HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRUCE!

xxx

Calendars may turn, but your heart is always young. We love you!

Leslie and Zak

xxx ooo xxx

Long resounding silence ...

: )

Ahem.

How about this?

Jesus saves!

But Gretzky grabs the rebound ... he shoots ... he scores!

Hmm. Now I'm wondering about my little fixation with goalies. And men who look like Jesus.

Hmph!

Wasting time,
the indubitable

PS: Buh-roo-sss-huh! How do you make the text bah-loo-uh?

I work here!

Well today is the first day of gardening season and it looks like snow. I froze my fingers buying mulch 'n stuff and then burned them making pork roast. I suspect chefs must have callouses on thier fingertips to prevent constant scalding...

"Constant scalding,
oo-ooh..." It'd make a smokin' song. Oops, bet I'm in hot water now... These puns are like a plague of boils... Wow, my sense of humour is REALLY on fire! All those pun-haters must really be steamin'... It must burn their butts to have to endure this...

Ack...ghrrgh...uh...erg, ack, ack, Ack...ACK!
Phew! Glad I got that out of my system. I thought it was going to b_ _l over!

Back to gardening. I only spent $XXX today, I was so proud. Talked to Val yesterday and she was steaming becasue this year the porcupine turned its nose up at her raspberries and took on the plum trees. 5 (or so) trees totally ringed. Most likely they'll all die. My irises are blooming and eveything else is looking good. I'll try to lay down ladscape cloth tomorrow and then I'll order gravel for the paths. Soon my garden will be done and then I can rest. (yeah..right...)

ciao for now...

B

P.S. Les:luv ya!

Friday evening. What you don't know about your close friends may astound you. Such a depth of courage: a well of belief without resort to received faith — these are people I admire so much.

I believe love is a fickle thing. So you love me now. Do you still now? What about now? And who is that me anyway? As Bruce wittily pointed out the other night, that me is an impossible construct: You are my direct object. (Copular pattern two: subject — linking verb — predicate noun.) And what about now?

Why did my guinea pigs always die? Why don't my PROW 116 students know what maleficence means? Why isn't war over even though I want it? Where do the rivers meet the sounding sea? Will you accomp'ny me?

Today I like: Black.

Today I dislike: Hope.

Am I procrastinating?

someone like L

PS: Hi Kate!

Just a quick one tonight. Lots to do. I tested my thesis that all the marking I have to do, if put in one stack (of binders and assignment cases), would be taller than I am. It is. Suddenly I feel very very small.

Today I like: Wasabi peas. Laughing. A black boa. White Zin while marking. Dimetapp.

Today I dislike: Parking tickets. Funerals. Guns guns guns (always always always).

Yes I know those colons are technically wrong. I defend them on the grounds of style. And besides, I'm a professional grammarian. I can make NEW rules if I so choose! So there.

And the I-tunes says ... No power, no reason, no purpose that stands before me will shake my attention or focus from this one belief. Hmm, sounds like a good thought. And with that, back to the books. More soon.

L
PS: Have you ever listened, I mean really LISTENED, to the song "Keep on Tryin'" (Poco)? Floating away on harmonies...

Now is the winter of my discontent made glorious summer by this... well... by this, you know...this... this... this...uh.. well...

spring, I guess...sigh...
spring

Anyway:

I should send this address to more people; then they could be bored too. Communication is often two way, although you couldn't prove that most of the time. Oddly enough the people you think communcation would be easy with create transfer which is generally a pretty illusion made out of tissue paper and ectoplasm...blech.

Two way
2 ways
too way
out
Out of the way
I'll find a way
2

What the hell is whey anyway; Say Hey--nonny nonny..boy that shakeSpear sure knew what he was talking about.Once more unto the knife, handle turned towards my hand. You know, primroses are fairly delicate and you just can't walk on them. So if you were to venture down a primrose path you'd pretty much destroy them. I say..."Don't crush flowers!" Its bad! (Whose?)

Well as I am making less sense than a turtle in a Ferrari, I guess I'll go...


ciao for now

Bruce Timothy Patrick Keith, B.A Hon, Son of Gordon, Property Owner and Taxpayer, Father, Partner, Gardener, Part-time Clutz and soon to be very, very very OLD

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

"MS is the most common disease of the central nervous system in young adults in Canada; children as young as 6 years have been diagnosed with MS. Its cause unfound, its course unpredictable; and its cure, unknown." Compelling? No. Fodder for a grammar exam? Yes!

Sponsor me! Yes yes, it's once agan that time of year when I must run around like mad collecting pledges so I can continue to expand my collection of SuperCities Walk t-shirts. Not that I myself am expanding, except in some people's minds. Oh my, somatic imperialism. Good old corporeal colonialist me. Maybe reality = subjective. Maybe I just think heavy thoughts. Or maybe, as my ex-husband used to quote, "You're pushing maximum density there, dear." But all can be put right again.

