Pow Wow Time!

A couple of days ago My Rare One and I went to a traditional pow wow held in conjunction with Edmonton's K-Days celebration. The pow wow dancers, drummers and singers came from Alberta's Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and other Treaty 6 First Nations in the province. We watched for about 4 hours and had a great time!

Have you ever been to a pow wow? It's been about 25 years since I last attended one in Manitoba at Sagkeeng First Nation north of Winnipeg. I was long overdue to go again. And My Rare One had never been to a pow wow before and was very keen to experience all the sights and sounds.

The drumming groups with their powerful pow wow drums and traditional singing were uniformly excellent! I loved seeing the older and younger men sitting together at the drums, all clearly having a wonderful time. You should have seen the look of pure joy on some of those kids' faces as they drummed and sang as accepted equals with the other men in their circle!

[Photo credit:

Greg Southam / Postmedia]

The dancing and the dancers' regalia were pretty spectacular too. There was every style of regalia and every kind of dance, except there was no hoop dancing (at least not on the day we attended). The dancing was divided by age group, gender and kind of dance. In between each category, there was always an "inter-tribal" round dance where anyone was welcome to participate, whether or not they were in regalia or street clothes or were pow wow dancers or members of the audience.

My favourites have always been the traditional women grass dancers -- so dignified and regal as they move with small steps, caressing Mother Earth with their feet, slowly dancing like the centre of calm and strength in the swirl of energetic male dancers, jingle dancers and shawl dancers.

My Rare One's favourites are the jingle dancers, young girls and women festooned with small metal cones on their regalia which make a joyful and rhythmic tinkling sound as they energetically dance.

To conclude this post, here's a tiny jingle dancer for your delight!

[Photo credit:

Greg Southam / Edmonton Journal]

A Frosty Friday in July

Earlier this week, Ol'Buzzard of Ol'Buzzard's World View entertained us all with an interesting post about his favourite poet, Robert Frost. So today's collection of LOLs is for you, OB, and your lovely wife too as she kicks cancer's ass to the curb! You both rock!

Forever Plaid

So I did my grocery shopping on Saturday and, as one is wont to do while waiting in the checkout line, glanced at those stupid fake gossip mags displayed by the counter. And I spotted THIS GEM!!!

I laughed SO HARD at how they photoshopped Ellen and Portia as makeup-free and wearing those gawdawful plaid men's shirts buttoned right up to the neck like classic diesel dykes! Plus, did they give Ellen an Adam's apple? STILL not butch enough to keep Portia from leaving her for a REAL man though! (Which we all know is every lesbian's WORST NIGHTMARE, of course!)

Talk about playing to homophobic stereotypes, LOL! And OUTDATED stereotypes to boot. If that whole ridiculous cover doesn't deserve a Judge Judy eyeroll, well, I don't know what DOES.

Stay Cool This Summer!

Just scootin' by to say that I will be on a bit of a reduced blogging schedule for the summer -- probably only once or twice a week. Things will pick up again in September!

I'm Always Up for a Challenge

Hi everyone -- I'm just back from a week in Manitoba and will be coming around soon to catch up on all your blogs!

Before I left on my trip, Leeanna of Can we have a new witch ours melted issued a "what's in your purse?" challenge to anyone who was brave enough to BARE ALL in front of THE BLOGOSPHERE. Hey, you don't need to double-dog-dare ME, girl. I'm ALWAYS up for a challenge!*

*Disclaimer on Advice of Legal Counsel: Please be advised that, in actual fact, NUMEROUS EXCEPTIONS DO APPLY to that recklessly overbroad statement. So don't get your hopes up, any reader out there who is about to challenge me to post nekkid photos or my kinkiest sexual fantasy or something like that. Yes, I'm looking at you, Pickleope.

So now, hang on to your hats, kiddos, cuz you're about to discover just how BORING I am, LOL!

First of all, here's a photo of my "lug" brand purse. I've carried remarkably similar versions of this basic black purse for 35 years. It looks sufficiently conservative and therefore professional, goes with everything, no fuss, no muss. I just keep replacing these purses with a new doppelganger every time they start to look past their prime. Keeps my life simple.

And now, here's what's inside it, from top to bottom, left to right . . . .

Top Row: my wallet (also "lug" brand), a small wallet containing a gazillion loyalty cards that I never use but hang onto anyway (gawd alone knows why), a small rock painted with a Triple Spiral design sacred to the Goddess, two protein bars, my chequebook, a calculator that I've also had for 35 years, and three pens swiped from various hotels.

Middle Row: ID wallet, a change purse that I bought last time I was in Maui, mints, bank books, a pad of note paper.

Bottom Row: lip gloss moisturizer, more mints (and here I just want to emphasize that my breath is no worse than the average person's, okay?), a folding comb/brush, car keys and house keys.

Alright! I pass this challenge on to any reader who wants to reveal their DEEPEST, DARKEST PURSE SECRETS too. You know who you are.

Happy 4th of July, America!

Happy Independence Day! Time for cake and presents --

Americans quite rightly rejoice in their origin story.

The Brits are still a bit sniffy about it, but they're putting on a brave face.

Happy Canada Day!

PLEASE DON'T BELIEVE every stereotype you hear about Canada. We only wear tuques in the WINTER, not all year long, and we only eat back bacon at BREAKFAST, not at every meal. Beer is, however, frequently consumed. That one's true.

Contrary to popular belief, we do not end EVERY sentence with "eh," eh?

The RCMP are not MANLIER than any other men on the face of the earth.

And they're not MOOSELIER either.

Canadians are not POLITE all the time. We can be RUDE BASTARDS too.

We frequently IGNORE our neighbours.

We would MUCH rather spend our winters in a tropical paradise than in the SNOW.

And hockey is NOT CENTRAL to our lives at all.

Today I'm sending a SPECIAL Canada Day greeting to that HONORARY CANADERIAN deep in the heart of Texas, Jackiesue Denney of Yellowdog Granny, from whose blog I swiped many of these LOLs over the past year. Happy July 1st, YDG!