The doggy faces I love

Dayna

Nori:

Wanna see something that is totally cool to us and probably not so, to you?

Put our names in alphabetical order. Whenever I ask people to do this, it's evidently a very confusing request, so I'll do it for you:

Dayna, Natalie, Nori, Risto

Now take the first two letters of each name and place them in the same order.

DA
NA
NO
RI

What do you get?

Pretty flukey, huh?

FO: Iron On Transfer Onesie

I decided early on that our nephew needed a onesie depicting his dad's favourite phrase.



Especially since he's about to start figuring out this thing called walking.



It was a huge hit. I just hope it fits him because he's big for a 9 month old.

Resurfacing

Christmas 2009 has now passed in a hazy flurry of sewing, knitting, wrapping, weaving, packing, unpacking, eating and more eating. I don't even know where to begin. I feel like I'm in that part of a movie where everything is really noisy and screechy and then the next scene cuts to complete silence.



Yes. This is what I'm talking about. Let's just savor this moment of silence and stare at the pretty bird ornament.

It's been a week since we've been back home and I haven't managed to make myself do much of anything except slug it out on the couch. I blame this mostly on the purgatory that is trying to will yourself asleep because your body demands it but is f$%@-ing impossible because your brain is trying to decide between a) not breathing and suffocating or b) breathing and suffocating from the mothball fumes that are embedded in the duvets and pillows that your parents have unearthed from storage to cover the 14 people (not) sleeping in the house.  But let me not speak of this anymore because every time I think about it, I hold my breath, forget to exhale and start to see spots.

R and I actually had friends come over for New Year's Eve and didn't cancel on them at the last minute. (We kinda invited them at the last minute, so I guess it would have seemed odd, even for us, to cancel immediately.) But...it was an awesome evening. Exactly the sort of fun, low-key event we were aiming for. Plus we got to hear a "dad-walking-in-on-sexytimes/penis-through-the-crocheted-afghan" story that is now going down as the most unbeatable amazing i'msohappyithappenedtoyoursister cringe story ever. I laughed so hard, I almost peed.

All the handmade gifting I did this year went over pretty well. Except for the hat I made for my dad. He seemed to like it, then I caught him trying to hock it to my cousin's wife - for her son. I may have made the hat a bit small for the old noggin.

Pictures to come. I haven't managed to upload anything yet and I'm afraid I was too busy with everything going on to take more pictures of my FO's. Ah well. Time to move on and start planning for 2010 anyways.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Just in case...

...anybody else had to look up the word "hirsute", like I did.

hir·sute (hûrst, hîr-, hr-st)adj.
1. Covered with hair; hairy.
2. Botany Covered with stiff or coarse hairs.
[Latin hirstus, hairy, bristly.]

Totally not what I expected it to mean.

However, at least I can now say that the one with the big white woolly patch down the middle is the best representation.

Sometimes I am a bad girlfriend

Me: Go to my blog!

R: Only if you tell me what my last blog was about

Me: ....

Dayna

A little belated happy birthday to our household goof ball (there is stiff competition here for that title). We absolutely love how manic she looks when her lips get stuck on her teeth. It's one of our favourite things about her. Although, this picture reminds of having a child who refuses to smile for pictures.

"Smile pretty for the camera, honey!! CHEEESE!!"

And then you get this:

She is SO good. We're so unbelievably lucky to have her in our life. You have no idea how hard this is for her:






Don't worry, I wasn't completely heartless. She got to play with it.

Finally had the time to upload some pictures, so you'll see me around again, at least for the next little while. I've been up to a lot of different projects and one big one in the works for 2010. Super excited.

$100,000 piece of paper

My little sister is officially an M.D.!

So freakin' proud of her.

Pictures, Family commentary and Update later.

Too pooped at the moment.

Found

Yep. I'm still kicking around.

We've been keeping busy. I've got a bunch of half typed up blog posts sitting in my file. Partly to blame is the fact that it takes so flippin' long to launch my iPhoto and upload photos from the camera. For the most part however, everything is very much stewing within the cesspool of my brain. I think it's a combo-case of start - itis and indecisiveness. I know I'm not making much sense but let's just say that I've been toying with the idea of selling my crafts either on Etsy or have R build me a shop under a personal domain.

