Ick

It is that time of the year. Spider mating season. I have been fortunate not to have seen any of the HUGE spiders running across the floor yet this year, but enough of the smaller one are around to scare me. But, I have been brave. Very brave. No screaming at all. In fact, I have very matter-of-factly asked Stephen to kill a few spiders. I didn't get all sweaty and shaky just looking at them. I did not insist on showing me the squished spider as he flushed it down the toilet (the only acceptable squished spider disposal system in this house). Look at me! I am a brave, brave woman.

Yesterday, I saw an icky black spider running around one of the closets just off the family room. I did not panic. I did not scream. I just very calmy went for my "humane bug catcher" and went on a spider hunt. Ok, I must admit here that I did have the fly swatter as back up but it was not needed. The spider ran out of the closet and right into the path of the "humane bug catcher". Right into it! So, I very calmly (people, you don't know how proud of myself I am here) and slowly pushed the little door shut on the little bugger. I went slowly because I did not want to deal with any squished spider legs on the thing. I then very carefully picked up the "humane bug catcher", taking extra care to ensure that the door did not slide open and let the spider get away.

I walked slowly across the floor, unlocked the back door, walked across the deck and then FLUNG the door of the "humane bug catcher" open and dropped the spider into the grass. I hope he got eaten by a bird.

Ok, so after umpteen very frustrating hours, it seems that the new light is broken or something. The lines are "hot" and appear to be wired correctly but the light just does not work. We need to box it back up and take it back to the lighting store this week. So we'll live with a big hole in the ceiling for a while yet.

Jax and Dex wore their "Be a P.A.L., protect a life" with the NO PEANUTS symbol shirts to school today. M's son wore his to and I guess a couple of kids in Jax's class noticed that the two of them had the same shirt. Laurie is going to make one for her kids too (her dd is in Jax's class too) and we have all decided that the kids will wear these shirts every Monday to school. I think I will contact another mom with a PA child in 2nd grade and offer one to her for him.

Ok, off to work off the Oreos I had after dinner.

Ugh - while Stephen had the circuit breaker off most of the day, we lost all of the shows we had saved on the DVR. Comcast says that should not have happened and we should take the cable box into their nearest store. I did not lose any "important" shows. But, I had recorded an episode of Rachael Ray's show dealing with food allergies. And a few episodes of AFV for the kids. And lastly, I had DVR'd "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan which is such a great movie. Seriously. I used to know that movie inside out! When I worked at a movie theatre, many of us would stand at the back of the theatre watching and re-watching parts of that movie. One person I know had most of it memorized and would recite the lines along with the movie. And it has Kirstie Alley long before she gained all that weight (I was fatter than her way back then too!). ;)

I will have to try to catch Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan next time it is on tv. I thought about renting it from Netflix but decided that it is just one of those movies you have to watch from TV. Like one of my guilty pleasure movies (which was on LAST weekend) - The Cutting Edge. TOE PICK!

No Light

Hmmm...did blogger eat my post? Anyway, the light is not working and we cannot figure out the problem. More trouble-shooting tomorrow, I guess.

Let there be Light

As always, whenever I plan a small project for around the house that should be very straightforward, it turns into a huge ordeal. Like when we got our new stove and hood. Sears wanted an arm and a leg to install the new hood so Stephen said he would do it himself. When we took off the old one, the duct work fell down out of the exhaust chimney and the hood did not even line up with the exhaust so two trips to the hardware store and half a day later, it was finally installed. Or when our faucet exploded last year a couple of days before Christmas, it should have been a piece of cake to install a new one but the air pipe (I forget the technical name for it) was in the way and Stephen had to buy a 24" long screwdriver to reach the screws. That installation took 4 hours and two trips to the hardware store too.

The same thing has happened again. The lighting in our family room is terrible. There is one pot light and it shines down at such an angle that it burns in my eyes and gives me migraines so we NEVER turn that light on. I have a lamp in the room but it does not give off enough light for the whole room. I am always looking for just the right light. So I saw this track system and I thought it would be perfect because it is halogen lights which give off perfect white light, and the shades are blue so they will go with all of the blue glass accessories in the house. It looked easy enough to install and for $100 - what a bargain.

