UB40 but you Ain't Be Married Party!

After some unavoidable delays surrounding car issues, we made our way across provincial borders to join the gang for our evening soire. I simply LUUUV dressing up...Those tres cool cocoa pants I picked up in Paris (a man actually said "Do you have a license to drive that thing?" *SHOCK!* He was referring my bottom). The pants have a front skirt ....Oh, they're too cool to even try to describe, with the Paris wedgies (shoe shopping in Paris is the BOMB - don't hate me because I'm beautiful) and the Jacob jacket...Hair, makeup, perfume...There was a stunning black baby grand serving jumbo shrimp and other hors d'oeuvres....I met up with an old friend who became my diner companion. Not just any diner companion, but an old friend whom, at the tender age of seven would profess his love to me and propose marriage. You know that boy who just never stopped chasing? Wines were excellent, room was nicely lit, private, prepared for 32 guests overlooking the golf course. Primarely my brother's friends (a colourful well behaved crew - The Hiltons even showed - unbelievable, I had to ask them in the ladies room how often they get the "you look like" ... "every other day" I'm told), so I knew the majority with a few new female faces. Mmmm...The foood! Leek soup, cesaer salad, filet mignon, baked tomato topped with bread crumbs saturated in butter, green beans....Wine, wine, wine and more wine. I let my diner companion drive me home. Date potential you ask? Well, while most of my readers (namely only my friends who have a latent interest in my "love life") know that I took myself off the market for a two season minimum, opening the flood gates (more like the Kentuky Derby) to dating one and all come summer time. With all that said, yes, I did let him drive me home due to extremely good behaviour and was in bed by 4am. (for my friends, yes, we detoured so he could show me one of his investment properties in the Glebe)

Early the following morning the shower beating down on my rather sore skull the song plays over and over in my noggin' Red-Red Wine you make me feel so fine, keep me rockin' all of the time....Ohhhhhhhhhh make it stop.

Getting Better all the time...Bettah-bettah, Bettah!...

Yesterday Omar and I had our eye exams. Coming from a healthy family, I'm accustomed to hearing positive feedback from doctors - but this takes the cake. While she can't explain it, my doctor says that my eye sight has actually improved! So much for contacts - the future looks good.

The Grind

Omar's baseball game Monday night was great. He really enjoyed himself or in his words I LOVE THIS GAME MUM! Uh-huh. Hit the ball every time (cute; first hit = stood there, stunned, then ran with the bat to first base after a full chorus of RUN!!! RUN!!! From the stands).

Tuesday, as Omar and I pull into the laneway, a LARGE brown box addressed to Omar sits upon our front steps. Return address: Louisiana. He can barely lift it! "Can I open it?" he asks. Gawd I love this kid. Can you open it? YES OPEN IT!! :-) Behind the brown paper packaging, slicing through the clear packing tape, unveiling the glory that is...LEGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My VBFF has forwarded Omar her eldest son's Lego collection (Part One I'm told). This was in response to an e-mail PLEA that we sent out at the end of March when Omar told me it felt like he only had 5 pieces of Lego...Anyhoo, girlfriend - you pulled through and THANK YOU! Omar's reply: THIS IS THE VERY BEST DAY OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!!!!! (Just this morning I caught him ever so lovingly gazing at his newest Lego creations...) Ahh...Happiness IS.

After the Lego Party & Festivities... I perservered and made it to practice. I'm finding it a little "tricky" to follow some of the newer skaters in our club. Buy "tricky" I mean LIFE THREATENING. Next practice I'll redefine my placement. The experience served several purposes, such as patience, refining teaching skills and not full race speed 100% of the time - which was not suitable for me that night.

Wednesday I took ML out for a skate, she's wanting to get back into shape after the baby and is complaining about how her skates feel etc. We had a good preliminary accessment, defined some focus and goals. We'll continue to work in this direction.

Thursday rain showers meant PRACTICE CANCELLED which suited me fine. I've been missing Omar (he's SO much fun :-)) and my right knee needs some downtime/massage etc. We had MOVIE night last night, which roughly translates into eating supper on TV tables, followed up with bowls of popcorn, doritios, popsicles, chocolate pudding & cuddling up on the couch to enjoy ... KING KONG!!! What seven year old wouldn't love King Kong? Happy kid. We both really enjoyed the movie, for me, I could relate to Fay Raye, watching her relationship with the APE...if it weren't for the ongoing back to back, scene by scene irony, I'd say there were "some deja vu moments" for sure.... :-)

We road bikes to school today and Omar was the recipient of a SHINY NEW LOCK for his bike. He became quite upset with me when we went to cross the road and he misunderstood my instructions ... But we won't get into that - let me just say it will be a source of teasing for years to come >;-). My knee felt better, stronger on my bike than skating.

Omar's dad and I met with the teacher today. That went swimmingly - he's in a wonderful school with fantastic teachers all around. Afterwards we sat and yakked about THE KID and the parenting game plan on the curb with our Timmy's. What a relief that we get along, makes life so much more enjoyable. We really are FRIENDS and that feels so very good.

Now TONIGHT. Heh. Tonight is a special turn of events type evening. As the super-sexy and intelligent Boo refers to in her delightfully enteraining BLOG of BOO's TATOO's and OTHER STORIES "Mr. Muscles" a.k.a. my brother, who recently cancelled his Wedding. This set him back about $20,000. So, to recoup he and his crew came up the idea to host a diner Party for about 30 friends at the "Chateau Fancy Place" tonight at 6:30. What else can you do when you can't recoup a big fat honkin' deposit? That's right....PARTY! Proceeds go back to the "ex-groom".

