Photos from the spring shower break!

Mr. Pickaspat told me the other day that he had taken some of his worst pictures ever the day we went to the aquarium. I told him that I had suffered the same fate. I guess we can't have good camera days everyday, although I believe there shouldn't be such a thing. I mamanged to get a shot of the jellyfish thingys. I must have snapped 10 pictures or so trying to get a complete dolphin in the frame. The picture of the boy wasn't so great, so I cropped it and kept his reflection, it is interesting to look at. I also found a rare breed of puffer fish that wears pink, has crossed eyes, and lives on land.

At last.. I've made it!

I tell ya.... I don't know where some days go. They just get lost in the day. Today was exactly one of those days.

So just to serve as a reminder, I am once again going to nominate myself for one of those that WILL NOT be chosen for the amazing race, as I am truly not a contestant in any way, shape or form.

I was going to have a cider when I got home, but decided on some boring crackers, and the herb & garlic creamcheese spread.

Earlier this evening I was downtown Vancouver in some fancy old office building. The outside of the office was fancy, the hallway was fancy, the marble steps were very fancy, however the actual office was very unfancy. Right down to the old office chairs. I was almost door challenged when it came to entering the magical unlocking doors.

Prior to entering the building we had to park the car. It took me forever to deposit the coins into the meter, so long that the person that I was with began to think that I had ditched him on the street corner, and taken off with his car. I had to stare at the meter for a while to try and figure out what it was telling me to do. The words and pictures didn't add up, so I left that meter for another. After a huge amount of meter one OH! one, I finally figured out the meter plugging. I knew it was time to stop feeding the meter when it would no longer accept coins.

It was very lucky that I had any coins to put in the meter. I left the house with no credit card, but a useless credit card, and some quarters. As I was heading to my destination for pick up I realized that I needed some money. It is so handy that the stalker sister lives so close to the new route that I use. I called her up, told her to get some money ready, and sure enough she did. It was quite the "new age" of drive-thrus: call, ask for money, meet person at end of driveway, they hand you money, continue turning around in the cul de sac, wave good bye to money hand off person, who on this night was the stalker sister. I didn't even have banking fees attached to this transaction~!

Prior to calling the stalker sister for coins, I was busily making some pasta for the chicklets. Yes yes, the skills are extrodinaire, I will politely gesture a nod of the head. While doing some very fancy water boiling I was folding laundry, fixing the messy kitchen details, curling the crazily bad hair locks, brushing up the teeth with another swish of peroxide, & re-applying the non stop lipstick with a top coat of non stop lipstick. It all had to be done at once.

I had talked to the stalker sister earlier in the afternoon as I had to recount the events of the walk in clinic visit. It was Miss Pip, and she had hurt her foot while doing gymnastics. "What! .. the Pip was once a gymnast... how could she have jumped and fallen and hurt her foot... this is completely impossible!" Yes, completely impossible that she was a gymnast; falling and hurting her foot was completely believable. When I did eventually get to the school to pick her up, sure enough, it was swollen and all damaged looking. That Pip!

I had fully intended on working in the yard earlier this morning. Then I called my mom. She quickly found other plans for us. I told her I was on a time line, and had great feats to accomplish, ok attempt, well, how about just think about, ok I will settle with strike that off the list for another day.... needless to say we were busy!

It was my fault really that I became all too busy with my mother. I had a dentist appointment right at 9:00. I thought they were going to be freezing and fixing something as they normally do, but that wasn't what they were up to, and I was out of the dentist in about 25 minutes. Lucky me. I will not feel so lucky in April when I go back for the F & F.

I was sad waking up this morning. I was sad to note that I was not able to walk to school because of the foolish time that I had made the dentist appointment. So the Pip had to be escorted via the Mazda 5, but that was probably a good thing, since we made it to school at about 8:59 1/2. I did notice her run to her class today. She actually ran. Ran like a normal person. Ran like a girl that didn't have to think about where she was going to plant her feet kind of running. The kind of running that adds colour to faces, and a ploom of messy hair, and a sense of accomplishment when the run is done. I think it was my first time experiencing that. I believe I held up traffic in the round about I was so transfixed on the Pip's form. That put a smile on my face.

For the last two days I have gotten a tiny bit smart. I have slapped the Pip's sandwich together, as I make the boys sandwich. It was quite a revelation to build the sandwiches at the same time, but I was glad that the light came on when it did... you know the saying.. better late than never!

The alarm didn't go off, and I tapped the quietly snoring husbandman on the shoulder and reminded him it was only Tuesday. It was 6:47. I asked for the remote. The morning news always captures my groggy attention, with the constant weather and traffic reports, it is very easy to fall back into a slumber, and not even realize that you have missed three traffic reports in that time.

And that is the day... I wont bother to mention the other piles of laundry, the scattered paper work, the laundry put away procedure, the chat with the lovely hamsterson & the breakfast builder sandwich and the super coiffe all for the boy this morning. I will mention none of that,... I am done!

Finally...

The sun has come out to show it's shimmery face... just in time for the chicklets to head back to school. That's alright because the world is a happier place now that it has quit raining. That is right, the people around these parts are a tad bit peppier now that we are not faced with pelting rain holding us down.

Yae for us!

In other things... well, that is just going to have to wait... remember I am boring! At the moment I am dealing with a time issue....

What little sisters do...

Little Pipster stealing her way into the den, while her brother sleeps. The beloved blanket not too far away, her cat blanket behind her, and a concentration face a mile long.

