Score!

I managed to score some sausage at No Frills. Trust me, it’s not what you think.

Is it just me or have groceries become stupidly expensive? This is why when stores like No Frills have a dollar sale people go crazy. The daughter and I went yesterday and there were no carts available out front. I’ve never seen that happen before.

Inside the store was no place for claustrophobics. Wall to wall people who are not afraid to use their shopping carts as weapons. The sale is on for two weeks people. Is it really necessary to mow down little old ladies just to get a couple of inches closer to the one dollar bread?

The first time I went (on Saturday, my regular shopping day) they were already out of the turkeys, but they had some Oktoberfest sausage, package of five for a dollar. I got a couple of packs and we had them for supper on Monday night. Yum! The husband suggested we might like a couple of packages for the freezer so we could barbeque them in the summer, so I went back to the store on Tuesday.

Tuesday they didn’t have any sausage, but I ran into a relative of the husband who works there and she managed to score me a turkey. I guarded that sucker with my life because they hadn’t brought the rest of them out yet.

Then yesterday I went back with my daughter who’s in the process of moving and needed food for her new kitchen. Lots of turkeys there, so I bought two more. Then, when we were almost finished and were back tracking to find something we’d forgotten, a store employee with a shopping cart passed us.

Being the observant person I am, I said out loud: “Oh look, he’s bringing out sausage!”

Whereupon he stopped and with a note of resignation in his voice asked us how many packages we wanted. Score!

So now my cupboard is bursting with Liptons Side Kicks (both rice and pasta) and cans of ravioli and soup, my freezer is packed with turkey and sausage (though I restrained myself and did not bother with the Hot Stuffs or Bagel Bites), and the husband is going to have a cow when he sees my stock pile.

Wonder if there’s any room in the freezer for some beef?

Hump Day Randomness

Creepy! As I was typing about vampires on my other blog, I noticed these two eyes peering at me from inside the lower “house” on the cat tree. It was my daughter’s cat, Sammie, and because she’s dark and it’s dark inside the “house”, all I could see were these two glowing eyes. She may be tiny, but she’s got a lot of presence. I’m going to miss her when she’s moved into the apartment.

* * * * * * * * * *

I don’t know where the husband got the bouquet of mixed flowers he gave me for Valentine’s Day, but I must say I’m impressed with their staying power. There were two roses in the bouquet that died almost immediately, but the rest of them are still going strong.

* * * * * * * * * *

Whilst waiting for the husband to find the adaptor he needed at Canadian Tire the other day, I started looking a the display of seeds they had near the front door. When did seeds get so expensive? Four dollars for this tiny package of seeds is crazy! For three dollars, however, I managed to find a package of seeds for a cat garden.

Yes, I know I tried the cat garden thing before, but that was using potted plants chosen at random from what was left over at the stores. This has four different kinds that are chosen specifically for cats. At least I’ll be able to use the same planter as before, which is good. It looks kind of silly sitting there with just dirt and dead plants in it.

* * * * * * * * * *

The only upside to being unemployed is the chance to go back to school. Going back to school isn’t the problem, picking out what I want to go back to school for is. Do I want to just upgrade my skills to find a job like many I’ve had before, or do I want to try something completely different. I can’t shake the feeling that no matter what I choose it’ll be the wrong choice.

But I’m not being pessimistic, really. ;-)

Happy Monday

Even when I was working full time I often looked forward to Mondays. Why? Because the weekends are crammed with so much busy-ness and noise and having to be sociable that I'd look forward to work to have a break from the chaos. Of course work became a different kind of chaos, so in the end it didn't really help, but for a while it worked.

This weekend wasn't too chaotic but I made up for it by having a tenacious headache(which I still have) and a few digestive issues. My doctor's answer to my digestive issues is to send me to a specialist, whose office still hasn't called to give me an appointment. When I mentioned it to her she said: "Well, you know these surgeons, if you don't need anything cut out of you then they're not in a hurry."

This is the same doctor whose office I called in January to make the daughter an appointment and was given a date in April. Unfortunately, the date in question turned out to be the one day she couldn't go. When she called to change it she was told the next available appointment is June. JUNE! For crying out loud! I'm telling you, the health care in this town is crap!

Spent a lot of time working on the daughter's afghan this weekend. She'd like to see it on her bed while it's still cold enough to need it. We'll see how it goes. I've got it about a third of the way done - still need to do about 100 white squares and a lot of the sewing. But it gives me something to do in front of the television when I want to pay attention to what's on, but I don't want to just sit here doing nothing.

