Monday, December 28, 2015

THREE YEARS!!!

On facebook they pop up pics from your memories.  One popped up for Monte.  He was sick with food poisoning three years ago...at Doran Road house at Christmas.  Three years.  In the whole scheme of life, that is not all that long ago.

So I got to thinking of how much we have done and how much ground we have covered in this last three years.  We travelled to many countries.  We packed up a very overfull house and moved to the Island, only to pack up again and move to Kamloops.  I sold two houses and bought two houses.  I sold two vehicles and bought one.  I lost a beloved Spod.  I lost my beloved mother.  I spent time in Maui...lots of time.  I gained an amazing grand niece.  I put down a wonderful old german shepherd.  I emptied four fridges.  I filled four.  I am now hoping for an uneventful 2016.

Today one more thing happened.  My garage door broke.  It is hanging haphazardly down halfway shut.  And my jeep is inside.  No going anywhere for me, but I am not too sad about that.  I have a repair guy coming by later.  Jeez I hope he can fix it today.  So much out there will freeze if we don't get it shut.

Yesterday the whole crew went out to the place where we cut xmas trees.  They had a blast!!!  April and Myles used my jeep.  There is just soooo much snow right now.  Last night we went to Kathy's for leftovers and games.  They are such good people.  I just love having them live near.  This week I am going to have them up for dinner.  And maybe more goofy games..the kind where we die laughing!!!

Right now April and Myles are up at Costco doing my shopping.  I am so spoiled!  Monte shovelled the driveway.  I am going to make a big batch of butter tarts and I am going to make mac and cheese and greek salad for supper.

Oh jeez...I have my music on and a song just came on that is making me cry.    It was the last song Bill and I danced to.  Such an old schoolie waltz.  I remember I played it for him and we danced to it outside my purple room door...the whole thing.  That was just before he went into the hospital.  I don't think I will ever get used to things just popping up and zinging me.  I miss him.  Especially music...its so so powerful.

Well, Kevin and Tandy are due to arrive at any moment.  They were at Monte Lake an hour ago so they should be driving up shortly. Monte is cutting his hair off today.  He has been toying with the idea for a while now.  But Uncle Kerry talked with him about his hair the other day and I think that had an influence.  Slowly his persona is changing...growing up.  He found a google image he likes, phoned and made the appointment and its happening at 4:30!  I will post a pic tomorrow!
I am now going to hop out to that kitchen and get to work!  TTYL


Saturday, December 26, 2015

LEFTOVERS AND HOCKEY

Are there any other two words that describe boxing day better?  Well maybe shopping..if you are one of those!  Right now though we are watching the Juniors and eating leftover roast beef.  The turkey leftovers are still at Kathy's house.  They are coming up later!

We had the most wonderful day yesterday.  April stuffed the turkey.  You have to understand this process.  I made the dressing the day before.  Five loaves of bread as I have already mentioned.  It was a huge amount of dressing.  She rammed that bird so full it looked like it was going to split!  And she got every drop of dressing into that critter!  Today her chest muscles are sore from the exertion!  

We got the turkey into the oven by noon.  The lid to the plug in roaster wouldn't fit over it.  So I made a makeshift lid out of tin foil and we stuck it in the oven.  At 425 degree convection roast, it still took six full hours to cook.  It was so good and juicy.  That stuffed turkey was so heavy we had to have Myles lift it in and out of the oven.  Neither April or I could even get it off the table.  I would have been hooped had I been home alone!!!

Christmas morning was awesome.  I love love love watching the kids open a million fun presents and be so happy and over the moon with them.  There were some pretty funny gifts too.  April got a selfie stick.  Now some girls would be chagrinned or embarrassed.  Not her.  She whooped and jumped...so happy.  "I always wanted one!  I don't care what people think.  I am using it everywhere!"  April gave Myles and Monte a giant applewood smoked cheese wheel to share!  Boys!!!  They were so happy and excited when they opened it!    We finally had to stop and stuff that bird and get it into the oven.  At six thirty we put all the food into the van and Myles truck and drove it down to Kathy's.  And we had such a good fun time down there.  

Now I must get on with my boxing day!  TTYL

Thursday, December 24, 2015

A TRUE BLUE POOR POOR ME STORY

Here I sit, Christmas Eve, all by myself.  Sniff Sniff (I hear a little Oma in that sniff)  Haha...I am all alone but I am quite jiggy with it.  Of course I would prefer to be with them all but I just feel downright shitty.  And when you feel that bad, staying home is a treat.  Plus dinner is being moved to Kathy's tomorrow...bless her heart.  We are still going to cook the turkey and gravy and candied yams and turnip poof etc...but I can't go down there.  The first thing that happens is Ainsley comes running over and climbs onto my lap and digs into my left bra, retrieving my cell phone.  And the thought of having to push her away and make her stay away is just plain all wrong.  I would rather stay here and look at the kids videos and snap chats they send.

I spent today doing five minutes of something then sitting and recovering for half an hour.  This thing has knocked the stuffing out of me.  I have not wrapped any presents.  They will be going into plastic bags.  I did get more of the house clean today, made a layered salad, it was so pretty and finally tonite got the stuffing done.  Five loaves of Superstore uncut white bread they bake instore...the only bread I will use, six obnoxious onions (thank god you gave me onions Cookie but crap! are they ever hard to peel.  Really really fresh onions!)1 and 1/2 pounds melted butter and a good dusting of poultry seasoning.  The best stuffing in the world.  Its not besmirched by anything else...no sausage, no celery, no raisins, god forbid, no giblets or liver or anything.  Just bread, onion, butter and seasoning.  I shall now ram it back into the big bread bag and fridge it til tomorrow.

