.:shy:.

it's hard being lazy

sounds weird, but honestly, i find it exhausting just to try and relax. not that i haven't been relaxing but after 3.5 days of it, my skin was starting to itch. and i'm not even sure if my reference to being lazy constitute as true laziness to others because since monday, on my week off, i still got up at 6:15am to work out every morning.

a recap of this week:

sunday was sheer laziness. as mentioned - it was a day of video games.

monday, we did go see tron and then had dinner at my aunt's place. chaeli baked me a birthday cake with her new easy-bake oven. the cake was split amongst 6 adults and one kid. in other words, we all had a bite-size - more symbolic, really. and you know what? best birthday cake ever! simply because chaeli enjoyed making it for me.

tuesday, i got more into sims 2. i purchased and downloaded three expansion packs as they were all on sale for $15 ea. and each of them actually contained 3 expansion packs in them. other then that, i really can't remember what else i did that day. eat? sleep? poop? not much different from hobbes' schedule. wait - i did do some work in the morning. i suppose that counted as being productive.

wednesday, in the morning, i went grocery shopping. and mid-afternoon, we went to see disney on ice and then out to dinner. my parents came along. it was fun but the coolest part was on the way home. doug took a detour to show them parts of downtown they have not seen in almost a decade. it was interesting to see their excitement - and surprise. they both said that it was like they were seeing a whole different city. my father said that one day, he's going to come down by himself just to walk around and explore the downtown area all over again.

and finally, today. yup, today. today was the breaking point. sure, as you can see, i did get out of the house for some fresh air. but in between the outings, i was mostly in my pj's. and i just couldn't take it anymore.

so after lunch, i cleaned chaeli's room (it was a mess), reorganized it and put her jewelry in her very nice, new jewelry box which she got from my PIL. i'm gearing up to also cleaning up and storing away some of our christmas presents and finally, this weekend, taking down and putting away all our christmas decor except the tree. doug wants it up for one more week so he can enjoy his train set around the tree. he had made a winter village to go below it.

fine, fine - the boy needs his geek-outlet, too. his train set and the village to go with it is like my sims. only i have much more control over my manufacturered people.

anyway - i also did the laundry today and so there's a sense of me that doesn't feel as bad. i'm also not feeling sluggish.

the universe is on route to being normal again.

 

a geeky-family type of birthday

as a continuation from our geeky-family type boxing day, my one wish for my birthday was to see Tron.

and so, now at the age of 38, over 18 years ago after i saw the first movie in the theatres, my wish came true.

happy birthday to me!

and as for the movie...

stunny CGI and great graphics.

everything else was... meh.

a geeky-family type of boxing day

doug is playing his new firefighter game on the wii.

chaeli is playing one of her new 7 nintendo ds game.

it's only natural that i should devote my boxing day afternoon to the sims. no, nothing new from christmas - just a game i got two christmases ago of which i have yet to fully enjoy for a very, very long time.

we'll be screening calls all day.

think of it as a big 'do not disturb' sign on our entire household.

twas the night before...

i am exhausted. chaeli's been in bed for over two hours now and we just finished laying out all the gifts under the tree and stuffing the stockings as much as possible. when we were done, doug and i just sat there. i turned to him and said, "i thought we were all going easy on the gift-giving this year?"

it still looks like a crazy amount of gifts to go through tomorrow.

hobbes definitely senses something is up. he's been excited all night, following one of us right at our heels as we walk back and forth, each trip carrying more gifts to the tree and stockings. i find it funny - he has no idea why he's excited. just that he simply knows something is up.

anyway - it took a lot of energy to get everything ready for tomorrow morning. but i think both hobbes and chaeli are in for a real treat.

i just hope she lets us sleep in.

and with that, merry christmas to all and to all a good night!

he said, she said - with holly's

doug has this superstition tradition - you have to have some wrapping left to do on christmas eve.

i'm not sure exactly who he thinks he married to but if he took a moment to understand how his wife works, he'll know that i certainly can not stand leaving anything to the last minute.

and wrapping gifts the night before christmas just before actually placing the presents under the tree and in the stockings, isn't how i ease into the christmas festivities.

even so, this year, i figured i'd leave two presents to wrap last minute. and thankfully, the family member i'm wrapping it for could sit there watching me wrap both of his gifts for the entire time and STILL be mega excited when he gets it the next morning. because really, what do dogs know about surprises? we do it for ourselves, not for them.

so - one toy and one treat. both for the dog. to be wrapped on christmas eve.

and as a side note, i seriously can not believe christmas is just three days away. i woke up thinking, "well, i suppose the count down begins" except that the count down had really begun long ago. but for me, i basically have been putting the thought of christmas on hold during the week because i'm more concerned about taking my christmas holiday without stressing and worrying about all the work waiting for me when i get back in the new year.

which is, unfortunately, why i'll be bringing work home with me.

ah midnight bath!

i find it hard to relax when it's been awhile since i've had a long stretch of time to relax. this weekend was one example.

i just couldn't get into the groove. and the crazy thing is that it's now sunday night, i'm about to go to bed, and i'm a little disappointed that i didn't have a chance to clean. crazy.

i did, however, do a very large load of laundry and finish all my christmas wrapping. we did more baking and also decorated the christmas tree. on top of that, i also got chaeli's stuff ready for winter camp.

last night, it was late, but i realized that i had to do something to unwind. so i did what i use to do - a trick that i learned that's proven to be quite relaxing.

a midnight bath.

