Things that made me smile today.

Today was not the best day in the world, but I saw a few things that made me smile, and luckily I remembered to take their "picture".

Side note: I think I need a new word to describe the random (pretty poor quality) pictures I take with my phone. Crapshots? Too potty related. Blurraroids? Just sounds painful. Any suggestions?

1. I was at work and I passed this advert chalked on the ground...

(click to enlarge)

My first reaction was to smile. Who doesn't need more hugs in their day? And frankly, a hug would have been pretty great right then! In reality, the sign was a day old, and let's be honest, it was probably put there by the campus perverts society or something whose main goal was just to cop a sneaky feel of some unsuspecting hug starved student.

2. I got back to my car and found this!!

Car twins!!

I get a big kick out of parking my car next to another car that is the same, and I LOVE that this car parked by me. For the record, mine is the squinty-parked one on the left. And here's another let's be honest... it's possible they HAD to park there because my half-assed parking job left the space next to me open until all the other places were filled. But still - yay! Car twins!

3. I headed back into work this evening, and on my way out saw this!

That, my friends, is an i-pad release day length line waiting for free ice cream. And that brought me back to student-y days where I would have been more than happy to stand with my friends (or the Ben, if he had that kind of patience) in a line that wrapped round a building and far down the street for the promise of a free ice cream cone. And you know what else is in that picture? LEGS! It's warm enough now to stand in that line without getting frostbite. Good times :-)

Pondering

Today I found myself faced with a serious existential question....

If you only have apples, is it still Sangria?

After a lovely afternoon walk in the sun with some awesome friends and a bevvy of well behaved children (bribed with the promise of swings for good conduct) this seemed like the perfect end to the day. But my pears were not ripe, my grapes had gone bad, and banana seemed inappropriate. So apple it was. But let's face it, the fruit's just there to make yourself feel better about drinking a giant jug of wine.

After finishing the wine and pointing the girls in the directions of their bedrooms I made Thai red curry for dinner. It was fast, easy and yummy.

I put some (imitation)* crab in there, which Ben liked, but I was not keen on.

*You know what's funny? Imitation crab is made from another kind of fish. It's pollock in disguise. Who would have thought the lowly pollock would turn out to be the transformers of the marine world?

Yard Work

This week the weather has been really nice (in the mid 40s/low 50s a.k.a. Scottish Summer ;-) so yesterday Fiona and I began the epic task that is spring cleaning the yard. For a yard that's only 0.12 acres, I am constantly surprised by the amount of effort it takes to keep it looking reasonable. Not good, just reasonable.

On Monday we took on less than 1/4 of the back yard. My goal was to pick up the poop and scoop up the leaves on the patio. We didn't get round to any raking last fall so we have the pleasure of doing that in spring instead. Our neighbor's tree (which technically I think should be half ours since we get at least 50% of it's droppings) doesn't shed it's leaves until November, and by then we had a nice covering of snow, and raking never happened.

Fiona is a great help with the poop part because she is closer to the ground, and whenever she spots one (which honestly is not hard, it's six months worth of poop we're talking about) she yells "POOP!!" and I pick it up. She had a good time pushing the rake and broom around too, and was really happy to have use of her little house again, making me many cups of tea. That's my girl :-)

Here's a picture of yesterday's progress:

Today we continued our efforts and I managed to clean up another 1/4 of the back. We're making progress.

I know it doesn't look good, but it looks better. Especially when compared to the other side...

For all of you yard work rookies out there, I have prepared an handy "Q & A" session based on my recently acquired yard work experience.

Q: My leaf blower/sucker seems to be on fire on the inside. Is this normal?

A: Do you mean "on fire" in a Charlie Sheen sense, or are there actual flames?

Q: No, actual flames. Is this safe?

A: Probably not. However, if someone knows this is actually normal, please tell me, because it would be nice if I could use mine...

Q: Some of my leaves are still stuck to the ground with ice. Should I wait a little until they thaw?

