My mum went home on Wednesday and I spent the rest of the day futzing about. The next morning I had to leave early for a sales meeting and then dinner so I wasn't home until about 8pm. My poor puppies - they have been attention starved these past few days. On Friday I was at my desk by 6:30am and stayed until about 6:00pm, although the last hour or so was to load songs on my iPod. JP bought me a bottle of Chardonnay which was yummy and much needed.

Today it's a mellow saturday. First I watched Hackers and then The Price of Milk, well it's a good thing its cooler and cloudy because I would have really felt guilty! I did get the lights fixed in my car, especially my signal lights which is a good thing because I hate driving around town with my window down and hand signalling!

I'm grumpy and I don't know why. Any ideas?

Birthday Update

Well yesterday, it turned out to be 37 degrees C where I live. So since it takes an hour and a half to get to Nick's on Commercial Drive in Vancouver and my mom is visiting and can't take the heat at all.... we postponed the dinner there and went to a butcher instead to pick up some pre-marinated steaks. I grillled some zucchini, whole mushrooms and rib eyes. We had creamy coleslaw and some potato salad. Voila! Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Last year when my mom was visiting, she bought me a metal ornament which was a garden angel. Through the year the top layer of decorative paint had come off; she had no flowers on her dress anymore and only 1 eye! So while we were sitting outside in the afternoon, my mom repainted my angel for me. My mom is a very talented painter, so I was glad I asked her. She used a collection of older enamels and had to work with my limited supply of brushes. That must be hard for an artist - to work with someone else's supplies. I like how she's tanned; she should be, she's outside all the time! And green eyes seem perfect for a garden angel too.

Present update: JP also gave me a cute purse/makeup bag and a business card holder (don't forget the iPod Nano and Otter waterproof case). I also received a gift certificate for a spa from 2 guys I work with plus my generous brother said I could buy a Broil King BBQ (I've already printed the list of dealers so I can look around for the one we want!) My mom gave me the gorgeous pumps.

And my lilies opened up in time for my birthday - thank you Mother Nature.

Oh yes....Thank you Cynthia for the lovely birthday wishes, how nice of you! Aren't July birthdays the best?

It's ma birthday!

Hello! I haven't been here because my mom's been in town and I've been driving around showing her the sights. Too bad she doesn't do well in the heat and we've had a heat wave, sometimes getting to 37degrees Celsius! Plus my car doesn't have air conditioning. Today I'm up early, watering the garden and I'm going to walk my dogs although the humidity is at 88% at the moment!

So far JP has given me a iPod Nano, my mom gave me some gorgeous shoes and my aunt gave me a lovely collection of seashells to go with a large candle and plate. That's all I know for now.

While I was out with my mum yesterday, Jp baked me a lovely angel food cake with yummy icing. It is one of the few cakes he's made (I think) and I appreciate that so very much! He even had silver candles and sparklers! Way to go!

Dinner tonight at Nick's on Commercial Drive. YUMM!

Yeah, I know I'm kind of a downer this week, but the weather's been crappy, I bought those Ikea bookshelves and work, well, work is work; lost that day helping that guy and spent most of my time rearranging my room. I did manage to get about 4-5 rows of the sweater knitted last night, and 3-4 rows of the mitten too. I'm less than 10 rows from the neck line of the sweater which is exciting. I'm just a little blue, and low on energy for some reason. Getting old? Out of shape? Just don't know. Just tired.

On Tuesday, I left the house at 5:30 am to pick up a co-worker by 7:00 to take him to the hospital by 9:00 for surgery. I stayed with him until 10:00 and then did some errands for work. At 12:45 the surgery centre called me to say he was ready to be picked up, but that I'd have to pick up his prescription too. So I got there early, went to the pharmacy and bought his prescription (out of my pocket), waited for him to be ready, and then took him home. The surgery centre had told me he should not be alone that night, so I called JP to see what I should do. Bring him home with me? JP said to stay with him until he got there and then he'd spend the night with him. Wow! That's a lot of stuff to do for a co-worker! 200 km's later too. Where were all his supposed 'friends'? He insisted that I didn't need to stay and that friends were picking him up to stay the night. I argued for a bit and then left. How hard am I supposed to push someone?

Oh there's more to the story, but it's very long-winded. Basically because of this and other things I haven't been able to knit one %$@# thing! It's a good thing it's raining - but not really because rain means work is super busy and yesterday I worked 2 hours of overtime, today I started at 6:15 am! Tonight. Maybe tonight, I can go back to my things. I had really wanted to finish the front of the Piano sweater before my mom's arrival on the 19th, but I don't think I'll be able to make that deadline. I'll let you know.

Grey

Well after having about 2 weeks of beautiful sunny weather, we're back to grey skies. It hardly feels like I had a chance to enjoy those days at all, they went so fast. Today I'll run down to the grocery store and then mow the lawn. I had been holding off on that chore because it was soooooo hot. Besides it seems that the grass doesn't really grow that much when it's that hot.

Once those two things are done I guess I'll get back to knitting the piano sweater. My sister-in-law's mum is giving me a garbage bag full of yarns and my mum will be bringing it with her (or as much as she can carry) when she comes to visit in less than two weeks. So I'd better get working so I have room to keep all this stuff!

I went to order some perfect-for-organizing shelves from Ikea. I even spent 2-3 nights when I was trying to fall asleep thinking about moving stuff around and how I'd organize everything. So I order on-line. First they tell me they don't deliver to my area and I'd have to pick it up from a depot. I tell them I can't pick it up, that's why I'm ordering it. They tell me they'll call me back with a new delivery price. So they call a couple of days later and say it'll be $200+ for delivery! The store is an hour from me! I go back to the website and it says they have a flat rate delivery to my city for $79! Grrr, back to square one. I haven't ordered them again.... but I'd sure like to have them to organize my office/craft/storage room, especially before mum gets here!

Canada Day Long Weekend

Phew! It was a fairly busy long weekend. Here's what I did:
- weeded several gardens
- mixed up new dirt from compost, peat moss and sand
- transplanted the zucchini and pole beans
- made a teepee for the pole beans with a decorative top
- painted one shelf
- stained and varnished one shelf
- stained and varnished a peg 'shelf'
- fixed and varnished the 'castle' birdhouse
- painted another bird house
- spray painted a wicker flower with yellow petals, green stem and leaves and a white centre
- sprayed 'Weed and Feed" on the front lawn
- chopped up the branches we pruned off two weeks ago
- fixed the roof of the pergola
... oh I'm sure I could think of little niggly things, but I'll stop right there.

On Sunday we went to my friend's BBQ and I gave them the little baby hat and booties as she's due in 6 weeks and gave their little girl the monkey. I think she was happy to receive it. It was a pretty overwheming day with that many people for a two year old.

While we were saying our goodbye's at the barbecue, an old ex-friend (long story) came up to talk to me. He was quite happy and rambling on about a mutual friend who just missed us but was coming back and then he said " So when did you...." and someone called him away and then
we left. So my mind had fun with what the end of the sentence could be: cut your hair/grow your hair/change jobs/get fat/become bitchy/become nice/drive a Volkswagen... a whole plethora of possible endings running a full range of feelings and opinions ran through my mind. Well I had fun with it, but I'll never know what he was going to say.

Back to my desk, the bigger celadon monkey seems to really miss the little monkey, in fact, it's arm is still out like it was holding it. Maybe I'll have to make another. Of course when my mom comes on the 19th and picks up her celadon coloured monkey, then the one I am yet to make will need a partner and I'll be making monkeys until the end of time.

Happy Canada Day. Thanks for the day off work!