Boo- tastic!

Happy spook day to all!! This morning on my way to work I was happy to see that someone had taken the time to decorate the underpass I walk through with chunks of pumpkin from one end to the other. I got to walk on a carpet of pumpkin seeds. So thanks to whoever did that.

On a happier note, during my lunch I loaded up on cheap Halloween decorations (yay for shopping on the day of!) and am all set for the kiddies. I live by an elementary school so this morning I was watching all the parents walking their costumed kids into school -- little girls tripping over their princess costumes and little boys trying to manage both their lightsabres and their backpacks -- so cute it my uterus hurt a wee bit.

This year is the first in a long time that we didn't go out -- we opted for mushy couple time instead. Normally we do it up right and here's a pic from me last year. Our friend Ben is an amazing filmmaker with stop-motion animation and puppetry so he let me raid his special effects supplies and I fashioned myself a pretty sweet gaping neck wound (thanks Bust magazine for the how-to) and threw in some gashed wrists for good measure. I even had gross stringy things dangling out of neck wound and all night people came up to me completely grossed out. I wore my creepy morbid schoolgirl dress (small black and white gingham with a full skirt, white lace collar and eyelet hemline -- thanks strange vintage store from high school)and also made a sad face to help bring it all home. I admit, I done good.

A Note About Publishing...

There's a story in our paper about a teen boy who has recently published a book of his poetry. While I don't want to be a jerk and poopoo all over this boy's book of sappy teen poetry, we all did it, I feel I have to vent about why he gets this news feature. Paying a self-publishing company $400 does not a published author make. Perhaps if this teen had written the great Canadian novel I wouldn't be so hard on him, but quite frankly, it's a book of teenage poetry that is probably best left unpublished. The verses are less like Keats and more like a Fall Out Boy song. Best kept to yourself if not for quality purposes then definitely for the embarrassment factor that's sure to come once this poor boy turns 25 and realizes that perhaps this wasn't the best idea. We all wrote poetry as teens and yes, it was all bad. It's a fact of nature. But let's not call it publishing.

I confess, I think it's cute...

Humiliating as it is, I admit that sometimes dogs in costume are pretty damn funny. Take the Barmitzvah Dogs. Religiously inappropriate? Perhaps. But the fact remains that a Daschund in a little yammukah makes me smile.

"The Weimeraner would actually make a fantastic Dog Rabbi: Stoic, serious, and born with the love of God in his heart. But that little Dachsund! Looks like someone was up all night studying the Torah. In other news, by my calculations, a dog would have to be 1 year and 10 months old to be properly Bar Mitzvah’d into a Man-Dog"

Granny Freeze did what?

Wow...now you Nicole? It's one thing to freeze your face into plastic but to start showing your bizness to the paps??? That's for girls 20 years younger my dear...

Click here for the full story over at the lovely Lainey's.

Six String Tara and Dennis

So back in October I mentioned that my boss and I got our pictures taken with the Six String Nation guitar at the O.C.F.F conference in London. Well Dennis got the pics today and I thought I'd share them with folks cuz they're fun and we were crazy excited to pose with this amazing instrument. It's been played by everyone you can think of and made up of pieces of Canadian history that took 10 years to collect and it was an honour to be included in its travels. Here is my original post about it:

Getting my picture taken with the Six String Nation guitar and having Jowi Taylor bring it to our Northern Ontario showcase for the artists to play. I'll post the pic when I get it. 5000 people have played this guitar (Gordon Lightfoot included) made up of pieces of Canadian history (wood from a seat at Massey Hall, copper from the Parliament library, gold from Rocket Richard's 1955 stanley cup ring, nickel pellets from Sudbury yay!, wood from the Bluenose, wood from Paul Henderson's hockey stick, wood from Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle, and many other historic places and people).

Anyway, here are some of the pics from our session. If you ever get the chance to see it please make sure you do. It's a work of art and Jowi Taylor is not only pouring his heart into this project but is also one of the nicest guys you'll meet in this industry. He hosts "Global Village" on CBC Radio, a pretty kick ass world music show. So big thanks to Jowi for kicking us in the butt to get our photo taken. Sorry if we acted like 5th graders on picture day....

Photos: Doug Nicholson/Six String Nation

Weekend round-up

Well, I'm not really sure what to say about this weekend cuz not a whole lot happened and yet it still managed to be outstanding. This weekend was one of those weekends that can be rare in the life of a married couple. Sometimes you just have so much crap to do and general life stuff to manage and while that can still be fun, it's not always quality time. Also, the harder you sometimes plan for "this weekend is going to be quality time," the less likely it is to be the case. This weekend was one of those weekends where nothing was really planned except errand running and expectations were pretty generic. It turned out to be the exact opposite. The weekend was super couple-y and honestly one of the best "married couple" weekends we've had in awhile. And so much better cuz it was so unexpected. We rented some more episodes of "Dexter" after discovering our love for them last weekend, set up camp in fuzzy blankets on the couch to hide from the miserable Halloweeney weather, drank mojitos and ate guacamole, made 2 delicious dinners, drank a bottle of wine, Marc made a fire and we carved our pumpkins in front of it (I know, we actually did that -- it was like being in a Norman Rockwell painting), tidied up the yard and got the gardens ready for winter and just generally acted like mushy newlyweds all corny and mushy. It was probably a good thing nobody was really around cuz it was most likely pretty nauseating. A great mixture of weekend loafing and productivity actually. What a rare combo...

clever clever

Okay I secretly love this picket fence cord hider over at Apartment Therapy. If Marc wasn't busting his ass trying to restore our original baseboards I'd totally want this. How adorable for a kids room though?

