.:shy:.

guilty pleasures no. 36

filet-o-fish

it's my fast-food comfort food. one that i can't have often but when i do, i savour every single bite of it.

but... it's not just the taste of the soft, flakey, white centre or how the breaded batter gives you that delicious crispy texture on the edges (especially from the four corners). this mc d's creation holds a lot of memories for me.

for one, it was my grandmother's (my pwo-pwo's) favourite item whenever we picked up some mc donald's. and from her, it became a favourite of mine. each time i bite into one of these babies, i always remember her.

secondly, it reminds me of my best friend... ada and i even have had email conversations about the love of the filet-o-fish.

the last one was about the cheese - how it should be a full process slice rather then the half. i complained that it's rarely positioned in the middle and usually askewed to one side. she claims that it's really just a bonding agent to hold it all together.

she could be right. i've made a point on my to-do list to email the corporation and inquire exactly what the purpose of making the slice only 1/2. and why, at the least, can't they centre it so that there's a better distribution of cheese throughout the sandwich.

but whatever the answer may be, i will forever be faithful to the filet-o-fish.

[previous guilty pleasures]

birthday boy

on friday, hobbes turned one and has been a part of our family for over 9 months.

he came to us as a little, wee, 7lbs, moving rug.

now, 10 lbs later, he's definitely a big part of the family. he now talks to us in his own way and it's amazing how we can understand him. and really amazing that he can understand us!

we spent friday night at my aunt's place where hobbes got spoiled with many treats. and yesterday, we finally took him out for a nice two hour hike (something we've been anxiously waiting for - but too many weekends have been raining and wet).

happy birthday, hobbes! looking forward to more birthday celebrations with you.

my little book worm

i will admit that i'm about to share a very proud moment as a mother.

but it's not with any conceit. it's because i usually wonder how much i'm screwing up my own kid.

parenting is hard. period.

every now and then, there are moments that remind me that i'm not doing half bad. that while i'm certainly not perfect nor ever will be, the kid is doing alright.

last night was one of those moments.

just to back-track, chaeli was a bit slow on learning how to read at the level she was suppose to be at. not because she couldn't do it, but because she was in an environment for JK and SK that didn't give her a kick-start. which really, wasn't a problem for doug and i. we were actually trying to allow her a childhood before she was forced to grow up five times faster then normal once she started grade one.

of course, due to a crappy school in our area with no before/after childcare support what-so-ever, we made the leap into enrolling her in a private school... one that was slightly more academic and had her put into a grade two and sometimes three level scenerio.

this caused massive panic attacks for me. i questioned myself day in and day out - was this the right move to make? am i putting too much pressure on her? perhaps i didn't worry about this daily - but it was on my mind a lot in the first month and a half.

well, last night, she was asking me if she could have some extra time to read that night. not wanting to ever take away the joy of reading, i told her that i would allow her 15-20 minutes before we had to get ready for bed.

and that's when i discovered that she was 2/3rds into her chapter book. granted, it was 'captain underpants' but as i watched her read, i could tell how much she was into it. she was laughing at the funny parts and serious at others. she wasn't just reading but completely absorbed into the story. so i asked her later, which book she was going to read next. her library shelf has a section where she organized all her chapter books - she showed me the next two she wanted to read with sheer excitement.

i think what made me proud was that she was showing so much enthusiasm. and i know i didn't get into reading until much later. grade three was probably when i started to enjoy it.

it's a valuable tool. i'm happy she's picked it up. reading has been a way for me to gain so much more knowledge. it makes me think about things and the way the world is... the way people are. and of course, the ability to escape... even if just for 15-20 minutes.

little shadows

after reading my friend's post about how one of her twins followed her into the powder room when she went to quickly wash her hands and had accidentally left the toddler inside the powder room - she didn't know she had a little follower - with the door closed (found quickly by her husband, though), i'm reminded of a similar situation.

it wasn't with chaeli, but with hobbes.

when we first adopted him into our lives, he was very clingly. we couldn't walk anywhere in the house without him following directly behind us.

one day, i was rushing around the house doing choirs. doug was home and i just assumed that hobbes was with him as at one point, i realized i hadn't seen the little pup in awhile.

