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?