It's a sign...

....these Ralph Lauren boots are actually called the "Tara" boot. It's like it was meant to be....

Oy my memory....

So Tanya over at Clemantine was tagged with the following list and I couldn't help myself.

Five Things I was doing 10 years ago:
Dating a boy I never should have.
Starting my second year of university.
Wearing my hair too long.
Starting to think about getting out of town.
Realizing I actually did know stuff.

Five things on my To-Do List today:
Attend my one and only meeting today.
Make some plans for our trip next weekend.
Get some groceries.
Drink some wine with my husband.
Try and get my mother to fix my dress that I ripped.

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire:
Give away copious amounts of money to people who do cool things.
Renovate our house top to bottom and restore it to its original goodness.
Pay all our bills and my family's bills.
Take outrageous vacations with Marc, my family and my friends on an extremely regular basis and be that amazing aunt that took her nieces around the world.
Pay somebody to do all the stuff I hate and spoil myself with things I can't afford now (like personal trainers and a chef).

Five things I'll never wear again:
A waist-length winter coat.
Jelly shoes
Scrunchies
Short shorts
Elastic-waist sweatpants

Five favorite toys:
My dog
My iPod
My camera
My Mac
My Marco.

Five people to tag:
Kaili
Dennis
and nobody else really blogs so I'm at a loss....

Hot Bunny Radio Playlist for October 25th

So as mentioned earlier, for what feels like forever, I've been hosting a weekly radio show here in town called Hot Bunny Radio (name origin is a really long story but in a nutshell, "Hot Bunny" is the name of a fictional 2 girl rock band). I once kicked around the idea of creating a website for it and even bought the domain name but just never got it off the ground due to an extreme indifference to learn about html code. Enter the great world of blogging and now I'm just going to do it this way. I've been asked about posting playlists a bunch of times so this is where I'm going to do it (how's that Abbey?) The show is Thursday so I'll try and get the playlist up on Fridays.

*denotes Canadian talent
italics denotes a new release

1. Arcade Fire -- Crown of Love -- Funeral *
2. Liz Phair -- Love Is Nothing -- whitechocolatespaceegg
3. Nathan Lawr & the Minotaurs -- Oh No! -- A Sea of Tiny Lights *
4. Rheostatics -- What's Going on Around Here -- Whale Music *
5. Sunparlour Players -- John had a Bell & a Whistle -- Hymns for the Happy
6. Frank Black -- Hang on to Your Ego -- Frank Black
7. Stars -- My Favourite Book -- In Our Bedroom After the War *
8. Corb Lund Band -- Buckin' Horse Rider -- Five Dollar Bill *
9. Uncle Tupelo -- Fall Down Easy -- Still Feel Gone
10. The Sadies -- What's Left Behind -- New Seasons *
11. The Replacements -- Otto -- Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash
12. Joe Shithead Keithley & his Band of Rebels -- When Power Came to Canada -- S/T *
13. Golden Dogs -- Big Boy & the Masters of the Universe -- Everything in 3 Parts *
14. Gomez -- Sweet Virginia -- Split the Difference
15. The Pipettes -- Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me -- We Are the Pipettes
16. The Black Keys -- Yearnin' -- The Big Come Up
17. Jens Lekman -- I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You -- Night Falls Over Kortedala
18. Beck & Emmylou Harris -- Sin City -- Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons
19. The Weakerthans -- Relative Surplus Value -- Reunion Tour *
20. The Beta Band -- Alleged -- Hot Shots II
21. Cuff the Duke -- If I Live or If I Die -- Sidelines of the City *
22. Feist -- Inside + Out (Apostle of Hustle Unmix Live at BBC) -- Open Season *
23. Tokyo Police Club -- Box -- Smith E.P *
24. Smoking Popes -- Mrs Me & You -- Born To Quit
25. The Most Serene Republic -- Career In Shaping Clay -- Population *
26. Leonard Cohen & U2 -- Tower of Song -- Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man O.S.R. *
27. New Buffalo -- Cheer Me Up, Thank You -- Somewhere, Anywhere *
28. Jason Collett -- Sorry Lori -- from unannounced new album *

Notes this week:

• I want the image from the new Sadies record on a t-shirt.
• The Pipettes make me want to buy a polka dot dress and go on tour.
• That particular Gomez song kills me.
• All Weakerthans all the time.
• Listen to the Beta Band again. You won't be sorry.
• Next week = new Ween album. Be frightened.