I think it might be raining outside

That has been the constant statement for the past five days now; however, for the moment...it has stopped. In the two minutes that it took me to lookup the official use of a semi colon, the first statement has made me a complete liar. It is raining harder so that it is now bouncing up from the ugly back deck.

In other non news worthy events:

We went to go and see the "wild hogs" yesterday. It was a good movie for the kids to see. Yes, there was a bit of language, and we had to view a mans naked bottom. But as far as I know that is one part of the anatomy that does not cause me to hide my eyes. I even enjoyed watching it. I have to admit when I take to the kids to see their token semi annual movie that usually the adult is charged twice the price, for 1/8th the viewing pleasure, this one rated pretty good on that scale.

The chincy blooming japanese plum tree is out in full bloom. It is quite ugly. A couple blooms here, a couple of blooms there.. it is nothing to look at. The japanese plum trees were cheated in their creative evolution process, and we are now hostages to the squint inducing blooms that it produces every year.

I tried to poison the handsome son last night. I made a taco salad, which I added a mild salsa to the hamburger, that had diced tomatoes in it, and onions ( oh the horror!), he picked at a couple pieces of lettuce, and a piece of meat, and couldn't possibly eat another bite. This type of behaviour has never changed since he was a little guy. He has never eaten food that appeared out of sorts in any way, shape or form. I am not worried, one day he'll realize that he will enjoy the food items that are given to him.

In other forms of cruetly bestowed upon the hamsterson; I took him for a hair cut. He looks a lot better, although he is complaining that we can see his ears. I have tried to explain to him that we have always been able to see his ears, it has just been lately that we haven't been able to. That poor boy.

I have seen what it's like here in the Saturday morning adventures of the little family. The Pipster walked up to me and asked if she could have her regular Saturday morning breakfast. She was prepared to start her smore preparation when I cracked down on that routine. She diligently ate some oatmeal, but has now completed her task of warming her marshmellows while I was distracted by the phone. Even the husbandman asked me what was wrong with me not letting the chickster Pipster have her regular saturday morning bizarrefest breakfast!

Well, I just looked outside... I believe the word is no longer rain, but PISSING out!

Saved by the phonecall....

My hysterically funny friend Shelly called me yesterday. Not the chicken farmers wife Shelly, this girl is way too much funnier. The two of us are chatting up a storm, about nothing, because we are good at that. The topic moved to movies. They had just seen the movie that we are going to see this afternoon. She told me to bring a tiss-you.

Huh? I said.... "is this movie sad?"

"Well, you might not want to bring just one tiss-you" the now serious Shelly said to me.

So there you have it... what do I despise a great deal?? To pay big money to sit in a dark place, eat popcorn and sob. No thanks.

It all makes sense to me now.. that lovely Hamsterson of mine said he was not interested in seeing the sad movie, which he did not tell me it was sad at all. He just claimed that they had read the book in class, but made no effort to tell me it was sad! Now, that boy of mine has lead me downthe right path of choice making with the great movie title of "wild hogs". Now this is extreme badness at it's best! I am sure we will laugh though!

More for a Thursday:

I can't believe that this "spring break" is almost over. The week has shot by so fast that it has happened in a blur. I have enjoyed the fact that the regular duties of the days have been all jumbled up, and I have been doing other stuff that I wouldn't normally do.

I did manage to get mounds and mounds of laundry done. The washer and dryer spent the whole day humming and spinning behind our french doors in the beautiful laundryroom. The final load was put to rest when it came time for the "catdog" to go her "beddy", and her wicker basket full of comforters and mattress pads were clean, fresh and warm for her to curl up in.

I think I even managed to clean out some of the boys closet, my closet, and the girls floor. It was incredible really, and to think that earlier in the day I had gone on the "mission impossible" drive with the little lady chickster. It was funny to watch her sitting all the way at the back of the Mazda 5. I think if she could have worn a sparkly crown and donned white gloves, it would have been more her style, but then the vehicle would have had to been a "rolls royce" or something.

I was thrilled to hear from a friend earlier today. I will have to say she was the blame for me not buying my new mop today. I need a new mop, and was prepared to purchase it before I went to the group this afternoon... but then her and I started chatting, and that was that. I should have bought a new mop when the Pickaspats and us went to the PNE earlier in the summer. I just knew that I would have wanted a new mop for this year... and now that PNE mop is failing, I can't wait until August to purchase a new one. I am not certain if we will go to the PNE this year, as the PIP is really wanting to ride the roller coaster over and over again.. so I might just bite the bullet and purchase a "Playland" ride pass for a day, and fill her wishes that way... it's still early into the year... these thoughts could change at random!

I was thinking about a cleaning lady... I mean the chicken farmers wife has a cleaning lady, and up until this year she didn't work ... or work in the real sense of leaving the home for many hours and that sort of crap. One of my Kim friends has a cleaning lady now. She was rather cheerful when I talked to her on Saturday about her non-duties that she didn't have to perform, and instead was colouring easter eggs with her boy. I am really in love with the "cleaning lady" thing. I was even reading a blog earlier about how someone needed something cleaned in her own home, and the cleaning staff wasn't available to her. Now how inconvenient is that, to have to actually clean something in your own home, because 'someone' wasn't available! I wish for that irksome moment anytime. "Random cleaning!" As I continued to think about a cleaning lady, a great thought came to mind... I have children... I have aging children... I have aging children that wish for things.. I have aging children that wish for things, but really do not have any money... So then.. I wished for my aging children to start making some money by doing some "things" around here to earn money.. I think I already have the schedule half planned in my head.... see, I may have memory issues, but I believe that my mind is still brilliant... cough cough cough.... so what this really means is a cheaper version of a cleaning lady when she is in a pissy mood so she only does a half ass job. Not bad really, because the employer isn't going to be paying any shit hot wages! (They will never know... he he he he eh he he he hehe he he).

