Since the middle of March, I’ve been making a concerted effort to lose a bit of weight. Not too many people would say I look overweight, and by technical definitions I’m not, but for a while now I’ve verged on the upper edge of what is considered the “normal” range of the Body Mass Index.
In mid-winter I started feeling a few twinges in my artificial hip, and although my regular visit to the surgeon for monitoring revealed all was fine, I figured that if I managed to take off some weight it could only be good for the hip (and my knees). Previous efforts to take off weight have not been very successful, but they’ve also been rather lackadaisical and not at all methodical. So this time I vowed I would DO IT!!
The main components missing from previous weight-loss attempts were more exercise and really paying attention to what I ate. I’d try to eat a bit less and drink more water and maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but it never amounted to much. So this time, while those two factors were also a part of the plan, I determined I WOULD get more exercise – and I would track how much I ate and pay more attention to calories.
Exercise had to be something easy. Not necessarily in terms of doing it, but easy in terms of convenience. It couldn’t be anything that would require special equipment or that I go any place special or take much, if any, of my morning or evening hours. My days are full enough already. So, my exercise component of choice was something that I could do easily, every day, right in my office building: climb stairs.
I set myself a three-part goal:
every day to beat or match my previous stair-climbing record;
if I coulnd’t manage that, then to match or exceed what I’d done the previous day (assuming it wasn’t my record); or
if I coulnd’t manage that, then to climb at least 20 flights a day.
I started on a Thursday. The first two days I surprised myself with how easily I managed to climb 24 flights both days. The following week I surprised myself yet again by climbing 42 flights on the Monday and 44 on Tuesday! Wednesday I had taken the day off, and it was likely a good thing, because on Tuesday evening I could feel my leg muscles and I was tired. But the one day rest was plenty, and the Thursday and Friday that week I did 45 and 48 flights, and started off the following Monday with … you’ll never believe it: not 50, not 60, but SEVENTY FLIGHTS!!! At that point I decided I should revise goal #3 to at least 30 flights, rather than 20.
In less than four weeks I reached 82 flights in one day, at which point I suffered a bit of a set-back. I’d been using my hands & arms to help “jerk” me up a little bit when stepping up with my right leg, which doesn’t bend as much as the left and so makes climbing a bit awkward. As a result my wrist and arm/shoulder were very sore. So for the rest of the week I gave myself a break – so to speak – by climbing “just” 60 flights each day. (At that point I revised goal #3 to 50 flights.)
By the following week I’d recovered enough that I managed to climb 100 flights on two of the five working days!! After that I revised my goal to a weekly one – to climb more stairs each week than I had the previous week, even if on any given day I didn’t exceed my previous record.
Up until we went on holidays I was keeping up an average of around 70 flights a day (and managed 100 flights on 7 occasions). When we got back – it was hot, muggy, and even inside our air-conditioned work buildings you can still feel the mugginess. So for a while the climbing slowed down significantly, but by the eight day back on the job I was feeling the lack of exercise – my leg muscles were aching from lack of use, the way they did when I first went back to work after adopting Button and spending my days on my butt instead of up and about with an active kid. That was the impetus to get going again, and since then I’ve been keeping it up, though not as intensely – I’ve averaged just 44 flights a day instead of 70, but that’s still pretty good!
On the eating front, my main strategy has been to limit what I eat at work, having just a very small lunch/snack in the middle of the day. Also, limit portions and avoid second helpings and snacks outside of meals.
So, what about the weight loss? It’s been coming along okay, although from mid-May to late June I was kind of stalled. But I’m now down to just over 110 lbs (a loss of almost 20 lbs and one pants size) and I’m aiming to lose another 5-10 by Hallowe’en if not sooner. That will give me room to gain a bit back and still be at a good, healthy weight. I don’t think I’ve seen those numbers on the scale since I was in my 20s!
Showing posts with label miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miscellaneous. Show all posts
24 August 2010
24 May 2010
Welcome back, Laolao & Laoye!
Laolao and Laoye flew back yesterday afternoon for another visit. Originally they were to arrive last Wednesday, but my aunt passed away a week ago so they stayed back for the funeral which delayed their trip a few days. The kids have been looking forward to them coming for several weeks now, and were disappointed at the delay (especially as it meant they missed Mustang's 10th birthday) but are happy to see them.
They’ll be with us for about two or three weeks, then take off in the bus to head east. We’ll join them in Halifax at the end of June for two weeks’ holiday as we meander back to our home city.
They brought birthday gifts for the kids which will be presented tomorrow, at a family birthday supper. Some friends will be joining us to celebrate the three family birthdays (Mustang, Button, Laolao).
They’ll be with us for about two or three weeks, then take off in the bus to head east. We’ll join them in Halifax at the end of June for two weeks’ holiday as we meander back to our home city.
They brought birthday gifts for the kids which will be presented tomorrow, at a family birthday supper. Some friends will be joining us to celebrate the three family birthdays (Mustang, Button, Laolao).
18 May 2010
A day by the river
Saturday May 1st I had planned to take the kids out to the season opening of a local heritage flour mill, where they would be celebrating the mill’s 150th anniversary with special activities, games, a barbecue, and so on.
But they just weren’t interested. Mustang just wanted to stick around home and play in our woods and fields, or at the most head off to a local park a short drive away where they’d caught some frogs before; Button echoed that. We also had a lot of things to do around the house, seeing as I like to spend at least part of the weekend out and about doing things with the kids, so some of the household necessities get neglected. (Thank goodness for Nanny, or nothing would happen around the house!) Plus now that we have fewer scheduled activities, I’m trying to do some sewing and cooking with the kids on a semi-regular basis.
So in the morning, after getting groceries, I got them each to do a few seams in our latest sewing project, and we made some jiaozi – Chinese pork-and-cabbage filled dumplings (other fillings are possible too, but that’s our favourite). Then it was time to tidy up the house, clean Calico’s cage, and… you get the picture. Finally, in the afternoon, we headed out to the nearby park. It was a cloudy day but not too cold, and though it had been threatening rain for most of the day none had so far arrived. The kids played with Lovely by the shore, tossing the ball into the water for her to fetch. Mostly she cooperated, but after a while she was getting cold and shivering, so I told them to stop. They caught several leopard frogs and even a bullfrog tadpole – huge little critter! Then it did start to rain. At first it was just a light rain, so we stayed out enjoying the fresh air, but after about an hour it started to get heavier so we headed home.
But they just weren’t interested. Mustang just wanted to stick around home and play in our woods and fields, or at the most head off to a local park a short drive away where they’d caught some frogs before; Button echoed that. We also had a lot of things to do around the house, seeing as I like to spend at least part of the weekend out and about doing things with the kids, so some of the household necessities get neglected. (Thank goodness for Nanny, or nothing would happen around the house!) Plus now that we have fewer scheduled activities, I’m trying to do some sewing and cooking with the kids on a semi-regular basis.
So in the morning, after getting groceries, I got them each to do a few seams in our latest sewing project, and we made some jiaozi – Chinese pork-and-cabbage filled dumplings (other fillings are possible too, but that’s our favourite). Then it was time to tidy up the house, clean Calico’s cage, and… you get the picture. Finally, in the afternoon, we headed out to the nearby park. It was a cloudy day but not too cold, and though it had been threatening rain for most of the day none had so far arrived. The kids played with Lovely by the shore, tossing the ball into the water for her to fetch. Mostly she cooperated, but after a while she was getting cold and shivering, so I told them to stop. They caught several leopard frogs and even a bullfrog tadpole – huge little critter! Then it did start to rain. At first it was just a light rain, so we stayed out enjoying the fresh air, but after about an hour it started to get heavier so we headed home.
14 May 2010
Nanny's birthday
Our Nanny celebrated her birthday on Monday, April 26th. The day before the kids and I baked a chocolate layer cake – from scratch! They bought her a Webkinz for her birthday present. (I just gave her a bonus.) Mondays she stays with us for supper as Button has music after and she either takes him while I stay home with Mustang or vice versa. So we had a nice supper together and then brought out the cake! She was impressed that we’d made it from scratch!!
11 May 2010
A visit with Garnet
On the last Saturday in April we made a trip to city where Garnet lives, about an hour’s drive away. After our usual Saturday morning chores we hopped into the car, complete with a gift for Garnet (bought at Lovely’s training session the previous night), and set off. It was a great day – sunny, warm, relaxing. We arrived in time for lunch – my contribution being a lentil salad and a honeydew melon – and after tucking in for a bite, spent the afternoon having fun! Garnet’s family has a trampoline in the backyard which the kids played on most of the afternoon while Mama Garnet and I chatted about life, dogs, the nanny situation, and everything.
Garnet has grown a fair bit since we last saw her at the end of January, though she’s still a lot smaller than Lovely. Her family expressed some concern that she’s not growing faster. I think she might end up being a smaller dog at full growth, though she does still have a good six months more of growth coming. (I hope the slow weight gain is not related to the loss-of-weight spell she had when she was 2 months old. She seems now to be perfectly healthy now!)
It seems to me that Garnet has mellowed somewhat since small puppyhood. Just somewhat – she’s still quite lively and active, but didn’t seem quite so prone to bugging Lovely as when she was little. She and Lovely got on fairly well, except when Garnet tried to steal the ball Lovely was playing with! (Actually, they mostly ignored each other, but that’s an improvement from when Garnet would bug mama and Lovely would snap at her!)
Late in the afternoon we visited that city’s version of an off-leash dog park by the river, which was a first for all of us. It was quite pleasant and not nearly as crowded as the one we go to at home. Then we had a supper of barbecued hot dogs, chips, salad and fruit.
After supper we all headed off, in separate vehicles, to another town about halfway between our two cities where Mama Garnet had seen advertised that the African Children’s Choir would be performing. When we got there – just as the concert was about to start – we were both surprised at the small number of cars in the parking lot, thinking this concert would have a big draw factor. Once inside, it became apparent that we were victims of (somewhat) false advertising – it wasn’t THE African Children’s Choir, but the Canadian-African Children’s Choir from our home city. Still, we stayed to enjoy the music, which was quite good. As nine o’clock approached, however, and we less than halfway through the printed program, I decided we’d leave at the intermission as we were all getting tired and it was getting late! But as soon as I made that decision the organizers jumped to the last two items on the program, effectively cancelling intermission, so we stayed until the end of those two items. Before heading home we availed ourselves of the yummy snacks laid out in the church basement.
It was a long day but lots of fun, and so nice to visit Garnet (and her family of course!).
Garnet has grown a fair bit since we last saw her at the end of January, though she’s still a lot smaller than Lovely. Her family expressed some concern that she’s not growing faster. I think she might end up being a smaller dog at full growth, though she does still have a good six months more of growth coming. (I hope the slow weight gain is not related to the loss-of-weight spell she had when she was 2 months old. She seems now to be perfectly healthy now!)
It seems to me that Garnet has mellowed somewhat since small puppyhood. Just somewhat – she’s still quite lively and active, but didn’t seem quite so prone to bugging Lovely as when she was little. She and Lovely got on fairly well, except when Garnet tried to steal the ball Lovely was playing with! (Actually, they mostly ignored each other, but that’s an improvement from when Garnet would bug mama and Lovely would snap at her!)
Late in the afternoon we visited that city’s version of an off-leash dog park by the river, which was a first for all of us. It was quite pleasant and not nearly as crowded as the one we go to at home. Then we had a supper of barbecued hot dogs, chips, salad and fruit.
After supper we all headed off, in separate vehicles, to another town about halfway between our two cities where Mama Garnet had seen advertised that the African Children’s Choir would be performing. When we got there – just as the concert was about to start – we were both surprised at the small number of cars in the parking lot, thinking this concert would have a big draw factor. Once inside, it became apparent that we were victims of (somewhat) false advertising – it wasn’t THE African Children’s Choir, but the Canadian-African Children’s Choir from our home city. Still, we stayed to enjoy the music, which was quite good. As nine o’clock approached, however, and we less than halfway through the printed program, I decided we’d leave at the intermission as we were all getting tired and it was getting late! But as soon as I made that decision the organizers jumped to the last two items on the program, effectively cancelling intermission, so we stayed until the end of those two items. Before heading home we availed ourselves of the yummy snacks laid out in the church basement.
It was a long day but lots of fun, and so nice to visit Garnet (and her family of course!).
06 May 2010
April 2010
After Easter, the rest of April passed fairly uneventfully. Lovely started basic training class on Friday the 9th, for eight weeks. It’s not that intensive – I think the training is as much for the owners as the dogs. I looked into a variety of training classes and operations and decided to go with the local PetSmart class, mostly because they were kid-friendly. A few of the other places wouldn’t allow children under 8 to take part, which would cut Button our. But here, we all go into the classroom and we all take turns working with Lovely. The instructor is obviously aware that the kids need to learn how to handle her as much as anyone.
The Sunday after Easter we again had a crowd, but this time I didn’t cook up a storm, mostly just thawed things from the freezer. It was still great! What was most fun was that there were eight kids and just six grown-ups, so all but the two littlest kids got to sit at their own table to eat. After lunch we again traipsed through the woods and by the pond. It’s practically a Sunday tradition!
The kids started swimming lessons mid-month. Button’s in Level 3 and Mustang in Level 4. They haven’t had lessons since the end of summer last year, but they seem to be enjoying it and doing well. I’m so glad Mustang has lost her fear of the deep end and is now quite happy to head off there for diving and jumping fun.
We had two arts excursions in April – saw a children’s theatre show and a kids’ concert, both very fun. Friend Chuckles and I also took in a play one evening, while friend L babysat the kids.
Nanny’s birthday was near the end of the month. The kids and I baked a cake and decorated it all up for her (seeing as she would be with us for supper). Their present for her was a Webkinz ferret – since she has a real ferret for a pet! – and we made her a card.
The Sunday after Easter we again had a crowd, but this time I didn’t cook up a storm, mostly just thawed things from the freezer. It was still great! What was most fun was that there were eight kids and just six grown-ups, so all but the two littlest kids got to sit at their own table to eat. After lunch we again traipsed through the woods and by the pond. It’s practically a Sunday tradition!
The kids started swimming lessons mid-month. Button’s in Level 3 and Mustang in Level 4. They haven’t had lessons since the end of summer last year, but they seem to be enjoying it and doing well. I’m so glad Mustang has lost her fear of the deep end and is now quite happy to head off there for diving and jumping fun.
We had two arts excursions in April – saw a children’s theatre show and a kids’ concert, both very fun. Friend Chuckles and I also took in a play one evening, while friend L babysat the kids.
Nanny’s birthday was near the end of the month. The kids and I baked a cake and decorated it all up for her (seeing as she would be with us for supper). Their present for her was a Webkinz ferret – since she has a real ferret for a pet! – and we made her a card.
20 April 2010
March 2010
The beginning of the month we welcomed Laolao & Laoye back from Costa Rica and other parts in Central America. They brought colourful t-shirts for the kids and some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts for all. By the time they arrived on March 2nd we had virtually no snow left in town. There was still enough on the ski slopes for the final skiing lesson on Saturday March 6th, and it wasn’t even too bad for walking. A friend came along and the kids spent the afternoon skiing with her. It was even nice enough to eat lunch outside on the ski chalet’s deck.
On Sunday 14 March we celebrated Mustang’s fifth Family Day – the time has flown! – with a turkey dinner with friends at home. The following day was the beginning of March break. Laolao and Laoye took the kids out on a walk through a woodland-march area east of the city, and to McDonald’s for a treat. The next day, Tuesday morning, we took Laolao & Laoye to the airport for their flight home. They’ll be back in May for a month or so.
During March break the kids enjoyed daily outings with Nanny. They went to the Farm, on a hike in the wilderness park across the river, a long bike ride, to the local playground, skating (at an indoor rink), swimming at the wave pool, and did a fun craft every day. Evenings I would take them for a forest walk or down by the pond. On Friday we made a birthday cake for friend L and took it to her place for dessert & tea.
Since skiing ended, I’ve been taking some time for cooking and sewing “lessons” with the kids on Saturday mornings (or other times). They each made a small patchwork quilt for one of their stuffies and I’d like to get them started on some other projects for presents for next Christmas. As for cooking, we’ve done chilli, scrambled eggs, and spaghetti sauce. These aren’t really formal lessons, but I hope they’re picking up some knowledge and practical skills!
This is the only time in recorded history that the city has had no snowfall in March. We’ve had rain, but no snow – and by the end of the month the only snow to be found was in piles where it had built up from shovelling/plowing.
March 31st we hit a high of about 20 degrees, and in the evening we were down by the pond in shorts & t-shirts. As I watch the kids run around I’m thinking “Is this really March 31st? Incredible!”
Unfortunately, I have no pictures for March. Early in the month my camera disappeared. The last I remembered seeing it was on top of the microwave - its normal home when not in use - and Button asking if he could take pictures. I was convined he'd misplaced it somewhere after taking a few pix, though he insisted he returned it to me. But just a few days ago, when I was trying to put a CD book into the pocket opening under the dashboard of my car, I put in my hand to remove something blocking it and - voila! my camera!!! I likely put it there on the last ski lesson day, as I also remember having it there - it just seemed like my memory of it on the microwave was more recent. I was very very VERY happy to have found it. I could have gone back to using my film camera, but after becoming accustomed to the digital one that would have been hard.
So there will be pix in April! (At least for the latter half of the month.)
Sorry, Button, for not believing you...
On Sunday 14 March we celebrated Mustang’s fifth Family Day – the time has flown! – with a turkey dinner with friends at home. The following day was the beginning of March break. Laolao and Laoye took the kids out on a walk through a woodland-march area east of the city, and to McDonald’s for a treat. The next day, Tuesday morning, we took Laolao & Laoye to the airport for their flight home. They’ll be back in May for a month or so.
During March break the kids enjoyed daily outings with Nanny. They went to the Farm, on a hike in the wilderness park across the river, a long bike ride, to the local playground, skating (at an indoor rink), swimming at the wave pool, and did a fun craft every day. Evenings I would take them for a forest walk or down by the pond. On Friday we made a birthday cake for friend L and took it to her place for dessert & tea.
Since skiing ended, I’ve been taking some time for cooking and sewing “lessons” with the kids on Saturday mornings (or other times). They each made a small patchwork quilt for one of their stuffies and I’d like to get them started on some other projects for presents for next Christmas. As for cooking, we’ve done chilli, scrambled eggs, and spaghetti sauce. These aren’t really formal lessons, but I hope they’re picking up some knowledge and practical skills!
This is the only time in recorded history that the city has had no snowfall in March. We’ve had rain, but no snow – and by the end of the month the only snow to be found was in piles where it had built up from shovelling/plowing.
March 31st we hit a high of about 20 degrees, and in the evening we were down by the pond in shorts & t-shirts. As I watch the kids run around I’m thinking “Is this really March 31st? Incredible!”
Unfortunately, I have no pictures for March. Early in the month my camera disappeared. The last I remembered seeing it was on top of the microwave - its normal home when not in use - and Button asking if he could take pictures. I was convined he'd misplaced it somewhere after taking a few pix, though he insisted he returned it to me. But just a few days ago, when I was trying to put a CD book into the pocket opening under the dashboard of my car, I put in my hand to remove something blocking it and - voila! my camera!!! I likely put it there on the last ski lesson day, as I also remember having it there - it just seemed like my memory of it on the microwave was more recent. I was very very VERY happy to have found it. I could have gone back to using my film camera, but after becoming accustomed to the digital one that would have been hard.
So there will be pix in April! (At least for the latter half of the month.)
Sorry, Button, for not believing you...
17 April 2010
February 2010
Okay folks, we’re getting closer to real time now!
February of this year was a pretty ordinary month. Busy with skiing, various lessons, walking Mo around the fields & forest, school and work. The most exciting things were:
In the middle of the month we enjoyed the visit of three young ladies: two from Germany and one from Peru. They were here as part of a conference of International Visitor Exchange participants, a program operated by our church. The conference was hosted by our congregation this year. They spent four night with us and we enjoyed breakfasts together, playtime, and conversation.
The last Sunday of the month we took Lovely out for some playtime in the afternoon, accompanied by our friend Chuckles, and played in the fields near home and on the snow mountains (created by clearing the nearby office parking lot).
The last week of February we had some lovely warm weather, well above freezing, and a lot of snow melted. The days are also getting noticeably longer – a welcome break from winter’s dark. We have had hardly any snow at all since Laolao and Laoye left at the end of December. I’ve shovelled once, and it was only a couple of centimetres. Spring is just around the corner…
February of this year was a pretty ordinary month. Busy with skiing, various lessons, walking Mo around the fields & forest, school and work. The most exciting things were:
- celebrating Chinese New Year at a friend’s house one Sunday afternoon (it’s the Year of the Tiger – that’s me!!);
- enjoying (for the kids) a 4-day weekend in the middle of the month, what with one PD day and the provincial holiday (Nanny takes them on special outings);
- attending another concert on a Saturday afternoon after skiing; and
- watching the Olympics and cheering for our Canadian athletes.
We also celebrated Lovely’s second birthday (and Valentine’s day) at a pampered pet store-cum-tea shop. Her birthday presents included a nice soft doggy bed – a bit on the small size, but she still enjoys sleeping in it! – a light doggy t-shirt, and a monkey pull toy – all pink and heart-covered. After all, she is a Lovely doggie, born on Valentine’s day!!
In the middle of the month we enjoyed the visit of three young ladies: two from Germany and one from Peru. They were here as part of a conference of International Visitor Exchange participants, a program operated by our church. The conference was hosted by our congregation this year. They spent four night with us and we enjoyed breakfasts together, playtime, and conversation.
The last Sunday of the month we took Lovely out for some playtime in the afternoon, accompanied by our friend Chuckles, and played in the fields near home and on the snow mountains (created by clearing the nearby office parking lot).
The last week of February we had some lovely warm weather, well above freezing, and a lot of snow melted. The days are also getting noticeably longer – a welcome break from winter’s dark. We have had hardly any snow at all since Laolao and Laoye left at the end of December. I’ve shovelled once, and it was only a couple of centimetres. Spring is just around the corner…
12 April 2010
January 2010
Fri 1 Jan: Happy New Year! (Yeah, okay, I’m 3 ½ months late…)
Hard to believe that it’s been ten years since the whole world was scared the millennium computer bug was going to bring the world to a screeching halt – or at least cause some major glitches.
Sun 3 Jan: We have a tea party after church to celebrate:
- Button’s second Family Day
- Mustang’s “half-life” – as of the 5th she will have lived in Canada for exactly half her life!
- my birthday, and
- Lovely’s 22 ½ monthiversary (the kids insisted we had to include a reason to celebrate her, too).
Much of the baking over the past week has been to prepare treats for this occasion. There are plenty of desserts and some nice hors-d’oeuvres, too. We play card games, chat, and munch.
Mon 4 Jan: Back to school for the kids, back to work for me. In the evening, Button desperately does not want to go to music. I let him skip this one class, but tell him he has to go without complaining next week, and keep going until his birthday. (The classes end right after his birthday, but I’m not telling him that! Let him think he gets to stop early…) He agrees.
Tue 5 Jan: Twelfth Night. We bake a Twelfth Night-cum-birthday cake, with coins in it. Whoever gets the coin has to host next year’s Twelfth Night party. Since there’s only us, it’s not hard to guess where the party will be!
Wed 6 Jan: Epiphany. Mustang starts another round of art lessons.
Thu 7 Jan: My birthday & Ethiopian New Year! Ask Nanny to cook some Ethiopian-style food for our supper, and I buy some injera. Friend Chuckles joins us for a lovely evening. We finish off the cake.
