Coucoumellisms

Certain things happened at my part-time job which led me to seriously consider quitting.  It turns out that I did not have to quit, because I was fired instead, with no real explication why (although I have a few hunches).  I was more than happy to leave, it saved me the bother of going through agonizing weeks of " Do I continue and see if it gets better even though I don't foresee it getting better soon or do I quit now? " I suppose that this was God's not so gentle nudge out the door and through a new one.  This particular job experience gave me the desire to work for myself, at something I LIKE to do. For years now, people have been telling me I should make pinatas to sell.  So I decided I would start up my own business, making pinatas, painting pictures, and sewing things to sell. It took a while to finally come up with a logo that I liked, that looked professional. I wanted it to be something mushroom-y because the coucoumelle is a mushroom. I also wa...

... well sort of... I just kind of thought it really funny when, last night, after I scored two goals on a team we haven't really played before, suddenly they were all like:  "No! No! Stay on her!!"  And "Look, this is what she does... watch her..." Uh guys, as much as I enjoy being talked about like that, (it's good for the ego) I'm not really that good.  (Actually, the one you normally have to watch for is Jean-Alexandre, but he wasn't feeling all that good yesterday, so he didn't stand out much.  But he's the goal scorer.) The secret to my goal scoring (and to our team wins) is team work.  The rest of my team does all the work, while I stand somewhere near the net and wait for an opportunity.  Well okay, I do some work too, but seriously, I don't run as fast as the guys, so they still do more work than I do.  Also, we pass.  A lot.  Many of the other teams don't seem to have that connection, that pass-back-and-forth-all-the-t...

... one of them looks up at the moon and says, "That looks like a Jesus's body."

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... but on the other hand, I happened to be right beside someone on the other team, when they lost the ball. I immediately took it, turned around, and found noone in front of me. So I did what any self-respecting soccer player does, I ran for the goal. She shoots. She scores!!!

Nicolas: How come some of the mothers (of the preschool children) never come get their kids? Me: Well, some of the mothers can't come because they have to work. Nicolas: Well, you come. Me: Yes, but I don't have to work. Nicolas: Yes you do, you go get the groceries. I'm glad someone appreciates what I do as being "work". :)

Dear friend of Jeanne Chabot, PublishAmerica is proud to announce the recent release of Jeanne Chabot's new book: Be Not Afraid! Here's what the author says about the book: The day of her marriage, Isabella stands looking over the edge of her parents' terrace onto a busy passageway below. She desperately searches for a way out as she is faced with an arranged marriage she doesn't want. The daughter of a high-class couple, the man she loves is a common worker, outspoken in his fight for social justice in this society of the future which greatly resembles our past in many ways. Isabella has followed him in taking up the fight alongside other young men and women. This eventually leads to the death of one and the exile of the other. This is a story about keeping faith alive, fighting for what is right and never abandoning hope. It is also about finding love again where you did not expect it. We are offering you an opportunity to secure your personal copy of Jeanne Chabot’s ...

I have mentioned before that I was writing a story. I finally finished it awhile ago. I've been correcting and re-writing since, and last week I sent it in to the publisher that published a book by my father. They want to publish it! I just have to send the final copy in by September 1, and I have to find a new title for the book. Desert Storm is already taken. I am currently brainstorming and have come up with a few tentative titles: The High Road Hope Sang The Merchant's Daughter The Passage Hope Whispers Still brainstorming though.

... I've finished the first draft of my first novel and I'm now starting a second... Ever since she could remember, the seashore had always been Maria’s favourite place to escape to. It was a constant in her life, never the same twice, yet always there. Some days, the seagulls scattered into the air, screaming loudly as she walked past. Some days, the ocean was calm, some days huge crests rolled in and broke against the boulders scattered here and there along the coast. Some days the ocean was grey and angry, other days it was blue and serene, but it was always there, and it called to her as she stood, bare toes digging into the fine white sand. This was one of the subplots in my first novel and it's going to become my second novel. The above citation is the beginning paragraph.

I have officially finished the first rough draft of my first novel ever. It isn't the first I've ever started, but definitely the first I've gotten more than half-way through without getting bored of it and going on to something else. I'm busy printing it out double-spaced as I write this, so I can read through it at my leisure and add things or re-write them, or take them out. But hey... I'VE GOT A NOVEL FOLKS!!!

This year, Dominic got lucky, he had two pinatas. The first was the best one, and we shared it with our American cyberbuddies when we went apple-picking near Albany NY. Dominic and his raptor baby, just hatching.. The second one was supposed to be a red soccer ball, but unfortunately turned out looking something more like a brain... some alien brain... Dominic hits the pinata at his birthday party He did have fun running around with the broken pinata on his head afterwards, pretending to be Ironman. Gabriel liked Dominic's first pinata so much, that he put forth his order, one just like it. I was a bit disappointed to be doing the same thing, so I asked him if he really wanted the same dinosaur or if he preferred a different one. To my relief, he said he wanted a triceratops instead. Gabriel and his baby triceratops, just hatching.

