Happy birthday, Poopie!

He hates when I call him that in public but he never reads this blog so nyah. If Scott ever did maybe he would have a say but as I like to say, TDB (too damn bad). I slaved over his favourite scratch cake with scratch icing all day yesterday and he got a travel coffee mug, a WWII DVD and a pair of those pharmacy reading glasses. Poor guy. Everytime he reads a magazine or the paper he claims that his arms are shrinking. He can't seem to hold the darn things far enough away from his 44 year old eyes to read them. Hee.

Now on to more bloggy affairs:

My Official Retraction

Okay, here's the deal. Even though I still don't agree with the bizarre chain of events that led up to it, My dad and cousins still came to visit Saturday and we had a great time. So consider this an official retraction to the vitriol that was Thursday's blog.

Frances ended up staying home and my dad came down with my cousins. I often grump and growl when my dad is due to visit but we always have a really fun time. And of course my kids love their grandpa. Since the cousins have never been to Ottawa, we had a whole list of options for their amusement. Museums, art, culture... the city was laid at our feet. What did we do? We walked around downtown and the Market. It sounds pretty boring but it was great. Why? We stumbled upon the Ottawa International Busker Festival on Sparks Street. How fun was that? We saw a tightrope walker, fire jugglers, a "Stomp" style act, acrobats and what's a busker festival without a guy playing not one but 2 didgeridoos?

Later we ate in a gorgeous courtyard pub then went shopping through the market. We looked through jewellry stalls, clothing stalls and my eldest cousin Ivo and his wife Janet bought the inevitable real-maple-syrup-in-a-maple-leaf-shaped-bottle souvenir. I think they had a nice time. I say "think" since my 13 year old cousin Sabrina said about 13 words all day and my 11 year old cousin Jovan wore earphones and played with his PSP nearly the whole time. But they acknowledged our existence a couple of times so I don't think they were totally paralysed with pre-teen ennui. I'm freaking out that I'll have three of those in my house in a few years. UGH.

Anyway, all in all a really enjoyable day.

kxx