Spock hams up to the camera

I'm a Derpy cat :P

What you look at?

Spockie loves his new home!

Tahya and Spock

They like to hang out

Pixie's eye is so much better

So a week after giving him daily eye baths and putting polysporin eye/ear drops in his eyes, he's doing great. Other then a bit of missing fur where he had the worst crusts, you coudln't tell he had a sore eye. I figure I'll put the drops in his eye for a couple more days just  to make sure it stays good.

Apparently because the polysporin eye/ear drops, is a special drug it needs to be put in your file at the pharmacist even if a prescription is not required. I wasn't going to tell them it was for my cat's eye infection.

It sucks that these days everything is so damn regulated and you have to see a specialist for everything. It's not the first or last time I heal one of my cats from a minor infection without ever seeing a vet.  TO be honest, putting cat in crate and driving them to vet, and waiting in vet office is highly traumatic to them. Why put them through that stress if I can heal them myself?

Dragonfly wind-chimes

Fell in love with this one when I spotted it at the Kaleidoscope gathering It's got a lovely sound too, the sound of the wood is just so different.

I picked up this one in a little shop in Marche de l:ouest.

This one is a gift from my eldest daughter

This is a dollarstore find.

Wind-chimes

I realized by taking photos that I have more then 20 wind-chimes many of which are dragonfly themed. Here are a few of my wind-chimes, those that are not dragonfly themed

This one is a gift from hubby #2, the globe lights up pretty colours at night with the wind

This one I picked up in Perce, Quebec, made from green stones found there locally.

This is a gift from a long time friend, 

This one I picked up in Dubai, at the Mall of the Emirates from a man who sells chinese stuff in a little cart.

This is also a gift from hubby #2 made by an artisan in PEI. We got to visit his workshop and see all the chimes he had for sale. It's huge, and weighs easily 20-30 lbs so needs a strong hook, which I have yet to put up.  You can see how big it is with my cat in the picture.  It has a beautiful song. I look forward to being in Nova scotia and hanging outside my window.

Pixie's Eye infection

Here's a photo of Pixie's infected left eye. This is after the treatment this morning.  When I first noticed it and it came about fast, he had blood coloured crusts all the way down to his nose. The pink tissue around the eye was bright red and inflamed. The swelling has gone down and from a distance you can't tell anymore that he's got an infected eye.  Will probably keep treatment for another 5-6 days. He's my oldest cat at 9 years of age.

Eye infection.

Poor Pixie, has an eye infection.  I've been treating him for it since last Thursday with the same approach I had treated Jethro's eye infection a few years ago.  I first wash the eye using a solution of 1 cup of water for 1 drop of baby shampoo.  I use either cotton balls or makeup pads to wash the eye. Once it's washed and I've unstuck all the crusts, I put a drop of polysporin antibiotic eye drops. Make sure it goes on all the affected areas and then dab any excess with makeup pads.   So far it appears to be slowly clearing.

It's weird, his tears are dark red, so it looks like crusty blood around his eyes, but it's not blood. He's not bleeding anywhere nor does he have open sores. Tonight I did a bit of googling and figured out it's most likely conjunctivitis,  likely caused by  FHV-1 or cat Herpes .    And much like the human variety, you can be infected as a small child and the virus can lay dormant for 40 years and then you have reoccurring flare-ups.  It's the first time I see his eye infected like this, and hopefully the last time.

He was pretty upset the first few days I was treated him, now he seems more docile. Dunno if it's because he's realized he doesn't have a choice, or because he's realized it's actually feeling better.  Either way I have to fight less to treat him and that's always a bonus. He actually showed up when I called him for his treatment when I got home from work.

I haven't put an Elizabethan collar on him because he does not appear to rub his eye or scratch it. 

Restringing windchimes

I spent some time today re-stringing wind-chimes lying around my home. I used some dollar store fishing line instead of the various rope the wind-chimes were originally strung with.

Designer Vaginas.

It's apparently a big trend in the UK at the moment.  I just don't get it, and the majority of the women who get this are young women!!!!

It amuses me to no end. Even if I had tons of money, I probably wouldn't get anything changed on me. I'd probably have a personal trainer so my tummy would be flatter, but overall I feel I've aged well. I don't look my 50 years of age.

My lack of wearing make up or much products of any type means I have incredibly nice skin. Also my lack of spending hours in the sun also keeps my skin nice. And lastly my grandma's trick for beautiful young skin is to use olive oil to hydrate it.

Despite having delivered 2 awesome daughters, I would not see the point of having a designer vg. I mean my anatomy is perfectly adapted to the activities it's meant for.  It's not like men spend an hour looking at it and analyzing how it looks. Most men just want to dig in and enjoy it's pleasures, I'm sure the visual part is just a small part of the experience. It also amuses me greatly that many women who get it done, get it done after having kids, as if it was the only thing to 'tighten' things up.  Doing daily keigel exercises will keep you nice and tight without surgery. It will also help you get better orgasms.

The other thing I remember that my Belgian, ex Catholic Priest, step-dad was pretty strict in his values, as he didn't want me to wear make-up or nail polish or colour my hair. He felt that I was pretty just as God made me.  While I do like wearing nail polish, especially on my toes, and colouring my hair, otherwise I'm pretty much the way God made me. The only surgery scar I have was for a hernia surgery and I wear it proudly hidden behind a belly button piercing :)

Seriously though, I would not have anyone cut me up unless it was life threatening. My hernia could have become life threatening.  Labiaplasty and vaginaplasty really isn't necessary for 99% of people. I'm sure there's the odd case where nature wasn't kind and things need to be adjusted, but for most women that isn't the case.   

What amuses me the most is that some women get self-esteem from such procedures!

Animals in Parc National Frontenac

Chippy Chipmunk

Geese in a V formation [well they were trying]

Porcupine holding a flower

Porcupine with leaf.

Loon

Bunny Butt!

I'm snailing away...

It look like this dragonfly had cellophane wings

Funky Mushrooms in the bog of Parc National Frontenac

Ah the new Windows 8.1

So if you're running the setup of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 it looks EXACTLY the same. With one tiny tiny exception. On the splash screen, the copyright for Windows 8 is 2012, and the copyright for Windows 8.1 is 2013. Otherwise, you cannot tell which of the two you are installing. I still don't understand why it could not be just a service pack.

Here are screen captures to illustrate the case. Note, the colours don't look exactly the same because the setups were on different LCD's with the light hitting it from a different angle. The colour is exactly the same shade of blue.

Windows 8

Windows 8.1

Should I run the pedestrian over?

I might drive sometimes like a maniac but I will generally let pedestrians go if I see them. This morning waiting for the light to change to turn onto Sources blvd from Anselme Lavigne, I noticed the pedestrian light was counting down and a black man  was crossing the street. So I stayed put to let him cross. the idiot in the Mercedes behind me started to honk within seconds of me not moving.  Wanted to yell out of the window "Would you like to run over the pedestrian yourself" but my back being fucked, it wasn't the right day to do that. 

Zucchini bake - Gluten free

Zucchini Bake

3/4 cup of cooked rice or millet
2 sliced medium zucchinis
1 large onion sliced
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp thym
1/2 tsp salt
some grated cheese [I used Kashkaval goat cheese]

Put the rice or millet at the bottom of a greased square dish. 
Alternate layers of zucchini, onion and tomatoes.  
Sprinkle each layer with salt, oregano and thym

Finish with grated cheese on the top layer. Cook in the oven at 350F or 180C for about an hour or until all the vegetables are tender.

Freedom of expression

Canadian Multiculturism

Great article about Canadian Multiculturalism and why it works.

The elusive large blue green dragonfly

I spent hours last Sunday stalking it at the Cushings Nature Foundation,

Roots Barron Canyon 4 person tent

Tent with fly seen from the front, with zipper closed

 Got around to replacing my damaged  Outdoor Works Nahhani 5 person tent, with a Roots Barron Canyon 4 person tent I picked up discounted at Canadian Tire in August. I'd been looking at tents for weeks and they almost all look the same at this point to be honest. At least in what I wanted.

Front of tent with orange tech spot & shoe holes

I've used the Barron Canyon  tent on 3 different camping trip. The first time was at the Kaleidoscope gathering, the 2nd time was at the Firelight gathering, and the last time was this week-end at the Cushing Nature Foundation.

I don't know that I'd camp 4 people in this tent, unless it was winter, and wanted to keep really warm. Camping 2 people is quite comfortable. It gives you room to sleep and have your things and have a bit of room to move.

It went down below 10 one of the nights. I would not have known, though I was alone in that tent I was comfortable, me who is perpetually cold.  The tent stayed warm.

One of two walls without a door, each have window

The tent itself can be completely closed off, it's not a tent just made out of Mesh. It has a window or door on every wall. The front of the tent has a large window in it's door, and two shoe compartments. So you can keep your shoes in the tent, but not dirty the tent.  It also has a tech hole, to pass a cable if you camped on a site with electricity.

Back of the tent. Under zipper is a mesh window

 I was keeping the windows of the tent opened and the windows of the  fly closed, so that I'd get a bit of air through the gap between the tent and fly during the hot days in the summer for air circulation.

The back door could be compared to a patio door.  I've found with the fly sticks up above the back door, you can keep it opened while the dew falls and there won't be wet in the tent. But I wouldn't trust it in the gale force winds that often accompany heavy rain.


Overall I'm satisfied with my purchase. It's easy to put up and to take down. It comes with a ground sheet and an entrance mat.  I'm not crazy about the orange grey black colours but I can live with it.  I'm expecting to keep this tent for some time as it seems fairly robust.

Barron Canyon tent with fly from the back side.

Update: after using tent a full season I put up a second blog post here.

Microsoft changes their mind about technet and MSDN

So I guess too many of us went around kvetching, Microsoft has made windows 8.1 available on technet and MSDN. Will be looking for it today. 

More pleased then a few days ago, but still unimpressed that it's a new OS.

Who knew gluten free bread could taste so good?

When I was visiting at a friend of a friends this past week-end I stumbled upon a gluten free bread called "Romano bean bread". I read the ingredients and there was nothing else I coulnd't have so I tried a piece, with a bit of margarine. I didn't even bother to toast it, though generally I prefer toasted bread. It was so good. Most of the gluten free bread I've bought at the stores around here are made with rice flour and to be honest, it makes a crappy bread. I'm not much of a corn bread fan either.

This bread had good texture and taste. Left me feeling satisfied and content. Unlike any other gluten free bread.  So luck would have it I found 2 other breads from the same bakery, a White bean bread with grape skin flour and a 'breakfast bread', also made with a white bean flour. The bakery is from Toronto called Yoshi's Sweets.

So far since I got the bread home I've made myself a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner 3 nights in a row. With the white bean with grape skin flour bread and kashkaval cheese. Oh what a delight. Who knew gluten free bread could taste so good. This is gourmet grilled cheese and gluten free to boot!!!!

I so want to move away.

So I've reached 25 days sleeping in a tent under the stars so far for 2013! Hope to make it to 30. I could say I spent a month camping.

I'm just so sick of living in the city. Especially in the part of the city where everyone seems to have a sense of entitlement. Ever notice most of those who drive Land Rovers, Infinitis, Lexuses, Acuras, BMWs, Mercedes and a few other choice brands, appear to think they own the road. They can do no wrong, they have special permissions to blow red lights, ignore stops and cut in front of you at a whim. They don't have to obey the rules. Others do, but not them.

Looking forward to living somewhere with less population density. At least there will still be assholes but in smaller numbers!

Microsoft ignores technet and MSDN for RTM

We're very unimpressed. The RTM is out and we could only get a couple of keys. I was told, to go to MSDN, and then I found out that Windows 8.1 is not being released to MSDN before October 18th. The same day as end users. 

What does Microsoft really think, waiting 3 more weeks is going to prevent leaks of the OS on the internet, or prevent people to trash it, and call it VISTA 2.0 ? 

As far as I can see other then a 'start button' and a few other visual differences, it's still windows 8 and it still sucks. It's not going to impress the desktop/workstation market anymore then the previous version was. And worse, YOU HAVE TO INSTALL a new OS.  

It's not a service pack, it's a new OS. This will use tons more of disk space for me to test with. I had some clown suggest that I just replace my Windows 8 with Windows 8.1 Because no one will ever use Windows 8 again. If I'm still stuck testing Windows XP, chance are even with 8.1 out, I will still have to test 8. 

So for me Windows 8.1 is a HUGE PITA.  On the day of the release and for the month that follows, I will have to add that version of windows to all my test systems. Never mind the fact that I'll probably get bugs reported before I have it installed on certain systems. 

Microsoft isn't improving, it's becoming worse.

Dragonflies from the Townships