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Ok, so last time I brought you news about the TC10K, was in April, 2005....the story about the lump, the chump, and the champ. This year, I will not be sleeping through the start, or pushing a stroller down to Fisherman's Park to watch the throng stomp by. I've been running all winter, and am feeling good about the race tomorrow.

Just slipped on my chip, and prepared my kit for the 8 AM start tomorrow. I'll be down there with the old pair of New Balance, and am shooting for a 60 minute race-time. Now, I hear there are 14,000 registrants, and we all know it can get pretty congested out there, so as usual : we'll see what happens....

Should be a busy day in the home bakery here....started the pannetone dough last night, and the aim today is to turn out 4 pannetone. So far so good. Got the candied fruit online this time, soaking in a bath of rum and extracts. Ran out of vanilla, so tossed in extra lemon. Also got 2 loaves of sourdough bread on deck, and I have just been reminded that I am making some sort of cake for dinner tomorrow night. Have just poured the first egg nog latte, and am streaming in the 80s....kiddies have gone down to Empress Hotel for a bit to see the trees....hope Wolfe leaves a few of them standing for everyone else to enjoy.

Don't think I'll have time to squeeze in another batch of shortbread cookies, but have already done 3 batches in the past week. Something went sideways on batches 2 and 3 in that the shapes lost their shape. The cookies spread out on the pan in the oven, so my angels with their pretty wings appeared to have added all this flab around the mid-section, and under the arms. The holly leaves lost their points, and the XMAS trees lost their crisp outline, as if they were laden with a winter's snow. They still taste yummy though.

Thanks so much everyone who donated to my MOvember campaign last month....it looks like our team at UVic raised $2800.00 ! Good stuff, good looks, and a great cause! We had our MOvember wind-up lunch last week on campus, and then various team members proceeded to shave off their MO. I am still with MO, and am a little undecided as to the next steps. I think I will likely shave it off before XMAS, and forge through the winter with the clean-shaven look, not regularly seen since March/2008....

On this Remembrance Day 2009 we link to a site set up by Canada's official war poet.

My Movember campaign is underway, with donations pledged to support this most excellent cause!

Thanks JR!

Ok, I heard about National Novel Writing Month from a colleague at work. Sounds epic, but I am not worthy. There is no WAY I can write a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days. I wish all you hard-core writers all the best at pumping your word-count!

I found out from this blog about National Blog Posting Month just now. That is something I could probably accomplish, but I am clearly off to a late start. I will pitch in what I can for the rest of the month, as I am clearly capable of posting daily, even though I haven't been posting all that often in the past year. This is indeed a challenge!

I can see that convocation is happening, as the graduands are in full and colourful University Regalia, just outside my office. A very exciting time for the degree recipients, and their families! Congrats to all grads....

Parental leave has come to and end, and I returned to work today.

Wow. I see 2 years ago, I managed to blog 5 times in 1 day. Can't really keep up that kind of pace these days, zipping between tasks. Not spending much time at the keys these days, but for checking email.

I have just unloaded Wolfe briefly upstairs with Mommy, and am about to make some breakfast, before zipping out to see the chiropractor. Time for some neck/back tuning.

Yah, was up from 0230 to 0345 with Mr. Change-My-Diaper-and-Teething-Really-Bad. Not too fresh by the time 0600 rolled around, when usually Charlotte or Wolfe want to get up. This morning, Wolfie was full of beans, while Daddy was struggling to make sense of the morning. Oscar helped by rising around 0630 to start barking for breakfast. Thanks, pal. Shut up, and I'll get your num-nums.

Just now getting things cleaned up from breakfast (cream of wheat, with fruit and nuts), and going to head out the door to play-group down in the Village.

Looks like February '09 raced by without a nod to the first post to this site, made back on Feb 1/1999.

...by the chimney with care.....

Charlotte was so excited about doing the stockings that she had to scream and scream and scream about her intentions to get the stockings out.....*sigh*

All you script-kiddies are going need yet another link over to the NORAD Santa web site, so that you can track the jolly old elf around the globe.

Check out all those Google maps! WELL, isn't that NICE! I remember, when I was a boy, there was NO such thing as Google Maps! In fact, there was no such thing as Google! No, there was not even an Internet when I was a boy! No No NO! There was only a radio broadcast that we would tune into on the AM radio...my Mom would tune in the spot where NORAD would scramble the fighter jets to track this mysterious object in the sky...

On my way out the door, Charlotte took great excitement at checking out Daddy in his Santa cap, exclaiming aloud that "Would all the people at work think that Santa had come to work today?"

Of course I wish that I had a big ol' sack of gifts for all my wonderful co-workers and clients, but I am really behind the 8-ball this year as far as gifts go. Sheesh. Just not altogether ready for XMAS, as usual. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

So....busy day at work....2 urgent requests showed up for me, and another for my team-mate. Par for the course this year, I would say.....for here we were on XMAS eve, putting out a few flames....no rest for the wicked, they say..../

So, this year, here is where we are at : I got some lights up outside, some icicle lights along the fence. Made it all the way along the side and front, before running out of lights - need one more strand! That is good that I got some lights up. A personal accomplishment to file with my monthly report.

