Recovering.

Damn, it's been crazy. I've barely had any time to myself to write, or anything. Two of my last four days off have been visiting family – always a good time, but being an introvert, it's not re-charging time. Yesterday was a total housework day, and we both worked like we expected the Queen to visit. Fortunately, Calli was in good spirits, so we could do what needed to be done. Then we had the oh-so-clever idea to reward ourselves with a bottle of wine on the patio. With a mix of fatigue and pollution, we weren't too productive today ;)

Calli got us all excited with her standing a couple weeks ago, but now she hardly does it! It's a little disappointing, but I know that once she's walking, there'll be no keeping up with her, so I'm just relishing it while it's relatively easy. When I was talking to my dad about it, he broached the topic of the leash. It seemed that he was trying to be delicate, expecting us to be 'Liberal' and free-range with our parenting. Andrea and I both have a healthy dose of Hippie, and believe she should be free to discover on her own. We also believe that she'll discover more if she doesn't get lost or hit by a car. We're all about the leash.

I was thinking of this when I saw a mother in a store tell her child to hold onto the buggy. I'm pretty confident that even the best-behaved child can get distracted and wander off, so perhaps some handcuffs would be in order. Of course, steel cuffs would be just cruel, we'd need the furry ones.

You may have heard that last week, southern Ontario, and the states in the Great Lake region got a natural hammering. First, there was an earth quake – the first I've heard of in this region. Then that night, tornadoes touched down. Midland, where my parents and sister work lost a car dealership, a factory, and – wait for it – a mobile home park. Really, I didn't just make that up. I'm really glad that we didn't just legalize gay marriage, of pot, or else we'd be hearing from Fundamentalists about how we were being punished, or warned. So, what were we being warned about? Well, it was days before the G8 & G20 Conferences. Then, at the end of the Conferences, Toronto experienced some flooding! They said it was from the rain, but I think it was from fire-hosing so many protesters!