance, Canada” →

This morning I had to go to Lee Valley, and when I was getting off the highway exit ramp I noticed that some guy in a small black car was following me CLOSE, REALCLOSE, like, I could basically hear him breathing. I’m not a good driver to begin with, and when someone follows me too closely I get very nervous. I know other people would probably get pissed off and deliberately slow down and make rude gestures, but I always want to just pull over so the person can go around me and harass someone else already, and leave me free to drive the speed limit without feeling any guilt about it.

Anyway, once off the highway there was a traffic light, and it turned out that we both needed to turn right at the light. This particular light has kind of an access ramp that feeds cars turning right so that they only have a “yield,” and don’t need to come to a full stop at the light. But I am not a confident merger — I like to wait until there is a very, very big gap for me to ease the van into. And, I was already nervous from the close follower. So I pulled into the right hand turn lane, but I felt that there wasn’t enough of a gap for me to merge just yet, so I stopped, and waited for a nice big gap.

I know that a more confident driver probably would have been able to just merge already. And that my failure to merge into multiple slots of questionable (in my opinion) size would anger some people.

But man, did the guy behind me in his little black car ever get PISSED OFF. He started honking and honking. He was saying stuff, and years of watching professional sports on television has given me the ability to read lips for any and all swear words, so I understood him perfectly. He was honking and waving and swearing and it really was not helping me feel any more confident about merging, I can tell you.

So I tried to pull forward as far as I could into the small merge lane, and then I waved at him to go around. But instead, he just pulled up as close as he could behind me and kept swearing and such.

It was freaking me out, I have to say.

Eventually the light turned red the other way so I pulled forward. I expected Mr. Frantic to go racing around me in the other, completely clear lane, but NO, he followed right on my tail. Less than a block later I had to turn right again, and SO DID HE.

Then I got really freaked out!

I took the immediate next right into the Lee Valley parking lot, and I really thought he was going to follow me and get out and try to confront me. Like seriously, what do people get out of that? It happened to me once before that some guy who thought I was weaving too much on the road while driving behind him FOLLOWED ME HOME, to MY HOUSE, where I was unloading my CHILDREN in the driveway, to lecture me.

And this kind of behaviour helps them resolve their issues HOW, EXACTLY?

Anyway, Mr. Frantic wound up speeding past me at the Lee Valley entrance, honking AGAIN and giving me the finger to boot. I was pretty happy to see him move along, let me tell you.

So I went into Lee Valley and bought a lovely Christmas gift for my mother-in-law (we are seeing them for the last time before the holidays in a couple of weeks, so I have to shop now). I came out and loaded Little Miss Sunshine into the van and drove off.

I turned out of the Lee Valley parking lot and took my first right to get back on the highway and you know what?

THE SAME GUY WAS BEHIND ME. Right on my tail.

It was like some sort of Quentin Tarantino B-movie horror flick!

I don’t think he was lying in wait for me. I hope not. But man, is that freaky, or is that freaky?

So we went around the block together and came to the exact same light where we had the merging incident and I crawled to a stop so he could go ahead of me into the left-hand-turn lane. Then we turned and he got on the highway going east, whereas I was going west, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

(I think maybe I don’t get enough drama in my day-to-day life. I just wrote a thousand words on a two-minute traffic kerfuffle. Yipes!)

While putting the Captain to bed last night:

Sir Monkeypants: Goodnight, Captain.

Captain Jelly Belly: But wait! My monkey needs to say goodnight too!

Sir Monkeypants: Boys who are already in bed are not supposed to talk.

Captain Jelly Belly: That’s just because they don’t have the POWER OF THE FORCE like Obiwan Kenobi.

He’s a force, alright.

Remember how I let Captain Jelly Belly watch Star Wars a while back? I’ve created a monster.

Or is that a geek?

