This has to be the way..

Another week in review... this is getting to be too much.. I used to be a faithful once a dayer... and now I am hitting the keyboard only weekly. I would like to thank my faithful TWO maybe THREE blog readers who come and visit my day to day antics... you know.. if somedays I could only fill you in on the half of what really goes on ......

Let me step back a moment in time, all the way till last week....

1. I think Monday was regular. That was six days ago.. almost a lifetime ago really, so there is not much to report.
2. Tuesday was walking day in the morning, and then I went out for lunch in the afternoon. The Debbies, myself, and the "very enjoyable to have accompany us" husbandman Mr. Pickaspat. It was the Pip and her friend "Bonkstar" as I like to call her dance time. Well, it is good to plant the Pip in front of a mirror and try to make her dance, at least she can see that she has arms and legs. Let me see... Tuesday night... Tuesday night... Tuesday night.... nothing remarkable to report, plus a bad memory to boot... I am certain that something happened..
3. Wednesday was highly entertaining. The sister and I did useless tasks... of course I had to wait for the sister at her house, drinking coffee with skim milk for cream, so I am not certain why I even bothered... but I wanted something to drink. While I was idly sitting waiting for her at her house I decided to fix her computer monitor for her... for whatever reason the monitor was all small like and irritating to look at. So I just started pressing buttons to fix it, and when I told her about it, she just thought that's the way the computer worked. GAWD!!!! Oh yes... I wrote about Wednesday already... the fight with the weedwhacker.., and the quirky "Northern Exposure" park meeting that I went to.
4. Thursday was busy. The sister and I met at the walking group and we met a woman that had just arrived here from Korea 5 days ago, and wanted to immerse herself in Canadian life. It was truly fascinating her story of her life, and the fact that she is only here for a year, and wishes to partake in all things Canadian. She joined an English conversation group and was very disappointed to find out that all the people were Korean. Go figure. This lady would be able to run a conversation group with the amount of English that she knows. I certainly know if I had gone to Korea for a year, I wouldn't be walking with a bunch of strangers through a trail five days later, most impressive! The rest of the afternoon was spent vacuuming and cleaning out the boys room. He had changed it all around, and since he has quite the fear of spiders he had bits of crap littered all over his room. I never got a chance to say goodbye to my very sweet and lovely scrapbooking friend mailman Debbie. She decided to leave the lower mainland and head for the hills and valleys to someplace called Williams Lake. I still can't figure out what the draw is... but if that is where acreage will buy her happiness... then I wish her lots of luck. I am very much going to miss my Debbie friend. Our little street will not be the same without her. I didn't wave a good bye, so that is disappointing. I will very much miss the scrapbooking adventures that we have had over the past number of years, sometimes we even scrapbooked when we got together. I had to go and buy the boy a new piano book, which he picked out. Hopefully he will remember to bring this book to his piano lesson, unlike the day previous that he forgot to bring his music with him. I returned a call to the boys teacher about his missing title page and a sewing project. I politely explained that he is quite shy at asking for help, and incredibly slow at everything he does in life... so have patience with him, and maybe ask him if he needs help. I also plain as day pointed out that she was calling me about a missing title page that was due on the 10th of September, and honestly why was she calling me this late about the missing assignment... she called on Sept 26th to tell me all this. Interestingly I didn't hear back from the sewing lady. Yes teacher friends.. I am hell mother... who cares... I will happily speak my mind over an answering machine... trust me.. I tried emailing.. but it didn't go through. Survivor was good... CSI Las Vegas was crap... the writers, directors and producers should be embarressed!!!!! The book isn't going over to well... hence the extra hour of TV watching!
5. Friday. Wow. The Husbandman got his hair cut. We managed to spend a lot of money yesterday. Well, not really that good.... we were going to buy a new kitchen table and chairs, but didn't have enough time to complete the paperwork, so I will have to do it on Sunday on my way home from work. We did go and buy a GE Profile stove... It's fun being RICH! (yes, that would be a dream that we have mistakenly had!). We tried picking out tile for a back splash.... OK.. more money than ever.... AND... I am hugely inconvenienced by the husbandmans choice of where to put the kitchen plugs, and the fact that they need tile to be around them. AND.. the most important moment of the day... The lovely hamsterson came home with a GREAT find. I was very proud of him. You see.. I seem to have a love of other peoples things that they wish to give away... it just so much fun taking other peoples junk! Anyways.. the boy spots this hideous piece of furniture while he was walking home with his friends and immediately yells "DIBS!!!!!!", and thus... carried home this 1969 style coffee table. It goes fabulously in his already totally cluttered bedroom. It is very similar in style to Kramers "Merv Griffin" set... I told the sister this last evening and the girl peed her pants laughing. The boy now has a space in his room for "the old" kitchen" chairs, and now this new table. I was very proud of his great find that I immediately took a picture of him... I would like to post the picture but I deleted his camera from the computer.. and now I have to hunt for the disk to reinstall it.... hmmmmm. Anyways... the husbandman was oddly not impressed by the excitement that made it's way through our front doors yesterday... OH well... sad for him!
6. I am going to go and watch the rest of the movie that I started watching last night....hopefully I will be successful... meanwhile... the husbandman had been diligently working away laying down our kitchen floor. You go husbandman.
7. OH, and thanks to Mr. Whalley for stopping by for a visit to bear country. Yes, I am sad that they have abruptly departed... although they can still be spotted deep in the fields of tall grass munching on "things". I am truly fascinated that they have departed.. because I wonder where they have all gone, and really, upon doing some reading.. these black bears do communicate to one another despite living solitary lives, so they know where the greatest food source is at the moment, and we the silly humans have no idea where to find them!

