Last night was Peter's indoor paddling event. Chanda drove to my place and we car-pooled in to OPA.

Quite a few people were there - Nathan, Stringer, Dray, Attila, P.J. and a few of the Mayfair bunch. It was a good event - lots of races, lots of cheering, good results! Pete had also brought in beer and sandwiches from the butchers/caterers. I've posted some photos on FB.

Kaylynne's home for reading week and we decided this was a good venue to get together. She brought me some honey from her dad's beehive and a whole bagful of kekoi from her trip to Kenya.
It's so great to see her! Of course I had to see the scar from her (unexpected) heart surgery at Christmas. It's much smaller than expected and looks like it'll fade quickly.

When Kaylynne started pulling the fabrics out of her bag, it looked like she was opening a bazaar. They're all such gorgeous colours, I had trouble deciding and had to limit myself to seven: 2 x 4m fabric, 4 kikoi and 1 kanga (I can't remember if this is what Kaylynne called it but she explained it as the wrap people use to carry babies or, you know, wood).
She, Chanda and I were just hanging out together and I can see why some people say we girls are sometimes cliquey or even bitchy. There were other people to talk to and we should have really been circulating but since we haven't seen each other in awhile, we have lots to talk about, mutual friends, stories to share. I had every intention of going to talk to this person or that but before we knew it, most of the people had left and the guys were getting their poker on.

Kaylynne is finished school this year so back in the 'saug for the summer (after a brief stint in Kenya, mentoring new students). In the course of our conversation we determined that we'll do dragon boat together (the heart surgery has forced her to retire from high performance kayak), form a(nother) book club. Kaylynne and I also discovered we both intend to take sewing lessons so there's that too. We have our hearts set on Chelsea's mom for a teacher but realize she's probably too busy. We figure kikoi would make amazing boat and paddle covers.

I grabbed my stash of beautiful fabric, seriously feeling like a gypsy, and got ready to leave. No way was I getting sucked into losing my money at poker (I've only won twice while playing with the guys). Kaylynne was leaving to return to PEI with her sister + sister's boyfriend first thing in the morning so we said bye at our cars

I had a raging headache for some reason so after I dropped Chan at her car, I went straight back out to shoppers to get a giant bottle of advil.

Ryan and I are meeting Laurel for dinner tonight - Steak Frites on Yonge - so I asked if he wanted to bring Sylvie along. I haven't met her yet and I thought this might be a good opportunity - just a couple of us shouldn't be so overwhelming. We met at Laurel's and then headed over in one car.
The restaurant has a good atmosphere, basic cuisine. Sylvie is great - I like her a lot! Smart, confident without being overbearing, self-sufficient, works as a project manager for a non-profit org that provides educational tools or some such.

Sunday, I went to see my dad, first time since his last trip to the hospital. A nurse goes in to administer the iv drugs every day and he's still on oxygen. At first I was stunned by how alert he was, then realized it was most likely due to the oxygen. Miriam was the caregiver on today. She was feeding him the nursing homes gelified version of breakfast - anything solid is watered down and anything watery is thickened by some powder they add. He still frequently chokes on it though - a horrifying few moments with soundless gagging while he tries to pull air into his lungs and form a feeble cough - there's nothing you can do but wait it out. Things that were alarming a couple of years ago are just routine these days.

Miriam said she just passed her citizenship test and will be attending the ceremony tomorrow (Family Day). She said she had failed the test once because they changed the questions. I wasn't sure what she meant so she explained. New Canadians can choose to study from the book provided by the government or from the actual test, with answers, that's posted on the Internet. She had been studying the one on the Internet when Canadian Immigration had actually changed the tests. So she failed. This time she had passed because the correct cheat test was online. I smiled and congratulated her when I was actually pissed that so many people are getting their ticket to border freedom (Canadian passport) without bothering to learn anything about the country. Yeah, I know, how naive am I.

