She sees 20-20 already!!!

So my daughter called me early this morning to tell me her lasik surgery was a success and as of thsi morning she can see 20-20. She still has some difficulty focusing, but she is so thrilled.  She was almost legally blind before the surgery.

I'm so happy for her, I'm tearfully excited.

Oh and I forgot!

I noticed my daughter who had eye surgery yesterday, liked a Bitstrips cartoon on my Facebook page this morning. This tells me she can still see :)  She said she would call me at work today, because after the surgery she shouldn't be staring at computer screens at least not the first day or so.

It's sad what happened in those neighbourhoods...

Articles I found yesterday and today point to the Syrian government punishing neighbourhoods where rebels were found by razing them down completely.  The official stance is that those homes were built without a permit and it's part of urban renewal. Well then why is it being done during a civil war and without any warning or chance for people to pick up their belongings?

It's so sad what has been going on in Syria. I don't care what anyone says, more and more civilians are being displaced and more of the country is being destroyed and to what end?

It's going on 3 years now.  In march it will be 3 years that the people rose in Syria. Those poor people :(

New view on life

Today my eldest daughter is having eye surgery. She has been very nearsighted for a very long time, and hopefully as she is still young, she will have good eye sight again.

I remember how sad I felt when I realized that she couldn't see much 2 inches past her eyes.  I guess that qualifies as blind as a bat!  

I'm going to be thinking about her all day, and hope that the surgery goes as best as it can and that she gets the best possible vision they can give her.  I can't imagine what it's like to have 20/20 vision, as mine hasn't been good since I was 12, but I hope her vision is close to perfect. She's young and deserving :)

Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness

Yes it's the title of a Smashing Pumpkins double album. Also summarizes how I've been feeling the past couple of days.  I can't shake it.

But having spent all my adult life living in Montreal I am well aware that in late January I tend to suffer from SAD.  Despite spending an hour under my lamp  every morning, I'm still getting seriously depressed.

I'm annoyed because you'd think with all the walking out in the forest I'd feel a bit better, but no.   I guess I have to go out more, and  hopefully if it can warm up, I can expose more of my face to the sunlight. It's been too fucking cold to expose anything.

Cape Breton trip 2014

Again this June I am travelling to Cape Breton. Due to a vacation restriction at work, where my boss, and his boss do not want ME to take 2 consecutive weeks, during the period between June 15th and October 31st.   Which is REALLY SUCKY since my favourite activity is camping and this covers the ENTIRE camping season.  However by taking my vacation in early June, I will be allowed taking long week-ends for camping here and there. Hell I may even be able to squeeze in a festival!

Anyways so I arranged my trip to leave May 30th, and come back June 12 or 13th in that ball park.  The sucky part is that there will only be Fundy National Park, Cape Breton Highlands National Park and Mira River Provincial Park opened in the 2 weeks we will be there. So no camping at a new site every night. On the other side of the coin though, at least at Corney Brooke, we will have a spectacular view of the sea, hopefully there are NO gale force winds any of the nights we're there. But the view despite the wind was spectacular.

This year I will get to see the parts of Cape Breton I have not yet seen, like the area between Sydney and Port Hawksbury along the coast. I'm guessing it won't enthrall me as much as the Highlands.  I wonder how many moose we will see?  I hope I will deal better with Sydney. I've warned everyone and their mother, that Sydney makes me crabby.  Dunno what it is about Sydney.

Randomly

I love it when Bob Newhart guest stars on various shows. 

This year it's been on the Big Bang Theory.  Previously it was on NCIS

Last Monday in January

It is snowing like crazy today. Will be a great day to go walk in the woods. Will be so quiet and peaceful. Always is right after a new snowfall, and everything gets muffled. Love the quiet of winter and walking in the woods.

In Bois de Liesse today...

We walked yesterday from my house to Mourelatos and back. It is a 2.8km round trip. Considering the windshield factor it was cold going, but much warmer coming back.

Grilled Haloumi

I just made pan-fried grilled Haloumi cheese. It was so incredibly good. Now I want more, but I had enough. Delicious as it might be. The Haloumi I used was a Cypriot version and made out of a mix of cow, goat and sheep milk.

...................... Sleep - that bitch!

I got new skates today at a liquidation sale

I picked up some Softec Vantage recreational skates for women at a liquidation sale today for $63 including taxes.

When blu-ray players attack!

