Two things...

First I have to apologise to you all for my pathetic whine on Wednesday about having no friends. I do in fact have a lovely friend named Lisa who's willing to put up with my nonsense and enjoy an afternoon of foolish girliness on Sunday. Joy of joys. Looks like I have a friend after all. I'm such a whiner...

Secondly, contrary to Women's Day yesterday, I still had to cook. Can you believe it? No flowers, no card, no Louboutin shoes, just fettucini, garlic bread and salad thanks to me. Hey, if it wasn't for me (a woman last time I checked) they wouldn't have eaten at all. So maybe that can be a Woman's Day thing? Right? Can't it? I've been saying it a lot lately so I'll say it again: Whatever.

Have a fabu weekend,
kxx

International Women's Day today

Does this mean I don't have to cook?

kxx

Alone again, naturally

I can't believe this. I wanted to go to the Women's Show this weekend and amazingly I can't find anyone to go with me. Not that I have so much free time I can go anytime. I'd have to squeeze it in just like everyone else. In fact I can only go on Sunday as Elliott has a hockey tournament on Saturday. Fine. But when it comes to things like this I realize I'm light in the girlfriends department.

I'd love to have a friend I adore hanging around with constantly. Someone who I can picture spending a shopping or spa weekend with without wanting to throttle. Someone who has kids so she doesn't mind the occasional my-kid-is-on-the-honour-roll brag or the vivid description of last night's puking incident. Someone who's happily married so I don't feel guilty talking about how cool Scott is. Someone who is exactly my shape and size so we can share clothes and shoes. Someone whose kids are the same ages as mine so they can all play together. Someone whose husband likes what my husband likes so that when we all hang together there is much back-slapping, chortling and beer guzzling.

Is that too much to ask? I get so jealous when I hear about women who have been friends for years and have girlfriends they love. Don't get me wrong, I have great friends but no BFFs. Of my 2 closest friends, one girl has no husband or kids and the other girl lives in England. No fair. I'm fun, funny positive, enthusiastic and yet on Sunday afternoon I'll be on the couch in my jammies watching an all afternoon Bollywood movie instead of opening a goodie bag full of free treats, giggling with my best gal pal and wearing my cutest shoes. Whatever.

kxx

-42C??

It's like some kind of cosmic joke that this morning the temperature is almost colder than the surface of the moon. Okay, not really but it's called hyperbole, people. It comes in handy.

Anyway, the word of the day my friends: layers. I'll wear as many layers as you like but I still refuse to wear socks. It's my thing. Toes and feet always pretty, no socks. Boots directly over bare feet. That's how I roll, baby.

kxx

Three times the laughing gas, 3 times the fun

Going to the dentist 3 times in 3 weeks (and getting laughing gas all three times) really puts things in perspective. For instance today in the waiting room my mind wandered to shoes. As a woman, I love shoes. Every style, colour and height of shoe is my favourite. In fact, a long-held dream of mine involves owning a pair of very (very!) expensive heels.

So today in my near panicked state waiting for my turn in the gas chamber... I mean dentist's chair... my mind wandered to the calming subject of footwear. Remember when you went to the doctor's office in the winter and they gave you those paper slippers to wear so you didn't keep on your boots on or have to worry about your gnarled toe peeping out of your sock if you decided to do the right thing and take them off? Remember them? They were absolutely awful. Or was that just a Montréal thing?

You know what else is a Montréal thing? Shoe bags. I've never seen them for sale in Ontario so I'm assuming they just don't exist. Shoe bags were the most practical winter accessory you had. Say you were going to a dress-up house party (another thing of the past) in wintertime. You courteously remove your mukluks. But now what do you do? Your pantyhosed feet no longer match your stunning outfit. No worries. You have your velvet shoebag with the perfect pumps inside. We all had them. Sometimes several. Shoe bags were literally, one-pair-of-shoes-sized, velvet, satin or velour with a drawstring. Where are shoebags today? It's not like doctors and dentists and friends all of a sudden don't care that you're putting your salty boots all over their parquet floors. Wouldn't it be practical to bring the shoebag "trend" back?

My first December here in Ottawa I went to a club with friends. One girl wore her dancing shoes through the slushy muck and the other wore double duty sexy boots. I took off my boots and whipped my perfect strappy sandals from inside my precious shoe bag. They looked at me with awe and wonder. I'm still shocked they've never caught on. They're easily made (if you could sew which I can't) and handy as anything. They aren't like purses which are leather and/or steal-able, you could squash them up and stuff them into your coat sleeve. They came in tons of colours and you could even match them with your coat. Even guys had them. There's a business opportunity in this blog, folks. All I ask is for some credit during the tv interview.

kxx

I'm back!

It was very weird to realize I hadn't written a blog yesterday. In fact, After I fell asleep on the couch, I woke up, did all my nightly ablutions and was just about to get into bed for the night when I remembered. I could have just gone off to sleep, but writing here every day is so ingrained in me that I'd lie awake all night composing something. I wrote the throwaway blog of late last night. Twice.

Anyway, today is another day and here I am. I should be at work right now but there's a wicked snowstorm happening and they've warned people off the roads and stopped the schoolbuses. Remember the good old days when they actually closed the whole school? Now because of taxes or funding or some such nonsense, the buses don't run but the school stays open. Unfortunately for 2/3 of my kids they walk and I ordinarily send them anyway (cue evil laughter) but I didn't send them today for 2 reasons. One: I'd have to stay home alone with Henry, who does take the bus and thus is home anyway, playing Jenga, Barrel of Monkeys, Pick Up Sticks and other infantile games until I want to put my head in the oven. Keeping Elliott and Audrey home today is instant (and much better, I might add) company for Henry. Two: Once I heard the buses weren't running I just couldn't drag my sorry butt out of bed before 8am which was too late to get them ready. Oh well.

So here's the plan. Fobbing the kids off on each other for as long as I can. When they start kick-fighting each other on the couch, it'll be movie time. After the movie's over, I'll get them all dressed and we (and by that I mean they) can play in the new fallen snow. Ah, yes. The perfect snow day.

kxx

Awww CRAP!

Not only did I completely forget to blog today, when I just typed an apology straight in here (not in Word like I always do) MySpace ATE IT! Fuck.

I came on to blog earlier and this area was down (as is often the case) so I never got back to it until I woke with a start on the couch about 12 minutes ago. Anyway, I had the day off, some more yummy dental work done and I'll tell you all about it in the morning.

kxx (thanks for asking after today's blog, Jo)