Category: Family

Partay

I had a lovely time at the party last night, and stayed up WAY past my bedtime.  I wasn’t out of bed this morning until after 8, can you credit it?

Katie and Jessica D came by and fixed my hair and makeup.  I looked fabulous and no, no pictures.  I will try to reproduce the glamorization of Allegra at some point, but Mike was appropriately startled at the massive change to my appearance. I have finally gotten over my (grrr) feelings of unhappiness about him perming his hair, but I guess that was just me wanting things to stay the same forever, which, oddly enough, they don’t.

Sometime today Dr Filk is going to show up, and I have to vote, and I need to get some yummy foodicles for the party on Sunday.  La la….

Jeff went through HELL trying to return the trailer to U-Haul yesterday.  Did you know the franchisees, while they are not supposed to, can refuse to take items back on a WHIM?  It bit a good chunk out of the day to find someplace and then help the woman who ran the place get the trailer into the parking lot.  What a life!

Waffles this morning… now I am going to make a list and then get to Famous Foods and completely flip out anyway.

More when I have somethin’ else to report.  Oh, I’m SO looking forward to the party.

Master Jeff is in da house

Eddie and Gizmo celebrated his return by running up and down the hallway in an attempt to mimic the percussive qualities of army boots on wooden floors.

No matter how hard I try, I can’t stop with the ghetto slang.  I know there are many things that are seriously wrong with me…that seems to be pretty minor, all things considered.

That goshdarned full moon, which was fan-dancing with the clouds when I was standing on the ‘train platform last night!  I went to Brentwood Mall under its malign influence and bought matching earrings, bag, shoes and hairband (?!) and then bought, yeesh, makeup and got taught, in a very luxurious and unhurried way, how to apply it.  I’d say something about lipstick on a pig at this point, but I suspect nautilus3 is rather sensitive on that subject, for two reasons; one, the pig is her totem animal and she’s not one for mocking them, and two, when she was a high powered executive with 600 full time equivalents reporting to her (didn’t know that, eh, thought she was just a nice old lady, did ya?) lipstick was the only makeup she wore.  I wish I’d stayed and gotten my toes done but I’ll see if I can do that tonight.

mOm and pOp told OnSpec to send me a free copy of the their mag, and for bedtime reading (I hardly ever read a book these days, such is the pull of one phosphor dot screen or another) I read halfway through it.  Apart from thinking that the writing style of all the contributors remarkably similar, I really enjoyed it, and I think I will subscribe.  When you pick up a mag and DON’T think at any point, why’n’earth did they publish this, that’s a good sign.  I even liked the poetry, which is either a sign of necrosis of the brain or quality, you pick.

Off to a party tonight (thus the matching shoes, bag, earrings, hairband), and I will look fabulous in my outfit.  I even depilated, which is either a sign of the apocalypse or that I’ll be exposing more of my surface area than is normally the case, you pick.  Daughter Katie’s supposed to turn up and fix my hair, but after a lot of fussing around last night (Jeff would have been harrumphing had he been here, I was in the facility so long) I think I can do it myself if she bails. At least she’s okay.  I grouse, but I worry ’bout that kid. She’s moving back in with her pop and Keith and I for one am thrilled.

Tomorrow, I go shopping at Famous Foods in the AM and then ScaryClown comes over in the PM and we’ll have a documentary fest and I think I’ll cook up some yummy food.  He has to leave early (after supper) because he’s due to get up at hours ungodly on Sunday to get to the airport to fly to Providence, where he intends at some point to climb in a taxi or round up a sympathetic coworker (it’s a biz trip) and get driven out to HP Lovecraft’s grave.

This, like everything else in my mind, dovetails neatly with other family news; the parental units have commissioned a metal sculpture of one of the Old Ones.  It is disguised as a cephalopod, but those in the know will be aware that it is actually (dah dah duhhn!) something otherworldly.

I am planning on taking ScaryClown to Gadget House at some point and asking my parents to adopt him as a grandson, or possibly a nephew.  The idea of going on a road trip with ScaryClown alternately makes me blanch, giggle and furrow my brow.

