Hello? Mrs. Kaye?

I'm a sucker. Gullible. I freely admit it. When I get a telephone call or visit to my door, I can't say no. I often just give them money so I won't hurt feelings and so I'll be able to shut the door or hang up the phone. Cookies, calendars, jump-rope-a-thons, Jehovah's Witnesses... they're all fair game to me. Thank goodness I don't live in the era of encyclopedia or vacuum cleaner salesmen.

So now finally and thankfully Canada now has a National Do Not Call List. I won't get harassed and intimidated by these people ever again. Right? Well, not really. See my problem is with the list of exemptions. Because honestly, 90% of the calls that I get are from the people and organisations on this list.

Newspapers, charities, political parties and people you've done business with before. Great.

So I won't get called by the time share people or the ones that tell me I have to call a certain 1-900 number in 30 minutes to claim the trip to Cancun that I won. Those I can resist. But I'll still get the please subscribe to the now less boring Globe and Mail, Harvest House calendar send a poor kid to the circus cash grabs that I always fall for. What's the use then?

Thank goodness for call display. That service is a way better deal for me. And when they have a "Do Not Knock On The Door" list for those damned Girl Guides and lawn care "specialists", let me know.

kxx

Okay, it's done

I've finally finished transferring almost 2 years of blogs from MySpace over here to Blogger. I'm now going to post right into Blogger then copy and paste the whole blog into MySpace. I'll do this for about a week. Then I'll just post the link in the MySpace blog then that's it. I'll officially move. I really hope all my MySpace readers follow me here or even become my "followers" (I can be your charismatic leader).

On to more bloggy things...

I'm not a science-y person but This gives me goosebumps. It's the most amazing video I've seen in ages. Okay, it's no Dr. Horrible but still. Supposedly it took him 8 years to plan this. Talk about obsessed. Talk about effing nuts. There'll be a parade in France for this guy for sure. I'm amazed. It makes my mundane little life even more mundane today.

kxx

Now playing 10 in a row!

Do radio stations like that bother anyone else?

I hate when they have a huge block of songs because invariably they play something I don't know or like a lot but don't come back soon enough (or ever) to tell me what it is. Arrgh.

Some radio stations in town have some kind of digital info coming down the wire so you can press a button and the song and artist comes up. But I only have this technology in the car. You should see me risk life and limb pressing that damned info button to scroll through the station id, headlines, weather and "coming up next" song to get to the one that's playing. Again I say arrgh.

I've taken to noting the station and time then going online to the station's website to find out that way. Well, that's not a pain in the ass.

This is why I love morning radio. They should run that format all day. The djs rarely play more than 2 songs in a row and identify them both before and after. Ahhh. It's got the perfect blend of chatter and music. Not all talk and musical snippets like CBC (arrgh... why would you play a piece of a song???). Nope, I prefer light banter, jokes, pop culture nuggets, contests, trivia, news and weather broken up by a bit of identified music. Just like my life. Is that too much to ask?

kxx

Dr. Horrible 101

Yes, I'm fully aware that I'm exposing you to my obsession yet again but you have to finally give in, stop struggling and just go with the flow. It's far less painful if you just go limp.

On the weekend I spoke to my friend Kathy from London and she's finally seen some videos from the musical. She actually thought she's seen all she needed by just watching those videos. I had to school her. It was my duty. Yes, the videos on youtube are great but to get the full scope of the characters and the context of the songs, you have to watch the whole movie. Have to. So here's a primer in case you never click on the link I put in my blog every single time I talk about Dr. H. Which is easily once a week.

Full name: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Song order (if you insist on watching all the songs on youtube... I think they're all there):

01. Horrible Theme
02. My Freeze Ray
03. Bad Horse Chorus
04. Caring Hands
05. A Man's Gotta Do
06. My Eyes
07. Bad Horse Chorus (reprise)
08. Penny's Song
09. Brand New Day (so proud of myself that I finally got the words down for this one. It's HARD)
10. So They Say
11. Everyone's A Hero
12. Slipping
13. Everything You Ever (DO NOT, for the love of God, watch this one if you ever have the intention of watching the movie. You'll be so sorry and totally wreck the "surprise" ending)
14. Horrible Credits

I think you can see the whole thing (3 parts about 15 minutes each) on youtube. But honestly to get the best quality and to show Joss some love, shell out the $4. It's so worth it.

"It's curtains for you, Dr. Horrible. Lacy, gently wafting curtains."

kxx

No time this morning

So here I am this afternoon. Hi!

