Okay, so I keep getting told to update my blog. Well, fine. Apparently 3 weeks is too long in between posts. Unfortunately, I agree with him.

So, let's see where was I...

It seems I last posted the day before Cheruby returned from his family reunion trip to Atlanta, Michigan. So let me tell you about his return because I know you all want to know. Heh.

Cheruby's Auntie K has two wonderful dogs, Julie and Sonny. Sonny looks like a teddy bear - it's really amazing how much he looks a teddy bear. Sooo cute! On the trip, Cheruby had told many stories and impressed upon her and his dad about my fat cat who has a protective (mean) streak regarding dogs who are much bigger than him in his house. Seems reasonable to me. But since Auntie K's dogs are so nice, she thought that it would be impossible for any cat to hold a grudge since they don't react to cats. So she had Sonny on a very short leash many feet away from the unhappy fat cat. I was willing to let it happen, but then Seraphy (Cheruby's dad) let the other dog out of the basement and he was roaming free. Oops. With much yelling and almost freaking out, Auntie K and I watched the unhappy situation unfold - her trapped holding the other dog and me trapped under my laptop and camera on the couch. The fat cat felt trapped as he tried to leave the room one way - dog in the way. Then he decided he'd leave the room the other way - dog in the way. Trapped in a room with a dog with a dog in both exits, he became AggressOR, the Fat One. He apparently tried to bite during his three flying sideways claw attacks at the dog who came away with a nick in her ear and a scratch down her back. Cheruby's dainty cat was scared and ran and dumb bunny got out of dodge too, but the Fat One had to be forcibly removed from the dog. Sticking one's hand into a frenzied cat's targeting range is, while dangerous, the only way to save the dog. I ended up with two bites (three deep tooth punctures) in the arm just above the wrist. And Cheruby and I spent his first night back in town in the emergency room and got to be known by the spacey intern as "The Cat Bite Lady." I would have preferred to spend the evening with Cheruby and his family, but that was not in the cards. In some sort of karmic balance, Auntie K found some glass in my basement by slicing her toe open on it. I don't remember any glass breaking in my basement ever so my guilt over that and her guilt over my arm (that wasn't her fault) kind of balance each other out. We tried to watch a movie later, Se7en, but I didn't make it through.

We missed a friend's birthday party that night, and I felt bad about that. We saw her later though and I remembered to tell her happy birthday.

I was supposed to spend some time with AJ that night as well. Instead, he got quite a show with the Fat One attacking the dog which he LOVED! You should ask him about it as he gets quite excited.

Only 21 days to go! Aren't you happy Rilla and Bne bugged me for an update?

I've had 4 heating companies come to the house to give me quotes on a new furnace, water heater, air conditioner, and converting my wood fireplace to a gas burning fireplace. Doesn't that sound like fun? It's so interesting how different companies give such a variety of services. One spent 15 minutes in my house and had me a quote the next day. One spent 45 minutes in my house and expected me to sign the quote for the work before he left. One spent 30 minutes here and mailed me my quote so I got it two weeks later. And one spent an hour here, has given me three follow up phone calls, followed up with my chimney sweep, has come back for a follow up visit for a half hour with a colleague, and would like Cheruby and I to come in to review the fireplace we would be getting before signing the quote. I'm expecting that last quote to be a significant amount higher than the others, but with the amount of care and attention they've taken to assess the work before they quote it, it might be worth it if I have the money. [sigh]

Speaking of money, I've had several visits to the bank and they might give me enough money to put eaves troughs on the house and replace all these appliances. Actually, that's not true, I will have enough money once I get my rebates from SaskEnergy. Good old SaskEnergy. I will have very happy new bits in my house that will make it worth more if I want to sell it. And it's already almost doubled in value since I bought it. YAY!

To make up for missing supper with AJ, we went out the next night to a little place over on 33rd St when Saigon Rose was closed. It was alright. I think I'd probably like a different dish better, but AJ really loved it. I was happy to spend the time with AJ because it seems altogether too little lately. I should probably take a little blame for that because I like to spend time at home with Cheruby.

The next night, we didn't get anyone over for movie night. Shockingly, there wasn't a lot of interest in Yankee Doodle Dandy. But that meant that we were able to go to Ril's impromptu 30th birthday party. There was ice cream cake, good friends, and some Guitar Hero. Good times.

Okay, so for those keeping track, I up to the July 27th weekend now. Friday, Kaz and Ril dropped off their new kittens for catsitting for the weekend. I was ecstatic when they said we could take them.

G&D came over on Friday night to finally watch Yankee Doodle Dandy with us. We were all equally horrified by it. Cheruby just quit singing "Over There!" I'm hoping he doesn't read this and remember to sing it again.

That Saturday was spent with my sweetie swimming and lounging in the afternoon and Sunday was spent playing Scrabble with Drang and Soc Chick instead of playing Low Life. We returned home to have the kittens stolen from under our noses. I was sad because I didn't get to see goodbye. I also wanted to give them their meat but I probably would've forgotten anyway.

Can you believe it? We're already to Monday, July 30th in my life. Heh. Suffer the excruciating details fiendish fellows who cry for an update!

I went bicycling with my friend from work and then Cheruby and I went swimming at his mom's house with Kaz and Ril. And then there was D&D on the Tuesday night before I spent my Wednesday night driving to Calgary. That started the many nights in a row of 5 hours of sleep.

I got to Calgary before midnight which I was pleased with. I still stayed up and visited with Ferlak for a couple hours before sleeping as he was leaving in the morning for a rave. Yes, that's the right Ferlak.

Work the next day was fun and I got a nice nap after work before spending a delightful evening with good friends in Calgary. We got to watch Tall One's new movie, Hot Fuzz. I have to say that with the proper introduction, this movie is completely awesome. I was told it was violent and funny, but not as gorey as a similar movie which I enjoyed except for the gore, Shaun of the Dead. Hmmm... same actor. I got home from that delightful evening to spend the rest of night until 2am with Bne. It was good to spend time with Bne even though I forgot to bring the Fourth Season of Six Feet Under.

Friday was awesome after work as I spent it with my brother and his family. Pizza for supper and watching Ghost Rider. And talking to my drunken Cheruby for over an hour was pretty awesome although it lead to the next night of 5 hours of sleep. I slept on the couch so the kids woke me up pretty early. We got them packed and were on the road by about 10:30am. I was trying to make it to Saskatoon by 6pm. We were there by just after 5 which I was impressed by as we stopped five times - once for lunch, once for gas, and three times to have the kids run around the car. They were very good and were very good for the entire time they were here. I was very, very, very pleased with my 6 year old nephew and 9 year old niece.

The first thing we did once in Saskatoon was have burgers, go to the park, get all cleaned up with showers, play a few video games, and watch a movie before bed. Sunday was even more action packed with shoe shopping to let Cheruby sleep in because I don't need more than 5 hours sleep, swimming at Cheruby's mom's, and then mom and dad got to Saskatoon. Supper at Fuddruckers and then some mini-golf left us all very tired.

Monday we had great plans, but nothing got done except for a shopping trip to Wal-Mart and a fabulous $4 pair of pants that I feel guilty about owning because of where I bought them. Evil, evil, evil and yet I succumbed to the temptation that is the low, low prices of Wal-Mart. There were a lot of video games played because grandpa said it was okay. [sigh] And after my parents took off with the kids to Nipawin (including a brief but very exciting trip to the Smuts corner for Cheruby and myself to rescue mom, dad and the kids from their unhappy car [we passed 4 other unhappy cars in the 44 kilometres to theirs,]) we enjoyed a nice quiet evening of Tetris and the Gilmore Girls.

Tuesday was supposed to be In Nomine at our house, but Cheruby forgot about AJs horrible reaction to onions and so we played at his new house instead. Despite the lack of countertop space and itty bitty bathroom, it's nice and cozy with a nice big yard that the neighbour takes care of.

We moved movie night to Wednesday last week to accommodate our camping trip to Tobin Lake, isolated Wall's Flats to be exact. Cheruby was suitably impressed by the scenic drive out there and all the lack of other people and being surrounded by wilderness. I was so happy when I saw the beauty and the memory of it came flooding back because I knew that Cheruby would be loving it even more than I was. Mom and I drove out with the kids and Cheruby went with dad to pick up the trailer. We waited and waited and waited and drove back to my aunt's house to use the phone to see when the trailer had left and went back to the campsite and there they were. I have a great picture of the directions carved in the road for us because they thought WE were lost.

First night there included hot dogs (two of which escaped digestion by diving into the fire) and smores. Mmmmm... Smores. They were awesome. Friday morning was an early morning swim for mom, my niece and I. It was so lovely and wonderful and quite chilly. I only stayed in for about a half hour. I still haven't gotten over my dislike of seaweed around my legs and not being able to see the bottom. Although the lake was so clear that even though I was into up to my chest, I could still see the bottom. I loved it. Mom was crazy and went swimming into the deeper water to some driftwood sticking up from the bottom. I know that it couldn't be that deep if there are logs sticking out of the top of the water and stuck in the bottom, but I still can't see therefore I won't go. I have this silly fear of fish nibbling me or rubbing against my legs. Ewww...

I had a nice nap while Cheruby, the kids, and dad went for a boat ride to do some fishing. Then it started to rain a little. Then dad forgot his very pretty and expensive knife on the boat and when they went back for it - the boat people had found it and put his name on it for him. It made him very happy to not have lost it and to have honest people have found it. Of course, while mom and dad were gone to find the knife, my nephew fell while trying to get on one of the top bunks and really hurt his back. It was the only time I heard him cry for his mom the whole trip. I was very proud of him for being so strong. Then we played a game before mom started cooking steaks for supper.

