Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Is everyone ready for Xmas??? oh and Happy Anniversary!

2 Years today - Happy Wedding Anniversary honey!!! It does however feel like 10 years! I was convinced actually that it was 3 years this year and was quite shocked when I did the math and realized it was 2! I am so happy we got married at this time of the year. Christmas always has that warm cozy feeling anyways and to have family and everyone around for an extra celebration is great! My husband didn't want me to give him his card and gift last night or this morning... we have to wait until 6pm tonight as that's when we got married!! My good friend Kavita got engaged yesterday - so so happy for you :) and another friend from Windsor also so there is definetly something in the air! Congrats!

Well I have made my list and between my lunch break today, after work tonight and tomorrow I hope I can get everything done.. I won't be able to make it to the chocolate factory and I promised the Laings some chocolate dipped licorice (sorry, they won't be open until the spring now) :( I did pretty good though and on the whole was much more organized this year than previously! Caleb is so excited about Xmas this year... and I am so excited for him! He asks me every morning if Santa came.. then if we can go and see him. We read 'The Grinch Who Stole Xmas' last night and he was very solemn throughout! I have a small Grinch ornament on the fireplace mantle and I showed Caleb and told him that the grinch was watching and if he was bad then after Santa had been the Grinch would steal all his presents... He was really good last night and went to bed when he was told! And took his Grinch book to daycare to tell Jeanie all about it!

Monday, December 01, 2008

December 1st... 24 days until Xmas!


It seems like this winter we have had more snow already than the whole of last winter.... Crazy huh? And we're to get more I guess over the next couple of days. Unfortunately I brushed off the top of our oil tank today and realized that since we moved in we have already gone through 1/2 a tank of oil ... that means since thanksgiving... October.... that also means that there is no insulation in our walls... we are screwed (as my husband put it), it is going to cost us a small fortune to stay warm this winter and in up coming winters until we get to the point (and can afford) to rip out every wall and insulate and drywall


Let's see what else I discovered today... oh yes it's 24 days until Xmas.. and I have nearly no Xmas shopping done.. and the next day I have to get to the city to shop is December 20th Yeah so all you people that live in different parts of Ontario and definitely England.. don't expect your presents on time.. I do however have my cards done :) And soon as I am always trying to do a good deed I agreed on Saturday to wait on tables at the church tea, make 2 loafs o
f sandwiches and 2 dozen batches of cookies (which I will do in all my spare time this week:) You can just see Sean rolling his eyes.. right? Why do I agree to these things? And... now he has to come to the church tea too with the kids! It's like torture for him! Sorry but I can't help but laugh. Caleb and I did decorate the tree, but you can't see pictures yet it's not done.. we try and do a theme every year... this year it's old fashioned Xmas so we are stinging popcorn, making paper ornaments etc... I'll post a pic when we get to it! I did decorate the banister and Caleb is getting super hyped. He got to have his first chocolate from his advent calendar today. Mason on the other had has no idea what is going on and why Caleb is so wound up... but he does like trying to pull the tree down.. Wait until the popcorn goes up!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

More snow...


SO now we really got dumped on.. anyone who doesn't have to deal with this I am jealous!!! I was going to ballet last night and got my truck stuck in the driveway... yes that's right.. MY driveway. And seeing as I wasn't so smart with getting together winter wear I am walking everywhere wet and freezing... I threw away my snow boots in the summer as I decided it was time for new ones so walking in a ton of snow in my Ugg boots just ain't fun! Must get some shopping done.. I did the kids they have all new winter wear... but I guess it always works that way them first and Mum freezing her ass off!! Going to make my way through all the snow banks to work!

Monday, November 10, 2008

New blog name....

So I hate my blog title but I am some what lacking in inspiration.. that part of my brain muscle is severly underworked.. I have a few ideas let me know what you think.. or if any of my more artistic friends or family have ideas I am open to them.... Here goes just a warning... I suck!

The not so random blog
A day in the life of me.
The life and times of my family
The complete blog of The McLaughlin Family
It's all blog to me
Ready.. set .. blog!
100% me.
Back in the blog again
My online journal

First snow fall of 2008!!


