Sometimes it's kinda fun to be bamboozled. Well this was certainly fun. I have the best husband and friends in the world- they organized and collaberated to completely shock me on my 40th birthday night- and that's pretty hard to do.

Have you ever been blindfolded in a car for 30 minutes, with absolutely no idea where you are going? You oughtta try it sometime. It's amazing how you're other senses really kick in.... the first image that I have of the surprise party is the wonderful smell when I crossed over the threshhold and into the house. the second was the sound of 50 people yelling SURPRISE and the third, of course was the sea of smiling faces.

What a wonderful night - thank you all for making it so special.

I had to make a trek out to the burbs to pick up something at the builders supply. I 'm talking about the remote area of maple and transit- holy traffic. I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed my two youngest boys were sound asleep- I had half a mind to pull off to the side of the road and take a nap while I waited for traffic to clear- I think that I would have been waiting until midnight. I haven't been to those parts in quite some time and was shocked to see how the landscape (or lack thereof) has changed. There's a thriving metropolis of stripmalls, one after the next. I noticed that there seems to be a gym and fitness center in every plaza- surrounded by an abundance of fast food drive-thru joints. Hmm- get in car, wait in traffic, get to drive thru, wait in line for fast greasy food, wait in traffic again, park in gym parking lot, enter gym, walk on treadmill for 20min.

I'm really glad that I live in the city where there's no traffic and you can actually walk to an abundance of good food restaurants. When I finally hit the "S" curves and took in the beautiful fall foliage at Forest Lawn and Delaware Park I breathed a sigh of relief- ahh the sweet city.

[the wonderful thing about having kids ( or being around kids-) is seeing life through their simple innocent eyes. i had several wonderful hours with my 2.5 yr old at the zoo today. he gave equal time to the elephants, fish, gorillas, tigers, mountain goats...... in fact i think he just thinks that we're hangin' out with the animals. the whole glass between the animals and us is a fuzzy notion in his head. he always loves to watch the gorilla kids play, but today when the seven year old gorilla girl looked him in the eye and tapped the glass- he shrieked-"he's gonna get me" and then "he can't tap on glass" {just like the sign says-what's good for the goose is good for the gander} he's equally fascinated with the elephants and the "big poo", the woman with the wheelbarrow, the snowy owl and the man cutting lettuce in the "zoo kitchen". the nice thing about going this time of year is that the merry go round and the train provide no distraction- they're closed. and if you go at the right time-no one else is there.]

(e:matthew) love the elephant...textures are great- it has a lot of dimension. you should show it to the young expert soon

mmmmmm-
beets and squash at mine's. not to mention beer and sausage.nice oktoberfest party last night.

went out last night to see donna the buffalo- spontaneously with my aunt/sister i never had, and cousin.

they were a funky country mix. when the guitar player with the cowboy hat played, it was a little too country- but the woman with the burgundy,gold upholstery looking pants stole the show- she had the crowd moving and grooving. she had a pink electric violin, squeezebox, classical guitar and a washboard vest that she played with a couple of butterknives.

the best part of the show was crowd watching- i zoned out for several hours watching peoples personalities unfold as they danced. there were 2 pregnant mamas dancing on either side of me....it was a beautiful awesome sight- but i;m glad not to be in their shoes-

good thing my husband took the kids to hocey at 6:30 this am- when you get home at 3am you need a little extra sleep.