Things that make you go Hmmm....

I didn't know that I had to be married or that I had to discuss buying a water heater with my husband. Things one learns as one ages!!!

I called Gaz metro-plus yesterday morning to enquire about getting service for my hot water heater. Just by my flooding description it was obvious to everyone the unit needed replacement. To it's credit, the unit lasted 18 years.

Now when the lady called me back about replacing my hot water heater, there were several options. I could buy or rent a hot water heater, and I could get a 40 or 50 Gallon. Well I have people who love their long hot showers.. I decided to go with the bigger one and after checking out price for rent and total price for new unit, including installation and taking away the old broken one, I decided to go for the 50 Gallon tank. So the lady says "Don't you want some time to think about it? " and I'm thinking.. what's there to think about. I have a defective water heater leaking in my furnace room, you gave me options I made a choice. Then she says "Don't you want to discuss it with your husband?" I didn't know that I had to be married to own a house, never mind, *gasp* be able to take a huge decision like whether or not I chose the 40 or 50 Gallon. Like wow. I raised 2 kids to adulthood, but I'm too stupid to buy myself a water heater. Like.. how condescending. Makes you wonder if people think before they talk.

I've had a few males I've talked to about my water heater woes suggest that it would have been so much cheaper if I'd gone to Canadian tire and picked up one.. Well I just did my homework. The comparable gas heater is $700.+taxes is about $800, and it's still a smaller one by 9 gallons. Then I have to lug it home, and it woulnd't fit in my car. It weights around 200lbs. Then I have to lug it downstairs into the basement. I also have to lug out the old one. As it happens the shutoff valve, had broken when I closed it sunday night due to corrosion over the years. There was also lots of corrosion on the copper pipes connecting the water heater to the rest of the water in the house. I woulnd't have been able to change those myself, never mind connecting the gas element to the new hot water tank. Plumber was here 2 hours to install it. So that would have been another $200 just for installation, plus parts that were changed. No, the amount I paid for having the hot water tank installed the same day it broke, the old one was taken away, the valve was changed and the connecting pipes were replaced, was well worth the $1100 I paid. Why didn't I go for an electric one? Well because I've tried both. The gas one heats up the water much faster. When there's 3 women in a house wanting showers roughly at same time, this is a real bonus.

This is probably the first time in my life someone bitched because I was decisive. Usually people complain that I take to long to make up my mind. That I'm wishy washy.

Off my soapbox with my rant.

The water gods absolutely hate me

So it was just a little bit past midnight. CSI Miami had just started. The "Caruso one-liner'" tonight was "Here we go" followed by the who screaming.

I had just been thinking about an old photo from when I was in University and decided to go scan it. Well I walked into the basement and low and behold there is water... My hotwater tank seemed to have sprung a leak. The fact that those who installed my furnace blocked partial access to the drain didn't help. Water was covering the floor of most of the basemetn at least 1-3cm. Got my eldest downstairs to give me a hand. She was pushing water with a giant squeegee towards the fold room where the sump pump is so it would drain there, and I was pushing it back into the drain in the furnace room, once I freed the drain from the border blocking it. I also picked up 2 buckets full by towels and sponge mop. I'm tired. I'm crabby.

This was around 12:11am... Officially on Monday.. What a way to start a Monday.. .It's close to 3am and I'm still not sleeping. I'm hoping that the valve I closed is right and it's going to keep the water from leaking into the furnace room. I'll deal with the water damage tomorrow.

It's officially a monday

I walked down the stairs this morning, and on the main landing, right in front of the front door was wood chips galore. I had planted some tiger lilies yesterday and they came in a bag of wood chips. Normally I can leave a bag of wood chips in another bag near the entrance and nothing happens to it. But I'd bet Sam's whiny cat, thought "Hmmm something to play with".

There was a trail of wood chips up and down both the stairs to upstairs and to downstairs. THere were wood chips through the dining room on the carpet, and in the main entrance... So I here I was with the mini vacuum picking up wood chips before 8am.

I HATE VACUUMS. I hate the noise and the dust they make. UGH.

It's repeat sunday....

"An accident is not an accident at all..."

said as he puts on [or takes off, take your pick] sunglasses......

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

The Montreal Gazette & National Post DUMPED

Some asshole carrier, named JOHN AMOFA that lives on BASSWOOD in PIERREFONDS, has been dumping his left over Gazettes and National Post on St Regis, between Sunnybrooke and the 40 highway onramp for at least the past 6 months now.

We, myself and another 50 or so Matrox employees, including my friend Debbie, spent close to 2 hours yesterday picking up all the garbage on the company property, which is up and down St Regis. About 70% of it was newspapers, the rest was mostly styrofoam cups and car parts....

You wouldn't know it this morning because the DUMBASS carrier dumped his left over papers on the side of the road again. With the wind it goes flying. Of cousre when it lands in the middle of the road and it rains, it makes papier mache road and that's hard to stop on.

This guy has BAD BAD Karma stamped on his head. We found his carrier papers/address and phone number. It's a pity we didn't go dump all 50 large bags of garbage we found on his doorsteps.

Matrox has complained to CamWest several times, to no avail. What do they care, it's not an eyesore on their property.....

Another Monday night.

Tonight's Caruso moment brought to you by the letter D, I and V and the number 0

Welcome to divorce of the ...
Future....

YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH....

Caruso one-liner.

Tonights Caruso moment was brought to you by the letters T & D and the number 5

Looks like...
Something ...
Caught ...
Her...

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh

Poor wittle Leroy Jenkins is all lonely.

I awoke at 6 am again, and the wind has finally died down. It's still dark and stormy outside. Was surprising yesterday late afternoon that there was a bit of sun out. Was short lived and the storm starting pounding again.

Poor Debbie still has not been able to leave NJ. I'm hoping today is the day. Otherwise I will have to bring some cat food over, she's been gone so long she's all out of cat food. That and Leroy is lonely. Especially Leroy. Ragnar and Leo weren't so desperately missing human contact. In fact Leroy is a lot like Lynx [My daughter's whiny cat], a chip off the old block so to speak. They seem to constantly crave human attention. Cant wait to see Debbie's flooding in NJ pictures. :)

I wish I could close my eyes and it would be June already. I miss my sweetie so much, and I won't be seeing him until June. *SIGH*

Though I was reminded by one of my employees that at least I have email, MSN chat, and web cams. When he spent 4 years away from his now wife, he only had the phone and snail-mail. As he was mentioning just yesterday, by the time he'd get mail, the news was 2-3 weeks old. At least I can communicate with my sweetie daily, and it's not costing us an arm and a leg in phone bills. Although I like hearing my sweetie's voice on the phone, I would feel incredibly guilty if we talked often, just because of how steep phone bills get. That and well we seem to get awkward half of the time we do talk on phone. These long quiet moments....

