Author: sox

first night away

Tonight’s the first night Greg and I will spend without Elliot. Gramma graciously offered to take him to her place for today and tomorrow to make it easier for us to get ready for camping. She’s got a lot planned for him – this morning a play in the park, a visit to her office, dinner with the ladies tonight, tomorrow a visit to Jumping Jiminy’s, then hopefully a big long nap before we pick him up.

We said goodbye this morning when we left for work, and it felt pretty normal. It’ll be this evening when we go home that I think I’ll feel a bit strange, and probably tomorrow morning as well. But we’ll be busy packing (after hopefully a sleep-in, pets willing), so I probably won’t be dwelling on it too much.

And I know he’ll have lots of fun with Gramma.

it’s my birthday and i’ll party if i want to…

And I don’t want to. I think this is my first birthday ever where I truly did not need to do anything to celebrate. That’s not to say it went unnoticed — I got cards, a new purse, the promise of new hiking shoes, treated to lunch and a trip to Plum, dinner made for me, birthday cake, a decorated chair, calls from family and friends, and happy birthday was sung to me three times. But none of this was pre-planned by me — it just all happened. Spontaneously, from my point of view.

Usually I feel this big buildup to my birthday, I plan some sort of celebration, and a lot of times I’ve felt let down at the end of the day because the day hasn’t lived up to my expectations. This year there were no expectations. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I was talking to kaptaink about it today, and we were thinking that perhaps it’s a reflection of how satisfied I’m feeling with life in general. Things are going tickety-boo (for the most part), and I don’t feel like I need a pick-me-up for my birthday. Not that those who want to celebrate are dissatisfied…I just didn’t feel the need this year.

Or maybe it’s because I’m 36 years old and I’ve decided the next party won’t be until I’m 40. Regardless of the reason, I’ve had a nice day, and will go to bed feeling happy.

taking the plunge

I find it a bit disconcerting that the bathroom at my workplace has a plunger in it. This is an office building with “official” bathrooms, not just a bathroom that was thrown together for a single office — you need a key to get in, they have multiple stalls, it’s all very institutional. It bothers me because bathrooms like that…well, they should just work. And in the event of a toilet emergency, do they really think I’m going to pick up the plunger and deal with the problem?

Not me. During my second week of work when the flush filled the toilet instead of emptied it, I hightailed it out of there as quick as I could. Went straight to our office admin and told her the toilet was overflowing. She called building maintenance. End of problem.

envelope dent

This morning I used a gift certificate I got for Christmas and treated myself to a pedicure. It was lovely…there is nothing quite like a foot massage, and I’ve got pretty toes to boot.

Afterwards I went to the bank to deposit my pay cheque, and as I was grabbing for an envelope, a couple of them fell. Onto my big toe. Corner first. So now I have a dent on my freshly pedicured toes. Not a big dent, but still. An envelope? Just my luck.

I blame my employer for not having direct deposit.

so…did you guys dress up 80’s style on purpose?

Last night was the big stagette, and it was a blast. We started out at the art academy doing some Jackson Pollock style painting, moved on to JP’s house, and then downtown for some dancing. A good time was had by all, and the ratio of pictures that will be shared to pictures actually taken will be very low, believe me.

Here’s KaptainK and I, showing off our bangles.

The 80s Were Good

weird day

I took a sick day today, and it’s been a bit strange. I’ve been away from Elliot a lot, but never in our house for this long. I keep thinking I hear him waking up from a nap.

It’s been an okay day. I’m not dying or anything, just a bad cold. I did a bit of scrapbooking in the morning, realized I was exhausted, and I just slept for three hours. I was hoping that would make me feel better, but I feel worse. Hopefully it’s just the groggy waking up feeling.

I’m looking forward to the distraction of having Elliot and Greg home.

my circle of influence

I was going to post this as a comment to M’s post, but I decided it warranted an actual post on my site.

K was telling me about this Globe and Mail article on Friday, and ever since I’ve been struggling with how I feel about it. I read the first page and then didn’t read more because I am too cheap to pay $5.00 for something that I know will depress me. I did, however, read a few other Internet articles on Bisphenol-A (most of them very biased).

Anyway, I’ve decided I am getting sick of hearing how many terrible things I am doing for myself, the environment and for my son. So this afternoon I took stock on some things I’m doing right (in no particular order):
– We recycle everything we’re allowed to recycle.
– We wash in cold water, most of the time.
– We don’t use dryer sheets.
– We dry clothes on the line when the weather permits.
– We don’t flush the toilet all the time (as the saying goes on Hornby, if it’s yellow, be mellow, if it’s brown, flush it down).
– We wear sunscreen.
– We exercise, providing a healthy example for Elliot.
– We eat well, again providing a good example for Elliot.
– We carpool to work, most days.
– We compost.
– We have an earthquake kit.
– And most importantly from Elliot’s point of view, we love him to bits.

