fifteen minutes to live.

playing buck 65. it was hot today, man.
i am falling behind in telling the story of my life. the problem is that when i am busy i don't have time to write and when i am not busy i don't have much to say... gotta go.

a new name for everything

i am going back to bed in 5.2 seconds. listening to the weakerthans, waiting for the dryer repairman to finish writing up my bill.

mark green on friday... awesome.
sam's birthday at the discovery centre on saturday... wild but successful.
mini poko party on saturday night... unexpected but not unpleasant.
father's day breakfast at the ned on sunday morning... perfection.
father's day/ellie's bday/sam's bday clancey party on sunday afternoon/night... long, long, long.

this week is the last week of school.

gotta get it together.

ah. dryer is fixed. must pay man and go back to bed.

mass romantic

library is on random and right now the new pornographers are on. it is raining, and there's a thunder shower warning.

we got up early this morning because sam mistakenly thought that his birthday was like christmas (i.e. the earlier he woke up, the earlier he could open his presents.) ugh. anyway, i stayed cheerful, cuddled him in bed for an hour, then got up and made pancakes with peaches and strawberries. so good. william and jake and sam ate breakfast happily. sam opened his presents but the scooter was damaged, so i told sam i'd exchange it today.

we all got ready and headed out to school/work but when we got to the school, ann told me that the class trip was cancelled. i unexpectedly had the day free! i headed to the mall to exchange the scooter, and i also went to *gasp* the dollarama to get a bunch of loot bag gear. this is the first birthday party i've ever planned that i actually feel prepared for. it is refreshing.

last night liam and fionn came over for a visit. that's one cute baby - he will be one year old next week.

little red rooster

stones are on. it's cold and cloudy again. i wanna go to the beach! what is all this crazy cloud and fog?

tomorrow is sam's seventh birthday. we're going to have a little birthday dinner for him. saturday is the big party at the discovery centre. i don't know how many kids are coming because only three people have rsvp'd. i hate that. it clearly says RSVP in red ink! just do it! ell and the pd's are going to come and help us do crowd control. it should go pretty smoothly. now i just have to buy presents, make cakes, and put together some treat bags. no problem. *ahem*

in other news, i messed up jake's audition because i didn't call soon enough. he might not get a chance to show his stuff. i feel pretty bad about that.

william is blending easily into our family. no problems.

i'm going to go and finish filling out my student loan forms now. pray for me.

it's not the spotlight

i need soothing. beth orten is soothing. the weather is cold and cloudy. i am wigged out, ornery, and badly in need of some r&r.

this weekend was an ordeal of inlaw-assisted house repairs. i wanted to kill/die by the time sunday night arrived. the floor in the hallway looks great.

the dryer broke on friday. the guy is coming tomorrow. i hope that i can pay him.

jason picked the car up on saturday morning. that was expensive and tedious.

sam had a gymnastics meet on saturday, and jake had diving.

robbie stayed over saturday night.

jake went to stuart's birthday after robbie left on sunday afternoon.

he was falling asleep in his supper when he got home; poor ol' guy burned the candle at both ends!

sam's birthday is this week, and william is coming for three nights tomorrow.

grammy's caretaker person sheila is in vancouver at her son's wedding for two weeks.

today i helped pam move some plants etc. from her old place to the new place. i drank far too much coffee.

gawd. i am boring myself.

if youse a viper

random mp3 library selections on the go. i'm gonna turn it up and open my windows, so i can hear the music while i'm doing a bit of work on the garden. it's sunny off and on today, and i am off to a good, productive start. i ate some breakfast (well, i had a banana, some cookies, and two espressos). i called the doctor, sorted out my library books and did some laundry.
i need to be on the ball because everything takes so much more time for planning and implementation without a car.
did i say how much i love my kitchen now that the cabinets are painted? it looks great, it feels great. making me happy.
william is coming to stay with us for three days and nights (tues, weds, thurs) next week. i hope the car is out of hock by then!
also, next thursday is sam's birthday! better get going, moey.

