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| Friday, 3-Nov-2006 20:16 |
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Payback time....
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D plus one
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I know it is wrong to post a photo of somebody on the internet without them knowing, but I had to go into a neighbour's house and help clean out some of the garbage in his basement (isn't my day glam). I was pretty sure he didn't want this photo thrown out, or maybe he did. Doesn't matter now, cause it will forever be burned into the brains of those who visit my blog.
I think that is his brother behind him, but I'm not sure.
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| Thursday, 2-Nov-2006 22:12 |
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I hate when she's right...
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Alfred E. Neuman
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Bobo E. Neuman
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Of course I think both my children are gorgeous. If I didn't I would be like one of those mother's that eats her young. So of course I think Mr. Bobo is the sweetest little boy to walk the planet. His evil sister is always making fun of him and just plain pushing his buttons. She told him a few weeks ago he looks just like Alfred E. Neuman. He got pissed off, even though he has never seen Mad Magazine before, or knows who is Alfred is. He just intuitively knew she was making fun of him.
Well, you can't imagine the horror I felt when I opened Bobo's knapsack and pulled out the proofs for his school pictures.... but you be the judge.
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| Wednesday, 1-Nov-2006 15:20 |
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Dogs or Superheroes?
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Batman and Spidey
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When you spend the week leading up to halloween scheming on how to dress your dogs - perhaps it is time to actually pro-create...
This is my neighbour D. and his crazy dogs Daisy and Max. You will remember D. from the infamous roofing job from last summer. The puppies looked very adorable, but it just seems unnatural... but not as unnatural as the 3 year old princess who wandered up to my door last night scarfing down a big can of coke. Now that is just bad parenting.
On the other hand, maybe D. should just stick with the dogs........
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| Tuesday, 31-Oct-2006 01:29 |
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Roasting Pumpkin Seeds
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Okay, so the pumpkins (all three) are carved. We made a huge mess of the entire house, but the kids had fun. Max's costume (a skeleton) is finished, despite the lack of t-shirt paint. I will be up the rest of the night sewing Frank's. Why she can't be like every other teenager in the hood and just show up in a ski jacket is beyond me.
Tomorrow will be a circus. Ball hockey for the boys is cancelled, but I still have to pick them up and get everthing ready. The house is not decorated (except for the stained-glass bats), but I am beyond caring. Doug vetoed my idea of hanging him in my 5 point roofing harness from the tree to scare the shit out of the kids coming to door.
I have buckets - literally - of candy. Remember the good old days when you thought you struck pay dirt if you scored a chocolate bar instead of the toffee broomsticks? I hope the kid in the sumo wrestling outfit shows up this year.
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| Monday, 30-Oct-2006 00:22 |
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Need Sleep..
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Lovable
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Bobo's creation
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I woke up Saturday morning had one of those hangovers where you smoked 10 too many cigarettes and should have re-thought that last shooter. The only problem was I stayed home with Mr. Bobo Friday night, baked 2 loaves of banana bread, and drank no more than a green tea. There have been those mornings where I have definitely earned the pain, but I didn't on Saturday morning. I think it was just an accumulation of all the stresses we had in our week. We relaxed for most of the weekend, so hopefully we will all be back on our game to face Monday's challenges.
I had to share a photo of our crazy cat. She is the most unaffectionate creature in the entire world. We love her despite this fact. She bites (well, actually attacks) the kids quite often too. As I said, she is not warm and fuzzy. But last week she spent almost the entire week curled up on my desk beside me just hanging and being my buddy. Animals are funny, I think they intuitively know when we just need someone close to us.
Mr. Bobo barged into the shop a night last week while I was working on some stuff. He asked if he could pick through my scrap pile and make something. Usually he gets disinterested in the workshop after 5 minutes or so. He doesn't like the noise of the tools. Well, after 45 minutes he had come up with the most wonderful creation. We went into the house and promptly painted it. So basically we did no homework or dishes, then read an extra chapter of his book.