I love myself. I often think how glad I am that I'm not shy anymore. Case in point:

I took the bus to work today. Not too bad in the morning but in the afternoon it's horrible. Crowded, stuffy and everyone (including the bus driver) has an attitude. Standing up yesterday someone stepped on my foot 3 times. He apologised each time but it still hurt like hell. Where the holy hell are people going at 2:30 in the blessed afternoon? And that was before the actual panic attack. My first one ever.

Anyway, on my way out the door at work, I ran into Tara who was leaving as well. She works at another store and I don't know her very well. But we really click and are a lot alike (she's been married the same number of years I've been and has 3 kids same sexes and ages as mine). On a whim I asked her where she lived and lucky for me she named a town just past mine. Naturally I asked her to drive me home.

I'm so glad I'm not shy anymore. I just realized that the worst she could say was no. And I was planning to take the bus home anyway. Hopefully avoiding the panic attack that invariably happens after 10 minutes of being daintily mashed into a stranger's armpit. But I avoided all that by asserting myself. Yup, no sucky public transit for this bold girl. And no screaming or gabbling irrationally up and down the bus aisle. Good news for everyone involved.

kxx

Spending a lot of time on Blogger

I'm up to April of this year so the big move will be soon. For those of you who missed the last blog about it, I'm in the process of copying my older (and better) blogs from myspace and pasting them over at blogger. I feel more comfortable having them over there. Especially since I don't have them on my hard drive or anything. I decided that once I'm up to the present day I'd blog in both places for a couple of weeks then permanently move over there. So don't worry, I'm not leaving the blogosphere, just moving to better digs. I will miss knowing how many people read my blogs on a daily basis but seriously that's about it. In fact, not knowing how many people check me out on a daily basis may be freeing.

Anyway, as I said above, I've been spending a lot tof time over there. I discovered a button at the top that says "next blog". Well isn't that an interesting find? I get knitting blogs, blogs by teens and blogs that aren't even in English. How neat. I end up scrolling through that one a bunch of times a day. I find it neat to see what other people may find interesting. I wonder how many people have come across my blog that way. Do they check it out a little or just surf on by? I hope they stick around. I have so many fascinating things to say. Not.

kxx

Weekend fun

On the weekend I got to do all my favourite things and also try some new things too.

I got to spend some time alone (while the boys went to hockey), I got to shop (groceries but it still counts), I got to bake (a batch of sugar cookies), I got to visit my awesome sister-in-law, I got to pick apples (at SIL's orchard), I got to eat way too many apple cider doughnuts (at the aforementioned orchard), I got to dragonboat, I got to try paddling a canoe (hated it), an outrigger (SO cool), I got to catch a big frog (slimy) and watch Dr. Horrible (naturally).

Of course during all that I forgot to go to a good friend's birthday party. Just plain forgot. I didn't even have that glimmer of "aren't I supposed to be somewhere right now?". It wasn't until I got an email from her the following day asking what happened to me that I clued in. D'uh. So sorry Lisa! Hope you had a fun day. Sigh.

kxx

Handy pirate info...

k

Arrr! It wasn’t just funny...it was a friggin pyjama soaker

Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. So do yeself a favour, me hearties, hang up yer ayePhones and join me in a shanty to celebrate the day. Or just eat a bowl of Cap'n Crunch like I did. Whatever floats your boat.

Mad Pegs (my pirate name)

Michael Who?

So 2008 was my year in terms of medal count. I never thought I'd ever be this active in my 41st year. I participated in every sport I could this summer and loved every one of them. I'm pleased and proud of myself and I think I'm allowed to crow just for a day. This is the photo I took yesterday morning. The medals are from left to right:

The marathon I walked in May
The longer one is the dragonboat bronze I got in June
The next one is the dragonboat silver I got on the weekend
The one on the green ribbon is the triathlon medal I got in August

Hm. Wonder if Dr. Horrible needs a female henchman? What would my evil name be?

kxx

I don’t know what to think

I sometimes wonder if I'm really a good parent. Most of the time I'm completely clueless and hope and pray what I've done doesn't scar my children for life.

Yesterday I picked up Audrey from the stables after my dragonboat practice. I noticed as she walked toward me that her shoulders were hunched. She didn't have her regular bounce in her step. I asked her what was wrong and she said "nothing". But I noticed she was not bucking up so I pressed her

Me: Is everything okay?
Audrey: Yup.
Me: I can tell you aren't happy.
Audrey: I'm fine.
Me: Audrey, you look sad to me.
Audrey: Well, I'm not.

