Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I am not sure who is happier...

The crazy neighbours from across the street went away. These people NEVER go away. I wish for them to never ever go away again. Especially if they house their crazy dog in their backyard, and ask the son to look after their dog.

THE DOG IS NUTS.

I have bruises all down the side of my arm... I guess his method of playing that my arm was a chew toy just didn't work. I thought that it hurt when he was busy biting me. The boy is pretty much almost terrified of him, so the mother had to go over for some intervention time.

We did things differently today with the big crazy black lab cross something or another... we found a tennis ball, which he was to keep in his face at all times. Then, when he did his commands correctly we praised the meat eating little bugger. I believe I came out unscathed, but not unslobbered on.

ICK.

DOUBLE ICK.

Our dog/s do/did not slobber... I am sure the evil queen and now dead Cicely would never have slobbered... I don't think it was put into her german shepherd genetics. Ellpee doesn't now how to slobber, just like she doesn't know how to do many things.. except sit in lawn chairs, and look cute most of the time.

I believe I am happy... the crazy neighbours are coming back tomorrow.

Just as I thought...

I have just received notification that my book has come in, after 278 holds, it has finally arrived for me.. and so have 4 other books I had requested, which all had multiple holds on them. I have two weeks to read them all. This is just not going to happen...but I do know that the 278er hold wins the first book reading award....

The very last week...

This is the week, the very last week... the last week of freedom. Staying up late will be quashed, and sleeping in will result in being late, and days of zero obligations and unreserved freedom will be saved for the OCCASIONAL PRO-D day off. I have already booked the chicklets for their swimming, piano lessons, and eventually we will make it back for the last level of (pretend) Tae Kwon Do.

In the meantime, we will continue to have a week of vacationing fun... "doing things" ... so far today, the chicklets have engaged themselves in THE SIMS video game...which I am letting go, because after this week I wont have to complain about it, as it will be going off soon, where they can find other finds of excitement to busy themselves with.. which may just result in them torchering one another with words. Besides, I want to stay at home today to work on the lawn, (like throwing around bags of dirt and handfuls of grass seed), so I would prefer if the chicklets would busy themselves with summertime things for one last week. It's too bad it's raining out... because I had half the mind to send them off to their most hated summertime destination... THE OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOL!!!!

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The sis..

The sister was over today, for an extended period of time. We were outback moving my pillars of wood around in the lovable shed triangle... you do remember the shed building don't you....... We were doing other heavy endeavours, and raking, and dust creating, and morning glory clearing... it was all things good. After a while she quizzes me on my friendship status. She claimed that she comes over and visits in places where there could potentially vermin waiting for her, while my other friend gets to come over here, and look pretty and gets served fruity tuity drinks, and the sister wanted to know how come she never gets served fruity tuity drinks, because the friend that comes over and looks all pretty certainly wouldn't do the "almost vermin digging" that I was making her do today.

I promised her if she kept clearing and digging that I would serve her some lunch, and offer her a drink that had full fruity tuity colour added to it. ( I did not tell her that THE KING only makes fruity tuity drinks... not me... she seemed happy and content with the strawberry kiwi crystal light that I served her.. and said... "here's a fruity tuity...")... that put a smile on her face, and it kept her digging and cleaning for a while longer.

Besides.. I don't think my fruity tuity drinking friend does hardcore gardening.... like tree trunk rolling, and besides that pretty looking fruity tuity drinking friend might demand that I start cooking for her... and that would just be wrong... what worth would the king be, if I had to cook. That sister of mine doesn't know that fact either...

What's this??

Four stars forward, and three stars back.

I am puzzling terribly over my three star soduko. I could just rip it up and pretend I had never seen such a thing... or then... I could puzzle along further... and wind up in a fine state of puzzlement. This isn't a regular three star puzzle, I feel it has disguised itself as a three star, when actually it should be the maximum five star.

I will give myself another hour, but after that... it's hitting the bin marked with a capital "R".

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Unskunkable!!

Tonight was a big bearfest kind of night. We had great luck spotting our slight footed friends, including nature at it's finest. Lots of our anticipation came from hearing the bushes rustling before their silent arrival. Eventually we had the great fortune in seeing two bears arrive at the same spot at the same time. One charged the other bear to get out of his space, which sent the scaredy cat bear running through the ripening blueberry bushes. Then the larger of the two bears hid in the trees while the motor bike touring group made it's way out of the park. The PIP liked the entertainment, as she stood in her usual spot inside the 16 year old rusting SUV sunroof with her "lifecoat" on, as we do not own jackets in this neck of the woods. Oddly enough, there were no skunks to be seen tonight... much to our happiness.

Give me that address again?

Last week at this time we were walking around the lovely and beautiful capital city of BC... Victoria. It was quite a pretty place to visit, and there was certainly many adventures to be had.

