Trip to club Tissu

Turquoise dragonfly print, green flamingos flannel, green batik and a lovely burgundy butterfly print

Rayon knits, my favourite for dresses.

My sweetie asked me what I wanted for Christmas and said I wanted a trip to club Tissu in St Hubert. We went december 31st, and they had a 40% off if you bought the end of a roll.

Well as it happens I bought 3 ends of rolls.  One was a DRAGONFLY print, got 4 meters. One was a green flamingo flannel, that had about 2 meters and the last one was a green batik with about 1.75 meters. 

Bamboo dress

I bought this sweet bamboo fabric at club tissu in st Hubert almost a year ago. I agonized for a while what I was going to make with such nice soft fabric. Took me almost a year but I love my new dress and it feels DIVINE. One of the last dresses of 2016

Isn't she a ham?

My grandaughter is growing up so fast. She's sooooooooooooooooo cute.

Pajama Pants. Lots of them

For step-Grand-daughter, Son-in-law, Married daughter, single daughter

For step-daughter & my bf her dad

For bf's sister and mom, and the small ones are for his 2 yr old niece . There is also a blue pajama top for the niece which I forgot to photograph

PJ for Mado :)

PJ for my friend who left Matrox :(

I had my yule dinner late this year, on the 26th.  I made PJ pants for lots of people this year :)

Last piece I made in 2016

I bought in early December either at club tissu or at fabricville some nice knit fabric to make a sweater. Turned out great.

Speak WHITE or suffer the consequences

That seems to be coming a common practice in the US and UK.  Apparently if you speak another language, and people don't understand you, obviously you are saying bad things about them and are a terrorist.

And companies like Delta buy into this garbage. Several Muslims have been kicked off planes because people on the plane are uncomfortable. Seeing that those "MUSLIMS" were doing nothing wrong other than flying while Arab, perhaps it's the people who are uncomfortable who should be pulled off planes. After all they are the ones who are making noise???

I don't understand this mentality of Americans that if you don't speak English, you are obviously saying bad things about them.  It's not all about YOU.  No one cares about YOU. You aren't the center of the Universe despite what you might think.   When an Arabic person calls their mother who only speaks Arabic, they are trying to talk to their mother. Would you call. your mother and talk to her in a language she doesn't understand???   So Adam Saleh was taken off a Delta flight yesterday because some white bitch felt uncomfortable about him speaking to his mother in Arabic. She should have been tossed off the plane with her husband and complaints and stay home next time.   Don't travel if you don't want to meet people who speak other languages. Stay in your own home.

Of course given that Adam Saleh is a prankster it's also possible he fuelled the fact he got kicked off a plane to make a point or to see how far he can go.   Nevertheless other people have been kicked off planes for travelling while Arab.

I live in a French province where people also speak English.  I wonk in a company where people speak all sorts of language. Just around me I hear other then French and English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Russian,  Chinese & Japanese just to name a few.  I have co-workers and interns from all part of the globe and when 2 people meet from the same part of the world they like to communicate in the language of their youth.  I don't feel threatened. I don't feel like they use it to talk behind my back.  I've picked up phrases from all sorts of languages and I find it enriching.

She helps

Ziva "Helping" me sew. She loves to sleep on the ironing board. Of course she loves it more because I just changed the cover.

Birthday's leave a lot to be desired.

Never like birthday's. Always feel crappy no matter what happens or who I spent it with. The highlight of the day was the BabyMetal Tshirts I received as gifts. :)

Someone unplugged the freezer.

It's not me.  Of course it's not anyone else in the house.

Except it's only my food in that freezer. SO I had to toss out a full garbage bag full of food. I had at least 10 meals. I had Ethiopian stew, I had chick pea curry and I had a lentil stew and some pea soup in the freezer. Other than that I had tons of vegetable soup stock {used for making other veggie dishes and to season rice} and I had over $20 of meat I'd bought for Yule.  Oh and don't get me started on the 5 bags of frozen fruit that retail for about $5 per bag. Easily lost $200 for food and 10 hours of my time.

The freezer was unplugged by someone who wanted the extension cord.  That freezer can't plug there without one due to the shape of the plug and the fact that the garage door opener is plugged into the plug and goes in same direction.

I'm pretty upset.   It means I have to go find something to eat for lunch and it really PISSES ME OFF. I had food. I'd made food for myself. But it doesn't matter. Now I have none.  I had to throw it all out this morning Now I have to decide what garbage I'm going to be eating at lunch and frankly I have no appetite.



