holy stinky butt batman!

so here I am sitting in the studio minding my own business. you know reading e-mail, doing the daily blog read and eating breakfast when all of the sudden I hear this noise. LOUD! and I turn and look at this face:



which looks like a face saying "WHAAAA TT?" and come to the conclusion that it was him.

sparky bolted for the door upon hearing said noise. I grabbed onto the table cause the room was vibrating from the force. and the SMELL! good god dog what did you eat?

and so I open the window to get a little fresh air only to discover hurricane type winds and it is blowing north which means it is pushing the smell back in.

I put the face mask on for a bit and when I figure it is safe and that he has left the room I remove it. I am thinking to myself that was wierd when he comes back in for what I assume is an apologetic lick, but NO! another stinky dog fart!

I may have to leave the house to get away from him or attach one of those pine air freshner thingies to his tail.

and how's your thursday?

hump day, jump day....

ah yes! that messy disaster is my desk. only part of the piles that surround me today and I am putting on my red cape and plowing through tons today cause I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. fuel up and GO! that was for you baby.

so if we were to do this in my favorite method of the common to-do list mine would look something like this:

today to - do

- cook turkey breast for sammy's and salad's
- take pups for a walk
- laundry
- catch up on this
- send out invites
- journal art in swap journal
- finish up august project for lost and found
- grad announcements
- grad album
- birthday cards
- tidy up studio
- post office

when all I really want to do is this:



ah screw it....I'll go to the gym...

-happy wednesday-

happy birthday papa!

dad's birthday tomorrow and he will be 72! woo hoo! considering that in february we were not sure what was going on with his health that we celebrated extra hard! okay not really! your usual italian sunday brunch consisting of steak, potatoes, beans, garlic bread and caesar salad. all of dad's favourites and chocolate cake for dessert. yum! don't ask why we eat dinner for brunch. it just is and has been since I can remember.

and we had FUN! expensive fun, but it was fun! we bought dad a set of "i love lucy" dvds. mom and dad used to watch her show all the time and I can remember the laughter and so I thought it would be fun. he opened it and was kinda puzzled as to what it was. at the moment of puzzlement "the man" says "hey, are those dvds?" to which I reply "uh, yes". and then it hits me. kinda like a frying pan in the face. I turn to my dad all quick like and say "yeah, so there is another part to your present". I run downstairs, dust off the dvd player and apologize for not wrapping it and hand it to him. he puts down the dvds and picks up the dvd player like I just gave him a gold brick. "is there a remote control?" of course dad, one second. I run back downstairs and grab the remote and hand it to him. big smile and big hug. dad is happy cause he has a new toy. mom is happy cause she really loves lucy! "the man" is puzzled as he watches his dvd player leave the house. I am happy cause I am such a super duper quick thinker! yay ME!

and then the phone call tonight about how he couldn't hook it up and get it to work and if we are not to busy someday soon could we....? so tomorrow we are headed over there to hook the damn thing up. so I added it up:

I love lucy dvd set - $20.00
dvd player - $50.00 (second hand so I discounted)
gas - $ 5.00

one less thing to dust - PRICELESS!

thirsty?

apparently if you are thirsty it is already too late. you are already dehydrated? oh this water thing is a daily obsession with me. I fill up a 2 liter jug and try to drink it all by the end of the day. eight glasses in total and just water. anything else on top of that is icing. ummmm...icing!

anyway so I have good days and bad days when it comes to getting my water in. I buy fancy glasses, straws, travel cups with pretty colors on them all in the hope that it will encourage me to drink my water. silly I know, but I work with what I have and I have been blessed with this obsessive personality.

so yesterday I am filling up my final cup of water and I look into my glass and I think kewl! these are the kinds of things that she inspires me to look for and so I got my camera and took a picture and I like it!

oh yes folks! these days of unemployment are full of excitement!

actually I was quite excited this morning when I did this.

nah, nah, nah, nah, hey, ey, good bye...

last night WAS my LAST night at work. done, finito, basta! it went something like this....

I told the crew that the main word for the night would be FUN and NO DRAMA! and boy did we have fun.

an announcement at run club by my manager telling everyone that I was leaving. totally unexpected, but much appreciated. mostly because afterwards a lot of people came by to say "hey" and "take care" and that was wonderful. I reminded them all that I will still see them, but that it will be on the other side of the counter. to which they replied that it was easier to harass me from the other side of the counter. sweet!

love the people who come to run club. they are my biggest reason for staying as long as I did. I know people who started in their first clinic learning to run and now I see them training for a marathon. unreal!

ladies who started walking with the club for safety and now have made so many friends and have gone on to instruct clinics and travel to do marathons with their group of gals. people who come and show me their medals, brag about their times and how amazing an experience it was and thank you for the tips and so on. fun.

