Four years? Already?

I like being married to the best guy on the planet!

Ugh

Starting from last night, I have had a string of crappy. I sliced open my chin with my thumbnail, scratched my hand with something serrated, spilled and dropped about 14 things and woke up this morning at 5am with a leg cramp that defied the meaning of pain. I drove to the hospital through the Katrina leftover deluge for a blood test and dietician consult, got soaked walking from the parking lot to the door, found out I had to have another test an hour after the first and that I had packed a bad breakfast. Oops! Met with the dietician who told me that my one bad reading was exactly on the upper limit and that she wouldn't have asked me to come in (recap: pouring rain, early morning, needles, breakfast in soggy room full of pregnant women, wet clothes and hair, $15 parking). Ran into my ex in the hallway looking for his wife. He was forced to talk to me and it was like chatting with a small, nervous dog with a caffeine problem. It's hard to conduct a polite conversation with someone when you know they are about to gnaw their own arm off to get away.
Get soaked again walking back to car, traffic caused by super rain, try to run an errand-but of course the store is out of what I want. Back to car-soaked again. More traffic, trees down on road, highway full of water, no maternity parking spots left in front of office, get soaked again. Morning completely wasted and I'm starved. Can I just start over from last night?

Addictive

I found this link last night - evil, evil!!!

Shake, rattle, and roll

Besides a baby, I'm asking my doctor to check for the following during the next ultrasound:

• a soccer ball
  
• juggling equipment
  
• a trampoline
  
• aerobics gear
  
• leg warmers and the soundtrack from Flashdance, possibly also Footloose
  
• a small discotheque
  

Joke

Two men are playing golf. One is about to chip on to the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows his head in prayer. His friend says: "Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man." Resuming his stance, he replies: "Yeah, well we were married for 35 years."

New Jersey trip

We had a wonderful time in New Jersey visiting my friend Kuan, her two-year old son Ryan, new baby Alex and Kuan's hubby Chris. Friday morning we jumped in the car and started our little adventure. It was our first long trip in the new car, and it drove great. We got stuck for at least an hour at the border and then were further delayed trying to find food at exits that seemed to contain way too many people. We finally arrived and the next few days were full of baby cuddling, toddler shenanigans, fun with friends, and a teensy bit of shopping.



New baby Alex is super cute and teeny. You forget how small they are when they're so new.


The trip back was better except for the turn off we missed and had to backtrack. We stopped at a restaurant called Red Robin which provided free baloons and crayons - Ben was in heaven!
We got home and were tired. Ben was so happy to be home that he ran around the house looking at stuff and laughing.
See the trip here.

Diabetes update

So I finally heard back from the doctor and I failed only one of the readings which means no gestational diabetes, but I do have to go in for a consult with a dietician. Hooray!

I had my long glucose test on Thursday and I'm waiting for the results this week. Aside from the bruises on both my arms from the needles that makes me look like a junkie, and the awful dizzy nausea created by the awful orange drink they make you take (honestly, how did they manage to make sugar taste so bad?)it went ok. I've said this before, but having health insurance to pay for private testing instead of going to the hospital and waiting around with tons of other people rocks! I was the only customer at the private testing clinic and had a comfy chair to wait around in for the duration of the three-hour test. I did some work, listened to the radio, and relaxed. It was very civilized. I only hope that I won't have to endure the endless testing and poking of the hospital after my results come in. We shall see.

Phones for kids

Rogers has come out with a new phone for pre-teens called Firefly. It's got mommy and daddy buttons and 20 other pre-programmable numbers. I was listening to an interview with a marketing guy from Rogers on the radio, and he was trying to explain why this is what the consumer wants, and really didn't come off that convincing. What really sealed it for me was the fact that they are not just advertising to parents, but they're also going to advertise on YTV and other kids' programming channels because apparently kids are very savvy about identifying products that have their safety in mind.....right.

Bat Cave

We had another bat this week. That is the second bat in two weeks. I bravely stayed in the bedroom again with Ben while Steve shooed it out. Or at least he think he got rid of it, it seemed to disappear after the door was open. We're not sure why we suddenly have a bat invader, but we're hoping that we can figure out how it's getting in. My dad said that it could be getting in through the flue even though it's closed, so we blocked the fireplace. So far no more winged vistors.

State of the art.....

Noodly appendage

All hail the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

Drat

I found out this morning that I failed the glucose screening I had yesterday. Now I have to go in for the big three-hour test and probably endure all the weekly testing and poking and general badgering from the hospital that upset me so much the last time. I am going to try to fight all the hospital stuff, but I fear that it's gonna happen anyway. I'm not in a good mood today....thhhbtttt...

Shall I compare thee to a carburetor?

Bulwer-Lytton 2005 contest

I think that I need a vacation

It's a beautiful day today, not too hot, not humid, sunny, nice breeze. It's a perfect day for a picnic or hanging out at the park, or lounging on the balcony, or going for a nice walk. Here I sit in my office without a window as my mind drifts to all the lovely things that I could be doing, and I'm getting a bit down about the whole situation. Should I run away from work and never come back? When I was contracting I could take days like this off (or at least part of the day) and enjoy it. What I really need is a winning lottery ticket - anyone got one out there to spare? Drat! Guess I'd better get back to work then...

Fun weekend!

The weather cooled to mid-20 temps and was sunny and not humid for a change-hooray for non-stickiness! It was perfect summer weather for me. On Saturday we did chores and tidied the house and went for a walk. On Sunday, we drove up to the folks and frolicked in their new replacement pool. I'd have pictures, but we had battery problems, doh! It's a little larger than their old one, but made with plastic and resin, so it shouldn't rust out like the old one. Ben was iffy with it. He likes the wading pool, but this pool was deep and I think that makes him a bit uneasy. He did like playing with daddy and sitting on his huge blowup aligator and in his little inflatable car (beepbeep). Steve and I lounged around on pool noodles and despite sunscreen, I got a little reddish. We finished the day in the country with some fresh picked berries and whipped cream - yum!
Ben had a blood test last week because the doctor thought that his penchant for chewing on metal might mean that he was a bit anemic - but no, he's fine, we just have a chewy child. I guess that he comes by it honestly, I chewed the hands off my favorite doll as well as bits and pieces of several hundred other toys, and when my mother sold her humungous station wagon (aka land yacht), she had to explain that all the teeth marks on the passenger-side dashboard were mine. Can you imagine what the safety police would do to a mom today that let her toddler chew on the dash in the front seat of the car, without a seatbelt of any kind, while she was driving? I shudder to think.

Zoo

For Ben's actual birthday, we went to the zoo. We had a wonderful time, although it was so hot that all the animals looked kinda loggy.

See more pics here!

See some of Ben's birthday party photos here on Flickr!

