"A couple is 2"

Finally. No more holidays. There are officially no more cookies (of the nineteen dozen I exchanged at work...), turkeys, candies, gravy or 5 varieties of cheese and crackers lingering in my kitchen. No more giant dinners for breakfast, brim with champagne and croissants, tongue and Branston or bagels and lox. The only thing left is the tedious task of putting away the decorations. I think I may even be done with the copious amounts of wine and other spirits...for a little while anyhow.

Last night, for the first time in over 4 years, I actually slept for 12 hours. And although I am not inclined to make resolutions I am entertaining the promise to let myself get more rest. The fine balance I maintain between mothering, working and having fun has been stretching thinner over these last few months. So far, I have not discovered a bean of caffeine that will sufficiently replace my lost hours. And since purchasing my ultra -comfy, new linens I'm considering moving the entire house into the bedroom and setting up shop around my bed.

I've also decided that I need to find the kids daycare for a couple of days a week. And as my daughter always reminds me, a couple is 2. The hubby is taking off again some time in the new year to work on another hotel. But this time he has to stay from start to finish, which means an easy month in Alberta. If I am to keep my sanity, I cannot have work as my only time alone. So with my 2 days I plan to write. I've not been able to do it much in the last year. All of that time and all of those ignored thoughts equals my right hemisphere bulging like a parasitic twin.

If by chance you're hungry I'll be posting last night's dinner later today: Pear and Potato Soup with a couple of years old cheddar.

Things I learned on my Honeymoon

• There was lots of sugar but no honey
• We did in fact see a moon. And it was pretty frickin' cool too
• Pacifica is beautiful
• The giant, disgusting things washed up on the beach reconfirmed my fear of the ocean
• My love for red wine is more like a sick obsession.
• My love for cheese is just as bad
• People in Cali are either really nice, really weird or use sarcasm as a scape goat for rudeness...I on the other hand have only ever done that once.
• Signs asking people to conserve water don't work.
• Sarcastic signs asking people to conserve water don't work either.
• Alcatraz, even in the light of day in the company of hundreds of people complete with a standard-useless-crap-you'll-never-use-that-says-Alcatraz -on-it-souvenir-shop, is a freaky fuckin' place.
• I may have seen Sammy Hagar's car and I didn't really care but I took a picture anyway cause that's the touristy thing to do.
• Telling someone that they have a nice dog can turn into a very ironic conversation about how the fire we caught a pic of on the hillside behind our hotel was the first fire in that town in over 28 years only to return home days later, turn on the news and discover that a better part of the entire state was now on fire.
• People in Ontario smoke way too much and people in California run too much. 2 very different ways of dealing with fire.
• And last but not least, 9-1-1 does not offer room service.

This Just In...

Craig Kilborn just spoofed this. I am in love. I also love coffee. And after many years of drinking 50 I was somehow forced to like beer. Sorry. It's just always made me feel so bloated and other than a woman scorned there ain't nothin' worse that a woman bloated. Until of course I discovered Coffee Porter. Who is the genius that forged these two godly nectars? Fuck red wine (well not really...but if I had no red wine to drink then...FUCK RED WINE!). And if the world ran dry of scotch, why not drink the beer that is aged in it's casks. Yes. Love after 30 is possible.

Tragically Hip

Some of you may recall THE BEST POST EVAH! Well, I forgot to mention that the hubby to be really did it right. The ring was not my engagement/birthday gift. Oh no. I also got 2 floor seat tickets to see one of my favourite bands and last night we cashed in! First we went to my pre-baby place of employment and feasted on succulent steaks and fabulous wine. After having both our tummies and our pocket books pampered we headed out to the show where I had a few more beverages of the beer kind. Buck 65, an east coast hip hop duo I had never heard of before, opened the show with something that equated to a cross between Beck, Stompin' Tom, Leonard Cohen and The Beastie Boys. But it was the Hip that melted my heart. Many failed opportunities to see this band over the years culminated into an experience of a life time: From a ten year old girl in jazz class dancing to Boots or Hearts, a teenager whose camping trips were defined by Fully Completely, a singer in a band covering Wheat Kings and Fiddler's Green, to a mom looking for a well deserved chance to remember she is a person who experienced it all. It was worth the wait. So, thank god for sleepy babies. We got home at 11pm and the munchkin didn't get up till 5am, ate and we all went back to sleep till 8am. 4 coffees later and you'd never know we took a cab home last night. Now. How to get the car back from down town...