Victory against the government agencies and utilities and a salad!

It was not a productive work day, but it was a good day to conquer hold lines and waiting lines for personal stuff.
I battled the Hydro Quebec phone lines and despite not having all the obscure info they asked for, I managed to come out victorious. When I have tons to do, I seem to be able organize myself with military precision. I only had a few tasks today, and after the marathon rush of the last month, I found myself wasting most of the day talking and surfing the Internet for appliances. I left work and went to the SAAQ to get the picture for my driver's license and medicare card. I went in and took a number - 633. They were at 528.....miraculously, an hour later I was smiling for my typical crappy picture (I had wild hair today). I think that they design special cameras and fix the lighting so that no one can possibly look good. Claudia Schiffer would look like a yeti under these conditions, what chance do us severely normal people have? Hamburgers were on teh menu tonight which I was completely uninvolved in besides stopping by the store to get the ground beef. I did make a nice salad with grapefruit, and my special vinaigrette. No pictures tonight, it disappeared too fast.

Tomorrow is mediation day - everybody say yeah!

Call Rogers, hardware store, coffee, and mac & cheese

This was stuff on my list that I accomplished today. Calling Rogers was by far the longest and most frustrating. I had to change my account and I ended up having to speak to the manager who finally got on the line, and sorted out the problems. I hate dealing with large utilities, I've made it my mission in life to annoy them in my own small ways. Tomorrow I must tackle Hydro-Quebec, my arch nemesis.
After I got off the call that would never end, I wandered over to the hardware store, where, like my father, I could easily spend an entire afternoon and come out with only a small packet of washers. I managed to get it down to 30 minutes and a packet of washers, and a head full of decorating ideas. Next stop was dropping by Adriana's for the coveted special industrial floor wax, coffee, snickerdoodles, yoga talk, girl talk, and ended with me sitting on the kitchen floor watching her wax her legs. I know that guys don't do this kind of thing, but when girls hang, we always end up refurbishing or trying on each other's clothes, it's just what we do.... I actually would be very amused if guys did this - "dude, you have to try this new shaving cream I got, come to the bathroom!"
After Adriana, it was the stop at the coffee place downtown where the local coffee geek now knows I own the fabulous Technivorm and grinds up my beans special, then I hooked up my washer and made sure that nothing leaked before I threw together the mac & cheese with cauliflower that I'd been planning all day. Nothing says, "this grey weather is getting to me" like creamy cheesy goodness. And I have lunches for a few days-bonus!

I promise I will try to be a bit more interesting soon, ok, maybe not interesting, but at least mildly un-boring. I have so much in my head right now that has to come out, but it must wait for now.

close fit and snickerdoodles

I bought a used washer and dryer today and I paid almost as much to have them picked up and delivered as I paid for the appliances, but I can honestly say it was worth it. First, they drove all the way out to Ile Perrot to get them, then they had to tackle an NDG house. They made basement doors really small way back, I guess they never figured that people would invent massive square metal boxes to wash their clothes. I got very standard ones, and the guys had to take the doors off, remove the latch, then take the washer and dryer apart to remove the sticking out bits. I have to get some new washers for the hoses before I set them up but - I can do laundry - woo woo!
I got home, and after some park time, then supper time, then bed time, it was snickerdoodle time! I've been wanting to make some for over a week! I love this simple cookie and it's one of the few that Ben eats.

Going granola

Time to get back to blogging and back to the kitchen!
It's been a CRAZY couple of months - work, business trip, some other stuff that is changing my life significantly, and it's going to stay crazy. As some of you know, when the going gets tough, Dina goes .... to the kitchen! Yup! I am surfing for new recipes, opening my cookbooks, and getting set to litter the counters with appliances and dirty bowls.
While I was in Sweden I had a room with a kitchenette so that I could buy some food and make breakfasts and some meals. I can't eat at restaurants all the time, especially not when I just want to grab something quick and get into the office or out sightseeing. There were two grocery stores in the mall downstairs, so I was able to wander the aisles, looking at all the products. Oops, I'm getting distracted, I'll talk about my love of grocery stores later, back to the topic. At the grocery store I bought a big box of granola and some yogurt and I ate that for breakfast every morning. Their yogurt is delicious! It's not as sweet as ours and thicker and obviously not the ultra 0% variety. When I was in Amsterdam and Breda in Holland, breakfasts were included with the room and in both places there were multiple granola and fruit and yogurt choices, all equally delicious.
Then I got home.
I went out and bought some granola and some yogurt, and the granola was, well, disappointing and expensive! What to do? Go to the Internet of course! I found a recipe on one of my fav sites, went back to the grocery store, and a few days later when I had some time - voila!

Yummy granola, and lots of it! Twice what was in this jar (I stored the rest in a ziploc bag). I used walnuts, coconut, dried mango, apricot, raisins, and cranberries. Cheap, easy, and a million times better than the store-bought stuff.
Next step - making yogurt..... I can't wait!

ben dancing

ben dancing
Originally uploaded by dina the m and o

Ben stole the finale of the school play shaking those hips! I take no credit whatsoever, his shadow, Ms Collette taught him how to boogy down.

Last day

I haven't written anything on the blog yet about Sweden, primarily because I've been too busy working and out enjoying this country to have time to blog about it. I have lots of notes, so really it will all be said eventually.
I fly out this afternoon and I know that I will miss being here. I arrived at one of the most beautiful times of year and the weather was great and the people were amazing and I floated on that high for two weeks despite the monumental work load. I'm looking forward to two days of doing nothing before I have to head down to Breda for two days of meetings.
Thank you Stockholm for showing me your absolute best side on my trip to you. It will be something I carry with me forever.

He scores!

He scores!
Originally uploaded by avidreader514

My son the bowler. God I miss him!

Word of the day: Umheimlich

Umheimlich is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange.

Because the uncanny is familiar, yet strange, it often creates cognitive dissonance within the experiencing subject due to the paradoxical nature of being attracted to, yet repulsed by an object at the same time. This cognitive dissonance often leads to an outright rejection of the object, as one would rather reject than rationalize.

You ever feel like this?

Easter

The good today:
Watching the kids hunt for eggs and Naomi jumping up and down when she found one.
Naomi making two bunnies dance together.
Ben playing with the toys the Easter bunny brought and getting so excited about his new clothes, and making a great card for my dad.
Both kids singing happy birthday to my dad and helping to blow out the candles.
Ben being such a good sport even though he was sick.
My folks having such a good time with the kids today, and kick-ass ham.

denial? anyone?

a sketch of better things to come

I picked up Ben from school and he was thrilled. It was drizzling, and while he was waiting by the car for me to unlock his door, he drew a smiley face on the passenger window and he pointed it out to me proudly. I never imagined when I was told that he was autistic that we'd ever get to this stage, an unprompted doodle clearly identified - a face that is smiling at me in the glass and the smile of the artist himself, it was a wonderful moment. He is doing so well and I am so damn proud of that kid.

thought for the day

Some people are just your rice krispy treats.

why

does this have to be so damn hard?

It's time

to call it a day........

Why? What was the point?

Back to square one......

Looking for space...

Why isn't this working?

there's a fork in the road.....

Gravity: The mutual attraction of one body to another across a distance.

