I’ve been away, at my mother’s place in fact, painting her living room ceiling and a couple of walls. I learned that you CAN paint white over brown wood panelling!
It still feels pretty good to be 37 even though my neck and shoulders are rather sore right now.
My birthday was perfect in every way. It could not have been better!
I had a special breakfast of fresh bagels from the Ottawa Bagelshop and wild salmon and then it was PRESENT TIME.
The girls picked out a gorgeous necklace from Bija Bijoux and a cozy hoodie (with thumb-holes!) from Roots. I also got some some candy from The Candy Store: gummies (they are the BEST gummies I’ve ever had), assorted taffy and a square of caramel au beurre au sel de mer. Yum.
I was extra happy that everything they bought was from local shops.
And then I had to snap into high gear.
I had received an email from an Ottawa Citizen writer the day before. She told me she was planning on writing a profile of me and my blog. I met her at a neat little coffee shop in Westboro called Viva Loca (same place I took Julie’s photos) at 10:30. We gabbed for over 90 minutes. We talked about everything under the sun. I only hope I sounded like I have possession of all my marbles. I think she found it kind of odd that I haven’t been keeping track of how many times the Fishbowl has received some kind of coverage in the major media. I wasn’t able to recall how many times I’ve been on the radio – was it three or four? At one point she brought up an appearance on CTV Ottawa that I’d forgotten about. Good lord. What is HAPPENING TO MY BRAIN? I don’t keep track of that stuff but now wonder if maybe I should. (Is it vain? Does it matter? What do you think?)
Other than my mental lapses I had a great time. I really enjoy chatting to people who get the whole blog thing.
Then, Mark, the girls and I had a picnic at the Arboretum (that’s the heavily treed part of the Central Experimental Farm). It was heavenly there under the trees.
The girls indulged me with some photo-taking. Sort of:
Picnic highlights included our new frisbee-type thing (which is thankfully easier to catch than any other flying disk we currently own):
… the feeding of a flock of shy Wood Ducks:
… and Sarah almost stepping on group of Mallards who were camouflaged in the grass. The ducks let Mark get incredibly close with the camera. I wondered if they were sedated:
On our way back to the car we saw a field of sunflowers. I snapped a few frames because the sunny blooms reflected exactly how I was feeling:
We arrived home, feeling warm and slightly wilted, to a ringing telephone. It was the Citizen photographer. He was supposed to come at 4:15 but was asking if he could swing by RIGHT NOW. This resulted in a sudden cleaning frenzy which included my sweeping the papers off of my desk in one big swoop and chucking everything into the nearest closet.
The photographer was friendly and easygoing despite my grousing about how much I hate having my photo taken. That’s when I was asked to pretend to blog – which I did. I haven’t seen the photos but have been assured they’re “beautiful.” (Ha. I don’t believe them for a second!)
After he left we all collapsed in a big heap.
And then we ordered sushi from MHK, our favourite sushi place here in Ottawa. And then we ate. And had cake. Mark baked me a Betty Crocker cake. It was the FIRST TIME he’s ever made one (!). What a dear. He probably won’t appreciate me telling you this, but he scraped the batter into the pans and realized he forgot to add water. (And then he scraped it back into the bowl and added the requisite amount of liquid.) I am happy to report that despite the challenges it was still good. :)
After dinner we went to see Ponyo at AMC in Kanata. Mark had told me that Roger Ebert had given this film four stars, and so I was naturally expecting another Spirited Away (which is one of my top fave movies of all time) but I was disappointed it didn’t measure up. Oh well.
Was that a full day or what?
I had a wonderful birthday, but it’s not over yet. I have a birthday present to pick up (an umbrella/lighting kit!) and some birthday money to spend. This is going to be tough! Tell me, what would you buy if you had $200 to spend on yourself? Here’s another thing: do you think it’s better to buy one big thing or lots of little things?
