So the long weekend was great, but naturally busy as all get out.

Saturday we went over to the in-laws' for the July 1st gathering they always have. JG & ME came along as well. We ate tons and watched fireworks from the back porch and then off to bed we went.
Sunday we went to a friends' place in Goderich for their son's 3rd birthday. The place is just off a private beach so the kids got to enjoy a swim in the lake and all that jazz. Then we zoomed back into town just in time to get them cleaned and in pj's so we could take them to the drive-in. We saw the Lake House & Superman Returns. Woo! I love Superman like nobody's business as anyone who knows me could tell you, so I was pumped. Spacey totally nailed the Lex Luthor role and the new Superman is also quite good and not very hard to look at in the least either, which helps. The new Lois Lane was a little off-putting but not enough to make me dislike the movie. It was very very good. The Lake House was also good but then again I knew the plot basically from the Korean movie it had ripped off, "Il Mare".

We didn't get home till 3:30 am, house lights blazing which was weird as we had turned almost all of them off. Shawn got spooked and went in on his own asking me to run for it if he wasn't back in 5 minutes. Nobody had broken or entered though, so it must have been the ghost or something.

Sunday was sort of lazy sort of busy. My parents were supposed to have come over for dinner but backed out at the last minute, but that didn't stop us from entertaining anyway. We just called some friends over & had our meal in peace. Then the 4 of us (me SO & the kids) played a game or two before we sent them off to bed.

i had a bout of insomnia and you think that would have given me the edge to hearing people get into our car last night and steal stuff. But no. So this morning I get in the car and lo and behold, the car'd been given the once-over for worldly possessions. The glove compartment contents were all over the floor and the sun visors were askew, but other than that no real damage was done. Here's a list of what was taken:

- about 7 dollars in change
- an air freshener shaped like cherries

Who the hell steals a cherries air freshener but leaves $60.00 worth of CDs???

This just further cements my belief that the world is on it's way to hell, in a very pretty handbasket.

Seriously, though. Who the hell steals a cherries air freshener?

dododo do, dododo do do, dododo do....

so yeah i have that song in my head now because it was blaring in my head for no reason just now.

On June 27 I made an executive decision to only drink things from either margarita glasses or martini glasses from that point until July 27, my 30th birthday. SO laughed and asked if that meant I'd be drunk for a month, I said no I'd drink milk and things from the glasses, but what the hell you only turn 30 once might as well start celebrating now, however childish it might be.

The only exemption from the "glasses of mar" rule is coffee. Which should be obvious.

Going to see Oliver with a friend tonight. She hollered at me while I was taking the kids to the car after school yesterday. "Hey! What you doing tomorrow?" I said "SFA." She said, "You wanna go on a 'date' with me tomorrow?" I said "Sure!" She laughed and said "Don't agree until you hear what we're going to do, sheesh!" So yeah. Oliver! I'm pumped.

K graduated from Kindergarten yesterday. SO went to the ceremony (he did so for C as well) and took pictures and all. K's teacher was a bit misty over everyone. K was pretty proud because on the slideshow there was a photo of him reading "Who wants a Dragon?" to the class, with a sign under it that said "Thank you for reading ot us K" on it. He was apparently on lots of the pictures.

He also got a little birthday present from his teacher which made C hella jealous because she "never got anything". I explained that maybe it's because he's a July birthday and she wanted the summer kids to get something special since they weren't able to celebrate their birthdays in school like most of their classmates. She didn't swallow that idea very well but what can you do?

Both kids got awesome report cards so hooray! We celebrated with Dairy Queen. Mmmm blizzard.

Last night I had a pretty intense dream about someone I literally haven't given a second thought to in over a decade. I have no idea why or what it represents. Time to dig in the dream book I guess, though I know the result will be something like "you don't call your mother often enough" or "dreams about x portend awful fates to the dreamer or their family members" or somesuch.

dododo do....

Ok time to get C ready for her very lastest day of the school year.

The weekend was good, kids had an excellent time at L's house. K actually got J's name right this time around as well. The kids were all over their black lab, Lilly. Lilly's a nice dog but prone to the occasional misadventure.

I'm really glad SO gets along with L's hubby, as it makes visiting much easier - there isn't any awkwardness and "so... do you like.... stuff?" that usually goes on when talking to the significant others' of my friends & family. I think that's part of why he was kinda happy about JG & ME getting together - he was already friends with JG, so there's no weirdness when the 4 of us get together, it's all good. Don't get me wrong it isn't for lack of trying on SO's part to get along, it's more or less that he finds he has little in common with most of them. He's not a sports freak and knows only a bare minimum about cars. He's a quiet type and just needs time mostly to find the same wavelength.

