life with more cowbell

So, wow, what a Friday night/weekend of fun and festivities.

kd lang and the Siss Boom Bang played a free concert on Friday night as part of Luminato, on the festival hub stage in the David Pecaut Square at Metro Hall – and they were fantastic! Their opening band, LA-based The Belle Brigade, fronted by a brother/sister duo were also fabulous. It was a perfect evening weather-wise – and I had a blast with pals Kerri, Tricia, Kira and Tina. And Kerri had the pleasure of bumping into kd on the street near Metro Hall the next morning – and had a lovely chat before heading to work. Here’s a YouTube clip from the concert, featuring one of my favourite songs ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ejjUIgCzHk  (thanks, Tina!).

Saturday – and the reason I was learning Sugar, Sugar – was a mid-afternoon rehearsal (at Margot and Shaun Devlin’s house) of a special birthday song (lyrics by Shaun) for a special birthday lady, Alum pal Dorothy Wilson, a fellow Geminii who turned 80. She threw one heck of a celebration at the Hilton on Saturday night, joined by family and friends spanning decades. I hung out with a gang of Alumnae folks and we had a blast. And the song went quite well too, despite the fact that we finished writing it that afternoon and I’d just learned it (and went up without my reading glasses to help me on the cheat sheet).

Father’s Day on Sunday started with brunch with my sis Colleen at Rustic Cosmo (which she treated me to for my recent b’day), then road tripping to Burlington to my parents’ house, where we were joined by our other sibs Brian (with his wife Anne-Marie, and kids Stephen and Colin) and Sean (with wife Melanie), and Colleen’s husband Brian (yes, we have two). The weather was amazing all weekend – and cooler on Sunday – so we spent a good part of that gathering out in the back yard. And it was perfect weather for a game of croquet. Colin and I played as a team, and when it became apparent that we had no chance of placing in the top three, we followed bro-in-law Brian’s example and wrecked havoc on the field. Good times.

As promised, here’s a photo of my new tattoo (done by artist Jenn Liles at Speakeasy); photo courtesy of my sis-in-law Melanie: