Home - eat in kitchen

This month on nablopomo the theme is "home".
When I started blogging I did a lot more writing and less "filling out" of memes and such. While I enjoy memes, I miss writing.
I have tried and failed to be inspired to write daily by the monthly themes at nablopomo and once again blog every day for the whole month - I was successful last November. When I saw the theme for this month was "home" I figured I could do it.
This photo was taken by my spousal unit. She does pretty much all the photo taking in our house, which I don't mind because she is good at it, even though she hasn't figured out a way to make me look skinny in any of the pictures she takes of me. This photo was taken on Sunday in our kitchen. We have a small kitchen and three dogs, four cats, and one cat (seen here) who thinks he's a dog. I guess that makes him a cog or a dat, we haven't decided which yet. All of our pets sleep inside but for the majority of the day they are outside. Somehow at suppertime they ALL manage to converge in the kitchen - as seen here.
This is what "home" means to me.

888 update

non-fiction
What Now? Anne Patchett (completed June 11 2008)
1 Measure of a Man. Sidney Poitier
2. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Barbara Kingsolver
3. A Long Way Gone. Ishmael Beah
4. Spycatcher. Peter Wright
5. The Places in Between. Rory Stewart (completed January 19th 2008)
6. Infidel. Ayaan hirsi Ali
7. Glass Castle.
8. Fish:

Young Adult Fiction
1. The Canning Season. Polly Horvath (completed May 19th 2008)
2. Godless. Pete Hautman (completed May 26 2008)
3. Autobiography of my Dead Brother. Walter Dean Myers (completed May 27 2008)
4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Brian Selznick (completed May 27 2008)
5. The Burn Journals. Brent Runyon (completed April 26 2008)

Pulitzer Prize Winners
1. Middlesex. Jeffrey Eugenides (Completed January 21st 2008)
2. Gilead. Marilynne Robinson (Completed January 13th 2008)

From the NYT Bestseller list. (I don't want to limit myself to books that have already been written. There might be some good ones published this year)
1. Bleeding Kansas. Sarah Paretsky. #15 January 13 2008

Banned or "challenged" books
1. Go Ask Alice
2. The Lorax. Dr. Seuss (Completed April 24 2008)
3. The Well of Lonliness
4. Steal This Book. Abbie Hofmann

Books already on my Bookshelf completed this section June 2008
1. Gordon Korman. Island: Book one "Shipwreck" (completed February 1 2008)
2. Gordon Korman. Island: Book two "Survival" (completed February 1 2008)
3. Gordon Korman. Island: Book Three "Escape" (completed February 1 2008)
4. Christine Falls. Benjamin Black (Completed May 25 2008)
5. The Target. Gerri Hill (completed May 31 2008)
6. One Child. Torey Hayden (completed June 1 2008)
7. How to be a Canadian. Will Ferguson (completed June 4 2008)
8. Coyote Sky. Gerri Hill (completed June 5 2008)

Books based on or in Africa
1.Miracle at Speedy Motors. Alexander McCall Smith (completed May 15 2008)

Books I will check out from the library completed this section May 2008
1. Saturday. Ian McEwan (completed January 27 2007)
2. Eat, Pray, Love. Elizabeth Gilbert (completed February 16 2008)
3. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur. Daoud Hari (completed February 18 2008)4. Biting the Moon. Martha Grimes (completed March 25 2008)
5. The Calling. Inger Ash Wolfe (completed March 29 2008)
6. Written in Bone. Simon Beckett (completed March 31 2008)
7. 19 Minutes. Jodi Picoult (Completed April 21 2008)
8. The Darkest night of the Year. Dean Koontz (completed May 7 2008)

unconscious mutterings

1. Gossiping :: talking
   
2. Misplaced :: keys
   
3. Spaceship :: UFO
   
4. Ignore :: silence
   
5. Bodily :: Harm
   
6. Tweezers :: essential
   
7. Goodnight :: Moon
   
8. Curls :: Afro
   
9. Faucet :: I can fix them!
   
10. Right? :: which right?
    

Friday Fill ins

1. For me monotony is the opposite of creativity.
2. Godless was the last excellent book I read.
3. I like fill-ins because they give me a chance to think about things in a new way.
4. In nature I like looking at trees.
5. Ms. Clinton - should win the US elections.
6. The last time I laughed with all my belly was with my mom when she was here.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to gardening tomorrow my plans include gardening and Sunday, I want to garden!

gardening this weekend

This is our first summer in our home. We purchased in the fall about 6 acres outside of town (on the edge of nowhere as my friends refer to it) and we are enjoying our first summer season getting more familiar with the lay of the land. My spousal unit is an amazing gardener and I have no doubt that in three years (one year to clean up, one year to plan, year three for "fruition"), this little piece of land will be unrecognizable. I think we are making quite a dent already. The work is not easy and I am subsidizing my efforts with ibuprofen.
On Friday we had the pleasure of shopping in a garden center, spending WAY too much money, but providing some instant yard gratification.

Thursday Thirteen : thirteen things I have neglected

For the past few weeks I fell behind in blogging. I have no real "excuse" but my mom was here and we were very busy doing things other than sitting at the computer.

Since she has been gone I don't know what my problem has been but I have been completed sapped of energy and I feel as though I am barely functioning. All the things I am responsible to get done have fallen to the wayside and I am only managing to get home, eat supper, bath with my boy and go to bed.

Here are thirteen things I have neglected to do since my mom left.

1. Homework. You may think "Julie never does homework" and you would be SOMEWHAT correct... but I have been doing more lately, just not enough as I need to be doing.

2. Playing with Max.

3. Working on pulling down the old barn/house we started working on when my mom was here.

4. Evening dishes. I was getting into a fairly good habit of doing the dishes at night before my mom came. When my mom was here she did a LOT of dishes and I just got right out of the habit of doing them. I am struggling to get back into the habit.

5. Cleaning up in general. I like to think I was being MORE helpful around the house. I am pretty certain my spousal unit would say I have a LONG way to go in this area - especially these last few weeks.

6. Reading. I am falling behind in my 888 challenge

7. Watching tv - really folks, I should be watching WAY more tv than I am.

8. Sleeping. All I want to do is crawl into bed the minute I walk in the door from work. In fact, I don't want to wait to get home from work to go to bed, more accurately, in the middle of the afternoon, at work, I want to go to bed. I am not sleeping near as much as my brain is screaming for.

9. Playing video games. With everything else I am not doing, the priority for this falls WAY WAY off.

10. Yard work. We now have our OWN (insert comment here about 30 yr mortgage) HUGE yard and there are projects galore to work on. I am falling behind on all of them. I could actually write thirteen YARD projects I am neglecting but maybe I will save that for next week.

11. Pruning. It's true. I haven't pruned since my mom left. I do still think about pruning - a lot.

12. Attending "PD" opportunities at work. This month is the month for all the "PD" opportunities at work. You have to sign up for them in advance and I did, then when it was time to actually go, I bagged out of two of them because I just didn't want to go and deal with people. I will say that BOTH times I had a legitimate reason to say I wasn't going, but neither time was it anything that couldn't have waited. Today I FORCED myself to go to something I signed up for. I have another one tomorrow and I will make myself do that too, but I am not feeling in the mood for them.

