This'n'that

[ciroccoj]

• Choir is awesome.
  
  
• There's a certain very cool vibe during a rehearsal when one section really nails it, and the rest of the choir gets distracted from their "not my part, brain on break, be back soon" headspace and breaks out in a small flurry of "wow" and "well done!" and clapping. Last night it was for the men :)
  
  
• I keep wanting to say our choir has gotten younger. Certainly we have quite a few more young members than we used to. But we also have many more members, period. And I can't tell whether it looks younger to me because the people are actually on average younger than they were when we started, or because I'm older than when we started.
  
  
• There are twins in our choir. Identical, but one sings baritone while the other is a tenor. I thought it was confusing enough when only one of the twins was in the choir, because every so often the other one would show up at a concert and I'd be totally disoriented, seeing one of our very few tenors not only out of uniform but sitting in the audience when he was supposed to do a solo and - oh wait. There he is, with the other tenors. Right! Twins! Never mind!
  
  It's a bit weird to see one of our very few tenors sitting with the basses. And then reminding myself that's not him. I'm really not very bright.
  
  
• Released the Jefferson newt into the woods next to our house last night. It was a very cool experience overall. We were able to identify it online, found out it was probably endangered and protected by law, contacted the vet and Little Ray's Reptile House (yes, newts are amphibians, but Ray's is still a great resource), and were told we could either keep it until spring or release it into the woods in time for her to hibernate. Also found out it was almost certainly a she, as there are few Jefferson newts in Ottawa (in fact, one place said she was totally out of her natural habitat) but many blue spotted newts, so ours was almost definitely a Jefferson-blue spotted hybrid, which are almost always triploid females.
  
  We even found out newts shed their skin.
  
  And had a minor freakout when we thought she'd escaped from the aquarium. See, we have two cats. And Chris was wondering how on earth we were going to explain to the children that our taking a small wounded animal into our home with the best of intentions had resulted in an endangered species protected by law being eaten as a treat by a kitten.
  
  She was fine, just plastered against a corner. And when we let her go into the woods she slithered right into the leaves as soon as we put her down. She's probably very happy right now :)
  
  Chris pointed out that although we try to walk/bike whenever possible, have insulated our home to within an inch of its life, try to buy local and organic, vote Green, and donate to environmental causes, there's something a lot more personal and satisfying in possible helping out one tiny little endangered animal.
  
  
• Got woken up by the boys this morning by the boys for:
  
  
  1. Cash for the bus, since Daniel forgot to get his December bus pass. Was only able to get $3.55 in coins, good only one way. He'll have to break a $20 to come home.
     
     
  2. Photos needing to be printed for Justin's French class. Couldn't make the camera work.
     
     
  3. Cheque needed for Daniel's field trip. I had already written it, signed the permission slip, stapled them together, put them into Daniel's backpack, and told him I had done all of that.
  
  
  In other words, got woken up for no particular reason at all. It's gonna be a great day. I also have to get my driver's licence, OHIP, credit, bank, and library cards, as I have lost my wallet.
  
  Fantastic.
  
  
• Went to book our flights out to Calgary and Vancouver for Christmas. Had worked out insanely high but 'best we could do' before midnight. Played a game of Sudoku to de-stress, went to book the flights... and found that the price had more than doubled.
  
  Had a freak out because of course, it was now December 1, and airline tickets go up the closer you book to the trip date, but holy OMFGWTF, that moved the trip from "Ouch, that's gonna hurt the pocketbook" to "Ouch, it's gonna hurt telling everyone that we're not going anywhere this Christmas," went back to see if there was any way to salvage the operation... and found the rates back down to where they had been - in fact, very slightly lower.
  
  OK, I can't even. Booked the Calgary-Vancouver-Ottawa part of the trip, will book the Ottawa-Calgary tonight. And hope we can get there without mortgaging our home or developing an ulcer.