with candles lit and the lights dimmed down, i drew a hot bath. and then i soaked in it. just thinking about it is making me relaxed all over again.

why midnight? i don't know. it's when everything is done in the house and anything that needs to be done can wait until tomorrow because it's just too late. it's when it's quiet both inside and outside. i suppose it's when i finally get a moment's peace to myself.

anyway - *yawn* - time to get ready for bed.

this upcoming week is going to be brutal.

chaeli pre-holiday update

so it's that time of the year again. the pre-excitement of christmas has made my sweet, little darling into the the spawn of lucifer.

alright - that was definitely an exhaggeration. but if you compare some of chaeli's more recent behaviour to who she truely is - a very well natured and well behaved child, you can imagine how challenging it's been these past couple of weeks. and it's not that she doesn't try - i can tell that the pressure of being good, the extra sugar intake (not to mention the caffiene intake from all the chocolates), plus just the sheer excitement of christmas itself, has collectively funnelled together in her little body, causing her to basically act, well... possessed. for a lack of a better word.

oh... and speaking of being the little devil, my own offspring went to school the very next day after doug and i took that sample, canadian citizenship test to announce how i did.

from what i was told, the conversation started something like this:

chaeli: ms. kothari?

teacher: yes, chaeli?

chaeli: do you know what mommy and daddy did last night?

teacher: wait... chaeli, do i really want to know what goes on in the privacy of your home?

chaeli: mommy and daddy were taking a test - and mommy got a LOT wrong! daddy only got two wrong and mommy is usually always right.

teacher: test? what test? why were they taking a test at home? you must mean they were playing some sort of game.

chaeli: no. it was a test. i saw it. they had to pick a, b, c or d.

btw, that's how the conversation always goes with chaeli and her teacher. she learned to first ask if she really needed to know what we do at home after chaeli told her that hobbes likes to bark at GO trains and daddy barks with him and mommy doesn't like that, leaving the poor teacher to wonder why doug barks along with our pet dog to begin with. chaeli omitted to explain that sometimes doug likes to get hobbes going for sport; he gets close to hobbes and lets out a low 'woof' which is like an on-button that gets hobbes all worked up - OF COURSE I DON'T LIKE THAT!

anyway, i was pretty sad that neither doug nor i could attend chaeli's christmas show. this was just not a good year at all for me to take time off work and the show was in the middle of the afternoon. just in case, i asked chaeli what she would prefer - that i arrange to leave work early and go by myself or have both my parents go and video-tape the whole show. she was excited about the latter so it all worked out.

but here's the deal. the day before the show, she came home with a letter stating that if we wanted to, we could pack some make-up with a comb for the day of the concert.

i looked at doug and said, "make-up? do they know who they are asking this from?"

aside from eye-liner and eye-brow definer, all i have is a plethora of lipstick and lipgloss. i use to have eye shadow and blush but i threw them out years ago after never using them for a very long time (and was pretty sure they went stale). they couldn't have asked the least likely person to own enough make-up to lend to her daughter... had they had asked a week earlier, i'm sure my mother would have had somethng.

anyway, chaeli went with just red lipstsick and glittery lip glass, as well as some glittery hair gel from earlier that morning.

and i thought my baby-in-blue looked smashing!

baking frenzy almost nearing the end

this weekend will be the last weekend of baking in our household. and it won't be as crazy. all the really needed baking is now done, tinned and distributed out to their respectful recievers.

and so far, we're getting rave reviews!

chaeli's core teachers loved it - one already asked for the recipe of our nanaimo bars (with a twist). the rest of chaeli's will be getting their tins today.

my manager came in first thing this morning - him and his wife each had a piece of the 5 different types we gave them (i gave them six of each kinds plus a generous slab of christmas cake). he said they were amazing.

so this weekend, the baking is just so i can bring in a tray of peanut butter brownies and some more short bread. i'll leave it out in my work area on some empty tables and just let my department come by to help themselves.

i did buy some christmas cards on sale - but i'm not in the mood to do them this year. i think people prefer food, anyway. :)

a chance at my top five - finally!

now that ryan renolds, one of my ultimate choices from my top five list, is splitsville with scarlett johansson, he can now come looking for me and commence the woo-ing stage of our relationship. :)

it's hard to become canadian... eh?

so basically, this is what happened...

about a week or so ago, i told doug about a recent article regarding the new canadian citizenship test. apparently, canadians were on an uproar, stating that the test was too easy and that some one in the government should get off their ass from their cushy-seat and basically get on with making it tougher for immigrants to enter this country and gain citizenship.

yup. all you non-canadians thought that we were just those polite people living in igloos, didn't you? :)

so journalists took the test out to the streets to see if us canadians, born and raised here, truely could pass this test with flying colours or not.

wow - as the results showed, we totally suck!

and what's worse, doug and i decided to take the online, sample test and guess what?

I FAILED!

i got 14 out of 20 and the passing score would have been 15.

i was pretty upset with myself. granted, i will admit that history (especially north american history) was not my thing at all. but still - i figured at the age of 37-almost-38, i would have at LEAST passed!

so there i was, with my sweet 7 year old offspring standing next to me, watching me get all upset at failing. she then walked over to doug's computer and said, "hmm. daddy only got two wrong."

doug chuckled. i nearly threw a book at him.

anyway - lucky for me, they have a 'canadian history for dummies' which i plan to get and read cover to cover.

at some point.

but for the time being - i'm glad i'm already a part of this country. if i had to take that test, they would lock me out for sure, all while laughing as they walk away saying, "can you believe that she didn't know who Sir Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine was?"