When I started teaching a few weeks ago, I was all fired up to teach crafting classes as well. I had awesome (to me) workshops and craft kits planned out. I put everything together (and had a whole ton of fun doing it) and then stalled. This is not surprising. Whenever I used to play "office" or "teacher" as a kid, I just liked setting everything up - I didn't actually spend much time playing the game. Anyways, the one major roadblock to all of this? I really hate marketing myself. Plus I weighed the teaching time against the personal crafting time and I thought: "Meh". There are other reasons as well, but for now I have my piano/theatre arts/craft studio shelved until another time.

So yeah, lots of waffling. Sell stuff online? Or teach workshops? Or both?

.... Or neither?

I'm still teaching piano though (grand roster of one student) and I'm really enjoying it. I've also fallen back in love with playing regularly again.... which is another something that has cut into my crafting and blogging time. The list of songs I want to learn and re-learn keeps growing every time I sit on the bench. I'm incredibly rusty and it's a bit painful to hear since I know how I used to be able to play the pieces... 10 years ago. Ouch. But it's still awesome.

There's been lots of knitting going on still and a bit of weaving. R and I have also had a few guests over too! So unusual for our normal hermit-like tendencies. Here's our favourite guy who came to visit over the long weekend.

It's amazing how one little man can exhaust four adults. Apparently, he's what people call an "altitude" baby. Pretty much, one of us had to be standing (absolutely NO sitting) around and dancing the entire weekend.

Yeah...that picture pretty much sums us up.

Anyways, lots on the list for the summer. It's going to be a good one!

Happy Belated Anniversary to Me!

So my four year blog anniversary came and went very quietly. I toyed with the idea of doing a giveaway but given the eclectic collection of people who read this blog just for my postings about my parents, there really wasn't anything I could give to a "winner" even if I could get you guys to delurk and make a smarmy comment.

What I did do was spend some time going through my archives. Unlike most of the blogs I read, I don't have a focus for this one. I used to think I had to make it about one thing or another but then I realized I've never done just one thing. Ever. And really, my target audience is me. Anyways, I loved going through my old posts and reliving my theatre work, remembering Nori as a puppy, and all these anecdotes about my family that I never want to forget.

I pulled a list of some of my favourite blog entries together.

This was the time I almost developed multiple personalities because science hadn't perfected cloning humans in time for one of my theatre shows :: here ::

Then there was the time when Nori was on speed and went through withdrawal for three days. :: here ::

What amuses me to no end is that Dayna is truly THE second child. I used to know the consistency, density and viscosity of Every. Single. One. of Nori's poops. Now... I couldn't even tell you if either of them did their morning business. We (okay, just me) freaked out over everything Nori did or didn't do. Last night, I heard some painful sounding yelps of the Dayna-variety...but did I rush upstairs to go see what was wrong? Nope. I was in the middle of crafting and I didn't hear my name being bellowed so I figured everything was fine. Terrible. (Dayna caught her tail in the door but she's cool. That's another thing we've had to get used to ...a dog with a tail that thumps into things.)



Anyways... I digress again. R and I often talk about how much fun we had at my cousin Jen's wedding a couple of summer's ago. It was such a fun weekend away for us and we missed most of the family drama but it was awesome hearing about it afterwards. It cracks me up how much they worried about R (aka "Rostol") being my boyfriend given the initial sleeping arrangements prior to the wedding. :: here ::

Then there was the progress made when my parents finally realized there was nothing they could do about us living in sin - already a cult favourite :: here ::

Well, despite all that HAS changed in the past year with R going back to school and our move to a new city, our relationships really hasn't evolved that much from this :: here ::

On a crafting note, I've definitely noticed that the more I do, the more I want to do. (Ya think?!?) My projects from four years ago seem so juvenile to me now but I was pretty happy with them back then. I spent the weekend working on a bunch of new things.



I'm REALLY happy with the way they turned out. I wonder what I'll think about them four years from now?

The First

I can't even find the words to describe how much in smit we all are with this little guy.