The Pip and I went to the mall earlier today. We found some good deals. Of course the boy felt very cheated that the Pip came home with three pairs of shoes, toys, and a picture of her and I. The boy left this house knowing full well where we were going, but instead chose to leave and run to the neighbours house, and when I yelled for him, the door slammed. I was of half the mind to not bother dropping off a key, but thought better of that, since the family next door just may kick him out, and there he would be sitting on our rain soaked front porch... hmmmm. Anyways, he was pulling some hugely sad face, when I cut it short telling him that we had to actually hunt for his new bedding, and spend time trying on all kinds of runners for her. It was no picnic, well except for the part when her and I ate some sushi and shared an iced tea, and wondered through that evil empire of sweetly sickly happiness of build a bear... and I told him I probably would have found some poor soul to cut his rooster head of hair anyways. He was silent after that.

It's odd to be sitting here at this time of night, as we are usually engrossed with the show that nobody admits they watch (survivor), or more importantly.. I am scrapbooking with the Debbies.

On that thought.. scrapbooking.... as I was going through my very full closet yesterday, I was once again storing all kinds of cards, and trinkets for some sort of memory box. A lot of this stuff can be pasted onto pages and stuffed in an album. I need to find an album that I can just paste stuff into... because, that way when I am maybe two years older than I am now, I can look at the thank you notes, and the pictures of peoples children, and be able to re-live memories. I have oodles of christmas cards that are far to personable (home made) or pretty just to toss away. I must keep them... keep most of them... keep some of them... keep a couple maybe... but anyways... I was thinking about all the piles of STUFF that I have accumulated in the closet, and it would be appreciated much more on a shelf, stuffed in a book, where the dust only collects on the edges of the shelves.. I mean, ever since I build the husbandman the "dead dog album", I look at pictures of our "evil queen" way more than when I did when they were in a tiny album.

So that is it... I think, I could still be back, or not, as the boy has happened to come along and wishes to control this space now.

Here is it Thursday...

And what do I have?

Health & Happiness. It's plain and simple.

Todays Mission

Well, we finally did it. That Pip of mine has been asking me for weeks upon weeks to drive out to Mission. I am not entirely sure what the complete mission was, other than the drive, and the hopes for lunch somewhere. We were able to accomplish both, and also included a tank of gas for 97 cents a litre. Not bad considering even Costco has it 103.4 at the moment & the gas stations are even higher.

I know for a fact

That I actually SAW my post from yesterday. I saw it on my blog. It was really boring. Perhaps it was that boring that it disappeared into the no mans boring land. I know I saw it! I know it, because it was boringly humorous, in a boring sort of way. I can not recreate that type of boring humour, it was near almost impossible the first time, the second time would clearly be hugely impossible.

In a memory that is failing by the moment it is troubling to think that bloggers memory is fading too. This is not a good combination.

Wait a minute..... that post was from the day previous.... see I knew I had seen it! It was hidden under March 19ths date. I am in deep deep trouble. I remember typing yesterday... it was an email to the Auzzie visitors!... must. get. to. vitamin. cupboard. now.

That was quick, I am back.

This would be about the same time that I get down to working and organizing my group for the day. I am back on schedule, including doing laundry details.

I have decided that I am extremely boring. Even the book that I am reading that might be funny, is really boring. I have to keep reading it, as one of my Kim friends has told me that it is a vile act to quit reading a book that you have committed yourself to. If I really wanted to get crazy, I could just give the book away, with the bookmark two thirds of the way through! What an accomplishment!

I even asked the husbandman some questions the other night. It was all about a new job that I had found. I asked him what he thought... any thoughts.... helloo......knock, knock... anything... anything..... The peanut gallery remained silent. CCCHHHHEEEEEE-sus!!!!!! So, am I that boring that the husbandman doesn't even speak. I guess I have to take into account hockey was on, and he never really talks anyways. What was I thinking!

In an effort to perk up my smile I have bought a new bottle of hydrogen peroxide. The sister told me that she has been swishing for a while, and she appears to still be alive, I thought I would chance it, and do the same. I was using the more conservative method of pouring the hydrogen peroxide over the toothbrush and cleaning the teeth individually. Now I am just into chugging, and if I happen to spit.. well BONUS!

The very fact that green waste is back up and running in the city has excited me. With that thought... GREEN WASTE excites me should really say something about myself. How much more boring am I going to get? I am completely thrilled with the very thought of picking up sticks and branches and clutter and other earth elements and cramming them in a green waste container. Perhaps since I am very excited about it, I should get the larger version green waste container, maybe all my dreams will come true.

In other things that are excting:

The kitchen is looking great, it's all renovated, and modern and clean, and sparkly, and matching, and a nice environment to be in. I don't even have dust anymore! It's just too bad that the molten laval rock has grown up from the earth and is smoldering away, and causing a huge eyesore once again.

That was my dream that I woke up from this morning. This is seriously boring stuff people... must go create an exciting reality now.

I found it, a posting template.

