Mindless Ramblings of a Material Girl

Still Lazy......

2008-09-24T09:34:00.002-04:00

OK, ok! :) I'm here....you are all so kind to comment on my blog, even when I've been absent for 6 months. I guess I have fallen victim to Facebook-itis, and I'm on there daily, playing games and connecting with people. But I should keep my friends on here updated too. :)

Not that there's much to update. Let's see...my last posting was in March? Well, I finished my classes for this degree in April, and now I'm onto the thesis part. I worked ever so hard to get my 45 page research proposal submitted early in May, but have waited forever for it to be reviewed through the summer, and though there were only minor changes needed, am only getting my approval meeting this coming Monday. Grr. So I did a lot less work this summer than I was hoping to, not by choice, but by instead having no choice, waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Very frustrating. I wish I had known at the beginning of the summer how slow it would end up being so then I wouldn't have had to be so stressed and annoyed about it for the last 4 months.

We went to Atlantic City again over Labour Day weekend, and that was fun. We got a deal for buy one night hotel, get 2 nights free, so we couldn't pass that up! This shopaholic shopped her way up and down New Jersey once again. Quelle surpise. :)

I wish I had something far more exciting to tell you all, but I guess life in the academic lane can get a little bit dull. I think I'll be applying for entrance into the Ph.D program in the next couple of months. Why not torture myself for another 4 years? (ha!) Really, besides all the waiting, I don't mind being an academic for now. I seem to be good at it anyway, and it's a whole new language and way of life you learn, like at a new job. I'd hate to learn all the language and rules for this sector and quit after 2 years.

Now I have to go and check all of your blogs to see what you've been up to! If any of you have Facebook, feel free to add me to your friends list on there too. So far Val, Gypsy and Molly have caught up with me there. :)

Lazy Blogger

2008-03-02T11:10:00.006-05:00

Thanks for all your messages on my last post! Yes, I've been quite the lazy blogger since I got back to school for this semester. The work suddenly swamps us students into a dizzy, frantic bubble of readings and deadlines without room for much else. It's amazing how my days are gone before I know it! This semester, it seems like instead of having the regular rush of due dates at mid-term time, the profs have split everything up into many more small assignments, making us have something due almost every week. *groan* So, it's not that I don't miss you all, but I sometimes I'm prevented from doing my usual postings and visiting around your blogs. That, and the fact that I sit at a computer all day doesn't provide much interesting material to post. :-( I wouldn't want to bore my readers to death, hahaha.

We did go to Atlantic City again during my reading week, which was the third week of February (pictured above). I had a great time shopping my way up and down New Jersey, especially at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, NJ, which has to be the best and biggest mall I've ever visited in my life. I drool just to think of living near there. Even though it wasn't warm enough to be beach weather, I had fun walking the boardwalk while David tried his hand at the slot machines (without much luck, I'm afraid!). There were some pretty strange characters to watch wandering around this time around, let me tell you!

It was nice to get away from the snow for a few days, which we have TONS of here right now. I don't think I can fit another snowflake on my property - the banks are worse than when I first posted that video back in December. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to springtime....but will surely be complaining about the heat once the summer comes. :-) Que sera, I guess!

Well, 'tis back to my critique assignment for now. I hope you are all doing well, and I will surely be around to comment on your postings when the reigns of academia loosen up a bit. :-) I miss you all too!

Visitor Kitty

2008-01-21T16:17:00.001-05:00

Misty is a sweet kitty who is staying with us for 10 days while her parents are in sunny Florida (yes, I'm jealous). So far, Sam and Lulu have taken quite well to her, though Sam feels the need to assert his Alpha Cat status every now and then with a hiss. Misty is so quiet and docile - I can't believe she's been here 5 days already! I'm posting this mainly so her parents can see her, but everyone in blogland is welcomed to view.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to Blogland! I hope everyone had a happy, healthy holiday season. It's back to school for me next week. *sigh*

For those non-Canadians, this satirical piece is in response to a few years ago when Toronto was crippled by a snow storm and had to call in the Canadian army to get the city working again. Actually, I was living there at the time and got 4 days off work! Because of that incident, Toronto now is the butt of jokes from the rest of Canada regarding both being pretentious, and not being able to handle a typical Canadian snowfall. I've seen this video quite a few times, and it never gets old. *L*

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T09:42:00.000-05:00

I'll be blogging off for a week anyway for the holidays. I wish all my blogland friends the Merriest Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Now for the tag!

1) Best present ever as a child: I'm going to have to say anything Barbie.

2) Best present ever as an adult: I don't think I can pick just one - maybe gift cards because they're the gifts that keeps on giving and I get to have shopping included in my gift??

3) The one gift you've always hoped for and not yet received: Hmmm....I have no idea, as I've been given so much.

4) Your favourite part of Christmas dinner: Yule log cake afterwards for dessert.

5) Favourite Christmas movie: National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

6) Most lusciously shameful holiday indulgence: Chocolates, cookies, cakes, sweets, and all things bad for the hips!

Harping

2007-12-20T13:58:00.001-05:00

Yes, I'm harping on it, but sadly, it's all that's going on in this area of the world!!

God, my voice always sound so bored on these videos. I don't mean it to! :-)

Digging my Way Out

2007-12-07T14:22:00.000-05:00

Here are my holly plants now....vive la difference from the last posting. If this is the way it's going to be for the rest of the winter, I'm going to have to clean them off so they get at least some sunlight!

Yay, I'm finally finished the semester! I had one last essay that I polished up today, and off it goes tomorrow to the campus. I finished classes this week, and it's nice not to have to drive downtown in an evening snow storm, which I did a lot this week. I love putting all my class material away in the closet and not having to worry about it!

I'm trying to get in the Christmas spirit despite all this snow (I know, I know, you'd think it would ADD to the spirit...well, it doesn't) and I've decorated the front door with a real pine bough wreath. I do have a fake one, but thought a real one would be nice this year. Alas, my poor pumpkins are gone to garbage dump heaven, and are replaced with some festively sparkled sticks 'n things to perk up the place.

Today, I'm making fudge-dipped marshmallows, both the marshmallow and the fudge being homemade. So far the marshmallows turned out great and are done, gelatin setting in a dish. Talk about yummy to lick the beater attachments after making that! Next comes the fudge.....maybe later today.

This weekend is the company Christmas party. While it's the same thing each year, it's sadly the only party we get to go to, and so we'll go see how it is. At least I get to dress up and wear all things sparkly - that is half the fun of going!

A Quick Change of Season

2007-11-23T11:37:00.001-05:00

Yuck...I am NOT ready for a change of season this quickly!! My poor pumpkin.......*sigh* At least my holly berries look festive. Global warming, why have you forsaken me...?

Gourds 101

2007-11-15T11:52:00.000-05:00

I have been cutting, scraping, soaking, sanding, and painting gourds for the last week. I saw this thing on the Martha show where you take dried gourds and cut then paint them to be bowls. It looked awesome, very professional, and I thought this would be a good Christmas gift for my aunts. They are hard to buy for.

So, I had to order my gourds from Texas on Ebay, seeing as they don't grow big ones around here, and on the one website I found in London, ON, they were much more expensive. So, my four gourds safely arrived, already cleaned of dried mould and dirt, and I had to wait for a month until we went to my parents' place so my Dad could cut them with his jigsaw. Gourds take a year or two to dry, and so their shell is almost like wood.....like this:

They were so pretty as they were, it was hard to cut them!

