Selling . . . selling . . .

I've decided to sell some of my costuming and jewellery stuff. Here are some pictures of a necklace, bracelet, and earrings I would like to sell. I'm asking $15.

Ensemble
Necklace
Bracelet and pierced earrings

Fringe Busking

So, my dance group is planning on busking again this weekend - Friday and Saturday evening. We'll be meeting near the Living Room at 7 pm, and will probably put on 2-3 half hour busking sets. I can't guarantee definite performance times, because that sort of depends on when everyone shows up, other street performers, etc.

Hope you can come see us!

Family Reunion Article

Here's an article about a family reunion near Westby, Wisconsin that I wasn't able to go to this year. I have been to at least 4 of the reunions from this branch of my family tree. (My mom's, mom's, dad's dad was Anton Benrud.)

Benrud Family Reunion: A family reunion like no other in the region

The Fringe is coming! The Fringe is coming!

Another year, another Fringe festival. This year, as well as busking, my dance group will be back on the indoor stage (for the first time in a decade). We will be performing a half hour show in Venue 9, the Cosmo Senior Centre. Admission $3.

Our show times are:

Fri. Aug. 5, 9 pm
Sat. Aug. 6, 9 pm
Sun. Aug. 7, 7:30 pm
Wed. Aug. 10, 6 pm


Hope you can come!

Weekend progress

Been having a fabulous weekend so far. Yesterday I spent the afternoon in a friend's pool and had a really fun time. I spent most of the time just floating in the water, relaxing every muscle in my body. That was awesome! I've been carrying so much tension, so it was really nice to be able to let that go for good long periods of time. We also invented the game of pretzel death ball. At each end of the playing area floated a basket made of two pool noodles bent sort of like a pretzel. There were three balls involved: two smallish distractor balls, and a medium-sized happy face game ball. The object of the game was to get the game ball into the pool noodle basket. You could travel with the ball, and you could move the basket you were trying to score in, but you couldn't move the basket you were defending. Anyone who threw the ball out of the pool had to go to the penalty area for a count of 10 Mississippis. We had teams of three. Very fun!

Mini-golfing last night I saw a guy with a t-shirt slogan as follows:

You laugh at me
because I'm different.
I laugh because
you're all the same.

Quite like that one!

What to say... what to say...

I've been mostly too lazy to post anything lately . . . or too lazy to do anything worth posting about. Here's some things that I've enjoyed recently:

• Went to the opera on Friday to watch my friend Mike perform. The opera was Die Fledermaus, which sounds exactly like Deflator Mouse. I like to imagine some sort of mousy superhero who nibbles holes in balls, portable planetariums, balloon, etc. and thus saves the day for mousekind. I haven't yet figured out how that could be advantageous yet, but there you go. . . . Oh, and the opera was very enjoyable . . . quite funny and an adequate amount of eye candy.
• HMV had a coupon for DVDs (buy one get one free) on Saturday. I went and was finally able to find a couple of movies I'd been looking for for months - Mansfield Park and Les Triplettes de Belleville. Watched the latter last night with Joel and Sonya, and it was quirkily good and the music was very fun. I also bought Willow. Now I have most of my favourite movies of all time on either VHS or DVD, or can borrow them from friends. The last DVD set I know I'm pining for is I, Claudius (or I, CLAVDIVS to those who are either very Latin oriented or like to be silly like me!). It's a mini-series of intrigue and betrayal in ancient imperial Rome. History Television shows it every couple of years or so.
  
• I made a very lovely necklace yesterday. I had spent quite a bit of time on the weekend laying out the beads, then Tuesday one of my nephews knocked over my bead design board. Beads flew everywhere! Luckily I wasn't home so other people had to clean it up! Heh heh heh! I bought a few more beads today to make matching earrings.

So now I've got the weekend to look forward to! Early this summer some friends had considered a camping trip this weekend, but nothing ever was organized. Instead it's going to be a weekend of partying! Yee ha! ;-) A different party every day - and Monday to recover. I might be leaving on Monday for a quick shopping trip in Calgary. Will I finally be getting the drum I've been wanting for a couple years? Come back for news next week!