The very first adventure that we embarked upon, was really no adventure at all, rather it was a fairly grand ordeal, which nearly shut down all of our hopes for a grand adventure for the upcoming days.

It all started with the SMARTCARDS that I purchased from Airmiles. That wasn't the real problem, the real problem came into effect when I had to collect them from an address in Victoria, which we happened to find without incident, and in fact, got a spot right on the corner of Johnson and Government. That is where the adventure started. It was really like entering the amazing race, except we weren't in a race, and there wasn't a million dollars to be had. We hunted and hunted for this address, and when that couldn't be found, we made our way up to the hotel, and used their phone. I kept dialing numbers to no avail, as every new number I got was out of service. I then had my trusty mastercard, and was following the directions at making a long distance call, and even that didn't work. I yelled at the guy at the desk... HOW DO I GET THIS PHONE TO WORK.... AND PLEASE DON'T TELL ME TO DIAL NINE, I FIGURED THAT ONE OUT 10 PHONE CALLS AGO. I believe I was getting truely frustrated at this point. I would surely not make a good contestant for the Amazing Race... because it was then that I teared up in the lobby...I just want to make a FREAKING PHONE CALL.... to someone that might know where the magic door to the SMARTVISIT cards were. The guy at the desk finally flipped a magic switch to put the phone in real live long distance call mode. I think I ripped out twenty four eye brows that very second. Then, as luck would have it... I had to leave a message on the SMARTVISIT persons phoneline. It went something like this: I am stuck in Victoria, BC with my two children and mother, we are anticipating using the SMARTVISIT CARD if we could only find the secret door. We can not find it, anywhere, I have called people, there are no numbers to call, you are my last hope, and yes I am sounding psychotic because I am psychotic at this moment... all I want is to get these STUPID smartvisit cards so we can go and see Victoria. I think you better call me back... ASAP". Fortunately the girl in the office called me back almost instantly... and to our absolute disgust..., the place to pick up our SMARTVISIT CARDS... were actually 10 steps away from our vehicle that we had parked..... over two hours previously.... and the doorway that identified the SMARTCARD, was a browndoor, with a window. That was it.

It was quite a psychotic event for the first day of our mini travels... we eventually went on to use these plastic SMARTVISIT cards... of course WITH incidents.... eventually my other eyebrow matched the first hair pulling event, so they are even now. But, we made it home, safe and happy to have been tourists for a couple of days.

Four stars

I solved a four star Soduko yesterday. Mind you, it took a number of hours separated from one another to place numbers in the already filled 81 boxes. I was excited people, yes I was. Mind you, it only involved placing numbers places, not calculating them.

In things that are not four stars:

The sister asked me if I missed my brain. It took me three tries to get out of the house, with all the correct items in hand yesterday.

In other non-star events:

The PIP and I cruised to our favourite evening station for some bear sight seeing... I even remembered my tri-pod... OK damn it... it was already in the vehicle.... I set the camera up for some shots without the shaking hand popping up... except there were no shots to take... the bears were busy partying somewhere else last night. This was a highly unbelievable sight.... we eventually were blessed with another SKUNK that came rattling through the bushes, and eventually we spied the tired old bear make her way across and over into the blueberry fields.

And the biggest nonstar event was the fact that I just happened to need to go to the bathroom yesterday morning while I was out. Now, being the adult that I am would have said to the chicklets to make sure they were ready to go... but somehow in those efforts I got lost in myself.
So there I was... in the grocery store.. and of all days... a little sign tacked on the outside OUT OF ORDER. This was bad, as my sister was just a few stores down getting her hair cut.... and I was supposed to meet her at the hairdressing place. I decided to go to the big chained hardware store, I knew where their key was.... it would only take a moment.... or so I thought. There were these two youngish girls fighting over the door when I arrived.... the bigger one slammed it first, so the littler one stood outside and wiggled for her turn.... and wiggled and wiggled and wiggled, and tapped and tapped and tapped... and hummed and hummed and hummed.. I was just about to go pound on the door for the sister to hurry for the other sisters turn when the door finally opened..... the taller one relaxed and watched TV, while the younger one entered the bathroom... this shouldn't take long that girl is little, she might have a small bladder..... or so I thought. I almost ended up pounding on the door for this girl to hurry up. I couldn't believe the amount of time these two IDIOTS were taking. I even watched my sister walk by, as she was now looking for me I had been gone so long... and then I had to make the fleeting decision... do I leave my place in this NON line up, or let the sister wander around the chain hardware store aimlessly. I thought the latter was a better decision. Finally the door creaked open, and the two bathroom hogs left. Then, because I was a nice sister and all, decided to call my sister from the one and only bathroom... except my phone wasn't in my very messy bag, which is just as well, as I wasn't certain what to say to the girl, except she couldn't find me as I wasn't in the store, but locked in a bathroom that took 30 minutes to get into...