desolation row

am listening to robyn hitchcock at dillie's request.

sarah and pif just left. fun night, and early night. pretty great, really. we had greek salad and bruschetta with a bottle of mcguigan brothers shiraz, and then had some lemon meringue pie. after dinner, we sat arond the table talking about art, music, families, movies... fun stuff. now it is bed time. good night.

hush up

listening to king konqueror, rockin' it a little. the boys got a drive to school this morning with our neighbours, who have sold their house. it will be sad to see them go, especially jeanelle, who has been growing into a very cool girl. sam and jake will miss her a lot. i am glad they finally were able to sell, though. i know that caroline and julius were feeling frustrated with the whole process. will our house sell faster than theirs?
i spent the entire day in bed. not feeling that great, but after a rest and some ibuprofin, i walked over to the school to meet sam at 3 and sharon drove us home at 3:30. not exactly an eventful day. i liked it. i hope tomorrow is similar.
i have to resist going back to bed and put the cupboard doors back on in the kitchen. i think that we have dinner guests tomorrow, so i guess getting all that stuff from the drawers and cupboards off the counter might be a good idea.

hell's bells

i have the ac/dc on, and i'm trying to get the kitchen cabinets finished. the paint is making me feel pretty sick. i can't wait for it to be done.

i can't afford to fix the car, so it's sitting at the garage. i had to ask dad to come and get us on saturday. he didn't want to do it. he thinks his kids should be standing on their own feet and living with the consequences of their decisions. i think that kind of attitude is going to make him a very lonely senior citizen. i hate asking him for anything. and i rarely do, but liam's party would have been ruined if two characters didn't show up.

it had been a long day even before dad got involved. jake biked to diving and then went to robbie's. we took sam to the kermesse. on the way home, we got groceries. walking everywhere is crappy. thanks to ns power and eastlink, there are no trees in my neighbourhood , so there's no shade when it's hot. dil got a sunburn on his arms and neck that is still pretty sore. meanwhile, we had to pack, pay our mortgage, do laundry, etc.

i had a little freak out when dad showed up. he was saying things like "don't you budget?" to me, and then he was all charm and manners when dil came into the room. he then went out to the car and sat there with the engine running while we finished packing. i forgot my camera, part of dil's costume, tom's housewarming present, and other stuff. he can be such a jerk.

mum gave me a big hug and a big glass of wine when we got to fp but i didn't really feel like drinking. i really just wanted to go to bed, but it was 4pm, so i didn't. after we ate some snacks, i kissed jake and sam and we went to liam and raina's. i think everyone had a really good time and we were up until 2am. then joe and stacey headed back to enfield and everyone else went to bed. i slept through the night, which was nice because i haven't been doing that much lately. we had some coffee and then mum came with jake and sam to get me.

i was hoping she would take us home, but she took us to new ross instead. there was a fair going on at blf and tom was working. he was very excited to see us, but i could barely drag myself around, and the boys were tired and cranky from staying up too late. after a million years, we got back in the car. i thought maybe we could go home then, but we went back to fp instead, to wait for dad to get back from golf.

he drove us back to the city, but not home. first we went to see el and b's new apartment. it is pretty nice. liam and jason had spent the entire morning helping them move. if i was tired, i couldn't imaging how dil felt.

when i got home, jim and tammie were here. dil had given them the keys because they had to be out of their house, and dil and jim had planned to work on the floor this weekend. no time for that, i guess - there is still a depressing hole in the hall floor. they stayed for coffee and left a bunch of drywall and wood and stuff. i'm not sure what it's for, but there must be a plan for it all. we tried to find places to put it, but we ended up putting some of it outside.

we fed the boys supper, bathed them, read stories, put them to bed, folded some laundry and went to bed ourselves. zzzzz. i woke up at four again. i don't know why. i felt like i had been dreaming, but i couldn't remember what it was about. i need a new mattress. and a new brain.

back to painting.

