I think the kids had a fabulous time... I know I did, as I always do.

It's funny, each Halloween as a parent brings to mind what my parents used to do... like Dad's insane rule about the caramels (they're not safe, dear, here let Daddy take care of those for you) and how Mom would munch on treats while sifting through them, as if we couldn't tell haha.

I remember pillow cases full of the stuff and laughter and cold air and candy, candy, candy.

I remember once being really, really sick and I could not go out. So my brother had to split his loot with me. Boy howdy was he mad.

K and C looked terrific in their costumes, and our pumpkins were extra skeerie with their mean faces. The only real dampers on the evening's festivities were:

1. SO had to work tonight
2. I still have a hell of a cold.

I don't know if I'll be making it to tomorrow's school council meeting... so I may have to toss together a sheet and ask the school secretary if she would please print it off for the meeting. It's pretty self-explanatory and if they have questions they can of course contact me.

Ugh and double-ugh. Time for rest.

Today today today today! It's today! I love Halloween!

K is very excited to FINALLY be wearing his Spider-man costume. He's almost giddy about it.

Scarf status: one more stripe and I'm finished. It can wrap around her neck and be tucked under the cape, I'm happy. My finger is too hurty to do any more. C understands and is thrilled to pieces with the results anyhow.

We used my spiral curler on her yesterday to see how it would look. Initially C said it looked too much like Goldilocks and she refused to have her hair that way. I pinned it up here and there and she loved it, but said "not for Hermione, mum. Can we have it like this for my First Community?"

Oh my word how I giggled at that. "Communion, love."

"Yeah, that. What's that about again?"

So we got into a small theology discussion and then went to my mom's house for a visit. The kids stayed for lunch and SO and I went out with JG to Features for a breakfast/lunch type thing. Then we went to my SO's achilles heel, EB Games. SO managed to convince JG (without much arm-twisting, as JG has no will power to speak of, which makes shopping with him a great deal of fun) to buy a new keyboard. SO had picked up the same keyboard when we went to get a gift cert for his father's birthday the other day.

I mean it's nice and all, I just appreciate the irony in his purchasing a keyboard worth more than I want to even mention, when he has always been mister thrifty, and especially hates spending more than 15 bucks EVER on a keyboard. Men and their love of buttons, I swear.

I have a nasty cold which should make trick-or-treating especially hellish today. I hope the rain at least lets up some. Maybe I can convince my dad to take them out, since SO is on afternoon shift this week. Hmm.

Nap time, methinks.

So um. I almost cut off the tip of my middle finger yesterday using the mandolin slicer to make scalloped potatoes. As luck would have it my pain sensors stopped me about halfway through. I quickly went to the bathroom and started rinsing, and the blood just kept pouring out so I used one hand to get out the first aid kit and toss some gauze around it and then called my father-in-law to drive me to the hospital to get it looked at. I brought the cutter with me so that they knew what I was talking about when I told them what happened.

The doctor wouldn't stitch me up though because it would mean peeling my nail back to do it and then there would be scarring on my nail bed and a big bloody mess so he just used a butterfly encloser thingiedoo and bandaged me up. It hurts like hell and is really putting a damper on my knitting efforts.

Dinner with the parents went very well last night in spite of injuries and a good time was had by all. My parents were impressed with the food which I don't know if I should take as a compliment or insult. (Compliment: I'm a good cook. Insult: Didn't they know that already? Why are they surprised?)

Tonight is the Halloween dance in Tavistock, friends and I are going as the spice girls, and SO has decided at the last minute that he no longer feels like going. BOO to him. I'm a bit snarly about that but meh, what can you do. No point in forcing the issue as he can be a real killjoy when the mood suits him, and I'm perfectly fine going out on my own.

It took all I had to drag him out of the house this morning to come with me and the kids to their skating class. K only lasted a 1/2 hr on the ice before begging off, but C stayed the whole time; she is really enjoying it.

Ok time to go get last minute things for tonight and possibly finish off the scarf (almost there, whee!)

I have had that Nick Drake song stuck in my head all morning, probably because of watching the Royal Tennenbaums last night. I love that movie like nobody's business.

Went in to K's class today to help out with the Halloween (read: Orange and Black Day) festivities. They had games and all kinds of treats and things. Fun was had by all the little ones, though I don't know how his teacher is going to live through the afternoon with a bunch of excited, sugared-up 4 and 5 year olds. Bless her. I brought her in a hot raspberry smoothie, to give her a boost. Those things are so, so good.

Tonight the parents come over, per my SO's invitation. I have a lot to do, may as well roll up my sleeves and do it.

Last night the SO asked me something interesting. He asked me, if we hadn't had kids, would I still have married him? Would I marry him still? And my answer was yes I said yes I will yes.

And the fact that he totally got it, that I was quoting Ulysses, even though he hates James Joyce and only knows that it's Ulysses because I've read parts to him, is part of what I love about him. Don't ask where that thought pattern came from, I think I'm having a mushy moment or something. (And no, I'm not implying that I've made a cuckhold of him, as Molly did to Leopold, I just like that line.)

Time for more Tennenbaums maybe, for background noise while I'm cleaning.

I've fallen so far
For the people you are
I just need your star for a day.

Had to take little K in to school to get the flu shot. He tried to be all brave about it but the minute the needle went in he cried and shouted "OW OW OW THAT HURTS" and flung himself forward out of the arms of the nurse so he had this needle dangling from his arm and he wouldn't let her touch him for anything so I had to hold him down so she could yank it out.

Kid has finesse for melodrama. He was perfectly fine afterward and even thanked them for it.

C came home with a bit of a fever, hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow but I'm not too surprised as she got the shot today too and some people react that way for a day or two.

Went to the in-laws' for supper tonight, tacos and cupcakes for my father-in-law's birthday (which is tomorrow) and my sister-in-law's male friend's birthday (which was today) and my father-in-law's mother's birthday (which was yesterday). It was ok but everything seemed rushed, you know?

Feeling sleepy but I MUST STAY AWAKE AND FINISH THE DAMN SCARF.

My SO invited my parents (yes, my parents) over for dinner tomorrow, so I won't have time to knit, as I will be rearranging the house and getting their supper together. It will be sweet and sour meatballs, scalloped potatoes (from scratch), brussels sprouts, green beans, and corn. Appetizers will probably be shrimp, and deviled eggs. Maybe some veggie chips.

.

.

.

Mind going fuzzy. Must rest.

Jeepers it's cold outside.

Remind me in July that I want these for my birthday. Damn, son.

That scarf isn't going to knit itself, so I guess I should get at it.

Procrastinated from scarf-making and treasurer stuff this morning and messed around with a blog layout for a friend. I also rearranged the room where the computers are to try and make it look less cluttered. Phew! I'm pooped after that!

Tonight C's Brownies unit is having an "Orange and Black" celebration. I understand their feeling the need to create a PC friendly version of Halloween, but come on now. What's wrong with costumes?

Last night I watched the Passion of the Christ with SO, which of course made the watching peppered with questions from his anti-religious ass. "What are they doing? Why are they doing that? Why didn't the guy just say screw you we're not killing him? I thought they nailed people through the wrists... oh. I see. What's with the weird baby? Holy crap that whipping scene was nasty. Did they really do that? So um, what happened after he died? Oh. I see." bla bla bla and so on and so forth.

Anyway. Time to go figure out lunch and pull something out for supper too I guess.

RIP Ms. Parks

My mission: To knit a Gryffindor scarf by Halloween.

Dun-dun-dun-dunnnn!

Yes. I am 1) stupid for waiting this long and 2) stupid because I knit really slowly.

BUT!

Insomnia won't let me down this time, I'm sure of it!

I got off my lazy buttocks and re-vamped the ol' blog. Huzzah! I think it looks pretty snazzy, no offense to the "Ms. Moto" template I was using before but it didn't really fit with the title.

What does really fit with the title is my current beverage. Mmm. It has been a very long time since I've had one.

SO & me and the kids had dinner together @ home last night, SO picked up some steaks and barbecued them up, we made some rice and veggies and we all got to drink from wine glasses just because it was a "special occasion". The kids were amazed that they were "invited to mom and dad's anniversary dinner!" but hell, we like their company and neither of us have been in the mood to get away or anything lately.

K woke up crying his head off at 4 am, complaints about a sore neck abound. We did the typical paranoid mother at 4 am testing of "move your head around please, let's take your temperature, hurrah you don't have menengitis, stop sleeping on 60 pillows already" and then of course he had to come in to bed with us to cuddle because he was hurty and grouchy and wanted cuddle time with mom. At 4 am who am I to argue, I just want some sleep.

So I ended up sleeping in and missing my final exam and that's ok because I talked it over with the prof and she's fine with it as long as I can make it up by either coming in during the week to take it or writing an extra research project. I am thinking the latter, but we'll see.

Bleh. So tired.

I picked up an interesting book from the library, "A Feast of Poisons" by C.L. Grace. It's pretty good actually, it takes place around the time of Henry the VI and Louis XI. There is murder and intrigue and gruesome stuff all over the place in this book, a very good read.

That being said, time to go read said book.