Hitching our wagon to a star

Last Sunday, I had the privilege of listening to my 14 year old cousin play a violin concerto with the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra. It was only a year ago that I was bursting with pride to see that she was concert mistress with her Youth Orchestra. And now this! (I never would have been this self-possessed and in control of my knees.)

To say that she played brilliantly would be an understatement. I know somebody took a video and once I get my hands on it, I'll post it for you to hear. She's flawless.

Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, op. 64 : Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
1. Allegro molto appassionato

As you can see from the picture, we had primo seats in the auditorium - right in front of C and behind the conductor. Once, C's solo was over, all of her groupies noticeably relaxed. You could even say they became a little giddy. This is what happens when my mom gets giddy...

*audience is dead quiet*

Conductor: This next piece, "Adagio for Strings", is my all-time favourite piece composed for strings! I am so pleased to share this with you, this afternoon.

Mom: *loud, carrying voice* ThhhaaAANK YOU!

The woman was sitting so close to the conductor, she literally thought he was talking to her. Mel and I shot each other looks and snickered, while our friend, Lynn, whispered "Who BROUGHT her?!"

Seriously...the four year olds in the audience were better behaved.

We were all so proud of C, it was tough for us to hold back tears - but we managed to smile for the camera.

... and Mel found out last week that she got her top pick for residency next year. After a year of agonizing and deliberating, she finally chose Family Medicine. Now she'll get to be the Go-To-Girl for ALL of my family's individual aches, pains, minor twinges, random questions and general anxious concerns. More power to her.

I still laugh out loud when I think of the time Mel told a non-english speaking patient, in her broken chinese, that she was a doctor. What she really said, in Chinese, to this poor woman was: "I am a lion."

Yep

--BlackBerry Msg --

To: Nat
From: Mel
Date: 1 March 2009

Can you make daddy a hat?
He's wearing a neckwarmer on his head.

Mexican Fiesta Baby Shower

Here are some highlights from the latest baby shower I worked on for the past few weeks.  

The mommy-to-be is R's sister and we're super excited to meet the new baby who is due sometime next month.  Wanna know a great way to give my parent's a simultaneous aneurism? Excitedly announce at the dinner table that R and I are going to be aunt and uncle. Deep silence ensued while my parents worked that one out in their heads.  For that long, agonizing moment, they forgot that R had a sister.

The theme was a Mexican Fiesta and I volunteered to take care of the favours and decorations for the party. No way was I going to be responsible for poisoning a guest list of 60 people. I work much better with glue and paper.   

Originally, we were going to do a jungle theme because the momma wants to decorate the baby room as such. However, I stupidly thought that I would find more stuff going with a fiesta theme.  Newp.  Michael's had jungle wall decals with parachuting monkeys, safari felt shapes, animal wood shapes, plastic animal figures - you name it. Monkeys everywhere. Do you think I could find a sombrero or chili pepper lights in London? Ha!  I bitched to everybody who would listen how much I missed having easy lunchtime access to Kensington Market and Chinatown. At times like these, I even miss IKEA.  As it turns out, a good friend of mine called a dozen places in Toronto trying to source out these tacky things only to find out that they no longer stock chili pepper lights because these are not CSA approved.  It was difficult, but I had to let go of the obsession. 

My first brainstorm was to buy a bunch of mini cactuses as favours. Unfortunately, they're not really in season and they cost at least $2.50 to $2.99 each. Totally not in my budget for the number of people coming. Then I thought of doing up packages of salsa/hot sauce, mojito mix or spicy popcorn mix... but I didn't want to go to all the trouble and expense if people were going to just let it sit in their cupboards.  I decided to go to a local nursery to check out their selection of cacti and succulents anyways and I ended up having the epiphany that I'd been waiting for. I love when I have these!

I knew that I wanted to make mini pinatas weeks ago, hence all the balloons that got blown up. So I spent (you really don't want to know how many) hours making tissue paper pinata bases.

 [Tip:: I used 2 parts glue to 1 part water. The thicker it was, the faster it dried. If it was too watery, it just ripped the tissue paper. Believe me, you don't have time for the tissue paper to rip and get stuck to everything except the balloon.]

