Summer Solstice Night

What? No pagan ritualistic ceremony celebrating the longest day of the year event?

We met a new peer volunteer tonight and her name is Brittany. She goes to the same school as Joan and is in Grade 11. See Kyle...they need to replace you with not one, but two peer volunteers.

In the house we have Aldo, Jeffrey, Julian, Vanessa, Emily.
I have known Julian for a while. He has been in Children's for the last couple of days and is in the house after being released from there. His mum and dad are with him and they watched the EUFA World Cup together on the Kid's Floor.

Some neat things happened tonight.
First off a great idea came from a conversation about chairs. Brittany suggested an event called "Pimp my Ride". I was complaining that few of the kids take their chairs and really do them up. Other than a few stickers they are very cool rides without the panache. What about lights? Sound systems? Most have hydraulics so they are already in the low riders category. I think that we can have a teen night for both boys and girls to do up their chairs. Get some sponsorship for the event and I see great things happening!

After dinner we went to the TV room to figure out what to do. Brittany had asked what we do on Friday nights because on Teusday it is Movie Night. Movie Night? There is a Tuesday Movie Night? WHat about Friday? I told her that we hang on Fridays. We figure out what the kids want to do and go from there.
Vanessa, being a nearly 15 year old wanted to escape the grounds, Jeffrey is pretty much keen to do anything, Aldo wants to play on the computer, and Emily is just hanging. How far can we go? Vanessa just wants to roll down any steep hil so she is thinking about getting to Granville and Broadway as a destination. A quick check with the nurses lets us take off, but we had to leave Aldo and Elisabeth at home; both are still having supper through their tummy tubes. Aldo, Tony, and Joan caught up with us a little later.
We made it all the way down to Strabucks where Vanessa bought a tea for herself and a hot chocolate for Jeffrey. Then we turned around and made our way back up the hill. Vanessa's chair is not a power chair so I got a bit of a workout going up Granville!

Back at the house we ended up in the school room playing a trivial pursuit Disney game: boys against girls. It was all going in favour of the boys until Aldo joined the dark side. His final answer won the game. I thought it was boys against girls?

Soap Box Update

It is early days yet to report on the advancement of the Red Bull Soap Box Derby idea but Leanne has taken the idea from her computer and written it down on paper...to be ready to meet with the movers and shakers of the house...i hope we get the support we need!

An Idea.....

Here is an email I sent to Leanne at the House...I hope it works!

Hi Leanne,

I am trying to convince my friend Mark to enter into the redbull soap box derby with me.
Our biggest challenge is finding the components to build a super duper soap box derby cart...herein named 'super duper soab box derby cart for canuck place'.

Why am I emailing you and Ian?

You first...you are the contact lady....you know everybody...one word from you can create a veritable cavalcade of support.
Why Ian? He looks like an 'ideas man' and the house might be a really good place to build the cart known as the 'super duper soab box derby cart for canuck place' and since he is the master of the house...his support really counts!

This is the race: http://www.redbullsoapbox.ca/the-race.php

I have no idea why I want to do this other than the fact that it looks like fun and the dangerous stupidity appeals to me.
Why Mark? He is the buffer zone between stupidity and serious injury. He has raced cars, is a professional stuntman, and is truly an ideas man when it comes to figuring out and building things.

Why Canuck Place? Any opportunity I can seize to put the Canuck Place banner up is a good opportunity for me.

How can you help? Help me spread the word that components for a super duper soap box derby cart for canuck place are needed: sturdy set of axles and wheels, devices to control steering and stopping, and some thing to mount them all onto.

what a stupidly good idea....right?? I can try be a media whore as well and try go through red bull marketing and drum up support for the house!

Let me know your thoughts...and share mine with everybody at the house who likes to do things like this!
Malcolm

Stellar Bike Modifications

I have decided to commit The Bike to the race (unless a bike benefactor comes forward). I am truly excited by the modifications of this classic BRC Bonzai. The Bull horn handle bars are gone. I cut them off and moved my brake levers in to the middle as much as possible. Now these sleek lines will allow me to drive by things without fear of catching the handle bars on a tree or side mirror.

thrilling news!

I received an email from Stephani the Adventure Challenge Coordinator stating that I had won the early bird prize draw for fundraising !! Guess what it was? A signed Canucks Jersey! Going to pick it up today!
Thank you Stephani!

Friday Night

It was a very quiet night at the house. Tony and I were both on hand and we have with us a new peer volunteer. Joan is a grade 12 student from a local private school. Our old peer volunteer has left us (we think) and did so without us saying goodbye! We do know that he has been accepted to med school...somewhere.

RIBS!! Ribs were on the table and I had a huge stack of them! Tonight there were more PCA's, nurses, and volunteers at the table. Janice and Daria were with us...snacking a bit and getting plugged into their tummy tubes. Janice was restless...really restless. I opted out of my RIBS(!!) and went away with Janice. Word on the street was that she absolutely loves Barney...the purple dinosaur. I though that Barney was outlawed years ago. Having opted out of my RIBS(!!) I opted out of Barney. Instead we went upstairs to the art room.

Janice is about...oooh...she could be anywhere from 6 to 9! I just don't know. Janice doesn't speak but communicates just fine with her face and eyes...and some unique sign language to which I am not privvy to what the signs mean! Earlier in the day Janice unclipped herself from her seatbelt and tried the quick crawl away from Melissa, a Friday afternoon Family Volunteer.
The prospect of painting piqued her interest so I got her suited up with a smock, some paper, paint and brushes. Not bad technique, until the paint brushes started to make their way to Janice's mouth. Time to put them away and do a bit of a clean up. That was fun! Janice liked washing her own hands in the sink. We did that for about 10 minutes.
After clean up we went outside to play some hoop. Janice could catch the ball with a very gentle toss onto her lap. She had more fun rolling it to the bushes than back to me. A bit later we went to the swing, and then we wandered the beautiful garden.
While we were talking Janice would use a couple of signs whenever I mentioned Sponge Bob on her shirt. She would stick her left arm out straight and place her right arm on her left shoulder. Then she would rub her nose with her knuckles...just like my buddy Buck did all the way through highschool with his itchy nose. Then she would giggle. I copied her everytime hoping that it didn't mean she had to go to the bathroom.
Dalia, Tony and Joan came out for a walk.

Soon it was time for her bath and a PCA came out to find us to take her in.
The three of us continued walking, Tony and I talking while Joan pushed Dalia. A few laps around the block and it was time to come in.

There was a family in the house with their son. Mum and Dad and Dylan made it down to the TV room downstairs...they has X-Box on their mind and we joined them in a ROUSING contest of the NEED FOR SPEED X Box race offs. This is the only time I have been successful against anyone in the house. Usually the kids kick my sorry rear end on every game.