CaptainOrange

Artists rendering of our Christmas tree Christmas(ish) Letter I make the season difficult. In some ways it is made that way for me and in others, I bear total responsibility: Moving Dad twice in November was more than either of us bargained for. We moved him once from his apartment into my Uncle David's house. Then we abruptly moved him from there to a great place on the riverbank--with a brief couple of days staying at my place in between. I was glad to help out in his time of discord and need. Also, he took me out for veggie burgers basically all the time :) Three (onion) Rings for the Elven Kings... In a similar vein, Merlin came to stay with us for a couple of weeks at the end of November. Some things about the visit were difficult, but on the whole, I was glad to get to know him a lot better and I managed to use him as an excuse to play a bunch of games and buy myself some new clothes. Win/Win! Merlin is a bit older looking than last time I saw him Once we had the house to our...

While on one of my regular visits to the Royal University Hospital’s Paediatric Ward, I was asked by the recreational therapist, Kelsey, if I would do a storytime for a child named “H.” Of course I would. That’s the entire purpose of being there, after all. All smiles  and sitting up in bed, H is a bright child of six. Her hand (which has recently been shattered) is wrapped in gauze and held in a splint reaching to her elbow. I’ve been doing visits like this for quite a while now and I quickly go into my usual routine. I’m silly and disarming. We wear finger puppets (H can only wear them on one hand), sing songs and read some pop-up books. I make a lot of “mistakes” while reading and H quickly corrects me. I fall over constantly. I’m afraid of all the beeping noises in her room and all of the scary things in the books. H laughs at me for being afraid—especially of the lion finger puppet. She is interested and engaged—one of the easiest story times I’ve had in weeks. Then the nu...

We recently hosted Tim, Sherry and their boys, Ben and Jonah, for a couple of hours. We just began to become good friends as they left town, but we were excited to hear that they plan to move back to Saskatoon after one more year in Regina. Our kids are close enough in age to enjoy playing together and in so many ways we are kindred spirits (sorry, we just watched Anne of Green Gables last night and it makes me a little more romantic than usual about such things). Their visit was too short, as usual, but I consider it a good warm up for all the company that we have planned. There are a couple of pics of their sword wielding children here . Speaking of warm ups, Tim is one of the valued people in my life who is willing to pick up one of my dueling katana's and try to give me a whooping. I was positively out of breath from our brief, but aggressive, swashbuckling session. My summer is looking to be pretty busy (I can sense your shock as you read this). Our visitor ro...

As foretold, Leo, Anwyn and I went to the Ex per usual. The Weather was fantastic. I posted several pictures to Facebook and Buzz, but it's taken me until now to get my Pentax pictures in order and have enough time down off my roof project to put this blog together. Enough with the excuses. Commence with the pictures. First Ride of the Year The girls enjoyed themselves, but I don't think it was as fun for them as last year. They both got more nauseus and were more easily tired out. Yes. Old age. Sadly, it affects us all -- Even ten-year-olds. The super passes that we bought for them still paid off (especially since one of them covered my gate costs), but not by the huge margin of last Ex. It's not always easy to get the sun to go where you want it. On this occasion, it was more accommodating than usual. There were still plenty of laughs and screams to be had. They just have to make sure to take something to settle their stomachs before next year's excursion.

I don't want to complain, really. But Saskatchewan's  record breaking precipitation  in May shows no sign of giving up in June. April showers May flowers ring a bell? I was already bitching about it on May 10th, if you remember?  Now I'm just throwing up my hands in disgust. I've suggested to Wendy that we give up on traditional Saskatchewan crops and start growing rice. She isn't sold on the idea. If you like, Wen's blog has information about what is blooming and growing in this sludginess. Anyway, I haven't been idle. Why just today I was up on the roof cleaning out my gutters. I would have waited for a dry moment, but the water pouring over the eaves was a kind of siren call. Actually, it was fun up there, in a way. Normally, I need to take up a hose to help with the cleaning, but today nature was happy to supply plenty of lubricant. There have been a couple of spectacular sunny days mixed in with the mess. When I see the sun I don't ask question...

Pre-Dawn March 17th The Bad Beginning: I was worried about QNY this time 'round. Not getting together with people until April 2 is an unprecedented delay and I typically NEED the pick-me-up that our quest conference usually provides me. This year it was especially true, what with my popped rib-head, a cracked rib, alienating my parents and all. The evening had some disappointing elements for me, but on the whole, was very satisfying. It started out with a great walk to our chosen meeting place. For the first time the girls came with me and we were all giddy with anticipation. We took our time, stopped at a couple of parks, and talked about what Questing meant to the three of us. Anwyn took an approach similar to mine. She said that anything you did could be a Quest, it was how you did it that mattered. Shepherd Book might have said that "how you get there is the worthier part." Leora thought that Questing was pushing boundaries. She thought that to do it you might ...

I've been very excited about my new camera. Leading up to QNY, I spent quite a few hours on and about campus testing it out. Here is what I learned: Only attempt to do one thing at a time while airborne. In the above picture I had just jumped off of the window sill and was... doing a spread eagle trying to look manly in the spread eagle position (just as tough as it sounds) toggling the remote shutter switch for the camera attempting to land gracefully on the stairs I'll let you be the judge of my success on #'s 1-3. I seem to have failed miserably at #4. No, I did not fall down the stairs. I simply realized that the landing was a bit more jarring than I would have liked. At no time in this process did I feel "hurt". Upon waking the next morning, however, I discovered that I might as well have fallen down the stairs. I pulled a muscle in my back and popped a rib-head behind my shoulder. One of these may have caused the other--I don't know. It hurts. Oh, and th...

