sweet things

Thursday, October 13, 2005

they're like a woosh of crisp air that hits me when I least expect it -- two little twisters flying through the room with enough energy to light the continent -- they're my cousins, Shifra and David.

my little cousins came over for thanksgiving dinner then other night -- they are two of the cutest and smartest kids I know. They love the digital camera -- so I've posted some portraits for viewing. I've never met any other kids with such strong personalities as them -- they're amazing kids.

enjoy!







last day of summer

Wednesday, September 21, 2005


i'm sitting here in my basement working from home under artificial light on the last day of summer. I need to either get wireless access or get an extra long cable so I can enjoy this day in my back yard...

wind and birthdays

Monday, September 19, 2005

-this weekend i sat in my backyard for the first time in awhile to read my weekend paper. the wind came through in gusts, catching the paper and dancing it around the young birch tree and the rose bushes. my cat played with the cicada he found on the back steps. i dropped the paper and closed my eyes taking in some of the last sun that will hit me this summer. warm and inviting.

-today is my grandmother's birthday as well as my cousin's son's first birthday. there are 78 years between the two of them. i would love to take my grandmother for lunch but alas i'm too far away and a simple phone call and flowers will have to do.

new home

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

We had everyone from our softball team over for an end-of-season bbq last night -- we had too much food and it was a tad dark. We'll have to get more lights in the back yard. It seems depressing that it will be getting darker by the minute as we get closer to the winter months. I'm excited to get some fall and winter clothes. I love the idea of being wrapped up in a wool sweater like a soft blanket.

Things left to do in the house:
  • choose colours and paint

  • change the knobs on the kitchen cupboards

  • organize my desk

  • unpack the books

  • organize the spare bedroom


When I write all these things down they seem quite trivial and unimportant especially when you think of what people are going through in other parts of the world. Yesterday was my foster child's birthday -- Elinkaela. She lives in Tanzania and she is now 7 years old. I wish I could call her to wish her a wonderful day... or be with her to bring her food and something fun to play with. Instead I'll sit and look at her picture and think of what she is doing.

mini adventures: tallship wedding

Friday, May 27, 2005

I decided that in order to make life more interesting you have to look forward to the mini adventures in life -- instead of waiting for the bigger ones to come along

Following is a mini adventure I had this week...

Saturday night Mark and I went on a tallship for a wedding reception. It started off being a beautiful day so I wore a skirt. By the time we got down to where the ship was docking, it had started snowing and the wind was gusting at 90 miles an hour. Ok so there was no snow but it was still very cold and it wasn't going to get warmer on the boat -- good thing I brought my coat... We were there for two or three hours huddling in the dinner area until the boat docked. Lesson learned: don't have a wedding reception on a boat in May.

subway stories

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

He farted as he waited for the westbound train to Kipling. Carrying two plastic shopping bags, he looked around to see if anyone had noticed. It was 7:12 p.m. on a Tuesday at Bathurst Station.

airport adventures

Friday, February 25, 2005

I had to pick up Mark the other day from the airport -- he went to Sudbury for work. We made arrangements before he left sudbury for me to leave at 8:55 so I would get there just in time to drive up and pick him up in arrivals. This was a Wednesday night, which meant I would be missing my favourite show, Alias, but I decided to tape it (something I don't do often [ever] so had to learn how to use a VCR all over again) so I could watch it later. After having having a fight with the VCR, I finally got it to record properly. Mark called me at 8 telling me that the plane hadn't left yet so I got to watch a bit of the show afterall. The weather was crapola so I decided to leave a bit early. I headed out into light flurries with 4x4 in gear. I'm having a lovely time when I see blue lights that commonly lead to slow traffic -- the snow plow. Sorry, not one snow plow -- 8 snow plows -- all in front of me and driving in a convoy, driving in 'V' formation, blocking anyone from getting anywhere. Mark says they block traffic so they can get their work done -- they need to clean the streets so stay out of their way. Obviously I didn't realize this because all of a sudden, I, along with some other poor suckers, are trapped in the convoy getting honked to get out of the way. And isn't it just my luck that they're getting off at the airport exit.

After making out of the convoy madness, I was able to find my way easily to the arrivals drive and idled to wait for Mark. (A note on idling -- I'm against it, but in the case of the airport arrival dash, it's necessary.) I wait for all of 5 minutes when I notice the parking nazis grabbing their ticket pads and heading for the long queue of cars rearing to make some money. I make a mad dash quickly realizing I have two ways to go: The Parking Garage or to where I think is Back on the Highway. I choose option A because I don't want to end up back on the highway.

To anyone who has been in an airport parking garage, I have to tell you it's a mini hell. I didn't want to pay for parking but I was forced to go through the gate anyway. Ok I'll just park and walk to meet Mark, only I was so far away now from where he was to come out I didn't want to park where I was. I drive as far as I can back towards the airport exit only to find that I am blocked off from getting anywhere. I back up, turn around, austinpowers-it until I think i can finally get out, but I can't. I start to panic. I just need to get back to where I started. I can just see Mark waiting for me wondering where the hell I was. A cabbie tells me I have to turn around and go the other way. WHERE??? I see a booth, pull up to it and park. Inside a woman is talking on the phone to her friend discussing what they should do tonight. I knock on the door and she tells me to come in. She is sitting in a room with the door open and when I try to enter she waves me out and points to the pane of glass, from behind which I need to talk to her. After she puts her call on hold, she finally comes out to speak to me. I tell her my story and I'm sure she's never heard of anyone getting lost in the parking lot before because she just stares at me and tells me I need to leave the parking garage if I want to get out. GREAT. Thanks for that. Then she goes back to the phone and I leave. I decide to follow a car out and it turned out that I didn't have to pay anything for 'parking'. I guess the machine has never had a car in for such a short time.

I leave the parking garage and end up leaving the airport. I guess Mark will have to wait a bit longer because instead of circling around to go back to the airport, I end up practically in Brampton. I call Mark "I'm on Airport Road -- if I get to Dixie Road, am I too far North?" "UH ya..." "Ok where do I go" "... go...down...street..." "Can you speak up I can't hear what you're saying" "No" "Are you still on the plane?" "Yes" "K I think I know where I am. Bye". Suddenly I am frought with images of him calling me whilst still on the GO bus coming home from work in Aurora. You never wanted to be THAT person on her cell phone having a conversation while everyone else was passed out or reading.

I finally make it back to where I think is a road that will take me to the airport and I am met with two more dreadful snow plows. I honestly don't know how I did it but after a few more turns I ended up back at the airport and back to the arrivals area where I originally started off. I park and idle once again. Mark calls me and tells me he can see me. He's on the bridge and will be right down. Right after I get off the phone Parking Nazi 1 comes out and tells me I can't stay. "You don't know what I just went through to get here please don't make me leave." "Sorry ma'am but if you can't see who you're coming to pick up than I can't let you stay here." "But he was JUST on that bridge, he said he'll be right down!" "Sorry." Just then Mark comes waltzing out the doors and PN finally leaves me alone. Done with driving, I fall out of the drivers seat and find peace in my comfy, worn-in passenger seat.

Mark drives himself to the airport now.

bringing work into your personal blog world

Thursday, February 17, 2005

now here is a real smart one - I just read this article about this dude that worked at Google and got fired after 11 days because he was writing about his experiences at Google, and Google didn't agree with what he was writing about. Didn't he a) think Google management would use their own tool to "Google" their employees and b) Google owns Blogger...

Read the article from Computerworld here:

I think I'll be keeping my work out of this one... :)

snow

Saturday, January 22, 2005

It has been snowing since we got up.
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