an odd sort of a day

first of all, i owe my sister an apology. it wasn't her! she didn't call me lazy. but, i know she would have, if she had though of it first. i bet she's biting her nails and wishing it was her. it turns out that some of my friends are pretty gutsy... some of my friend's parents even more so! got to love it :-) it's shocking to find out how many people read this little notepad of mine on a regular basis. all my love to all you odd people out there. sorry for the missed days and empty, uninspiring chatter. i'm not going to promise anything more. this is all you get. ha!

today was odd. early in the day we watched a suicidal man skating on the high park pond. yes! i say suicidal, because it has been cold for maybe a day and a night... ok, maybe two nights. the lake is hardly frozen. the edges of the lake were all water. i’m not exaggerating, for a good half a meter there was open water. and there, in the middle of the lake, just like he had fallen out of the white sky, there was a man on skates. it was beautiful. he was making gorgeous white carved lines onto the black shiny ice. the light behind him. the ice all dark. almost as though the lake was about to swallow him. he was floating. fast. back and forth. in circles. tracing the wisps of clouds in the sky. i hope he made it off the ice, as well. i stood there watching him for 15, maybe 20 minutes and then kaspar woke up and i had to start walking home. do you ever wonder if the things you see are just a mirage? it was kind of like that. it seemed so very surreal.

the crisp morning turned into a gorgeous, sunny day with temperatures reaching +7 in the sun. i spent some time sitting on the porch, soaking in the sun, daydreaming. kaspar slept for a long time. i managed to carry the stroller into the house without him waking up and he stayed asleep for an extra hour after our two hour long walk. what a bliss! tomorrow the weather man predicts +8 and sunny. it might be even nicer then today. i love this lack of winter. i wish every january was like this! i only feel bad for people who own businesses up north. they must be suffering! so sorry...

since kaspar's arrival, me and steve (and my mom, too, i have to give her some of the credit!) keep coming up with all sorts of new inventions for better baby products. there have been many great ideas and many already forgotten. if we had the wisdom to patent them all, we might actually be rich one day. tonight i invented the ideal baby/parent friendly telephone/toy. it's based on the fact that most babies love to play with items that parents use - like the telephone. but the phone is not very baby friendly. easy fix - stick a rubber nipple on the antenna and watch your kid be amused for hours!

i just got back from our local 'latvian pub night'. yes. we live in a neighborhood that has a large enough latvian population to have pub nights. it was my fist time and i must say, i think i might go again. i have a strange relationship with the latvian community. it's just like a relationship between most individuals and their families. hate it… love it… love it… like it… hate it… you love it and yet you want to get away from it.... but you go back and love it all over again. it was great to see some old friends. meet new people. see new faces. i had a great time! i counted 29 people tonight. some say there have been 35, 39, 42 people some nights. who knows which number is correct. none the less, i'm impressed. wow. i got to watch what i say on the streets around my place :-) never know who might understand...