bird on a wire

best of leonard cohen playing. it is relaxing. i am tired. this morning i took jake and sam to school in a cab that jake payed for. then i went to grammy's apartment. she called me last night, stressed out and panicking because uncle jim was mad at herand had called her and yelled at her yesterday. there was some kind of money problem. she was worried that he'd show up at her place, so i stayed for the morning, answering her phone calls, making her some lunch, talking with her (well, mostly listening) and then mum and dad came to take over. they got there at 12:15, and i stayed for 10 minutes (to be polite) and then left to have lunch with dill.

i had called him earlier because i couldn't find my house keys when i left in the morning. turns out that he had my keys. anyways, we arranged to meet at scotia square. on the way down, i ran into uncle jim, who was on his way to see grammy. i hope that it went okay. i tried to butter him up a bit for her, but he is unpredictable.

while i was waiting for dil on a bench inside the mall, i saw ellen (claire's friend, not my sister), who said that she had a dream last night about me, but not me, my sister (whose name is ellen!). then she went back to work. she is cute and funny. dil and i had falafel platters at ray's and paid our parking tickets. there were a lot of them. after that, dilio had to back to work and i had to get some ice cream. i ran into dawna and she hooked off work for a while to catch up a bit. (i think that scotia square is crawling with people who are hooking off work!!)

then i headed up to the school to get the boys. there was a man in one of those wheelchair scooter things on jubilee road by camp hill. it's battery had given out (he didn't plug it in properly the night before, he told me). i stopped to help him. well, first i walked by, and then i turned around and went back. he was a veteran. 83, never married. he used to be a paratrooper. cool guy. kind of flirty. i love flirty old men.

i thought that i'd be late for the boys, but i actually got there a little early, so i thought that i could sit and read for a bit, but one of the "mothers on medication" accosted me and gave me the weird braggadocio/S.O.S. combination that i find these gals do a lot. defensive, proud, subservient, flattering, icey, desperate. weird.

so far, i had no coffee, and was kind of feeling like a zombie. blech. sharon drove us home again. that was awesome. i like being driven home. now i am going to put my feet up in my recliner and drink my coffee and read my book. it is friday: the mayhem of the week is over and the chaos of the weekend hasn't started yet. i'd like to balance on this friday afternoon forever. this is a good time and place, baby, and i got here relatively unscathed (except for that gash on my leg from the goddamn cupboard door.)

hey you get off of my cloud

listening to the rolling stones playlist. it is another beautiful sunny day. the boys both wore shorts to school today. i just finished talking to the caa guy. he came to tow the olvo away. he was all business, and it took all of five minutes. sometimes the guy likes to chat and it takes forever. anyway, he took it over to midas. i find those guys to be pretty reliable, and always ready for the emergency, as opposed to autowerks, who require an appointment sometimes two weeks in advance. i hope that it's not going to break the bank.
i was going to finish painting the kitchen today, but fuck. i can't do that. so now i am drinking coffee and reading my book. i'll clean the kitchen. that will be it for today. oh, and i have to go up to jake's school in an hour or so. we're going on a field trip to dal's research lab. should be fun! nice day for it, unlike the rainstorm when we went to qeh last month!
i called sharon to let her know that the car is busted and i can't drive william today, and she offered to drive us home. cooperation! karma! what comes around goes around! friendship! community!

tiny broken heart

listening to a bluegrass compilation cd that i had on hold at the library, and i'm trying hard not to be cranky. the cupboards are half done and i have a paint fumes headache. i guess it looks good, but the whole house stinks and the kitchen is ripped apart and i can't put anything back until the paint dries (at least 24 hrs). the worst is that i have only done the top half. damn. no wonder i didn't do this project earlier.
on the bright side, i had a good time talking to my neighbours today. julius came out and sat on his steps in the morning, and jane came over to keep me company for a while; she is always full of funny stories. my (standoffish) neighbour from across the street came over too. must be the weather.
anyway, i am a bit burnt out, and am going to insist on eating out tonight. subway! i'm coming! hold a toasted veggie sub w/ the works for me!