LATE AGAIN

 Lordy! you would think I was busy or something.  Somehow I am always doing something and this poor blog gets neglected.  And I love writing here.  The problem is I don't go anywhere and nothing comes here (except Amazon and they drop the packages on the doorstep and run...they don't even knock anymore) so there isn't anything interesting to write about.

And I need to talk about a problem I have.  Amazon.  I buy way too much.  Mind you I am still getting rid of more stuff than I get but you know think how far ahead I would be if I didn't buy stuff. 

 I have never ever been a shopper.  I don't like going into stores and browsing around at clothes, kitchen stuff, housewares, food, or anything for that matter.  If I could have one person at my disposal in this life it would be a personal shopper.  And thats exactly what Amazon, Walmart, Old Navy and Zulily have become. I love online shopping...I feel like a hoarder.  You know the ones that have all that crap in their house and piles of packages that haven't even been opened.

So, for my education and come uppance, I am going to list some of the last things I have bought, if I can remember them.

Two stained glass lamps, two little lamps from Marketplace, my enamel pot, two dutch ovens, four ring moulds, double knife sharpener, heavy weight to squish tofu or sammiches, stuff for Ainsley and Stirling, paper towel holder, two utensil holders, crispy chilli oil, hoisin, Tamari, palm dates, two patio tables, slate charcuterie board, notebooks, pens and pencils, scissors, puzzle, paint by number (didn't come...stupid stuff from china), new shirts to replace old shirts, shorts, stuff from Vita Bath, and tons and tons of toilet paper, arm chair, bread box, compost tin, big basket, stone candle, two giant boxes of Starbucks Verona pods from Costco, giant standing mirror (my house didn't have a long mirror).   And that is not the half of it. And I can justify every single purchase!  tee tee!!!!!

So...the challenges.  I did yell off my back deck that I am happy and someone from over in the parking lot yelled back!!!  Hahahahaha!!  He yelled that he was too!!  This made me very happy.  But I still threw out at least five things!

And I sang along with Hey Google every day.  First I picked a song, googled the lyrics and sang the song with the band.  It was so much fun I might continue to do it.  Never hurts to get the endorphins going once a day!  I purposely picked that Boston song that goes super high.  I almost busted my wind pipes on that one!  Did anyone do this?

I don't know what 19 and 20 are.  Hang on I shall go look.  Okay, I looked and its going to be another disposal week.  Not doing either of the challenges this week.  Sorry.

19.  No social media for a week.  That is NOT happening in my house.  No way.  News, entertainment, blog.....nope!  Not doing it.  If I canned the social media I would be sitting here staring out the window either listening to hey google or the tv.  How is that better?  I need to feed my brain.  Although I am reading a biography of Hemmingway right now..fascinating!  The snoop in me loves biographies.

20.  Drink a gallon (3.8 litres) of water every day for a month.  And there is no way in hell am I doing that.  You guys can and I am pretty sure some of you already do.  But I am NOT a water drinker, never have been.  I do manage to get down probably 2 litres of liquid a day through one way or the other.  But I would have to force drink to get down a gallon and when I force drink I get super nauseated.  Like I said not so long ago, walking and water are my two number one nemesis's.

So there we go folks til Friday or Saturday.  I now need to go open the box thats sitting at the top of my stairs.  I think I know what it is but I am not sure.  Lol!!!  Stay safe, noodle and hug an old person as soon as you all are vaccinated.  TTYL

Here are a few of my purchases:

I AM SORRY IF I AM REPEATING.  MY ROCK CANDLE FROM MARKETPLACE

ANOTHER REPEAT I THINK

NOT THE GUITAR...THE GUITAR STAND

THE MOULDS, KNIFE SHARPENER AND WEIGHT

I LOVE MY BREADBOX, BUT IT DOES LOOK LIKE A TOOL BOX. LOL!!

A FUZZY COMPOSTER, WHY FUZZY?  STUPID PHONE CAMERA

THAT ONE THAT LOOKS EMPTY ISN'T, ITS GOT THE COFFEE PODS IN IT.