 So yesterday I was sitting at my desk and I hear what sounds like a corning ware dish break on the floor. When I went to investigate, I found out that the noise was our Lite On external blu-ray player that had shattered a bluRay disk "The girl with the dragon tattoo".   One of the guys in my team,  sitting next to the player tried to eject it to make it stop making noise and by touching it, a shard of bluray disk flew out and attacked him.

Pieces of blu-ray disk

Injury to co-worker

It is lucky the piece of bluRay hit his head instead of hitting his eyes, he could have lost an eye in the process. Pretty nasty. And of work related injuries this has to be one of the weirdest I've seen.  We ordered a new bluRay player to replace this one and I did not order another Lite-On.

It was beautiful but frigid.

So far this week I've walked  Monday, Tuesday and today about 25-30 minutes a piece.  It was -25 on Tuesday but there was no wind, it was -19 today but with the wind it felt colder.   Doesn't it look pretty, this photo was taken just around 3 pm where the sun is really low at this time of the year.

So far between my walking in the woods almost daily and my Vitamin C cubes I have been able to stay healthy. The less I cough, the less I risk throwing out my back.

I may have called it's death prematurely.

Today at lunch time I went to Canada computers and bought a brand new Linksys router, the EA4500.  I got home, re-checked the old router, still flashing like a Christmas tree. So unshrinkwrapped the new router. Put the CD into the player, and before putting hte new router up I started to untangle all the wires to unplug the power cord from the power bar.  I looked at the power supply that took forever to discharge and pondered if maybe NOW the router would work. And it did.  I've got it re-configured and back online with it.

 For removing the shrinkwrap there is at least a 5% restocking fee, and it's a nice router.  So I decided I was going to configure it this week-end. At least for tonight it's working. So I will have a backup router in case something goes wrong.

RIP WRT610N dual band router

So last night around 9:30, with no warning, my LinkSys WRT610N router just died.  Of course it died after the stores were closed.

So we spent last night pining for the internet.   Sure we have internet on our Androids, but typing on a bloody android is a PITA.

So today at lunch, I'm going to buy a router.  All I know is that it's going to be dual band. Beyond that... I have no clue.

Good session

I had a good therapy session. I was annoyed at myself for getting so angry at the moron in our help-desk on Friday. I even left work at noon, because I was too angry to focus, be productive or have the patience for my interns.  My boss was really supportive too. The only thing he told me is that the moron at the help-desk is not even worth my anger.  He's right too.

It's so nice that my boss supports me. Of course it helps we've probably been working together for 17 years now.  I joke he's the longest relationship I've had with a male not related to me.  But it's the truth. And at least most of the time these days I feel supported when I have problem. It probably helps that I can identify my problems bettter and know how to ask for help.

To get back to the session, I described how angry I got. How I left work at noon, and went home. I spent about 1 hour on my ADHD forum on Facebook and some of my friends from the UK were in a silly bantering mood, and after spending an hour with them, I was in a great mood.  I love those people to bits. I have never met any of them in real life, but they are sometimes my saviour.  I even ended going skating and that was so therapeutic, until my fucking skates broke!!!!

But I didn't fume all week-end. Though I was apprehensive to take a voice mail from the said help-desk moron yesterday, in the end it was just to tell me equipment was in. I did get animated describing how angry I was at the guy... because I can always relive those anger moments.

Therapist pointed out that I dealt well with my anger. Even though I still got angry.  So I'm seeing the positive. I also didn't get angry at myself for getting angry. Just annoyed.  Like when am I going to learn that it is pointless to get angry over things I have no control over or morons that I know are just morons!!!

Happy Blue Monday

Apparently today is Blue Monday. 

And I'm not feeling as blue as I usually do in January. So it's all good :)

You're walking through a Forest

Is a line I heard way too much in my friends living room for many years from out of our "friends". I put it like that because the only reason he was 'friends' with any of the girls in the group was to gawk at their boobs and get inside their pants. He hasn't tried with me in easily 10 years now, but he's still trying to get into the pants of people I know. Despite being married to his DD wife.

Beyond that, we went walking around the neighborhood through a wooded area between 2 streets in DDO behind Fredmir park, and it's always so pleasant.

Graffiti tree in woods between Beechwood and Arragon park

Sunset seen from the chain link fence of the baseball field of Arragon Park

Too funny

My first bitstrip was inspired by a friend in my ADHD group who said she wanted to punch in the face anyone who bitstripped. So I bitstrip her punching me in the Face.

And then I got addicted. This is today's bitstrip of me pretending to be David Caruso. Bahahahaha

Typical Belge dinner

When I think of Moules-frites I think of my dad, and Belgium.  I made some for the first time tonight, and it is delicious.

I went skating today.

For the first time in years, I went ice skating today at the rink on Parc du Chemin de la Rive Boisee.  It was as much fun as I remembered it. Bonus, I had the entire pleasure rink to myself, but there was easily 8-10 dudes playing hockey. I wanted to skate an hour for my first time, knowing that my feet, legs and ankles would probably hurt for days aftewards.

Well the skates had a mind of their own and after 45 minutes the right skate decided to throw in the towel. The left skate would have done the same thing within a few minutes as well from what I can tell.

It was weird too at some point I was feeling "Hmm I relaly should tighten my skate, it's staring to feel loose, but lets go around the rink one more time and just as I'm turning into a corner I fell like my skate just fall apart. Thankfully it did not cause me to fall. But I was at the furthest point away from the cabin and I had to skate creatively to make it safely back ot the cabin and put my boots on.

I went to the nearest cobbler on St Jean/Pierrefonds near the Mourelatos and the guy, obviously middle eastern, was like "nothing to fix skates here".  

So will go to Hockey Experts tomorrow and see if they also fix skates. I mean I've had this pair since my teens. They were expensive figure skating skates that my mom gave me as a present one year, when my feet had stopped growing, so I'd have a very good pair for years.  So before the glue died, they lasted over 30 years.

I may buy myself a pair of hockey skates, as a backup pair, but I really want my skates fixed. I love my skates. It took me years to break them in.

Trying out new things.

Last night decided it was time to try out some new TV shows.. well new in a manner of speaking. I decided years ago that I'm no longer watching shows in Season 1. If it doesn't make it to Season 2, I don't want to get into it and be totally disappointed that the show has been cancelled.  At least if it makes it to 4-5 seasons, if I like the show, it gives me enough episodes to watch.

Two of the shows I was watching last season included Private Practice, and Army Wives. Both were not renewed. The sucky thing about it, is that they were my chick shows. I seem to need a good chick show to get my emotions out.

So last night I watched the first 2 episodes of Person of Interest.  I like the premise, I like the show so far.   I also watched 2 episodes of HBO's Girls. Don't think Girls is going to be the chick show I'm looking for, but OMG it was funny. I mean it's a bit like watching a train wreck.  It's not all good but you can't help but watch it?

Of course shows I don't like when I first watch can still grow on me. NCIS is a case in point. I first watched NCIS because there was nothing good on TV during that time slot. It easily took months of me watching it before Abby grew on me, and then Gibbs. Now of course it's my favourite  show, and I've just recently rewatched it from season 1.

Today is Hump Day!

The middle of the work week. Speaking of work, last Friday I was given a certificate for 20 years of employment. [It was given to me 21 1/2 years there].  I had already received my gift certificate at the beginning of the summer, and ended up getting the Tamron 18-270 Piazo lens with it. Nice multi purpose lens that is awesome when just taking one lens for a walk in the park.

My new batch of interns, while being very young and very green are a good batch. It's a bit surprising. Usually the winter semester is where I have the worst candidates, and the summer semester is where I get the best candidates. This batch is all from COOP universities and includes one female student.  Other then the fact they don't read, I haven't really had an issue with any of them.  I say they don't read because all of them have repetitively asked me questions that are answered in the "information guide" I give them on the first day.  Most recently my phone extension and email address. I had to remind them that all pertinent telephone numbers and email addresses they might need to contact us, are all neatly written on page 5 of the booklet. And then I've stressed that first before answering questions they should look at all provided information.

It amazes me that the ONLY student recently that used this guide and read it properly was the one I had last semester, that I'd interviewed twice and not chosen. The one who was so poor interview but turned out to be on of the best stagieres I've had in years.   He never asked a question that was already answered in his guide. But he's a very rare breed.

I managed to get 2 20-25 minute walks in Bois de Liesse on Monday, sadly Tuesday rained most of the day so instead went to bulk barn and dollarama with a colleague.  Today hopefully I can get 2 more walks. I always feel so much better when I go walking in the woods.

Oh and the coworker I keep bitching about, the one with the bathroom fetish and the like, she's taken to coming to work wearing Fuck-me boots this winter. I had one day where one male colleague pointed out she really needed to wear a bra. You could see way too much of her breasts despite wearing a top.

Lebanese dishes FTW

T

This was my dinner last night. I'd made Chile Shrimp and chickpea salad Saturday for dinner, and had both left over. I also made some batata hara to accompany my other dishes last night.

Was a very delicious dinner. Still have the  spicy potatoes and the chickpea salad for dinner tonight.

Ah the grey days of January

I've been wanting to cry the past week. Excess emotion I guess.  It's also one of my biggest fears after months without sex, that if I have some I will burst into tears, during or after sex.   This fear is not as bad as when I went celibate for 2 years, between October 2003 till late 2005.  I could not be intimate with anyone because of how raw my emotions were.

It seems my emotions are still raw. But at least I haven't burst into tears at the wrong moment. I've been watching NCIS again from the beginning and many episodes make me cry and this is a good thing.  I miss my weekly chick shows this fall.  I was watching Private practice and Army wives and that got out my crying most weeks.  But both shows are off the air.

It sucks when my emotions are so raw that it ruins any possible intimacy with anyone,  and makes me run away screaming. Thankfully this is not currently the case.

It's been interesting too, I've been in therapy for 3 years. I don't see therapist that often, about every 4 weeks. Not much point in seeing him more often because it takes a long time for me to process my emotions despite emotions just bubbling out and being so incredibly moody.

I seem to be doing better at identifying how I'm feeling, and overall feeling less frustrated, less anxious and less depressed, but I still get moments where I feel so incredibly depressed.  I know winter is hard on me, not enough time spent outside in nature and not enough sunlight.  Its not helpful either, when you wake up it's dark and you leave work it's dark. 

I need to start doing my daily walks in the forest. I went Thursday for 30 minutes, and it was very peaceful. I always feel better after being in the woods. 

Bois de Liesse - path along Ruisseau Bertrand

Canoe back where it belongs.

My Genuine Indian Brand canoe is back on it's horses.  As I've mentioned  I was very surprised I was able to do it alone, but just as well, it did not stay sitting in snow more then 24 hours, 

It's FRIDAY. Yes!

I messaged my friend to ask if she could help me put my canoe back on it's wooden 'horses' when she got to my place, and she asked me to turn it around so it doesn't accumulate water, which made sense.

So I went to turn it around and in doing so realized that if I just moved one end, because of how high the snow is, I was able to put the canoe back on it's horses by myself. I did it quickly before work. Tonight or tomorrow I have to go position it properly and re-wrap the tarp around it properly. But at least it's back up.
I guess it might not be as heavy as I thought it was.

And now I don't have to worry about it filling with water when it rains tomorrow and then freezing.  I do want to sell my Genuine Indian Brand canoe  this spring... so it would have sucked if it got damaged. 

I've had a 2nd date with the guy I met on POF and so far so good. I'm a happy camper.   :)

Interesting morning.

So after I woke up I went downstairs to clean up the kitchen since my cleaning lady now comes on Thursdays. One of the first things I noticed is that my canoe is no longer sitting on wood but is in the snow. I guess there must have either been a large gust of wind OR some bored kid decided it would be fun to tip it. Though I could not see footprints other then mine going to the canoe to check it's state Sunday.

My friend comes back from New Jersey tomorrow hopefully, she will be able to help me put it back into place  

Then I'm cutting my strawberries for my breakfast, the knife slipped, went flying and scratched my leg. Lucky it wasn't worse. 

At work since going back, I've had nothing but weird problems with hardware malfunctioning and equipment dying.  Wonder what's going to die on me at work today?!?!?!

Freezing rain sucks

Yesterday it went up to 6 and we had freezing rain most of the day. Made for spectacularly icy roads, which reminds me I need to salt my path so the mailman does not kill himself.

Yesterday was the first day back at work and I had 6 interns start. So far so good, none are grating on my nerves already and they seem ok. We'll see as time goes.

I also had a date last night, for the first time in years. Probably since 2006 or 2007. Yeah I don't go out much. I met him at Pushaps, on Sources.  When I arrived, the owner asked me how I was doing. I've been going to this restaurant for close to 20 years, so I asked him how business was doing. He answered business is good, especially with loyal customers such as you who brave the bad weather to have dinner here :)

My date arrived on time, and seemed happy to see me [no he didn't have a banana in his pocket]. Conversation found us just as easily in person as it did online both emails and chat.  That was a relief. as I have particularly awkward days.   In person he reminds me of the father of my daughters.  He's about same height and built, though probably much slimmer then ex now.  Once I was able to get his work clothes out of my head and see him more as himself, it helped a great deal.  Tucked in shirts and business casual is not as bad as suit & tie but apparently does nothing to turn me on either.

After dinner I invited him back to my place to talk some more.  We had a really nice time. Cannot wait to see him again. Jethro had a nice talk with him and even Ziva liked him, my little anti-social diva!

Oh and don't get me started about the cats. First they sat and watched us interact, then they fought. I mean how often do Jethro and Ziva fight? Practically never. She was hissing!  Both managed to take off their collars and play with the collars on the floor to make noise and tell me that they had taken it off. They also tore around the house like maniacs and Ziva enjoyed play deer. Between their antics and how I'm feeling there's definitely another storm coming our way

Now have to get my ass in gear to get ready for work. It's -15 outside today, nice contrast to yesterday's warmth and everything will be iced up today.

Vacations are always too short!

Today is the last day of the winter vacations. It's snowing gently and has been for hours.

I have so many thing to do today, starting with picking up groceries, so I can make a quinoa tabouleh for lunch this week. Also want to make both fig squares and fruit squares as my mid evening snacks.

I also want to put all the furniture back to before Yule dinner, and put whatever stuff I can put away. That will probably take a lot of motivation to do. I do laundry but always bad at putting all the clothes away. Want to try starting 2014 on a good foot [ and it will last what? 2 weeks? ]

Also I realized when I drove to my friends in the townships last week, that my 20 hole Doc Martens needed to be desalted, waxed, minked and siliconed to make sure they stay nice for years to come.  I've started the process, I desalted them, and coloured them with black shoe polish. Then I added one thick layer of black wax. Now letting them sit for a bit, so I can buff them, then add mink oil and tomorrow morning I will silicone spray them so no more salt stains.

Loving those vitamin C cubes

I checked for fun my blog last year and I was sick through part of my vacation. This year knock on wood, I've fought off a few things, but not gotten flu or cold yet.  Still fighting something, have had a cold sore since the 26th. I've had a few days where I was particularly lethargic too. Since I'm on vacation and had no plans I just enjoyed doing very little.

I just made another batch of vitamin C cubes.  I'm having one or two of them with most of my beverages. Be it some Tetley decaf Earl grey tea or Perrier. I'm really enjoying them as it seems that it is keeping me healthier then taking vitamins. I'm also guessing the little bit of citrus pulp I'm drinking does great things for my  entire digestive track as well.  The last batch I made I also added limes. So there was 3 limes, 2 clementines, 2 lemons, 2 oranges and 1 grapefruit. I cooked it gently for over 24 hours.  Mostly because I needed steam in the kitchen and I was enjoying the smell of cooking citrus with spices  and removing some of the dryness in the house. I had cloves, cinnamon and ginger  as spices. After it cooks I can't really taste it.

Today I have to make fruit and nut bars for me for the week and also at least one Salad that I can have at lunch time next week.

Happy New - Bag Humbug!

Here's hoping that 2014 will be better then 2013, or a few other years. Admittedly 2013 was not a completely bad year.  Some of the camping trips were epic. but the trip to Cape Breton SUCKED. Not just because of all the things that didn't worked as planned but because my companion would have rathered been anywhere else and complained the entire trip. 

I enjoyed some of the camping trips, canoeing trips and festivals I went to. Hopefully will have some good trips in 2014. 

Hopefully 2014 is the year I can get my shit together, fix my house, put it on sale and move the fuck out of the city. 

Here's wishing my friend who just left her husband finds work in Montreal and can get herself a place for her son and her. 

Here's wishing my friend dealing with CSST doesn't get to screwed over and that she finds a job suited to her skills and her limitations. 

Here's wishing my friend who just won a lawsuit, gets the money he was promised.

Here's wishing my 2 daughters have a great year.  My baby left Montreal Thursday and it seems Air Canada lost her luggage, here's hoping she gets her luggage back and has a fantastic year with her class.   My eldest left Montreal on the 26th and was on duty the 27th. Here's hoping she gets the courses she needs to become a B ticket this spring [Or whatever it was she was hoping to be trained in]

Here's wishing my Lebanese ex-hubby finds a kick-ass job, far better then the job he lost in the end of 2013. He's an awesome video editor and deserves recognition. Hoping 2014 will be a good year for him. 

Here's wishing that the people in Syria will eventually live in a war free zone. 

Here's wishing that humans are less stupid in 2014 in general.  Well I can only wish. 

Here's wishing the sweet guy I met on POF, that could be a male me, geeky and all,  turns into a good friendship and perhaps more. Chatting with him the past week has proven to be addictive and fun. And note,  he's played the bass in the past, which amuses me to no end.