The real reason to watch a parade..

 

What does five minutes a day get you?

A very happy piano teacher.

I have harped, harped and harped some more with the lovely Hamsterson to keep up with his piano practicing. I am quite proud to point out that I myself remembered to tell him to practice everyday. That in itself took some wizardly actions.OK, it isn't that great of a feat, given the size of our house, and the fact that a large black object takes up one wall that we continuoly pass by during different of the evening. Yes, in actuality it was more like under five minutes a day. The Hamsterson would play his two pieces once over, flick the switch off the digital piano, and say he was done. If that's as much as he will do, then that's as good as it gets. The Hamsterson had a friend over last week and just as we were leaving, I tricked the Hamsterson into playing for his friend, hence the everyday practicing approach. He was very happy to oblige.

In under five minutes a day... there is a large amount of happiness...

I just don't DO those words

I have never coughed up a lung, had some lung chunks, lost a lung coughing, or exhaled a lung while coughing.

I find the whole visual on those last thoughts a bit oogey. Very oogey. I have had three people today tell me about their lung ailments... all of which have left me with very bad afterthoughts of the actual descriptions they have given me... PLEASE... save the poor tortured visual souls from any further lung torture treasure stories...! I don't mind long stories, but I can't do lung stories.

In other things yucky....

I have parked about 30 bamboo sticks in my front garden... to keep both of the neighbours shitting cats away. This is when I wish I had my dear-but-dead dog Evil Queen Cicely still... there wouldn't be any cats coming visiting any day soon.

And one more gruesome tail... how about this neighbourly gesture.... I flipped the dead bird that I found lying in my driveway to the neighbours driveway... they have a cat, plus they have a birds nest in the eaves of their house... I am full of evil forces today.

What's this I see...

Nothing says a Stalker Sister like when the "Stalker" arrives at my house first, sits in the driveway in her wonderful air conditioned Pathfinder. As I walk up to the driver side window, she is waiting impatiently with her shades down low on her nose and says ...."get in".... Yes, she's a stalker alright.

But things can't happen that quickly around these parts... as I had to figure out what to do with the silly catdog, now turned buckethead. She chewed her hind end something beyond silly yesterday... and went for a stat visit to the vet. Upon her return, she had a bucket on her head. She isn't fairing too well with it yet... as everywhere she goes and turns, she rams herself into people, places and things. Although the bucket has proven to be usefull so far, as it catches the antibiotics that she spits out quite nicely at me. So it is helpful in that sense.

Back to stalker issues... with the silly catdog buckethead safely tucked in on the leather couch... I immediately took up my regular shot gun seat inside the Stalker Sister's vehicle.Although I was a bit disappointed in the "open window" concept, as it was already heating up pretty quickly for being this early into the day. She already had our day planned out for us. Which is interesting.. because I already had my day planned out for me... and it didn't include anything to do with Stalker Sisters.. but I fear her you know... plus I like her... because she makes me laugh... and she keeps me away from yicky houseworky things...so I can be easily swayed...

the rest of the day goes like this: the London Fog's that we were going to purchase ended up being a breakfast blip at Whitespot, and they tried to serve the Stalker Sister burnt toast... where she turned her head and looked around and said.. "it's not busy in here, I want toast that isn't burnt please"... then we made it to the big box place where the store only opens at 10:00, and the tills have a ten deep line-up at 10:10. We dashed over to the Home Depot to collect more dirt and mushroom manure.. because we like to do that sort of thing. Of course we had to look at more pesticide stuff to rid our world of the ant population. I used this opportunity to show the Stalker Sister the nasty sticky traps that catch mice.. which grossed her out, as much as they did to me last week, when I saw them for the first time. She helped me haul my dirt, manure and water out of her vehicle.. then we both decided that we needed to go grocery shopping. But that also meant that we needed to unload her vehicle of her bags and flats of items.. so we headed back to her house... then off we went grocerying together... we got separate carts this time.. because we didn't do that last time.. and I learned that the Stalker sister needs her own cart, otherwise she get's all nasty like. Sometimes I can be a quick study.. it helps in these sticky stalker sister situations. I am very happy to report... that I managed to collect 325 airmiles on my purchase today... and that wasn't a simple task... it involved staring into coupon books, and matching up items that didn't make sense to me... but it paid off. Well, I think it paid off.. I am not sure what I am going to do with all these airmiles... I was once upon a time going to go to Disneyland.. but I think I would only get to take me, myself and I... so I am not really sure if "them and they" are going to be able to come with me... but in them meantime I will continue to collect... When all was said and done, and the groceries were put away at the Stalker Sisters house.. it was 2:30 when I returned home.. and I was welcomed with a lovely and WET wagging tail...it was miss buckethead herself, WADING for me at the front door.... and it was at this point that I forgotten one teency weency schmeency detail to the day..... Miss buckethead was given a shot of a steroid yesterday that puts her kidneys into overdrive... which is the reason that she was busy being "Miss buckethead pee everywhere", as we came through the door. Nothing says welcome home like a pee ridden bucket headed silly catdog. It was at this point that I turned around and the Sister Stalker had scooted back to her Pathfinder, windows rolled up tight.. and a big smile on her borrowed lipstick lips.. and she waved, as she backed out of the driveway.... her stalking was done for the day.

Whamlilzuckled.

It's the word that I just came up with.

It represents the number of thoughts that are blazing through the brain at this moment.

In other things even less important...

Aras won on Survivor. Interesting. Although I think that Terry should have won. But that's just me.

It is freakingfriday hot here today. And I mean FREAKING.

I only did the 6 lap rainbow challenge tonight... the PIP kind of ran along next to me with her kite. There was no wind... only in the PIP's mind. We also have lots of lines and cables and things that dangle from poles around here. Yes, it was a very safe experience... it really is all about the PIP having fun.... who cares that the mother was freaking out with her kite runner abilities.... although we kept the string at a very safe distance.... the PIP only managed to almost run into a front of a new TOYOTA Forerunner, so there was minimal damage.

Must go rest the whamlilzuckled mind...

 
  

I am so!

The Stalker Sister accused me of not being a real gardener today. This didn't just happen once, but numerous times. I am not totally convinced of the reason why:

1. So what if I like to wear gloves, is it too much to ask that they should start out dry in the first place.
2. Big deal if I wont immerse my hands into her sludged out oak barrels.
3. Whatever if I don't like her soil composition, and it's too dry, then makes me sneeze.
4. OK, so I like to garden in the sunshine, and not iceberg conditions.
5. Ooops if I just wont stand in the wind and mix dirt.
6. Does it really matter that I do not like to get my nails dirty anyways?
7. I don't do bags of blooms.
8. So I stop and take pictures for a while... is there anything wrong with that?
9. I take no offense to wearing two DRY gloves for the left hand, I am adaptable sometimes.
10. It's nice to stand back, and enjoy the real gardener happy with her own self.

That Stalker sister... she certainly had a lot to complain about... but she eventually got the job done, especially with my helping hands....

Coffee maker tea

There are days sometimes when you just need an abundance of tea. Tea calms the soul, and cures runny allergy ridden noses. It's all tea, all the time..... for now that is.

In other kind of boring except for me news:

We saw our first bear the other night.... it was very exciting! Pip and I drove up... and I recognized the intense toothpick girl from last year who was busy fighting with her boyfriend. She hadn't changed much... still a toothpick, drinking pop, and smoking. I get the feeling that she thrives on this amount of conflict. Then there was the family of people that recognized me being the bear watcher lady. The mother of that family knew if I was out cruising around with my camera there was a bear "out there". There are some people that just aren't bear watcher material. I had to walk her through looking for the bear out in the field. (In my most politess of ways.... follow my arm, and locate the large black dot amongst the greenery)....after three attempts she finally spotted it.

I got my orange dashboard "check-engine" light fixed yesterday. That was for a bargain basement price of $700.00, amongst other trivial things that make a 16 year old SUV run a bit smoother, and with less gas consumption.

Survivor had a bit of a twist at the end... and now myself and the rest of the survivor watchers are left hanging until Sunday... not knowing who has been "kicked" off. This amount of suspense is almost too much.

AND.... there will be more colour coming my way.... the Stalker Sister and I went out flower hunting again yesterday... and I have more flowers to start all over again... to do something with.

