What’s The WORD!

Yesterday (when all my troubles seemed so far away . . . ) Sorry, couldn’t resist. :-)

Yesterday was the annual Word on the Street, a free literary festival held in Queen's Park, so BFF and I made our yearly pilgrimage to Toronto. Along the way we stopped to pick up the daughter’s wedding pictures, had Starbucks for breakfast, and made a quick pass through Indio/Chapters.

The weather forecast called for rain, but although it was very overcast and threatening, the rain itself held off, which made it just cool enough to be comfortable. For a change we got there pretty early, which is always the best idea when it’s a free event. This year we played it smart and had back packs for our loot, although one of the first things we took advantage of were the free bags from the Green Living booth.

It was actually a little disappointing this year. There wasn’t much free stuff, there was no Harlequin booth, there were a couple of writer’s organizations missing, the bargains weren’t as bargainy . . . we couldn’t decide if it was the threatening weather or the faltering economy that was the cause. We still managed to bring home a decent haul, although by the time we made it back to the subway I felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders. Or maybe it was just the fifty pounds of books I was carrying. :-)

I must give Toronto kudos for their excellent subway system. This allows us to park at one of their fabulous malls (Yorkdale, in case anyone’s interested) and take the subway just about anywhere we want to go. One of the biggest benefits of parking here is . . . well, it’s a mall.

We dropped our loot off in the car and made a beeline for the Starbucks in the huge Indigo/Chapters just inside the door, where we were accosted by a half dozen very buff young men who were doing a Peek Freans/Harlequin promotion. We were hot, sweaty, and tired. They were standing between us and our Starbucks. We took the free cookies but turned down the offer to have our pictures taken with the two very hot cowboys.

After browsing a bit we drove away from the big city and back to our respective homes where we stashed our loot and then had naps. And if perchance we dreamed of buff young men, well, we’re only human. :-)

Fatigued Friday

I am so tired it’s not even funny.

I was up late Wednesday night and I can’t even remember why. I do remember that it was so hot in the bedroom that I ended up getting up at 1:30 a.m. and turning on the fan. Then last night I was up late posting my offering for the AW blog chain. I didn’t realize it was my turn until late in the afternoon and then I spent the evening struggling with the story.

This month’s blog chain is actually pretty cool. The previous poster chooses three words for the next person in line to build their story around. There’s been some awesome work so far. You can check out my story HERE and I have links to the others.

I think the reason I struggled with this piece was because I had an idea of writing about a woman who’d lost her husband to suicide and her feelings towards the issue were mixed up with the way she felt about the juniper bush in the garden that he’d promised to get rid of for her. That’s not what came out at all. :-)

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Grossness alert!

Remember when I cleaned out the kitchen cupboard because I discovered moth larva? Well cleaning out that infestation didn’t really seem to have much effect on the number of moths we have in the house, and we couldn’t figure out where they were coming from.

Then one night this week I was walking down the hall to my office and I happened to notice a moth on the wall. Naturally I killed it and afterwards looked around for more. This is where the gross part comes in.

Up on the ceiling must have been a dozen moth larva. To say I was grossed out would be an understatement. I bravely waited until the husband came home and then made him kill them. Problem solved, right?

Yeah, you’d think so.

The next night I turned on the light in the hall and looked up and there were even more of the little suckers. So after the husband killed this bunch we started getting serious about where they were all coming from.

I was positive they were coming from the linen closet and sure enough, I found the source on the top shelf. A few months ago I’d bought a bag of regular cat chow to have for emergencies (like when we run out of the good stuff and the vet’s office is closed so we can’t get any more) and the husband, in his infinite wisdom, stashed it on the top shelf of the linen closet. The moths figured it made the perfect nursery.

Ewww!

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And now I’m off to write my Excel exam. Good thing it’s open book!

