I didn't even enjoy watching it.

This is Skip-bo for those not in the know. It is tons of fun for anyone. I know a five year old who can seriously kick some ass playing this game and I have yet to meet anyone of any age who has played it and not liked it.

It is a real good family game.

Speaking of Skip, I skipped the gym tonight. I was going to go for a walk, but got all caught up watching the Bachelorette. It's not the kind of show I like to watch, but somehow it got me, and it was a easy excuse not to go for a walk. Sorta. I know, I know, I can hear you all now.."What, the Bachelorette? Mel, you surprised me. I would have thought you would take a walk over that any time?"

Me too, but I guess I just didn't want to go for that walk that bad. I didn't even like watching it.

And the beat goes on, and on, and on...

I am drunk.

No really, as I am wrtung this I am drunk. I had s0me wine and thensome mre and then some coffee, like thaaat heleped. so what the hey, I had anoither glass of wne. Hee, ehh, I canbt even thype this. Haa haa,

Seriously, we had some good freinds ove r for sinner this evening and we ate some food I madwe and tehn i got drunk, I ghink we had some fune, but ehwn I brought out the skpbo they left. What the heck does thatn mena?

I thin therk is tills anotehr bottle of winte left............

The absolute worst

I had a great weekend but it ended with a really crappy sleep last night and then a crappy day today followed. I got cranky for no real reason. BUT, I stuck it out and made myself go to the gym tonight even though that was the absolute last thing I felt like doing.

I have now gone to the gym 2 out of 3 days. I am very happy with myself. Neesja, while I was waiting for Kaitlin and Nicole, I watched you pedal hard and you didn't even know it.

I have my PA first thing at work tomorrow, so that will either give me a great day or make me cranky again, if I'm not already.

I had two things I wanted to blog about just an hour ago and now I can't remember either one. What the hell is up with that? OH, OH, OH, I just remembered both!

One: Today, January 24th, is supposed to be the worst day of the year. Some person proved it mathematically. Something to do with Christmas being over, all the huge credit card bills coming due & having broken everyone of your New Years resolutions by now. I figured we might as well tack on the short days and long nights and cold crappy weather of the Canadian January while we're at it. A lawyer I know once told me that January & February are known in the legal world as the Divorce season. They do over 50% of the years divorces in these two months. It is also known as the worst time of year for suicides.

I don't suppose the fact that everywhere you go, bankers and investment people are pushing Rrsp's and telling you that you don't have enough money saved for retirement and you can't count on the Canada Pension Plan anymore and that just reminds you that its tax season now too.

And two: Now, if most people have broken their New Years resolutions by today, why is the gym so damn busy? I always expect it to be busier after New Years, but usually by now it has started to slack off a bit. Tonight was the busiest I have ever seen it. I go there and work myself up to a good workout mindset and then I have to sit and wait up to 10 minutes for a machine. Then when I get through my cardio I have to fight 16 to 22 year old young men who are all just goofing around and showing off for the 3 young pretty perky girls their age and ignoring all us fat 40 year old ladies who are there with a serious plan just to use a piece of the weight equipment.

The absolute worst is when they don't take the 2-75lb weights off the machines when they are done. I refuse to ask for their help, I would rather wait another 10 minutes for another one.

maybe?

Well, Friday night has come and gone. I came home from work, spent about 3/4 of an hour in the kitchen with Kaitlin making a nice dinner, stirfry pork tenderloin & veggies with fat noodles. I cleaned the kitchen as we went and then we had supper and watched Bridget Jones Diary, well... I did anyway. Kaitlin ditched me and the sappy chick love flick and commandeered MSN and neopets. Much more interesting for her. We then watched what not to wear and I plucked her eyebrows for the first time. Poor girl has really dark thick brows, it was time to start getting her used to it. I think I will take her to get them waxed once she gets used to the plucking. She does however have the most beautiful thick dark lashes to compensate.