Here's the packaged product. After 45 balloon pinatas, I realized I left the opening way too big to close up with tissue paper alone. But I needed it that big in order to get everything inside. You better believe that at three in the morning, I was not happy when I realized this. After a significant amount of stewing, I let go of my initial ideas and improvised. I'm really happy with the finished display.

I varied the colours based on the tissue paper I had on hand. There really wasn't a specific colour theme again. I've discovered that I can't pick one or three colours and go with it. At least, this time around I just wanted everything to be colourfull and it worked well with the theme of a fiesta.


Wanna see the goods inside? I know you do.

At the nursery, I picked up a few packages of seeds for tomato, jalapeno and sweet pepper plants. I used a ceramic baby foot mold I picked up at Michael's to create plantable seed papers. You can also find them :: here ::  I blended some paper in our blender with water, strained it and plopped the mess on top of the mold. I layered on about 7 or 8 seeds. Then plopped another layer of paper mess on top.  (Plopping is a very key technique. I'm not even kidding - if you don't plop it on the mold in one lump, it won't bind when it dries.) Then, I pressed the water out with a sponge and dried it with my embossing gun. Ideally, I should have just let it sit and dry before taking it out of the mold but I didn't have the time. I have no idea if the seeds will germinate now that they've been blasted with concentrated heat for two minutes. Oh well. I never said I had a green thumb.  

Lastly, I packaged up some potting soil and placed it in one of those biodegradable pots that can be planted when you're ready to transfer the plant outside. I included planting & harvesting instructions and a recipe for either a tomato salsa, jalapeno salsa or greek salad. While I was gluing the recipes to the card stock, I realized I should have typed up a recipe for some sort of sweet pepper mexican dish. Too late. Aish. Greek Salad...seriously, what was I thinking?

Other side projects included :  

Mexican Mustaches as an ice breaker for the party guests. I LOVE these.

*R and my dad indulging my whimsy*

Turning a Curious George pinata into Jorge the Curious Mexican.

Felt garland. 

Succulents wrapped in tissue paper for room accents.

A baby name banner.

Fake flowers on colourful tea towels for a more festive feel.

And I finished the blanket...

I can't wait to do another fiesta themed shower. Pinatas are awesome. They're especially awesome when you crush them with your hands and the glue-y paper crackles while it crunches. It's better than popping bubble wrap.

You might as well just put a bullet through my head

My parents and my sis are in Vancouver for a few days. The last time they went away, they brought back some souvenir-Chicago yarn for me. I thought I could put in a request for some souvenir-Vancouver yarn this time around.

------Original Message------

From: Natalie
To: Mel
Subject: Three Bags Full (if you guys happen to walk past it!)

three bags full knit shop
4458 main Street, vancouver, bc
canada v5v 3r3
604-874-wool (9665)

hours
monday-saturday 11-6 (closed tuesdays)
sunday 12-5

If they have Malabrigo Worsted Weight - see if you can pick up one skein of Pearl (white) or Olive and something in a colour you'd like for a cowl.

And a skein of Cascade 220 in a colour you think C and S will like.


------Original Message------

To: Natalie
From: Melinda
Subject: Re: Three Bags Full (if you guys happen to walk past it!)

Mom refuses to buy you more yarn hahaha

First Day of School

Looking out from my office kitchen window a few weeks ago, I saw many excited first year med students lining up for their orientation packages. First year students look younger and weenier every year. Frosh Week on college & university campuses are always a bit of an adjustment after the quiet of the summer session. Campus is crawling with a sea of girls who don't know the meaning of "back-fat" yet, and boys who have yet to see the dull-side of a razor.

As I was making my coffee, I was first reminded of the day we moved my sister into residence at McMaster and then thought about my first day at UGuelph.

At UGuelph, my parents pulled up in front of my new residence. There was a huge hoard of upper year students cheering and waiting for the frosh to arrive. The moment we parked, they separated me from my parents and one person took me through the registration process. By the time I came back, that same hoard of students had opened the trunk, unloaded the car and all of my stuff was waiting for me in my new room being watched over by my parents. Because really, there was nothing for them to do. They were at a loss. For once, they couldn't be helpful and all they could do was smother me with really trite advice. It was the first of many times where my parents were no longer needed to hold my hand. They're still adjusting to that.

