Cat vs Internet - The Oatmeal

For my cat loving friends....

Cat vs Internet - The Oatmeal

S'it Siri says

We were having dinner last night with Patty and Terry at The Tropical Island...always a good meal and they certainly do well. Great company too!

Terry told us about these sites that people send in funny and interesting comments that the iPhone 4S "Siri" comes up with. It's pretty sassy. Trust Apple to do a cool voice recognition/artificial intelligence thing.

Some examples

How could I resist ordering this book?

I'm a total sucker for the words "Paris" and "Provence" but also a title with a sense of humour...! Brilliant. I doubt there is another cookbook in the world that plays the difficulty angle.

A review:
"Shaskin and Craft gives us a travelogue of their adventures, seasoned with can-do recipes and 'not to missed' places to experience while in France.
Charming, amusing and thought provoking... If going to Paris or Provence this is a must read. If you're not to going to France, this really is a must read."

They have a website as well:

Free Paris Travel Guide By Travel Experts | Paris Insiders Guide

More Haiku

I was also reminded that Jody Paterson who does a column in the Times Colonist mentioned writing a haiku a day as a personal journal. I took a look at it and it's quite neat.

Jody's Daily Haiku

俳句

These are the Japanese characters for the word, haiku. Most people will remember this three line poem in a 5-7-5 syllable pattern from school. I found my students generally enjoyed writing haiku. In Japan, the poem is usually about nature but elsewhere anything goes really. I was quite interested to see that NYC has created a number of traffic warnings in haiku illustrated with a graphic. I thought this was a pretty cool way of getting a message across!



Curbside Haiku: New York City Department of Transportion in Collaboration with artist John More.

More at:

Daniel Pink | NYT and WSJ Bestselling Author of Drive

Some nice comfy shoes at a reasonable price....

Price: $1,035.00 US

I guess I was reading the Telegraph online and got into this website somehow.

High Heels | Women's Designer High Heels | My-Wardrobe.com

Itty bitty book review: "The Sense of an Ending"

"The Sense of an Ending" by Julian Barnes

I was annoyed when this novel which is really a novella won the Booker over Half-Blood Blues but I take it all back now that I've read it. It is short but very engaging and makes you think. I almost never re-read books but I almost feel like re-reading it right now!

Dinner with the Springs and the Poys

We had a lot of laughs last night and I'm glad Fern got a good photo. Once again I didn't get any good photos...I think it's because I'm quickly trying to get a photo or two and serve dinner etc. Well, that will be my excuse...


John, Jim, Don, Carole

Cats....you've got to love them!

Don sent this today...very funny!

The Whole Beast

On Friday after lunch I introduced Heather to The Whole Beast and The Village Butchers. She bought some ground lamb and I couldn't resist taking this photo of a t-shirt they had on sale. We both got a laugh out of it but the humour wouldn't be to everyone's taste....

Sun, sun...wonderful sun!

Aruba

Well, not as warm as Aruba where Susan is at the moment with her friend but we can't complain too much with our current weather. We had Chris over for dinner last night and seems Susan is having a wonderful time. Chris brought over some very nice New Zealand wine. We had the Pinot Noir last night and will look forward to the Sauvignon Blanc. Some of his friends were there recently and had a nice time touring vineyards by bicycle. There is a an area where you can visit a vineyard, sample some wine, have a nosh, then cycle not too far to the next one and on it goes. Sounds like a very civilized way to do wine tasting!

Christmas lights in London - Christmas in London 2011 - Time Out London

Christmas comes very early in downtown London and last year we were thrilled to be there in early November for the light up of Regent's Street and many others. I think it's a preferable way to encourage shopping than this craziness of the US "Black Friday" when consumerism goes wild.

