A belated Merry Christmas

and all that jazz. And, I guess, a slightly early Happy New Year! Santa found us, we got a bit spoiled as usual. Mostly he found the boy. I think his favourite presents this year are the tent / tunnel combo that my sister got him, and the A-Z learning zoo animals that my parents got him. He would hang out in the tent all day. Overall I think we did well picking out presents. A little easier this year, since he has interests and can do more than crawl and sit.

We got a new tv, that I think we'll try to hang on the wall to keep tiny, curious, pointy fingers away from it. It's an LCD, I'm not sure if those come with some kind of protective shield type thing on the front, or if it's soft like a computer screen. We'll see! We also have to find out how to get it home, since there's definitely no room in the SX. I got the Joy of Cooking and a really pretty glass pitcher, so I can cook somebody a nice meal and then get them loaded on margaritas or something. A pair of knee-high heeled black boots, veddy nice. Some money, always a very appreciated gift. A food processor, so we can find a great pizza recipe in the Joy and then I can make dough and chop my veggies and maybe even shred cheese?

The man did some post-Christmas shopping yesterday, and then we went to dinner and a movie. Half price apps at Don Cherry's, the new one in Dieppe, that has a tv and an X-BOX in each booth. We sat at a table, thankfully. We went to see Night at the Museum, and it was really ... entertaining. Cute, funny. Safe for the under 18 crowd for sure. Probably was PG. I don't think there was any swearing, but it wasn't like, damn, we're at a kids' movie. There was a whole row of small children in front of us, which was cute, but it was the 9:25 show, which seems a bit late for a bunch of 3-7 year olds. All in their jammies with popcorn from home. It was much better than I thought it would be, definitely worth a cheap night outing or a rental.

Tonight holds no big plans. We were in Hali from the 22nd to the 27th, when we came to Rexton. We'll be here until NY Day. The man has to work on the 2nd, so we'll head home. I think NY Eve is an evening in Moncton with friends, food, games, and drinking. The usual. We have the game Scene It, the Friends edition, so that should be fun.

I have a bit of shopping to do, but have all next week to do it, so will likely postpone. Heading to Shoppers today for 20x my points. That's the only time I shop there. It's also a decent 1-day sale on tampons and advil and diapers. Very exciting stuff, I tell ya!

If any of you are around next week, give me a shout. We'll hang out and stuff.

ho ho ho

as is expected, I had a lovely big post typed up, and then my computer froze. I hadn't selected all and copied like I normally do, because it usually only freezes when you hit publish, not just on random occasions. Sigh. And it didn't save a draft.

I've been busy, basically. Work, the boy, the time of year. I'm all done my shopping. We were on a budget this year, as most years I suppose, but I think I did alright. My sister and I went in together on a gift for Mom, and I figured something out for Dad. It's tricky without wish lists. I have one, but it's not very practical for the most part. I bought my sister something she already has, so I'll have to think of something else, so I guess technically I'm not done. But I was, for like an evening.

The boy is busy busy. He still isn't saying much, but does say "no" in response to almost all questions. Do you want a snack? Nnnnno. He really sounds like he's thinking about it. Do you want to watch a video? Nnnnnno. When he really means it, he says "nonononononono!" He'll sometimes specifically request juice, and he points to the field where there have been cows all year but there aren't anymore, and says very excitedly "cow!". All the important stuff. He now wants very much to cuddle the cats, but his methods aren't really all that gentle. He tries any way he can think of, sometimes good, others not so much, to pick them up, and they lies down with them and laughs because he's so excited. Silly boy.

We went to print off some pictures for his "real" album and some to give out for Christmas yesterday. I nearly broke my elbow on the car door frame, but ended up with an incredibly sore, yet incredibly tiny, bruise instead. The boy was a champ at Superstore, I bribed him with raisins and milk in a carton (much more exciting than milk in a cup, apparently) to sit in the cart while I picked up a few things and then chose and edited the pictures to print.

I locked my keys in my car the day before yesterday. Brilliant, I know. And you'd think there'd be some kid who would know how to break into a car, but without the power lock option, they're useless. I had to call the garage that's just up the hill here, and they only charged me $10, so not too bad. I think I'll have an extra key made for just such an emergency and keep it in my purse.

I've given thought (again) to abandoning this site, but every now and then I get inspired to share with strangers and not so strangers, so I figure I'll just post whenever, and whoever checks checks. Christmas break should be pretty postable. All the parents have highspeed, which is nice.

I'm going to post this before I get kicked off again. Christmas break is fast approaching, and we have our Christmas concert / play today. Rehearsal all morning, early lunch (since we'll have to start getting ready for the real play this afternoon early too), and then real play this afternoon with parents and stuff. Tomorrow is a real day, as far as the day before the last (half) day of school can be. Friday is a half day, with class parties and a dance. Sweet.

later skaters.

Buy me stuff

Please.

The wishlist is back. The baby has a wishlist too, on his site.

all about me

This is one of those things that you're supposed to send to all your friends, and they send it back, and so on. I'm going to post it here, because I figure if any of you wants to tell me this stuff, you can copy it and send it to me, or post it on your own site.
Enjoy.


1. FIRST NAME?
Jallapenno

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Nope

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY?
Can't remember, probably at a commercial. The whole baby thing has made me more emotional.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
I do, it's sort of a writing / printing hybrid

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Ham

6. CHILDREN?
Yes, one son.

7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
I hope so.

8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL?
Sort of...

9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
I try not to, because it can easily offend in my profession, but I definitely do with my friends / family.

10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS?
yes, never had problems with them

11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
I think so, but I'm not going to sign up anytime soon.

12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL?
Quaker Harvest Crunch. It used to be Cruncheroos, my Grannie would always buy them for me.

13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
I don't have laces, but when I do have laced shoes, I do untie them.

14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Pretty strong, (I'm assuming this is speaking emotionally, not physically), but I've never (thank God) had to go through anything really terrible.

15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM?
Teddy Bear. Doesn't exist anymore, but it was just chocolate ice cream with chunks of PB.

16. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT A PERSON?
Their ass. Just kidding. Probably smile?

17. RED OR PINK?
Pink

18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVOURITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
I procrastinate. I'm getting better though, I have to be organised doing R&M

19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
my family. I don't have any family or friends I can get to in like, 5 minutes.

20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
ideally, sure

21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING?
Khaki / beige pants, no shoes....beige socks. how boring. at least I match though!

22. THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW
"dragon's den", a reality show, and the dogs barking

24. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
hmm. Orange? I'd be one with a cool name.

25. FAVORITE SMELL?
clean laundry. None of that unscented stuff.

26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
my hubby

27. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Yes. I have to, she's my mother in law.

28. FAVORITE DRINK?
chocolate milk or hot chocolate or iced tea. Depends.

29. FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH?
Not a huge sports fan, but probably hockey because I now know the most about it.

30. HAIR COLOR?
blonde (natural even!)

31. EYE COLOR?
brown-green hazel

32. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
nope

33. FAVORITE FOOD?
tough one, there's very little I don't like. Movie popcorn would be up there.

34. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING?
I hate scary movies, so happy ending.

35. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
"A Good Year" with Russel Crowe. It was really good.

36. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
black. why are you so interested in my clothes? my underoos are blue, if you were wondering.

37. SUMMER OR WINTER?
summer

38. HUGS OR KISSES?
if I have to pick, probably hugs

39. FAVORITE DESSERT?
um, chocolate something. Like, chocolate lava cakes, or fudge brownie sundae, mmmm.

40. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
maybe Jenn? Tough to say. This is a lot of questions.

42. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?
"Comprehensive Literacy Resource for grades 3-6". Riveting.

43. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
I don't have one, but I'm at my parents' house and they have labs. Shocking.

44. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST ON TV?
I purposefully watched a CSI repeat last night, and have been not really watching cartoons most of the day.

45. FAVORITE SOUNDS?
rain, the baby laughing. he laughs so hard, it sounds like he's faking.

46. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Beatles

47. FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME?
Florida / Edmonton

48. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Too many to mention.

49. LEAST LIKELY TO SEND THIS BACK?
pretty much everyone.

a funny, and some urban myths busted.

It's that time of year, so here are some tips to make your holiday shopping a little more fun.

- Take boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they aren't looking.


- Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.


- Leave a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the restrooms.


- Walk up to an employee and told her in an official tone, 'Code 3' in housewares... and watch what happens.


- Go to the Service Desk and ask to put a bag of M&M's on layaway.


- Move a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.


- Set up a tent in the camping department and tell other shoppers they're invited in if they'll bring pillows from the bedding department.


- When a clerk asks if they can help you, begin to cry and ask, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'


- Look right into the security camera; use it as a mirror, and pick your nose.


- While handling guns in the hunting department, ask the clerk if he knows where the antidepressants are.


- Dart around the store suspiciously loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme.


- In the auto department, practice your "Madonna" look using different size funnels.


- Hide in a clothing rack and when people browse through, yell "PICK ME!" "PICK ME!"


- When an announcement came over the loud speaker, assume the fetal position and scream "NO! NO! It's those voices again!!!!"


And last, but not least ....


- Go into a fitting room, shut the door, wait awhile, then yell very loudly, "There is no toilet paper in here!"


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


I love snopes.com.

All those email forwards you get, extolling the hidden dangers of everything from Swiffer Wetjet (see here) to Mr Clean Magic Eraser (here), to, my personal favourite so far, horse sterilisation pills being used as the new date rape drug (seriously, yikes!).

By the way, if you're really lazy and don't want to click the links, neither of the first 2 things are dangerous, and there's no such thing as a horse sterilizer pill.

Good to know.

Zaky Infant Pillow

Zaky Infant Pillow – Simulates a Mother’s Hand. The funniest part of this is that I had totally thought about making something like this when the boy was tiny and not so much about the sleeping at night. I had envisioned more of a full torso thing for babes to sleep on, but this, I think, would work.

There's also a 'determine the sex of your baby' test available. It's 99.9% accurate. I'm so going to get it next time!