SO woke me up at 5:30 to ask me what his email password was. As a result I have this lingering groggy feeling washed over me. I have a feeling he asked me because he was setting up whatever it is we are doing for my 30th & requires email to verify booking. Since we made the switch from sympatico to rogers he hadn't used his email yet, so wasn't sure what the password was, etc.

Yow. 30. I really can't fathom it. Some of my friends will go "30? Pah! Amateur!" but some will say "Eeeep, 30! Are you devastated? That's so... OLD!" To C & K 30 is about a million years old. K actually had put in this mother's day card about me that I was 17... hahaah... to him that's old. On the father's day card he did for SO last year he put that his dad was 35. That makes me laugh to no end because I'm actually 2 yrs older than SO.

Aging aside, I always approach my birthday with a generous helping of trepidation, as something always seems to be off or go wrong. Accompanying this feeling is a twinge of grief - we buried my grandfather on my birthday, something I am not likely to forget any time soon. It might not have affected me so had I been much younger, but I was 22, had just had my first child a few months previous, and had seen him deteriorate as cancer overtook him. Don't get me wrong - my days and nights are not consumed with the grief - but I am prone to a little sadness come my birthday because of it.

Enough of that though, it doesn't happen for another month.

Time to go get some breakfast together for the kids and gather my thoughts for the day.

So before I purged saved information in my search bar for google, I thought I'd take a peek and see what I've been up to, search-engine wise. The results are a bit disturbing to the undiscerning eye:

abscess on tonsil
asus sata drivers

baleens
benson
beth orton
big comfy couch

carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms
caveat
chuck norris
cushing syndrome

dictionary
drosophila

easy and delicious alfredo sauce
ekko world
emu t-shirt
error (512)
evil macaw

fibreglass art
fish tycoon
font starry night
frolf

gambit
giant macaw
giant turtle
gmail
golden eagle
greatest thing since sliced bread

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
hells angels

iron man

john favreau

kevin mazer
kingdom of loathing
knit join ends
knitting pattern
kol

large turtle
lemony snicket dilemma deepens
lifelike fibreglass art

macaw
macaw bite
macaw wound
medusoid myconium
monster macaw
most extreme haiku dungeon challenge
movin on up to the east side

nonsense

peritonsillar abscess
piotr nikolaievitch rasputin
polar bear cub
postsecret
progeny

robert langdon

sad martini
snapjaw turtle
sulpher burps
superman returns
symptoms of multiple sclerosis but is not multiple sclerosis

t-shirts with emus on them
tacit
the vatikan
tv guide

upside down triangle

vicious macaw wound

waterfront accretion canada
willem dafoe
wonder woman

yield


...yeah. I have no idea what the macaw stuff's about. I am thinking I read an article about a vicious macaw and wanted to see if I could cross-reference it with other articles/photographs.

In any case, this little bit of intrigue should let you, the reader, have a peek at the things that I've been looking up lately, for whatever reasons. If you are interested in reasons, um, I could probably try and answer, but I'm not certain about all of these. Most of them yes though.

While this whole Brangelina bullcrap sickens me, more sickening is the fact that I am still morbidly curious about what their baby looks like. It isn't like it would be life-altering information to see her - she isn't the Messiah come back or anything. But still.

SUPERMAN RETURNS IS COMING SOON!!!!! EXCLAMATION POINT!

My ears are a bit hurty now. I'm hoping it's nothing resulting from the strep considering I'm on )#*$@(*%@ medication. Le sigh.

I haven't been sleeping well of late; not too surprising given I've suffered from bouts of insomnia for most of my life. The difference now is, I kind of got to liking sleep, so I miss it when I don't get it now. I've also been plagued with very very weird and intense dreams. One dream involved my looking out a dark window and I don't know what I saw but it made me scream in horror and I actually screamed in my sleep and woke SO up. This is on hearsay however since I was asleep at the time. He managed to calm me down somehow - again, I don't know as I was caught up in the dream.

Two more sleeps till I go to L's house, hurrah! I'm happy because I miss spending time with her - the last event I got to see my cousin was at C's communion, but typically I was busy catering to people & entertaining my grandmothers, etc, to spend any actual time talking.