Party on...

So... I did some things today, just a small bunch, but it was stuff.

I managed to get the renter guy to pick up his broken booze bottles. I plopped a sign on top of the mess that read "Clean Me UP!".

I did many useless tasks today which amounted to not a whole heck of a lot, but were important to do all the same.

I even managed to cut the front lawn, which included a fight with the lawn mower. I introduced it to many fowl words, of which they all fell out of my mouth, and directed them toward it. I tried to weed wack, but that little electrical machine and I don't get along too well, so I hissed at it too, and then eventually gave up. I fixed the front garden, and had to water, yes water....despite the rain and the damp, this piece of garden requires watering.

I moved onto washing my car. Now it's all shiny and indigo blue looking again, however; it doesn't help that I have to travel down a dirty and dusty and mucky road to get to piano and to see the (now non-existant) bears.

I put myself to the torture test this evening and went to a Park Association Meeting. OMG!!!!! is that crap every boring!!!!! Thank god for the cups of coffee.....I did chuckle at the enthusiasm of one of the members. Now he was very enthusiastic. There was a whole bunch of chatter about almost non-existant happenings, which completely bored me. There was supposed to be a slideshow presentation, but when they dropped the slides all over the table, I knew that was a bust.

I am currently reading a large text book of which I have no interest in. I am hoping to see it to the end..... and there is a big hope in that.

Must go read... or something.....

This is....

Totally bugging the shit out of me.

I swore up and down, left and right, that I would not look past my front yard at the chaos that happens further than my driveway.

This weeks torment is the good neighbours tenant that had a party two weekends ago. There are two bags of empty booze containers that are sitting at the edge of the driveway. There are bits of broken glass sitting beyond the bag. It was garbage day today, and the bags are still there.

So... I am wondering what can I do to to get it cleaned up. I am thinking of planting a sign in the middle of the night....."Bottle clean up service not available in this area".

I am about (__________)this close to doing it.

My book is calling, I must leave now.

Weeks are rushing by...

I am currently sitting here in the deep and dark dusty livingroom trying to come up with an October Agenda. I have most of it spelled out, so hopefully it wont be a bust. It is tricky trying to keep all of the people happy in the group, I am only successful only a bit of the time. See it helps that the other half of the time another couple of people are happy. If I were to take a poll at the end of the month, most people might be happy some of the time.

How can this be the last week of September... I am sure I was just waiting for September to begin, and now it is ending... I think there is a song out there.. but I have been awake the whole time, I just know it.

