Skryker's World

When the heck did July happen?

2008-07-24T12:21:00.005-04:00

Sheesh! Not really doing anything these days but work and home stuff, along with health management (of course!). So where does time disappear to?

I have pictures to share, if blogger doesn't frustrate the life out of me while I'm trying to post them. :)

Bear and I managed to get away for a couple of days at the beginning of July. Went to the town of Gananoque, along the St Lawrence River. The 1000 Island district. What a pretty, pretty little town! It enchanted us completely, while also leaving us wondering why our town along the same river, with more waterfront area, can't be picturesque rather than blah. It's a waste of an opportunity, that's for sure!

So this is from the little waterfront park down by the marina in Gananoque-Joel Stone Park. I'd love to have a better look at some of the houses out on the islands. They must be beautiful.

The small sandy beach and swim platform that's there for all to enjoy. Especially if you're a border collie/husky who loves to fetch!

Plenty of pictures of boats and the marina...

And the house that we decided we wanted, lol!

Town hall, in its square, with gazebo, fountain and war memorial (sadly, with a recent addition-a local soldier, killed in Afghanistan).

And the reason we spent way more time in the hotel room than we thought we would. :)

Two person jetted tub. I so want one in my house now!

Finally, the new addition to the house. My daughter's girlfriend (who lives with us) broke us down-she took one of the outdoor kittens to the vet because he had an eye and respiratory infection, and then his mother wouldn't take him back, and the other cats were beating him up...so he's inside now. She calls him Asterique, but I think his name should be Dasher (or possibly Harry, after Houdini). Cute little devil. The dogs are delighted by him and want to play with him so we have to supervise the interactions for now. Dancer is way less impressed with him. She has deigned to give him few swipes of her tongue, but for the most part wants nothing to do with him.

Fingal doesn't quite know what to do with the little guy, either.

And a good size comparison:

He's not very big yet but so lively now that he's better that I'm having trouble getting a good picture of him.

or the flash washes him out.

So that's Skryker's World for now.

Time flies

2008-06-27T10:57:00.003-04:00

...and it's not because I've been having fun!

Struggling with more health stuff plus parenting nightmares. No one needs to hear my whining about those things, so blogging has been pushed aside a bit.

One good thing with dietary changes since learning I'm diabetic-I'm no longer a sugar junkie. In fact, when I get hold of something very sweet, I end up feeling kind of sick after eating it. So the carb/sugar habit can be broken-it just takes some effort to do so.

In my quest for new experiences, I just ran smack into the sugar overload thing-I tried a bubble tea this morning. Interesting idea, I guess. It's kind of a super-creamy iced tea with tapioca pearls in it. I'm still not entirely sure if I like it or not. What I do know is that it's far too sweet for me now. After less than a quarter of it, I had to stop. Too much! Can't say I'd recommend it. I think it might be one of those things that you either love or you hate.

I'm also sure that if it were not from a mix it would be better, but that's true of so many things. Although I'm not sure I'd like milky fruit tea well chilled with tapioca in it any better if it weren't from a mix. :)

New experience: -1
Skryker: bellyache

I hope my next new thing is better.

An hour and counting.

2008-05-24T15:22:00.002-04:00

My work-week ends in an hour. Woo hoo! Then it's home to spend a shared week-end with Bear. *sigh of contentment* Even better, I'm off the hook for making dinner tonight, as Bear has volunteered to do so. Somedays, I'm incredibly spoiled and all that sulking seems pretty self-indulgent.

On the other hand, I have to test my blood sugar at least twice a day now, as I'm a type II diabetic. That's not good news at all. (Especially for a needle-phobe.) No injections, at least, but I hate adding more health issues to the large pile I already have. Related health issues-the polycystic ovary disease put me at high risk for developing diabetes, but I still dislike feeling like my body is breaking down and giving up on me.

To amuse myself I've been terrorizing the house with blood tests. :D Well, trying to. Bear accepted it with good grace as well as a certain amount of curiosity on his part. The kid and her girlfriend? No luck there. They don't want anything to do with being poked. Teenagers! Left to their own devices they'll draw on themselves or scratch themselves with pins and stuff but no way in hell can I get near them with a nice, sterile lancet. Go figure.

I figure that if it makes me feel a little better to play mad scientist, they should play along. Nope. Uhn-uh. Not going to happen. Ever.

So I will have to content myself with being the only household pin cushion. I suppose it could be worse. Actually, it could be a lot worse.

Sulking

2008-05-20T12:58:00.002-04:00

That's where I've been. I've been sulking.

Lots of stuff going on in Skryker's World these days but nothing to really blog about. Nothing catastrophic, either. Just run of the mill crap. I don't know, seems I don't get very much me time for the last little while, either, so it's hard to sort through all the static in my head for anything comprehensible.

Life gets that way sometimes, right? You go along feeling like you just can't deal with even one more thing- and then that one more thing gets dropped on you along with with its six inbred cousins. No more issue family reunions, OK?

I'm happy to report that none of these issues are in my marriage. That's rock solid and the foundation that keeps me from drifting away. In fact, Bear's shifts have changed so that we get more time to spend together and something approaching a real weekend. Yay!!! We're even thinking of maybe using one of these weekends to go away together. Not far (not with gas at $1.24/litre!) but away together, alone. Time where we aren't parents, homeowners, landlords or business owners. I'm really looking forward to this idea.

I also want to spend time with my camera, wandering and taking pictures. Some day, in between work and being chauffeur, cook, grocery delivery service, IT department, entertainment director, social convener, medical test subject and getting some sleep, I'm sure I'll find some time.

One of these years.

Supporting your local coffee shop

2008-04-30T10:33:00.002-04:00

Yummy!

Finally stopped at the new little coffee place a block up from the store. Got a 16oz tea and a muffin for $2.16. Score!

It's a tea blend I haven't had since moving to this smallish town eight years ago. Ahhhh, Monk's Blend! Loose tea, too. And a caramel swirl muffin. A nice way to start the day.

Plus, it's networking, so I look like a business woman. LOL!

Wednesday's woes

2008-04-23T13:30:00.003-04:00

Not really any woes to speak of, other than majorly frizzy hair thanks to the impending rain. It's muggy. How can it be that the snow has only just melted, and it's 22C and humid? Yesterday, it was 26C at 6pm. Just wrong.

Someone at Leon's caught on, and the sign is back to being a No Money Miracle instead of a No Monkey Miracle. How ordinary.

I was just talking to my neighbour. She's a retired teacher and has been active in local government and such. I knew that teen pregnancy was a huge issue here, but I didn't realize it was so very bad. She just told me that a girl who gets preggers while in High School in this area has a less than 10% chance of finishing school at the same time as her age group, and about a 15% chance of finishing at all. Higher education? About a 5% chance. How sad, especially when so many teens manage to start a family so young.

Better sex ed in the schools? Starting earlier, so that the kids don't get the info on how to not get pregnant after it's already happened? Something needs to change, that's for sure.

Miss Bronwyn's bad weekend.

2008-04-22T10:43:00.002-04:00

My little girl had a terrible weekend, partly my fault and partly because of her labrador desire to eat anything that seems vaguely like food.

We had nachos on Friday night and it was the undoing of both Bronny and I. She, of course, managed to get into an unguarded plate and scarf down a large amount of nachos with jalapeno peppers on them. Not to mention sour cream and guacamole, beans and onions. Not really a good set of things for a dog stomach, is it?

Anyhow, I thought she'd be OK because she didn't hang onto that food very long.

Prin, skip over this next part, OK? You don't want to read it. Really. Go on to the next paragraph. Saturday morning, I wasn't feeling well myself and had to call the kid to come over to the store so I could go home and take some Gravol. Too late, unfortunately. And the dogs got between me and the bathroom door so that I couldn't get around them fast enough....I threw up on (yes, ON!) poor Bronwyn. I felt sooooo bad! I had to spend some more time in the bathroom before I could try and clean her up, too. :( Awful! She looked so mortified and she wouldn't come over to me when I called her, either. I don't blame her for that. I got a rescue from my daughter's girlfriend, who came in and cleaned up Bronny for me. I still feel so bad that that happened.

For the rest of the silly dog's bad weekend, well, you can imagine what the nachos did for her stomach and the rest. You know when you eat really spicy food what it can do to your rear end? Yeah. That's what she had. I wasn't sure at first, and was panicking. She was yelping every time she sat down. So I checked her out-no tenderness in the belly, no signs of bloat, she didn't have any problems letting my run my hands over her, no-ahem!- signs of it being anal glands (and wasn't that fun to check out!). She's fine now after having a tender rear all weekend and some ferocious gas.

The poor girl had spice bum. Otherwise known as "the ring of fire". I'd like to think that that will teach her not to eat nachos but I know better. The goat-dog will continue to eat first, think later. Sheesh! Motherhood is not for the faint of heart, lol!

But it would be more fun WITH them....

2008-04-22T10:36:00.002-04:00

Hee hee hee! Apparently someone had some fun with the sign out front of Leon's Furniture Store over the weekend. Too bad I didn't have my camera last night. I'll take it tonight and hope that no one else has noticed yet.

The sign currently advertises a "No Monkey Miracle!" sale going on right now.

Yep, no monkeys required to buy furniture! What an innovation, 'cause, you know, it's really tough to get the monkeys to behave while you're shopping for a new couch. They always want to run into the bedroom section and jump on the beds.

Oh, hey, thanks for sharing!

2008-04-17T12:40:00.002-04:00

I don't know why people seem to want to overshare details with me....

Had a guy in here, looking for back issues of Hustler magazine (uh, I don't carry old magazines, especially old skin mags, thanks for asking!) because his fiancee claims to have been in the magazine 10 years ago. Oh, and she's pregnant with twins.

Do I need to know any of this? Hell no!

But I do now. And so do you, because I had to share, lol!

I was feeling better, really!

2008-04-11T10:44:00.002-04:00

I.

hate.

tax.

time.

Some day, everything will STAY where I put it so that I can find it again when I need it. Was going through all the stuff since the tax guy is finally-FINALLY!!!-coming to pick it up today, when I remembered a couple of things that should have been with it.

Were those important pieces of paper in the safe, logical place that I left them? Of course not! What fun is that?

Well, it's all together now. Grumble. Can't wait for the phone call next week asking for the rest of the things I forgot...

And I just got a phone call from the store landlord telling me the rent check bounced. WTF? No way! There was plenty in excess of the rent...

Ha ha ha. The bank held a deposit on me, which caused not just the rent check but 3 other things to bounce, and then charged $37.50 per item. NSF fees for things that should have cleared. I love it. And it was even a cash deposit, too. Not a check that needed to clear, cash.

Why did they hold it? Because I used the machine instead of a teller, since the bank was closed by the time I got there to deposit the cash. Business hours, ya know?

Oh, this is going to be a fun one to fight out with the bank....

The engine is running...

2008-04-04T10:53:00.003-04:00

...but I've got no gas.

At least, that's how I feel. The antibiotics have done their thing. No more kidney infection. Yay!

Now I just have to sleep for a week straight and all will be well. :)

I must be tougher than I thought

2008-03-28T10:47:00.002-04:00

I had my annual physical Wednesday, where I wanted to talk to my doc about the increase and changes in my back pain issue. Turns out I have a kidney infection.

:O

I had no idea! I thought that the extra pain higher up in my back was because I was holding myself so stiff all the time. If there were any other symptoms, I missed them. What the hell? How do you miss something like that?

And so I got scolded for waiting until my physical to come in about my back pain. *blushes* I'm under strict orders to call RIGHT AWAY if anything changes. Off to physiotherapy and to get a CT scan on my back...and the dreaded antibiotics for the infection. So far, so good in terms of allergic reactions. These ones I can take. However, they've knocked me on my ass. Of the past 48 hours I've slept 36.

I wonder how long I would have wandered around with a kidney infection? Probably until I fell over. So I have to revise my opinion of my immune system and such. I've had a cold during the kidney infection, plus my sinuses of course, and I shook off the cold plus I was still walking around. Of course, this does explain why I've been so draggy and feeling cruddy for the past couple of months.

I feel like such an idiot!

That's just silly!

2008-03-25T14:22:00.002-04:00

I happened upon some "advice" on replacing bad for you comfort foods with healthier alternatives that made me laugh.

In place of mashed potatoes, boil up some cauliflower in chicken broth (low-fat and no salt, of course) and then mash or puree it with a bit of olive oil and a little skim milk. Supposedly, no one will notice the difference.

Yeah, sure. Mashed cauliflower is exactly like mashed potatoes. Oh, except for the taste. And the look. Or the texture. Oh, and how about THE SMELL???

Really, do you think no one would notice? "Hey, Ma, why do these potatoes taste like cauliflower, chicken and olive oil? And why are they so watery and thin? What the heck did you do to them?".

Silly.

Some anger and some reflections

2008-03-19T11:36:00.002-04:00

I'm putting my kid on a train this afternoon to go to a funeral. It's not going to be easy for her, I know, especially since she's staying with her biomom and things are still really strained between them. But what else can you do? It's the best way for her to get to the funeral and to go and see her friend in the hospital.

