Blog Campaign

I'm hoping I'm not to late to join this Blogging Campaign that I just found out about, because it looks like a good way to further my writing career and connect with the larger blogosphere and such.  I thought tomorrow was the 31st but it's today.  Yipes!

"Basically, the Campaign is a way to link those of us in the writing community together with the aim of helping to build our online platforms. The Campaigners are all bloggers in a similar position, who genuinely want to pay it forward, make connections and friends within the writing community, and help build each others' online platforms while at the same time building theirs."

Click here to read more about it.

If you want to join yourself.  It will probably be too late by the time you read this, but it looks like they have it every year.  This is a quick post, but if I end up being a part of this, you'll be seeing more about this later.

EDIT: I'm hoping this exercise might also help me "Get an Ilene" as the Vlogbrothers would say. Meaning: "Find someone who is doing what you want to do better than you can do it and listen to them." Of course there's always my mother. She's awesome.

Ba Ba Blacksheep

This is for my friend Columbia, who saw Jadzia sing Ba Ba Blacksheep today and though it was so cute that I must document it.  So here we are.  Hopefully the rest of you will enjoy this also.

Algonquin Adventure

My husband and I just got back from a fabulous 5-day canoe trip in glorious Algonquin Park. Using the combined power of our awesomeness, we were able to paddle across vast lakes and carry all our stuff through bug-ridden portages. We had ambitions of doing a podcast of the adventure when we got back, but now that we've returned to civilization lazyness has officially set in.  You might still see some videos or pictures or something if we feel like it. Not until next weekend though because Tuesday to Friday we are taking the kids car camping. (Yes, we are just that crazy).

Here's an amusing trailer of our trip that my husband cut together using his fancy Mac computer:

And so I don't get all glum about no longer enjoying my vacation in the beautiful and serene Canadian wilderness, here are some things I missed about civilization:

Flush toilets

Hot showers

The internet

My laptop

Refrigerators

My induction stove

A comfy bed

A car

Washing machine and dryer

Dry shoes

Clean water on tap

Real food

Electricity



Rocket Launch 2011

We gave my brother a model rocket for his birthday back in May.  Yesterday, August 1st 2011, which happened to be a civic holiday, we all went out as a family to launch it. 

The rest of us waited in the blistering heat while the boys read over the instructions.  Everything was in its original packaging, and in hindsight it looked as if some pre-assembling would have been advisable.  At one point my Dad had to walk back home to get a screwdriver. 

As you can see, the children and dogs were very helpful during launch preparation.

 Still the rocket was ready fairly quickly.  As Craig pointed out, NASA would have taken longer than 15 minutes to set up a shuttle launch, so we were actually being very efficient.

 We launched the rocket three times (because that's how many charges we had) and I cut together a short video that captures the launch experience.

 Very exciting, though the rocket was hard to follow with the camera once it was in the air.  Also, if anyone is interested this was Worf and Mortie the Jackapoo's first meeting.  The two dogs got along wonderfully.  They were very happy to frollic together despite Mortie's small size and Worf's young age.