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.

I caved, let C go to the Brownies trip, sucked up my issues, and am glad for it. In an hour or so I get to go pick her up from the bus - she'll be happy and tired and cranky and souped up all at once, I'm sure. That's how these things go. I hope she was good, I hope she had fun.

K and I went to see Meet the Robinsons yesterday, while S went to see Spiderman 3 with his brother and his brother's girlfriend. I would have liked to have seen S-3 as well, but I promised K I would take him to see the Robinsons flick, and I keep my promises. Hammer brought her sons Bruce Banner & Otter with her, and the three boys made themselves quite comfy and happy as you please in seats in front of us. (We aren't cool enough to sit with them I guess? It was all we could do to convince them NOT to sit at the very front of the theatre.)

It was a cute movie, pretty funny for both kids and adults. Some of the stuff that Hammer & I were guffawing over probably went right over the kids' heads, but that's ok.

After the movie we walked home (it kicks nine kinds of ass in a 3 ass town that we live within walking distance) and my brother-in-law & his gf came over as well. Then S took them to the butcher to pick up their meat, took them home to put it away & brought them back so we could have a barbecue.

I LOVE BBQ. I cannot say how much I love it. It's that much. We had corn on the cob & smoked pork chops and honey garlic sausages and I made up some macaroni salad & house salad as well. Dayum, son. So tasty. K had a hot dog and he was happy with that. Then my parents called - they wanted to have K over for a sleepover, so he had something special to do this weekend as well (balancing out the C going to camp thing). His rash and everything was cleared up, so I let him go. Then brother-in-law & gf stayed a while, and we talked about... oh everything.

S and I took turns telling them the stories of how we met, how we got together, all that rot. I told some stories that S actually hadn't heard before, and you could tell he was dying for them to leave so he could ask me about it.

Sure enough, they leave, we go for a mini-walk and check on my in-laws' dog for them (they were in Chatham this weekend at a family gathering of mother-in-law's) and when we get home, he finally asks me. "Is it true what you said about your friend saying/doing those things to try to help my prev relationship with ex? And the thing about that other thing (I am not going into much more detail than that folks - it's a long story and frankly nobody's business)." I said yes, to a degree, and explained the further motives etc there. He seemed nonplussed.

Here's the deal: My best friend for the longest time was a person I will call Mickey, because he looked like Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees especially with a certain haircut he had for the longest time. He was also friends with S - that's how we met actually, through Mickey. S always had this feeling that he was just Mickey's back-up plan, never a friend for friendship's sake. So it blew S away that Mickey was doing all kinds of things to try and 1) repair his failing relationship with the girl he was seeing, and/or 2) help set him up with me, if plan 1 failed.

There's about a thousand more details between all this that would make this make a whole lot more sense, but I doubt the people reading this are really all that interested in the minutae of these events. Trust me when I say - Mickey cared a hell of a lot more than S realized. I think S was of the notion that Mickey was primarily concerned with my happiness in this whole deal, especially after our actually hooking up and Mickey giving him the all "if you hurt her, I will kill you" speech. Mickey's vested interest in my happiness is another long story, but long story short - our friendship extended to a point where we were more like family than friend. He is my brother from another mother, I am his sister from another mister. All that stuff. His giving S the third degree was a given, but certainly didn't mean he wasn't happy about our getting together - he had wanted this to happen, and long before it did.

Ok, let's set up a chronology to get some of this a bit clearer, however it may confuse you more.

- Mickey & I meet up in high school, I call him Mickey Dolenz, he isn't happy and doesn't talk to me for sometime, then he gets over himself and we start walking home from school together.
- Of course, a friendship develops, but goes no further, in spite of speculation on everyone else's part.
- Mickey introduces me to S. S and I walk Mickey home one night when he was too drunk to walk himself. S picks a flower for me. (I still have this flower - true story)
- I think S is sweet, S thinks I'm a hottie (his words, not mine). S is too chicken to pursue it at this point in time.
- School dance, S finally gets up the courage to ask me out, about 10 minutes too late - I end up dating someone else.
- Bad relationship with the someone else lasts about 2-3 years, S in meantime moves on & gets involved with others at this point. Point is - always either he or I were with someone else. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't find him attractive anyway.
- Bad relationship with someone else finally ends, S is dating someone else at this point, I am random serial-dating that occurs after ending a bad relationship.
- One day Mickey & I are hanging out at S's house after a party, S and I are talking a mile a minute and Mickey thinks to self "Damn."
- Conversations w/Mickey indicate his approval and frustration over S still being with that girl who put him through some not so nice things.
- Mickey initially attempts to set me up with S's best buddy at the time, since best buddy was messing with S's girl and Mickey hoped in my getting together with best buddy that S's girl would actually focus more on S, her freaking boyfriend, instead of his buddy.
- This of course doesn't work, because frankly I'm not attracted to best buddy, for many reasons (including his being a lecherous prat for ever messing with a friend's girl - why would I want to get together with someone who has no compunctions about doing this?)
- Over the summer, S's girl goes to Germany, almost breaks up with him but not quite, and in the meantime S notices I'm around a lot more. S does not pursue anything, as he is stalwart and would never betray a person he is with, in spite of how ridiculously they happen to be treating him.
- Several events occur that give S pause.
- I end up moving in with Ferg & S's girl at the time (loooooong story, and trust me I had many, many, many, many misgivings about the move, but was convinced by Ferg).
- Oh hell, this is getting way way too long. I'll tell the rest another day but the point is - she cheats, he gives her an ultimatum, she takes it, he and I get together, she gets pissed off because she was hoping he'd remain single in case things with best buddy didn't work out (which they didn't - she lost appeal after she was "free to roam"). All this happens and the whole time S has no idea that Mickey was all for this to happen, to promote S's happiness as well as my own.