More on the accident-while it was a pure case of wrong place, wrong time for the girls, eyewitnesses say that the other driver (who was in a rented Kia Rondo SUV) was driving aggressively while speeding and talking on a cell phone. This is where the anger comes in, for certain. It's one thing that he paid for his stupidity with his own life-although I still feel for his family-but his assinine behaviour caused so much devastation for a family that didn't deserve it.

I've been thinking all of this over since I heard about it. As a parent, it strikes so close to home. I mean, you do so many things for your kids to protect them, to give them the best chance that you can, but you have to send them out into the world. You always have a bit of fear in your heart that something beyond your control will hurt them. In your upper mind, you think about smaller things. Will someone be cruel, will they get cheated, will they have their heart broken? Deep down, though, you dread the random. You know the odds are so against your child running into a serial killer or a rapist or a drunk driver. It's not likely that a bridge will collapse or a building will catch fire.

It's not likely. But it does happen. And so you hope that it won't happen to your kid. You worry when they're late. When you see the school phone number during the day, your heart speeds up a bit. "Ah, crap! What did she do?" while part of you is actually praying that it's only a bit of trouble and not a call to meet your kid at the hospital.

I've lost my train of thought on this one. I think that I was going to say that it's an act of faith to let your kid out of your sight. You have to surrender control and trust that the universe will send your child home safely to you. Of course, it's the same with anyone you love.

And maybe this is part of what drives faith. It's too scary to think that you're sending your loved ones away to be at the mercy of random chance. So you call on the blessings of benign and protective entities to watch over them while you can't.

For me, though, that very randomness is part of my world view. I accept that bad things will happen, no matter what, and that sorrow and grief are a part of life. It doesn't make it any easier to bear the sorrow. It just means that I don't (anymore!) rail and fight against the unfairness of it all. You can play the "if only" game to the point of ridiculousness when something happens. It won't change the facts.

But if it were my child that had died, I wouldn't be so accepting so soon.

In an instant

2008-03-15T14:49:00.002-04:00

It's just a typical day. There's a ray of light, because a young woman living back at home with her family after being laid off has a job interview in Toronto. It's good news for the family of six people; all four of the adults had been without work until recently, when the son got a job.

The hardships had had an upside. The family was forced to mend some fences and re-establish their closeness again. A grandchild is on the way, too.

It's completely natural for the younger sisters, 17 and 15, to accompany their 26 year old sister on the long ride down to the city, offering up some moral support on the way. Nothing that all of them haven't done hundreds of times. Despite the age gap, the siblings are very close.

Suddenly, an SUV going too fast in the other direction loses control and flips over after hitting a snow bank. It slides into the opposite lane, directly in the path of the sisters' car....

And just like that, both drivers are dead and the teen girls are in the hospital.

Two families are mourning their dead. And the girls' parents are completely devastated, with their world turned inside out. The 17 year old is home now; she and her unborn child are OK. The 15 year old is still in serious condition with a shattered lower leg and after a bowel resection; she's been in surgery twice so far. So far, they haven't told her her beloved oldest sister is dead.

So quick and so unexpected.

I know this family. The youngest girl is my daughter's best friend and has been since kindergarten. When my kid still lived with her biological mother, the kid spent almost every weekend and school break that she wasn't with Bear and I at her friend's house. And she spent part of one summer at our house. It's surreal. My kid has a facebook wall post from her friend from a short time before the accident.

My heart bleeds for the parents. The oldest girl was airlifted to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto while the younger girls were taken to Newmarket. The parents were on their way to Toronto when they got a call telling them to go to Newmarket instead; their oldest girl hadn't made it. I can't imagine facing that situation, having to decide which hospital to go to, and then realizing that it was too late.

So never let an opportunity to hug someone you love go by. It's too important to miss out on. Don't let the people you care about leave angry or hurt. Life can change in a flash.

Back again?

2008-03-15T14:46:00.003-04:00

For a longer time, this time, I hope.

Had the weirdest cold ever last week. It settled into my eyes. They were hot and dry and itchy all week which made trying to do anything impossible. Everything I tried to read or watch went all blurry after a couple of minutes.

Of course, I was fearing the dreaded Pink Eye. *screams in horror* Ugh! I had stupid pink eye everytime it went around my school, sometimes twice. Awful.

This wasn't and it doesn't seem to be allergies, either, since it's going away as the cold does. Just a random weirdo virus, I guess.

Phew!

2008-03-07T13:37:00.001-05:00

I've got all my technology working again (I hope!).

My back isn't so co operative, though. Can't sit for very long in the computer chairs.

I was hoping to blog today at least a little, but it's been crazy busy here in the store. People stocking up on books for the big winter storm coming this weekend. Yep, another one. I've heard everything from 20 to 50 cms, with my town apparently right in the eye of the storm. Terrific.

Yahoo!

Tech Wars

2008-03-01T10:56:00.003-05:00

I think I've got things running again. Stupid computers. Grumble!

I'll be reloading plug-ins for Firefox for the next little while but I didn't actually lose any data this time.

I hate being the IT department.

Paranoia

2008-02-29T14:00:00.000-05:00

What the heck is going on with my technology?

I've had to use system restore or recovery on both home computers and the one here at the store lately. Scary stuff. I feel contagious.

2008-02-29T11:13:00.002-05:00

Man sought for breaking into woman's apartment and viewing computer porn

THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Police in Ottawa are looking for a man who they say broke into a woman's apartment to view pornography on her computer.

Investigators say a woman in her 20s woke up at 4 a.m. Wednesday to find a man with his pants down looking at pornography on her computer. She confronted the man, who fled through the front door of her apartment.

He is described as white, about five-foot-seven and 170 pounds, roughly 30 years old with pale skin, short, dark hair and thick, black glasses.

Police are asking for anyone with information to come forward.

© 2008 - The Canadian Press

Holy crap! What a thing to wake up to!

Lucky for her he was more interested in looking than touching. It's still a horrible violation...but it's kinda funny all the same.

I can't help but thing one's ego might be a bit bruised. "What, you break into my apartment and I'm not good enough to molest? You gotta go and look at sleaze on the internet instead?!?"

I admit, I have a really odd sense of humour.

Scary Movies

2008-02-26T14:05:00.002-05:00

Enter the ICHC online Poker Cats Contest!

I watched Jesus Camp on the weekend.

I had no idea. Wow! They are out there, and they are training their children to save you.

Whether you like it or not.

If you've never seen this documentary I highly recommend it. It's the most bizarre combination of radical religion and politics. Or religion and radical conservative politics. Whichever. Sprinkle a huge dose of pig-headedness and a heap of "We're the only ones with the truth and we know what's best for everyone" and you have a situation brewing.

Yep, American Evangelical Christians are plotting to take over. They're going to do it by voting, by praying and by creating a politically active, radical group of kids. The big thing on their agenda-outlaw abortion again. It's pretty chilling to watch a group of little kids being led to pray fervently to have abortion outlawed, and to watch an anti-abortion activist shameless play on an impressionable group of youngsters by passing out dolls of fetuses to them and telling them that a third of their friends aren't here today because people ended "God's plan" for them.

This is one of the workshops depicted in the film, which follows three children to a month long summer camp meant to prepare these kids for their place in God's Army, fighting the culture war that's going in in American today. Another one involved the leader of the camp berating and chastising the children for being phonies and hypocrites until they started to cry and beg God for forgiveness. It was like watching something about a cult operating. First you break them down, and they you tell them how much you love them. Eeeeeeeeee!

Anyhow, it's a very eye-opening and thought provoking film.

Another new look

2008-02-22T12:40:00.000-05:00

I got bored again.

So we'll try black and green for a bit and see how I like it.

Parking Wars

2008-02-22T11:26:00.002-05:00

I hate being an enforcer. It goes against my nature in a couple of ways.

First, people should know better, right? There shouldn't be a need for enforcement-people know what's expected of them and they shouldn't need fear of punishment to do what's right. Now, that's a nice thought but I'm not that hopelessly naive or optimistic about human nature. It's much more likely that the reverse is true. People know what's expected, but they'll do exactly what they figure they can get away with, regardless of anyone else affected by their actions.

And I am generally a rules and law abiding person. I dislike rules and such that are blindingly obvious-don't like having my intelligence insulted or my morals questioned. :D I'm also not above bending or breaking regulations that either don't make sense to me or I'm willing to accept the consequences of forgoing (like Prin and her speeding ticket-the justified one-if I get busted, it's a fair cop and I won't dispute that I was in the wrong). I do like to make up my own mind about things, and I expect that others do, too. I still expect them to be considerate in their choices. I can't stand a drunk driver that tries to justify their behaviour by saying that they'll only hurt themself (bullshit!) or that they are willing to take their lumps if they get caught. Taking responsibility for your own actions, by definition, requires that you make responsible decisions, right?

I hate being a tattle-tale or a snitch, too. Blech! That's a hold-over from childhood. No one wanted to be the rat.

All that said, I find myself needing to be the parking police. :( For some reason, there is a person that insists on using one of my two store spots to park in. She lives in one of the apartments upstairs and her assigned spot is much farther away from the back steps than my spots are. Well, tough! All of the tenant spots are farther away than the merchant's spots. Merchants pay higher rent. Rank Hath Its Privileges, after all!

I do understand that the weather stinks, and it would be tempting to park in the best spot to avoid as much snow and ice as possible. I also could care less if she did so after hours. What do I care then? While the store is open, though, I need that spot for my customers. Especially the older or handicapped ones. They truly need to park closer. The annoying parker does not. She is hale and healthy-apparently just lazy.

She's even hovered around in the lot, waiting for me to leave. That tells me that she knows who I am and that she shouldn't be parking where she does. That's even more irritating. She avoids me, so that I can't say anything directly to her.

Well, tickets speak louder than words anyhow, right? Apparently, the price of a ticket is worth it for her to park in that spot. ARRRRRGGGHHHH! I finally left a note on her car, pointing out that my customers are complaining and I was about to go to a daily ticket plus a complaint to the landlord about it.

So now she parks in her own spot.

I won, but I won by being a bully. I don't really think that this is a victory. Not only did I fail to get her to do the right thing willingly, but I sank down to her level to get rid of her. I had to find my own lesser nature to deal with her.

If you need me, I'll be looking for some anthills to kick over or some little kids with milk money I can steal from them.

February blahs

2008-02-19T10:55:00.002-05:00

Yep, I got 'em.

Every year, really. By the time February rolls around, I'm ready to become a bear and curl up in a cave until spring. Pass me that blanket, will ya?

This year, of course, I delayed the onset of the blahs by getting married. I don't think that that's going to work every year, somehow. Especially since that is a one-time deal for me. I'm married, and that's it.

So I'm dragging my ass around lately. Tired all the time, gloomy and irritable...bah! Not much of a honeymoon.

It does reinforce how well Bear knows me, though. I've been apologizing so much for being blech, and when at first I was saying I didn't know what the heck was wrong, he just looked at me and said "It's February.".

Pause.

Yeah, that two word sentence completely sums it up. Or, in his expanded version, "February always sucks ass for you." And it does. I tend to have a migraine pretty much constantly because of the abrupt weather shifts, I'm tired and grumpy, jittery, and miserable and the weather is grim. But my wonderful husband was way ahead of me and expected this. He just quietly started doing stuff to make things easier for me and is around for hugs and reassurances when I need them.

I can live through this. There's no real reason for it because my life is good. It's temporary. I guess that makes it easier to bear?

Ah, hell! Pass me another blanket and wake me up when Spring gets here, OK?

A list

2008-02-14T13:15:00.003-05:00

A list of things I've found tucked into books traded in:

bookmarks-from this store and others, as well as purchased book marks
pictures-sad, because I normally can't get them back to whoever.
bus transfers
bus or train or airplane ticket stubs
grocery lists
receipts
scraps of paper with phone numbers on them
a ticket stub for a hockey game (Islanders vs Canadiens March 28 2006-season ticket, too!)
a tourist map for County Limerick, Ireland
business cards
old lottery tickets
fortunes from fortune cookies
string
elastics
yarn

Weird stuff.

I'm thinking ink...

2008-02-12T09:33:00.001-05:00

One of my regular customers owns the tattoo place down the street. This is bad news for me, because I like tattoos. I only have the one, though, because I find it very hard to justify pretty pictures for my body when there are other bills to pay.

That, and I don't have good skin for tattoos. Even though I am fishbelly white (or Celtic pale), which you'd think would be a good canvas, it's not good because I also have dry, dry skin that's sensitive to everything, so I'm often red and blotchy and everything leaves marks on me. And you can clearly see much of my venous circulatory system burbling away underneath my skin, too. Oh, and when I get cold, I turn purple. It's very attractive.

And even though my immune system stinks in many ways it's over active enough to absorb the tattoo ink pretty well. See? (and it's not a seagull-it's a tern.)

