Friendship...

Recieved one of these email lists and loved it...

FAKE FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
REAL FRIENDS: Are the reason you have no food.
FAKE FRIENDS: Bail you out of jail and tell you what you did was wrong.
REAL FRIENDS: Would be sitting next to you saying "Damn we fucked up.but that shit was fun!"
FAKE FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
REAL FRIENDS: Keep your shit so long they forget its yours.
FAKE FRIENDS: Know a few things about you.
REAL FRIENDS: Could write a book about you with direct quotes from you.
FAKE FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you've had enough.
REAL FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say "Bitch drink the rest of that you know we don't waste."
FAKE FRIENDS: Will talk shit to the person who talks shit about you.
REAL FRIENDS: Will knock them the fuck out.
FAKE FRIENDS: Are for a while.
REAL FRIENDS: Are for life.

My real friends, you know who you are. I love you!!!

P/S: I am on my 5th glass of wine....I love you guys...hic

Hollows Eve

We spent ages carving the pumpkins last night. Doug, having more experience with this sort of thing of course carved a more elaborate pumpkin. I must say I like our Pumpkin Family this year.



Sash is ever so concerned that her baby pumpkin is left outside in the cold. We caught her this morning trying to bring it back inside...

The Sherwood ravine

As I type this, it is raining cats and dogs. Bad news, I cannot run my errands. Good news, I have time to download some pictures taken over the weekend and update this blog.

Every day since we have been here, we take a walk on the nature trail in Sherwood Park. Sometimes twice a day. Yesterday I decided to take along a camera to share with you the beauty of our Fall.

The start of the nature trail.

Sasha loves the trail...



and we love that she loves it...

I hope this rain stops soon..I feel like going for a walk.

Home at last

Dini is home safe and sound. It was a rough night, but it could have been worse. Doug went to retrieve Dini at 8am this morning. Sash clung to him for dear life and has not let go since. We even took him for our afternoon walk, something we have never done before.

It is Doug's birthday tomorrow. I have Sasha's present hidden away to be opened at dinner tomorrow. We thought of going out but I think it will be fun having a nice relaxing dinner at home. I will set the table, bung some lamb chops in the oven with some potatoes, toss a tomato and mozarella basil salad, stick a fire-hazard amount of candles on a nice blueberry pie, and open a bottle of champers. That way we get to have a nice dinner and Sash can run around free. On Friday, when Sash is at day care we plan on catching a movie matinee. Before that we need to get to the shops to get lights and decorations for Halloween, candy, top soil and mulch to prepare our garden for winter and plant the bulbs before the frost. All this before the weekend...wow.

Dini

This is Dini. He has been Sasha's companion, safety blanket and pillow since she was a wee babe. He completes her. We left him at day care this evening. We discovered this disastrous oversight just as we were trying to put her to bed. She has been turning the house upside down looking for him. We are in for a loooooooong night...sigh. I have just ordered a back-up a few minutes ago so this will never happen again. The last time we misplaced Dini it was in Toronto airport a year ago. We had the Airport authorities Fed Ex him to us at substantial cost..we could have bought 8 Dinis for what it cost us. This time we will pay in sleep hours. Come to think of it, I think I will order a few more after this so all she has to do is reach out and she will find one...reminds me of when she was a baby and I used to scatter a whole bunch of pacifiers in her crib so all she had to do to when one dropped out of her mouth was to reach for another. Dini, we miss you.

It is getting colder and we have started the furnace to heat the house, we have started wearing sweaters and jackets and packed away the shorts. On to a new season. Sash is now in day care the full 3 days a week. The novelty has worn off and she now realises that when we dress her as soon as she wakes up it is DAYCAREDAY. She cries, she pleads as we drop her off. Doug practically cries with her. Last Friday when we both picked her up she was on the slides with J, the day care owner. She saw us and we realised she was torn between rushing to us or to continue sliding. She chose to slide. We knew then that she would be fine, eventually. I am a great believer of forcing her to accept certain things, be they the good fortune she has in life or the many hard knocks to come. I think the band-aid should be ripped off quickly and efficiently. Doug is a great believer of creating a fairytale childhood for Sasha. He will leave the band-aid on and hope it will dissolve on its own. Therefore, 3 days a week we both try to get out of sending her to day care, Doug because he cannot bear to hear his dot plead to stay with him, me because I cannot stand crying..period.

Our good friends from our old neighbourhood crossed the border for a visit. Although Toronto is only a 7 hour drive, with 2 kids and dog, that drive will only be made by very good friends. We were initially worried that compared to what they are used to, our house would seem cramped and uncomfortable, and we wanted them to be comfortable. We were reminded however during the course of the visit that good friends visit friends, and the surroundings are somewhat secondary. So 4 adults, 3 children and a dog enjoyed visiting with each other, and didn't fight once over the one full bath. We took in the sights, the museums and nature without resorting to the use of a car. We took the subway, we took the ferry and we walked everywhere. Made us appreciate Toronto even more.

On the eve of the Eid, I called my family who were getting ready for the ritual visit to an aunt's house for raya morning nasi dagang. Mum asked me what I was doing for Raya. I told her I was going to the dentist for a clean, then cooking a vegan meal for some friends. She was not impressed by the lack of celebration and did not hesitate to voice her concern that Sash would not be able to understand her culture if I did not make an effort. I of course explained that I do not have any relatives here, nor do I have any Melayu friends who would appreciate a bit of smushed rice and Brahim rendang. And no, I was not about to go around looking for Malaysian students to accost and drag back to my house...I would have freaked out if some woman did this to me in Uni, especially the wife of a professor..I mean seriously, as a student I had invested too much effort to avoid classes that to voluntarily socialise with a member of staff would have been traumatic to my alcohol soaked system. However, while I always act that whatever my Mum says comes in one ear and out every other orifice, I do take note. And so, the next day we took Sash round the block to buy her a new outfit, (embroidered lined jeans, shirt and sweater) and a new toy (wooden truck with assorted shapes to be shoved through shape sized holes). Of course we wanted her to wear her new outfit. Of course it had to be the day that she decided she wanted to walk around naked and refused to even wear her diapers. So we cranked up the heat and let her play with her truck buck naked. Doug says that she must have realised that Eid had something to do with rebirth...

First day

Sash started Day Care this morning, at 8.30 am. She wanted to wear heelsbut we persuaded her to wear more practical shoes. She did not stay the full day seeing as how it is her first day and all, but she was there for a couple of hours. We stayed at home, worrying about her reaction to the abandonment. We figured she would be crying, screaming her head off at the door of the day care, wanting to get out, to look for us. We experienced the empty nest syndrome. At 11am Doug went to pick her up. The day care is about 600 metres down the street. I had to stay home as our neighbour's Mum came by. She had locked herself, and her granddaughter, out of the house and she needed to call her son-in-law and/or daughter to find out if they had any extra keys hanging about. Sash came home rather vexed. According to J, who runs the day care, she did not cry and to her amusement, spent the whole morning trying to impress a boy. It was rather obvious that she liked this boy as she was stroking his hair and laying her head on his tummy. We decided to send her to day care to get her socialised, to help her overcome her shyness and to help her learn how to play. It is either the 2 hours were extremely productive or we have a little coquette in the making. Needless to say we are no longer worried about her ability to socialise...with boys at least.