Anyway, Dad cut some for me this Sunday, and I cut one (thus alleviating my fear of saws). The inside is so interesting, totally resembling styrofoam with dried seeds.

You have to scrape out all the dried styrofoam-type stuff to get down to the shell, which I found out is often hard to do. So, I had to soak my gourds in warm water in the sink....

...until the dried guck started to come loose. Then I scraped them clean and set them to dry again.

Even though they are dried and scraped, the gourds aren't always that smooth on the inside. If I want a nice decorative bowl, smooth is a good thing. So, I had to sand them down with sandpaper. That was tough and took awhile!! They looked pretty good after that, all ready for my crafting...

But first, before you paint, you have to prime. I spent an hour and a half at Michael's (craft store) looking for what I needed for this project! I still need to go back for different colours of paint. Anyway, thank God I can still work outside a bit because this priming stuff in a spray can is lethal.

Now my gourds are all white, with any imperfections hidden, and crevices hopefully filled, ready for painting....

There is one gourd I am keeping for myself, and I thought I would practice on it. I don't want to give gift gourds that look unprofessional after all! I decided this gourd, since it sits kind of at an angle, would be a good bowl for putting Halloween candy in to give out to the little ones on Halloween night. It sits kind of with the opening facing outwards instead of upwards, and is kind of neat looking. So, I decided to paint it pumpkin orange with bat stencils. I made the stencils myself, having obviously just missed all the Halloween sales.....

And now, after painting the rim black to match the bats, I have my Halloween gourd candy bowl. I have just to varnish it to make everything shiny. Now I can start on the gift gourds with confidence, knowing how everything is going to look. And, no, I will not be painting the gift gourds in Halloween colours! I think they will be pearly white with a shimmery green ivy stencil, something like that. Who knew gourds could be so much fun???

That's My Sammy

2007-11-03T09:20:00.001-04:00

I love this video! This is SO indicative of the routine of Sam and me in bed every single morning. I can't believe the accuracy...even to how kitty sees you move, gets all happy because he thinks, oh goodie, you're awake now, then keeps trying when you continue to sleep.....ok, maybe not the last part of the video. *L*

Happy Halloween

2007-10-29T12:43:00.000-04:00

Well, Halloween is just 2 days away, but the stores think it's Christmas! I've always thought it tacky to combine Halloween, a holiday of ghosts and ghouls, with Christmas, a time for serenity and peace. Kind of contradicts each other...not to mention the clashing colour schemes! *L*

I've been busy lately. Last week was mid-term week, so everything under the sun was due. One of our profs left suddenly, so now we have a new one for my Monday night class. I'm not sure I like her yet. Whereas our 25 page essay was due in December with the first prof, now the new prof wants us to peer review each other's essays by Nov 19th, and so I have been forced to start working on that. People freaked on her last week about that, so it will be interesting to see tonight what people say. These graduate school essays aren't something you throw together the night before, let me tell you. Plus, I've been trying to incorporate some holiday festivities for Halloween so I don't miss everything!! I would love to have another big party like we did a couple of years ago, but felt too busy to plan it all. Oh well. Maybe next year.

On Friday, I took a break from my schoolwork (ok, I read just ONE teensy 12 page article) to make Halloween cookies. You all know how I love to bake and decorate, and so I ended up with these:

I think they turned out pretty well, though some of my royal icing was too thick for proper flooding. Once I realized that and added more water, they turned out well. They are sugar cookies underneath. Halloween isn't Halloween without baking something festive!

On Saturday, we took another trip to Syracuse, NY for more shopping. In demonstration of the Merry Thanksgivoween above, I went into Michael's (a crafting store) while we were there and they had all their skulls and witches displayed for sale with 'Silent Night' playing in the background. Ick. I got a second Martha Stewart spice rack at Macy's that I've wanted since I got the first one last time we went, and I got the next 2 installments of the 12 Days of Christmas Waterford champagne flutes - 5 gold rings and 6 geese a laying. I saved $50 by buying them in Syracuse instead of here. For those of you not in North America, our Canadian dollar is now worth more than the American dollar, so it's totally awesome to go down there shopping now. Not only are the actual prices on the tags much cheaper, but now we gain from the worth of our dollar in the exchange rate. Sweet.

I brought my camera, though it was a dreary, rainy day.....

This is the grey view over the 1000 Islands region of the st. Lawrence river. It's really beautiful.....please excuse the crappy picture! I really need a taller car to get a view over those steel bars on the bridge...

This is the mall from afar....

...and a shot of downtown Syracuse from the highway....

...and this is the edge of Lake Onondaga, which is beautiful. I think having a cottage here would be awesome...seeing as you have to inherit one to get anything in the 1000 Islands thse days!

...and just for fun, here is Lulu making a fort out of the box the spice rack came in.

I think I shall have to carve a pumpkin tomorrow. If it's good, maybe I'll take a picture. :)

Have a Happy Halloween everyone! Remember...too much candy is never enough...especially when that candy involves Caramik and/or Coffee Crisp. :)

Ghost Tag

2007-10-20T10:07:00.000-04:00

1. How old do you think you'll be when you die?
Hopefully very old...but not senile.

2. How will you die?
Of boredom.

3. What will your last words be?
Old age is so boring.

4. What will your epitaphe read?
Worked too hard...shopped too hard.

5. Any parts of your body you wouldn't donate?
Who would want anything from an old lady? "Yes, doctor, since she's croaked, I would like her shrivelled-up old butt, and the wrinkles above the eyes...." As if.

6. What song will be played at your funeral?
That's Life By Frank Sinatra.

7. Cremated, buried or "other"?
Buried, so I can finally have my name engraved in stone like the movie stars.

8. If you could take one thing with you to the "next life", what would it be?
My laptop...haunting via e-mail is very trendy these days....

9. If you could take one person with you, whether they like it or not, who would it be?
Does Santa count as a person?

10. Supposing they existed, do you think you'd end up in heaven or hell?
It depends....what is each serving for dinner? I don't do seafood, you know....

11. If you could haunt any one place, where would it be?
I think the movie theatre or the hockey arena would be fun, then you could do double duty of haunting while seeing a game or a show at the same time. Of course, for comfort's sake, I would prefer some old Victorian mansion where I could look at nice art and sit in a comfortable chair once in awhile.... haunting is hard work.

12. If you could haunt any one person, who would it be?
My old bosses who didn't treat me right.

13. What type of ghost would you be?
A fashionable one. White is the new black.

14. You've been given the chance to send one message back to the land of the living. What does it say?
I'm waiting for you.....

Colours of Fall

2007-10-14T09:49:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, the changing autumn colours were wonderful in our area. They are typically best around Thanksgiving, and if you wait too long, you miss them! We took a drive last Monday around where we live to capture some of the scenery. It's pretty good, but I think even then I waited a couple of days too long! The reds seem to be the first to fall.

HappyThanksgiving

2007-10-07T10:10:00.001-04:00

This weekend in Canada is Thanksgiving...well, Monday is technically Thanksgiving, but we often celebrate on Sunday to give people Monday to lay around and recover from their turkey high. This holiday is supposed to give us cause to spend time with family and friends, to think about all we have, and to be thankful that we live in a country of plenty...which, I guess, is why we stuff ourselves with so much food on this holiday...?? Turkey and stuffing is the traditional meal. Today we're having my parents and my aunt and uncle over for dinner. This is my first time cooking the big turkey and stuffing myself (I mean a REAL turkey...not that pre-stuffed boneless, skinless Butterball breast of turkey concoction...which, incidently, I also love), so I hope it all goes well...speaking of which I should be dressing said turkey instead of procrastinating on the computer....!