13. I was going to say sex, just to make this post more exciting, but instead I will say...... I am neglecting.... eating. True story. Don't think I have completely stopped all eating. I don't need an intervention or anything and I haven't gone bulemic. Making myself throw up would make me puke. I am just feeling "full". Unfortunately I am not losing any weight.

Babysitters

This morning I took Max to the babysitters. We have decided that he needs to get some interaction with other kids and so for two mornings a week he will go to a babysitter.
We went last night and met her and some of the kids and Max checked out the place. He is a shy kid and it took a while for him to warm up and leave the protective area of his mother's knees, but he did venture out before we left.
He was very excited to go for a ride in tinkey winkey this morning. He is so long his feet reach the dashboard and he can use his one foot to open the window. He can also reach the door knob - which I discovered as we were driving down the dirt road and the door flew open. Note to self - lock the door! The window can stay open because I am not pulling over continuously to shut it.
He wasn't too excited to be left this morning and I have been thinking about him ever since. I know it was his first time and I HOPE he gets more excited to be there. I do NOT like leaving him when he doesn't want to be left. It was hard to walk away, I kept thinking, "This IS for his benefit". This parenting thing can be a real kick in the teeth some days.

Ten on Tuesday: Ten Favorite Time Wasters

This week at Ten on Tuesday (you can link to it here), the theme is 10 favorite time wasters.
Here are mine in no particular order:
Believe it or not this challenge was an interesting one for me. I am very time conscious and so regardless of what I am doing I will check the time to see how long I have been at it. I am a good procrastinator, but I am very conscious of time.

1. Blogging. I thoroughly enjoy blogging and I take every opportunity I can to get on and update my blog. I also check out other blogs which I am interested in and I'm always disappointed when others have not updated their blogs. I am a lurker though, so when I visit other blogs I never comment - or rarely comment. My spouse comments on others blogs and they in turn visit her. She gets a lot more hits on her blog in one day than I think I have ever had in the time I have been writing.
2. Picking. I would have to say that this is my worst habit, my biggest compulsion and something I should quit altogether. I have done it as long as I can remember (my earliest recollection of someone telling me to quit doing it was when I was about 8 or 9). This is the one thing I can do and become completely oblivious to the time passing and literally hours will have gone by. I wonder if I kept track of the time I spend picking what it would add up to in a week.
3. Pruning. This year is the first year that I have had trees, tools and time to prune to my hearts content. When my mom was here she was stoking the fire and I was up on a ladder in the tree outside the kitchen window. I just think "one more, one more". I could literally prune for hours on end without even giving it a second thought. I don't really know if this counts as a time waster because it is actually time being productive.
4. Logic Puzzles. Love them. Don't spend as much time on them as I would like.
5. Making Lists. I will even make a list of things I have done already, just so I can check them all off.
6.Games on Msn.com. peggle, mahjong, zuma ... if I have a minute, I'm playing. I particularly like to win badges. If you are interested in knowing, I currently have 191 badges. That's better than a picture of the queen and didn't just happen overnight.
7. Looking at houses. I have never really been one for shopping. I like to go in, get what I want and leave. I am not a good browser and I dislike going from one store to another to check out the different prices and then go back to the place I found the cheapest item. Houses on the other hand are a completely different matter. I like to look at the ads for houses posted in the windows of the real estate agents. I like to visit houses. My spouse and I used to do this all the time (before we bought our house) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a bit more difficult and less enjoyable to do toting a toddler around. I still check out the MLS website and I frequently visit bbcanada.com to look at bed and breakfasts for sale. I also like all shows on the home and garden channel or the bbc when they show people house hunting.
8. Channel surfing.
9. Facebook, youtube, other internet sites I have actually found people on facebook whom I lost contact with over the years and whom I AM interested in keeping up to date with. I spend a bit too much time taking pointless quizzes - like which soccer player I am, or which superhero, though I have resisted (so far) knowing what my porn name would be.
10. Video Games. I haven't played many games recently but I have now hooked up the PS2 so I plan on wasting some time on games in the near future.

Fivers Meme

Courtesy of Fond of Snape

What were you doing five years ago?
Five years ago this month I had just left a job I totally loved and my spouse and pets to move countries.

What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1. Cover a shift at work for a sick staff member
2. Fill up a gas can so we can continue mowing the expansive lawn at home
3. Read more articles for class
4. Start working on a handout for my class presentation
5. Order a new treadmill for the rec center and some new furniture

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Hoops
2. Peanut M and M's
3. Chewy Spree (unavailable in Canada)
4. Vege's and dip
5. Plain Lays Chips and Onion Dip

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?
1. Pay off the mortgage
2. Go on an Rfamily Cruise - travel in general
3. Go back to school full time with my spouse
4. Spend some money on close family and close friends
5. Ensure my parents and my spouses parents are set up to retire and RELAX

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Procrastinating
2. Picking
3. Not paying attention
4. Being overly critical
5. Not picking up after myself

What are five places you have lived?
1. Sydney, N.S.
2. Saskatoon, SK
3. Bellingham, WA
4. Provo, UT
5. Gweru, Zimbabwe

What are five jobs you’ve had?
1. Gift shop cashier
2. Dishwasher
3. Carnie
4. Babysitter
5. Tim Hortons Baker

What five people do you want to tag?
Sadly, I don't know five other bloggers, so anyone who wants to can replicate this - just please leave me a message so I know to come check it out.

unconscious mutterings

Referral :: medical
Indiana :: Hoosiers
Foil :: in the windows
Horizon :: Far away
Event :: Planner
Sailing :: Ships
Footage :: News
Sunday :: Brunch at Natalie's
Breathtaking :: View
Dude! :: Where's my car?

20 months old

Dear Max,


You are twenty months old already, the time seems to be flying by so quickly. You have had a very busy month this past month. We took a LONG car ride to visit your uncle and aunt and cousins and you travelled more marvellously than we could have hoped for.


You played so well with your cousins and recalling your laughter as you played with the puppy still brings a smile to my face.


You are such a hard worker, you pick up any (every) garden or cleaning implement you encounter and get right to work.


Your granny came with us to the house for two weeks and you are old enough on this visit to interact with her (the last time you saw her you were only a few months old and you weren't doing much other than crying at that time) . You formed a wonderful bond with her and it was great to see you just run up to her and hug her legs or play peekaboo with her while she was talking on the phone. Why is it that grannie's have such an amazing connection with their grandbabies? She pushed you in the wheelbarrow, played "clap hands" with you, and introduced you to dishwashing. When she traced your hands and feet for a cart to Aunty T. you couldn't get enough of it and kept lifting your feet for her to do more. We played at the playground with you, had ice-cream at the park and went for walks. You loved every minute of it and since she left we have to repeatedly show you that her room is empty because for some reason you are convinced that she is just hiding out!

You are still learning things at lightening speed - everything except speaking that is - and when we went on our trip to the airport when granny left, you learned to drink through a straw in less than a minute (should I be surprised?)

Now that the summer is arriving, your bedroom is getting warm and you are sleeping in just a pajama top and a diaper. We were contemplating putting a ceiling fan in your room but we are worried that you won't get a wink of sleep. You are so obsessed with fans that you will likely stay awake all night just to look at it. I don't know how we are going to manage the heat of the summer in the house because we haven't figured out a way to have you in the same room as a fan without driving us crazy wanting to turn it on and off (which I am certain would keep you entertained for hours) or pointing at it as if we have not noticed it yet.

