Breaking records

Yesterday I did something new.
It's good to do new things.

I watched 2 entire periods of Hockey. Not of the same game, and I called them "innings" until I was corrected.

I might even go watch an entire game today. Well, maybe, this is a really soft blanket on the couch...

There's a tournament... which mean hundreds of sweaty smelly boys. You'd think they'd have taken that into consideration when they built that new facility. I spent most of the time trying to breath thru my mouth to avoid the stank.

Uke it Up

NUkeO got together and filled our pub to the max last night.

Instead of trying to tell you about it, I'm going to steal PaSheff's photos. Some large group play-alongs, and some great solos, and instant bands... Much more happened, but then our resident photographer and his wife were hit by the flu bug and had to go home.

I love hosting this weird little group.

How to do Christmas.

hike


Skate

huddle

(pond campfire provided by the Sheffrats)

You don't get it.

So, most of my peers (in the day to day) just tolerate my day to day oddities.
When I came to work glowing and blubbering excitedly about hanging out with one of my uke heros- they patiently waited till I got the stories out of my system before mocking me. (isn't that nice of them?)
I'm not sure how they're going to take all the details of my epic journey to Napanee for the scarecrow festival...

I remind them daily that I'm hired for my entertainment purposes and not my gardening skills.

ha.
Last week one of my coworkers replied "just don't let the clients know".

Miss Jelly is glad I'm back - now I can serenade her with her favourite song. (played here by lovely Rachel)

My heart is happy. 

Happier than it's been in a long time. I feel... mostly centred.. except where I take on the things that the people I love are dealing with. But I'm even learning to be centred there.

I should note:: my pad of paper has been snaffu'ed by festival comings and goings. an endless "to do" list. So, maybe I'm back to typing. Unless I can find myself a new lovely pad.

This weekend, the lovely Catherine (and her PEI all stars) came to town. An impromptu concert, held in the Sheff's backyard. And it couldn't have been done better. It was a little piece of heaven. Perfect weather, great mix of talent, green soft grass, a few new hobbits, SVFF style pot luck (for those who've never had the opportunity to try eating with a bunch of true foodies, here's a direct quote from my room mate- a long sufferer of the church pot lucks and crock pots.... " I have NEVER eaten food like that at a pot luck! I couldn't believe it! Who made all that?"). 

The perfect collection of moments. 

ideas

This NYE I spent the time with some dear friends creating art. PaSheff pulled us together and organized an evening of collage-ing. It sounds odd. But it was amazing. 

Spending the time creating with friends. 

taking pieces and making something beautiful.

There was so much going on around me- like another said, I'd have loved to be two people... so I could work on one thing, and be creating another.... or just walk around watch everyone else engaged in what they were doing. 

He of the great idea had another tonight.

I'd said that I wanted to try my hand even more at the collage thing. And that I wanted to blog. and about some amazing moments that have happened already this year... 

"collage that", he said.

"what would happen if you took those moments and collaged them for the year?"

I think I will.

paper

I'm going to a collage party (not college party).. and I'm very excited. 

I'm sure I've ranted on and on about my fascination with paper... but being as I can't get the blogger search bar to work, I'm not going to give you links to old boring stories... stories about my "pretty paper" hoarding problem.. or how the perfect paper makes for perfect journaling... 

So, a joint idea came about the other night while talking about ideas for a collage.. I think I'm going to try to put together some of my favourite facebook status lines into something... I do like the status lines...

Sheff Rat Escape Package Deal

For a limited time offer... you too can spend the day with the rats. 

Yesterday Ms.Percey came thru town on her way home from winning at pilgrimage.  She looks fabulous by the way- as anyone who's just walked 800kms generally does. 

Let's set the scene shall we?

I'm on the phone with MegSheff- my cell phone that is, when the phone beeps- an incoming call. I glance down to see who the call is from, and see that it's from the SheffHold. I say to MegSheff "your father is calling, I'll call him back later" (it's always PaSheff who makes the call... BethSheff, tucked neatly into the corner by the computer can be heard barking from the corner "someone call L.Bo and tell her [insert something or other here]". I ignore the call.

