Of This and Other Worlds

First, before I forget -- remember you can win lots of lovely FREE BOOKS over at the Summer of Seven site! Including a signed copy of Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter or Knife!

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I promised a long time ago that I'd talk about why I love living in Canada, and I... totally never got around to it.

But today is Canada Day! The day when all the provinces decided to get together and become one happy family! And then they went out for butter tarts and poutine. Or something.

So I will celebrate by telling you why I love Canada.

( Five reasons why being Canadian is pretty cool )

Okay, so maybe I'm not taking this list entirely seriously. But I have travelled to several different countries now, many of which I have found attractive and admirable in their own way and would be happy to return to as a visitor, but I have yet to go anywhere that made me feel sorry that I live in Canada. I love England, I am nigh fanatical in my passion for Wales, I enjoyed the year I spent going to school in New Jersey, and I thought Israel was amazing and would love to go back for another visit some day. But ultimately I am always glad to come home to my quiet, unassuming, fresh-scrubbed little (albeit very big, in terms of land mass) country.

And I think this video says it all, really. Warning: extreme catchiness ahead.



Brits have got the monarchy
The US has the money
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

The French have got the wine and cheese
Koalas chill with the Aussies
But I know that you wanna be Canadian

...so that Dangerously Overinvested Readers like myself could hang out on author blogs and encourage them to write crackfic about their own characters.

(Seriously, though -- Sebastipole and Europe on the vinegar seas battling pirates and evil monsters and falling in love? WOULD BE AWESOME.)

ETA to justify this post's existence: A really smashing D.M. Cornish interview over at SFRevu.

I heard on the radio that Canadian figure skater Jeffrey Buttle had won gold in the World Championships this year. I'd never seen the guy or even heard of him before -- I've been out of the skating (toe) loop for quite a few years now -- but I figured hey, this is what YouTube is all about, so I went and looked him up.

And not only does it turn out he skated his winning long program to music by a lifelong friend of my brother's, soundtrack composer Mychael Danna -- it also turns out he's the closest living resemblance I've yet seen to my male MC from Knife, Paul McCormick. (Yeah, I know I said that about Alex Pettyfer, but even though he's the right age, he's a little too pretty to be credible as anything but a model or an actor. Whereas Jeffrey, though about eight years too old for the part, looks more like a human being who might actually not have spent his entire life posing for pictures.)

Anyway, for my fellow skating fans, here's the long program:



( Plus some rather nice stills )

Though unfortunately I don't have any stills of him large enough to make a good icon, so I'll just stick with The Prettyfer for now...

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Remus Lupin kills Dobby whilst eating spaghetti alfredo Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

Yeah, I find Dobby annoying. Though admittedly, not as annoying as Grawp.

Gather round, my children, while I tell you a heartwarming Christmas tale of sibling rivalry and threats of violence.

This year my two oldest sons, aged six and four, were assigned roles in our church's Christmas play. Nicholas, who is obsessed with all things farm-related, was enormously proud to be chosen as a shepherd -- or as he put it, a "sheep farmer". Simon, on the other hand, was asked to play the boy Jesus (in the scene with the Wise Men), and was less than enthusiastic about having to be on stage at all.

However, Simon did eventually warm to his role, since I heard this exchange on the morning of the pageant:

SIMON: I'm Jesus! I have all the power!

NICHOLAS: No, sheep farmers are more powerful!

SIMON: But Jesus can do anything, so I'm more powerful than a sheep farmer!

NICHOLAS: Well, I'm going to say, "Hey there, Miracle Boy," and come over and kick you in the butt!

ME: *chokes and sporfles*

SIMON: Then I'm going to send you to the Lake of Fire!

ME: *shoots Rice Krispies out her nose*

My only consolation is that at no point during the play were Nicholas and Simon on stage at the same time, so neither the threat of bodily harm nor that of everlasting punishment could be carried out in front of the entire church audience. However, Simon did manage to look entirely bored, complete with mouth-covering yawns, when the Wise Men were presenting their gifts. "Oh, myrrh, is it? And some of that... uh, frankincense stuff? How droll. Mother, how about you just toss it over in the corner with the gold."

I can only imagine how much more interesting things will become when our youngest, Paul, gets added to the mix.

Can't... see... laughing too hard... tears running... down my face...

No, not over last night's HOUSE, although it did make me chortle repeatedly. Over this thread, otherwise known as When Crossovers Go Bad (in MSPaint).

I thought Cameron was brilliant, but then I saw Chase and my life was over. O lydaclunas, where art thou?

Oh, and on a more serious note, there is a rather good Ham* vid over at YouTube, if you like-a the angst: Can't Take It.

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*I generally hate portmanteau shipping terms, but sometimes they are too amusing to ignore.

The Big Snit is THE best animated short ever. I am not kidding. I have been looking for this film for years.

Also, a brilliant comedy sketch by The Frantics: Boot to the Head.

Meanwhile, my two boys are running around yelling "boot to the head!" and smacking each other with my new pseudo-crocs. I fear I have created a monster. Or two.

plymouth brethren is love
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Excuse me while I lie on the floor, kicking my heels and giggling madly.

On a mostly unrelated note, we have succeeded in moving all our possessions from our old house into our new, and I am still in a daze -- partly because of exhaustion, but also because the new place is just so nice and so big and I can't quite believe I actually live here. The first night in our new bedroom (a bonus room we built above the garage, with a high peaked ceiling) I said to my husband, "I feel like I'm sleeping in a cathedral."

The dining room is also humongous, and we actually have a spare bedroom for guests. So this also means that now we have absolutely no excuse not to be hospitable. I shall look forward to it, I think, once I've found a place for everything...