Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Belated Halloween Pictures
Life has been altogether too busy for blogging. Finally I have time to upload some photos from our Halloween celebration at work. These were taken on Friday the 30th, the day before Halloween, when the staff at the rec centre dressed up and participated in a pumpkin carving contest.
My co-worker Linda and I dressed as scary Phys. Ed. teachers, and stomped around the centre all day, bossing people around and making them run laps and do pushups (when we weren't going to the staff room for a smoke break). My other co-worker Diane was dressed as an English garden, complete with a lovely British accent. I think the other costumes are pretty self-explanatory.
Linda's and my pumpkin was the veggie-lantern. It did not win the contest, but was subsequently eaten by a racoon. The winning lantern's multi-eyes were picked out by passers-by and eaten over the next day or too - this is not a joke, people actually ATE THE EYES!
question: is it a bad costume if you have to explain it to people?
mompoet - DAILY PE!
Monday, November 09, 2009
Fin Wins!
He won! He WON! YAYYYY! I knew he would, but still, HE WON!
Tired now from a long day, and looking ahead to a 4:30am wakeup and early shelter volunteer shift. I will provide details from mompoet perspective tomorrow evening.
question: he won, no question!
mompoet - jubilant
Tired now from a long day, and looking ahead to a 4:30am wakeup and early shelter volunteer shift. I will provide details from mompoet perspective tomorrow evening.
question: he won, no question!
mompoet - jubilant
H-whu? N-wha?
Today is the day that we DON'T have a flu clinic at the community centre where I work. Coincidentally, I won't be at work today, having booked the day off to volunteer at the by-election. At work, we find that our usual annual seasonal flu clinic, geared to seniors and qualified others, has been canceled while the public health people scramble to provide H1N1 vaccine to the public. Regular flu shots will be provided at a later date. Having promoted the clinic for some weeks, we are ready for people to arrive and be disappointed. I'm sorry that I won't be there to help.
As for H1N1, this is, apparently, the week of low supply of vaccine. The special doses for pregnant women will be available, but their production has postponed production of the regular formula for everyone else. To complicate matters, everyone else is still a short list of especially vulnerable people. Ordinary people will get their vaccine later, IF they want it.
Andy, Fiona and I went out to a play on Saturday. A woman in the row behind us was coughing up a storm. To her credit, she seemed to be catching every cough in her arm or elbow, but we were uncomfortable. Should we try for other seats, we wondered? The theatre was full, and seats were reserved, and we didn't want to seem paranoid. Still, we wished that she had not come out, coughing like that. We settled for drinking bottled water to keep mucous membranes hydrated, and followed the "don't touch anything and wash your hands on the break and after the show" approach.
Our sandwich-making group at church meets later this week. While the church is being used as a temporary homeless shelter, we are relocating our sandwich night to a member's home. At church on Sunday, some of the ladies spoke to me with their concern that our host has been ill. Will it be safe for us to go to her house? I phoned her and found out that she has been well already for a couple of days, so we should be clear for our evening at her house, unless other family members are ill. To be doubly sure of the decision, I phoned the Healthlink info line (811 in the province of BC). At 8pm, the lines were so busy that the system wouldn't even queue me. At 10pm it took about 10 minutes to get through. The nurse on the line told me that people are thought to be infectious from 1 day before symptoms appear and remain infections for 7 days. Incubation period is thought to be 2-7 days from time of exposure. That's a big window, especially if others have been exposed and are incubating.
Of course, once we're all immunized, we won't have to worry. The vaccine is thought to take 1-2 weeks to take effect, so by Christmas, the liklihood of anyone getting H1N1 will be diminished, if the vaccination program goes as planned.
I am planning to be immunized for both seasonal and H1N1 flus. Our employee clinic has not been postponed (it's next week), although I think it may be rescheduled because most of us still don't meet the criteria for priority H1N1 immunization. In the meantime, I'm trying to be responsible and reasonably careful, but not paranoid.
I think this whole experience is demonstrating a lot about human nature and social behaviour, and making us think about our personal values and our trust in authority and in each other. It's an interesting time.
question: will you/have you been vaccinated?
mompoet - washing hands and giving hugs
As for H1N1, this is, apparently, the week of low supply of vaccine. The special doses for pregnant women will be available, but their production has postponed production of the regular formula for everyone else. To complicate matters, everyone else is still a short list of especially vulnerable people. Ordinary people will get their vaccine later, IF they want it.
Andy, Fiona and I went out to a play on Saturday. A woman in the row behind us was coughing up a storm. To her credit, she seemed to be catching every cough in her arm or elbow, but we were uncomfortable. Should we try for other seats, we wondered? The theatre was full, and seats were reserved, and we didn't want to seem paranoid. Still, we wished that she had not come out, coughing like that. We settled for drinking bottled water to keep mucous membranes hydrated, and followed the "don't touch anything and wash your hands on the break and after the show" approach.
