Finger crossing request

So you heard about our friends who had an premature arrival bless their family this weekend... Well, unfortunately, the little boy has not expressing much interest in eating, so much so that he started losing weight (and when you're born at 5lb14, you don't have much to lose!), and they had to bring him back to the hospital. The doctors are doing lots of tests to determine what's upsetting the little guy.

So if you have a few positive vibes to spare, I am sure they would appreciate it. I've been crossing my fingers for the last few days, hoping they would be able to bring the little boy back home. Instead, they had to go home alone last night, leaving the baby back in the hospital. It must be so hard to have to leave your baby behind like that! Even when you know that you he's not that far, that he's in good hands, and that it's in everyone's best interest for you to actually get some sleep...

:(

Pictures

Don't have that much to say today, but I got a pretty good connection going, so I thought I'd share a few pictures with you.

First off is the adorable little marzipan tiger that DH got me for my birthday. The picture is a little fuzzy, but isn't he just adorable?

Then I have two pictures of tulips. In a strange coincidence, this spring I received two sets of potted tulips, a week or so apart. I've been setting them up in different places in the kitchen trying to get the best picture I can before they wilt. They're not the most hardy of flowers, but at least in the fall I will be able to plant them in the garden, and then they will come back every spring :)










As for the summary of the weekend, it was busy but fun and pretty social. First of all, we were supposed to have a baby shower for friends of ours of Sunday, but apparently little Matthew couldn't wait and decided to be born on Saturday (over a month early!). Everyone is doing great, but imagine their surprise :) Just goes to show you never know when the big day will happen! Needless to say, no shower happened, and we will have to get the gifts to them some other time.

Friday night we watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", a film we both heartily recommend. DH had seen it previously, so it was nice to see it together. I would definitely watch it again. Saturday we started out with some errands. Then we went to the movie theatre, to see some opera. Yes, you read that right. It's this new thing that the people at the Metropolitan Opera from New York have come up with, where opera performances from the Met are broadcast live in HD to theaters all over the world. It's certainly an interesting experience, and you really can't go wrong seeing an opera for around $20! Unless you hate opera that is ;) Though DH, who's not a big fan of the opera, enjoyed the show nonetheless. We saw Puccini's "Il Trittico", of which the first act was by far the best! If you're interested, take a look at the website, there may be upcoming performances being broadcast where you live. In Canada, the shows are presented by Cineplex.

After that, we went to a friend's house for a birthday celebration of pizza and poker. I won a little money, but DH lost a little, so in the end we came out with 3$ less. A cheap night's entertainment, that's for sure ;)

Today we mostly puttered around the yard, finishing the pathway at the back of the house. I can't believe the day is almost over! The "Amazing Race" has just started, and that always means the end of the weekend. Back to work on Monday, slaving hard trying to meet the deadlines :)

Hope y'all had a good weekend!

Weekend update a few days late...

Another weekend gone, and still no blog update... I am really starting to slack in the blog department. Though I have a few good excuses, like a flaky internet access from home (and I was even going to post some pictures!), and overall busy schedule.

Just to prove that I'm not lying, here's a summary of our weekend:

• Friday night, we installed an outdoor thermometer on our bedroom window so that DH can tell the temp outside without having to turn on the TV in the morning (I kid you not, that has been his m.o. so far!); then we played around in the basement with the setup of the new projector that we're planning to use to watch movies; the consensus right now is that we need a screen (the old white sheet will do in a pinch, but it is suboptimal), but we can probably rig up a stand for it from some spare parts :) another weekend project I guess...
• Saturday we cleaned up the flower beds, pruned all the shrubs around the house, raked the remaining leaves off the lawn, then we replaced the clothesline (it was cracked and rusty, and was starting to poke my fingers and leave rusty prints on the clothes!), then in the afternoon we put together the barbeque that we had bought in the fall of 2005 (eek!), then we got a call from friends for a last minute supper invite, so we went out for supper with the adorable twins (A&E) and their parents - lots of fun! In the evening we went to see the concert given by a local amateur orchestra that our friend belongs to. That was very fun too (her 5 year old daughter was there, and we had some play time, which is always nice), and the music was very good - Peer Gynt amongst others.
• Sunday we first went shopping for supplies, and then we worked outside again (since the weather was fabulous!), creating a walking path behind the house with some old patio stones (it's not finished yet, but pretty close, I will post pictures soon!), right where we eliminated raspberry bushes last year; meanwhile DH cleaned the winter tires and wheels for both cars, washed the winter mats, vaccuumed the cars and put in the summer mats.