Potter head

I finished the newest Harry Potter on Monday. Obviously, it kept me reading, so the mystery portion of the book was good. My biggest comment is that this book really lacked in plot action - the action occurs very late in the book and much of the beginning serves only to remind the reader of 'important' events from the previous books to set up the final book. When I thought about what new information was added, I realised that it could have been brought together in a much tighter narrative and left room for more actual story to be added around the set up details so that they appeared less forced. Don't get me started about the romance aspects of the book, I agree with one reviewer who said it was like Degrassi Junior High for wizards. I won't talk about the ending, but I will say that looking at the amount of things that JKR has set up to resolve in the final book, it's going to be either an enormous installment or a big disappointment.

Birthday boy

Happy birthday Ben. I cannot believe that two whole years have gone by since I first saw your angry little red face. Since then, you have grown and changed so much. You are now your own little person, sometimes you throw yourself on the floor and scream when you are not getting your way, sometimes you are running into my arms laughing. You babble away and seem to expect me to know what you are saying, and I try to oblige by shaking my head and saying "Really? Is that right?", and then you look at me like I'm somewhat retarded.
I can't imagine life without you. You have a smile that warms up my heart everytime I see it, and when you fall and scrape your knee, it tears me in two to hear you cry as I hold you and want to take all the hurt away. I want to protect you, but I know that you have to fall now and learn. You aren't my baby, now you are my little boy and I love you so very much.
-Mommy

Movie review - The Island

We went for a sneak preview of The Island last night. We made sure to get there early, but almost nobody showed up. There were no announcements before the movie other than a warning about cell phones, and no free handouts after. The only thing they did do was check bags for cameras and have a couple of security guys in the theatre. On the whole, the movie was very good - the action sequences were wild and the premise was interesting. There were also some delightfully funny throw-away bits from some of the minor characters, and Sean Bean was great. Big criticism? The ending was very lame, but it didn't spoil the rest of the movie for me. I knew almost nothing about the movie before we saw it and I think that's what made it good. Afterwards I read a synopsis in the free movie magazine they give out in the theatre and if I had read that beforehand, I think that it would have wrecked it for me. So, if you're interested, don't read anything before you see it. Now that I think about it, I wonder how many movies have the potential to be good and surprising on paper, only to be ruined by advertising trailers and press release blurbs that give the entire plot away. I seem to remember a time when I went to movies knowing nearly nothing about them (which explains why someone got me to see Dead Ringers - ick!). Do we really need to know the entire plot before we go to the theatre?

Vroom vroom!

Well, Steve will have a new car on Friday! We decided to replace his old car before the winter, and we found a nice 2001 Outback for a decent price. We had it inspected yesterday and test drove it around. It has lots of gizmos and electronic gadgets and air conditioning - wheee! I have first dibs driving up to the townships :-)

It will be nice to have a station wagon for lugging stuff around too. Ben seemed to like the view from the backseat, and I'm sure he appreciated the a/c when we were stuck in traffic during part of the trip. Two kids and a station wagon .... all we need is a dog and we'll be those people I never thought I'd be, sigh...

Steve's folks are driving in tomorrow for Ben's birthday party on Saturday. We won't have as many kids as last year, but it promises to be sunny and hot, so we're still planning on having it across the street at the park with the wading pool. We have to get some balloons and hats and make his birthday cupcakes. His birthday is Monday, and I'm thinking about maybe taking the day off so we can go to the zoo or something fun. In the new car no less!

In other news, Ben has hit his climbing stage. We've now caught him standing on the kitchen table- twice. He also climbs into his highchair by himself and tries to strap himself in which is pretty funny.

Welcome Alex!

My friend Kuan had another baby!
Alex was born yesterday, 8lbs 11oz (yeeps!), and 19 1/2 inches long. Pictures to come! Congrats to her and her husband Chris, and big brother Ryan!

A few things

I'm so not into working today. I had to get up early to get to the children's hospital and get an ultrasound done with a cardiologist - everything is fine and dandy. Note to self: never play poker with an ultrasound technician. They train them to show no emotion. I was trying to figure out if what I was looking at on the monitor was good or bad, and I had no idea by looking at her facial expression. I had to wait until the cardiologist came in to find out that everything was ok. It's now the middle of the afternoon and I am exhausted and my reading material for the day is less than invigorating, why can't merging guidelines contain clever plot twists?
I have a ton of stuff piling up at home to do. I had planned on doing some baking and lunch prep on the weekend to make my life easier, but somehow it's Wednesday and I haven't done a thing on the list. I'm not sure where all of that long weekend went. We did go and see Batman at the new cinema guzzo in marche central. The movie was great, but the theatre was bleak and unfinished and had no ambiance. It was just concrete and sad.
Oh,and congrats to the NASA Deep Impact team. I'm sure that when their project manager told them that they would be actually trying to hit the asteroid that it was every childhood scientist's and engineer's dream come true.

Good dental hygiene

ben bathroom
Originally uploaded by dina the mundane and oblivious.

Is there anything cuter than a kid standing on a stool and brushing his teeth? I think not :-)

We had our second ultrasound on Monday and everything is looking perfectly normal. We don't have pictures because we got it on videotape and I forgot to ask for a pic for the web. Luckily, we have to go back in two weeks so my doctor can have a better look at Pumpkin's heart which was beating and looked ok, but she couldn't get a good view of the chambers. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have a womb with a better view :-) I know that everything is just fine because I experience serious kung-fu action several times a day and at least a couple of times at night. This baby seems to be way more active than the first, perhaps Ben stretched it out so there's more space or something.
For Father's Day Ben and I took Steve out for breakfast on Saturday because on Sunday we drove up to see my folks. We did some chores while Ben frolicked in his new sandbox - complete with a roof and mosquito-resistant netting. Yes, our son is spoiled to little bits by his grandfolks.
This weekend is a long weekend for us. We're going up to the townies again to help my folks take down their pool in preparation for a new one. The old one is over 20 and has just started to come apart. This means more sandbox time for Ben and grandma gets to chase after him up and down the hill. Last week, he ran down the hill and threw himself into a ditch. He's starting to get those toddler scraped knees and bruised shins.

Melting and meltdowns

It was hot this weekend! Hotter than hot! Stupid hot! But I had a great birthday weekend despite the melting humidity. Friday night I went to bookclub and Steve made my b-day cake - twice. He tried to take it out of the pan too early the first time - oops! Saturday we cleaned and prepped and people arrived around 5-ish and we snacked and then had burgers and cake and ice cream. We moved our bedroom air conditioner into the diningroom which managed to bring that part of the apartment down to near-tolerable temps. It was a fun party, there was even a game involving rewriting Hamlet! I got lots of great gifties too. The heat got to everyone eventually though - the party ended at 10 and Steve and I washed up and watched some of my DVD (Scrubs-season 1) and went to bed. Sunday I woke up to more presents! Excellent choices from Ben and Steve and Steve's folks and brother. Ben was a bit off in the morning, but we figured that he'd sleep in the car. My car doesn't have air, but we thought that we'd be fine on the highway, and we were fine, but Ben was not. He fussed and wouldn't sleep and then just before Bromont he melted down and went super hysterical and we had to pull over. His back was soaking poor guy! We took him into a Burger King and let him cool down for half and hour and then continued to my folks' place, but he really didn't sleep, so by 6 he was fed up and hot again so we came home and gave him some tempra and put him to bed in his air conditioned room and he slept all night. We had some BBQ and cheesecake at the folks and some nice gifties. Strangly enough, Ben seemed to get more stuff than I did :-) At least I didn't have to mow the lawn.

