May it not come to this.

Politically Correct Seasonal Song

On the 12th day of the Eurocentrically imposed midwinter festival, my
Significant Other in a consenting adult, monogamous relationship gave to me:

TWELVE males reclaiming their inner warrior through ritual drumming,

ELEVEN pipers piping (plus the 18-member pit orchestra made up of members in good standing of the Musicians Equity Union as called for in their union contract even though they will not be asked to play a note),

TEN melanin deprived testosterone-poisoned scions of the patriarchal ruling class system leaping,

NINE persons engaged in rhythmic self-expression,

EIGHT economically disadvantaged female persons stealing milk-products from enslaved Bovine-Americans,

SEVEN endangered swans swimming on federally protected wetlands,

SIX enslaved Fowl-Americans producing stolen non-human animal products,

FIVE golden symbols of culturally sanctioned enforced domestic incarceration,

(NOTE: after members of the Animal Liberation Front threatened to throw red paint at my computer, the calling birds, French hens and partridge have been reintroduced to their native habitat. To avoid further Animal-American enslavement, the remaining gift package has been revised.)

FOUR hours of recorded whale songs

THREE deconstructionist poets

TWO Sierra Club calendars printed on recycled processed tree carcasses

and...

ONE Spotted Owl activist chained to an old-growth pear tree.

Merry Christmas Happy Chanukah. Good Kwanzaa Oh, heck! Happy Solstice!!!!
(unless otherwise prohibited by law) **Unless, of course, you are suffering from Seasonally Affected Disorder (SAD). If this be the case, please substitute this gratuitous call for celebration with a suggestion that your have a thoroughly adequate day.

>That said all in good fun, I think being PC is a bit of a joke, all things considered. Calling a spade a spade is a lot more respectful than using flowery and pretty language to try to disguise the truth. I can't believe Santa's have been sacked for saying "Ho, Ho, Ho"... unreal. This happens while so many other atrocities are so much more important??? Bizarre. Ok, enough of my rant already.

Happy Solstice! Let the celebrations begin...

Kids.

With the holiday season, and a few social events happening (including an early hockey game so we could actually watch Ken play)... we have been around a few more kids than normal. Kids are starting to appear in our circles, and since I haven't been around for a lot of it, I don't always get to see what other folks' kids are up to. Normal is what normal does in our house (as it is everywhere else...)

I don't know why it surprises me, but the range of behaviour you see starts unbelievably early. Brandon is definitely tall for his age, and has lots of words, and the walking is oh-so-close. Watching him interact with kids about his age, you can see all those things. Talking to other moms, they more or less agree with the early walkers aren't really early talkers and vice versa. What has surprised me is being more aware of the different parenting styles out there and the impact it has on their kids overall beings.

There are the obvious rights and wrongs, and the whole wide and wonderful range of normal. But Brandon is just about 17 months, is doing the home daycare thing, and is pretty content most of the time. I try to plan outings when he is not tired, and that he has a full belly. We watched him interact with a group of "new to him" kids on the weekend, and it was amazing what little turds they could be to him, and how he really didn't care. When the other kids would take his toys, he would kind of shrug, and find something else. When chaos and meltdowns happened around him, he just sought us out. You could see the other kids doing things like this to him to see if he would react, and he didn't. Ken and I were both so proud of him, it was pretty humbling. Gave us a different kind of appreciation of what you really focus on teaching your kids early - social interaction, how to share, how to be content in your own skin. It starts so bloody early. I don't know if it was mob behaviour and he was the youngest, and I know he has been the one to grab toys from other kids on occasion, but I was pretty proud of how he handled himself, and kind of a little dismayed at how some of the other kids behaved. It was an eye opener... especially when they are so young - you want to protect, but you can't fight every battle and we were glad to see Brandon just let this shit behaviour from the other kids roll off of his back!

Damn violas.

Those damn violas show up everywhere. You think you have an epiphany, and well, viola. Tee hee. Betty, you are a rock star, even if you have the blahs. You too Nej. Maybe some of my extra cheer will go and bite you in the ass. Who knows, stranger things have been known to happen???!!! You movers to a new host site. Perhaps one day I too will take that leap.

I bake. Therefore I am.

Kazzicus Domesticus seems to be striking with a vengeance this year. I am even somewhat coping with the interruptions as it seems that once I am up to here in flour, that is when Brandon decides to prematurely wake up from his nap... got some shortbread done, shit droppings (err, oatmeal delights, they just don't look nearly as good as they taste, also called haystacks), a chocolate/peanut butter/marshmellow square (really easy, as easy as rice crispy squares and as addictive)... tonight I am making the dough to chill for ginger bread cookies (for the daycare party) and then sugar cookies too. My butter tarts were almost a bust (fit for hubby but not for guests, a little well done), and the mincemeat tarts are in the freezer. All in all, my manic burst of baking activity for the year is almost done.

I have the urge to buy peppermint schnapps.

The lights on our tree randomly flash. It is mesmerizing. I could lose days with a slack jaw, staring at my tree. Wait, I think I did that earlier...

I broke our vacuum cleaner, so there are needles everywhere. Tomorrow I use our old shop vac and make it right again.

Damn popcorn makers

I lurve popcorn.

In our old house, we have some electrical issues. About a year ago, my old popcorn maker seemed to be on the fritz and just wasn't popping the corn like it should.

Then I got a new one for a pressie (I think Ken was tired of my whining and came off as a superstar since popcorn should be its own food group as far as I am concerned).