Lorianne in Saskatoon

. . . for over a week now. I did try writing a message from Edmonton on July 9, but it took me a while to write it while Brandi and I were chatting. By the time I went to submit it, Blogger had logged me out so I needed to log back in. And by having to do all that I lost the message. Grrrrrr. It was a good one too. I guess I'll just have to give a brief summary of what I remember:

• At the family reunion I won a light brown, sheep leather purse from India. It was a prize in a raffle they had to cover costs of the reunion. It was kinda funny though. My aunt who was sitting with me on the love seat had the first winning ticket (for Christmas decorations). Then the next name called was hers again! She didn't think it would be fair to win 2 of only 4 prizes, so they picked again and it was me! The funny thing is, though, that it was the next prize that I really had my eye on. If my aunt hadn't been so gracious, I might have won a nicely embroidered purple bag from Pakistan. Oh well. I still like the one I won.
• Coming home on July 9 we had quite a lot of difficulty finding a place to spend the night. We ended up driving all the way from Winfield to Edmonton that day, and my mom and I spent the night at Brandi's. I have never felt so weird from driving. It was like I was drunk! I had drunk vision (where my peripheral vision sucked) and my face even felt numb! It was a crazy experience.

Then last week was the last one at the research project I was working on at City Hospital. That means that I have been enjoying my summer for the last few days. I went for a walk, did some shopping, did some drawing, and visited a friend on Monday. Yesterday I updated my expenses, attempting to find the $10.51 that my computer tells me I spent on my credit card. I went through my credit card statements for the last year and a half and couldn't find the problem, so I just manually updated it. I also caught up on the e-mail I hadn't been checking at my U of S address. That was probably over 200 messages, mostly from the career centre on campus. Today I finished catching up on my primary e-mail, so now I feel pretty much caught up. However, I have a feeling that I've been doing some of this to procrastinate on writing up the two page report from my research project. I had planned to do that today, but now I'm updating my blog! Go me! Oh well, at least I'm being somewhat productive....

I've had something else on my mind today. Yesterday I got a bulk e-mail from the physio college saying that someone was offering a free 2 bedroom basement suite in exchange for overnight supervision of an elderly person. I've been thinking about it, and I think I'm going to contact them. I've been wanting to move out for so long . . . it's hard to pass up an opportunity like this. I'm going to try to contact them tonight, to see what the circumstances are and if it's still available. I've been thinking of and writing down some questions this afternoon. I'm curious about what the outcome of this will be.

Lorianne in Winfield

Hallo!

I am in a used book store in Winfield, B.C. Winfield is located between Kelowna and Vernon (but much closer to Kelowna).

Anyway, I arrived at Camp Arbuckle mid-afternoon Tuesday. That's a Girl Guide Camp that is only used in the winter, then they take bookings for the summer. I think that's a little weird because it's such a beautiful location, and they should have summer camps there too. We haven't had much planned activity - so far we've mostly just hung out or ate meals. This afternoon a group of people went for a tour to a local winery, but I ditched out to write postcards and hang out at the beach. The beach is very rocky, but the water is nice and clean. It's been fairly cloudy but pleasant since we got here. Yesterday I got sunburned from sitting at the beach all day.

I'm not sure how many of us are at this Dahl reunion - maybe 50. I had no idea I was related to so many doctors (at least four on this side of the family). One of them is very quick to give out medical advice - it's been interesting to listen to.

There are a lot of cute little kids here. I wish my nephews could be here to enjoy the water and good company. It would give me someone to play with too! All the kids here are either older or much younger than me. Funny how I never seem to completely fit in at these sorts of things.

Last night Uncle Roy (who is 98 years old) got a big group of people together for a singalong. There are some very musical families here. Tonight a couple of people are going to do a skit.

Anyway, I should probably get going. The store's supposed to close in a few minutes. I should go pay now. Take care all!

Lorianne in Golden

Tonight we're in Golden, BC. That's on the Trans-Canada highway, in the middle of all the curvy, winding roads. Very scenic place.

Driving today didn't go as well as planned. A serious accident occurred on the highway from Edmonton to Red Deer (I guess an RCMP officer was killed), and that delayed us for about an hour. Makes you feel pretty fortunate to get where you mean to go safely. We've been travelling in two separate vehicles, setting places to meet on the road ahead. That's been working pretty well for us.

We should be arriving in Vernon tomorrow afternoon. We don't check in at the reunion until supper time, so maybe we'll have some time to look around before then.

I've had a cold the last few days. It pretty much sucks. All the changes in elevation have given me headaches and made my ear canals feel all itchy.

Anyway, guess that's it. Ciao!