It's funny. I'm the first one to admit that I waste a lot of time, but I never waste it doing nothing. I have my T.V. crafts (crafts I do in front of the T.V. like crocheting, knitting, needlework) or I'll read a book or I'll have my lap top open. But I really hate doing nothing at all, especially in front of the television.

Hey, I never claimed to be sane.

End of the Week

I have a document file in my word processing program that I use to create the posts for my blogs in. There are two reasons for this. First, I’ve found that composing in the blogger window can get annoying if you need to cut and paste. And second, sometimes I come up with ideas for more than one post and I need some place to write it down so I don’t forget it.

The reason I’m mentioning this is because I opened this document and discovered one paragraph on the topic of books and art. I have absolutely no idea where the idea came from or where I was going with it. Which means it’ll get to sit there until I figure out what to do with it or get so fed up with trying to remember what I was talking about that I just delete it.

As I’m sure you can tell, not much has been happening in my little corner of the blogaverse.

I’ve been playing one of those nice, mindless games that don’t require much brain power while going over a new novel idea in my mind. Hey, it beats staring into space while I contemplate my ideas. Not that I really need a new one, I already have four projects on the go. What can I say, I’m a glutton for punishment.

Anyone catch the newest episode of Lost? I’m telling you, the imagination behind that show is absolutely mind-boggling. I can’t wait to see how they tie up all the loose ends once the series is finished. Not that I’m in any hurry for the series to be over.

The weather has been up and down lately - grey and dismal, then sunny and bright, unseasonably warm one day, snowing the next. This, of course, makes the cats crazy. Not that they’re the most sane of creatures to begin with, but changes in the weather tends to make them act a little crazier.

It’s been a while since I’ve offered a quiz, so to celebrate making it through another week, here it is:

You Are Rain

You can be warm and sexy. Or cold and unwelcoming. Either way, you slowly bring out the beauty around you. You are best known for: your touch Your dominant state: changing

What Type of Weather Are You?

What?

Tuesday? Really? I don’t know how the time keeps slipping away from me. Maybe it was because we just had a long weekend.

Yesterday was President’s Day for you Yanks, but for us Canuks it was Family Day. This is still a new enough holiday that people (and businesses) are confused about what’s open and what’s not. For instance, No Frills was closed, as were most stores and businesses (which means people got the day off), but we got mail delivery.

To celebrate Family Day, my nephew stopped off from Sunday to Monday on his way from Kingston to Toronto and other points westward. It was nice because I don’t see this nephew very often and he’s very allergic to the cats so any visit is bound to be a short one.

It was actually Monday when I started writing this post, but then I poured gravy on my left hand while dishing up supper last night (hot roast beef sandwiches). Can we say ouch? And since it was the hand holding the plate, I spent a few precious seconds trying to find a place to set the plate down before I could stick my hand under cold water. Did I mention ouch?

Fortunately, no serious damage was done. A couple of hours with a cold cloth on it and my hand was fine. See, I can type and everything. :-) Now, if only my internet would smarten up. It’s slowed down to a crawl and I had to power cycle before it would even load the home page.

Of course the problem might be my router, which is old and persnickety, but there’s not much I can do about that other than replace it (which I can't afford) because somehow or other I lost the password to get into it to check the settings. I wrote down the password for the new router, which is no longer working and was replaced by the old router. This is what comes from being a wuss and talking other people into setting up your router for you.

So, whether or not this post actually makes it up today will depend on my rusty technical support skills.

I'm doomed!

Odds 'N Ends

Seriously? I haven't updated since Tuesday? Guess that just shows how interesting life has been lately.

It's Friday the 13th. Anyone out there with Triskaidekaphobia? Personally, I've always found the number 13 to be lucky for me, but it could just be my imagination.

The highlight of the week was this morning when the plumbing guys came and installed our new water heater. Yah! No more cold showers and rusty baths!

Today was nice and sunny but the last few days were warm, grey and rainy. Which means, of course, all that snow we've got from the last few weeks has melted right into our basement. Water, water, everywhere - bah! humbug!

The daughter had the day off yesterday so we spend the day having a Gilmore Girls marathon. When the show first aired we used to watch it together on Tuesday nights (I think) as a mother/daughter bonding ritual. I'm happy to say it hasn't lost it's appeal, at least for me.

Another thing we did yesterday was go veil shopping. There's one bridal shop in our town and you need to call ahead to make sure it's open. It was actually surprising how much stock was crammed into that place. There was only a small selection of veils and we weren't really impressed with either them or their prices, but we did see a couple of really nice hats. So now the daughter needs to decide between a hat or a veil. Being an outdoor wedding, I think a hat would look really nice, and she wears hats a lot better than most people.

