Oops!

I was so busy concentrating on getting the next installment of my serial posted Friday, that I forgot all about posting something here!

My Access exam Friday was long - three hours long! It wasn't that any of it was hard, there was just a lot to it. And even after three hours I was one of the first ones finished. I went at a slow and steady pace and paid attention to the little details. Snarky bitch (remember her?) sitting on the other side of me was typing away as fast as she could and I could see her shooting little glances over at mine screen to make sure she was ahead of me (and getting more cheerful the further ahead she got). I just shrugged mentally and kept my steady pace, which paid off around the fourth page where we had to format the cells of the table we'd created. This was not something we'd learned in the book and I suspect it was put in there to have us use the help menu, which is what I did. I could hear snarky muttering and cursing under her breath, oozing frustration. She must have spent a good half hour trying to "remember" how to do this. Yes, I did finish well before her and yes, I do feel smug about it. :-)

Starting this week I have afternoon classes this week so I confess I slept in a little this morning and then stayed in my jammies while checking my e-mail and contemplating breakfast.

Next thing I know the husband is asking if I can take Panda to her appointment at the vet's. This is what happens when you drink orange juice that's been opened in the fridge for at least two weeks. It's a good thing I was able to take her because they were backed up at the vet's office and we had to wait about 45 minutes. Panda was a very cranky girl for her treatment. She's also lost her collar again only this time it wasn't at the vet's office. Maybe if she's a good girl taking her pills this week I'll buy her a new one.

When we got home, the husband said he was feeling better so he was dressing for work. Having had food poisoning from tainted juice before I tried to tell him he probably wasn't as well as he thought, but what do I know? The silly ass went to work anyway. And he took his lunch with him too. Glad I won't be there to see the explosion.

I went to Fabricland in Peterborough with a friend on Saturday and on the way out we stopped at Starbucks for a break. I tried one of their pumpkin scones - OMG are they ever good. So good, in fact, that I googled the recipe when I got home and printed out copies for myself, my friend, and the daughter.

I've been working on a baby quilt for a friend of my daughter's with pictures from the original Winnie the Pooh on it, and I mentioned that Chapters (where Starbucks is) had the original Winnie the Pooh bears. So the daughter and I are going up one morning this week so she can get one to go with the quilt. And the best part? It'll be after September first, when Starbucks starts serviing their Pumpkin Spice Lattes!

Catch-up Day

I've been catching up on all kinds of things today.

First I caught up on my second assignment at school, going over it several times to make sure every nitpicky little detail was perfect. Then I did my independent project for Access (I created a database to keep track of where my poetry was going). Originally I was going to use both my fiction writing and my poetry in the database, but to be honest, I haven't submitted any fiction in ten years! What have I been doing?

Anyway, I got my database with its table of no less than 10 records done, and I included the five queries, a form, and a report with it. My form looks really spiffy if I do say so myself. I'd like to have played around with it some more, but there wasn't much else I could do with it without adding more records (I stopped at 13).

I'm ashamed to admit that many, many trees gave up their lives for this database. The instructor wanted specific things printed and every time I'd change something I'd have two or three things to print out again.

Any volunteers to do my shredding for me? I have a big box of paper that needs to be shredded before the recycling people will take it.

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When I got home from school I got caught up on some more mundane things: cleaned the kitty litter, called VISA to activate my latest card, called Mastercard to find out why the insurance that was supposed to be making my payments wasn't . . .

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I'm trying very hard to not have a nap today. Panda likes to curl up on the easy chair with me after lunch and have an afternoon nap, only her capacity for napping is much larger than mine. I think she thinks I'm just a strange looking cat.

Speaking of Panda, I had to stop at the vet's office on my way home from school yesterday to pick up some more kitty treats. I was dangerously low on treats and Panda is much easier to give a pill to if she sees the treat bag she gets her reward from.

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Something else I caught up with today . . . I went through the clothes in my closet to try and weed some out. I must admit I didn't get rid of as many as I'd have liked. And I haven't gone through the clothes in my dresser yet.