but to double check, i called down to doug, who was in the basement at the time, "hey - have you see hobbes? is he with you?"

expecting doug to say 'yes' i was a bit surprised when doug replied back, "no - i thought he was with you."

so we quickly went around the house calling and whistling for the little pup, all the while, wondering exactly what sort of trouble he's gotten himself into. then i heard doug laughing from the laundry room followed by, "found him!"

apparently, he had quickly followed me into that room. when i left, i had closed the door as i usually do, leaving poor, wee hobbes all alone. he might have whimpered but the washing machine droned out his sound.

oops.

anyway, this friday, hobbes turns one. my aunt wants to have a little family party for him which should be interesting. i remember we were made to stand around her dining table to sing happy birthday to their shihtzu who, sitting at the end of the table, just looked around the room all confused as if to say, "why the hell are they all staring at me and singing that god-awful song?"

i love hobbes. but i don't know if i want to sing to a dog. again.

it's friday. where the hell did the week go?

every monday night... no wait. scratch that. every SUNDAY night, i always think to myself, "man, i wish it was friday." but by the time the week starts, everything happens to fast, i'm ridiculously busy and by the time i go to bed, i'm usually asleep before my head hits the pillow.

it's a blur. and sometimes, i even sit there and wonder to myself, "what just happened?" as in... where did the week go? what significant thing even happened this week? WHO AM I AGAIN?

anyway...

summer is starting to come but the rain seems to be hitting us on most weekends. that sucks. seriously. that makes me want to shake my fist to the sky and scream, "why, god, why???" it's cruel, really. not fair at all.

plus, i have a dog that hates to be out in the rain. it's a little embarrassing but in all honesty, i can't say that i blame him.

and now that i am finding myself finally on a friday, i am graced with a flat tire - a slow leak that didn't show any signs of a problematic tire until just now when a good co-worker thankfully gave me heads up about it.

as i look at the weekend forecast, once again... RAIN! ALL WEEKEND LONG!

it's time to sit back, make some tea and read a good book.

negotiating with a paw

a couple of friday's ago, i came home to find that my parents had already picked up chaeli from school and were back at our house. hobbes had been home all day.

normally, when i come home, hobbes routinely follows me upstairs while i change out of my work clothes. that day, he ran right up to the bottom of the stairs and then stopped dead in his tracks.

i turned to look at him briefly but didn't think much of it. until i got the very top landing. a landing which is also home to a very large, potted plant. usually, this plant sits there pretty insignificantly - letting us pass by it almost unnoticed since it now is just blended in to that top-landing scenery.

that day, however, while the plant was still as it was in it's usual corner directly under our skylight, there was dirt circling around it as well as a trail of dirt on our carpet.

i looked at it and muttered, damn dog.

i quickly changed and then headed downstairs to find him. but... he was no where to be found. what he did was head down to the basement to sit with my dad. now, the couch we have down there is right next to the stairs so that when you sit down and turn your head to the left, you can see up the stairway. apparently, hobbes was sitting on the opposite side of my dad from the stairs, peeking up the whole time. as soon as i appeared, he ducked down. and when i came downstairs to get him heck, he even tries to scurry behind my dad.

my dad didn't move for him - when hobbes surrendered to defeat, he flopped his chin on my dad's lap as he looked up at me. if dogs could talk, i swear, the words coming from hobbes would have been something like, "oh mom. i'm sorry - i couldn't help myself!"

i must say, it's hard to stay mad when they look this cute and obviously sincere. still - i had to finish this off. so i carried him upstairs and went through the whole procedure... pointing at the mess, asking him in a stern voice if he did all that, then confirming that what he did was bad. the whole time, his ears were as low as possible, he was slouched over with his head hanging down. he also was trying to avoid eye contact - doug says it's 'the look of shame' that they fear.

then, while he looked away with guilt, he raised his paw and tried to offer me a paw-shake.

i must admit - it's damn hard trying to stay angry when all you want to do is laugh!

zoo, pee-stain and mother's day

this past weekend was probably one of the more busier mother's day weekend. but lots of fun!

