She had a baby!

My good friend Cecilia had her baby today at 10:58am. Baby Selena Michelle Ugarte Dahan weighed in at 7lbs 11oz and is 20 1/2 inches long.

Congrats Super C! You're going to be a Super Mom!

Well, that's never happened before

Last night I actually fell asleep for a few minutes during my massage. That is the first time EVER. I had no idea I could relax that much. Probably it's more likely that my massage therapist is THAT good. Thanks, Sina!

Bjork Concert Recap

Last night I got to experience my second Bjork concert. It was great. It was amazing. It was awesome. That woman has a voice like no other. It is crisp, clear and seem like it must come from another world. There is absolutely nobody else like her. She is wonderfully unique in her voice, her music and her creativity. Thanks, Eric, for a great birthday present.

A couple of interesting notes about the show: the weather was perfect, down at the Old Port we were surrounded by water and there was a nice breeze (not too hot, not too cold, it was just right!), we saw a shooting star or meteor bounce off the earth's atmosphere while we were waiting for the opening band, much to my surprise the crowd wasn't full of the young alternative-artsy-fartsy college crowd (although there were plenty of them too), we were surrounded by a lot of gay men in their 30's or older (I had no idea Bjork would appeal so diversely but there you go), Eric, Sam and I placed bets on when the opening band would start playing (25 cents a bet, I won but I don't remember what time that was anymore) and on when Bjork would finally hit the stage (don't remember any of that now), and finally I did predict that she'd be on stage for 90 minutes. I was close at 86 minutes.

It was a great night but it was L-O-N-G. We met at 6:15pm and basically never sat down again until sometime after 11pm when I was able to sit down for 2 metro stops. My feet hurt, my legs hurt, my back hurts. I feel like an old woman. Think my days of general admission concerts are over. I don't like having to stand up for 5 hours straight. I don't like not being able to see the stage clearly. I don't like having to watch the show through a 4-inch gap between the heads and shoulders of the people ahead of me. (You see, what a crabby old lady I am!)

Great night but next time I'll have to bring a lawn chair and a picnic ;)

My Living Will

Thanks to Lynn for sending me this.

My Living Will

Last night, my friend and I were sitting in the living room and I said to her, "I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

She got up, unplugged the TV, and threw out my wine.

She's such a bitch ...

Ready for a fun night

Lynn's in town (or will be shortly)! I'm meeting her for drinks after work and we'll hang out, chill and catch up while we wait for Anna & James to meet us. From there we'll all head out to dinner. Somewhere. Still to be determined. Should be fun!

What's it worth?

Do I book my travel online at a cost of $1350, go through Toronto and add a few extra hours to my travel time or pay $1497 to go direct?

For $150 difference, what's it worth to me? Gotta tell ya, I'm thinking I'll pay the extra $150 and go straight there. Probably save my sanity too.

Lots of Pictures

Managed to get the Darcy & Wesley set of pictures uploaded this morning.

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls set is up on flickr now.

Home Again

Made it home in good time yesterday despite having rain most of the way.

Made it through my first day back at work and am downloading 485 pictures as I write this. I will add some links to the different sets or something tomorrow.

I did have a lot of fun at Nick & Sue's and amazed that they were okay with me staying so long. But once it's all over, I have to admit that it's good to be home again, in my own space. I cherish the time we had together and will look forward to our next visit. Until then, it's back to my usual quiet little household.

All Packed

Here we are. End of another vacation. I am all packed and ready to leave with Mom bright and early tomorrow morning for the long drive home.

This morning Mom and I took Darcy to the mall while Nick, Sue and Wesley joined us there a little bit later. Darcy loved being at the mall with her auntie and Grandmaman, especially in the shoe store where she rearranged just about every shoe she could get her hands on, and was sure to let us know which particular pair of heels she would like when she's a grown up. Darcy also enjoyed touching all the pretty clothes in one shop and playing with the jewelery. I must be a good influence ;)

After a quick lunch in the food court, Mom & I headed for the outlet stores while the others headed home for naps and feeding. I didn't do very well at these stores, in fact I am coming home with only one sweater, necklace and a pair of shoes - none of which are from the outlets. Grumble, grumble ...

When we got back Mom & I started preparing a roast beef dinner. Roast beast, roast potatoes, yorkshire pudding, cauliflower, broccoli and corn on the cob (gotta get it while we still can!) and apple crisp for dessert. It was quite a feast!

We ended off the evening and my vacation with one last walk down to the river park. We did have a little accident though. Darcy was running down a sloping path and tripped on a paving stone, falling over, scraping one knee and biting her lip when her chin hit the ground. Tears followed of course. But after some hugs, a handy kleenex in my pocket to wipe off the dirt and blood, it all ended up in laughter when Darcy declared she was feeling ok again by letting me know she had just "tooted" on my lap. Some thanks!

