Birthday B

Nine years ago, there was a little girl who had no interest in being born.  She was having a good time where she was.

(Her mom, on the other hand, was more than ready for her to get her act together.)

Her favourite auntie just wanted to take a shower. I was exhausted - I'd had a busy week, topped off with a flight across the country - and we'd been too rushed that morning for me to wash my hair.

I'd barely gotten my hair wet when she decided to stop messing around.  It was a quick shower.

Many hours later, there she was.

As often happens, she grew.

And grew.

And grew.

 

She learned how to read, and ride a bike, and send text messages telling me I'm not her favourite auntie (even though I'm pretty sure I am*).

She made friends, and is quite the social butterfly.

Ah!

She likes science (but not math ... at least not all of the time) and doesn't like being tricked into doing Brownie badges.

She likes Brownies, though.

B in a box

And boxes.  Hmm, there's an idea for a birthday gift ... where can I get a box?

Happy birthday, B!



* And now we'll see if she knows how to comment on a blog

Winterlude

So I made it downtown to Winterlude.

I'm surprised, too.

Monday was a beautiful, sunny day - and cold.  Very cold.

(Well, OK, it wasn't anywhere near as cold as it was a few weeks ago, but it was cold enough to make me whiny.)

It was a quick trip - I walked through Confederation Park. (Yes, that's the name of the park between the Rideau Centre & City Hall.  It took me an embarrassing amount of time to figure that out. Yes, I should have known the name, especially considering I was there 2 days ago.)

The ice sculptures were in really good shape - we got the typically end-of-January thaw early enough that they survived. The more intricate ones were actually under some awnings, which probably helped.

It has been a long time since I was at Winterlude, and even longer since I went anywhere other than Dow's Lake.

Many years ago, my department at work entered the snow sculpture competition. This was back in the days when:

• there was a snow sculpture competition, and 
• all you needed to enter it was $40.

We participated for ... probably 4 years? The first year, we did "Snow Men in Black", then there was one I don't remember very well, then we did "Will Work for Peanuts" (when Charles Schultz retired), and the last year, it was something about the Olympics (and some giant snow monster, as I recall). My role was mostly part of the snow moving team, but it was fun to participate.

And then they stopped that competition and I stopped going to Winterlude.

Anyway, after I walked around Confederation Park, I went over to City Hall to see the Rink of Dreams.  It was ... far less impressive than I'd expected.  (Don't we have similar outdoor rinks all around the city?)

Next was the highlight of the day - a Beavertail (Killaloe Sunrise, of course).  After that, I walked back to the car and drove home.

I was home for at least 10 minutes before my legs warmed up.

Confusion ahead

I've fully recovered from the concussion - I worked all day every day last week, and even went back to the gym on Thursday. I was pretty tired by the end of the day for the first part of the week, but by Friday I was back to normal.

Naturally, the only way to follow a full week is with a short week.

Tomorrow is a holiday here in Ontario. This holiday (Family Day) was added a few years ago, and I've only actually taken it as a holiday ... once, maybe? I've often ended up working it and taking the day off at another time.

This year I'm off, though. 

I was a little afraid I'd forget - in fact, on Friday I was predicting that I wouldn't notice until I'd been at work for a couple of hours - but now I'm pretty sure I'll remember. I'm considering going down to Winterlude in the morning, and I've created a to-do list that should keep me busy the rest of the day. 

There's no reason why I can't start on the to-do list today, but ... um ... I just haven't. Well, I guess laziness is a reason.

There's also no Pathfinders tomorrow due to the holiday, which means I will probably be confused about what day it is for the rest of the week.

Of course, that sometimes happens on a regular week, so it's not exactly unexpected.

I don't really feel like I need the day off - possibly because I spent last week on my couch - but I'm perfectly happy to take it anyway.

Now I see where I went wrong

So the whole "work from home on Monday" thing did not work.  I ended up taking a sick day.

I did work from home on Tuesday, though - and then felt worse on Wednesday.  Thursday and Friday I worked afternoons only, since mornings are worse than afternoons.  (It's not that I had a headache, just that I had no energy.  Typically, I'd step out of the shower and realize that I needed to lie down immediately.)

Naturally, I had to go to a Spark/Brownie/Guide/Pathfinder sleepover last night. My Pathfinders were there, as were some of my Sparks from last year.

