Liquid Larry and the Afterburners

Since I've been off work, I've noticed how much more my life seems to be consumed by my youngest son and his music.

It's funny; I'm often finding myself remembering back to the day I brought Andrew home from the hospital. I had to wait for the orthopedic specialist, Dr. Bent, as Drew was born with a clubbed foot. The specialist needed to have a look at Drew before we left, explaining to me, what procedures would have to be done in the future and then fitted my 3 day old son with his first cast.

I remember him telling me to not expect Andrew to be athletic. I looked at the doctor and told him my son was going to be what ever he chose to be.


Drew get's so tired of hearing that story. But I never get tired of telling it. Because I've always believed that of my sons. And for some reason, Drew seemed to always want to prove it. He was the toddler, up on the monkey bars, that the elderly women would say "isn't he yours????"

What could I say? If I went to get him, he'd be kicking and screaming and I'd get those hard and I mean hard shoes in the face. No....better to wait until he's done falling and scrape him up afterward. The kid was my human Mollie. He had to learn for himself.

When Andrew decided to play the drums at 14, I really didn't give it a lot of thought. A group of them started in the basement. Most of them didn't have much talent but they kept at it.

I remember telling Drew "just make sure you have a back-up plan". And then as time went on, I remember the kids in the basement sounding less like screechy noise and more like, well....music. I actually remember one day, stopping outside the band room door and actually starting to move to the music....for the first time.

They still took a few years to mature though.

And now, I believe they've got what it takes. Let me introduce Liquid Larry and the Afterburners.


They will be playing in Toronto on March 18, 2009 at the Opera House, at 735 Queen Street East. This is a fabulous opportunity Underdogs Showcase and we're hoping to get as many of our Toronto people as possible there.

They have another gig at Johnny B's in Whitby on May 3rd. This is a 2 hour set. They got this one through a Battle of the Bands that they participated in. There are times they may not win in the way they hope but something else comes of it.

Sometimes, it's just about who sees them that night.

So....if you're ever in Peterborough, they're pretty much at the Dobro every Wednesday night...unless they're busy recording.

***Special thanks to my handsome hubby's input with the last two pictures of Liquid Larry on stage.

Love and Hope

This is the picture for February on one of our calendars.
I thought it was a good starting point.

"Love makes all things possible"


Have you ever felt like you were at
a crossroad in your life but you had no control over
which direction it was going?

I spent years with a vision.
I knew what I wanted to do,
and now.....


Now it's gone.

But that's alright.

I know I can do so much more because
I feel the love of those around me...
my husband, my family and my friends.


Even from my dog, Mollie.

In my role as a counselor,
I've worked with many women who
had little or no supports from family and/or friends
and it makes a huge difference in ones life,
especially during a healing phase,
to have a good, loving support system.

Where there's Love, there's hope and
where there's hope, there's
a future.

And I believe in a hopeful future.

Life with a geek....

Yesterday was a day of organization around the house. I was organizing the living room and my husband, whom I lovingly refer to as the geek, decided to organize his desk space.

Barry and I have been together for 6 years or will be together for 6 years on February 1st of this year. He's different from anyone I've ever known. Well, I think he's just plain different. He's what we'd call a geek. When we met, he was designing and building control panels for reverse osmosis systems for many uses from homes to dialysis machines. He's now building (or doing the electrical, wiring, etc., for...) fire trucks, trailers to pull horses for the RCMP and assorted other vehicles.

For our first Halloween party, he went all out and painted the basement with a special UV luminescent paint that activates under black light.

It was an incredible sight to me when he flicked the switch for the lights to go off and the black lights to come on. It reminded me of something from CSI.

Naturally, every Christmas the lights are getting brighter with more of them. And yes, they are synchronized to blink with the music.

It has it's downsides though; clutter. There are wires hanging from doors, things I can't even put names to, sitting on shelves as well as what used to be my kitchen table and huge and I mean enormous wires going right through my kitchen, into the band room. I tolerate this because they are being used to record my sons band and I believe that one day, if they continue to work as a team; they can make it big.

