Tune in this Weekend

I promise I shall return to regail you with stories and photos of Mom's visit. :)

In the meantime, here is a photo of moi with my new dark hair for Autumn:

Holy Hannah!

So with a whole four hours of sleep under my belt, I managed to get myself to the airport pretty much on time to get Mom. I planned for 10 minutes after her flight was supposed to arrive (to give the extra time for deplaning and such) but then started worrying on the way there that her flight might land early. Thankfully for me, it didn't...so I was there to greet her when she came down the escalator. Whew. :) She was the second person off her plane, so no long waits withs throngs of people.

Of course, we still had a 15 minute wait for her suitcase.

The drive out to the airport was interesting...fog city. Nice that there were only about a dozen other cars on the highway at that time of the morning, but not so nice that I couldn't see more than about a block in front of me most of the time. That's tough when I've only ever driven that stretch of road maybe 4 or 5 times. Ah well, life goes on. :)

In my continuing battle with Mother Nature, she decided to throw a tropical storm at us just in time for Mom's arrival. Yup, "tropical event Hannah" blew through town yesterday. We awoke to some serious humidity, which then turned to some rain on the drive back from the airport, which then turned into an all-out crazy ass wind and rain storm by the time we got to the house. Warm, sticky, and huge, gloppy, sideways rain. Gee Mom, welcome to Halifax.

We went for breakfast at Cora's on the way home, and thankfully the hurricane rain held off until we finished there. Then it was time for a nap (it was 3am for Mom when she landed, and I needed to make up for the couple of nights of little sleep). By the time we woke up, the storm had pretty much passed....and believe it or not the sun actually peeked out.

Our afternoon was spent mostly just chatting and watching some TV, and our evening was our traditional Chinese take-out and a DVD (27 Dresses...too cute). The Chinese food was even pretty close to what we get a home, which was nice because as I've ranted about before, a lot of the dishes seem different here than they are in BC.

Went to bed at a reasonable time, and had a nice sleep in. Had some coffee and morning chit-chat and am now making brunch and getting ready to do a small bit of exploring. Easing Mom into things by maybe just taking a drive downtown and maybe a short walk along the waterfront so she can see a few things. Then maybe a little shopping and another quiet night in. (Tomorrow the more touristy stuff shall begin!)

The sun is with us so cross your fingers that it sticks around!

Yo Momma!

It occurs to me that I haven't told you all that my Mom is coming to visit. Yup. Tomorrow morning she will be here in soggy old Halifax!

It's quite exciting. Mom hasn't flown since I was about 5 years old....and we never really travelled anywhere when I was a kid, so she hasn't really been too far since before I was born. Our Summer vacations were always with my Grandma down to Victoria. That was about the extent of it. A few trips over to Vancouver over the years too I suppose.

So, with me starting my military spouse lifestyle...she's gonna have to travel more!

And so she is!

I helped her pick her flight so I could make sure she was getting good flight times and a good stopover airport (and only one stopover!!). She just called from Calgary...so far so good!

She will arrive here at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning. Likely groggy and in pain from her overnight flight, the time difference, and the oh-so-uncomfortable airplane seat. I have made no plans for us for day one. We will enjoy tasty coffee, a homemade breakfast, a nap, maybe a movie and some take-out Chinese. Typical mother-daughter day for us.

Over the next week, we've got plans to be tourists. She's here for two weeks, and I booked the first week off work. DBF is still in Winnipeg so he doesn't have to subjected to yet another trip to Peggy's Cove. :) He will be back for the second week though. Right now the weather is not cooperating (go away Gustav!)...but it's supposed to be nice by Tuesday...so here's hoping. Most of the good stuff is outdoors, so a lot of rain would not be appreciated.

I can't wait to see my Mom! We were so used to being able to see each other whenever we wanted....only living an hour and a half apart made life pretty easy. This whole living at opposite ends of the country is a little lame I must say. Thank God for good calling plans and the internet!

I pick her up in 7 hours, so I'd better get me some beauty sleep. I already warned her to expect bed-head and morning breath. If she's lucky I'll change out of my pyjamas. :)

Decaf

Last night I was out for coffee with a few of the girls from my neighborhood. Lovely to get out of the house and have some chit-chat.

Fall is upon us I suppose, as indicated by Starbucks bringing back the everloving Pumpkin Spice Latte. I'm not ready for it to be Fall, but I'm certainly ready for one of my favorite seasonal drinks.

I ordered decaf (as I always do after about 5pm). The cashier wrote decaf on the cup. The barista said decaf when she called out the name and handed me my drink.

My groggy, achy, tired head begs to differ.

I stayed up late talking to Mom on the phone, then puttering around the house, then reading my book (Time Traveller's Wife...just so you know). It was after 2am when I turned out the light....but it was after 4am the last time I looked at the clock. And I wasn't even dozing....just tossing, turning and getting annoyed.

Then the sun came up and the neighbor's weiner dog went on a barking rampage at 7:30am when their daughter was leaving for school. Grrrrrrr. I tried to keep sleeping, but after that it was just an hour and a half of half-assed dozing.

Sleep is not my friend these days.

Beechville Book Club

One of my neighbors has started up a neighborhood book club (Hi Marie-Claude!). Her timing couldn't have been better. I needed something that would distract me and give me a goal, as well as something that would help me meet some more people and give me the opportunity for at least one night out of the house each month.

I am a fairly regular reader...it blows hot and cold. Sometimes I will read every night before bed and plow through a book each week. Sometimes I will go for a month without even touching a book. I guess it depends on if I have a book I'm enjoying, or if there is lots of good stuff on TV, or if DBF is home and we're keeping busy. For a long time I really only read "fluffy" books...ie: Shopaholic or Stephanie Plum. I still like those books for sure, but lately I had started in on things like The Other Boleyn Girl and The Kite Runner, so the book club is a welcome way for me to keep up with a bit more intellectual reading.

So the idea is that each month we will take turns chosing a book. Someone will suggest three titles and we will vote as a group. I think there are about 6-8 members so far, with mainly women. We decided that if there are enough men, we will alternate between men & women each month...to give fair opportunity on the types of books we chose to read and discuss.

Since it was her idea, Marie-Claude gave the options for our first book....The Kite Runner, My Sisters Keeper, or Atonement. I voted for My Sisters Keeper as it had been on my "must read" list forever. Lucky for me, it was the group choice.

Funny enough, once I started I could barely put it down. So here we are still 27 days away from our first meeting and I've already finished reading the book. It was THAT good. Incredibly interesting subject matter, fabulous writing style, good storylines, everything that I love in a book.

So I've already been out to Chapters and picked up another book by the same author, Jodi Picoult (I actually had to reel myself in from buying every other book she has ever written!). Plus, I've picked up another book that I'm sort of hoping makes its way into our book club... The Time Traveller's Wife... as well as The Boleyn Inheritance, and a more fluffy novel by Marion Keyes (I recently discovered her and read two of her books last month).

This crappy weather we've been having does suck, but at least it's good for curling up with a good book.