My Mother has a big garden at her house. She lives outside the city where there are golf courses, cows, deer and horses. In her garden there are a lot of bugs, birds, flowers and vegetables. She has some trees of course. One of my favourites is the tulip tree. Eash Spring it gets big white and pink flowers.

I like to watch the bugs in the garden. There are so many different kinds, doing so many different things. Some bugs just eat everything. We don't like those ones. I've seen a couple of caterpillars eat every last leaf off a rose bush. There are bugs that eat other bugs. Spiders, ladybugs, praying mantis and some kind of wasp which I don't remember the name of. I like the ladybugs best. The red and black colours are dramatic looking. Ladybugs will suddenly fly away just when you think they might crawl all the way up your arm. Probably someone told them that old rhyme about their house being on fire.

Birds of all kinds come around too. They never stay very close if anyone is outside. From inside, at the window, you can watch them in the bird bath or bird feeders. They peck in the garden for bugs. I'm sure there are always plenty to find. My Mother's garden gets a lot of hummingbirds. I don't know how they manage to always be in flight when they are so very small. I watch them hovering around the flowers, looking for nectar. Its rare that they land anywhere to take a break. When I watch them its almost always a red or pink flower they poke their beak into. I think they don't eat bugs because they don't have time to chew before they are off again. Being a hummingbird would not be an easy job.

At night I know there are bats too. Its really unusual to see them. Bats are great bug catchers, they have all the night bugs. There are all kinds of bugs out at night which you wouldn't see in the day. It seems to me that most of the night bugs can fly. June bugs are the biggest and they like to fly around where there is some light. I've seen a whole flock of them at the back door. I was hoping to see some bats snacking on them, but I missed them if they were there. Bats have a bad reputation, its not fair. In movies and TV they have made bats seem scary. If you see a bat you can be sure it would rather munch on a bug than on you. Its not likely you will ever see a bat, unless its in a zoo or museum, bats spend most of their time hidden away.

There are other animals around the garden. Rabbits, mice, squirrels, raccoons, skunks, chipmunks, groundhogs, sometimes a deer or fox will appear but they always run away when they see us. Stray cats make us feel sad. Most of them have too many babies. The mother cats are always hungry. There are too many cats for us to help them all. Grandma isn't sure she wants a cat around her garden. Cats keep away some of the rodents but they also keep away most of the birds too. Birds seem to know which houses and gardens cats live in. I'd miss the birds if they stopped coming to the garden. Also, there would be a lot more bugs around and its no fun squishing them all with my fingers. I think its pretty icky.

When you get one of those good book in a cozy nook with the perfect smooth coffee and a little bit of something sweet and decadent, what kind of coffee and decadence are you having? For me its a chocolate swirl cheesecake or in ice cream its vanilla storm, or gold medal ribbon or a DQ chocolate dipped cone. Coffee changes for me. When I was a young adult going to the Second Cup in the Scarborough Town Centre I would always get a mocha coffee. That was when they made it with a mocha bean, they don't seem to have that any more. Now I like the Ethiopian or French vanilla from the Timothy's coffee place in the Newmarket, Upper Canada Mall. When I'm in the US its hard to find a good coffee. Barnes and Nobles is the only mega bookstore near us so I drag my husband there every month or so. Coffee just hasn't fully caught on in the US. At least that's what I have come to conclude.

The best thing I like to do on a laid back weekend day is browse around one of those mega bookstores, take the odd bit of notes in my notebook and dawdle over a good coffee. In Canada, Chapters is my favourite store. In the US I like Borders best but they don't have an outlet close enough. I'm hoping one will suddenly spring up.

Oddly enough, one thing I have not done is get a piece of cheesecake or anything like that when I'm in the bookstore. Either I'm being figure conscious or I just want to spare the books getting anything messy on them. Probably some of each. Its such a nice way to spend an hour or two I'd hate for the stores to change their way of doing things and stop people from browsing with their coffee. I have seen some pretty messed up books in the sale racks. Not just a little crumb or a tiny spill of coffee. Some of the books have been very badly damaged. I bought one for 75% off, it was about making rustic furniture. It was a treat for me to be able to buy the book. I wouldn't have if it had been full price. But I doubt the book's writer or the bookstore would feel pleased about it. Its a shame people aren't more careful.

I'm not an angel or some perfect puritan type. I think I'm stretching the rules when I make notes of the odd URL from the books and magazines I skim. I don't usually walk out without buying something, I tend to know what I want to get when I go in there. But, its not exactly ethical to take the information from the books I'm not buying. Still, I reason that the URLs themselves are public knowledge and public property. I don't think the book's writer can copyright the URL, just their review of the site and the rest of the book or magazine article's content. So, I go ahead, feeling at least a little guilty.

Chances are I will be a book store employee in my next life. I'll spend eight hours a day putting books away and being pleasant to people who have just dumped a cup of coffee on the rustic furniture book, originally selling at $50. At least I'll have an employee discount, though I'll have spent my pay cheque before I leave the store.

