Wallpaper is so new it is still wet! Can you hear me smiling?
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
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Wallpaper is so new it is still wet! Can you hear me smiling?
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Proud of My Students
In the spirit of the Oscars, in the category of "Creative Protest" I give you several protests by the students of the downtown high school where I teach. The school is being closed by the (not very local) school board at the end of this year. Many people in the community are not happy with this decision and are protesting.
I am not protesting because, as an employee of the board, I have been instructed not to speak out about this issue. However, I do feel I can congratulate my students on their delightful, powerful, creative, and inspirational protests. (My daughter would have been in grade 9 here next year but will now have to take a bus to a different school. She and her friends have been involved in several of these protests.) I have linked these to news media reports and other photos - hope they stay!
Protest #1: Holding Hands
Two days before the decision was voted on by the board, the students took to the streets. They decided to symbolically connect our downtown school to the community around the school by linking hands from the school's front door to the Market Hall, a symbol of our town. The first person in line, holding the door, was a graduate of our school from 1932! Her (great?) granddaughter was next in line followed by approximately 400 students and supporters. People were joining as the line grew down the street. Cars were honking their horns, store owners came outside to show their support. It was really heartwarming.
Protest #2: Ghost Town
Many people fear that the downtown stores will suffer when the school is closed taking 850 students out of the downtown core. The students decided to illustrate this with a protest on Halloween. They dressed all in white and walked en masse through downtown.
Protest #3: Shut Up
To show solidarity with their teachers who have been instructed not to discuss or comment on the closure of the school, the students wore duct tape over their mouths for a day. To paraphrase the vernacular, 'nuff not said!
Protest #4: Skip-to-ma-Queen's Park
To take their protest to the top, the students organized 10 busloads of students and supporters (approximately 450 people) to go to Queen's Park, site of our provincial legislature, in hopes of meeting the Premier or at least the Minister of Education. Neither made an appearance, but our own (useless) MPP came out to speak to them, as well as the opposition education critic and other opposition MPPs, one of whom had graduated from our school.
Protest #5: See No Evil
The most recent protest gave me the shivers and inspired this post. A regularly scheduled board meeting was held this week and there was not expected to be any business regarding our school. However, the students do not want the board to think they've given up so they again took a large group to attend the meeting. Right after the national anthem, the put on blindfolds.
I am not protesting because, as an employee of the board, I have been instructed not to speak out about this issue. However, I do feel I can congratulate my students on their delightful, powerful, creative, and inspirational protests. (My daughter would have been in grade 9 here next year but will now have to take a bus to a different school. She and her friends have been involved in several of these protests.) I have linked these to news media reports and other photos - hope they stay!
Protest #1: Holding Hands
Two days before the decision was voted on by the board, the students took to the streets. They decided to symbolically connect our downtown school to the community around the school by linking hands from the school's front door to the Market Hall, a symbol of our town. The first person in line, holding the door, was a graduate of our school from 1932! Her (great?) granddaughter was next in line followed by approximately 400 students and supporters. People were joining as the line grew down the street. Cars were honking their horns, store owners came outside to show their support. It was really heartwarming.
Protest #2: Ghost Town
Many people fear that the downtown stores will suffer when the school is closed taking 850 students out of the downtown core. The students decided to illustrate this with a protest on Halloween. They dressed all in white and walked en masse through downtown.
photo from pcvs.ca
Protest #3: Shut Up
To show solidarity with their teachers who have been instructed not to discuss or comment on the closure of the school, the students wore duct tape over their mouths for a day. To paraphrase the vernacular, 'nuff not said!
Protest #4: Skip-to-ma-Queen's Park
To take their protest to the top, the students organized 10 busloads of students and supporters (approximately 450 people) to go to Queen's Park, site of our provincial legislature, in hopes of meeting the Premier or at least the Minister of Education. Neither made an appearance, but our own (useless) MPP came out to speak to them, as well as the opposition education critic and other opposition MPPs, one of whom had graduated from our school.
Protest #5: See No Evil
The most recent protest gave me the shivers and inspired this post. A regularly scheduled board meeting was held this week and there was not expected to be any business regarding our school. However, the students do not want the board to think they've given up so they again took a large group to attend the meeting. Right after the national anthem, the put on blindfolds.