 

Nightshirt

I made myself a long night shirt in flannel. It's really a shirt with buttons that goes almost to my knees and it is so comfy.

Rockstix 2 - The first try

My sexy significant other has been looking into 'Firesticks" to make his drumming more impressive, and we stumbled upon a YouTube video were someone was trying out these Rockstix. I checked on Amazon and they were in the twenty dollar range, which is about the price of good quality wood drum sticks. So I got him a pair so he could try them out.  I'm not crazy about fire sticks with his long hair to be honest and figured this might be just as impressive when played in the dark during a drum solo!

I took a few photos of him trying out the Rockstix and this was his favourite.

Cote du Beaver Hall on a snowy day, with naration!

The Tribute Band The Policemen - Plays a rocking version of Walking on the Moon

Followup at the Lakeshore general hospital

Saw the lung specialist at the Lakeshore hospital yesterday.So the sputum test was negative. No bacteria fuelling me to be sick

However they did a plethora of blood tests before I left hospital last month. One of them shows elevated IGE's.  That means I show signs of being highly allergic.  Now I know I already have allergies, like grass, ragweed, trees, feathers, kapok, wool, tobacco, dust & dust mites, mould, and cats. That's what I can remember, there might be more. Could be I show signs of being highly allergic because I sleep with my cat and a feathered comforter and pillows. Could be that I show signs of being highly allergic because of the fungus. Who knows.

Now have to schedule an appointment with an allergist to get a skin test for Aspergillus, because he suspects I have allergic bronchopulmunary Aspergillosis

He's also having me do breathing tests and lung capacity tests to check the level of my asthma.

If I have ABPA, then I will need to take steroid asthma meds for life.  This isn't so bad except for the fact that I have osteoporosis and steroids are bad for my bones.

I did tell him about the 20 km 4 hour hike I did in Mauricie park and the 2km 1 hour down a mountain hike I took in August in Cape breton, to point out, that I was stunned my lungs were bleeding. I quit cigarettes back in 2006 and didn't appreciate that the doctor/nurses at the lakeshore gave me a lecture on my bad lungs, and telling me I had signs of heavy tobacco use for  20-30 years. That I am in good shape.  To his credit he never said a thing about my smoking and is actually looking beyond to understand why I landed in the hospital with an infection that caused my lungs to bleed.

The Police Men....

As seen from Pub St Paul last night.  Later I will post some of the better songs they played. I was so tired during the last set I was dozing off during songs.

Addictive and yummy

I like the one with Hazelnuts but the one with figs is just as good. YUM!

Now when I think about it, I think about this song:

They were all hanging on the bed...

Yay Mondays.

Not sure why but this morning I was in formidable shape. I managed  to forget my breakfast in the microwave and my phone in my bedroom.

It sucks because I didn't have breakfast. Usually the nuts in my breakfast keep me going till noon. Instead I had my Waldorf salad at 9 this morning.

I've been using my phone as a stopwatch to do tests in Windows extensively. Today I had to use the clock on another PC. Which means I have to watch time and write it down and notice it when it ends. And do math. GIANT PITA.  Never mind that watching Windows doing mode changes is more boring then watching paint dry. Been watching them all day. I'm almost in a coma.

And of course while it's snowing outside today, the building maintenance decided that it was a great day to heat up my lab at 31 C. I called at 9am.  He told me he just got in. By 1PM nothing had changed, so I got someone else to call. The building maintenance never picked up the phone BUT, the AC is finally back on and the temp is more reasonable at 25C now.

I worked through lunch because after being cooked at 31 for hours, I'm not dressed warmly enough even with a coat to go for a walk outside.

I'm being Policed

Yes. I'm being policed to death.  He joined a Police Tribute band, so the past week, I've heard way way too much "Every little thing she does" "Roxanne" and "message in the bottle"  I'm not a fan of the Police. While I know most of their popular songs, I'm not a fan. I've never owned anything by the Police, and no Police material has ever been found on a mixed tape of mine.

Not a fan of Sting either. At least the singer in this Tribute band can sing. The one in the Judas Priest one leaves a lot to be desired. Apparently I'm a singer snob. I can thank my mom who submitted me to hours of Opera every fucking Saturday while I grew up. I'm really fussy about singers. Usually if I don't like a band it's most likely because I'm not fond of the singer. Two that come to mind are Bruce Springsteen, and Geddy Lee {I hate his voice with a passion}.