Whine Free Wednesday

That’s right, it’s safe to read again. I’m over my whining fit.:-)

And what’s more, I’m writing this during class, which speaks volumes about how much work I have to do. I finished the chapter work for all five chapters and I’m taking a break before I go on to unexplored chapters of the textbook.

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Last night was my monthly poetry meeting. It was the largest group around the table yet, I think there were thirteen of us. We even had a new member join us. I’m not sure who invited her, but I gather she’s an established poet. She certainly know how to make a statement, her hair was the same colour blue as her pants. :-)

My poems were well received – I read my Pantoum from last week’s Passion for Poetry (over on my writing blog) and surprisingly enough, most people were familiar with this form. I don’t know why everyone else is so familiar with all these funky forms while I missed out. Must be a comment on the local high school English programs. Or maybe they all have more formal training.

In any case, I made it just under the wire with my “poemwork”. This month’s challenge was to take the first line and the last line of a poem by one of your favourite Canadian poets and then fill in the space with your own work. I was literally printing it out as I was putting on my shoes to leave.

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I’m a woman on a mission. I’m in search of a brand of Chai Tea that I can use for my morning tea. Yes, I know there’s lots of recipes on the internet to make your own, but I’m lazy. I want it pre-packaged.

But I’ve learned an important lesson when it comes to Chai, it doesn’t pay to be cheap. I checked out the selection in our upscale grocery store, then settled on the Tetley Chai because it was cheapest.

All I can say is, you get what you pay for. While not the worst Chai I’ve ever had, it’s a little on the weak side. Next time I’ll try using two bags, which, of course, negates the whole “cheap” concept. Half the price of other brands but you’re using twice as much.

Next time I’ll try the Tazo brand, which is what they use in the coffee shop we have our poetry readings at.

And the search goes on!

Got Cheese?

I could really use some to go with the whine in this post. :-)

You know, even with my freaky cats and going back to school sometimes my life seems pretty boring. Especially when I spend a whole weekend doing . . . nothing. Okay, Sunday I managed to get a post done on my other blog and baked some apple dumplings for the daughter, but that was about the sum of my productivity for the weekend.

The cats seem to be settling down again and school is excruciatingly boring - I finished both the second assignment and chapter five today, and now I have nothing left to do for the rest of the week except study for the exam on Friday - which is an open book exam so all I have to really know is where to find things in the text book.

I’ve got piles of writing to do and piles of reading and no ambition to do any of it. Whatever this mood is, I hope it doesn’t last.

Even the weather is dull and boring right now. It was hinting at a storm earlier, but the wind has died down a lot and we never got the rain we were promised. It’s even a little warmer than it’s been lately so I can’t even complain about how cold it’s getting outside.

Let’s hope my life, and my mood, picks up as the week goes on. :-)

Almost . . .

Yup, I almost missed posting here today. I was so proud of myself for getting the next chapter of my serial posted on time that I forgot I needed to post something here as well. :-)

The instructor was a little annoyed with us yesterday - we all finished chapter three before she'd even started going over it with us so she ended up skipping it and going straight to chapter four.

I've been trying to slow down with the chapter work because we have all of next week for Excel and only one chapter and one assignment left to do. I fear it's going to be a long week.

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My head's been aching almost every day this week. I don't know if it's a change in the temperature, a change in the weather, or a change in my routine (having morning classes) but I'm getting tired of it.

The woman that sits in front of me in class has been suffering from the headaches too and we found Wednesday in class unbearable. The classroom was warm and stuffy, but one of the women at the back keeps closing the door because she's cold. Suck it up princess and stop wearing shorts and tank tops to school!

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KITTENS! The Humane Society was having a kitten adopt-a-thon in the mall today. They set up right infront of the stairs I have to take to go to and from school. So many kittens! Cute little warm balls of fuzzy fun! They were so sweet, I wanted to take them all home with me. Just for a visit of course. ;-)

Speaking of kittens, Taz had quite an adventure Wednesday night. Somehow the front door came unlatched and we didn't discover it until the husband came home at 11 and ran into (not literally) Dante in the driveway. Dante scooted back into the house, which is when the husband realized the door was open. I did a quick nose count and the only one that was missing was Taz.

