Friday Favourites - That Face

Well Maya was determined to add a few dozen grey hairs to my head tonight. She is the classic second child. The one that makes you say, gee if we'd had her first we wouldn't of had anymore. She is a lot of work.

Not long after we got home she scurried off to the toy room to play. After a few moments I popped in to check on her only to find her sitting at Abby's desk. She'd climbed up into the seat all by herself. So there she sat, legs swinging away and a big huge I'm so proud of myself grin on her face. I, of course, dash off to get the camera and when I come back I find this (please don't judge my dirty windows)



She'd conquered sitting, so why stop there? Within seconds she was attempting to climb up onto the desktop. She was not happy when I squashed that plan. So to get even with me, the second my back was turned she hightailed it up the stairs. Like all the way to the top. Then pulled a wrought iron picture frame over on top of herself. Which is what alerted me to her being up there, sitting on the landing with a picture frame across her legs. Screaming the house down.

Mike missed all the excitement so as I was filling him in later Abby pipes up with, "I should have warned you about that."

Me: You knew she climbed up there?
Abby: Yes, I should have warned you Mom.

Well that would have been nice, but really Mom dropped the ball here. I guess the days of her being totally disinterested in the stairs are long gone. Time to pull out the baby gates. Maybe start buckling her into the highchair while I'm at it. Maybe I'll just glue her to the floor. It might be easier.

Good thing she's cute.



Because seriously how can you stay angry at a face like that?

Friday Favourites - Batting 500

It took me just a smidge over two years, but here we are at my 500th post. That averages out to a post every 1.6 days. In the beginning I was somewhat lackadaisical about posting. Writing only when fancy struck me. It was only after Maya was born that I really became consistent about writing everyday. A lot of that stemmed from Maya's hospital stay. It was an easy way to keep a lot of people up to date about Maya and what was going on with her and us. I think it also really helped to write about a horribly scary time in a some what upbeat and positive way. Plus it kept me from screaming. Now ending my day by writing out whatever has been rolling around in my head has become a welcome release. It's a time of the day I really look forward to. A bit of time just for me.

Mike will happily tell you I spend too much time here, writing, reading, commenting, but he doesn't really get the whole blog thing. He'd like me to and has frequently requested that I cut it back to three days a week, but I think we both know that isn't going to happen. He will occasionally read what I've written. Actually he'll often read what I've written Saturday night because Sunday morning finds him here, using my blog as a gateway to the newest PostSecrets. [aside] If you haven't yet made PostSecret your weekly must read you really really should. Really. Trust me. Go check it out. I'll wait. [/aside] And every once in a while he'll mention that he's read something he's found funny. And sometimes I overhear him telling other people about my blog and how great he thinks I write. And he doesn't seem to mind when I write about him even if it can sometimes be a bit on the mocking-although-humourous-and-yet-always-written-with-love side Which I love him for. So even if he doesn't get it, he gets me and really what more could I ask for?

Then we have the kids. I know I'm not the first Mommy-blogger to ask the question, "Should I be broadcasting my kids across the internet?" In fact I asked Mike that very question just the other night while I was writing the stinky bum post. Will Abby hate me for this? Will Maya? Obviously I'd like to think no. Or rather I'm writing under the assumption no. I hope both girls some day recognize this as the labour of love it is. I hope one day they appreciate being able to read little snippets of their conversations. Personally I think so many of us blogging Moms struggle with this question because it's a new experience for all of us. I like to think by the time Abby and Maya are older a lot of their peers will be in the same position. So I don't think it will be as big a deal as we might think. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to learn that some of Abby's classmates are Mommy-blog fodder.

So here's to the last 500 posts. It's been an amazing trip. I've "met" a lot of great people, read a lot of wonderful writers, I've been mentioned in an article or two, been in contact with a couple of writers I really respect, inspired a couple of friends to blog and, hopefully, kept my friends and family fan base amused and/or entertained. I wonder what the next 500 will bring.

*ps to "ugly", thanks again. You're the very best. Lynn, you're evil!

