...and one more, also with my brother. Out camping somewhere, I am wearing my Kenny Coon Club jacket and I also have a patch from University Elementary School

Here I am at four (Francie's age now), with my big sis and my little brother, on our back porch in Calgary, Alberta

Oh yeah, and: 

(it is hilarious what I forget to mention in the moment): 

On Dec. 23 I got a call from the financial writing company offering me $1000 to write two 250-word articles by January 5. I think it might take me four hours (they have the outlines of what they want each article to say already). I'm going to do them this afternoon, finishing tomorrow as necessary. 

I'll update on how long it actually takes me. (Is it rude to put that number, $1000, there?)

Water. 

Do You Thick
Wat is Watr
Wall Watr is
Mallqlls

Look at The Gas
Var Var 
Var ckllos
You 
See Mallqlls.

Translation:

Do you think - 
What is water?
Well, water is molecules!

Look at the glass, very very very closely - 
You see molecules. 

The other grammar quibble I have with this document is that it is riddled with the word "utilize" instead of "use." 

For example: "The following colour conventions have been utilized in charts throughout this report."

Properly speaking, the verb "utilize" means "put to good use" or "find a practical use for something," as in, "we utilized the scrap metal to make a series of large bongs." 

You can't go wrong with plain old "use." 

OK: editing a document and I have a recurring quibble:

The author routinely uses this sentence construction:

"Note that we recommend that no Alternative Investment assets be included in your portfolio." 

The positive "we recommend" with the negative "no assets" drives me crazy. I would vastly prefer that we say, "Note: we have not recommended that any blahblah be included in your portfolio" or "We do not recommend that you include blahblah in your portfolio." 

So. Is that just me, or is that an awkward sentence construction? If it isn't just me, is it an actual stylistic error? how do I describe it to the author?

OK! Comment if you want to stay on my friendslist, otherwise ... you know the drill. Comments are screened.

Obligatory "before" picture of the recovered (and repainted) sofa.

Two things for which I am extremely grateful:

The first is the Vanier Institute of the Family. The mission of the institute is to "make families as important to the life of Canadian society as they are to the lives of individual Canadians." The institute commissions smart, accessible research on a broad swath of family-related topics, and I am glad I have a place to go to when I am looking for information on family finances, or the implication of delayed life transitions on the Canadian family, on aging, or care-giving, on the changing culture of parenting in Canadian society, and more. www.vifamily.ca

The Financial Webring Forum: "Where investors meet for education and empowerment." This forum is a clone of the Vanguard DieHard investors' forum in the US, but for Canadians. I am grateful to this place not only for good, usually reliable information on DIY investing in Canada, but also for the smart, tough, fast arguments there. Those guys (they are overwhelmingly "guys" over there) have taught me a lot about how to think and how to argue over the years. They'd laugh if they knew how important they are to me, but they fill a big gap for me nonetheless -- while cutting through much of the clutter that is written about personal finances in this country and in general.

Work stuff so very, very good: can't talk about it (yet), but major good stuff is happening. Maybe. Probably. Hooray!

(edited: I originally wrote "major god stuff"!)

I like this article from the NY Times on the notion of a "cascade" of mistaken consensus very much:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/science/09tier.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5124&en=67642ef2330f51af&ex=1349668800&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Perhaps the biggest revelation from my afternoon of shepherding is this: It's astoundingly good for your confidence. I have minimal management skills, but even I could handle a couple of hundred sheep. Because in addition to "ba-a-a-ing," sheep fulfill another stereotype: They are sheepish. A loud "Hey!" or a tossed stone, and the sheep fall right into place. Everyone can be a Jack Welch in the pasture.

The Discovery

do not imagine that the exploration
ends, that she has yielded all her mystery
or that the map you hold
cancels further discovery

I tell you her uncovering takes years,
takes centuries, and when you find her naked
look again,
admit there is something else you cannot name,
a veil, a coating just above the flesh
which you cannot remove by your mere wish

when you see the land naked, look again
(burn your maps, that is not what I mean),
I mean the moment when it seems most plain
is the moment when you must begin again

- Gwendolyn MacEwan, 1969

This is my entry for November 2, 2007. I have nothing fit to say in polite company here tonight. 

Really, I guess this is a good thing, but I am going to complain about it anyways - every time I feel like I am mastering something at work, my partner raises the bar. My brain feels so at capacity. Just yesterday I had to learn how florescent lights work, which meant reviewing how incandescent lights work. (Right - this wasn't for work.)

Now I have to rebalance these seven investment accounts while keeping the invested total the same (duh) and the size of each account the same (duh) but changing the relative mix of all asset classes in the accounts. Hard. Hard, I tell you. Hard. 

I, too, am going to try to blog every day during the month of November!

But! I am buried in rebalancing a client's investment account. Given that I am taking tomorrow off, and the client has negative balances in every account (I just mean that I need to sell stuff to cover their investment fees, not that the total value of their accounts is down), and I have promised J that I will have a plan to clear the negative balances and rebalance the account to the recommended allocations, I must hie myself hither and buckle down for the next hour and get this done.

Ready. Set. GO!

I was just listening to Beck and idly wondering whether it would be possible for me to construct an all-Scientology playlist. Lord knows I am fascinated enough by them. But so far on my list I only have Beck and, uh, DJ Mom Jeans.

[off to research]