Sunday 24 April 2011

Happy Easter Bunny

This is all that's left of the Easter bunny at our house.


Monday 11 April 2011

What is it about Starbucks?

So I am sitting here in a Starbucks in tiny Carleton Place.

Why we rated high enough to get one is beyond me, but I am thankful just the same. Yes, it is more expensive than the beloved Tim Hortons of Canada.

But it tastes so much better.

I love that Starbucks makes my drink like Burger King, my way.

Still, I treat it as a special occasion. So much so that I don't mind that my friend is 20 minutes late.
However, now I feel like one of those pretentious looking people, sipping my latte and thumbing this keyboard, nay- the world as I look through the plate glass window at the traffic going by.

Maybe I should call my friend. I could be stood-up-at-Starbucks.

Friday 8 April 2011

ACK! Spring Fever!

Someone Send Help, I Can’t Stop It!

It doesn’t matter how much I try to deny it. The season is changing, as is my need to come out of hibernation. I look forward to coming back to life after a cold winter. I relish the warmth of the sun on bare limbs as much as anyone does after four or five months of a serious vitamin D deficiency.

It started last week, with the melting of most of our snow. The sun had promise, and hey, spring officially started on Wednesday the 21st, so I guess my transformation should be expected. Spring is here at last!

In a way, spring’s arrival is unfortunate. With spring comes my unquenchable desire for spring cleaning, and it seems there is nothing I can do to stop it. And trust me, I wouldn’t mind being able to stop this cleaning freak I am about to become.

Ugh. This means I will battle dust rabbits, cobwebs and mysterious smudges on the walls. And I will battle them all with the seeming superpower of a woman possessed.

I’ve already updated my MP3 player with my latest musical acquisitions. I’ve even stocked up on Mountain Dew Energy – twice the caffeine, none of the sugar. Tasmanian cleaning devil, here I come!

Of course, I will fight it. There is still snow on the ground, so that means I can’t open the windows yet. And I wouldn’t dare start my mad get-the-winter-out cleaning until I can let the winter air out of the house as well. Otherwise, I’m just cleaning winter, and I am so done with winter.

I’m sure most of us go through the spring cleaning thing. But do any of you go as crazy as I do?

Spring cleaning means re-organizing all of the closets and drawers. It means wiping down every baseboard, cleaning every window, inside and out. I will stock the sun-room with spring and summer appropriate items, and will no longer use the room as a deep freeze, or a place to keep the trash from smelling.

The floors will be scrubbed and mopped, the hardwood will shine! When I am finished, any cobwebs that I missed will pack up and move themselves, for fear of my broom. Dog and cat hair will flee the animals before they come in the house!

Oh, sorry, a little carried away there. I guess that won’t happen, will it?

In the cleaning frenzy, I will undoubtedly find many items that we no longer need or want. And so the yard sale pile will grow, driving me crazy until the weather is nice enough to chuck all the stuff out onto the laneway and pray someone else sees it as treasure. We need room for all the garage sales we’re going to hit, too.

Uh oh. The Mountain Dew is starting to kick in and BeyoncĂ© wants me to get all Crazy-in-Love-with-cleaning so I’d best not waste this artificial energy I’ve got. Winter is daring me to kick it out of my house, and I’m more than ready to do it.