My sister's move-in day was a bit different. McMaster didn't have those helpful volunteers so my parents felt a bit better being able to move all of my sister's stuff into her new room by themselves. Although, guess who got stuck carrying my sister's new bar fridge? Aish. Afterwards, my sister went off to do her registration thing and my parents finished puttering and fussing in her room. After a few moments of useless rearranging, I think my dad was at a loss for something else to do and really feeling a need to contribute more to making my sister feel loved.

He disappeared.

My sister and I were standing outside her new building, when my dad reappeared with a strange girl in tow. He brought her over to us and then left immediately to go find my mom. He didn't introduce her. He just showed her to us. Mel and I are both social enough that we extended our hellos right away. I think we both just assumed that he had managed to find my sister's new roommate.

No. No.

Nothing like that.

Turns out, she wasn't Mel's new roomate.

Nope, she was just some random girl he came across,decided to bring over and shove towards his daughter. Evidently, he felt that Mel needed a new friend. Imagine what he'll do when it comes to finding Mel a husband.

(I never was very clear on how he managed to convince that girl to follow him. Clearly not one for street smarts. I don't think Mel and that girl ever developed any lasting friendship either.)

~~~~

For those of you who don't know yet, R has decided to go back to school for a second undergrad degree at Western. We're super excited. We spent the Labour Day weekend making the move to London and settling into our new home. That's a blog on its own.

When I toured the UWestern campus over the weekend with my parents, frosh students were moving in and upper year students were hyped up in colourful outfits. The really enthusiastic ones dyed themselves from head to toe in blue or purple. I was sure my parents would have some sort of comment about that. It's quite the sight seeing purple people walking around.

Nope. All my mom really wanted to point out to us:

"Look! A bus!"

They still have it in their heads that we've moved to some hole in the ground, in the middle of nowhere, 10 gazillion miles away from civilization. My dad and I also keep having conversations like this:

Dad: Are you going to Guelph this weekend?

Me: No.

Dad: No?!?!?!

Me: I'm going to London.

(I love doing that to him)

~~~~
So yes, I went to London this weekend. Took the train back to Toronto last night. This long distance relationship thing really sucks. R and I have been practically inseparable for the past five years.

However, R is starting his first full week of classes today and I can't be more happy for him.

He'll be the really hairy-looking, studious one. At the front of the class.

Hello Life

Motivated solely by the overwhelming amount of smack talk I've been getting from my readers (otherwise, singularly known as Jane) about how boring my blog has become due to the lack of actual blogging, I find myself writing a quick update post to ...well, how do you say it?

SHUT HER UP.

Since I last posted, this is what I have been up to..

:Planned a surprise 60th party for my mom

:Managed to actually surprise our mom despite our dad being the worse secret keeper EVER

:Turned 31 with a Starbucks birthday breakfast, a BBQ feast and still looking like a 12 year old

:Sewed a tote bag

:Sewed two zippered pouches

:Resigned from my job with a tentative end date that depends on when I get a new job

:Went on my first interview in six years

:Didn't get the job

:Finished five knitting projects: one stroller blanket, two cowls, one pair of pedicure socks and one ballband dishcloth

:Told my parents that R and I are going to move to London and NOT get married

:Stuck to my guns even as my mom tried to bribe me with the grand piano

:Saw two movies - "Wanted" and "The Dark Knight"

:Did not scream during "The Dark Knight" - *cough* Like Jane did *cough*

:Had six weeks of open houses for the condo

:Watched R spend six weeks vacuuming up Nori-fur EVERY. DAY.

:Spent six weeks keeping Nori out of the condo and discovered she has an inexplicable hate-on for schnauzers and most other dogs who rush over to her to say hi

:Laughed at people who asked if the bed was going to be sold with the condo

:Sold the condo; kept the bed

:Spent $75 on a new dog trainer who told us that Nori's fine. She hasn't turned savage on us. She's just telling dogs to screw off because she has no tolerance for inappropriate greeting rituals. Crotch first, then a face -to-face hello. She's a lady, that one!

