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Friday, December 28

"A Very Scot Christmas"

You have to be careful what is said around Mr. Lina.  He remembers things. 

Two years ago my youngest brother, Clone, made the mistake of saying that as much as he found the show Hoarders interesting, he got to a point where he couldn't watch it any more.  He also went on a 5 minute rant about snuggies.  Same family event but not the same conversation.

Mr. Lina bought Season 1 of Hoarders and a leopard print snuggy in August so he wouldn't forget.  Here you can see Clone growling in his leopard print snuggy that Christmas.


Country Girl Couture has a post about Christmas music that reminded me of the start of these silly gifts.  (Side note, check out all of her "Things that tick me off Thursday" posts, I always find them amusing).

Quite a few years ago, I don't think that Mr. Lina and I were married at this point, Paul McCartney's song "Wonderful Christmastime" came on the radio or store or something.  I think it's one of the worst offenders for being overly cute (I love the Beatles, but damn Paul needs someone like John to tell him when to dial the sappy crap back.)  I told Mr. Lina that my brother Scot HATES that song.  So much he will leave armloads of picked out presents behind and walk out of a store, just so he can escape the song.

Mr. Lina thought this is good information.

He burns that song 13 times on a CD, creates a fake play list on the back and uses Google images for Scot's name to put pictures on the cover calling it "A Very Scot Christmas".

And he giggles to himself with glee.

Scot figured something is up when he opens it up.  Dokken (etc) is not really his taste in music and he couldn't understand why Mr. Lina thinks he would want to listen to any of the music on the play list.  So after the presents are opened, people are checking out their new gifts, he goes to my parents stereo and hits play.

About 4 bars in, he flips the CD over to read the play list again.

12 bars in he hits next.

4 bars in he hits next.  And hits next sooner and sooner until he looks up and says "So is it on EVERY tract?" as my entire family start laughing.

Next year, Mr. Lina's gift from Scot was wrapped in paper mache.  Silly gifts have circled between my brothers and Mr. Lina since then.  Last year Clone wrapped Scot's gift in bacon.  Nothing crazy happened this year, my SIL actually commented on that.

Little did she (or I) know, this year, Mr. Lina had a surprise for me. 

When we were in Manitoba this summer his parents taught us to play Canasta.  It was a new card game to both of us and we played a few times to get the hang of it, pairing with his parents so it wasn't two newbies being ganged up on.  One game, my team won quite soundly, mostly because I had wild card after wild card.  One round I went out before Mr. Lina got into his foot.

That night, as we were going to bed he said to me he knew what he was going to get me for Christmas.  I was surprised, I mean, this was early July and we hadn't done much beyond playing cards and watching the lake property be leveled by a back hoe.  I had no idea what would inspire a Christmas present.

Yes, he said, enough decks of cards to play Canasta and a vibrator so I could go f*ck myself.  He was pretty proud of himself for coming up with that line but kind of giggled as he said it so it had no teeth.

My "non-family Christmas gift" arrived yesterday with multiple decks of cards.  I'm all set to play Canasta by myself.  ;)

Thursday, December 27

Merry Christmas!

I have been actively avoiding my computer since the 21st.  I felt like I had work I should catch up on and by avoiding my computer, I was avoiding that and really having a break.  So I have a lot of catching up on blogs to do.

