Ah, to have learned more math...

We have house guests staying with us. Here is a snippet of conversation we had tonight:

"Life would be boring if everyone got along." - Stuart.
"Would you actually learn anything?" - Jeannette.
"Sure, you'd just learn different things. You'd learn more math." - Craig

and a tradition commences

In Canada, different holidays are celebrated, and holidays are celebrated differently than in the States. For example, there's "Family Day" in Alberta in February. It's a day when schools are out and businesses and governmental offices are closed so that families can have a snow day together. Also, Thanksgiving is celebrated in October (which makes sense if one considers when the harvest occurs way up north, but it's still weird for us ex-pats). There's Boxing Day (December 26) Canada Day (July 1), Victoria Day (in May), and Good Friday is an actual governmental holiday. (Canada has so many governmental holidays, it hasn't even bothered to name them all. For example, the holiday in August is simply Civic Holiday. Seriously.)

Craig and I have started our own traditions for celebrating Canadian holidays that aren't necessarily holidays in the States: we get tires and root beer. And we walk. A lot.

Back in October, on Canadian Thanksgiving, we needed to have all new tires put on the car in order to pass Albertan inspections. We drove our car to Canadian Tire, and intended to take the bus back home. We hadn't anticipated the buses being on a holiday schedule, so we ended up walking and walking to find a bus stop where we could actually catch a bus. As hunger came on us, we headed to the nearby A&W.

Last night, we came out of the church to find one of our tires flat. We had run over a screw. Our spare also had a hole in it. So we took our tire home (by taxi). Today we dropped the tire off at Canadian Tire for repair (it was still under warranty), walked home, walked back when it was ready, and took a cab back to the church. After changing the tire, we noticed the A&W across the street. Sensing a tradition in the making, we went for a root beer.

Driving away from A&W, our fixed tire securely on our rear wheel, root beer in our cup holders, I noticed Craig folding the receipt from Canadian Tire, tucking in the screw that had flattened the new tire.

I giggled and asked, "Father, why is it that on all other holidays, we visit family and celebrate with food and festivities, but on this holiday we get tires and drink root beer?"

Craig laughed. "Well, son, we get tires because..."

April Fools

You know, these Canadians can't take a joke. Actually, they can take a joke, but only until noon. Apparently, if you play a prank after noon, you are the "April Fool" and they get to pinch you. I would have liked to have known this before 10am this morning. I was scrambling to get all of my pranks in by noon. And even had to call off a few.

Silly Canadians.

Blogs I Read

So RevGalBlogPals wants to know what blogs I read regularly. And I am supposed to limit it to only five. Yikes! I have over 30 subscriptions in my Google Reader alone.

So I'll start by saying that I read the blogs of many of my friends, check out their recipes and cute pictures of their babies. I read what's in their hearts and on their minds (and in Lisa's case, in her fridge). But I won't list those blogs among my five though these friends often do challenge me, inspire me, and make me laugh.

That said, these are the blogs (by people other than my friends) I regularly read:

Reason, Skepticism, Atheism:
As a person with a complicated relationship with organized religion (at times, I have hope and believe that religion can be a positive and healing force in our world and in the lives of individuals, but I have also seen how, too often, religion and faith can be so destructive to people, to communities, and to societies at large), I am drawn to writers who engage me on an intellectual level, challenge my religious beliefs (or lack thereof) and force me to wrestle with my understandings of self and systems and the world. I am especially interested in the discussions around ethics and morality from a non-religious perspective. First of all, I think the dialogue around ethics gets much more interesting and complex when you move beyond "'Cause the Bible tells me so." Secondly, I am discovering that without a god to blame or a god to forgive, people are challenged to articulate and to live into their ethical values in more integrated and consistent ways. My favorite blogs skeptic/atheist blogs are Unreasonable Faith and Pharyngula.

News and Politics:
I am a political junkie. The US election is over, but still I check DailyKos everyday. Sometimes several times a day. And recently, in my desire to learn about the Canadian political scene (I do reside here in the Great White North) despite my inability to vote here, I have begun to read InformedVote. I may even start writing for them!!

Friends' Health:
I have several friends recovering from injury or illness. Last year, when working at the Children's Hospital, I discovered the CaringBridge website which allows families and patients to update their friends and loved ones about their status. It's a great service they provide, so I am happy to plug their site. I do check in on my friends Grant and Anna everyday.

Humour:
So I must confess my guilty pleasure: laughing at these photos of cats and dogs and silly captions (with horrible spelling and grammar). I was pleased to learn that I was not alone in this addiction to the adorable LOLcats.