Thanks to Jenn for the link.

There are new boy pictures on his site.

it is halloween, after all

Might as well carve yourselves a pumpkin! Courtesy of Ma.

5 days until the big event! Have you got your costumes picked out? I don't. The wee lad hasn't got his either, and we have a hot date Halloween party this weekend. With a bunch of other babies / toddlers, of course. Competition will be fierce. I'm thinking about skipping out and just meeting up with my friend and her little one, who's almost exactly the same age as my dear boy. We haven't seen eachother for an embarrassingly long time, so it makes sense that we might try to get together.

In other news, I got my sweaters out of summer storage yesterday. I had them in a bin in an upstairs closet, since they were taking up much-needed shelf space in my closet. "Our" closet, technically. I decided it was about that time of year that one could reasonably expect to wear a sweater every day. For some people, like my sister, it's always that time of year. For most though, it's around now. I've also got to go through my clothes, as I seem to have a lot of them, and I know I don't wear all of them. Some are too big, some are just ugly or impractical. Whatever.

I should be working right now. Stop distracting me.

Oh, also, I think the Vue has been taken out of the equation, but it's possible that a used Honda crv has been added. They're rated really well as used cars, esp for families and stuff. So, input is still appreciated.

just in case you don't have enough time wasters...

M&M'S Dark Chocolate. It's a painting of 50 "dark" movies. It's all 'visual riddles', and it's fun, and good luck! DH and I got 43, and then got stuck. My mom sent me the link, and got a few more afterward that she passed along, but we still can't get 2 - the guy with the lantern, and the reaper in the fence thing.

have fun!

also, due to some recent coming issues with my car, it looks like I'll be looking to trade sooner than later. I think I've got it narrowed down to 2 cars. I'm looking for a wagon type, something bigger than my little dodge, but not a van. God, not a van. Needs to have room for 2 carseats (no, no news or plans of news that way, thanks), and room in the trunk for one of those big stroller system things, a set of golf clubs, and maybe a playpen. So, my 2 choices are the Pontiac Vibe / Toyota Matrix (they're basically the same car, made in the same factory, even.) and the Mazda5. The only downs I can find about either are that all the reviews say about the Vibe / Matrix is that it's fun and stuff, but no real negatives, so I guess that's good. The only negatives about the Mazda are the 3rd row of seats is super tight, no room for big people or even normal sized adults, and it's lacking in kick / horsepower. The seats thing isn't really an issue though, because you have seating for 4 without the back row, and if you have that back row folded down, you get a super sweet trunk space for the aforementioned stuff.

so, opinions would be appreciated. I'd love to get like, a Passat wagon, but that's not going to happen. We're talking mid-range. I was thinking Saturn Vue / hybrid, but it hasn't gotten great reviews on any front, so I'm thinking no.

thanks! I'm off to try to finish this evil m&ms game.

Safetey Announcement

You've Never Heard a Flight Announcement Like This - Wouldn't you love to have this attendant on your next flight? Thanks to a retired WestJet Captain for sending this "paraphrase" of a memorable safety PA (public announcement) from their Flight Attendants. In his own words....


"I was flying to Vancouver from Toronto this weekend, and the flight attendant reading the flight safety information had the whole plane looking at each other like "what the heck?" (Getting Toronto people to look at each other is an accomplishment.) So once we got airborne, I took out my laptop and typed up what she said so I wouldn't forget. I've left out a few parts I'm sure, but this is most of it."

(BEFORE TAKEOFF) Hello and welcome to WestJet Flight 438 to Vancouver. If you're going to Vancouver, you're in the right place. If you're not going to Vancouver, you're about to have a really long evening. We'd like to tell you now about some important safety features of this aircraft. The most important safety feature we have aboard this plane is ...... The Flight Attendants. Please look at one now.



There are 5 exits aboard this plane: 2 at the front, 2 over the wings, and one out the plane's rear end. If you're seated in one of the exit rows, please do not store your bags by your feet. That would be a really bad idea. Please take a moment and look around and find the nearest exit. Count the rows of seats between you and the exit. In the event that the need arises to find one, trust me, you'll be glad you did. We have pretty blinking lights on the floor that will blink in the direction of the exits. White ones along the normal rows, and pretty red ones at the exit rows.



In the event of a loss of cabin pressure these baggy things will drop down over your head. You stick it over your nose and mouth like the flight attendant is doing now. The bag won't inflate, but there's oxygen there, I promise. If you are sitting next to a small child, or someone who is acting like a small child, please do us all a favor and put on your mask first. If you are traveling with two or more children, please take a moment now to decide which one is your favorite. Help that one first and then work your way down.



In the seat pocket in front of you is a pamphlet about the safety features of this plane. I usually use it as a fan when I'm having my own personal summer. It makes a very good fan. It also has pretty pictures. Please take it out and play with it now. Please take a moment now to make sure your seat belts are fastened low and tight about your hips. To fasten the belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle. To release, it's a pulley thing -- not a pushy thing like your car, because you're in an airplane -- HELLO.



There is no smoking in the cabin on this flight. There is also no smoking in the lavatories. If we see smoke coming from the lavatories, we will assume you are on fire and put you out. This is a free service we provide. There are two smoking sections on this flight, one outside each wing exit. We do have a movie in the smoking sections tonight ... hold on, let me check what it is ... Oh here it is ... the movie tonight is "Gone With the Wind."



In a moment we will be turning off the cabin lights, and it's going to get really dark, really fast. If you're afraid of the dark, now would be a good time to reach up and press the yellow button. The yellow button turns on your reading light. Please don't press the orange button unless you absolutely have to. The orange button is your seat ejection button.



We're glad to have you with us on board this flight. Thank you for choosing WestJet, and giving us your business and your money. If there's anything we can do to make you more comfortable, please don't hesitate to ask. If you all weren't strapped down you would have given me a standing ovation, wouldn't you?

(AFTER LANDING) Welcome to the Vancouver International Airport. Sorry about the bumpy landing. It's not the Captain's fault. It's not the Copilot's fault. It's the Asphalt. Please remain seated until the plane is parked at the gate. At no time in history has a passenger beaten a plane to the gate. So please don't even try. Also, please be careful opening the overhead bins because "shift happens."

super fun

Online Etch A Sketch. The perfect time-killer for a Friday afternoon, yes?

thanksgiving, in Canada. and stuff.

I, for the first time, prepared Thanksgiving dinner. For the past few years, (this being the 6th, to be precise) my dad's side of the family has been getting together at Thanksgiving. It's nice, we're kind of spread out, and so we get together this once a year. Most of the family was able to come out to the wedding, so I got to see people then. This year, the big day was held in Hamilton. The budget just wasn't going to allow any flying, and driving would have just been madness with the tiny boy and only for...basically one day by the time we got there. Anyhoo, so we had Turkey Day here, and my sister and her man came to feast on absurd amounts of food with the husband and I and the dear boy. Dear boy was not interested in turkey dinner, and generally made it difficult for me to get most things done, but he did sit on the counter and chew on a piece of bread while I did pre-supper dishes. So, yes. My sister made cranberry sauce, which as far as cranberry sauces go, was delicious. I'm not a huge fan, myself. It's good on leftover turkey sandwiches, but that's about it. We had turkey, which I stuffed with my version of my dad's stuffing. I bought the turkey in the US of A, on a flying road trip with a co-worker of mine. She's doing her B.Ed. at UMPI, and had to head over there Friday afternoon to get some papers signed. We were at meetings in Centreville, which is about 20 minutes from a border crossing (Bridgeview, I think?), so I went along for the drive. We went to the university for about 3 minutes, then to WalMart and Shop 'n' Save. WalMart yeilded a terrific haul of Halloween candy and some Gerber treats for the boy. SnS had Butterballs for $1.49/lb. Sweet. I got the smallest one, which was 9.99lbs. Cathy got the biggest one, which was like, 25lbs. She was having 10 people at her dinner. I had 4.5. So, yes. Turkey, with stuffing. Potatoes, turnip, carrots, and beets. Apple pie that the boy's sitter made for us, and pumpkin pie that I made for us. The pumpkin part tasted really good (I did make it from scratch with just plain pumpkin from a can, not pie filling, so I can take credit). The pastry was kind of crunchy, which was odd, but I blame that I tried to use half crisco and half butter, and have never done that before. I had never made turkey or pumpkin pie, so all in all, things went swimmingly.

I'm in Florenceville today and tomorrow. It smells like french fries. McCain is based there, I think. We had a kick-ass lunch, real food instead of the lame cold sandwiches we usually get. We also got chocolate chip cookies, which are pretty much off limits in our district, for the new nutrition policy. I got away from one district with their silly dress code, and now can't find a chocolate cookie or a bag of chips to save my life. Or at least my sanity, which sometimes is necessary.

I went to the dentist and the eye doctor on Wednesday. The latter was uneventful, everything is still good, I can still see, and don't need glasses. The dentist was unpleasant. 2 of my existing fillings need replacing, and I have a new, "interesting" cavity that needs fixing. Also, my fixed retainer wire thing came unstuck. So, they were able to fit me in right then for one filling and the retainer, and I go back Friday for the rest. super. I'm in school for 1.5 days this week. Hilarious. At least I'll be well trained.

I found out that I have a connection in this district that may come in handy come 'Mrs. R needs a job and it needs to not be in Edmunston' time. My grade 8 teacher (who was super cool, and left us halfway through the year to take a principal position, but we loved her anyway, because she taught us health / human growth and development (that's sex ed) and we had a question box and every day someone would ask "what's an orgasm" and she'd answer for like, the first 11 times) is the new superintendant. Or, as Ralph would say, Supernintendo. So, that's pretty fun. She actually remembers me too, which is nice. We were her last homeroom class ever, which probably helps.

