Random thoughts

All sorts of things to talk about today ...

First off, if you're Canadian, you can finally sign up for Canada's Do Not Call list. As of this morning, you're supposed to be able to go here to sign up. But it's past noon as I write this and the page still isn't on line. Hmmph. You can also call by phone - 1-866-580-DNCL (3625). As I blogged about before, you'll still get calls though from charities, political parties, polling companies, newspapers selling subscriptions, and companies you've already done business with. Still, at least it'll eliminate the lawn companies, window and door salesmen and those pesky "you've just won a free vacation" callers from Blue Mountain and Florida.

***

I apologize if I haven't commented on your blog lately. I've been buried in editing Sam's story and preparing for the conference. But I will be making the rounds and hope to catch up in the next couple days because ... Tada ... I just subbed Personal Protection (aka Sam's Story) to my editor today. I emailed Wylie earlier today asking if it gets any easier because OMG I'm so nervous about it. But I figured if I held onto it any longer I'd start changing things from good to bad.

***

And finally, I thought I'd leave you with some more photos. A guy in a kilt. (Actually there were two guys, but one shifted as I took the picture.) Complete outfit, right down to the sgian dhu (knife) in his sock.

(They were both bright red heads, by the way.)

And some "men in red" at the National Memorial service. And as I'm going through the photos, I've realized almost all the guys are shot from the back. Hmmph. Wonder if that's Freudian.


And just for fun ...

More pics from Ottawa

Fall is here unfortunately. But the colors of the trees on our trip to Ottawa were gorgeous, one of the few benefits of knowing months of winter lie ahead. Mother Nature's way of softening us up, I suppose.


One way that Gizmo Guy rates a town is by the quality of its chip trucks. Yeah, so we're not a high class family. Since he did a lot of travelling in previous jobs, he had one marked out along Highway 7 that he knew we HAD to stop at. So we did. Both there and back. I have to admit, he was right.



Chip and Dale's Chip Truck, somewhere west of Kaladar. All right, technically it's a bus. But they had great chips, huge orders of poutine, delicious hamburgers, and the BEST home made dessert I've had in a long time.



Two really large home made oatmeal cookies with white chocolate chunks pressed around a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum!

The next night we went completely to the opposite end of the culinary scale and dined at Mamma Grazzi's, one of Gizmo Guy's favorite Italian restaurants in the Byward Market. The picture in the header of their webpage? That's exactly where we sat! And on the picture below? Look for the dark arched windows of the lower section of the building - by the sign. It's a lovely intimate restaurant where they:

provide an ‘al momento’ cooking philosophy which means that each pasta, pizza and entrée is prepared individually to order.

Yum again! Great service, good food and an excellent white house wine.


I had the 'Odessa' .. Linguine with grilled chicken, mushrooms, roasted red peppers & chili peppers. I'm definitely having to go back on the treadmill for a few years to walk off the food I ate this weekend.

As for the conference? I'm still winding down ... so here's one of the few pictures that turned out. It's five of the guest speakers - Molly O'Keefe, Kelley Armstrong, Sharon Page, Jo Beverly and Opal Carew.



More pictures tomorrow. I figure I've bogged down your systems enough for today.

They are our heroes, we shall not forget them

While I was finishing up at the Ottawa Conference this morning, Gizmo Guy attended the 31st National Police and Peace Officers' Memorial Service on Parliament Hill.

This service is held to honor the police and peace officers who have died in the line of duty each year. This year two police officers made the ultimate sacrifice: Constable Douglas A. Scott, 20, of the RCMP, Nunavut, and Constable Christopher J. Worden, 30, RCMP, North West Territories.

They are our heroes ... We shall not forget them ...

Back but exhausted

Yup, this is the same place as last Friday's photo, just three years later, and at night. Cool how the Eternal Flame suddenly has color, isn't it?

I have a lot to blog about - tons of pictures, though not many of them from the conference itself, dang it all.

Why?

Unfortunately, I decided to take Gizmo Guy's 'spare' digital camera with me, instead of the one I usually use. I THOUGHT it would be better since it's smaller than mine - actually fits inside my purse - and has a higher pixel count. BIG BIG mistake. I took lots of pictures but most of the ones at the conference did not turn out well. They're grainy and awful even though the flash went off. My pictures of Molly O'Keefe and Kelley Armstrong? If either lady are looking for pictures of themselves that make them look like they belong in a paranormal world, they can contact me. Poor Kelley's photo makes her look like a ... well, I'm not sure, but her eyes sure are freaky. Almost vampirish.

