The Majumdar Family

While driving around in the car with the boys, I started singing the refrain to “Funky Cold Medina” by Tone Loc, who arguably had/has one of the funkiest raspy voices around. Well, since I’m still working on my “acute” bronchitis, my voice was a bit like his (for the wrong reasons)… anyways, the boys giggled and asked me what I was singing. We then broke in to a discussion about funky vs. hip-hop… and then they said they had almost forgotten the Beastie Boys. I reminded them about the robots in the Intergalactic video, and the b-boys rapping as pseudo-teletubbies in the other video… and their eyes lit up and both wanted to watch it here tomorrow….

Always in their casual yet tenacious style, the B-boys want to remind all eligible US voters to get out there and exercise their right. To back it up, they’ve announced a “voter awareness tour” called Get out and Vote ‘08 which kicks off in several so-called swing (critical) states including the following shows which were just announced:

October 28 Richmond, VA at Richmond Coliseum
Beastie Boys along with Sheryl Crow / Jack Johnson / Norah Jones / Santogold
(wow what a line-up)

Nov 1 St. Paul, MN at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium
Beastie Boys / Ben Harper / Tenacious D
(another nice trio of top level artists)

Nov 2 Milwaukee, WI in the U.S. Cellular Arena
Beastie Boys / Ben Harper / Crosby & Nash / Tenacious D
Again C&N with B-Boys ? Wonder if they’ll do an on-stage mashup ?

I love how Adam, Mike and Adam finished off with “we are very excited about obama. hope you all feel the same.”

Here’s the full PR:
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CTV W-5 (W-Five) had yet another most interesting piece on tonight. This episode was covering the Canadian National Sledge Hockey team at the Paralympics to try and defend their Gold medal title in sledge hockey after a stupendous win at the games in Torino – or Turin depending on which language you prefer.

The team went on to win gold in the World Championship in Marlborough, MA as well as gold in the World Sledge Hockey Challenge held in Kelowna, BC.

It covers the usual locker room coaching and rallying the players, but it’s even more touching when you realize these people have to overcome both the physical and emotional demons that come with living with a serious disability and going on to practice a sport.
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Well, those of you who are following my updates on Twitter will no doubt have noticed that it was a crappy end to a spectacular weekend with the boys; after celebrating Zachary and his 6 years, football, swimming, a trip for Zachary and Tristan with their stepfather to see the Alouettes pound Saskatoon (woohoo) …. the subsequent nasty phlegm and fever and restless sleep was a big downer.

Alas, c’est la vie. The irony is that I’m getting the work-sponsered flu vaccine once again this year in just 7 days.

oh, and a date for my vascular surgery!

Woohoo! ZachaWii !

Well, just before I head off to bed after an action packed day… we celebrated Zachary’s 6th birthday today (one day early as he has an outing with his stepfather tomorrow) and what a blast!

Yes, Oma (grandma Elke) and I got him a Nintendo WII (!) .. as well as a Twister game. We decided on the WII for him, over the Sony PS2 and PS3 and the XBOX 360 based on a variety of issues including value for the money, physical interaction and non-violent games.

More details to follow, after an intense day of happy birthday singing, WII Sports playing and practicing.. and now, bedtime. There was also MAGH-2 and MAGH-3 practices at the St-Basile-le-Grand junior hockey for both of them in the morning. Tomorrow morning is the start of their swimming courses at the Chambly Aquatic Centre. Yup, the weekends are pretty fully booked – not easy for them.

“Dis moi pas que c’est une WII!” – Zachary while unwrapping the WII.

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Alors, juste avant que je vais faire dodo après une journée de fou, nous avons célébré les six ans de Zachary aujourd’hui (une journée plus tôt car demain il a une sortie avec son beau-père) et quel folie!

Oui, Oma (grand-maman Elke) et moi lui ont acheté un Nintendo WII (!) … et aussi le jeu classique Twister. Nous avons décidé sur la WII pour lui, au lieu de la Sony PS2, PS3 et XBOX 360 basé sur différents aspects dont l’argent, l’interaction physique et le nombre de jeux non-violents.

Je publierai plus de détails sous peu, après cette journée intense de “bonne fête”, WII Sports et pratique.. et maintenant : dodo pour moi. On avait les pratiques MAGH-2 et MAGH-3 de l’hockey junior St-Basile-le-Grand ce matin pour les deux. Demain matin c’est le début des cours de natation au centre aquatique de Chambly. Oui, des fins de semaines assez chargées.. pas facile pour eux.

“Dis moi pas que c’est une WII!” – Zachary en déballant la WII.

Well it was the meet the school principal and the respective Grade 1 and Grade 2 teachers of Zachary and Tristan last week. The principals presentation in the gymnasium was the usual overview of the schools rules and way of teaching. After that I started out with the Grade 1 teacher for Zachary and switched classes with their mother to the Grade 2 teacher presentation for Tristan. We wanted to get a bit of a feel for both teachers presentations. They basically outlined their teaching style and the education and activity plan for the forthcoming year. It was pretty special to realize that the boys are indeed growing and learning.

Of course, there was a chance to confer with the teachers about how Zachary and Tristan had been during the 1st couple of weeks at school and naturally it hasn’t been without challenges.
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