So, How Did It Go?

On November 22, 2009November 22, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead8 Comments

So, how was World Trivia Night?

WTN was so awesome. I really get far too excited when I go there, but man, do I ever love the trivia. They asked about Due South! I loved that show! I knew lots of answers but there was also tons of stuff I did not know, so thank heavens for the whole team approach.

And also, I ate tons and tons of candy. Holy cow, there was a lot of sugar. XUP came by to say hello (her team was totally crushing us, they are apparently brilliant) and I think she was pretty horrified at our spread. XUP is a very mysterious woman in that she believes that stuffing artificially coloured and flavoured fake-food filled with refined sugar into her body is a bad thing (what up, XUP?). I think it was the Nestle Crunch “breakfast cereal” — a breakfast food that lists sugar as its first ingredient — pushed her over the edge.

The sugar hangover the next morning was TOTALLY worth it, though.

Julie of Thoughts of a Smother Mother was able to make it after all, which rocked, and she totally saved our bacon on that Ace Ventura question. Also, she’d just spent the afternoon being serenaded by BILLY BRAGG, which OMG, SO AWESOME. I will live in envy forever.

And Bibiomama came too, which was incredibly brave of her given that we had never actually met in person, and she totally saved us on that Lars Von Trier question (think, think, THINK). She came for the chips but stayed for the trivia and I think she’s a convert.

In the end, we answered 85 questions correct out of 100, which put us in 11th place. But they allow ties in the scoring, so although we finished “11th” we’re really probably like, the 60th team down. But out of 188 teams, I still feel like that’s okay. And also, did I mention the candy?

MyFriendJen and I are already planning our costumes for next year. We are SO THERE.

So, how did the Giant Fundraiser go?

Well. I think this is a little fresh in my mind and I’m hoping in a week or so I will feel better about the event. Right now, though, I have to say I am feeling kind of sad about it and I really need to just take some deep breaths and understand that it’s all over and let it go.

I mean, everything went okay — there were a few small crises during the day but we resolved them all with little difficulty. But my biggest fear about this day was that people would not turn out for it, and sure enough, our numbers for this year were way down from the past two years. Looking back, I’m not sure what I should have done differently but of course, the second guessing is killing me.

Also, the thought of all the man hours I put into this thing, only to have it be a so-so event, is not making me too happy right now.

I mean, it really did go okay. So I’m really hoping that in a couple of weeks I will feel more positive about it.

But I can say, I won’t be running this event next year.

And now…a deep breath, a shrug of the shoulders, and on to new things.

Giant Fundraiser Day

On November 21, 2009November 20, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead2 Comments

It’s Giant Fundraiser day! Man, will I ever be happy when today is over.

I know I have the kind of personality that takes on too much, and then tries too hard to make everything perfect once I’ve taken the job. But man, was this ever a lot of work. I hate to be a whiner but I have to say two things: first of all, as the head person, you wind up doing a lot of jobs that no one else wants to do, all Little Red Hen “Then I’ll do it myself!” type stuff. Secondly, whenever I did put out a call for help with stuff, it was always the same four or five people who came forward to say they’d help out. I always felt so bad taking advantage of the same people who were already helping with six other things, but I guess it’s just hard to recruit new people to get involved with something they have no prior experience with.

Still, I hope some excited, energetic, new parents come forward to help out next year.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the school to have about 25 nervous breakdowns. Wish me luck!

Top 14

On November 20, 2009November 20, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead3 Comments

I’m off to World Trivia Night tonight and the lovely and hilarious Bibliomama will be joining me! I’m awfully excited. And I’m sure the six bags of candy I bought are really going to help with that.

In the meantime, let’s take my mind off of trivia night with a little Dance! Show! Update!

This week I was all about the love. And the hate. The love-hate. Oh dance show, you do play with my emotions!

Loved It

Ashleigh and Jakob are totally clicking for me. I can see why some people really don’t like Ashleigh — there is something wooden about her in her everyday life. But I like her dancing, and I adore Jakob (he’s my fave right now), and they continue to get better every week. I loved their hip-hop and thought they kicked ass. Nat didn’t like it, though, so I may have some Jakob-love bias here. When I get that job as a judge on SYTYCD Canada, I better bring Nat along with me to provide counterpoint.