This is my almost 19 year old tattoo. It's on my leg, a couple of inches up from the ankle and I know that it's a crappy picture-but you try and get a good picture of the outside of your own lower leg, OK? Then you can criticize. :D

So you can see why I'm thinking of at least getting it re-inked. The sun used to be yellow. You can see the little tiny bit left now. And all the lines were crisp, the colours were sharp, there was so much detail in it...kind of sad. Seems my immune system wanted to absorb it.

The tattoo lady looked at it, and she said it's easy to recolour it. I guess that they have to do that fairly often. Tattoos aren't quite as permanent as all of the "Why did you do that?!? You know you'll have it for the rest of your life, don't you?" people would like to have us believe. At least, not in their pristine state.

Hmmm, but she said something about "improving" it. The sun should have more than just yellow in it, and she prefers designs to sort of wrap around themselves, not just end like mine does. And she would have added a crescent moon, too. Yikes! Will it really be my tattoo after that? I need to mull this over.

But here's the real problem. If I go and get it re-inked, it will be so tempting to add on to it. And now would be the perfect time, really, having just gone through so much and ending up married. Feels like a chapter of my life has ended and a new one is starting.

I could get the waves wrapped around my whole leg (which I've always wanted to do). Maybe have moon-lit water on the other side, to match the sun. An island? A rock? LOL! It's air, fire and water right now-no earth. But I'm feeling more grounded than I ever have. So maybe now is time to reflect that. A shoreline? and do I put something on the shore, like a starfish or a shell? Will it look weird, being an entire piece from different artists?

Ah, well, in the end, I probably can't afford to do it anyways. But it's an intriguing notion, all the same.

Hey, I just realized that I'm 37 today!

2008-02-10T13:16:00.000-05:00

LOL, with so much going on everywhere lately, I completely forgot that it's my birthday til now. I'm such a clown somedays.

Uh, so 37. *silence* Feels pretty much like 36. Yep. Except that whole legally married thing (which doesn't feel any different than unofficially married). I think I noticed much more when I crossed over from my mid-twenties to my late twenties. Going from mid-thirties to late thirties? Not so much of a deal. :D

Soooooo, what's next? Well, I really don't know.

Oddly enough, lately I think I've made some peace with the idea that life is never "settled", not really. Things always change. I guess I finally realize that there's not so much point in waiting for things to settle down and level out. The chaos began on the day you were born and it doesn't end until the moment you die. Everything in between is in constant flux and motion-which means it's all growth.

Parts of your life settle and get settled at various times, and there are times when everything is up in the air and times when most things are harmonious and flowing smoothly.

Right now, many parts of my life are sorted out. I have Bear and the kid, I have my furkids, I have a house and a business, I have friends and family...all of these are anchors in my chaos. At the same time, I have no idea where anything goes from here. Will there finally be another baby or two? I hope so. Maybe not, though. Either way, it's OK. Neither path will ruin my life, nor will either path be the absolute fulfillment of my destiny.

Will my poor little store manage to survive or will we have to close it down? Again, I don't know. I hope it will manage to make it. I really do. But if it doesn't, it won't be the end of me. Bear and I took a huge risk on something I've always dreamed of doing. If it doesn't succeed I will always have that; that I tried it. I don't have to regret and wonder "what if?".

In a few years the kid will be finished High School and off to University somewhere. That'll be a new chapter in my life. Someday, I will have to deal with the loss of my parents. It's not something I can avoid. It's all far off and hidden from me right now.

Hee-apparently a birthday makes me philosophical. Anyhow, where I'm going with all of this is that I'm strangely serene and comfortable about facing it all. I'm good inside my own skin. I think that I finally realize that I am completely capable of dealing with whatever my life will bring.

Or I'm in a complete blind panic and this is a coping mechanism to keep me from realizing it. Whatever.

:D

I have a very sweet kid

2008-02-09T18:27:00.000-05:00

She took one look at me squinting in the faint light in the living room and offered to work the store for me today.

I got slapped hard by a migraine yesterday that hasn't fully faded away yet. Part post excitement let down headache and part standard February migraine, I'd say. Whatever, it was a real doozy.

I got razzed by my brother online yesterday, too, because I called my parents to tell them I was married, and then changed things on facebook. LOL! I forgot to call my brother and warn him! His common-law wife saw it first on facebook. Oops! So I predictably got joshing grief from my brother before I got congrats. :) Plus the grief for putting the pressure on him to get married...I told my sister-in-law not to hold her breath, but not to give up hope, either. He may come around.

I really, really do not know how anyone does the year or more planning leading up to a big wedding. I guess my hat's off to them for being able to do it? I don't understand it, but I admire the stamina. 3 days was plenty for me. And there was nothing to plan, either. We got dressed, we went, we got married.

There is the beginning of a family legend, though-we walked to City Hall through a blizzard to get married. :D It's half a block and we would have walked in any weather, but it sounds all romantically dedicated, doesn't it?

It wasn't until we were leaving City Hall that I remembered my camera was in my pocket, though. D'oh! No pics. Oh, well. It's not like I'm going to forget.

And here's the song that would have been the First Dance song for us:

Sunshine On Leith-The Proclaimers

My heart was broken, my heart was broken
Sorrow Sorrow Sorrow Sorrow
My heart was broken, my heart was broken

You saw it, You claimed it
You touched it, You saved it

My tears are drying, my tears are drying
Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou
My tears are drying, my tears are drying

Your beauty and kindness
Made tears clear my blindness
While I'm worth my room on this earth
I will be with you
While the Chief, puts Sunshine On Leith
I'll thank him for his work
And your birth and my birth.

Not the best video, since it's concert footage, but here's the song live:

The deed is done!

2008-02-07T16:06:00.000-05:00

So, I am wearing...

Something old-my Grandma V's necklace.
Something new-a new ring
Something borrowed-my daughter's favourite necklace wrapped around my arm like a bracelet.
Something blue-my engagement ring-a sapphire.

And I am now officially, legally Mrs Bear.

Yep, at 2pm today we got married at City Hall. Bear is happy that I finally married him after making him wait 11 years. *blushes* I'm happy that we have that piece of paper, too.

But I honestly don't feel any different than I did this morning. Still deleriously, goofily happy.

Today is the day....

2008-02-07T09:33:00.001-05:00

Woo hoo!

I think she really, really wanted gum.

2008-02-05T19:38:00.001-05:00

Take one sick, tired child and add the tempting rack at the grocery store and what do you get?

You get 10 minutes of high volume whining about wanting gum. Not a chocolate bar; she wanted gum.

I doubt that there's a person that was in the grocery store that doubted that fact.

She wanted the gum soooo much that when her mother threatened to take the chocolate bar away, the kid handed it right back-"I don't WANT a chocolate bar! I want GUM!!!!".

No indecisiviness there.

She really wanted gum.

I wanted to pack my groceries in peace and quiet. Neither of us got what we wanted.

My head is a busy place to be in

2008-02-05T10:49:00.000-05:00

My apologies for being so MIA lately. Between the sinuses and life in general (and a teenager at home) I just don't seem to be able to manage to blog so much right now.

There's lots of stuff brewing, too. It feels like I've hit the root of quite a bit of stuff in my dealing with my counselor. I can feel knots loosening up and I'm seeing things in a different light. While it's an overall good thing that will be very positive in the long term, it's uncomfortable in the short term. There's such a mixture of emotions going on sometimes-anger and sadness and resentment. I'm working on letting it all go.

Not all doom and gloom! There's something very, very good coming up, too. :)

Uuuuuuhhhhhhh! Zombie-Skryker lives!

2008-02-02T12:43:00.000-05:00

Bleeeeeccccccccccccchhhhhhhhhhh!

My sinuses are so completely plugged up that my head sounds like a ripe melon if you tap on it.

Can't think overly well and typing is terrible. Typos abound.

More freezing rain and ice and all that fun stuff. Woo hoo! It's stopped now but all the sidewalks are still halfway up to your knees in little ice balls. It's oddly like walking in sand-very deep, extra slippery sand. Annoyingly, the snow/ice has not been cleared from in front of or behind the store (even though that's part of the rent. ) so I don't imagine I'll get any customers. Of course, I don't have a shovel here to do it myself, either. I'm not impressed.

No repeat of the raw steak incident-guess it's not a wolf baby, after all! More likely to be a dietary deficiency. I've been craving bananas, too. That's not a good thought as a recipe, though, eh? Bloody steak and bananas. Yuck.

A mish-mash of stuff in Skryker's world

2008-01-29T10:38:00.000-05:00

No coherent post this morning. Just a bunch of stuff from the last few days that perplex or annoy me. :D

I think that freezing rain has to be the worst of the worst weather. Icy little pellets sting when they hit you in the face! And I hate having to scrape a coating of ice off of the car, especially after a 10 minute stop somewhere.

I'm always nagging my own kid and the ones upstairs about proper cold weather gear-wear a coat, where's your hat, why aren't you wearing gloves? So, today when I have to scrape ice and the wind is really, really cold, where are my gloves? Somewhere at home.

I normally feel a bit guilty about using the business window at the bank because it feels like line jumping. Today, I left in plenty of time to stop at the bank and get some change for the cash register, intending to stand in the regular line for such a small thing. I took one look at the line and went over to the business window anyhow. Big mistake! The slowest teller in the place was there. Bless her heart, she's very, very throughout at her job; it shouldn't have taken me longer in the business line than the normal line when there were only 3 people ahead of me!

Why on earth would a cashier put the bananas at the bottom of the bag, under the box of yogurt?

Meniere's disease might have unknown causes in general but I'm pretty certain that I get the Meniere's symptoms from severe sinus congestion. I've felt my sinuses clogging up for the past few weeks especially after being sick a little bit ago, and suddenly I've got the ringing in my left ear again, my eyes did that weird jumping around thing on the weekend and my hearing is cutting out intermittently again. I don't think that it's a co-incidence. So I'm battling the sinuses and I'm certain that the ear things will go away when the congestion is less.

Something else weird is going on with my body, too. I've started to be sensitive to things that shouldn't bother me-like weepy and easily upset over nothing. Yesterday, I was wired in a way that I haven't been for a long time, like anxiety is coming back, although I don't think that I'm in bad shape or anything.

The weirdest thing? Last night Bear had a steak for dinner (steak and eggs) but I wasn't particularly hungry. I thought! I sat with him while he ate and I was initially repulsed by the steak juices mixing with the eggs on the plate. But the longer I sat there, the more I got mesmerized by the hunk of fat on the edge of the steak and I finally had to eat it. And it was good! So good. He left a big piece of steak for the dogs-but they didn't get it. :) I had a bit of the meat with my fat and then craved the rest of the steak.

Now, I don't mind my beef a bit pink, but Bear is a rare steak man. Like, show the steak a picture of fire to scare it and put it on a plate rare. A good vet could have it on its feet in 20 minutes rare. No way do I normally eat a steak cooked to Bear's liking. Last night, I couldn't eat it fast enough. Bear said to me "You know, you could use a knife and fork...." to which I replied "Not fast enough!" in a mumble around the steak, with a paper towel held under my chin to catch the juices. And it was ecstasy! Heaven! Nirvana, even! What gives?

Prin's theory-I'm pregnant with a wolf-baby. :D Or I'm seriously deficient in iron.

It's better than Bear's suggestion-if I'm that deficient in iron, he'd be happy to cook me up some liver.

Blech! I'd rather have a werewolf baby!

Aww, that's the end!

2008-01-28T18:09:00.000-05:00

How can you tell that Christmas is really, really over?

When you open the tin of Quality Street chocolates and there's only strawberry cream and coconut ones left. :(

Low cut shirts are not required.

2008-01-25T15:39:00.001-05:00

Whew! The car is all legal again.

One less thing to worry about-and we got the sticker for two years, so it's covered for awhile.

No paranoid driving needs to be done.

I feel better. ;)

"License and registration, please."

2008-01-25T11:49:00.000-05:00

Boy, those are not words you want to hear! It's the first time I've had to do it, too.

Good thing I've got an innocent face and a spotless driving record. I've been driving around on an expired license plate since September! *blushes* And to make matters worse, the insurance card was expired, too-I forgot to put the new one in my wallet on Monday.

Got away with a warning-get it plated and don't let me see you driving around until then. That could have been a whole lot worse. Yikes!

My little car is up at Canadian Tire now, being diagnosed since it failed its emissions test. Grumble! Hopefully, it will be back in time to get the new sticker today for the plate. So I'm waiting to hear about the car and Bear is waiting on a return visit from the plumber, since one of the newly fixed sinks is leaking. It's been an expensive week all around.

I was only driving to work because my back is really bad again-and got pulled over right around the corner from the house. Should have walked, but then I still wouldn't realize that I was blissfully breaking the law. You see, my birthday is February. Plates need renewed on your birthday, so February has always been plate-time. Problem is, Bear's birthday is September and these plates are in Bear's name. Sooooooo, September came and went without us thinking about the car.

I suppose I've been lucky so far, not getting caught for 5 months with an expired tag.

But my crime spree ends here. I'm going back to being all law-abiding. It's either that, or a really good bra and some low-cut shirts. :)

Who would think that finding a plumber would be so hard?

2008-01-23T10:53:00.000-05:00

I don't get it.

