Happy Hallowe'en!

Hope you all got lots of candy :)

Goodbye DST!

I hate daylight savings time. I am never happier than the last Sunday in October when we go back to normal sun-directly-overhead-at-noon time. The one really smart thing that Saskatchewan did was opt out of this ridiculous "gain an extra hour of daylight" daylight savings time thing. Seriously, apart from Americans (and Quebeckers) who really thinks we gain anything with DST? The American argument for extending DST another 2 freakin' months is that "it will save electricity in our offices". What kind of f-ed up working hours do they have? It's pitch black when I get to my office in the morning, and stays that way for over an hour. It's pitch black when C and Katie are waiting for the school bus. Sure, if your day doesn't start until 10 am then maybe DST is right for you. But my day - and the days of most of my friends and neighbours - starts sometime before 6 am and I'm sucking back coffee under the glare of fluorescent lighting before 7. So whatever electricity the late risers are "saving" by having the sun go down an hour later I'm using up trying to see my keyboard an hour before the sun rises. I'm not alone in this, I live in Ottawa which is largely a government town, and the vast majority of people here at at work by 8 am.

But it's all good now. What little winter sun we get will shine at the appropriate times. Good riddance to DST... for 6 months anyway.

Another silly quiz

This just doesn't surprise me at all...

Which Fantasy/Sci-Fi character are you?



Of course I'm the pompous, smug, always right one :)

Project Porchlight

It's pretty rare to see people interested in environmentally friendly initiatives in my neighbourhood, especially anything that has to do with energy conservation. Imagine my surprise to find an email about Project Porchlight in my inbox. It read, in part:

What we're doing is distributing a compact fluorescent light bulb to 50,000 homes in the Ottawa South area, starting this Saturday and continuing through November. The eventual goal is to put one of these in every home in Canada, with the resulting reduction in pollution being the equivalent of taking 66,000 cars off of Canadian roads. Substantial stuff.

How very cool! Their big community launch event this Saturday is just up the street from me!

We switched about 1/3 of our light bulbs for compact fluorescents last year (they don't work well in sockets attached to dimmers, and we have a lot of those, or in lamps with shades that snap over the bulb, and we have a lot of those too) and they're fabulous, they last practically forever! Haven't had to change one yet in a year of use.

Energy conservation has been on my mind a lot lately with gas prices soaring, winter coming and our house heated with natural gas. The one serious perk of this house is having neighbours on either side means less heat loss through the walls. We haven't yet had to turn on the furnace this season, despite several nights where the temperatures have hovered around zero. I'm hoping to get to November before having to turn it on. Just might make it...

Kibbles and bits

You know those little things that are just to minor to make a trip to the doctor for, but are annoying nonetheless?

I've had this weird burning sensation on the back of my left shoulder for about 6 weeks now. Not constantly, but every day. It's often accompanied by numbness in my left hand (as it is right now) and occasionally by pain in my upper arm and elbow. What the heck could it be? "Burning sensation" is so incredibly vague, and it doesn't hurt. I should just go to medical school so that I can diagnose myself.

Still raining here, guess the grass will be lovely next Spring. I got to hold a brand new baby on Friday night (my friend and coworker Katharine welcomed her first teeny tiny little daughter Thursday) and for the first time in a long time it didn't make me long for another. Or sure, she's sweet, and she smells wonderful in that yummy newborn way, but after I got my fill of cuddling I was happy to come home to snotty toddler kisses and endless 4 year old singing. Part of me will always want just one more but I think I'm finally comfortable with the decision to stop at 3.

Oh, and I got a call Thursday for an interview for that position I tested for way back in August (the one I figured I must have totally f@#$ed up since I hadn't heard anything in so long). Interview isn't until November though, man the government is S L O W! Still, I'd really like that job....

Friday

Halleluia it's sunny! I know the rain is coming back this weekend but I'm just so damned happy to have a day of sun (not warm sun mind you but this is Canada, and it is late October)

Big weekend of nuttin' planned, which in itself is wonderful because I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed with all of the things that needed to be done. Got a chicken in the oven and a new baby to visit at the hospital tonight.

Been working a lot lately, lots of transition coming up at work, and lots to do to prepare for it. Not that I'm doing all that much preparing, mostly just worrying and fretting :)

Not a canape to be found

So we didn't win anything at the BIG RADIO PARTY, oh well, the guy who did win was thrilled and I had an evening out with my honey. I'm not eactly sure what I was expecting the party to be like but that wasn't it. It was held in a club in Ottawa called Capital City Music Hall. I can't quite decide whether it was "rustic" or just plain shabby (I'm leaning towards the latter) There was a hole in the bathroom floor as big around as a coffee mug that went straight down to the basement (I could see the floor beams, the light from downstairs), they had well over 1000 people crammed into this place, reasonably it could only be expected to hold half that. The line up to get in snaked 1 and a half BIG city blocks, then curled up a long flight of stairs and down a narrow hallway, it took more than a half-hour just to get inside! We stayed for the opening concert, which was LOUD but not bad, we left before the marquee act (The Matthew Good Band), we were just too too tired. Us old foagies can't be expected to be out past 7pm :)

I made 5 cool cards at the SU workshop I attended last Saturday, it was a lot of fun, and it was pretty interesting to see the range of levels (from people who could have taught the workshop themselves to people who had never used a rubber stamp before). It was amazing how groups of strangers quickly became collaborators, the faster people helping the slowers ones, everyone oohing and ahhing over each others little masterpieces. I'm glad I went.

Tomorrow Miss Katie has both a hearing exam and an eye exam. I suspect that she'll need a new prescription, and she definitely needs new glasses, her poor Barbie glasses are near the end of their lifespan. I know, you can't expect a 4 year old to make glasses last forever but they've been battered so much since she started school, it's mind-boggling! This time she'll have to make do with something from the "two pairs for $99" wall.

wassap?

It's been so darn tootin' hard to find time to blog lately! Those people at work - they've expected me to WORK this past week! The nerve of them! But I'm off today so I have no excuse :D

Lessee, what have I been up to? Well last Saturday I went to a wedding reception at Camp Fortune, in the beautiful Gatineau Hills. We were due to arrive at 9pm, which made the drive up there quite interesting, it was overcast and mostly moonless and the canopy of trees that is so beautiful during the daytime is almost sinister in the pitch black, illuminated only by the high beams of our car. It was worth the drive though, Josee (who is incredibly crafty) had put together a reception that Martha Stewart would be jealous of - everything handmade and fall-themed. Handmade invites, handmade table signs, handmade placecards, handmade chocolates inside little handmade boxes. GORGEOUS!



Then Sunday I worked. More with this work stuff? After work we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with C's fam.

Was lovely, and the kids played so well with their 18 month old cousin (Jonah kept calling after him "Eeeefin! Eeeefin!")


Holiday Monday brought a playdate with T and her little man. Again the kids got along SO WELL! It's so much more fun to do the playdate thing when they're not constantly fighting!


The rest of the week has been spent working, with a near constant drizzle coming down. Took a few pictires of the fall foliage at Hog's Back since it's likely to be gone before the rain is.


And today it was just me and the J-man. Sent Katie off to school (her very first school picture day, she chose her outfit herself)

then did a whole lot of nothing.


Tomorrow I have a stampin' up Christmas card workshop, woohoo! The Monday is the BIG BIG RADIO PARTY!!! More on that later :)

Why I love my kids

Jonah was sitting quietly watching Robots when Katie walked up to him and said "I love you Jonah". He responded with "Uv you too Kee". Then she gave him a big hug.

I think my heart might burst.

in a nutshell

There's just been so little worth mentioning happening lately. We're had beautiful weather, we're all tired but healthy, but we haven't been anywhere or done anything. I guess I should be grateful (a sort of 'no news is good news' mentality).

School still has its ups and downs for Katie, but generally she's enjoying it. When I picked her up Tuesday she said to one of the newer teachers "C'est maman" so obviously she's picking it up. Slowly but surely.

We've started having signifigant trouble getting Jonah up in the morning, and getting him to fall asleep at night (though he's sleeping so much better now overnight thankyouverymuch). I think it's a sure sign that he needs to give up the afternoon nap, the sitter is less sure (doubtless she'd be unhappy to give up that bit of peace during her day too). I wish I could change my working hours to let him sleep until 7, I know it would make a huge difference. Unfortunately that can't happen unless I change jobs (which is a lovely dream but the government hiring process is SO.SLOW. it may take until I'm 800 years old to get out of this department)

Thanksgiving is coming up this weekend but we're not going anywhere. In fact I'll probably be working at least one of the days. Oh well, double time, and I can use the money.

My boring life in a nutshell.