Our music is one of my favourite perks. All of our CD's have been ripped onto a main computer to be used as our jukebox. It goes through a mixer, that goes through a small FM antenna. Barry assigns the antenna to an unused station and voila!! I can play our music from any location in or around the property by simply playing FM 88.1 on the radio. As I'm typing, Barry is playing Rita Marley, from his turntable, and it's coming through my receiver. It still impresses me.

A couple of months ago we were talking about our dreams and I was telling him of mine; to drive the Alaskan Highway. A few days later he told me of his purchase.

Photo courtesy of Barry Duff

He bought it from his boss at work. It has very little mileage on it, which is good when you consider what it was used for. Barry is considering ideas of remodeling and eventually it will take us where we want to go.

We all smile and say "that's Barry". These are many of the things that I love about him.

So back to yesterday and my geek, er... husband, needing more desk space. He acquired more junk, I mean some Kee Klamp from a friend of his who runs a store, here in Peterborough. Well this Kee Klamp is or was used for stage and sound equipment (just another area Barry has expertise in). Basically, it's galvanized pipe, with elbows, etc.

So my husbands desk went from being a six foot table, along with our whole dining room table to a six foot table sitting on galvanized pipes, with shelving to hold his monitors and other electronics, sitting on more galvanized pipes, also utilizing old waterbed parts for the shelving.

And what geek desk is complete without it's own bar fridge?

Well alright, it was mine. I brought it home from my office last week but I guess the rotten bugger decided he might as well pillage it while he had the chance.

One thing I can say, watching all of this come together. It's definitely strong. And it's different. But then so is Barry.

So this is life with a geek. Some may know what it's like to get up from their chair and trip over a bag holding a 20' antenna that has future plans to be erected when "we have our own home". This has become my norm and one thing I can say is, it's always entertaining around here, especially if you love music!!!

Letting go....

****This is the innocent face that was trying to steal my apple pie while I was preparing to work on this blog. She creates a plan, then puts it in action. Unfortunately for her; her brain only functions to the level of a small child.

2008 has come and gone and I've just realized that I haven't been on here since June. I've always meant to but there have been just too many dark days and I really don't like writing during those days.

It hasn't been all dark. Mollie and I got away for a weeks adventure in July to Tobermory, where we met up with some of our crazy Fundawg furiends, human and canine.

It's funny how I had started out earlier today with a thought in my head that I had intended to use as the focus in today's blog. I took that thought out with me on my walk with Mollie this afternoon.

She had a great walk. I didn't take our usual path along the Rotary Trail as it's been pretty icy lately, so I just walked her up the sideroad not far from home. Well out of nowhere comes a horse with a sulky. They turned along a driveway, came back out and back up the road. By the time, I was able to get my mitts off, camera out and on, take my picture, they had made pretty good tracks.

Mollie, being the ever alert, scent hound, sight hound, crazy hound attached to my waist, had never been that close to a horse before.


Although it was good for the horse, not to mention the gentleman riding along on the sulky, that Mollie was not able to roam free, robbing her of the opportunity to give this man the ride of his life and the poor horse nightmares for the rest of his/her life. It sure gave me a work out holding back my full 55 pounds of ADHD in full throttle for the next half kilometre of our walk, looking for her horse.

Eventually, she gave up and we were able to enjoy a liesurely walk.

The last six weeks or so of 2008 were challenging, to say the least.

I was looking back at my posting from mid-January 2008 about our move here, titled "Goodbye Slumlord". In it is the picture of the old tree in the front of our house.

In the wee hours of the morning of September 14, 2008, as I was getting ready for bed, I was looking out my bedroom window, talking to Barry. The wind was incredible. Suddenly the was a loud crack and bright blue light and loud popping noises as part of the tree came down, taking the hydro line across the highway with it. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Naturally we were without service for the night. We were alright with that. We also spent the next couple of hours out on the highway, with a couple of people who had stopped, making sure vehicles, especially trucks did not drive through the live wires.