I never finished that last post... so after the travel slideshow, Ryan and I decided to catch the last of the sun and walk up to the grocery store in Lorne Park. On the way I asked if he and Sylvie were still dating (they hadn't been going out for very long before he left) and he said yes, they had carried on through fb, txts and phone calls while he was gone. I wasn't sure because he hadn't mentioned her wanting to pick him up at the airport or when he'd be seeing her now that he was home. .
As it turns out, he was heading over to her condo in a little while. We talked about his plans now that he's home;  careers he'll pursue, the companies at which he'll apply and so on but not about residence. You have to understand, for a parent, no, make that for a mom, this conversation is full of pitfalls. On the one hand it's important that he knows my home is always his home, on the other, having a 31 year old son back at home can cause a strain on your mom-son and other relationships. As usual, I was overthinking things. As it turns out, he's moving in with Sylvie! I haven't met her but it sounds like they have a good relationship. I'm really pleased about it!

I didn't know what Ryan planned to do on his first day home. Actually, I didn't know his short or long term plans. He'd given up his apartment and job when he left for Australia. For the time being though, I figured I'd hang around the house until he woke up so I could find out more. i cleaned up a bit, went for a long walk through the marsh and Jack Darling, watched some tv....Ryan just kept sleeping. I was starting to think I should just make my own plan for the day when I heard him walking around upstairs. 12 hours - not so unusual for that kind of trip.

He was still pretty groggy but was trying to force a reset of his circadian rhythms. We had leftover thai food for brunch and then connected his camera to the tv for a slideshow of his thousands of photos. Actually, he discovered that he'd left the cable for his Sony camera at Gavin's so we put his card into my camera and then had to search around for the video cable for the Canon. It was so worth it! His photos are fantastic. I've only seen a handful that he uploaded to FB. And there's a clear evolution of his photography skills from the start of his trip to the end.

Friday afternoon was beautiful and sunny so after work (we got off at 3pm - hour early for long weekend) I went for a run/walk, then grabbed a coffee at Tim Horton's in Clarkson and walked home through the marsh. I was out of the wind in there but the treetops were constantly thrashing. The occasional twig came down but I figured I was fairly safe from bigger branches since this had been going on all day. The trail was icy and the creek was high and fast from all the melt but the sun was everything. I feel like I can make it through a few more weeks until spring, no matter what winter has left to throw at us.

Ryan's flight was coming in between 8:30 & 9:00pm. Thanks to the internet, you can find out every detail about a flight's progress, including minute-by-minute changes to departure & landing time. I was buffeted all over the road by the 100km hour winds as I drove to the airport. I kept my mind off what the approach and landing would be like. If it was that bad, they would have cancelled all kinds of flights, right? I watch the planes coming in as I drove up the last stretch of the 427 and it was interesting.

I texted Ryan to let him know I was in the airport. Since the last leg of his flight was from San Francisco, it was doubtful they'd be delayed too long in customs. His flight had landed but still no text (found out later that his phone had been disabled). I looked up from my book just as he walked through the exit - tanned, thinner, looking great. Not jet-lagged or travel weary at all! He was shocked by the cold as we walked through the parking lot but he said he didn't mind - he was happy to be home.

He'd flown straight from Alice Springs to Melbourne to catch his flight and hadn't eaten in hours so we went to the Crooked Cue for a meal. He told me some of the stories from his trip, especially the last stretch through the outback. About halfway through, I could see him start to lose focus. The hours of travelling were finally getting to him. The only souvenir he'd bought was a leather hat for the outback so I made him put it on for a photo. He also got me a bunch of RipCurl stickers for my board/boat/blade.

When we got home, he wasn't quite tired enough to go to bed so we decided to watch a movie. Everything available was pretty intense - Inception, Machete etc - too much for someone baffled by 24 hours of air travel. We settled on Toy Story 3 as something mindlessly entertaining. It's actually pretty clever. Of course he barely made it halfway through before he passed out.

I'm so pleased Ryan's home again and that he had such an amazing experience.

The weather in Toronto is INSANE!  Sunny & warm - It was 12 when I was driving into work this morning, w-network says it's 8 now but that's with a brisk 45km/hr wind.
For some reason,  I completely gapped out on Marisha's birthday in early February so I invited her over for dinner along with Eve and Chrissy. Chrissy had a CKC-WOD organizing committee meeting so she dropped by later. We ordered in Thai food, had mini New York style cheese cakes instead of a birthday cake, lots of wine, lemon ginger tea and laughs. Great night just hanging out and catching up.