Lorianne in Edmonton

Lorianne in Edmonton . . . wow, that's like a completely different person.

Anywho, we got into Edmonton around 5:30 pm yesterday. Our trip was fairly uneventful. A crow with a death wish frightened us very early on. We must have come within inches of hitting it. I can't be certain because I was cringing! We visited with my uncle and aunt in the evening. I ended my day watching the movie "The Notebook." It's such a sad story . . . I even cried. I guess with all the deaths in my family I've been thinking a fair amount about what my parents and aunts and uncles must have been like when they hooked up. It sort of brought that all home again. Great movie, but don't watch it alone.

Today I had a very nice visit with Brandi. She came and picked me up from my uncle's place around 1 pm, then we drove around a while, she showed me where she works, and showed me some other neat places she'd found while exploring the city by car. Next we went to Whyte Ave (which is similar to Broadway Ave in Saskatoon, but much busier). We went into an antique store, a used book store, a bead store (but of course) and had a late lunch at a greasy burger place.

Then we drove back to her place, saw Michael, and hung out a bit. While I was there they had some furniture delivered from Ikea . . . by incompetent delivery people who damaged it. So next the three of us drove out to Ikea, where they complained and I looked around for a birthday gift for Jay. Once that was all straightened out, we went home.

Next Brandi and I went for a good walk on some newly formed trails close to the river. It was a really good opportunity to chat about how things were going in our lives... which basically meant we ended up talking about boys. I'm pleased to say that the mosquitos were almost absent from our little adventure: I killed two in her car on the way back to their place. We hung out a little bit more, then I had her take me back to my uncle's place for 9 pm. It sure didn't feel like 8 hours together. More like 2 or 3.

So yeah, it was a nice day and I was really glad to get out and do something active. I'll be sitting enough the next couple days as we drive on to the reunion.

I'm leaving. Bye-bye!

Yes, I am going on vacation. Tomorrow I drive off into the sunset, making for Edmonton. Then on Monday we'll be leaving, heading to the Okanagan for a family reunion. I'll see what I can do about keeping my blog updated while I'm gone, but I'm not sure if I'll have any internet access.

On Sunday I'm hoping to see my friends Brandi and Michael. They moved to Edmonton at the beginning of May. It made me sad, but now I get to see them and that will make me happy! Here's a picture of the three of us, taken on the weekend before they moved away.

So be sure to have fun and take care! That's an order.

Happy Canada Day!

Today Canada turn 138 years old. That's young for a country.

Next year Saskatoon celebrates 100 years since it became a city.

Four days ago my brother turned 40.

In ten days Jay turns 31.

... and time passes...

New Movie Reviewers

Here's a funny item I caught at the CBC website:


Crusty Muppets become movie reviewers
Last Updated Fri, 24 Jun 2005 14:39:14 EDT CBC Arts

Statler and Waldorf – the crusty Muppets who lobbed insults from their balcony seats on The Muppet Show – have been recruited by the website Movies.com to act as film reviewers.

The two, remembered for their acerbic comments on television in the 1970s, will appear in short biweekly episodes on the site to discuss the latest movie releases.

In the debut webisode, which appeared Thursday, the old men critique Bewitched and War of the Worlds.

Statler notes that the latter movie, directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the H.G. Wells novel, is this year's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – except that instead of enjoying Reese's Pieces, the aliens in War of the Worlds enjoy incinerating all of humanity.

Statler also singles out child actor Dakota Fanning for praise. "And for a completely digital character, that little girl is remarkably lifelike," he quips.

Dan Sherlock, a Movies.com executive, told the Hollywood Reporter newspaper that the reviews are an attempt to connect with users.

"It strikes a chord of nostalgia with our target audience, 18-34, who remember the Muppets very well," Sherlock said. "After all, who could forget Statler and Waldorf?"

Movies.com is a site that allows moviegoers to purchase film tickets online. It is owned by the Walt Disney Co., which in turn owns the Muppets.

"We have access to a variety of the Muppet characters, but obviously certain Muppets lend themselves better to this forum, so we'll be gearing it toward those," Sherlock added.

Statler and Waldorf "auditioned" for the spots by doing commentary on this year's Academy Awards webcast. The site's users responded with positive feedback, so the regular feature was created. A new batch of reviews will appear on the site every two weeks.