Hello big world out there, I have found my space once again. I can't figure out why myself, the 'queen of impatience' insists on waiting around some days for this blog to load. It is freakishly slow, and in that time that I hover and wait I start to think of many things that I should be doing.

This morning I haven't had many tasks so far.

I haven't:

• asked anyone to get up
• told anyone to hurry
• asked mind warping questions like "where is your backpack?"
• reminded anyone to pack swimming gear & goggles
• driven anywhere
• brushed anyones hair
• helped find a coat
• loaded up lunches
• told the catdog to be good and not get into things
• heard a bell ring at 9:00

Clearly this must be spring break. And,.... as I am officially eight minutes into it, I have been enjoying myself immensely. Mind you, I only have one little soul awake so far, all should be quiet for a while.

Finding my own colour

This is my favourite tree in the forest. Look at the roots of this elegant giant. My photos do not do it justice!

Here's another of the little red bridge. Once again I was feeling the need to be saturated with colour!

I have a little surprise

for the children......

I think in the next five minutes I am going into each of their rooms and pick up everything off their floors and put it in a big plastic bag on their beds. I will add a bow to each of them for good measure.

The boys will be far easier than the girls. The maximum crap allowance for his bag will be the hoards of DVD's, and magazines that he has collected. I will throw in the tidbits of garbage that he insists on not picking up, and the floating underwear and socks just to keep it interesting.

The girls will be trickier. She has to be exempt by the boxes that house things underneath her bed... AND, the fact that she has just set up another play area with her ten million plastic toys. Everything else will be sitting on the bed when she gets home.

List time:

I am thinking in fragments at the moment. The best way to get around fragmented thoughts is to put a number in front of them. What an idea!

1. I want to know where the morning goes when one starts it at 5:25 in the morning? I am still not showered or dressed, no lunches made, and it's 7:30.
2. I was most pleased yesterday with the handsome son in his swimming. He was hot on the tail of the superstar swimmer. I was pleased with his efforts to keep up with the pace.
3. I braved the clock last night and had a glass of wine at 9:30. Now I am not sure what the deal is on that thought. I think it has something to do with if I have a drink in the evening, it is usually around 7:30ish, but I never randomly drink much later, unless of course I have started earlier, and haven't really stopped, then it's totally ligite!
4. Somedays the brain just hurts with all the rules that I randomly come up with.
5. Yesterday at the group a photographer came by, he borrowed my pen, and then he gave me his to use. I couldn't use it. I asked him for my pen back, because along with rules, I also have a certain love of pens, all my pens. I think it is an OCD thing sparkling through!
6. I am uncertain whether American Idol will be on tonight. This might be a good thing. I told the PIP that I would like her to wash her hair. This could be the deal clincher on not getting it done.
7. Yesterday that PIP of mine sniffed out her friend down the street! I can't tell for certain how she was able to do that. One moment she was in the backyard playing with the crazy cat dog, and the next moment she was screaming through the kitchen that her friend was in the driveway, and she would not be returning any time soon.
8. I was out walking in circles again last night. It was an enjoyable time, until I got bored, and quit. Perhaps the stalker sister will join me for some circular walking time a little later. I will start sending telepathic thoughts now.
9. I am hoping to do some big things today... as in phone calls, laundry advancement... ha ha hah, I don't think there is such a thing.
10. I think I was supposed to write a list here, now I must construct a new list for todays real adventures.

One lunch too many

Last week I had the opportunity to ride the bus with a bunch of grade sixers. WE went down to the CN Imax for some educational movie time, and a cruise through "historic" gastown. It was quite the educational experience, for many of us.

I got to be the parent that sat at the front of the bus and quietly did her Soduko (on the way home). I very much was happy with my diversion. I did chat with some women on the way down, but I believe I scared them for the return trip, hence the happy Soduko book.

The day went good enough. I thought it was highly disorganized, but other people seemed to know what they were doing, and carried on doing things. That boy of mine did ask me why I got on the wrong bus, but I didn't think I was on the wrong bus...I just followed along with one of the familiar teachers.

I had packed the boy a sandwich and a banana, and the same for myself. What I didn't know was that we would be visiting the foodfair across from Canada Place. The boy was quite happy to learn that I had brought my debit card, which meant that packed lunch would stay put. I was ultimately happy that I was able to purchase a lovely cup of Tim Hortons.

While I was quietly eating in the big food fair area, and happily doing my Soduko, along came a scruffy stranger. She wanted money, I gave her a banana, smiled and wished her luck. The boys pack of friends sat and stared wide eyed. They wanted to know what I was doing. The boy replied that I was feeding people because they asked for money. My boy smiled at me, as the eating boys wondered about feeding people bananas in food fairs.

A while later we were wondering through Gastown looking at stuff. (We were supposed to be looking at the architecture, but oddly enough all the tourists shops were the main attraction!) The group of five boys had merged with a group of five girls, the planets were in total alignment! We had stopped to let someone have a bathroom break, and as I stood there uselessly waiting I spotted another person looking for some lunch. This time I had to chase them down. I crossed the street, and tried to catch up to the fellow, but the down and outer had too much of a head start, and I was losing my pack of kids that were now sitting outside of the sandwich shop "subway". I had to just let it go that I couldn't feed the world today in one outing, but as luck would have it, I passed a garbage can, and a man busily looking for pop cans. He had just found a sandwich that had been tossed, when I handed him over the lunch bag with a fresh sandwich and a banana ... mission accomplished.

