Theophan the Recluse: “You must kill egoism. If you don’t kill it yourself, then the Lord, hammer-blow after hammer-blow, shall send various misfortunes, so as to crush this stone.”
We all went out to the Word on the Street book festival today. Nefarious mostly hung out at the TVO Kids stage, but afterwards we went around getting as many helium balloons as we could and then tied them to a stick. We kept tying on more until the weight/lift had equalized, so our construction was able to hover… Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) the weather changed — I guess pressure went up? — and suddenly it shot up to about 200 feet and just sort of hung out there, to our both amusement and horror. It was fun watching everyone notice it…
This is her at the Anne of Green Gables tent. Caitlin took this picture and there’s another from the day on her site as well. Nefarious also really liked the show put on by Tapestry New Opera — at five she has more patience for opera than I do at (as of tomorrow) thirty five…
We also set up my PS3’s webcam so that Nefarious can have video chats with her mother (which other than a stressful burst when the sound was muted worked well for them this afternoon). Speaking of the cam, I downloaded the The Trials of Topoq game, which is sort of like a modernized body-controlled Marble Madness and have had lots of fun playing it on the PS3 Eye as well.
Also cooked a another yummy supper, starting with crazy delicious salad with chopped onion and quartered mandarin tomatoes (I think that’s what they’re called) with a dressing of lime, worcestershire sauce, sweet sushi vinegar, sea salt, olive oil, and pepper… So, so, so good!
The main dish was noodles with a veggies (asparagus, shepherd pepper, orange pepper, zucchini, broccoli) in a lime and really mild coconut curry sauce, as well as jumbo scallops (cooked separately but in the same sauce because Caitlin is not a fan of this stringy-but-gelatinous-texturally-offputting delicacy). It all turned out extremely well I think. You can never go wrong with good food.
I had some of the locally produced Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale with it, which I think was a good match for the meal although it really didn’t taste anything like what I expected (no obvious pumpkin or pumpkin pie aura, at least not how I had imagined — I think the nutmeg was the clearest addition to the beer’s flavor)… And, now to see how the new Simpsons and Family Guy seasons begin!
Weather was bad today which for some reason kept people out of the (indoor) pool, so Nefarious and I had that to ourselves for the afternoon to mess around… We also made this flip-book animation — the bird is her design. I actually had another version of this with more detail and color but photoshop crashed and I don’t really feel like redoing it.
Ok, no stop motion movie (see my previous attempts with my nuclear flip-book paste-up animations and my flippy-guy animation) for you today because we went to the pool instead where we built makeshift rafts out of the flotation tubes, I swam underwater laps of the pool, and Nefarious climbed onto my head (as in stood on my skull, for maximum height) and used me as a diving board. Then I made another delicious and inexpensive supper — cooking is really one of my pure pleasures in life (although really, there are so many), completely relaxing and satisfying.
And then, another beautiful sunset.
One of the good things about going through a tough divorce and highly unpleasant legal dispute is that it forces you to either become a bitter, angry person, or to really look at your life and the world around you and appreciate the wonder and joy in all things — the glass half full so to speak. I chose the latter! I mean, I wish I could have realized that without having to go through all this (to say nothing of wishing others who did nothing to bring it on — Nefarious and Caitlin most obviously — hadn’t had to go through it), but I’m definitely thankful for the life lessons learned.
Great day yesterday. For starters, my gruelling divorce is finally done and signed, woo woo! Now hopefully most of the legal nightmare and unpleasantness is over and I can be left with lots of good memories and a wonderful daughter.
In the evening, after a “Welcome Back” BBQ at Nefarious’s school, I got my birthday present from Saira, who took me to a concert. The opening act was the poorly named but highly recommended Flowers of Hell, a nine or ten-piece band (cello, saw, double bass, trumpet, baritone sax, etc.) that had an epic and vocal-free Godspeed-meets-Spiritualized sound and was without doubt the highlight of the night for me. The first video below is them — I have no idea how an opening band this big supports themselves on tour, although the Kool Haus was packed beyond capacity. The middle act, Gemma Hayes (who I briefly and excitedly thought was Jenna Haze) was a really terrible girl-folk act, and it seemed like everyone around us agreed that it was a completely nonsensical decision to have her on the bill (a demeaning “who’s girlfriend is she” sort of response)…
The headlining act was one of my school-era favorites, My Bloody Valentine, resurrected after disappearing in the early 90s (their first tour in sixteen years I think). Yes, I got a “Glider” shirt. Thankfully they handed out earplugs at the door, because this was literally the loudest concert I’ve ever been at (to say nothing of the blinding and disorienting lightshow)… Even with earplugs in it was skullshakingly loud — I can’t imagine the damage that was done to the folks who chose pigheadedly to not wear them!
I also recordeded Survivor, perhaps my favorite TV show, which I am about to enjoy now and thankfully no one has emailed me a spoiler… I also ordered a new hydraulic pump for my car’s canopy, and beat a couple top-level Rock Band tracks so really, an all-in-all full day. And I look forward to this evening’s Presidential Debate debacle — seriously, what a bizarre election cycle this has been. Weird stuff.
Nefarious and I got a membership at the gym across the street — less than $0.50 a day! — so we’re able to swim again (the outdoor pool here is closed for the winter), but after a discussion this morning about how a show she likes is made, we’re going to try making a stop motion movie with her dolls as today’s after school project. I’ll post it if it turns out!
Yesterday we were up at Yorkdale at supper time so we decided to eat up there and ended up at “Rainforest Cafe”… Both Caitlin and I can’t stand the place, but Nefarious loves it and is a total sucker for the faux thunder storms and animatronics. Even though we ate the least expensive items on the menu, the bill for the three of us was still a ridiculous, and in my opinion, staggering, $60.
Tonight I cooked as usual and we ate a great meal of tuna steaks in a garlic teriyaki sauce with rice and fresh veggies — a million times better than last night’s meal, and with a total cost under $5 a person. On the subject of tuna, I read that fancy-pants restaurant “Nobu” got hassled by Greenpeace for selling endangered bluefin tuna. Nobu’s response? They just labeled it “endangered” on their menu, I guess in order to increase the cache of the dish for wealthy douchebags.
Earlier this week Cory from BoingBoing blogged about two classics of parenting books — How Children Learn and How Children Fail, both books that I also wholeheartedly agree with and recommend. The discussion in the comments on his posts are worth reading as well if you’re interested in the subject — especially the recommendation to read John Taylor Gatto’s book on education, which you can check out for free on that link for free (I’ve recommended it in the past if that sounds familiar).
Other than that, I got tattooed last Friday, but I’ll wait for it to heal so I can post it looking proper.
We got memberships at the gym across the street today, so now Nefarious and I have an indoor pool that we can use for the winter. It doesn’t have a deep end unfortunately, but I suspect that means it will be warm… Warmer than winter swimming, which starts in a couple weeks, and this year we’ve met some of the other folks who winter swim in Toronto so there will be more of us.
This is my best score ever in Wii bowling. It is her worst game ever, but her best “make the saddest face you can” ever*. I got pro status from this game which gave me a fancy ball, but then I was soundly beaten on the next game, and lost my status, upon which I made that face.
* so no one worries — this was completely hammed up and a big joke for the picture!
Funnest part of our day? Going to the coin-op car wash and having ultra-squirt gun wars with the spray guns. It’s more show than a splash though, because they just turn into mist at a range of more than five feet — so it’s very dramatic and a lot of fun, but won’t really get you soaked.