See what I mean? Grainy. Orange. Yuck. Unfortunately most of my pictures of the speakers turned out that way. And the other ones I took of Ottawa itself? Most of them are blurry because the danged camera is so small, the slightest breath shakes the camera and blurs the image. Lesson learned, I'm never taking Gizmo Guy's spare camera again.

Anyway, I promised Julia I'd get some pictures of Jo Beverly for her. The one below is of Jo giving the key note speech during the luncheon on Saturday. Ms. Beverly is witty and droll, just like I'd always pictured her. Guess it's that English sensibility that I'm used to.


Here's a better one for you, Julia, since you asked. And yes, I told her all about you.

I'm still ploughing through my email - the hotel charged $10 + tax a day for internet connection. And caused me a huge panic when my laptop decided to keep rebooting. I'd been worrying all week about having to pitch and decided to get up at 4 a.m. Saturday morning to prepare. Naturally enough that's when my laptop decided to 'f-up'. So I panicked and whined from 4 a.m. until 7:30 a.m. when Gizmo Guy finally realized the wireless thingy was screwing up looking for a wireless connection that didn't exist. Once I flipped off the wireless button, it was okay.

So I'll post more photos tomorrow (of the ones that turned out) Some that I took at the conference, and some that Gizmo Guy took of Ottawa itself. Yesterday we saw a Mountie Wedding on the steps of Parliament Hill - lots of hunky guys in red uniforms surrounding a beautiful bride. Today GG took photos of the 31st annual National Police Officers and Peace Officers Memorial Day.

And I'll also post pictures of our two favorite places to eat. That are at total opposite ends of the spectrum.

All my bags are NOT packed

I'm going to be away Friday through Monday while I'm at the Ottawa Romance Writers' Sweet and Spicy conference. As is usual for higher priced hotels, the internet is not free. I won't know how much access I'll have until I'll get there, but even so I imagine I'll be pretty busy anyway. I'm taking my camera, so hopefully when I return I'll have a few pictures of Jo Beverly, Sharon Page, Kelley Armstrong, Michele Ann Young, and a host of others who are going to be there.

I've still got to get my Nissan lubed/oiled and filtered so it'll be up to the drive, not to mention a couple of other (dozen) errands to run. Heck I'm not even packed yet. Why am I so unprepared? Because I'm still working on my pitch for Harlequin. Since I've been so immersed in Sam's story lately (tentatively titled Personal Protection), I'd actually forgotten the names of the characters to the Harlequin story. Sacre Bleu!

So I pull up the manuscript and start reading. Michael! That's right. And Beth! Ah, yes, now I remember. And Michael's younger brother Ben as a secondary character.

As I'm reading through it, refreshing my memory, I discover the word "wainBening". Huh? Ah. Right. When I first started writing the story, Ben had been named Scott. When I did a Find and Replace All, I forgot to check off the 'whole words only' box, and hence "wainscotting" became "wainBening".

I'm going to have to keep a list of my typos. Some of them are hilarious.

Ever had a strange word pop up in your manuscript that made you go huh?

Yeow

It's been a running around day. I had all sorts of errands to do around town today, both for Guitar Hero and myself. Dry cleaners, dentist, banking, groceries, etc. I went out this evening and bought myself a pretty little clutch purse so I wouldn't have to tote anything more than my business cards and hotel key around Friday night. You'd think considering I've been married 30 years, I'd have one nice little evening bag tucked away somewhere. Nope. Never owned one before. So I splurged.

And after indulging myself on that, I ducked into a place to have my eyebrows waxed. Now I've had that done enough that it doesn't hurt - much. But when the girl asked me if I wanted my lip done, I shook my head and said no thanks, not this time. I guess she decided it needed doing anyway, because before I could blink she coated my upper lip in hot wax and applied the cloth. When she ripped that sucker off, I think BlueSue could hear me screech down in Texas. (No, not really, I didn't even whimper. But I sure as heck WANTED to. Especially after I'd said no right at the start. But once that wax was on, I had no idea how they could get it off without going through with it.) Two hours later and my upper lip is still numb, but at least I don't look like someone punched me the way I did.

Golden Girl

Whew, I've been running around trying to get ready for the conference this weekend and panic is starting to set in. It's not as if it's Nationals, but it's the first conference I've gone to this year, and the last since Nationals last year. Silly me, I've known I'd be going for months now, but of course got distracted and left everything to this week. Typical.