The boy had a lot of explaining to do to his pack of friends waiting outside of the sandwich shop.

Daylight

So it has rained pretty steady over the past number of days, with yesterday concluding the festival with pounding rain. As I was driving home yesterday evening I crossed a number of hoses that were being drained from people's basements. My friend down the street had computer equipment learning to swim in their basement. ICK! We had a swimming pool welling up in our back yard, but it seems that the trampoline stood it's ground and claimed it trampoline territory only.

Now the wind has picked up. I guess the next fear is wet roots leaving their groundling nesting spots, as we have witnessed here over the past number of months.

Stanley Park

I have noticed one little treasure to the eye, and that is the deciduous trees taking on pink and green hues as their leaves are just about to emerge for the season. This time of year always excites me.

Oh, and I noticed last week that the great blue heron nests had survived the winter storms, and what looked to be empty nests last week are actually full of baby blue herons. I saw perched on top of their nests on my way to work in the early morning WET!

Stanley Park

soft shoe gentle sway

Some lines from the scissor sisters.

It will have to get me reving this morning, and the girl.

Time now is 8:32 am.

I have been awake since much earlier... but I haven't accomplished early morning tasks to get me ready for the day. Although I did take out the recyling container, made some coffee, and wrote an email (the downfall!), drove the boy to school and hunted for some money to give him.

Must go wake sleeping beauty, and redo the events.

Neil, Micheal & the Scissor Sisters.

I have taken the chicklets to their respective places of opportunity and advancement for a Friday afternoon. Now it's just me and the computer and my music to keep me rocking for the 45 minutes that I will spend her quickly doing things before I go and start gathering them up again.

I live this life every Friday afternoon starting at 3:00 PM.

Interesting.

The New Blue

This is my mom's new dog, Bacardi.

She had to put her wonderful and lovely perfectly soft and blond lab "Blue" down back in November. She was distraught over it. It was hugely sad, but it was also hugely kind that she put had the power and the love and the courage to say good bye to a very short lived friendship ( He was 8 when she got him). Out of absolute kindness to her companion she said goodbye. She wanted to go out and get another dog right away, but I cautioned her, and suggested that she wait for a dog to come her way. I knew it would, I just didn't know when. She made phone calls and talked to people, but a dog just didn't appear. I kept saying to her... "when the time is right, one will walk right into your life"... and it did just that. Bacardi comes from a great home, he is two years old, and is supposed to be a Golden Retriever, even though he currently gets lost sitting in front of her kitchen cupboards. The previous owner had to give him away simply due to life circumstances. I think from the very second he entered her kitchen he was in love with her. If I could have gotten him to look at the camera for more than three seconds, you would be able to see his face. But of course my mom was standing over to my right. The tail doesn't stop wagging either, especially when she is around.

This is it for tonight

I heard the boy clicking away earlier. He was busily doing something on the computer, which didn't appear to be building his slide shows. It was getting late so I asked him what he was up to. He told me that he had searched for the words to its a "Mad World", and had retyped them into a larger font. Things became silent for a while after that, but I could still hear him moving about, with the printer just slighly humming above the quiet. I have to love that HP! Just when I thought he had taken the words on paper and snuck away to his bedroom I managed to pick up the slightest sounds. It was his voice, singing the words to "Mad World", with the piano tune in the background.

He demonstrated to me the other night that he could play the song with his right hand, and then sat there and plucked out the words from his head and sang the song. I was impressed with his ability to place words and music together.

He has practiced quite a number of times since last week, and now can play the song with both hands, including the pedal. It sounds quite good. But when he started singing, it really came alive. I was filled with a huge amount of happiness to sit and listen to him play.

It was just a couple of weeks back when I told him to tell his piano teacher that TODAY (whenever that date was) would be his last lesson. I wasn't wasting money any longer on something that gave me a rather large headache, as I manage to fall upon headaches without the aide of him. That said, I knew deep down in my heart that it would take just one song to get his attention, and he could fly with it.

I think he has taken flight. I hope he can keep his momentum.

See his eyes, while we still can.

"The Producers"

My mom and I went to see this the other day. It was very good, and definitely a different kind of show. It made me laugh, but not the type of laughter that leaves you with your sides aching. I appreciated some of the humour that came about due to the casts presence on stage, rather than anything that was said.

I haven't been to a play or a production in quite a while, so it was a welcome gift.

Must take Vitamins.

I am surely positive they will help to keep me smart. Otherwise I will instantly become immobilized with stupidity, and start cooking and baking for the family. THIS CAN NOT HAPPEN!

I will and read my book now...

The heat is on on.

No it's not.

The barely used into it's second year furnace has had a breakdown. It's circuits have malfunctioned and has left us in the cold. I am going to have to rely on our little plug in heater and shut the door to the den. I just want to read the papers.... ! However I do not want to freeze to death while doing it.

In other things that do not require heat:

I organized my scrapbooking crap. Wow, I have a lot of it. Well, I have a lot of paper items and sticker items, and more paper items. Mind you I do not rank in the paper file as one of the Debbie's does, now she has a lot of paper. Now that she has new cupboards in her basement, I can not sit back and admire her stacks of paper from afar. Perhaps when I go over to the Debbie's I will just open up her cupboard so I can let it stare back at me. I do know one thing, it doesn't matter how much paper I have, it is never enough, and it is not the right colour, or shade, or design, or feel, or this or that! While I was cleaning out my SHELF of scrapbooking supplies I found a number of pages that I was working on from the summer, with an album already attached to them. Wow, most impressive on the colour spectrum.

