And the latest column: Christmas Festivities in Canmore

I must admit that I churned this one out rather quickly but I think it's one of my faves thus far, if only cos it documents such a special night.

Don't ask me why I did it...

...but tonight, I rode my bicycle both TO and FROM work in the snow.

Dude, I am so totally hardcore right now.

Thank you Anonymous!

Whoever you are, thanks for directing my attention to the Stephen Fry article on bipolar - as serendipity would have it, the very next day I came face to face with his autobiography in our little ole public library. It now sits on my kitchen bench, awaiting my devouring eyes.

Hopefully they'll actually get around to reading it shortly; I have this horrible habit of being overcome with excitement in libraries, stocking up on a billion books and of course, only ever getting to one, maybe two of them at most. Much like the way I am with life.

The more this trip goes on, I'm realising it's one big lesson in reality checking!!

Forecast: brighter

So on the upside, Ella is back at school again and Caleb is well enough to get out and about again too. Woohoo!

On the downside, the little Mister's preschool has been shut down for the next few weeks - apparently they found some mould in the water pipes and so need to get it all sorted out before Erin Brockovich turns up - so I'm pretty much with-child constantly, however...

Back on the upside, at least it's ONE child who is relatively cruisy and fun and enjoys having adventures out and about, as opposed to TWO kids who, while both fun in their own right, tend to spend every minute together inventing new ways to annoy the will to live out of each other.

Wow. Did you hear that? That was me letting off steam.

On some notable tangents:

- we're finally geared up (translation = henceforth broke as hell) and ready to hit the ski slopes. Well, except for poor Tim, whose knee is still playing up, lessening his desire to put it at risk just yet. But the kids and I at least will be giving it a bash in the next couple of weeks and Tim will hopefully not be too far behind. I've always wanted to be a cool snowboarding type, ever since I read "Snowboarding to Nirvana" some ten years ago, complete with a Tibetan Lama character who busted out gnarley moves while basking in enlightenment.

- there are still some exciting possibilities presenting themselves - some very unexpected, in fact - in the comedy field, I'm just trying not to count my chickens before they hatch, so will hold my cards close for now and try to stop indulging in more metaphoric silliness in the one paragraph.

- I'm looking forward to reading Steve Martin's autobiography as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. This quote in particular seems relevant to my depressing rant the other day: "I have heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you this story (i.e. of how his father beat him as a child) of my father and me to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian."

Zat is all.

PS Last week's column: "Driving Miss Hazy"

If you're interested, naturally.

Baby sometimes words just ain't enough.

If you can overlook the fact she looks just like Kenny from South Park, I think this shot is kinda arty.

One of my favourite photos I've ever taken and I didn't even have to ask her to do anything, I was just gonna photograph the tree when she jumped straight on it. I think there's a lesson there...

And finally, these are my new Snowboots, whom I love. And yes, I said 'whom' and used a capital 'S'. They are my friends and I heart them, so let me be.

Cold, unfeeling grammar-nazis...