Our Winter Solstice evening

I am altogether delinquent in not telling you about a most magical evening we had on Winter Solstice eve. Last Wednesday, Graeme, Brenda (Graeme and Emma's piano teacher) and I attended an enthralling chamber music concert -- Christmas with the Ottawa Chamber Music Society. It took place in an absolutely gorgeous church, with a breathtaking Sanctuary. The colours of the interior of the church were a rich combination of ochre, burgundy, and accents of turquoise, which, when combined with the dark woods of pews and railings, made me feel as though I was in a church in Europe hundreds of years ago, instead of in 2005.

This age-old setting was the perfect backdrop for the chamber music we heard -- at various times spritely, playful, sentimental, or entrancing -- played by a variety of strings, piano, harpsichord, organ, and harmonium. We also heard a lovely Soprano, and were also treated to a set by a brass quintet.

Another treat that evening, both for the ears and the eyes, was the lovely Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada. The Governor General narrated The Nutcracker to piano accompaniment. Holy smokes; what a beautiful woman. I'm going to go all girlie on you here for a moment and talk about what she was wearing: an off-the-shoulders, lichen green sheath of silk, which clung to her shape closely, except where the floor-length dress flared out at the knees. She looked like a beautiful dream. And when she narrated the story in french -- my goodness; I couldn't decide which was more delicious; to listen to her lovely voice, lilting with a Haitian accent, carefully enunciating every syllable, or to watch her, standing and gesturing so elegantly on the stage.

It was an incredible treat to spend Winter Solstice evening in this way. The three of us absolutely loved it. We went home mesmerized -- and I, for one, had visions of dancing snowflakes in my head.

Boxing Day thoughts while drinking tea

I'm sitting in my living room, sipping Chai tea, listening to classical music on the radio, and watching a frenetic chipmunk traverse the ice-encrusted snow of our front yard. Did a spell on the stationary bike this morning (movement off the couch and computer chair was absolutely necessary). Had a homemade biscuit with strawberry jam as I prepared my tea. I am feeling quite good right now.

We had, I think, the nicest Christmas Day yesterday our family has ever had. Let me tell you first that we do not celebrate Christmas, although our families and most of our friends do. *I keep on typing and deleting stuff, where I am explaining why we don't celebrate Christmas, then think why do I feel like I have to explain it?! I guess because this has evolved over the course of P. and I knowing each other, and over the course of our childrens' lives. So I guess the point is that: We used to celebrate Christmas; now we don't; some people act really weird and uncomfortable when we say we don't; that used to bug me; now it doesn't. There. That's it.*

So back to our nice Christmas Day. P.'s parents come for breakfast on Christmas morning every year, and give us presents (even though we have said they don't have to do that). We had a nice visit yesterday, and a fantastic breakfast made by P. consisting of scrambled eggs, peameal bacon, brown beans, fried Spanish onions (which were like butter) and fried mushrooms, and homemade biscuits. Toppings such as coriander chutney and hot sauce and homemade crabapple jelly and strawberry jam crowned the table as well. A delicious meal, followed by tea and a tray of dainty cookies and sweets, then sitting in front of the fire to relax and allow breakfast to digest.

After the parents-in-law left to move on to the next son's house, we headed into Ottawa to watch a movie. We haven't watched a movie in the theatre as a family in ages (two years ago, I think) so we have been quite looking forward to this. We saw the Harry Potter movie that's out, the name of which I'd have to ask someone right now, because I have not read the books *gasp* so I can't remember. We quite enjoyed it. The special effects are amazing. I saw the first Harry Potter movie when it came out, so it was interesting to see how much Harry, Hermione, and Ron have grown; it was a pretty close parallel to the growing stages of my own kids. If only my Hogwart-ites could do magical tricks as well. You know -- like clean their rooms, and do the dishes?