The house phone rings.

I see that it is the SheffHold calling again, and tell Meg there must be some Sheff emergency, I'll call them back when we're done.

Eventually the conversation ends.. I hang up, and call the Sheff's.

Baby answers the phone and loudly says "we're just about to leave and.. wait, I've got a beep, it's a 613, I'm going to take it, but we're going now anyway"

None of this makes sense... well, other than the 613 part... that would be Meg cutting my call short.

I sit on the couch and stare at the wall for a second or two... not really trying to figure out the conversation.

Then I check the messages.

And here Ms. Percey's voice on the line... I dash out the door to the Sheff's and nearly run down Ms.Percey in joy.

Baby and Ms. P were about to hop the train (hence the yelling "we're just about to leave")... but I intervened. 

sorry 'bout the blur. (the one on the rocks is us.. we didn't take the boat.. we swam)

fire's burning

When PaSheff first came to me about this evening's activity, he touted it as "kumbia and beyond"- an evening of campfire reflection". Ok, maybe that's not what he said, but in my mind, that's what I figure he meant. 

We took over the Bean... took over... to the point that I even emailed Sue (the owner) and asked her to make an evening special to be served... s'mores with hot chocolate.... she came thru.

The stage was shared by a group of us, Jim Yates (whom I love... the same man that convinced me to buy my guitar... yeah... the guitar I don't play... BUT fully intend to) Shamus, Derrick Ballard (he of the Gene McLelland tribute concert forever ago- also of "the gentlemen husbands" - great band) Roy (security man Roy from SVFF), and some boys from Derrick's band. The guys all came baring guitars (well.. other than Mr.Yates, who also brought his auto harp). I took the evening in a slightly different direction ... 

The guys started their music, and sang lovely folk type songs, the type any campfire would have, covers of country... that sort of thing.... 

And then I turned it into summer camp.

Not even kidding. Call and repeat, action, and interaction songs. High energy. 

I felt like I was at the ranch- I spent 9 years working at that camp... 9 summers of camp songs- 5 of those, leading the camp fires... I could have gone on all night.

The two best compliments I got were from the older crowd. "I felt like I was back at summer camp" was the first, and the second was from Mr.Yates himself... PaSheff asked him if he'd be interested in doing another campfire night, to which he replied "Only if L.Bo is doing it".

ok. he didn't call me elbow.

Did I mention we packed the place? Standing room only at the back- people sitting on the floor. I'd do it again.

Also met one of the two boys who have been lurking the Bean lately. The one that has been stealing my favourite seat.

bits and pieces

It's a small town
(is there a broken record on this blog?)
So small... that word of the break in has gotten to the owner of the building that the two kids ran into. So small, that he called to apologize.
So small, that he was at the apartment in the building talking to the people who lived there, trying to get the whole story.
Crazy.


What else...?
Right.... Started the bins tonight. Lost track of how many eggs I stuck in the "eggsperiment" bin... I think there's 15. But 4 adults in the "4 worm trial", and two hand fulls of various ages in "the ark" back-up bin.
Turns out... FNT has more worms than I thought.
I thought he had one bin of worms and 5 of castings.... no.. he has 5 bins of worms.
I think I've found my soul mate.
Well.. other than the fact he's at least 35 years older- and married. I'm sure we'll work out the details. (JOKES people)

Ummm...
No, I'm not getting a dog- but good guess... only in my dreams. No dog till I have a house that I can afford without working 65 hours a week- and at this rate... it'll be never.
EXCEPT- that our house will be going off the market at the end of August. And we haven't had anyone thru the house in two weeks.