Sherlock said the reviews are "very much a partnership" between Movies.com and the Disney subsidiary that controls the Muppets. Both sides work in tandem on the scripts for the reviews.
Other Muppets are also scheduled to do spots as guest reviewers. In the first episode, Pepe the King Prawn serves as the DVD specialist.

Known for his thick Spanish accent, Pepe provides commentary on the Bruce Willis movie Hostage, Samuel L. Jackson's Coach Carter and Sandra Bullock's Miss Congeniality 2, which he pronounces as "Miss Congenetalia."

Weird Dream

I've been having some odd dreams lately. Last night I had a pretty creepy one, though. I'm not even really sure where to start.

I had gotten this room at a hotel. I wasn't staying there because I was out of town and visiting someone or anything. I must have had some sort of premeditated plan.

Yeah, I really don't know where to start.

Anyway, long story short, I killed a Family Pizza delivery guy. I didn't even know him, but I knew I was going to kill him. I killed him in the shower and there was blood everywhere except on me (can't remember if I stabbed him or what). Once I killed him his body disappeared, so my main concern was with cleaning up the blood in the shower. I rinsed most of the blood away with the shower itself, then left my room to go buy some proper cleaning products. Just as I left my hotel room a couple of investigators came up to my room with guns in hand. I guess the delivery guy had already been reported missing, which surprised me, but it didn't surprise me that I didn't get away with killing him. I immediately confessed to what I had done, giving the strange reason that I wanted to kill the guy properly, without as much pain as I had endured when somebody tried to kill me at a previous time. We went in the hotel room and the investigators looked around quite carefully. They were still looking around when some guys came in and started cleaning up the tub surround in the bathroom. The investigators hadn't looked in there yet and it was the only place where I expected there to be any evidence. The cleaning guys felt compelled to do their job, but it also seemed they had some sympathy towards me.

Next I was at some huge prison yard that reminded me a lot of a rail yard. One of my friends was climbing around fences to get to talk to me. He expressed a lot of regret that I had done this, and blamed himself for not acting better, pushing me away, etc., thus not preventing me from killing that guy.

Moral of the story: don't mess with me in my dreams!

. . . Man it's still weird even after typing it out.

I was tagged!

... like, two weeks ago. See Lynette's blog June 14, 2005

1. Number of books I own: 279 ... wow ... 24 of those are in a box because I don't want them anymore ... and I could probably get rid of a bunch more and not miss them. Many of them are textbooks from various stages of my education. Others were purchased when I was deeply interested in history or playing with language, and was not very good at holding myself back from buying them.

2. Latest book(s) I am reading: "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin, and one on personality type and communication in health care (I left it at my friend's place for when I'm housesitting there).

2. Last book I read: Douglas Adams' "Starship Titanic" by Terry Jones.

3. The last book I bought was: I bought a sketch book yesterday, does that count? Before that it was most likely "Choice Theory" by William Glasser. My newest acquisitions are a couple books I got from Joel, who is moving this week: one on the development of Tolkien's writing of the Lord of the Rings, and the other one is a stretching book.

4. 5 books that mean a lot to me:

• "The Miracle of Mindfulness" by Thich Nhat Hanh. This was a gift to me from my friend Athena. It's an introduction to meditation. I have tried to read it several times, but have yet to finish it.
• "The Silmarillion" by J.R.R. Tolkien. Amazing, amazing, amazing! I really admire how Tolkien developed such a living world with a vast history, but you're still able to connect with the characters as people with their own stories.
• "Saskatoon: The First Half-Century" by Don Kerr and Stan Hanson. I'm a Saskatoonophile, what can I say. I really enjoyed reading the part about the boom time early in Saskatoon's history. Land speculation is evil.
• "Structural Yoga Therapy: Adapting to the Individual" by Mukunda Stiles. This is a book given to me by my friend and mentor Pat. We saw it once on a trip to Regina and it looked like a very good anatomically-based book. I anticipate this book as being a useful one to have professionally.
• "The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book" by Eric Idle of Monty Python. Before my friend Debbie moved away, she invited me one night to hang out with some friends of hers. They had a game for us to play where we got into teams and had to find and solve these word puzzles they had hidden around the house. My team won, but I think she might have skewed the results in our favour a bit. Since I was the huge Monty Python fan in our group they let me keep our prize! There's even a picture of Henry Woolf in a stereotypical harem girl outfit!

Feel free to share any book-related comments you might have.

P.S. 6 months until Christmas