*sigh*

Guess I'd better go do that now.

Monday Again

You know what the problem with Friday is? A couple of days later it’s Monday again.

Looks like Bill ran out of steam before he got to my relatives in New Brunswick. He was only a category 1 when he hit the Nova Scotia coast, and by the time he reached New Brunswick he’d been downgraded to a tropical storm. There was a lot of damage done but it could have been a lot worse.

Panda lost a couple of ounces last week but she’s back up to six and a half pounds. She’s a real force of nature. She may be costing us a pile of money, but she makes sure we get our entertainment’s worth out of her. :-)

The husband of a close friend passed away suddenly but not unexpectedly late last week and the funeral is later today. I really hate funerals. At least this one is being held in a church instead of the funeral parlour.

I spent the morning playing around in the coding for Access - what a pain! I kept getting a runtime error so I’d click on it and check where it said I went wrong, retype it, close it, and the same error would keep cropping up. The girl beside me was getting a runtime error too, but hers was at the top of the codes and mine was at the bottom. I eventually did get mine corrected though, it had nothing to do with the code itself, but a minor little error in what the code was attached to.

Then I got my assignment back from last week? A couple of weeks ago? I only got 35/40 on it which was a little disappointing. This instructor is very nit picky and I’ll need to bear that in mind for future assignments.

I’m looking out my nice clean office window and the weather can’t seem to make up its mind whether to be overcast or sunny. At least it’s a little cooler, but that’s not supposed to last.

Mental note: people with cats should always have a lint brush handy, especially if they need to wear something dark for a funeral.

Now where did I put the scotch tape . . . .

Did I mention how much I hate funerals?

Friday, Finally!

Parts of this week seem to zip by, but other parts just dragged. I mostly just dragged too. What a life!

Went to the poetry reading that my poetry group sponsors once a month at a local coffee shop - it was very interesting. There was quite a crowd and I learned an important lesson: if you're there by yourself, don't give up your seat for anything, no matter how badly you need to use the restroom. I thought leaving my teapot, cup, and glasses behind would be enough to stake my claim, but apparently I was wrong.

The first poet up was from our group and he did an interesting mix of jazz and poetry. Next was a guest poet from Toronto and it was wrapped up by another group member. I must remember to start bringing more cash to these things because the guest poets usually have a book to sell and I would have liked the one from last night's guest.

As I sipped my chai tea, I couldn't help but notice the gentleman beside me who, in the course of the next two hours, waded through a piece of cake, a pot of tea, two glasses of red wine and two vanilla milkshakes. I think what caught my attention more than the sheer volume was the variety.

And, of course, wouldn't you know that the storm that'd been threatening all day descended on us while we were in the coffee shop. It was pouring rain when we got out and me on the other side of the parking lot. Oh, well. Since I'm not made of sugar I didn't melt, though I wasn't that keen on the spectacular display of lightning out over the lake.

At least we fared better than a lot of people a little north of us. I was reading in the paper this morning about the funnel clouds and twisters that ripped through the area not far from us. A lot of damage was done in a very short time - power lines down, trees felled, roofs ripped off . . . and then to add insult to injury, the sun came out once the wind died down again.

Now it's off to school where I get to spend the morning trying to figure out why the one report I'm doing in Access with it's sub-report works, and the next one doesn't. I got so frustrated yesterday that I skipped to the following one, which also works.

Let the fun and games ensue!

Happy Humpday

Wednesday already? Wow this week's going by fast!

Well, it happened. I’ve been expecting it since the weekend, but it was still startling when it occurred. The problem with nice, clean windows is that not only do I tend to forget there’s glass in them, so do the birds outside. Although to be honest, I think the bird that smacked into the window deserved it because he was probably trying to buzz the cats, three of which were sitting on the bookcase in front of the window at the time.

You don’t think birds are like that? You’ve obviously never had an outdoor cat. My last outdoor cat never went after birds, but they birds would sure go after him! If he was nearby, I could always tell where by the fuss the birds were making.