Then, Sunday, my 50th birthday. It simply wouldn’t BE my birthday if I wasn’t importing guests, so Dr Filk has, with my warm thanks, agreed to come across the pond – Lady Miss Banjola, who will likely also attend, is requiring his presence for further practice, rehearsal, and scoffing, teasing and saying, You’re Fired repeatedly. All perfectly standard.  It should be a small and convivial crewe.  (Also with any luck Darwin the Alert and Lexi the Not-So-Alert-as-Darwin will attend.)  I’m gonna have an acoustic bass in my living room.  Let joy be unrefined!  Oh, yes, there will be filk.

I just opened a card from my folks, which reads “Thank you for the special gift of being our daughter.  Happy half century!”  Gosh, (scuffs toes) couldn’t have done it without yuz. PS thanks for the terabyte drive pOp.  Jeff and I are considering what uses to put it to…..

Biscotti has occurred

I don’t think I have quite enough data points to do a video yet, but I have a script and some of the pictures necessary to made a how to make biscotti video.  This is a hard bloody kitchen to film in.  Maybe I should be making biscotti someplace else, and evil thoughts come to the surface. I’m sure there are LOTS of people who would just HATE IT if I came to their house and made biscotti and left them there.  Yup; maybe I have a career as a biscotti fairy, setting up in people’s houses as they are expecting the open house to sell it.  I should contact stagers and ask if they have an opening.

The economic news continues to be confusing and dreary.

It was so nice to see Keith yesterday.  We watched Pitter Patter, the fourth episode of the Singing Detective.  I know it’s a really hard series to watch, and that the incessant racism and misogyny is a trial, but the stuff Dennis Potter does to narrative is a marvel for a writer to watch.  Anyway, Keith left to go see Katie, who for reasons of her own decided to go see her dad rather than me.  I ‘spect that has something to do with me asking her to, like, sort through her stuff while she’s here.  I’ll give her until mid-December and then I will simply haul all of her crap out of here and take it to the storage locker.  In the meantime I’m going to bag it all; her clothes smell like smoke even when they are clean and she hasn’t been living here in ages.

It’s very nice to have yummy food in the fridge to take to work for lunch (orangey coconut brown rice with mushrooms and bacon, leftover roast beef and chicken and bok choy stir fry).

Less than two weeks before I go to France.  Kinda puts the next little while in perspective.  I have a list…..

more Garage Band

I am definitely in the TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING AND ALL AT ONCE school of music making.  When it’s just me and a stringed instrument I can keep it quite moronically simple, but give me a wee bit o’ software and I turn into a complexificating loon.  I go back and forth between Not Ready Yet and Karaoke at the Hellmouth with no urge to trim it down, and this is not a good thing, as they are sounding increasingly bizarre.

Hopefully today I will be able to sweet talk Jeff into visiting some of the audio places around; i have my eye on a better mike and headset, and I also need a separate headset for the Casio keys because there’s no large hole to small hole plug in adapter adapter and otherwise I have to run it through Garage Band, which is occasionally inconvenient, like now, when Jeff has to twist like a pretzel around the keyboard to feed the cats.  Many thanks to Katie and Paul for keeping all the bits together – it would be useless if folks hadn’t tirelessly kept it with its ac adapter.  I am about ready to give Paul the ex-marital bed back, I’m so slammed for space in my room, and go back to a single so I can at least leave all my music set up all the time.  It’s either that or leave it strewn from one end of the house to the other, which is suboptimal.

On a work related note, I’m not there today.  I needed some time off to reacquaint myself with my creative side.  Given the right stimulus, it appears that if you perforate me, music still comes out.

I want to see if I can record any of my birthday festivities; that should be fun!

Last night I dreamed Ridley Scott was directing Brangelina in an x-rated film. Jeff looked up and said, “I’ve had the exact same dream.”  Snicker. All I got to see was Ridley telling Brad to stand ‘artistically’ in a doorway.  While nude.