Happy birthday to me!

Store wars - Chewbroccoli!

Oh and....

my birthday week has officially begun. Bring on the fun!

Reading and the weekend

I finished two books recently - Andrea Levy's A Small Island and Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair. Both are highly recommended. The first is a novel told in multiple narratives about four people in London after WW II - two Englanders and two Jamaicans. The second is a literary detective novel set in 1985 England, where the Crimean War is still being fought and literature is popular culture. If you studied lit in university, you'll fantasize about this alternate universe. The main character, Thursday Next, has to stop an arch villain (Acheron Hades) from destroying popular English novels. Half the fun are the character names, such as Braxton Hicks and Jack Schitt. It's part of a series that I'm definitely reading.
Now I've moved on to Motherless Brookyn by Jonathon Lethem and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The first is told by a detective with Tourettes, the second is an autistic 15-year old. So far, I'm enjoying them both.

Great weekend! We stayed in town and just hung out and enjoyed the hot weather and sunshine. Ben has taken up long distance walking. He walked about 8 blocks to the video store Saturday and almost all the way back with Steve and I and then played in the park for another 45 minutes. He's very good about holding our hands when he's walking, but he wants to walk, he gets really annoyed when you pick him up to cross a busy intersection. If he keeps this up, he'll have the calves of an everest climber by age 3. In preparation for his birthday, we went out yesterday and picked up his gift - he pointed at it in the toy store flyer. It has little people and airplanes. The fun thing about this age is that he has no idea what we do at stores, so we can take him shopping for his gifts and even have him help us pick them out and they're still a surprise. We also managed to clean the house a bit and watch two movies - Porco Rosso and Closer. Clive Owen was brilliant as Larry, there's a reason that I love this guy so much. Porco Rosso is a Miyazaki film - they never disappoint.

Black market Henckels anyone?

So the doctors in Britain want to ban pointy knives because they contribute to many nasty assaults each year. Apparently, they don't think that they're necessary in a household kitchen. How do you carve a turkey with a bread knife? I guess I could always use a pointed stick.....

Be prepared.....

There is so much wrong with this.

Updates

Kuan and Ryan came up from NJ last week. Kuan's looking fabulous for a 7-month pregnant lady, and Ryan's becoming such a big boy. He and Ben wandered around the house playing near each other with only a couple of minor skirmishes.
Steve's folks came in for a visit, which allowed us to see Hitchhikers and the last Star Wars. Movies are great! HGTTG wasn't hilarious, but it was well cast and the Vogons are by far the best thing about it. I thought that the Arthur-Trillion romance plot wasn't necessary, especially because it only seems to be there to appeal to people who never read the books, and everyone I know who's seen the movie without reading the books thought that the movie was terrible and made no sense. The Star Wars was fantastic - lots of action broken up with occasional bouts of bad acting. I was especially impressed with the effort they put into trying to find actors who could be younger versions of the characters in the original (episode 4). Very pleased with this movie I was.
Ben ate chicken for the first time since he's started feeding himself. It may be because it was shredded, or because it was from Chalet BBQ. I don't care. Hooray for carnivores!
The sun has been out all day today, we were all beginning to suspect that the summer was going to be grey and 12C.
In other Ben firsts, today at playgroup he took part in making a craft instead of just eating the one that Steve makes for him. He sat in a chair and put stickers on a piece of paper - that's huge!
My latest doctor's appointment was a success. We listened to the heartbeat and all my blood tests came back with honours. At least my blood is smart.
I've started feeling a bit of baby movement which is pretty exciting.

Name game

So I was a little bit pissed off after reading this article in the paper this morning. This economist is predicting popular names for babies in 2015, and not only is the name of our first-born there, but also the two names that we've been considering for our next little bundle. What people name their kids in 2015 doesn't matter to me, what does matter is that pregnant people are reading that article today and may think that one of my names, which I thought were kind of special, are perfect. We have the only Bennett born in Quebec in 2003, and I kind of wanted to keep that less-than-common streak going. I didn't know anyone with my name until I hit university, and it was nice to not be the fifth "Rachel" in my class, or whatever the popular name was when I was a kid. Now I feel like I'm just following a trend, which is sucky. Fortunately, in Quebec those names will not be very popular because French names rule, but what about when my little XX or XY goes outside the province? Will he or she be awash in a sea of Norberts or Berthas (real names withheld)? Time to send that economist a big bag of thhhbtttt!

Climbing out of the crevice

I am now at the tail end of a cold that completely knocked me on my behind. I can't remember the last time I was that sick, never before have I missed an entire week of work because I couldn't get out of bed. Of course, if I could have taken cold medication, I might have stood a chance. Ah well, it's only a head/sinus thingie now, so it's back to work!
I found this Chris Harding animation on Drawn, it's funny, go and look.

New Project

Hi All,
Due to the overwhelming success of Version 1.0. We
have decided to embark on Version 2.0, project code
name: Pumpkin.
Launch date is a tentative October 31.

Pumpkin had his/her screen debut yesterday, and amazed
the doctor with tons of kicking and waving and
swimming. There were a few deductions during the
swimsuit competition. According to my doctor, I've
been de-aged to a 24 year old being pregnant. Hoorah!

holy (white) smoke!

New popey! Benedict is not a bad name, but I was really pulling for Kenneth. Doesn't Pope Kenneth sound like the name of a pope you can trust?

The curse of the loaner

Loaner cars suck. Correction, my loaner cars suck. I have no idea what I did in my last life, but any time that I need a loaner when my car is in the shop, I get the single-most disgusting car that I have ever seen - until the next time I get a loaner. In the past I have been given the keys to everything from compact cars without working heaters and windshield wipers, to station wagons with flat tires and no engine coolant. Well, the garage didn't finish the repairs on my car yesterday, so I got the keys to a rusty chevrolet corsica with half the console and door buttons broken off and a driver's seat that can't be adjusted and looks like it was eaten by a bear. Oh, and they smoke in it and seem to use everything, including the cupholder, as an ashtray. I didn't even bother to lock the damn thing this morning. Please say a small prayer to the parts gods to send those blessed bushings to the garage today.

It's amazing how cute small children look in yellow raincoats and rubber boots.

