The Ugly Sweater/Shirt

It is a point of irony, and perhaps a sign of the coming Apocalypse, that I am trying to boost the Christmas spirit at my workplace today. I am hosting an Ugly Sweater/Shirt Contest. Bonus points go to those who wear Christmas sweaters.

What do you think? I think that I may have it clinched.

Yes, that is a homemade shirt complete with picture of me in elf hat (grinning like a lunatic) and holding my cats. Howard looks amusingly pissed at being forced to participate in such activities. I am wearing HUGE gobs of makeup, fake lashes, epilepsy inducing earrings and I spent an hour making my hair big and curly this morning. I was aiming for Crazy Christmas Cat Lady/Drag Queen but the kids think I look beautiful and wonder why I don't dress like this every day! Those are the kind eyes of love speaking, people.

I may be starting a whole new dressing up trend for Christmas... what do you think of Hallomas? I may just have investigate getting that trademarked!

Finn is 5!

It is a very exciting day today. Finn is now five years old. He is very excited about this fact. Here is a shot of the birthday boy playing with some of his new gifts.


The kids' school Christmas concert is today. So this will be a very busy day.

Finn's kindergarten teacher called me this morning at work to ask if it was okay if Finn could drink through a straw if he got really thirsty. Er... sure... why would you have to ask? I cautiously responded. Well it seems that Finn told his teacher that I had applied medicine to his face this morning and because of the medicine he was not allowed to drink all day. I can honestly understand why, if presented with this information, that a teacher might phone to ask questions. I was stifling laughter when I corrected that I had applied Blistex (a medicated lip balm) under his bottom lip and told him to not lick his lips. And that he could drink his fill with a straw or otherwise.

I had to wonder how many of these types of phone calls she has to make in a week dealing with kindergarten aged children. Too funny!

Look at what I found in my bed this morning.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FINN!

Olivia's Christmas Piano Recital

This is Olivia's second year of piano lessons. She is very musical and has been doing very well at her lessons. This is a video of her and her music teacher playing a duet.

Week 3.2- Um, yeah that wasn't much better

The Good news:

Total Time: 2h 15 min ( 9 h 46 min)
Total Distance: 48 km (209.3 km)
Weight Loss: no loss but no gain.

Week 3.2- The Done-Over ripe with puns
I'll just apologize now as apparently I am feeling pun-ny this morning.

Well, I suppose that was better than last week in that I got 3 workouts done instead of only 1. But I am still not doing 6 workouts per week. So I am going to do a realistic reassessment of this program- with knowledge of my own schedule for the next month- and lowering the bar to 4 workouts per week instead of six. I will reassess this again in January but for right now 6 is too much. I know myself well enough to know that if I have too many more weeks of failure to meet my 6 workouts I will quit in frustration. And not only will I quit the program but I will adopt a pessimistic "I had might as well buy and eat an entire box of Turtles attitude". So I reassessed that a successful week is now redefined as 4 days per week workout.

I am still very much enjoying riding the bike and I can honestly say that I have made some gains in the past 4 weeks. A 30 minute bike ride still gets me very sweaty and is an excellent full body cardio workout. I can pedal faster and require less rest stops, with the same resistance, which translates into my 30 minute workout now nets me a farther distance travelled. That makes me feel like I am not spinning my wheels without purpose. :)

My one legged workouts still suck but I have only one more week of those and Month 2 changes tactics and training focus.

The down side is that a 60 minute bike ride is still pretty hard on my butt. OUCHY! I bought myself the puffy bottomed shorts; they do help but not quite enough. (The butt to puff ratio is still heavily favoured to the butt so that little bit of puff can only do so much.) Bottom line (hehehe) my seat has not spent enough time in the saddle yet to have grown accustomed to that kind of hardship yet. I do not know when this magic will happen but it isn't in the fourth week of training- that I know for sure!

From a weight loss perspective I have gone no where. I have neither lost nor gained. Which I suppose is not totally a bad thing. My body really likes my current weight and even with all of this extra exercise will not give up a pound. Which is honestly disappointing. But in all fairness this cannot all be laid at the feet of the program. I ate very conscientiously for the first 2 weeks but the last two I have been back to some of my bad habits.

My in-laws were at my house this weekend and showed off their new slimmer frames. They have each lost 25+ pounds! Their success was accomplished with a dedicated focus on establishing proper eating habits (portion and content) and walking. It makes me happy to see my mother-in-law smiling in satisfaction and victory while recounting how her blood pressure has dropped 40 points (for the good) and she is contemplating asking her doctor to take her off blood pressure meds she has used for years. I am proud to see her clothes drapey on her now slimmer frame. I am contemplative at the idea of what that would feel like on me.

It should be simple- eat healthfully when you are hungry, stop when you are full, stay hydrated and exercise regularly. But for some reason some of us get some (or most) of those simple rules mixed up in our brains. I know the benefits of doing it and the costs of not and still I willfully make bad choices. This is obviously something that I need to work on. Right now I will look at my in-laws and see inspiration- of what I could do too if my brain were focused on the task.

On another- and completely unrelated- note: I have finished #2 pair of mittens and are 70% finished my #3 pair. These have been good but the novelty of knitting mittens is wearing off.

Mittens #2 and partially completed #3

Week 4: And here comes Christmas
I suspect that part of this afternoon will be spent putting up the Christmas tree and decorating the house to match the season. And the rest of the week will be spent being startled to find the cat AND the kitten IN the Christmas tree. At eye level. I wonder each year which will be the day I return home at lunch to find the circuits blown, the tree knocked over and one of the cats electricuted and vaguely smoking.

The kids (and in this I totally include Scott) are all so excited. I have been trying to get into the Christmas spirit by listening to Christmas music but so far it hasn't took yet. Maybe I haven't hit that critical mass of Rodger Whitakker Christmas carols yet. I'm working on it. Christmas for my side of the family will be celebrated next weekend at our house. To this I say: Bring it. I'm ready.

Editor Note: Photo added later- Apparently those in a betting frame of mind should put their money on the brown cat as still being the trouble maker this year.

Week 3- I call for a Do-Over

The Mediocre news:

Total Time: 33 min (7 hr 31 min)
Total distance: 11.6 km (161.3 km)
Weight Loss: don't want to talk about it right now




Week 3: Yeah, I blew it
As expected this week was challenging and I totally did not do what I was supposed to do. So I am calling for a do-over, a mulligan, whatever you'd like to call it. I will start over week 3 again today.