Above are the place setter/favours I made for the occasion - little turkeys made from pinecones to put at each place setting. Below is the double layer chocolate and pumpkin cake with fudgy glaze I made that we are having for dessert. I love fall when I can bake neat and colourful things!

Happy Thanksgiving to all this weekend! May you enjoy yourselves well with family and friends around the autumn table.

Funnies

2007-10-03T20:09:00.000-04:00

To cheer your day......just because I am swamped and don't have time to do a real post....!

Shoppingtown, USA

2007-09-23T15:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we decided to go down to the States for some shopping. I think I have posted a picture of the mall in Syracuse, New York before - the Carousel Centre. It is truly awesome to go shopping there with its wide selection of stores, especially compared to the crappy, choice-less shopping available in Ottawa.

We did quite well during our day of shopping! I got a bunch of my favourite Bath and Body Works shower gels, as well as 2 Yankee Candle jars, one called Frosted Pumpkin, and one called Christmas Wreath (which I obviously won't be using for another couple of months.....) David got an array of shirts and some chocolate from the Lindt store. Yummm.

Being home during the day now has allowed me to watch Martha Stewart's show, and so I knew she had launched a new collection of baking/kitchen/home stuff at Macy's department store. I had to go check that out. Oh boy - I could have browsed for hours!! She has so many neat things in that collection, and I am bitter that it isn't (as of yet) available in Canada like some of her other things. Anyway, restraining myself, I ended up with some Halloween dish towels, and a pretty spice rack. My spices are typically shoved together in a small cupboard, making it impossible to find anything without everything falling out. I have needed a spice rack for ages. This morning, I went through all my spices and organized them into the rack....only to find out that I have about 20 more spices than fit into the rack. Who knew there were so many spices?? I guess it's not something I typically think about.....*L* Anyway, this necessitates another trip to Syracuse in the next couple of months for a second matching spice rack.....oh, darn. *L*

On our way back, we got nabbed for duty (of COURSE...*groan*), and we pulled up to pay beside a car that was being completely searched. I am aware that customs sometimes does this, though I had never seen it in real life before. How violating it looked - the guy's truck completely emptied onto the ground, everything everywhere, him standing there defenceless to the 2 border guards in rubber gloves rifling through all his personal posessions, everybody staring at him. How embarassing. I would have liked to know what they expected to find - surely they had some good suspicion for doing that. I'm just glad it wasn't us!

Now, after our fun day, it's back to reading academic journals....*sigh*

8 Things....

2007-09-15T16:03:00.000-04:00

Ok, ok, tagged, duly noted. I'm probably the only person left that hasn't posted, so I won't tag anyone else. I remember coming up with random things before...is this the same tag, or supposed to be different? I don't want to bore anyone with the same things I posted before... Let's see.....

1. Music is everywhere in my life. I coud no more live without music than I could without food or water. My soul would die with the silence of it all. I wake up every morning with the jukebox that's in my head playing a random tune my brain has picked for me while I slept.

2. I fear flying. Well...not the flying part, exactly, but the crashing part. Actually, being up in a plane doesn't bother me at all (besides the cramped quarters, which is unpleasant), but the prospect of a catastrophe should we all go down, no likely survivors (as plane crashes typically go), keeps me out of the skies. Car travel is much more dangerous, but the way I look at it, at least I have a chance of living if I get in an accident.

3. I love to watch psychic Sylvia Browne. I don't believe in all the people who call themselves psychic out there (in fact, I think most of them are fakes), but there is just something about her that I've always trusted. She also works with the police, so there has to be some legitimacy. I'd love to have a reading from her, if I could afford the $700 price tag. She is totally awesome. My one weirdity. *L* I think we are all psychic in some capacity, whether we choose to tune into it or not.

4. I love to bake - cookies, fancy cakes, tarts and pies - as well as make homemade icing with which to decorate my cakes and flood my cookies. I don't bake often because I have nobody to eat my creations. I have an awesome idea right now for a fall chocolate cake with decorative fondant leaves, but nobody will eat it!

5. Though they are chores, I love the end result of doing the laundry and emptying the dishwasher. I like to have everything perfectly clean and in its proper place.

6. I have an insane collection of perfumes - more than 40 bottles, all different. There are too many wonderful scents out there and I just can't choose. If I get sick of one, I just sell it on Ebay.

7. I believe that when we die, we go to another place (realm, if you will) where we meet up with those who have passed before us (family, friends, people we never knew, everyone). It's not like the traditional heaven, per se, but there is definitely another place after this earth. Seeing as I have felt/heard/had strange experiences involving people who have passed, that only makes logical sense to me, and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

8. I hate chocolate ice cream and hot chocolate. I love chocolate bars or truffles, though!

School Days - 1980

2007-09-11T14:59:00.000-04:00

Facebook is an interesting thing. For those of you who don't know this website, it's supposed to be a medium for contacting people you haven't seen in awhile, and also keeping in touch with those you see now. You can upload pictures, as well as post comments or messages to people....kind of like blogger, but you have to be someone's 'friend' (in Facebook terms, that is, accepted by that person online) to see their profile, pictures, etc.

Anyway, I hadn't seen my friend Maureen in ages....probably 5 years. I have known her since nursery school in 1978, and we travelled the whole educational voyage together in our small town. She was my best friend for many of those years, our 'attached at the hip' status only fading during high school as friendships sometimes do. She found me on Facebook, and has posted a bunch of old pictures of herself dating from 1979....and guess who's best friend was always in these pictures?? Little moi, of course. I remember us spending a whole lot of time together, but I had no idea there were so many pictures! I guess her mom took a lot. It was really interesting to go through her collection. Maybe I'll post some more later.

But for now, in the interest of time (I have class tonight, and am already brain dead from reading 3 impossible-to-understand journal articles), I have one of our Kindergarten class of 1980 with nasty old Mrs. O (that's what we'll call her). I remember that classroom well, and every one of its toys, play areas, and curiosities. To me, Mrs. O. looks so young in this picture, but she seemed so old to 4 year-old me! Like with Gypsy's childhood picture, I don't remember our teacher as being all that nice...in fact, I could tell stories of then that would certainly get her fired today if she were still teaching. Seriously. I guess you could get away with being nasty to kids back then by calling it a 'disciplinarian' teaching style.

Anyway, I challenge my readers: where is little old me in this picture? Does anyone know? There aren't very many classmates, so it shouldn't be too hard to tell.....

Christmas in September

2007-09-04T13:28:00.000-04:00

I'm quite happy with the way my holly berry bushes are showing their red berries. I thought from my research that these berries ripen in the fall....oh, wait, it's pretty close to fall, isn't it?? When I bought these plants, they had some red berries on the bottom and loads of green ones on top. Now, the first red ones have disappeared, and the green ones have turned red, much to my delight. Will they be red in December for Christmas, though?! We'll see, I guess....if those sneaky crows don't get at them first!

It's cooler out today, nice early fall weather. I think I shall do my typical autumn activity and make some homemade applesauce from fresh September apples this afternoon. Classes don't start for another 2 days, so I have some time to act Martha Stewart-y!

An Interlude in the T.O.

2007-08-28T17:48:00.000-04:00

We had a nice weekend in Toronto. Again...another kind of last minute trip. With wallet in hand, ready for the Eaton Centre and Yorkville, we headed out. Unfortunately, the skyline looked like the photo above for a lot of the weekend, but what can you do? No matter what the weather, anything to get out of boring Ottawa is fine by me! Oh yes, and by the way, I have no pictures of my own because (let's say it together now), 'I forgot my camera'. Yes.....again.