You know what I haven’t done in awhile? Posted a quiz. So to brighten your day (and to take up space because this is such a short post, it’s early, and I can’t think of anything else to say) here’s a quiz.

ANIMOLOGY: What Animal Are You? Your Result: Teal Cat   You're the Teal Kitty Cat! You're as swift and sly as a ninja and very hard to please. You can be very soft yet very cruel at the same time. Your soul mate is the beige racoon and you're in conflict with the red jaquar.
Tan Giraffe
Blue Fox
Silver and Red Wolf
Ocre and Gray Dolphin
Red Jaguar
Gold Falcon
Yellow Trout
ANIMOLOGY: What Animal Are You? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Melting

Yes, like the Wicked Witch of the West I’m melting. The weather network claims it’s only 26 C out (that’s around 80 F for you Yanks) but the humidex makes it feel like 36 C (around 98 F). Got home from school and turned the air conditioning on high (both upstairs and downstairs) and turned the fan in my office (where the air conditioning doesn’t reach) up a notch.

You want to know how hot it is? It’s so hot I’ve even been going swimming in the pool to cool off before bed the last couple of nights. There’s nothing like floating around in the pool at night, gazing up at the stars, letting the water lower your body temperature enough to sleep . . . The water’s been around 80F the last week, which sounds warm but doesn’t feel so warm when you first get in. :-)

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Wow, I’m looking across my desk at the window and you’d never know there’s glass in it. Yesterday the husband decided to paint the trim on the window frames on the outside of the house, so while he had the windows apart to do the inside sections, I cleaned the glass. I’ve been bugging him to help me take the picture window apart in my office for years. It’s got a double pane of glass and although I can do inside my office and outside the house, I couldn’t do between the two. It was definitely a two person job to get the glass out, but totally worth it!

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I confess. I was a bad girl today. I broke down and had a cup of coffee on my break at school. What can I say? I was tired and I was working on Macros, Switchboards and Pivot Tables in Access. And I’m further ahead than anyone else in class so there’s no one to ask when I run into problems. I finished the chapter under my own steam and then when I went to start the exercise couldn’t find a report I’d done two chapters ago, so I’ll have to go back and re-do it.

*sigh* Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be quick. :-)

Entertainment

I have found a new source of entertainment: Cat Bubbling.

The trend in weddings over the last few years has been to supply guests with tiny little bottles of non-toxic soap to blow bubbles with instead of throwing confetti. Having been to several of these weddings, I have about half a dozen of this little bottles sitting on a shelf in my office.

Last night I was cleaning up the crap that had started to accumulate on and around my desk, and as usual I had all the cats spread out, keeping me company. In the midst of my cleaning up I came across an old journal which dated back to when we had a dog as well as all these cats, and I remembered how much fun she used to have chasing bubbles. It was about then I got the idea of seeing what the cats’ reaction would be to bubbles.

So I sat behind my desk, in front of the fan, and started blowing bubbles for the cats. At first it was a sheer WTF look on their faces (it was priceless!). Then Panda and Taz jumped down from their bookcases for a better look.

Panda gets the same look in her eye that she does when she spots something interesting outside; Taz just sits there and meows at them; and the boys aren’t really sure whether they should chase them or run away from them. When the husband came home later that night I demonstrated for him out in the dining room and Panda had a ball trying to bite the bubbles (Taz was still in the office and the boys just kinda back off from the bubble madness).

Yes, I know. Small things amuse small minds. :-)

Whiney Wednesday

I'm tired.

My head hurts.

It's too hot out.

Did I mention my head hurts?

But on the plus side, I still like working with Access. We have to present a project by the end of the four weeks of instruction, and I think I'm going to do mine on a database to keep track of my writing and where I send it. I'd do one based on my books with cross-references to who I've loaned them out to, but it would be just too freaking big.

Of course this will mean I need to get off my butt and get some writing done so I have something to put in the database. To be honest, other than blog posts and poetry, I haven't done much writing in the last while (I hesitate to use the term weeks, but it wouldn't be too far out there).