So, the week had it high points too - oh, but Sunday morning's headache... I worked for that one.
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| Friday, 27-Oct-2006 14:11 |
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Maria's Marathon
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Happy
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Last night I had the pleasure of attending a book launch at the Italian Cultural Institute. I chocked back tears of joy as the author started reading from her book about her father’s quest to introduce Italian food to Western Canada.
Mark, Maria and I have shared many a conversation over one of their famous latté’s. They are always there to lend and ear and impart their much appreciated advice and support. They shared my little journey a few years ago when I undertook a running quest. I remember joking with Maria as we discussed the progress of her book and saying that this was her marathon.
There are many special things about these friends, but what makes them most special is how we turned a small bathroom cabinet into such a treasured friendship. You just never know in life where you will find the friends you want to grow old with. I guess that’s what makes life so cool.
She was glowing as she closed her book and ended the reading. I was honored to be in the room the moment she crossed her finish line, but I know this is not an ending for her -but just a new beginning.
I am proud of your Maria. Thanks to both you and Mark for taking me along for this ride.
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| Tuesday, 24-Oct-2006 13:04 |
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Happy Hallowe
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crafts
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gurds
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One week away from Halloween and my house is frickin' craft central. I felt I had trained my children appropriately. The rules are simple. Mommy decorates the house for the occasion in Martha Stewart fashion to piss off the neighbours and make them all look bad. They bring their kids to my house despite this fact as I give out wine to the parents in festive travel mugs and by the end of the night it all evens out. They give me shit for the stained glass bats hanging in my windows and I fill their kids pumpkin buckets with way too much candy and give them instructions to eat it as soon as they get home. The girls all come over and we make a special night of it.
This year Mr. Bobo has completely disregarded my rules of decoration and has been busy with the scissors and tape. He has decided he must decorate the house and, because I love him, I shall wince my way through this process. We have baskets of "gurds" as he call them, and he is hell bent to try to carve them. I see a visit to the emergency ward in my near future. I am going to try to convince Doug to hang from the tree with my body harness and pretend he is dead until the kids walk by... i know it will be a hard sell.
Princess is insisting she is go trick-or-treating this year. I explained she is too old now that she is in high school but she refuses to let go. I just don't want her to be one of those kids thats shows up at your door in a ski jacket with an open pillow case. I hope she will make more of an effort. She has decided to go as "bling". I am still not sure what that means, but anything will be better than the year she went as a cheerleader and I, misguidedly, put a letter on her jersey in black duct tape. Things would have been okay if she didn't ditch the home-made pom poms. Oh and perhaps I should have made the letter a "J" or "P" instead of an "X". When people asked what she was, we just said "target practice".
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| Friday, 20-Oct-2006 03:14 |
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Because God is a comedian on cable television Max
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I miss my garden
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What a crazy week... I thought my post might be about the ephiphany I had while shopping at Costco. I haven't had a membership for years, but I went with some friends. As I was passing through the isle (the same isle you can buy tampons, bread and a gunsafe in) I realized there was just nothing there for me. I felt dirty and just wanted to go home. Parts of me just wanted to buy a tub of mayonaise, a club pack of condoms and and electric keyboard.... just to see the expression on the face of the girl in the checkout. I realize now that it probably wouldn't even phase her. How messed up is that? Then I thought my post might be about the attempted robbery in my workshop two days ago and the violation I felt. As I sit here writing, none of that matters since the news received this evening that cancer is touching our lives once again. We comforted our children through their tears and tucked them into bed. My sweet daughter asked for promises that everything would be okay. I wish I could just hold them forever and protect them from all the bads things in life, but I know that I can't. When I picked up Max from school today, he asked me why people would invent bad things like guns and drowing. I explained that nobody invented drowning, it just happens to humans 'cause we don't have the ability to breath underwater. "But God invented everything" he said. I don't know where he is learning about God... perhaps he is getting up in the middle of the night and watching the 500 Club? Who knows.
