no more water in the well

playlist playing, and i <3 the temptations. it is sunny and warm today - yeehaw! i sat on the front steps for a while - everyone is happy.

random vagueness:
- i opened the windows and the curtains. nice.
- yesterday was a bust. so far today is also a bust. i officially have pms. i have stuff to get done, but realistically, i better not push myself too hard. no one wants to see me breakdown.
- dil and i watched bridget jone's diary last night. it was funny.
- francis emailed me. he is back in town. we should hit a patio somewhere and get a pitcher of beer. maybe we should go to freeman's (!)
- i need to get my costume for the murder mystery party together. value village - i am coming!

reconstruction site

listening to the weakerthans, and i am very happy to be home with a cup of coffee and the computer. jake and his friend robbie are playing lego in the hallway and sam is at ian's birthday party in bayer's lake. jason is in the kitchen, drawing comics on his computer. it is a slow day. sam has a piano recital at 4:15 so i'll have to get dressed eventually, but for now i am content to sit here in my sweats with toast crumbs all over me.

jim and tammie came over yesterday to help us patch a hole in our floor. it is amazing. the floor doesn't sag, the boards don't creak - the sub floor is now firm and safe and reassuringly floor-like. next time, jim and son will lay the flooring and then we will refinish the floor. happiness is a supportive floor.

we registered jake for more diving lessons yesterday. he came out of the pool looking like an otter. he is so beautiful sometimes it makes my heart hurt. meanwhile, my little sammo was hanging out at the vending machine looking waifish, hoping someone would buy him a treat. no dice, since i had just spent $40 at woozles on birthday presents for ted and ian. after lunch, sam went to the putting edge for ted's party. robbie came over and he and jake disappeared into computer game land.

the menfolk were still working on the floor (god bless 'em) while i was getting ready to go see joel plaskett at the rebecca cohn. dil drove me over to claire's where we had a little cocktail and talked about how awesome it is that we are going to see the

ROLLING STONES

on labour day weekend. the walk to the cohn took forever, and i regretted wearing my boots, 'cause my feet were hurting after a few blocks. doh. the show was great - lots o' love being passed around, and it was a treat to be able to hear the music and the lyrics clearly. i was home at a respectable hour (1:30) after a misguided detour to gingers, a few sad walkbys of the press gang and a visit to the mythic pizza corner for magical mystery poutine.

my back is sore because sam slept with us last night. ugh. i need a bigger bed. and a massage.

concrete sky

i am in love with my new mixed cds - they are close to perfection. pop perfection. beth orten is singing right now, and i'm waiting for the kitchen wall to dry so that i can do another coat. this weekend is really busy. every weekend seems to be really busy lately. so are the weeks, actually. i hope that i can figure out how to fit school into the mix. i just have to i guess. dillie told me last night that the poko hiatus will probably start at the end of september. that is a lot sooner than i was expecting. i hope that a bank gives me some money soon!

sound of settling

i'm listening to a playlist, trying to shape it into a new disk to burn, so i'll have something new to listen to in the car. i think it's gonna turn out to be a double album. so far i have:
Industry And Snow Castanets
Jacqueline Franz Ferdinand
The Sound of Settling Death Cab for Cutie
No More Water in the Well The Temptations
You're Quiet Brendan Benson
Righteously Lucinda Williams
Your Feets Too Big Fats Waller
Us Regina Spektor
I will give you everything Skydiggers
We Live Happily Mike O'Neill
Humble Me Norah Jones
Think James Brown
like dylan in the movies belle and sebastian
Ms Jackson Outkast
Guess How Much I Love You The Lucksmiths
Wishing Well Joel Plaskett
Faded Coat of Blue Jolie Holland
One Chance Modest Mouse
derailleur the inbreds
Out On The Weekend Neil Young
One Of These Days Neil Young
Only One And Only Gillian Welch
I Can See Clearly Now Otis Redding
Born at the Right Time Paul Simon
Hangin' Around The Polyphonic Spree
Lose My Breath Destiny's Child
One By One All Day The Shins
Lioness Songs: Ohia
I Can't Wait To Meetchu Macy Gray
There's A Story In Your Voice Elvis Costello & lucinda williams
After Hours Velvet Underground
Somewhere Else Jill Barber
Long, long, long the Beatles

