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May, 2006

  1. Friday Night Shenanigans

    May 19, 2006 by Gail

    wall of libations

    Not mine*. I’m referring to the shenanigans that will be regretted for some time to come by the foolish sod who LURCHED out of a taxicab — not to the sidewalk but towards the middle of East Gerrard — directly in front of me, then faceplanted in a fashion most spectacular, causing me to swerve into oncoming traffic.

    I wonder if he still has his front teeth? Oof.

    In Vancouver I made it a practice not to drive on Friday or Saturday nights to avoid all the yobbos and weekend warriors weaving about town, but I really should extend this to Toronto, too.

    * The picture is mine, however. Taken two months ago at Gypsy Co-op, Queen Street West, at the March meetup location for the local Flickr group. Which reminds me, this month’s Flickr meetup is tomorrow.

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    Posted in Urban Life | 1 Comment

  2. Dear David: Month Five

    May 18, 2006 by Gail

    AviatorDave & Bill King

    Dear David,

    You’ve been gone for five months and I wasn’t expecting this last month to be so brutal. I didn’t know what to expect, exactly, but it felt harder than Month Four. How does a newly-married and newly-widowed person carry on as per normal? And when? I don’t know, I’m still searching for answers to those questions.

    I’m in the new(est) place now, and I put your pictures up so I can see you when you were healthy and full of vitality. I love this photo of you with Bill King at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome last September. It was a few weeks after the diagnosis but some of your hair was hanging in there, and you could still walk without a cane. Your spirits were high.

    I’ll be at the Aerodrome in less than two weeks to scatter your ashes. Can you put in a good word for us to the weather gods about some sunshine on May 30?

    Love,
    Gail

    (more…)

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    Posted in Letters to David | 6 Comments

  3. Hallelujah

    May 18, 2006 by Gail

    My income tax refund finally showed up in my bank account. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s been over six weeks and I’ve never had to wait that long for a refund, ever. I was wondering if Revenue Canada was in the process of querying the return my accountant submitted by mail and holding the funds in the meantime, but it was more likely a timing/bottlenecking issue otherwise known as the wheel of bureaucracy in the wrong gear up the hill. I would’ve filed earlier but the slips were sent to the wrong place — the House of Fielding in Pennsylvania when it was up for sale — while I was trying to set up the House of Fielding (Chapter I) in Toronto.

    I’ve had direct debit set up for income tax refunds for many years, which is the ONLY way to go if you get caught in an address quagmire like mine. If it had been a cheque, who knows where it would end up and when? (Also, a word of caution with not using direct deposit: a friend of mine who works for the largest bank in Canada had her income tax refund cheque intercepted through the mail and the fraud artists used her identity information to apply for a Mastercard. With that Mastercard they built up a large credit limit over time and cashed out $25,000. She had no idea until the RCMP showed up at her doorstep. She wasn’t held liable in the end, but contesting everything in court and restoring a credit profile costs quite a bit of time and money. Check statements online, and access your files with the credit bureaus Equifax and Transunion in Canada; same domains for the USA but with dot com.)

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    Posted in House of Fielding | 2 Comments

  4. Spotlight

    May 17, 2006 by Gail

    spotlight

    Taken while I was out walking the dog at a late hour. This spotlight shines down on a sculpture, which I would’ve attempted to take a photo of in all its spotlit glory but the dog wanted to pull me home! Next time. (Maybe next time without the dog, so I can cut down on the blurriness and graininess.)

    We had a long walk last night, Gigi and I. She was more well-behaved than I’d expected her to be, but within about 20 minutes drove THREE feral cats out of the bushes and nearly yanked the leash right out of my hands trying to hunt them down again. I was talking to Helma on the mobile phone during all this kerfuffle and had to cut off our conversation a few times while I was busy scooping poop and luring Gigi back out of the bushes with some treats. Helma was laughing at the sounds and mental images of me yelling and hanging on to a dog leash for dear life, and I assured her if she were there in person she would be rolling in the grass at the sight of my feeble attempts at *oxymoron alert* Beagle Management.

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    Posted in Critters + Creatures, Photography, Toronto | 2 Comments

  5. Gah.

    May 16, 2006 by Gail

    When my Ontario Health Insurance card became valid last week, I stopped by the family medical clinic at Toronto Western Hospital to make an appointment to consult with a doctor (upon recommendation from a friend who goes there). Because I’m a new patient, the first appointment I could get for a “meet and greet” was May 30 — which of course I can’t attend. But the next available appointment I could get was June 6, a week later. The “meet and greet” is more like a registration, and I have to get my records from BC transferred over before the actual consultation with a doctor — who knows when that will be?

    June 6 seems like a long ways off (three weeks?), but I’m looking for another medical clinic that can take me sooner. I don’t want to do a drop-in, I’m looking for a clinic and a GP where I can return to without having to transfer medical records and not always be classified as a new patient. The search continues, but at least I’ve got that appointment at Toronto Western.

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    Posted in House of Fielding | 3 Comments

  6. Vinny

    May 16, 2006 by Gail

    Vinny

    Vinny at our wedding, October 1, 2005
    Radisson Lackawanna Station
    Scranton, Pennsylvania

    Photo credit: Eliza

    Vinny would’ve turned 12 years old today. I was thinking about that last week*, as I’ve been planning David’s 39th birthday, two weeks from today, the day when I finally scatter his ashes.

    Also, Vinny’s classmate Charly wrote a nice comment recently, and his best friend’s mum Zora wrote in remembrance of Vinny here. I’ve posted a number of articles and videos about Vinny’s memorial here and there, but haven’t written a piece yet that ties them all together. For me, writing about such major events takes time. Meanwhile, the six videoclips from the memorial are available here via a playlist:

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    Posted in Friends, Loss, Videoclips | 2 Comments

  7. Late Night Cookery: 4am curry

    May 16, 2006 by Gail

    it's 4 o'clock in the morning and I just made a curry

    It’s 4 o’clock in the morning and I just made a curry. But doesn’t it look delicious?

    Hugh was begging and pleading for a scrap, but even he got dozy, curled into a circle on the floor and fell asleep. No stamina, this cat. More for me, then!

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    Posted in Food + Drink, House of Fielding | Tags: | 7 Comments

  8. Mission Impossible

    May 15, 2006 by Gail

    Mission Impossible

    This is progress: Hugh is leaving Gigi alone!

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    Posted in Critters + Creatures, Hugh | No Comments

  9. Stoned AND Paranoid

    May 14, 2006 by Gail

    if catnip is kitty marijuana, Hugh is stoned and paranoid

    I could barely stop laughing long enough to upload this picture. I’m trying to get Hugh to stop attacking Gigi (the resident Beagle), so I resorted to letting him roll in some catnip to improve his mood. Apparently he hasn’t forgotten there’s a dog two metres away.

    Best viewed larger. You can see the bits of catnip hanging off his fur. He’s drooling and slobbering, too, but maybe not so much in this picture.

    I did a quickie edit job on the videoclip. My timing’s a bit off with the music, but I think you get the idea:

    Higher-resolution videoclip available at Blip.tv: http://blip.tv/file/get/Gailontheweb-HughOnCatnip572.mov

    Music: “Feeling Good” by Michael Bublé

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    Posted in Critters + Creatures, Hugh, Videoclips | 2 Comments

  10. My Article for The Daily Scoop

    May 14, 2006 by Gail

    Peace Talks Continue

    tools.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/

    Thanks toyfoto!

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    Posted in Critters + Creatures, House of Fielding, Hugh, Linkage | 2 Comments

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