This was a parade??

The big excitement around here are the Mayday festivities. It's a quaint little affair, which has the appeal of a small town effect.

I don't feel that excitement any longer.

My draw is the parade... I love the parade. The parade is just fun to watch, until today.

I need to understand something... just because we have a nutcake screwed up Mayor... does that mean that the parade takes on the same effect? I love to watch the Vancouver drill team.. (men on motorbikes!). They were not in attendance today.. my sister watched the blood drain from my face, I was close to death. The Mayday float couldn't really be seen as it drifted past us at the speed of light, with the pretty little flower girls all deeply hidden in the float, and the boys (lancers) doing practically a jog along the parade route. That lead to the people in golf carts almost taking out children in the streets, and asking that the legion people speed up in their walking capabilities. The guy in one of the trucks says to the parade people that they are going to give the walkers all heart attacks. No freaking kidding. Then I saw a gold cart lady almost crack into a girl doing a cartwheel. There were huge lapses between "floats", if you can even call them floats. I saw the "A & W" truck drive by with pink signs taped on either side of it boasting of "the special". "Mama burgers 2 for six bucks". That was it. The Shriners, who by all my experience with parades are always in attendance at parades were nowhere to be found today. There were two pipebands, one of which came from Mission. I didn't even know Mission had a pipeband! The regular "big" pipebands were also none existant.

It was simply embarressing. I got up and went to the dollar store to get miss high 10 year old maintenance some sun glasses, OK, it was sunny afterall, so she wasn't that high maintenance, but she became high maintenance when she stole the sunglasses off my face and I could no longer see. At least we parked ourselves on the sunny side of the street, at least we were warm!

I need to start my letter to the city..... oh where do I begin.....

double digits

That Pip of mine... double digits... where did the time go?

One day turned into another

My days are too short. Especially in May. That is what I have decided.

I love the month of May. It is a hugely busy time for me, as everything that I wish to get accomplished must be accomplished in the shortest time possible.

I am currently moving hoards of dirt from my frontyard to my backyard. This is all being done as I disassemble my very ugly front yard garden. I have dug and flattened and spread and it doesn't seem like I have done much at all. It is one of those slowly and steadily kind of things.

So far the past two weeks have been hugely uneventful as I lead a fairly completely boring life, as I kind of sort of like.

1. The PIP had a 10 year old birthday party. I think it turned out good. I have pictures of the festivities locked away in the computer.. I will eventually get to them.
2. Ants invaded our lovely and new laundry room. I welcomed the invasion and fed them some lovely ant food... the stuff that kills nests and queens and little worker ants, all of course with the echo of "eat, eat my little pretties... eat" bellowing above their heads. They have now disappeared... until the next round.
3. I called an electrician. Yes I did. That is the reason that the husbandman has stalled on the renovation project. All because he had to make a phone call. So, there has been no project because the husbandman can not pick up a telephone and dial. Last night as he read the newspaper I called the electrician again, and fortunately he answered... so then I handed the telephone over to the newspaper reading husbandman. Highly bizarre really, but now the non-project might take on some new light.
4. I am very glad that American Idol is close to finishing, as well as Survivor. My television addictions will lesson after this week.
5. On top of re-arranging the front and back yard I have had in the forefront of my mind... "we are at the risk of being flooded out". We live in a flood plain, and with the record snow packs that have occured over this past winter we are now living with the threat of floods. "They" have raised the dikes by four feet.. but I am only hoping that that will be the trick should the case arise. It's a bit worrisome that all the years of hard work, and mortgage payments could be lost in a moment of time.
6. Yae... the Pip is going to school with the husbandman....and the freaky shaking silly catdog.

This leads to that...

My friend the crazy daycare lady from two houses over called me up and left a message on my machine.... "Deanna... I saw a racoon walking along your roof... " Need I say more....

I eventually looked up info on the internet and called the wildlife people about our unexpected guests. After I talked the husbandman down from blaring the radio next to the box of growing babies... and coaxed him into a gentle volume.. mama took her babies and left the hiding space.

It's a good thing for crazy daycare ladies with good eyesight.

