Sturdy Danny McGee is back!

Okay, so he's probably clear-cutting. And I don't like cereal. But damn, this commercial brings back memories. Just goes to show that it's not about selling a product, but an idea or feeling. This commercial, which even after at least 20 years I remember every blessed word, makes me feel like I'm sitting on the floor of the basement in the house in Regina, watching cartoons on the old TV. No HD, possibly not even a remote control. Man, wasn't life easier then. Maybe I should buy a box....

The day that should be a statutory holiday

sir john
Originally uploaded by Sea Lion.

Happy Birthday to Sir John A. Macdonald.

Maybe the Dixie Chicks were right....duh!

And one more honourable mention....

• Volunteering at Concerts in the Park with the M&M family.

Lise's Top Ten of 2006

10. Boston Pizza opened a store across the street from where I work! Woo hoo!

9. December 15 - Nancy and I see the Nathaniel Dett Chorale at the Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts. Mere words can't describe the experience...and it brings forth that Christmas spirit.

8. November 10 - Liz, Tasha and I see Wicked at the Canon Theatre. We laugh as Ga-linda screws up the lines during "Popular" - making it all the more fun.

7. Wayne Johnston releases the Custodian of Paradise, which is a sequel, or rather an expansion of the story he began in my favourite novel, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams.

6. May's patio lunch with Mom, Dad, Alex, Paul and Julie. Nice visit, nice weather, yummy food. It's the simple things that make life a pleasure.

5. December 16 - Dinner with Claudine and Minard at the David Duncan House, only this time Chyra came along too.... "Chyra and Auntie Lise eat zucchini toGETHer!"

4. Saw Pinball Clemons speak at a work event in May. He is a truly genuine human being and an inspiration - which says a lot since I have no idea what 'running back' or 'combined yards' mean.

3. Woo hoo!!! Motorcycle ride with Aunt Julie through Lorette, Manitoba in July. First time I've ever been on one that was moving. I think I sat on one that was parked when I was 2.

2. Coaching Grandpa to write his memoirs by way of asking him questions and getting him to send me answers via snail mail. So far I've learned about his first car and his early memories of Winnipeg. As well as how they kept track of time in rural Manitoba when he was little.

1. New Job! Even if it may only be for one, maybe two years (though I continue to hope for more). I now work with a group of challenging and inspirational people at in a role that, although sometimes frustrating, feels meaningful and purposeful. Yay!

Some honourable mentions:

• Groundhogs at the Assiniboine Park Zoo. They are mesmerizingly entertaining.
• Knorr Frozen Entrees - Yum.
• I discovered a new bookstore - Books on the Hill in Richmond Hill.
• Target's dollar store section.
• Hearing Rick Haldenby talk about the University of Waterloo's School of Architecture's move to Cambridge, not once, but twice.
• Rugelach at Mom's Love Delicatessen and Bakery.
• My personal discovery of YouTube (okay, I'm a bit slow sometimes).
• Getting An Inconvenient Truth for Christmas...and already watching it twice.
• Dixie Chicks concert, Melissa Etheridge concert, George Stro...whatever in person, Jackie Richardson sings the national anthem at the Inaugural Meeting of Council in Richmond Hill.
• Anderson Cooper rings in 2006 on CNN.

Here's to all the great moments to come in 2007!

Mom wishes you a Merry Christmas

Another reason why life doesn't seem fair....

Monica Lewinsky just received her master's degree. From the London School of Economics. How nice that she got a chance to do something that not many women in this world have the opportunity to do. I mean go to graduate school at a prestiguous institution. What did you think I meant?

Somehow I just think that there were harder working, more ethical women out there who try to live lives of real purpose who deserved the opportunity more.

The Hour with George

Where is the Secret of Life?

Dems in, Rummy and K-Fed out

To quote supermodel Heidi Klum, "in the world of [politics] one day you're in, and the next day you're out".

Blasphemous though it may be, I kinda wanted the Republicans to squeak through with a bare win in yesterday's mid-term elections. Now the Democrats are going to fuck it all up by trying to impeach the president or something and end up losing in 2008. I guess that statement can really be summed up with "a pox on both your houses" because they both suck lately. I mean, yeah, go and try to extricate yourselves from Iraq after messing things up there. I'm sure the Iraqis care whether it was the Democrats or the Republicans who came marching in on the white horse to save the day, only to screw it up like they have something to compensate for, if ya know what I mean. Maybe it's not a just war, maybe it's just none of your business, but when you claimed to be able to fix it and only made it worse, you have to do something more morally inspiring than the classic cut and run.

I have this vague recollection of reading about how Rumsfeld didn't like being filmed during press conferences in front of a statue of a naked woman. I tried to find it again but the search came up with too many hits on inhumane treatment by American soldiers. Just before dinner I saw Nancy Pelosi on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and he congratulated her on being the first woman speaker of the House of Representatives. Then she started talking about how she was about to be a grandmother.

So, no art, and remember not to feel proud of your accomplishments.

God knows we have so much to be embarrassed about.