"i'll be bonnie and you be clyde -- see if we can get ourselves killed before we die"

Could we? I can think of too many ways.

"we gotta ride this road into paradise"

Today I like: Cinnamon gum. My PROW 102 (497) class. Black shoes. Black eye-liner. The lone wolf. Raspberries. Red tulips. Two red lips. Kissing.

Today I dislike: That weird tendony spot at the top of my right inner thigh. (How's that for personal? Hope you're not reading this, Earl.) Bananas. Voice mail. My grandfather. Numb thumb and forefinger. Textureless bran muffins. Tommy Salo too deep in net. Line-ups. The smell of freshly changed oil. Empty empty empty mailbox!!!

She am weird this evening always. Sometimes I crave a sister. Quoting blithely. Precociousness the title of a work in progress. Ides, ides. Don't talk about elision: it's scary. And remember always that this is us. "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."

"won't you lay me down in the tall grass?"

It's deep structure, maybe. But then I'm just second-hand news.

"they say the sun is sometimes eclipsed by a moon"

Writing about the panderer. This is gonna hurt real bad.

Leslie
"i will never let you know where my mind has been"

Me again. Sorry about the last one -- if I frightened you, my apologies all around. I thought I was in a *good* mood!

Found a blog I like to read. Such a strange phenomenon, blogging.

Today I like: Sour cream and onion chips. Ready-made lectures. Positive reviews. My two new skirts (ooh, the size makes my head swirl!). Nostrils full of fresh spring. The lovely surprises of the universe (oh, you know who you are -- don't be shy!).

Today I don't like: Composers. Too many questions (yes, today and everyday). Abjection (I don't *like* it; I didn't say I don't indulge in it). Headaches.

So there.

Must go mark something. Blogging is a good evasion tactic. I am, after all, a professional procrastinator -- don't try this at home, kids.

the infamous, the unseen: la vie en rose

I had the incredibly weird experience of giving away more than $130,000 today. Of course it wasn't my own money, but still! The atmosphere was freaky as we calmly and ordinarily told one another how various artists would achieve their goals. I'm thinking there's a big karmic cost for all of this.

The memorial was on Monday. It was heart-breakingly sad, for so many many reasons. We can only hope that all the rest around us stay strong and well. We must cling together, now and always.

No sleep. Average night: three hours. Too much bloody marking. Can't keep those kids satisfied. I'm ready to give up with my 200s. They're determined they won't learn the material. The book is complex, but not THAT complex. The lectures are MUCH simpler than the textbook. And still they complain. Oh well. Two sets of papers to return this weekend, plus marking for my 102s. Yikes. I'm really not grown up enough for this job some days, no matter how much I love it.

And I still do.

Haven't read a book in so long. Haven't seen a movie in ... months? -- since The Two Towers. Some Saturdays I watch hockey, on the telly or live -- always fun. *&%$#@ grammar! I'm so tired of writing correctly all the time. Didn't I used to be an interesting writer once? Can't even remember now.

And yes, I know I'm a failer (and a failure, incidentally) with my MEd. That's all we need to say about it. Say no more.

More snow. I want to plant galanthus and colchicum and eranthis and maybe some daffs. Also lots of pretty plants like violas and lilies of the valley. No more lawn in the front yard. And a big garden. Asparagus in the spring. Some potatoes because we like them new.

A blog for poetry, for the novel pounding its fists on my cerebral cortex, for something interesting to say. I guess I'll have to figure out what that might be.

Sorry to be so blah today. The sky reminds me of a wool work sock that went through the dryer. But Valerie sent some blueberries and Kate sent some cookies, so most things are still lovely. Just have to turn my head the right way to see them.

l

Last night Ted Hole passed away. Today has been frantic, sad and yet still. Personally I was not as close to him as many others, yet in a cliched sort of way he touched our lives very deeply.

Life, as always, goes on.

Bruce

Once again I feel like I'm writing to no one. Where's the other blogger?

Work and work and work and work. Sometimes time out for friends. Friends can be funny. Work is fun, but not often funny. Too much snood. Too much marking -- aieee! Three weeks left until finals. And then spring session begins and the process renews itself. Meanwhile, in other news, my graduate supervisor wrote to ask where the *&%$# my capping project is ... There's no incentive to finish. I'm already a failure at it. I missed the deadline for applying to doctoral school AGAIN -- do you think it's freudian? -- and I have no time to go to school anyway. So self-absorbed, mercy me.

Failing: falling and falling and falling and falling and

splat.

