Le sigh...

...we have crawling! Kind of. It's weird...I feel like when you watch him go, it doesn't actually look like he's moving (the motions aren't fluid in the least - he does these weird Frankenstein arms), but then you notice that he's somehow maneuvered his way across the floor. Happyface! Sadface! The following video also features a Smudgie cameo AND an extended self-examination of the diaper fastenings interlude. Scintillating stuff.

The Big Yam mastered the art of self-locomotion in tandem with the ability to pull himself up to standing. Ai-Ya. He's not consistent at it yet, but all the foundations are there. Time to get baby gates and resign ourselves to everything at knee height being pulled onto the floor.

I ran intervals yesterday. Which is a HUGE leap up from my usual slow-jog-canter-barely-breaking-a-sweat action. Ummmmm...intervals are HARD. On the plus side, I've already met my boot camp quota for the week with three days left to go! Huzzah! I'm also thinking of taking up skipping as a cardio activity. Aaaand...we have my beloved softball tonight. Aaaand...I've had the opportunity to have myself a catch several times this week. Love playing catch. Loooooooooves it.

What a busy week! Wednesday hangs with Hanbo was good times. Strolled the Roncey strip, picked up an awesome takeout lunch of breaded pork and coleslaw, nosed around the antique stores on Queen West, felt grateful that I don't live out there, had a catch - all in all, a successful mission. Yesterday I took the Boobla into City Hall to have lunch with my friend A from my book club. She's my successful, down-to-earth, and really engaged friend. She has 2 boys and is about 6 years older than me, but I still sometimes feel like a kid around her for some reason...or like a little sister.

I'm feeling pretty good about my portion of the research paper. If the nap gods line up, I should have it done by this evening, hopefully, leaving my weekend free for fun and games. The agenda this weekend is as follows: take Poh Poh out to lunch tomorrow, then head to Scarborough to see the final "gala" for the Dotytron's after school program kids (where they do a showcase of all the stuff they've been working on), then head over to B & G's house to help them with their deck if the boys are still working on it, then hanging with Dr. Rei and Hanbo.

Is it totally weird that I love helping people with decks? That to me is a good time. Mainly because I like social activities that combine some hands-on work and learning opportunities. Our friend Gaz used to be a contractor and B is a great, hands-on learner/project tackler, and our friend Fox is always willing to help out. I like having those kinds of dudes in my life. The kind who like doing dude things and don't think that spending an afternoon drinking beer in the sun and building something is work. The kind that will offer to help you demo your deck and garage and are actually looking FORWARD to it. The kind that will get me over my fear of building my own deck. The kind that keep me from being the kind of person (like some of my neighbours) who have their fathers come downtown to install a wireless doorbell.

Sunday is Father's Day - I'm making the Dotytron brunch and then maybe taking him out for a quick dinner if the timing works out...we're supposed to go up to Markham because Bruce Wayne and CHova want to take Big D out to Red Lobster, but I'm pretty sure Red Lobster doesn't take reservations and I feel like that's going to be a shiz-show. So it might just be our family together on Baba's day. No complaints here, really. I always wonder when your family unit gets to claim holidays as your own.

Last night's Polski Ogorki meal - 2 kinds of kolbassa, pickled herring & raw onions on heavily buttered rye bread, a cucumber-sour cream-dill salad on my CSA lettuce.

Tonight we're having another cool, no-cook meal - roasted peppers and tomatoes topped with burrata, some cured meats, and some baguette.