Friday Favourites - Dancing With the Stars

It's almost here. Can you feel it? Are your VCR's, dvd recorders and/or PVR's at the ready? The countdown has begun, only 17 short days until the premiere of Dancing With the Stars season 4. Now I'm a bit of a late comer to the whole Dancing With the Stars phenomenon. I never did watch the first season and the only reason I tuned into season 2 had a lot to do with my husband and Stacy Keibler's 42 inch legs. However, since then I have been a die hard fan because of the dancing. They've really put on some impressive routines. My favourite being the Cheyl/Drew freestyle dance to "Save a horse ride a cowboy"

So as I mentioned season 4 is gearing up and there has already been some headlines. Vincent Pastore best known as Big Pussy on The Sopranos has bowed out of the competition before it even got started. He claims he didn't realize how physically demanding it was going to be. Umm, okay, what did you think it was going to be then? Also I have been reading rumers that Heather Mills the future ex-Mrs. Paul McCartney will be the next to announce she's quitting. Of course that is just gossip speculation at this point. Which would be too bad since I was very interested to see how she would perform.

So who can we expect to see this season? Well;

Laila Ali - female boxer and daughter of Muhammad Ali. She'll definitely have the strength for it, but will she have the grace?

Billy Ray Cyrus - Of Achy Breaky Heart fame, also Hannah Montana's Dad. Well the mullet is gone, I think we can all at least be happy about that.

Clyde Drexler - aka Clyde the Glide. Have to admit I've never heard of him, but I have heard of the Dream Team. After seeing Jerry Rice and Emmitt Smith rock this contest I'm curious to see what Clyde is going to bring to the table.

Joey Fatone - Well thanks to *NSYNC we all know he can dance, but will boy band dancing help him here?

Shandi Finnessey - Ummm, who? Oh she was Miss USA back in 2004, now she has a solid career choosing tiles for Chuck Woolery on Lingo (a game show I actually like).

Leeza Gibbons - Former Entertainment Tonight reporter. I love Leeza. I even watched her talk show back in the day. I always thought she had amazing hair. She's on my list of favourites.

Heather Mills - I think we all know who's ex-wife she is. Heather will also been the first person competiting with an artificial limb. I mean, if she does compete. No offense to Miss Mills, but I can't see her having a lot staying power.

Apolo Anton Ohno - yeah, never heard of him, but apparently he is a gold winning short track speedskater. Here's another one that will have the strength, but what about the grace?

Paulina Porizkova - the supermodel. I can see myself liking her.

John Ratzenberger- A late addition to the lineup, John joined the cast to fill in Big Pussy's vacated spot. I was secretly pulling for Mark Consuelos (Mr. Kelly Ripa) to be the replacement, but I guess we'll have to make do.

Ian Ziering - Steve Sanders from my favourite show Beverly Hills, 90210. Ian got lucky enough to be teamed up with Cheryl Burke is looking for a "three"-peat.

So there you have it folks, that's who will be fox-trotting, salsaing, tangoing and quick stepping into your livingroom/TV room/media centre in less than three weeks. Will you be watching? Any contestant caught your eye already?

Friday Favourites - My Living Room

Well the living room makeover continues to be a work in progress. In amongst everyday life Mike has managed to find enough time to get paint on every wall in the room. Some even got a second coat. Since we've been living for a few weeks with nothing to keep the entire neighbourhood from peering in and seeing me on the couch in my jammies with a bag full of Smartfood bawling over Grey's Anatomy we decided it might be time to go shopping for new window coverings.

I really had no idea what I was looking for. There was nothing really wrong with our old curtains. In fact I think I'm going to use them elsewhere in the house. I mean Abby has no curtains and Maya's window has a sheet hung over it that I stuck up there when Abby was a baby. I was just feeling like it was time for a change. If nothing else I knew our curtain rods had to go. I really have no idea what I was thinking when I bought them. It was a gold coloured rod with gold shell finials on the end. Maybe I was in a Dynasty frame of mind. Who knows?

The decision to check out what was available led us to the curtain aisle at WalMart. It also led us to have a argument discussion about interior decorating and the basic principles of the colour wheel. Mike was insistent on boring taupe coloured curtains that he thought would be fabulous with our boring taupe coloured walls. I felt, strongly I might add, that with all that beige going on the curtains needed to be a punch of colour. Mike's pick was a light taupe striped heavy curtain. My pick was a burgundy coloured "crushed" sheer.



Mike hated these in the store. He insinuated that I had to be insane to even suggest that burgundy and taupe went together. What finally sealed the deal? Forty dollars a panel for the stripes versus sixteen dollars a panel for the sheers.

