And you kiss your Mother with those lips?????

First I must preface this blog by reminding you that I grew up in a house with 2 sisters - NO brothers.

When I was very little my Dad would come home from work and drop his duffle bag at the front door. I used to love going through it because it always contained such foreign treasures...he used to keep such silly things.

They used to encourage firemen (yes, 'back in the day' they were always men!) to keep physically fit when they weren't fighting fires. They played ping pong and stuff like that. In hind sight, I guess some of the sports were a little more "contact" than that.

Back to the duffle bag. I reached in and found this...thing. I remember thinking it was shaped like a dust mask. It even had a nice soft felt fabric that cushioned my face when I put it on. I searched further in the bag for the strap that held it on your face...I couldn't find anything.

I can't remember if I went to ask my Mom & Dad or if they were watching this whole fiasco, they nearly died laughing when they saw me holding this 'mask' on my FACE!!!!! I could never understand why they laughed so hard. It wasn't until much, much later that I found out I had my father's stinky JOCK on my face!!!

Ice Fest

I am so excited...so lame. We usually do the same old/same old every weekend. Very seldom do we do something special.

I have been hearing about an Ice Festival in Toronto (Yorkville) this weekend. Then I remembered David saying he had never been on the subway in Toronto. It got me thinking...hummm...

We will take the Go Train from Burlington to Union Station - then the subway from Union Station to Yorkville! How brilliant! All of this for about $45.00 round trip for both of us! You could hardly drive for that and forget about parking in TO!

So, if you don't hear from me by Monday please call the subway police or something.

I love adventures! It hardly compares to the Buenes Aires adventure, I know, but this is ours for now.

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Cmabrigde Uinervtisy Sduty....

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

This was also amazingly difficult to re-key!!!!!

It says that on '55 people can read this' (which I doubt). Can you?

My first husband very rarely laughed. I mean the kind of laugh that starts deep down in your belly and when it finally finds its way up there is no stopping it. There was one time when we were with friends and he did experience this joy. It is very sad that I remember only one time.

David (my love of 9 years) and I have had some very difficult times. We continue to have serious challenges. Even through these we always find things to laugh at or about. When I think about our relationship this is one constant. We laugh alot. It can be silly things like not being able to say "milk thistle" and having your tongue contort in a million different ways trying and then laughing so hard about it over and over. It can be when we play with our insane dogs (Jack Russells) when they are doing something funny.

It really is enjoying those moments and hanging on to them with dear life through the crap.

I think we are good at that.

Snow Day In Our World

For those of you in the sunny climate (gritting teeth!!!)...we spent the day moving mountains. Probably about 3 feet!!!! On the top picture, the chairs are stacked in the foreground and the table is behind them. The snow is as high as the table. On the bottom pic the high 'lump' is our BBQ! I think the pics are blue because I took them so early this morning.

UPDATE: They are saying that this was the worst snow fall since 1978!!!

What do I believe in?

My Mom got me thinking the other day. I commented on her post about angels.

I have spent my working life in the accounting realm. I think I have been successful in this field because I love things that are balanced. I border on psychotic about things being 'right'. I have been known to remove staples just to make sure all the papers are aligned properly. I go nuts with perforated papers. I like things that are black or white..clearly defined.

Perhaps this is also the reason I don't believe in a God. I don't believe in angels or life after death.

I do believe however, that you are only given as much as you can handle. I do believe that good things happen to good people and bad people get 'theirs' in the end. I believe that we are here and we should do something that leaves our mark after we die.

Then I wonder who is it that gives you only what you can handle? Who makes good things happen to good people and who makes sure the bad people get 'theirs'?

Hummmmmmmmmm ?!?!

Seminars

On Wednesday I attended a breakfast seminar. The name of the seminar was "WSIB Early & Safe Return to Work (ESRTW) Draft Policies Breakfast Briefings". My expectations were not particularily high for a fun and exciting time but I was not prepared for what was to come. I have been attending these kinds of seminars for over 10 years and this one blew me away.

The seminar was held at the Ramada Inn (formerly the Holiday Inn). I was kind of interested in seeing this place because I worked as a banquet waitress when I was 15 in the same hall. To my surprise, and later my horror, the place had not changed in 30 years!

Registration was for 8:30 and the seminar was to begin at 9:00. I arrived a tad early. There were only a handfull of people there. The first thing the woman said was there had been a misunderstanding and the hotel had not yet brought the breakfast treats and they had only set up for 45 instead of 60 attendees. Shortly after that they announced that the washrooms were out of order on our floor and we would have to use the facilities one floor down. It didn't take long for me to realize that I would have to get my coat back because the hall was freezing! People began to arrive.

They started to warm up the overhead projector and realized that it was too small and not everyone would be able to see. The woman who would be the presenter announced that they didn't have the proper microphone that she was used to. She tried to make due with what they had but clearly was unable to hold the microphone up to her mouth for it to be effective!

Shortly they announced that the washroom facilities one floor down were also out of order and we would have to go to the main floor.

9:00 am came and went. They announced that they would begin soon but were waiting for about 10 people who were late. This was very quickly becoming a nightmare. We finally began around 9:15. About 10 minutes in, the hotel put out the bagels, muffins etc. The presenters decided we would take a 10 minute break to get our goodies! Now we were closer to 9:45 when we finally began the seminar.

They called for another break just before 10:30. I left.

I will be requesting a refund for the cost of the seminar but it left me considering how many resources were wasted with 60 people sitting through this horrible farce for the better half of a day!

What the hell happened?

Do you ever sit on the couch and fall asleep for a minute and when you wake up it takes a second to figure out what happened while you snoozed? Well my whole life is like that! My brother-in-law is going to be 50!!!!! next week. What the heck! Did we not just move out of the house? Did we not all just get married? Were we not just all 25 years old? What the hell happened?

I will be 50 next year. I am warning all my so called loved ones that if I hear anything about it I will kill them!!! Oh Lord, 50 is so...mature or something! People who are 50 should know stuff. People who are 50 should act...old. Everyone says stupid things like, "your only as old as you feel" I AM 50! or "age is just a number" IT'S 5 - 0, 50! BIG NUMBER! I will surely cry! But, in the mean time I will tease the hell out of my brother-in-law!

Guilty pleasures

I am very fortunate to work in our family business. My boss/cousin is the President. I have another cousin who is the Plant Manager and a very good friend who works under the Plant Manager. The four of us play Texas Hold'em every lunch hour (well maybe not 'hour') and have for over a year. We have actually played 262 games. How do I know this you ask? We have a spread sheet that would bring tears to the eyes of most accountants!!!!! We calculate wins, losses, seconds, thirds, buy-ins, and the list goes on and on. We have a 'bounty' game every Friday. There's more on the line that day. We track that too.

Each and every one of us looks forward to our games every day. The fact that we are surprisingly close in all standings amazes us. We are all very different in our techniques.

There are times when the game goes on for an hour and a half. There are times when my co-workers get a little pissed at us. Oh well. Life is too darn short to make everybody happy. We are having fun and hurting no one (except when one of us gets 'rivered' we have an elastic that we have that we can snap on the person who rivered us!).

So don't try to call me anytime between 12:00 and um... well better to call me in the morning. LOL