And exciting news for me ten times over.....The lovely and wonderful piano teacher will be coming to my Stroke Group.... yes she will!.... So now, all the pressure is off of me to perform, or how about simply to play. I have to love that! Now, she wont be teaching piano... BUT... in a combined effort... I am going to incorporate her music skills, with speech and memory drills for the lovely group that meets each week. Oh yae for me... yae for me... the pressure is off me....!!!

The tea cup is empty, must make my way to the coffee maker tea.

Rescue the Fescu

using your best radio talk show host voice:

More... on gardening with Deanna...

Back to yesterday, and gardening with the Stalker Sister and creating that premiere garden, that catches the eyes of beholders and wins prizes for the prettiest garden contest. (None of which I will accomplish.. but it's good to think big about this kind of stuff).

Yesterday was all about difficult plant placement, and dealing with that certain person that was having difficulty with the plant placement. I, being the hostess of the gross garden, refused to give the Stalker sister helper a shovel. I knew it wouldn't be in my best interest. I knew that plants would go flying, and somehow grow legs, and take up new locations.

I eventually had to cave, and go collect the shovel as I managed to rip off all of the leaves on my Day Lily that I was trying to move. OOOPS. The only way that piece of furniture was going to be relocated was with a shovels helping hand. It brought a sparkle to the stalker sisters eye. (You would have thought she was stalking twins with that amount of shine).

While I was busy removing 30 pound rocks from the side garden, I saw the shovel come to life.. in the stalker sisters hands. The next thing I saw was dirt and plants traveling at a high rate of speed, and her nattering about some movie where some "thing" goes wild in a movie, where they were once good. She gave me the name...but I can't remember it.

She had moved things about, very much to her liking, of course not realizing that it was my garden festival that she was actually invited into. But, she seemed to be having so much fun.. (that whole barefoot and snails thing... which was totally freaking me out the whole time)...then she reached for the blue fescue. It had started out great last year, when I first planted it. But now that it had been through the winter season, seemed a little under the weather... as well as was lacking in the many blue fescue "blades" of grass... although there was still a hint that it was indeed a blue fescue grass....

WAIT!.... we must rescue the blue fescu I told her... we have to. I didn't tell her the real reason... other than it has a place in the premiere garden... But really when you pause a moment... it's a catchy group of words, and if you really think about it... are there many words that rhyme with rescue....?

The life of me... somedays it's painful, catchy... but painful.

yesterday....

What in the world happened yesterday?... somedays it takes a while for me to remember what I did an hour ago, let alone 24 hrs ago. Many things happened yesterday.. but none of which will be transribed here...it's just not that exciting...

But in things that were exciting: ( in my world )

Myself and the Hamsterson went on a historical walk of our city. I didn't come up with this idea, it was some elses idea, and they included me into that idea.... and then I brought the lovely son... for good measure. So it was me, the Hamsterson and three older ladies. My Hamsterson got to chat with all of them... being his mature 11 1/2 year self.

Anyways.. it was all good, which is the real reason that I let myself be pushed into attending. It was a nice evening, and the boy and myself had an opportunity to wander about the city, staring at houses. Although, the boy already had taken that opportunity, and wandered about the city with his friends... after school, while I waited for him to return... which he kind of didn't... and then eventually made it home. My silly Hamsterson... he has a wandering instinct.. and I am not sure who he get's it from.... (tsk tsk)

It turned out to be a good thing that I brought the Hamsterson with me... he loved it. We even got to tour through two houses.. one that was built in 1898, and one that was built in 1913. You have to love being a looky-lou.... it is just the right thing to do. Actually I have driven past the house built in 1898 for years and years and years.... and wondered what it looked like inside... I am glad I waited... as the people have being slowly renovating it back to it's original state... with modern wiring of course.

and that was yesterday....

Finding help....

all the way in your front yard!

There are certain days when the karma thing is working, and I just know that the stalker sister will swing by. She doesn't call, she just arrives.... in her lovely silver Pathfinder with heated seats. The karma was in full sinc today, as I exited my 16 year old failing SUV, she arrived in her roaming spitfire. This is where I have to add... I love shotgunning with the stalker sister.

Today was a bit different.. the stalker sister usually arrives, and gives off her agenda of the day.... so before she even had a chance to breathe... I filled her in on my agenda... and she was totally part of it. As luck would have it... she was happy to oblige all the whims I had conjured up inside my busy brain.

It involved gardening. I knew she would be all for it.. before I got the words out.

The stalker sister had some issues with me, and my kind of bad but whimsicle style of gardening, however she did recover from her fright, and forged ahead with great anticipation of becoming one with the soil. I have to say though, she is a weird gardener.... she doesn't like gloves, and even likes going barefoot. Well, she did like going barefoot until she had had it up to her eyeballs with the enormous amount of snails that inhabit my gardening space. Actually, she was down right pissed with the snails, and me... for not fending off the evil shelled little suckers. She had other issues with me as well.... things like I wouldn't give her a shovel. I just knew if I gave her a shovel, she would have dug up my whole freaking front yard. She had great issues with my plant placement, hell! I had issues with my plant placement, but I wasn't about to start agreeing with her... who knows what the stalker sister would have talked me into.

But it all ends well, my front yard is planted, the twenty thousand weeds have been unearthed, and the stalker sister has taken a walk on the wild side of gardening life. I will be volunteering my garden works with her on Thursday mind you.. it will be a very controlled event.. and include things like planting pots, and creating curvy lines of non stop begonias. I will add the extra comment, that her front yard does look like a "premiere garden"... or something that you find on the front pages of "gardening" magazines... which would be the reason that she laughed HYSTERICALLY at me, when I referred to my "plot" as the premiere garden space.

Good bye to our spring colours....

I was out and about last week, snapping up shots of the city. I was able to catch just some of the cascades of colour that happen all around us, for only a short period of time. But, now I am happy to report.. that all my blooming tulips are just bare stems... so that means only one thing... let the summer colours begin!

 

The rainbow challenge.

Earlier this evening I went out for the circular walk, because really, why walk anywhere at all, when you can keep reliving the same scenery over and over again. I came up with a new way of counting the number of times that I rounded the crescent, because last time between the Pip and I, we couldn't remember if we had done three or four laps. I told the Pip that it only felt like three, but the Pip insisted that it was four.

As luck would have it... we have many colours for colouring in this little messy and dusty currently kind of being renovated homestead. So I plucked out 8 colours, and headed out the front door, with the Pipster attached to my right side. I told her of my great plan of moving one pencil crayon at a time to the other hand in an effort to decrease the confusion of our numbering the laps. This worked great.... we walked the rainbow laps first, then filled in the rest of the laps with the boring blacks and browns.

In other colourful events:

The husbandman has been busy crawling on the other two levels of our homestead... the levels that are not occupied, unless of course you are a spider.. or are a current live-but-not-for-long member of an ant colony. The contractorman has put new plumbing in place, which involved crawling in crawl spaces, and along rafters. Not my cup of tea... any day... ever!

I spent one whole day at work today... it was the most pleasant of experiences. I am more than thankful that I have dumped my Saturdays for the month of May... I used to like Saturdays... now I clearly despise them.... except for this month of course.

oh...and the most exciting of news..... if the weather behaves itself this week... I am going to throw down many bags of mushroom manure, and maybe... only maybe ... plant some of my annuals... now this is a colour challenge!... and I can't wait.

Run Hamsterson Run!!

Yesterday was a bit of a busy day. It was the PIP's birthday party... and I had to be all good and organized to run the birthday party on my lonesome.. although the stalker sister took the day off to help me... (so all good stalker sisters should I think).

Anyways... in an attempt to calm the little lady Pipster into a state of smiles and pleasantness we walked home from school. It isn't really a long walk, except for when it's raining... and then I do not walk, the walk is far too long on rainy days. I am sure the greatest fear is the fact I might melt while walking in the rain. I just know it. (In my mind this equates to: rain water=bad, hot showers = good.... I do not melt in hot showers, except for days when I am having a melt down in the shower, but that is purely only the days that I have drank way way way too much coffee, and I am synapsing a rate of 395 cajillion). We were just coming up on the home stretch yesterday, and about to pop out of the trail and onto our crescent.. when I saw it....

