Wednesday, November 14, 2007

i just about piddled in my pants

listening to this one.... bear with me - i was laughing my behind off!! and even if you don't like ellen, believe me, its good!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Dave Matthews Band - Say Goodbye

just because... one of my favorite songs... especially at 2 in the morning...

and again...

so instead of laying there tonight... again... i'm up. might as well throw a bit onto the blog. what the heck.

windier than all get out today. and our recycle bin has blown away. funny thing b said to me as we were discussing it - "i can't believe it would blow away when there was so much stuff in it" HA!
the guy was by today to pick it up! good giggle either way. but our bin is still gone. maybe a quick drive down the street tomorrow is in order - i saw a garbage can that belongs to the neighbour behind us was in the walkway a few houses down. so maybe its around. the lid was under our next-door neighbour's truck. hopefully its not far.

went into the city this afternoon for a bit. dh had an interview late this afternoon, so we went and wandered the mall for a while. surprising how many people had the day off - this was the first time ever that dh got the day off for rememberance day. it was hot and crowded and my patience wore thin fairly quick - not something normal for me. we did find a new winter coat for j though. we've been looking for a while, and found one he's happy with. and on sale!

we had a quick stirfry dinner tonight of broccoli and beef, using the seasoning mix packet from the spice aisle of the grocery store. we were quite pleased with the results. it was yummy and quick!

j is in another play again with the theatre here. he was missed on the audition calls, and when they finally did call him, it was to be a second for a part, as well as a technical stage hand again as well. so he does have days that he is performing for sure, and is having a grand time as well. he really enjoys his time working with the theatre group.

well, i'm going to go and try to get back to sleep. hopefully its not too long a night again...

Saturday, November 10, 2007

sleeplessness

i think that when you're pregnant, your body programs itself to require less sleep than usual. you're up every couple hours to pee, and whether you're actually fully awake, or more the stumbling type, you get accustomed to waking every couple hours whether you need to or not. then as a new mom, you struggle through the wee hours of the night, again, either fully awake or just barely stumbling through, to fetch that little one to you, feed and relax again into sleep.

and eventually, your little ones outgrow the need for you in the night. even my guys will very rarely wake me up if they are ill.

but then there are nights like last night. where i tried every "trick" in my book. counting, breathing, relaxing, to no avail. i know that i must have slept at some point. the last time i looked at the clock it was just before 7am this morning. but my brain did not revel in sleep. it was very much active and awake. and as such, today i was a sloth.

i spent the morning on the couch in the basement, watching a terrible movie with my youngest son, who eventually realized that i had dozed off and teletoon had a far more interesting movie on than was on tbs, changed the channel. the two of us peeled ourselves away from the tv around 11am, and i got myself into the shower.

then we had a baking lesson. my little b wanted to make butter tarts. i was half wondering to myself where he had even seen them to be wanting to make them (i'm thinking on our trip to costco yesterday... perhaps?) so i indulged him. i've had the tart shells in the freezer since last fall when i made a few batches for some reason or other. so that's what we did. he was so proud of himself, measuring and making sure we were following the instructions. and they turned out wonderful. even kikanue indulged in a couple that she pulled off the tray while we were downstairs after lunch. go figure. a doggie with a sweet tooth!

so this afternoon was more of the same for me. the tv on, but me dozing most of the programs away. dh and the big man had gone to the city this morning to fetch the shower stall and last 2 remaining doors for the basement. so the loaded them into the house, and then headed out to the garage for some male bonding time playing darts for the rest of the afternoon. little b went to play with a friend for a while, and then he also joined the guys outside. the good thing was dinner was easy tonight - costco pizza and a salad, followed by the butter tarts for dessert. a great saturday night dinner if you ask me!

so now, dh is snoring (he also didn't sleep well last night) and i'm awake. perhaps a little too awake for not sleeping last night. but i do need to get there. i'm thinking a little snog of something will help put me out for the night.

if there ever was a reason to be up in the middle of the night, a little one to cuddle would be the best reason ever. watching the alarm clock count the minutes just doesn't do it for me.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

people are weird

like this morning - parked my car on the street in downtown calgary, no sooner had i put it in park, and some chickie smokes the front driver's side on the bumper. there was a casual "sorry - here's my info" like it was an everyday occurence for her. who knows! maybe it is! (i should have looked closer at her bumper - maybe there's more to see!) thank goodness it was only a scuff, dh buffed it tonight, and its all good now. phew. not even so much as a mark on the bumper.

and the odd interview i went to this morning. started out the other day with her calling me and grilling me. ok... i get that, not alot of time to chit-chat in a busy environment. and today, she wanted me to interview for a photo-copy sales position. um, no. not my thing. should have maybe asked a couple more questions on the phone the other day, but given how that went...