I decided I need a new purse and a new pair of shoes, but can't find anything I like. At least my appointment with the hair dressers' today went well, although the highlights I had her do came out a lot lighter than they did last time and now I have golden hair, which Gizmo Guy says is the color it used to go when I was out in the sun when I was younger. Hmm, not sure how to take that. I guess that's a compliment. Especially from someone who generally looks at me and hmms and haws finally announcing "he'd get used to it."

Unfortunately my pitch preparations are not going so well. I've got the story. I've got goal, motivation AND conflict. But to have to make it exciting and unique and ... there's the challenge. And the nerves are starting to set in.

Especially since the crits on Sam's story are still rolling in. Too much going on in too short a time period. Life seems to be all or nothing right now. So if my posts are sporadic this week, just know I'm busier than a one armed paper hanger.

Weekend update

On the home front, it's been fairly quiet. Curly is bummed because their XBox 360 has broken down yet again. This is their third unit in eighteen months, and is a brand new replacement that's less than a month old. How can a company stay in business when it creates a product so inherently flawed? Sheesh.

Gizmo Guy is happily ensconced in his La-Z-Boy watching the Ryder Cup, so I've been working on the edits on Sam's Story I've received from Wylie and BlueSue. OMG, it's coming together, and I'm SO happy with it. I just hope my editor will like it as much when I submit it. *fingers crossed*

I've written a two and a half page synopsis and will have to look at it next to make sure it's smooth. I'm just hung up on a 100 word or so 'hooky' paragraph for its start. Oh, and Wylie and Dani and Sue have all suggested some good titles, now I just have to make up my mind and choose one. Decisions, decisions.

And ... here's where my heart races and palms sweat ... I received my confirmation for the Ottawa Romance Writers' Sweet and Spicy Conference next weekend. Along with the appointment time for my pitch session with Brenda Chin of Harlequin Blaze. Yikes! Pitching in person again. Time to break out my index cards and list off my characters' GMC for that manuscript I wrote back in May. At least I now have a publishing credit to add to my name.

Your Toddler's Christmas Wish

When Curly was young, a talking Barney was the big "have to have toy". Gizmo Guy and I were ready to toss that big purple dinosaur out the window as more often than not, when we'd check on Curly before we went to bed, Barney would have fallen off the bed and we'd step on the darn thing and he'd start talking. There's nothing more scarey than Barney talking to you in a dark room. *shudder*

Well. Until now.

First off, can you imagine the batteries this guy's going to use? Secondly, do kids really need their toys to entertain them like this? What happened to letting them use their imagination?

And I hate to say this, as cute as Elmo is, does anyone else find this toy a little ... creepy?

Whole new Vistas ...

... and I'm not referring to Mr. Gate's terrifying program.

Having finished the major edits on Sam's story yesterday, I gave myself some down time today.

I spent the morning researching book trailers, listening to different types of music that would suit Private Property. But I figured I'd have to get my youngest who is in Media Arts at school and has produced his own videos to make the trailer for me.

HAHA! I was WRONG!

Curly showed me Windows Movie Maker and this evening in the space of an hour or so, I imported some pictures (generic so far), a sound track, and added some text, and voila - a book trailer!

Okay, so now I have to go search out some appropriate photos - 5 or 6 should be more than enough, an appropriate royalty-free soundtrack, and away I go. All I'll have to do now is switch out the photos which is a 10 minute job at most.

I can't wait until I get it all finalized. Oh, and I added a count-down timer to the blog over on the right there ... four months and counting ...

Hehehehee!

Whew!

I typed those six little letters on Sam's story today. The End.

Oh, the first draft has been done for ages, but I'd had scenes that I knew I wanted to rework and tweak and now I finally feel comfortable that I've told Sam's story in a creditable fashion. The final wordcount is 72,465. A tad over the 60K I figured it would take. So now I'm about to send my baby to wing its way through the electrical network to my crit partners. Who will tear it apart. Gently I hope. *whimper*

Slogging through Monday

I finished reading the 311 pages of Sam's story and let it sit for the weekend. I've spent today trying to plug the changes over from the hard copy to the computer. (I'm finding it very frustrating that even with my second pair of special distance glasses, I'm still seeing text amazingly similar to the chart to the left where text is 'ghosting'.) So the whole process has been a real slog. But I'm happy with it. When I let myself be.

