Um, is this thing on?

I am not sure where January went. Actually, I'm not sure where December went, either. Things kind of ....fell apart between then and now. Not in a bad way. Just in a too-much-Toblerone-food-and-giving-induced kind of way. So I'll recap - kind of a monthly wrap-up - only over two months instead of one.

So where was I? Oh, yeah - the Christmas list thing.

1. Turns out that Santa read the list - and I got an iPad. It's my new favourite toy. I took out a book from the library - on Christmas Day!! Pretty cool, huh? Of course, I am still madly addicted to the real book thing. At least I better be - I seem to have enough of them stacked behind the bedroom door...

Oh - and that Ian Rankin novel on the top of the pile on the right?? Totally does NOT belong to the library.....(I wondered where that went)

2. Of course, the big challenge now is trying to manage the above pile. And the growing list of e-books on my iPad. And trying NOT to buy any books - at all.

3. Good thing I like challenges.

4. Second favourite gift? My new oven mitts (I know - rather low-tech. But these are fancy-schmancy silicon and cloth ones. In orange AND purple. They match one of my sweaters. See?)

5. Christmas Day was quiet and low-key. Although I thought I would not like that, turns out there is something rather addictive about pyjamas, Toblerone and reading my newly-checked-out-on-Christmas-Day library book. Without having to worry about turkey. Or dessert. Or rushing around like a mad woman while everyone else is in their jammies, playing with my their toys.

6. Did some running, too. Only this year, it was beautiful out. No stupid cold days. Although I still think we are going to have some major winter soon.

7. Like in May.

8. Or June.

9. I ran the Resolution Run on New Year's Eve. Mostly because of the jacket. For a $40 entrance fee, I got this beautiful, warm, blue jacket. It's my new favourite. And it's not screaming orange like last year's. Which I didn't run. But not because of the jacket. Great jacket. (I'd pop a picture in, but it's in the laundry.)

10. Stayed up late (for us) too. Kind of like New Year's 1998. In that case, however, I was in the throes of labour (sort of).

11. Yes, we have a New Year's baby. Only now he is a New Year's teenager.

12. Not sure how any of it happened.

13. I mean, I KNOW how it happened. It's just that I thought it only happened yesterday. Or last week. Instead of thirteen years ago.

14. On the knitting front, it turns out I knit (and finished) 14 items in 2011. Which worked out to just over 10 kilometres of yarn.

15. Um, that's a lot of yarn.

16. But it is still not a marathon.

17. In the interests of making that goal, I will have to buy more yarn, I guess. (I will ignore for the moment the fact that I likely have a lot more than a marathon's worth of yarn in my workroom.)

18. And I will have to knit a whole lot faster.

19. Which oddly enough is also a running goal.

20. Running faster, I mean.

21. I didn't make any resolutions, but there is a theme emerging in my ponderings. Read faster, knit faster and run faster.

22. Could be an interesting year...

Dear Santa

Most years at this time, I am composing a Christmas wish list. This is as a result of me putting ideas to paper many years ago, when working full-time and chasing three children, all three years apart, blew every coherent thought out of my mind. When my mother would call and say "what do you want for Christmas?", at least I had some concrete ideas to give her.

I never meant for this to become a yearly ritual. I keep trying to get out of it - and every year, DH keeps asking for the list. And now my children do as well.

What I have tried to say, every year, is - you guys should know me well enough that finding something that would thrill me to no end should not be that hard. Because, frankly? You can look around and see that the house is filled with my touches - and if you are observant enough, my needs become very simple.

Two years ago, our now 16 year old did that. He observed me watching Glee in its inaugural season and bought me the Season one soundtrack. I was thrilled and touched. It wasn't on the aforementioned list - but he used his heart and head and got me something that he thought I would love. And it was simple.

(Before you ask - I have tried saying "Surprise me." It doesn't work.)

But I hate getting specific - because when I do, it becomes apparent that if the specific item in question is not found, people go into a panic. And then there was the year my husband bought everything on the list. Which made me feel very materialistic. I really am not. OK - maybe when it comes to yarn and books. But I am wearing the same boots I bought in 2001 - I have re-heeled them twice and given them new soles once. I am carrying the same purse I bought 5 years ago. I believe if you buy quality, it lasts. So I don't want a lot of stuff. But if you want to buy me something, then it should be something that speaks to who I am and what I believe in.

So Santa- here is a list. Nothing too specific, everything related to my passions.

