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Nutty Busy on Bonnie’s Behalf


in Heartwarming

While I’m beyond excited about the new Pye in the Face design (what do you guys think? Too literal? Gotta say, I love it) and the renewed sense of community we’ve managed to restore – I am remiss in my posting! For those of you who don’t know, Janet and I are having a memorial weekend for my dearly departed Mother, starting the day after tomorrow. To say we are preoccupied would be the understatement of the Spring. If you don’t believe me, I’ll cut and paste a portion of my current task list in below. Although I’m sure you do because we’re talking about family death stuff here and people rarely joke about that, right? Maybe in your family:

  • Stain dock
  • Install dock
  • Fix and install boatlift
  • Build new stairs for Winchester (the bunkhouse I finished over the garage 2 summers ago).
  • Assemble and recover pool table
  • Seed lawns
  • Plant 3 gardens
  • Get port-a-pottys
  • Order dumpster
  • Find and borrow canoe
  • Schedule plumber, electrician and welder
  • Get boat trailer in Bancroft
  • Launch boat
  • Massive Costco trip
  • Wash bedding
  • Pick up kegs
  • Clean and furnish Winchester
  • Many, many etc.’s

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That’s a miniscule portion of the tasks that must be completed before Saturday morning. Gwen and some family members get here Thursday night and a whackload more arrive on Friday. We’ll have tons of help – but not until the day before the big event. I’m quite certain, however, that we’re going to do just fine. I’ll be taking lots of photos and video of the event which will be eventually posted on the site Janet and I made for our Mom: www.BonniePye.com. Have a look even if you already have as I’ve added memorial details, tons of old photos I dug out of storage and scanned and people have let a bunch of wonderful memories. If you knew Bonnie I’d like to invite you one more time to leave one too.

So please forgive the inactivity. It will come to a screeching halt next week when the big weekend is behind us and Bonnie has been properly memorialized and remembered. Even though I’d naturally spend a good portion of the weekend choked up, what chokes me up more is the incredible response the event has had and the sheer number of people who have told us they are coming. High school friends (both my parents and mine), people Mom used to work with, people I knew growing up in Manotick, Boston, Toronto etc. Gwen is coming all the way from Florida so I think she wins the long distance prize. Which, luckily for me, is to clean the gazebo. Congratulations Gwen and we’ll see you tomorrow with you knee pads and wire brushes!

And in all seriousness – thanks again to everyone for all their support, fond memories, help and friendship. Mom was truly loved and she’d be beyond flattered by the festivities which will be taking place on the land she planned to retire to in her honor. So flattered, in fact, that she might even have had a second glass of red wine were she here on Saturday. Miss you like crazy, Bunz, and I hope you’re able to drop in and see the legacy you’ve left behind. From wherever you are. But just for the one day though because I’m here by myself most of the time and would probably be pretty freaked out otherwise.

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First Day with the New Workflow


in Worky

Hearkening back to my post last week about how to best integrate an iPhone with an existing, primarily Microsoft-based work process – I think I may finally have it. And I say ‘finally’ because I’ve been hammering away at this like one of the Seven Dwarves ever since. This whole mess really deserves a graphic of some sort, but part of the new flow is that I start work promptly at 9am – so that will have to wait.

I get up at 7:30, shower, feed the dogs then 8-9 is for blogging, RSS feed reading and personal email. At 9am the whistle blows and currently I’ve got only 9 minutes to finish this post. If that sounds rigid it’s because it is – and I need it to be that way.

dopey-dwarfEmail: I’ve abandoned Outlook for Thunderbird – a free, open source and lightning-fast email client with many of the same features and none of the ridiculous loading or lag time. I’ll write more on all these new cogs in my workflow wheel later.

Calendar: Google Calendar was the hands-down winner due to the fact it’s compatible, or has a plugin, for just about every productivity application out there. It plays well with others.

Contacts: Still working this one through. I’d love it to be Thunderbird, but it’ll likely end up being Plaxo as I already have a well-worn account there and the import/export and networking features are slick. Ideally I’d like something that can sync comfortably back-and-forth with my iPhone.

Tasks: This is the discovery I’m really excited about, as I am a GTD disciple and list-making maniac. You name it and I’ve tried it – Remember the Milk, the native Outlook task list, SimpleGTD, etc. After my own painstaking research and reading about 100 blog posts on the subject there is a very clear winner: Toodledo. Thank goodness I found this wonderful site, its iPhone application, Google Calendar and FireFox plugins and iGoogle gadget. My task list nerdery will now know no bounds.

I’ll revisit this post throughout the day (but only during scheduled breaks for personal time, mind you!) and update you on how the new workflow is working out. Wish me luck, and if you feel a need to remark “Gee, Dave. I remember my first beer,” I’ll understand.

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33 Reasons Janet Rules


in Heartwarming

I could actually list 33 reasons my little sister is the coolest – but that would take all morning. Will you good people settle for a quick 5?

janet-dave-tub
“What’s with all the bubbles, bro? Mom says there’s no such thing as sea monsters.”

  1. She looks just like me. Not the other way around – I was here first.
  2. She loves to perform back-breaking landscaping work getting ready for her Mother’s memorial. Although that particular trait won’t begin until next week.
  3. She’s excellent at pool, and will only get better now that we have our own table!
  4. She actually cooks for fun. Which is, in turn, very fun for me.
  5. She is an excellent dog-mommy.

janet-pumpkin
Pumpkin and Janet make up after the previous evening’s kerfuffle.
(It’s hard to see, but she has a ginormous bandage on her chin.)

Happy birthday Janet! Seems like only yesterday you were making fun of me for turning 33. Not so bloody funny anymore, is it? And what better way to celebrate someone’s special day than with embarassing photos I just dug out of storage? Actually, they’re not that bad – but only because there are still about 9 boxes I haven’t gone through. Perhaps we’ll require a part 2.

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Ridin’ With my Pixie


in Animalistic

pixie-charger
I have to ride in the back again? I’m calling Sharpton.

Yes, she resembles a retarded Mogwai. Or may also be the result of a genetic experiment which crossed a piglet with an adult male bullfrog. But little Pixie Pye is all mine – and I loves her! She’s fitting in well with the family and I can’t wait for her to meet Janet and Rhuby next week. The Three Fugsketeers will come together at last!

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Workflow Confessions – Helping You Help Me.


in Worky

In an attempt to better utilize my new Apple-flavored device for work-related tasks, I am attempting to transfer my email universe completely out of Outlook and into Gmail/Calendar. Last night I installed Remember the Milk on the phone and also added plugins for it to Gmail and GCalendar. This quad-fecta should conceivably connect my task list, calendar, email addresses, phone numbers, email accounts and all in a mobile-friendly manner.

juggleThere is, however, a problem. I’ve been using Outlook for over a decade and I’m having a really hard time envisioning GMail ever having the fanatical level of organization that I’m used to and require – lest I lose the plot, tear off my shirt and go sit at the end of my dock for the rest of the business day.

There are no folders. Filters can replace Outlook rules, but there are no folders to sort mail into. I don’t like the way the conversation threads have the most recent emails at the bottom of the page. Having all 7 of my frequently used email accounts aggregated into GMail should be convenient – but I don’t like having it all bundled together on the same screen – even with GMail’s “labels” attached to each separate account. Am I doomed to return to Microsoft’s diabolical fold? I’ve attempted similar transformations in the past.

Here’s what I’d like. Nay – what I’d love. Share your systems. We all have one. Especially if you use GMail. Share your personal processes and workflows here in the comments and list any online or application based tools you depend on to get the job done. How does everything talk to each other? Phone syncs? IMAP? POP? Let’s get it all out on the table. I’ll get the ball rolling with some specific items to address:

  1. What do you use for email?
  2. How do you manage your contact list?
  3. To what extent is your mobile device part of your workflow?
  4. What do you use for a calendar?
  5. Have you modified any of the above with plugins or addons?