Of course, the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) is on, and we haven't gone in a few years, so wanted to do that. The CNE (or 'Ex' as it is known for those who aren't from Canada) is a 2 week gigantic fair kind of thing (for lack of a better word), with rides, concerts, and interetsting sights, and the infamous food building filled with every which culture of food you can think of (where David would sleep if they would let him). They have crafts for sale, an international building with things for sale from all over the world, as well as some exhibitions on new and innovative products. Actually, when the Ex first began, it was held to exhibit new things. Perhaps now it's turned into more of a flea market?? With parking it cost $48.00 to get in...like paying money to spend more money, because you can't help but spend money when you get in there. Still enjoyable, though. I got these awesome hair clips that are supposed to be from South Africa, and we found a gramophone, which was just about the coolest thing I have ever seen, and we just had to have to put in our front music room. It actually plays, which is awesome. I would take a video of it to post, but the only record we got with it was some old 78 of incredibly high-pitched Indian music, and believe me, it sounds quite awful. I think I shall wait to video it until I have found a different 78!

Anyway, we enjoyed our stint at the Ex on Friday night, and went for the shopping on Saturday. I got a *few* things....I had $150 worth of gift cards to Sephora (make up and skin care store), so I had to use those, and of course, there is that new Coach store in the Eaton Centre....well, I couldn't help it when a bag and shoes jumped right into my hands, could I?? *L* I headed up to Yorkville for the high end shopping, while David walked to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the new crystal addition they have (which I hate, and I think looks ridiculous, but what can you do?). Sorry to the Torontonians who happen to like this monstrosity, but, like, it's this huge, modern addition thrown onto this beautiful old building that completely hogs all the attention off the whole street, and completely ruins the old architecture.....well, here is a picture......yuck. I'm sure it's not too late to set it on fire and collect the insurance money!

We ended up heading up north to another mall on Saturday evening (no, I never get sick of shopping!), and then over to a salad bar/restaurent I used to frequent when I lived in Toronto. Awesome salad bar (but my opinion may be skewed, as we lack even one salad bar-type restaurant in Ottawa!).

Sunday, we stopped in at a family friend's house on the way out of town and ended up staying until 5:00pm. That made for a late night getting home 4 hours later, but well worth the visit!

Here is our gramophone......I must say, Sam and Lulu were not impressed by the music it produces! Perhaps because there is no volume, it now rivals the vacuum for the title of 'mortal enemy'. I think chucking that horrible record may help too. *L*

Back to School

2007-08-21T16:22:00.001-04:00

Well, it's that time of year again....except I'm still the student, not the teacher! I have been trying this past week to get my registration in, buy a few textbooks, and settle my parking pass with the university. This university being what it is, that's not easy, let me tell you. When I brought in my registration sheet for my courses, there was this whole other process and paper that needed signing by my advisor AND the faculty director that they just 'forgot' to tell me about. It was a mad rush to get my advisor's signature before he left on 2 weeks vacation. God forbid the administration keep their student informed when they send out the registration packages!! Unfortunately for anyone dealing with admin, they hire people who speak French first, not the people who would necessarily be good for the job - there, I've said it. They are not ALL bad, but the scale weighs a little heavy on the 'problems and maddening incidents' side when you deal with them. I was not impressed with this whole registration fiasco, but then, I have learned over the years to expect nothing less that that from them.

I have no idea how much work or stress to expect from this degree. I am supposed to also get a research assistantship with a professor (or multiple professors), but those jobs aren't posted yet. Apparently, since having a job is guaranteed as part of my scholarship, I am guaranteed the money, even if no job is available, which is totally sweet.

I am working my way through the last 5 days of work. I have 2 days off this week, and a 4 day week next week, and then, so long suckers! Seeing as not a whole lot of people talk to me anyway, and 2 people I know are going on vacation during my last week, I'm sure that will make for a quick departure. It will be interesting to see if the managers bother to give me a card or a little going away gift. People who have worked there a MUCH shorter time than me have gotten these things with a nice little send off. One guy I trained with took off after 6 months and he got wine, card, gift card, the whole bit. I've been there over a year and a half. I'm not saying that because I want a gift so much, but it would just indicate how much they appreciate me (or not). Considering I'm one of their top people, you'd think they would show a bit of appreciation...but then again, there are a lot of things you might think about working there that don't happen. Oh well.

So, for now, I can enjoy a few days of shameless internet surfing when I get home, and lounging in the evening before I have to dive headfirst into time consuming readings and papers again. When that happens, I will just keep in my mind that Christmas break will come soon.....*L*

My First Robot

2007-08-12T15:09:00.000-04:00

We have been doing way too much spur of the moment shopping lately....wait, did I say way too much? I meant just the right amount. :) Besides this digital camera, we also have purchased a new laptop (in pink...think I mentioned it before), and yesterday we bought a new flat-screen LCD HD television. Our old one was on the way out with regards to colour and volume, having been purchased 10 years ago at the now defunct Adventure Electronics on Yonge St. in Toronto (floor model at that). The VCR I bought with that original TV bit the dust long ago.

The most odd purchase has been the Roomba, which is a robotic vacuum cleaner. Some people have heard of it, and some haven't, but it is totally awesome. It is literally a little robot that wanders around the room vacuuming while you sit on the couch watching it. It's like being in an episode of the Jetsons. It has a strange non-symmetrical wandering pattern, but if you just leave it alone for about a half an hour, it eventually vacuums the whole room over approximately 4-5 times. Talk about clean. I wondered at first whether it would pick up cat hair and the like (since it's so small), but it does a fabulous job of picking up everything, including getting underneath beds and tables where a regular vacuum can't. I couldn't believe my eyes at all the dirt, hair, dust, lint, whatever, when I emptied its cannister after just 2 uses! When it thinks it's running out of power, it wanders back to its docking station to charge itself. How cool is that?!?

Sam and Lulu have been eyeing this strange self-propelling creature as it has done its rounds for the last 2 days, but they are ok with it...which is in stark contrast to their 'mortal enemy' feelings on the regular vacuum cleaner. Roomba isn't nearly as loud as a regular vacuum, so I guess it gets in their good books that way. It gets in my good books in that particles don't come shooting out the back when it vacuums like they do with my regular Kenmore vacuum.

I don't know how many people can actually see my videos (if you have dial up internet), but here is Roomba. Sam has taken a seemingly safe lookout point on the chair to keep an eye on this thing....yes, he looks like a bearskin rug the way he sits with half his legs hanging over one side of the chair and half over the other side. :)

"Whispering"

2007-08-03T18:00:00.000-04:00

Me and the videocamera.

Movie Testing

2007-07-28T11:01:00.000-04:00

We got a new digital camera this week. Our old one was Canon, and was state of the art when we bought it almost 6 years ago, but now has a battery life of about 5 minutes. This new one is Sony, and it comes with a movie feature, which is very cool. I hope it posts ok. Sammy, of course, in his lazy Saturday morning mood, is the star of the show. *L*

What??

2007-07-22T10:35:00.000-04:00

Hmm...Miss Lulu has apparently found a new spot to sit...and off-limits spot! I coudn't believe it when I saw her jump up onto this little table the other day that I had to take a picture. The look on her face is priceles....bold, like, "What? Do you have a problem?" *L* Bad girl!!

One more 4 day work week for me, and then I have taken a vacation day for each week in August, so all 3 day work weeks until the end....

Sad days.....