A: NO!! Chop that up with a dandelion stabber and toss it all in the bag.

Q: Will a regular paper lawn waste bag hold sodden leaves and ice chunks? It says "dry and damp yard waste" on it...

A: So far so good...

Q: I can only find two right handed gardening gloves. Is the left hand really necessary?

A: No, but it is more comfortable to have one of each.

Q: I keep buying earplugs for my husband and they keep vanishing. Any idea where they are?

A: Yes, my dog ate them, and they are now scattered all over my back yard. If you're missing moon dough, foam bath letters, or a variety of brightly colored plastic toys, those are here too.

And that concludes "yard upkeep for the inept". I hope it was useful.

While I was finishing up this evening, Adele and Fiona played together on the tiny swing I rescued from the half that is not yet de-pooped. They had a great time playing together. I think they'll be friends soon :-)

The reason she is yelling "dinosaur" in the end is because she thinks her picture is being taken. I don't know what that's about, but it makes for some interesting pictures!

I'm not counting any chickens...

I don't want to get too excited, and I know it's only the beginning of March, but we've been having some lovely days in the 30s and 40s recently and after many frozen solid months, the world has finally begin to drip. Drip, drip, drip, drip.

On Friday after I picked up Fiona from daycare I thought we should celebrate the blue sky and dripping water and go for a walk. First we had to go home and feed Adele and give Fiona a snack, and then we'd be on our way. After an hour or so, some projectile vomiting (Adele), some howling (Adele and Brodie), and some clean pants (Fiona), we were ready to go!

Yep, Adele was overjoyed to find herself in the stroller. After about half a block I put her back in the moby and just carried her, and that was much more peaceful.

Brodie was beside himself with joy because he hasn't been on a walk in months, so at least someone was happy, though as the snow melts it reveals all kinds of things that have been frozen underneath all winter and he spent most of the time straining to get away to sniff the various dead squirrels/leaves/mcdonalds wrappers that are magically appearing.

It was funny to take Fiona on a walk after a few months of not going out. When she'd ride in the stroller in the past I'd provide a running commentary on the events... "look, there's a doggie... do you see the trees? That's a duck, it says quack..." etc., etc. and Fiona would just listen (or ignore me). But a few months have passed, and Fiona has developed into a child who responds and provides answers to questions and points things out to me! So we chatted to each other about the things we saw and it was very pleasant.

We passed by the lake near our house and although it was still frozen, we did find some trees nearby with the beginnings of buds on them. Thus, I hereby announce the beginning of budwatch 2010. I am looking forward to seeing some juicy green bursing out of the little brown nubbins!

The high is 43 today, so who knows, maybe we'll all change out of our pyjamas and go on another one... we really should, because knowing Minnesota next weekend we'll be in the midst of a blizzard.

Our latest adventures

I haven't updated for a while... I was still recovering from my sunburn incident ;-)

Last week we had some lovely weather. I was really happy our yard was all cleaned up so we could enjoy it! One of the things we did last week was hang up a clothes line. I was so excited, until I hung up my clothes, only to find that the line was to low and they trailed on the ground. Then I had a brainwave... washing pole! My Mum had a washing pole... it was a long, smooth stick topped with a hooky thing made specially for the purpose of propping up the washing line. I, however, did not have a smooth stick, or a fancy hooky thing, so I found a long piece of wood in the garage, and banged a nail into it near the top. It works great, and also comes with the added excitement of the danger of serious splinters in your hands when you use it! 

Here's a picture of my washing line, and pole, with diapers hanging out to dry.

To celebrate the first day with temperatures above 80, Ben and I ate dinner outside on Thursday. By the time Fiona was alseep and dinner was made, it was pretty late, so we even got to use our 'summer' lights*. Here's Ben...

I love eating dinner outside, and I especially love drinking wine outside. It makes me so happy that the sun finally came back! This time of year is extra lovely because there is only one mosquito. I'd say there were no mosquitoes, but one bit me, so I'll have to assume there's just one so far. 