She's back!

here is the garden girl... she is back. I retrieved her from the huge trellis mess of my DEAD jasmine plant. I did not know that the jasmine was not going to survive the winter outside. She has been brought back to life with a clean trellis, a fresh jasmine plant, and with the knowledge that I am going to wrap and double protect the plant after the summer season.

Pip, pooch and pink

What almost 10 year olds do with cameras on their own.

When humans turn their backs, and do not close bedroom doors...

These are not chincy blooms!

Retracting the FCUK.

Found the camera. The world is at peace again.

In other things monumental:

Little lady Pip will be 10 on Sunday. Both children are now double digits. Ten turns into teen which turns into twenty. I am very scary and old now. Life is even more scarey, even now with a camera once again... and it was pretty scary without it.

Double FCUK!

1. Totally psychotic.
2. Can't help it.
3. Even vitamins.
4. Dried clothes with some chocolate yesterday.
5. Load of light coloured clothing.
6. Looked like a diaper had exploded.
7. 2 scoops of oxyclean, hot water and a scoop of laundry soap.
8. Remember number 7, it's an important remedy to remember.
9. Wish I could remember where my freaking camera is.
10. It's lost. Really and seriously.
11. Still psychotic, shit!

Totally cool...

The Pip and I and our friends from down the street went to an ultimately totally cool presentation last night. (think hard people... think hard... just guess as to what it might be about...)

Benjamin Kilham, author of "Among the Bears" visited the Port Moody public library, and we were there to see him in real life. He is a naturalist that lives in New Hampshire, and he raises orphaned bear cubs and returns them to the wild.

He is a brilliant man.

EXcuthe me...

I theem to have thomthing sthuck in my mouth. Yethher I do.

I have a brand new appliance, just like the yesteryears of life after braces. I am now embarking upon straightening my forever twisting front teeth with a retainer sort of thingy. I hope it works. I am now sorry that I threw mine out when I turned thirty. I figured at that time that twenty years of braces should probably be enough. Boy was I wrong.

I am supposed to wear it 22 hours out of the day. I have managed about five hours so far. There is no freaking way I can wear out in public. I have an incredible lisp with it... I feel just like Kramer in one of the Seinfeld episodes. ( Oddly enough my hair resembles Kramers bad do of the day today as well... slightly fuzzed at the ends.. only because I brushed it this morning... ) Brushing my hair is a no no.. it's a never do to the do sort of thing not to do!

Well.. breaks over... back to the retainer thingy...

Me... a hockey fan....

Yes, thirteen minutes into the third period I started watching hockey. I am a sick sick woman. Please keep me in your thoughts. I can't handle being a hockey watcher... I never have been, and ultimately am hoping that I am not going to continue on this downward spiral. Even the Pip tried to talk to me and I shooshed her away so I could watch hockey. This is madness!!

Living in the wild

Compare these photos, what is the one thing that they both have in common? Green. One loves the green leather couch which she shares with her two crazy friends, and the others love the soft green grass for an empty stomach.

OH MY GAW!

It is a completely beautiful morning out there... stunningly beautiful. Just taking a moment to breathe it all in. The clouds are sitting scantly in the sky, leaves have reached the tips of the trees and transformed them into bursting masses of green and burgundy hues. Even the "chiny blooms, chincy blooms" japanese plum tree is starting to become likeable again.

Momma and her babies.

Please note the quality and the squint appeal with these photos. They could be better... MUCH better... if SOMEONE had not spoke great ideas to the husbandman about certain CAMERA gadgets. OH, this is a mother bear and her two cubs that I have been busy spying on. On the top photo, one of the cubs is climbing the tree, she also had caught wind of me, since you can see her smiling for the camera.. or then again, maybe you can't.. BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SEE HER!.. We can once again thank Mr. Pickaspat for this. If you too have complaints about the quality of these photos feel free to comment, and I will forward the comments along to the one and only Mr. Pickaspat.

Oh.. and this computer is acting badly again. It is only by luck that I have got it to work. I think the video card is on the outs..... I was just about to take it in, when I got it turned on again. Who knows.. if I'm not back... you can guess the reasons why...

The benefits of being at home....