saturday, t&t plus their twin toddlers, m&e, came over to drop off their dog, cowboy, for a playdate with hobbes. while we left the two to fend for themselves, the two families went to the zoo - something we ourselves, have not done for a year now. we renewed our membership when we got there and was happy to see that t&t decided to purchase a year's membership as well - hopefully this means more zoo outings with them! and a chance for cowboy to get use to our place. i felt bad for him - he was left with a crazy spaz of a dog in an unfamiliar place. however... when we got home, the house was left as it was and the two dogs were fine.

well, doug picked cowboy up before taking him out for a piddle and got a little pee stain on his shirt. but doug should have known better. :)

the twins had a great time! it's a cool age to watch them recognize so much - they spent a lot of their time pointing at the various animals they saw.

chaeli had a good time as well. though i think she was interested more in the twins then the animals.

after spending a couple of hours there, we all headed back to our place for some cold beer and a simple antipasto platter i quickly assembled. then doug got working on the grill to make us some delicious marinated chicken thighs and various types of italian sausages.

on sunday, i woke up fairly early to get my breakfast in bed. after that, the race was on for me. i had to do some grocery shopping for the week as well as get things ready for my parents' place. unfortunately, i didn't get much me-time but it was a good day none-the-less.

i'll make up for it this weekend - other then a doggie playdate we've got lined up (depending on weather), we have no other plans. hopefully, we'll have time to go see thor.

i'm not here to debate about politics...

i'm just here to whine.

last night, our country became a majority-conservative lead nation.

the worse i was hoping was a minority-conservative leadership. and the fact that the liberals lost by a landslide make their future look bleak.

what is worse... what really aggravates me, are the many voters who were liberals in the past, deciding to switch over to conservatives. the reasons behind their choices boggled my mind. and scared me.

the worse explanation - harper and his administration were able to with hold a strong economy in canada while the rest of the world suffered. and to this i wonder why they thought harper had anything really to do with this. it was our banks. our banks held strong and didn't cave like that of our fellow american banks. we didn't have anywhere close to the foreclosures of homes as they did.

i woke up feeling quite sad and disappointed, this morning.

the one day of sunshine

we had only one day of sunshine and glorious weather last week and it happened to fall on the saturday i had to go and get recertified for first aid and cpr.

wah!

doug and chaeli took hobbes to a dog park - from what i heard, they had a lot of fun.

i, on the other hand, was stuck inside a classroom, doing a very crunched and speedy crash-course from what i learned from the 2-day class three years ago (which i'll have to do in full again during my next recert in three years - they only allow the 1-day recert once between the 2-day class years).

still, it was good, though. the speed was quick but i was glad to not have to be stuck in the class for more then a day AND sit through a slow moving class. by test time, i was a little bit worried that i would do worse then the first time (i got 1 wrong when i first got certified) but ended up getting perfect.

the instructor even laughed at me when he handed it back, saying, "oh whatever, shy... you got 100%!"

now speaking about he instructor, i was extremely impressed with him. he was very engaging, supportive and personable. i only got to hear little bits of his personal life and if we had more time, i would have asked him some questions.

one big question would have been his age. he was young but all that he's done - i can't imagine some one so young that has accomplished so much! it was impressive and definitely puts my younger years to shame!

i only gather he's in his early 20's because he's studying at university in the music program (and doubling in business) but it's possible that he's in his later 20's, too. i don't know - i'm really bad at telling a person's age. especially when they act so mature.

there was another girl in class who's 3rd year in her university studies. now HER i could tell her age was young. she was annoying - really, really annoying. at the end, while people were still writing, she was talking and flirting very loudly at the instructor, who tried his best to just pacify her.

i was tempted to just get to the point between the two - perhaps assist in exchanging phone numbers if there was a mutual interest, just to shut her up!

anyway - point is, i'm recertified and was able to get home before 5:30pm to enjoy some daylight. doug bbq-ed some steaks. afterwards, we watched 'prince of persia' because chaeli wanted a family movie night.

not bad - kind of weird to see jake gyllenhaal in that type of role. he did alright though - i suppose his character grew on me. i admit i was only partialy watching the movie (was sort of dozing at some points - not because i was bored but just very, very tired).