This weekend was also the first day of the Farmer's Market. I love the Farmer's Market, so I was pretty excited. I hadn't completely thought it through though... given that we've only had a handful of days without snow this year so far, there was not really anything to farm yet, so pickings were kind of slim! 

We ended up buying some crazy hot salsa (Ben), crazy hot pickles (Ben), and crazy sharp cheddar cheese (to share). There were also many options for hot food, so despite the fact that it was only 10.30am, we had lunch. Ben had shrimp taco and fries, and Fiona and I shared a fish taco and stole a few of Ben's fries. 

Ben really enjoyed his lunch!

On Sunday we had dinner with Ben's family. His Aunt Gloria and Uncle Neil are visiting this week, and his sister Laurie was here for the weekend. Here's Fiona and I with Laurie. This photo is evidence of why I generally take the pictures. Out of nine pictures, this one was the best. Yep, I know I'm missing part of my head. I'm not sure if it's my face or Ben's skills that's the problem, but at one point Ben did ask me to 'do a different smile' and then winced at the resulting photograph. 

Fiona enjoyed the visit, and even pitched in with the dishes...

This week, Fiona has a new tooth! Which explains why she has been sleeping so badly. Hopefully that will improve now that tooth number 7 has emerged. She also has a new diaper! (ok, the diaper is partly for me too). I got 2 on super sale online, and I really, honestly needed two more diapers! I mean... Fiona needed two more diapers!

It's made of mostly bamboo with some cotton blended in. Apparently Bamboo is pretty eco friendly because it grows faster than cotton and requires less resources to grow. It's SUPER soft, and extremely cute! Fiona loves it ;-)

So that's what we've been up to in the last week. It is sunny today, so after Fiona wakes up from her nap, I think we'll go for a walk. Who knows, maybe we'll meet George Clooney at the park and I'll have something more interesting to write about next time!

*Summer lights = Christmas lights. Except turned on during Summer. Sneaky, huh?

We're back!

Well, we got back last week, but I been so busy washing all of the clothes that Ben saved up for me that I haven't had a chance to post anything. So here's what we've been up to...

Ben took a couple of days off work when we got back, and it was nice to have a mini-holiday with him. It was extra nice when he got up at 4.30am when Fiona decided it was morning! Luckily that only lasted a few days!

After we got back it suddenly got really warm here... it was wonderful! We took a walk and look at what we found...

It's proof!! Spring might still be on its way! Well, it was for a few days, until it got cold again... but I'm not losing hope! It'll happen! If the trees are convinced, so am I.

Fiona had some fun on the swings... 

And Brodie thought it was so warm that he had to have a rest in the shade.

At the weekend we went to the Autoshow. Ben has been going to the Autoshow since he was a little boy. The one here is not as elaborate as the one in Detroit, but it's still a lot of fun. One of my favourite parts is looking at the ridiculously large vehicles... here are a couple of pictures...

Cadillac Escalade. 6.2L V8. This monster is SIXTEEN feet long. This one is pretty good, but I think I'd need something a little bigger... 

Like this! Ford Super Duty. Nineteen feet long. Can tow a tractor. Just case you ever needed to do that... 

I think part of my fascination with the gigantic ones comes from my recent visit to Aberdeen, where the roads are super narrow and the cars are pretty small. I don't think you could fit either of these down the road in Aberdeen, never mind try to park them!

The other exciting part is of course, the sports cars. 

Ben and Fiona test out a Corvette.

Nissan GT-R. 485 hp, 3.8L twin turbocharged V6, top speed 193mph. This is the one I would choose. And it has back seats, so it's totally family friendly!! When I built one to my specifications on the webite, it was only $87,720... that's a pretty good deal! Maybe for my birthday...

We had a lovely weekend together, then Ben went back to work and Fiona and I went back to hanging around the house. Next week, we're having some very exciting visitors, so I'm sure we'll have more adventures to share then!