I love that movie, as soon as it ended I wanted to watch it again. It's like hitting the end of a really good book. I want more! I haven't seen the sequel yet, it hasn't made its rounds to our little city theatre yet. I have read the books though and it should be just as good as the first.

I had a great evening and the only thing that was leftover to do today was the dishes. I got to sleep in a little this morning, picked up my girlfriend and went to the gym. Had a great workout, I pushed myself more than I ever had, every time I go it gets better. I am actually starting to look forward to going.

The sun is now shining and the temp outside is warming. Laundry is started and I feel good.

Wow, maybe I'm on to something.

Can you believe?

Its hard not to blog about work. It is so much a part of my day. I get up in the morning and everything including my first decision of the day (should I have a cup of coffee right away or wait until I get to work so I can drink more when I really need it) is all with the thought of getting myself to work and through the workday.

Then I work for what seems like hours and hours with sporadic coffee drinking, eating and bathroom visits (not all at once although I have caught myself drinking coffee while peeing).

Then I go home and unwind from work and everything I do is trying to catch up on all the stuff I would have done by now if I wasn't at work all day and on the rare evening that there isn't anything of the sort, I try to pre-organize myself for the next workday.

The only exception to this rule is Friday night when I just exist. I do nothing and no one better expect anything from me. My family knows this. They can do almost anything and eat almost anything for supper as long as it doesn't involve me. I don't even care if no one cleans up after themselves. I can get away with this only because tomorrow is Saturday. I have a whole day to catch up from Friday night. It usually takes the whole day too.

Then Sunday is spent doing all the things I should have done on Saturday and Sunday evening is another work evening.

No wonder I never seem to have any spare time to go for coffee with my friends, work on one of my MANY never ending projects, go for a walk with the dogs, or even to the gym.

Can you believe that I, an almost 40 year old woman, just figured this out now as I am typing?
Wow, I need to blog more. I wonder what will happen this Friday night?

January

Cold
Dark
Long
Quiet
Big soft piles of blankets and pillows
Snuggles
Movies
Warm food
Hot drinks
Fires & Candles
Snuggles
Dirty windows don't matter
Crunching snow
Bright stars
Cold
Dark
Long
Quiet
Snuggles

Today

Kaitlin is my third child. She has, in the past few months, reached the stage of in between. She is in no way any longer a child but doesn't yet fit into the adult world. As with Craig and Stephanie at the same time in their lives, every now and then I will catch a glimpse of the women, or in Craig's case, the man, she will become. It's a quick fleeting moment in time that always throws me off. I am never expecting it. It will be a sudden smile over their shoulder or a few steps on their walk to the school bus stop. Sometimes its in the way they laugh at something silly one of the dogs or I have just done or just the way they will put down their fork. Always it shows itself and then disappears before my mind processes what I just saw.

It floors me every time.

But with Kaitlin, I have a little bit of a practiced eye. I am starting to catch more of these moments. And today, our photographer caught one on film, or in technology's language he caught one on a digital chip.

Kaitlin and I spent about a 1/2 hour in the studio to get her school photo package done. George is an award winning professional photographer who has taken my children's annual photos since Kaitlin was 3 yrs old. He does an absolutely fantastic job of it, but today, he out did himself.

The very first shot he took to test the lighting was the winner of the bunch. He took about 15 shots total, in various poses, but after looking at them all, he didn't really have to. This one is the kind of photo that could be in a wall of photos and would call me from across the room and I would have to stand and just look back at it for a while.

It is going to be very hard to wait the two weeks for the package to be printed and to give them out.

Its done!

Its done! Its done! It's done! Maggies dress is done! Good thing as she is leaving tomorrow.

My time?

Here it is January 10th already and I still have one VERY IMPORTANT Christmas project to complete. It is baby Maggies Christmas gift. Thank goodness she is still an infant and doesn't know how stupid this is.

I took the day off today to have more than 5 minutes of me time in a row. I planned to sleep until I woke up and then read and watch silly daytime programming until I fell asleep again.

