Ooh, I just tried clicking on my link, and yeah....that was quite the cut and paste error. Ahem. Glad that didn't work.

Lemme try that again...

[link]

That's pretty. And I like the kitchen from the pictures too.

and yeah....that was quite the cut and paste error. Ahem. Glad that didn't work.

Kinda thought that. Hee.

Today was a really gorgeous day here, all blue sky and sunny (not a common occurrence in February), and so it looked all sunny and happy (but most anything would've). AND you could see how the place had a nice view of the mountains. (OTOH, that was if you looked up. If you looked down, it had a nice view of...the alley and the neighbor's bad bad gravel pit parking area backyard thing). But oh, to wake up in the morning to an east facing window looking out at mountains?

I don't think they were supposed to be folk dances per se but somehow nationally inspired.

I was amused by the "smoking" at the beginning of the can can because it was a French team. In improv games, whenever the suggestion is "French" everyone picks up imaginary cigarettes. (and they work the word 'bourgeoisie' in ASAP) It's a silly convention (improv is full of them) and tends to go to some amusing extreme... the baby is born smoking, the dog is smoking... So I was particularly amused when the French team started with what I think of as the silly indicator stereotype.

I initially felt for the Russian team when people freaked about ::gasp:: BLACKFACE. Because if you're in a culture that a) never had black slaves and b)never invented a bunch of stock "black" characters that white people would dress as in a crude and degrading fashion I don't think we're dealing with something necessarily offensive. It's not artificially darkening skin to look like someone else that's inherently offensive, its the history of it why and how that happened. I don't see how or why a Russian skating team would or should know this. In this regard, I felt for them.

But then they just started swinging wildly. They met with various Canadian tribal leaders (on the 'generic aboriginal' premise), they used some weird mish-mosh music, and they just sort of flailed about in amazingly clunky awkward costumes. Apart from any cultural offense or insensitivity they looked like hell.

In my humble opinion, when teams went with an actual folk dance to actual folk music they did themselves a service. This is a dance and a music that have been working together successfully for how many hundred years. There is something to it. Use that. Duh.

And the two "cowboy" ones... dude, I've been line dancing twice. There was two-step simple enough I could pick up well enough to have fun. You're actual dancers. Throw in some actual two-step. [link] It would look rad on skates. Again, I say "Duh".

Meara, for what it's worth, I DID buy the first house I saw, and it worked out just fine. So it can be done... but do tour some other houses, and try them on mentally before you commit, so you'll know you've done due diligence.

Cute house, meara.

Skipping (sigh) because, according to the Buffista Calendar, today is Laura's birthday.

Happy birthday, Laura! With lots of wishes for a great day and a wonderful year!

Thanks, Nilly! I haven't caught you here in a while. How's married life, and the rest of your busy life?

Happy birthday, Laura!

I skipped a bunch, but will go back. Please imagine my appropriate reactions to everything that has happened since Thursday. I could really have used some more sleep last night, and really have no interest in working today. This should be fun.

Happy Birthday, Laura!

I am choosing to think that the snow we had last night was heavy wet snow because it is really a spring snow not a winter snow.