I also loved Legacy and Kathryn’s Paso Doble. The Paso is my favourite ballroom dance, if done well, and only the most committed dancers can do it well. I watched this one twice — the first time I was totally transfixed by Legacy, so I had to watch a second time to see Kathryn, but she was fantastic as well. This couple is strong and have The Chemistry and I hope they will go far.

I really enjoyed the Channing and Victor bird number — I think this may be my favourite Tyce choreography ever. I agreed with the judges that this was the first time I really felt I could see what Channing had to offer. I don’t think they deserved to be in the bottom three at all, and it’s a shame that Channing’s spark of personality came a little too late.

Lastly, I think I liked the contemporary by Ryan and Ellenore. This couple is still lacking some sort of magic for me — they need to work on The Chemistry, I think. But they both danced this piece well, and man, do I ever love Travis Wall as a choreographer. Often times, you go to the movies and you are struck by an actor’s great performance, or maybe the beauty of the cinematography. But it’s rare that you notice, during viewing, how awesome the writing is — I basically only ever feel the power of pure writing when I’m watching a Charlie Kaufman movie. I feel the same way about Travis — usually dance performances rest solely on the shoulders of the dancers, or maybe you’ll notice a great costume. It’s rare to feel the raw power of the choreography — to appreciate the originality of the movement and the idea of the choreographer himself, during the actual number. I feel that with Travis — I’m always blown away by the beauty of his ideas. So this number, while perhaps missing a little something, still blew me away.

Man, am I ever rambling today, eh?

Hated It

Mollee and Nathan are really going downhill. I understand why the judges gave them a second chance this week, but they just don’t seem to have the maturity and discipline to put together a powerful, moving performance. I love Laurieann Gibson as a choreographer so I put the blame on their crappy jazz number squarely on the shoulders of Mollee and Nathan. Nathan, in particular, I see as one of the weakest men and he’s on my hit list.

And what was up with the judges slobbering all over Noelle and Russell’s foxtrot? Noelle did show a lot of sparkle in her face and I like that they both seemed very confident and relaxed. But still, the movement was messy at times, they didn’t always seem to click as a couple, and I don’t know, it was just blah overall. They should have been in the bottom three for sure.

Lastly, Karen and Kevin…oh how sad you have made me. Their Broadway routine was the only one I really had no interest at all in watching twice. I think the Broadway style in general is quite impossible to hit — people always groan about the quickstep. but I can think of exactly one Broadway-style number that I have enjoyed, and that is Kayla and Jason’s from last season (she wore a gold dress and they danced around a stool — it was a Tyce, I think). I don’t know, something just isn’t working for this style, and the show needs to do something about it.

Anyway. I’m so very, very happy the judges decided to keep Karen this week, but Karen and Victor together does not seem like a good match, so I’m worried for them for next week. I think they should have kept Kevin, really — Victor is just a low-rent version of Jakob, and Jakob is AWESOME.

In any case, things are definitely heating up on dance show. I enjoyed this week’s dancing much more (also loved the Wade Robson group number, but that’s just obvious, isn’t it?), and I felt that the camera work was greatly improved. Keep going, Nigel!

Who Wants To Trivia?

On November 19, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead9 Comments

Many thanks for all the birthday wishes yesterday! It was a pretty typical day at home for me, but that’s okay, birthdays just aren’t the big festival they used to be. Around 5 o’clock I started to really fade in terms of energy — the kids had been a little rambunctous — and I thought to myself, “You know, all I really want for my birthday is an hour of peace and quiet, all to myself.” Then Sir Monkeypants came home and took all three kids out for fast food, while I stayed home and watched dance show, with no one asking to watch Dora instead or asking why that lady is screaming or if this is a “fighting” dance or why I am taking so long to get them some juice,

It was DIVINE.

Top it off with a giant slice of calorie-free cake (and some licking of the icing bowl) and it was a pretty fine day.

Now it’s Thursday, and I’ve been so incredibly focused on the Giant Fundraiser I am running for the kids’ school on Saturday (I have like, seventeen spreadsheets on the go, people), that I almost completely forgot that I have something else major on the calendar before the fundraiser, and that’s World Trivia Night.