Last night, roast beast with carrots onions and taters.  This morning, BLTs.  We just finished them.  Yum!

a big stew of links and updates!

I won something worth $720 and I gave it to a coworker after briefly toying with the notion of selling it.

I support the United Way, which is I why I won the above noted item.

I’ve been up very early every morning since the time change.

Patricia and I brainstormed a problem at work and the results were high five worthy.

I’m shopping today for my France trip.

Haagen Dasz Mayan Chocolate ice cream is REALLY good.

I have a very long list of things to do.

Flying Spaghetti Monster made a Pastafarian out of me.

Can a squirrel be cute?

There’s a new Youtube video in my account of the little waterfall next to work.

It’s so rainy that it’s actively dangerous to walk anywhere except pavement.  Wet leaves, slick grass.

It’s so rainy that the ground is exploding.  What the hell is it?

I had to take shots from different angles.

Is it a Helvella lacunosa?

These guys at least are cute and not reminiscent of inimical alien brains.

Found art in the ladies can.  This one’s for daughter Katie.

Barack Obama’s family is going to adopt ‘a mutt, like me’.  bwa ha ha!  We’re all mutts, Uncle Rocky.

I already sent this link to Paul.  Folks like this should get taken out behind the hangar and shot.

Some people study psychopaths, and I guess that’s a good thing.

I have an offer of a weeklong stay in a bungalow in Belize, and I’m seriously considering it.

Eddie and Gizmo demonstrate vertical superiority.

Doug’s contribution to the art of pumpkin carving.

Sandy P at work took this awesome pic when she was in SF.

Death by black hole and other astrophysical meditations; I especially like the notion that Apophis could have been called Bambi.  A physicist explains it all for you.

I am just finishing making waffles.

We watched Objects in Space again last night.  Honestly, it’s in my top five hours of tv ever. (Along with Restless, Michael Moschen’s special, the moon landing, and the episode of Band of Brothers where they parachute into Normandy).

If fonts had personalities…..

I am messing around a lot with Garage Band.

I found the sound of a door on freesound that was so good I put in on LOOP and listened for half an hour.

My digestion is much better since I started taking acidophilus.

Keith is supposed to turn up later today.

Oh, Nutella, how you glisten!

We are very SF positive in New Westminster.

That should hold ya for a while, I guess.  I’ll be off shortly to commit myself some serious retail therapy.

Meteors

There were lots of them last night, I just could not see them for the clouds.  How often do events like this resemble life itself.

I hear tell from Lexi that she had a limo and a box to see Lenny Kravitz last night – and the sumbitch cancelled the show.  This is the third show he’s cancelled in Vancouver, it’s like he doesn’t like it here or something.  I was actually hankering to go but now I’m glad I didn’t have the organizational skills buy tix.

Another fine mandolin lesson last night.

Katie is visiting this evening to pick up those items of clothing etc that she actually wants to take with her.  She is still entirely adamant about not laying eyes on Dax voluntarily ever again; she is viewing my consorting with him with a little yellow about the eyes and she was disturbed that he wanted to spend any time with Jessica D last night (they hung out for a couple of hours).  I opined that Jessica was far too smart to do anything except use the opportunity to give him a piece of her mind.  Personally I think Dax is well on the way to adjusting to the new circumstances and moving along,

Her schooling is going well.  Keith, as far as I know, is doing well.

I love my new hat.  It keeps my head warm, it looks good on, it’s heavy enough that it doesn’t just blow off in the lightest breeze, and it keeps rain off in a most firm and masculine way.

I’ve booked off the first week of February next year and I’m going to go on vacation by myself.  I’ve decided it’s San Francisco, Mexico, Hot Springs Cove or a fat farm.  Or maybe I’ll do something else entirely.

I hear tell that Carly smashed up her gran’s car earlier this year.  Weather related – no injuries except to pride.  I know that feeling!

Halloween prep….

Tonight I bought some more Christmas card fixings (I plan on making my own this year), met with Dax and Paul; took pictures of a white 1963 Signet Valiant RAGTOP with skull detailing and push button tranny;  and went to Dax’ place to pick up more or less the last of Katie’s stuff; collected some more Halloween decorations and stuff to hand out (Jeff already got’um pumpkin) as well as clothing items cribbed from Katie’s collection of wigger/goth stuff (handcuff and dice earrings in black and silver); and left my phone in Paul’s car.  He and Keith brought it back to me.  I also scored a pair of purple nitrile cleaning gloves – sexxay.

I also picked up pictures that Will took of me when I was nineteen.  I will scan the best of them and post them…. amazing.

Despite all this excitement I feel so blah words can’t describe it, so I’m leaving the mess as is for the morning and going to bed.  Tomorrow, excitement of many kinds will be ours, as Halloween BOOOOOyah takes the neighbourhood by storm.

Sneaky sneaky

I continue to be extremely sneaky – my most recent foray into sneakiness was telling my mandolin teacher “Lady Miss Banjola is a GEEENIUS!  Heer, I be showink you…” and then I played Tune Away…..

Anne immediately said, “Forward me the link, there’s somebody I gotta play that for.”  Ha ha!  Then I played her the Tapioca song via Youtube.  My extremely low key plans for world domination through music continue unabated.  And I met her husband – I only found out last week that he sits in the car and waits for her during her teaching gigs, and I was torn between being appalled and thinking, “aw, sweet!” so I went out and said hi.  Then I had a brief lesson and Anne and I shot the breeze for a while (it’s okay, hubby has a book and he’s used to much longer waits, apparently).

I met Kevin, a friend of Jeff’s, last night, and watched the two of them play 2009 EA Hockey (which is amazing, by the way) and found out that housing prices in Kelowna are just as stupid as they are in Vancouver, at least for the time being. Beer and Switzerland Chicken was consumed.  Robot Chicken was watched. Jon Lajoie was watched.  The hi-res version of Presto! was watched (and, to my unsurprise, I saw things I hadn’t noticed before, including that the rabbit’s name is Alec Kazam). Kevin belongs to a band called Grooveyard but since he’s likely moving back to the island with his wife and progeny, I doubt that band will live much longer.

And I don’t know whether it’s true or not, but Robof9 led me to believe that he was going to try to find me a nice middle aged man.  It used to be Single, Straight and Solvent, but these days I’m goin’ for best two in three.  What can I say, Robof9 is a man who laughs in the face of the difficult, and by sheer force of brains contrives to elude the grip of the impossible.

Next up:

Coffee

Show off, show off, show off.

Best….. smackdown…..ever.

Now I show off my brother, Kelsey and Sean.

Next, Keith, me and Katie, and Keith and I are wearing the hats we JUST BOUGHT at Edie’s Hats.  I bought a hat from a hat company that’s been in business in England for 250 years; I nearly bought a hat handmade in Montreal but frankly the hat was too girly for me, because although I am girly about some things, my appearance isn’t one of them….

Can you guess where we are???? of course, we’re in the Granville Island Brewery, drinking Winter Ale and being very cheerful and convivial; the sun was blasting down like midsummer and I had a NEW HAT.

Not much doing

Has it been that long?  Rogers sent me a notice today about upgrading my phone because the contract I got with them after Dax tossed Katie’s phone into an intersection is up.  Wow. Time flies when you’re getting a c/l divorce and trying to keep your life on something resembling rails.  What they really want is for me to sign up with them again.  And on that subject, Dax called Katie and she called his PO.  I know I sound like a sap, but he’s not going to hurt her anymore, and I don’t want him to go to jail.  Katie is so blasé ’bout the whole thing that she doesn’t care if I stay in touch with him, which I am doing on facebook.  The family advice (nautilus3 will probably recognize its origin) is “Don’t argue with him and don’t lend him money.”

Over at Planet Bachelor last night; Keith is doing famously although not studying enough in school (grr) and already contemplating the education he wants to get after he gets his trade.  Considering that this is exactly what his maternal grandparents did with their lives, I am sure they are quietly hugging themselves at the moment. Paul is in fine form and fed us dinner.

When I got home, Jackie the downstairs neighbour was out having a smoke. I met Bear, Jason’s cat, learned that THEY TOO want to punt Romeo, the next door neighbour’s dog, into the Delta Quadrant, and THEY TOO have been bitten by the dog.  Yes, we know it’s because the neighbours have a substance resembling moldy guacamole for frontal lobes; it’s not the dog’s fault.  Jackie and I talked for the best part of an hour in a most neighbourly way, straightened out some normal housesharing stuff in a good commonsensical way and then I downloaded with Jeff this am. Happy sigh.  Jeff says, “It just goes to show you how ******* loud the people who lived downstairs before were.”  Amen brother.  They were loud like they were getting paid for it.

Home safe

Got in a brief visit with my Gran and Dr. Filk (who is some filking busy these days, what with recording and travelling) yesterday; listened to Juliana’s new album with my mother; collected a book and two maps of France / Paris; and then got home safe on the ferry.  Jeff came and picked me up.  I had a very relaxing weekend.  Then I got up and tidied my room, as I damned near killed myself getting up in the night to let Eddie in.

To do: read the family history about the bookseller and antiquarian (and friend of Thomas Carlyle) Henry Wake.  Make turkey soup. Email Anne and tell her to rearrange Friday’s lesson as I am going to be at the church gathering Friday night doing registration, or so I surmise. Work on Halloween costume which is work appropriate.  And hack away at the 10 other projects nibbling at my conscience, and consciousness.

Here in Victoria…

… birds sing, musicals abound, the weather is gorgeous, and I’m feeling plenty relaxed.

Sad face…. pOp shaved his beard off. His reasons make sense but I’m still pouty.  He expected me not to notice – oh yeah, like I’m not going to notice such a change.  He’s had a beard virtually the entire time I’ve known him.

I’ve been helping mOm upload pix to the family history website, which unfortunately is password protected, so I can’t link you to the Gallery of the Undead, which is what a lot of my rellies look like. We’re mostly industrious and mostly intelligent, but by gar we are an ugly crew.  I’m glad I had kids with Paul and broke up the ugly some.

I just found out I’m descended from Lady Godiva.  Probably most of you are too, but it’s great to think that a character Dunnett wrote about is one of my putative ancestors.  And of course it links in nicely to my casual attitude toward clothing.

Update, and then off to Victoria

Keith was here last night.  I always feels me some better when my peeps are here.  (Cheeze Whiz,  maybe middle aged white women should lay off the ghetto slang.)  More to the point – we watched CSI and hung out.

I spoke briefly to Katie on the phone (I had been communicating with Dax and wanted to give her the update (she was supportive)) and gleaned the intelligence that she’s called the cops on him for phone harassment.  Given that even speaking to her technically puts him in breach of conditions for the last time he assaulted her, his PO intervened and said, slowly and clearly, that if he called Katie again he was going back to jail.  Dax has issues, but a desire to go back to jail isn’t one of them.

To be fair, I have to stay clear of him as well, never mind the temptation of being Evil McNasty to him in emails.  I am not proud of myself at the moment, but I HAD to vent, and Katie, as I said, reviewed my comments and at one point giggled and said, “Go Mom!”   So, the damage is extensive – Katie had 5 years in an abusive relationship, is out about 1700 dollars – most of the school money she saved for herself, which was why she ended up at my door and Paul’s for funds – pawned gifts, broken guitars, assaults by Dax’ housemate, and her relationship with Suzanne going sour…. yeah, she’s done.  For all of you who wanted to know is this it, I think calling his PO and threatening to file a report looks like a stake in the Slayer’s hand.

That said, IF he got and kept a job, paid her back, made amends, abjured violence and verbal abuse, and made peace with me, Paul and Keith, AND Katie wanted him back, I’d accept him as a son in law.  Stranger things have happened.  I believe very sincerely in the ability of people to change for the better, but it seems changing for the worse is easier.  As things stand now, Katie might want him back in an alternate universe, but this one will have to survive without their love.