Bread Crumbs In The Butter

Where all the cool (female) bloggers are! (Edited)

When? Friday, February 16, 2007 (if you have Valentine's Plans, break 'em!)

Time? 8pm (I have a soccer game at 6pm, but should be there right after!)

Where? Clocktower Brew Pub, Bank St, Ottawa

Andrea, Dani and I cooked this little idea up yesterday.  There is an Ottawa Blogger meet up group and I had fun when I went - but my blog is mainly a hobby, chronicling the funny ups and downs of my life. Not necessarily a networking tool for my business.  In the last few months, I've noticed quite a few witty, informative and generally cool local women bloggers. I thought it might be fun to get together and talk (and drink!), laugh (and drink!) and be merry (and drink!). 

RSVP here in the comments. I'll update who's attending as needed.

So far:

Myself

Andrea

Dani

Alison

Liss

Jay

Vicky

Maybe, thinking about it, trying (come on ladies!!!):

Karen (Karen, I really really wanna meet ya!)

Cracked (Or, signs you should go back to bed)

I had some errands to run this morning and my route took me into Carleton Place. I found myself at a light staring at our local auto glass repair shop.

Perfect!

Why you ask? Well, my truck has had a cracked windshield since Boxing Day. The windshield was chipped while driving sometime in September. I took it in to repair the chip, but it was always visible even after they sealed it.  So when it cracked into a 4 foot long eyesore, I wasn't surprised.

I had been meaning to bring it back in to the auto glass shop to schedule a time to have the windshield replaced.

I was giddy that I had actually remembered. I pulled in and went inside the office to ask the tech to come out and have a look. He said he would be happy to and followed me out.

He looked puzzled the minute the door closed behind us. I figured he was trying to come up with subtle ways to hit on me and moved on to show him the crack. I pointed to the windshield and ... shit.

I turned a big shade of bright red. The technician now looked extrememly bewildered and I just looked foolish.  I hadn't taken the truck with the crack in the windshield. I had taken John's truck. The windshield is crack free.

I pulled it togethere though! Like a trooper. I went inside, booked an appointment to bring the actual damaged truck in and walked out. Then I got into the undamaged truck and cried. I'm such a tool!

A whole mess of mushrooms

I'm busy cooking for a big(ish) party we're catering. Sixty-five people are counting on me to bring them tasty goodies. Yesterday was a kick-ass cooking day and I was way ahead of schedule. Today started off with me forgetting the lid to my chopper. Leaving me to deal with a whole mess of mushrooms stems. They were everywhere, including my hair.

So today, here's what you're getting from me. A mushy, lovey-love post at GNM Parents. Valentine's Day is coming, so I'm being a good blogger by getting you in the mood.

My money is on ten days

The new dishwasher is installed. All shiny and new.

What's that you say? It looks pretty much just like the old one? Yeah. I know. I'm not exactly excited about it.

What am I excited about is a new game.

It's called "How Long Do I Have To Stare At The Ass End Of My Old Dishwasher Before John Takes The Old One To Scrap?"!

You're probably wondering why I don't just do it myself?  Because I can't and John said he would. The fun of the game is figuring out when.

Procrastinating families of the world, UNITE!

Oscar The Grouchy Mom

The Oscar Nominations came out today.

Back when John and I lived in our cute (read: ridiculously expensive and unsafe) little apartment on Metcalfe St, we prided ourselves on the fact that we went to see each and every nominated movie. It was our little winter project - our small claim to fame.  We did it so that we could sit smugly on Oscar Night, knowing that our choices for best picture were based on actually having seen the movie.

These days, my small claim to fame is that I've seen all of the films nominated in the animated category. That is, between trips to the bathroom, refills of popcorn that had fallen on the floor and with a forty-five pound preschooler on my lap.

And so, based solely on TV previews and online trailers, here are my pics:

Best Picture : Little Miss Sunshine

Best Actress: Kate Winslett (she's hot!)

Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio (please God, not Will Smith! But Ryan Gosling would be okay)

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson (and all I have to say is thank God Beyonce was not nominated!)

Best Supporting Actor: Mark Wahlberg (having The Funky Bunch present the award would make my night!)

Let's call it a list of educated guesses, spine-tingling hunches and gut feelings.  Cause I have no plans to see any of the nominated movies - unless you're babysitting for me?

Let there be toothpaste drippings!

You would be so proud of me.

I've let go a little lately.

I no longer care as much that my house seems to be in a constant state of mess.

Used to be that my house was just cluttered, but not necessarily dirty. Since we moved, my house has been a crazy mix of both cluttered and dirty.  We no longer have a cleaning lady (any time I call companies and give them our square footage I can hear their greedy sighs), and I'm just not getting it done.  Since I refuse to sacrifice time with the kids or time to myself, the house is just going to have to stay like this for a while.

What caused this change of heart?

A few nights ago, John was leaving for hockey and there were no clean towels. When I really thought about it, I didn't even know where the dirty towels were (turns out they were in the washer, so I was halfway there).  I said to John "I'm sorry I'm such a shitty housekeeper! Your Mom was such a good housewife. Her house was spotless!"

He laughed at me.