My sweetie has a deep voice and a really cool accent when he talks English. Sends shivers up and down my spine if I focus on it. Which gets distracting and then I get all quiet. It's ironic that the few times we tried voice chat, we had little success and we don't bother. Voice chat has always been flaky. Remember how much Ben and I tried when he first moved to the US. He had me install dozens of different software and none quite did it. I know my daughter has been using Ventrillo to chat with her Lineage II gaming friends, and it seems to work for her. Hell some nights I can hear her yapping with her peeps so loud I make wise-ass comments back.

The other night I hear her exclaim "SHUT UP!!!!" Although I hadn't said a thing or made noise in an hour or two I replied "Sorry I'll try to be more quiet". Had both of us giggling.

ACK they are playing the White Stripes on the radio this morning, but thankfully it's not the "Seven Nation Army" [Going to wichita] song. BLEAH.

Monday night, time for...

Yep, you guessed it.... the Caruso one-liner for tonight is "Neither will his killer".

It's still stormy out. It's still super windy, I can hear the squealing of the gizmo on my roof.

Another Nor'Easter Pounds the Eastern Coast

Wow this is the 2nd Nor'Easter in less then a week. This one is supposed to be a doozie. Poor Debbie. She's in NJ visiting family, including a very sick sister and every time she's tried leaving the past week there's been bad weather. Like higher forces want her to stay put.

She tried leaving today but there was severe flooding on the highway she ended up having to turn back and go back to her sisters. She will attempt leaving again tomorrow.

We can get up to 80km windows.. and it's going to be around 0 tonight, with up to 20 cm of snow. Gotta love the weather for April :P

Love the comment on CTV tonight "I guess the one-city, one snow-plow isn't working tonight"

What a rush. I went for a small car ride, to go check out how Debbie's cats are doing :P Yeah I'm a little nuts. That and I get a rush from driving around in snow storm. Besides I still have my snow tires.

Another Nor'Easter

Gotta love a good snow storm in April. I mean it has snowed on and off all of last week, but not this intense snow... Love a good nor'easter. We got 12 cm of extra wet snow, though looking out part of it has already melted. Apparently this is a record for this date.

Gardening in the cold.

If it went above 0C today it's surprising. I mean for the past week, every other time I look outside it's snowing, and yet there's not much trace of it. Today it was sunny a bit. I got brave, I got dressed warmly and put into my lawn about 80 crocus bulbs. I dunno how many are going to survive, and I'm sure it will take a few years before I see any kind of results. However at least in the soil they have half a chance. Sitting in a bag in my garage, the bulbs would have had no options. I can tell I spent a good hour planting bulbs, as I have pain in my fingers.

I planted bulbs in two sittings. In between my eldest and I went to Loblaws to get groceries. We must have been hungry, spent a fortune there. When I got home, I made curried Eggplant, mashed potatoes, stir fried bean sprouts with sesame seeds and snow peas and some bow tie pasta. Had a bowl of curried eggplant with bow tie pasta and it was awesome. That curried eggplant recipe is a keeper. Probably the first recipe I ever use hot peppers in. Never thought I'd ever cook with hot peppers.

Gardener's porn

I'm sitting on my bed at the moment with eleven seed & plant catalogs. I'm pretty sure I'm getting most of the seed catalogs available from Canadian distributors. My favorite is Vesseys, in PEI. Dunno something about their catalog and the plants they offer incite me to purchase more plants then I intend to. More plants then my current flower beds can fit. I've got all these little tags sticking out of the pages of plants I want to get and I have 11 tags on that catalog. Will have to sit down and go through it again and be more reasonable. It's not the cost. It's where am I going to plant all of it, and who will water it? :P It doesn't help that they send catalogs 4/6 times a year. They have bulbs, tubers, roots, seeds, roses, flowering bushes, trees, berry bushes and all sorts of vegetables.

Then next is the McFayden catalog, that I can't resist. Though I lost the pottentilla Monach Velvet last year, I would still like to have one. But their catalog doesn't seem to have it again. They have roots, bulbs, tubers, flowering bushes and even berry bushes. Got a kiwi vine from them 2 years ago. I wonder if it will finally start to flower and produce fruit this year?

I'm also looking through my OSC seeds, William Dam Seeds, and stokes seeds catalogs, to find cool annuals for spots in my garden I just like throwing seeds and see what happens. Sometimes it works well, sometimes I get a bare stretch of land, depends on my dedication and choice of seed.

I'm also browsing at my Richters herbs. What I love about it, is that they offer herbs and medicinal plants. I'd say half or 2/3 of my garden is either edible as food, or used medicinally. Somehow I feel more connected to mother earth if I grow and cherish plants I also use to heal myself or keep myself healthy.

There's my botanus catalog, they offer more plants that you buy as bulbs, tubers or roots. And of course roses... I have a few roses and I'm not doing so well with them. Have to find a suitable way to not have them eaten by worms that is also environmentally friendly. I mean I have found a way to deal with the red bugs that eat my lilies and friterella. I hand pick em and crush them in the driveway. THe worms, I have to prevent them from completely eating my roses. Don't get it. When the roses were in the back where there is no sun, they did not get eaten by worms. Might be proximity to apple tree. Have to find plants that worms don't like and plant between rose bushes.

Besides I already bought a bag of 15 begonias and a bag of 12 Tiger lilies at Costco for bargain basement prices. Still want to plant about 100 crocus I didnt' get around to plant last fall. Want to scatter them in my lawn, under and around trees. They usually bloom before I cut the lawn in spring, Would be sweet. Might do it in the next few days if it could warm up. It's -2 today. A little too cold for gardening.

Yes.. seed catalogs are the gardener's porn.

Stupid government sponsored ads

In it's infinite wisdom "Service Canada" now has stupid ads. Like the process to get a social insurance number is a well kept secret, that we need ads that play nightly for weeks on television. Our tax dollars at work. Gotta love it.

Also love the rain-freezing rain-snow combination of precipitation that was falling today.

Mush alert!

This isn't really a blog entry. This is me being totally mushy. I have my moments, which I try to hide. :)

Anyways I just wanted to tell my sweetie, that

A day without you is like a day without sunshine
I can get through it, but it takes a lot more out of me.

I love you sweetie

Rock Cress in bloom

My Arabis or rock cress is in bloom. I did not realize it bloomed this soon after the snow disappears. It's a tiny little pinkish white flower, not too showy on the right side, a strand alone. But in a few years, the entire plant will disappear in tons of those tiny little blooms.

Another great moment on CSI miami.....

"You know what they say Frank? Speed kills...." Caruso says, after finding out his dead body was just at a speed dating event.

Dunno if I will sleep through CSI miami tonight.. but that is the 1 liner for this episode. Enjoy :)

Random Vista's

I took my daughter around Ile Bizard tonight so she could take photo's for her photography class. As she put it, Ile Bizard is at least good for a few old barns and that makes a great subject.

