This is what happens when you slack off on updating your blog – you end up having to fit a bunch of stuff into one post. Sorry about that.

Last Sunday, we had a low-key but nice Father’s Day for George. We didn’t get him a gift per se, but he had gotten himself what he wanted, a GPS unit for our upcoming summer vacation. He said that was basically his gift, so that was easy. The kids did use a mosaic art kit they had to make him a couple of things though. Hayley made him a small dish that can hold his guitar picks in his music room and Breanna made him what was meant to be a mirror, but the “mirror” part was crappy so I put a photo of her sitting with him at the park instead.

What was a lot of fun for them was that they made him breakfast in bed. At about 11 am Hayley made some scrambled eggs for him at the stove and then Breanna made and buttered some raisin toast for him. I handled the coffee because, you know, boiling water and all. They were so thrilled to make him breakfast since he makes it for us on weekends quite regularly.

We took it easy the rest of the day and that’s really not a bad way to celebrate.

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People outside the province of Quebec may not be aware, but June 24th is Quebec’s “national” (sigh) holiday, St-Jean Baptiste. I’m sure it’s got some original meaning, but at this point it’s basically an enormous party. It’s turned into a Francophone celebration in general but truly it is an epic province-wide party. It’s actually illegal to have your business open unless it’s considered an essential service so most of the population is off work.

We ended up going to a BBQ with some friends that we hadn’t seen in ages, which was really nice. We ate way too much food and I spent a good portion of time out on the back deck with a cold glass of rose wine, watching my kids play with their young daughter. She’s not quite two so she was easily entertained with a bottle of bubbles.

After we left, we ended up dropping by to visit another couple – George has seen them frequently but I hadn’t in a good four months or so. They just got a fire pit in their yard so we had a beer or two, got a fire going, and we toasted marshmallows while people all over the city set off fireworks. It was a lot of fun and I had such a great day.

Holidays are fun but when they happen on a Wednesday it just totally throws off your week. I was so sure it was the weekend today. Alas.

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I was saddened to wake up this morning to find that Farrah Fawcett had succumbed to her fight against cancer. She was such an icon it’s almost impossible to imagine that she could have passed away.

And then the shocking news broke about Michael Jackson. I was stunned beyond belief to hear that he had died of cardiac arrest.

I know that there were so many horrible stories about him in the recent years, terrible things. But the fact is that I grew up with Michael Jackson music. From the second I heard “Beat It” I was hooked. I still remember BEGGING my mother to let me watch the full “Thriller” video. She was uncertain if it was a good idea, I was still pretty young but I didn’t want to be the only one to go to school having missed it. In the end, she let me watch it, I loved it, I screeched a few times, and then… well, then I went to bed with the damn light on because I was scared. But it was so worth it because “Thriller” was awesome.

I had ever single album he put out – in some cases I literally had the ALBUM, back when music came on vinyl. I memorized the “Thriller” dance moves with the zombies with a friend of mine and we used to perform them. I owned an imitation of his famous red leather multi-zippered jacket. I tried my best to moonwalk (I was really only good at it in socks in the kitchen). I had a raging crush on him. I always wanted to see him perform live and now I never will.

Whatever he did or didn’t do, he was still a father, a son, a brother, a friend. No matter what, there are people who knew him and loved him who miss him. I will miss the Michael Jackson I grew up with and listened to over and over again. A piece of my childhood died tonight and will never come back.

I’ve listened to a lot of his songs tonight. Here’s one of my favorite songs he ever put out, “Dirty Diana”:

Rest in peace MJ.