So what was I doing with my time instead of training, you ask? Well, these were my distractions/excuses:

1. Black Friday- I went to Bismarck, ND with a pack of wild shoppers for the weekend. This eat up all of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Although shopping for a 14 hour stretch should be able to count for something (besides an empty wallet). We had a good time.



2. I knit a pair of mittens for Finn to give to the Red Cross for the Warm Hands Campaign within their school. I plan on knitting another 2 pairs before the December 12 deadline for each of the girls to bring too. I think they are cute. But the real problem is that Finn likes them and is mad that I am giving such fine mittens away. So I have promised to each of the kids that I will knit them each a pair to give away and then I will re-knit the same pair of mittens for each of the kids to keep. (That is a lot of mittens.)

3. I was especially lazy.

All of these were pretty lame excuses for reasons why I did nothing. This week I will get back to the program. I have to do better!

Week 2- A lesson learned

The Good News:

Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes (6hr 58 min)*
Total distance: 69.7 km (149.7 km)*
Weight Loss: -1 lb (+0.4 lb)*
$ spent to date to upgrade my $99 bike: $0 ($189)

*The first value are this week and details in parentheses will show the cumulative for the whole project.

Week 2: A Public Service Announcement and Business Travel

Ahem, right, I will start with the Public Service Announcement:

left hand pedals have a reverse threading and thus have to be removed with a clockwise rotation. (So much for the righty tighty- left loosey rule.)

This was pointed out to me by a reader- who did not provide a name- with great mirth that the two tools installing the pedals had not bothered to research this fact. And you are absolutely right- we didn't. Didn't even occur to us. After I thought about it it totally makes sense that you do not want any possibility of forward rotation of your pedals causing your left pedal to come unscrewed- thus the backwards or left hand thread. Spot welding was not required after all. (Dad, I am talking to you!)

So thank you, nameless reader, for your help. I am learning all kind of things- the least of which is to Youtube things before you try new stuff. For those of you who are interested here is a good how-to video on installing pedals: noredirect=1
Learn from my mistakes!

I travelled for work this week and tried to stay on program in the hotel. I did okay. I have a total of four workouts this week when I was supposed to have six. But from a big picture perspective four workouts in a week- for me- is really good. I still take this as a win.

Eating out while travelling is challenging. I really admire those who have no issue with this. I do well for the first day or day and a half and any time after that I am in a flat spiral back to my horrible eating habits.

At home I am the primary cook for our house. You can see here and here that does not always go well- feeding a family is challenging too. (Understatement.) But at home I am in control. (In theory.) Eating out in Calgary, especially when dining with oil companies, tends to bring you to The All Beef Buffet. Where your lunch choices are girly-portion 10 oz steak, 12 oz steak and 18 oz steak. If you dare order anything but steak you have to deal with the justification of your life choices at the business table and the unintended insult to the quality of Alberta Beef. (Yes, I like it just fine. Honest! I just don't want to need a nap when I will be in two more meetings this afternoon!) Don't even get me started on how I ate there when I was a vegetarian!

Week 3: The High Holiday
This coming week will offer a new set of challenges- not pedals this time- but with my high holiday: Black Friday. My sister, a handful of girlfriends and I are heading to Bismarck, ND for our annual girls trip. We typically get up at redonculous times and shop until we almost literally drop. Now Friday is usually designated as my "cross-training" day (I have been using it as a recovery day to be honest) and I think this week I can legitimately say that I will be cross training. 14 hours of straight shopping- in those crowds- ought to count and maybe earn me a small treat at Cold Stone Creamery or Starbucks or the like. Saturday may be a wash as well. So my goal this week is to work out 5 days and to start and finish my Christmas shopping!

I'll keep you posted!

Week 1- A Good Start and OMG it is like high school all over again!

The Good News:

Total time: 3 hours 48 minutes
Total distance: 80 km
Weight loss: +1.4 lb (WTF!)
$ spent to date to upgrade my $99 bike: $189

Week 1: A Start
Okay- I won't lie: that was hard. But it felt really good to finish the week. I did all 6 days this week and matched the program for the most part. The only part I altered was the cadence (rotations per minute) on the "easy spin" days. I was supposed to be doing 85-92 RPM and I found that I couldn't maintain that for long so I was working at 72-78 RPM. One legged training- well, see below- was... challenging... on many fronts.

This is not an easy program despite being designed for the "beginner and overweight cyclist". This description matches me in both aspects but I think what was really meant was that it was designed for an overweight cyclist not just an overweight person. This, I think, is an important distinction. As a point of reference: at 92-100 RPM I am at literal risk of my pants catching fire and not because I am telling lies.

At the beginning of the week I read over my schedule and paused on what was listed for Saturday: "Warm up 10 min. After WU alternate 20-60 sec with 1 leg off the pedal and up on a chair. Get a total of 5min of 1leg training on each leg. Alternate legs as you feel. Cool down 10 min. 30 min total."

Um, 1 legged pedaling, right. Have you ever pedaled with one leg? I have. A lot. And it sucks. In high school I had my mother's old 10 speed which could be kindly described as a finicky beast. We'll call this one HIgh School Bike (HSB). You didn't dare change gears- even though it was stuck on the hardest one- or even think about pedaling backwards because even a gentle shift or backwards rotation would cause the chain to leap off and tangle in the pedals. I have more than one scar on my knees as a result. And, oh yeah, the left side pedal and/or whole pedal assembly fell off regularly. Usually when I was already late coming home and pedaling like a fiend to not miss curfew. Don't even get me started on the brakes.

My father fixed the pedals by welding the pedal assembly back to the gear bracket... as well as spot welding the pedal in place too. Well everything stayed firmly in place after that but FYI: pedals are MEANT to rotate. HSB was hard enough to ride without having to ride one legged ALL OF THE TIME in a hard gear! Shortly after the repair job HSB was run over by a garbage truck. I choose to think that the universe was trying to help me out.

That was my last bike until I spent $99 to buy this one. My bike is now code named B99.

So anticipating my one legged training this week I endeavoured to buy some pedals with clips and matching shoes. (Real cyclist have those you know.) The universe, again on my side, helped me out by making both items the last ones in stock, on sale and in my size! WOOT WOOT universe! These are certainly not my best looking shoes but they will do.