Tradespeople need to work, right?

Then why has it taken me days to find a plumber that does service calls?!? Seriously. There are 20 listings in the phone book under "Plumbing Contractors"-and I've only been able to find one that does service calls. Apparently you aren't supposed to have plumbing emergencies, only well planned out, booked ahead plumbing jobs.

So we have to hope that the guy that will come on short notice is good. Don't have any other choice in the matter. I guess if he really messes up, we can book a contractor to come in next month to fix it. Sheesh!

I'm beginning to understand why there's so much crappy DYI repairs and "projects" in all the houses in this town. It's easier to do it yourself than to book a pro. Or, there's always been just the one guy willing to do work and he sucks. "The Un-handy Handyman" we call him. I can recognize his work on sight. Taps turn backwards? P-trap under the sink looks like a Q and doesn't drain very well? Windows put in with the latches on the outside of the house? Yep. That's him.

I guess you can be less than stellar at your job when there's no competition.

2008-01-21T16:45:00.001-05:00

Hee hee! Prin, you're going to be unhappy with me. *blushes* I went back outside later on and took some pictures with the sun shining on the things I'd taken pictures of earlier. This time, i wore gloves.

I didn't stay out longer than 10 minutes, though. Still too cold out there!

Deep winter shadow light in the front yard. Very blue.

More icy pics

2008-01-21T10:53:00.001-05:00

A couple of pics of my neglected side door, lol!

Icy pictures from an icy day

2008-01-21T10:28:00.000-05:00

I decided to freeze my fingers off and take some pictures of the icicles outside today. Seems appropriate. It's -20 Celsius out there right now (that's -3 Fahrenheit). COLD, by any measurement!

First up, look who's been visiting my front porch. Gee, I wonder why those paw prints are there? :D

The light is wrong out there for sunny icicles, because they're in shadow, but I tried. Freezy fingers make for poor photography.

If the sun had been a little stronger...would have been a better shot.

Brrrrrrrr!

Blogger won't let me add any more pictures to this post. Boo!

Next year, I'm gonna get the damn flu shot!

2008-01-20T11:59:00.000-05:00

Ugh! Been doing nothing but sleeping for the last few days. Nice itchy, red, watery eyes, scratchy throat, cough, fever...bleah.

I did drag my sorry butt to the store on Friday but the kid went for me yesterday. I slept. And slept.

*cough!cough!*

I think I need a nap. :D

Post Holiday slump

2008-01-17T11:55:00.000-05:00

That's where I am. It happens every year.

The weather isn't particularly bad right now, although January and February can be killer in terms of mood dampening weather. It's just the blahs. After all the rushing about in December to make it to and through Christmas and New Year's, January feels like such a letdown.

I have zero motivation to do anything at work or at home. All I want to do is curl up and sleep away the rest of the winter. Can't do it, of course. But that's what I feel like today.

Doesn't help that my sinuses are full again and I'm coming down with a cold, too.

I'm just a mess of misery today. :D

I'm not worried that this is the beginning of a downward spiral or anything. I know it's a passing mood. That means that I'm free to completely wallow in it and enjoy it while it lasts. Drama queen time! After work, I'm going home to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and my hounds and look pitiful. Hee hee! It's an artform.

Pathos. I have it.

ZZZZ!!!! Snort! I'm awake!

2008-01-16T11:37:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure why I'm so tired, but I just found myself nodding off. *blushes* How embarrassing! And I'm behind the counter, too, not safely upstairs where passersby couldn't see me.

Gonna be a long day.

Patching on!

2008-01-15T16:02:00.001-05:00

They are patching up my roof now.

Then they'll be back in the spring to fix it properly. There is water damage in the attic and at the very least, the south side of the roof needs to be replaced.

Thank heavens for insurance. Comprehensive coverage rocks!

Roofing woes

2008-01-15T13:27:00.000-05:00

Soon to be fixed roofing woes. Someone is either at the house now or will be there shortly to patch up the roof for the time being. Then he'll send an assessment of the damage to the insurance company; if the roof needs replaced, it'll be done in the spring. *high five!*

In the meantime, if any more leakage occurs, they'll come back and re-patch. I like this. Plus, the insurance company will consider anything related to this as part of the same claim, so it'll be covered as such. We only have to pay the deductible the once. Yay!

I've never had much luck with insurance companies before. The fact that this is all going so smoothly is a shock; I'm still waiting for the badness to start up. It's not that I have no faith in insurance. I have plenty of faith. Faith that you pay it monthly, and when you need it, they dick you around.

Fingers crossed that that won't happen this time.

Some pictures.

2008-01-14T11:24:00.001-05:00

Just because I'm bored, here's some recent pictures of the dogs.

Fingal, aggravating his sister with his "Oh, no, you didn't!" look.

Miss Bronny-why do you take so many pictures of him? I'm cuter! (Even with the scrape on her chin. Silly girl!)

Sharing a drink after a long indoor wrestling session. Notice the empty shelves behind them? I have to store everything way above Fingal height, or he grabs stuff to get my attention. So only the tops of things are safe for storage.

This is why they needed a drink-serious wrestling time! I like the blurry effects here-camera was on the wrong setting, but it shows the action.

Look, Mom! I'm so hungry! I'll even bring you my bowl!

She didn't buy it. I guess I'll just check to see if I missed any breakfast, then.

No more pictures.

Can we go outside now? Please?

She looks like she's preparing to jump in, eh?

Whoa! Bad idea!

Bronwyn, get back off that ice! You'll fall in! (Don't worry-the water right there is only a little over knee deep. And Bear was ready to jump in if she got into real trouble.)

Yep, she fell in. Then we had to keep her from going back to swim. Twit! She somersaulted right into the water, and then scrambled back up, shook herself and headed right back for more.

Fingal and my Dad at New Year's.

That's all for now!

Waiting

2008-01-14T11:10:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, owning your own home is a pain.

I'm waiting today. Waiting for the claims department from my insurance company to call me back. And waiting for the roofer to come and take a look at what the wind last week did.

We have a big bare patch on our roof now. I'm talking about 4 feet of plywood showing in the middle of the roof. Unbelievable. Wouldn't even know it if my neighbour hadn't told me about it, since you can't really see that part of the roof from our yard. I had to go into the parking lot behind us to get a look at it. Very scary stuff, let me tell you!

The roofer has about 200 calls he's still getting through. He's only doing emergency patches for the time being, just to keep the damage to a minimum. I guess he'll have work lined up for the next few months, though.

The good news (for what it's worth)- he's moved us up on the priority list because there's plywood showing. Bad news? It's snowing today. :( He'll try and get here in the next day or so to take a look.

Thank heavens for home owner's insurance!

Contrary? I'm not contrary! I'll show you!!!

2008-01-12T12:59:00.000-05:00

*Sigh*

I AM contrary by nature. The more I'm told I should do something, the less I'm liable to do it. And even worse, I'll do the opposite, just because I can. It's a bad personality trait, let me tell you. In fact, one of my more senseless entanglements happened because a friend strenuously objected to a one night stand that I had, and the more she nagged and berated me about it, the more contrary I got. So instead of leaving it as a one night thing (which it should have stayed) I found it necessary to get involved instead. Just because I could.

Stupid. Very stupid.

Bear shares the same trait. He still has a ponytail going on because his mother used to nag and nag him to get his hair cut. And she used to try and enlist me; I could never make her understand that the more she mentioned it, the less likely he was to cut his hair. He's just starting to come around now, and she died almost two years ago. Stubborn, and contrary.

And I hate doing the expected thing. It's strange because I am a rules and law abiding little person. It's ingrained to do the right thing and follow the rules. There's a difference between the right thing and the expected thing, though. I do the right thing as I see it. I have my own set of moral codes and internal rules and laws to follow.

All of this is a long-winded and round about way to explain that I'm having a sudden case of digging in my heels. Yep, I decided that it was time to get married, but now that it's out there, here come the expectations. And so I'm getting stubborn. I'm rebelling. Again. :D

In truth, this is the most likely reason that we're not already legally married. I start to approach the issue and then I get ornery. In my heart, soul and head, I am so married. I have been for over ten years now. I honestly don't see that a piece of paper could make us any more married than we are. It's a legal thing only at this point. Coldly and logically, the only thing that getting officially hitched will do is protect our rights to each other's stuff if one of us dies. I just can't see that as anything to do with our love for each other and the emotional connection and bond that we have.

Honestly? I feel like I'm planning a big to-do over getting my driver's license renewed or my passport. It's another document that the government requires of me. (But please don't think that I don't appreciate the congrats and well wishes that I've received! I really do. I get all misty-eyed over the fact that people care.) Bear was even more direct about it when I told him about all the congrats comments and stuff. "Where's the congrats for being happily married for almost eleven years?!? Huh?"

The worst part is that I've almost gotten sucked in by the Wedding Industry a couple of times. You know, all the things that "a bride needs to have her one perfect day!". What crap! I know that for many people, a wedding is a huge deal. Everything has to be perfect. Uh, more power to you? I'd rather put that kind of money into the house. Sorry-I just can't get into it.

Yet it's so pervasive that I've found myself thinking "Oh, I suppose that we really should get a certain type of clothes. And flowers. We need flowers I guess. Decorations of some sort? Probably." I had to put the brakes on. We don't need any of it. I don't have to have anything.

So it's back to expectations and assumptions and pressure...and then I dig my heels in. Un-uh! No way! Not this girl! I mean, do we even have to get married at all? I don't think so...

See what I mean? *grin* I'm contrary.

But I'm still getting married this year. Quietly, with no fuss, and despite my own contrary nature!

Ms MIA is back

2008-01-11T12:42:00.000-05:00

Sorry, folks, for the bloggus interuptus. I put my back out again and typing was incredibly painful for a couple of days there. Wet steps during the sudden thaw; one foot skidded down the steps and one foot stayed firmly where it was. Ouch!!! I ended up with my feet three steps apart on the porch steps. Not a recommended activity for anyone. I twisted my left knee a bit too but I didn't even feel that until later on that night-what I felt was my back being wrenched. It hurt so much I didn't notice the knee at the time.

I suppose I'm lucky I didn't add to my misery by pulling a groin muscle or something. That would have really sucked.

But I'm back again. Probably shorter posts for a bit since it still kind of hurts to type (who would think that could even happen?). Still, I'm carrying on. That's right, I'm calling on my British heritage for some stiff upper lip endurance. Comes complete with drama and a certain sense of martyrdom. :D I shall overcome!

Hey, I had a real weekend!

2008-01-08T10:51:00.000-05:00

How strange. But Bear and I decided that the store can be closed on Mondays for awhile so that I can have two days in a row off. I need that. More time to restore the batteries.

I slept most of the last two days, I think. I must have needed it. Feel kind of dozy today, though. I have a sleep hangover. It will be better from now on though, with a full weekend every week.

After the deep freeze that we had it's now 8 C, headed up to 13 C today (that's 46 F and 56 F). All of that snow is melting fast and the world is soggy. Flood warnings have been issued. Prin said that Mother Nature has PMS; I think she's suffering either bipolar disorder (hehehe!) or a bit of Alzheimer's Disease. Weird weather.

Time to work a bit.

Wow! I think I've shocked myself, lol!

2008-01-05T11:29:00.000-05:00

Yep. I've finally, finally, set a date to get married.

:O

LOL! I guess I just wanted a 10 year engagement....

No, there have been lots of reasons to keep putting a wedding off. Stuff around custody and child support for the kid when she was still with her mother, my student loans and debts that I didn't want to saddle Bear with, then we were saving up to move and Bear took a paycut when we did move, we bought a house. Lots of financial reasons.

And there was Bear's exwife. She kept announcing weddings so I would postpone ours because I didn't want to get into dueling weddings and have the kid in the middle of it. None of those planned weddings have come to pass, though. In theory, she's getting married in September, but she was supposed to get married last summer and that didn't happen, either. So I'm fed up with being considerate. The kid is more than old enough to stand up for herself should any flack occur with this-not that I'm planning on having anyone tell the ex about our wedding. Oh, yeah-when we first got engaged, she told Bear that she was expecting to be invited to our wedding. So my Mom and sister offered to let her sit with them. Hehehe! That might have been fun!

The date- December 21st, 2008, or as close to as I can get things arranged since that's a Sunday. It will be very small and informal because that's what I've always wanted. And a winter wedding because that's also what I've always wanted. On Yule, the Winter Solstice as an act of faith for reasons far too complex to explain (even to myself).

I started to plan a small wedding years ago for the summer before we left Hamilton and it quickly threatened to balloon out of control on me as I tried to do things to avoid offending anyone or anything like that. That's probably also part of the reason we're not legally married yet. Scared me off of the process, lol. This time, it's all my way. Period. I'm doing this as I want it done (with Bear's agreement, of course!) and if anyone doesn't like it, tough! It's my wedding. So there!

Look out, there's a Bridezilla in the making!