I have worked with many amazing people who have come and gone and come back and left again. I am fortunate to call some of these people friends and quite often run with them. blessed.

and last night as the clock was ticking down I had a moment....just a little one. about how things happen and why they do and when your gut tells you it is time and you finally listen...

and then I looked at these faces and thought hmmmm....



should I stay?

can't! I am now employed as her personal running coach. look for us at the NYC marathon 2009!

who am I kidding? back to doing laundry...

they say I'm a dreamer...

i-phone rings...

me: hey!

dan: hey, ma ya gotta help me to remember something, k?

laurie: 42!

dan: 42?

me: stop it! what is it dan?

dan: oh, shit, I forgot! hang on...OH YEAH! ali said that I should go to radio and broadcasting school and become a deejay!

me: okay....

dan: so I need you to remind me that I want that to be my career.

me: you want me...to remind YOU that your life long dream is to be a deejay?

laurie: giggling

me: giggling

dan: yeah? okay?

me: okay dan, no problem! I can hook you up!

dan: cool...okay gotta go!

me: love ya dan.

dan: love ya too ma!

at least it includes music....

time well wasted? or a waste of time?

how would you like to spend your sunday afternoon? oh perhaps laying in the sun? playing in the studio? sipping cold beverages on a patio? ice cream with two spoons for you and your sweetie? sounds delightful!

OR

would you prefer to spend it shopping for a television? NO! a little background here or fyi our tv took a turn for the worse last week and croaked. not completely as it still teased us with sound, but no picture. I was getting tired of his hand puppet interpretations of the programs and so agreed that we needed to replace the tv.

apparently! YES! apparently they do NOT make 35" tv's anymore. our wall unit which took us forever and a day to find will only fit a 35" or smaller tv. OF FRICKIN" COURSE! so do you buy a 32" smaller tv? or upgrade to the 40" and go and find a NEW wall unit to fit it?

this whole gong show irritated me to no end. I was fuming. I was angry. I just wanted it to be done. the only reason (okay other than pms) that I can think of as to why this was eating me so much is that I think tv is a waste of time. and here I was wasting time looking for a new time waster. sick!

AND! apparently they also do not make silver tv's anymore. only shiny black patent type tv's. bitches to dust I say! and so the hunt was on for the tv that would make me happy or at least keep my cleaning time down to a minimum. we finally settled on a smaller tv which has a matte black finish and just a touch of silver for accent.



isn't he cute? WHATEVER! pay no attention to the dangling cords in the back with the crappy cut out. the old tv hid all that! I guess I will have to get creative and paint up a canvas to stick back there and hide it all.

anyway, as soon as the boy moves out he can take it with him because by then I am sure that the geniuses will have figured out that the shiny black tv phase failed and 35" tv's are actually a nice average size.

there are no words!

okay maybe a few...

sheer utter bliss!!!!!!

wednesday happiness...

been busy on the phone with publishers begging me to write a cookbook. who knew that lack of lettuce would lead to fame and fortune? I knew I should have called them when I ran out of chocolate chips and threw in rolos!

just a few things that are making me happy today:

1. my running peeps who even though it was thunder and lightening headed out there and got it done. drenched and cold we went as far as we could persuade ourselves to go and then turned around and met for coffee.

2. while at coffee I observed several children in some sort of day camp doing arts and crafts and just plain having fun. laughing and making stuff and then the leader announces that they have five more minutes and then it is time for snack. I say aloud that I wish I could make stuff and then have a snack to which I quickly followed up with "oh, yeah! I do that already!" hee hee!

3. this new gem that fell into my hands yesterday. yup! fell I tell ya! I was like wha? and of course I thanked the phone gods and while she snapped pictures I ripped open the box. I love that she gets just as excited for me as I am!

4. this beautiful lady who at any minute will be giving birth to her second child. she is so inspiring and such a huge support!

5. through number 4 I find out about this and much to my surprise there is this amazing woman! ya gotta know that it is all good. kind of like we are trying to do.

6. and how about her. you go kristina!

7. must mention inspired. got the e-mail yesterday and hope to hell I can make it happen again.

8. just because it says they are gluten-free does not make them calorie free! but they are yummy! and just discovered they may contain milk. super! I'm living on the edge!

9. awesome mail week can I say? I received this. took a workshop from lisa and she is SO amazingly talented! she has a new book out too!

10. more mail brought me my goodies from tiber. I love their "olive me" face stuff and am willing to pay an arm and a leg for shipping to get it here. SO worth it! also they put little surprises in your package and who doesn't love a surprise?

there ya have it! have fun surfing and reading and shopping! looks like all those sun salutations worked as the sun is shining! yay! work tonight where I and over 200 of my closest friends will go green and do 20! wa oops! what's a post without a pic?

recipe girl goes wild...

