Posts

Athletes Feat

"Watch out!  That ice is really slippery, Jen."

“Watch out! That ice is really slippery, Jen.”

Like so many Olympic couch potatoes, I am really going to miss the Sochi winter games.  Not only were they a much-needed tonic for the February blahs, but they were such great conversation starters, especially with total strangers.  After all, there’s nothing like the national camaraderie that comes from sharing OUR victories when WE’VE performed as well as WE have.  All thirty-five million of US. Read more

Too Dire For Duct Tape

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Have you ever had one of those days?  You’re heading to the gym for the first time since Richard Simmons discovered spandex when you pull a small thread at the top of your pants, inadvertently unraveling the entire elastic waistband (and no, not your midlife-crisis sweat pants Read more

Mother’s Nature

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When it comes to the spirit of friendly competition, I’ve been told I can be a teensy bit … well, rabid.  Oh, it’s always said in good fun, like “Whoa, Andie’s playing?!  There will be blood.  Ha ha!”

Yeah.  Ha.  Ha.

Look, it’s not like I upturn tables when I lose, or drop trou and shake my jelly when I win.  I’m not sure how I got this reputation for being such a cutthroat competitor because I never thought I was all that hung up on winning.  I can honestly celebrate anyone else’s victory just as easily as my own. Read more

New Year’s Dissolutions

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While 2014 seemed like a welcome breath of fresh air this New Years Eve, a year for which I still hold the greatest of expectations, it could definitely use a breath mint at this point, at least from where I’m standing. Read more

Blunderous Applause

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Last night while on a rare family outing to see the musical Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (rare because it didn’t take place at a hockey arena), Andrew and I officially became an embarrassment to our kids.  That’s right.  We had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to openly express our appreciation for the performing arts in public.  I know … someone call Children’s Aid. Read more

If It Ain’t Baroque, Don’t Fix It

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“Daddy, I like this one … THIS one, daddy!” the girl insisted as she tugged on the spruce’s frozen boughs.  I glanced at the child and her loosely bound tree and thought it too short, too sparse on the bottom, and far too scraggily to ever make it onto the roof of my car.  I wouldn’t have taken the tree either.  Read more

Uneasy Rider

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I like to think of myself as a reasonably rational person, not prone to hysterics. I also like to think I’m Tori Amos or a veiled wood nymph at times, but neither persona would have saved me from myself last night as I drove my car alone in the dark.

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Closet Senior

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As soon as I saw them, I knew they were a desperate cry for help.  Andrew had gone on a shoe shopping expedition (a freaking miracle in itself) and returned with a pair of gummy-soled platform orthopedics that basically screamed, “I’ve fallen and I CAN’T GET IT UP!”   Read more

Paralyzed Parking

Pkg Tckts WindshieldWhen it comes to establishing routines, Andrew has always been a sensory learner, as in, see the bills, pay the bills, listen to the silence (from non-creditor phone calls).  It’s not a complicated system, yet every year around his birthday, Andrew is stunned by the exorbitant cost of renewing his driver’s license. Read more

Happy Thanksglibbing

ImageAs I lay in bed trying to digest another Thanksgiving dinner, sweating out the gravy literally oozing from my pours, I felt grateful not only for the family and close friends willing to drive 160 km north to share it with us, but for the unique and memorable moments that came this weekend courtesy of neighbouring cottage kids. Read more