"Babe, my Mom had one kid - and that kid was me.  She wasn't exactly a busy person. I don't care about the house and it's not that bad."

He's right. It's not that bad.  The floor gets swept, the dishes get done and even though the laundry rarely gets put away, it's clean and folded.  I clean the toilets once a week, but there's always toothpaste in the sink.  What I'll remember in ten years is watching Kristyn's team win a championship or being Alex's nursery school president - not whether or not my cookbooks were organized or that my floors were shiney.

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It's Friday! That means I have a new article up at GNM Parents. Check it out!

My life in movies

It's funny how I associate elements of pop-culture into my own memories.  I suppose it's not a surprise since I am a bit of of a junkie when it comes to entertainment, movies and music -and I'm sure I'm not the only one who does it.  Certain movies, songs or situations allow me to put myself where I was at a point in my life.

When Kristyn was a newborn, we had a <ahem> less than legal cable feed, and we had many movies playing over and over, on a continuous 15 minute loop.  For the first four weeks of her life Beautiful Girls was guaranteed to be playing.  If she was awake at 4am, chances are, I was watching with Kristyn on my chest.  Ten years later the first few bars of the opening song to that movie can bring me right to that point again.  I craved Aero chocolate bars and pasta with olive oil and parmesan cheese. I had no idea what I was doing with that baby, but somehow she managed to grow right before my eyes.

And so it goes.  With Erin, the movie The Thin Red Line reminds me of going to see that movie and being called home because she had a hair wrapped tightly around her toe. A time when John and I were struggling to come to terms with our lives as young parents.  Vertical Limit is a ridiculously bad movie, but I watched it while in labour with Meghan because I was too tired and cranky to argue with John.  We had to stop The Matrix ten times because Alex kept screaming and screaming. Every time I think of that, my ovaries shrivel up a bit.

Beautiful Girls was on a few weeks ago when I couldn't sleep. I have it on DVD, so I can watch it anytime, but having it on at 3am seemed right for some reason. It brought me right back to other reasons I was kept away on cold nights in 1996. I felt so comforted. That's weird, I know.

January is painful

Next time I announce that I'm taking December off and slothing out, I want all of you to punch me in the face - and then remind me how much January hurts. Okay?

I've added minutes to my 5K time. Minutes. As in several sixty-second intervals. Crap.

Bullety

• Note left. Still no word. This could get ugly - and I love that. It's one of those cases where I am so right it's almost orgasmic.
• I got an invitation to a baby shower today - for my much younger cousin who I didn't even know what pregnant!  I was baffled. I used to babysit her. I feel so old, and yet, she is older than I was when I had my first.
• I think the Invasion Of The Bodily Fluids has left us for now. This weekend was all-shit-all-the-time.
• In celebration, I was looking forward to a girls weekend in Toronto this Saturday. It's been cancelled. I'm sad and seriously considering throwing down on my friend. You know who you are. I hope you're ready.
• Okay, I'm mostly kidding. I hold no ill will. Really.
• Well, maybe a little, but I still like her.
• My new dishwasher arrives next Thursday. I am totally ambivelant. Buying appliances just isn't fun.
• Did I mention that I'm writing every Friday at GNM Parents? I gotta say, I'm coming up with some really good stuff (and it's really helped my modesty!).
• Hey! Wow!  My regular daily surfing brought me to the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas page and I moseyed. I've been nominated for MOTW. I don't think that has ever happened. Cool. Go vote!

Expletives will be used - as well the term "douchebag"

You're gonna need to click on this picture and read the notes to really grasp today's mayhem.

Okay, let's go!

We were running late this morning, so we drove to the end of our driveway to catch the bus. When I do this, I stop at the end of our driveway so that our bus driver can pull in just slightly and pick up the kids. Then she backs out, turns, and goes back toward the highway.

Today, as our bus was waiting for the girls to get on, a car came down our gravel road, which dog legs right at the end of our property - where the bus was (the big, yellow bus).  Now, I don't know if this douchebag was going too fast or just not paying attention (to the massive yellow bus), but he clearly lost control of his car.  He swerved, (to avoid the massive yellow bus) and somehow, on dry gravel he slid.  Right into our mailbox.

Our bus driver heard the thwack, turned her head, realized what this douchbag did and shook her head. She backed out, and went on her way.  Leaving me there to see what this guy was going to do next.

He and his son got out of their vehicle. The driver went over to the passenger side and picked up his side-view mirror. Then he tried to get it back on. I'm not sure where he had hidden the soddering gun or duct tape, but he really thought it was going back on.  He and the son discussesd it a bit and got back in.

By now, I was out of my truck and checking out my now dented, hanging off it's swivel and pathetic looking mailbox. I thought "Well, surely they're going to back up and check to be sure everything is all right and offer to replace my mailbox? Especially because I know who they are and where they live!"

But no. They drove away.

Are you fucking kidding me?

I haven't decided yet how much of a bitch I want to be about this. The more I think about it, the more I think I really want to get in a snit over it.  Most of it involves leaving him a nice little message and playing some mailbox baseball later on tonight.  I might even string his up from the tree in front of his house - right after I get Alex to pee on the side of it.