Lobster season started today in this neck of the woods, and the water is now dotted with buoys that mark the locations of their traps. I had a full day of work, but with this distraction out my window and the balmy sweater weather, it was hard to get a single thing done. I managed to talk to my editor and tell her that she will receive a whole chapter of the book by the end of the week. Gulp. Major inertia to overcome now. As a result of this semi-self-imposed deadline, I had to cancel out on what would otherwise have been an interesting and fun day tomorrow. So I will likely spend a good part of the day tomorrow thinking about what I would otherwise have been doing. I will dream productive dreams tonight. Here's hoping.

We were decorating the house for Christmas today as well, and cooking dinner for my parents, who are coming over soon. I have been neglecting work, due to some of the above, so will be pre-occupied in the coming week. In the meantime, I hope you are all well and I will be by to see what you've been up to as soon as I get the chance.

So,..what's been going on at your house?

Shopping on the internet is great, but it isn't the same without the windows to peak into. I must confess that I only got one gift and spent most of my time in an art gallery marvelling over a new artist by the name of Dylan McHugh. You heard it here first folks; this man is going to be a superstar. Unfortunately I didn't take photos in the gallery (Didn't think they'd like that too much...), and he is so new that he doesn't have a web site or images online yet. Stay posted for more about him.

On the topic of new artists, albeit of the musical variety, I am really enjoying Eva Avila's new release. She is our most recent Canadian Idol, and the only one so far who even warrants a mention. But check her out, I think she may be Canada's next Nelly Furtado. She worked on her album with Chantal Kreviazuk and Cindy Lauper, of all people.

I am tired of giving and not receiving. Of being disappointed and let down by people. With investments come returns. I am the shoulder, but never the arm. It's too familiar. But I don't understand it. It is easy to be there in bad times. Most believe it to be the other way around. But that's not true. All the false friendships come pouring out of the closets. But in good times, this is more difficult. Where are those people to share in your joy? They are nowhere to be found. We like to share in others' misery for it makes us feel better somehow. The superiority and inferiority of it all tires me. I chose neither, so why must you? Beware, false friendships...

Every now and and then I get possessed by my creative side of my brain and all I want to do is make things and be crafty. Spools of thread make my head spin with ideas. Fabric gives me goosebumps. An empty canvas gives me chills. I have had a long dry spell, but now it's all I want to do. I hated working today, because I wanted to paint. And I love my job. Usually. So I'll work away this week and hopefully get another rare moment of spare time to make some things that I am hoping will turn out great, so I can set up my blog shop (joking. kind of.).

As far as my day went...here are some random conversations I was engaged in:

Mid-day (with my son):

Son: We were practicing for our Christmas concert today. If you come to the concert with ear plugs in, you won't hear much.

Me: Why would I wear ear plugs to your concert?

Son: Why not?

Me: Because I would want to hear what all the children are saying and singing.

Son: But if you sat in the back row, you wouldn't hear anything.

Me: Well, even if I did, I bet that all the children will be talking and singing very loudly.

Son: Well then, you'd better bring ear plugs.

Later in the day, at my parents house...

My dad: Don't let your kid step on my cat. (This is his semi-joking way of speaking).

Me: Why not? (My semi-joking response).

My dad: How would you like it if I tried to step on him? (My family is weird, ok?...)

Tonight: work meeting

Man at meeting (all-male meeting, well, except for me, that is): And now, perhaps the lovely young lady to my left might have a question to ask....

Me: Speechless.

I went to the craft store to buy wool felt yesterday, thinking that I would like to make handmade slippers for the boys, but they didn't sell it. Rather than leave empty-handed (can't have that!) I bought the supplies to make this purse, which I did while the oldest two (:) were at the Christmas Parade last night. It was a hard thing to take a proper photo of, actually.
I had a hard time choosing the colours, but now that I've made one I want to make some more. I have no idea who I am making these for. Perhaps I'll start an etsy shop?

What would one charge for a hand-embroidered dish towel? Priceless, I know.

Mr. C and our son have gone downtown to the Santa Claus parade. They've taken the camera with them, so no photos on the blog today, unfortunately. The babe is feeling much better but not up to going for a night out on the town. So the two of us are having a fogged-in night, and I am going to continue to ignore the work I should be doing and make more crafty things. I will post photos of my creations soon.

Sometimes a new pair of shoes is the best kind of therapy. Especially when they're camper shoes and you unexpectedly come across a 20% off sale.

The babe was home sick again today. Our weather should be getting well into the freezing zone, but it has been warm, sweater-weather and with this comes diseases that should be going dormant, deep in the frozen ground. That's my opinion, anyway. Come on world, we need to start thinking about global warming just a little bit more. Don't you think? Let's make that our new world religion, and then perhaps it will be tackled with a little more fervor. In the meantime, poor babe...

Oh, and if you missed my last post, I have a new book blog here. I will be making a concerted effort to post regularly on both sites.

You can find it here. I hope you enjoy it, because I know that I am going to have fun making posts to it. Oh, and I'm not starting with Hawthorne, by the way. To make comments, you have to use the comment sidebar, which I thought would be annoying, but it is quite easy. Just scroll down a bit until you see where you submit your name and blog URL.

On completely unrelated topics, I got my haircut today and talked about Greece the entire time with my hairdresser. It turns out that she lived there for four years (in the north somewhere) and I enjoyed listening to her travel tales. It made me think about Chloe and what fun I will have when I go to visit her one day. I chose this hairdresser for her ability to entertain me while getting my hair cut. While she is good with scissors and shampoo, her story-telling abilities are way more important. As I walked out of the salon, a man begging walked right into me and asked for change. I have been in the mood to give money to street people lately (usually I try to buy them some food). I instructed him to get a warm lunch for himself today. Nope; I'm gonna buy cigarettes he replied. At least he was honest. I guess...