It was about 7:30 pm when we got home, and we were still feeling fairly full in the belly from the morning's feast, so we had a little snack, and continued with the movie mood, considering that we had just installed a satellite dish the day previous, and now have THE MOVIE CHANNEL!!! Woo hoo! Emma and I discovered that Little Women was starting at 8:00 pm. SOLD. I saw this movie in the theatre by myself when it came out. I love this story so very much, and read it numerous times as a girl. This version, with Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, and Kirsten Dunst, is very touchingly done, and conveys the ties of the closeknit, thoughtful, intelligent family quite well. I cried about six times over the course of the movie. Our whole family watched it, and all enjoyed it.

I was ready for bed after this, so P. and I hit the sack. Nice to fall into bed after a long yet lovely day with the family...although I had some pretty weird and tiring dreams, one of which contained killing that huge, long-legged spider from the Harry Potter classroom scene about the three spells. Ugh.

Today will consist of more typing of that manual I have yet to finish (I'll have to finish that today) and trying to stay away from the remaining sweets. It's fairly mild out today; I think it's about minus 3 degrees...I'll take Sweet Pea out for a walk, which she really needs, and would love. Heck; I need it too. Wish me luck on the icy roads. It's kind of messy out here in the backwoods, you know.

Okay -- this makes me laugh. And feel a bit freaked out...

My site came up when someone plugged in a search for 'nude geek girls'.

And worse yet -- the Garden Geek came up third in the list.

(To save you the trouble, let it be known that there were no nude pictures of the Garden Geek. I can't see that 'nude geek girls' would be an appealing thing. Or maybe I'm just missing something.)

The Amazing Race, Ottawa style

In addition to my fulltime job, I do work on the side for a friend of mine I used to work with at a training company; Shaun now owns and operates his own management training company. I type and format all of his training manuals for the workshops he runs, and I've even designed a two-day course for him.

Every December, Shaun and his family host a Christmas party for the small number of people who work for him (instructors, designers, consultants, and me) and their families. But this isn't a normal party. Shaun and his wife Sue are very creative people. They love to have fun, they love creating a challenge, and they love activities which involve family. And their parties reflect these three ideals.

This year's party took place last Saturday. To start, our group of 18 (five families) met at the Ottawa Food Bank, where each family brought food we had collected/purchased over the past few weeks. (We had been given a heads up on this.) There was a competition between the families for bringing the most food. (Nothing like competition to get the most out of people.) We then volunteered our time at the Food Bank for an hour and a half, sorting three tonnes of food.

Upon leaving the Food Bank, we all drove downtown and met at the Eternal Flame in front of the Parliament Buildings, where we were assigned to a team (a mix of family members and male/female and age) and given our instructions for the Ottawa version of the Amazing Race.

Each team was given an envelope, a map of downtown Ottawa, game instructions, and a twenty dollar bill. The envelope contained ten photos; each one a visual clue as to a location within the boundaries noted on the map. We had to figure out the ten locations (it was not clear or obvious what or where they were), go to each location and request an envelope (this was all prearranged by Shaun and Sue with the respective shop managers). In each envelope was a puzzle piece. Once we collected all ten puzzle pieces (and we had to collect them all to proceed), we assemble the puzzle to determine the final destination. And the twenty bucks? That was for a snack and a warm drink for your team over the course of the two and a half hours we were allotted for the Race.

After a group photo of everyone in front of the Eternal Flame (including a fully decked out girl clown who happened to be walking by just as our photo was about to be taken, and stood at the end of our group. no kidding), our teams set off to win and have fun.

With our obscure clues in hand, our team, consisting of Sue (who couldn't help because she knew the answers), Heather (the wife of one of Shaun's instructors), my son Graeme, and myself, looked through all ten photos and tried to figure out what these places were. To encapsulate what we ended up figuring out after traipsing around the Sparks Street Mall and the Byward Market and the Rideau Centre, these were the ten locations:

*Canada's Four Corners (Canadiana gift shop)
*Alyeas Jewellers (we had to get buzzed in to pass through a massive security gate to get in. rather unusual for Ottawa)
*Mrs. Tiggy Winkles (fantastic toys -- which appeal to adults as much as kids. probably more.)
*Santa at the Rideau Centre (huge mall)
*Cundell Stables (horse-drawn carriage rides downtown; stable in Byward Market since Ottawa started up in mid-1800s)
*The Papery (wonderful paper shop which I would have gladly spent hours in)
*Tivoli Florist (small florist shop at the back of The Papery. Smelled heavenly to me)
*Outdoor Christmas Tree stand (located in the Byward Market; super-friendly vendor from tree farm in the country)
*Outdoor Wreath stand (located in the Byward Market; super-friendly vendor from some place in the country)
*Sugar Mountain (candy store with candies from when I was a kid; stuff you don't see anymore)

While we were on the trail of collecting our last two clues, Sue received a call from Shaun wondering where we were, as the other three teams were at The Second Cup on Elgin Street for the past hour or so, waiting for us to finish. I'll tell you why we were behind the others -- we stopped at a bakery part way through the race and sat down for 20 minutes and had a wonderful snack. I was okay with not winning the Amazing Race because I took the time to delight in an Apricot Flan slice and a hot cup of creamy sweet coffee. And speaking for Graeme, he was entirely good with the two-foot long baguette he had for his snack. Sue enjoyed her Empire cookie with its red jam and thickly sprinkled icing sugar on top, and Heather enjoyed her treat and coffee as well. Some things are just more important than winning. Like good food. Pastries especially.

After the call, we quickly collected our last puzzle pieces and put our puzzle together, which ended up being a photo of the storefront of the 'Christmas in the Capital' shop, a year-round Christmas store, on Elgin Street -- which is located right across the street from our predetermined dinner location, Johnny Farina Restaurant. So the four of us walked briskly to meet the others at the coffee shop...well, the other three walked quickly. By that point darkness had fallen, and downtown Ottawa became a positively magical place with beautifully-lit century old architecturally stunning buildings such as the Chateau Laurier, the Conference Centre, and the Lord Elgin Hotel. Equally captivating were the trees lit with Christmas lights lining the Rideau Canal (that's the Chateau and the Conference Centre in the background) and surrounding the War Memorial. I was taking snapshots of all of these sites, and kept on having to run to catch up to my teammates periodically. (Unfortunately, most of my pictures did not turn out; I didn't have the right setting on for night shots.)

We arrived at the coffee shop and were the object of much jesting. We heard tales of how the winning team won (they didn't stop to snack, and once they quickly obtained all of their puzzle pieces and figured out the final destination, they used their twenty dollars for cab fare to get to it quickly, in true Amazing Race style). We all exchanged stories on how we found the tricky locations, and how nice the people were who gave us our puzzle pieces, and on how we goofed up on finding particular locations.

We were all rather hungry after our hours of trekking around downtown, so with rosy cheeks and smiles on our faces, our large group traipsed into Johnny Farina's next door.

What followed was a FABULOUS Italian meal (I had linguine with a white wine sauce and seafood [mussels, tiger shrimp, and scallops]; it was so very, very yummy), with lots of red wine flowing, and more stories, and laughter, and great camaraderie. The age range in our group was from 7 years old up to late 50s. It was beautiful, because everyone got on so well, and we all enjoyed one another's company.

Oh -- the competition part. There was the competition for the family who brought in the most food for the food bank. (Our family won that, surprisingly. We did not expect that.) There was the Amazing Race competition. The winning team members each won a prize, and consolation prizes were given to the losers. A gift was given to each person there who works with Shaun (a gift certificate to a lovely Italian restaurant in Shaun's neighbourhood). Very generous people, Shaun and Sue are.

We went home that night raving, as we did last year (after the Scavenger Hunt in the Market and dinner at The Keg), at how creative and fun our hosts are, and at how wonderful they are at generating a warm, positive, fun group environment. What a great day it was.

Winter Solstice

In celebration of the Winter Solstice, I've posted a photo I took of a lovely sunset in March of this year. Winter sunsets are so stunning, with the blends of pinks, purples, and blues, and the base of blue-grey snow to anchor the sky's display.

