Something

 Or maybe nothing. I don't know yet.

I'm a little tired at the moment, I have to admit. Didn't quite get the sleep my brain wanted, I guess. Oh hey, speaking of sleep -- I'm thinking that I might try sleeping in a bed tonight.

Yes, yes, most people do, but lately I've been sleeping in the recliner instead. When I got here from the hospital it would have been massively uncomfortable to sleep flat, so the recliner it was. And has been since. I think I might actually be able to sleep on my side at this point, though, so the bed (not the futon, to those who know what I'm talking about. The futon's long gone and is now a click clack sofa bed instead) sounds like a possibility. We'll see how I feel tonight. It would be nice not to be bothered by kittens in their midnight rambles like I am in the living room, but since that can't be the only deciding factor, we'll see.

More baby steps, I suppose.

Oh, I should explain the picture. My uncle felt that since my father plays Santa for a number of events this time of year he should should have a proper reindeer car. At least you can find him in parking lots a little easier these days.

And now, rock:

This is Lapis Lazuli. I'd wanted a piece of lapis for a while when I picked this up. It probably stems from the usual childhood fascination with ancient Egypt (why does everyone I know seem to have gone through that phase?) and the use of lapis in jewellery and decoration. That lovely blue with the little glints of pyrite... who wouldn't want a rock like that?

Did you know that in addition to being carved and used for inlays, lapis was ground to make the pigment ultramarine? That's right, all of those blue-cloaked renaissance Virgin Marys were painted with lapis.

My particular piece of lapis contains a fair amount of calcite (the white bits) as well as the gold pyrite and the blue lazurite. When you wear it in a cage I suppose it looks a bit planet-like, as I found out when one of the nature school kids last spring told me it was like the wooorld (her emphasis. It was slightly weird).

There's a good cue to move on to the more than slightly weird:

I'm not sure I can manage complete sentences with this stuff anymore, so let's just make a list. Wisdom, truth, evil eye, inner peace, freedom from negative thought, good judgement, problem solving, new ideas, higher mind, knowledge, memory, spiritual honesty, calmness, communication, friendship, throat, heart, circulation, insomnia, infections, menstruation, migraines, autism (sheesh), clarity, connection between physical and celestial planes...

And on and on and on. Amazing, in whatever way you want to take that word.



Ok, that's enough of that. I kind of miss my rocks, you know. I do have my little amethyst tortoise with me (and one of the lab techs even noticed it. Turns out she's the type that carries rocks in her pocket... they're everywhere, you know), but I miss playing daily dress-up. And work. And people in general.

I'm never going to make six weeks, you know.

Random things

I was doodling a bit this morning and now I want to go have lunch, so I'll try to keep this short. Ish.

Thing 1: Yesterday I was talking with my dad in the driveway when a truck that was parked at the uphill neighbour's started reversing down the hill. I thought that it was going to back into our driveway to turn around -- they do that sometimes -- until I noticed that there was no driver in the vehicle. I said to Dad, "there's no driver in the truck" (I tend to be very original and creative in my statements, as you see). Somehow or other, the truck managed to stop itself (itself!) before it smashed into the downhill neighbour's vehicle or swung into traffic. I'm not sure how. Dad figures that it might have had something to do with four-wheel drive automatically stopping at a certain point. Still, it was a very weird thing to watch a truck back downhill and stop itself (itself!).

Thing 2: The pointless photos are likely going to be even more pointless in the coming while, because taking pictures in the yard is massively winter-boring. As you know, I can't be bothered to find winter pretty because... well, because it's winter. At the moment winter in Dad's yard is all about snow covered in things, since the massive winds this past week managed to cover the snow in various tree needles and things like that. So, yeah... be prepared for a lot of shots of Things on Snow.

Thing 3: I enjoy playing with the recommendations algorithm on Amazon way too much. I've ordered some rather eclectic things from them over the years, and just when the poor algorithm thinks that it's got me figured out I go and tell it that I'm not interested in any of its suggestions. If it had a brain, people like me would drive it bats. Still, it's fun to see what weird things it decides to dredge from the depths of my purchase history. I'll refresh for half an hour at a time just to see what it digs up. Yes, seriously.

Thing 4: I've decided that I want a rolling ring to fidget with. Just a cheap one, though. Silver, or maybe even stainless steel. I'll keep you posted on the hunt because I'm sure you're just dying for another jewellery post.

Thing 5: I mentioned doodling above; I was playing with some of my Christmas toys. Check the other blog if you want to know which ones. This year I mostly restocked my paper supplies -- sounds boring, but paper's fun -- but I of course got a couple of other things to try out, as I always do. This year, some woodless pencil crayons that are very nice, some metallic pens... oh, and a couple of good quality brushes since they were having a two-for-one sale. I always feel sheepish about buying good brushes since I'm so very much not a painter, but it does make a difference to have the proper stuff even if you're not so good at using it.

There. That's a post, right? Lunch time for me, then. Have a good one, all.

Tradition

I was sort of joking about traditions on my Christmas post, but here's on that's a real thing. These little felt mitts -- homemade and supported by a hair clip -- always have to go on the tree. Always. It and a bird (which Dad didn't put on the tree this year. It's probably pretty ratty by now, though) were, according to my mother, the first decorations she and Dad had on their first tree. The mitts have gone up every year since, with the exception of one Christmas that we spent in Hawaii.

That's a tradition that's headed rapidly to its 50th year. Wow, now that I say that it really does count as a tradition, doesn't it?