Friday Favourites - Friday

This week seems to have lasted a year. After seven days of taking care of sicks kids and a sick husband, which is a gazillion times more work, am I right ladies? I am so happy and relieved to get to Friday I can't even tell you. I even promised myself that after watching Grey's Anatomy (so Lynn feel free to email me your thoughts on the episode) tonight I was going to blog and then crawl into bed early and yet, here I sit as the clock ticks towards midnight. Why, you ask? Because Maya felt this evening wouldn't be complete without waking up to scream/cry intermittently for an hour or so. But, it's all good. Cause it's Friday folks and there's not a chance in hell I'm getting up before 7 tomorrow morning.

Friday Favourites - Grandma's Journal

I have my Grandma's journal. I'm not really sure how I came to be in possession of it, but I have it. It's one smallish soft cover notebook that my Grandma scribbled her thoughts in from January of 1958 until September of '64. I also have a small notebook she used as an accounting book in 1978. This is where she'd list her purchases at stores that have long since gone out of business. To an astute reader it's proof that my Grandpa enjoyed his liquor, that my Grandma thought that a single dollar bill was a more than adequate birthday present, and that she loved to spend money on Avon. Mike and I flipped through her "ledger book" tonight, passing it back and forth. Chuckling at the prices ( $3.50 got you 5 dozen eggs) and reminiscing about restaurants that are long gone (pizza from Nero's for $6.25).

Of course the really interesting stuff is in the journal, which probably isn't a journal in the truest sense of the word. My Grandma didn't sprawl herself across her bed and pour of her feelings onto the page. Just a few hastily written disjointed sentences that described how she had passed her day. To be fair, I'm sure she didn't have time for anything more than that. My Grandma was a stay at home mother of 5, two girls and 3 boys. They lived in an old farm house with no indoor plumbing and no electric heat source or stove. As busy and as full as her house already was there was always room for one or two or five more. Everyone congregated at that house, squished around the table, waiting to be fed some fresh hot cross buns or home made perogies.

In the beginning of her journal the entries are longer;

Sunday March 9, 1958
Went to church for 8 in the morning. John sure didn't want to get up. Ed was getting ready to go to Soo Saint Marie to work. Helen went back to Delhi for 12. We went to Woc.....ski's but they weren't home so when we got home Mother phoned to say she saw Lucy so we went back to Woc....ski's. She gave some clothes for Diane she said that Josie had her baby on the 21 of February. It weighed 7 1/2 pounds a boy. Jenny and Kurt were also down. We also had some coffee and ham sandwiches. John had a couple of beers. Josie went to Trinity young people.

By the end of 1964 her entries were little more than a single line, scrawled across the page with a pencil that definitely needed to be sharpened.

Wednesday September, 2 1964
Did 14 jars of peaches.

I love being the keeper of this family record. I love having the opportunity to read about my Mom as a young girl.

Thursday July 15, 1964
Diane and Judy went to a dance party at CHCH-TV.

Love reading the chronicle of day to day life. In a house of 7 people, that mean a lot of laundry. So it's not surprising that a lot of entries start:

Tuesday June 11, 1958
I washed clothes. I can't remember doing very much. I did some ironing. Also patched Diane's jeans.

In a house with no indoor plumbing laundry meant using the hand pump to get water from the well, filling up the wringer washer, filling two rinse basins, wash/wring/rinse/wring/rinse/wring and finally hang on the line. I'm sure she spent half her life doing laundry.

It also appears my Grandma may have invented the sideblog. Sometimes in the margin you'll find a tiny entry. Like on Saturday February 22, 1958 she wrote beside her regular entry about playing Bingo and winning a door prize a small notation that says Gordon started walking today.

I think the entry that I find the most poignant is this:

Wednesday March 19, 1958
Today is St. Joseph. The kids were fussy. Ricky threw a dirty rag in my clean rinse water. I could have crowned him. I just felt like bawling. The kids came home at noon because teachers had a meeting. Josie washed the floors and we gave the place a going over.

Yeah, that one. The one that is proof positive that my Grandma the most patient and even tempered person I had ever met was more like me than I thought, a frazzled Mom who some days found herself at the end of her rope.

Friday Favourites - Tassimo

Now when Mike told me he'd like a Tassimo for Christmas I automatically assumed he meant a hunky young man of, possibly, Mediterranean descent to be our "house man" You know somebody to do all this laundry, corral the dust bunnies, chisel the Arrowroot crust off Maya, rid our lower windows and mirrors of nose and tongue prints and so on. Boy was I way off.



This is a Tassimo. It is a hot beverage machine. We first saw it at Mike's cousin's house. She has been demonstrating them at the mall and had one on loan for a family party. Mike was instantly entranced. He We decided to ask for one for Christmas and what do you know, Santa came through.

