My dear friend "rose" gave me my birthday present a little late. First off, it was wrapped in some beautiful fabric that I can make something out of, tied with real ribbon that can also be used.

Inside there was:

Knitpick Wool of the Andes Yarn - 3 of the Sapphire Heather, 1 Black Cherry Heather, and 1 Amethyst Heather. Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.

There was also:

Sensual Knits by Yahaira Ferreira.

I have to tell you, this made my sucky day so much better, I can't even tell you. I have had so much crappy and when I get these little bolts of happy, I find myself fighting tears - grateful tears.

So now I am giddily considering the prospects of knitting a fab coat from my new book, and this gives me more incentive to go to the yarn fair in September (thanks for the tip, Karen @ Shall We Knit?).

I showed my sister in law the new book and stash (memo to self: take photos to update ravelry stash info) and now she wants to knit more than ever. Rose wants to coordinate some time with me her and my sis in law so we can both teach her how to knit. They both have more than that in common and I believe they'd get along famously, so I'm trying to figure something out that works for all of us (and then there's the equal challenge of finding a day where my health does not prevent me from enjoying my time with them).

Anyway, no need to get in that, I just wanted to crow about my treasures.

Have I ever mentioned my friend V?

Probably not. The reason being - I miss her so very much. There is a huge vacancy in my life that is left especially for her, and no matter what I do, nothing and nobody else can fill it. We were friends in college, and of all my "college friends" she is the only one that has stuck. What I mean is, I don't write about her much because there is so much to say. But I think of her all the time. She moved to England quite a few years ago. We get together maybe every 2 years if we are lucky. If she or I could afford it the visits would be much more frequent.

Today I got a package in the mail from her. She gave me "eat pray love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, and a CD of her making. It was so strange because I have seen this book on shelves in stores all over lately, and have felt drawn to it, but always held back from getting it. Now I know why. She wrote all over the inside cover of the book and I cried. And I read the tracks on her CD and I laughed and then I listened and then I cried.

All I really wanted to say here is, I miss her.

I thought it less like a lake and more like a moat.
the rhythm of my footsteps crossing flood lands to your door have been silenced forever more.
the distance is quite simply much too far for me to row
it seems farther than ever before
oh no.

I need you so much closer

(death cab for cutie - transatlanticism)

I'm pondering the wisdom of using hair dye I randomly found in our house.

Of course... I'm only pondering it now, as the dye is setting in to my hair.

The things I do to cure boredom / procrastinate from council reporting.

Also, I think I may be addicted to the smell of Burt's Bees Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Creme. No fooling, that stuff is awesome.

I have more to say, but I really should get to starting that reporting, and I have about 20 minutes to kill before I have to rinse anyway. When I have time, I'll talk about my mom, my son, my daughter, my work, and the books I've read (someone who reads this is probably anticipating remarks about a book so that they can be smug and say "I told you so". Not naming names or anything).

I recently re-discovered our public library. The kids were happy as crickets to get a bunch of books out - C's arms were stuffed beyond belief. K was more conservative, only choosing one book and one dvd to borrow. He says he worries about forgetting a book and would rather borrow one at a time. C says she doesn't have time to go there every day, and would rather get a bunch and then return them and then get a bunch more.

So I digress. I got out a bunch of books, sort of all over the place in the choosing. I have a tendency to randomly type something into the search, check that call# and then let Dewey lead me where I'm meant to go. One of the books I randomly picked up was Angela's Ashes, and I'm already halfway through after starting it up last night. It's a pretty good read, although terribly sad, and some parts made me angry, but a lot of parts made me realize just how damn lucky I am to have all that I have.

Next up on the list when I've done that book is Ysabel, by one of my favorite authors (if not my very favorite), Guy Gavriel Kay. I don't know why I've resisted the purchase of this book, but it was at the library mocking me so what the heck, I'll borrow it. And then of course I will kick myself for resisting the purchase of said book, and end up buying it anyway. Because that's what I do.

There are more, but no sense listing them until they've been read.

I can't stand all this snow dropping down on us. Winter is my least favorite season, for so many many reasons. Time to go shovel off the car & get the kids to school.

Oh! I also managed to get my shift changed, so that I could both drop off AND pick up the kids from now on. Whee!

S gave me my anniversary present early, in a tit-for-tat motion, since it arrived on our doorstep today. And the gift is -- all three books about Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. He knows what a massive fan of the show (confession: also find Michael C. Hall to be a total badass hottie) and I've been very curious to see if the books go in the same direction. He said he had a hell of a time trying to find hardcover versions of all three, and apologised that he had to settle for paperback for the first two. I love that he was all worried about that.

So C is having a sleepover for her birthday this weekend. All but one of the girls she invited can come, which makes her hella happy. S has already made an escape plan and is taking K with him, the bugger.

