Bad Weather or Inappropriate Clothing?

We have been having thunderstorms in the last handful of days, of the sort that reminds me of Florida in the summertime. Intense heat and humidity and then late in the day as the heat builds the rain lets go. I really don't mind this weather - I love the heat and the rain always cools things a bit. So bad weather is all a matter of perspective. You just need to have an umbrella handy!

I feel like I have been climbing a mountain all this summer. I hate to sound like a broken record - it seems like the only thing I say these days is "Gosh, I am busy!", but I have been so consumed by stuff to do, well it hasn't seemed to be summer. But then we were not having hot weather so it was not too bad. That changed on Friday when summer July like temps and humidity arrived. I am really yearning to be less busy and up north at my Georgian Bay Shangra-La... *sigh*


However, if I have been climbing a mountain in this last while, I feel like I am reaching the summit at long last. My project at work is finally, I think, starting to look like the downhill side of things and I have my summer home improvement project (my guest suite/office) completed and "the wedding" is done and finished. Oh ya, I have been so busy with everything I have not even had time to blog about the last two items. They made my Facebook account and that is all - so I should first cover those two items as a priority. Hopefully in the next few weeks I should be able to get back to blogging with some regularity - still probably only 2 or 3 posts a week - but just as importantly get out to visit a few of the bloggists I have enjoyed reading and commenting on in the past months. My apologies friends if I seem not there - I have not been there!

My New Office/Guest Room

So for the "feathering of my nest" - the first weekend of August, I spend doing a major number on my 2nd bedroom. It had been officially 6 months since my daughter Laura moved out and as the statute of limitations had been reached, I declared her "launched" and set about converting her room. It was a whirlwind project as I have no time to spare. It went like this:

->Saturday I painted the room, (ok, there was more than just that - I couldn't find my paint tray so went to a friends to borrow and got a flat tire on the way and had to detour to get my tire repaired,
- Sunday morning I touched up paint, then went to Ikea and bought 7 boxes containing: Sofa Bed, cover, mattress and cushions, desk, office chair and supplies/filing cabinet and have it delivered Sunday night (yes they do!)
->On the way back from Ikea I rented a carpet cleaner to clean both bedroom carpets while waiting for the furniture to arrive
-> Monday I assembled the furniture. Actually this spanned the next couple of nights after work as well.

So this:


Turned into this:




The Wedding

WARNING: The following is a "bragging book"... (So, let me be a Mom for half a blog, OK?)

My son Eric was the first to occupy the guest bed/sofa bed on Thursday night and he proclaimed it extremely comfortable!


So that is the lead in to the other big thing going on in my life over the last week. My son Eric was up visiting from Phoenix where he lives. My X, the father of all my children, remarried on Saturday and my 2 daughters and 3 sons were all in the wedding party!




I had some really good bonding opportunities with my daughters as we took Friday to primp with mani/pedi's and Saturday with hair do's and primping. It may seem a bit odd to some folks reading this but I was invited to the wedding and partied along with everyone, particularly my children. It was great to see my grown children all in their fancy best.


So here they all are with their "significant others". Except Eric - sadly, Kara was not able to make it up from Phoenix.

Monument to the War of 1812

On my way back from Harbourfront on Sunday, I happened to cross the corner of Bathurst and Lakeshore at the new Condo Building which has goine up there. It has been a new trend with the condos being built in the downtown core of Toronto to house outdoor sculpture exhibits and I was happy to see a public art installation by Artist Douglas Coupland of his "Monument to the War of 1812". The building is quite close to Fort York and it is very appropriate to have it at this corner, which will get more visibility by passers by than having it up nearer Old Fort York a street to the north.

I loved it! It reminded me of a larger than life replica of those little green plastic soldiers that my son Eric used to play arm with so many years ago. One is standing up - in gold coloured metal and the other in silver coloured metal is lying down. I guess the British is the yellow figure, since as the artist said at the opening - he did the sculpture to remind everyone who won the war.

Eric has always had a fascination with toy soldiers. To this day he spends his spare time creating and painting army stuff for his Warhammer game collection, which is an adult equivalent of his childhood passion with Toy Soldiers. The installation at Fort York is especially nostalgic for me as Eric used to also do war re-enactment of 1812 battles and has practiced at Fort York on occasion.

Eric blogs about his army creations at his blog site The Manufactorum - A blog documenting his Warhammer 40,000 model and army building experiences.

