Home again, home again

So we're back in our little house, all together now.

It was a super trip.

1.  I got to spend some time with my Grandma.  She's in her nineties and just had two operations for recently-diagnosed breast cancer.  We feasted a couple of times on takeout Chinese food and tea.  So wonderful to see her and have time to relax and chat. 

2.  Great to see my mum and dad!  They are just about the loveliest people you could ever hope to meet, and integrity personified.  I totally won the jackpot when I got to be their kid.  Counting my blessings, you'll find them at the top of the list.  I'm now craving my dad's casseroli.  It's dynamite and transports me directly back to childhood every time I eat it.  MMMMMcasseroli.

3.  Got to see my friends.  Had some fantastic suppers, some wonderful hugs, and plenty of belly laughs.  They are smart, strong, beautiful women, all of them.  I am blessed.

4.  I got to see a cat lose its ears to frostbite.  It was pretty amazing and I found myself a bit emotional once the bits actually fell off.  Bodhi is no intellectual lottery winner, truth be told...he basically tried to commit natural selection a few weeks back when he decided to head out into the Western Canadian Winter to hide under a car for two weeks. 

It was about -800 degrees outside (that's about -400 fahrenheit, Kulio). 

Of course he ignored the fact that the car was three feet from a heated garage with a door that went up and down several times a day, leaving him plenty of opportunity to return inside...and never mind that his loving family called his name for DAYS.

No sir.  Bodhi was holding his ground and HIDING, dammit.  He was going to show that blasted sweet family with the endless supply of food, water, and love WHO IS BOSS.  

Or at least, WHO IS DARWIN.

When they finally found him, they practically had to peel him out of the snow.  His tail was frozen and now juts at an odd angle, and the tips of his ears froze completely. 

When Adele and I arrived home, the ear bits were hanging by bits of skin and I lived in terror (well, okay slightly morbid nervousness) that they would quietly pop off and Addie - who is still basically a 22-pound Dustbuster - would be the first to find them.  SOOO not interested in supplementing her protein levels with a bit of feline.  Fortunately, my sister was on top of the matter and my worries were totally unjustified.  Poor sweet, dumb cat.  Ya gotta love him, now that he's a survivor.  Even if he has only two active neurons to rub together.  

5.  Eva did her class presentation this week.  She compared Eid al-Fitr and Easter to answer the question, "Are holidays in other countries the same as holidays here?"  She did a poster that is the freaking BOMB, and memorized a whole bunch of facts about the two holidays.  

We were pretty proud of her - mostly because of how hard she worked on it.  All by herself, she drew about ten pictures for her poster, cut them out, and glued them onto the cardboard...and then memorized a two-minute presentation which she practiced relentlessly over several days.  She had a little trouble because she kept jumping from "And they killed Him and He rolled away the stone and went up into the sky because He was full of love and the Easter Bunny came". 

Etienne helped her gather facts and arrange them in order...but she put it all together.   Never underestimate a troll.

6.  Addie can say the word "bee" and "tree"...she has also started saying "choo choo" for train, and "I DONE".  The latter is the one that gets the most airtime in her vocabulary, because she uses it constantly whenever we try to feed her or well, get her to do anything at all.  She seems to be showing no ill effects after last week's divebomb into the carpet at my parents'.   I, on the other hand, have aged about five years.

Tomorrow's Friday and that makes me happy.  Looking forward to a few days with my beautiful little family.  Off to bed now.

I DONE.