Since I'm one of those boring moms, it's going to be a pretty laid-back type thing. They are making their own little pizzas on greek pitas for supper, that will waste about an hour's worth of time. Then there will be snacks, I think I'm going to set up Scene-It for them, and of course the typical movies-popcorn-craziness that goes on. Girls are pretty easy - they can entertain themselves for hours. I've started on their grab bags - those will be nifty at least. The decorations are the bomb (thanks Jackie). I think I'm going to set up the movies in C's room after a certain point, so they can do that whole giggle giggle let's stay up all night and talk talk talk and not sleep until morning stuff that girls are wont to do.

I had forgotten the next day was Mother's Day though. D'oh! I think most of the moms who agreed to let their daughters stay over also forgot. Either that or they remembered, and thought "Woo! I just bought myself an extra hour or so of sleep!"


Bah, I had more to say but I'm running out of time so to be brief:

- Toronto Star can lick my nads. I told them to cancel my damn subscription and they go and charge it on my card anyway.
- I can't believe C will be nine.
- C had to write a paragraph on why it isn't cool to mutter mean things to oneself under one's breath because god forbid she do that instead of lashing out (don't get me started).
- K's rash type thing is almost all gone - woo!
- I keep forgetting to call someone and I need to. Memo to self: call.
- I still haven't picked up Ysabel (Sir T, hush. I already told you why)
- I need sleep and it yet again evades me.
- I keep forgetting about my own breakfast and it's making me ravenous at work. Note to self: pack a damn lunch already.

Went out for breakfast with Sir T this morning, which was awesome and just what I needed (seriously, he's like, the best breakfast buddy ever. Just the right amount of food and conversation, little to no lulls, and the right mixture of lackadaisical and hurried so that the event doesn't seem too rushed or dragged). However, sometimes I do feel like I'm in a time-sink, and had I no other plans I could have easily wasted the day talking with him. The funny thing is it seems that the only time we actually get together, it involves eating somehow.

Memo to self: get the book he keeps talking about before he crams it down my throat.

I took today off to go see M in the hospital today. I'm just waiting for a mutual friend to get off work soon so we can go. We're going to stop at the mall first and pick up some things to help amuse M as she will more or less be stuck in a hospital bed until she's ready to bring the baby home. It must be nerve-wracking for her considering she has 4 boys at home, and this is likely the longest she's been away from them ever. J has stepped up to the plate nicely though and is taking care of them. They in turn are also being well-behaved, understanding that J has no idea what he's doing (whose laundry belongs to whom? Who has a project due? Who needs to go to a birthday party?) and that it'll probably stress their mom out more if they act up. That is pretty astute all things considered. Kids are smarter than people give them credit for.

Ok time to toss together some chili in the slow-cooker for S so that he isn't starving when he gets home, and then I'm off to the races.

Almost done the Poitier memoir. It's brilliant and makes me feel like I'm having a conversation with him. Or maybe even my Dad. The parallels between their lives is almost spooky in some ways.

Do you know what chore I hate more than any other? The number one thing I wish I could never do again? Dishes. That's right. I'd rather scrub at a dirty bathtub for a month of Sundays than scrub at dishes.

So needless to say it drives me batty when my family seem to have started a silent war against my sanity by using every god damned dish in the house to make a peanut butter sandwich. Sweet baby Jesus that drives me nuts. You can tell how nuts it drives me by the number of blasphemies I utter.

Also needless to say, but I'm saying it damnit, I really really hate it when S brings home dishes from work and doesn't rinse them out or anything - just leaves it on the counter, lid on, or sometimes leaves it in his lunchbag for a day or two so that the mold has time to set in. Uggggh. God I hate that.

I'm really looking forward to the trip this weekend but now I'm worried about the weather. I don't want to be stuck in that city if I can help it - I also don't want to be stuck on a train if I can help it. Hmmm.

Ok I'm tired and cranky and guess what? There's dishes to be done.

So our trip is booked for next weekend. I'm actually getting a bit excited about it, although I'm more than slightly broke. S is actually looking forward to spending time just him and K. The boys are happy, momma's happy, daughter's happy. We'll see how it all pans out.

My nose is still stuffy and my head feels like a vise has been gripping it and threatening to crack open my skull. In between these feelings are feelings of my ears plugged up like they are underwater still. It's a wonderful life.

I picked up that book Sidney Poitier wrote. I couldn't resist - I love that man. So far it's pretty good. As a matter of fact I'm going to go read some more now.

Happy weekend, all.

Don't you hate it when you're in the middle of a dream and something wakes you up and you grasp at it like straw and it sifts through your fingers? And you spend most of the morning thinking you've missed something important. Yeah I hate that too.

Planned a trip to Toronto w/my mother & daughter. We're spending the weekend at the Royal York and shopping. C is just tickled pink and frankly I'm pretty happy at the prospect as well. We're taking the train down and back, which is also exciting for her as she's never been on a train before. We're going down the weekend of the 10th of March, this should be a good kick-off to her March break.

The kids saw Bridge to Terabithia yesterday with my motherinlaw. They both liked it very much and played Terabithia in the backyard all afternoon.

Ok time to get to work or somesuch.