I absolutely love to see my every growing boy wonder off down the street to school. I peer through our moon shaped window out through the front door as the boy walks along. He now takes the walk with his star friend from across the street. I love how he walks, or kind of saunters.. almost like a duck in slow motion. Hopefully his little spry friend will put his step back into a penguin motion....

Read this, really didn't like it.. at all.

Fantastico!

Here we are again folks, living another beautiful day out here on the WET coast. The weatherman states that by this afternoon we should be free from rain, for a while. I think I even saw the sun coming out. I will have my handy dandy pressure washer on stand-by.... ready to go at a moments notice.

So.... the Pip and I spied our first bears of the season last night. We saw a mamma and two cubs. We were as stunned to see them, as they were to see us. The two cubs flew up into the trees, and the mamma crawled up for a while, but eventually set herself back down on the ground. I would have great pictures to show you.. if someone THAT LIVES DOWN THE STREET, hadn't given away my fine detailed secrets of special lenses and such....I am not whining or complaining... just stating the facts here people. I think the lighting was a bit off, as it was getting dusky, and little black bears sitting in trees is a hard image to catch on any given day. Anyways, I am very tempted to drive up to the same spot this very morning to try and catch another glimpse of the black beauties in our midst once again. I think I might just do that.

I would like to spill off other events... but now that it is bear season... that is all that I am capable of thinking of, well, next to scheming and planning on emptying my front garden of overgrown shrubs, and asking for the husbandmans help, without him realizing it. That is quite the task.

In other things growing:

Both of the chicklets. The boy is almost my height. Two more inches, and I'll be done for. The girl continues to tower over her classmates, and her best buddy down the street. Maybe that's why her back hurts so much, she has to crook over to talk eye level with all of her friends. Last night I gave her an Ibuprofen. It was the adult version. One pill, 300 mg, she doesn't like the chewables anyways. The dosing is for someone ages 11 +, but since the girl is larger than her friend from across the street, I gave her the same dose. This time she forgot that the Ibuprofen wasn't a chewable sort. Hmmmm. Now that is not good. She went to bed with a numb tongue and throat. Ick. Plus.. I fed her two large glasses of milk, in some hope that it would wash away the bad effects it has on the lining of her insides. Well, she is alive and well this morning and complaining that I haven't given her her special breakfast of BIG K (Special K), but it has always been Big K to her. Just the same as "double knots" have always been "doval knots", and her pillow has always been a "pallow". Love that.

Somedays

I feel sad when I do not take the time to write the daily boring events that happen around here. I mean, they are very clearly more than boring, but they are the events that make up my (our) life, and in some ways they are important to remember. Especially the evil kiniving ones, those are the best! (A roar of evil laughter erupts....)

So, hmmmm. What is there to say... short of everything, all at once.

