Shooting the Cannon...

I can now say that Dad's gun is rediculously loud.

We were out at Gerald's in the tree fort, waiting for the deer to come out and play. Way far across the field, we see a doe and two fawns wandering around. They keep looking back at the bush line, so we figure there's gotta be something else over there. Sure enough, we're rewarded for our brilliant deduction. A spike horn buck walks out and eats his way down the tree line, but doesn't seem to want to come any closer to us. Dad keeps telling me that if I want that one, I have to shoot it with his gun, as mine will never make the shot. So I sigh dejectedly and kiss my hearing and shoulder good bye. As I lay down on the cold, snowy deck and prepare myself for the blast, Dad keeps saying wow that's really far and are you sure you want to shoot that one, we can wait.... I'm already wet and cold, that deer's going to get shot at one way or another. I line up and take the first shot... My brain takes a few seconds to recover from being kicked by a mule before I can ask Dad, Did I hit it? He says, nope try again. I'm thinking why not? I'm already deaf... Three shots at him and the third sprays him with dirt, I was aiming too low :(

Hunting!

My first attendance of the annual hunting trip to Dad's land of sand went well. The weather sucked but we got a doe and a bull. Warren is going to make deer bacon and salami out of the doe and I told him to do something tasty with my portion of the bull. Everything about my weekend went well, even the timberwolves that tried to eat me. I'm sittin' on my rock in the middle of the slash, waiting for the moose to come out. I can hear this weird noise really faint in the distance. I think to myself, what the hell is that?? I hear it again a bit closer and off to my left and realize it's the wolves! Thinking they're way off, I feel pleased that I finally got to hear the timbers howl. All of a sudden, one of them lets loose a howl from behind me in the trees no more than 100 yards away. Scared the crap right out of me!! Let me tell you, I loaded my gun in a hurry...

Terence's plant website is awesome and I can't wait to get some statistics out of it. I've been faithfully entering the data for it each time I water the plants. Most of the plants are doing well. I'm kinda worried about the polka dot ones though. I transplanted them and I don't think they liked it...

Mom's Surgery, my birthday and Kailee's baby

Mom's breast reduction went well. She went from a size M to a size D. The surgery itself was a bit of an ordeal but she's now at home and on the mend. They had to open her up twice to get the wounds to drain properly. :( Poor mommy. The anesthetic made her very nauseated and she didn't eat very much for a few days. One good way to lose weight, go for an operation! They removed 8 pounds of breast and she didn't eat for 3 days so needless to say Mom's a little skinnier these days.

My birthday was fun. Terence and I went for a hike up Sioux Mountain. We had a bit of excitement while walking across the train bridge. On our way out, a train came, so we waited patiently while it crossed the bridge and then it stopped after it finished crossing. We assumed that it was done and started across the bridge. When we got about halfway across, the train started to back up! It only backed up for a few meters though luckily, so we were still ok. Scared the crap out of us though! We thought we might have to run for our lives like the kids on Stand By Me lol. Sioux Mountain is gorgeous and we'll for sure go again. The "Goat Trail" is a bit steep on the way down though so we might drive out to Hudson and see what we can find for trails on that side of the mountain instead. We met a couple with their grandkids up there that said there is another way down on the Sioux side as well, so some exploring is in order to find all the bits and pieces.

Kailee's little guy, Anthony, is doing great! Growing like a little weed, he is. He weighed over 8 pounds last week and is gaining steadily. He sleeps well and eats ALL THE TIME according to Kailee hehe.

Bebee!!!

Yay! Kailee had her baby boy. They named it Anthony Benjamin Serson. He was born on September 11, 2008 @ 11:28 :) He's soooooooooooo cute, I just love him! But enough gushing... He seems to be all together, 10 fingers, 10 toes, very alert and eats well. I hope he grows like a little weed and gives them lots of good memories :)

Gencon!

OMG gencon was awesome this year! I got to meet RA Salvatore and he signed my books! Terence was oh such a good mate and stood in line for me for over an HOUR!!! while I was at a seminar so I could get an advance copy of one of Salvatore's new books :D I love my Terence, he's so good! The new book that I got is called The Reader's Guide to Drizzt Do'Urden and it's signed by RA and his editor. We also got books signed by Ed Greenwood and some lady he's writing a book with.

Terence took a terrain building class and loved it! He wants to make a little city to put all our miniatures we bought in lol. It should be nifty to see what he learned put to use. I took a painting class on how to paint wood and stone realistically. Was very interesting to see and the stone painting example was very appealing to me. I'll probably use the idea lots when decorating my minis.

We also went to a video games live concert while in Indianapolis. It was very neat to hear some of our favourite music come to life. The Final Fantasy segment on piano and the sephiroth music was my favourite parts. The metal gear solid skit was pretty funny too, Tommy Telerico scooting along in a cardboard box will stay in my mind and make me giggle for a long time ehehehe.

Some of the goodies we got are: a new painting, two battlehives, a chainmaille dice bag, metal dice, paths card game, and a bunch of little stuff (dice, books, buttons, etc.)

Heh, yeah I'm MIA again.

Ok so it's been a while again. Lots new to report, Gencon was awesome, plants are doing fairly well, Kailee looks like she ate a watermelon whole lol. But I'll report more on that later. This is just a little plug post that I'll add stuff to in the next few days.

Mom's birthday and gaming

We had a barbeque for Mom's birthday. Terence helped my Dad redo the screening on the veranda and remove their old clothesline. The clothesline pole was interesting to get out, the bottom was covered in a foot of cement... He-man Terence got it out and carried it away though lol. His gym time is really paying off, he looks so good and says that he feels really good too. I'm glad his blood pressure went down, it was worrying me.

DnD's been going kinda slow with all the family events but it should pick up after next weekend (father's day and kailee's moving). We've gotten back into Diablo 2 and FFXI again, heh. Gonna do it oldschool for a while I guess. I'd like to play Pharoah again too. It was an awesome game.