Since he watched the original movie (episode IV, to us geeks), it’s been all Star Wars, all the time around here. He plays with the few action figures I have for hours each day. When he’s not playing action figures, he’s wrapping a blanket around him like a cloak and pretending to be Luke Skywalker. Or, he’s putting on his new Halloween costume and making “choom choom wap wap” noises around the house with his light saber:

That’s my proudest moment as a parent, right there.

He’s been begging to watch the rest of the movies but Gal Smiley is really scared of all the monster types in the films, and also, I did not think he was ready for the death-of-parents that comes in most of the other movies. I’ve let him watch Episode I which, although a terrible, terrible movie, is at least kid-friendly for the most part. Now he likes to pretend to be Obiwan. Or Anakin. Or R2D2 (which makes it very hard to understand his lunch order).

It’s adorable, and I love it, but man, I may have set back his ability to get a date as a teenager by like, 10 years at least.

And remember when I asked if you keep your peanut butter in the fridge? I never used to keep the PB in the fridge — I hate cold, unspreadable PB. But when we moved to Sunbutter, I don’t know, something about the “naturalness” of it made me feel like it should be refrigerated, even though it didn’t say that anywhere on the container. So I ended up calling up the Sunbutter customer support line and asking them about it. I got this really nice lady and when I asked her if I needed to keep my Sunbutter in the fridge, she paused for a really, really long time — I actually thought we’d been disconnected. Then she finally said, “No, you don’t have to…but I do! I don’t know why I do, I just do.” Then she laughed.

So I started keeping the Sunbutter in the cupboard. But you know what? It turns out that it isn’t any more spreadable when warm than when cold, and when kept outside the fridge, the oil tends to separate out. So now the Sunbutter is back in the fridge. I can’t believe how much time I’ve spent worrying about this issue!

In other news, remember how I live in the most Conservative riding in Ontario? Yeah, the Conservative incumbent here took almost 58% of the vote last night. I don’t know why, but when I went and cast my vote I felt a surge of excitement, like I was Making! A! Difference! and Anything! Can! Happen! And yet, here we are with the same representative and the same parliament and the same issues. And the Green Party still did not win a seat, despite taking over 6% of the popular vote. Bleachy.

And in other news, in case you were worried about this, our ongoing ant problem appears to have reached an equilibrium. Every morning I’m killing two or three ants in our playroom but there never seems to be any more than that, and they don’t seem to have any ambitions beyond that room. I guess the few crumbs that make their way into that room — usually attached to Little Miss Sunshine’s bum, after she’s been eating in her booster seat — are enough to keep them fed. So for now we’re calling it a truce, and we’ll see what happens.

In TV land, I thought I’d try a quick update as to what I’m actually watching, compared to what I thought I’d be watching at the start of the TV season when I got all TV crazy. Here’s the list of shows I’m actually keeping up with: The Amazing Race, Heroes (although, I only really like the Nathan and Sylar storylines, so I’m only actually interested in about 25% of the show), How I Met Your Mother, Jon and Kate Plus Eight, House, Pushing Daisies (oh, how I love you!), Dirty Sexy Money, Grey’s Anatomy, 30 Rock (at least, I will be watching it when it finally premieres next week), and Life (my new favourite show — it’s fantastic! House lovers, watch it now!). As for 90210, it was supposed to be my “workout” show, but it turns out even the allure of Brenda and Kelly cannot get me to get on the elliptical machine. I’m officially calling it and I’m going to catch up on the old episodes now. Oh, and I’m also watching So You Think You Can Dance Canada (of course), but I don’t like to admit that in public. Sadly, almost all of my favourite dramas — Life, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and even Heroes — are way down in the ratings and likely to be cancelled before Christmas. At least I’ll have my Veronica Mars DVDs to keep me warm.

Discuss: The hottest men on TV right now are Kutner on House (Kal Penn — although I have an obvious bias here, he looks like my husband), Charlie Crews on Life (Damian Lewis — I love the show for a reason, okay?), and Dr. Owen Hunt, the army medic, on Grey’s Anatomy (Kevin McKidd — he better be more than just a one-episode guest star!). Feel free to add your own list members.