Ok, time to get some food out for later (my parents are coming over, yes we're having another barbecue, this time steak! MMmm, steak.)

Any questions? Drop me a line.

Little K loves the Beastie Boys, so I managed to entice him into going to the clinic tonight by promising to play some in the car.

He's had a mad rash all over himself since Sunday night - we aren't sure - the doctors aren't sure - so we're taking him for blood tests in the morning.

It's just awful. I feel so bad for the little guy.

As a result he can't go to school until the rash is gone. Which is fine for this week since S is on afternoons, but if it's still around come next week I'm fucked.

C is fine though.

This weekend is her Brownies camping thing, but I already told her if K isn't better by then or if we don't have a good handle on what's going on, she may not be going (because I can't go. Look it's a long story, and it isn't that I don't trust her with strangers or whatever, but trust me I have good reason behind this).

Ok I'm tired and have a million things to do.

This is my lifeblood. Mariza is a wonderful Fadista and she demonstrates what a good one can do with a traditional Fado. She is singing Povo Que Lavas No Rio. This is my history. This is my life. This is for my grandfather.

Here's an article from CNN, which I'll paste some of it here because 3 months from now the damn link won't work anyway. If Reuters sues me for it they really need to get a life. My comments of outrage are in italics.

Scientists unearth Superman's 'kryptonite'

"We will have to be careful with it -- we wouldn't want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!," said Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.

Dr. Chris Stanley, I am horrified that you would unearth a substance that you know - YOU KNOW - will kill Superman. For shame, Dr. Chris Stanley. For shame.

Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.

"I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns," he said.

Curse you internet! Curse you, terrible movie about Superman!

But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and is non-radioactive.

Um. Well. That's interesting? And they're naming the rock Jadarite??? What the hell, Science. What. The. Hell.

So Operation: Crazy Go Nuts was this weekend. It was fun but I wasn't feeling well, and didn't get much sleep on Friday night because K was sick and I wasn't even going to go but he managed to bounce back the next day so I went.

Drove to my cousin Lola's house first, had a bit of lunch and then the two of us drove the rest of the way. There were drinks and games and the usual craziness, and a Fantasia party somewhere in the mix. Yeah. Because nothing says family gathering quite like fondling sex toys.

There was fun to be had, but I'm too tired to jot it all down here.

Sunday morning we took our time driving back to Lola's then I stayed and soaked in the sun for about an hour before making the rest of the trip home. Got home and lay like a lump on the couch until S dragged me over to his folks' house for leftovers from his supper the night before. His parents had a birthday dinner for him Saturday night while I was away. That was fine by me.

I still feel like crap and I was wide awake at 6 am, ugh ugh ugh.

I think I hear the shower calling.

My dear S turned 29 yesterday. I got him the Tiger Woods golf game for the Wii - he's hooked already. The kids and I took him out to King Buffet for dinner at their insistence - just so he would get the paper crown, balloon, song and picture that they do there. He was a good sport about it.

Then we went to my parents' house for a quick visit. My mom apologised over and over for not having his gift with her - they didn't anticipate we'd come over until the weekend.

Speaking of weekend - it's Operation: Crazy Go Nuts this weekend and I'm pretty excited about it. I haven't seen the girls in Barrie in FOREVER at least. I would promise to behave my best but I know better.

Work has been hectic and crazy - welcome to summer. Suddenly everyone's buying a house?

I got a new Wonder Woman t-shirt. Those of you who were unlucky enough to be subjected to my cell phone photo taunting have seen evidence of this glorious shirt.

Facebook (which I affectionately call Facecrack) has made life pretty interesting of late. I'm communicating with people I literally haven't seen in over a decade. It's interesting how much they've either changed or stayed the same. Mostly location changes; otherwise they're much as they were before.