:Welcomed Baby Alexander, of Pete & Tash fame, into the world of raucous laughter and stupid jokes

:Celebrated R's dad's 70th birthday and did not take any pictures

So it's been a busy summer. I'll provide more indepth details of these events when I can. (Ya, we've all heard that, right?) Well... I'll at least leave you with the details of our Stitch "N Pitch night a few weeks ago.

Jane and I had a rollickin' good time at the Jays game. We went with hundreds of knitters to the Sky Dome (Wait, is it still called the sky dome or did they change the name again?) to watch the Blue Jays play against another team... um, who wore green.

Stitch 'n Pitch was a special event organized by the National NeedleArts Association and I believe there were many of these nights held all over North America.

It was a great blend of interests. Jane got to watch baseball. We got to hang out together (with her cousin, Sarah, who spent the entire time wondering how she got coerced into coming with us) and I got to knit. Jane took out her knitting to show us proof that she belonged in the knitter's section and then didn't touch it again for the rest of the game. She was too busy riding the baseball emotional rollercoaster to knit.


I haven't been to a game in almost 10 years. The last time I was there, I spent the entire time ducking wayward balls flying over to our section. With good reason. The people who had our seats the night before told us that the person sitting in front of them got a baseball in the face. The Hell Kind of Whacked Out Game is This?

I had no idea what was going on with the game. Luckily, Jane knew everything about everybody and why everybody was doing what they were doing. She told me why people were booing. She explained why they were cheering. She jumped up and boogied when everybody else was boogie-ing.

At the end of the game, she turned to me and said: "You seriously just came here to knit?" Yes.

The Jays won the game. (Thank god because I think the other knitters would have pummeled them with their needles if they hadn't.)

I was still knitting when the game was over. I didn't notice that everybody was standing up because somehow...SOMEHOW... I managed to drop a flippin' stitch. It was an intense moment.

Stupid baseball. (Although, note Jane's ecstatic reaction to the Jay's winning and Sarah's "I can't believe we're related" expression)

Global News was there to film the event too. They had the most trite opening introduction to the segment: "At the Jay's Game tonight, everybody was on.... [insert dramatic pause]... pins and needles"

Are you kidding me?

The camera guy got some nice action shots of me knitting my ballband dishcloth. Evidently this was considered fascinating enough for the National News. It did make the segment even though I was very concious of the fact that I was being filmed and I was going to either a) collapse from the pressure or b) swear out loud because the pressure made me drop a stitch or c) start to giggle uncontrollably like the knitter sitting across the aisle from me was doing

I opted for (c) and the segment included the back of my head as I laughed rather hysterically at something Jane said.

Next year ... Jumbo-tron.

I've added it to my list of Life Goals.

I think I'm missing that thing in your brain that tells you when you're full

So we basically spent the last three days eating. I know we did other stuff too but man, oh man, I'm still full and trying to digest it all.

Friday was mostly cooking. I think I started around 10:30 in the morning. Mostly puttering here and there. Started to scrub and chop a bit. We didn't eat until 5pm though and I was pretty much standing in the kitchen the whole time. R went to borrow a glass pyrex dish, a sauce pan and some serving platters from friends for me. He came back with a few platters that looked like big silver round dishes. On the back, they said:

"For decorative use only. Not for food use"

He convinced me that it was safe. I was desperate so I went ahead and put food on them.

Later, everybody else took one look at them and said "Those are chargers!!"

What the hell are "chargers"? And why does everybody know about them except for us?

As per the tradition in my family, I made too much food. R was like "I knew there was too much food". Uh-huh. Why didn't you stop me when I bought enough sweet potatoes to feed a family of jolly green giants? (Seriously, you should see how big these things are, one is enough for two people. I think I mashed four...for a dinner party of six, come to think of it.)

Unfortunately, I had to scarf down the food in order to make my sewing class on time so I couldn't linger with the family. I basically ate, laughed at the orgy of dirty dishes I left in the sink (all created in the last five minutes of cooking) and ran out the door to catch a streetcar. I think I was still chewing. I did arrive breathless at the class. I'm sure everybody was thrilled by the smell of cooked turkey radiating from my clothes.

When I came back from the class, the condo was all clean and thankfully, nobody was hanging over the toilet seat. R's amazing like that. I make a mess. I leave. I come home and everything is perfect again. (Thanks babe, I couldn't have done it without you!)