Can you recommend an author? Why are they your favourite?

Today marks 5 years with SO as husband and wife.

C became a brownie "officially" on Wednesday and she couldn't be more pleased with herself.

K and I went to Let Them Eat Cake yesterday and had a muffin each for breakfast. We then went to Breadworks because the smell was driving us crazy and we bought two loaves of sun-dried tomato bread. MMMMMMM.

We also went out to the library yesterday to get more books and we also borrowed Dinotopia. We watched all 4 hrs of it and then it was time to get C.

Last night we went to the in-law's to celebrate my brother-in-law's 25th. Dinner was sweet and sour meatballs and pineapple rice and of course chocolate cake & ice cream.

I have a Final exam tomorrow. Yow.

JG is gone. We helped him move out yesterday. I'm sorta happy, sorta sad.

Happy = hooray! I get to walk around in my underwear again!

Sad = now who's going to watch Spongebob with me when the kids are asleep and I'm waiting for SO to come home?

JG says fear not, we will see more of him as he has to eat eventually. :P

I didn't sleep a wink Friday on account of my having a test Saturday morning, so at 4 am I threw together a chili in the slow cooker for the boys for after the move. I also wrote down the recipe for JG so he can do it himself. The recipe is simple as all get out, and went thusly:



Hooray for Chili! A Recipe
(a.k.a. I have insomnia, let’s waste time before I have to go write a dumb test!)

You will need (food):
1-2 lbs. burger meat
3 small cans of beans and 2 small cans tomato paste
mushrooms, sliced (fresh or canned)
½ a small onion (diced)
water (2 tomato paste cans’ worth)
Cajun spice
Mexican chili powder
Paprika
Cayenne pepper
Ground peppercorn (what? No pepper mill? Fine. Be that way. Just use normal black pepper then! See if I care!)
Salt
Hot sauce

You will need (not-so-foodlike):
A frying pan
A slow-cooker
Various utensils (mostly spoons)
A can-opener
TIME.

Cooking instructions:

Ok. So. Fry up the burger meat in the pan. If you feel like it, fry the onion @ same time as burger. Or wait and put in pot. It’s really up to you. Now while the burger is frying (you can multi-task, can’t you?) open up the cans of beans and tomato paste, and empty them into the slow cooker. (Don’t forget to plug the damn thing in, and yes you know you probably will, so do it now. NOW.) Fill up two tomato paste tins’ worth of water. Add to the mix. Put in mushrooms (drain them first if canned pls) and diced onion. Get a big wooden spoon and try not to break it stirring all the stuff up. DON’T FORGET THE MEAT! YOU ALMOST BURNED IT YOU PUTZ. Ok, back to the slow-cooker. Here’s where it gets tricky because I’m not much of a measuring type. So here are some estimates. Toss in:

1-2 tsp ground peppercorn (or black pepper if you insist)
4 tbsp Mexican chili powder
2 tbsp cayenne
1 tbsp paprika
1-2 tbsp Cajun spice
a dash of salt
2-10 drops of hot sauce, use your discretion here.
If you can’t stand the heat, get rid of the spices that start with a C. Add and subtract spices as necessary.

Mix all that stuff in. The meat should be done by now. Toss that in too and stir it all up. Smells good, huh? What? No? DID YOU REMEMBER TO PLUG THE COOKER? DID YOU REMEMBER TO TURN IT ON? Jeez. I have to do everything myself, don’t I? Cook this concoction until it smells like you must eat it RIGHT NOW.

Cooking instructions (alternative method):

Buy all the ingredients. Call G. Beg her to cook it for you.



So yeah, JG's gone, and SO and I have to go to his cousin A's wedding today (yes, on a SUNDAY, no, I have no idea why).

C is loving Brownies and has already sold a case of cookies and is looking to sell more and I bet she will because she's quite the little salesperson.

She calls up my Dad and says "Vavu (portuguese word for grandpa) guess what! You won't believe it! I FINALLY got my Girl Guide cookies! So how many did you want? They are only FOUR dollars a box, so three boxes would be TWELVE dollars! Isn't that great?" and he totally went for it and bought them.

Then she calls up SO's Dad and says "Granpa! Guess what! My cookies finally came! I know you LOVE cookies! And Vavu already bought THREE boxes, so how many do you want?"

So yeah, he got three boxes as well.

JG bought three boxes, I told him he didn't have to and he said hells no it isn't to be all helpful, it's because he loves cookies and I bloody well know that. Bwaha.

I have no idea what to wear to A's wedding. Damn.

so um.

I went to the library today, to return three books. These three books? They were over 2 years overdue.


