We've finished watching Buffy, thank you very much.

Uhm...I was on an almost day-long job interview for a placement agency today, and was tested on six different kinds of software for five hours. And some of the tests were for software I'd never really seen--three or four year old versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark--that didn't at all match what I'd just learned. And I spent all last week studying up on them so I'm tired and loopy. It's not showing, is it?

Whew. Thank god.

t hysterical again

ARRRRGH! The Canadians are here!!

t looks at name of thread

Oh. Right.

Dude, Canadians are where you LEAST EXPECT THEM.

Or, you know, in my case, randomly calling me between the hours of 8 and 9 on Tuesday nights, despite repeated warnings to KNOCK THAT SHIT OFF.

Technically, I'm a Card Carrying Canadian. Or would be, but the Card is too large to fit in my wallet.

Worst thing is, they look just like us.

Take my grandmother, for example. On the surface, a nice American grandmother from Brooklyn, beloved by family and friends, surrounded in her declining years by people who would compete for the honor of doing her favors. Underneath--yep, from a Canadian family who'd been in NS for nearly a hundred years by the time she was born (1909).

And you wouldn't know it, except for the unmistakeable Scots brogue, the dual citizenship, the trips back "home" to "see" the "family", the Certificate of Naturalization from 1946 proudly hung on the wall, the .ca suffix to her relatives' e-mails, and the fact that she knew all the words to 'The Maple Leaf Forever', that being the anthem when she grew up. See how wily they are?

Edit: Ple, of course it's not going to fit in your wallet--it's probably in ten legally mandated languages (g)

Worst thing is, they look just like us.

Are we still on squirrels? 'Cause if so, I'm thinking your family pics could have some novelty value.

DH is half Canadian. I suppose my kids are 1/4 Canadian?

Squirrels are always on-topic, but right now it's Canadians. Borders get very loose and unguarded whenever Canucks and Americans intersect.

And how'd you find out about Uncle Bill?

We have white squirrels around here. Not many of them, but down by the beach you can see one or two of them at my Great Aunt's feeder. Also at the really keen Natural Museum place, that's a bit like a zoo, except all the animals are in as natural a habitat as possible (that is they built the fences and such into the ground and there is as little concrete as possible. The otters have a concrete pool. But the alligators just have a partioned off area of the lake...I digress), there are white squirrels there.

Also, and this would be of interest to Kenny (if Amy Parker is around) they have birds there, but all the birds---owls, eagles, whatnot--have been injured in someway and rehabilitated but can't be let back into the wild. Plus there is a farm from the 1800s. And they have days where they have demonstrations about how everything was done. It's really fun.

Oh, BTW, in my search for the lyrics to TMLF I seem to have come across a Canadian right-wing nationalist. Huh.

"In days of yore,
From Britain's shore,
Wolfe the dauntless hero came
And planted firm Britannia's flag
On Canada's fair domain.
Here may it wave,
Our boast, our pride,
And join in love together,
The thistle, shamrock, rose entwined,
The Maple Leaf Forever."

(I think Grandma's people were the thistles. She learned it in the 20's in a one-room schoolhouse, along with the English language, which was supposed to replace the Gaelic they spoke.)

Nope, I have absolutely no idea why this anthem was replaced with Yo Canada. I mean, you'd think every group in the country would be delirously happy with it.