OK, I'm so not a Bridezilla. I really don't want this to take over my life especially since it's going to be a small civil ceremony and some small occasion afterwards. Like a nice dinner out somewhere, lol. Minimal fuss. That's what I want. No tears. No arguments. And no second mortgage on the house! (I saw that on some show once-might have been Bridezillas-a woman took out a second mortgage of $60 000 to pay for her wedding. Crazy!).

I worked with a woman at the answering service for the year leading up to her wedding. It was awful-consumed her entire life with all the planning and plotting and drama. She was in tears every other day over something. No way in hell do I want to be that person. I refuse. So I've given myself a year to pull together a very small wedding. Should be fine.

It will be fine. (and I'm going to keep repeating that mantra.)

It's the end of the world? I didn't know it!

2008-01-04T10:35:00.000-05:00

Grocery stores-a rant.

I live in a small city (population is about 45, 000; when you add the surrounding little towns, it pulls up to about 60, 000-and that's including some towns about 45 mins away.) and while there are a surprising number of grocery stores, the choice isn't really all that great. I can accept that as part of life. What I can't accept, what I loathe, is the occasions where apparently some sort of apocalypse has occurred or at least been announced and I wasn't informed-and the stores are empty.

I'm talking shelves stripped right back to bare walls empty. No bread, no milk, very little produce, no pasta, hardly any soup...WTF?!? And it isn't just one store, either. The only store recently that's had any bread and milk when I've been in is the most expensive one (go figure!). WalMart probably does, too, but I don't buy groceries in WalMart. What the heck is going on?

All I can figure is that the extreme cold and calling for more snow scared people. There was a huge, huge ice storm here a couple of years before we moved here and people still remember. We're talking about no power for more than a week and everything shut down. I've been told that the stores were very, very empty then and one store was selling bread at 5 bucks a loaf. People remembered that profiteering afterwards and the store went out of business not long after since no one would shop there after that.

Anyways, Bear and I went out last night to do a large grocery shopping ourselves, not because we feared an ice storm but because the pantry is empty. Um, yeah. "We need pasta. No pasta? What? Okay, grab some soup then. No, I don't want cream of asparagus! That's it? Cream of broccoli, cream of leek...just the icky soups left. Forget soup. Canned tomatoes? Nope."

So we got fish and chips for dinner (hardly any frozen fries either-I guess they're a staple food?), and a little bit of other stuff. Still have to restock the pantry. We just have to figure out when the emergency is over and the stores will be restocked. Sheesh!

Crazy cold

2008-01-02T10:29:00.000-05:00

-29 C with the wind chill factor. This is after getting another foot of snow dumped on us. It's insane. Been wondering whatever happened to the type of winters I remembered from my childhood. Here they are! Just saving up for a good one. Brrrrrrrr!

The plows are just really going now. I guess the City decided that no one was going anywhere last night-or it was some bizarre way of trying to curtail drunk driving. Makes the drunks easy to find when they're stuck in a snow bank?

Today is incredibly sunny, though. So the snow has the most amazing purple shadows on it, contrasting with dazzling whiteness. Pretty. Be prettier if I hadn't had to go out in it.

I hate trying to clear fine powder snow off of a car. All is does is spread around, never really getting off of the car completely, and everything you do manage to brush off ends up all over your clothes. Phooey!

Grumble, grumble, grumble! I'm in a lovely mood this morning. Don't know exactly why, but I woke up snappish and it's getting worse by the minute.

Should be a fun day.

Some bling

2008-01-01T20:26:00.000-05:00

So, here's my diamonds. Crappy pics. I'll have to try again tomorrow when there's more light.

No one plan a big heist at Skryker's place, lol! The lower pendant is my Gramma V's necklace. I gave it a good cleaning and I'm surprised at how nice a stone it really is. But after all, I didn't realize until tonight that it's open under the edge of the stone. :D There was 30 years of crud under there, I think!

The other stone is one that I won a couple of years ago from Black Diamond Cheese. Really. For their 75th anniversary, they gave away diamonds. LOL, I was so excited when I got the news that I'd won a diamond pendant! And then it came, and it's so tiny! Pretty, though. It throws lots of colour and sparkle.

A super lame picture of the matching wedding bands that Bear and I have now. Bear's still has the scalloped sides; mine is worn down so much the sides are smooth now. I love it all the same.

My thought is to have the diamond that I won set into a ring of some kind. I'm not sure, though. I've never been much of a fan of round diamonds. *blushes* As it is, though, it's far too small and delicate for my neck (which is neither small nor delicate. Short and stumpy is more like it.) Now that I've cleaned up Gramma's stone I'm going to leave it as is for awhile. Maybe, maybe, if Mom finds the other stud, I'll have all three of Gramma's stones set into one ring or necklace. We'll see.

For now I'm just entranced by the pretty sparklies.

Er, Happy New Year?!?

2008-01-01T15:58:00.000-05:00

So much for enjoying a nice long visit with my parents.

I got sick on Sunday afternoon and they left Monday at noon to beat the crazy snow that was coming. It's very snowy out there now. Probably a good four inches since last night and no sign of stopping for the next couple of days. Oh, and the temperature is dropping again to an estimated -13 C for the next little while. That's very, very cold. :(

I'm really bummed out about not getting much of a chance to see my folks, though. That stinks far worse than the aborted plans for a belated Christmas dinner. Not that I would have wanted it, lol!

My Mom left me a couple of surprises-a small wedding band that she was given by one of the old ladies in my Grandmother's senior's building years ago (co-incidentally, it's the same pattern as Bear's father's wedding ring, which Bear has worn since his father's death, so Mom thought I should have the mate to it) and my Grandmother's diamond necklace. There should be a pair of earrings, too, that were my Grandma's. However, after years of careful stewardship, Mom was embarrassed to say that she lost one of them somehow. :D Mom is mortified because she rarely ever loses jewelry. I have a feeling that it will turn up yet.

I will post some pics later on, when I get some decent ones. It's not that easy to get good pictures of jewelry and the necklace is a whopping 1/4 carat, so we're talking macro work. But, they were given to her by the man I called Grandpa Harry and so I will always treasure them. Even if I only have two out of the three.

The countdown begins!

2007-12-29T10:38:00.000-05:00

Got so sidetracked!

Anyhow, one countdown is over and the kid has returned home. Much rejoicing all around! She's happy to be home, we're happy to have her home, the dogs were ecstatic to see her and even the cat came over to be petted and to re-mark the kid as hers.

When I started this post this morning, my parents were just leaving to come here; by now (4:10pm), they should just about be here. :D

So my countdown is very short. I miss my parents quite a bit. Don't see them anywhere often enough now. I talk to them on a regular basis, yes, but it's not the same thing at all.

Even when I went to university the first time I was only in the next city over, less than a half hour's drive from home. Not even long distance to call home. When I moved out for good, I returned to Hamilton and was still close by. And then we moved here, hours away and I didn't get to see my folks much. They moved here after Dad retired and so I got to see them everyday for 4 and a half years again. Now, they're far away.

I don't like this. I know that I am perfectly capable of living at any distance from them but I prefer to have them close. Yep, I am a wimp and a suck. :D There's also the fact that I get along with them really well. I like talking to them and spending time with them. Since I don't really open up with many people, I notice when my safety net is smaller. Not a good thing for someone with anxiety.

For the next few days anyhow, I have my parents close by. I intend to enjoy it.

Should have stayed home

2007-12-27T15:10:00.001-05:00

Not much going on today. It got really cold and bitter again, complete with some fresh snowfall to top it all off.

Seems most of the downtown businesses are closed today and tomorrow, too.

Oh, well. I'll live.

Had a really good couple of days with Bear-lots of movies and playing silly games on the computer and just hanging out together. It was great! In fact, I noticed on Christmas Eve that my cheeks were hurting from laughing and smiling so much. :)

I got him a new set of pots and a new set of knives since he's been complaining about the old ones for awhile now, and he got me a PSP, which I've been eying for some time now. And we have way too much chocolate in the house now. Ummmmm, chocolate!

A nice and relaxing holiday all around!

Back to work?

2007-12-27T10:28:00.000-05:00

Hehehehe! Eventually, I guess.

My back has been an extreme misery to me for the last 48 hours or so. I'm currently resting after putting my boots on. Ouchie. Took way longer in the shower than it should since I'm moving in slow motion, and I wasn't sure I could even get my pants on. The socks...oh, ow, the socks!!!

So I'm late for work. Eh, whatcha gonna do?

One more sleep...

2007-12-24T10:13:00.000-05:00

I made the mistake of going into a grocery store to get something for my lunch (since the deli up the street is closed for the next 2 weeks). I don't feel so bad now, being such a last minute shopper. Seems most people are!

Bear and I are in the middle of movie madness but being chronically sleep deprived is wrecking havoc on it. :D I fell asleep on The Bourne Ultimatum last night, and then we were both out by 11pm. We're getting so old!

We're both off for the next couple of days though. Time to relax and unwind and spend some quality and quantity time together. Yay!!!!! And in theory, he starts some vacation time next week-depends on whether or not the warehouse is busy. We'll see.

LOL!!! That's the third person so far today I've seen walk past in a Santa hat!

So, fellow bloggers, have a good holiday. Spend some relaxing time with your loved ones, two and four legged. Get and give lots of hugs. Indulge. Have fun. Make merry.

Yeah, that's my holiday wish to everyone-make merry!

Almost time to brave the stores

2007-12-22T16:22:00.000-05:00

Yep, the hour approaches. Closing time, and time to go and get dinner. Bad planning on my part.

Shouldn't be too bad, I hope.

I managed to get in and out of Walmart yesterday in an hour, even though it was clothes shopping with the kid. Of course it's easy when you know everything is black. :D

Sent her off with new clothes-all dark and depressing, just like she wanted. Camo and skulls and nothing brighter than a muted blue. She's old enough now that I refuse to waste too much time in arguing over it. So long as everything is covered decently I'll consider it a victory. Or, in her case, as long as it's not so baggy it looks ridiculous, it's good.

Dark wardrobe. Check. Punk arm and wristbands. Check. Black leather coat. Check. Purple-red hair. Check.

Horrified biomom. Hehehehe! Check!

New stuff...

2007-12-22T11:29:00.000-05:00

Been so busy lately that I don't think I've mentioned that we've had a pair of tenants move in to our vacant upstairs apartment. They are a pair of my kid's friends; a couple of girls with crappy homelives that have found themselves on their own too young (IMO). The first girl was frantically looking for a place to keep her pets for a couple of weeks while she found a new apartment because the guy she'd been living with (at 16! FFS!) decided to beat her up. Nice, eh? And then the friend she was staying with's parents threatened to take her pets to the pound. Better still.

So (as we are huge softies) Bear and I offered up a place to live, complete with pets. And her friend moved in to help split the costs. They're nice kids who have had a rough start. Oh, they're Goths, certainly. And bisexual, too. And those are part of the reasons that their parents don't want them around. People suck. A lot.

The one girl already has a job, and they've both been doing the job search thing, looking for a better job. True enough that they haven't paid any rent yet; but we know they will. They just needed a break. Bear has been in that position himself, so this is paying it forward. Not completely altruistic either-the rent coming in will help out quite a bit for us.

Unfortunately, her puppy has......

Fleas.

Sigh! So now my animals are itchy again. Back to the vet, and $172 dollars later we have 6 months supply of Advantage. Of course, Bronwyn falls under the cutoff point and Fingal is over the cutoff for dosage so we had to get two lots instead of one. Yeah, great! And the cat can't have hers until the vet sees her on the 31st. *blushes* So I cheated and saved a little of Fingal's dose and put it on the cat. Can't stand to see her scratching. "Liquid Gold" is what the vet tech called the stuff. It had better do the job, is all I can say. Since I don't know what the dog upstairs is getting, topical flea control is now a permanent thing in our house. Between mice and animals upstairs I don't want to take the chance.

Poor furkids. Poor us! Here we go again with sterilizing the whole house-vacuuming, laundering and spraying. Wee hee! Nothing says Christmas like the smell of insecticide everywhere. Grumble!

"Merry...cough!...Chris...cough!...t...wheeze!...mas!"

Phew! Where does the time go?

2007-12-21T12:24:00.001-05:00

So close to the end of the year. How did that happen already?

I'm not ready for Christmas at all, and I'm facing an after work shopping trip. Not going to be fun, I don't think. The last Friday night before Christmas is not a good time to be out in the retail world. :D But thanks to some shrewd financial shuffling, some quasi irresponsible fiscal planning and a large dose of "It's Christmas, so damn the torpedoes!" attitude, Bear and I managed to shake loose some Christmas budget at the last minute. Lol, so no stress at all-just go and do stuff that I normally would have done weeks ago!

We decided to hold back on Christmas dinner, though. The kid is leaving tomorrow for a week at her biomom's house. And my parents are coming up after Christmas. So it makes more sense to wait until the house is full of family before cooking up a feast. I'm sure my Dad won't mind two roast turkey dinners in a short space of time, and we're having ham, too, which Mom is skipping this year. As long as I remember apple pie, Dad will be happy.

