Today my Dad turned 54. I called, wished him a happy birthday, and then hung up and cried just a tiny bit because it's stuff like this that makes me miss them so much.

Today my mother turned 54. She looks more like 45. Hope I'm that lucky.

I called, wished her a happy birthday, had a good laugh with her on the phone. I miss her so much. Mom, come home soon.

Watch Coraline. It's worth it.

I've been busy. Two weddings and a crazy cat escapade. Too much to write at the moment but I'll try. My cousin JP got married on June 27. It was a lovely wedding and thankfully we made it to see her get married- we took back roads. The 400 was plugged up due to a motorcycle accident, so a lot of the family ended up missing the vows because of it. JP looked stunning and I am so happy for her. It was nice to see family as well, and my Dad came to the wedding too which was especially nice as I hadn't seen him in months (Parents are still in Mexico).

The week-end after that was a bachelorette thing for my brother-in-law's fiancee KT. We went to the spa during the day and then out for supper that evening, then the other girls went out drinking but C and I went home. C was in the wedding party as well and a very thoughtful KT planned for her to be included in the spa and dinner. C had a great time, and oh my god, she is growing by leaps and bounds. I don't know what else to say except that my heart leaps into my throat when I look at her now.

During the week I managed to sneak in a breakfast with my dear friend Sir T. He brought me up to date on his shenanigans (as usual, they were numerous and equal parts tragic and funny) and I gave him a briefing on all that was going on in my life. The event was a short one but as always, a good one. I've missed talking with him - it's nice having a male perspective on things. Plus it's good having someone to talk to that I don't have to explain myself much - he "gets it".

The week-end after that was of course, M & KT's wedding. As my hubby S, the kids and I were all in it, it made for a very long day, but let me tell you something - I have not had that much fun while still being in the wedding party, in a very very long time. C, oh my god, she grew by leaps and bounds and she looked so much older than she is. KT's aunt wanted to hook her up with this 18 year old boy, S just about had a cow when he heard it and reminded the aunt that our daughter is ELEVEN.

The ceremony was moving, the dinner was fabulous, the speeches were a riot (highlights: my kids teasing the bride and groom in their speeches about getting them some more cousins; one of the groomsmen sang "500 miles" and oh my god, hilarious! The best speech ever), and the dancing, fantastic. They had a really great DJ that worked the crowd and knew when to pick things up and calm them down again. I was exhausted but exuberant. Of all things, I wished this day would be a happy and memorable one for them, and the wish came true. SS was very happy for his brother, and also had a great time.

This week-end is my brother's Buck & Doe, I get to take care of the twins during the day while MW does her running around and R goes to a golf tournament. C will also be helping me take care of my little turkeys. That night we will go and help out as we can, and have another good time. My brother asked me to be the MC for his wedding and I couldn't be happier, but now I have the difficult task of putting together a speech that won't make me burst into tears. I love R so much and we have been through so many difficult things, and I am so happy and proud of him, I'm tearing up just thinking about it. Happy tears, happy tears, but tears nontheless.

There's more in between all that but this will do for now.

Oh wait - the cat episode. Right. So mischief got free from the backyard, the neighbor's kid came knocking at our door asking to get her. S had to go out and rescue her, but she was hissing, spitting, shitting, biting, everything possible - she was very very scared and agitated. We managed to get her into her carry cage but not without S getting multiple scratch and bite wounds. We took her to the vet and him to the hospital. The vet had to sedate her to check her out - her shots were up to date, no broken bones (thank god), no visible signs of getting hurt - the vet said "whatever happened, it spooked her something awful". S went on heavy meds to prevent cat scratch fever or whatever, mischief is under quarantine for the next 10 days (side note: the health unit quarantines animals 7-10 days because by then THEY DIE IF THEY HAVE RABIES. They just don't tell you that.) the first day or so, she growled at everyone but me, would only let me near her, feed her, etc. We were worried something fierce and I think I cried for about an hour one night at the thought of having to let her go if she didn't get better. She has finally come around though and is actually downright friendly with everyone (something she never really was before - she would tolerate your presence if you weren't one of her family but that would be about it). Whooboy. What a month it's been.

To quote a friend of mine, "it's like the 70's and 80's died today". Both Michael Jackson & Farrah Fawcett. End of an era, and all that rot.

I loved MJ when I was a kid. Thought he was the bees' knees and all that. Then he got all weird and yeah, no thanks. Farrah Fawcett was draped on the walls of more teenage boys than you could shake a stick at, I've no doubt of this, and she was a pretty interesting lady to boot.

I have more to say on this but I'm tired, I'm fighting off a crazy tonsil infection thing that is playing havoc with my sweetmeats among other body parts. Cheers.

Today was also the last day of school, hurrah!

Kermit singing "Needle in the Hay"

(Find more at sadkermit.com)

Who watches "Fringe" and why was I not informed about how good it is? Shows that are intriguing and make me actually laugh out loud for reals are few and far between, and I really like this one. John Noble won me over from word one - seriously. Even S loves it, but then again, he loves Smallville, something I only moderately forgive him for loving. (Insert very long rant about how much Smallville sucks here.)  

Speaking of shows that are true and wonderful diamonds in the rough that I call "reality tv overdose", I'm glad that "Chuck" got renewed, boo to having to wait until next March to see anything, but what can you do huh?  

Not sure what I feel about how "How I Met Your Mother" ended this season, but I'm willing to stick it out. Wondering how long Dexter will continue to be brilliant, hoping they only let the show run until it runs out of steam rather than beat a dead horse. Remaining hopeful for next season.  

I gave up completely on Mad Men, which is a bit heartbreaking because it had soooo much potential in Season One but Season 2 left me cold.  

