Thursday, April 29, 2010

Ee i ee i oh!

Little Miss Nikki Dee is very cute, funny in and perhaps just a bit hyper this video. She wanted to do it solo, and at the end when I tried to help her out a bit, she said, "Cut it out." Pretty doggone funny.



Watch on YouTube

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Unfortunate Monikers

While the topic of names is on my mind (see yesterdays post), I'd like to share a few unusual monikers that I have come across.

Between high school and university, I worked as a production clerk in a company that made gear for companies that produced and/or transmitted electricity. As production clerk, I would take the blueprints from the engineering department and construct work orders to be used to fabricate the required parts in the factory. Sometimes, I would find myself consulting with the shop workers if there were problems, but more frequently, I'd be visiting the drafting department to sort out this or that issue. One of the engineers was ... wait for it ... Les Moore! He was older than I, so a pair of parents, surname Moore, back around the early thirties when people were still supposed to be sensible, had thought it clever to call their kid Les.

Then, in my early years of teaching, back in the early to mid-seventies, I came across three other unfortunate names: all girls. Once again, their parents should have been old enough to know better, for they also must have been born in the late thirties or very early forties. I mean to say, you could understand the hippies of the sixties hatching weird names whilst on hallucinogenic trips, but really now.

Here are the three names. One: Merry Christmas (and that's how they spelled Merry); two: Penny Coyne; three; Penny Nickle. I wouldn't make this up folks.

Oddly enough, I can't seem to recall any other really unfortunate monikers. Oddly enough, the children of the sixties and later years, didn't seem to do that to their kids. Thank goodness.

Please feel free to share other oddities that you have come across either in the comments or in your own blogs. I look forward to hearing from you.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

What's in a Name?

Since we are away all day, we tape (note my old fashioned terminology; I even call a CD or digital recording a record) Oprah and often watch the show over dinner. (We don't have kids, so we're allowed to watch tv while we eat. And the tv is not literally over our dinner plates either — just in case you were wondering).

Today's episode featured two people who had tracked down others who shared the same name as themselves. One guy wrote a book about a man with the same name who had lived only a few blocks away in a tough neighborhood when they were boys. The similarities ended there as one guy ended up as a successful author and the other in prison.

Another fellow made a video of six others who shared his name. He travelled around the world to meet these folk individually, and they ended up meeting as a group in a town which shared their last name.

A somewhat similar experience once happened to me. Sort of.

One day I got an email from a guy in Australia who shared my full name, or at least the same first and last name. He also emailed several others with the same name. For a short while we had a little AC club, but it didn't last very long. There were two AC's from Australia: the mining engineer who wrote to me and an emergency/health worker. There was also a climatology professor from the USA. Interestingly (to me, at least) as a geographer (teacher) my field overlapped, at least tiny bit, with both the engineer and the climatologist. There were others, but that's the core group in my memory.

That was well over a decade ago, but even now, the originator and I occasionally correspond: a fact which came in very handy when a daffodil called Allyson made a trip to Australia. While backpacking through that country and using her credit card to pay most of her bills, the credit card company sent a renewal card to our house. On a certain date, the card that she had been using would become null and void in favor of the new card.

What to do? Allyson was travelling and had no mailing address, but she was heading up the eastern coast of Australia at the time toward Brisbane where this other AC lived. We contrived with that AC's approval to send the cards to his place and have Allyson the daffodil pick them up when she passed through.

It all worked out. They met. The daffodil Allyson got her card, and the Aussie AC even took her out for breakfast and a tramp through the rainforest.

So, that's what's in a name, or what was in the notable AC name at that time.

(Now you have a little more information about the daffodil called Allyson from last week's post. Not a lot: but you know she is my daughter and travelled to Australia. However, you should also know that I have been playing with you, and that she isn't really a daffodil — I was just making a dubious link to that other post. Sorry for driving you crazy. It's what I do best. Perhaps, there will be more to tell some other day.)

