Friday Recommendations.

If you're having pasta wouldn't this be lovely too?
This is our staple red. It's great on it's own or with a simple meat dish. You choose.

And for dessert?! Why, how about Muscat de Saint Jean de Minervois? Santa put this in my stocking and I haven't tried it yet; however, it just sounds divine: "...rich golden yellow with an immediate and powerful nose, distinguished by a complex aroma suggesting apricots, quince, mandarin orange and honey. On the palate, the wine is simply luscious." Oh, be still my beating heart.

And in case you need something to go with your wine besides food (I know, that's just craziness) perhaps you'd like to check out the Masterpiece movies. Might I recommend Sense and Sensibility or Emma just started and you can catch the first part of that online. Be forewarned it's a continuing series - the next part is on Sunday (darn Cup of Joe beat me to posting this - who knew we liked the same movies).

Old and New.

It's that time of year were you shed the unwanted pounds, make some sort of ridiculous declaration to become a better person and/or drink more. I of course, chose the last one - seems like an obvious decision to me. Anyway, the beginning of the year always marks some sort of change, many I'm not altogether happy about but I feel I must share them with you just the same.

First, good-bye goes out to Robin of Obnoxious Green Door. A close friend and her blog and one I enjoyed quite a bit. Darn circumstances beyond our control. She's still alive (phew) but her blog has bit the bullet.

Second, I'm slinging a big, Ol' good-bye to Ms.K. She's heading out to Philadelphia tomorrow to be with her hubby (they've been apart for quite awhile). The ladies of Worthington are already planning a rode trip to see that cracked bell and hog down on some hoggies! Better rest up Ms.K!

On a happier note, I'd like to extend a warm welcome to little Mr.S. We've been waiting for him for 9 months and a few weeks ago he graced us with his presence. He's a true little angel. He's also a great reminder as to why I decided to have children in the first place... so lovely.

And now, the piece de resistance! My new favourite television show - what you thought this was going to be something else?! - The Graham Norton Show on BBC! Oh, how I love the BBC... If you love The Brits, and something tells me you do, then you will absolutely pee your pants when you watch this show. So funny.

As an aside: I'm also a big fan of David Tennant as Doctor Who (please don't ask - just IMDB it) and as luck would have it he's going to be in movie with,... wait for it... SIMON PEGG! Oh please! So watch for 'Burke and Hare'. With any luck it'll be as funny as 'Run Fat Boy, Run'. We can only hope...

Rehabilitation.

I've gotten a bit behind in blogging. Here's another update... I know, enough already with the updates. It's even making me crazy. I have things to say I'm just lazy (you know this to be true). So, here's what we've been doing.... Going to Disney! Hurray...

Making new friends - actually, more like becoming reacquainted with old friends and possibly turning them into life long friends (when you're 4 that's a big deal). How cute is this picture? No prompting either! They just clicked.

Getting warm in the sun. Geepers, what a bunch of whimpertons I'm raising. I think it was 82F!

Celebrating Christmas! Oh, so very excited 'cause he got everything he asked for - he asked for a DS so it was pretty darn easy to fulfill that. Santa's the best!

Hanging with family! Perhaps a new tradition? Between Christmas and New Year's we drove up to my in-laws and hung out at their new house. Best thing about the house (it truly is lovely) - my brother-in-law installed a wine fridge in the cupboards right behind those kids! Fabulous idea no?!

And on New Year's we went skating with STINGER! Oh, yes we did! And we had a blast. There was cookies and hot chocolate and cheerleaders and everything - a little something for all the members in our family...

... for me there was a goalie stretching. *sigh* Hey, I'm a girl from Canada! Did you know goalies can do splits? I just love warm-ups before the big game! Go BlueJackets.

Grandma came to the game too. She just left on Monday and was here for almost a month. Good times had by all!

And now, this family is resting a bit and just trying to regain some sort of normalcy. I'm not sure what that means...

Schlooping.

I don't know what 'schlooping' is but I've got a thing today for all words starting with "shl...". Like Schlecking, shlopping, shluckenburger, and shluck. Again, nonsense... just the day I guess.



So hoping you're having a good one. Happy Shlickenooking to you.

Oh Yah!

Remember that whole in my living room ceiling?! It's not there anymore!!! No kidding. Today I got all handy and decided to fix it - alright, I was tired of listening to A. ask me when I was going to fix it (I said I would...). And now, it's fixed. No big, gaping hole above my t.v. Phew.

I have to say that it was a bit of a pain in the ass to fix (oh, sorry about the language but if you've done home improvements before you know why I use it). Whomever tried to 'fix' it before did a really bad job of it and when the shower, that they also fixed, leaked the water poured down and made the stuff they used turn to some sort of cement. There I was on a ladder stabbing a screwdriver through the ceiling trying to make some sort of space to put the heavy duty exacto knife through... my mom laughed and laughed and tried really hard to hide the fact that she was laughing.

Once I was through and had cut a large enough hole - cut a hole to fix a hole?! I put a ceiling tile in, taped it in and Spackled (my friend Stacy is sad right now 'cause I Spackled without her). It looks professional. Okay, no it doesn't but it looks better than the bulging crud that was there before and then the gaping hole that was there after. The one problem with fixing it is now I feel like I need to paint the walls and the ceiling. Crud.

Did I tell you I ripped (okay, Stacy did) the wallpaper off the kitchen walls? Yep, right beneath that was the drywall.... no primer.... good heavens.... oh, and that was 3 weeks ago - still living with half done. I am not motivated...