Explaining Roller Derby

If you are a serious fan of this blog, you may have noticed over in the sidebar, in David's shared Google Reader items, the announcement that there is big Ottawa roller derby action this Saturday night at the Sandy Hill Arena.

If Manon and I didn't have a previous commitment, we'd be going. We are serious fans.

I even have a rudimentary understanding of how the sport works and if you are in a restaurant with me, I will be happy to explain it to you using water glasses to represent the pack and salt and pepper shakers to represent the jammers.

If you do not have a chance to dine with me before you go to the roller derby, you might want to try this 2 minute video.

There are some questions I hope to learn the answers to before or during my next roller derby:

• Why would a jammer whose team has a commanding lead end a jam before the two minutes are up?
• Does a jam end if the other jammer passes the lead jammer?
• What's the deal when a jammer gives her star helmet cover to a blocker?

A clematis grows on Lebreton Street

When I bought my house in February 1993, one of the things that I liked about it was that it had virtually no yard so I wouldn't have to do a lot of yard work.

In the spring, after the snow melted and leaves came out, I discovered that I had several flower beds, an apple tree, a cherry tree, two grape vines and several other trees. Over the years, I've left the trees pretty much alone and put in a few flowering perennials.

Along the fence, I thought it would be great to have irises and clematis. The irises worked out very well. But every time I shelled out for a clematis it would go up a few inches and then die. I tried four or five times before deciding that my soil's not deep enough or it's just not right for clematis.

But now Manon gardens here and look what has reached the top of the fence:

Propeller Dance - Shedding Light - Friday and Saturday

Tell your friends and buy your tickets to Shedding Light, Propeller Dance's annual performance showcase and silent auction.

Last year's Lift sold out and was named the best dance performance in Ottawa by Ottawa Xpress. Shedding Light

Friday, June 11 and Saturday, June 12th; 7:30pm

Arts Court Theatre, 2 Daly Ave, Ottawa ON

Tickets - $25 (Students or Low Income - $15) Box Office - 613-564-7240 info@artscourt.ca (2 Daly Ave, Ottawa, ON )

Silent Auction - doors at 6:30pm; payment by cash or cheque only

In the Fountain at Ben Franklin Place

Blogging Woes

There are two reasons I almost didn't blog this week. First of all, too much happened on the weekend. Then there was Monday.

Friday night, it was Spins'n'Needles. [I had fun, but didn't make anything notable. Ed and Eileen who came with us mod-podged things. Ed did his cell phone and Eileen did a button plate for a kitchen fan. It was inspiring.] [Flickr Photos]

Saturday morning, the Great Glebe Garage Sale. [Major score - a working overhead projector for $10.] [Flickr Photos]

Saturday afternoon, the Rogers Cable guy came and determined that the reason I am not getting channels 61, 64, 67, 68 and 69 is a problem on the main line and not in my house. This struck him as funny because I haven't been getting the channels for several months and I'm the first customer who has complained. Since channel 64 is PBS, I'm guessing that none of the Watertown diehards live in my neighbourhood.

After the cable, I obviously needed a nap.

Saturday night, wow! The Roller Derby. Excellent fun. I've found a sport that I enjoy watching. The Rideau Valley Roller Girls posted blowout victories over the their out-of-town opponents. Let me know if you want to come the next time we go. [Flickr Photos]

Sunday was a busy day here at the house.

Okay. Then Monday. Maybe it was the smoke in the air, but I didn't get a good night's sleep and woke up grumpy. Very tempted to call in sick. Halfway to the bus stop, I put my hand in my pocket and discovered I didn't have my bus pass. Back at home, it didn't turn up. So I tossed my bag in the back seat of the car and sat down in the front to drive to work. As I put the key in the ignition I realized I could hear someone talking even though I hadn't turned the key to start the radio. I listened more closely. "Shut up, fool. Shut up, fool. Shut up, fool..."

It was my Mr T in Your Pocket and button 3 must have gotten pushed in when I dropped the bag. I reached back and shook the bag until Mr T shut up. (Although it is called Mr T in Your Pocket, I keep it in my shoulder bag.)

When I arrived at work and took the bag out of the car, he started up again. I had to adjust everything in the front pocket of the bag to get him to stop.

Work was okay except that something came up that prevented me from going for a swim at lunch.

At home, I thought things were on the upswing. Manon cooked a tasty supper for us. Kaye washed the dishes so I didn't have to. There were no good TV shows on so I had a full evening to do a little volunteer coordination for Propeller Dance and write some blog posts.

But first there was a comment to moderate. This is notable because it was an actual comment and not spam. An anonymous person took issue with Marcie's list of exciting things to do in Ottawa. I approved the comment and then went to the posting to put up a reply. But the comment wasn't there. So I went to comment moderation. There were 115 comments awaiting moderation. All spam that I hadn't got around to rejecting. Might as well do this now, I thought.

So I clicked "select all" and then clicked "reject". At least I meant to click "reject". Since the following screen said "115 comments have been published", I must admit that I may clicked "publish" instead.

So instead of blogging last night, I spent the evening deleting comments that you might have found useful if you are looking for verifiable sex or a mobile home park in Oswego, but which I found embarrassing.

The comment on Marcie's post appeared for a while and has now vanished again. I suppose I should go to Blogger's known issues page and see if I can find out what's going on, but it's bedtime.