The FED-EX truck... parked along side of our driveway, and then a form jumping inside the truck. AAAAAhhhhhh! I yelled... (being the non regular of Fedex users.. I don't know that they DO deliver... even when you DO NOT open the front door....) so in a panicked state I told the Hamsterson to run... run down the other side of the street... run till you can't run anymore.. I quickly say to the non-panicked and withering from the early spring heat boy... RUN!!!!! Now that Hamsterson of mine... you can't rush him, he can't be rushed, he is unrushable. He pauses to pull off his "hobo" jacket (it's a blue fleecy.. that he wore last year, and I can't get him to discard the item.. so I figured if I started calling him a HOBO, he might want to give it up...to a hobo....), then after he has slowly pulled off his HOBO jacket, he then pauses to tie his shoelace, or wait, I have just been informed that he was doing a quick stretch before his "truck crescent challenge"... meanwhile the FedEx truck is now picking up speed on the other side of the street.... so now I "hiss" (OK.. I start to pray*) at the unrushable Hamsterson....."Jesus, just run Hamsterson... run.... catch up with the FedEx truck, hisssssssssssssss!" Then like a flash... he began to move, ok, almost like a flash, although I think the flash was window glare from the sun... but I could be mistaken. But, before we knew it Hamsterson was at the end of the crescent, and I can swear the Fed-Ex boys were now driving out the drive through at McDonalds.

Meanwhile... back on the homefront on the front steps... little lady Pipster had picked up a big brown package.... she began to yell. (Pip always yells)... which I try to ignore her... but it was at this point I spotted Pip yelling and carrying the package. I then called off the mad dart slash dash slash hustle slash spotted turtle race to a halt. I reeled in the Hamsterson. "CLEAR! I yelled, we've got the goods, come on home now son.. your job is done here....." Poor Hamsterson, he may be unreasonably unmissionable next time.

life can be colourful... except when it's in black and white

 

You have to love the magic of photography...

 

The bad birthday party parent

That will be the title of me... later today. The little lady Pipster is a mighty nine years old... well, as of tomorrow actually.. but nine she is!... and she can still not successfully put socks on her feet. It is a proud moment as a parent.. to realize that at nine years old, she still refuses to put socks on her feet. I thought that this unsockable child would blow over.... and I am still waiting.

Hopefully the birthday party bling will be successful, I have (a fancy) cake, pop, hotdogs, chips, pizza, camera batteries charged and bowling allies reserved... fingers crossed that everyone comes out alive. All I know.. is that I am glad that I am not doing it at home this year.

The breakneck turtle.

I think I have decided that the little (big) reno that we have embarked upon will be the fastest race to the finish line ever.... if you are a turtle. The husbandman turned contractorman slash bulging discman is having some issues. I have seen him work with a level, and he is very good at leveling things out, but he is rather crooked, very crooked in fact. I did inquire as to how he thinks that this whole reno-thing is going to go down. I wondered if I would be the only person left standing in the new kitchen.... and what's a new kitchen without someone willing to use it. I want a new kitchen.. just so I can practice cleaning things that are new, unscuffed, and kind of fresh looking. I don't want a kitchen that I can cook in, that would be plain silly, especially since the current-broken-contractor-discman likes to cook himself.

So, in an attempt to keep the husbandman slash bulging discman slash trying to be contractorman on the up and up... I will ask him to go ask him to go at breakneck turtle speed, just to be sure that he gets everything accomplished, plus is left standing at the end of it... just so he can cook in his new found space. And, just to be a good and kind wife, I might go shopping for some groceries so he can prepare feast after feast after feast.

Drop on by....

I need to have children drop by in the a.m. all the time.... during the week that is. It helps to get the two chicklets that I own remove themselves from their cuddly locations, and start the morning routine rather briskly, and with purpose. Of course yesterday there was the exception to that ... especially when the lovely "Bonk-star" girl from across the street knocked on the front door at eight oclock sharp.. and the Hamsterson was still busy sleeping in his bed. But, with a stunned wake up call, a stat shower, and a quick change, the Hamsterson was ready to go. They were supposed to be at the school at 08:15. WE were late by 3 minutes at the arrival gates... then I watched them walk SLOWLY towards the back of the school. Oh well, how many times can you throw a " shot put" in 35 minutes?

Now today... it's8:29... the lunches are done, the chicklets actually sat and ate breakfast... and we are ready to walk....plus, it's busy being sunny out. I don't have to paint a smile on my face for this one.

The secret life of me

It's good to have secrets... it keeps people guessing about what is actually going on inside that bad head of hair. Although... the past couple of weeks, I have been successful in prooving to the rest of the street that I am truly on the edge of reason... I have taken up walking around our crescent, and then back along the other street, which essentially forms an extra large track.

I think this circling is merely a representation of the life that I lead on the whole. I just keep going and going, but it never leads to anywhere... I always end up in the exact same spot as I did when I started. Not that this is really a bad thing, but I wonder about the opportunities that would open up if I jumped off my beaten track. I enjoy circling the block, it's comfortable and welcoming. I always know which direction I am headed, I know the special spots along the way to walk on, and the spots to avoid. I even know the people that reside in almost every home. Why avoid familiarity, when adventuring has nothing to gain?

I have in the past ventured forth, and have beaten a new path, but even that didn't last for a great length of time. Then it all becomes an issue that the "grass is greener on the otherside"... which means that if I am willing to walk for endless steps for great periods of time... then surely I must be willing to drive to a desired location and march about with determination. Granted, I do very much enjoy walking the circular path of a rubberized track, but it's the effort to find the time to drive to the location then walk for the desired amount of time, and then carry on for the next scheduled event of the day.. and I must say.. at that point my hair is even more worse for wear, and I am crazy with thoughts that have been travelling through my mind at break neck speed while I circulated the track. Of course at this point I am either too jovial to be in public, or just a bit too crazed. At any rate, it has gotten way too complicated and out of control with the "grass is greener" route.

So, in an effort to simplify, I now walk around our crescent for endless amounts of time.... and meet up with friends and neighbours and dogs and their owners and enjoy the scenery and breathe in the fresh air, and wave at the people staring out at me from their livingroom windows, or their porches and patios.

I wont let on that I just keep singing.... "just put one foot in front of the other....". Yes, it's the secret life for me.... it's just better that way.

Hamsterson's Friday board-break.

The Hamsterson tested for his black stripe tonight. Here he is breaking boards with his hand, and a back kick. I often wonder why I keep this boy at this Tae Kwon Do place... sometimes the instruction is a little (VERY!) lax... and then the Master said to me yesterday. "The only person I watch in this room is "the hamsterson" while he is testing, it does not matter how well he does compared to the rest of the Tae Kwon Do students, and it doesn't matter if he ever goes anywhere with his TKD, but what does matter is.. that he has a goal for himself, and for his future, and not just sitting at home on the couch accomplishing nothing, that is the most important thing...."

It's a beautiful day when:

1. BOTH the chicklets are up, dressed, washed, brushed and fed at 07:11 in the morning.

OK, the list stops here.... there is nothing more beautiful than that. Well, one other miniscule thing, like finishing up the load of dishes on the counter, and doing two loads of laundry before 0830. That can be added only as a sidebar to the amazing first featured number one & only above this. More amazing things later.....

The real reason you have to love the internet...

So the idiotic-and-lucky-to-be-alive-but-none-the-less-lovely-catdog was more than helpful yesterday morning. (((NOT))) Little Miss Ellpee brought out the real reason why people have computers.

