Thank God I love dragonboat

Because this is becoming a royal pain.

This year will be the third in a row I'll be dragonboating. This year I consented to be my team's (The Bold, Bald and Beautiful) organiser. Little did I know how much stress this would cause. People haven't signed waivers, our team hasn't paid the entry fee and we're still missing a bunch of paddlers. I can't stop worrying about dragonboat-related niggly things and on top of a working mother of 3's niggly things, I'm as wound up as a guitar string. Next year please remind me to just shut up and paddle.

kxx

Okay, can I talk about Virginia Tech?

Let me say that I'm very sorry for everyone touched by this tragedy. It shouldn't have happened and it sucks. But I wonder why no one is talking about gun control. I know that this sort of thing happens everywhere whether there is gun control or not. Recent shootings in Europe and even here in Canada speak to that but the idea that anyone with 3 free days and a drivers licence can kill me is terrifying. Everytime I hear of one kid showing another his daddy's gun and it fatally went off or one driver shooting another after being cut off in traffic, I'm shocked and amazed. How can this stuff happen?

I'm no scholar but shouldn't people be more pissed off with a system that let this lunatic get a hold of a lethal weapon than the lunatic himself? He needed help, not a Glock. Yes, I know guns don't kill people, people kill people but wasn't the constitution written in wild west times? When people absolutely needed a gun to defend themselves, their families and their land? What are you meant to defend in this day and age? Your Starbucks coffee order? I just don't get it.
I'm so very sorry this had to happen but maybe it'll be a catalyst for change. Awful events usually are. If I was personally touched by this unimaginable event I wouldn't want my loved ones to have died in vain.

kxx

Meet my new boyfriends

Move over Kratt brothers. I now heart Luke and Joe.

Barats and Bereta are so funny and make me so happy, I have no words. Just watch the videos. There are 17. They aren't long but they sure will make you laugh out loud. I think I've seen each one about 8 times. I think "Suburbanites" is my fave. Or the Ninja fight in "Two Scoops". Or their theme song. So much deliciousness, I can't choose. "Completely Uncalled For"? "The Good Word"? "Auto Insurance"? Maybe "Mother's Day"? That was the first one I ever saw so it's close to my heart. Watch them all and tell me which you like. Have fun! But stay away from my boyfriends.

kxx

Us? Do the culture thing? Why not?

Yesterday the Kaye's went to the National Gallery of Canada downtown. Or as Henry with great awe calls it: "De Seeedy". It shouldn't be such a big deal since downtown is only 10 minutes away. We just never get there. Anyway, there was a really cool exhibition there by Australian artist Ron Mueck.

Now this is the kind of art I like and love exposing the kids too. Not to disparage modern art (okay, I am) but I prefer my art to look like something. I understand that art like "Voice Of Fire" is meant to evoke an emotion in people but for me that emotion is boredom. I quite simply don't get why if I go down to Home Depot, buy a snow removal tool and hang it up in my car hole it's just a shovel in a garage but when it's hanging in the art gallery it's art. I swear, this was really an "installation" at the Gallery. Oh brother.

So this Mueck has some amazing pieces. He does people with incredible reality and plays with their sizes. Some huge and some tiny. I've never seen anything so cool in my entire life. I loved the expressions on the faces, the translucency of the skin and my fave in any sculpture, hands and feet. Incredible.

Now the "problem" was that most of the sculptures were nude. Lots of penises and bums. It made for lots of immature giggling on the parts of Audrey and Henry (grow up kids, after all you are 7 and 8 for goodness sake. Sheesh!) and a visible shudder from Elliott as he walked around to the business end of a sculpture of a mother who's just given birth and the umbilical cord still attached to both.

My favourite part was asking the kids about the facial expressions. There are some really good ones especially in "Wild Man" and "Big Man". For "Big Man" I asked Audrey what she thought he was thinking and she replied "He wants everyone to stop looking at him".

So, so cool. If these sculptures ever stop by your "Seeeedy" you need to have a look. But careful. Some of the sculptures look back.

kxx

Morning!

Yes, it is. It's morning. Yup. Uh huh.

Well, you got me. I'm in the hell that is writers block. I've even played that Rocky punching game that's really a disguised ad. Looks like it's another stream-of-consciousness blog. Sorry guys!

*I'm listening to Live88.5 radio station. They're playing "Famous Last Words" by My Chemical Romance. They're way overrated.

*Henry just came up and told me to make sure I signed his report card and sent it back to school. Good remembering, H.

*I'm wearing one of many favourite lipsticks: Revlon Colorstay #340. It's called Divine Port Wine. If you're in the market for a long lasting lipstick, that's the one for you.

*Okay, I just stepped away from the computer as I just remembered I hadn't made my lunch and I'm leaving in about 2 minutes.

I've really gotta go... Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend!

kxx

Sssshhh! I've got no secrets

On Tuesday I took the bus to work. I forgot my book so I was forced to look at the people around me and read the bus adverts. I saw one for a call-in distress line that said something like: "Think of a secret you've never told anyone. Now look at the person beside you (thankfully I was sitting alone) and picture yourself telling them that secret." Not sure exactly what they were getting at but it did make me think. What secrets do I have?

It took me the whole bus ride to think of one. Then I realised I told that one to the girls at work. I thought of another. Then I realised that Scott already knows that one. You can see where this is going, right? Between my husband, my co-workers at a job where we hardly do anything but talk, my 3 bulletin board communities and this blog, my life is an open book. There is nothing about me that someone doesn't already know.

I have to admit a penchant for telling virtual strangers waaay more than they need (or want) to know. A recent example: someone I barely knew asked me how I was and I replied "hungry".

Instead of giving the usual and expected answer of "fine", I actually told the truth. What's up with that? If someone on the bus asks me something like "does the #96 go downtown?" I can turn it into a bus ride long chitchat complete with family photos and tattoo flashing. Oh, and I wouldn't have even gotten the other persons name. Or I would have and promptly forgot it. What's a narcissist to do?

kxx

We're rich!

Okay not really but to the casual outside observer, it may look as if we've come into some cash. Yup, the Kaye's have joined the "horsey set".

Unfortunately we haven't won the lotto, but just found out that the stables we've been biking by every summer is run by the city and offers classes for kids at city rates. Score! Audrey is beside herself right now and can't wait until 2 May when the class starts. Henry wanted to do it too but we had to say no because even at city rates it's still pretty expensive and we can't afford to put two kids in it. So see, not rich.

While I was registering Audrey, I also put all 3 kids in swimming lessons. Hopefully we'll get Steve, that hottie Jake Gyllenhaal lookalike instructor again. I haven't behaved like a desperate cougar in months. I'm getting rusty.

kxx