Ziva being a diva in my nightshirt

Ziva under my nightshirt.

Sunlight soap bar revisited

 The label off the bars still in my cupboard.

So the packaging has changed a little bit since I last bought some, but otherwise I did find some at IGA. I had to look and look and look. It was so well hidden on the shelf.  But was very happy to find some. I hadn't seen it in any store in years. 

Beautiful day for skating

My shadow on the skating rink

It was a beautiful winter day. I left home around 2ish, first went to IGA down the road, then proceeded to the Parc on Rive Boisee. I spent about one hour skating around the ice rink. After taking my skates off I went to the other side of the park, the one along the Riviere des Prairies and even walked on a snowshoe trail halfway across the bay to a little island. But decided I went far enough and came back. Took a bunch of photos before proceeding to Mourelatos.

Ice rink at parc de la rive boisee.

I had a great time going skating especially since there was absolutely no one but me the entire time I skated. Not on either rink. Just as I had enough some people arrived to play hockey on the hockey rink.  I don't understand those people who whine they are all alone. I had a fabulous time by myself today.

What amuses me is that the first five minutes I skate hurt the most. I usually want to call it quits. If I can get past it, then I can last an hour. I'm still breaking in new skates so it's good I can last an hour.

Sunlight soap bars

My mom used to scrub every stain on the clothes with sunlight soap before throwing it in the washing machine. She had no faith that the machine would clean the clothes as well as she could . But then she could wear the same shirt 5 days in a row.  The collar would get rather greyish.

Last time I found sunlight soap I stocked up and it's been a while since I've seen it in a supermarket but I've found it available at home hardware today by Googling. Will be buying a few bars in the upcoming weeks.

What I love about this soap is that you can use it to whiten fabrics that you can not bleach. I have a little white handkerchief I keep in my purse,which tends to get yellowed in the purse.   I wet the item and lather it well with sunlight soap. Then it put it out in the sun until it's dried.  I'll then rinse it out and see if the stains/yellow is gone, if I'm not satisfied I'll do it a few more times.  Drying out in sunlight is key. After a few times, your item is nice and white and has no more stains.  

If wanting to remove stains on non white items, you can lather it up with sunlight soap but let it sit in the sink for a few hours soaking with the soap, then toss it in the laundry with the other clothing articles.

Survived

I survived the day from hell. I managed to make it to the dentist by 10:30 for an 11am appointment. Except that they didn't take me till 11:15, which mean my appointment ran to 12:15.  So I called from the lobby at 12:20 to tell our receptionist to advise the HR lady that I was potentially going to be late for my 1pm appointment.

To make sure I was not late instead of taking the decarie service road to the 40, I actually took the Decarie highway.  It wasn't jammed, despite the snow. I could not believe a woman from Ontario driving an SUV cut in at the very last minute to get on the 40, and was driving 40km per hour, on a highway with a minimum of 60. The minute I could, I got out from behind this moron.   In the third lane of the 40 I was comfortable going 90km per hour.  So long as there is no one close to you, snow should not prevent you from driving.

I made it back to work at exactly 1:02pm, despite having to go park on the street because the front parking was full.  I took an extra 5 minutes to wolf down a tabouleh salad with feta, before doing my first interview.

Would you believe I was running 2 minutes late and some yahoo from another division just walked right into my interview with a comment like "It's my turn now". I asked her politely to let me finish. It's one thing to respect interview schedules, but to barge in while someone else is interviewing after they go beyond the allotted time by 2 or 3 minutes is called lack of respect. I mean WTF?  When I walked out a few minutes later ,the woman ignored me and just barged in. I tried to tell her you can't just walk into someone's interview. But she was just going to be a bitch. So I complained to our HR lady. That  this yahoo needs to learn some manners. We don't just  barge in and then when we're told to wait, SLAM the fucking door?!?!?!  Mature!  and they say I"M MOODY! HA!!!!

I did the 5 interviews. This university thinks it's giving their students a better chance for jobs by having us decide to hire their students first [last day to tell them who we want is this Friday, all other schools is next Friday]. Well not having seen other candidates, I was only comfortable choosing one of their students. This girl was awesome, the first female candidate I interview that has built her own PC, and is totally comfortable with hardware.

Besides this school is giving their students bad advice. I'm told they tell the students to apply to all the jobs they like whether or not they meet the requirements.  Well for a QA job that doesn't fly. If you can't read requirements, I will think you will not do QA properly.  If I ask for first or 2nd year bachelors students,  I will put in the garbage all the resumes from people in 3rd, and 4rth year bachelors degree, and all the masters students.    Also we have a minimum required GPA, if you don't meet it, I can't hire you. If I cannot hire you, then I certainly won't waste my time interviewing you! I received a pile of 20 CV's from that university. I interviewed 5, the other 15 went straight into the garbage.

Oh what a fun day today will be

I have a dentist appointment around 11 this morning, to get my teeth cleaned and checked for problems.  I should be back at work by 1, and then I get to do 4 or 5 job interviews for summer internship by myself because my colleague is on vacation at the moment.

Just to make life more interesting, I will be driving to my dentist in a snow storm.  We're expecting about 10 cms or 4 inches.  Weee.

Because of the fact that I have to get going early to be at work early to do an hour or so before the dentist, I barely slept last night, kept waking up or being awake. Yay me.

Random fact for the day.

A complete random unrelated fact, there is still a golden sheen on the passenger seat of my Suzuki, from the sunscreen my eldest daughter had on her last summer when we went camping.   I notice it from time to time and it reminds me of my daughter.

Good things come to those who wait

Patience they say is a virtue.  On August 10, 2012, I put an ad on Kijiji to look for a Pfaff Calanda 3000 sewing machine. To replace mine that my daughter's  dad gave me back in 1985, and which got broken back in 2006 or 2007.

Earlier this week I got a message on Kijiji from someone in Ste Anne de Bellevue, who has the machine. After 2 days where we did not connect finally tonight I was able to go to Ste Anne, and pick up the machine which works like a charm. 

I'm so thrilled. I can finally sew again... Yes!!!

Now time to take down my ad from Kijiji.

She sees 20-20 already!!!

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

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

Oh and I forgot!

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

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

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

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

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

New view on life

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

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

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

Mellon Collie and the infinite sadness

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

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

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

Cape Breton trip 2014

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

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

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

Randomly

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

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

Last Monday in January

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

In Bois de Liesse today...

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

Grilled Haloumi

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

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

I got new skates today at a liquidation sale

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

When blu-ray players attack!

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

Pieces of blu-ray disk

Injury to co-worker

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