Sunday morning, I had made plans to go to the One of a Kind Show with some friends. As always, there were so MANY fresh and fun items that I loved.

::Padded LapTop sleeve from Ellis Designs::

::Storage bags (for my knitting!) from Jenna Rose::

::screenprinted tshirts from ThirdMoonDesigns::

::Floating Circles ring from Constantine Designs::

::wool scarf from TEXTI'LL::


::screen printed teatowels from LuPrints::

::cotton bag from Hoibo::


::amazing pottery from Dotti Potts::


My list is endless. I already picked up the knitting bag and some of the pottery bowls at the Christmas show. I was SO tempted to pick up more this time around. Luckily for my bank account, Dotti Potts was out of the style I wanted and I kept reminding myself that there really is no room in the condo for more STUFFS.

Saturday night saw us hanging out with friends and eating more. R played the Wii a little for the first time. I kept one hand on the buffet table and the other on our friend Tash's pregnant belly. I spent most of the night trying to feel the baby kick.

On Sunday, we headed uptown to pick up Nori who had spent Saturday sleeping over at R's parents. They wanted to dog-sit for us (Nori's so spoiled). Apparently, they all woke up at 2am to watch the Formula 1 racing. Something that I find too adorable and just SO typical of his family.

My parents were antsy to see Nori on Sunday as well. They were convinced that she had forgotten them. So we went over there as soon as we could. I think we arrived at around 4pm and my parents fed us soup. Then there was bruschetta. It's a bit of a blur from there because I think I entered a food coma. I know there was steak, more veggies, chicken wings, fish, tofu and pineapple involved. I believe there was also walnuts and pumpkin seeds. Chocolate. Chinese fried rice. Definitely oranges too. We literally didn't stop eating until 8:30pm. (And when we got home, R dug into the leftovers my parents had packed for us. )

We had a great visit. My aunt and cousins came over. My sister, who had spent the previous day & night on-call at the hospital and delivered 12 babies (12!!!), was also there; and entertaining us with med-school stories. She said she sewed up her last vagina at 5am and was in bed by 9am. This horrified our mother. Not the fact that she was sewing vaginas, but the fact that she only slept for a few hours on Sunday. Although it was initally my parents dream for my sister to become a doctor, they really weren't prepared for the amount of work she'd be doing. They literally thought it would be a life of leisure. But that's another blog.

Anyways, Happy Easter to all. R taped the Ten Commandments for me. I watch it every year. (Having watched it every year, you'd think I would have remembered at Thanksgiving and at Christmas that it was only on at Easter when we spent 20 minutes on the tv guide looking for it.)

I leave you with Nori's Downward Dog yoga pose.

You mean I actually have to use the oven?

We're hosting an Easter Dinner for R's family this Friday. I suppose it's about time we got off our butts and had family over for dinner. We've been mooching on his mom for years. She puts out an amazing spread every holiday. We usually bring an appetizer or dessert.

R and I rarely entertain. Besides being busy doing our own thing, it might have something to do with the following three things:

1. Our lack of a dining room or a table. What you can't see in the picture is that our kitchen is right on the other side of the brown um, thing on the right side of the picture. That brown thing is our kitchen island. I really don't miss having a proper table though. I tend to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table when eating and R likes to eat over the sink. Yes, we're one of those people.

2. Cooking to us means R will scavenge for a variety of foods which include peanut butter and honey; and I'll break out my collection of 5-minute meal options which likely involve the words "Just-Add-Water" in the recipe.

3. Our lack of cookware in the arsenal. We currently have: one pot, one frying pan, one glass baking dish and a muffin baking tin. And we don't own any serving platters. Which is fine. I'm completely okay with serving everything in tupperware containers. Something that our drawers are overflowing with due to the amount of takeout we order and food that my parents send over. It just makes cleaning up easier, right? Right.

I know some people have taken cooking into a form of art or craft. I'm not one of them. Everything I make tastes exactly the same. Bland.... or extremely garlick-y. I seriously don't get much variation in flavour when I cook. My sister thinks it's because I don't use spices. Probably. Also R likes things generally healthy so he always makes special requests for me to take out butter, sugar and salt. I'm also limited to a certain comfort zone when cooking. Pancakes and Eggs? No problem. Spinach Dip? Done to perfection. Nacho Dip. Ditto. Duncan Heinz Chocolate Cake? You got it. A turkey with all the fixin's?