We figured he had as much as a three hour head start on us. Our neighborhood is dark, and it was windy, so there we were at 11 p.m. wandering the area with a flash light and calling his name. It was after midnight and we were just about ready to give up when he came slinking up to the house. I think he's finally realized that the Great Outdoors isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Hump Day Happenings

I was actually very surprised to see the sun shining today. I woke up at around 4 a.m. with a bad headache, which usually means the weather's turned. It was still with me when I got up and so far it shows no signs of leaving. It was bad enough at school this morning that on my break I went upstairs to the coffee shop and had a coffee. The caffeine made it a little better, but unfortunately it's wearing off now.

Have you ever noticed that when you have a headache that things that normally you don't notice bug the crap out of you? Like the noise from the fountain in the dining room. Once you get used to it it's pretty easy to ignore, but right now I'd like to just pick the damn thing up and pitch it into the back yard.

And I think my next door neighbor left the gate to her back yard unlatched. I can hear something banging in the wind and I don't know what else it could be. I'm tempted to go check and close it if it is, but with my luck my neighbor would catch me. She's old and even more crotchety than I am and she'd probably beat me to death with her cane.

Aren't I in a mood today? :-)

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The cats appeared to have an uneasy truce. I don't know if Panda has just gotten over her misplaced anger at Taz or Taz got tired of living on top of the bookcase. But he's abandoned my office for my chair in the living room, and this morning he even had breakfast out in the kitchen with everyone else (the first time in a week).
Cross your fingers that the worst is over.

Panda pretty much ignores him if he's in one place, it's only when he wants to move from point A to point B that she starts having a problem. If it's just her that's on the alert he doesn't seem to care, but when the boys all stick their noses into things he starts getting a little paranoid. Who can blame him? Two of the boys out-weigh him by several pounds.

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As I feared, Excel is even worse than Word was. We have fewer chapters to work on and more time to work in. Yesterday I not only finished all the chapter work, I also finished the assignment that wasn't due until Friday. Today we had a quiz and then most of us worked on Chapter 3 - which we'll be learning tomorrow. At this rate I'll be ready for the exam by Monday. Even though we're only doing 5 chapters I think there's 9 in the book, so I'll probably just keep going until I run out of class time.

I also found out today that if we want to continue with the advanced Word course on our own we just have to let the other instructor know and she'll give us the assignments and arrange for us to take the exam. I just might go ahead and do that - it'll give me something constructive to do in my Excel class. :-)

An Embarrassment of Riches

Well, the cats seem to have settled down somewhat. Romi spent a couple of days hiding in the basement (coming out to eat of course) and Julius and Dante are back to their normal selves. Panda acts normal until she spots Taz, and although she hasn’t attacked him in the last few days she does like to keep an eye on him still.

Poor Taz . . . Friday and Saturday he was very skittish, and if Panda was nearby he was afraid to move. She wouldn’t let him down off the bookcase Friday so I finally put some food and water up there for him (he was very grateful). Saturday he must have needed to use the kitty litter because he went down to the basement, and then she wouldn’t let him come up the stairs so he spent pretty much the whole day down there. He did slink upstairs late in the evening and after having a cautious bite to eat settled down on the couch between the humans.

I guess I should be grateful the fur’s stopped flying, but I’d still like to know what’s going on with these guys!

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Saturday I cleaned out the supply cabinet my laser printer sits on in my office. This may not seem like such a big deal to most people, but given the amount of office supplies I tend to accumulate and the fact they just get more or less jammed into the cabinet, it was a very big deal.

Part way through I started an inventory of the supplies and I am rather appalled at my stock pile. I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to office supplies. And that’s just the stuff in the cabinet. I also have a plastic bin with file folders, paper, and whatnot, and a desk drawer full of “stuff”. Did I mention the piles of partially used notebooks and note pads around the house? Clearly I should be banned from all office supply stores and the office/school supply aisles of all department and dollar stores.