Ryan gets home from 3 month in Australia tomorrow night. He's been in the outback for the past week - Melbourne to Alice Springs. I hope he's not too jet-lagged when he gets home - I want to hear all about it and check out his photos.

Damn. Some chinese spammer got into my gmail somehow and harvested my contacts. Sent at least two emails before google disabled my account. Funny, the worst thing about cleaning up this type of infection is the number of emails you get from people saying, "Hey, I got this email from you and it looks like you've got a virus". Each one requires a response.

My hair has been bugging me a lot lately, plus I'm not really creative with it - up-dos, messy buns etc. so Friday night, got it cut off. I've basically had my hair in a pony tail since last April and I need a change. Also, I've gained a lot of weight so a new hairstyle is one way to effect immediate change. Hopefully having to take more care of my hair will inspire me to pay more attention to other aspects of my life.

I'm still getting my hair done byVictor in Hazelton Lanes so I parked at Kipling and took the subway into the city. When I left work at 4pm, 680 was reporting the Gardiner was a parking lot so I am loving the subway system!

I love my visits with Victor and I love the new look.  I should have taken a picture of it when I got home but it was late and I was tired. After that, I didn't bother. It always takes a few days before I'm adept at styling it.
Saturday morning, I had breakfast at Helen's and then took a walk through Port Credit. I haven't been along main street for awhile and one of the guys at work told me about a new store for glasses. I found it and he was right, they have some great styles. I bought 3 pair.

I went home planning to hang some pictures, reclaim my house post-renovation, but damn, my new tv makes it difficult. It's so shiny and big, it calls to me even though it's turned off. And it's recorded all of my favourite shows....it's like Ryan Reynolds without his shirt on - impossible to ignore. So, I spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in front of the tv.

Alyson and I have been trying to get together but our plans fell through when Dray's sister Holly asked them to babysit. I was just trying to figure out what I should do for the evening when Alyson called back and invited me for dinner. I haven't seen those guys in ages - it was really nice to hang out with them and the girls. Meredith and Hilary are pretty amazing, they're so outgoing and fun. Meredith sang a song for me - she is a natural - confident, with a strong, melodic voice.

On Sunday afternoon, I met Chrissy & Jeff at the canoe club to go skating. Dray was riding the bike upstairs and stepped onto the balcony to wave. After not seeing him for months, suddenly 2 days in a row! Del also dropped by - he was coaching a crew for Jess who was at a course for the navy reserves. We had a brief catch-up before he had to go inside.

Around 6:00, I headed over to Secko's for the Superbowl. Blake and Sydney were there (Jackie wasn't feeling well so stayed home with Mason), along with Amy and her two boys and some neighbours of Tammy and Greg's with their 4 kids. The children stayed downstairs for most of the time - their house is amazing for these kinds of parties. The basement rec room is a kid playland and is far enough away that you don't hear noise unless it's the somebody's-hurt kind. Then the associated parent goes down and fixes it.
No one there was a hardcore football fan - except for Dylan - so although we watched the game, we weren't glued to the tv. We were so busy socializing, none of us even noticed that Xtina messed up the lyrics. The half-time show was terrible. BEP meets TRON (although Slash was ok) and Green Bay won.

I've worked for the school board for 24 years and we (administrative staff) have never been given a snow day. In fact, for our board (East York and then Toronto) I can only remember a handful of snowdays for students. Today, they shut us down... about an hour after I got to work.

They've been talking about this monster storm "the size of Texas" for almost a week. 30cm of snow, mad traffic issues, stock up on bottled water and groceries, hide your kids, hide your wives...mayhem! I wondered about cancelling our 6am practice but since I we had discussed it on the first day and vetoed skipping due to weather and no one messaged, I decided to go. I set the alarm for 5:10 but was woken up by thunder around 4:45 - a crazy boom that shook my walls and rolled into the distance for over a minute. It was so uncharacteristic of thunder that I wondered if there'd actually been an explosion at the Petro Can plant.
I looked outside and there really wasn't a lot of snow - somewhere less than 10cm. Still, I threw a shovel in the back of the Pathfinder in case I got plowed in somewhere. I'd put the truck in 4-wheel drive before backing it into the garage last night but really, all these precautions were unnecessary.