Well here we go time to pull out the winter coats & boots... but I haven't been to Sudbury yet so I felt like a mean Mum sending my kids off to daycare in their running shoes!! Caleb was pretty excited and was trying to get outside in his pj's and my crocs while I was outside trying to put away the patio furniture (yeah we didn't do that yet!) But I don't think it will stick around it's mean to be +3 today so there is a good chance it will all melt by this evening! And so the winter begins :(

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Laughing at old photos



















Ok so I was adding photos to my facebook and I caught sight of this photo from last year.. may I just say that Mason was way happier to be sat on Santa's lap!! and look how bald he is!!

Caleb's first sleepover & Mason's first meeting with Santa!

This weekend Caleb had his first sleepover... it was so cute! My husband didn't think that 3 yr olds should have sleepovers but I beg to differ. Although a little crazy in the McLaughlin household.. (good job we have this big old house now) the boys had so much fun. We only had two incidences of them beating on each other, the only other crocodile tears was Caleb bouncing off his bed and landing on his head :( The boys here are painting, they also painted my table which is now stained green and blue.. who knew that crayola WASHABLE paint would turn my table a different colour???

We also went to the Christmas market and met with Santa. Caleb was pretty excited and was going to ask Santa for Batman Underwear... Mason on the other hand, as you can probably tell by the picture wanted NOTHING to do with him!! We tried a few times only to get the same response. Usually this is the photo I use to mail to the fam. and put in Xmas cards but not this time! Oh well later in the the lead up to the festive season we have Santa's breakfast so we'll try again then!

Monday, November 03, 2008

Tonight I am going to update my blog...

So here I am with a glass of wine... finally trying to find the time to do this. I love reading other people's blogs, my friend Kavita and her sis are so good at this, and I am jealous every morning when I sit down with my coffee and check my mail, banking, blogs etc.. So much always seems to be going on so I guess I just have to write about it!!

We too had a Halloween party.. it was kind of a house warming, Sean's B'day, Halloween party. Sean insisted (and I protested) that everyone had to dress up. So I invite everyone, plan the food, drink etc.. then Saturday morning I head off to teach ballet and Sean takes over. Boys are useless!! By 4pm he is running around town frantically buying things and panicking because our party starts in 4 hours and he still doesn't have a costume. We live in Gore Bay in the middle of nowhere so buying a costume is not an option! He ended up going as a mummy, and after much frustrating yelling at each other in the bathroom we finally got him wrapped up and he looked pretty good! I went as a Glampire. It's so easy for girls to do the slutty thing.. fishnets, low cut top, wear black, heavy eye makeup - BOOM a costume. Yes not all that innovative I know but I am not a big Halloween fan. I am sure I spend a lot of time in my life doing stupid things I don't need to make myself look even more ridiculous.. That's just my opinion.

I did get to carve pumpkins with my boys which was fun. We made a huge mess on the floor and I didn't care cause they just loved it! We saved the seeds as I just got Caleb a book we've been reading about a little boy that plants pumpkin seeds and grows a prize pumpkin so we dried some out to plant in the spring and hopefully we'll have our own pumpkin patch! Caleb is totally psyched about it! Unfortunately kids suck we put them on our front door step and the next morning one was missing and the other was kicked in. Caleb was pretty upset that his pumpkin was missing.. I felt awful!!! Oh well next year we'll know better!

Monday, September 29, 2008

Article in Chateliane Magazine..

I found this article in an old Chatelaine magazine when I was sat at the doctors office or somewhere and I thought I would post it for you to read. I actually e-mailed Chatelaine and they dug it out of their archives for me. It is called 'My son, the dancer' by Katrina Onstad. It's an interesting read, especially for me teaching ballet and having two boys. Their Dad is pretty adamant that next year Caleb won't be joining the ballet school, whereas of course I can't wait to sign him up! I tried to get Sean to read it but he looked at the picture of the little boy sat between the two girls in pink tutus laughed and handed it back to me. So here you go, see what you think... enjoy!