The sleepover was at Cosmic Adventures.  For those of you who haven't been there, it's a giant indoor play structure.  Thankfully, it's also pretty good at absorbing squeals of overexcited children.

The first hour and a half was free play time, so I was able to sit (or lie) on a bench.  After that, we had a snack, made a craft, and did a quick scavenger hunt.

(The Pathfinders did very well, by the way.  They organized games and helped the younger girls with their craft. They even went to bed at a reasonable hour, and luckily my bed was far enough away that I have no idea what time they went to sleep. I warned them in advance that I was going to be useless in the morning and that they were going to have to help, and they did, even though they were obviously exhausted.)

I didn't get to sleep until after midnight, and I woke up around 5:45, which means I got ... not nearly enough sleep.

When I woke up, I had a "not enough sleep" headache, but otherwise, I felt fine.

Clearly my problem has been that I've been sleeping:
a) too much;
b) in a room that is too quiet;
c) on a bed that's too comfortable.

I hope I still feel OK tomorrow.

I have an inflatable neck pillow that I bring with me when I fly.  Naturally, I packed it for  my trip to San Jose.  However, once I was actually on the plane, I couldn't find it. 

I checked when I got to the hotel, and couldn't find it then, either.

Once I got back, it showed up in my purse very time I pulled out my wallet.  I finally took it out Friday night.

On Saturday morning, I got up and started breakfast. I noticed that it was snowing, so as soon as I finished eating, I slipped on some shoes and went out to find my phone. I walked onto the driveway, and immediately slipped.

I caught myself, took another step, and lipped again. I fell backwarsds and hit my head.

I lay there for about 20 seconds, then rolled over ahd tried to get up.  I fell the first time, but the second time I succeeded. I went tthe rest of the way to the car and found my cell phone immediately.  I carefully walked back inside.

I knew I was hurt, so I found my first aid book and looked up head injuries.  It was pretty convinced I needed medical attention, so a half an hour later, I was at the hospital.

I didn't have to wait long, but I was fine with waiting - I didn't feel the need to read or anything, as I was content to just sit there.  (I could have used my neck pillow, though, because I really didn't want to keep my head up on my own.)  After about an hour and a half, I saw the doctor and was told to go home and do nothing - no TV, no interenet, no reading.  Basically, the treatment for a concussion is to avoid thinking whenever possible.

I spent yesterday lying on the couch.  I was hoping I'd feel better today - and I do, a little - but I spent today lying on the couch as well. (I took a shower and then needed to rest for an hour before I had the energy to get dressed.)

Of course, tomorrow is Monday, and I'm supposed to be at work.  The best case scenario is that I work from home -  I don't want to go in to work and then be too tired to get home.

Man, I hope I feel better tomorrow.

Slow deductive reasoning

Just before I left for work this morning, I remembered my cell phone needed charging. I pulled it out of my purse and confirmed that it should be charged, so I decided to charge it on the way to work.

Then I went to work.

When I got to my desk, I went to grab my cell phone (it doesn't get reception if I keep it in my purse, so I leave it on the desk during the day) and ... no cell phone.

I went back down to the car. No sign of it.

I figured it had fallen out of my purse at home and, since I wasn't at home, there wasn't much I could do.  I called Wanda (because you can't text without a cell phone), but she was on her way to school, so she couldn't check for me.

I talked with Wanda again mid-afternoon, and she said she couldn't find it.

Great.

Before I left work, I called my cell phone and it went right to voicemail.

I wasn't sure whether that meant the battery had died or that someone was using the phone. Regardless, there wasn't anything I could do.

I came home and called it again.  This time, it rang before it went to voicemail.  I walked around the house, hoping I'd hear it vibrating. (I keep it on my desk during the day, you might recall.)

No luck.

I logged into my account online to confirm that no one was using the phone to call Hong Kong or some equally expensive place.  So far this month, I've used 4 minutes of calling.

Probably not being abused by someone who snatched it off the driveway, then.

I decided to try looking for it again in the morning.

And then, seconds after Wanda took the car to work, I realized that if it had no reception (and thus went right to voicemail) when my car was in the underground parking at work, but did have reception when I was home and the car was on the driveway, it was probably in the car.

I guess I'll see if I'm right in the morning.