Before Christmas I had been busting Mike's balls about having to waste one of my Christmas presents on yet another gift just for him (Hello iPod). You see, I'm not a real coffee drinker. I have maybe a cup or two a *year*. I really couldn't see myself using it all that much. Then it was actually on our counter and can I let you in on a little secret?

Shh. Come a little closer.

I use it more than he does. Only don't tell him that 'cause while he may not remember that he needs to pick his daughter up on the way home from work there is no doubt that he will remember my whining about the Tassimo. And I don't need that kind of gloating in my life, m'kay.

Now I still don't drink coffee, so what have I been using it for? Well in addition to coffee it also makes espresso, latte, cappuccino, tea and hot chocolate. Abby and I have been hitting the hot chocolate hard. The hot chocolate is so good it almost seems wasteful to let Abby drink it. I mean she's only 4, she can't truly appreciate the rich chocolaty flavour. She needs a few years of crummy powdered hot chocolate under her belt first. I've also been drinking tea like I'm part English other something. Tea was so much work before. All that boil the kettle, get out a tea bag, pour in the water, dip the bag, toss the bag. Phew I get tired just thinking about it. Now I just put in a disc and press one overly large black button.

Yes the Tassimo system works on T-disc technology. You place a little disc of your preferred beverage into the machine which is then scanned by a bar code reader to release the perfect amount of water at the exact right temperature. The drinks are brewed in each individual disc so there is no taste transfer from one product to another. It's genius really. For a family of such diverse hot beverage needs it's perfect for us.

Oh hell why not, let's make it a two for one Friday Favourites. You may or may not have heard me blather on before about my brother and how freaking talented he is. You haven't? Well he is. Trust me.

Just recently he posted, over at the winterbeard (where many people write amazing things), this insanely good short story intro. Go read it. Really, I'll wait. Then try and tell me you aren't dying to know how he's going to flesh that out.

Friday Favourites - Robin, my Oprah

Abby: Mom are we done celebrating for Jesus yet?
Me: Almost, yes.
Abby: Then can we put the pool up?

Yes we are finally winding up the Christmas season of 2006. Tonight we had dinner with Robin, Tim and the girls. Abby had been dying to go all day. She spent about an hour carefully packing her backpack full of toys, movies and books. Then spent another hour wearing it around the house and asking every 30 seconds if we could please, please, puh-lease leave. The spirit crushing hold-up was Maya, who, today of all days, decided to add another hour to her afternoon nap.

So as I had mentioned Christmas funds were tight this year so the Christmas gifts weren't as extravagant as they have been in years past.



Here's Courtney opening her gift of two pennies and a Polly Pocket purse. What can I say I blew the Christmas budget on decoupage glue for Dave's gift. By the time I got to the girls there wasn't much left to play with.

Actually that is Abby's gift to Courtney. I was only half paying attention this afternoon as Abby gathered up little Christmas presents for Robin and the girls. She had found in the china cabinet the little keepsake boxes my Mom had given me for Abby and Maya. Boxes I have yet to fill with the requisite lock of hair, hospital ID bracelet and first tooth. So tonight as we unwrapped our gifts Abby disappeared down the hall and returned with her stack of keepsake boxes. One box at a time she delivered them to Robin and each of her girls. Their gifts were as much a surprise to me as they were to them.



These are the "gifts". From the top left we have one package of Laffy Taffy, one uncanceled stamp from a Christmas card, two pennies and a Polly Pocket purse, a handful of tiny cows, an elastic headband and another handful of tiny cows. Just random things she had collected from around the house. Mike had no idea she had done this and I had only vaguely paid attention to what she was doing so we were both a bit choked up by it. I think this might beat Mike falling out of the shower as my favourite Christmas moment.

Christmas with Robin is always a bit awkward for me because she's Oprah and I'm Gayle. Meaning we are BFF's in the truest sense of the world. I love her like no other. She's one of the greatest gifts in my life. It also means she's much richer than I am. So Oprah's gift to Gayle is Josh Groban appearing to serenade her and Gayle gives Oprah a decoupaged pickle jar. It's that kind of relationship. I try not to stress about it because it is what it is. Robin is certainly one of the most generous people I have met in my life and she spoils us.

On top of spoiling me this Christmas she felt it necessary to take me to school by serving up perfect punch tonight. The same punch that I massacred at our Christmas party last month. Maybe I'll play it safe and get her to make it for Maya's birthday party.