I was listening to CBC Ideas tonight and David Abrahm was talking about how we are so caught up in science that we have stopped trusting our senses. I didn't agree with everything he said (particularly about language or Husserl), but I did agree when he said that we don't tend to notice the wonders of our world, including things like gravity. He thinks that a lot of modern technology is the cause of this, but that's something that's been going on for so long that I think we would have eradicated all wonder by now if it were true. Honestly, do you think that everyone would stand in wonder of a rock, or the ocean, or the wind if they didn't have a cell phone? I simply think that there are people who wonder and people who do not and there are people who spend most of their time in wonder only occasionally because life has a way of distracting you. I also think that there is as much to wonder about in science as we find in the senses, and that most scientists would agree. In fact, maybe most of what he said was baloney now that I think of it. It's way too pessimistic.
I have never stopped seeing the wonders, they awe and astound me every day, they fill my head with amazement that we are here and able to take it all in. It's one of the things that I love about my kids, that they sometimes stop running and I know that they are sensing one of the miracles of the world and processing it, feeling it. I don't think that we ever lose that once we discover it, it's only a matter of taking a moment to reconnect with it.

How do I explain to my screaming daughter that she has to wear tights when I myself hate them with a fiery passion?

Sleep would be nice.......

To some of the ladies who share the washroom on my floor

If you insist on doing the standing mambo while you pee, please wipe the seat.
Don't be disgusting, or if you do, just use the men's room.
Thanks.

The weight returns.........

Adventures in dumbness

Locked my keys in the car with the motor running. That takes a special kind of "special".....
An hour later the CAA guy showed up and popped the door open in about 1 minute. Luckily, gas is cheap today.

Adventures in girly-girl land: let me nibble your toes

So, on my quest for refurbishment this year, it is now time to focus on my feet with a lovely pedicure. I had my first professional pedicure a couple of years ago with my friend Libby in Vancouver (I know! what took me so long? Not much of a girly girl). I've been getting by with my own half-assed attempts, but when Maggie started asking, how could I say no? Once again, I called up my girly connection Adriana. She told me about this little place called Tami on Duluth. The next week they were in the newspaper because they do the fish pedicures. For someone who is not a girly girl, I DID know about fish pedicures, and am now surprised that so many people don't. Really people, I am normally the last one to find these things out, keep up! The fish in question are these little carp that eat the dead skin off your feet. It's ok, they don't have teeth. I thought this was bizarre, but I'm up for most bizarre stuff. It took us a while to get organized, but Maggie eventually booked us an early morning appointment on a Saturday and off we went with our other friend Lysanne.

We arrived bright and early and were the first meal of the day. They have two tanks that can take two people each. We were three, so Maggie and Lysanne shared one and I got one to myself (mainly because I was taking pictures for posterity). Maggie was first and she didn't scream, Lysanne had a moment where we thought she might bolt, but she held it together.

After watching them, I was eager to try. Maggie described it best, it's like sticking your feet in club soda, bubbly. I don't have ticklish feet, but Maggie assured me that even sensitive feet are immune from tickles. We were submerged almost to our knees and the fish were also nibbling at our legs. I thought it felt great!

I splayed my toes and they got in between, they nibbled away at my cuticles and heels, everywhere.

The only drawback to sharing a tank apparently is that whoever has more to eat gets more attention. There was some fish sharing that had to be performed between Maggie and Lysanne. I stayed in longest and my feet are still amazingly soft and smooth. We finished the experience with fresh polish, I got some great purple toes. Then it was off for lattes at Myriade and pad thai at a nearby favorite. Another great girly experience!

Ben skates!

Ben skates!
Originally uploaded by dina the m and o

Ben did great skating on Dow Lake in Ottawa. Look at him go!

Shit! Sorry James! Happy birthday!

"... ah yes I know them well who was the first person in the universe before there was anybody that made it all who ah that they dont know neither do I so there you are they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else from all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas 2 glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes."
- Molly's soliloquy

Adventures in girly-girl land: some good conversation and a place to park your plane

I went for for first ever waxing appointment last week. I'm not a huge girly girl, so I've managed to avoid a lot of things that involved estheticians. This year, I 'm giving these things a shot. Let's face it, I'm 40 this year and a general refurbishment is probably due. I'm wrinkly, saggy, hairy, and not getting any prettier. This is not a desperate attempt to regain my youth, it's more a reality check and a “this is the best it's gonna get chickie, better appreciate whatcha got”. I know as well as anyone that I'm a pretty good lookin' almost 40, but I can't compete with the young 'uns anymore.

So I call up my friend, Adriana, the bank of all info I need to be hip and cool and smooth and girly. She gave me the number of her lady and on Wednesday, in the midst of a deadline and a snowstorm, off I trudged to have the hair ripped off my legs and bikini area. The lady is question is a middle-aged Romanian who came to Canada 30 years ago and never looked back. It's her business and she's proud of it and you can tell she loves her work. I walked in and told her my name and she said, “I know”. I knew I was going to like her right away. I awkwardly explained that I was a waxing virgin and had no idea what to expect. She looked at me a little annoyed and explained that she would be removing the hair from my legs and bikini. Well, I knew that! She looked up from her appointment book suddenly and asked, “do you want a Brazillian?” I've watched Sex and the City so I knew what she meant. “Oh no!”, I stammered, “just a regular one!”

“Oh thank God”, she said, “I don't think you're ready for that”. I think she was right.

I followed her to her waxing area, a couple of repurposed electric fondue pots simmering with green wax and a reclining chair with a comfy stool in front of it. My pants came off and I got comfy in the chair and she started doing what she does, starting with the bikini area. Keeping in mind that I am new to this, I watched as she took more and more off. More than I have ever shaved. I now have what is called a “landing strip”. She worked very diligently to get the sides even, and even implied that she could have taken more off. I'm thinking that I'd like to keep it as is at least. We will have to have a discussion the next time about shapes and such.

Next came the legs. I'm not particularly hairy, so the legs went pretty fast. She told me that a few more visits before the summer will probably have me nearly hair-free for the summer. I have thin hair, she knows these things.

During all the waxing and ripping, we talked about books and politics. When she started a sentence with, “I was reading last week in The Economist”, I knew why Adriana loves this woman so much. She made me promise not to shave and to come back in five weeks. She refused to take a tip because she's the owner, which may force me to bake for next time. I may like this girly girl thing!

Gonna miss you dude....

"In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. I'm in the third check-out slot, with my back to the door, so I don't see them until they're over by the bread. The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs. I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not. I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell. She's one of these cash-register-watchers, a witch about fifty with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, and I know it made her day to trip me up. She'd been watching cash registers forty years and probably never seen a mistake before."
John Updike - "A&P"

Random thought

If wishes were fishes, I'd have a freakin' city aquarium right now.

MmmmmmMyriade!

After reading about it in the local paper and hearing about it from a few friends, I finally got a chance to check out Cafe Myriade for myself. Wow! Tiny place tucked in next to Concordia. I went with fellow coffee lover, Roberta, this morning before the crowds. We had the place mostly to ourselves, and we were able to have a lovely and informative talk with co-owner, Anthony. Not only can he make a perfect latte, he can also impart his extensive knowledge on coffees and teas in a very open and friendly manner. You get excellent coffee, you get it without pretension, a perfect combination.