I was mentioning on my writing blog that I have a hard time counting the time I spend crafting poetry as actual writing time. I don't know why that is. A poem can take just as much time and effort as a story . . .

Panda is a whole six pounds and eight ounces. The vet is very happy with her. She stays on her pills and her special food, and she'll keep getting her water treatments twice a week, and she should keep doing okay. And she keeps herself happy at home dragging my underware all over the house.

Okay, whining over. Back to your regularly scheduled blog surfing. :-)

Muggy Monday

Yes, we're into those hazy, lazy, crazy days of summer.

Have I mentioned how much I’m enjoying Access? It’s like the mother ship is calling me home. If I could find a job where all I did was Access all day I’d be a happy camper indeed.

What does not make me a happy camper is that snarky biatch beside me who keeps stealing my thunder. There’s a handful of us, including her, who are way ahead in the textbook. Miss Snark works on her resume or cover letters or whatever while I diligently plough ahead with Access and then after I get a section done she hurries to catch up. I’ve solved any problems or confusion and she gets me to help her through any rough patches. THEN she’ll turn around and “help” some of the others who are close to where we are because she’s “figured it all out”.

Yes, I know it’s petty but it still makes me angry. Grr! And I can’t not help her if she asks because then I’m not a “team player”. And I’d offer to help the others myself but they don’t know me as well as they do Miss Snark and she’s established herself as the “expert”.

This morning I was dragging my butt a bit so I had a choice between breakfast or a shower and I think I chose wisely choosing the shower. :-) However, that meant by mid-morning I was starving so I took a short break and went upstairs to get a green tea and a muffin. I don’t know what kind of green tea that little coffee shop uses, but it was excellent!

Anyway, on my back downstairs the school secretary stopped me and asked if I had a mug. We’re not supposed to use take-out cups in the class room so I shame-facedly told her I didn’t have my mug with me today but I had the instructor’s permission to use the take-out cup, and the secretary hands me a brand new travel mug with the name of the school on it. It’s a really nice mug too!

It’s a nice metallic blue, and it has a screw on top rather than a snap on top. Also, the part you drink from has a flip top that snaps open. And the best part is, it has a hard plastic liner instead of a soft plastic one (like the Timmy’s cups). This makes it a better choice for tea, which is a good thing because I’ve had to give up my black nectar from hell (coffee).

To be honest, I’ve always been a bigger tea fan than coffee anyway, I just loved that caffeine jolt in the morning (even when it didn’t love me back). The beauty of tea, however, is that there’s so many different kinds and blends. I can’t drink flavoured coffees, they give me terrible heartburn. But tea, that’s a different story. Right now I’m enjoying a large mug of Grapefruit Oolong. Thank you, Jamie! :-)

See, I Didn’t Forget!

Do you know what I hate? It’s finding the perfect bra and then when you go back to get another one they’re not available any more. In the spring I found the perfect bra in Wal-Mart and fortunately I bought two at the time because when I went out to get another one today, there were none. Nana. Zip. At least not in my size. In fact, there was precious little in my size. I am a plus size woman, which means my boobs are plus sized too. Is it too much to ask for a pretty bra with lots of support in a large size at a reasonable price? Why do I feel like I’m being penalized for being blessed by the hooter fairy?

Okay, rant over. :-)

I think they made a mistake at the vet’s office on Friday when they gave Panda her water treatment. Instead of filling her up with water, they must have used rocket fuel or something because she’s been flying around the house like a maniac this weekend.

Now, just for your reading pleasure, I have another of my long-winded stories.

After grocery shopping, I came down the hall to fart around play around do some serious work on the computer when it was pointed out to me that I failed to update my blog yesterday. Truth is, I didn’t update either blog, but that’s beside the point.

I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I have two blogs attached to the Firecat name. One is my book comments (I wouldn’t really call them a review) blog which I started to update last week. So I thought I’d start with it and get it out of the way.

I’d typed about a paragraph when I decided that it was too quiet in my office. Rather than look for music on-line or slap a CD into the lap top, I decided to use the little stereo I have sitting on my bookcase. Only first I had to hook it up.