And this;



is to help with the problem of the burnt fondue. I cannot wait to give this a try.

So after the food was eaten, the girls had danced themselves silly to the Minipops and Nickelback, Abby and Kailey had taken turns crying about what the other had said/done and Maya had been "babysat" to death it was time to take the traditional Moms and daughters picture.



Photographic evidence of the entire evening is located here.

Friday Favourites - The Christmas Edition

Well the Christmas holidays have pretty much drawn to a close here. We still have to get together with Robin, Tim and the girls and Auntie Yoli then we can officially close up shop for the year. I'm sure you're all wondering what my favourite bits were this Christmas season. This goes beyond the obvious things like Dave and Mel being here for four whole days and just being with family in general.

Favourite Christmas Program: This year there was a few; Elf, the whole idea of Jimmy (I can call him Jimmy cause we're tight like that) Caan being the father of an elf is just too much to take. Plus the whole launching himself into the Christmas tree while attempting to put the star on the top is so freaking funny.

It kind of goes without saying, but Christmas Vacation. This is probably the most heavily quoted movie at our house around the holidays, but then classic lines like "the shitter was full" and "save the neck for me Clark" never get old do they?

Another new one roaring up the charts is The Office Christmas Specials (UK version). It is the perfect conclusion to an incredibly funny series. One episode had my brother laughing (he claims) the hardest he's ever laughed at anything in his life. Ricky Gervais has an uncanny ability to play awkward. It's like a train wreck, you'd desperately like to stop watching, but you can't.

For family viewing we loved The Polar Express. A movie Mike, grudgingly, agreed to watch the first few minutes of and ended up staying for the entire thing (and raved about it afterwards). Also high on Abby's list was Rudolph, she watched this one several times.

Gifts: Well I mentioned that one of my favourite gifts was a shoe rack because my closet is mere moments away from being declared a crisis zone. I also think there may be a black hole or some other similar portal to a parallel universe because items go in there and are never seen again. I was also thrilled to get an upgrade to flickr pro from Dave and Mel. That gift stemmed from my brother's annoyance at having to look through pictures of chili when he really just wanted to see a picture of his nieces, but whatever, I'll take it. And from Michael season 1 of Arrested Development. Another show Dave insisted we watch and he was right. He's always right about that stuff. There was of course lots of other fabulous items like a coat and clothes and books and Dvd's and kitchen stuff. Yeah I'm spoiled and I'm really okay with that.

My Favourite Re-Live Your Childhood Gift: Hands down, the Easy Bake oven. I loved mine when I was a kid. I cannot wait to cook up some miniature baked goods with Miss Abby. Maybe some Dora cinnamon sticks or some My Little Pony sugar cookies. Yep, it's a whole new Easy Bake world.

My Favourite Gift to Give: Well I can't tell you that one just yet because not everyone has received theirs, but those who have, loved it a lot. It was a lot of work for me and I was so happy that it was so warmly received.

My Favourite Christmas Memory: Well this one is a tie. I mean on one hand we have Abby telling her father that he's a pain in the ass (Double true girlfriend). Don't feel too badly for him, he brought it on himself. On the other hand we have Michael falling out of the shower. You see Uncle Jeff bought Abby some bath fizzies. You throw them in the tub and they fizz away while turning the water blue. These one also had a Nemo toy in the middle. Well we didn't realize that these bath fizzies would turn our tub into the world's slickest surface.

Mike: phoning from work Did you hear a loud thump and a scream this morning?
Me: Nope. Why?
Mike: Well I fell out of the shower.
Mehysterical laughter
Mike: It's not funny I could have hurt myself! To a co-worker She's laughing at me. Can you believe she's laughing at me?
Me: stifling a snicker Did you hurt yourself?
Mike: No.
Me: hysterical laughing resumes Well then it's funny.

Yes this morning found Michael slip sliding his way out of the shower before he knew what hit him. I mean he was laying on the floor. Outside of the tub. On the bathroom floor. Come on! That is funny. I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.

Friday Favourites - Christmas Ornaments

I think I have pretty unique Christmas trees. None of those plain jane glass balls and tinsel for me. For years my Mom has been buying me those fancy ass Hallmark ornaments. So on my tree is Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa Simpson, Looney Tunes characters, Gone With the Wind and Disney characters (heavy on the Cinderella) . Now that Abby has come along we've added Dora and her entourage, Strawberry Shortcake, Winnie the Pooh and My Little Pony. If you take a second to notice the miniature Tonka toys and the Earnhardt paraphernalia you'd know that Michael wasn't let out either. We have lots of ornaments that celebrate special moments in our life like being pregnant, Abby's first Christmas, Maya's first Christmas, getting married and so on. Yep, our tree has a big story to tell.

