So yesterday was the first annual Family Day, a new rather lame “holiday” invented by the Ontario government. Daycares were closed so I was home with E. I guess that’s the point of family day but of course when you are freelance you don’t have anybody giving you paid days off. W went into the office for half the day. As I was busy keeping E entertained I started to think of how weird it is to have a holiday that utterly lacks any kind of tradition. So anyone got any ideas? I’m thinking deep fried raisins, a televised parade of crying toddlers, and a marathon of family friend video games that goes deep into the night and leaves all parental and kid units bleary-eyed and vaguely hostile for the rest of the week.


One more thing on family day: what about people with no family? won’t they feel bad sitting at home alone? Family Day, coming just a few days after Valentine’s Day, is a double whammy for those without any source of love in their lives. Will Ontario see a rise in suicides and help-line calls in the 3rd week of February? Help me, I’m at home eating my deep fried raisins and watching the toddlers on floats bawling their eyes out but I’ve got nobody to play Wii with and the only Valentine the mailman brought me was from McDonalds and I’m thinking of ending it all, damn you Dalton McGuinty! (premiere of Ontario, responsible for holiday…)


In order to celebrate family day after E went to bed we watched the first two episodes of the second season of Gene Simmons: Family Jewels. I was impressed with his star turn on celebrity Apprentice and wanted to see more of this aging pseudo-Lothario in action. Very disappointing. The whole thing just came off as Ozzy-lite. Everybody wanted to be wacky and histrionic but nobody seemed to have the chops to do it. Gene’s family lacks dysfunction in a big way. According to Gene’s website season 3 debuts in March. Maybe it gets better? Never mind. W is obsessed with that new HBO show In Treatment anyway. More on that later.