And don't you dare stop to figure out how old that must make me. You kids get off of my lawn.

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I'll be headed back to my place today (and back to work tomorrow. Weekend work is what I end up with when Christmas and New Years fall so stupidly mid-week), with a stop on the way to see if the licensing office is open so that I can get my 2014 tag before my plate expires. Yes, somebody left her renewal until the last minute again. I guess I like standing in line with all the other idiots who don't take advantage of the months (literal months) in advance that they send out the notices. I haven't decided yet whether I'll stop on my way out of town or stop once I'm back in the city. The advantage of stopping on my way is that it'd be done while it's in my head, but the disadvantage is that the local office only takes cash.

That's right, cash. There are still some businesses out there in this day and age that  (gasp!) don't have debit machines. It's a real pain in the behind, and I'm not sure how they've managed it for so long. Yeah, there's a third-party cash machine in the building, but seeing as I'm too cheap to pay the charges it'll mean a trek down to my much-beloved bank if I stop there.

Um, don't get me started on how much I hate my bank. I'd like to save that topic for another day.

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And now, the return of Today's Tea!

Well, not today's, to be honest. I haven't had any tea yet today. The past two days' teas, though, have been from the David's Tea (sorry, DAVIDsTEA) Christmas collection, and I can't give you a direct link to it because it's no longer Christmas and I've noticed that they're very, very quick to remove their seasonal collections from the website. Anyway, I've tried the Gingerbread and Santa's Secret, which is a black tea with peppermint leaves. Both very nice even without sweetener, which is saying something coming from a habitual honey user. I don't think either of them needed it, though. Coming up? Well, I think I'll leave you on tenterhooks because I know you like a little suspense.

Everybody's feeling the suspense, not knowing what tea I'll be drinking next, right?





You people are no fun. Type at you later.

WAIT WAIT WAIT. One last thing, as I see by the open tab. I meant to share this link, which is one of those things that talks about how Canadian vocabulary is different from other English-speaking nations' vocabularies. I find them interesting, if a little well, duh at times. Different countries, different histories, different vocabs. Anyway, I'm posting it here because for a change I've used every single one of the words listed (yes, even the alcohol ones). Often these lists are so regional that even I'm stumped by a lot of them. This time, though... if any of my two fans that aren't from here find these words odd then you honestly might have a little trouble understanding me at times. Funny.

And hooped, by the way, is a very useful word. It needs to become universal. You know, like toque.

Going for real this time. Byyye.

Forget about frightful

The weather outside is effing nuts. We've got more snow than we had by January last winter, and it's COLD. Cold enough that my car is still buried from Monday's blizzard and will probably stay buried for a while yet.

Yep, it's been cabs to work these past couple of days, because I've had evening programs and I can't exactly ask one of my coworkers to come pick me up.

Let me tell you, I don't know how people manage with cabs. Most of the drivers are nice, but the waiting. And the not having control of when you leave or arrive anywhere. And the cost, of course, but that should go without saying.

So, since I need to get back to work for a while before I go set up for tonight's performance of me pretending that I know anything about stars, I think we'll just have a mourning rose (mourning this weather, of course) for your pointless pleasure today and then I'll schedule a couple more weird photos so you don't miss me too much while I'm housebound.

Again.

This is really getting ridiculous, you know.

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Anyone who's on twitter at the moment has a feed full of RIP Nelson Mandela, but I'll add my two cents. I don't think younger adults out there can truly understand what an important figure he was. The world is a different place now because of people like him.

Something something Friday

Read the title as: I really have no idea what this post will be. Or if this post will be. I'm so much on Friday brain at the moment that as hard as I've tried to actually think of something to rant off about, it's all just turning into meh.

Good word, meh. It expresses a lot. Too bad that it's not officially a word or anything.

So...

Um...

Well, I could, I suppose, remind everyone that it's always a good idea to have a compressor in your car. Even if you're not pumping up your own flat, you may be able to help out a coworker.

Sigh. Short story, that one. What else is on the menu?

Menu, maybe? I wasn't in the mood to make lunch this morning, so I just packed a bunch of random stuff from my fridge. Ok, to be honest, not entirely random. I did try to make it a reasonably balanced semi-random. Real food, even. The problem is, I didn't manage to fool my stomach with it and now I'm getting major whatthehell from my disappointed digestive system (whatthehell, by the way, reminds me that if you've never read any of Don Marquis's Archy and Mehitabel poems, you really should. Too many people these days haven't even heard of them, and that's a shame). Not in a what did you do to me sort of way; more like a what's missing from this food picture. I guess that my stomach wasn't in the mood for the unexpected today. Oh, and speaking of which, I may have just hit on a slight topic:

Why is it that so many of us are so regimented as to what can be eaten at what time of day? Food should be food, really, but we've definitely labelled things as breakfast, lunch, or dinner food to the point where no one would think it strange if I have cheese and toast for breakfast, but heaven help me if I decide to add a second piece of toast and a pickle and have a grilled cheese sandwich instead (which, actually, has been known to happen when I know I won't have time for a proper lunch during my work day). Or what about the fact that many people will go to Denny's or IHOP -- I've not been to either, but I'm guessing on the menus based on what I've heard -- at any time of day, but will wonder at you if you make waffles for supper at home?

Incidentally, could someone please explain to me why I like waffles but don't care for pancakes much? Largely the same base batter, really, but I'm just not big on the pancakes. Texture, maybe? Waffles are crunchier? I dunno. I can tell you, though, that I don't like french toast at all...

And on a related food note, today's tea is Salted Caramel. I was a bit meh (ha!) about this one when I had it unsweetened at Dad's, but a little agave syrup gave it more life today. Great. Now I'll have to reorder the syrup too.





Anyway. That's enough typing for someone who didn't have anything to say. No blather for the next few days since I likely won't be near a computer. Have a good long weekend, but please don't forget to think about our servicemen on Monday. It's the reason for the day, after all.

Weird hobbies. Oh, and stupid people in trucks.

Rant first:

I'm an Albertan, and I hate trucks.

Pick-up trucks, to be precise.

For those non-Canadians out there, there's a cliche about Albertans and pick-ups. As in, damned near everyone has one.

AND IT'S TRUE.

And I hate them. I hate the gas-guzzling, I hate the noise of the diesels, I hate the stupid unnecessary size of them, and I hate the fact that ninety percent of the people in Alberta who own trucks don't really need them. Way to perpetuate a stereotype.

More than anything, though, I hate the idiots who drive pick-up trucks. That's not to say that everyone who drives a truck is an idiot, but there's enough of them out there to make me wonder if the truck dealerships require their customers to sign certified papers of idiocy before they're allowed to drive their new trucks home.

Examples of idiots? Well, how about the idiots who drive diesel three-quarter ton chromed-up penis substitutes and take up three spaces by angling into parking spots so that no one will hurt their precious babies. Oh, and if you don't think pick-ups are penis substitutes, then why do truck nuts even exist? Apparently, when you have no balls to begin with you're required to dangle the plastic version from your idiotic truck so that everyone knows you're not completely emasculated.

I should probably mention at this point that I was cut off not once but twice yesterday by left-turning idiots in trucks. Once when I was going down the highway at 100 km/h (nearly had to change my undies after that one. It was close). Nothing like entitled idiots in trucks to make you wish your car horn did more than just meep meep... I'd say choice and very loud profanities would be much more appropriate.

In fairness, I should also mention that this is currently going on in my hometown. Town population more than doubles. Truck population more than doubles. Idiot population? I'd say we're looking at about 300%.

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That went on a little longer than planned, so I'll keep the other part short. I have a few weird hobbies,and I spent altogether too much time at one of them this morning. I know you'll find this odd, but I like to play with... recommendations algorithms.

You know, the "you might also like" suggestions you get on some websites. In my case, I mess around with the one on Large Internet Book Retailer That Sells Everything in the World Now.

Hey, they don't need me to advertise them.

It's fun to play with their recommendations page because a) you're given a chance to say Not Interested and then refresh the page for different suggestions, b) I've bought an assortment of different things from them over the years, and c) I guess my tastes are a little unusual. It makes for a very confusing time for the poor little program that's trying to figure out what I like, and I enjoy that probably a little too much.

Let's see... she bought House MD DVDs. That means she likes television shows. We'll show her all the boxed sets available from every TV show out there. Hmm. She just clicked Not Interested on every single one. Well, what else does she like? She's got some classic literature. That's easy. We've got lots of that. Wait. She doesn't seem to like anything past the 19th century. But she bought a philosophy book. That's it! Classic thinkers! Oh dammit, now she's on to silly British comedy. Are there any comic philosophers? She ordered a DS game? Electronics, here we come. Oh, now it's moleskines. They make tons of different styles. Wait! Wait! Art! She's buying art stuff AND she's added some to her wishlist. We've got this figured out now... CAMERA LENSES? She's searching camera lenses? Are you effing kidding me?

I try so hard to break its little brain, and it tries so hard to please me with some of the weirdest suggestions you could ever imagine. I find it endlessly entertaining.



Yeah, yeah, I know. But don't knock it 'til you've tried it. It can be a bit addicting.

Lunch for me now. You've got plenty of words anyway, considering how little I've posted lately. See you tomorrow.





Oh, one more thing, speaking of weird hobbies. Did anyone guess the mystery plant in today's pointless photo? I'll post the answer in the comments, if anyone cares.

So this happened...

 Yeah, that's the hole in my father's hedge. And if you follow down from the driveway I was standing in when I took the picture, you'll notice the tire tracks leading from the driveway.

Through the hedge.

Into the house.

Well, not INTO the house, thank goodness. A corner of the truck did hit the foundation hard enough to knock a picture off the wall in the living room, though. Onto my dad, who'd been napping on the couch.

The neighbour had left his vehicle running when he went into the house to grab his wallet, and it decided to take its own trip down the hill. No harm done to the house, thank goodness, but plenty done to the SUV. And the hedge, although the other side looks surprisingly good considering that Dad said it had been bent completely down. It's sprung back up pretty well.

Good fences make good neighbours, they say, but apparently good hedges make good collision barricades. The neighbour, by the way, felt awful. Dad noticed yesterday, however, that he'd still parked with his wheels turned downhill. Sure hope we're not going to see a repeat performance.

In other news, I really don't have any. You've probably gathered that the past while has been fairly busy at work (I'd hoped you'd've guessed that one from the number of times I've said I'm busy), and since I don't really want to whinge on about being busy at work I don't actually have anything else. I suppose I could tell you that our garter snake died. Sad, but George was a fairly old snake when we got him (he was a family pet, and with the kids grown up the parents thought he'd be better off somewhere where he'd get more attention) and we had him for a couple of years even then.

Now we need a new garter snake.

Would you laugh if I told you that the first place we checked was kijiji? Hey, you can find almost everything on kijiji.

Except, apparently, garter snakes.

I'll keep you posted.

And try to post something more interesting tomorrow.





Unless I'm busy.

Quick pointless photo while I'm waiting for my car to be serviced

And no, the garage doesn't offer free internet or anything useful like that. I'm still here at my father's place.

Unfortunately (for the blog, at least), I didn't realise that my dad was going to pick me up from the garage, so I have absolutely no blather prepared.

Have a flower, though. It's my first actual wildflower of the spring. Early Blue Violet, which of course isn't blue but that never seems to bother botanists.

That's, um, all I have.

See you later in the week, then.

Pointless photo of the day:

It's a painting by Huff.

Huff would be my car.

My dirty car.





Well, I did warn you about this week and the blather...

Things I've learned from the new camera so far:

1. How to take photos of nanking cherry blossoms in the middle of winter. Riiight. Of course this is still an old photo, people.

2. Subject is too dark is the camera's polite version of you forgot to take the lens cap off again, Dee. Sigh. It's been a long time since I've dealt with non-automatic lens caps, did I mention?

3. I've kind of forgotten how to hold a camera. I think it's going to take a little practice to get my hands out of point-and-shoot mentality, but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm also looking forward to having some actual subject matter. Geez, winter is boring for a person who likes spiders and flowers.

Speaking of winter, I just went out and plugged in the car. Now, for those of my two fans who are unfamiliar with Alberta (or Canada in general), plugging in the car does NOT mean that the car runs on electricity. One of my favourite -- and I suppose in a way unfortunate for the person involved -- plug-in-the-car stories goes back to when I was living in rez during my first year of university. I've probably told it before, but what the heck. Tis the season for repeats, after all. One of the guys on my floor was from California and had driven his car up to Edmonton for school. When the first cold snap was expected, he came up from the parking lot all excited and puzzled because he didn't realise that we already had so many electric cars in Canada. When we asked him what he meant, he told us he'd noticed that most of the cars in the lot were plugged in. That's when we broke it to him that it was going to get cold enough out there to freeze his engine block, and he'd better go have a block heater installed asap.

Having grown up with block heaters and the like, it's hard for me to imagine a the wonderful world where people don't even know that such a thing exists or is needed.

I probably didn't have to plug the car in today because it's only -17C at the moment (only -17C? Well, heavens. The past few days it's been in the mid -20s. -17C is balmy after that, isn't it? Hmm. Not so much, but let's pretend it is), but I figured I'd give it a warm since it's been sitting for a few days. Besides, I really hate the sound of an engine trying to start cold. Something about the mechanical strain makes me even more nervous about winter driving than I am anyway.

Oh, I should clarify that. I'm not so much nervous of the driving, per se. I don't find winter driving terribly pleasant, but I'm reasonably competent at it. No, what I'm nervous about is the possibility of mechanical failure or accident that might leave me stranded on the highway or something. Sure, the highways are fairly busy and it's not like I wouldn't be found if for some reason I couldn't just phone. Being stranded in the cold, though, can be dangerous. Doubly so for someone who's allergic to cold.

Of all the stupid things to be allergic to in Canada, cold has to be one of the absolute stupidest. And for anyone out there who doesn't know what I'm talking about, google it. I'm not in the mood to get into explanations yet again.



Aaanyway. The car's plugged in, and I'm planning to head home this afternoon. It may (for a change) not mean I'm disappearing from the blog, though, since I'm planning to go into work tomorrow. We'll just see how hectic work is, since I haven't been there for a while.

Later, all.

Maybe I'm doing this wrong

But first, a couple of hints from the fifteen-year-old cat (who's perhaps not as heat tolerant anymore as he would have been as a younger Max) on how to deal with a heat wave:

On the left, we see use your favourite brass music stand as a pillow. On the right, sleep under the damp clothing. I'm not sure if either of these really work, but he seemed happy enough. And if anyone's wondering why my clothes were hanging inside on a day when they probably would have been dry in approximately fifteen minutes outside, I'll just say that my work uniforms are variations on brown cotton t-shirts. Drying them in the sun is pretty much akin to pouring bleach on them.

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I'm having a bit of a weepy day. No worries there; I'm a crier at the best of times, and some days it just seems like anything will set me off for no reason. Well, I suppose there might be a reason in the background at the moment, but let me just say there that it sucks knowing someone you like is hurting and leave it at that. Maybe we'll (me 'n alllll the voices) discuss it more fully at another time. It's not the main reason for the tears anyway. Mostly it's just one of those days, compounded by heat-caused tiredness. I did, however, sleep in the basement again last night, so maybe I've banked a little for the sleep I won't be getting when I'm back in my own apartment. And anyway, like I said I've always been a crier. No need to tell me that it's hormonal, because if that's the case I was born that way (well... technically I was, being a mammal and all. Or, really, I could have said being an organism and all).

Anyway, the current maudlin mood has probably made some of my usual morning internet reading hit me a little harder than it might otherwise. When I have the time -- if I'm here at my dad's or if I come in early enough to work to have time for personal internet business -- I have my daily places that I go, as everyone does. You can get an idea of some of the blogs I visit from the list on my profile (although some of those aren't very active), but there are other sites as well that I'll just keep to myself for now.

For whatever reason, the morning reading has combined into a general feeling that I'm doing this wrong.

Blogging, I mean.

I could be doing something with this blog, really. I could, I suppose, be trying to change peoples' minds, for one thing. I have beliefs and I have opinions, and for the most part they're kept very carefully from the blather. Of course some things get through because they're a part of who I am, and if I didn't have me on the blog it'd read like build-it-yourself furniture instructions. Still, I defy anyone to be able to tell where I stand on... well, just about anything from what's written here.

Is that the way it should be? Shouldn't I be trying to convince you why you should believe what I believe?

Or if I didn't want to go the full philosophical route (whether philosophy of religion, or politics, or life, or whatever else), shouldn't I pick a cause? I work at a nature centre -- shouldn't this blog be a voice for what's wrong on the planet (or, more accurately, what's wrong with the way we're treating it)? Despite what you see here, I'm capable of writing well, and writing persuasively. Shouldn't I be using that for something?

It seems a waste, really.

But.

But but but but...

That's not me, I don't think.

I'm not The Voice. Of anything. I don't want to be Jeanne d'Arc or Cassandra (and they each came to such good ends anyway, didn't they?). I made a comment on Linda Hensley's blog recently about being scattered rather than passionate, and that's a problem if you're wanting to focus your blogging on some cause or other. I don't want to be heard, or at least not in that way. In my job, I teach. I give information to help make choices; I don't tell you what choice to make. I guess that's a reflection of how I live my life as well. And how I blog.

Having said that, does anyone besides me find it odd that I do far more teaching on my so-called arts blog than I do on this one?

As to my beliefs, it's hard for me to get past the feeling that they're none of your business in the end. I use Whomever (somewhat facetiously, admittedly) here rather than Allah or Jesus or Krishna or, well, Whomever, for a reason. I have no need or desire for you to pigeonhole me. Yes, my thoughts are clouded by my beliefs. That's unavoidable. But by not sharing those beliefs with you, I'm preventing what I post here from being further clouded by your prejudices.

I think, anyway.

As far as politics go, at least that's an area where there's nothing to think about (as far as blogging goes). I'm one of the most apolitical people you'll find in the world when it comes to party politics. Yes, I have ideas as to policy, because I believe (ah, belief. Back to that then, eh) that I have a responsibility to be informed as a citizen. When it comes to the whole your party is evil just because it's not my party thing, though, you've completely lost my interest.

And incidentally, and certainly no offense meant to those of my two fans who are Americans, to a non-partisan Canadian the current American situation seems pretty much nuts.





Hmm. Reading back what I've just typed (and believe me, I've been typing off the top of my head) it looks like I've completely talked myself out of any semblance of relevance.

Well, that's convenient. Forget about stream of consciousness helping you to know your own mind. Apparently all it takes is stream of blather. I guess that, in the end, this place is what it is because that's what I apparently want it to be. Besides, if I was trying to make this place mean something I'd have to start making sense allllllllllllllllllllll the time.

That doesn't sound like any fun at all.





Ok then. Glad I got that settled. And without any more tears, even. Bonus.

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One last thing: a quick car pet update. On the left, the car pet of the last week or so, which since the photo seems to have disappeared. I hope for its sake it disappeared right off the car, since I would have felt a little sad for it having to make a second trip down the highway. On the right, though, is proof that my car doesn't like to be petless for terribly long. Not the greatest picture of the actual spider, but get a load of the reflection in the mirror. When I checked it last night it was in the process of making a (very futile) web whose scaffolding stretched from the top of the door frame all the way to the ground. Not very car friendly, but it'll find that out soon enough...

The cat says...

... it's hot.

Or meow, if you're more of a See 'n Say type of person, I guess. Although this cat at the moment would sound more like meh.

Kind of like me, really.

There have been an awful lot of words on the blog this week. My two fans know that the blather tends to go through two phases (and come to think of it, you'd only have to look back at the last month or so of archives to see them in action): hardly any words and way too many words. Hardly any can be because of work or personal things; way too many just means I need a brake job.

I think I'll have a brake job today.

Or maybe it's just that I'm not in the mood for it at the moment. That could be. At the moment, by the way, I'm sitting in my father's basement so I'm not overly hot. There's no kitchen in the basement, though, so eventually I'll have to go upstairs to find lunch.

And be hot.

Like the cat.

Yaaay...



sigh

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One thing: yesterday's trip down the highway seems to have stunned the heck out of the car's pet spider (Huh. Imagine that.). She's still alive, but no new web this morning. We'll see if a couple of days off makes a difference there. It'd be sort of sad if it does, in a way, because it'd be a shame if she recovered just in time to be thwacked by the return trip.

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One other thing, and only because it's stunned the heck out of me: I'm down to the last three pages in my watercolour moleskine. That's bizarre for two reasons. First, I never seem to finish sketchbooks, and second... watercolour? Really? I don't paint. How the heck did I get to the end of a watercolour sketchbook?

Life's unexplained mysteries...

Car pet

I don't have a current photo of a spider on my nerdstick.

Ah well. Have a rose, instead.

A spider would have been more to the point, really, but at least this way the blog's been saved from turning into a pumpkin once again.

Anyone wondering what's up with the spider thing yet? Probably not my two fans, who already know about my arachnophilia. They won't know this particular reference, though, because it's recent.

My car has a pet, you see.

A pet spider.

I don't know its name, since it's the car's pet and not mine, but the car does in fact have a pet spider. She's kind of petite and cute, actually.

She, Dee? Yes, she. And I'm kind of getting tired of both asking and answering my own questions, thank you very much. Most spiders are pretty easy to sex. Just look at the pedipalps (those little leg-looking things right beside the jaws). Long thin pedipalps generally mean a female, while clubbed pedipalps indicate a male. Females often have larger, rounder abdomens as well, but it's way easier to tell by the pedipalps. And now you know.

Anyway.

I first noticed the car's pet spider a week or so, I guess. There was a beautiful little web on the driver's side mirror when I went to work. Obviously the drive to work pretty much did in the web, and I thought possibly the spider also.

No sir.

The web was in a slightly different place when I went back out to the car that afternoon. And, sadly, destroyed again by the time we got home.

She's since been making a progress around the whole car, probably trying to find a place where natural disasters don't seem to happen twice a day. Currently she's trying out the rear passenger door-handle well. Twice daily destruction there, too, but this time she's being a little more stubborn about her positioning. Incidentally, can you imagine what that twice-daily commute must be like to a tiny creature whose whole life depends on feeling the vibrations in a web? If she had enough brain to think (which I doubt very much that she has), she might be wondering what god was trying so violently to take its vengeance on her.

One day I'd got in the car and driven off, oddly enough not thinking of the spider passenger. I was a fair way down the road before I noticed that the poor silly thing had been on the windshield when I drove off. If you've ever wondered how a spider deals with suddenly being in a wind tunnel with no shelter (and who hasn't?), I now know that the procedure is legs in, anchor down, and hope for the best.

It must have worked, because my car still has a pet spider.

I wonder what its name is? Other than Orb Weaver, that is.



The car's name, for anyone who might have missed my very exciting post about the futility of car naming a few month's back, is Huff. I'll leave you to think about that one.

The... jewels?

But first...

I realised this morning that I don't know how to operate my car's fog lamps. Huff the Car has fog lamps, all right, and I thought I might have to use them (turns out I didn't, but I didn't know that for sure when I left the apartment), but I've never turned them on. I don't even know the symbol for fog lamps.

I've never even turned the car's headlights on, for that matter. It does that by itself. I suppose I should look up how to do things manually in case I ever have to, though. Yeah, I probably should.

Never in a million years did I ever think I'd not know how to turn a car's lights on...

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Anyway. Jewels, or lack of same. The other week I ended up buying... wait a minute. That almost sounds accidental. I didn't accidentally buy anything. The other week I chose to buy a few pendants from the Rock and Gem show here at the nature centre. I don't usually buy things like that for myself, so I guess we can call it a treat. Getting the pendants (and trying in vain to find some suitable chains amongst my mutt of a stash. I'll probably ending up buying something to the purpose eventually, but what I have on them will do for now) reminded me that I have a photo inventory of my jewellery box that I was going to share with you at some point in lieu of other topics.

In lieu of other topics. I should have just used that as the name for the blog, really.

I'll get around to taking photos of the offending pendants later, I imagine, but for now, let's start on a trip through my lack of valuables. And I'm not kidding there. You know those commercials where they offer to buy your "unwanted" gold? Mine probably wouldn't amount to cab fare even at today's gold prices. A look at the jewellery can still provide a little bit of interest, though, don't you think? Always amusing to see what people acquire and what weird things they stash away. And since my jewellery case is sort of like archaeology in that you can go down by layers to find out things about the society of the time (or at least it was. To be honest, I used the picture-taking as an excuse to clean the thing out, finally, so not all of the junk that you'll find is still with me), you'll be seeing the jewellery habits of me since I was a teenager back in the dark, junky age of the 80s. And before that, even.

Ready, then? We're starting off slowly, since the stuff you're seeing above is not in the jewellery case but in assorted boxes beside the main box. Not necessarily the stuff that didn't make the main cut, however. Along with the cheap heart pendant, the goofy Christmas earrings, and the arm bands (for holding back too-long shirt sleeves. I don't really have a need of them now, but they're still around), are the crystal set I wore for my high school graduation, a Swarovski pendant my uncle bought me, a blue topaz pendant that belonged to my grandmother, and a set of freshwater pearls that my brother and I bought for my mother. Before she died, obviously. It would have been weird otherwise.

And why aren't they in the main box? Two reasons. I occasionally wear one or two of those things so I like to keep them where they're easier to find. Also, they wouldn't fit.

The also part is probably the biggest reason.

Coming up next? Well, we'll see. And I'm not planning to do this every day, just in case you were wondering if this was going to become the Blog Of Costume Jewels. It'll just depend on whether I have other thoughts for a particular post is all.



Isn't this exciting, boys and girls?





Yeah, I thought so too...

Another flower

Because flowers aren't snow.

And I don't have any new photos at the moment. or, rather, I do... but they're still on the camera. They're likely to stay there for a while, too, since I really shouldn't be mucking about with that sort of trivial nonsense at work, and I don't know if I'll make it into my Dad's place this weekend.

The photos aren't of snow anyway. I've had enough of snow.

We got a fair bit the other day (which is fanTAStic, especially this time of year) and it's messed things up enough that at least one of the surrounding counties cancelled their school busses today to avoid the impassable rural roads.

March is a stupid month to have snow days in, if you ask me. Of course, I don't imagine that the students are complaining.

This snow plus the inanity of my apartment's management company also means that I'll be taking a cab to work tomorrow morning, which sucks. Let me set out the picture here so that you can all be snitty with me: The management company doesn't really believe in snow removal. Ordinarily we'll go an entire winter without having our parking lots cleared, because naturally we can all just beat things down with our tires, right? So with every freeze and thaw things become more of an ice rink (seriously. I often have to wear my ice cleats just to get to my car in the morning), and when everything melts in the spring all the water runs into the divots created by the cars, and we have seasonal lakes to park in. This happens every year, and I know I've whinged about it here on the blog before so I'll just leave that part for now.

