Yellow Fellow

Congrats to Justin on attaining his yellow belt in taekwondo!!!

I'm so proud of you, little dude! Especially for breaking the board on your first kick! Way to go, my son!

Season End Soccer Jamboree

The end of soccer season finally arrived. Other than the big dump of snow in December, the weather wasn't too bad this season. I can only remember a few days spent under an umbrella. Saturday was frigid, though, with an icy wind chilling the spectators to the bone. Poor Brooks. The Storms won their final game 4-1 and Justin nearly scored, bless his heart.

Playground At Emily Carr School

The sun came out and despite a chill in the air we played for 2 solid hours on Sunday afternoon...no crying, no fighting, no pouting...it was a great day!

...Untitled...

Back Online!

The new computer is finally up and running. Had a false start with the 24" monitor but it is now working fine. Going from that tiny little 15" monitor to 24" is just mind blowing! It seems gigantic! So far Vista hasn't been nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be. The new speakers I got are super mega rockin' cool as well.

Now...if I can get my wireless router working I'll be away to the races...

New Computer!

Our 5 year old computer has been struggling and today our shiny new replacement has arrived! It has 1 terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) of hard drive space, compared to the teeny 80 gigabytes on our old computer. And we're upgrading from a wee-little 15-inch monitor to a 24-inch. It also has a blu-ray disc player/reader/burner. The only downside is that it comes with Vista, and I'm less than thrilled about that.

Anyway, if you don't see any posts or e-mails from me for awhile, it is likely because I'm having technical problems!

Better Blogs Than I

My favourite non-music blog has got to be "Stuff White People Like". #11, Asian Girls, is a hilarious example of why I love it so much http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/20/11-asian-girls/.

#6, Organic Food, http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/19/6-organic-food/ is also so true.

Garfield Minus Garfield

Justin is suddenly interested in Garfield and has been bringing Garfield books home from the library. (NOTE TO MOM - DO NOT THROW OUT OLD GARFIELD BOOKS.) It has reminded me of just how much I despise that wretched, self-centered little orange fur ball.

I much prefer Garfield Minus Garfield (http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/) where they remove Garfield from the strips, revealing "the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle". Garfield Minus Garfield "is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb".

Much better.

Day 39

Just a quick update on P90X. I'm in week 2 of Phase 2 now, and I've been going 39 days solid. Phase 2 is kicking my sorry butt. Some days I can hardly lift my arms to put on my deodorant. Tony recommends 7 hours of sleep every night in Phase 2 and let me tell you, I am so wiped out it is no problem. Pre-P90X I was sleeping 5 or maybe 6 hours a night on average.

Songs You Didn't Know Were Covers (Part 2)

Anyone who was alive in 1981 remembers Soft Cell's classic synthpop cover of "Tainted Love". But it wasn't their song! It was originally written by Ed Cobb of The Four Preps and performed by Gloria Jones in 1964!

** Link Removed **

Songs You Didn't Know Were Covers (Part 1)

Before Cyndi Lauper had a feminist rousing 1983 mega-hit with her craptastic version of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", it was actually a cool power pop tune, written from a male point of view, by Robert Hazard. Dig out your old 45'' record and yes, you'll see it was written by Robert Hazard, back in 1979. Robert Hazard had limited success of his own with the song "Escalator of Life".

Retro Lego (Part 2)

Alright, now we're talking seriously cool retro Lego! This is the Coast Guard Station, set 575 from 1977. This was the first set of Lego in our house that had Lego minifigures (Lego people as you expect to find in modern Lego sets) with moveable arms and legs. The Coast Guard Station came with 5 of them! And a helicopter, a boat and a jet ski to boot! Even my Star Wars overloaded son had this to say about set 575: "Whoa! Cool!"

We are missing two flat white pieces and one red arch on this set, and of course most of the stickers have fallen off after 30 years. Otherwise, I am amazed all the pieces are intact. This set is apparently rare and is selling for anywhere from $65 to $80 on e-bay and Craig's List.

I should add that Brooklyn and Justin have done nothing but fight over this set ever since we built it! Thanks, Mom!

Retro Lego (Part 1)

My Mom saved all our Lego from when we were kids and shipped a gigantic tub of it out to Justin a while ago...probably more out of her own self-interest in decluttering the house than anything!!! But Justin is really into Lego these days, mainly because of the Star Wars Lego craze. I have to admit, Star Wars Lego is pretty freakin' cool. Anyway, I figured a rainy winter day was about the perfect time to break out the retro Lego.

Although all the pieces from all the sets were intermingled in the gigantic tub, we managed to build a few complete sets, with only the odd missing piece here and there. Pretty remarkable after 30 years. Lego is so durable it is easy to understand why they price it so high...it lasts forever!

The firestation set is from 1973, although my intructions were printed in 1975. It is so old it doesn't even have a name like "Fire House", it is merely Lego 357. I think the Lego flag is the only piece missing, but we have lots of flags from other sets. It goes for a whopping $15 on e-bay!!!