I started with a latte, lovely, excellent temp, and beautifully presented. Then Roberta and I shared a pot of Ethiopian Yergacheffe. We were so impressed that we each bought some beans to take home. One more latte and we were wired and ready to go home to lunch just as the rest of the city was walking in for their fix.
I will be returning very soon :-)

Text addict

If you were to tell me a couple of years ago that I would become addicted to texting from my phone, I would say that you were crazy. Why would I text from my phone? Hitting the keys multiple times to get the right letters, each word taking forever to spell out, those annoying abbreviations and shortenings and using numbers for sounds (l8er, or is that l8r?), how is that writing? And yet, here I sit two years l8er staring at my cell phone bill and realising that I have been charged an extra $24 in texting fees. This is also why I am on hold with my provider to extend my text plan so this doesn't happen again. Messaging has become so common place and natural to me that it has extended to my phone. My friends have also become bitten by the texting bug and text me, I text them back, the cycle repeats over and over. Why call them when you can write? Why bother them when you know that their phone can buzz and they can choose to read and respond or not depending on their day, as opposed to having to immediately answer an insistent ring? What is it about texting that is more appealing? Whatever it is, it is now costing me $4 extra per month.

epiphany

"A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."
- James Joyce, The Dead

Resolutions - or, could you be *more* self-involved?

Ok, the last time I posted resolutions here I didn't end up keeping them and they were fairly simple – learn to juggle and write my friends each a letter over the year. I felt pretty pathetic about it come the end of the year, how lazy can you get? This year I'm not promising to master anything involving hand-eye coordination or anything involving my friends.
This year, I am going to try to be happy. Seems like a very simple thing, and yet sometimes, well, it might as well be learning to juggle. I've been doing a lot of thinking about transitioning and what I would have to change about my life to be happier, but it seems the easier course is to just decide to be happy from moment to moment and make decisions that make those moments happy, if that makes any sense. Perhaps it's selfish.
Last year brought a lot of revelations: life is short and beautiful and should be taken advantage of and savoured. I also feel as though I returned to a place where I can feel the possibilities in my life and the endless potential that is waiting inside me, jumping up and down, eager to run. Perhaps I will do something with it, perhaps not, but I will embrace it this year instead of pushing it down with self doubt and negative thought.
I know that I should say something like, “this year is about family”, or “this year is about making the world a better place”, but I can't. This year is about me, and figuring out what I want. If I manage to save the world too, that's just a happy side effect :-)

And so that was Christmas

My Christmas in a bullet list:

• Ate too many cookies.
  
• Am running slower than before Christmas. But I'm running, so that's something.
  
• Got new running shoes, they rock! And a gc for lululemon - gateway to pants that promise to make my butt look divine!
  
• Kids got too much stuff, I blame the grandparents.
  
• Everyone crowded into our tiny place and ate and drank and were generally merry.
  
• The kids were amazing when they weren't too tired or hopped up on sugar.
  
• Four of our five houseguests got sick after they left. I blame the children.
  
• Managed to enjoy some eggnog/fireplace time.
  
• Weather lovely and mild, although this made it icy as well.
  
• Baking almost all gone, will have to make sure it's gone by the end of the week.
  
• Made soup.
  
• Made a couple of great salads. In-laws found them "interesting".
  
• House still a disaster area. Must get things organized!
  
• Dad got pneumonia and ended up in the hospital. He'll be ok, but it's still scary.
  
• Didn't manage to get to see everyone over the holiday, but there's still a few more days!
  

I'm not biting

So I finally finished the first two teen vampire books by Stephanie Meyer. I wanted to know what the fuss was about. I hadn't even heard of the books until just before the last one came out and then the movie was released, so I already felt a bit under the rock on this one. How could I have missed this big teen girl cult following? Well, after reading two of these I can say, they're no Harry Potter.
The books are incredibly disappointing. They have all the components that make them so appealing, but they are so poorly put together that you just sit there thinking, “this could have been so good”. My biggest beef is that they clearly lacked a competent editor to help the author pare down the repetition, build the plot and fix the huge holes, and create a story that isn't a bunch of jagged scenes thrown together within a binding.
I realise that a few of my friends loved these books as-is, and that's fine. I understand the appeal, I've admitted that all the key ingredients are there: sullen troubled incredibly beautiful man, super powers, protective, impossibility of their love, the protestations, the revelations, the plain girl who is the object of total love for this god-like man, it's female bait, a checklist of it. In fact, you can almost hear the author checking them off one by one as the story goes on – and then repeating the list over and over until you just want to say, “enough! we get it!”. When you finish you want to scrub your brain with something really good and apologize for making it sit through it.
I'm amazed that these managed to get picked up by a publisher and sent out to print in this condition. On the other hand, if something like this can get published and make the author a very happy rich lady, surely there is hope for other bad writing to make it big out in the world, perhaps even mine some day ;-)

Don't know where she gets it

Getting ready for work/daycare/school earlier this week. Kids are dressed and playing in the living room, Steve is cleaning off cars, I am sitting at the table eating cereal. I hear a child come running down the hallway. It's Naomi, starkers except for a fake pearl necklace. She walks in casually, does a small turn, gives me a smile and runs down the hallway again. We have so much to look forward to........

dough, dough, dough

Got four cookie doughs in the fridge ready for tomorrow. Spice, cinnamon sugar, and two types of gingerbread. I also have a batch of ginger bens done. Stephie's coming over tomorrow for some baking which is great because we haven't seen her since the end of October. One of the things I love about Steph is trading crazy parent stories, between the two of us we have a truckload. She's also a crazy artist, so her view of life is nicely skewed. When we were first looking for a shadow for Ben, I put an ad on the university sites for a cheap student, hoping to find someone in psych who was interested in autism. We found Steph instead, an art education student, older than most of her class, from St Catharines so her French was so bad that she was looking for an anglo job that didn't involve telemarketing. What we ended up discovering was a perfect match for Ben in so many ways, she truly understands so many of Ben's quirks and sensitivities. A kindred spirit. Even after she left, we've continued to be good friends and she's still incredibly attached to Ben. In fact, everyone near Ben forms a strong attachment to him, it's part of his charm. His ability to become part of your heart so quickly has made finding people to work with him, and even go out of their way to help us, so easy. He's learned the first rule of people, and while I'd like to teach him not to abuse it, it has served him well.

Why my husband does not want me to write the Christmas letter

Hi Everyone,
What a year! Actually, that's a cliched way to start a yearly letter, you'd think that I could do better than that, but the fact is I can't really remember what kind of year it's been. As most of you know, I have the memory of a gnat, so when I look back at the year I remember very little. In fact, the only things sticking out at the moment are the following:

• We got bedbugs from our downstairs neighbour and it was a pain in the butt.
  
• The kids have been particularly challenging, the girl especially. It's really a miracle that she's still alive.
  
• My workload has increased exponentially without financial compensation.
  
• My house is such a disaster that I've considered throwing out everything I own and starting over.
  
• I think I've needed a nap since June.....
  
• Wait! Ben started kindergarten! That's a good one. He now has more ped days than I have vacation days.
  
• Steve is still alive. Our friends and family continue to be awed over how he copes with me.
  
• The cat who pees on everything is still alive, although honestly I can't say why. This year has been non-stop sniff and launder....
  
• Christmas is in two weeks and I have done no shopping, baking, cleaning, crafting, decorating, or party scheduling, and part of me doesn't really care.
  

Hope you all spend the holidays drunk and happy,
dina

To the person microwaving popcorn at 10:30am

What the fuck is wrong with you? Seriously dude, don't you have a lunch? Save the waves of fake buttery smell wafting through my office until the afternoon when I can stomach it.....

An instructional recap

I originally posted this 4 years ago, but it's obviously time for a refresher.....

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

Adventures in momming

There's nothing like walking into the bathroom, stepping into a puddle of urine, and having no idea which child it came from.......