World Trivia Night is tomorrow — Friday, the 20th — at Landsdowne Park here in Ottawa. It’s the largest live trivia event in North America (maybe the world, I’m not sure). Teams of ten get together in the big yellow barn and answer trivia for a couple of hours. This is totally my thing and when I take a few seconds to stop thinking about Giant Fundraiser, I get pretty excited.

This year is my first year entering my own team. I’ve tried in past years but it’s surprisingly hard to find people interested in this event. I get a lot of, “Oh, I don’t know anything, I wouldn’t be any help.” But really, everyone knows something. And also, it’s much more about the social aspect — I do not expect to win the event or even put in a good showing, I just expect to eat a lot of candy, maybe have a glass of wine (there is a cash bar), spend time with some cool people, and maybe get a cheap thrill out of answering a question or two.

So this year, my friend LuckySevens and I thought, hell with it, even if we are the only two at the table, we are totally going (teams are a maxiumum of 10, but if you have fewer, you can still enter). So we’re in, baby! I’m bringing the candy!

The main point here is that sadly, SmotherMother has had to cancel on WTN (trivia fans of the world shed a tear). So now I have one spot open on the team. Anyone out there in blogger land interested in joining me, LuckySevens, and seven of our other friends? There is a cost to the night — they upped the price this year, so it’s a rather hefty $30 — but I promise fun times, lots of sugar, and some cool blogging material.

Press It Out

On November 18, 2009November 18, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead14 Comments

As part of my ongoing quest to be a better cook, I recently purchased a garlic press, a little thing like this:

Photo from Marc Pinter’s Flickr Stream – there are a shocking number of garlic press photos on Flickr!

I figured I’d experiment with using real garlic in my dishes instead of just garlic powder (or worse, nothing).

However, I totally can’t figure out how it works.

Here’s what I think I should be doing: remove a clove; cut the tips off both ends; peel away the paper-like coating; pop that sucker in the press; press.

When I try this, though, I get very little garlic coming through the press. Almost all of the clove is left behind inside, and although I am sure I am removing all the skin from the clove, there seems to be a flat bag-like layer that traps everything in there.

So all I’m left with is a really, really flat garlic clove.

Any tips out there?

Thirty-Nine

On November 17, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead10 Comments

It’s my birthday tomorrow — I’ll be 39 years old. Beachmama turned 39 last month, and used the occasion to make up a little list of what she’d like to accomplish by the time she’s 40. I love this idea! I made a similar list when I turned 29 of things I wanted to do before 30, and it turned into an amazing year, full of fun new hobbies and experiences.

This year, I’m kind of just hoping to accomplish daily showers. However, I will reach for the stars a little bit and list things I actually do wish I could complete before the big four-oh.

1. Acquire some half-decent makeup and learn to put it on.

2. Figure out a back-to-work plan.

3. Sell one thing that I have written.

4. Learn to play three new songs on the guitar that I haven’t touched since I learned to play it, the year I turned 30.

5. Learn to bake a really kick-ass pie.

6. Throw a dinner party — maybe start a new tradition.

7. Create a garden or two in our yard, to share with Gal Smiley.

8. Write a book for the Captain to illustrate.

9. Toilet train Little Miss Sunshine (Dear God, kill me now, Love Lynn xo).

10. Reduce our household garbage to one bag per week.

11. Go on at least two dates with Sir Monkeypants.

12. Have a massive garage sale/charity run, and get rid of everything we don’t need.

13. Learn to play bridge.

14. Improve my French so I can help my immersion kids with their homework.

Seems like a lot…and yet, not enough. Did you know that in her life, Joan Fontaine was an Oscar-winning actress (for Hitchcock’s film Suspicion), a licensed pilot, a champion balloonist, an expert rider, a prize-winning tuna fisherman, a trophy-winning golfer, a Cordon Bleu chef, a licensed interior decorator, and a recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for her charity work?

I feel like I better get my ass in gear!