What else. The boy is doing well, he's super happy at the sitter's, he doesn't mind us leaving him there anymore at all. He's saying a few words, and understands just about everything we say to him. He's turning into quite a little golf pro too, much to the delight of....everyone on his father's side. His webpage is more than slightly neglected. I get to spend about 2.5 hours with him a day during the week, so I'm not taking much of that time to do photo shoots. We're more into the playing and running around type things. Bath time is turning into more of an adventure, as he has discovered the joy of bubble baths. He'll go get the bottle in the bathroom and bring it out and say 'bubble'. But it'll be like, 4:30, so we're like, no, babe, not yet. Then he tries to open it with his teeth, generally succeeds, and if we're not watching, will squirt a bunch of it into the bath tub. Silly. He pushes his trike around Fred Flinstone style, cause his legs aren't long enough to pedal. He actually says 'bye' now when he waves, and generally says it like, 13 times before, during, and after the actual leaving part.

I think that's a respectable update, and it's 10, and I stayed up late last night watching Heroes and What About Brian, so I'm going to bed now. There's too much tv, it's problematic. I'm going to have to delegate nights or something, and unplug it the rest of the time.

One last thing. I love cream cheese, but the Philly ads suck. I wrote them to tell them I didn't think bitchy angels was a good way to go with the advertising, and that I wasn't a particularly devout person, but that I didn't think heaven invovled 'wing lifts' and catty girls. I see those ads less now, but they're still around. Meh. That's my opinion. I like to voice it.

Also, I'm going to buy myself a pair of boots. Not full-on hooker boots, but semi. I saw a pair of super hot shoes, but they're like $160, so no. Boots are a little more practical also, as far as hot shoes go. I'm thinking dark brown knee high, they should go with pretty much everything. I have mid-calf boots, and they're cute, but don't go with much.

that's all, for real.

Cat Haikus

this is totally what my cats would write. If they could. They do both have thumbs, so they probably could, in fact, if they really wanted to.

Go support my mom

Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation: Run for the Cure. If you're going to support someone, and I surely hope you are, you might as well donate to my mom. She's a 9 year survivor, and the run is on the anniversary of her surgery. Come on. Do it. DO it.

I had a lovely birthday supper last night with the man, my sister, and her man, and the babe. The babe has hit the age where he's no fun in restaurants. He doesn't want to sit still for...any amount of time. He eats 2 bites and then wants to run around for an hour. I know this is fun for other restaurant-goers, so it looks like we're limited to McD's for a while, and are in the market for a babysitter in the neighbourhood. Just in case we want to go to not McDs for supper. We went to the Blue Door last night, and it was quite tasty. They brought me out a crème caramel (that è just took me like, 4 minutes to figure out) with a sparkler in it for dessert. I also got a caramel apple making kit, and some truffles from Laura Secord. Mmm. And a really nice watch. It's like a grown up lady's watch, very fancy. It's too big, needs a couple of links taken out, but I'm wearing it anyway, because I like it. So there.

I don't feel any older, and yesterday I felt a little less wise, because I accidentally brought the boy's lunch bag with me to work. Which is a good 30 minutes from where he goes to the sitter. It had his drinks and snacks in it. I felt like such an idiot. And the man was unimpressed, thinking it was just hiding in the house somewhere, and not wanting to be accused of being a bad looker for things (because he usually really is, terrible), he spent a long time looking for the bag and for things to go in it, but found only one 'litterless' (plastic) juicebox to send with the lad to the sitters. Anyway, he was fine, but still. I didn't do it again today! I even packed myself a lunch, of leftover Wok Chicken. Mmm.

Alright. I have to find some kids and observe them, and then do some testing. I'm kind of excited, actually.

It's my birthday tomorrow!

I sure hope you all bought me something exciting.

A brief sidebar with regards to buying things - I get Scholastic Bookorders now, the joys of middle school! If you'd like to order some books through me (and I know you, and you're willing to pay for them, of course) then let me know. You can check out the flyers at the Scholastic site.

Anwyay, back to me. I'll be 27. Holy cow! I'm not having a crisis about it or anything, no ages have really thrown me yet, but there's always 30. Jenn and I were talking the other day, about the fact that a coworker of hers had just turned 35. We were saying how that's really not that far off, and it seems both old and not old at the same time. It's getting awfully close to 40, which in my head (I'm stuck at age 24, not sure why) seems old, but in reality, I know it's not. Weird. Anyway, I'll let you know how this one goes. I feel pretty good though, got the whole decent job, good man, sweet baby thing going, so I can't really complain. There are of course details which I could complain about, but on the whole, it's a good setup.

Have to keep this short, cause I'm at work and we have a staff meeting in about 30 seconds. Tried to go to breakfast with Jenn on Sunday.
How to tell you live in a university town.
1 - The only places open for breakfast are McDonald's and Cora's, neither of which we're interested in because we're looking for real food with less than a 2 hour wait.
2 - Seriously. Harvey's has breakfast, they don't open til 11. As do most other places. Ringo's, Bugaboo Creek pub. We tried the Blue Door, they don't do breakfast, and they only open at 5pm.
3 - I know for a fact that I ate breakfast at most of the aforementioned places while I was in university, and the realisation that breakfast before 11 was unheard of, is kind of funny.

anyway. off I go.

starting over

So, I've survived my first 2 weeks at the new job, one week with students, which is no small feat. It's a small school, our numbers this year are 153 students and 9 teaching staff, including the principal. I'm enjoying the job so far, the hardest part has been making a schedule for my 2 TAs. We have one student who requires full time TA support, so that leaves us with one TA. Not sure how to make that work, but it's been done, and I guess you just do what you can. We had been told initially that this student actually does better without people sitting on him constantly. That's just not true, unfortunately. So, we'll sit on him for now, and try to back off later. The school is nice, everyone gets along well (which is nice, and a bit surprising), but everyone does their own thing too. I have a bunch of reading comprehension tests to mark this weekend, which is super fun. Marking has always been my least favourite part of teaching. In large quantities anyway. I know I'll be doing testing as part of my job, but not normally for a group of 50 kids all at once.

It's the babe's 17 month birthday today. We celebrated by going to the market, Staples, and Superstore. I wanted to go to Home Depot too, but he needed a nap. One of the reasons I needed to go to HD is that my clothesline has broken. 3 times. I wish I was kidding. I put up this stupid clothesline. I bought the kit from Canadian Tire, with the spinney end parts, 150' of line, and the winch thing to join the 2 ends. I get up there, I'm drilling pilot holes in trees, I'm precariously perched on a ladder, I'm getting things done. I get it all strung and screwed, and I'm holding one end of line in my left hand and the other end in my right hand, and I have literally...3 feet of air in the middle. There is no way the line is going to reach for me to be able to connect it. So, apparently from the corner of our house to the nearest sturdy tree is not 75, but about 76.5'. Excellent. So, a few days later, I make it out and buy another winch thing to splice in a piece of line that I stole from my sister. She didn't need it, her line was long enough. So, good. I splice in the line with the 2 winch things, and am good to go. Before I ever get clothes hung out on it, I notice it's loose. This is maybe a day or 2 later. I go to see what's up, and I see that one of the winches has broken. Ok. Fine. I take it off, and go to HD and buy some clamp things made specifically for looping clothesline ends together, in cases such as mine. Perfect. I put them on, and am good to go again. I do a load of laundry, and I hang my clothes out. I'm really excited. I go mow the lawn. Then my line falls down. Apparently, I did not squeeze the shit out of the clamps enough, and the line slid out. My fault, I can accept that. I'm still furious, because all my clothes are on the ground, but it's my own fault, so whatever. I take all the clothes off the line, because I can't get it back up with stuff hanging on it. I loop the ends together again, and put 3 clamps instead of the recommended 2 on each end. 3 new ones on the end that slid out, and 1 new one to go with the 2 already on the end that stayed put. I squeeze the shit out of the clamps. I use 2 different sets of pliers. My hands were sore for days. The line WILL NOT slip this time. I'm happy. I put the clothes back on the line. I will have fresh smelling line-dried clothes if it kills me. I go out, I come back, clothes are still hanging. I'm happy. I go put something in my bedroom, I look out the patio door, clothes are on the ground. WTF. Upon investigation, it is discovered that the line itself has broken. Seriously. The line that was supposed to hold up to 1100lbs. It had a basket of clothes on it. Not towels or anything, a load of the babe's clothes, which are tiny, and a load of our clothes with a fitted sheet in it. Actually, the sheet wasn't even on the line, because after the 2nd time it fell, I said, eff it, I'll put the sheet and socks and stuff in the dryer, and just dry the regular clothes. So. We have no clothesline, I guess is the moral of the story. I told my dad this story, and I decided that I must have angered some clothes-hanging-out god or something, because really. WTF. I will try again, I will get a 160'+ piece of super deluxe heavy duty line that will stand up to towels hanging in hurricanes, and hope for the best. Wish me luck.

In other news, the babe is doing very well at his sitter's. She has a 13 month old boy, and also watches a 5 month old girl, and they all play really well together. Well, the 5 month old doesn't really do much other than laugh at the boys, but that's goood. Dear husband drops the babe off in the mornings because it's on his way to work, and in the opposite direction of where I go to work. It was rough and traumatic for him at first (the husband, not the babe), but once he realised that babe has fun at the sitter's, and does not cry for more than 10 seconds after Dad leaves, all is well. We've also had to buy a 2nd carseat, because DH was leaving it at the sitter's in the morning, and I was installing it and bringing the boy home in the evenings. That got old really fast. We looked for a while, because if I can avoid spending $200, I will, and my sister found me one at Zellers for $99. It's not the super deluxe model, but it's Cosco, which is a good name, and it's a 3-in-1 carseat / booster, so it's good stuff. And, it has a cup holder. Also, since kids have to be in carseats / boosters until they're like, 80lbs or something, it's quite likely that we will need 2 carseats at one time.

Hmm. I got a new phone, the Nokia 6265i. I like it. It's also a radio, 2mp camera / video camera, and mp3 player. And alarm clock. And other stuff that's cool. I can connect it to my computer and sync files and contacts, which is good, because it doesn't have a sim card, nor did my last phone, so I lost all my contacts, which is annoying.