This is not to say that we can’t improve, because I know we can do a lot more. And this is not to say that I’m going to ignore the information on Bisphenol A, or the next thing that comes out. I just don’t want to drive myself crazy worrying about things that I can’t easily control.

Statistically speaking, every day that I get in the car with Elliot, I put him in danger. But if we didn’t get in that car, we’d be missing out on something. A walk in the park, a visit with a friend, a chance for him to learn something new.

I just want to keep some perspective.

tourist in my own town

One of the advantages of not working Thursdays is when Easter weekend rolls around you have a nice five day break. Although ‘break’ is a relative term. Yes, I had a break from work, but I certainly didn’t spend a lot of time relaxing on Easter weekend. But that’s not to say I didn’t have a good weekend…I actually had a fantastic weekend.

Wednesday after work Elliot and I headed over to the mainland to see my Mum and to visit the newest addition to a childhood friend’s family — child number three for them, and a girl (after two boys). I walked away from that visit with a pile of clothes for Elliot, all in excellent condition. This boy of ours is definitely not hurting for clothes!

Thursday evening I headed to the airport to pick up a friend from Montreal, Kim. She came out for a whirlwind four-night stay. She and I met when I was at Bishop’s, many years ago. I guess we’ve been friends for 18 years. Pretty amazing when I think about it, given that we live so far apart. But we’ve managed to keep in contact.

Friday morning we drove through Stanley Park and went for a short walk around Prospect Point. This was my first real glimpse at the devastation from the wind storms this year. It was pretty incredible. The point looks very different now, and there are trees down everywhere. I can’t imagine what it looked like before they cleaned it up.

Prospect Point

After that we headed to the ferry and made it there in time to claim our reservation with about two minutes to spare. Not smart to cut it that close on Good Friday with a toddler in the car, but thankfully we made it. Friday night we hung out at home and enjoyed some sushi.

Saturday we did a bit of a winery tour, stopping at Cherry Point and Godfrey Brownell. I’d been to Cherry Point several times before for our ladies weekends, but the visit to Godfrey Brownell was a first. I was pretty impressed. They are a very low key winery, and small still. Things don’t look as nice as Cherry Point, but the staff and owner were super friendly and the wine was amazing. We had a good tour of the place, complete with tasting wine straight from the vats.

Godfrey Brownell

We had lunch at the Grapevine Cafe on Saturday in between wineries, and arrived home in time for dinner with Greg and Elliot. Then we rented Blood Diamond. We enjoyed it, but it was pretty violent.

Sunday morning we had breakfast with Greg and Elliot, then Kim and I headed downtown for a bit of tourist shopping, lunch, and the matinée performance of Cats. We had front row seats which weren’t the greatest as we were a bit too low and a bit too close, but if there’s one musical to see close-up, it’s Cats. The costumes are very intricate, the makeup is amazing, and their facial expressions were fascinating — all of which we wouldn’t have appreciated from far away. Plus they come into the audience a few times, so they were a foot away from us. Pretty neat. The performance itself was outstanding. I haven’t seen it before, and I had no idea what the format was, other than it was a musical. Basically there’s no plot, they just go through introducing the cats through each song. I enjoyed the faster numbers in particular, although the woman who sang Memory was, well, memorable!

After Cats, Kim and I took the ferry back to the mainland, enjoying the buffet for dinner. Well, we didn’t really enjoy the buffet (it’s definitely gone downhill since the last time I ate there), but we enjoyed the scenery and the quietness of the dining room!

Monday morning we got up way to early, drove Kim to the airport, and then Mum dropped me off at the ferry. Then it was back home to take care of Elliot for the day, as Greg had to work. I was pretty tired, and Elliot was a superstar napper and slept for three hours. This gave me plenty of time to have a good nap, check my email and do some laundry.

I had a really good time with Kim. I felt like I was on a mini-vacation, partly because Greg was primary caregiver for Elliot, and partly because we did some touristy stuff that I don’t normally do. Plus it was great to have that much time with Kim. Our previous visits have taken place in Montreal and the recent ones have been really short because I’ve tried to fit them in while visiting my sister. It was nice to have three straight days of her company, most of it just her and I.

next time i’m going for the kids’ stuff

I bought Kids’ Crest Cavity Protection Sparkle Fun toothpaste for Elliot when we started brushing his teeth. I was happy about it because I thought I’d finally found a toothpaste that was NOT some funky kid flavour that I’d have to wean him off of. The reason I thought that is because it basically looks like a tube of adult toothpaste.

Bad decision.

Remember how I said it looks like a tube of adult toothpaste? Well tonight was about the fiftieth time I’ve grabbed it instead of my own toothpaste. And remember how I said I thought it wasn’t some funky kid flavour? Well it’s bubblegum and it’s DISGUSTING.

To add insult to injury, the expiry date on the tube is November 2007, and there’s no way Elliot’s making it through the tube before November, what with the teensy weensy smear we’re putting on his toothbrush.

Next time I’m getting this stuff. There will be no mistaking whose toothpaste is whose.