Sat 9 Jan: First skiing lesson of the season. I walk Lovely around the ski hill. At noon, friend with the acreage home joins us and skis with the kids while I read and Lovely naps in the car. Was a bit worried that Lovely might find it cold sitting in the car so we’d brought blankets and heated some bean bags to try to keep it warm. But it’s a fairly sunny day and not too cold, so the sun through the windows actually keeps the car a relatively pleasant temperature. After skiing we drive to friend’s home on the lake and enjoy a pleasant supper and some playtime there. My birthday present to myself is a weekend away from home, being a little bit pampered.
Sun 10 Jan: Spend the day in the country, playing outside, enjoying games and colouring inside, getting some reading done. Had meant to head home in mid-aft, but some other friends from church are coming for supper, so we stay and enjoy conversation and games with them. By then it’s dark and I don’t like driving in the dark. Friend says no problem to stay an extra night, so we do, with plans to get up early to drive back in time for school.
Mon 11 Jan: Get up and going in pretty good time, but it’s still about 8:30 or so by the time we reach the school. Then I take Lovely home & unload a few things from the car before heading to work. In the evening Button goes to music without complaining. Good for him!
Sat 16 Jan: Friend Chuckles’ birthday. We invite her over for dinner and games.
Sat 23 Jan: After skiing we attend an afternoon family concert with a sports theme. Senator Nancy Greene pays a visit, some Olympic athletes are there, and a team of rhythmic gymnastics dancers is also part of the performance.
Not too much else to report. Homework, skiing, art, music, walking dog… Life’s pretty ordinary.
09 April 2010
December 2009
Tue 1 Dec: Kids start their Advent calendar. Every morning they open one of the little pockets to find a clue telling them where to look for their surprise, or a coupon for a special activity that day. They will be doing lots of activities – like going to see Christmas lights, taking a moonlight walk, getting a Christmas tree or shopping for Mommy’s present – as well as lots of baking & cooking – making shortbread cookies, rocky road bars, lemon tarts, mini quiches, layered jello desserts, etc – to make this more about fun and less about gimme.
Fri 4 Dec: Another PD Day. I go in for my surgery. There by 9, in the OR by about 10:30. Done by 11:20. Home by about 1pm. Because they’ve frozen my optic nerve I can’t see a thing. Once home, rest in the story chair while kids wait on me. (Nice!!) Gradually vision returns as the freezing wears off. But everything is veeeeery blurry (and will stay so for some time, I am told to expect.) In the evening, I try reading a few pages of my book. With three pairs of my strongest reading glasses, one on top of the other, I can manage to puzzle out the words, but it’s very slow going. After 5 minutes and about ¼ page, I give up.
Sat 5 Dec: Laolao and I take the kids shopping to buy each others’ and my Christmas present (or did we do this next Saturday? Not quite sure.) Of course, they want to give it to me right away, but we say it has to wait until last Advent, at least. At bedtime I try to read again. Slightly improved, but not much.
Sun 6 Dec: Second Advent. This year I’m giving the kids each books and a little something else for each Advent Sunday. All my gifts will be given by the time Christmas day rolls around (except for the little goodies from Santa); they get enough stuff from Laolao & Laoye and a few friends to have plenty on Christmas Day. By spreading out the gifts (from me at least), there is not such a huge pile of stuff on the Day, which can get so overwhelming that things get lost (or inadvertently thrown in the trash, as happened a few years ago to us). And I like to think that it helps to keep some of the focus on Christ, not just on “what am I getting?”
7-16 Dec: While the kids are at school (and I’m off work ‘cause I can’t read worth beans), I spend my time organizing. Put some order in the toy shelf. Put some order in the sewing room. Put some order in my office. Basement. Kids’ rooms. Loft – go through my bookshelves and pull out at least half the books to take to the second-hand store. Move some of the kids; books upstairs.
Meanwhile, Laolao is putting up the border in the kids’ rooms and rearranging furniture. In October I’d moved back into the master bedroom, but left the double bed upstairs as it’s too big for me to handle. Now Laolao & Laoye move it upstairs, move the upper bunkbed into Button’s new room, put the single bed from downstairs under the upper bunk, rearrange Mustang’s bed & bookcase.
Sat 12 Dec: Dress rehearsal for the pageant. At church from 9:00 to noon. In the afternoon we join good friends P, M & A (D is down south at university, believe it or not!) to get our Christmas tree at a local cut-your-own place. Take Lovely as we’ve seen dogs there before and friends have in the past taken their dog (and do so again), but when we get there we are told “no dogs” so Lovely has to stay in the car. Guess we’re not likely to go there again. Post-tree, go to friends’ house for Christmas fellowship and exchange gifts.
Sun 13 Dec: Third Advent. Some beading supplies for Mustang, some wooden puzzles for Button, and a homemade calendar for each. Pageant show in the evening. Kids all excited. Goes well.
Sat 19 Dec: Take Mustang to see a matinee performance of A Christmas Carol. It’s a very sombre, darkly lit staging, very effective. Mustang loves it – not too scary; helps that she knows the story. Laoye drops us off and we catch the bus home.
Sun 20 Dec: Fourth Advent. Kids get their big prezzies from me – not that huge, some scrapbooking supplies for Mustang and some K’Nex for Button, as well as a computer game for each. Along with the obligatory book.
Mon 21 Dec: Start of school break. With tons of time off, and not much homework, I get the kids to start working hard on their knitting. Gotta get those scarves done! Or at least significantly advanced. For every row they knit, I knit one too.
Wed 23 Dec: Advent treat of the day is a skiing trip with Nanny (she comes early). They spend the day on the hill where they take lessons. Not many runs are open, but enough to make it a fun day! By now my vision is much improved. I can read quite well and driving shouldn’t be an issue either. But I’m booked off for one more week. Seeing as it’s Christmas, I’ll take it; any other time I might head back and save on sick leave.
Thu 24 Dec: Christmas Eve!!! Evening service at church, followed by fellowship around the fireplace at home. Neighbours come over with gifts for the kids, we invite them to join us for some snacking & games. After kids are to bed, Santa arrives and fills the stockings – even brings treats for Lovely & our guinea pig (who each have their own stocking). In our house, Santa has very strict guidelines: he has to put into each stocking (a) something to eat, (b) something to wear, and (c) something to do.
Fri 25 Dec: Christmas!!!! Kids are eager to get up (though actually manage to sleep until 6 or so) to look in stockings. Santa has brought Mustang a book all about dog breeds, which is one of the things she was asking for. Button got a doggie cookbook (as in making treats for your dog, not cooking the dog!) and I got a book about training your dog to do tricks. That fills the “something to do” category. Also chocolate and socks all around (eat, wear). After a late breakfast of hash brown casserole (the traditional Christmas breakfast meal), we open the remaining presents. Kids each get a bunch of Lego from Laolao & Laoye, and LL/LY admire their scarves that the kids have almost finished knitting. We just didn’t quite have the energy to get them done, but they’ve done yeoman’s work this past week, adding bout 50cm to the length. It’s almost long enough – another 3 bands of colour (20 rows each) and that should do it.
In the early afternoon our friends arrive for Christmas dinner: a refugee couple from Colombia with their 6-month-old son (the grown 20-year-old son has other things going on so he doesn’t come); a couple from church; a friend who lives on a small acreage north of the city; and our good friends L&W, who were going to bring two teenage Sudanese boys but the latter learned of a Sudanese gathering and preferred to go there. We chat and play until dinner is served around 4pm – Laolao has prepared us a turkey feast, with all the trimmings! After supper there is more chatting, some games, and finally the guests go home. All in all, a fine day.
Sat 26 Dec: Kids start their “Twelve Days of Christmas” calendar. Much like the Advent calendar, but this one has little bags with treats or clues in them. I initiated it to provide a “ramping down” of the Christmas celebrations rather than an abrupt post-Christmas blah, and also – primarily – as a way to keep the festivities going until (a) Ethiopian Christmas and (b) my birthday, both on January 7.
Mon 28 Dec: Go out to our favourite Ethiopian restaurant for supper, to celebrate Button’s second Family Day.
Tue 29 Dec: Say goodbye to Laolao & Laoye, who are flying out to parts south. Starting in Cancun, then working their way down through Central America. Wish I could go too.
Thu 31 Dec: Twelve Days calendar treat is a treasure hunt to party snacks and new movie, which we enjoy in the evening. Kids stay up until about 10:30, then zonk out.
Bye-bye, 2009!
Fri 4 Dec: Another PD Day. I go in for my surgery. There by 9, in the OR by about 10:30. Done by 11:20. Home by about 1pm. Because they’ve frozen my optic nerve I can’t see a thing. Once home, rest in the story chair while kids wait on me. (Nice!!) Gradually vision returns as the freezing wears off. But everything is veeeeery blurry (and will stay so for some time, I am told to expect.) In the evening, I try reading a few pages of my book. With three pairs of my strongest reading glasses, one on top of the other, I can manage to puzzle out the words, but it’s very slow going. After 5 minutes and about ¼ page, I give up.
Sat 5 Dec: Laolao and I take the kids shopping to buy each others’ and my Christmas present (or did we do this next Saturday? Not quite sure.) Of course, they want to give it to me right away, but we say it has to wait until last Advent, at least. At bedtime I try to read again. Slightly improved, but not much.
Sun 6 Dec: Second Advent. This year I’m giving the kids each books and a little something else for each Advent Sunday. All my gifts will be given by the time Christmas day rolls around (except for the little goodies from Santa); they get enough stuff from Laolao & Laoye and a few friends to have plenty on Christmas Day. By spreading out the gifts (from me at least), there is not such a huge pile of stuff on the Day, which can get so overwhelming that things get lost (or inadvertently thrown in the trash, as happened a few years ago to us). And I like to think that it helps to keep some of the focus on Christ, not just on “what am I getting?”
7-16 Dec: While the kids are at school (and I’m off work ‘cause I can’t read worth beans), I spend my time organizing. Put some order in the toy shelf. Put some order in the sewing room. Put some order in my office. Basement. Kids’ rooms. Loft – go through my bookshelves and pull out at least half the books to take to the second-hand store. Move some of the kids; books upstairs.
Meanwhile, Laolao is putting up the border in the kids’ rooms and rearranging furniture. In October I’d moved back into the master bedroom, but left the double bed upstairs as it’s too big for me to handle. Now Laolao & Laoye move it upstairs, move the upper bunkbed into Button’s new room, put the single bed from downstairs under the upper bunk, rearrange Mustang’s bed & bookcase.
Sat 12 Dec: Dress rehearsal for the pageant. At church from 9:00 to noon. In the afternoon we join good friends P, M & A (D is down south at university, believe it or not!) to get our Christmas tree at a local cut-your-own place. Take Lovely as we’ve seen dogs there before and friends have in the past taken their dog (and do so again), but when we get there we are told “no dogs” so Lovely has to stay in the car. Guess we’re not likely to go there again. Post-tree, go to friends’ house for Christmas fellowship and exchange gifts.
Sun 13 Dec: Third Advent. Some beading supplies for Mustang, some wooden puzzles for Button, and a homemade calendar for each. Pageant show in the evening. Kids all excited. Goes well.
Sat 19 Dec: Take Mustang to see a matinee performance of A Christmas Carol. It’s a very sombre, darkly lit staging, very effective. Mustang loves it – not too scary; helps that she knows the story. Laoye drops us off and we catch the bus home.
Sun 20 Dec: Fourth Advent. Kids get their big prezzies from me – not that huge, some scrapbooking supplies for Mustang and some K’Nex for Button, as well as a computer game for each. Along with the obligatory book.
Mon 21 Dec: Start of school break. With tons of time off, and not much homework, I get the kids to start working hard on their knitting. Gotta get those scarves done! Or at least significantly advanced. For every row they knit, I knit one too.