They feel that the board is not seeing them, that their concerns are being ignored. The board cow (oops) chair stood up and declared it was a protest and was not allowed and that they would take a recess. The students, not wanting to be disrespectful, but wanting to make a point, put their blindfolds away. The board reconvened and the students covered their eyes with their hands. For ONE AND A HALF HOURS! My daughter was so affected by it - she said it was the most awesome thing she's ever done.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
When Life Gives You Lennons
Just a short post to rave about a new blog called When Life Gives You Lennons. It is devoted to Beatles comics drawn by my (Beatles obsessed) daughter and her (Beatles obsessed) friend. The comics are quite clever and well drawn and really a hoot. Enjoy, Beatlemaniacs.
Winklepedia, Chapter 3
This installment of the Winklepedia comes courtesy of a cupboard that got filled with drywall detritus when they pulled down the ceiling. When I cleaned it up, I switched out a bunch of Kathie Winkle dishes into the "everyday" cupboard and put some others away in the sparkling clean "overflow" cupboard. This is the "greens and golds" batch.
Today's tour starts with "Renaissance".
A favourite (perhaps because it's rare to me - I only have one!), "Romany".
I think I posted the platter for this pattern earlier, but I love this one. Makes me feel like spring. "Capri".
This is "Michelle". I have a bunch of these because a friend called me on her cell from Value Village to ask how many of the 14 or 15 plates, bowls and sandwich plates I would take. I took 'em all!
Again, I only have a couple of these - one large plate, one saucer. It's sooooo seventies. Looks like my mom's wallpaper from that time. Called "Olympus".
Ok, this is officially from the "black and brown" group but I'm posting it here anyway, because it got photographed in this batch. I like the pattern but these plates are in poor shape. Someone had a crappy dishwasher or crappy detergent or? There are dark marks on the backs of these plates as if they rubbed on something. Still shiny though. "October".
I think this was the first Kathie Winkle plate I ever got. My husband bought it for me at a thrift shop in Toronto. It wasn't until years later that I noticed the signature and looked up Kathie Winkle on the internet. That was the start of a ... ok, I was going to say "quest" but it's more of a mad obsession, although lately I have been more tempered in my approach. (Ha! that only means I haven't found any lately. I still start every thrift shop visit in the dishes section. And I watch period movies closely during any dinner shots. And I'm documenting my stash...)
I give you, "Viscount".
And this is the same "Viscount" pattern but I am posting it because it is a different shape of sugar bowl from all the others I have. The lid got broken at a mad party we had. The breaker took the lid to "fix it" and it never returned :( so I found an ok replacement at St. Vincent de Paul. I hope some day to find a better fitting one - also it should have a flatter button-like knob. In the meantime it keeps the dust out.
Until next time...
Today's tour starts with "Renaissance".
A favourite (perhaps because it's rare to me - I only have one!), "Romany".
I think I posted the platter for this pattern earlier, but I love this one. Makes me feel like spring. "Capri".
This is "Michelle". I have a bunch of these because a friend called me on her cell from Value Village to ask how many of the 14 or 15 plates, bowls and sandwich plates I would take. I took 'em all!
Again, I only have a couple of these - one large plate, one saucer. It's sooooo seventies. Looks like my mom's wallpaper from that time. Called "Olympus".
Ok, this is officially from the "black and brown" group but I'm posting it here anyway, because it got photographed in this batch. I like the pattern but these plates are in poor shape. Someone had a crappy dishwasher or crappy detergent or? There are dark marks on the backs of these plates as if they rubbed on something. Still shiny though. "October".
I think this was the first Kathie Winkle plate I ever got. My husband bought it for me at a thrift shop in Toronto. It wasn't until years later that I noticed the signature and looked up Kathie Winkle on the internet. That was the start of a ... ok, I was going to say "quest" but it's more of a mad obsession, although lately I have been more tempered in my approach. (Ha! that only means I haven't found any lately. I still start every thrift shop visit in the dishes section. And I watch period movies closely during any dinner shots. And I'm documenting my stash...)