It makes for long, sad workweeks when no-one talks to me at all, like I am not even there, like no one, not even my managers, would notice if I didn't show up at all.

Friends I thought I had before treat me differently, like an outcast, ignore me, because I am in school, going someplace, not staying there in that horrible job like they are, to suffer and whine and complain day in and day out about the job, yet content to be miserable, never trying to attain anything better, yet green with envy and bitterness when someone else does.

How depressing that I should be so punished for trying, working really hard to make something more of myself, and yet I have never pointed this out to anyone, never tried to seem better, never done anything but smile and do my work as I am supposed to.

Sometimes I think I'm back in high school, the way people act in that office. Oh, the sweet last day ever of working there, coming soon...I have dreamed about you for so long.....!

Flowering

2007-07-15T09:46:00.000-04:00

Not much happening this week. Here is the Hydrandea I planted - it had nothing when we did the garden, just green leaves, and now look! I think it is so exciting when something blooms like that. I always half expect everything I plant to die.

It's been cool and rainy here in the last week...which is fine with me. No watering the lawn, and we can sleep with the window open! I don't think I have ever slept with the window open in July since I've had air conditioning. How refreshing!

My latest acquisition is a brand new laptop computer for school in September. I'm still waiting for it to be delivered. I figured if I can get Wi-Fi internet at school, I'll be able to surf the internet during boring classes! Hahaha. Well, seriously, it's just better to have one...they do have a computer lab in my building, but it's often closed for tutorials and such, leaving only 6 computers for, like, 2000 people in that faculty. Plus, I'll be having to write a thesis, so.....laptop it is! And what colour is my laptop? Why, it's pink, of course, like my Hydrangea! :)

Pfaltz-Crap

2007-07-07T09:12:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I've been M.I.A. from blogger for a couple of weeks. I've been at work, and every waking second that I'm not at work is spent on that stupid course...whch has turned out to be WAY more work that it's worth, but I'm half done now, so whatever, I guess. I suppose they have to justify charging you $960 by making it a lot of repetitive work.

So, my latest beef is about dishes. Above you see our current pattern, French Quarter by Pfaltzgraff. Now, as far as I knew, Pfaltzgraff was supposed to be a high quality product. They have been around for years, and are very popular in the U.S. In fact, after seeing my aunt's dishes the year we were moving into our new house, we bought a 12 place setting set of French Quarter down in North Carolina at the local Pfaltzgraff store. They weren't cheap - I think with the exchange the way it was then, they probably cost us $400. But that was ok. Never having 'nice' dishes before this, I was thrilled to have a nice pattern to go with my new house.

Well. As you can see in the picture, the plates started to scratch as soon as we began to use them. I noticed it, and thought that maybe since we bought them at an outlet, there had been something wrong with them? They looked terrible, having gray scratches all over the plates and bowls from our flatware. It looked like a child had taken a pencil and scribbled all over them. Every time we ate, more scratches appeared. It irritated me, but I tried to ignore it, anyway....until our trip a couple of months ago.

We stayed with my aunt's mother-in-law in Maryland the weekend we were going to attend my cousin's wedding (before we went to the beach). She brought out her plates for our dinner, and yes, I remembered that she had exactly the same plates as I did, same pattern, and had bought them around the same time. But wait - hers didn't have a scratch on them! What the heck? It was so noticable to me, having looked at marred dishes for the past 3 years. What was going on?

I searched the Pfaltzgraff website, only to find a disclaimer hidden deep, deeeeeeeep inside that said some plates may scratch with certain flatware. First of all, shouldn't they mention this BEFORE you buy the dishes? We have pricey enough flatware - Oneida, in a pattern I love - so I was surprised that it would be the cause. They suggested a cleaner they make specifically for this scratching problem, and so I ran out and bought some. $10.00 for a tiny bottle. Figures.

Well. The cleaner didn't work in the recommended amount of time you're supposed to leave it on the dishes, so I had to leave it on for double that time (half an hour each dish). Then I had to scrub and scrub them with paper towels (maybe 10 minutes each dish- a heck of a lot of work) until the gray marks began to fade. Don't scrub with water running, as it doesn't work then. Don't put too little cleaner on, because it won't work then either. God. I was getting more annoyed with each dish. Since we have a 12 piece set, that was 24 dishes I had to do (all dinner plates and bowls), and since a bowl is shaped like a bowl, it was impossible to get the cleaner to 'sit on' the top of the edges, because it would run back down into the bowl. Arg. One bottle of $10.00 cleaner gone and I wasn't even half done the dishes. And note also, that the picture above is of a dish AFTER I had cleaned it with that stuff and we had eaten off of it a couple of times. Think of how it looked after 3 years of use before I cleaned them. Not to mention the pattern is also peeling off in places, and some dishes developed weird tiny patches of 'rust' on them.

So, I decided to phone Pfaltzgraff. Of course, why would I expect anything more that the typical poor service we get today from any company, and the anticipated 'not our fault' reply? "Oh, that's the type of glaze we use," they said. "You have to use our cleaner," they said. "I used the cleaner," I said, "It takes forever to clean." She completely ignored me when I told her about the pattern coming off. She suggested I leave the cleaner sit on the dishes until it dried and peel it off...how was I supposed to do that with bowls, I wondered? Fill a whole bowl with an entire bottle of your $10.00 cleaner and do that 12 times with 12 bottles of cleaner? This was getting stupider by the second. There was no 'oh, we'll replace your dishes because there is obviously something wrong with them', or 'we care about our customers, and we're sorry your dishes look terrible'. God forbid they admit they sold something that, in my estimation, is defective or not properly glazed. Something that is of high quality would not scratch like that in the first place. What a rip off.

Anyway, enough with that, seeing how the scratches came right back after they were cleaned, I was not about to scrub these friggin' dishes once a month, let alone after every meal. We were going to get rid of our dishes. It's funny how only after you have such an experience, you hear from others who have had the same experience. I started to research different brands of dishes, in a quest to find one that would last us for years without problems. I was keen on Denby, and one day was searching through the internet to read reviews others had of Denby dishes. I happened to find a guy who wrote that he had purchased Denby dishes after a traumatic experience with Pfaltzgraff, dishes scratching, chipping, and even breaking in half in the microwave after 2 years of use. Wish I had known that before I bought them!

So, we finally decided on Denby's Blue Jetty and Blue Jetty Water pattern. They are about 5 times the price of Pfaltzgraff, but after reading about them extensively, I am convinced these dishes will last through many years of happy dinners without a problem. They have something like 7 glazes on them, which are supposedly tougher than steel, and so no worries. Upon buying the first 4 place settings, the lady at the store also told me things about Pfaltzgraff, like they don't finish their edges properly and so if you soak them, water gets right into the clay and ruins them. Nice. Again, why didn't anybody tell me this earlier?? C'est la vie for me, I guess. But be forewarned, any of you thinking of going the Pfaltzgraff way!

We are very happy with our Denby Blue Jetty. Aren't they pretty?

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot.....

2007-06-27T16:14:00.000-04:00

Check out the 'feels like' row. God, I hope this isn't an indication of how the rest of the summer will go! Stupid global warming. You benefitted me during the winter, but now you turn on me like a German Shepherd....

In addition to still having a job, I've started my online course for the summer - my Intermediate ABQ (I'll speak in acronyms so only Anne-Marie knows what I'm talking about *L*). ABQs give you extra qualifications in teaching (Additional Basic Qualifications), and since I am qualified to teach up to Grade 6 (12 year olds), now the additional qualifications will let me teach up to Grade 10 (16 year olds). It is so far very interesting, but a lot more work than I expected!! Yikes - I have to pull up my socks after being academically lax over the past couple of months. I guess it's better to pull up my socks now than have to go from relaxed to wired the first week of my Masters.....