So I found some kitchen furniture today... I am surely going to buy it. I think the latest slogan is "do not pay until 2012". That suits me just fine, and I am think I am going to do just that! I'll take the husbandman to see the high quality furniture on Friday, as it is his day off.. and I am suspecting he might just take the day off, especially since he seems to be having more bad hair days than me, and I have three and a half times more hair than him... oh, and with the knowledge that he told me he was no longer in a hurry to continue on with the kitchen, as the big stuff is now done, he will complete it at his leisure, so we continue to play the waiting game. GOD.. this is really turning out to be a waiting game I think.

Work was very nice this weekend. That is all about that. It was nice, and including that it was a good bunch to work with... yes, a hard working bunch of people... that was a bonusfilled nice.

I am having front tooth issues. It seems to just teeter on the perfect position, and then sinks back, just when I think that it will sit stable. I don't eat apples, and I do not eat carrots, for fear that it will just pop right out.

I coloured my hair the other day. I was happy with the results, not too wretchedly dark, and yet dark enough to make it look like my hair isn't full of grey, which it is, or at least I think it is. Grey hair, ick, crooked teeth, ick.... see.. I really am a fake!

I have to send yet another book back to the library tomorrow. I made it through six chapters, but it was only a two week loan. Two weeks just isn't enough.. or more of the problem is that I haven't found the time to find two weeks within that two week time frame... anyways.. I am onto another book that I special ordered, so hopefully I will have some luck with that one.

So the husbandman wasn't sure if he was up to going to do an overtime call this evening. I told him this morning that he would be fine. He told me that he would make that call once he made it out of bed, if and when he might be able to make it out of bed, and felt that he could stand. I told him he would be fine. I think I said it in a rather believable voice, as he eventually went to do the overtime job. I am highly empathetic. ( Oh really, I am .....). I should write NOW, that the underpressure kitchen prep is now past us.. and everyday I monitored the crazy husbandman for wrecked back syndrome, and everyday, despite how shitty he may have felt, stood up straight out of bed in the morning, and carried on to work. He is such a good boy... and now that the pressure of the job is over... his back has started acting up, and he looks all apishlike...I have him hot on the trail of MSM (some herbal anti-inflammatories)... as I can't have him stopping now... now that kitchen is looking all good and fancy and such....not that I am going to use it for anything.

The potatoe/ciabatta bun thing is going well. Tomorrow we will back onto baked potatoes.. I can't wait!

Well... I have a book that is waiting, make that books, many many books.. I will go read something now...

OH man... I missed the parade!

One of the good and crazy neighbours from down the street handed out flyers about two weeks ago.

The title at the top was noted as a: "First Annual Bike Parade".

Now this is exciting, what a classic event!

It was all big fun....

The sky had been blue for weeks, and with the excitement mounting for this grand event, surely the weather gods would let the parade proceed without a glitch.......

A tractor was invited, which was driven out of it's resting place in the front yard of the wonderfully crazy take out dinner man (but died just prior to the parade), a candy wielding golf cart that started on fire after the parade, a filthy (which is why it was free) bouncy castle that sounds like it was a hit, a police escort down the "whole" crescent, one fire engine that arrived late for the 3 1/2 minute parade, 180 hotdogs that were BBQ'd and eaten, with one package remaining, and 10 lost ones left on the lawn. There were balloon tosses and prizes.

Yes people .... it was quite the event for a "first annual" affair.

I missed it all, as I was at work.

Oh, and it poured with rain.

It looks like next year I will be taking a vacation day so as not to miss this grand scale event.

There's more...

The husbandman has told me that he is not putting the stove back in the kitchen until the countertops are installed. That will be on October 17th.

I have come up with the grand scheme of serving baked potatoes with almost every meal. This will be alternated with ciabatta buns on altering nights. I have a toaster oven and a very rickety little microwave to do the job. Of course I will be offering up different toppings of the day to make the baked potatoe even more fascinating.

I was talking to my very crazy neighbour yesterday and he commented that the best part of renovating their kitchen was the take out. Although now that the kitchen has been long done the renovation, the take out hasn't quite stopped. Yes I say, he is crazy.

welll since I am here..

I should probably write something.

I met Hamstersons teacher tonight. She is blond, I didn't take her for blond. She claims to be getting used to his sense of humour. She also states that the class waits for his sense of humour to arise many times during the day, so she is getting used to him.

