My father taught me, by example, that if you try to be a good person, and a good friend, you will attract those types of people into your life.  And you won't waste your time or energy on fakes because you will be able to spot them a mile away due to the fact that the friends that you do have are the real kind.  My father never had an enemy that I knew of so I believe it to be sound advice.  He taught me that judging is not the same thing as being a good judge of character, you have no right to judge but you should always "size up" people.  I miss my father....

 

To all the people that I am lucky enough to call my friends, I truly thank you for proving my father to be correct.  There is not a fake among you.

 

My surgery is just over a week away and I'm getting a little nervous about it, understandably, but I draw strength from my two very best friends in the world, my daughters and from Marco, who doubt will have to endure a couple of meltdowns before and/or after the operation...( lol  I never said I wasn't vain ) but he's always been a source of strength for me since I met him; maybe it's the fact that he's so calm, no matter what....

 

Anyway, that's about it kids...  later

 

 

Yes folks she can now stand with the assistance of the playpen, her chair, her crib, her bouncy car and your leg if you stand close enough...  oh yeah, and she got a new hat

Went out last night with people from work to celebrate St. Patty's day, Marco met us there when he was done work,  but there was a major force missing!!  Unfortunately, the lastest victim of this stupid flu virus is Rebsteb, and she was the one who was most looking forward to the day.  Rest assured, it wasn't a real party without you.  This may just be a rumour, but I heard that March 31st is Mardi Gras night at the Last Drop, so if it's true, we can party then - with beads!  if it turns out the rumour is untrue, we can party anyway cause it's the weekend before my surgery.  I hope you don't mind but I heard that you were mentioning that we should have another pot luck at work so I took your idea and ran with it.  I was thinking of using the Mardi Gras theme, but not sure now  seeing as how Mardi Gras is really in February - if the weather gets better, we could do a barbeque - I'm looking for your input before I send out an email at work.  I posted some of the pictures from last night, (I hate pictures of me, so they may be missing lol)  but the others are better anyway!

 

So anyway, we went out, I DID NOT get so intoxicated that I was sick or feel that I have anything to apologize to anyone for, I don't have a hangover/headache this morning, nor do I have to hang my head in shame when I go into work on Monday so that's a really good thing.  I think everyone had a fun night but it's stil not the kind of thing that I would want to do every week.

 

On to more important things - FOOD!  I am in the midst of making a potato and bacon pie that Joanna, Rachel, Ryan and I saw the guy make on the Food Network.  You line a pie plate with bacon with the pieces hanging over the edge, fill it with potatoes, cheese, mushrooms, onions, (basically whatever you would normally put in scalloped potatoes) - I added ham to mine too, then wrap the bacon that's hanging over the edges up over the filling and then bake it.  It looked sooooooo good that I've been going to make it for some time but just never think of it and when I do, I don't have everything I need.  Warning - it takes a full pound of bacon to line the pieplate if you are using a regular sized one.  I hope it turns out as good as it looked there - I'll let you know.

 

Joanna, Rachel, Amanda and I took Tony to East Side Mario's for dinner the other night for his birthday. Ryan had to work late so he didn't get to go.  It's so funny watching Tony with Amanda.  He is such the stereotypical Grandpa.  As soon as she started to squirm in her high chair, he had her out of it.  He just loves being around her and she loves him right back.  There's one man for sure that she already has wrapped around her little finger (lol).  He reminds me of my dad when Joanna was little (the first grandchild syndrome - especially when that first grandchild is a girl).  Unfortunately, my dad was really sick when Rachel was born and didn't get the chance to spoil her with attention the way he did Jo.  It's an undescribable feeling watching the interaction between your parent and your child.  It's like you've given them the ultimate, perfect gift, better than any Christmas or birthday present you ever bought, no matter how perfect that present seemed at the time.

 

Well, that's about it for now....  have a good one kids...  there are more pics of Amanda etc on my flickr site if you want to see them...

I find March to be a month where everyone is in kind of a holding pattern.  It's not yet spring yet we want to start doing something new.  Joanna has given notice at her apartment and is in between deciding on a townhouse that she has already seen and continuing looking for that "not yet found perfect one" that is still in the price range.  Rachel is home from Newfoundland, waiting to go back to school in the fall.  I'm just waiting for the surgery to come and go.  And to get on with my life. 

 

Amanda continues to grow like a weed and amaze her parents with what she is capable of and amaze me with my lack of memory of at what ages my kids did things.. lol.  I vaguely remember them being babies, honestly I do, but as to how old they were when they crawled, or said their first words, or got their baby teeth, I can't say that I remember.  But then again, I always was bad at remembering dates....  I figure they walk and talk and eat so they must have done these things at some point for the first time!  I think the problem is that you still have pregnancy brain, combined with the fact that there is pretty well a "first" every day so remembering years later is quite a challenge!  No wonder people give you baby books to write these things down in - it's really to reduce the chance of you being considered senile!

 

Marco and I celebrated an anniversary of sorts on the weekend and as I write this, there is a vase of a dozen yellow roses on the table in front of me.  We went to Moxie's for dinner (thanks for the review Kristine, it was all you said and more) and then went to see Pink Panther; which I know is not everyone's cup of tea, but I am a Pink Panther fan from way back and was happy to see that the movie lived up to the reputation of all the Peter Sellers ones. 

 

Since Rachel is home and needs a place to live, Marco and I have decided to give "living together" a try.  We talked about it before but as there is an orange feline to consider and (Kristine, you know how this is) I refuse to abandon a cat that no one would probably take anyway lol, the discussion had been back burnered.  Now with Rachel to take care of Leroy, we can see how it goes.  And there's always the safety net of the fact that I haven't given up my apartment, I am just loaning it to Rach to give her the chance to live alone, just not thousands of miles away from her family.  Needless to say, I am putting a bit of a female touch to Marco's condo (no pink frilly bedspreads, just a few plants and candles and pictures). 

 

I haven't really gotten into the Amazing Race yet so I need someone to post recaps so that when I actually do sit down and watch, I'll know who the players are.   That's the only one that I watch though.  I just can't seem to get into tv.  We did watch the Academy Awards though and personally, I thought John Stewart was funny.  Face it, it's meant to be a boring show.  You just have to understand his sense of humour.

 

Anyway, that's about it for now...  later kids....