Here she burst out crying. I didn't know what to do. I fired off a bunch of questions: Did someone say something to you? Was your horse difficult? Are you hurt? Can I help? All her answers were negative so I just hugged her until she stopped crying. We finally got back to the car and as she buckled up I told her she could tell me when she was ready. She said she wouldn't. By the time we got home she was perfectly fine. Her normal self in every way. I didn't even tell Scott about it. I mentioned it in passing this morning but she didn't say anything.

Should I drop it? I could ask her horseback riding teacher but she may have forgotten by next week. Should I attribute it to hormones? Should I keep asking her about it? Sigh.

Sometimes this mother gig sucks. How are we supposed to know what to do?

kxx


***edited to add***
She was crying about Monkey her rabbit that died at Easter. Ain't that a kick in the pants? Scott got it out of her days later. He and Audrey really have something that I'll never have with her.

Whatcha doin’?

The other day I was sitting on the couch daydreaming. Scott came into the room and asked what I was thinking of. Should I lie and say I was thinking of a tropical island where he and I were frolicking naked in the surf? He'd never believe thant that was the cause of my goofy grin and faraway look. I told the truth.

In actuality I was frosting a cake. I was using Terra to beat up the icing and using my frosting tubes to pipe a really lovely border on a pretty little cake. Oh yeah, baby. I'm serious as a heart attack, here. The poor guy just shook his head and walked away. What else could he do?

kxx

What I did this weekend

I baked a cake Friday for my friend Julie's daughter's birthday. Showed her Dr. Horrible on my computer. (I'm going to refer to Dr. Horrible in every blog this week. Why? Because I can do whatever I want. Nyah.). Also talked Dr. H to my friend Kathy in London. She's seen some of the songs but has yet to see the movie. She's doing herself a grave disservice. Get thee to iTunes, woman! Click on the link above and do yourself a favour...

I also won a silver medal (along with my team, I guess) in dragonboat. The Dunrobin Dames came in second just behind another team. They were... err, less than fair but the judges didn't see what they did. We did and we protested but lost. Our coaches were livid. Our eyes are on you girls. Watch yourselves next time.

So in case you've been keeping track, that's 4 medals for me this year. Two for dragonboat (bronze and silver) and participants medals for both the marathon and triathlon. I've been a busy woman this year. Now it's time to rest these old bones. After I take a Michael Phelps style photo of myself wearing all my bling, of course. Now where can I buy fake 6-pack abs?

kxx

Friday Family Funny

A few days ago I was in the bathroom putting on my makeup and Elliott came in to brush his teeth. He's getting so tall now that my eyeline is right at the side of his head. I noticed how gross his ears were. I mean Shrek gross. I nearly gagged as I told him to clean them (yes, with a finger and facecloth and not a q-tip). I told him he has to remember to do it in the shower as I turned my own head to show him how wonderful and clean my ears are.

He replied deadpan: "I don't see anything."

Now, on the surface it is a benign statement. But I was there in the room and saw the evil twinkle in his eye that said "I don't see anything. In your head." Hmph.

Why do we continue to feed, clothe and house them if they're only going to insult our brain capacity? How did I teach my kids to talk to me like that? He's lucky I'm kinda proud of that sense of humour. But remember when we kids were afraid our parents? Again I say hmph.

kxx




1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

You know what Dr. Horrible needs?

Besides me to stop obsessing (never happen) and some better PR in Canada? (How fed up am I when I mention it to a fellow hockey mum and I get a blank look? I'm guessing that middle aged mothers aren't the target audience)... A Black chick. Someone older and more mature with supermum powers and a winning smile. I dunno, say, someone like me. I'm just saying.



So I've had the iTunes version of Dr. H since it was made available in July (after seeing the free version online in it's entirety 3 times). It's on my iPod and burned onto a CD but I don't know how to make it play on my tv. No problem, I can play it on any computer.



I bought the music only soundtrack on the September 2nd and have listened to it on a constant loop on my iPod since then. 514 songs? Bah. I only need 14. It sure beats finding all the songs on YouTube when I get the urge. Absolutely love it.



Things from the show I like to say IRL:
1. "What a crazy, random happenstance!"
2. "It's curtains for you. Lacy, gently wafting curtains"
3. "Life of crime." (In answer to the question "what's going on?")
4. "That's not a good sound."
5. "Balls!"



I love it. I can't live without it. It makes me happy. It makes me smile. And when I talk about it, all I want to do is watch it. To paraphrase: "a gal's got to do what a gal's got to do".