So not this Thursday but next Thursday is his debut as drummer in the Police Tribute and they are playing at Bar St Paul in Old Montreal.

Astro

I started eating yogourt a few months back. I always enjoyed Astro Yogourt, and it has been my favourite both because of the thick creamy texture and because it's one of the least expensive. Most groceries sell it for $2.99, but I can get it for $2.39 at Sheng Tai.  Before the antibiotics, I was eating one 750ml tub a week, usually split between 3-4 servings.   Since the antibiotics, I'm eating 4x750ml tubs a week. One stays at work and I eat it mid-morning. 

Dresses made fall 2016

Love how this Burda dress came out with this rayon knit bought at Club Tissu

Dress made with a batik coupon picked up at Atlantic Fabrics and a left over from a dress made last fall, using a pattern I redrew from the 1990's

Shiny teal light weight rayon that my friend  picked up at Mood fabrics in New York

Rayon knit bought at club tissu

Second dress made from Shiny light weight teal rayon fabric from Mood Fabrics

Comfy cotton knit for this Simplicity pattern that has a pointy Elfy hood

Sick of being Sick

About a month ago I spent the night at the Lakeshore and it was determined I had pneumonia.  Then I spent a week in antibiotic hell. The pains I had following the taking of the meds was epic. I missed 3 days of work that week I felt so crappy.  Then there was the visit to the Superhospital on the 27th. Since then I developed what I would characterize as bronchitis. I has such a nasty cough and fluids in my lungs I started taking my asthma pump, which I had not taken since 2010 or 2011.

Yesterday it seems that I'm either catching a cold or some other infection. My sinuses are now completely blocked and I had green mucus, which leads me to think I still have some infection.

That being said, I can't see my grand daughter. I'm not going to make my daughter and granddaughter sick with some virus I'm harbouring. But it really sucks the big one.

2016 has sucked for my health. Spent 2 months healing a broken rib, stupid thing still hurts at times when I cough. I also look forward to seeing XRAY of those. According to the lung specialist I have "overlapping" ribs.

Seeing the lung specialist on the 28th of November. Hopefully I will not end up again at the emergency at the Lakeshore. That would suck balls.

New Dryer.....

Maytag De806 - RIP after about 48 years!

 

Maytag DE 308 - picked up for $30

  My mom's faithful dryer that she bought when I was 6 years old died on us back in April. I didn't have money to call a Maytag repairman until now. Sadly it cost $130 to find out that the dead part was no longer available anywhere and could not be bypassed,  it was the timer mechanism. If it had been other parts, they were still available from Maytag. 

After I found out about the fact it could not be fixed, I went on Kijiji and looked for Maytag dryer. The first I found being sold alone as opposed to a pair of Washer/Dryer was one that looked a lot like my old one.  And he wanted $30 for it.  So after work we drove to ST Eustache to pick it up.  Works like a champ.  From the serial number I figured this one is about 10 years younger then my old one. Looks like it was manufactured in 1978,  Mine was from 1968

Sami Fruits

My youngest daughter had told me how great Sami fruits was last year.  I hadn't had a chance to go there until recently. She was right. Great prices on produce! I went to the Sami fruits in DDO on du Marche.

I was suitably impressed. People complain that the produce doesnt' keep.  Produce isn't supposed to keep for months. If it does, it's GMO and not necessarily that great.

I find for instance that the fruits and veggies at both Adonis and Mourelatos are cheaper then most other grocery stores, but you have to consume it in the week you are buying it.   It's not such a bad thing. Growing up, fresh produce was just not available in winter.  I spent lots of winters eating only potatoes, carrots and turnips. Fact we can get fresh peppers at Sami fruits for around $1.39 a pound is awesome. I don't expect them to last for more then a week.

I tend to buy tons of produce and cook it right away. Works fine. Even the romaine lettuce I bought at Sami Fruits looked a bit dry when I got it, easily solved. When you get home, you rinse it in cold water and put it right away in the fridge. When we used it last night, it was nice and crispy and not wilted at all.

One of the reviews I read was that their mom wasn't served because she didn't speak Arabic. Don't know what this lady did to annoy the staff, but I've been there twice since Sunday and I don't speak Arabic. The staff was friendly and courteous. Most speak impeccable French. Another complaint was the fact it's a cash business. You can pay with interact for an extra $.25 cents.   Who buys produce on credit?  It hasn't been that long that grocery stores take credit cards. The idea is you shouldn't being indebted yourself buying food.