Next challenge? Sam deserves a proper title for his story. Gizmo Guy has been playing with various ideas and emailing me with them but nothing's really hit me yet. Since the first story is Private Property, I had it in my head it should be Public something or other. But I want to stay away from another title starting with P as I figure it may be too confusing for readers. So while I was reading through all those pages on Friday, and again today, I've been looking to see if there are any phrases buried within the text that jump out at me. Um, nope. Other than 'thumbs up' which I use a few times, but really? That's not an appropriate title for this story. Although, Amy might point out that it's got a double entendre all its own. Wylie says it'll come on its own, and most likely at 2 a.m. I hope so. And I hope it comes soon.


Sony Reader update:

Samhain books are now available on the Sony Reader. Happy Dance, since I can't buy them on a not-yet-available-in-Canada Kindle. Another reason I have to love my little gift from Gizmo Guy. And I gave it a thumbs down at first. Shame on me.

Leah does Dallas

Remember a photograph I took in Dallas last year was entered in a contest? I just heard back from the contest - my picture was selected. Here! ! People downloading a map to Dallas to their iPhone will now see Leah Braemel's name! (Of course, there's quite a few other photos there, and they have to be looking to stay at the Hyatt Regency, but still!

Want to check it out to how it'll look on an iPhone? Go here!

I'm now officially famous (yeah,yeah, ... in my own mind.)

Not a "Green" day

Woohoo! I finished the major edits on Sam's story yesterday. So I decided to print it off today and go through it with a fine toothed comb. (Yeah yeah, I still want to rewrite the first scene so some of it is from Sam's POV, and I know I need to expand a sex scene partway through, but it's almost done.)

We bought a Laser printer a while back for $60. Have they ever come down in price, but Gizmo Guy said they're cheaper per page for printing. And the toner lasts a heckuva lot longer. The toner in my inkjet would have given out today for sure.

In the meantime, last time I printed it out, I tried printing in Duplex. For some reason the pages got squished into the top half of the page, leaving a good three inches blank at the bottom. What a waste. And the font was so tiny I needed a magnifying glass to read it. So I printed it out just regular style today.

Holy Cr*p

311 pages later, I have a stack that's almost two inches high. Okay, I realized I could have made it a little shorter by using space and a half instead of double spacing, but OMG, all this paper. I had planned to take the pages with me to read while Guitar Hero goes for his Motorcycle licence today, but how the heck am I supposed to carry this sucker around?

Even if I cut it in half and used it for notes later (something I couldn't share with my kids since it's X-rated material), I'd never use this much paper in a month of Sundays.Do you have any tricks to handle the pages? Or ways to save paper? And what do you do with all the paper afterwards?

Editors/Publishers who are going to email submissions really are doing the environment a favour.

Bored, tubby and mild?

Thanks to Kaenar Langford for pointing this video out to me after a discussion of how trifocals suck. Anytime I hear this song from here on in, I'm going to be thinking of this video.

A date to write in your calendars

OMG it's really happening. I just got my release date for Private Property - January 27, 2009.

What a great way that'll be to start a new year. There's so much to be done in the meantime, that I'm all in a fluster. Wylie Kinson sent me an email along with a Squee reminding me that I can now start planning my pre-release promo sessions. Akk!

Last week I had to fill in my cover-art form. Thankfully Amy Ruttan had nudged me to choose pictures for my characters a couple weeks back. Not really thinking I'd use them again, I did a blog about putting faces to the names. Turned out it was excellent timing. I simply could take those pictures and attach them for inspiration. Today I'm having to create tag lines and blurbs and funny warnings.

It's so exciting. And scary.

But mainly exciting.

In the Dark (in the Middle of the Day)

"What do you mean the hydro's off?"

That was the refrain around the house for 8 hours yesterday. The Powers That Be (literally as it turned out) worked on something that required hydro in the area to be cut off - well, they claimed that it was supposed to be for 5 hours in their leaflet they'd left a couple days before though they turned out to be a little overly optimistic. Without their Playstation or XBox or television or computer, the boys were lost and getting snarlier as the day wore on. Gizmo Guy grimaced and complained when he actually had to drink water from the tap rather than the filtered water from the fridge. And for the second time in a week, I had to do without my morning cuppa. Oh, the horrors!

