And in the end...

Dearest ladies & gents,

I am closing up shop. Thank you so much for your patronage. Here's an updated photo of the babe for the road...I hope your trails are happy ones.

Love

Kristina

Calling all fellow vocabulary geeks

Put those vocab skills to good use here. It's fun AND you help feed the hungry. Win win. That is all for today. I miss you guys like crazy, but I am having a REALLY hard time sitting down and coming up with things to say. Gah, as they say.
xo

Hee hee...

This made me laugh today. In other news, I got my hair chopped right off.

Before:

Or maybe this will give you a better idea, but excuse the wonky glasses/eyes situation:

After:

Well well.

Given that I have sucked it hard with the posting of late, it has occured to me that the very least I could do would be to recommend some other blogs to you. You know, bloggers who actually post. Regulars. Each one a superstar in their own mind right. Again, it's the least I can do. So as not to play favourites too much, I'm going to sum up each blogger with one word. It's harder than it sounds especially because some of you were fairly new to me when I stopped blogging and couldn't visit as much. My apologies if you don't feel your word fits; consider this an open invitation to provide your own word if you don't like mine, and know that if you look at your word and you're not sure how to take it, I mean each as a high compliment. I thoroughly enjoying reading each and every one of your blogs when I get the chance.

Alli: Compassion
Back in the Day: Felicity
Blog, Blah, Blah: Heart
Cynical Bastard: Ribald
Deep in the Forrest: Visceral
A Garden of Nna Mmoy: Intelligent
Hello Josephine: Unique
Knight Ramblings: Adventurer
Odd Mix: Family
A Peek Inside the Fishbowl: Creative
Pickled Beef: Hilarious
Ramblings of a Madman: Honest
Ramblings of the Bearded One: Alchemist
Real Live Lesbian: Dignity
s.m.ART: Beautiful
Tales from a Texaconsin Diva: Personable
Work in Progress...: Strength

Pics of my boy's birthday coming soon. If you can't wait (and hey, who could blame you) they're on Facebook already, so if you're on "The 'Book" let me know at amazon_kris [at!] hotmail [dot!] com and let's hook it up, yo!

For now...

I have a bigger post planned, but it involves posting pictures from my son's birthday party...which was supposed to be this past Sunday, except that he got sick. BOO! BOO for being sick on your first birthday! There should be a law...

Anyway, here's a little something to tide you over if you're one of those lovely people who is still checking in with me from time to time...the party has been rescheduled to this coming Sunday, so I will post again next week.

Piss & Vinegar

Something got me mad today. Mad enough to set other things aside that are screaming to be done so that I can write a post about it. The Canadian government is in the process of "reclassifying" Canadian lakes for the purpose of being toxic dump sites for the mining industry. There are about 16 lakes from coast to coast that are on the "chopping block" so to speak, and that is in addition to about 50 lakes that are already so classified. This is DISGUSTING to say the least. The mining industry is supposed to be responsible for containing their own toxic waste in containers that keep the waste completely separate from our natural water resources, and that is how it should be. In an ideal world, the mining companies should be held responsible for finding solutions to the problem - the best case scenario would obviously be to not create ANY toxic waste. However, I won't be alive to rail and kick against horrible things like this if I hold my breath waiting for THAT to happen. So, while I understand that the mining industry creates lots of jobs for Canadians, which is, of course, a good thing, I also understand that the business of mining is a profitable one. So I say again that the onus should be on the mining industry to properly and responsibly contain its waste while looking for other viable options that reduce (or better yet, ELIMINATE) toxic waste. Otherwise, they should not be allowed to do business here. If the Canadian government were to set that stipulation, I'd be willing to bet that SOMEONE would step up to the plate. There's money to be made, after all, even when operating responsibly.
I signed a petition this morning for this very thing, and was very interested to read the following note added to one of the signatures:

"I am president of the Tsolum River Restoration Society in Courtenay , B.C. Canada. Our group has spent the last 40 years trying to undo the damage [done by] a mine that was in operation for about two years in the mid 6o's. During this time it sent pollution into the Tsolum River until eventually it was declared a dead river. Over the last 15 years there have been some remediation activities that have taken place. Just a short while ago the B.C. government just announced that they have set aside $4.5 million to cover the mine and save this valuable salmon habitat. Lets not let this happen to other lakes and rivers. It is estimated that it cost the valley economy about 2 Million per year that is about $80,000,000 that could have been pumped into the local economy?? Is it worth it?? "

You can find the petition here if you're interested in joining your voice. Also, if you live in Canada, you can write to your local MP, and you can find them via this page, and/or you can go here to find contact information for (among others) the Canadian Minister for the Environment (Hon. John Baird). And, if you would like to read more, here's the story that recently aired on the CBC about this, and here's a subsequent article from msn.