Your schedule has just been a mess with all the travelling we have undertaken this last month. Last night you were so tired you could not stand up, but you were determined that it was not time for you to be in your crib. I sat with you in the rocking chair and you "tickled" my neck and I tickled you back. These moments of laughter are precious to me.
I love you buddy,

Mom

obsession

I enjoy eating beef sticks and I occasionally buy them when I am filling my tank of gas.


A few weeks ago I indulged myself , and picked up a beeef stick to enjoy on the way home from work. As I bit into it I had a strange sensation in my mouth - like my tongue was covered with wax or something. So I investigated. This is what I found.

Now I have become obsessed. I think I have a touch of obsessive personality anyway, but squeezing these beef sticks is addicting. It is SO gross to see the solid masses of fat ooze orange from the end of the stick, how can I resist?!

My mom's visit

For the past two weeks I have had the pleasure of having my mom staying with us. She and my dad live in another country (a far away country) and we do not get many opportunities to spend time with them. This year we were able to have my mom come to stay with us for two weeks and we had a VERY productive time, big fires, good food, and lots of singing and laughs. She left this week and I miss her already. I know it will be a long time before I see her again. I am grateful for the time we had together.

friday fill in

1. On my laziest day I like to wear pajamas all day, read and watch tv in bed!
2. Checking things off a list makes me feel like I'm being productive.
3. I love little puppy noises and big dog loyalty.
4. This summer I want to make significant improvements in our new yard.
5. Interest in blogging made me start my blog.
6. Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to completing my first class presentation, tomorrow my plans include going to class, picking up a pizza and watching UFC and Sunday, I want to enjoy the sunshine and get outside!

You can link to Friday Fill in here.

unconscious mutterings

Concentration :: game
Relocated :: moving boxes
Clot :: Blood
Joints :: arthritis
Satellite :: imagery
Money back :: false advertising
Kittens :: too many
Shady :: Slim
Drain :: plugged
Stroke:: engine

Friday Fill In's

1. There is absolutely NO way you can get me to donate blood!
2. Early sunrise reminds me that summer is almost here!
3. I cannot live without my sleep.
4. Scuba diving and parasailing are two things I'd like to try.
5. When life hands you lemons be grateful you aren't paying for them.
6. I have many favorite childhood memories, I couldn't just limit it to one.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting off early so I can go home and hang with my mom, tomorrow my plans include more yardwork and Sunday, I want to enjoy the pig roast we have been invited to!

888 challenge update

non-fiction
1 Measure of a Man. Sidney Poitier
2. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Barbara Kingsolver
3. A Long Way Gone. Ishmael Beah
4. Spycatcher. Peter Wright
5. The Places in Between. Rory Stewart (completed January 19th 2008)
6. Infidel. Ayaan hirsi Ali
7. Glass Castle.
8. Fish:

Young Adult Fiction
1. The Canning Season. Polly Horvath (completed May 19th 2008)
2. Godless. Pete Hautman (completed May 26 2008)
3. Autobiography of my Dead Brother. Walter Dean Myers (completed May 27 2008)
4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Brian Selznick (completed May 27 2008)
5. The Burn Journals. Brent Runyon (completed April 26 2008)

Pulitzer Prize Winners
1. Middlesex. Jeffrey Eugenides (Completed January 21st 2008)
2. Gilead. Marilynne Robinson (Completed January 13th 2008)

From the NYT Bestseller list. (I don't want to limit myself to books that have already been written. There might be some good ones published this year)
1. Bleeding Kansas. Sarah Paretsky. #15 January 13 2008

Banned or "challenged" books
1. Go Ask Alice
2. The Lorax. Dr. Seuss (Completed April 24 2008)
3. The Well of Lonliness
4. Steal This Book. Abbie Hofmann

Books already on my Bookshelf
1. Gordon Korman. Island: Book one "Shipwreck" (completed February 1 2008)
2. Gordon Korman. Island: Book two "Survival" (completed February 1 2008)
3. Gordon Korman. Island: Book Three "Escape" (completed February 1 2008)
4. Christine Falls. Benjamin Black (Completed May 25 2008)

Books based on or in Africa
1.Miracle at Speedy Motors. Alexander McCall Smith (completed May 15 2008)

Books I will check out from the library completed this section May 2008
1. Saturday. Ian McEwan (completed January 27 2007)
2. Eat, Pray, Love. Elizabeth Gilbert (completed February 16 2008)
3. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur. Daoud Hari (completed February 18 2008)4. Biting the Moon. Martha Grimes (completed March 25 2008)
5. The Calling. Inger Ash Wolfe (completed March 29 2008)
6. Written in Bone. Simon Beckett (completed March 31 2008)
7. 19 Minutes. Jodi Picoult (Completed April 21 2008)
8. The Darkest night of the Year. Dean Koontz (completed May 7 2008)

Wheelbarrow

How much fun can one wheelbarrow provide?
I have always wanted a wheelbarrow and it seems we never lived in a location that was conducive to owning one. When we lived in the USA we lived in a yard that was so small a wheelbarrow would have filled the entire yard. I'm only slightly exaggerating.
When we bought our little acreage and moved in last year the previous owners left a wheelbarrow and I was EXCITED about it.
We busted it out this spring and have been using it. Earlier this week I plunked my boy into it to give him a ride around the yard. Initially he was not so excited and for his first trip I pushed and he held hands with his other mommy and with his attie (grandma). Since that first trip he has been addicted and wants to be pushed constantly. To illustrate the kind of control he exerts on the adults in his life, yesterday me, my mom and my spouse took turns wheeling him around. This makes it a "little" difficult to use the barrow for what it was intended, because his little body is always in it.
After he went to bed the three adults headed out to the demo pile to keep working on our project. We are taking apart the old building that was bulldozed and then left in a pile of wood, metal and junk on the edge of our property. In addition to being an eyesore, I didn't want the little guy becoming interested in the pile and hurting himself on it so it was on my list of summer projects to remove. My mom decided to help with this project and has single handed removed at least half of it in the time she has spent with us. We make piles of wood and then wheel them over (when we can use the wheelbarrow) over to the firepit where we burn the wood. We are making piles of the other parts and pieces for trips to the dump.
Last night on the way over to the site, I wheeled my spouse. On the way back to the house I pushed my mom and then she pushed me. It was hilarious and we need to do it again when we have the camera.
I would highly recommend everyone get a wheelbarrow, not only for the practical uses, but also for the hours of entertainment they can provide.

6 words

I was tagged by by friend and fellow blogger (you can find her here).
The challenge is to come up with 6 words to describe myself. "Write your own six word memoir" is the actual challenge.
This is not so easy, I have been thinking about it (ruminating.lol) for a while and I hope she doesn't think I am completely ignoring her.
I WILL post something soon.....

freedom to drive

I have to give a hip hip and hooray for the fact that my spouse got her drivers license YESTERDAY!

This may seem like a very small and insignificant thing to some of you, but if you are an immigrant to a new country you may be able to appreciate some of the hardships of getting all the legal paperwork you need to be a "functioning" adult in your new country.