I know Cora Zane (who had to evacuate) and Marley Delarose (who is still eyeing rising water levels) would snicker, considering they've just endured Gustav's wrath. I mean, come on, all we had to endure was 8 hours without hydro. No winds toppling trees causing $4K in damage, no sheeting rain, no worrying about the water from the bayou rising until it was lapping at the base of the house.

Gizmo Guy ended up getting restless and took Guitar Hero out for a very very long practice drive (3 hours). They stopped at a chip truck while they were out, so they at least got to eat hot food. (Which I'm pretty sure was GG's motivation for taking GH out in the first place.) No, they didn't bring anything home for Curly or me. (grumble grumble)

For my own part, I sat down with a notebook and started plotting my next story. I wrote about six pages interspersed with a running conversation with Curly who apparently is uncomfortable with quiet pauses. I came up with 13 different possibilities of a storyline for one of my characters. It was tough because Private Property and Sam's Story both push the boundaries for me and coming up with something equally ... erotic/sexy/kick-ass/depraved? ... for subsequent characters is a challenge. Eventually I decided upon one idea and started fleshing it out, then overnight dumped that idea and decided upon a 14th version. One that I'd originally started writing for Sam last January and abandoned. So now I'm wondering if I was as productive as I'd originally thought. Or did I simply waste the day? I'm going to vote for productive - just to be positive in my own little airy fairy cloud over here - because even though I won't use those ideas for Chad's story, they'll still be around for other characters. How's that for spin control?

I deliberately didn't work on Sam's story this weekend - I wanted to let it sit as I wasn't seeing it the way it really was anymore. My crit partners have sent the first three chapters back. No major edits, mainly little picky things which is a good sign. Although after a discussion with Amy Ruttan, I've decided to add an extra scene in the second or third chapter. Not a biggy, but it has to be written. It's over the 60K that I'd originally aimed for, and is edging its way toward 70K which is making me nervous that it's too bloated.

I also need to start looking ahead for the Ottawa Romance Writers' Sweet and Spicy conference in a couple of weeks. I'm supposed to pitch to Brenda Chin of Harlequin Blaze. I guess I should dust off that manuscript I wrote in the spring and take a look at it. And I really need to take another look at my paranormals as Rose Hilliard of St. Martin's Press will be there as well.

And one of these days I'll get my edits on Private Property from my editor and have a deadline for them. So I've really got to get organized before the pressure kicks in. I can already hear Amy with her five book Linden Bay deadlines snickering darkly, "Pressure? You don't know the meaning of the word!"

Who Ya Gonna Call?

"Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?"

Way back in July 1984, I was abysmally ill thanks to morning sickness. So Gizmo Guy decided we should do something to get my mind off it and took me to a movie. And it worked. I laughed so hard I forgot to be nauseous at the overpowering scent of movie-theatre popcorn. (Heck EVERYTHING made me nauseous back then.)

The movie?

Ghostbusters.

Little did I know that three years later, Guitar Hero (the reason for the morning sickness) would became absolutely obsessed with the movie. (I've often wondered if he could 'hear' it in the womb.)

And when I say obsessed, I mean GH was REALLY obsessed. For at least 18 months, he refused to answer to his real name, insisting to strangers everywhere that his name was EGON. He'd throw traps and zap ghosts and take readings. He wouldn't go anywhere without his ... whatchamacallit reader. He had the movies completely memorized. And over time, certain of the lines have been accepted into the regular vernacular. I actually used a line from it the other day when I wanted a character to swear, but not too badly. I had them use the term "Mother Pus Bucket" something Bill Murray says when they first get slimed. And who can forget the line, "When someone asks if you're a God, you say, YES!" or "This chick is TOAST."

(The pictures show my attempts at placating him because they hadn't YET come out with the toys. But once they did, whoa boy, we had everything to do with Ghostbusters. He had the hearse, the trap, all the action figures, slimers galore, the proton packs. If they made it and it had a Ghostbusters logo on it, Guitar Hero had to have it. In fact, I think we still have some of the toys around.)

Did you know Arsenio Hall did the voice of Winston Zeddemore the first year of the cartoon? He won the audition over Ernie Hudson, the REAL Winston of the movies. Or did you realize that the script was originally written to star John Belushi, John Candy and Eddy Murphy?

Well, according to this article, Columbia is planning on producing a third movie. My first reaction was "Has anyone looked at these guys? They're getting a little paunchy and old for those roles." My second reaction was "They're going to destroy what was a good thing. They should just leave well enough alone."

