you're up and you're down   | ¶ 9:38 p.m.

  I saw you there last night I am here for you.
Here I am for you.
I am for you, here.
For you, here I am.

[I was going through things I'd saved as "drafts" and thought I'd post this little silliness I wrote in 2004(!)]  | ¶ 4:55 p.m.

  are we stronger than we believe
Sometimes this is what you have to resort to when the bugs are too stupid to be deterred by gallons of bug juice. I don't think they were biting last night at Leslie Lake (might have been mostly blackflies?) but HOLY, they were annoying. They would just cluster in a cloud around you and fly right in your ears, eyes, wherever... It was such a beautiful spot to be, the bugs were the only thing wrong with our second camping excursion this season.

We spent a couple hours on the water yesterday practicing our kayaking skills, and I just had a blast. Instead of sharing a boat, we each got our own and it was so liberating to just paddle like crazy and feel the wind in my face and have the water splashing up on my feet as I bounced over the small waves.

Since it's still early in the season, we practically had our section of the campground all to ourselves, so it was incredibly peaceful. Last night just before bedtime, I had to just stand, head back, with my mouth open in awe at the explosion of stars in the sky above me. It was one of those clear nights where you just want to stare and stare. Alas, it was chilly and scary out there by myself, so I reluctantly inched my way into the tent.

More pictures and videos here.  | ¶ 8:26 p.m.

  she wore a dress with cherries on it
Wow, it was COLD camping this weekend. Luckily I was well prepared with lots of layers of clothing (Devin was less ready...). We had a lovely escape out to Bon Echo Park and camped near Mazinaw Lake, a place we'd been last September with Patrick and his dog Louis. It's a pretty cool campground with lots of trees and good sized sites, so despite the chilly temperatures and the rain that woke me up around 2 this morning, it was an excellent kickoff to the camping season. Yesterday after a lovely breakfast we went for a nice long hike around the grounds, and had intended to go back to the waterfront to rent a canoe after lunch, but instead I had a nap and we never made it back. One of these times we'll get out to that rock (Mazinaw Rock is on the far side of the water). Some of my pictures are here.  | ¶ 10:34 p.m.

  if you'd rather hold on to your pride We're being super-keen this weekend and attempting our first camping outing of the season. It's not supposed to be terribly warm or sunny, but we're armed with tarps and brand new tarp accessories (top quality poles and extra rope) so we're going to create a little camping village for ourselves and bring lots of warm clothes to keep ourselves warm. After a few instances of being caught in the rain last year, we figure we're prepared to plan the perfect shelter. I'm looking forward to it; camping is always a nice project to put some planning time into. Already I spent the evening prepping food for our meals (it makes it easier to pre-cook certain things), hauling out camping gear from storage, and we hit a couple stores for some additions to our gear (fancy new headlamps!).

That's the update.  | ¶ 10:06 p.m.

  I'm a dreamer froo's got a new critter over in her cat palace. Only, Ginger's a dog! This video makes me laugh.

  | ¶ 11:59 a.m.

  all we need's a little earth to stand on Scattergories.

Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following... they have to be real places, names, things...nothing made up. You can't use your own name for the boy/girl.

1. What is your name ?........... Stacey
2. 4 letter word................. scar
3. Vehicle: ................... subaru
4. City / Neighborhood/country:.......... Scotland
5. Boy Name: ................ Steve
6. Girl Name: ................ Sally
7. Occupation: ............. Statistician
8. Something you wear:........ slacks
9. Food: ..................... soup
10. Found in a bathroom:.......... soap
11. Reason for being late......... speeding ticket
12. Something you shout:......... score!
13. Animal: .............. snail
14. Body part: ....... skin
15. Word to describe you: .......... super  | ¶ 2:13 p.m.

  how 'bout remembering your divinity I spent the weekend in Calgary for some belated birthday celebrations and visiting (some photos here). Wouldn't you know it, though, after enduring the masses of snow in Ottawa all winter while Calgary was its typical brown, dry, snowless self, it snowed three times when I was there. One minute I'm walking downtown in the sun thinking how nice and spring-y it was, and the next I'm at the airport waiting for my plane, watching the snowflakes fall. Even worse, at that moment, was that the entire airport went dark with a power failure! Fortunately, it was handled quickly and didn't delay any flights.

My mother drove me to the airport yesterday with my nieces Caia and Ella for company. On the way there, Ella (who's five now) says, "Gram, I can count to a hundred. Really, I can. Do you want to hear?"

Now, my instinct was to say, no, I believe you can count to a hundred, Miss Ella. But not my mother. She says, "sure!". This is how it went down (or up, I suppose I should say, starting at 28).

  | ¶ 1:52 p.m.

  it's changing you, it's changing me Happy birthday to me and froo. People laugh, but I've been hankering for some Red Lobster (where they try to kill you with food), so that's where we went tonight. Cheese biscuits, crab cakes, lobster and shrimp linguini. Oof, I'm stuffed. This is what 34 looks like.

  | ¶ 8:51 p.m.

  do you remember how it used to be Well, the day has finally arrived. froo arranged for a little adventure for Kyle as a Christmas present, as you can see in this video.



So everyone's meeting in Toronto today for a good old NBA basketball game. I'm actually flying in just after the game, and will spend the weekend with my people from West and East (my father - "granddad" to Kyle - is coming from Moncton). Woop!  | ¶ 3:46 p.m.