Not Dreaming of Cake (or anything else)

It's 5 am and here I am...on the computer. This is getting to be a routine. Yesterday was the first day of my last dexamethasone cycle for the month and my blood sugar levels were through the roof - 26 at lunch and 23 at dinner. By bedtime (after a two-hour snooze on the couch) it had dropped off to 15.6. So it was an insulin-filled or fuelled day yesterday. We'll see how today is headed, when I take my blood sugar reading before breakfast.

Almost finished my book - "The Black Book" by theTurkish Nobel-winner Orhan Pamuk. I must say as difficult as it was to get into, and as repetative as it seemed to be at the start, it nevertheless has proven to be an interesting read overall. The pace of it all is a little slow for me, but I find in moments when I'm not reading it, I'm thinking about it, about different aspects and developments and stories within stories. I can see the author put a lot of time and thought into writing this. The Times Literary Supplement calls this "Pamuk's masterpiece." Not a bad endorsement.

Today's a very big day around here. It's Mikayil's 1st birthday. Maryse and I are off this afternoon to Megan and Selo's for the big event. We got Miko a big red wagon. It'll be interesting to see how he responds to it all - and according to his mother it will be the first time he's ever had cake.

Me and my diabetes, I'll have to pass (ha, it'll be the first time I haven't had cake.)

Looking 'birthday cakes" up on Wikpedia, it says: "The birthday cake has been an integral part of the birthday tradition in Western cultures since the middle of the 19th century.
The cake, or sometimes a pastry or dessert, is served to a person on his or her birthday, and is often decorated with small novelty candles, with the person's name and/or a message of congratulations inscribed with icing. The phrase "Happy Birthday" did not appear on birthday cakes until the song Happy Birthday to You was popularized in the early 1900s.

Tradition holds that the person with the birthday may make a wish, which will come true if all the candles can be blown out in one breath. As with Christmas puddings there are various traditions of coins or Touch Pieces being added for good luck."

Everything you need to know, right here on this blog.

Book: see above

Music: The Kinks - "Waterloo Sunset" from The Kinks - The Ultimate Collection

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! ...

The Dangling Conversation

There's a debate underway in my household between my wife and I. I say "underway" because it hasn't quite reached the "raging" stage. If you want raging, my wife (a Francophone) and I (an Anglophone) from time to time (usually in a weak moment of my own making) slip into our number one discussion around why we don't speak more French at home - ergo - when am I, a former public servant who learned French at the expense of our gracious taxpayers and was technically rated bilingual (even though I hardly used it), going to improve my use of Canada's other language? This one never gets resolved, hence it's ongoing nature. But the current debate is over a remark I casually made the other day. I'm no geek, but with a lot of time on my hands I surf the web, converse on Facebook and such and - I have to admit - "I'm nonamedufus and I'm a Twitterholic". In an epiphany-like moment I was struck by the apparent impact of social networkin...

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

nonamedufus

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