But which one is my favourite. I mean if I was forced to choose one, which would it be. I've thought about it long and hard. So many of them are so pretty, so many are filled with special meaning it's hard to say. Going on aesthetics only I think I'd pick the Barbies.



Every year my Mom has bought me the Hallmark Holiday Barbie ornament. I am the proud owner of the entire collection. I think they look so pretty on the tree in their elaborate ball gowns. It reminds me of being a little girl and how much I adored playing with my Barbies. The one pictured isn't necessarily my favourite (it's hard to pick one), although she is quite pretty. I picked her because she is last year's model. I have a rule that any 2006 ornaments don't make it on to the tree until 2007. I don't know why that's a rule, but it is and yes I realize I'm weird.

Friday Favourites - Amazon.ca

Each year I do more and more of my Christmas shopping online. Nothing like shopping in your jammies at midnight with a margarita cup of tea in your hand. A large chunk of my list included various books, DVD's and CD's that I had planned on purchasing from Chapters. So Monday afternoon while Abby was in school and Maya was napping I clicked away and in moments had my order ready for check out. I had chosen Chapters because they are a Futura Partner and I would receive 3% of my purchase back in an RESP for the girls. For some reason instead of clicking through to complete my order I thought I'd do a little price comparison over at Amazon.

In minutes I had created an identical order over at the competition for a full $18 cheaper than Chapters. Since my 3% cash back only amounted to about $2.45 it was an easy decision to make. I completed my order through Amazon. My emailed confirmation informed me that my order would ship on the 8th of December. The gift I had ordered for Mike wasn't going to be released until the following day, which I assumed accounted for the slight delay. Wednesday I received an email telling me my entire order had been shipped. By Thursday afternoon it was waiting in my mailbox. That right there is impressive customer service.

Friday Favourites - My Neighbourhood

Having lived in the same house for 23 years I think it's safe to assume that I really love my neighbourhood. Every time I buy a lottery ticket I'm secretly afraid we'll win because then we would likely move. I realize we could stay in the same area, but I really love my house. Love the neighbours I have around me. It's all about location, isn't it? Right now our little village is perfectly in tune with our current lifestyle. Five of Abby's classmates are within walking distance and there are even more kids that are a year younger or older. Also there are three little girls in roughly Maya's age bracket. Yes, we have playmates galore.

There is a real feeling of community. For a long time Mike and I weren't part of the community. Before we had kids we'd go to work and come home and go in the house. We were polite to our neighbours, we always had a smile and a wave at the ready, but that was as far as it went. Having Abby changed all that. Now the kids are back and forth between our yard and their yards playing in groups that seem to change by the minute as one kid heads home and another one joins the fun. The Moms are ready with freezies and/or kool aid. Swimming pools are shared. Need to borrow a cup of sugar, the use of an appliance or last minute babysitting? You've come to the right place.

Lately Mike and I have been trying to work out what will be best for the girls when I go back to work. Abby can get off and on the bus at the sitters, but ideally I'd like her to get off the bus at home everyday. I made mention of this to my neighbour and she instantly offered to get Abby off the bus and bring her back to her place until we get home from work. I almost kissed her I was so relieved. One less thing to worry about.

Today we had one wicked rain/wind storm. Taking Abby to the bus stop was a hellish experience. The rain and the cold seemed to bite right through you. Poor Maya, I tried to protect her the best I could, but it was a miserable experience all around. Not surprisingly the school lost power not long into their day. It was decided that the kids would be sent home at 10:30 am. My neighbour can see the bus stop from her house where as I cannot. She called to tell me she'd let me know when she could see it coming down the street. That in itself was a very nice thing to do, but she went one better and offered to get Abby off the bus for me so I wouldn't have to take Maya back out in that bitter wet weather. I never thought I'd like being so involved with my neighbours. In fact, Robin will tell you I used to tease her mercilessly about living in Mr. Rogers Neighbourhood. I guess I owe her an apology because I've just recently found out it's a great place to live.

Won't you be? Please won't you be my neighbour?