Received correspondence from a friend I hadn't heard from in a while. I like friends who you can just pick up with after some time and neither be offended by the lack of communication. In my younger years I had too many high-maintenance friends; it was exhausting and I never had a moment's peace. So coming across the kind that don't seem to mind the gaps and chasms between talking/meeting is like finding hidden treasure to me.

I had more to say but I have just spent the past five minutes staring blankly at the screen. A clear indication I need to get up and do something.

So I wrote out this huge post about what's been happening recently, and then, BWAM! Brief power outage. We've been having outages all over the damn city but most places it's lasting like, an hour or more. Here at my house? 45 seconds. TOPS. Very very weird if you ask me.

Friday at work it was off for an hour and a half, which made my job very interesting. Had to take down all the information from branches and promise to call back when the power came on. Most were understanding but a few were pissy. "We need the information NOW, what do you mean you can't help us? Well do you know when the power will come back on? What do you mean you have no idea? Can I speak to your manager?". Bla bla bla. One lady at a branch was cute though, she said "Power out? Go home, make babies. Mortgage schmortgage, I can call back on Monday!"

Anyhow, my strep infection is back in full force, it came back a mere 2 days after finishing the first round of meds. Went to the hospital again on Saturday and the same doctor that saw me two weeks ago was there and he took another look and was pretty surprised it came back like that. He had me tested for mono, just in case but that came out negative. He said he wouldn't bother with another swab for strep since he'd already assaulted the back of my throat for the mono testing, it was obviously exactly what I had be fore but more hurty. I can only open my mouth so far and then it's on FIRE. The back of my throat feels like I swallowed knives, it also feels like something is caught back there, and now my inner ear hurts like a mofo too. So I'm on stronger meds bla bla bla.

I took the background away from my blog, I was tired of the blue and I'm too lazy to toss together another site at the moment. The title is still blue, but again, refer to the part where I'm too lazy to fix it.

This weekend I go to visit my cousin & her hubby and I'm pretty happy about that. The kids are excited too... they adore her, and think her guy is pretty nifty too.

Ok off I go.

First off, I spent the entire week off work getting my voice back & getting back to health. But that's a story for another day. Quick review of X-Men III:

It's a big build-up with little satisfaction. It's the penile disfunction of movie-making. No depth, lots of noise and little payoff. I only wonder if [director of the first two movies] Singer is smirking or shuddering.

fri: sick sore throat hard to swallow hard to talk, stay home from work it'll be all right. brother in law savior takes kids to school, mother in law in burst of niceness brings them home.

sat: sick sad sore throat can't swallow hard to breathe omg stupid emerg doctor what do you MEAN wait 2 days for throat culture before meds?

sun: sicker sadder sorer can't swallow without crying fever fever pain can't breathe omg stupid emerg what do you MEAN wait 4 hours before getting a room? bless you bless you triage nurse for giving emerg nurse hell for calling kid with scratch on finger before me. no swab result back hurty houch please please don't make me open wide. omg tongue depressor choking me stop stop make it stop please. prescribe the happy little pills, yes my precious

mon: still sick hurts to breathe meds are in codeine ain't doing shit and i have to work tomorrow, hurrah. phone call from emerg made me laugh: why yes, mrs m, you have strep throat after all. we'll call in some meds for you. GEE THANKS CAN I GO BACK TO DYING NOW?

Baby if I act like that, that guy will call me back
What a paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
Baby if I act like that, flipping my blonde hair back
Push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl

So C keeps singing this song except she muddles the lyrics, the only thing she hears clearly is "I don't wanna be a stupid girl". She asked me what the song was about and I told her it was about being yourself and not trying to be like all those famous people you see on tv and in the papers and magazines. She asked me if those girls really were stupid. I said most of them aren't, they just sometimes make really stupid choices.

Anyway. C's first communion went off very well, she was the only girl in a white dress & tiara though but that didn't bother her in the least, it made her feel even more like a princess to stand out among the other kids receiving it. We sat in the front row (curse of showing up early, she insisted on sitting there) and everyone who passed by remarked on how pretty she looked. Even the Deacon mentioned it and she was just gushing. She also totally bragged to K about how she gets to "eat Jesus" now and he doesn't. It was all I could do not to fall off my chair.

C's friend Z gets hers this Sunday. C really wants to go see her, but I really want to be able to sleep in on the only day that I can do it without feeling guilty about it. Hammer says I'm not beholden to it and I realize that but I'd also like to see Z, she's wearing traditional gear & C would feel better knowing she wasn't the only kid in her school to do it "the right way", as it's been so bluntly put to me.

