Author: Allegra

Born when atmospheric carbon was 316 PPM. Settled on MST country since 1997. Parent, grandparent.

too much day for not enough Allegra

Up at 4,  Butterfly house at 10, Sassy’s at 11:15, ferry was late but we were the lasts ones on so yay, home for an hour, taxi to Peggy and Tom’s, found out that everybody wanted to chat rather than sing and play, played quietly while people chatted and then it was 8 oclock and no music so I went the hell home because I was completely burned out.

I left my charger at the fOlks so I have to save this and get the heck off the internet.

snicker

spider robinson is on twitter now

I got 8 hours of sleep last night

Awesome convo in the sunroom with mOm, Katie, and Alex occasionally fastening on a word and demanding clarification while he plays with matryoshka pandas (there are like 15 of the suckers…) and the AMAZING MITSUBISHI SCALE MODEL WORKING FORKLIFT that mOm and pOp picked up for him.

Thunder and lightning last night and I’m such an Ontario girl I slept through it.

I’m getting a big dose of WE WILL LOOK AFTER EACH OTHER right now and dadgab it I needed it.

lovely day

There’s hardly any construction noise and it’s a nice temperature outside. I’ve been writing, not much today, 1000 words of fanfic yesterday. I can’t see how I can spear it onto the plate in less than 2500 words, which is pissing me; I’m almost more interested in doing housework.

I have a rescue plan for my fictional Vancouver, which is a relief. It’s a combination lie, truth, media obfuscation and bargaining chip, requiring everyone to play nice or lose something bony.

congratulations

At the end of the meal Keith was presented with a little plate of custard cakes with Congratulations written in chocolate at the top and he just melted.

Paul and I started with the heritage tomato salad. IT WAS FANTASTIC except for the only truly purple tomatoes I’ve ever seen, which tasted like pulpy watery dirt.  I looked everywhere on the internet and I don’t think they were Cherokee Purples (a white guy named them of course) …After the explosion of flavour – there was this mushy seedless one which sounds disgusting but to me was the best tasting tomato I ever et and they made the most of the mushiness by parking the firmer tomatoes on top – the purple tomatoes were a distinct let down but having the human garburetor on board meant that nothing was wasted. I picked basil from that outta my teeth this morning damn.

Paul had the bouillabaisse. I ordered the pan-fried scallops as a side for my 9 oz filet and since the bouillabaisse had no scallops tossed one into his bowl and one onto Keith’s plate for good measure – he sure eats more kinds of food than he used to. Alex’s mama awaits that day longingly. Keith devouring a scallop, who knew.

Keith had a 14 oz steak with veggies (a substantial portion of which he took home).

Paul ordered the baked Alaska and was really disappointed because he hasn’t had it in fifty years and it sucked but he manfully ate it. Keith gave up halfway through this but he was already stuffed. They had three and two drinks apiece; I stuck with Shirley Temple, since they make the most fucking fantastic one I’ve had since I quit drinking. (Note to world. I have had two beers in the last two weeks, and my liver woke up and gave me that weird feeling again, so I’m pounding fibre and probiotics. And reminding myself that it’s like many other things I’ve given up – in the end it’s all gonna be fine, I just need to find that new nermal.)

Keith was exhausted from work but picked up nicely during the meal. He needs the best possible respiratory protection, although this new lab has good ventilation.

Spent about 2 hours over the meal, and apart from a couple of conversational bobbles which I have vented about elsewhere, it was fantastic and I came home with a big smile on my face.

TONIGHT – ALEX. I may stay over. I may not. Snuggling with Alex on the sofa in the morning as he tries to drag his brain into partnership with his body has a charm of its own.

SHIT must remember to take my laptop as he has TWICE REQUESTED Iceland pics and I have twice forgotted.

I’m trying to stay off social media. 49387 HOTM

 

 

filling the bucket

I was feeling very empty in the family bucket and got a lovely overnight at Planet Bachelor. Paul dropped me off this morning.  Tonight, feeding Keith! Paul wants to come so I updated the reservation. SO LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.

I love my family. It’s so simple, but there it is.

Barbecue fired up for the first time yesterday.  I’m thinking next time it will not be the sad little burgers from M&M Meats; perhaps some pork chomps???

 

 

Katie

Some mornings I wake up at 2 am and get up; this morning I forced myself back to sleep and woke up at 5:30. Like a little kid I lay in bed and thought to myself, “Oh, I hope Katie calls and wants to spend some time with me today!”

Then at a quarter to eight she called and we had breakfast.

It is so easy to make me happy, it’s quite funny.

I’M SEEING MY MOM ON SUNDAY NEXT AND THEN I HAVE A JOB INTERVIEW.

And I’m going to see a doc about my suspected septic thyroglossal cyst Friday next, which is now bobbing around on the bottom of my tongue and which accounts for, get this FOUR OF MY SYMPTOMS.

Pain – generally they only hurt if they’re infected. It’s a completely ignorable amount of pain, which is why I’ve been ignoring it. Turns out you’re born with these suckers and they can literally never do anything to announce their presence.

Dysphagia and an occasional sense that my throat is closing over (WHICH LIKELY IMPACTED MY APNEA MACHINE USE)  – which comes and goes depending on how swollen it is, which makes sense considering it’s attached to the bottom of your tongue and moves when it does. Unfortunately this symptom has been MAJOR in telling me that I’m going demented, so finding out there’s another reason has given me life.

Metallic spit – an occasional sensation, see above, which is accompanied by a nasty feeling at the base of my tongue and a completely indescribable sensation in my mouth when it happens. It was MUCH WORSE during my taking antibiotics in November last and kept up for weeks after. Still happens a couple of times a week.

A previous symptom, not present since menopause – I used to get a large pimple on my neck just where they often push fluids and pus to the surface. Who knew.

Bonus symptom: having to hyperextend my neck so I can feel like I can breathe prior to going to sleep.

There is a less than 1 in 100 chance that there is carcinoma present. These things hardly ever go bad that way, although they can randomly collect fluid so they look like a half-goiter or get infected.

I wouldn’t even care about this birth defect – for such it is – but it’s affecting my ability to enjoy food, sleep and sing, the three major reasons I’m alive, so I’m going to try to get a diagnosis and then see if I can’t have it either drained or excised. I’d prefer drained but it would be entertaining to have a throat scar that makes me look right piratical.

 

and god won’t I look silly if I’m wrong about this, but fOlks, I rilly don’t think I am.

 

 

I love my family.

Getting lots of lovely comments on my fanfic. When people like the stuff you wrote for what you think are the right reasons……

lovely visit

So we sat around in Take Five in New West and caught up about our kids and my grandkid and at the very end of our convo when we’re walking to RCH and the Skytrain respectively she pitches me for a job starting in January. It’s maternity coverage but hey, the longest job I ever had started as mat coverage.

Needless to say…. I’m chuffed.

Thanks Dina!

 

alex

I am seeing so much of him and speaking so little of it I guess

I don’t know

I feel like the imaginary-play and song and cuddle time (.24 seconds of cuddling) last night was like going off to a mythical grandma land where this hilarious, thoughtful, easily perturbed and easily distracted little boy is ALL YOURS. But all he can think about, (hands to his eyes, dramatically holding back tears) is his mama being late to get home. We averted a meltdown.

He’s still talking about a very sad event he witnessed a couple of weeks ago.

He likes what I’ve got of the insect song so far but he only asked me to sing it twice so it obvs needs work.

I have so much more to say but trying to see the world through his eyes is magic. He went up to five Desi kids (four teen girls and one early teens boy) and whinged his way onto the teeter totter, the little sod, before I could catch up to him. We played bumps for a while and then I hauled him off backward and made him yell thank you.

In the swings he said, with staring eyes and trembling lip, “My pants are going wrong.”

They were all twisted up. So was I, seconds later, from laughing so hard.

 

round up ramble

Finally finished my current longest posted fic, got a couple of comments. There are 22 people in the world who have user-subscribed me, which means they want to read every word I post as soon as it comes out.

I have no idea who these people are. I imagine I could find out but part of the charm of fanfic is the anonymity.

Progress will continue today on my ‘real’ work, in the form of editing SOTW.

Yesterday I learned that Keith is employed. Yes HE GOT A FULL TIME JOB cycling distance from home. It is amazing, it is wonderful. HE BUSTED ASS FOR THIS. He deserves it. I’m taking him to Atlas Steak House next week to celebrate. He started this morning. Gave two weeks’ notice at the fucking horrible job that made him buy a car for the commute and then dialled him back to two days a week…. or less. FUCK THOSE ASSHOLES. They want to take a professional and turn him into a part time wage slave and if he quits replace him with another young desperate person.

Alex really likes the shirt I sewed his Mater and Lightning McQueen buttons to.

We had a family walk last night, all five of us. Katie was bathing Alex when we left and HE PERSLODED and insisted getting out and getting dressed and chasing us down. Katie, who is not stupid, put our potential path in a mental map AND FOUND US around 2nd and 13th, which was amazing. We finished our walk together and hung out together and talked and then Paul drove me home around nine since it had started raining again.

Jeff’s efforts to get the downspout cleaned by the landlord a while back so I don’t have to listen to buckets of water cascade and splat on the concrete immediately adjacent to my room are declared a success. I slept 8 hours last night.

I see Dina tomorrow yay!

Alex doesn’t like how he looks. I’m wondering if it’s his father that’s doing this to him.

Have some tick talk.