girls are weird.

30 November 2006

required reading

You know, it really gets my goat (that's right - I've got a goat. Want a piece of it? Do you, punk?!) when people state that blogs about certain subject matters are "lame" or boring. According to one blogger, writing about kids and cats is akin to cornering someone in a dark alley and forcing them to watch reruns of Question Time. Luckily, I don't own a cat so I'm still cool to the youngsters of today. Word. Anyway, my point is, I don't really see the purpose of saying blogging about a particular subject is less worthy of cyberspace than say, posting naughty pictures of yourself. If you're not that thrilled by a blog, skip it; there are about a bazillion other blogs out there that might be of interest. Putting other blogs down is just bad blogging karma, if you ask me. It may lead to things like weird formatting in your CSS or your comment numbering going all wonky.

Kristin of "Debaucherous and Dishevelled" fame has been nominated in the 2006 Canadian Blogging Awards for best blog, best personal blog, and best family blog. Note that entrants have been nominated by others; you cannot nominate yourself. I've followed her blog for a long time now (back in the old days when we were up the duff with our boys), and I simply love her writing - even though it now involves discussions about kids. God, how LAME. (that's sarcasm, by the way) While you're at it, please feel free to vote for Ed of "Blork Blog" (which sounds remarkably like a Lord of the Rings character). Cast your votes here.

I'm not saying just go and vote blindly just because I said so - I do know that I should only use my powers for good, but sometimes it's hard to resist. What I'm saying is please do go and check out these blogs if you're not familiar with them. They are not just blogs from friends, they are incredibly well written and deserve the recognition (if not a couple of extra readers).

By the way, Ed sometimes blogs about cats, but I'm okay with that.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

29 November 2006

a whole lotta nothing

Some of you have been curious about the lack of posts around here, and some of you have even been speculating about my whereabouts. Rest assured, I'm still alive (others can attest to this) but simply not up to anything particularly interesting. I've got blogstipation; no ideas are coming out at the moment. I usually come across several topics that I file away for later use, or amusing situations that happen to us. Sometimes we go places or do things that are worth writing about. If all else fails, someone at work will eventually do something comical and worthy of a post. But lately, nada. Life is work, playing with Jack, getting errands done, watching Lost and scraping my brain off the ceiling, and occasionally getting together with friends. Even Heat magazine hasn't been that interesting lately.

So there you go. I've just blogged about the inability to think about something to blog about. Please don't give up on us just yet - I'm sure something interesting will happen soon.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

21 November 2006

photographic evidence

I've finally uploaded our pictures from California here. Detailed travelogue type commentary will be unavailable until I get a week off in a dark cave on a deserted island. (With broadband, naturally.) Enjoy!

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

14 November 2006

hiding under the duvet for the next six weeks

I don't care what my television tells me - I am NOT ready to start thinking about Christmas yet.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

10 November 2006

damn yankees

Hi. I'm still alive - apologies for the distinct lack of bloggage. Please accept this gift of a miniature Peanut Butter Cup* as compensation. Anyhoo.

On Halloween night as Paul and I sat in London traffic, we heard several news reports about additional police on duty to deter hooligans from creating all sorts of havoc. It's a night for yobs and vandalism, they said. Local residents were afraid to leave home for fear of something unsavoury passing through their letterboxes. Decoy buses full of police officers roamed Merseyside, attempting to pick up troublemakers planning on trashing public transportation vehicles. The BBC interviewed the average person on the street about this harrowing night, and a comment that kept coming up was why should we acknowledge this American holiday? I read a newspaper article expressing a similar sentiment; that Halloween is an American invention and causes great strife in our nation. As if somehow the fact that trick or treating is an American tradition makes it inappropriate to celebrate here, and furthermore, this explains its unwelcome affect on British youths.

I think that Halloween is not celebrated here as it is back home (Canadians trick or treat too, you know - just with big winter coats over our costumes so you can't actually see what we're dressed up as) because it simply isn't a tradition here yet and no one quite knows what to do with it. I always describe my amusement each year at our local trick or treaters. We get none, they come on the wrong day, or they don't even bother dressing up. This tells me that there is great confusion surrounding this holiday, although it does seem to be improving the longer I live here. I'm not sure why there is a general distaste for it just because it's deemed American. It should be fun, with a bellyache the next day.

I came across another article about how awful it is that the British use "Americanisms" such as "Can I get...?" instead of "May I please have...?" So when you go to Starbucks to request a beverage from the 17-year-old behind the counter who really doesn't give a shit whether you live or die, you should do so by saying "May I please have a tall cafe latte?" instead of "Can I get a tall cafe latte, please?" because the spotty teen will be greatly offended by your American-ness.

I'm sorry, I just don't get it. As a Canadian, we do tend to find our downstairs neighbours to be somewhat rowdy and a little bit weird to be honest, but I can't say that I've ever found something to be abhorrent simply because it's American. When we were in California, people constantly acknowledged Jack. Businessmen with silly looking Bluetooth headphones at the hotel would greet Jack with a "Hi, Buddy!" and restaurants brought us endless supplies of crayons and balloons. Although over enthusiastic American store clerks can be unsettling to the outsider, they were very nice to have when we did actually need help. People smiled at us and chatted to us. No one batted an eye when I asked for menu substitutions. I'm two sizes smaller in the States. Sorry, that's another issue altogether.

What I'm saying is, Americans aren't all terrible. They're not all uncouth beasts who go around breaking windows on Halloween night, demanding food products in an impolite manner. All things American aren't terrible. We watch their television programmes, listen to their music, and watch their films. We celebrate Father's Day without (much) complaint, which is an American invention. And who doesn't appreciate a good burger? Mmmmm...burgers. Be right back.

Anyway, that's all I had to say. I might not always understand Americans and I'll never be tempted to eat grits, but if we could learn how to do Halloween like they do, that would be more than fine by me.

*(Supplies are limited. To claim your gift, you must come to my house between the hours of 7am and 7pm on weekends only, and answer a skill-testing question. Offer not valid in Quebec, Hawaii, or ROI. Thank you.)

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --

02 November 2006

dust. anyone? dust.

Just a quickie to say that we saw Little Britain live on Tuesday night, and it was absolutely fantastic. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time, and we were mere feet away from the boys (row G!) The woman next to me didn't laugh once and only clapped at the end, so I'm assuming that she was there under duress, fulfilling some sort of community service.

Coming soon: my post about why the British shouldn't fear nor loathe Americans. No, seriously.

[posted by: Lisa Durbin] --