What I do know is that I can look around me any given point in the day and be thankful for all the special folks and things I have been given on this crazy ride we call life - yes, even the polar fleece PJ's I bought at Costo.
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| Monday, 16-Oct-2006 03:26 |
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Love Birds
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The weekend is over. It is almost midnight and the house is quiet for the first time in two days. As I look around me, it looks like a bomb hit it, or as one of my girlfriends says "it is a tip". So my house is a tip. It is every weekend now. It is the new me. My husband has pledged to try to work less and spend some more time having some fun. This has resulted in me doing the same and careing a little less about my surroundings. Our Mondays to Fridays are spent worrying about our kids, worrying about our clients, our employees, our schedules. We stress about the wars surrounding us, our parents aging, getting grocieries, and paying bills. All those basic, everyday things that we too often get caught up in....
But our weekends, well those two days are different. If you are my client, I won't return your call until Monday. Chances are if you are my husband's, he may not either (well, we are still working on that). If you come to my door for a visit on Saturday morning, we may drag you in for a latte and you won't get out of our black hole of relaxation for hours. This weekend was amazing. We napped, played piano, puttered in the yard and abandoned the children for a Saturday night out at the movies with some friends. We tried to do a chore in the house which resulted in us having no electricity in our living room, porch or front hallway. Clearly that was the "Weekend God" telling us it could have also waited till Monday. Sunday was fun. We got several surprise visits from friends which resulted in a nice little stroll/shop along Queen West. Our shopping parlayed into drinks with more friends who also stopped by unexpectedly. From there we moved into the dining room to eat take-out food on my grandma's china dishes with a nice bottle of red. The left-overs got shoved into the fridge just in time to read Mr. Bobo his bedtime story and finish off with a cuddle in front of the tv with my baby girl. So here I sit, the house still a tip. It shall remain that way until I get up in the morning, turn on Monday mode and suddenly start caring again.
Today's photo is that of a lamp I bought today for 20 bucks. I love it, but not because it was cheap. I love it 'cause somebody took the time to carve it by hand and paint it up... I can only hope that somebody cares as much about something I have made by hand 50 years from now. It is also kind of significant because I bought it today while shopping with a couple who were carrying around their beautiful 3 month old baby and looking pretty happy that they had finally found each other in life. Also significant 'cause one of my best friends and hear beau who stopped by were doing so to show off the sports car she was sporting on her finger in the form of a diamond, and it is nice to see that committment they have made to each other.
There is a saying that goes something like "don't marry the person you can live the rest of your life with, marry the person you can't live the rest of your life without".... wise words, I know, 'cause I did it.
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| Wednesday, 11-Oct-2006 18:35 |
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Ivory Keys
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Music
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This is my piano. It is older than my house, which was built in 1903. It is not the best, but can sound pretty good when it is in tune. I have always wanted one. For whatever reason, I didn't have one when I was younger. I bought the house I live in now 'cause I knew I could fit one in. I was thinking my husband was going to get me one when I turned 40. He didn't. That is not a complaint. Anyhow, a client/mother of a friend was moving and gave me this several years ago. I only had to pay to get it delivered. It was worth the 250 bucks.
The kids smash around on it, but not much. Max has a real talent, but is reluctant to start lessons. He did say he would think about it. I play it all the time. Not very well of course, but that all changes at 3:45 today when I walk into The Royal Conservatory of Music for my first, official lesson. I am pumped.
See, you are never too old to learn new things.
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Our home, built in 1885, has my wife's piano in it. The piano, an upright grand, was my wife's grandmother's, bought for her when she was a little girl. It was an honor when the piano passed from Aunt Geri to our home, and now my daughter has been taking lessons for years and can play a decent tune on it. Perhaps one day it will be moved into her home.