I haven't been doing much beyond working, going home and playing with Ben, and sleeping. We did get up to the Townies for my dad's birthday last Sunday which was a beautiful day. On Saturday we bought a new vacuum cleaner, it does a killer job on the livingroom rug and carpet in Ben's room, but it's not doing a good job on our hardwood floors, so back it goes this weekend. We are also going to get a new BBQ this weekend. I have been dying for grilled meat since spring began, so I cannot wait! Steve already has the fridge stocked with steak and hotdogs. Our old one had the biscuit last year, there's no shame for it. I'm starting to look forward to the end of the month, Steve got me tickets for the new Cirque de Soleil show for Christmas. A nice perk of living in Montreal is seeing the new shows before the rest of the world. I went to one a few years ago and was blown away.
Besides The Amazing Race, we're now also glued to the set every Tuesday night for Dr. Who. I was a big fan of the old series (I started watching them when Tom Baker was the Dr) and was pleasantly surprised that the new version has retained that no-frills attitude towards special effects and just concentrates on having some reasonable dialogue and decent stories. I think that they've captured the essence of the original. It started a while back in the UK, but we've only seen two shows so far in Canada. I was a bit surprised when it was announced that Christopher Eccleston was leaving the show after a year, but I'm sure they'll find another good actor to replace him. The other thing that's caught my attention recently was a photo in the paper of the new fabricated 'popera' group Il Divo. It's not my style of music, but man are those guys pretty or what? All the ladies in the department are drooling over them.

Home again, home again

Well, we survived and the trip was actually pretty good, aside from the fact that I am now even more tired than I was before I left. I have now reached the level of tired floppiness that requires large paint scrapers to get me up off the sofa. I did sleep quite a bit last night, so hopefully I will catch up in a few days. Ben discovered the moving sidewalks at the airport, which are apparently the best ever, and elevators, which are equally exciting. Luckily the airport wasn't very crowded, so he ran to his heart's content. The plane rides were short, which was nice, but the last leg was on a small Dash 8 which I really don't care for. You always feel like your teeth are going to shake out of your head. I did get some nice shots of Ben at the airport on the way home, the light was too good to resist.

Yesterday at the office was a bit of a disaster. I should have just put a sign on my door saying "Brain out today, ask tomorrow". Ben's getting back into his routine. He was so happy to get home on Monday, he kept running around and touching things and grinning like a madman. The weather's really springy and gorgeous today, I should go outside for a wander around the block. See ya!

Attack of the zombie lady

I am fatigue girl. For the past two weeks, Ben has woken up at 3 most nights and stayed awake until 5. He's not unhappy, he's babbling and singing and whooping it up and it gets louder and louder until we go and get him and bring him in for some milk and cuddles. When we put him back in his crib, he continues the partying. Steve falls back to sleep quite quickly, but I stay awake and usually fall back to sleep sometime just before I have to get up. I've become one of those walking zombie people, the kind that I curse when I'm trying to get somewhere and they're sitting in their cars at green lights not moving. It's a hazy existence, somewhat unreal. All I really need is a long weekend like the one coming to rest and recharge. Oh wait, who else is navigating through aviation hell this weekend taking a toddler on two planes and a stopover at a large airport? Raise your hands? Crap, I thought there would be more of us. The last time we took Ben on planes, he was crawling and cruising, not exactly the running man he's become today. You put him down anywhere now and he bolts. He loves running at full tilt through open spaces, without a thought to where he's going or if we're following. This is fine at home and the park, but in a crowded airport, the thought makes my heart do running leaps at my throat. My only hope is that we can anchor him to something heavy, that will at least slow his progress. If you see me on Tuesday with my head on my drool-covered desk, cover me with a blanket and let me sleep for a week, preferably with pay.

Chalk mug

Why didn't I think of this? It's so simple and combines my two favorite things: coffee and the need to doodle. Get two so that you can have conversations with a colleague during long meetings.
(via Gizmodo, via RedFerretJournal)

I'm a real employee!

My employer has finally relented and made me a permanent employee. Until now, I have been what they call a "temp", full-time, but on contract, with no contractor benefits or employee benefits (other than being able to receive EI if I got laid off). Temps at this company spawn from the hiring freeze instituted several years ago which has since been lifted, but they figured out that there was quite a bit of money to be saved by using temps. They owed this to me big time. I am pretty happy with this, especially because Steve just got laid off and we lost his benefits. I celebrated by getting goodies for the department and having a little party in my office.
When I start new jobs, I often think about what I expect to achieve and gain. My idea of what a job is has changed over the years. My first jobs were all part-time stints, summers, weekends, evenings after school. My first real job (also while at school) cured me of the "my job is my life" thing that everyone seems to go through. After that experience, I became much more mercenary. When I decided to pursue tech writing, I employed myself and found that very enjoyable until the market dropped. Then, I chose jobs that were very challenging, in companies that were fast-paced and I worked late and put a lot of effort into building my skills and proving myself. This last jump has been for my family. The company is stable and I am comfortable with the routine and the people and I don't work late or push myself. I look forward to going home and my son running into my arms for a well-earned hug. He's my primary and favorite job :-)

Tell a woman to proof her writing

Update: I called the folks at L'Oreal and sent an email with corrections (lots on the link page as well, including "Internationnal" on all their e-cards). This morning I noticed that everything was fixed. Good for them!

Neat thing

Turn your gmail account into storage space:
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/GMail-Drive-shell-extension-Download-15944.html

What a weekend! Friday night we went with Bill to see Bride and Prejudice. What a fun movie! People walking down the street suddenly burst into a song and dance number. Some bits were kinda bad, and the American guy they cast was kinda the male Andy McDowell, but very entertaining. Saturday was Steve's party, in the afternoon, Steve's mom and I went out and I got my haircut and then we had lunch. We went to the Java U at Marche de l'Ouest and had yummy sandwiches and belgian french fries with flavored mayo - tasty! The party was great, lots of food and friends and laughs. On Sunday we were supposed to go out for breakfast, but we were way too tired, so we vegged and then went out and did some shopping in the afternoon. We found a new large skillet on sale.

It's all in the way you look at people

A couple of weeks ago, I was walking down the sidewalk running an errand. I was about to cross in front of a car that was pulling out of a grocery store parking lot, when the car didn't stop. He was almost at the street when he noticed me and braked. I gave him my patented look of death and continued down the sidewalk. A few minutes later, this guy comes running down the sidewalk at me. It was the guy from the attempted killer car. He ran down the street to apologize profusely for not stopping. When does that happen? Obviously my look of death has taken on new levels. I'm thinking that I should tone it down to a glance of damnation, or a squint of head trauma.

Happy Happy Birthday Steve

Happy happy Birthday Steve
Originally uploaded by dina the mundane and oblivious.

Love you lots and lots sweetie, have a great day!
Smooches!
(For some reason, Ben cries every time we sing happy birthday - he must be upset that daddy's getting old.)