Aquarium stuff!

All my stuff for my aquarium is in and accounted for. I had to order the goodies from three different sites lol. The lights don't quite fit but I think that can be worked around. I'll have to acquire a hood somewhere or hang them from the ceiling or something. I've got all my rocks picked out for my waterfall and some driftwood, but I'm not quite satisfied with the wood. I'll find it eventually though.

The sites I ordered from are JL Aquatics
Mail Order Pet Supplies
pets and ponds

Everything arrived intact and on time. I was very pleased with all my purchases from these Canadian companies (US companies seem to have an issue with shipping across the border :( )

Time to start building!

bedding plants

Terence & I have had a good weekend so far. My friday was very relaxing for the most part. I did a few loads of laundry and tidied up in between researching stuff for my tank and meetings & lunch. Gaming was fun yesterday but I think Dustin is getting a bit big headed with his character. Boat or no boat, he's pushing his luck.

I bought some bedding plants today for the back deck. Yellow and orange marigolds, two types of pansies, something that looks like a red marsh marigold and a fun little purpley and white flower should look very nice out there with the black eyed susans that I picked up from timbermax. The strawberries are coming along good so far too.

I think I've got most of the aquarium stuff figured out for my tank now. I just have to figure out the ground plants and how to deal with them. I got some good ideas from one of the guys at plantedtank forums so I'll go to Rona tomorrow when Terence is up north and have some fun ;p

Strawberries! AND OMG HE'S GONNA BE THERE!!!

I picked up some strawberry plants at Timbermax on Sunday and potted them. I put one in the ground just to see how he does. I hope it warms up soon (the weather network says 25C around mom's bday (june 1), so it should stop freezing at night by that point...) as I'd like to be able to stop moving my plants in and out. The temp on my deck this morning at 9 was 3.6C (brrrrr) so I decided to wait until lunch time to move the plants out.

The hibiscus looks like it's going to be ok so far. Two days out of the water and it's still nice and perky. I'll give it a week or two and then give it to the kiddo. The transplant for the wandering jew looks like it took as well, although it might take a bit longer to wilt as an adult plant. I took some cuttings just in case. If it roots, I'll plant it in the other hanging basket and put it in the office. The philodendron still hasn't rooted yet, neither has the grape ivy (slow as molasses in january...) They haven't died yet though, so I'm still optimistic.


And now for the big news....






R. A. Salvatore is going to BE AT GENCON!!!!!!! Can you tell I'm excited ehehee! They haven't released what time or day but it's been announced that he will be there and will be signing books with his son, Geno. They wrote a new book together and it looks really good! He'll be signing one of his other series which I think I'm going to order and read and then get him to sign and OMG I'M EXCITED!

may long & paludarium

May long weekend went fairly well. Camping didn't happen but that's not a suprise to me. Everyone says that camping is the thing to do on may long but I think they're on dope. It snows or rains every may long that I can remember, including this one lol. We did have a very nice bonfire and barbeque at Michelle's house though. Bad part was, it was cold enough to freeze Michelle's steps and one of the kids took a tumble.

I got to do lots of good shopping on the weekend. I picked up my power squid and two timers for my tank, some shirts and a new pair of pants and some other random stuff for around the house.

Terence and I set up the stand for my paludarium. Now I just have to figure out where to put it. I'm thinking where the dresser is, but that might be cold in the winter. I'll make a post on planted tank to see what they think.

On another plant note, the hibiscus is rooted and planted and we transplanted the wandering jew. Hopefully both will take to their new pots. Kailee's wandering jew is ready to go to her house. She's told me to give her as many plants as I can as she'll have some nice big windows in her new trailer that she's buying. She's in for a suprise now that she's turned me loose hehehe!

wow, where did my week go?

Ok, it's been a bit crazy this week. I went to Dryden on Friday and didn't come back until Sunday. It was a fun weekend but holy crap I'm tired. We had a texas holdem tournament for my Dad's birthday. I kicked butt ehehee :P and then donated the winnings to Mom & Dad's boat fund. I hope they get enough money to buy the motor Dad wants. He deserves it. Mother's Day went well I think, we mostly just putted around the house and pampered Mom. I took some very nice pictures of Kailee's puppy and a video of pookie pushing around a baseball. Funniest thing I've seen in a long time heh. Pookie snorting and running after this baseball bigger than her head. Terence kept stealing the ball and throwing it and Pookie would run as fast as her little legs would take her. Dog's tongue was hanging down half a mile when she was done.

The animals have been bad this week. The cats broke two branches off the hibiscus and knocked my rubber tree off the table. Grr.... They're lucky I love cats. Misty is now being tied up again as the neighbours left some hotdogs out this winter and Misty decided rotted, 4 month old, frozen and rethawed (repeatedly) hotdogs might taste yummy.... (so very very gross!!) Needless to say, she was sick most of thursday/friday.

Terence has been playing Grand Theft Auto 4 non-stop since we bought it last week. He's thoroughly enjoying himself smashing cars and shooting people and stealing everything that isn't nailed down. I can't say I'll play the game at any point in time. The missions are interesting enough but I get to see them while Terence plays so not much need for me to do them again myself. The graphics are nice though.

office is semi-clean

Friday went well. Paul's taxes are all done. My office is semi-cleaned up. I'll finish it off tomorrow or the next day. I'm really tired tonight. I think I'll go to bed fairly early. We only got 5 hours sleep last night and mine was broken. Kailee's place is still unfamiliar enough that I wake up at all the little sounds.

Kaileeis trying her hand at gardening. Her angel wing begonia is getting a bit spindley looking so she's going to trim it and root the cuttings. :)

We had a good weekend. It was Stewart's birthday on Friday. We had a little dinner for him and a bonfire. Kailee's puppy, mugsy, had WAY too much fun. She ran and dug holes in the garden and chewed sticks (and broke my poker stick! Rotten little dog!) and played with a frisbee and knocked over Stu's and Kailee's pop and drank some and ate pop-covered grass and dirt lol. Needless to say, she was exhausted. She played until she couldn't play no more and then flopped herself down by Kailee's feet and went to sleep. Funny funny little dog.