Ha.

I'm not sure R's family realize what they've gotten themselves into. Like I always say, this could all come back and hurt them later! Luckily, we have two bathrooms.

Well, if anybody has any ideas or easy-peasy recipes they want to pass on, I'd appreciate it! I'll leave you with my spinach-dip recipe below. When forwarding recipes, please keep in mind that this is a girl who once had cookies LIQUIFY in the oven; (They went from little cookie balls to mutant ooze after they spent 10 minutes in the oven. I still can't figure out how I managed to do that.) and who, at the age of 20, finally learned the hard way what a clove of garlic meant in a recipe.

On second thought, maybe we should have it catered.

As promised, here is my spinach dip recipe.

Ingredients:
1 package chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 package of Knotts Vegetable Soup mix...pick out all the colourful bits
chopped green onion
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1 tub of non-fat sour cream
2/3 cup low-fat mayo - optional
1 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions:
Mix it all together and serve with cubed up pumpernickel bread and/or italian bread and/or sourdough bread. Have partner cut up the bread if you are personally incapable of this feat. (I always get R to do this since I am personally incapable of accomplishing it without mashing up the bread)

I've made it so many times now, I've started eye-balling everything, and as long as the sour cream : mayo ratio is mostly right, everything else falls into place. Presentation in a bread bowl is also optional. I don't always do this because A) after you use the bread for the bowl, there isn't much left for dipping, so you pretty much have to buy two loaves to have enough bread and B) when you think about it the bread bowl looks really gross after people have scooped out all the dip. Some people say that after the dip is gone, their guests will rip up the bread bowl and eat it as well. These people perhaps have raccoons for guests.

Only Two More Sleeps!

And I'm off to NYC! (Which reminds me... I need to find my fugly passport. I hate that picture. It took the dude three tries to take a non-smiling picture that ended up making me look like a sulky suicide bomber closely related to apes)

Mel and I are going for our cousin Jen's stagette. Jen's going to marry her Steve at the end of the August. I've only met him the one time but I liked him immediately. All I know is that he doesn't believe in buying presents for the sake of gift giving. (Jen's not even going to get so much as a piece of paper on their first anniversary) And he's apparently anal about organization. He'll rip out advertisments in magazines so that the magazines will be "thinner" therefore, taking up less room on a bookshelf.

Pretty cool, huh? He'll fit in the fam, just fine.



I'm really looking forward to the trip. It will be really good to see Jen and her sister, Angela. As children, we used to spend a good chunk of our summers together. We have so many great memories. There was one time when the four of us (okay, me and my bright ideas) were convinced that we could PICK. UP. and move the tail end of my dad's chevette over on an angle so we could get it out of the garage. And another time when we were in camp and we lied and said we were all sisters. We got stuck when they asked us how old we were because Angela is 8 months older than I am and that's exactly what we told the counsellors... who couldn't figure out how "our mom did it".



And New York! I think I'm gonna love New York. I'm so totally looking forward to exploring but I have a feeling that four days is barely enough to soak it up. Mel and I are going a day earlier than everybody else. We're going to check out :: Rent :: on Broadway. I ummed over which show to watch for weeks. Having to pick one and ONLY ONE was a lot more difficult than you might think. I do recommend this site for good deals and ticket savings :: Playbill ::

Also on the list of must-see attractions... (and this is where Risto can stop reading)...

nope, not the Empire State building... not the Statue of Liberty... probably won't make it to the Guggenheim ...and most likely won't check out the Yankee Stadium or anything like that....

YARN STORES.

Okay, there are definitely two (or four) on my list that I have to check out.

:: Purl Soho ::
:: Habu ::
:: Knit New York ::
:: The Point NYC ::

Other than that, the usual cross border shopping experiences...

:: Bath and Body Works :: Victoria Secret :: Coach ::

If we can squeeze in Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Kate's Paperie and FAO Shwartz, I'll be happy.

(Risto I swear, I'll only be looking.)