Bear and I will have a quiet celebration with the animals, then. That's OK. We'll watch movies and rack out on the couch together (with the dogs) and just relax for a bit. Sounds fine to me. I have the strangest Christmas Eve tradition-I like to watch cheesy horror movies on Christmas Eve. :) It started with a friend of mine in High School; we were both horror movie fans and it just so happened that we'd rented Friday the 13th part 6 without thinking about what night it was (both of us being pagan and Yule was already over.). Well, her grandmother kicked up such a huge fuss that we we not only skipping church but watching a horror movie than it sparked a tradition. We just had to! No one ever said teenagers are sensitive or anything.

Although I've long since fallen away from her, I keep the tradition up. Bear was only too glad to join me, and now the kid is a participant, too. We rented Dead and Breakfast a couple of years ago and the kid bought it for Bear last year because it's hilarious and now that is our movie of choice for this night. I feel like I've not only kept up a tradition for its own sake, but it's an antidote to the bad parts of the season-all the focus on materialism, the fake empathy and the cloying sentimentality that can overwhelm me and make me grinchy. It's evolved now so that it's part of our family life and I never get tired of the looks on people's faces when they ask what we're doing on Christmas Eve.

So I'm a brat. Santa always forgives me.

Post for a chilly morning

2007-12-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

It's cold and damp and I hurt. A lot.

Blech! I didn't sleep well and so I'm tired and draggy and huddled up as close to the baseboard heater as I can get, trying to get warm. I was warm in bed. Whoever invented the idea that we have to get up and out of a warm bed to go into the cold? Why wasn't I consulted?!?

No, seriously? Why didn't anyone ask me? I would have been glad to tell you that grey winter days are for staying in bed, in warm jammies. You don't have to sleep the whole time; books are good. Snuggly reading works. Or pets. Pets help make the bed warmer and more snuggly, too. If there's someone else to snuggle up with, well, I'm sure that two minds can find a way to pass the time (most likely without the jammies!).

My point is, if the temperature is much below zero Celsius, and there's no sunshine to counteract the chill, why should we put ourselves through the misery of getting chilled and shivering just to go to work? Pure torture, and it makes everyone grumpy. I don't think it's very productive, either.

On the other hand, a clear, crisp winter day just begs for you to go out and play in the snow, doesn't it? Then it's torture being inside when you could be out taking advantage of rare winter sun. It's nice to get bundled up and go walking or whatever in the snow. Better to really play-snowball fights, snowgoon making...whatever works! Or outdoor skating. I love that and I haven't done it in years. Keep meaning to go up to Ottawa and skate on the Rideau canal but I haven't made it yet. Oooh! Tobogganing! There's another thing I haven't done in years! So much fun.

Maybe this winter stuff isn't so bad after all. Just have to get out and play some. On another day. When it isn't so damp and I don't have so much to do.

Being a grownup really sucks sometimes.

More snow?!?

2007-12-18T12:11:00.000-05:00

Yep! It's snowing again. Whee hee.

When I got to the store this morning, I had no parking spot. Grrrrr! I hate that! There's only 2 spots for the store and one is MINE, dammit! :) I don't drive everyday of course, since I live only a couple of blocks away, but I hate it when there's cars in my spots. Obviously, they aren't my customers if they're there before I am...

My back is still not liking the weather right now, so I had to drive over. The sidewalks aren't well cleared yet plus it's very very cold today. That's a combination that can lead to disaster. A bad slip and fall on the ice could really mess my back up. So I have to be a global warming wimp and drive.

I know I used the term "spina bifida occulta" to describe my back issues a few posts ago, but I hate to use that term. What I have is so mild compared to those with serious spina bifida. It hurts but for me, it's more of a periodic inconvenience. 99% of the time, I can get around even if it hurts to do so. I can walk. So I have to consider myself lucky that it isn't far worse. Of course, that doesn't mean that I don't whine about it sometimes. After all, a good day is one where I don't really notice that it hurts. A bad day, and my left foot drags when I walk, my legs are numb from the hip down, both hips ache, I have a lump the size of a pound of butter over the base of my spine (right in between the dimples) and I can't get comfortable anywhere.

I was late getting here today because my back tried to seize up while I was in the shower. I had to wait until I could move without it really going out. I'm glad that I didn't run out of hot water while I was in there. Now, that would truly have sucked!

But I'm here, and I'm mostly mobile. That's pretty good.

Some sunset snow pictures

2007-12-17T19:29:00.001-05:00

Hope everyone isn't sick of seeing blizzard aftermath pictures yet. :) Oh, sorry-we had a "winter-like storm". Pics aren't that good because I took them just as I got home tonight. The light was fading fast.

Here's my back yard, and the shed in my neighbour's yard. Look at all the freakin' snow on top of the shed!

The reports here said 40cm of snow (about 15 inches). In Montreal, they were saying that my town got 55cm (almost 2 feet) which is closer, I think.

Back towards the rear of my yard-that's a 4 foot fence, and then the piles way above that in the parking lot behind us.

Down my street. The valley in the middle is where the sidewalk should be. It's about mid-thigh to hip deep, depending on the way it drifted. Don't know if you can make it out, but the parking meter is barely peeking out of the snow there.

Looking the other way up the street. Again, the center of the picture is where the sidewalk is.

Across the street.
My neighbour's house complete with drift as high as the porch. :)
And a shot of the snow pile at the end of the street. It's as high as the awnings on that building.

We're supposed to get more snow over the next week, too. Where is it going to go?

Everything is white out there

2007-12-17T13:32:00.001-05:00

Nothing but snow.

At least some people are starting to move around finally.

I think lots of people are headed to the mall for some Snow Day shopping. :D

Dancer 2, Mice 0

2007-12-17T10:32:00.000-05:00

I noticed on Saturday night that we had another mouse in the house. I saw the little bugger scurrying around the kitchen. Wonderful!

Well, Dancer solved that problem for me. *Sigh* O mighty huntress! I was in the living room and I heard the desperate squeaking. Got back to the bedroom in time to stop her from eating it, although I couldn't save it. Poor little thing.

On the other hand, I couldn't blame Dancer. Not only is she a cat, and a former stray, but the she and the mouse were right by her food dish. I think the cheeky little mouse was eating Dancer's food.

I suppose it's only fair, then. :D

Christmas Meme

2007-12-16T18:24:00.000-05:00

Prin tagged me for this one. I like it. It's brought up all kinds of good memories for me.

When people say, "Christmas" you immediately think...

Already? Wow! Yay, Christmas goodies!

Favorite Christmas memory?

There are so many...I've been very lucky that way.

Here's my two biggies though. Not long before first Christmas that Bear and I were together, I was shopping with my mother and we saw that the jewelry store in the mall was closing out, so everything was on sale. No way in this world or any other could my mother pass by a jewelry sale and not go and look. So we went in for a look around.

I ended up falling in love with a sapphire and diamond ring.

And so I went back to Bear and told him that I'd found a ring I loved, and even better, it was 70% off since the store was closing. :D I'm so practical! And he got it for me. It's not the ring he was going to get me, but since I loved it, he got it. When we came back from picking it up he even went down on one knee and formally asked me to marry him. Maybe not a surprise proposal in the grand sense but him going down on one knee surprised me. He wouldn't let me wear the ring until he'd done that.

Memory 2: Same Christmas. When we (Bear, the Kid and I) walked into my parent's place on Christmas day, Mom and Dad had stockings waiting for us. Not just any stockings, but Mom had made Bear and the Kid stockings to match the rest of my family's. I got all teary eyed about it, since I knew that meant Mom and Dad considered Bear and his daughter part of the family now. I also knew that Mom had to have made them well before she was with me and I found my ring, so in Mom's mind, it was already a done deal. He was a keeper.

I had though that Bear didn't quite get what the stocking meant but he told me a few days ago that this is his favourite Christmas memory, too; being so accepted into my family-not just him, but his daughter, too.

I'm tearing up thinking about it now.

Favorite Christmas song/carol

Hard to pick just one, but I don't feel like it's Christmas until I hear Bing Crosby/David Bowie's "Little Drummer Boy".

To sing? Odd choices for a Pagan maybe, but "We Three Kings" and "Angels We Have Heard On High."

In my grade school, they rounded us up frequently to go and sit in the gym and sing Christmas songs. The lyrics were on overheads and projected up onto the wall, and we'd sit in the dark and sing. It was fun! With "We Three Kings", I learned early on the morbid verses that don't normally get sung and that for some reason always tickled my sense of humour.

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

Refrain

Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.

Favorite Christmas movie

"A Christmas Story". You'll put your eye out, kid!

Favorite Christmas character

Tie between the Bumble in Rudolph and The Winter Warlock from "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". With the Grinch's dog Max right up there.

Favorite Christmas ornament/object

Personal ornament? I have a little snowman that is very precious to me. I'll blog about him and where he came from soon (I need to get a picture of it.). In general? I love the stockings and the Christmas Crackers.

Plans for this Christmas

Don't really have any. *blushes* The kid is going to her biomom's house on the 22nd. Bear and I will watch our annual Christmas Eve horror movie (long story!) and we'll have a way scaled back dinner.

My parents will be coming after Christmas for a visit, though. I can't wait!

Is Christmas your favorite holiday?

If not, it's pretty closely tied with Hallowe'en!

Who do I tag?

Bear

Phew!

2007-12-16T18:10:00.000-05:00

So much snow! Really, really snowed last night and today, and there's no sign of it stopping til morning. Woo hoo!

And also not woo hoo, since I had to drive Bear to work. Grumble. His company never ever tells workers to stay home, despite the fact that it's a logistics company and everything comes and goes by truck. I wouldn't think that there would be too much to do on a night like this but he even went in early. Of course, since he doesn't have a license, that means I had to drive.

Not as bad as I'd thought it was going to be since everything is snowy but dry. Dry is good. Sloppy, icy, slushy is bad. I was a little stressed by seeing some ice peeking through the snow in a few places but my little car and I did just fine. We slipped a bit because I had to brake at the railway crossing. No biggie. I had left myself plenty of room before the crossing so I had no problem getting it back under control. Slid a bit going around a corner, too-I was expecting it and knew the tires would grip again right away and they did.

The worst moments involved morons on snowmobiles, not only suddenly zooming across the road from the trails but also driving straight up the road where they aren't supposed to be and startling other drivers. Startled drivers become out of control drivers in this weather. Morons. Even worse were the pair on a quad and a tri wheeler driving down one of the main streets in town. Sheesh! Just because it's snowing doesn't mean the laws no longer apply.

And one last scary moment when someone coming out of a side street took it way too fast and spun out in front of me. He went way over to the other side of the road though, and then got it back under control, all well away from me. When he first started spinning he was headed straight at me; not a nice sight! I was trying to judge which way he was headed so I could get out of the way and then away he went. I imagine it shook him up a bit.

Here's a way you can tell how I feel about driving in this weather. I mentally assessed the roads and made my choice not only based on how bad they were likely to be (shitty, both of them!) but on how deep the ditches are. :D Just in case. I took the road with the smaller and fewer ditches.

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst. :)

More technical difficulties

2007-12-14T12:07:00.000-05:00

This time, though, they really are technical, lol! I've spent the last couple of days trying to dig a trojan out of the computer at work and one of the two at home. So much for all those security and antivirus programs, eh?

I *think* I've got it out of the one at work now. I hope so because that means I can get rid of it at home, now, too. Yay!

Wonderful timesaving devices, computers. 'Cause you'd never have to waste the best part of 2 days dealing with them. Never.

:D

The Snowball Effect

2007-12-12T13:32:00.000-05:00

Yes, it never rains but it monsoons. :(

I'm back, more or less. Less, I think. I put my back out on Saturday slugging stuff around the store. That's always fun. I have (in addition to my multitude of other health stupidities) a defect in my spine that causes me issues sometimes. Technically. it's spina bifida occulta; it's the very mildest form of spina bifida and more common than you might think (something like 22% of people have it, but very few people have any problems relating to it). In essence, it's a birth defect-the bone didn't completely fuse in the arch of one of my vertebrae (L4, to be precise-the second lowest vertebra in the spine). From time to time it aggravates what would be normal lower back pain into screaming agony. Woo hoo. Oh, and the disc between L4 and L5 has been deteriorating for years, too. It's far narrower than it should be.

It's also another one of those contentious things. I've had the whole range of responses from doctors about it, from "That's nothing at all. The pain is all in your head. Stop boo-hooing and get off your ass." to "Well, that vertebra slips around in ways it shouldn't and pinches nerves. That'll cause excruciating pain and muscle weakness in your back and legs. Oh, but you're too old for the surgery we can do now to fix that." and everything in between. Net result? Like everything else, I live with it. Some days I have the upper hand and some days it does.

But I will say this;food poisoning or a virus or whatever that makes you spend time bent over the toilet isn't an effective treatment for a sore back. :D

And I'm frustrated because there's so much to do at the store and at home and I can't move. Bleah. Bleah!!! I say!