Christmas lights in London - Christmas in London 2011 - Time Out London

Itty bitty book review: "The Sisters Brothers"

"The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick deWitt

Well, a "western" didn't really interest me but I felt I had to give it a try given all the publicity, being nominated for four major prizes and winning two of them. I must say I did enjoy it and felt it lived up to its billing. I'm a sucker for black humour but it's more than that although liberal doses of that thrown in. Not surprised that the film rights have already been
sold to actor John C. Reilly's production company in a major deal, with Reilly to play one of the brothers. One look at Reilly's mug and you can certainly see why he would be able to play one of the brothers...guess he'll probably play the "good" one but maybe not.



And I learned about something new...book trailers. Seems like a good idea except that if I saw the book trailer to The Sisters Brothers I think it would have turned me against reading the book! Probably an author reading from the book would be the biggest hook for me especially if the author answered a few typical audience questions.

"Book Trailers

The newest way to promote your book is with video! These videos are called Book Trailers. They are similar to a movie trailer, in that they are designed to build interest in an upcoming or current novel and to encourage people to buy the book that they are based on.

The main difference is that a movie trailer already has visual images to work with - clips from the film. With a book trailer, the maker (either the author themselves or a professional videographer) has to convert the written words into visual images. The trick is to convey a sense of what the book is about without giving anything away - and without really clearly defining what the characters look like, as most readers prefer to visualize what they are reading about as they imagine it themselves.

Most book trailers run from one to three minutes. They can be anything from the author reading a passage from the book, to an elaborate mini-movie."


Book trailer for "The Sisters Brothers"

CityHub Victoria

I'm not quite sure how I learned of this site but I really like the concept and enjoy exploring services in Victoria in this way. I think it's quite new.

CityHub Victoria

More Buddies Toys...

What I liked about these "toys" is that one is geared to boys and one to girls even though girls are more likely to want to make cupcakes. Great the boys are encouraged with the pirate theme. Richard was so crazy about pirates at some point that he would have done anything that had that theme.



Groovy Girls
I wasn't a doll person but I think I would have loved these. They also seem much better than the Barbie option


Boysterous Boys
Action figures for boys that aren't all about guns and stuff...great!

Children's Art from the TC weather page

Birthday Post Nov 19 has some new photos

John did manage to fix up a some of the photos so they are now posted along with the others. Thanks, John, I know you didn't have much to work with!

Book Creator for iPad Makes E-Book Publishing Easy | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

I'm having a lot of fun with this iPad app that allows you to create iBooks. This just might turn out to be as much fun as blogging!

Book Creator for iPad Makes E-Book Publishing Easy | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

Itty bitty book review: "In the Woods"

"In the Woods" by Tana French

Yeah...a new mystery writer that has some promise. Thanks to Claire for the recommendation. This is a debut novel and at 500 odd pages rather long. It was still pretty good and I look forward to more and hope subsequent novels are edited more. It did drag a bit in places...not good for a mystery.

I also was thrilled when the new Laurie R. King Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes novel came available from my holds. Unfortunately a disappointment and didn't finish it. Perhaps this series has run out of steam. Great thing about King is she writes the Kate Marinelli series and then just writes thriller type books that don't fit any series. Great idea not to be locked into a detective forever....smart lady! The best thing about the book was the cover...

Buddies Toys

I love our local toyshop "Buddies Toys" and always enjoy getting their Christmas flyer.


"Interactive World Globe. Touch the wireless pen to play games and explore amazing facts about the world in four languages." I would have loved this!


"No more time spent thinking up good charades." Gee, I thought THAT was part of the fun...


Sno-baller. "Makes perfect snowballs every time. Eliminates cold wet hands. No more soggy mittens!" Give me a break...you'd have to be a complete wimp to want to use this! One other item was a "Sno-Brick Maker"...ideal for all neighbourhood snow fort and igloo building endeavours." Now, that was something I could have used.


"Contains a whoopee cushion, magic ink, nail through finger, snappy chewing gum, pet poop, and squirt ring." Darn, I've already bought Don's present!

Moonlight on the Grove...

