When I became a man, I put away childish things

A bit of a poignant milestone this weekend. We needed to make room in the basement for an electronic drum set, and this necessitates cleaning out the toy cupboards and saying farewell to some well-loved toys. Bionicles, in this case, but there are more. It's always hard to see these go.

 

Even the boy showed a moment of uncharacteristic sentiment.

But all to this end: This was driving us nuts, day after day.  The boy is actually a great drummer, but the sheer volume and duration (drumming is actually an endurance event! ask Neal Peart) was making us crazy and he was restricted to practicing when the rest of us were either out of the house or closeted upstairs with the dooor closed. 

So the idea of an electronic drum set, which can be played with headphones so only the drummer can hear it at volume, sounded better and better all the time. But we needed to make room for it.

He can actually pull it out and have a bit more elbow room, but so far we all think it is pretty sweet. He can wake up at 3:45 in the morning and play it and the rest of us will be none the wiser. Happiness is restored.

Thanksgiving

we had enough of a break in the wind over the weekend to get outside for a Thanksgiving walk, although Theo stayed home with an upset stomach. I think he inherited my stomach, and therefore my dad's stomach, with a tendencey towards queasiness from rich foods like sausage stuffing and gravy.

 

it was still very pretty. The dogs liked it. 

Test

Test post to old blog

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Looking back on summer

It's our last week of summer. The kids start school again before Labour Day, so classes begin next Wednesday. I'm consoling myself with the images if summer in Langley, always the highlight of our year.

Familiar, with a fresh coat of blue, and even more shaded by trees

Theo on the beach at Spanish Banks

the girls getting Gleeful at the old CN station on the way to the Seabus

The office

Although I've been in the paid workforce before, this is the first time I've had my name on a door. I guess it is to make it easy for first year students to find me without having to remember yet another set of letters and numbers.  I was astonished at how quickly they did this - it was up the day I started.  

It's nothing special, but it is big enough that is can park my bike indoors.  I do not have nearly enough books to fill the shelves. So I use it for drying coffee cups.

 

Also, people find it strange that I've arranged furniture so my back is towards the door.  But having the floor space to roll around and do yoga makes up for that.

To that end,  I have a shelf full of yoga stuff including comfy blankets and bolsters. I need a little more atmosphere, though.  I need to get some yoga decor in here and a decorative lamp. Ott lighting is way too functional for yoga atmosphere.

summer of internet memes

Theo asked me what "planking" meant, and in an attempt to explain I sent him this link: http://socialtimes.com/planking-alternatives_b71228 which set off a wave of memes among the Langley cousins.

Owling:

 

I'm not sure what the name for this is, but obviously it involves drama of some sort:

There's always room for the classic - here in front of Main library at UBC:

a whole assortment - planking, pillaring, owling, teapotting and bouldering:

and Cris's version of owling: 

and yet another pillar,  plank, and teapot at a different venue, this time at Canada place:

and this one in front of the Olympic cauldron not only gets the thumbs up from Emma, but a couple of Asian kids in the background cracking up.

not a meme as far as I know, just Ana's prediliction for being squashed by giant landmarks.  This, the giant rain drop at Canada place.

 

Spam free Canada Day

Fresh, natural, no preservatives. A walk in the coulees on Canada Day.