cathrowan

It all went fine

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 20:00:54 GMT

My dance workshop was great. The instructor had only been available for one specific day; I found an acceptable space at short notice. I learned some new dances. I'm going to be teaching 15th dances myself later and it helped to get a chance to watch her step techniques and movement.

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Bionic ears

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 02:44:47 GMT

I got fitted with my first pair of hearing aids a month ago. Some of my friends complain about theirs. I'm having an excellent experience and am so glad this technology exists. I had no idea how bad my high-frequency hearing loss was until it was compensated for. Our dishwasher makes a soft chime when you press a button! Who knew? (Not me.)

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Argh

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 18:38:40 GMT

If I send a "save the date" message and say I am finalizing the details, more info later, and I don't include the venue, why would you write to ask me what the venue is? Can you not figure out that I don't have that info yet?

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One day to go

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 16:28:29 GMT

Sunrise today at 8:48 MST; sunset at 16:16. I am looking forward to the solstice tomorrow, when the sun starts to come back around.

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Chassis maintenance

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 19:11:08 GMT

Multiple appointments this week for various kinds of body work:

Monday - blood draw for Vitamin D levels
Tuesday - pedicure
Wednesday (today) - physio for strained calf muscle
Thursday - deep tissue massage

Nothing (yet) for Friday

I want to be as physically prepared as I can be for two days of dancing at Borealis' Yule feast this weekend. There's a social dance on Saturday and an extended dance practice on Sunday. I'm looking forward to the event!

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A little treat

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:15 GMT

I usually buy only milk and yogurt. Last week I bought a little carton of coffee cream (18%). This morning I enjoyed cream both in my coffee and on my oatmeal.

It's been a pretty good six months. I probably won't get around to trying to write a summary. I've been intermittently reading you all, although not commenting.

Here at latitude 53 sunset is at 4:15 pm today. I don't enjoy the long nights. Only two more weeks to the solstice!

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Circus!

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 17:10:48 GMT

I'm covid-cautious, and for last five years I've been staying out of theatres. But there is a circus arts festival taking place this weekend and it's an artform I adore watching. I decided to mask up and roll the dice.

On Thursday I went to see a performance by House of Dust called HAUS of YOLO. It's bawdy and messy and the audience was there for it. I had such a good time - I had not realized how much I'd missed seeing this kind of show.

Here's a review of their Vancouver performance earlier this month

Tonight I have a ticket for Flo, by a Quebec troupe, where the stage set is a life-sized ship built inside the theatre. I'm looking forward to it a lot.

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Productive and pleasurable

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 16:55:38 GMT

It's been a good, and busy, month.

For the first time in four years, bought new glasses
Attended Scintillation, bluejo's book gathering in Montreal
Went to my first SCA event since last winter, to see a friend made a premier member of the new Order of the Mark

I think the hypomania is starting to wear off, so I'd better find those overdue lab requisitions and book appointments, so future me can get her thyroid meds renewed.

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A day of small pleasures

Thu, 22 May 2025 21:41:21 GMT

Pedicure and new shimmery toenail polish. An orange and cardamom latte from a new-to-me indie coffee shop. A bunch of tulips to put on the dining room table.

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We are at Eastercon!

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 10:23:47 GMT

It's been a couple of months of ups and downs, and this month is very definitely up. K and I are on a bucket-list trip overseas. We started with three days in Amsterdam followed by 10 days in London. Many thanks to cosmolinguist for recommending the Travelodge chain. We stayed in the Covent Garden hotel and it was brilliant.

We arrived in Belfast yesterday. I hope to do a bit of promotion for the Edmonton in 2030 Worldcon bid. I'm not on the committee, however I can testify as to how my home city is pretty great. I have brought a package of maple sugar candies with me for the purpose of giving one to each person who asks me a question.

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Surfacing

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 21:55:11 GMT

Finally finally finally my latest depressive episode seems to be ending. Three fracking months I lost this time.

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Bought memberships to Eastercon 2025

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 20:52:40 GMT

We had an overseas trip planned for August, and then K broke his ankle and we had to cancel. We agreed we'd try for next spring instead.

We are both SF fans, the old-fashioned book-reading types. We missed the Glasgow Worldcon, so decided we'd find another largish con to attend as one of the elements of our trip. Reconnect, the next Eastercon, takes place April 18-21, 2025 in Belfast. I just bought us two memberships.

This gives me an anchor date to plan the rest of the trip around. I'm going to rebook many of the destinations we settled on last time: Amsterdam, Dublin, Portsmouth, London. Next up is to figure out what order we'll visit them in.

(K's ankle has healed just fine.)

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Home again, home again

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 16:31:26 GMT

I flew home on Tuesday, and spent much of the following two days asleep. After many hugs from K, a massage, and a good conversation with a friend about our upcoming Renaissance dance class, I am reviving.

This afternoon I'll be meeting friends on the patio of Beer Revolution for some brews and socializing. Today's forecast is sunny and 14 C, pretty good for this time of year. K's broken ankle has healed enough that he can drive. He doesn't drink alcohol, so I'm safe to have a beer.

Beer Revolution runs a couple dozen rotating taps, and I just looked up their beer board for today. Hmmm, the coffee brown ale looks interesting. Ooooh - haskap cider!