I met the girls teacher. She is an interesting sort. Quiet & seemingly uncomfortable with a familiar face. (me). The girl quite likes her. The classroom was a bit of a boring sight, but there is time for change, afterall it is only September.

Onto other things, as the previous was just boring.....

Well folks, it is official... the husband is rather nuts. I am no longer queen of nutland, as he has reigned himself king of nutland.

The kitchen cabinets have been installed, and they are looking rather fancy. The husbandman had some complaints. The freakshow himself took apart some cabinets that were just assembled yesterday, because they were slightly crooked. He wears me out with his quirks...

AND.. even less exciting events...

The girl went to be bed earlier under a certain amount of protest. It's not that she didn't want to go to bed.. it was the fact that she had a fight with a "mop" (AKA moth), and lost the battle, it just fluffled off somewhere else, and she was convinced it was laying in wait in her room.. and was going to one by one take out her stuffed animals.

I have to say that Pip of mine looked exceptionally beautiful today. She was in a cream coloured shirt that had a slight ruggle around the neck line. Her hair was just free and blowing, with a loose part to the side. Of course she rounded off the outfit with a skirt that she has been wearing since last year, and it looked to be sitting in her drawer since last year, but really it wasn't. I noticed at the end of the day that the wrinkles had disappeared only slightly. I forgave her skirt wrinkles, because from the waist up she was looking absolutely charming.

This reminds me of an incident with beautifulness from last week. That Pip of mine had the cutest perkiest blond ponytail that one girl alone could ever own. To add to the cuteness she had on a pink T-shirt and a pink pair of shorts. Of course attached to that was a longed legged tanned single nose freckled crazy 10 year old girl. We were running late for school and decided to err on the side of caution and drive the girl to school, as she would have stopped traffic with her cuteness... I kid you not. I wished I could have been half that cute when I was her age.
No really, this is the truth......

It's late...and I have no cream... it's a PRO-D day tomorrow for the kids. I love to drink coffee on PRO-D days... I might even go to the coffee store instead....not sure why, but I am thinking that I might. OH.. and to add... I threw in a trick question to the girls grade 5 teacher... I asked her what they were working on tomorrow on the PRO-D day... she said "lots of stuff". Well there you have it folks.. once again... tax dollars at work.. doing "stuff".

I will go and rest my painful eyes, and hurting head. It's just one of those things.

I have to be awake to watch the news with my favourite weather man Mark Madriga... who told lies today, and listen to the sounds of Chris Carter the marketwatcher... you have to love global news....

Freaky Sunday

OK.

There are days that I just do not care to go to work, well I do not know this until I get there. Too many things take place, none of which happens to me, but somehow the things that go on get me involved.

I am people's sounding board.

IN some cases, like today, I am the voice of reason.

HOLY smokes I wish I wasn't.

Tensions fly high, and I am the silent party that calms the frothing seas.

People don't realize this about me... well, those that I work with that is.

Today I managed to circumvent nothing short of a mounting disaster... similar to a volcano erupting.

For now I have popped a cork on impending doom.

There will be fall out... and hopefully the waves of disaster will have lessoned by next Saturday when I return to work.

Staples, bears and other fascinating events...

I have been locked out of my computer space. Really I have. The King has had the living room locked up tight.. he has been sanding drywall this past week.

He is a workaholic. A very serious one. He is the King of workaholics, since he is the King and all.

I have a long list of details that I wish to tell, except I do not have the time to type.

I have once again killed my hands... I have been raking my backyard for days and hours. I managed to kill my back lawn, by complete accident mind you....!!!, and am having to repair it. This is perfect grass growing weather, so the task had to be completed.

The bears peaked the other night. We were there to witness it. Then last night we saw ONE bear leaving the blueberryfield, and that was it. Compare that to the nine we saw the other night, heading into the blueberry field. I think it is fascinating how solitary animals communicate with one another as this is not shear coincidence.

The kitchen is a coold shade of green. I have told the king that we will eventually turn our whole home into one large mass of green. It's like we are a forest or grove or something. I think I like green. So does the king.