Only one more work day for me, and we all have a long weekend in Canada for Canada Day. Keep cool!!

Evil Business

2007-06-20T16:42:00.001-04:00

So since January, they have been 'restructuring' our unit at work, and 'reassigning some roles'. You know...phrases such as "I'll flip you an e-mail", or "let's touch base", all that coded corporate crap. In the last month or so, they have been saying that maybe they would need 'less roles' in their newly restructured unit. A lot of people will skip over that cleverly coded phrase in the memo, but quite a few of us felt the chill down our spines and knew exactly what that meant. God, that's all I need is to be laid off from a job I'm only going to be at until the end of summer, making it 3 times in 5 years that I have been laid off...I mean WHO does that happen to?? 3 times in 5 years?? What kind of luck is that?

Not that it would be terrible. I mean, it's only a couple of months....2.5 months to be exact....and we don't depend on my tiny income for bills and such, but still, I'm going to have to pay $1000 alone for parking when I start school, and who knows when I'll be working again for my scholarship, so, you know, money is always a good thing. Besides, what is worse is that it always hurts like a knife in your chest to hear that a company you've worked your butt off for and dedicated yourself to just doesn't want you around anymore. Trust me - as aforementioned, I've heard it twice already, and no matter what the logical corporate reasoning is, it always stabs deeply.

So, last week we knew it was coming this week. This week, people at work have been very tense and stressed. It has been hard to work with the tension in the air, not knowing who, or when or how many. Monday....will I last the week? Tuesday....will they start today? Wednesday....will I be coming to work tomorrow?..... For me, I had a couple of theories for a yay or nay. I do probably the most claims per day of anyone in my office with a fabulous claim to error ratio, and I have a specialty task of re-doing claims that others have screwed up, or others don't know how to do. So, would they keep me for that? If I think the other way, they know I'm leaving at the end of August for good, so why not get rid of me when everyone else is going too? If they are trying to come up with a set group of people for the long run, where do I fit in?

Hmmmmm.....

Well, today the day came. Tight as wires in our chairs, we started to hear whispered snippets that people had been 'reassigned' yesterday and some people weren't too happy about it (by reassignments, I mean de-motions). But hey, better to be de-moted than to have no job at all, right? Then they started the lay offs early this morning, quietly sneaking up to the victims' desks and beckoning them with one, long, boney finger into the conference room. Victims allowed to get their purse/wallets at their desks afterwards, and shuffled right out the door without talking to anyone, lest they upset us. As if we didn't know what was going on. And again, everyone was up for bids - nobody knew who would be and who wouldn't be gone.

So, what of me? It's a strange, surreal feeling to watch over your shoulder the whole day, like in slow motion, feeling unsafe, waiting to see the assistant come for you, kind of like Anne Boelyn waiting for her time on the block, but mercifully for me, nobody ever came. Later in the day, my manager took me aside and explained that I was safe for my duration - until the end of August when I am leaving anyway. *exhale long sigh here* Many people I know weren't safe, though, and their time of gainful employment comes to an end. We do not yet know how many...maybe they will tell us tomorrow. The worst part is that some of these people have been there 20 years or more, and are being told to come back and work for another 2 weeks, and that's it. Many of these people are women who have no other income, who have no husbands, and who barely make do as it is. I am assuming there is no further compensation in the form of severence pay. Of course, as cold and heartless as this is, it does not surprise me in the least. Maybe I am wrong about that? I hope so.

So tonight, dear bloggers, I breathe a sigh of relief from 2 weeks of feeling the tension and stress of those less fortunate than me coming to work from sleepless nights, frantically wondering what they will do, where they will go, how they will pay the bills should the terrible happen to them. And now I can say, for the first time since I started that job, that I am more than happy to be welcomed back into work tomorrow.

Garden

2007-06-13T17:16:00.001-04:00

Well, here is our finished work from all the planting last weekend. It doesn't look like much in the pictures, but having to dig the whole thing from scratch was quite the job. The backs of my legs are still sore today.....of course, David did most (ok, all) of the digging, and I only did some planting and scattering of woodchips, but still. I'm not cut out for manual labour, as they say. :)

Here is a rather odd viewpoint of the brick walkway David put in 2 weekends ago, and the holly berry bushes that I planted to line it. As you can see, we also have solar lights, which look pretty when nighttime comes. We put down woodchips to cover the ground, which gives everything a finishing touch.

Here is the garden in front of the porch. Again, small, but a lot of work! I ended up with a Weigela bush (pink flowers to the left), 4 Rhodedendron plants (purple and pink...they are not flowering yet), a Hydrangia, 2 Hostas, 2 Bell Flower plants (purple plants to the front), some Pinks in the center, and some neat looking pointy purple plants called Speedwell. Our grass is looking a bit haggard after us stepping all over it all weekend, and the flowering plants are a bit traumatized from their re-planting experience, but it's all starting to regain its strength now.

Whew! I think that's all the gardening we have the taste for this year! Let's hope the plants actually grow and I don't kill them in some way!

Graduation Day

2007-06-08T16:28:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally officially have my degree. Graduation Day was on Wednesday, but I opted out of the actual ceremony this time. I don't know...I debated for weeks about going, but it seems like a lot of waiting around, lining up, sitting down, standing up, sitting again, etc., for my 8 seconds on stage. That's all I remember from the last one. I'll catch them next time around for the Masters.

I got my degree in the mail today, which was nice. I got Summa Cum Laude, which was great! I remember always worrying about it last time, whether I'd get Summa or Magna, but I hadn't even thought about it this time, so it was a nice surprise.

Now onto bigger and better things. :)

I'm back to work....*yawn*. Since it's only for 4 days a week now, it doesn't seem as nauseating as when I was full time, but, mind you, my back still kills me there every day, and I quickly grow weary of the repetitive nature of the job. I guess that's why they call it 'work' and not 'fun'. *L*

My current project is researching plants to line a small walkway we have, as well as for a garden in front of our porch. David replaced some concrete patio stones on this walkway with nice interlocking bricks of red and charcoal last weekend, and it looks wonderful! Now, I know NOTHING about plants and such (it's all I can do to keep houseplants from being eaten by Sam) and neither does David (he waters the plant in his office with coffee), so this process of picking things out is a big endeavour for me. I bought 2 books on plants in Ontario to try to pick something half decent that wouldn't shrivel up and die in the winter. I decided on Holly Berry shrubs to line the walkway, as they will grow into a nice border that can be trimmed, and will show pretty red berries during summer and fall. I hope they will look nice and serve their purpose. For the garden, I have chosen some Rhodedendron, Peonies, Hostas, Foxgloves, and perhaps some Phlox....a plant that I had never heard of before reading those books. Ok, I'd never heard of Hostas either. I'm still trying to find a plant to go at the corner of the garden as kind of a cornerstone plant...bigger than the rest, but something that will be compact in width, and not grow past, maybe 4 or 5 feet. Some type of flowers on this plant is preferable, and it must be able to withstand a winter. Any ideas from the avid gardeners out there?? Anyone??

Well, it's sweltering hot out today, so I have passed on going back into town for more plants...forget it, it can wait until tomorrow. Maybe it'll be cooler then?? Unfortunately, I'll be saying that all summer long!! :)

More...