BUT, I have approx 10 loads of laundry (I haven't even sorted it yet), baking (I have 10 black bananas and 3 loaves of bread dough to do something with), cooking ( I have leftover turducken carcass's on the boil as I write), shopping (not even enough to give the poor dog a bone in my panty, PANTRY, I mean PANTRY, cause I am boiling the last bones again, think pantry for my supper damn it!) and now add the little dress I need to sew together to my list. I also want to spend some time visiting Maggie and her mom. They have been in town since Dec 19th and I have only seen them at Christmas family get-togethers. I am hoping to squeeze in a coffee visit this afternoon. None of this got done on the weekend because I was out of town.

AND I feel like crap today. My throat hurts, my sinus's are stuffed and my ears are plugged.

I am going to go start the laundry, make a pot of lemon tea, and sew that little blue and pink fleece dress together, make some phone calls, have some lunch, go for a quickie coffee visit, get some groceries, pick up Kaitlin from school, come home and bake cinnamon rolls, buns and banana bread, cook up some noodles for the soup stock and take a long hot bath and go to bed by 8pm and watch some silly evening programming until I fall asleep.

Or maybe I will just go have a nap with the dogs. Hhhmmmm....today is supposed to be MY TIME.

Idiots.

What is it with the average Joe citizen that he/she is willing to trade the right thing for convenience???

Everyday I see an example of this. We live in a world of "convenience". "Convenience" is everywhere you look. The food we buy has no nutrition anymore, but damn its "convenient" to buy, "convenient" to prepare, "convenient" to eat and even "convenient" to discard of. It is shoved in your face everywhere. I dare you to look around you right now and see how many "things of convenience" are in the same room as you.

Don't get me wrong, there is something to be said for convenience. It can save you a lot of time, (and we all need more time to pack in more convenient things). BUT!, when it is the right thing to do, the right thing to say, or even the right thing to eat, and it isn't convenient, people will refuse to do it, say it or eat it. How may times have you heard the words

"It's just not convenient"

A really good example of this is in a previous job, and I will not say which of the many, a telephone conversation with a client roughly went like this;

Client: I did not receive my statement this month, how much do I have to pay and when is it due?
Me: Your payment of $$$ is due by mm/dd/yy.
Client: But, I did not receive my bill, therefore I do not have to pay it.
Me: But I have just told you how much is due and when it is due, you do not need your statement to pay this.
Client: As I did not receive it, I do not have to pay it.
Me: But the contract you signed did not specify that you did not have to make your payment unless you received a statement. You agreed that you would make your payments no later than the due date or a penalty will be applied.
Client: WHAT! A PENALTY! I'M NOT PAYING ANY FUCKING PENALTY WHEN "YOU" DIDN'T EVEN SEND ME A STATEMENT. WHERE THE FUCK DID I SIGN THAT, SHOW IT TO ME!


I did kinda clean up the language. My point is, it wasn't convenient for the client to make his/her payment as he/she did not have a statement which would conveniently show him/her how much and when and where to pay it. He/she may have had to pick up a pen and write this down somewhere, and I'll even wager, no one conveniently left a piece of paper or pen next the the phone for him/her. He/she was already mad at me because I did not conveniently call to see if he/she received his/her statement and he/she had to LOOK for my phone number. Lucky for me it was conveniently in a phone book.

It happens all the time. People do not want to go out of their way for anything, even if they know its the right thing to do.

Yes I am still here. My computer room has been taken over by teenagers and one teenager wanna be. Christmas was good, fast and over before I knew it. I felt a little lost in it all. Wiht all the people streaming through my days and not really feeling very comfortable in my skin, it seemed to be a bit of a dream state week.

I just finished a book that grabbed me from the get go. There are 5 in the series and I went to the local bookstore yesterday on the advice of a good friend for the second one and they were having a boxing week sale so I bought the rest of the series except the 3rd book only because they didn't have it.

