Just Being Mallrats...

Lam had been asking, for weeks, to go Downtown to have lunch at the mall, walk around the other mall, and visit the Millennium Library. There was no school on Friday and the weather was too chilly to hit the playground, so I grabbed the kids and my camera and headed for our city's fair downtown district.

Now, for a millisecond, I thought "hey, I should run some errands while I'm downtown", but I wanted this to really be a day of fun for me with my kids. We could be crazy, funny, weird and wild. I want them to know that, like Daddy, Mommy can be fun too... in a more orderly, scheduled and "inside voice" way, of course. :)

Besides, I learned very early on that, if I had errands at the mall, I should NEVER do it with the kids in tow. Take heed, soon-to-be parents, even the most well-behaved kids occasionally turn into monkeys on caffeine at the mall. My kids are angels (heck, their farts smell like flowers) and, for the most part, do what they’re told, but expecting them to follow me like little Children of the Corn on the rare mall trip is just nuts. So, no errands.

This was the perfect day to try out the new photo tips I learned from Karen, whose blog I've recently found and come to really love reading. The malls have skylights and it was a bright day - perfect ambient lighting for no flash action shots. I was quite pleased with the results. :)

I had tofu curry and honey garlic chicken at Little Bangkok Thai while the kids chose muffins for lunch. The kids loved the various skywalks and tunnels between the Downtown malls, throwing coins in the fountains, and running around the center court with a new friend. The afternoon came to a close with borrowing some Daniel Cook DVDs from the library and - the ultimate treat - picking up Daddy from work.

It was a GREAT day! :)

Game Plan

Photo: Eating Wrapping Paper


In my last post, I talked about doing a 21-day Detox. Have I started it? Do I dare eat in such a non-festive way during the Holiday Season? My body *is* a temple...

Pfft, the temple is sacred, not stupid.

I want success, not failure. I'll start in January... meanwhile, I'll just try to eat as healthy as I can.

Last Saturday, I was at my friend Harmzie's house for her annual Christmas Party. I always look forward to this event because I get to see old friends I rarely see the rest of the year and enjoy the great spread. The abundance of good food, like raw veggies, smoked salmon, cheeses, whole grain crackers and fruity, non-alcoholic punch, is always well-balanced by treats, like nanaimo bars, baklava, grannie squares, assorted cookies, and Mr. Harmzie's infamous, delicious egg nog.

That nog is lethal. I'm serious. You can get drunk on the fumes.

Anyway, I enjoyed the healthy food primarily, sampled some of the guacamole, had a couple of coconut-encrusted prawns (I *am* trying to go pescatarian after all, right?), sipped glasses of fruity punch, and taste-tested the nanaimo bars because Harmzie wanted to know if she should make it again next year or buy it ready-made (That's my story and I'm sticking to it).
I think I ate more, but I don't quite remember... it was a bit of a feeding frenzy. Although I tried to stick to the healthy stuff, it was still many more calories than I'd normally consume.

So, for this Saturday's Christmas Party at my friend Sly's house, I have to be more conscious of my eating... and I don't mean gleefully observing every single bite of Sly's delicious cheese cake I shovel into my mouth. I need a game plan...

1) only a sliver of Sly's deliciously evil cheese cake
2) stick to any fruits, salads or veggie stuff
3) keep a glass of water in my hand at all times
4) only eat at 20 minute intervals (okay, sounds crazy, but if I don't do this, I'll just be eating round the clock... Sly makes great food!)
5) focus on people, not food

And that last one is key... With life being so busy, Roomie and I rarely see our friends socially any more. The Holiday Season is really the best time to squeeze in as much happy-face time with our friends as we can. Stuffing that happy-face comes a distant second.

Nenette Goes to her 20yr Reunion with a Mullet...

If I have any advice to give people today - and if you're over the age of 35, as I am, you should already know this anyway - it's this: DO NOT get a haircut 4 days before an important event!

Please, please for the love of Buddha, God and Ganesha, just don't do it!!!
I still can't believe I did! Gah!

Okay, the event was my 20yr High school reunion. About 2 weeks before, I realized that I really needed to get my hair cut. No manner of styling or expensive hair product could improve its crazy, frizzy, standing out-to-the-side look. So, I called my hairstylist, Jane.

Now, I don't trust anyone else with my hair except Jane. Her cuts have done the impossible: made my hair look good with very little styling and hair product for MONTHS after my cut. Good thing too because she's not exactly cheap!

