Judy Coull March 2 1969- May 20,2007

Happy Birthday Judester, I miss you.

Townhouse Hunting

I admit, I did exactly what I warned my kids not to do. Last week we went to see a beautiful townhouse that is for sale in our neighbourhood. Being new to house hunting I warned the kids in advance to not make comments about the decor and to focus their attention on things that would remain when the current owners moved out - the size of rooms, the fixtures, the closet space, etc.

I was pretty impressed by the window treatments, oh and they had this great bench in the basement. And what a flair for decorating! Faucets? I forgot to look. Appliances? No idea but I do remember their fridge magnet!

So today David & I went to see another place - this time I kept myself in line and looked first at floors, space, closets, faucets, even pipes (even though the only thing that would worry me about pipes would have been rust or leaks). And I loved this place too. Someone else was making an offer tonight so my heart is broken.

But I'm not ready just yet to take the plunge & buy a place. I need more time to save and more time to sort out what we can & can't afford. So I'm thinking maybe I should stop looking for a bit. It's like taking me to a purse store making me fall in love & then dragging me out bagless. Or worse - letting me play with puppies then not letting me take one home.

In the meantime I'm doing a big purge of stuff we've got cluttering up our place. It's hard to get rid of books but some are going. Clothes we never wear are on their way out. Goodbye to plastic bottles, old tupperware containers and mismatched socks. Why do I hang onto this stuff? I hope that when we finally do move we'll only have stuff we actually use. (Ha! like that'll ever happen)

What I've Missed by Being a Snob...

How could I have known?

I consider myself a fairly educated reader and try to avoid trash. That isn't to say that I don't delve into drugstore type books now and again. I will admit (gulp) that in the past I have read Nora Roberts, Maeve Binchy, Robert Ludlum and Dan Brown among others. But something was keeping me away from Chick Lit. Maybe it was because I work selling children's books and that tends to be what I read. And when I do read a "grown up" book I go for literary fiction - award winners, Canadian authors, etc. While working in the bookstore I mostly read adult books that had teen-crossover potential so I tended to stay away from books that were geared towards sexually active women! Okay, so here's what my years of staying away have done - they've deprived me until now of the joys of the Shopaholic series!

Why didn't anyone tell me? I'm listening to the first book on audio CD in the car & I LOVE IT! It is absolutely hilarious. Mind you it is making me simultaneously want to shop and want to cut up all my credit cards!

I did listen to "Good In Bed" on cd as well, which qualifies as Chick Lit. I did enjoy it but not to this extent.

So to all of you Shopaholic fans, I am sorry. You were right. Actually I never said they weren't good books or disuaded anyone from buying them, I just didn't get on the bandwagon myself until this week. And now I'm hooked.

Anna Karenina and Scrabble

I've been listening to the audio book (unabridged) of Anna Karenina on my computer at night while I obsessively play Bejeweled. I was doing alright for a while, even after having a brief confusion between Vronsky and Ablonsky's names. But then suddenly we were in the country or something with Levin and I was confused. So I rewound (which I hate doing) and will relisten (ugh) to that part again. I think I'm a fairly smart person and can follow complicated plots but here's what I think happened to confuse me: Scrabulous. Okay I am obsessed with this Facebook application. Totally obsessed. So obsessed that I sometimes calculate word scores while lying in bed thinking of possible words to play. I know how pathetic that sounds.

I had played a bit (poorly) before Xmas but it was in London at Christmas time when we played an actual game of Scrabble that suddenly I couldn't get enough. So now we play Scrabble at home, I played tonight at my mom's and the entire family is fighting to use the computer to put in their latest word on Scrabulous. How did this happen? Is it improving our vocabularies? Hmmm..I know that xi is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet but that doesn't mean I'll ever use it that except when playing Scrabble or perhaps if I do a crossword puzzle.

It's like when we had Sim City on our old computer. I was so hooked - I'd stay up til the wee hours of the morning working on my city, raising taxes, laying pipes, etc. Then I'd think of it everywhere I went - pipes, road curves and industrial smokestacks in Toronto would seem so much more obvious to me. I'd drive through Scarborough with Dave & make comments about "Low Density Commercial", etc. It was insane. Same thing when I played too much Tetris. Or Solitaire or handheld Boggle (where oh where is that game?). I clearly have an addictive personality. Why don't I get addicted to doing my dishes? Or getting up early for work? I wouldn't be at all surprised to come home one day from work & have my family in my living room waiting to have an intervention.

Final Random Thoughts of My 30s....

