Monthly Archives: August 2015

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 197: Saying “YES” To The Toilet Paper Wedding Dress

10 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by in Bride, Family, Games, Weddings

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In an attempt to gain a deeper insight of what bridal shower games are available for my daughter’s upcoming bridal shower other than the…

‘Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Game…’

I took the liberty of asking a coworker what her favorite bridal shower game was.

If you’ll remember from my previous post the…

‘Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Game…’

…was the bride-to-be’s personal choice for favourite shower game that she wanted to see included in the festivities.

My coworker’s answer to the question I had put to her was:

“I really like the one where you have to put on pantyhose with oven mitts.”

“Could you repeat that please,” I asked her, hoping that I had heard her wrong.

She repeated it for me, and sadly, yes…

…I had heard her correctly the first time.

I was horrified.

Can you imagine a roomful of women who are already impeccably dressed up for a bridal shower and then asking them to participate in a game by putting on a pair of pantyhose while wearing oven mitts.

I couldn’t.

It was just to painful for me to think about.

Seeing the look on my face, my coworker tried to soften her suggestion by laughingly adding:

“It’s a hoot.”

Only if you enjoy watching women go into contortions, I thought to myself.

My luck, someone would probably put their back out.

I resolved not to ask anymore opinions on shower games.

It was just too dangerous.

The following Sunday, I found myself at a local dollar store picking up odds and ends for the shower.

This included the 36 rolls of toilet paper for the favoured shower game. Thirty guests were invited, and they were to be broken up into groups of thee. That would make three rolls per group plus a few extra rolls for good measure.

In an attempt to make the game a little more interesting I decided to purchase a few additional items to help guests add their own personal touches as they construct their versions of the perfect toilet paper wedding dress:

Scissors
Scotch tape
Duct tape
Crepe paper
Plastic shower curtains
Ribbon
Wool
Garland
Stickers

There, I thought to myself as I watched the cashier bag it up…

I found myself beginning to look forward to the utter madness of the upcoming bridal shower games.

Bring it on.

❤

Photo taken by Holly Gonçalves

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 196: “The Day The Earth Smiled”

07 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in Astronomy, Brian Cox, Carolyn Porco, Cassini, Photography, Robin Ince, Saturn, Science, Space, The Day The Earth Smiled, The Infinite Monkey Cage

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Where were you on July 19, 2013 at approximately 4:30 p.m. EST?

The reason I ask you this, is because that this the exact date when Carolyn Porco, leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission, asked the entire Earth’s population to stop what they were doing and go outside to smile as the unmanned spacecraft Cassini took their picture.

Cassini, at that time was in orbit around Saturn.

This picture became known as…

“The Day The Earth Smiled.”

This photo, which you see above, shows our Earth as the brightest star visible, just right to the centre of the photo.

The following is part of a discussion that Carolyn Porco had during the radio program “The Infinite Monkey Cage,” an irreverent BBC science program hosted by Professor Brian Cox and Robin Ince.

It occurred to Carolyn Porco as she was planning Cassini’s photo shoot of the Earth that:

“Wouldn’t it be great, instead of taking a picture, and then two weeks later telling the people of the world…

‘Hey world, we took your picture two weeks ago…’

…Why don’t we tell the people of the world ahead of time, that in two weeks, or maybe a month’s time that your picture is going to be taken from a billion miles away from the orbit of Saturn.

We should invite them to go out and appreciate the moment that the picture is being taken.”

…

Upon hearing this, I immediately began to think back as to where I would have been on July 19, 2013 which would have been a Friday.

Chances are, I was in bed, sleeping off my night shift.

It was a busy and awkward time for us as we were in the midst of painting, and waiting for the long overdue delivery of some new living room furniture.

I’d like to think that had I known about Cassini’s photo shoot, I would have set the alarm so that I could venture out into my front yard and thereby participated in Cassini’s picture of Earth.

Since I am not able to share a personal account of this occasion, I’m very happy to tell you that one person who was aware of the Cassini drive-by picture taking was Sam.

After the event, Sam wrote to the Cassini Space Mission headquarters and shared his experiences.

Sam wrote:

“Phoebe, age 10 and I got the telescope out on the patio. Under a beautiful, clear Southern British sky we gazed out upon Saturn, revelling in the fact that a space aircraft was looking back on us.

She asked lots of questions about Saturn, and at the appointed time, I raised a glass of fine red wine, she, a glass of fizzy pop. We said said cheers to Saturn, to Cassini, to each other, and then we smiled and waved and cheered and took photos of ourselves both beaming.

It was perfect.”

What a happy occasion that must have been for Sam and Phoebe.

Carolyn Porco reports that many people wrote in and shared their experiences.

Some climbed mountains in an effort to get a wee bit closer to the camera. Some interrupted their meals, to go outside and contemplate their place in the cosmos as Cassini took their snapshot.

I have no doubt that this, personally would have been a stellar occasion for my Parents, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins had we been blessed with the same opportunity.

