Welcome to margotinto's blog

me: "Stop kicking the baby."

ReRe: "I'm just checking to make sure the baby is ok. With my foot."

ReRe: "When the baby comes, we have to protect her from the fox!"

me: "OK honey."

ReRe: "So when you hear the fox coming, put the baby in your pocket so the fox can't get her. So always wear jeans with pockets."

Car camping means you can bring things like this:

This is the Woods Camping Kitchen Stand. I have been coveting this ever since I started surfing the Canadian Tire website for car camping equipment. This stand holds your stove, dish washing equipment, and cooking stuff, so that the picnic table is just for eating. It also has a telescoping lantern hook so you can hang your light source up over the stand for cooking and cleaning at night. And it means you can stand upright while cooking and cleaning, and not leaning over the picnic table bench. It retails for $80, and it really is a secondary, if not tertiary, level of camping equipment that I know I shouldn't buy until I know that my family will actually accompany me to the woods again, but it just makes so much sense. It has also received excellent reviews on the CT website. This photo is actually someone else's photo that they posted in the reviews, showing the stand at work. The reviews said that people sometimes snort or scoff at this stand, but that they were just jealous.  

I had a copy of the latest Vanity Fair next to my bed. ReRe carried it into the bathroom and said, "Who is this, mummy?". I said, "That's Johnny Depp." "Do we know him mummy?". "No, honey, we don't know him." "Oh". ReRe flipped over the magazine and said, "Who is this lady, mummy?" and I said "that's the Revlon lady, honey", to which he replied, "Is she Johnny's wifey?". I said they were just friends.

ReRe is getting used to the idea of having a new baby, he has started hugging and kissing my belly, which I think is super cute. We asked him what he wanted us to name the baby, and he has come up with "ha-CHOO!". We'll work on that one.

This morning was the first time I had to get up extra early to register my son in an activity, this time swimming lessons. Thank goodness this pool recently changed its policies and it was an on-line registration, and I didn't have to line up at 6am like parents used to do. But I had a feeling like reverse deja-vu, like I could see myself in the future many, many mornings in years to come where I will need to go through this sort of process. I don't resent it, it just felt a little weird. This will be the first time ReRe will be in a swimming class without me, and he's told me numerous times that he doesn't want to go in the pool without me. But he is ready for the next level up, and I was finding it very exhausting to be climbing in and out of the pool, and that is only going to get worse, the more pregnant I get. We'll see how it goes. For some reason, in the summer, the lessons are every day, Monday to Friday, so I've signed up for four weeks, but not for the whole summer, that seems like overkill. Even four weeks of five lessons a week already seems daunting.

Today is also the last day that he will be with his present teacher at school. It was sort of sprung on us last week that, starting next week, he would be moving up a class (for their "summer camp") and while he's moving up with many little friends, he really loves this teacher, and I'm afraid of how upset he'll be next week. This will be the class he'll be in when the fall comes, so at least we know we won't have to go through this again for at least another year and a half, at which point he'll be likely leaving the school for senior kingergarten somewhere else. He's always handled transitions well, I just hate to see him sad.

Sup neighbourhood. Check out my new theme, and tell me what kind of punkin I'm getting for Hallowe'en.

Today is Repeat Day, so we want to know: what song do you have currently have on repeat? Bonus points if you share it with us!

Troubadour

K'naan

I have K'naan's whole album on repeat at the moment, but two songs in particular, Waving Flag and Fatima. This album really is fantastic. While K'naan has mainly been labeled as hip hop before, he sings many more of the songs on this album, and he has a wonderful voice. This album has also been labeled as folk, due to the political and social messages in it, and I think this is one of its strongest points, K'naan has written some really poignant songs that are powerful without being cliched or sentimental. These two songs are getting some radio play on CBC, and I've heard other tracks from this album on hip hop stations, but I'm not sure how much other play he is getting. At any rate, these tracks are fantastic, and I'd strongly suggest taking the time to listen to them. Waving Flag is a repetitive freedom ballad; Fatima is a sweet, catchy song that actually tells quite a sad story. I was in tears by the end of it when I listened to it the first time, and then nearly fell over when K'naan said at the end of the song, "Hey, don't cry! This song is a celebration!" I try not to cry, but it gets me every time.

I don't know how to embed tracks (Rockr/Junkii, help me out here!) so I'll put in links to clips from QTV's session with K'naan and another from Youtube.

Sometimes it takes me a second to decode ReRe's interpretations of what he sees around him:

Under water sunglasses = goggles

Water wire = hose

Chocolate meatballs = Chocolate Timbits

One of the things I really dislike about technology is how disposable it is. I put off getting new cell phones and computers until it becomes absolutely necessary. Like right now, a Blackberry would be extremely useful in my life, as would a new MacBook, but I'm purchasing neither until the technology I have is irreparably (sp?) damaged. I pay for a remote back-up of my laptop, awaiting that day.