On the rent-a-movie front:

We watched that movie... I want to call it the Detailer, or the Detector, damn I need to go get the rentamoviebox to find out the title: The Departer. For the longest time I had to sit and ponder who was Matt Damon, and who was Leonardo Dicaprio. Once I figured that out, I had to sort out what was going on with who. Who was good, and who wasn't. I didn't like the ending, it was a "cop out". HA!

Let's close the curtain on this one.

I am beginning to think that I have a shower curtain liner defect happening.

I mean, do you wash a shower curtain liner? Are you supposed to? Did I not learn this in happy marrying day school many years back? Where do you learn this kind of stuff? I don't remember going through this many shower curtain liners. How much are you supposed to scrub a tub! tub! to keep a shower curtain liner happy? My liners really hate me. They believe they beyond their lining capacities, and are only for hanging in show rooms. Perhaps if I introduced the liner to it's new intimate friend, the shower curtain, I would get more life out of it.

It doesn't matter how much the packaging tells me that it is an antibacterial non moldy growing things, it just reappears. It freaks me out really.

I will wait to draw my conclusion on our newest addition to the bathroom.

What the heck!

Clock issues:

Everyday this past week the internal clock has woke me up earlier and earlier.

Mind you, this morning was due to public drinking, and a drug bust. I just happened to be in the middle of I don't know where, and was walking with a cider in my hand to an undercover area. Another person came running up to me, gave me a small clear baggy full of weeds and other little packages, and then took off. Wouldn't you just know it, the cops just happened to be there. Fortunately I was able to slip away un-noticed, however; the little creep with the dark hoody over his face found me in the parking lot while I was just about getting into the indigo blue Mazda5 machine... he had a knife, and he was mad. At that very moment I remembered the lock feature on the car, if you press it, the horn will honk. Insteading of honking it made a dull "gnnaaaaaaa" sound, and then pause, gnaaaaaaa, and then pause. Wouldn't you just know it, I had a snore horn.

On that dismal realization, my mind let me wake up and it was 04:47.

Two hours later, 2 cups of tea, and 2 posts + way too many games of spider solitaire.

It's almost time for cake!

Inbetween a busy day:

the Pip and I

As I was cruising through the local newspaper articles the other day, I spotted something. It had great interest to me. There was a slideshow presentation at the library. Just try and guess what the pictures were of. You are all a bunch of cracker jacks!!

Bears, bears, and more bears. They were fascinating. The fellow had slides of grizzlies, black bears, KERMODE bears, and polar bears. There were even a few pictures of wolves thrown in for good measure. I am not certain that I would brave his style of bear watching, but I guess it's all what you get used to. He is just more advanced, and carries a bigger lense.

The Pip and I enjoyed it, even if we missed the first hour of American Idol. That's what video machines are for I guess.

She did it!

Last night I asked the Pip to take a shower. After many "no ways" she decided that this one task was not going to bring her life to a crashing halt, and agreed to the torture. For the first time in many sunsets and moon rises that girl of mine washed her hair. Of course it wasn't without her yelling out her only word that comes to mind on all occasions..... "Maaaa-maaaaaaaaa". She wasn't shrieking in defiance, she just wanted me to her hand her the shampoo. That's how she is.

Then, it came to blow drying her hair. Now that is another story. We missed the beginning of American Idol since we were feverishly trying to accomplish drying her almost blondless locks. The end result was a finely dried and perfectly coiffed 9 year old hair do. Then she rested her head on a pillow and screwed up all my handy work!

The stack shrinks

I have a couple hundred pieces of paper floating about. Some of them have hit the floor, in a messy but polite sort of pile. The rest of the paper has been monthly-ized & organized so I can give it to my mother so she can do our taxes. I have a big pink folder that I have squished everything into. Hopefully it wont explode before I get through the back door of her house. That would just be so ugly.

In other things less ugly:

It snowed out again last night. Not a huge amount of the white stuff, but just enough to make it look pretty, and very unspringlike. I want to know how I am supposed to start pulling out shrubs , laying down sand and planting grass seed if it insists on snowing like this!

Oh ... is that what it is.

The other day I took some frozen fruit out of the freezer. I left it on the counter to let it thaw, and I was going to do great things with it. Yes, I believe very great things. It is still sitting there. I guess great things didnt come it's way. Now I am thinking that I can smell something a bit off in the 1365 square foot rancher. I believe that the bowl of fruit will have to re-incarnate into something greater outside in the food converter.

In other great things that I got to:

I made a blueberry milkshake the other day with vanilla soymilk. It was quite tasty, and I left the rest of it in the fridge, for later. Later never came. The husbandman spotted a large river of purple just about to leap to the next shelf in the refridgerator. He cleaned it all up, and dumped the rest of the river of purple that remained in the blender down the sink. Just my luck.

Things for later:

I will try and create some form of chaos for the husbandman to rescue today. This certainly keeps my level of creativity peaked to ensure adequate response from the silent husbandman.

I was thinking...

I might change the colours of this blog. The New Blogger thingy made me change, I am not sure what I was holding out for, nothing seems different now. BUT.. one thing did catch my eye, and it was the changing of the blog thingy in the bottom right hand corner. Maybe I will change it up a bit... but only a bit...

