I have that darn White Stripes song stuck in my head. Stupid clock radio. Grr.

Anyway, the weekend was good, SO and I had a splendid time at ME's surprise bash. The limo bus was a scream and the bar was so-so, but we make our own fun and the group we were with were of the same mind. So yeah.

The birthday girl was out of sorts for a day or two afterward... she was pretty sick that evening as well.

C's presentation at mass on Sunday was good and we went to Crabby's for lunch with my folks afterward. Then we went to a book store and I got a couple of used books for 2 dollars, hoorah! I love books like nobody's business.

I have a deposit to do shortly for the school council, best get off my keister and get moving then.

.

.

.


Any minute now.

Really.

Is it nap time yet? Why am I so sleepy lately? Must be the change of weather.

Here's to hoping ME has a good time tonight at her surprise birthday gathering.

Memo to self: Behave. No really. Remember C's presentation tomorrow.

This article amuses me a little.

Potentially, ANY toy could be dangerous, ya bunch of numbnuts.

The Uruk-Hai Crossbow looks pretty neat, actually.

Tum ti um. I'm procrastinating from calling all of my in-laws to find out what they're bringing to the in-law family Christmas which is being held on the 27th. I agreed to take it on this year (memo to self: get notepad that says "Stop me before I volunteer again!") but I really don't feel up to it. Oh well what the hell. I'll just never do it again.

I love that our public library provides online services including renewing books so I don't have to go tromping outside to return them.

The snow is pretty and all but I can do without the flurries, slippery roads, and snowdrifts, thank you very much.

Methinks I will go take a bath and procrastinate some more. I have plenty of time tomorrow.

We've been eating a lot more fruit and veggies lately to counter-balance all the halloweeny goodness that's been going on at our casa.

Good mom: grapes, strawberries, graham crackers
Bad mom: with a side of fudge brownies and the kind of juice that comes in a can and would put any diabetic into a coma

So tonight while C was in brownies I went to a reconciliation meeting.

Good mom: I actually remembered there was a meeting
Bad mom: I forgot to bring C with me

Good mom: I wrote down the "new" Act of Contrition (oh man do they get off lucky with this one)
Bad mom: I didn't listen to a thing the priest said after that point

Good mom: Reminded Brown Owl that we wouldn't be there for next Brownies meeting
Bad mom: Forgot to bring in permission forms for the parade, and also forgot dues (but I'm pretty sure we're ahead, I keep bringing toonie in instead of loonie)

Enough good mom/bad mom crap.

Anyway. JG came over after work w/SO tonight, they had a few beers (beers? beer? where are my pedantic friends already?) and yapped about work while I finished off cooking an oh-so-original meal of meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans and corn. How much more (un)inspiring can you get? Men don't care. They see meat, they eat it. Meat good. More meat please. *insert grunt here*

JG stayed for supper with not much in the way of arm twisting on SO's side. "You staying for supper?" "Nah, I should get going soon." "She made meat loaf..." "WELL! In that case!"

haha

Lost my train of thought. I feel about a hundred years old suddenly. Sleep time methinks.

Ta

Friday night the kids had a sleepover with my sister in law because she wanted them to come over and watch Madagascar with her. As a result I had an entire evening to myself. Know what I did? Not a darn thing. And it was GLORIOUS.

Saturday my darling SO got it into his noggin to take us to London to eat at East Side Mario's. First we went to the mall for a bit and just petered around. I picked up a gift for the potluck/christmas gathering my friends and I do every November (because we're all too busy to do it any other time). We went to the restaurant and I have to tell you, I have not had such wonderful service in a long time. Not once did we ever have to ask for a refill on anything; he seemed to anticipate our needs and have the drink before we even had time to realize it was empty. Bread and salad a-plenty and extra coloring pages for the kids.

The wait seemed shorter than it could have been were it not for him. So Dan from East Side Marios, thank you for being so terrific. I muttered to SO at one point during the meal that if he left any less than a 20% tip I'd murdelize him... SO has this thing about tipping. It's our one major head-clasher. In any case, he got a good one, and we got home just in time for me to go to the gift exchange. I didn't bother eating (obviously) but that's never the point. We played a few games of euchre and crokinole (spell check on that one please) and everyone had a great time. JM always throws together a nice event and I'm glad I went.

Sunday was a lazy day, thank heaven. I had a pounding migraine and not even a short nap could fix it.

Now I'm off to put away ten million groceries. Ta.

