Wow, I've been slacking in the blogging deparment!

To be perfectly fair, I have been busy! So here's the synopsis of the past month. I have been to London to visit Michelle at her new apartment. She's settling into Grad School and teaching Biology labs. She hasn't poisoned herself yet with her own cooking, which is a good thing! Michelle has also been home, for Thanksgiving. We hosted a dinner for 23 on Saturday and a breakfast for the same folks on Sunday morning! (Luckily Debbie & Robin did most of the breakfast work!) A great time was had by all. Ann, Joe & Tyler came all the way from Toronto for this.

I've had a very lucky couple of weeks. I won tickets to The Wiggles. I'm giving them to a couple of cutie pie kiddies and they will love it I'm sure.

Bob was called back to work after 10 months of being laid off! That was a nice surprise and beats the heck out of seeing your old job posted in the newspaper with the line "previous employees need not apply!"

Thanks to Patty, prior to the public event, I got to sit and chat with Judy Collins for 1/2 and hour or so. (Yes THAT Judy Collins of "Both Sides Now" and "Send In The Clowns" fame. She is a lovely and gracious lady and very, very tiny! She's happy Obama won the Nobel, she despairs over the state of US health care, or lack thereof and she speaks very highly of Canada and Canadians. She is also a friend of Leonard Cohen, whom I love and that is likely as close as I'll ever get to Leonard! Then I got to listen to her interesting and inspirational talk. What a special night that was for me! (I can't believe I forgot to ask to have a picture taken with her.)

Bob and I went to another antique shop where I bought some stamps for $5.00 and found that the minimum just a few of them are worth is over $78.00. (Not too shabby eh?) I bought quite a few but haven't checked them out yet.

I've had neighbourhood meetings, City Hall meetings and well... meetings!

So, that's why I haven't blogged. I don't like to leave it dormant for this long though and will make a concerted effort to be more prolific.

Coincidences, Karma and 6 degrees of separation!

So a bit of background. My name is Pat, and my favourite radio station is CBC Radio, AM, (as I have blogged so many times previously.) I grew up in London, Ontario, I live in Windsor. My daughter's name is Michelle. Michelle is in her last year of Honours Biology, environmental sustainability, at the University of Windsor. She works part time as a Pharmacy Technician at a Shopper's Drug Mart... so...

As I blogged last weekend I left for Ottawa on business. I took the train there. From Windsor to London, I sat alone. At London a gentleman was my seat mate. He introduced himself. His name was Peter Leo, a senior producer at CBC Radio in Toronto! Now... that's not all. He grew up in London. He then mentioned the "Inter-City Student's Council of which he was a member." Well, it was one year and I was the rep for my high school! We met monthly at the Board offices on Elmwood. Peter and I had to be there, at the same time, for these meetings! We talked all the way to Toronto and are now facebook friends.

From Toronto to Ottawa was a woman, just a bit younger than me. Her name? Michelle! Her job? She works for an Global Company specializing in Environmental assessments and reporting! Her daughter's part time job? Shopper's Drug Mart, Pharmacy Technician. Michelle, (my daughter, not my seat mate,) was on her way to London to interview for Grad School at Western for her Masters in a program that Michelle, my seat mate, was very interested in! (Oh, by the way, Mich was accepted into the Grad program and accepted in return!)*EDIT* I forgot to mention that the woman's niece is a pyrotechnician! Being a Federally licensed pyrotechnician and Fireworks Supervisor myself it's strange to run into someone who knows someone who's licensed for this, along with all the other intersections in our lives it was even weirder!*

There are far too many coincidences for it to be mere coincidence! It seems my train rides were "engineered" by Karma!

Westminster High School, 1976 to 2008!

On Saturday night, 32 years melted away and we were all 18 again! It really was like a Monday morning when you catch up on what happened over the weekend, except, we caught up on 32 years! I loved it.

I loved high school. The 70's were raucous times and school was a blast! (I even liked the classes, math, chemistry & typing excepted of course.)

I have now re-connected with old friends, have them on my Facebook, (if Facebook crashes, it's our fault, sorry! Lots of adding, tagging and catchingupping going on,) and have photos that I can compare to my yearbook pictures. Seriously, I swear some of them could substitute the new pics for the yearbook pics and there would be no difference.

Sunday, I saw my first hummingbird! Driving home I saw a cast of hawks, I noticed the fields of soya beans were brilliant yellow like they were trying to outdo the blooming golden rod and that the trees are starting to turn colour to join the Fall pallet. I was tired but apparently very open and rather emotional. (oh and I'm very, very short aren't I?)

Party like it's your birthday!

Yesterday was the party for my brother-in-law, Mike, in London. Mich and I drove down and a great time was had by all! It was great to see everyone. My sister's neighbours know for sure now that Spring is here. If I'm on her porch, the snow is over. Keeping in mind I don't drive on the highway in winter.

Tons of family, friends, food, and drink. Mike and I add up to 100 now... we should get more respect!

Michelle is off to London; via VIA.

(as it's almost Super Tuesday I thought I'd use this pic of Mich & Mr. Hillary. (wax museum, NYC)

Mich is off to London for the weekend. I took her to the train station this morning. She's going to visit Jenny and my family.

I'm doing nothing this weekend! Well, I'm having Tunnel BBQ tonight, (thanks to my baby sister Sarah,) going to Bob's sister's house for dinner tomorrow, so no cooking for me either! I'm a sloth and proud of it. Hey I cleaned the house and even washed floors this week! (Plus, I'm still recovering from taking the tree down last weekend! I really, really, really hate doing that and it takes some time to get over it!)