Thursday, April 18, 2002
I heard on As It Happens this evening that one of the few novels I read last year won the Leacock Prize humorous Canadian fiction. Guess I know how to choose ‘em. ;-)
The interview with the author was interesting, in that he mentioned that the book has sold well outside of Canada, is being retitled HappinessTM (a much more appropriate title) and its movie rights have been optioned (the story would make for a good, warped movie). Not bad for a first-time fiction writer!
Just had a peek at my original review of the book -- whichever reviewer I saw on Hot Type who pegged it as deserving of the Leacock Award did exceptionally well.
Working at home really has it’s advantages, especially when I can set my own hours.
I was up at the squawk of dawn this morning, and did much of my work on the various Web sites well before the sun crept above the horizon.
At about 8am two guys from Home Depot arrived to install a new window in my basement office. I was taken by surprise, since like an idiot I hadn’t jotted down the date this was to happen on our calendar. So I managed to dissemble the computer equipment in my office in no-time flat in order for the workmen to get to the window. Luckily I had printed out a lengthy report beforehand, and so I sat out on the sundeck reading the report while the work was being done. And when I needed computer access, I just went upstairs to briefly use Erika’s machine.
Over breakfast Erika and I decided to make the returning of Nick the Cat to my Aunt Jane a big swim-fest for everybody, since her condo complex has a sizable pool in its basement.
Then it came time to find the cat. He was nowhere in sight. Of course.
I scoured the house top-to-bottom several times looking for the Nick. I even went outside and called for him, thinking that the workmen earlier had freaked him out and that he was hiding somewhere.
It was only when Vanessa decided she wanted to join me in looking for Nick, that I finally twigged where he might be. She said that Nick was always trying to sneak into her room. It was then I remembered that both cats like to snuggle up amongst the clothes contained in Vanessa’s captain’s bed drawers. I lifted up the mattress and sure enough, two pairs of cat’s eyes peered back at us. I grabbed Nick, put him in his cat carrier and soon after the whole S-R family plus Maxime, a friend of Vanessa’s from down the road who loves swimming, were all packed in the truck heading to Jane’s.
Jane decided to join us on the swimming, and all of the kids had a good time, with at least one set of adult eyes keeping an eye on each kid. We arrived at the pool before most people are off of work, so of the most part we had the pool to ourselves the whole time, and, unlike the public pool, there was no time limit on how long we could stay.
The shallow end of the pool is still deep for Vanessa and her friend, so they had to swim (with a floating noodle) the whole time. Erika led them through a modest swim lesson and played with them while for the most part I stayed with Annie. Annie had a lot of fun in the water, kicking he water in a mock-frog stroke and beaming big smiles to anyone else we happened to be passing by in the water. She seemed most confident when I was holding her firmly from underneath or when she was sitting chest-deep on the pool’s steps. Her favourite game was to make big splashes in the water while sitting on one of the steps.
We were there for about an hour and a half, by which time all of the kids were exhausted – which in Maxime’s case is saying something. ;-) Soon after we thanked Jane and we headed off for a quickie in-car-“picnic” catered by McDonalds, and then took the kids home. Annie was passed out and asleep minutes after we put her in her car seat.
After Maxime was sent home and our two kids put to bed, I went back to my office -- now with a new funky window installed -- and finished off some more work. This sort of workstyle goes a long way towards making up for being relatively underpaid.
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
