Rex Redux, The Only Thing Constant Is Change

I worked at LD from 10:00 till 6:30 today. Not a good shift. Irate customer. But after work I finished the NYT Sunday crossword. I've never timed myself, but I'm sure I'm not very fast. I don't care about speed - I just enjoy it so much. Checking it out on Rex's blog, I noticed there is a reciprocal link there to the Prairie Crocus. Maybe that will mean more traffic on my blog.

I have big plans for this week. I will go to the chamber of commerce to get a business number so I can get my beads for jewellery-making at wholesale prices. I'm going to start the next tap dance session. My sister will be there with her new tap shoes on. Fun, fun, fun.

I have updated my resume and will make appointments for interviews. I hope to do a bit of substituting in ESL classes.

And on Wednesday, I'm going over to the Island to visit my mother-in-law in Victoria. I'll just be there overnight and then I have to return to work at LD Thursday evening.

The mother of my incipient grandchild reports that according to tests conducted recently, it appears that she may actually be a little ahead of schedule in producing said grandchild. That would be nice. I sit in my living room and look at the cutest little frilly, white bassinet and stroller. I'm storing them for the parents until they get a bigger place. Today it is 161 days until G-day, according to the original due date. I may have to change my calendar. I have all the days marked off on this one in big black letters until August 10. Jimminy Cricket, I may have to get a new calendar!

I read in WE, Vancouver's Urban Weekly, that readers voted the Raincity Grill the number one restaurant in the city in the category of West Coast Cuisine. Congrats to darling daughter(service manager) and all her co-workers. Those awards and accolades just keep rolling in. Take it from me, the food there is superb. And I'm not just saying that because she works there.

Went shopping and had lunch with my sister yesterday. It is so nice to be able to renew and strengthen our relationship. We lived geographically separated for so many years.

Bro-in-law in Oklahoma is making good changes in his life. Losing weight and getting more exercise. It's bound to be good for his heart and everything else. Yay, Jack.

Bye all. Must go veg out in front of the TV for a while. Snore...snore...

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. ~Annie Dillard

Certificate, Creations, Carpet (Red), Cosmetics, Class

Hello everyone in blogland. It's been a little while since I last blogged. Sorry but I have been getting back to my regular routine and resting up after my month-long adventure at Vancouver Community College. It's official. I passed. I go to pick up my certificate tomorrow. Was there ever any doubt? Not to me. Anyone who knows me knows I never put in less than 100% effort.

The picture here is of some jewellry I made. I am going to be selling it. Probably starting around the end of March. I worked on it for about three hours today. It satisfies some creative urge in me.

Last Sunday I had an Oscar party. At first I told everyone to come at 7:00 pm. That's the time the pre-Oscar festivities start. In Winnipeg! Then my observant offspring pointed out that: "Here on the west coast, the shows start at about 3:00 pm." Oops, I almost forgot that I live on the west coast now!!! So it was time to revise the invitations.

My darling daughter and a friend of hers from work came. Also my sister. Other invitees were not able to attend. More wine for the four of us. Or, I guess I would have to say: the three of us. The pregnant lady does not imbibe. We ate lots of appies and junk food and watched the gowns and jewels on the red carpet. It was fun to trash the really bad ones. There were not too many surprises at the awards. Marion Cotillard was a surprise. I hadn't seen "La Vie En Rose," so I ordered the DVD from Amazon.ca. I was very glad to see that a song from "Once," won an award. I saw that movie and it was amazing. I've also ordered it. Got to support the really good indie movies. I was proud to see that the writer of Juno won an award. O Canada....wave the red maple leaf.

On Tuesday I attended a Revlon school. It's a one-day seminar sponsored by the cosmetics company, usually about their new products. It was good - got a few good make-up tips and a free lunch. The companies always give attendees products, too. One good reason to keep my LD job!

Tuesday evening was the last class of this round of tap dance lessons. It is so much fun. My sister takes the class, too. Our instructor, Jennifer, is the best in the city, the country, maybe even the universe! She's been teaching us the Shim-sham-shimmy. Dare you to try saying that three times fast! http://youtube.com/watch?v=rKue2kgoncw Here's another group (not my class) doing the dance. My sister and I have signed up for another set of classes. Yay. Yay. Yay. No tappy, no happy.

Take care and ta ta.

It is never to late to become what you might have been. ~ George Eliot

TESOL and other Language Plays

Hello All. The end is in sight. No, Darren, not the itchy end. Ah, no, not the end of the world, either, the end of my TESOL course. That's Teaching English as a Second or Other Language to the uninitiated. I have handed in my assignments, attended my last class and just have the take-home exam to do this weekend. Since I also work both Saturday and Sunday and have to attend to my laundry this weekend or buy new undies, I won't be coming up for air until Monday.

