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Christmas shopping and the phantom tooter.

2007-12-13 - 9:55 a.m.

Now that Grommet is stringing more words into sentences, it�s hilarious some of the stuff she comes out with. The other night a mysterious stench filled the air and J, Bobby and I all looked at each other suspiciously. We were all quick to vehemently deny culpability, then Grommet came charging back into the room, which she�d vacated a minute or so earlier.

�Grom, did you notice it�s stinky in here?�

Came the reply, �I toot, then I leave!�

�You sure did!�

::

Our office Christmas Party was yesterday. I had some misgivings when I walked into the dingy dive hole restaurant, and they were mostly borne out when our �buffet lunch� was an hour late and consisted of salads, tiny hotdogs, chicken wings, onion rings, fries, and mini slices of pizza. It was like the menu had been chosen by a teenager, who�d added salad as an afterthought concession to our advanced ages. Still, once my eyes adjusted to the dimness, and I�d gotten at least enough to fill me up (even if it wasn�t great food), we all embarked on a few rounds of pool playing, and that�s always a good time.

I used to play quite a bit of pool. I started in about grade 3 when my best friend had a pool table in her house, and have gone through sporadic bouts of intensive playing, usually dependant on whether it was a chief pastime of the fellow I was dating at the time. My boyfriend from when I was 15 worked at an arcade, so naturally we played a lot then, and when I was 16 I dated another guy for almost a year and the typical weekend ritual included at least one evening at a pool hall frequented by some of Ottawa�s most serious players. It became more of a sporadic activity through university, and I confess I�ve played more and more seldom since then.

It was good to play again, though my playing was wildly inconsistent. I�d miss a bunch of relatively easy shots, then handily pull off a long combination cross corner. Still, those sporadic moments of great play definitely gave a boost to my pool-playing reputation, plus it was fun to play with both my closest work friend (who�s moving on to another job next week *sniff*), and my �big boss�, who�s a fun guy that I respect immensely.

::

Thanks largely to J, who�s gone out of his way to pick stuff up for me that I�ve asked him to, I�ve got almost all my Christmas shopping done. I just need to pick up a couple of things still, but I�ve decided what those things will be and that�s always the biggest challenge for me. I�m very pleased about the gifts I�ve found this year, particularly the one for my youngest brother, who is very hard to buy for. It was a total �ah ha!� moment when I spotted what would be his gift: a plain black toque with built-in earphones! He�d actually asked for a new toque, but the earphones are what really put the icing on the cake. What 15-year-old wouldn�t love this gift? Especially one that already likes wearing toques? Woo hoo! Score!

Before - After


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