On top of that, I think I did something like 7 loads of laundry - with a beautiful drying weather like that, I finally got a chance to wash all the sheets that our guests used a few weeks ago!

So that made for a pretty full weekend. It seems like all of our weekends this year have been pretty packed. This coming weekend is going to be no exception: we're going to a friend's birthday party on Saturday, and then we'll be hosting a baby shower on Sunday.

Aside from that, work is getting pretty crazy busy. But I am getting lots of things accomplished, so I am feeling pretty ok with the whole thing. My project may be a little late, but I'm not expecting too many unsurmountable obstacles between now and the end. Ask me again in a few weeks, though :)

So here you go... Halfway through the week, and I'm only posting the weekend summary. Sad, sad indeed...

Hope everyone is doing well and taking advantage of the warm weather (yay for sandals!).

Gotta get high speed...

I haven't been writing here nearly as much as I would like to. I keep thinking of great subjects to blog about, things to ponder, and it seems like I never have enough time. But then tonight I realized, that if we actually had decent internet access at home, I wouldn't mind spending a few minutes online every evening or so. You see, only having dial-up makes the internet experience so frustrating, by the time I am connected, and I've checked my email, it's been half an hour, and I am tired of sitting and waiting for pages to load (which, BTW is a lot worse with Yahoo! than Gmail), I am in no mood to blog.

Tonight I happen to be staying at my parent's place, who have a high-speed connection, and I decided to do a quick email check (despite the late hour), and realized I could take a few minutes and write a quick note here. Something I can't really do on dial-up without a big time investment.

Lucky for me, the city of Ottawa is rolling out a project that will make high-speed internet accessible for anyone living within the city limits. So I have high hopes that some time this year we will get access to high-speed internet (without the crazy restrictions, and even crazier prices of satellite internet). And then, watch out! I'll be blogging every day :)

But now it's time to head for bed. It's been a long day, and I want to get up early tomorrow morning to head home.

Goodnight!

Bloggers unite!

Ok, I have to admit, I am a bit of a blog addict. I have 9 blogs on my daily blogroll (checked every morning when I get to work), and I have been known to troll the web for more blogs to read whenever time permits (which is pretty rare these days).

Today, on one of the blogs that I read regularly, which I had found through the blog of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend ;), I learned about this blog. My heart goes out to this amazing, courageous woman.


A candle for Snickollet.

Where does the time go?

I know, I know, I've been very quiet... And I had promised to write some stuff about happy times in my life... You can probably add last weekend to that list. It was great! We had a blast! The kids were so amazingly sweet and adorable, and I think everyone had a good time. DH's grandmother's 95th birthday was a great success, with tons of people attending. SIL's husband took lots of pictures, and as soon as I get them I will post a few. I was too busy coordinating food and everything else, I didn't even take one picture! There are a few pictures of DH holding his niece at the party that are just priceless.

Aside from that, work has become really crazy. I will probably have to work most of the weekend to do some catching up... DH has 4 days off for this long weekend, I'll be lucky if I get one... But I can't complain, I took Monday off, so I already had a long weekend :)

Even though we have had some snow today, you can see some signs of spring. Our yard looks a little sad, I can't wait to see flowers and plants sprout up all over the place. This year, we can hopefully do some home improvements on the outside. We need to re-gravel the driveway, and redo the garage roof, and I would really like to get some landscaping done as well. But that's all a lot of work, we'll see if I am a little too ambitious here (ask me again in November :)).

So that's it for an update. Short and sweet, maybe some time this weekend I'll find a little more time to write...

Enjoy the spring sunshine!

Today is DH's birthday! So please join me in song:

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday dear DH!
Happy birthday to you!

And a Sto lat! for good measure!

And many happy returns!

M

Depression

My new theory (and I haven't done any research on this, so it could be someone else's theory, or it may have been debunked at some point) is that depression is simply a state of extreme connectedness. It's like you feel everything, only magnified. Or maybe that's actually more bipolar ;) I've just been finding that I respond emotionally to everything, just a lot stronger than usual. Sort of a super-enhanced PMS, withouth the aggressivity ;)

I find myself moved by most human contact. It sounds kinda silly, but I am amazed at the good will that people have towards me. People smile and say hi, or stop for a quick chat in the hallway. It makes me feel connected to the fabric of the universe, as those tiny little threads of human connections are an intergral part of the big tapestry.