January will be my reading month.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Life truly is good and I wish nothing but the same for you and yours.

Bring it on!

Well, its here now. Christmas is upon us. I am as ready as I will ever be. Bring on the eating and drinking and merry making. I have more than half of my wrapping to do still along with a few loads of laundry and some house cleaning. The wrapping will get done, the laundry and house cleaning will get divvied up amongst whoever is free to do it.

Looks like Dean should be off work for Christmas day at least, maybe more and as I write, Craig, Gen, Steph and Todd are due in town any moment now. I am watching out my window to see if I can see them drive by.

It hasn't felt much like Christmas to me yet, but I am sure having the kids home will do it for me. Always a mom first and foremost.

Tassie knows its Christmas, ever since I finished decorating the tree the second time and got my little M&M town set up under it with my fibre-optic gingerbread house, she has been sniffing around it hoping for a chance to rip something open. WE MUST REMEMBER NOT TO LEAVE HER HOME ALONE WITH ACCESS TO THE GIFTS UNDER THE TREE! She will open them if she gets a chance. She is also paying some attention to the stockings this year and has been much more spry than usual this past week.

Cricket is as Cricket does.

I hope Craig feels like cooking tonite, it would sure help me out and Stephanie and Kaitlin can do the dishes.

Awww... Life is good.

Asleep by 10

Two batchs of carmel corn and a small pan of fudge done & the tree is stripped of all but the lights. I was in bed by 9:30 and asleep by 10. I woke before the alarm this morning.

Kaitlin however is sick. She is missing the last two days of school before the holidays in bed with a slight fever. She has a stuffy nose and a sore throat but that seems to be it, so far.

I hope she feels better soon. I miss her.

Maybe.

I finally started some Christmas baking!!
Hee-hee-I'm on my way now!

Actually, I will fess up. Kaitlin did most of the Mars Bars - Rice Krispie squares. I just helped with the tough arm breaking mixing and the clean up.

But none the less I feel like we got somewhere tonight.

The tree is still looking like crap though, BUT I found the most wonderful perfect tree skirt at the Bay for $30.00, it was 50% off. It is the most beautiful part of the tree right now.

Tomorrow night for sure if it kills me! That and at least two batches of caramel popcorn. Maybe Kaitlin will do the Mint Nanimo bars.

No drinking until the tree is done.

I promise.

Maybe.

Bliss

33 straight hours of bliss come to an end. I got far, far away from my dependents for 33 straight hours and actually relaxed enough to become tired. All I need now is a good nights sleep NOT induced by legal over the counter drugs or alcohol and I will be ready for the next two weeks of last minute panic and all out attempt to provide everyone associated with me a perfect Christmas experience.

If I fail, please remember, Christmas will come again and I will try again.

Drinking and decorating...

...don't mix.


Last night, Cheryl came over and the plan was to do all our Christmas wrapping while enjoying a bottle of wine.

Well.. since neither of us felt like wrapping, she came over and I decorated my tree while we enjoyed 2 & 1/2 bottles of wine. I had a great time. After the tree was done, we watched Shrek 2.

This morning I got up with a bit of a light head and my tree looks like crap & Kaitlin is mad at me because I decorted it without her. I am going to have to redo it with a pot of coffee and Kaitlin's expertise.

The rest of the house doesn't look too bad, but of course that was done before the wine was opened.

Merry Holy Crapmas

I have so much to do still and Christmas is only two weeks away. I just tonite did my Christmas cards. I usually have them out in the mail by Dec 5th at the latest. I have only finished one craft project so far and I still have three to do. All easy stuff, I just need some time. I have completed most of my shopping though. I have a few small things to pick up yet, but nothing much, I just need time to get to it.

I have not decorated my home for the season yet, that is usually done by Dec 7th. Craig's birthday is the 6th, so my rule is I don't decorate until after his birthday.

