lots and lots to tell! first of all, the sale of my folks' apartment has been approved by the co-op board of their building, so the move is set. they are going to bid on a house on hickory hill near my sister. this is a huge relief to both her and myself. we wanted them to be nearby to one of us, so we could get there in a hurry if need be. i talked to my mother last night and she is already well on the way in the organizational process of moving. god knows she has done it enough times before!

my nieces had their prom while my folks were here last week, so we all got to see them dressed up. my sister invited all of their friends and parents over to the house for pre-departure photo-taking. it was alot of fun. i told her next year to have the parents all bring pics of their proms from 25 years ago to really scare the kids! the boys looked so awkward. i have always thought a tux could make any man look good, but not when it's a 16 year old, pimply-faced child. wow am i glad i am no longer a teenager! they have it very difficult at this point...

the man and i managed to have dinner with my parents twice while they were here. it went well...of course. it's funny, i wasn't nervous at all beforehand. i love him and my parents both and felt certain that they would get along. i mean, what's not to like? anyway, it was a good hurdle to have jumped.

i've been baking for my sister this week. her kids are doing a relay for life team and one of their fundraisers is a series of bake sales. i've made banana breads, blueberry cornmeal breads, cinnamon walnut coffeecakes and brownies so far. i'm happy to do it, as this type of baking is relatively effortless for me.

my trip to toronto with the man is coming up on sunday and i am very excited. he got a new car in a color called galapagos green, so we promptly named the car yertl the turtle. we'll be taking it on the trip so we can ride in new-car-comfort! also, the menu for lunch at the cn tower has been posted and it makes me hungry already.

the man and i spent the day in amish country last week. it was all very quaint, with rolling hills and horse-and-buggies all around. we found a great bulk foods store where i bought 15 pounds of flour, among other things. we had a nice day in the country, albeit with lots of fluffy white bakery items!

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work just keeps getting better. we have a new regional manager this week and he came to visit our store on monday. the store manager invited me to have lunch with them (woo-hoo!) so i got to schmooze a bit. the regional said he was surprised how few managers we have in the store at this point, based on our sales figures. that, in combination with the confirmation of the new store's opening date (set for thanksgiving), means that my long-anticipated promotion should come sooner, rather than later. this is very good news indeed.

it seems the contract on my parents' apartment is going to hold. their closing is scheduled for mid-july. this leaves much preparation for the few intervening months for them. but they have moved many times before, so they know the drill. my sister and i will be glad to have them here finally. the move has certainly been an awesome thing for me and we all hope it will be for them as well.

i'm going bowling today with a couple of people from work, then out to lunch. one of the guys bowls regularly with scores over 200, so i will look lame for sure. but it should be fun, too. we'll go out to lunch after, then i can come home and work on some mother's day cooking. a chocolate mint ice cream pie with girl scout thin mint crust; a macadamia orange cake that i want to adapt from a gateau bretagne recipe i have; some breakfast pastries as well. we'll see how far i get.

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this morning it's the STUPID military that's pissing me off. in addition to the thousands of images of prisoner abuse that were passed around (gleefully) on cd's all winter in iraq, now there's this. the story says that this guy, who is an accountant with an mba and is married, is now at an undisclosed location "under army control." why the hell wasn't he under army control when he was supposed to be doing his job????

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