2007-06-02T09:43:00.000-04:00

Here are some more leftover pictures from the trip....from the old-fashioned camera. I warn you, they aren't very exciting!! The whole benefit from having a digital camera is that you can erase what you think is terrible, rather than develop them and have the printed forevermore. *L* Well, anything I don't deem worthy goes right in the trash anyway. These ones are pretty good...

We thought it would be neat to buy a kite and fly it on Jockey's Ridge. Jockey's Ridge is one of the largest transient sand dunes in the country. By transient, I mean the wind blows it, and so it shifts it's position by a few or many feet every now and then. They often have to use snow plows to plow the blowing sand off the main highway. Anyone can climb the dune (which is enormous) and hang glide off of it, fly a kite, get a view, whatever. Anyway, just a bit of trivia. Now after all that, we didn't get the chance to go to Jockey's Ridge this time around, so we flew the kite on the beach instead. So, here is David on the beach in front of our hotel, in his first attempt EVER at flying a kite. Later on, his attempt went sour when the abundance of string entangled in the long kite tail, and we spent the next 30 minutes untangling it, which resulted in a sunburn on my shoulder. Oh well. Memories. *L*

One last look at the North Carolina beach before heading inland to Raleigh....*le sigh*

Here are a couple of photos of my aunt's beautiful house in Raleigh. It is so tastefully decorated and painstakingly neat and tidy, just as my Grandmother's house (her mom's) always was.

Now, Raleigh, N.C., doesn't have a whole lot to do. I guess there are Civil War sites around, but ho-hum. There is tons of shopping, however, which you know always keeps me busy. But the highlight of the shopping experience was visiting Hoy Auction House to see what they were selling. This is only a small auction house, and the auction is only on every couple of weeks, and lucky us, it happened to be on the weekend we were there! My aunt and uncle go regularly, and know the auctioneer and all his employees. I had never been to an auction before, but it was so cool! The auctioneer is this large, North Carolina country boy, and his wife works the computer. Throughout the auction, this guy does that typical auctioneer bit - the speed-of-light way of talking, never stopping, all in thick, N.C. accent. It was *crazy*. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I've never seen anything like it in my life, and I had to hold back my laughter because it was so strangely interesting.

Anyhow, there is a certain creepy quality to the items, as they are all estate items...like, you don't want to buy the blanket some old lady died in or anything. However, during the initial viewing of items about 2 hours prior to the auction, I had seen a couple of things I was interested in - a box full of 12 pretty holiday wine glasses with gold rims in pristine condition, and an antique wooden hand-held fan. My uncle was thrilled...*thrilled*... to bring me back for the auction and bid for me. He lives for this stuff. Good thing he was bidding, since I had no idea what the auctioneer was saying half the time. Well, I ended up with my pretty glasses, all for $5.00, and I also got my fan (with a couple of other little items they had to add to make it a worthwhile lot - a nice cut glass pickle dish, and a bronze and glass trinket box), also for $5.00. How exciting! You can't beat that for shopping suspense!!

These last two are in Atlantic City, in our hotel room. There was this candy store where you can pick your colour of M&M's, flavour of jelly beans, or whatever, and buy them by weight. A tourist trap, no doubt, and ridiculously expensive, even if they do have unheard of colours and flavours. But, it sucked these tourists in, and I just had to get a bag of pink M&M's to snack on while I relaxed in our fancy room. :)

Auctions and pink M&M's...the stuff of memories. *L*

Back Home

2007-05-25T18:22:00.000-04:00

*le sigh* I start back to work on Monday. Quelle drag. I've had a productive couple of days since we got back, though, doing groceries, picking out and planting this season's flowers for the front and back of the house. It's been so hot here, so mostly I've enjoyed laying around in the air conditioning. :)

Here are some pictures of our trip.....though David took a lot more on one of those *old fashioned* cameras that you have to take in to be developed!! So, I don't have them all yet.

Here is the sunrise over the Atlantic from our hotel room in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The town we always stay in sports the curious name of Kill Devil Hills. Kind of looks like a sunset instead, doesn't it? Anyway, I typically don't sleep well the first night in a strange bed, and was awake the first day for the 5:00am rising.

Ahhh...the beach.

We ordered in some food one night. I had some of the best pizza I've ever had, and Mr. Crabby here ordered in some fresh tentacles. As you all know, if it ever lived in the wet, I don't eat it, but David loves this stuff. He got his food from a really neat restaurant called Dirty Dicks. Their slogan, plastered all over t-shirts and hats at the beach is "I Got my Crabs From Dirty Dicks", complete with the cartooned image of a dirty looking, crazed redneck-type, unshaven guy in overalls. *LOL* Of course, when we get back home, people who don't know the restaurant initially think you're some kind of pervert after readig the t-shirt. They also have a new mascot, a sexy 1950's siren cartoon shrimp in a pink coat called Shrimplee D'Licious. *LOL* They are a very creative bunch. Anyway, it was a heavenly meal for both...I mean for me and David....not so much for the crab. *L*

And now I shall skip the whole trip to Raleigh to see my aunt, which I think is stranded on that old-fashioned camera....

Here is AC (Atlantic City, New Jersey):

These two are the view from our hotel room. I couldn't believe the beautiful room we got, considering we took advantage of a deal that came in the mail and included a breakfast buffet each morning, normally costing $45.00 for 2 people. Anyway, we were one floor down from the penthouse, and it was great to wake up to this view each morning.

For those who don't know AC, it started out as a beach getaway spot at the beginning of the 20th century, and has now turned into a gambling mecca, filled with glitzy casinos, and, more recently, a crapload of shopping. That's the part I like! :) It's kind of like Las Vegas "lite", and with the ocean, sans the desert. The first time we went here in 2002 (I think), besides the casinos, the city was, frankly, a dump, and I was very disappointed. Now, however, there has been so much progress and building up of everything that it's the place to be. Of course, there is the famous boardwalk, and the streets that meet the boardwalk are for what all the properties in the game Monopoly are named.

Anyway, in the city view, I find it interesting (or ironic) to see (once again) the American dichotomy of poor vs. rich, which exists, as always, side by side - the elaborate wealth of the casinos (which indeed sport the Trump name and brand in huge red letters, which you can see if you enlarge the photo) right next to the poverty of the fairly run-down lower working class people's homes. Strange.

On the boardwalk....

Near the ocean.....

I found it interesting to notice how diferent the 2 beaches are (something I had never noticed before). The beach in North Carolina is not so wide, and is quite sloped down into the ocean, so that if you stand near it, hoping for a wave to gently wash around your ankles, the waves end up being so strong they almost suck you down with them. On the contrary, the beach in AC is so wide and flat that the waves meander their way in so gently, like bathwater slowly filling up the area of a tub. I would have thought these beaches, which are on the same coast, and only about an 8 hour drive from one another, would be more similar. I guess you learn something new every day. :)

Here is a pretty view of the Adirondack Mountains in New York state, which we drove through on the way home.

Hopefully there will be more pics to come! Sorry I haven't been around to everyone's blog....it will take a bit to get back into the swing of things. :)

A Note from Paradise

2007-05-18T11:22:00.000-04:00

Ok, sorry folks, I haven't had a computer for the last week and a half or so. Now that we are here in Raleigh, North Carolina at my aunt and uncle's home, we have internet access. It was like living in the dark ages without it!

