Intertextuality at its finest:

Today my four year old said:

"Let's play comomodat with the hungry snake in the blue ocean of bubbly goo..."

Breaking it down:

comomodat = mispronunication of Mortal Combat, a movie based on a video game

hungry snake = the book Five Little Bats, based on the song Five Little Monkeys

blue ocean of bubbly goo = the book One Monster After Another

Reason #284 to attend library school: deciphering 4-year old play.

Freakin' Colds...

Okay, I've been through my 10 millionth cold this winter. The joys of living with a preschooler. I swear, we must just have a big sign inviting every virus known to man to infect us. LilyMab actually caught it this time. She went to the doctor today to be outfitted with a nebulizer. Basically, it's a breathing mask that you can upload medicine into...fun.

On the bright side, after being sideswiped all week, I'm finally feeling good again. Another plus...I've gotten a lot done. We've booked our first appointment with the wedding coordinator. And can I just say: oh my god I have a wedding coordinator. At what point did this wedding become an EVENT instead of a party? Ah well. I also got the taxes taken care of, cleaned up the house following the wake, got my car fixed (finally)...it's actually starting to feel like things are getting on track. My stress is way down. The best news, though, is that I am actually taking a day off on Wednesday. A REAL day off! I've booked in both kids at their respective babysitters. I am getting a pedicure and reflexology in the morning and I am getting my hair done in the afternoon. This is my first relaxing me-day in over a year. Bliss, bliss, bliss...

Oh, and they are making a movie of Gaiman's book, Stardust. How excited am I?

Anyway, enough "posting for the sake of posting." I am off to watch cheesy British miniseries. I'll let you know whether Neverwhere or MirrorMask wins the weirdest Gaiman flick award once I've watched them both. Cheers!

Jake's Wake

I've been wanting to blog about this, but Jake reads my blog. For the last two months, I have been planning my fiance's wake, "in celebration of his youth’s untimely demise and the beginning of his newly found middle age." It went off last night and it was a smashing success. I can't believe he never picked up on anything. The idea was that LilyMab was born on his 30th birthday, so nobody had much of a chance to do anything for him. Jake has been telling everyone how Lil's big day 'saved him' from any embarrassing birthday attention. So, of course, I had to do something about that.

I invited all of his friends and family to attend his wake. It was a great turnout with twenty-one guests. Everyone wore black or funereal outfits and his Mom and I presented a eulogy on the loss of our beloved fiance/son's youth. It was hysterical. Jake was completely sideswiped by it. Even when he ran into four of the guests (his friends from Calgary) at the same restaurant he went to for dinner, he didn't suspect anything. Of course, his birthday is in early September, so a big bash in March is a bit unexpected.

I will now have to live in fear of his eventual revenge, but it was totally worth it. ;)

Why Do I Feel Like a Babysitter?

I am really, really, really tired of always having to be the 'responsible one.'

Finally...

After way too much time spent on this, I finally have a wedding dress. I've ordered it from a little dress shop in town here (because supporting local businesses is cool). It's strapless with a lot of lace and embroidery and it laces up the back. Sweet, simple, and it can be ordered to fit. This is important since there are hummingbirds that are taller than me. This is the one thing I've been really stressing over since dresses need to be ordered 4-6 months in advance. Hurrah! I can now relax...for at least five minutes before I have to start working on invitations.

Roleplaying, Paranoia, and the Worst Cold Ever

I'm having one of those scattered days when your mind goes a mile a minute and you keep thinking of things that are totally unrelated.

First up to bat: the world's worst cold. It must be bad, because it actually took out Jake. This is a guy who would probably try to go into work with an IV in his arm. He's a little bit hardcore when it comes to responsibility and his job. So, when he called a coworker to finish out his shift because he was feeling too crappy, I seriously considered calling the paramedics. The good news is that I am in the starting stages of the same cold, so I am certainly looking forward to feeling like he does in a couple of days. Woohoo! Meantime, I am on the chicken soup brigade.

Next up: roleplaying games. If you've read my profile, I do actually play roleplaying games. Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire, Rifts, and all the rest. Our gang gets together once a week or so to pretend to be other people. Roleplaying games (RPGs) seem to be a pasttime for people who wish they were creative writers...especially for the DungeonMasters/Storytellers. If Jake gave up his DnD addiction, not to mention his all-obsessing job (ah the fascination of management), I am sure that he could crank out a fantasy novel every six months. It's the same level of detail in his world. I spent all of last night crafting a new character for our upcoming gaming weekend...it's set in Jake's mythical world that he has spent the last 5-6 years creating. Move over, Tolkien, we have a new contender. Hopefully Agatha Pearl (my character) will be up to the challenge and won't die in a freak accident within the first hour of gaming. Oh - and in a side note - I have found my ultimate RPG. Welcome to Deliria: "an interactive urban fantasy...inspired by the works of Neil Gaiman, Emma Bull, Joss Whedon, and other postmodern fantasists." It's like chocolate trifle in an RPG form. Sweet...

Finally: safety issues. My parents picked up a high chair for Miss Mab at a garage sale. It looked kind of odd when we set her in it, all tilted forward. It supposedly has a recline position, so we went on the Net to find some instructions. Only, when we typed in the product name and model number, we got hit with a big fat recall notice. Since I am opposed to my baby dying in a freak high chair accident, we chose to throw the high chair in the dumpster. Good thing we have a back up (the Net says it's safe). However, I am now a little paranoid about potential safety hazards (what else has been recalled? - Augh!).

I will now retire to think good thoughts and plan some world domination with Mab and Dar. I think today's big adventure is a pixie hunt. Oh, and as a last hit of happy, the library's new paint job looks awesome. Finally, a kids' section of be proud of!

Guilty Pleasures

I admit it. I'm addicted. I randomly troll the Internet for author blogs, reading bits and pieces of ephemera that are so much more interesting than anything I do on a daily basis - and they are well written to boot! My faves are Holly Black's, Libba Bray's. and Neil Gaiman's. Does anybody else do this? Maybe it's just me. :)

Hurrah!

I try so hard to hate Ralph (re: my rising university tuition year after year that I went to school), but then he goes and does something like this. Hurrah to everyone that supports public library funding in Alberta!