Sing a happy song

Henry's latest linguistic feat: singing. Last week he burst into a stirring rendition of "Happy Birthday" when someone mentioned cake. He's also working on the ABCs, "Trot, Old Joe," and "My Lady Wind" from his music class CDs. Very funny.

Other developments: He likes to pretend we're a family of bears. Or rather, he likes to pretend that Tom and I are bears, and that he's a honeybee who has to hide from us. When we find him he stings us with his finger. Even when we're not playing the game he calls Tom "Daddy Bear." And when we're not bears, he's started calling us by our first names. It's quite hilarious to enter the room and hear Henry say to me, "Hi Susan!", or ask "Where's Tom?"

On the negative side, Henry's been throwing tantrums when he doesn't get his way. They vary a lot in duration and intensity, but all the acting up is stressful to deal with.

Preschool starts next week. We visited the classroom yesterday and it went very well. Henry was having so much fun playing with all the stuff that he didn't want to leave. Hopefully he'll enjoy it just as much when Mommy Bear and Daddy Bear aren't there.

Coffee shop is open

The neighbourhood finally has its much longed for coffee shop. Cuppedia opened a few weeks ago on Main Street, about a 5 minute walk from our house. It's a very nice space. Unfortunately they do not offer wireless Internet yet, so I can't go there to work. But it's nice to have a place to hang out. I hope it's successful. We need something like it around here.

Summer League Champions!

I spent the weekend playing in the Ottawa Ultimate League championships. I played in two leagues this summer: women's and co-ed. Ottawa's co-ed ultimate league is so huge that each night is a different division, and each division is subdivided into tiers. And then they run this stupid ladder system that's supposed to ensure you're always evenly matched against your opponent, but in reality ensures that you keep playing the same small number of teams over and over. So even though the co-ed league on Tuesdays has 78 teams (!), my team only played 10 of them.

ANYWAY, we were 4th at the end of the regular season. And a distant 4th, I'd say, since we'd been pretty much pummeled by the teams ahead of us. So I really wasn't thinking this would be a championship season. But today the gods of ultimate brought wind and rain, exactly the equalizers our aging, speed-challenged team needed for a semi-final matchup against the very confident top seed. I won't bore you with a dissertation on how weather conditions radically affect ultimate and the kinds of strategic adjustments that should be made in response. I'll just say that our high-flying opponents did not make the necessary adjustments, and we did. End result: We crushed them. It was devastating. 13-4 or something? I'm still not sure what happened. Our opponent played some shiteous ultimate, that's for sure. And we were pretty good, all things considered.

So, the underdogs advanced to the finals against another team that thought we'd be on the receiving end of a serious pasting. And the exact same things happened. We continued to play smart. Our opponent didn't adjust to the conditions or our defense, and we won by a comfortable 15-9 margin. Woo-hoo! All hail the 7 Deadly Spins, Tuesday Night Tier 1 League Champions.

It felt very good to win not just because it seemed so unlikely given previous results, but also because I have lost an ungodly number of championship games in my career. Seriously, my record is ugly. So even though I wasn't highly invested in this team or the results of the season, I was very happy not to lose yet another final. Also, I had a great day on the field, scoring a ton of goals, throwing a few more, and making a couple plays on D. So, yay me!

Women's league playoffs was Saturday. In contrast to today, it was very hot and sunny. My team lost by 1 point in the semis and won by 1 point in the consolation final. Good enough for 3rd place. I can live with that. At least we didn't lose in the final. And it was nice to end the season with a comeback win.

That's my dispatch from the narrow world of the fringe sport I play. I'm off to treat my blood blisters. . .

My professional blogging debut

Chris started up a consumer electronics blog on the Amazon.com site, and I'm going to be contributing on a regular basis. My first post went up yesterday.

This blogging thing is getting away from me

The posts I write in my head just aren't making it online these days. I've gotta catch up. So, here we go:

Vancouver, over and out

Fun fun fun. Visits from Chris & Stacey (read their account of our visit here--scroll down) and Yvonne & Alec, all from Seattle. Alec made a half-day trip up to see us and dine at Vij's, a truly amazing Indian restaurant. Yvonne stayed an extra day, and we shared another great meal at Feenie's, the bistro attached to celebrity chef Rob Feenie's Lumiere restaurant. The entrees were good, but the desserts were sublime. I've never before tasted anything as perfect as the caramel sauce on the apple tart we shared. Great times hanging out with my old friends and their new families. Jolie's 6-year-old daughter, Tallon, immediately took on the big sister role with Henry and cared for him during several park trips and dinner out at Martini's, my favorite pizza joint. Henry and Elly, Mark and Kimka's 3-year-old, had a crazy dance party together while the grownups ate dessert. Several visits with cousin Elaine and Anne & Norris in Richmond. Henry loved the gravel paths in Anne's garden.

And yes, three days in Kelowna. So it was a very busy two weeks. It was nice to pretend that was our real life, but the fact that the dumpy house we stayed in was worth about $900K tempered our fantasies about packing up and moving. Ottawa may be a little dull, but hey--it's affordable!

Now, back to real life, and more frequent blogging.

West coast weeks

Our two weeks in Vancouver was terrific--a total success in every way. Tom discovered some material in the UBC archives that spurred ideas for his next big research project. Henry and I had a blast trucking around town to the numerous kid-friendly activities the city offers. I got to reconnect with my old friends and family. And Henry and I even threw in a side trip to Kelowna. If I hadn't been so busy I would have recapped our adventures as we were going along, but I decided to live my time there rather than write about it. But for posterity's sake, I'll be writing up the highlights and posting them in pieces over the next few days. Here's the first bite:

Beaches and parks

Having a small child to entertain really forces you to get out and do stuff. When I lived in Vancouver I never went to Stanley Park or Kits Beach. Just wasn't part of my routine. So I almost felt like I was discovering these places for the first time when I visited them with Henry. At Stanley Park we rode the miniature train, spent a long time in the children's farmyard, and had fish and chips by Lumberman's Arch, where there were plenty of seagulls to chase. Kits Beach at low tide is ideal for a little guy like Henry, who's not crazy about the water but loves mucking around in the sand. When the sun's out, Vancouver really is a gorgeous place.

Stanley Park photos
Kits Beach photos

Vancouver photos

We're back, and I'm ready to start blogging again. Expect a recap of our fantastic Vancouver trip soon. The photos are up now.