So many thoughts race through my brain during the day & at night when I'm falling asleep ...I should have one of those Agent Cooper voice-recorders at my side or at least a pen and paper but I'm not that organized . Anyway I'm remembering a few things at the moment so here goes:

1. I really admire Terri Irwin. I think she is well-spoken, smart and she seems like a kind person. I know it was a tragedy to lose her husband, Steve the Crocodile Hunter dude but why oh why do her poor kids always have to dress in safari clothes? Sure, they're from Bindi's clothing line and the money goes to the Crocodile foundation or whatever but it drives me crazy that poor Bob is always dressed the same way. I've seen Bindi once or twice in slightly different clothes but generally she, Bob (Terri tends to call him Robert now that Steve is dead. If my husband called our kid Bob I'd hate that & would call him Robert asap even if I was going against what my poor dead husband wanted)...okay where was I? Yeah, the clothes. Terri wears them too. I think maybe with so much work on Terri's shoulders - raising the kids, hunting crocs and all that its easier for her if the kids wear a mix and match wardrobe that can all go in the same load of laundry. She's simply a practical mom raising her children to not be brand-conscious....and I'm picking on her. I'm mean!

And Bindi, step away from that crimping iron.

Okay, that was mean, but I'm done.

2. Mr Rochester. How's this for a complete change of topic? I recently listened to an abridged audio book of Jane Eyre. I distinctly remember sitting on the roof of my apartment on Queen West, during my days as an English undergrad at U of T, reading Jane Eyre and thinking it was awesome. I do not, however, remember thinking Mr Rochester was a manipulative, creepy, misogynistic control-freak. And yet, that's what I found him to be this time around. When Jane says "Reader, I married him" I yelled in my car "No! Jane! No! Run away!!" ...she didn't listen.

I mentioned this to some of the lovely ladies at my bookclub and one of them said she never liked Mr Rochester, even as a younger person (I was convinced age and two marriages had made me wiser or maybe just bitter). She (Barbara, the wise one) also didn't like - GASP - Wuthering Heights! So now I'm afraid...I've been enjoying listening to classics in my car on CD - but I can't do Wuthering Heights - what if Heathcliff is no longer steamy and sultry and alluring? What if it all seems annoying? I'd have to give up the Kate Bush song too & I'm just not going to do that. So I'll avoid any re-reading of Wuthering Heights.

After audio I still do love Mr Darcy, never fear.

So low maintenance...

I am the anti-Sally. I would rather scrape the pickles and onions off my Quarter Pounder with Cheese than have one specially made - I don't want to be a bother. Serve me a warm beer and I'll probably drink it, give me a hotel room with a toilet that doesn't flush properly and I'll take the lid off and pull the chain. It's not that I'm a door mat, I just pick my battles carefully and let the rest roll off my shoulders. Confrontation makes me uncomfortable. I do not return things to stores. I regret them or re-gift them.

Last night at dinner Sam, one of my lovely dining companions, asked for the server's recommendation as to what to order. I don't think I'd ever do that - would part of me worry that they'd try to get me to order the most expensive entree? Or the one no one else was ordering and they had lots of? No, probably not...but I like to be unnoticed except when I chose to make myself noticed. Hell, I didn't want people staring at me when I got married so I refused to walk down any "aisle"...is this low self-esteem? Probably. But I also think it's about control. The same reason I don't downhill ski or bungee jump - I want to be in control of things whether its racing down an icy hill at top speeds or not having people pay attention to me when I'm feeling vulnerable.

So you won't be seeing me on reality tv or asking a waitress to reheat my burger (at McDonalds I might ask my hustband to take it back)

Boobs, Bums & Bad Baby Names!

Maybe I should change the name of my blog! Those who know me, know my slight obsession with the world of celebrity babies. Why? I have no idea. I find the idea of being a child in Hollywood fascinating & I like babies....who knows.

I remember being shocked by Fifi Trixibelle, Scout and even Apple. But really are those names any worse than Dakota or Tiffany? Is it better to have a weird name or a tacky stripper name that sounds like your mom watches too much daytime tv?

Recently Bridget Moynahan named her son John. Wow, what a breath of fresh air. So normal, so old-fashioned! He'll probably be the only John in his class, whereas in my childhood there were often 3 in each classroom.

Some of my favourite wacky baby names: Jason Lee's son: Pilot Inspector, Penn Jilette's daughter Moxie Crimefighter, Jermaine Jackson's son Jermajesty.

The other day Gretchen Mol had Ptolemy - what are these crazy people thinking? Is weird the new normal? Is Ptolemy the new John? Actress Kelly Rutherford has a baby named Hermes. Not my favourite. Oh and don't get me started on names that are popular in the UK - very different than in North America (Jemima does not work on this side of the ocean).

I know Ava is in 2007 what Lisa was when I was born in 1967 or Jennifer was maybe 3 years later or Emily in the 1990s. My parents gave me a slightly unusual name & I hated it, I still don't like it so I'll be interested to hear what these celebrity babies say when they're all grown up.