One Thing Leads to Another....

Back last October I tore up the stained old indoor/outdoor carpet in the sunroom, and it looked like this:

But as there's no heat in the sunroom in the winter, it stayed looking like that. Can't glue carpet down in the freezing cold. Finally, the weather is warm enough to get the carpet people in.

And here is the finished product. I'm very pleased with it. (Just in case you are wondering, the bottle is there to hold the glass door open.) But unfortunately the electric staple gun was a bit too powerful for my electrical wiring and it blew a breaker in the basement panel. I went to the panel to reset the switch but......

........ it turned out not to be the breaker, but something had come adrift in the wall as half of the circuit was working and half was dead as a doornail. So, next step.... call an electrician. And worry until he arrives. And this is the result.

He's located the problem... a home wiring job gone horribly wrong in the switch for the laundry room lights and he's been here most of the day fixing it. He even found a couple of loose wires in the panel that I wasn't aware of. Hooray! But I know it's going to cost me mega$$$$.

Later: The lights are working again and the financial damage wasn't too bad, but now I have a big hole in the wall to repair and paint! As I said before, one thing leads to another....

Love & Friendship, Chinese Style

I am a frequent volunteer at our local small Centre for Arts and Entertainment. This weekend I was handing out programs and seeing guests to their seats for "Love and Friendship", the 2010 Chinese Dance Recital.

The Canadian Chinese Folk Dance Group has been in existence in neighbouring Markham since 1989 and promotes Chinese heritage and culture to the many children of Chinese ethnicity who have been adopted by non-Chinese Canadian families. I got involved with this event as my Tai Chi instructor is one of the dance teachers.

Little Dai Peacocks dance. Some of the little girls are as young as 3 and 4.

Above... the Dai Water Festival dance.
And below.... Ice Fairies. So sweet.


I lost track of the names of the dances, but I think this might be the Prosperity Dance.

During the next dance, one of the tiniest dancers accidently caught sight of Mummy in the audience and her little face crumpled into tears. "Mummyyyy!" she wailed and dashed into the audience to sit on her mother's knee. The other little dancers carried on with their routine as though nothing unusual had occurred. What troupers!

Below... the Mongolian Prairie Horse Riders dance consisted mostly of vigourous galloping around the stage.

And lastly a Celebration of Love and Friendship and a Tribute to Mothers. It was Mother's Day. And there were a lot of very proud mothers, fathers and grandparents in the audience.


As a finale, each little dancer each was given a pink rose from this gorgeous display and ran into the audience to present the rose to her mother.

What a great way to spend Mother's Day!

Snow in May!

The month of April in this corner of Canada has been glorious.... warm summerlike temperatures and spring flowers and leaves bursting forth a couple of weeks earlier than usual. It's been Tshirts and shorts weather.
But May so far? Hmmm... it's been nothing but torrents of rain, strong winds, sleet, hail, and this morning I woke up to the "S word".... yes, that "S word"..... S.N.O.W!

Not a couple of feet of snow, like they are enduring a couple of hundred k north of here, but S.N.O.W nontheless! And in the merry month of May too! It shouldn't be allowed.

Of couse I went outside in my jammies with my camera and froze my toes.

Perhaps this is what is meant by frozen rhubarb.

--o--o--o--o--o--

And I'd like to wish all you mums out in blogland a Happy Mother's Day. Enjoy your breakfast in bed, the bouquets of flowers, the chocolates, the hugs from your children, the special lunch, the dinner with the family, whatever and however you celebrate. Mothers are very special people. Enjoy your special day!

Show's Over, Folks!

Music Mania is over for another year... the 50th year to be exact.

I'm happy to get back to doing normal everyday chores, like cutting the grass and weeding the flower beds. And every time the phone rings, it isn't someone wanting show tickets, or asking about costumes, or scheduling a rehearsal.
And yet.... I'm sorry it's over. It's a lot of fun and we certainly do become a "Music Mania Family" after planning the show since last summer, and rehearsing song, dance and comedy since January.
We'll be staging a Christmas show in December. Last year our Christmas show was a huge success so I'd better start thinking snowflakes and elves.

And on a completely unrelated note.... it's Star Wars Day today.
May the Fourth be with you!

Solid Gold

I've been a very remiss blogger for the past couple of weeks, but I have a really good excuse.
Our annual Variety show has kept me busy with rehearsals and as I was crazy enough to take on the role of Producer this year, I've had numerous extra duties.
In 2010 the local variety show known as Music Mania has been entertaining the people of this town for 50 years! That's right, we are celebrating our Golden Anniversary with our SOLID GOLD show. Pretty good record for a small town variety show.

We've had letters of congratulations from the Mayor, and our local Provincial and Federal Members of Parliament. And the Mayor has proclaimed this week to be "Music Mania Week".

Of course, with a Golden Anniversary show, lots of gold sparkle is compulsory!

I'm in one dance number.... Step in Time... from Mary Poppins. What a grand bunch of chimney sweeps. And so clean! Aren't chimney sweeps supposed to be all black and sooty?

These lovely "ladies" had the audience howling with their Fan Dance. Beauty Queens, each one.

The cannibal skit..... of course, there just has to be a cannibal skit...

.... and no Canadian variety show could be complete without a brave Mountie and a beautiful Indian Princess.

We performed a free show for seniors and hospital patients on Tuesday night, and shows on Thursday and Friday nights to large enthusiastic and noisy audiences. Two more shows today (Saturday, matinee and evening) and then it's all over for another year.

It's a great week, I love it, but I'm always relieved when it's all over and normal life can resume. And in a couple of weeks it will be time to start planning for the 51st show.

The Unicorn

Every Saturday morning in April around 10:00am, cars start arriving in my driveway. People carrying pots of paint, brushes, large sheets of cardboard and styrofoam start filing into my garage and workshop.
It's Music Mania Variety Show time again.... and this year the blacklight number is "The Unicorn" recorded by The Irish Rovers back in the 1960s.... or was it the 70s? Remember the words?

A long time ago, when the Earth was green
There was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen
They'd run around free while the Earth was being born
And the loveliest of all was the unicorn.

There was green alligators and long-necked geese
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born
The loveliest of all was the unicorn.

This morning the artists took over the whole garage, creating these images with fluorescent paint, so they will glow in the UV light when the theatre is in darkness. This part of the show is a favourite with the kids, of course!

In addition to these props, there's also a huge styrofoam ark. All these props will be transported to the local High School auditorium, where we'll be putting on the show at the end of April. We've been rehearsing the various elements of the show since January, so now we have a couple of weeks to put it all together.
We may not be quite up to the singin'n'dancin' standard of Glee, but we certainly try!

Puppysitting Weekend

The weather has been just like summer all weekend and it's only the first week of April! Last year at this time we were still bundled into winter coats and boots. But for the past few days it's been teeshirts and sandals!

YoungerSon and The Bride and Isaac spent Easter weekend with The Bride's family, so I got to puppysit Tessa for three days. It was perfect this morning for a long walk through York Regional Forest.

We took the main trail through Eldred King Woodlands, heading towards the pond.

It turned out that a lot of other people had the same idea. When we got to the pond there must have been at least 15+ dogs of every imaginable size, shape and colour, all chasing sticks and each other. Tessa willingly joined in all the fun, happily braving the cold water to retrieve as many sticks as I wanted to throw for her.
She made friends with Hamish (golden retriever) and Bruno (black lab) and they played chase for ages, diving into the pond to cool off every time they got too hot.

Then I had to take a stinky wet dog home in my nice clean car.

"What, Nana? We have to go home now? Can't I stay and chase Hamish and Bruno a bit longer? Pleeeeese?"