Get out your boogie shoes-and wallets

They're selling John Travolta's famous floor! I defy you not to hum a Bee Gees tune right now.

Jack!

A big congrats to Lisa and Paul and Jasper on the birth of the newest Durbin, Jack!
All the best for a speedy recovery Lisa!

4!

Today my blog is four years old! Four years ago, I was working at a fairly crappy job, single-but dating a great guy, and living alone. Today, my job is a bit better, I am married and have a beautiful son, and my house is almost never silent or tidy. I think that I'm doing ok:-)

Dina

Literal meaning
"Oh well, we can always try again."

History
Coming to an apprentice shoemaker in a dream under the Marquis of Bute, the name dina was originally used largely to refer to a breed of goose, before being transported to Australia for its part in the "Christ, we're starving to death! - how about a bit of food; just if you can spare it, obviously, we don't want to put you out" Rebellion.

Famous dinas
1. dina de Sponetote, who lost a fortune on unspeakable guilt;
2. "Terrible" dina Happenstance, belittler of a musical quiz show based on the Nanjing Massacre;
3. dina Boonk ("The Nervous"), disgusted by Paul McCartney's Wings;
4. dina Q Nightdodge, exposed in the press as having swapped a child for those funny pirate hats; first holder of the office of Emeritus Professor of Prophecy Professing, Oxford;
5. Judge dina Tinkermouse-Marl, director of the new Bond movie, SHOOT FIRST, SHOOT LATER;
6. dina Dindymene-Thews, who owes everything to several of the more violent gypsy curses;
7. dina O'Sprokes-Sprewt, named in court as holding compromising material concerning static electricity; ghost-writer of Anita Ekberg's revolutionary, hologram autobiography, IS THAT ME? NO, THIS IS ME;
8. dina S'Ess ("The Celebrated Juggler"), once saved by the deckchair-cum-hat;
9. dina de la Nootlooter ("The Reasonably Broadly Educated"), proponent of the Formidable Coat; ghost-writer of The St Winifred's School Choir's deeply upsetting autobiography, REMINISCING FROM MY DEATHBED;
10. dina Millington, champion of the right to use the world's most attractive bucket.

Typical dina motto
"You can't win 'em all, or people will get suspicious."

Name Meaning Generator

Made my day

I got a bit of gratuitous pleasure yesterday morning. On my morning drive to work, a guy actually tried flirting with me in traffic. What's more, the guy was in his twenties. He was in a work van too!
Now, I'm not the kind of girl that this happens to every day. When I was younger I'd get the occasional wandering eye, but now, this never happens. It took a minute to figure out what was going on. At first I thought that something was wrong with my car or maybe that someone wrote something rude on my roof (I do live next door to a private highschool). After I figured it out (I really am a dope), I tried very hard not to look at him or play with my hair or attempt a cute smile. Being the suave, sophisticated lady I am, I almost ran a light and slammed on my brakes causing my purse to topple, spewing the contents on the passenger floor - smooooooth. That guy really knows how to pick 'em. Perhaps he's just into spazzy old ladies who can't drive.

New service

Try this screen cleaner! (via Kittenhead)

Keep your stick off the ice

Be very, very quiet about this, but I don't miss NHL hockey one bit. I realise that it's uncanadian, but I don't really like hockey. Since the lockout started, there's no hockey on tv, news, or around the water cooler and I am loving it. All over Canada, people are going to junior games and enjoying women's hockey, hockey without fighting and blood and people being handicapped for life (if you don't count the parents in the stands). CBC, one of the few tv stations I get with my rabbit ears, has shown movies and some new shows, some of which are quite good. I hate Don Cherry and his stupid opinions and watching the cup playoffs in June? July? Do you think that there's any chance that everyone will stop caring about pro hockey and they'll cancel it completely? Shhhhhh, I didn't say that.

Bad English

In general, I find the state of most written communication I receive in English to be pretty sad. Emails, formal letters from companies, newspaper articles, and advertisements are littered with typos, bad grammar, and misused words. I guess it's one of those things that you come to expect when you live in a province where English is considered an annoyance, and I've become used to it, so when I come across something that's well written in English, it's always a bit surprising. A while back, a letter came in my Publi-sac (little plastic bags of advertisements that show up every Saturday). It was just a short letter defending the practice of sending sale flyers, but it was virtually error-free. It seemed so bizarre that I wanted to keep the letter and show it to all the big companies that send me bad English every day and ask, "if the Publi-sac people can do this, what's your problem?".

An afternoon at Fete des Neiges

What a great day! The weather was sunny and warm, so
we packed Ben into the car and headed for Ile Ste Helene. On the way to the parking lot, a nice guy heading out flagged us and handed us his parking pass,
saving us $10! What a fantastic thing to do! Good
humour was in the air today, tons of people were out enjoying the event .
There were lots of kids in sleds
all bundled up, and lots of activities and warming stations. You could slide, sled, make snow sculptures, climb, tunnel, and take dog sled and horse sled rides.
There were also some pretty amazing ice sculptures. Ben had fun running around and looking at all the people.

Zzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzzzzzzz
Originally uploaded by dina the mundane and oblivious.

Ben and Steve couldn't resist a sleep in this morning. Aren't they cute?

Hey ya Charlie Brown

I know this is probably old, but I just saw it and it made me surprisingly more energetic on a Tuesday afternoon.

Bread!

img_5817
Originally uploaded by dina the mundane and oblivious.

In response to Lisa, this is why you should make bread. You always know what's in it, it's fresh, it smells great, and Ben prefers it to store-bought stuff anyday :-)

Start me up

This past week has been really freaking cold. I know that it's not very environmentally friendly, and some people say that it's bad for the car, but I love my car starter. If you live somewhere where it never gets as cold as -36 with the windchill, it's probably hard to appreciate the feeling of leaving the house and getting into a nice warm car, but let me tell you, it's heaven. Since having it installed, I no longer have to endure the icy cold seat, the defrosters throwing frost out on my face, and the gear shift that won't move for 10 minutes. I park my car where I can see it from the windows at the office so I can start it up before I leave work too. It's my favorite winter accessory, especially since having Ben.

Ring ring!

Steve and I are getting new cell phones! Steve wanted to change phones anyway, and I'm not loyal to Telus-after 7 years of using their service, the only thing they've ever done for me was give me a small, blue iguana last Christmas - woohoo indeed! I saw an ad in the paper this morning for a family plan and when Steve checked it out, reported that after all the fees and taxes were included, we would save $7/mth with this family plan with Rogers. That's $84/year! We are also getting new camera phones! They aren't free, but they were pretty cheap, and hopefully will last a while if Ben doesn't find them (he broke Dan's phone while we were visiting them in San Francisco last September). One of the things we get is 500 text messages per month to each other. I've never really done text messaging, but I may learn to appreciate it now. We also get three months of free picture messaging, so we can send each other pictures of whatever is sitting in front of us at the time. Maybe this will turn out to be a bad thing, I'll let you know.
So I called Telus to cancel my account and spoke with a charming lad who begged me not to leave and then told me that my account could be reactivated within 90 days when I changed my mind. He also told me that I could tranfer my account (which is special because it's old and still charges per second instead of per minute) to anyone else if I could find someone that wanted it. Geez! They're desperate to keep you as soon as you tell them you're leaving, but before that? Have a blue iguana and don't ask for more you non-deserving customer!