Before I went in to work, I stopped by my favourite magazine shop and bought a variety of crafty/artsy/fashion/educational magazines. The clerk looked at my eclectic selection and then at me. Who needs to explain? So I am multi-faceted...

I've decided to start a book blog. It will be linked in my user profile, so you can watch what is going on. The glitch right now is that comments can not be made, but I am working on it. I think it might be along the lines of a book review site.

Today ends a four and a half day "weekend", but going back to my other job seems suddenly like going on vacation after being home with the boys for four straight days. We officially began Christmas shopping yesterday and did some baking and made a few cards and crafts today. I am determined to make more gifts this year, so I am scouring the latest Martha Stewart Christmas craft magazines and craft blogs.

I caught the babe's nasty stomach flu and was knocked flat for a few days, and am only just starting to feel better now. Then yesterday, while doing yard work, we noticed black smoke pouring out the vent from our furnace room and the entire day was spent trying to sort that whole mess out. We need a new oil tank, but thankfully the house and everyone who resides in it are fine :). The worst thing of all however, is the fact that my favourite Hershey's chocolate bar has been recalled due to a salmonella scare.....

But today is a bright and better day...we now have Sunday shopping in Nova Scotia and I am going to the Bookstore! I'll let you know what I purchased, because I know that you are waiting on the edge of your seats to find out...

The babe is 100% again. Thank you for your well-wishes. Amazing how quickly little people rebound. If I had been sick like that, I would still be in bed moping and needing to be waited on.
So I am working today (albeit from home)....writing a few strokes of genius. OK, not really, rather writing a few strokes of mediocrity that no one will ever read...

My son thought that this might be a fun activity. Too bad that the kit came with no instructions and said that a 3 year old could supposedly do it without supervision. Our handiwork, a la 1970s flash-back is the pink and blue jobbie in the left. Mr. C is now addicted to the loom and I may need to enrol him in basket-weavers anonymous.

I told you she was crazy (see yesterday's post), he says to me out of the blue. What do you mean? I ask. Your blog friends, they are all backing me up; they think she is crazy too. I might be feeling slightly more annoyed at her today, though, because the babe has come down with the stomach flu, which he likely picked up from McDonald's last night. Right?...

I have to watch Corner Gas this week; one of the characters gets a blog and none of his friends talks to him anymore because they just read about his life on his blog. Oh, yeah, read it on your "blurb".....cracks me up! I am literally laughing out loud right now. (Still can't get into the lol thing).

An eclectic friend of mine called at 10:30 this morning to tell me that her deep freeze went kaput and that she had to get rid of food quickly. She asked if the family wanted to come over and perhaps we'd have a fire and roast weiners and eat some late-fall-roasted marshmallows. We chatted about some seat covers that I needed to upholster and she said I could borrow her staple gun. Chit-chat basically. I asked if there was anything I could bring and what time we should come. She said to just bring our smiles and to come any time between now (huh?...) and 6pm.

I told her that we would come by 4, since the babe would need his nap and my son and I were going to the movies to see Flushed Away. Mr. C and the babe arrived at her house shortly after we did. We chatted and looked at photographs, she brought out an old copy of a Life magazine that had her photo in it. Soon, she mentioned that her cousin and his wife would be arriving any minute and that they were going to help her to move furniture in the upstairs of her house. Within minutes, they arrived and were shuffled upstairs...well, we could use your muscle, Mr. C, she proclaimed. And they proceeded to move every bit of furniture, like the proverbial musical chairs (minus the music). Four beds and the contents of four bedrooms. Meanwhile, the babe, my son and I waited downstairs. And then, as soon as they were finished, the cousin and his wife were off in a flash and she came down (6 pm by this time), and said so, what are you guys doing for supper now? Going out?...

Strange, amusing, eclectic,....you might think rude. But this is her way; she is not your average person, and somehow we missed a translation in the phone call this morning. She also completely forgot about my upholstering, said not a word about the deep freeze or thawed food and had never spoken word to me earlier about moving furniture. Mr. C was annoyed, and my son was confused.

Thanks for coming over, she said to my son. Well, I guess I won't have to thank you for supper. My son replied.

And because we had eaten at a relatively expensive restaurant last night and could not manage a long wait for food because the babe was now starving, we ended up at McDonald's for Sunday night dinner.

I had a meeting with Art Garfunkel today. Well, his hair twin, anyway. It was very distracting, because I found myself speaking to his hair. He needed a haircut very badly. But so do I and my hairdresser is away until November 14. Dilemma. Ponytails for a week and a half...

Th JWs won't shut up with their retarded comments from one of my posts this week. Go away! Please and thank you.

My house is in post-Halloween-traumatic-stress-syndrome and there are mice scampering in the attic again. Both of the showers in the house need some form of fixing. I need a handyman. Sorry, Mr. C, but it's true...yes, I know I know....

The commercialization of Christmas has begun in earnest and I am doing my best to not feel sucked into the black hole of shopomania that descends on North Americans the moment Halloween is over. I spent too much money in the early part of the fall, so Christmas shopping is just going to have to wait.

My son has a friend over and they are in the process of destroying the basement.

Take the picture already, I want to get treats!

My house is over-flowing with bowls of candy, chips, and chocolate. It is obscene. I could open a sweet shop in my living room.

Want me to mail you some?