One birthday a year isn't really enough. Birthdays are such a lot of fun they need to be multiplied and spread out over the whole year. That's why I think the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland had it exactly right.

There are three hundred and sixty four unbirthdays in a year. That's a lot of cake and ice cream you're missing out on. Of course, some days are school days and some days are party days for other kids or even Christmas and Halloween. So you can cut out some of the unbirthdays. Still, that leaves you with several possible unbirthdays.

I'm not sure what people do on unbirthdays. Maybe you have to walk backwards all day or wear your clothes inside out and backwards because its the opposite of what you usually do on a birthday. Maybe you make three wishes, write them on a piece of paper and hide them under your pillow until your real birthday comes along. Maybe you try something new like flying a kite, phoning your Grandparents by yourself or making the biggest sandcastle anyone has ever seen. Or maybe you just call your friends and have a lot of fun at the park.

So what will you do with your unbirthdays this year? What kind of adventure can you plan?

This was posted to a newsletter I wrote for BackWash Kids Sandcastles and Dreamcatchers - Exploring, discovering and creating for kids. Build sandcastles, catch dreams, smell all the roses in your world.

I'm in my parents home typing this, obviously I got the parole. It was a journey of many steps though.

First of all, I had a money order for $100 and they would not accept it. The fee was $95 (not according to the website) and luckily they would take a personal cheque. On the website it also says they will not take cash or cheques. The website is an ornamental decoration, pretty much ignore it.

Next, I needed more papers than I had been prepared for. If you have something which shows your reason for going back to Canada bring it along. It wasn't a problem not having anything but its something they ask for on the form you fill out when you had over the money. I wrote a note (luckily I had a notebook to rip a page out of) about going for my sister's wedding.

Next thing, bring quarters for the photocopier or bring photocopies of your green receipt page and your passport with the I94 page. For some reason we had a discrepancy with the dates between the expiration of the k1 visa and the date we got the EAD card. She said it wasn't a problem but she did check all my dates.

Once you get through all of the line ups and handing over of paperwork you wait for the agent/ clerk (what are they called anyway?) to take your file and review your case. She came back and asked me about something small and I don't remember what it was now. Nothing dramatic. The oddest and the luckiest thing that happened that day at the INS was that by pure chance and Irish luck I had our wedding certificate with me. I had just impulsively tucked it into my purse to show my Mom when I saw her here. That was what the INS agent wanted to see and take a photocopy of before granting me the parole.

I really had no trouble getting the parole, just frustrations with things not being what we had expected. I was there over 4 hours. My brother waiting down below in the car to finish driving me home to Toronto.

The parole I got is good for a year with multiple re-entries. What I actually have is enough for three as far as I can tell. Maybe multiple means just three or if I want them I can ask for more. Three is likely enough anyway. I plan to be back in the US early in September. I'd like to come back to visit my family in the Spring when the trilliums are blooming. They don't have any trilliums down here in southern Illinois, Todd has never even heard of them. :)

Ok, here is my confession... I was an IRC diva. Please don't hate me because I baited trolls and flirted way too shamelessly. I was a confused virgin, out to explore the world of sex and other adult situations. It was fun until I started wondering whether I was really the user or the usee. I'm still not sure. Its one of those snakey tail in mouth questions, it has no end and no beginning.

Think you recognize my nickname, SheDragon? I still think I was the first but I know of three others. If you check ICQ members for SheDragon there are way more than three. Still, I'm the first and I did just about everything naughty and promiscuous on IRC. What, you may ask.

It started with just chatting, nice girl, polite chat. I met a guy who was the channel hot stuff and I liked that. I now know I like the man in charge, the one with the power. Back then I was a nice girl without a clue. As I watched the standard flirting that goes on I began to want that kind of freedom. The ability to completely let go of all your restrictions while remaining faceless and unknown behind a computer screen. It was such a rush! I became a bad girl, surprised the heck out of all the people in that channel who thought they knew me.

From there I had my heart completely broken once. It never happened to me again. I wised up and understood the give and take a lot better. In general women on IRC are looking for a Prince Charming to sweep them off their feet and put them on a gilded pinnacle. The men are looking for someone with big boobs and a nice ass to meet them (anywhere close) for sex of any kind. They prefer younger meat but if she's really female, born that way they don't mind a few flaws. Not too many though! A guys got to have some standards.

Am I picking on men? No, I'm picking on men and women and feeling a little sorry for both. I don't feel self righteous about it, just a little wiser for my experiences. I'm not going to write about just how low down I sunk, it involved a certain IRC channel which no longer exists. I did play in a Truth or Dare channel and chat regularly in a BDSM channel but those aren't the best of the worst. Still, I wouldn't redo it or undo it. Experiences give life flavour, the good ones are wonderful but the less than good ones make you appreciate what you have and how you've earned it.