Okay, if the clip below doesn’t make you go “Awww” at least once, then you have a heart made of stone. :-p

Controversy Rant

Have you read the article where Stephen King criticizes Stephenie Meyer?

I can’t believe the fuss that’s been made over this. Yes, Stephen King dared to voice his opinion that although he could understand Meyer’s popularity he didn’t think she was a very good writer, but he was not in any way, shape, or form, attacking her. He was answering a question during an interview and had the gall to answer honestly.

During the interview: “. . .we got into a discussion of popular authors vs. the academic elite, a subject he has strong opinions about, and I asked him if his mainstream success over the past 35 years paved the way for the massive careers of Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling and Twilight author Stephenie Meyer.”

Stephen King replied: “I think that I serve that purpose for some writers, and that’s a good thing. Both Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people. ... The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good."

As would be expected, the Meyer fan base responded like a swarm of angry bees, furiously buzzing with comments of what a bad person King is and how he’s jealous of Meyer’s success. What surprises me is the number of blogs I’ve been reading that are all up in arms over this buzzing, filled with the need to defend Stephen King.

Consider the source, people. Think about the Meyer fan base, these books were written for young adults, a demographic that includes teenie boppers and teenagers. Of course they’re going to react with the emotional maturity of, well, a teenager.

I have not read any of the Twilight series (although I love vampire novels, Young Adult is not my cup of tea) so I really can’t voice an opinion of my own. However, if reading the Twilight series gets some of these young people reading other things, then I have to say, well done Ms. Meyer.

If you’d like to read the article that started it all, go HERE

Of Cats and Crocheting

For some reason I don’t like to just sit and watch television by itself. I have to be doing something at the same time. Sometimes I read a book while watching, more often than not I have my lap top open and am playing games, reading on-line, or surfing. I also have what I term T.V. crafts: knitting, embroidery, crocheting - cross stitch doesn’t count because you have to concentrate too much on it (at least I do).

Last night I decided to close the lap top and I picked up the afghan I started before Christmas. It's shades of brown, big hearts on a cream coloured background and I’ll be giving it to the daughter and her fiancé when I’m finished. If I have my camera fixed by then I’ll even post a picture.

I was pretty pleased with the progress I made, but it’s been a while since I’ve done any serious crocheting and I’m feeling it today. My left arm, the one that tends to do most of the work, hurts like hell. I tried to do another square this morning to work the kinks out (a hair of the dog kind of thing), but it didn’t help. Guess I’d better learn to pace myself.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Yesterday was sunny for the most part and one of the things sun does best is reflect off shiny things, like watches and other jewelry that people passing in front of the big deck doors are wearing. I wasn’t the only one to notice this, the cats noticed it too.

So, being the caring human being I am, I went into my office and found my laser pen so the cats and I could have some fun. Laser pens (or laser pointers) are the best cat toys ever for multiple cats. They’ll chase it around in circles or up and down the stairs. There’s no hogging the toy, there’s no stealing it out from under your brother. There may be a little pushing and shoving to get at it, but it’s all part of the fun.

You can get pretty much the same effect from a flashlight, but the laser gets more distance. Just remember to keep the lights away from everyone’s eyes, both kitty and human.

The Weather, and Other Things

It must be the change in the weather (from insanely cold to insanely warm) that’s making me so tired. I slept like a log and was still tired all day yesterday.

It’s tempting to go on a rant about the weather, it’s been so unpredictable these last few weeks that it deserves a rant, but I’m going to resist because I feel like I’ve been talking about the weather too much lately and I want to prove (if only to myself) that I’m capable of talking about other things.

So, on to other things.

We have assimilated one of the daughter’s cats into the herd. Sammie (her full name is Sam Spayed) is just as much at home sleeping on our bed with the boys as she is sleeping on the daughter’s bed. She was also seen playing chase with a couple of them.

I wish the same could be said of Oliver, but he’s still languishing in his spare bedroom prison. Poor little guy. He has a room with a view, the futon to sleep on, blankets to burrow in, bookcases to perch on, his own radio, food, water and kitty litter. He even has a few plants to savage and toys to play with. But he still spends the better part of his time by himself. Which just increases his hyperness when he gets visitors. He's a very outgoing little guy.

Only three more weeks Ollie, then you and Sammie will be reunited in your own digs again. A nice, two-bedroom apartment with all your familiar furniture and humans.