i think that i need to take the time to rip my disks onto the computer. right now, most of the music on the computer is downloaded, which means that a lot of the music i actually like enough to buy doesn't end up on mixed cds. the result is an impermanent, singles driven mix that i tend to get tired of. that's not in the plan for today though.
right now, i am gonna wash and paint one wall in the kitchen, to see what it will look like if it's yellow. i wanted to paint the kitchen shutters, but the weather does not permit. last night when we went to see ashley at stage nine, clairey mentioned going to the gym. i guess that it's probably a good idea... we'll see if it happens.

if dreams come true

peggy lee is singing on a icky cold rainy windy victoria day.

it's been a busy birthday weekend! friday, ellie babysat while dil and i tore up the town a little.

saturday, it was kind of a packed day and i was a little hung over, but things went fine.

first we got up early and had breakfast. then we took jake downtown to the bluenose youth run. i was so happy that i got him registered properly (unlike last year) and got him there on time... phew. anyway, sam, dil and i watched jake run, and then we all headed home for lunch.

after that, ell and i went to get groceries while the birthday boy and his boys went on a ferry ride to dartmouth. after i dropped ell and her food off at creighton st, i picked the boys up and we drove jake to robbie's house and jim and tammie came to pick up sam.

by this time it was almost five, so dillie and i packed lightly and headed to the lord nelson for our little birthday rendezvous. it was awesome. bathrobes, mints on the pillow, bottle of wine, ice in the ice bucket, and a king sized bed... heaven. we had a great time.

on sunday after breakfast, we got in a little fight, but i can't remember what it was about. it may have been about nothing. anyway, we picked up jake, jim and tammie brought sam home, and we all had spaghetti and one of jim's famous cakes.

although today has been relatively quiet, i could still use another day or two of vacation!

gather round

listening to the guthries' off windmill. i like it. listening to the weather report this morning, it seemed like a cruel joke. today, rainy with cloudy periods. tomorrow, cloudy with rainy periods. saturday, rainy with cloudy periods. sunday, cloudy with... yeah, it goes on with no sun in sight. argh. if i get all the news i need from the weather report, then i got no good news. jake's running the youth marathon part of the bluenose run on saturday. i hope that it doesn't rain.

dil went to the midnight star wars show last night. considering i sacrificed tribeca for him to go,i wanted him to love it against the odds, but he didn't love it at all. he said that it was better than the first two, but not good. why all the crappy digital effects? it's a MOVIE, not a video game, stupid george lucas. write a script, hire some actors and then direct! is it hard? i don't know, i've never done it, but it doesn't seem that hard.

i think that i'm going for a drink with some people from toronto tonight. they are here to find a house, so that kva can go to school with me next year. i am kinda psyched to meet her and her husband. they sound cool. where am i gonna take them? i don't know. maybe the shoe shop.

also even though the party plans for dil's bday didn't work out, i am excited to carry out my secret plan. and i WILL have another party soon, dammit.

hallelujah

listening to random mp3s and right now it's bobby d singing hallelujah. the past few days have been grey and cold. i gotta get started on the patio, but if i dig a hole in this weather, i will have a big pit o' mud.

dil and i went to the bank yesterday, and in the words of gillian the loans officer, "signed our life away"... but now we have some room to breathe. now the next shitty thing we have to wade through is vacation time. dil has already called me twice, all stressed out, because he's been told that the only vacation time available to him is in june or september. if it doesn't get worked out then i will have to go on a rampage. a man works hard, he deserves a vacation. speaking of a man working hard, i have to finalize my birthday plans...!

i think that i've been reading too much. i had a lot of books from the library, and i think that i o.d.'d because my brain feels fuzzy and swollen, too full of other people and other lives. my brain was really only designed to hold me, and now it has the authors and their characters all jammed in there.