They are only to shop with. That's all. The real reason would be for this:

The other day we had a pot luck lunch at our Stroke Group. One of the fellows always brings chicken wings. He happily puts them into a pyrex dish, with a nice snap on blue cover, and then inserts the dish into a beautiful sea-green zippered carry bag that has a heating cushion on the bottom of it. It's a very lovely device, I have thought ... the many times I have seen it. It also adds to the loveliness of it... the fact that he just raves about how much he loves it. So we are all in love with his pyrex dish, and his pyrex dish holder. Although the other day our favourite pyrex dish owner was not feeling well, and left me with his beloved hot wings, inside of his hot dish, which were inside of the sea-green carrier. I told him I would take good care of it. Which I did. After the pot-luck I fed the husbandman turned contractor a big plate of lovely tasting chicken wings. Not soon after that I then had to clean out the pyrex dish, and the lid, and the sea-green carrier, and inside of the heating pocket, the heating pad... I had to clean and clean and clean and clean and clean..... and clean. I kid you not I had to clean... I just kept cleaning, and it didn't seem to want to lose the juices left over from the chicken wings. I think the pyrex dish itself was in love with those chicken wings. Anyways.. after a great amount of time.. I finally was satisfied with the clean factor of the sea-green carrier. I was planning on giving the sea-green's carriers owner a hard time this next Monday for being very enthusiastic with the chicken wing sauce... as it was everywhere....!!! I placed it on the counter, and put a towel beneath, and let the whole contraption air dry. Things were going fine......

until.......

the very next morning, just before I was going to put the chicken carrying contraption back together... a certain little catdog took an interest in the whole affair... and I might add, just enough interest to pull the lid and the sea-green container to her house. And that was it... she isn't a chewer or a wrecker... well only kind of. I inspect the lid for bite marks... and there was a very slight indentation on the rim, and it still did it's job of fitting perfectly over the 9 x 13 pyrex dish. I gave it another good wash.. and set it on the counter. Then I picked up the sea-green container, and upon initial inspection it seemed to have come out unscathed... like I said, she's not a chewer.. she just investigates. It wasn't until way way way later... that I started to put the dish back in it's carrier.. and just zip it up. Very simple.. except for the wee bit of a snag on the zipper...first words out of my mouth..... WHAT THE FUCK!............. Yes, I try and keep it clean when I can... but when things go bad.. so does the language. So after about 20 rounds of FUCKNESS, which didn't serve any real purpose, because it didn't help to get the zipper put back on the BELOVED SEA-GREEN CARRIER....I turned to the silly catdog.... and gave her a good hissing.

Which now leads me to the whole internet thing.... I looked up pyrex, and eventually found all kinds of things that you can order right from the screen.... all kinds of stuff. Except for the carrier. Once again... FUCK hit the fan. I blew off an email, in a desperate attempt to see if I could order it... and then had to sit and wait and cross my fingers that this was a possible deal. I headed out to the mall first thing this morning.. to find this great sea-green carrier.... and after many rounds of the mall, I came up empty handed. Well, kind of empty handed... I did have to purchase the lovely Hamsterson some boxers... because the regular undies/briefs had turned into white-tighties... so I did have some luck in the undies department....

After all that.... I received an email from the pyrex people.. and ended talking to some guy from Greenfield, Pennsylvania... and ordered me one WATER BLUE 3L pyrex dish carrier. I might even love my Mastercard more. I am not sure how much I am in love with my silly catdog.... for the moment.

Love the hot lunch

Hands down, without a doubt... you have to love hot lunch day. It just makes that part of the morning just a bit more perkier... just knowing that you (meaning me) do not have to put lunches together. It is just that special to me.

In other things that are special....

I quite like getting up at the 0700 hour... it makes getting to school a little bit easier... other than the 0835 mistaken hour.. that we woke up to yesterday. Oooops.

I like the internet. It makes shopping for obscure items just that much easier.

I like Costco... they have cheap bedding plants available... so being their at just the right time is a bit helpful as well.

The dryers constant "eeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeee" is a very special noise to me. It is what helps to keep me OVER THE EDGE whenever I am at home, and inside... like now. I especially like the special way I turned it on for the husbandman-turned-contractor the other day when he was busily working to rebuild our laundryroom... I let him listen to it for a number of hours... and he is the one insisting that we do not need a new dryer... so I just let him whistle away to the "EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEING" for a couple of hours.

I know I am very helpful, in a special kind of way.

But not as special as hot lunch.

Tra la la la

That is the song that you sing when you wake up in the morning... A TAD BIT LATE.... AGAIN. I think I had a scarey dream at 0345 this morning... which woke me up, then I decided that I better get up... because I couldn't listen to the husbandmans snoring... so I went and shared the couch with the crazy little tail wagging catdog. While sharing the couch and watching television at four in the morning with the catdog, I did however manage to learn how "box springs and beds" were made, how come people snore, and Black Tuesday, the dirty thirties & the stock exchange. With that amount of knowledge set in my head, I believe I sleep walked back to bed.

Anyways... everybody made it to their posts before the 0900 bell blew.. so all is good.

In other news that is good....

The husbandman/contractorman has secured the new back door with a lock and key, and ordered two of the three new windows for the laundryroom. Now that the ant party festival of wood eating fun has come to an end, hopefully the new lumber will remain sturdy for another 50 years. Just as the contactorman was cleaning up for the night.. I looked up, waaaaay up.. and spotted a rather frightening sight... I think it was the queen of all queens of ants cruising across the currently ugly wall. This called for an intervention... of the human kind. Good night my queen......

Back to the circus..

I must type quickly... I have just noticed the scheduled outage in 15 minutes. I wonder if I will go into complete system failure at that point as well.

My life of living in a shambles has started. The most amazing and brilliant Mr. Husbandman has framed in the new doorway entrance to our laundryroom. He has also cured us of our ant chomping sawdust building nonfriends. Our laundryroom is currently boarded up, due to the lack of windows and doorknobs we presently do not possess.

I am the package up woman... I just keep finding things that I need to package up.... that is my contribution, other than keeping the cupboards full of food to keep the Mr. Husbandman a full and happy workman.

Must disappear... before this system does it for me.

That little eeek turned into a shriek!

Today I failed, yes, failed miserably. It's a simple tale of fail....

Earlier today the husbandman made his way to the lumber store and bought himself a new back door. He MISTAKENLY thought that he would be framing in the new back door, and patching up the little section where the ants had entered.

(This is the failure part......) My little digital sat silent in my black bag... I refused to take it out... I refused to keep an image record of the damage that the ants really did to the back portion of our house. The husbandman ripped off the siding, and the plywood, and the support beams (well, they were really just chewed bits of tunnels and piles of sawdust actually)... and now, many many hours later... we have all new pressure treated support beams, and replacement parts all supporting the back part of the house... I am wondering what day it would have been to see our house collapse around us..... and the door that he was going to frame in and install today.. is still sitting at the side of the house. That's a project for another day... I hope. I am thankful for the fact that at least when the husbandman gets to doing the actual kitchen renovation... we may have a frame of a home to install it in. Ants are bad... very bad.

I found this title on one of the many "need to read" lists that circulate... I know I never read it in highschool. It is one of those titles that have always stuck with me... for some unknown reason.

The Queen of Action...

I have been patiently waiting for the grasscutter man to come and pop holes in the lawn, and grind up all the weeds that somehow afflict it on a yearly basis. It's been two weeks. I did call him the other day and ask if he would be coming before Friday.... last night ((during Survivor!!)) the call came in... that he would definitely be here between 0930 - 1000 today, being Friday. Yae oh yae....

The one slight trick is.... I want the grasscutter man to mulch, hole up and deweed a back portion of my lawn... as it is extremely afflicted with weeds, and always is for some reason. I came clean and told the husbandman that I had a grasscutterman coming in to do a job, that the husbandman could probably do... except he doesn't have the time for. I could do the job as well, but I don't seem to have the time for it... so I am willing to pay the grasscutterman that brings himself, and a crew of two, to do the job.... they have the time for it! Although the husbandman already has his day planned with his new fangled reno job he is doing... now he is out back cutting the lawn... for the grasscutterman.. which is the very reason that I didn't want to tell the husbandman that a grasscutterman was coming... which is the very reason that I wanted the grasscutterman to come before today (Friday), as I knew it was the husbandmans day off.

OH well.... it's action of some sort...

There can't be a day without some PIPNESS

The Pipster and her pink egg... the great find from the Easter Egg hunt...

 

OK....eeeeeeeekkkk.

The husbandman ripped off part of the drywall in the laundry room. It's a small wall, with a very big job... he found an ant colony happily residing/eating away part of the wall. How very exciting... that's just ewe, plus an extra shriek of eeeekkkkk! The husbandman kingman said in his steady quiet and controlled self... " I thought I would see something like this".... Now he gets to replace the plywood, plus the siding on our house. It's all good.

In other things that are good......

I have been up since 06:45. Plus, I am drinking a homemade version of a "London Fog" (Which BTW is Earl Grey Tea, steamed milk and a shot of vanilla....it's very tasty....) It's way better than yesterdays mistaken sleep-in after the almost offing event, and then wake-up time of 8:33. Although ... it all worked out... at least the Hamsterson was able to get his haircut...

