Settler words&music in S'ólh Téméxw, (leanpub.com/upsun) living where privilege meets precarity in MST country. she/her/they———– Novels: Midnite Moving Co., Upsun; Sweep Off Those Waves coming soon, Hair Sinister after that. —Restore All Indigenous Lands!
So Keith and Paul picked me up from work last night (Keith was driving) and we went back to their place and at pork chomps and salad and oyster mushrooms. Then Paul and I sang and played for ages. Honestly, we should put together a set list and then we wouldn’t have those long headscratching moments when we think “What will we sing next?”
Around nine I went home and found Jeff watching Ghost in the Shell Innocence. Man, in HD on a big screen that movie is drenchingly beautiful.
Samantha is a mastiff cross, and small, dainty and elegant do not describe her. What she is, is big, although as we slogged through the rain and mud at Trout Lake yesterday there were bigger dogs yet at the offleash part of the park. My companion was amazed that there could be an offleash park where there were nesting birds, and I asked, somewhat rhetorically, if he’d ever been to Trout Lake in the summer time, when it is a warm green hymn to avian fecal material. Given that human beings also swim there (I have seen it, although you wouldn’t catch me in there unless the person next to me was encouraging me with a semi automatic) I don’t imagine the city fathers care if a few birds get harassed. The fewer nesting there the better, and none of them are exactly what I would call endangered species.
While we were there, the tree next to the parking lot was full of birds, all singing as loud as they could simultaneously. The light was crappy, but it sure sounded like starlings and red winged blackbirds having a smackdown. It was so loud that I just stood gaping in the rain.
Samantha got in the water and got very dirty.
When my companion came to pick me up, we attempted a greeting kiss. We both ended up kissing Samantha’s nose. I can’t remember laughing that hard in quite a while. After the park we went to Burnaby Palace (Jeff got the leftovers, so apart from waffles on Saturday morning I dodged cooking every meal this weekend), and had a lovely time.
Church was great yesterday morning, Marci Green did the service, which was about the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign.
I really like this neighbourhood.
The crows didn’t cooperate yesterday.
Prime Minister Harper has just announced that Highway 11 between Saskatoon and Prince Albert is going to be twinned. I’ve been up that highway to go here.
Keith slept over. He really is one of my favorite people, and I love him more all the time. It’s just the way he says things that gets me, the way he is so solemn and yet so cheerful at the same time, like a very secular monk.
Katie says she is coming with me to Grandma’s next weekend. Whether this will happen I have no clue, but I’m going whether she does or not. She is still doing well in school but sometimes when she mentions Daxus I get a trifle annoyed and have to look the other way, metaphorically. I don’t have any beef with Daxus currently. The last time I saw him, he took one look at my face, gave me a hug, and took his leave of Katie thus allowing us to do girly things (actually I was consulting Katie about a personal matter. It’s great when your kids are old enough to consult…)
I don’t want to waken the boys, but I don’t want to have breakfast too late because I’m off to a nice restaurant for lunch today with the Dunnetteers. I am so looking forward to it, and Keith is going too! I get to show him off, te he.
Today, pay rent, a quick tidy of the room, clean out the fridge (gah!) and other than that nothing but frivol and frolic.
I lost my bank card about three weeks ago but only called the bank to replace it a week ago, and it turned up yesterday. Without a bank card I couldn’t pay bills on line which was bad, or spend much money, which was good. I think I will start leaving it at home unless I have a planned cash expenditure that day. I run a tab at the cafeteria at work and only pay it off twice a month.
I light a candle for Zari at work; her mum died back in Iran and she couldn’t go to the funeral, and she’s been feeling really blue ever since. Then she said something that made me really sad; she said that even with everything that is so bad about back home, she’d be retired by now if she lived in Iran. I will be working until I am sixty-five, so I know how she feels…
After sober consideration, Jeff responded to the twit next door who told him in a note on his windshield to quit parking in his space. There is no assigned parking on this street. To think I cut a hole in the snowbank so the neighbour could have access to his car, during the last snowstorm! To think he has SIX PLACES TO PARK, two in his garage, two in his paved over yard, and two in front of his house! Anyway, Jeff’s letter was a masterpiece; too bad it won’t help do anything except vent Jeff’s spleen.