Blog Math

A girl has a work lunch at Verdicchio's with her boss and eats the following food items:

1 Caesar salad with pancetta, parmigan shingles and dressing
3 pieces of bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar
1 plate of gnocchi with smoked provolone, prosciutto, cream and brandy
1 tiramisu
1 glass of Sicilian Shiraz
1 cappucino

If the lunch was at 12:30, at what time will the girl begin to feel somewhat normal again and less like a big giant gnocchi in an awful cute plaid skirt?

Shuffle of the week

Let's play again!

• Empty Shell -- Cat Power -- from The Greatest
• Carefree Highway -- Gordon Lightfoot -- from Gord's Gold
• Try Telling That To My Baby -- The Heavy Blinkers -- from The Night and I are Still So Young
• Putnam County -- Tom Waits -- from Nighthawks at the Diner
• The Black Widow -- Link Wray -- from Rumble!
• I'm Not Afraid To Die -- Gillian Welch -- from Hell Among The Yearlings
• Use It -- The New Pornographers -- from Twin Cinema
• All It Really Wan't To Do -- Bob Dylan -- from The Bootleg Series Vol.6: Live 1964
• Catastrophe -- Maow -- from The Unforgiving Sounds of...
• Hide Yourself -- Mellanova -- Slightly Happy

Winter here I come!

I love fun winter hats. Especially since I cut all my hair off and the way it's cut, spiky hat head just makes it look that much cuter. These Kate Spade toques are hard to pass up (although the price might help). The thought bubble hat is too great. Perhaps I need to recruit a master knitter to copy the pattern (wink wink Alison)? The mistletoe hat would be a fun way to get extra smooches from my husband. But also maybe scary kisses from strangers? Yikes!

J Crew Holiday 2007

Love it, love it, love it, love everything head to toe


This makes me curious where they're spending their holidays. Shorts? Really? Consider me not on board this particular trend. Love the long sweater though..


And this one makes my wallet hurt I like it so much. Love the ballerina dress, love the coat, love the belt, love the puppies...love it!


And this is perfection in a shoe. Patent leather perfection...


And I can't even say anything about this coat except be mine. Be mine forever.


But this shirt only makes this poor skinny girl look fat. I can't imagine who this would look good on.


And toggle coats with fun plaid linings and silk holiday party dresses and adorable argyle cardigans and sweaters with antlers on them!!! I can't even breathe right now!

REALLY if only...

I can't even count the number of times I've said this since our honeymoon. Although I was one question away from belonging in London also. But I've never been so I can't comment on the accuracy of that call.

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

If only....

...I could afford Natalie Portman's Prada dress. I would buy it in every colour and every size so I could wear it everywhere at all times.


And if only Julianne Moore looked a bit less like your grandmother. Has she looked in the mirror lately? Did she forget how gorgeous she normally is? Why is she wearing a big fat purple tube?

Blog Action Day...

...and yeah I totally forgot even though my intentions were to completely be in the zone and on board with all the environmental do-gooders. Here's the deal: on October 15th the idea was that everyone would blog on the same topic hence resulting in mass awareness on some important environmental issues. Great idea and I forgot. So, in light of my forgetfulness and resulting lack of being included in the group of do-gooders that did blog I feel it's wrong for me to step up and start spouting all I do to intensify my greenitude. Instead I feel the need to fess up. Everyone is so quick to point out their own attempts to conserve and how they're so green and how they separate the plys of their toilet paper to make it last longer and create less waste etc etc. I know because I do it too. So do you. Everyone does. It's human nature to want to point out the ways that you're better than other people. Instead I've decided to make some environmental confessions. Yes, Marc and I probably do more to conserve etc than a lot of people out there but you know what? Sometimes I lose my way in the deep darkness of energy usuage. Here is my un-green confession:

My name is Tara and I take very long and very hot showers on the weekends.


Perhaps we should all take this moment to point out our environmental flaws instead of rubbing each others faces in our own greenitude.

Dirty Post of the Week

On my way to and from work I've been walking past a grubby sheet of paper that says in big block letters:
"C@@K TASTES YUMMY"

I know it's crass but I can't help but wonder about the origins of this sheet of paper and how it came to be where it is. Must have been a fun party for someone to need to write it down...
Notice I attached no photo to this post.

Congrats!!

Big news for Big City Kelly!! Congrats on your new job! I hope the City of Brampton knows how you like your lattes. I know you probably got a lot done during your old 4 hour daily commutes but you're just going to have to get used to a mere 20 minutes. Do I need a new name for you though now that you're not going to be in the rat race of downtown Toronto on a daily basis? Kelly of the Burbs? Suburbia Kelly? Big Burb Kelly?

Dear Jennifer Connelly...

Remember when you used to leave the house looking like a porcelain skinned goddess and not like one of your daughter's Bratz dolls? WTF???

Look out Hollywood...

Now even the sexuality of fictional characters matters??? I'm sure it will be the lead story on Entertainment Tonight...

Harry Potter's Dumbledore Is Gay
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix author J.K. Rowling has shocked fans of the boy-wizard series by stating that character Albus Dumbledore as gay. The writer revealed the truth of the Hogwarts school headmaster's sexuality at New York's Carnegie Hall on Friday as part of her American book tour. When asked by an audience member if Dumbledore had found "true love," she replied, "Dumbledore is gay," adding he was in love with his rival Gellert Grindelwald, who he once beat in a battle between good and bad wizards long ago. She says, "Falling in love can blind us to an extent. (Dumbledore was) horribly, terribly let down."

