Sin Tour 2005 continues

Last month it was clubbing and warding off lounge sharks in Whistler, this month it was gambling and general debauchery at the new and lavish River Rock casino in Richmond. Not a place I would ever choose to go to on my own, but InformEd, the group of post-secondary communications professionals I belong to, was having its fall meeting there.

So another one-night pass away from the responsiblities of parenthood was negotiated, thanks to my benevolent husband, and it was off for a day of intense networking with colleagues and presentations by marketing suppliers. But before the professional development began, there was some fun at River Rock, the venue for our Don't Gamble with Your Marketing conference.

(Must comment on the impressive architecture. The lobby was like the 'great room' we're planning for our addition but three thousand times bigger!)


We emulated the Las Vegas lifestyle by first eating at the buffet. Then my new boss and I went to relax in the lounge, but you can't actually get there without going through the Den of Sin casino, so I figured I might as well try this gambling stuff and invested $10 in the slot machine. Five minutes later, money gone. Thought I'd try another $20 and five minutes later I had $28 to show for it. Not bad. Could see how this could get addictive, although it's also a very silly way to spend time and money.

So we retreated to the lounge for some getting to know each other better time, but our casual chat was drowned out by the Eagles tribute band, which had a pretty good Wednesday night gig going for themselves.

Both being mums on furlough, what we really valued was a room to ourselves for the night, so we retreated to our separate abodes. The standard room at the River Rock is a sweet suite, with a big bed and TV in one room, and couch and chair and TV in another. Was running a big hot luxurious bath for myself when I thought I should really live the high life and have a glass of wine from the minibar, so I removed the bottle, knowing I couldn't put it back (once you pick it up, you pay).

While my hot, steaming, bubbly, lavender bath was running, I tried and tried and tried to open this bottle with the cheap little corkscrew in the room. I knew it was completely counterlogical to ignore the relaxing bath and fight with the cork, but I'm stubborn, and don't like to be defeated by technology. I had visions of calling the front desk to ask for help, but realized I was naked and that it would be far more effort than was worth it to get dressed again to seek assistance. Tried turning the corkscrew with my teeth and realized it wasn't worth major dental work to have a glass of wine at 11 pm. But, I'm very persistent. So, after sort of getting the cork unscrewed, ended up just jabbing at it, using the corkscrew as a digging tool. It worked, but created a very messy cork mess. So yes, eventually got my relaxed-mum-escapist-hot-bath with glass of wine, then read in bed til 12:30 pm. A rare luxury.

Was happy family survived and thrived without me (had to leave a whole page of notes on the logistics of getting everyone to soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, swimming, daycare, and back. Reinforced my realization that my major value between the hours of 3 and 6 pm is that of chauffeur). Miles was hiding so he could scare me when I came in the door, but was laughing too hard, so blew his cover.

Back to routine now. I think there's some lego to pick up and laundry to put in! Thanks for the day-pass, family!

Notes from a too-busy life

Miles had another asthma episode over the Remembrance Day weekend, causing me to stay home from the Russell-women outing on Nov 12 to see Mom's the Word. We had him on Ventolin every two hours, and thought we might avoid hospital this time, but when he woke at 2:30 am and showed no signs of getting comfortable or sleeping, and was panting, we figured we'd better go in. I took him in the absolutely pouring rain lashing darkness through Chilliwack at 3:30 am, to Emerge, where we were seen fairly quickly, ahead of the guy with the bottle broken over his gangster-style skinhead (who was quite friendly!).

(I should note that when Miles overheard me talking to Molly about maybe having to take him to the hospital, he replied with a vehement, "Me! No! Hopital!" So you can't say little ones don't remember traumatic experiences!)

The doctor there was pretty non-interventionalist, Miles' oxygen level was okay, and all the beds were full, so he recommended oral steroids (decamethasone). The nurse, having not encountered us before, naively thought that he would just drink this from a cup with some apple juice. No way. So it was the kicking, screaming, restrained, full-force-of-two-year-old-resisting-with-all-his-might, spitting-the-syringeful-right-back-at-her-and-kicking-another-nurse-in-the-groin method. On the next try a friendly male orderly held him down while a burly security guy waved finger puppets at him. He was not impressed; he's seen it all. But, with the nurse's help they got it in him.

The doc said the med would take effect in the morning, and it did. Miles had a much better day on Sunday.

In soccer news, Coach Daryl continues to look for small victories as his silver-level team plays an assortment of gold and silver-level opponents, all to various degrees of non-winning results. Had a good game today; we held our own pretty well and scored our first-ever goal right near the end, but still lost 3-1, which caused Molly to declare "We suck. We're now officially in last place," to the rest of her teammates. She got a very stern talking to about sportsmanship and not being a poor loser from her mum. The good news is, after this week they're putting the worst bunch of teams into one group and the elite into another, so we won't get beaten quite so soundly all the time.

Ugly and gruesome crime has come to our neighbourhood this week. A badly burned female body was discovered in the field right across from the farm of our friends where Miles used to go for daycare. Kind of scary. The police aren't saying much, although that also means they aren't sounding an alert that they think we're all in imminent danger.

We had a very busy (too busy) weekend. I went with a group of women to the Rosedale middle school dinner and auction in support of their band trip. Ended up winning the bids on a night at a B&B in Vancouver on West 6th (payed $105 for $140 value), and on an uncooked organic dinner for six (roast beef, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and blueberries). On Saturday after a grocery morning, Molly and I rode our bikes to the middle school so I could vote, including for my friend who was running for school trustee. Then later Daryl and I went to Earl's using a card someone gave us to make up for forgetting to pick up their kid from soccer. After that we went to our friend's for a sad non-victory part as she placed last in the race. Came home at 11:30 to find the babysitter at the computer keyboard, saying Miles was still awake in the bedroom. We went in to check and he was gone! Daryl went downstairs to look for him, but I found him asleep on the kitchen floor. Must of snuck out to look for us!

Today it was up early for soccer in Abby, then quick lunch at home, and the girls and I went to a matinee of UCFV Theatre's latest production, the 18th century comedy She Stoops to Conquer. Then we picked up our 93-and-a-half-year-old friend Jean, and she enjoyed the organic dinner from the auction with us (which Daryl kindly cooked. It was delicious). Jean enjoys the family atmosphere at our house, although Miles was very cranky tonight and whipped a slice of turkey across the table at her.

Then the long process of getting him to sleep!

Well, ta-ta for now all! Hope to hear from you soon!