Polkaroo

If you know me, you know my affection for Jian Ghomeshi and his CBC show Q. I've blogged about him here, here and here. You may remember that I was super-psyched to bring his radio show to London and when the date was announced, super disappointed to realize I would be in Florida.

Well folks, it has happened again. Jian recently published a book called 1982 and as you can imagine, he's been doing some book signings to promote it. I had poked around online but didn't see anything near me...until today. This morning a tweet popped up on my computer mentioning his appearance in Sarnia on Saturday. What?!? How did I not know about this? We tweeted back and forth and I discovered he's also going to be in London on Saturday. This information is NOT on his website. C'mon Jian!

Alas, it is not meant to be. I have plans to take my niece Kaelyn out for her birthday on Saturday and as much as I love Jian, I love her more. I won't disappoint her by breaking our plans.

It seems that we just cannot be in the same place at the same time...he's my Polkaroo.

My Faithful Reader

It's always interesting to me when someone mentions reading my blog. I honestly write mostly for myself and otherwise to share photos/updates with family and friends. It's kinda like having a public diary.

So, it blew me away a few years ago when I met my friend Trevor's girlfriend (now wife) Laura. She mentioned that she loves reading my blog. I thought that was sweet.

Not only is Laura a blog follower but she's a total sweetheart. Now that her and Trevor are married and have an adorable son Luke (with red curly hair, no less!) we have had more opportunities for getting together.

Last week, Trevor stopped by my desk and said Laura had sent something for me. I wondered what that could be and he dropped two chocolate eggs on my desk. Apparently Easter Cream Eggs have come out with a Halloween version called "screme eggs". Somehow Laura remembered that I love them and told Trevor to deliver them to me. Aww, so sweet.

So, a shout out to my faithful follower! Need to do a games night or something soon :)

TIFF 2012

Another year has come and gone since TIFF 2011. Hard to believe it's been a year since my last star studded weekend!

It all started twelve years ago when my friend Lisa asked if I'd like to go to Toronto and get autographs from celebrities at the Toronto Film Festival. I thought it sounded pretty lame and why would I want to bother getting Jim Carey's autograph? Well, it turns out that TIFF is one of the biggest film festivals in the world and there are more than Canadian celebs there! Boy, was I wrong!

Since then Lisa and I have attended many TIFFs and scored pictures and autographs of Hollywood's finest. This year's TIFF did not disappoint. Thursday and Friday were spent gaining momentum for Saturday. Saturday I saw a huge deluge of A-list celebs. Both Hotel Transylvania and Cloud Atlas were crammed full of stars and they all showed up in Toronto! Adam Sandler, Fran Drescher, David Spade, Kevin James, Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant and Susan Sarandon...just to name a few!

This year, Lisa and I actually went to see a movie. Yes...in the theatre...we watched a movie. Since Lisa's #1 celebrity is Tom Hanks, we opted to go to his premiere. It was kinda cool to watch the movie with the actors that star in it (although they were so far away you had to remind yourself you were in the same room). The movie, however, sucked. I hated it. It is a parallel universe, crazy tale that involves multiple plot lines in different times in history. Weird is all I can say.

with David Spade

It was a fun weekend that ended with us spotting ourselves in the paper and on just about every website carrying TIFF photos.

it's JIM from The Office!

Caravan To The Mountains

It all started during our Thanksgiving gathering last year. The weather was unusually warm and we were sunning ourselves on the deck before the Turkey dinner. It was at this moment my dad chose to announce two things. First off, he had decided to retire from farming. Secondly, he told us that next Thanksgiving (2012) he wanted to take us all to a cabin in the Smokey Mountains. Many questions erupted and ideas were tossed around. Considering how long the drive is, it was decided that a week would be a much better than just a weekend.

Over time, the trip moved from Thanksgiving to the summer to accommodate schedules and this August all FIFTEEN members of my family spent a week together at a cabin in the mountains. Initially I was concerned that we wouldn't be speaking to each other by the end of the week. Afterall, it's been a really long time since the days of a "family vacation" in the motorhome. Add in in-laws and kids and I was unsure how it would go. As it turned out...no need to worry. We all had such a fun time we wanted to stay for another week!

Stay tuned for some of our adventures!