DH has started his masters in ... fire protection engineering? I think. Something very close to that. He's doing it mainly by correspondence, but taking a couple of courses here at the university. He's pretty excited about it, so I guess I am too! I think sometime I will do my masters, but not just yet. After there are no tiny babies, I'll take a year of Ed leave and do it. With summer courses, I should be able to do it in a year. I have to decide in what though. I'd like to do a joint one in resource / guidance, but I don't think it exists. I guess I would pick one and do any electives in the other.

My cat is sitting, staring at me, waiting for me to move my arm so he can jump up and crush my lap. I'm not doing it, Mort. You have to wait.

My sister and her man got a puppy. He's very cute. He's a chocolate lab named Reese. I'll post some pictures soon. I have some in my gmail, but I'm trying to do minimal stuff right now, because I'm downloading the nokia suite thing that lets me connect my phone to my computer, and it's a 17.1mb file, and it's 37% done and still has over an hour to go. Good times. I love dialup. I did appreciate though, on the Nokia site, there was a link for dial up users to click and go to the non-graphic version of the download site. Very thoughtful of them. Most ... pretty much all sites, assume that everyone has highspeed. I don't. I can't get it, and I don't need to be further annoyed by not being able to access some sites because they take too long. Jerks.

Holy long post, batman. Ooh, 17 days til my birthday! I'd like a watch. I haven't gotten my laptop yet, so a personal laptop is still on my wishlist also. I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

just in case you didn't hear about this already

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Snakes released at US screening

Like, I might have to go see it, just because.

all by myself....

yes indeedy folks. I had a bonafide responsibility-less weekend these past couple of days. The husband was headed to his hometown to host the bachelor party of his best bud. I've had lots of hometown-ness lately, and so elected to stay here. I then got to thinking, hmm. I haven't had a full day to myself since the wee lad came around. That's a long time. I'm about due, I guess. So, I sent wee lad home with his father, to spend the weekend being spoiled and kept up too late by his grandparents. As my neighbour put it, you have to weigh the benefits against the risks. Is it worth the few days it'll take to straighten him out in order to have a day or 2 to yourself? In considering that it has indeed been a long time, and that his grandparents will be eternally in my debt for having the opportunity to spend so much two-on-one time with the babe, yes. It is. They're on their way home as we speak.

I made myself a mercilessly garlicky and oniony chicken noodle dish for supper last night. I stayed up late watching great shows like "While You Were Out" and "Property Ladder". (Note to self regarding latter: always research housing market, neighbourhood, and get a frigging home inspection, before assuming you can make a $60k profit on your first house flip.) I hung pictures, I filled out most of the wedding scrapbook album, and put all the professional type photos in the photo album. Sidebar, if anyone out there has wedding pictures, I'd muchly appreciate copies! Today, too late to be a true part of my girly weekend, I know, I bought 2 small tubs of Ben & Jerry's. It's on sale at Superstore, if anyone's interested.

editor's note: Vermonty Python has now joined Half Baked at the top of my "Best Ben&Jerry's flavours" list. Mmmm, cookie crumb swirl and fudge cows.

Yesterday, I went to the market, had the aforementioned pictures printed off, tooled around town, went to Canadian Tire, that kind of thing. The night before, I went to see Pirates with Jenn and bought 2 cds. It's ok, because they only cost me $20 together. One is Corinne Bailey Rae, who you've probably heard of, or would at least recognise her song "Put Your Records On". It's a good album, basically what you'd expect, and that one song is great to sing along to. The other is Nizlopi. Who? My thoughts exactly. I was browsing the cd racks, and this one caught my eye. I have no idea why, but partly because the album title is "Half of these songs are about you". I thought that was funny. I had basically decided to buy it before I even asked what it was like. The girl at the counter told me it was sort of Counting Crows-ish, which was a good selling point for me. She said it was also kind of Jason Mraz, which I agree with more than the CC comparison. I'd throw in a bit of Coronation Street (just for the accent) and some Paul Simon for good measure. I'm quite proud of my purchase, I must say. I really like both cds.

I have a week before I start my new job, teaching resource and some classroom at a middle school about 15 minutes from here. I'm still looking forward to it, but am also looking forward to finding out what exactly I'm doing. I found out yesterday that it looks like it is in fact just a one year position, because the woman I'm replacing is just on ed leave, not moved to Nunavut or anything, but I'm not seeing that as an entirely bad thing. At least it is a one year position! If they can keep me on at the end, bonus, if they can transfer me somewhere equally close to home, bonus, and if they try to make me work in Woodstock, then I'm no farther behind than I would have been otherwise. I'll pick up where I left off in this district, and go from there.

What else. Oh, I applied for my laptop, I'm super excited about that. I may question the logic behind the program, but ah well. We'll see how badly blocked off the Dept of Ed laptops turn out to be, and then I'll decide if I can scratch "iBook" off my wishlist.

I have to wonder how my sister finds these things

This one she credits to the husband of one of her many pregnant co-workers.
Seacoast Online: Residents wonder if dead animal is legendary mystery beast. I know I'm wondering!


While we're posting links, I've been working on another project (although it got a bit delayed with the wedding and stuff). My uncle and new-ish aunt have opened up a new restaurant. Actually, they took over management of an existing restaurant in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. It's called the Blue Moon Cafe, and it's a Cora's type breakfast and lunch type place, with excellent food. I am slightly biased, but I did my best to try lots of things while I was there, and it was all good. Especially the peacan encrusted French toast. Oh, yeah.

That's my plug for today. Go check it out, and let me know what you think. I'm semi-open to constructive criticism. Semi.

stuff

but brief, I have a shower to have and a kitty litter pan to clean before the wee lad wakes up.

First off, a sample pictorial.


that's us. We got married! The babe was an active participant. A few more pictures are at www.(myname)and(hubby's name).com. Babe has some on his site too, which is that address /(babe's name)

Yes, all went well, especially once we went with the original plan of 'just let the baby do whatever he wants to do, and that way he won't cry'. So, he spent some time with us, and some time wandering the aisles, sitting on his grampie's knee, charming the ladies, you name it.

In non wedding news, for the first time in a while...I've developed a bit of an addiction to Lipton Green Tea with Citrus. I'm telling myself it's the chocolate milk of teas. Stay with me here...I mean even though it's sweetened and stuff, it is still green tea, and thus has good things in it. Like chocolate milk is to milk. Get it? I also really really like those Cadbury Thins chocolate bars. Toffee and Mint Chip are definitely the best. And, they're not terrible for me either, right? So, basically, not a problem at all.

Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, I'll go to SNB and change my name. I have to do that, and I have to do my insurance before I can do my registration, which I have to do at SNB, so I guess insurance will be my first thing. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, yes, must get going, litter and shower beckon.

later skaters.

married, hey!

so it's official. I'm now Mrs. R. The fiance is henceforth to be called the husband. We had an absolutely perfect day for our outside wedding, 98% of the people we invited made it out, and nobody made any embarrassing speeches or anything. It was great. Pictures to follow soon. I'll tell ya though, I'm taking a few days off. This wedding stuff is a lot of work! We made the favours and the cake, and did all the decorating ourselves. We got manicures, pedicures, and had our hair and makeup done at Avalon, which I would highly recommend to everybody.

More later, just wanted to let everybody know I'm alive.

for those of you with money

who feel like buying stuff for a poor-ish, young getting married couple, (believe it or not, there are apparently people out there like that, who like to buy presents!), we're registered (under both of our names) at Sears, Paderno (for the rich among you, although there are some 99cent items, lol), and that's it. Gift cards are always nice, for Kent or Home Depot or Canadian Tire maybe? Please don't feel the need to go out and spend money though, we've been living together for 5 years now, and so have most of the homey things that are traditionally gotten at weddings.

thanks.

and, on a totally unrealated note that I forgot to include in the last post, we went to the beach yesterday, and were there roughly 10 minutes in the gorgeous hot sun, when it started to thunder and lightening, the kicked us off, we came back home, and enjoyed the craziest thunder, lightening, hail and pouring rain storm I've seen in recent memory. Ridiculous. Might try the beach again, especially now that I know how to get in without paying.

ah, hi5

It's not just a kids' show, you know.

I'm a relatively non-active member of hi5, one of the less annoying sites that supposedly lets you keep in touch with friends. It's pretty good, because it doesn't charge you anything, and you get minimal junky emails from them. However, I found a 'message alert' in my inbox this morning, and it was from Kenny Thompson. I don't know a Kenny Thompson, but since I think friends of friends can send messages, I figure I'll go see the message. It's random, 'hey im kinda bored over here. if youre doing nothing lets chat it up;-) go to (link removed cause too many people are finding it on my page, sorry) for some more pics of me if ya wanna see them too and to contact me besides just here

hope to talk to ya soon!
Ken'

Foolishly, I go.

Go ahead, click. I'll wait here.

Yeah, exactly. So, clearly I'm going to have to like, edit my privacy settings or something. Although, can't hurt to get the *occasional* webcam junkie email, can it? Maybe it can. Tough call.

4 years, 842 posts (944, if you count preggo blog)

That's CRAZY. I started posting in June of 2002. I had just graduated, and had moved back to Moncton, where I grew up, with the fiancé-then-boyrfriend. I had no teaching job prospects, one cat, totally different fish, and was living in a one-bedroom basement apartment (that, incidentally, ruined a bunch of stuff that was unlucky enough to be on the floor in the closet. eff you, mildew!). A lot of things have changed and happened since then, obviously. One thing remains the same though - no job prospects! Ha!

I'm in Halifax, and am going for my fitting today, have got new underoos, and have to get some shoes, Mom said I can't wear dollarama flip flops with a gorgeous and significantly more than a dollar dress. She may have a point. The sandals are from Zellers though. Just to clarify.

I effing love highspeed internet. I sure hope we get it soon. There's some government initiative or something that 90% of the province will have highspeed by the end of the year. I sure hope we're not in the lame 10%. We're not THAT far away from civilisation, is the thing. Odd.

I'm watching food network, and there was just an ad for a ladder. Like, a half hour long infomercial. Odd-er. In between the omlette maker and the Jack Lalane juicer.

I think we're going to the cottage later, it's sunny at 28 today. Nice.

goin' to the chapel

well, not really the chapel (chappel? that doesn't look right), but we are gonna get married. In one month. Pretty crazy! I go for my fitting on Saturday, hopefully all is a go there. I'm pretty sure I've at least stayed the same size as I was on Valentine's day, if not lost a bit more, so I'm not too worried. We'll see though. They can let dresses out a fair bit, so either way I should be good to go. I had a very productive day of weed whacking, dish doing, and painting continents in the babe's room. The weed whacking was probably the most eventful, with the scaring of me and a small bird who was hiding in the brush I was trying to get rid of. He just kept hopping along and calling to his momma, so I stopped for a few minutes to let him get himself sorted out. I think he was maybe a baby bird who hasn't quite figured out the flying thing yet, since most birds don't live ON THE GROUND. I was a bit traumatised, I think I'll take a break from yard work. I'll keep going on my garden, there are actually things growing now. The tomatoes are getting taller, and there are flowers on the bean plants. Not much going on with the peppers, but the lettuce and cabbage are doing decently. My herbs have pretty much gone to the big herb garden in the sky, but I do have access to a tonne of basil from my neighbour, so I'll just have to make do with that. I have chives too. That's it though, I think. My hydrangea has flowers on it, ranging from a purply pink to blue. It's supposed to be blue, but I don't mind. Also, the morning glory that Erin gave me has grown gangbusters, and has flowers on it. Behold.

...

lovely, no?

So I'm not quite self sufficient with my produce yet, but the yard is starting to look pretty good. It's really big (relative to the apartment yards we've grown used to), so even when you get something done, there's a lot left. We're getting there though. There's some major clearing to be done down closer to the water, we're sort of losing our view now that things have leaves. We'd also like to make a patio around the house, and a path down to the aforementioned water. I think there probably won't be grass down there, maybe we'll just till it all up and plant wildflowers or something on the sides of the path. Erin rented a tiller once, she seemed pretty excited about it too.

I brought my tv in to be fixed, Future Shop said it would take up to 60 days (at which point they'd give me a new tv, but before which they would not loan me one or anything) to send away or get fixed, so they sent it to a local place, Damien's. Now, maybe I do have super sensitive hearing, but the thing buzzes. Mr. Damien, or whatever his name is, could hear no buzzing. Luckily, we were able to borrow a tv from my sister, or we would have had a rough, and boring, 2 weeks. So, now I have my buzzy tv back. Hooray.

We watched Syriana. I don't get it. Sorry. It was decent, but not very exciting, and I don't see why George got an Oscar out of it. We also watched Quiz Show (too lazy for links, sorry), which is old, 1994, but good. We had free movie passes since about March, that I jokingly said we had to use by the end of June, thinking surely we'd use them before that. We didn't. They expired on Friday. Nice.

Also, I got a fix and mix frosty, and it was tiny. Not impressed. Good though, I got butterfinger flavour.

I'm going tonight to help Erin pick out a bridesmaid dress. I'm thinking peach with ruffles. Nice.

31 days, seriously. Let's get crackin!

because I do 3 things at once, and am easily distracted, this took me almost 2 hours to type

so, even though it seems nobody is still reading this but my mother, I'll continue to post sporadically, in the event somebody else does stumble by.

My mother, incidentally, for the very dense among you, was obviously the one who helped me (did most of the work, really) put in the garden. Stuff is growing, but not impressively enough to put a picture yet. I might though, because I did put rocks all along the outside to frame it a bit, and I also rigged up a piece of eavestroughing and some river stones (from a bag, not from the actual river by our house) to catch the rain line off the roof and keep it from destroying my tomato and bean plants. Today I got even more gardenny, and planted a morning glory vine my sister gave me at the bottom of our property, where there was a very handy lattice type thing for it to grow on. Vines like that sort of thing, I know that much. I'm a bit dense though, I was going to buy a honeysuckle, but didn't, because I couldn't think of where I would put it. Ah well. I have a hosta I have to plant somewhere, then I'm just going to sit back and wait for my tomatoes to grow. I found out also that the big crazy bushy weed thing my neighbour has growing on one side of his house is actually basil, which I will now help myself to, upon his invitation of course. He also has a bunch of rhubarb that I'm going to pick some more of and make some jam or something. If anybody has a recipe, let me know. Strawberry rhubarb is my favourite. I don't think it usually involves jello, but the recipes I find do, so I'm looking for a good one.

I'm all by myself for a couple of days, the fiancé is gone to Winterpeg / Mosquitopeg, and I have to say, I don't really like being here at night alone. It's weird. We're like, in the boonies, and there are lots of noises and stuff, and it's dark. Luckily the babe sleeps well, so I don't have to face the boogeymen in the middle of the night very often. He was sick this weekend, as was I, which was gross. We ended up going home to the fiancé's parents' place, since he was going to play golf, and I was barely in shape to look after myself, let alone a very small child. He had it worse than me, likely because he hasn't had time to develop immunities like I have. Poor thing though, he pooped more than anybody big or small should, hardly ate anything all weekend, and barfed all over himself on the drive home. Much to our, and his, dismay. Also, ever try to take apart an Eddie Bauer 3-in-1 carseat to wash the cover? I dare you to. I was ready to murder somebody by the end of it.

Random notes. We sort of have a lawn, and will seed it either this weekend, or wait for fall, to encourage more, less prickly, grass to grow. We're also planning to clean and stain the shingles a natural cedar colour (since they are natural cedar, and we just want to protect them), and put up eavestroughing this summer. I was very excited to discover that we have lots of lightening bugs. It's nice, a lot of the time, to live out of the city. I'm going to Maine next week to visit my aunt and uncle (I keep wanting to say my uncle and his wife, but by being his wife, she becomes my aunt, yes? We're sort of past the point of the 'auntie' title though, so it's sort of a moot point.) with my mom and Grannie. My sister wanted to come too, but the timing couldn't be worked out by everybody. She's the only one in our immediate family who works a real job now, my parents are both retired, and I'm supplying and soon unemployed, so I think we're kind of annoying with our non-workingness. The tallships are in town next Tuesday and Wednesday, so we'll get to see those. I'm going on a field trip with a bunch of 7th graders this Thursday, to Saint John. Should be interesting. We're going to the museum, and swimming. I've taken my buzzing tv to get fixed, so it's super boring here right now, being all by myself. I did update the babe's page though, colours and everything, so go ahead and check it out (http://www.(myname)and(fiance'sname).com/(babe'sname)). I plan to go to PEI for the Canada Day concert (whee, the Hip), so I'm looking forward to that. Haven't got my ticket yet, but plenty of time. I don't know that they sell out for this kind of thing. I'm going to go to my parents' cottage and leave the babe with them for the night / weekend, which should be nice for all of us. It'll be my first overnighter away from him, which may be a bit strange, but I'm sure I'll manage. I know for a face he will; as long as somebody feeds and loves him, and he gets to see his dad and I eventually, he's a happy camper. It'll be nice too to like, just sleep and not worry about getting up. Last peaceful night's sleep without discomfort or worry / reality of waking up early with the wee lad? Sometime around my 6th month of pregnancy, I'd say. I know it's probably been longer for those of you with more or older kids, but it's a long time. As I sort of mentioned, I'll be unemployed in a week, so if anyone has any photography or other arty jobs, or tutoring, or whatever else I may be capable of, that they need done over the summer, I'm your man.

I heard thunder rumbling a while ago, and it just started raining. That's my cue for bed I think.

I'd say this is long enough to count for at least a couple of posts, yes?

it's not you, it's me.

I just have so very little that I feel is worth sharing going on right now.

There are 3 weeks left of supply work available to me. This will leave me with a total of, let's say...200 hours worked, at best. Not enough for EI, which leaves me for a couple of months with zero income. Should be interesting. I'm getting a decent amount of work, 2-3 days per week, which would be plenty under normal circumstances, and worst case, if I'm still supplying come fall, will give me enough for EI next summer. Great plans, I'm so proud. Not that we're planning any more babies, for real, any time soon, but everything is on hold until I get a real job. Can't have or plan for more babies, can't upgrade the car, can't move closer to the city, or anywhere really, for that matter. I am planning for sure to redo my French proficiency, but I'm really nervous that I'll do it and my level won't improve, and then that'll be a door that's closed to me for sure, instead of like now, where I can tell myself that well, I'll just get my proficiency up, then I can get a job teaching core or immersion. We shall see, I'll keep you posted.

Wedding stuff is going swimmingly, the dress is in but I have yet to book a fitting appointment. The invitations are in, and I'm just waiting on a few addresses to get those sent out. I even made up an insert with reception and hotel info on it. Pretty sharp, I am. We've booked the caterers, and are working on the tent.

Baby / toddler stuff...I suppose he's officially a toddler now since he, like, toddles. Walks all over the place, looking like he's been into the sauce. Also, speaking of sauce, the babe is a huge fan of ketchup. He'll eat a fry, or a piece of chicken, or whatever, but mainly he'll use it as a vessel to get the ketchup into his mouth. He eventually forgoes the food entirely and just scoops the sauce into his mouth. And hair. And everywhere else he can reach. Pictures to be posted soon on his site.

I planted a legitimate garden, with veggies and herbs. It's been raining for 3 straight days since it was planted, which is good for it, but boring for the rest of the living things. Also, the rain runs off the roof and makes a bit of a trench right in the middle of it, which is unfortunate, but what can you do? Eavestroughing to come later this summer. I also planted a hydrangea bush near the front door, which isn't actually on the front of the house, but it's the main door, so I call it the front. It will have blue flowers, and be lovely. Maybe it'll bloom for the wedding! Another couple of small planters that weren't really planters, that we found in the shed during the cleaning it out, disassembling it, moving it, and reassembling it adventure, now have begonias and impatients in them. One planter is a really old pot with a handle, and another is a white enamel basin. I need to punch some holes in the bottom of the basin one, since it's doing a fantastic job of its original duty, which is holding water. Good for lots of things, not so much for flowers.

That's about it, I have to go get clean and stuff, put together a compost bin, and maybe brave the rain to punch holes. Probably not in that order.

seriously

there are some things that need discussing.

Firstly, and most obviously, the fact that Chris got voted off American Idol. I know I'm not the first, or the most outraged, to comment on this, but come on, America! Here's how voting works. You pick the person who's the best singer / entertainer, and you vote for them. You don't say, hmm, maybe I'll vote for someone else, because for sure Chris will win, because chances are, if you're thinking that, so are other people. Jerks. Anyway, I'm not too worried about him, he's a hottie and he'll get signed and probably make decent music instead of the horrible, forced Idol songs. I think maybe one of the reasons I liked him so much is that he reminded the fiancé and I of our dear friend Mitch. We called him Big Mitch, before we could be bothered to remember his name. Also, because the last post I made about tv, I got a bunch of flack from the aforementioned ML, I feel the need to say that I do, in fact, have hobbies other than tv watching. I draw, I paint, I garden, sort of. I'm doing a mural on my sweet boy's wall, all of which is drawn, and North America is painted. I go for walks, I garden, badly, I play with my sweet boy, I occasionally go on dates with the fiancé. I do press alt+130 every time to make that accent, because I'm an English teacher, and I like things to look the way they're supposed to look.

Speaking of teaching, I have gone back to work. I'm in at basically one school, but they call me 2-3 days a week, which is fine. I've done a day at a couple of other schools, and there's only a month of school left anyway. This summer is going to be interesting. I told the fiancé I'd go live with my parents for the summer, but it really doesn't cost that much extra for us to live at the house, the mortgage payment won't go down, and I don't think the groceries really go up that much with an extra person. Not double, anyway. Plus I'd be pretty lonely I think. I've gotten pretty attached to him. We've been together over 6 years now, and have lived together for 5. I realised that when I was filling out the census form. We lucked out (ha) and got the extended, 60 question version. Sweet. Luckily, I didn't have to answer the majority of the questions for the baby. I did have to look on the 'help' sheet though, to see what to put for what language he most often speaks at home. Gibberish not being an option, you see.

What else. We're at the in-law's house for the weekend, headed into the raging metropolis of Moncton for a night out tomorrow. Dinner and a movie type thing. Not sure what movie we're going to, I was very hopeful that The Breakup had come out, but not yet. I do enjoy Vince Vaughan. I still go to the Wedding Crashers memorable quotes page every now and then, for a laugh.

I think we've just about got all the wedding stuff sorted, I'm just waiting on the go-ahead on the caterers, and that'll be a big part settled. We're still working on a tent, and I have to get to Hali sometime for a dress fitting, but before that, I want to get some proper undergarments, since I really don't have any suitable wedding, strapless, underthings. I'm sure they're expensive, but whatever. Hopefully I'm only going to do this once.

I suppose it's time

to update.

I've gone back to work, somewhat. I'm on the supply list for this district now, and have gone around to some schools so pimp myself a bit. It's really frustrating, because I do my whole shpeel, Hi, I'm S, I'm not a new teacher but I am new to the district, blah blah blah, experience at all levels, able to teach French, blah blah blah. They don't care. I got a half day booked at one school for last week, and ended up getting another day there after having successfully completed the half day test. I also was invited to do 2 1-hour drama / theatre sessions for elementary classes, for free, which I hesitated on for the free part (since I'll have to pay for the babe to be taken care of regardless of my not getting paid) and for the fact that all my drama experience is at the high school level. But then, despite the principal's assurances that my declining this offer would not affect my future supplying chances, I decided it would be best to accept and hopefully get supply days on the same days at that same school. Turns out the sessions are for kindergarten to grade 2, so I'll be pretty limited as to what I can do, but should be able to have some fun.

I had my first extended time away from the babe, which was 8 hours, which was plenty. I wasn't really thinking about it, but I got a little sad as I was leaving. It seems silly, but imagine you've spent every day of over a year with someone who you love more than you'd ever conceive possible to love someone, never away for more than a few hours to catch a movie or some dinner, and then you have to spend the whole day without so much as a glimpse. It's strange. I made it fine, although I did call at lunch to see how everybody was making out. The babe seems to get along with everybody, he gives lots of hugs and kisses to the other babies, which is pretty funny. He actually bit one of the babies, I guess because she was crying and wouldn't stop, and the kisses weren't working. Everyone came out ok, but the little girl did have a perfect set of teeth marks on her cheek. Poor thing.

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous, we went to the park on Saturday with a friend of mine and a friend of the babe's, and the 2 boys seemed to have a good time. They both had colds, which is pretty gross, and I now understand why small children regularly have snotty noses. They're like magical little booger factories. And they mostly hate having their noses cleaned. So sometimes, it's just easier on everyone to leave it for a bit. They really don't seem to care, even though it's disgusting. Then, every half hour or so, you just can't stand it anymore, and you tackle the little beasts. That's your lesson in baby nose hygiene.

Plans for the week are to bring a bunch of garbage to the dump, pick up some shingles for the shed, which now resides in the driveway rather than on the top of a hill that made it basically inaccessible, and maybe going to the baby movie tomorrow if I don't get called to work. Good times. I keep saying I'm going to paint the mural in the babe's room, but now his playpen is at his sitter's house, so it's really going to be tricky for me to do, since he has to nap in his room, and it's hard to paint with a baby running around trying to eat paints and throw himself down the stairs.

baby product recalls

I was fairly alarmed to read this. There are lots of products on there, notably (because we have them) the Little Tikes Flashlights, some of which are painted with lead paint. LEAD PAINT. WTF, folks? Lead has been a known no-no, especially for the little guys, for a long time now. More alarmingly were the Reebok bracelets, again made of LEAD, free gift with purchase of kids' shoes. Tragically, this was discovered when a child died as a result of this completely unbelievable oversight. There were a lot of lead-related jewellery recalls from dollar stores, so I'd recommend not buying your little ones cheap shiny things. Spring for the moderately more expensive but still cheap nickel ones. Please. I hadn't even thought to check product recalls for a while, I stumbled across the site completely by accident when looking for something unrelated. Good thing I did, because lead paint is bad news, and the babe (like all babes) loves to chew everything he owns.

That's all for now!

halifax, and a snowstorm

wtf? It's like, snowing snowing here. My sister tells me it's hailing in Fredericton, also nice. We just this past weekend got the studded snow tires off the car, and put the all seasons back on. Of course. Easter found us, and left a foolish amount of candy. Even the babe got a chocolate bunny, but I can't see that he'll get to eat much of it. We got I think one of every type of Easter candy available at a typical store, each. So, 2 of every type. So, if you're in the neighbourhood, come on over for some chocolately goodness.

Sidebar from Canada AM: eat more dark, leafy greens, cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, turnip), "heat processed tomato products" (sauce, juice, etc). Eat less red meat (less than 3oz per serving, yipes), eat no processed meats if possible, and drink less alcohol (no more than 7 drinks per week for ladies, 9 for the menfolk). Man, sounds like fun. This is to reduce your chance of cancer. I'll have to work on the veggies part, but I don't drink much or eat a lot of red meat, so I've got that covered.

Tried to do some yard work this week, but very quickly got overwhelmed by the size of the yard and the remarkably slow progress I was making. We really, really should have mowed last fall, but didn't, so now we have like, hay length grass all matted down over the yard. We've got a weed whacker now though, so will take that to the long stuff, and then raking won't be quite so impossible. Theoretically. We're going to get a lawnmower too, but it'll be a while before the lawn is fit, or dry enough, to mow.

My mom and the babe and I are going to have lunch with my aunt today, should be nice. I'm not sure where we're going though. I might also check for the new Train cd at Costco if we head that way. I do enjoy Train's music. It's reliably good.

Other random notes, I think we'll get the wedding invites started, I'm receiving conflicting advice on how far in advance they should be sent out, everything from righ tnow to 6 weeks ahead, so we're going to go somewhere in the middle I guess. Went to the craft store to see if we could get some beads and wire and stuff to make a headband to wear for the wedding.

You probably heard about this. Pretty crazy. Apparently people were in pretty good humour though, which is nice to hear. On Regis and Kelly, Kelly just keeps talking about how it must have been bad because lots of people don't pee at work, assuming they'll be able to pee at home in 5 minutes. This show is terrible. Regis doesn't know who anybody is, and Kelly is just foolish most of the time.

I'm going to go shower I think.

more gardeny goodness

seriously, I'm a stellar gardener. I want to put in a real garden, but I have to wait for more warm weather and the ground to be less muck and more dirt. And for my mom to come help me, cause I don't know how to make a garden, really.

That said..




nice eh?

The babe had his 1st birthday on Sunday, and it was a pretty good time. He had a nap in the middle of it. He had no interest in opening gifts, but got along pretty well with everybody there, which is nice. He didn't (yet) go through that phase where he doesn't like anybody but us. Yesterday the fiancé and I went to meet the pastor who's marrying us (civil ceremony, yes, a pastor, I don't know how it works, but it's going to work, so whatever!), and dropped the babe off in a hurry at my sister's house, snuck out before he could notice we were leaving, and I don't honestly think he even really cared we were gone. He ate cheerios and threw food on the floor, so everyone had a good time. ha.

Some birthday shots:






More, and the rest of his first year pictures are at http://www.(myname)and(thefiance's name.com(the babe's name).

Not much else happening, I'm trying to do a mural with a map of the world on his wall. I've got the map drawn, but it's mighty hard to paint with the baby running around, and doing on nap time doesn't work either, since it's in his room. He's perfectly content to hang out in bed for a bit before or after sleeping, but if he wakes up and I'm in there, he'll want to come out for sure. We're heading to the fiancé's parents' house for Easter weekend, and then to Hali for work (and a visit) for next week. Both places have highspeed, you lucky ducks, so I'll be able to keep in touch.

garden!

maybe that's a bit of a strong word for the few things I have growing in the bank of rocks and a little bit of dirt behind my house. However, things *are* growing, as the following pictures will illustrate.