We have been here in Canada now for 4.5 years. We love Canada. We are grateful Canada recognizes us as a legitimate family. Having said all of those very nice things about Canada, the immigration process is a nightmare and the process of getting any legal paperwork is equally a nightmare. Adding fuel to the fire, when we left the USA my spouses drivers license had just expired. She went and got a new one and had the temporary one and we were waiting for the new one to come in the mail, only we left before it arrived. This left us in somewhat of a quandry - being without photo id in our new location. She was unable to get a new license here until she had her landed immigrant card and that took the better part of four years. When her landed immigrant card arrived we let out a whoop and headed straight for registry to get her DL. Well of course her temporary license doesn't count as a legitimate one. So we have to get something sent from the USA.

Let me just express two SMALL parts of the frustration of dealing with Canadian and US authorities at the same time for the same problem.

Number 1: The USA has an authority called a "notary public". A notary public is an officer who can administer oaths, witness and authenticate documents, and perform certain other acts. This person in the USA has a notary public stamp which evidences that they have witnessed the signature or whatever it is that you need witnessed. In Canada, notary publics do NOT have these stamps. So when the US wants something notarized, in Canada you cannot perform what it is that they require...... short translation = PROBLEM.

Number 2: Canadians and Americans date things differently. Depending on where you are from, 05/11/08 could be either May 11th or November 5th. This caused us a problem when my spouse had to be out of the country for re-entry and according the USA (who issued the paperwork) they meant November and according to Canada (where we had to "enter") the date in May had already passed. Wouldn't it be so simple to just WRITE the first the letters of the month on all paperwork? Anyway, I digress.

We have been going back and forth to registries, to notaries, to post offices and all over the place and yesterday we FINALLY got the new CANADIAN driver's license. It took over an hour and at some point we had worked with all three ladies who work in the registries. Once, they even said we didn't have all that we needed and were going to turn us away, but I think they took pity on us and our VERY LARGE stack of documentation and we got what we went in for (not without paying of course!)

I need to give a shout out to my spouse who has gone too too long without being able to drive. It is an incredible sacrifice to be "trapped" without a car - especially in a place where it is impossible to live without driving LONG distances. Congratulations my love.

the three m's

Mom, Max and Me

888 challenge update

This week I completed one of the 8 categories for my 888 challenge. I finished reading 8 books which I checked out from the library.
I am slightly concerned that I will not be able to finish this challenge when I look at all I need to complete for school which started again this past weekend. I have an AMAZING amount to read for this class in addition to some major assignments, class presentations and preparing for an exam.
The last book I read from the library was a Dean Koontz book. I am sure - because he is a prolific author - that there are people who really like his books. I am not one of those people. Especially after reading this last book I will not ever read another of his books.
I think one of my personality quirks - which I had a hard time coming up with for an earlier blog challenge - is that I find it hard once I begin a book to not finish it, even if the book is not one I enjoy.
I started to read this book by Dean Koontz (The Darkest Night of the Year) and I had an instant dislike which did not diminish through the entire book. I WISH I could just put down these books which I hate, but instead I trudge through them and because I don't like them they take me AGES to read. I thought I was getting better at this - I started to read "The Known World" for the Pulitzer project I am also participating in, but after getting stuck in it not once, but twice, I put it down and determined not to try to read it again - at least for a while.
So I thought I had overcome this little "issue" I have with not being able to quit reading, even when I hate the book. Then I started this book by Dean Koontz and found in fact that I have NOT overcome my issues. I read the whole thing. I hated it, but I have now completed ONE of my categories, so I have something to be happy about.

this week

It is amazing to me how quickly the last week has flown by. We travelled over 6 hours to pick up my mom from my brothers house. She is only with us for two weeks and one week is almost over already.
We were dreading the trip because Max has never been a good traveller, not since the day he was born, and this was going to be the longet trip we had undertaken with him. As it happens, he was EXCELLENT in the vehicle and it was a great trip.
Once we were there we drove a LOT to do some shopping and take advantage of being in a location where we had access to stores and to IKEA!! (WOO HOO for IKEA!)
Staying with my brother and his wife and kids in their new house was a delight as always. Max loved his cousins and followed them everywhere. My brother also has a fairly young puppy who Max was captivated by - I found this very interesting since we have three dogs. I guess none of them is exactly the same age and personality as my brothers dog, but they played and he laughed and they played and he laughed and it was a lot of fun to watch the interaction.
On the way home we made some stops along the way. One of the places we stopped at was a bird sanctuary which my spousal unit has had on her list of places to go for quite some time now. I think we were a touch too early in the season to fully enjoy all they have to offer and I am certain we will make a return trip at some point.
We have taken a load of pictures which I need to upload, and now that I am back home and back at work I will try to blog some more.

unconscious mutterings

1. State :: of the union address
   
2. Lively :: spunky
   
3. Valet ::parking
4. Traction ::immobile
5. Official ::inquiry
6. Red hot ::poker
7. Powder ::keg and giving off sparks
   
8. Replies ::sarcastic
9. Flagrant ::foul
10. Tweet:: tweety and Sylvester
    

Friday Fill In

1. The Colonel had an extra secret ingredient; an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes ya crave it fortnightly, smartass!

2. Light comes through my window almost 24 hours a day now.

3. Right now, I need caffeine and sugar.

4. In my backyard around a very large fire with my mom and spouse is where I went Thursday night; it was fantastic.

5. Why does pain hurt so much?

6. All I can think of is the pizza bagel in my lunchbag.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finishing a book, tomorrow my plans include going to class and Sunday, I want to enjoy mothers day with my mother!

Friday fill ins

1. Two of my favorite ingredients in a drink are caffeine and sugar!
2. My dreams often amaze me.
3. You can keep doing that forever, the dog is ignoring you.
4. Add water, mix it all together and voila! You have mud puddles.
5. If I had a yard with a garden, I would love to grow silver bells, and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row.
6. Sex is best au naturel.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finishing with shots for the dogs tomorrow my plans include cleaning the van for a road trip and Sunday, I want to see my mom!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about lovesmukiwa The challenge this week was to pick a letter of the alphabet and see if you could define yourself using thirteen words starting with thiis letter. I have decided to use the letter "V" to challenge myself a bit 1. visile 2. viraginous 3. viaggiatory 4. versute 5. verbile 6. veracious 7. varietist 8. vafrous 9. I am phobic of anything : venous 10. There are times in my life I have felt : vulnerose 11. I have recently been told I am: vitriolic 12. verbose 13. I'd like to think I am : verecund

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Question of the week

1. Have you tried running far away from home alone? How does it feel?

I don't remember ever trying to run away from home.

2. Who or what is most beautiful to you?

When my boy smiles or laughs while we are playing.

3. You are still sleeping and suddenly someone wakes you up. What would be your first reaction?

I immediately think something is wrong.

4. What’s your significant other/partner/husband/wife calls you? And what do you call him/her?

Babe

5. Someone is knocking at your car window, and you see a little girl selling fruits for $1. Are you going to buy one or just ignore her? Please be honest.

Where we live this is pretty unlikely to happen to us. I would stop and buy lemonade from kids selling it (even if I didn't drink it).

