This is Lola.
Once upon a time she was a puppy.
But now she's a mommy with puppies of her own. Five of them!
So now this means my brother-in-law's household has seven Saint Bernards, two other dogs, one cat,some fish...oh, and a toddler and a newborn.
Now that's going to be a busy Christmas. :)
By the way, Adam, I put this up for your benefit.... (Yes, my brother is seriously considering a new puppy in his household...)
A friend said to me the other day: "I was afraid something was up with you, you know, something dire ."
"Dire?", I said. "Why is that?"
"Well, you haven't written on your blog in a long time..."
No, I can assure you all that nothing dire is up with me. :)
Mainly the last part of November, first week of December has flown by in a bit of a blur. Well, some of it has slogged by in not-so-much of a blur actually, but it's been filled up with distinctly non-bloggy activities.
Like participating in an online course for professional development. I had hoped it would be a little more interesting but the problem is you can't have a good online discussion group if most of the group is not into discussing things.
Which leaves the other part of the course, which includes reviewing and assessing scholarly and long-winded draft documents/recorded seminars of child-care related issues.
In one three minute video-clip I was being asked to comment on, the speaker used the word "paradigm" twenty-two times in under three minutes. Excrutiating!
Anyway, by the time I'm done on the computer lately, all I want to do is go kill things in World of Warcraft. Sigh.
But, if you've read this far, I shall give all a update on the highlights of this past month.
1. I sprained my shoulder at work, much to the consternation of the children gathered in a concerned circle around my prone form. I didn't realize it until the next day because I landed on my head first and that was the big owie I was most concerned about. Tackle-hugs. The love of a child can be heart-warming...but potentially dangerous.
Note: Although I didn't have to take a single hour/day off work for this injury, I STILL had to go through paperwork hell to document it of course. My shoulder hurt, sure, but it was a bigger pain in the butt, so to speak.
2. This was the month I finally decided to take a step towards getting over my fear of highway-driving. (Those of you who may not know me well, let me inform you I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to driving. )
Well, white-knuckled or no, I made it to Nanaimo going 110 km/h. Oh sure, people were still passing me by going mach, but I'm still pretty happy with myself.
3. I went to a burlesque show with Jeff and Melanie. (Okay, this was even a while further back, but it's worth mentioning). There were twirling pasties, fishnet tights, and feather boas flying everywhere. I won a risque purse that I'm quite fond of, featuring faux leopard print and a vintage brassiere advert.
4. My beloved old troupe of bellydancers had a reunion at my friend Emily's house.
5. My friend Lisa got married and I went to her most entertaining bridal shower.
6. I got an email from my mother-in-law in Kathmandu the other day telling me I should look on her dresser for her ticket to Winterharp . She figured after arriving back in Canada after forty-eight hours of flights and layovers beautiful harp music would only put her to sleep. Since I'd tried to buy tickets for this sold-out concert a month ago with no luck, this was a nice surprise. Gorgeous uplifting performance!
In other (non)- entertainment news, I ended up turning down a ticket tonight to go see an Elvis impersonator. Not like me to avoid any sort of free ticket. Guess I wasn't quite in the mood.
7. I've also spent quite a bit of time this month working on home-made holiday presents. This is mostly to avoid the dreaded Curse of the Holiday Shopping Mall , but then I turn around and make plans to meet up with Tai in Nanaimo tomorrow at Chapters, and I just know we'll be perilously close to entering a mall.
Okay, that's my life in a nutshell. :)
