happy canadian thanksgiving!

fun facts:
-parliament declared it a national holiday in 1957
-it's always the second monday in october
-first one: 1578, in newfoundland, hosted by explorer martin frobisher who gave thanks for the delicious feast and for having avoided the many dangers at sea
-loyalists who immigrated to canada after the revolutionary war brought american thanksgiving customs too

i am thankful for: my husband, the bulldog, my health, my family, my friends and family in canada, my friends and family in the us and scattered throughout the world, my job/a profession that lets me do what i love and get paid for it, my lovely and comfortable home, the food the farmers provide, books, plants and trees, all of the wildlife around us in texas, the beautiful weather, the bright blue sky, twitter/flickr/facebook/blogs/email that let me keep up with my friends who are far away, learning, the gym, hair color, cupcakes, my exercise ball, writing, reading, knowing lots of smart people who keep me on my toes, being able to help people in some small way, fearlessness, tenacity, creativity, flipflops, color, photography, words.

randomness: need packets or travel sized stuff?

i came around this random info trying to help the husband help his coworker find mayo packets her kid could bring for lunch at school:
www.minimus.biz

writing exercise: one sentence

thought this was fun:
www.onesentence.org

here was mine:
the blue jay happily splashed in the birdbath until he felt hot breath drying his tail feathers.

happy technology day!

yeah another celebration!
this event is going on in the city where i work (irving, texas).

check it out.

quote of the day

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many--not
on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
-Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English Novelist

Happy National Punctuation Day!

Thank you to my copyeditor friend Brandy for this one:

With all the breaking news out there — Clay Aiken, Lindsay Lohan, Abe Vigoda — I’d hate for a story to get lost. And National Punctuation Day is just that kind of story.

For most people, punctuation is an irritant: a misused collection of periods, commas, virgules, question marks and exclamation points that is thrown, willy-nilly, into an e-mail or text message. But for some of us, punctuation is an overlooked treasure. Without punctuation, a declaration turns into a question. Without punctuation, sentences run endlessly until they bump into the next page. Without (correct) punctuation, Canada’s Rogers Communications may not have lost more than $2 million.

So, celebrate the semicolon. Offer hosannas for hyphens. Pay attention to asterisks. National Punctuation Day only comes around once a year — and that day calls for more than one exclamation point!!!

OK, maybe not.

– Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer

P.S. Any errors made in the previous are the fault of my copy editor.

Writer, get back to school

Whether you’re looking to improve your work skills (online writing, learn more about marketing, understand social media, etc.), understand why copyediting makes copyeditors so happy (copyediting, grammar) or learn how to sell your personal writing (pitch slams, chick lit classes, etc.), Media Bistro’s online courses and seminars offer up writing-related education in short (15 min) to long (8 week) chunks.

There’s a little something for everyone and it’s available online so you can even attend class in your pjs.

Check it out at:

www.mediabistro.com/courses/

photographer? ha!

Schmap Canada Guide selected my photo of Place Jacques Cartier. Check it out here.

2007 wrap up: driving miss daisy home

so i've been off for something like 12 days in a row. barely any computer time. even less blackjack time. it's been amazing. i think the black circles under my eyes have even faded somewhat. i don't feel as aged anyway.

part of the reason for all of that "relaxation" was our marathon roadtrip to bring the bulldog to texas. see, she's been living with the inlaws since memorial day weekend (that's one weekend before victoria day weekend for you canadians) because we've been waiting for the husband's damn green card for 11 months. the original prediction was 3-6 months, so i shouldn't get started on this whole thing...

anyway, my father-in-law had major back surgery. then my mother-in-law got very sick and had to be hospitalized right before christmas. so the husband and i hopped in the car, drove 10 hours to nashville, stayed over in a fantastic hotel near vanderbilt, ate some fairly decent college town cheap mexican food, then another 10 to buffalo and i went over the border and got the dog.

customs/immigration on both sides of the border was very weird. the canadian dude seemed more interested in hooking up than anything else. the us lady seemed bewildered about where i was really from, but didn't let that stop her at all from letting me reenter the us. the dog also confused her -- she heard the bulldog panting and was shocked to see such a large dog when i turned on the light.

all and all, the trip was actually pretty fun, though it was a real whirlwind.

the only downside really was our night in the crappy hotel in buffalo, but when you're looking for a place that takes dogs, your options can be pretty limited. it was stinky. it was really hot (no controllable thermostat). it was full of intoxicated buffalo bills fans. and we were really worried about the weather turning and having to deal with the b'lo's famous lake effect snows.

we were lucky. after not sleeping well, we were on the road by 5 am! it rained a lot but we made it back to the nice hotel in nashville by mid-afternoon.

one thing that probably made the trip a lot easier for everyone was giving the bulldog some sedation when we got up. we were told to give her 2-4 pills, but only gave her one. 2 1/2 hours after taking the medicine, she was out cold and snored pretty much non-stop (except for one pee break) until we arrived at the hotel in nashville.

at the hotel, she was treated like a princess. a bag with treats, food, toys, bowls and a mat was waiting for her. there was a little dog park right at the hotel to make walks really easy.

we ordered room service, chilled out and went to sleep.

the next morning was pretty much a repeat of the day before and we got home on christmas eve by mid-afternoon.

some highlights of the trip:
-cows, lots of cows
-burning cow poo
-a pickup truck pulling a dune buggy with a guy in it pretending to drive
-john deere and more john deere
-a series of biblical billboards aimed towards truckers
-roadkill
-morris county
-the lone star army ammunition plant
-a dr seuss-esque radio ad with lots of fart humor referencing dontpassgas.org
-hope, arkansas, birthplace of bill clinton
-goats outside of hughes, arkansas
-a guy harvesting a roadkill deer
-plenty of weird accidents with cars in the ditch
-kings island still has its eiffel tower
-seeing the hillary clinton campaign bus in ohio
-big bone lick state park in tennessee

christmas eve and christmas were both pretty chill as we got the bulldog used to the house. we visited some friends on christmas day and the bulldog met the chocolate lab next door on boxing day for some crazy playtime. she's even been on a bunch of walks, exploring the area.

one big surprise happened on our christmas day walk. i love getting mail so i checked the mailbox just in case. we found a letter letting us know when the husband's green card interview is. february 15 @ 8:30 am. yippee! so yesterday we spent some time getting our next big road trip all organized.

beyond that it's been a lot of relaxation, organization, getting the house in order. a peaceful start to 2008.

happy new year to you and yours. 2008 is gonna be great!