Birthday Celebrations and other Week's Events

I am falling behind with the ever growing list of topics I want to blog about and I do need to figure out a way to write shorter blogs. It is already noon and I haven’t written today’s blog – I spent the morning reading and also went out walking with Bella (more about that in another blog) and I want to get out to what I am thinking of as “The Rice Exhibit” at Harbourfront this afternoon. So I am allowing myself 30 minutes – 20 minutes to create content and 10 minutes for photos and editing. It is now 12:02 – here goes!

Firstly, I need to catch up on this week’s evening activities. As mentioned in the Tuesday blog, Laura and I went to a reading by Chuck Palahniuk on Tuesday night. I lucked out that he happening to be on a book tour to promote his latest book and doing Toronto the week after Laura’s birthday. It was very interesting – although I am guessing that I will not be reading any of his books soon – and Laura enjoyed it a lot. It was held in the Isabel Bader Theatre, which is a 500 seat leacture hall/concert venue at U of T. It was a sold out event. The format was quite unique – he did not actually read from his book. He had rewritten 3 children’s bedtime stories in the misspoken and broken English spoken by of the novel’s protagonist (bedtime stories as he would have had been read in his early years in his homeland) and Chuck read each of these instead of a section of the novel. His versions of Goldie Locks, Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood were interesting, to say the least! In between each story he threw blow up penguins into the audience and had blow up contests. At the end there was a question and answer session, which I found quite interesting as he talked about the unique writing techniques he uses in his novels. I guess you need to read the book to understand the significance of the penguins.

We decided that we did not need to stand in line with the 150 wrist band holders to get an autographed copy signed as Laura’s inscribed copy was going to arrive by mail. So we were able to slip away quickly after the reading was over and go out and have a bite to eat. It was a great Mother-Daughter bonding event and I was even more pleased when her copy arrived in the mail on Thursday. The inscription reads “Wishing Comrade Lilly Execute Best Top Punching Penguin!!” …Chuck Palahniuk. In order to understand what that all means you will need to read his book titled Pygmy. BTW Laura’s nickname is Lilly – so please don’t be confused about that.



On Wednesday night we had a family dinner in belated celebration of Laura’s birthday. This had been postponed from the previous week, which was Laura’s real birthday, but Jeff and Amanda were in Dominican that week and Tegan had to work. So we all met at the Spaghetti Factory for a get together this week instead. The Old Spaghetti Factory is a place that "the kids" like to go even thought the food is mediocre. They are no longer kids but the phrase still is used as a collective noun for our adult children. But I guess what can you do wrong with spaghetti? So I guess it would be fairer to say that the food is neither good nor bad.

Sad that Eric and Kara are so far away so could not join (they live in Phoenix), but we did have 4 of our 5 children plus the addition of 3 of their “significant others” and David, the children’s Dad, and Maria rounded out the group so that almost all family members were present. I might add that I have the seemingly unique circumstance of getting along well with my x and his long time lady and so most of our family events include 3 amicable parents and this was no different. The talk was happy and the adult children had fun. David and Maria are happily in the middle of detailed wedding preparations - they are finally tying the knot this summer and so conversation about dresses, invitations and wedding speeches were high on the agenda. I am still trying to sort out whether I will go solo - I am assured that there will be other unaccompanied folks there. Jeff and Amanda were sporting nice tans and gave us the low down on their trip to the Dominican.

The younger adults have graduated to ordering shots for dessert with a bit of abandon, I am suspecting, confident in the knowledge that the bill will be shared by the 3 more financially secure members of the family, myself , their Dad and Jeff – our eldest son. I guess that is ok for a few years – but what goes around comes around and I shall have no pangs of guilt if at some point I become a burden to them in my dotage!

After the meal I met a friend just 2 doors down at Fionn MacCool's where I frequently go on a Wednesday night to hear Greg Wyard play music. I have blogged enough about this guy's music that you can just click on the side tag to get more info if needed. The night finished off with a bit of nice music and company and got me over the hump of mid week.

Thurdsay night was also a busy one - I had made arrangements weeks earlier to meet work folks for patio beers and a night out at Crock Rock (I have also blogged about this place before). The night was warm and great for a patio night! Perfect weather. Unfortunately there was a poor showing, attendance wise, but I was able to meet with two other contract PMs who have moved on to other companies and catch up on old times. We went out to eat and ended up at a place on Queen West which was very nice and I got home just in time to see the last piece of the Grey's Anatomy season finale.

Alas! My 30 minute timeslot for blogging ended up taking over an hour! I have got to go see that rice exhibit - and it closes at 3:00. Actually, the installation is titled “Of All the People in All the World,” and it is at Harbourfront Centre’s Brigantine Room until May 24. The exhibit features rice, where one grain of rice represents one person. Will be sure to blog about this later!