6. What time did you wake up today? Happy or Sad?

I woke up this morning at 7:05 - late considering I have to be at aork at 7:30. I don't really wake up happy or sad, it takes me a while to "feel" something in the morning cause I am not a morning person.

7. Do you go to work everyday? Where?

I go to work every day at my place of employment.

8. What did you do this past weekend?

Hung out a lot with my boy. It was miserable weather so we were looking for things to do inside and we weren't very successful.

9. A random photo off the web…anything at all that you think is worth posting. Post it here.

For some stupid reason that is REALLY ticking me off I can't post a picture anywhere in the text of my blog, only at the top of the page, so my "random picture" is posted at the top of this page, and it was found at wemadethis.typepad.com/.../2007/11/index.html

10. Why did you chose that picture/image?

Yesterday I was googling "breathe" looking for a design for a new tattoo and I found this cool picture.

If you want to participate in question of the week you can link to it here.

Zuva

Since we have moved out of town, Zuva has moved out of doors. She is exactly the same as Mukiwa, loving to be outside all the time rain, snow or shine.

When my spousal unit was going to bed last night after Zuva came inside, she noticed her licking her side and bent to get a closer look. At the sound of the gasp I got up to see what had happened. A large round gouge was missing from her side and at first glance it appeared that she had been shot. This immediately made us both very nervous because we know that farmers in the area will shoot at dogs if the dogs are hassling the livestock. I can't imagine that Zuva would have done anything like that, she really stays in the yard and chases mice and other small creatures and I know for sure last night she was in the yard because I was watching her for a while laying in the driveway in the drizzling rain, unwilling to come indoors. I checked out the wound and cut away some of the hair around it so she wouldn't be licking hair into it. It didn't appear to have anything in it so we waited until this morning to go to the vet.

The vet's first reaction was that it looked like a bullet wound but there was no bruising and no other damage. The area around our acreage is littered with old pieces of metal and engines, vehicles and other junk that she could have snagged herself on. So the vet gave her some local anesthetic, cut away pieces of damaged skin, and sewed her up. She has to be on antibiotics now for ten days and wear a halo. She is very depressed about the whole thing.

While we were in the vet office I sat on the chair next the table she was on and held her while the vet cleaned, cut and stitched her up. This is not a good experience for me. She took it like a champ, but I got cold sweats, clammy hands, dizzy and nauseous and when I thought I was going to pass out I excused myself to the restroom (barely made it there) and rested my head on the cool of the sink as I dry heaved a few times. After managing to compose myself - translate: no longer seeing double - I went back into the room where the vet, thoughtfully, had waited for my return to complete the procedure. Thanks vet.

Ten on Tuesday

You can Link to Ten on Tuesday here.

This weeks topic: 10 Superstitions, Traditions, and or Personality Quirks ( I don't think of myself as very superstitious so I will go with the tradition and personality quirk options here)

1. Tradition: Every Christmas we get new pajamas from Mrs. Claus for the whole family and open them on Christmas eve.

2. Personality Quirk: When drinking pop from a bottle, I always screw the cap on after taking a sip. This is annoying to me sometimes but it does save on spillage.

3. Tradition: Take the boy out for breakfast when after we pick him up from the sitters when I have been away at school.

4. Tradition: stopping for Baskin Robbins 31 flavors when we go to the city, to satiate(temporarily) my spouses need for "REAL" chocolate ice cream.

5.Tradition: I go to school out of town and when I return I pick up a pizza on my way out of town so we can have decent pizza for supper once in a while.

6. Personality Quirk: I have a song for everything imaginable. Sometimes I surprise myself with the songs I know. I think the one time I have been completely stumped was for a "poodle" but I could have sung "How much is that doggie in the window"

7. Personality quirk: I love fire. Matches, lighters, candles. If it burns I like it and I like to play with it.

8. Tradition: When I was growing up my family didn't have lots of extra cash on hand. Our birthdays were made in to HUGE "Special" days by my mom and they are still one of my favorite days of the year. We would all gather in mom and dad's room before dad went to work and everyone would sing happy birthday. We would get five chocolate bars - one for each kid in the family maybe? I still don't think my birthday is complete without my morning song from my parents and five chocolate bars.

9. Personality quirk: I love to pick. I think it is more of an obsession than a personality quirk.

10. Tradition: A few years ago I had the opportunity to go to Singapore when my nan was there. My parents are very active, they walk a LOT. My dad loves to shop (me - not so much). I think in the time I was there I walked at LEAST a hundred miles. As we would walk along my nan would call out to me in a loud voice "I love you Julie" and I would reply " I love you nana". It didn't matter if we were on escalators, at the zoo, in the line at a buffet or walking down the street. When I saw her again in Canada we picked up where we left of on this tradition of ours. Nan of course, has passed, but this is a memory of her I will cherish.

One word sarcomical Sunday

I found this new meme at One word Sarcomical Sunday, you can link to it here. Since I am always looking for mindless things to fill out so I don't have to come up with original posts, this fits the bill nicely.

If you get something out of a vending machine, it's most likely the: Coke
A word you sometimes catch yourself misspelling: neice or niece?
You least want people to see you as: Boring
You're a little scared of: Needles
The least attractive thing you do in your sleep: Snore
The number of contacts in your cell phone: 27
How many of them are restaurants: 0
You lose your cool when someone: Swears at me
When you go to the drugstore, you often can't leave without buying: baby formula
Your dance moves can best be described as: funky
The majority of your underwear is: boxer shorts
Something you eat even though you hate how bad it is for you: cinnamon buns
You think you're really not a great: runner
How much cash is in your wallet right now: $zero
The majority of your shoes are this color: brown I think
You don't think you'll ever be able to get rid of your: extra chin
If your breath is bad, it's most likely because you had the: Garlic
You feel embarrassed when you: get my debit card declined in the line at the grocery store
The last public place where you used the restroom: work
Something you don't like to debate in mixed company: my in-laws politics
You don't think you can pull off wearing: bikini
Something you own entirely too much of: thread
Someone you would love to see in concert who might bring down your street cred: Celine Dion The last thing that you spilled on yourself: ketchup
If you were on a reality show, the producers would likely portray/characterize you as the: Funny one - or the gay one

wine and cheese

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a wine and cheese function. I say "had the opportunity to attend" when really I was needed there. Working in an educational setting there are all kinds of rules about the serving of alchohol - where it can be served, when it can be served, who can attend and who has to be there to make the serving "legal". I am the person who has to attend to make the serving "legal" under provincial law.
There was this function for sponsors of an event on campus and they needed someone there to "supervise". Enter moi. They asked me to be there and gave me an official invitation. In the true spirit of the event I wore a skirt and shaved my legs.
I am not a drinker of wine, and really, I couldn't drink anyway because of the capacity in which I was attending the event, but I LOVE cheese. So I figured it was a pretty sweet deal, me and cheese. Well, what a complete disappointment. Again, I have never attented a wine and cheese function so I don't have anything to judge it by, but I expected cheese. All different kinds of it, sizes and shapes and textures and teeny tiny little sticks that you aren't supposed to use for toothpicks but I end up doing anyway. There was none of it. I don't want to mislead you and say there was NO cheese, but there was two plates, one of fruit and one of sausage and a miniscule amount of cheddar chunks. I'm not crapping on cheddar here. I like cheddar, but people, I SHAVED MY LEGS FOR THIS EVENT. At the VERY least they could have provided some Havarti.
You might think that's all I have to say on the topic, but you are mistaken. Sausage. I don't think its a good idea to serve sausage at a wine and cheese function, especially great big HUGE chucks of sausage as thick and as long as my thumb. Now I'm all for sausage, but when you are meeting and greeting corporate sponsors, there isn't really a gracious way to eat large hunks of meat, and if you do manage to get it down, and someone comes in for the hug or two cheek kiss, there's nothing like garlic breath to enhance the embrace. Someone needs to inform the people who make these trays of food, and who also have apparently never been to a wine and cheese social, that sausage is ok, just make it smaller, and please, please, please use little toothpick things. A bowl of mints in the middle of the tray isn't a bad idea either.