Winter Solstice is one of my favourite days of the year; one which I look forward to very much. This may seem a bit kooky from one who detests winter for the most part, due to the cold and the inability to garden. But December 21 is a goal in my mind...because once this day of the least amount of daylight in the year is past -- every day after this for the next six months gets longer!!! We are ON OUR WAY to the warmth and light and heat of Summer Solstice, baby! Woo hoo!!!

Knowing Myself

The times when I wish most desperately to write something with a sense of humour are the times when I am feeling pressed for time and wish to escape, yet really don't have the time or the right headspace to write a post.

It is at these times when my capacity for writing anything remotely humourous or clever is greatly diminished.

Somebody please tell me something funny. I could use it.

I have noticed that, for the most part, I avoid reading gardening blogs and gardening sites. This is kind of retarded, because I love them. Actually, I love them too much. That's why I don't read them. If I read one, I want to read the entire contents of that site, and check out every single link on that site, which leads me to more gardening blogs, and more gardening links...and I would never want to quit. Yet while I am sucking up every photograph and tip and creative idea and drawing and story and garden layout, I am also feeling sad that I am not able to walk outside at that very moment and stick my hands deeply into moist, fragrant, dark earth, and decide where I want to put this plant or that, and should I attempt to build a trellis, or should I create a new bed over there, or where can I put this so the deer will be less likely to eat it, or is this plant getting enough sun...

Sigh.

I Miss You; and, Picking Priorities

My head is about to 'splode and I miss blogging because I never have a chance to do it anymore without taking time from something which is a much higher priority but screw it I'm taking a couple of minutes and getting some thoughts down because I miss you all and I need to write something which is not about construction and not about training.

So first of all, obviously life has been very busy for me lately (like, the past five months in particular), and I've been coping pretty well for the most part. My priorities have been a combination of: my real job, my part-time job, and spending time with Emma. I have other high priorities in addition to these, but these are the biggies. So when these three items surge to the forefront at the same time, other things gotta give. One of the things which has 'given' is my exercise routine, which has in turn 'taken away' my general feeling of well being and energy and sense of pride in my physical appearance. I really hate that, and look forward to when things calm down a bit in January (crossing fingers) and I can get back into my routine. I know that if this doesn't come together soon, my mental state will start to be affected...because the combination of me feeling crappy about myself and the approaching January-February Seasonal Affective Disorder season will really throw me for a loop. I am normally able to deal with this in part by going to a tanning salon; the warmth and bright lights really improve my headspace. But again, with other priorities pushing my door down, I feel guilty going tanning after work once or twice a week and not getting home until close to 7 p.m., when I feel like I barely get to see my family anyway. You see? It's good, but it's bad. So it's the constant toss up -- what can I allow to suffer temporarily when I make one choice or another? Should I actually COOK a meal tonight? Or work on the training manual? Or exercise? Or sit with my husband/son/daughter and talk about their day? Or just sit with them and enjoy each others' presence? Never mind actually doing something sinfully, selfishly pleasurable like reading a book, or posting on my blog, or making paper snowflakes (my major selfish indulgence of time this month -- cutting out two dozen snowflakes one Sunday afternoon. Crazy, isn't it.)

That's my rant for now. I'd love to tell you about the first two hours of my day yesterday, which included a pleasant interaction with a man I picked up (wait) who ran out of gas (it was 20 below; I couldn't NOT pick him up!) and a wee car accident, and other fun and games. I'll try to write more this afternoon.

Thank you for listening :) Have a wondrous Thursday, my friends!

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Later (noonish)...

This was my morning yesterday.

Slept in. I think I heard my alarm, and I probably even shut it off, but I don't remember. Wednesday mornings are always hard, due to Curling the night before. So I fell back asleep, but not completely, because I was cognizant of the fact that my entire body felt like a stone; I could feel its weight, and general shape, but couldn't move it. I dreamt weird, tiring dreams where I couldn't accomplish anything, and was frustrated. Came to when I heard Graeme start up the shower. Proceeded to get ready, whilst feeling (and expressing) annoyance at the Boy for not waking me up when I had obviously slept in.

