Hockey

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There is one team in our division with a player with 53 points in 18 games, and she's scored 8 goals on us in the two we've played against them. It's been driving me crazy that she's just one person, and we haven't been able to stop her. I was ready for her on our game on Wednesday, but unfortunately she wasn't there. We ended up winning 2-0, and it was a hard enough game for us (we had a full bench, they were quite shorthanded), but considering they have lost every game without that one player, I hope it tells them something. Often in women's hockey you will find a player whose skill far outstrips the division they're in, and that's usually because of a girlfriend or group of friends they want to play with. I just feel its unsportsmanlike.

Our goalie was outstanding though. She's quite humble about it too, which really makes up a part of why I'm in love with my team this year. Ok, I'm also loving our new great forwards and the winning and the great team spirit from everyone. But last year we had a troll for a goalie (there's really no other way to describe her) who quite blatantly blamed any losses (and there were a LOT of them) on the team, derided the D, and we ended up dropping a division and losing all the time there too. It was quite disheartening, and doesn't say much for finding such a key player via craigslist.

Homeless Pt. II

I'm still soon-to-be-homeless, but it was really great how a few people quickly jumped to my defense (hi Scott), and maybe it illustrates that the city does have some feelings about homelessness or, at the very least, dislikes being accused of causing it. But I was in error thinking it was their fault, and so I'm sorry for shaking my fist at you, Gregor (but I'll still face off with you on the ice).

It would have been nice if someone could have at least told us what was happening, since we're the ones to be the most affected by it.

I did find these things interesting:
a) that wordpress seo plugin really works, and
b) when the City Caucus blog wrote about this they mentioned me as being a single mother, and while not expressly saying it, gave me the impression "someone give this poor woman a job". This info was quickly corrected, but it made me wonder - does it make it more interesting, more of a plight this way? Because the truth of the matter is, I mostly can't afford Vancouver rents because I've chosen the lower-paying job that I absolutely love (illustration) over the higher paying design work. (Actually, I currently have a tiny part-time design & computer job which I rarely mention because, even though the work is mostly interesting and I couldn't possibly praise my co-workers and bosses enough, it's not really me.) So I can whine about the price of rent but I'm sure there are a lot of you out there that would say, its your own damn fault - we work 40 hours a week at jobs that don't really mean anything to pay for our rent, so quit your bitching. Does a mother of two with a great husband (who does his share of house-cleaning) and a million resources to fall back on make less of a story, or a better one?

My Children's Favorite Show

My kids have been pretty obsessed with this t.v. show lately, and I have to limit the amount of time they spend watching it, because they pretty much want to watch it all the time. The hardest thing about that is that I love it too. But when your 3 year old (ok, almost 4) twirls around in the middle of a crowded restaurant, singing at the top of her lungs "Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor", you do have to pause for a second and wonder whether its really all that appropriate. But how can I stop her when I can't stop myself?

To be honest though, I have to say that I prefer her liking Flight of the Conchords to the Little Mermaid - I had a discussion with her Swedish Grandma about how disturbing I found that movie, how much she changes herself to find her prince (although my husband counters that what the prince really loves about her is what is essentially unchangeable, her voice), and every time I read the book to her I can barely contain my disgust. What really appeals to my daughter about FOTC is the songs (her current favorite is If You're Into It), and probably the fact that the rest of her family almost passes out laughing watching it. It's pretty damn funny that she likes to pretend we're the great romantic figures in her world - she's Sleeping Beauty, I'm Prince Derek, she's Ariel, I'm Prince Eric, she's Coco, I'm Bret. Sally doesn't figure in because she broke their hearts but Brahbrah, well, there's no such name as Brahbrah.

She doesn't get that there's only what may be the very last 3 episodes in the world or that the only tickets left to their Vancouver show are 4 times the price because Ticketmaster is scalping their own tickets and therefore we can't afford to go, and for this, at least, I'm happy.

Homeless

One of the big campaign promises from Vancouver's mayor (whom I voted for) was ending homelessness, and contrary to all promises, the city has just kicked us out of our home. The owner of our rental passed away recently with no will and I mistakenly imagined that there would have to be an amount of time that passed before the city, the trustee, could sell. What if an heir turned up? I guess I was wrong.

What's a little more insulting is that we haven't actually had official word from the city, we just had realtor Barbara (BrahBrah) Graham call up to ask if it was ok to show it this Sunday. During dinner, yet - I knew I shouldn't have answered the phone.

Brahbrah seemed to be slightly affronted that this Sunday was not convenient, like I was just saying it to get back at her because I was pissed and NOT because I'm having my in-laws over for a brunch like we do every year when they visit us from Montreal, so we can also invite over those friends that we're closest to and share what our lives are like when they're not visiting us.

Why does the city have to kick us out of the place where my daughter was born? There's a property manager, its not like they even have to look after it. No, they'd rather move us all out into the street. It's looking pretty likely that the best possible outcome will be finding a basement suite for double the amount we're paying now somewhere way the hell out so that my son will have to change schools and we'll have to buy a car just so we can get anywhere.

I shake my fist at you, Gregor Robertson.

Lately...

Its interesting the response that I get when I tell people that I'm using oil pastels - most often they look at me like, you're a glutton for punishment. I always have to respond that they're not as hard as watercolors. I used to think that I was doomed to be a failed watercolorist for the remainder of my life, but I was quite pleased to discover yesterday that I'm actually enjoying the pastels more.

To be honest, I still struggle with the oil pastels, but I made a pretty exciting discovery - the colorless extender. There's two of them in my box of Erengis that have been largely ignored, but I tried them out as a replacement for the white that I sometimes lay down first. Here's the result, which gave me some nice translucent areas in the background and on her face:




The nice thing about it is it gives you some nice washy effects, and if you color your paper first you can scrape back to the white of the paper.

Another thing I've been playing with a bit is mixing the pastel with linseed oil, and because I was doing some washy areas I used some mod podge as a size. This was maybe less successful because of the blotchy areas, but maybe worth exploring further someday:



Anyone else out there having fun with oil pastels?