return from hiatus

I never intended to be away for two weeks. Funny how that happens though huh?? The week before last was one of the busiest work-week's of the year for me. It was super stressful too. Our office puts on one of those "big and annual" types of events and it was held over the October 22 weekend. I wasn't as involved with it as I had been in previous years but I worked for a good chunk of the weekend all the same.

One of the benefits of being "not so involved" was that I was able to escape on Saturday, during the day. Mark and I took off to Toronto for what was to be a two and a half day break away. Saturday was terrific. We had a gorgeous drive to TO, saw some friends, had a terrific meal and opted for an early night. The next day, when I woke up, I was in a bad way. I had developed a cold and it had gone straight into my back (actually the top of my left hip but for the sake of argument, we'll call it my back). This is a weakness that I have developed as an adult. When I don't have a cold in my back, I'm as strong as an ox. On the odd occasion that this happens, the only thing that helps, is bed-rest and a heating pad. After a hot shower, I was feeling a little more mobile so we went on about our day. We did a couple of errands and I could feel myself loosening up, maybe this wasn't going to be quite so bad. By the time we got to our friends' for brunch, I could not stand up straight. Several hours later, I knew I had to go home. We checked out of our hotel early, grabbed dinner and then headed for home.

I was never so happy to see my own bed as I was Sunday night. This week was pretty ugly. Monday and Tuesday were spent on my back, on the heating pad. The last two days, my back has felt great, totally back to normal. Right now though, I have some kind of weird stiffness in my neck and cannot turn my head to the right. I feel old and broken right now. Honestly though, I think that this is just cold related. I still feel stuffed up in the mornings and I've had a small cough that comes and goes.

Stiff neck and all, we went to see "Ray" yesterday. I very much enjoyed it. The music, of course, was fabulous and I thought that Jamie Foxx was spookily good in his role as the legendary Mr Charles. For a long time, Mark and I had stopped going to the movies but we've now been to see two, in as many weeks. I must admit, I loves me a Saturday matinee. It feels like it's turning into something that we're going to be doing on a regular basis again.

Amongst all of this whining and crawling around, I've managed (with Mark's fabulous help) to get ready for Halloween. We don't go nuts and turn our yard in a cool cemetery like some of the neighbours do but we do put up our orange and purple light and get the skeleton and pumpkin out. I spent a couple of heating-pad-riding-evenings last week making up goodie bags. I have treats for 120 kids this year. That should be enough. Last year I had just over 100 kids at my door.

One thing that made me smile today: The time change. When I woke up this morning at 5 a.m. and realized it was actually 5 a.m., I was a happy kid. I have done a load of laundry, tidied up the downstairs and taken a few minutes to write in this blog with my found hour. What did you do with your extra hour?