Well, the new one has never been perfect. Some days it pops like it should. Other days, it takes about 10 minutes to make a bowl. Saturday night I was ready to finally watch the latest HP, plugged in the maker in a different outlet (to see if that made a difference to its popping abilities) and let'er rip.

About 2 minutes in it made a horrendous screech and sounded like popcorn was banging around inside the motor.

The maker is in recycling. I have no idea if they will take the damn thing. I am done with it.

I went old school. Oil in the pot, a little shaking, a little butter, and viola. Best bowl of popcorn I have had in a long time. Screw hot air popcorn, and the microwave kind?? Not happening. I am going to kick it old school and stick to the stove top version. It isn't like I am eating it every second night.

So much for my lunch

Ever have one of those days that you pack what looks like a good, robust lunch and it is gone before 11am?

That would pretty much be me today. I also forgot my purse, so once my food supply is gone, I will have to resort to tea. For some reason I am starving. Must be the rain. Or the clouds. Or my body warming up to the idea of Christmas baking. And Grazing. Or something.

Been a week where things are slowly coming together for the holidays, but I still haven't really been bitten by the Christmas spirit. It seems like it should be weeks away, rather than just around the corner. I am attempting to coordinate more of an effort to keep the house a little tidier (did some more organizing and cleaning out, to keep with the theme of this year) during the week so it doesn't look like the kitchen and closets exploded on Saturday morning. It's hard. Being neat and tidy just isn't always a priority for me, sometimes it is more like controlled chaos. Although after tearing apart the bedrooms over the weekend (much to Ken's dismay, he held it together pretty good and didn't give loud voice to what the hell was I doing??!!) to get some needed reorganizing done, things feel a little more even keeled.

I learned a few things about myself through the process. I don't need to have rooms so crammed full of furniture. I think I am finally letting go of some (read, only some) stuff. In the past, quite a few purchases at the Swedish store were total impulse buys. Now, a few years later, that is painfully obvious. Ah well, life comes with experience eh?

The weaning process has begun. As sad as I am to see this time in our life with Brandon draw to a close, I am also relieved. It is time. I think he would go on forever, and it is much of a comfort thing at this point (and pretty much only happening at night). No matter how hard it was to find our b'feeding groove, it was totally worth it and I am so glad to have given him (and me) such a good start.

Purls

I am starting to get the urge to take up knitting again.

I was at a Christmas shindig (it was billed as a party, but it didn't quite fit the party bill to my way of thinking) tonight, and got to speak to someone who works in a yarn shop. We talked textures, projects, and colours, and she showed me this beautiful shawl she had knitted over several years. I divulged that there is one sweater that I truly covet, and that eventually I will break and pay a lot of money for 100% wool to make the sweater right, since it will be a work of art (IMHO), take a long time to knit up, and I will own the rest of my life (if my wool sweaters I bought in Ireland in 1995 are any measure of just how long a well made wool sweater will last).

In the meantime, I am getting back to hats, and scarves, and I see a new baby blanket in my future as a dear friend announced a new bubs for next spring. I am halfway through a smaller project, and it has been great to just kick back and watch something take shape beneath my hands. I find it amazing what a long piece of string can become! Of course, nothing more colourful than a string of curses after you make (and find) a mistake.. or something just doesn't look right.

Aside from my knitting urge, got the lights up today. We have pretty much switched to LEDs (I think it will take years to actually accumulate a decent amount of lights, those damn lights are expensive!!!!). They look cool. I am glad that they are done. I came to realize that I just want things to be a lot more normal this year for Christmas than they were last year. Last year was crazy and so unexpected how things worked out (all for the best, but still scary as hell to go through, especially with the unknowns) and I just want to be able to do my baking, and my shopping, and put up my tree and enjoy it for a few days rather than wonder how can the days pass by so fast and hoping that my little guy was okay.

Looking at him now, you would never know what we went through. He is amazing. We are incredibly lucky in so many ways. I guess that is yet another reason why I think I seem to peer out from my rose tinted glasses... even when life is really shitty, you take a moment to consider it from another pov and you realize that things aren't so bad and you have what counts (your health, a roof over your heads, some food in the cupboards, and you are loved).

A new month

After being bloggerific last month and religiously posting every day, I have already slipped back in to my bad habits of posting once a week. Ah well, some weeks are interesting, some not so much.

TGIF. Every week in my new job has been a good week, but it doesn't mean that they aren't long weeks. This week I am redesigning and updating one of our major publications so I have been learning on the fly and making a series of new contacts as a result. I am fumbling around in the dark a bit, and will have my firs official training session this afternoon about this project. Somewhat amusing I must say, what if I wasn't a self starter??? But they knew that when they hired me...

On a different note, this working out at lunch has been going well - I am actually looking forward to my 1/2 hour on the elliptical trainer with my book. Who knew?? I have also been fighting crankiness at times this last week, so it has helped to burn off some angst at lunch.

I certainly don't have the stamina to stay up as late as I used to. Granted, I wasn't getting up before 6am in those days, but I am just about done by 11am now. There have been a few nights where I know I could be doing some tidying up, and I have zilch desire to do so, and will wait for the weekend to do my clean up blitz. I can't believe Christmas is just over 2 weeks away. It seems like a foreign concept right now. I am somewhat organized, but I don't feel it. It feels like a bunch of ideas and plans floating around in my head and I need to get them articulated in to lists, and just get it done. I need a plan.