oh what a night

listening to ckdu, wrapped in a blanket because i refuse to turn on the furnace. it is freeeeezing today. sunny and cold. i drove ellie out to burnside this morning, and the car was being pushed around the mackay bridge like a little toyota. the wind was crazy.
i am tired and bored and cranky. i wish that there was something fun going on tonight. i am so spoiled, i always expect to be entertained. i should just rent some movies and try to relax instead of going out.
tomorrow is the spring fair at the school. it will probably be pretty crazy. i hope that we don't have to stay too long!

dear prudence

listening to the white album. man i love the white album. i love the love songs especially. i'm not going to the gym today. i am going with jake's class to QEH. it's something to do with science projects - either the kids are taking part in an experiment or they are observing. anyway, i haven't been in a high school for a long time, and i always like spending time with jake's class. they are really good kids.
jake's battle of the books team came in third place. i bought mrs rickard some flowers that she really loved (she sent a really nice thank you card home with jake yesterday.) the day was so hectic - right after school was BoB. that ran until 5, and then we hurried home to eat before going to get dil at 6. he had already left with graeme and deana (?!?) and so we sped home to get him before bringing jake to his concert at the forum at 6:20. when we got there, jake ran inside while dil, sammo and i ran into trouble - a sign that said there was an admission charge. this was the last straw for me. nobody told me about this (last year had been voluntary donations). i had no cash, and... my brain was fried. leaving to get money meant missing jake's performance. i didn't know what to do, and neither did dil, so we just stood outside being sad until this nice dude was like, "just go explain to the folks at the door." duh, of course that's what we should do. so that's what i did, but i was feeling sad and kind of pissed off at dil that he couldn't/wouldn't help me out a bit. whatever. it's not his strong suit. anyway the concert was great, they didn't just play jigs and reels, they did some really thoughtful pieces. i think that most of the kids don't fit into the bullied-into-playing by-their-parents-stereotype; they really do seem to love playing their instruments. by the time i got home i was shaking - whether from release of tension or fatigue or what, i don't know, but i went to bed, and i felt much better in the morning.
yesterday i went for an early morning walk with claire and read my book. i'm reading What We All Long For by dionne baird. she's also a poet; it says so in her biographical info, but i can also just tell from reading her prose.

wishing well

listening to la-di-da, doing nothing in particular. claire and ashley and i went to see matt mays and blue rodeo at the metro centre. the sound for matt mays wasn' t that great, but i thought that they did a great job. we switched seats half way through their set so that we were closer. blue rodeo was okay (kind of boring, but i don't really know their stuff that well.) when i got bored, i went looking for eamon and pam. after the show, they took me through the rain to charlie's where we spent a couple of hours just talking and drying off. i was in bed by 1:30. this morning was awesome, much better than yesterday morning. i slept in, read a book, had lunch with dil, hung out with clay, and picked up the boys, all like clockwork. after the boys finish their homework, we will play board games and wait for dill to come home. tomorrow is battle of the books and spring strings at the forum. it's going to be awesome! i can't wait!

It's A Man's Man's Man's World

listening to james brown's 20 all time greatest hits. i think that i will regret not seeing jb when he came to the metro centre for the rest of my life. god, how could i have been sooo dumb?
i just got back from the bluenose diner. walking on hollis street, i thought that i was going to lose jake in the wind - i held on tight, though, and luckily we stayed on the ground. it's been a very stormy weekend. mum and dad said that the power was out in fp for a bit last night. jake and i had breakfast with mum dad tom ellie eamon and pam (the halifax clancey contingent). it was stressful, and i missed dillie (he took sam to gymnastics and is now at his mum's house) but otherwise, it was nice. the bluenose is very consistent.
i just left a message with clay about tonight. sometimes it feels like we live in different time zones, and have to leave messages for each other all the time...