Now, something just happened that makes me completely crazy. My printer (a Lexmark printer/copier/fax) is about 1.5 years old, and after having been moved from one office space to another, it decided it no longer wanted to properly feed paper. So I call Lexmark Canada, and I get an automated voice that was distinctly French Canadian, but with impeccable English, falsely raising my hopes that I might get to to talk to someone in Canada. After I punch through the menu, I get that familiar clicking sound of my call being passed to a call centre somewhere overseas. I take a deep breath, and go through the usual formalities of complaining about a product. The woman asked me to unload all the paper from the printer, then unload the ink cartridges. I opened the top of the printer, but the cartridges were slid all the way to the left, so I couldn't unload them. The woman told me to gently pull on the white cable attached to the cartridge holder, and slide it to the middle. I did this, and unloaded the cartridges. The printer did not like this at all, and the cartridge holder started sliding violently back and forth, snapping off the clips that hold the cartridges down. I told this to the woman, who re-started her instructions at "Now please open your printer" at which point I said "I DID THAT AND UNLOADED THE CARTRIDGES AND THE PRINTER JUST SNAPPED OFF THE CLIPS THAT HOLD DOWN THE CARTRIDGES!" IT'S EVEN MORE BROKEN NOW!" Without missing a beat, the woman asked me for my mailing address, as they would be sending me a new printer in 3-4 business days. WHAT?! I mean, I'm glad I'm going to have a working printer, but that's it? It's broken so replace it? She said I was going to have to send them back my broken printer so I wouldn't be charged for the new one, so I can only hope that they fix or refurbish the one I have. But there was no option given to physically repair the one I have. This makes me crazy.

The new one better be wireless.

The last few times when I've come home from business trips (that aren't more than 1-2 days) ReRe has said, "Mummy! You came back!!" Did he really think I was GONE gone? Was he worried about me? Was he scared I'd never come back? Or is he just messing with me?

This morning, ReRe crawled into Getalife's side of the bed, and when Getalife got our of bed to take a shower, ReRe rolled over, saw me, and said "Mummy, we're back together!!"

After whining all morning about why his father had had to go to work, ReRe told me, quite earnestly, that he was really proud that Daddy went to work. Whaaaaat? Where did that come from? Does he really understand what being proud means? Or was he just repeating something he had heard someone say? I know I didn't say anything about this, since if one day Getalife isn't working, or I'm between contracts or whatever, I don't want ReRe to be un-proud of us.

I'm hoping he's just parroting stuff, cuz this sort of emotional complexity is a bit much for me right now. The other day ReRe had a melt down at the drug store, and I asked him if he had had a nap at school, and he told me no, and I thought, "SWEET! He's tired! Not having an existential crisis. Excellent." So much easier to deal with.

How could you better “green” your life? What’s holding you back?
Sponsored by One Million Acts of Green brought to you by Cisco..

I have to get religious about being green again. I used to go to much greater lengths to be environmentally friendly, but I have found, as life has become more hectic, and I have had to rely on the habits of others around me (i.e. those I live with) to keep the house green, I have found I've been slipping. I need to re-commit, and I'm going to start with trying my hardest to only use reusable shopping bags, even for retail, and picking up the habit if my little sister, where of I have forgotten to bring a bag, and the store has reusable ones, I make myself buy one. (BTW, Loblaws has new, bigger shopping bags, and they are half price this week). Toronto is going plastic bag free soon, so at least when I am shopping in the T-dot, I'll be forced to not use disposable plastic bags. And I did find some fruit and veggie bags that are machine washable, so I'm trying to remember to take those to the grocery store to use instead of the plastic bags, but it hasn't become habit yet. (I threw out the label for these bags, so I can't tell you their brand name, but I bought them at Planet Organic). The other thing I really need to do is to stop using disposable drink containers. Coffee cups, water bottles, whatever, they are used for such a short period of time, and then go in the landfill for who knows how long. If I don't have a reusable cup, I will try to just walk away from buying another cup of coffee/whatever. Yesterday, I bought a bottle of water, and then when I got back to my car, I found that I had a full bottle of water in my aluminium Kleen Kanteen. I am going to try to make yesterday's bottle the last plastic bottle of water I ever buy. I may just need to increase my supply of portable coffee mugs/thermos', and metal water bottles, as I find that they don't always make it into the dishwasher, and then I don't have a clean one, and buy something in a disposable cup.

After jumping on the green bandwagon so long ago, I didn't think I would still have to revisit these things at this point, but we live in a society that supports a disposable lifestyle, so it really does take some effort to stay green.

Something else I've been resisting is buying a new cell phone and laptop. I have found, while on business trips, that having a Blackberry or similar device would be exceptionally helpful. I have also found that my 5-year-old VAIO is breaking down, and I would love to get one of those new Apple MacBooks or whatever they are that are built with higher environmental standards (more recyclable parts, fewer nasty chemicals, longer lasting batteries, etc.) but I am going to try to get my VAIO repaired instead. My fear is that they will say it isn't worth the price, and I completely rely on my laptop for my work. It hasn't broken down completely yet, and I do have a remote back-up of all my important stuff, so even if I end up having to get a new laptop for work, I'm going to try to keep this one in working order, just so it doesn't get pitched in the landfill.

Yes, it's 11:19pm, and I am up finishing a report for tomorrow, but I can't stop watching the video of Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent. Youtube won't let me embed it in Vox, so you'll have to click the link to watch it, but it is so well worth it. I've only found one interview with her, but it made it all the more poignant. And yes, she looks like your Aunt because she bought that dress to wear to a nephew's wedding. I hope she got to sing there.