Sami fruits will now be a stop I do on the way home from work. As I can come home and drive in front. And if I go weekly the produce keeps NO PROBLEM! And they have Lebanese cucumbers.   Terry tried one for the first time yesterday and liked it. I've been telling him for a while that I prefer them because they spoil more slowly then regular cucumbers.

WTF America?

So you decided to elect a racist, sexist, pussy grabbing, narcissistic, egocentric billionaire that would be broke if he hadn't been born in wealth and you think he will "FIX" your country?

Are you proud that your first lady stars in soft porn? Came to the country as an illegal immigrant?

And in case you want to know just how insulting he is, the New York times compiled it. 

Yep make America great again..... In whose mind?


 

Montreal Murals

Mural near the Entrance to China Town near St Laurent

Somewhere on the corner of St Laurent street.

This mural is in Little Burgundy and depicts Oliver Jones

This one is in Verdun

I love urban art and murals on buildings. We have many of them in Montreal and I find it's part of it's charm. We drove around the city on Sunday the 30th, and these are some of my photos.

Remember

Remember, the 5th of November.....

Justice for missing and murdered indigenous Canadian Women

I believe it is a mural on St Laurent street in Montreal

Little red Riding Hood - Modern

She's already at the age where smiling for photos is considered a no-no. Also it was like 8AM, so she looks annoyed. However this is her costume for Halloween as a modern day little red riding hood. Would you believe she fits in Debbie's Doc Martens. Note the footwear!

Painkiller live at the Katacombes

Today I've got this Judas Priest cover stuck in my head:

Trip to St Denis and St Laurent

We went shopping. Terry wanted to check out screaming eagle as he would like a leather vest to play drums in and he recalled they had nice vests. He didn't see one he liked yesterday.

We also went to Rio and X20 on St Denis to check out the funky goth/alternative clothes, which inspires my sewing and look at the doc Martens. A new pair of Docs came home with me.  Cherry red with a zipper and 14 holes.

I was also hungry and right across the street from Rio is a place called Hippi Poutine.  They have 4 completely vegetarian poutines.They have a list of about 20-30 different type of poutines.  I had the Athena, I believe it was called. Basically it's like having a greek salad with French fries. It was delicious. Terry had a traditional poutine. He said it was excellent. If we are in the area again, we will Hippy Poutine again.

Tofu Jerk

I found some Jerk seasoning that did not contain any sugar at Sheng Tai market That inspired me to buy some  tofu and marinade it. I also added some sesame seed oil to the Tofu. Was absolutely delicious. I like this Jerk Seasoning.

Miso soup

Yesterday I went to the new McGill Superhospital for the first time, on 1001 Decarie. It's BIG! I always get a lot of anxiety going to a new place and this was no different.  We ended up about 20 minutes late too due to the crazy levels of traffic on Decarie that morning. We found the parking, which is excessive. Anything past 90 minutes you are charged for 24 hours, that is $25.

I found that if you enter the building by the front door, volunterrs are really helpful finding your way. However if you come from the parking you can wander around aimlessly for some time before finding the adminssions to get your hospital card done.

Also the receptionist at the chest insitute really seemed to hate her job. Kept grumping at people to will till they are called, but the sign that said to wait was not easily visible. Especially when disoriented and lost from the size of the hospital when it's your first time.

The technician for the sputum test was really nice and once all was done he told me I could now get myself a giant cup of coffee. When I told him it would be tea, we got into a long discussion about tea.

After we were done, since we are near Decarie and Sherbrooke and there's this Korean/Japanese market on Sherbrooke near grand with my favourite MISO soup I made a pit stop and bought 5 packages of each time of the Mishima instant Miso soup. They only carry 2 types of the Mishima Miso soup. The mixed one and the white one. I used to be able to buy this Miso soup in more flavours at March Kim Hoa, but after Shang Tai opened across the street they could not compete.  And while Shang Tai does carry 2 brands of instant Miso soup, one is loaded with both sugar and MSG, the other is GMO but loaded with sugar :(

You can go and hang out with cats!!!

Montreal boasts not one but TWO restaurants where you can go to eat and hang out with cats!!!! This concept comes from Asia where some companies allow you to bring your cat to work!

There is the Happy Cat Cafe on Duluth street. They have some food that is gluten free and vegan! They  have 8 cats that hang out. I believe they even have one called Sheldon. I'm sure Dr. Cooper would love to hang out with them!

Then there is  Le Cafe des chats de Montreal on St Denis street. They have mostly beverages with some sandwiches on the healthy side. They also have 8 cats that hang out.

I saw a plate from NUNAVUT!

I was stunned this morning. In DDO on the corner of Churchill near Sources, I saw  a car with a Nunavut plate! Long drive. Not as long of a drive as the woman from Alaska in Cape Breton, but still a long drive.

Some words leave a bad taste!

I've been doing interviews for interns again and  I interviewed someone from a university with a borderline GPA. He's at the lowest cutoff. Of course that doesn't concern me  so long as I can hire the person and they do the job I want them to do.

One of the questions I ask these days is "Why should I hire you instead of any other student at your university in your program".  I guess he figured since his grades are lower then many of his classmates, he was going to play with that. So he said that  he actually understands the material. That he doesn't memorize it the night before to vomit it up for the exam.

Yes he used the word VOMIT.  Usually people use regurgitate, since it's closer to the actual process.Either way, you shouldn't use the word VOMIT in an interview unless it was brought up by the interviewer. I figure in some fields, like janitorial, it might come up in interviews. Or even in nursing......

But when applying for an internship in an engineering company the word vomit, has really no place in the interview. I was on an empty stomach at the time and the word affected me adversely.  Hell it's 2 weeks later and that's all I remember about this interview. He didn't stand out as being knowledgeable or interesting. No he stood out because he used the word VOMIT.

In case you're wondering, I actually felt nauseous after this interview.

Painkiller - Painkiller - Live at the Katacombes

A week of Antibiotics. Bleah

Today was the last of the antibiotics. I have been so nauseous, had heartburn, and all sorts of stomach pains, cramps and diarrhea.  Taking antibiotics often feel like you are being burned from the inside.

But my lungs feel good. I'm not spitting up anything other then clear mucus. I guess I did have pneumonia, even though I had no fever and no big difficulty breathing like when I had pneunomia in 2003., That time I'd been on asthma meds for 3 weeks by then and had had a low grade fever.

Here no fever, just some nasty coughing but no real issues breathing. No wonder they called it ATYPICAL!

Pajama pants

Over the past few months I've made 4 pairs of pajama pants for Terry. There are two pairs camouflage skulls, one pair of black flannels and the last pair is black & white bones, which is the pair his daughter calls his Jurassic park pants.

Don't I look thrilled?

Just a few minutes before I was discharged from the Hospital.

So I spent the night at the Lakeshore General Hospital

Last night around 9pm, I was sitting around listening to music and I had a coughing fit, at which point I spit up mucus, that had some fresh blood in it.  After checking it wasn't bleeding nose, or bleeding gums, and it happened a few more times, Terry insisted we go to the hospital. We arrived at the Lakeshore General Hospital at 10:20. and I was  # 98. Whether it meant I was the 98th patient they saw at the ER that day or if their numbers restart at #1 all the time?  No clue.  I was seen by the triage nurse around 10:30 and by the emergency registration person 5 minutes later. They confirmed the info they had on file for me was still accurate and printed me a new hospital card.

I was seen around 1am by a resident doctor who asked me a plethora of questions. She decided I needed blood tests and a chest x-ray.  I had chest pains on the right side, which I had assumed were more muscular from banging into a glass door at lunch time yesterday, because I assumed it was unlocked. It was locked.  After the blood in my mucus I didn't know anymore.   I had to wait another 30 minutes until the intern consulted the night ER doctor to make sure she hadn't overlooked anything. Then the nurse came in and took 2 vials of blood from my left arm and left a giant bruise that's still coming out today.  After which I was sent to Xray. No lineups there, and we returned to the ER desk to give them the XRAY tags, after which I was sent back to the waiting room and told to wait till I was called.

There was signs up saying that blood tests results take 2 hours so I figured I'd be there till 4, but around 3:30 they called me in. I was told I showed signs of being a long term 'heavy smoker', and that I needed a CT scan first thing in the morning, like around 7am. I asked if I could go home to sleep, I was told they wanted to keep me  in case the coughing up blood got worse so they could monitor me. That they would find a spot where I could get some Zzz's. Terry went home at that point to put Zoey to bed and came back after she was sleeping.

They had found a stretcher in the corridor near the nurse's station marked by the letter "L", where I was put at that point. I was told I had to wear gown but I didn't need to remove my pants.  So I took off shirt, put on gown and tried to sleep. Terry came back and found me.  Stayed with me till 4 and he went out for a smoke and said when he came back I was sleeping under the watchful eye of a nurse, so he went back home to get sleep figuring I'd call him the minute I woke up. 

At 6:30 AM they got another patient and moved me to "N" instead, and moving me is what woke me up. I was asleep cradling my purse. I'm surprised I slept in a corridor for about an hour in a half. But after I was moved I was put under bright lights and the person that got my spot was this moron heading to Cuba who got so drunk at the airport, he fell on his face and the plane would not left him on, his choices were probably police or ambulance.   He kept saying he wanted to leave.....

At 6:45 a nurse came to take my pressure and temperature and otherwise check my vital signs. Around 7:45 AM the head day ER doctor came to tell me I was still on the list for the early morning CT scan, asked me about the coughing blood the night before and if I was still, I told him yes. He said that I looked in really good health and that the CT scan should provide answers after which I'd be seen by a lung specialist.

I was pretty anxious at that point, especially since my phone was dead, so I had no way to keep my mind from thinking the worse. What comes to mind when people cough blood is lung cancer.  I didn't think though that someone that sick couldn't be in as good a health as me. I went to see Egypt Falls and did the skyline trail in Cape Breton in early August. I also did this advanced trail in Mauricie national park earlier in the season. Both were up and down very mountainous trails and while I had to stop to catch my breath at times, I have always had to do this going up mountains even as a teen.

I had the CT scan around 8:30AM. When I was about to be put in the machine, the nurse looked for a tube in my arm and no one had prepared me. So she put a tube in.  Where they put iodine inside you  for the scan. It feels weird when they put the iodine you feel like you're about to pee yourself and drool all over yourself. Sensation lasts for 30 seconds but it's weird.

ARound 9:45 the lung specialist came to find me and asked a bit of my history again. Said it was possible I have atypical pneumonia and also bronchiectasis.  That the bronchiectasis was caused by some really bad infection I may have had years ago and that due to that, I have parts of my lungs that have a harder time clearing the crap inside the bronchi and that it could cause bleeding.

I have been put on 2 types of antibiotics. One in the penicillin family and the other in the tetracycline family. I was given more blood tests, 5 more vials were taken out of the tube left in my right arm after CT scan.  I am also going to have to go take a sputum test at the chest institute. They will call to give me an appointment.  I will be seeing the Lung specialist again 2 weeks after that test. He also told me to call if the bleeding got worse.

It's stopped for now thankfully. It's really unerving to cough up fresh blood even in small amounts. And while I thought it was the right side ,where I have some muscular pain and it hurts at time to breathe, the bleeding is coming from left side.   Could be near where I broke the ribs. He noticed I had "Overlapping" ribs. Told him I had broken a rib back in February, but I hadn't seen anyone for it.  He commented "There's nothing we can do for a broken rib except to give pain meds"

So I was discharged around 10am. Was there 12 hours.  I'd have more heavy coughing since the laryngitis a few weeks back and I'd commented more then once to Terry that I wondered if I might not have pneumonia. I had some of my work colleagues and underlings who have been commenting the past few weeks how my cough wasn't improving. The irony is that I hadn't coughed as much yesterday and I thought I was finally better!

bad day

Should never blog or talk when I have a bad day.

My baby is 28!!!

My baby, Isabelle turns 28 today. I hope she has an awesome birthday!!!!

Assad is a genius

Assad is pummelling the fuck out of Aleppo so much he expects all the rebels to join forces, including Daesh and Al Quaeda.  This way eventually the rebels will be people no one wants to support, so everyone will support the wonderful government of Bashar Al Assad. He will be seen as the BIG SAVIOR of his people.

Except that he's the problem not the solution. I mean if he really cared would his army consistently bomb hospitals? If there's something the Syrian army knows is maps of Syria. They know where all the hospitals are.  So if hospitals are targeted, you can believe it is done purposefully. 

It's not war, It's EXTERMINATION

I'm still pissed at the Assad loving folk who felt the need to tell me that their beloved "Bachar" has not hurt 1 Christian. That it's those torturous rebels that have been killing indiscriminately.

Funny I rarely read reports about the rebels blasting hospitals to smithereens. However the Regime, headed by Bashar Al Assad, is excellent at finding hospitals and destroying them.  His method works awesome. First they bomb some rebel area. Wait an hour, then they bomb the neighbouring hospital. To make sure anyone left alive, any first responder, nurse, doctor or aid is going to get it for intervening. And then if they can, they will find the nearby border or refugee camp where people are fleeing and bomb the crap out of them.

I remember in 2011 and 2012, the folks from Aleppo going on about how Bashar was their hero, that the great Aleppo would not be touched by the war, brought about by the Muslim brotherhood. I wonder how many folks from Aleppo support Assad now? 

The way it looks from the outside, Assad is systematically killing anyone who disagrees with him. My ex used to tell me how dangerous Syria was and I thought at first he was a bit paranoid. In retrospect he was pretty fucking brave to go into that country, considering what could have happened to him.

It's not civil war anymore. It's a war of extermination. Those idiots here in Canada who keep saying, "Why don't those Syrians stay home and fight Assad" - because  most of them know what Assad is capable of, most of them don't want to be forced to go into Assad's Army and any boy of age is immediately conscripted.

I love it but does it love me?

I found this at the grocery store a few weeks ago. Cocoa, with peanut butter, sweetened with coconut sugar. It's delicious. Not quite Nutella delicious but close enough. On gluten free bread is totally divine. Of course my tummy doesn't always like it. But once a blue moon, it's delicious.

Now I am thinking about this song:

Live from the Port Theatre in Cornwall

Breed specific laws are STUPID

I've always been a bit apprehensive around dogs I don't know.  Mostly because I've been bitten, through no fault of mine. I've never abused or been mean to a pet.

My first dog bite was at 6 or 7. On my way to school I'd stop by and pet a small yappy dog that lived on St Gertrude across the street from my friend Anna's house.  That lunch time I stopped and petted the dog and I guess they had a bone and bit me.  It didn't phase me, until I asked my teacher for a band-aid, she asked how I hurt myself and when I told her a dog bit me, my grand parents were called and I was shipped to Fleury hospital for a rabies shot, a police officer was dispatched about the dog bite ,and I was never allowed to pet the dog again.  Of course the rabies shot in my butt didn't help. I couldn't sit for several days.

My 2nd dog bite I was a teen on my way to pick up groceries at the store for my mom. Sometimes she would realize she needed something at 10 to 6 when store closed at 6 and tell me to go really fast. SO that day I was running to the grocery store. Just a block away from my destination an escaped German Shepherd bit me in the leg.  I knew he was an escapee as he had a 6 foot thick metal chain trailing behind him. Also with retrospect, the dog wasn't trying to hurt me. I was running he tried catching me. When I howled in both shock and pain when he bit my leg in the knee from behind, he ran off. He wasn't trying to maul me or anything. Since that day though I've been weary around German Shepherds and larger dogs.

It didn't help that one of the first time I sat outside my condo with my first baby, I had a doberman run up to us because the owner didn't think it was an issue to let his dog roam around unleashed. Was the first and last time I sat out on my lawn in that condo.  And my poor kid again sitting on our property around 3 years old wearing mitts on a snowbank had our front neighbours doberman bite her mitt, thinking it was a toy. He was obviously not out to hurt her because when she yelped he walked away.

When I went to Entrelacs in early 2012, I can tell you that the fact Tony's ginormous shepherd dog realized I was apprehensive and he came from behind to put his head in my hand to tell me to pet him. That is he told me that he liked me and that I didn't have to worry about him being mean to me. I have to say I've been better around dogs since that time.

But overall I stay nervous around dogs I don't know.    I do remember my grandparents having a yellow dog that seemed to me like a golden retriever mix, that was an absolute asshole. They eventually had to get rid of the dog because it bit one person too many. Including the neighbours kid THROUGH THE FENCE.

I'm not crazy about any Shepherd, rottwieilers and doberman's.  Pits I don't have experience with but the one living upstairs from my boyfriend when I met him made me nervous. However it never prevented me from hanging around when it was there. While dog didn't know me, dog never attacked me either.

Banning pitbulls and related dogs isn't going to lower the number of people bitten by dogs. It sure didn't in Ontario. The law should be that if your dog is dangerous, then XYZ applies to you. Not if you own a specific dog breed.