New Laptop, Spring Days and Good Company

My cute little new baby!

Still a bit computer challenged, but let me give you an update – nearly back in business!  I bought the cutest little netbook, an LG X110 and am now in the middle of trying to round up and load all the software I need on it and to get all my settings back to what I had.  The good news is that these little net books come pre-loaded with XP, rather than Vista, so you need less memory to get reasonable performance from them.  This is particularly good since the RAM on the little PC is not upgradeable. 

 My new baby has a 10” screen and weighs in at only 3 pounds, so I can schlep it around in purse even if need be.  A perfect little travel machine and I can use it where ever I am.  One reason it is so light is that it does not have a CD drive.  I bought an external CD, which will be just as useful, I seldom use it except to load software and purchased CDs  into the computer, and so won't always need to carry it around with me.  Also, this time I purchased maintenance on the computer from Future Shop where I bought it.  Each of the last several computers I have owned have had component failures and this insurance guarantees me no more computer expenses on this machine for 3 full years and it includes a yearly maintenance and keyboard cleaning!  A good deal I thought.

I have not as yet loaded my office software however it came preloaded with a freeware suite called OpenOffice, which from reviews does a decent job and mimics all the Microsoft products well enough.  I will use the text writer product and upload to my blog when I get back home.   So far it seems close enough feature wise to Word and I am happy.  The keyboard is great – my old one had a few broken keys so it is good not to have to work around that disability any more!

Lunch on a Patio - At Last it is Spring!

Yesterday's weather was wonderful and my friend Yvonne, from work, and I had gone out to a patio for lunch.   We wandered up John St and browsed the string of patios that run north of Adelaide up to Queen.  We chose a nice sunny spot at the new Jack Asters.  It was great to be sitting in the sun eating lunch but the wind of the lake was quite cold, so they had lit up the gas patio heater to provide some warmth.  Yvonne, in a fit of weather optimism, had not worn a coat to work that day (reminds me of my school days), so this was a welcome act.  Lunch was fun as we caught up on stuff – it had been a while since Yvonne and I had been able to find time for a long chat.  

Friday night at GopherBrokeFarm

After work,  I hoofed it up to GopherBrokeFarm as soon as I could sneak away from work.  The drive up was spectacular – no traffic, window down, sun in my face and great jazz music from CBC Radio 2 playing loudly.   Johnny was cooking dinner as I arrived and we spent an easy evening with wine, food and chit chat.

Saturday and Visiting Parents at my Collingwood Shangri-La

Saturday turned out to be a great day also.  After a leisurely breakfast with Barb and John, and checking out their landscaping project in progress I headed up to my Collingwood place to check it out and catch up with my Parents, who arrived back from Florida on Friday.  They are staying at my Collingwood condo until their new Condo being built in Toronto is finished – now targetted for mid September.  This was also the first time I have been up to the place since the skier tenants moved out last weekend – so there was a certain amount of “putting stuff back” in order, as I had put a lot of stuff in my storage locker to make room for my ski season tenants.    Spent the afternoon busily getting the place in shape.

It was a good day, nice to see the folks and reassure myself that they were still in reasonable good heath and soundess of mind, something which folks of my generation with parents still alive deal with a lot.  All was well and they seemed in good  spirits as well.  Took them out to the local Rogers and got them fixed up with all the digital channels they wanted and arranged for a phone hookup.  Dad took us out to dinner – the local Swiss Chalet and we all had a great time.

At the end of the day I decided best to head home to Toronto that evening rather than the morning.  I recalled the last time I spent a night in my house after my parents moved in last fall.  They get up before the birds and they seemed oblivious to the fact that I was sleeping upstairs and were having a long and loud conversation.  My dog Bella, of course wanted to join them and somehow my door would not stay shut.  At 5:00 a.m. I gave up and went down to drink tea and chat with them.  It seemed best to head home on Saturday night and be able to sleep in on Sunday morning, if you call 7:30 a sleep in LOL.

Also, I wrecked my knee a few weeks ago, and while I thought it was healing, I threw it out again this week - and it was bothering me a lot.  So my Saturday night was spent with a heating pad and some tiger balm.  It is a bit better this morning but still somewhat sore.

I have had a lazy morning and now having uploaded the blog of yesterday, posted with yesterday's date, will continue to write Sunday's entry after I get my laundry started.  I am going to continue with my Vegas travel tale.  