Oh, and I was thinking about Pip... she is now Pipless.. as in braids. I am wondering what I should call her next. Even her blond hair is fading away to a darker blond. Now I have a mediocre blond pipless child. I think I will go with Shark girl. Yes... I will go and try it out now.... funny, she doesn't seem to be responding.

I missed useless task night with the stalker sister, she called just as I decided & quickly left to go to the Council Meeting. There was a presentation on the Heritage & Cultural Society that this very city does not have. It was a good presentation, but once it was done, I departed, so did the rest of the audience. It is all about saving the 97 year old home & The Wild Duck Inn, which is another part of Port Coquitlam's heritage. None of which the City has any excitement about keeping. It is actually very strange.

I think tomorrow I will come up with new ways to save the planet & make a million dollars in 7 easy steps. Yes, let the synapses beging.

So..... what's for dinner?

Chicken parmesan with penne pasta in a tomato sauce. Very easy to do actually.

I love you Costco.

In other things that have little incidence in life:

I wrote a letter to Oprah the other day. She hasn't got back to me yet. I will wait for her call. I complained about her Colin Cowie episode and the fact that it was RAW-RAW fest about the man. It was embarressing to watch!

I am currently trying to decide on what book I am going to start tonight. I am so glad the Vampire books are through. They were getting a bit tiring, considering that things were always dead and all.

The Pip said something very inspirational yesterday. I was quite impressed. I wish I could remember what she said, it might come to be, but probably not before the end of this post.

I have quit obsessing about my lost pictures. I have to go with the very fact that they are indeed LOST!

I have decided that I need to wake up earlier on Sundays. There is a great vitamin show that takes place about 0530 in the am... and if I could just lie there and listen to what the newsy people are busy telling me, it may be of some worth! Instead I wake up at 0600, and am too stupid to hear what they are telling me between the alarm and my lapses in wake time.

I wish I could find my yearly planner. I have currently lost it. So currently, I am lost. I hope I find it before my next dentist appointment.... I am not sure which will happen first, finding the date book, or realizing the day previous by the reminder phone call.

It's almost time to put dinner in the oven. It sure can be a lot of work pressing the "start" button on the oven. The pressure terrifies me.

In other distracting thoughts:

I have listened to my favourite "Holly holy" about a dozen times now. I am still very much liking it... how about you??? it's a raise your hands in the air and sway kind of song.... it's an over the top american idol show in your own home, quite run really. AND... if you plunk it on your Media Player, you can just keep repeating it over and over again with one click of your favourtie mouse!

I didn't get any pictures of the snow today. I wasn't in an exciting enough location to get the correct shot. The footwear didn't quite work well with the snowfall either.

I have the gas people dropping by in the next week or two to double check where our gas lines are located. I am very much wanting to rip out all of our shrubs and bushes, and other things green that line the front of our house. I am tired of this landscape. It is old and it is boring. Things that I can absolutely identify with. These shrubs are about to go through a mid life crisis, and become evicted from their comfortable resting spots. Hopefully all going well I wont rupture gas lines and have my very own mid life crisis while flying over the homes on the cresent. That wont be pretty.

Speaking of pretty. I did a doubly good job on the haircolouring. I am most impressed with my very natural fake haircolour haircolouring event. HOLLY HOLY on that note~! YAH! ( OK, inside joke on that one... if you have dowloaded the "holly holy" that I keep going on and on and on about.. you would so get the "YAH" part. I trust that you know this).

It feels good to yammer away like this... I haven't yammered in a while. I usually yammer with numbers, as in I have my list of details that I must perform all in the timeline from yesterday. Oh man, I am a yesterday yammerer.

I warned my group members today that I have sent away for some "art therapy" books. Not that I am an art therapist... but I am looking for some art like things to do with the group. It is doubly risky due to the fact that some of the people have lost their dominant hands and must use their adopted dominant hands to participate. I am really thinking of doing some hand painting. I think it would be good. I don't think they would like my "holly holy" song to be blaring, and then having me yell "YAH" when I see great things coming from them. On second thought....

I have now decided that I need an early morning intervention to get my personality cracklin". ( I am now listening to cracklin rosie.... by Mr. Neil Diamond himself.... try it, you'll like it!) Or, maybe some oxygen may help. I just dont synapse, at all. Vitamins and a hot & intoxicating cup of lemon water... that might do something.... Ah, Suddenly I See... that will do it. (Thank you KT Tunstall for helping me out with that one!)

In other things that I see:

I see that it is light out, and it's 6 PM. I like the light, it's refreshing. This is old news, I have written about this before.... but then as KT is busy singing.... "why the hell it means so much to me.... suddenly I see......"

On that note I should go, and float throught the kitchen and clean it up... because now Micheal is singing to me... "save the last dance for me...." besides... dinner is almost ready!

More heat please

The furnace worked splendidly for a week. However, this morning it has slipped back into it's old ways, and is no longer workable. It's clicking and clicking and clicking without kicking in and bringing me heat. Since we live in this huge 1365 square foot rancher, it is rather difficult to get away from the constant clicking, which rates on the EXTREME level on the annoyance scale.

IN current issues of the moment:

It is busily snowing outside at the moment. This frightens me. We have our Stroke Recovery Group today, which will undoubtably be canceled due to the white out conditions. These conditions will stop at the exact moment that the group is about to begin. So for the moment I will make many phone calls to many people who would like to attend the group, but almost maybe kind of wont be able to. RATS!

a little vampire reading.....