Take it from there, if you dare. You’ll feel better, I’ll blatantly steal your best ideas and we may all learn something useful in the process. You make me want to be a more productive man.

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BonniePye.com Launches to Universal Applause


in Heartwarming

Janet and I have created a website for our Mom which we’d like to share with all of you: www.BonniePye.com.

If you would like more information on the memorial service we are hosting at our house next month, please visit the “Memorial” tab. We have included directions, local accommodation information and absolutely everyone is welcome.

We encourage you all to leave your own thoughts or memories of Bonnie on the “Add a Memory” page.

If you would like to contribute photos of Bonnie to the “Gallery” section, please scan and email them to dave (at) davepye.com.

Thanks very much for all of the support, calls and letter we received during the last two months. Mom was graced with some incredible friends. Hope to see some of you Saturday, May 16th!

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Wednesday Wadio: Doves ‘House of Mirrors’


in Wednesday Wadio

Since I wrote my January piece on the first single, Jetstream, the Doves’ latest album, Kingdom of Rust, has enjoyed a long and glorious reign on my car stereo. I’ve had a huge soft spot for the band since their inception in the mid-nineties, and unlike many of their “Brit Pop” contemporaries they’ve managed both a longevity and musical evolution that has surprised many critics and fans. I doubt they’ll ever be able to write another song as special to me as 2002’s There Goes the Fear that’s not a bad thing because I doubt any band ever will (it’s my favorite song, evah). But I got’s to tell you – House of Mirrors comes pretty gosh darn close. Have a listen…

“If you don’t move to this song I would suggest seeing a doctor right away.” – YouTube Comment

Although KOR is their 4th album in 9 years, it’s been 48 long months since Some Cities and I have wondered more than once if it might be Doves‘ final output. I finally got to see them in Boston on that tour and watching them close with ‘Fear‘ mere feet from the stage was a crowning moment in my extensive concert-going history. Here are some photos from the evening which took place in 2005 at Avalon (now House of Blues) on Landsdowne Street. My worries were, thank goodness, unfounded as the boys from Manchester have quietly returned to surprise us all.

Vagrant-stomping drums, a Spectoresque wall of sound, rockabilly guitar riffs and a chorus that makes me want to roll down my windows at a red light in a busy intersection and embarass myself. How’s that for a testimonial? In skimming reviews of the record as a whole last night I discovered quite a few others.

“House Of Mirrors effortlessly puts one over on the Last Of The Shadow Puppets’ 60s throwbacks with a crashing burst of Ennio Morricone-influenced fingersnaps and Goodwin bellowing like Scott Walker over the top – it’s one of the finest songs they’ve ever recorded.” – MusicOMH.com

“House Of Mirrors shatters along like some unearthed gem from Joe Meek’s record box.” – BBC

Doves-band-manchester

D’ya like our new beards, geezer?”

“… the more euphoric the music gets; the more miserable everyone in the songs becomes. “Home feels like a place I’ve never been,” protests Goodwin as a preposterously uplifting psychedelic soul stomp called House of Mirrors achieves vertical takeoff.” – Guardian

“Perhaps this restlessness is indicative of certain frustration on Doves’ part in seeing their efforts eclipsed by less imaginative, more mawkish Britpop bands, and in turn, a desire to distance themselves from the sad-sack pack; it’s hard to imagine the likes of Elbow turning in something quite as fierce and paranoid as “House of Mirrors”, a fuzz-soaked stomper punctuated by jarring, bump-in-the-night sound effects.” – Pitchfork

See? I told you it was good. I told ya! Placing these quotes in my own personal testament isn’t as much an effort to back up my own opinion – which I was tremendously confident in the very first time I heard the tune while zipping along the Mass Pike – as they are a desire to point out the way in which the fickle industry is welcoming the band back with open arms. This is a very difficult feat to accomplish (ask Travis, for example), and restores my faith in music being able to get along on its merits alone. For the record, I thought the last Travis record was really good, Pitchfork. You guys vivisected it.