1. Anything woolly. Yarn, pattern books, a gift card, stitch markers. Something that acknowledges that I am rather passionate about knitting. Check out the Yarn Harlot - she is doing a "Gifts for Knitters" every day. It has great ideas.

2. Anything related to running. Take the picture of me coming over the finish line in Niagara Falls and frame it with my number. Buy me some running gear. Enter me in a race at a destination unknown (but a little exotic - and by a little exotic, I mean, not in Calgary. Or Alberta either.) Running is important to me.

3. Tickets to a Flames game. And dinner before hand. Yes, I know they are in a slump. But I am a fan. And I love live games. And it could be a date.

4. Deep inside, I am a bit of a geek. I would love some new technology. Like an iPad. Or an iPhone.

5. Make a donation to a charity or not for profit I care about. The YWCA: DDRC: the Calgary Public Library. These are all things I support.

6. Books. And more books. For title suggestions? See my account in Goodreads. Password is as usual.

7. Music - Emmy-Lou Harris. John Hiatt. Or check out my iPod for bands I like.

8. I would love for my family to develop the ability to see. Everyone walks by the laundry on the line. But I am usually the one to bring it in. The baskets of laundry in the hall? Surely I am not the only one to see them. I know you take your own stuff and put it away. How about taking the towels upstairs and putting them away? The cookie sheet that has been in the sink for three days? It just needs a wipe to be put away. Piles of stuff around the house? You can put it away too, you know. Just saying. Don't leave it out - or worse, stack it in the front mail basket because you don't know where else to put it. Sort through it, put the junk in recycling and store the other stuff where it belongs. Hint - it's not always in MY basket in the office.

9. How about everyone giving me a firm answer when I ask "What do you want for dinner?" instead of "I don't know". Or "I don't care". (Because you do - if I serve something that I like - but you don't, you care enough not to eat it. So don't lie.) I am happy to prepare it. I just get tired of thinking up ideas.

9A. Ancillary gift to number 9? Try a taste or two of the new recipe before you say "Eww" Or "I don't like this". (When you have never had it - unless you are cooking things when I am not around, in which case, (BIG HINT) a key to my heart and eternal devotion would be preparing dinner for me occasionally.)

10. Notice that the bathroom (or the living room. Or the dining room. Or the family room. Or the bathroom. Or the bedroom) needs a little tidying and do it. Without a critical air and saying "Gee, there was a lot of dust in the living room." Like I don't know that. Or it's surprising.

Santa - I know that the last four might be beyond your reach. Especially if you are busy solving world peace or staving off famine in Africa. Which is why I have provided you with items one through six as an alternate.

Merry Christmas

Janet

November Wrap-up

1. November has been a rather blah month, heralding the coming of winter.

2. It has been accompanied by wild weather in Calgary. (Wildest to date? The wind storm on Sunday, with winds at the tops of buildings as high as 149 km/hour – see here for cool pictures).

3. Only damage at our house? The clothes line and pole fell down.

4. Luckily, no laundry on it.

5. Not the case yesterday, when there were winds again – and the sheets blew off, because even though they were dry, no-one (I’m talking to you, boys) thought to bring them in.

6. Until this morning, when I went out and saw one of the sheets wrapped around the lilac tree.

7. This means....more laundry.

8. We are on the edge of yet another wind warning today.

9. No laundry on the line - yet.

10. Wind warning is complicated by the fact that there is now ice and snow on the roads.

11. Sometimes winter is a b****.

12. Summer here is often not much better.

13. Spring can be iffy too.

14. The only season we can count is fall.

15. It heralds…the onset of winter.

16. Sometimes? I wonder why we live here.

Apparently, Tuesday was a bad day....

To whomever is in charge of the world:

I am generally a low maintenance kind of woman. But I am having a bad day. Do you think you could do something about the following 6 things before I get (even more) cranky?

1. People who use the self checkout line for a cart full of groceries. I get that you like to scan the groceries and pack them. But come on - when there are clerks with 1 person in line - and there are 6 people with two items each standing in the self check out line, do us all a favour and go to the clerk who will scan and bag your groceries in half the time - I promise everyone will be happier.

2. People who use the outside lane to sneak up and try and get in to the traffic line-up when the lane ends. If the lane ends because there is street parking or because 500 yards previously there was a sign indicating a move from two lanes to one, please don't try and pretend you didn't see it and then nose in in front of me. That's just rude.