COVID SCHMOVID...CALM DOWN PEOPLE..IT WILL GO AWAY EVENTUALLY

 What the hell is with people???!!!  I think at this point unless you got covid at your mandatory work or doctor visit or something unavoidable, getting covid by now is a really big fail on our personal selves part.  We have been told, warned, mandated, and yet stupid people still go about their lives carelessly and then get covid.  The only upside of this latest batch is its getting the age group that causes the most problem.  

And now, somehow, covid is being blamed for all the really bad behaviour that's going on out there.  I completely disagree.  It may be the excuse the losers use, but it's not covid.  Its careless selfish idiots causing the problems, then blaming it on covid.

And stores....I don't know why store peeps are complaining, unless our town is a major exception.  Every single store in this town is open and doing a brisk business.  Not one store is closed.  It's totally business as usual.  Same with the restaurants. And whilst all gas on the island is 136.00 a litre, in Port here its 144.00.  And there are endless vehicles going through town with surfboards tied to the tops of their cars.  You can guess where they are going.  Headed up to Tofino to catch those sad excuse waves they call surfing worthy.  Jeesh!!!

Frankly I feel almost foolish for taking Bonnie's (may I call her that?) rules to heart.  I mean I just don't see that many people sheltering in place.  I know we can see people outside with masks on and six feet apart and it needs to be our ten people.  Thats great but if you live in rainy Port that doesn't help much.  I sit in my window here and watch all kinds of people coming and going in and out of all the neighbour's houses.

Monte got a call from mental health informing him that he will get his vaccine on April 7th.  It will probably be the astrothingy one, not Pfizer or Moderna but that will be okay.  If he does get covid at least it won't kill him.  I get to phone next week to make an appointment.  Stan got his appointment and they only had to wait a couple of weeks to get their shot.  So hopefully by the middle of April we will have our first ones done.  That will make me feel safer.  Monte and I have decided that probably from now on we are going to use masks anyway.  I did not get regular flu this year!  A total first for me!  Masks, distancing and hand washing and a flue shot def works!

Now to change the subject....I had an interesting unexpected experience this week.  It won't seem much to you guys but to me its a big deal.  LOL!!!

I always browse through the market place on facebook.  As I was having a look the other day I spied an item that almost stopped my heart.

Some of you, the ones that used to visit me way back in the seventies, will remember that as soon as you would arrive at my place I would put the coffee on.  And you might remember I always used an enamel coffee pot that was white with a red flower painted on the front.  I would fill the pot with water, put the ground coffee on top and put it on the element turned to high.  I could tell by the sound of the water beginning to heat to a boil when to exactly get to the stove and lift it before it all boiled over...making a massive mess.  I would then quickly put it under the tap and drop in about a half cup of cold water...to settle the grounds.  When I poured it into a mug I used a little wire strainer.  I did that exact ritual a thousand times.  Somewhere along the way that little pot disappeared...one of my hundred moves.

Well, guess what was for sale? The exact same little pot.  I almost cried!  I saw it was 20 dollars so after a long gaze I moved on.  Twenty seemed too much.  But over the next week I kept thinking about it. So finally I went back to market place and couldn't find it.  But one day I happened to look in a different section and there it was!  And now it was marked down to ten dollars!  Long story short, it is now on my stove and I gotta say, when I see it there it's like it was never gone out of my life.  It so belongs there.  It feels so right.  I can't explain it.  It is the definition of 'familiar'.

Well enough today.  I am going to go take a picture of it and put it on here.  I love my little kettle!

Stay safe, noodle and talk to oldsters!  TTYL

THAT'S IT ON THE RIGHT.

I LOVE IT!!!!

NANAIMO...OR BUST

 A day late...again.  Sorry folks.  You know when you have no life, no activity, no deadlines (so to speak) and no idea or need to have an idea of what day it is, it amazes me that I can forget to post!  It's not like I am on the run, rushing about, getting things done.

And yes Arnie, I do remember making Bailey's!  Not only was that fun but delicious.  I actually don't consider Bailey's, and all it's cousins, liquor.  It's a good gramma drink.  There was an occasional occasion when Bill and I would fill a glass with ice and then pour on the Bailey's.  And give it to Gramma, Bill's mom.  She loved it!  We just didn't mention the alcohol part.

