The weekend past and the weekend to come

Another Canada Day has come and gone, and I finally managed to throw a successful fireworks watching party! This was my third try at it, and after the first two were spectacular failures (less than four guests each time) I nearly gave up, but this weekend we had a great turn out. I have a perfect view of the parliament buildings and the fireworks from my apartment balcony, and it's a great place to hang out and enjoy without having to deal with the million people who descend on the Hill every year. This one was also special because it was the first time Serdic and I were bringing our friends together for something. I have met a lot of his friends and he has met a lot of mine, but this was our first attempt at having our friends meet each other. I think it went swimmingly, and if anyone else feels differently they aren't telling me! I have been blessed with some very special and wonderful friends in my life, and they mean the world to me. And as I am getting to know Serdic's friends I realize that they are another blessing, a whole new group of wonderful people to be part of my life. I keep teasing Serdic that I'm going to keep his friends when we break up, and while that's an idle threat because I don't plan on going anywhere without him anytime soon, I have to say it would be very tempting to try and steal them.

So thanks to everyone who came out and celebrated Canada Day with us. It was a blast! (No pun intended. ;-)

And now I'm gearing up for another long weekend, as I'm taking tomorrow off to spend the weekend with my folks on their boat. Every couple of summers they take a few weeks and bring the boat the length of the Rideau Canal from Kingston to Ottawa and back again, and they are on their way up the canal as we speak. My sister and I are heading down to meet them half way tomorrow and we'll spend the weekend chilling on the boat. I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend, frankly! Unfortunately the forecast is not ideal, but family time is always A Good Thing. Which is another blessing.

And somewhere along the line I will ponder how it possibly got to be July already. Where is the time going? The past six months have just flown by, and while I am not in any way complaining about how the last six months have gone, I am still a little gobsmacked by the speed at which time is passing. How can it be July? Wasn't it March a couple of days ago?

By popular demand ...

Here is the recipe I use for the lemon curry vegetable salad, as referenced by Serdic. You can put this on any mixture of fresh vegetables you like -- I generally go for a mix of colours ... a green, a red, an orange ... and textures, but also what's in season and what looks good at the market. If you're using harder vegetables like carrots or asparagus cook them for a few minutes in boiling water first, just to soften them up a little bit. I usually double the recipe and cut up a big ass bunch of veggies, as this keeps nicely for a few days and is actually sometimes even better on the second day when the flavours have had a chance to mingle. This is a huge hit at parties and potlucks and I always have at least three people ask for the recipe any time I bring it.

2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon cumin (I substitute curry powder)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced

Whisk it all together and pour it over the vegetables; toss well. Enjoy.

Again with the book nerd thing

What a happy little librarian I would be if I could take a bath in my library bathtub and then climb between my bedtime story sheets.

Also, what a nerd I would be.

A plethora of pithy ponderings ...

AKA random crap, none of which is worthy of a full blog entry on its own.

Weekend Wrap-up
Had a lovely weekend, as usual. Dinner with a variety of the usual suspects on Saturday wherein I got to try Thai food for the first time. I give it a meh. But I'm also a notoriously unadventurous eater, so take it with a grain of salt. Also saw Ocean's Thirteen. Give that a meh as well. Better than the second one, but not nearly as good (of course) as the first one.

Also sang in a quickly thrown together concert Friday night -- a choir from California was in the midst of a mini-tour of Ontario, and in each city they invited a local choir to join them. So we threw together about five of our pieces that we already knew pretty well and things went off really well. It was nice to make some music again and see my choir friends, who I haven't seen in a month. The California choir loved us and they invited us to come visit them next year. We're thinking January would be an excellent time.

Manic Monday
Had yesterday off for St. Jean Baptiste day. One of the interesting things about working for the federal government is you're very likely to end up living in one province (Ontario) and working in another (Québec), even though it's all technically the same city ("National Capital Region"). Unfortunately, working in Québec means I get Jean Baptiste and Canada Day, but not the civic holiday in August. Which is fun in years like this, when they coincide to give me two long weekends in a row, but not so much fun in years when they're both on a Wednesday and I don't have any stat holiday long weekends between Victoria Day and Labour Day. Bitch bitch, moan moan. I'll have to suck it up, though, given I'd like to keep my cushy government job, thank you very much!

Potterdammerung
P-day is getting closer. The internet is going to explode. I love the Harry Potter books and, to a lesser extent, the movies, but they're just books. But there are a whole lot of people out there who take it a lot more seriously than I do (I'm not making fun -- I'm sure there are lots of things I take seriously that others would think I'm nuts to do so) and they have been pouring over the previous books looking for any clues about what might happen in the final book, and spinning ever more elaborate theories about what's to come. And they have a lot invested in hoping their particular theory is correct. I'm thinking about taking a couple of days off after the book is released just to watch the reaction unfold online. After I've read it myself, of course. No spoilers!!!