I parked the car on side of road a few times and went out with her to take pictures too . On the right is the Riviere des Prairies, notice the moon and it's reflection, facing Ste Genevieve. The other is the reflection of trees in a pond near the side of the main road on Ile Bizard.

User Access Controls = Vista Hell

So I've been in Vista hell for several months. I don't turn off the UAC because I figure the average schmuck using Vista will have them on. But man do they annoy me. I like that new apple ad on TV. The mac is speaking to you, allow? Allow? allow?

My boss' boss is this somewhat more conservative looking fellow, a little bit older then me. He's a very nice man, very down to earth. He was working on a Vista issue with one of my employees earlier this week, and after they debugged an issue together, he sent out an email giving steps to reproduce the problem to his programming team, copying my employee.

One line in the email said "Turn on UAC, for maximum pleasure". Had my employee laughing so hard he had to share with the rest of us. It was just so unexpected coming from this VP :)

Spring has sprrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrung!

I'm sitting here crying tonight, after my sweetie went to sleep, the 8 hour time different is a real PITA. When I looked into his eyes in the webcam, I could not stop myself from crying, and each time I see his eyes in my mind again I start to cry again.

However it does not stop me from feeling the allure of spring. It's almost tangible. It was 10 C outside today. I saw people on bicycles and inline skates... in between the rest of the snow left on my lawn is all sorts of leaves of bulb plants starting to grow. I could see crocus, tulips, daffodils, snow drops and glory of the snow

Here's another photo of the same trees outside my bedroom window around sun down.

Gnomes?

I was browsing through the photo's I took in 2006 and there was this series of pictures with My Little Gnomie, my lava lamp and my Moonet. This is the best of this particular set. I have no idea what was on my mind the day I took this particular picture.

It is a pity My Little Gnomie is so big, otherwise I would have dragged him to Dubai with me. I mean I'm sure My Little Gnomie would have loved to pose in front of the Burj Al Arab.

Of course I could always have a trunk full of Gnomes. No wait that is a " Yaris with a trunk" commercial...

Snow all melted

I took the picture of snowy trees out my bedroom window 4 hours ago, same view, 4 hours later with the Spring sun....

Broken Water Pipe

IT was a good thing I had decided to take some pictures of the pretty snow outside yesterday and this morning. It made me notice something odd, snow melted in a really weird pattern.. Did not hear the water last night, but sure heard it from my bedroom bathroom's window when I took pictures of the trees still full of snow...

Nice isn't it?

Here's a nice picture of the snowy outside before the sun came out today, taken from my front bedroom window. You can see my apple tree, and birch tree branches full of snow and the neighbors fir tree in the back ground.

Pain: Together but so far away.

I have the song 'Pain' by Three Days Grace stuck in my head. This is part of the chorus:

Pain, without love
Pain, I can't get enough
Pain, I like it rough
'Cause I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all

So it's been looping in my mind for a few days now. Pain sometimes is what reminds us that we are still alive. The pain I'm going through at the moment, is being apart from a person I love. The pain kills me at times. I was crying earlier remembering how all the little things felt. I miss being in the same location as him. I know the emotions are still there. I know I would feel him no matter where he was in the world. [And now I'm getting flash backs of that show "Where in the world is Carmen San Diego?"]. The 11,000kms that separates us makes it kind of difficult to back him up against a wall to kiss him ya know?

Ok.. I should get myself to bed. I'm not completely over jet lag. I mean tonight I mostly slept between 8pm-1am. I dozed off sitting on a straight chair in front of my laptop when my sweetie went to sleep. I migrated to my bedroom to watch TV, I don't think I saw any program completely. Missed most of Law & Order and most of CSI Miami [Even the bad one liners did not keep me awake]. I hope I can sleep.

To sleep, perchance to dream...

Gros beta!

Just before Christmas, some of my team and I at work borrowed a beta VCR to convert old beta tapes to media files. I got 7 or 8 of my beta tapes converted. Last week I started making DVD's out of the image files. Not something I'm particularly good at, I even ended up making blank DVD's the first time around.

One of the beta's was a tape of my daughters, at random events where my ex happened to have taped them because we had access to a camera. First scene is daughter at maybe 10-12 months old. First in our apartment, then at the pool for her swimming lessons. If I remember correctly, there's also a christmas in Florida with my parents, and one birthday party of each daughter.

Those tapes had been lost to me pretty much since daughter was 5 years old, because a beta tape had gotten caught into the machine and she used a knife to try to retrieve it and killed the mechanism. I was incredibly grateful we had a co-worker whose dad had a beta VCR that we all got old beta tapes converted.

I had a point... to say that this morning I handed the DVD of the girls as toddlers to daughter along with birthday wish... I thought a trip in memory lane could be fun.

I also got the tape of my wedding 21 years ago on DVD, if nothing else it is highly entertaining because it was taken by bro-in-law who was totally intoxicated. His idea of stuff to tape was uhm interesting.

My baby is 20 today

My eldest daughter, who it seemed was a baby just yesterday, turned 20 today. Time flies when you are raising children. Can't believe she's 20 already. That really ages me.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Gotta love the Nor'Easters

Sitting in my bedroom, I can hear the vent on my roof whining. The only time I hear that is when it is pretty windy out. Apparently it's 40Km winds. It seems stronger, just from the noise it's making and from how the birch tree in the front lawn is swaying.

Of course there will not be that much snow falling. 15cm's is nothing. I miss the big snowstorms of my youth. I think so long as I live on the Island of Montreal I won't see those anymore. Though moving 100km anywhere off the island would probably give me the snow I crave.

I love to watch it snow and am enjoying it now. Would be more fun if it wasn't in the city. Can't win them all. Sadly we don't get the full brunt of the nor'easters most of the time in Montreal. Between not being east enough and an island we just get the tail ends.

*****

Sigh, there was only 8 episodes of Little Mosque on the Prairie. I hope they make more shows for next fall. It promises to be as big of a hit as Corner Gas. Which also had their season finale last week.. with episode19. Can't complain there, this was the longest season they had. Love that show too. I was looking forward to go home both Monday and Wednesday nights just to watch the show,and if I happen to miss it, find it online and still watch it. Did not miss one episode of either show. But it's over for this year *sigh*

Jet Lag sucks

I dunno how much time it will take me to get over jet lag. I can't stay awake in the evenings and then I'm awake at 4 am. I HATE being awake at 4am, unless I stayed up that late. Waking up at 4am does really nothing for me.

Thankfully Daylights saving time was early this year [so much so I had to adjust my PC twice for it to take it], at least it's one less hour for me to re-adjust to. And besides it makes it only 8 hours different with my sweetie, gives us a bit more time together.

Something tells me I will be at work today way way early. I figured I'd write an email, then tried getting back to sleep but no luck. In fact my back is saying 'Get up dammit, before I seize'.

*sigh* I fell asleep last night during every TV show I tried to watch, couldn't even write an email, kept falling asleep. I tried so hard to stay awake till midnight so I'd get a good night sleep.

Grumble. Grumble Grumble

Miserable March in Montreal

Ok I admit I chose the title for it's alliteration. March isn't anymore miserable then usual in Montreal. I mean admittedly it was -21 when I arrived Wednesday evening and today it was 0. Also it was raining today. Meaning that there's coats of ice on all the snow now.

You can almost smell spring just around the corner. And that in itself would excite me, I'd be poring over seed catalogs and finding which new plant I want to add to the garden. Maybe next week. Now I'm still stuck in no man's land. Wanting to still be with my sweetie, instead of in my home. *sigh*

I cooked up a storm today. Great way to forget the time and make sure I'm well fed. I made an eggplant curry, and told my youngest when she saw the eggplant that it was all mine and she couldn't have any. In fact since people always make fun of the eggplant, I'm keeping my eggplant dishes all to myself. I made rice pasta to go with the curried eggplant. YUM! I also made a curried lentil stew [That smelt awesome, even cold, when I put it in a container to store in the fridge], and curried Indian vegetable stew along with some brown rice to accompany both. I should have food to eat till the end of the week. Was just thinking I bought spinach, and should make stir fried spinach with chick peas. Something to do tomorrow.

I ended making a Powerpoint presentation with my trip to Dubai. It has 92 slides and is about 92Megs large. It didn't dawn on me that it would end up this big. But it looks really nice on a 30" apple cinema panel when I play it at work :)

Last day in Dubai

The Burj Al-Arab in the day time. The second picture is a really pretty Mosque, the stone has this pink undertone. Such a beautiful building.

I'm all sad, this is my last night in Dubai. Though it's not the most easy country to live in, I will miss the people, especially my sweetie.

I've been to the beach twice during the day, and once at night. Good thing the first time was at night. I didn't realize there was Jelly fish, lots of Jelly fish and I walked in the water at night. This week I saw how many jelly fish were on the beach. Not something you want to be bitten by. ICK.

Isn't the persian gulf nice? This picture looks like a club Med ad. Love it. :)

Erections in the Dark.

This is the Burj Dubai in the dark.

Random pictures of erections in the dark.

Gotta love the 'double night' mode on my camera. The building that looks like a giant sail is the Burj Al-Arab.

Pictures circling in Bur Dubai

Pictures I took yesterday while we were circling.

Going around in circles in Bur Dubai

Yesterday we decided to go to the gold souk. Tourist sites encourage you to go there for the cheap gold. Of course we now know it's a bit of a tourist trap, though admittedly the gold is pretty cheap, say compared to Montreal.

The funny part is that we were looking for the gold souk. We had actually studied the map and written alternate ways to find it, should we get lost before crossing the creek. Well you know what they say about the best laid out plans. We drove around looking for the two streets I had marked on my paper, but they were not significant enough streets to be able to find them from the main road we were on and thankfully we turned around just before we got to Sharjah. We asked for directions several times and to be honest I got to think people were just sending us off to a wild goose chase. We eventually found one of the two streets and I suggested we park. At least it was a commercial area, and not residential like most of where we had been circling around. We took the first parking spot we found and didn't have change for parking machine and could not find a place opened to get change. For some reason most of the shops in that area seemed closed between 2 and 5. Of course it was 3 o'clock.

I had studied the map enough to know where to expect the gold souk so we walked and found it, but by the backside. We couldn't even find a door, but we found it's underground parking and entered that way. Of course most of the shops were closed until 5, except for the 1 food place, which interestingly enough actually had veggie burgers on their menu. So we ate, and window shopped for a bit. I did end up getting the one thing I really wanted to get, a new gold chain for my astrological sign pendant, that I've been waering for 20 years.

Overall there was way too much bling. I don't like things that are big or attract attention. But I looked at the different jewelry. Sometimes I find things pretty even though I would NEVER EVER wear it. I did spot a very delicate ring, no more then 2 mm wide with little sapphires and diamonds. I don't care for diamonds especially knowing most are 'blood diamonds', but this ring spoke volumes to me.. so much so my sweetie insisted getting it for me. It was a battle I wasn't going to win. So I've got this really perty ring now on my finger :)

On our way out, we actually left by the front of the building. It made me realize we must have driven past it early in the day. That fact was confirmed by the picture I'd taken of the building when we first drove past it. Of course it didn't say "Gold Souk", it said "Gold Land". How were we supposed to know???

The moral of the story is that it is so incredibly easy to get lost in Dubai traffic and roads.. especially the closer you get to Sharjah. People complain about the poor road signs in Montreal. Obviously they have NEVER been to Dubai.

Oh and we ended up getting a parking ticket. But it was about $50 CAD. Much cheaper then the parking tickets in Montreal [$75 CAD]

Getting Lost in Sharjah....

It seems to be a common joke in the UAE that one gets lost in Sharjah. Well this morning, we took a drive down to Sharjah to pick up one of my sweetie's friends, who had spent the night there. It didn't take long for us to get lost. I figured out we were going in circles when we passed both the post office and one particular mosque serveral times. It was interesting, we started from Dubai, went to Sharjah, back to Dubai and then dropped off the friend in Abu Dhabi. Not just anywhere in Abu Dhabi, but in the furthest suburb just on the edge of the desert. Because it was night by then I did not manage to get any pictures of the desert, but I did manage a few nicely lit up mosques. We ended up the trip back in Dubai of course at a Mc Donalds.

I've included 3 pictures. 1 is the post office in Sharjah, the 2nd is the mosque, and the 3rd is the McDonalds I spotted in Sharjah. McD's looks the same pretty much everywhere in the world don't they?

Fireworks

The other night while we were having dinner at Johnny Rockets, there was an impromtu fireworks display. I managed to snap a few photo's. Here are a couple:

Look mommy at all the cranes in the sky!

I'm still not over fact that everywhere we look buildings are mushrooming out of the desert, and the cranes, tons of cranes. I've been reading on what to visit in Dubai so that when my sweetie gets time off next week, we can visit more of Dubai together. I don't think he's explored it all that much. It doesn't help that no map of Dubai is accurate for more then a day or two. Even the roads keep changing. Just getting around is somewhat of a challenge, even for the locals I sense. I especially want to see the Persian Gulf coast. This might prove to be challenging as buildings are now lining the coast, and making it far less accessible.

I've had the pleasure of meeting my sweetie's sister, one of his co-workers and one of his friends. All women of course. I get the sense that they are all checking me out to make sure I'm good to him :) I like that, they are all protective of him, and not in a bad way. They've all been nice to me and made me feel welcome.

I like the way both the locals, the ex-pats working in Dubai and the visitors can blend in together at the Dubai Marina walk. You see everything from the somewhat conservative locals in their long robes [men in long white robes, women in long black robes and head cover], to the scantilly clad tourists. My sweetie wasn't kidding when he said this place is almost like a walking contradiction. I still feel more comfortable dressing somewhat more conservatively then at home, if nothing else not to stick out like a sore thumb. However with my flaming red hair and pasty white skin with freckles, I definitely do not look local, and they are far more tolerant over non-locals.

Today I will get the courage to venture out on my own, to go grab lunch at the Dubai Marina, probably at the Rupee room. It's an Indian restaurant that has been particularly good to me so far. Everything I've tried has been delicious and very friendly to my internal organs. The first time we went, the waiter warned me that the dish was 'spicy'. I found it bland for a spicy dish. The second time, I chose a curry, and got no warning. It was far spicier, which is what I wanted.

Big Erections

They sure love their big erections in Dubai. Everywhere you look, all you see is these sky-scrapers being built. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that there are more cranes in Dubai then in any other city in the world.

Here's an example of what I mean. This picture was taken at the Dubai Marina walk.

Or the Burj Dubai still under construction, which claims it will be the tallest building once built.

Just another example.. I took 4 pictures out the window of my sweetie's appartment window, in the Dubai Marina Diamond I building.. which I hoped to paste together as a panoramic view later.

Some people get vegetarians, others get Camels.

So I survived my flight fears and made it all the way to Dubai. I stressed out for days, because I only had a 1 hour stop-over at Hearthrow and was afraid I'd miss my connecting flight. I was lucky that the flight to Dubai left a bit late, so though I stressed and ran through Heathrow, I did not miss my flight. In fact I had to wait about 30 minutes... was good, got me to de-stress.

One thing you can say about the Brits is they sure are anally retentive. I had just come out of a flight from Canada, where I was searched before I left, and was not carrying any offensive liquids, had just one carry-on of regulation size, but before I could board my plane to Dubai, I had to rego through the whole security process. Including removing my shoes. Thankfully I didn't carry any water, because we all know how incredibly dangerous water is.

The vegeterian meals on the Air Canada flight left a lot to be desired. The breakfast was a crappy refined flour bun, with jam and margerine, some heavily syruped fruit and a cup of orange juice. The veggie meals on the Emerates flight where so much better. Their breakfast consisted of 2 whole wheat buns, with jam & margerine [yellow too I might add], along with a bowl of fresh fruit [including mango.. Yum], and some apple juice. The other meal was absolutely kick ass. There was a hot main dish which seemed to be some indian veggie dish sitting on a bed of rice and some cooked carrots, that was awesome, and 2 salads. One just of greens, with cucumber and tomato, and one with some greens and lots of chickpeas and beans. This was accompanied by a whole wheat bun and some fresh fruit [with mango again]. Air Canada has a lot to learn about vegan/vegetarian meals. Most vegetarians go to that diet for health reasons. They don't want refined flours and overly sugared meals.

Overall while the service on the Air Canada flight was decent, the service on Emirates airlines was top notch. I also enjoyed fact they have screens in back of every seat, so basically you get your own TV, and they have camera's outside the plane you can watch your plane leave and arrive and they also have a channel that tells you where you are at all times, and the speed plane is going and the altitude. I found that pretty cool. Gives you an idea of what you're looking at when you're looking out the window.

I think my stress levels went down once I spotted my sweetie when I finally made it out of Dubai airport. The corridors seemed endless. I felt nervous, not knowing what to expect. But it was fairly stress free. Once I showed my canadian passport, it got stamped with a 60 days Visa, and all I had to do was pick up my bag, which convieniently just happened to be passing by when I reached the right carousel.

It was so incredibly cute, he was waiting for me with this pink stuffed Camel. He spotted me before I did, by a few seconds.. but it was such a relief. Though we were both a bit shy, fact that I only managed to sleep tops 1 hour in 15 minute segments over the two 6 1/2 hour flights, had me talking his ear off all the way back to his place. I suppose this is better then sitting there quietly and nervously.

Camels, llamas, dromadaries, Oh My!

I'm leaving for Dubai today. Going to the airport in less then 1 hour. I'm nervous, and hyper and bouncing off ceilings. I was awake at the crack of dawn [5am] today due to noise but I'm guessing due also to just excitement.

I guess I'll be writing from there, the next 2 weeks..

My sweetie will be waiting for me with his pink Camel at the airport... because of course everyone in the middle east has a camel :P

Another Monday night...

Another one liner. Tonight David Caruso said " They won't be secrets for long" before The Who started to scream. I saw the most disgusting picture today. Someone had too much time on theirhands and photoshop and made a nude buff Caruso. *Shudders* Somethings are best left unknown.

Two days before I leave for Dubai. I'm trying not to think about it so I dont' stress myself out. The hardest part is packing. I have such a hard time deciding what to bring and what to wear.

I feel like a child again

I went to my doctor yesterday, to see what vaccinations if any I should get before traveling to Dubai. Well I ended up with 3 vaccinations yesterday. One against polio, one called adacel, against diphteria, tetanus and whopping cough, and lastly one against hepatitis A. She also suggested hepetitis B, typhoid and one called dukoral against cholera and travelers diarreah.

I refused one against the flu, I stopped taking the flu shot 7-8 years ago after a bad reaction, and to be honest I have not seen much difference between the years I had the flu shot and those I didnt' for the number of viral infections I catch and that can potentially set off my asthma. I also refused the mumps/measles/rubella one. I've had the mumps and measles already. Rubella, if I was still of child bearing capabilities, I'd have taken it, but since I'm not.. seems a waste. She also suggested the HPV generically but I chose to take that one later on, since I wasn't sure if my insurance would cover it. I called up the hotline for our insurance and they tell me they do to 85% which is great. I will be getting it after my trip... I think I'm getting enough vaccinations before my trip.

This morning, both of the arms that had vaccinations have muscle fatigue and one of the vaccinations gave me a bruise the size of a quarter.

I should get ready for work..

I'm starting to feel the excitement

I'm started to really feel excited over the fact that on February 21st, I'm flying to Dubai. When I booked the flight I was wrought over with panic and fear. I do dislike flying and am somewhat claustrophobic. The idea of flying twice 6 1/2 hour flights is daunting. But at the end of the day, in this case the ends justify the means.

My sweetie was refused a Visa to enter Canada, so he cannot visit me as planned in April. Instead of being completely devastated, I figured if he can't come to me, I can go to him. Besides I've been wanting to meet him in person for about 10 years. [but who's counting?] I had hoped that by now he'd be in Canada much like his ex-wife.

Admittedly Dubai would not have been a destination I would have considered visiting if I didn't have the incentive of having a friend there, but on the other hand, I've only traveled within North America the past 20 years, and before I was 18, I'd been to Europe 3 times. So if nothing else this will be a very different experience. I mean my last 3 flights were to Denver, Colorado, San Francisco, California, and Tampa, Florida.

So I'm totally excited this morning, and on that note, I need to get ready for work...

It's so a Monday

For some unexplained reason my router hung today and I had to reset and reconfigure. I wasn't particularly swift and it took me forever to remember that the software is buggy and I had to put in MAC addresses manually.

It was a Monday for several other reasons, and I will leave it at that.

Ah those blue Eyes

I always have a hard time lecturing my youngest daughter. She has a way with those big blue eyes of hers of wooing anyone. She's got her dad wrapped around her little finger, and it would seem me too at times. She was like "But but I MSNed my sister to turn off my alarm..." But she did it after her sister went to bed..

I still told her, that it wasn't much harder to disarm the alarm then it was to turn it off in the morning, to please, please disarm it. I mean she only sleeps here 4 nights a month.. I shouldn't have to always be woken up by her alarm when she's not here.

******

I'm getting excited. In 11 days I will be in Dubai, in the UAE. That's like half-way across the world.

*****

No More Fucking VAN HALEN!!! Why some groups have to get back together? Lord only knows. I never want to hear poundcake ever again.

I'm going to Kill her...

My youngest set her alarm clock for Saturday morning 6:00am so she would make her lifeguard job on time. Of course she forgot to turn it off, so at 6:00am Sunday morning, who does it wake up? Mom. She slept at a friends house.

Did it wake up her sister? No. I had to get up at 6:15 to shut off the "BEEP BEEP BEEP" that was making my heart double beat, because it would not have shut itself off ever. I actually didn't turn off the alarm. I unplugged the alarm clock.

I've been doing that for 7 years now. Whenever she forgets her alarm clock, I unplug it. You'd think it would be annoying enough to have to reset the time each time she forgets it, that she would learn to turn it off....

I mean I'm particularly upset this morning cause I've been sick since Tuesday, been trying to get all the sleep I can manage to get rid of this flu/cold whatever it is as soon as possible. I was sleeping peacefully at 6am. I've been angry and annoyed and unable to sleep since 6am. I'm still not well enough to do anything constructive around my place. so sleep would have been good.

She will get a lecture today about turning off her alarm clock. I mean she does it at least once a month. And of course she's NEVER around to turn it off, and it's always set for hours that I never have to get up at, and more often then not, it wakes me up after I've been struggling to fall asleep.

Taco Bell Part II

Debbie wanted to try out Taco Bell after we'd gone on Monday, so we went back on Thursday. We arrived a bit later and the line-up was almost to the door. I cringed expecting the slow service and the clueless zombies from Monday's visit, however we were pleasantly surprised. Both cashes were opened and the cashiers at least seemed alive. One was even well versed enough in vegetarian lifestyle to point out that while the first item Debbie ordered was veggie, the second was not and was that fine? I left there a little bit more impressed then the first time with the service. The Burrito 7 was still as good, and would make me return, probably within the next month.

Heartless Bitch

One of my favorite places to visit on the internet is the Heartless Bitches site. I love the brutal honesty. Over the years reading this site has encouraged me to grow as a woman, and become more independent. I have a much better idea of what a healthy relationship should be, and am prepared to stay alone rather then be in an unhealthy relationship.

The bitchtorial had me giggling. I've been known back in the BBS days to go on similar rants when men would post outlandish penis sizes. I just love her visual comparisons too.

Wired aux maximum

I am so incredibly wired right now. Been wired since late afternoon. It's the kinda wired where I am talking 1000 words a minute. SomethingthatwouldlooklikethisI'mtalkingsofast.

I've talked on the phone tonight with my buddy in Ottawa, and I've spent the better part of the night, analyzing, overanalyzing, looking, relooking, and making sure this was the plane tickets I wanted to book. In between I remembered I might have had a carry on I bought a couple years back, an air Canada model. Found it and felt compelled to measure to make sure it fit the standards for carry-on luggage on both sides of the pond. I've gotten headaches looking at the various rules and regulations one must follow to fly.

I suspect I'm going to end up being a hungry hypoglycemic. I used to travel with peanut butter sandwiches. I'm sure that's a crime in itself. sigh. So no more flying with peanuts. I can see it the wave of the future.. naked travel. Everything goes outside passenger cabin, everything gets scanned.

so it's getting really late and I;m still obsessing. I might need a doctors note to carry my asthma meds. Sigh.

and I started my day by leaving home at 8:30 AM. It was bumper to bumper on the 40 going between 30-50km from Sources all the way to Decarie. The decarie service road was quicker the then 40 this morning . I made it to the dentist at 9:45 AM . Not only did I get the final cement on my crown, but I also got a teeth cleaning. There was a free hygienist. At least it was worth the trip. I left dentist at 11:00AM was at work at 11:30. Amazing how little time it took to get back

Ok.. need to get sleep...

Quebec's First Taco Bell

I REALLY enjoyed my vegetarian burrito and risolle potatoes with cheese and sour cream at Taco Bell today. However I wasn't sure if the employees in the kitchen were actually alive. I mean I remember how animated they were in the Taco Bell in Plattsburg last time I went. Here I was wondering if they were zombies. This old man in front of us asked twice for sweet & sour sauce before he took off with his food and came back again to ask for sweet & sour sauce, in French, Sauce aigre douce. The kid working at putting little containers of cole slaw into a drawer, asked him to repeat the sauce 3 times. The third time, both my co-worker and the guy next to me also told him "Sweet and sour". Like.. was he deaf? Stupid? One of the female employees gave him his sweet and sour sauce, and about 5 minutes later the kid finally comes back with sweet and sour sauce and saying "Where did he go?" Like he got his sauce and had time to eat his meal by the time you came back. Thankfully we arrived at 11:45, just because the lunch rush. And just as well. When we left the line-up was all the way to the door.

Caruso's line for tonight "Priority #1". He already had the tacky sunglasses on and he was in motion. Was almost a let down.

The best laid plans.....

I knew what I was doing today. I was spending time with my sweetie and later my friend was coming over to help me with paperwork. At least that's what I thought this morning. I was mentally prepared and even eager to get rid of the damn paperwork..

but alas.. things did not work as expected with my sweetie, and my friend is too tired to come over. I'm not impressed. I've been feeling like nothing goes my way all week. And then I feel guilty for whining about it.

Ever notice that if already the time zone differences and circumstances make it difficult to spend time together 'live' that everything and then some with happen within that small window of opportunity where you can get to spend time together, making that window infinitely small.

I even managed to burn my micro-waveable pop-corn today. In my microwave. I usually burnt it at work cause I don't know those microwaves, but at home? What's my excuse.

I'll stop kvetching otherwise I will be no better then my daughter's whiny cat :P

Gone daddy gone, gone gone gone....

The bad student was removed from my team. Dunno if he'll survive in the other team. So far so good.. but in essence he's got 2 weeks to prove himself. Dunno if he'll be able to manage that.

I interviewed today a 19year old for a QA position, he's got more skills both technical and people then most I've interviewed for the past year. He seemed to have every skill we could possibly want. I told him he left me speechless, and I'm hard to impress. Now we'll have to see if he's willing to accept the salary we offer him. He can't start with a base salary higher then what my guys make especially those who have been there.. like several years.


We went to Subways for lunch twice this week. I mean I do fine with a vegetarian 6" on whole wheat sandwich. I've got to say that the Subways on des Sources & Pierrefonds blvd is the best Subways in the area. The staff is friendly and their food is fresh. I've not been sick from eating at that Subways. At other Subways it's a hit or miss and the staff at the one at Fairview sucks. The other one on des Sources, it's always so incredibly crowded, and the staff is surly.

Now as I said, I went to the Subways twice this week, but I did not notice that in that same strip mall there was a Taco Bell. It seems in the past month or so the KFC became a KFC/Taco Bell. I drive past the KFC to and from work daily. I've been gripping about that fact since it gives me cravings for eating KFC chicken. Except that I've been a vegetarian for about 13 years now and the only flesh I'll occasionally eat is salmon or shrimp. And by occasionally I mean about once or twice a year. I stopped eating animal flesh because I had a real hard time digesting it. So eating chicken at this point would make me sick. However I still get chicken cravings every couple of weeks when I drive past the KFC. Apparently now I can stop at the taco bell's and get a veggie burrito instead... wonder how often it's the chicken craving that leads me to buy a veggie burrito?

If looks could kill

Boy was I in a mood today. Thankfully between my sweetie and Debbie I was disarmed and rendered relatively harmless.

Which for some reason makes me think about the Hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy and the entry for earth was "mostly harmless". Who was Douglas Adams kidding, mostly harmless? Humans are not mostly harmless. Many are mostly not harmless. They just look like they are harmless.

A buddy sent me a link to Quebequer proverbs. That was interesting. My favorite is "On ne peut pas tous être beaux et savoir téléphoner." Still has me giggling.

Which is better then being all pissed of. If looks could kill there would have been a lot of dead people.

Another great moment on CSI Miami

Tonight's Caruso moment: The other detective asks him "Think it's a prank?"

Very slowly, Caruso answers "No..... Such.... luck... Frank...." Puts his glasses back on and the music with the who screaming starts. As I read somewhere else, most any line would probably sound great with the Who screaming right after.

Jamais deux sans trois

Yep, you guessed it, another night where I'm watching CSI Miami and David Caruso. The one-liner for this episode, "In other words, our victim called in his own murder". Visualize him one hand on hip, the other holding sunglasses.

Twice in the same week

Tonight another episode of CSI Miami. Another David Caruso moment. Stand above body, hand on hip, "Alex, Miami has a new breed of criminal." Puts on sunglasses...

UGH.

I'm still in a mood. So much work at work so little time. I managed somehow to do all my hours in 4 days. There's still so much work to do.

Hopefully Monday we can get rid of the student who's not working out. I've never seen someone work so hard at pretending to look like he's working. Funny too, two days ago, that student and the student who sits behind him were discussing a new cap he'd picked up at our boutique with logo'd products. My boss came over to see me to ask me something, and apparently they both scurried to their desks and pretended to be heavily involved with work. It cracks me up.

Proud Canadian

I'm so proud to be Canadian today. My sweetie was refused a visitor's Visa to visit me in April and May, because he's Lebanese and the situation in Lebanon is too volatile. THey are afraid he won't go back home.

I always thought we Canadians were bleeding heart liberals. That we cared. Wow.. that's really caring.. You can't come, your country is too unstable. And it's not like he's even in Lebanon.

I could go on and on, not going to. This pretty much says it all.

[Hanging my head in shame]

With repeat performances in syndication...

Tonight I'm in a mood where I want to take it out on someone. I'm not going to be the least bit original. I won't be the first or the last to blog about him either....

Since it's Monday night around 10pm, you might even guess: David Caruso.

Again with a stellar performance with the opening of tonight's episode.

"Frank......."

Insert pregnant pause here

"don't move..."

Uhmmm. Frank has got 1 foot on a land mine he just triggered. Frank isn't even going to twitch that foot.

I've never liked David Caruso. Did not like him in NYPD blue. In fact I preferred the show AFTER he left. I watch CSI Miami, because I'm fond of CSI shows in general. But damn, you look at the original CSI and you have well developed characters. You look at Miami and everything revolves around Caruso. He's like a one man team. He slices, he dices, he purees, he juliennes.. he's the Horatio-matic.

Of course it doesn't help that he's incredibly conceited and thinks he's all that and a bag of chips. It seems his acting doesn't get better with age. I mean what? Did he go to the William Shatner school of acting?

It was a crowning moment

Finally the new crowns were put on my teeth. I also got the insurance cheque for it as well. I got pretty much the maximum they would pay which is still less then 50% overall. sigh. But I suppose it's better then no insurance.

I was kinda disappointed. I expected both teeth to be a nice white porcelaine. However the back one is silver. According to the dentist it's over 55% gold. However it looks silver. sigh. I mean most of my back teeth have fillings and look horrible..

Rusty Rims

So I did not have a slow leak in my tire. I didnt' have a flat on my tire either. I know on this car, every other time I get winter tires put on, I seem to have to go back in a couple of weeks to get one redone. Well at least now I know why. One of my rims apparently is so rusty it makes a poor seal hence it goes flat. So I should be buying a new rim in spring when I get my tires changed again.

I'm guessing when I go the first time, usually it's in the rush where everyone and his brother is getting his tires changed for winter, so they do it fast, and usually within a couple of weeks I have one tire that is very flat. When I go back and complain about that tire - they redo it and probably realize it's rusty, scrape some rust, put some sealant compound and then it holds. But at least the nice guy at Mr Lube told me it was rusty. Next time it won't happen with that rim. I kinda wonder if it might be worth just buying 4 new rims in the spring. Car will be 8 years old in June. and it's just hit the 70 000 Kms not to long ago.

I'm happy that my tire is fine. I have to go downtown tomorrow and I would hate having a blowout on the highway. Between the 6 inches of snow that fell today, I"m betting getting downtown will not be fun tomorrow. Sigh.

Headache from Hell....

Of course if I bitched I had a headache to my ex-hubby and one of my ex-bf's, they would say "well it proves you have a head". Wow. I'm so shocked. I had never imagined.... :P

Anyways... I've had this headache from hell since Friday. It starts off mild early in the day and as day progresses it hits you right in the sinuses. To the point where you can't see straight. sigh. I hope it doesn't hit me at 3 or 4 pm again today. Friday was hellish. Nothing I took [tylenol, aspirin] did anything for it.

I've been camping in my room all week-end, cause my youngest daughter has the propensity for listening to stuff REALLY REALLY LOUD!!!!

Let's just say that I'm really enjoying the wireless network. :)

I weighed myself and it seems like I've put back on the weight I lost 2 years ago. Weighed 100 yesterday and 98 today.. Must be all the cheese I've been eating on and off depending on my asthma that day. My sweetie keeps mentioning Pizza and then I crave cheese. However despite putting the weight back, it's gone back on well distributed. It's not all on my tummy. My smallest pair of size 0's are a little tight. That's ok.. was the only pair that fit at some point.. it means all my slightly bigger clothes fits better now :) It beats 90lbs and feeling like I'm going to get blown away by the wind. I've always enjoyed being just around 100lbs. I mean either way I'm underweight for my height but less so at 100 then at 90lbs :)

I think it was all the work I did at Christmas, which means I put on muscle weight.. which is the best :) I think I've finally regained all the muscle I lost back in 2000 when I had the hernia and then the surgery...

Ok.. enough babbling.. really need to get ready for work...

And overall there was a smell of Fried Onions...

I just stumbled upon a blog that's told me that Robert Anton Wilson died early the morning of 1/11/2007, a mere 7 days before his 75th birthday.

Robert Anton Wilson wrote:

I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying. Please pardon my levity, I don’t see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.

******
It's one of those weird things. I read "Cosmic Trigger and the final secret of the illuminati" in my late teens and it's had a profound impact. I think I lent my RAW books to a friend who never returned them... Of course the title of this entry is a quote from RAW :)

Dunno RAW kinda falls in the same category as Timothy Leary..... and whenever I think of Timothy Leary I think of this Moody Blues song "Timothy Leary's dead.. No no no no no no no he's outside, looking in...."

RIP RAW.

Little Mosque on the Prairie

My sweetie sent me this link earlier in the week because we've been making Camel jokes back and forth. I didnt' think much of it at the time, but Wednesday night, when I was channel hopping I stumbled upon it. Had me in stitches. According to yesterday's newspaper 2 million Canadians caught the show for the opening night. Corner Gas, my current favorite Canadian show draws 1.5 million viewers per week, though peaked at 3 million for their 'GasMas' episode.

I'm amazed. I mean I've never really liked a Canadian show before. When I discovered Corner Gas, I was like 'Wow, a funny Canadian show'. I mean 2 funny Canadian shows? I'm amazed. I've never liked one and now there's 2 half hour funny Canadian shows. Nice to get Canadian content :)

I can't tell if it's raining or snowing outside. I'm guessing wet snow.. freezing rain or slush..... SLUSHIES !!!!


Ok.. time to go get ready. Must stop at bank this morning to get money for my cleaning lady.

TGIF babe!

Gloomy

What a gloomy day so far. Can't tell from how dark it still is, what kind of day it's going to be.

Hmm I have no idea where I was going with this now. My sweetie messaged me... and now my brain is in a completely different gear.

On that note, time for daily bathing.

Oh and all my students smell nice this time around, all seemed friendly and eager.. and one was so afraid NOT to correspond he even asked me if he could go to wash-room :) He also thanked me profusely 3 times for having taking him as a student intern. Sweet man. Maybe he was afraid he'd have a harder time getting an internship because he's black.. but I'm equal opportunity. If I like what I see I don't care your color.

Ok.. really off I go.

I don't want to work

I want to bang on the drums all day...

It's Monday Morning and I have to go back to work. My last day was the 22nd of December. I don't really count the half day I did on Friday. I wasn't mentally there enough.

My kitchen looks really nice. It's not finished enough for me to take before/after pictures. Still have not taken all the tape down from the ceiling. Also have touch-ups to do. All the doors & frames have to be re-painted white and I have the wallpaper edge I want to put along the ceiling.

I wasn't sure of my color choices when I was first painting... I definitely prefer the dark green, but if I didn't have the pale green where I do, the rooms would be too dark and look too small.

Ok enough procrastination, must go and figure out what I want to waer. I feel so undecisive already today...

I can so tell it's a Monday. I've already stepped in cat puke and walked halfway across the house before realizing it, and I've spilled my tea on my feet and pyjama pants. Hmm also there's that low-air tire I must get taken care of today. Maybe lunch will be a visit at "Mr Lube" they put the tire that slowly lost all the air. Could be a bad install job. It's probably the 3rd or 4th time I get that with these winter tires. Maybe I have a tire with a slow leak?

Who uses soap in bars?

I've realized I don't buy soap bars anymore. In the kitchen it's liquid soap. In my shower it's definitely body washes. I don't have negative reactions to Yves Rocher body washes. I did try their anti-aging products once and had a poor reaction. I stay away from those.

Today I was at the Mall, took a break from the painting. And as I was coming back from Home Sense where I was looking for new oven mitts - mine date from before I married 20 years ago, I smelt the Yves Rocher store. The mix of berry scented body washes just drew me in. They had a new perfume, Voile d'Ambre, that I liked. Since they had a 50% sale, I splurged and got 1 bottle and the body wash. It reminded me a bit of the Ambergris essential oil I use to wear some 10 years ago, that I can't find anymore.

My favorite Yves Rocher scent is still "Folies des Saisons: Automne" which was discontinued maybe 4 years ago? I still have 3/4 of a bottle. Still love it. But I also like "Ode a l'amour", "Ming Shu, fleur rare" and of course the Bourbon Vanilla. I've been alternating those three for the past year or so now, most days according to my mood. I also occasionally use from the "Plaisirs de la nature" collection, the raspberry, blackberry, and citrus scents during the summer.

It's sad. I have a preferred customer card for Yves Rocher. I think I own only 2 such cards, the other being for La Senza. So I have 5 different body washes to chose from in the morning? When did life become so complicated? I can never make up my mind - like this helps any?

Not that I miss the stale smell of a bar of Ivory that's been soaking in a puddle of water in the soap dish. I wonder how many germs sat in that soap dish festering and becoming part of the soapy mess? The smell of ivory soap that's been soaking all afternoon in the sun is etched in my mind, and associated with otherwise pleasant memories of my mom's best friend's home, both their summer cottage and city home. It's turned me off ivory soap in bars for life. I do still use ivory dish soap, it's the one my hands tolerates the best for those dishes that aren't dishwasher safe

I'm being watched.

I was washing my paintbrush in the furnace room sink when I had the feeling I was being watched. Pixie was even on top of the counter originally, but by the time I got the camera, he was walking away. I had to go back to washing my brushes before he came back to forage along with Motley. It's hard enough getting one cat to pose for a picture, getting 4 is quite the challenge, but these were almost too easy :)

Cat torture : The Sequel

Here's a picture of Lynx doing his very best "Get ME the heck out of here" and "I'm stuck in a basement with 3 cats I don't know! "

As you can see, they still hate the fact that the door is closed. Despite fact my youngest daughter is downstairs and giving attention to all the cats.

Happy New Year!

May 2007 be the best year yet!!!