ewwwww!

Is there anything worse than being puked on? really? can you tell the monster and i are not having such a good morning?

At least I only got the little pre-puke yak-up, and not the full deal. of course i still had to clean up the full deal. i am not sure how i made it through without puking myself, but i did.

I really hope that this was just a one-time deal and isn't going to turn into a full-blown puke-fest illness, cause i definitely won't be able to avoid that one, not with a baby who sticks his fingers in his mouth even more when we isn't feeling well. lovely.

now i have to figure out how to work the central vac so i can vacuum up the baking soda i tossed over the spot on the carpet.

Instant Track Star

I have started a new job this week. It is fun, tiring, and gives me lots of time to surf the internet. Can you guess?

Probably not!

I am now a live-in nanny to my 1 year old second cousin. This is a temporary gig until I start MLIS in January. It works out perfectly, because I needed a short-term job, and my cousin only discovered she had to go back to work a few weeks beforehand, and so did not have enough time to work her way up the day-care waiting lists. They live in the next city over, so it is easier if I sleep here rather than try to beat the morning traffic to get here for 7:30 in my non-existant car. I have the whole walk-out basement to myself! I have a TV and a sewing machine in my bedroom and a walk-in closet! and a weird Hammacher Schlemmer alarm clock that wakes me up with a light and bird screeches every morning!

One of my friends from university also lives in this city, and has already invited me to join in her ladies night with her friends, so that will be something to look forward to next week. Plus she has a Wii, with Sports Resort, so I might just have to pop over there on occasion once I figure out the bus system here.

But the best part (or maybe the worst?...) is that my cousin and her husband are runners. That is actually how they met, at running group. So every Monday and Thursday night we all head out to the running store and meet up with the groups for a run. Her husband actually leads one of the groups, with the baby racing stroller and still makes it back first. My cousin is just getting back into running after having the baby, so she and I and a couple other ladies make our own group and run and walk at our own pace, which works out great for me, because I can keep up with them and not get lost in this new and totally confusing city.

On top of that, I take the baby out for a walk in the stroller every day, and there are a lot of hills in this neighbourhood! and a lot of trails, this subdivision was designed really well. it is so nice not to have to walk on concrete all the time, and to have access to little bits of nature, like ponds and creeks and forests.

Now I just have to find a compass and protractor set so I can make the templates for my dad's "Turtles in a Mudstorm" quilt, that will look something like this, but in browns and oranges, and I will have something fun to fill the nap-times.

The Morning After

My friend's wedding was awesome! This is not a story about it.
This is a story about the B&B where we stayed while at the wedding.

We stayed in a garage that had been converted into a guest cabin at a b&b. The hot tub and pool were right on the other side of one wall.

We got back from the wedding at 11:30pm and got ready for bed. as soon as our lights were out and we wanted to go to sleep, we heard vigourous sloshing from the direction of the hot tub outside.

That is right, someone was having sex in the hot tub.

We broke out in a fit of giggles, rolled over, closed our ears as best as possible, and hoped for a quick finish. I believe it went on for about half an hour.

The next morning, we were a bit late for breakfast, and so had to sit at the big dining table with a young couple. The young couple were in town for an antique car show, and had obviously had a good night out at the bars the night before, the boyfriend asking for large glasses of ice water with his breakfast.
The boyfriend started to complain about his back hurting and how he must have fallen at some point the night before. His girlfriend said, "No dear, you didn't fall." and left it at that.

The conversation took some turns and my mom ended up saying that we had come back from the wedding at around midnight. The girlfriend sat up straight, her eyes went wide, and she turned and looked at her boyfriend. He was confused and continued eating. and then complained about his back again a few minutes later. and asked the girlfriend if she had brought any Aleve. and wondered again what he had done to his back. His girlfriend looked decidedly uncomfortable, and grabbed his leg to try and make him stop talking.

As soon as we got back into our cabin my mom and i said in unison, "Oh it was soooooo them!"

and the best part?

He didn't even remember!

Gifting

One of my oldest friends, M, is getting married this weekend.

She is a friend from my neighbourhood that was never in the same school as me (except co-op preschool), but we liked alot of the same things, and so ended up in after-school activities together. Plus our mom's are friends, so it is hard not to keep in touch!

We were in dance classes together all through high-school, and even when I was sick and could barely move, M came by to pick me up for class anyway, no matter what, so I had to go and do what I could in class, even if I felt like hell.

But our main connection was, and still is, sewing. We were in sewing lessons for quite awhile, but only had lessons together for a few years. It is so much fun to have a friend who understands about sewing, and about making time for sewing, and who had the same teacher so has a similar take on sewing.