This week me and the boy came in to the office to hang for a while and pass some time. When the weather is bad in our neck of the woods, there is precious little to do indoors and I was trying to be creative. (obviously my creativity is lacking)

He didn't seem to mind at all and checked out everything in his reach, white out rollers are just fascinating!

Book: The Lorax

This week I read "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss. It is part of my 888 reading challenge under the category of banned books. I went back to see what list it was banned on, so I could understand why the book had been banned, but of course I haven't found it yet. (I will).
This is considered to be the "most controversial" of Dr. Seusses books, where a Once-ler comes in and cuts down all the trees, pollutes the area and leaves a desolate, smog filled no man's land.
I would compare it to Micheal Moore's documentary "Roger and Me" where General Motors turns Flint Michingan into a ghost town.
I enjoy Dr. Seuss and I wasn't disappointed in this book. I can see why big industry would react to it, but the message is certainly as applicable today as it was in 1971 when it was published.

Book: The Burn Journals

This weekend I completed the book "The Burn Journals" by Brent Runyon.

It is the true story of a 14 year old boy who trys to commit suicide by setting himself on fire and then his journey back to "normal" entry to high school.

The style is quick and easy to read but the topic can be difficult to get through. Basically it is Brent's internal dialogue through the year after attempting to set himself on fire. It was definitely an interesting read, but it had been reviewed in Publishers weekly as "intense, insightful, celebrating life and expressing hope." (Sept.) " Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)
I don't know if I was reading something different than the reviewers were, but I didn't find it at all to be celebrating life. I found it to be depressing, and thought it showed gaping holes in the medical profession and in the rehabilitation of youth who are suicidal. It was a realistic portrayal of the frustration and the "hollowness" I think many people experience when dealing with the mental health field.
Having said that, it was an interesting read, not really motivational if that's what you are looking for, but something worth picking up if you are interested in passing the time.

unconscious mutterings

Thug :: bully
Slurp :: ee
Alley :: cat
Sweater vest :: geek
Targeted :: red laser dot
Snazzy :: dresser
Oy! :: Vei!
Jury duty :: never done it
Low fat :: low taste
Responsibility :: accountability

Friday Fill in

1. When I fell in love I gained weight!
2. I love to BBQ when the flowers bloom and it heats up outside!
3. Oh no! The internet connection is down, AGAIN.
4. I don't know what is the craziest tv show ever.
5. Cheese and tacos make a great meal!
6. My spouse plans and maintains the most beautiful garden.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting done with a LONG day of work, tomorrow my plans include getting out of town and Sunday, I want to do anything but be back at work where I have to be!

888 challenge update

non-fiction
1 Measure of a Man. Sidney Poitier
2. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Barbara Kingsolver
3. A Long Way Gone. Ishmael Beah
4. Spycatcher. Peter Wright
5. The Places in Between. Rory Stewart (completed January 19th 2008)
6. Infidel. Ayaan hirsi Ali
7. Glass Castle.
8. Fish:

Young Adult Fiction
1. The Canning Season. Polly Horvath
2. Godless. Pete Hautman
3. Autobiography of my Dead Brother. Walter Dean Myers
4. The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Brian Selznick
5. The Burn Journals. Brent Runyon (completed April 26 2008)
6.
7.
8.

Pulitzer Prize Winners
1. Middlesex. Jeffrey Eugenides (Completed January 21st 2008)
2. Gilead. Marilynne Robinson (Completed January 13th 2008)
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

From the NYT Bestseller list. (I don't want to limit myself to books that have already been written. There might be some good ones published this year)
1. Bleeding Kansas. Sarah Paretsky. #15 January 13 2008
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Banned or "challenged" books
1. Go Ask Alice
2. The Lorax. Dr. Seuss (Completed April 24 2008)
3. The Well of Lonliness
4. Steal This Book. Abbie Hofmann
5.
6.
7.
8.

Books already on my Bookshelf
1. I am counting these three books as one. They were already on my shelf and I had never read them but they are young adult books (and totally predictable).
Gordon Korman. Island: Book one "Shipwreck" (completed February 1 2008)
Gordon Korman. Island: Book two "Survival" (completed February 1 2008)
Gordon Korman. Island: Book Three "Escape" (completed February 1 2008)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Books based on or in Africa

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Books I will check out from the library
1. Saturday. Ian McEwan (completed January 27 2007)
2. Eat, Pray, Love. Elizabeth Gilbert (completed February 16 2008)
3. The Translator: A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur. Daoud Hari (completed February 18 2008)
4. Biting the Moon. Martha Grimes (completed March 25 2008)
5. The Calling. Inger Ash Wolfe (completed March 29 2008)
6. Written in Bone. Simon Beckett (completed March 31 2008)
7. 19 Minutes. Jodi Picoult (Completed April 21 2008)
8. The Darkest night of the Year. Dean Koontz (completed May 7 2008)