But if you read the article carefully, they say they're going to be doing the movie as a CGI project. Hmm. Not sure what I think about that.

So what do you think? Do you think movies that were hits 20+ years ago should be left in their glory? Or should they be resurrected? Is there a movie you'd like to see redone or brought back? Or is there one you really liked they did a sequel to that just made you cringe?

Eeeeuw

Gizmo Guy has the same birthday as my father. When I discovered that shortly after we'd started dating, I nearly dumped him. Seriously.

As you've gathered from other rants I've done on my blog, my father and I are not at all close. So you can imagine my discomfort to read this article saying that couples are attracted to partners who remind them of their parents. *shudder*

Men tend to wind up with life partners who look like their mother, while a woman is lured to a partner who looks like her father, scientists reported on Wednesday.

Ugh.

And worse? Gizmo Guy was supposed to be attracted to me because I resembled his mother? Eeeeewww!

A man's lover and his mother tended to have similar fullness in the lips, width of mouth, as well as length and width of jaw.

But for women, the critical features were the distance between mouth and brow, the height of the face, distance between the eyes and the size of a man's nose.

Do you think your husband/significant other resembles your parent? Do you resemble your in-law? Any other similarities? I'm not talking about incestuous relationships here, but do you feel a little squicked to think scientists believe you chose your partner influenced by your parents' looks?

Leave a comment, and I'll get back to you later. Because I have to go take a shower now - and try to scrub that image out of my brain.

Leah walks away muttering, "Gizmo Guy is SO not like the Grinch in any way. They're completely different."

But he wasn't 'Born to be Wild'

In the very first paragraph of Private Property, I have my heroine, Jodi, hearing the distinctive sound of a Harley approaching. Little did she know she was about to meet the rider - Sam. And little did I know that Guitar Hero would soon be plotting to get his own motorcycle.

Oh, not a Harley, they're too darned expensive. He's thinking of an older Honda with just over a 450 cc engine. Something maneuverable for in-town use. For starters.

Oy.

He's been studying the Motorcycle handbook to get his M1 (learner's permit for motorcycles), and has enrolled at the local college who hold a Motorcycle Training course that ends with the student taking the test for their M2. (Next stage in their license which means the person can drive at night, etc.)

Oy. Oy.

The mother in me is panicking. "OMG OMG OMG he's going to get in a crash and get hurt. Motorcyclists never fare well when they crash."

But everyone I talk to shrugs it off. My friends remind me that their parents drove hogs, or their brother or friend rides a motorcycle and they're fine. The one person I felt certain would back my paranoia - my mother - reminded me that my uncle drove a motorcycle (and sidecar) for years. And then she related how her friend's son drove one from Lindsay to Markham (that's 97 kilometers one way) every day for years. Even through the winter.

Oy. Oy. Oy.

"Besides with the price of gas these days," she continued, "it's a fairly sensible decision." In other words, no one else seems to be worried. So I'm having to tone down my motherly neuroses.

As part of trying to force myself to accept his decision and be a supportive Mom, yesterday I took Guitar Hero to the local Harley Davidson store so he could buy a helmet (just like the one above) As he was trying the different sizes and types of helmets on, the lady murmured "don't worry, everyone looks like the Great Gazoo." GH later told me that was exactly what he'd been thinking he looked like.

Anyway, while he was examining the full leather gloves and proper motorcycle sunglasses he'll need, I wandered around the massive store examining the brand new bikes. Learning terms like Dyna and Softails. Noticing the difference between Sportsters and Touring bikes. And while I was there, I spied several that I could definitely see Sam riding wearing his black leather pants.

Massive. Black. Powerful.

Not one of those the riders hunch over the handlebars and weave through traffic, but where they sort of lean back, and have their legs sticking out. Laid back. Except I don't see Sam riding a brand new bike, he'd have a classic motorcycle. One that would have a lot of power between his legs. *snicker*

I find it easier thinking about that than the mental images of car meeting motorcycle. Because in those? The car ALWAYS wins.

***



Here's a photo of him in his helmet - yes, his beard is red, but his hair is brown. Weird, huh? Gizmo Guy's hair/beard was the same.

Too young

My youngest went back to school today. Grade 12. His last year of regular school. He wasn't particularly enthusiastic about going back, but he was definitely upset when he came home. When he got there, he discovered one of his best friends drowned on the weekend. So send thoughts out to the family of Jaoa Ribeiro ... he will be missed.