This week has not been memorable at all.  We did make one foray out to Walmart for groceries and a game I ordered, not that we play games.  It is a Port Alberni monopoly game.  So cool!  We made a quick stop at No Frills.  I ran in for a few things and when I got to the truck I noticed that my driver's licence, which was loose in my pocket, was not there.  It was there in the store and now it was not.  So I backtracked and didn't find it.  What a pain in the ass.

  In order to get a new one I have to go stand in an infested cramped office that also services disability peeps.  Waaaahhhh!!!  I need my health number to make my appointment for my vaccine next week.  Fortunately, I combed through my millions of pictures and found a pic I took of my licence, front and back.  I was supposed to have deleted that but didn't.  Thank goodness.  I don't know how much bad guys can use it if they find it somewhere.

We are off to Nanaimo today.  Monte has to take his guitar amp in to be fixed and it has to go to a certain place down there.  But due to all the Covid variants out there, I told him we won't be going into the Asian store for stuff we can't get here and def won't be going in to Costco.  We may go through the Wendy's drive thru...his fave place to eat.  Not mine.  I don't like hamburgers anymore, not even the non meat ones.  Maybe a salad.  You know, when you live in a deprived town, a place like Wendy's is very exciting.  Sigh.

I have a dear friend that I have mentioned before.  I am talking about Anne, in Kamloops.  We phone each other occasionally and when we do we know we will be on the phone for at least an hour.  We never run out of things to talk about.

On Monday evening it was getting near time for the family zoom when the phone rang.  I saw that it was Anne and I almost didn't answer.  It can sometimes be hard to cut the call short.  But something told me to answer it and am I ever glad I did.  Her husband Larry died.  And she was in emotional pieces.  Poor Anne.  She is so alone...not a lot of friends and no family in town.  So I was on the phone with her for the next two hours, no way was I going to hang up on her at that point...so I missed the family zoom.  I know they would understand.  Jeez I wish I could go to Kamloops to help her.  She has to completely clean out Larry's place.  He had an apartment downtown and she has kept her duplex.  So she will move back into her duplex, such a big job and I would so be able to help her with my truck etc...  Stupid Covid!  (shovel list)

Now onto this week's challenge.  Are any of you doing any of them?  Or are you getting rid of five things each time you default?  hahaha!!!!

Well I didn't zoom after all so I did toss five things...actually more.  When I toss, I toss!  And poor Wrangler can't even shake a paw anymore, much less learn a new trick.  That was such a stupid challenge.  So here we go with the new ones:

17.  I am changing this one.  The one she suggests is not possible.  Well I guess it is but not without a whole lot of money and trouble.  So I am making one up...a really easy one.  Go outside, either at home, or in a forest or in a park...and yell, super super loud, "I AM HAPPY!!!!  I AM HAPPY!!!! I AM HAPPY!!!".  Never mind who hears you! With any luck maybe some one will yell back "SO AM I!!!"

18.  Karaoke....every day this week turn on a song of choice, one you either know the lyrics to or find them on your laptop and sing it loud along with the song.  If you have grandchildren with you, get them involved, or a friend or your kids or husband, get everyone singing along!  So much fun!  This is a fun week!

So stay safe people, stay healthy, noodle and talk to old people like they matter.  TTYL

TWO FOR ONE TODAY

 Sorry folks, I owe a challenge post and a covid one.  If I suddenly disappear here and never come back it won't be because I want to be gone.  It will be because of blogspot. What an awful site this is.  Although, it is forcing me to learn way more about computer problem solving than I ever thought I would know.

One thing I did this week was I got a good start on my xmas shopping.  I decided to spread it out over the year.  

Amazon has become so expensive.  It makes me mad.  I have been an avid Amazon shopper for years now and I know the prices.  You can still get the odd thing at a decent price, but they make the item and 'add on', meaning you have to spend at least 25 bucks to get that cheap item.  

So I went hunting for a different site to shop at.  Speed doesn't matter, it can take months to come if it wants to. Dec. is still a way off.  The only thing is there isn't any drop shipping this far ahead of xmas.  I have to order it here and then resend it.  But thats okay.  I just keep size in mind whilst I shop.  It was fun.  I am kind of hoping that by November when I would normally be doing the xmas shopping, I will be too busy doing things post covid to have time to shop!

