2003-10-10 - 12:37 p.m.

Still have a cold, still can't breathe through my nose, but hey, I keep going!

Lucy will be coming home tomorrow. I am very, very excited. My husband seems to be getting pretty nervous, almost having cold feet. I'm not kidding myself, introducing a second dog into our house will not be a piece of cake. I'm sure Mortimer will have his moments of resentment, but for once, I'm very positive and optimistic about the prospects, whereas hubby is a big reticent.... it's an interesting change of pace for us!

LAst night, I woke up at 3 AM, thanks to the cold meds I've been taking. I had a hard time falling asleep and I started thinking about Lucy, which led me to think about my dog Koby (I had him when I was a kid) and somehow, it lead me to think about my family: my grandfather, whom I never met because he was not a nice man and my grandmother kicked his butt out of the house years before I was ever born. And my granfather's brother (I guess that makes him my great uncle), who stepped in and treated my like a grand-daughter from day 1.

I was the first in my generation. The previous kid in age before me was 15 years older (my dad's cousin) and the next one was my brother 3 years after me. We were the only two for another 5 or 6 years before we had first cousins. So this great uncle, who's kids were all teenagers by the time we were born, took it upon himself to have holidays at his house, take us on outings, all kinds of cool stuff.

By far my favorite memory of him involves pistachio ice cream and death... Weird, let me explain. These relatives are all on my dad's side. When I was 6, my grandpa on my mom's side got lung cancer. One day, in gym, a kid broke my nose while playing indoor hockey (crazy thing is, his name was the same as my brother, a very odd name....). The school tried to call my mom to take me to the hospital but there was no one home (1976, no answering machine, no cell phones!!!) they tried my dad at work, only to be told my dad had been called by my mom for a family emergency, but not me, something else. So the school kept looking for someone and came upon my great uncle P.A. He came to pick me up from school and took me to the clinic to have my nose looked at. Then, we did what we always did together, we went to Laura Secord in the mall and had pistachio ice cream. I remember talking to him very serioiusly that day, but I don't remember really what he said. Today, I think he was preparing me for what was to come. After the ice cream, he took me to the hospital, where my grand-father was in the last stages of cancer. He sat me on his bed and told me to talk to him, that he would be back in a little while. The rest is fuzzy. I don't know if I remember it, if I've been told the story too many times, or even if it really happened like this at all, but while I was telling my comatosed grand-father about having my nose broken by a boy with the same name as my brother, the machines started beeping and my grand-fatehr died, right there, with me telling him about my borken nose and the pistachio ice cream that made it all better.

For years after, whenever I saw my great-uncle, we would go to Laura Secord together, but I can honestly say I've never eaten pistachio ice cream since that day. My great-uncle died when I was in high-school. He didn't get to know many of his grand-children, most were born after he was gone. Those kids missed out on the best grand-pa ever. I got to have him for a while, and while I would have loved to speak to my own grand-father once in my life, just to meet him, I know that I was very lucky to have uncle P.A.

As I lay in bed last night, awake and frustrated, I started thinking about all the details I've already forgotten about this story. About most of the stories of my childhood. So once in a while, I hope you'll indulge me in a little reminiscing, for posterity's sake. So I can keep the stories alive and pass them on to my kids on day.

Anything to add? 0

2003-10-09 - 3:04 p.m.

I completely forgot to mention that we now have Queer Eye in Canada! Happy dance! It was the Butch episode, which I had seen, but rewatched just 'cause I could! Yeah Bravo Canada!

I have a cold. I really didn't need this right now, but what can I do? THe nice man came and put up the Sukkah this morning, along with a Yeshiva boy who could not have been more than 14... nice way to take advantage of young religious men!!!! Still, for him it's a Miztva, for me, it's a huge weight off my shoulders.

So I was the big star at the cookbook meeting last night. I didn't mean to be. I'm just the kind of person who actually does what she promises, comes prepared (OK, maybe the colored mock-ups were a bit much). Most of the committees haven't managed to get together yet, much less come to the meeting with any plans. Nobody had recipes, I had my 10 (thanks for the help Jennye!) If anything, I think it light a fire under a few people. The cookbook co-chair called me at home after the meeting to personally thank me for my level of involvment. I do go overboard a little sometimes, but I know it's appreciated!!!!

We were supposed to go to a Bris today at 5, but I really feel sick, and the store is opened until 9 on Thursdays, so I'm sending my hubby with a gift and will have to skip the snipping... (sorry, I couldn't resist).

I really enjoyed WEst Wing last night, L&O was so-so, and I'm liking Karen Sisco a lot. But Bachelor Bob is wearing a little thin. I believe he has now kissed more girls than the 3 previous bachelors put together! I really liked Bob. I liked him the first time, I liked him on his several Oprah appearances, but I'm not liking him so much on this show. He's very funny, very cute, but come on boy, keep your tongue in your mouth just a little!!!!