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Saturday was also a procrastination catch up day writing/blogging wise. I caught up on my book review blog, got chapter five of my serial posted, and checked out the blogs I’ve been neglecting this week. Sunday I also got off my lazy butt and actually posted something to my Random Writing blog.

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Back to morning classes at school this week. Yippee skippy! We’re taking Excel, which I have taken twice before but since I never use it for anything I’ve forgotten everything I ever knew about it. Unfortunately we have the same kind of textbook and the same instructor as we did for Word. I found the wording of the text to be somewhat confusing, but the instructor seemed even more confused. She was lost without her instructor’s manual and if you interrupted her with a question she not only had to look up the answer, she’d lose her place in what she was doing.

Thursday she was reading from the text and we were following along and we were supposed to be formatting a title. She couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working until I suggested we needed to highlight the text first. She ignored me completely, but then her next instructions were to highlight the text and then format it. :-)

Welcome to the War Zone

Panda appears to have declared war on Taz.

She attacks without warning, and without any apparent provocation. She is swift and deadly, like a Ninja kitty. One minute there's peace and serenity, the next minute the fur is flying.

And because Taz is devoted to Panda, he does little to defend himself.

Dante is the double agent - sometimes he sides with Taz, sometimes with Panda. Julius is Switzerland - when the fur flies he makes himself scarce and stays right out of it. Romi does a great impression of the cowardly lion. As I type this, he's hiding in a corner of the basement where he hopes no one will find him.

We have no clue what brought this on. The only thing the vet could suggest is that maybe something in the family dynamic changed that's making Panda need to assert herself as alpha.

The last couple of nights we've had to keep Panda locked up in a room by herself, and she was there yesterday while I was at school. We've put the calming drops we bought when the daughter's cats were living here in her water, and today I've sprayed the house with a pheromone spray that's supposed to keep everyone calm.

We'll see how it goes.

Right now, Taz is sleeping on top of the six foot high bookcase, which is his favorite place, and Panda is on the chair across the room watching him. The boys are wisely staying out of the way.

Panda was like this yesterday, content to just watch Taz, until Taz jumped down off the high book case onto the lower one. I guess he forgot to ask permission, because Panda flew into a rage and had to be locked away (once I was able to catch her and wrap her in a towel so she didn't rip me apart as well).

The big question today will be, should I lock her away while I'm at school or not? I hate to do it for no reason, but I'd also hate to come home from school and find little Taz parts scattered throughout the house.

I feel like I need a dose of those calming drops myself - I have an exam in Microsoft Word this afternoon. :-)

Already Wednesday

The bad thing about a long weekend is that it makes me not want to go back to school but the good thing about it is that it makes the week shorter. :-)

Last night I did something I haven't done in a long time - I went to the movies. The daughter and I went to see Julie and Julia. It probably wasn't my first choice of movies to see, but I really enjoyed it. I love the way they intertwined the two stories and what made it really interesting was that it was based on true events.

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This morning, while I was in the bathroom, the cats had a mini melt down. I could hear a commotion outside the door, but by the time I was done everyone had disappeared. They were all acting skittish, slinking around the house, tails puffed out . . .

I think I've pieced together what happened though, but first I need to give you a little history about them.

We had a dog when the kittens were born. Panda loved the dog, and the dog was fine with the kittens when they were really tiny. Unfortunately, the dog was a border collie and when the kittens were big enough to start wandering around, she instinctively wanted to keep them together (in a herd). So she'd bark at the kittens, the father cat (Taz) would freak out on the dog to protect his offspring and Panda would freak out on Taz to protect the dog. We'd actually have to shut Panda up in a room by herself to calm her down.

I think what happened this morning is while they were all waiting for me to get out of the bathroom so I could feed them, Romi, the biggest kitten (okay, I call them kittens but they're six years old now)was bugging Taz, who retaliated and Panda freaked out on Taz which freaked everyone out. (Taz has no patience for his offspring and they like to occassionally bug him just to be little shit disturbers.)

Anyway, everyone is calmed down now, except for Panda who's patrolling the house like a cop on a beat.

Happy Labour Day!

Yes, I know I missed Friday's post. I was busy finishing a baby quilt that really did not want to get finished. Mental note, new T.V. craft is embroidering baby quilt blocks until I have a stock pile again. There's three more babies impending over the next 6 months and I don't want to be caught short when it comes to baby quilts. :-)

In fairness to myself, the baby quilt I just finished was a departure for me. Normally I do a nine-block quilt, five squares of which have embroidered cartoon characters on them. This quilt, a I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, was custom done for the daughter to give to a friend of hers. It has classsic Winnie-the-Pooh pictures, which were a little more complicated to embroider as well as their dimensions were a little odd. So there were six individual blocks to embroider, and then a double one that ran down the center with a space to put the baby's name and birth date after the blessed event. So yeah, there was a lot more work to it, especially when one sews the lining to the wrong side of the quilt, but it turned out much better than I expected, especially when the sun was coming up before I was finished. :-)

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Saturday I grabbed a few hours sleep and then started getting stuff ready for the birthday party we were hosting at our place for the son-in-law. As per my luck, I was just on my way out the door to pick up the cake when a friend called and kept me on the phone for half an hour, so I was just getting out of the shower when people started showing up.

It was a perfect night for a party though. Not too hot, not too cold, no wind so I was able to scatter tea lights around the deck when it started getting dark. We still had the fireworks that didn't get used for the rehearsal dinner earlier in the summer, so we set them off when it became fully dark.

After everyone left the husband and I half-heartedly cleaned up and then napped while watching the Star Trek movie marathon on the Space channel. :-)

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Sunday we just couldn't seem to get motivated. It was just one of those real lazy days that you can either beat yourself up about or just go with the flow. I finally got some ambition late in the night (early in the morning?) and got the chapter written and posted for my serial. I had actually decided to just skip it, but then the words started coming. Isn't that always the way?

This would have been a good weekend for embroidery. The Space channel has been running the Star Trek movies in consecutive order and today they're running the viewer's choice of top ten original episodes.

Yes, I'm a total Trekkie. And proud of it! :-)

Road Trip

Well, the daughter and I just got back from Peterborough. Another successful pilgrimage made to Starbucks Chapters. I spent more than I intended (as usual) but that's because I couldn't resist this cool book called To the Ends of the Earth that's full of ancient maps, plus they pointed out that my discount card needed to be renewed.

And yes, I got my Pumpkin Spice Latte, with a Pumpkin Spice Scone to go with it. Mmmm, pumpkinny goodness!

On the drive up (and back) we listened to my driving CD that the husband spent five years in the making. He had to choose just the right songs for it:

Lookin' Out For Number One
Drivin' Sister
Vehicle
Born to Be Wild
Let It Roll
I Can't Drive 55 (my personal favorite)
Highway Star
Fun, Fun, Fun
Built For Speed
Under My Wheels
Runnin' Down A Dream
Deadman's Curve
Pink Cadillac
Mercury Blues
Red Barcetta
Radar Love
Paradise (By the Dashboard Light)
Go Faster

What a guy! :-)

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Panda lost her collar again, only this time we haven't been able to find it. She looks so naked without it that I finally bought her a new one. This one is neon pink, her favourite colour.

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I've just discovered another really big problem about having afternoon classes. It's so nice out today and I've been out enough, that I really, really, don't want to go to school now. I want to stay home and enjoy the end of summer today.

Unfortunately, we have a quiz, and homework to take up, and an assignment to hand in, and a new chapter to start. Guess I'd better get that homework done and do a bit of studying.

Why yes, I do have to leave in half an hour. Your point? :-)