And now, for Remembrance day, I present to you a poem I wrote in grade 7 that won me two awards at the Royal Canadian Legion. I look at it and think to myself, wow this really sucks. But at age 12, I guess it's ok. This is all coming from memory, mind you.

Do you remember? I don't
My grandpa will; my father won't
and yet the thought of war still breaks my heart
but still, still I'm in the dark

when it comes to the horror of it all
when women cry as soldiers fall
Yes, the horror that never fades
not even with the big parades
that are here today, but gone tomorrow.
They won't make up for the tears and sorrow

And Hitler, he's the desperate one
who took the daylight from the sun
Politicians, evil men
who tried to take from us our land
We wear the poppies, they bear the cross
I'll never understand their loss

So we'll set aside one day each November
to pay our respects to those who DO remember.

I really hate it when you get a stupid song in your head. Thus the title.

I redesigned JPk's site. Not that there was anything wrong with the previous incarnation, I just think this suits her a little better. Hopefully she likes it as she trusted me to log in and toss the template up for her. Cutie if you don't like it let me know and I can give you the coding for the way it was before, I kept that saved (yes with your minor changes).

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. I have to remind myself to give the kids coins for their poppies. I must have bought a bajillion already, I keep losing the things.

K's eyes were all red tonight and he asked to go to bed almost an hour earlier than usual. I hope he isn't coming down with something...

C lost a tooth over the weekend and it was so precious, she also left a little dress for the tooth fairy along with her tooth. That tooth fairy is one lucky lady I tell you. So the tooth fairy left in return a toonie and a barbie necklace. Well! C sure was impressed.

Calvin: It snowed last night! Turn on the radio! Maybe they closed school. Maybe the school buses froze up! Maybe the principal can't get out of his driveway!
Mum: Get dressed, Calvin. It only snowed an inch.
Calvin: Getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery.

Woke up to SNOW outside... grr. C was tres excited because she loves winter. I was not so excited because winter means snow which means shovelling driveways. It doesn't look like it stayed though so hooray!

K has been playing Shrek 2 on the gamecube all morning. Normally I try to temper how long the kids play but the little guy was having so much fun and I figured what the heck, once in a while it won't kill him.

Lunch with S was good as per usual, and I even got a little Christmas shopping snuck in there somewhere.

I'm trying to figure out what to make for supper to no avail. It's tough trying to find something that is quick enough that SO can still eat it before he has to leave for work at 5:30. Yes, 5:30. Yeah. My thoughts exactly.

He was telling me how there's this guy at work who is so spoiled by his wife she makes him lunches of his favorite hot meals and includes little notes in his lunch and everything. He said it must be nice to get lunch made for you every day and I said "Gee whiz hon, hate to break it to you but I'm not a doormat. You want a lunch, you know where the fridge is." And of course he laughed because he knew it would get a rise out of me.

Ok time to go put laundry away. ugh. I hate laundry.

Played around with the site... again. The lovely lady on your left is Grace Kelly.

K's photos came home today and he looks adorable. He was quite upset though and said his one ear was pointy but that certainly wasn't the case... I reassured him the best I could but for some reason, he was inconsolable. We brought the photos home and SO said he looked quite dashing. For some reason it made it all better.

My foot is just killing me. I have no idea what I did to it but whatever I did, it was a doozy.

Time to take SO to work so I can have the car for Brownies tonight.

Woke up to a massive thunder roll that literally shook our house. Makes for quite the morning, I assure you.

I helped my cousin JPk with her blog site, which she loves of course and you can see it here.

I dyed my hair after all, a really nice color because frankly, keeping up with the streaks was getting to be a pain, and I miss dying my own hair, and I like the color besides. It's Loreal Feria's Chocolate Cherry. My sister in law came over Monday night to help do it (hard to get the back pieces sometimes) which was nice of her, considering she came right after work and she had to close the store that night.

Pictures came in yesterday (and today for K) of the kids from the school. C looks awesome and she has these two little bandaids on the one elbow which is just precious and made me giggle a bit, because it's so typical of her grade and age and just perfect.

Apparently Fr. whatshisname (isn't that terrible? I forget what C told me already) came in to talk to them yesterday and teach them the Act of Contrition. I told C in the end that's all she really has to remember and she'll be fine. Her reconciliation is coming up so fast, it's kind of spooky! Doh... which reminds me... must call either my mom or my mother in law and see if they can watch K while I go to the meeting tonight...er wait. Is it tonight? Maybe it's next Wednesday. I'd be lost without a calendar I swear.