As for me, I'm still kicking - my son is keeping me incredibly (and blissfully) busy, and while there are so many things I COULD write about, I'm just too tired on most days to sit on the computer and try to organize it all into posts, plus, I'd like to see mein Hublein somewhere in there, too. I owe Real Live Lesbian a post though...I will try to get that on here soon (see? I'm committing!) with pictures and everything!! :)

Wow, who would have thought...

My little post on Leona Lewis has garnered a number of comments. Interesting. The latest is from someone who called themself "sexy mama" and I started to write a response in the comments, but it just got so long that I thought "Hey - this should just be a post. I don't post enough as it is." So thanks, sexy mama, because you've given me something to write about while I SHOULD be taking the opportunity to grab a nap. ;) This one's for you:

Hey sexy mama, thanks for your interesting comments. It's too bad you've completely put your own spin on mine, though. I'm not "threatened" by a good looking woman who can sing. Where on EARTH did you get that from? I'm a musician myself and I have many friends who are gorgeous and can sing the roof right off from over your head. A number of them could easily be in her place right now, and I'd be happy for them. So why does one person get a contract for $100 mil when there are so many out there who could have something equally as fantastic to contribute? How about record companies share the love a little? Stardom is not my goal, to be clear. This isn't a jealousy issue, it's just a cynicism with the music industry at large. And for the record (ar ar), I completely agree with you that paying people millions for sports is ridiculous. It's a different skill, yes, and there should be compensation for athletes if that's their profession of choice, but the amount of money that many of the athletes are paid is - again - ridiculous. That said, the consumer definitely helps drive that machine, you know what I'm saying? They wouldn't get paid that much if the customer wasn't providing the funds for them to get such lovely salaries. Really, the same thing goes in the music industry as well. All I was saying about Leona was that I had listened to clips of her music on amazon.ca and didn't understand the hype, or the justification for such a huge salary. For heaven's sake, she's barely out of the gates and hasn't established a brand or anything yet (and don't kid yourself, pro musicians who are signed with big labels ALL have brands). So obviously this brand is going to be formed FOR her - big bucks yes, but how happy will she be down the road?
Also, having made these comments, I have since followed the recommendation of a fellow blog buddy: I went to Leona's myspace page, where I was more impressed by what I heard. So yes, yay for Leona and her beauty and her lovely voice. But still...$100 million? I don't know. I think about artists like Jill Scott who blow me away much more than Leona Lewis has, and who don't seem to get the same amount of hype or attention, and I just think there's something seriously skewed in this industry when only the beautiful ones are rewarded because someone thinks they can sell product as well as beautiful music. And I feel sad for everyone out there who's equally as deserving of success in this field, and who have to struggle EVERY DAY to get whatever modicum of it they can, because someone at the top thinks there's only room enough for a select few "superstars". So really that post was more about "those fucking corporations" than anything else.

Borrowed stories seem to be my best ones these days...

(...Maybe because I just don't seem to get out much any more?)

We watch The Office with a couple of friends of ours on whichever Thursday nights work for everybody. It's always a lot of fun, because these two are hilarious. It was suggested a while ago that we have an "Ugly Face Contest" and I said I'd post on the blog and everyone could vote. That has been slightly amended, because audience participation is so much more fun, don't you think? More on that soon. Today's post involves the same wonderful couple. Let's call them "Dwight and Angela". Heh heh. Anyway, "Dwight & Angela" live next door to a 50-something-year-old guy and his elderly English mum. Picture your typical lovely, neatly dressed, snow-white-haired English lady. The son has a massive video collection and has told them to come over any time and borrow whatever they like. They took him up on this, because hello, free movies! One day they went over to borrow a flick and he wasn't in, so the mother brought them to his room so that they could choose something. They get in there, and they're going through the movies, and of course the mother stays with them as they're looking, and she's suggesting various titles as they browse. Just as she's picking one up, "Dwight" gets a glimpse of what it is but it's too late to stop her. It's a porno. Called "Ass Attack", no less. The mother says (please to read using your best "proper" English accent, and with a slightly tremulous voice): "Oh nooo! What's this? 'Aaahhsss Attaaaahck'?! Oh it's a pooornoooo! Nobody should be watching pooornooos!" (Arrr, it's hard to transcribe English accents!) Anyway, you can imagine the discomfort...needless to say they grabbed something fast and got out of there.

For even more fun, here's "Dwight" doing his best English lady impression:

Fun Pengin update: I tried to feed my little guy some food he doesn't like today. He closed his mouth very tight and shook his head "No." I was shocked - he copies us shaking our heads (we do it for fun - I've tried teaching him up and down, but he hasn't got that yet), but I had no idea he'd attached any meaning to it! Holy crap!