Oh Mickey, You’re So Fine

On November 16, 2009November 20, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead14 Comments

Way back in the summer, I mentioned that we hoped to go to Disney in March of 2010. It seemed a long way off, which was good, because we had a lot of trouble deciding stuff. Important stuff, like, when would we go? Where would we stay? And how would we get there?

So several months later, we figure, we better do something about it. So I called up Disney and said, “Um, we’d like to come to Disney? Can you maybe talk to me about some options?”

Ha ha ha! I was such a newbie then! So green and innocent!

If you want to talk to Disney, there’s a whole new vocabulary you need to learn. You need to know your Magic Your Way pass options. You need to know your Moderate Resorts versus Deluxe Resorts versus Deluxe Villa Resorts. You need to know your Peak Season versus Summer Season versus Value season.

It’s overwhelming, but we finally figured it out. Now I feel like I learned a whole new language and culture. I’m like an ambassador to Disney! Interface through me, people!

We still aren’t completely sure what we are doing, but we are narrowing the focus, which is exciting. First of all, we have decided that we definitely are NOT driving to Florida. Our last couple of trips to Toronto have been rough — not that the kids were bad, exactly, but they’ve become very loud and shrieky in the car, which is not fun. Also, after a couple of hours of boredom the traditional Shoving Games start, and then it’s hour after hour of us yelling at the kids to cut it out, followed by them screaming that it’s all the other one’s fault, followed by secret shoving and pinching and poking, until someone cries (usually Sir Monkeypants).

I’m not sure that flying will really be much better in terms of behaviour and quality of travel, but we figure that at the worst, it’s one day of hell instead of three days of hell, EACH WAY, so we chose flying.

Next, we think we’re going to go in February this year. We were originally thinking March Break, but plenty of people warned us away from that time frame as Disney is so busy. Then, issues arose surrounding Sir Monkeypants’ job — he is likely to change companies in March and will lose all his accrued vacation, making travel in March impossible — and we didn’t want to push off the trip for a whole other year. So we decided to pull the kids out of school for a week and book for February.

Luckily, the first two weeks of February are still “Value Season,” which means we might actually be able to stay on the resort, which is something we ordinarily would not be able to afford. So we’re also looking at staying on the site, which is exciting for everyone. We debated for a long time whether we should do the full Disney experience — all Disney! all the time! — or stay off the resort in order to get a break, but in the end we decide what the hell, it’s the kids’ first time, let’s just go for it. All Disney! All the time!

We still have a lot of details to iron out, like, oh, finding a flight and finding a way to pay for everything! But it looks like we might actually get our act together enough to make it happen…which is so cool.

I’m excited!

I. Am. Writer.

On November 15, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead8 Comments

I’m being featured again on Five Star Friday this week, and holy cow, that is SO AWESOME. I don’t know who you are, you who keeps submitting my blog posts (I totally suspect Amy), but I LOVE YOU.

I’ve been blogging for quite a long time, as far as blogs go. I started my blog in spring 2004, more than five years ago. And before that, I had my own website where I wrote entertainment commentary and chatted about actors and reviewed movies, and I started that site in November of 1998.

So this month, it’s been eleven years that I’ve had some sort of online presence. Eleven years of self-publishing.

You’d think after all this time I’d have done something with it, no?

I still struggle with my goals here. I know feel compelled to write — I often have a running blog post going in my head while I’m actually supposed to be living life — so I really need a place to vomit it all out.

And I like having a record of the past — sometimes when I am looking for an old blog post, I get reading my own blog and I just can’t stop. Every post is a little memory, and it makes me smile. I love that I have so much text that documents my kids’ early years, and my own self at this time.

And I’ve really come to value being part of an online community. I’ve built real friendships with other bloggers and I feel like I’m a member of a community, that I have ladies and gentlemen who reflect back at me my own life, my own experiences, through a lens that helps me understand myself and have a good laugh at it all.

And that’s all good. Most of the time, I’m happy with my little corner of the internet.

But sometimes I get a little nagging voice in the back of my head that says I should do more with my writing. A voice that says I should be more by now — more famous, more rich, more accomplished. I should get out there and market my pieces, I should turn them into a book, I should find ways to grow my audience.