I have many pictures that I should post... but then that would require me to sit here and fiddle with gadgets and things. I haven't had time for that... the freaking yard has been calling and calling and calling.... eventually I had to answer...

OK... now that I am down to a weekly update, I will go and be adventureous and hopefully will be back soon to share the events of excitement.. even if I have to take up lying.

life as of saturday....

We lived throught the school week. We even lived through a Friday night of Tae Kwon Do. Of course the evening was finished with a pizza all for the little master hamsterson himself ... just to keep him happy and not all out of sorts.

I stopped by a few homes as I was on my home after work tonight and was the street coyote crier... the cat people were happy with my observations of the little cat hunting beasts.

Bear watching was crazed! People were flying down the road from all over the place.. well that was last night.. and then tonight...it was still crazed... although it was just me and the PIP, and a family that just moved here from Richmond. We saw 8 bears... it was very exciting!

Another day... another story, of minute porportion.

1. I got my haircut yesterday. A whole whack of hair sat on the ground after she was done. The sister noticed the shorter less bedraggled look.
2. The girl agreed to go into a dance class. I have found one. Hopefully she will enjoy 45 minutes of hip hopping around. This is a true experiment really, as she isn't very good on her god given stilts for legs. Maybe she will learn how to use them.
3. The walking group has moved up to 5 people. Nothing short of incredible here.
4. I managed to get three loads of laundry on the line and dried today. It's far too incredible people.
5. I inherited a new child's school desk this afternoon. It is lovely, and will fit in my garden perfectly. I will hide it from the husbandman who seems to think he has some sort of grandious rulings about what enters the ever improving homestead.
6. I washed and vacuumed out the wonderful Mazda 5. The indigo blue takes some scrubbing to get it free from dirt, and an extra couple of wipes to ensure that all the dirty spots have been cleaned.
7. I had decided to get the husbandman some hockey tickets for his birthday tomorrow. I blatently lied and told him I was talking to one of my M.S.N friends and asked him some questions about his favourite team. He said he would never go to a hockey game and pay 80$ to see it. Hmmmmm... I am having a hard time wondering what I am putting in a birthday card for him..... especially since there were supposed to be hockey tickets....my luck!
8. The boy is pretty much refusing to go to school. He claims his teacher already hates him. He is fowl, fowl, and fowl. His other teacher from last year, yes, the one that hated him from last year will be teaching him again. I met the woman and thought she was pretty pasty faced, and even wrenched a smile when she met me in person. This is going to be a long year... what does a parent do....? I feel like emailing these two people and just saying " Oh for FUCK SAKE... give the boy some guidelines & expectations, and he will abide you; to call on him and belittle him in front of his class will only serve to upset him and continue the behaviour. I don't think I can write that.....at least I don't think I can...
9. It's 11:00 PM, the husbandman is busily mudding the drywall and singing along to the tunes on the radio. He is scaring me.
10. The girl and I grossed the boy out at dinner tonight by putting spaghetti sauce on our spaghetti. Yes, he was grossed out... he who puts ketchup & parmesan cheese on his.

10 + 2

Yes, 10 + 2.

10 individual bear sightings.

2 double sightings.

It was an incredible night people.

INCREDIBLE.

The most important day of the year.

It's happened today.

Parents embrace the bell that calls out to all those crazed little summer vacationers and rounds them back into the welcoming arms of school.

Although our little school didn't have welcoming arms, the Principal could barely be heard with his microphone, so who knows what he said. I feel sad for all the new parents that showed up to bring their child to the "new" school, (as their old school was closed down), and they were welcomed into a gym that was crammed with equipment that never got put away, and bleachers that acted as barricades. The year should be interesting. Perhaps I should get involved with our little school once again. NO, bad idea.

Anyways.. moving on....

We went to go and see Hair.spray on Monday. What an excellent movie.. if you like that sort of thing. It warmed the Pip and mines little heart. I don't want the soundtrack... even thought the music was very good... it just went on and on and on....

I got my new dryer yesterday... off I went with my Mazda 5 and picked it up. The friends and neighbours were skeptical. I peeshawed their crazy thoughts. Now I only wished that my new dryer worked. It doesn't. I might as well have my old dryer still in the beautiful and lovely laundry room, as it does the same thing... the drum turns, but does not generate heat. Now how psychotic do my readers think I am at this point? I have many miles of laundry to dry, and no dryer to do it.