Gotta find some tea or chicken soup. And a pillow.

Oh! Almost Forgot! Lucy is coming on Saturday! Wonder how Mortimer will feel about sharing his house with a new dog.....

Anything to add? 1

2003-10-08 - 10:39 a.m.

Following yesterday's bummer entry, thought I'd cheer up a bit today and mention: 10 things that are making life a little easier

10 Jennye's comments and suggestions, which were not only great at cheering me up, they provided lots of help: a recipe and tips to get the sukka done!

9 My dear hubby, who took me for dinner last night so I wouldn't have to end a miserable day by having to cook.

8 Eating a Kosher restaurant, which provided lots of Jewish newspapers and magazine, which in turn provided the number of a cheap "rent-a-husband" handyman with time to come and put up the sukkah tomorrow

7 Having to cut and arrange 200 5 page brochures for the cookbook meetings, which provided the perfect excuse to watch L&O SVU and MI5, which I would have otherwise missed, 'cause lets face it, TV is not a priority right now!!!

6 The nice man at the photocopy/internet store across the street, who gave me a break on the price of the 1000 copies, and was kind enough to redo one set of pages for me this morning after I discovered a mistake on page 4.....

5 The advances in medical technology making my husband's home IV easier than ever: there's not even a needle to plug into the IV, it's all plastic plugs that snap into each other!!!

4 More medical breakthroughs pushing the median survival age of adult Cystic Fibrosis patients to 35.8.... When I met my husband, it was low 30, then 31. Last year, he was past the median age, now he's 3 years below! And since it keeps moving up, he should always be playing catch up, we're no longer in the "borrowed time" category!!!!

3 the dog trainer being too busy to get back to me, which means we might not get the new dog til next week, which would actually work out better for us, giving us a chance to catch out breath

2..... I've run out! I can only think of 8 things that are making things a little less stressful, but I'm not complaining! Still hae to get that cookbook meeting under my belt, still need to transcribe some recipes before tonight, gotta fix the doorbell (which broke a few days ago, unbeknownst to us!!! If you rang, sorry, we didn't hear) and don't get me started on how much work I've got at the store, but today, I'm thinking only happy thoughts! Things are going to get easier, after all, I'm an ex Public Relations girl, I thrive on multi-tasking and stress. So I'm a bit rusty.... 3 tasks are now my max juggling capacity, but I'll practice and try throwing up a 4th and 5th ball in the air

Anything to add? 0

2003-10-07 - 12:14 p.m.

10 things I should be doing instead of blogging right now:

10. unpack the new order that was left in front of the store this morning, which I missed because I was with my husband at the hospital.

9.unpack the jewelry order that I didn't get to on Friday 'cause I went to visit my mother who's recovering from skin-cancer surgery

8.Transcribe the recipes I received from a friend, which I need to bring to a cookbook meeting tomorrow night.

7. Find other people to submit recipes, which I didn't get to because it was High Holidays and my husband decided to get a lung infection and spike a 38.7C fever at 9 PM last night.

6. Prepare the layout sample boards for said cookbooks, which I've been procrastinating about, and now have no time to get to before tomorrow night's meeting

5. Try to eat something more nutritional than coffee and bagels, which is the only thing I've eaten since the Yom Kippur fast ended (I tried to eat some Gnocci right after, but eating after a fast makes me sick...)

4.Get in touch with the dog trainer to check up on Lucy, who should be arriving later this week or early next week. Perfect timing! My husband is sick and on home-I.V. treatment, and we're getting a second dog!!!

3.Catching up on the accounting, which is currenlty split between the old system and the new system. Since I've been so busy, I still haven't finished switching over to the new UPC-scanner system....

2.Calling my friends and finding someone to come help me put up the Sukkah (for non-jew, it's a temporary dwelling that we put up in the yard and eat in for a week... I love Sukkot, but this year, I've got no time for it! And my husband probably shouldn't be freezing his lung-infected ass off eating outside....)

1.Getting some sleep! 'Cause his coughing has been keeping me up for days, and our little night time visit to the ER last night took whatever little energy I had left and drained me completely....

I know, I know, I should be grateful. Hubby is doing OK, this IV thing is nothing new, we go through this every year. It's just that the timing couldn't be worse. I'm already busy beyond belief, and none of the things I'm involved in are negotiable: I *LOVE* being involved in the cookbook, and it's going to be a long-haul project, so I don't want to flake out now and miss out on the interesting parts to come. I sort of enjoy my Hebrew classes and frankly, I need to learn before we have kids, 'cause I want to be able to help with homework. And the store, well, I love the store, and because I've done all the accounting up til now, I really can't imagine bringing in someone to do the bookkeeping for me. I know that wouldn't work. I can't relinguish control, plus, nobody would understand how I've got it set up.

All this to say, I'm hiding in blog-land for a few minutes, hoping to catch my breath and recharge my batteries for a few minutes...

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