Pop Quiz: can anyone spot what is wrong with this picture? (Hint: look at the pedals.)

Some technical difficulties ensued in removing the the VERY well oxidized pedals off B99. (Understatement.) With Herculean effort the right one was finally removed but the left is still proving stubborn. And Scott did this trying to force the issue. In our house, it really isn't a proper project unless Scott gets to christen it with his blood. Ouch!

Summary to this point: Universe helping, Scott is bleeding, the right-hand clipped pedal installed, left-hand normal pedal can not be removed. And I still needed to do my 30 minute 1 legged workout. Yeah, you guessed it... it was like high school all over again.

Anyone have a spot welder I can borrow?

Footnotes: (pun intended)

This was too funny to not include. I am confident there is a both a lawyer AND an engineer joke within this picture about how many tools it takes to remove a pedal. But for the sake of my marriage I am going to just leave you with the picture.

How very Helen Bonham Carter of me, non?

Week 2- I needed to think of a way to make this harder (NOT!) so I am heading to Calgary this week for business. Travel, eating out and exercise in a hotel- Oh Dear! This will give B99 a week to think about her behaviour and her reluctance to give up the left pedal. Hopefully I have this figured out before next Saturday's 1 legged training.

I'll keep you posted.

The Challenge Ahead... and Fair Warning

The Challenger: Me!

The Challenge: To complete a 3 month indoor bicycle training program starting Monday, November 7, 2011. I have chosen this program. It will not be easy. My goal is to stick to this program as closely as I am able. This is going to be extra challenging for me to maintain this program through the Christmas and holiday season. I should finish just before Super Bowl.

What I will use to train: This is my $99 Zellers special. Not pretty but she will get me through this.

Why? This is a seasons worth of cheap entertainment, with purpose, and I suspect that my experience here will be rich in material for my blog.

Second reason of why: my parents are buying me snow shoes for Christmas (Shhh! Don't tell me!) and I want to be fit enough to be able to use them without the need of a standby Emergency Medial Technician complete with defibrillator. There's a lofty goal. No cardiac arrest!

Fair Warning to all: I will likely complain- even if I am enjoying myself. I try to be all Miss Mary Sunshine but my inner snark is a monstrous beast that could eat Miss Mary for a snack and still eat a truckers lunch afterwards.

Executive Summary- for those of you pressed for time:

1. I'm going to be spending a lot of quality time with my rusty old bike over the next 3 months.


2. Ultimate goal- no cardiac arrest. Ever.


3. If I happen to lose a few pounds while doing this it won't hurt my feelings.


4. I'll tell you how I am doing. Expect some sass. :)

Wish me luck!

Plants VS Abels

I love Halloween. Have I ever mentioned this? Every year it is my free-play at being completely silly and ridiculous. Of late we have tried to dress as a family or go with a theme. This year was based on our favourite family game on the ipad: Plants VS Zombies. (Don't judge me. It teaches planning and...gardening ... and... and... brain protection.)

You can see here in our 2011 Christmas card shot that we are: Balloon Zombie, Pylon Zombie, Newspaper Zombie, Crazy Dave and Zombie. (Would have been Flag Zombie if some one's mother had remembered to make him a flag at any point before we left the house.) Whew! nearly got my brains ate over that one!

Invading your neighbourhood soon!

...Eating the trees and plants protecting the house...

And, of course, Crazy Dave asking for bacon while giving sage advice on how to protect your home from the zombie hordes. (Are those my good pots?!)

We invited our friends Bonnie and Kevin and their sons Colten and Carson to join us for dinner and some trick or treating this evening. Colten and Finn are the same age and get along really well. Carson is only a few years younger. So we all gobbled our dinner and then all started getting into our costumes. I started putting make up on the kids and they were extra eager to show their friends their very scary make up.

I guess Olivia came downstairs and genuinely scared Carson. The shrill scream that filled the basement had the cats running for cover and Carson quivering, in tears, behind his father. It took some convincing but he finally came out of the basement to join the fun. But I will note that he walked behind the rest of us all evening.

I am soooo sorry that we scared you.

n

And last, but certainly not least, is the Wizard Bonnie!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL. I hope you had a few (minor) frights and many good treats!

Golden Boy! It's Finished!

IT'S DONE! Golden Boy is finally complete. It fits and he likes it. (Damn straight he likes it!) It only took me 10 months to knit and I have to say that I am pretty darn pleased with the results.

He's a view of two good looking boys and all of our pumpkins for the season.

Guess what I crossed off my "Someday list" today?

I have maintained a "Someday List" for a long time. This is a long list of things that I would like to do, see or achieve in my life time. These items range from simple to grandiose dreams.

Here are some examples of things on the list that I have been able to check off as done.

• Travel to France and see my pen pal's family home. DONE!


• Have a baby or three. DONE!


• Completed a full marathon. DONE!


• Take Scott to Comic-Con. DONE!

I have many more items to complete but I am very excited to report that I got to check off a new one today:

Ride in a helicopter!

DONE!

Normality Confirmed!

My gynecologist told me yesterday that I am "normal". I accepted his assessment as good news but mentioned that although his scope of investigation was rather narrow that I will still quote him directly when someone calls me weird.

I have a bulky what?! Did he just call me fat? Yo Momma...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Shared photo book from jennifer

Click here to view this photo book larger

Singing in the Shower

Finn was singing in the shower this morning. (To the tune of Katy Perry's "I kissed a girl".)

"I kissed a girl and I liked it.
Taste just like cherry chop sticks."

(Image source: www.geeky-gadgets.com/lightsaber-chop-sticks-15-07-09/)

I wonder what cherry chop sticks taste like and who he has been kissing.

Sisterly Advice- A Vaguely Serious Post

My most recent example of excellent big sisterly advice... via text messaging.

Her: When you went off birth control did you have any noticeable side effects after having been on the pill for years?

Me: Yes. Pregnancy. Every time.

(Insert Sister rolling her eyes heavenwards and deeply regretting having asked me the question in the first place.)
____

BEFORE ANYONE ASKS: NO, this is NOT me telling everyone my sister is pregnant. Because to my knowledge she is not. Quite the opposite, in fact.
____

She thought I was joking but she knows my (and her own) history... we are fertile girls after all!

That, of course, wasn't what she meant at all. She actually wanted to discuss side effects of going cold turkey off the pill and what it would do to her. She had been reading internet "medical" data and chat room horror stories and had successfully freaked herself out. She'd had some symptoms and wanted to know if this was "normal". So, she came to me, her big sister, for some advice. (Mom was probably busy.)