And now today....

Here's the boys new haircut....

 

A Little OLD

This pic has seen this space before... but I will capture a new shot of him today... in black and white... I know one thing.. he has more teeth in that lovely smile of his. 

One job down

And about 37 more to go. I managed to clean out the laundry room, and chuck out about thirteen dozen something or others into recycling and the garbage. I even went through scraps of material and crafty items... and discarded some. How huge for me...!

In other crafty events:

The boy is getting some award today at school. The volvo-driving-chicken-farmers wife gave me the heads up, that the lovely hamsterson is getting some award. I can only figure that his teacher will dream something up and write it down for Mr. Ratburn, OH, I mean the principal to read. It should be a splendid event. Luckily, I have friends in the right places... the volvo-driving chicken-farmers wife saved me from the year long "Pride" awards.. at the end of the year, and added Hamstersons to the list. SO, with the grand picture taking even being done that goes with the award... the boy needs his haircut. His hair is kinda long, and yicky looking. I think he looks like an ever so handsome Hamsterson with the hair cut short. AND, because WE were all late waking up this morning... I didn't make lunches... so I told the chicklets that I would pick them up at lunch, and take them to sandwhich store.... right next to the hair cutter place.... just in time for the pride assembly this afternoon.

Also... IF I was a tad bit motivated I would dump some hair colouring on my badly coloured locks and show up as a normal person. Although I do not think that I have my friends fooled...

OH... I believe I tried to off myself last night. I woke up around 1:30 in the am... and was having a hard time breathing.... like something sitting inside my esophagus/trachea.... AH yes, an undissolved vitamin C... I can taste that citrussy flavour the second it enters the mouth. ... and I can still taste it now... many many many hours later... but on that whole suffocation thought.. I am glad I am able to taste it... even though it is rather annoying, plus it kept me awake for a great many hours last night...

Well, I have many tasks calling to me.... clean and colour, colour and clean.

Let the races begin...

The husbandman has begun the transformation of the little homestead. He has moved the dogs cage from the laundry room to the den. It's really beginning to freak me out. All this enormous change... OK, just kidding here.... I am now embracing that bubble language in my head where I asked silently for less talking from the husbandman, and more action... I believe I am finally getting what I wanted...

In other questionable adventures...

The lovely Hamsterson was up at 0700 the previous four mornings. Of course there were important things like PLAYSTATIONS 2 to behold. This very morning, since it was the first day back to school and all, he was barely out of bed at 0820. Me, being the kind and lovely mother that I tend to be.... kept hissing that we were walking to school WE ARE WALKING!!! I started the countdown at 0821.... "We will be leaving at 0840"..... Of course we didn't leave until 0845, but that still got us the school on time. Yae for us.

My "cool" job for the day is emptying out the rest of the laundry room, with the exception of the washer and dryer. The husbandman has left me the huge shelf, and other assorted items to paw through, and decide if I really need to keep them... or not!.. Since I am having great difficulty parting with many of my things... I decided that I would come here and write it all down first... although I may be drawn to the great outdoors, as the sun has come out, and I know I will be distracted by it. At least I think I will.... of course I will try anything not have to clean....

When is it the right time for wine???

I seem to have issues with the correct time to drink wine. The same correctness issues that people have with drinking the right wine with the meal. I am managing to have a great amount of time issues, let alone wine issues. It has taken me three days to come up with the correct red wine time. I don't seem to have these issues when I go scrapbooking with the Debbies.... the second I walk through the "right sided Debbies" door is the best time... but when I am at home... it just isn't the same... it has to be after a certain time of the day, and before another time of the day... and those exact times, I am not quite sure about.... I think that I should scrapbook with the Debbie's all the time... that way I could accomplish double duty, scrapbooking and the appropriate amount of red wine input time. That's it!!! I must go make the call to the "right sided Debbie"... she is going to have a new nightly basement dweller on her hands....

My list is growing taller, not smaller

I made a very small dent, in a very large pile. I couldn't remember if I had read this... but I believe I did many moons ago. I saw the film.... as sad as it was.

What is this....

The stalker has prooved to be a very useful young woman.... she has introduced me to something that I have bypassed for quite some time.. and I didn't even realize that I was bypassing it.

" London Fog "

.... we headed out the other evening for some useless tasks.. and on our way out we stopped at Starbucks (coffee place)... "to get a great cup of tea," the stalker sister said. I ended up having three of them within twenty four hours yesterday... they were just so delicious.... The Starbucks girl told me that name "London Fog" belongs to some other company, so the starbuck peoples don't actually call it that... but they know the term if someone orders it. ((( I feel so on the inside now ))). The recipe is so simple that it is painful, but it is so delicious it is unforgettable.

No really, rain harder

I am sure I am going to win mother of year... I believe that I am truly the one and only that should bring home the one big award...

I just took the chicklets to school. It is absolutely pouring out right now, I only remember one of the chicklets wearing a jacket.... OOOPS.

Now that I am home from bringing the chickets to school I noticed that someone forgot their lunch. I will not be rushing back to give them their lunch, which includes the recess snack... that chicklet will just have to wait until lunch time...

I couldn't get a brush through the Pipsters hair this morning, I think it's from not brushing it since Friday morning..... so I put it in a beautifully coiffed bun that should hold tight until approxiametly 3:00 PM... when school is out. I have to quit working weekends, I am not around for all of the day on Saturdays, and a greater portion of the day on Sundays... the husbandman doesn't really do long blond hair styles for almost nine year olds... I have to conserve his energy for CLEANING OUT bedroom closets of nine year olds.. which believe it or not.. makes me quite happier than a head of brushed long blond hair. It really is OK, since it is the Pipsters swimming day today... and I am hoping that I will be successful in getting some shampoo on those long locks to give it a semi-good rinse out. I actually do not really like the Pip to have freshly washed hair on a regular basis... because ever since she set foot into the school system, we have received notices of little BUG INFESTATIONS on a regular basis. Although... I do not fear the little things... it's nothing that my bottle of Tea Tree Oil hasn't kept under bay since her very first, and very last episode of head bugs.

I am waiting for the guys who come and "DE-everything-in-your-lawn" to show up. I am not sure if they are willing to come and demoss, deweed, poke holes and cutlawn.... when the weather is between streaming rain, and teeming rain... if there is a difference.

I will go... and get ready for the Monday group... while my dryer continues to squeal at me... and I turn psychotic by the noise, with the added help of some caffiene on board.... I should be in fine form in a couple of hours.

Finding the Macro in my Life.

 

Puddle jumper...

The other day I had to take the scaredy catdog to the vet. She was a mess. Well, kind of a mess, or maybe... a mess that was about to get messier. Her fur was sticking up all over the place, and she was busy scratching, and being itchy for what seemed "flealess" reasons. She really did look like she was a dog having a bad hair day... and the look of bewilderement on her face was the real clincher.... when the lovely and evil Prance the sable german shepherd was still alive, both the furry creatures had interchangable knicknames like "Hissy & Licky"... we never really knew which name belonged to who... other than both the furry beasts had to be called something when they stood next to one another because one was always hissing, and the other was licking at the hissers face.... anyways... the lovely Elpster had turned into SUPERLICKY, and it was really getting most annoying listening to the tiny slurping sounds in the middle of the night when I was already being cold and trying to sleep on the couch in the den, because the husbandman had snored one too many times for me to stay in the same room with him. Now I was being tortured by the SUPERLICKY silly catdog. Enough was enough.. something had to be done. I took the SUPERLICKY silly catdog to the vet.... where the messy furred licky catdog hid behind me the whole while she was at the vets office. I had to keep turning in circles so the vetman could find her.... by the end of the visit she was the one with all the drugs on board... and I was the one that ended up with all the bad hair.... by flinging around in circles after her. Now... she has turned into the non licky sleek haired super puddle pee-er.... from the medication. It's a good thing that we have really ugly linoleum that she gets to pee on.... I'd be PISSED if she was peeing all over the new kitchen floor... when it eventually arrives.

15 piles of what....

The husbandman and the Pipster are busily folding thirteen billion articles of clothing. I am scared by what I know, and do not want to see... it's a whole new world down there at the other end of the house. With the recent invention of "floors that are made for walking on"... this opens up a new concept of floors that are made for creating piles on... it scares me to think about it.