So, anyway, I go to see her on the Tuesday. Because I've been so tired of the style I'd had for months (I was growing out a bad bob), I gave her free reign. "Do what you want", I said. I've never done that before. And I think I won't ever do that again.
She cut a LOT off. In the end, I looked like Joan Jett! The top is short and the sides and back are long, but thinned out.

It was fun for the first couple of days... then the novelty wore off.

Then it hit me... I HAVE A MULLET!!!

I'm not a Rock-N-Roll Mom -- I'm Island-Girl Mom!!!

And, OMG, this style is so HIGH-MAINTENANCE!!!
When I wake up, I look like I've been zapped... everything stands on end! I either have to wash my hair, shower, or heavily wet my hair to get it to calm down. Then if I can't make it behave, I pull out the Big Guns: clips, barrettes and headbands.

So, I spent my entire 3-day reunion weekend with my hair up to minimize the mulletesqueness. (No, that's not a word. I know.)

But the odd thing is that I got a ton of compliments on it! Totally unsolicited, I swear. People really liked the look. Weird.
I'm definitely growing it out... I won't be seeing Jane until she actually has something to work with to get me back to Island-Girl Hottieness (no, that's not a word either)... that should be around May of next year. She gave me a great Island-Girl cut last year... I'll ask for that again.

Anyway, the reunion went well, and I enjoyed seeing my old friends. I like having my hair up, and I have re-learned a lesson... Don't get my hair cut 4 days before an event.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of me with my new 'do, up and down... lemme know what you think...

Cut to the Chase...

Yesterday, I went to lunch with 3 of my closest girlfriends. And as usual, we went for sushi.
During the early days of my sushi obsession, I used to order a lot and often ended up with the most expensive bill. Yesterday, I had the least expensive. All I had was a chirashi... miso soup, green salad, assorted sashimi with rice.
While my girls enjoyed their tasty nigiri and rolls (LRM's volcano roll looked SO good), I slowly savoured my meal and found my stomach full and my taste buds entertained.

My friend Dee first turned me on to the delicious simplicity of the Chirashi. Dee is also responsible for my sushi obsession.

I've found my sushi tastes have changed over the almost 10 years I've been enjoying this delicious eastern cuisine. I've gone from trying everything to knowing what works for me currently.

This is also how I settled into my simple "putting on my face" habits. I used to live in Vancouver, BC where I could get my grubby little hands on all sorts of exotic, sparkly, and oh-so-sweet makeup products. My face was a canvas, and I was certainly no minimalist artist.
Over the years, I discovered that if I focused on improving the quality of my skin, I didn't need to use foundation makeup. And that led me to think, "if my skin looks good naturally, maybe my whole face would too", so I nixed the blue and green eyeshadow and opted to emphasize what was already there... and nothing more.
So, now, I just wash my face, moisturize, curl and mascara my lashes, and swipe on some lip colour. I look like ME, only more so.

I've simplified my makeup routine, and now I'm simplifying the rest of my life.

When I told my girlfriends that I was closing the hula school, one of them said, "wow, you're just getting lazy all around, aren't you?!" (or something like that). LOL! Trust Mich to cut to the chase. Damn, she knows me too well!

But I think that's exactly what it is. I'm lazy. I don't want to do the extra crap... especially when I don't need to, especially when my heart and mind hurts to do it, especially when my time is best spent doing other things, especially when I could be going out for sushi with my best girlfriends...

Looking Hot on Girls' Night with My Blood Blister

2007 has certainly been a year of "clean up and renew" for me.

As part of my clean up, I finally had a keratosis lesion on my face (that I've had since my teens) frozen on Wednesday. It's about sunflower seed-sized, located halfway between my nose and my left eye. It grew darker during my pregnancies, and changed size over the years, both positively and negatively.
It HURT during the freezing, and I now have a dime-sized blood blister on my face. It looks really bad. But after the scab falls off in a week and a half, I will be lesion-free!

Meanwhile, I and my very ungirly and unglamorous blood blister when for a fun Girls' Night Out with 3 of my best girlfriends last night. We went to Earl's on Main, where the beautiful people of Winnipeg go to see and be seen, and I had calamari with tzatziki, a salad with bacon and blue-cheese dressing, and a strawberry pavlova for dessert. Obviously, a very non-CRON day. I think the dessert alone filled my 1500 calorie quota.

But no regrets. I had a great time with my girls. And we did a lot of laughing, catching up, and making our latest Top 10 lists... you know, the list of men we (theoretically) are allowed to have a one-night stand with if we happen to meet them.
On her last list, my girlfriend Sylvia had a bunch of dead/older guys and men who she had to go back in time to have sex with (ie. Sean Connery in Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)). We've since convinced her to make a new list. :)