I'm not sure, I think they might be cheering for Slovakia

I wrote this blog last week, long before anyone knew that Canada's men's hockey team would be playing Slovakia in the semifinals. I was just looking for a country whose national colours are sort of similar to Canada's. You know, for comic effect. No one at our house is going to be cheering for Slovakia tonight. Really.

We've been watching a lot of Olympics at chez Party of 3.


It's been amazing. While we are cheering for Canada, of course, we have been blown away by the awe-inspiring performances of the Americans, the Swiss, the Germans, the Norwegians, and the Koreans, to name but a few.

It has been a dream come true to watch the best athletes from all over the world compete and win gold here in Canada.


But fair warning: when it comes to hockey, the women's and the men's, let us make one thing perfectly clear -- it's our game.

GO, CANADA, GO!!!

A moment in time

The Hacienda Hotel, Old Town, San Diego. A warm November night. Two friends and colleagues, their hair still in wind-blown disarray from a shoreline geology field trip of San Diego Bay on a boat, full and happy from margaritas and a wonderful Mexican dinner, are heading to their respective rooms.

So, your talk is right after lunch tomorrow?

Yep. The start of the second technical session.

And you have a Powerpoint presentation?

Nope. Linda, I *know* this stuff. I can give this talk with just speaker's notes. I don't need a slideshow.

You need a slideshow. Come on, we can make one right now.

[sort of pouting] But I'm tired.

Come on, Alison....I'll bring the laptop out to the table in the courtyard in front of my room and we'll work on it outside. [wheedling] I have a bottle of wine....Let's see if these California reds are anything to write to you about.

'Write home about'.

Merci. 'Write home about'.

[sighing] OK.

Some night-blooming flowers are scenting the air. The fountain on the courtyard wall splashes softly in the background. A lot of laughing accompanies the work on the laptop. The wine is very, very good.

Thanks, Linda. The talk will be better with a slideshow.

No problem.

You know, I could get used to this.

Which, Alison? The working out of doors? Or the wine? [grins]

All of it. Seriously, this is the way to live. Very civilized. Could you imagine doing all our work outside, with a glass of wine? We'd either be super-productive, or very liver-damaged.

[laughing] We couldn't do this in Ottawa though. I don't know if you would get people to participate into meetings outside in November.

Probably not. Here. Fill me up. [giggles] Hey, let me take a photo of this: "Linda, working hard at her laptop."

You are too funny. Wait, let me hold the bottle up. For effect. [grins]

Linda Guay
1963-2010
Tu me manques, mon amie.

This is what 10 looks like

This is what a pile of girlfriends looks like:

This is what tobogganing on a snowy afternoon looks like:

This is what a happy birthday girl looks like:

This is what excitement looks like:

This is what airborne looks like:

This is what an Olympic-inspired obstacle course looks like:

This is what damn near a whole can of aerosol whipped cream and lots of sprinkles on top of a carefully iced birthday cake looks like:



This is what blowing out the candles looks like:



This is what I love you, Leah looks like:

Happy 10th birthday, Big Girl.

Are you there chocolate? It's me, Alison.

Some days just defy description. On some days, you'd be just so much better off if you barricaded yourself in your bedroom with several bars of premium dark chocolate, a bottle of Bailey's, some trashy gossip mags and season one of Torchwood on DVD.

Some days find you realizing that Calgon just isn't going to cut it, and you start thinking, "Smirnoff, take me away!"

Some days find your daughter informing you that the next day is 100th Day at school and her project is due, a project that you vaguely remember reading about in the class newsletter several weeks previously, but didn't do anything about, like write "do a 100th Day project" on the kitchen calendar, leading to you finding yourself up at 4 a.m. hot gluing 100 googly eyes to a teeshirt, and 6 or 7 to your fingers.

Some days find you blearily noticing the blinking light on the electric toothbrush recharger in the predawn hours and thinking to yourself, "I'd better check my messages."

Some days find you filling the coffee maker with water, but forgetting the "put ground coffee in the filter" part of the process, resulting in a mug of hot, slightly brown-tinted water.

Some days find you talking on the phone early in the morning to a man with a sexy voice, but he's the CAA operator who's sending someone on a service call to your house because your car won't start.

Some days find you cursing at your inability to unlock your office door and then realizing that it's because you're using your house key.

Some days find you writing "Upwords, for Nat" on your hand in a vain attempt to remember to bring in a board game for the friend at work who always brings you home-baked muffins, and then washing it off and thus forgetting the game you *promised* to bring in, and then arriving at work and finding a note on your desk that says, "I brought you some home-made soup, it's in the fridge. N."

Some days find you sitting at your desk noticing that the two black socks you put on in the darkness of your bedroom are, in reality, a plain black sock, and a navy blue sock with a noticeable texture pattern.

I really wish all those some days wouldn't be all in the same week. Give a girl a break. And some more chocolate.

I got nothing

Except a new camera! (Thanks, Dad!)

I opened it up and started playing with it while I was at home and the girls were at school, so, the only family member available for portrait work was Max.

I'm working on a post about the 2010 Paralympic Canadian Men's Sledge Hockey team, who we saw play in Carp this week, and one about skiing, but they aren't done yet.

So you get cat pictures.

I'd say sorry, but he's pretty cute. Especially when he's not gnawing my leg.