My son, the dancer
by Katrina Onstad

In the pink ghetto of ballet class, the sight of boys still makes people squeamish. Let me say this: I was not trying to make a point when I signed my son up for ballet. Registering your kids for classes in Toronto is a particular kind of hell: It’s airplane-delay hell, it’s on-hold hell; it’s the hell of total helplessness in the face of one’s very best efforts. There are too many people in the city and not enough classes, so when I finally got through the online registration process, gymnastics, “creative movement” and swimming were filled. This is how my son ended up in preschool ballet. And I didn’t give it too much thought: A three-year-old boy doing ballet can’t be such a big deal, right? We’re post–The Bad News Bears; we’re even post–Billy Elliot. On the morning of our first class, I upsold: “You’re going to take ballet. You’re so lucky. You get to dance around for half an hour while Mommy reads the paper, something she hasn’t done in four years. I love ballet!” J. just looked at me, and said, “Mom, ballet’s for girls.” I felt nauseous. How had this happened so soon? Where had I failed him? An image came to mind: A dreadlocked boy who often showed up at my son’s daycare in dresses. His mother, forever breastfeeding some sibling or other, casually telling me, “He wears what he wants. Why fight it?” That kid would never scoff at ballet; he wasn’t the socially constructed cog that mine clearly was. “Nonsense!” I shouted. “Let’s go to YouTube!” I sat J. in my lap and showed him men dancing when I requested she produce in the flesh these hypothetical groundbreakers.
Nonetheless, she proved an excellent teacher. Through the window, I watched J. as he tentatively
pointed his toes and raised his hands above his head. When it came to the free dance, he went mental in the way I’d hoped, frogbouncing and pinballing. At the end of the class, he announced, “Good,” and left very happy. The next week, his father took him, reporting back that it went “great!” He paused. “Except . . . .” He said that just as J. was approaching the studio, one mom looked in and exclaimed, “It’s a sea of pink! So cute!” And then turned to see my son in his army shorts and England soccer shirt. “Oh . . . ,” she said, surprised. When I went the next week and peered through the glass between newspaper sections, I saw everyone in pairs, except my son. J. stood, bouncing on his toes with his hand out, his open-to-the-world face tilted upward. No girl would hold his hand. The pink cloud next to him, maybe four years old, squealed and ran away; so did two others. The moment was frozen for me: my son, rejected because he’s male. It seems that, at least where ballet
is concerned, the gender divide is as wide as ever, for both kids and parents. Kelly Bale, who manages the recreation programs at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, says that the school has been actively recruiting boys for years, offering all-boy classes and financial incentives simply to get the male numbers up. In the recreational program, 36 weeks of instruction for a girl is $460; for a boy, it’s $88, which just covers the costs. Even so, only about 20 percent of the students are boys. The repercussions for the art are serious: Can you imagine a ballet without men? Bale admits she’s heard stories about boys being picked on in the schoolyard. Yet at registration, it’s not the boys who are hesitating; it’s often the dads. “They’ll say, ‘He can’t do it that day. He has soccer,’” she says, laughing. “We play up the athleticism and the coordination to the parents. We say that it will supplement sports.” But why is a boy doing ballet for ballet’s sake such a scandalous idea? Clearly, there’s a whiff of homophobia in this aversion; ballet is about grace, beauty – pink. It’s feminine, and feminine is still only okay for females, unless you’re, you know, gay. But girls are encouraged to borrow from the best of masculinity with little controversy anymore, integrating hockey and football, learning power and teamwork without having their sexual identities defined. The river doesn’t seem to flow both ways. While I watched my son dancing, I thought about my daughter and how hard I’ve worked to tell her that she’s strong and smart and not just pretty and pink. But that was easy for me, instinctive, somehow, to protect her from the cages that seem poised above her head at every step. How shameful, then, to admit that when faced with the prospect of my little boy doing ballet, my first instinct wasn’t to tell him that he could be part of something sublime, that he could use his body to convey ideas, not just power. Instead, I pointed out that Superman wears tights. I told him
ballet could make him strong, like a man, not beautiful, like a woman. By masking ballet’s intrinsic importance, wasn’t I saying that beauty isn’t available to him as a boy? What else am I so casually
denying him when I keep him away from girls’ worlds? Am I, too, failing to take his hand?

Friday, September 26, 2008

An amazing moment...


Last night I was truly privileged to be present during an amazing moment.. my close friend and cousin Catherine and her partner Ralph gave birth to their first born child, a beautiful baby girl.. Lainey Beatrice Kate Priddle.