But I just wanted to share with everyone out in blogland another blog that is very amusing. Go to the blog listed below. The blogger posts pictures of incorrect use of quotation marks. This blog is funny if you know that the proper use of quotation marks in these examples is to indicate something that is ironic. Like naming Robin Hood's six-foot sidekick, "Little" John. In other words, if you use "dog" it usually means something that isn't a real dog. (A fake dog? Something dog-like? A cat?) But most people use quotation marks as emphasis when they should use boldface or underlining. Interpreting the quotation marks as if they were used correctly creates funny meanings. Well, maybe my sense of humour is warped.

I challenge you to go to the blog look at the billboard using the phrase Thank "God"and not laugh. Just make sure you read the entire group of comments. People who play with language are so funny. I laughed so hard, my sides are aching. And I'm still laughing.

http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/2007/10/or-whatever-diety.html

And for all you grammarphiles, linguistic nerds, and punsters this blog has links to other interesting blogs that play with language. All this talk about language play is turning me on. Might this be the ultimate pick-up line? "Would you like to play with my collocations?"

That, of course, is the other major use of quotation marks - to indicate what someone has said. Even if the someone is an imaginary speaker.

Gotta go. One more time at the "God" site before I go to sleep. He would have loved it.

There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't. - Warren Buffet

Rex and Oscar

Today I want to write about two important men in my life. One is a very cerebral blogger. The other always appears in public in the nude.

One of my favourite leisure activities is doing crosswords. I like puzzles and games of all kinds, but I love doing the Sunday NY Times crossword. We used to do it together. I still do it most weekends. Here in Raincity the NY Times Sunday puzzle appears the following Saturday in the Vancouver Sun. So I am always a week behind.

Today I did a particularly (I thought) difficult one. I had to google many of the clues. If I can finish it without googling anything I call the puzzle easy. Then I check it on this blog: http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/ Rex, of course, is a pseudonym. I have a theory that Rex's real name has the initials "R" and "E" because the "X" in Rex can be put with "word" to create an abbreviation for crossword: Xword.

Rex rated yesterday's puzzle as medium. He does puzzles every day and competes in tournaments, so he must be good. He finished yesterday's in eleven and a half minutes!!!! It took me a couple of hours over two days and some googling to get it. Even then, I had two letters wrong. Some people think because they filled in all the letters, they have it right, but if I check, I often find some mistakes in mine. So Rex really helps me with Xwords.

Anyway, each puzzle has a theme and if you can get the theme it goes a long way to helping solve the puzzle. Some of the themes are quite original and complicated; some are simple. There are many links from Rex's blog to other Xword pages. If you like Xwords, you might want to cozy up to Rex like I do.

Today is a rainy Sunday and I spent some time today thinking about the other man in my life, Oscar. As in golden statuette. I am planning an Oscar Party. I love seeing the gowns and jewels and the touching, funny or just plain stupid acceptances speeches. It looks as if the writers' strike will be settled soon and the Oscars will be a go. Yay. Turner Classic Movie network has been showing Oscar-winning movies for a week. I've caught a few and really enjoyed them.

Bye, bye for now. Hey, get out here and blog!

One of my favourite quotes from one of this year's nominees: JUNO
Vanessa Loring: Your parents are probably wondering where you are.
Juno MacGuff: Nah... I mean, I'm already pregnant, so what other kind of shenanigans could I get into?

G Day Minus 185, Practicum, Hypocrisy

It's G Day minus 185. Mother and child are doing fine. My grandchild's mother and I went shopping Monday evening on her day off. Then we went for a bite to eat. It's wonderful to be living here in Vancouver where I can spend time with her.

I continue with my studies. I just spent two days at my Practicum teaching students English. My partner and I are team teaching. We plan together and then we are a tag team in the classroom. We work well together. The students seem to be enjoying themselves - sort of.

In unrelated news I had a painful experience the other day at LD. We get a lot of interesting customers. This one was quite colourful. She looked about 70 and had bright red hair and foundation so thickly applied on her face I couldn't have scraped it off with a trowel. Well, I thought, at least she is trying to make herself attractive. She came in to get some eyeliner and after helping her with that I began to talk to her about skin care products. All of a sudden this paragon of unspoiled beauty began to spout off. "Oh, I don't believe in that wrinkle-removing stuff...I believe in being yourself(!!!!!!Have you looked in the mirror lately?)...I got rid of my old husband...(Why do some customers think I need to know private stuff like this?)...I'm sixty-two and my boyfriend is twenty-eight...(I don't want to know any more...Stop, please stop I don't want that picture in my head)...He doesn't want me to get a face lift or get rid of my wrinkles...Blah dee blah blah." I smiled and nodded until she went away. Then I reached for the Tylenol. All that smiling gave me a face-ache.

Then there was a man a few days ago who went to great pains to tell me he really hates it when people take a noun and create their own verb from it. Not five minutes later I heard him do exactly that. Don't these opinionated people listen to themselves? If you are that passionate about an idea, shouldn't your behaviour coincide with your belief? Can you spell hypocrite?

Well, I need to get some sleep. Class all day tomorrow.

Take care and keep on blogging.

