Girls Girls Girls & Me

The Missus
She who holds my heart is busy looking for a job, so stressful. Sure, she is guaranteed some sort of employment through the school board, but you want to make sure you get into a good school with interesting work to do. Yikes, I don’t envy her. She even had to go and buy new clothes to look presentable for interviews. On top of that stress, she had people over on Saturday night and her mom and stepfather for dinner last night. Talk about piling it on to yourself. I did what I could to help. The teenager and I assisted in cleaning; I cooked dinner for the in-laws. This kind of thing weighs heavily on N’s mind though and there has been plenty of teeth grinding during the night. The situation doesn’t show much sign of letting up until the end of June rolls around and school is out. When she isn’t fussing about new jobs, and how messy the house is she is making movies and year book pages. One of the reasons I love her so, she can go, go, go. I only wish I had seen more of her when her thyroid was hyperactive and she could really get it done.

The First Born
She who I love dearly has had train-tracks re-installed on her teeth. You know, we started the whole dental correction thing nice and early with her. She first got braces back when she was 9, and she had surgery, and head expanders and the whole nine yards. Now it is back to the braces with the possibility of more surgery on the horizon. Poor girl, poor pocket-book. The braces look so uncomfortable, and they are cutting the inside of her mouth up something awful. Her driving lessons seem to be going well, and she exhibited more confidence when we drove to the grocery store last weekend. She recently did an audition for a scholarship at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She said it went OK, but I don’t think she has heard back from them yet. Her end of the school years stuff is starting up: rehearsals in the evenings, essays, studying. When I was in grade 12 I dealt with stress of school-work by just not doing it, she has a much better ethic than I ever did.


The Weiner Wonder
Where do I start with she who I simply cannot get enough of? First let us speak of the “huh” It seems like the word “yes” requires too much work and at all times can be replaced with the grunt “huh”. There are gradients of “huh” as well. It can mean a simple yes, or it can be stretched out a bit when one isn’t quite sure what is being asked, but feels as if an affirmative is necessary. For instance, “Mina, do you want Jam or Syrup on your French Toast?” “huuhh”. You can also double it up to “huh-huh” with a smile when something is mildly amusing. She isn’t the only one in the huh club either, I have heard at least two other kids at the daycare using it (Rebecca, Eli, I am looking at you.)

She is working on using two or more words together rather than just single nouns or verbs. No longer is it just “bye-bye”, now we get “bye-bye bed”, “bye-bye pee”, and “bye-bye good dog”. Last night there was “no eat”, “no bed” and “more book please”.

She isn’t eating well. She used to be a great (meaning not picky) eater. No longer, she was sick back in January/February and went off food. Her palate has never recovered. Sure there are days when she will eat a lot, but she is very particular now about what she will eat, and if you manage to sneak something she doesn’t like into her mouth it will all come horking out and then she makes a big dramatic show of scratching her tongue to get the offending flavour off. Mango, Lychee and Blueberry are always winning flavours, and cottage cheese is pretty much fine. Baked beans and rice cannot miss, and cheese and crackers goes over well most times. Only green grapes now, no red thanks and zucchini counts as assault.

She is experimenting with temper tantrums. If something isn’t going her way, flailing, howling and purple faced tears are soon to follow. It looks disarmingly real, but as soon as she gets what she wants the symptoms tend to vanish. She even threw one on the sidewalk last week, lying by the car, screaming “no”, causing her mother much embarrassment, and passers-by consternation.



And Me
I am suffering from a return of my dodgy ear and should make a Doctors appointment sooner than later.

As the warm weather arrives I find it is time for shorts and sandals. However with the return of warm weather gear comes the return of my annual cracking heels. Within 2 days of wearing the sandals for the first time I had 3 and 4 cm cracks all the way down through callous to live flesh on both my heels. The problem is easily remedied with the application of copious moisturizer, and the wearing of socks to bed, but until healing takes place I can’t wear the sandals. I will not wear shoes and socks with shorts, which means I am in long pants no matter what the temperature. Woe is me.

I am still loving my new job and really dig being downtown.

I have to book some time to go and work on our Parkdale house. Gussy up the yard for spring and all. Our place uptown has just had the basement water-proofed, which entailed ripping up all the shrubs along the base of the wall. The yard looks loads neater because of this, but it does make the remaining hedge look even more threadbare and unhealthy. I think I will try giving it more water this summer and see if that improves its health.

My extended diet of all thinks death/grind/black/gore metal seems to be having an influence on my feelings about humanity. I find nihilistic/misanthropic feelings creeping up on me regularly. I have been attempting to counteract this with healthy doses of Prince this week. As long as I am “getting all purple” things look up, but within an hour of my leaving Paisley Park I find myself wishing for the big red reset button. “Wipe the slate clean” the voices whisper.

I have been using a new toothpowder this week that has a taste that defies all reckoning, and has a prolonged effect on the flavour of other foods during the day. Stay tuned for this month’s toothpaste feature.