The end of last week was a bit of a trial. Thursday I wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home and rested. Friday morning at around 2am, Steve and I woke up with food poisoning or a stomach flu. Let's just say that Friday was very unpleasant and a bit hazy. Ben didn't get anything, thank goodness, but we were very tired, droopy caregivers that day. By Saturday we were much better. Sunday we went to see my folks. They got him a hippo that you can ride on and it picks up blocks, it's very cute. When I got back to the office, my plant was half-dead because no one watered it, and some people didn't even notice that I wasn't at work. This has given me the idea to replace myself with a cardboard cutout and see how long I can get paid before they find out. I'd just have to get an artificial plant. Ben had his checkup and he's nice and healthy and average. The one new problem that we've been having is that every time we lay him down to change him, he throws a huge fit and it takes a good 20 minutes to calm him down. He was good enough to demonstrate this when the doctor was trying to measure him on then exam table, and he said that Ben's just being willful. Steve's started changing him standing up, which he seems to hate less. I don't know where his stubborn streak comes from (cough). Steve and Ben were going to go to a playgroup today, but the cold weather has not been good for Steve's car, so they're staying home instead. We're looking forward to Ben hanging out with other kids though, maybe next week.
We watched The Amazing Race last night and I was a little torn about Jonathon and Victoria being eliminated. They are the most awful people, and the screaming and crying was really annoying, but they were very entertaining. At the start I felt sorry for Victoria because Jonathon's very aggressive and abusive, but then I realised that Victoria is crazy in her own right. I just hope that these two people never have children. AR was also pushed back to 10pm because of American Idol, which meant staying up until 11-I'm old, I can't stay up that late!

Which File Extension are You?

The charge of the salt brigade

A few days ago, we had some rain and mild temperatures followed by cold temps which turned the sidewalk on our street into a treacherous ice slide. It's been unsanded and unplowed ever since, so I decided to find someone to complain to. I found this number on the city of Montreal web site:
Emergencies and public works 514-872-3434
I called and this guy answered. It sounded like he was in a truck. I told him about our street and he said that he would send someone. I'll keep you posted.
Update: Two days later and nothing, so I called them back and they said that they would send someone. We're supposed to get 10-15cm today, so maybe they'll consider sending one of their little sidewalk tractors down our street.

Lego Prodigy (Protegy)

Ben figured out how to stick two plastic building blocks together last night. Is it too early to call Harvard?

Resolutions?

I don't have any official ones, that's too much pressure, but I do have a few to dos.
Now that I have a new sewing machine, I'd like to make more clothes and things for Ben. I've started a pair of dinosaur pj's, and I have this neat idea for a puppet theater for when he gets a bit older. I would like to try a little harder to find different things that Ben will eat. I'm thinking about trying to make pasta. The top three resolutions are getting organized, exercise, and diet, all of which I desperately need to do. I'd like to get rid of lots of extra crap that I don't need. What else? Save more money instead of spending it on dumb things and give more to charity. Oh, and maybe learn how to juggle.

What I did on my Christmas vacation

We had a great holiday. The inlaws arrived on the 20th and my folks showed up on Christmas eve. Ben was in a tizzy with all the activity and people. We put up the tree and decorated it. All the fragile ornaments went over the four-foot mark. We put the plastic ones on the bottom, which Ben pulled down and piled on my desk chair in the office, leaving the tree completely bare below four feet. We had a nice meal, started a fire in the fireplace, and had some good family hang out time. It's the first time that we've had the whole family together for the holidays. We definitely need a bigger livingroom. We borrowed an air mattress so that Scott could sleep in Ben's room. Ben discovered that the best game ever was to run down the hallway and jump on it and roll around. He's also discovered that he can stand up in his rocking chair, he's such a little boy! On Christmas day we all got up and settled in with some coffee and unwrapped presents. I got a new sewing machine (I got it a bit early), and a slow cooker. Steve also spoiled me with Cirque De Soleil tickets and the new Bill Shatner CD. Ben got me the second season of Spongebob Squarepants. Ben got some toys and a mountain of clothes. Steve made an amazing Christmas dinner complete with turkey and veggies. For dessert we had my mom's apple pie. My folks headed home on Boxing day, and Steve's family left on the 28th. We had some friends stop by over the holidays which was a great way to get rid of all the extra cookies. Melissa dropped by on New Year's Eve with some terrific books for Ben. It's fantastic to catch up with friends who are far away. I also heard from Caroline who spent Christmas travelling around Tasmania. For New Year's Eve we stayed in and watched Garden State and Steve played some video game.
Today I am back at work and it is less than fun. I miss my baby and my bathrobe - curse you paycheck!

Winter Day

Your secret Christmas name.

Catchup

It's time to catch up on my blogging. Everyday I think of things to blog, and then suddenly it's the end of the day and all I've done is work.
Great meals - cheap!
A writer I used to work with decided to run off and become a chef. She just graduated from the Pearson Adult & Career Centre Professional Cooking Department. They have a small restaurant at the back of the school and they serve amazing meals (lunches and some suppers) for very little money. I had butternut squash gnocchi, fresh Atlantic halibut braised in tomato-fennel broth over homemade linguini, coffee, and bittersweet chocolate torte with orange-scented creme anglaise served with oven-roasted cinnamon ice cream, and amazing homemade bread, all for $12.50. They even serve wine. Fine food, and you can show up in jeans! I've been told not to go at the very beginning of the semester because they're still learning the recipes, and don't go during exams because they're nervous and food might be a bit undercooked. Don't tell everybody, I want to be able to have a nice lunch once in a while. They also sell meat (they learn how to cut their own meat) which I've been told is good quality, and baked goods.
Amazing Race
Still loving the AR, but was completely stunned and disgusted by the two NY gals who lost because they couldn't drive a manual transmission car. What the hell? You're preparing for a travel race and you don't think to learn to drive standard? I was yelling at the tv. It wasn't like they were driving old Yugos either - these were brand new Volkswagon Touregs with clutches like warm butter. How could you stall a machine that forgiving more than twice? Last week, I almost cried for the two mormon women who were ahead and then spent 8 hours rolling out hay bales and were still out there in the dark when the host came to tell them to forget it. The episode this week was rather bland. They were downplaying the hyper-yelling guy, and focused on the whining guy who lives with his parents, who is about as interesting as a loaf of bread. There was no drama. The old couple came in last, but it wasn't an elimination stop, so they just lose their money. All in all, kinda dull.

