Say hello

To the man I am spending the holidays with. My man Dexter. See, Chris ended up in hospital on Thursday night with some Crohns related badness. We spent the wee hours of the morning* in the Foothills ER with him in immense amounts of pain. Poor guy. He was admitted and there he shall be for the next few days (we think) until hopefully, it resolves itself. The problem, not the hospital. He is on a liquid diet so no turkey** or good stuff. Or even Chinese food. So he is stuck in hospital with some seriously crazy roommates (he is writing this stuff down. Holy wack!) and a new portable DVD player (early gift from me!) and a giant stack of movies. I will take the rest of his gifts up tomorrow and he will have even more stuff to watch/listen to. I'm confident he won't be reading this anytime soon so its OK to say it. :)

I am seriously thrilled to be having my time with my new boyfiend (hahaha that's a typo I'll leave in!) Dexter. After accidentally pushing the Shaw Video on Demand button I noticed something rather incredible. All the HBO shows I had been meaning to watch, all of them, FREE! I know TV is free, but I kinda reckoned I'd missed the boat the first time around, so am tickled fuchsia to see all of them in order. FOR FREE. Did I mention FREE?

So in between hospital visits and late into the night, I have some fun serial viewing to do. Bloody good TV.

In the words of my neighbour "Happy whatever the hell it is you celebrate!" From Me, Chris, Max and Pickles. Stay safe and have fun.





*Why does this stuff never happen at 11am? Why is it 1.30 am is better for emergencies? Is there a memo I didn't get? Hmm...

**or turkey smoothies. Maybe a cranberry flavoured one?

Warm Fuzzies and Mr Hanky the Christmas Poo

I had my first hint* of seasonal cheer last night from the most unexpected place. Lina's Italian Market. You know, right on Centre St and 22nd Ave N? Well I go there on a regular basis to browse and pick up my coffee pods** (and always get a nice Ritter Sport dark chocolate with whole hazelnuts for Chris) and suss out all the yummies that is Lina's. So we go in, I grab my 4 boxes of pods (and choccy for Chris) and since it is close to closing time (I have worked retail too long to be one of those people who linger at closing time. Really. Don't do it. Those people just want to go home after standing around all day. Trust me.) go directly to the till. The lovely girl who always seems to be the one ringing me through does just that. Then after I pay she stops, picks up a little package and says with her sweet accent, "This is for you from Lina. Merry Christmas!" and puts it in our bag. It is a little salt and pepper shaker set with a sugar bowl.***

Now, I know this isn't because I am a special snowflake. They gave them away to everyone I'm sure. The thing that gave me the warm fuzzies was that she stopped and made sure we were thanked and wished us happiness. I know this is a gesture of goodwill to keep us coming back, to thank us for our patronage, but the way it was given was sincere. There was no advertising of "GIFT WITH PURCHASE!"(which is not really a gift) no strings attached to this. Unadvertised. Not designed to get us in the store to buy more stuff. Not shouted from the rooftops to drag attention to the shop and get you in with the promise of *sales and free things* to entice you to spend more than you need to on this consumerist of holidays. I dunno, maybe it was, but its not what I got from it. False goodwill always shines through even the most sincere seeming schemes. I can smell it a mile a way and this sweet girl who at the end of her shift still had no guile about her. It was wonderful. Chris and I were tickled pink I tell you. Lina's will be able to count on us for a long time.

*When Jake was small I was ALL Over the whole happy happy joy joy Xmas thing. I mean to the point of decorating the whole house. As I got older (and so did he) it calmed down. After a few kinda bad Xmas things happened and with the advent of all the craziness starting before Halloween was over, I was over it. Now for reals my perfect day is a nice traditional Jewish Xmas involving Chinese food and a movie. Preferably with zombies/ghouls/monsters/lots of bloody guts and pus. But I did like all the Lord of the Rings ones too. King Kong, not so much. This year.. DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET!! Nice hard R I hope and Johnny Depp. Sigh.

**And after the debacle that was yesterday with NO PODS and only a little bit of stale Starbucks grind (which involved a huge amount of cursing and rummaging for my french press and the resulting tar that emerged but at least it staved off the no coffee headache until Dana came and rescued me and we went and got proper coffee from the Roasterie) I need to make sure I stock up on Cafe Kimbo Pods ALL THE TIME.

***Which I will fill with cinnamon, cocoa and splenda. YAY COFFEE FIXINS'!

The early bird

Gets a headache from sleep deprivation I think. Pickles thought he needed some help up onto the bed this morning so I obliged, squeezing him in the process and the squeak was loud enough to wake the dead. Or least everyone. Good thing you are cute Mr Pickles. Of course, Max and him are having a fabulous sleep now. Damn dogs.

This has been an exemplary year for getting the giftmas ready. I have mailed off (via Greyhound) all the gifts that needed to be mailed*, gone to 2 parties, and of course bought my own gift. This week Dana (who had one of the aforementioned parties**) is off work and I shall go with her to get some last minute gifts and VOILA'. DONE . There is no giftmas like an organised giftmas.

Breaking news.. I haven't had coffee yet. WHAT AM I DOING?

The new wheel spins like a dream I have to say. I am spinning the most well balanced yarn on my Rosie (I think that's her name). Yarn that has the perfect amount of twist, is wonderfully even and looks astounding. I less than three that ladybug of mine.

*I reckon this buys me like 3 years of last minute gift card/online GC's right?

**OMG good party! Like giant house full of fun fun FUN people, lotsa food, booze, and good company. Happy housewarming/giftmas to the happy homeowners. Of maybe the cutest house in Crescent Heights.

Its not summer?

Then why do I have a LADYBUG IN MY HOUSE??? Because I was with the ever lovely Kathy and we went out to Shuttleworks to look at pretties. Well she came away with the most lovely Lendrum wheel and I simply could not resist buying this hot little mama. For $425.00 with a tensioned lazy kate? Who could? Cal out there was most knowledgeable and super friendly, letting us play as much as we wanted and was enchanted by the sweet Miss Edie Tangerine. What a great experience! We sat out there trying wheels for about an hour and a half! Man, I'd have a hard time leaving if I lived closer.

OMG! SO EXCITED! Get thee out to Shuttleworks if you have a hankering for this wheel. Sometimes too good to be true isn't!