Bye. Guess what I'm going to do?



kxx

Slim pickings

And I'm not talking about not having a blog idea. Well, not, really.

I was watching tv last night when an ad for toilet paper came on. Now I'm not really picky about that stuff. I mean you literally wipe you butt with it and flush it away. It's like garbage bags. You buy them to throw them away. Drives me nuts.

Anyway, I don't care about the quality of toilet paper. I could care less if it's soft/strong/absorbent/whatever. I just don't want that kind of paper that we had in high school that was actually like paper. It came in little separate squares out of something like a napkin dispenser in a restaurant. Remember those? Truly awful.

This ad was about the tp not leaving "pieces behind". Ummm, who cares? Does this really concern people? I'd worry if I had a trail of paper under my heel or tucked in my granny panties but what do I care if little pieces of toilet paper are stuck to my ass? At least it's clean.

That's what I hate most about advertising. When companies make up a problem that only their product can solve. Really? The only face creme that works on my nose warts is the only one by CoverGirl? The new one for $40 a tube and contains Burnwartrisil? I'm in, baby. Sigh.

kxx

Did you ever notice?

As Canadians we're a very polite people. So polite, in fact, that we'll be cordial even when the situation perfectly justifies us to be fuming. Case in point:



I'm at the pharmacy and notice a harried cashier trying her best to keep the line moving. Unfortunately there's a line of about 10 people waiting for service. A woman who clearly has no concept of patience, kindness or empathy (see what I teach here to the kids? Do unto others...? She needs a quick lesson) goes straight up to the cashier, interrupting her while she's running customers through.



Clueless Customer: Can you tell me where I can find the batteries?
Crazed Cashier: Aisle 4 ma'am.
Cust: Are those the store brand or the name brands? Because the name brands last longer.
Cash: They're both in aisle 4, ma'am
Cust: How much do they cost?
Cash: I can't help you right now, ma'am. Could you please find someone on the floor to give you a hand?
Cust: Can you call someone to help me?
Cash: Aisle 4 is just over there ma'am.



It wasn't just me... her "ma'am" was starting to sound like "effing idiot bitch"? But on the surface it was a perfectly polite exchange between service personnel and consumer. Everyone in the line got her inferral (except the clueless customer, worse luck) and were looking at each other in fear and apprehension. When it got to our turn we were like the soup Nazi's customers, goose-stepping up to the cash, grabbing our purchases and beating feet out of the store.



Isn't it funny how in a polite society you can still have a freakout fit but still maintain your decorum?



kxx

So over the weekend

I spent lots of time doing laundry. And by doing laundry I mean washing and drying the first load, leaving the second load to ummm... "mellow" in the washer and dumping the first finished load onto my bed to sift through for wrinkled wearing at some point in the future. By bedtime that first load ends up back in a basket on my bedroom floor so Scott and I can sleep in the bed/laundry hopper.

But this weekend I tried something new. Taz, my cat loves to sleep in the newly washed clothes on my bed. He's an outside cat and I worry about fleas at worst and muddy paws at best. Sleeping on my clean clothes is something I hate most that my cat does (it ranks right up these with puking on my couch).

Anyway, back to my new innovation. Instead of putting away my clothes right away as a normal person would do, I found a bunch of metal hangers in my closet and arranged them artfully on top of the pile of laundry so the cat would find an inhospitable environment. What's that? Use the hangers you have in your hand to put away the clothes right in front of you? Why that would be too easy.

Well, I have to start my day. I've got a pile of clothes to sift through for undies. Happy Monday.

kxx

No bridge!

In true NIMBY fashion, residents of my neighbourhood are breathing a sigh of relief (and enjoying the fact that our house values have gone up) because a proposed bridge that would have been erected (hee, I said erected) about 500 yards from my house has been scrapped. Thank the good Lord.

It would have crossed the river at its widest point (dumb), gone through the most gorgeous park in the city (dumber), and polluted this community first with noise during construction then car exhaust during use (dumberer). Twelve people would have even had their homes bulldozed to make room. It would have been absolutely awful. Imagine living under a bridge. Like a troll.

The news came down on Monday. The bridge will now be erected (hee) in the east end of the city. Honestly a third of my neighbours were on their front porches and streets talking about it. We really dodged a bullet.

The bridge is necessary since trucks and heavy machinery tend to use the inner city streets and make a racket. I used to work at a daycare right on the main drag and naptime was a disaster with 18 wheelers using their (what Scott tells me are "jake brakes") and farting their way down the road, preventing the kids from sleeping or worse yet, waking them up and preventing staff from having coffee breaks. Yuck. And no matter how many trees were planted in the yard, they couldn't make the carbon monoxide evaporate. And appropos of nothing, the giant tour buses that used to park out front.