The first thing I heard on 680 was that the Gardner was closed in both directions between the Humber and Kipling. A hydro pole had been knocked down, dragging the wires across all lanes. My destination was Islington but decided to go straight across Lakeshore instead of getting caught in the bottleneck at Kipling. I got to Pete's gym at 6:00 and of course no one was there. I texted Peter and he responded right away - he figured we wouldn't bother because of the weather. I felt really bad but going back home wasn't an option and the doors wouldn't be open at work for another hour. Pete came and opened up - gave me a workout and went outside to shovel the walk in front of the gym. He's gotten the furnace installed now so the gym is warm.

I heard on the radio that pretty much all of the school boards had finally caved and declared a snow day for kids. We, on the other hand, had received an email from our boss the night before asking those of us who live close to the office to arrive a half hour early to cover for others who might get stuck in traffic.

The only people in the entire building were the I.T. department. Nameir came and asked me to take a look at the board website. It said all schools and admin offices were closed. It took our bosses approximately 10 minutes to send us an email to go home. It was barely 8:00 so I said I was going to stick around for awhile to let the plows clear the roads. It was nice and quiet - why go back out on the road?  One of the guys who lives in the apartments behind our office mocked us "Haha, see you suckers, I'm going home" and I pointed out, yeah to your children and wife, stuck in an apartment. I was surprised when he sat back down and called his wife to say he had to stay at work a little longer.

Our boss said if we wanted to stay for a little while and clear up some work, she'd give us a day off at another time. Most of us took her up on it. Eventually the caretaker realized we were in the building. He was shutting it down so he kicked us out around 10. Still in that short period we had cleared up a lot of outstanding work. Yay us!

I stopped at Starbucks, then went by Carrie and Attila's on my way home. I wanted to drop off a Food & Drink magazine I'd picked up at the LCBO for Carrie and some Boo boo bling (registered trademark) from Sephora. That was for Charlie. It's little rhinestone flowers you stick on bandages to sparkle them up. They were having a pyjama day - lounging around the house. Carrie is just two days away from starting her maternity leave. To say she's looking forward to it is an understatement although I understand that she's not too comfortable at the moment with some hip/pelvis issues.

By now the roads were clean and green (that's right - cb radio talk for "roads are clear". The '70s never leave you). The plows had been by at least twice and scraped them down to pavement. Ever notice how the combination of a clean road and salt actually makes the road *more* slippery? The driving's better with a layer of snow on them. Not that it mattered - there was no one out there. I went to the grocery store and bought a ton of fruit - I've been craving it. That weekend in Calgary really threw me off. I slept almost all afternoon. Good because I've been averaging about 3 hours a night since last Friday.

When I woke up, I went outside to find that my next door neighbour had shovelled my driveway! I felt kind of bad because I'm sure he pictured me out working or whatever, when I was just metres away, curled up like a slug in the comfy chair. Anyway, it was the perfect opportunity to take over the art supplies I'd picked up for their daughters at christmas. Mini-easels and canvasses with brushes and acrylic paints. When he opened the door, Ian just peaked through the crack and said he just had his longjohns on. They had taken the kids x-country skiing on the river. I said no worries and thanked him, handing over the bag for the girls. They showed up a few minutes later, coming from the marsh where they were walking the dog. They told me there were waves coming in on the lake from 200m out - pretty much like last night when I saw this guy surfing.

I was watching the Daily Show the other night. I'm recording all the shows I miss because I go to bed so early. Anyway, there was a guy on who's writing (another) life and times of John F. Kennedy. They had a big build up to his interview "which is the most memorable inaugural speech?",  "The most moving?" and everyone answered, "JFK's 'Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country'". I agree with that. So this guy has a photocopy of a speech made by the principal of John Kennedy's prep school, the prestigious Choate, when John was there as a student. And guess what the hook in his speech was. Yup, "Ask not what your school can do for you but what you can do for your school". According to this guy, JFK totally plagerized one of the most memorable speeches in US history.
yeah, you should blush Jack/John, whatever your flipping name was.