3. Weathermen who predict that snow is going to come.....and then it doesn't. We live on a designated snow route, which means when snow comes, we can't park in front of our house for 72 hours or until the city says we can. I have to move my old car (not yet sold) to a side street for the duration. But then the snow doesn't come. Either be winter or don't - but I am tired of this fussing around. Just saying.

4. Why can't Starbucks have a "This line coffee only" line-up? I only want a cup of dark with room for cream. Having to wait for the person in front of me to order her double-double (wait, that's Tim Horton's) - her vanilla non-fat extra hot grande with double whip on it - and then pay with the debit card that she has forgotten the pin to, and then decide she also wants a muffin and spends 3 minutes debating the merits and calorie counts of the ones in the case? This just makes a caffeine low even worse than it is.

5. People who wish me Merry Christmas- it is November 29. Christmas is still 26 days away. Can we stop already??

6. Four-way stops - these are very popular here in Calgary - but it appears that many, many people have forgotten how to use them. Today, I was stopped - and then started to go when it was my turn, only to have a car turn left in front of me. The guy behind me rammed my car, because he "thought it was your turn to go" - it was, but someone else thought not.

If you could manage these things? It might make life a little brighter for everyone - or at least better for me - and that's what really counts, isn't it?

Thanking you in advance, I remain

Yours sincerely

Janet

October wrap-up

1. Finished my second marathon ever!

2. Took 29 minutes off my last time.

3. Any improvements from now on will be in much smaller increments, I feel sure.

Do I look happy, or what??

4. I promptly took 2 weeks off from running.

5. I am worried it will morph into 2 3 weeks if I don't get going.

6. Sadly, I have a very busy week this week.

7. My choice for running with the group on Saturday is 10k or 22k.

8. 10 K seems more reasonable - but that is only if I want to start at 10:00 a.m.

9. I have to work at noon.

10. This might mean I take off several more days.

11. Judging by the amount of Halloween candy I have been eating, I should have started running - say last Wednesday.

12. On other points - we got a new car.

13. It's a Subaru Outback.

14. Apparently, if you want to drive a standard, you don't want a car with leather seats (or vice versa).

15. We had leather seats in the Volvo because we had small chocolate-smearing, cookie-crumb-dropping, muddy-boot-wearing children and the leather was easier to clean.

16. Our children are older, so perhaps that means less mess.

17. Judging from the state of their rooms, perhaps we should have gone with the leather seats.

18. On a knitting note - socks are done!!

19. Sweater is just a time-sucking piece of crap.

20. But it IS a pretty colour.

21. Perhaps it needs a time out.

22. Or perhaps I need to start working on it and stop procrastinating.

23. On another note - I started this on November 1st. I am posting it on November 11. In between, I have spent what I consider to be an inordinate amount of time trying to get on a computer and folding laundry. Not sure why the two are connected - but whenever there was a load of laundry, I was folding it - and everyone else was on a computer. Coincidence?

24. I think not.

Could the apocalypse be near??

I was at the car dealership changing over my tires from summer to winter (because apparently, winter is coming - who knew?) I was knitting. A pair of green socks (which I have been knitting forever, but that's beside the point). A woman came in, sat down, opened her purse and pulled out her knitting. Which was a pair of socks. Which were green.

Perhaps it's not the apocalypse. Perhaps it's just winter.

October update coming soon - I promise.

September wrap-up - I know, I know - it's rather late....

It's been a month of getting back on an even keel with life. Kids back at school, students back at university, fall leaves etc. (blogs not getting posted on time)

1. As I previously mentioned, child number 1 is back at university.

2. Sending your child off to university is expensive.

3. Hope she'll remember that when she picks out my nursing home....

4. Sending your oldest to public school is not too expensive. Especially because he feels like he needs nothing except a box of pencils for school supplies.

5. Which was a good thing because this is the year that the football team goes off to California for 5 days. And the final payment was due in September.

6. Child number three is in private school. And HE had an extensive, expensive supply list.

7. Fortunately, his growth spurt was confined to his legs - meaning he only needed new pants.

8. And his feet have stabilized for the moment, so last year's shoes fit.

9. However, my car has chosen this month to need a new clutch.

10. We have started down that path of "Do the expensive repair on the 10 year old car or buy a new one?"

11. We seem to be heading towards "Buy the new one"

12. There goes the winter holiday.

13. It is supposed to be even colder and snowier than last year.

14. I guess (being a sensible adult) that a new car that won't leave me stranded in
-35 C weather is important.

15. I think I am tired of being a sensible adult.