One last update — TeethWatch 2008 — we have a second tooth! Two big teeth in the centre bottom of Little Miss Sunshine’s mouth. Raw carrots are not very far away, my darling!

It’s election day! It kind of snuck up on me.

You know, when this election was called I think the general thought was that it was unnecessary, with no important issues to discuss, and that it would be overshadowed by the drama of the American election. I’ve been surprised to see that there is a fair amount of passion out there, though. I’m quite curious to see today’s outcome — I feel like anything could happen, from a Conservative majority to a Conservative minority to the Greens winning more than one seat. It’s a crazy world!

Just a few blocks from my house, someone has made a huge sign out of brown cardboard that says this:

Dion + Layton
+ May = Economic
Suicide
WAKE UP!!

That last bit written in RED MARKER, just so you get the idea. Then the person who made the sign nailed it to a tree. I guess that illustrates both the Conservative economic policy AND their environmental policy. Two birds with one nail, I always say!

Also I read this article on the CBC website last week about vandalism attacks in Toronto on people who have Liberal signs on their front lawn. It escalated from spray paint on garages to slashed tires to people having their brake lines cut. That is some serious shit, right there. What the hell, Canadians? Cutting brake lines is dangerous and foolish and again, I was disappointed in the Conservatives (the spray-painted slogans were of a Conservative slant) for not coming forward immediately and being all TOUGH ON CRIME with these people. Like, I guess it’s TOUGH ON CRIME, only when it doesn’t serve their purpose?

Anyway, I must stop ranting now, the time for rants is really over.

A few days ago I was listening to the CBC and they aired a block of election ads, as they are required to do during elections. They aired four ads in this one block: one from the Progressive Canadians, one from the Neo Rhino Party, one from the Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party, and one from the NDP. I thought it was pretty hilarious — and telling — that the NDP got lumped in with these other fringe parties. Poor Jack Layton and his fruitless bids for legitimacy!

In case you were curious, the Progressive Canadian ad was a long, rambling missive accusing “Harper” of wanting to destroy health care. The ad ended abruptly with the mumbling man imploring the electorate to vote for “Anyone but Harper.” The Animal Alliance ad was actually pretty well produced and cohesive, with a nice-sounding lady outlining their platform of ending the seal hunt, protecting Canada’s forests, and putting the environment first.

The Neo Rhino ad was by far the best, though. You could tell that some guy recorded it in his basement and was barely able to keep from laughing all the way through. The entire ad was devoted to telling Canadians that they have the right to vote with a mask on.

Here’s how, according to the ad. Step one, get yourself a mask. Step two, get a neighbour who lives in your riding (who, presumably, will not also be wearing a mask) who can come down to the voting booth with you and vouch for the fact that you are, indeed, you. Step three, bring two pieces of ID and a document showing your address. Step four, go and vote in your mask.

Thanks, Neo Rhinos! I’ll get right on that. I wonder if Mr. Cardboard Conservative Sign is interested.

I’m leaving to vote in a few minutes. Think the voting booth will accept Little Miss Sunshine as my vouching person? Guess not.

It’s October, so time to think about NaBloPoMo — that’s National Blog Posting Month. It’s a contest/writing exercise where you post every single day for the month of November. I did NaBloPoMo last year and it was fantastic — I loved working writing into my daily schedule, and I found so many fantastic new blogs to read. It really opened my eyes to blogging as a wider community and I felt excited to be a part of that.

I think I’m going to join again this year, although it won’t be quite as earth-shattering. Since NaBloPoMo last year, I’ve gone from blogging a few times a month to several times a week, so I no longer feel like I have a huge backlog of things to say that are just dying to get out. Still, I could probably fill 30 days with posts. Who doesn’t want to hear about what I had for breakfast? No one, I say!

I was just updating my NaBlo Profile Page and now it’s ready to go. Who’s with me?