Fin.

what a day! what a week!

so...I WON THE WORK COOKIE BAKE-OFF! it was surprisingly nerve-wracking for a throwaway kind of thing (and by "throwaway" i mean "agonized over my [multiple!] entries for a couple of weeks beforehand") what can i say? i'm a competitive, go-for-the-gusto kind of a gal. i have a despicable habit of really, really enjoying winning stuff. my two entries were: chocolate cornmeal cookies with orange cream, and a classic chocolate chip cookie with sea salt. i really thought the sandwich cookies with the orange cream were the clincher, but i actually won for the chocolate chip. at the end of the day, people really always come back to comfort food classics. T and i held hands as they were announcing the winners. lol! to be honest, the funnest part was trash talking T leading up to it. to balance out my olympian dreams, my teams lost at bocce AND the relay race. my lunchtime bocce team also suffered a humiliating defeat on thursday. WE LOST 11-0. that's right, we didn't score a SINGLE point. fastest bocce game EVER. that was pretty humbling, considering T all but announced it on the p.a. so that by the time i trucked back into work after eating a post-game hot dog, i was confronted with snickering, good-natured ribbing from my colleagues.

yesterday was kind of hectic. i hauled my butt home straight from the picnic, did a quick change, and then was picked up by my friend's D's friends to head to the ancaster old mill for D's wedding. it's a pretty spot. D and her new hubby N had already had the religious ceremony with the imam a few weeks prior, so this was just a chance for her to wear her pretty dress and sit down to dinner with her friends. it was very intimate...maybe 40 people in all? quite cozy and everyone was super friendly. there was no alcohol (D and N are both muslim) which cut down on the rambling, crass speeches and no dancing. the food was excellent and even though i went on my own (the dotytron couldn't make it because he had to oversee the final recital for his after school program thing) it was easy to talk to everyone and chat and mix and mingle.

look at how pretty she looks! and how handsome he is! he looks like a hockey player (kind of sergei federov-ish) this was my first time meeting him - it had been a bit of a whirlwind courtship but he's very sweet and gentle and shy and you can tell they're good together. her dress was awesome. i recommended the same place that dr. rei got her dress and D said they were so amazing there. that jacket she's wearing? it's made from the part of the train and dress they chopped off (she had it shortened to mid-calf length)! and that little ruffled pleating above the sweetheart neckline? also added (she needed the dress to have more coverage)! pretty awesome, eh?

so now i'm about to eat my breakkie and start my day. my day is kind of a wonky one. i'm going to head out to the hardware store and this place called lee valley to pick up supplies like: teak oil, strap clamps, wood glue, medium grit sandpaper and chrome polish to fix up my various chairs and whatnot. and then i'm going to put on a pair of gloves and get to work and see how i do. i'm cautiously optimistic. the plan today is to do the gluing and the clamping and to go at the chrome chair and see if i can get any of the rust off.

the plan for this evening is hopefully to somehow watch "he's just not that into you" lol! pretty ambitious, eh?

the worldwide short film festival is starting this week! it totally crept up on me without warning. usually i'm totally on top of it. it's a bit of a tradition for me and the dotytron spanning the entire length of our relationship so we'll have to try to squeeze in a couple of viewings. i really associate this festival with summer, with the dotytron, and with the nascent stages of our journey together. i'd feel a little odd if i missed it for no good reason (ie. i was in town, but just didn't go)

okay...time to start my day of impersonating bob villa! wish me luck!

my fair lil' ugmo: bathroom edition

so i'm kind of keen to get going on the bathroom. with some basic fixes (paint, a new door way, punching open a wall and installing closets) the upstairs would be COMPLETELY done and gorgeous. the bathroom is another thing standing in the way to one floor of the house being in tip top shape. as i've already mentioned, i'm feeling the hex tiles on the floor. and then i thought...what about GIANT hex tile? and then i googled up my vision today and found exactly what i was looking for! isn't it cute? i kind of like the look of the chubby hex tile with the subway tile backsplash. if tile floor and tile halfway up the walls gets to be too pricey, i'd settle for wainscoting, but my first preference is tile for such a damp space. just for the peace of mind and cleanability factor. i'm not a super-fan of the sink pictured above...i think i'm going to go for a wide pedestal style.


i'm also a fan of the deco style sink fixtures.

with a mirrored medicine cabinet above

and the ikea asker containers suspended on the grundtal rail and S hooks for toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc.

above the toilet, to make up for the under counter space you lose with a pedestal sink, i would either want open shelving (with a piece of fabric stretched over top so it's still hidden) or maybe three of these shelves spaced out vertically, if i have enough width above the toilet:

fin.