We had more Smores for dessert before bed and got to sleep relatively early. All that fresh air must have tuckered us all out. Of course, Cheruby had to tell some scary stories to my niece which freaked me out more than they did her. [sigh] I just can't get the images out of my head. I did help make her scream though after Cheruby told the infamous hook-hand story. I really don't like scary stories.

We were off to an early start as the wind and rain were having a really big party the next morning. It meant that we were able to get back to Nipawin to find that we were locked out of the house because my parents have changed the lock since the last time they made me a key. Oops. So we had breakfast at A&W and drove around town a bit and pointed out the historical sites to Cheruby and the kids. After we finally got into the house, we discovered that mom and dad just weren't feeling up to driving to the city again.

Cheruby, in this short time span, got some FABULOUS news. He's a quarter finalist in one of the screenplay contests he entered. He was grinning like a fool and offered to drive the kids in his car while I took some alone time driving my car back to the city. He did very well in putting on Peter and the Wolf for the kids as it put them right to sleep. They knew that their mom and dad were waiting for them at my house in Saskatoon. It was awesome to see them all lovey and huggy and happy.

We went swimming right away and this is where my niece's unfortunate wound from vacation came from. She got stung by a wasp. The poor girl, I felt so bad for her. I gave her very encourage words, but it was still her that was strong. We waited for the stinging to go down and the wasps in the yard to disperse a little before jumping into the pool. I had to rid the pool of three wasps while we played, but it was still really awesome to see my brother play with his kids in the pool. I loved it even though I got dunked and I really suck at getting dunked because I always breathe wrong.

Another evening out at Fuddruckers, but no mini-golf that night even though the kids tried to persuade us. We just headed back to my house where they played video games and Cheruby and I headed out to the Mage game we thought we'd have to miss because of camping. I was a little disappointed in the game because something really big that was supposed to happen got kiboshed by some of the other players. Poopy business really, but it made me feel better about being so late.

We hung out with the kids and my family in the morning and found some things they were missing that were likely still in Nipawin, but mostly everything was recovered. I sure did enjoy having them here. I was so scared about it and forgot that my niece is a really good kid and so is my nephew. I loved having them here and can't wait until next year to do it again.

Having company leave early enough on Sunday gave us the rest of the day to relax and recuperate from all the excitement. Oh and pig out on floats and chips and pizza and all that other bad stuff and make ourselves sick before we started being good again on Monday (I was only mildly good on Monday and today while Cheruby has been a saint.) We watched so many episodes of Gilmore Girls that Cheruby was running them all together in his head. Then we watched some more last night again. I love them. And just when Cheruby was overdosing on GG and I was counting the remaining episodes, I brought out the Third Season which made my angel laugh and laugh. I was pleased with myself.

Tonight was another fighty night in D&D and time spent doing our magey downtime stuff with Kaz and Ril. Another good night. I've been stressing about my hearing tomorrow a little today and my shoulders are aching and I'm grinding my teeth. I'm hoping everything goes well tomorrow and I really hope I don't break down crying in front of the appeal board for my eavestroughing situation. I am looking forward to being done with it though. I'll have to wait a few days for their decision about the $10,000 fine but I have every reason to be confident that I won't be fined.

I haven't been able to do any creative writing which I'm okay with given the scope of everything else I've been doing lately. None of which is work-related, but work is really stressing me out so I don't really want to talk about it anyway.

Before Cheruby went away, I bought him a present - The Writer's Toolbox. It has some gidgets and gadgets to help writers come up with things to write about. As we were exploring his new toy, he told me that he wanted to read more of my writing. That's a bit intimidating, but I'm game. It was the first thing I wanted to be when I grew up - a writer.

I was a voracious reader as a child. I used to sit hunched over with my night light shining over my shoulder onto the page when I was supposed to be sleeping. I made a fort in the bottom of my closet so that I didn't have to hunch in front of the night light anymore. I only got caught a few times, but certainly not enough to discourage me from doing it. Sometimes, I'd even go back to it the same night just after I'd been caught and told to go to sleep.

Those two ideas, writing and reading, come in a package for me. It was from my love of reading (which I still have, I just have a lot of other obligations that keep from doing just what I want - stupid needing to live and have money and be clean) that came my desire to be a writer. Then I tried it once in grade 7 and wasn't very good at it so I didn't really bother trying again after that. There are a lot of things that come easy to me on the first try and when something came along that I didn't easily pick up, I just chose to go another direction - like bowling. Bowling reasonably well is way easier than writing reasonably well.

In my foray into writing a story for my sweetheart, I realized that once I'd envisioned the ending, which I always thought was my "hard part," I was done writing the story in my head and the effort to get that down on paper, reasonably well, wasn't worth the end product for me. No one would be able to definitively tell me that I'd done a good job. I needed that a lot as a kid. Good marks meant I'd done a good job. A high score in bowling meant I'd done a good job. Someone could read my story and really like it, but someone else might think it was kind of lame. No real way to tell whether my efforts were good or not.

So, I'm going to do my best to finish my story. And read it and edit it and make it pretty and make it into something of which I can be proud. (And with that I'm reminded of the line from Alien: Resurrection, "...I am not the man with whom to fuck.")

I had high hopes for getting stuff done today. It's 3:45 and I have a clean tub, but not a clean bathroom. I have made a few Scrabble moves on Facebook. I've watched the end of The Hunt for Red October which I've come to really love after first thinking I would hate it. I started catching up on some blog reading. And now I have a sleeping cat on my chest as I blog.

I missed farmers' market, but I still have time to finish cleaning the bathroom. Tonight, I have some process writing planned for work. What could be more fun? I'll probably stick in some Lord of the Rings to keep me company.

The one thing that I love about the heat is the sleeping cats. They are so hot they don't want to move just as we humans get, but they can actually sleep. And they look dead on the carpet, other than the breathing.

So, here's an effort to get something else done today, I'm going to go get some magazine racks for Cheruby's music. I'm hoping to colour him impressed when he gets home.

There are tons of shows on television that tell us what beauty is and I'm not even going to talk about commercials. The show on right now is Plastic Makes Perfect and this particular episode is having a teenager getting a nose job. She's already a model and her parents are going along with this and even paying for it. Is it a good idea? Will it give her short term happiness that will translate into long term happiness? Just because someone doesn't have to learn to love themselves in spite of perceived defects and they have the money to fix those defects, is it really a bad thing?

Probably.

What I love about me is me. I am who I am, but I've had some rough times with liking myself because of my weight. The biggest thing that bothers me about it now is the unhealthiness of it.

I guess the thing that breaks my heart is that it takes so long for some people to learn that. I'm so scared for my niece because I don't want her to have to have that pain. The pain for me was part of what made me humble. If I hadn't gone through that, I don't know if I would be where I am today.

Everyone is different and learns differently. Maybe pain isn't necessary to learn, but maybe it is.

So if I reach my goals, I can increase that to 94 which I like better.

Well, I did it. I finally got up the nerve yesterday to talk to my neighbour. Apparently crying in front of his wife on Wednesday morning had an impact, because he wasn't angry when we started talking like I figured he would be until I gave him the letter I got from my contractor and he had to face the fact that I wasn't lying. He was nice enough and not being angry at all that I started to cry about 2 or 3 sentences into what I was trying to say. I gave him the letter and Cheruby's and my names and our phone number in case there was anything else he wanted to talk about.

He told me he didn't want to be a bitchy neighbour either which I had thought. This incident just coloured that a little. In the winter, he shoveled the sidewalk in front of the house and this spring, he put some stuff on my cedars for me. Yesterday, he mowed the part of the lawn next to the street which is impossible to get with the push mower. That's what gave me the nerve - he just did something nice for us.

Every time during this thing that I started to get upset with him, I had to remind myself that he was a nice guy and think of all the things he's done for me. (Oh yeah, he pushed my car out of a snow bank last year, too.) And remind myself of his point of view and I always felt bad for the state of his basement. It was definitely the exception when I was calling him names and Cheruby can attest to that. He got into trouble for dissing the guy a few times. Of course, that was at the whim of my moods too.

After talking to him last night, I came back into the house and let the apparently enormous amount of stress I'd been carrying around out through the usual way. (Tears, you pervs!) And then I finally got a full night's rest last night.

And today, I'm not scared to spend time in the backyard (that was a surprise to me when I realized it) and in fact am feeling inspired to do just that.

So, after my last update on my house, things have gotten a little crazier.

I finally got my estimate from the roofing people for eavestroughing on July 3. I phoned initially on April 27. That's how backed up everything is. I likely won't get eavestroughing until September or October though. It's really, really awful. I guess that's not the true awful part - that would be the registered letter I got from the City yesterday just after I got the quote for the work. It says I have to have eavestroughing on the house by July 27 or I'm going to get fined $10,000. I do get to appeal, but if that doesn't go through, I'm kind of screwed. I'm so worried about my appeal getting lost in the mail. You know, one of those things where nothing goes according to the way it normally works. I think I might send it Express Post or registered just so that I can track it.

On the other hand, I was just looking over some notes to ensure I'd done all the to do items and I saw that I had written down something cool that happened on our camping trip a few weeks ago. Cheruby and I were sitting at the picnic table and our first thought at a new sound was, "That's one HUGE mosquito!" Then we both instantly were looking around to catch a glimpse of what had to be a hummingbird, not a mosquito. It hovered just a few feet from us and let us have a good look. It was a wonderful, brief moment on our trip worth remembering.

In celebrations this weekend, we did some pretty cool stuff.

Friday after work, Cheruby and I stuck around for a while and slowly packed up to go to Lumsden for International White Trash Week. I thought I was being wimpy when I went to bed, but then I saw that it was 4 in the morning. Of course, at that time Jill was still pouring very strong spice-ed rum and cokes for a few of her guests.

