Katherine and Kristen visit

William's cousins spent the night here. Unfortunately they were quite exhausted last night after a day on the farm and at Simon's so we really only got to socialize over pancakes t his morning. They are off to the farm again. Hope we can see more of them this year, it is so great having them around. 

Marc LaFoy visits Regina

Picked up Marc from the airport this morning and drove him around showing him the amazing sights of Regina and the UofR. Haven't seen Marc in about a decade, perhaps more, so it was great to catch up, talk about kids and getting old. It appears I cannot take a decent photo. He took a bunch so perhaps I'll steal some of his and attach them below. I'm really excited about Japan after hearing his stories about his recent visit there. 

Honor roll

William was on the honor roll again this year. As always, he needed to out-dress his last year's outfit, complete with the award medals from the previous two years. His face/teeth are bothering him even more today than yesterday, so the event was a bit trying.

William's recovery continues

After getting his wisdom teeth out yesterday, William seemed to have no swelling of the face. However, possibly because he wasn't able to keep icing it all night, he is a bit swollen and a bit more sore/uncomfortable today. The Harry Potter marathon concluded. 

William's wisdom teeth

William had all four of his wisdom teeth pulled today. I spent the rest of the day making him smoothies and bringing him ice to keep the swelling down. Overall he didn't find the procedure too bad. His reward is a Harry Potter movie marathon. 

Lunch with Erik

We were able to fit one last lunch (at the Hunter and Gatherer) with Erik and Julie before they headed back to Calgary. We suppered at Lori's where we barbecued pizza. Since William will be on liquid diet after this night and that he doesn't like pizza (which was made with thick slabs of fresh mozzarella). I brought him some steak. 

Family weekend

We had a big family gathering this weekend. My sisters came in, as did my nephew Chris and his girlfriend. It was mom and dad's 60th anniversary. Lori hosted everything at her place. 

Art Gallery of Regina "Mystery" fundraiser

We had a fun time at the AGR fundraiser. Rather than being solely food related, which had come to result in people claiming a table and being small social silos, the mystery that required solving forced people to wander around the whole space and talk with improv actors playing 1940s Noir characters to get clues about the missing painting. This took the attention off of voting for your favorite food and placed it on conversation, costume, and the themes of the evening. One does need an excuse to wear a fedora these days, so I was delighted.  I believe the whole evening was a great success. Margaret put a lot of energy into this over the past few weeks, as did many other volunteers. Well worth it.

William summer begins

This morning William wrote his last mid-term, ending an unbelievable stretch of homework and projects and allowing him to finally return to his graphic novel he started in April. Grades are stronger than ever. 

William's new sculpture

William's art final was to re purpose an item that the art teacher gave them into a new piece of art. William got a coffee grinder. He made this guy:

Day with the doctors

I got a call to meet my new internal specialist at the hospital, specifically just to talk for a few minutes in between his meetings/tests with other patients. I was to have no tests done, so no preparations, just lots of waiting. However, when I finally met with him he revealed that he had time for tests after all..... Suffice to say, I was there from about 9:30 until almost 5 and was thoroughly poked and prodded.

Streets are clean

I know it probably isn't a big deal, but every year for the past decade at least, there have been cars parked around our house on the day the street cleaners come. Once recently, we cleared our cars to the back and someone came and parked directly in front of our house so we didn't get cleaned. Anyway, this year there were no cars on our side of the street for a whole half block. Feels wonderful.

William's super-8 film

William had an extremely ambitious super-8 film idea that was possible but would take at least 100 hours to create. With his exams this week and the deadline for the films on Monday, I helped him minimize the film and use a lot of shortcuts that will give the film some style and campy fun. I think he's happy with where it went. 

Shooting my marching super-8 film

Having not felt well all week, I needed to create an easier alternative plan for my One Take Super 8 film. I shot in the garage all day to make my Hap and Hep film. I think it could have some nice rhythm to it.

diagnosis

I have a new doctor (thanks to a recommendation from my mom) and he seems really good. He asked me a dozen questions that seemed relevant but that the doctors at the clinic had not thought to ask. He has made a diagnosis and given my documents to read and those documents indicate a match to every symptom I have. Some pills start today. No drinking for two weeks though. Can't go wrong with a doctor who buys a Heather Cline for his waiting room. 

Standard 8 Film!!

William and Margaret were at a garage sale and spotted these rolls of film, likely unexposed. William recognized them for their rarity and so now we will be doing a standard 8 film sometime this summer. The Kodachrome will need to develop into black and white, but the Agfa might have some colour left in it.
The weather felt cool enough and my desire was strong enough, so I've baked:

William's teeth

William's wisdom teeth are coming in. I guess it's better now than when he's not on my medical plan any more. Looking at getting them out in next week or two. 

ultrasound

Got an ultrasound today. The company is private, which is probably why they are super secretive and do not allow any photography of the process and they will not express any opinion of what they are seeing. I saw the screen a few times but it is set up in such a way that doesn't allow the patient to easily see it. Will have to wait for interpretation tomorrow (they've put it on the emergency/rush category). 
Allan was over for a shorter supper and visit. I was feeling very week and sore but mid-way through supper an old T3s I took cut in and I'm feeling pretty good. 