Weekend roundup

Alright so I wish I had some super exciting kickass news to share about how I spent my weekend but I was a tad under the weather this week, resulting in a fairly subtle weekend of activities. So since I spent Wednesday and Thursday at home sick, Friday was a fairly low-key night. We watched the first 4 episodes from season one of "Dexter" on the recommendation of Brittainy and Jocelyne and I gotta say, what a stellar show that is. It's smart, well written, thrilling, interesting and seriously F-ed up. Like seriously. It's the weirdest show I've seen in a while and I'm so down with that. We wished we had more episodes to watch. I loved him in Six Feet Under and am thrilled to see he went on to things of equal greatness. Dexter = awesome.
Saturday was spent doing a whole lot of nothing. I slept in a whole bunch which helped me to feel like I could finally see the light at the end of the sickness tunnel. We watched many Jaws movies cuz they all were on TV and Marc had never seen the sequels. I know, how is that possible you say? I'm not sure but we can consider that remedied. Then we watched the movie we rented that we thought was Bobby starring William H Macy but which turned out to be Bobby Z starring Paul Walker and Laurence Fishburne -- a decidedly worse movie. Note to Blockbuster -- don't stock your Bobby Z movies in a big pile behind the case for the movie Bobby. It results in sad customers. It was one of the worst movies I've ever seen and I'll never get those 2 hours back.
Sunday was spent hitting up the sales spotted in the Friday newspaper flyers and watching Marc seal up our backyard wedding arbour for the winter. Good job Marco! Hung out with the parentals and scored a sweet silk table runner that was bought and then disliked by Ma and Pa. Yay us! We then proceeded on to do some batch cooking with Dan and Lisa that rapidly turned into a Sunday drunk. On the menu, our famous pumpkin turkey chili and Dan and Lisa's turkey meatballs in a marinara carrot sauce. Also on the menu -- yummy Belgian beer, a bottle of Prosecco and a bottle of Shiraz. Result - me being drunk early on a Sunday evening. What fun times were had though. We finally scored some brownie points with Dan and Lisa's kids, Ava and Sammie and I think I officially rule. At least with Ava anyway. There was a lot of high-fiving going on and then there was some hardcore diaper-no-pants time which seemed like a heck of a lot of fun too. I wish I could have shared in that action. Oh to be 2 years old again....
Tonight the plan is to check out the Wooden Stars and Wintersleep at the Townehouse even though I saw Wintersleep at the Hillside Festival last year and they kinda blew. But the Wooden Stars rock and a little birdy told me they're going on 1) early and 2) first. All good news for Tara and her mental state Monday morning.

dylanified

This is a game I could play for hours. What fun! OK, maybe not hours....

verdict...

I am sick and being sick sucks. even more than the resulting daytime television.

Ipod fun continued!

Wow! It never stops! The lovely Kelly filled me in on yet more Ipod fun with something called iBall. In case you didn't see her comment, it's the same general idea - you put your iPod on shuffle, and no skipping songs to cheat. But in the Magic 8 Ball tradition, you use the song names to answer the following questions (followed by comments as appropriate):

• How does the world see me?
• Will I have a happy life?
• What do my friends really think of me?
• Do people secretly lust after me?
• How can I make myself happy?
• What should I do with my life?
• Why should life be full of so much pain?
• How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?
• Will I ever have children?
• Will I die happy?
• What is some good advice for me?
• What is happiness?
• What is my favourite fetish?
• How will I be remembered?

Fun game for another time for sure!!

Guilty pleasures -- show your face!

So my cousin Kaili has planted a bug in my brain and I'm going to be brave and jump in too. She tells me the newest rage in fun blogging is the Ipod shuffle reveal (Clemantine and Ali are all over it too). Set it on shuffle and you have to post the first 10 songs it plays and the honour system says you have to fess up to the Kelly Clarkson track you keep hidden on your player should it reveal itself. No cheating trying to up your cool factor!! She tells me of battles they're having in Ottawa now where 2 teams set up their Ipods and go back and forth in a fightfor ultimate hipness. I'm so in! Wish me luck!

1. Do Right In Your Eyes -- Grandpaboy -- from Dead Man Shake
2. World on Fire -- Tanya Donnelly -- from This Hungry Life
3. Connecting Flights -- Rheostatics -- from The Blue Hysteria
4. Stolen Car -- Rheostatics -- from Double Live (Disc 2)
5. Atom In My Heart -- Frank Black -- from Honeycomb
6. Don't Use My Broken Heart -- Leona Naess -- from Leona Naess
7. Watching the Wheels -- John Lennon -- from The John Lennon Collection
8. Justice -- The Constantines -- from The Constantines
9. Annie's Song -- Me First & the Gimme Gimmies -- from Love Their Country
10. Better Off Without A Wife -- Tom Waits -- from Nighthawks at the Diner

What a relief -- 7554 songs and no duds to embarrass me! And believe me, I'm sure there are some hiding on there somewhere. I certainly don't deny my love of Cheap Trick and am routinely mocked for it. What fun! This is a game I could play all day!