So today Stephen started poking around the old pot light and besides the fact that the opening is HUGE, there is no nearby junction box to attach the new lighting system too. And there is a heating duct running alongside the opening (in the ceiling) so no way to properly secure a new junction box right there. So, he will have to cut ANOTHER hole in the ceiling to install this new light. Then we will have to repair the old hole, tape, putty and texturize THEN paint the ceiling. OMG, what an ordeal to install a relatively cheap light.

But, once it is in it will look great and I am looking forward to having some real light in that room. Plus it will match nicely with the lamp I bought last year (for half price!).

Anyway, Stephen is at Home Depot now (after going to Ace earlier today) to get the drywall stuff he'll need to patch the ceiling. Already two trips to the hardware store and he hasn't even started yet the installation yet. This one might set a record for number of trips to the store.

It was 20 years ago today

...when Stephen and I had our first date. Ok, I have a confession to make. I cannot remember if it were October 4th or October 6th. I need to find a 1986 calendar to confirm it.

Our first date has a funny story to it. Of course there is the his and her version of it but since Stephen doesn't have a blahg you'll have to settle for mine.

Stephen had asked me out two weeks before. He was busy that upcoming weekend (hockey tournament) so we made plans for the following Saturday. We were in university and were in four of the same classes that term. We both lived at home with our parents whose houses were only about 2.5km apart.

Anyway, Stephen came to pick me up at my parents' house. My brother and my cousin were in the driveway installing a stereo in my mom's car and they did not even acknowledge Stephen as he walked past them (man, that still irks me! lol).

Stephen and I headed out to dinner at The Keg. Now, this is where the versions differ. I recall him telling me that he told his friends that we were going to The Keg and they might join us. He recalls no such thing and still claims that he only told them where we were going for dinner and never said anything about them joining us.

So, we arrive at The Keg (awesome Bloody Caesars BTW!) and were seated at a table for two. I was facing the door. We ordered our drinks and food. As we were waiting for appetizers, I noticed a group of people come into the restaurant and look around. A blonde woman looked over our way and started waving furiously at me. I had no idea who she was. I looked away but glanced back and she started waving again. Who was she?! I leaned over to Stephen and told him that some strange woman was waving at me. He looked over, jumped up and rushed over there. I saw them talking and then the waiter was called over. Then the waiter walked over to our table, picked up my drink and carried it over to a larger table. Then the blonde woman walked by and said "Hi" as she walked over to that larger table. Next was a guy with dark hair who said "Hi Duh-neen" and another guy "Hi", followed by Stephen who said "My friends are going to join us. I hope that's ok".

Well, I was nervous enough about the date but now I was terrified. The blonde was Stephen's next-door neighbour, Sheesh. Her boyfriend and a high school friend of Stephen's, Chech. The third person was Kev, whom Stephen had known since he was 7. Yikes! This was almost as nerve-wrecking as meeting his family!

So, throughout dinner I barely said a word. I could not eat (months later, Sheesh asked me why I ate like a bird that night). Finally dinner ended and we said good bye to Stephen's friends. They said they were headed to a bar in Markham (this was probably a code) because after Stephen and I went to a movie (Club Paradise), we went to a nearby bar and lo and behold, guess who else was there? Sheesh, Chech and Kev. And they were joined by Dan H, another friend Stephen had known since grade 2.

Hmmm, dinner with his friends and later drinks with them on our first date. I am certain he arranged for them to be there but he swears otherwise. In any event, it all turned out well because here we are, twenty years later. :)

Oh, and I just now reminded Stephen that it had been twenty years since our first date. He said "I know. That's why I bought you roses the other day". It was Wednesday. He brought me flowers on Wednesday. So now I just checked and sure enough October 4th was a Saturday in 1986. It was not the 6th - today.

So, it was 20 years and two days ago...when Stephen and I had our first date.

MOPS was today. The craft (painting a daisy design on a hat to wear on the Breast Cancer and MS Walks) went well although it was crazy running around dishing the supplies out and then collecting them again. I missed the cool part of the speakers (The Body Shop - they do direct sales via catalogues and home parties - I had no idea!) so I guess this will be par for the course for the year. :(

Tomorrow I am teaching Art Start in Dex's class. The kids will be studying the Mona Lisa by Da Vinci then working on drawing portraits of each other. I think it will be a blast!

