Me, me, me

I let my fingers do the walking...

I just bought tickets to see The Police. Yay! I kind of can't believe it, because I never really try to get things (like tickets) for which there is a high demand, but I thought I'd give it a shot and woohoo! I'm going to see The Police!

Perfect winter day

My husband is sick and making us all suffer along with him, so the kids and I spent most of today staying out of his way. We went to church in the morning, which involves a lovely walk through Montreal West accompanied by sunshine. After lunch and a bit of laundry we decided to try something I've been meaning to do for a few weeks now. We went out to the nearby golf course and walked some trails over babbling brooks and through trees and over hills. It was a gorgeous day, the kind of winter day when a little exercise means you can stay out for hours and hardly feel the cold. The older kids were able to walk and explore at their own pace and where they wanted, and the little one (who, if I'm honest, I have to say I would have preferred to leave at home, but not with a snotty-nosed ogre) rode along on a toboggan, occasionally doing a backflip and rolling down a hill, just to keep things interesting.

It was fun, it was a walk in nature about 10 minutes from our house, and we all came back with rosy cheeks and smiley faces. Even the ogre couldn't stay miserable in the face of all that health and happiness.

Like Antarctica with houses.

The much-heralded snowstorm yesterday was just quite a lot of snow, as it turned out. But today is downright nasty. The wind is bitter and it's whipping the snow around and shaking the trees and howling around the houses. D. is happy though, because he got to push someone's car out of snow bank. He lives to help people in distress. He shoulda been a search and rescue worker. Mmmmm, search and rescue worker. Sexy!

We were the lucky recipients of a whirlwind visit from D.'s mother yesterday and overnight. I say lucky not because it was lovely to see her, tho' it was quite nice, but because her visit to our home seems to have been an afterthought, and we're lucky she deigned to see us at all. As far as we can tell, she was going to Toronto to visit her other son (the one she likes, apparently), and she made a short side trip to Montreal to "see her montreal friends" in her words. She was going to just come by today and get D. to drive her to the bus station, but D. convinced her to stay overnight so that she could see her grandchildren. Is this weird, or am I hypersensitive?

Anyway, the pathetic fallacy (or my version of same, where the weather corresponds to one's emotional state) is in full effect. The strange thing was, it was a nice visit. I like her, and I think she likes us, so why the big chill? We may never know...

Dey wuz robbed!

I watched the Grammys last night and really enjoyed the show. Some of the performances were fantastic, and the overall production was pretty incredible. It's become a very smart show, taking a page from the Brit Awards book and focusing on the performances rather than the awards presentations. And no host, which works for them.

Some classic performances by Mary J. Blige, Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera doing James Brown and Rascal Flats (hate that name!) doing The Eagles, and Gnarls Barkley, of course. Speaking of... I couldn't and can't believe that The Dixie Chicks won record of the year over Crazy (by Gnarls). WTF?! I like and respect The Dixie Chicks and I'm glad they won a fistful of awards, but this one definitely should have gone to Crazy. That song is the Shit. Period.

In other news, work is going well but stressing me out so much that sleep is already becoming a problem. This is not a good sign, but once an early hurdle in the process is overcome by next week things will calm down for a good few weeks before the actual planning of the big event begins. Then things will get crazy again, but hopefully not so bad as they are right now and not so bad as last year. A lot depends on what happens in the next week, so wish me luck.

I can't complain, however, because my job still allows me to do things like go to story time at the library with my sweet F. It's so nice to watch her little face as the librarian reads the story, the wonder-filled expressions passing over it like cloud shadows on a bright breezy day.

Signs

Despite the biting cold, it's starting to feel like Winter is passing over. Slowly but surely, the days get lighter and longer and the quality of the light and the strength of the sun are changing. At my church, they've started planning their summer house-building project in Mexico, and I'm starting to see registration leaflets for various summer day camps. And of course, that hopeful harbinger of Spring the seed catalogue has arrived.

Courage!

Weird. And stupid.

This morning I got up a whole hour early and didn't realize it until after about half an hour. I got up, finished up lunches and put them in school bags, made breakfast, realized the kids weren't coming downstairs and just as I was leaving the kitchen to go and get them I looked at the microwave and saw that it was 6 a.m., not 7 a.m. So discombobulating! I would laugh at my own stupidity, but sadly I woke up my son and made him get dressed and make his bed, only to sheepishly tell him to go back to bed in his clothes and try to sleep. He didn't have any more luck than I did getting back to sleep; we were both pretty wide awake, but we got to lie in bed for an hour anyway.

I hope the poor kid isn't passed out on his desk right now.

I blame my digital clock (not my innate stupidity). Hey, five looks just like 6 when you look at it from the wrong angle!