So of course, I am sewing her wedding present.

Except, I kindof forgot her wedding was so close. Like, on Saturday.

I bought the fabric today.

I realized it was so close at her shower last night, when we were laughing about how she is not nervous or stressed at all, and can't understand why her mother is. And then I realized her wedding was this weekend, and started getting stressed!

oh well, the project I am making should just take a day and a half, max, and I can get started tonight, so fingers crossed my sewing machine keeps working!

At least i have my dress and shoes for the wedding!

When it happens to you

I have worked with census materials for more than six years. I have worked with every Canadain Census from 1891-1951. The latter years are still classified, so I have to have security clearance to look at them. That is because the Canadian Census has a 92 year release date, which means that only the years up to 1911 have been released to the public so far.

It may seem weird to think that we have such a long release date, but people lobbied to get such a short one, it used to be 100 years.

The long release date is so that people directly affected by secrets about their families held in the census are dead before their secrets are revealed.

But some of the other documents that people use for geneology do not have such long release dates, may in fact be available at any time, like birth, death and marriage certificates, and the secrets come out anyway.

I used to think that there wasn't really any secret held by the census that could be so bad, until my father started researching his family's geneology.

We discovered that my great-grandfather had been married twice. We haven't yet found any evidence that he was divorced from my great-grandmother before he married again though.

1901 Census has the whole family living on the farm out in the country.

1911 Census, the mother and a few of the younger children, including my grandfather, were living in town by themselves, with the mother working as a laundress to earn money for the family.

1912 Marriage Certificate has the father going by his middle name, but listing the right birthplace and dates and parent's names, marrying a different woman in a Northern mining town.

1914 Death certificate, the father has died in the Northern town. (My mother says "Second marriage was too much for him!")

Now, this information interests my father and I, because we didn't know much about that side of the family. It is actually kind of neat to find out that something so out of the ordinary happened in our family!

But if my grandfather were still alive he might feel very differently about these revelations. If he hadn't known about it, he might not like to discover that his father had abandoned them when he was six years old, only to get married again a few years later. If he had known about it, he might not like that his grandchildren knew about such a shameful part of our family's past.

I never really appreciated the necessity of the 92 year release date until it hit so close to home.

What is in a name

i was out to lunch (ha ha) with some lovely women today, and one of them told a story that really got me thinking.

Her daughter's boyfriend had kept their road plowed all last winter. One day, one of the two other people who live on the road caught the boyfriend and asked him and his girlfriend to dinner to thank them for keeping the road plowed.

When he got home and told his girlfriend, she said "did you finally catch their names?" "oops! nope, we will have to try and figure it out at dinner, they have to call each other by name at some point!" They couldn't even look up the other people's phone number to let the people know they were in fact able to make it to dinner, the boyfriend had to wait until he saw the man again in his driveway.

They attended the dinner and came away none the wiser. At no point during the visit and meal did the other couple call each other by name, or introduce themselves.

The story got me thinking about how few times we actually introduce ourselves these days. I went through my entire undergraduate degree meeting new people and never knowing their names, because you don't generally introduce yourself when you laugh at someone else's silly comment in class, and then once you have been sitting together for the whole semester, it seems a little late to ask their name. Most of these people I never saw again after that class was over, and a few I have finally discovered their name through the miracle of facebook when they have been tagged in someone else's picture.

I also realized that if someone came into my family's house and tried to figure out our names from how we refer to each other, they might have difficulties. We only refer to people by their real names in dire circumstances.

Sometimes I long for those days when you couldn't talk with someone unless you had been "properly introduced". At least them you could ask other people for more information about them, and not have to ask "Do you have any idea who I have been making out with all evening? Cause I have had tons of classes with him but it seems a bit late to ask him his name now, " just to get a reply of "I don't really know his name, but he was in my physics class first semester....."

Wildlife count

I am back up North and trying to stay warm. I think it is fall here already. We might have already had the last swim of the season.

But the coldness hasn't stopped the wildlife from coming out to say hello. I think they are happy that school is back in now and all the summer people are gone!

So on this trip I have seen:

Mr. Fox sunning himself on a rock, all gorgeous red fur and smug "this is my sun and my rock" expression.

Two HUGE wild turkeys! They are kind of weird looking, but regal, like skeksis wearing quail and pheasant feather cloaks.

A mama deer and two babies crossing the road and looking back at the cars like "whoa, where did they come from?"

We have also seen more moose prints on the bush paths around the house.

Add these to the two HUGE turtle sightings, a little turtle, and a redwing blackbird attacking a great blue heron, that makes for a pretty good summer!