happy b-day lil' bro

Today is my little brother's birthday and when I say little I actually mean 6'3. It is pretty crazy that he is 17 as I can remember the morning he was born and my dad was running around the house yelling at my sis and I to "STAY IN BED...YOUR MOM IS HAVING THE BABY....DON'T WORRY" he did pretty much scare us right back into bed. Then, later that day, we got a phone call at school that we had a new baby brother.
Little did the "little brother" know that:
a) he would wear pick diapers for the first 60 days of his life because everyone was SO sure he would be a girl that diapers were pre-bought
b) he would be subjected to being my sister's real life toy that she could dress up and put in her toy cradle beside her creepy Baby Shivers.
c) he would have two older sisters that love him soooooo much but also have no qualms about totally embarrassing him when necessary (though he has started to retaliate which is a bit distressing)
So to my much younger bro happy birthday and thanks for all the disgusting jokes, crazy dances, random attempted punches and for growing up to be pretty cool.

Weekend Update

The weekend starts for me tomorrow night when i fly to San Francisco with my mom. Yesterday I was not very excited but my feelings have changed as I browsed the SF tourism site. Museums, great food (wooo Sushi!) and lot of boutiques compounded by the kick-ass-ness of the Canadian dollar has helped. The only thing I am mildly stressed about is what to pack...or more honestly how many shoes is too many for a 4 day trip. The weather network shows cool temperatures and rain which is detrimental to my packing abilities. I think it is easier to pack for long trips than weekend trips...I only took 2 bags for a year in Japan but I feel like the suitcase I am taking to SF is way too big. Hmmm but I do plan to do a bit of shopping so it will probably be bursting on the way home to T's dismay. What? I can't help it, I love clothes the way gold member loves skin. (if you read this sis, you'll recall my perfect imitation of "i loooooovve clothes") a disgusting comparison perhaps but i think that same madness that we all saw in this character resembles my love of shoes, bag, clothes, scarves...righty then, this post has gone a bit askew but suffice to say i will be loving SF and all that is in it all the while experimenting with my new digital SLR!

like a polaroid picture

so as the kids in my family are leaving or have left (as my sis has) the family decided we should have some pictures taken. somewhere in the late 80s (ha this sounds so ominous) we had family portraits taken. my mother decided that my sister and i should be wearing the same dresses (which were black velvet with high cream satin collars and itchy...i hated it but i think it was because i hated being dressed like my sis. she loved it..ask her...she did!) anyhow we never had any professional family pictures taken again. so my brother, who is 16, has never been recorded as a member of our clan. actually he could care less it was more my mom and i thinking it might be a nice idea. so on monday night we all met at a local park and had some photos taken. it was nice, the photographers had us doing crazy stuff like skipping, chicken fighting and dog-piling on each other. yep, no stuffy more photographs for this family. so i am hoping that there are some good ones in the batch, they did take some individual pictures but they didn't give us much direction and i am sure i will look like a tool in them. t, on the other hand, broke out some modeling moves...who knew?

i am so looking forward to the long weekend coming up, i have tacked on a few more days to turn it into a mini vacation. i booked t and i in for a massage on friday night which i cannot wait for and then we head off to BC for a family thanksgiving celebration where we will golf, relax in the hots springs and eat way too much. (i usually forget to leave room for pumpkin pie but i cram it in anyway then spend the rest of the evening on the couch recovering). WEEEEEEEE!

here is my question why is it so expensive to fly in canada? on oct 12 i am joining t in toronto for yes, another long weekend. he has to be out there for work so all i have to do is get there and i can stay for free! i even got to pick a very nice hotel for us. i was trying to book my flight for one weekend, ONLY TWO DAYS, and it cost $900. i was bummed and figured i couldn't go...well i decided i wouldn't go as the cost was insane. but t convinced me to take the monday after off...i did...and it saved about $450, i am not kidding...24 hours later the flight drops to half the cost. that is ridiculous. honestly it is crazy that i could fly to bangkok for about the same amount of money. not to mention that i would probably spend less in two weeks there than two days in toronto! no wonder i have barely seen any of my home country...hey canada isn't our dollar kicking ass right now how about some cheap flights so people will spend their money in our great nation and not the states. sorry americans, no offense.