I forgot to mention that when I left Mike’s place on Monday night a skunk greeted me. I walked out into the road and said what I always say when I get too close to a critter; “Evening, brother skunk,” as I have heard that if you project civility animals are less likely to attack you. Skunks sure have an odd gait.
Every night at 5:45, about three to four thousand crows gather around the Keg on Willingdon. The sky is sometimes black with them. I am going to try to get pictures tonight.
I hope everybody has a simply splendid day, and a nice weekend.
It was quite a weekend for cooking. I made rum drops (cheap version of rum ball, and not super successful because I didn’t use powdered sugar), pork roast with the trimmings, massively unsuccessful pie crust, and apple filling for the pie crust. I also made macaroni and cheese, and that was an unqualifiied success, and I also added sauce to the chick peas I cooked, so they are now officially yummy.
It is with some annoyance that I have made the determination that the skin goop I bought for forty dollars a tube always makes my skin break out, and the stuff I got for free from London Drugs, which has enough perfume in it to fell an ox, doesn’t.
Paul and Keith came over for dinner and we watched a really cool show about the four winged ancestor of birds.
How shall I rescue the pie crust? I am at a loss.
I fed Katie and Dax last night, at Brentwood because Dax is not 100% with the welcome mat here and Katie didn’t bother telling me until I was committed that Dax was with her, then came home and saw Jeff hauling in a ten kilo bag of flour, which is a good thing, because there was no flour in the house, and we all know what that means. No waffles. I’m not saying that me continuing to live with Jeff is contingent upon me making waffles at least once a week, but I’d like to not take any chances.
The Luddite resurfaced in my inbox long enough to forward about ten links to educational videos from Vivid Entertainment. I only watched half of one; I am not sure I want to advertise myself as being someone who needs remedial sex ed.
I highly recommend 101 Reykjavik.
Katie rescued me from my plans yesterday (who needs to clean out the junk room, meh) and we hung out and watched the movie that dare not speak its name, which Katie really enjoyed (and I don’t need an excuse to watch anything with Lenny Bruce in it) and I made french country style apple pies using the mechanical apple corer peeler thingy that Jeff has, and I finally threw out the lard that he moved here to Vancouver after ten years (I opened the package, I counted three kinds of discoloration in the contents of the package, I smelled the package, I closed the package, I threw out the package) which was still not as old as the chickpeas which bore the legend ‘Arva Flour Mills’ which I s-canned about six months ago, which meant that I had to make the pies with pure butter pastry, and they were amazing. Why the Joy of Cooking says pastry has to have lard in it I have no conception. Also I made her listen to a couple of tunes on Thirteen, Vixy and Tony’s CD. I love Apprentice…. Also, yesterday I bought me and Katie a pound of prawns and we cooked and ate most of them. We also went for a walk and bought candy at 7-11. We also shared a couple of videos, like this HORRIFICALLY RUDE rap tune, which made me laugh very hard. I walked her to the bus stop and gave her a big hug goodbye. After she left (with the smallest of the pies to share with Dax, and a couple of oranges) Jeff and I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Also, yesterday, I used yourfont.com to generate my own font, with Jeff’s help, and I’ve even installed it already. Then I went to bed, after a perfect day perfectly misspent.
Things I learned yesterday:
I will be making more apple pies. Because DAMN THEY WERE SO GOOD, and I only got half of one, out of the four I made. I based the recipe on something Tom U. made for me and Paul once, and Paul and I literally talked about that pie for months. You know the kind of pie, where you wake up out of a sound sleep to find your partner looking dreamy, and you think, what up? and the other person says I’m thinking about that apple pie Tom made. That good.
Homemade meatball pita wraps are awesome.
