Author: Allegra

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

Various pieces of news

I have received a piece of very important mail – I am now a card carrying member of the Skinnydippers Club.  Rawr.

And I’m likely going to Wreck Beach today with Mike. Aren’t you all glad, with the great gladness of those who will NOT be required to use eyebleach, that I don’t post pics.

L.E. and Doug made Jeff welcome with yummy food, music and conversation, as is pret’ near always the case (food was nachos and ceviche, using basa, and OMG it was aMAZing), and while we were there, we heard good news.  L.E. has a show and workshop in Ontario in June.  AND her son Corey (whose blog Jew on Jus is blogrolled here) has been made FOOD CRITIC OF THE TORONTO STAR.  That, folks, is the big time, and a BIG encouragement to do what you love.  We didn’t take the car and cabbed home.

A friend of mine has learned that her biopsy revealed “the weirdest looking scar tissue we’ve ever seen, but it isn’t cancer”.

The weather here has gone from rudely damp and cold and windy to airless, brilliant, hot and humid, overnight.  This being the ‘May 2-4″ weekend most west coast Canadians are lining up in front of the liquor stores with only one thing on their minds.

I had a four hour migraine yesterday, during which my poor boss had to clean up some of my messes.  Ow.  And I got COVERED in lint from the blankies in the first aid room.  I am reminded that it is good to have a team, and so I am in a grateful frame of mind.  The migraine is hormones, plus Vietnamese pork stew at lunch at work, plus that chocolate on Thursday. I really overdid it, I could have just had a taste and been okay, but no.  Now I am in the post migraine mood of being sort of bleak and washed out.  I know from experience that sitting in the sun doesn’t actually make my migraines worse, provided I lie reasonably still.  I had better find that 45 sunblock.

It was heavenly to sleep with the window open last night.  Very quiet, believe it or not.

Eddie was sniffing the air from my bedroom window just now.  Mostly I keep the cats out of my room.

I forgot to mention that on Thursday the Luddite brought over (on his bike!) a two foot tall strawberry planter and then he tied my bike seat to my frame with a locking cable, as he said that my bike was now quite secure except the seat.  Watching him putter put me in good heart.

So far most of the people meeting Jeff for the first time (and it’s kinda odd that he never met L.E.) pronounce him very nice.  That’s good, because it’s true.

one thing and another

Luddite turned up late and motored through the leftovers; that was fine, I wanted to watch some more Band of Brothers anyway.  He also brought organic chocolate, which was damn’ fine also.

I can see into the future!!!

Treat your rifle like a gurl…

I sure feel safer, knowing the Border Patrol is on the case.

The seven sins of memory.

Tired

I dunno why – I got 7.5 hours of sleep last night. Maybe watching the Battling Bastards of Bastogne plumb tuckered me out.

This is a very long essay I’m putting here. The guy writing it has been thinking some of the same things I’ve been thinking – but we don’t all come to the same conclusions, and I will have to post “Teaching my Children to Swear” in partial response at some point. Anyway the link is about the lies we tell children. I’m especially impressed by the tone – it’s thoughtful, non-confrontational, and obviously the result of some serious and dispassionate self-examination.

I am still grinning to myself when I think about Gerald’s call. I’m an easy person to entertain.

I downloaded Bejeweled to my phone. Waiting for the bus will never again be so boring.

Saw Asha at the Red Robin in Lougheed last night. Asha’s a total sweetie I met through my church. She just got back from a three week jaunt to India visiting rellies and seeing sights; her specialness in my life has to do with her telling me about Purpose Secondary School so my kids actually graduated from High School.

Luddite is supposedly coming by for dinner this evening.  Tomorrow, I have the immense happiness of going to see Doug and L.E. and introducing my brother to them.  w00t.  So I guess I’ve been having a pretty sociable time of it.

Patricia has been asking me to take Deadwood s1 into work, so I just put it next to the back door so I won’t forget.

The downstairs neighbours were running laundry in the middle of the night.  They’ve never done that before and unless they start doing it more often than once a month, I’m going to ignore it.

Unexpected caller.

The phone rang just as I was headed to bed last night, and it was COUSIN GERALD, whom I had never actually spoken to….

Hello..

Is this Allegra?

Yes, who’m I talking to?

This is Braden’s Grandfather!

GERALD!!!!! I squealed, after the shoe dropped…

He’s in town for a conference, and man, it was great to hear his voice.  He’s not here long enough for us to get together, pout, but it was quite a boost for my spirits.

Heh. I’m watching Band of Brothers with my brother

Seems a little recursive, and somehow, so fitting.

I’ve decided to pass on Jericho tonight – I know, just because the weather is iffy doesn’t mean I shouldn’t go, but I just feel blah – and concentrate on more domestic activities.  Wednesday I’m dining out with Asha and we’re going to do what women have been doing for millennia – chinwag about the hopelessly inappropriate people their children are sleeping with – for all the berloody good it will do us or anyone.  Thursday, the Luddite will appear for dinner bearing too much chocolate.  Not for me, for Jeff.

Look at what the Repulsigans are doing!

I couldn’t put it better myself.

Just in case you are needing to read something.

Site problems

Jeff sat me down with Google Tools this morning and it appears I owe a certain person an explanation.  When my site got hijacked at least one person immediately stopped being able to access it on a mobile device, which should have tweaked me to investigate. Since it wasn’t affecting me, I didn’t.  Everything should be working now – if there appears to be something broken, let me know.

Ooooo new theme

The way this blog looks is governed by a canned ‘theme’ which we get off the wordpress site. The reason we had to take the blog down briefly was because my previous theme was not safe – it ended up full of crappy spammy code, which was a surprise and not a pleasant one. The upgrade set the theme back to the default, and now what you see should be the newly chosen theme (which I kinda did on the fly, and on the basis of “Is it clean, can you see the archives, and do the old links appear to work? with much input from Jeff).

Anyway, I have to thank Jeff for finding and fixing the problems, multiple, because I would have continued to be cruising along, fat dumb and happy, without noticing that there was something seriously wrong.  Also the site should run faster.

v. relaxed

I finally figured out Mike’s evil plan… the recreational event last night featured a hot tub, and I soaked (and stretched) for a very long time.  This morning I lay in bed and contemplated that I wasn’t experiencing any pain for the first time in a long time.  As soon as I sat down in a conventional chair, that all stopped, but at least I was pain free for a few hours, and today I’m all slow and stupid with relief.

Katie and Keith are both supposed to show up today.  If they do I’ll cook them a meal but I will wait until they get here to plot what.

Today, laundry and puttering, at least until the kids arrive.  I had to tell Katie not to bother with a mother’s day present (Keith is smart enough to know he doesn’t have to bother) but that I would enjoy it if she turned up.  I’m thinking tortillas… it’s enough of a production to be mildly festive. And, of course, if you feel like it, you can read my Mother’s Day homily, which pretty much encapsulates my feelings on the subject.