I can't believe that I was able to live under the ignorance of world events for so long. I think it was Tuesday night when I found out about the tsunami. I was shocked. Why hadn't I heard about it?

I wanted to do something.
I felt ridiculous, sitting there, surrounded by my mounds of gifts. My family sitting around the woodstove, our cats dozing lazily on our laps.

Then I finally got back to my email and got a message from Jodi, who's living in Indonesia. She's fine, but asking for money. Quickly, so as to pay for some supplies that were to go out on some transport they'd secured. I'd missed my window.

But I still wanted to do something.
Sitting on Alex's couch with his laptop, watching TV, thinking about all of Oshawa being washed away, I went to the Canadian Red Cross site and donated.

Then I went to Save the Children and wanted to donate there too. But what I really wanted was to DO something. To help. I'm still thinking about donating more.

You should, too.
If there was ever a time when it was needed, it's now.

I am so lucky.

Last night, I was driving home with my mom from Matt and Kendra's place, after their wonderful Christmas dinner, and I started realizing how lucky I am.

Lucky to have such a wonderful family.
Lucky to have time to spend with them. To have the friends I have. The life I have.

Later, I sat in the dark in my parents' house and looked out the window at the quiet winter night and remembered where I was last year and remembered what a luxury I would have thought it to be doing all the things that I'd done all this week.

My heart felt like it would break for being so full, as Mao curled up in my lap.

And now I'm back in Toronto, after a day out skiing with my mom, still feeling the warm glow of the holidays. I don't want it to end.

Happy Holidays to all the people I love the most - especially those that are far away that I can't hug or talk to directly.

Just know that I'm thinking about you and wishing you all the best.

Last night was the first night of Christmas.

Alex and I went out for dinner at the Rivoli and had the city's best chicken satay and I had yummy ahi tuna. MMM.

I got lots of good loot!

Lindors

mini massager

warm soft blanket

Air CD

beautiful frame with our photo and a hint on the next present:

trip to Stratford in April!

And he got some good stuff too.

Sarah McLachlan tickets (may)

mattress pad

maid service

I don't think we need any more presents.

And today Will is picking me up to go to my parents' place. I cannot wait!!

Dear Santa,

I don't really want much for Christmas. Except a month of vacation time, which I'm not going to get.

So if you're going to slip something under the tree for me, I'be been an awful good girl...

manicure, pedicure, massage, general princess-treatment

a lovely apartment close to work by myself

theatre tickets

an interior designer to decorate my apartment

the perfect black boots

the perfect presents for the people I love (too late, I already got em)

a really horrible tree that we get to over-dress with tacky tinsel and bulbs

a bathroom rug

someone to pick up the free TV that's been offered to me

someone to help me clean my apartment

a personal chef

David Gray CD

no more migraines

a great haircut

Winners

quality time with my family

I can't believe that Christmas is coming up so quickly.

Yesterday I was "home" sick, having stayed at Alex's all weekend while he was away doing wedding stuff for his best friend Mike. I went to the wedding on Sunday night. Made the mistake of having some wine and BAM! That was it. I thought I was going to die.

So it's an even shorter week at work. I'll have half of Friday off and go home in time to decorate our Christmas tree and go to church on Christmas Eve.

And then - that's it!!
A full week of hanging around the wood stove, drinking tea, reading a book with a cat fast asleep in my lap. I can't wait.

Did you know that you can buy tickets for the TSO (Toronto Symphony Orchestra) for $10/ea if you are 29 and under? Well, I didn't until last night, when I picked up Alex's tickets for Bill Cosby.

This morning, I clicked on over to TSO.ca's tsoundcheck and signed up only to discover that there are currently no tickets to buy. I wonder when you can actually buy them? Pretty useless to have such a program only to NOT be able to do anything with it.

However, I then discovered something even BETTER... details to come. Surprises not to be spoiled...

What a day!