* * * * * * * * * *

After careful consideration, I deactivated my Facebook account. I admit that when I first signed up I enjoyed it quite a bit. However, the honeymoon was over pretty quickly. A person can get sucked into an obscene number of different applications and can spend hours checking people out, playing games, etc. It’s an incredible time waster.

The original idea of Facebook was a good one. It was a net-working tool designed for college/university students. Then it was opened up to the general public and anyone with an e-mail address could have Facebook (like me). I think that’s when it started to go downhill.

A few of my friends had Facebook and started to bug me about getting it. I was reluctant at first, but they wore me down and I signed up. Like I said, I enjoyed it at first, but it’s terribly time-consuming - checking friends’ updates, reading notifications and messages, playing games - I started logging into it less and less.

The friends who coerced me into joining appear to have abandoned me and quite honestly, I find I don’t really care. For me, Facebook is more of a chore than anything else. Maybe some day I’ll reactivate my account, but I think that day is pretty far away.

Slow Day

You know it’s a slow day in blogdom when I’m not even inspired to look up something from YouTube to fill in the space.

The husband and I drove up to London yesterday to pick up the daughter’s car. Other than being insanely cold, the weather was perfect for the trip.

Because we didn’t call ahead, the car place didn’t have the car ready. There it sat, in the middle of the herd of cars, covered in snow. The husband had to wade through snow up past his ankles (he was wearing running shoes because “boots aren’t comfortable to drive in”) and brush a couple of storms worth of snow off the car without gloves on (he has gloves but he doesn’t like wearing them and he didn’t bring them with him).

Anyway, the car is here now and that means I can hang up my chauffeur’s hat.

Crunch Time

“The time has come,” the walrus said, “to speak of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings.”

It’s time to make a decision. Do I go back to school within the next couple of months to upgrade my office skills in hopes of getting a job I can settle for; or do I wait until September and go back to school to get a career.

The pros of getting training for a job are: it’s a shorter course; I’ll be able to job-hunt sooner; I can probably take it locally. The cons are: I do NOT want to end up behind a reception desk again, which is probably what will happen; lower pay.

The pros of getting training for a career are: better pay; more meaningful work. The cons are: I’ll still have to find a job to take me to September; it’s a two-year course; a career is more time-consuming than a job.

I’ve been putting off the decision in hopes that my writing will take me somewhere, but I lost my writerly mojo before Christmas and haven’t been able to get it back. The only bright spot is that I’m not alone. Quite a few writers whose blogs I visit are having the same problem.

Maybe February will be a better month, writing-wise. I sure hope so. In the mean time, I still have a decision to make.

The Disaster That Wasn't

Anyone out there have any experience planning a big party? Well where were you when I needed you?

I threw a Jack & Jill party for my daughter and her fiancé last night. I won’t go into the time, effort and planning that went into this event, but I’d like to point out that not only have I never attempted anything like this before, I’ve never even attended a Jack & Jill before. I had no idea what I was doing.

The potential for disaster started Friday, when the store I’d ordered the cake from called me up and told me that someone made a mistake when I’d ordered the cake and it was going to be $10 more than what I’d been told. They told me this after it was too late to order a cake from a different store.

The potential for disaster continued when yesterday dawned cold and snowy. The weather network insisted we were only going to have light flurries, just one to three centimetres of snow. We had more than three inches of snow before noon, and that was before it started snowing hard. Since a lot of our guests were coming from out of town, I figured the party was doomed.

The potential for disaster continued as the snow worsened throughout the day.

The potential for disaster continued when I went to the store to pick up the cake and discovered they’d spelled my daughter’s name wrong. The only person in the bakery wasn’t supposed to do any cake decorating, but she tried to match the colour of the icing to make the correction. Time was ticking away when I asked for a knife and corrected it myself (as best I could). To make up for the mistake, the girl knocked $10 off the price so I was paying the price I was quoted in the first place.

The potential for disaster continued when we finally got to the hall to decorate, only to find it dark and locked. Fortunately, the daughter had her cell phone with her and called her father, who called his uncle who belonged to the service club that runs the hall, who called the person who was supposed to have been there to let us in. By this time it was 7:15. The party was supposed to start at 8. At about 7:45 I went back home to change into my party clothes and pick up a few things that had been left behind. It was still snowing hard.

Despite all the potentials for disaster, we had a really good turn out for the party. A surprising number of the out-of-town guests made it, from my sister in Hamilton, to the daughter’s friends from Kingston. By the time I arrived back at the hall there was a nice-sized crowd gathered and everyone seemed to be having a good time. We ate, drank, and were merry. We even made a fair amount of money with the games I organized.

All in all, I would call my first (and last!) foray into the realm of partying an unqualified success.