Seeing as how I wasn't going to do one of the challenges (make liquor of some sort) and couldn't do the other one (the zoom isn't until the 22nd) I resorted to the default challenge, twice.  I hauled a heavy garbage bag out to the bin on Thursday.  Certainly got rid of more than 5 and 5 things.

I was talking to Kathy and I mentioned that I had filled a massive big rubber maid to the top with junk, from beside my chair, from under the hearth, from beside my bed, at the end of my bed, in two drawers in the kitchen....junk that has no proper home.  I did that some time ago and I hadn't gone into that bin one time since then, not for one thing.

  So I decided to just whip through it, keep only the bare minimum, like the stuff I need for Micky mousing things together and fixing  (twine, universal screw driver, duct tape, wire etc.), mail, camera stuff, hair curlers etc.... I would then tip all the rest, most of it, straight into the garbage bin.

She stopped me.  She told me that her oldest grandchild Ainsley, who is at her house a lot, is at that age, she is five going on six, where she loves loves loves junk.  She asks Kathy if she has 'stuff' for her to go through, sort and store in her personal 'locker', a portion of the buffet.  Kathy suggested I make up bags of 'stuff' for her!  What a fantastic idea!  That totally motivated me.

I found three appropriate cloth bags, probably bigger than what she had in mind, and started to fill them.  I made up three fantastic bags!  Notebooks, pencils and pens, a complete set of prism pencil crayons, jewelry, little sparkly boxes from one of my China trips, compass, shiny things, weird foreign coins, stuffed toy, tiny Chinese dolls, tiny little candles in wee animal shaped holders and on and on.  But as I was doing this I kept thinking of her younger brother Stirling.  I had nothing for him.

So I went on the Ikea site and spent a ridiculously small amount of money and bought him a whole plethora of fun gadgets...finger puppets, cars, stuffies, etc...they have so many little things for kids!  And it arrived here faster than Amazon ships!  Now to get it all to Kathy for them.

I have not cooked this week.  We have rediscovered hot and sour soup.  Our local Chinese restaurant makes the best hot and sour soup you ever ate.  I looked up the calories and its super low so every night now we order the soup and Monte goes and picks it up.  It is Devine!  We also get one order of mo pho tofu.  It's a very spicy, kind of soupy hot mixture with chunks of tofu in it.  I add spoons of it to my soup and oh my!!!! You slurp up spicy burny spoonfuls of soup then you get a big chunk of soothing cool soft tofu.  Man oh man..you can't beat it!!  I think we are on our fifth night of soup for dinner.  I couldn't ever make it that cheap either, never mind even making it to begin with.  Forget it.

So....challenges for this week:

15.  Video call with a distant friend.  Yes!  I am not sure it will be video for me but I will certainly call someone far away.  I think I will call Clare.  I haven't talked with him in a long time and I miss him.

16.  This one is stupid.  Teach your pet a new trick.  Right.  Has she not heard that you can't teach an old dog a new trick?  Jeez!  Wrangler is 17 and crippled.  No new tricks there.  And you can't teach a pet you don't even have a new trick either.  So it's default time. Five more things gone from this house for me!!

Covid:  So exciting!  Finally the vaccines are on a roll.  It is still going to be a long wait.  We don't actually get the shot for about a month or more after you make the appointment.  Then you have to wait for two weeks after that.  Then a four month wait for the second one.

It's funny how now that they have announced the special groups that don't have to wait for their age group because they are in high risk areas or jobs, there are people that are so angry and incensed that they weren't included in those groups.  The powers that be concentrated on the groups where covid has hit them hard.  Well, one of the groups that didn't get included is the BC Ferries.  Haha!!  They are pissed!!!  They have said that it feels like a kick in the teeth to not be included.  Yet...they have not had one case of covid.  Just because they work with the public doesn't mean you automatically get early shots.  People become such bullies or whiners when they aren't getting what they feel are their right to have.

Anyway we are all feeling a little more hopeful today.  It feels like half the weight has been lifted.

Take care people, stay safe, noodle and talk to oldsters.  TTYL

EGADS!!!!

 Toughest thing about Monte and me is our complete hopeless lack of ability to do anything handy mannish. I have a list a mile long of crap that needs doing in this place.

I need a hose line run to the fridge area.  I need a new fridge and I want one with ice and water.  And while we are at it I need a new sink tap.

We desperately need a new light fixture over the dining room table.  It takes eight light bulbs and over the last year one by one they have burnt out.  I refuse to change them.  That thing isn't worthy of a new bulb.  We are now down to one.  I will put a pic of it down below.

I need the bathroom completely redone.  Its like a time capsule put in in the 70's by an old lady.  Shiny foil flowered wallpaper.  Swag hanging plastic chandeliery lights.  Green tub and turlet.  Lino designed flooring.

New reinforced back deck stairs.  They are long and wobbly.  And when you have a giant son, wobbly stairs don't cut it.

I really really really need a fireplace, a brick fireplace, removed.  It's a wood fireplace and takes up waaaaaay too much of the living room space.  There is never ever going to be a time when this fireplace is actually used.  I way prefer the Telus fireplace on channel 109.  A fire with no heat is my kind of fire.

I need a landscaper to properly put down a cement patio out front.  One that fits three Adirondack chairs and a wee table and maybe a few pots of flowers.  This would be a place to sit in an evening when the sun is too hot on the deck.

The list goes on and on.  For sure some of it we can do but none of it can we do the whole thing.  And the only thing worse than the way it is right now is having it all a half done job.

I went in and had my shingles and pneumonia shots on Friday.  The shingles one was a piece of cake but the pneumonia one hurt going in and now I can hardly move my arm.  This is how bad it is....I can hardly pull the handle on my recliner!!!!!!!  OMG!!!!

So Covid.  I was watching that morning show that comes from Toronto every morning.  I think the two hosts are called Jeff and Caroline.  They had Bonnie Henry and her sister on.  It was really interesting but during the segment they mentioned that she had written a book!  That woman, with only six days off since the pandemic started, wrote a book with the help of sister Lynn.  So I immediately went to amazon and checked it out....and bought it.

I started to read it and couldn't quit.  There are so many many things that go on behind the scenes, and not just now but over many many years...keeping track of every case of flu, illnesses that are contagious, how to handle it etc.... It was fascinating!  I haven't finished it yet but I feel a whole lot safer since reading it.

  And now that we have really gone through a true blue pandemic we will be a whole lot more prepared for the next one.  The really big takeaway on this one has to do with the government.  They cut back on pandemic preparation, they didn't stockpile the necessary masks, respirators etc....and most of all they didn't allow the Canadian vaccine producing plants to be ready to produce.  All of that took a real toll.  All of that is going to change...ready for the next one.  And as long as we eat meat....there will be a next one.

She also lightly mentions the damage that antivaxxers do.  If every one got the yearly flu shot, we would pretty much eliminate flu.  So even if what's his name...Bill Gates, is putting a chip in the vaccine and in to us, its worth it.  At least you won't die.  (just in case an idiot is reading this I am joking about Bill Gates).  100 plus year old people talk about getting vaccinated back in the fifties and sixties.  They are still alive.  They didn't get polio etc...  We eliminated small pox.  So get vaccinated peeps.  Although I am positive every one of the readers here are all intelligent enough to get vaccinated.  And we all thank you for your participation and contribution to herd immunity.

Well that's it for today.  Stay healthy, noodle and talk to an old person.  TTYL. and pardon the order of pics....this blogspot is stupid

SEE....DOWN TO ONE LIGHT

SHINY WALLPAPER

THOSE LIGHTS ARE PLASTIC

GREEN TUB WITH PERMANENT DIRT RING

GREEN TURLETT

NO RUG TODAY

 I have worked on the rug but not enough to show progress.  My excuse?  Bad eyes!  Teehee!!!  Also I have been super busy on something else that I can't talk about...at least not yet.  But that is winding down a little so back at it this week. Hooking is very relaxing.  (magic wand list)

Well I am glad to say I am back to happy.  That last post was a dark day.  Probably my blood sugar was too high!  LOL!!!  Supposedly diabetes causes crankiness.  I don't seem to get cranky as much as I get impatient with just about anything and everything. I want to punch the wall.  But I seem to remember being that way sometimes long before the diabetes happened.

I have decided that I need more fermentation in my life.  Sauerkraut.  Mmmmmm.  I love it fried in butter but butter is not in my life at the moment.

  Fortunately I love sauerkraut cold.  So I bought a colossal jar of organic, family hand packed blah blah blah sauerkraut only to find out that you don't want the pasteurized kind.  Apparently pasteurizing kills the good stuff that you are eating fermented stuff for in the first place.  Jeez!!!  So I will be eating for enjoyment instead of gut health!  

But the reason I mention this is that I have decided to start fermenting myself. (that line is not clear...I won't be fermenting myself...I will be fermenting cabbage lol)  I bought a kit online and have read a thousand kimchi and sauerkraut recipes. Enough to see that I still need supplies...like jars.  And getting jars has been the most difficult thing of all.  Why oh why are they almost seventy bucks per dozen...both in Walmart and Amazon.  I need to hit the thrift stores.  And I need to get a certain Korean red powder spice for the kimchi, which means a trip to Nanaimo...which isn't possible at the moment. 

The one thing I refuse to participate in is making or drinking kombucha.  Nope!  Hate the stuff, even for good tummy wigglies.  I just don't know how people can drink that stuff.  Tandy makes it bless her heart! 

 Mom used to make sauerkraut in a big crock, or at least she did once or twice.  I helped out but I was only about five but I do remember standing on a kitchen chair in the kitchen and helping to pack the cabbage into it. I loved the smell. Its a pretty uncomplicated process.  I am looking forward to it.

So this past week's challenges were both easy and not possible.  I cleaned out my computer, blew the keyboard and cleaned the screen.  I also deleted some files and about 150 bad photos.  I still need to delete about 3,000 or more.  I have 90,000 photos.  Sigh.

And as for putting out a travel item?  I have a beautiful Turkish candle container I picked up in a wee Turkish store near St. Pancreases station in London as we were heading to Paris.  I love it.  I shall put a pic below.

This weeks two challenges:

13.  Okay, this is funny, ironic.  I wrote that bit about kombucha before reading this challenge.  Haha!!  Brew your own kombucha or beer or alcohol.  Seriously!  I just read that.  Well for me beer is out.  Too big an expense and no space to do it.  Alcohol is out because I hate alcohol and refuse to partake in that activity!!!!  (shovel list). And I think I made it clear what I feel about kombucha!  I think that if we are going to skip one of these challenges we should default to eliminating five things from our house.  So I am going to choose that one.

14.  Participate in a zoom chat or connect with an elderly relative.  I love this one!!!  Elderly relatives need to be listened to and this is a great opportunity to do just that.  For example, last nite my phone rang and it was my niece Jocelyn.  Now I have always said that if I am going to be stranded on a desert island and can only have one person with me I want Jo.  She and I would never ever run out of things to talk about and she and I are always on the same side of the fence, which is good!  And she has just a touch of sarcasm about her which I love and I can be as caustic as I like and use the f word without worrying.  I love her and she phoned just to say hi!  The best kind of phone call.  So pass it on peeps!!!  Call an elderly rellie!!!!  And I do believe we are having a major big family zoom chat this week!!!  Done and done!

So there we go.  I now must be off, take my pills,  do my morning workout and have my oatmeal and chia seeds.  Then its time to put my piano practice in.  I am working on Schubert's Serenade...love that piece.Then its onto some serious hooking, gotta make up some time!  Have fun this week, be safe, stay healthy and talk to an oldster!  TTYL

WHEN THE CANDLE IS LIT THIS THING THROWS AWESOME TYPE LIGHT SHAPES

THE TURKISH HAVE SUCH AN AMAZING COLOUR PALATE.

THE UGLY PARADE

 Earlier this week I was reading January 1st, 2014's blog post.  I usually, as soon as I post a new entry, I randomly pick a post from somewhere in previous years and read it.  Just one.  It's interesting.

So this particular one was about how Spod hated Christmas and the week before the day and a couple of weeks after, he would be cranky and nasty to us all, but especially to Monte.  I went on to describe a fight we had (it was actually kind of funny) and how I swore that next year it wasn't going to happen.  Next year he needed to go to Maui or something, just not be with us making us all miserable.  Of course little did I know he wouldn't be with us the next Christmas.  And now I would give anything to have one more miserable xmas with Spod.  Just a reminder to live mindfully.

So today I am not posting a pic of the rug.  I need to do some work on it today and I will do the Tuesday post tomorrow.  But I needed to post this one today.  I am mad.

I decided to take a look at the fat lady online store.  Time to possibly find a summer tank or two.

So with great hope and open heart I clicked in and started to peruse.  And it wasn't long before I was reminded that the ONLY fat lady store in Canada is determined to make us all as ugly as possible.  I seriously cannot believe the crap they design.  Whhhhhyyyyyyy?  Clearly all their designers are skinny bitches determined to make us fatties as ugly as possible.  If anything makes me want to diet it is this.  I posted a couple of pics just to show you.

DON'T THEY UNDERSTAND THAT WHEN YOUR STOMACH IS THE FIRST THING TO ENTER THE ROOM, YOU CAN'T WEAR ANYTHING WITH A DEFINED WAIST...WE DON'T HAVE WAISTS!

OH GOD!!  NO.  JUST NO.

MUMMY...(whimper)

SURE...LET ME JUST SLIP INTO A PANTSUIT, SHORT LEGGED, IN A CAMO/FLOUR/BLUE SPLOTCHES OUTFIT

YES, LETS PUT ON A SHIRT THAT HAS MOVED THE WAISTLINE UP UNDER THE BOOBS SO WE LOOK PREGNANT.

WHOEVER INVENTED THE 'WATERFALL' FRONT ON SWEATERS SHOULD BE SHOT.  AND WHILST WE ARE SHOOTING, KILL THE PERSON THAT INVENTED THAT GHASTLY COLOUR THAT MAKES ANYONE LOOK LIKE A BOWL OF BAD PORRIDGE.

If any of you actually own anything resembling any of these things, I am confident YOU look great.  You def don't have the stomach I do!!!!
Stay safe, noodle and love your oldsters.  TTYL

NOT HAPPY TODAY

1992 Sharri?  Seriously?  Get that thing out and either finish or give it to someone who will or toss it!!!  It's that kind of thing that weighs the brain down!  I bet a lot of us have something like that lurking in our storage areas!!!

I am not happy today.  I don't know why, just a down day.  I almost never see Monte.  He spends his whole time downstairs in his room, which is his total right to do.  It's not his job to keep me company but....I sure can sympathize with those people out there that live alone and don't go out to work.  You almost feel like you are going crazy.  Way too much time in my own head.

So, given that, I shall keep this short. There is absolutely nothing to report anyway.  Same old, day in, day out.

I did buy two lamps, little ones.  I was mulling over the online market place here in Port and saw these two lamps for sale.  They were only ten bucks each and she delivers them to the door.  They suit my purple room perfectly.  I will take a picture and put it below.  Like anyone cares but when absolutely NOTHING happens, finding a wee treasure becomes a big event.

I usually like watching the news but all it is is Covid covid covid and vaccines vaccines vaccines.  And if it isn't about that it's about the shitty nasty humans out there and the way they are destroying the downtowns of every metropolis in BC.  An investigative reporter did a deep dive down in Victoria to find out who the unhoused actually were, where they were from and how long they had been on the streets.  It was interesting what she discovered.

First of all the vast majority of them had been on the streets for less than a year.  Except for a small core group, they were all newbies, from across Canada.  We all thought it was because of the climate...but it wasn't!  It was directly because of all the handouts, food, shelter and drug paraphernalia, including in some cases, drugs themselves.  They get put up in hotels, three meals a day served to their door and the big room off the lobbies filled with table loads of drug use supplies, personal needs supplies, clothes, blankets, food, coffee/tea.  To quote them...what more could you want?  Of course that's still not enough and the entitlement, victim mentality causes anger and lashing out and theft.  It has become like war zones.

I think that at this stage of covid, a good solid year into it and at least another year dealing with this virus, the word that emerges, at least for me, is intolerance.  People have done a total turn around.  In the beginning it was all kumbaya  and a healthy dose of fear and respect for the harm it could do.  Now it's every man for himself and our lives have become tiny.  Grocery shopping has become a big event.  Online shopping has developed a new addiction in many I'm sure.  Don't give a shit anymoreism has become prominent in society.  

I have tried to stay upbeat and most the time I am.  But not today.  So, I am pretty sure you don't want to hear anymore from a misery guts, so stay safe, noodle and TTYL

GUILT NO MORE

 I just noticed that my post I wrote last Friday didn't post!  This blogspot is awful.  They can put a man on the moon but they can't make a decent user friendly site to use.  The title is listed but the text is completely gone.  My apologies.

Did you read this post title?  I super mean it.  I am done with always feeling guilty about not moving around more, not walking (shovel list...I effing hate walking with a passion...HATE IT!!!!), not eating healthy enough, sitting in my chair too much, blah blah blah to the power of infinity.

I was thinking this morning about this.  You know, when your time is up...IT'S UP!!!  Doesn't matter how healthy you are or aren't, when its your time, off you go.

I was thinking about our step father (sorry Kathy I am sure you aren't thrilled with that label).  He smoked heavily all his life til the last few years.  He never ate a vegetable.  When he was younger he might have been active but he sure wasn't in his later years.  He lived to 85.  And he was pretty healthy and developed dementia very late in his years.

I could trot out all kinds of examples.  And then there is the famous one...that Boston Marathon runner, not old, super healthy...dies young.

So I decided this morning I am just going to do what feels good and not sweat the rest.  If I die just know it was my time and I didn't waste one moment of my life doing shit I hated.

That being said though, with a wonderful goal in mind, I could be moved to move.  The kids and I want to make a trip to Croatia, Italy and Paris one day (if I am still alive) and I want to be able to walk and keep up with them.  So that means I will need to get off my tush and start toning up for it.  But that's different.  That carrot is a big one!!!!

I am still slowly but surely working on that cursed hooked rug.  I remember a zillion years ago I decided to hook a rug.  It was much bigger than this current one.  It was a beautiful log cabin in a perfect creeky woodsy type setting.  Lots of browns of every shade.

Well I hooked, and hooked, and hooked until I wanted to scream.  But it was a gift for Mom and Dad so I kept at it.  Then finally one day I realized I only had two more rows to completion.  So I put my two wee uns' in the car, took my rug and headed out to their place.  I took a seat on their couch and proceeded to finish the damned thing.

  I hooped and hollered and threw it on the floor and jumped up and down on it and wiped my feet and picked it up and flung it at my shocked parents and yelled...'there ya go...it's all yours now. Belated merry frigging xmas!!!!!' My children started crying, as I laughed like a crazy person. I swore I would never ever do another. Never!!!  And here I am, hooking away.  I just don't do so much in one sitting and this one is a third of the size of the other one I did.  So I don't mind so much.

I also managed to find ten things to dump.  Actually, to be honest, I found a garbage bag full.  I quit counting at around twenty.  I think I mentioned sometime ago that I had obtained a large rubber maid and put all my junk boxes and baskets and drawers into it.  I now have a pink container, a massive one, full of crap.  So I went through it and found many stupid things that have no business being in my life and threw them out.  Then I attacked my closet.  It's so much neater, cleaner and emptier.  I am happy.

So the challenges this week aren't too strenuous.

11.  Do a spring clean of your computer.  Go through your emails and get rid of the files you don't need.  Clean up your saved documents etc....  And do an external clean.  Blow out your keyboard and clean the screen.

12.  Dig out any travel memorabilia you have, either something you have brought home yourself or something someone has given you.  Find a fairly prominent spot to display it.  And don't hesitate to tell a trip story about it should someone notice it and ask!

Again I am sorry about the missing post.  Pisses me off as I am trying to be more reliable here.  It was a good one too.  I shall see if I can resurrect  it and post it this coming Friday.  Stay safe and noodle and listen to old people!  TTYL

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