Is it Winter?

The weather outside is frightful...blah blah blah...
I woke up this morning to the wind howling outside my window. I got up and checked on the weather channel to see what was up. The temperature was 16 Deg C! That's right... 61 deg F for you Fairenheit people. The wind gusts were supposed to reach 105km/h which is 65 mph! Holey crap, batten down the hatches! Wait a minute....when I went to bed last night we still had a boatload of snow everywhere. Now there is not a speck in sight, except for a dirty small pile on the edge of the driveway where last week it was chest high. This is the great white north, Canada. What happened to all the snow from the 3 big blizzards we just survived? My back still aches from all the shovelling. The weather channel has been displaying the big red warning screens stating there is a cold front barrelling through right behind this warm front that is passing through as I type.
I am so glad I have decided to stay in my warm fuzzy flannels all day sipping my Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zinger tea.
By tomorrow the weather should be back to normal...normal...who decides what's normal? The guy in the suit is pointing at the green screen, which by the way needs tweaking Mr Weatherman. Toronto is NOT located in the middle of Lake Ontario. If it is and it's that windy out, we are in BIG trouble....

Photo Blog

I finally decided to add a photo blog. As if I don't have enough on the go that I can't keep up with already. I'll see how temporary it is, as I fully intend to get my real website up and running one day soon......

...... If I can just stop redesigning it!

CatsEyeImagesCa

A night in Jail

Last night one of our tenants discovered his dog was missing. Rusty decided to escape out of the yard when no one was looking. Before long my man was on a mission trying to find Rusty since he felt partly responsible for leaving the gate unlatched. He was doing some work in the yard and had gone to his truck for some tools. Not knowing the gate was open ,the tenant let his dog out to do his business. Since Rusty's owner is in a wheelchair it would have been difficult for him to cover much ground on his own. So my man heads down the street and asks some guy if he had seen a cute little fluffy brown dog wandering around unattended. To his surprise the guy said there was a little brown dog inside the local pub at the corner where he had just left. My man hurries down the street, goes into the bar only to find out that animal control had just left moments ago with the dog. He calls animal control and they said it would cost $160.00 to have him delivered back home. So he said he would pick him up. They told him he would have to wait till the morning as they were closed for the night.
So this morning we made a trip to the pound to spring Rusty from his night on the town. Boy was he happy to see us! We got him outside and he had to pee like there was no tomorrow.....

....I wonder how many beers he drank before he got busted......

I like beans and beer

Around 8 Friday evening I decided that I would make some Boston brown beans in my crock-pot. I gave the beans a rinse, added them to the water in my crock-pot and left them to soak overnight. Saturday morning around 9, I turned the crock-pot on low to cook the beans for about 4 hours. I’m following my crock-pot recipe here, one I might add that I have used many times before. So around 1pm I’m thinking that those little navy beans should be quite mushy by now since I over soaked them and then cooked them a couple of hours longer than I was supposed to. I drained the liquid off the beans, reserving the 1-1/2 cups to go back in like the recipe called for. I added my molasses, dry mustard, chili sauce and other ingredients thinking that I would leave them cooking on low till dinner and then reap the rewards.
Come diner time I turned the beans off and decided it was time to try them. They smelled divine, so I got out a spoon, picked a few out, blew on them and popped them in my mouth. AKKKK…. They were hard as bullets! Oh just great…. I could hear the man now….”Get a can opener and we’ll have the ones in the cupboard”. I turned the crock-pot back on and left the bullets simmering over night. Sunday morning (I waited till the man went out) I checked on my beans. No change. They had been cooking for 26 hours now, what the hell is wrong with them any way? They should look like paste for all they had been through. So I called my mom on the phone and tell her my bean dilemma. She had no idea why they would still be so crunchy and asked me to keep her posted on the outcome. Off to research navy beans on the Internet and to my surprise I actually found a couple of possibilities for the petrified frijoles. First it stated that if the beans are really old (I bought them last week) that no matter how much you cook them they will be hard. It also stated that if your water is hard (ours is very hard) that it too can cause the beans to be hard. Something about the acidity of the water does something to the outer shell of the bean and stops them from absorbing any moisture or liquids. So there you have it. Soak your beans in bottled water and buy fresh dried beans. Now can someone tell me how the hell to tell a fresh dried bean from a stale one? The online answer to that one is that there is no way to tell till they are cooked. Well no shit Sherlock! By then it’s too late and there’s nothing for dinner.
So tonight the man comes home thinking we are having those delicious Boston brown beans for dinner and I have to tell him he has to settle for stuffed pork chops instead.

He just looked at me and went through the motions pretending to be using a can opener…

I told him next time I'll soak the little bullets in beer......

Am I Difficult?

I must be.....seems I do most things the hard way. I want to adopt a cat. Not so hard. Go to the want ads, look under pets, find free kittens to good home ad ...call number...pick up kitten. I tried that and it fell through. Next I went to the local animal shelter to try to adopt one of 52 bengal cats that had been rescued from a horrible place. That fell through. I really thought this was a simple process.


So now I will try something that is more of a challenge and see what happens. I am going to get in touch with a friend in Cancun Mexico that is involved in a local animal rescue called RAP. I will see what is involved in rescuing a Lean Mean Mexican Meowing Mousing Machine LM5 for short. I know she will find me a lovely purring LM5 because Cancun is teeming with unwanted cats and dogs. I trust her judgement completely and besides, I'm always up for a challenge.
So my man asks me if this short haired Mexican cats fur will be longer up here in the great white north (Wink) so I told him no, but he would now have to learn some basic Spanish. Words that he would normally say to a cat. I think he still might be mulling that one over in his head.