The Supermom conundrum

For the past two days I have been in charge of getting the kids ready in the morning and dropping them off and picking them up at daycare/school. It's actually gone a bit better than I expected. What I expected was quite a bit more screaming, which is what I normally hear. It seems that the novelty of having mommy do it and my ability to put on boots and coats in front of the tv has kept the hollering in check. Everyone at the daycare and the school seemed surprised to see me. I suppose I could feel guilty about never doing it, but I choose not to. I work outside the house by choice, and that means that the roles are reversed in my house a bit. I still do many tasks that are traditionally “women's work”, but childcare is something that mostly gets done by my husband. He shuttles the children, he takes them to doctor's appointments, he arranges haircuts, and shops for birthday parties. Part of me does feel bad about sometimes being disconnected from the majority of their out-of-the-house activities, but staying at home and working like he does just doesn't work for me, and frankly spending that much time struggling with the kids would kill me.
The whole supermom concept is so daunting. We feel guilty if we want to do less than everything perfectly. I think that I still try to do too much, but the only reason I can try is because I have the support of my spouse who does his share. Of course perfection is impossible, and we all realise that, but there's that desire to try and get everything right. Just remember when you're up making those cupcakes at midnight that there are loads of women in your boat, surrounded by laundry and dirty dishes and screaming children all trying to be perfect and keeping up that pretense, which is why we never invite each other over for coffee.

Books!

Once again, the online bookstores were calling to me. This time, it was initially for Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space. I first heard the term "desire paths" about a year ago and since then I have been interested reading this work. It includes a foreword by John Stilgoe, whose own work on the American landscape is pretty interesting.
Next is a flyer called Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can Be Made Simpler), by Times editor Jeff Kluger. It showed up in a 'you might like this list', and looked like something I could read.
The last is a book that I heard about ages ago, but didn't pick up, Hot Sour Salty Sweet: a culinary journey through southeast asia, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. This book is full of gorgeous pictures and recipes, including a glossary of flavourings and a glossary of ingredients.
Now, if I can just resist the temptation of reading them before my exam.....sigh.....

Testing, testing.....

So, studying for the EAC exam, final week, final push to try to pack enough information into my brain to finish this time. Like all exams, it's frustrating how little can be learned from the writer other than whether they know how to take an exam. There's a formula: you take the practice exams, you figure out what the examiners are looking for, and you deliver it correctly in the allotted time and you pass. Exams never test you on the inherent knowledge required to make intelligent decisions, learn new material, make new rules, apply your mind to changing requirements and being inventive. Those are the true tests that we should be able to pass in life, intelligence, adaptability, good management and decision making skills. Sadly, it always comes down to showing people that you can think exactly like them.

For Emru

My friend's brother died last night. He had leukemia. His sister, Tamu, and all of his family and friends rallied around him to find him a transplant, but the disease continued on despite the success.
Things like this make me reflect on my life obviously, and this is what I think, please listen:

Love the good things in your life, love your family and friends, love the strangers who pass by you on the street, love the guy who cut you off in traffic this morning, love the jerky boss who made you work late, love your fat thighs, love your dirty house, love the people who bring you joy and the ones who bring you pain, love the laughter, love the sadness, love the obstacles and the terrible things that happen, love the sweet smell of a crisp morning and the smell of a truck stop washroom, love the experiences that have brought you to where you are, good and bad, LOVE IT ALL because you are alive to experience it and life is too short to waste not loving everything about it. With every deep breath you take realise how lucky you are to feel, to be, to continue to exist and interact with the world.
We are so lucky you and I.......
And do something good today, get yourself on a bone marrow donor list and save a life.

Picnic table wisdom

At the park across the street there are two sentences scrawled on a picnic table, the first one says, “I want him so bad, I wish I could kiss him”, the second says, “so kiss me”. I find this amusing in so many ways. The eternal question, do we or don't we?
Looking back over my years of men, I've discovered that although I've been pursued, I've never really been pursued by men I've wanted. On the contrary, I've almost always initiated relationships with men I've wanted. On some occasions I just walked up and kissed them. You'd be amazed at the impression you make by just honestly stating what you want. In fact, talking to many women, I wasn't surprised to learn that many of us choose our men. The men in question weren't disinterested or playing hard to get, they simply didn't have a clue that the women were interested in them. Some women had tried a more subtle approach before just being blunt, others have schemed a bit more to make their men think that they made the first move. I guess that some women would have trouble making the first move, but it depends on the type of man you're looking for. I have always been happier with men who appreciated that I am a strong woman who knows what I want.
When did I learn that I should just jump in and expose my desires and just hope for the best? It has to be one of the scariest things, exposing your heart to someone who could dash it in an instant. In the end it comes down to the choice between a few moments of embarrassment and a lifetime of regret. For me, there's no choice there at all.

adventures in traffic

To the woman in the silver Golf this morning:
Lady, you can have that turn signal on until the end of time, but if you don't move your car into the traffic, you are never gonna merge. Were you waiting for an invitation?

On music

We went to see the MSO today, part of a children's concert series. Both of the children enjoy classical music so we thought that this would be a nice way to expose them.
It's cliché to go on about the magic of music. I understand the physics involved: a wave disturbing the air, the vibrations picked up by our ear drums which convert them into the sensation of sound. But that doesn't begin to describe it. I am not a musician, and therefore can only describe it from a listener's perspective.
The visceral tug on your soul as the notes align and and the frequencies and waves move out from the instruments and musicians and penetrate and flow through your body and the bodies of the rest of the audience. Everyone experiencing the sensual joy of the sound passing through them, no two people absorbing the music in the same way and yet all enraptured by its being, by its creation from silence. It's ability to invoke so much joy and sorrow and life, falling into the harmony and dissolving into the vibrations which run through your body in waves of sensual experience.
It allows me to feel awe, to rejoice and wonder at how amazing we are and how incredibly marvelous it all is, and it often makes me cry. I catch my breath and let my body flow along the notes, the chords, the fingers and breath that give the music life. The intimacy that is shared so joyfully, fully, completely between strangers.

Just one piece left

I made an apple cake for fika this week to share with my colleagues. I used this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite food blogs. It's apparently mom's recipe, so I had quite a bit of faith in it. It said to cook it for 90 minutes, but at 75 it was well on its way to being over baked, so I would start checking it after 60. It filled the bundt pan used, and was moist. I might step up the batter a bit, it felt a little bland, maybe mix half the apple mixture into the batter and layer the rest.

At the end of the fika, there was only one little piece left that I brought home for Steve. A resounding success, but I found a few more similar recipes, so I'll have to play around a bit, you know me ;-)

My body

Perhaps in the spirit of getting back into the blog thing I should tell the one or two people who still wander through what's been going on for the past couple of years. We'll start with my body.
When Naomi turned one and I returned to work I was over 190lbs and pretty down about it. Now, I've never been skinny, but having kids and staying home for a year with each had really taken its toll. I was in nasty shape and fat as a house. A couple of months before, I got back in touch with my old friend Deb. We had lost touch when she and her boyfriend split. We invited her over for dinner one night, and when I opened the door to let her in, I took one look and said, "Cripe Deb, where did the rest of you go?". She had easily lost 30lbs and looked fab. She told me that she followed Weight Watchers. I remembered doing WW in my early twenties with a bunch of my friends and losing 10lbs. I also remembered how hard it was to keep track of the breads, milks, etc. After being reassured that it was not like this anymore, I signed up online for a trial free membership, downloaded all the info I needed to do it on my own, then cancelled and off I went. So that was two years ago. Since then, I've lost more than 50lbs and am down to a healthy weight.