I lack the "throw something together and eat gene". I need a recipe to cook or at least an idea of what I should put in a dish. I cannot open the fridge door, pull things out, throw it in a pan and call it dinner. just can't! and that's okay! UNTIL NOW!

I was feeling like a chef salad. you know, lettuce, hard boiled egg, turkey, ham, few other veggies thrown in and dressing and boom ya got a meal. on this particular day though I was out of lettuce. yup, none! so I went with what I had and came up with this delicious dish. the first time I just winged it and the second time I measured everything out. wild yes....but not crazy!

out of lettuce chef!, salad

1 cup celery
1 cup carrots
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 cup jicama
1/2 cup broccoli
1 ounce of ham
1 ounce of turkey
1 egg
1/4 cup soya nuts
1 tblsp. sunflower seeds
2 tblsp. poppyseed dressing or what ever floats you boat

chop, chop, chop. toss in a bowl. mix and DONE! chew, chew, chew.

if you are concerned about getting your veggies in I think this would about cover it. I also think that whatever combination of veggies is in your fridge would work too.

thanks kath for the toe concern. I will be running tomorrow! I just might be limping.

and thanks to kim for her medical expertise! will I see you THIS time? last year's excuse was a fire or something? lame!

and while we are doing the whole gratitude thing....

thanks to my chum. you are a peach and a plum! I needed to laugh and laugh we did. our short, non productive art day was tons of fun. I love that what happens in the studio stays in the studio. thanks for an awesome start to what turned out to be a pretty decent day.

well hel...frickin'...lo MONDAY!

I am the biggest loser around and I don't mean in the bob harper, jillian michaels sense. I WISH! oh, no, I mean in the I will win the darwin award I am sure.



I went on a 40 km bike ride with the girls on saturday and yes this was taken by me with one hand on the handle bars and one on the camera. I may tape the camera to my helmet next time and hook up one of those squeeze ball picture snapping contraptions so as not to make it SO dangerous. in any case I was safe and sound. no injuries! yay!

yesterday I ran 12 km and the group leader spoke of this "rambo hill". I was not familiar with this and now I know why. she assured me that I would remember if I had run it before. okay so got through the run, up the hill and back home in one piece. a bit sweaty and stinky, but still a-okay!

and now may I present the loser portion of our program...

I vacuum the house at least once a week to ensure that any dust bunnies are taken care of and any sand the dogs have dragged in is gone. so I am vacuuming and I love to vacuum! I have the most amazing vacuum cleaner and it makes me happy. it makes my job quick and easy! except that yesterday as I am happily vacuuming I seem to have leaned a little too far left and when I tried to regain my balance I tripped on the vacuum cleaner and sliced my toe open. I would show pictures, but really! who needs to see my bloody, purple and blue, skin hanging toe? I didn't think so.

so hello monday and my foot is killing me! how do you separate your toes to give it a chance to get some air and heal? do I tape it? do I tape the other toes and leave a big gap in my foot? kind of a vulcan hand signal, but with toes? yeah!

gonna go shower now and try not to slip and cut my head open on the tap....wish me luck!

from where I sit...

sitting in the backyard sipping on my starbucks iced caffe americano. yes decaf with a carmel shot and a splash of honey. LOVE this drink and it has pretty much replaced my REAL coffee. no dairy means pretty much no hot coffee cause I usually put milk in my coffee. so this is what is working for me now.

it has been quite a weekend. lots of thinking and lots of reflection. thinking about my cousin and how he is coping without as he says "his one true love". do you have that? do you have a "one true love?" if you do you need to remember to appreciate them with all ya got. I've been thinking about how much time I spend pointing out what is not done, done wrong or the fact that the tv is on yet again. I waste a lot of my breath basically being a bitch. not something that a "one true love" deserves. and really if the grass is not cut is something going to fall from the sky and declare that because the grass has not been cut we will cease living? NO! if the tomato paste, god forbid, has been put on the pasta shelf instead of the canned goods shelf does it make it inedible? HELL NO! if the tv is the ONE thing that brings my true love countless hours of entertainment should I complain? probably not - because he is at home. not out and about playing softball on some beer league or galavanting in some bar surrounded by drunk women on the prowl. I can see him and therefore I KNOW that he is here and he wants to be here. granted that at times I wish the tv was turned off and I was his entertainment, but remember I NEED TO NOT COMPLAIN!

what I learned from mary and all that she had endured in her struggle was to appreciate my loved ones more. take the time to listen and take the time to just "be" with them. the grass can wait, the garbage can wait, the blog reading can wait. when I die I really doubt that my regret will be that I wish had taken the garbage out on a regular basis. NOT!

and the times that I made choices which have left me to feel guilty I need to let go of. I cannot change the past, but I can certainly make sure that from now on I go with my gut and just do it.