In other things that scare me:

It is 8:30... and I am exhausted.... not that it has anything to do with the fact that me and the husbandman had a nice evening chatting away with one another last night... and forgot about the time..... until 2:40 in the morning.. and then I had to be up at 6:00 for work. Just another reason that weekend working gets in the way of regular living...

This is scarey....That therapeutic touch really works.... REALLY. I had a wickedly wicked headache yesterday.. and my friend Laurie the physio performed her magic voodoo therapeutic touch all around me.. and I eventually started to feel better.... although my head still had that "dull boring afterthud" still permeating through me... but the actual ache was gone...

I have a billion and two things to do for my stroke group tomorrow... and none of which I am going to accomplish this evening. My brain waves have gone flat (after effects of the headache)... and I am having trouble just mentating on the notion that I want to be up VERY EARLY again tomorrow.. just to get a head start on the day.... but I can not leave this post as the husbandman and the pipster are still tidying her piles of stuff... which has now been transported into OUR bedroom.

I have added a a bunch of books to the library list... and I barely opened the books that got from them two weeks ago, and will be returning tomorrow anyways. I believe that they were going to be really great books. Oh well, I am now into purchasing books....just to save on the LATE fees!

I watched Memiors of a Geisha the other night... and I would not have gotten that movie AT ALL if I had not read the book. That just scares me.. a lot. How did anybody know what was going on....??? I also watched Good Night and Good Luck... on the computer monitor... now that black and white feature scared me.. immensley.

I still haven't coloured my hair. OK, that is just freakishly frightening.... must stop now... I am very scared...

The gorgeous floor

The husbandman found the Pip's bedroom floor today... I am ever so glad that I had nothing to do with it. WE seem to lose her bedroom quite often.... and I am not sure how we are to remedy this situation.... although we could perhaps start with getting rid of some of her beloved items from her bedroom. We have never been able to give ANYTHING of hers away.... except for her clothes... she's always willing to lose a couple of extra pile of clothes... because that makes way for many more bits and pieces of stuff. Pip likes her stuff.. and anything stuffed, or overstuffed, stuffed and fluffed, understuffed, stuffed-full, plum stuffed, fluffed-puffed-and-stuffed, huge stuff, small stuff, iffy stuff, old stuff, boy stuff, better yet... girl stuff, paper stuff, book stuff, craft stuff, she even likes her garbage stuffed. Pips all about her stuff, and now she has a floor once again, where she can gather her stuff in clear view for that fresh stuffed look. Her floor should be missing by the end of the week.... I even have brought home boxes.. for all her excess stuff.

The Bad Internet

How can the internet shut down? What happy people are busy fixing the places where you can go to find all kinds of information? Should this be cause for concern.... who knows...

In other causes for concern......

1. The hair needs to be coloured badly... as in not bad colour... but STAT like colour. It is too late now to start all the washing and waiting nonsense.
2. I came to my senses and cancelled the appt with the quack dermatologist doctor that I went to last week. Whew.
3. It seems to be rather dusty in this little homestead... but that job will not be accomplished until tomorrow... at the earliest. I wish the magic maid would make her appearance... well, that is if I had one.
4. My library books are due back on the 11th of next week... and I have only finished scouring through the first five pages.. of one book. They are unrenewable. Yes, unbelievable!
5. Where are the bears.. I haven't seen any yet...
6. The dryer really needs to stop it's squealing... it's like I have my very own torture chamber.. in my very own home. The husbandman has baby powdered, but to no avail it continues screaming at me... for as long as the drum rotates around.
7. I have lost the girls bedroom floor again... and we had just made some headway with vacuuming her hardwood floor ... my friend gave me a bag of clothing... which the girl adores.. if she could fit into half of it.
8. I am now going to attempt to go and style the badly quad coloured hair don't into something that looks... not like a horror movie.... and I will apply my lipstick.. just so people recognize me... I need some luck, and some earplugs...

Chop chop

The skies were great big and blue today. I hauled out my Edward Scissorhand Scissors and chopped up some branches. I am quite happy. QUITE. HAPPY.

Well, I am happy for that.. although I am not happy that the lovely lady Pipster is refusing to do her HANDWRITING homework. I will be sending it back to school not done, except for the scribbles on the lines where the practising didn't go so well.

Time change

I feel like I live in warped time zone. I drove up to my sisters palace on the hill... and her tulips are BLOOMING. I had to go out last week and buy up some primulas, just to add some colour to the homesteads fascade.

In other things that make no difference to anyones elses lives but mine:

I think it's time to get the "check engine" light dealt with. I have been driving around with this blazing orange light staring back at me from the dashboard of the 16 year old SUV for a number of weeks, I think I am done with it.

I saw 10 deer down at Minnekhada. It's quite the family they have growing down there. I would love to know where they hide during the winter months. I love the peaceful energy that radiates from them.

The girl was presented with a big huge bag of clothing by a friend of mine. This is lovely... except for the fact that I do not have the space for the clothes that the girl has that I bought her. This poses a BIG problem for the middle of her bedroom floor, which is usually scarce at the best of times.

I now have plans drawn for the new kitchen, and laundryroom, and new family room. The husbandman spent 7 hours milling about last week producing drawings for this next adventure. Of course like a picture, they are pretty to look at, but expensive to embark upon.

Now that the time change has happened... it has created a time warp for the girls personality. My Pip was Pipless this morning. I am hoping she is more "pip pip horray" by the end of the day. I have decided that she is going to need some severe happy pills by the time 4:45 rolls around... as she has told me that she WILL NOT be joining her friends in the pool for her new-fangled swimming. I think the husbandman bought some KING DONGS (the first time ever such chemical explosions wrapped in celophane have ever made it in the house)... this might cure her "nonswimitis" she hs this morning.

Well must go do things that people do.. like go to work. HA!

Pardon me.....

Yesterday I went for one of those specialized "lady" chest xrays. Which was then followed up by an ultrasound. The ultrasound tech was busy as a bee snapping pictures. I thought in my head as she was busy snapping... please stop with the picture taking... that is just too many pictures for my liking. Then she hopped off the chair... and said she would be back. While I was waiting for her, I thought I had not heard her right, when she said "I will be back"... I thought she had gone for lunch, and coffee... combined. So myself, and the pictures of myself on the monitor waited.... I stared at the pictures on the monitor, and wondered what all the black and white images were really saying... and then I thought back to the ultrasounds with the chicklets.... that was way easier.... there were a billion pictures on the screen of a little alien... and this was comforting... because I knew that ultimately it was a baby chicklet. I continued to wait, and stare. Eventually the ultrasound tech came back, and she brought a radiologist with her. He shook my hand and right away said, we don't have any bad news for you. ... But then he continued.... "You seem to be circling the drain".... (((( in my head I start screaming.... HOLY SHIT... did he just say I am circling the drain.. how the hell can that not be bad news?????))))).. but then I came to, and he continued talking that "I am circling in the storm". This is where he motioned with his hands, one fist he held steadfast, and the other hand swirling around it. ((((Once again, I started talking in my head.... I speak fucking english.. and I do not have a clue what you are saying))))... I do know that since "no real news is good news" I will go with that.. until I get the real interpretation from my regular doc.

Little life adventures:

I am one ball in, and have one ball to go.
The Fun Fur scarf will be ready before I know.

My hands are stiff, and the fingers are slightly hard to bend
Even the wedding ring is giving my finger a dent.

I have eaten many tabs of Tylenol since yesterdays visit in the toothstealers chair
These are all the stories at the moment, that I have to share.

How odd is that?

I can swear when I went to the dentist this morning that I was going to get a crown, but somehow that crown turned into a pair of plyers.. and now I'm toothless, by one.

It is a shame that I ran around my little homestead yesterday, cleaning and buffing and washing.. if I had waited for today, the toothstealer said for me to do nothing "physical" &/or "strenuous" for the next two days. Man, I can certainly screw up when I need to.

Well, I am off to buy some Extra Strength Tylenol......once the freezing empties from my face, there wont be any amount of lipstick that I could paint on my lips to add a smile to it.

Sitting upside down for a number of hours in a dentist chair really zaps you of your energy. But, I am going to have to do something rather quickly... because I have to be perky and funny for my Stroke Group in 30 minutes.... rah rah!