They only charged me $30.00. My conscience would not let me let it go at that, so I donated a nice sum of money to them in lieu of their accepting payment.

Then I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote my damn essay. Take that, essay! Now I have to type it but I have no motivation to do it from all the writing and writing and writing and writing.


I then borrowed fifty bajillion CDs as their policy is you can take as many as you can carry.

And put the CDs in a nice burlap bag they gave me as thanks for donating money to them.

So now I am listening to one of the CDs now. Can you guess what I got?

FYI at Tim Horton's the new apple toffee danishes + butter caramel hot smoothies = a winning combination

Also the treasury for the school council is really crazy, I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Also also I am doing my research project on managing stress in the workplace for my organizational behaviour course.

Also also also C's friend Z is coming home with us after school for a play date. C is tres excited about this but I have a feeling K's nose will be out of joint, so a rousing game of Uno may be the only hope to keep all parties happy. Should probably consider baking something too for their snack. Banana muffins, perhaps?

Also also also also it's Girl Guide cookie time! It's the minty kind! C already sold a case of 12 and she's only had them home for 36 hours. WE RULE

L: I sent you directions on how to post images in your lj.

Ok time for a shower.

ta.

Soooo tired.

School Council meeting was last night... as I have inherited the Treasurer position, my presence was mandatory, since the Board rep was coming in to tell us how to direct our money.

It was an ok meeting, but man! Some parents. So uptight!

Then I went out for chicken wings w/the boys. Tuesday nights my kids go to grandma's because she takes them to Thunderkids (some sort of evening program at her church) and then likes them to sleep over. I'm not complaining.

SO of course worked till 3 am so he wasn't there, but that doesn't bother me much as I get along with his friends just fine. JG was kind enough to buy my portion, even though I had my own damn money, because he said SO & I have done so much for him, and he needed to take every opportunity to do something nice for us when he could. Cindy (their regular server) was in fine spirits and sporting a penne necklace one of the cooks made her out of boredom. JE tried to steal it on more than one occasion which landed him in the doghouse with her, meaning no more beer for him! JG's cousin (the same one that is now living with his now ex wife, don't even go there) was out too but he hates beer so he kept drinking rye & coke, which was fine but upped the bill significantly.

Now it's time to brush my teeth etc. Mmmm. Cinnamon toothpaste!

What is your favorite kind of tooth paste?

I've had the worst bout of insomnia I've had in a long long time. I'm averaging about 15 hrs of sleep per week for the past two weeks. Yowch. Don't know why... I guess it's just that time of year.

I've purchased The Sims 2, which is more fun than it probably should be. I like designing homes... I am also a bit sadistic and enjoy finding new ways to kill them. In any case, the kids like the game too, C is pretty good at being caretaker to their whims...

We have been playing a lot of Uno lately too, I have a Dora the Explorer version and the cards are bigger and I laugh and laugh when K shouts "HAW HAW C I PUT DOWN THE SWIPER, YOU HAVE TO PICK UP A CARD" or C says "NANANANANANA I GOT THE WIIIIIIIIILD CARD SO NO PUTTING DOWN THE BLUE BOOTS CARD FOR YOU". I have to find a copy of Candyland at some point and Trouble because they love Trouble and we lost ours somewhere (no idea where, magic goblins maybe?).

I've enrolled the kids in a bi-weekly catechism class which is nothing more than making crafts but also sneaking kid versions of the scripture in. C really wanted to go and wherever she goeth, there be K. I have also been suckered in to volunteering my time for children's liturgy (fancy term for Sunday school) every Sunday I can go. I don't mind really since at least it gives them a chance for exposure in a friendly manner and also gives them something somewhat fun to do on the weekends. Sunday school ain't what it used to be... they do a ton more stuff than I ever did.

SO & I got to spend some actual time alone together yesterday as my mother-in-law invited the kids over for a sleepover, and JG is spending the weekend at his folks' house. So we went to London because we both really miss it. We both love that city and we are considering moving there when the kids are done high school. Which seems like a long time... but it really isn't. Time seems to be going in fast-forward in that respect. And sadly enough, housing and taxes are cheaper there. We passed by gorgeous homes that were HUGE and cost about as much as the one we now own... and they weren't semi-detached like ours either. Nice neighborhoods, too. Hmm.

We had dinner at East Side Mario's, which was a big deal to SO as he hadn't eaten there since the last time we did, which was sadly 2 years ago. Yes. I had the Hell's Kitchen Chicken... daaaaamn, son. So good. SO had the Chicken Parm and we talked and took our time eating and people-watched as it was Homecoming weekend there so there were people literally in every damn corner of the city.

Ok, breakfast time.