My bf had a pitbull for her entire life. She never bit anyone who didn't harass her and she was a sweet dog. Zoey spent 9 years with that dog and has very fond memories. Dog would guard the child!

The SPCA is taking the city to court and I hope that  they change the BSL.  It does not work!


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Furthermore, this stupid law makes it ILLEGAL to let your cats go outside off your property. SO if your pet cat goes off your property, and he gets caught by animal control HE GETS EUTHANIZED. NO RECOURSE.

Makes me wonder if all stray pets even pets that run off will be brought to pound and euthanized right away. 

Supports Assad but choses to stay anonymous

In the past week someone has been leaving anonymous comments on my blog about Bashar Al Assad. This twit had the nerve to say "Assad never killed any Christians".  Of course this idiot doesn't even have the balls to leave comments under anything other then ANONYMOUS.

Wow. I wonder where that person got their statistics? Maybe they are from Assad's family?  OR maybe they are relatives of Ms Kanou?

Anyone who knows anything about Syria knows that Aleppo has a large Christian population, both historically and than there was an influx of Armenians....

RIGHT NOW ASSAD IS PUMMELING THE FUCK OUT OF ALEPPO. So tell me again how Assad and his army has hurt no Christians.

But before we talk about Aleppo, how about we talk about Homs.  My ex mom in law was from Homs, about 30% of the population of Homs was Christian. There is not much left of Homs than rubble. So please tell me again how the Syrian government, Army led by Mr Assad has hurt no Christians.

Please tell me again how Assad is not responsible for the massacre of Children in Aleppo? 

This is what I do sometimes

Every few years at work I lose my lunch buddy and end up solitary again. Lately I go hide in a room few people have access and go cut patterns. That's me during lunch this week.

Random photo of the day

Isle Madame, near Arichat

How not to rape....

Where is the humanity?

When people lose their humanity and fail to see others as humans, I don't understand it. How can you look at a human and think, meh, they are just expendable, like the red shirts in star trek. Then this idiot compared Syrian refugees to a bowl of skittles, with some that are poisoned. When you see other humans as things, there is not much hope for compassion, empathy and help.

Syrian Children walking near refugee camp in Jordan

Women waiting for food at  Kawergosk refugee camp in Irbil, Iraq

Women lining up for Winter Kits at Zaatari camp in Jordan

These are humans who's lives got thrown so out of whack by war that they left home with the little bit they have and made it to a refugee camp. These are not candy, they are people. #notskittles.

When I look at these pictures I hope these folks finally get a permanent safe home where them and their family can strive. No one deserves to live in a civil war. 

GA-X99-UPD3

I bought this motherboard back in early July for work. It took about a month to get to my desk. At the time I had promised my interns that they would get to set up this system. This was a mistake due to the complexity of the chipset on the motherboard but lesson learned.

The gave it their best shot but could never get the motherboard to post. The Power supply they used at the time was an ANTEC 850 W which seemed to me like it would have enough power.

The problem was, the X99 chipset is a haswell chipset and Haswell chipset motherboards need power supply that are EPS12V compliant. Thankfully this great informative site, gave me the information I needed.

Originally we thought the motherboard was defective because we tried several power supplies with no luck. Sadly none of the ones we tried were EPS12V compliant.

Gigabyte accepted an RMA, checked the board out, updated the BIOS and returned the board to me. By then I knew about the Powersupply limitations, so I'd asked my hardware guy to lend me one. He lent me a 450W Powersupply that did work. At least it told me my mobo was good.

Then I looked in my other big chassis, and I have an Antec 900 which is EPS12V compliant. After moving the motherboard and configuring it now everything works great.

It took nearly 2 months from the time I ordered this motherboard to the time the system is up and running, and now I've finally finishing installing the supported operating systems.

In case you're wondering, the chassis we used was an Antec ATX 902, which comes with a USB 3.0 plug from the chassis and I needed to buy an adapter for motherboard, because we've had this chassis for a few years and the original motherboard did not have USB 3.0 so the plug must have gotten lots with all the equipment here.

Band Maid

Yeah, Another Japanese girl band.  Their studio version of this song kicks some serious ass. These girls are good and they all play their own instruments, dressed as Maids. What's not to like!!!

Judas Priest Tribute in Sherbrooke

2nd gig the next night in Sherbrooke!!!

Judas Priest Tribute Live in Cornwall!!!!

The first gig he plays with Painkiller, the Judas Priest Tribute band he joined a few months ago.