And That's a Fact!

It is 2am. This post is being written (yes, handwritten - how old-fashioned, I know) in the back of my NY Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle Book. (Fact #1: I am a geek. Fact #2: In my defence, my dad got me hooked on crosswords when I was young. Fact #3: Better than getting me hooked on drugs.) I am up WAY past my bedtime. (Fact #4: I am "postcoital-tired", but without the sex part, unfortunately. Fact #5: My jokes SUCK when I'm tired.) Everyone - including the cats - is sleeping, except for me:

Anyway, I am writing this post because I won a freaking AMAZING prize from Real Live Lesbian. She just went on an envy-inciting trip to South America, and I won a souvenir from her travels. Can you freakin' DIG IT?! (Fact #6: I've never won anything in my life.) To boot, in the comments of her prize-winner-announcing post, Jay said "Cool beans" and that I was "cool." (Fact #7: "Cool beans" has never been used in a phrase including my name. I love it.) Now about that Jay fellow. Jay is pretty cool himself. AND Jay Guessed the Day. My handsome & adorable kid is now 8 months old (here he is with his present from the Easter Bunny):

This means that I have been owing Jay a prize for...wait for it...ok, yeah 8 months. I KNOW. I see you, covering your mouth and laughing "Oh my GOD!" with some modicum of disgust. It is inexcusable. But guess what. Today? Today, I mailed it. (Fact #8: I really did mail it!) (*Note from type-time: "today" means Friday.) I had actually finished preparing the package - at long last - on Monday, and then I found out I won the prize from RLL, so that actually got me to the post office with it by the end of the week. (Fact #9: I really did mail it!) Because to accept a prize from another when I haven't even sent one that was promised months ago is bad karma. Or something. So, Jay Who Guessed the Day, your fab, fun prize is on the way, and I hope you like it! Here is a photo of the box:

That's all I can show you, because I forgot to take photos of the contents of the box before I taped it up, so I'll leave that to Jay if he feels like sharing. (Fact #10: I am seriously starting to question how long I can continue to claim "baby brain".) As much as I hate to admit this, this is actually GOOD when compared to my snail mail track record. Get ready for another "OMG" because the Christmas photo cards I spent too so much time designing are currently sitting on my kitchen counter in envelopes that are addressed, and as a special bonus this year, stamped. Why are they still there? Because I got too ambitious: I wanted to add personal notes to every single one. The kicker is that they were ready to go in early December. So now I'm revamping them into "Happy Spring" cards. And it gets worse. (Fact #11: I can't believe I'm about to tell you this.) In 1995 (insert an even bigger "O!M!G!" here), three friends of mine came to visit from out west, bringing with them some photos of our time together the year before. (Fact #12: I went to Bible College for a year in Saskatchewan. I know. Shocker.) Two of the friends left their photo albums behind. Fact #13, right out loud: I still have their photo albums. Take your time with that. Yeah. THIRTEEN YEARS LATER, babies. I have packed them up and unpacked them again numerous time as I've moved around since then, and they are currently in storage somewhere in this house. *Big, long sigh.* However, I am going public with this (not-so-superstar-style) because I want to hereby officially commit to both finding them this coming month, and sending them off to their rightful owners. All these years later. They're going to love me and hate me all at once. It will be Le Magic. Maybe I can get my "Happy Spring" cards out at the same time.

A piece of life

I liked an idea I saw over at Jay's today, which originally came from Apathy Lounge so I'm joining in. The idea is to take a photo of your dining table - be not afraid of mess, it's a slice of life. Very cool idea. And very revealing. What I realised is that we, apparently, are boring.

So...we've got some placemats, a runner, a chocolate bar (Burnt Almond Dark, yum, can't wait to crack that puppy open), some recipe mags, a kleenex box, some flyers, and the table top for my son's highchair. And the cat, of course. What picture of any part of my home would be complete without one (or both) of the cats?! Anyway...interesting exercise, ho-hum result. I'll have to junk it up a bit and have a do-over. :)
Have a great weekend, everybody! I'll have a new post either later today, over the weekend or on Monday. It all depends on the babe - teething season has begun anew, so I = tired.

Am I becoming cynical?

Check out this photo and the accompanying blurb.


Did you check it out? Hope so, otherwise this will make no sense:
Yeah. The reason was so that he could stick it to Heather Mills.

Thanks for your comments on the last post, everybody. They were greatly appreciated.

Birthdays and wanting better for my kid

I was looking at this picture today and thinking that I never want that joy to be taken from my son's beautiful face:



In fact, I got really sad thinking about it. Parents out there, help me out, is that normal? I was even crying. It could be my already-melancholy frame of mind. Here's the preface: mein hublein just had a birthday, and it almost went unnoticed by my family, aside from a conversation with me on the phone where I was asked to pass on a "Happy birthday" (which is something, I guess, but it would have been nicer if they'd talked to him directly) and my parents gave him a card. Hublein doesn't care, but I do. As for my birthday, for at least the last 3 years I have received my birthday present from my parents at Christmas (my birthday is in Nov), and I have received nothing from my brothers aside from the occasional card split between the 2 of them. My brothers are in their mid-to-late 20s and have been in various situations of in-school-and-part-time-working to in-school-and-out-of-work, to not-in-school-but-working-full-time; it doesn't matter, they never do anything. To clarify, I don't care about how much is spent or not spent - to me, birthdays are about showing the ones you love that you thought about them, that you're happy they're here and that you're happy to be in their life and have them in yours. While theoretically we should show each other love all the time, life does get busy, and I understand that; but the day of ones birth seems like an ideal day to set aside for letting your loved ones know how glad you are that they're, you know, alive. Pretty basic stuff. Unless you're from my family, apparently. Anyway, this latest show of "we don't give a shit" (ok, I'm being over-dramatic, I know) upset me, and got me to thinking about the fact that I WILL NOT tolerate this when it comes to my son's birthdays. So I'm drafting a letter that won't be sent until June (which still gives the fam plenty of time to prepare for Pengin's birthday in late July) that basically says that I expect better for my son and that spending money isn't the point, but I expect them to write or paint or do SOMETHING special for him on his birthday. Because I never want him to wonder why his family doesn't care, like I have. I never want that joy in the picture above to be taken from him, especially in the place where he should feel the most safe, most appreciated, and most loved: with his family.

I'm down with WWC, yeah you know me...

Thanks to the intrepid Tink, the words for this week were Stone and Glass. I am late posting. That is ok. I am also not doing cool, artsy shots like I have seen some of you doing. That is also ok. I'm very zen today. I have to be - I didn't have 2 seconds to fart in yesterday and ended up very stressed out by the end of the day, so today - it's an easy, breezy beautiful, I'm a cover girl kind of day.

Glass:


The same window as the previous photo in a not-so-forgiving kind of light (marks courtesy of my cats' noses --- and paws ):


If this doesn't melt a heart of stone I don't know what would (a.k.a. Pengin with his favourite book). Please to notice another new development...his fantastic, natural mohawk:


And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

The cutest baby in the world

As per Tink's request, I thought I'd post an updated pic of the binger. It was taken just this morning, because I was trying to be THAT accurate in terms of adhering to the request for a "recent" photo, and I was finally able to get his 2 new teeth in the shot for the first time ever! In order to do that I had to take a close-up photo, so it's a little funny, but the teeth are there! And oh, the things you have to do to keep your child laughing for that long. Best of all, it only took 201 tries...aaaaand, that's only a slight exaggeration.