October, 2006
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Protected: In Time, He Says
October 27, 2006 by Gail
Posted in Loss, PWP-3 | Enter your password to view comments.
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Physics Pumpkins
October 27, 2006 by Gail
Following a link from BoingBoing, I came across this site of pumpkins carved with physics themes. This is if you get tired of the same old, same old jack o’ lantern. Angie’s puking pumpkin is still my favourite of this season.
Posted in Linkage | No Comments
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Hark! It’s a Pink Princess!
October 27, 2006 by Gail
— from Allan & CherylLet it be shown on record that I am not totally anti-pink! Maddy’s birthday stuff finally arrived today (dance shoes came in separate package — alas, they were out of the pink in her size), and it all fits!
Posted in Other Photogs, The Ms | 2 Comments
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Kappa Sigma and Fraternity Life
October 27, 2006 by Gail
I’ve mentioned before that David belonged to a fraternity at Penn State; many a yarn was spun from that time in his life. I’m sure some (Greek — ha!) mythology slipped into David’s stories, too, considering how many years had passed. Not to mention whatever clarity they might have had at the time.
Some of those stories come to mind when I’m in BFO’s neighbourhood because I pass by some fraternity* houses along the way.
As news of David’s passing made its way through the fraternity grapevine, some of his brothers have been in touch with me and I’m grateful for that. One story sent by email before I head off to work (edited for spelling only):
One fun story from Toronto Canada road trip came back to me. When we arrived at Kappa Sigma at Toronto their house was right next to a sorority. But the Kappa Sigmas did not communicate with the girls who lived right next door. So me and a few of the brothers knocked on their door and introduced ourselves. The girls were nice and invited us in to talk. I asked to go to use the bathroom and the girls showed me upstairs. The second floor was where the bedrooms were and I panty raided the bedrooms.
Later that night we returned to the girls’ place dressed up in their lingerie and panties. The look on their faces was hilarious as they quickly recognized that the lingerie we were wearing was none other than theirs!!! Just a blurb from that crazy weekend. I am sure [David's] pledge brothers have more and better stories and hope they share them with photos with you. Someone has a photo of us in drag that night and I, too, would love to see it again.
* From what I can gather, the Greek system is nowhere near as popular as it is in the U.S., but I think much of that can be attributed to culture, and differences in the university systems between the two countries.
These may be sorority houses, I haven’t looked them up.
Posted in Ancient History, cameraphone, David, Raconteurism | 1 Comment
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Etes Vous Frileux?
October 26, 2006 by Gail
On my way to the local office of Bereaved Families of Ontario after work, where I rummaged around in their lending library for some books to take home. When I attended my peer meeting last week, there was a session in progress so I wasn’t able to browse through their titles. I nabbed two in short order this evening and filled in the check-out cards. Books are on loan for a month, but I borrowed smallish copies I’m hoping to zip through.
The air is crisp these days, but I prefer this temperature to the stifling humidity of summertime. I have an overactive circulation system that heats me up like an insta-furnace; the cooler climes suit me just fine.
One week ago I ended up in a French conversation class at the library in Cabbagetown right after work. I left the office after 6 o’clock, and phoned a neighbour from my apartment building to follow up on a chat we had one day a few weeks ago while we were walking out the front door. I surprised her by my friendliness; she said people in our building aren’t very friendly unless they’re dog owners meeting other dog owners.
“What is this?” she exclaimed last night. “You have to be with a dog to get treated like a human???”
I know exactly what she’s talking about. When I’m walking Gigi, people in the elevator are warmer and chattier. It’s like having a baby in the elevator — people get all gooey and gushy.
Anyway, so I was in French class last week because my neighbour invited me to go, which placed me in a group of strangers speaking entirely in French for the first hour and English in the second. Although I had a pretty good idea of what they were saying in French, when my turn came to speak, nothing came out! All I could do was make fish impersonations with my mouth — open, close, open, close. I was handed a sheet with French questions on one side, English translations on the other, and I managed to only flip the page back and forth, skimming the French side for the easiest way to formulate an answer for this random question:
Etes vous frileux / frileuse?
I couldn’t very well just say “oui” or “non” — I had to elaborate!