C is having a slumber party for her birthday in a couple of weeks. She's pretty excited about it although a bit bummed that I put a cap on the invite limit - only 4 invited. I'm just not up to more than that at this point (my health is still not 100 per cent) and she understands that and is pumped anyway because she knows I'll set up something cool for them.

I've been a slacker in the blogging department which I have promised myself to get back on track - believe it or not writing in this thing gets my creative brainjuice flowing a little better. Probably because I'm dumping all the stuff on my mind in here, leaving my mind free to go where it wants to.

Sir T, did you get your package yet?

Ok.

Time to go beta test LOTR online. For serious!

Crazy-Go-Nuts is this weekend. As an added bonus my cousins are throwing a Fantasia party as well. Interesting times? Hells yes.

Tonight sisterinlaw is coming over so we can watch Miami Ink because we're dorks like that.

I woke up the other day with my left shin just aching, and the ache hasn't gone away, so my walking is a little stilted. Guh.

It's S's birthday on Wednesday. For his birthday I got him bbq type accessories because the man loves his bbq and because he wouldn't give me any other ideas and because I already gave the idea of a new fishing rod to sisterinlaw. He's a simple man and has a tendency not to want presents and such on his birthday or Father's day or any other day for that matter. He feels if he really wants something he'll just buy it. And he does. So it sucks for me when I'm trying to come up with imaginative gifting ideas. I have other things planned for him but that's not for public consumption.

The kids want to take him to King Buffet for his birthday - mostly they want to see him wear the crown thing they make you wear and get the little dessert and happy birthday song.

My flat iron is dying so my hair is all over the damn place. I ordered a new one through my workplace incentive program but that wasted all my points so goodbye new wok. I'm not near as vain and shallow as this blog indicates but when you are short on things to write about, there isn't much left you know?

I need to write more because my brain feels frazzled. I have written some more elsewhere but I certainly am not going to divulge that information.

Time to submit this puppy and get the kids to school.

There are so many many things wrong in this story I don't even know where to start.

My chest feels like an elephant is sleeping on it. Woo.

Got my taxes done! Woo!

In a fit of niceness, I bought my mother-in-law a card that says I'm proud of her accomplishments. Because in spite of the fact that she drives me around the bend, I really am. She's doing well in school and has an A average, something she didn't think she could accomplish. Sometimes she's too hard on herself - she was upset because she only got 22/30 on the last test - um, hi? That's crazy talk.

My friend Hammer is going away on a cruise this weekend. I'm hella jealous but also very excited for her - she and her hubby definitely need "them" time.

If someone writes a paean about you, is it ok to be flattered?

C is listening to Avril Lavigne on her mp3 player right now. The kid is happier than a clam that I finally got around to downloading a bunch of her song requests - she had a list, see. But I kept forgetting (read: procrastinating) but then I remembered (read: found time at around 2 in the morning one night) and now she's a happy little kid indeed.

K is mumbling and bumbling about with his light-up sword we got him at Medieval Times a few weeks ago. It lights up all crazy-cool. Heck, I want a light-up Medieval Times sword!

Next weekend is that gathering thing my cousins and I do - I'm very excited! S is taking the kids to go clean up one of our local nature trails with his work. It's something they started last year, and it's a great program. The workplace does it to honor Earth Day and whatnot, they clean up the park all morning, go have some lunch and they even have prizes and little handouts for the most interesting garbage, the wackiest stuff, etc. Some of last year's haul included a hockey net, a toilet brush, the fan you find at the front of a schoolbus, half a boot, a tent, a roll of carpeting... there's more but I can't think of it right now.

ok, so i left this blog update thinger running for a few hours before remembering I had it up. Mea culpa. Let's post this puppy and go back to resting (stupid head cold)

Went and got my hair cut last night. Took my sisterinlaw along and convinced her to cut hers as well. It looks so cute! Seriously.

Saw M's baby last night for a little bit - gosh she is so tiny. And cute. And was being all social with me, yay!

Friday is the buck and doe meeting for a friend's wedding, I have to think up some ideas for it between now and then. My thinking cap is a little askew due to the cold meds, but I'm sure I'll pull through somehow.

S's birthday is next week. I asked him what he wanted and he said a fishing pole. So you know what he's getting? A fishing pole. He has it in his noggin to start fishing again - who am I to argue?

C's birthday is coming up, I'm going to have to speed up the boa-making process.

Tired and don't wanna go to work. But hafta. Have a good day

I had some hours banked from overtime last week, and I feel kinda cruddy, so hooray for being able to go home without penalty.

Easter was quite the ride but I'm not in the mood to talk about it.

i could have been learning something, oh well you know what i mean
i've done this before and i will do it again
come on and kill me baby, while you smile like a friend
oh and i'll come running just to do it again

I have had that Pulp song in my head for a week straight.