Then a little voice on the other shoulder reminds me that there are a million blogs, literally, in North America alone. And it brings up all the amazing books I’ve read this past year and all the incredible screenplays I’ve seen produced and all the awesome blog posts that were read out loud at BlogHer and I think, who’d want to listen to what I have to say? Who cares about one more voice in the cacophony?

And then, one of my blog posts gets featured on Five Star Friday, and I squeal inside.

And the dream of being something more flickers, alive again in the very back recesses of my brain.

Maybe someday…, it says.

Thanks.

Dance On, Tiny Dancers

On November 14, 2009November 13, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead3 Comments

Time for our weekly Dance! Show! update!

This week’s rising stars include Jakob and Ashleigh — loved, loved, loved their Choreographer Mandy Moore routine, it’s right up there with the famous table routine for me. Jakob in particular I thought was amazing — I loved his hunched shoulders and amazing leaps. He’s really growing on me.

Also on the upswing: Noelle and Russell, who were great this week. Although, it’s so easy to be great when you’ve got SEAN CHEESEMAN as your choreographer. Sean! I love you! Call me!

Actually I’m kind of divided about Sean’s recruitment to the American show. It’s just like when you have a small, alternative band and you go see them in secret clubs with your friends and lament about what geniuses they are and how they should totally be famous, and then they finally get a big record deal and get a song on the Billboard Hot 100 and then you spend all your time lamenting about how much cooler they were before they sold out to the man. You know? I just hope America doesn’t change you, Sean!

And I just remembered, they also stole Canadian Gustavo Vargas. I love him too. I hope he gets better dancers this week than Mollee and Nathan, who were SO AWFUL I just could not believe it. As expected, however, their cuteness and general popularity meant people voted for them anyway, and actually, they probably got a ton of extra votes just because the judges singled them out as being the worst. People afraid of their elimination were motivated to rush to the phone. Don’t do that, jidges!

On the wane this week: Karen and Kevin. I loved their hustle, I thought they were both outstanding, and in general they are two of my favourites. I hope the fact that they landed in the bottom two has more to do with the fact that they pulled first draw, than that America is stupid. I predict the show will give them the coveted pimp spot (i.e. going last) this week to encourage America to re-think its position.

Also down: Ellenore and Ryan, who were just SO very terrible. They absolutely deserved bottom three. Pauline and Pee-tah were also pretty bad — they’re both adorable and charming, but I thought they did deserve to go home.

In the meh category: Legacy and Kathryn, still two of my favourites but the Broadway style is so impossibly hard to succeed at; and Channing and Victor, who were performing in their own style and still made me yawn. I predict bottom three for Channing and Victor next week, unless Victor has some crazy teen girl following I don’t know about.

So far this season, I feel like the show is struggling to find a niche. The dancing has been okay, with a couple great numbers, but there are so many new choreographers and the new set is so terrible that I have yet to be really wowed. I miss the guest judges, too, I hope they start adding a few to the panel some weeks for new perspectives. A lot of the dancers this year are very, very young — I think almost half of them are only 18, the bare minimum age to be on the show — and I think it shows in the quality and maturity of their dancing.

Not that it’ll stop me from watching or anything. Dance! Show! Rocks!

The Doldrums

On November 13, 2009 By LynnIn TurtleHead9 Comments

Today is one of those days when I just feel overwhelmed by life.

I have a massive to-do list for November, and yesterday I was all, “I’m on top of it! We’re halfway there! It’s all happening!”

Today, everywhere I look I see a dirty house, kids needing activities (it’s a PD Day today), piles of PTA paperwork requiring my attention.

There’s the book club book for next week — I’m on page 5. There’s the fish tank that hasn’t been cleaned in weeks. There’s the passport applications I’ve been sitting on for more than two months; there’s the Christmas newsletter with just two lines written.

To top it all off, I had a dentist appointment yesterday and I have a cavity, so now I have a second dentist appointment this month.

Also, I was supposed to bring Captain Jelly Belly with me to the dentist and I totally forgot him. I really just need a day off to get my head screwed on properly.

Mrs. Carl Sagan is on her way over right now with her kids, and I have a feeling that a visit from a good friend, and a good cup of tea, will really help turn my attitude around.

So come back in an hour or two, and it’ll all be happening again.