then went to work, and had to shake my head. two of us were working on a large display, and when we got there, i asked that our "contact" lady be paged to come down and meet us. more than an hour later, i asked one of the clerks if they could page her again, as we were part way through and i wanted to know where exactly she wanted the display, and she finally came down and told us that she wanted things done differently from what we had started. um hello? we've been here an hour! if she had come down when first paged, it wouldn't have even been an issue. whatever.

and that was quite enough of odd people for the day.

so looking to tomorrow - the boys are off school, so we're going in to hang out with the nieces and nephew in the morning for a bit, then i'll probably drop the boys off for a visit with their great-grandma and i'll go and get a bit of work done that was dropped in my lap tonight. then i'm sure we'll head to the mall, or costco, or something for a bit, then home for the evening.

a dear friend of mine called last night, haven't talked to her in ages. the last time we connected, she was in the midst of going to turkey for a month with her now fiancee and her mom, and then returning only to be moving shortly thereafter. that was the beginning of june. so found out last night that she did finally move a week or so ago, and is closer than she was - she had been in prince george, bc for the last 6 years. the kids are quite happy to hear that she is now in cranbrook, and we hope to connect soon for a visit, hopefully at christmas time at the latest.

funny how things can change, but also how fast time can go by.

it was a quiet week for work for me, but a good opportunity to work with a friend of mine that is also working for the same company. the nice thing is with her being around the corner, she'll drive in with me, so that makes it quite nice for the commute. we got some nice big displays set up this week, and the stores are happy with that.

food wise the last week, things have been somewhat usual. tonight was brats and fries and salad night - along with watching grey's, big shots and survivor.

but something we had the other night was definitely decadent, but downright delicious. so here it is:

shrimp and parsley... (oh yes, its good!)

4 lbs shrimp, unpeeled (check out the zipperback shrimp from extra foods/superstore in the green bag, 2 lbs per bag. got these ones last week, $18 for 4 lbs - so $4.50 a pound.)

1 cup butter
6-8 cloves garlic, sliced
2-4 bunches of parsley, depending on size - you need a good amount of parsley!! 2 bunches if their big, 4 if they're not
1-2 loaves of french bread, unsliced

ok, since this is one of those throw it in the pan recipe, its more method than anything...

turn oven to 250, place unsliced bread in, no foil, no pan, nothing. you just want to warm and freshen up the bread. put the biggest frypan you have on the stovetop, turn to med-high heat. add butter. in the meantime, slice your garlic, and as the butter has started to melt, put in the garlic. rough chop up the parsley, throw it in the pan. swirl around in the butter (it should be all melted now, but not sizzling). pour your shrimp over top, don't worry if they're not thawed out. it works just the same. cover, and let simmer for a couple minutes. stir. cover. repeat until all the shrimp are pink and cooked. remove from heat.

take the bread out of the oven, slice thick.

on your table you want to have spread out that day's newspaper a couple layers thick. set out a soup plate (the ones with the rim) and a fork for everyone, and napkin(s). put the pan of shrimp in the middle, and dig in. you'll have alot of liquid in the pan (this is NOT all butter the parsley absorbed that! - it's basically a shrimp stock) throw the shrimp peels on the newspaper, dunk your bread in the sauce and eat it with the parsley (yummy and good for you!), drink some good wine and just enjoy. we will also have a salad with this too, just greens and a light dressing is a good combo to compliment your dinner.

serves 4-5 hungry people!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

missed it all...

taking any pics that is - we were just too busy having fun last night to take any pictures. but heck, we had a grand time anyways. dh dressed up as a crash test dummy, i was my usual witch, ds#1 was a roman god, and ds#2 was a crusader. all in all it was a great time :)

we had over 100 kids come for a treat last night - and it was quite funny with the older ones when i asked them if they wanted playdoh or a glow-bracelet. and interestingly enough, more of them wanted the playdoh! you're never too old is my thinking. costco had these mini playdoh's - 80 of the for $12 or something. so that made it reasonable, and my thinking is that the kids always get more candy than they possibly need, so something different is quite welcome!

dinner last night was a quick one - the kids were anxious to get going, dh was anxious to go hang outside on the porch, and for me, after a busy day, it was nice to just get something simple and hearty in our bellies. so we had a quick panini sandwich (plain cheese for b and i, pastrami and roast beast and cheese for dh and j) and a bowl of mushroom soup. gotta love it!

its been busy with work this week, and i'm quite glad that tomorrow is friday. looking forward to a not too busy weekend.

had an interesting job interview this afternoon with a placement agency. interesting in that the fellow i met with was someone that is on the same sort of wavelength as i am - that its not always the schooling that will make a person better for a job than another. we'll see where that goes!

so that's about it for an update tonight - i'm quite ready for bed, and need to be out the door early tomorrow morning.