Going out for lunch with my dear friend S today, whoopee! We always used to go to the Elizabethan on Wednesdays for lunch, because they serve the best fish and chips... haven't gone in a long time because we are both pathetic and our lives are crazy lately. Her son is 11 today. I kept thinking he was 13 but then I remembered I'm 2 years older than she is which is where my math went wrong. Eleven! Holy crap. It's just so weird.

Today is the Feast of St. Michael. I think tonight I'll make some angel cake. The kids will get a kick out of that.

Time to go get ready for my lunch date and also get resume ready to give to a little shop downtown that's hiring that I think would be a hoot to work for...

ta!

Grandma's party was nice, everyone seemed to have a good time but I've noted that one of my aunts-by-marriage seems to have developed a severe undertone to her voice and she looks... hmm... jaloux. Seriously, lighten up lady.

SO tied one on a little too loosely and as a result was not in the greatest of health when we got home. I had to laugh it off because he hasn't been like that since he was nineteen. He felt a little sheepish about the whole thing. I told him that even though he was Irish/Scottish, it didn't mean he could outdrink my entire Portuguese family. Boy howdy did he give it a good shot though.

It was decided that Christmas for my mom's side is going to be on the 3rd of December, as the weekend after that is no good for one half of us, and the weekend before Christmas is no good for the other half of us. We'll see how it goes. SO's company party is on the weekend of the 17th. No idea what I will wear as I am in the mood that everything looks hideous on me (even if it does not). Time for a haircut maybe. Doing something crazy/drastic/at least different from the usual mess makes me feel better.

I rented a couple of movies yesterday: Shark Boy and Lava Girl, Sin City, and Revenge of the Sith. The kids seemed to really like the Shark Boy and Lava Girl thing, and of course K was giddy at the prospect of the Star Wars movie, even if I did cheat a little and forward through the extra-scary parts (for a five year old, some parts are extra-scary). We were smart enough to wait until the kiddies were safely tucked in bed (at 7:30 K and C begged to go to sleep, a good indicator they were up wayyyy to late the night before) before we watched Sin City.

Well. I really have no words for the film at the moment. It was... yeah. SO is convinced I have a thing for Robert Rodriguez as I rented not one but two of his films last night and followed up with Once Upon a Time in Mexico (insomnia strikes again).

Today I go out for lunch with the ladies of my SO's family as his grandmother on his Dad's side started up this "First Wives Annual Luncheon" wayyyy back when his grandfather ditched her for his second wife. His grandfather's sisters also go to this lunch as they have both been married twice as well. They invited me because they pointed out that I was in fact a "first" wife... and then of course followed up with "but that doesn't mean he'll have another, dear, we're just saying, you're first and last... oh hell we just want to invite you, ok?" They broke the rules a little this year too because they invited my sister in law as well and she hasn't married yet. "Eventually you'll be a first wife... right?"

This should be interesting. The only time I've met his great aunts on his grandpa's side was at the funeral of his grandpa's second wife. I was cornered by one about my epilepsy (haven't had a seizure in literally years, something I'm proud of as I've managed without medication as well), by another about my lack of photos in the purse of my kids (I'm always with them, what do I need photos for?), and by another about when am I going to have another kid already (I can't). It was sixteen different kinds of awkward. I'm hoping this won't be a repeat performance. CM and I have a pact to stick together; thank God for sisters-in-law.

This post has gone on long enough, methinks. Time to get the bambinos together for school.

Happy 70th to my grandma C whom my lovely daughter was named after! I'm going to stop by her place this morning after dropping the kids off at school and give her a visit and a prezzie or two.

We have been planning a surprise party for her which will come to fruition tomorrow night at a hall with balloons and music and family and of course tons of food. MW (my brother's girlfriend) and I have been designated to decorate and etc. Should be interesting. We got her a cake meant to feed 50 that is covered in red roses because she loves flowers so much. My grandmother is a certified florist and did all the flowers at my wedding except the button-thingies (I know what they are called but am embarassed to admit I have no idea how to spell the damn word) and C's bouquet (which I made myself).

Meanwhile, Paris is still burning and I think to myself, holy crap I mean I understand the unrest and frustration but for all this to stem from the accidental death of two teens seems a bit much and is there no other way to bring their point across? While I understand that sometimes violence begets violence, what about turning the other cheek and all that jazz? So much destruction.

The cynic in me is thinking "you know, 'Paris is burning' sounds like a really good title for a book or something..."

Ok time to get the kids going... it's always a drag to get them going on a Friday morning... literally a drag! They don't want to move. It's a mystery of science or something.

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.