We all loved that sort of thing.

I’m sure that family members who read this would agree with me that had we been able to celebrate this together in typical fashion…

There would have been food…

There would have been singing…

There would have been prayer…

… And above all, there would have been unmitigated joy.

One can only wonder if Oma (Grandmother) would have removed her glasses, as she always did, when her picture was being taken.

How much cheer that very thought brings me.

For more information…

A You Tube video of raw footage from Cassini can be found here:

To hear this podcast, download the episode THE INFINITE MONKEY CAGE U.S.A. TOUR: SAN FRANCISCO which can be found here:

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-infinite-monkey-cage/id343580439?mt=2&i=348119854

Many thanks to the BBC, Professor Brian Cox, Robin Ince, ‘The Infinite Monkey Cage’ and Carolyn Porco for an incredible episode.

~ ~ ~ ~

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 195: Fifty Shades Of Candy

05 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Candy, Family, Joy, Richard Ayoade, Shower, Turkey, Weddings

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The first thing that I noticed as we walked into the room where Jen had booked the shower were the beautiful tables covered in linen. People were milling about setting tables and preparing the buffet.

That’s when it hit me…

This is really happening.

A bridal shower for my baby girl.

It was a moment.

Then it was time to get to work.

The first things that we unpacked were the boxes and bags of candy that we had been stockpiling for over a month.

I was so looking forward to having a candy bar at Aria’s shower.

It was at my niece’s baby shower that I was first introduced to the concept of a “Candy Bar,” which really captured my imagination.

How glorious it was to have been given a small sack and then to fill it with white chocolate bark, jelly beans, sugared pretzel sticks and a cake pop.

Jen agreed to make the cake pops, and I had resolved to hunt down all the jelly beans, chocolates, ju-jubes, toffee, and lollipops, and let us not forget the bomboniere, or more commonly known as candy coated almonds.

Almost as much fun as hunting down the candy was stalking the store shelves for decorative containers to display our tasty treats. Our favourites were the retro clear glass jars, just like the ones I remember as as a child when I visited the five and dime store.

Jen and Chantel, one of the bridesmaids had volunteered their Victorian cup and saucers sets for added decor.

I can’t believe the fun we had in setting it up.

Even more astounding, is the fact that virtually all the candies arrived at the shower intact and unmolested.

Except of course for a bag of strawberry jujubes that I had commandeered during a weak moment while watching Turkish travel documentaries with Richard Ayoade.

As Jen and I were finally placing the finishing touches to the candy bar, we both stepped back and took in the vision before us.

Willy Wonka would have been proud.

My.Daily.Distraction ~ Post 194: Spring Shower

04 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Bride, Family, Shower, Weddings

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The date we had set for Aria’s bridal shower was June 14.

My oldest daughter Jennifer volunteered to throw the shower.

She booked the hall, arranged the luncheon and picked out the door prizes.

Aria would fly in from Winnipeg for two weeks. This would give her time to finalize her wedding plans and attend her bridal shower.

I had booked off two weeks from work as well. One week before the shower and the week after the shower. One week to prepare, and the following week to recover.

Coincidentally, June 14 date set for the shower was also my parents wedding anniversary.

And that did not exactly end well.

Maybe this is why I found myself so nervous about Aria’s bridal shower.

I really had nothing to fear.

Actually, I did have something to fear.

Aria’s bachelorette party was being held on June 13, the night before her bridal shower.

You would be scared too.

In spite of Aria’s profuse promises that she would still be among the living and hangover free, I still had my doubts.

Then with only days to go before the shower, Aria told me that her bachelorette party had been moved from one night before the shower to two nights before the shower.

Good news indeed.

When Jennifer asked Aria if there was anything that she wanted to see included in the shower, she responded that she wanted the…

“Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Game.”

To be honest, I didn’t much like the sounds of that.

Upon asking for details, I was told that the ladies are split up into groups and given reams of toilet paper. Their job is then to dress a member of their group in a wedding dress fashioned from..

You guessed it…

Toilet paper.

After the allotted time is up, a Fashion show is then held where models show off their toilet paper wedding dresses.

The bride-to-be then picks the winner.

This game struck me as messy, wasteful, and a recipe for disaster.

Both my daughters did their best to calm my fears.

…Again.

Trying to put it out of my mind, I scoured the Internet for a few games of my own.

I successfully managed to find four games that I thought would do nicely, mostly quizzes on wedding-lore and famous couples. After printing off thirty sets on the computer, I collated and stapled them.

Done!

On the day of the shower, I had no idea what to expect.

By 9:00 a.m., we had packed the car with at least a dozen boxes and bags containing all the fixings for throwing a bridal shower: candy, gifts, cake pops, tape, scissors, games, flowers, and forty rolls of toilet paper.

Jen and I had two hours to set up before the guests would begin to arrive.

Seeing as we had lots of stuff to put together, my thoughts as we pulled out of the driveway were:

Will we be ready in time for the guests?

We had so much to do!

This one’s going to be close.

❤