First Day Of October!

Yay! We're here, in October. The air flows cool, the colours grow warm, the scents are of gourdes...
It's a good time!
It's also Cut Out Dissection month. You can download the calender and other helpful tips to help make our schools more animal friendly here.

Today I had my first dance evaluation. I don't get to find out how well- or not well- I'm doing until my first report card though. I feel pretty good about it though, especially for not having any prior experience. Drama class was fun today. I danced a lot, laughed a lot, kicked Rebecca a lot. It was good! You have no idea how one cup of coffee first thing in the morning can make my day so much better!

Sara, I have to let you know that my wonderful mother has already pre-ordered our copy of Appeal To Reason. And there is still no way that this Oscar kid is more obsessed than Rise Against than I am. Did he fly to San Fransisco, California, USA to see them in a fabulous concert where they played a gorgeous Swing Life Away as the encore? No. I didn't think so.
Alicia, if you'd like I can burn The Sufferer and The Witness next time you come over to my house. When you give me that awesome friends DVD you made me.

You all better love the movie Stardust. Well, if you've read the original book of it, you should know that the author is Neil Gaiman. His, The Graveyard Book just came out, and here is a fantastic video of poetry reading he read. It's instructions on what to do if you fall into a fairy tale. It's very good advice people. Listen closely.



Sara, I pray too for your Nonno. I know what having a Nonno in the hospital is like. And Jeanette, for your massive homework load. Not that I don't have my own.

Totally fawesome dude!

-Emma

Propane Tanks and Dishwashing

So, as I'm sure you all know by now, there was a huge propane tank explosion in North York. What you don't know- unless you're Alicia- is that my cousin lives beside the Propane Facility. She along with hundreds of others had to evacuate her house at 4:00 in the morning. If you sleep more lightly than me, you probably felt your house shake like in a light earth quake, and heard something like the rumbling of thunder. We could tell it wasn't though, because Maple was barking furiously. It was the first and biggest explosion. At 4:30 this morning we received a frantic phone call from my Zea Toni (aunt Toni, my cousin Victoria's mom if you're not Italian) telling us that there was a pounding on their door and police officers telling them to immediately get out. They grabbed their coats, their grandparents in the next room, and their dog Romeo, got into their car, and drove like hell. They ended up at Victoria's aunt's house for now because she's close by but not in the evacuation zone, but because they have no idea when they're coming home, they very well may end up here in the next day or so. Only one fire fighter has died, and of natural causes, one worker of Sunrise Propane is still missing, while a handful of people immediately beside the propane station escaped with burns and cuts. The windows in the houses very close to Victoria's were actually blown out from the impact of the sound.
Luckily, the weather managed to help. Toronto is currently in a low pressure zone, which pulled all of the smoke up and out of our streets very quickly while the rain helped soak down the fire. If it had been a high pressure zone and a blazing hot humid day, I'm sure you can guess how much worse this could have been. The 401 has been entirely shut down for most of the day, so while driving up to Barrie for a few hours, we had to take Side Road's on the 400. Those poor travelers from Florida who were driving ahead of us.

I can't believe the luck my Mom's side of the family has been having lately. My Nonno just got out of hospital today after having head surgery (I won't go into the yucky details on the blog) and a week in the hospital. Mom's absolutely exhausted. I've only seen glimpses of her all week, but I'm sure that you'll all be proud to know that she's already partway through book 3 of Breaking Dawn from reading at the hospital. Poor Mommy, she's exhausted. Poor us, we've been starving most of the week. Apparently we need her more than we realized. Also, my Mom's older cousin from Ottawa died a few days ago, and now my cousin's family (once again on Mom's side) can't be in there own house during summer break. Victoria's dad has to stay with Nonno tonight as well to watch him. They have it even worse than us. I hope they come over so we can see them.

I think the whole thing was handled really well though. And mother nature seems to have been on our side.



So, I had to hand dry dishes today. I accidentally used a dishcloth too, but, can you blame me? I can barely remember the last time I wished dishes like that at my Nanna's house.

Sophie, you were astutely right. I actually hadn't been wondering what your Truffles title was about, but hopefully you'll understand that I've been kind of distracted.

And Olivia, excellent name choice. The last name fits perfectly after Edan. Little fire! I wonder if that'll mean anything with your story.

-Emma