In other news. SIMON, my faithful companion and Rasta Dog will be unzipping his winter coat today at the groomers. I don't care how close they shave him, just don't make him look like a fruit-loop, pansy dog. No fru-fru business on my dog. Simon and I have an understanding based on respect, in our deliberations and communications a rapport of respect is a fundamental for our functioning relationship. Bar none. Non-negotiable. My dog is my dog and he IS the coolest dog I know, if I don't stop now, I won't stop at all. But let's put it this way, Canada scored tickets when Bono err, U2 were here last, as a small token of my deep appreciation for catering to Simon while I was at work and he suffered from a sore hip at the end November'05.

Rasta Dog no more, Ire Timon Ire.

In Good Humour

Melancholy. Strange word. Melan-choly.

You may not think so, but while I reflected over the day in the bath...It came to me. Was that how I was feeling? Meh. A little lonely, in "miss" perhaps. Nights I don't have lil' Grunt have an air of emptiness. See, growing up with a brother and father both whom I am very close to AND always have access to AND being the youngest AND the only girl...Sometimes, well, it takes me a little while to adjust to being alone. Once there, it's a crazy-fun-wonderful place. There's no denying it, I really love the men in my life (and my friend's husbands, what a great lot you are! ... Yeah, my friends are alright too ;-) (the best) Canada ~ thanks for the movie invite and ML you did great on your skates tonight and supper was awesome) :-)

I decided to look up the origin of the word. Being in a shitty mood, having a shitty outlook, shit for brains, or just plain being full of shit suddenly had new meaning...

"Sam" writes:

Etymology: Middle English malencolie, from Middle French melancolie, from Late Latin melancholia, from Greek, from melan- + cholE bile -- more at GALLDate: 14th century
1 a : an abnormal state attributed to an excess of black bile and characterized by irascibility or depression b : BLACK BILE c : MELANCHOLIA
2 a : depression of spirits : DEJECTION b : a pensive mood

Thed above is from Merriam Webster. The history has to do with personality profiling of the Greeks first developed Hippocrates.

To the ancient Greeks, the personality was an integral part of a person's general health. They believed that the body contained four fundamental liquids (called humours) based on the four elements of fire, air, water and earth. When one of these humours became dominant over the others, it was thought to effect the person's mood and personality.

The four humours, blood, yellow bile, phlegm and black bile, were each believed to be responsible for a different type of personality. An excess of blood made a person sanguine, yellow bile resulted in a choleric personality, phlegm, naturally, produced a phlegmatic outlook, and black bile was associated with melancholia.

These theories, first set down in a systematic way by Hippocrates, remained in use until the middle ages. We now know, of course, that they have no basis in medical fact, but what the Greeks had almost incidentally achieved was the first systematic method of describing personality types. So successful was their approach that, even today, the words 'humour' (meaning 'mood'), 'sanguine', 'phlegmatic' and 'melancholic' are still in common use.

Thankfully, modern personality profiling does not rely on measuring the amount of yellow bile in a person to determine their personality style, but the ideas behind it can, indirectly, be traced back to Hippocrates' theories.

PS. This is not to be confused with the 'Melon Collie', which is a dog that looks like Lassie and shows a particular nack for finding and fetching melons of all varieties. Sam

I AM CANADIAN Sunday Reads

I am reading about the Haida (hay-da) First Peoples of the Queen Charlotte Islands, now know as British Columbia. Their language is not known to be related to any other language. When listening to Haida sounds, I admit they do sound original. Described as an almost extinct language, newer generations may take an interest to carry their heritage onward. The Canadian West coast may be one of the most beautiful places on Earth IMO. I think what makes it so, aside from the obvious, is the deeply imbedded native spirituality and thus respect of nature and life. The fact that Haida First People are a part of Canada, heightens my desire to fully appreciate them.

Haida mythology is rich and complex, like the mythologies of ancient Greece and ancient Mexico. The Tale
Raven finds the First Men is a story I will share with Omar tonight before bed.
In short, in Haida culture, the Raven is one of the most powerful of mythical creatures. Its appetites include lust, curiosity, and an irrepressible desire to interfere and change things and to play tricks on the world and its creatures.
The sculpture of The Raven and the First Men depicts the story of human creation. According to Haida legend, the Raven found himself alone one day on Rose Spit beach in Haida Gwaii. He saw an extraordinary clamshell and protruding from it were a number of small human beings. The Raven coaxed them to leave the shell to join him in his wonderful world. Some of the humans were hesitant at first but, overcome by curiosity, they eventually emerged from the partly open giant clamshell to become the first Haida.

There is another tale of the Haida calling her “Raven”, the female Creator spirit. “She was adrift in her canoe, searching for her genitalia in the sea of creation. Many creatures of the forest and sea failed to help her, but then she found Fomitipsis officinalis to steer her canoe. This mushroom guide took her to her sexual core, and thus was completed the creation of woman."

"Raven Steals the Sun" ...Another good tale :-)

The new Canadian $20 bill features Haida art.

Artworks of Bill Reid shown on the $20 bill are "The Spirit of Haida Gwaii," "The Raven and the First Men," "The Grizzly Bear," and "Mythic Messengers."

Monicans Amoung Us

I loved everything about this movie
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