Did some XMAS shopping starting last weekend, and finishing today. Ahhh, yes, so nice!

Justine and the kids went out a couple of weeks ago and got a XMAS tree with Momo and Poppi from the rugby club. Nice to have a tree sale just up at the corner. Charlotte did hand-made XMAS tree decorations, to give the tree that kids-did-it-at-home feel....you know, so classic and sweet!

Oscar has recently had his bells on too. Turns out that we misplaced his collar and tags, so I have recently been taking him out for an occasional walk with the backup-collar, his XMAS-bells collar. Yup. ring-a-ding-ding, here comes me and my DOG....

The gang is cooking up a bit of a feast here, so that is nice, as I am hungry. I skipped lunch to work on a final-grades-submission issue.

Dinner is going to be served any moment now....so I've got to hurry-hurry and get this text laid in....tap tap tap.....

Yes, that is like what this is, this certain loss of expressive ability. What happened to that voice? Swallowed up somehow, or lost in space ? I've always thought it was like a one-way conversation....to write here, as if in discussion.....but now it's like the speaker isn't speaking, so the writer isn't writing.

Except off-line. Huge volumes of ink, onto paper. I keep my journal with me at all times now.

I have to come up with something, for this is XMAS Eve! An annual tradition is for something to appear, on this blog, on this day.....

I know I can come up with something, for the XMAS spirit is here. Perhaps the spirit of my father is here somewhere.....the shadows of XMAS past appear longer this year....

Let me see what I can do.....

I am reading with some glee, the items listed under today's archive. They are really worth a second read....

1 year ago, and 2 years ago, and 3 years ago

I wish I could still write like that.....but I fear I have lost my voice...

Happy Birthday to me.

Last weekend we celebrated my birthday, and it was nice to have festive times up in Cowichan Bay, where Mom sliced me up some of Thrifty's yummy chocolate-fudge cake!

Then, down at home in Victoria, we had Thrifty's fruit and whip-cream cake....very yummy again!

I attended Stan Pimlott's memorial service on Saturday, up in Duncan. Stan and Dad used to work together on the Mainland, and then on the Island, after Stan moved over to start working for the gang at K&R Foods. Lots of grocery folks in attendance at the service, so saw lots of familiar faces.

...the thing that bums me out a bit though is that I have so MUCH content that I want to put out here. I like to approach this space with some creative-writing intent, and while creative-moments are getting a little hard to come by these busy days, I have no shortage of content to pull from....yeah, and there are sooooo many stories I want to tell here....just need to find a way to get in the zone.....this time-slot between 10 PM and 11 PM is OK, as everyone is usually in bed, me included. Tonight is a bit different, and I find myself online, but I actually am quite bagged,,,so think I will turn in....

When the kids are asleep, I should be asleep....

Just finished filling my journal today. Always a nice accomplishment. I have resurrected my inner-dialogue in the form of the journaling exercise that I abandoned a few years ago. Intermittent efforts to restart never really succeeded until this year. Turns out I have a lot on my mind, and some of it is only revealed when I put pen to paper. An interesting thing has been happening lately with some of the personal writings, with a sense of discovery that was not there before. I'm going to go and find another journal, and keep going.....I find that I do a lot of writing on the bus in the morning on the way to work. That time-slot is nice, because I am generally quite alert, and I have approx. 40 minutes to kill on the trip up to campus.

I'm not publishing that much online these days.....and my inner-voice is definitely not my web-voice. I'm not likely to publish any of that stuff online, I'll periodically surface here when I need to get something out there.....

All the short stories are sitting in a pile. Or two. A pile of ideas left in the back of my mind. A pile of notes I took and left somewhere in my stack of journals. A pile of feelings that have yet to be churned for narrative value. More than a pile or two? An academic exercise that I thought was complete. The stories not told, or those stories only exposed to a very small audience. A reader or two. All the writings. The writing down of the bones. Even the writing down of the flesh. Just left sitting there........

And what to do with them now? The possibilities are endless.....

Lesson Plan: to make it real, I have to write it down. Somewhere. Write it down somwhere. I remember the transition from hard-copy to soft. The stroke of the pen was so real. So manual. From such a young age. The final copy was not in dispute. It was there, in blue ink, from the left hand. The times changed. The transition onto the keys was more than physical. The connection between the pen and the mind was no longer there, but the mind and hands were still connected. To feel the words come out and see them bounce off the screen. For immediate consumption, reflection, and modification, in near-real time.

To what degree will the editor constrict the flow ? What form does the resistance take.....?

The constricted flow has stopped me. But not here.

The tears are flowing through the words....