Christmas stuff

1. Christmas shopping - nearly done
   
2. Baking - not started (I did make some really good gingerbread cupcakes last Friday for work)
   
3. Sewing - partially started
   
4. Wrapping - nope
   
5. Cleaning - not really
   
6. Christmas cards - 25% finished
   
7. Something to wear to Christmas parties - nope
   
8. Space for family to sleep - nearly done
   

Ten new fingers, ten new toes

Hurray for Dan and Libby and their new promotion to Daddy and Mommy!
Before:

After:

Something for the headphones

I've been listening to these ladies while editing, and even though there are only three songs available on their site, I'm hooked.

Another small leap

Amazon is now making short movies for advertising products - the first one features Minny Driver. I kind of appreciate the directness of Amazon's approach, after all, most movies are just advertising anyway. It reminds me of the BMW movies with (drool) Clive Owen (they were much better).

My car's better than your car

I want one! (Click the link under Dancing Transformer)

Adriana came over last night for some Chinese food and to see Ben now that he is walking around. She has the barest fridge I've ever seen, and she mentioned that she was now running out of condiments. That started us on a conversation about buying condiments at Costco. For me, it was a big bottle of ketchup that I bought when I was single. That bottle became an old friend, it saw me through good times and bad, through men, moves, and was still there when I met and married Steve, who came into our relationship with his own bottle of ketchup. When we ran out of ketchup last year, it was a little hard to get my head around. Fortunately, I recovered quickly, and even bought a huge bottle of dijon that should see me through until retirement.
We also tuned in to The Amazing Race last night. If you haven't watched it, it really is worth a gander. They were in Iceland, and I was blown away by how beautiful it looked - it's definitely been added to my travel list.

Leaves!

leaves
Originally uploaded by dina the mundane and oblivious.

Recap

What a great weekend! On Friday night we went out and saw The Incredibles which was amazing! If you haven't seen it yet - go now! Right now! Just leave work and tell them I told you to. On Saturday, Maggie and I went shopping out in Pointe Claire. We spent some money at Old Navy, and then had lunch and wandered some more. Sunday was quiet and relaxing with a touch of drama. We went for a walk after picking up my group Christmas gift, and decided to play in the leaves with Ben and take some pictures. We had a great time, took some great pics, and were getting ready to leave when Steve realised that he was no longer wearing his wedding ring. There we were down on our hands and knees in the park rummaging through huge piles of dead leaves. I found it after about 20 minutes of digging around, but talk about needle in a haystack. Sunday night was nice and quiet. We gave Ben a bath and then he decided to be very busy for another hour before bed. He gets very excited about baths now. When I'm running his water, he comes in and bangs on the tub and yells and bounces. It's getting much easier to figure out what he wants.

Wheee!

Going on a date tonight with my sweetie to see The Incredibles! Yippeee!

Remember

Thank you

Moved!

I am now in my new office, without a window. To compensate, my office mate and I have all the lights on, including three desk lamps, a torch light, and the overheads. If we get tired of working, I'm pretty sure we have enough candles/foot to start a decent marijuana growing operation :-)
To be fair though, the office makes up for its windowlessness by being big, and it's still better than a cubicle.
This Sunday we went up to the townies and helped my parents install their new computer and we put on our snow tires. The snow tires are on just in time, it snowed this morning. Fortunately, the snow isn't staying, but I'm ready for it!
I also picked up a sweet little film camera for almost nothing. The guy only used it for two rolls of film!

A letter to America

Dear United States,

Bummer.

Regards,
Coffeering

How to....

Coffeering is proud to offer the following 'How to'. This is not a rant, merely an instructional guide:

How to use an elevator:

When you arrive at the elevator, decide if you would like to go up or down and press the appropriate button ONCE. Frantically pressing the button every 1/2 second upsets the elevator god.

When the elevator arrives, stand back from the doors and give the people in the elevator a chance to get out. Barging into the elevator and pressing your floor number before people can get out will result in a thrashing.

When you get out of the elevator, keep going. I know that you think that you are very important and that the people behind you are either capable of walking through solid matter or, in fact, not even there, but some of us cannot walk through incredibly dense material. Be understanding.

When you see someone coming towards the elevator as the doors are about to close, OPEN the door. Do not pretend that you are pushing the open door button and shrug your shoulders.

freakin' nitwits

pumpkin market

pumpkin2
Originally uploaded by dina the mundane and oblivious.

They'll pass anything off as a pumpkin these days!

Getting older

Inside my head waiting at a stop sign yesterday:
"Gee, those kids are a little early to be trick-or-treating. Isn't it only on Sunday?
And they're kind of old to be doing it too.
Oh wait, they're just 'regular'-looking teenagers."

Wanted

Have you seen this chocolate bar?

If you have, report to me immediately!

Store review - Homesense

Yes, Homesense has finally opened in Quebec! Today was the grand opening of the stores at Decarie Square and Fairview Pointe Claire. Seeing as how I am a 20-minute walk from Decarie Square, I wandered over at lunch for a look. First, I would like to say that I have never seen so many cars in the Decarie Square parking lot. It's a fairly dilapidated shopping centre, and has declined further through years of neglect and wool carpet sales. Expect a bit of a hassle getting in and out, and long waits at the lights. Today, they had many parking attendants out assisting drivers looking for spots. This was absolutely essential and a very nice "we care" touch. The old Winners at the centre has been removed and both stores are combined on the second floor a few steps from the escalators. I was surprised that it wasn't a bit bigger, in fact a lot of the store layout appeared crammed. A small piece of advice: when you are having a grand opening and know that there are going to be boatloads of people in and out of your store, do not put those annoying island shelves in the middles of the aisles. They slow people down with carts and strollers. I know you want people to see your wares, but they aren't going to buy anything if they can't get through the aisles easily, they will turn around and leave. I wandered without a cart and still found it difficult. The winners side was much the same, some good deals, some not so good. I'm not paying $99 for a cashmere sweater at Winners.
The Homesense side was smaller than it should have been, and there was an enormous amount of knickknack stuff cluttering shelves throughout the middle of the store. I guess many people are searching for an antique-looking wooden car for their coffeetables, or another glass vase. I found it a bit off-putting, like a dollar store had exploded. The bedding section was nice, everything was neatly organized and decidedly not an ugly selection of sheets and bedding. The bath section was a little slim except for the towels. I was drawn to the kitchen section, lots of pots and utensils, no electronic appliances though. A small but good selection of dishware and glasses, and lots of holiday-ware for Christmas. The prices were fairly decent, I found many things around $20 and under. There's also a nice selection of frames and framed art/mirrors. There were a few larger pieces (chairs, sofas) in the back of the store, but they looked like they were there for display only. The current layout does not support large items. All in all, there are some good deals to be had at Homesense, but I think they should streamline the space and concentrate on bedding, kitchenware and bath, and decrease the floor space given for the knickknacks.