Next part: Even this management company can't manage to ignore the massive amounts of snow making life difficult in the parking lot at the moment, so they've decided to clear it. On the rare occasions that this happens we're told to find somewhere else to park all day (since they apparently can't tell their contractor exactly when to come. Contractor's fault, probably, so there's one little thing I won't blame on the management company. See? I can be fair). Or we're threatened with tag-and-tow if we don't find somewhere else to park, rather. No big deal, since I'm generally at work during the clearing time.

I don't work at night, though.

Which makes it a pain in the youknow that they've scheduled the lot clearing for overnight. I should mention that I've been living there for nearly twenty years (sigh. It hurts even just to type that) and they've NEVER done a nighttime clearing. And now, somehow, they expect everyone to find spots to park on the (uncleared, snow-filled) street all night. Like that'll happen.

I should mention here that this doesn't affect just my building. Oh no. They're doing all the lots in three-building complex at once, so three buildings' worth of people will be trying -- and failing --to find parking on the street.

Me? I'm leaving my car at work. I've been offered a ride home this afternoon (THANK YOU!), but tomorrow morning it's cab or walk, since the city busses don't run to the Nature Centre.

How stupid is that, by the way? I work at a nature centre and I don't even have the option of doing the save-the-planet thing by taking mass transit to work.



Aaanyway. The car's having a sleepover at work, the cab company gets my business tomorrow, and that bloody parking lot better be cleared by the time I drive the car home again.





AND STOP SNOWING, ALREADY.

Sheesh.

Oh, and if you thought this was complaining, just wait until you hear about the next few days. We're supposed to be well above 0C, so all that snow will be looking for a place to melt to. I anticipate a lot of discussion about windshield washer fluid and ineffectual wipers....

Funny money

I'm sorry, but today's photo isn't pointless. I'll do better in the future, I promise.

I mentioned a few days ago that Dirty Moe finally found a new home (my father's been keeping me abreast of its travels around town, which I kind of think is funny). The fellow who bought it paid cash -- yeah, that surprised me too -- so since I've only just this weekend managed to make it into town (and not yet to the bank) I currently have more of these fellows to the left on hand than I'm used to.

Boy, is that an understatement.

As you can see, it's not all about the Benjamins here in Canada. That'd be kind of weird, seeing as Mr. Franklin doesn't have a whole lot to do with our north-of-the-border history. Unless you count the United Empire Loyalists having to leave after the Revolution, I suppose.

The fellow you're seeing in the photo is Prime Minister Borden, whom I'm just going to link to because I don't want to turn this into a Canadian history lesson. And... um... frankly, I don't remember too much about him. In fact, I'll probably go back to that link later and read it myself. He's been on the hundred for quite a while now (how long? Well, why not make this a completely linky post? Read this, if you're totally into the history of banknotes. I understand that there are people out there like that), but he's wearing a fairly different face these days.

It's the first of our new funny money, you see.

Funny money, Dee? Yep. I know that the Americans already like to kid us for our "Monopoly money", but this is funny money on a different scale. Like Australia (who've had it for years) and Mexico, we've started going polymer.

It's plastic money.

It's... different. I'm not against it at all -- not a monetary preservationist, me -- but it's definitely different. It looks different, it feels different, and it's going to act differently. It'll last a lot longer, true, but I can't help but think that it'll be a pain in the youknow for businesses for at least a while. Think of all the bank machines and counting machines that will have to be recalibrated. And for smaller businesses? Well, handling the Dirty Moe stack has shown me that (at least when it's brand new) it may cause one pretty significant problem.

Static.

It sticks together.

Not a great thing when you're dealing with stacks of hundreds. Or stacks of any denomination, for that matter.

Ah well. Not really my problem to deal with in the end. And I'm sure that by the time they roll out the new twenties (this is happening in stages. Hundreds last year, fifties next month, and twenties... sometime. I can't remember) they'll have most of the kinks worked out.

As I said above, I have no problem with new money. My mother, on the other hand, did. Or maybe she just got nostalgic, I don't know. When I was a kid she had a whole piggy bank full of silver dimes that she'd saved when the Mint stopped making them out of silver. When loonies (for those not in the know, our dollar coin has a loon -- the bird -- on it. Led to an inevitable nickname) came in, she collected one dollar bills until they were gone. Same thing for two dollar bills, when the toonie (sigh. We're so original with our nicknames.  Could have been worse, though. The two dollar coin has a polar bear on it. Beary, then? At the time, some suggested that it should be a Moonie, since it had the Queen on the front and a bear behind...) was launched.

I don't suppose she'd be collecting hundreds now, though. Gets a bit expensive.

Anyway. Which, as my two fans know, means that this post is wrapping up. I'll be saying goodbye to the Sir Roberts soon, since they're much more use to me in their electronic form these days than in all of their plastic glory. It was kind of neat to have met him, though.

I wonder if I'll be feeling the same by the time I'm carrying plastic Queens in my wallet?

Things I've been doing today instead of posting:

1. Trying to figure out what to do with a group of jiffers.

2. Eating wasabi peas.

3. Cleaning out my sinuses (see above).

4. Watching Wheat's slanted commuting video. Literally slanted, not politically slanted. Although, since he's on a bike in winter some may find a political slant of some sort implied, I suppose.

5. Looking for something to tweet in regards to World Wetlands Day (which is, in my opinion, inherently much more important than some pointless groundhog something or other).

6. Buying muffin tops. Actually, that should be first on the list since I did it on the way to work. I'm too lazy to redo the list, though. And what are muffin tops? The best part of the muffin, of course.

7. Eating a mayonnaise and mustard sandwich with occasional pieces of chicken and lettuce. I think the store deli overdid it a bit on the dressing today. Serves me right for being too lazy to make my own lunch, though.

8. Getting ready for this afternoon's program. Or I will be, once I'm done typing this nonsense.

9. Answering texts. They were work-related, however. No, seriously. They actually were. Office procedures have changed a fair bit since I first started here, now that I think of it.



Doesn't sound like much of a morning, now that I've put it in writing. Ah well. Back to the (apparently) non-grind for me, then. Oh, and for you fans of Dirty Moe? My father tells me that it's no longer a part of my life, for which my bank balance is thankful. Or will be, when I get the chance to go in and pick up the cash...

Should Dirty Moe be getting a better requiem than that, do you think? Is anyone feeling nostalgic, all of a sudden? Then maybe I should remind you that IT'S A CAR. And a car that's been sitting in my father's driveway for far too long now. I was beginning to think that we wouldn't get rid of it until spring, but I'm happy to be wrong this time around.

So.

Um, yeah. Done typing now, it seems.

NOTHING. Oh. Except cars, I guess.

I dunno, blog. I just seem to be blatherless today, I guess. Maybe it's the turkey hangover, or maybe it's the internal organising of the what-to-get-with-the-gift-card plan, but I've been sitting here for a while now and nothing's really popped into mind.

Guess I'll give you a car update? Sure, why not. As you can see, Huff (sigh. I have another named car. When will it ever end?) is well on its way to becoming the true successor of Dirty Moe. Dirty Huff doesn't exactly have the same ring to it, really, but I suppose that the dirty part is just a fact of life at this time of year.

I really should try to pick up the car wash habit this time around, though.

Other than that, things seem to be working out well with the Vibe. I'm starting to see why it has such a strong internet following. It's pretty versatile, and as far as the styling goes... well, I've had a chance to compare it to the Toyota Matrix a bit more (for those new to the program, the Vibe was basically a Matrix in Pontiac clothing), and I have to say that when I end up beside a Matrix in traffic it makes me happy to know that my Vibe could eat that Matrix for breakfast.

Oh, just kidding, Matrix people. Matrixes (Matrices?) look just fine. But you have to admit that the Pontiac styling was a little less family-car-ish, and that's good for those of us aren't doing the family car thing.

Anyway. One other car thing, since cars have unexpectedly led to words showing up on this post. I just want to say that I'm tired of noticing cars. I've probably already said that I'm tired of noticing cars. I still am, but somehow the act of driving a different car has made me curious about other cars and frankly? I'm getting sick of driving around and having a part of my brain go oooo! I wonder what that one's like inside when normally I couldn't give a flying fig about cars as long as the car I'm in is getting me safely to where I want to go.

Ah well. I'm sure the excitement will die down eventually.

Please let it die down eventually.

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One other other car thing, since looking at the pointless photo reminded me. The block heater cord. Ubiquitous in most of Canada, since it can get cold enough that your car will never start if you don't heat the engine block first. When I was in university, though, I found out for the first time that you can't assume that everyone has a block heater. We had a fellow on my floor in rez who'd driven his car up from California. We all knew he was in trouble at the first cold snap, when he came all excited about the fact that we had so many electric cars in Alberta (I should say that this was in the 80s. Electric cars in Alberta? Not exactly). We couldn't figure out right away what he was talking about until he mentioned all the cords he'd noticed in the parking lot. Then we explained to him that it was going to get cold enough that even his car would be complaining about it.

Poor guy. Such a shock. And an unexpected expense to him later, of course.





Gotta love this country sometimes.

42

Some of my two fans will think that they know all about today's post title.

Ok, then.

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I have to be honest -- I don't really have the head for a post right now. I'm in the midst of one of the most frustrating parts of my job, and it doesn't put me in the mood for much of anything. It's called... THE NEWSLETTER. Yeah, that should have come with a DUN DUN DUUUUUUN...

I edit the Centre's quarterly newsletter. Yep, I do. We're in the business of communicating, you know. Communicating in many ways except, apparently, by writing. Between pulling teeth to get actual submissions within a week or two of the deadline and then trying to wrangle any sort of recognisable English out of what I receive (ok, to be fair? Not all of them. We do have one or two people who can write without my magical -- ha! -- editorial makeovers), the newsletter equals one big headache for Yours Proofreaderly.

I'm done working on the newsletter for today, though. The newsletter is a thing to be taken in small doses lest you pass out from bashing your head against the desk once too often.

Too dramatic, do you think? Well, it's pretty darned close to that.

Anyway. Today's pointless photo is of snow sliding down the window of Dirty Moe, who's still living at my father's place because I haven't sold it yet. Today's post title? Mind your own business. And now I think I'll just head off in a huff, if you don't mind.





Hmm. That sounds like a potential car name if there ever was one. Huff. I kind of like it...

Quick post because I've been having issues

I meant computer issues, although we all know that I have plenty of other ones besides. Maybe not quite as many as the squirrel who keeps storing spruce cones in the bird bath...

Anyway. I need to get back to work, which sucks because I actually had a post. Short version, then:

- first snowfall
- I hate winter
- my new car is taller than my old car
-I'm short.
- I've never had a car that decides how best to winter-drive before
- I hate winter
- cold rash sucks

I'll try to remember to elaborate if it seems worthwhile the next time I have time. For now, though, back to work. Weekend off from the computer for me, so I'll see you Monday or Tuesday.