Category: Family

Getting used to changes / Bloomsday

In honour of Bloomsday, my mother who sent the link, and to demonstrate that I’m not a complete waste of space as regards littrachoor herewith the dummies guide to Ulysses.

Spent a bit of yesterday helping Katie find a part time job.  Yes, she’s living with Dax.  Yes, 1/2 an hour of our time yesterday consisted of listening to the two of them bicker over the phone.  (I had to say to her, “Quit calling him names!” at one point.  Because, you know, somebody with an anger disorder really responds well to that.  What a pair.)  Anyway her resume is up to date and that was my excuse for finding out where the hell she’s living so I can quit worrying about it.  And she applied to a number of places to work and I saw her do it, so that’s all good too.

Rest of the day spent hanging with Keith and Jeff, and Jeff cranked up From the Earth to the Moon (the first two episodes) and my gosh what great TV.  Hanks and Howard cooked up something good.

I made chocolate rice pudding yesterday, because I can.

family night

Right now the waffles are on and I just finished turning the leftover spuds into home fries. New potato home fries are teh awesome, to descend into the newspeak of the young. Sure made Jeff’s eyes light up when he spotted them!

Last night Keith decided to throw himself at alcoholism again – and miss – again. He’s simply too smart and too fastidious to become a drunk. So what he does is buy something high end and drink slowly until just before he thinks he’s gonna maybe heave, and stops. The grownups got into the mickey of Johnny Walker Red more or less as he came in the door. Over the course of the evening I made home made cream of asparagus soup with three kinds chopped fresh herbs and home made fruit salad. And we started things off with garlic bread, of course. The food being spaced out like that was rather pleasant, like an extremely leisurely restaurant meal with cheap drinks.

Paul came by as well. We were supposed to watch something but the siren song of body work was too much so while Keith caught up on BsG we traded work for about an hour. Crap I needed that. That plus the sun coming out as soon as I got out of work and all of a sudden I am much more cheeful…. oh, and there was a phone call to my mother in there somewhere too. Damned hormones; can’t live with them, can’t live without them.

Jeff is reading a guy named Pinkwater and really enjoying it. I will try it when he’s done.

I signed up for ebay again hoping that I’d be able to find The Lost Queen of Egypt but man, it’s an expensive book. If anybody finds it in a used bookstore for like five bucks, buy it and I’ll pay for everything to get it here. Also I’m going to try Dunnett audiobooks, if I can lay my hands on one that is not too ‘spensive.

More waffles. I am still mastering Granny’s waffle-iron. Today I am going to go OUTSIDE because I know it will make me feel better. Such a fan of pathetic fallacy am I.

Finally spoke to Katie yesterday. We’re supposed to do resume things on Sunday.

Now that world appears to be back on its axis, I’m off to vanquish the rest of my day.

Heavy heart

I’ve been trying to get hold of Katie for the best part of a week now.  She’s moved in with Daxus and her last communiqué was a “Okay just need to get away from everyone”. 

Part of me wants to phone Rogers to shitcan her phone.  It’s costing me $50 a month to not ever get to talk to her in a meaningful way.   Daxus will get her one because part of his control freakery is texting her every thirty seconds when she’s out of his sight; I can’t imagine he wouldn’t run out and get her another one, or swap out the SIM card and get her a pay as you go phone.  Another part of me wants to cry, and I’ve been crying on and off since about 10:30 last night.

There’s other stuff going on that as usual I can’t talk about, and of course the thing that’s hurting worst is the thing I have to suck up the most thoroughly.  I’m really sad right now.  It won’t last.  It must be lived through.

 

The weather sucks so bad, we’re breaking 50 year old suckage records. 

Good Atheist, Bad Atheist is finally done.

I’m reading it to myself to get the cadences right, and stitching in a few last minute word changes. Thanks to my friends and family for the encouraging words.

Finally got hold of the Luddite – I’m off to his place for dinner and (likely) another interesting evening of Youtube videos, great music and amusing conversation.

I’m taking Monday off. As Dr. Filk once remarked, “I’m far too well to come to work today”

Domestic tranquillity update

I phoned Jeff last night after going a little wacky at the mall (total haul $100, shoes and tights) and said, “Don’t feel like cooking.  How do you feel about the Keg?” which plan met with enthusiastic endorsement.  Out of respect for mOm’s diet I’m going to skip the usual trough report.

My plants arrived!  Gai Lan, peppermint and Thai Basil.  I’ll be repotting them this weekend. I just gave them a little water.

I have a mild two inch scratch from Eddie, having helped clip his back nails.  No other injuries were reported.

There are at least fifteen blossoms on the strawberry plants out front.  I must go water them.

I send good thoughts to: mOm, Granny, Tammy, Katie daughter, Kopper, LTGW for the unwitting suggestion which finally broke the dam on the homily, the Luddite, Jeff and kitties of course (although one side growl for the unbelievable amount of hall-running they did last night), Tom and Peggy (get over here for dinner!), Glenn and Maggie (ditto!), Tom U. (ditto!), Mike, Heather, Jarmo and the gang that’s going to Indiana Jones tonight, Patricia, Tom McM, Carolyn Porco, everybody at JPL, all Dunnett fans, and all filkers everywhere.

Oh, I ordered a Zoom H2.  I couldn’t help myself; after almost a year of drooling on Lady Miss B’s H2 I gave in to the dark side and ordered it.

I have cancelled my planned trip to Denvention – I’m going to be needing every penny for France.

I am thinking of a certain pregnant woman, and confecting an especially airy and happy nest of thoughts for her.

A particularly happy and grateful shout out to Jeff, who has shouldered my tech support issues with the understated competence of a true professional.

Oh, and a big hug to the HR department at work.  I approached them and said, calmly, “I want to kill a co-worker.”

Response:  “Really?  Have some chocolate and tell me about it.”

End result:  15 minutes later, I’m back at my desk, snickering, and feeling much better.

Oh.  Nobody in my department – somebody else.  The folks in my department entirely rock, I love them.

Juno

Jeff and I watched Juno last night and I loved it.  The script, the acting – a wonderful movie, and Ellen Page and Michael Cera make my Canadian heart explode with pride.  Also, it makes fun of Unitarianism.

Yesterday I prepped my MacBook for working with Windows software by installing a virtual machine.  We’ll see how this plays out… Jeff’s going to help me with an XP install  With any luck I won’t have to turn it into a Vista machine.  The long term point of this is to allow me to work from home, as the contact management and call center software is all Windows and internet based.

My payroll problem has been straightened out.

Gizmo and the downstairs dog, Meadow, are getting to know each other.  Meadow is so anxious for someone to play with that it’s very cute.  Gizmo’s body language says it all.  Scornful, not the slightest bit scared.  Eddie made tracks like his little black tail was on fire as soon as he poked his head through the door and saw the dog.

I have now entirely s-canned my original homily, as well as the two subsequent attempts, and I’m staring at the screen with disbelieving horror… can my normal fluency have deserted me for this most important topic?  Can I restrain my usual desire to turn everything into a gag?  Will I find myself in the pulpit on Sunday next, eyes like dog’s balls, stammering, incoherent and bereft of a single cogent sentence?  Stay tuned.  On the plus side, there will be jazz at the service, most likely.

I would just like to tell the universe, briefly, that I’m tired of getting what I need and would like to get what I want for a change.  Okay, back to the homily.

Cryptic

Chipper sent a cryptic – and exciting – email about a very special event which will be happening in her part of the world.  Absolutely no details now but as soon as the official announcement comes through I will be posting it.

It feels very odd to be in the house alone with the cats.  Jeff and Katie are in Victoria.

More banging, screaming, crying and thumping from downstairs last night.  The folks were gone for most of the evening and the first I knew they were back their daughter was crying.  Fortunately, I know the difference between what a four year old girl sounds like when she’s crying with tiredness and annoyance (she was) and when she’s crying from pain or fear. Anyway, the crying seemed to trigger another domestic imbroglio.

Got my hair cut at Azzi’s.  It’s always the same goddamned thing.  I tell them what to do because I don’t DO anything to my hair, and they go “Insufficient challenge” and then they do something tricky to my hair.  And my hair looks like crap until it grows out.  Never, never do I learn.  Never do I grab chickiepoo by the hair and say.  Do  It  My  Way.  Thanks.  So I’m really unhappy with my hair this morning, and I wasn’t yesterday morning, and I had $35 yesterday that I don’t today.  I think she was trying to go all Terry Moore on me, but I got Phyllis Diller instead.

Got totally nuked by a fellow employee yesterday.  Fanboy Joe and I were discussing BSG and Gaeta’s song, which has the interwebs all hopping and antsy, and one of the business analysts came over, eyes a-popping, and said, STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP.  I don’t mind spoilers – they seem to devastate other people – but Joe and I desisted in the face of his obvious distress.

I will NOT be wearing my earphones on the way into work this morning, just in case brother bear is there.  They don’t usually hang around more than a day, but ya never know.

False Creek & home again.

I now know how to get to False Creek by bus.  The “Spit” yesterday (Spits being gatherings of Dunnett fans) was at Monk McQueens on False Creek,  a restaurant I’ve never been too. The service was sort of the standard Vancouver crabby – but the food was good and the view and company very pleasant.  The husbands don’t usually come along – most middle aged men will take a quick one in the ear before spending the afternoon with a bunch of strong willed middle aged women – but one did and he definitely was no wallflower.  AND I got a free button (Gelis is my heroine) which is pretty funny…. but it would only be funny and make sense for you if any of you had read the books. I ate oysters and drank draft Russell’s while the sun moved.  (Yes, technically everything is moving, and the earth is rotating around the sun).

Got a lift home, thank you Ingrid, and then finished Band of Brothers and watched the most recent episode of BSG.  Once again, operating on the theory that you just can’t have enough sleep, I went to bed early.

Waffles with strawberries and sausage for breakfast; barbecued pork chops, new potatoes with chives and sour cream, and fresh asparagus for dinner last night.

We expect to see Keith turn up some time today; apparently he went canoeing yesterday.

I’ve moved the strawberry plants the Luddite gave me to the front stairs, where they will get more light. Although he’s from south London originally, when he’s larding it on thick he goes pure Yorkshire and says things like Look-sure-ee, lass! which never fails to crack me up.  I think it’s a Look-sure-ee that I’ve got strawberry plants on my front stairs.

Today, puttering and laundry and at least one song stuck in Songwriter.  I’ve got some short ones… at this point anything would do.  Of course, the most recent one is Willie P’s Lament.  It’s only a minute long, in its current configuration; I’m quite fond of it. I just wish I could play it and simultaneously get the fretboard fingering, the picking, and the intonation solid.  I’m definitely working on the ‘best two out of three’ theory but I suppose I shouldn’t be too hard on myself, I only wrote it a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t been practicing much.  It was fun practicing it on Wreck Beach earlier – all I can say is my next instrument will be even lighter than a mandolin.

hot hot hot

By noon yesterday it was so hot in the house that I started thinking that it’s gonna be a very hot summer, and time to get a small window fan. By about two, I was sitting with Mike in the Mustang – top down, of course – heading over to Wreck Beach, which was full but not packed, if you know what I mean. Mike brought a UV blocking cabana (made for Spalding, it weighs less than a pound and keeps the sun off ver’ nicely) and then it was homemade music, surf, kids laughing, startlingly vast gusts of fattie smoke, a nice breeze which died around 4 pm, and the goddamned RCMP creeping up and down the beach several times, forcing me to hide my beer, the bastards. Yes, I know, what am I doing drinking on the beach? Well, it’s all part of the ambience. I even went in the water. Twice. The first time I thought that somebody was stabbing me in the feet with icy knives; the second time, basically just to make sure that I hadn’t had a physical hallucination, the icy knives were stabbing in all directions up to my navel. Don’t think I would have done well in Bastogne. Mike and I conversed about a number of things, but it was not a day for heavy conversation.

Left the beach to hook up with the kids to watch Narnia II, but (oh look, Gizmo is sniffing the barbecue in a hopeful way) unfortunately the 7:20 was sold out, so I bought them a snack and Keith headed out to my place with one of my parcels and I hung out with Katie briefly and then headed home.

Left the beach – I laugh to see that effort compressed into three words. I have been climbing a lot of stairs lately because I changed my route to work a bit, so I’m actually in good shape to climb stairs. I just couldn’t because of how hot I was. I stopped five times on the way up those 375 stairs (normally I stop once); but there were people skinnier and younger than me doing the same, so I didn’t feel bad. One middle aged guy (I must have been VERY red) asked me if I was okay and I just nodded. I didn’t push; I just climbed when I could. Got a shuttle bus almost instantly, then made the Big Mistake of the day and got on the 41 instead of the 25. The bus, which was driven by a woman in the first grip of a manic episode (I wish I was exaggerating) went mechanical (speedometer, a no go item), so I get tossed off my nice comfy seat and forced to stand in the blasting heat for twenty minutes until the replacement bus came, which was not a replacement bus, but just the next bus, which already had standees. That’s when things seriously fell apart. It took ten minutes of haranguing on the part of the bus driver (another female, this one justifiably testy but quite sane) to get everybody onto the bus – I lost sight of my bags – and every goddamned stop was accompanied by yelling to allow people on and off the bus. When I hit Joyce Station I learned that the movie was sold out (I was late anyway) and that’s when I met up with the kids (they appeared just as I pushed the door open at the mall, a wonderful feeling) and fed them a snack.

The sun (yes, the sun, I only had two beers) having had a wicked effect on me, I collapsed. Really, I should have had a shower first, but the way things have been going I figured the only way to make sure I actually wash my sheets today is by bringing the beach home with me. Out of courtesy to the other people who use the laundry machines I’m going to shake them out off the back deck first.

My back feels great. I like the sun. I even like moderate amounts of exercise. But the best part is coming home and thinking that I’ve lost a dress size off my butt from the exfoliation. I really love the beach.

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.

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.