WTF?
This animal recently won the world's ugliest dog competition. I'd have to say I agree with the judges.

A dream is a wish your heart makes?

So I have this recurring dream. It doesn't come around all that often, but it happens every few months. I'm staying in a luxury hotel -- the location of the hotel changes ... last night it was on a beach somewhere, other times it has been in a European city or even here in Ottawa -- and I'm obviously wealthy enough that when I check in I leave my jewels with the concierge to be put in the safe, after picking out the pieces I want to wear that evening. And then, and this is where it gets weird, I can never find my room. I have the room number and key, and sometimes I can find the right floor (it's always the 7th floor), but I have to go around and around and can't find the room. More often I can't even get out of the lobby -- there are elevators that go up and down but not to the right floor, there are escalators that take you half way up but then you have to walk to the another one to go the rest of the way, and when you get there there's only one that goes down. Last night I was even in the dream saying to myself "oh, yes, this is the hotel where I can never find my room."

I can't seem to tie the dream to anything in particular -- it doesn't seem triggered by anything that happens in "real" life. I think it's pretty obviously an anxiety dream, but I'm not feeling anxious about anything at the moment that I can think of. It's weird. It's not a bad dream, per se, not like a nightmare, but it does leave me feeling a little frustrated and discombobulated when I wake up.

So what does it all mean? Other than that I'm nuts, of course, but we already knew that.

On another note, the person who decided last night at midnight would be a perfect time to have the bells of the Peace Tower chime for fifteen minutes? Is dead to me.

Hey kids, let's put on a show!

So last night Serdic and I spent a couple of hours out on my balcony, watching them film a movie on the street below my building. Pretty cool. It was amazing to me how many people and how much set up it takes to film a 30 second scene. I was mostly amused by their efforts to turn a downtown Ottawa street into a downtown NYC street -- they brought in US Post mailboxes, NYC yellow cabs, and a hot dog cart, covered up identifying details on signs and advertising and, my favourite part, placed overflowing garbage cans on every corner. Heh. I guess Ottawa's just not dirty enough for them.

There were no BIG STARS OMG! in the movie, but two fairly well known tv names ... James Denton (Desperate Housewives) and Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure). We could only see the top of their heads from 12 stories up, but it was still kind of neat to watch them rehearse several times and then shoot a few takes. In between bouts of pouring rain, which I'm sure was just EXACTLY what the director wanted. [/sarcasm] The extras wandered around in the background, the two cabs circled the block endlessly, James Denton repeatedly checked his hair and reflection in the window of the limo his character was riding in, and Rob Morrow messed around with the cameras between takes.

Just another evening in downtown Ottawa.

Thanks, Daddy

Spent some quality time with my dad on Sunday, as expected, it being Father's Day and all. When I was a little girl growing up, I just assumed every kid had a dad as great as mine. I can still remember the day I found out that one of my friends had a dad who abused her. I couldn't understand it. It didn't make any sense, and it took me a long time to adjust my world view to comprehend a dad who threatened instead of protected.

Now as an adult, of course, I understand that there are a lot of not-so-great dads out there, and I have come to realize just how blessed I am to have the dad I do. A dad who is a great father, and also a great friend. A dad who has taught me so much about the world, and about the kind of person I want to be ... a person even half as good as the person he is. A dad who has a great talent that he is lucky enough to share with the world (as an organist, pianist, choir director, performer, musical director, teacher, and, yes, rock star), and who has spent thirty years giving the gift of learning about and appreciating and making music to the next generation. I can't even imagine my life without the joy of music in it, and that all comes from my dad. It's one of the greatest, and just one of many, gifts he has given me.

I was blessed to have two other father figures, to have two very present and loving grandfathers who have had a huge impact on my life as well. I know so many people for whom visits to their grandparents are annual chores, and again it is only as an adult that I have truly come to realize how blessed I was to see my grandparents nearly every day, and to have them as friends and companions. My Grandad is gone now, and I miss him every day, but I give thanks for the nearly 30 years I had with him and I know that he's not gone so very far away. And my Grandpa is still as vibrant and sharp and amazing at 94 as he was when I was a child ... I swear if I'm in half as good shape when I'm in my 90s I'll be doing well!

The lessons these three men taught me are what has prepared me for life, and I have big shoes to fill as I try to live up to their legacies. Sunday was a day to celebrate them, but I give thanks for them every day, and I try to live my life in a way that makes them proud every day. Thanks, Dad.