Crack Head

It snowed here Wednesday, and froze overnight Thursday. I have been avoiding driving during rush hour and at night. I know I can get around, but why add one more vehicle to the slipperiness out there? We get so little snow and ice here, a couple of days of re-adjusting schedules does not hurt a bit.

Yesterday afternoon our daughter and two friends went sledding at the neighbourhood park. It has spectacular hills, and they have the new foam core super-slipperly sleds. I was delighted that 13 year olds still want to go sliding at the park.

About an hour after they went out, they returned. Fiona looked a bit strange, and told us that she had crashed into the metal pole on a chain link fence surrounding the tennis court that sits at the bottom of the hill. I asked for details of the crash and asked the usual questions to assess if she might have a concussion: dizziness? nauseau? let's see your eyes, headache? I asked her friend if Fi lost consciousness at all, and it sounds like she stayed conscious, although she did not remember the moment of impact. I decided that we'd better watch her and also wake her up a couple of times during the night in case it was a concussion. First aid: hugs and "I'm glad you're okay."

Red Neck

Then Fiona noticed that the back of her neck was red with dried blood. I checked her scalp and found a pretty impressive cut. So her friend went home, and Fiona and I drove to the hospital.

Numb Skull

Luckily Emerg was quiet when we got there. The doctor froze the area, cleaned it up and put 7 staples in to close up the cut. Back at home we had a late supper (Andy took over cooking when we determined a trip to the hospital would be necessary) and some ibuprofen. The headache felt better and Fi phoned her friends to tell the story.

I'm glad it wasn't worse, and I'm proud of how brave she was. Getting staples in your head can't be anybody's favourite thing to do! The staples will come out in a week and there may be a small scar, but it will only ever show if she decides to shave her head.

In the meantime, we have a healthy crackhead, red neck, numbskull kid. The night-time drive wasn't even so bad. Funny how your perspective changes when your child needs help.

question: did you ever get stitches or staples?

mompoet - still dispensing hugs as needed

weeeeebl

New cartoon from weebl & bob.

question: are you allergic to cat pants?

mompoet - Once I had a bird hat but it flew away

Jan's Tree at Night

It snowed so much than Andy and I each shovelled twice. When nighttime came, the neighbours came out to do one last clearing of their driveways. It was like a party out there. There were kids and babies, moms and dads. Shovels were shared and war stories told of the drive to and from work during the day. Most of the Christmas lights on our houses are out now, but our neighbour Jan has left her tree lit up. I'm glad.

question: did you every have a party by accident?

mompoet - marvelling at winter's surprises

I know it's Wednesday, and I'm supposed to be wordless, but geeeee...

I'm just looking at the new Avon catalogue, and I would like to award Avon the prize for the purplest prose ever.

Here are some luscious samples:

be...tempting eau de toilette
A breathless floriental bouquet
(floriental? I guess that's better than Afghantabulous or Venezualianted but still...)

be...tempting bath products
A captivating collection that goes from the bath to the boudoir, and everywhere in between
(like the hallway? the towel closet?)

Good Luck Purse Charm (jewelry for your purse)
Jade-like focal stone teamed up with green pearlized beads and lucky charms (horseshoe, clover and elephant) on a silvertone chain, Lobster closure
(Gotta have one of those lucky lobsters on my purse charm, yup!)

Ultra color rich lipstick
Avon's Intuitive Technology reads your lips and self-adjusts the creamy richness
(artificial intelligence applied to lipstick? Read my lips!)

I also learned that I need to get the static out of my eyelashes, and that I can buy special teabags made just for soothing tired eyes. ($5.99 for 10 teabags)

Avon has a lot of good products, and some excellent values, but some parts of the catalogue are a bit over the top. It makes for a fun read! I once thought it would be fun to write copy for a greeting card company. Writing for Avon catalogues would be fun too, but I might get myself into trouble.

question: have you read anything purple today?

mompoet - fuschia, mauve, aubergine

wordless wednesday

the spider

My friend Irene sent me this You Tube link. You may think you have seen this before, but watch the whole thing!

question: if you were a spider, which spider would you be?

mompoet - scurrying 2-legged back to work today (caffeine spider?)

New post from the Eatburns in Eritrea

There's a new post up at the Eatburn Chronicles - Chrismas, New Year and our niece Maya's 16th birthday!

question: did you ever give your shirt to a guaza tree?

mompoet - missing them and laughing at their adventures

don't you hate when this happens

After having a cold for a week, your nose is so fragile that you itch it (on the outside only - honest) and you get a nosebleed. Then for the rest of the evening, even though you have the frequent and urgent need to sneeze, YOU MUST NOT SNEEZE (unless you are far away from other people and have previously wrapped your face up in tissues, and even then it's bound to be a mess). Especially DO NOT SNEEZE NEAR THE RICE KRISPIE SQUARES THAT YOUR DAUGHTER IS MAKING TO PACK IN HER SCHOOL LUNCH TOMORROW. I REPEAT: STEP BACK FROM THE RICE KRISPIE SQUARES...aaa AAAA aaaaaaaCHOOOO! Oh bother.

question: too much information?

mompoet - here's more, once, on the way to a day of llama treking (almost to the trailhead) I had a giant nosebleed sneeze in the car that completely airbrush coated the whole front of my white sweatshirt, so I just turned the darn thing inside out and got on with my day

ps - Never sneeze on a llama, under any circumstances, even if you don't have a nosebleed

it's a bird, it's a plane it's...

superducklings! Check this link to my guilty web pleasure - Cute Overload.

question: do you not love the tiny winglets?

mompoet - wallowing shamelessly in anthropomorphism

this is what the poltergeist brought back

Here's the CD that I have found again. I have been enjoying it on my last few long drives to and from the theatre for Fi's shows. I wonder why listening to something new always reminds me of something old. This has sent me scrambling for the Beatles, the Kinks and (I think) the Clash. I must also now find a copy of this CD's predecessor because the reviews all say it's even better.

question: heard anything good lately?

mompoet - everything is connected to something else, especially in the listening part of the brain

today is the fulcrum

between holiday and every day. The kids go back to school today. Andy, despite his awful cold, has been working through the holidays. When I booked my days I decided to keep "the first day back" just for myself, so I return to work Tuesday instead of Monday. It's delicious to have just one more day before I return to the routine of every day.

Three weeks has been remarkable. I'm thinking about what I did on the first day of my vacation, and it seems like ages ago. Having the kids out of school for a whole week after New Year's Eve has also been great. We spent relatively little holiday time building up to Christmas, and most of it relaxing afterward.

I think this is the laziest, most relaxed vacation I have ever taken. We did not go anywhere. We did not tackle any major projects. We even had relatively few social commitments. It was mostly spontaneous. Fiona's show went well, and even the driving to and from West Vancouver was nice (except for that night that the roads were flooded and my car made a weird noise every time I made it wade through a puddle, then we saw a car identical to mine stalled in the middle of the highway - very reassuring).

A lot of things I thought I would do I did not do. A couple of things I didn't think of I did do. Getting sick was a definite negative, but I'm getting over it, and I was less stressed to be sick on vacation than I would if I was missing work and not being able to get the kids to their activities and regular responsibilities done.

I think I can go back to work tomorrow and say, "Yes, I am ready again." But I'm not going to think about that today. Today I will enjoy one more lazy day.

question: did you ever enjoy a planless vacation?

mompoet - recommending it

in honour of team canada juniors and the vancouver canucks

Will it Blend? 3 hockey pucks in a blender.

question: don't try this at home?

mompoet - thanks dad

schnuzzle is duzzle

Better and better

Yay! Hooray! I made pancakes today!

You still don't want to sit next to me on the bus (cough, sneeze, snort, snuffle) but I'm feeling great compared to the last couple of days.

I got up early and drank coffee and undecorated the Christmas tree. This is a job that I usually do not like to do, but it was okay this time. I'm sad to see those coloured lights go away, but I can turn on our little white patio lights that we have on the deck year-round, so I don't go cold turkey on twinkling stuff in the dark. Today I was supposed to get up, get dressed and take Alex out for a long practice drive but it's snowing! So we're still all in our pajamas at half past noon, and I made pancakes and waffles for the kids for lunch. I'm still eating that citrus salad (I made a really big batch). Maybe it's the secret to my recovery?

Next I will put away all of the Santa pictures, which I display in a bookshelf every Christmas. It's fun to look at the kids growing up with Santa. I have all of my usual pottery and candles and vases and stuff in the boxes that I took the Christmas ornaments out of, so I just switch them back. I'll say goodbye to the ceramic nativity set, the crystal bowl full of fake red apples and gold-painted pinecones, the dried pomegranates (my big find this Christmas). Dried pomegranates are about 1/3 the size of fresh ones and hard as rocks. They are really beautiful though, displayed in a simple china bowl with some nuts. The dog found them when I first put them out, and tried to eat one, but gave up. I'll put away the candles that smell like cranberries and almond biscotti (the ones that we didn't burn up over Christmas). I'll put away the advent candles - almost burned down anyway. I'll get out some gorgeous blue and pearly stuff, and new table runners and mats. The house will seem bigger and cleaner and more open. The snow is an inspiration - all clean and white and fresh.

The other good news is that the poltergeist has loosened her grip on my stuff. When I'm tired or stressed or just for no reason at all, I have this thing that takes my stuff away, then returns it to totally obvious places where I have looked. The P.G. has taken my cell phone, my keys, clothing, books, movies, money, jewelry, event tickets. Invariably these lost items turn up (eventually) in precisely the place where I searched for them, so I know they were really gone. The most extreme time was when the P.G. took my house keys for one whole year, then returned them to the pocket in my knapsack where I always keep the keys, exactly one year later. I looked in that pocket a dozen times. It was a big set of keys and a small pocket, used only for keys, and it was empty for a year, then POOF there were the keys again. That was a couple of years ago. This time it took my season's tickets to the Playhouse, my favourite sweater, and a CD I had just bought and not even listened to all the way through. That was the last week of November. My tickets showed up a couple of days before Christmas (on the table beside my bed). The CD showed up yesterday (in my nearly empty briefcase which I have cleaned out and searched a couple of times since I lost the CD). Now I need my sweater. But I'm sure it will turn up. I just have to talk to the P.G. and tell her that I'm tired of the game and I want my stuff back. P.G. is full of mischief and also annoying, but usually she's telling me I need to make a change. Having a really good rest is the change I needed this Christmas. I'm convinced that getting sick and really resting - flat out - brought back my music. Now I just have to enjoy these last few days of holidays and figure out what I really want to do, and my warm, smooshy, beige marshmallow knit sweater with the zipper on the front will come back.

question: did your stuff ever disappear and reappear?

mompoet - give me back my sweater now, please

maybe not so fast

Are you supposed to get sweaty just sending emails?

mompoet - creeping back to the couch, but with a book this time so I must be on the mend

when you have the energy to complain online with a specific list of deficiencies

you are probably feeling better.

question: how are you today?

mompoet - coming out of the viral fog

how sick?

• I have checked email only once yesterday and once today.
• I watched TV all day yesterday and today.
• That included daytime TV.
• I have not read anything except email.
• There are piles of things all around the house and I don't care.
• I am not interested in coffee.
• I think Tyra Banks and Maury are mildly interesting and might even have some social value.
• I know all the new commercials before the kids do.
  
• I do not want a glass of wine.
• I wore pajamas to sleep last night.
• I have postponed Macbeth.
• I got Andy to return my videos and I did not ask him to bring me more.
• Snot is my destiny.
• The dog has been waiting 3 days for me to take her for a walk.
• I have not taken any photographs for a week.
• We might keep the Christmas tree up until Valentine's Day. Who cares?
• I am tired now so I am going to watch more TV.
• The dog wants to go for a walk with me, but otherwise is in heaven. Ditto the cat. They like it when I am still.
• Husband and kids are getting tired of it, but are being very kind.
• I have a hard time following through on
  

question: did you try this cold that's going around?

mompoet - yukko blukko

resolution?

Lazy Daisy pointed me to the random resolution generator:

In the year 2007 I resolve to: Reunite the Spice Girls. Get your resolution here.

Happy New Year Daisy!

Happy New Year everyone. Try not to make any resolutions today. Make them tomorrow or last week. If you have to make one. Make it randomly.

question: would anyone like some citrus salad?

mompoet - making citrus salad, not resolutions (thanks mom and dad for the 10 lbs each of grapefruits and oranges!)

happy new year

This is me with my husband, who has more than 1,000 pieces and is much better than schnuzzle. Thanks for the photos Cathy!

mompoet - happy

quite often, it's more fun than you think...

This morning I can not talk. That's okay. Last night was so much fun! Myrna knows how to throw a party, and just when you're having so much fun, she says "Let's have more fun!" So after swallowing helium and talking about resolutions and scaring all of the teenage boys at our family gathering down to the basement, she comes up with this crazy plan and she needs a helper. Well, that would be me.

So while the other moms and dads have regular fun, Myrna and me, we put pantyhose on our heads and sneak out around to the back of the house and creep up the the basement patio doors to scare the boys. That was fun. Only the boys just kind of looked at us then continued watching their movie, and they locked the door so we couldn't get back into the house. That was actually so funny it was fun too. Then we came back inside and resumed having regular fun.

question: do you like my hat?

mompoet - my hair actually looked better after I wore pantyhose on my head - go figure