So, while I'm empathetic about the decision affecting the residents of the east end, I'm delighted for us. I guess those puny "no bridge" signs worked.

kxx

And I used to be so clever...

I've been busy over the past week. I've realized over the last year or so that MySpace is a very young place. It's populated with fools and (God smite me now) foreigners and I find it unsafe and, frankly, a little scary for someone my age. Oooh, too bright and spooky for Nana.

So I've been over at Blogger.com putting my old blogs starting from January 2006 onto that platform. When I'm all caught up, I'll stop blogging here at MySpace altogether. But don't worry, I'll still keep up a daily blog, just over there. It seems more grown up, mature and adult over there. I'll blog here every day as usual until I've put every one of my old blogs over there. Don't worry it'll probably take me until around Christmas so it'll give you lots of time to adjust to the big move. I'm only at about March 2007.

What I did notice is that when I started this blog thing way back when, I was much more clever than I am now. Go and see. I'll wait. Oh and don't worry about the links... most of them have long since died.

See? In my golden age of blogging I was smart, funny, inciteful... what the hell happened? Is is because you all know me and my stories now? Is it because you all bled me dry? Have I just gone stupid? All I know is I'm enjoying all my old blogs a lot more than I thought. It's like looking back at old photos and seeing how cute you really were.

Well, have fun over at Blogger and enjoy my glory days. I really do miss my smarter self.

kxx

First Day of School photos

Is it just me or is the first day of school losing some of its magic and wonder? I just pushed the kids out the door just like I did in June last year. This year they had no new school supplies (I bought them last night) and the clothes they are wearing they picked themselves from off the floor and behind dressers. I almost forgot to photograph it.

The whole thing had an air of "eh" about it. That said, here are the pics from yesterday morning.

Elliott went first at 7am

Audrey next at 8:15

Then Henry at 8:45

Whew.



kxx




8:32 AM

Buh bye summer!

Well, back to school is in full swing. As I type this, Elliott's been gone 30 minutes, Audrey's eating breakfast and Henry's all ready to go. Well, as ready to go as having no school supplies will get them.

Because of our holiday and my inability to face the fact that they needed their stuff before the Labour Day holiday, I didn't manage to get anything off their lists. I did, however scrabble around in junk drawers and craft cupboards for at least one sheet of lined paper and a 2 inch stub eraser-less, chewed pencil for everyone. I swore and promised to get the kids what they needed tonight when I get home. What a mother.

Hey, at least I've cracked their schedules so that the fact that they're all 3 in different schools is a dawdle. Now leave me alone so I can take a shower, will ya?

kxx

Happiness is Marineland!

Well kids, we had a blast.

Thursday:
It started out with a speeding ticket so it could have taken a turn for the worst. To Scott's credit, he didn't let it wreck the weekend and we even laughed about it before we arrived at the hotel.

We got there and, frankly, it was cold. About 19C and misty. We thought it would put a damper on but again, we Kayes rallied. We checked out the Falls anyway and soaked up the family style decadence that is Niagara Falls. That place is cheesier than a havarti sandwich. We went to Lego Land (or Brick City... I guess there's a trademark on the name) and the Guinness World Record Museum. We also went to an arcade that reminded me of Noiseland from the Simpsons and ate at Boston Pizza.

Friday:
The next day was also cool. It was one of those days that when the sun is out you roast but when it's behind a cloud you freeze. It also drizzled off and on. I have to say, it was perfect. It kept the crowds away so when it came to ride time we just wandered onto them with maybe one cycle to wait if we had to wait at all. Perfect. I've never just walked up to a ride and sat down before. Even at my neighbourhood fair. The shows were really entertaining and I fell in love with the belugas. Scott and Audrey got absolutely soaked by a killer whale and we had to go back to the hotel to change clothes. And they loved every second of it.

Saturday:
The next day we checked out and got one last look at the falls. It was super sunny that day and we laughed that Marineland would probably be crazy busy. Lucky for us we were leaving.

We got home that afternoon in pretty good time (after Scott locked the cruise control on 100kms/hr) and now we had almost all the weekend to recover. It was the perfect weekend although I have to say that I'm sorry we couldn't stop in and see my friend Chris. I should have known I wouldn't get to go. I brought the books I wanted to give his son. I was too confident. Oh well. Sorry Chris! I'll mail them out before Christmas...

kxx (check out our facebook album)