Glass bugs = still bugs.

Abbey's at this glass conference and is posting image after image of amazing creations. These bug/sea creature things are indeed an incredible feat of craftsmenship but still creep me out more than a little bit.

Weekend round-up: folk and roll

So I'm home from a weekend of folk festival conference action and am in one exhausted yet pleased piece. 3 days of full on folk action = just the right amount. Any more and a person could snap. It was a weekend made up of a pile of great moments and even a few duds. Here is a rundown:

Highlights

• Getting to wear my new J Crew red corduroy dress.
• Not buying the Catherine Melandrino sweater that was on sale at Holt Renfrew and instead settling for a striped yoked sweater and a shirred tee at The Gap.
• Lily Frost's showcase on Saturday night: strings AND a mousy voiced girl singer? Oh my heart...
• The video tribute to Stan Rogers during the presentation of his posthumous Estelle Klein Award. 4 generations of the Rogers family there to watch including his lovely wife Ariel and his musician son Nathan. It was a very touching moment honouring the Canadian folk legend.
• Nathan Rogers' showcase: During his last song he came down into the audience to do an acoustic version of his father's classic song "North West Passage" that brought the entire room to its feet. Everyone sang the entire song along with him, teary eyed. His mother and family were there too and it was hopelessly touching and weepy moment for this poor girl. Nathan looks and sounds so much like his father if you closed your eyes it was like you were listening to Stan himself which I was too young to do before he died. It was an extreme "A Mighty Wind" moment and I loved every second of it. Underneath my love of Cheap Trick, The Beastie Boys, Social Distortion, R.A.T.M and all other rock loves, there is still a girl who was brought up on Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray and Murry McLauchlan.
• Shopping at the Soma Chocolate store in the Distillery district while in Toronto pre-conference.
• Showcases from Apostle of Hustle, Notre Dame de Grass (bluegrass from Quebec), Sierra Noble (17 year old fiddle player who was insanely talented) and Kobo Town (world music from Trinidad).
• Getting my picture taken with the Six String Nation guitar and having Jowi Taylor bring it to our Northern Ontario showcase for the artists to play. I'll post the pic when I get it. 5000 people have played this guitar (Gordon Lightfoot included) made up of pieces of Canadian history (wood from a seat at Massey Hall, copper from the Parliament library, gold from Rocket Richard's 1955 stanley cup ring, nickel pellets from Sudbury yay!, wood from the Bluenose, wood from Paul Henderson's hockey stick, wood from Pierre Trudeau's canoe paddle, and many other historic places and people).
• Making Danny Michel laugh at our showcase. We might get married cuz he clearly thinks I'm hilarious.
• Coming home on Sunday to find our new antique hutch delivered and looking amazing in our dining room (I'll post pics soon!).
• Being the photographer at an impromptu jam session/photo shoot in the skywalk with our artists Nathan Lawr, Cindy Doire and Ryan Bishops.
• Hagen-Daz ice cream at the Manitoba music reception.
• Coming home Sunday night to Marc and Bailey AND homemade gourmet pizza by Marc: marinated buffalo mozzarella, roasted red peppers, asparagus, carmelized onions = just what the doctor ordered.

Lowlights

• Getting to wear my new J Crew red corduroy dress only to rip the side seam down to my thigh and having to change into something way less fun.
• Being sober in a hotel full of incredibly drunk conference goers.
• Not getting the chance to see my London friend Eric.
• Unknowingly eating a $25 breakfast at the hotel.
• Souljazz Orchestra's showcase: white people from Ottawa singing political Afrofunk? I am not convinced...
• 4am bedtimes and 9am wake-ups all weekend.
• The drive home from London due to the aforementioned sleeping schedule.
• Being outbid in my silent auction bid for 2 Hillside Festival passes at the last...possible...second. Enjoy the festival whoever you are. I hate you.
• Getting sick again which apparently is what's happening to me now.
• Not being a weed smoker because I missed out on some really great folkie weed.
  

OCFF-ing like a good girl...

So I'll apologize now for my sporadic blogging for the next few days -- I'm currently in London for the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals annual conference. I'm up to my eyeballs in folk music!! Yikes! But it should be fun. It goes all weeekend and tonight we're putting on a showcase of Northern Ontario music (Nathan Lawr, Ox and Cindy Doire) so we're pretty pumped. We Northerners always get a good response at this thing so it's great to show off some of our artists and hopefully score them some festival gigs and just even some general notice. Tonight I'm going to try and catch the Apostle of Hustle showcase cuz I'm a fan and it should be fun. I think Nathan Wiley is showcasing tomorrow so I'll have to check that out also. Danny Michel is also kicking around this conference and was dangerously close to me on many occasions tonight. But don't worry, I didn't do anything to embarrass myself. I'll save that for Tuesday when he stops by our office -- we're hosting a session for SOCAN and he's one of the panelists. The Danny! Right in my office!! Be still my heart. I'll try to behave.

Anyway, I'm off to be a good little schmoozer and try to stay 1) awake until the wee hours 2) more or less sober so I can be fresh faced at the AGM breakfast tomorrow morning. Wish me luck. I don't expect to succeed at either of those tasks!

Easy boys....

Dudes, if you're a fan of the Scarlett, then you best be rushing over to Lainey's site. She's got some pics that will most likely send you into a flutter. Don't say I never do anything for you...

Dear Santa...

Check this out over at Dennis'. Holy obnoxious Batman. I mean, I do love my MacBookPro but I don't love it that much.

Heroes schmeroes...

Alright Heroes, I'm trying real hard to be on your side this season but you're making it really hard. Remember last season when every episode kicked ass? Did you fire your whole writing staff or something? Not to mention your special effects crew? Last night's episode was, I think, the worst one this season so far. The scene were whatshisname picks up cheerleader girl and carries her up into the sky? I don't even know how to do special effects and I think I could have done a better job. It seriously looked right out of Superman circa 1978. Was that the point? I don't know. And Peter Petrelli -- one minute you're ready to kill yourself some Irishmen and then 5 minutes later you're getting a tattoo of the family crest on your arm??? Give me a freaking break -- you barely speak to the brother you have and he never tried to kill you! And as for you Irish lassie -- that is the worst Irish accent I've ever heard. Good thing you have those tattoing skills to fall back on?!?! I am happy to see Silar finally -- he's far too dreamy to not be on the show every episode. And of course that illusionist girl turns out to be fat in reality. Of course! There's no way she could just be a normal girl -- let's say she's fat in real life and feels she has to take on this hot redhead form for Silar to get better. Is that really what you topnotch writers put together? I don't know man. Oh and that brother and sister trying to get to the U.S??? You clearly don't really need writers for them cuz all their dialogue consists of this: "Alejandro! ALEJANDRO!!!!!!! We need to get to the doctor in the U.S! Alejandro!!!" Riveting. I get that it's kind of like Arcade Fire making their next record after "Funeral" -- how do you top it right? I get it, I really do. But dudes you better find something good and stick to it pretty soon cuz all you're doing is making me sad the first season is over. I'm not abandoning hope yet by any means but I just want it to get a lot better really fast. And someone grab Hayden Panetierrre's head and give it a little tug upwards. I know that girl's gotta have more neck in there somewhere....

Weekend roundup

So Thankgiving is officially over and that equals a sad Tara. I love turkey, fall, paper pilgrims in little hats -- all of it. That being said, I have certainly had better Thanksgivings as I spent most of this one feeling crappy. Sickness during the holidays is truly one of life's cruel jokes. Sickness aside, I still managed to scarf down my weight in turkey and see some friends before I really accepted the fact that there was something on the horizon of sick.

Friday started on a sad note as we went to a wake for a friend's grandfather who passed. It's still always nice to see them but too bad it was under such unfortunate circumstances. Best thoughts to their family.
Friday evening we had the exteme grown-up pleasure of getting a brand new Miele vacuum. I'm stoked! This vacuum does things I didn't even know vacuum's did! And I dig that! And I'm okay about digging that! It was a belated wedding present from my parents and I can't wait to use it. It's tiny, egonomic, light and a lovely pearly white shade and I can almost trick myself into believing it's an Apple vacuum. One that maybe does my cleaning, makes me dinner while downloading all my favourite music and then turns into a foot massager. Here's a picture of it cuz I'm such a proud mom.

Saturday was day one of turkey deliciousness at my folks place with my brother and sister-in-law and all 4 of their adorable girls. The highlight of the night had to be watching my youngest neice Melissa show off her new clapping skills. I think that has to be one of my favourite baby stages. It's always cute and is almost always accompanied by a big baby smile and sometimes a "yaaaaaayyy." So adorable...I wish my camera battery hadn't been dead. Saturday night I stayed in and Marc ventured out into the night to visit pals. I had my suspicions that all was not right with my immune system and so opted to hide out.
Sunday morning we met pals Ben and his Aussie girlfriend Fran for breakfast at Gloria's, Sudbury's ultimate greasyspoon breakfast joint. Fran brought along her visiting Aussie friend Christine and the 3 of us spent much of breakfast discussing why we all loved Rome. Ahhh the memories.... Anyway, Christine was lovely and is just coming off a contract with TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) and therefore had some juicy celebrity gossip stories to share. French toast and celebrity gossip....what a way to start a day. Then off to another turkey dinner, this time for my grandpa.
Monday was continued turkeyness at Marc's mom's place. So much turkey, so little time. Foodwise it was an excellent weekend but weatherwise it could not have been worse. It rained and was cold every day so there was no fun outdoor activities to be had at all. Poor Bailey had to deal with short walks inbetween downpours and showers. Not to mention finally getting sick moreorless tied me to the house.

Here's a tally of the weekend:
3 = number of turkey dinners eaten
3 = number of movies watched
2 = number of naps
2 = missed social outings due to sickness
4 = number of times a storm woke me up in the middle of the night
3 = pieces of pumpkin pie consumed
1 = trips to the pharmacy for vitamins etc
2 = shots of liqueur sipped "for my throat"
12 = number of times my niece Emily won at a made-up game I never quite understood.