1. I went to work this weekend. Yae for me, I checked all the internal and external job postings, there are no jobs for me. Boo Hoo.
2. We got a raise at work... oddly enough I didn't notice.
3. The husbandman is doing a fantastic job building the fence out towards the side of the house. He even dug up the stump so that the fence could attach itself to the existing fence. I think deep down inside the husbandman didn't want the neighbour building it, just in case the neighbourman didn't do "a kingly" job of it. ( I might remind my three readers here, that the husbandman didn't want one thing to do with my front yard renovation... AND, he spent the whole week end days out there Saturday and Sunday.. just making reference to that.....)
4. The husbandman and Mr. Pickaspat went on a date last night...or so Mr. Pickaspats friends assumed that's what he and the husbandman were up to...(OK, it was just a night out at the local pub to watch the hockey game) so they (Mr. P's friends) sent a piece of cake with whipped cream to the table for the two of them... It was labeled "for the happy couple". Now that my good people is freaking funny!
5. I bought myself a beautiful bright yellow pressure washer. It seems that the weatherman is a bit jealous, and has started pelting the earth with rain... now that I am available again to start the pressure washing process. Sorry Mr. Weatherman your pressure doesn't amount to my pumped pressure....
6. I have had dinner made since 0930 this morning. Well, that was only because we were having a pot luck at the group today, and I made extra for the people that inhabit this home. Lucky for them.
7. I still need to get a picture of the Pip's "roll over rover" that she created with a toilet paper roll, and thus named it accordingly.
8. I have a great plan for my summer flowers this year. I am more than tickled pink about the great plan underway. I just can't wait to execute this great plan into action. It will be completely beautifulishes. COMPLETELY! The new fence that the husbandman is masterfully building will be lined with DAHLIAS. AAAAH..... it is going to be gorGeous people... SIMPLY gorgeous! I will be tuber shopping in my mom's back garden very soon. The Pip might even have to set up a dahlia growers flower store at the end of the driveway come September. Pictures will be taken, evidence will be available to the who's it's and what's it's of the day. Inform your people, this will be big. The sister and I peed our pants laughing last year at my efforts for a premier garden in the front yard. It was abismyl and embarressing and just short of completely revolting... which made us howl harder.
9. Speaking of howling, This should make two out of the three readers laugh. Holy shit.. you should laugh!!!!... so the stalker sister made herself very stalkable last week. She was around for all four days last week, at my complete disposal. It didn't matter that I had things to tend to, she was around, everyday, from 0915 to 230 PM. At one point I just referred to her as my walking talking shadow. So Friday was our last day together and once again she decided that she wanted lunch. It had to be Sushi. We tried one place, next to the mall. It looked scarey, well, it looked like it was under renovations, but not really. I told her I was kind of Seinfeldish feeling.. like the owners were going to come screaming if we opened the doors.. get out you fat ladies, out of my restaurant,... now you have brought us bad luck. I told her I couldn't wait for this to happen, so we had just better leave. We drove down the street and across the way to "another " sushi place. It wasn't Sushi, it was Thai. Thai is good, but not good when you want Sushi, AND when you think the place is Sushi, but it's not.. it's Thai. Well, right next door was a Fish and Chips place... hmmmm.. well, OK, stalker sister, I feel nervous about the fish and chip place... due to the health ramifications of ?? how much fat is about to be ingested with this??? My frightened mind did not want to know. But then again... I do like rootbeer. We tried entering the villa of cholesterol, but was met with a sign smack dab in the stalker sisters nose. The girl said they would be open in five minutes. (She held up her hand like "Alice" did in the Minute Rice commercials). Well, sigh again... and we looked across the parking lot, and spotted another Japanese food place. It was kind of raining out, but not enough to make us whimps, so we walked across the lot to the fourth eating establishment. We were greeted upon arrival and then "set" in the corner. I did take notice of other caucasion visitors in the restaurant, they appeared to be happily munching away. Things were looking up in the getting lunch department. WE scanned the menus, decided on which lunch box we would wish for and that was it. What we wished for next was a waitress, waiter, someone, anyone. Ahh... here was someone, carrying a pot of tea, with a mound of wasabi in a dish on top. The waiter looked at us rather scared, and then darted away. WE watched a number of dishes walk past us, and waitresses return to the kitchen. The final draw was when the stalker sister spotted people that had walked in after us being served something. That was when we knew we had been placed in the "forgotten section". So we walked out. We walked back across the parking lot, pretty much peeing our pants laughing at the workout project just trying to have a quick lunch... somehwere.... "Ya... uhm.. well,... OK, I'll have the special... one piece fish and chips, and a rootbeer please."
10. I have no recollection as to the day that I actually cleaned the house. I know it was imbetween the times of the stalker sisters non pitstops moment. I can't figure that out, although now that it is a new week, I believe that the process starts all over again. Including dodging the stalker sister attempts for my shotgun riding adventures. The first load of laundry has gone in, whites first, only because they were abundant on the clothes pile.
11. I renewed my library book today. I am not even sure if I am going to read it. I tried a couple of weeks ago, but forgot about it, as the cover blended in with the bedroom furniture. ha ha h ah. OK, it really did..... and then my colourful eye just helped it blend in. I don't know what the title is, but it's by Steven Hawkings. Something to do with universes and nutshells. Eventually I will get to it.
12. On the more important scale, I wish to continue my aphasia readings. Now this fascinates me. I only have about 6 more thick books to plough through. I can't figure out what my problem is.... only because I have three couches to pick from in the livingroom, surely to crap I can sit my ass down and breeze my way through them, and take notes along the way, and then of course have processing and aborbtion time of the facts presented to me. Yes, right.
13. I think the weatherman hates me. It has quit raining out, and the clouds have lightened up.. enough for me to want to go and plug in the pressure washer.. but wait... I can't... as the children need fetching and feeding in the next hour, by then, it should be raining again.
14. I wonder if I am back to my coffee ways. I had quit drinking coffee. I thought it would help me with my horrible memory problems. It hasn't. I didn't even really miss it. I didn't have jitters, or crossed eyes, or a slowing of my rapid thoughts (OCDish) stream through my head on a moment to moment basis. AND, I am still completly stupid as ever. I don't think the vitamins even help, other than to make me count the number of bottles that I open and close and then dump pills down my throat. Well, I have mastered counting to ten, that's something to be proud of.
15. The cherry blossoms are almost out in bloom. The REAL cherry blossoms. Not the "chincy blooms, chincy blooms" that have already flowered in my front yard, and have been swept away by the wind, or eaten by the lawn mower. I will get my camera out for some beautiful dramatic photos of the real cherry blossoms. Yes, I will. I think I might head over the City Hall, the place where our MAYOR has finally cleaned out his office, but only for a little while, while he gets his life back on track for behaving like a freaking psychotic goon... Oh, I see I have hit tangent mode.. back to camera thoughts.... I might even haul out the FILM SLR to create some fancy work.. but then it will be AGES, before I get any photos back.. (Oh the horror!, and the sorrow!!).. so I may be able to thrill my three readers by at least OCTOBER with my spring bloom series. YES!! Read that Mr. Pickaspat.. another five months before I get around to developing my pictures... on that note.. I should go and start collecting children from other peoples home and bodies of covered water. Sounds odd, but then... look where this is coming from.
16. I signed up for the Erma Bombecks writers club. All I have received are other peoples string of emails. It looks like I am going to have to search elsewhere for the real Erma Bombeck. I might even trade in my current library book for one of hers....