I don't follow WW, but I eat reasonably and I continue to eat the normal, healthy food I have always eaten. Last year I returned to the gym and now I have a routine of 4 or 5 days a week. I started running, which now feels amazing because my knees don't hurt and I no longer feel winded. In short, I'm happier with my body than I've been in 10 years. My goal over the winter is to work with a personal trainer on my upper body and train for 10k.
I think my success is in part to do with the fact that I wasn't in a hurry and I never obsessed about the scale. When I reached a point where I wasn't steadily losing, I just kept doing what I was doing until my metabolism caught up. When it comes to your body, patience is the best thing you can give it, and a cute new pair of jeans of course...;-)

number one or number two?

One of the things that they never tell you about being a parent is the quantity of bodily fluids you will have to deal with on a daily basis. When you are pregnant, you pee 25 times a day for 9 months, and I think this is to prepare you for the quantity of urine you will be exposed to over the first year alone after your first child is born. For the first few years, you cannot escape from it. You talk about poop, you examine diapers, you grab your children off the ground and smell their butts, you even stick your hands down their pants and grab their crotches, only to sigh and reach for yet another diaper and the box of wipes. Everybody poops, we all know this and yet it becomes this obsession that honestly? No non-parent would ever have guessed would become so all-encompassing. Then your second child comes and at some point you realise that you have not had a day without dealing with someone else's feces for years. Case in point: tonight when my son managed to poop in the toilet, across the seat, and on the floor while in search of another roll of toilet paper, and my daughter peed all over the kitchen floor. Every surface is fair game. My husband deals with more than his fair share and yet I still feel as though I am drowning in human waste. I have a dream, a dream that one day I will only have to look after my own functions. Of course, by then I may be using Depends.....

Three

Three years ago, I woke up early and took a shower and knew that you were arriving exactly on time. I'd been waiting for you for weeks, expecting you to show up early like your brother. You would not be rushed, but when you made up your mind, you couldn't be stopped, as your land-speed record birth proved.

Your make-believe games always seem to involve mommies and babies, mostly dinosaurs. You have an opinion about what you wear and you love to clomp around the house in my high heels every chance you get. You talk so much more now than last year, and although it is mostly yells of objection, I am still secretly pleased with the headaches you cause. You engage your brother in play and refuse to take no for an answer as you drag him to the ground, giggling at his protests. Your smile and your laugh light up my heart and make your difficult days almost bearable. You are a force, a person with so much energy and infectious enthusiasm swirling around you that you sometimes leave me in awe that I created someone so amazing.
When I look at you, I see the essence of life - the enjoyment of every moment. The passion of your being comes out with every absolute joy and devastating disappointment. You wear your emotions on the outside of your strong little body, and you have an ability to irreverently scream at the world that I envy.
You are my daughter and my tiny little hero. You are my absolute joy.
I love you Nomi-noo,
Momma

The Putzmeister

They're doing a lot of construction on the expressway near my office. I walked past just now to

get a coffee and saw the name "Putzmeister" on a large boom pump. It's so obviously German, but you still have to giggle. Do you think it was designed by a bunch of men?

Vacation's an itch

Looking back at my list, I don't feel quite as defeated considering the incredibly inconvenient second week of my vacation. I got quite a lot of my visiting done (missed out of Irene and Shawna), I got the kids' clothes sorted and the dining room kind of organized, didn't wash my car, go to a wool shop, or catch up on my reading and forget about the cleaning because on the Tuesday of the second week we discovered that our neighbour's bedbug problem had migrated to our place - yay us!
I woke up with bites, we had to have the place sprayed, which means that you have to wash everything you own (except the floors because you have to keep that stuff on the floors for three weeks) because there's a fine powder on everything. Clothes, linens, carpets, TOYS, everything.

This and day trips to the Ecomuseum, Train museum, Biosphere, and the occasional picnics and park excursions rounded out the exhausting and stressful second week.


I'd pretty much had it by the end of Labour Day and was ready to get back to work for the rest.

Check the list

Hi!
I'm back! I've been gone for a really long time, but figured that I'd try to post a couple of times while I'm on VACATION!
Yeah, I'm on vacation, but we're not going anywhere. Now that we have two children who require seats, we can't fly away every year. So I'm taking off two weeks and the first week the kids are in daycare and I have a list of stuff I want to get done. The second week we're going to take day trips and hang out around Montreal. My husband has informed me that the list is ambitious. Here's some of it:
Visit:
Maggie (see basement reno)
Debbie (see final landscaping)
Lynda (see new baby - 9 months late)
Adriana (feed dinner)
Jon & Tanya (it's been too long)
Irene (see photos from France)
Shawna (she just got a new puppy!)

Organize:
Diningroom
Office
Kids' clothes
Kids' rooms
House

Other:
Get Ben's school stuff
Hem Ben's pants
Wash car
Bake cupcakes
Get hair cut
Check out wool shops
Sewing projects (too many to mention)
Find the perfect skirt (done!)
Read

Five things I love about you

You think that any outfit is better with your airplane tie
The way you whisper "momma" when we're having some quiet time together
Your negotiation tactics that get you two cookies instead of one
When you come running to the door when I come home and tell me that you missed me today
That you still love to cuddle with me on the sofa
You are five today and you are your own little man. You pick out your own clothes, make up games, play with your sister, and love to help people. You start school in less than two months! It seems like it was such a short time ago that you were sleeping on me while I watched you breathe. When I tell you how big you're getting, you tell me that you're not getting bigger, that you're getting smaller. Part of me wishes that were true and that you would stay this way forever. You are my perfect little boy and I love you so, big or small.
All my heart,
Momma

My little girl is two

Another year has passed and you are still my favorite little girl in the whole entire universe. You are full of life and the definition of feisty, which you already know is very cute on a girl, especially one in striped tights. You greet me every evening at the door with a toy or two as welcome gifts, and you run around saying "momma" and trying to show me everything that you lay your eyes on, excited to share your discoveries with me. You started daycare in September and are already running the place, having wrapped several of the teachers around your tiny pink fingers. You love bugs, and bananas, and your daddy, although maybe not in that order. You have games of chase with your brother in which you catch him and drag him to the ground with a bear hug, and you've finally started speaking and when we hand you things we now hear a melodic little "thank you" that makes us smile. You are perfect in every way and I cannot imagine my life without you in it, especially when you hug me with your whole body and I melt from sheer joy. You are the best treat I ever got on Halloween - Momma loves you Nomi-noo, happy birthday!

and now you are 4

Well you blink and another year has gone by! How is it possible that you are 4? I still remember feeling your little kicks, and how you used to put your hand over your head and tickle me under the ribcage before you were born. I had no idea what to expect back then, I didn't know that you were a boy, that you would show up three weeks early, that you would charm the nurses into holding you all night long, that you could make sleep deprivation so lovely, that you hate bananas, that you love cake, that you would become such a great big brother, that you won't wear anything that we haven't pitched as a superhero costume, that you would ever stop requesting The Wiggles, that you would love music, and animals, and swimming, potato chips, and your Buddy as much as you do, that everyone you meet is still charmed and drawn to your beautiful, gentle, nature, and I had no idea that I could love one person so incredibly much. You are my favorite little boy in the whole, wide world. Happy birthday Booboo!
Love, Momma

countdown to party 4 Ben

It's Ben's fourth birthday party this Saturday and it's going to be a blast! We handed out invitations to the kids in his daycare group and no one got back to us, until two days ago. I figured that everyone was busy or on vacation so I could just get back to planning for the usual guests, but now we have a bonified kid's party, and I'm suddenly wondering if I have what it takes to impress a 4 year old. That seems kinda pathetic. We're doing a superman/hero theme. I'm making a superman cake, we have party favours, etc. I am making capes for all the kids (there will be 7 guests + Ben + his sister). Steve is handling the games and general child herding. In the happy fog that I was in because I was so happy that Ben would have his friends there, I completely forgot that this would also mean at least one adult per friend, maybe two if they had nothing else to do. With the usual suspects, family members, kids, and their parents, we're now up over 30. I need to make a bigger cake and pray it doesn't rain because we'll never get that many people in our house.