Busy, but at least I'm out of work by 6pm.
Yay Weekend!

Plus, I'm having a better day.
Yes, please!

Who ever called it "white chocolate"?

Let's get it straight, people: it is NOT chocolate. It's sweet and creamy, but so are a lot of things.

Don't even try it.
Go straight to Jail and don't pass GO.

I've been crap about writing this week. Has something to do with the fact that it's been a crap week.

Worked until a billion o'clock one night, plans with friends got cancelled twice, went to a movie last night, but it seemed rushed, and working until a billion o'clock tonight. Every day is a stress-day this week. Total crap.

Now my computer is all messed up again. Stupid network card!

With the retarded working schedule and the karma of the universe working against me, it's no wonder I feel so anxious. On the bright side, things can only get better.

Good things:

I can't wait until Christmas!

I got a new computer at work that's pretty and uses XP (also pretty)

Both my poinsettias are alive and brilliant red (which is probably just a sign of the devil)

I ate way too many cookies today

I sent off a really big project tonight and it's awesome!

I wasn't nearly as pissed off by Ocean's Twelve as some people I know. I thought it was kinda cute.

Travel changed my notion of life: it's not about achievements, it's about learning that anything is possible.

Ever had one of those days when you really, really want those zesty cheese Doritos but you know that this kind of crap is going to kill you one day? Well, try the Crispy Minis in "Tortillaz" in Cheesy Nacho flavour. I'm going to forgive them the stupid I'm-trying-to-be-hip use of "z" in the name because they actually taste quite good. And approximately HALF the calories and way more fibre than Doritos.

I know, I know. You don't actually buy Doritos if you're counting calories. But I'm on a mission to find a yummy snack that won't cause a heart attack. If you don't HAVE to eat fistfuls of lard, why would you?

Of course, you STILL shouldn't eat the entire bag for dinner.
Not that I would, you understand, but I'm just sayin'.

What a great weekend!
I managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done, do most of my errands, get to two Christmas parties, hang out with my favourite person, watch some of my favourite shows and get TONNES of sleep. Could it GET any better?

According to my horrorscope, this week should prove to be challenging. My goal is just to accept it as it comes and not freak out.

God rest ye merry gentlemen...

Also, I saw a great site: SpreadTheSlack.com. Pretty wise.

He's got an attitude that I enjoy:
"The dictionary says that a slacker is 'a person who shirks work or obligation,' but I say a slacker is 'someone who doesn't stress out about their dumb job... If, however, you're still uncomfortable thinking of yourself as 'slacking,' think of yourself as 'relaxing.' Everyone needs to relax."

Spread the relaxation.

And remember: "If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it." (Unknown author)

Just finished checking out Scott's new blog, TextMachine. I'm, again, quite jealous of the quality of writing and ideas.

Sometimes I read other people's blogs and I think "damn, I need to do better" and then I realize that I don't care enough at this stage. I mean, I care, but not enough to actually spend the amount of time that would be necessary to really improve the WGC-blog.

It's fine for now. I send my words off into a void and sometimes people read and sometimes not and maybe oneday when I realize that I hate my stressful life as Professional Cathy, then the dream-job (OK, maybe I'd rather be Managing Editor at a Travel site instead of Health) will take a back seat to my personal writing.

However, I'm finding it more and more difficult to find the joy in the so-called dream job. It's all perspective, I'm sure. It's teaching me some great lessons. All I need to do is apply them to my own life. I can't wait.

Last night, I decided to treat myself to the movies.

I'd had a stressful week. Crazy, really. And I thought, "that's it, I'm going to be decadent and go to the movies." By myself!

Leaving work at 7pm (yes, on a Friday) I went to see Closer, since it was the next movie to start at the theatre. It was a bit depressing, really. I didn't love it. I didn't feel the passion between Julia and Jude. I think I don't really like Julia Roberts so much. I'm sure she's great at some roles - actually, I liked her in My Best Friend's Wedding - but this was too heavy for her. I didn't buy it.