I have also been busy everyday this week after school punching "Walk to/From School" cards for the kids. It is so cute to see all of the kids at school so determined to get their cards punched. We will collect them tomorrow afternoon and the kids with 10 punches will be entered in a draw to win prizes (reflective bracelets, water bottles, etc).

The kids start Sunday School/RE classes next weekend. I signed them up for the 9AM (Cars) and 10:15 classes (Jax and Dex). The church is starting a "Life Teen" Mass at 5:30 on Sundays and the singing group who will lead the songs performed at the 9AM Mass this past Sunday and they were soooo good. Now I wish I had signed the kids up for 4:30pm classes on Sundays so we could go to the 5:30 Mass. Maybe next year...

Killjoy will be here in a week and a half for about 10 days. We are going to make Christmas cake together. God help me. I already know that she will complain because I will not buy the ingredients from the bulk bin (too much chance of peanut cross-contamination). Then she will break something like the Kitchen Aid mixer and say that she has been making Christmas cake for years without a mixer like that so why would I bother to use it (because I have carpal tunnel syndrome and have no strength in my wrists!). Oh, how pathetic am I? I have already imagined a fight with her, complete with my retorts! Serenity now...

O'Really?

FOX News Makes Foley A Democrat during the "O'Reilly Factor" (yeah, like that was a typo)...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9mNmZ9JpG8

Blech

I fell off the roof and I don't like it! Not fair that it came days early. Ugh - it is a sign of aging no doubt. *pout*

Nosey Neighbour came for lunch today. She braved the 1.5 hour drive. Ash stopped by too. It was a very pleasant time and reminiscent of our weekly tea sessions that we used to have.

While Ash was here, I told her that I was a little concerned about the new dog she is getting - a Rottweiler. While I know if they are trained well, they can be good dogs, I am still worried and concerned that the dog might at some point attack my kids (or me). I have decided that we will have to make sure that the dog is accustomed to my kids but if there is any threat at all, no matter how small, we will have to tell Ash that we will not be around while their dog is there. She is upset that I told her that. But my kids are very nervous around dogs anyway and here she gets one that is big, strong and sometimes vicious.

And DMouse, if you are reading this, please give me some pointers here as to what we can do to make sure that we are comfortable around this dog. The dog is a girl and will be 7 weeks old when Ash gets her on the 21st of this month.

I want my TV

TV is huge in our house. Not only do we have a large television set (I think it is 54") but it is on every evening from 8pm until well after 11 (and most nights after midnight). I know I watch too much tv. But, there are soooo many great shows on tv. I have my favourites lined up to DVR in case I might be out and I sometimes will go back and re-watch parts of episodes that were especially interesting. I am running out of time to watch all of these shows though!

It starts on Sunday night with Desperate Housewives. Part of last season was disappointing but it got really good at the end. This season has been ok so far but I can this show falling out of favour if it doesn't pick up soon.

Monday night I watch Heroes which is such a cool show. I missed the first episode but was able to watch it on www.nbc.com. I think they have last night's episode up there now. I think this show is going to be the "new" Lost which I lost interest in after the first season. Not sure why, it was good too!

Tuesday my show is Boston Legal. I love this show! William Shatner is perfect as Denny Crane.

Wednesday nights the MUST SEE show is Project Runway. This season is almost over so I definitely will miss it until the next season starts in a few months. It always ends around Olympus Fashion Week in New York. I read an article in the newspaper last week that Project Runway is a surprise hit with men (no matter what their sexual preference).

Thursdays used to be Survivor night for me but I have lost interest in that show too. Not even Jeff Probst, who was on my "list" can help it reclaim a spot in my heart. Now my show on Thursday nights is Grey's Anatomy which moved from its last season's Sunday night slot. I love love love this show and all of its characters. Even that jerk, Alex! I cry or shout at the TV nearly every episode!

Friday and Sarturday nights I got nothing! Friday night is "movie night" for the kids and then when they go to bed Stephen usually watches some poker tournament that he has DVR'd during the week. Saturday night is much of the same. Or else we catch up on something we have missed during the week (like watching something I miss from working out or book club.

I promised myself I would not volunteer to do too many things this year because things got so crazy last year, especially in May. Plus I had already signed up to do crafts for MOPS (Mom's club) and that is a big job. So what happens? September rolls around and wouldn't you know I have a full plate again.