Although there is no shortage of stand-out tracks on Kingdom Of Rust – ‘Winter Hill’ and ‘Birds Flying Backwards’ in particular – House of Mirrors is the one that really grabbed me by the short and curlies. You can grab the record by clicking the album cover above or even just the one song when you get there. This is one to own, kids.

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Meet Owen and Max Harkins!


in Heartwarming

As I eluded in Sunday’s post, at 5 a.m. on that magical morning the world became a better place because Max and Owen Harkins entered it. A big congratulations to Susan, Matt and their families. Of which I am glad to be a peripheral member.

owen-harkins
Meet Baby Owen. We’re now officially only about 40 years from a sequel to Throw Mama from the Train.

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Friday’s Quizzlet: Live and in Technicolor


in Friday's Quizzlet

Last week’s user-submitted quizzlet was a lot of fun, no? Shall we do it again? I’m about to send out Facebook and Twitter requests for questions and I will add to this post as they come in. Please leave your questions in the blog comments. Update: Sweet Jesus. Stop before I end up on a government list.

Appetizer: If you could berate a pro sports athlete at a match, etc. who would it be? – Gary P.

I’ve never been a fan of his, but after last Saturday’s Bruins vs. Islanders match – “The Pest”, Sean Avery. Click the link if you’ve yet to see him thwap the back of Bruins’ goalie Tim Thomas’ head with his stick starting a donnybrook which hardly helped New York’s situation. There is hockey goonery, which I fully encourage, and then there’s hockey douchebaggery. I’d like to take a Gatorade bucket and dump it over his head. In the middle of a rink after a game that would be awfully chilly! Not to mention it would be filled with carbolic acid.

Soup: How are you and Spud getting along now that you’ve inherited him? – Anneliese R.

Surprisingly well, thank you. You were here the day he bit my face and scarred the frig out of it two summers ago. Whether I deserved it or not, there are two types of cats: ones that bite to wound and ones that bite to warn. Spud is of a third type which bites to maim. Anyhew, not only are we getting along but he sleeps in my bed, follows me around the house, sits with me, purrs constantly – it’s amazing. I guess he knows where his mouse is buttered now.

Salad: How many dogs can one man own? – Kent H.

Three. I didn’t even have to think about it. There are several factors to consider in regards to how many canines one household can sustain, but only one of them is worth discussing – it’s what I like to call the “creature to lawn landmine threshold ratio”. It looks something like this:

Number of dogs x 2 poops each a day / lawn acreage = C.L.L.R.

Currently I’m maxxed out. I have my stainless steel dustpan on a pole, my little doo-doo rake and I’m constantly hovering over the grass looking for dead soldiers as it is. If another dog were to be added to the mix I’d be buried in a mountain of recycled Eukanuba by Labor Day.

nero-eric-bana

Main Course: Thanks to a relatively new area of science called String Theory, physicists and cosmologists are on the cusp of unifying Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity (the theory of the very big) with quantum theory (the theory of the very small). If their calculations prove true, it will mean that our universe sits within a sea of parallel universes that existed long before The Big Bang. Could you give me your take on the implications of parallel universes and pre-Big Bang physics? What does this stuff mean for mankind? – Mark B.

My head just started throbbing. The answer to your questions, however, are obvious. The implications of a parallel universe were well documented in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and I’m not going to jump through hoops for you and rehash it all here. What does it mean for mankind? Well – we’re fucked, basically. Especially after Nero warps in on May 8th.

Dessert: If you had to cut off one of your fingers from each hand, which ones would you pick? – Staci D.

You can’t live without your thumb. Watch the Pope of Greenwich Village for more detail on that point. Your index finger enables you to pick your nose, point and poke. The middle finger – enough said. And the pinkie is just way too adorable. Reminds me of my mother telling me nursery rhymes about pigs. The third finger, however, doesn’t even have a nickname. So lop those suckers off on both hands. If for no other reason than I can look like I’m throwing the goat, 24/7.