I am working on doing things that cause me enjoyment more than things I feel I HAVE to do. "HAVE TO DO" is so yesterday! "WANNA DO" is where its at!

so be kind to your loved ones, spend time with them, take time for yourself to do what you love to do without guilt! I promise not to comment on the dust bunnies when I visit! rather I will take enjoyment in listening to you tell me all about the time you spent with your family. live your life...its the only one you got!

and the battle is over...

1948 - 2008



this one's for you mary...

see Nadia run...

went looking for something to doc-u-ment yesterday. we had rain and we had shine. I just started snapping photos of everything that caught my eye. I saw that the flowers in my rock garden were in full bloom and beautiful and so I thought I picture of the flowers would be nice. much to my surprise I found this little fella staring back at me as I went to snap my photo. I clicked quickly and ran for the house.

in keeping with my goal to become as good as my hero when it comes to taking unique photos I must say this one turned out mighty fine! kath thanks for always reminding me to look for the little and unusual things when taking pictures.

no news about mary today...

update...

had to share a cool shot I took yesterday for my doc-u-ment 31. I had to do four loads of laundry to get it just right. sheesh! that and it felt good to lay on the ground and surrender.

I think he saw me and said ah, okay I'll throw ya a biscuit!

after no movement since monday at 6:00 am the doctor woke her up. they stopped meds and want to see what the cat scan says. he said it may not be as bad as everyone thought. fingers crossed! her daughter told her that my cousin had gone home to wash his levi's with her clothes and she called him an asshole. PERFECT! I told him that as long as she kept swearing at him that the spark was still there. that and what was he thinking washing his jeans with her unmentionables! LOL!

thank you, thank you, thank you for all your kind comments, thoughts and prayers and if I may say please keep them coming cause it is working! off to work!

it's the only one you've you got...

love this song! heard it here! love this girl! love her style and awesome tunes too!

so just when you think you are big blob and your life sucks and everything you touch turns to shit....you get that little slap upside the head. you know what I am talking about! that gentle reminder that - hey! your life is pretty darn spectacular compared to most folk.

case in point. my cousin with news that his wife who just had brain surgery a couple of weeks back fell and broke her leg. okay, sucks! a little tricky getting her mobile, but I'm thinking a little speed bump and onward! NO! this morning news that she had severe headaches all night and has developed swelling of the brain. now in the hospital and she is comatose. good lord! I can only imagine what the hell they are all going through. I can only think that sometime soon she will be free of this bullshit. free of the cancer and tumors and surgeries and pain. she is and will always be a stronger woman than I. please pray for her and her family and if praying isn't your cup of tea think good thoughts. thank you...

and boom!

it's july! get the pun? boom? fireworks? canada day? 4th of july? *ouch*



july 1st saw me running my ass off in the 15 km canada day run. I have done this race for the past three years. little bit of trivia for ya. first year I did the 5 km and he beat me. second year I did the 15 km and I beat him. this year did the 15 km and he beat me. looks like next year is my turn? bring it!

the thing is I don't take running too seriously. seriously! I love running and what I love most about it is the fact that I can do it! no kidding! I was the girl in school who would lie, cheat and skip to get out of gym class. hated moving! and now I love it! I am fortunate that I have a great group of running buddies to pass the time with. on july 1st three of us ran together. we talked from the beginning (we always run and talk), we sang at 10 km, we can can kicked at 12 km, we held hands at 14 km, and at 15 km we high fived each other for completing. so as he was running like he was being chased by a cheetah we ran like we were kids again and playing outside. it's okay to be silly and it is okay to have fun and it is especially okay when it is hot and you just want the run to be over! LOL! good times!

I had a little visit from this guy on tuesday...



what is it with babies nowadays? they don't cry anymore! he is such a beautiful boy and a really good baby. tons of fun snuggling with him and listening to all his stories.

wednesday I did the thing that I said I was going to do a while ago. -QUIT- yup, did it! on wednesday night I talked to the closest thing to my manager and quit. fine! my last day will be july 23 at which point I will go on a bender. just kidding! it has been a long time coming and I finally had it. I have been there for over four years and have seen good people come and go and it just isn't fun anymore. done!

thursday went for an awesome bike ride (yes, bbiiiikkkeee) and a little run and then back on the bike to go home. tough! no kidding batman! hot and my butt just ain't used to bike seats. that's okay. it was fun and I did it again today and who knows I may even do it tomorrow! so there!

this song just came on "any other world" by mika. love it!



and today? today I went for short bike ride to the gym, worked out and rode back home. working in the studio with a fan aimed directly at me. considering a shower. considering. still considering. need to seriously consider! worked on some pages for a new challenge. lots of fun and still time to join us.

I promise to try and post more often. been feeling...

let's just leave it at that...

ciao!