Thursday Thirteen: places I have visited

Thirteen Things about lovesmukiwa This week is the first time that Thursday Thirteen has given a topic to write about. I don't think I will always follow the topics, but tonight, because I am feeling a little brain dead and not very original at all I will follow the theme. Thirteen places I have visited that I would recommend. 1. Pike Place Market, Seattle Washington. I lived in Washington for over 2 years and I loved it. Anyone who goes to Washington needs to check out the market. I know there will be a few more Washington sites on this list also. 2. Washington D.C. I have been to DC a few times and I love the museums and memorials there. There's a ton of history and I could have spent a lot more time there than I did. It is one place I would like to go with my spouse. 3. Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The tulip festival is worth going to even if you DON'T like flowers. It simply amazing to look at mile upon mile of fields of blossoming tulips. One thing I never managed to do was to take a hot air balloon ride, but one day I will make it back for the ride. 4. Jurong Bird Park. Singapore. I went to visit with family in Singapore and we travelled all over and looked at many things. I loved every minute of my time there. One of the highlights was the bird park. 5. Singapore Zoo, Singapore. I am not typically a fan of the zoo as I don't like to see animals out of their natural habitat and all that weird freaky stuff as if I am some kind of animal lover. ANYWAY. The Singpoare zoo is AMAZING and keeps all of the animals separated by natural boundaries so you don't look at them through cages etc. I would recommend it even to non zoo lovers. 6. Alpine Slide, Park City, Utah The Alpine slide is a fun little ride that you never really hear much about. If you are in Park City in the summer its a cheap thing to check out and lots of fun - only minimal risk of road rash. 7. Hershey, PA I was a young teen when I went to Hershey Pennsylvania and in spite of being "too cool" for my own good I had a great time in Hershey PA. I even enjoyed the tour of the Hershey factory, and I admit, I'm not generally good on tours. 8. Lake Louise, AB Canada You can't really get to Lake Louise without going through some of the rest of the Rockies which is partly what makes it so spectacular. We like to go to Banff and Jasper and every time we drive through we stop at Lake Louise. One day we may even stay there. It is fantastically beautiful and worth just a stop for a photo opportunity. 9. Disneyland, Anaheim CA I am such a kid at heart. I think that Disneyland is one of the happiest places on earth and I love to go there and just "experience the magic". Believe me I know ALL about the consumerism and the marketing and the ploy, but I can still walk in and leave the rest of the world behind for a day. 10. Heber Creeper, Heber City, UT The Heber Valley Railroad is an operating steam strain which travels up and down the Provo canyon and through the Heber Valley. They put on all different kinds of events, we only went on the train ride but it would be fun to go back for a murder Mystery train ride or the Christmas train ride. 11. Memphis, TN I had the opportunity to go to Memphis for work. I took the opportunity but I wasn't all that interested in the destination until we got there. We went to Graceland and to the Human Rights Museum. I am not even a fan of Elvis but Graceland was very cool to visit. I don't think anyone needs to be a fan to go there and enjoy the experience. 12. New Orleans, Louisiana I have not been to New Orleans since the levees broke, but I was there a few years prior and had a good time. The food was great, and the sights and sounds worth checking out. I would absolutely return if I had the opportunity. 13. I haven't put anything on here about Africa. For those of you who know me you will know that my heart is always in Africa. It will forever be "home" to me. Right now the political situation in Zimbabwe is such that I would not recommend anyone travel there, but if this lifetime grants the opportunity for any of you to go there - take it. Maybe I will be there to greet you.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants



Pod Mrcaru Lizards

Someone is studying the evolution of lizards off the coast of Croatia.
Now I know that you are all fascinated by this topic.
I do actually find it interesting that the lizards are evolving as fast as they have. I have recently completed some masters classes in statistics and so I have become a little more skeptical about the things that I read and this article made me laugh.

Here is the link to the article and here is an excerpt:

"Along with the ability to digest plants came the ability to bite harder, powered by a head that had grown longer and wider."

So I want to know, who was the "bite tester"? OK little lizard, bite down on this. WOW that's amazing, you bit harder than you did last year when I stuck my finger in your mouth. What? You can bite harder than that?

It gives new meaning to the phrase "bite me".

celebrity divorce

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to comment on the divorce of Star Jones.

Check out some info at this link.

I am not a fan of Star Jones. When she started as a host of The View I thought she brought an interesting perspective to the table because she was a lawyer. Over the years her "law" opinions seemed to wane and in my opinion she transformed into a whiny, self righteous person with few comments I found of value.

My opinion of her deteriorated further when 1) she denied having surgery to reduce her weight and 2) used her position as a host of the View to plug for "sponsors" of her over the top, lavish wedding.

So now she has filed for divorce. I don't go around wishing that people would get divorced, but HA.

Have you ever....

My spousal unit found this on Shell's life and thought it looked like something I would do, so I did it.

Have you ever…

(X) Gone on a blind date (K - theres a really weird story behind this. I was dating this girl - only we weren't "DATING" according to her, so she set us both up on dates with dudes. The guy I went with was a TOTAL loser, and I'm not just saying that cause I'm a homo. I am stll confused about why she needed to set us up with dudes - then again - she did get married)
(x) Skipped School (I'm pretty sure I have but it stresses me out so I can't imagine I did it much)
( ) Watched someone die
(x) Been to Canada
(x) Been to Mexico
( ) Been to Florida (but I will this summer!)
(x) Been on a plane
(x) Been lost
(x) Been on the opposite side of the country (which country?)
(x) Gone to Washington , DC
(x) Swam in the ocean
(x) Cried yourself to sleep
( x) Played cops and robbers
(x) Recently colored with crayons
(x) Sang Karaoke ….
(x) Paid for a meal with coins only
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn’t?
(x) Made prank phone calls
(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose - or other places!
(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
(x) Danced in the rain
(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(x) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(x) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about
(x) Blown bubbles
(x) Gone ice-skating
(x) Been skinny dipping outdoors

Ten on Tuesday

10 things I love about my life:

1. My spouse is FINALLY a landed immigrant.

2. I have a great job.

3. We are about to adopt our son.

4. We have a warm house when the wind is HOWLING and the temperatures are frigid.

5. I have a reliable vehicle to get me to work and home again.

5. We have dental insurance - this makes me very happy considering the state of my teeth.

6. My whole family had a relatively healthy winter - especially compared to last year - and we now ALL have health insurance. (thanks again to Canada's practise regarding gay marriage :))

7. I can prune to my heart's content this summer

8. I have good friends and I got an email from D this morning.

9. I can watch soccer and UFC if I want to.

10. We have a nice comfortable, BIG bed.

I dare you to answer them

Another one I picked up from here.

1) What would hurt more: seeing your best friend make out with your ex or Finding out that your ex never liked you?
I don't think my ex ever liked me anyway.

2) When was your last alcoholic drink?
When I went for lunch with my class I had a shot of tequila.

3) Where do you live?
In a house with a 30 year mortgage.

4) What’s the weirdest spot you’ve let someone lick on you?
Lesbians don't think its a wierd spot :)~

5) How many friends do you have?
In this town? Three?

6) Did you speak to your mother today?
Not yet, but she gets to my brothers tonight and I will probably call later.

7)

8)Star wars or star trek?
Star Wars

9) At this very moment what should you be doing?
Returning phone calls

10) How many months until your birthday?
a few more

11)

12) Last person who called you?
Security phoned me at 4 am and again at 4:13 AM this morning. They are supposed to call me for emergencies. What they consider an emergency is NOT what I consider an emergency. ARG.

13) What are you listening to?
Train

14) What color is your hair?
Half blonde and time for a dye job

15) What is the last movie you watched?
Juno

16) Are you mentally disabled?
I am memory challenged. I don't remember things I should

17) Who’s bothering you right now?
Surprisingly, no-one, but it won't be long.

18) What makes you happy?
My son, my dogs getting excited when I come home. Nyx sitting on my lap and purring. Music, Good T.V. , Winning a PS2 game, when someone comments on my blog.

19) Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
Yup

20) When was the last time you talked to one of your siblings?
I spoke to my brother Sunday and I will probably talk to him again today.

21) Are you happy?
Mostly.

22) Do you miss someone?
Yes.

23) Have you ever dated a cheerleader/football player and for how long?
I dated a football player and we were engaged for a while.

24) Do you think you could last in a 3 month relationship
I am currently in an 11 year relationship so three months is NOTHING.

25)

26) How good is Coca-Cola?
Not so good recently. Everytime I drink coke recently it tastes like diet coke. Something is seriously wrong because I am not finishing any coke I start. Maytime to give up?

27) Do you drink alcohol?
Since I started in my masters program I have a tequila shot when we all go to lunch every few weeks. Can't say I am a fan of the tequila shot.

28) How old are you?
Over 13,000 days

29)

30) Do you have a dry erase board in your room?
I have a dry erase calendar in my office

31) What does it say?
It has the days of the month on it

32) How was your day, what’d you do?
I got up early, let the dogs out, gave my son a bottle and changed his diaper, drove to work...

33) Are you hungry?
No, but I am eating blueberries

34) What is on your desk right now?
Binders, a laptop, keys, holepunch, stapler, desk calendar, day planner, APA format book, Wrestling posters, pens, forms I need to fill out..

35) When’s the last time you cleaned your room?
Yesterday I picked up the clothes next to my bed

36) Last compliment you received?
I was complimented TWICE on the shirt I am wearing today and that it brings out the color in my eyes.

37) What’s your favorite animal?
Elephant?

38) Are you mad at someone right now?
Nope

39) Are you taking anyone for granted?
I'm trying hard not to take anyone for granted.

40) Where do you keep your money?
In the bank

41) When was your last kiss in the rain?
Why kiss in the rain? It's cold and wet.

42) How did you wake up this morning?
Zuva woke me to let her out to go to the bathroom.

43) Which is more romantic: sunrise or sunset?
Sunset, since I like to be sleeping when the sun is coming up and me asleep is not very romantic.

44) Quick say a verse from any song:
I'm gonna wrack my mind one last time until I cannot think,
I'm gonna dip into my memory and take a good stiff drink
and when I'm drunk on the last thoughts of sadness about how we went wrong
I'm gonna play this song
drink some coffee black and strong
give thanks for healing time
and finally make up my mind
these are the last tears Im gonna cry for you
my cryings through
Im moving on

45) What’s the last bone you broke?
My leg

46) How many letters are in your last name?
Five

47) What book did you read last?
19 minutes by Jodi Picoult

48)What are you excited about?
My mom coming to visit, the summer.

49)

50) Do you have any tattoos or piercing?
Both, and the newest piercing is not healing nicely and it hurts right this second.

51) How do you walk?
Apparently on the outsides of my feet because thats where my shoes wear out. My spouse says I have a very distinctive walk.

52) When was the last time you danced with a boy/girl?
I danced with my son in the kitchen this weekend and in the bathtub last night, yeah the bathtub.

53) When was the last time you were so drunk you threw up?
Never

54) Do you curse a lot?
F&#K yeah!

55) Do you hate your ex boyfriend/girlfriend?
Not as much as I probably should for being DUMPED

56) Do you drink bottled water?
Yeah.

57) Are you happier single or in a relationship?
I don't think I am exceptionally good at being alone.

58) Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance?
No

59) Most hated food?
Creatures from the ocean.

60) What is the status of you and your first love?
She is married, well she was married when I saw her in 1995 or 6. I haven't seen/heard about her in a LOT of years.

62) What’s your favorite song?
I LOVE lots of songs. Right this second I would have to say..... Come on Home by the Indigo Girls
63) What’s something you wish you could understand better?
Right now I wish I understood Stats better because I will be needing them for my classwork.

64) Would you say you date smart people?
I have dated some DUMB people but I try not to make a habit of it.

65) Have you lost friends in the past years?
Yes.

66) Is life over for you?
Hopefully not. I'm only 13,000 days old

19 months old

Before I start this months letter to Max I just want to give a shout out to a friend.

I know a lot of people don't read this blog. In fact I think there may be three people who read it with any kind of regularity. One of those people is a friend from high school who is currently going through the process of adopting a child with her husband.
First of all , she and I had a great friendship in high school and for a few years following high school until we lost touch. We have recently reconnected (YAY FACEBOOK!) and I am loving having her "back" in my life.
My spouse and I know some of the pain of wanting a child and not being successful and now that we are going through the process of adoption I know the frustration of not having things work out in the way and in the time that we want them to. We went through a situation once of having a child "offered" to us and then everything fell through after we had made a mental and emotional commitment. It was rough and we still have some sadness over the incident. Having said that, we are EXTREMELY blessed that we already have Max in our lives and are not waiting for any more than paperwork (which we HOPE will come through without problems!) I just wanted to say to my friend, in the words of the Indigo Girls " I know love will come to you", you are in my thoughts and everytime that I sit to write a letter to my son, I think of you and pray that your child will arrive speedily, and that until that day comes I pray peace for your heart.


Dear Max,

You turned 19 months old and it has been a crazy month. Earlier this week I was folding laundry with your mom and I couldn't believe how big your clothes are. You aren't the little baby who was too small to fit in anything we could find anymore. Your shirts are already sizes two and three and your feet are gargantuan.
We had a few days of really nice weather last week which turned out to be a curse because you apparently LOVE being outside and you don't care now that it is snowing with a windchill making the temperature dip below -15 degrees. You want to go OUT. That has made life a little bit hard on your mom these past few blustery days. Thank goodness you haven't yet figured out how to open the front door (not for lack of trying). I have had to rescue you already from some puddles which were a bit deeper than you realized before plunging in, but you remain undaunted. I just hope its a short and relatively mudless spring, but looking out the window tonight I think resistance is futile. (That was a science fiction reference for your mom's sake).

You have learned to zip and unzip, which means you are taking your clothing off a bit more frequently. The weather has made this a bit of a problem also - as illustrated by your BARE FEET in the photo above.

Which brings me to something I wasn't going to mention but here goes. When we met with the adoption supervisor she said that she understood our "hurry" to adopt you because we wanted to "start parenting you OUR way". I don't know exactly what that means, because we have parented you OUR way since the day we picked you up, and we will continue to do so until long past the time when you want us to anymore. That means I will be putting those shoes on everytime we leave the house, no matter how much you scream!
We are counting down the days until you meat your Granny Byrne. You did meet her once when you were three months old, but you haven't seen her since. Because we are taking a LONG road trip to pick her up we are VERY happy that your early negative experience in the car (translate: SCREAMING) seems to have passed. If not, granny can sit with you in the back on the trip home!

This month seems to have been one filled with a lot of good things. Mom figured out you like sweet pickles - HURRAH! - feeding you takes up a lot of time still as we try to negotiate around your allergies and your preferences. You are feeding yourself with both hands and doing WAY better at keeping the food on the fork or spoon as it heads to your mouth. For some reason you have decided that drinking babyfood is much more fun that using a spoon. We'd like to take you off the babyf ood but buddy, you don't eat ANYTHING, so corn casserole it is until we can figure out something else.
You are fascinated with all things electrical and related to the pets. I'm pretty sure you'll be hacking into computers before you can talk because you seem to know exactly what button to press to freeze everything or to start all kinds of programs running while I am trying to read email. Thanks for that. Now if only you could download some good movies for me in between moving the dog water back and forth across the kitchen floor and turning the dishwasher on and the lights off.
You still are having night terrors and while I hate that you wake up crying, I LOVE that you want to snuggle with me when I come to see what's happening. You are just SOOO big, but still my baby. Rest your head close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine.

Love mom.

Unconscious mutterings

1. Questioning :: identity
   
2. Immunity :: survivor
   
3. Online dating :: fake photos
   
4. Calcium :: strong bones
   
5. Dressing :: Blue cheese
   
6. Bucket :: There's a hole in my bucket
   
7. Stain :: You left a stain on every one of my good days.
   
8. Advanced :: degree
   
9. Dramatic :: entry
   
10. Self-medication :: Ibuprophen 800