I have not even started my baking and that is usually done and in the freezer by December 7th at the latest.

It doesn't look like the laminate will get onto the living room floor before Christmas. Dean has been working from apprx 4/5am to 6/7 pm every day this week. I haven't even had time to discuss it with him. By the time he has a shower, rewarms and eats his cold supper, makes his lunch for the next day, he is ready for bed.

Of course I haven't wrapped a damn thing yet either. I still have to spread it all out and see what I have. I like to make sure I have approx the same for each of the kids.

I haven't been in bed before midnite once this week. With Dean working so many hours I don't have him to help with supper, dishes, housework and Kaitlin. I also have to note that without Craig & Steph at home, I have less time. I expected to have more, but I guess for all the extra work they were, they helped alot more.

BUT, what needs to get done will get done. If it doesn't, there will be another Christmas next year.

Tomorrow evening I am going to decorate. Then up early Saturday for a hair appt and back to the house. I have to do the laundry(and man there is alot again) while cleaning the house (or not) and then I can decorate. Then organize my gifts. My girlfriend Cheryl is coming over Saturday evening for a gift wrapping wine sipping music playing all around good time. Sunday am will be a lazy relax putter morning. Then to the City I go, hi-ho. Two days of work related training combined with two evenings of eating out with a girlfriend from work and whatever we want to do in the city. It should be an enjoyable, relaxing time. I can't forget the survivor finale on Sunday evening though.

Then the rest of the evenings and one last weekend before Christmas will be for baking, last minute shopping & gift delivering combined with seasonal visiting.

On a totally different note, I have decided with my doctor this week to go ahead and have breast reduction surgery. I will be seeing a female surgeon early in the New Year, and hope to have smaller and with any luck perkier girls sometime in early spring. This should make a big difference in the problems I have been having with my neck, shoulders & back, and as a bonus, I hope to be able to wear my bottom 2 drawers of tops that just don't fit right. AND, maybe possibly dare I dream, I may have to go shopping for some new clothes.

Last, but not least, maybe I will be able to golf and join in on the Baskerville family fun.

busy

I am so fucking busy I dont have time to write this.

There are so many people in my life. All with their own individual personalities. All with their own varied quirks. I was sitting here trying to come up with something to write about that is happening in my life that someone might want to read about. I kept thinking about what has been going on in my life since I last blogged, what happened just today, what is coming up in the next few days ahead.

What should I be blogging about.

I seemed to find a common thread in all my mental wanderings. It seems to wrap itself around the people in my life and how I interact with each of them or even choose not to interact with them at all that moment/day/etc.

Pretty much every single moment of my life I am interacting with another human. Even now, although I am alone, everyone else in my home is asleep, I am interacting with you. I don't even know who you are or when I will be interacting with you, but here we are, interacting.

I find this somewhat interesting. Of course I do know my few regular readers, and approximately when they read, but I still don't know for sure, and (hopefully?) there may be a reader or two I have never met and may never meet.

Damn, I don't know where I am going with this. Let's jump back a bit.

I think I was just thinking about all the people I spend time with on a regular basis. With all my interacting you think I would have something to blog about. I have been happy, angry, indifferent, frustrated, etc at least once in the past 24 hrs, I should be able to just pick one particular feeling and run with it.

I don't seem to be able to tonite. I am just going to briefly touch on some recent and upcoming moments and you tell me what you want to hear more about. Just remember, be careful what you wish for.

The Tale of the Christmas party I missed.

The most frustrating part of my job.

Dean's new job started 2 days ago.

Kaitlins paper route trials and tribulations.

Christmas planning and shopping.

Money I don't have but seem to be spending.

Christmas projects and lack of action.

Why don't I blog everyday? Wait... refer to todays post.

I just wish I could play Mahjonng all day.

I hate insurance.

I know nothing about politics.

No photos on my weblog yet.

Plywood flooring

Survivor?

My upcoming visit to the city.

Thats enough for now.

Or is it?