Crikey ...

but life's been busy, what with the runs (21.6K ... my new record) ... socializing (including una fiesta magnifica con poker) ... house rearranging ... and exploring this ciudad on my own.

Writing? Not so much. But I am beginning to connect with the literary community here, and have now joined the Writers Guild of Alberta.

And speaking of writing, I have an essay ("Road Trip: Why I Write About Saskatchewan") in the forthcoming anthology Country Roads: Memoirs from Rural Canada (Nimbus Publishing).

It's going to be an eclectic book, with contributors ranging from NHL coach Brent Sutter to journalist Pamela Wallin, award-winning Alberta writer Rudy Wiebe, and mucho mas. The book will be launched in May.


And speaking again of writing -- this just in: Donald Ward, friend and fellow writer, won First Prize in the national CBC Radio Literary Competition, Short Story Category, for "Badger." Don's now $6000 richer, and I couldn't be happier for him. By the by, I was shortlisted in the Poetry Category, for a suite of poems called "Wretched Beast," which is also the title of my manuscript-in-progress (currently under consideration at an ON publishing house). It's a hell of a good thing even to be shortlisted.

[People, please read CanLit. The announcement of the CBC Shortlists and winners are online here:http://www.radio-canada.ca/prixlitteraires/english/shortlists2009.shtml ]

And now the family arrives. Yesterday my brother, Ron Meetoos, enroute to SK from Vancouver, had lunch with me. (Triptych below)

Brother, you ask? Yes, brother. Ron came to live with us in when he was five years old. He's an extremely cool guy. I visited Ron and his multi-lingual wife Elisabeth (she's from Riga, Latvia) when they were living in Paris last year, steps from Notre Dame. And I've also visited his first wife, Susanna, and daughter, Kyara, in Switzerland, a few times.

Love Paris. Love Switzerland. Love Ron's taste in wives.

This weekend, Logan, my soon-to-be 26 year old son and his girlfriend, Kim, are arriving. Oh, joy. Post and photos to follow, no doubt.

What else ... ah. learning to play Anna Nalick's "Breathe (2 a.m.)" on guitar. Damn that's a fine song. Far better than average lyrics. http://www.vevo.com/watch/anna-nalick/breathe-2-am/USSM20404036

Greg will be home in a few hours (but who's counting, eh?) and we're welcoming friends over for a beer. Then a neighbourhood rally. Then a lecture in St. Albert on the subject of art and change.

Hasta tarde, amigos.

Take care of each other.