What I love about Pulp is that they are so cheeky and comfortable in the knowledge that they're tongue-in-cheek disco/mod.

Ok, I'm seriously feeling dizzy so I'm going to lie down.

Been a while since I've heard a Depeche Mode song. Hrm.

So I overslept and was in a mad rush this morning to get the kids off to school. I managed to do so, thank goodness. Then I went out and got them some Easter goodies. I actually found a skip-it with a bona fide strawberry full of beads at the end of it. God bless the Dollarama. C is going to have kittens when she sees it. They also had nerf-like rocket launchers so I got one for K.

Sped home, took a shower, cursed because blowdryer is dead and I had to tie my hair up in a bun because it was still wet. Air conditioning was on at the office, so I froze my bitties off. Funny thing - took the bun out of my hair just now, and there are still wet parts. Hair smells like Johnson's no more tears shampoo. This is not by accident.

It snowed a little today which is completely depressing, but I'll get over it.

MIL's birthday is on Saturday and FIL is planning a surprise dinner for her. I'm glad for FIL's thoughtfulness but also think what the hell - she bitched for us not to have a dinner for her last year, then bitched about it afterward that we never held one. Um. You can't have it both ways lady. Anyway. S has bought her a card and not much else - I have no idea what to do but I can't afford to go out and buy her anything. It's his effing mother, I'm tired of doing all the gift shopping for his family, but what really burns my ass is that if he neglects to pick something up, somehow it is going to be my fault. Le sigh.

I still can't believe it's almost Easter.

Sometimes my job really irritates me. Or rather, the people I deal with on the phone irritate me. I'm sorry that you fucked up. I'm sorry that I refuse to take the blame for it. I'm sorry that you aren't willing to try at least one of the 3 resolutions I suggest and provide for you on a platter. Click. Bang.

But the nice thing is, I come home, and it's forgotten, and I don't care.

I was never able to say that about my previous job, as anyone who's kept up with this blog or spoken to me can attest. I was a shadow of a person there, completely lost. Completely.

I've felt the itch to write more things of late. This is good, and something I haven't felt in a long while.

Parent Advisory Council meeting tonight. It dragged on till about quarter to ten. Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. We kept trying to move the topics but people just kept going on and on. I mean the questions and discussions were relevant and all, but come ON people. Some of us can't spend all night here. Sister in law was awesome enough to watch the kiddos while I was doing it.

Have you ever had your words completely misconstrued? And then you don't even know if it's worth trying to explain it, because the explanation is either too long or will just end up in further misunderstanding? Yeah. That didn't happen at the meeting, but it's happened with other stuff recently. I don't really know what to do about it.

The thing is, when I write something, how it is received all depends on the reader, and what mood they are in, and other external stimuli that I have absolutely no control over. That is fine, but sometimes it causes me to pause, revise, or withhold my words, and that bothers me.

That's why I'm very, very selective about who I let in, writing-wise. Oh sure I blabber on and on in this blog type thing but it's only a surface scratch. That whole duck analogy - still on the surface, paddling like mad below.

No rhyme or reason for today's post. Just letting all the words pour out, because they are begging me to.

No idea where the title came from. My Noggin, I guess.

Spent the weekend at my cousin Lola's house, and we brought the Wii. I'm pretty sure her hubby is now enamored with the system. S and I are comtemplating just how long he'll go without one - I'm figuring one more visit with the system may push him over the edge.

There has been a lot of introspection going on with me of late. Perhaps its the season shifting that is causing the tectonic shift in my thought processes. I don't know.

This weekend is Easter weekend of course, and with it brings a whole new set of problems: how do you make egg trails when you own a cat that loves to bat things around?

C actually made hazardous mention of the idea that maybe Mr. Bunny and his mate S. Claus don't exist. Nobody at school has been saying anything - she just drew up the conclusion on her own. I asked her why. Then she mulled it over and recanted. She said there is probably for sure a Santa, because she was sure there wasn't but then he brought her exactly what she asked for at Christmas and there was no possible way that S & I would have got these obscure requests. So if Mr. Claus exists, maybe E. Bunny does too. We had a talk about faith - believing in what you can't see. We also had talks about Jesus - I think the religious aspect of these holidays is what is causing the counter-point of "why do these figments exist?"

This whole scandalous conversation thankfully went down without K in our presence. But it got me thinking - I mean, I can't really pinpoint the time that I stopped believing. I think it just happened slowly, in increments, until that last bastion of magic in my life crawled away when I wasn't looking. Sad really when you think on it. I figure if I'm lucky, if I'm very lucky, C will believe for one more year, and then she'll be done. That's just the way C is, but is it silly that I find that just a wee bit heartbreaking?