I told her, reasonably I thought, that she should consult her doctor and that some of the things she had read about where possible but it was unlikely that she would get ALL of the symptoms at the same time. She knew all of that.

But I also told her something that she didn't know yet... "normal" changes after the age of 35- menustrually speaking. But that she knows her body best and she has to pay attention to what it is saying. She also has to share that information with the doctor to get the best information.

I illustrated this with a personal story, with a point, from a couple years ago. SPOILER ALERT: this story is about my period so if that sets off your T.M.I. alarm scan right down to the bottom for the point of the story.

I went to see my personal doctor because I was concerned that my cycle had been doing some wonky things. Until that time I had always been regular like precision Swiss clockwork, both on and off the pill. Now I was +8 days one month and -2 the next. It was very odd. So, of course, I did some internet research and had convinced myself that I had early stages of ovarian cancer. (Yeah, I'm an idiot. Not the point. Keep reading.)

So I go to my doctor and I describe my lack of normal cycle. He listens and then asks me my age. I tell him. He said that this change in my cycle could be that I was now over 35. That things change at about this age for women.

I emphasized how regular I had been, like, forever and was he very certain that there might not be anything else at play here. Seeing that I was not going to let this go he dug around on the inside of his desk for a little bit until he procured a little pad of paper. This was a menustral tracking chart. He then advised that the only way we would know if this was normal was if we tracked my menstrual cycle for 6 months or more. (Insert smug doctor face of knowing I would go away for at least 6 months and let him deal with patients who had real issues.)

So I dug around in my purse for a moment and handed him a piece of paper. I told him that I had already charted this information on my own over the previous +12 months and I still saw no pattern. (Bazinga!)

He was a little dumbstruck as he looked at it for a moment but evetually concluded that it was well in the range of normal but that normal, for me, had obviously changed since I had turned 35. He also added that I'd had regular PAP test which showed normal results so we had no reason to suspect anything odd was at play here. He also added that he thought I was a very peculiar woman for having had that charted already.

My answer to that was that how was: of course I had it charted. I noticed a difference and how was I supposed to prove a trend if I didn't have any data?

Any I bring it around to my points and I have a few:

1. Being aware of YOUR body is what is relevant. You should know your normal and know when your body is deviating from it.


2. Stay away from the internet for self diagnosis.


3. Charting and graphing- all the cool kids are doing it! You should too.

All of this sisterly advice in 140 characters or less. Not bad but I'm not going to quit my day job.

We'll be careful... I promise!!!

"Mom, can we do our nails ourselves?"

"I'm busy right now, Honey. Can this wait, please, until I am done cleaning the pool?"

"No! We want to do it now."

"Okay. Please do it in your bathroom and be really careful."

"Thank you Mom. We will. I promise!"

Exhibit A

Take one tiny bottle (10-15 ml) of Essie "a list" nail polish. Add two little girls and a curious kitten inside the boundaries of a bathroom. What could happen?

Yeah, well we all know what came next... an accidental spill...panic... a panicked attempt at clean up before your little brother can tattle ... dabbing the spill marks with nail polish remover hoping to make a clean spot... dumping the nail polish remover on the floor/counter/sink and scrubbing like mad with the bathroom towels...kicking the cat out of the room again before he can drink more nail polish remover... figuring out that you have stepped in the nail polish and you are leaving more marks on the floor with every step you take (including on the white bath mat)... and finally... sending the child whose arms and hands are 60% covered in red nail polish to tell your mom.

This is another one of those moments where I should have had the presence of mind to have taken a picture. But I didn't. I have not yet reached the Zen enlightenment stage in parenting where I can laugh before I yell. I'm working on it- I seem to be getting lots of opportunity to practice.

There was nail polish on the wall, the floor, in the sink, on the counter, on the door, on the mirror, on Georgia's arms and hands, on Olivia's sock, in the cat's fur, on the bath mat and covering 4 separate face cloths or towels.

Important lessons the girls learned from this:

1. 
   
   It might have been better to have confessed sooner.


2. 
   
   Cats are never helpful in stress inducing nail polish incidents- no matter what anyone says.


3. 
   
   It is a lot of work to clean this stuff up! But it is easier when mom helps.

Important lessons I learned from this:

1. 
   
   Holy F***! 10-15 ml of nail polish can go a LONG way! (Did they drop it from the frickin' ceiling?!)


2. 
   
   I have pledged my love and eternal gratitude to the makers (obviously a parent) of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. I will NEVER be without these in my house.


3. 
   
   Initial reaction aside (yeah, I yelled, but HOLY CRAP you would have too!) I was calm enough to realise that each of the girls felt really bad about the incident and that they were punishing themselves worse than I ever would have. Accidents happen.


4. I really need to buy some new face cloths and towels for the kids' bathroom. I'm thinking black ones would be good.


5. 
   
   
   

   AND I'm putting a live squirrel in the car of the next person who buys my kids nail polish. I'm just saying.

Friday

Well, we are nearing the end of our time at the Lake. We leave tomorrow evening. We are full to the top of cinnamon buns, ice cream and candy. The kids and I have eaten so much cheddar popcorn our fingers might be permanently orange. Yes, I do know none of those are actual food groups but hey, we're at the lake. Give us a break.

The girls have done 3 days of art camp at the Art Gallery here in the park and have made some really good art. We did a lot of swimming. We've gone on adventure walks. We've played at the parks and walked along the main strip. We have shopped. We have visited the wishing well, Deep Bay and the pier several times. All major bases covered. The kids and Scott rented a 4 person bike with Scott's sister Tammy.

Scott and the kids have enjoyed watching the Retro Teletoon channel. Such quality shows as The Smurfs, Spiderman (1983), Thundercats and The Smoggies. I didn't like any of those shows when they were on the first time and lets's just say that they haven't aged well with time. The one exception is Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner. Quoting one of Finn's favourite animated characters, Mater, "Well, I don't care who you are. That there is funny."

Scott has been watching the Game Show network too. I may scream if he makes me watch one more episode of Match Game or $25,000 Pyramid. I can actually feel myself getting stupider. I remember, at times like these, why I realy dislike most of what is on TV. Reading is much less frustrating.