Not So Favourite Friday

A little while ago I started posting my Friday Favourites. Then all of the sudden Friday's just seemed to go right to hell. Last Friday there was the whole head lice debacle. Round two with the shampoo is tonight, wish me luck. So this morning I woke up and while I was getting Abby ready to head off the school I was contemplating what my Friday Favourite would be this week. With a plethora of ideas rolling around in my head I sat down at the computer to check on the local weather forecast and I had no bookmarks. When I headed off to bed last night I left them all cozy in their folder and since they've always been well behaved bookmarks I expected them to be waiting for me this morning. Just as they are every morning. Instead they decided to act out their own little version of PrisonBreak. For a self proclaimed internet addict like myself those bookmarks are a life line.

After seeing Abby safely off on the bus I came back home and set Maya up with some breakfast and settled down to figure out WTF was going on. Ages ago my brother convinced me to switch to Mozilla. Not that it took much convincing. He basically said, you should switch to Mozilla and because he is way smarter than me I raced right to my computer and downloaded it. Once again the duker was right. I did like Mozilla more than IE. Enjoyed it some much I started converting those around me. Including Michael who is the exact opposite of computer savvy and on top of that hates change. As they say, the honeymoon can't last forever and today I would like Mozilla to die a slow and painful death.

I'm far from a knowledgeable when it comes to computers, but I know enough to get by. So my first attempt at fixing this problem was to try a system restore and that did absolutely nothing. Then I Googled the problem and found, what I thought would be the solution. Apparently Mozilla saves a copy of your bookmarks everyday. So I found yesterday's saved file, which took some looking and imported to my bookmarks list. Presto chango, problem all fixed. Or so I thought. Closing the browser caused my bookmarks to disappear yet again. After losing them a time or two or twelve more I got smart and saved a copy to MyDocuments for ease of retrieval. After some more searching I thought upgrading to Firefox 2 would make everything right in the world. And it did for about 5 minutes until I closed the browser. Back to square one.

Then I realized Mozilla was saving a copy of my bookmarks every minute or less. By the time I noticed that I had over 700 copies of my bookmarks saved. I just checked again now and I have saved over 2200 copies of my bookmarks today. That seems like a bit excessive, don't you think? So I've spent the day hanging out at technical forums that may as well be written in Latin for all I understand of them. And now my computer in general is running like crap. Must be all that saving it's doing. I really don't see what other recourse I have but to uninstall Firefox and go back to IE, which will kill me to do because I really love Firefox except when it's being a bitch.

Friday Favourites - The Festive Special

Well those Christmas commercials just keep on coming. I think I see 2 or 3 new ones everyday. I know because that is exactly how many different toys Abby asks for on a daily basis. Today I saw my most favourite one of all. The one I wait all year for. The Festive Special is back baby.

Over the years our family has spent a lot of money at Swiss Chalet. It's been our "go-to" restaurant for as long as I remember. My Grandparents were particularly fond of it. No weekend visit to Grandma and Grandpa's was complete without a trip to Swiss Chalet for a quarter chicken dinner and a Shirly Temple complete with maraschino cherry and plastic sword. I remember once eating take-out Swiss Chalet on plates my Grandma had warmed in the oven because it apparently went against her English sensibilities to eat directly from the take-out container. At the time it was a tinfoil dish with a crimped edge that folded over the cardboard lid. I wonder what she would think of the new high tech plastic divided dish with domed lid? I'm guessing she'd still be warming those plates in the oven.

As I got older we still ate at Swiss Chalet, but no where near as much as when I was a kid. Although when I was pregnant with Abby I ate a lot of Swiss Chalet. So much that eventually we didn't even need to order. Yep, we ate there a lot.

Now the Festive Special has been around since the dawn of time. It's a basic quarter chicken dinner with cranberry and stuffing. Back in the day you'd get a toblerone bar, but they've since swtiched to the decandent Lindt truffles. As much as I love toblerone bars, moving to Lindt truffles was smart because those things are better than sex. My mom was shocked recently to hear that I enjoyed toberlone bars. I had once professed to hate them and at the time I truly did. As kids, over the Christmas season we would ingest more than our fair share of Toblerone bars thanks to Swiss Chalet. Then Christmas would roll around and my Grandma's assumption was if Toblerone bars were good enough for Swiss Chalet to give out as gifts well then they were good enough for her too. What I ended up with was a severe case of Toblerone overload that took me years to get over.

Maybe when I head out for that traditional Festive Special dinner I'll order a Shirley Temple just for old times sake.