I am struggling lately to find a blogging voice.  I've started a few posts that seem to end up being a laudry list of what I've done and complaining.  I don't like them.  It's good for me to write it out maybe, but you don't need to read that.  So I'm switching to point form for a bit of some good and bad of the holidays thus far:
  • I got to snuggle with my niece.
  • Actually, I hogged her the entire time she was at my parents house on Christmas day.
  • She kept staring at Mr. Lina.
  • We had friends and family over for Christmas Eve, the 2.5 year old stole the show (figured she would).
  • Best lines from her:
    • Her dad:  O, it's time to go home now.
    • O:  No. (rather emphatically while she continued to march around the basement having just watched Frosty the Snowman)
    • Her dad:  We have to set out cookies for Santa before we go to bed. 
    • O:  Bye bye Mr. Lina.  (runs upstairs to get coat).
  • It snowed overnight, the most snow since March 2011 apparently.  It's very pretty and nice to finally feel like winter.
  • And has netted me a work from home day.
  • Well timed snow in that Mr. Lina gave me money for winter boots for snow shoeing and I bought him a pass to the local conservation area so we could get back into hiking and snow showing.
  • Went to the 42nd anniversary party for my relative who had a stroke about 6 weeks ago now.
  • He's had considerable improvement since I last saw him although he still struggles to find the words he wants.
  • His daughter who is 12 days younger than me and autistic started up her usual campaign to get my childhood Strawberry Shortcake figures.
    • Perhaps I would like to play with her Strawberry Shortcake dolls and she could play with mine.
    • Perhaps my mom could put them in a box so she could take them home (she knows they are at my parents house).
    • Perhaps my parents would have a garage sale and sell them to her.  We would tell her about it, wouldn't we?
    • Toys need to be played with, do you still play with them?  I would play with them...
    • She also told me my womb is still very small that I haven't had the baby yet.
    • No kidding.
    • She also knocked on my grandfathers head at the visitation and then told us that Uncle Alec wouldn't wake up. 
    • Papa would have found that really funny. 
    • I'm trying to find the humour in my womb being small.  I'm not upset with her at all, she's just speaking the truth, but I don't really like that truth.
  • Did I mention my niece is adorable?
  • I finally gave them the blanket I started in June, she hooked her fingers in the shell stitches and like most 5 month olds, tried to eat it.  It was rather cute.
  • I bought her a tshirt that had a hat and the words "Snuggle Weather" stitched on, Mr. Lina and I use the word snuggle a lot between us (we will have conversations of nothing but the word snuggle if we're feeling sickeningly cute) so that was the draw of the shirt.
  • When I got it home, I thought it was a little plain in silver stitches.  I embroidered red on the hat to perk it up.
  • Probably should have taken pictures of it before wrapping it.
  • I mentioned last week that the stuffed animal I made for a friend last year is her bed time companion.  Guess what they lost at Christmas?  I have been asked to make another for them so bedtime can happen without tears.
  • Mr. Lina is pretty miffed with Canada Post.  On the weekend he started the soft sell that one of my presents may not be arriving in time for Christmas.  Monday he was happy to say that tracking said it was on it's way, all would be fine.  I checked the mail box (I was waiting for the conservation area pass to arrive) and the parcel pick up sheet was in the box.  They didn't even come to the door, we were home. 
  • He's off right now picking it up.
  • Oh, and now he's at the door!

Monday, December 17

Crazy Time

The end of year, end of time with one client and the upcoming holidays have made a shade crazy for me.  The few times I am home, I don't really have the umph to do much.  I am taking a sanity break between projects to say hello so you know I'm still alive.
  • I finally finished that blanket for my neice, started in June, born in August, done in December. 
  • I don't think I'm winning any aunt awards with that one.
  • I still have to take pictures of it.
  • I have made headway on Burda 118.
    • I took in a lot more, went down to see what Mr. Lina thought and his first comment was that it looked like a sack.
    • By that time I had stitching in the seam allowance from about 3-4 times of taking it in so I unpicked all of that, put in a clean row of stitching, cut some off and refinished the seam allowance (this stuff frays a lot).
    • Now it looks less sack like but still lacks sleeves.
    • Sleeves have been sewn, but are separate from the dress.
  • We went to socialize with R's parents on Saturday and his sister dropped off her daughter for babysitting.  Last January I gave her a stuffed animal I made and it was well received at the party but you never know if people are just being nice.
    • It seems she won't fall asleep without that particular stuffy, the only one she's named.
    • I felt kind of good about that. 
I don't think it was this specific one, but similar.
Okay, back to work.  On the plus side, I only have to work the 27-28 between December 22 to January 2nd.  This craziness will end.

Friday, December 7

Loves

I am so tired today.  We had our team Christmas party last night and although it wasn't a late night, it was past midnight by the time I got home.  When the alarm went off this morning, my eyes hurt because I needed more sleep.  I think I hit snooze 4 times. 

That said, I am in a good mood.  Here are some things that make me happy today.
  • Tiramisu arrived!  It was wonderful to see the package on the dining room table and know what was inside.
  • It is Friday, that is enough to make me happy.
  • My drive to work was awesome, 38 minutes from driveway to parking lot is a record for this client.
  • We have no plans tonight, I can have a glass of wine and relax.
  • We have no plans on Sunday, I think we'll spend part of the day getting our Christmas tree.
  • Yesterday, someone noticed me babbling a bit and asked if I had coffee.  I mentioned this to Mr. Lina this morning.  He lamented that I've become a little more adjusted to caffeine and rarely sound like a little kid explaining a day at an amusement park to her grandparents.  It made me giggle when he mimicked the little kid (including puking after too much funnel cake and rides).  It's not often I'm laughing that early when I feel so tired.
  • I've signed up for Rdio and am now listening to music at work.
  • I love Jamiroquai.  I know it, but sometimes I get listening to a lot of folk/independent music and time passes without listening to Jamiroquai and when I listen again, it's like falling in love all over again.  I almost caught myself singing along yesterday (not a wise choice in cubicle-ville), I love how it makes me feel.
So here is a little Jamiroquai, hopefully it cheers up your Friday as it has for me.  Cosmic Girl is my favourite song.  In an interview, Jay Kay talked about this particular video.  They were still working on ideas for the video and the girl he was dating at the time was asking who his "Cosmic Girl" was going to be, kind of hinting it should be her.  To side step that, he made it about his car (he is a petrol head as they say on Top Gear).  The purple Lamborghini is his own car, the crew crashed it once loading it from his home to take it to the location in Spain.  They bought another (keep in mind, only 3 were made like this particular car), it was also damaged with precision drivers.  In parts of the video, there is no front windshield to the car.
 

