I went drumming last night with a couple of the ladies from the drum circle and it turned into a little drumming and alot of chatting, which I was really hoping for because we really don't have a lot of time to chat at drum circles...so it feels like we know each other but we don't!  Very nice.
But I got home after picking Alicia up at work and Frank told me that there was a rather odd message on the phone from my cousin, Denise. 

Trying to plan a surprise 50th birthday party for one's spouse isn't all that easy!!  Luckily, his best friend is helping me out with it.  He owns a restaurant/hotel near Kitchener/Waterloo with a banquet room upstairs so we're using that.  Bob called Frank last night to arrange for us to come to his place for a "Moose Milk" party (think eggnog with rum)...that's how we're going to get him there because we missed our annual get together in the summer at his place this year.  It's 3 or 4 old high school friends who still try to get together every year with spouses and kids and such just to party.  
Today I got the invitations finished...I worked on them at work but I ran home at lunch and printed them up there.  I used a baby picture, a teenage picture and a current picture for the front...it turned out awesome!
I'm finding it really hard to not talk about this to him, though!!!  I know that he's going to think there's a problem by the time this comes around because there's a lot more quiet right now because I can't talk about the one thing that is upper most in my mind!!!
We also have to deal with his actual birthday, which is January 1st, before the party on January 13th...probably with a family dinner at the house.
So tonight I pick up envelopes for the invitations and get those in the mail.  I'm going to put together something for email so that I can send it that way as well for those who are on email and can respond earlier.  We're all going to just order off the restaurant menu for dinner and Bob is providing a bartender.  He's also going to look into getting us a cake from his contacts in K/W.  I don't know what to get Frank for a gift...what he really wants we can't afford and that's a plasma TV...don't know where we'd put it anyways.  Maybe Cam & I will go out shopping at Best Buy and see what we see.
AND  I still have Yule shopping to do!!
Deep breath! 

Conversation with Alicia, who I have seen a total of 20 minutes of in the last couple of days...
"Mom, Anu  asked me to come and hang out with her tonight but I told her I had to work until 11 pm so she said that her dad can pick me up after work and I can sleep over there tonight.  Is that okay?  I haven't seen her in, like, a hundred billion years!!!"  
For those of you not familiar with teenage-ese...sleeping will not happen but fighting probably will resulting in them not seeing each other for another hundred billion years...which is about 3 weeks in real time!  She will come home tomorrow with just enough time to shower but not to make her contribution for ritual tomorrow night before needing a ride back to work...unless she's too tired and blows it off, as she has in the past...in which case she will go to bed and probably still not make her contribution for ritual tomorrow night.   And she wondered why I was relunctant to say yes!
Other teenager is current banned from the computer because of 4 failing marks on his report card...this is the gifted one!!  Because of that, we've told him that 75% is a pass for him...not 50%...and all marks were below this although only one was below 50% so he's feeling cocky!  Just wait until he has to take grade 9 English for a 4th time! (last year, summer school, this year...)
I think I need some alcohol...which I can have because I don't have to pick up teenager #1 at work at 11 pm.  I knew there was a reason that I said yes!

We went to our Condo Corp's Annual General Meeting last night (not so annual since this is the first one in a couple of years!) and was disappointed, once again, when we didn't have a quorum and couldn't have a meeting.  But as we sat and talked, I heard some disturbing stuff.  Just a little bit of background...in the 18 years that we've lived here, I've been involved on the board of directors or as management for probably 10 of them.  I was replaced as management at the end of the last millennium and decided to distance myself a little bit so I've not been involved since then.  There seems to be a total complacency on the part of the 2 remaining board members.  They dropped the number of board members from 5 to 3 a few years ago because they weren't able to fill the 5 positions (NB. It was always difficult but I never remember having fewer than 4 board members at any time when I was involved).  After the new management company took over, they didn't raise the condo fees for 5 years until this year.  As a result, the condo's reserve fund hasn't grown at all in that time and we are, once again, at a time when there will have to be major repairs undertaken, like roof replacement, and there is no money for that.  They have had a reserve study done and we need to bump up our reserve now in order to meet needs over the next few years so now we'll probably be faced with a big increase to cover this.
Now, I don't want to say that the condo corp has been mismanaged since I left but I certainly don't think that they've followed the vision that was set in place a long time ago.  There is one fellow on the board who is all about cutting costs and always has been.  He and I never saw eye to eye and that's one of the reasons that I was removed as manager but I don't think that he's done us any favours.
So I told them to let me know when the next board meeting was planned because I'd like to get involved again.  There was other other person there who also wants to be on the board so I guess we'll see if one of the existing board members wants out...which is what it sounded like last night.  None of this can be officially voted on because we can't seem to get people out to an AGM but we can do some work and, hopefully get another AGM going in January by generating some interest in this reserve study and its ramifications.   It just doesn't make sense, when you see things going this badly wrong and you know you can help to sit back and not help.
So the AGM finished up early and I scooted home to get the kids to try to catch the end of the coffee m00t but we were too late...everyone had left.  We did find Dan wandering out to his car, however, and went back in for a coffee and a chat with him.  I guess with the babies, everyone else called it an early night.  Oh, well!

You are The Empress

Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.

The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents,
beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home
decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.

The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love. Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time, she can, in anger withhold, as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

It's 4:45 pm on Friday...both my bosses have left for the day...I can't go but that's okay.  No plans for tonight...just sitting around and probably playing taxi to Alicia later on.  Tomorrow, Samhain ritual and Oona's house blessing.  Sunday...glorious nothing!!!  Maybe some shopping....nice breakfast with my hubby and just vegging!!
Hope you all have as relaxing a weekend!