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Introducing Pixie Pye!


in Animalistic

Back in February, when Mom was particularly bad, Shep’s breeder graciously offered to take care of him for a few days. When I returned to pick him up Megan mentioned to me that Pixie, who was Shepherd 1.0‘s mother, had to have an emergency spay after her most recent litter was delivered and as a result would be put up for adoption should I be interested. I had always adored Pixie – she was the first Boston Terrier I ever really met in my life – so the wheels started turning.

A bit of background – you may recall that the first litter Janet and I were supposed to get our puppies from, parented by Pixie and Oscar, died of the equivalent of canine SIDS. The impending existence of an “accidental” litter became apparent to the breeder a few days later, parented by Cricket and Oscar this time, and Megan called to let me know Janet and I would have first choice of those puplets when the time came. Hence we went on to become fanatical Boston Terrier people. Just call me Rose McGowan.

The bottom line is that Shep is an incredible pain in the butt when the two of us are up here alone and his sister is with my sister in Boston. He sits beside my office chair and whines all darn day. When Rhuby is here, however, they keep each other amused to no end. This was the basis on which I made the decision to adopt Pixie last week – and I picked her up Monday night right after I got back from Beantown. The breeder told me that she was “elated” that I wanted the dog because three other families she interviewed with didn’t work out. Whether the people sucked, or I’ve just adopted Satan spawn, remains to be seen.

IMG 0849
“What did you just say about my new brother?”

She’s small for a Boston Terrier with a muscular little frame that shoots around the house at breakneck speeds. She’s not too fond of the cats as of yet and frequently corners them before barking in their faces until I come and drag her away. She snores like a sailor and makes little grunting sounds constantly which may cause some to mistake her for a pot-bellied pig – but I assure you it’s beyond cute. Snoring will begin literally 20 seconds after she puts her head down, so let me change my previous comparison to “drunken” sailor.

Two days before I picked her up she was in a scrap with another of the breeder’s dogs, “Dancey” who managed to tear a big hunk out of her left brow. I’ve been doing my best to keep it clean and closed which is why you’ll see a band aid in some of her pictures. I am now of the opinion that Crazy Glue should be a feature of every first aid kit.

So far so good. I love the little monster, and the fact that she’s named after my favorite band made the decision that much easier. Destiny turned on the Terrier, perhaps. Stay tuned for more silly puppy photos and videos featuring my new muse – Pixie Pye! Click for the full gallery.

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Help Get Stan Rogers a Star on Canada’s Walk of Fame


in Canadiana, Musical

stan-rogers-songwriterIf you don’t know who Stan Rogers was, that’s OK – he’s been dead since 1983 (went back to pull other passengers out of a burning plane even after he himself had escaped) and never permeated the American mass music market the way many other Canadian bands have. And by “Canadian bands” I of course mean the Bare Naked Ladies. If you’d like to learn more about this remarkable musician please visit the Wadio post I did on Stan Rogers a year and a half ago.

There’s currently a petition to have Rogers awarded a posthumous star on Canada’s Walk of Fame – and I think that’s a damn good idea. I’ve loved his saltwater-soaked sea tales since my father first played them for me as a child. In fact, modern bands like the Decemberists must surely count him as an influence.

Barrett’s Privateers – You have to watch this!

They need at least 5,000 signatures by noon eastern time on April 30th and currently have less than 2,000, apparently. The person leading the Stan Rogers charge, and who created the Facebook group I belong to wrote me only this morning. A for effort, my friend:

“Please sign so that when I meet with the Walk’s selection committee on April 30th I can show Stan Rogers was truly admired.”

It’s really hard to believe this is even in contention or being discussed. The man is a national treasure and definitely should have been in line for a star before Brendan Fraser (2006) or Celine Dion (1999). I signed the petition a few months ago and it takes seconds. If you’re a Stan fan then please take 2 minutes today and add your name to the petition. For the love of Trebek.

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