....Como se dice.....here kitty kitty?.....

Cats rule....Dogs drool....

My favorite furry friend is the cat, if you haven't guessed by now. Now don't get me wrong I like dogs as well, just other peoples' dogs. I do prefer the smaller breeds to some of the monster mutts out there. Our next door neighbor has a lovely chocolate lab named Max. He is a total sweety but puts on a great front to strangers. Max has one of those barks that makes your chest rattle, combined with his fur standing up along his back makes all 130 lbs of him quite intimidating. For those of us living nearby and having witnessed the other neighbors 4lb toy poodle chase Max home with his tail between his legs, we know different. As for skunks he has had a hate on or two with them this summer.
With the eventual adoption of a cat or two to our household I had some concerns for their safety should they come in contact with burly Max. Well I come to find out that he is terrified of felines! The head for the hills kind of terror.

.....So I wonder if Max thinks that 4 lb Princess Laya is actually some sort of cat and not a dog at all? He does know there is a big smelly difference between a skunk and a cat.

I'm still waiting for my interview

Geeesh....you would think I was trying to adopt kids or something. It's been a week and not a peep from the Humane Society adoption department. I think I will fire off an email to them, since they don't seem to answer their phones. I've been going in circles through their voicemail system, and I wouldn't mind so much if I eventually got a human on the other end because after all I am calling long distance here! I went on their website yesterday and noticed that they put their prices up quite a bit from last week, so maybe that's what the holdup is. The animals are revolting. Hmmm...... hey George Orwell can you say....uh..... Animal Farm ?
I read the book in high school back in...ok I could date myself right here but I won't. It's probably on the banned list in the schools by now. I wasn't much on reading most of the books we had to plod through while getting an education but this one I really enjoyed. It was right up there with Macbeth, which by the way was Shakespeare's shortest tragic play. I can't believe that I never made a trip to Stratford Ontario to actually see one of Shakespeare's plays. It's only a 1-1/2 hour drive from where I live and heck, I even have relatives that live right there.

So where am I going with all of this? nowhere, nowhere at all. I was thinking that I could always go to my Aunts farm and try to catch one of the wild kittens in the barn. Naw... been there done that...lost a pint of blood...and the battle.

but they sure are cute....

Adoption Application

After posting last night I got to thinking about those kitties that I didn't get. They always kept me wondering what the mystery was as to why the person suddenly changed their mind about letting me adopt them. So I decided to Google "Lost Bengal Cats Ontario". I didn't get any hits that hinted that any of the missing cats online could be these two but I did find a very interesting article: 52 Cats Rescued Talk about raining cats... Raining bengals no less!
I made a few phone calls this morning and filled out the online bengal adoption application in the hopes that one or possibly two of these 52 could come live with us. Now I'm told I have to wait to see if once my application is screened I hopefully get a personal interview to see if I qualify as a kitty mom. One of the main reasons why all the interest in the bengal breed is because next to a hairless cat (Ewww) they are the least allergic cat around. Bengals are described as having a very short tight pelt-like coat. I know Rivergirl is thinking that if you are not allergic to these kitties why not take all 52! (Insert wink here)

Keeping my fingers crossed......

Move Over Neighbourhood Kitty......

Fall is here.

Time for change.

I have decided that tomorrow morning instead of going to work I'm heading to the local animal shelter. I think there is a small bundle of purring fur that needs to come home with me. My allergies may kill me but I have decided that it's been way too long since I had a cat living in my house. Last month I almost adopted two cats but for some strange reason the person changed their mind at the last moment. I think there was something shady about the whole deal. After all who would post an ad giving away two purebred bengals for free in the first place.
I figure that maybe they had been catnapped!

Time to toughen up those itchy watery eyes and calm those sneezing fits........

End of summer Blues

Summer is gone.
The leaves are starting to turn and there is a distinct chill in the air. I find myself thinking more often than not about retirement. Who says you have to be a specific age to retire. I somehow think I might actually miss my job if and when I do the “Freedom 55” thing. My older brother turns 55 today and when I commented on “Freedom 55” he started to laugh and said ‘I wish! It’s more like Freedom 85 at the rate I’m going.’ I’m going to start rambling any second now…if I could just win the lottery, I’d help a few people with early retirement. I would have to plan carefully though, on my favourite beach in Xpu-Ha Mexico. I could go tomorrow no second thoughts…If I could just win the lottery…..

The neighbourhood cat has started hanging around our place again. Now that most of the landscape project in done , I guess she has forgiven us for the mess.
The other day she surprised me. She wandered into the backyard so I went to check on her as we were closing the pool and I didn’t want her falling in or anything. Not that a cat would allow such a thing to happen with the fear of water and all that cat’s seem to be born with. There she was peeking over the edge!
A few minutes later to my surprise she came out of the yard on a mission with a big fat mouse in her mouth and headed home with her gift. My neighbour was busy finishing a piece of furniture in the garage so she didn’t notice the mouse till it was dropped at her feet. When the shriek came out I realised that the mouse was still very much alive and running around Mary’s feet with the cat in hot pursuit. She chased that poor rodent up and down the street for a couple of hours and then finally had a rest in the late afternoon sun.


At least that will be one less mouse in my house come winter……

Graffiti Ghost

The current assignment for my camera club this month was Graffiti. I spent an afternoon driving around the city looking for some decent graffiti to photograph. Don’t get me wrong, I found plenty of graffiti tagging, just not much I would regard as the least bit artistic. You don’t have to look very hard to see a ton of defaced buildings and mailboxes around town. The artist (I use this term loosely) should be caught, held down and spray-painted all over. Let them go home and to school the next day and have to explain why their face is green and their arms are painted blue & red. Let them have their property ruined and see what it feels like. They can wear pants with spray painted badly spelled tags all over them.
There does happen to be a few very interesting painted walls around that actually show some talent. Now if it could just be channelled into something more useful. I parked my car in a multi-level lot downtown and decided to park right at the top only it wasn’t quite at the top. Once I got my gear together I walked up to the rooftop. The city took on a very different perspective from this bird’s eye perch. I don’t think that this pink ghostly graffiti can be seen from any other angle but for this parking garage.

Unless it continued in the alley down below……

To Bee or not to Bee......

I hate this time of year. I’ll be another year older, and it means the cooler fall weather is just around the corner. The end of summer, what summer, I ask? We had two whole weekends when it didn’t rain either Saturday or Sunday, or both. After the rain stopped this afternoon I went out with my camera to see what I could find to shoot. There seems to be a lot of activity in the bee society. They seem to be camera shy These little winged creepy creatures are right up there at the top of my eeew list along with spiders and centipedes. Now if I were still in Mexico my list would be on a much grander scale. Lets see, tarantulas, and scorpions would probably top my tropical list. I actually had a gecko that lived behind a rather large tacky painting that hung on the living room wall of my condo once. Her name was Henrietta and I remember the night she brought all her little babies out for me to see for the first time. My roommates were not so thrilled about the event. Maybe it was because I woke them out of a dead sleep to give them the news. I assured them the next day that our ant

problem was over. After all, with a dozen geckos around now how could we possibly have any ant dare to cross the room to get to the food in the kitchen?

Oh ya where was I? …Bees…. that’s right I used to have a great fear of them when I was younger. I was stung on many occasions in my life and at one time thought that all bees were out to get me. Call it bad luck but I even found out that dead bees could sting you. If it wasn’t dead then it was doing a great imitation of the dead man float in our kiddie pool. Got me on my thigh when I wasn’t looking.
Then there was the time at my grandfather’s house. He had one of those old stone houses with a grand front porch with rockers and even an old couch to sit on. My sister was very young at the time and her feet didn’t reach the floor as she sat on the couch swinging her feet back and forth. Unbeknownst to even grandpa she kicked a bee’s nest that was hidden under the couch. Out came a swarm of bees and yes you guessed it, they came straight after me. I started to run across the yard, with my grandpa chasing me. I seem to recall someone turned on the hose to try and ward the little buggers off. I think we ended up with half a dozen stings each and drenched clothes. I always thought it must have looked like some comedy skit to someone that was unaware of the whole goings on. My sister was too young to realize what she had even done. I should ask her some day if a bee has ever stung her.

I think I will give her a call………

As if I don't have enough distractions already

I just had to go check it out. "TWITTER" Does that make me a Twit? When I'm reading am I Twitting? The one liners, I do know are called Tweets. That's about all I know so far.....
Thanks a lot Rivergirl.

I have to blame someone.....

http://twitter.com/CdnCat

Ashes to Ashes.....

Well I made it back from the east coast of Canada feeling a bit more at peace with the world. It was an emotional trip for the family, but we made the best of it under the circumstances. My uncle took care of all the arrangements at the church and the cemetery. He is actually in charge of the cemetery, having spent a fair bit of time having to verify plots and corresponding names on the stones. Seems there were some discrepancies with some of the measurements a while back. He mentioned to me that they had a burial that prompted the assessment when they nicked the edge of a coffin in the ground where there wasn’t supposed to be one. Oops! All is well now and everyone has been accounted for.
We filed into the front pew in the church and I noticed a small back box on a table beside my dad’s urn of ashes and all kinds of thoughts started racing through my mind. I turned to my sister and asked her what she thought was up with the black box. She had no idea. My thoughts kept wandering throughout the whole mass…did ‘they’ put my dad in this box? ….did they want ‘us’ to put my dad in this box? Then in the midst of the sermon the priest acknowledged my father and then some other guy! What the heck? Now I felt kind of bad for the other guy. The whole mass was scripted around my dad and all of our family. We knew nothing at this point of this other man or his family, but at least I knew we didn’t have to tamper with my dads ashes and I could set aside all the crazy thoughts that had been consuming my brain. It turned out that this other man had passed away 3 years ago and 5 of his family members were present and asked if they could share our mass so they could bury his ashes as well. My uncle said he couldn’t very well say no to them as he figured that they needed to do this just as much as we needed to. I wonder though, why someone would wait 3 years and then show up 10 minutes before mass with such a personal request. I’m sure they had their reasons and I’m glad we could help them lay him to rest.

Spending 4 days with my immediate family was a challenge to say the least. Now don’t get me wrong…I love my family dearly…..but...

I need my space. I always have. Besides it might have been easier if the weather had co-operated. For most of the time it was raining or cool, humid and cloudy. We were fortunate that my very generous cousin let us stay in his cottage which was situated about 50 feet from the edge of the cliff that dropped off to the ocean. A set of stairs descended to the beach below where I ended up spending a fair bit of my time walking. Not a person to be seen and the only escape from my family and the mosquitoes. If I didn’t contract West Nile while I was there, I at least contributed to some sort of insect inflicted transfusion with the help of hoards of tiny winged blood bandits!
It’s so sad to be at the ocean and say that I only waded to my knees and didn’t go swimming at all. It was a combination of the lousy weather, cold water and all the jelly fish that were dotting the shoreline every couple of feet that kept me from jumping in. Then there is also the thought of all that exposed skin just waiting to be attacked as I would have had to run from the top of the stairs across the wet grass and into the cottage and wonder how many pints of blood I just gave as I scratched myself to death. My sister couldn’t believe how the little buggers loved only me. In 4 days I used most of a container of OFF! mosquito repellent. Without it I would have been the one needing a blood transfusion….this mosquito attraction is all new to me. I have never really been bothered by them until this summer, so get over me already and move on to your next victim!

......pst....found some dirt shirts......

In search of "DIRT" shirts....

They can only be found in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Seems appropriate as we are heading there this morning to attend the bural of my dad's ashes tomorrow. I will report back in a few days with the details. Can I survive 4 days with the family and no computer? At least I will be staying right on the ocean.

....and maybe the landscape job will be completed when I get back........

If I help....

Do you think it might get done any faster? I am so tired of looking at mud and dirt, not to mention breathing in Diesel fumes. I think all the neighbors hate us by now. They keep asking if we have had enough yet? Like we can stop part way through...and say what? "Put it back the way it was?" I think not. I am starting to lose sleep over it now. When I wake up dreaming about placing boulders slung from heavy machinery, I have to wonder.

So the neighbors' cat was over the other evening showing me how to hold up the rocks with her back, while they get back filled. I tried to explain to her that if she came around during the day she might become back fill.

Next morning I came out to have a look around before the noise and mess started and there she was lying right under the Bobcat. She put her ears back, gave me a look and then proceeded to get up and mosey across the road without so much as a pause for a petting. I think she is not amused by this disruption in her hunting grounds.

....neither am I....

The Cat liked my garden the way it was.......

I've often wondered why the neighbor's cat liked my yard so much. Well there are a number of reasons.

First and foremost is that she has always preferred to do her daily duty in the front yard under my living room window.

Second, she would hide near my cedars and chase the wild rabbit that used to live under one of the bushes when ever she came out. Don't worry, the cat is too fat and slow to ever give the rabbit a run for her money.

Third, she likes to think that someday she just might catch on of the birds that nest in the tree in the yard. Now unless a bird were to fall out of the nest and land in her mouth I can't see her pipe dream ever happening.

The robins were finally ready to leave the nest and she was spotted hovering in the garden . Short of her tying a bush to her back she stuck out like a sore thumb, so I wasn't concerned for the birds. I was in the kitchen preparing supper when I heard quite a few birds in the side yard causing quite a commotion. Sneaking out the back door I went to see what the uproar was about. Well to my surprise it wasn't the cat at all but the dog next door. Max is a 130 lb chocolate lab. Seems that one of the baby robins took a short flight and landed on the ground on the other side of the fence. Max was sniffing at the robin and had it cornered in the yard. All the yelling in the world from me couldn't get the dogs attention. I had no idea that birds of all kinds band together in a crisis. There was Ma & Pa robin freaking out on the fence. Numerous other robins, starlings and even a couple of goldfinches were all screeching their tiny lungs out. when the dive bombing attack began, Max retreated to his back door and wanted nothing more to do with the whole situation. It took a while before all was calm in the garden again. Ma & Pa robin went to the rescue and the rest of their feathered troops went back to whatever they had been doing before the invasion. There I was thinking it was the neighbors cat causing all the fuss. If it had been her, I think the birds may have had the upper hand this time. After all they had called in the reserve troops for this battle.

So the other day I see Miss Tiger sitting in the middle on my front yard. It looked like she was assessing the whole situation...wondering what the hell was happening to her territory. You see, we had the tree removed as well as all the bushes and the yard looks like a battleground. Right now there are 22 tons of boulders lying all over and we are up to our eyeballs in mud.



Who's idea was it to re-landscape the yard anyway.......

And The Cat Came Back.........

….well sort of.

I returned from what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation from Mexico only to have my whole life caught up in a tornado of emotions and everything spiralling out of control.
I figured if I didn’t get to my blog again soon I would be so overwhelmed that I might never come back. So here I am sitting at my computer wondering where to begin.

I think everyone has wondered about the “BAD Penny” and almost given up on how that story went. Seems like the logical place to start.

First, a bit more background to help you understand why I had to do what I did.

My father in-law was living with a woman that the rest of the family didn’t approve of at all. But as kids we can hardly tell a parent how they should live their life. After all when did we ever listen to them? We figured if that’s what made him happy then so be it. It was hard though, watching her isolate him more and more from all of us, to the point of no longer seeing him even on special occasions such as Christmas or birthdays. Then the unthinkable happened. On the 23rd of December 1 ½ years ago I got a phone call from the BFH. We now refer to her as the Bitch From Hell. She told me she thought my father in-law was having a stroke. I asked her if she called 911 and she replied no. I told her to hang up the phone and dial 911 and to call me back after she did so. From this point on things really began to unravel. In a nutshell, she was expecting him to die, so she tore the house inside out looking for money or any other valuables. She spent the next month packing up and throwing out all his possessions. She shredded all his important documents, including income tax papers. I could go on and on but what it boiled down to was we were on to her game and he wasn’t about to die. A few months later we found out that her plan was to hang around and try to bleed him dry as long as she could. With out typing a novel on the whole sordid mess, take my word for it when I say, she deserved the BAD Penny.

Everything went as planned. I took the penny for a ride one morning. Driving with great care, not changing lanes and keeping to the speed limit. On my lunch break I took a stroll by my father in-laws place a couple of blocks from my office with the penny along for the ride in my pocket.
I nonchalantly snuck up the side drive and carefully placed the penny on the ground right beside the BFH’s (Bitch from Hell) drivers side door of her pickup truck. I went back to work grinning inside, knowing the seed (penny) had been planted.
I know for a fact that she found it and put it in her pocket…an eyewitness reporter informed me first hand. Apparently she made a big deal about finding a nice shiny penny.
Now the wait…. So I went to Mexico for this part…not really, I was already going there anyways.
When I returned from my trip, one of the first things I heard was the BFH had moved out of my father in-laws house! Gone! Vamanos! The BAD Penny was doing it’s black magic…and quite well I might add. As of late, the BFH’s life is apparently in shambles. All I know is that my father in-law has never been more content and wonders whatever made her leave and why it wasn’t sooner.
The moral of this story is: If I EVER try to give you a penny ….don’t take it, unless of course you are willing to risk everything. Oh, and by the way this is only one incidence.
There have been others.

Maybe one day I’ll tell you what happened with “ The BAD Peso”

The BAD Penny

A few years ago I was working at a company that was in close proximity to a lot of places nearby in malls to choose from to eat out for lunch. Most days when the weather was nice my co-worker Josie & I would walk somewhere for lunch or to go shopping. We had a whole hour to kill so it beat walking around the building 15 times for exercise.

This one particular day we were cutting across a parking lot when I spotted a nice shiny penny on the ground. Yes I was one of those people that stopped to pick up money off the ground, even pennies. We both made a dive for it and she beat me to it.
The next morning Josie came into my office with tears in her eyes, slapped the penny on my desk and told me I could have it. So much for good luck, she said. She found out her husband was cheating on her with his secretary.
Later that afternoon I was called into my manager’s office and was told that due to a shortage of work my contract was being terminated. This kind of caught me off guard because the job I was assigned to was not quite finished and I almost always picked up when things were slowing down in the work department. I just didn’t see a slow down coming up any time soon, so I couldn’t believe my ears. I dug the penny out of my pocket and marched over to Josie’s cubicle. I told her the bad news that I was no longer employed as of Friday. At that point I threw the penny in her trash bin.
Right then her manager came in to her office because he wondered why I looked so upset. I told him I was just given my walking papers and he was as surprised as I was. At that moment he saw the penny in the trash and picked it out. We both gasped and told him to leave it be. It was a BAD penny, but his remark was that it was just a penny and he put it in his pocket. We tried to warn him but he just chuckled and said he was off to have a chat with my manager about my termination. We both shrugged our shoulders and said “he was warned”
The next morning Josie came to my office and told me that her manager, Bob was not in. We both said at the same time “The BAD Penny”
About an hour later there was a notice posted on the board that Bob’s father had passed away in the night.

From that moment on we both vowed to never pick up another penny, ever. Since then a penny on the ground would stop me in my tracks and remind me of that day. At least until a couple of weeks ago…

…..I parked my car in the garage and walked down the driveway to the mailbox. There on the ground was a brand new shiny penny. For some strange reason it didn’t stop me in my tracks. It didn’t remind me of the BAD penny at all. I promptly picked it up and put it in my pocket. Not till I pulled it out of my pocket once I was standing in my dining room did I realize what I had done. I had picked up a penny. What to do. Do I put it back on the driveway where I found it? Do I keep it?
The penny has been sitting on the edge of the kitchen table for almost two weeks now, reminding me every time I look at it of what to do. This too is a “BAD Penny” I just realized today that bad things have been creeping into my life in the past two weeks. Coincidence? Maybe, but my dad’s health is at stake here. I guess this makes me superstitious. Can I put it somewhere that a certain person will find it and they can unknowingly deal with it? Problem is I would have to drive in my car to dispose of it. Does this make me an evil person. So be it…can I drive with it in my car?

I’ll let you know…….

CATcheeeeeeewwww!

I hate having a cold. It started on Monday with a scratchy throat. By Wednesday I had a fever and I felt like there was a vice on my head. When I woke up Thursday I decided enough of this and called in sick. This is not something I do very often. In fact I have not used a sick day in over a year. I think I mostly needed a mental health day more than anything. I get 4 weeks vacation every year and I still need to use last years weeks up. This is so unlike me not to go to sunny Mexico once, if not twice a year just to kick back and get in some scuba diving and only worry about what SPF strength sunscreen I should use.
I already have tentative plans to leave for Mexico next week but now guilt is starting to take over in a big way. My father in-law is having surgery for an aneurysm on Monday so I promised myself I could not leave until I knew he was going to be ok. On Wednesday I got a phone call from my mom telling me my father is not doing well. His health has been steadily declining the last few months and she is afraid he is not going to last very much longer. I am so frustrated. I can’t go to visit my parents with this nasty cold for fear of passing it on to them. I would really hate it if my dad got my cold and it finished him off. I would never be able to forgive myself.
Do I get on the plane and go get some R & R and have this giant guilt cloud hanging over me for the entire trip or do I wait? Till when…..next year?
Personally I feel I’m being rather selfish for wanting to escape my regular life for a while, but on the other hand most of the people that know me well keep telling me that I need to do something for me for a change. This is where frustration sets in big time and I’m starting to get quite stressed about it all. And how do I tell my boss yet again that my vacation plans have been put on hold. I’m glad he is such an understanding person and can look beyond my temporary bouts of insanity. I mean how many bosses let you take a Friday afternoon off to go take photographs of the Tundra swans as they pass through town on their migration path north?

…..Mine does.

Cats Have Night Vision

We were invited out last evening to a friends place for a birthday get together. It was a spur of the moment decision to go since my man forgot to tell me about the party till the last minute. I actually didn’t have any other details about it till about 4 hours before we were to leave for the party. When we arrived at our destination my man was a bit confused because our friends place was in total darkness. I reminded him that it was around 8pm and it was “Earth Day” so maybe they were entertaining in the dark. The deal was to turn off your power for 1 hour between 8 and 9 pm. My assumption was correct and they were indeed observing "Earth Hour". The door opened and Cory invited us into the shadows of their new home. Well actually there were a few candles softly lighting the way. There was just enough light to identify where people were standing and we could recognize people by their voices. Pouring drinks by candlelight was not too difficult but nibbling on the assorted finger foods turned into a fun challenge. I think the nicest surprise I tasted was a thin sort of spongy damp strip of something that was light coloured on one end and sort of black on the other half. It turned out to be a pineapple spear dipped in dark chocolate. It was actually a lot of fun tasting food you couldn’t really see. It’s really quite amazing how much your eyes become accustom to the lack of light, so when it was decided that the lights were to be turned back on sometime shortly after 9 pm it was quite offending to the eyes for the first few moments. I would have been quite happy to leave things as they were because I had been suffering from a headache for most of the day, but then I really did want to see the host and hostess’ new condo. After all it was our first time being there so it was nice to see the place with the lights on after wondering what colour the walls were for almost an hour.

I can hardly wait to try this again …..

Getting to know you MEME

I have never been tagged to do one of these in a blog before. I have no one to pass it along to as the only blog posted on my page is the person that sent this to me in the first place.This meme has 20 questions and the answers will involve either a list of 3 things or a revelation about the last time something happened. I hope you enjoy it.

What are your top 3 favorite foods?
Grilled cheese, Thai food & anything with lots of onions.

What was the last book you read and would you recommend it?
The last book I read was from Readers Digest. I was 3 condensed books by Pearl Buck. The Good Earth, Imperial Woman, and The New China. I enjoyed reading them very much and would recomend for sure but may be hard to find. It was published back in 1985.
What are your top 3 favorite places?
The Yucatan in Mexico, Thialand & underwater with the fish.
What was the last lie you told?
I told a friend I was too tired to visit them, I wasn’t really I was being lazy. I didn't want to go out in the bitter cold of the night.
What are your favorite 3 sports (to watch or participate in)?
I love to play and watch baseball. like to watch figure skating and football.
What was the last movie you watched and would you recommend it?
Lost In Translation. I love this movie but I think it's because I can totally relate to it from my time living & working in Japan.
List 3 things you can see outside of the nearest window.
Old dirty snow, the neighbors cat and a morning dove perched above the cat!
Where was the last place you went? To Canadian Tire for some brake fluid for my car. I hope it will satisfy its thirst and make the red light go out on my dash.
What are your top 3 favorite “good causes” or charities?
My favorite is the local food share program for the poor. I give to various charities throughout the year, MS, Breast Cancer. Tha'ts 3 but there are more...
What was the last thing you did for someone else?
I got my sisters computer fixed for her. She couldn't afford to get it repaired right now so I called in a favor to the IT guy at work.
Name 3 places you have never been that you want to visit.
The great Pyramids in Egypt, Greece and the Grand Canyon.
What was the last thing you threw in the garbage/recycling?
Egg shells.
Name 3 things on your bedside table.
My clock radio, a small stuffed cat and a lamp.
Describe or name the last piece of art you looked at.
One of my best friends pieces. She has her own abstract style and she only paints what she feels for the person that requests a painting. Very.... nice but specific so may not appeal to some. Her husband says he just doesn't get it.
What are the top 3 things that your job requires you to think about?
I'm a Systems Designer so I guess that would depend on the project. Rght now I'm dealing with conveyor systems for a blast furnace (Steel making) so requires me to think numbers...numbers....and more numbers...
What was the last musical or theatrical event that you attended?
Does going to Statford on the Avon where the Shakespearean Festival is to take photographs of the grounds and wildlife count?
What are the first 3 things you would do if you won the lottery?
I would invest the money so I can enjoy the interest from it, then I would take a month off, go somewhere tropical to ponder what to do for the rest of my life. Then I would go home and have someone else finish all the renovations half done in the house.
Describe or name the last serious injury or illness you had?
I took a tumble down the basemant stairs a couple of months ago and really banged up my shoulder & elbow. I should have had an xray. Oh well too late now.
What are the top 3 things that you wish you could do?
I wish I could retire and live comfortably 6 months out of the year in Mexico right now. I wish I could take better photos especially of people. I wish I could lose 10 more pounds!
What was the last thing that someone said to you that you will remember forever?One of my best friends said I was like the sister she never had.

Refrigerator Poems

A couple of years a go I bought these silly little word magnets in a box. The whole idea behind these tiny jumbles of words was to place them on the refrigerator and then attempt to create poetry from the hundreds of random words. My only rule was that if the word was being used on the right side door you couldn't steal/borrow any words already used in a poem. You only had the words on the left door to draw from.
The last few weeks I have noticed on occasion when I've gone to the refrigerator for a particular food something was not always the way they should have been. Like the time I took out an onion and realised it was kind of frozen. Then the other noticeable food item was the ice cream mush. Next time I took out the ice cream I could barely get a spoon into it. Now you might be thinking if you know me that I just put the ice cream in the frig and stored the onion in the freezer, but I assure you this was not the case. There are also some really strange noises coming from the kitchen at times lately. So much so that they make me go in the kitchen just to find out what it is exactly. You guessed it, the refrigerator. I figure any time now we will have to go appliance shopping and drop some major coin on a new one. I really was hoping not to have to buy a new one till we remodelled the kitchen, which by the way is almost 2 years over due according to our renovation schedule.
Back to the words. I decided tonight to remove all the tiny magnets and place them back in the container they came in. I want to be ahead of the game if and when the frig does die. I thought I would post my poems from the frig here before they are forever lost in the box with the rest of their word buddies.

Spring is a garden
In summer smell the rain.
Worship a fall sun
For the winter will never end.

White flood like waters
pounded up from a windy sea,
And wet me.

Her storm like stare could ache for a sweet chocolate death.
The power of her dream
Yet produces a cool sweaty scream
Still, she sleeps.

A whispering misty moon
Felt like a symphony of music,
Only the moment was gone.

I frantically swim to an elaborate iron ship
And then by car
Would be an easy road trip.

Essential is language.
I think,
I read,
I need,
I see a vision.
I ask, is this a gift of man?
No, it is of a friend.

Friday Lunch with the Guys

Every Friday my co-workers & I try to go out for lunch. The question starts sometime after 10am. Where does everyone want to go...Dim Sum...Indian Buffet...Thai....? Today we all decided on Mediterranean Food. So we snuck out of the office a bit before noon because we knew that if we didn't...
1. We may have a hard time finding a parking spot....and...
2. The restaurant gets really busy, especially on a Friday.

We get out to the parking lot and all of us pile into the Peter bus. This is the name we called Peter's old van. When he finally bought his new Toyota Matrix we continued to call it the Peter bus. You see he's the only one that can fit all 5 of us in 1 vehicle. Most others either have really small cars or they have baby seats to contend with.

Anybody familiar with the city I work in knows the downtown is mostly made up of one way streets. This wouldn't be so bad except today Peter made a bad choice. When we got to the first main intersection we could see that the train barriers were down and a train was slowly making its way through. So Peter turned right which was a good thing because we were turning onto a one way street and a right turn at least had us going in the correct direction. Then he does a left and this was where he made a bad choice. Instead of going straight through he turned left again. Now we are on another one way street and we are going the right way. The problem is the train. We now are stuck watching this train painfully crawling by. We can't back up or turn around, so we are stuck. Waiting.....

I look over to my right and there is a huge park. "So is this bus a four wheel drive?" I ask. Peter wants to know why I want to know this. I pointed to the park and told him if he could just get over the first snowbank we could cut over to the next street which by the way has an overpass over the tracks.

Well now it's open season on Peter while we wait for the 100 plus rail cars to pass. The guys start giving him a hard time about how he never cleans his car. They picked things up off the floor in the back seat and tried to identify the the brewing science projects and would then chuck it over their shoulders into the rear compartment. Lets see... hmmm.... plastic container with some mystery leftovers in it. Chuck. A spoon. Chuck. Empty water bottles and full, half frozen ones. Chuck... chuck... chuck....

Then they find the beef jerky package. Now, I might add that this beef jerky package was first discovered about 6 weeks ago on a similar road trip on a Friday afternoon. The package in question turned out to be that very same one. Ewwww! We all remembered Peter telling us back then NOT to open it. He had placed a banana peel in it a few days before and said he hadn't got around to throwing it out yet. So the guys are now holding it up for inspection to see what, if anything, was growing within. Ewwww! miniature composter. Then I heard a thud as it bounced off the back window. I told Peter as a matter of fact that bananas give off gases as they decompose and if it explodes in his car he will be invaded by the largest fruit fly infestation known to mankind. I made this up but Peter is just so gullible. By now the train is stopped and it looks like it might start going back from where it just came from. Holey moley so much for leaving a bit early. We have been waiting for what seemed like an eternity already. We continue to poke fun at Peter pointing out that his new car has not yet lost it's new car smell.The train finally got far enough down the tracks and the barriers go up.

We get to the next corner and end up in the same discussion as the last few Fridays. You see there is this billboard we pass by, and at first we thought it was a joke. It's a bright yellow ad for a brand new cereal. Diamond Shreddies So of course by now we have all seen the commercial on national television, so the joke really was on us. Let the comments begin. Great marketing strategy. No it's not...yes it is... just think of how many people will run out and buy Shreddies now thinking it's something new. No they won't...will too.... not...will too...uh huh....

When we got back to the office after lunch I was walking up the stairs when Peter took me aside and in a quiet whisper asked me if fruit flies came from maggots....told you he was gullible.....

It's snowing Cats & Dogs!

Well so much for Wiarton Willie's predictions. If he knows what's good for him he will stay in his burrow and not show his white furry little face for a while.

I heard there is a lynch mob looking for him as I type. The storm started last evening and it's only getting worse at the day goes on. They say it's supposed to snow for about 36 hours. How many hours? Thunder & lightning too? They are forecasting 35 to 50cm (14 to 20 inches) with drifting & whiteouts.

Well enough of that. Who is "They" any ways......
Due to my weather woes I have been diligently checking online for a decent price to fly to Mexico. If I had my way I would be there already, but you see, I have this thing called a job/career to consider. I have already suggested to the company that we need to open an office in Cancun. Not happening. Ok well I can work from home right? What's the difference I ask....do you care where I live? Pleeeeeeease? Quit your grovelling, get off your knees and let go of my ankle...... Not happening.

Ok so back to my online search. I want to stretch this trip out as long as I can so I figure if I leave on oh..... say a Friday and come back on a Sunday I could get a 17 day vacation out of all of this. Now if I can just get the boss to OK it on Monday, I'll book it before he has a chance to change his mind. I will explain to him.....I have people to see.... places to go... photos to take... margaritas to drink....

.......he will have to understand after all, I let him go on his 17 day cruise last month!

Cats Prefer Rain Over Snow Any Day

At least this one does at the moment. Today was really mild, causing a major meltdown everywhere I was trying to walk. Could this mean that spring is on its way? I mean after all it's been 4 weeks already since those 6 robins descended into my magnolia tree. I can't remember seeing that many robins all together at the same time so early in the year. Maybe Wiarton Willie really does know his stuff. After all he promised an early spring. Willie is the Canadian version of Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog for those of you south of the 49th.

At this time of the year the rain helps to wash away some of the winter grey that seems to have dusted everything outside including my car.

I can hardly wait for the spring flowers to start poking through the ground, even if they still may have to fight to get through the crusty leftover snow.

This Cat sees in almost black & White

I call it Almost Black & White Photography.

Lately I've noticed a trend in the way my final prints seem to always end up. I guess you could sort of say this is turning out to be my trademark in photography of sorts.

I photograph what pleases me when it comes to my photos, unless of course it's for a client. Then it goes without saying that the customer has the last say. I think what pleases me the most is the fact that almost all of my work is done for the pleasure of the person that is given the photographs in the end. After all it is still my hobby at this point and one I am growing to love more each day.

I was staying with a friend in Cozumel about 3 years ago and noticed this cat that kept hanging around our door. Not for our company but for the chance to salivate over the pigeon that seemed to always be perched just out of her reach on an A/C unit nearby. She was a very beautiful Tabby Point Siamese with only one thing in mind.....that darned pigeon.

Cats do NOT always land on their feet!

About a month ago I fell down the basement stairs. Now at the time I was not worried that I really hurt myself. Being a Sunday morning I wasn't about to go spend the day sitting in the emergency room when I was quite sure that nothing was broken.

Well it's been a month now and I hate to admit that it was a dumb ass move not to bother to get checked out at least by my family doctor. At the time I somehow landed on my elbow. This morning I was still noticing that I can barely hold the weight of my coffee and needed 2 hands to lift the mug.

I got to wondering if the technicolor bruise on my left butt cheek was still visible and to my surprise it was, but faint. (no photo available) I wouldn't want to scare any children or small animals in the room.

You see I really am a bit of a clutz....have been most of my life. Falling down stairs is my specialty as it started even before I was born. My mom told me she fell down the basement stairs when she was 8 months pregnant with me and was pretty banged up. She was so afraid for me inside her, but was assured by the doctor that all was fine within. My whole life growing up whenever I did some dumb move that involved self inflicted injury my mother always joked that it was because of the fall down the stairs. After awhile I started telling her that yes indeed I did bump my head pretty hard on her ribs and that's why I am the way I am today.

I was staying with my parents a few years ago while waiting for the closing on a house I had purchased. The closings between the sale of my old one and my move in date left a gap of a couple of weeks. I don't recall where I was actually going one evening as I walked out the front door of my parents home with a bottle of wine in hand and did a header down the 5 concrete steps. I guess I must have screamed because my father came rushing outside and found me sprawled out on the sidewalk all dazed and confused. He asked me what happened, as if he didn't know. I told him the bottle of wine fell down the stairs.....with me still holding on to it. I vividly remember seeing the green glass of the bottle as it bounced off the sidewalk and my chin landing full force on the side of a very good vintage. Figuring now I was going to need major plastic surgery to put my face back together I had to laugh out loud which only confused my dad. I proudly held up the bottle and exclaimed that I saved it. Somehow, miraculously, the wine bottle was still intact as was my face except for a huge egg forming swiftly on my chin.

It seems there are numerous occasions that I have bobsledded on my butt down a set of stairs, too many to mention in fact. I'm only talking about sober encounters....you should see what I can do to injure myself after a few open bottles of wine.

...... I recall a fall off a mountain bike in Cozumel Mexico...... Another time...please....

Here goes nothing!

Well I finally broke down and created my very own blog. Ya.... ok, so I'm a slow starter, but at least I now have one. I'm further along with this than my website that I registered 2 years ago. More on that later.
So, what to blog about..... rants, bitching, amusing experiences or all of the above. All of the above, I think at least for now.

I'm still in my comfy pink flannels and it's now 4pm. WHO CARES! as long as no one rings the doorbell, my secret is safe from the rest of the world . After all, who in their right mind would be reading this anyways, right? and if you are reading this then you are most certainly not going to be ringing my doorbell any time in the next few hours.

I really should be preparing some photographs for submission to the local camera club that I belong to, or at least something to post here as a test shot. By the way, my photo at the top of my blog is a panoramic shot of my hometown here in southern Ontario. I took a total of about 9 shots and then worked some magic in CS3 and came up with this as the finished product.

Focus..... I need to focus.....