Blech, and also ewwwww

So, yesterday was my birthday. It was a great day - Andrew got me a beautiful Swarovski crystal cross with clear & pink crystals. It's just gorgeous! The folks at work took me out to lunch to our usual spot, the local Thai restaurant. Then Andrew & I went out to dinner with our "adoption" friends Werner & Cara. Then, when I got home, I discovered that I'd picked up my niece Evie's stomach virus when we went to visit her on Sunday. I've got to tell you, I haven't felt this crappy in a while. Nothing like losing your birthday dinner mere hours after eating it. So I've been home all day, drinking ginger ale & feeling sorry for myself. Regardless, I had a great birthday & a great birthday dinner & I wouldn't have changed anything (except the puking).

Mah new electronic baybee

Well, the household has acquired a new baybee. An electronic baybee. A netbook! We've been wanting to get a new computer for a while now, ever since Computador Prime decided to take his own sweet time (read: 20 minutes) to boot up when you turned him on. Defragging, deleting unwanted files, deleting cookies didn't seem to make too much of a difference. I'm sure we just need to bring in the nerds, but the thing is 7 years old, so I'm not sure what can be done. Anyhoo, the netbook we wanted went on sale this weekend so we went ahead & purchased! It's going to be great to bring it with us to Ethiopia, for downloading pictures & videos, and emailing & such. And it's just SO DARN CUTE!

Other than grocery shopping, that was our fun for the day. Tomorrow we're hopefully going to meet up with my brother & sister-in-law & my niece so they can pay me tribute for my birthday (which is Monday, in case you want to know), but Evie's had a stomach bug today, so that might not happen. Either way, I plan to go to Sephora to pick up my birthday freebie! And maybe a nail polish.

New Doctor Who on tonight - am loving this new Doctor. I haven't seen too many of the old Doctor Who episodes, but he seems really "old school". It's great - and I love his new companion. The actress hails from Inverness, which is one of my favourite places. Speaking of which, I've been pining for the UK something fierce lately, I wonder what's up with that?

Well, enjoy your weekend, wherever you are!

Is it Friday yet?

Man, it has been a long week. The Boss has been away (my actual boss, not Andrew) so the "mice" have been playing. Not sure why I care, but it really bugs me when people basically decide that it's okay to come in a hour late & leave the same time as usual. To me, that's screwing the company out of an hour's work. It wouldn't really bother me if it was just once in a while, but it's been EVERY DAY THIS WEEK. Add that to the countless hours of personal calls, and I get a little ticked off. Especially when she plays dumb & asks for help with things I've helped her with over & over & over again. I've even done training notes! Is it so hard to actually use the training notes? Apparently so, as she routinely makes the same mistake again & again.

Enough whinging - I am so looking forward to this weekend. We don't have much planned, that I am aware of. I'd like to go to Sephora, to pick up my "birthday gift" and some moisturizer for Andrew. Maybe some lunch out, or a movie (boy, I wish Iron Man 2 was out this weekend!). Next weekend is getting to be chock-full. My folks are coming down to celebrate my birthday (since they can't come this weekend), and we've just been invited to my aunt & uncle's 25th wedding anniversary BBQ, so we'll be making the 5 hr trek to attend that. Then it's Mother's Day on Sunday & the trek home. The weekend after that we're doing Multicultural Parenting training on the Saturday. The weekend after that is my high school's 75th reunion but I don't think I'm going, because the next weekend after THAT is my cousin's wedding. Phew, I'm tired just thinking about it!

There was one more referral today, so now we're down to #88. Cool!

Not long now!

It seems like many things are coming up pretty quick: my birthday (May 3, in case you want to know), the birth of my BFF's baby (she's 35 weeks along!), summer, my cousin's wedding (can't wait to hang out with my cousins again!). The road to Wren also continues to move along - referrals are coming in, slowly moving us towards the head of the line - from #111 originally, I calculate that we are now at #90 or #89! If referrals continue as they have been lately, we should have our referral by my birthday next year! Of course, I've now jinxed myself, but what can you do? Any positive movement in an adoption is a good thing! One good thing about the bankruptcy is that the agency assigned every family a number based on their DTE (dossier to Ethiopia), so we're now able to see what number they are up to. It's a little thing, but I think it helps our sanity!

Not much else happening here, folks! Enjoy your weekend!

April showers bring.....

Aggravation, that's what. We spent the weekend at my parent's place, which was nice (as usual). My parents took us out for dinner for Andrew's birthday - great food at the restaurant but crappy service. Sunday was a bridal shower for my youngest cousin, who's getting married at the end of May (on my dad's birthday, actually). It was being thrown by my mom, my aunt, the bride's aunt on her father's side & my cousin (the bride's sister). As usual, my mom was tasked with picking up most of the party items (plates, napkins, cutlery, tableclothes, etc). No problem there, as they all split the cost. What I take exception to is that no one helped with anything at the actual shower. To be fair, my aunt had a stroke a few years ago & is not able to help. My cousin & her aunt, though, were more than able to help & did very little. I ended up doing a lot of the set up & maintenance of the food table, as there was no one else to help my mom. Honestly, I can use the exercise, but that's not the point. If you're throwing a shower, you're throwing a shower, not chatting to everyone who walks in the door - that's not your job. The work itself doesn't bother me - I like being organized & it was actually fun working with my mom like that, but the point is - it wasn't my job. I was a guest at that shower & I got to see the bride open 2, maybe 3 gifts - not even my gift. That sucks. And I feel so bad for my mom, getting stuck with doing everything. Good thing this is the last shower she has to throw - no more weddings or first babies for my cousins. So to those who threw the shower & did nothing (with the exception of my aunt, obviously) - BOO! Shame on you.

In other news, my seedlings are going great guns! Most of them are up now, only some of the basil & some of the garlic are lagging behind. Now that we've taking the cover off I'm hoping they don't get eaten by certain pussy cats.

Who do you think you are?

Not only is that one of Andrew's & my favourite TV shows lately, it was the inspiration for my birthday gift to him this year (happy birthday, by the way, Andrew!). I arranged for DNA testing for ancestry, which I though would be TOTALLY COOL for someone who is adopted and has very little information about his birth family. Luckily he agreed with me, I was getting a little nervous! It's not exactly cheap! Anyway, I'll be interested to see what the results are - all we know right now is that his birth parents supposedly come from Eastern Europe, possibly somewhere around the forner Yugoslavia. It's something I'd also be interested in doing myself, to see if my roots spread beyond the Netherlands & France. It's going to take 2-3 months to process the swabs, so I guess I'm just going to have to be patient! Happy birthday, my love, I truly hope this is the year you finally become a father!

Garden update

We have broccoli sprouts! I only planted them on Sunday, so they are living up to their "early" name! No basil, tomato or garlic sprouts yet, but it's still early days. Now I just have to figure out where to put the seedling tray when we have people over tomorrow for Andrew's birthday.