Category: Family

walkies

Ran into Kirsten at Deer Lake Park yesterday.  Her sister has a three legged dog too, which is very kind of them both.  Keith and Paul were accompanying me.  We saw a coyote as we entered the park which makes all the people who ignored us because they were wearing headsets rather amusing in a sick way.  Hey, we tried to tell them but they just wouldn’t listen.

After I got back I mowed the whatever it is that’s growing on the property.  It is no longer grass in the front yard, and the mere act of turning the mower around created immense divots in what’s left of the turf. The back isn’t so bad but it doesn’t get so dry (we never water). The house is a tear down, so we’re never going to get new sod. C’est la vie.

I got the orthotics, and twice crossed the Pattullo Bridge, which is under construction and an amply proportioned clusterfuck at the best of times. WHILE I was trying to get across the mofo’ing bridge northbound, a guy leaned out of his truck and said in a heavy Arabic accent “I give you three thousand dollars cash right now for your car” and I casually explained that it wasn’t going to happen, and he started upping the bid, reaching five thousand, leading me to explain that it a) it wasna my car and b) it was not for sale for any price. Then the traffic shifted and I stopped having to deal with him. Wish I’d taken the camera, Jeff might have been entertained by the convo.  Entertainingly, these convos always happen more in the summer.

Went and got beer and groceries and a few treats, and we ate store chicken, home made salad and corn on the cob for dinner.

Forgot to mention that we saw a grouse by the side of the road when we went up Mt Washington last week.

I will be adjusting to the orthotics by wearing them about two hours a day until I’m completely used to them. They feel pretty comfortable but I’ll know better how they are later.

Watched Eye in the Sky and Wave. Very much enjoyed both movies, but I liked Wave more since it is a classic style disaster movie, leaving no trope unturned, but effectively and non-cheesily played out.

 

 

Meal last night plus other stuff

Heather dropped by Jim and Jan’s, and how lovely to see her! They talked and I listened about the nature conservancy efforts locally and how very political it can be.

Last night’s meal consisted of lamb sirloin, fresh steamed pea pods from the garden, fresh greens from the garden, homemade salad dressing, new potatoes boiled in their skins, a simply stunning home made mint sauce with mint from the garden, and all washed down with a growler of Gladstone IPA.

I want to curl up on the sofa like a rescue cat and NEVER LEAVE.  But it’s okay, I’m coming back for another week in July. AFTER the wedding, obvs. Because I have to see the Morrison Headwaters for myself.

I’ll be seeing Mike and Nita today, yay, yay!

Also I’ll be nipping off to see Unca Garry and Ontie Diane for an hour before the funeral.

 

 

It got bigger

I edited and added an interview with Michel to book III.

Yesterday was almost entirely taken up with helping Paul.  I also unplugged a restaurant toilet (it came pre-plugged) and helped a bunch of hard working nurses and techs avoid dealing with the mentally ill husband of one of the cataract patients (“Does your husband wear a hat? May I take you to him?” after I’d heard him screaming at the caregivers. They were abjectly grateful. srsly.).  My day-sign told me to be kind to everybody today and I really tried hard to do that, including being kind to me.

Paul on Ativan.  He’s basically a very cheerful fella, yanno? I could hear him chaffing with the doc and he unsterilized the sterile field and got a right talking to.

Then we couldn’t leave for 45 minutes because his BP was ludicrous. Calmed down nicely after a while.

He took me to LA Sushi for lunch, which happened around 4 pm. Then I walked home since, er, he couldn’t exactly drive. Although he offered to. Blind in one eye and cheerfully inflated with Ativan, no thanks I’ll walk.

—

I am disappointed on his behalf that brO is not getting his gaming weekend with his buddies and hope that the reason his friend bowed out is resolved soon.

I’m desperate to start writing again but I can’t find the chapter précis for the Midnight Moving book although I know it’s in my room, probably in one of these here boxes. I think I could probably reconstruct it and I probably should.

All those hand lettered brush fonts that look so cool now are going to be ghastly and sucky in five years.

I am TOTALLY IN WRITING WITHDRAWAL. And I want to work on XENOLEGUM instead of editing or working on what Jeff asked me to work on.  BANG HEAD HERE SUFFERING BASTARD.

Progress: cheat sheet slash glossary

I’ve made a start on the glossary Diane suggested I do. I am only just reading her comments on Sweep off those waves and I am somewhat downcast.

This morning I’m driving Paul to where he’s going to have his first cataract surgery. Stooging about hospitals, yay!!! All things being equal and this being the land of polite lineups we’ll probably be 5 hours total in transit and stooging. We did a dry run yesterday, and I’m glad we did, since we combined it with a visit to Al and Katie which was exceedingly pleasant and included visiting with all the furbabies (Toes & Tigger the kitties, who are sleek and Lizzie the dog, who is getting very old and itchy) and talking about canoeing.

After we went to Planet Bachelor, where Keith greeted us and we ate a very pleasant lunch.

I wrote another 200 words, but they don’t belong here, because they were essentially hate speech against someone who’s not capable of defending himself.

Ah, to be an ally and white is to learn to stop finding excuses to interrupt.

 

 

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Sue very kindly forwarded a most interesting job posting, which I have this morning applied for.

Working on edits today; I’ll write when the muse comes back and do something else useful in the meantime.

Lovely time watching the Attenborough documentary about the Great Barrier Reef with Keith yesterday; he spent the whole time muttering the names of the tropical fish under his breath. As much as he likes the aquarium shop he’s wanting to get back into the optical trade. I am OBVS in support of this.

HIGHLY recommend Heavy Water War.  Really great historical drama about trying to shut down the German capacity to build an a-bomb.

 

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Lovely day of writing yesterday, plus a walk in the rain with Paul, (walked to beer store, but it’s good to have goals, right, RIGHT??), plus Paul came over to watch some New Tricks with us.  He was very complimentary about the chili, which made me happy, as it’s hard for just Jeff and I to work our way through it by ourselves.

All in all a very satisfactory day.

Check out the man who does not shovel.

Wha happen?

Yesterday was the Solstice Feast, and it was wonderful.  Julie, Brandon, Baby K, Mike, Paul, Keith, me, Kate and Alex attended. Kate and Paul did all the heavy lifting for cooking. The one thing I made was gravy, not my best effort but still damned good.

We had turnots and carnots mushed, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, roast turkey with homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce, home made brown bread, steamed green beans, and OMGOMGOMG the brussels sprouts were so amazing I declare it a family standard festive dish.  Mike declared he was going to preempt the normal way of doing brussels for his family festive meal later this week.  You steam them, them pan fry them and then drown them in fresh parmesan and garlic. KEITH HAS NEVER EATEN BRUSSEL SPROUTS before last night.

People were getting seconds, it was unreal.

Alex was mostly fine but when he was hours overdue for a nap he was pretty fragile.

Then Mike drove me home and we stopped off at the one place in the lower mainland he knew for sure he could get Crown Royal Northern which the Whiskey Bible author says is the best whiskey in the world this year…. for less than 35 bucks a bottle.

It is really rather good, and for the price point it’s insanely wonderfully good.

The liquor stores are out but the Oliver Twist had two bottles left. Trouble was Mike had already blown through his 2 bottle limit, so there I go with my stupid hat and buy some more, and that’s it, it’s probably gone in the Lower Mainland.  Helping Mike with Christmas shopping was an awesome way to end the day.

Then home and after a contemplative couple of hours winding down I went upstairs to bed AND STARTED REVISING THE SECOND NOVEL which meant that I was actually writing. Four hundred words or so – since mOm will want to know it’s the longish chapter about the pregnancy close to the beginning of the novel. There were two particularly tangled and compostian sentences and I killed one and inverted and broke apart the other, so, yay me.

THEN Ulrika on Livejournal this morning SHARES THIS WITH ME. I am absolutely gobsmacked and will immediately implement some of her suggestions.

 

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Paul managed to ruin Solstice dinner. It didn’t happen.  I begged Katie to let me step in, and she decided to place her trust where it was not deserved. We’re going to try again today but if I said the prospect doesn’t please would you be surprised?

Baby Alex of course was very wonderful especially at whining around his mother’s ankles when she wouldn’t hold him continuously.  He smiled as soon as he saw me, which was pleasant. He also kicked me in the face, which was not, but which I richly deserved and didn’t leave a mark.

The worst thing about yesterday was that, although I was the only person at the c******f*** who thought about Keith long enough to text him and say dinner was off, he came home and his house was completely empty; the car was there with the car seat and Paul’s bike was gone.

He was so shook up he called me, as distressed as he’s ever been when I talked to him. I explained what had happened and his dad came home in the middle of the phone call so all was well.

Conflikt has me on the reg page, which is nice since I registered in August.

I’ll probably be going to Victoria after Christmas possibly with Alex; Jeff is going in a few days.

 

No progress

However I’m in Victoria for a couple days so I’m hoping to get book one through the edits.

Victoria is beautiful as always and Dan’s has Nanaimo bars for a buck.

Travelling to the ferry was disgusting, as always.  I had a half hour wait at Ladner Exchange -if I was older or more infirm I’da had a hell of a time during the wait as I got quite chilled.  Every other part of the trip moved along reasonably well. I treated myself to the Pacific Buffet and prevented a Muslima from accidentally ingesting shrimp, always a win.

I am hoping Jeff’s home when my aboriginal art comes.  It’s a storm trooper helmet with a great blue heron across it done giclé.  Yeah.  I was blown away by the thumbnail so I’m hoping the real thing is as awesome.

Woke at three, left the house at six-thirty, got to the ferry about 8:30 and so easily caught the nine.  I debated not bringing the mando but I want to play When I Go for mOm.

Got some phone calls to make and then I’ll get into it.

Morse

…. . -.– / .–. — .–. / – .-. .- -. … .-.. .- – . / – …. .. … / ..-. — .-. / — — — / … …. . / .. … / – …. . / -… . … – . … – / — — — / .. -. / – …. . / ..- -. .. …- . .-. … .

10879 word count

Not making fantastic progress, but I washed dishes and put the now clean front hall mat and upstairs sofa cover back down, got out of the house to feed Ayesha and get deodorant and laundry deterg and  – chocolate – which I have stashed somewhere in the house so Jeff and I don’t devour it.

I can’t find the power supply and connector cables for the other external drive Jeff loaned me.  I don’t know what the hell happened to them but they are not in my room.  I never would have thrown them out but Jeff assures me they were all together.  It’s very annoying, and now I have to figure out how to get replacements.

I am about to have a flurry of engagements – today feeding Ayesha plus hanging with the American Thanksgiving blowout at Tom and Peggy’s (they have a cross border Christmas Cookie fest every year because they have TWO OVENS.) Supper with Mike.  A visit with Alexander somewhere in there. Sunday afternoon hanging out with Janice L and her roomie.

Thus the deodorant.  It’s actually an odorant, but everyone calls it deodorant.

I’ve actually written 180 more words this morning, let’s see where this chapter goes.

 

CARNAGE

Buster brought in 4 RATS yesterday, laying them all out in a row downstairs.  He’s killing them all so Jeff doesn’t have to deal with rats which have died in locales where they are like to rot or little bits’o rat everywhere, just secure tail and trash.

THE HEATER IS NOT BROKE.  It merely has an absurdly sensitive orientation sensor and Buster probably knocked it off its flatness while jumping down from my desk.  Everything a-ok there.

Took a walk down to get cream yesterday morning.  It was a crisp crisp morning so I wore the mitts my mOm knitted for Katie that I somehow ended up with and the cute animé hat Keith got me a couple of years back.

Later I went to the interview.  It’s always interesting seeing myself and all my imperfections as a potential employee reflected through someone else.  The poor little gal who interviewed me.  I hope my pity for her didn’t show.  She’s probably just barely making a living at what she’s doing, but she was wearing a thousand dollars’ worth of clothing and a freaking expensive watch and had the coldest, limpest handshake I’ve shared in probably years. I thought that when she shook my hand it was probably the first time her hand had felt warm since the last interview.  Stupidly big office, in one of the industrial/office complexes on Still Creek. The entire courtyard had so much bird shit in it I felt ill walking through it and you all know me as being somebody who can deal with disgusting with fewer collywobbles than most socialized women. Drove away thinking what an incredible waste of time it was, but I’m still going to send her my references.

Then got beer and various foodicles, why not, it was on my way home.

Then we caught up on the Librarians and Robot Chicken, etc.

I have no idea what will happen to my writing energy if I get a job.  We’ll see. I know I can work and write, but it needs a ‘specially calm kind of job to allow me to think about stuff and write.

Jeff is awesome.  He has been helping me with technology (backups), when he’s not trying to pull info out of third parties and disposing of rats.

Word count over 7000 as of today.

Tomorrow the bday party for Katie. I already got her her present, and I’m not talking about it in a public forum, but most of my friends already know and so my expression of precarious and secretive amusement is thus explained.

Current count 5813

What an amazing 57th birthday I had!!

I ate a meal I didn’t cook for brekky (left over Desi Turka chicken tikka masala with rice pulao), I ate a meal I didn’t cook for lunch, for Jeff feasted me at Switzerland Chicken, and I ate a meal I didn’t cook for dinner, as Mike feasted me with pan fried oysters and new potatoes.

We watched all the rest of Black Sails more or less because we couldn’t help ourselves.  Then I watched the season 3 teaser trailer just to drive myself nuts; god willing and the crick don’t rise I’ll have more in January around Conflikt time.

I brushed and degunked Margot and avoided being killed on the stairs by Buster.  My rapid increase in wordcount you can tell for yourself and I shipped off some new stuff to mOm.

I got phone calls wishing me a happy birthday from Mike, Katie, my mOm and ewishes from Patricia and DJD. Absolutely nobody on facebook wished me a happy birthday.  258 facebook friends and you get a prompt for friends’ birthdays, but not a sausage (hey I needed the message about social media not being as important as my flesh and blood friends…)

I slept over at Mike’s so we had just enough to drink to be festive but not to drive, and I do not feel muzzy headed this morning so I think I titrated the dose properly.  ASBACK BRANDY BE GREAT YO. Tecate Beer tastes like a man complaining of an unhappy marriage.  I shall not drink that beer again. I even wrote 185 more words last night while I was here.  It was a particularly writing sort of day.

I got prezzies! A foot soaker tub and a headrest pillow for air travel.  SO HAPPY and so very unexpected, but I’m not too old to appreciate it.

I wrote a letter to my MP and ran a load of laundry and backed up my documents.

am I not awesome!?

Lots of writing yummy food and yes I know I am a big kid. And we’ll feast again on Katie’s bday on Friday, yay!

Weather’s the pits and the wind’s going to come up but I’m snug where I am and it’s wonderful. Vitamin D and probiotics make me a better person.

 

OH AND ONE LAST THING. I have an interview with a job agency on Wednesday.  Just came right out of the blue.  Isn’t that a perfect thing to happen on my birthday?  Nothing likely will come of it but you never know, and I got all those nice new work clothes from EShakti, and nicer bras and underwear too over the last six months so if I DID get a job I wouldn’t be going O M F G what do I wear tomorrow. So really, a spectacular day.

While I’m all bubbly and babbly….

TOBY STEPHENS PULLS HIS BEARD AND IT MAKES ME HAPPY gratuitous Black Sails reference. Especially since it’s really his beard, and did you know he’s Maggie Smith’s younger son, and married to that Plowman actress who played Sarah/Osiris for 4 seasons on SG1?  Screw Kevin Bacon SG1 is where the connections really fly.

Deadwood of the Caribbean

Higher body count and more cannons but you get the general idea. That’s Black Sails, which I heart so much only the prospect of there being two more seasons is preventing me from panicking about there only being 2 or 3 more episodes from season 2 before it runs out.  I honestly want to go straight to Jeff’s door, bang on it and say IT IS MY BIRTHDAY I want to BINGE WATCH THE REST RIGHT NOW. He’d probably agree though, and then what? We have nothing awesome in prospect right now except mopping up on seasons 6 and 7 of The West Wing.

Current word count 4379. Things are a little smoother after a rocky start. Glykeria has arrived at Raven’s door.

I have applied for ISBN numbers for my ebook editions of the novels.  Two weeks to wait.

Getting irritable over no Alex except for two seconds when I went to meet his momma at London Drugs and he was asleep.

Weather here is damp and nasty.

Margot got her Sunday dinner last night (I wait right until 6 pm to give it to her) and she SANG FOR HER SUPPER which was three anxious little merps – she can’t actually mew since she had the surgery. Then she stuffed her face in the dish and ate like she had no expectation of ever receiving food again from anyone.  Every time she slowed down, she’d back away with that funny little caterpiggle in reverse movement, pause, and then she’d jam her little face in like a front end loader and scarf again until she ran out of breath.  I watched her eat, it was a tender combination of hilarious and sad.

So many of my friends are having pets die and animals put down right now the Rainbow Bridge is getting crowded. Love your people critters and your fur critters as hard as you can!

Lotza words

Fifteen hundred or so yesterday. How would you like a Sixer to turn up on your 21st floor balcony? Well, if you had just had a family meal where your stepmother excoriated you for two hours about how you were the stupidest woman alive for not finding a way of making money out of Sixers WHEN YOU MET THEM AND HOW STUPID ARE YOU ANYWAY maybe you’d greet them more cheerfully than you running around in a nightie might suggest.

Besides, everyone trusts Michel.  He does what he says and stays out of stuff that isn’t his business. Or does he?  Only time will tell…

Gave Katie a driving lesson the other day, one of the advantages of Paul leaving me the car.

It is always good to be able to help friends and family.  I made sure Keith and Paul had a meal prepped in their fridge (cannelloni cilantro almond & onion salad plus Singapore style noodles I’d picked up earlier) and picked them up at Edmonds after their trip to Toronto/London (yes, Paul met up with Carrie and Keith, bless him, poked his head in on The Vampire Family, which makes me very, very happy)  and handed over the car.  Of course if it hadn’t been on a night of the full moon I wouldn’t have been awake, but them’s the breaks, and they broke the right way.

Three loads of laundry yesterday.  Practiced mandolin already this morning. Poor Margot doesn’t know she’s going back to the vet tomorrow but she’s obviously suffering, poor lamb.  I put her favourite rug in the wash just now along with the upstairs sofa cover, since various babies and cats have been yielding up their valuable inner resources onto them both of late.

I didn’t know that Jean Webster had published anything beside Dear Enemy and Daddy-Long-Legs so I’m going to be checking out the other books on Gutenberg today.  It annoys me that she died so young in childbirth; she should have lived to be a hundred.