My Virtual Life Continues

That's it. That's the beast that ruined my week-end.

It's both pretty and poison.

I'm able to surf the 'net again, and post to my blog, and read others blogs, but checking e-mail takes a solid half hour, and sending an e-mail is just as complicated. Maybe it's just as well I lost my address book and can't contact anyone.

Let's move on, shall we?

My birthday! (We need to go back in time a week and a bit - I guess that means I'm even older now!)



This is my new camera. It intimidates me completely.

~The rest of the photos in this post were taken on the new camera.~

Nigel surprised me with the book "Bags that Rock" by Kelley Deal - she's the twin sister of Kim Deal, bass player with The Pixies. The sisters were also in the band The Breeders back in the 90's.



Elly, I think there's one in there you might just want to make. It uses a set of junior-sized drumsticks as handles. Can you see it? It's the little red one in the corner of the cover. Funky!



The boys also gave me a EP single of "Heaven" and the LP "Talk Talk Talk" by The Psychedelic Furs. I remember buying a copy of this album back in 1979 at The Bay when I was just fifteen. The music has aged much better than me. I remeber being totally smitten with Richard Butler (the lead singer), he's so cold and adorable - he must be gay. ~There's a video waiting at the bottom of this post if you want to see him.~

Nigel was concerned that these offerings weren't going to be enough, so he told me to go out and get something else for him to wrap.




Don't I have great taste? This is a sterling and moldavite necklace by artist Charles Albert. It's from his "Out of this World" collection. Moldavite is a stone from the Moldavia region in Western Romania. 10,000 years ago a meteorite struck the region, creating the gemstone called moldavite. Some believe that the stone is extraterrestrial, while others believe it's the sandy soil of the region melted into a glass-like stone. I think the melted sandy soil idea sounds pretty likely, but I'm awfully fond of the outer-space line, so humour me - it's my birthday.

Elly didn't disappoint either.

She sent a fantastic little parcel filled with goodies for everyone.



A box of Butler's Chocolates. We discovered this chain of stores in Dublin, the chocolate is fantastic. Also a bag of reds and blacks from Marks and Spencers (we can't get these here). Ian helped me eat the red ones. Also a card that made reference to "snaffling cake". Elly and I decided that snaffle must mean "to eat", and not to snag or ruin, as in "there's a snaffle on my new cardigan", or "this computer totally snaffled my week-end" . I love learning this Gaelic language.

Nigel also scored his very own bar of Butler's chocolate, with whiskey truffle filling. It made him very happy.



And Ian got an R2D2 filled with chocolate and a Beanie Bar. The R2 sat sweetly for most of a day, before he was torn open and his insides all eaten.



Elly also sent this fantastic hank of yarn from This Is Knit, dyed by Elana. The colours are much better in person (I'm still working with this new camera). It has deep purples and magentas with a great swath of rich teal, gorgeous, kind of like a medieval circus. I'm still deciding what it will become.



Thank you Elly and Nigel and Ian! I love all the pressies.

Happy Birthday to me. Let's swoon, shall we?

Birthday Loot

Thought I'd show you what I got for my birthday.

Inside that lovely big bag were gifts from my daughter Elly:


a new Donna Hay cookbook and a bottle of X-Rated liqueur. She brought the booze back from the States, you can't buy it here yet. It's very nice, blood orange, mango and passion fruit in a vodka base.

From Nigel and Ian:



two Blossom Dearie Cd's, The Fallen Idol DVD, Green Magic by Ann Mauro (Oooo, how to really work that wand!), and



also, the first three seasons of The X-Files, and The Complete Jeeves and Wooster .
It was a great day. After opening my gifts, Nigel slid Blossom Dearie into the CD player and I had a sip of my new liqueur.



If you're going to drink this early in the morning, you should always have your jammies match your booze (I'm sure that's a rule of Bertie Wooster's).

Then in the afternoon we raked all the leaves on the front lawn and afterwards went out to supper. We dined at Tavern in the Park. Very nice, I had the Blue Marlin. After supper we came home and watched two episodes of Jeeves and Wooster and had cake. A great day, all in all .

And then, today, what arrived in the post?



Well, that's a new knitting tote from Knitpicks. So fantastic, and I'm very picky about totes. This one has, not only lots of pockets, but really sensible ones. I'm very pleased. Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, today is the day. An auspicious event, my 43rd birthday. Another fine reason to love October.

I love lots of things about October, my birthday, Hallowe'en, the cooler weather (before it becomes bitter cold), and the colours. Here in Winnipeg, there are an enormous number of elm trees, in fact, we have the largest urban elm tree forest in North America. Over 170,000 trees (you can check that out here). That's pretty impressive. On the downside of this, all the trees lose their leaves at the same time leaving the city looking bleak and tired (at least until the snow falls), on the upside, of course, they all turn together as well, and usually the leaves turn the week before my birthday. The whole city is ablaze with the most stunning shades of bright yellow leaves, brilliant blue sky, and the last month of green lawns. I can't remember a time when they haven't. Except this year, they decided to go a little early, and the weather opted for clouds and rain and now the green grass is covered in brown crunchy leaves.

I'm feeling just a little bit ripped off.

So instead of my plan earlier in the autumn to have a picturesque birthday blog celebrating the day, the season, the moment and the wonderful, spectacular light that arrives for my day, I'm opting instead to look forward to what's ahead. According to numerology I am entering a...

Personal Year Five:

This is a year of exploration and freedom. It's a time when exploration and reaching out to others brings opportunities. It's a good time to advertise and sell. Surprises are in store, and the routine is broken. This is a year when exciting relationships can be formed, or, if you are already in a partnership, new life is breathed into the relationship. Advice - explore, look for adventure, keep your eyes open for opportunities, mingle.

You can calculate your own year number here.

Well, I'm really not one for surprises (where's my technicolour Winnipeg!?!), but I'm all for freedom and exploration, and I'm going off in search of a little out-of-town adventure in a few weeks. I'll let you know more about that as the time approaches.

This week-end will be spent on me, me, me. I'll brew up a steaming mug of hot chocolate and read this:



I finally picked up the most recent Harry Potter book at the library. Looks like a fine day, and the sun has chosen to shine, so I guess I won't have to read by lamp-light today. Hooray!