So. Left the house a good half hour later than usual. Bloody freezing out; 20 below or thereabouts. Stone cold. My fingers felt like useless sticks in my gloves. Shifting gears felt like pushing a popsicle stick through cold molasses. I didn't even turn on the radio because it would have felt too cold to listen to music.

The car interior started to fill up with less-than-cold air after about 10 minutes. It became more bearable, and I could put my shoulders down. (How does having my shoulders up at my ears make me warmer? Why do I do that?!) As I got close to town (our little town; not Ottawa), I noticed a truck parked on the shoulder. I drove on, and looked in the rear view mirror, and clicked in that there was a man walking, hatless and gloveless, up the road, in front of the truck. Obviously out of gas or the like, so I put the car in reverse and drove back to him. He trotted to the passenger door as I opened it to let him in, and thanked me for stopping, saying he ran out of gas. "No problem!" I said. "Would you like me to take you to Donaldson's? [gas station up the road]" "Well, I thought I'd try Jack Brody..." nodding his head vaguely to the right. And didn't add to that statement. What I LOVE about that is -- I said, "Sure!" and drove on to Jack Brody's house. Nothing was offered, or asked, about who Jack Brody is, or where he lives. It's a small community -- we just knew. I thought that was so cool.

Turns out no one was home at the Brody's, so when I asked my guest what next, he asked, if I wouldn't mind, could I drop him off at the apartments he owns, which was his original destination anyway, and he would get a jerry can and gas and a ride to his truck. No problem. So we chatted while we drove for the few minutes it took to get there; pleasant, easy conversation. He asked my name when he was about to get out, which I gave, and I asked him his, which he gave. He thanked me so much for being kind enough to stop, and I said You are most welcome, and wished each other a good day, and I felt very good about the whole thing.

Coffee became a distinct necessity by that point, and I didn't care HOW late I was for work, for by then there was definitely no hope for punctuality. I was hoping that the good karma would come full circle and I would be offered a free coffee, but no such luck. (The irony of wishing for good karma will be made clear shortly.) I left with my _______ coffee, the name of which escapes me, but has "nutty and winey overtones". It was hitting the spot, which I needed greatly, as my routine had been COMPLETELY thrown off, and I DO NOT DO WELL when my routine is thrown off. I get a bit spacy, and am easily distracted, and am easily frustrated.

Driving to work. Feels like it is taking for-ev-er. Seriously. And I, with the tinest bladder in the world, I swear, begin to feel the urge to pee. And the office is a long way off. But if I stop to use the bathroom somewhere, I will be behind even more, and I have a lot to do today, and really need to just GET there. So I don't stop, and I suffer.

In the city now. Almost at work -- like, two minutes from the office. Following a silver Mazda 3, who is driving a bit stupidly; like, letting a car turn left across traffic when Mazda has the right of way to turn right, and thus disrupts the flow of traffic at a notoriously tricky intersection. He finally turns right. We have an 'S' curve in front of us now, which he takes rrreeaaalllyyy slowly. There is a long line of cars, and we are all close to each other. We just get around the top of the 'S' -- and he suddenly STOPS. And I apply my brakes. But my car keeps on moving, because there's not enough space. And I go *tock* right in him. *EXPLETIVE!* We both get out, and he says the car in front of him stopped for a bus that pulled out, and we look for damage to our vehicles. Absolutely zero to his car (thank god); the plastic frame for my license plate is cracked at the top, and my plate is dented in the centre. I can't believe my luck. (Both ways -- the bad luck for hitting someone; the good for there being no real damage.) We exchange names and phone numbers just in case, and carry on down the road. By this time I am literally whimpering because I have to pee so badly. I pull into the parking lot (just as I see that Mazda works directly across the street from me), collect the CDs off the floor which cascaded downward when I hit the car, grab my lunchbag and junkbag and gloves, and run into the building and directly into the bathroom.

A minute later -- a much relieved (physically) Randa -- but a harried (mentally) Randa. The day progresses fraught with problems and issues and aggravations. I am dying to just get home. Five o'clock finally arrives. I don my coat and boots, and pick up my bag, and reach for my keys in my coat pocket.

