Pointless photos; now including philosophical cats

Didn't bring my camera with me to Dad's this time, so it's all phone pics all the time. Let's see what's up:

What's literally up are the tulips and daffodils. It's a bit of a cheat, though. This corner gets warmed by the dryer vent, so it gets a head start on spring. 

March 30th was Pencil Day, in honour of the first end-of-pencil eraser. Here are some (some, yes) of my art pencils which, ironically, never have erasers on them.

Two cats outdoors. One enjoys it; one doesn't. Guess which is which?

Cat philosophy. The yin yang of sleeping in a too-small basket together.

You can take yer winter and...

These two shots were taken from my bedroom window here at Dad's on Christmas Day. And why didn't I go outside to take better shots that didn't include drainpipes?

Because it was freaking cold, that's why.

As you can see, we had a bit of snow for Christmas. All of you people wishing for a white Christmas? Well, I kind of hate you. This much snow just made travel unsafe (like I said yesterday, I just missed that part) and didn't change a damned thing about Christmas itself. But then, you've probably guessed my feelings about winter in general by now.

Anyway, there's a couple of posts to tide you over, probably until the new year. Anyone who actually misses me here can find me as deeolworld on twitter and instagram, or look for me on facebook where I'll most likely ignore you since I pretty much just have that account for work.

Later, everyone.

Pointless cat photo of last month or whenever

Looking out on September? Not at the time I took the picture, no, but I guess you can look at it that way.

Tom, who isn't allowed out unless he's on harness, has apparently decided that he needs to be out ALL THE TIME. Winter will cure that for a while, but I don't think that any of us are in a hurry for that kind of cure.



Anyway, there's a quick post. Bet you thought that I'd forgotten how to do it, right?

Around the yard

Had to go to emergency today (don't panic -- it's a small town, and they use their emergency department kind of like a walk-in clinic on weekends) because the home care nurse was concerned that my incision is reddening. It's probably just irritation from the staples, though. They ended up taking out half of the staples and started me on a precautionary antibiotic in case it's the start of an infection. No big deal.

Why did I even mention it?

Well, the next time you complain about Canada's health care system -- and I'm not saying that it's perfect by any means, because it isn't -- just remember this:

• I have a home care nurse to check on my healing and change my dressing.
• I had the option of going to a no-fee emergency clinic instead of having to wait until regular office hours tomorrow.
• I've been looked after long before the chance of an actual emergency.

We take too much of this stuff for granted, folks. You know that we do.

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No more blather from me today, so since I do have a bunch of photos taken with an actual camera instead of a potato (as one of my coworkers calls cameraphones), let's take a look at what's budding in Dad's yard:

Red-osier Dogwood leaf buds

Lilac

Prairie Crocus (pasqueflower) flower bud

Rose

Saskatoon leaves

More Saskatoon

Soon to be a tulip, if the deer don't eat it first

Believe it or not I have even more new pictures, but you're not getting them all at once since I'll still be around a computer for a few more days at least.

You'll get so tired of actually hearing from me...

A little spring colour

Early Blue Violets are always some of our earliest (thus the name) wildflowers in Alberta. I always look forward to them.

Let's see, what else...



Oh yeah. I had surgery. I got through surgery. I got sent home (well, to Dad's for a bit) yesterday.

Things are ok. I'm sore and tired and very good at napping, and as of late this morning I have a real answer when the medical professionals ask me if I've had a bowel movement. Erm, your bowels stop working for a while after surgery. And if you try to make them work too soon by, say, eating too heavily, you get to find out what reverse peristalsis is.

I'll let you look that one up for yourselves.

The thing's working now, though. Welcome back to the system, rectum. Repeatedly. TMI? TDB, I figure.

Anyway, I've been sitting here for a while now, so it's probably time to go back upstairs and laze in the recliner for a while. Just wanted my two fans who may not have been keeping track of my daily meals on twitter to know that things went fine, and now it all comes down to healing.



Again.

First spider photo of spring

Here's a Thin-legged Wolf Spider I found on the path at work a little while ago.

First spider photo of spring. Yay!



For those of you sticking up your noses at a perfectly nice spider, I'll say that I also saw some ducks and a Mourning Cloak butterfly.





They were ok, but I liked the spider better.

Pointless photos of the day: Spring version

 Let it be known that there are things actually growing in Dad's yard, as I found when I was stomping around with the camera (REAL camera) yesterday. This first one is a Pasque Flower or Prairie Crocus, and the rest are tulips and daffodils. To be fair, most of this stuff is growing where the dryer vent heats the soil early, but still, it gives some hope of colour within the next few weeks.

 If the deer don't chew off the tulips, of course.

 There seems to be a lot of tulips this year.

 The deer don't go for the daffodils at all, by the way. That's one of the gardening tips I give people who phone the Nature Centre complaining that the deer are eating their tulips.

That's right, I suggest daffodils instead. Not usually what people want to hear, but hey. If you want wildlife around -- and most people do -- you sort of have to plan for it to be around, right?

Anyway, this is what you're getting today because the Lahore attack (as sadly predictable as it was, on a Christian holiday) doesn't exactly put me in a light blather mood. Especially considering the fact that it's reasonably early in the day yet, and I somehow don't expect that it's the last thing we'll hear about this Sunday.




I sure hope that I'm wrong on that.

Happy Spring!

Yes, boys and girls, it's springtime in Alberta. This happened yesterday, of course. Before this it was actually starting to look a bit like spring, but heaven forbid that we'd get REAL spring before June here.

These two very pointless photos (do you like the artsy blinds shot?) were taken with my tablet because my phone was too busy playing music to my bluetooth speaker.

That was a sentence that honestly makes sense these days. My life's gotten weird, at some point, I think.

And what's a camera, again? Poor camera, you really do need to come out for a spin soon.

I need to get back to work, but for those keeping up I should say that I got a new surgery date yesterday and it's a lot sooner than I thought it would be. 'Nuff said there for now, though. We'll worry about the panic when it's closer to panic time.



Later, folks.

Pointless photos of the day:

No, the Turkey Brothers aren't supposed to be on top of the stored mattress. My fault for leaving the door of the downstairs bedroom open as I was folding clothes.

It's been an interesting urinary morning here. And yes, I meant to use that word. The cat who's been fighting a urinary infection and just finished his course of antibiotics decided yesterday and today to pee on the floor instead of the box again. For anyone who has a litter-trained cat that suddenly decides the floor is a better place, by the way, it's often a sign of infection or urinary crystals (or in this case, both). Either means get to the vet. This particular cat will be going back this week.

In other news, Dad is pretty sure that he has a kidney stone. Told you that it was a urinary day. And my sympathy and empathy to him, because I get them too.

In other other news, it was a pretty windy day yesterday so I didn't get a chance to get too many new pictures. Ah well, you'll no doubt be seeing the poor lot that I did get.

In other other other sadder news, a group of teenage boys decided that it might be fun to go into Calgary's Canada Olympic Park two nights ago and try out the bobsled run with a toboggan. What they didn't know is that the starts of the bobsled run and the luge run are separated by a heavy gate, which they ran into at speed. Two dead, six injured. Sad, but to add to it, these weren't stupid kids. The two killed were honours-student twin brothers. It was just teenage boys being teenage boys and getting into what they probably thought would be minor trouble. I can't imagine that poor family right now. Not to make excuses because (as if we needed more proof) stupidity can kill you and that was pretty stupid, but it's an awfully harsh lesson for all of those involved.



I don't want to end on that note, so... um... how about rocks?

Let's see.

How about my favourite rocks, in absolutely no order:

• Amethyst
• Lapis Lazuli
• Any number of Jaspers
• A fair number of Agates
• Certain Garnets
• Amber
• A bit of Jade is nice, too

I should add in Topaz and Aquamarine too, I suppose, but to be honest those have more to do with a couple of pieces of jewellery that I own and the people that I inherited them from.

Notice that diamonds aren't this girl's best friend? I think that they're important for their hardness, but as gemstones the only reason they're so overly desired is that De Beers and company made up a market for them. You can look that one up for yourselves, by the way. I'm tired of linking. Oh, and my lack of enthusiasm for diamonds doesn't mean that I don't appreciate my uncle's gift of his, of course. I sincerely do. Again, though, it's more the person than the stone.

That's enough for today, and yes, it is lunch time. See you whenever I have time in the week.

Today

Today it looks like this outside the back door at work.

Today's jewellery is a snowflake obsidian marble in a rock cage and some weird vintage 70s earrings.

Today's tea is Cinnamon Rooibos Chai. It's pretty good, but I'm not sure that the apple does much for it. Could be wrong, but to find out I'd have to fish out all the apple bits before I make it next time and that seems kind of pointless. Last night's tea, incidentally, was Mother's Little Helper.  It has peppermint and lemongrass and tastes like peppermint and lemongrass, which is good because it covers up the chamomile. Not a huge fan of chamomile, to be honest. And does the valerian do anything? Oh, I don't know. I was tired enough to begin with, so who knows if it made any difference. Besides, it does make me a little leery. Valerian is a drug, after all. I'm sure that the tea doesn't contain much of it, but still.

Today's test for my father's phone: to see if he could answer a call. He couldn't. The whole swiping thing takes practise, as I know from experience. My own phone's set up very right-handedly, and this lefty took a couple of tries to be successful.

He has managed to send a photo by MMS, though, so things are going pretty well.

Today at work I've looked through over thirty web pages of percussion instruments to help decide what we're buying to help with programming our music park. Brain-draining, but it could be worse.

And speaking of that, I'd better get back at it. Later, then.

Pointless photo of the day:

I've blathered a lot the past couple of days.

I don't think that I have any blather right now. I might later, but I should be back at my place by then so it would mean the usual half-assed post via my phone. Not exactly worth it, generally.

So, have a picture at least. Your standard Alberta winter wonderland. Pretty, isn't it?



Yeah, I guess, she says grumpily. I bet Belize is pretty this time of year too, and I doubt that it's covered in white.

Anyway, hope everyone had (or is having) good holidays. See you when I see you.

The flowers that bloom in the spring...

Tra la!

Oh wait. Some of you don't have the same music in your brain as I do. Gimme a sec...

Here you go -- from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. I chose a clip with the dialogue that comes before the song so that maybe it's a bit more understandable to those of you who don't know the operetta.

The youth choir that I was in as a youth (um, duh) put on abridged versions of G&S. In the Mikado I was, of course... Koko, the (idiot. Well, that's oversimplifying, but you get the direction) Lord High Executioner. The one who gets to marry the ugly old lady that they talk about in this song. Yay? Oh, it was good fun, actually, but the fact that I never once got to play a female character in all of the productions that we did was a bit hard on an insecure teenage girl. It was only due to a shortage of boys, but still. The one time that I was supposed to be female (Ruth, in Pirates of Penzance) our director became ill and it never happened. Figures.

Aaanyway. That was an awfully long aside when I only wanted to explain the post title. These particular flowers are in bloom right now, and that makes me happy because they're the first wildflowers around here that are. Early Blue Violet (Viola adunca). Even though these are in the yard and surrounded by plant litter (and blown-in garbage, of course), they're still wild. They showed up probably before I was born, they faithfully come up every year, and we're happy to let them.

Tra la.

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Sorry I missed the Saturday post that I generally make when I'm in at Dad's, but I came in later than usual and then we ended up taking a trip to the local trade fair in the afternoon.

Small town trade fairs can be fun, even if in this particular rural centre they come with a lot of farm-related things that this townie has no interest in. As a kid I always loved trade fairs because of the stuff. You know, the giveaways. The pens, the key chains, the stickers, the balloons; basically anything that any company was giving away I'd collect because I could. Occasionally some of the stuff was useful, but most of it -- except the pens -- hit the garbage can within days of being brought home. But still. Free stuff, right? Who can argue with free stuff?

I still generally try to grab at least a pen when I go to a trade fair because you can always use a pen, but I have managed to restrain my stuff-collecting impulses over the years.

This year's show was a bit politics-heavy because we're having a provincial election and of course all of the candidates needed to be there (and incidentally? Way to have no class, Wild Rose. Bringing those inflatable stadium thingies that you bash together to make noise -- thundersticks, apparently --because you know that the kids will all want them? There's more than one reason that I wish you would just vanish. Even though Danielle Smith managed to get rid of herself), but there were still some interesting things to look at. I bought a grand total of nothing even though I'm sort of in the market for a purse and Phil's Fudge Factory makes reeeally good maple bacon fudge (seriously), but I did, naturally, pick up one or two things. You have to, or you just don't feel like you've been there. This time around, a key chain from the Town that has a tape measure on it, a key chain from Corrections Canada (not entirely sure why they were there. Recruiting, maybe. Employees, I mean, not more criminals) that has an emergency whistle on it because the one I got from a pile driving company a while ago is showing some wear, a couple of cards from businesses that might be useful work contacts, and a whack of catalogues from companies who would love for me to either host parties for them or become an associate to find people to host parties for them.

To be honest, I don't understand how party-style selling is still such a big thing, especially in the online store age. Not my lifestyle, I suppose. I also don't understand how Tupperware gets away with being so expensive, but obviously they do so what do I know?

The one thing I didn't get? A pen. I forgot. Dad got one and he offered it to me, but I have other pens. Still, though. I forgot a pen? I must be slipping.

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There's enough words to last a while, but one last thing before I probably avoid drawing today. I was surprisingly gutted to hear of Jonathan Crombie's death. Not because I was one of the apparently thousands of girls who has a crush on him as Gilbert Blythe (although he was a near-perfect Gilbert Blythe, speaking as someone who grew up on the Anne books), but because he was so young, so talented, and had so much potential. Reading about him yesterday made him seem like a really neat person, too. Just goes to show that you can never tell what's going to happen in life, I guess.

Enjoy it while you've got it. He seemed to.

Pointless photos

Otherwise known as I really haven't thought of a topic yet today. Maybe later. For now, though, shall we tour some pointless photography?

First, THESE CATS DO NOT FIT IN THE SAME BASKET ANYMORE.

They don't seem to care. They're cats.

The first crocuses are up. Dad says that they were open most of the week, but of course not for me. They might be now that it's warmed up a bit. I'll check.

 We had a lovely little mini snowstorm yesterday, but much of it is melted. Snow = bad; melting snow = interesting patterns for Yours Nerdily.

 The skim of ice on the fish pond made some interesting shapes. To me, at least. To the rest of you this is probably a WTF shot.

I don't really mind, to be honest. I like WTF shots.








The last picture is just more melting snow (I appreciate more melting snow), but since the blog editor's being stubborn and won't let me move the cursor there (and I'm too lazy to move to the html editor today to fix that), I'll just leave it be and end with a quick tea review. Yesterday I made some Cocoa Canela to take along on the drive here to Dad's. This is... well, it's pretty much hot chocolate with cinnamon and plenty of caffeine. In fact, if I'd put some milk in it would have been hot chocolate with cinnamon and plenty of caffeine.

I can't say that I have a problem with that.

Here's your last pointless photo. Everyone knows that you can click on them to make them bigger, right?

Well, you do now.

Things in the yard. And, of course, rocks.

This is pretty much a pictorial today, since it wouldn't make sense to hold onto these photos for too long. Consider it a look at early spring here. Also consider that we'll likely have at least one more winter storm and probably a few hard frosts coming up, so don't look for flowers anytime soon.

Oh, and I know the order of these is a bit wonkus. I wasn't in the mood to fix it. Having said that, let's take the tour.

To the left, daffodil shoots. These ones are by the dryer vent, so the soil thaws early. There were also European crocus shoots, but I noticed that the long shot I took also featured turds from one of the neighbourhood cats. Thought you'd appreciate it if I left them out.

That indistinct thing in the background is very important, really, even if it was massively disinclined to have its photo taken. That's my first spider of the season.

Pretty much as important as the first violet.

I'm serious. And for those who don't know about the spider thing, just hit the spider label at the bottom of this post or search spider at the top of the page. Then you'll understand.

For whatever reason (weirdness), I have a thing for melting ice. I have so many pointless photos of melting ice.

Here's... another one, I guess.

These are the first shoots of what most people around here call Prairie Crocus, but I find myself increasingly calling Pasque Flower (the alternate name) because it's not a crocus at all. It got called crocus because it's one of the first flowers of spring and the purple colour reminded settlers of the European Crocus. Similar colours, yes, but Pasque Flowers are what's called pubescent. Relax, it just means hairy in biology. Pasque Flowers are very fuzzy.

Here are some images for those who aren't familiar with the plant. It's a favourite of mine.

And now... rocks! Oh, come on. It's been a while since we've done rocks.

My local rock shop had its big semi-annual sale the other week and I... missed it. For a variety of reasons. I should explain that the sale isn't a sale as in fantastic prices (although some of them are ok); it's quantity. They bring in a whackload of stuff. Whackload, as always, being the correct scientific term.

Well, as I said, I missed it this time. To make myself feel better about that -- that's the excuse, anyway -- I stopped in on my way to Dad's place to pick up a few new things. Oh, and for anyone new to the program who wonders why most of my rocks are imprisoned? It's just the easiest way to wear rocks if you don't happen to own a rock drill. I generally wear my rocks as pendants; thus the rock cages.

Anyway.

What you're seeing this time (clockwise from the left) is Zebra Jasper, Tree Agate, a Snowflake Obsidian marble, and a Tiger Eye pendant. Yeah, more tiger eye. I just have such a hard time staying away from that stuff, and have had since I was a child. This one's cool (she excuses to herself) because although it has a brown base it has streaks of blue as well. Between tiger eye and amethyst, though, I could probably outfit an entire jewellery box if I didn't force myself to look at other things.

If anyone's noticing a mottled/stripey theme to Friday's buys, I agree. I couldn't tell you why. Mottled mood at the time, I suppose.

And if anyone's noticed as well that I only gave you image links for the rocks rather than information links, it's because I've got so sick of reading the healing crystal stuff out there that I'm leaving it for you to google if you're so inclined. Everything out there made of rock is apparently some sort of positive energy, if you believe that sort of thing. Funny how you never seem to find any malevolent rocks. Surely there are some minerals out there, at least, that hate humanity?

My apologies as usual to those of you who do believe in the power of positive rock wearing. I just can't. Rocks look nice. The end. Any other benefits you find? Well, good for you, I guess. It's not like it's going to hurt anything.





Anyway, enough words (and photos) for today. Next? Either tea buying or doodling. Maybe both, if I can get the Bob to stop sitting on my foot. He's a bit of a heavyweight these days, and my toes are tingling.

Um, yeah. You needed to know that.

Oh, go away

 Winter, I mean. I'll freely admit that we had a pretty mild January (for Alberta. For the most part), but now we're under snow warning and the roads will be crap again.

That makes me terribly happy.

Does grumpy make for a  good blather? Probably not, although I really should come up with something for this massively neglected blog.

Oh wait. Maybe I have something, but it'll have to be quick since, you know, work and all.

The something is this: maybe make sure you enjoy these purty pictures of clematis seed heads if you're at all the squeamish type, because next week (or whenever I get them off the camera) there may be something much more unphotogenic. You see, the other day I realised that I hadn't really talked much about all of this medical stuff that's been going on (doing well, by the way) so I decided to take photos of my stoma.

Go on. Google stoma if you need to.

Back now? Ok. I had a ruptured diverticulum, and if that sort of thing is bad enough they detach part of your colon so that the damage can heal. Mine is sigmoid colon, for anyone who needs to google some more. The problem with that is that it leaves you no place to eliminate waste -- except inside your abdomen, I suppose -- so the surgeon needs to create a new exit point.

It's called a stoma. Mine's at about waist level.

That leaves you the problem of where the crap goes, and rather than have it run down your clothing they set you up with a system called an ostomy pouch.

We'll be talking about mine if the pictures turned out.



We might be talking about it anyway, depending.

Me, I've got snow to look not-forward to talking about before then, and probably a weekend where I don't leave my apartment.





Getting a feeling that this is your post for the week.? It may be likely. See you when I see you.

Possibly with medical photos.

You've been properly warned, remember.

Totally not recent photo of the day:

Alpine Veronica flowers in the spring, generally. It's not spring now.

I don't know if you've heard, but it's winter here.



Bah.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not unusual for it to be wintery in mid-November in Alberta. What is unusual, though, is for it to happen in a day. That's right, one day. One day it was something like 9C for a high, and the next, if I'm remembering right, the high was -12C.

Yes, that's a minus.

This week I decided to take Monday off because the fall of the Remembrance Day stat on Tuesday (and I seriously didn't realise that Remembrance Day isn't yet a national stat. Really, Canada?) made for an easy long weekend for a part-timer like me. The weather hit on the weekend, though, and decided that I was staying home anyway because it was too cold for me to be able to clear the 10 cm of snow from my car.

I am not making this up.

I had to get out Wednesday, unfortunately, because some stupid person delayed getting her driver's licence renewed until just a couple of days before her birthday. So, rather than face -- at best -- a fine or -- at worst -- redoing my driver's test after all of these years, I sucked it up, cleared the car, went to the registry, got a really bad toque-head photo taken... and then went right back home because the headache from the cold had set in and I couldn't face doing anything else.

I did manage to make it to work yesterday afternoon. On my own, even. Made me feel like garbage, but I did it. Today? Early program, expected morning temperature of -28C. Yes, seriously. Wheat took pity on me and said that he'd pick me up (thank you, and did I mention thank you?). It didn't get quite as cold as all that (only -21C, I think, when we left), but I'd've still had to scrape the windshield and that would have done it for my hands for a while.

Just so you know, being allergic to the cold isn't the best life choice in Alberta. Not that it was a choice or anything, but still.

Aaanyway, there's how things stand. They're saying that it's supposed to start warming up tomorrow, so hopefully that will give me a chance to get into Dad's and give him his birthday present (happy birthday today, Dad). Which is... ummm... probably peanuts for his bird feeder. Yeah, the crap weather meant that I didn't get my last-minute shopping done, so he'll be getting something from our bookstore. He's ok with that, though. It's not the first time.



Later, then. Assuming that I survive until the next time I'm at a computer and don't get lost in a snowbank somewhere.

Girly

That's about the size of things out there, folks. Nights are getting cold, green is starting to disappear, and I'm getting cranky.

Oh no, wait. I'm always cranky.

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I was reading one of those what to put in your make-up bag things this morning. Why, I'm not sure. I've never been a particularly girly girl (my barbies were always in various states of plastic fracture because they did stunts rather than hanging around the pool). Not a tomboy in the slightest, mind you; I just don't understand the ultrafeminine attitude. It doesn't make sense to me. It's also not practical at all. Still, I read those Cosmoesque internet articles. Maybe to try to get it, or more likely to annoy myself. Today? Three things you ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE in your kit if you couldn't have anything else.

Their verdict? A BB-style foundation (they gave a brand name for each thing on the list. I'm not going to bother repeating them), a red lipstick, and a mascara.

Seriously? Whatever, ladies.

Ok, a couple of caveats before I go on with my opinion. First, I've been known to go out without make-up. I know, right? Shock, horror, and how the hell could anyone stand to look at me? Second, I have a decidedly non-girly job. If I came to the nature centre in fashion plate make-up everyone would wonder what paint store I'd been hit by. Oh, and third since I'm apparently counting "a couple" in Monty Python style, if you're an aficionado of the smokey eye I promise you that I'll be looking at you wondering why you're imitating a raccoon.

Understood? Then let's begin.

First the BB creme (HATE the whole cute BB name trend, but whatever). Yeah, I'm ok with that. In fact, on work days I use a BB creme, although certainly not the high-end one the article recommends. Who wants to spend that much on a foundation when you could buy, say, food?

Next, the lipstick. A lip colour is important if you're a make-up person and you're carrying a small bag, I suppose, but bright red is decidedly not appropriate for every situation. Sometimes it just makes you look tarty. I'll give them the lipstick, but only if it's something a lot subtler.

And now, the mascara. No. Mascara is not a necessity. It's a pain in the arse is what it is. And yes, I've worn mascara. I used to wear it frequently as a teenager, and it was usually neon blue. Gotta love the eighties. Anyway, I gave up mascara when I went to university, and I've maybe used it twice since. Regretted it every time. When I used to wear contacts it just irritated my eyes, and once I switched to only glasses I constantly felt my artificially-hardened lashes brushing the lenses.

Yeah, I have fairly long lashes. And fairly dark ones, so I don't suppose I have a need of mascara in everyday life. Gee, do you suppose that might have biased me in some way?...

Mascara's still a pain, though. And so many mascara-using people wear it so badly. Too heavy, too clumpy, too stupid-looking. It's the girl's version  of clown college, as far as I'm concerned.

So what would I suggest instead? Oh yes, I have a suggestion. Eyeliner, but not black. Black is too harsh. The one I use most often is sort of purple-ish (the theory being, according to the experts, that it might bring out some of the green in my blue-green eyes), and here at Dad's I use a double-ended thing that has a brown liner on one end and a highlighter on the other end. That's when I wear make-up here, of course. I don't always, because it's the weekend and I'm not really going anywhere. If I do, it's just the liner and a bit of powder to knock the shine off.

Get a feeling that the cosmetics industry's advertising juggernaut never quite ran over me?

Anyway, lunch time for me now. And maybe a little less girly reading. Otherwise, the next post will turn out to be something like What is it with you people and stupid shoes?





I never have got the shoe thing either. Do you suppose that maybe I'm not a girl?

Not a cat photo of the day:

 I just thought that we needed a a break. So here's an apple tree instead of a cat photo.





Oh, all right. One cat photo.

What is is with cats and cardboard, anyway? I mean, this one doesn't even qualify as a box.



The cardboard, that is. Although the cat also doesn't qualify as a box.



Last I checked, anyway.

Well, crud

I'm not sure that Tom's figured out how tents work. And I'm not sure that Bob's figured out that electrical cords aren't toys. I hope he gets that one soon.

----------

Now, on to the well, crud portion of our show. It's almost the end of September. I really thought I'd make it this time. Things were looking good, really. But then, of course, it happens.

I got the September cold.

Dammit.

I did a program this morning on the edge of having no voice (kind of sucky when you use your voice for your living). It's a bit better now because it's been lubricated by lunch, but I'd wager that there won't be much of it by the time I go home today.

I felt it coming on yesterday, but at first I thought I was just feeling a bit off. Even bought ingredients to make a lemon loaf for the staff meeting today. As I was making supper, though, I realised that I wasn't just feeling off; I was starting to feel sick.

Dammit.

I thought I'd missed it, too. Several people in the office have already had it, and since I'm usually amongst the first I thought that maybe -- just maybe -- I'd skip this one.

Dammit.



Ah well, no doubt you'll hear more whinging about this as it goes on. For now, though, just enjoy Turkey One's version of camping a little bit more.

Pointless photo of the whatever it is by now:

Yeah, fall's definitely headed our way. They're actually saying chance of snow a couple of times next week.

That's what I said.

I'll try to have an actual post for you tomorrow.