Ho-ho hotel

Much to-ing and fro-ing today. Just before lunch the Boy was collected by his best buddy to go and see the movie Hotel for Dogs. I dropped the Girl off at Five Rivers in the afternoon for a Girl Scout outing to learn about plants. The Man and I took a Five Rivers walk ourselves, which gave me the chance to show off some of my newly acquired tracking skills.

Came home, with the Girl, and awaited the return of the Boy. Then I took the Girl and her friend to see Hotel for Dogs. They chortled throughout and didn't seem at all irritated by the saccharine happy ending. The movie has received only average reviews, but perhaps the reviewers were not kids aged between six and ten, who apparently think it is the funniest thing ever.

Nature quiz for you: whose prints are these?

Give me a break

Just been round babysitting for the Exiles, enjoying the peace and quiet of a household where the kids are in bed by 8pm (how do they do that?). I celebrated with a glut of telly-watching (we still don't have one). So many channels to choose from! So few worth choosing!

The commercial breaks had me spellbound: advert after advert for convenience food. Interspersed with ads for diet products and nutritional supplements, because if all you eat is what you've seen on TV then obviously you're going to end up overweight and under-nourished. It was quite depressing really.

On a healthier note, I've enrolled for more skating lessons so I was back at the rink this morning. My classmates from last time have been replaced by a couple of complete beginners, so I've shot to the top of the class by mere dint of showing up. Today I was trying to learn to skate backwards in a circle. I'm pretty sure it's actually impossible - but then that's what I used to think about skating forwards in a straight line without falling over, so maybe there's hope...

Good news day

On Monday morning I received a call from the hospital where I had my mammogram last week. The radiographer had looked at my results and wanted me back for more x-rays and an ultrasound. Although I was aware that the recall rate for these tests is quite high here and that it wasn't likely there was really anything wrong, still the last three days haven't been the most relaxing.

Anyway, this morning first thing I was back at the hospital being prodded and squished again, but mostly waiting around for results. Happily, after two hours I was told everything's fine and sent on my way - with a little skip in my step, I have to admit.

Good luck, bad luck: to some extent we make our own, but mostly it's completely arbitrary. Given that there was actually nothing wrong with me in the first place, I know it's nonsense to say I got lucky today - but the fact is, that's how it feels.

Fact-finding mission

I helped out at the Girl's Brownie meeting this evening. It's not much like Brownies as I remember it. For a start they only meet formally once a month. Instead of gathering in a church hall or some such the meetings take place in a room at the library, so there's no running around, it's all quite sedentary.

Also the group is very small, only eight or nine girls. Tonight they were making heart-shaped felt bags sewn together with ribbon, in honour of Valentine's Day. The leader had prepared the felt with tiny sewing holes, and (with safety in mind?) instead of needles gave them bag twist-ties to stitch with. So that was quite challenging. But they all ended up with a bag, which they filled with winnings from the bingo session which took up the last part of the meeting.

For next month's get-together they'll be learning about other countries, so they each had to choose a foreign land to research. The Girl eagerly picked Great Britain. She has to present three fun facts and find something interesting to bring in for a show and tell. She has plans to treat everyone to some British food - watch this space next month to find out what she chooses and how that goes down...

What fun facts would you choose?

Spending freeze

The Man writes...Sunday morning I found myself in an impatient, freezing group of people outside a gloomy furniture warehouse in a desolate part of the city. Presently, at exactly 11am the "Star Spangled Banner" rang out over a tinny tannoy and, at the most rousing point, we were finally allowed to file in, to do our patriotic duty and shop.

Afterwards I went to the nearby Hudson River to look at the frozen landscape by the Livingstone Avenue railway bridge. Built in 1901, it's a rotating swing bridge, but it doesn't look like any ships will be passing through this way for a while yet...

Lab report

It's Groundhog Day again. Five groundhogs (Dunkirk Dave and Saskatoon Evan among them) are predicting that an early spring is on the way, but another eight (including Punxsutawney Phil himself) suggest we're in for another six weeks of winter. Looking out at the snow still sitting in great mounds everywhere, my money's with Phil. I even think he's being a bit optimistic.

The Girl has decided to build a science lab in the basement. This evening she presented the Man with a list of necessities she'd written on the bus. It includes all a young scientist could desire in the way of equipment and chemical compounds (empty yoghurt pots, safety goggles, baking soda and vinegar, of course; but also balloons, ketchup and rice krispies). 'Everything but the kitchen sink...' I remarked over dinner, but as the Man pointed out, 'sink' is in fact on the list too. Luckily there's one of them down there already.

The Boy is very eager to be his sister's assistant, but has been told he'll have to undergo an apprenticeship first.

The Man has been co-opted as the adult supervision (for experiments involving fire).

And I'm attempting to keep well out of it.

Ski Sunday

The kids were invited out sledding with a friend, so the Man and I unexpectedly found we had an afternoon to ourselves. The sun was shining, it was mild out - we seized the chance to do a bit of cross-country skiing.

The Man had done it before, twenty years ago, but it was the first time for me. To begin with I wasn't completely convinced - seemed like a hard-work way to hike in the woods. But once I (more-or-less) got the hang of it it was a lot of fun.

I took one or two (ok, more like eight or nine) tumbles. As you'd expect, the Man showed due concern and rushed to...












...get the camera out.

I wasn't the only one falling over, by the way. But the Man had the sense to hang on to the camera for the whole outing. Otherwise, believe me, his humiliation in this blog would be total.