What not to watch

I watched part of the worst reality show I've ever seen last night. The Biggest Loser is a show about competitive weight loss. There is nothing about this show that is not disgusting, mean, and wrong. The poeple on the show are on two teams and they compete to see which team can lose the most weight weekly. The contestants range in weight goals from 30-100+ pounds. The teams are headed by two fitness instructors who seem to have no idea how to loss weight in a healthy manner. The first week some people lost over 20 pounds - how is that possible? One person is voted off each week, usually the person with the least to lose. The show's only goal seems to be to make fun of these poor people and provides no encouragement or self esteem building. I thought that The Swan was bad, but TBL makes that show shine.
A couple of years back, there was a show on the Life network called "Taking it Off" that followed a group of people who wanted to lose weight and get in shape. That show had realistic goals, showed people how to eat and exercise properly and the group had good motivation. If the producers of TBL started with that show concept, they really missed the boat.

Nice night

I had a very pleasant evening. Steve made a nice supper, Ben ate heartily, and then we retired to the livingroom to watch a few episodes of the fourth season of Futurama. Ben went back and forth from the tv to his room and emptied some recycling, threw toys all over, and dragged his laundry everywhere. One of his favorite new things is rushing into our arms for hugs -sigh, he's so cute! I missed a lot of the fourth season of Futurama because they kept moving it during the baseball season and I wasn't watching much tv. By the end of the evening, Ben and I were cuddled up on the floor. This past weekend we went and picked out a new pair of glasses for Steve. I hope that these are more kid-friendly than his current pair. I also reaffirmed my theory that all glasses look really bad on me, I'm glad that I don't need them -yet.
We have finally entered the sweater portion of the Fall season. Last night, it went down to 0. Time to get in gear and get those fireplace doors so we can have some cozy fires!

Short Thoughts

• Commercials for My Little Pony make me appreciate that I have a son.
  
• Things that Ben has attempted to eat recently: a quarter, hair, keys, socks, shoes, pom-poms, paper, kleenex, Steve's shoulder, mousepad, tupperware, footstool, my knee
  
• People who leave huge bowls of individually wrapped mini-swiss chocolate squares sitting within easy reach of my desk are evil.
  
• Pricing new computers for my folks is much more interesting than editing a 300-page upgrade guide.
  
• My hair is in dire need of a fairy godmother

Thanksgiving weekend was pretty relaxing, we saw the folks and did some chores and did some tidying around the house. I made my fabulous banana bread, but baked it in mini-muffin tins for Ben - he loves getting his little muffin and breaking it apart and stuffing it in his mouth. He's so cute when he's eating. He grabs handfuls of food and makes yum noises and hums and kicks his feet and enjoys his food. Ben walked all over the place this weekend, he's walking farther and faster everyday.
I finally got around to creating a brand-spanking new c.v. this week. I was looking around for inspiration and was surprised at how many awful microblah template cvs there are out there. Even the samples from web sites that sell cv writing services are grim.

Walking man!

IMG_5153.JPG
Originally uploaded by dina the mundane and oblivious.

Friday!

It's Friday! It's also my godson's birthday and he's an amazing kid with a love of fart jokes and maps and sometimes I can't figure out when he got so big! I got him a montreal metro map, a real one - full size. I hope he likes it and that some day he'll tell his friends that his cool godmom stole it for him (not his not-so-cool godmom called the STM and asked for one and they gave it to her).
Ben's on the mend. He made it through the surgery without incident and now it's just a question of healing and some rather bad diarrhea caused by the antibiotics. He has to go back next Thursday to take a tube out of a very sensitive area, but we're coping. When he's not bothered by the tube and diaper changes, Ben's his old self, tearing through the house and getting into everything in site. We're just so glad that it's over and we're hoping that Ben doesn't remember this when he gets older.

Firsts

Ben's first word wasn't Mom or Dad, it was "Yay". He said it when we reached the top of a mountain hike in Muir Woods, while I was videotaping no less. He's a very considerate boy. Last night, he took his first few steps and we were completely thrilled. If he does it again, I promise I will get it on tape. He's becoming such a big boy, where did the time go?

SF

Day to day

We took Ben to the Children's yesterday for his pre-surgery checkup. He has to go in for a procedure next Tuesday. We have been assured that this is a common procedure and he will be fine, but of course with general anesthetic there's always a risk, and the surgery is going to take at least 2 hours, so I'm freaking out a bit. Words like "best specialist in Canada" are good things. Steve's mom is coming in for a week to help just in case we need her. Either way, she gets to spend time playing with her grandson. Work's still hectic as I try to get out a release and edit a bunch of docs. We've also discovered that we're moving to a different building sometime in the near future. I am going from an office with a window to a converted conference room with no windows which I will have to share with two other people - and just when I was getting used to having a plant in my office!
I've been listening to ex-Men at Work guy, Colin Hay's album Man @ Work. I am especially attached to his acoustic remake of Overkill, which is funny because I didn't really care for the original at all.

Post vacation post

We got back a week ago tomorrow and I'm still reaching into the suitcase for shirts in the morning. Steve and Ben are unpacked, but I haven't managed to unpack, perhaps it's a refusal to let the vacation go. I got back to work and the review I sent out before I left hadn't come back. I'm already over my hours on this project, so I told my manager to sort it out with the project manager - I'm tired of all the postponing and "just one more build" additions.
We had a great vacation. San Francisco's a nice city. I was a bit surprised to discover that although I really enjoyed SF, I didn't fall in love with it, and wouldn't choose to live there. The weather was beautiful, the people were very pleasant, but there was something about the city and me that didn't click. Perhaps it was the endless hills to drive and walk up, or the relentless search for decent parking, or that it was just so warm and sunny everyday. I loved the taquerias, the cable cars, the street cars, the ocean, the redwoods, the fact that you can find wonderful organic produce on almost every block, the ultra-blue sky, and that breath-taking view of GG bridge and the city. Seeing our friends Dan and Libby was the best part of the trip. Libby's looking great, and Dan makes a cup of coffee you'd trade your parking spot for :-) They were excellent hosts, even though Ben was constantly creating chaos in their nice clean home! It's so weird to think that the next time we see them, they'll be parents too, well, at least they've had a brief glimpse into their future.
This weekend was spent visting the folks and Maggie and Andrew which means that we didn't get much cleaning done. I managed to make some muffins for Ben, but that was it. He's eating more everyday thanks to his new teeth. His latest favorite is plain wholewheat pasta, I'm amazed that he can eat so much of it. He's still not walking yet, but he's so close that I know that one day he's just going to go for it - I hope I'm home when he does.