Yesterday, I was struck down with a mighty migraine. How mighty was it? Well, I spent a lot of time over a plastic trash can, if you know what I mean, and I hardly climbed out of bed from about 2:30pm until 10pm. Then I sort of wandered around like a zombie and watched the news. Gosh, what a nasty day.

The house is a bit of a mess. Stew had the flu for about five days and now he's frolicking at Torcon. Good thing my mom gave me a birthday Swiffer Wet-jet ! Yeaaaah ! I'm going to clean today before heading to Campaign HQ. Tomorrow, I'm doing a bunch of constituency work and then seeing Rick. I was supposed to see him yesterday, but my plans were thwarted. On Sunday, I'm going to the Petes to pick up Scarlette because I don't like not having a car. I know, it suggests that I'm lazy, but I'm not. I just like having the OPTION of a car.

Now, back to cottage stories.

Emma's a Beautiful Little Girl.
She really is. She was an adorable baby, fat and munchkinlike and full of smiley goodness and now she's a wonderful toddler. And she's starting to speak. Of course, words are not quite like we know them, for instance, Hello comes out as "Lo-lo" and thank you is "Dahn-do". Kristina and Derek have been doing an amazing job of raising Emma to be a bright and polite little girl. She has one unfortunate habit, however; screeching. At seventeen months, Emma is experimenting with language and sound and screeching is filling some void she was obviously feeling in her life. She screeches happily, questioningly, angrily, and always irritatingly. She's easily forgiven, mind you, as she's such a sweet and friendly kid.

Otters !
Yes, that's right, we have otters ! I went out in the canoe one evening and was paddling about in the back bay, seeing how far in to shore I could get, what with the water being as high as it is this year, when I saw ripples in the water from behind a fallen tree. My initial thought was that the beaver were being unusually splashy, but as I approached and caught sight of the animal responsible, I was surprised to see no flat beaver tail. Too big to be a muscrat, I paddled in a little closer before it dawned on me what it was. "Eeeee ! An otter," I squealed outloud. Immediately following that, a head popped up, followed by three more ! "Four otters !" Indeed, two adults and two young, all playing together. We circled each other and they followed me about at a bit of a distance, all the while snorting and grunting.

On the morning of my birthday, they came into the bay our cottage overlooks and Mom woke up me and Tracy up to come see them. They were climbing about on a deadhead and splashing and swimming about before they receded into the rear where we could no longer see them. What a wonderful gift to have otters in our lake. In my mother's 35 years of owning the cottage, never before have we seen otters. How very exciting !

I turned 26.
There's not too much to say about my birthday. It passed without too much fanfare, at least as compared to years previous. I got new glasses, so I can strike them off my wish list, as well as a truly fantastic tome of world mythology. As well, Tracy gave me a pair of Muppet figures, Rizzo as seen in Muppets from Space and, Sam the Eagle from Muppet Treasure Island. I LOVE Sam ! he's absolutely one of my favourite Muppet characters. Now I'm faced with the problem of figuring out where to put them. I'm running out of room for toys AND books on my shelves. I should note that Mom bought the Swiffer AFTER the presents were given so that it wouldn't be a gift. She hates the idea that I wanted a Swiffer for my birthday.

Jean and Michael came up the hill to join us for birthday cake after dinner and that was a great visit. Michael is so funny, he had us in stitches at a couple of occasions and we were filled in on much of the local gossip. Lots of cake was eaten and coffee/tea was drunk. Prior to that, Tracy and I went crab apple picking down the road. Both of us climbed about in the trees, less successfully than we would have liked, but fun, nonetheless. We followed a groomed trail that meandered into the forest, I suspect, for the purposes of the hunting club. We also hiked along the lovely logging road across from the hunt club enjoying the view of the beaver stream and the land as a whole. Unfortunately, I also had to pack up my stuff on my birthday, too, because Tracy and I would be leaving the cottage on the following day.

Okay, that's enough news for now. It's time for breakfast (I've been up for a couple of hours, but haven't gotten around to eating yet) and then vaccuuming and Swiffing !