Author: Allegra

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

Giant insect fear films r us

Okay, it’s an arachnid, but what-e-ver.  Gotta love that sense of humour!

I made bacon and egg and salad wraps on home made naan bread for breakfast this morning. I was kinda mean, I told Jeff I’d take him for breakfast and then cooked it instead, but he’s a trouper and ate without comment…  I really really love home made naan. It’s comfort food.

I have no idea why, but my digestion instantly improved three days ago and I am very much enjoying it.  Further to my sudden improvement I purchased a book called Gutbliss by an American women gastroenterologist, in which she talks about all the things that can go wrong with a modern female gut and how you can put it right.  Her opening comments about how gastroenterology has lost the plot and turned into ‘the endoscopy biz’ were very revealing, and she also said she’s learned about the gut not just in school and from her patients, but from a large selection of non traditional healers.  She still plumps for the “I want to see the evidence” but her three rules of dealing with gut issues are:

Talk to the patient, take time with the patient

Most people aren’t crazy even if their symptoms don’t make sense.  (!!!)

Think outside the box.

I am enjoying her writing style, which is vigorous and plain-spoken.  Yes, she has a line of products.  But I don’t see her making extreme claims for them, which is always pleasant.

I am exercising my shoulder very hard every day.  I can now visualize a complete recovery.  I could not two weeks ago.  I think I am going to go back into the biscotti business.  This was a temporary setback, not the end of the world.  Both of the folks I showed the shop two recently haven’t called back.  It’s actually kind of freeing.  I will leave the ad up until a few weeks from now, and then get back into it.  Huge to do list….. that never stops. 

Somebody said on twitter this morning that offense is taken, not given, and I have to say that’s bullshit. It completely ignores the power differential that exists throughout the continuum of a life between you and the rest of the world.  Powerful people give offense all the time.  They just don’t call it that.

I slept a little with the new mask and the cpap machine last night, but at some point I ripped it off again.  I have some kind of dysphagia (as is almost always the case with me, not enough to come to the attention of a doctor) and what ends up happening is I can’t swallow my spit properly with the mask going.  I swallow, my ears pop like a mofo, the spit is still there, and I’m lying there feeling like I’m drowning in spit.  Also, my breathing mechanics change a lot with the cpap machine and I don’t feel like I’m breathing enough… nothing feels natural and I end up holding my breath… which feels very weird because the whole POINT of having a cpap is to get enough O².

 

 

 

 

Things change

Apparently I am NOT driving the kids to the ferry, Jeff has volunteered as it works better logistically.

Oh god, I just figured out where something I thought I lost was.  I looked up and noticed it hiding between the slats in the upper bunk.  Haw.

I got dictation working on my Microsoft masheen!  Thank you Jeff for letting me know that it works; I am very impressed at it.  Saved me a bunch of money, you did. Still can’t make Thinking Rock talk to my Android phone, which is an incredible pain in the ass, but I’ll spare you all my first world reasoning.

That’s some good shit.

Lady Miss B found this online, and all I could think of was how fast I’d have my credit card out to buy it for John, were he still extant.

Sooner or later you’ll need one… why get an ugly one?

For those of you who enjoyed Despicable Me; fabric!

 

 

Deadlines and efficiencies

Apparently I’m driving the kids to the ferry on Saturday, which should come as welcome news to my mother.  Hopefully pOp will be feeling well enough to participate in the normal family routines with the kids.  I know Katie was quite concerned.  I won’t be going because the ordination of the minister this weekend, which I am thankfully having nothing to do with except showing up.  It’s a big deal, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I have had no fewer than three nibbles on the shop in the last 24 hours. It remains to be seen if anything will come of any of them.  I have to go into the shop for 11 am this morning for a showing.

If I haven’t sold the shop by October 26, I am going to start baking again at that location.  It will be hard but I have some plans to make it easier for myself.  Somewhat, anyway.  Two weeks out if it isn’t sold I’ll do all the stuff I’ve been avoiding thinking I’d be closing it down and I will have a list of sales calls to make the first week in the afternoon (bake in morning, sell in afternoon).  I also need to put together a list of marketing / packaging I’ll need to have done.  And of course pumpkin spice biscotti for Halloween.  I will have to come up with a recipe if one doesn’t already exist.

The dishwasher is purring away.  It leaks like a mofo, but differently each time and we have no clue what makes it leak.  I’ve been very good and keeping the dirty dishes cycling through so the kitchen has been staying cleaner.  You can even see all of the kitchen table right now, I think it’s been three months since that last happened.  I have to remember to invite people over for dinner!

Super disappointed with both Bones and Castle this year.  Flimsy writing and plodding acting BORING.  I am going to stop watching them, there’s too much else on that is better.

And now, to grind out a few words on Tarot for Atheists.

 

 

 

Physio and cookies

I fed the folks roast beef with Katie made gravy, green salad, brussell sprouts, taters, unyums, carrips, and since S. is a vegetarian, a lovely cheesy baked fusilli with garlic and basil.  Also, lightly sauteed mushrooms.  The beast was a standing rib roast two for one so there’s another sitting in the freezer waiting on another family meal occasion.

Lu the physiotherapist reading me the riot act last Monday had a salutory effect.  He’s such a pleasant individual (and he’s a dead ringer for TJ Thyne…) I hate to disappoint him.  So when he said I was basically fucking up the rest of my life by not getting enough shoulder exercise (put much more pleasantly than that) I did much strength and stretch last week and he pronounced himself pleased with my progress.  I got to mimic the Titanic position while prone and with a TENS machine strapped to my shoulder.  I am MUCH improved; there’s another ten degrees of extension more to achieve and then I’m back to normal and all I have to work on is strengthening exercises.  I have all the equipment needed.  In about 3 – 4 weeks I can start swimming again although I can of course do whatever aquafit stuff I want right now.

There are oatmeal chocolate chip drop cookies in the oven right now.

Church yesterday was about how to address the social ill of loneliness.

Jeff and I have finished reviewing the family photos for mOm.

Cookies are now out.  Jeff likes them but says they are too sweet – I’ll have to find another recipe.

I paid $287 to the dentist today for Katie’s last extraction. She’s gone, but the bills keep coming in.  I said I wouldn’t complain, but being the everlasting upsucker of other people’s shit doesn’t sit well with me.  Yes, it was nice to see her last night, but I am still very angry and disappointed about the shop.  A lot.

A potential buyer will be talking with me later this week.

The funny things the characters say

Jeff took me for breakfast… the leftovers will make a loverly brunch.  We also did a shop, including two for one standing rib roasts.  Nom.

Teaching the homeless to code.

I said I wouldn’t, but I did volunteer for something at church; I’m doing esthetics for Sally’s birthday (which is also a choir day so she can’t sing and set up at the same time).  I will be talking to Sue about what she wants, since the Board is doing the service that day. Sue returned my steampunk hat and we had a lovely visit.  It was weird; I thought of her because I knew she was back from vacation and I hadn’t talked to her in yonks, and she rang me up within seconds of this thought occurring.  Ah, the message in the wind.

Trip to Toronto is not yet booked, but it is tentatively 26th Nov to 5 Dec.

Good news for prostitutes and women at high risk of HIV everywhere.

I just had a character whisper in in my ear “Shiny is health, sparkle is magic”.  It made sense in context. (Kima, if anybody cares.)

Jeff and I are watching Cheers.  Shelley Long as Diane makes me want to alternately slap her and make counted crossstitch samplers of her dialogue, but the rest of the characters, especially Coach, are so funny my occasional cringes are worth it.  It’s one of the many shows in my tv blackout period so I never watched it the first time.

I am reading Foucault for Dummies.  There’s probably only one person who reads my blog on a regular basis who will find this amusing.

We are also watching Caprica, which is way, way better than I expected it to be.  As I remarked on another subject, all this and Bear McCreary too.

pOp is feeling poorly, so I am sending him a big hug and a wish that he recover his normal level of grumpiness with all due speed.

 

 

 

 

Odds about the house

I had to yell at Eddie again, he keeps teasing the dog next door.

In no order this morning I mailed the rent cheque for the shop, made popcorn, degunked Margot, ran the dishwasher and put it away, nuked myself some leftover home made chow mein and tea for lunch, sorted and put away some laundry, sanded the bedroom door down so it quits sticking and irking Jeff, tightened the bedroom door handle, and contemplated the sunny day with some enjoyment.

Jeff has returned, and I do believe he brought a milkshake for me.

It’s a meme

This is me.

Why are hoomins moosical?

Yesterday was church, soup lunch (yay), a showing of the shop (we’ll see…), another nibble on the shop, meeting Ayesha, Paul and Keith’s new kitty (and dropping off Paul’s church directory for 2013 since it just was reprinted and heaven knows when he’ll be back at church with his crazy schedule) and it all started when Jeff took me out for breakfast, so that was yummy.

I loaned my camera to Rob W (as he was headed overseas) so he didn’t have to buy one.  Forgot to send him the transfer cables but I can deal with it when he gets back.

Breaking Bad.  One show to watch and finale next week.

Physio this morning.  I’ve been exercising lots.

It’s been rainy any cold.

 

 

 

showing the café today

I will be showing the café this afternoon after church. Funnily enough it’s to a gent named Paul.

Did ALMOST all of Mt Washmore yesterday, now of course the seemingly impossible trial of you know, like, folding and putting it away.  The challenge this time is to siphon off about a garbage bag’s worth of clean clothes to take to the second hand store as I have far too many clothes.

Eddie peed on my wellies recently.  Miss Margot pointed it out yesterday.  They would have been impossible to clean as he managed to get the pee inside the boots as well.  So, they are gone and I’ll be picking up some more as those are what I mow the lawn in and we have to mow the lawn at least once more before Thanksgiving.

It’s pouring rain right now.

 

 

 

 

Nairobi

Woke up this morning, checked facebook and found out that relatives of a friend of mine were under fire in Westgate Mall in Nairobi.  I told Salim that I could only hope that I’d never get into religion or politics to the extent that I felt shooting my neighbours was appropriate.  Twenty dead at least, fifty injured at least.  What a world.

Saw Keith briefly yesterday, and read the Shiduri sequence out of the Epic of Gilgamesh to him.  I liked the new translation / new gloss of it so much I actually bought it.  As a writer I guess I feel I should own the oldest surviving story (there are older documents but they are storage related…).

My stop digging exercises have commenced; the kitchen is coming along and I’ll be poking at other piles of disorder gradually over the next few weeks.  Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day.  Also, wrote stuff yesterday, put a song into Songwriter, did some ‘work on my projects’ stuff as well as cleaning and watching tv.  Also, applied for a job, since one of my contacts hailed me and gave me the frequency.  Nothing is likely to come of it, but I can’t look any gift horses in any particular elevation.

The exercises continue apace.  Next physio Monday, next doc appointment a month.

I tried the cpap again last night and MAYBE got two hours.  I think my sleep disorder is actually a little more nuanced than this machine can deal with.  Also, I really think I’ve got the wrong mask.

I got a really good and extremely cheap back rest for the driver’s seat in Ziva.  She has been very well behaved since she was smacked in the parking lot.

 

Another nibble on the café.

 

I leave you with a John Shirley quote (from New Taboos).

People who are quadriplegic have stated that they feel less emotion than they could when they could still feel their entire bodies. The projection of the self into our electronics reduces the relationship to the body, the seat of our emotions, and for several reasons that might lead to an increase in psychopathology.

 

 

 

 

The two of Cups

So, I was processing one of the cards for Tarot for Atheists, and I had been dodging the two of Cups because I never felt comfortable with it.  This time I really meditated on it for a long time… and now I have my new interpretation of the card.  Here it is in poetic form, but you get the general idea.  As a standalone, it’s fine, but the card interpretation changes radically in readings.

 

the two of cups

 

in profile stern

bearing a grail, or great stirrup cup

she stands so that her tabard barely stirs

against his touch, against his moving will

no occasion of beauty or grace

as they part

their attachment sundered

by disease

body-borne and spirit-lowering

see the winged lion flying expressionless

the cabin announcement of bad news

cruising into crazy danger

and l o  o  k the lion’s got a caduceus

jammed up his ass

the point of which is resting on

the young man’s hand, and wow

garlands of paper flowers or hell

maybe he sprang for roses

(they got the picture done professionally

after all)

you can tell this young man putters

over his appearance

he is in full vigour and sweetness

and wants you to choke on it

to eat the entirety of his cruelty, which is

of two fold kind;

that he is young and beautiful which he

need not say for it is for anyone to say

and that he must make you drown

in your own decay, hating the smugness

and hatred of the old, you get reflected

decades later.  It was you who did this, you.

 

in the meantime they are going to break up

he gave her clap, or his coke addiction

cost something. or she went crazy

or got in a car accident and couldn’t fuck anymore.

me, I’m hoping that red roof

in the background may be an inn.

wotcher

How’s everybody this morning?  Good?  Not so good!? Hm. Let me see what I can do about that.

Just when La Mami Naturaleza seems to have shot her last bolt in the weird department, along comes something like this.  Do please watch the video.

I bought and now have used a bunch of equipment for my rehab.  I am already stronger and more able to extend my arm forwards at 90 degrees.  Jeff rolls his eyes when I do exercises while watching TV, it’s quite distracting.

Jeff’s first impressions of the Mac Mini. There’s something useful in there about the Home/End issue which people transitioning from pc to mac always trip over.

Hey, I don’t mind fashion when it looks like this.  Possibly, erm, not suitable for work.

More evidence, although it didn’t need to be adduced, why Stephen Fry fucking RULES.

The Nepean Redskins will be changing their name and logo at the end of this season.  VERY PLEASED ABOUT THIS.  On the other hand there is this piece of dreck masquerading as a sports common tater.  In a hundred years we will look back and wonder why the hell we did this to ourselves.

And in this Brave New World, homeless people use Bitcoins.

I could do this without breaking a sweat. After all, I’ve already done it, just ask Jeff.

 

 

 

Hot sauce

There has been some of this stuff in my fridge pretty much continuously since I met Paul.

We finished Long Way Round.  I loved it.  If you love motorcycles, OR love travelogues OR are a fan of Ewan McGregor it’s worth seeing the whole thing.

May I just state for the record that Archie Panjabi is amazing in her role as Kalinda in The Good Wife.  She could play Kiaya Khatun or Roxelana Sultan if Lymond ever came to the screen…. that would be so awesome.

Breaking Bad is coming to an end within a few weeks. Here are a couple of articles I enjoyed.  Albuquerque.

and also A Pictorial History.

Keith dropped by yesterday.  Paul and he have a new tortoiseshell barn cat  they imported from the US.  Her name is Ayesha, and she does not want to be a housecat. She is, however, quite mellow.  I haven’t met her yet and look forward to making her acquaintance when she is better settled in.

Eddie let me clip his nails the other day with only one low wail to indicate his opinion of the indignity.

It’s been rainy and blecchy.

Cpap machine for a couple of hours last night.  I took it off when I couldn’t actually sleep with it on.  This is turning into a sore trial…