Best yet, something got set down on the foot pedal for my sewing machine and caused it to overheat, scorching the carpet and very nearly starting a fire in the house. If Bear and I hadn't tracked the source of the weird smell and found it.....I don't even want to think about it. He was headed to bed for the day and I was on my way out. That's the sort of disaster I can't contemplate without breaking down completely. I'm stunned at how easily I could have lost just about everything that matters to me. I don't even know why the damn machine was plugged in! It hasn't been used in months and I'm normally so careful to unplug it because it's an antique, so I don't trust the wires. What the hell?!?

Not a good day so far. It better get better.

Due to technical difficulties...

2007-12-10T15:48:00.000-05:00

I'm out of commission a bit.

See you tomorrow, fellow bloggers! (stupid germs, anyhow!)

Ho Ho Ho?

2007-12-06T14:32:00.000-05:00

Santa may have to put himself on the naughty list

Microsoft has pulled the plug on its automated Santa instant messaging site for children, after it was discovered Santa could talk dirty.

The United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reports the bad Santa would chat about oral sex in response to repeated invitations to have pizza.

Microsoft spokesman Adam Sohn says engineers have tried to clean up Santa's vocabulary.

But the site has been taken down as a precaution.

Sohn says the company didn't know bad language had been included in the computer code that controlled Santa's online chats.

© 2007 - The Canadian Press

Oh, my! Bad Santa!

About that cup'o'stress?

2007-12-05T12:57:00.000-05:00

It's full again. Really, really full.

But I am here at work, not curled up at home whimpering. Woo hoo! Yay, me!

Even though money is tight, I think we'll have to find a couple of bucks to take a shot at the Super-7 lottery on Friday night. It's 25 million tax-free dollars. Not so different than throwing a coin into a wishing well or a fountain, I guess. 25 million could change a lot of lives, though. It'd make a heck of a Christmas, too.

I think that if we were to win something like that, it would take a long time to sink in. I wouldn't believe it until the cheque was in the bank and had had time to clear. So, about a week later, I'd start to believe it was true. :) But I'd make detours all over the place for a bit, checking my bank balance at ATMs.

"No, it's still in there. It must really be mine."

6 years ago we won 2,167 dollars from 6-49. I didn't believe that at first, either, lol. I made someone else check the ticket and still waited until it had been verified before I got really excited about it. It was the first year after we'd moved, so that money meant that we could fix the car enough to go home for Christmas, as well as actually take presents with us. Oh, and eat more than Kraft Dinner for the month leading up to Christmas. Very well timed money.

25 million is a whole 'nother story, though. That's "life as we know it is changed forever" money. I'm not even sure I want that much responsibility, really. Not that we'd keep all of it. There's a list of people we'd want to share with. We'd keep enough to never have to work again, though. Time to find a farm in the woods. Or an island.

Yeah, I think I'd like an island.

I'm here! I'm here!

2007-12-04T11:32:00.000-05:00

And the top quote on my quote of the day thing is so appropriate, I think.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
Marie Curie

That's what I was going to blog about today: fear. Fear and anxiety, since the two go so hand in hand for me. When I left the house this morning, I would have rated my anxiety level at about an 8 out of 10. I'm honestly amazed and more than a little proud of myself for getting out of the door. Lol, who would think that scraping and clearing the car can be therapeutic? It was, though. It gave me time to be out of the house without really leaving yet, and a nice monotonous task to calm my brain down.

I'm starting to gain more understanding about the fears and anxieties now. It might not lessen the feelings but it makes them so much less overwhelming. So it's much, much easier to function even with a panic attack looming. No mistake about it-there was a full blown panic attack waiting to happen. It may happen yet today. If it does, I'll survive. Won't be fun, but I'll manage it.

Prin gave me a good analogy about stress some time ago (I'm paraphrasing here. My memory won't cough up the exact words. Sorry, Prin!); you're a cup that can only hold so much stress and when you exceed that amount, you overflow. The trick isn't to manage the overflow, it's to keep the cup constantly low enough that a sudden influx of stress won't cause an overflow in the first place. Or, I think it went-you don't get a bigger cup, you learn to empty the one you've got. I've realized that I don't do that enough. I'm still at the manage the overflow stage of the game. I'm probably to the point now that the cup is at about 3/4 full instead of up to the brim all the time, but I'm still in danger of spilling over if there's sudden changes in the routine.

My own way of viewing it was to say that I back-burner everything. "Don't have time to deal with that right now. I'll put in on the back burner." The first time I got counseling, when I said that, the counselor looked at me and asked me if my stove wasn't kind of full by now. *Blushes* Just a bit, and I'd imagine that many of those dishes were burnt past recognition by that point.

I know that I've got some things on that back burner that need dealing with. And I've got some things that have been in the oven for a long time that should come out.

I'll start with not freezing up in panic and terror. For this morning, that's enough. It's time to stop shoving things away, though. I'll have to think about that. :D

The super-awesome Daszzle has given again!

2007-12-03T12:54:00.000-05:00

Thanks, Daszzle!

I'll have to think of who to pass it along to.

It's so nice to be appreciated!

Snow day!

2007-12-03T09:10:00.000-05:00

This is Skryker's World today! Just a quick trip outside onto the porch with my camera. Brrrr!
My poor little car. It's still snowing, too, and is supposed to keep it up until late tomorrow.

So, I'm taking a snow day. Not likely to be any customers anyhow. I'll still have to go out later on to drive Bear to work, of course. I hope the plows stay busy.

My evergreens, pine and cedar, wearing some winter coats this morning.

And a better look at what the plows have left us so far at the ends of our drives.

One more of the pine tree. He's an old campaigner. I love this tree; it shelters the porch and one of the windows in my computer room. And it's usually full of little birds, although not today.

So I'm staying in as much as I can today. Have fun, fellow bloggers!

Martini's photo meme thingie

2007-12-01T10:23:00.000-05:00

This looked like a great deal of fun on Martini's page (and she got the idea from Glamour Girly) so I'm stealing it to do while I wait for the store to warm up so I can work.

Instructions: You must type the answer to each question into a Google Image search, then pick an image from the first page of results.

1. Age at next birthday: 37

Mostly what came up were pictures of fighter planes and complex technical diagrams, but an old book is way more appropriate!

2. Place I would like to travel: hard to pick just one, but Scotland.

3. My favourite place: The East coast of Canada, specifically Fundy National Park. No picture of my favourite little waterfall in the park using the rules, but this one will do.

4. My favourite objects: No surprise here, I'm sure!

5. My favourite food: Pasta!!! Infinitely variable, always yummy. Unless it has clam sauce.

6. My favourite colour: I have to pick just one? OK, I guess...amethyst. Deep, dark purple. Luckily, it's my birthstone, too!

7. My nickname. I'm not really a nicknamey person, but my mother had several for me when I was a child. One was Matilda Jane for reasons no one really knows. So here's a Victorian Bronze statue from the grave of Lady Matilda Jane Pelham-Clinton.

8. The place that I was born. Not that we ever had a boat, but this is not that far from where I fed the ducks and geese all the time.

9. My ideal date: Candle lit picnic on a beach with a bonfire nearby. I'd rather be on the beach but this was the best picture from the search.

10. Where I hope to be in five years: Living on a farm in the woods. Hey, this one is only $439,000!

But where's the fun in that?

2007-11-30T10:46:00.000-05:00

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
Will Rogers.

That would be so boring!

Horrible toy flashback

2007-11-30T10:24:00.000-05:00

Oh, boy! rs left a comment about my award, saying elephants are fun, and all I kept thinking about was Elephun the Elephant. But I didn't know why.

So I googled it. Elefun, the Butterfly Catchin' game. With his 4 foot trunk.

Ooooohhhhhhh, yeah! Only one of the most annoying toys ever made! The little girls I used to babysit had this beast and they loved it. It's got all the hallmarks of a bad toy. It's noisy, it's prone to coming apart and needing repair, it's got red, blue, yellow and green to choose from so it's guaranteed to start a fight over who gets to be blue, it's got little pieces that can be lost-and best of all, it encourages kids to run around in the house.

Yep, you put the little butterflies into the elephant and it shoots them up into the air at random intervals for the kids to chase. But you can't use it outside, because the butterflies are too light and will blow away at the slightest breeze. So you can have up to 4 kids racing around your living or rec room trying to catch their colour of butterfly. No chance of injury here, eh?

Bad, bad idea.

The worse one, though? Mysize Barbie. At the time, this was a $150 dollar Barbie doll. She's 3 feet tall and comes with clothes that the kids can wear, too! Arrrggghhhh! 2 girls, one doll. Fights galore. And even better, the younger girl was about the same height as the doll and very blonde and slightly built. So seeing the damn doll out of the corner of my eye used to scare the crap out of me! Forget to take it upstairs and put it away and then come down after putting the kids to bed, and jump a mile in the air, thinking "How did she get here like that?" or wondering why she was up all of a sudden.

And I used to do some computer work for their mother while the kids were at school, so I'd be alone in the house, come up from the basement and get startled by the little silent person standing in the living room. Evil doll! Creepy, with her fake plastic smile plastered on her face.

No kid needs a $150 dollar Barbie doll, complete with bride outfit. Sheesh!

My first award!!!!

2007-11-29T11:35:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Daszzle for this wonderful surprise!

You made my day. (hugs)

Um, some stuff.

2007-11-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

Ugh! I know why little kids scream when they have an ear infection. It hurts! I don't have an infection, but my one ear is full of fluid and it's killing me. Yeah. More ear issues. Yay, me.

So I spent yesterday at home feeling awful.

Today, I'm at the store-feeling awful.

For some reason, when I used the saline rinse stuff for my sinuses yesterday morning, instead of draining back out of my nose, it drained into my ear instead. Just as I was thinking "Where the heck is all that water going?", I felt a weird tickling sensation inside my ear. It became painful pretty quickly and set off some truly awful vertigo. My eyes kept moving back and forth and so I couldn't really do anything but lay there.

Around dinner time last night the slight pain in my ear became extreme pain. Codeine didn't even help me sleep.

I think I may have to go to the hospital if it doesn't drain soon. Woo hoo!

Trying to get that holiday cheer

2007-11-27T11:59:00.000-05:00

Found some online radio that's all Christmas music. We'll see if it helps.

I realized this morning (for what reason it came to mind, I don't know) that I can still remember the first part of "A Martian Christmas"-a reworking of T'was The Night Before Christmas that my class did in the 4th grade for our school Christmas pageant.

T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the crater,
Not a creature was stirring, not even Darth Vader.

The space boots were hung by the air vent with care,
In the hopes that St Snoodlenoot soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their (something),
While visions of Mars Bars danced through the dome.

That's all I can remember. It's probably just as well. :)

I missed Monday

2007-11-27T11:26:00.000-05:00

Not much to say? I guess so.

I'm in a bit of a funk again. It will pass soon, I'm sure.

Very odd. I guess I'm just really tired. I don't seem to be sleeping much and when I do, it's nightmare city. Too much stress. And I didn't think I'd got into the deep stuff with the new counselor but it's stirred something up. I'm dreaming of things I'd rather not think about.

I'm a zombie cruising around the store today. I'd so rather be at home, curled up in bed with Bear and all 3 fur kids. Not sure that there's any room for me in there, of course! It would be nice to be there, though. No worries about being cold, that's for sure.

The wind has shifted

2007-11-24T14:58:00.000-05:00

...and the store isn't freezing anymore.

Getting ready to Christmasify the store. I wonder if that will put me in the mood. Even with the snow, I'm just not Christmasy.

Part of it is that things are so quiet now, I think. Christmas was A Very Big Deal as I was growing up. Mom made the house look like the North Pole; multiple trees, large and small, garlands and decorations everywhere, Seasonal tea towels and table cloths-even Christmas print toilet paper and paper towels.

Dad started bringing in the goodies at the first of December. Every grocery shopping trip had extras. We all got our favourite pop and whatever candies and things, plus all the stuff for guests. And he brought in his gifts from work everyday, too. He was the head of shipping and receiving for his company for years and years, so all the regular drivers made sure to bring him things. Usually, it was booze. I don't remember Dad having to buy his own rye until well after that company had been bought and stripped by a corporate raider.

And Dad took and left bottles at parties and things, as well as giving each of the guys who put in our central air system a 26 oz bottle of Canadian Club rye as a thank-you. :D The year my brother and I counted, he got 26 bottles of CC, 4 Crown Royal, a couple of boxes of booze filled chocolates, some regular chocolates, 3 boxes of Misty Mints, 4 boxes of fruit jellies and a crystal decanter of brandy filled chocolates. I think he got a couple of tins of homemade cookies from the girls in the office, too. Not a bad haul.

It's kind of weird, but the sight of a row of bottles of Canadian Club says Christmas is coming. The funniest part of all of this-my Dad drank so infrequently that one bottle lasted most of a year. Maybe two. But if my Mom made homemade Irish Cream, in went a bottle of the good stuff. By today's prices, I think that makes each batch cost about 45 bucks once all the ingredients are factored in.