Next week C turns 8. I cannot believe it and keep pinching myself and wondering where the time went. Her babyhood was a blur of diapers, midnight feedings, gurgling and drool, but I remember it still.

She and I had our little "facts of life" talk earlier than anticipated. Saturday afternoon an impromptu chat was initiated and I got out the books and showed her diagrams about what would be happening biologically, and then explained what could also be happening emotionally/mentally. She took it all in stride, asked questions and I answered them honestly and simply. Some were more complicated (Ok but really, how does the baby get in there?) some easier (So I won't get a baby from kissing a boy, right? Just that other way that only grown-ups do?), but in any case, it's opened the door for her and she knows she is safe to ask me questions and I'm not going to judge her or laugh at her about it. This sounds like I'm making a really big deal about it, but if you knew half of how I ended up learning about this crap (certainly not from my parents) and what kind of relationship I had with my own mother, maybe it would make more sense.

Both kids woke up at six and were kind enough to wait until 6:15 to wake me up too. Considering I've slept like hell all week it's a wonder I'm not crazy now. Been invited out this evening by some friends for a pre-mother's day drink but since SO's on afternoons it's really going to depend on whether or not I can get someone to watch the rugrats. I'm hoping yes. I haven't been out without some family member in tow in too long.

Off to toss together some sort of semblance of a lunch for the kids and make sure the meatballs I'm bringing in to work are ready. (It's a "food day", two of our senior officers are leaving. One is leaving on a 1 year contract within another department, the other is leaving for two months on paternity leave as his wife has to go back to work earlier than expected).

What frightens you most?

What's the point in having a baby at 63? Honestly now.

Those of you who have been following my journal for some time will know all about the trials and tribulations I went through at my previous place of employ. This past weekend I got a little bit of a laugh when I discovered that they have really been struggling since my departure. Childish, maybe, but I don't care. I went through hell for that company and while it's mean-spirited to say it, I'm glad they are finding out the hard way just how much I did for them.

So my Dad told me on the weekend that there was a manager's meeting at my previous workplace, wherein they were discussing the impact of the mass lay-off last August (of which I was the first to go). They had flow charts and whatnot. Anyway. One manager, the manager of production control in the building I worked in, said that he had one thing to say and that was that one person he really admired was me! He said they had no idea how much I did and that they all took me for granted and if they'd had half a clue they would never have let me go. He said it took him 6 hrs over the weekend to do one customs document, that two plants now do their own work and a third on its way - and there I was handling the customs for all their Canadian operations, on top of answering switchboard and handling the front desk!

Dad didn't say anything but later he quietly took the manager out & treated him to a pitcher or two of beer. He also talked to my previous boss (the nice one) and said "you really had no fucking clue did you?" to which nice boss replied, abashed, that no, he obviously didn't. So Dad said "you mean to tell me you did employee reviews with her, and as she was telling you everything you had NO FUCKING CLUE? You guys are idiots." He can tell nice boss that because they're friends. Nice boss honestly has never been able to look me in the eye every time we've crossed paths since the layoff. In all honesty I have told him it's the best thing he could have done for me. The job was quite literally slowly killing me. In any case nice boss then asked Dad if I'd found a new job yet, hint hint, and Dad laid it on thick and told him all about my new job and that I was making twice as much money (lie) and had all kinds of benefits (lie) and had awesome hours (true) and never had to worry about babysitting (semi-truth) and was happier than ever (true).

He wasn't going to tell me all this, because bygones are bygones and all, but I'm glad he did because it shuts a little door in my heart and gives me closure. He asked me if I'd have accepted had they offered me my job back, and I told him I would not, not even for a 100,000.00 salary. When I told SO about all this, he also said "I'd never have let you taken the job, hon. I like having the old you back."

C's first communion is on Sunday, and she couldn't be more excited about it. It feels so weird to me knowing my daughter is already at that age (she's turning 8 on the 16th! eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). She has a little tiara and everything. I thought it hilarious when they had a parents meeting about communion and the priest said "don't dress them up, that isn't necessary, bla bla bla". Fat chance of that happening. We're Portuguese! Anyway...

Memo to self: make 2 doz cupcakes for weekend's 50th anniversary party for the kids' school. Bring in tomorrow morning.