* MOPS Crafts (crafts for 44 moms every 2 weeks through the end of May).
* Sunday School Support/Supply person for 3 yr olds class (Ugh, why did I do this?!)
* Art Start teacher for Dex's class
* Room Mom for Jax's class

Ok, the Art Start should be fairly straightforward as long as I follow the curriculum and stop trying to come up with neat ideas for the kids to do especially when a good chunk of the parents are unwilling to pay the extra $$ for the special art projects. (And Kimmer, if you are reading this...I am still trying to locate my Art Start curriculum from last year - sorry!).

Room Mom for Jax's class should be ok too. Laurie is co-Room mom with me so together we need to plan three class parties and collect funds from the parents for these parties. By being Room Mom, I can control the food that comes into the classroom thereby alleviating stress from worries about peanut ingredients in the food.

The support/supply person for Cars' Sunday School class should not be a big job but it is just the planning to get into the church on certain days to ensure that the craft supplies are prepped and ready for the teachers each Sunday. I used to do it on Friday mornings when Nanny was here watching Cars and Dex. Now I will have to do it while Cars is with me.

And I am trying to get all of the supplies together for MOPS now so that all I will need to do throughout the year is a bit of prep work (cutting or sorting). If I plan it right, it should be not very stressful at all. The key word being IF. The part of being the Crafts person though that bugs me is that I am on the Steering Committee so I have to attend a meeting once each month. Not a big deal but it is to be held between the Masses on Sunday. The stress comes in by trying to rush from Mass to drop off Dex and Jax at their RE classes then running to pick up Cars from Sunday School and dragging him to the meetings. I know everyone just thinks "Have Stephen do it" but he does not go to church with us. I pray each week for him to return to church and that just pisses him off. :)

Anyway, we'll see how this works out (or doesn't).

Blogger is bugging me. It is not saving my drafts and I had umpteen problems posting last week. Aargh!

I spent a good chuck of yesterday weeding through old emails so that when I install Outlook on my laptop, I will start fresh with no old mail. While going through it all, I found a batch of email from my friend Jackie. Those notes chronicled the last two years of her life. Good news about her MRI results, some wedding planning details, chatty notes about an upcoming vacation. Then an email about an MRI that showed her brain tumour growing again. Jackie's next surgery, her recovery, her first wedding anniversary, her 35th birthday, her setback, and the last email from her email address was actually from her mother stating that Jackie was too ill to reply herself. Those last two notes were hard to read. One, because it was so full of typos and I knew it was so physically hard for Jackie to type it out. And the last one from her mom because the hope was obviously gone.

Jackie always used to assert that she was going to throw the biggest bash on her 80th birthday. In the note after her wedding she wrote "I am so glad you had a great time. But if you think that was fun, wait until my 80th birthday party!".

My friend, what we all would have given to attend that bash.

Here is our house so far. Notice the patch of red that I tried on the door. Just to note, do not put latex paint over oil-based paint. I will be spending part of this weekend stripping that latex paint off the door. I wish I had known that beforehand! Aargh!



Oh, and see how much greener the lawn is after last's week week of rain.

TGIF

Nanny is coming today. Her M-Th job ended yesterday and she is in a panic because she does not yet have another job and she needs the money. She was hoping to have a job in the Vancouver-area already but no job offers have come her way. She really wants to move to Canada since her children have moved there (her ex-dh was Canadian). Not sure exactly what I will do with my time although Macy's has a sale today and they had some lovely wine glasses on sale. Hmmm...

Yesterday was a long day for Cars. After preschool, I brought him home, stuffed a sandwich in him then carted him off to the club while I worked out. He was in the daycare center there for hour and a half. After the club, when we went to pick the older boys up at the park, Cars played in the "woods" for an hour with Jax, Dex, Gav, et al. So it seems like I barely saw him at all yesterday!

Yesterday in the newspaper, I read that Mickey Rooney's son died of a disease called derma to myos itis. Now normally, I would not have taken any notice of that except that is the disease that our friend E, has. I had no idea that you could die from it! E has had a lot of problems with his lungs from this disease, especially lately. Very scary!

Almost there...

Painter was here today and painted the trim and it looks good. The cream colour I chose is still a little too WHITE so I will go and get a creamier colour for the second coat of paint. My lights *finally* came in at (friggin) Lowe's. I bought a new doorbell button today and it looks great too (who could imagine that a door bell button could make a difference?).

We need to repair a couple of our gutters. We probably should replace them but you know how that goe$.

Cars' last swimming lesson went as expected. *sigh*

I woke up this morning with a wicked sinus headache. My throat is sore too. I just feel crummy all around. blah...

Because of Cars' food allergies, I have been sending in an individual snack for him each day rather than let him eat whatever is brought in by the other parents each day (different people sign up to bring in food each day). Anyway, the teachers told me today that Cars was quite upset the other day because he could not eat what the others were eating (it is for his safety so I can live with his disappointment). Oh, and apparently I am not giving him enough food in their opinion. Ok, I give fill up a little snack-sized ziploc bag with Wheat Thins and that is not enough food?! That is plenty for a snack. He is only there for 2.5 hours. It is not lunch! Anyway, I will sending in some grapes or 1/2 a pear along with the crackers next time. I also did give them permission to give him fruit or juice that is brought in. But nothing else. While his milk allergy is mild, I don't want them thinking it is ok then to give him milk or yogurt or cheese. And, we are avoiding peanuts until he is 5, even though he is not allergic according to his skin prick test.

I spoke to my friend, M. today. She has decided not to have the t-shirts say "Please do not kill my friend with your peanut butter sandwich" but something more along the line of "Be A Hero" and stay away from peanut butter at school. She hopes to have them ready by Wednesday at the PTSA meeting.

BTW, still no word from the school district on the "new" procedures and letter to go home. This is ridiculous!

The rain has stopped again so we are hoping that Painter can finish the house this week. We still do not have outside lights because Lowes' has screwed up my order and who knows WHEN we will get them. I will have to go in this week and cancel my order and get my money back then try to find more lights that I like at another store. *sigh*

Both Cars and I are feeling better today, thankfully.

I had a funny story about him. He was at preschool on Thursday and I asked him how he liked it. He said it was fun. I then asked him who he played with and he said "Nobody!". Oh? I asked him why he did not play with anyone and he said "Nobody wants to play Star Wars!" LOL It seems that most of the kids, and especially the boys, are first children so no doubt that at the tender age of three, they have not yet been exposed to Star Wars. The kids are all into Thomas the Tank Engine, someone Cars could not care less about (although he is strangely attached to a Thomas backpack).

Today when we were in Safeway, Jax was wearing his heelies and hanging off the cart. It was bugging me because 1) it made the cart hard to push and 2) it was hard for people to pass us in the aisle. So I told him not to touch the cart. Ten minutes later, I needed to step down a different aisle so I said to him, "Take the cart and follow your dad". He looked at me and said "You said not to touch the cart" and he wheeled away. O.M.G. Did I ever see red! So I took him aside and told him he was being rude and sassy to me and when we got home he could go to his room and think about how he spoke to me.

When we got home, he went upstairs and wrote me a note:

Dear Mom,

I'm sorry I was rude to you.
I'm sorry I was sassy.
I would do it again.

Love Jax

Did I read that right? "I would do it again?!" I burst out laughing and could not be angry anymore. He was upset that he made a mistake in his note and begged me not to show Stephen (I did anyway and he had a good chuckle too).

Cars and I were sick today so we just hung out on the couch and watched Star Wars Episode II (his current favourite). I hope we feel better tomorrow.

A little bit of everything

Tonight was curriculum night. Stephen did stand up and thank the parents for continuing to do everything to help protect Jax against his life-threatening peanut allergy. Then I handed out the letter to as everyone left. I may have missed a couple of parents and there were about 2 or 3 who were not there. The teacher was very gracious considering we just sprang this on her. I gave her a copy of the note in case she felt she needed to show the principal.

We are still awaiting the letter from the school district with the "new procedures".

After curriculum night, I met some friends from my mom's club at the local Mexican restaurant to watch "Grey's Anatomy" at 9pm. It was a lot of fun.

Oh, and this moring, I burnt a breakfast casserole that I was to take to my mom's club meeting. I also burnt that little pad that goes between the meat and the meat tray when I browned my pot roast before I put it in the crockpot. I cannot believe I seared it right to the pan (and to the roast). I scraped it off the roast and hope it does not contain any carcinogens.