Patty and I were out for lunch the other day and she brought me a couple of these lovely teas. We had been talking about teas and discovered that the ingredient I really like but didn't know what it was is "bergamote"...who knew? And that afternoon I sat in my sunroom basked in the sun, read a good mystery, and sipped Moonlight on the Grove. Wonderful!

Thanks, chere amie!

And now, "Ian the 5 year old wonder" predicts the future....

"I predict that in the Year 2011 when I turn 70 years old I will have a birthday party with a Mr. Bean cake...yes...yes...you don't know who Mr. Bean is but you will....trust my predictive powers!"

Thanks Monique, Tim and Mary for joining us last night to celebrate Ian's birthday and for the great presents and cards. A special thanks to Kate who made the Mr. Bean cake...it is really the only photo that turned out! (I have asked John to see if he can perform miracles on the dreadful photos I took so more photo may be coming...)


Ian and Jim looking at some old family photos before the guests arrive.



The cake!


Ian and Monique


Mary and Tim

Happy 70th Birthday, Ian!

All the best, Ian, on this milestone birthday and looking forward to celebrating tonight!

How things went afowl between two good friends...

A Christmas treat for lovers of mysteries and Jane Austen

'I thought it would be enjoyable to revisit the characters in Pride and Prejudice and to create a really original, exciting, credible detective story at the same time'
P.D. James

Good on P.D.! I can't wait to read it. It's being released Dec 6 and you can pre-order on Amazon.ca

Set six years after the conclusion of Pride and Prejudice, the novel finds Elizabeth and Darcy happily ensconced at Pemberley: tending to the estate and its tenants, delighting in their two young sons, deeply in love. Jane and Bingley live just 30 miles away, Mrs Bennet remains at a conveniently inconvenient distance, and all is highly felicitous – until the night when a carriage careens out of the wind-lashed darkness and disgorges Elizabeth's wayward sister, Lydia, screaming that her husband, the nefarious Wickham, is dead. The result is a murder trial in which the Darcys find themselves inextricably entangled and which threatens their present happiness and future security.




A life in writing: PD James | Culture | The Guardian:

A wonderful November day...

What an absolutely gorgeous day again and can't resist one last photo of the stunning leaves. Swimming and lunch at the Grand Pacific with the sunshine streaming in. One of the head honchos at the hotel came by to chat and looked longingly at our red wine and pizza (we began with calamari...our signature dish everywhere). Yes...life is good.

Itty bitty book review: "Snowdrops"

Snowdrops" by A.D. Miller

A first novel by someone who studied literature at Cambridge and Princeton and who writes for The Economist. He was the magazine's Moscow correspondent from 2004-2007, travelling widely across Russia and the former Soviet Union.

While it has been called a "thriller" it's really more of a subtle slow moving mystery where the reader gets a wonderful picture of modern Russia with all its decadence and corruption. Quite fascinating.

And I did love an old babusha's comment that "while she minded that the people in charge spent half their time stealing, there was no real point in putting new people in the Kremlin, because they'd just start stealing all over again. And at least the ones in there now were already rich, so they could afford to think about other things too sometimes."

A good read.

Vis a Vis :: Wine & Charcuterie Bar :

We went to Vis a Vis with Chris and Susan Friday and had a great time. No tables were ready but it was fun to sit at the bar and watch the action. Then we got the table Tony Parsons and his wife were sitting at. He was all dressed up looking like he was ready to read the news..

Vis �Vis :: Wine & Charcuterie Bar :: Menus

Remembrance Day

Vimy Ridge Memorial

"But the freedom that they fought for, and the country grand they wrought for, Is their monument to-day, and for aye." -Thomas Dunn English

Taken on the way to the mailbox with my iphone

This is really an amazing time of year and even more amazing than usual. Colours are brighter because of the sunshine, less rain, and cooler temperatures coming quickly according to a recent newspaper article. So, I wasn't just imagining that the colours were brighter this year!