I am gearing up to go home for a visit with mixed emotions, I will love seeing my friends and family, but there are personal/family issues to be dealt with that are potentially difficult. My parents are lovely people, long since divorced, and the truth is I am pretty different that my family. I don’t come from an enclave of raging progressives by any stretch of the imagination. My father is a traditionalist who grumbles about “feminists ruining things” although quite unspecific about what has been ruined. My mother has a weird mix of holistic beliefs with right wing ones. When I was a little kid I used to go to school with bean sprout sandwiches and homemade yogurt. And that was so popular in the wonder bread era. My mother, a terrific person who has overcome many obstacles is full of pronouncements about how the world should be and slightly resentful because she got screwed out of a full pension. Can’t say I blame her, but we have significantly different views about how and why things ended up the way they did. She is pretty stressed out about the declining health of my grandmother so I am going to chose to avoid confrontations on hot button topics because she is not in a place to be receptive at this time. I want to enjoy the precious time I have trying to be mindful that my role in the universe is not to change my family any more than it is their prerogative to change me.

When I firs moved to the US, I used delight in lying about Canada… When people asked me if it was a communist country, I said that it was and we like it that way. I told them we lived in igloos….

Here is a lovely piece on how to build one in case you want to move there…

For years the National Film Board of Canada had an earnest and boring reputation…

Rick Mercer, a popular Canadian humorist loves to poke fun at Americans. I should add he pokes fun at nearly everybody but this particular style of humour is big in Canuckistan.

Having fun with Prime Minister Harper….

You can really tell that any products that are geared toward aging are trying to promote the idea that aging is just fantastic and with a few extra consumer products we can have exactly the same lives as we age. After all who wants to see commercials about pureed food?

This one is irksome because the damn song got in my head but it manages to both bash and embrace technology. If you have a basic inability to grasp modern technology and like to gripe about this modern world we live in here is the cell phone for you!!!!

Leaky bladders are no big deal….

I have a question about the Viagra commercials….. notice how they always show eager but very monogamous couples gearing up for a little whoopee di doop? Notice how attractive they are?? How come the commercials never show balding, overweight, sweaty, guys trying to impress women much younger than them? Apologies to balding, sweaty, overweight middle aged men because I am not exactly a beauty queen myself. But one gets the idea from the “boner” commercials that the only people who want to have sex when they are older are in serious committed relationships and are very, very, attractive. I’m thinking well  as I age, I am doomed as an average looking middle aged woman, apparently unless I look like Sharon Stone I won’t even think about sex, never mind actually have any.

Nor will I see any full frontal male nudity on American TV or in movies unless it is classified as porn because for some reason in our society the sight of a penis is far more taboo than somebody’s brains spilled out on the pavement. I can only guess there is some feeling among the ruling classes that if women actually see such things on TV or in movies they might run wild and ferment revolution.

That is OK I will be too busy wearing my serenity diapers while doing fun and socially acceptable sports activities while chatting up my girlfriends on my “jitterbug” to worry about sex and nudity. Why with the book club and the volunteer work I will be just too busy to fit it all in.

Please don’t rec pony party.

Hang out and chit chat and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

PS, I will be late  to this pony party because I am at the feline salon getting my coat groomed.

PPS, next week I will be without the internet tubes in Canada and won’t have time before I leave to construct some pony parties so you might just get a break from the Saturday pony parties.

An optimistic fanciful and interesting view of robots…..

A slightly darker yet still funny view of robots…..

Kraftwerk!!!! I liked them in high school, I don’t exactly remember why.

Did you think we were going to have an involved and intricate ethical/philosophical discussion about the de-humanizing and potentially oppressive impact of technology on humanity???? Don’t be silly.

Please don’t rec pony party.

Hang out, chit chat and then go read some of the excellent offering on our recent and rec’d list.

some random cover tunes

there’s something weirdly beautiful about this performance…

Thanks for stopping in….

Hang out and chit chat for awhile… and when you’re done

check out some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

O & Please don’t rec the pony party, another will trot up in a few hours.

(^.^)

This is NOT the version I was looking for. It was the only one I could find.

(it ain’t that bad)

We’re in the country at the farm. Connection is teh sux.

Thanks for stopping in….

Hang out and chit chat for awhile… and when you’re done

Please check out some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.

O & don’t rec the pony party, please… another will trot up in a few hours.

(^.^)

We’re in the country at the farm. Connection is teh sux.

to blog or not to blog….

Welcome to the grand illusion

Come on in and see whats happening

^{(tinou bao flickr creative commons)}

Mahna mahna

Do do do do do

Mahna mahna

Do do do do

Mahna mahna

Do do do do do

Do do do

do do do

do do do do do do do