trials and tribulations

listening to the guthries with the windows open. the weather has been pretty damn lovely lately. unfortunately i think that the ants have noticed as well, and we had to put out some poison this morning because they were coming in under the front door. i hate it. it has happened every year that we've lived here, and i now suffer from recurring nightmares about ants (no thanks to that last chapter of a hundred years of solitude.)
busy day today, with all sorts of boring/painful/productive things to do like paying property taxes. it will be nice if it comes off without a hitch, but i have to be prepared for hitches.
jake's concert last night was weird - the theme was nova scotia folk songs and all the kids were singing about getting married and such... weird to see ten year olds playing romance, but i guess it is something that we've all done (anyone wanna play 'another world'? ). jake, however, was not a fiance; he was a devil. how apropos! what good casting! bravo!
tomorrow will also be kind of hectic. jake is going to thomas's birthday at the putting edge, and sam's friend ian is coming overnight.
also, i sort of forgot that sunday was mother's day, and that if ian stays over on saturday night, he will be here sunday morning which is probably going to screw up my breakfast in bed, not to mention whatever it is that maggie's boys had planned at her house. i should call her and consult.
i wanted dille to fix the eavestrough tomorrow, but i am not sure that will happen. i would do it myself, but i am afraid of heights and it won't help anyone if i get dizzy and fall off a ladder. every time it rains, i can hear the water running down the side of the house, and i know that it is wrecking the foundation, and i can't sleep. gotta love the spring rains though, right? the garden is looking pretty damn good!

humble me

listening to norah jones, thinking about my sammy, who is probably on a bus on his way back to halifax now. he was at the wildlife park with his class today. this morning he was saying that his stomach hurt and that he didn't want to go, but i think that this was because i told him that i wasn't going. last week, i told him that i was going because his teacher needed chaperones, but then i was released from duty because the bus only holds so many people. he was sad that i wasn't going, but after i told him we'd make a trip on a weekend and he could show us all the animals, he decided that maybe his tummy wasn't really very sore after all. oh sam.

jake has three concerts this month. the first is tonight, and for some reason he has to dress up as a devil. he doesn't want to tell me why (he wants it to be a surprise). i can't find his cape. i think that it must be here somewhere, but it isn't in with the dress up stuff. i'll get him to clean up his room and see if it's in there when he gets home. i try not to go in there without his permission. anyway, i am going to pick up dillie after work and we'll just go right to the school. also, jake's BoB team is going through to the finals, which are at the sgr library next week.

i had a good time with dil at lunch yesterday, and a hard/good time with him last night. he keeps surprising me. we don't know everything about ourselves or each other. not that there is anything wrong with this, but sometimes when things are easygoing and following a certain path, i make the mistake of thinking that our world is flat rather than a really big curve with lots of small bumps. anyway, he is awesome. he called me from work. not for a reason. just 'cause.

oh. yeah, and we got approved for the line of credit thing, so i will be able to afford law school. that's good news! i am amazed at the power of positive thinking, and the better things get the easier it gets to believe that things will keep getting better. of course, none of this would help if i didn't actually get off my butt and DO STUFF. i am getting better at getting out of my own way.

candy cane children

listening to the white stripes, looking out the window, drinking a cup of coffee, and hoping for a check in the mail.
on the agenda for today:
-gym with ces
-get a few groceries and a new measuring tape
-take jake and william to strings rehearsal
-clean up a bit (in case mum turns up)
wish me luck!

a call to apathy

listening to the shins, trying to gather myself. the living room is finished. my bedroom is next. i wanna have a big party for dil's 35th. i should start planning. maybe clay will help. (will you help, clay?)
i've been pretty tired and cranky lately, but now that my throat is feeling better and it is sunny again, i hope the joy of spring will return to my heart. i haven't had a sore throat like that for a long time. the only thing that helped was gargling with warm salt water. yuk. no wonder i was in a bad mood!
jake has battle of the books at woozles today. he is excited and nervous - these are the semifinals and the pressure is on the team. jaewon and pavit have played everytime, with jake, cameron, oliver and emily rotating on and off. if mrs r holds to pattern, then jake will be on the team today. dil is going to come and watch for the first time, so i do really hope that jake gets to play. it is really exciting. i love to watch him huddling and whispering and smiling that confident 'i-know-the-answer' smile.
tomorrow... jake has a cello practice out in fairview somewhere. i should find out where. and i should call sharon and let her know that i can't drive william today or tomorrow.
and i should call the td and postpone our meeting on wednesday. we can't finalize the application until we have our property taxes paid. when will that be? i don't know.
all the things i should do. but i think that i will go and sit outside for a bit instead.