The I watched The Incredibles, based on endorsements from both Alex and Raye. And it was GREAT. Totally recommend that for anyone.

Today I'm at home with a migraine, trying to figure out how I'm going to:

get my sheets washed

get my hair cut

get my ass to my office Christmas party tonight

when all I wanna do is sleep in a warm soft bed and maybe throw up a little to relieve my nausea. I'd cry but I know that it will hurt more.

Sucks.

I had a wonderful shopping trip with my mom today. It was awesome - I got to leave work earlier and Christmas shop - my favourite!

I think I'm almost all done my shopping now - only a few things left.

Sadly, I've been so busy lately with work that I've not had time to do anything!

This was a much-needed break.

So I visited my brother's new home today in Guelph. It's just beautiful!

And he has a new little girl.
Meet Mushy:


So cute. So loving. And so playful:


I am totally in love.
Sorry, Mao.

Every time I go to update my site, DreamWeaver does something demonic to my pages and messes everything up.

I'd like to use another editor, but the DW interface is so easy because it has the site file structure on my computer and on my server and I can just use the DW FTP. However, if it keeps acting like the devil, then I'm going to have to lay the smackdown on it.

Any suggestions for a better (free) editor?
Digifox once recommended UltraEdit, but it kinda sucks.

I am wistful for the days of BBEdit on my Mac.

First good suggestion gets eternal love from me...
GO!

Started my Christmas baking with Sarah.
We made:

chocolate macaroons

chocolate peanut butter balls

caramel cornflake chews

shortbread

chocolate marshmallow log

And now, off to Theresa's Christmas glog party!

MISCELLANEA

Just read another installment from Raye's newsletter.

My favourite part was the Danier honesty questionnaire. Raye is always a good read. She'd mentioned The Constantines, but I checked out their site and listened to some music and wasn't keen on it. I prefer The Free Press. I wish I'd gone to their show at the Horseshoe to see how they're sounding these days.

And when I was checking out these sites it occurred to me to check my own site traffic stats.

Turns out that my traffic took a major dip in August-September. I guess I wasn't being very interesting. I wonder if checking my traffic affects how or what I write. I mean, how could it NOT?

Then I noticed that the GTABloggers linked to me. Isn't that nice? I had no idea. I just found out right this minute that I missed their holiday party tonight. Boo!

Their site's not bad. Some pretty good T.O. events.

Friday night and I'm BEAT.

I finally put up some pictures on the walls.

Weirdly, I feel unhungry lately. Not very interested in food. Except coffee, of course. Good strong rich coffee. I mean, if it were made here, of course.

The best coffee I've had was in Australia. I really miss it. My faves:

the coffee roaster, sydney

jasper's, melbourne (atomica was OK too)

bean bar, adelaide

Yippee!

1. I'm done my Web Strategy class!

2. I'm surfing for deals on Xmas gifts (ie: christmas is fast approaching!!)

Back when I actually used to cook, I used to consider myself a bit of a foodie.

At that time, I was enamored with Epicurious. And, don't get me wrong, it's still good, but I have fallen in LOVE.

AllRecipes.com

Not only can I very very easily save my recipes to my recipe box, but I can add selected recipes to my SHOPPING LIST and it creates the grocery shopping list for me. Plus, it has a recipe clipboard that shows you all the recipes that you've clicked on recently, and you can bookmark them for future use.

And the Search. I don't know if I should even start about the search. You can search by ingredient, by category, by the Top Ten, by the amount of time you have, or by the person who submitted the recipe.

Goodness. That is a seriously GREAT search engine.
It boggles my mind that I'm fighting to convince my Tech team that we need to make minor revisions to our search function when something like THIS exists.

And that's all good... but get THIS:
You can convert any recipe to METRIC or change the number of servings with a simple click.

I am drooling.
I wish I'd built this dream tool.