Name this tune:

Daaaa, da, da da. da. da. Da da, da to da, da to da & repeat from the beginning.

Yes, it's a tricky one, it's not a tune that you can sing, but rather a piece of music that you listen to on one of the most exciting days of your life.

Sixteen years ago today, life started going down hill for the husbandman big time... it was the day he said "I do" to me!

Despite his claims that it has been years of misery, he continues to buy me a lovely card, and flowers. He even offered a lovely night out, but I turned him down. As the offer was also for him and I, and our friends the Pickaspats to some bigscreen hockey action at the local pub. Strangely enough I flat out told him no... and we settled for sushi take out. That's life in the fast lane 16 years later.

A little late but...

These notices were taped to the french doors leading into the livingroom. That Pip....

It's been a weird one...

This is the day in review, only because it was just so freaking wierd:

Woke up from a slumber on the green leather couch.
The husbandman has done his morning chores, as he is no slouch.

Started yapping at the hamsterson to get himself out of bed,
every single morning this is the constant dread.

The Pip rattled out at a quarter to eight,
she's usually a little slow and doesn't function that great.

At 8:05 the Biancastar tapped on the door,
as the hamsterson packed his belongings from off of the floor.

I wrote a little blog, just because I'm a schmuck.
I really wonder if I do get things accomplished by simple good luck.

We tried to walk to school but that didn't work,
The Pip complained bitterly that her back really hurt.

I drove the Mazda Five to the doorstep of the school,
looking at the beautiful weather, and feeling like a fool.

I was home for a bit, and made a cup of tea,
where I looked for camera junk, for the one and only me.

I flit about the kitchen and tidied the odds and ends,
it never changed in appearance, so I doubled back to the computer where I found some email friends.

That ended quickly as I had to dash by 10:05,
I had to pick up the boy for his ortho appt, which required a short little drive.

Upon arrival I realized a grandious kind of error,
we were exactly on time, but ahead of schedule by 24 hours.

As a treat for the son, we headed out for lunch,
we had to go right away, while he could still munch.

I dropped him off at school, and headed towards home,
I wasn't quite sure what I would accomplish, although the list was a mile long.

I was not in through the door when the telephone rang,
it was the sister who was stalking, hoping to do the sushi thing.