Nothing.

Where are my keys???!!!!!!

Not in my bag. Nor my purse. Not in other pockets.

Crap.

I go to the parking lot, looking at the ground as I go, in case I dropped my keys on the way in. Get to my car (good, at least it's still there). Look on the front seat. Hah! My keys. (In plain view. This was particularly dumb of me, as a woman in the office had her keys stolen OFF HER DESK last year and her car was stolen from the parking lot. I guess Hyundai Accents are not a hot commodity.)

Anyway, I got home okay, and the house was toasty warm, and so was my family. But what a day!

And I would like to point out that it is a Full Moon tonight. Coincidence? I think not.

So the Boy is now 17 years of age. This magical transformation (oh, okay! So he woke up 365 days after turning 16 and was 'suddenly' 17) took place on Sunday, the date of which was December 11. We didn't have a chance to do the baby book thing, as our Sunday was rather packed. Both Graeme and Emma were in the Pit Band for the annual Children's Musical their high school drama club puts on (G. on keyboards; E. on French horn). So that took up a lot of the day. (They, and the band itself, played fantastically, by the way.) Emma had arranged earlier in the day Graeme's dinner request, which she would make for him; they settled on homemade macaroni and cheese (we make a very, very yummy version of this comfort food) and cake. Em and I made the pasta and sauce together. After we ate the main course, I put together a Dutch Apple Cake while we all shared a pot of Orange Pekoe tea. A relaxing end to the day indeed, and very nice for the four of us to spend Graeme's birthday together such as we did.

That evening as we all watched a television program after dinner, I asked Graeme if he would come sit on my lap for a moment. (He is a very sweet boy; he knew not to say No, Thanks to his mum's sentimental request.) So he perched on my lap (thus obliterating the television from my view), and I wrapped my arms around my son's waist, and gave him a squeeze...and told him how it seems like he was just born, and was a little stocky toddler moving constantly around the house...and now he's leaving home so soon for university, and how amazingly quickly time passes. He smiled, and we talked a bit about what I said. Then I told him to get off my lap because he was crushing me.

Having little kids is fun...but there is something so amazing about having young adults in your home; people with incredible personalities and expanding interests and inquiring minds and phenomenal, astounding talent.

I am so proud of my children.

Journey Ontario

Rock Cut Hwy 401

Come -- looketh -- a photographic account of my journey from Ottawa to Kingston to home two weeks past. I took almost one hundred photos on my journey, most of which while driving (which is unsafe, I know, but I trained myself on where to position my arm for shots, and didn't look at the pics until later. Most of them didn't turn out, but that was to be expected.) The drive was SO spectacular, as is the city...and when I got home, the light was so gorgeous that I took some shots there too. Lots of captions with the pictures. Hope you enjoy :)

Amphibious Driving Buddy

I dunno -- this just makes me laugh every time I see it.

Please meet Franc LeBoeuf -- my driving companion. This was en route to Kingston two Fridays ago, when I was delivering a proposal we finished in a mad scramble, as our server crashed the day before due to software issues -- so I had to redo the entire proposal (ya, no stress whatsoever), and drive almost two hours to Kingston to deliver it by 3 pm. It was a gorgeous sunny day, though, and I got to go straight home after I delivered it, so it was all good.

Further pics from driving to and walking around Kingston to follow. (I love this city!)

Streaming Bubbles

Rack of candles (pre-spillage)

Ramblings

I am very clumsy these days; I am getting gouges in my skin on my hands, and paper cuts, and getting shocks from tinsel, and bruises on my legs from bumping into things in the night...I think I must be both tired and distracted.

