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.