I'd keep on philosophizing, but I got lots of work waiting for me...

P.S.

Forgot to mention in my last post: the one thing yesterday (and today) that really touched my heart was all the birthday wishes I got from people. I am not the best at remembering dates, so I am always so amazed that anyone would remember my birthday! It sounds kind of silly now that I've written it down, but it was really nice to be remembered I guess :) I am so vain!

Yay?

So yesterday was my birthday. The big 3-2. Not a milestone birthday by any stretch, and yet it hit me like a ton of bricks. This is most likely because I've been in quite a bit of a slump for the last month. Nothing serious, just a bit of depression coming back to haunt me. Never let it be said that you can get over depression... No matter where you get in your life it's always lurking around the corner waiting to pounce the moment it realizes that you are vulnerable. Sigh!

Now, don't you go and get worried about me. The fact that I am actually writing about it tells me that I am much better able to handle this than I've ever been. I am not looking for sympathy, and this is not some cry for help, I just thought I'd document a bit of what's going on inside my head (a dicey proposition at the best of times!)...

In all fairness, my birthday itself was very nice. Everyone involved did their best to celebrate the occasion with enthusiasm and flair. My family in Montreal threw a dinner party Sunday night, which was quite delicious and very enjoyable. I got beautiful gifts and cards, and even cake (though it was chocolate, so I didn't actually have any). We didn't leave Montreal until late, so we got home past our bedtime, but it was worth it :)

Then last night DH took me out for dinner, and then we had another cake at home. This one was a raspberry mousse, so I had a decent sized piece :) He also got me a very very cute little marzipan tiger. I'll try to remember to take a picture of him one of these days so I can post it here.

So you're going to say this doesn't really sound like such a terrible birtday, and you're probably right. Except maybe for all the people asking me about my procreation plans... And most of those people were not even aware that it was my birthday! What, do I have a tattoo on my forehead that says "Please ask me about babies!!!"? I mean, I expect that from my Mom, but casual acquaintances at work??? Just plain weird. It doesn't really help that the writer of one of the blogs I've come to follow religiously get some terribly upsetting news yesterday (and I find that she communicates it so well, you feel like you're there with her...).

So why the long face you ask? They say depression doesn't need a reason, and that's probably true, and sometimes small things (and at times big things) can give you that little nudge... And now every time I think about writing a blog, the only things that come to mind are dark and gloomy thoughts. Instead of giving into that impulse, I've decided that I want to sit down and write an entry about all the happy moments in my life, and I hope to be able to do that at some point this week. But I have to admit that it's turning out to be a lot harder than expected. I could certainly go for hours talking about the low points, but really, I am dubious about the benefit of that. I am long past the point where it would feel cathartic, it seems more self-indulging and whiney... Yes, the bad times deserve to be documented at some point, but I'd rather see them documented with a good dose of humour (even if it's black), rather than self-pity... So they will have to wait until my sense of humour is back ;)

Other than that, 32 feels fine. My Mom was recalling how old she felt when she was 32 (and on her second pregnancy), but I don't find myself feeling much older than last week. Or wiser for that matter ;)

That's it for my birthday ramblings... I promise to be more upbeat in an upcoming entry (though that may have to wait, as spare time is pretty hard to find these days - tomorrow nigh our choir has another performance at a retirement residence, so I am sure tonight's practice is going to go late...).

Oh, and just so that this post is not all gloom and doom, I am really quite excited about the end of this month, as most of DH's family is planning to descend on our house. It will be DH's grandmother's 95th birthday, so BIL and his pregnant wife and their twins, SIL and her husband, and FIL are all going to come over to stay at our place for the weekend. I'm sure it's going to be fun (though hectic). And it will definitely help pull me out of this slump ;) Babies have a way of doing that!!! I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures.

Another weekend bites the dust

Another busy weekend went by. Unfortunately, I had to come into work on Sunday, but it was such a beautiful day DH decided to go for one last skate on the canal. As of this morning, the canal is now closed, so it was his last chance. We toyed with the idea of going for a ski in the late afternoon, but the snow levels are pretty low. The sun has been melting the snow quite a bit over the last week...

In other news, from the wild animals at the homestead, yesterday afternoon I found a dead mole at the back entrance to the house (sorry, no pictures). Placed perfectly just at the door. Because I suspect no mole in its right mind would climb 7 steps of stairs just to die at our doorstep, I am assuming this is a present from our feline friend. She hasn't forgotten us! Even though she spent most of the winter in the neighbour's barn, she must still have fond memories of us, leaving us such a sweet (and gross) present! I ended up using the snow shovel to get it out in the yard...

Aside from that, we did some more tidying up around the house. We finally completely cleaned out the computer room. I wish I had taken a before picture, because the room is unrecognizeable now. We took out a bookshelf, and moved the old computer downstairs, so the room is a lot more spacious, and DH keeps complaining about the echo :) We need to hang up stuff on the walls, now that we've opened up so much space... I am not the biggest cleaning/tidying fan out there, but I have to admit that it's a nice feeling to get the place cleaned up like this from time to time. We now have at least 3 more useful rooms compared to what we had at the end of last year (1 unfinished room, and 2 rooms full of junk). Which works out well, since at the end of the month we will have a house full of guests, as DH's family is coming to town to celebrate his grandmother's 95th birthday. That means my FIL will be here, plus two couples (SIL+husband and BIL+wife), plus the twins. We better have lots of space so everyone can fit and not feel crowded...

Work is getting busier and busier all the time. I think it's only going to get worse, at least until the summer. I am in charge of a project that is going to require lots of coding, and there's only two of us working on it (the other guy being a new grad), and we only have around 10 weeks to get it all done. All of it. And I am still just working on the documentation for it... But I'm getting a fairly good idea of what we need to do, and if I need to work nights and weekends, then so be it. At least it's a very interesting project, working on something that's new to me, so it's kind of exciting. Ask me again if this was a good idea in 2 months :)

That's my update for today!

Animal video

This video just made my day! You need sound to fully enjoy it, so put on your headphones, or un-mute your speakers :)



Isn't it great? Certainly brightened up my day :)

So here we go again

Today is D-day for layoffs in my area. Everyone is pretty gloomy. It looks like most of the people were notified already, so everyone is gathering in the hallways discussing what it all means. I have to say, they always manage to surprise me. Some of the cuts were unfortunately quite expected, but others seem to come out of the blue. Then again, some people seem to escape multiple rounds of layoffs unscathed, though if this had been "Survivor", they would have been voted off long ago.

It's really hard to find the motivation to do anything at all when stuff like this happens. I know I am behind on producing my document, and I was really hoping to have it done today, but it's starting to look less and less likely that it will actually happen. Instead, I am chatting with coworkers and blogging. I think it's a pretty common thing, that a day of layoffs roughly translates into a week of lost productivity. Even though we're getting better and better at dealing with it, realizing that it's not the end of the world. Most people I know who got let go, ended up going on to do bigger and better things (one of my friends completed a grueling MBA program, and had just joined the Clinton Foundation, helping stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa - how cool is that?). Still, this kind of rejection is never easy, especially in the first few days/weeks/months. Everyone goes through all those stages of grief, though some faster than others. Those of us left behind simply shake our heads, and wait for the next round...

Told you things were gloomy around here!

Later!

Long time no post...

Sorry for the long silence, it's been a little hectic recently... To make up for it, here's a link to a test I found really interesting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/index_cookie.shtml

My result was at the 25 mark on the female side. I had a lot of fun filling it out too :)

We don't really have any plans for the weekend, just hanging out and relaxing. Last weekend we had some friends over, and next week we're hosting another dinner party, so this weekeng we're taking it easy. It's been a hectic two weeks, so we need some rest.

Last night we went to the movies and saw "Ghost Rider", which I would recommend you avoid if you can! I don't usually mind comic book based movies, but this one had absolutely no substance. Nicholas Cage didn't do too bad, but the lead female actor, Eva, was pretty one-dimensional...

Later!

Another weekend over...

Where does the time go? We had another super busy weekend. Friday night I babysat our friends' twin girls - soooo cute!!!! Had a lot of fun with the little tykes, they're getting so big, and so independant. And they're starting to say some words! It was my first time alone with the girls, and it went very well. I was introduced to the delicious snack of goldfish (yummy), interspersed with raisins :)

On Saturday we went over to a friend's place for an evening of card playing (the distinguished game of a$$h@le), and that ended pretty late. And this morning I had brunch with a few friends. In between all this socializing, we managed to do some more cleanup in the house, emptying out the closed in one of the guest rooms, using the handy new wardrobes that we have installed in the basement. So we now have a nice clean and uncluttered room, which is really good, as we haven't been able to use it much lately...

Here's a shot of the aligned wardrobes:


And now it's the end of the weekend again... I wish I could say I'm ready for another work week, but I think I could use an extra night of sleep ;)

As promised a few weeks ago, here's a shot of the latest basement renovations: notice the post cover, complete with the baseboard covers on the bottom, as well as the baseboards and quarter rounds at the bottom of all the walls:



Before I sign off, I'd like to recommend a movie we saw last week: Pan's Labirynth. It's a spanish movie released last year that's making the rounds in local theatres. It's pretty gory at times, we both looked away during a few scenes, but overall it's a great movie. Wonderful fantasy sequences, juxtaposed with civil war era Spain, it is beautifully filmed, with great acting. Hollywood quality production, with independent quality narrative. Highly recommended!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Gloomy wednesday

Here we go again... My company announced another round of layoffs... Not that it was completely unexpected, or that we shouldn't do any trimming... But it's always so unpleasant to go through another round. Was chatting with some coworkers today and we all agreed that it's hard to tell what the "best" outcome is, as getting a package sure has it's own attractions. So it's not so much being worried about losing our job that gets to us. It's the uncertainty, not knowing who goes and who stays, hard to get any work (or even worse, planning) done. People cancel their vacations, people hold off on major purchases... It's a big disruption. And then when the axe falls, it's always hard to say goodbye to friends and coworkers... Of course this year quite a few people have quit, so we've been saying lots of goodbyes anyway!

So that's my sob story for the day. Oh, and it's pretty darn cold outside too. Though luckily I haven't had to spend much time outdoors lately. Our wood pile is getting small, it'll soon be time to cut and split some more wood, but it's definitely not the kind of work I feel like doing when it's -25 outside :) Yesterday my car had the check engine light on, and I was starting to get worried, but I gassed it up and it's fine now, so I am assuming the cause for the light was just little gas in the tank combined with the frigid weather. That's my story and I'm sticking to it ;)

On the family side, still no news from FIL. He's stable and waiting. Hoping to come and visit us around March 31st, to celebrate his Mom's 97th birthday. DH's brother and his wife are also planning to fly in, with the twins, for a big family reunion :) In the meantime, my own folks are traipsing through Chile - sounds like a lot of fun: active volcanoes, lots of trees and flowers and lots of opportunities to practice their spanish!

Hope you're all keeping warm and having fun.

Football cake

Quick update on the football cake: the shape is a little less than perfect (slightly lumpy), but I managed to produce something vaguely resembling a football. I just hope it tastes good :)

And now I'm ready to sleep. Too much cake and icing and running around trying to get this thing assembled. But I'm glad I took a picture, so I can have a reminder :) This is the first time that I've attempted something cooky like that.

Welcome to February

And so it is February. Winterlude, Ottawa's yearly winter festival has started. The canal is filled with people on skates, taking advantage of the mild-ish weather. DH went skating earlier this week, but I haven't had the chance yet. Instead, today we went to the National Gallery, to see a traditional Haida dance performance. A friend from the McGill alumni choir had invited us, and it was definitely worth the visit. Both DH and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I'd never had a chance to see anything like this in person, and I found it very captivating. I was expecting to be entertained, but came out spiritually rejuvenated. I'd certainly recommend it. Although it seems like this is a fairly rare event, so unless you live on the west coast of BC you may not often get the chance to see something like this. I certainly gained a better appreciation for the Haida carvings. Seen in a museum, they may be interesting, but when worn in a dance, they take on a life of their own, and seem to communicate a lot more. Or at least that's been my experience... So I am very thankful to my friend for letting us know this was happening (it didn't seem to be a very publicised event).

Tomorrow we're going to a friends' house for a Superbowl party. I am attempting to make a football shaped cake - hope it comes out ok :O

Later,

More kittens...

Man, I can't believe February is almost here. Where does the time go? This Saturday, my parents are leaving for a vacation in Chile...

Not much time for posting tonight, but I just wanted to add another movie starring our favourite kittens :)



Later!

Kittens... soooo cute!

As promised, I'm posting a video of kitten sillyness. Nothing cuter than tiny little kittens discovering their world.



Hope you like it!