From the beginning of December the house was full of Christmas and the visits started, too. Lots of people dropping in and we went a-visiting on nights when no one was expected at our place. Family parties and gift exchanges (when the family was small enough that everyone could afford to buy gifts for everyone; after that, it was draw a name, or just small gifts for the kids. When you gathered everyone on Dad's side, it came to 33 people after the arrival of all the great-grandkids. No great-greatgrandkids yet, but the oldest of the youngest generation are in their 20's now.)

Christmas eve was the start of the big festivities. We picked up my Gramma V and took her to my aunt and uncle's for the night, staying for an hour or so and being stuffed with my aunt's baking and handmade chocolates. Back home for hot chocolate and the ceremonial Santa's milk and cookies (except the year that my Dad convinced me that Santa would rather have a beer; Dad's got an odd sense of humour sometimes.). Then my parents headed across the street to have a rest with the couple over there, until the kids were asleep and the rest of their night's work could be finished.

Christmas morning was stocking time-and let the parents sleep until at least 7:30. The rule was we could open our stockings and look at anything not wrapped up, and no candy until after breakfast, but the huge apple and orange were fair game. Then a real breakfast (during which I was usually dancing around with impatience, bugging them to hurry up so I open stuff!) that took forever, especially if Mom insisted on making eggs and bacon for everyone. Finally-finally!-it was time for presents!

Next, cleanup and and peeling veggies while Mom got the turkey going. Time for showers and the donning of new clothes to be presentable, along with phone calls from the east coast relatives, and then visiting my Mom's aunt and uncle for the afternoon (more presents), followed by going back to my aunt's to pick up my Gramma (more presents) and then home for food! Of course, we had Christmas Crackers first! And one of Dad's 2 graces said, either "Grace and disgrace!" or "Good food, good meat, Good God, let's eat!".

Boxing Day was for visiting my great-grandmother and great aunt in Toronto. They seemed to compete with each other to see who could make the most food. And they remembered everything that everyone ever liked, I swear, and made sure it was there. We got knitted mittens every year. Good warm mittens with extra long cuffs so that snow never made it into your coat sleeves. Mine came with strings when I was young. Sometimes, we got socks, too. And I usually got books about the wildlife of Canada or maybe the history of the east coast. I got tea from Chinatown one year, after my 80 year old great-gramma decided to explore the city. She was a regular in Chinatown after that. She thought that the presents that my great aunt bought were too practical and too boring, so she went out and found us interesting things instead, and then sat with us to tell us her adventure and what she'd found out about the culture or place the gifts came from. She was a truly amazing woman.

We never did much for New Year's Eve like some families, but after the hectic few days, it's no wonder! We were all pretty much exhausted by the 27th.

And now, it's so quiet with my family all scattered and far away. This year the kid will be gone over Christmas itself, so it'll be just Bear and the furkids and I. Quite a change. I still can't quite get used to it. So we'll make the most of our alone time.

I can live with that! :)

Warm at home

2007-11-24T00:50:00.000-05:00

A busy Friday night means no blogging.

But I'm a work widow again tomorrow, so...see you then!

My fingers are frozen!

2007-11-23T13:12:00.001-05:00

So cold in here today! My poor fingers are frozen, so blogging will have to wait until I'm home and can type faster. It's too frustrating when my fingers can't keep up with my thoughts.

Huh?!?

2007-11-22T14:15:00.000-05:00

So after much debate (and apparently an inability to read a train schedule), Bear's ex wife has grudgingly agreed to come and pick the kid up for Christmas. *high fives self* Yay, I win!

But here's the kicker-she wants the kid to wait on the porch after she calls to say she's in town because, after coming into our house last year, she felt "judged and uncomfortable". So this year, she's not coming in.

?!?! Funny, I remember it the other way-I felt judged and uncomfortable in my own house. And we made an effort to be as welcoming as possible, since she wanted to come in and see the kid's room and stuff. When things are really bad for me anxiety-wise, my home is my refuge and I don't open it up to people easily. To let a woman who stresses me out to the degree that she does into my safe haven was a major concession. Oh, well. Typical. Very typical. She distances her own bad behaviour from herself by mentally flipping the situation around, so that she's the innocent party and the other people are guilty of her crimes.

I predict that the kid will come home miserable and grumpy, as always. Merry freaking Christmas.

Some regrettable food

2007-11-21T10:36:00.000-05:00

From the same author as the Interior Desecrations, a scanned in photo from an old Banana Cookbook:

Looks nummy, eh? It's the caption that make it hilarious though-"Broiled Yeti Penises."

I've been getting lots of giggles from the whole site The Institute of Official Cheer.

Industrial disease

2007-11-21T10:22:00.000-05:00

Bear used that term this morning-industrial disease. Seems apt right now. I can't tolerate exposure to chemicals or strong fragrances right now. Stuffs up the sinuses and leads to days of vertigo and nausea.

I've joked for years that I'd end up in a bubble one day. It may be coming to that, I swear!

Back to the really old-fashioned ways, I guess. Baking soda and vinegar to clean with. Herbal flea control, because it was the stuff we've been spraying to combat the fleas that set off that last round of vertigo (fingers crossed that it's over with now.). Unscented laundry stuff and personal products.

Now if only people would stop bathing in perfume and cologne and then going out in public, I'd be fine. Less is more, people, less is more! Personal fragrance should be subtle and require someone to be in your personal space to smell it. It shouldn't be a nasal assault on everyone within a 20 foot radius that lingers for an hour after you leave. Ugh!

OMG!!!

2007-11-20T12:53:00.000-05:00

Er, put on some sun glasses and go check out this site.

A tribute to the design gone wrong sensibilities of the 1970's. Not a loving tribute but a sarcastic, hilarious review of the crimes of the decade. Enjoy!

I'm an addict

2007-11-20T10:29:00.000-05:00

What makes you think a writer isn't a drug salesman?

Kurt Vonnegut from the novel Cat's Cradle

It's true-books are drugs. At least, they are for me. They are an escape from my own life, a mood enhancer, a wild trip and something I crave daily, something I can't live without. I'm a hopeless addict not looking for a cure.

My own particular drug of choice is fiction. All kinds of fiction. I do read non-fiction and things like poetry and plays but not to the same degree I as consume fiction. Right now, I have 4 books on the go; a historical romance, a paranormal romance thingie, a fantasy epic and a mystery novel. Different reads for different places (but the paranormal werewolf/pact with the devil/Russian gypsy book was because it was the closest book I haven't already read when I sat down to eat breakfast. It's entertaining. ) because I find that I need something light to read at the store so I can put it down and pick it back up with no problem. I save the thrillers and stuff for home, when I can really sink into them.

I know that I have an addictive personality so I always avoided drugs and didn't drink all that much. Stupidest argument ever to try and convince me to try drugs: "You're just afraid that if you try them, you'll like them.". Uh, yeah! That's the whole point! Nice try, stoner, you're not going to win me over with that logic! That's exactly why I don't want to do drugs; did you think it was a big mystery to me or something? I don't want to end up like the burnt out headcases. *snort* I still laugh when I think of it.

But I have been known to play a videogame for 12 hours straight or stay up to finish a good book in one sitting. It's all about your drug of choice. Mine don't do permanent dain bramage.

My cat is an evil genius

2007-11-19T21:57:00.000-05:00

For the story, go to Bear's blog. It's a good one!

And she seems so innocent, too!

She's really giving the dogs the what-for lately and high time she did. But they're also all sleeping on the bed together, too. Finally.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

2007-11-19T14:47:00.000-05:00

We are all apt to believe what the world believes about us.: George Eliot

I just saw this in my quotes of the day thing. Thought I would point it out, because it really rings true. It just needs an expansion-we're apt to believe the bad things the world believes about us and ignore the good ones.

How messed up is that? We take the negative views of others and accept them as confirmation of our own fears and feelings of inadequacy or failure, but we figure that the positive views of others are deluded or that they're just being nice or something.

We're too quick to accept a criticism and ignore a compliment.

New goal for myself-I'm going to try and reverse that. From now on, I will accept compliments and ignore anything but constructive criticism.

I really wish Vertigo was only a U2 song

2007-11-19T14:26:00.000-05:00

It's back.

Stupid.

So now I wonder if it was the pills or not. Did they just aggravate what's already going on? Or was it a co-incidence? Damn.

It took me until 2 to get to the store today. Every time I moved around, the world went spinning all around me. Fun stuff.

*takes a deep breath* But I'm going to be fine. I really am.

I get bored too easy sometimes!

2007-11-18T11:40:00.000-05:00

A new look for the blog, because I got bored with the old one. No idea how long this template will last, lol!

It's one of the areas that Bear and I are so not alike on-I'd be rearranging the furniture every couple of months but he hates to change what the house is like. Once you put the furniture down as you move in, that's good enough for him.

Probably another thing I get from my Mom. Before her back went on her (herniated disk), she would often completely redecorate a room with no notice. And I mean completely redecorate! Dad would go to work in the morning and come home at dinner time to discover a room had been repainted and rearranged while he was gone. The only time he protested was when he came in really late from fishing one night and didn't bother to turn on the light. He tripped over a chair that hadn't been there that morning. So much for being quiet! He still swears Mom only did it so he couldn't sneak in without her knowing what time he got home.

I think if I tried to do the same thing, it would really mess Bear up. I know that he had a rotten, rotten childhood-and his Mom used to uproot them regularly and move them somewhere. So I've often wondered if that is behind his reluctance to change things around in the house. Too much instability maybe.

My blog will have to be the victim of my redecoration madness, then. Ah, it's cheaper than paint.

Maybe not such a sweetheart.

2007-11-17T20:59:00.000-05:00

It turns out that the split in Angelina's pants wasn't a split at all. It was a zipper.

So, it's looking more like Brad Pitt just likes to rest his hand on her ass in public than he was sparing her any embarrassment.

At least he's good with kids.

Yawwwwnnnnnn!!!!

2007-11-17T10:59:00.000-05:00

Huh. I crashed early and slept late but I'm still tired. Go figure.

And breakfast was a still-warm cinnamon bun and a still-warm danish. That should help the sleepies; a nice sugar rush and then a sugar crash. :)

I walked past the tree that the car in that accident hit. There's flowers heaped up around it. Sad.

I thought I had more to say but I think I need to wake up more first.

Sad. Very sad.

2007-11-16T15:36:00.001-05:00

There was a fatal car accident last night, not far from my house. Literally around the corner and just up the street from the store. Happened at 1am and the block of street it happened on didn't reopen until around noon today.

Awful. When someone uses the phrase "wrapped the car around a tree", it's usually an exaggeration. In this case it isn't. Just a crumpled, mangled wreck left. One person dead, one in critical condition. Oh, and the police know that there was another car involved; it fled the scene. How do you live with yourself after something like that? And how could you just leave-at least call for help or something! If they had stuck around, who knows? Maybe prompt assistance could have saved a life. I doubt it, from the severity of the crash, but I know I could never drive away like that.

Presumably, it was street racing. Witnesses say the 2 cars left the parking lot of the local strip club "at a high rate of speed". Not far down the road the 1 car met its end and a young woman lost her life.

Alcohol involved? Probably. Such a stupid and preventable way to die.

Skryker's World

When the heck did July happen?

Time flies

An hour and counting.

Sulking

Supporting your local coffee shop

Wednesday's woes

Miss Bronwyn's bad weekend.

But it would be more fun WITH them....

Oh, hey, thanks for sharing!

I was feeling better, really!

The engine is running...

I must be tougher than I thought

That's just silly!

Some anger and some reflections

In an instant

Back again?

Phew!

Tech Wars

Paranoia

Man sought for breaking into woman's apartment and viewing computer porn

Scary Movies

Another new look

Parking Wars

February blahs

A list

I'm thinking ink...

Hey, I just realized that I'm 37 today!

I have a very sweet kid

The deed is done!

Today is the day....

I think she really, really wanted gum.

My head is a busy place to be in

Uuuuuuhhhhhhh! Zombie-Skryker lives!

A mish-mash of stuff in Skryker's world

Aww, that's the end!

Low cut shirts are not required.

"License and registration, please."

Who would think that finding a plumber would be so hard?

More icy pics

Icy pictures from an icy day

Next year, I'm gonna get the damn flu shot!

Post Holiday slump

ZZZZ!!!! *Snort!* I'm awake!

Patching on!

Roofing woes

Some pictures.

Waiting

Contrary? I'm not contrary! I'll show you!!!

Ms MIA is back

Hey, I had a real weekend!

Wow! I think I've shocked myself, lol!

It's the end of the world? I didn't know it!

Crazy cold

Some bling

Er, Happy New Year?!?

The countdown begins!

Should have stayed home

Back to work?

One more sleep...

Almost time to brave the stores

New stuff...

Phew! Where does the time go?

Post for a chilly morning

More snow?!?

Some sunset snow pictures

Everything is white out there

Dancer 2, Mice 0

Christmas Meme

Phew!

More technical difficulties

The Snowball Effect

Due to technical difficulties...

Ho Ho Ho?

Santa may have to put himself on the naughty list

About that cup'o'stress?

I'm here! I'm here!

The super-awesome Daszzle has given again!

Snow day!

Martini's photo meme thingie

ZZZZ!!!! Snort! I'm awake!