If you were to walk into my kitchen, it would not be immediately apparent that, at heart, I am a girl who likes to be organized. I like things to have a place and to be neatly organized in a stylish, but practical way. It has to be easy to get at, easy to put away and logical. I have always enjoyed classing things and organizing things. It would only take one look at my kitchen counter however, to believe exactly the opposite of me. There, you will see empty milk bags that children have left there instead of rinsing them and putting them in the recycling. You will see the occasional half-eaten and rusting apple. You will see an endless amount of toys and other miscellaneous objects that I have picked up off the floor with the intention of returning them back to whence they came. Papers abound, as do stamps, crayons, and other office paraphernalia. My counter is, 80 % of the time, a catch-all for everything. And there is no room for me to prepare meals. Every once in awhile I get suffic...

Came across this tutorial while looking for patterns for possible costumes: http://www.livinghistory.co.uk/homepages/medievaldress/Page_1x.html This dress is based on simple shapes and uses remarkably little fabric. Most people can get the size they need out of 3m of a standard 60" wide fabric. Choose a decent linen or fine wool for accuracy, but the dress will also make up well in more fun fabrics such as velvet or furnishing brocade. The pattern is based on fourteenth century examples excavated in Greenland and adapted very slightly for ease of manufacture. I decided that before I tried it out on myself and Maryssa, I would wing it with a doll. Now, the doll I chose is arguably not the best option for trying out a pattern for humans because said doll has a very large neck and very little shoulder width. So I improvised a bit. The next time I make one of these, the gores (triangular pieces in the skirt) will definitely be of a contrasting colour, at least the one down the front a...

Yep... I've been doing this for, hmmm... 4 years now. I don't always have something interesting to say. I don't always have something profound to say either. Sometimes I even just copy and paste other people's articles. But doing this has been more than just good for getting things out of my system, it's been good for going back and remembering things, or even going back and pulling things out again that I want to use in my book. It's been a real help, and maybe the reason I'm actually going to eventually finish this book I started. Since I have a headache and I don't have any profound thoughts on having a blogoversary nor how this is going to shake the foundations of your personal universe, I am going to end this here. Happy blogoversary to me.

Probably one of the best compliments I have ever received in my life comes from a card written to me from my brother, just hours before he got married: ... you, as big sister, have always looked out for me, and in many things, you've been a role model, especially your resilient cheerfulness which I know is rooted in the faith we share,... I don't know about always having looked out for him, I seem to remember a bit of fighting back in the good old days. I also know that acting happy when one does not feel happy is by no means something that I have always done, nor do all the time now. But I came to realize quite a few years ago that people don't tend to enjoy being around a self-pitying person and have since then worked on at least seeming happy. And you know, when you joke about things that are going wrong, it makes them easier to deal with. So, if someone thinks that I have resilient cheerfulness, to me that is a great compliment and some kind of sign that yes, I am pe...

The other day, I was at my neighbour's place and he gave me some old snowsuits of his son's for Nicolas. They were hanging on the doornob and he mentioned that one of the hangers was broken. His son said, "Yeah, but she can probably fix it." It's nice to know that someone has such a high opinion of my abilites.

Since I have posted these pictures just about everywhere I have an account on the web, I may as well post at least one here. This was my latest project, a wolf pinata for Dominic's birthday. This is one of my favourites to date. You can check out some of the others here: http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2005/09/introducing.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2006/03/pinata-time-again_22.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2006/10/working-on-yet-another-pinata.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2006/11/gabriels-birthday-party.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2007/04/tale-of-pinata.html http://coucoumelle.blogspot.com/2005/09/while-we-are-on-topic-of-pinatas.html Or just click on 'pinatas' under LABELS on the right-hand side there, and that'll take you to them all. The poor wolf is going to be destroyed tommorrow. So I am going to admire him all I can today.

J'ai compté un but! J'ai compté un but!!! Après notre match regulier, il n'y avait pas personne qui jouait, alors on nous a proposé de rester et de jouer un peu pour le fun. Alors j'ai dit que je voulais essayer de jouer en attaque, et.... ... j'ai compté un but!!! J'ai déjoué quelqu'un et alors il n'y avait plus personne entre moi et le gardien de but. Puisque je joue toujours en défense et je suis une fille en plus, personne ne s'est forcé spécialement pour moi. J'ai donné un coup de pied, mais le ballon est allé trop loin, le gardien s'en venait le chercher, j'ai couru vite l'attraper avant lui, alors c'est là qu'il a hésité, et a reculé me donnant la chance de pousser le ballon en arrière de lui. Le ballon a rebondi un peu et en même temps, moi je suis tombée presque la face à terre, mais le ballon a dépassé le gardien, et s'en allait lentement vers le but. Personne n'y était pour l'arrêter. Il s'en ...

Someone told me today that talking with me was something like having a mental orgasm. Apart from being a wonderful complement, it made me think of Christopher West's book Good News for Sex and Marriage. He describes sex between a husband and wife as a sacrament, as being the closest thing on earth to what we will have in Heaven being in Communion with God and each other. He compares sex to the Eucharist. Sex is something sacred, something holy, something extremely beautiful. It is good to have friends on earth with whom one can achieve this type of "spiritual orgasm". Some people are lucky enough to be married to people with whom they can achieve both spiritual and corporal orgasm. It reminds of a song that Enrique Iglesias sings. Actually one of the better ones in his repertory: Experiencia Religiosa . I don't know who wrote this, but I wonder if he knew how close he really was to the truth? I wonder if Enrique Iglesias ever realized it? Somehow I doubt it. Experie...