Saturday, August 19, 2006

trapped sights...

cartoon of the girlcartoon of the boy
150 year old school house... pump organ, and you may not see the slope on the floor... this is certainly a place that you could not play marbles in...
a 150 year old school school teacher... summer isn't complete ... without some sort of summer school... (Craigflower School).
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sights that are old... minus a picture of me...

450 year old chair.... so they say it is....
How they punished pirates once upon a time
the Woolly Mammoth.... so old... that it made my camera shake... actually I forgot my tripod... (Yes mr Pickaspat, truly a pathetic oversight on my part....)
this is just yucky to think about crawling into....
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sights from the outside...

passage ways
from alley ways
over our head ways
and street ways
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and more other sights.... (oh, be patient!)

Facing our demons ( the square is haunted!)
Fighting with bears...
Battling our sweet tooths!
and battling with each other...
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and more sights

This is an octopus pressed up against the glass in the Undersea Gardens
The house that Emily Carr was born in...
The Abkhazi Garden
The Butchardt Gardens
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And other sights....

The Parliament Buildings (at night)
Royal BC Museum...it hasn't changed AT ALL... and I won't admit when I was there last
Inside the halls of the parliament buildings (this doesn't do it justice)
This is a guy dressed in costume, and was responsible for building this structure.
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Some of the sights....

Craigdarroch Castle
Bastion Square...this is haunted! (the girl saw it on Creepy Canada)
The Empress Hotel... we stayed here.... NOT!
An original double decker... we sat at the very front of the bus, the girl would not get off on a pitstop, as she thought she would lose her great seat. It wasn't the best seat of the house, when the mallard duck flew straight into the window on the top right, fortunately it did continue to fly off... I just hope it wasn't totally into the sunset.
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Friday, August 18, 2006

It's alive... it really is!!!!!

My tomato and red pepper plants have survived my abscence. When I arrived home yesterday all was well in the potted plants department, including all of my flowers. I think the newly sprinkled lawn see may have been forgotten, butI may have come home in good time to see it live afterall. I will keep the husbandman for another day. Besides, he is busy framing a new section of the house that he has built, in an effort to have a proper garage door installed. He is a handyhusbandman he is!

Monday, August 14, 2006

Just in case...

the husbandman doesn't have enough to do over the next couple of days, with going to work and all.... I have very nicely planted some grass seed that will require some attention while I am gone. That's OK, because he will be spending a large portion of time delivering water to all of my flowers that will require a large amount of sprinkling to keep them happy. It will be just like having me at home... except that I am away... he might even miss us... in between building the garage door stuff, and keeping his house all lovely and tidy, and petting his dog. He should be able to squeak in just the right amount of time for some hard core watering... I will have to leave him a note... he will like that.

Do you ever feel like...?

You don't get out much? Do not fear, you are not alone in your thoughts, and there are many others that feel the same as you do. Here's how I know this:

The husband and wife team from down the street invited us to a backyard party. We were just one of the many people that he invited to their party on the crescent. When the music started playing (which was audible from ten houses away.. and not those town house lots either!), we gathered like it was "the calling". This sight was too funny to behold, a large chunk of neighbours milling about laughing, talking & dancing in this one fellows backyard, with music and 'spirits' coarsing through our veins. My real take on this:

EVERYONE WAS CRAZY!

Mind you, it could have been the meteor shower that was going on above our heads, and we may not have noticed.

So when that feeling of "housebound & trapped" make it to my forethoughts again.. I will replay the party that we attended on 'that Saturday night'....

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Now here's a reason to go shopping:

Today I actually put things into the cabinets in that new and lovely laundryroom of MINE. Yes, the KING said that he built it for me... since I have been complaining for years and years that I do not have any storage for this 1365 square foot rancher... well now I do. As I was delegating locations for all kinds of STUFF earlier today, I happened to put the PIP'S swimming bag, on one of the new hooks. The swimming bag is quite well used, but it is perfectly functional for swimming things, and it is only a year old... plus I got it at "Toonie Town" for a toonie ($2). So, all the more reason to continue using it. But of course it is weathered, it needs a little wash, and I am certain that the almost turquiose blue will perk up again, and the white will become white again, and the fish will seem bubblier.... at least I think it will all happen... once of course I wash it.

Skipping to later in the day....

I returned home from my regular bear watching festival of fun... and what did I immediately spy... but the swimmin bag removed from the hooks in MY new laundryroom... the husbandman told me that the swimming bag was far too "old" to be seen in the new surroundings. Now this to me means that I should immediately go out and purchase a new bag... and not use the room for it's ultimate purpose of laundering... I am certain of it!

Smiling girl



She's just happy... she has been fed....
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Smiling boy.

The laundryroom is a great place to smile... really it is...REALLY!
But then, so is a log
or even a rock... fortunately today, I was able to capture the 3 moments that the boy smiled.. on film...
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Tuesday, August 08, 2006