We talked and we talked, as I watched the minutes click,
I continued to tidy & fold laundry, and carried on in a flit.

Eventually I made it to the great out doors,
where I raked up 5 wheel barrel loads of branches from all the winters storms.

I filled the utility trailer, until things fell around the sides,
I was hoping to add a little more, but it just wasn't that wide.

The time did come to fetch the Pip from her school,
she wasn't in the mood for playing, even though the weather was perfectly cool.

Once we arrived home, I started washing down the driveway,
it had mud tracks on it, from all my garden junking array.

The next on the list was washing up the car,
I like it to be shiny, even though it doesn't travel far.

In the knick of time we were out of the house,
where we found ourselves at piano lessons, and for once the boy didn't grouse.

Upon our return, I made a fine meal of defrosted food,
The Pip and I were going for a drive, to fetch gas, and feel the groove.

We chatted and we laughed, and listened to some tunes,
I found the place for gas, and then back we headed like a couple of loons.

It was a beautiful evening to be out and about,
we then arrived at Costco to check their garden centre out.

Ok, not so good, as the cold wind rang through the space,
we left there rather quickly, leaving the greenery in it's place.

I then visited our composter, with lots of food for it.
Which leaves tomorrow open, for a produce shopping trip.

The day ended with a junk television show,
where we watched the singing on American Idol.

That was the day, it was short and now it is the end,
Tomorrow is a new day, where it will all begin again.

Hauling out the aged

I am back to staring at my film camera. I semi-like it. I know it's a good one; it has taken some very nice photos. It just isn't instantaneous, and therefore does not satisfy need for immediate satisfaction. I realize I am spoiled, and with the acknowledgement of my spoil-edness.... I can talk about it. So, I am back preparing a great scheme to purchase a better lense for my film star... then if I am ever so lucky, I will continue to read my manual over and over again, memorize the finer points, figure out the shutter speeds, and aperature values, and then perhaps come back with some very good photos. Of course the only thing that I wish to take photos of is: the bears, plus or minus some children every now and then.

Last one till May

So that is the weekend. Gone. So are a bunch of my bushes in my front yard, but not near enough. My next weekend off doesn't come until the May long weekend. I will hope for happy sunshine then.

I confronted the husbandman on the informant situation. He just smiled, and was tight lipped. How very strange is that? I must find a way to come up with a new plan.. except it must be trickier this time. Hey.... I think that e-bay is calling me.... must go.

Time Line

I watched and read about the weather forecast. It told me rain. I have no reason to complain, but I am going to, partly because a little complaining so I have been told, can go a long way. Probably not today.

You see, I am on a timeline. It is a self made timeline. Something that I dreamed up, and remembered, not something that I dreamt and then forgot about it. DAMN! It's all because I have this foggy little vision that is hovering in my head, and it needs to come out.

I have plans to renovate the front yard. I have embarked upon this great foggy vision, but the weather is of course not cooperating, as I was informed that it wouldn't. It doesn't help that I know I have work to do, and the hours that I sit here whining about it, doesn't help to clear the foggy drizzle that floats about in my head.

Just in case some of you may be asking yourselves about my foggy vision that I live with on a daily basis, and how I can separate that from my current front yard foggy vision; my brain has conveniently labelled things for me similar to a ticker tape running through my head: HELLO DEANNA IT'S EARTH CALLING, COME MOVE ME, HELLO DEANNA IT'S EARTH CALLING, COME MOVE ME. Compared to the constant foggy life version: OOOPS FORGOT THAT, OOOPS FORGOT THAT, OOOPS FORGOT THAT.

Funny that I can even separate the two.

In other things of time worthy mentionables:

I have decided that the husbandman should stop talking to his friend Mr. Pickaspat. The two of them plus the crazy cop went out to watch the hockey game last week. While out, my favourite photographer friend Mr. Pickaspat spelled out the spell that I was trying to cast upon the husbandman about retrieving the money that was coming back to us via the "2006 tax return" season, and somehow conning the husbandman into believing that we should use our almost forgotten cash to do as we please with. As we all know, the bills and other payment requirements of life will always be knocking on our doorsteps, but found money just doesn't happen by everyday. My plan has been foiled by Mr. Pickaspat. Curse him!!!

