visit w/rand & tanya

To Graham: Thank you for the "ageless" comment. :-) Thanks for the birthday greetings, everyone. And happy birthday to Kerstin Droge, who has the same birthday as me, and Jared Walker! :-) Allison, Jodi and I are really looking forward to meeting Kerstin and Juliane, who are Interfilk guests at FKO (from Germany). Happy belated birthday also to one of Lyanne Quirt's rats, who also was born on March 29. :D

Visited Rand and Tanya this weekend, did Inkspotstuff with Rand. He took me to Ben & Jerry's (my first time!) and I tried two flavours: Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz, and White Russian. Yummmm.

Don't forget to change your clocks today, everyone...

sauna

Our apartment is a sauna.

The air conditioning isn't turned on for two more weeks, and the afternoon sun bakes my office (even through the closed blinds). I work in my t-shirt and shorts, but still feel like I'm in the oven on slow roast, augh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to David Goulden (or David of the Odebu-Oshiri, as we fondly refer to him)!

Jeff and I babysat for six hours yesterday, our first time alone with Annie and Sara that long. We had optimistically planned out an entire schedule of events. Family Fun day at the museum (includes two craft events!), another kids' activity day at Harbourfront, then some kite flying. We didn't even get to the museum! By the time we got them
fully awake, changed, and fed, it was too late to head out.
Still, the day went well and we finished it off with a long walk to Yonge Street. Sara told her Uncle Jeff, "We had a busy day today, didn't we?" and then promptly fell asleep on his back as he carried her home.

Annie (1.5 yrs old) has gotten into the habit of copying my laughing. She'll watch me intently and then whenever I start laughing, she'll bounce up and down and laugh hysterically. She's heavily into imitation. I can't wait until she starts talking so I can start teaching her Useful Phrases (my favourite is one Rand helpfully suggested for Sara at that stage: "Weasels are devouring my innards").

html guru

Wildly busy this week. I'm revamping Inkspot to accomodate banner advertising. A year ago I would have thought it way too obnoxious to put a bunch of banner ads on my pages; now I am just desperate for the income so I can continue my net addict work. :-) CALLING ALL HTML GURUS: I've encountered an odd HTML glitch, though...on every page (with the new layout) except the main page, there is a small unloaded gif just to the left of the right-hand advertising bar, halfway down. I use a 1x1 clear gif for spacing purposes throughout the page, so I know it's one of those, but I'm not sure why it's not loading (and why it IS loading on the main page...I use the same server side include header/footers). Any help appreciated!

Had lunch with my friend Cathy yesterday and we finally exchanged our xmas gifts (perhaps they should have been called New Year's gifts). Got a cool frame made by a local artist...haven't decided what to put in it yet.
Rand & Tanya are visiting from Buffalo today. Allison and Jodi will be coming downtown so we can all hang out together (eat sushi, discuss Confusion playlist stuff, eat chocolate, etc. etc.). This morning I was horrified to realize that our little artificial Christmas tree was still on the piano, so I hurriedly stuffed it in my closet where it will probably remain until just before NEXT Christmas. :-)

Site of the day is courtesy Steve Brinich: Sam Spade, Spam Hunter.

chicken pox

Site of the Day is courtesy Paul Kwinn: HTML Encheferizer. Way too much fun. :-)

Went to see The Sweet Hereafter with Cathy last night, an Atom Egoyan film. Not quite what I expected, but still enjoyed it.

Ruth called and said that both Annie and Sara have chicken pox. In fact, they had chicken pox while Jeff and I were babysitting them on Sunday (we all thought those marks were sandmite bites from their Florida visit). Jeff isn't sure if he's had chicken pox or not (and his mom can't remember either!!!).

rand bdy

Today is Rand's birthday! Please do hassle him about it.

Had dinner at Fune's last night (had the usual....salmon sashimi, steamed rice, shiitake mushrooms). Chris (head waiter there) presented me with a bottle of plum wine as a belated birthday gift! :-) I'm going to get Allison and Jodi to help me drink it, of course.

Allison, Jodi and I are working on an Urban Tapestry Fun and Activity Book for the Interfilk auction at FKO. Wow, is it silly. :-) Lots of photos, cartoons (I'm going to force Allison and Jodi to draw something, too), song snippets, and...of course...many FUN ACTIVITIES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY. We're having a ton of fun working on this.

re: teaching children Useful Phrases. From Joel Polowin: "Someday I want to go into the child-care suite at a con and teach all the kids who'll listen: 'Hail, hail, fire and snow / Call the Barney,
we will go / Far to go, for to see / I love you and you love me.'"
:-) This is great. I'll have to use this on Annie, too.