Worst kept secret in the world

One of the big articles advertised on the cover of Cosmo this month is "Secrets of Male Arousal".
They're kidding, right?

Happy Birthday to me!

It's 5:30 and I've just had a chance to post! Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes - you rawk the casbah :-)
I've been spoiled rotten and had to sit through the first of four days of TCP/IP training - all in all, I think that evens out.
Highlight of party this weekend: my cool friends who came to celebrate with me, awesome gifties, and cupcakes decorated with little Daniel Craigs - my husband is the best (but that doesn't mean he gets Willow or Veronica Mars cakes :-)
Smoochies and love to you all,
Dina

ADD in the afternoon

I am having the worst time concentrating today. For the first time in a week we have sunshine outside and it's hot enough to be sleeveless. I went out at lunch, but that just convinced me that I should be outside and not inside trying to wrap my head around access networks. Ben is getting on with his therapist, Sarah, and today he will meet the therapist who will work with him Wednesdays and Saturdays. I think that he will start appreciating his Sundays a little more with all the work he's going to be doing. Mornings have been a bit rough, he's had a freakout on the way to the daycare or just after we get there every day this week. I think that it's just because he has to adapt to a new schedule, so he's extra sensitive to transitions. Luckily after he's at the daycare he seems to have very productive mornings. Today was his shadow's birthday and I made chai cupcakes for the adults and a chocolate cake for the kids. The ladies at the daycare also bought a cake for Bea and there's another birthday cake for one of the kids this afternoon. Those kids are going to be so strung up on sugar by 5.
We have a lot of party prep to do tomorrow and Ben has a party for one of his classmates. This is his second party and it's at the same place as the first one, so he'll probably remember the drill.
So far I have two new pairs of shoes as birthday treats - hooray for shoes! I'm spoiled rotten :-)
Ok, babble is over - now back to work.

How not to use Powerpoint.

therapy begins!

Ben met the ABA therapist yesterday. She came over to our house where we will be doing the sessions because the daycare doesn't have the free space. This means that one of us has to pick up Ben at the daycare at noon everyday and bring him home for a 1-4 session. This kinda sucks because Steve was hoping to be able to work full time in September after Naomi starts daycare, and also because we will now be paying for full days of daycare for Ben and Naomi, and only using 3.5 hours of it for Ben everyday. Anyway, back to his therapist: Sarah is really nice and Ben seems to like her a great deal. We met the director as well. She went to the daycare earlier this week and she jumped in with advice where I thought that she should have been just observing. She meant well, but she doesn't know Ben and totally underestimated how stubborn he can be. Anyway, she's not the therapist who seems like she'll be great. She told us that she's never worked with a student this high functioning, she was amazed that he says "please", "thank you", and "sorry". It's nice to hear things like that. Steve related the comments to Ben's teacher and shadow who were really pleased - a lot of what he is now is due to their efforts. Sarah will be spending the first couple of weeks just hanging out with Ben and getting to know him and playing before the real work begins.
In other news, we've booked our plane tickets to Vancouver in August and we're really looking forward to visiting friends and family and enjoying a real beach. Woohoo!

we're just not that into him

The ladies in the dept were going to go out looking for Brad Pitt this noon hour, but called it off because it's raining, which would not be good for hair, clothing, and shoes. Sorry Brad, maybe next time?

poop the party, kill the joy

Since January, I have staged a few attacks on colleague's offices for fun and enjoyment. I work at a very ... conservative company, the kind that chooses people of a very reserved character. I assume that I got in as part of a rehabilitation program or perhaps just managed to fool them long enough to sign the papers. Anyway, I find that breaking in to someone's office and "My Little Ponying" it or filling it with balloons and streamers is my idea of fun and a good way to get my department together in a united front of mischief. My latest attack was supposed to be for a colleague's birthday. Instead of his office, I wanted to decorate his car to mix it up a bit. Yesterday, the day before we were supposed to do it, everyone chickened out and decided that we're going out for pizza - sigh. I will save the idea and pull it on someone else in the future. I'm not giving up on the party poopers!

trying something out

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

BIG news

We just heard today that Ben is finally going to start his ABA therapy in a couple of weeks. We just have to get the location and the therapist organized. We have been waiting over a year for this and we are so excited to get started. He's eligible for 20hrs/week, but right now they have us slotted 1-4pm Monday-Friday. That's enough for us - way to wait in line! Hooray!

We didn't tiptoe

What a great weekend! A belated happy mother's day to everyone of the mom persuasion!
Saturday we drove to Ottawa to see Steve's mom, had a nice lunch, and went to the tulip festival.

The kids loved the tulips, but they were both in need of naps, so there was the usual demonic behaviour when we wouldn't let them wander through the flowers or pick them, or, in some cases, eat them.


If there's one thing that a tulip festival brings out, it's the photographers. I had some severe camera envy watching the supreme camera geeks wielding their expensive DSLRs with humongous lenses on sleek carbon tripods.
On Sunday I got to sleep in and I got flowers, a new cookbook, and Cirque du Soleil tickets for next weekend! After a pancake breakfast, I chatted on the phone with an old mommy friend (she's not that old), and when Ben and Steve got back from swimming, we had lunch, changed our clothes, and headed up the street for our friends' daughter's christening party. The kids ran around the backyard and we enjoyed some yummy food and good company. We had chinese food for supper and after the kdis were in bed, we watched some tv and enjoyed the evening. Perfect!

What do you think?
(via Melissa)

Your Birthdate: June 12

You're a dynamic, charismatic person who's possibly headed for fame. You tend to charm strangers easily. And you usually can get what you want from them. Verbally talented, you tend to persuade people with your speaking and writing. You are affectionate and loving, but it's hard for you to commit to any one relationship. Your strength: Your charm Your weakness: Your extreme manipulation tactics Your power color: Indigo Your power symbol: Four leaf clover Your power month: December

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

March in April

We did an autism march with the ATEDM on Saturday. The weather was not good for marching - cold and rainy - but we had an amazing troupe of drummers playing us along and the organizers provided colourful red and green hats for the hatless. April is (was) autism awareness month, we'll have to keep that in mind for next year :-)



Ben loved "walking with the people" and jumping in the puddles. The most bizarre part of the march was that we went through mostly residential streets on the Plateau at 10:30 in the morning, so tons of locals came out of doors and stood on balconies in their jammies to watch us go by. There was a Radio Canada team there and they briefly interviewed Steve so he was on the news! Amidst all the drumming and hubbub, Naomi fell asleep. It felt good to participate, I have a feeling that we'll be doing more of it...

Am I the only one excited about this movie?