Gaming was fun, too. Greg helped Kailee finish off her character. My god that kid is loaded to the teeth. She has so much magic, it's coming out her ears. I know who I'll be following around in game from now on. I'd like to make a campaign or two but I don't know if Greg will allow Terence and me to DM at his house. We'll see though.

Gencon is all booked! We have an awesome room, an awesome flight, our badges are bought and the time is booked off and approved at work. Both Terence and I are SOOOOOOOO excited!!!!!

Woot! My audit's done!

Yay! The audit is done for NGFC. There's still a few things to document and discuss but I think it will pretty easy from here on in. I was so pleased to hear Michele say that I had accomplished lots in the 2 months of being at the Centre. Made me feel good :) I have a few more changes that I'd like to make before the next year comes around as well. But that will come in time. Now that year end is done, I can relax for a few weeks and then get into the changes I want to make.

We cleaned up the house tonight. Did the floors, vacuumed and cleaned out the fridge. I watered all the plants as well. The hibiscus was getting a itty bitty flower bud but it died. It's almost time for flowers though. The datura is in full bloom and looks gorgeous. The angel wing begonia is doing awesome too, sprouting all over the place!

Friday's project will be the bathroom and the office, I think. I promised Terence that I would clean it up before I set up my tank, and I WANT my tank!

it's almost audit time...

Tomorrow is my audit at work. It should go smoothly I think, but I can't help being just a bit nervous! lol I'm really looking forward to it being finished and being able to relax. I've got one more set of taxes to do and a bit of work for mom and then tax season is officially done! I can get on to the fun stuff I've been neglecting, like housework (bleh) and gardening (yay!) and my paludarium (woot!!!) I think it will be set up in that order too. I HAVE to clean my office soon. It's a disaster and I'd like to use the space for other things.

I made ribs today, I hope they turn out alright. I'm not sure if they have enough sauce. I cut back as the last batch had too much. Ah well, we'll find out in 5 hours how it will be.

My parts came in for my aquarium stand. I can't wait to put it all together and set it up! That will probably be my project after I get the garden set up and growing. I'm thinking two weeks from now. Can't wait!!!

delays!

Sigh... I went to put together my aquarium stand and one of the pegs is bent. Now I have to wait until Friday for the spare piece to come in. I hate delays! I revised my list of equipment that I need to incorporate the advice of the people on plantedtank forums. (the planted tank) That place is a mountain of knowledge, it's got advice on everything!

The more I think about my amazon river scene I'd like to create, the more I think it will work. I'm excited to see what kind of plants and aquatics I can put in it.

I watered all the plants today. The hibiscus is doing well in it's new stand. I think the one set of cuttings from it is going to root. It's got lots of little root buds and one of them has an actual little root (lol only like 1/4 of an inch long but it's there). I bought a three new ones, not sure what kind they are though. I'll do some research and then update my plant list :)

eeehehehe got my tank :)

I went to the pet store yesterday to talk to Cheryl (Florence remembered her name for me lol) The individual that had claimed the 29 gallon tank didn't come in to pay for it, so she sold it to me! Yay!!! I bought the tank and stand right there and will go pick up some testing equipment and the lighting and some plants and other fun stuff after the end of april.

We went gaming again this weekend, it was lots of fun! I think Mom is starting to calm down about us doing stuff with people other than them. She was ok once we all got chatting about stuff. I think it'll just take some time.

She who hesitates is lost...

Well fAck... I hummed and hawwed about buying the 29 gallon tank and someone else bought it instead. That's what I get for not making a decision. Ah well, I guess that means I'll just have to buy a bigger and better one heehehe (Terence is going to kill me ;P ) I'm going to go in and talk to the Critters Cuts and Huts lady (can't think of her name right now) on Friday when she returns from travelling. Hopefully she can help me decide on size and type of tank and we can order it in with a nice stand. I'd really like to get this project started soon after tax time is done.

Mom's statements are tentatively done. I don't think she'll want any major changes but I've got them saved so I can edit if I need to. Now on to Florence and then I can relax for a day or two and then do Mom's first quarter. Busy girl, eh?

We bought a new stand for the hibiscus as the other coffee table was already starting to bow down in the middle lol. I think this stand will hold up to it's weight, it's a nice wrought iron one with sturdy legs. I'm going to do some photography of my plants later and post them around. Spring is coming and they are all doing nicely with the added sunshine so I'd like to get some good pics while they are growing and happy.

fish tanks on sale....

The pet store here has fish tanks on sale and I soooooo want one. Sucks that I'm so busy right now :( I have no time to set up my paludarium right now. I'm going to check some prices and see if it's a good deal or not though. If it is, I'm going to buy it and call it done. I'll store it until summer when I have more time. She has a gorgeous 30 gallon tank for $100, so very tempting!

Kailee's birthday went very well, she was happy with all her presents I think. She really liked her little plant I grew for her. We had lots of fun playing laser tag, I was really tired for the second round though. All that running for 7&1/2 minutes is hard lol... I know, I'm pathetic. I've been walking more now though. I hope it eventually pays off. Exercise is good for me but it's hard to stay motivated sometimes.

I am very tentatively hopeful for the cuttings I took for Kailee from the hibiscus. They look like they MIGHT take. At least, they haven't wilted and died yet hehe. The wandering jew slips I took for her rooted and have transplanted to dirt fine. Once they start growing a bit, I'll give them to her to take care of. The datura, that isn't a datura (lol I know, I know, I need to get it identified) is flowering again but one of the shoots is dying for some reason. It's leaves are turning yellow and falling off, but only on one of the branches. I don't have a clue as to what is wrong with it. Time will tell though, the younger shoots seem to be doing fine, and it's flowering so, I'm just going to leave it the way it is. It may be that it got damaged while being transplanted.

Ahhh... Blessed Fridays :)

I spent this morning relaxing and listening to spa music. I love my job, 25 hours a week, every Friday off and awesome money! My cheque this week was over $900 ::drool::

It's a good thing I'm making extra money now too. One of my plant stands took a nose dive! O.O The one leg on it finally gave out when the screws tore themselves out of the plywood bottom. Some how it doesn't suprise me though, we bought the stands 6 years ago in Kingston second hand. Five dollars each seemed like such a deal lol. The hibiscus slid off and cracked it's bottom plate (which I tried to glue, and had absolutely no success) and the peace lily crashed to the floor. No serious damage was done but it scared the crap out me and the cats. Terence, as always, wasn't really phased by it. It did break off two branches of the hibiscus so I'm attempting to root them for Kailee. Hopefully it works this time. It would make up for the crash. I'm going to try rooting them in water with some rooting hormone and see how that works. The special rooting dirt didn't do squat last time.

We booked our tickets for gencon yesterday! eeeEEEeeehehehehe :D I'm excited, can you tell? lol I've been trying to get a decent room booked but no such luck yet. All we have so far is friday saturday at the omni, not what I wanted but I'll take it for now. I imagine something will come up closer to the day of.

Excellent long weekend and some new pics

The weekend was awesome. We ate way too much food and paid dearly for it. The spread was at Michelle's house. I made an apple pie and cut up Kailee's salad ingredients as my contribution to the meal. Terence realized what was in pie dough and vowed to never eat it again lol. So I'll be making my pie dough out of olive oil or butter from now on instead of lard.

Everyone in the family seems to be doing fine, except for Stewart, he was "sick" all weekend. Kailee and Stewart got a new puppy and supposedly it kept him up all night, causing him to be ill for two days.... WTF is he going to do when the baby comes along???

I downloaded all of the camera's pictures and have uploaded my favourites to flickr. I'll post some highlights of the pic spread shortly.

Easter weekend and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

It's Good Friday today, so everything is closed (which sucks) but I get to spend the day with Terence (which is awesome). We don't really have much planned this weekend except dinner on Sunday with the family. The cool part is we both get Easter Monday off as well! I might have to go into the TIC office to straighten out the Blueberry books on Monday though (bleh). I really hope it doesn't take too long.

I think today will consist of cleaning up, some laundry and

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread!

The recipe I'll be using is as follows:

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Ingredients:

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup mashed ripe banana(2 to 3 medium)
* 1/2 cup shortening
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup HERSHEY'S Mini Chips Semi-Sweet Chocolate
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 9x5-inch loaf pan.

2. Combine all ingredients except small chocolate chips and walnuts in large bowl; blend well on medium speed of mixer. Stir in small chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

The recipe comes straight off of the Hershey's website

Tasty Banana Bread nomnomnom lol

Final Fantasy 12 is done!

I finally finished FF12. It was a very good ending and made me wish there was more. I'll probably still do the rest of my hunts just to get the final trophies but for all intensive purposes, the game is done. I won't spoil the ending for anyone else (I hate it when people do that :# )

On another gaming note, a new update came out for FFXI. Which I think I'll be thoroughly ignoring... They didn't really fix anything with the jobs, in fact, they broke it more! I swear they're retarded, they gave samurai another tp ability and gave thf a weaker version of an ability they already have, but it shares a timer with the stronger version.... um yeah that was a really good idea... Now I'll never use that ability, EVER. Gee thanks SE.

What a crazy week!

Last week was nuts but very good. I got lots done and feel good about everything except the condition of the house. It's a disaster area, I got some of it cleaned up this weekend but it's still messy.

My new job is going very good! I really like the people here. I know a few from my work at the bank. The next few weeks are going to be a bit haywirey as it's year end and I'm still learning the ins and outs of the books here but I think it'll go pretty good. Might not be the smoothest year-end ever seen, but it'll get done.

Carmelly kitten got fixed on Friday. She was really groggy and tired for the rest of Friday and most of Saturday, but she perked up and is now back to her little playful self. She can go outside and run free now too! She had grand fun with her sister outside watching the birds and chippy run around at the feeder. I don't think it will be long before she's in the feeder just like her siblings. They are going to teach her so many bad things lol.

I made a chicken and rice dish in the slow cooker on Sunday. It wasn't all that great. I don't think I'm even going to put up the recipe for it. I'll find another one that's more tasty. I still have to put up the chili recipe. I'll do that when I get home for lunch today.

Chili recipe and warm weather

I made Chili on Sunday again. It was awesome! Terence says he loves slow-cooker sundays :) I'm glad that he enjoys my cooking. In the grand scheme of things, the slow cooker is easy to do and it's awesome for us. No preservatives or extra crap, just good fresh food. I hope it improves his blood pressure.

We went to Walmart this weekend with Kevin and stopped at their little BP checker in the pharmacy. Terence's was 146/90something... I'll admit that mine was a bit high too (136/87) but holy crap! that's high! I got reading online and blood pressure is supposed to fluctuate during the day so little spikes is ok after eating and during excercise or stress but not all the time. I'll make sure he gets lots of sleep and excercise before we donate blood in april/may. If his pressure is still high, I'm making him see a doctor.

The snow is melting! I was gorgeous on Sunday when I went to the grocery store. Beautiful sunshine and warmth pouring down from the sky. The wind is still a bit cool but I think winter is releasing it's cold cold grip from the land. The cats and dog are very glad. Grizzy went out for a good hour or so, Mephit was in and out all day and Marbles was out all afternoon (which is REALLY rare). Carmel was just itching to escape, but we kept a close eye on her. She can start exploring after Friday when she gets snipped.

Yay! No more Candace! Rib recipe and repotting

Muahahahahah! I'm done at the bank and my gods it feels good. I'll miss some of the people that I served but that's about it. Even the good bye card the staff gave me is only half-assed and bland. I was so not meant to work with those people. It's done and time to move on though. NGFC has it's share of problems too, but nothing compared to what was going on at BMO.

As promised in my last post, here is the rib recipe that I used. I was right, every bite was lip-smacking, finger-licking awesome.

Sweet and Sour Ribs

3 lbs Ribs
1/4 c. flour
1 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. water
1/2 c. vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 c. ketchup
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine all the ingredients except the ribs in a sauce pan on medium heat, mix thoroughly and allow to thicken. Cut ribs into 3 of 4 bone sections, lay flat in the crockpot and cover with sauce. I made two batches of sauce and it may have been a bit much. I might try making like, one and a half batches next time.

I transplanted the rubber tree, now just for the Grape ivy. I can't decide whether to put it in a new pot or put it in it's old pot with new dirt. I'll figure something out though.

book book book :)

Hehehe I just ordered 6 books for $5! I love free gift cards :) I ordered two cat books by Erin Hunter, two books of the Drizzt books for Terence by R. A. Salvatore, an older book I've been looking for called Factoring Humanity and a gardening book they had on sale. It's scheduled to arrive in two weeks or less (probably less, chapters is awesome for shipping fast)

As for where I got the free gift card? My last cashout for bravo points at work was for a blender and $50 at chapters :) Still haven't used the blender yet though. I might have to pick up some fruit and make a smoothie or a milkshake this afternoon. I have to go in to pick up the stuff for slowcooker sunday tomorrow! Going to make ribs mmm mmmmm tasty! I'll post the recipe I plan on using later on tomorrow.

So tired...

The past few days has been really hard on me. Monday went well at the doctor and physio's place. My follow up appt went very well. Dr. Fidler says the methotrexate seems to be holding well. I've been off the prednisone for over a week now. I still get little twinges here and there but I think this might work for a while. I didn't shop much, just bought some books and some planting materials.

My new job is awesome! This is going to be so easy :) I'm even able to teach my teachers stuff like how to search on the computer and accpacc lol. I really like Laurie as a teacher, Evangeline is a bit of a flake and very slow but I guess it won't matter in a few weeks as I'll be replacing both of them. Teddy seems to remind me lots of Annabelle heh, but maybe a little more easy to tame. Hopefully, I can keep her on track with spending, the budget there is way bigger than PAL's ever was so it should be ok.

Only 6 more days with Candace! I'm so glad! ;)

transplanting and growth

I transplanted the Ficus Benjamina and the German Ivy. Both seem to be doing well. I lost the plant that I got from the restaurant, the frost was too much for it. The hibiscus seems to be doing better, it's got some new growth coming. Hopefully, it's adjusted to being by the heater and it'll be ok. I think I'll transplant the grape ivy next. It's still in it's original pot from 6 years ago and probably is in dire need of some new dirt. Other than that, all the plants are doing very well, lots of new growth on the polkas and datura. I think I'll post some pics of the datura on the ubc website. Mom seems to think it's not a datura like she originally thought. Maybe they can confirm one way or another and if it's not, help me identify it.

Lunar Eclipse and ngfc new job!

Last night was a very nice show. A lunar eclipse on a full moon. We didn't get to see much of a blood moon though. It must have been cloudy around us. An article I found on NASA's website details what causes a blood moon or Hunter's moon as it's called in some parts of the world.

NASA article on Blood Moon

I found out when the next total solar eclipse is for North America, lol August of 2017. Terence said we could go but it's so long into the future that I'll just put it into the back of my head and forget about it for a little while at least. It would be a neat family trip to take into the states. It's also right around Gencon time so that would be convenient if we're still going to that for our vacations.

I got my job at the NGFC! It's $20 per hour for my probation and $22 after that. I'm very excited about it, I start on Tuesday. It will be good to get away from Candace. I've had enough of her bullshit. I do have to ask Teddy about Gencon in August though. I'd imagine it will be fine. I will offer to work some Fridays to make up for the hours. I think if I ask for Wednesday to Monday off, that's not too much to ask for (only three days when you take into account I get Fridays off)

T4s, Deer and Family Day

Mom's T4s are done. (one more thing off my long list of crap to do) Yay! I brought them up to Dryden today and had a nice visit with the family. We went to Tacotime for a bite to eat and poor Kailee didn't eat much lol. Her morning sickness is more like all-day sickness.

After Mom and Dad went to bed, I was watching TV with the lights off and was treated to a wildlife display outside the living room window. Five deer came to the feeder and snacked on the sunflower seeds while I watched in awe. I tried to snap some pictures but am not sure how they will turn out as the lighting was pretty much non-existent. We'll see though, I hope at least one or two turned out. They were very tame and allowed me to get right up close to the glass without spooking much at all. The one doe was very agressive towards the other doe and her fawn. I think there was a bit of a territorial issue going on there.

I forgot my brace for my wrist for sleeping which sucks, but I wonder if the damn thing makes it worse anyways. I don't think it fits quite right. I feel like I'm gripping it in my sleep trying to change the position of it. I'll ask them next week whether or not it needs adjusting.

I'm really getting discouraged at work. For the most part, I just really feel like I don't fit in. I try and try to have conversations with customers and my co-workers and it just never comes out right. I fumble on what to say, I speak too softly and half the time they can't hear me or don't understand. I wish I wasn't so nervous all the time. I really wish I had got that job at the NGFC. Everything happens for a reason though and I'd imagine there's a good one for me not getting it. I just can't think of one right now. Ah well. Maybe a greenhouse will open up and I'll get a job there lol. We all need our dreams though, so I'll keep that one nestled safely in the back of my thoughts where no one can dash it to pieces. Back with my garden and paludarium and my cat sanctuary. Someday...

Tomorrow is lolFamily Day. What a joke of a holiday. I lost my floater so they could create a fake holiday in the middle of the coldest month of the year. I'm so not impressed with the Government on this one. I would have rather worked and picked when I wanted my floater.

Baby....

Yes I'll say it one more time so it can sink in real slow.... Baby... My sister is going to have a baby... Not sure if that's a yay or a OMGWTF thing. We'll see, I'm suspecting it will be a good thing but ya never know.

Found a fun little game online about geography. Link for it is:

Fun with world geography

I think my plant from the restaurant might, and that's a huge might, live. It's growing small root tendrils and some of the leaves have a small amount of greenness still. I'm hoping really lots that it survives. It's a nice little plant and I was very glad when the lady said I could have some.

I did my interview today and it went awesome! I'm so very glad it did. The questions were super easy, and I really liked the people. One of them is Terence's second cousin so that might be a good thing. I get my answer on Friday. ::fingers crossed::

weekend fun and ngfc

The weekend was pretty good. We went to Dryden to pick up Mom's T4s and to have a visit. Saturday night, we went to the Queen St. Station to play pool and listen to the karaoke singers. Mom's friend, Charles, won the karaoke contest (could be because she voted for him 10 times lol) Mom, Dad and Terence had a little too much fun (beer) so I drove home. Kailee and I were the only sober ones as Stewart declined to join us. Sometimes that guy drives me nuts. He phoned my cell, Dad's cell and the house repeatedly after she asked him if he wanted to join us. Why not come with us instead of repeatedly phoning a bazillion times trying to get her to come home. Jealousy is a huge relationship killer, I hope he realizes that. What makes me really laugh, is he's worried about her hanging around her family. What happens if she makes some new friends??? Ah well, enough bitching about Stewart.

Dad, Terence and I went for breakfast on Sunday. I got a new plant from the restaurant :) Unfortunately, I think it may have gotten frostbite on the way into the house as the doors were frozen and we were outside for a good 3 or 4 minutes before we got inside :( We'll see though. I hope at least a small piece lives.

The NGFC called me and requested an interview tomorrow YAYAYAY! I'm so excited and hope hope hope that I get the position.

NGFC, clean up and plants

I called the Nishnawbe-Gamik Friendship Centre and confirmed that they received my application (yay they did, and Teddy sounded very friendly on the phone!) I should know something by the 14th (sweethearts day :D maybe my love will bring me luck) It made me feel so good to hear from her that they were probably interested and that they received it, especially after work. I just really can't be bothered to put effort into BMO any more. Candace just keeps dishing it out left right and centre for the stupidest reasons.

Of course, because I was upset because of work, I went on a bit of a cleaning spree lol. Two loads of laundry and vaccuuming done, I might have to clean out the dresser and the closet just to make me feel good though. It's about the only thing that I appreciate about getting upset, it makes me want to clean! I like the results, just not how they were produced.

I'm going to check all the plants this evening, too. I'll report in later which were watered and which were left.

Edit: The plants are doing good. I watered all of them except the String of Pearls, Ficus Alii, the prayer plant and the African Violet.

I figured out the camera!

Yay for new pictures! I got the camera to talk to the laptop properly, turns out I was missing a driver. I inserted the XP home disc and voila! Unfortunately, I think I accidentally deleted the funny video we took of Carmelly kitten making her fun chirpy noise at the dishtowel :(:(:( Ah well, it won't take much to get her to do it again. This time we won't have barkey in the background to be let in lol (dog was barking during the clip making it hard to hear Carmel's fun noise) I'll upload the photos to flickr later for everyone's browsing pleasure!

mmm cookies and repotted plants

We had a good weekend, very productive. I made cookies and repotted the datura and parlour palm. Terence did the dishes and some laundry while I baked and gardened (good deal as far as I'm concerned lol, I enjoyed both of my tasks) I watered all the other plants except for the Ficus Benjamina. One thing I did forget to do was call Mom and let her know we weren't coming to town. I think she knows that now though, considering it's 8pm on sunday...

Terence and I are leveling Pld/Whm, just to 42 for me (for the teleports), and not sure how far for him maybe to 75, maybe not.

so f**king tired of it...

I really can't care less about my job these days. My manager has got to be retarded, either that or she's trying to drive me out. I work my ass off to get referrals and do a good job but of course, that's what I'm supposed to do... I miss one (1), I'll say that again, ONE name during my side-by-side and she goes off on me. I mean right goes off, asking me if I think this is McDonald's and it's just in, serve the customer, out again. How she would expect that kind of stuff from a rookie CSR and it won't be tolerated here, etc, etc. No mention of my 200% referral score, no mention of balancing to $3.00, no mention of anything else other than I missed addressing one person in 10 by their name while she was standing there.

I really can't be bothered any more. It made me incredibly discouraged and really not want to be there. There's an advert in the paper for a part-time bookkeeper. I'm seriously thinking of applying just to get away from her. I just can't win with her, if it's not one thing it's something else. And when she can't find something, she makes up stuff to yell at me for. No one else there likes her. They all think she's crazy and nasty. Ah well, on to other things...

We finished the Wings of the Goddess missions for ffxi, interesting storyline so far. I hope they hurry up and update soon! I think Binbi's going to start leathercraft as his next craft. I've got to update my spreadsheets for crafting. Not all of them are up to date. He's started fishing again, going for the Lu Shang's Rod. I bought a bunch of moat carps for him to help him on his way :)

Testing Embedded Spreadsheets

Gonna try to embed some spreadsheets to see what I can do.


Yay it worked! Tada, here are Magrayne's merits :)



And it's a little bare but a crafting sheet that I'll update later. (updated it, not so bare now ;) )

Cashed out at Netwinner!

Hehehe I had a good day at netwinner yesterday. I won a 1000 point prize and a 5000 prize! They gave me more than enough to cash out for the first time. Now to wait the 60 days for my ecard... Hopefully it arrives in one piece and on time. By the time it gets here, I'll be ready to cash out again lol.

I watered the peace lily yesterday, it was getting droopy. I think I'll repot the parlour palm and the datura. I like the pot they're in but I don't think the parlour palm is having a good time there. Hopefully with a new pot it'll sprout up a bit. If I can keep the cats away from it that is lol.

Plant propagation fun

Almost done with mom's books (yay!) I still have to find those cheques to deposit tomorrow. Can't figure out for the life of me where I put them... I hope I didn't wash them in the laundry :( Ah well, if I did, I did. Nothing I can do about it now.

I watered all the plants Friday except the prayer plant so they should be good for a few days. The angel wing begonia rooted nicely and I now have two of them! With luck and some good care, I'll be able to give Kailee a nice little plant for her birthday in April. I might see if I can find propagation techniques for the Datura just for fun.

I got another email for a fish tank, but no pictures and she wants $300 for it... Which sucks, I'd really like to try making a Paludarium. It might have to wait until after tax season, though. I just don't have the energy right now. Soon though, maybe when I have my garage sale and get extra money from it, I won't feel so queasy about dishing out $300-$500 all at once.

I found out something interesting about Netwinner. They are just now getting to the payouts cashed in for end of September... I'll try to be patient but holy crap that's a long time to wait for a cashout. I'd like to start tracking my balance to see how much I win each day. I know it's not much but hey it doesn't take much to play either.

work ffxi and the kitties

I'm still plugging away at Mom's stuff, about halfway done though. I have to remember where I put her cheques she gave me though, I need to deposit them before the first.

We're going for Binbi's egg on friday **crosses fingers** I hope he gets it! I need to figure out how to post my stats online for merits and crafting without using ffxi community (as there are supposedly security issues that are mixed in with it.) I think I might try to figure out how to use GoogleDocs. That would probably do the trick. I wish I had more time to craft :(

I set up Carmel's appointment for her to get spayed. March 19th is the day that she goes under the knife o.O I'd also like to see if there is anything that can be done for Marbles' eye. It isn't dialating and contracting properly on the side closest to her nose. I knew I should have brought her in... Not that they would have been able to do anything here in dryden probably, but I feel bad for not trying.

work, work, and more work... and some birds and flowers!

It's that time of year again! So many books, so little time. I finished the Barker stuff (just have to print and bill it :) , that's the fun part though) and have moved on to Mom and Dad's. I'll be doing that for a few more days, hoping to get it done by Friday. Then I've got the blueberry festival to deal with and Anne at the TIC is interested in getting a review done. That should keep me busy well into February.

Mom emailed me a nice picture of a junko (I think) at her feeder. I've had some good luck at my feeder. Lots of nice grosbeaks, chickadees and one nuthatch. And one less squirrel to worry about hehehe... There was two squirrels at the feeder, eating all the seeds (little gluttons) so I decided to let Grizzy have some fun :P I let him out the front door so they wouldn't see him and he snuck around to the back. I went about my business in the house, getting breakfast ready and happened to glance outside to see how he was progressing. There was one squirrel about halfway up the tree, looking down under the deck. Grizzy was no where to be seen (I'm assuming under the deck) and neither was the other squirrel lol. Needless to say, he wasn't very hungry for kitty crunchies for the rest of the day :P

The datura plant is in bloom! Very pretty reddy-pink flowers. I'll see if I can post a picture of it to my flickr account later on. The fact that it's highly toxic sill kind of scares me but ah well. It's been in the house for 6 months now, if the cats were going to eat it, they'd have done it by now.

breakfast and beef stew

We went out for breakfast today, was very nice to get back to our regular weekend routine. I'm making beef stew for supper, made some changes to the recipe.

1 lb. beef chunks
4 green onions
4 medium potatoes
two handfuls of baby carrots chopped in half
3 stalks of celery
4 mushrooms
1/2 tsp of thyme
1/4 tsp of paprika
1/2 tsp of garlic
1 can of beef broth (used the 25% less salt kind this time around)
1 can of tomato paste
1/4 tsp of pepper
3 cups of water

3 tbsp of cornstarch
1/3 cup of water

Veggies chopped on the bottom of the crockpot, brown the meat in a skillet. Add the water and broth and paste and spices on top of the veggies and then add the browned meat. Cook on high for 4 hours. 1/2 hour before it's done, add the cornstarch and 1/3c of water to help thicken.

We'll see what that does for the recipe. Hopefully it's tasty!

my time in TBay

Wow, it's been a long two weeks. I'm glad I went though. I learned all kinds of things about arthritis and my treatment. The following post will be my journal while in the hospital. It may take me a day or two to get it all entered.


Day 1 - January 2nd

We arrived at the hospital at 9 and I checked in. I share my room with a little Finnish lady who had a hip replacement. She doesn't speak much english but seems relatively friendly. The nurses came and asked me a bazillion questions about my check in. Then Terence came at 12 and we had lunch in the cafeteria. I did my initial assessment with Joanne and Noel? (I think that was her name) and started some exercises with Joanne. She wants me to work on my shoulder to help increase mobility. After my assessment, I rested and read my book until supper (roast beef and potatoes) and then went to safeway. I called Terence at 8 and we chatted for a bit. He made it home safe, no animals on the road :)

The showers here are ok, I think I'll shower at night when it's not busy. The only odd thing that happened was the tv for the empy bed beside me kept turning on randomly by itself =O Made me kind of creeped out.


Day 2 - January 3rd

POOL! Yay for pool :) It's bathtub warm and soooo good. My instructor Nancy seemed kind of standoffish at first but she warmed up after a little bit. The assessment for my lower body was fun lol round and round the mulberry bush hehehe. They put out these little pylons in the hallway and made me walk around them for 6 minutes. I did like 15 laps by the time I was done. Lunch kind of sucked, cabbage rolls and mushroom soup, but I ate some extra granola crunchies to top it off. I really like the nutrition class. It was very informative and Julie was very friendly. Joanne jave me a booklet with some good exercises for helping my shoulder and some for every day to help keep my range of motion and keep me fit. Nice light stuff to do while at home. Noel also gave me a little block of wood to squeeze to help strengthen my grip as it's below functionality level. I will make it a point to work hard on this lots as it has been a point of annoyance for me. They will do another assessment at the end and hopefully I can make it a little better by then.