We woke well after the crack of noon the next day to go gaming much later than Cheruby wanted. He went to Games Day with Jill while Ril, Kaz and I made up werewolf characters for the vampire LARP that night. We played a pack of Get of Fenris who were grumpy with the leech-ridden city. They were being contained by the Wendigo but were getting pretty uppity so we went in to show them how powerful we were and that they should stop rattling their cage. We all made it out alive too which was great. We took down five of them including the prince and sheriff. Not quite what we expected, but it worked out well for us. I did feel a little bad about killing off PCs, but Jill gave us cart-blanche for our actions. If they were stupid, we got to act accordingly. We really were looking for a fight, but we got one sooner than we thought.

To finish off our fabulous evening, we went back to the loft for more International White Trash Week celebrations. I was mixing the strong drinks this time. Gin and juice was very yummy. Ril thought so too. Heh.

Sleeping made it impossible to make it back in time for Low Life this afternoon with Drang and family, but we did get to have barbecued hot dogs for Canada Day which was yummy.

We're off to Cheruby's mom's for supper shortly and then tomorrow is more hanging out with Kaz and Ril maybe. And a friend of Cheruby's from Vancouver. Another busy, fun weekend.

Oh, and happy birthday to His Nibs. That was another fabulous reason to celebrate this weekend.

I love my house. It's a great house. Needs a little love here and there, but it's a great house.

Unfortunately, it needs a little more tender loving cash than usual. Apparently, the chimneys aren't so usable right now. And really haven't been since I bought the house. Nothing to be done now except get it fixed. So, a little trip to my bank and some internet investigations later and it may not be as bad as I originally thought.

Things to have other people do to my house:
~ replace the furnace
~ replace the fireplace
(or replace the chimneys)
~ get eavestroughs
~ replace the front step
~ possibly paint or replace the siding on the house

I'm sure my SaskEnergy house inspections will lengthen that current list, but that's a short wait for a week and a half and possibly some furnace shopping later.

My car is finally dying too, but I'm going to see how long it'll last while I really drive it into the ground. We'll just let SKYBOY live the rest of its days to the fullest without being hooked up to diagnostic machines and in surgery.

I like the word gallivanting. It makes me happier than traveling for work makes me. Don't get me wrong, I love a good trip (business or otherwise), but being away from home for the majority of three weeks is a bit much. And thus, I am happy to be home.

Some notable things that I encountered while away were
~ getting caught up on sleep
~ having a mediocre steak at a upscale steakhouse and then stealing the napkin
~ hearing about a colleague getting his nipples pierced
~ reading Cheruby's screenplay
~ learning about a new product offering at work and being brought in at the ground level
~ getting a new title and job level at work without having to take on extra responsibilities
~ losing sleep
~ running on caffiene
~ getting to meet some of my new staff for the first time
~ coming home

I don't even remember the weekend I was at home in between trips. Wait! I do remember something - spending time with AJ. That was particularly awesome. He helped me surprise Cheruby by bringing by his birthday presents while Cheruby was picking me up at the airport on Friday night. Thanks!

I opened my heart and a little girl ran out
She laughed and giggled, daring me to catch her
Dancing and spinning with a daisy in her hands
She knew I wouldn't be able to play with her long

As my thoughts drifted from the joy of being with her
And the fear of losing her started to creep in
She knew she had to return
To my heart to wait for me to let her out again

Not very poetic, but it was beautiful to me to see her playing with such pure happiness and love. She had long, dark curly hair that looked almost wild. I don't remember whether there were small flowers in her hair, but they wouldn't have been out of place. Her simple white dress was playful in the tiny details and helped show her innocence. I don't think she ever stops smiling, even when she is closed up in my heart for the wrong reasons.

June 5, 2003 3:12 PM

Notice: Porcupines are eating your hair!

Recent studies have proved that hair loss is not due to genetics at all. Instead, dream clinics showed video footage that shows rat-sized porcupines gnawing on the hair of sleeping people. Normally that wouldn't be a problem because the hair would grow back, but these particular creatures have a chemical they secrete via their claws that inhibits hair growth. Scientists are advising everyone to get stuffed octopus as these seem to be the only thing these small rodents are afraid of.

June 12, 2003 4:26 PM

Imprinting tentacle motifs on metal with a toothbrush is hard work.

Yesturday, octopus fans worldwide were fully supportive of Weetbra of Southern Saskatchewan when he set out to break the record of smallest octopus etching ever. in order to accomplish this grandiose feat he made use of toothbrush bristles! His canvas? Aluminum of course! Being watched by a team of observors for the last nine years, his efforts finally came to a halt today with great fanfare. When asked why he did it he responded that all his life he was in awe of the stupidity of people who were devoted to idiotic things, and he had to show them all what true devotion to a worthwhile cause was. I think we can all agree that he has proved his point. Amazing man. I really think he is going to be awarded a Noble Prize this year - if there is any justice in the world.

There are a few things I've been meaning to mention.

1. Thank you, Owen, for introducing me to papadums. The healthy equivalent to chips.

2. I can't remember anymore. All the bits of my brain have fallen out somewhere along the way this week.

I leave again on Tuesday night for Toronto this time. I will get to have supper with some of my staff and be enjoying every moment of it. I'll be around another time this summer as well and actually make a trip out there specifically to go check in on them. It'll be good and I'll be driving in Toronto. No problem, right?

It's Cheruby's birthday next weekend. I'm totally looking forward to going camping with him and his dad and uncle.

Oh, I remember!

2. Thank you to Furlak for Blue Moon City that finally found its way to me through Bne's emotional mom.

3. Thanks to my brother for the First Season of Fraggle Rock. It's AWESOME!!

Congratulations to Cheruby for finishing his screenplay and submitting it to people to review and possible get money. He did that today. If you see him around, tell him that he done good. He spent some time screaming into pillows today.

This weekend, there's company in from Edmonton although not the usual large crowd what with it being the Father's Day weekend. Slarpcon is missing out.

Let's start with the fact that I loved the homemade red wine, a French Merlot. I didn't try the white.

The first course was the roast suckling pig on a bed of jellyfish. Never had jellyfish? Well, let me save you the trouble. Chewy, rubbery and crunchy all at the same time with very little actual flavour except the sesame oil in which it was cooked. The skin of the pig was very crunchy.

Course two was my favourite of the evening if you don't include the sweets. It was a birdsnest made from deep fried grated potatoes bits on a bed of lettuce with lemon slices and marishino cherries for garnish. Inside the birdsnest was scallops, shrimp, squid with mixed vegetables of carrots, celery, snow peas, and mushrooms. I didn't have the shrimp or the squid, but the scallops were yummy as were the veggies I ate which excluded the mushrooms. There was some sort of sauce of course, but I can't really describe the taste.

Shrimp balls with crab claws came next. The crab claw was good, but I didn't care for the texture of the shrimp ball. It was about as big as a squished baseball. I think there were either noodles or coconut bits deep fried on the outside of the ball.

The fourth course was the shark fin soup. It had crab meat and shark fin in it, but tasted mostly like the sauce on the birdsnest.

Somewhere in those first four courses, cognac was served and we discussed how much our friend, the bride, looked like Lucy Lui.

Next came the fried crispy noodles with chopped up lobster bits with cream sauce on top. I had a lobster claw and some noodles. Not being a big fan of lobster, it was okay, but others were loving it. The lobsters' beady eyes were looking at me funny.

I will be trying to forget course six for a long time. There was a gelatinous, bland seafood of some sort which we learned later on was sea cucumber. Very large mushroom caps and sliced mushroom caps that looked like meat slices were the other main parts of the dish. Thank goodness for the delicious baby bok choy in this dish otherwise I'm not sure I would have made it through. Well, that and the whole glass of wine I downed with this dish.

It was about now in the evening that the head table guests at the wedding came around to every table to thank us for coming. Lucy Lui had changed a course or so before this into her red dress from her white dress. I had some time to let my tummy settle after those mushrooms. Bleargh.

The seventh course was an almost whole (no head or feet) roasted chicken chopped up into bits. I had some breast. There were a few people at the table who'd had very little to eat to this point. There were also some tasty styrofoam chips that were white and pink that came with the chicken. I have no idea what they really were and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.

A whole pickerel was next on the chopping block. It's beady eyes were also staring at me and were definitely worse than the lobster beady eyes. Funny, rolly-poll fish heads just occurred to me now. Anyway, the fish was alright, just seemed to greasy to be good.

Course nine was seafood fried rice with shrimp and scallop bits. Familiar and therefore a favourite at the table as well.

The tenth course was the final real food course before dessert. Noodles with small mushrooms slices. This dish tasted like sesame too.

Next came cookies which were very sweet. Well, one was very sweet and yummy and the other was covered in sesame seeds and was a bit cake-like and less sweet.

Lastly, cake was our twelfth course. It wasn't the real wedding cake as there wasn't enough to go around, but the CostCo slab cake was treat enough after the evening of uncertain food adventures. The real wedding cake would have been far better. Three layers with the top layer being marble chocolate and vanilla cake with chocolate filling, middle layer being chocolate cake with vanilla filling and bottom layer being vanilla cake with raspberry filling.

Other highlights of the evening were applause at the bride's eyebrows being waxed (she's really not a girly-girl) and the blind-folded groom going after the garter with chopsticks.

Thanks for being such a great date, neuba.

The next three weeks are booked. This Wednesday, I'm going to Edmonton and working from our office there for a few days. Then on Saturday, I get to go to a traditional Chinese wedding with Neuba and I'm very excited. I come home on Sunday, just so that I can leave again on Tuesday night to go to Winnipeg for work for Wednesday and Thursday. Then I get a whole 5 days at home before going to Toronto the next Tuesday night until Friday which was supposed to be a vacation day. Phew! I'm tired just reading all that.