I call them "despite my complete lack of skill, holy shit, things are growing!"



There you go. I don't know what they are. In the fall, I planted a bunch of bulbs. By 'planted' I mean threw a bunch of them in the rocky dirt and hoped for the best. There are tulips, crocuses, and maybe something else. We'll see I guess!

I also went out with the babe yesterday and did a little shopping. I found these beauties, which may well serve as my wedding shoes. I'll keep looking, but I'm pretty sure they'll do nicely. Especially considering nobody is going to be looking at my feet.



Planning continues, I'm waiting to hear from Superstore as to whether hydrangeas are available in August, and we'll go from there. We have to book a tent and some kind of catering action. Then the fiancé has to find something to wear. I think that's all the big stuff. Oh, cake. Then we're done. The rest is favours and stuff which we've decided on but haven't ordered yet, because it doesn't need to be ordered yet. Invitations are planned and will be ordered this week or next, and ideally mailed soon after that.

Babe is sleeping, time for pilates and a shower. Whee!

something for the little ones

I know, I thought it was ridiculous too, a website designed for the under-4 crowd. But then I thought, hmm, the babe *does* love to pound the keyboard, maybe it'd be fun if he could be doing that and not wrecking stuff...so I went to this site, Kneebouncers.com, and he frigging loves it. It's really cute, they can just punch whatever keys and it makes music, or bubbles, or plays peek-a-boo, there are 6 or 7 different games. We just played for about half an hour, and he wore himself right out and is napping now. Interactive, colourful, musical, gotta love it. Give it a try. Tell your friends.

fishy

I was just catching up on one of my daily reads, and was made to think about my fish tank. I've had it for about just over 6 years now, and although none of the original fish remain, I do have my algae eater, who's been around for 4.5 of those 6. I've posted about him before, and not much has changed. He, thankfully, hasn't grown any more, but I had no idea he was going to get that big in the first place. Friggin Pets Unlimited. Don't buy animals from them unless you already know what they're going to do. And don't buy furry pets other than like, hampsters. No dogs and stuff. Go to a breeder or the SPCA, please. Anyway, I was just thinking about Cleatus, and how gross he is, remembering how he escaped from the tank a few times. He's not slimy at all like he should be, he's really hard and rough like a big disgusting lizard. I freaked out each time he jumped out and yelled at him to stop moving so I could pick him up. He did, he's a good listener apparently, and I put him back in the tank. Gross. I don't want him to die, but I'm a little worried I'll be like 90, with this stupid tank and giant senior citizen algae eater. I'll have to grind up his algae wafers or something. Poor guy. I might get him another algae eater who eats the brown junk to keep him company, but they're only small, so I'm not sure they'd get along. They should...despite his size, Cleatus seems to be a gentle soul; he's never attacked or eaten any of my other, much smaller fish. He's already proven himself much more clever than my first algae eater. Her name was Gertrude. She attached herself to the heater, and could not be convinced to leave it to find food. I'm not sure if the poor thing cooked or starved, but either way, our time together was short. I had this idea that I would have 2 cats named Mortimer and Gertrude. I was in residence, so the cat thing wasn't going to work, so I got fish instead, and named one Gertrude. That didn't work out, clearly, so I waited until I got a cat, and named him Mortimer. That's working out pretty well, we've had him for just over 4 years now. We got him a friend about a year later, who was pre-named George. They both have thumbs, George has 2 extras per front paw, Mort has one.

That's my pets story. Random, I apologize.

mmm, hicky

Yeah. So, I woke up this morning with a hicky. Not from who you'd think though. From the wee lad. Nice. He was up for about 45 minutes last night around 4:30, and at one point thought my neck looked suspiciously like a boob, and decided to have a go at it. I didn't let him try for long, maybe 2 seconds, but damn, the little guy has some powerful suction. Apparently. Anyway, so yes, as I'm getting in the shower this morning, I see a lovely love bite on my neck. I told my parents it was from the babe, but I'm fairly sure they don't believe me. If I had gotten a hicky from the fiance, I sure as heck wouldn't be showing it off. I did a fairly respectable job of covering it with yellow concealer meant for circles under the eyes, so I guess it's safe to go out in public. We were thinking of stopping by the wedding dress place today, so I can't be looking all whorey.

Halifax bound

or, actually, already in Halifax. Whatever. Down for a few days with the babe and the fiance for the latter's job. Might swing by Winchester's tomorrow and see about my dress, schedule a fitting, and see if they'll let me take a picture of it now so I can try to find shoes and stuff that match. Also should probaly schedule a fitting and stuff, just in case. I'll not eat for a while if I have to though. Hopefully it won't come to that. I just have to not gain weight, which should be manageable, right?

No big plans for the week, just hanging out with my parents. Might go to a movie tomorrow, but there's actually not anything playing that I absolutely need to see. I saw Eight Below as a baby movie, and it was good, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it to small children or people who have a problem with not-so-good things happening to good animals. My sister and some of her friends from work and I went to see Failure to Launch, and it was really good. Quite funny, and you get to see Matthew McWhatsisname lots, along with Bradley Cooper and another guy...Justin Bartha, who although they keep talking about what a dork he is, he's actually really cute.

I began the mural on the babe's wall. I figure since I convinced the fiance to let us make the wall drywall instead of pine like the rest of the room, I should probably do something with it. We decided on a map of the world, relatively simple, with animals painted on in the areas where they live. Should be fun. Anyway, I painted the wall a pale blue, for the ocean. It's called 'white denim', which sounds horrible, but it's a really nice colour. I also bought paints that I'll have to return. They're paints that you make your whatever, animal in my case, and then can stick it on the wall, or on a window, or whatever. I thought that would be fun for the baby, but then I thought ... he'll more likely eat them than put them on the map. So I check to make sure they're non toxic, and find no evidence of that, along with a picture of a baby face frowning, and a 0-3 with a NO symbol through it. Nice idea, maybe in the next house when he's less apt to eating everything. Anway, we're going to borrow the lcd projector from the fiance's work so that I don't have to draw the map, because that would be hard, and likely nowhere near scale. This way I can spend more time painting the world and the animals.

Donald Trump named his new baby Barron. That's just mean. It'll be a fine name when he's an adult, but come on! Things you have to keep in mind when naming your baby.

Alright. I'm going to have some lunch I think, while the wee lad continues to nap. He's making up for the fact that he was up 3 times last night. He's teething, molars, and may well be going through a growth spurt, since that's supposed to happen around now.

One last tidbit, apparently they're making Rocky: The Musical. Fer real, yo. Let's put that on the 'must see' list right along with Lord of the Rings: Onstage.

sigh.

mmm, springy

It was like, plus 10 or something foolish here yesterday. Windy, because it's always windy, but nice. The babe and I went for a walk, he fell asleep. I thought he fell asleep, but as he was reclining with his eyes closed, I hear a "pppppppppppppbt" coming from the stroller. His eyes are maybe half open, and he's pursing his little lips, making his favourite sound on earth. Pretty funny. He did fall asleep for real just before we got home. To compensate for yesterday's niceness, today it is rather cold and quite rainy. Not good for walking. I may invest in a new raincoat this year; mine is from 1993. It still fits, but it's from Northern Reflections and has paint on it. In other jacket news, I have a lovely leather jacket that grew over the past year, and now doesn't fit even a little bit. It's really nice, and hardly worn (I had this thing about it being a really nice jacket, and not wanting to ruin it, so I rarely wore it), and now useless to me. I'm going to see about getting it tailored, but I have a feeling that it'll cost as much to fix this one as to get a new one. We'll see.

We went bowling (was supposed to be curling, but the team got bumped for the 2nd time) on Friday, and I rocked, as usual. My high score was 64. Aw yeah. It was pretty fun though, and my sister and her man came over to watch the wee lad, who behaved wonderfully. Good to know. The fiancé and I might need to have an actual date night sometime.

I have a cold, and all our medication is night-time formula, so I can't take anything, lest I fall asleep and the babe is left to fend for himself. He'll be a year on the 9th, I can't believe it. He can almost walk, and does all kinds of other neat tricks. hah. This is a random post, no? What else. We've changed everything we could about the wedding, and are now pretty happy with what we're doing. There's just one hitch left, and that is that because we're now having family at the wedding, we don't want to (nor is there any need to) have a reception in the fiancé's hometown at all, let alone the following day. We (yes, really we, not me) would much rather relax, sleep in, enjoy our day as newlyweds, eat leftover cake, that kind of thing, than get up, pack up, and drive 2 hours to a party with a bunch of his parents friends. The fiancé mentioned this, and it didn't really go over that well, so we'll have to leave it for now and tackle it again later. The only reason there was going to be a reception there was because no extended family members were going to be at the wedding. Since they now are, it is, thankfully, unnecessary. Let's keep this simple, shall we? Eyes on the prize, or at least the main event, which is the wedding, which is here. Lovely. We have someone to perform the ceremony, and a place to have it, so now can start to deal with things like final guest list, food, flowers, and stuff.

The babe awakes. Early, no good.

I know my cats read this...

Guidelines for Cats.

I always wondered how they just know what to do...

via Kim

warning: post about feminine hygiene product ad

Ok, I have to say something.