Thursday, December 6

More good news

The Post Lifers won best short film at the Blood in the Snow film festival.  All of the films I saw had film makers, directors, actors in the audience, there was a LOT of networking going on.  Facebook was just a flurry of likes and comments last night, Mr. Lina was very happy when I got home from bowling on Tuesday.  That's 4 wins for best short, nominations for best short, best editing and best acting.  I think they are going to need a bigger DVD package when it's time to try to sell it. 

A special thank you to Amy at Sew Well.  She held a contest for 10 subscriptions to Zinio, an online magazine provider and I was lucky enough to win one.  If Threads had been an option, it would have been a perfect choice but alas, it is not.  Instead I selected Canadian Geographic.  My first issue arrived yesterday and I'm happy with my choice.

When I was in first year of university, I really didn't have a clue of what I wanted to take.  I was accepted as "Major Undecided".  At least it was honest rather than having something that wasn't going to stick.  When I finally did decide geography was for me, I got a lot of support from my family.  My grandfather bought me a subscription to Canadian Geographic.  I loved it, it was like having some kind of geography cred and sometimes I could talk about issues in class all pro-active keener like.  The last time I saw my Papa was at my convocation from university.  It's a fine memory to hold onto. 

I didn't have the money to continue the subscription after he passed away.  I've asked for it for Christmas now and again but no one has taken me up on the suggestion.  So at long last, I have my magazine and happy memories back.  Now to learn about polar bears and beavers...

Monday, December 3

What a week

I've been pretty quiet here.  Tuesday I had a migraine and after that I've just been either too busy or too tired to think.  So here are the highlights...
  • Attended another film festival, The Blood in the Snow festival in Toronto
  • It was good, The Projection Room on Gerrard is a great space for a festival
  • The movies I saw were well done although not all were my taste.
  • At least I'm not frustrated with them like last week, I don't mind movies clearly done on a budget but I can't deal with stories that don't make sense.
  • Craft show season is wrapping up for Mom and it shows, she's tired.
  • Hell, I'm tired and I didn't sew all the stuff we've been selling.
  • Still lining things up for the next FET but I'm not in a rush now that I have figured out timing, Humira adds a lot of time to the pre-transfer time.
  • Soonest the transfer could be at this point is early February, friends are planning a group trip somewhere warm in late February.
  • I may as well put off the FET to March and drink my fair share on a beach somewhere rather than rushing it and worrying about things going wrong in Mexico or Cuba.
  • My girlfriends from university had their Christmas get together yesterday
  • It was fun, but again, I kind of had to take a few big breaths to squish down the discomfort before opening the door.
  • And today I'm overtired and broke my rule of no crying while driving on 400 series highways. 
  • And it's not like my friends have it easy.
    • One husband has just been declared in remission from testicular cancer (YAY!)
    • One son was diagnosed with cancer at 6 months, he's 7 now but still not completely in the clear and seems to end up with things like gallstones or kidney stones when his cancer is doing well so she spends a lot of time in various hospitals.
    • One friend had to go through IVF for her son and based on that experience, they won't have more kids (biologically at least).
    • Two have had multiple miscarriages after having their first child.
  • Still, I can't help but feel sad to see 12 kids at a party and none of them are mine.
  • It also showed me how much I've stopped talking to them when no one knew just how many pregnancies I've had.
  • Work is well, crazy just about sums it up.  I'll be happy when January is here from that perspective.
  • On the plus side, I started drafting up my performance review today and it's going to be okay.
  • I have barely had the energy to read blogs never mind sew.  Progress is slow on my Burda dress, that doesn't mean I'm not interested or frustrated, I'm just tired enough to make mistakes.
I'm going to hop in the bath and go to bed early.  Hopefully that will make tomorrow less painful.