You’re going to have to picture this because I’m too lazy to draw it in paint and I don’t have a camera to take a picture. The stereo sits in the middle shelf of the center of three six foot high bookcases against the far wall. One speaker is on the left hand side of the shelf, the stereo is on the right hand side, and the other speaker is on the right hand side of the middle shelf of the bookcase to the right.

First step was pulling the books off the shelf so I could hook the speakers up to the stereo. Then I decided to change the books that were on the shelf - there were actually a few books and a couple of ugly binders, and a gap. Forty-five minutes later I’d changed books around on shelves in three different bookcases before I was happy with my arrangement. It’s still not perfect, but it’ll do for now.

Next was finding a CD to play. I wanted something a little soothing, a little summery, and if I was going to be writing it needed to be instrumental too. I checked the handful of CDs I had in here and the closest one I had that fit the bill was David Lanz, but I just wasn’t in the mood for piano. So I went into the dining room where we have a bookcase that was originally built for paperback books, but the person who built it *coughhusbandcough* forgot to take into account the thickness of the shelves and so it never really worked the way it was intended. But it’s great for CDs.

Anyway, when I first set it up in the dining room I had all the husband's CDs on the top shelf, and mine on the next one down. Only one problem. When the husband puts CDs back, he tends to put them back where ever there’s a space. Grr!

So I started going through them and putting them on the right shelves, and since I really don’t have room to have all my CDs in my office, I reorganized my shelf in the order of most listened to or most important to me. Yeah, that took about 45 minutes as well.

Finally I had a dozen CDs to take back to my office with me and now I’m listening to Holst, The Planets, as I’m typing this.

Now, aren’t you glad I updated? :-)

Happy Hump Day

It doesn't feel like Wednesday . . . but then that's what usually happens on weeks that have a holiday Monday, they get thrown off kilter.

For those of you who've been asking, Panda is up to 6 pounds 4 ounces now. She's gained a whole 4 ounces in the last couple of weeks. She's even managed to finish off a bag of her special cat chow. She still needs to go to the vet twice a week, but she's got the routine down pat - she jumps on the scale herself to be weighed and then waits patiently for her I.V.

Yesterday we were sprung early from school due to the heat. The air conditioning wasn't working in our classroom. Not the whole school, just our classroom. It was like a sauna in there. Even the ones who usually complain about how cold it is were stripping down. *shudder* It was not a pretty sight.

We started Access yesterday . . . without our textbooks. At the last minute the supplier back-ordered our textbooks, so the school had to scramble to find a new one. According to the teacher, the text books we ended up with (today) are a lot better because the instructions are more hands on. All I can say is, it's hard on my eyes.

I wear bifocals (yes, I'm that old!). Theoretically, I'm supposed to look through the upper part for distance or lighted screens (computer, T.V., etc.) and the bottom part for reading. There's also an anti-glare coating and they're supposed to darken when it gets too bright. Well, I use them for driving and for reading the on-screen guide to changes channels on the T.V., but that's about it. The lighting in the classroom makes it to bright to read the text book without glasses, but it bugs my eyes to try and read the text book with them. I'd sit further back from the desk, but the aisles are narrow enough as it is.

Despite the initial problems, I really like Access. Data-bases are my thing. I can already think of many ways to use this program at home - starting with cataloguing my books.

It's about time, eh?

Don’t Mess With My Holiday!

When did the Civic Holiday become Simcoe Day?

I was doing some errands this morning and the guy on the car radio said something about this being Simcoe Day. . . say what? When did this happen? Did I not get the memo? Was there some big announcement about it that I missed?

Why is it necessary to re-name holidays, and whose decision is it to do so?

I still remember the first time I went to an assembly at my daughter’s school (she was in kindergarten), and how I wasn’t the only parent whose voice trailed off during the national anthem when we realized they’d changed the lyrics. Shouldn’t we have received some kind of notification about this?

Okay, enough of the ranting. As threatened promised, here’s Dudley Do Right, of the Royal Canadian Mounties: