Oh, nothing

I think it might just be a little too early in the day for me to have any blather (although, considering that I woke up at absolutelystupid o'clock this morning it really shouldn't be too early in MY day). Shame, that, because this is about the only blather time I have today and there likely won't be any blather at all tomorrow.

Ah yes. Quality blogging as usual.



Anyway. Here's some not-quite-daffodils-yet to hold you for the meantime. As for me, I'm going to try my best to make this foggy brain function, and then it's back down the highway.

One of these days someone's going to invent a teleporter, you know, and there won't be any more of this weekly back down the highway nonsense. And, of course, it'll happen juuust after I've died. Just to piss me off, you understand. Because the world is all about doing things just to piss me off...

Ok, not really. I'm tired, remember. I'm allowed to have a moment of believing that everything out there's a conspiracy.

To piss me off.





Hands up if you're tired of seeing the phrase piss me off already.

Yeah, me too. See you in a day or two.








I'll try not to be too pissed off then.

Editorial comments in the office

A little while ago I put my Canadian Edition magnetic poetry set up on one of the filing cabinets in the office (and when I say Canadian Edition, I mean Edition That Contains Words That Americans Think Canadians Like. It's hilarious. Think beer, mountie, toque...). Obviously, it's there to be played with. I wouldn't have put it there if I hadn't wanted people to mess around with it. Obviously.

Is it equally obvious from the bottom sentence you see in today's pointless photo that we're in the middle of an election? Or at least obvious that some of the people who work here have definite ideas about the current state of Canadian politics?

Well, I thought it was funny.

I really have nothing today, you know.

I'd talk about the big wedding, but to be honest I thought the lead-up to it -- especially on American television, since the whole thing had not even the slightest tangential bit of importance to Americans -- was absolutely ridiculous and it kind of soured any interest I might have had. They seem like a relatively normal couple, especially considering his family's position, and I wish them more success than most royal marriages have had in the last thirty years or so, but that's about as far as it went for me. Oh, except for the dress. I'll admit to being curious about the dress, but that ties in with my general interest in historical fashion anyway so it shouldn't really surprise my two fans.

I thought the dress was nice. Flattering. But I also find it a bit weird that I've sent what's likely a very fuzzy picture of it via my computer monitor and my clunky phone camera (my phone's getting on in years) to the Ontario office. She's in the middle of a massive power outage and didn't get to see any of the coverage, you see.

Did I?

A little, yes, but only because I woke up at my usual time of stupid o'clock and figured that I may just as well turn on the TV since I was up anyway. Didn't see the ceremony, but I did see them leaving the Abbey.

Aaand that's all I've got for the wedding, really. I should explain that I'm not anti-royal (would I be if they lived here instead of England? Not sure on that one), but I can't get into things like this the way the royalists do. And as far as the collectors? Oh, I so much don't get them that I'm not even going to explore that particular blather road.



Anyway. I need to get back to work. Looking at the available words on the filing cabinet, do you suppose I should add something about my car being like a hot maple canoe to the current display of nonsense?

Sounds like a plan to me.

A silly plan, but a plan nonetheless.

Plastic crap, and an update

I didn't take many photos last weekend, so this is from a week or two ago. Most of the snow is gone now, and I'm actually wearing street shoes instead of my winter mocs.

We're supposed to get more snow tonight.

Yep.

----------

I seem to be surrounded by plastic at the moment.

There's a reason for it, of course. I just received the order I'd placed to a scientific supply company for some replacement equipment for our school programs. Sampling equipment, I guess you could say. Bug boxes, magnifiers, petri dishes...

A whole lot of plastic crap.

Now, I'm not going to sit here and debate our need for plastic because the fact is that our world as it is at the moment couldn't begin to operate without plastics. No, what I want to know is why does my staff go through so much plastic crap?

I work at a nature centre. I wouldn't call myself a tree hugger by a long shot, but part of our responsibility is to try to teach people environmental stewardship and responsibility. And yet we're continually losing magnifiers and breaking bug boxes.

It's kind of boggling.





Ok, ok, I'll come clean here. The petri dishes I don't mind so much because they're disposable and we still manage to get through a year of pond studies on one sleeve of them (usually). The bug boxes I understand because it's hard to keep groups of excited Grade Twos from bashing them together so hard in their hunt for invertebrates that the bottom halves crack. It's the magnifiers, people. Why, why, why do my interpreters go through so many magnifiers?

We've gone through stand-up magnifiers (kind of like low-powered dissection scopes, for those of my two fans who've had the pleasure). We've gone through three-lens hand magnifiers, and then the individual lens when I broke apart the few remaining three-lens mounts to make sure the kids at least had single lenses to use. And now?

Well. this time around I've ordered cheaper (read: plastic crap) hand lenses so that I could afford a class set again. They're cheap, they're plastic, they'll scratch...

And probably just to tick me off the staff won't lose a single one of them this year.

Gah.




Sorry, I always get a little bit on edge as we gear up to spring busy season. This probably isn't the last you'll hear about it.

But I hope at least that it'll be the last plastic crap order I have to make for a while.

----------

All right, now here's the update part. It's my hole-y shoulder, which I haven't been talking about because I know that no one really wants to hear the gory details. Today, here at work, I took the bandage off of my shoulder because I was itchy.

I was itchy, and I figured I may as well take off the bandage anyway because IT'S FINALLY SEALED UP. Yes, I no longer have a gaping hole in my shoulder, boys and girls. It took its own blessed time to get to this point, but I think that finally -- finally -- I'll be able to go on with my life without worrying what simple things like showering are going to do to increase my chances of reinfection.

Yay.

It's no fun having a hole in your shoulder, you know.

Oh, and to anyone wondering why my hole-less shoulder even had a bandage on it, well... I was just worried about my clothes rubbing on it.

I guess we'll find out tonight whether I need to go back to the bandages.

I really hope I don't.

I'm not terribly fond of them, after all of this.




Um, yeah. You needed to know that. Back to work for me, now. I need to unwrap all of the plastic crap.

Kinda busy

Yep.

Today's pointless photo? Last spring, since the Early Blue Violets weren't quite open enough to take a proper picture on the weekend.

Later, all.

Fifty things

I know that I said it'd be violets for today's pointless photo, but they weren't quite open yet so instead here's some of the crocusses that are.

Now, today's blather. First off (well, second off, since the flowers were first), I have yet another sinus headache today so you just know that's going to colour everything I blather. I'm tired of whinging about this cold, though, so in the spirit of avoiding that we (me 'n alllll the voices) are going to do another list. Haven't done this for quite a while, I guess, so for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, here's how it goes. Fifty things. I have to make myself think of things. Sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's themed, sometimes it's not. Today? Well, since my head's in a snot fog I think we'll just go with a very simple fifty things that make me happy. And for those of you who have had the pleasure: yes, I expect that at least a few of these will be repeats from previous goes at this. After all, there are only so many things that make me happy.

Here we go, then. In no particular order except the way in which they pop into my head, fifty things that make me happy:

1. This
2. Malted milk eggs
3. Lilies
4. Mandolins
5. Purple
6. Carbon pencils
7. Cheese
8. Vanilla
9. Mozart
10. Cats. For the most part. Max in the middle of the night? Occasionally.
11. Alstroemeria
12. Comparative anatomy
13. Jumping spiders
14. Actually learning things from TV. Yeah, I'm one of those annoying educational television types.
15. Historical fashion
16. Limes
17. Books
18. Logic puzzles. Not saying that I'm any good at them, mind...
19. Chickadees
20. Tulips
21. Deer. Except when they eat the tulips.
22. The smell of play-doh
23. Interesting paper
24. Patterns
25. Absurdity
26. Singing
27. Sixties pop
28. Seeing people enjoy learning. Especially about the natural world.
29. Pizza
30. Dry humour
31. Houseplants
32. Good design
33. Chocolate
34. Putting worcestershire sauce and dry mustard in with my scrambled eggs. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
35. Knowing that I have something to contribute.
36. Watching talented people do what they do well.
37. The blues. The music, I mean. Not having the blues.
38. Making up alternate lyrics to songs. Blame my father for that one, I think.
39. This. Especially the piano bass line. One of the best ever.
40. Carnations
41. Pigma microns
42. Doodling. Guess I should have said that before mentioning the art supplies.
43. Baking cookies
44. Looking at things in a slightly different way.
45. Old-school jazz. They kind of lose me in the Sixties.
46. Listening
47. Yarrow
48. Saskatoons, especially in a pie.
49. Social history
50. This. 'Nough said.

Well. That wasn't so bad. Good thing I wasn't aiming for a theme, though. It would have been heavy on the flowers and food.

Anyway. I think that about does it for me on this Easter Sunday (and that's the only mention of that you're going to get here today). I expect to be away from the computer tomorrow, so we'll see you in a day or two.





Oh, and if anyone was wondering, I did manage to get out to vote at the advance poll yesterday. I even managed to vote for something that wasn't None of the Above.

Yay me.

Bud

That's what today's pointless photo is, all right. A bud. A bud from the Wayfarer bush (Viburnum lantana, for anyone who wants to look it up. I guess I'm not in a linky mood today) in the back yard, which is always one of the first things to try to leaf out.

I wonder if it's as desperate for things to get going as I am.

I always get a bit horticulturally restless this time of year. Everything's looking scabby and old as it finally peeks out from under the snow, and I just so want something green out there. It used to be that I helped myself out a bit by trying to get a few things started for the balcony in a seeder flat, but I just don't have the set-up (or the room) for that to work out well in the apartment so I've stopped trying. Yeah, even I can eventually figure out when something's a complete exercise in futility.

So what's the alternative?

Generally, I'll prowl around my father's yard with the camera looking to ambush anything that looks as though it isn't actually dead. Thus today's bud, yesterday's crocusses, and whatever else I might find today if I go out instead of trying to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with this week's Illustration Friday prompt. I'll also be keeping a close eye on the trails at work when I do my programs, trying to find a hint of anything that appears to be springy.

I need green. Really, really need green.

I'm almost to the point of withdrawal, I'm telling you.

Ah well. The sad thing is that, as much as I want green, my personal list of hey, it's spring consists of A) my first flowering something, B) my first spider, and C) oh frigging great. The poplar trees are trying to kill me.

Parts A and B have been accomplished, as my two fans read yesterday. Part C, otherwise known as allergy season for me, will be starting very, very soon.

It's just completely not fair that I spend so much time looking forward to spring and then spend about a month of it feeling absolutely miserable, you know.






Ah well. Again. With any luck tomorrow's pointless photo will feature Early Blue Violets, since it looked like they were juuust about ready to open yesterday. As for the rest of the day, I'm thinking: sinus headache (yes, still enjoying my cold. Thanks for asking), find something bicycle-ish to draw that doesn't involve drawing an actual bicycle, and... oh yeah. Go vote. I haven't been talking about the election because it's really not my thing to get into politics, but it's the advance poll this weekend. I'm fully intending to act like a responsible adult even though I honestly could take the whole lot of them and toss them in the bin without a second thought and be done with it.

Um, yay me, then?

Yeah, I guess.

Ok, she grudgingly admits...

... that spring may, in fact, actually be thinking of arriving in Alberta.

Today's photo? Taken today. And they aren't even plastic flowers. Also spotted this afternoon were a Mourning Cloak (they hibernate, which is how they can be out so early), and my first spider of the season. Both of the latter were too quick for the camera, but the crocusses couldn't escape so easily.

And I'm afraid that the spring update is all I have for the blather today. I'm having a really annoying headache, and if I kept typing it would just start to sound like a big giant whiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

None of us need that.

Well, maybe I do. But I'll be nice and keep it to myself.




You're welcome.