Well... must depart.. the very huggable and tallish (as he told me this yesterday upon his return to school) Hamsterson needs a lunch for his first day of Grade 7. I asked him who was doing all the hugging... he claimed it was all girls, all the time. Say no more...

Last week...

Here we are at Labour Day, the last day of summer (as the children in Canada know it!), and I am left wondering where exactly did the summer go?

I know last week flew by:

1. Monday... dryer shopping, and something else that I can not remember, because I can not remember. I do know that the husbandman took the night off because I actually had a friend come over. I commented on his lazy sloth-like-self, and hoped this kind of behaviour would not continue. I had to clean and dust prior to the friends arrival, as the home is full of dust, more dust than one would like to witness. I wrote a long email to the Conservation Service about the blown away bear. Also.. what goes with a full day of dryer shopping, but lost of laundry out on the line.
2. We made it to the PNE, now that was a good day! I even did the walking group before going. (We are are up to three people now in the group... things are progressing). The children and I didn't make it home until 11:30 that night. Prior to any of this I felt obligated to doing something with wet laundry again.
3. What's a perfect day made of if you don't have to visit the dentist first? First that, then off with the sister, myself and the four spawn to Boundary Bay for the day. This is Vancouvers best kept secret... a semi-nice beach.. and NOT CROWDED. We returned home at a nice and early 8:15. Oh, and of course more laundry line procedures.
4. Walking group day... and the number has progressed to four people. Incredible I say.. absolutely incredible. I can't wait until I need two hands to count the number of people that are going to spilling into streets walking with us! After we were finished with walking I quickly made it home and unpacked the soft cooler, and repacked the cooler with more food. We drove up to Whistler for the day. Not that we were going to do anything up there.. we just wanted to see the progress for the 20.10 Olympics. Good luck people.. that's all I say. I will add that secret "laundry" word again.
5. Friday was a low key day.. at least it started low key. I had to go buy light fixtures. then somehow I met up with my mom, and we did mother and daugther things. Soon my cell phone was ringing and I was flying around collecting one girl and taking her to the pool in the lovely and warm pouring rain. (There is nothing sweeter than swimming in the pouring rain in the summer... a most delectable memory of mine!). I had to rush off and buy a bath mat.. since ours kind of disintigrated, and a shower liner that has snapped somehow. Then collected the girl took her to Cost.co and Home.Depot to collect more household renoing things. Once I was home I began cutting the lawn, and fixing all the grass that I had killed.. but it was only by accident, and it was only grass... it's not like it was a black bear or anything... and then I fixed my wysteria bush that had died this spring.. (once again, I didn't kill it, and lucky for me it sprang back to life!). By this point the underwire in my bra was poking me in the armpit.. I just kept trying to reposition it. As luck would have it.. the other underwire snapped and was poking me in all locations on the right side. I just wanted to get things done, so I didn't stop working. OMG did it hurt... but when you are a woman on a mission, you just can't let underwires stop you! Since the weather man promised rain I wanted to add more grass seed to my front lawn seeding project, but first I had to pick rocks, and pull a huge weed that had infiltrated my grass growing expedition. I watered things stat, and then it was off to see the bears. Well, with the except that now my room was filled with a hugely full basket of laundry... all folded and I guess more or less dry... and I was left wondering.. did I actually do this all week?
6. Saturday was filled with worky things. This adds to paying for the kitchen.
7. Sunday was filled with worky things. This also adds to paying for the kitchen.
8. Which brings us back to Monday.. and today of days I did not find myself opening my eyelids until 0900. I lie actually.. because they were open I just pretended they weren't.. I just didn't get up until 0900. Today is the last day that I will be able to have a little sleep in until the chicklets next Pro-D day... as now I am the seven day a week up early all the time kind of lady from now until next June. (with the exception of the sheduled holidays!). This will all change if I find myself a newish kind of job, but I am not in great belief that this is actually going to happen.

Must go.. more Mondayish Labourday last minute things to run off and do.... the chikclets are waiting in all their cuteness!!