The part that will always stay with me was when I was on the phone with the hydro people and Mollie escaped from the house. She ran right through the wires. Thankfully, she came back fairly quick, for her standards. I think she was confused by the energy that night. Coming back she was on our property, away from the wires.


If there's one thing I can say about my life is that I always try to learn from challenges I'm faced with. And I'm always stronger from them.

During that period, my husband, Barry was unemployed for two months. That tree certainly has helped give us some warm fires, combined with the wood we had already purchased in the spring.


It's still sad sometimes, seeing the stump silhouette where the tree stood proud. But it was meant to happen and some good came out of it as well. And thankfully, nobody was hurt.

I also see that stump as sort of a symbol of 2008. What it took from us. What it gave us.

And now I'm ready to face 2009. I'm ready to take on a new direction. I'm not exactly sure where it's going to take me but I'm certainly going to enjoy the ride.

May all your hopes and dreams for 2009 become realities.

Butterfly landings....

I couldn't help but go back to a couple of my favourite pictures from the butterfly conservatory. I know they're not prize winners but, for me, they speak volumes about the man I love.

From the moment we walked through the doors, until we left, butterflies were constantly landing on my Barry and staying there.


Now it was common for someone to have the odd butterfly land on them and some people were not so fortunate. Barry was like a butterfly magnet. It really was funny to watch.

But in a strange way, I have to think it's just who Barry is. He has such a quiet calm energy; not like anyone I've known.

It's funny how we can find our validation in something as beautiful as butterflies. If ever I know I got it right, this is it.

Funny thing is....for the most part, as they were landing on him; he was just busy...taking pictures...totally unaware...just being.

We Did It!!!

I sometimes forget there's a possibility that someone may actually read what I'm putting down here. And that somewhere out in this world, somebody actually cares how my day went.

In the work I do, I often get a very skewed view of the world. It's so easy to just see the negative side and forget that there are some really good, descent people out there.

People who care about others.



Well our day, as disorganized as it started out, was absolutely perfect. Oh we were close but it was meant to be. At the end of the day, Barry and I were legally married. And I have never in my life felt this happy.

Well obviously it wouldn't be right to post actual wedding pictures of us on here as I did not actually take them. But the pictures I've posted are all related. The pretty yellow flowers were bought by my wonderful new sister-in-law, Alison, to decorate the tables. They are now planted in my front garden.

We spent a night at the White Oaks Resort in Niagara on the Lake and played around Niagara Falls a bit. Naturally we had to visit the Butterfly Conservatory. I thought I was in Butterfly Paradise.

I just love the diversity in our world.


Oh...and I guess I could post the link to our friend who gave us an offer we couldn't refuse for our wedding pictures. At least she would be taking credit for her own work then....Let me introduce you to Jordan and, if you would like...a few wedding shots.

http://jordanlyallphotography.blogspot.com

Wedding Freak-out!!!

Well it's now technically 4 day's (it's after midnight) until our wedding day and I'm in freak-out mode.

I'm trying really hard to be optimistic but my cart can only get so full before it tips.

Everything so far has been falling into place so beautifully. We've been putting this together so amazingly well. Barry reminds me of that when I start to panic. I know to let go of what I have no control of but My Dawg it is not easy. There are certain documents that are detrimental to us being married and I want to be married on Saturday.

I truly believe that there are times in our lives we have to prove just how much we really want something. We are tested many times throughout our lives.

This is not my first marriage. It's no secret. I've not had a great past. It's been full of hurt and abuse but it's all in the past.

There's been a lot of fear with this upcoming wedding. But I think more than ever, I am faced with how much I want to be married to Barry on Saturday.

I can't understand how he has not been married. As I'm approaching my wedding day, I'm appreciating my Barry more for the wonderful man he is and will be honoured to call myself his wife.

I guess all I can really do at this point is put my faith into the universe and pray!!!