Supper kicked ass today. Chicken! mmmmm tasty chicken :P Dessert was no hell though, pineapple cake, uck for pineapples. I met a nice man named Wayne Hodges. He has a big barn kitty just like Grizzy that is waiting for him at home. He's for a car accident that took his arm and broke his leg. I am glad that all my people are whole and safe and sound. We had a good talk about solar panels and being off the grid. Turns out he knew Charlie when he used to drive truck 30 years ago and he might have worked with Gerald about 10 years ago. I hope I get to meet his kitty some day, he sounds like a nice kitty.

Terence is doing pretty good, he merited today and is doing some assaults. Carmel is doing ok, being a chatty little kitten. He says Misty might have a cold, she was coughing earlier. I told him to make sure he keeps her in and only lets her out to pee and stuff real quick. He said he's watch her close. I'm kinda tired today. They ran me pretty hard during my assessment and exercises heh. The pool was good and I'm looking forward to tomorrow again. I'll read for a bit and then probably go to bed early. Wayne came to show me his pictures of his buddies. His big boy looks just like Grizzy! Made me miss my buddies even more ::sniff sniff::


Day 3 - January 4th

My god I love the pool! I have to find a way to either put in a hot tub or convince the town to add a heated pool lol. After pool I had a chat with Jane the social worker. Suprise suprise she made me cry... We got talking about Mom and Dad and family and self image issues. I'll have to really work on some of the issues I have there but we all know how good I am at self expression HA. We did some hot wax treatment and ultrasound on my hands today mmm the hot wax felt good :) I also talked to Noel about some of the tools for my hands. She gave me some good ideas on where to get some of them. I got some good hand exercies from Nancy and we talked about our buddies and cars and all kinds of stuff. Joanne did some more tests on my shoulder and is going to find me some movements to help "floss my nerves" hehehe. Nancy gets to go to Vegas and Arizona next week (lucky girl) and she's all excited about it :) I remember how exciting Indianapolis was for me.

My lecture about Coping with change and loss was hard, but good. I learned some things about myself and where I am with my disease. I also learned that it's ok to be mad but to make sure I'm mad at the arthritis and not at me. It's not my fault, it's no one's fault, it's just crappy ass life's fault. It's ok to grieve for things but to try to understand and move past and over the grief. But there's still lots there that I need to deal with. Tai Chi was lots of fun. I really think its like swimming, very fluid, very relaxing. I'd like to learn lots more about it. My nurse today kind of sucks but I guess you can't win em all. Kind of a crappy day to get a crappy nurse though :( Hopefully tomorrow is a better day, I get to spend the day out and about. I'm going to take the but down town and to the mall. It should be a good day :) Terence is doing KS99 right now. Pray for the BT to drop!

And it dropped!!! Only one more piece to go! Now if he could get the egg-egg to drop. He's having fun watching Silent Hill right now on DVD. He says he needs it in Bluray so it's that much more splattery lol.


Day 4 - January 5th

I woke up at 6 am today, guess that's what I get for going to bed at 10. Doing my exercises and #5 on the hand chart makes my middle finger tight but that could be from my wrist though. I finished Road of the Patriarch. Poor Artemis... :( I hope he finds some happiness in Calimport. He's so sad and angry all the time :( My exercises are done, time to shower and head to town! I looked at all kinds of fun things today, cameras, fish tanks and plants. I talked to the people at Petsmart about my paludarium. They said a $40 filtration system with some pvc piping would do the trick for my waterfall and circulation. They sell live plants there too!

I also checked out some Tai Chi stuff at Chapters and picked up a video. New shoes, a tea mug, a puzzle book and a plant for my room rounded out the day nicely. I met a crazy (or at least my table did lol) at lunch today. I was eating my burger when this old guy comes over and starts gibbering away at me in some foreign language. I glance up and he's not really looking at me. He's staring at the vacant seat across from me >.> So I watch him for a minute or two and yup he's talking to my table??? Needless to say, I picked up my tray and slinked away to another table. Mr. Crazy just stood there jabbering away at my table heh. The bus rides were ok. Walking from Chapters to CTC was dumb though. I'm tired now and a little sore. Gonna get some drugs from my nurse to help it. Yay for drugs! lol.

Terence got his monk pants today. 5 for 5 lucky guy! He also got three pieces of elshimo marble o.O TH4 ftw! I played cards with Wayne, his daughter and one other patient. Wayne's daughter and I kicked butt! She's gonna bring his kitty in to visit some time next week. I hope I get to see him.


Day 5 - Jan 6th

I hardly slept last night ;( I got a new room mate named Carol. She's not doing so good after her back surgery and kept us up most of the night so I may nap today. Pancakes for breakfast! So tasty with yummy sausages. I played some cards with Wayne again this afternoon until some cranky old man came in. I really hate being around them kind of people. They just never stop whining about stuff. I went and checked out some of the stuff on kitchenstock.com. The cutting board looks interesting but I'm not sure it's what I'm looking for. I'll have to poke around online a bit more.

Kailee's coming to visit me on Tuesday :) Stewart has to go to court to testify about some crap from a few years ago. I just hope nothing happens while he's here. He's got so much history here. Mom had a look at the tanks on the CKDR site. She says offer him $75 and see. I don't know if he'd take it though and I don't want to sound cheap but I can't see it being worth much. I really liked the archer fish idea the petsmart lady had. Hehehe little spitting fishies lol. Mom says I'll need to get a suckerfish to deal with the algae. I like the suckerfishes so that's fine.