Catherine was amazing and I am so grateful that she allowed me to be there for her.. We are so very happy for Catherine and Ralph!!! Lainey is just beautiful, she has delicate features, dark eyes and a whole head of dark hair.. Catherine said 'just as I ordered'!!!

Welcome baby Lainey and good job Catherine! We love you very much! xx

Thursday, September 18, 2008

My new Suffolk Solo's....

One of the things I did this summer was go to Toronto for a seminar with Tini my ballet teacher and we stopped at The Shoe Room in Toronto, which is at The National Ballet for a pointe shoe fitting. This may not sound very exciting to anyone who is not a ballet dancer.. but it was pretty exciting. I purchased a pair of Suffolk Solos and have now retired my old Bloch's. The fitting was great, the girls there spent an hour with me while I tried on a million different pairs to get the right fit.. the end result is a great fitting pair of shoes that have WAY more support for my feet (and overweight body) than my old pair do. I had my first lesson last night but unfortunately I had cut my one big toe nail too short so it was frustrating that I couldn't do too much on them! But there is a lot to be said for having a proper fitting and I would highly recommend The Shoe Room.. it's well worth the trip!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Q & A - Walter the Spider

I am responding to Kavita's blog about Walter the spider. I started writing a comment then realized that it would be really long!!

So is Walter outside or inside?? If it is inside I would say 'just kill the damn thing' and I like Rich would run for the insect spray... but then again you have named it :) It's really funny as I don't want bugs in my house, mice anything that shouldn't be there but my husband is like you. He can't kill a house fly, spider, nothing. He gets me to come and do it or he catches it and sets it free... We were watching this 'verminator' show on the discovery channel or something last night and they were catching rats in this barn, I was totally grossed out that they had caught bucket fulls of rats, but Sean however was most upset that these 'poor rats' were dead. (????) I say bring on the insect spray!!

Monday, September 08, 2008

Our first house.















So Sean and I are getting super excited about the new house.... if you didn't know we get the keys September 25th (17 days yay!!!!). I just love it. It was built in 1914 and has been in the same family since it was built which I think is really cool. It has all the original trim and woodwork, hardwood floors and a beautiful yard. We have all kinds of plans, first is to rip out all the carpet and reveal the hardwood. Then I am thinking the bathroom and kitchen needs some love :) After that one room at a time. Like I said exciting but part of me is thinking 'arrrrggghhhh a house.. shit'. You know now I really am a responsible adult with the kids, the house, the car, the dogs, the yard, the bigger hydro bills, the renovating costs, the new roof it needs etc. etc. etc. you get the point :) Like I said super exciting but a little scary all at the same time!!!!

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Catching up...

So my computer has been broken again.. my wonderful hubby used his superior intellect and his manly powers of observation to fix it. (according to him)

Now I am trying to catch up with my banking, e-mails and reading blogs!!

P.S I think it got temporarily fried by a storm.. I bought more CD's today to back it up.. just in case :)

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Check it out!

http://gorebayballet.blogspot.com/

Mason

So if you didn't hear about it.... Mason gave us a scare a week ago.. He fell off a slide and was knocked unconscious for 25 minutes. We were air lifted to Sudbury and he had a head CT and X-rays, all was good but we had to stay overnight as he had a concussion. All is good now. My baby boy bounced right back! It was the biggest scare of my life and I did pretty well holding it together until it was all over andI had to go back to work.. boy was I a train wreck. We live in such a small town that when I walked down the street I got stopped about three times with everyone asking how Mason was. By then I was in tears every time I told someone so by the time I got to the bank boy was I a mess!!! but it is nice to live in a community that cares so Thank you for the phone calls, prayers and thoughts. As you can see my baby boy is back to normal and less than a week later he was playing on the beach! We are thinking of getting him a helmet check this out http://www.thudguard.com

Now I am totally paranoid and want to wrap him in bubble wrap to protect him!!

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Kavita.. for you...

So I am pretty sad as the only person's blog I read is really yours.. so your Tag mania won't go far. As for 6 random facts about me.. hmmm this may take a while but I will get started:

1.) I absolutely trust my gut instinct about everything... If something is not 'right' I can tell by the way my stomach feels.. it's not always right and as you can imagine I am sure I have made a fool out of myself on many an occasion.