Since the husbandman has now been informed of my evil ways, he is in the process of damaging my plans by recreating new plans that probably would excite me anyways. This would temporarily blind me from my current plans for the Canon SLR purchase. I could make this all go away if I chose to work an extra day in the week, but that would mean working an extra day, and freaking hell we can't have that. I will have to come up with a new plan immediately. Curse these time lines....

Simple Madness

I have just figured out why I do not belong to any user groups. I am user group impaired. This should be classified as a syndrome "sub-average accessibility spoiler". Yes people, I suffer from S.A.A.S.

It has come to attention that I am not capable of handling numbers and letters that are mixed and crooked. They present huge challenges and obvious stumbling blocks. Well, so do instructions I think. In the user group application there was a box that asked for 2oo words or less, now I thought I was under the 200 mark, but clearly I wasn't. The box however, didn't cut me off in mid type when verbosity had overthrown my ability to count. I am clearly beyond stupid.... so I thought. Each time I retyped whatever the magic number of characters were I had to retype a new password thingy that involved letters and numbers. Good god it took me forever to figure out if things were uppercase or lowercase, then I slowly clicked the keys. These keys never click slowly, I'm a quick clicker, and freaking hell if the keys just didn't click but rather clunked, which made the upper and lower case become way more difficult than it should.

All that is behind me now, I managed to throw in a couple of words in the define yourself in 200 words box, and left it at that. I think even the computer got tired of throwing me new sequences of letters and numbers and lightened up at the end. I believed I had to type in: "UR a 4rutBAL" in the end. Christ, at least I was accepted.

Surprise!

I coloured my hair today. Oh thank you me yes... it is coloured back to it's regular shade of boring brown. I can't believe that I didn't natter on about it for days and days before I actually plunged into the colouring goop.

Yesterday I had an interesting hair do. It was quite bizarrely strewn up and about. I gardened for six hours with that hair, had a shower then took the boy to the mall... all with the same hair. I just love the daring that comes out in me some days.

The Easter Bunny showed up today. The Pip told me that she doesn't believe in the Easter Bunny, and that she demanded that I fess up with the gig. I was reminded that even though I knew that she knew, she still expected the goods that the pretend Easter Bunny should deliver. She made some signs this year for the fake Easter Bunny. It all had to do with not hiding the eastery things in the livingroom. She wished to be challenged for her treats for a change. That she was. The Pip was unable to find her Lindt Easter Bunny and marched to her bedroom, slammed the door and yelled at me I could keep it. That Pip, thinking that she might be up to the challenge, but not really.

The boy was so happy with all his Easter loot that he immediately ate his Easter Bunny, and changed clothes three times... then looked in the mirror. You have to love him!

I even made breakfast today. Yes I did, which included cooking BACON.............(GASP!!!!).... I never cook bacon... I think I despise the clean up portion of the bacon really, and not the clearing of the plate and paper towel that it sits on. I will forget about it for the time being and just pretend that my oven is all organized and clean... eventually I will remember the huge broiler pan silently waiting for me.

See, even with being the Easter Bunny myself, I can manage my own surprises!!

The Crescent.

The night before last we had the arrival of our one day of summertime. It was imperative that the crescent get a jump on our sad, neglected, mossy yards. Not that the we here in crescenthood are chronic yard neglectors; it can be simply stated that we can "blame it on the rain, ya-eh ya -eh- a."

The "men" from the crescent began the task of yard maintainence. They heaved and hauled machinery through the yards, and up and down the streets of the crescent. I watched some of these boys hard at work, and some of them made me laugh. One guy needed a smoke break every couple of passes, until someone yelled from this end to that end that his breaks were holding up the line. I watched the fellow across the street just ran with the machine. (But on closer inspection I don't know why he went to the effort, he didn't let the machine do a real job, so it may have been all for nothing).

I hired my boy to rake up the back yard which was full of long clumps of grass. He took the time to look in his wallet, count his money, and then agree to helping me. I was actually impressed with his workmanship, and the fact that I didn't have to tell him to go out back and rake while I was held captive in conversation in the front yard. I realize that money was his golden ticket to riches, but I was still impressed with his initiative to do this on his own.

