Margo à la Maude

...but her fans will likely know that Margo was trying to cut her much anticipated studio album, Duets with Kraftwerk. Sorry... the chemistry just wasn't there.

We're back from two weeks on the Prairies with the extended family, where Margo got to meet Grandma, Grandpa, cousins, an auntie, an uncle, Grandmaman, Grandpapa, taties, tontons, grandoncle... okay, you get the picture... FAMILY.

There's a lot to say about the trip, and a LOT of developments, the biggest of which being that LaDouce can now flip from her back to her stomach, and will respond to us shaking our head by maniacally shaking her own head, laughing like a James Bond villain with a laser. That said, I'm going to have to let the events trickle out in due time, because there's too much for one post. Just a little bit tonight.

We flew from Ontario to Manitoba and drove to Saskatchewan. FYI, this is a very large distance.

There are many differences between where we live and where we visited, but the main one, as far as Margo is concerned, can be measured with a hygrometer. Eastern Ontario is very humid. It has the St. Lawrence seaway running along its border, the Great Lakes to the south, other major water systems around, and, relatively speaking, kind of sort of close to the Atlantic.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan are both synonymous Cree words for "dry enough to have your skin spontaneously crack open." It's a rough translation, but you get the general idea.

And what does this mean for Margo?



On the left is Ontario Margo, and Prairie Margo can be seen on the right.

I really wish that this were just a case of photo manipulation, but it's the real deal, and sadly, the real genetic deal. Sorry, Dear Daughter, but you've got Papa's hair.

The other interesting thing is that the Saskatchewan government has erected giant automated roadside career counsellors. As you can see, Margo's SK career counsellor has narrowed her future career down to either being a gas jockey, a chef, a giant apple in a breadloaf-shaped farm building, a teeter-totter referee, a mechanic or a fisherperson. Or maybe that last one symbolizes that she will become the press operator who makes those Jesus-fish plaques that people afix to the back of their cars to show that they are practicing Christians. The interpretation was meant to be fuzzy.


Okay, for realsies... there is a connection with the town of Margo, Saskatchewan, and our daughter. It's part of her family history. It was only a very small detour to go visit on the way from Donna's family to my family, so why not. We swung through the town, about 40-50 km east of Wadena (Pamela Wallin's birthplace) around 9:00 a.m. It's a small town, to be sure, but the area did see it's share of my grandfather's generation settle there. And it all came together to make this child. Thank god they homesteaded where they did; a few kilometers north, and you would have been reading the Pickle Lake Ecological Reserve Gazette.

So, we're back. The day after we got back, the Christmas gifts that we received from family and friends in SK, but were not allowed to bring on the plane because of airline weight restrictions, arrived. All THIRTY-FIVE KILOS of gifts. It reminds me of Jerry Maguire, when Tom Cruise is trying to convince Renée Zellweger of why she shouldn't break up with him and why they should be together and she says "you had me at hello."

Really, guys... you had me at garlic dill pickles.

- Michel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 03, 2007 at 11:11 p.m.. You can skip to the end and leave a response.