A farewell

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Mr Topp 5 Comments

Yesterday morning, my mother passed away.

While I will certainly be writing more about this later, I know that there are friends and family members who read the Big Bad Blog — at least in part — to keep up with the Topps. So for those of you who knew her, and might want to pay their respects, here is an edited version of the obituary appearing in papers today and tomorrow:

Marcia Macks Edwards passed away peacefully, at Lisaard House, on Wednesday, January 25, 2012, at the age of sixty-four years.

Friends and relatives are invited to share their memories of Marcia and celebrate her life with her family during a memorial reception in the Fireside Reception Room at the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home, 171 King St. S., Waterloo on Saturday, January 28, 2012 from 7-9 pm, with tributes and memories of Marcia to be shared at 8:00 pm.

In lieu of flowers, condolences for the family and donations to KidsAbility or the Well Fit Program at the University of Waterloo would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy and may be arranged through the funeral home.

Photo of my mother with Maggie, taken during our 2010 Christmas celebration in London, from my Flickr stream

Observations

The accidental beer commercial

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Mr Topp Leave a comment

I’m currently in Canada, which is causing the desire to post Canada-related photos to the blog (and Flickr, and everywhere else). Unfortunately, the only Canada-related photos that currently sit on my hard drive are those that I took on Canada Day in Trafalgar Square back in July.

So here’s one of my favourites from that day:

I call it The Accidental Beer Ad — I was taking a photo of the “hockey player” (aka, man-on-stilts wearing a Habs jersey) who is the focus of the shot, and didn’t realise that there was a beer advertisement in the background until editing later.

Still, it works wonderfully well. Here’s to happy accidents.

Photo is available in higher resolution on Flickr.
By Mr. Topp.
Published under a Creative Commons license for non-commercial use.

Photoblog

The morning coffee is for the owls

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Mr Topp 1 Comment

Caffeine is good. Caffeine is great.

In caffeine we trust.

Owl tattoo found at The Lumberjack Special, by Cornelis 7.
Webcomic is Martin, angry owl, by Amy.

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I’m looking

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Mr Topp 1 Comment

Maggie talks now. Constantly.

A constant stream of babble emerges from her lips to which we pay rapt attention, trying to link potential syllables together to form potential words, searching for the meaning behind what our little girl is telling us, so earnestly.

There are a handful of words that she speaks clearly. And no matter how many times she repeats these words, they fill me with such pride.

“Daddy daddy daddy dada dada daddy dad eeeeeeee.”
“Yes?”
“Regarde!”

Don’t worry, little girl. I’m looking.

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