Yeah, I don't get the "modest" thing either...

stop when you hear the crunch

After living with back pain for the past 18 months, I finally decided to do something about it and booked an appointment with an osteopath. The trouble all started a month after Naomi was born. I would wake up at night and have to pile all the pillows up so that I was nearly vertical to get enough relief to go back to sleep. The pain has dulled significantly over the year and a half, but I still wake up somewhat sore, and that ain't right. A friend recommended her osteopath who has done a good job on her, so I swallowed my fear of all people who manipulate your body and went in. I'm not sure what I was expecting (cracking, breaking, crunching), but she was really nice and figured out that the problem is probably that my hips weren't aligned, not uncommon after birth, especially one that's so freakin' speedy (thanks again, Naomi). I felt fine right after, but now my hip is achy. It would be great if this gets me back to normal, and I'm not afraid anymore! Well, of her anyway.

bunnies and surgery

My Easter weekend was much better than my sister in law's. On Friday, they drove to my folks' place from Toronto. she jumped out of the truck and ran to the house because she had to pee, and as she rounded the corner she fell and broke her ankle in two places. The ambulance took her to Sherbrooke, an hour away, and she ended up having surgery to fix the break with plates and pins on Sunday. Blah!
Saturday we had Steve's folks and brother over for Easter festivities and a roast dinner. The kids were spoiled and happy to see everyone.
Sunday we drove up to see the folks and celebrate my dad's birthday. My nieces stayed for lunch and then my dad drove them to the bus station and they took the bus back to Toronto. The kids were spoiled there too, as expected. They ran around the house and entertained us all.
Monday was nice and quiet. I didn't get enough done, but that's ok for a holiday.
Yesterday I wandered in to Fabricville and saw some adorable fabric, so I found a pattern, and now I'm determined to use my sewing machine! I will! I will actually start a sewing project and finish it. Of course, this particular dress only has four pieces and about four steps. Wish me luck!

posting at my post

Today is Good Friday, but I decided to come in and work today so that I could have Monday off instead. While the majority of people are taking the day off, shopping, or lugging large crosses around, I am sitting here enjoying the silence that is an office without people. The other pluses are no traffic, good parking, and open access to the photocopier. Life is grand and I got so much more done than normal due to the fact I didn't have to listen to my officemate talk to her friends on the phone all day about her aches and pains.
Have to get back to my surfing work now!

Petting zoos a plenty

It's Easter, so every mall now has a petting zoo with all the basics: sheep, goats, llamas, ducks, piggies, bunnies, and chickens. The kids just love the animals, and the animals love the food from those little dispensers. Ben figured out that a whole bunch gets dropped, and he diligently picked up the pellets and fed them to the sheep - smart boy!

Steve took Naomi out with the playgroup to another mall on Wednesday, but Naomi was far more excited about the indoor play structure than the animals this time.

She's also discovered that climbing up slides is fun. She's been a bit hard on Steve lately; she's very busy and now seems to have a penchant for extreme toddler sports, like climbing on to the kitchen table and rolling off and jumping up and down on the toilet. Living with a small Knieval is tiring because it's a constant race to protect her from herself. Even when she falls she's not deterred. We are very happy that the weather is getting warmer and the park is now an option for running off some energy for both kids. They love the park more than they love us, and possibly more than their Uncle Scott, although that could be an exaggeration.

Should have been The Deaf Assassin

Blue Met is on at the end of the month. As interesting as this event is, I have to point out that they've chosen perhaps the worst reader of her own work, the Atwood, for opening night. For $50, you too can discover that listening to Margaret Atwood read her work and talk about it is actually worse than having your ears chewed off by coyotes or listening to Vogon poetry. If you go and they offer those translating headphones, take them and listen to the translator. You will thank me later.

weekend rounddown

Wheh! Busy weekend!
It was supposed to be even busier, but our Sunday plans were cancelled. On Saturday we drove up to Ottawa to celebrate Steve's folks' birthdays (they're both this week). While there, Steve's mom and I popped over to the store she works at and the mall. We picked up a few things for the kids, including new rubber boots for the kids. Naomi's boots are especially cute, she tried them out yesterday at the park:

I just found out that they're available in women's sizes - woo woo!
I also discovered that the body shop has brought back their pink grapefruit line of products. I have been looking for pink grapefruit-scented stuff for ages, and now it's back! I got a body wash and a lip balm.
It just doesn't get any better than that, and of course it didn't because we had to drive home in a snowstorm, bleh!
Sunday we were supposed to have our friend Sauline over and some of the old gang to celebrate Sauline's almost being a mommy, but she cancelled because she was 4cm dilated and her doctor thought that she was going to go into labour at any minute. The bad is that we don't get to watch her waddle around and laugh at her, the good is that the next time I see her, I get to cuddle a new baby - sigh! We took advantage of the less busy day and got some errands and chores done and rested a bit and went over and played in the park. It was a gorgeous day and the kids were excited to be running around outside and not sinking knee-deep into the snow.

Smell you later

It's a drag that by the time you realise that you forgot to use deodorant in the morning, it's far too late to do anything about it.
Quick tip: You cannot fix the situation using cucumber-melon hand sanitizer, in fact, it really only makes it worse.

Cleanup in office 6078

Can someone please explain to me how someone who complains about the smell of handcream and the smell of fresh paint two floors down can clean her desk with Hertel and then tell me I'm a baby when I complain about the fumes? Grrrrrr.....

Just one of those days

I caught the end of a documentary called Virus Hunters last night. They were talking about bird flu, then it shifted to autism and how it's a widely-held idea that autism is somehow caused/activated by viruses. I hate seeing stuff like this, not because I'm not interested, but because they always make me agonize over what I could have done differently to make Ben normal. It's a low day.

Adventures in Photoshop

I've been playing around in Photoshop lately and experimenting with some different techniques I've found on Flickr. Here is my first result:

I adjusted the colours in Lab colour and then did something called an eye pop. I think it's pretty cool.

Movies!

I almost never remember to do reviews, but last week I went to see Children of Men, and last night we watched Stranger Than Fiction, and they were both very good, and so completely different that my brain feels a bit warped. Children of Men has the yummy Clive Owen. I could watch this man read the back of Cheerios box and enjoy it, he's that good. In fact, if I could ever combine my favorite breakfast cereal and Clive Owen that would be about the best thing ever, aside from my kids and husband I suppose (who am I kidding?)
Children of Men is wonderful and visually so complete that it captures the emotion of the film brilliantly. It is bleak, wayyyyyyy bleak, so don't go thinking that you'll get out feeling happy. The movie takes place in 2027, 18 years after the world has stopped producing children. Just stopped. Britain has become a scary place. It's interesting to see the impact of a world with no children. The schools are abandoned, people dress their pets in designer outfits, and compassion is practically non-existent. Despite the heavy theme, there are some wonderful light and touching moments as well to break up the darkness. I normally can't watch this kind of film, but I'm glad that I did. The movie is still getting to me, especially after the next day when the paper was talking about all the environmental doom that is about to hit us. See it if you get the chance, the acting is top notch.
Stranger Than Fiction, in contrast, is a pretty happy film, but with a nice bit of depth. The main character, Harold Crick, discovers that he is the main character in a novel by an author who is known for killing off her characters at the end of the story. He's now in a race to try and find the author to change her mind, and change his life, which up to now has been a bit of a snore. The bit that I liked the most was the visual effects used to show how Harold's OCD mind counts, contains, and interprets his world. The film also has Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson being fantastic. And there's a nice love story. This is the perfect movie to see after Children of Men to take your mind off the bad stuff.

Who do they think they are? Hallmark?