Of course, all this travel is because I'm going to be working on an exciting project at work. I'm a little nervous because I haven't worked on a project like this before and I have other stuff on the go that's just as important, but not as high profile. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

The weekend after I return from Toronto, Cheruby and I are going camping and then the weekend after that is the July long weekend. And then I think life is a little more settled in July, but it might not be by the time I get there. Except that I have plans and an appointment to see a psychic on July 12th with Ril and cenobyte.

All these plans, or the vast majority, got planned today. And I also solidified my vacation plans for August where I'm going to go pick up my niece and nephew from Calgary on the long weekend, then have my mom and dad come get them from Saskatoon. Then have my brother and sister-in-law come get them the next weekend where they will possibly come camping with us or just join us or something. Anyway, the dates for those plans were confirmed today too.

And I'm already dreaming of going to San Francisco this fall.

We went over to Cheruby's mom's this afternoon because she has a pool and it was hot and I like swimming. We also ate her food. Life is good. My busy schedule today is:

• swimming while the sun is out


• nap


• attend Rilla, Em, and Deb's smashing party

Sometimes, it's hard to imagine things being better. But then, I get all needy and want all my cool friends to live close by and none of us ever have to work, we can all just hang out, play games, nap, sleep in, and eat nachoes. Then our hobbies would rule our lives. How cool would that be?

Honestly, I get a certain amount of self esteem from being paid to do a job so that probably wouldn't be ideal for me. Unless, of course, I could constantly being doing nice things for other people who said, "Thanks, you're awesome," a lot. Then I might be able to dig it long term. Or maybe, I could travel like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and join the United Nations. Maybe that would be good to do, but then I'd miss out on the constant party my friends were having. That would never do. Maybe I could just convince them all to come with me and then we'd do a lot more good and make a bigger difference.

And maybe, just knowing my friends are happy is good enough. Yeah, that's enough. Well, that and naps.

Apparently, it takes almost 2 hours to flip through over 800 tarot decks. I was inspired by AJ's recent reading for Ril as well as a conversation I was having with her. I told her that I wasn't sure if I wanted a tarot deck. Maybe I'm reluctant because I don't want to tempt myself in believing in it too much. They are a guidance tool, a way to help you look at a situation differently. I don't want it to be true. Cheruby's first reading for me was about us and I didn't like what it had to say - everything long term was icky. I haven't wanted anything to do with them since then. I couldn't think of way to interpret the cards that wasn't bad.

Cheruby and I were in Witch's Brew last weekend where we perused the tarot. I picked up a few decks and then pointed to one and said, "That one." I knew it immediately from my last review of tarot decks from the website in March, but there were WAY less decks then. It certainly didn't take me 2 hours to review them and discuss the options with Cheruby.

In this last review, I had to set my criteria of what I would and wouldn't like so that it was easier to identify. I don't like ones that use non-traditional names for the cards. That cuts out a lot of them. Oddly enough, I don't like ones with animals as the main characters. I don't like ones where the cards have named characters like the Legend: Arthurian Tarot deck. That one would have made it except for the naming thing. It bugged me too much. And there was one erotic deck that I quite liked as well.

Having said all that, I will never buy a tarot deck for myself. The superstition exists that a tarot deck should be bought for you by someone else. And yes, it is just that, a superstition. However, if I'm going to have a tarot deck, I might as well follow the superstitions. Maybe I'd like one afterall. All the ones I like are on My Wish List.

I'm a little crazy sometimes, and I figure, how can that be boring? And yet, I think I'm pretty boring right now. Nothing really going on of note in my life that would spark a conversation.

How's the whole live-in situation? Really great. I still want to spend most of my time with him.

Doing anything besides hanging out with the stable boy? Not really. I mean, there's the games - Mage, In Nomine, D&D, and Low Life, but not a whole lot else. Haven't been to many movies lately. Spending time with friends as usual, but I won't talk about that. I mean, I wouldn't want to be considered a gossip or anything. ;)

Working on any projects? Tons of stuff at work that I'm feeling pretty good about but that's boring as hell to talk about. Well, I should be doing all kinds of stuff around the house, but I'd rather spend time hanging out with the stable boy. I've been playing too much Text Twist this week too.

I got to be a book geek on the weekend and spend my $30 that I got for my birthday and the bookstore. And then there was the $100 award I got at work for being so cool. I spent that on books too. I officially spent about $90 on books last weekend and ordered one that I should get this weekend. It's pretty awesome to spend that much money on books. My bag from the bookstore broke from the weight of it all. Heh.

The Little One got attacked by one of the other cats and got a couple wounds where her fur had been pulled out along with some skin. She's healing okay, but they're at the perfect spot on the back of her neck to scratch.

In an effort to be less boring, I will be hanging out with more friends in person, not just Cheruby and reading something. My Post Secret books are great, but they are really personal and I don't know that I want to talk about them. I like to have the secrets to myself and what kind of life those people really live.

Oh, and welcome, to the blogging world, AJ!

Link: The Greek Mythology Personality Test written by Aleph_Nine on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

The best part about catching up with friends you haven't seen in a long time is that you get to give an overview of the best things in your life. And I got reminded over and over again how freaking good I've got things right now. I mean, I get to genuinely say that I love my job. I am on my way to owning my home. I have this fantastic guy who takes care of me and makes me laugh and smile and cry with joy. We have three cats who provide endless entertainment and love.

I got to see the couple from down under and the couple from Los Gatos. And I got a picture of the sisters and hungry folks who like dry ribs.

I think this was the first time I'd heard Cheruby play just by himself. And I could hear HIM in the music and it was so beautiful that I was crying every time. I know I'm a suck and I love every moment of feeling as much as I do because life wouldn't be as good otherwise.

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Cheruby started out my birthday on the drive home after Mage by asking me over and over again what time it was - just looking for midnight. Well, I noticed that the Shoppers Drugmart was closed. I had to tell him it was after midnight and thusly he sang to me in the car through my protestations that I wasn't born until 1:15 in the afternoon on May 13th.

He really wanted me to have my birthday present after we were in the house so I finally agreed. I "unwrapped" it by taking it out from its hiding place - Gilmore Girls Season 1. Way to go Cheruby! He's awesome.

We watched the first episode last night and I cried, of course. I'm such a suck and I love it.

All the caffeine I had at the game last night meant I didn't sleep until after 4 a.m. and then got up at 9:30 when my wonderful mother phoned to wish me a happy birthday. I didn't get out of bed in time to answer the phone so she sang happy birthday to my answering machine. And then Owen called and sang to me again. It's been a good day. Jeremy's mom came over for breakfast wich was a little late because I didn't get at it early enough. C'est la vie.

And I get to see my mom tonight too. How wonderful is that?

It’s 2:30 in the morning the night before my brother’s wedding. His fiancé and my niece are staying at a hotel tonight so the only people in the house are my parents, Cheruby, myself, my nephew, and my brother. The first five people on that list have been in bed since about 10 which means my brother just got home.

I don’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. My brother’s friends kindly broke into the house through the front window as the house keys were with his clothes at the best man’s house. Thoughts should now be wandering to the various ideas of what my brother was wearing.

Spandex biking shorts was the most decent thing he had on.

My brother is six feet tall and weighs 250 pounds. He’s a big man. He played football with all these friends that kindly dropped him off.

The first thing I recognized in my sleepiness and in the darkness of downstairs was a slight twirling in his “shirt.” That’s not right. Then he moved into the porch light. Lace? Scoop neck? Oh my goodness! I will never forget the sight of my brother standing in full light, defending his outfit mightily by saying, “SSSHHHHH,” very loudly at the end of statements like, “I put this on while I sober,” and “You saw nothinG!” Of course, my favourite will always be, “What? You don’t like this?” whilst rubbing his chest.

Then he tried to take the nice white lace dress off. There were a few ripping sounds from the kitchen as he was trying not to let me see him. I went to investigate and found him, defeated, with the dress still on. I giggled some more. Then I saw him try again which revealed more of what will stay with be to the end of my days – a red strapless bra. Around his waist.

The boys kept trying to break in the front window after my brother kept closing it. They were looking for the friend who’d actually made it through the window into the house. He’d given me a hug and asked me where my parents were. I was laughing too hard to think that telling him might be a bad idea. The boys at the window were threatening to leave him there. My brother’s friends from high school are a funny bunch and boy were they making me laugh. Wade, Rube, Shane. The best man was probably out there somewhere in the night too, but I didn’t get a chance to see him.

As I watched him undress the rest of the way in his room, I heard more ripping as he removed something from the lower half of his body that wasn’t the spandex. I must have missed something else – lacy underpants, perhaps. I wasn’t too concerned because I’d see enough to have me giggling so vociferously that Cheruby queried about whether someone had just poured 4 shots of alcohol down my throat as I came back to bed.

Just before he headed for bed, he came to the door of my room and threatened Cheruby and I.

And within minutes his stumbling into the house and laying his threats of never revealing what I’d just witnessed, I now hear him snoring more loudly than our father ever has. It’s going to be an early morning for him. Hopefully he’ll be too worried about his headache to worry too much about getting hitched.

Was one year ago today. I remember being completely bonkers. I didn't feel that any of my clothes were good enough for this first date. I dragged a co-worker shopping with me at lunch and I tried on many, many shirts. The last one I had in the change room was it - an orange T-shirt. And I looked so darn cute in it! It was my first thought when I saw myself in the mirror. Then I came out and my thoughts were echoed by the salesperson and my friend.

There are certain things I remember from that night. I remember losing badly at Lord of the Rings. I remember the grilled cheese sandwiches we had for supper. What else do you have at Lydia's that's reliably good? I remember the place being pretty much empty although I'm not sure how much of that was just me being wrapped up in our date. I remember having to let you pay so you could "feel like a big man." And I remember how I laughed at that. I remember holding hands on our walk along the river. I remember not feeling very self conscious and just thoroughly enjoying myself. I remember how messy your hair was. I remember trying to find that smile I saw in your picture. I remember a kiss on my hand goodnight although you really wanted to kiss my lips. I remember a hug too. I remember the story about why you walk the way you do. And I remembered that your best friend's name was Matt. I remember flapping and how it made me giggle. I probably filled Lydia's with my laughter that night. I remember driving in my car to park next to yours while we walked so we could walk back to our cars together later.

And I remember being so certain about you. Here we are, clowder and all.

Okay, here's the scoop. Work is crazy right now. We are usually a team of 7 managers and right now we are a team of 4. That's where my head is at right now. And if I wasn't trying to keep up with the rest of my life, it might be okay, but things are ever changing.

Cheruby is officially moving in. I'm very excited. It's wonderful to have him around. We've had some help from some friends in painting his office which is very nice. Friends are good to have.

Since getting home from Edmonton, I've been trying to catch up on sleep. This weekend wasn't great for that, but I got to do lots of cool stuff. Went shopping with my mom for my brother's wedding and played Mage and had a massage and went swimming and had supper with Kaz, Rilla and Cheruby. And that was just on Saturday. I forced myself to stay in bed on Sunday morning, but woke up a lot. Then we got to play Low Life on Sunday. Cheruby and I rode our bikes over to the Drangs' house. Then we went to a birthday party.

I don't really even remember last week although last night, I skipped everything and just slept. And tonight - Gilmore Girls!! YAY!

Where is the time going? I had wanted to do all kinds of things this weekend, but time does seem to be running short already.

I wish I had pictures of the craziness that was Friday night at the Pirate Party. I forgot my pirate shirt, but managed to remember my awesome head scarf. My memory also came through for Rilla as she got to wear the pirate costume I made for the Seven Seas LARP in Brandon a few years ago. Anyway, I like kissing. And my hands are sore from giving so many massages. I hate to admit it, but my back is still sore from the 1/2 hour I spent with the little Asian lady in the massage chair.

Lunch with Auntie Cool was particularly good. She means the world to me. We had a good chat where I got to tell her that she made me feel safe and comfortable and loved. It didn't always used to be that way, but now it is and I love it.

Ferlak was supposed to run a game for us this weekend but it didn't really work out that way. I have been very much looking forward to playing in a Ferlak game as he was the only one I was in games with for quite a long time before he moved away. Maybe next time. Maybe when Cheruby and I are in Calgary next month, we can spend an evening with Ferlak and the Very Tall One playing this game. It would be great!

Yesterday was bizarre. We were supposed to do this, that and the other thing, but ended up just going to Farmers' Market in Old Strathcona where I had some paska bread baked with poppy seeds inside which were so very yummy. I also got a poppyseed roll for a very good friend which he loving stroked at dinner and would get snarly at the mention of possibly sharing. Heh. A costume shop eluded us all afternoon and we came home to find that we were only a block and a half away at one point. Ah well, such is life. We did spend some time in a glorious store full of hats. There was one that I really wanted, but alas, couldn't part with the money. I still need a brown hat and possibly another black one. There was a red velvet fedora Trilby as well that I really, really wanted because it made me feel sexy.

After supper at Montana's with a bunch of folks, we went to a book store which was awesome. Rilla sat on the floor and read poetry. I bought the new Post Secrets book. Cheruby couldn't read it this morning because it was too upsetting in some parts. There are two other books that Ferlak has that got me hooked.

And yesterday, a friend was supposed to paint a room in my house. Specifically, a tree on the wall in Cheruby's office to help inspire him. I hope he likes it a lot. I'm so excited to see it and I can't wait to see how surprised he is. SQUEEE!

It's too bad you're a boy.

While my mantra for most of the weekend was, "Not okay. Not okay. Not okay. Not okay," I am feeling okay now. Cheruby was truly an angel and told me he loved me lots, gave me lots of hugs and took me out somewhere in Saskatoon I'd never been and we made out in his new car (new to him, not NEW) for a while. He took me out for supper at Calories, let me stay home from the grocery shopping trip, gave me some alone time so my thoughts could run amuck without interference, and helped me chip the ice off the front walk and back patio. He made me a fantastic supper of chili lime chicken kabobs and asparagus and made me feel okay about not being okay.

Okay. I hate war movies. They almost always leave me feeling upset and sad and cranky. I actually scared Ferlak with my reaction to Life is Beautiful. I am plagued with the unanswerable, "Why?" which ruins my typically sunny demeanor. I have enough emotional reactions to real life so why would I willingly put myself into a situation where I was watching men being slaughtered for two hours? It's still a frakin' war movie no matter how many sexy bodies are being shown. There were some great scenes, but all the blood and violence are not my cup of tea. And not only did I go see this movie, the previous movie I went to was Pan's Labrynth. Can someone please remind me the next time they see a fantastic movie that I won't like it if it's ultraviolent and about war. Pretty please.

The bits of the movie 300 that were great were the queen and the traitor in front of the council, "... may you live forever," and the two soldiers flirting while cleaning up the bodies on the battlefield. Heh. Rilla had a good giggle at me when I waved to one of the soldiers who was about to be decapitated. Did I mention ultraviolent?

Oh and in other trivia about the movie, one of my favourite TV shows Hex has its villain appear in this movie as Stelios and I noticed despite the long blonde hair vs. short black hair! I was impressed with myself.

Babyface was staying with us on Wednesday night and Rilla came over so we tried Cheruby's new Marvel game. We were learning so it took us a long time, but it took us an hour to get through less than a round of the game. I'm not sure, but I think it'll take too long for my liking. It was great to see him.

Thursday Cheruby and I rented a van and drove to Calgary with the rest of Ferlak's stuff that was being stored in my house. Babyface stayed at the house with the kittenses for company and food until Friday when he went back to P.A. to his family for the weekend.

The drive to Calgary was quite nice, actually. The day was clear and sunny and the roads were clear. As we moved west, we saw less and less snow and then we saw some new green growth in some of the fields! You hear that those from Far Away? It's almost safe to come back! We got in at the almost perfect hour for Ferlak to be almost done cooking us supper. What a sweetie! Baby potatoes from farmer's market, chicken baked with black olives and other yummy spices, and a Sante Fe salad which was ... interesting and not necessarily in a bad way. Ferlak really likes it so he shared.

Then he shared something else with Cheruby - Shadow of the Colossus. Very, very, very pretty. Cheruby now owns this game.

After Cheruby played around with that for a while, we listened to my iPod on shuffle and played a little Dracula where Cheruby kicked our butts handily. He has now agreed that if he's playing Dracula, there has to be some extra advantages for the hunters. It was a really good night.

Ferlak left for work early the next morning and Cheruby and I had a lazy day. We walked to Phil's for breakfast around 11. He played a little more Colossus killing while I wrapped presents for my niece and nephew and the Very Tall One and Ferlak. Ferlak can't open his until his birthday in July. Heh.

Then we went to the Sentry Box and Cheruby was overwhelmed with the selection. Sensory overload. We found this fantastic game that made us think of a few of our friends. Heh. It supports 2 to 12 players. I bought a few more decks for my Blue Moon game, but Cheruby shockingly left empty-handed after an hour. Then we went to a mall and left fairly quickly as we didn't find anything we wanted.

The next part was also fantastic. Spending time with my niece and nephew. My niece turned 9 last week. This was probably the most fantastic evening I can remember spending with her in the last few years. She was fun and listened and it was good. I gave her a birthday present or two. My mom got her the second book in a series of which I got her the first book. It's about 12 year olds so I was hoping the age thing would appeal to her. The books are called The City of Ember and The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau. I also got her the Blueman Group Keyboard. The drum parts and other play elements are set about by motion sensors. Very cool. We taught her how to play Mary Had A Little Lamb. Then we had some fun making our voices go really high and then really low. The Glad garbage bag song (Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy. Hefty, hefty, hefty.) is really good for that. My dad and I used to have a lot of fun with it and my niece thought it was hilarious. After supper we went to the park and played tag. There were some teenagers there and it was really interesting to watch my niece observing them. It was getting dark so we headed home and read with her for a bit. I tucked her in and kissed her goodnight.

Cheruby and I left early in the morning. I had to wake up my niece to say good bye. Her only point of protest was to say it wasn't 8 yet. Usually she doesn't want to hug me because she's so upset that I'm leaving. I was very happy with her very sleepy goodbye hugs. She wouldn't hug Cheruby, but she did offer to shake his hand. I was very proud of her.

The drive home to Saskatoon was excellent as well. Great sunshine and good roads although I didn't particularly enjoy heading back into the snow covered lands of Saskatchewan. Cheruby and I sang and talked and read on the journey. And it was really good.

Cheruby played at Lydia's on St. Patrick's Day and then had a gig while I dined with Drang, Mrs. Drang, His Nibs, Kaz, and Rilla. We went to The Ivy and it was really yummy. I haven't had a delicious meal like that one in a really long time. I'll have to convince Cheruby to go out more often. It was a really good time and I haven't seen the boys together in a long time. They ditched us girls for a few games of pool which was no big deal because it's happened a few times over the years. They got back fairly late and we girls been served cocktails by Cheruby so we were all tired so folks just went home.

We got to play a little Low Life the next day which was very much fun as usual. Although the bigger monkey was quite sick, she held up well throughout the festivities. Cheruby headed out to his uncle's right from there. I got a phone call at home later from him as his car had broken down. We collectively witnessed three rollovers and one vehicle just in the ditch with no rolling action. The roads were completely horrible around Hague. I was driving as slow as 30 km/hr because they were so bad. And now it looks like Cheruby is looking for a new car.

Babyface and family came up to stay late on Sunday night as well. Baby Babyface is very cute indeed and I enjoyed talking with Mrs. Babyface.

I was supposed to have lunch with Rilla yesterday and lunch was had, but it wasn't as good as it was supposed to be. She missed her bus and I had a very small lunch time window with meetings scheduled for the rest of the day. Of course, today, I spent 95% of my time on the phone as well. Hopefully, I'm pretty much done with my massive meetings schedule and I think I am for a while. I hope I get to spend some time with her real soon. I've taken tomorrow off to play video games all day with Cheruby.

Thanks, Rilla!

This time, I have a good excuse for not blogging. I've been too busy with work and recuperating from work to do any blogging. Really. Okay, that's a bit of a lie as I've been trying to keep up with others' blogs just not my own.

Last weekend in Edmonton, I got to see Neuba and Kaz. It was so exciting to see their new house. Oh my, the parties that could happen there!! It's absolutely wonderful.

It was very nice to see Siochain's mom. She really is a wonderful woman. And Siochain is going through lots of stuff right now and is being very brave and tough. She's so much stronger now than I've ever seen her before.

I really liked not having a car because I was then at the mercy of those that were willing to chaffeur me around the city. I didn't have too much opportunity to just do what I wanted and I was really okay with that. I really needed an evening to veg so I didn't go to the KC game, but hung out with the M ladies instead. We were all in a similar mood in that we were enjoying each other's company without needing to entertain each other. It was perfect and exactly what I needed. I was sleeping so soundly that I didn't realize that Bne had made it home at all.

I did get to visit a couple of friends in Edmonton who had a lot of other people over. They're all so wonderful and I hope they realize that it isn't a reflection on them that I don't come up to game as often as some others from Saskatoon do. I really thought I could manage the intensity I wanted for the game there, but I couldn't. It's too tiring and I would rather just be me now that I have so many people to visit when I go to Edmonton. My trip to Edmonton in April is going to be whirlwindy, I'm sure. More days there means more people to visit, but it means I'll definitely have time to visit with my Auntie Cool.

While I was in Edmonton, we spent some time at a mall. Not usually my favourite thing, but I realized there were some things that I wanted to get and so we found a spot that would suit everyone's needs. I got a new bathing suit that doesn't threaten to let the girls free while doing aquafitness. I was very proud of that purchase as the regular price on the tag was $78 and I paid $25 including taxes. I've made a monetary commitment to going to the YWCA here for classes for the next three months. So far, so good. I went twice last week as my schedule permitted (too much overtime so I missed the Monday after work class). Next week should be better, but even if I go only twice a week for three months, I've still saved quite a bit of money. I'd prefer to go three times though because then Cheruby won't bug me about using the elliptical downstairs which is far more boring.

I also printed some copies of a great picture of Bne and Siochain. I had another thing on my list but I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't important because it didn't get done.

The work week was tough because I worked a lot of overtime which sucked big time. My own fault because I didn't get this particular project done earlier. It was really supposed to be done at the end of January which I thought was ridiculous. Now, I'm paying for it.

We tried to play In Nomine on Tuesday evening, but that didn't work very well. It was requested that I finish this particular ProJEct^TM that Cheruby and I were working on for quite a while. The finishing touches took about 2 hours which was much longer than it was anticipated only because I had to redo a bunch of the liner notes. Totally worth it though. Then there was too much drinking to roleplay well so we just called it a bust. We'll eventually play, I'm sure. Anyone want to join us on Tuesday evenings?

A colleague was finally informed this week that she wasn't really right for her position, but that she's very valuable so what would she like to do. Well she's now doing the job one step above those she was managing before. While it'll be hard for her, I think she'll do better things in her new position. The worrisome part is that I'm not sure what they are going to do with her position. Of course, until we figure that out, another team manager and I are going to cover her hours at the end of the day which with the DST change this weekend, means only an extra 1.5 hours for me in the day which is better than the 2.5 extra I did on Thursday and Friday. [sigh]

Lots of exercise and crying for stress release, and lots of support and forgiveness from Cheruby has made me a happier girl.

Cheruby and I are off to Calgary at the end of next week for a very quick trip. Thursday night will hopefully be spent with the Furlak and the Very Tall One with Friday night being with my family. I'm very excited about the trip and not having to be at work for a few days. It's my niece's birthday on Wednesday and I get to take her the fabulous prezzie I got for her two months ago.

Why is it that some people think that being mean is the only way they can get things done? We've gone above and beyond for a client who is continuing to rant and complain about how awful we've been. At the end of the day, we did the work for her employees so that their lives were disrupted as little as possible. All the same, she's being impossible. I've been with her until 8 o'clock several evenings this week and the one day I wasn't, she phoned and complained to someone else. I believe in the past week, my company has had over 100 hours working time on the issues that she created. Arrggghhh!

*******SPOILER ALERT - PAN'S LABRYNTH********
Went to see Pan's Labrynth last night. It was good. So, my feeling at the end of the movie wasn't sadness as I was told it would be, but more happiness that Ofelia was finally where she belonged. I felt bad for Mercedes because she was going to have to carry guilt around with her because she felt that she didn't save Ofelia. The main characters got what they deserved. Ofelia's mom got freedom, Vidal definitely got what he deserved, the baby won't in the hands of a monster, Mercedes and the resistance triumphed over the military stronghold, and Ofelia got to go home. And I get to believe in fairy tales. Unfortunately, the brutality of the rest of the movie was too much for me and I had to shut down a little so I didn't get the full spectrum of emotions I enjoy. I will have to make due with my memory of the good parts so I don't have to watch it again. I think the bad parts would wreck me if I saw them again. Not that I watched them the first time, but the sound of him stitching his own face just about made me leave the theatre.

*********KEEP READING HERE**********
I'm off to Edmonton on a jet plane tonight. I will see Bne, Kaz, Neuba, Siochain and her mom, Jenn & Owen, and hopefully Binary Kitten and quirkykitten. There are so many others that I will miss, but hopefully, the next visit will be a longer one where I can see more of everyone.

Mr. Bennet You scored 62 Idealism, 41 Nonconformity, 70 Nerdiness

Are you on the list?Congratulations, you're Mr. Bennet! You are one mysterious person with mysterious motives. Despite all the mystery, it's clear that you believe what you do is for the greater good, and you are obviously a well-educated person in your field. Your best quality: Dedication to your work/organization/etc. Your worst quality: Keeping too many secrets

Link: The Heroes Personality Test written by freedomdegrees on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

It's a good thing I've already got a guy otherwise, being this unattractive might be a problem. Heh.

Dating Strengths	Dating Weaknesses
1. Kindness - 81.8% 2. Generosity - 80% 3. Financial Situation - 69.2% 4. Adventurousness - 66.7% 5. Open-Mindedness - 63.6%	1. Appearance - 77.8%

Dating Strengths Explained
Kindness - You treat other people with empathy and goodwill. This positive trait helps you stand out and draw people into your warmth. Generosity - You are a giving person by nature. Others will see this quality in you and recognize your kind nature. Take care not to let others take advantage of you. Financial Situation - You've got your financial situation under control, which is a very desirable quality. Be careful to avoid men who are only interested in your money. Adventurousness - You are willing to try new things and be spontaneous. You want to get out there and really live, and you will attract people with a similar love of life. Open-Mindedness - You are open to trying new things and entertaining new ideas, and this widens your pool of available men.
Dating Weaknesses Explained
Appearance - Devoting a greater effort at making good first impressions is a must. Try to be fit and develop a style if you want to catch a man's attention.
Dating Strengths and Weaknesses Quiz

I've been working on some super secret ProJEct^TMs that have been taking all my time. Except the time I've been spending on the phone with friends. And hanging out with friends. And saying good-bye to friends. Oh, and sleeping (awake for 7 hours on Saturday).

Of course, the farewell dinner was amazing - pollen, bees, and flowers for supper. Everyone should be envious of those who got to partake. It was a fabulous evening and I didn't particularly want it to end. Too bad the boys beat us repeatedly in Buzzword. And apparently, "pencil" while containing the word "pen" isn't part of any of the solutions even though "Penn", short for Pennsylvania in some cases, is included in several solutions. I didn't deserve razzing about that one. It was a logical leap for me. I'm not good at that game - except when it comes to tea.

This week, we start playing In Nomine regularly on Tuesday instead of D&D. [sniff] Not that In Nomine won't be fun, but I really love D&D.

Did you know that while 2 kittenses are just cute and playful, 3 kittenses can seemingly swarm like vermin - especially at supper time?

There were a few magical minutes this morning. Whilst looking out my office window, snow was falling through a sunbeam and sparkled like diamonds floating to the earth. It was very cool.

Another friend of mine moved away from Home and I hadn't heard anything from her. I'm very proud of her. She is a very strong person and can do more than she thinks she can. That would be why I didn't see her car at the place in the spot where she used to work on the long weekend. I guess that just goes to show that I should keep in touch more often. Blogs are kind of one-way.

And I'm losing two staff at work to other departments and have to hire in Ontario. I'm going to try to get out there for the new staff first days. It's a good business reason and I can go visit all my staff there. It'll be exciting.

Anyone available to move a big filing cabinet up a flight of stairs tonight? [grin]

I like this new statutory holiday in February. For those in the know, Saskatchewan now matches Quebec for the most statutory holidays at 11 rather than the usual 10. You see, while some Alberta businesses provide the August civic holiday to their employees, it isn't truly a stat holiday there. That is likely a little known fact by most in Alberta because it is observed in the rest of the country.

So I did spend family day with my family. My mom, dad, Cheruby, and all the kittenses. On Friday after work, Cheruby and I headed up to Nipawin, picked up my mom and drove another couple hours out to Little Bear Lake. My dad had gone out earlier in the day to warm up the cabin. A very beautiful cabin indeed.

On Saturday, Cheruby and I got a little cold heading out to the ice shack as we don't have proper winter outer wear to keep us warm, but we both caught a good fish. Dad didn't catch any keepers. His little walleye got put back and so did Cheruby's three burbot. He spent much time watching them swim in his hole in the ice willing them to be smart enough to get off his hook. They are too slimy for my dad to touch so we didn't keep any that we caught.

Burbot are a strange looking fish (borderline repulsive) that’s extra slimy to the touch, but surprisingly excellent tasting. They’re found on the bottom of deep lakes and rivers and- even though they look like they eat something vile such as carcasses or algae- are actually voracious predators of other fish. Burbot are also called eelpout, ling, lingcod, loache, methyl, lush, gudgeon, mud-blower, cusk, mother eel, or lawyer fish.

Cheruby very much enjoyed his first snowmobiling experience except the cold and ill-fitting helmet. I would have enjoyed it more too if it weren't for the cold. I get kind of (understatement) whiney when I'm cold.

The fire was very welcome at the end of Saturday and we all went to bed early. I love firelight to sleep by. It's comforting somehow. We woke up on Sunday with the intent of fishing again, but the light snow that was happening at the cabin didn't indicate that there was much heavier snow only 15 minutes away so we turned around and didn't make it up to the lake again. We were all kind of grateful except dad who really loves ice fishing. There is something kind of relaxing and neat about it, but without the warm winter gear, it's not as much fun.

Because I'd been so cold the day before, we got all kinds of new clothes for me to wear and as such, I could barely move in all the layers I had on. Honestly, they made me more of a strange discoloured marshmallow man or Michelan Man than anything else that might be considered human. So even though we didn't make it out ice fishing, mom took some pictures of me in my funny get up. And then I fell back into a snowbank. Because I had so many layers on, I couldn't even bend 90 degrees at the waist which made it a little difficult to get up from my fallen position. And then I tried to roll and trying to roll in a snowbank is hard enough without being in stitches with laughter at the whole situation.

So, dad took the snowmobile out on Sunday and got it stuck in about 4 feet of snow. Slogged through that deep snow to get to the road and then caught a ride back to the cabin. He convinced one of the neighbours to go help him get his snowmobile. All this while Cheruby, mom and I played Arkham Horror and listened to music. Later that night, we played Kaiser. Cheruby and I got walloped in the first game. Lost in 10 hands. The second game went on and on. The Lasers(tm) had a struggle, but managed to escape a second defeat. It was a lot of fun.

Monday came and it was time to go home. Dad and I went for a tour of the resort and campground on the sled. It's so much different than being in a car and I can't truly express how. Maybe it's that total layer of glass and metal being between you and the trees. Maybe it's the total freedom of vision that you can see in any direction you choose to look. Maybe it's just that you are truly closer to it all. Whatever it is, it was way cooler - both in temperature and in status.

My big brat came home with us and has ignored Cheruby's cat pretty much the whole time he's been back. I'm very happy to have all my family at home now. The fat one, little one, and dainty one.

You can see most of the pictures from the weekend here. I'll upload the rest soon except for the one that got deleted. Kaz really likes the story about the picture that got deleted.

Okay, maybe I just wanted say tumultuous, but there is some upheaval of lives going on around me. Enough that it started to upset my delicate (HA!) internal sense of balance. My angel helped me by listening to me and getting into discussions with me about upsetting things and still kissing me goodnight and telling me he loves me.

So in the end, I figured out that yep, I'm happy. I'm not just pretending because I want to be happy and have a good life. I'm truly happy. Things are good for me.

I've been having a lot of fun lately. Mage is turning out to be really fantastic. I get so exhausted after the game from being so high energy and poor Cheruby pretty much needs to explode after not laughing or cracking a smile for an entire evening. We don't mesh well coming out of those characters. Cheruby is especially funny when he thinks that his in character actions will affect people's opinions out of character. Well, if the person is any sort of respectable at role-playing, there won't be a problem and if there is a problem, the line between reality and fantasy for that person is likely a little more blurred than it should be. He'll start to get to know these folks in real life and it'll help.

Low Life was great fun. I'm playing talkin' werm. I don't shut up - EVER. It's hard to believe, really. It's giving me a really good giggle. Now, if only I can figure out how to be that talky in the Mage game. I'm on in the Mage game, but I have an agenda which happens to be comprehensive. Low Life is just about keeping going.

Took some alone time this week which helped with the above confirmation that yes, I am happy. The second last D&D game in Saskatoon with Kaz was this week. I am saddened by this. After next week, it'll be April when we play again and it'll be in Edmonton. Crazy business that - people moving Away.

My angel and I went to Taverna for supper yesterday. They really do make one of the finest alfredo sauces I've ever had the pleasure of tasting.

The lunch and short visit we had today was really good, but too short. I felt like I could have talked the afternoon away today with her. And she's right, we both are in such a different place than we were 10 years ago. The lessons we've learned and loves and pains and joys and sadnesses we've experienced. I'm sure the best really is yet to come. For me, being 30 means knowing more about who I am and what makes me happy and knowing that I deserve that without it being selfish.

I talked to my big brat a few times on the phone since he's been with my folks in Nipawin. There are few things greater than hearing my cat start to purr at the sound of my voice and hear him nuzzling the phone because he misses me too.

Did you know that I hate having to do performance management with my staff. It's not that I don't like having the conversations, but I can't seem to get passed the hours of preparation and then the hours of meetings (at least 34 hours in total) in order to get right down to it. I need a plan. A good plan - a list of items to go through with each staff member including some pointed questions about how the team is doing and how our processes are doing. It's getting a little ridiculous though. Why can't I just sit down and do it!!

So, because of that, I slept too much this week and was mostly crabby and ggrrrr... I don't like being like that. Of course, the weekend is here now and I don't have to think about it very much. I do have to work this weekend, however. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow though.

Not all meetings are stupid. I really liked the ones we had on Friday with the HR team where we were in focus groups about what we could be doing better. It was really hard for me to think of those things because the company is amazing and treats us very well and I really love my job. To try to think like someone who isn't happy with the current state of things is very hard and I don't want to do it. My lead to actual thoughts of unhappiness and I don't need to go there.

I made a CD this weekend for a friend of mine. I was fairly pleased with it, but it was a little rushed. Altogether the best part was the last song - Kermit the Frog singing The Rainbow Connection. What could be better than that? I hope she likes it.

My brother's fiance is starting to get antsy about the wedding plans. I'm just getting really excited. I don't want to get too excited and promise that I'll do something that I don't have time for, but it's really hard not to! I'm really, really excited. It's going to be a very long wait until May.

I spent the day with Umbrella today. She's sooo awesome. I love spending time with her so much. I helped her buy a new wardrobe for $70 at Value Village where I saw a lovely couple trying on clothes. The woman was very pretty and had the cutest tattoo on her hip. She had a fabulous accent too. She tried on this very lovely orange and pink dress that I thought was really great even though it sounds horrible. She was saying she wasn't sure about it while her boyfriend was pretty keen on it. I wasn't helping Umbrella at the time so he asked me how she looked and since I'd already been looking, I said, "She looks fabulous. It's a great dress." She looked a little surprised by my candor, but she said thank you. It was a very nice little conversation. Apparently, he really likes orange.

Lately I've been worried about a colleague who has become a dear friend of mine. So on Friday, I sent her a note that I hoped would help lift her spirits. Of course, I had no idea that there was more to come for her.

This weekend, her sister was in a head on collision in Cancun. She has many broken bones, has lost an eye and is now in a coma. My friend was so level-headed on the phone trying to clean up some work before she gets on a plane tomorrow to go be there for her dad. Her sister was in a cab on her way to the airport to pick him up when the accident occurred. I can't imagine how my friend is managing anything right now.

So, I'm asking that if you have a few spare moments today, you send some good thoughts to my friend and especially her sister. Miracles are alive and well if only you believe in them.

I think I've lost a very basic survival instinct.

After many sessions in a row of being exhausted before laying down on the table, I managed to create a habit of falling asleep during my massages. And since they're usually painful when my lower back is massaged, I don't mind this at all. The massage therapist also mentioned that she can go a lot deeper into the muscle and tissue when I'm asleep so I took this as encouragement that I should continue to do so.

I knew I was going to need a little help to get through the massage session tonight without screaming too much so I tried to fall asleep. It didn't work before she got to my lower back so I figured I was out of luck and would have to endure. I mentioned this to my massage therapist just before she got to the really bad spot. And then, she got to the really bad spot (9 out of 10 on my pain threshold scale) and I managed to squeak out, "That's the spot." That's the last thing I remember before falling asleep.

I'm grateful for being able to spare myself considerable pain, but is it really healthy? I'm sure that there's some measure of trust involved in my ability to sleep through a painful massage. In fact, to fall asleep during intense pain, I really hope it's because I trust her and the environment. If not, I believe I have created a very bad habit that could indeed, kill me.

Having talked about all this pain of the massage, I forgot to mention how blissfully good it feels to be able to move after my massage. How much tension is relieved and how much better I sleep and move and live every day because of those painful massages. And it isn't all painful like when she's working on upper back and my shoulders and neck. Or when she massages my chest. Drool.

No, really. I was at Uncle Johnny's cabin this weekend. Buddy and Mrs. Buddy were there along with Mrs. Uncle Johnny. Cheruby and I went up right after work on Friday and came home this afternoon. I think I was a little tired because I slept for 13 hours on Friday night and then 11 hours on Saturday night. We played some games and Buddy pushed all my buttons and made me all competitive and cranky like I hate being. Someday, I'll get used to his style and relax. It might be when I'm eighty, but someday... Heh.

Cheruby and I played a little Blue Moon. And we (Uncle Johnny, Cheruby, Buddy and the Missus, and I) played Fury of Dracula. Only Uncle Johnny, Cheruby and I played Ticket to Ride which was Uncle Johnny's Christmas present. I was fairly pleased with Ticket to Ride because it is much better than Russian Rails which is one of Uncle Johnny's most favourite games.

There were 5 dogs and 5 cats at the cabin this weekend. It was a plethora of well behaved dogs and cats too. Except Jander (black cat) who had an eye infection and has always had sinus issues and snots everywhere. Ick.

I've made plans to head to Edmonton on the first weekend in March. Hopefully, I'll be heading to Calgary sometime in March as well. It's my niece's birthday and I'd like to take the rest of Clark's stuff to him. Driving around Calgary in a mini-van will just gain me entrance to the mini-van race league. I will crush them all!

My kittens at home sure did miss me. They haven't really left me alone since I got home. They're so darling. They are usually whiney when I get home, but this time they weren't. It was a very pleasant surprise.

And it's been confirmed that the February long weekend will be spent up at Little Bear Lake ice fishing and snowmobiling and sitting in front of the fire. It's going to be awesome.

It's a good thing I went to bed early. Now, I don't feel guilty about having stayed up for three or four additional hours reading blogs. And it was bad of me. I was lurking, actually. Lurking in Cheruby's ex's blog and in Granola Girl's blog. It's there for the world to read so I don't feel guilty about that either, but it still feels vaguely wrong.

I thought I'd settled my thoughts about her and now, I've had to come down a notch from my high horse. Looking at things from just your own perspective and not wanting to think about it from someone else's is wrong. I mean, the only perspective I knew was that of what Cheruby told me and nothing from her own mouth. There was always a filter. Not so with her blog - I'm reading her thoughts directly. It's hard to stay focused when I can finally see her as a real person. I really hate being wrong.

So, what I learned was that her friends love her dearly and you don't get to have friends like that if you don't earn them. And that forced me to face reality and see that even though she hurt my angel, he hurt her too. Nothing is ever completely one-sided unless your arguing with furniture and even then, the coffee table may have jumped out to bash your shin to get back at you for the water stain. On the plus side, these good realizations about her put me in a spot to fear her again and I didn't. She doesn't have any, well not very much, power over my angel anymore. Not as more than a friend anyway and I whole-hearted support that one because he still cares about her. She's important to him and therefore, important to me. I really don't see it outside the realm of possibility to actually become friends with her at some point in the future.

Everyone gets a little crazy when it comes to the one they love, right?

So it turns out that I didn't get the flu from Cheruby as he is now very sick with fever from me. I do believe that I not only got the flu, but his cold last week. And now he just has the flu. Poor Cheruby. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm better at being sick than he is and I really suck at being sick.

My mom was wonderful when she was here. I mean, other than the avoiding me part where she wouldn't sit with me in my room because I was too sick. That never stopped her before. I doubt it means she loves me less, probably just that she's moving over and making room for Cheruby. [grin] Before leaving on Thursday, she took the time to carve the pathways to my house again. She's so great.

Mage on the weekend was really a lot of fun. I spent the entire afternoon with my good friend playing City of Heroes. My poor laptop was quite done with the whole things about 7 hours of playing straight. Heh. Then the game on Saturday night went well. Umbrella was late because she had to work and then one of the student's husband's was really late picking her up making us even later. Oh well, it gave us an excuse to go get burgers. Cheruby really, really enjoyed himself which was awesome. He skipped on coffee though cuz he had to work in the morning like a sucka!

We spent Sunday playing Cheruby's Playstation 3 and In Nomine. His cousin came over and partook of the PS3 goodness. We didn't get to play In Nomine for very long because Umbrella was feeling a little out of it due to lack of sustenance and longing for home. We ordered pizza, worked on the puzzle on my dining room table, and finally called it a day at 8 or so. Cheruby and I continued to PS3-out in the evening with Marvel Alliance or some such game. That game stole my Monday evening as well.

Today, I stopped by Dragon's Den to get a few more decks for my Blue Moon game that my angel got for me for Christmas. I got the Mimix and Aqua decks today. Mimix looks pretty cool, but Aqua looks freakin' awesome!! I'm really looking forward to having a go with them. I got a chance to review all the cards in the car while I was waiting for Umbrella to get done work.

Upon arrival at my house, I found my angel and his cousin doing the PS3 thing (gasp!). Cheruby's cousin took a piece of paper out of his pocket to show me. He passed, he passed, HE PASSED!! All that hard work studying for two months last fall paid off! He got 90 percent on his carpenter's journeyman exam. Wahoo!! Congratulations go out to Buddy on that one. Well earned and deserved.

So before I got sick on Tuesday night, I was having a very good time with my friends roleplaying. First some Mage action and then some good ol' Dungeons and Dragons. Batty was kind enough to take this picture of our cabal.


And then a very awesome friend dropped by Cheruby's and my miniatures for D&D. He got a very big hug from me.
Here's Mira and a Bahir.


And here's the whole party - Syllinea, Oskar, Aurora, Mira, and Eddie (on Bahir). We didn't actually have to fight the bahir, but we might have. We were smart though. Kudos to us!

Good times were had by all. Well until 9:20 when I got to feeling the yuckness that is sick.

Cheruby and I are definitely sharing everything thiese days. He kindly gave me whatever it was he had, but he had a lesser version of it. I got the whole punching bag feeling, chill inducing fever, hacking, coughing, sniffling, and everything else that Benelyn eight in one commercial talks about.

My mom and her friend got stuck in Saskatoon for a second night last night because of the blizzard. I kind of missed the blizzard while I was asleep.

I think it's time to sleep again.

My time in Edmonton has been swell so far. I've had a fabulous time visiting with friends including Detail Girl and Oilers Fan and Stephanie's Mom and Rilla and Neuba and Bne. Even though I kept insulting everyone, it seems that they still like me which is all good by me.

We played Skallywaggs last night. Bne won two turns after whining about how far behind he was and that everyone was picking on him. Bne and I did win at kaiser which was good, although tonight, Neuba and Rilla beat us by 82 points. It was a short game. The third game was 56 to 56 and then Bne and I made a fantastic bid for the win.

Work was great this week. I felt like accomplished something and stuck up for my team. It's one of the only times of year that I get to do that. The month between December 15 and January 15 is so busy with new accounts that I actually get to say no. It's awesome.

And tomorrow, I get to hopefully visit my aunt. Two fabulous friends are coming up from Calgary - Ms. Pants and Mister. Yippee!! Then there's a movie night tomorrow night at another friend's place so we'll likely go do that.

And we were invited to a co-workers costume party on Sunday even though we can't go because Rilla and I have to drive back to Saskatoon. By then, I'll be totally ready to go home to my angel and my kittenses. Thinking about them now is already making me want to be there and curl up with my sweetie.

Even though the number of people heading to Edmonton this weekend went from a potential 5 to just me and Ril, we decided to go anyway. And Ril left yesterday with Neuba. I'm heading up tomorrow night on my own. I'll be working out of the Edmonton office for the remainder of the week. It's really quite convenient - only 7 blocks from where I'm staying.

Work today was fabulous which was surprising since I didn't really want to get out of bed this morning. I think there were several factors. The first is that I didn't just have carbs for breakfast. I forgot my oatmeal at home so I ended up eating my brick of cheese for breakfast. Then lunch was brought in and then I had a caffeinated beverage. Oh, and I got to say no a lot today and have people listen. I felt powerful today in that I was able to help my team and help my internal partners and help our clients - part of that help was in saying no to the things we couldn't reasonably do in the next two weeks. It was a good day.

We also got presents at work this morning for being named one of Canada's 50 Best Employers - electronic wine bottle openers. Makes me wish I drank more wine. It can open more than 30 bottles of wine without charging! Just imagine!

And I bought a bath sheet for Cheruby today because I felt selfish for having only one for me. Oooo... and a pretty bundt cake pan. And some little stuff at Michael's. Everybody needs more sprinkles - pink, purple and red. Wahoo!

Oh, and my pretty ring...

I'm looking very much forward to the coming year. I'm expecting great things.

It started with a wonderful kiss from my angel and lots of hugs from his friends. I was a little sad to not be with my friends. I told Ril that I'd kiss her if Cheruby was working, but he wasn't. I heard that she had two married fellows fighting for the honour of her New Year's kiss which made me happy. She also reminded me of how fortunate we are to have the wonderful circle of friends we do. We had a really good visit and shared lots of stories from the great evening and stories of our friends and the trials we went through in 2006.

So far today, I've run errands, visited with Ril and sat on my couch updating my blog links and look. Cheruby is off visiting his cousin, but I get to see him in a few hours when he plays in the Irish session at Cluricaune Pub in the Parktown.

I was also reminded of how amazing and fragile my sweet angel is. I've been lucky in my life to have such great role models and friends who care about me. All these people taught me to value myself as much as they do. To be cared about is a privilege and to be cared about by the people that care about me is a luxury. It has let me become the person that I am that I like.

Speaking of caring people, Annie is on and I haven't seen it in years. This deserves my full attention. My mom and brother hate the movie because I loved it so very much and watched it so very often. Carol Burnett is amazing.