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They will make a coin about anything these days

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 19:34:36 GMT

I just learned about this from a CBC article:

1 oz. Pure Silver Glow-in-the-Dark Coin – Canada’s Unexplained Phenomena: The Langenburg Event

A 50-year-old story of UFOs at a farm near Langenburg, Sask. — a town 220 kilometres east of Regina — is being celebrated by Canada Post and the Canadian Royal Mint with a new coin. The story of the UFOs and the five crop circles from 1974 have prompted Canada Post and the Royal Canadian Mint to issue a coin that commemorates the event. "The Langenburg Event" coin is the seventh in the Canada's Unexplained Phenomena series.

The coin is one ounce of pure silver, glows in the dark, and can be purchased online for C$140.

www.mint.ca/en/shop/coins/2024/pure-silver-glow-in-the-dark-coin-canadas-unexplained-phenomena-the-langenburg-event

(edited to fix the link)

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"I'll be post-feminist in the post-patriarchy"

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 03:35:28 GMT

Back in the late 70s/early 80s my mother taught one of the first courses in Women's Studies offered by the University of Alberta.

She's 82 now. Earlier tonight I found a pin with the above slogan stuck to the bulletin board in her apartment.

Here's an example of her work, the program for the Second Annual Feminist Research Forum, which she organized in October 1989.

omekaprojects.artsrn.ualberta.ca/files/original/6e2089274ab0cb048d8d1fbd879a80592aa5802b.pdf

The thing is, though, every time I say I'm proud to be a daughter of a feminist, I get earwormed by this song.

"Daughters of Feminists" was first recorded in 1990 by Canadian humourist and songwriter Nancy White. It's not what I did, but if you want to rebel and drive your feminist mother up the wall, try wearing pink and celebrating Cinderella as a role model.

www.youtube.com/watch

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I have such a pash on Gussie

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 04:53:01 GMT

the narrator of The Masquerades of Spring

"...no sybaritic pleasure, no drink, no food, no wide magnificent vista can top seeing yourself reflected the way you want to be reflected in your lover's eyes." Oh my heart.

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I made a food

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 22:12:39 GMT

Autumn arrived this week, which means I can bake without overheating the apartment. I used the oven for the first time in three months and made banana bread. Actually, I made banana-oatmeal-strawberry-almond-chocolate chip bread. It is yummy. K thinks so too. Between us we have already eaten half of a large panful.

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New Rivers of London novella!

Sun, 08 Sep 2024 02:07:24 GMT

Thanks to thewayne I learned that the new Ben Aaronovitch novella, The Masquerades of Spring, has dropped!

His deal with Subterranean Press is that they get exclusive rights to publish fancy hardcovers. The e-book is not available on Kobo in Canada. However, I can go directly to the SubPress site, buy it in epub format for US$6, then sideload it into my Kobo app.

https://subterraneanpress.com/the-masquerades-of-spring-ebook/

(Since it's DRM free I believe it can be opened with other readers too, but I have not tested this.)

I'm going offline now so I can start reading! See you all tomorrow!

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Happy Labour Day!

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 16:20:37 GMT

I prefer Utah Phillips' version of the Joe Hill song, as it's gender-neutral.

Oh, would you have freedom from wage slavery?
Then come join the grand Industrial band
Would you from misery and hunger be free?
Come on, do your share, lend a hand

There is power, there is power in a band of working folks
When they stand hand in hand
That's a power, that's a power that must rule in every land:
One Industrial union grand

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HOW can my mother and brother not have any form of garlic in their kitchens?

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 07:05:01 GMT

Not even garlic powder?!?!

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Connection question

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 05:11:38 GMT

Is a fannish equivalent of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon: "Do you know jonsinger?"

Asking because I think it's the mutual connection for a couple people I just subscribed to.

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hidden history of Quebec lesbians

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 18:56:18 GMT

Wow, I've had this tab open for a year. I thought hrj and oursin might be interested.

In a former monastery, dozens of boxes hold the hidden history of Quebec lesbians

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Excellent news

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 18:28:40 GMT

K had his appointment at the fracture clinic this morning. The good news is that he won't need surgery. Initial X-rays showed a posterior malleolus fracture. Today's X-rays confirm that although he cracked that knob of bone right off, it has stayed aligned and is already showing slight signs of mending. The air cast, patience, and physio should result in full recovery.

Huzzah for Canadian health care. All treatment was free, and the wait time after diagnosis to see the surgeon was less than two weeks.

I am celebrating by drinking a flight of mimosas and eating ginger caramel cake at a nearby cafe.

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3 reasons to be cheerful

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:16:57 GMT

My friend Randy's hand surgery has healed very well. A musician for decades, he can once again play guitar without pain.
I just ate lunch on the shady patio at local cafe The Upper Crust. Their California Salad has been a menu staple for 30 years and I've been happily enjoying it for the same 30 years.
The second cohort of teenage magpies are out and about. Their fluffy britches are super cute.

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Damnit

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 03:52:07 GMT

We had a month of travel planned for August - Dublin, Worldcon in Glasgow, Amsterdam, London. Except K broke his ankle last week and we are not going anywhere now. Fortunately our flights to and from Canada could be cancelled and credits banked for future use. The plan is to rebook our big trip for next spring.

K is hugely disappointed. I am too, but more for him. He's never been overseas, and this was going to be a bucket list adventure.

All you lovely people who had travel suggestions and advice, I've made notes and hope to use them next March or April!

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