I am making excellent progress on Scott's sweater "Golden Boy". I have (nearly) 3 of the 4 pieces complete. I'll add a picture a little later.

_________________________________________

Scott is getting VERY excited for what comes next week. Comic-Con in San Diego. He is spending his time reading about Comic-con exclusives and artists etc. If you don't know what Comic-Con is you should check out this article or just goto http://www.comic-con.org/ .

New Camera - Out and About

I bought a new camera for our holidays. (For those who are interested: a Samsung ST700.) It is a little handheld thing that has many more features than I am currently able to figure out but it does have a few interesting settings. It helps me take much better... or at least much more interesting pictures.

Here are a few from this morning.

This was in Vingette setting. perhaps not the best example but I like what it did with the light.

We briefly got stuck in "olden times". And, as is apt to happen in Oldy Timey type photos, I have captured photgraphic evidence of Olivia's darker side.

This is a picture of Georgia and her monkey ZigZag monkinating. (Definition: to sit quietly while contemplating your inner monkey.) Her word not mine.

A good day.

We had a very good day today.

I just bought a new camera and I am still working out the bugs.

Remembering Margaret

Margaret was a good cat. She was sick and today we made the hardest decision that pet owners have to make. She will be missed.

In her memory I will tell you 10 things that you may not have known about our cat Margaret:

1. Margaret's full name was Margaret the Log Lady. Our previous cat's name was Deputy Andy and he was Margaret's litter mate. (Do I know how to name a cat or what?!)


2. Margaret was a boy cat but by the time I realized that the name had stuck. In my defense she was VERY young when I got her and to that point I had been a life-long city girl. I just referred to her as being transgendered and that we were okay with her decisions. I have been openly mocked by every vet who has seen her for the past 14 years. I'm still okay with that. (Although we have wisely sought sober second opinions on gender assignment on every cat owned since.)


3. Margaret and Andy were gifts from one of my previous co-workers. I had casually mentioned one day that I was contemplating getting a cat because Scott didn't like dogs and I wanted a pet. He brought me two the very next day. Um... thanks. Now what?


4. Margaret was also known as Margaret the Bad Cat as she was a very mischievous kitten and young cat. She liked to ride on the dashboard of my Neon while I drove (I guess she liked to go fast.). She stole entire loaves of bread that were way bigger than her, took pieces of ham right off the Easter dinner platter left briefly unattended, somehow managed to eat the rubber handles off an exercise bike and knocked a light fixture off the ceiling at my house in Pierson. She ate every single house plant I have ever owned and knocked the ones she didn't like to eat off the shelf or table as a sign of her displeasure.


5. I once found Margaret tied to a couch. Oh I wish I'd had a camera that day!She had been playing with a ball of my knitting yarn and obviously had a great time rolling the ball under the couch and back up over the other side- many times. She had created a tangled spider-web up, over and around the couch and then proceeded to play inside the web- until she got stuck. I found her with her back leg hopelessly tied and her trying to act all casual. I stopped knitting for those years as I recognized that this might have been a first but it would not have been the last time I found her like this. I did a lot of reading in those years.


6. Margaret was a fierce fighter: she believed her tail was actually something scary lurking behind her and attacked it bravely and regularly. She also kept Scott and my bed free from bed mice. (Bed mice are anything that happened to move under the covers.) She hated shower curtains, especially the ones with magnets in them. And she ran around the house every night at 10:30pm patrolling the house and ringing out the cat alarm for other lazier cats who will remain nameless to get off their butts and to help her out on patrol. She routinely killed the kids' slippers. She would leave these now-dead offerings on Scott's pillow...which, now that I think about it may have been a thinly disguised threat.


7. Margaret was possessive. I belonged to her and her alone. She got slightly more social as she got older but not by so much as that she wanted to be touched by anyone just to be in the same room to supervise you. She gave the best purr therapy.


8. Margaret always slept with Scott and I and was very snugly. She liked to sleep curled up in my arm crook under the covers or right on my hip as I slept on my side.


9. Margaret woke me every day by butting her head into my open palm and demanded being petting RIGHT NOW. She would lick my hand or inner elbow if I didn't wake up fast enough to please her. Sometimes she would switch it up and sneeze in my face if I was being persistent about wanting to be asleep. I would have to pet her until she was satisfied and then she would walk away and go back to sleep- we called this "loving the Margaret".


10. Although quite anti-social she was quite patient with the kids and was a very good family pet.

Thank you Margaret for being part of our family. XOXOXOXO

Not dead- Just trapped in summer!

All is well with us. Honest. I am not dead. Just a little pre-occupied right now with summer time activities. Not much longer now until I get a little quiet time and I can fill you all in since I was here last.

Hmm... March was it... yeah, sorry about that. One thing blended into the other and next thing I knew it was the end of school.

This week's activities will only involve one trip to Winnipeg. Finn is off to the Abel's for some solo grandparent type fun.

I'll be back soon!

A really good day.

We went to Disneyland yesterday. We had a great day.

Here is the list of characters we saw today: Belle, Ariel, Cinerella, Snow White, Aurora, Jasime and Aladdin, Mary Poppins and Burt, Pluto, Goofy, Giepetto, Rapunzel and Flynn, Mickey and Minnie Mouse. And the best little evil queen ever.

A beautiful day in our neighbourhood!

Here are some pictures by the pool. It was 32C by the pool this afternoon. Julie went home today. Yesterday she and I went to Cabazon for the day. 7 hours of shopping fun. She is now the proud owner of a Coach purse. Last night we celebrated the trip and the March birthdays with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory. I think I can sum up the whole evening, for all of us, by saying: it was awesome and we all ate too much. Tomorrow... Disney.

We're here!

