Sunrise

Beautiful, isn't it?

PS - the structure in the foreground with the lowish walls will be the community skating rink once it's been flooded.

Surprise!

I had no idea he could do this! Generally when I work on the alphabet with him he only recognizes 10 or 12 letters, yet completely unprompted he actually wrote his own name today.

I think he's a lot smarter than he lets on.

Tiny Dancers

***picture removed due to questionable linking***

Katie likes to dress her little brother up and teach him pliés and pirouettes. He's always willing to do whatever makes his big sister happy.

Does drive C mental though :)

Spidey!

I'm completely obsessed with this amazing articulated Spiderman toy of Jonah's. You can pose him in so many ways! Most of which make him look like he's batting for the other team (as if the skin tight spidey suit didn't already do that!)

J and J

James and Jodi, my oldest friend (in time known, not years, we're a pair of spring chickens) just before she left to go home. Most of my friends live very far away, and while I'm so grateful for them and their friendship I wish they were all a lot closer...

Back at home

Back at home and visiting with my girlfriend from waaaay back in highschool. I took her and her daughter (and the bits) to Parliament Hill today, and for the first time in the 11 years I've lived here we went up the Peace Tower. This is the view behind Parliament from the Peace Tower, the domed roof is the parliamentary library and you can see the Ottawa river and the mouth of the Rideau Canal (as well as two inter-provincial bridges and Nepean Point).

The Big Céilidh Fiddle

Sitting along the harbourfront, behind the "Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion" (I have no idea what that is or what it does) I found this gigantic violin, sitting 18 meters tall. Wish I knew more of its significance, but it sure was cool.

Spanish Bay Inn

This is Spanish Bay Inn, in Sydney, NS. I didn't stay here, but I loved the stone work and round windows.

And the morning after

Sunrise at Sydney Harbour, on a cloudy morning at 6:41am. You can see the lovely boardwalk that runs all along the harbour.

From my hotel room window

The work is long and the daylight short, but the view from my hotel window is spectacular. This is Sydney Harbour, 9:59pm on a cloudy night.

Fa-la-la-la-laaaaa

Normally it bugs the snot out of me the way that malls and stores start Christmas even before Hallowe'en has passed, but I have much more Christmas spirit this year than normal. OK, it's still driving me bonkers hearing Christmas carols piped in over breakfast at the hotel, but this window display on Charlotte St in Sydney, NS made me smile.

The Ocean

I've touched both oceans in the span of four months, a mind-boggling experience for someone who lives pretty much in the middle of the continent. This is the Atlantic, along the Cabot Trail near Ingonish, NS.

Gingerbread house

After having family portraits taken today the bits and I built some gingerbread houses. They definitely don't look like Martha Stewart's gingerbread houses, but I think they're awfully cute (and rather tasty too!)

I get no respect

My coffee-a-holic reputation precedes me - this is the whiteboard outside of my office.

Beginning to look like a bathroom again

Bit by bit the reconstruction continues...

'Splodin'

Apparently our downstairs fridge is a weeee bit on the cold side (I blame the bits) this can is frozen solid and ready to POP!

All the pieces, bits and pieces...

Ready for assembly? Bits and pieces of the new vanity.

Doughnut man

The bits have definitely inherited my love of doughnuts. I can't remember exactly what this concoction was called, but it was filled with caramel.

And then there was floor

New flooring is down, hard to tell in the picture but it's grey with a hint of green.

Annoyance

I know it's a petty thing, but I asked for the grey background since it's what they used for James' pictures this year. Not only did I not get grey, but in this rainbow there are no two matching colours. Is it really too much to ask that if I indicate grey on the form they send home that the photographer actually USE the grey backdrop? Surely I'm not the only parent of more than 1 child?

(Click for a closer look at my cuties :) )

Always the real thing

The stuff dreams are made of... well, mine anyway.

You were always on my mind

I take an inordinate number of pictures of food. Obsess much? (This is cannelloni with parma rosa sauce and bag-o-salad)

And on it goes...

Bathroom reno project 2007 (I almost dated that 2008 - I'm living in the future). Walls are stripped and patched. Primer is ready and waiting.

Cars

Little boy toys and big boy toys are really the same thing, the only difference is scale...