I give you, "Viscount".
And this is the same "Viscount" pattern but I am posting it because it is a different shape of sugar bowl from all the others I have. The lid got broken at a mad party we had. The breaker took the lid to "fix it" and it never returned :( so I found an ok replacement at St. Vincent de Paul. I hope some day to find a better fitting one - also it should have a flatter button-like knob. In the meantime it keeps the dust out.
Until next time...
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Elephant
Well, the Drummond Report was delivered today. That's the one that is supposed to get Ontario out of fiscal difficulty. And despite probably a few good ideas (that I haven't seen yet) he didn't even go near the one many of us have been hoping for: eliminating the division of our Public Education system into Public and "Separate" (read: Catholic i.e. religious). (I actually searched the document for the word "Separate" and didn't get a single incidence.)
To his credit, Drummond went for (full disclosure: us) teachers big time (increase class sizes, make the lazy bastards work longer) but he didn't have theb*lls guts to suggest elimination of the parallel publicly funded Separate School System. This duplication of service and competition between two publicly funded entities providing the same service in the same locations is LUDICROUS! Every other province has done away with it. The UN says we shouldn't have it. Yet it remains the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Does anyone fund religiously based schools in this day and age? Besides maybe the Taliban?
In our city we are dealing with fallout from this situation right now. We are faced with the closure of a city public high school due to "declining enrollment" while our city Separate (again, read: Catholic i.e. religious) schools are overcrowded (10+portables at one, a recent multi-million dollar addition to ease overcrowding at the other).
Ok. I'm going to stop ranting about this now before I get really steamed. Let's just say, I need to revisit my happy post from last week. The one with the BEER!
*(Decided to change the title of this post - too sexist before - presuming that testicles are required for making tough decisions. Ha!)
To his credit, Drummond went for (full disclosure: us) teachers big time (increase class sizes, make the lazy bastards work longer) but he didn't have the
In our city we are dealing with fallout from this situation right now. We are faced with the closure of a city public high school due to "declining enrollment" while our city Separate (again, read: Catholic i.e. religious) schools are overcrowded (10+portables at one, a recent multi-million dollar addition to ease overcrowding at the other).
Ok. I'm going to stop ranting about this now before I get really steamed. Let's just say, I need to revisit my happy post from last week. The one with the BEER!
*(Decided to change the title of this post - too sexist before - presuming that testicles are required for making tough decisions. Ha!)
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Reno Update and Nooking
It's been a while since I've updated on our renovation. Much has happened. First the drywall was installed,
And mudded,
And finally, PERFECT. This looks like a blank picture to you, but to me it is a lovely smooth new wall, ready for wallpaper.
Speaking of wallpaper, they gave up on removing the rest and will now wallpaper right over it. Here it is sized and ready to go. (Can you see the strawberries peeking through?)
We are just waiting for the wallpaper to arrive. It's called "Bird On A Wire"(duh).
Meanwhile, I have set up a little nook in the kitchen just for fun. It might be my favourite room in the house right now. Doesn't it look cozy? The perfect spot to curl up with a book.
As long as you don't look up from your book to see the hockey table jammed in with you!
Monday, February 13, 2012
Birthday Boys Part 2
Pin the tails and mosquitos on the (unfortunate) donkey.
Air hokey with the traditional mallard duck at centre ice.
Raised over $200 for mosquito nets - that's 20 nets for 20 families.
Happy Birthday Mr. Li!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Birthday Boys Part 1
Since the boys share a birthday (yep, they are twins), they usually have their birthday celebrations on separate days. Mr. T chose to take a few friends and his brother, Mr. Li, to Toronto for the day. So here is the photostory of Mr. T's birthday tour....
DS tournament in the van driving to T.O.
Still happy driver... but will it last?
Pee break and coffee for the grown-ups...
Followed by lunch - hot dogs...
...and Jamaican patties. Yum!
And then a very chilly walk to the museum with a brief visit to the statues at the library on College St.
Ready to explore the ROM
Hello to the Buddha...
Polar bear attack...
And a bus ride back to the car.
Happy Birthday, Mr. T!
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