"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium"

We just watched the best movie! Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium sounds like it would be a children's movie, but it is reality a touching story. Magorium's Emporium uses a fun situation to teach you about life, friendship, death, and Magic. His store is incredible. It's the first original movie I've seen in like a year. Everything is a sequel or a remake. Bah.

Feet firmly planted on the ground

Last Friday I was all set to take the kids climbing at Rob's, but poor Rob cut his hand. I'm very sorry that Rob hurt himself, but I am relieved that it didn't happen. Energy levels run a little high, so I was worried about them not having much space to run. If we go down in April they can play outside.

It seems Thursday was a tough day for more than just Rob: Jer broke his toe that night. I believe the story currently is he was ripping it down The Way and a little puppy ran in front of him. He swerved to avoid hurting it, crashed, and the only damage he did was to his baby toe.*

*Facts may not be 100% accurate. Check out Jer's blog for his version of the story.

Jamaica...and a bit more.

Ay, yi, yi. It's been a long time. I must say, I can't remember specifics about Tapas night, but it was fun. I ended up in the living room with a couple people. I don't know why people seen a little resistant to the moving to the living room here.

It was hard to move the Social Climbers to the living room too. That was a fun night. I'm glad it was here, I'm not sure I would've been there if it hadn't. I haven't been riding in way too long. It was really nice to see Liz again. Word on the street is, they're coming up on spring break.

Speaking of spring break, Jer called Hans the other night and they might actually get up here this year. Jer mentioned the Cadet Camp, hopefully Kelly will be taking part in that. I'm looking forward to it this year. I've ended up volunteering to help corral the kids. It should be a good couple of days of learning and fun.

Finally, on to last night. Dinner Club #4 for the year was a blast. I got the last puzzle piece! And it was the only piece I did, puzzles are much more satisfying this way. I'll have to remember that for next time the power goes out. I did way too many puzzles last year. As always, the food was phenomenal and far too much of it was consumed. That last piece of dessert always has to be tried. :o) Elaine, Bethany, Amanda, and I had a blast talkin' in the kitchen. The conversation definitely meandered to interesting places. Although the best line came from one of the Hornby Island Quilters. In reference to American politics, "we've got to get those a**wholes out of the outhouse."

Keep your fingers crossed for me, I've got Teen Night down at Rob and Amanda's tomorrow for the climbing wall.

Surprise

I went for a ride today. I've ridden three times since like March and it didn't go so well. The first one I fell, bad. The second one I was terrified and it wasn't a good ride. The third one I felt sick and actually had to ride out.

It went well today though. At first I wasn't happy and I was scared and unhappy, but it got a bit better. By the end, I actually liked it. The new part of Watertower is still really bumpy and soft, not good when you're scared.

I'm very proud of myself for riding through the water. I don't like water! Well, not when I'm riding anyway, but I did it! I sat there looking at it for quite a long time before I just stopped thinking and let go.

It's still going to take time for me to let go enough to feel like I'm enjoying riding again, but I have hope that it'll come now.

Social Climbers go Wild

The majority of the Social Climbers just left. We had them over for dinner, even Liz was up. I was worried that there would be a bunch of pressure to get riding again. There was a little pressure, but mostly a lot of understanding. The understanding works way, way, way better if you're trying to get me to do something.

I have to say I wasn't looking forward to tonight as much as I usually would because I've had a bit of a long, tiring week. Early town mornings and dealing with a "new" car. I had one mechanic tell me it wasn't worth it for me to fix my car and wouldn't do the work. I took it to another garage and they, not only fixed it, they told me that some things were fine that I was told needed to be fixed before.

Anyway, back to the party. We had Liz, Elaine, Sara, Jules, Elisa, Gayel, and Amanda. There was wine, brandy, and Apple/Pear juice. We had so much fun! I miss hangin' out with them, I definitly need to get out riding with them again. I will when I'm not working Thursday mornings anymore.

Morocco

Dinner club started for Jer and I last night. We had previous plans for the first one. Last night was Morocco. The food was incredible. Everyone did a great job; although there were far too many delicious, sweet desserts.

I think we had 14 people last night, the house worked great for that many and we could have accommodated a few more. I invited Savannah and her family before Jer told me there were already going to be 14 people. I'm glad I invited them, they were a lot of fun and brought lots of yummy dishes.

Talking with Amanda later: she said she was going to invite them, but that Jer had asked her to stop at 14 because of the size of the house. She was also going to invite Toglia and her family; other people I wanted to invite too. They will definitely be asked to the next one. Tapas!

Dangerous and Deadly

And just what was I doing that was so deadly you may ask: I was working. Teen Night is dangerous. To start the evening off: I turned around to get a ball and tripped over Jethro. He complained about his shoulder and then forgot about it: my knees didn't fare so well. I went down hard on bunched up jeans. My knees are a pretty colour now, though :o)

Later, we decided to play glow in the dark basketball. Anthea's head met my glass which bent and met my eye. That one was painful! My eye watered for about five - ten minutes and I couldn't keep it open for more than two seconds. It was all red around it and it was about half it's size for a little while. It's mostly fine now, but my poor glasses aren't. They're usable, but not great. The plastic has been bent, at least I made them not crooked anymore.