Friday, April 23, 2010

Wow, been awhile

I just haven't had anything to write about, really. I mean, the brain is thinking thoughts but nothing anyone really wants to read. Not that thats why I write in here...this has always been my venting/celebrating space for my own benefit because journaling in a notebook just doesn't do it for me. I have no idea why. I LOVE notebooks and journals. LOVE them. If I was a bazillionaire I would totally open a money losing Journal Store. I mean, it'd have to lose money right? Because all it would sell is Journals. And maybe fancy writing sticks. But thats all. All the fanciest journals and pens in the world that i could find would be on those shelves. And yet, I journal here in the cold and sometimes heartless cyber space. Odd. I thinks its because my handwriting is nasty. Thats it...nasty handwriting that is a shameful example of the WORST penmanship ever seen. Except for my husband's. Oh man...thats some gnarly scribbling. Cannot read it. Its lie trying to read cyrillic. Terrible. I digress...

Ok...so..whats new...I thought I posted here the opther day but it would appear to have disappeared. Very strange.

Bathroom update: still not finished because I am a lazy cow and the Hardware store never has more than one package of epoxy paint at a time and is an hour away. I know...excuses excuses.

Knitting: Kria still not done. See #1 reasoning above. I am however well into the yoke (past second decrease round).

Family etc: Well, its been a crazy time here Chez Nous the last few months. I couldn't really say anything incase unwanted eyes saw it but now I can finally say something. Hman was on leave for stress and has now been offered a severance package. He could have stayed on but with a work environment so toxic and unmanageable, it just was not a good idea for him to go back. So, now he is officially unemployed for the first time in the 19 years we have been together. Oh wait...there was those two down sizings several years ago but he had work within 2 weeks of the first and after the second we went into business for ourselves. You know, I still consider it the first time. This guy has the work ethic of a...hmm...who works hard to the point of workaholicism??? A workhorse? Man, I suck at analogies, but you get my point. A shirker of hard work and challenge the H-man is not. Thats why he's my hero(sometimes)!! But such a strong ethic kept him trying to make a situation work that just couldn't for him, and it wore him out. To go back to the same situation in which nothing had been changed for the better? Well the man ain't stupid either. So, now we have traded one type of worry and stress for another type. Because we just loves us some worry and stress. Thats why we had kids! Feel my fasciciousness. Find me a dictionary! Pretty sure i have a mispelling back there.

Speaking of those two hooligans I call my presciouses,they have a tournament tomorrow all day. Woohoo. They play a "sport" that I just do not understand at all called Kinball. Google it. I can't explain it, but they LOVE this game/sport and have played several after school sessions over the last couple of years, starting with Thing One and now both of them. Each session ends with a tournament and it lasts all day or until your team is out. I hope they have fun.

Sunday I am returning to NS for another stay of trying to help out my parents and give my older sister a break from being the responsible one all the time. Not that it does give her a break, really. She just can't stop being the responsible one! Its a curse. Poor darlin'.

After THAT, its off to the Big Smoke for the Downtown Knit Collective's Knitter's Frolic in downtown Toronto (aka the big smoke, or T.O, or T-dot, or Hell's arsehole...guess it depends upon who you are talking to..). I will be working in the St-Denis Yarns booth (#40 y'all...BUY YARN!!)with my friend and boss Veronik Avery. This takes place May 8th and on May 9th (Mother's day)there are classes and workshops being held. V and I went to Ikea yesterday to find yarn and garment display accoutrements and had such a great time. i love Ikea. I got a great little table for my back step. its to set my laundry basket on so I can hang out my laundry without breaking my back balancing on my step stool and balancing a big basket of clothes on a 1 1/2 inch metal railing. It really is a bad scene, trust. Poor darlin' sister said "About time!!" because she has tried to hang things on my line and feels my pain. Anyways, there is a whole story about how an Ikea worker bee was not going to let me purchase my table without buying the matching chairs...I shit you not! They are sold separately! Yet, she was adamant that due to the day's promotion, that I coulkd not buy my table alone without the chairs(which cost extra and I do not need nor want). Yes, the table was marked down by 10 dollars but she wouldn't even let me take it to the cash register and pay full price! Dudes! This was so weird...and we did not see the "must buy chairs" anywhere on the sign by the pile of boxed tables! The woman all but guarded the boxed table when I gave it up, to make sure I didn't try to sneak it by her. I gave up, and helped V ring her stuff through the self serve cash register and then rang my lonely cupcake motif apron through. Meanwhile, while I tended to my purchase, Miss V, defender of shopper's rights against fascist worker bees, asked politely of another worker bee of why the table could not be sold alone. This lovely lady in charge of the self serve cash registers and helping out the idiots(me) who frig them up was most helpful. The tables and cvhairs are sold separately, so the tables can be bought alone she said. Miss V pressed on, informing her of our ambush by the Yellowshirt (fascist)and attempts to reason with her regarding the table. Our lady maintained that as far as she had ever been informed the tables could be purchased alone and she knew of no such rule that chairs had to be bought too even with that day's promotion. Miss V and I looked at one another...looked around for the Yellowshirt...and ran for the table before she could catch us and bitch us out again. I got my table AND I got it for the sale price of $19.99 plus tax. And its PERFECT!!!!! My table with a tale. Love.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

No good news today

I found out today that my Dad has been moved from the big city hospital to the one in our home town. He'll be in quarantine for awhile to make sure he's not bringing and nasty bugs (flu etc) with him and then as soon as there is a space he'll be on the Geriatrics floor and then its a matter of the doctors determining what facility will best suit his needs from now on. His current diagnosis is Fast Onset Dementia with some Delirium. The delirium may go away in time, which I'd been hoping for, but that was before I knew that the doctors had settled on Dementia at last. Its been such a long wait for...nothing. So many fal;se hopes that this was something that could be treated or that would pass when all along its wasn't and now, my Dad, my smart Dad is destined for a "facility".

I'd told myself he wasn't going home. I tried to prepare my mother that he wasn't. Now that I am faced with the actual news that he not going to go home again, I cannot stop the tears. I guess there is knowing and then there is reality.

I don't like this reality one bit.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

April 2 is a major WTF!

I cannot believe the temperatures from yesterday and today. We are talking majorly warm! T-shirts and shorts warm. Breaking into a sweat warm. Yesterday was a luxurious 24.8 degrees Celcius for a high and today was 23.4 (according to Environment Canada for my area). Awesome. Felt warmer for sure. Its still 23 as we speak!

Its been a crazy mild winter and spring for the Qc. Usually we still have some snow laying around by now but not this year.

Today I puttered a bit in the garden. I don't want to get too into it because I have other things to do and it is a tad early but when the plants are popping up, what can a garden gal do? I planted peas. The worst that can happen is that they rot and I have to buy more seeds but I can live with that. Yesterday I started some seeds indoors: peppers and tomatoes. I think I would have been better off starting the peppers a bit earlier but this time I am NOT planting them out before mid-June at the earliest. Last year taught me a lesson.

I finally have child measurements for that sweater I am making so I can fearlessly tricot away. (tree-ko is French for knit) I coulda been done by now I swear but I am going to do my best to focus on it even though other things are tugging at my attention. Like painting the bathroom FINALLY. Today I washed the walls and ceiling and was all set to prime but then realized that some holes needed filling and my tube of Poly-Filla is all dried up. sigh. Who knows when this burst of productivity will repeat????
Other distractions include the yard work and the Apple Core Blanket with which I am smitten and desire to start knitting pieces of. In fact, I have one "apple core" almost finished but am unsure of how to do a sewn bind off. Google will show me the way. It always does.

We watched Sherlock Holmes last night and may I just say AWESOME. I enjoyed it very much and not just because of a half nekkid Robert Downey, Jr. Mmmmmmrdj.....so cut...so dashing...so scrumptiously decadent in a smallish package (not a large man I think). Le sigh...

That's about it for now. Happy holiday weekend to all.