2.) I wish I had done more with my life when it comes to education. I am frustrated as I know I can do more and be more so I guess I am pretty disappointed with myself that I didn't make the most of opportunities when they presented themselves.

3.) Hah! I also have a thing about bottled water.. Can't drink it from the tap.. somehow it is cleaner and tastes better when you drink it from a little plastic bottle....

4.) Having children and being happily married to my wonderful hubby has made me realise my spiritual side that I never explored before. I have so much to be thankful for and I now thank god everyday that I have two beautiful healthy children and an amazing man share my life with everyday. And... I am still exploring and discovering everyday....

I owe you two more Kavita but 'Hopkins' is on right now and I really want to watch it!! Later dude...

So I never did write about our sailing trip...

Off we headed to the Benjamin Islands.... The first day was great! We sailed out the boys slept, got there had a BBQ, movie and bed. We got up in the morning and the kids played on the beach while Sean turned into a lobster, went for a paddle in the dingy.. it was great! I was thinking I can't wait to do this again with the boys!! Not so fast.. hahaha

We go to head home and it's really windy.. so I am motoring the boat back and it looks like we're not moving.. so we decide to stay another night at an island close by called Innes. Well the the boat runs out of gas, baby is projectile vomiting and I can't move for at least another hour as the boat is heeled over on it's side as we sail towards Innes.... ahhhhhhh!! Anyways we finally drop anchor, have another BBQ (luckily I bought enough food).. bathe the baby, wash out the clothes and to bed for another night!

Next day.. we get up start to sail in, get going for about an hour and the wind dies.. So now we are bobbing ducks in a lake for 2 1/2 hours.. When the wind finally picks up it is just as bad as the day before so we sail back in major wind, which would have been fine if I didn't have two boys that don't want to sit still!! Anyway we finally got in at 6.30pm (bear in mind it only took us 3 hours to get out there in the first place) and we were exhausted!!! But after all the disasters, the boys were really good and I am looking forward to the August trip we have planned. Caleb was awesome he was so excited to be on the boat and just loved it! Have to get the photos off Sean's camera still.. then I'll post them.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Urrrhhhh.. 28... Unfortunately I feel much older! But I have a wonderful hubby who got me a great gift today.. Hye (Sean's cousin) came over from the gas station and told me he found this camera and he didn't know how to use it. So I took it out of the case to look to see if there were any pictures on it, thinking it would tell me who's it is when I found this:

Haha... he had let on all day that he had forgot my birthday and wasn't really doing much for it and hadn't got me a present.. he is so sneaky! Anyways it is really small and fits in my purse and takes really great photos.. it has all these different settings.. fireworks, cuisine, behind glass, documents, video and... it even shoots underwater!!!! Very excited to try it out here are a few more pics....


Sunday, June 29, 2008

It's Sunny!!!!!

So we are heading out for a sail.... hopefully overnight!!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Mason Walking!!

His first steps caught on camera by a proud Auntie Ellie!!


Ballet

I am thinking I should also post these... We had our performance which was a huge success! Now we will have to do bigger and better next year!

Danielle, Brianna and myself in our costumes for our trio from 'La Bayadere'


Me... doing an interpretive dance to Mahalia Jackson's 'Somebody bigger than you and I'

So what's new.. it a long weekend and it's raining!

....and we were meant to be sailing.. our first trip with both boys!! Brave (or crazy?) parents or what!! Well luckily being a long weekend we still have a few more days to hope the weather gets better! For now though I am inside with my kids bouncing off the walls, feeling lost and a little bored thinking what now?? hmmmm. I also have an overwhelming urge to get my hair done and considering we live in Gore Bay, it means that there is no where to get my hair done.. which means I'll go and buy a box of hair dye and screw it up trying to do it myself...

See what rainy days on the island do to you???

Monday, June 02, 2008

Mason's Baptism


Here are some pictures from Mason's Baptism... Oh and by the way I have a new computer at home now! Finally!!!! So I will be able to keep in touch better and update my blog more often.. fingers crossed ;)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Did you hear??

There was an earthquake in England.....??? Weird.