Long live Thanksgiving!

I fought the good fight....

So today is one of those fall days that reminds you that winter is perhaps closer than you think. It's 10 degrees, rainy, windy and just plain miserable. To top it all off, my body is toying with the idea of getting sick. It started last night and has stuck around till today but isn't bad enough for me to officially admit it. Over the last few weeks 8 people that I see on a regular basis (5 of who I work with daily) have been sick -- a few of them quite seriously. I'm actually surprised I've manaaged to fight it off as long as I have. I am holding out faith that I am not, in fact, sick cuz I have a big conference to go to in London next weekend and I was sick for it last year and it was awful. Perhaps my body knows that it's that time of year again and is conspiring to make me sick just in time for it this year. That would be swell. Regardless I will continue to fight the good fight. Today is to be spent relaxing, taking vitamins, drinking tea and thinking healthy thoughts. Marc made me a fire that I play on sitting directly in front of until dinnertime. I suspect Bailey is thinking of joining me. Wish me non-sick luck!

Dear tummy:

Prepare for constant eating. I know it will be difficult, but I really need for you to be with me on this. All of our favourite foods will be making an appearance this weekend. You've had all year to prepare for this marathon of food that is Thanksgiving. Make me proud.

like father like son...

Mr. Ethan Parker Clarke -- you are your father only 19 inches long. I'm in love!

Hair envy...

If I were ever tempted to grow my hair out again, it would be for Michelle Williams's haircut. I loved her old pixie cut but this is awfully adorable.

Dear celebrity diary...

My name's Britney Spears y'all. Earlier this week the court took my kids away. I was so busted up about it, after it happened I went and got a tan, did some shopping and then checked myself into the Beverly Hills Hotel. Basically, the judge wanted me to do some stuff but I was so busy buying tanktops and showing off my goods that I just never got around to it. I figured he meant business so after court I finally went and got my driver's license. Who knew it would only take a day? After all, he asked me to get in back in April but the DMV is always busy y'all. I just assumed I'd be waiting around for like.....a long time y'all. Y'all. Y'all. Anyway, I should probably go now. I feel like it's been at least 17 minutes so I've shown anyone my ladybits and I do have this new fedora that I think I'd like to show off at the Target down the street.

Courtney how do you do it..

wow....that's a whole lot of animal print all at once. Talk about taking the "cougar" label just a tad too far.

ANTM Prep

Alright so we ramped right up into ANTM last week after it snuck up on us unannounced. Before seeing an actual episode I visited the website and randomly picked Kimberly as the winner based solely on the one awful picture of her. As I said, she seems to have that street kid waif fashionista look about her. After one viewing, I can still say she's high on my list despite being one of the dimmer girls in the lineup. Of course, there is the requisite overly confident/bitchy girl in Ebony -- what can you say? I don't think it would be ANTM without one. I think there's a staffer whose main job is to find "that girl" and cast her. What can you do? Attitude aside, she's undeniably gorgeous. Underdog favourite has to be Heather. Poor thing has some condition which the other girls kept ignorantly referring to "Ass-burger" disease which only made me side with Heather even more. Sure she's awkward and a bit strange but the girl is GGGOR-GEOUS with 3 G's and totally stole the photo shoot from her snooty partner whatshername. Yay Heather! You take your weirdness and run with it! I also loved Tyra's laying down of the law with her "This cycle is a no smoking cycle" *da da da* So ominous Tyra, such dramatic delivery - well done. I secretly love how Tyra gets crazier every cycle. I keep waiting for her to show up for panel in a chicken suit saying "Sometimes in modelling you have to learn how to be comfortable and yet still fierce....in a chicken suit." God bless her...

So tonight we shall see what happens and who goes home. Although it would be hard to top Mila's departing comments last week "Well, I was really thinking I would win so being eliminated is really quite shocking to me." Oh Mila, you keep that Bambi-fied face of yours up. One day your hair will flip just right and you'll forget all about ANTM....

24 Boxes

So Marc and I are on the waiting list for a food co-op here in town and yesterday pal Dennis sent us this link to this great blog called 24 Boxes. Basically this woman and her husband are documenting how they manage to get through their weekly boxes of mystery produce that show up every week. In theory it's great -- "oh we'll eat so many vegetables and create so many wonderful recipes, I can't wait!" In reality I expect it to actually be a bit of a challenge to make it through the lot of it with just 2 people. Granted we only ordered a half box for that very reason but I think everyone falls into a Veggie comfort zone at some point where blindly put the same produce items in your basket every week at the grocery store. Which is why farmer's markets are so great -- often you'll get to sample stuff and get great ideas on how to cook different vegetables. Lord knows they've been the saving grace of our summer supper table on more than on occasion. The problem about being in Northern Ontario is that we obviously don't have the same farming climate as down south so our veggie options are often limited. That being said, I still love wandering the market on a clear Saturday morning with my husband, our dog and a coffee. If we manage to make it on the list for this year you can guarantee you'll be hearing about our veggie box progress.

Zucchini dog...

Abbey's post earlier this week really hits home now that I've recently acquired a giant zucchini of my very own. Now all I need are metal dog parts...