I recently noticed that my sanitary napkins have a paper label with "Have a nice period" printed on it. Whoever thought this up may have sincerely thought that it was a great idea, but frankly, I think that the sentiment seems out of place. It's like your mom leaving a note in your lunchbox, but you're in the bathroom, so it's kind of freaky.

Happy Birthday Stevie!

My great big snow angel

Love you lots and lots!

Introducing the book

and you think you had trouble adapting to Vista:
(the links works now)

Hooray for Ben

It has been a year since Ben was diagnosed with autism and the yearly assessments have started. This month we have about six appointments with researchers to obtain data on Ben's progress. The first one was last Monday with his favorite researcher and the psychiatrist, and Ben knocked their socks off. The psychiatrist is very happy with the progress he's made with the limited help we've been able to offer him. The combination of the daycare, shadow, us at home, and the recent addition of a one-hour speech therapy session every two weeks has produced some great results, and the psychiatrist thinks that he could do even better if we can just get him into the 20-hour/week therapy program that we're waiting for. We are going to start getting more agressive and send them a letter from the psychiatrist in hopes that this gets him into the program sooner. She feels that he will probably be able to go to mainstream schools, with some assistance, if he continues on at this rate. We've come so far over this year, and it's still hard for me to talk about, but this assessment have given us a lot of hope.
We went to a Kids' CBC show this weekend, Ben got very excited about it and was only a little freaked about the large cartoon characters. Naomi was cranky and spent most of the show with Steve running around the lobby.

It's a nice day for a white winter

Finally the snow has arrived! We have been living in a land of yellow grass and mud since the beginning of the year. I hate my boots as much as the next person, but come on, it's January in Quebec. The kids have only been out on the sled once this year, and they love playing in the snow. There's a bit of a cold snap, but it's supposed to warm up a bit by the weekend so hopefully we can go out and sled in the park and make a snow duck or two.
One of Ben Christmas presents was a child's guitar. A music teacher comes in once a week at daycare and she plays the guitar and sings. Ben loves her guitar, and so we figured that he would love one of his own. We were right! We brought it in for show-and-tell a couple of weeks ago. It took Ben a few tries, but he finally shared it with his group. He sat on a chair and played and sang the ABC song.

When we heard this and saw the photographic proof, we were floored.

It's hard to know what Ben will be able to do when he gets older. Most autistic adults that I've heard of don't have careers, just limited jobs that aren't long-term. Wouldn't it be nice if he could become a musician and do something that he loves?

My hypochodriac officemate returned to work last week. I haven't seen her since before I left for mat leave, and she's just as much an energy-sucking life force as ever. We had a disagreement about the lighting (I finally had someone rip out the flourescents from above my desk) on day one. Last Tuesday she was already here when I arrived. She told me that she used my hand cream (it was sitting on my desk, no big deal), and then complained to me that she didn't like the way it smelled. This pretty much sums her up. I am staying optimistic and looking forward to many more funny incidents like this to pad my pathetic blog.

Resolution update: No juggling practise, but we made waffles last weekend and had enough to freeze for Ben's breakfasts this week. I put all my friends' names in a hat and will be pulling one out for writing to this week. I'm also back on track with the weight thing - yay me!

Goals and Schemes

I don't do resolutions for the new year, it always seems a bit pushy of myself to impose something to "fix" or make myself "better" than the year before. Really, what the hell is wrong with the me I am now? This year, I have goals. They are mostly silly, but should keep me entertained for the year:

• Learn to juggle - I've always wanted to be able to juggle, but I'm lazy and you can't just start juggling stuff without practising. This year, I am going to practise and learn this useless skill. I have some balls and have already started trying to throw one back and forth from hand to hand and catch it consistently. It's not going to be a quick process, hence the whole year thing. 2008? Chainsaws!

• Make more waffles - I bought a waffle maker in November. Ben eats a waffle every morning with reasonable consistency. If I make them, I can start slipping some nutrition in them on the sly so we can wean him off those supermarket freezer waffles with the nutrition of cardboard. And who doesn't want more waffles in their lives?

• Keep losing weight - This is a classic, but I've been pretty good so far, and since I started last year, it's just a continuation of something I already started, more of a goalette, really.

• Appreciating my friends - This is something that you can't do enough of. My friend Libby started sending me handwritten notes last year and it really impressed upon me how much more it says than sending an email. I shall be sending sneak-attack notes to people, be prepared, my handwriting kinda sucks and I tend to babble. No, really.

That's it, four things is really quite enough, and that juggling one is really going to take up a lot of my free time.
Wish me luck everyone! What are you gonna do?

Back

It was a great holiday, but not in the restful kind of way. Christmas was wonderful, everyone packed into our very tiny place for cheer and into our tinier diningroom for a feast. There were way too many presents, but we loved them all. We had snow the day after Christmas and over the holiday we had some fun playing outside.



The snow didn't last though, and now it's back to green and brown with a projected high this weekend of 16C and rain. It's just wacky.
Ben is back at daycare. Yesterday was his first day with a new shadow. Bea is very nice and I think that Ben will do well with her. He only took one nap the entire holiday, so it was no surprise that he didn't nap, but he did wake up everyone else which isn't good.
Work is really slow this week, a lot of people won't be back until next week. On the bright side, it took me 18 minutes to get from the daycare to my office chair.

Merry Christmas Everyone

To everyone out there in Internetland, and very merry christmas full of love and happiness.
Love to you all!
dina

Five days before bullets:

• People are still making me work - what's up with that?
• Finished my shopping - Yay!
• Bake, give away, bake, give away, repeat
  
• Lost another 2lbs while stuffing my face with cookies
• There's a frozen turkey thawing in our fridge
• Have bought way too much stuff for the kids
• Have JT's 'Sexy Back' stuck in my head, and I like it
• Completely disgusted with that song about that guy who's talking to his ex on the phone and he's telling her he never got over her and his girlfriend's in the next room - why do they keep playing it on the radio?
  
• We still have no snow. It was nice for awhile, but let's get serious now, we need some for Christmas. Ben gets excited everytime a flake falls. He's ready to make some snowmen.

Last Friday was Ben's Christmas pageant at daycare. The kids were cute and totally unprepared for a life on the stage.

Ben decided not to wear the cute snowflake hat, and also not to sing or dance, or even stand up unassisted. He chewed his fingers and watched the other kids try to recite the poems and sing. He was quite happy to wear the hat and even sing Jingle Bells when no one was watching though. Sigh, maybe next year.
The cutest thing was when Santa gave him his present. He looked at him and said, "Thank you Santa Claus", I was so proud. A lot of the other kids just grabbed their gifts and ran or broke out in tears. I have a great kid!

A new found respect for the Sears portrait photographer

We just need a photo of the kids for the Christmas card, how hard can that be?


Click the picture to see the whole set. By the end, I was a weeping, laughing mess on the floor.

cookies and the incredible shrinking woman

We started baking last weekend. It was the perfect Sunday. Snow was falling, those big, fluffy flakes, and we were inside rolling dough and decorating. I couldn't be happier. Ben loved helping this year. He loves it when they bake at the daycare, and he was a great help, and an even better eater.

We made trees and stars, and of course the traditional Christmas elephants, gorillas, butterflies, and airplanes.I have a big box of cutters and I love to find ones that are a bit out of the ordinary.
In other news, I started weight watchers 5 weeks ago (my own version where I track points but don't have a membership) and I have lost 10lbs so far! This is largely due to the fact that I have much more to go, but I'm very proud - yay me! Of course, this will not stop me from enjoying my Christmas cookies, I just don't have to feel guilty about it now :-)