It continues to be winter here, everyone I know seems to be heading somewhere sunny on vaca. Me?? I am going to Sudbury to shop on Saturday... as long as the snow doesn't get in my way. No sun, but some retail therapy is a pretty good substitute. Yeah, I'll take it.

So we didn't make it out ice fishing... too bad although I have a feeling I would have hated it and complained a lot. (or whined alot like my sister - the big one!)

Got a sick baby.. again. It seems as fast as the bug goes through my house it comes right back in!

Monday, February 18, 2008

Family Day...

I wanted to take Caleb to the rink today to ice skate, you seriously could put on skates and walk out of my front door.... It rained yesterday, snow melted and now its frozen again. Nice. If you want to break a hip. Our weather patterns are seriously weird. But in the rain yesterday we went to look at another house that I happen to love. It's far to big, needs far too much work and we could never afford it, but it's beautiful. It's one of those old, 100+ years old homes that would have been so grand in its day. Still is. It has a formal entrance room, pocket doors to the living rooms and dining rooms (which has a piano and an organ in it). The wood work is beautiful and the windows and doors all have stained glass windows in them. It has an amazing view of the water and is full of antiques that come with the house. It would be cool to turn it into an old fashioned hotel and do murder mystery nights!

On another note I found out that someone in town is opening a resturant in the red roof. I am so angry and upset with myself. Someone else opened a coffee shop selling paninis etc.. I had that idea ages ago. Now someone is opening a resturant! This is my dream to have a resturant and I live in a town where there can only be so many resturants.... I guess it's just not my time but I am so frustrated! It's just not the time in my life to take huge financial risk to open a buisness but I am frustrated as I know that's where I want to be and the thought of going back to a boring desk job come July just make me want to put my head through the wall! AHHHHHHH!!

Friday, February 15, 2008

So tired....

Wow I think I am at the point of no return when it comes to being tired... talk about function on auto pilot! Mason has a cold so was up all of last night and I am bloody tired! It's always on the night when we have a late one too... we went to a poetry reading at the coffee shop for Valentines Day and Grandad babysat (Hugh).. then as it was Valentines Day, Sean had to sit through a romantic comedy/chick flick (No Reservations)! So it was a fun uneventful Valentines Day :-)

So it's family Day on Monday and I am thinking I would like to go Ice Fishing... I have never even heard of Ice Fishing before I even moved to the Island, but I wold like to try it once. I am not sure I quite 'get it'. Freezing my ass off, waiting to pull a fish out of a hole in the ice?? But I thought it would be a fun thing to do with Caleb for a few hours....

Anyways I am going to go and bury myself under a few pillows and blankets for a little while!

Monday, January 07, 2008

Well it's 2008...

Wow a year goes by fast! And here we are in this weird winter season again. I say weird because here it is snowing and -20 one minute then +10 the next??? So weird and not a bit like winter! Christmas was good to us, maybe too good to me! I was very spoilt by Sean! He went way over the set spending limit which meant my gift to him looked a little pathetic to say the least! Caleb had fun it was his first year really knowing what was going on and who Santa was! Next year I would really like to be away for Christmas, either in England or in Oman... So one of my goals for this year is to keep stashing cash for a vacation (as well as all the other million things I want!)

Mason is growing so fast! He really is huge he is wearing clothes that I remember being so big on Caleb at the same age and they barely fit him! He will be 6 months soon! Ahhh it makes me want another baby! (Just joking!) well I finally took my tree down today. Our apartment is a mess! Sean started putting down laminate flooring (looks like hardwood) on the weekends so we've been doing a section at a time. He just has the living room and our bedroom to do then he's done. It looks so amazing! I love it! (And great for practicing ballet on!) I'll have to take some photos when it is not so much of a gloomy day out!

Well it's back to the grind stone for me! As we have moved so much stuff around, I have again realized I have way too much crap and am early spring cleaning! And cleaning my oven... the dreaded task!! But I figured it needed it after all the Christmas baking - mainly my 22lb turkey! Next week all my ballet classes start again and Sean and I are taking social dancing together.. very excited for it.. but already feeling the pain after sitting on my ass for two weeks! I seriously need to go on a good diet but have no idea where to start.. There are so many out there and it all seems so much work!

No more chocolate in excessive amounts for me :(

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

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