My group (my neighbour was in the other group) consisted of either native French speakers — from Bordeaux, Burundi, and Belgium — or native English speakers who were already fairly conversant in French but needed the practice. That left me high and dry at the lower end of the francophone spectrum and waiting desperately for the egg timer to go off so we’d switch over to English and I would stop gaping like a guppy.
The focus, now in English, switched over to convincing the guys from Burundi and Bordeaux that the best way to survive their first winter in Toronto is to get outdoors — dress warmly, learn to ice skate, and take in fresh outside air. Someone else explained what “cabin fever” means, and made suggestions on how to avoid it. I hope we all of us newcomers do OK this winter!
In other news, I got a call from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum today saying that they have to do some training in the DC-3 on Saturday, and would I like a ride that day in the Beech Expeditor instead? or wait one more week to fly in the DC-3? I told them I was anticipating the DC-3, so I’ll stick with that and wait the extra week.
Posted in cameraphone | 1 Comment
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Grades 4, 5 and 6 — The Polyester Years
October 26, 2006 by Gail
Grade 4, circa 1981
Red River Valley Junior Academy
Winnipeg, ManitobaJudging by all these pictures, my mother obviously abolished cotton from our house. In the early 80s, at least.
I can’t believe I remembered everyone’s names… this was 25 years ago!! (click to see notes in Flickr)
And, just when you thought I was being bashful or pulling your collective legs by saying my school photos were (are) embarrassing, I hereby post evidence to back my claim.
I really can’t decide which year was more unkind: 1982 (left) or 1983 (right). I think 1983 wins.
Posted in Ancient History, Gail at Large | 5 Comments
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Firefox 2.0
October 25, 2006 by Gail
I’ve been using the latest version of Firefox released earlier today, trying out some new extensions. My favourite so far is Cooliris (v1.9), designed to let you preview and browse at the same time without losing your place. Once you’ve installed it, all you have to do is mouse over the link and it opens a preview pane without having to click on it. To keep it from being overzealous, I’ve set it to preview using the mouse over icon instead of just the mouse over, which can get annoying and bog you down if you’re trying to read something and there are a bunch of links on the page that the mouse can wander over. If you do a lot of browsing, tweak the options to suit you and it will likely improve your surfing experience.
Posted in Unabashed Geekiness | No Comments
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House of Fielding, Scranton
October 24, 2006 by Gail
June 24, 2005
Photo credit: DavidDavid’s feet and Hugh on the prowl in the front yard. It’s out of focus, but I like the feeling of the picture. I’ve never seen this photo before — I was in Vancouver waiting for my visa and David and Hugh were waiting for me at home. David would phone me every day and tell me about Hugh’s (mis)adventures, including catching one mouse, the second of his career!
David archived some CDs from his home computer about a month before he died, and I haven’t looked at them until today. It’s making me rather emotional to see the photos that hadn’t been uploaded.
Posted in David, House of Fielding, Hugh | 2 Comments
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Look What I Found…
October 23, 2006 by Gail
From the dusty archives of primary school in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I remember everyone’s names (click on the picture to see the Flickr notes), except one I’m not 100% sure about.
That’s my brother, Allan, in the back row. He was in Grade 6. 13 kids, two grades, one class. It was a tiny school, maybe 100 people from kindergarten to Grade 10.
I was the easily the homeliest and smallest kid in the class, between the girls AND boys! And that didn’t improve, either — I cringe at ALL my school photos. What salvaged my childhood was that I enjoyed learning, library books are free, and I started writing to pen pals (like Kim, who lived in California at the time). I was a mumbling introvert who would break into a cold sweat if there was even the tiniest prospect of being called upon in class to answer a question or read out loud. Talk about performance anxiety: clammy palms, fear of hyperventilating, drymouth… I was a WRECK!
In fact, the very first instance of public speaking that I can remember is when I gave a speech at my cousin’s wedding three years ago, and I was so nerve-wracked that I rehearsed it using a digital recorder and made flash cards. Thankfully it was well-received and gave me more confidence in front of a crowd. I’ve already had to stand up and articulate in front of a couple hundred strangers in Pennsylvania and Germany in the space of three months under the worst possible circumstances, so it can only get less awkward from here, right?
I came across this picture while going through a box of journals. I was going to post an entry from one of them to accompany a post I’d composed in my head earlier, but I worked late, ran errands, and now I’m too beat for anything more taxing than a quick scan and some quick words.
Posted in Ancient History, Gail at Large | 7 Comments