It's been a good two weeks. It was wonderful to spend so much time with Wesley and Darcy, and Nick & Sue too of course. Think I've got about 470 odd pictures (granted 200 are from Niagara) to go through so I'll do my best to get those up as soon as possible.

Thanks Nick & Sue for hosting me these past two weeks. It's been great!

Once Upon a Teacup

This morning we finally had our tea party at Once Upon a Teacup. Sue's friend Jerilee came with her two kids, Alyssa and Joel. We ordered our tea, scones and apple slices for the kids and then proceeded to the costumes. They had piles of dresses to choose from. Darcy got her purple dress, gloves, crown, hat, purse, and feather boa that she'd been harping on about for the last few days. We took some fun pictures and the girls really seemed to revel in the excitement on putting on a princess dress for tea. There were even a couple of dresses there that looked like they might fit me but I managed to hold back.

Wesley slept through the whole affair and Joel sat in his stroller taking it all in. We managed to find pirate hats for both of them, which was pretty funny. Particularly as Wesley's hat was nearly as big as he is!

My mom arrived mid-afternoon after an early morning start from Montreal and had a safe trip back from Switzerland yesterday and good trip today. After an initial game of playing shy, Darcy warmed up to her Grandmaman and pretty soon they were laughing and cuddling like nobody's business.

After a nice raclette dinner (and one incident where Darcy had half a small tomato across her front teeth which made me snort), we took our evening constitutional down to the river park and ended up getting caught in the rain on our way home. Darcy was the only one lucky enough to have an umbrella with her and thought it great fun when the rest of us got wet.

Last day tomorrow and then home on Sunday. Where has the time gone?

Worn Out My Welcome

This morning we headed over to the mall to run a few errands. As we were pulling into the parking lot, Darcy informed me that Stephanie (friend coming to visit Sue this afternoon) was going to take my place in the car and that I would "have to go". Apparently I have worn out my welcome. However, after some negotiating tactics (the promise of making cookies together and more activity books) Darcy came up to me, hugged my legs and said "Auntie Stef, I want you to stay." So I guess I'm back on her good side. Phew! Had me scared there for a minute ;)

Still Laughing

Last night we had quite a funny evening at home. After dinner we were just hanging out in the living room, chatting, watching Darcy play while we waited for Sue to come back down from feeding Wesley. For some reason, still unknown to me, Darcy started racing around from the living room into the dining room, through to the kitchen and then down the hallway to the front door, where she'd bang into the door on purpose and say "Bonk!" It was cute. We laughed a little. Nick decided to take this up a notch when he would try to catch Darcy on her way through. Somehow this lead to Darcy trying to lick Nick's hands or arms. And of course, this just made the whole thing funnier. Darcy was laughing those belly laughs that are contagious and pretty soon Sue was down with us wondering what all the laughing was about.

From there, sadly, things deteriorated rather quickly. First it was just the licking on Nick, but then it moved to Sue and even to me. We were all getting a little a lot silly when, believe it or not, Nick told Darcy that she should moon me and "shake her stink" on me! And she did it too!!! But it didn't stop there - oh no! Darcy then thought it would be funny to continue her racing around with her moon hanging out the back. Well, that's when we lost it. We must've laughed for 5 minutes straight. Our abs were sore , we were crying and nearly hyperventilating from laughing so hard. Eventually we managed to regain control of ourselves and of Darcy and pulled it together again.

Several hours later as I was going to bed, I got a fit of the giggles as I pictured this scene again. I'll post the picture I managed to shoot ... but you'll have to wait another week.

Remarkably, through all of this, Wesley just sat on Sue's lap and slept. Mellow as can be. Not bothered at all by our commotion.

New format

Thought I might change the layout of the blog. Forgot that I might want to copy the links I did have in the side bar. Ooops.

Trouble

I don't know how she does it, or what exactly she does, but when Darcy does something funny with her food and Nick gets mad at her, about all I can do is cover my face with my hands before Darcy sees me burst into laughter.

Happened again tonight. Darcy was getting some help from Nick finishing up her snack of yoghurt and stuck her tongue out to lick at the spoon. OK - I know she was fooling around, I'd been watching her eat it as Nick tidied up in the kitchen. But Nick got all "Darcy, eat properly" as she stuck her tongue out and somehow a snort escaped me. A few shakes of laughter too, of course. And then Nick actually said "Auntie Stef!" to reprimand me! Can you believe it?!

Well, yes, I suppose I can believe it. But it was funny! I had to laugh.