Just an observation....

Don't you just hate it when you think you have lost weight... because your jeans fit you better.. and then you figure out that your fly is down. Double crappers on that one.

In other things that are beyond belief:

I am happily slurping back a cup of coffee that has some "soy silk" creamer dumped into it... and I have to stir it up real good so as not to see the curdling effect on the steaming cup. Strange but true. Oh, and on that thought...the expiry date is not until April 19th. I am betting that I am going to be alive at the end of this cup of coffee.

OK, and I have come up with a list of songs to play...it's a stream of songs.....I am hoping that I can play them all. I'll make the list here... that way when I lose the actual list that I have written down.. I know I will have put it somewhere.. OUT THERE. OK, the next problem is... how do I play all this crap.... I CAN'T PLAY WITHOUT MUSIC IN FRONT OF ME.

1. Sonata Pathetique
2. James Bond Theme
3. Edelwiss
4. Canon
5. Candle in the Wind
6. The Blue Danube Waltz
7. Andy Griffth Theme
8. Over the Rainbow
9. Lovin Dat Man of Mine
10. Space Odyssey
11. What a Wonderful World
12. Paino Man
13. Speak Softly Love
14. Star Wars
15. The Entertainer

A neck snapping good time.

I am planning a little music fest for my Stroke Group in a couple of weeks. I have been setting aside time every day to practice all kinds of piano music ((except jazz)) and put it into an arangement something like a "medley of music". This sounds all well and dandy... especially if I can pull it off, and ever more importantly, if my neck doesn't snap in half by sitting on a piano bench for many hours at a time. This could be a dangerous endeavor... I better find some music that has some intrigue when the time comes for the neck snapping good time...

What time is it?

I was awake this morning at a most reasonable time. I got out of bed at 5:47, and went to the den to watch the news. I brought my knitting, "the fun fur scarf project" with me. What else do you do on the second day of spring, but knit a scarf. The trouble is now... it's 7:50, and the only person awake is me. The only thing accomplished so far: a billion rows of knitting. The things I need to accomplish: drag children from their beds, make them dress, eat, brush, and be merry all before 08:50. I hate getting up early.

Onto bigger and better

The kitchen renovation is going along quite nicely. It's a very exciting process and has not impacted our lives to too much. Here's an update of the progress so far:

The husbandman has now moved a large number of items out to the shed. I believe there was comment somewhere that he needs a shed for his newly built, not even a year old shed. He also has moved all of his pieces of plywood to the other side of the garage. Then he swept all of the garage. Yes, the kitchen is taking shape quite nicely.

I am currently on the hunt for his sledgehammer, firecrackers and some dynamite. If I could have my trusty whip handy, I would be satisfied with that. But the edges are dull, and kind of thud when you crack it. I have offered my ((almost useless)) whip to my friend who is now getting a new shed, like I (we) did last year. Hopefully she will put it to good use. In the meantime, I will somehow continue to look after the yucky-yuck ancient kitchen, while the husbandman continues to clean and organize the garage.

I'll go back a day please.

The sun is gone, my smile has faded
My spring spirit has definitely been deflated.
From across the horizon I see masses of grey,
Which will certainly bring with them, rain for the rest of the day.

AAAAHHH, the first day of spring.

It's sunny outside.

Yae oh yae.

I have a smile this ________________________________wide.

And it will stay there all day.



((OK, I wont include the fact that the chicklets are back to school.. I don't think that has anything to do with it......))

Lucky me!

Now that spring is fast approaching in these parts, I have finally found my knitting needles and pink coloured fun fur to make the girl a scarf... no time like the present... that being said.... this was to be a present for her at christmas time... except that I was a bit over zealous in the hiding of the needles and fun fur department. But now that I have found them... I must click along quickly.

In other things that need to be quick:

I came home earlier, while the husbandman was busily removing items and articles from the soon to be new room but still garage at the moment. The old and still unrenovated kitchen was nicely tidy and organized.... UNTIL I managed to make some dinner for the people that reside here. Of course I made things look a lot worse than they needed to, just to get Mr. Cleanandtidy all wild and crazy like... I succeeded quite nicely.

Talk talk bonus

I love the talk talk bonus... it is very special to me... I believe I am addicted. It's a game at the CASINO, that I absolutely love.... when I do play. I am mostly a spectator sport kind of person at the CASINO. My stalker sister keeps asking me why I call it the talk talk bonus... because there is no reason to call it such a thing... I think the real name is the tail bonus, but the talk talk bonus works for me. For the longest time she considered I was nuts for loving this game, but now she is addicted to it. She is nuts too, and a stalker... so I am still one up on her.

Two titles read for the week.

zi zick

That is the sound that my monitor started to make the other day. Just before it quit. I am a monitorless mother.

zi zick, zi zick, zi zick.....zook. And that was the end of my monitor

I did talk to Antion from North Carolina about the zi zickness of the monitor. Then as any good monitorless mother should do, I walked my zi zicked monitor through the London Drugs parking lot.... and took the now zi zicked monitor back to the mother ship for an overhaul. All going well, it will be put to rest, and then I can adopt the new sister slim line, and get rid of the zi zickless FAT monitor....

The Queen of the Kitchen...

Strikes again!!

I was grocery shopping a couple of weeks back... and found some interesting items in the freezer section. I have decided that I really like the freezer section. I didn't realize how important of a section the freezer section can be to a person that has come to terms that her and her kitchen are not as best of friends than they should be. I can not believe that I have been bypassing the freezer section for as long I have been. I am ashamed of myself. Tut tut to me.

Anyways... as I was nattering... the freezer section called to me a couple of weeks back. I was at my Airmile grocery store, with my big coupon in hand, so I was feeling kind of desperate to cash in on the airmiles. I happened to spot these dinners, already made up... all you needed was a skillet and some heat. WOW! I couldn't believe my luck... now this is cooking at it's finest. Tonight I tried my hand at these super speedy fast skillet all in one dinners... as soon as the husbandman walked through the doors I was already hissing and sneering at him to "keep it down... I almost have your dinner ready... I have been chopping and seasoning for hours...."

I am once again the Queen of the Kitchen... and he doesn't even know about the freezer section dinner that he dined on tonight... now I just hope he didn't notice the wrapping that it came in. I am sure that my diamond ring is coming very soon.... VERY SOON... with my fabulous cooking abilities.

Things that break.

There was a lovely break in the weather over the weekend. Which really means that it didn't snow, hail or rain... at all. In fact, the sky was blue and the great outdoors had a welcome mat attached to it. (The lovely hamsterson missed his step and stumbled across the welcome mat... he still needs reassurance that the great outdoors welcomes him too....)

Now that the weekend BREAK is over... and it is officially SPRING BREAK around these parts, it appears that the weather is on the verge of giving itself a BREAK, and will certainly BREAK every single parent this next week. I watched the weather forecast for this week. I am going to slice now. It calls for rain, rain and more rain. Give me a freaking BREAK! Of course it isn't raining now... that's because I have to be at work in a little while....

I wish the word SPRING BREAK could be termed as BREAKFAST. We fast, then we break the fast... the same as we should BREAK for spring. Which means that there should be white lovely popcorn clouds floating about a wonderful backdrop of blue sky..... for the whole week.

The only thing that will be breaking at the end of this week will be me, if I have to live with APELETS ((a.k.a. chicklets)) that are locked in the great indoors.. because of the rain.

I think I will let them go swimming!

The Checklist

My fairly aged 11 year old boy spouted out a list of questions yesterday as to the proceedings of the day. I felt like I was in Sunday Night Theatre, where the people crowd around the radio, and listen to the stories, where the actors talked so fast you barely had a moment to process the words.

Hamsterson, please get ready to go......

These are only some of the questions/comments that he spouted out in less than 20 seconds... I think I might have missed some....

1. Where are we going?
2. Do I have to go?
3. Is the sister coming?
4. I am busy.
5. When are you returning?
6. Am I still expected to go?
7. I don't think I have a jacket to wear.
8. Go with out me.
9. Do we have any food in this house?
10. Please tell me we have food.
11. Are we going someplace that we have to buy food.
12. I'm not coming then.
13. How long will it take to get there?
14. Will I be home early?
15. Does this have to take all day?
16. Can I rent a video game afterwards?
17. I need to be home by five.
18. I should probably just stay home now, you are always late.
19. Will you buy me some food?
20. Are you bringing money with you?

