Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Cedar Sachet

If you ever find yourself in Cedar, there is something you should know. The Cedar Stop signs are actually slow down signs. Here's how they work:

After a cursory mirror check for police vehicles...

i) If you are the only car, slow down and take the corner.
ii) If there is another car approaching at the same time check their blinker light... if your paths do not cross, you should both carry on at reduced speed.
iii) If there is another car approaching at the same time and your paths cross, the later person should allow the first person to proceed through the intersection, most times this can be accomplished without either party actually having to stop.
iv) If at any time there is any confusion all parties involved should stop, and wave each other through.
v) It is acceptable to follow the car in front of you through if you do not interfere with any vehicles which approached the intersection first (as in point iii)

If you've never witnessed this tiny shining example of good grace, well all I can tell you is its the most interesting dance in the world. Everyone seems to bow and curtsy their way through. It's all very polite and well mannered. It makes me smile every time I observe the standing phenomenon of the Cedar Sachet.

Canning machines!

It's pretty cool, Mom and I have a standing tradition of canning peaches together. I peel, move things around, and fill the syrup and knife the jar... she slices, and does all the math and timing to figure out exactly how many peaches fit in how many jars, and how much syrup we need to make for the next batch. She tries to double check with me, even though she knows better than that because I can't follow someone elses arithmetic out loud... okay lets be honest I can barely follow my own ;)

Anyways, Mom and I have been canning peaches over the last week or so, and some nectarines because I can't read. Okay but seriously it was the same box as the one the peaches came in and they checked the boxes in yellow! No... I didn't use my Nona eyes.

Now I took an interface course once, and as useless as it was they did say "Don't use yellow text on a white background..." Well no really? I kind of thought that should fall under 'Common Sense' but they don't teach that any more... Put it this way, if you can hardly read something, chances are fairly good that nobody else can read it either.

But here's the thing with canning peaches... they gots to smell like peaches. Like when you walk through that section in the grocery store, it should smell like you're inside a peach.



And just in case you were wondering, yes those are orange cupboards in the background. There are no pictures of me peeling, because I peel peaches... like a ninja!

I'd like to introduce you to baby peach jar number 2... This was the cutest one! I figured I'd save you the time, besides I didn't think you'd want to meet all 41 of her brothers and sisters.

Sooo many todo lists...

Luckily for me most of them have the same 'todo' items on them... now I just have to compile another "Master List" duhnn duhnn duhnnnnnnn.

Currently in progress...

Eggs are good for you!

I'm a little ashamed to admit this... but I just fried my first egg. Mom asked how I could have never done this before, well see the thing is I always make scrambled eggs... or someone else makes them, like my loving brother. ;o)

It made me smile

I was awoken at some ungodly hour by a slightly damp, slightly stressed cat. She was yowwing at the window... in my haze of "what!!?" I managed to open the screen while she stood there looking at me like I was retarded. She did a quick hop over to the door, and her yowwing increased when she realized it was mostly closed... with it being a sliding door I dragged myself out of bed and opened the door with precise zombie-like movements.

30 seconds later there was a damp tousled kitteh curled up on my hip... But it doesn't matter how windy and rainy it is when you wake up with a warm fuzzy purring kitteh in your arm pit.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Status report.

Batshit crazy.

My pressure cooker is in Vernon... cause you know that's totally where we're setting sail from.

My statement, since I don't have anything nice to say about the London Drugs pharmacy... Unmentionable curses.

And to top it all off a friend of mine sent me a parcel, shipped it overnight... and I think it's been sent to Newfoundland for sorting.

Forecast today: Excited with a high chance of sporadic periods of stress.

On a positive note, I've vacuumed and there is some semblance of order. I single-handedly returned most of the cabin to a livable state, while the Captain dove to measure the propeller. I think I got the longer stick ;)

The whole process of visiting everyone important in my life before sailing off into the sunset has been wonderful, eye opening and inspiring. I'm so lucky to be sent off with so many hugs, thoughts and well wishes. *whispers* I've also enjoyed the send off heckling, although I wouldn't usually tell anyone so shhhhhh!

Tomorrows projected weather forecast: Windy and raining. Sub-optimal for removing masts and other fun things atop a tower... guess what we're going to be doing?!?!

Don't sweat it...

Life is a journey, and sometimes you get separated from your luggage. ~ Grey

You have got to be kidding me...

London Drugs just called, they *lost* the 5 prescriptions I brought in to fill...

Guy: "So do you have them written down anywhere?"
Me: "Uhh yeah, on the prescription paper you guys have"

I mean really, I can't pronounce any of them let alone remember what they were for!?!? That's why I gave them to you. Grrrrrr.

Guy: "If you could take it to your doctor..."
Me: "I'm from Vernon, I don't have a doctor here..."
Guy: "Apologizing profusely, well if you could come down with the list and then take it into a walk in clinic and get it approved by a doctor"

As unladylike as I know it is, but whoever told you I was a lady was lying... I just want to run down to London Drugs punch him in the junk and yell "You know why! You know what that's for!!!"

I also just remembered there's no friggin' ketchup for my grilled cheese sandwich. Booooo urns.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Virtual Chinese water torture

I think my head is going to explode.

The clock in this room, is half a tick off from the clock in the kitchen... in the near future I see one of these clocks mysteriously having a battery pop out?

Me to Mom: *shrugs* I dunno how that happened.

Taking a break from all the nothing I accomplished today

For all that I was on the boat all day, except for the bit where we went for lunch... I hardly got anything done. I think if we had added tighten hose clamp around bilge hose, that would be the only thing I could check off.

The morning started out fine, I dropped Dad off for a meeting, grabbed a large double double (Gods I'm going to miss those) and headed for the boat with the intention of accomplishing a *short* list of things that needed to be done.

1) Vacuum the fiberglass dust off of all surfaces
2) Chisel clean the pretty part of the backing for the chain plates, re-caulk, and put them back the way they were
3) Finish running the copper tape to be used as a grounding strip, which has to go over the pretty part of the backing
4) Put a hose clamp on the bilge pipe <-- I only discovered it was missing when I accidentally pulled it off *oops* (but a good oops)
5) Pull the random coax cable that has a plug on one end (that doesn't fit the radio) and is just chopped off at the other end... we can't figure out what it's for anyways lol

Now, this looks like a fairly reasonable list. I mean I should be able to get all of this done and still be home in time for supper. You would think. But NoooOOooo. This turned into one of the typical days that Dad has had so many of while working on the boat, where you are busy all day but don't actually feel like you got anything done.

To start with the electrical system and I, well I must not have been holding my mouth right because no matter what switches I switched I couldn't get the vacuum to turn on. Soooo I put all the tools away, and wiped the dust out of the kitchen. Dad came by, jiggled all the plugs, held his mouth right and got the vacuum working.

Great. So I figure I'll start with the fine fiberglass powder outside, at least that will keep us from tracking it in. I am so glad that I closed everything up before I started vacuuming, because it appeared that it was just sucking the dust up and spitting it out the back end... found out later Dad had been using it as a wet-vac and taken the filter out so that's exactly what it was doing DOH!

I'll let you know if I ever get the fiberglass slivers out from between my fingers ;o)

Fine the vacuum still doesn't work, no big deal I'll put the pretty covers on the backs of the chain plates. Then at least I can finish running the copper ground tape. Well that wasn't so bad, I cleaned them off, figured out the Silkaflex did one, two, three... then I got to the ones that have to go on *before* the copper tape. Yeah. Two of the bolts were too long, and the dremel was at home. Awesome.

In any case, here are the things I have learned about Silkaflex
1) No matter how much paper towel you have it wont be enough
2) Even when you *think* you've got the extra surrounded by paper towel you don't
3) Whatever you do, you will still end up with it on your hands
4) When you are done, there will be Silkaflex on surfaces you weren't anywhere near
5) You will not have a good angle all the way around whatever you are working on
6) Acetone should be used in well ventilated areas
7) You have used too much acetone when simple tasks like folding paper towel become difficult
8) Ummm I can't remember...

Well I figured the last possible thing on my list that I could accomplish was pulling the random coax cable. I chased it almost to the end, and couldn't get the pretty cover off. Grrrrrrr. Dad stopped by and pointed out that they had installed the lamp protector *after* and had screwed it on through the pretty cover, and that it didn't matter because the coax came out the other side of the wall. *mutters* stupid random cable that we don't know what it's for. But with his help we stripped it of it's protective zip ties, and pulled it the rest of the way out without having to remove the pretty cover. So there!

OOohh I did get the radio working too, but that doesn't really count... I just had to flip it from 'CD' to 'FM', so at least I had some tunes :)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Introducing "The New Hotness"

I just spent a fair number of dinars on "The New Hotness" the Nikon D90, but when I held it the skies opened up and the angels sang. I'm not even kidding you!



I'm so happy, it sounds like a "real camera" and when you push the button it takes the picture... not 3 seconds later when the cute kid moment has turned into them picking their nose, or the moment has passed as though it was never there *grins*

With any luck I will have some decent pictures to post here for you, I will only post the good ones though I promise.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

I should know better...

But I found myself with a little 'down time' (I jest I know) so I took The New Hotness for a hike down to the old lighthouse. And by hike I mean hour and a half bushwack... I had regained my senses for the way back though so I took the well established trail, and that only took a half an hour ;o)

Ooooh look a froggy! This was my first live specimen. Have I mentioned how much I am in love with this camera even though I don't know how to do much more than turn it on?!?! Just LOOK how cute he is!



After re-acquainting myself with the unforgiving ways of the back 40, I found myself moderatey misplaced. I wasn't lost per-se as I knew more or less where I was, and I was never anywhere that I couldn't have gotten home from... I just wasn't quite where I *wanted* to be.

So a few scrapes, bruises, slides and some seaweed later I made it to the old light house. It was so overgrown that I didn't even bother taking a picture. But I got a couple of other cool ones along the way.



This is where I grew up, this was my back yard. I can't believe I never got really for real lost.

Good morning sunshine

Woke up smiling today.

There are a bazillion old world forestry scents to smell outside this morning, they're all just mixed together perfectly. Between that and the sun shining through the trees, well it's a beautiful morning. ;)

Monday, August 23, 2010

Does it hurt when you do that? Then don't do that!

So today I spent a ridiculous amount of time and money on drugs... and that doesn't even include the prescription ones cause the pharmacist couldn't read the doctors handwriting either.

It was pointed out that, getting drugs in Nanaimo shouldn't take two hours, you just have to walk up to the corner... Ha ha ha... thanks for that.

But in all seriousness I'm just glad I got out of there without setting off some kind of warning that I'd bought all the ingredients for meth or something... whatever they are... maybe I should have paid cash...

Happy Easter!

I was sitting here telling my Mom what I was going to do today, when I got distracted and found a yellow Easter jelly bean in the chimney stones!

Now we didn't do Easter this year, apparently they did it last year for my little brother... but when I blew of the dust and tried to bite it I nearly broke my dentures. So I'm guessing it's at least 3 years old. Ewwwww

First aid kit

So after much deliberation, and looking up the same drug name for the umptillionth time we decided that complicated drugs wouldn't do us any good if we can't remember what they're for. *whispers* Since we wont have access to Google (*shhhh!* I'm still in denile), we've opted in favor of a simplified pioneer first aid kit.

I present to you the bandaid and the bullet. Yes those are gold plated bullets, nothing but the best. They also make an excellent double backup as plan "Zed" in case of catastrophic Zombie attack.

If the bandaid doesn't fix it... the bullet will.


Sunday, August 22, 2010

Done! check, almost done... *curses* add another thing to the list

So, I have to admit... I'm wondering if we'll ever get all the right pieces in all the right places, or if we'll reach that "t'hell with it, it's close enough!" stage first.

Here she is with the "Burgundy Barf" bottom paint, I'm pleasantly surprised that it doesn't look so bad really!



Today, well today... we re-drilled the solar panel holes and flipped the panel around so we could access the wiring bit, cause we didn't have the part for it, then we mounted the solar panels on the solar panel bracket after a trip to the Chandlers. We did some creative 3 dimensional thought exercises trying to figure out how the wind-vane steering was going to fit in roughly the same place as the solar panel... Dad was ready to hack off the top bit until I realized we could just use a hose clamp, and get rid of all the 'optional' parts.

I'm a genius I know, I'm just misunderstood sometimes. But I would like to know why my father always sounds so surprised when he says "You're right?!?!" *grins* okay it doesn't happen that often, but of late it's been a little more frequent than usual ;o)

Here I am drilling the bracket to match up with the holes on the panels. TC, just for you I cropped the part that shows how high up I'm standing ;o)



Getting the offending part off was interesting, we exploded 4 dremel disks in a row trying to get part of it off, until Dad gave in and put the bigger one on... then he stepped on that one so technically we broke 5, that's lucky in Japan right? Here's where I was starting to wonder, how many times do you try something that doesn't work... because I generally go with third time lucky, and if that doesn't pan out move on. I'll let you know when I figure out Dad's philosophy.

We also did the wire run for the solar panels. There is no way to say how much of an understatement that is... I just can't describe the small spaces, and screws in ridiculous corners, and odd angles... One of them Dad had to hold the screw driver and I had to turn it! Somewhere along the line we managed to un-wire the antenna for the am/fm radio... Dad was trying to figure out what the coax was for, I think that happened *after* he cut it Doh! but I felt it was wiser not to ask. His professional opinion was "It's buggered".

Then we needed some more parts... and the Chandler was closed. What is this CLOSED on Sunday afternoon business, didn't you hear? We leave soon, and there is no rest for the wicked!?!

So we stopped that project, and proceeded to remove the bolts for the chain plates. Dad removed one, with much ado and decided that if "The Guy" - Toby says they're okay then we'll just put them back together, shine 'em up and get him to fiberglass it in all nice-like and call 'er done. Sounds good to me!

Oh right, and while I cataloged and foam protected our 'full meal' canning in the storage lockers Dad broke four bits trying to drill into one of our three rudders which has been dripping rusty water since we hauled. *adding to list*



We also managed to change one of the diesel filters, but still need to prime it... we were in search of the luser manual for that, and I think Dad was hungry so we came home.

Time passes... but some things stay the same

T: Its like nothing changes...just time in between

me: I think that's how you tell the difference between friends and acquaintances

Saturday, August 21, 2010

I have angry ears on

It might have something to do with chocolate, but I was mad enough to bite my own ass today, so I did my best to refrain from saying anything that could be taken the wrong way. In fact I did my best to say as little as possible.

Today wasn't bad, don't get me wrong we got some more boat stuff done... I am just tired. Got together with an old friend of mine and saw Aaron Pritchett at the VIEX last night, he was awesome, but it turned into a late night, I hauled myself out of bed early thinking we were going to Victoria which we didn't... *shrugs* nothing really went as planned.

We did buy tupperware though. I'm adding it to the list right now so I can check it off... *check*

The fair was cool, we saw an Alpaca while we were wandering around the VIEX who also had his angry ears on. We stared each other down, and it made me smile that he looked about as ticked off with the world as I felt.

We looked at DSLR's, I'm eyeing up the Nikon D90 it seems to be a good entry into mucking around with the manual settings which is what I'd like to learn... and we sketched out where all the holes should go to mount the solar panels... but we left all the drill bits at home so it was a short stop at the boat today doing that and dropping off the canned spaghetti sauce.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

I can't believe it...

Dad lost the 'to-do' list... now how are we supposed to get anything done?!?

Ok I lied. I'm really not that surprised, it doesn't really matter anyways... we were just going to add things we'd actually done to it so we could cross 'em off. I just love that feeling when you get to cross something off the list *grins*

Luckily I had a copy in my Dropbox folder, thanks baby!

Yiyiyiyiyiyiyiyi

Omg I'm not even making this up a lady named "Xena" just called from Telus to talk to my Dad.

"Hey Dad, Xena called... she wanted to know if your phone service was still kicking butt"

I don't want to brag...

Or make anyone feel jealous or anything, but I can still fit into the earrings I wore in high-school!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I am le tired



So we had our haul scheduled for this morning, Dad was like a Jack Russel wired into 220 Volts bouncing between excited and nervous. I was more like those 'energy saver' light bulbs... you know the ones that take 10 minutes to warm up before they start to flicker. Yeah.

So we tried to get out of the marina, got the throttle stuck in reverse, bounced off a pier, (Dad did this Tarzan swing from the radar arch, and pushed us off the pier and then cut the engine. It was really quite spectacular actually!) We... ended up four slips down again. But, and this is a big but... we only needed help from *two* people this time, and we got out faster and completely unassisted so that means we're getting better! Right? Right.

On our way out of the marina, after I'd taken a deep breath and mentally calculated that we should be okay for the remaining turns out... I heard a *rattle*... *rattle*... *sploosh*

Well I figure the anchor must noticed that there was a lull, and decided that it was an ideal moment to abandon ship... I must have kicked into overdrive because my first thought was "Are you effin' kidding me?!?" followed closely by "@$%&!!! If that anchor sticks we're gonna spin around and take out every boat in a 35 foot radius!"

I grabbed the fore-stay with my left hand and dove over the safety rail while also thinking that I didn't want to grab on to the anchor and rip my arm off... ran a handful of chain over my right hand, was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too heavy, grabbed it and proceeded to haul the damn anchor back onto the boat by its scruff, at which point we had 'words'.

All of this must have happened darn near simultaneously because there was only about 6 feet of chain that had been let out, and by the time Dad figured out that something was amiss, it had happened and it was already over.

So we made it to the haul out uneventfully despite our imaginings of what else might not go as planned, and got the boat hauled. Its pretty cool the way they do it! The guys at the boat yard managed just fine despite our unique bottom. But somebody forgot to bring the camera... so we'll have to take pictures putting it back in *sigh*

We have a unique bottom with three rudders, two bilge keels and a prop... which is now painted a unique shade of ugly, it was supposed to be purple, but wound up "Burgundy Barf". My programming muscles pressure washed, and then my reserve tree planting muscles and mental training took over, painted and continued to paint long after I thought I was done.

In electronic news, we got Mike the electronic guy from the Chandler's to look at our Depth Sounder - AIS - GPS - Radio - Antenna connections, and he figures we've got 3 out of 3 faulty units... on a huge plus plus they're manufacturer faulty. Dad didn't think it was so lucky, but I think it was, that we got him to go yep it's broken rather than me mucking around with it!

I don't think anything else of consequence happened today, nothing you'd be interested in anyways. We ordered more parts, measured more parts to be fabricated, I ninja sliced more foam, and put a few more things where they 'belong'... I'm not going to lie, I'm exhausted, I've got more unidentified bruises than I've ever had from UDI's, and I lost count of how many times I uttered curses and death threats under my breath that I had no intention of following through with. Some at Dad and some at the boat... but all in all it was a great day! Especially when we finished it off with a cold A&W root beer :)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

"Dead Shexy" the way Sean Connery says it

I think I look hot in Budweiser hat, hockey hair and a white tank top with matching tan lines... Yeah. We don't wonder why I'm single anymore either.

Accolades and Ack

I'm sure you will be proud to hear I have achieved the rank of foam cutting ninja. I cannot begin to describe how many pieces of foam in what weird dimensions I've cut... but so help me if anything rattles in the bilge I'm gluing it down!

I've also started to work on hooking up the Winlink system which should keep our position updated, and us in contact with text based email for the duration of the trip.

First we tried to walk the boat out and spin it around? I don't know, it sounded better in our heads... anyways that didn't work, there was a moment of *oh shit* but then we were fine. Then we had the bright idea to just turn the engine on, since it was fixed and all...

In other news, we fired up the engine to turn the boat around... and with much ado caught the wind broadside, nearly kissing multiple boats on the way down to the fourth slip away from ours. To say it was mildly exciting would be an understatement of great proportions. In the middle of running down and around the dock barefoot, with my scraggly hockey hair (I probably looked a bit like one of the lost boys from Peter Pan... sure could've used some of that fairy dust Tink!) I managed with the help of another old fellow to get Dad out in the middle again... only to have the engine shut off. By this point we just parked it in the nearest slip, which happened to be four downwind, and took a deep breath.

A nice couple came by and offered to help us hand walk it back to our slip, and so between them, another fellow on his boat, much line tossing, hollering back and forth, and the use of body parts to fend off with we were back in our slip, arse end first the way we were trying to get it in the first place... I guess that's one way to meet everyone in the yatch club, and I'm counting that as my stretching for the day... you should have seen some of the leg fenders I managed! ;o)

Keep your fingers crossed for us, we're supposed to haul tomorrow... we're gonna need all the luck we can get to get out of the yacht club and haul the boat *phew*

Monday, August 16, 2010

Ze gas doth floweth

Famous words of our mechanic dude Toby "There's something basic wrong here...", 'somewhere' along ze way a gas shut-off valve got shut-off... *cough* *cough* as in ze gas she does not flow, as in ze engine should *not* work when ze gas doth not flow.

Once Toby monkeyed around with things, and turned said shut-off valve to the "on" position ze engine she started w00t w00t!

*happy dance* <--- zis needs it's own line, it's that HUGE!

Zis means, what wif all de other awesomeness ve ackomplished today dat ve're practickally back on track... I almost wrote zat all mushed togezer I'm so excited! Zis means ve can haul and bottom paint, and do somesink with ze mast... I tink pull it out and check everyting yah?

Ze boat, she is comink along nicely me tinks.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

On exercising...

Many of you have asked what I'm going to do for exercise while on this long journey. Well, we've installed a pole-dancing pole in a place of honor... right in the middle of everything! I've heard it can be quite a good work out, although I think the potential for injury is much higher in the confines of a boat, here it is... Ta-da!



Just kidding, it's actually there to hold the table up, it might even be structural but I don't really want to know *all* the details... my Dad's an engineer and the answer would likely be longer than I'm interested in right now, we'll have plenty of time to talk about structural supports later.

I'll leave you with my personal favorite exercise quote:
"I gave up exercising because my things kept rubbing together and setting my pantyhose on fire!"

Saturday, August 14, 2010

The things I do...

So I tell my Mom that I'm going upstairs to flip my laundry to the dryer, she does her best to convince me that it's entirely too hot to use the dryer and that I should hang it to dry... "Everything but the jeans should be dry by morning"

So I head upstairs, out onto the balcony, don't quite close the door because I remember it's kind of weird... and there are no clothes pins. I go to go back into the house, the door is closed... no wait, the door is locked. Awesome. I half heartedly holler for my Dad knowing he's got his headphones on and can't hear you when you holler at him in the same room. Great. I'm stuck out here on the balcony with a load of wet laundry.

*sigh*

I start evaluating my options, I could wait until somebody notices I'm missing? No good, Mom is usually up late, Dad figures I went to bed already... I could attempt to climb down the new portion of the house, probably possible but this would be the initial attempt in the dark *wrinkles nose* we'll leave that as a plan b or c... Nuts, that leaves climbing out onto the roof in the dark remember, up onto the roof on the addition, down the mossy bit and either in the window in the spare room, or stomping on the roof over the TV room... and falling off in the dark, well that's the lowest section of roof to fall off of.

Back downstairs...

Me: Thanks Mom! I just had to break into the house... IN THE DARK! Didn't you hear me? The deer out back sure did...
Her: Yeah, I thought that was just you crashing around in the spare room.

Nice, good to know you're watching out for me *thwibbit* ;o)

Friday, August 13, 2010

Attack of the drogues!

Help! Help! The drogues have taken over our living room!



Hahaha just kidding... so this piece of safety equipment, which was made by my Dad, pretty impressive eh? Consists of 107 little parachute type things, 48 of which are attached to 1/2" diameter rope, and 59 of which are attached to 5/8" diameter rope, with a 70' leader attached to a bridal consisting of 2 50' 5/8 diameter bits that attach to the aft end of the boat that you toss off in the event of a severe storm... okay well not quite:

1) Take the two ends of the bridal around the outside of the radar arch, through the fairlead, and cleat at the 10 foot mark (indicated by wrapping)

2) Get small anchor or any other 20 lb weight available and attach to end of drogue

3) Ensure that the area is clear (similar to using an AED "You're clear, I'm clear everybody's clear")

4) Toss small anchor overboard, cross your fingers and pray that nothing gets stuck

In the event that everything works correctly, the mini-drogue-chutes should provide enough drag to slow you down so you can steer even when tired, and not hit a wave broadside... that's really bad, you have a huge potential to be rolled when that happens. That would suck even more than being rick rolled ;o)

Currently we haven't determined how to secure the carrying bag, I pointed out that I'm sure as hell not hanging onto it when there is the force of any number of parachutey things trying to pull it into the sea, so for now the carrying bag will serve as an offering to King Neptune... although it's broken, that might not be a very good sacrifice.

*wrinkles nose*

We'll have to think on this...

Rise and shine...

"I'll rise, but I refuse to shine" ~Gabrielle XWP

Gratitude to all who had a hand in the scientific advancements that allow me to have a hot shower... especially in the morning.

There's red blood cells in your caffeine system

A few years ago, when we were still in University I was talking to my friend Mitts over Christmas vacation, I asked how her visit was going and she replied "Great except that I've had this headache for the last few days that just wont go away..." I asked if she'd had any coffee since she'd been home, there was a pause... and then she replied "No, my Mom doesn't drink it, I don't think there is any in the house." To which I said "Oh my goodness! You're poor body is going through caffeine withdrawals, go downtown and buy some coffee! No seriously, right now, I'll let you go."

Well I'm moderately ashamed to admit, I just pulled a Mitts. I've had a headache the last couple of days, and not surprisingly really, I'd been consuming about a cup a day till now. Thank the Gods for Timmy's!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Famous last words

Teach me to splice I say...

*muttering* Splicing is easy he says... just follow the directions he says... *kablooeee* I've never seen one do that before he says!...

Guess we have to cut off $3 worth of rope... and you'll have to try it with the other set of instructions, glad I didn't get shown up by my daughter though. *thwibbit*

*curses under my breath* I says...

It was definitely easier the second time, or perhaps it was the easier set of instructions hmmmm? *evil glare at Dad* the first one was prettier, until it exploded that is, but I still think it turned out alright.

If the shoe fits... I turn into a princess?

My life right now is an off-key version of "Cinderelly, cinderelly, wash the dishes, scrub the galley!" which really wouldn't be so bad except that I've been working a desk job... translation: my everything is tired.

So cleaning this boat, well it's a little like painting a room with two doors, and two windows and an electrical box - it's all edges... well picture that, and add a helluv a lot more edges, and some bendy bits, and piping with pokey bits on it... that you have to clean in behind, only you don't know there are pokey bits on it until you find them the hard way. Seriously though, I've got more scrapes and bruises from this week, nothing major or picture worthy but still!

I think technically I'm about half done, but just so we're all clear A.D.D is way worse on a small boat, you can see all the distracting things AT THE SAME TIME.

Not enough hours in the day

I have to apologize I haven't written about all of my visiting shenanagins yet because I just haven't had time, but don't you worry that circus circus comic hasn't got nuthin' on me!

I'm off to the boat again this morning, there is some cleaning and scrubbing, and probably a whole bunch of elbow grease in my future. At least I will know it was clean when we started right?

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Just 10 more mins...

I just got up earlier than I had to because some latent alarm on my watch was never reset or turned off.

We just had words.

Especially since I'm on autopilot in the morning and can't tell the difference between my watch alarm and my cell phone 'get your ass out of bed' alarm. Once at University I tried to turn my alarm clock off repeatedly, and was thoroughly confused as to why it wasn't working... until I realized it was the phone ringing.

It's okay I guess, I'm up now...

Monday, August 09, 2010

Bill of sale - The Fit

Dear Dan,

I'm so lucky to be able to sell you your first car for $1.05 (GST included), I know that you will take care of it, and I hope you know that you really don't have to wash it *every* week (I certainly didn't). I know it will always hold a special place in your heart.

Here are the keys.

I think it's cool that you are so proud of the fact that you have your fraternity plate on the front, and I really don't care if you put a transformers sticker on it, or get flames painted on the side, really, it's your car now.

It's not your driving I'm worried about, it's everyone else's.

Please be careful.

Love your favouritest sister ever,

Sam

PS I really don't care if you wreck it, as long as you're okay. For serious.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Once a year you should watch the sunrise... check

Watching the sunrise over the mist filled plains of Alberta, they looked completely deserted making me feel like the only living witness in a fairy tale land. It wouldn't have surprised me if upon first light a herd of unicorns had arisen out of the long grass and galloped off. It was absolutely breathtaking, and of course I didn't have my camera, not that any picture I could have taken would have done it justice...

Thursday, August 05, 2010

Mmmmm bacon

I got up early this morning so that my brother would make me breakfast before he went to work.

The unconscious conversing with... well the unconscious

I can hardly believe it's almost been a week since my last day of work. It has been super awesome visiting my bro, and we've gotten a tonne of stuff done and organized for the upcoming adventure... but I think we both might be a little tired. While it cannot be confirmed by outside sources, I'm pretty sure we were talking to each other in our sleep last night... I briefly woke up to an incoherent mumble, giggled, and crashed out again.

We might be related.

The reason self checkout is soooo slow...

Last night we went shopping for bacon and toilet paper...

Time it takes to grab few random items: 10 mins
Time it takes to scan few random items at self checkout: 5 mins
*note this is probably 4 mins longer than the empty checkout lines
Number of Frat boys it takes to try to enter the AIR MILES number *after* the AIR MILES screen: 3
Getting the girl on duty to cancel the whole thing so you can swipe it all through again, because *at least* one of them missed the AIR MILES number screen?

Priceless... for everything else there's MasterCard

Did I mention they graduated recently?

Mr. President says FML

So a little background, my brother, The President (he's kind of a big deal Mom) - vote for Pedro he offers you his protection, borrowed a Park pass to go camping like two weeks from now... in the meantime the owner of said Park pass decided to go camping, tomorrow. She stopped by to pick it up only to find my brother tearing around his room like a tornado, which by the way isn't really big enough for that, and one of his frat brothers we'll call him Frat boy #3 walking around like a zombie flipping through the first few layers of the various piles of crap on all the crap worthy surfaces. Enter Frat by #2...

Frat boy #3: Hey the president lost a parking pass have you seen it anywhere

Frat boy #2: Nope

... little while later ...

Yeah we're looking for that Park pass...

Frat boy #2: Ohhh! Park Pass! I thought you were looking for a parking pass...

Frat boy #3: That's what I asked you earlier!

Frat boy #2: No, no you most definitely said 'parking pass'

Frat boy #3: *throws hands up in the air* park, parking same difference!

Frat boy #2: No they're totally different, one's for parking... and the other uh...

C: is for parking in a park?

... more head shaking, some expletives, and begging of forgiveness... luckily she is not a vengeful God...

Frat boy #2: HaHA! I found it!

*happy dancing* and *high fiving* all around!

Mr. President: Omg where did you find it?!?!?!

Frat boy #2: *glowing* In your food cupboard *smiles*

Mr. President: WTF?!?! How did you find it in there?

Frat boy #2: Well, I said to myself... self if I was the President... where would I put it? And there it was, next to the peanut butter.

The way I figure it, he probably had it in his hand, was hungry and put it down... in order to pick up the peanut butter.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Whirwind!

The 'Bon Voyage Tour' continues, I've driven nearly 1500km's since Friday night made some great memories with wonderful friends and familly and am looking forward to a few more... The cemetary is the place to rest ;o)

I promise I'll update more soon, but you don't want to hear about how bad I am at pictionary... although we did have a couple gooders in charades, I'll leave you with this, how do you act out 'Donkey' and 'Buffalo' to an 8 and a 14 year old? *raises eyebrow* we might've got stuck on those for a little while...

*winces* wait for it...

It felt pretty awesome when Granny said "You look wonderful!" instead of the usual "You're getting fat." Even when it's the truth, served straight up... what can you say really? Its Granny, don't argue with her about *anything* she's always right.

I'm just not going to tell anyone she didn't even have her glasses on ;o)