He does not believe who does not live according to his belief. ~Thomas Fuller

Weather, Central Canada, Turn The World Upside Down, G. Day

Yesterday I heard a weather report on TV: Colder than seasonal on the west coast of Canada, cold on the east coast, extreme cold on the Prairies (minus 30-40), not too bad in Central Canada !!!!!!! Central Canada? The Prairie Dog would have been right on it. Rant time!

Have you ever looked at a map of North America? Some of you might be surprised to learn what major city is the closest to the geographical centre of North America!!! Surprise, surprise.....Winnipeg! Only people from Ontario and Quebec call Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal Central Canada. What unmitigated gall!

I'm channelling the old Prairie Dog here, but, would all you self-centred, navel-gazing, "if you sail west of Thunder Bay you fall off the world" types just curl up and go to sleep. For a hundred years. Until the prince awakens you with a kiss. (Never) Don't you just hate it when they call everything from Manitoba to the Pacific Ocean "the West." If you live west of Thunder Bay you probably do. Lump them all together, they're all the same, anyway.

Reminds me of a world map that a teacher from Australia posted in his classroom with North at the bottom and South at the top. Imagine that. Kinda makes you think, doesn't it? It made me realize that most of the land masses on earth are in the northern hemisphere. I challenge you to take a map of the world and turn it upside down. See where that takes you.

Speaking of groundhogs....well, aren't prairie dogs almost the same as groundhogs? Kissing cousins at least. Today, Feb. 2, is Groundhog Day!!!! I never understood that whole thing. If the groundhog sees his shadow it means six more weeks of winter. Presumably if he can see his shadow it must be a sunny day. So, if it's not a sunny day and he can't see his shadow, does that mean more than six more weeks of winter or less than six more weeks of winter? It's too just too vague for me. Maybe that is the point.

Anyway, the only really important event is the upcoming birth. Grandchild Day, not Groundhog Day. Here is the official countdown to August 10. As of today, February 2, there are 190 days until G. Day. So it's G Day (Grandchild Day) minus 190.

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~Patrick Young

Happy Event, In the Middle, VCC, Learning Community

The cat is out of the bag at last. I have been given the go-ahead to shout it from the roof-tops. This is my metaphorical shout out.

My darling daughter and her helpful husband are going to have a baby. The baby is due August 10. Another little piece of him is coming into the world in a whole new human being. I am over the moon about being a grandmother. My friends will know that I have wanted a grandchild for a long time. I remember clearly how I felt when my mother came to visit us a few months after my daughter was born. I felt so protected, so much in the middle of the universe when I was the middle generation between my mother and my daughter. Now I can experience the joy of being the older generation. The circle of life is completing.

I have known about the upcoming event since before Christmas. One day early in December my daughter made plans to come to my apartment do do some baking with me. That morning I had woken up feeling sad before I even opened my eyes. I used to wake up feeling sad before my eyes were even open in the early stages of grieving. I had not felt that way for several months and had thought I was moving on to a new stage in the grieving process.

But that day early in the festive season, I must have been dreaming about something sad - I don't remember what, I woke up sad. Oh, crap, I asked myself, am I going to wake up that way every day until Christmas? A depressing prospect. When my darling daughter arrived and told me the good news, it felt as if a switch was turned on in me. For the next several days I woke up with a smile on my face. I felt a renewed sense of purpose. I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but I did tell a few close friends.

Of course I am extremely pleased about the prospect of seeing a grandchild and looking forward to the elation of holding him or her in my arms, but still, once in a while a lump comes to my throat at the thought that he won't be there to see our grandchild. Family was always so important to him. It's just not fair.

The latest news is that daughter and son-in-law have heard the baby's heart beat. My daughter reports that it sounded strong and clear and tears of joy were shed. They will be going for an ultrasound in about a month. Stay tuned for more reports.

I am so happy that I moved here to Vancouver so I can be with her. It is gratifying just to be there for her while she goes through one of life's most wonderful experiences.

In other, less important news, I continue in my course at Vancouver Community College, Teaching ESL. I am half-way through the course. I am so happy to rediscover how energizing it is to be part of a learning community. We are a diverse bunch. Age range is from early 20s to seniors. Experience ranges from many years of experience teaching to a few years volunteering in an ESL classroom to no experience teaching. Some are native English speakers and some have another language as their first language. But I am learning from everyone in our class. Our instructors are great, dedicated and encouraging, as all good teachers must be. The most interesting classes so far are those where we had a beginning lesson in Serbo-Croat and another in Arabic. Don't ask me to speak any words in those languages...I really empathize with those learning a new language from nothing. I felt so stupid.....

My practicum is in a class of international students. The class is a wide age range, from many countries, but all are here to learn English and then plan to return to their home countries. Our sponsor teacher had us up and teaching right away the first day, working with small groups or pairs.

My best to brother-in-law J. Keep well, little brother. Talk to you soon.

Take care...and TATA...and PEACE.

Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation. ~Lois Wyse