I can't tell what order I read them in, I can barely remember the names of them. My friend handed them over to me to read. They were alright, I like them better than the vampire series I read. I didn't even know that I would care for any type of vampire stories... and here I am reading them. Well, now I will move on to my new pile of books that have been stacking up over time!

 

so inspired.

The hair needed cutting badly. BADLY I say. I jumped in the shower this morning, threw on clothes and a fresh coat of lipstick & drove the newly hair cutted daughter to school, full of her antibiotics in tow, and away I went to my favourite hair cutter place, where they do no harm, not only to your hair, but to your pocketbook! I am now sporting a shorter version of crazy hair. A grand success to myself I say!

So, I have had some troubles the past number of days. I thought that the haircolour makers had suddenly stopped making my hair colour. I was actually fretful & fearful & in complete dismay. I thought I was going to have to buy a new whole new brand, and a whole new colour and strike out on my own once again into the land of "colouring one-o-one". Interestingly enough my memory contacted my brain at the exact moment I was looking at a new brand, and I realized that the number & branch of hair colour that I was searching for was the one that I quit using last year. "Oh, there's my girl and the matching number over there" I said to myself outloud. Just as I was thanking my brain outloud one of my old neighbours just happened by. She looked up to see the idiot chatting away to herself, and BOOP, it was me.

It's not even 2:00 in the afternoon and I am cut and coloured all in one day. OH MY GOD! I am truly the pokiest person around when it comes to cutting and colouring. BUT not today... hmm, I will now go and unveil the towel on my head and see what the colour is that I actually came up with...

AAaaaahhhhhhhh!

The Hair will be donated to EVA & Co. It is a local outfit based in Vancouver where it makes free wigs for kids for BC Children's Hospital. That was 2 years of growth that was snipped and 12 inches donated. That a girl PIP!

It's kind of sad that Britney Spears could not have had this revelation last week.

Read the signs... if you can !

 

The Puff of Pink

The Pink Puffball, of course with all her drably clad entourage in the background.
The stalker sisters children with the boy.

 

Fourth Year

The kids had a Pro-D on Friday. We have managed to visit White Rock for the fourth year in a row. Pretty good really, considering it is the same time every year in February, and we have managed to do an outside activity each time, and we live on the "wet" coast. Todays weather: RAIN! We lucked out again.

 

Some things are working...

I got my computer back yesterday. I took it away to have the pictures files retrieved. I have about 30,000 photos to work through. I don't have actually 30,000 photos, BUT any picture that my computer looked at was retrieved. I can't figure out why it brought some photos, and left out a whole whack of others. I can not connect the files to get them to open. I have 650 files in the Kodak Easyshare, which I can see, but I can do nothing to retrieve them. Well, I have to be happy that I have had some restored... like these oldies! 

Look out.. it's Wednesday

I am enjoying waking up in the mornings. I have various reasons, mainly of which I believe I am better off awake than I am asleep.

I think I know where all my headaches are coming from: I clench my teeth so hard that the pain in my face wakes me up.

In other reasons... I was busy having a dream, and I was at work, outside of one of the patients doorways, when I heard this woman call out "I think I am falling".. so I peeked my head into the doorway, and sure enough her hands were clenched on for dear life to the short end of a bedside table. The dream had two endings, one of which I slid a chair behind her knees and said fall, and the other ending was I had no chair, but walked up next to her and let her slide to the floor, by this point she looked to be unresponsive. "Shit" I said, and left to find someone that would be more willing to help her now than me.

In things gone awry:

I got a new AIRMILES mastercard in the mail yesterday. I didn't ask for one, and my current one had not expired. It was stuck to a very official note claiming that somehow my card had been compromised, but it was clearly not Mastercards fault. It didn't say anything about extensions in limits or lower interest rates, things that I really care about.

The Pip wanted to start knitting last night. Well we started, of course the yarn that we had needed to be rolled into a ball, which we promptly screwed up immediately. That took quite a while to disentangle, the whole while the Pip just talked and talked and talked and talked. I believe it was enjoyable, and I wasn't sure if that was the reason that my headache had come to light once again, or the ball of wool was just pissing me off that much. We started our casting on. The Pip sat right next to me, watching intently, and checking the book for any errors in my ways of casting on. After casting on for about 10 stitches, and only coming up with 4, I announced that her first knitting lesson was over. I told her that perhaps tomorrow when mommy gets her thinking brain back we should have more success, and move onto actually making it up to 10 stitches to work with. She was overjoyed with her first knitting lesson. I had some Tylenol.

There will be more stories... I just know it!

Tuesday tales...

The adventuring continues... perhaps I will drag my camera out and about with me, and take some photos of the details. Of course that is if you want to see pictures of inside grocery stores and other useless tasks of the day.

Things that I really want to do...

GO BUY SAND! Yes, bags of sand. I have a very bad section of lawn that is in dire need of some attention to the moss problem. I am going to peel back the carpet of moss and replace it with sand.

I would like to dig out a tree/bush that has fallen over in the front yard. I would like it gone! (And not the chincy cherry tree that I have complained about before) I think I have to wait for the weather to warm up a tad to do that... but we are heading into the spring season... so I am just itching to get going!

Sunday night song report..

I Don't Feel Like Dancing... The Scissor Sisters.

It's my very latest love filled limewire download.

Oh god it's soooo goood!

Well, except for a brief synthesizer thing in the middle of the song, I think I really like the laser sounding beams that flash through the song. Somedays I could just be so twenty again.

West coast amazons

Some left standing
others crashed to the ground
some almost turned into butterflies