Happy Monday all! We had a wonderful, warm weekend – but the kind of weekend that feels like you need a weekend to recover from it!
Friday was all nostalgia, as I went back to high school! I took a slightly longer route to get there so I could walk down the street I used to live on and see the house I spent the first 13 or 14 years of my life in. It seems like they added a nice deck to the back but the front looked a lot like it did 35 years ago.
On the street where I livedI was on the left even as a child
I went and found my grad photos (yes, photos, I actually kinda love saying “when did I graduate? Oh, 1992. And ’93” lol)
Grad ’92Grad ’93 – Harry Potter specs long before HP 😉
It’s such a great entrance too!
Saturday involved getting Q to drama class and me cross-stitching while waiting around. Then hockey school and a pit stop for ice cream afterwards
First he ate histhen he ate mine
Toby took Q off to gymnastics in the afternoon and then, with my folks in charge of Q for the night, Toby and I went off to the west end for a pub night for the high school. So lovely to see everyone that I did see but I missed a lot of people too because, well, I was volunteering Sunday morning!
Sunday is usually the day we have nothing so that we can recover from the week and the usual Saturday madness but instead I volunteered with EGALE running some water tables at the Scotibank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and then headed out to the wilds of Etobicoke to help my mom, an uncle, and a couple of cousins work in my babcia’s garden. Whew.Â
I’m hoping for less craziness this weekend but I dunno!
NOTE: yea, I know, this went up on Tuesday but only because I couldn’t get the photos to upload on the blog. The very helpful admin for my host fixed it all overnight for me – well overnight for me, day time for him, he’s in the UK.
Well, it was a short week this week thanks to “civic holiday” Monday. So, I’m me. Hi! And I went off to find the law that makes the August civic holiday an actual civic holiday. You know what? IT ISN’T! What the heck?! I started looking at the Government of Canada – Justice Laws Website. There is a Holidays Act. It recognizes THREE holidays. THREE! Can you guess which (answer at the very bottom).
So then I go down the rabbit hole….Christmas isn’t there. Nor Labour Day or New Years Day or Thanskgiving or Boxing Day. Where do they come from? And where can I find the damn August Civic Holiday?
The short answer is – it’s not easy. And I’m a lawyer! How crazy is that? First off, it turns out that “August Civic Holiday” is a social convention. We all just made it up out of whole cloth and everyone just keeps the charade going. It’s definitely not a national holiday – it’s not a day off at all in Quebec, Newfoundland or Yukon. And it’s not a stat day in Alberta, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario or PEI. Seriously. It’s only in 4 provinces and 2 territories that it’s an actual statutory holiday!
Anyway. Happy Simcoe Day! ‘Cause I’m in Toronto and that’s who we picked to honour. John Graves Simcoe. The first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada and he who abolished slavery in 1793. That’s pretty cool.
Q
Second thing making me happy this week is Q. He’s awesome. He’s decided to grow his hair. He really wants a pony tail. He’s got this weird combo of my hair and Toby’s hair. It matches Toby’s colour now exactly and my thickness/curliness. When my hair is long, most of the time it’s in a pony tail. When my hair is short, well, it’s short. I remember nothing about growing my hair from one to the other but right now, Q’s hair is ridiculous. So I made an appointment for him to get his hair cut by the guy who cuts my hair.
Shampoo!
Not the best before-after picture but Daniel cut a huge chunk of hair off the back of Q’s head. AND kept him entertained in the seat long enough for a decent hair cut. He cut lots off the back and left the top mostly long (except the bangs). As the top catches up to the bottom, well, then pony tails happen 😉
Coffee
Coffee. Oh sweet sweet….okay actually amazingly yummy and slightly bitter coffee. There is a long-standing joke in my family about the amount of caffeine I need to consume just to maintain sustenance levels. My folks have Q tonight and all I was thinking was “So happy they get time together AND I get to sleep in tomorrow and wake up to awesome coffee.” Except then I came home. And realised I was out of coffee beans. And then I checked the mail.
I am fortunate enough to have some pretty awesome sisters-in-law and one of them is the lady who married my brother. I adore her and she and I have a lot in common including a love of coffee. While we might differ on the whole temperature thing (she will drink it scalding hot while I add an ice cube or 3) we both like rich, full coffee. So for her birthday (and poor George’s too) I bought a 6-month subscription to a coffee-of-the-month thing from Toronto-based Birds and Beans. They only sell bird-friendly beans. My brother and SIL will get a pound of coffee a month for the next 6 months and I told the shop that she loves bold coffees so I’m hoping she gets loads of those. And I got my first one in today’s mail. The coffee maker is all ready for tomorrow. Beans in the top, filter in the filter. I’ll throw the water in before bed and just have to literally press “go” in the morning.
So. What’s making YOU happy this week?
ANSWER – The Holiday Act establishes the following days as legal holidays and observed as such throughout Canada: Canada Day (July 1), Remembrance Day (November 11) and Victoria Day (first Monday before May 25). And I still don’t know why December 25 is a holiday but I’m tired and will keep looking later.
So I’m tired, a bit stressed, and Q’s bathroom smells not-quite-so-vaguely of pee. BUT I’m trying to spend more time focusing on the positive. So here are a couple of things making me happy this week (much much thanks to Pop Culture Happy Hour – several people recommended this as a good podcast to listen to and they end the show with what’s making them happy this week)
1st up: a mug. Coffee is ALWAYS a necessity but as silly as this sounds, I saw this mug about a week ago and it made me smile. I remembered it a couple of times over the past few days and I always smiled so I bought it. I’m just trying to remember that every day can be the best day ever 🙂
Next – Toby and I got married on May 10, 1997. So this week was our 19th wedding anniversary. 19 years. We met 22 years ago. Which is more than 1/2 of Toby’s life. He has done nothing but made my life awesome. I shared (and had to hunt for!) 19 photos of us together on facebook the other day but here’s “day 1” and “day 6935”
May 10, 1997May 10, 2016
And last, the Marlies have both lost 2 and won 2 so far so Game 6 is guaranteed and I get to take Q to Ricoh on Saturday! #conquercalder