Had a council meeting on Tuesday, which was fine but holy was there squawking about the budget! I don't really want to get into it aside from saying, I'm doing a volunteer position and if anyone thinks they can do better of it, they are welcome to it. Fuck.

Ok gotta go.

This week was "turn off the screens" week at my kids' school, and to show my support I also turned off the screens save for when I was at work or at home checking mail for the school council. K called it "turn of the screams week" because he mis-heard what the teacher said. So whenever he and C were playing outside and she'd be rip-tearing around and shrieking, he'd give her heck for it. It was funny as all get out.

A week in internet time however equals to about a hundred years, so I feel out of the loop on everything.

Last night SO & I went to a mystery dinner theatre. It was hilarious and good and the food was awesome too. His workplace has a social club that puts together these gatherings so I got to meet more of his co-workers (more's the pity). JG & ME came as well so that was nice.

It's C's first communion next weekend and she couldn't be happier. We bought her a tiara on Friday to wear in her hair, she's quite pleased with herself over that. We're having a gathering afterwards at my parents' home because their house is much bigger and can accomodate the 40-odd people coming. Should be fun.

K is in a little Rainforest play in his Kindergarten class, they're performing it for the parents on Wednesday but unfortunately I cannot take the time off work to see it. SO's on afternoon shift though so he said he would go. K was delighted over this as it's pretty rare that Daddy gets to go see things. I caught him practicing in his room, making little birdie sounds because he's playing a Macaw. He had the door closed and I could hear him chirping and when I opened the door to see what he was up to I caught him flapping his arms and swooping around and he turned around and yelled at me. "Don't look mommy it's going to be a SURPRISE!"

Both my children fill my heart with joy but I must confess, that baby boy of mine, oh that boy of mine... sometimes he fills it up so much that I think it may crack into pieces from the love.

C is turning 8 soon. She has decided since it's her first communion the same month as her birthday, she didn't want a party just wanted her and I to go out just the two of us for a day. I've decided on that day I'd fill her in a little more on the facts of life. Moreso the "what's going to be happening to you and your body" bit. I was 9 years old when I started my menstrual cycle and by the age of 10 I had filled out a size a bra and was already working on the b cup. My mother wasn't prepared to talk to me until at least twelve so when things started happening I thought I was dying. The terrible cramping and the bleeding only confirmed my fear I must be dying. It seems funny now but at the time it was very serious to my 9 year old brain.

So, I've made the executive decision to prepare my daughter for the inevitable. She's a pretty astute girl and I think she'll handle it well. We've already had some brief discussions to lead up to it so I don't think it will frighten her much, I just want to prepare her and initiate the talking, so that she feels comfortable coming to me when things get more complicated in her life which they inevitably will.

Time to go now, my stomach is muttering something about breakfast.

What's new with YOU?

I have been burping up sulphur all day and in a bit of gastric pain. This is the first time I've felt this way since having had my gall bladder removed back in January of last year. After talking with the cool cats at telehealth it was suggested that it was probably due to all the craptastic vomiting & such I did earlier in the week when I had the flu - my stomach is still sorting itself out and now that my little friend the gall bladder is gone the stomach has to work a little harder to get itself back together again.

That's well and good but I really hate the taste of sulphur.

My recent blogging has been really gross, healthwise, which I could apologize for but hey nobody is forcing you to read it.

So when I was all sick and weak on the couch staring limply at the television and praying for either death or a miracle on Tuesday night, I watched Anchorman. The next morning a friend was kind enough to take my kids to school and then I ended up having to drag myself to work anyway because they were short on people. I'm a team player so of course I went. Bleh. So then by the afternoon I'm sort of feeling ok but not really and the boss is talking about a movie with one of my coworkers and then I realize, the movie he was talking about? Anchorman. We both ended up saying "You stay classy, San Diego" at the same time and it was so odd that he watched the exact same movie the night before.

Jayne hat is coming along swimmingly hurrah!

This must be a week for the name Jayne/Jane. I'm reading "Jane of Lantern Hill" again. Yes it's a kids' book. Yes it's a million years old. Yes it's one of L.M. Montgomery's lesser known books. Yes I realize I'm no longer twelve. Hush.

Skyyyyyyyyy rockets in flight! Afternoon delight! Aaaaaaaaafternoon delight!

I now have that song stuck in my head because of making reference to Anchorman.

Time to tidy up and think of clever places to hide eggs that the cat can't get into but the kids can.

You stay classy, San Diego.