Friday Favourites - British Slang

I don't what it is about British slang that I love so much. Maybe because it's way more creative and obscure than anything we have here. Plus they have a huge slang vobaulary. You can check out a really great British slang dictionary here. Without further ado here are some of my favourites.

Bloody Nora! - an exclamation of anger or surprise. Bloody Nora I wish you kids would be quiet.

Do me a lemon - do me a favour. Can you do me a lemon and pass me the salt.

Barmy - crazy Bloody Nora! Why are you acting all barmy tonight?

Belt up - shut up. Do me a lemon and belt up.

Give us a bell - call me. Give us a bell and we'll make plans for the weekend.

Slapper - a tramp Who's that slapper with Phil?

Wanker - jerk That Phil is quite a wanker.

Dog's Bollocks - fabulous Honey that dinner was the dog's bllocks.

As rare as hens teeth *or* as rare as rocking horse shit - descriptive, very uncommon Michael doing the laundry is about as rare as rocking horse shit.

Banjanxed - ruined I wish you had of told me you were going to be late, now dinner is banjaxed.

Beat seven shades of shit out of someone - descriptive Bloody Nora! I'm so angry dinner was banjaxed I could beat seven shades of shit out of someone.

Plonker - idiot Quit being such a plonker before I beat seven shades of shit out of you.

Oh I could go on and on. How much fun crack is it to talk like that? And the dirty manky ones are top draw too. I'd have posted some, but my parents read this. So go find them yourself. I encourage each and everyone one of you to start injecting some British slang into your vocabulary immediatley dreckly.

Friday Favourites - Prison Break

Prison Break was last year's break out hit. When you actually sit down and scrutinize the storyline you have to wonder how it became so popular. I mean you really need to be willing to suspend reality. There is just no way that a death row inmate would be allowed to mingle with other inmates never mind actually be given a job on the maintenance team which his brother was also working on. Or how about the fact that Michael's been walking around since the escape in a very nice suit while his brother looks like he just crawled out of a ditch. Yeah that won't draw too much attention. And that's just for starters. Despite or maybe because of the writing there is lots to love about Prison Break and that allows be to forgive the glaring inaccuracies. Even if the writing was only so so there's lots of eye candy to be studied at Fox River Peneteniary. Michael Scofield is a mucho hottie and Lincoln Burrows is not without a thick necked charm. Oh and let's not for get Fernando Sucre. Of course eye candy can only get you so far and Sucre can't be in every scene. So you're going to need something to fall back on. I like that this show isn't afraid to take a chance and kill off some major characters. I have to admit though I have become quite concerned that they maybe getting a little too kill happy. Since the start of this season they have killed off 5 characters and the last episode led us to believe they'd be upping that to 6. Although I don't see that happening.

All of this stuff is great, but my favourite thing about this show is Theodore "t-bag" Bagwell. I think there is a possibility this guy *could* be a pedophile. Of course it's a million times more likely that he's just an incredibly accomplished actor. All I know for sure is that this guy gives me a serious case of the creeps. He doesn't even need to recite a single line of dialogue. All of his mannerisms are dead on. He's the reason I spend 15 minutes making sure all the doors and windows are locked before I go to bed Monday nights. He's also the reason I tune in week after week. Just waiting to see when he's going to get what's coming to him. And knowing that in some sick way I'll miss him when he's gone.

Friday Favourites - Things About Fall

I think fall is my favourite season. I love that crisp feeling in the area, the crunch of leaves on the ground. I think I could be happy if it was fall all year round.

Fall means apple pie. I have mentioned before my Mom's apple pie making frenzy that arrived every fall like clock work. There is no better smell in the world than an oven full of apple pies.

Fall means Thanksgiving. A reason to gather your family together and stuff yourselves silly. For most people the turkey is the star of this autumn holiday feast. For me it's all about the vegetables. Brussel sprouts, cheese cauliflower and squash these are all veggies I don't get at any other time of the year.

Fall means it's fair season once again. Fresh cut fries, mini donuts, running into people from high school, the merry go round, getting to experience it through Abby's eyes, carrying on a family tradition.

And let's not forget Halloween. Now I have never been much of a Halloween fan. People in costumes have always really unnerved me, but I have been surpsied to find that this year I'm actually looking forward to it. I have a porch full of pumpkins that I plan on carving. There's pumpkin shaped cakes to make for the neighbours. Abby and I even have plans to make a scarecrow for the front porch.

What's your favourite thing about Fall?