I had a nice weekend. On Saturday morning, Emma and I went to the consignment shop in town we normally frequent, as I had a number of dresses I wanted to sell (dresses which no longer fit me because of my lack of endowment in the chest vicinity, and were, um, too small for my daughter-who-doesn't-get-her-shape-from-her-mother). Em needed a dress for the semi formal dance which is taking place at her high school this Friday, so we scoured the shop for great dresses. We each ended up with an armful, which we went to our respective change rooms with, and proceeded to try each dress on. As we put on a dress, we'd come out of the room and tell the other to come out and take a look. We assessed the pros and cons of each dress, and were aided in this process by the lady working at the shop. The three of us got right into it, and had so much fun. It was all so girly-girly. I am not one for shopping much, so this was such a treat to do this with my daughter. We ended up getting her a black dress which stops above the knee; one shoulder strap; subtle blue sparkles. Em looks FANTASTIC in it, with her curves and long legs. (I tried the dress on at home. HA! Talk about not nearly the same effect. At ALL. Quite humourous, actually. I had to tell Emma to stop grinning about how much better she obviously looked in it.)

Saturday evening was spent at the Bee's house (owners of Cleo in photo below), where we celebrated Graeme's upcoming 17th birthday. Wonderful dinner, like always, and the red wine seemed to travel down the gullet quite easily. P. made a Chocolate Whisky Cheesecake, which was Mmmmmm, Yummy. I was the ultimate guest, as exhibited by bumping into the coffee table and knocking over the rack of about a dozen candleholders filled with melted votive wax, spilling the wax onto the hardwood floor (scrapeable) and the Persian-style rug (not scrapeable). Ewe can imagine how I felt at that point -- yep, sheepish. Our hosts were of course very gracious about my silliness. Earlier in the evening, when I was crashed on the couch before dinner, I looked under the glass-topped coffee table over to Cleo, and snapped a shot of her. It wasn't until later that I noticed her reflection under the table. I also got some cool shots of R.'s 100-gallon aquarium, and of their 2-storey fieldstone fireplace a-blazin' (with both Weimaraners languishing in front in the heat).

So coming up this week -- Greek Night this Thursday at the restaurant Graeme works at. (Remember the Greek wedding we went to in June? THAT family.) Delicious Greek food to pack into my belly, right on time to plump me up for the stretchy-fabric'd, body-hugging dress I'm planning on wearing to my work party on Saturday night. I've fallen out of my exercise routine in the past few weeks (busy with some part-time work I'm doing), so out of a panic-induced anxiety, I did a ton of about seven types of crunches this morning to make my tummy 'flat' by Saturday. Think it'll work? Say yes.

DoubleDog

Last Friday in Kingston.

Make-a-Flake

For paper snowflake-lovers everywhere, CHECK THIS OUT...Make-a-Flake.

This has totally made my day.

I Saw You...

Depending on what time of the morning I leave for work, I will see different 'sets' of people at some point along the 90 km route. If I leave at about 6:25 a.m., the blue car with the big honkin' sticker in the back window will fly by me on County Road 10 (no matter how fast I'm going). I will also see the old man vvvveeeerrrryyyy slowly biking down Macfarlane Road (no matter what time of year) with his cute little bicycle helmet on; the kind with a rear view mirror attached. If I leave at about 6:35 a.m., I will see the cute, dumply old couple going for their morning walk through Fr***town, all bundled up in their homely coats and toques, the woman with a plastic grocery bag in hand. If I leave around 6:40 a.m. (I'm obviously not a creature of consistency when it comes to departure time. I leave the house anywhere from 6 a.m. to 6:40 a.m.), I see the plump blonde-haired sisters at the bus stop, one of them always with a compact mirror held up to her face as she applies her mascara.

That last one -- the mascara application girl -- makes me think. That is the only way I've seen her. Mirror up, applying mascara, back facing the traffic streaming by. Do other people -- strangers -- only know me in one context like I only know others in one context? Is there someone who sees me from their living room window every time I go for a jog on my lunch hour, ponytail bouncing and Brooke shoes pounding? Is there a commuter who ends up behind The Nugget at a certain set of lights in the city, and sees me applying my mint lip balm as we wait for the light to turn green? Or who sees me pick up my soft furry green travelling companion -- Franc leBoeuf, my stuffed frog -- out of the cup holder in my car, and press the soft fabric to my cheek?

Interesting to think about...but not too much. It's kind of too freaky.