Politics, Art, Judgment and Socks

Saturday I went out for breakfast at Summerhayes with some of the local bloggers. I finally got to meet Finola and Trashy. Two of the bloggers at breakfast are running for office in the upcoming municipal elections – Julia Ringma for City Councillor in College Ward, and Trashy for school board in Alta Vista. (Julia, you might remember, was the one who introduced GC and me. If I lived in her ward, I would vote for her for that reason alone.) (There are other good reasons to vote for her too; that one’s just my personal favourite.)

There was a bit of a mix-up with the breakfast bills, and I ended up pocketing Finola’s credit card. Finola was looking through her wallet and purse and pockets, but I had it the whole time. I even looked in my wallet for it, but didn’t see it because it looked just like mine. I was thinking later how I might have subsequently used it without ever noticing it wasn’t mine, because you have to tilt a credit card just so to read anything on it, and how often do you check the name on your card? Every time I used my card for the next few days, I kept thinking how it could have been Finola’s card and I wouldn’t have realized it until I got arrested. Anyway. Finola was lovely and gracious and she writes an excellent blog.

After breakfast GC and I went on the West End Studio Tour. On the way there we noticed two George Guirguis election signs, at houses side by side. The signs looked pretty fancy and expensive, but I guess it’s not that big a deal if you only have to buy a handful of signs. (By the way, is he allowed to use the Government of Canada logo on his signs?)

We decided to go knock on those doors and ask the people why they were voting for Gorgeous George, just for fun. We thought it might make for an interesting conversation.

Nobody was home at the first house. A yappy dog and a teenage boy in a bathrobe answered the second door. The boy had no clue about the sign or the candidate. He said his parents might know something, but they weren’t home. Oh well. (By the way, Gorgeous George has 115 videos on Youtube now. Pretty much all videos of him doing ordinary stuff, set to sappy music.) (Speaking of fringe candidates, here’s David Reevely’s post about Barkley Pollock, which was discussed at the Bloggers’ Breakfast.)

The West End artists tour was great. We only managed to cover about half of it, but it’s on again this weekend, so we might do the rest. Of particular interest, among the stuff we saw so far: Garrie Bea Joyce, Janet Bell, Alice Hinther, and Rob Huntley, who does arial photography by flying a kite with a remote-control camera attached to it.

In other news, I passed the government’s Situational Judgment Test! I got 73 out of 102. Not great, but 55 is a pass. Phew. And I did very well on the English writing test, so I guess I’m in the CRA Writer pool now. I’m not sure what happens next – probably I just wait and maybe someday they’ll call me for an interview?

In other other news: Fall is here and with it comes this inexplicable urge to knit. First I’m going to finish GC’s socks (which are now a group project, as I’ve enlisted the help of three different knitters so far – Grace, Merle and Carmen – in bailing me out of jams on these socks).

Last but not least, I had another mammogram and saw the oncologist last week, and all is well on that front.