The delicate religious man wanted in on the yard upkeep day, and set up his turn after he came home from church. OK, calm down, this isn't a slight on religious guys... because they are good, they have their place in the world... I am just stating that this is my observation of this one neighbour on the street for craps sake! He had his followers raking and cleaning as he maneuvered with the big machinery.

One fellow eventually showed up in the Pickaspats driveway with the contraption that pokes holes in your yard making it look like their was a "dog rave" on your front lawn. He was out of breathe, and just standing in a daze once he unloaded the machine into the "Pickaspats" driveway. He told us between large gasps for air that he needed to give instructions on how to use the machine. Bossy little me told him not to the worry.. ( I didn't say this but I really wanted to...) that "King know it all" was in the house, and there was no need for instruction. (That would be the husbandman visiting Mr. Pickaspat). The out of breathe character seemed pleased that he could waver his way back to his freshly primped lawn, and sit and stare at all his hard work in disbelief that he had come out the yard grooming torture still alive.

The last people that I saw using it was the Pickaspats. I could just see his hair start to plume and the scowling mount on the Mr.'s face as he realized that the lovely Mrs. had offered up both pieces of machinery for his use, after he had returned from work for the day. Since the husbandman and I were now standing in their driveway being useless we offered up our services. I raked and the husbandman used the monster machinery to rip moss and create the poo pellet trails. Life was back to general pickaspatish ways once the work was done.... so much so that I invited outselves to their house, and then proceeded to stay until midnight. Our laughter knows no time limits.

So far today it is silent on the crescent... it looks like another day of high clouded sunshine in our midst, maybe it will just be a simple car wash day.

I know for me... I am off this weekend... Yae for that... now I can really see what goes on here on the weekends...

Busy as a bee.

Yes, that is what I have been... busy as a bee. Except I have been flying here and flying there being that busy bee.

Good morning cloudshine!

The boy and I were watching the news last night. (It is the only way he is allowed to watched TV since his grandious grounding.... and he was saying good night to me, then sat on the bed to chat with me, then continued to watch whatever I was watching. He manages to be quite tricky in this regard, while continuing to be funny...) If I were a really good parent... I would continue to limit his "electronic fever" that claims a large part of his life, and keep this up ... probably forever.

Now it seems that our blustery frigid weather will be put behind us for a day, while we enjoy temperatures up to 22 degrees. the clouds way above do not scare me, they are the happy bright clouds that eventually burn away to make way for sunshine. This is certainly a Good Friday!

So you are a funny boy after all....

He had me in hysterics last night. I was crying from laughing at him. Much the same as the night before, with the exception that the hysterics were from the husbandman, and nobody was laughing.

Now that the boy has had every piece of electronic equipment ripped from his posession, now he has found his funny side. He may never get his equipment back... N.E.V.E.R.!!!!!!!

I like him funny much more... unfortunately I see him in some dark comedy lounge where they still allow smoking. I can only hope that his humour will take him somewhere.

Dust in the darkness.

That sounds like a similar situation going on in my brain, but that is not what I am referring to. I detangled my computer yesterday and took it to the hospital for some computer TLC. It seems that it had some issues with dust living inside of it. I have learned that computers have an aversion to dust, just as much as I do.... with the exception that I do not quit working when I find that too much has gathered around me!

Lights out Charlie!

The wonderful and loveable computer mouse & monitor quit working yesterday. I was traumatized.. and so was the boy. We have immediately put ourselves into counselling & were considering seeking drug therapy for the duration of the computer downtime.

But alas, the screen has come back, and the mouse has stopped quivering. All is right in our world, and the pills will stay put on a shelf for another close call sort of day. I can resume my senseless writing skills, and the boy can carry on building his animated stick man show.

It's all good out here now. That is all about to change, as I begin to herd the children close to their beds. There is no such thing as early to bed on a Saturday night.

I think I have decided that I wished I worked every second weekend. That is a nice plan. You kind of work, but then you don't. And it just continues that way until you take a weekend off, and then you are gone for three weeks. This is a very pretty picture!

Must go turn lights out and hear children shriek... it should be fun!

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: