Wednesday, September 30, 2009

the face of grace


the face of grace
Originally uploaded by Julep67
I hate snot.

I hate that my nose is sore from blowing it too much.

I hate coughing.

I hate not being able to sleep because my nose won't stop running.

Fortunately, some of these symptoms have improved for me over the past 24 hours and I'm back at work today.

On Friday, I had a sore throat (one of my colleagues was sick last week) and on Saturday morning, I felt a full-blown cold coming on.

Instead of wallow in it, I got up, got dressed, took the dogs to the dog park with Mark and then did some errands. Following that, in an attempt to "sweat it out," I starting to clean up some bushes on our front lawn, trimming them, bagging the branches up, etc. We took a run to the composting centre and then did a couple of errands.

Sadly, I was feeling more like hammered shit and I was disappointed by it. On Sunday, I felt even worse but kept moving, I had stuff to do and thought that if I stopped, or slowed down, the cold would catch me. Overnight, it did just that but I needed to go into the office for at least part of the day on Monday. I dragged my sorry ass out of bed and got some stuff done at work. I took the afternoon off and yesterday too. Today I'm feeling much better although still have a cold. I re-learned the valuable lesson this week that I cannot take cold meds because they keep me wired and I can't sleep. When I can't sleep, I can't feel better. Last night, after two restless nights, I slept and can actually breathe a little bit today.

So hopefully, that's it for me. My autumn cold, out of the way nice and early. I'm hoping for a healthy fall / winter this year. I deserve it and so does my poor nose.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

extension


chef mark
Originally uploaded by Julep67
Summer is hanging around in our part of the world and that has allowed us to continue barbecuing. We have a natural gas barbecue with a permanent hook up on our deck so it's really only when the barbecue is frozen totally solid that we can't use it but it's far more pleasant to use it when you can enjoy the deck and the sounds of the bugs being zapped in the zapper at the same time.

Happily, I just read that there is a remastered, cinema re-release of The Godfather happening in the UK. I hope that it makes it to screens in Canada. That would be something to look forward to. It'll be nice to see a classic film which has been restored and revived instead of the same old bad remakes of films that we've had shoved down our throats in recent years. I remember going to see a special 25 anniversary screening of a restored "Last Tango in Paris" in the late 90's. I was too young to see it (I was 5) when it was originally released so it was a massive treat to see it on the big screen instead of on video at home.

Some films are just better on the big screen, I think that The Godfather is one of them.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

where's the water?


where's the water?
Originally uploaded by Julep67
Last night, Mark took me for the last official ice cream cone of the summer. Summer's officially over later today but it feels like it's going to stick around for a while and I'm not complaining. The ice cream cone was pretty yummy, we just went to the DQ near our house while we were out doing some errands last night.

The big indicator to me that summer is almost over is Sam's nose. When the days start to get shorter, the pigment in his nose fades and it turns from very black to pink. The very tip of his nose is showing signs of pink right now.

I actually love this time of the year and can't wait to get my Halloween decorations up. I hope to get my windows washed this weekend so I can get my window display up. I got the neatest table cloth at the dollar store this year. It's a flanel backed, black table cloth with lots of pumpkins and skeletons and stuff on it. Yay dollar store! I also know exactly where my box of decorations is so it should go pretty smoothly. Last year, both Mark and I had pneumonia in the fall and I didn't really bother thinking about Halloween until almost the week before, which isn't really like me. It's one of my favourite holidays and I'm really looking forward to it at the moment!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Joe


Joe
Originally uploaded by Julep67
Last week's birthday celebrations did not got exactly as I'd thought that they would.

First of all, birthday Tiffany was out of the country on her birthday. She was whooping it up in Vegas, lucky girl. This meant though that I did not get to talk to her on her birthday or wish her a happy birthday, in person, 2 days late, at Lucia's birthday party.

Speaking of Lucia's birthday party, we stayed about 45 minutes and then left. Unfortunately, Mark quit work a little early on Wednesday afternoon because he had a migraine. He still had one on Thursday morning and could not shake it. By the time I finished work on Thursday (he'd stayed home), he was feeling better, still fragile but better. We decided we would try to go to the party. It was being held at an absolutely fabulous restaurant downtown. We were the first to arrive (which surprised us). They were expecting about 25 people and it was WARM in the room already. Warm is not good for a migraine sufferer. Once folks started to arrive and order drinks, I could see Mark turning green. The perfumes, the alcohol, the kitchen smells, it was getting to be too much. We stayed long enough to have a very quick visit with Lucia's parents and her grandparents and then we left.

On the way home, we stopped off at Dong Nai for soup but even that didn't help Mark. I'd never seen him so sick and he almost never had a migraine for 2 days. Awful stuff. Friday morning, fortunately, he felt better and went back to work.

We had a pretty good weekend, did lots of stuff around the house, got some errands done. We thought a lot about Mark's dad Joe too. He passed away 3 years ago this weekend. It's really difficult for me to believe that 3 years have passed but they have. I think about Joe all of the time, sometimes at silly times, often times when Mark is cooking and I think about much Joe loved good food. We miss him, lots. 3 years, crazy.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Birthday week!


first all ages show
Originally uploaded by Julep67
Tiffany (the lovely girl on the right in this photo) is having a birthday today. Happy Birthday Tiffy!! this photo of her is about 14 years old but her face is still as sweet as it was when she went to her first all ages show (cue Juliana Hatfield's "My Sister" here - although it was a cub show).

Also celebrating a birthday this week (already!) is Tiffany's beautiful niece, Lucia. How is it that Lucia is already (almost) a year old? We'll be celebrating 1 year of Lucia on Thursday.

Happy Birthday to all of the wonderful September babies!!

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

recycling


lantern
Originally uploaded by Julep67
For our wedding, we bought a bunch of little battery operated, paper lanterns which were hung in the tents. They just offered a little splash of colour to an otherwise drab canopy. We also bought the pictured larger version of the lanterns and hung it in our gazebo (with strings of teeny tiny paper lanterns hung around the perimeter). It was simple and, I thought, pretty.

The battery operated paper lanterns should be in Alberta today I think. The lanterns will be used to decorate the site of my cousin Kelly's wedding in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta on Saturday. Her mum and dad (my lovely Auntie Karen & Uncle Mike) were transporting them to Alberta. I think it's going to be a surprise (but I also think that Kelly is too busy to read this so that's okay) for Kelly. I was just really happy to think that even though Mark and I couldn't get to Alberta for Kelly's wedding, our wedding lanterns could.

We enjoyed a nice long weekend here. Mark and I both took Friday off so we'd have a four-day break. On Friday, we spent a good sized chunk of the day running errands. We did get to visit my parents as well and pick up yet another fabulous wedding gift which had been left at their house. A family friend made us a beautiful quilt, I still cannot get over how generous and thoughtful folks have been. I'm enjoying it but it's so much more than I imagined!

Unfortunately, for the last couple of days (Monday and Tuesday), I was laid up feeling crappy. It was a combo of allergy weirdness, stomach wonkyness and my back misbehaving. I'm back at work today but am on the heating pad and am not moving much more than I absolutely have to. Tomorrow will be better than today has been. Friday will be better than Thursday, I know this because I deal with this once or twice a year. It's never fun but it always goes away, in time.

So that's the news from me for now. I will warn you though, we saw District 9 over the weekend and it's seriously the best movie I've seen since Slumdog Millionaire (and I don't usually like sci-fi movies) so I plan to rave a lot about it when I have more time. Be prepared!!

Thursday, September 03, 2009

grandparents in training


Uncle Rod and Aunt Mary
Originally uploaded by Julep67
So, it's September. How awesome is that!?

There are many things to love about September:

- sunny lovely amazing weather
- tomatoes are tasting better now than they do all year
- new lunch boxes (my old one finally bit the dust after 10 years and I broke down and bought myself a snazzy new one)
- babies - a friend of mine had a baby girl yesterday (yay) and my cousin and his wife (the son of my gorgeous aunt and uncle pictured here) announced that they are expecting their first child
- long weekends and then some (taking tomorrow off and enjoying a four day weekend)
- new fences and gates at our dog park - extra safety is always a good thing

So yeah, 3 days in, September is already shaping up to be possibly the best month of the year!