Easter Feaster

I'm writing this alone thank God. I'm recovering after hosting dinner for 16 last night. In my tiny little house! (Okay, more of an average size house for an urban area...but still...16 people and too cold to be outdoors is a tight squeeze.)

The kids have gone to play with their cousins right now, down in the Don Valley. For those of you not from Ontario, this is a nature trail that runs through the city alongside the Don River. The boys love it, especially the parts involving frogs, mud, ponds, bugs, snakes, you know....all those thing I just love and adore. *eyeroll*

But I had to give in to them...they indulged me on Saturday with a shopping day at a giant megamall waayyyy out in the suburbs. Shopping is my version of "fun with nature" hehe. I don't necessarily love malls, but it's such a change from what I'm used to, it was totally cool. It was this place, here. Very very strange...everything in this city was stucco covered and large, no sidewalks, just miles and miles of SUVs and minivans and megamansions. There were highway ramps going nowhere because nobody had finished building "there" yet. Completely alien to me, like visiting Mars...I grew up in a small town in Ontario, that had a slightly suburban feel, but nothing like this...even now. And now I'm in the urban core, in an old drafty Victorian house.

Anyway, we bought some clothes for the kids, and new outfits for their Bears at Build-a-Bear. My little guy brought his bear to the store, and got "surgery" on it to add a growl sound. Then he got it a biker jacket and sunglasses! (Yes, hilariously large cute factor here!)

But the best part of all, was the present I got on the way back home. You see, in our unrenovated kitchen, various appliances have been breaking down, so we had just replaced the microwave a week ago, and have been rearranging things ever since. Well, my ancient portable stereo in the kitchen finally died. (Yes, it was a gigantic black boombox from the '80s. And I carried it on my shoulder, while listening to Bon Jovi. Yes, this pretty much sums it up. Why do you ask?)

So, without even having to have a big debate or anything, we bought this, an undercounter DVD Kitchen radio with a drop down LCD TV attached!!!!

Yes, I'm excited.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I never get cool stuff. I live the most boring ass life on earth. But now I own this totally cool thing, I just have to be utterly obnoxious about it, okay? Especially since my husband actually installed it right away and it works now, instead of us both hemming and hawing about it, and leaving it sitting around until forever. As for why I'd want this? So I can watch TV while cooking, or washing dishes, or doing any of the 300 other boring things I get stuck alone in the kitchen doing. Plus I'm going to buy some cooking DVDs and finally learn to do something complicated to food. I'm very visual that way, I have to admit that the description in cookbooks doesn't quite help me as much as demos do. And running back and forth to the TV in the living room whilst burning food on the stove really blows!

So, before the boys get back from their very muddy adventure, I'm going to steal some more chocolate bunny and test out my DVD player.