C has become hooked on CSI so I've been watching seasons 1-7 with her as we have them all on DVD - I feel it's important to watch with her, to help her understand more subtle plot points but also to be available for discussions the episodes inevitably bring. She's pretty astute and always has been, and has no trouble discerning between what is real and what is fiction, and she's drawn her own conclusions about a lot of things but she likes my feedback, and I like that she still seeks it. It's win-win, if you ask me.  

This became longer than I intended - I really only wanted to comment on Fringe. So yeah. It's awesome.

It's stormy outside and the kids said it was a "ripoff" that school wasn't cancelled. For a bit of rain? Give me a break.

I'm going to start taking vitamin B6 & B12 to see if that helps me some with some of my problems. Long shot but you never know.

I came thisclose to deleting my facebook the other day. I just can't be bothered with it and I ignore about 90% of the invites to events, games, useless applications, etc. At the same time, some of the people I want to keep in contact with use facebook exclusively. Bleh. I hate feeling cornered into using a social networking site that is useless to me. I was thrilled when myspace stopped being in vogue, I'm praying that happens to facebook sometime soon but I doubt it.

Twitter is the next "big thing" which I've been using for some time for "mini posts" about absolutely nothing with zero value aside from mild entertainment. What I like about it is, I'm not forced into using it to communicate with people because nobody in their right mind would use twitter as their primary communication tool. For those of you in the know, here's a fun drinking game - have a drink every time p diddy mentions the phrase "locked in" or any of it's variants. I get what he's doing, it's the whole "stay positive" vibe, and I can't fault him for that, but it is amusing.

Ok time to see if my get up and go just got up and went without me.

Too lazy to make my own site layout, I yoinked one from btemplates.com. I reckon it looks as chaotic as I feel lately.

The weekend was hectic, with C having Guides camp (what craptastic weather they had), my brother-in-law's buck and doe, and Mother's Day. 

I lost my cell phone. That really, really sucked. It's like losing a limb for me because I used that thing as a planner, phone book, alarm (to remind me to take meds), you name it. Whoever out there that has it now, I hope you burn a thousand fiery deaths. I am so not kidding.

On the bright side, I got a new one to replace it, for FREE, thank you Rogers. It's a texty thingy that has a little keyboard that flips out when you need it, I didn't really need that but it's nice to have. 

I had a crap day at work today, I don't even want to get into it that's how bad it was.

Mother's Day was nice, K made me a bookmark and a card, C made me a rain measuring thingy and a card with coupons in it. One of them is good for "one week of K and C not arguing" - fat chance of it working, but the sentiment was there. One was for 5 free hugs which is pretty magnanimous of her as she is really stingy on the hugs - always has been. 

Ok my eyes are blurry and my ears feel blocked (again and always lately)

Ciao.

Texts from last night - a website dedicated to drunken text messages. NSFW but that should go without saying.

Obscure lyrics for the win!*

I've been reading Michael Crichton books because I found a bunch at a garage sale for practically nothing. The one I am currently digesting is "The Andromeda Strain", which I'm finding mildly entertaining more than I normally would as it happens that this book is often thought of when pandemics come into the foreground. Queue in the current "swine flu" issue. As a sort of whistling in the dark method of humor, I told my husband that the swine flu must have come from space pigs landing and spreading their virus among unprepared earth swine.

I am not all frightened and "oh noes the world, she is ending!", but I am concerned more than I probably would be, as my parents are currently living in Aguascalientes. Mom emailed me today to say things were looking up though, and Mexico City is calming down some, which then sets the course for how the rest of the country responds. They are still being cautious, but they are hopeful of a swift resolution to the problem.

Anyway, back to Crichton. What I find interesting about his fiction is that what he writes is plausible. There is little in the way of a reader having to work on their suspension of disbelief because frankly - we have the technology to carry out a lot of what he suggests in his books. His published speech at the end of his most recent title, "Next", is well thought out, and I have to agree with his arguments with regards to gene patenting and its inherent problems. I find it frightening (but not surprising) that there are recent claims that a doctor has successfully managed to clone human beings. More frightening is the possibility of the U.S. taxpayers' funds being portioned towards research and development for human cloning. Frightening, but not surprising.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not an alarmist. I am far from building a panic room and preparing for the end times, or any of that jazz. But it stands to reason that there are plenty of moral, ethical, nevermind scientific, reasons why this is so wrong. I understand the more noble reasoning behind it - "we could build parts for transplants, research diseases and cures, bla bla bla!" Yeah, that's great, but at what cost? There is always the seedier side to the coin, and let's not kid ourselves, if there's something to be exploited in this, it will.

Now I'm just rambling and tired. And wishing I had someone to parry all this off of. Off of? Off with? Something something. Time for bed now I think.

*Ok, I'll spill - the title of this post is a line from the lyrics to the song "Andromeda" by Zucker Baby.

The next time one of my culinary experiments fail, I will refer to this and not feel so bad:

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Hammer, check out the twilight cake, talk about hilarious.

My parents are living in Aguascalientes now, so clearly I'm worried about this whole swine flu mess.

I got an email from mom, per my tweets to the right there: 

The people that died in Aguas were from Mex City. We have wipes and hand sanitizer everywhere and masks, even at the grocery stores. Yesterday and today dad is working from home, the schools are closed until May 06,but so far all business is open. Due to this flu and the 4 deaths the Gov't has closed the Feria & any activity such as soccer games bull fights etc are all closed. 

So yeah. I'm more than a little concerned. I understand that the media tends to spin these things out of proportion, but I find it hard to guffaw at this when it affects the people I love. So if you are the praying kind, would you mind kicking one towards my parents' general direction?

Danke.

Grace