First Lines From My First Blog Post of Every Month of 2018

Always one of my favourite posts of the year as it does such a good job of randomly capturing the flow of the year, highlights and lowlights. 😉

January – “It was a great way to kick off the New Year last night with Shea and I seeing a show at Casino Regina featuring Blake Berglund & Belle Plaine opening for The Dead South.”

February – “If you’re new to the NDP and/or legitimately trying to decide who’s the best choice for Leader out of Ryan Meili and Trent Wotherspoon, the TED Talk that Ryan gave at the University of Regina in 2012 is probably the quickest and easiest way to get a sense of who Ryan is, what he stands for and what his political goals are…”

March – [Photo of full moon over the Moon Palace Resort in Cancun]

April – “No, not that guy – the other one! ?”

May – “A while back on AskReddit, there was a question about “What will be the “smoking” of the next generation which our kids judge us harshly for?””

June – “I think our family on my paternal grandmother’s side had five generations alive at one point but I can’t imagine six generations on the planet at one time (or even seven which the article says is the world record but with no photographic proof!)”

July – “I don’t want to brag or anything but……but our entry in the “Decorate for Canada Day” contest at Nickle Lake actually inspired the judges to add and award a second place prize (hat *and* t-shirt, baby!) after they couldn’t decide between ours and the people who ended up winning first place (folding chair *and* folding table).”

August – “Doing a lot of reading about various aspects of the scaphoid bone I broke in my wrist and always shocked to see American sites talking about the cost of healthcare (~$6000 – $10,000 for the x-rays, hospital stay and surgery I had) or how they would forego treatment completely due to a lack of health insurance.

September – “According to last.fm, this was my most played song of the summer.”

October –  “Happy With You” – Paul McCartney

November – “This is still one of my favourite Halloween memories of all time.”

December – “Took Sasha to the local community association’s Santa Breakfast this morning.”

Saturday Snap – Elf Helper

Had an elf helping me with the sad job of packing up the tree and decorations and Christmas books for another year…

Friday Fun Link – What’d People Have Removed From Their Body Cavities This Year?

I love all kinds of “End of Year” lists!

Throwback Thursday – #tbt – Christmas Over The Years

I whipped together this montage fairly quickly right before Christmas to show everybody on Christmas Eve.

It’s not my best work – my first attempt ended up with the music I picked not working properly.  Then I tried to use YouTube’s Creative Commons music but couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to put multiple songs behind the pictures so you’ll hear one song then silence.  And on top of everything, my ~2011-era Macbook Pro choked trying to manipulate a few hundred pictures in iMovie so some pictures didn’t load into the montage properly which is why there are a couple black spots.

Oh well, still better than nothing and fun to see the various changes over the years – Pace appears in 2007, my broken leg in 2009, Sasha in 2013, I’m heavy, I’m skinny and so on…

Which Is The Best Air Fryer?

Happy Boxing Day everyone!

 

Merry Christmas!

Music Monday – “It’s Christmastime in Washington/The Democrats rehearsed/Gettin’ into gear for four more years/Things not gettin’ worse”

“Christmas in Washington” – Steve Earle

Secular Sunday – Why Do Atheists Celebrate Christmas?

Also:

  • For our kids
  • To spend time with extended family
  • Because it’s part of our own personal history and tradition
  • Because it’s become a secular holiday as much as a religious one
  • Because atheists know Christmas started as a pagan solstice festival and early Christians adopted many rituals to help convert people to their new religion
  • Because atheists also believe in caring, sharing, giving and other “Christmas values”
  • Because it makes religious people mad that we do! 😉

Saturday Snap – A New Christmas Tradition?

A few years ago, I did a post about some Christmas traditions over the years.

Yesterday, we braved the mall (maul!) on the last Saturday before Christmas to get a picture with The Grinch, a local cos-player who’s been doing a variety of activities and events around town during the Christmas season including providing an alternative to Santa photos for a fee or donation to charity.

I don’t think we’ll make visiting malls on the Saturday before Christmas a tradition but I’d definitely do pictures with the Grinch again as he not only dressed as the character but embodied the personality as well with funny, snarky interactions with not only Pace and Sasha but Shea and I as well!

And while I’m talking about traditions, here’s a run down of the status of our others:
[Done] Mid-November – start our Christmas shopping by ordering a bunch of crap from China on “Singles Day”
[Done] Late November – put up Christmas tree and also decorate house with mixture of store-bought and kid-made decorations
[Ongoing] Late November to Right Before Christmas – do our Christmas shopping for everyone
[Done] Early December – attend various work Christmas functions for adults/children
[Done] Mid-December – go for a special Christmas lunch with Shea at some new/buzzy restaurant in town.  This year’s choice was Avenue and it was great as we got to sit at their “kitchen bar” and watch the chefs work within arm’s reach of us.
[Done] Mid-December – attend kids’ Winter Concert (or more recently, the school has switched to a “Winter Fair” with crafts and activities in each classroom in a more “come and go” format.
[Done] Mid-December – write thank-you cards to all my staff including a personal note and a small gift card to a local business, either one in our library’s service area and/or a popular local small business.
[Pending] Sometimes in December – watch “Love Actually”
[Pending] Christmas Eve – Kids open one present – usually pyjamas and either a board game or small toy.
[Pending] Christmas Eve – Pace reads “The Night Before Christmas” to assembled family
[Pending] Christmas Eve – New one this year.  All grandparents and us decided to do a Secret Santa gift exchange instead of trying to buy gifts for every other individual.
[Pending]
Christmas Eve – Santa puts out presents unopened in front of tree.
[Pending] Christmas Day – open presents, drink coffee with booze, assemble toys/add batteries as needed
[Pending] Christmas Day – have an afternoon nap!

Friday Fun Link – Shit Fireplace

If you’re looking for an alternative to the ubiquitous yule log channels/videos at this time of year, try “Shit Fireplace” (and I’m proud to say the co-creator of these videos is a colleague at RPL!)