Birthday bonanza

Geez, the week's going going and almost gone. Where's it off to in such a hurry? Where'd September go? Whatsis? October fallin' on us already, with that nip of frost in the air and the skirl of orange papery leaves blowing across the cracked pavement.

Last Wednesday, it poured rain, but I didn't mind. I was going to meet LH and Vix at Pub Italia for 5:30pm, so since I knocked off at 3, I had some time to kill. I browsed at Holland Cross, drove to Island Park and got gas at the retro Esso, swung around to the fantastic Ottawa Bagel Shop on Wellington and grabbed some sesame seed bagels YUM, then stopped near the Parkdale Market.

You know how if you try and pack a pile of shit into 1 hour, you can never finish anything and you end up running late?? Well, I kept piling stuff into my free time and because it was pouring rain, nobody was out and about..and consequently, it took no time at all for me to accomplish my stuff. The Parkdale Market was a ghost town. I bought my beets, zucchinni, garlic braid and stuff in about 5 minutes. Headed back to the car and vegged, as my windows steamed up. I listened to "Dark Side of the Moon" on my MP3 player.. yay--I'm moderately technologically catching up!

I waited in the car as the rain pattered, misted and poured on the windshield. Wrote 11 mini pages of a letter. Ruminated over turning 37, then thought "the heck with it" and headed to the Pub! Traffic was annoying because of the rain, but I parked in my usual spot on Norman St. just in front of the Lada dealership. Heehee! I always kid that I park there so I can pass my secret documents to the Russians who work there.. :-D

I got to the Pub and it was packed. A nice waitress (they're 98% nice at Pub Italia) took me DEEP into the back of the place, where I'd never been. I didn't have to wait long for Vix to arrive, a huge yellow bobbling flower under one arm! Yay :-D LH came next and we settled in for brews (LH loves the Trappist Beers, especially the ROCHEFORT “8" (BELGIUM) 9.2% Chestnut coloured, fruity aroma, malt and chocolate finish and the ROCHEFORT “10" (BELGIUM) 11.3% Dark brown in colour with lots of chocolate flavour and aroma) food, chatting and divulging of presents :-) LH gave me a cool Buddha statue & incense and a pile of books with a beautiful oriental card. Along with the flower, Vix gave me a great card that actually had rats on it! She also gave me some home-made plum jam and a dragon visor for my car. Hurrah!



After lasagna, beer, jalapeno poppers and laughter, we broke it up; dropped LH at home and then headed to Kanata to enjoy some maple tea in the livingroom. Vix put Swandive on the stereo and we chilled with the kitties. Hollee.. Arlo has also aged; he's now 16! So, time for the old grey dude to secure his driver's licence, eh?

THEN

I birthdayed on Thursday, attended work and had a big fuss made over me, which was sweet :-) Nhoj got me a very cool dragon for this DragonGrrl's bday and a cool card that *everyone* signed (even some big cheeses in there :-) And lots of cool little cheeses as well. Skywindcat got me a very cool glitter-flower card that stands up by itself. Everyone was super nice and I left work with a light heart.



Drove to the Stitts and hung out with my Mom. She was finishing off the preparation of Thai chicken and salad, as well as topping the home-made cheesecake with peaches! "Millions of peaches...peaches for Sue"! Mike, Shelagh & Bronwyn came out for supper too and we caught up. Bronwyn was so cute and chatty, she's utterly adorable. Clayton appeared, having successfully caught the Goulbourn bus from Bayview. After dinner, I opened prezzies: more cool cards, some moolah, insence holder shaped like a dragon, a Spongebob Pez dispenser, a wicked weird wine holder that looks like a Klingon battle weapon (now I have to get me some wine...) and other goodies.

We didn't stay too long, cause I had to work the next day, but we finished with lots of hugs and mooshy goodbyes (the best kind.)

FRIDAY! Everyone at work was in a pretty good mood (no kidding; it's Friday yo.) The day flitted by, accompanied by music. I listened to Tom Waits, Bif Naked, Pink Floyd and the radio. Afterwards... I hooked up with my animation pals at the Prescott (also on Preston) and parked in my usual spot. Mik, his wife Isabelle, Grant, Moira, Shivan, Jane and Craig were there, so it was a swell party. No sign of Terry though! Dude, you missed out on some good beer, convo and presents :-) We also passed Mik's little notebook around and drew caricatures of each other in it, which was fun. It was great getting one of Mik's super hugs in. It had been too long..like, a year??

Suu arrived around 8:30pm and whisked me away to the Market to catch up with the Bi-Grrls. We were supposed to meet at the Honest Lawyer for drinks and pool. It was the oddest feeling; although I'd never been there I got a sweeping sense of deja vu! I then realized that the place had had another incarnation in my youth: Grand Central! Wayyy back in the early 90's I'd seen Spirit of the West there, danced my ass off and got my first real kiss with a girl. Wow :-o Talk about a barrage of memories.

We had fun; I played ultra-lousy pool, but won through absurd luck, since honestly, the game could've gone either way. Although my pal CT and I had an audience, I tried not to let it rattle me and just have fun. I spent a good amount of time chasing the balls all around the table; and discovered that I am in dire need of lessons. JOSHAWA, where are you? I just remembered that the last time I played pool was like 2 years ago in a Legion near Summerside PEI with Troy's sister Judy and her son Josh. He was awesome at giving tips to sink the balls. All the trick and bank shots I try (and sadly fail at) were inspired by him :-)

It was great seeing my gals and catching up on news. It was the first time Suu had been out of the house without her baby since Niamh had arrived on the scene, so she was having a ball. Our waitress was awesome. She was so friendly, very cute and helpful. When we were about to split for cake she looked half-interested in coming with us when I explained that we were heading to the Oh So Good! In retrospect, I should've picked her up some mousse cake or something and given it to her. That would've been swell :-D

Man, this post is taking forever! I think I'll wrap it up and continue tomorrow with more news.

Oh yes.. and for those waiting with bated breath; I have *&%# gallstones :-( There will be an expository on THAT soon..

Cheers & thanks for reading.
Suzanne.

PS--WELCOME to the world: Kiara Lynn Marsden! My new niece arrived safe and sound Sunday, September 17th at 2:04 am, weighing in at 8.6 lbs Hurrayyyy!!! Congratulations to my Bro, Michael and my Sister-In-Law Shelagh. Great job guys!