-- guess I forgot to put a link to the great review we got in the StarPhoenix . Ever since working on Cinderella (capO), Leora has been on my case to do more community theatre. When she heard the possibility that Gateway would be doing To Kill A Mockingbird (wikipedia), she would not let me rest. I had to repeatedly check the website for any hint of auditions. When we saw James Hawn (who was to direct it) there would be questions about when auditions might be scheduled, etc... Eventually, there were auditions. Wendy, Leora and I all tried out for roles and Anwyn hoped to work as a crew member. Anwyn got her way, as did the rest of us. Short of patient, reliable children, James H. eventually convinced Anwyn to also take on a couple of roles in the show. So we were all in the show -- a first for our family. We were excited, yet trepidatious. I know how hard it is for the family with just me in a play. For this to succeed we were going to have to take special measures. I took time off w...

I´m finished with my play. I don´t really think it was ready for the stage, but such is life. I had a great time AND am glad it is over. That is really the best I could hope for. The Star Phoenix review of the show didn´t encourage last minute ticket sales, but there were a couple of nice words for yours truly. Considering the opening line of the review, I´m not sure you can take any of it seriously (good or bad). Gateway ends season with uneven production REVIEW By Tom Eremondi The StarPhoenix 16 Apr 2009 “You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life.” You also have the latest presentation from Gateway Players. The company’s final play is a stage adaptation of the Agatha Christie murder mystery And Then... read more... Tech Tags: The StarPhoenix newspaper Arts & Life ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would have just given you the link to the Star Phoenix , itself, but I am really exc...

I've been away from you all for a while and we have a lot to catch up on (depending on how much I feel like typing). But, that will have to wait. We have had our first nice weather day in quite some time and Anwyn insisted that it would be windy enough to fly her kite. One of us was wrong and one of us was right. Anwyn's friend, Tianna, also had a stellar dragon to fly. The picture below is a link to our after-school fun. Kites

Most of you are now painfully aware that my fine wife gave me the perfect gift for Christmas. For those of you not in the know, that gift was a Playstation 3. Peace on Earth was actually my #1 pick, but she said Vin and James already went in together on it. I wonder when it will show up? In the mean time, my birthday rolled around and lo-and-behold, what should show up in Saskatoon on the very day? You guessed it -- Rock Band for the PS3. It is now quite clear, I suspect, why there have been no updates to my blog for the last month. MotorStorm - there was a brief time when this was my only 'action' game. In the first couple of weeks, I have managed to get about 75% of the way through the solo game. Eye of Judgment - It's a card game that the PS3 moderates for you, or competes against you via the camera. It is just as geeky as it sounds. I've put about $25 into booster packs of cards, and not played since Jodi and Brad left shortly after the New Year. Kyro, sounds like y...

The girls orchestrated a fabulous event for we parents on Tuesday. Leora did the fabulous backdrop (a heart skull and crossbones) and sang vocals. Anwyn played lead guitar and helped the boys make and distribute tickets and they both trained Eric and Anthony to take tickets, sell plastic concession food, do sound and lighting, and provide the audience with cues for when to clap. The set was planned as 4 songs from the " Scooby-doo and the Witche's Ghost "(wikipedia) soundtrack. It was a 3-seat sellout! The girls (and possibly their dad) have been obsessed with the hex girls (hex girls coven) for several years now, ever since we first saw the movie. If you are a Scooby-doo fan, or just into Wiccan, goth/vampire, chick bands, you should definitely check them out (youtube). Leora and Anwyn have done air-bands to them sooo many times, I thought it was time to blog about it.

Whew! Maybe now things can get back to normal. It seems like my life has been on overdrive for the last month. No midnight concordesqe trips to Paris or Tokyo, unfortunately. Just the usual holiday frenzy. Seems like it was a little worse this year than previous. Anyway, I'm sorry if I've ignored you. I'm sure you had plenty to read over your December. The Mousetrap is finished. Thank the maker. And yes, the oil-bath did feel really good. I am often glad to be done a production by opening night. Usually, the feeling fades during the run and by closing, I wish it would keep going another week. Not this time. I'm not sure if I told you about the frustrations I had surrounding the play or not. Let me say this first. It had nothing to do with the kind and generous nature of the people I was working with. I've never worked with such an amiable cast and crew. There were no "personality" issues. There was quite a bit of confusion, however. The director was a firs...

Quest New Year was a rousing success for me. I can't speak for everyone else, though it seems as though a good time was had by all. I managed to get to our meeting spot in record time (which for me was 6:45pm). That gave me time to wait for a good table, do some last minute reading and set up the pool from which participants collected this years Quest branded gift of slate coffee coasters hand carved with the Q symbol. I had a really tough time hanging on to them until new years as I made them well before Christmas. As I had planned, they were snagged b y the Questers as they arrived (after 8pm) at the table. Me, Dave, Geof, James, and Vin. There were some good books picked for this year. As I recollect however, there was almost no discussion about last years picks. Without Vin's early prescence, there was just no one to jumpstart the HoL discussion. Other than that, there was plenty of fun discussion of goals for the year (mostly mine) although James, Dave and Geof all seemed...