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.

Beef Stew!

I made the stew and omg it was good! There are a few things I'd do differently next time, but practise makes perfect as always. My rough recipe I used was as follows.

1 lb. beef chunks
1 small onion (no bigger than a tennis ball)
2 medium potatoes (little smaller than a softball)
three handfuls of baby carrots chopped in half
2 stalks of celery
4 mushrooms
1/2 tsp of thyme
1/4 tsp of garlic
1 can of beef broth (I used consumme, had an old can in the back of the cupboard)
1 can of tomato paste
1/4 tsp of pepper
2 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.

The general concensus was too many carrots and a little too salty (I'm thinking from the consumme) I think next time I'll add more mushrooms and onion in place of some of the carrots, add beef broth instead of consumme and maybe a bit more garlic for flavor. Some recipes call for paprika too, that might be tasty.

crockpot cooking!

Gonna make some beef stew today in my new crockpot! I'll probably mix and match from a bunch of recipes I found as none of them is exactly what I want.

I stumbled upon some very interesting sites regarding composting and worm farms! If they can ship the worms in the winter, I think I'm going to order one when I get back from Thunder Bay. The one that I'd like to order comes from this site here:

Cathy's Composters

A site that shows how to build a farm (which looked kinda cool) is here:

Build a worm farm

Depending on the response I get from an email I sent to Cathy's, I'd like to either buy a farm or build one and order the worms. We'll see though. Terence will probably make me promise to clean another part of the storage out before I can have it lol. I still haven't gotten any response from my classified ad on cdkr for aquariums. /sigh I'd like to try a paludarium someday though.

No PS3 controllers!?!?

We forgot the ps3 controller at Terence's Mom's house. So I decided might as well buy another one. Then we have two when we get the other one back... Unfortunately, no one in town has any left to sell me ;(

/sigh no Drake's uncharted for me today, I'll have to wait until we go to dryden again.

I think I'll look for some recipes for my crockpot tonight and set it up tomorrow morning for some tasties for supper. Maybe something with chicken and potatoes, roasted garlicky potatoes, mmmm tasty!