  

I will finish with a picture of my daughter Tegan which I found on her facebook profile.  A lot of her personality shows through in this picture and she sure is turning into a beautiful young lady!

Busy Week and Now for some Concentrated Study Time

I have really not done much focused studying this week – not that I had planned to do too much, and to tell you the truth it is tough coming home from work with a tired brain and then spending time productively studying.  I had expected this to be the case, so I have not many hours in my study plan allocated to work day evenings.

 Last night was time for family. 


It was my son Jeff’s  birthday – hard to believe he turned 26 this year!   He had gotten back from his Peru trip the week earlier and we had not yet received a first hand account of his trip and so we all enjoyed the stories he had to tell of his “GAP Adventure”.   I blogged a bit about his trip in an earlier blog, so I won’t go into more detail here, except to note that he took over 800 pictures and we probably saw 500 of them last night!  So now I have something new on my Life List: hiking the Andes in Peru.

 

Our family events tend to be held at my Ex’s house as he has a larger space and with 5 kids and “significant others” (ok sadly usually only 4 + 3/4 "others" attend, as 1+1 live in Phoenix, Arizona) it just makes sense.  David and I have long since made “peace” about our split and chose to be both friends and truly co-parents to our children.   It makes family times much easier to organize and I believe this has sent an important message to our children.  Relationships may change and perhaps romantic relationships might not last but friendships can endure and family commitments are important.  When you have children you are signing on for life – regardless how the relationship which created them makes out. 

So we did a week day dinner at David’s house.  To make it easy we ordered Swiss Chalet  in and focused just on visiting and catching up – it was probably Christmas the last time we were all together.   

Times like these make me feel so lucky to have a family and extended family (as I consider my Ex and his lady Maria) who are all so close.  It is a bit sad that Eric and Kara cannot join us but we are hopeful that we will be graced by a visit later in the year.

 So now it is Friday and it is back to study mode.   My exam is only 1 week away!!! 

I have to make the best use of my time this weekend and for next week also during the week, so will not blog so much over this next week. 

Will let you know how I make out tomorrow!

He is Just Not that Into You

Had a nice evening tonight with my daughters Tegan and Laura and my almost daughter, Amanda, We had a girlie movie night and went to see “He is just not that into you”. It was an adaptation of the book by the same name by the Sex in the City Authors Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo.

The theme of the movie is that dating and romance is a minefield filled with misunderstood clues from the interacting characters. It is one of those movies with small interconnected stories with parallel themes and 20 something characters many of which evolve from their shallow selves to ones which are more in keeping with what we women would like to see in real life. Yes it is a full throttle chick flick.

It has a star studded cast – Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore to name just a few. Lots of other famous folk in cameos and more.
It is a humourous look at how we can obsess about the opposite sex when in a romantic situation. We all have gone through the hell of waiting for his phone call, trying and incorrectly interpreting “clues” and wanting the one who is “just not that into us”. There are lots of situations that we women can relate too. I think that there are also just as many similar situations that the men in the crowd would appreciate as well. Only if any would venture in to see it.

There is a pretty funny web site set up to support this film. In particular, there is a really funny video in which 3 of the guy stars explain that it is not a typical chick flick and why guys should go see this movie.

Go to the following url and choose Videos and then choose Top Ten Cliches http://www.hesjustnotthatintoyoumovie.com/
There is quite a few funny things on this website, for instance, it has a “date decoder” to allow you to interpret what a date really means. You choose the comment and the decoder generates the intended meaning – often far from what you might expect, which was one of the themes of the movie.

Anyway, I had a fun night with the girls and now have entirely run out of steam.
Good Night!

Life is a Highway and Navel - less - Gazing

Wow, what a nice sunny day. I don't care how cold it is - give me sun any day and I am happy regardless of the temp. This morning was for me just as lazy as all the others this week - but I had to get myself out and together to get a mammogram done at noon. I had a nice morning just thinking and lazing and listening to music - K.D. Lang's new Album which I downloaded via iTunes yesterday. The album, Watershed, has has one of the songs which is going to end up on the top 10 of the Obama Playlist, I think. The song is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah.

It always amazes me where the time goes. I hadn't even started writing my blog when I had to leave to go for my appointment. Don't know how I am going to find the time to blog once I am back to work but I am determined to do just that! I think I will need to do some shorter things during the week and make up with more expansive content during weekends.

This week I have really been cocooning - quite unlike me. Not really getting much of anything done in stark contrast to my usual busy busy self. I had earmarked today to catch up on some chores but the day is marching on. We will see how much I am able to do once I put the check mark against today's blog entry.

By the way, I decided to spend a paragraph on a brag about my kids - shown here in a pic taken maybe 3 years ago. They are a great bunch and if I have done nothing else with my life but produced this bunch I will have done well!
From the left: Ryan, Tegan, Jeff, Laura (aka Lilly) and Eric.

I walked home from the lab (according to mapquest 2.6 miles) and picked up some coverup makeup on the way back. I was bundled up warmly and the sun was shiningg - a great walk. Decided that I am fit enough (after coverup makeup) to go out tonight and catch Greg Wyard at the Brazen Head Pub. Been stuck alone in this apartment for too long! Tomorrow I go up to Barb and John's in Collingwood and then back home on Sunday. Sunday night it is my first night out with my Documentary Film Meet Up group and then Monday is back to work. Busy days ahead!
Looks like I am ready to rob a bank, eh?

If you are not one for navel gazing you can skip this next part:- instead you can go here:-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3477046/No-belly-button-model-Karolina-Kurkova-sets-fashion-world-navel-gazing.html and see how one woman (a gorgeous model) found a way to prevent herself from navel-gazing.

For the rest:-

I have an observation to make and I wonder if it is true for more folks than just me. Over the years I have found my world expanding exponentially. Every year I enlarge what I might call my "sphere". I experience more, connect with more folks, do more, want more, have more. My "sphere" is larger and larger. The world seems smaller and smaller. I dream bigger and bigger. Is this a function of aage or a side effect of our shrinking globe? Or is it because of the life I live here in the hustle bustle of a huge busy city working with a diverse community of folks who use their brains to make a living? Ok, so the first 3 items might have to do with the shrinking globe, but what about the last two? Do I want more because I see and experience more? Do I have more because I want more? (shades of "The Secret"!).

Social networking will greatly accelerate our ability to expand and connect immensely. My blogging connects me (albeit this is a one way connection) with so many of my friends and family in a way that is not possible without the Internet.


Social networking is a global pastime which has the capability to put us all into that "great collective" (for the Trekkie's I am thinking of something nicer than a Borg like state of joinedness.) For more on this go to the site where I stole the above map from:http://search.creativecommons.org/#

That brings me to explaining the title of this blog: "Halfway Along Life's Highway". I am sure everyone gets the life's highway part. Life is a journey we are on. Where our life takes us depends on our choices - which cutoffs and meandering trails we take instead of staying on the highway - how many pit stops we make, scenic tours we make... I could go on and on. Tom Cochrane wrote a song about it "Life is a Highway"

This song always makes me jump up and dance. I love it! (I can hear my kids muttering in the background"Mom - Don't Dance!")

So I am half way along this highway. My expectation of longevity has changed as the years have marched on, just as it did for my Dad. I can clearly remember him saying when he was (I am guessing here) about 30. He said that he didn't want/expect to live past 50. His mother died of cancer when she was 64. My Dad's Dad died not long after I was born. The man my Dad's mother remarried (the one I remember as "Grandpa Norm"), did not live too many years longer. Their lives were tough. They didn't have much and they spend the time they had on earth just getting by. After retirement they really just sat at home. When my Dad neared 50, I noticed that he was talking more like he would live for quite a while longer. He retired at 55 but has always kept very physically active (thanks to my Mom who hates to see him just sit around :-p ). He is now nearly 80 and in good health. He still likes and can hold his own in a good debate. My Mom is 74. I am not sure but I think her Mom wasn't much older than that when she died. She has always been quick witted , spunky and funny, although I notice she is slowing down lately. I can see them both living another 10 or even 20 years. Based on this, I fully expect that I have a good chance of seeing 100 or even 110. So I am only half way down my highway.

I had better have an ever expanding "sphere", if I have 50 or more years to live. I think part of the winning ticket is never to be bored, never give up learning and growing, wanting and doing more. Always planning new things to experience and ways to learn and grow. As far as wanting more leading to having more - well wanting is only the first part. As I said yesterday, the having more depends on how much you are willing to work for it. Enough said.

To end with a thought that will make you gaze at your ring fingers:

I found this in Digg today:

Ring finger length linked to stockbroker success
telegraph.co.uk — Study found that the most successful stockbrokers had long ring fingers in relation to their index fingers. The trait - which is associated with higher exposure to testosterone in the womb - is thought to be linked to attributes such as confidence, risk-taking ability, extra vigilance and quick reactions.

So who in the crowd have longer ring fingers? Can you guess how my measurements fared?