Les Breastfeeders on HBR!

For those who don't know, I host a weekly radio show here in town and this Thursday I'm going to be joined in-studio by Montreal band Les Breastfeeders. They're playing at the Townehouse on the 4th and 5th so they're going to swing by and we'll chat and I'll try not to steal any of Suzie's clothes. For you local folk who can tune in, the show is 6-8pm and they're coming by around 7pm. 96.7FM. It's been awhile since we've had in-studio guests so it should be fun.

BABY FEVER!!

All of us here at C.Y.G.T.S send oceans of congrats to Ottawa pals Sean and Leah as they are the proud new parents of a healthy baby boy! He's got the greatest name - Ethan Parker Clarke. Clearly he is destined to be a novelist. Or a too cool for school James Dean type actor. Yay babies! We can't wait to see him!!! Congrats you two crazy kids!!

I got spammed???

On my blog??? How is that even possible?? I got some crazy spanish spam post in the comment section of my last article. Wha??

You say tomato I say yum...

Check this out. We picked up this box of wonderfulness from Mike and Joc yesterday -- all the fruits of their garden. We got a jar of homemade grape jelly, a yellow zucchini as big as my arm, a little celebration squash that is too pretty to eat and such a variety of tomatoes I don't even know where to start. Tomatoes I didn't even know existed! Things like Pink somethings and Ivory somethings, Green Zebras and other striped creations. Also in this photo is the resulting tomato salad that was so delicous it warranted a photograph AND a blog article. Tomatoes, bocconcini, basil,and olive oil we brought back from Tuscany...there are few things in this world higher on the yumminess scale.

Most Annoying Thing Ever

Why on earth does it have to be so hard to get your duvet to stay put inside your duvet cover??? We bought a new duvet cover a few months ago and never in my life have I had these kinds of problems. This morning I woke up with my whole side of the bed being just empty duvet cover and Marc had the whole rest of the duvet because it had meandered it's way over to the side and doubled up on itself inside the duvet cover! That makes me crazy! I've fixed it about 12 times and nothing seems to keep it in one place. I'm thinking I may have to resort to tiny safety pins in each corner to lock it in place unless someone has a better idea. Because movement aside, it's a glorious duvet and I'm absolutely not ready to throw in the towel. I'm a long time duvet supporter and think plain old comforters are for chumps.

Weekend round-up etc

Weekend round up time. Friday started out with a retirement party not really worth writing about so we'll skip it. Saturday started with a much needed trip to see Paula to cut my insanely puffy hair. Mission accomplished thank god. Then we headed out to the awesome family camp of Miss Gomm for Gommfest 2007. The weather was a bit chilly and we had to skip the annual golf drive championship due to the unfortunate parking of a mystery winnebago but all in all, good times indeed. Bailey got in what is probably his last swim of the season and spent much of the afternoon repeatedly checking on the status of Alison's dad's duck decoys floating out in the bay. Here are some pics of his patrol...




As per usual, there was the requisite news roundup thanks to Jocelyne's well-stocked portable library. I feel smarter already. Here is a picture of Joc schooling us on the sillyness of Brad Pitt on a bicycle. Oh Brad, nobody's buying it...

So we hung out and chatted it up and ate ourselves silly. This pic is blurry but I had to include it based soley on the fact that Miss Gomm's insane artichoke/whitebean/cheese/bacon dip is in the photo. All I can say is wow and some more wow's.

Then she busted out some more bacon-themed appetizers that were equally yummy. Camping and an all bacon-themed appetizer menu? Fantastic.
Thinking food doesn't get any better? Here's a pic of Joc manning the oven-toasted sandwich station fully stocked with insane cheese, Italian coldcuts, fresh basil leaves and a complete array of gourmet mustards thanks to Mike, the ultimate mustand connoisseur.

Miss Gomm also made up this crazy yummy salad of fresh tomatoes from the garden of Mike and Joc, pearl bocconcinis, onions, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. AND there was pie. Sweet jesus...
Here is a pic of Joc and Sylvia warming up for their evening campfire rendition of "I'm Miss World" by the one and only Miss Love. What you can't see in this picture is Bailey napping nearby staring obsessively at Sylvia. Can you say "groupie?"

We couldn't stay the night due to a house that is so dirty we could no longer ignore it and it truly warranted an early start. Gommfest 2007 = awesome.
We spent Sunday cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning, Marc moved the woodpile in preparation for many cozy fires this winter, and Bailey limped around the house recuperating from his repeated icy swims at Gommfest. Then we headed over to Dennis's for dinner and an almost unbearable viewing of the CBC's "St.Urbain's Horseman" on his PVR. Ah Canadian MOW's - more often than not you are truly terrible. Dinner was yummy, movie was an insult to the book. What a surprise. Luckily we saved the evening by eating delicious apple crisp that Dennis made from the apples in our front yard and a repeated viewing of "The Office" premiere. Thank god for Michael Scott.
This week hopefully brings a visit with my nieces cuz I had an awful dream involving them and I need to be reassured (I hate those dreams) and maybe even new vaccuum shopping with Ma and Pa. I'm such a grown up.