All is well. We arrived in Palm Springs safely. Although I would like to say that keeping 3 very tired kids awake and maneuvering them through the Las Vegas airport was easier in thought than in reality. We got everyone into the rental van and off we went. We left Las Veags at 11pm local time (1 am for our brains). Scott drove and we arrived at the condo just before 3am. Julie had everything all ready for us and after some brief hellos we all fell into bed, gratefully. To say the kids are excited to be spending time with Julie is a bit of an understatement. All of the kids keep randomly blurting out how happy they are to be with Julie in Palm Springs. They want to show her everything but mostly the pool! So far we have explored the grocery store (for snacks) and the local Target (for stuff). We've swam and ate at Ruby's. Life is good. We've driven out Cabazon but only as a teaser shop because Scott was frantic to buy some Crocs. The only reason he wants them is to annoy me as I think they are the ugliest shoes ever- they offend me on levels I can hardly describe. But when we found a small store that sold them he did not buy them because they were $40! Uh, yeah. He thought they were $8 everywhere- just like the faux-crocs at Walmart. We planned on walking around a little bit but it was cold and windy on the Cabazon side of the mountain where it had been sunny and warm in Palm Springs and we were all dressed for Palm Springs. So we didn't get very far. I would just like to note for the record that so far SCOTT has bought 4 pairs of shoes (well 3 pairs of shoes and 1 pair of faux-crocs), 4 shirts, 2 ties and 1 t-shirt. But don't worry... Julie and I will get back later. It was a easy bedtime for us last night. The formula is: a little bit of sun and warm+ swimming+ a very busy week+ a previous day of long travel = a good nights sleep. Scott, Julie and forced ourselves to stay up until 9:30pm before we all gave up and called her a night. There are only so many episodes of Drive-in, Diners and Dives we can watch without needing to eat.

What is this... the third act of Romeo and Juliet?

I paraphrase but we have a plague about our house. This is becoming a really bad pre-vacation tradition.

Here's the tally: (so far)

Olivia: 2 ears infected, pink eye, virus and unconfirmed strep throat
Georgia: fever, unconfirmed strep throat
Finn: confirmed strep throat, lump on his neck (swollen lymph node), fever, bad patch of eczema on his leg, pink eye
Jen: confirmed strep throat, UTI or kidney stones (Please be only really bad UTI!)
Scott: pink eye

Our family has become the poster family for the number one reason why other people hate to fly on the same plane as families. We are even less popular than crying or colicy babies and the chatty person in the adjacent seat that wants to talk about her bunion surgeries or her aching hemmoroids. Yep, that's us.

All I have to say is... Awesome! And when I say awesome I really mean F***!

Dance Recital #1 Cancelled

The dance recital for this evening is cancelled due to bad road conditions and pissy weather.

I'll keep you posted on tomorrow's recital.

On Your Mark...

We have 2 dance recitals- for all 3 kids, 1 spring registration night, 1 appointment with the Ear, Nose, Throat specialist in Portage, 1 appointment to get Scott's hearing tested, 1 birthday and the need to pack for 5 of us! Oh yeah, school and work too. Just a normal week!

If I am really good I will make an appointment for all kids to see the local doctors BEFORE we leave on our trip. It is just my luck that they will all develop ear infections on Thursday. Believe it or not it is NOT my personal goal to end up at the doctor's or in the hospital on every vacation.

Wish me luck. Have a good week.

Counting Blessings

At the end of the Friday, March 11th I was able to tell Scott that perhaps I had raised the bar for my worst day ever but I was still going to consider myself really, really lucky. I counted many blessings that day. It could have gone a lot differently.

For the past week I have been trying to find a way to express myself on what happened. After much thought I have decided that I will count my blessings.

1. It was a horrifying day on a global level- the earthquake in Japan. My heart aches for the good people of Japan. I am grateful that I can do SOMETHING to help. Please donate to the Canadian Red Cross.


2. Waking to news of a- literally- world shaking event is awful enough but waking with the knowledge that the earthquake caused a tsunami travelling at 500 mph towards the Hawaiian islands. I counted 5 HUGE blessing as that was number of family members to NOT be swept away or trapped in a tsunami. They had lots of warning and were safe enough on the 12th floor.


3. The road conditions were quite bad in and around the Virden area- highways were closed all over the place. I was scheduled to be in Waskada (1h 15 minutes from Virden) for the morning to finish interviewing for an inspectors. I was thankful that we successfully rearranged for the interviews to be done in Virden since 4 out of the 5 people involved for the day were all in Virden. And that the one fellow who did travel arrived safely.


4. I was thankful that the highways eventually did open and the kids, the cats and I were able to leave Virden. Scott had bought tickets for the Boys (Finn, Scott and Dave) to go to the Monster Truck show at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg for Saturday, March 12th. Finn had really been looking forward to the show. We got out of town. (This was definitely a mixed blessing as I would have saved us a LOT of trouble had we just stayed home.)


5. I am thankful that we made it all the way to Austin before we encountered REALLY bad whiteout weather conditions. Did I mention that the weather was really, really bad?


6. I was grateful that our cat Howard stopped doing his Al Pacino in Attica impression in his car carrier. He eventually calmed down. Obviously this was the kitten's first long car ride. FYI: hysterical cats are NOT fun travelling companions especially in already tense driving situations.


7. I was thankful for the DVD player in the van and the various ipods and DSi games that kept the kids occupied and quite oblivious to the raging weather outside. Every once in a while G would ask "Momma, can YOU see anything?" and I would mumble something about having better visibility from the front. I was lying.


8. I was thankful that we got to Portage la Prairie safely. Yes, I drove a solid 50 km almost completely blind and on terrible roads but we got there.


9. I am grateful that I had my cell phone fully charged and with me but it didn't work. I was extra grateful to have found a pay phone in Portage. My cell reception was sketchy and I was getting blocks of increasingly panicked texts from Scott asking if we were okay. I was not able to send anything while driving and once we got to Portage all cell lines were blocked. So it was good to reassure him that we were okay.


10. I am grateful for my children's positive attitude and sense of adventure. When we were unable to find an available hotel room and I told them that we may be sleeping in our van they thought that was okay. Even when we were in the Walmart parking lot and in middle of a raging blizzard. After the 4th visit to an unavailable hotel Finn's wise words were "Well, there goes Plan D. What's Plan E Momma?" "Um, Gimme a minute, Baby" was my answer.


11. I was thankful that I came up with a Plan E... I decided to call the only people I even vaguely knew in Portage and ask, beg if necessary, if we could please bunk with them for the night. They were home. They graciously said yes. (Thankyou!thankyou!thankyou!) I can not adequately express how I felt when we got safely to their house and I could actually put away the thought of the all of us in the van for the night.


12. Again to the positive attitude of the kids in thinking that this was the "funnest sleepover ever". Whereas I wanted a drink.


13. I was extra grateful to the neighbours of our hosts for having had a plunger to help deal with the plugged and copiously flushed toilet as a direct result of my children. (OMG! can this trip get any better?!) I was, again, extra grateful that no lasting damage was done to their newly renovated bathroom and now slightly flooded basement. (How do you casually ask someone you barely know if you can buy them a plunger and a bottle of Lysol?) Another blessing was that this happened in the morning of the next day. If it had happened the night before I might have just cracked.