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Another Fine Sunday in Very Fine Month of April

How do you figure this continued run of super weather in April. Heck, even March was very fine: for March, that it. On Sunday afternoon, we were drawn outdoors. First there was a Tim's sandwich and coffee by the Mississippi River (still the little one in Ontario, not the mighty USA river).



Then, on a drive along rural roads, I spied the first Trilliums. They weren't profise in most places, and this one wasn't fully open. Nevertheless, a lot of progress was made in one week.



Later, we ended up taking Nikki Dee on much the same drive. In this case we stopped to visit some horses.



I keep on having to remind myself that it's still April and that this weather is highly unusual.

We do need rain though. Already the county has a fire ban in effect. Could be a long, hot, problematic summer.

Friday, April 23, 2010

When I Was a Lad ...

I'm going to show my age here, but when I was a lad ... I had a tricycle. When I was a lad ... my tricycle was mostly metal. When I was a lad ... my tricycle tires were rubber. Who knows, perhaps the saddle was even leather.

Sixty years later, Nikki Dee has a tricycle.

Can you see any metal, any rubber, anything that isn't plastic? Anything at all?

Look at her go though!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Pretty in Yellow

Cuppa and I went for a little stroll in the woods on the weekend, but the only blooms we saw was a little patch of these yellow flowers. We did see a lot of these leaves but only this small patch was in bloom.



I have looked online but haven't been able to id this flower. Mind you, I can't id many flowers. I do know trilliums, however, and expect to see them within the next few weeks.

The Young Gardener

I happened to notice pansies at the local grocery store, so I picked up a few — a few for our place and a couple for Nikki Dee to plant at her house. I thought she might get a kick out of planting a few flowers. I'm not so sure that she thought too much of the process, but we worked it out.



I pre-dug the holes and filled the watering can while she was napping, so all she had to do was plop the pansies in the holes. It was quick and easy, and I hope she'll enjoy watching their progress ...



... and watering them. Yes, that's what she likes best.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Making Do



Cuppa is quite a problem solver. The kids' deck has a full southern exposure, and despite the fact that it's only April in Canada, we've had some pretty doggone warm days. The kids don't have the tent/gazebo up yet, but the frame remains from past seasons. So, with a few paper clips and a small blanket, Cuppa was able to create some temporary shade — just enough to keep it off her face.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Singularity

Our daffodils, or many of them, are open. I noticed that they were all facing south (see arrow at back) although two in the foreground didn't quite make it that far. One stalwart soul, however, is doing her own thing and facing north. In case you miss it, the arrow in the foreground points to said flower. I call this daffodil Allyson, and if you can't read the name in Blogger's shrunken version, you may (or may not) detect it on the clickable version.



Full disclosure: I saw the singularity of the flower and named it Allyson, but Cuppa was the one bright enough to suggest that I take the picture and blog about it. I won't go into the full Allyson story here, but there are those who will understand and, hopefully, not be displeased.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Deep in Conversation

One afternoon last week, I had the kids outside. After some time being pushed in the swings, they were ready to entertain themselves. For a surprisingly lengthy time, for Nikki Dee, this involved much chatting on her toy phone.









One shudders to contemplate her phone bill when she becomes a teenager. As it is, she becomes greatly distressed when she is not invited to talk to whoever calls no matter whom: the butcher, the baker the candlestick maker, any friendly 800 number, whomever.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Party Pics

Admit it. You were expecting party pics. Weren't you? Well, here are a whole bunch. I can't help myself.

Openings






Where's the Cake?




The Cake Finally Cometh and is Consumeth








Afterglow





Saturday, April 17, 2010

Party Time

Although my car is in the shop for an $800 brake job this morning, there is reason to celebrate, for a little girl has been excited about her birthday party. She will officially turn three years old on Monday, but the party will be held this afternoon. I think she's quite excited about the hoopla and the cake although I'm not sure how much it has sunk in that it's for her. I think she's happy that it's anyone's birthday and that there will be people, song and cake. She kinda likes the cake.

Here are some pictures taken so far this month. Some, you have already seen here and others have appeared on Cuppa's blog, but what the heck.

I have probably never mentioned how much I love this kid. Eh?