Doctor's appontment

Went to the doctor today. My regular doctor was away so chose to see someone else there. The medical files are all digital now, so I couldn't even turn to the page in question and point out what my historical conditions are, needing instead to explain things in words. As a result, I needed to explain certain limitations to procedures that are the result of my surgery of 17 years ago (I said this a few times and still find it hard to believe that I've been missing organs for that long- I guess the warranty is up). In the end, she is just getting an ultrasound done (which is the obvious first choice, given all the facts that I do not list here). 

more time home sick

More attempts to get my digestion on track today, but is pure guess-work. I'd tried to book a doctor's appointment yesterday but cannot do so until Monday. Sylvie had sympathy and came to my lap, which she usually only does when it is bed-time. Slipped out for coffee with Kevin and Geremy to discuss setting up game sessions for weeks when we cannot do anything online with the bigger group.. Might be nice to get back to the basics of everyone looking into each others' eyes. 

Feeling unhealthy but went out anyway

My digestions has been pretty bad this past few days (since June 3). On Friday night we tried a couple different drugs to flush my system out but with no positive results. Spent most of today at home but went to Neil's big garage sale in the afternoon where be bought a couple things for William's art and a couple articles of clothing including the leather vest he is showing off in the photo above. In the evening we attended Sandra's anniversary party in the evening and had a nice time, even though my stomach compelled to leave early.

Finished painting class

Finished my painting class that I've been taking with my sister for the past 8 weeks at the Balkwill Centre with Donovan. Over the last three sessions, I began using cameras as my subjects, which I feel enough ownership over that I can do them quickly and somewhat abstractly. I might do another session in the fall and would likely continue this subject, given that I must own at least a couple of dozen cameras.
 

Convocation

The spring convocation was sold out. I arrived late and have never found the parking lot at the Centre of the Arts to be this crowded; cars filled every available spot out to the very edges. I had to return after a short while and find a spot vacated by an early departure. We didn't have many film students on stage this time around and at the reception afterwards I didn't manage to find any of them. I did have a wonderful conversation with one of the very quiet Hui sisters who were in our program about five years ago and who seems to have found a teaching job and discovered her voice.

Pizza with Tom and William performs

We arrived at Jameson's Pizza shorter after they opened at 11am and had a pizza before June and Tom flew home. I went to work for my two meetings and to catch up on things and found that both my meetings were cancelled and the work I had to do was not that heavy after all. Nice day.
William did a poetic monologue of his own design with a mid-performance costume change. Quite a bit for under two minutes. They teacher called him unpredictable, which he took as a compliment.

Time with Tom around Regina

June showed Tom around campus. Later I dropped them off at the Black Arrow (or something like that) which is a private club beside Milu's on Victoria. This club was introduced to them the day before by someone else playing pinball at Rebellion. The Black Arrow has three machines in fantastic running order including a Sopranos machine in "adult" mode (much swearing emanates). In the evening Allan came over and we all mostly drank and told stories. 

Pinball at Rebellion

With Wonderland closed, it was a bit of a hunt to find groupings of pinball machines around town. Three good ones are at the Rebellion pub on Dewdney. William isn't old enough to go so I planned for us to spend time there after lunch at Fudruckers but still during school hours before scooting them to the north end to visit with June's family. Grant joined us for lunch and pinball. 

Tom arrives

June's husband Tom, whom I've never met in person, arrived in Regina. We had established a list of places June wanted to take him, a number of them being places to eat, and we added our own including breakfast at Hunter Gatherer, which is what we did as soon as he arrived.

Pokey hunting in Regina

I discovered that I like being an enabler, helping people with their addictions. We drove around all day finding Pokeys for June on her phone. It also gave us the chance to talk and to see many places in the city she wanted to revisit.

Western Pizza is now Jameson's Pizza!

June and I wanted a Western Pizza so naturally we went to the Grant Road location to order one. We were shocked to see that the sign was gone. Poor signage indicated a different pizza place: Jameson's. We were extremely dubious but ventured in anyway. I'd had a Western Pizza on Albert street a couple of months ago and was a bit disappointed. Inside this newly named establishment, we were told that it was under new management (no more Batemans!!!) but the recipes were the same. Again, we had doubts but the place seemed clean and in order and everything smelled right. We got a pepperoni and green pepper with extra sauce. Wow. Wow. Wow. The pizza was so damn good I can barely describe it. The sauce and meat were perfect, just like the old days and of the best quality. The crust was a tiny bit chewier than it used to be, but that was okay - in fact it is even preferred. To top it off, the cheese was browned so perfectly that the entire top surface had a small crispiness that cracked just slightly as my teeth broke through it. The pie was very hot (got that pleasing roof of my mouth burn) and we needed to hold ourselves back from finishing the large between the two of us (needed to take a couple pieces to Margaret). I highly recommend this new Jameson-Tumblers - was the greatest eating experience of the month.

June at Congress

Enjoyed June's talk about Anime/Manga fans, as well as her colleagues who talked about other aspects of art culture. We walked around campus a bit mo
In re and I bought a new Brakhage book.

In the evening, June his Bushwakkers with Kevin and we attended the opening at the Dunlop. Need to go back and spend time with the VR.