You know that ad that is like, "BrandPower, helping you buy better", market research in the feminine hygiene aisle? And the girl says, 'does your ultrathin ever get wet and sticky?' and cut to other women saying, 'yeah, I hate that!' or something equally incriminating. First, I have a hard time believing that any woman in her right mind would admit to that on TV, even if she was being paid. I say that because it doesn't feel like an ad where these are actresses talking about herpes medication or something, where you assume they don't actually have anything wrong with them. These are real people, who have wet, sticky, pantyliners. That's fucking gross. Pardon my french. So, either these people are super hard up for money, super stupid and didn't notice the camera, or were somehow tricked into giving an incriminating answer to an innocent question like, 'do you ever get cut off in traffic?' or 'do you ever go to use a coupon, and it's expired?', and then through the magic of editing, came up with this monstrosity of an advertising scheme. Whatever happened, the ad is super vulgar, and I hate it, and I want them to stop talking about wet sticky things on tv. Unless they're talking about like, caramel sauce, which is ok.

looking for new reads

anybody have any daily reads I can add to yonder sidebar? I've lost a couple, one due to her loss of interest in posting (happens to the best of us), and one due to my lack of keeping up with things and people who are moving to new places / servers! (Nat, Trinity, that'd be you). I also have one who I'm anxious to put back up (GG, hello!) but she's toying with us as to whether her return to Blogdom is permanent or not. Anyway, so if you have any marginally entertaining sites to pass along, please do!

sidebar: after me saying my fiance never comes here, he was here last night trying to find a picture of my dress. What a jerk, eh? Anyway, he didn't read anything, just checked to see if I had posted a picture, but that's pretty funny.

alright, alright

I'm going to post the link, because I don't think the fiance ever goes here. If he does (if you do, don't click it, jerky), I trust that he won't look, because then I'd have to kill him. And then I wouldn't get to wear my dress, which would be a waste, really. I don't make up these rules and traditions, they just *are*. Deal with it. The rest of you, go ahead and click for the front, and again for the back. Mine is ivory, not white, with some pink in the beading. SO PRETTY! I'm excited.

so, apparently the Regis people don't agree

that mine is the most beautiful baby in North America. He didn't even make the top 10! They had something like 150 000 entries, that's pretty crazy. We'll try again next year. What do they know?

In other news, I had a minor heart attack yesterday when I found out my mat leave is up in 3 weeks. Yipes! But then I realised that I still have 21 workdays of pay to come from the NBTA (they don't top you up, but they give you 30 paid days, not too shabby), which will take me to April 10th, which is what I was planning on in the first place. So, good. I'm a little apprehensive about going back to work, it's going to be really strange working as a supply teacher when I'm used to having my own class and rules and stuff, but I'll make do. I had always thought that supply teaching wouldn't be nearly so bad if I hadn't been doing it specifically to try to get a 'real' job. Like, if you were retired, or only wanted to work part-time, and could accept that you're not likely going to have a meaningful impact on most of the kids, and that if you make it through the day without more than a couple of kids ending up at the principal's office it's a good day, then it's not so bad. So I'm going to try that for a while, see if it's enough to pay the bills, and if it is, I'll do it for a year until the wee lad is 2, then hopefully I'll get a real job and he can go to daycare to learn a bunch of vital social interaction skills and whatnot. Or, I'll make some money, bank up some hours, have another baby, and hopefully the rumours about a 2 year maternity leave being on the horizon are true. See, I don't feel bad for employers having to deal with a 2 year leave, because especially in my case, it's a good thing to have teachers on leave. It gives new teachers a way to get started. I imagine in some cases it's difficult, but whatever. People need to reproduce, and it's so much better for people to have the opportunity to raise their own kids for a while rather than having to put them into a daycare system when they're not even walking or talking.

I'll get off the soapbox, for now.

Ah, also, we're moving the wedding to the August long weekend. There's been some...input...from some people, and we've decided to increase the size of the wedding. Based on that, and because we didn't really pick the date in the first place, we moved it to August, since lots of people travel in the summer anyway, and moved it to Saturday from Friday, again, easier for travel and for getting everything ready, and moved it to Fredericton, since having it in a home base makes just about everything easier. So. I might send out 'save the date' things, since lots of people will have to travel to get to us, but real invites won't be going out until probably June / July. We (I, really, I can't see the fiance being too excited about picking out invites) have to pick some out and get them printed up. Whee!

That's about it. I'm on my own (with the bebe, of course) this weekend, so if anyone wants to come over for like, ladies' night in, I'm up for that.

whee, wedding dress shopping!

A few things to keep in mind. Really, don't bring all your best friends. Bring your mom, or someone whose opinion you can trust, and who will be honest with you. Wedding dresses run small ("quite small", according to the lady who was helping me), so, depressingly enough, you'll be at least a size bigger, and likely 2 sizes bigger than your normal clothing size. Who thought that was a good idea?? They run up to size 30, but come on. That's just mean. Try everything on, to a point. If you're iffy, try, but if it's truly awful, leave it on the rack. Go with your gut. If you love a dress, hang on to it. If you try it on, and it's nice, and pretty, but it doesn't make you go wheeeeeeee!, then it's not the one for you. Hesitation is a sign that there's a better one out there for you. The one floor of the one store I was in had 400 dresses. Four Hundred. They have 3 floors.
I learned also that apparently I have a great body for trying on wedding dresses. They all fit perfectly; it was really weird. Nice, but weird. Also made it trickier to easily eliminate some of them. I felt bad no-ing some, because they laced up the back and took significant time to get on. Silly, but whatever. Anyway, I bought a dress. Well, my parents bought a dress, and it's beautiful, and very me. I'm not posting a picture, because the fiance isn't allowed to see it, and I don't trust him not to stumble across it. I won't have the actual dress for several months (probably 5) and don't have a picture of me in it, but can share the link with anyone who just can't bear to wait that long. It's on the Romantic Bridals website, if you'd like to go try to guess. They don't have a picture of the colour of mine though, mine is ivory with some pink in the beading. ooooh, pink! How apropos.

That is all.

Valentine's funny

(from my Lost-addicted sister)


Apparently, these four Valentines were discovered washed up on the Philippine coast last week. After extensive forensic analysis (a big shout-out to the team over at Criminal Minds), the ink has been restored and we can now tell you what they say:


The First Valentine
Dear Libby,
Roses Are Red
Violets Are Blue
Even though you denied it when I asked, I'm still pretty sure
That I know you.
Be Mine,
Hurley



The Second Valentine
J,
Y'know how the Fugitive--from the TV show, I mean--was a doctor? Well, you're a doctor. And I'm a fugitive. How about that?! So...even though I kissed you and ran away because I saw an imaginary horse, I hope you forgive me.
I miss you,
K



The Third Valentine
Dearest Husband Jin,
If you understood English, you would know that I am writing you this Valentine to tell you that even though you frustrate the hell out of me sometimes, you are so effing hot when you take your shirt off.
All My Love,
Sun



And Finally...the Fourth Valentine
Freckles,
There ain't no damn roses anywhere, so...
Wanna screw?
The One with the Guns

baby beauty contests, wooh!

haha. Yes, I did it. Regis and Kelly are having a Beautiful Baby contest, so I entered my dear boy. I sent in this picture



Apologies to the grandparents who got cut out, but the picture had to be less than 100k, and I didn't want to take up any unnecessary space with photo extras. hehe.
Anwyay, so watch the show on the 20th (Next Monday) and then vote for him if he makes the top 5. Thanks! Tell your friends to, too.

so, it's official

A couple of things, actually.

Thing one, arguably the more important, we have a new prime minister. I'm not really excited about this, because he's a scary mo' fo'. I am, however, hopeful that due to the significantly minority-ness of the minority Conservative government, he won't be able to pass all his crazy ammendments. As Rick Mercer said, if you want to drop your kids off at a publicly funded daycare on your way to a gay wedding, do it now.

Thing two, I'm getting married. We're going to have a very small ceremony on September 1st, and then a great big party on September 2nd in the fiancé's hometown. Although certain significant members of his family are having a difficult time coming to grips with there not being a huge ceremony with all 100 close family members being invited, there are several problems with that. I'm going to go over them here, for your benefit, and to reinforce to myself that we're doing the right thing. Thing one, and I'd say definitely the most important, is that I am reading, seeing, and being told over and over again by those who have been there, to do what we want to do. To consider others' feelings, input, and guilt trips, but when it comes down to it, just to do what makes us happy, not what makes everybody else happy. I think the giant party reception in his hometown is a nice compromise, considering it will be 95% his family & friends and maybe 5% mine. There will be people there I have never met, or have even heard mentioned more than once. But it's going to be a good time. Another thing, is that due to the large-ness and closeness of this family and town as a whole, it is really difficult to draw the line as far as who gets invited and who doesn't. We'd end up with a tonne of people, and thus either spending a bajillion dollars to entertain a bunch of people we're not really that close to, or having cheese and cocktail weiners. And somebody is always going to be left out. So this way, it's easily drawn, immediate family only, and a few close friends. I think we have 25 people all told, including the 2 of us. The big reception will be loads of people, and if we're friends, you're invited. If you're not in town but can be for Sept 2nd, let me know. If you want to come, send me your address (real, not e), and we'll send you an invite. Once we pick them out and stuff.

Anyway, we went to the place we're having the wedding and small reception, and it's really nice, and it's going to be great. It's an inn, so we can all stay right there, and we've got the honeymoon suite booked already. It has a jacuzzi in the room. Not in the bathroom, in the room. Nice.

Also, in preparation for the impending day and the dress shopping that will go along with it, I've decided to try to firm up a bit. I have videos for Winsor Pilates, Yoga, and stability ball. I'm trying the Pilates, but it's not going to be fun. 20 minutes this morning may cripple me for a few days. I guess that's a good sign though, long term. My sister and I and a couple of her friends went to a bridal show yesterday. It was sort of fun, free cake samples and stuff, but not very useful since I'm not getting married here, and it was all local merchants. There's a show in Moncton on the 20th that I'm going to go to, if anyone wants to take the day off and come with me and the wee lad. Should be more helpful, since we're getting married around there. The show was a bit of an ordeal though, we thought we needed tickets, and my sister's friend had 2 extra, so no problem, but then she only had one extra, so we were like, damn, but then when we got there you didn't even need tickets, nor was there even anywhere you could have handed them in. I registered for some free stuff, not the least of which is a rehearsal dinner at El Burrito Loco. That would be sweet. All the tables were like, wedding photographers / videographers, favours, invitations, and oh, yes, Fantasia. Big ol' vibrators and dildos, right out on display. They were not giving away samples, nor could I sign up to win anything. Unfortunate. Ha.

Alright, I'm excercised and clean, and the boy sleeps still, so I'm going to do nothing while the doing is good.