And so the bulb book was born. It made its appearance today. Most excellently lovely. Congratulations all around. Cheers ... yeah .. cheers, thanks a lot.

Well.

Cold cold cold. Tired tired tired. Am reading about my erroneous zones. Made a fantastic breakthrough and have been feeling tremendously happy since -- Monday! Too bad others don't / can't / won't understand. We're not all so well adjusted. Hmmph.

The move to the Centre for the Arts is well advanced and advancing well. Yesterday I was in a planning meeting for making over the editing courses. Sounds like I could be fabulously busy next year. And may be teaching English as well as writing. Would be lovely to have a lit course or two too. So all I must do is write my silly capping paper so I can collect my MEd, teach my spring course (should be fine -- I finally understood the syllabus today), spend the summer writing and editing and writing and editing, and then ...

Happiness at last.

All you need is love, right?

L

PS: Congratulations, Bruce. It's a beautiful book!

It's Sunday, Sunday, whoopee! Which only means that tomorrow is Monday, the day of crashing, piling craziness. I don't like Mondays, to be a bit cliched.

March has come in like a lion. Ugh. Though perhaps that bodes well for the end of the month. Poor Zak is sick. Bruce went to Calgary successfully. The Griffins won last night in a pretty phenomenal game, and I learned a lot of new stuff about hockey and goal-tending. Hmm. Too much to do, too few hours. I have written my PROW 200 exam and a supplemental version for those students who can't write with the rest of the class. Now to write the PROW 116 exam ... and come up with an in-class assignment for PROW 102 ... and do some marking ... and do some prep work for PROW 100 tomorrow night ... and finish Fay's edit ... Hmm. I was not a good managing editor because I start to quail when faced with competing priorities: can't figure out what to do first.

Who knew when I dropped Typing 10 all those years ago that I'd one day be able to keyboard so quickly?

Too much bad stuff happening in the world. I don't like knowing things I don't know. Ugh ugh ugh. Last week was not a happy time; so presumably this week coming can only be better. After all, now we have a retirement income -- should we ever retire ...

Gotta go!
L

Today the Bulb book went to die (oops, I mean film...) After tremendous emotion toil by one and all the stupid thing is finally gone...yeah...

Hopefully if all is well you can look for it by March 10

Hmm. Someone's not keeping up his end of the blogging. Hmmmm... Well, it's Thursday, which means it's supposed to be the end of the week, but instead of working on my erstwhile off-day projects I'm teaching a make-up class (NOT a makeup class!) tomorrow. Fun fun fun -- of course it's only so I can give Revenue Canada the sweat of my brow or something like that: blah! Work and work and work on the bulb book this weekend; there's also a set of papers to mark -- well, actually, three sets of papers. This is not going to be a relaxing weekend. But after Thursday next, Reading Week begins, so I will have a chance to catch up.

"If you take hyphens seriously, you will surely go mad." So I think the strange guy on Law and Order: Criminal Intent and the morally dubious man on the show whose title I cannot remember must both have studied hyphens extensively during high school. I wonder whether the same is true of colons? Use a colon here: you must!

Oh well, must go prep. No shaving, tho'.

L

Tra-la. Sorcerer, who is the master? Well, I dunno. Things are going basically OK. School is very fun. I am a @#$%^&*-up on the bulb book, but maybe there is still hope. If only other people were like Sims: I'd MAKE them finish the book so I could do MY part! School is too much to do already and it's only week 3 -- but it's still my best thing. In September I'll be working at the JP campus -- won't that be ironic. Don't forget to write!

laV

Happy New Year!
As we make our way through this world there are just a few things to remember... Unfortunately we seem to forget them...what? ...oh...

Bulb Book... working
enjoygardening.com...done!
Hole's ecommerce...done (sorta!)

Anyway, I really have to send this URL to someone and let them see the maunderings. The weather is better; some snow, not too cold. What else is new... Leslie is definitely not addicted to the Sims...at least that's what she tells me when I asked her to stop. That's the benefit to playing games consistently...no one can accuse you of excess.

Ciao for now

Happy New Year! It's going to be a wonderful year. And now, off to the project that answers every question in life: the bulb book.

Editor laV, who would still very much like to see the second installment of the Lord of the Rings movies...

Friday and the first batch of marks has gone to Admin. Thank heaven -- only four more courses to go. Got some great news today from the program: more courses for second semester! Seems like good news to me anyway. I think my reviewing course is going to be cancelled due to underenrollment, so that would leave me with only three courses, and that's not enough to work.

Good thing about the blue truck...now if only we could make it go away!

Very very tired but I still like Christmas lights.
laV

Today I took the old blue truck to be mechanically inspected...the lady said we don't do inspections...I said do you do insurance inspections?...she said yes...I said then do that...she said oh...

oh?