• Do not waste baby nap time.  Always have something interesting to work on to avoid going crazy after saying “goo goo goo” all day long.
• Blog regularly.  Probably over at Boyfriendly Cooking.  Winter + cooking + baby seem to be a good combo.
• Pat Orville more.
• Take more photos – not just of the baby.
• Publish more books on Blurb.
• Lose last 5 pounds of baby weight (winter + hobby baking = no progress)

I liked Robyn’s list so much, I’m going to write down what we’re listening to these days.  Let’s just say, my iTunes recommendations list is the weirdest collection ever – from Kanye to Sharon, Lois and Bram.

• Chelsea Morning – Joni Mitchell
• Sleeping Sickness – City and Colour
• The Escapist – The Streets
• Everything Is Borrowed – The Streets
• Please Be Patient – A Colbert Christmas
• The Heartache Can Wait – The Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs – Brandi Carlile
• Winter Song – The Hotel Café Presents Winter Songs – Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson
• Amazing (feat. Young Jeezy) – Kanye West
• Coldest Winter – Kanye West
• Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Anne Murray
• The Canadian Snacktime Trilogy: III Vegetable Town – Barenaked Ladies
• Grown-Up Christmas List – Michael Bublé

Projects for this week:

• Modern Paper Decorations
  
• Yule Log
• Cinnamon Buns
• Freeze pastry dough
• Grocery shop shop shop
• Get rid of baby cold.  : (

Projects for next year:

• Owl banner!

Three years ago my now husband (then boyfriend!) decided to adopt a cat.  We had been living together in our new apartment for all of 25 days before bringing Orville home – in fact, we didn’t even own a couch at this point.  To me, a cat seemed like a more priority apartment essential. (We didn’t buy a couch until months later!) Before we moved in together, I lived in a little bachelor apartment and it didn’t seem fair to have a pet in such tight quarters.  So I waited.  Of course, as soon as we moved into a bigger apartment together, I immediately started cruising the adoptables at the Ottawa Humane Society.

I saw Orville’s photo and thought he looked like just the right cat.  I must have checked the website for at least a week and he was still there everyday.  His profile said he was living with the adoptables at the Emerald Plaza SuperPet, so off we went to “look” at Orville.  I figured if he was still there, it was meant to be.  At SuperPet, he was housed beside the biggest cat we had both ever seen.  That cat was the size of a small pony!  We got a bit distracted by the giant cat before asking to see Orville.  Once the clerk had plopped Orville in my arms, it was pretty clear he was the perfect cat.  He was very happy to be held and purred nonstop.   Sold.

Oh, he was so quiet for the car ride home and those first few days but then his true orange nature came out and we realized we had adopted a chatter.  He’s a super friendly little guy and I couldn’t imagine arriving home after work without him running to the door to greet me.

Happy anniversary / birthday / homecoming Orville!

What better way to relax in these last few weeks than with some (minor) home improvement projects?

Project #1: fix the leaky toilet.    After a glance at my “Do it yourself” guide, I figured it was the rubber flapper that had worn out… and happily, it was a quick five-minute fix.  No special tools required.  Problem solved!

Project #2: re-caulk the area around the tub and tiles.  This project is definitely a weekend project due to the time required for the caulk to cure.  Supplies have been purchased and ALL of the instructions have been read.

Aside from home improvement, there’s been cooking and a lot of cruising for recipes online.  Have you seen Smitten Kitchen’s latest recipe for roasted eggplant?  Yum.  I hope to get back to the farmers market this Thursday to pick up more of those fairytale eggplants.    And definitely more cranberry beans.

Basically, the only things I think about these days are baby, napping, Orville, food and home improvement.  And figuring out when the next episode of Gordon Ramsey’s “Kitchen Nightmares” will air.

I almost got run over by an overzealous dad and his SUV stroller yesterday!  I was waiting to cross the street at the Rideau Centre and this guy is charging ahead with the stroller – head down.  I watched him thinking, “surely he’s going to look up and not just plow into me.”  But no.  He was still bee-lining it in my direction – so I shuffled to the side.   Loaded with a toddler, this thing was coming towards me like a poop-seeking missile.

The “Bob Revolution” is not a real war.

1. Having the bus lowered for you really says, “good morning whaley!” Polite? Yes. Embarassing? Slightly. I think it’s the beeping… beep beep beep.
2. Orville’s birthday/homecoming is quickly approaching. (August 26!) To celebrate, I think another batch of cat cupcakes is in order. And I’m going out to Wellington Village after work to look at a new pet bed for the little orange guy. I know he loves his cardboard box, but it’s a bit of an eyesore.

We were recalling those first few days with Orville last night – when we brought him home he was soooooo sleepy and had a bit of a cat cold. He looked pretty under the weather when I look back at that photo. For the first couple of days, he just konked out and slept. We even put our ear to him just to make sure he was still breathing as he was so comatose! I think his stay at SuperPet waiting to be adopted was probably pretty stressful… and loud! (Those birds!) At night he slept on the floor near our bed and would wake wimpering.. bad dreams? Sadness! After a trip to the vet, we had some pills to patch up his cat cold and once he started to trust us – the bad dreams went away too. His appetite never went away. Orville’s been a foodie from day one.

Now he’s a model cat – friendly, healthy, talkative, purry. When new people stop by to visit, Orville treats them like they are his new best friends (even when they put a jester collar on him or a fancy winter muff.) We really love this little guy. He’ll always be the “first born.”

3. Most of my days and evenings are spent eating, knitting and cooking. It’s pretty relaxing. With 99.9% of baby gear bought and ready to go, we are focusing on pampering our stomachs for the next few weeks.

I read this news item this morning about a kid’s group of knitters being banned from a library here in Ontario.  It’s probably about the dumbest thing I’ve heard in a long time.   So dumb in fact, that I thought it must be a library in Ottawa.  Sometimes I think our city’s decisions are pretty random… but that’s a topic for another post.

Basically, the library wants to promote literacy activities and I guess crafting activities don’t involve books.  I think Dewey decimal 730-760 would disagree!  (And their idea of video game nights makes so much more sense to increase literacy.)

I’ve borrowed plenty of books on knitting from the library and I think crafting and reading do go hand in hand.  Dumb.

It’s the best thing to happen to our apartment in a while… aside from last week’s impulse cupboard purchase (love it) – that’s right, a new washer and dryer set.  HOT.  I won’t go into too much detail about the trials and tribulations of getting these up to our third floor nest (or getting the old units out) as I didn’t have to lift a finger.  Ah pregnancy!  It has its rewards.

Our old washer had a bad case of the shakes and I had nightmares of it completely going up in smoke midway through a load of diapers.   I’m oddly excited about doing the first load of laundry.

I’ve been enjoying this series on the “6 Keys to a Disorganized & Unproductive Home” over at SimpleMom.  My favourite segment so far has been #3 “Have too much stuff”.  I’m really trying hard to declutter in these last weeks.  On that note, are there any organizations in Ottawa that pick up used clothes?