14. The weather cleared and the highways reopened after a lovely breakfast with our new friends. We packed quickly and bolted to Winnipeg before the kids could break their new lamps or something.


15. Finn arrived on time, with 20 minutes to spare, for his Monster Truck show. Scott met us downtown.


16. After 45 minutes at the Monster Truck show Finn had decided that he'd had enough and that it was time to go home. I am grateful that Scott was patient enough to explain to Finn that I had expended a lot of effort to get him there for the show and that they will be staying for the whole show. Scott bought a $25 t-shirt and an $8 snack and they were solid for the next 1h 15 minutes.
17. The girls and I went shopping for the afternoon with Norma and Tammy. It was grand and the girls had a ball.
18. Scott and the kids made it home again on sunday in a very quiet and very uneventful ride home while I stayed in Winnipeg for work. In a typical Manitoba storm we got two days of bad weather and it went right back to being lovely the next day.

So many blessings were counted. I do feel that we were quite lucky in the whole ordeal. I am NOT eager to do it again.

Another blessing ot be counted- on an unrelated note- I got my renewed passport in the mail this week. I can go on vacation with my family next week. Yahoo! Count me in for a pina colada by the pool. Maybe two!

The race is on... and other odds and sods

I am on the race committee for the 2nd annual Virden 10km run and 3km Family Run/Walk. I have a meeting in a few minutes so this will be a short one tonight. We are deciding on a date for the race. Details will follow when available.

We are preparing for the dance recitals and the first step in that is final dress rehearsal this week. I'm not sure how I am going to get everyone to the Aud on time and in costume this week but I guess I'll figure it out as I go.

Monster Truck show this weekend for the boys. Big Fun!

A quick note

Yes, we are all still alive. It was a very good weekend and like all good times it seemed to have gone by extra fast.

The kids were in Brandon for gymnastics AND for a sleepover weekend with Aunt Tammy. Tam rented a hotel room at a hotel with a kids' theme room and a water slide. Aunt Tammy is kool! Norma and Dave drove to Brandon for the day for a visit too.

The sleepover actually allowed Scott and I to get out on a date. And for those of you who are scoffing- we stayed out way past 9:30pm! Hoo Ha! We then ended up watching the movie Grown Ups with Adam Sandler, Kevin James and Chris Rock. We must have been in the mood for a silly slap-stick movie because we both actually laughed, a lot, and managed to stay awake through the whole thing.

Other Sundry:

• Mom is off to Hawaii tomorrow. She is very excited. Dad's batching it for a month. I suspect in the next month he'll be eating a lot of chips and cheese or Mexican food as he calls it.
• Heather's birthday is this week and she leaves for Hawaii next weekend! Have fun Hez!
• I am very concerned about my friend Corinne, in France. Her father had a stroke last week and I haven't heard back from her yet as to his condition.
• I am watching the Oscars. I generally love watching the Oscars but I have to say that this year I am having a real hard time staying engaged. It might have something to do with the fact that I have seen exactly three of the movies mentioned throughout the entire evening.
• I am supposed to be on a 28 days fast from sugar. It is NOT going well. I managed to go a solid 3 hours on the first day before I mindlessly stuffed a donut in my face at a meeting and then remembered what I was supposed to be doing. D'OH! Lana keeps encouraging me to keep trying and to start again. I have been honest with her and have renegotiated to only do 7 days of sugar-freeness as that seems to be my limit but at this rate it will take me 28 days to accomplish if I have to keep starting over.
• On a completely unrelated note: this afternoon I made coconut cupcakes and cream cheese icing for a co-worker's birthday tomorrow. The kids really don't like them so I expect that I will have more than a few Day 1s this week. I also cut up some fruit in case I actually feel like NOT having any sugar for a day or so.
• I'm not really sure how it happened but I managed to spread more than 5 drops of blue food colouring onto my right hand this afternoon while answering the phone and baking cupcakes. I am honestly perplexed as to how this happened as the cupcakes are not blue but I am thankful that I have dark counter tops and the kitten has dark colouring. Scott has accused me of doing rude and sexually inappropriate things to a smurf.
• Anyone have any idea of how to get food colouring off your skin without acid or steel wool?

TGIF

Random things that I know for sure about this week:

1. I'm glad it is done but I'm not sure where it went. I've had a wicked case of day confusion all week. I was certain that yesterday was Friday only to wake this morning with the feeling that I was the cute-but-slightly-ditzy star of the direct to video version of "Groundhog Day- the Sequel!"
   
2. Scott is in Quebec for the weekend and the bad weather seemed to have followed him there. Quebec can keep the bad weather, if it is all the same, but I'd like if they could send Scott back when they are done with him. Thanks.


3. My mom has been at my house since Tuesday babysitting the kids while I am at work. (Thanks Mom!) She is working hard and going to bed more than tired. However, even spending time with 3 out of her 5 grandchildren has not quenched her longing to be in Hawaii to escape the winter weather. She'll be there soon enough.
   
4. It is very important to check the expiry date of your passport more frequently than every 5.1 years! FYI- mine expired in January of this year. (D'Oh!) I started the week with lunch with a friend and she told me a story of friends of hers who had travelled all the way to Taipei in Japan to realize that her passport expired in two days. She had to come home. Better I find this out now than at the border next month!


5. Well, I have learned more than a few things about dress making and sewing patterns this week. Just because I wear size 14 normally doesn't mean I can buy a size 14 pattern. Silly me. Apparently in dress making terms size 14 really means size 8. It must be that new math I keep hearing about. Don't be fooled.


6. I have a crazy friend, who will remain nameless, (her name rhymes with Smana Kidger) who wants me to give up sugar with her for 28 days. Sugar- my oxygen! She wants me to stop breathing for 28 days. Apparently it is going to change my life. Right.


7. I am going to be increasingly cranky for the next 28 days starting on Monday. You might see a few more ranting blogs in the next month. It's not me- it's the lack of sugar speaking.
8. I'm seriously contemplating finding new and saner friends who are fine with my sugar consumption and want help in giving up their serious brussel sprout addictions.



9. Michael, my brother in law, just arrived and brought me a beautiful hand made gift. This will be hereby known as my Naughty Knotty Bowl. I love it! Isn't it beautiful?

