Today was one of those fall days when the sky is dark and heavy; there was such a strong wind that I was overcome with that feeling that the whole world was wild, and no amount of will or wishing on my part would impose any other order on it. I love days like this. I haven’t been out of the house much in the past two days, looking after my flu stricken family – a four year old with a fever has a stronger grip on you than you could ever imagine.

We’re not entirely out of the woods – her flu started sometime in the middle of Tuesday night, but 2 and half days later she suddenly got up from the couch and started bossing me around again, demanding I read her books and putting her feet in my face as I was doing so. Her return to herself seemed almost overly dramatic. Of course I’m going to keep an eye on her, or rather, an ear out for any rattling breaths or difficulty breathing, but part of me can’t help feeling a little pissed off at all the hoopla that had me awake at 4 a.m. terrified that my daughter was going to die. She was inseparable from a friend at Halloween who was just diagnosed with H1N1, and if that was it, well, it certainly wasn’t pleasant for her, but it wasn’t the worst flu she’s had.

I did manage to get out of the house long enough to play another game where our forwards were heavily under attack, this time from the first place team who had not lost a game yet – I guess they didn’t take too kindly to the idea of losing. Our “A line” in particular (a trio hot both on and off the ice – there, Jacinthe, you can’t complain that I never mention you in my blog) was subjected to all kinds of hits and slashes and crosschecks, and I can’t help but wonder why we’re leading in penalty minutes (40 minutes’ worth in 9 games, 12 of them mine) when it feels like we’re getting bullied every game, seriously. Pretty much all of my penalties have been in retaliation for dirty plays like punches or crosschecks from behind the second the puck goes in and the whistle has gone. But probably the real reason is this (because I’ve noticed it too) – we are averaging about four goals a game, we’re outshooting them nearly three to one, they can’t get past our forwards in the neutral zone, (knock on wood!), and yes, it sounds like I’m bragging a bit, but the truth is I am in awe of how good our team has suddenly become, and its more fun than you can imagine to be a part of it.

At last, the new record from the laziest band in show business. More rock songs for small people and their minders! Topics covered: noble gases, sandwich making, photosynthesis, same-sex divorce, dogs in sweaters.

Its taken us 4 years but we’ve finally managed to get it together to put out our second album, Worser. I’m pretty darn happy with it, and not only because I got to do the silkscreened art. Great song contributions by everyone in the band, too. Here’s a song – Orange Popsicle, by Duplex!:

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(I’m going to post my little demo version of it later, so keep an eye out for it!)

One really, really great thing about playing music for kids is you get to do early shows, at say, noon. This works perfectly with my schedule. Oh, and if you’re trawling around on myspace or reverbnation, add us as your friend!

buy the album

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?

snowprincess

Whenever we went outside my daughter insisted on wearing the princess dress and crown that she received as presents, but would become horribly embarrassed by the attention she got. (She was quite a bit pinker in the original photo, before I got to it with iphoto ). Its pretty amusing for someone who grew up with 5 older brothers (and swore if she had a daughter she would not be dressed in pink) to see how girly my girl is. Which leads me to believe that given a rather normal upbringing (meaning having your basic needs met), it’s all nature!

I really wanted to draw a picture of her in her snow gear, and started with this, but abandoned it because she was looking to much like a Family Circus kid. Ugh. It won’t be my last attempt, though.

snow princess sketch