Wed 23 Dec: Advent treat of the day is a skiing trip with Nanny (she comes early). They spend the day on the hill where they take lessons. Not many runs are open, but enough to make it a fun day! By now my vision is much improved. I can read quite well and driving shouldn’t be an issue either. But I’m booked off for one more week. Seeing as it’s Christmas, I’ll take it; any other time I might head back and save on sick leave.
Thu 24 Dec: Christmas Eve!!! Evening service at church, followed by fellowship around the fireplace at home. Neighbours come over with gifts for the kids, we invite them to join us for some snacking & games. After kids are to bed, Santa arrives and fills the stockings – even brings treats for Lovely & our guinea pig (who each have their own stocking). In our house, Santa has very strict guidelines: he has to put into each stocking (a) something to eat, (b) something to wear, and (c) something to do.
Fri 25 Dec: Christmas!!!! Kids are eager to get up (though actually manage to sleep until 6 or so) to look in stockings. Santa has brought Mustang a book all about dog breeds, which is one of the things she was asking for. Button got a doggie cookbook (as in making treats for your dog, not cooking the dog!) and I got a book about training your dog to do tricks. That fills the “something to do” category. Also chocolate and socks all around (eat, wear). After a late breakfast of hash brown casserole (the traditional Christmas breakfast meal), we open the remaining presents. Kids each get a bunch of Lego from Laolao & Laoye, and LL/LY admire their scarves that the kids have almost finished knitting. We just didn’t quite have the energy to get them done, but they’ve done yeoman’s work this past week, adding bout 50cm to the length. It’s almost long enough – another 3 bands of colour (20 rows each) and that should do it.
In the early afternoon our friends arrive for Christmas dinner: a refugee couple from Colombia with their 6-month-old son (the grown 20-year-old son has other things going on so he doesn’t come); a couple from church; a friend who lives on a small acreage north of the city; and our good friends L&W, who were going to bring two teenage Sudanese boys but the latter learned of a Sudanese gathering and preferred to go there. We chat and play until dinner is served around 4pm – Laolao has prepared us a turkey feast, with all the trimmings! After supper there is more chatting, some games, and finally the guests go home. All in all, a fine day.
Sat 26 Dec: Kids start their “Twelve Days of Christmas” calendar. Much like the Advent calendar, but this one has little bags with treats or clues in them. I initiated it to provide a “ramping down” of the Christmas celebrations rather than an abrupt post-Christmas blah, and also – primarily – as a way to keep the festivities going until (a) Ethiopian Christmas and (b) my birthday, both on January 7.
Mon 28 Dec: Go out to our favourite Ethiopian restaurant for supper, to celebrate Button’s second Family Day.
Tue 29 Dec: Say goodbye to Laolao & Laoye, who are flying out to parts south. Starting in Cancun, then working their way down through Central America. Wish I could go too.
Thu 31 Dec: Twelve Days calendar treat is a treasure hunt to party snacks and new movie, which we enjoy in the evening. Kids stay up until about 10:30, then zonk out.
Bye-bye, 2009!
06 April 2010
November 2009
Sun 1 Nov: Kids & I attend the first of the season’s kids’ concerts. This series is targeted at young kids, ages 4-8, but Mustang (9 ½) still enjoys them.
Wed 4 Nov: Get a call from a fellow in the next province over; do we still have Diamond available? YES!!! He seems like a serious and very interested buyer. Call back, send over my questionnaire for prospective purchasers. Another visit to ophthalmologist; surgery booked for Dec 4th.
Fri 6 Nov: Review the completed questionnaire, call back & talk to the fellow. He’s actually buying as a gift for his girlfriend; yes she knows (or will) and wants a dog; she’s had her heart set on a Labradoodle but could only find breeders way out west. He came across my website from the ALAA links page and was very excited to see a breeder so close by (well, a four-hour drive, but that’s better than a five-hour flight!) with a puppy available. Can he come tomorrow to pick Diamond up? YES!!!
Volunteer at Villages in the evening. Laolao & Laoye and kids have been there since after school, preparing for the evening volunteer supper and helping out with whatever needs doing. It’s a bit too bad that Chuckles isn’t a coordinator anymore, in the sense that she had a good way of getting the young kids involved – she’d always find little jobs for them to do. This year, rather than cash I’m working at the Living Gifts table (where I can sit). The kids sometimes sit with me and work on their Christmas gifts for Laolao and Laoye. They’re knitting scarves (I can say this because Christmas is long past!!!), and it’s been going pretty slowly. Last fall we spent an hour or two every Saturday morning on our Christmas gift craft project, but this year there’s art on Saturday mornings so that doesn’t work. Other times just don’t seem to suit. So I’m hoping they can make some progress here at Villages sales. As they find the progress slow I get them to do four rows, then I do four (or six). That way they can see it growing faster and they each get a break. (After all, fingers can get sore.)
Sat 7 Nov: Head over to Villages after art to do some shopping and enjoy a borscht lunch. (Since we’re not working today we have to buy our lunch. That’s find; all tea room proceeds go to the Food Bank or another local charity.) In the afternoon we say goodbye to Diamond. It’s sad, but also a bit of a relief. Now just Garnet is left with us, and she has a home arranged with our friends, though she’ll be with us another few weeks.
Sun 8 Nov: I’m starting to work with the SS kids on the Christmas pageant. For the past few years I’ve been the assistant rather than director/organizer, which suits me fine. For this year, the director has chosen to do the sequel to the play we put on last year, which makes it easy. Generally I work on the script & staging with the kids while she rehearses the songs and does the overall coordination. Roles that suit us both.
Wed 11 Nov: Remembrance Day. I get the day off (so Nanny does too) but the kids have to go to school. Poor things. Laolao, Laoye & I go to the school for the morning assembly. Then home. Can’t remember what I spent the day doing.
Sat 14 Nov: Villages in the aft.
Fri 20 Nov: Villages in the evening.
Sun 22 Nov: Attend a dramatic reading of Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang. I had expected a staged reading, but it was just a lady sitting in a chair reading. Well, not “just.” She had all the voices, drama and suspense. Very nicely done.
Wed 25 Nov: Say goodbye to Garnet at suppertime. The family’s birthdays are approaching so they come to pick her up, with son in tow. He is surprised, appears pleased. We are happy and sad at the same time. No more puppies. Wah. (No more pee and poop. Yay!) Garnet is close enough, we’ll be able to visit her from time to time.
Sat 28 Nov: Villages in the aft, and stay for pack-up. Then set up for a supper catered by WH – a fancy alternative to the pizza chow-down we have most years, or the restaurant visit or days gone by. Very yummy, very nice to sit & chat about the success of this year’s sales and the upcoming Christmas season. Kids & I leave early so’s to get to bed not too late. We miss the awards ceremony, at which they get an award for the youngest volunteers (or something like that).
Sun 29 Nov: First Advent (already!). Kids are keen to decorate; we haul out the boxes of Christmas supplies and go to town. No tree yet, but all the other trimmings.
Wed 4 Nov: Get a call from a fellow in the next province over; do we still have Diamond available? YES!!! He seems like a serious and very interested buyer. Call back, send over my questionnaire for prospective purchasers. Another visit to ophthalmologist; surgery booked for Dec 4th.
Fri 6 Nov: Review the completed questionnaire, call back & talk to the fellow. He’s actually buying as a gift for his girlfriend; yes she knows (or will) and wants a dog; she’s had her heart set on a Labradoodle but could only find breeders way out west. He came across my website from the ALAA links page and was very excited to see a breeder so close by (well, a four-hour drive, but that’s better than a five-hour flight!) with a puppy available. Can he come tomorrow to pick Diamond up? YES!!!
Volunteer at Villages in the evening. Laolao & Laoye and kids have been there since after school, preparing for the evening volunteer supper and helping out with whatever needs doing. It’s a bit too bad that Chuckles isn’t a coordinator anymore, in the sense that she had a good way of getting the young kids involved – she’d always find little jobs for them to do. This year, rather than cash I’m working at the Living Gifts table (where I can sit). The kids sometimes sit with me and work on their Christmas gifts for Laolao and Laoye. They’re knitting scarves (I can say this because Christmas is long past!!!), and it’s been going pretty slowly. Last fall we spent an hour or two every Saturday morning on our Christmas gift craft project, but this year there’s art on Saturday mornings so that doesn’t work. Other times just don’t seem to suit. So I’m hoping they can make some progress here at Villages sales. As they find the progress slow I get them to do four rows, then I do four (or six). That way they can see it growing faster and they each get a break. (After all, fingers can get sore.)
Sat 7 Nov: Head over to Villages after art to do some shopping and enjoy a borscht lunch. (Since we’re not working today we have to buy our lunch. That’s find; all tea room proceeds go to the Food Bank or another local charity.) In the afternoon we say goodbye to Diamond. It’s sad, but also a bit of a relief. Now just Garnet is left with us, and she has a home arranged with our friends, though she’ll be with us another few weeks.
Sun 8 Nov: I’m starting to work with the SS kids on the Christmas pageant. For the past few years I’ve been the assistant rather than director/organizer, which suits me fine. For this year, the director has chosen to do the sequel to the play we put on last year, which makes it easy. Generally I work on the script & staging with the kids while she rehearses the songs and does the overall coordination. Roles that suit us both.
Wed 11 Nov: Remembrance Day. I get the day off (so Nanny does too) but the kids have to go to school. Poor things. Laolao, Laoye & I go to the school for the morning assembly. Then home. Can’t remember what I spent the day doing.
Sat 14 Nov: Villages in the aft.
Fri 20 Nov: Villages in the evening.
Sun 22 Nov: Attend a dramatic reading of Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang. I had expected a staged reading, but it was just a lady sitting in a chair reading. Well, not “just.” She had all the voices, drama and suspense. Very nicely done.
Wed 25 Nov: Say goodbye to Garnet at suppertime. The family’s birthdays are approaching so they come to pick her up, with son in tow. He is surprised, appears pleased. We are happy and sad at the same time. No more puppies. Wah. (No more pee and poop. Yay!) Garnet is close enough, we’ll be able to visit her from time to time.
Sat 28 Nov: Villages in the aft, and stay for pack-up. Then set up for a supper catered by WH – a fancy alternative to the pizza chow-down we have most years, or the restaurant visit or days gone by. Very yummy, very nice to sit & chat about the success of this year’s sales and the upcoming Christmas season. Kids & I leave early so’s to get to bed not too late. We miss the awards ceremony, at which they get an award for the youngest volunteers (or something like that).
Sun 29 Nov: First Advent (already!). Kids are keen to decorate; we haul out the boxes of Christmas supplies and go to town. No tree yet, but all the other trimmings.
03 April 2010
October 2009
Thu 1st Oct: Take Diamond to vet’s for snip-snip. Opal’s purchasers have arranged to do neutering at a later date (I’m only allowing it because she used to work in a vet clinic so isn’t likely to be non-compliant). And Garnet & Peridot both breeding prospects. So Diamond it is. Take him in first thing in the morning, pick up at the end of the day. His voice has gone all squeaky! (Not from the snip-snip, just because of the tube down the throat.)
1st week of October: Music, gymnastics, art, soccer continue.
Fri 8 Oct: PD Day; Nanny comes early. In the evening we take Opal to the airport to send him off to new owners. Still looking for purchasers for Garnet & Diamond. Had a few serious prospects but nothing firm yet.
Mon 12 Oct: Thanksgiving! We take puppies and Lovely for a romp in the woods. Take a rake, pile up leaves and jump in. Toss puppies in. Bury kids & puppies. Puppies jump in. Tons of fun. Supper at a friend's house. Yum!
Wed 14 Oct: Kids were to have started skating lessons today, but I cancelled. Lots of other lessons on the go and there’s homework, too. Start Mustang on a computer math program to try to get her to internalize her basic math facts. Very systematic and repetitive, which is what she needs.
Sat 17 Oct: Take Peridot to airport to ship her to breeder out west. She is such a little sweetie, I wish we could keep her. Think I’ve got someone to take Garnet, but they don’t want her until late November. I can make that work. Now just Diamond boy.
Sat 24 Oct: Go to ski show/swap. Find equipment for kids – mostly second-hand but have to buy new boots for Mustang as they don’t have any 2nd-hand in her size. Figure it will be worth it rather than renting, as then if we want to ski besides lesson days we’ll save a bundle on rent, and they will probably be able to use the skis/poles for a couple of years, if not the boots, and when Mustang outgrows her skis they might suit Button. Also go to Value Village to buy Hallowe’en costumes. (About time, says Mustang.)
Sun 25 Oct: Youth serve chilli lunch after church, then we stay to set up shelving for Ten Thousand Villages sales.
Tue 27 Oct: Go for gymnastics but building is closed & locked. Nothing on door to say why. Check phone at home but no messages. Mysterious.
Wed 28 Oct: Laolao & Laoye fly in. They’ll be here for Villages season and through Christmas. Visit the ophthalmologist – I’ve been having high pressure in my eye that’s not responding to drops, so he’s booked me with the specialist (as in, high-pressure specialist; he’s just a cornea specialist…). This guy takes a quick look and recommends a surgical procedure to create new drainage channels. Had a similar, but slightly less invasive, procedure 18 months ago but it appears to no longer be working. We all head to church after school/work to help unload the Villages delivery truck, which is quite late. Enjoy pizza after it’s all unloaded.
Thu 29 Oct: Laolao immediately sets about cooking up borscht for the Saturday unpacking session and the first Villages weekend. They’re coordinating the volunteer suppers on Friday.
Sat 31 Oct: After art class, we spend the morning unpacking at Villages. Afternoon free time. Finally it’s Hallowe’en night! Mustang is a devil; Button a fluffy cat (not black).
1-31 Oct: Still hunting for puppy purchaser. By now Diamond is 12 weeks old. Fun having him, but getting tired of puppy pee & poop in house. Starting to enforce “no puppy house-roaming” rules more strictly.
1st week of October: Music, gymnastics, art, soccer continue.
Fri 8 Oct: PD Day; Nanny comes early. In the evening we take Opal to the airport to send him off to new owners. Still looking for purchasers for Garnet & Diamond. Had a few serious prospects but nothing firm yet.
Mon 12 Oct: Thanksgiving! We take puppies and Lovely for a romp in the woods. Take a rake, pile up leaves and jump in. Toss puppies in. Bury kids & puppies. Puppies jump in. Tons of fun. Supper at a friend's house. Yum!
Wed 14 Oct: Kids were to have started skating lessons today, but I cancelled. Lots of other lessons on the go and there’s homework, too. Start Mustang on a computer math program to try to get her to internalize her basic math facts. Very systematic and repetitive, which is what she needs.
Sat 17 Oct: Take Peridot to airport to ship her to breeder out west. She is such a little sweetie, I wish we could keep her. Think I’ve got someone to take Garnet, but they don’t want her until late November. I can make that work. Now just Diamond boy.
Sat 24 Oct: Go to ski show/swap. Find equipment for kids – mostly second-hand but have to buy new boots for Mustang as they don’t have any 2nd-hand in her size. Figure it will be worth it rather than renting, as then if we want to ski besides lesson days we’ll save a bundle on rent, and they will probably be able to use the skis/poles for a couple of years, if not the boots, and when Mustang outgrows her skis they might suit Button. Also go to Value Village to buy Hallowe’en costumes. (About time, says Mustang.)
Sun 25 Oct: Youth serve chilli lunch after church, then we stay to set up shelving for Ten Thousand Villages sales.
Tue 27 Oct: Go for gymnastics but building is closed & locked. Nothing on door to say why. Check phone at home but no messages. Mysterious.
Wed 28 Oct: Laolao & Laoye fly in. They’ll be here for Villages season and through Christmas. Visit the ophthalmologist – I’ve been having high pressure in my eye that’s not responding to drops, so he’s booked me with the specialist (as in, high-pressure specialist; he’s just a cornea specialist…). This guy takes a quick look and recommends a surgical procedure to create new drainage channels. Had a similar, but slightly less invasive, procedure 18 months ago but it appears to no longer be working. We all head to church after school/work to help unload the Villages delivery truck, which is quite late. Enjoy pizza after it’s all unloaded.
Thu 29 Oct: Laolao immediately sets about cooking up borscht for the Saturday unpacking session and the first Villages weekend. They’re coordinating the volunteer suppers on Friday.
Sat 31 Oct: After art class, we spend the morning unpacking at Villages. Afternoon free time. Finally it’s Hallowe’en night! Mustang is a devil; Button a fluffy cat (not black).
1-31 Oct: Still hunting for puppy purchaser. By now Diamond is 12 weeks old. Fun having him, but getting tired of puppy pee & poop in house. Starting to enforce “no puppy house-roaming” rules more strictly.
01 April 2010
About that wedding...
(This post is specifically addressed to GH - the elder and the younger…)
You may have wondered why we didn’t accept the wedding invitation last fall. Well, it all comes down to a busy mom with a leaky memory.
On that fateful September morning, as we headed off to art and soccer lessons with pups in tow, I reminded the kids that we would be attending G’s wedding after the lessons. Mustang was all keen, as she’s not attended a wedding before and wanted to see what it was all about (and admire the fancy dresses!). After the ceremony and the receiving line, the kids both asked me why we couldn’t stay for the reception.
“Because we didn’t get an invitation,” I responded (wondering why that might have been, as I had done for the past couple of weeks).
“Yes we did, Mommy!” they exclaimed. “Don’t you remember?”
And suddenly it clicked. Yes, we had! It had been in our church mailbox back in early September (or was it late August?), and I’d opened it at home and commented to the kids, “Good, we’ve received an invitation to G’s wedding; we have to be sure to respond to it.” And set it aside. But had I responded to it or not?!?!?
As everyone was chatting in the foyer, the kids and I went into fellowship hall to see the pretty tables. I noticed a seating plan/list. I surreptitiously rifled through it – maybe I had responded to the invitation and had just forgotten I’d done so… But, alas, our names were not listed, so I resigned myself to not staying for the festivities, much as we would all have loved to. (Well, maybe not the puppies. They would have gotten tired of being stuck in their crate.)
Back at home, I searched through all the likely places for the invitation – the church bag, the fridge (outside on the door, not inside!), the corner of the kitchen counter where things “to be dealt with” are placed.
Nothing.
It must have gotten tossed in the recycle bin by some inattentive soul. (Surely not me?!?) And forgotten.
Sorry about that. And no, it’s not because we don’t love you guys. (Did I mention that it had been a busy summer/fall and I’d had a lot on my mind?) Usually I’m good at keeping track of things, but every once in a while there’s just not enough head-space to go around. Even for me. (I was too embarrassed to tell you before. About forgetting, not about not having enough head-space.)
(I can hear SH laughing. Quiet, you!)
At least we made it to the shower…
You may have wondered why we didn’t accept the wedding invitation last fall. Well, it all comes down to a busy mom with a leaky memory.
On that fateful September morning, as we headed off to art and soccer lessons with pups in tow, I reminded the kids that we would be attending G’s wedding after the lessons. Mustang was all keen, as she’s not attended a wedding before and wanted to see what it was all about (and admire the fancy dresses!). After the ceremony and the receiving line, the kids both asked me why we couldn’t stay for the reception.
“Because we didn’t get an invitation,” I responded (wondering why that might have been, as I had done for the past couple of weeks).
“Yes we did, Mommy!” they exclaimed. “Don’t you remember?”
And suddenly it clicked. Yes, we had! It had been in our church mailbox back in early September (or was it late August?), and I’d opened it at home and commented to the kids, “Good, we’ve received an invitation to G’s wedding; we have to be sure to respond to it.” And set it aside. But had I responded to it or not?!?!?
As everyone was chatting in the foyer, the kids and I went into fellowship hall to see the pretty tables. I noticed a seating plan/list. I surreptitiously rifled through it – maybe I had responded to the invitation and had just forgotten I’d done so… But, alas, our names were not listed, so I resigned myself to not staying for the festivities, much as we would all have loved to. (Well, maybe not the puppies. They would have gotten tired of being stuck in their crate.)
Back at home, I searched through all the likely places for the invitation – the church bag, the fridge (outside on the door, not inside!), the corner of the kitchen counter where things “to be dealt with” are placed.
Nothing.
It must have gotten tossed in the recycle bin by some inattentive soul. (Surely not me?!?) And forgotten.
Sorry about that. And no, it’s not because we don’t love you guys. (Did I mention that it had been a busy summer/fall and I’d had a lot on my mind?) Usually I’m good at keeping track of things, but every once in a while there’s just not enough head-space to go around. Even for me. (I was too embarrassed to tell you before. About forgetting, not about not having enough head-space.)
(I can hear SH laughing. Quiet, you!)
At least we made it to the shower…
31 March 2010
September 2009
Tue, 1 Sep: Back to school.
Fri 4 Sep: Beginning of long weekend. After school we head out on a camping trip to a provincial park a couple hours drive away. Chuckles will be staying with Lovely & the puppies again – now at a month old their eyes are open and they are getting mobile. Cute as all get out!
Fri 11 Sep: Ethiopian New Year. Don’t do anything particularly special. Meant to go to our fave Ethio resto, but no go.
Sat 12 Sep: Mustang starts the fall session of art lessons.
Sun 13 Sep: Button has a soccer tournament – last of the season. We miss the first game owing to church, but get there in time for the second. Lovely warm day.
Fri 4 Sep: Beginning of long weekend. After school we head out on a camping trip to a provincial park a couple hours drive away. Chuckles will be staying with Lovely & the puppies again – now at a month old their eyes are open and they are getting mobile. Cute as all get out!
Fri 11 Sep: Ethiopian New Year. Don’t do anything particularly special. Meant to go to our fave Ethio resto, but no go.
Sat 12 Sep: Mustang starts the fall session of art lessons.
Sun 13 Sep: Button has a soccer tournament – last of the season. We miss the first game owing to church, but get there in time for the second. Lovely warm day.
Mon 14 Sep: Button starts Music for Young Children. We’ve talked about it and he’s been fine with it, but when the time comes to go he is insistent: he doesn’t want to. Refuses to come to the car. Goes into my office room and cries. (At least he hasn’t “run away,” like he is wont to do.) No amount of coaxing, bribery, threats, works. Finally I get Laoye to pick him up & put him in the car. He cries all the way over. At the studio he refuses to exit the car. I go up and explain to the teachers, one comes down and manages to coax him out and up to the lesson. He seems to enjoy it and by the time we head home he’s, if not happy, at least not crying or sulking. I’ve told him he has to go at least 3 times and then if he hates it he can stop.
1-11 Sep: Scrambling to find childcare/Nanny. I want someone to come to our home, in large part because of Lovely (& puppies) but also I just prefer that to out-care or institutional type daycare. Tried using an agency to find a live-in-caregiver already in Canada. The only available ones weren’t interested. Got onto a couple of nanny-matching websites. Found several local young people with relevant training & experience. A bit challenging because I’m only offering part-time (after-school plus some dog/puppy care and housework, meal prep). But find and interview two likely candidates. Offer job to one, who accepts. Yay! Just in time. It's been kind of stressing me - taking up a lot of head space - but it's worked out okay. The Lord provides.
Mon/Tue 14-15 Sep: New Nanny comes for “training” with Laolao & to have some time with kids before LL/LY leave. Seems like a good match.
Wed 16 Sep: Laolao & Laoye fly back out west. As they have doctor’s appts tomorrow and we holidaying until the 7th, they didn’t relish having to hurry back in the bus (slow and noisy) but decided to store it over winter, come back next spring and spend the summer travelling first east to the coast and then all the way west, taking their time and making it an enjoyable holiday.
Sat 19 Sep: Button starts six-week soccer lessons. We take two puppies to the practice; they run around the big field next to the soccer practice. Too cute! After soccer, we head to church to attend the wedding of a good friend. Put puppies in their crate in the basement. Following the service, puppies join us going through the receiving line. We don’t stay for the reception because… well, just because.
Tue 22 Sep: Kids start gymnastics.
Mon 28 Sep: The third Music for Young Children lesson. I don’t remind Button that it’s the third time; he doesn’t bring it up. Seems to be enjoying himself. Doesn’t even complain too much about practicing. I think we’re good.
1-30 Sep: Busy placing internet ads for puppies and responding to a million people who want to buy a dog for next to nothing and a handful of potentially serious purchasers. Find a home for Opal. One down, two to go! (Peridot will go to Lovely’s breeder as stud fee.) Now that the Nanny issue is solved, I can put a bit more energy/attention into this.
29 March 2010
I'm back!
Hi, folks, I’m back – after a hiatus of over seven months… Hopefully I’ll maintain consistency again (at least for several months!). Initially I didn’t blog because life was just rather hectic. Then, the longer I didn’t blog, the more there was to “catch up” on, and the feeling of needing to put an increased effort into doing so grew in tandem.
So now I figure I’ll just give you a brief review of the highlights of the past six months, and if I get around to filling in the blanks, great. If not, so be it.
Last August, when the hiatus effectively began (I know I posted once or twice about puppies after that, but that was just “filler”!), there was a lot going on.
Tuesday Aug 4 to Friday Aug 7: Kids spend the week at Farm Camp (daycamp). Laolao & Laoye get a break.
Tuesday Aug 4: Smash up the car. It happened on the way to Mustang’s horse riding lesson,. No one was injured, but the car wouldn’t go. We missed horse lessons, sat around for an hour or two waiting for police and tow truck etc. About the only lucky thing in the whole matter was that it happened within several blocks of home, so we could walk home after all was said & done.
For the next three weeks we used a rental car and most of our spare time was spent looking at replacement cars. Actually, Laolao & Laoye did most of the car hunting, occasionally with kids in tow, (yay for parents!) and just took me to view the ones they thought most promising.
Thursday Aug 6: Lovely’s puppies are born!! You can read about it on my Puppies!!! post from last August. Suffice it to say, it was an eventful day.
Aug 10-20: Kids have swimming lessons every weekday morning. Button passed his Swimmer 2 last session, so both are in Swimmer 3. Mustang passes at the end of this round, so next session –likely next spring – she’ll start Swimmer 4 while Button will still be in Swimmer 3. Frankly, watching them in the pool, I would have said Button was doing a bit better than Mustang, but I guess the instructor thought otherwise. Good for Mustang! She did Swimmer 2 about 7 times before passing, so to pass Swimmer 3 in just two gos is great.
Wed 12 Aug: Laolao & Laoye fly back to Edmonton for a long weekend, to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of some very close & special friends. I’ve rounded up kid/dog sitter for those few days.
Sun 16 Aug: We have 10-day old puppies on lawn to enjoy sun & grass. Lovely is leashed nearby, with the end of the leash draped over the hose holder on the fence, so she doesn’t get too anxious. A cyclist comes zooming around the corner at a pretty good clip, heading – as it were – straight toward her puppies, though in reality just heading to go down the alley. Lovely takes off like a bullet after him and bites him in the leg. Not a severe bite, as bites go, but she still punctures the skin. Neighbour is not willing to accept that she was just “defending” her puppies, and calls in a complaint, so now I have to deal with the bylaw officer & fine. Bother. I should have made sure she was securely tied.
Tue 18 Aug: Laolao & Laoye return. Mustang has her final horse lesson.
Thu 20 Aug: After swimming lesson, we take off for a long weekend camping trip in the bus. Good friend Chuckles comes after work & spends the weekend with Lovely & puppies. Chuckles is almost family, & Lovely loves her, so I know Lovely will be fine with her & not get too nervous.
Sun 23 Aug: Home again. Chuckles says Lovely was a bit anxious while we were gone, and definitely happy to see us home again!
Thu 27 Aug: Buy a new car. Well, a new second-hand car. Though it’s only a year old, and driven by an elderly couple who decided they should stop driving, so it only has (had) 16,000km on it. Very nice condition. It’s a Kia Spectra, hatchback (my preferred style of car), ice-blue in colour. It’ll be ready for pick-up next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Sat 29 Aug: Shop for school supplies for Mustang. As she’s now in Junior division (Grade 4) we have to buy them ourselves. Button starting Grade 1 still can get his from the school for a mere $10, so even though I anticipate it might cause a bit of a stir when Mustang gets all this new stuff and Button doesn’t, I’m too much of a skinflint (okay, I’ll be nice to myself and say frugal) to buy all his stuff too. We do get a couple of things for Button, but not nearly what Mustang got. (I’m right, it did. But we survived.)
Sun 30 Aug: Take the kids to the Fair.
Mon 31 Aug: Take the day off. Last day before school starts up again. We all head 100km down the road to a living Pioneer Village. A lovely day, a bit cool and windy but sunny. Kids love throwing bread or what have you to the carp that live in the canal. We tour the historic flour mill, lumber mill, gardens, school house, barns, hotel, etc. See the horses, cows, piggies, ducks… Buy a loaf of fresh-baked stone-ground bread from the gift shop and have that with fixings for our lunch. I’d found a book in the library that is set in part at this Village – a time-travel book, in which a modern-day girl is transported back in time to a date when the village is about to be attacked, and she helps save the day. We read it in the car on the way down & back again. Kind of cool to get a sense of the people who once lived here and some of the events that occurred over a hundred and fifty years ago.
6 – 31 Aug: working on finding puppy purchasers. No takers yet. Also working on finding fall child care. In Feb lined up a young Chinese woman to bring over as a Nanny (live-in caregiver). Thought I’d covered all the bases, but it seems her education isn’t suitable (she’s almost finished a university degree, but because it isn’t focused on child care and she doesn’t have enough full-time related work experience, she’d likely not qualify for a visa). She’s found a job at a school in China and plans to work there for fall & likely winter/spring, then try for the visa. Means I need to find someone for fall asap. Potential Ethio lady living in our city (friend of a friend) doesn’t work out; she’s studying. Okay, by end Aug things are getting sticky… school starts tomorrow & Laolao & Laoye are leaving in two weeks…
And that, dear friends, is why blogging didn’t get done in August.
So now I figure I’ll just give you a brief review of the highlights of the past six months, and if I get around to filling in the blanks, great. If not, so be it.
Last August, when the hiatus effectively began (I know I posted once or twice about puppies after that, but that was just “filler”!), there was a lot going on.
Tuesday Aug 4 to Friday Aug 7: Kids spend the week at Farm Camp (daycamp). Laolao & Laoye get a break.
Tuesday Aug 4: Smash up the car. It happened on the way to Mustang’s horse riding lesson,. No one was injured, but the car wouldn’t go. We missed horse lessons, sat around for an hour or two waiting for police and tow truck etc. About the only lucky thing in the whole matter was that it happened within several blocks of home, so we could walk home after all was said & done.
For the next three weeks we used a rental car and most of our spare time was spent looking at replacement cars. Actually, Laolao & Laoye did most of the car hunting, occasionally with kids in tow, (yay for parents!) and just took me to view the ones they thought most promising.
Thursday Aug 6: Lovely’s puppies are born!! You can read about it on my Puppies!!! post from last August. Suffice it to say, it was an eventful day.
Aug 10-20: Kids have swimming lessons every weekday morning. Button passed his Swimmer 2 last session, so both are in Swimmer 3. Mustang passes at the end of this round, so next session –likely next spring – she’ll start Swimmer 4 while Button will still be in Swimmer 3. Frankly, watching them in the pool, I would have said Button was doing a bit better than Mustang, but I guess the instructor thought otherwise. Good for Mustang! She did Swimmer 2 about 7 times before passing, so to pass Swimmer 3 in just two gos is great.
Wed 12 Aug: Laolao & Laoye fly back to Edmonton for a long weekend, to celebrate the 50th wedding anniversary of some very close & special friends. I’ve rounded up kid/dog sitter for those few days.
Sun 16 Aug: We have 10-day old puppies on lawn to enjoy sun & grass. Lovely is leashed nearby, with the end of the leash draped over the hose holder on the fence, so she doesn’t get too anxious. A cyclist comes zooming around the corner at a pretty good clip, heading – as it were – straight toward her puppies, though in reality just heading to go down the alley. Lovely takes off like a bullet after him and bites him in the leg. Not a severe bite, as bites go, but she still punctures the skin. Neighbour is not willing to accept that she was just “defending” her puppies, and calls in a complaint, so now I have to deal with the bylaw officer & fine. Bother. I should have made sure she was securely tied.
Tue 18 Aug: Laolao & Laoye return. Mustang has her final horse lesson.
Thu 20 Aug: After swimming lesson, we take off for a long weekend camping trip in the bus. Good friend Chuckles comes after work & spends the weekend with Lovely & puppies. Chuckles is almost family, & Lovely loves her, so I know Lovely will be fine with her & not get too nervous.
Sun 23 Aug: Home again. Chuckles says Lovely was a bit anxious while we were gone, and definitely happy to see us home again!
Thu 27 Aug: Buy a new car. Well, a new second-hand car. Though it’s only a year old, and driven by an elderly couple who decided they should stop driving, so it only has (had) 16,000km on it. Very nice condition. It’s a Kia Spectra, hatchback (my preferred style of car), ice-blue in colour. It’ll be ready for pick-up next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Sat 29 Aug: Shop for school supplies for Mustang. As she’s now in Junior division (Grade 4) we have to buy them ourselves. Button starting Grade 1 still can get his from the school for a mere $10, so even though I anticipate it might cause a bit of a stir when Mustang gets all this new stuff and Button doesn’t, I’m too much of a skinflint (okay, I’ll be nice to myself and say frugal) to buy all his stuff too. We do get a couple of things for Button, but not nearly what Mustang got. (I’m right, it did. But we survived.)
Sun 30 Aug: Take the kids to the Fair.
Mon 31 Aug: Take the day off. Last day before school starts up again. We all head 100km down the road to a living Pioneer Village. A lovely day, a bit cool and windy but sunny. Kids love throwing bread or what have you to the carp that live in the canal. We tour the historic flour mill, lumber mill, gardens, school house, barns, hotel, etc. See the horses, cows, piggies, ducks… Buy a loaf of fresh-baked stone-ground bread from the gift shop and have that with fixings for our lunch. I’d found a book in the library that is set in part at this Village – a time-travel book, in which a modern-day girl is transported back in time to a date when the village is about to be attacked, and she helps save the day. We read it in the car on the way down & back again. Kind of cool to get a sense of the people who once lived here and some of the events that occurred over a hundred and fifty years ago.
6 – 31 Aug: working on finding puppy purchasers. No takers yet. Also working on finding fall child care. In Feb lined up a young Chinese woman to bring over as a Nanny (live-in caregiver). Thought I’d covered all the bases, but it seems her education isn’t suitable (she’s almost finished a university degree, but because it isn’t focused on child care and she doesn’t have enough full-time related work experience, she’d likely not qualify for a visa). She’s found a job at a school in China and plans to work there for fall & likely winter/spring, then try for the visa. Means I need to find someone for fall asap. Potential Ethio lady living in our city (friend of a friend) doesn’t work out; she’s studying. Okay, by end Aug things are getting sticky… school starts tomorrow & Laolao & Laoye are leaving in two weeks…
And that, dear friends, is why blogging didn’t get done in August.
30 July 2009
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Last night I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
I was rather shocked to see that there were young kids – I’d guess about 7 to 10 or 11 years old – in the audience, for two reasons: first, it was the 10:00pm show – meaning we didn’t get out of the theatre until after midnight – and I am astounded that parents would take their kids to a show that late, even in the summer; and second, I personally do not consider this instalment of the series to be a children’s movie. In my opinion, all the books from the Goblet of Fire on – and the movies beginning with the Prisoner of Azkaban – are increasingly dark, sombre, scary, and violent, and not suited to children under about age 12.
But anyhow… about the movie. I found it excellently done; in fact I’d say it’s the best of the lot to date. (And I watched the first five movies at home before going to see this one, so it’s a fresh comparison!)
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the other students are increasingly mature (although that might not be quite the right word to use for the awkward teenage sexual awakenings – nothing more than a bit of kissing, or “snogging” as they put it, but all quite embarrassingly realistic). Meanwhile, while the other students are engaging in all this teenage behaviour, Draco is holding himself apart, brooding over the task Voldemort has given him.
I found Dumbledore to be at his best – we see more of the humour that comes out so well in the books, yet at the same time get a better sense of the wizard’s muted power. The only thing I found not quite bang-on was his “Severus… please” at that fateful point on the tower – not enough pleading in his tone, combined with not enough debility following on after the journey to the lake to retrieve the horcrux.
For his part, Snape was excellent. I remember reading the book, feeling certain all the way through that somehow he had been fooling Bellatrix and Narcissa, only to be devastated at the end to find out – to all appearances – that he had been working for the Dark Lord after all. (And then, of course, being very happy at his vindication in the final book – not so much for his sake, but because it confirmed Dumbledore’s opinion of him, and at the same time revealed just what a master double-agent he had been.) In this movie we see a few sequences of his private interactions with Dumbledore which lend themselves to the development of his character in all its complexity.
Harry, while still a young wizard, appears increasingly confident in his abilities (perhaps the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book was helpful in that regard!) although we do see him struggling somewhat with getting Slughorn to reveal his true memory of Tom Riddle’s questioning about horcruxes. Hermione is, as always, brilliant and helpful, while Ron is his usual bumbling, somewhat asinine but very funny and loyal self. (I am so happy they included the “you’ve got the emotional range of a teaspoon” comment in the movie. When I read the book, it had me in stitches for a good five minutes, I’m sure!)
One thing that the movies, including this one, do superbly is bring to life the boarding school atmosphere. While it’s present in the books, it’s muted (at least I find it so), but the little extra visual and atmospheric details the movies bring to the world of Hogwarts make it feel so real: the adolescent behaviour of the students, the bonding with fellow students, the classroom note-passing behind the teacher’s back… all that makes it come to life.
All in all, I highly recommend this movie, particularly for Harry Potter fans. If you haven’t read the books or seen the previous movies, you’ll be missing half (or more!) of the story. But surely there can’t be very many of those people around, can there?
I was rather shocked to see that there were young kids – I’d guess about 7 to 10 or 11 years old – in the audience, for two reasons: first, it was the 10:00pm show – meaning we didn’t get out of the theatre until after midnight – and I am astounded that parents would take their kids to a show that late, even in the summer; and second, I personally do not consider this instalment of the series to be a children’s movie. In my opinion, all the books from the Goblet of Fire on – and the movies beginning with the Prisoner of Azkaban – are increasingly dark, sombre, scary, and violent, and not suited to children under about age 12.
But anyhow… about the movie. I found it excellently done; in fact I’d say it’s the best of the lot to date. (And I watched the first five movies at home before going to see this one, so it’s a fresh comparison!)
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the other students are increasingly mature (although that might not be quite the right word to use for the awkward teenage sexual awakenings – nothing more than a bit of kissing, or “snogging” as they put it, but all quite embarrassingly realistic). Meanwhile, while the other students are engaging in all this teenage behaviour, Draco is holding himself apart, brooding over the task Voldemort has given him.
I found Dumbledore to be at his best – we see more of the humour that comes out so well in the books, yet at the same time get a better sense of the wizard’s muted power. The only thing I found not quite bang-on was his “Severus… please” at that fateful point on the tower – not enough pleading in his tone, combined with not enough debility following on after the journey to the lake to retrieve the horcrux.
For his part, Snape was excellent. I remember reading the book, feeling certain all the way through that somehow he had been fooling Bellatrix and Narcissa, only to be devastated at the end to find out – to all appearances – that he had been working for the Dark Lord after all. (And then, of course, being very happy at his vindication in the final book – not so much for his sake, but because it confirmed Dumbledore’s opinion of him, and at the same time revealed just what a master double-agent he had been.) In this movie we see a few sequences of his private interactions with Dumbledore which lend themselves to the development of his character in all its complexity.
Harry, while still a young wizard, appears increasingly confident in his abilities (perhaps the Half-Blood Prince’s potions book was helpful in that regard!) although we do see him struggling somewhat with getting Slughorn to reveal his true memory of Tom Riddle’s questioning about horcruxes. Hermione is, as always, brilliant and helpful, while Ron is his usual bumbling, somewhat asinine but very funny and loyal self. (I am so happy they included the “you’ve got the emotional range of a teaspoon” comment in the movie. When I read the book, it had me in stitches for a good five minutes, I’m sure!)
One thing that the movies, including this one, do superbly is bring to life the boarding school atmosphere. While it’s present in the books, it’s muted (at least I find it so), but the little extra visual and atmospheric details the movies bring to the world of Hogwarts make it feel so real: the adolescent behaviour of the students, the bonding with fellow students, the classroom note-passing behind the teacher’s back… all that makes it come to life.
All in all, I highly recommend this movie, particularly for Harry Potter fans. If you haven’t read the books or seen the previous movies, you’ll be missing half (or more!) of the story. But surely there can’t be very many of those people around, can there?
09 April 2009
Odds and sods...
Found money
Last year I had a minor surgical procedure on my eye. As it was a new type of procedure, it wasn’t covered by my provincial health plan and I had to fork out about $1100 to cover the cost. Last Friday I received a letter from the hospital where it was performed – turns out they had just been advised by the health plan that it was covered after all! (Perhaps newly so…) The letter was accompanied by a refund cheque of $750!! (That was for the hospital portion. I need to check whether the surgeon’s fee might also be refunded…)
Winter relapse
We had been having quite lovely weather during most of the latter half of March and into early April. Then, on Monday, winter decided to sneak in through the back door, and since then it’s been cold, snowy – yes, snowy! (though not a lot) – and generally kind of miserable. I had put away the parkas and boots as no longer needed, and here had to haul them out again.
Oh well, it’s supposed to get nice again by tomorrow and stay nice through Easter Weekend. Spring will not be denied.
Bicycle for Button
The Sunday before they left, Laoye was walking to church when he came upon a shiny red child’s bicycle standing by the curb with a sign on it: “FREE.” Being Laoye – and knowing that Button was growing out of his old bike – he sat down on the seat and propelled himself the last two blocks to church. It needed a bit of a tune-up and oiling, and lowering the seat, but is now quite rideable. This bike is the next size up from what he had and is equipped with six gears. It should do for several years.
So we took the old bikes (seeing as we still Mustang’s old bike, though she got a new one last fall) to a friend, to give to a refugee family with three young children, one of whom is the right size for these bikes and one who will grow into them. They will be well used there!
Last year I had a minor surgical procedure on my eye. As it was a new type of procedure, it wasn’t covered by my provincial health plan and I had to fork out about $1100 to cover the cost. Last Friday I received a letter from the hospital where it was performed – turns out they had just been advised by the health plan that it was covered after all! (Perhaps newly so…) The letter was accompanied by a refund cheque of $750!! (That was for the hospital portion. I need to check whether the surgeon’s fee might also be refunded…)
Winter relapse
We had been having quite lovely weather during most of the latter half of March and into early April. Then, on Monday, winter decided to sneak in through the back door, and since then it’s been cold, snowy – yes, snowy! (though not a lot) – and generally kind of miserable. I had put away the parkas and boots as no longer needed, and here had to haul them out again.
Oh well, it’s supposed to get nice again by tomorrow and stay nice through Easter Weekend. Spring will not be denied.
Bicycle for Button
The Sunday before they left, Laoye was walking to church when he came upon a shiny red child’s bicycle standing by the curb with a sign on it: “FREE.” Being Laoye – and knowing that Button was growing out of his old bike – he sat down on the seat and propelled himself the last two blocks to church. It needed a bit of a tune-up and oiling, and lowering the seat, but is now quite rideable. This bike is the next size up from what he had and is equipped with six gears. It should do for several years.
So we took the old bikes (seeing as we still Mustang’s old bike, though she got a new one last fall) to a friend, to give to a refugee family with three young children, one of whom is the right size for these bikes and one who will grow into them. They will be well used there!
17 March 2009
Sewing Room
Laoye has finished the “storage wall” in the sewing room. For those of you who haven’t been to our house, the sewing room is a “secret room.” When I bought the house (from plans) I could see that there was a good-sized (about 7.5’ by 13’) space on the second floor that was unused, unfinished, hidden behind a bathroom wall. I asked for access to it somehow, but was told that the dividing wall between it and the bathroom was a “pre-fab truss beam” or some such – but as the house went up I could see clearly that it was nothing more than a n ordinary stud wall. So once the house came into my possession, Laoye broke through the wall and put in a ceiling (since it was open to the attic) and one electrical outlet, as well as basic gyproc on the walls and an old rug on the floor. There was also one wall – the wall at the far end of the room from the door, which (if open) would overlook the master bedroom, that was a “double” wall – the weight-bearing studs formed an inner wall, but a second set of studs made an outer wall at the edge of the floor, some 16 inches from the inner wall. This extension had come about from my redesign of the main floor to give space for a study, which involved making the master bedroom, master bedroom closet, and ensuite all a bit smaller.
Now, six years later, the room is getting really finished. It is th “dead” space formed by the double wall that has become the “storage wall” – Laoye very carefully finished the sides between the studs, inserted shelves, and finished the exposed faces. Laolao bought some baskets that will just fit and now we have a nice space that will provide lots of storage for fabric, notions, and other things, as well as a small space in which to hang things and one to store the ironing board (though it mostly stays down when we’re working in there!).
That finicky bit of work took a full two weeks; the remainder of the finishing work should go much faster. Laoye has now cut an opening in the wall between the sewing room and the stairs, giving us some natural light and a feeling of a bit more spaciousness in there. He will frame that up nicely and then proceed to finish the walls and put in a suspended ceiling with lots of fluorescent light fixtures to give us really good lighting in there, which has been sorely missing. Then he’ll reinstall the work table (made from a sturdy, solid wood 9’ door salvaged from a nearby business that was undergoing renovations!) and we can move the sewing machine back in.
Most of the materials used in this project, apart from the suspended ceiling and lights, are odds and sods of wood that Laoye salvaged from either the dumpsters on site as the houses in the neighbourhood were being built, or from the nearby office building that underwent renovations a few years back. So it has been both environmentally friendly and economical!
My long-term “vision” for the room includes access to it from the loft, by way of a walkway over the stairs leading to the space where the cut-out window has now been pout in the sewing room wall (and then creation of two more cut-out windows) – so that you won’t have to walk through the bathroom to get at it. But that would/ will involve a lot more work, so it will wait for a future day, if ever.
The project almost claimed three of Laoye’s fingers… the table saw decided it was hungry for flesh Saturday-before-last and took a bite. But while the flesh wounds were deep, it didn’t get down to the bone, so he kept his fingers for himself. Initially he just bandaged it up and went right back to work (gotta show who’s boss, after all…) but an hour or two later Laolao took him to emergency to get it looked at, and the doctors put in 14 stitches to close the wounds. Since then he’s been sporting three custom-made bright pink finger-covers to keep the fingers clean while he works.
Laoye has done carpentry work as a hobby for most of his life but this is the first time he’s ever had a serious accident. Thankfully it wasn’t horribly serious and he still has his fingers.
Now, six years later, the room is getting really finished. It is th “dead” space formed by the double wall that has become the “storage wall” – Laoye very carefully finished the sides between the studs, inserted shelves, and finished the exposed faces. Laolao bought some baskets that will just fit and now we have a nice space that will provide lots of storage for fabric, notions, and other things, as well as a small space in which to hang things and one to store the ironing board (though it mostly stays down when we’re working in there!).
That finicky bit of work took a full two weeks; the remainder of the finishing work should go much faster. Laoye has now cut an opening in the wall between the sewing room and the stairs, giving us some natural light and a feeling of a bit more spaciousness in there. He will frame that up nicely and then proceed to finish the walls and put in a suspended ceiling with lots of fluorescent light fixtures to give us really good lighting in there, which has been sorely missing. Then he’ll reinstall the work table (made from a sturdy, solid wood 9’ door salvaged from a nearby business that was undergoing renovations!) and we can move the sewing machine back in.
Most of the materials used in this project, apart from the suspended ceiling and lights, are odds and sods of wood that Laoye salvaged from either the dumpsters on site as the houses in the neighbourhood were being built, or from the nearby office building that underwent renovations a few years back. So it has been both environmentally friendly and economical!
My long-term “vision” for the room includes access to it from the loft, by way of a walkway over the stairs leading to the space where the cut-out window has now been pout in the sewing room wall (and then creation of two more cut-out windows) – so that you won’t have to walk through the bathroom to get at it. But that would/ will involve a lot more work, so it will wait for a future day, if ever.
The project almost claimed three of Laoye’s fingers… the table saw decided it was hungry for flesh Saturday-before-last and took a bite. But while the flesh wounds were deep, it didn’t get down to the bone, so he kept his fingers for himself. Initially he just bandaged it up and went right back to work (gotta show who’s boss, after all…) but an hour or two later Laolao took him to emergency to get it looked at, and the doctors put in 14 stitches to close the wounds. Since then he’s been sporting three custom-made bright pink finger-covers to keep the fingers clean while he works.
Laoye has done carpentry work as a hobby for most of his life but this is the first time he’s ever had a serious accident. Thankfully it wasn’t horribly serious and he still has his fingers.
12 March 2009
Varia
Spring is on its way, though it is not quite “here” yet. We have had several very nice days, mixed with some cold and windy ones. Not much new snow, which is heartening, but the old stuff lingers on, though diminishing bit by bit.
Laolao and Button finished off the 1000-piece puzzle on Monday – all but two pieces, which were lost. Button found one by searching through the baskets under the table, but the other remains lost. That evening I took a 500-piece puzzle that was sitting in Nanny’s room and dumped it out on the table. So yesterday he started in on that one, putting together a small section.
Skating and skiing lessons are done for the year. Mustang has started a new round of horse riding lessons and I’m trying to find some good art classes for her to take starting in late March. Though my philosophy is generally one art and one sport (at a time) for extracurricular activities, since last fall the sports have dominated. But it’s high time to get Mustang back into art, as she really enjoys it and I do think it can help to enhance cognitive development! Button will have a bit of a break until late April, when they’ll both start swimming lessons again, and then in late May he’ll start soccer twice a week on a team that plays through the summer.
I’ve started reading a very interesting book entitled The Brain that Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge (MD). I’m not far into it, but the bit I’ve read so far is fascinating. It’s all about neuroplasticity – the capacity of the brain to change, form new circuits, repair itself, and develop new functions and capacities.
In one appendix he talks about how culture affects the brain and perception, citing (among other things) the Sea Gypsies, a tribe of people in the south Pacific who live as much on the water as on land and who have developed the extraordinary capacity to see under water with great clarity at great depths, and to hold their breath under water far longer than most people.
The first chapter tells the story of a woman affected by the loss of the sense of balance (leading to the perpetual and debilitating sensation of falling) who was cured by the use of a device that transmitted the messages that the vestibular system (responsible for balance) normally does via stimulus to the tongue. The brain was capable to taking those messages, which would normally be classified as touch (a sensation like champagne bubbles bursting on the tongue) and recognize them to be related to balance, and re-learn the sense of balance.
I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the book and highly recommend it for anyone interested in the brain and how it works.
Next week is March break. I’m developing a list of various activities for the kids. Only thing is, I keep thinking of it as things “we” can do – until I remember that I’ll be at work!! I’ve promised each child one evening out with Mommy all on their own, for a bit of dedicated Mommy time. I think I need to do a bit more of this, for their good and for mine.
And on Tuesday I got a bit of Mommy time all to myself – while Laolao took Mustang to horse riding and Laoye put Button to bed, I went to a movie. Saw Slumdog Millionaire, which I really enjoyed. A very interesting premise, and a fascinating method of telling the frequently disturbing story. Well worth seeing (though NOT for children under the age of at least 14 – as it is rated).
Laolao and Button finished off the 1000-piece puzzle on Monday – all but two pieces, which were lost. Button found one by searching through the baskets under the table, but the other remains lost. That evening I took a 500-piece puzzle that was sitting in Nanny’s room and dumped it out on the table. So yesterday he started in on that one, putting together a small section.
Skating and skiing lessons are done for the year. Mustang has started a new round of horse riding lessons and I’m trying to find some good art classes for her to take starting in late March. Though my philosophy is generally one art and one sport (at a time) for extracurricular activities, since last fall the sports have dominated. But it’s high time to get Mustang back into art, as she really enjoys it and I do think it can help to enhance cognitive development! Button will have a bit of a break until late April, when they’ll both start swimming lessons again, and then in late May he’ll start soccer twice a week on a team that plays through the summer.
I’ve started reading a very interesting book entitled The Brain that Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge (MD). I’m not far into it, but the bit I’ve read so far is fascinating. It’s all about neuroplasticity – the capacity of the brain to change, form new circuits, repair itself, and develop new functions and capacities.
In one appendix he talks about how culture affects the brain and perception, citing (among other things) the Sea Gypsies, a tribe of people in the south Pacific who live as much on the water as on land and who have developed the extraordinary capacity to see under water with great clarity at great depths, and to hold their breath under water far longer than most people.
The first chapter tells the story of a woman affected by the loss of the sense of balance (leading to the perpetual and debilitating sensation of falling) who was cured by the use of a device that transmitted the messages that the vestibular system (responsible for balance) normally does via stimulus to the tongue. The brain was capable to taking those messages, which would normally be classified as touch (a sensation like champagne bubbles bursting on the tongue) and recognize them to be related to balance, and re-learn the sense of balance.
I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the book and highly recommend it for anyone interested in the brain and how it works.
Next week is March break. I’m developing a list of various activities for the kids. Only thing is, I keep thinking of it as things “we” can do – until I remember that I’ll be at work!! I’ve promised each child one evening out with Mommy all on their own, for a bit of dedicated Mommy time. I think I need to do a bit more of this, for their good and for mine.
And on Tuesday I got a bit of Mommy time all to myself – while Laolao took Mustang to horse riding and Laoye put Button to bed, I went to a movie. Saw Slumdog Millionaire, which I really enjoyed. A very interesting premise, and a fascinating method of telling the frequently disturbing story. Well worth seeing (though NOT for children under the age of at least 14 – as it is rated).
04 March 2009
Puzzling behaviour
About ten days ago, the Monday evening after the weekend Mustang had flu, I took out the 1000-piece ocean life puzzle I’ve had lurking around for the past six years or so and dumped it out onto a table in my bedroom. The kids helped me spread out the pieces and then started to pick out some of the coloured pieces and fit a few together with great gusto, while I continued turning over the pieces and spreading them out so there would be no overlap.
I told them then, and repeated it several times, that this was a hard puzzle with lots of pieces and they shouldn’t expect to get it done in one evening – in fact, it would probably take a couple of weeks to put together. I also said not to let themselves get frustrated if it wasn’t going quickly and they couldn’t find pieces to fit together – just take a break, go away for a few minutes or hours, and come back later to do a bit more work on it. I said this was the kind of puzzle that takes a long time even for grown-ups to do, and if they found it too difficult, well not to worry. They could work on it or not, whatever they wanted. But both of them were keen.
One evening later that week, after they were asleep, I searched out all the edge pieces I could find and worked on the border, getting almost all of it put together (on a little card table next to the table containing the spread-out pieces, as it wasn’t big enough for everything!). The kids noticed this first thing the next morning and were keen to do some more work themselves. They picked out some more of the pieces of brightly coloured fish and got a few more bits put together.
Bit by bit over the last ten days we’ve all worked on it and slowly it has come together. All that remains now are the shades of blue – bluish fish, bluish dolphins with some white streaks across their backs, and plain water. Laolao and Laoye have chipped in with bits and pieces, but most of it has been done by me and the kids, particularly Button (who has more time in the day to work on it).
I’m quite impressed by Button’s persistence and patience, and his improved puzzle skills. Even just a month or two back, he would frequently pick up totally inappropriate pieces (wrong colour, wrong shape) and try to fit them in somewhat randomly. But with all the puzzles we’ve done recently, he’s starting to pay more attention to colour and shape – picking out the pieces with three or four “outies” or “innies” where that’s what is needed, noticing the slight variations in shading that make a piece appropriate or not, searching for (and finding!) the right piece based on which part of it should be a given colour and what markings it ought to show as judged by the picture – and popping them into place!
Mustang, too, is showing improved puzzle skills along the same lines, though she was already better at puzzles than Button if for no other reason than being older (and further along developmentally). Recently, her greatest areas of improvement have been her patience with puzzles and interest in them – important factors in and of themselves not just for puzzle work but for many areas of endeavour, including academics.
I think one of our next puzzle purchases might include a 500-piecer – not quite as big and challenging as the one we’ve almost finished, but still enough to keep us going for a few days.
I told them then, and repeated it several times, that this was a hard puzzle with lots of pieces and they shouldn’t expect to get it done in one evening – in fact, it would probably take a couple of weeks to put together. I also said not to let themselves get frustrated if it wasn’t going quickly and they couldn’t find pieces to fit together – just take a break, go away for a few minutes or hours, and come back later to do a bit more work on it. I said this was the kind of puzzle that takes a long time even for grown-ups to do, and if they found it too difficult, well not to worry. They could work on it or not, whatever they wanted. But both of them were keen.
One evening later that week, after they were asleep, I searched out all the edge pieces I could find and worked on the border, getting almost all of it put together (on a little card table next to the table containing the spread-out pieces, as it wasn’t big enough for everything!). The kids noticed this first thing the next morning and were keen to do some more work themselves. They picked out some more of the pieces of brightly coloured fish and got a few more bits put together.
Bit by bit over the last ten days we’ve all worked on it and slowly it has come together. All that remains now are the shades of blue – bluish fish, bluish dolphins with some white streaks across their backs, and plain water. Laolao and Laoye have chipped in with bits and pieces, but most of it has been done by me and the kids, particularly Button (who has more time in the day to work on it).
I’m quite impressed by Button’s persistence and patience, and his improved puzzle skills. Even just a month or two back, he would frequently pick up totally inappropriate pieces (wrong colour, wrong shape) and try to fit them in somewhat randomly. But with all the puzzles we’ve done recently, he’s starting to pay more attention to colour and shape – picking out the pieces with three or four “outies” or “innies” where that’s what is needed, noticing the slight variations in shading that make a piece appropriate or not, searching for (and finding!) the right piece based on which part of it should be a given colour and what markings it ought to show as judged by the picture – and popping them into place!
Mustang, too, is showing improved puzzle skills along the same lines, though she was already better at puzzles than Button if for no other reason than being older (and further along developmentally). Recently, her greatest areas of improvement have been her patience with puzzles and interest in them – important factors in and of themselves not just for puzzle work but for many areas of endeavour, including academics.
I think one of our next puzzle purchases might include a 500-piecer – not quite as big and challenging as the one we’ve almost finished, but still enough to keep us going for a few days.
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