Annoyance with Social Networking, A Rant

I am going to offer an ironic statement as a wanna-be blogger: I am tired of some forms of social networking. Specifically Facebook.

I waffle, as I check for updates, whether I should just cancel my whole account and force anyone who actually really wants to talk to me to contact me directly to show me their pictures of their holiday or children. This network has its purposes but it feels so very lazy. It seems like I have "friends" without benefits and, really, what is the point of that?!

Facebook reminds me of a comment made by a friend several years ago when she and I were discussing whether we'd attend our 10 year High School Reunion. (We didn't.) Her comment was that we could all save ourselves the time and effort if we all just filled out a form with the pertinent information that everyone wants to know and circulate it in newsletter format. Information to be compiled would include but not be limited to: a current picture, marital status (history optional), total # of pounds gained since high school, a brief timeline of travels/jobs/major life events since we saw you last, and a comment on how you currently spend you time. We laughed at how easy that would be and unlikely it was to occur. Apparently neither of us were visionaries because isn't that EXACTLY what Facebook does for us now?

I have found many people on Facebook who went to my same high school. Some of them had been very good friends to me or to Scott. Many have found me too. I enjoy seeing pictures of them in their lives now including pictures of their spouses, families and vacations. I am interested in their lives but feel quite satisfied just being a lurker. Does that make me a lazy friend?

Well, no. The ugly truth- most of these people aren't my friends now; most have been, sadly, downgraded to friendly acquaintances. Acquaintances that I may have grown up with or have spent several years of my life at their house talking about boys and dreaming about the future. These may be people who I could see tomorrow and we could pick right up where we had left off and we could become friends once again. To be a friend there needs to be some reciprocity of time, effort and interest.

So why do any of us bother trying to maintain these friendly acquaintances? Logic says that their lives are just as busy as mine. They are likely trying to juggle life as best they can too. Maybe this is the best that we can do sometimes and these ties, even the weak ones, allow us to feel like we are not alone through the balancing act.

___

What got me thinking about this topic in the first place? One of my favourite authors, Malcolm Gladwell, wrote this article in The New Yorker about Why the revolution will not be tweeted. It is a really interesting and relevant article about social media and its role in social activism. (Eygpt, anyone?) It also briefly discusses the function of social networking sites like Facebook. Very interesting read!

About Georgia

Georgia a new friend. Her name is Sasparilla and she is Georgia's Tooth Fairy. She visited us again last night to trade tooth #4 for $2. Good deal for a tooth.

I may have mentioned last fall that G had 6 loose teeth. And was, in fact, becoming shark-like by growing a second row of bottom teeth. (I believe she is an orthodontist's dream but we'll find that out as she gets a little older.) It has only been in the last few months that these teeth have started coming out. Well... been pulled out. Scott has had to pull each one as Georgia has been content enough to let them dangle. Georgia has been very brave. So brave that we are now on a first name basis with the Tooth Fairy.

This was G's Nanny McFee look.


Georgia has been leaving small notes for the Sasparilla to fill out at each visit. We have learned that Sasparilla has short purple hair, green eyes and pink skin. She is small and lives with her sisters. Sasparilla is good friends with Santa and they apparently play tennis together in their off time.

2nd Highest Holiday: SUPER BOWL!!

Okay People! This is a Big Day. I have more than a few things to do before our guests, the two biggest Super Bowl fans ever, arrive. (Okay- they could really care less about the Super Bowl but they like the food and tolerate the football to watch the commercials while having our kids jump all over them. Theys good people.)

It was a rough week last week for me for many reasons and I was very much looking forward to the weekend. It has been a good weekend so far. Here are just a few reasons why:

1. Super Bowl. Weren't you paying attention above. I'm cheering for the Green Bay Packers, not the aledged rapist. I am going to win $5 from my dad.
2. I picked up comic books and Littlest Pet Shop (LPS) purchases. Finally the kids can stop worrying that their money has been stolen by ebay.
3. Wayne was successful in getting day tickets to the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con. Geek Fest 2011 is so officially On! I'd get us t-shirts printed but that would only further prove the point.
4. Lana and I spent yesterday with a deeply satisfying day of retail therapy and Mexican food in Minot, ND. SWEET! It was a good day.
5. One of my best purchases yesterday was the pattern and fabric for two new dresses and a jacket. Yes, I am going to try find time to sew in my spare time too. (Yeah, please don't tell Scott that I have found yet another diversion from knitting his sweater. Shh. It will our little secret.)
6. I got snow pants for the kids -ON SALE- for next year. ($11/each @ Target. Woot! Woot!)

That's it. Those are my accomplishments for the weekend so far. This afternoon will consist of laundry, cooking, frantic cleaning (alternated with periods of shouting at the kids for assistance in picking up their multitude of LPS) groceries, knitting and football followed by Glee.

Life is good. Happy Super Bowl People!

Dear Golden Boy, again...

Dear Golden Boy:

I am pleased to say, and show, that we are okay and still together. We are working things out and progressing along. I have finished the back segment. (I have yet to actually measure this on the back of the person for whom it is meant. But we'll work these things out one thing at a time.) We'll call you 25% complete. Just the front, two sleeves (that are hopefully, at least, approximately the same length), collar and finishing left. Darling Golden Boy clearly we are not out of the woods yet. Maybe I'll work on a sleeve next.

However, in the sake of full disclosure, I must confess to yet another indescretion. Okay, I seem to have stumbled onto a steep and slippery slope here. I used to be a solid one project at a time kind of girl but now... I'm starting to spread myself around a little bit. And I have to say it feels pretty good.

This is my new project, started this morning, Cabled V-Neck Slipover. (From Debbie Bliss, Fall/Winter 2008 magazine.) I am knitting this with Debbie Bliss Como yarn. It is beautiful yarn. The yarn is thick and so very soft. The colour is a very light blue-grey. This is knit on big needles and is my first time with chunky weight wool.

I may never go back to thin wool knit with tiny needles. I feel like a speed knitter. I'm cocky in having finished over 7" of knitting in an afternoon.

So Golden Boy, we will make it through these hard times. We will. Just a little bit slower now than before. The Green Cabled Shoulder Bag is still in the queue and as you saw it last. In fact, after my confession I put the shoulder bag away and tucked in and finished the back of Golden Boy.

So maybe all this straying will be productive... I'm just saying.

With Love,

J