The turkey is so big the lid won't shut on the roaster.  So I think its going to have to spend some time in the oven.  I've done that before...you just run into the chance of drier meat.  Those electric roasters are magic.  April just texted and said that they are all planning on going tobogganing tomorrow afternoon.  She said she is getting up at 7:30 and getting all our cooking done by noon.  There goes my dream christmas morning...sitting around the tree, leisurely opening presents, sipping hot chocolate, snacking on good bacon....

Bradley was here over night last night on his way from Edmonton to Vancouver.  We had a lovely visit.  He gave me a jar of moonshine...the apple pie kind.  I LOVE that stuff!!  And Kathy and Kerry brought Emma up for me to look after overnight tonight and they brought me a bottle of avocat.  And I LOVE that stuff.  I am getting spoiled .  Plus, a humungous beautiful gorgeous bouquet of flowers.  She also surprised us by paying for our turkey!!!  When Monte went up to pick it up, and pay for it, we thought, they didn't tell us so we bought our turkey twice!  I am sure it will straighten itself out after Christmas.

So I am now going to go and pop open a can of pineapple and see if it helps.  It would be a miracle!!!!  Hey speaking of which.  I watched a movie for the very first time tonight..."It's A Wonderful Life."  I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if it was somewhat mellydram!!!  Well I had better go.  I still have a couple things to do and I am fading fast.  Merry merry Christmas to all of you...it really is a wonderful life.  And if you are feeling a little blue, which can happen this time of the year, remember there is always someone out there that cares and loves you.  TTYL

Hey Shannon.....careful with that eggnog!!!  But if you aren't going to be, its easier to drink it with a straw!!!  Especially the dark brown part!

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

THE CHEQUE IS IN THE MAIL

So far I have done nothing  but lay out in my chair and cough and  cough and feel right shitty.  If I am like this Xmas eve I shant be going anywhere.  Fortunately April has stepped up and offered to cook the dinner.  And she is a better cook than I so it will be spectacular.  Monte has offered to vacuum so that will help.

I spent the morning, reluctantly, on the lappy winging emails back and forth between two insurance companies.  I am switching back to the one we used to use here in town.  The one in Vancouver is so difficult to deal with.  They owe me money.  They didn't lower my insurance when it went from rental to us living here.  Its a sizeable amount.  It was supposed to be here ages ago. I was told ages ago that the cheque is in the mail. 

And somehow the insurance on Port Alberni wasn't cancelled in June when I sold it.  So they owe me half a year of insurance.  That cheque is in the mail.

And I just got a phone call from the people responsible for my broken lamp.  I sent them all the info and estimates etc... for fixing the lamp.  They are sending me a cheque to cover it!!  That cheque is in the mail.

Monte just called...so pissed off he's spitting nails. Its rare to hear him like that.  If you are a long time reader of this blog you may remember that back in Langford he was pulled over and issued a 286 dollar ticket for driving without a license.  And they made him tow his jeep back home for 180.00.  His license was fine.  It was an ICBC MISTAKE!!!!!  So he decided to fight it.  The court case was set for 1:30 today.  He has been in and out of the courthouse getting all the paperwork in order and settled.  He showed up and they told him it was in Victoria!!!!!  He thought they had changed venue.  Holy crap was he mad.  So he filled out a form of some sort that they faxed down to get them to adjourn it to another day, but whats the point?  By the time you pay the gas, hotel room and ferry your behind a couple hundred.  And none of this was his fault.  I think he is thinking of taking ICBC to small claims court.

Anywhooo, I am going to go to sleep for a while.  I feel like I did when I had pneumonia that time...sleeeeep......TTYL


Monday, December 21, 2015

I AM DYING..AND NOT QUIETLY

Okay, I just read Shannon's comment and questions about the blinking eye thing.  Jeez!  Way to complicate simple communication!!!  This coming from someone who plays bird videos for their cat?  Hmmmmm....That cat is very fortunate to have you for a mummy!!!!

The other day I went downstairs to turn the gas corner stove on.  It heats the whole house and will cut down on how often the furnace goes on.  And that just might help with the allergies.

The knob would NOT turn.  No matter what I did it just wouldn't turn.  So I phone the right peeps and right at 8 this morning he showed up, all Mr. cheerful.  So down he goes and bam! the freaking knob turns and the fire starts up.  And he couldn't tell my why it wouldn't turn for me.  So if it happens again I shall be shutting the whole thing down and not using it.  Its like sick kids, the minute you get them to the doctor they perk up and get better.

I am sick, genuinely sick.  And I am pissed off.  I did not get any wrapping done last night.  I am not getting any cleaning done.  I am not getting the food shopping lists done.  Monte is still sick too.  This just could not be happening at a worse time.  Well all I know is  I have a twenty pound turkey showing up in my life on Thursday!  I know April and Myles will be a huge help.  Thanks to people bringing stuff, my part in Friday dinner is not huge.  Stuffing, potatoes, candied yams and gravy. And I can do that blindfolded!  Thats my favourite part of making a turkey dinner.  Others are doing the dessert and vegetables and cranberry sauce.  The finicky stuff.

And this year I just may not wrap all the presents. I have a zillion plastic bags.  I can just put stuff in them.  I always threaten to do this but never have. Unwrapping is a lot of fun xmas morning.  I love it.  I just don't like the wrapping part.

Jesus I feel right shitty.  I am going to shut this down and see if I can sleep a while.  I didn't sleep much last nite....thanks to STUPID coughing.  (shovel list)

Before I go though...I don't write about celebrities or things that happen in Hollywood...mainly because its seems uninteresting to most.  But...I am going to express here how bad I feel for Steve Harvey.  He is one of the people in Hollywood I truly like.  I think he is funny and honest and has integrity.  And his mistake last night in the Miss whatever pageant was so awful.  I feel really bad for him.  I hope people go easy on him.  There.  Thats all I am going to say and for some of you who maybe don't know who Steve Harvey is...well it just aint that important!!!  TTYL


Sunday, December 20, 2015

SHOP TILL YOU DROP, COUGH TILL YOU PUKE

I woke up in the night coughing my brains out.  And...I was glad to see that even in my sleep, I was holding my eyes to keep them from popping out!  And I can't help but think that this is NOT good for my blood pressured head.  Stroke causing coughs are not good.  At least I did make arrangements with Monte to understand that one blink is no and two blinks is yes.  I say no way more than yes so I made the no easier.  I hope he remembers!!!   I can see it now, "Do you want me to pull the plug?"  NO!!! I blink once.  "Hmmmm I am pretty sure she said one blink is yes."  I scream silently in my wounded head.  And HE gave me this damned cough too.  He better remember!  Maybe I should make a few IMPORTANT notes and stick it with my will and my funeral playlist.

On Friday I finally sat down with paper and pen and made a plan...for the few days left before all hell breaks loose!  Can't wait!!!  I LOVE Xmas!!! Yesterday was finish ALL the shopping day.  And I did!!!  I even had time to sit down in the food court and have a limp Greek salad.  Thats a beef with me...they put the dressing on the salad in the morning and by the time we get it its all limp.  And whats with the vinegar?  Vinegar does NOT belong in Greek salad.  Its supposed to be just oil.  Grrrr....

I always take a big bed thats not being used and separate the gifts into piles.  That way I can tell if things are even.  But this year there is only two things in Monte's pile.  There are a couple of things coming in the mail but you know, he has a box in his cupboard that has half of last years gifts still sitting in it.  He just does NOT need stuff.  He doesn't use stuff and doesn't really even want stuff.  Gift cards and money he uses.  So I told him that his pile is pretty tiny and he said he doesn't mind.  I would rather give him money and he can go spend it where he wants to.  He likes that too!

Today is wrap day.  I have already moved a table into the middle room, nice and low so I can sit on the edge of the bed and NOT get a back ache this year.  Oh how I miss Spod!!!  But I am not going to bed until all is wrapped and under the tree.  I will leave the wrap station up for others to use as necessary.  Last year I was out in our garage in Langford.  I loved it.  It was cold cold cold which kept everyone away.  Alone time!!!!  And I had the radio going so I could sing along to songs.  But my back hurt like hell.

I think we are going to go retro, a little, for christmas eve food.  Seven layer salad (with a new twist), jelly salad!, cheese ball, and I know Kathy and Jo and Do are adding stuff.  I can't wait!  And its going to be a hoot watching Ainsley.  Maybe some tarts and cookies.  Mincemeat....no one eats it but it smells so good when its baking!!  Bulk store here I come!!!  Mom used to make perogies, shrimp wiggle and chicken haddie.  Kathy is doing the perogies mmmmmm...and I may or may not make shrimp wiggle.  Chicken haddie in a can, with paper inside wrapped around the fish, is no longer available.  But the shrimp wiggle?

I looked up the recipe on several different sites and discovered that somehow my mother did it very differently than all the recipes.  Basically shrimp wiggle is creamed shrimp and peas served on crackers, bread, pastry etc.  She made it this way:  cook rice, then add peas and canned shrimp. That's it.  Rice, shrimp and peas.  If I decide to make some, a small some, I will use prawns, peas, rice and something to spice it up and make it tasty!  A toast to mother!  I am pretty sure my dad would NOT have liked this dish!  Hahaha!!!  No rice or pasta for him!

I just proof read this and noticed the number of times I emphasized the word NOT.  Now you know why I made it one blink for NO.  TTYL


Thursday, December 17, 2015

DOGGIE SHENANIGANS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Yesterday morning Kerry dropped off Emmy.  She really is the sweetest dog.  She is a sheltie I think. She looks like a little collie dog.  She was a little restless at first but soon settled in.  Molly was pretty excited to see her.  

Emma made it clear pretty quickly that she wanted to be in purple room with Molly and me.  So I moved her bed to beside my chair.  Sometime in the middle of the night I was up to the loo.  Its pretty dark in the room and I could see Emma running around.  So I ordered her back to her bed. She went over but didn't get in.  She lay down beside it.  After I settled I was puzzled why she wouldn't get into her bed.  I put my flashlight on and looked and frigging Molly was laying out in her bed like Queen Sheba.  So I yelled at her, loud cuz she is deaf, and ordered her out.  She wouldn't get out!!!  So I hollered some more until she finally climbed out.  Emma immediately jumped into her bed.  Then Molly tried to climb in with her.  Stupid dog!  I hollered some more and made her go to her bed and told her to stay!  She did.

Which reminds me of something that happened the night before.  Around two in the morning I was awakened by a huge loud banging coming from the kitchen.  Monte wasn't home...he was still on the road coming back from Kelowna.  So I jumped up and ran out to the kitchen to see it was Willy thumping his hind leg like crazy and he was tossing his dish around, and banged on the cage.  Jeez! I thought a grizzly had been in and scared the hell out of him.  I finally went over and put my hand on his back and just sat on the floor and waited for him to calm down.  The next morning I found out we had had a 3.4 earthquake right about then.  I slept through it but clearly Willy didn't!

One strand of lights on the tree has gone out.  There is a big black hole near the top.  Damn!!!  Have you ever tried to put lights on after the decorations are all on?  Its almost impossible.  I think I will wait and let April do it.  She has the magic touch (spelled....patience).   We are spending Xmas eve at Jo and Craig's place.  That way they can put Ainsley down to bed without having to go home.  We shall all be bringing food and a present for each other.  I can't wait!!!

Now, its seven days to ...finish all the shopping, wrap a thousand presents, clean the whole house...top to bottom, plan the food for a two week period, shop for it,  cook some things ahead, see the doctor, straighten out all the insurances, make sure monte gets to court on the 22 (ticket dispute).  Waaaaaaaah!!!!  My head hurts!!!!!TTYL

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

THEY BROKE MY TIFFANY LAMP!!!!!! (Number two post today)

They knocked over my floor lamp!!!!  Its the one we bought and brought it all the way back from Disney Land waaaay back when.  I heard another big crash and this time I checked it out.  My poor lamp was lying on the floor and one side was caved in and the stained glass pieces are broken.  And there is mud and dirt and water all over the floor.  And the big white moulding at the bottom of the door way is crushed in pieces.  I let them know that I AM NOT HAPPY.  When I think of the guys from Trail Appliances in Langford and how they put little booties on and swept up and put that monstrous fridge in the narrow doorway with no trouble, it makes me wonder.  TTYL 

ROASTY BEEF AND NEW FRIDGES

I am hiding in my purple room.  In the kitchen there are two men installing my new fridge.  I 1don't want to watch.  Its just too nerve racking!

Okay, I have a question.  Its about showers.  Monte has a friend here right now.  I am pretty confident he won't be reading this but even if he does, I am perfectly okay with the length of his showers.  Totally!  But....what the hell takes so long?  Like what the hell do these guys do in there?  When I take a shower I get in, soap up, even wash my hair, rinse off and get out.  I think the longest I have spent in a shower is maybe five full minutes.  Curt got in 25 minutes ago!  He is still in there.  Monte is the same.  I just don't get it!  My dishwasher is faster.

Oh god I just heard a big crash in the kitchen.  Aye yiii!!!  I am NOT looking.

Last night I made a honking huge prime rib.  It was perfect!!!  Mashed potatoes, thick gravy and asparagus cooked in garlic, lemon and sesame oil. Delicious!  After dinner I put all the food away but I didn't actually do the dishes.  I stacked them precariously on the counter.  So this morning I had to start by doing ALL THOSE DISHES!!!  I sometimes wonder what kind of awesome world this would be if there was no work after the dinner.  I love the making of the meal, but the clean up is really annoying and back breaking.

After I got the kitchen all clean I then had to unload the whole fridge, again for the fourth time in a year. (shovel list/whine).  How long have I had that fridge....a month?  You should see the size of the bag of garbage I got out of it.  What the hell?  I swear that crap propagates when the door is shut.

Its snowing to beat the dickens out.  Monte is heading over to Kelowna again today.  Kathy just texted me and asked if I would babysit Emma til Tursday.  Yay!!!!!  I love Emma and it will be nice for Molly.  I have to spend a fair amount of time away from home shopping and getting ready for xmas.  Maybe she won't bark now while I'm gone.  And I talked to Kevin.  They are coming over on boxing day.  April is on the mend.  When she went to the doctor today he told her that he is always treating very sick people coming back from Mexico.  He can't figure out why people would ever want to go there.  So when I go in April I am going to load up on Ducolax two weeks before and I am going to get medication from my doctor to treat anything that might happen while I am there.  Goin' to arm myself!  TTYL

Monday, December 14, 2015

MY JEEP AND MY BROTHER IN LAW ARE AWESOME

I have come to an ugly conclusion about myself.  I am a royal non adventuring chicken.  

Yesterday was the day we were to go out into the wilderness and find christmas trees and hot dog roast etc....This involved Craig's family, full of kids and sisters and in laws etc..Kathy and Kerry and Craig's friend Ross.  I was nervous to begin with because I had not driven my jeep through anything trying and in four by four.  To top that off, about four in the afternoon it started to snow.  And I knew from Craig's invitation we were going UP a mountain for this fun event.

So I started to text Kathy how I thought I might beg off...I truthfully have a ton of stuff to do.  But she wasn't having any of that.  Finally, later, I admitted to her that I was scared to death of driving in the snow and I had no idea how to put the jeep in four by four.  So she texted back that Kerry would ride with me and help me out.  I could see I wasn't going to get out of it.

Sunday morning arrives and April, home now but still deadly sick, starts texting and it looked like I would maybe have to head down there to help her out.  Poor kid.  And Kerry phoned me, bless him, and offered to drive me down there and ferry her around on Monday...doctors, labs etc...  What a wonderful offer.  But within an hour I had arranged for Aryn to help her out today (Monday).  Myles had to go to work, no choice after being away so long.  He felt so bad not being able to be there for her.  So the outing was back on.

We all met at a gas station up the hill, I picked up Kerry and Kathy went with Jo and Craig.  There were two trucks and my jeep, travelling in tandem.  We headed towards Savanna, turning off not too far out of Kamloops and headed up the mountain.  The road wasn't bad at all.  It had been ploughed.  But the last little road we went on was rougher and snowier and my little jeep just walked through it.  In fact in the end I was totally impressed with Tank.  She did good!!!!  And having Kerry there just made it not scary.

We had so much fun!!!  It so reminded me of the old days with Dad and Mom.  Out we would go, mom not always going with us, and she swore that Dad would purposely hunt for the scrappiest scraggy tree possible!  We got a fire going right away and the kids tobogganed down the hill we had driven down.  One of Craig's relatives with a bunch more kids arrived in a van...not a big huge four by four truck.  Soon the fire was ready and we hauled out the wieners and buns and hot chocolate and coffee and kahlua and beer.  Then the old chain saw was fired up and off they went scouting out the best Xmas tree possible.  There were lots to pick from too!

Just before dark we packed it up and headed back. By the time we got to the gas station to drop Kerry off, I needed the loo....BAD!!!  I drove way too fast, praying I wouldn't get stopped by the cops, flew into the station and stopped by the door.  Kerry told me to just leave the jeep running and whip in.  So I did.  I bailed out the jeep, flew into the station, right past the cashiers and into the can.  Nothing in the world is more euphoric than hitting a turlett in the nick of time!  hahaha!!  Its almost worth the terrifying experience.....hey Brian!!!???

I came home and made a massive huge shepherd's pie.  Monte has a friend staying here right now.  So we ate delicious pie and they went downstairs and made music and I took a load of loaded purses down to Kathy's then came home and crashed.  I was so tired in such a good way.  A good day was had by all!  TTYL
ROSS ATTACKING THE STUMP


OUTDOOR FRIDGE

GOOD OLD WD-40...WORKS EVERY TIME

GOING FOR A SLIDE


GRANDDADDY HAD JUST NAILED HER WITH A SNOWBALL, RIGHT DOWN THE BACK OF HER SNOWPANTS!!

CHILLIN' BY THE FIRE

MOM AND BABY CHILLIN' BY THE FIRE


THE SNOW WAS PERFECT FOR SNOW FORT BUILDING

SHE LOVED ROLLING IN THE SNOW AND EATING IT!!

FIRST TREE DOWN

HEY THERE!!!



THATS A CANUCK SCARF MARKING THE NEXT TREE TO FALL

THE BUILDERS


THAT VAN I MENTIONED NEEDED A LITTLE MANPOWER TO GET UP THE HILL



MY AWESOME LITTLE TANK

Saturday, December 12, 2015

RING THEM BELLS

Well, today was tool day.  Today was the day we were ringing those annoying bells and being one of those pathetic people begging for money.

But it didn't turn out that way!!!  Costco was very busy today as you can imagine.  I decided to count the number of people Kathy knew!!  I had to give up eventually...simply too many!  I met a lot of people today needless to say!  And everybody was so friendly!  I have to admit it was a very enjoyable experience!

We started at ten (with a couple of minor glitches...like no hanging plastic ball thingy to put money into...but Kathy found it!).  She had a dr appointment at 11 so off she went.  And wouldn't you know it, I needed the loo, and right now!  So I unhooked the plastic ball and stuck it under my arm and traipsed through Costco, with my red sally ann apron on to the bathroom.  I wonder how much money I missed by not being there for five minutes?!!

Monte took Molly to the vet this afternoon.  Apparently the vet thinks she is still reacting to the fleas.  Some dogs, like Molly, simply cannot be around fleas.  So she shaved every little pustule on her body, and now she is polka dotted, put cream on it and put on a fancy schmancy cone.  Damned dog.

I finally got my tree finished.  And I think it is one of the best trees I have ever had.  Whats more, it still smells amazing.  I am really happy with it.  I am going to go try to get pics of it right now.  I got them!!!  So I shall put them here!  TTYL
FINALLY



THE RAMEN CRAIG MADE

NOODLE HEAD!!!

RING THEM BELLS!!

MISS KNOW EVERYBODY!!!!

Friday, December 11, 2015

DOGS AND KIDS

Geez...life would be downright boring without dogs and/or kids.

April:  is due back from Mexico tomorrow.  She has spent most of her week down there in the hospital.  She has apparently been the sickest she has ever been in her life.  It started with tingly arm, painful chest and severe trots.  Deadly trots.  The doctor finally called an ambulance and sent her to the hospital and there she's been til this morning.  They thought it was a number of things, ran the whole gambit of tests, iv'ed her etc...long ugly story short...its a nasty little parasite...the kind that can do permanent damage.  Its a good thing they caught it early.  She was finally discharged this morning.  Poor poor Myles.  I feel pretty bad for him.  I don't think this week turned out like he thought it would.  Thats four thousand down the crapper.

Molly:  Stupid damned dog.  She has that skin problem I was mentioning and she will not stop scratching and chewing on herself.  Last night she chewed a big gaping bloody hole in her back haunch.  I don't have any patience for much but especially not for stupidity.  And chewing a hole in your side is just plain stupid.  I am NOT putting another home made cone on her head and I am not following her around making her stop.  She can chew herself til she disappears, dumb dog.  Her appointment with the vet is tomorrow afternoon.  And there goes another 200.  One day those 200 bucks for this and that are going to run out.  Life was a lot simpler when I was as poor as a church mouse.

Monte's friend Curtis is coming up from Vancouver today.  I like him.  He is a photographer...a professional one.  His pictures are beautiful.  He is an interesting person as well.  He spent three months a few years ago by himself in India.  Lots of stories there.  I think the boys are planning to make music.  He is also a musician.  He is staying until Tuesday.

Today Monte and I are organizing all the gifts we bought for that family.  I am also physically going to actually get those purses filled.  I hope all the stuff fits!  Last night I finally put the lights on the tree and its beautiful!!!!  Now today I must do the ornaments.  I don't have a tree topper.

Well we filled to the brim six awesome hardly used purses.  I think I know how a hoarder feels.  I LOVE those purses.  Spod bought them all for me and I never used them but maybe once.  But even though I never use purses, I love them.  Its so irrational.  But today, it hurt, actually hurt, to give them away.  I almost changed my mind about two or three of them.  They are beautiful...Guess, Fossil (that one is amazing), Coach, FoliFoli, achhhhh I am not going to think about it.  There are women out there that will love them.

Well its the middle of Friday.  I must get dressed at least.  I see a massive giant parcel has been left on my front porch.  I will presume it is my headboard at last.  When I get it situated I shall take a pic.  And I will take a pic of the tree.  I think its going to be great...even without a topper!  TTYL  

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

OH MY FEET MY FEET

My feet are killing me tonight!  So is my hip.  Monte and I took off this morning and crossed the river..(Oooooooo....we crossed to the other side, a big move for us!!!) to go to North Hills shopping centre.  And what a sad sad mall that was!  OMG!!!  Back back way back in the day I used to skip school occasionally and hit that mall.  It was way better back then.  Half the stores are closed up and in the twelve bay food court, only two places still existed.  And the stores, oh Lordy!

  One of them was full of what looked like really tacky home made clothes, you know the kind....a frill around the bottom of the skirt, frilly lace edging everything....  Another store was full to the rafters with memorabilia, native stuff, lamps that went out of style twenty years ago, cheap chinese made touristy stuff.  They did have an Ardene's.  We were able to get the little girl on our hamper list some fun things and a gift card.  We got out of there.

We went up to Costco and I picked up the stuff for the little boy on our list.  The place was almost empty!  Creepy!!!  From there we went to Best Buy.

After reading Shannon's comments about her car and the hell she is going through, I feel kind of bad about my dinted fridge story.  Right from the get go Best Buy has been so accommodating.  They have responded quickly and made the decision to replace my fridge next Tuesday!  But let me tell ya....today was an ordeal and a half.

  When I arrived at the counter they started the process.  It was not easy...It took four of them over an hour to figure out how to do it!!  OVER AN HOUR!!  They finally got me a chair to sit on!  But in the end, I signed things and a new fridge is winging its way to me.  And the guys that installed the old fridge are doing the delivery again.  And the movers phoned me today to tell me that after the fridge is installed, they will mud, sand and paint my doorway!  So I foresee a good end to all of this.

This will be the fourth time in a year and a half I have emptied and restocked a fridge.  Maui, Langford and twice here.  Hopefully this will be it!!

Now I am sitting back in my purple room chair.  The poor tree is still not decorated.  The kitchen is clean though!  And I didn't hear from April today which means she must have been well enough to go on their excursion to the pyramids.  They only get two one hour times to use the wifi for free.  So I probably won't hear from her until tomorrow.  I hope she hasn't acquired a desperate turlett story...like Spod, Brian and I have.  Poor kid.  It would kill her!

Tomorrow is more shopping and Monte is taking Molly to the vet.  She has developed tons of weird bumps on her back.  When you pull the sticky fur off the bump (it doesn't hurt and it comes off easy) there is a gaping wound underneath.  Ewwww!!!!  And they are really really itchy.  If they say its an allergy I shall go down and smack the vet myself.  She only eats one type of dog food and has done so forever.  Theres nowhere to go with the allergy theory.  TTYL

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

TOURISTA AND RAMEN

Well I have heard from April.  And it isn't good, at least for her.  The first night they were served a raw fish amongst other things and she has gone down like a dead man.  She finally called me and wondered what to do.  In fact she was having an anxiety attack over how sick she was.  And she couldn't go anywhere.  Poor Myles of course is curtailed by her sickness.  What a way to start your holiday!  So today she finally went to see the doctor...her health insurance covered it all.  He said she had some kind of evil bacteria and gave her a painful shot in the butt and wrote a prescription for three different drugs.  Hopefully they work.  Tomorrow they have an all day excursion.  She thinks all buses have bathrooms.  They don't.  She will find out.  Poor girl.

Last night we were invited to Craig and Jo's for ramen.  Craig has been all about the home made ramen lately.  And boy I tell ya...that was some awesome ramen!  Noodles, pork, egg, green onions, mushrooms and the best broth ever.  Mmmm.  Kathy and Kerry were there too and we had such a hoot with Ainsley!  She is the cutest most entertaining baby ever!  She is almost 18 months.  So not only did we have great food....we had a great time.

Today I met Kathy at the Kiwanis meeting.  Good lunch and good meeting.  Go tuna sandwiches!  I was going to go up to Canadian tire to return that broken tree stand, but I didn't feel so great so I went straight home.  And fell so dead sound asleep in my chair that when the phone rang I opened my eyes, looked at the tv, which had people sitting around talking on the screen, and I thought they were in my room with me and I couldn't figure out where I was!  I was so profoundly confused!  Kind of scary!

Tonight Kathy and Kerry treated me to a theatrical performance of Mary Poppins.  It was truly amazing and so well done!!!  And it was a full house!  The Sagebrush theatre was full to the last seat.  It was one of the best plays I have ever seen.  The singing and dancing was spectacular and the story fully as magical as the books were when I read them when I was twelve!  What a treat!!

And now I am so tired I can hardly stay awake!   So this is going to be short and sweet and hard to beat as my Gramma Graham liked to say!  I shall post more and take more tree pictures tomorrow.  TTYL 

Monday, December 7, 2015

IT'S UP

Holy Hannah!!  That was a job and a half.  We got the tree into the stand.....finally!  Lordy! that thing weighs a ton!!!  And then fancy stand notwithstanding, I still had to lay down on the floor and screw and screw til it stayed up and straight.  And to be honest? the hardest part of the whole endeavour was getting back up off the floor!  But up I got and up the tree is.  Now for the next 'fun' part!  The lights.  (shovel list)

Monte is heading off to Kelowna today to see a friend.  He comes home tomorrow.  I truly hope the roads remain safe and not snowy and icy.  Those high passes can get bad.  And April is two hours into a seven hour flight with Myles to Cancun.  She is so excited...and nervous.  She was saying that this is her very first 'trip' without her parents tagging along.  In other words her first adult trip!!

The party was awesome to say the least!  The food was delicious and very varied!  And all the people..I am just not used to partying anymore.  Spod was definitely not the party type, although we did have some big do's at home.  But what a treat to go to someone else's house.  They have had to clean it, cook, get everything ready, smooze smooze smooze, then clean clean clean. Don't get me wrong...I love throwing do's but such a treat to let someone else do all the planning and doing.  At the end of the day, my back didn't hurt and I wasn't dog tired!!

Saturday night Kathy and I went to the Fox and Hounds, ate dinner and got onto that oh so happy loud bus.  Saturday night's game was the teddy bear toss.  When our team scored their first goal, thousands of teddies got tossed onto the ice.  It was soooo much fun and Kathy, in her work dealing with troubled children told me how grateful they were when fifty to a hundred teddies would show up at their work for them to use.  What a fun fun fun night it was!!!

Today I got a lot of little silly time consuming jobs done around the house.  One thing I forgot to do was wash out the old fridge for Kathy and Kerry.  They are coming tomorrow to pick it up.  I shall get up early tomorrow morning and get it done.  Wed., Thurs, and Friday I am dedicating to shopping.  I have a lot of shopping to get to.  I need to fill about 6 purses with womanly things, we now have a list of families that need things and I still have to finish my own xmas shopping.  Soon its going to be wrapping.  Again I mention, and probably will til the end of my life, I miss my Spod.  He would sit in his chair, watching some show at a hundred decibels, and slowly wrap everything.  When I think of wrapping, my back immediately starts to hurt.  I am going to set up a wrapping station in the middle bedroom.  I don't think its being used this year.  (Shannon?  hint hint)

Monte came home from Kelowna all happy.  He loves it there.  He stopped in Falkland at my insistence to partake of a burger dinner at the pub there.  They are truly the best burgers ever and I don't even like burgers anymore!  He got home and filled me in on the deets of his trip and then we hopped into his van and went up to Chapters for coffee and a little shopping.  I haven't heard from April yet, maybe won't.  I know she took her phone but she won't be using it.  Maybe she is putting things on facebook and I just don't know it now that I am not on there anymore.

Gotta bounce...its getting late and I gotta hit the ground running tomorrow.  I need to organize my shopping so far.  Need to get more stuff for Fenton and Elise's stocking.  I had a long chat with Fenton this past week end about Santa.  Its just such a magical time for the kids when they still believe in Santa.  There will be no other time in their lives when there is something this magical that they believe.  Fenton is 8 and he still believes.  It was so funny listening to him figure out the physics of Santa and his sleigh being airborn and what Santa does when there is a fire in the fireplaces.  His eyes were lit up like no other subject could cause.  I love it.  TTYL (pardon the quality..iphone6 plus cameras suck)


Friday, December 4, 2015

STRANGER KISSES

I can't believe how unkind I have always been all my life.  I have been a bully.  I have been judgemental.  I have made fun of people, good people I might add.  I can be a cruel teaser.  All my life I have had to force the 'kind' filter in place first, before the bad one snapped into place.

I also believe in karma.  Not the payback kind but the balancing, its your turn, kind.  With that in mind I must tell you that Kathy and I will be ringing that Sally Ann bell outside Costco on the 12th.  And I have always found those people and those BELLS completely and totally annoying.  And I always thought the people doing it were either religious do gooders or maybe a brick short of a load.  So now its my turn and possibly there will be some people judging us the same way.  Learning time.

That is my mission this new year coming up.  Not resolution per say but I am going to try to pick situations where I have been way less than kind and put myself there...experiencing from the inside so to speak.  My goal is to be more charitable...in thought, action and experience.  And please, if you are reading this, I invite you to hold my feet to the fire anytime you think I am avoiding!!!

It is totally glorious out today.  I took off at ten and whipped up to Costco to get all the stuff I need for the appy I am making for the Xmas thingy tonight (Kiwanis).  I want to make my seafood layer dip and Costco has the best prawns. As I was leaving the store I was behind a couple that clearly were either related to or knew intimately the older lady checking receipts at the door.  As they moved on the lady gave a big kiss on the cheek to the younger one pushing the buggy.  Joking, I sang out as I pulled up, "Hey! are you giving those out for free?"  And she, being really short, reached up, grabbed my shoulders, pulled me down and smooched me right on my cheek!!!  "You bet!!!" she said.  Hahahaha...it was awesome and everyone behind started hollering they wanted one too!  I don't think this would happen down on the mainland would it Cookie?

Then I whipped into the Fat Lady store for a scarf.  And I totally offended the clerk.  The sales staff in there are big, I mean huge big.  I think they hire really big women to make us feel comfortable and not judged.  This beautiful sales lady came over to help me and we got talking about this and that.  And somewhere in there I accidentally referred to the store, not as Penningtons, but as Fat Lady Store.  And she got totally offended and really snippy.  She lectured me about sensitivity and just because I am jiggy with being body challenged doesn't mean everyone is and I should maybe be more careful about how I label the store in future blah blah blah.

Well it made me mad.  I got pretty scathing and told her to lighten up and stop being so touchy.  Fat is fat, get over it or lose it...I then picked up the scarf she had so kindly found for me, marched up to the counter shaking my head and purchased it and stomped out.  I sat in my jeep for a few minutes and thought and thought.  Sigh....I finally got out, went back in and found the girl.  And guess what?  She was at the back of the store quietly getting shit from her manager for going after a customer.  Obviously we had been overheard.  I felt terrible.  Really terrible.

So I went over and interrupted them and totally apologized.  I think she had a right to object on personal grounds and really sincerely apologized for my insensitivity.  The manager was pretty adamant that the sales girl was in the wrong and maybe she was from that point of view but I was really sorry.  But I am still going to call it Fat lady store...just not in there.  That was disrespectful and I won't make that mistake again.

Now, the tree.  Oh lordy.  This is the part I don't like.  Putting it in the stand.  Straightening it.   Putting on the lights.  After that its lovely but.....

So Monte and I brought in the monstrous thing.  Its a good thing we have a sunken living room.  I am used to scrawny little 25 dollar trees from Superstore.  Not this time.  Massive thing with a nice thick trunk.  So we manage to get the thing into the big plastic tree stand and Monte got down on the floor to screw the three screws.  And....one of the holes for the bolt was too big.  Shit!!!  I just bought the damned thing at Canadian Tire and it wont work, you have to have three working bolts.  Monte went back up there and bought a beautiful skookum sixty dollar beauty.  It even has a pedal on it to straighten and turn it.  He put it together, tested the pedal and it all worked.

We get the tree all lined up and ready to put into this awesome tree stand and....the stump is TOO FREAKING BIG!!!!  Jesus Murphy!!!!  It needs to be cut off about six inches up from the bottom.  Damn damn damn.  I went out to the garage and got a saw.  Keep in mind now this trunk is BIG!  Monte has started to saw it through but its going to take FOREVER!!!  Sigh.  I am taking pics as we go.  

Well I had better go get at it.  TTYL
OUR LOVELY TREE

HAD TO READ INSTRUCTIONS TO PUT THE STAND TOGETHER.

WHILST WE WERE DOING THIS, THE PLUMBERS WERE INSTALLING THAT AWESOME LOOKING DISHWASHER...WITH NO DINTS I MIGHT ADD

HAHAHAHA.....SAWING THAT BIG OLE STUMP

NEXT DAY......STILL SAWING

LIGHT TESTING

MY 75 DOLLAR 100 FOOT COIL OF LIGHTS...I LOVE THEM!


Thursday, December 3, 2015

SQUEEEEEEEZE

I just came to a horrible conclusion.  If the house caught fire its likely the fire would be out in the main part of the house.  My purple room is down the end of a hallway with only a two storey jump for escape.  And at my robust weight my ankles would end up in my throat.

So, thinking about it in the middle of the night, I figured one of those throw out the window ladder thingies would solve the problem.  But, then when it got light out, I took a look at the window that opens.  And seriously?  I don't think I would fit through.  I was discussing this with Aryn tonight and she figures that the adrenaline flowing through my miles and miles of veins would help me do it.  But physics is physics.  And Big does not necessarily go through Small.

I had this exact same conversation with the flight attendant on one of my flights where I was sitting in an exit row.  Now that hole is tiny!!!  I can see it now...get halfway out, the plane is sinking and I get stuck...just like Winnie the Pooh in Rabbit's hole.  There would be a lot of pissed off people behind me!!

I finally went to Bestbuy.  They were very proactive!  The appliance manager gave me an email address and tracking number to send pics to.  They promised someone would come and see the damage.  So when I got home I did exactly that...and it won't send.  There is something wrong with the email address.  Wouldn't you know.  So I have texted the manager to send me another email address.  It never ends.  At least my problem isn't horrible like yours Shannon.  I would be so pissed off if that happened to me and my jeep.  What bozos!!!!!

Monte brought home a xmas tree that smells so delicious its unbelievable.  The smell is a cross between pine tree and grapefruit.  Mmmmmm....amazing!!!  I can't wait to get that beautiful thing up and lit and decked out.  I have to make up for the pitiful one we had last year.  There will be no Pinoccio on top of this one!

It is now Thursday morning.  For a good part of yesterday I thought the dishwasher installers were coming.  It seemed odd that my phone didn't remind me.  I had written it into my google calendar.  I checked to see and saw it wasn't until today they come.  sigh.  TTYL  

This is for April:
ON THE DANUBE....EARLY EARLY IN THE MORNING


Wednesday, December 2, 2015

GOLLDANGIT!!! OR RATHER EFFADOODLE!!!

My cursor has disappeared.  Jeez!  I hate that.  Trying to guess where the typing is going to start.  So annoying.  I just wish I understood why this computer does what it does.  It helps to understand but its all a big mystery to me.

I cannot get hold of anyone at Bestbuy.  I am right ticked off.  I just spent six thousand plus bucks in that store and they can't be bothered to talk to me. I am done with the phoning.  I am going to go there and I will make a supreme effort to be nice, at least at first.  

The dishwasher is getting installed this afternoon. I am pretty ticked off with myself right now.  I have learned over the years to think about resale value when decisions are being made about your home.  What I really want is black appliances.  They are so much easier to keep clean and I like the look of them.  But I went with what I hear on HGTV...that show House Hunters.  The minute the people see the appliances are not stainless steel they whine.  So I gave into current trend and bought appliances that are always going to look dirty and be totally high maintenance.

I dug around in a few more boxes and found a few more things.  I really am running low on stuff.  Whats left down there is stuff that has to be kept.  I really thought I would have been able to find a hundred things but it seems not.  Today was to be the end of the 100 day project.  So from this point on I am going to randomly put stuff on here as I come across it.  Sadly it doesn't seem to have made much of a difference down there...its still a hellhole!  TTYL
THIS ALBUM WAS TO BE FILLED WITH LOVELY PICS AND THINGS FROM OUR PARIS TRIP...DIDN'T HAPPEN


TWO LOVELY EXPENSIVE (DAMMIT) MUGS FROM AN ART GALLERY IN ALASKA.

I BOUGHT THIS ON A BOAT GOING UP A RIVER IN BANGKOK.  WE COULD NEVER FIGURE OUT IF IT WAS A HAT OR A FAN, IT DIDN'T WORK WELL IN EITHER FORMAT

FOLDED LIKE A FAN

A VERY PRETTY GARBAGE CAN

ANOTHER VERY PRETTY GARBAGE CAN