Anyway, this is just a quickie. We are thoroughly enjoying our vacation down south. We spent last weekend in Maryland at the lovely house of my aunt's mother-in-law, and attended my cousin's beautiful wedding. You know, some wedding you go to and wonder what were they thinking with regards to the dresses, or the service, or the reception? This wedding was truly wonderful, and it comes a close second to our own wedding in my line of memorable events. That was a busy weekend, and served to make us feel as though we had already been away a week, when it had only been 3 days (which is fine with me, as the longer I feel I have been away, the better). We travelled down to the Outer Banks in North Carolina (a.k.a. the beach), and between the shopping, southern cuisine, and beach bumming, had so much fun that we stayed an extra night. I have been going there for about 15 years, and it's one of my favourite spots. Hopefully when I get home I will have some pictures, but this computer with its dial-up access, is unfortunately not equipped for such things as timely uploads. Anyhow, we drove to Raleigh yesterday afternoon, and are now all settled in for the next few days with my aunt and uncle. And, might I add, what a beautiful house they have! They recently moved here from the beach, and we hadn't yet been down to see the house they built. It is truly gorgeous, about the same size as our own house, but with all tasteful accents and southern decor that is typical of my aunt.

Next stop, Atlantic City and more beach bumming for me. So far, my SPF 45 has been good to my fair, flammable complexion, except for my right shoulder, which seemed to lack enough lotion to avoid a burn on Wednesday. Or maybe it was the almost 4 hours I spent lying on the beach that was the problem. *L* Ah, well, I'm not complaining!! I had forgotten how much I love being at this particular beach. So much to do...or not do, as the case may be. :)

Water Water Everywhere

2007-05-08T16:10:00.000-04:00

In my unending quest to entertain myself during my relaxing week, I decided on Monday to water the lawn. This is not typically my job.....David is the general lawn-waterer, mower, caretaker, etc. But, since David is away on business, and I had a whole day of beautiful weather ahead of me, I thought I'd address this odd brown patch of grass in the backyard so he wouldn't have to do it when he gets back. I'm not sure why we have this dry patch, since our neighbours, if they have such patches, don't seem to have them as big as ours, but anyway, what can you do? So, I thought I'd haul ye old gardening hose out from its winter slumber in the garage, through the house, to the backyard to water.

After hauling out said hose (gee, hoses are quite heavy, aren't they?!), I searched for the sprinkler for the end of it. Oh - it was still attached - great! No pesky searching for the right tool. I hooked up the hose to the outside water spout, and set the sprinkler out onto the brown patch, turned on the water, and watched it go.

Feeling a great sense of self-satisfaction at my handiwork, I returned to the house to check my e-mail, surf the internet, eat lunch, whatever. I proceeded to do such sweet nothings, figuring I'd water the part of the patch I'd started with for about 1/2 hour before I'd go out and move the sprinkler head over a bit to catch the rest of the patch. Then I'd water our little trees and the tulips coming up in the yard. Ha. A full afternoon's work to keep me busy. Who says staying home is a waste of time?

After surfing a bit, I decided to go back downstairs (for our computer room is on the second floor) and heat up the oven for some pizza for lunch. I walked down the stairs and right by the door leading to the basement. I slowed, curious. What's that I heard? Such a strange noise coming from the basement....almost like water...falling onto....a.....floor....?? Huh?? Please God, no. I pounded down the basement stairs toward the sound, only to be greeted by water pooling everywhere on the concrete floor, snaking its way down along one whole side of the house! AH!! What's happening, I thought?? Horrified, I raced back upstairs and out the back patio door to shut off the sprinkler. I raced back downstairs to see if the falling water had stopped, and it had. Luckily, our basement is not 'finished' - it's currently only used for storage, so there was no wet carpet. However, I was left with a substantial flood of water to clean up by myself. Did I mention I only own one 9-year old sponge mop?

So, I immediately put in an emergency call to my Saviour for anything home or car related - my father. "I don't know what happened! I don't know what to do!!", I moaned, close to tears. Dad had me explain exactly what I did, and what had happened, and he came to the informed conclusion that our pipe leading out to the outside water spigot had frozen and split during the winter. We *did* empty it properly at the end of last summer, so I don't know how there was water left in it to freeze and cause the split, but apparently, there was. "Well, there isn't anything you can do about it now - better just try to clean up the water", he advised. Groan. Luckily, my parents are coming to stay at our house for the night after we go on vacation, since they are coming to see a concert in Ottawa. Dad said he'd look at it then, and try to fix it. Shoulders slumped, I shuffled back down to the basement for an hour and a half of trying to suck up water with my little sponge mop. So much for trying to do a good thing by watering the lawn!

Ever the inventor of alternate solution, Dad told me to go get an attachment for the basement sink at the store, so I could run the hose out the basement window and still do my lawn care, so that's what I did, and it worked out well. Not one broken nail from prying open the basement window either! I watered my little trees, tulips, and planted some grass seed in the dry patch. Though not nearly as convenient as having the tap right outside with me, at least not all was lost!

Today, the water is all cleaned up or evaporated, though the beams surrounding the leak are still wet, and I hope with all hope that Dad can replace that split connection in the basement when they come for their concert. I have no idea how to do that, and it looks like a daunting job to fix something through a wall, but Dad always has ways.

Word to the wise: even if you're not working, sometimes Mondays suck.

One Good, One Bad

2007-05-05T09:22:00.000-04:00

Well, in response to Val's request for a new post, here it is. *L* The truth is I don't have a lot to say this week. It's been a quiet week, seeing as I'm at home all the time. Not that that's a bad thing, but with my mind used to racing through readings, pounding out assignments, and coordinating my work and school schedule, it's odd to suddenly come to a dead stop. Each morning, my brain addresses me with a skeptical, "So....what are you going to entertain me with TODAY??" Hmmm...that's always the question. Reading for pleasure has become my partial entertainment, and I have now started the book Memoirs of a Geisha, which is proving itself a most interesting read. I always like to read the book before I see the movie.

Yesterday, I lunched with a friend of mine from school. We have a lot of time on our hands, as neither of us is working or in school....so for the time being, we are of the 'ladies who lunch' crowd. *L* After lunch, we lounged in her spacious backyard by her pool and played with her 2 adorable dogs, a King Shepherd named Caesar and a White Shepherd named Lucy. I have always liked bigger dogs, and certainly Caesar does not disappoint, with a monstrous head that will peer its two kind and gentle eyes into yours with centimeters to spare. It was a beautiful day out, perfect weather for sitting out and doing nothing.

This weekend, David will leave for another business trip in Boston. Originally, while he was away, I had planned on hosting a Pampered Chef party for a friend who has just become a Pampered Chef consultant. For those of you who haven't heard of Pampered Chef, it's a party one hosts to sell interesting cookware and gadgets. A consultant comes to your home, and depending on how much your guests buy from her, you get additional discounts on stuff you want. I've always liked their merchandise, so when my friend asked if I would host a party, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately, it becomes frustrating business when people accept your invitation, only to come up with an excuse later as to why they can't come. Arg. There are a couple of people in particular who I figured wouldn't disappoint, who cancelled at the last minute for stupid reasons. I am not impressed with them right now. If people don't want to come, I would rather they just say so, than string me along. Anyhow, needless to say, I had to cancel my Pampered Chef party. Quelle dommage.

Late this week, David will return from his trip, and the next day, we will take off for Maryland and my cousin's wedding. From there, we will head to the beach in North Carolina to soak up some sun, then inland to Raleigh to visit my aunt and uncle. No trip would be complete without stopping for some sinning in Atlantic City (well...it's not ME who sins, as I don't gamble, but prefer to just sit on the beach or shop), and then back home again. I hope it will be a fun trip, as I haven't been away in a looooooong time!!