Our sandwich-making group at church meets later this week. While the church is being used as a temporary homeless shelter, we are relocating our sandwich night to a member's home. At church on Sunday, some of the ladies spoke to me with their concern that our host has been ill. Will it be safe for us to go to her house? I phoned her and found out that she has been well already for a couple of days, so we should be clear for our evening at her house, unless other family members are ill. To be doubly sure of the decision, I phoned the Healthlink info line (811 in the province of BC). At 8pm, the lines were so busy that the system wouldn't even queue me. At 10pm it took about 10 minutes to get through. The nurse on the line told me that people are thought to be infectious from 1 day before symptoms appear and remain infections for 7 days. Incubation period is thought to be 2-7 days from time of exposure. That's a big window, especially if others have been exposed and are incubating.
Of course, once we're all immunized, we won't have to worry. The vaccine is thought to take 1-2 weeks to take effect, so by Christmas, the liklihood of anyone getting H1N1 will be diminished, if the vaccination program goes as planned.
I am planning to be immunized for both seasonal and H1N1 flus. Our employee clinic has not been postponed (it's next week), although I think it may be rescheduled because most of us still don't meet the criteria for priority H1N1 immunization. In the meantime, I'm trying to be responsible and reasonably careful, but not paranoid.
I think this whole experience is demonstrating a lot about human nature and social behaviour, and making us think about our personal values and our trust in authority and in each other. It's an interesting time.
question: will you/have you been vaccinated?
mompoet - washing hands and giving hugs
Saturday, November 07, 2009
green bean salad with chickpeas and mushrooms
My Dad sends me recipe links from the New York Times. I cooked this one last night, and it was especially easy, fresh and yummy.
question: where do you find new ideas for cooking?
mompoet - thanks Dad!
question: where do you find new ideas for cooking?
mompoet - thanks Dad!
Thursday, November 05, 2009
nelson is back
My friend Diana's cousin Janet took Nelson with her to Egypt, to watch her husband run a race in the Sahara Desert. This is Nelson's first visit to Africa.
Here are some photographs, taken by Janet, who reports that the security guards at the Luxor airport insisted on looking at Nelson, then laughed and offered to buy him. The lady at the airport is Marc and Janet's friend Lara. The beautiful building is the Cairo Museum. The sandy shots are at the race site, where it was 50 degrees out.
question: where would you go, if you were a plastic rat?
mompoet - thank you for not selling Nelson to the security guard, and for taking him with you on your trip, Janet!
Sunday, November 01, 2009
night of the living dead celebrities
Tonight, Lorenz Hart will make an appearance at Thundering Word's dead celebrity open mic, with Ella Fitzgerald! At the suggestion of host Bill McNamara, I'll dress up as Hart (of Rodgers and Hart) and get together with the talented and wonderful Wanda Nowicki to perform a duet. This is a truly fine Hallow-eekend.
The show is at Cafe Montemartre on Main St near King Edward. Show starts at 8pm, with signup at 7:30. Cafe fills early, but oh my goodness the food and bevvies are good so it's a nice stop for supper a little earlier than that. Admission is what you put into the hat.
question: as which dead celebrity will(would) you dress?
mompoet - won't dish the dirt with the rest of the girls
The show is at Cafe Montemartre on Main St near King Edward. Show starts at 8pm, with signup at 7:30. Cafe fills early, but oh my goodness the food and bevvies are good so it's a nice stop for supper a little earlier than that. Admission is what you put into the hat.
question: as which dead celebrity will(would) you dress?
mompoet - won't dish the dirt with the rest of the girls
Saturday, October 31, 2009
48 in November
Tomorrow November begins. By the end of the month, I will be 48 years old. I am sad to say goodbye to 47, partly because it is a prime number, and partly because it has been a very good year for me. I don't get hung up on birthdays or getting older. Life continues to be delicious and fulfilling in new ways each year. I'm glad for what has gone on, and excited to find out what's coming up.
About the prime number thing, I'm thinking that the number 48 is a particularly un-primey non-prime number. If you look at its factors you have to go all the way down to 3 to find a prime number, which is pretty basic. It also means, that as numbers go, 48 is a mostly unappealing number to me. I thought about 48 in the shower this morning, and decided to reframe it in this manner:
48 = 1+2+3+7(5+1)
So now I like it a little better.
I'm turning 48 feeling well, loved, creatively alive and spiritually connected. Who could ask for more? (especially now that I have come to terms with leaving my prime number status behind for a few more years)
question: how do you spell 48?
mompoet - finding new ways to combat symmetry
About the prime number thing, I'm thinking that the number 48 is a particularly un-primey non-prime number. If you look at its factors you have to go all the way down to 3 to find a prime number, which is pretty basic. It also means, that as numbers go, 48 is a mostly unappealing number to me. I thought about 48 in the shower this morning, and decided to reframe it in this manner:
48 = 1+2+3+7(5+1)
So now I like it a little better.
I'm turning 48 feeling well, loved, creatively alive and spiritually connected. Who could ask for more? (especially now that I have come to terms with leaving my prime number status behind for a few more years)
question: how do you spell 48?
mompoet - finding new ways to combat symmetry
Thursday, October 29, 2009
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