I prefer prawns cold with dipping sauce.
Russell Brand is simply too cute.
If the sun is shining I must go outside.
Jeff picked up an instrument and played Rock Band last night. Now I will relate to you a story of such …. well, I’ll just tell the story.
The boys (Jeff, Keith and Mike) were crashing through the final chords of Creep by Radiohead and….phhht. The power went off.
There was no reason for the power to go off. The inevitable – the inescapable – conclusion was that their playing was of such total awesomeness, they rent the space time continuum enough to make the fuse go. Is that not amazing?
Apart from my home made cole slaw I didn’t actually do any cooking, Mike did it all. But steak and chicken and home made french fries? And cole slaw? That’s a meal.
I attended the baptism of Darwin this morning. He was angelic. That’s always nice. I briefly spoke with Unca Barry and Ontie Jackie, as well as the happy parents, but alas my excesses of the night before caught up with me and after I woke myself up snoring during the service I realized I should go home. Fortunately, an IGA was on the way to the Skytrain, so I could buy yummy snacks, and the Granville cold beer and wine store was awful handy, so I’m now stocked up again for the rest of the day. This is a good thing, because I’m going to be watching Army of Darkness.
I am thinking that I’d like a steam or soak though. I don’t know whether I’ll go all the way up to Hastings Steam and Sauna – I’ve never been there stag, which is funny when you think about it – or just to nearest rec center, which would definitely be cheaper and closer. Hell, I may even walk.
Casting the witch in the Wizard of Oz.
I heart Margaret Hamilton.
This is just freaky, but I’m only posting it because of the Firefly reference.
I was really suspicious of the do not call registry right from the beginning, mostly because after the gun registry debacle I didn’t think the Canadian government could organize something conspicuous in a camouflage store. Now we learn, surprise! bafflement! that the government is SELLING the list at a nominal price to whoever will pay for it. Alas, Ottawa.
In about 2 hours I’ll be jumping on the transit for my coffee date. Instead of swithering, I’m sorting laundry, acting as cat doorwoman, paying bills, cooking AWESOME split pea with ham soup, making breakfast for me and Jeff and answering emails. I had a wonderful night of sleep – slept maybe 1 1/2 hours longer than normal. I actually feel good.
Perhaps it has something to do with the departmental meeting with the new Ops great grandboss at work. Like Holy Paradigms Batman. I was buzzing like a thwacked beehive and dancing up and down like a little kid when I got home last night (met up with Keith at Brentwood station and the little bugger did a ninja on me, sneaking up behind me in the bus line up) because I was so happy with the meeting.
There are four priorities in the new configuration of the company. Safety, Quality, Customer Service and Financial Results. So I recited them to the dude to indicate that I’d stayed conscious during one of the town halls, and then I asked him to give me the matching 4 mantras of corporate culture. In a very TED lecture kinda way, he said, “Respect, Metrics, Voice of the Customer and We’re Only in One Business, and that’s the Only Business that We’re In” (not phrased like that and over a much longer period of time) and gave examples to support it. The previous group he’d been with had just sat and stared at him. Patricia and I peppered him with questions until he told us (respectfully) to let the men get a word in edgewise (and just think about the state of the world that this would be the case… I love the 21st century). Then I insulted his wife’s taste in sweaters (yes, I know, and I am going to be punished, I’m sure) and we went home. It was supposed to be a half hour meeting and it took nearly two hours and the time FLEW BY. My hopes and fears for the future remain the same, but my hopes definitely have my fears in a hammerlock.
I’ve been conversing with Deb about her daughter Jenn and her Pitbull rescue organization. Here’s the link. Unfortunately it’s not possible to get a tax receipt for Canadian donors but I urge my American readers to make a donation if it meets their criteria for a worthy charity.
And tomorrow, time for a baptism. Me happy.
I have a coffee date with a guy I met on an online dating site. Since I don’t have his permission, I will provide no details. Don’t worry mOm, it’s in a public place in daylight.
Very much looking forward to the Darwin Dunking on Sunday. Atheists can have an infant dedication through the Unitarians if they want a party-time equivalent.
Go Obama team on the whole Getting the Constitution off Life Support concept.
I didn’t see Aretha Franklin’s Inaugural hat, but I hear the dude what designed it has orders for over a thousand, and thanks to the power of the internets his phone started ringing about two minutes after the Inauguration. Having seen it I am somewhat amazed that a giant fruit bat swathed in Swarovsky crystals managed to drape itself so nicely on her head, but there’s no telling what animal trainers can get up to these days.
I’m gonna call B’nai Brith today and find out which English language Arab websites refer to Jews as apes and swine so I can tenderly remonstrate with them. I’m sick and tired of being called a racist by Jews because I don’t want heavily armed dudes killing babies because their parents didn’t have the money to emigrate to Canada. I don’t want the destruction of Israel, but the last campaign was more a demonstration by a bully than the continuation of diplomacy by other means. Hamas is a greedy, lying, violent sack of putrescent ideology, and I hope they all keel over from necrosis of the brain. On the other hand, if I don’t actually challenge both sides, Jews are right to call me racist, so I’m going to suck that one up. I will calm myself by watching Pat Cadell videos. You know he lived in BC for years, and once gave one of his rants wearing a Canucks t shirt which made me crack RIGHT up.
I liked seeing Keith last night. He was here for supper, to drop off my memory stick and to pick up his cell phone, which was eaten by Jeff’s bad, bad, sofa.
I liked seeing Kate last night. She appeared at the front door of Planet Bachelor at the same time I did last night and I burst into tears I was so happy to see her (and just as rapidly calmed down). Let’s just say I didn’t have a good day yesterday and leave it at that, oh, but how could I not mention I’m hundreds of dollars poorer AGAIN because I had to buy new glasses and they won’t be covered, but my prescription has worsened and the expensive ***** coatings on the old ones are trash. Nikon lenses are the gold standard my *****. Then when we got on the bus to leave (I was only there for an hour and had a snack with Paul and Katie) we met up with Wendybird! It was lovely to see her and talk to her again. She lives with her brother like me, and while she’s no Rhodes scholar she is one of the most cheerful and sweettempered people I ever met.
Katie’s doing super well in school still and got 95 on her last test.
Comcast layoffs are affecting people I know in the US.
This month is a three paycheck month, and happy I am about that.
The cats have trained me to pour them a glass of water if we happen to meet up in the bathroom. Go thumbed primate.
Normally I don’t watch, and I don’t care. But the Eagles Cardinals game yesterday was awesome, and I think I’m in love with Larry Fitzgerald. His play in the first half was enough to make watching football seem like a rational activity. Then the Steelers won, but holy crap, it wasn’t nearly as fun a game and the injuries were pretty much continuous.
On another subject…Gosh, I miss all the fun. I have to wonder if ScaryClown had something to do with it. And all the people who read this blog who’ve quit drinking are probably happy to be reminded of how stupid it all was.
With all the paper and crap put away, the acoustics in my room have changed. It is very odd.
I am sad to report that my second zombie heart was a miserable failure. It went into the oven okay, but sagged terribly and now looks…. Well, I’ll finish it anyway and post a pic, but next time I’ll make the base bigger. Let’s just say it’s a differently abled zombie heart. We went to Michael’s and got more sculpey and paint and clayworking tools. Jeff declared himself allergic to the Muzak, and I told him I was tempted to tell him he wasn’t the target audience (it was screechy girl stuff). I also wanted to quote Katie K about the “all Jann Arden all the time” station here in Vancouver. As in, she doesn’t like it.
Biscotti got cooked.
I also made spaghetti and meat balls – Keith even ate some. It was good to see him.
Otherwise I didn’t do much yesterday but I feel refreshed and rested… back to work!
I had a wonderful day and evening, sorting papers and rendering my room quite tidy, and then visiting at Planet Bachelor, where for an extra special bonus there was Jim, Jan and Nita (who was just back from a demonstration re Gaza in Surrey). Nita is at VCC – like Katie, but at a different campus – taking heavy equipment repair, go women in trades.
After Paul picked me up – accompanied by Keith, who promptly started asking me pointed questions about my parenting, or lack of it – we went to Burnaby Mountain and looked down over the city. There were kids sliding down the hill in the purest, most mood elevating sunshine, on that grainy crystalline snow that Paul calls corn snow, and the city itself was resting under an enormous smooth blanket of fog. I was very glad to get up the hill in the sun however briefly, and Mt. Baker on the way down the hill was so beautiful…
The pork roast Paul cooked was better than anything I’ve produced recently, the company was awesome, and then I had a miserable ride home on the transit. 25 minute wait for the 106; seconds of waiting for the Skytrain, and then another 25 minute wait for the 25 bus. I was so chilled when I got home that it took me about half an hour to warm up enough to go to sleep. Note to self – dress for the outside, not the inside, dummy.
This morning I decided I had no interest in the Mexican coffee that I am finding kinda bitter and savourless, so I cracked open the Sumatran, and the aroma that is currently permeating the kitchen could be used to waft angels home. Happy sigh.
I hear from Lady Miss B that Vixy (half of noted filk due Vixy and Tony) will be watching the inauguration live. I am happy for her. It’s an historic moment and I’m glad that someone I know will be there.
Last night when I was coming home I realized I wanted retail therapy, so I got Robaxicet, a teach yourself to read music book (which actually taught me something I had not understood before in the first five minutes, so that was useful), a miniature Gumby and Pokey set for Jeff, Ecuadorian chocolate, Cutthroat beer & a proper set of headphones for work including volume control. Now of course I realize that I’m an idiot and I just should have gone straight home, so I would have avoided a broken down bus and…
ick….
wait for it….
auditions for Canada’s Next Top Model in Brentwood Mall – when the batteries in my camera had just quit. Oh, and my cell phone batteries quit in tandem, so I couldn’t fire off an irritated text message to Jeff. I wanted to take a picture of the swarm of identical, malnourished, streak haired, pointy faced hopefuls, but instead I got an eyeful of leering men and resigned looking parents. Rechargeable NiMh batteries do not cut it for this application.
I am just about finished my laundry, finally, and will be moving on to other interesting events today, like trying to sweet talk Jeff into accompanying me on a shopping expedition. Yes, I know, but I want two things you can’t get nearby or easily, being my favourite kind of soap (French, honeysuckle scented) and more Sculpey so Katie can finish her chess set. And more paint. I think I need blue, clear coat, and maybe a bronze or silver metallic. And a fatter brush so I can really slop it on. ScaryClown says he paints everything he does flat black and then paints overtop of that. I will defer to the master on that one. He has severely restricted his alcohol intake, but frankly, he doesn’t look happier. And he’s bringing his lunches these days. So has the Dalai Jarmo, but that’s traditional for Finnfolk in early January, and he looks very happy these days and he’s going to be sitting close but not too close to me in the new regime. PS note to self I need one of those who the **** is behind me mirrors for work.
Katie, bless her, did not actually look for work yesterday, rrr. But Keith fitted his first set of contact lenses (perfectly, so he says) the day before yesterday so it appears that continuing to support his efforts to get edumacated is wise.
Jim and Jan are here this weekend and I can’t wait to see them. They are so wonderful. I wish I could just buy a city block and move everybody I love here. Except that many of them, like a kitty cat struggling to escape, would not be happy about living in Vancouver. It’s a nice place to visit, etc. And when I get a house I want laundry on the same level as my bedroom. I got that when I was living in the Cornerstone building and gosh darn, I want that again, although that might have something to do with how steep the basement stairs are. I nearly fell down them this week and it was scary as hell, because Jeff had his headphones on and I might have had a very poor time of it.
Biscotti. Again. I will be shipping it off to people by mail.
Valentine cards. Since I am sending work valentines to Barcelona, California, Indiana and Washington, I have to start early this year. There are 150 people on the list!!! I have created a monster, yet again.
I know somebody personally who is going to the inauguration, and I will be able to hear about it later this month. Me happy.
It’s only 9:30 and Jeff and I have already cooked and eaten breakfast and done a small shop; I also put on a batch of biscotti for Tom’s birthday party tomorrow. Continue reading Busy weekend planned
Awake at 5:20 am, poked around the net for a while, then got up and cleaned some pots and next thing I knew I was late for the bus. All quite normal. Late for work because both the 145 bus and the Skytrain were delayed, who knows why. At least I didn’t kill myself by falling down that slope – I’ve posted pictures of it, just imagine it covered with a glossy slick of compressed slush.
At 9 the town hall meeting with our new squid overlords. THEY CAN HAS SWAG!!! They gave out jackets, and mine is very nice and will probably fit me better in a year. But I like it. The meeting was full of my coworkers conspicuously signalling to me to get off my ass and ask the new squid overlords some pointy questions like I used to do, but I glued said same ass to my chair. Besides, I was wearing my “Earth to the Dandy Warhols” t-shirt and I just didn’t look corporate enough.
At work today, Mike McG gamely attempted over three meetings (Patricia was also there) to a) jam Ohm’s law into my tiny pea brain; b) jam info about PV string sizing into my tiny pea brain and c) get my advice/input/loud and unfeigned praise on a totally HAWT Salesforce customization. This will mean nothing to most of you but when I think of how much time and keystrokes that man plans to save the company I tremble in my granny panties, lemme tell you…
At lunch, Jeff the Queasy (an easily grossed out cowirker) said, “What the hell was with 206, somebody drew Ohm’s law all over the whiteboard?” and Patricia and I are thinking, “Hm, should we tell him?”
Anyway, I didn’t work much because I was in meetings or lunching for like 5 hours. It was like being an executive, and Tanya took the worst call of the day, honestly, the customer was a jerk to her, and then of course was nice as pie to me.
OH MY STARS. I have to tell this story, even if it gets me fired. The marketing department, whom I have been convinced wants to either kill me or slap me into an insane asylum for at least a decade now, put my name on a document….. associated with a phone number which comes to my desk …. and a toll free number that, alas, was one digit out from being correct. Care to guess what my name was associated with? A front for a phone sex line. I can die happy now. All my Dilbert dreams/nightmares have come true. By all the gods I don’t believe in, this story is absolutely true and I can call witnesses. And besides, the marketing department has already fixed it.
Our new HR overlord is from Suth Cahlina, and she said You All twice during the town hall. Not Y’all, that’s trashy, but You All, that’s cute.
Much thanks to Sandy P for the hilarious email about the mighty huntin’ dogs she has, I laughed like a drain.
Then a call from Paul – I’d been expecting to take the bus to his place preparatory for a swim, but he decided to pick me up, and then when I got there it was me, Keith, Kate, Paul and Daxus, and Dan T. dropped by for some soup, and I arranged to spend most of Saturday with Katie, and she plucked my eyebrows (they were raggedy). Katie and Daxus were playing chess when I arrived – Daxus was shellacking Katie. I saw the board and went, Concede, you fool! but they played it out. After dinner Keith and Paul and I went to the pool and swam and soaked, and then Paul drove me home. I drove home, but it’s Paul’s car. You know what I mean.
It was so good to see everybody. Dan T. said, “I had the strangest dream last night. I dreamed that I ate somebody’s dog, and it tasted like a pear, but I didn’t really like it all that much so I had two bites and threw it away, and then the owners were saying, “Where’s Fluffy?” I cried laughing, he was so matter-of-fact about it. I light a candle for his dad, who died recently. I only met him the once, when I gave a homily at the Comox Valley Fellowship, but I was very impressed with him indeed. He will be missed.