I was in the car the other day with Bethfield and Jenny, the talk turned to children... and yes, most definitely- I want several... though.. the chance of that narrow by the day. Bethfield posed the turkey baster question- and if I had any feelings about it. I do like turkey- but I will not be having any children thru a sperm donor, thank you very much. Too many issues there. Strangely enough- Roomie2 was watching Oprah the other day- and it was about sperm bank kids... it totally reinforced my thoughts...
In the next breath... Bethfield asked me "well, what about a really big dog? like a St.Bernard?"

...



...

My mind was still going in one direction... and I was shocked and ... shocked... I was SHOCKED!

...turns out, she'd moved on... she just meant I would more likely be able to pick up some lovely man by having a large dog as a pet... not that I should bare mutant children.

I laughed pretty hard.

Using the Buddy System

Once the Buddy System has been called, it's in effect for the rest of the evening.


There are some days when I just wish I had a recorder with me to keep track of all the items that really do need to be saved on the interwebs for all to read about.

"If you'd killed him, you'd be out by now" NurseDude said to Bethsheff during her 25 wedding anniversary concert/party... It was such a great night, so many lovely people came out to celebrate with the Sheff family! Music and food topped off the company (in perfect reflection of the Sheff household). Beth's wedding dress hung on display, and Manda Manda had re-created the kissing ball wreath that the Sheffs had stood under in their wedding photos.
Always a party at the Gallery :)

Since Manda, Ian and Maria had slaved all day getting food ready for the party, I'd sent them down stairs to enjoy, I puttered around the kitchen upstairs trying to clean things up so there wasn't a huge fuss at the end of the evening, it was pretty simple stuff, so I worked merrily away at it, occasionally zipping downstairs to visit or gather up dishes. I knew SOMEWHERE in the gallery there were more dishes hiding. As in... hundreds. But I couldn't find them, so I figured that they had been put into storage. After a near panic trying to wash dishes fast enough so we could put the cake out, I was shown the hiding plates... all was well.
Sort of.
I had erroneously started a conversation with Mr.RovingHands earlier in the evening, well before he had reached his "party peak" and loss of good judgement. The evening had continued on, and Mr.RH decided that he'd come keep me company in the kitchen... after a long and tortured 10 mins of hand and lip dodging while trying to do dishes, I escaped ...though not before hearing such gems as "you've got an emotional problem don't you? I want you to know that I'm here for you to talk out your deep dark secrets... if not now, maybe later baby? I can heal you." and "I am very attracted to this, (trys to caress my nose as I hold a large dirty roasting pan between us) I love your strong roman nose".
Him: "Come and smoke this with me... we click don't we? I knew from the moment we met... didn't you?" (insert me snorting a laugh back)
I: "thanks, but I don't smoke that stuff" (and now I'm scraping old food off plates into the garbage)
Him: "But baby, this isn't tobacco, don't worry, you won't get addicted"
I: (wishing this was some sort of script for a comedy so later with my friends we could laugh some more) "No, really, I'm not into that... ".

Eventually, I've had enough and decide I'd better just get to a safety zone before it goes from really creepy to harassment... I swat the hands away (again) and make a break for the stairs, Mr. RovingHands in close pursuit. I reach the bottom of the stairs, and with a look of panic and a strangled "help" in his direction, Aengus saves the day... steps directly behind me, blocking RovingHands and engages him in some discussion for a few minutes while the Buddy System is activated and all females are forewarned.
The rest of the evening continues in a lovely fashion... and Aengus wins Hero Of The Week status.

summer sounds

This weekend was the big "Soiree Au Revoir" for the Sheff's house... It's not sold yet, and after this weekend's activities, I think there's more sadness to it's sale... it's just a matter of time.

Everything went off without a hitch, and I spent some time just taking it all in.
I watched and I listened.

The campfire's pop, Melwood strumming, singing... the brat pack's giggles and Jacky's rumbling, people resting... enjoying each other's company, crickets, poetry, a small tousled head poking out from a sleeping bag, clinking of glasses .... fireflies playing in the willow branches.

summer.
♥