If you see a girl laughing....

Just ignore her. Leave her alone. Trust in the fact that she's happy in her own world. Even if she looks insane, as she giggles and snickers to herself.

I would like to say that my friend and I had a conversation on the phone yesterday, but I believe it was more me just spurting out useless details to life, and her umhumming in agreement. Anyways, our conversation continued along about the non-tree hugging religion of the Jehovah Witnesses. I told her that it drives me nuts to always be finding their magazines littered all over my tables of "precious info pamphlets" that I am obsessed by tidying and setting out for the patients to read and LEARN from. So I spout all about the amount of paper that gets used from the JW's love of logging practices.... and then I come along and dump it all in the recycling container. (So sorry).... I then carry on about how we don't see other religions handing out or leaving behind information, or like, for want of a better example: Sikh's handing out knives on streetcorners. I then spoke in a hushed tone into the phone... "Sppp, you... you wanna knife, I have a knife, come here and get one...." Enough said, we hang up the phone, and carry on doing our daily life like things. Or so I thought. I mean I was alright.... but my friend on the other end of the phone was clearly touched by my odd antics.

She needed to go grocery shopping... and who did she spy, but a Sikh, carrying a knife....Now, on any given day Sikh's with knives aren't funny, at all. But what does this poor soul of a girl start to do... but laugh. A lot. While walking by herself. In the grocery store. And who does she keep bumping into as she cruises the grocery aisles.. but the Sikh with the knife.

Hey.. pppppsssssttttt.... you wanna knife, I have a knife.......here let me roll it in some paper I found in the recylcing container.....

Sun Seekers Two.

I told the Pip that her and that pink bunny on her back might find a pot of gold if she followed the rounding branch of walls.
A young man enters the wilderness catwalk to fame.

 

Sun seekers.

Dancing with themselves

Ah finally... a no brainer

A fun lighthearted story, I think my heavy drama book filled days are over. I can't seem to find time for them, and yet, this little number kept me reading all night. Although I don't think I could keep reading these stories over and over.. I think eventually I would need new drama... or something!

Check Engine

My 16 year old SUV's engine may be ready to blow up at any second. I have been driving around for two weeks with an annoying bright orange light indicator on my dashboard staring at me in the face. I have talked kindly to it, as I do to all inanimate objects, (which does not include computerized cellphone people), and have asked it to go away, the engine is just fine, thank you.

Yesterday with the lovely and short lived huge snowfall (was it even two inches!) that we had, I was able to put the 16 year old SUV into four wheel drive. This is not something that the nicely aging vehicle gets to do very often (much to the husbandmans dismay). I noticed that once I had put the rusting but still worthy vehicle into four wheel drive, the check engine light disappeared as quick as I was able to shift it's gears.

I believe this is a miracle people, a no cost miracle too boot. I will watch and wait cautiously now, waiting for something to twang and then watch as the engine burns itself into it's final resting place.

Thursday Snowstorm

 

I had a fight with Melanie TODAY

Conversations with Melanie are very one sided. I always have to call her, and she never calls me. NEVER. EVER. Although we have a simple telephone relationship, it's all questions and answers most days, and that's that. She really only cares about what she can get from you, and the second you ask her for advice she passes you on to someone else. Although Melanie can be at times helpful, she can also be annoying, very annoying. Sometimes you have to listen to Melanie repeat herself over and over again. I have on occasion hung up on Melanie as I am very impatient with her idiocy at times. Like today, when I was talking with her, I could just tell Melanie was in a mood. All she kept saying was: "I'm sorry, I didn't get that".... and you can't tell Melanie to shut up and listen, because that only frustrates her simpleton self, and then she shuts down. She asked me a question today, and I gave her the straight answer of CREDIT CARD. She asks me to repeat myself, and I do, but louder. The third time she asked me to repeat myself I almost rammed the credit card itself through the phone lines, but instead I screached CREDIT CARD into the receiver. I believe I saw stars after that. Before I knew it, Melanie was gone. Thank god.

Like magic, I was suddenly talking to another voice, a voice that told me that sometimes Melanie is moody. You can't get through to her and it doesn't matter how hard you try, Melanie wont listen. The voice apologized for Melanie's behaviour, although it was not required. I had no reason to complain, or apologize myself to Melanie... as she is an automated cell phone operator.

Undercover Issues

The Pipsters class went on a field trip today. I offered to be one of the driving people, since I didn't mind where we were going, and it wasn't challenging to get to. I have had instances in the past where I didn't have a clue where we were going, and the other parent friend and myself ended up viewing some falls off the highway. We were apparently on our own field trip that day, except for the rest of the class was busily learning about apples, about 30 exits prior. You win some and lose some.

Anyways... back to the control freak of a teacher. We arrive at our destination, and I have my umbrella closely attached to my side. She spots the offending item and marches up to me... "You might want to leave that someplace" she says. I immediately hissed back at her "what's the deal with umbrellas, I'm planning on using it", and I give her the evil eyebrow glare. "Well, you will have to stand at the back because you might bump people with it, if you insist on bringing it", she googlyeye looks at me. "I think I can manage", I try and say nicely to her. (That scale of nicety was about a 6 1/2). Holy freaking fridge magnets.... I am not certain what her issue is with umbrellas, but I am certainly glad that I didn't give into her useless wind... as it POURED AND POURED the whole while we were on our OUTSIDE field trip. The other more fearful parents caved under her control freakish issues. They ended up wet and cold. I at least ended up just cold. I couldn't have done both.

Good Deeds

I took my not over due library books back to the library. I even let the library book "go" that I had requested to be brought in. (I had 7 days to collect it... which I didn't collect, because I either forgot, or have a stack of books calling to me with no deadlines and fees attached). I am free from the library burden. Althought I am not free from the huge amount of fines that I (being the cardholder that is) have amassed. ((There was the incident of the Hamsterson's 50 books that are COMICS, but are considered adult books that I believed to be due on the wrong date that hiked the fine,... which I am refusing to pay... they are COMIC BOOKS!!!!!)).

In other good deeds..... oh, which there are none at the moment I can think of.... !

The Law of Averages.

I wheeled into the driveway with our now 16 year old SUV. I parked in a spot a tad bit further down the driveway than I normally do. I opened the door, stepped onto the driveway and flipped the door shut. The very second the door shut, I heard a splat! I looked to the ground and spied bird splat, I looked up, and perched right above my point of exit from the vehicle sat a bird on a wire.

This whole splat is a highly odd event. The splat came from a crow. Crows never sit on the wire that connects our house to some pole at the street. I never park in that exact location of the driveway. This had to have been a crowsplat ambush. I am sure of it.

Sunday sunday

It's 8:48 and not really that late
But I find it hard to rhyme, when it's so close to nine.
I still need to worry about getting the kids to bed on time.

It's not that worlds will collide, or buildings will tumble,
the problem is finding the girl's bed, in her messy jungle.

The boy on the otherhand is organized, and tidy.
Althought that doesn't make him all sweet and smiley.
He is continuing to brew bugs from there to here,
I think the latest one has settled inside of his ear.

I can not be for certain that this is just so.
Although it appears to be very red, and seems to glow.

Time is ticking, as the husbandman paces,
in time to attend to the chicklet bed races.

Time is ticking it's 8:58
Bed time is something where I shouldn't be late.

Things I have accomplished today:

The biggest and most important deed of the day was bidding the chicklets a fond farewell at their lovely and little school. I left them with the kind motherly thoughts of have a nice day, school ends at three oclock and:

"don't call me I'll call you".

The Hamsterson has spent a week at home, and the girl was getting quite pissed at this whole ordeal so she decided that she needed to stay home as well. I let her stay home yesterday, she may be a little under the weather as well, so perhaps a day of rest wouldn't have hurt her either. Anyways, I have put the tough love mother approach today... and everyone went back. Now I am terrified to answer the phone... it might be them....

Well, that just about sums it up for accomplishments for the day...I'm done, and it's not even 10:00!

Although I have a head of very badly coloured hair that requires some major attention. Oh yuck, I hate it when my memory kicks into high gear... and reminds me of these sorts of things.