Friday, December 30, 2011

Idle thoughts to help with your New Years diet

I'm here in pre-caffeinated haze and it just occurred to me that doughnuts are literally dough-nuts...

Who came up with that name, and was it on purpose?!??! Was someone dropping globs of dough into hot oil and said "Hey those look kinda like my nuts" Cause if that's how it happened and it actually stuck that's awesome!

Ewwww. *repulsed look* So gross.

Luck on my front doorstep

Plus 10 outside and everyone is confused

Friday, December 23, 2011

Santa really does exist!

After tracking the progress of my friend and co-worker through the trials and tribulations of the amateur radio course, I think I was almost as excited as he was when he passed the test!

I then waited with bated breath for his callsign to be really for real official. Just so that we would be one step closer to being ready for the zombie apocalypse. Really that's just a nice way of making it sound way cooler than what it actually is, which is being *more* nerdy than we already are, like +5 to Intelligence nerdy.

Back to Santa, but I'll let him tell the tale of "All I want for Christmas is my HAM Radio Callsign" and believe me it's well worth the read *smiles*

Falling behind...

I want to caption it "no caption necessary" but that would be contradictory. Enjoy ;)

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Chicken soup for the soul

Many people have passed through my life leaving fingerprints on the window to my soul.

Along the way many of them attempted to teach me how to cook, and to their credit they all succeeded in one manner or another... I think the most important thing they left me with though weren't various recipes, but the yearning desire to learn... and that sometimes you have to try it again... and again... and sometimes one more time before you just go buy a damn rice cooker. They're cheap like borsch now.

I also learned from one friend, that when she's lonely, or when she needs people around that love her, she cooks... and not just a little bit, like we're talking a turkey as big as she is (at a mere 4'2).

I'm proud to say in the last few years I've formed a special connection with a few people in my life who cook. I wish there was a more eloquent word than cook though, because there are people who 'cook' mac and cheese every day for lunch *ahem* (I had a roommate like that) And then there are people who are honestly excited. Like we're talking wriggle inside their skin excited about cooking. People who have had their fair share of *oops* it definitely wasn't supposed to turn out like that!!! and know when to use their hamburgers as hockey pucks and order pizza... or dust off that box of mac 'n cheese.

So while I'm still barely above the caveman level of charred writing implement survival cooking, I appreciate sharing my minor triumphs and moments of win with others who have been so encouraging. Tonight I would like to present chicken soup... one part home made broth, one part abstract chicken cube and all the rest hearty fresh and frozen vegetables. *whispers* I did cheat a little bit though... I started with a cooked chicken from Superstore. Whoever came up with those things is brilliant!

*drumroll*

*slurps* Well it certainly doesn't taste like Grandpa used to make it... *raises eyebrows* but it is pretty good!

I'd also like to thank My Kim for supervising the kosher induced salinity levels, it definitely wouldn't have been the same without you. You are most welcome in my kitchen :)


Hmmm this started as just a little "look I made soup"... but I guess there so many letters stuck in my head they started leaking out my fingertips!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Christmas creativity

Omg.

Half an hour to write a Christmas card... at this rate times (16+18) I should be finished in 17 hours as long as I don't eat, sleep or allow for any ablutions... effluvium.

Yes thank you auto correct that is totally what I meant. Heh.
ablution
1. The ritual washing of a priest's hands or of sacred vessels.
2. [South African] A toilet that is available to the public.
So why is it taking so long? Well, earlier this year I had this bright idea that I wanted to learn calligraphy... the art of herding coloured water with a stick, and making it look perfectly organized and flowingly natural at the same time. Then my best friend found me an intro kit at a garage sale!

And what better way to practice my letters, and show my Christmas love than using it in cards? So, if I don't get ink poisoning, or a fatal hand cramp... and I actually get them down to the post office, and you get one you should feel very special. If you don't get one don't take it personally, I still love you... I just ran out of motivation.

*whips head around* Wanna go ride bikes?!?!

Do the time warp!

I think there's a temporal anomaly around Christmas... kind of like a worm hole, because I was doing great, I had lots of time to prepare and then all of a sudden BOOM it's nearly Christmas! When did that happen?!?

In other anomaly news, I totally got someone elses's breakfast sandwich this morning... *frowns* and no I don't want to correct to Elsey's, how on earth are you supposed to spell that?!?! Anyways Aaren got to listen to my full range of emotions...

Bagel?!? I didn't order a bagel!
Oh maybe they ran out of homestyle biscuits, well as long as there's tomato in it... *peeks inside*
Hmmm nope, damn... definitely got somebody else's breakfast
Oooh cheese bagel... and red pepper? Do they even make a cheese and red pepper bagel?

Maybe it's sundried tomato, that's almost like regular tomato...
Mmmmm this is actually pretty good :)

How am I supposed to order this again? "Hi, I'd like the same order you messed mine up with yesterday, yeah it was really good."




Friday, December 16, 2011

Super green!

I just made my first local contact through the Silverstar repeater on my own radio all by myself *vibrating* and while it isn't the first time I've been on the air, it is the first time it wasn't set up by someone else... and now I know I've got the repeater set up properly!

I guess it kind of feels like it's my official first time *grins*

Thursday, December 15, 2011

November echo to the Romeo delta

*squeeeee*!!!

It's way past my bedtime and I'm totally turning into a pumpkin, but I just got back from a NORAC meeting (local HAM radio club) and it was soooo cool! I reluctantly dragged myself out there after taekwondo figuring I should try and make it to at least one meeting this year and I'm so glad I did!

Nerds: People who get excited about doing something... because they can. 

These are my people.

One of the guys is reading up on antenna theory so he can build his own, another guy was talking about boosting the signal on a cheap helicopter so he could re-attach an anchor line to the top of his antenna without taking it down... and the coolest part of it all is just talking to people who are interested in learning new things.

I've noticed something... It doesn't matter what subject someone is talking about... if they are really honestly excited about it, it automatically gains at least +5 points of being way more interesting than in school.

I don't know if this is my 'something' that makes me want to jump out of bed in the morning, but it is certainly something that has piqued my curiosity and captured my interest *grins*

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Is it nice where you are?

A girl I know was just telling me, that as her grandmother was getting older she started to forget things... and as the story goes, she'd just had a biopsy done and called to get the results... saying:
"Hi this is ___, and I'm calling to get the results of my autopsy?"
There was a pause on the line... and they managed to get her all sorted out, during which I'm sure that the receptionist must have employed every ounce of self-discipline to not giggle, even a little bit.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

S'not a small town

Last week I had one of those mornings, where I hadn't decided what kind of day I was going to have yet... and my coffee got on the wrong bus, and took the long way to work.

It started when I opened my car to find it unlocked with my wallet on my seat, *squints* where I don't think I left you? ...my glove box open, and a couple CD's on the floor... which is definitely not where I left you.

But as far as I can tell... I'm missing $20 and negligible amounts of change. Obviously someone felt that they needed it more than I did... and in the grand scheme of things really I'm okay with that, because I really appreciate that they left my pretty wallet, with all my credit cards, my certifications, and my license and didn't break any of my windows.

Which probably means I left it unlocked? I'm so not sure now. The weird part is I don't even really feel that upset about it, *shrugs* I mean I should right? Someone went into my car and rifled through my stuff. But they didn't leave a huge mess, or break anything... and really, it could have been so much worse.

Do you have any idea what a rigamarole it is to get your license replaced when all the supporting documentation you need to get it is in your wallet... and you need some kind of picture id (such as a license) to get everything else that was in your wallet replaced?

Do you see the infinite loop here?!?!?

I will gladly pay the $20 "I'm an idiot tax" to not have to go through that, especially since at the end of the day, I shouldn't have left my wallet there in the first place... Besides after all that, my day ended with a giggle. I was complaining to a friend that I'd had more than enough coffee to drink and it hadn't been working *all* day... to which she said
"You're over-caffeinated, dehydrated, and under-stimulated!" ~M

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Cue the Canadian LMFAO cover band

... Everyday I'm shovelin' shovelin'...

My hand just finished healing the blister I worked up shoveling those hash marks right there!! If you missed the sordid tale, you can read about it here.

Oh by the way...

I got my hair trimmed and coloured last weekend, look quick because this is probably the best it'll ever look ;)
Oh and Dad, you don't have to like it... and don't worry it's not permanent.

Monday, December 05, 2011

Thank you Dragonlady

Anne McCaffrey, the Masterharper and Dragonlady has left us.
"It's not what you take when you leave this world behind you... it's what you leave behind you when you go." ~Randy Travis
She left us her thoughts, that we might sift through them, letting some settle into our hearts... and a safe haven that you didn't have to run away from home to seek shelter in.  She left us stone markers that started you on a journey, a journey that if you were anything like me you couldn't help but follow...

The path twisted and turned, leading down through the underbrush, past brigands and into the solid clasp of close friends... The journey turned from one of hours and days into a lifetime that spanned generations. 

She had an incredible ability to take you with her, to another world, another place, another lifetime.  You thought you were escaping from everyday life... to follow along safely in the shadows. You thought you were watching an everyday average hero in the making. Well you were.

But little did you realize, you were actually learning how to be one.




The day that journey ended, was the day you realized that the elusive hero you'd been chasing, desperately hoping to catch... the one that was always just out of reach, was the person looking back at you with that same goofy grin you'd seen a thousand times. That grin you get, when it dawns on you that something has been in front of you all along...

Along the way I learned that bad things happen... but what matters, is what you do after the bad things and how you treat the people around you that counts. I learned that heros and legends aren't born, they are made by their choices. The irony of it all though, is that even by not choosing... you've made your decision.




I know that I may never be in a situation where I have to make the right choice (as decided in the comfort of a livingroom by someone with the time and perspective to analyze it as such). But I would like to think that while I wept for their losses, laughed at their antics and chuckled with vindictive glee during their ingenious and well deserved triumphs *smiles*... that ultimately I learned something from the hardest of lessons alongside those characters I aspired to be.

I hope that if I ever find myself there, at one of those crossroads of a lifetime captured in a moment, that I would be able to make a choice worthy of even a sidenote in one of her novels.

The wonderful difference between life and a good story, is that you don't need a near death experience to see those special moments again.  They are there waiting for you, like a good friend. Ready, no matter the time that has passed, to be dusted off and embraced again. They don't question you during the lowest moments of your life, when all you want to do is run away. Even if the furthest you ever run is across the road to your best friend's parents' house.

I'd like to say thank you Anne McCaffrey, for sharing your friendship and your ideas. Sending them out where the *whole* world could see them, that someone like myself might chance upon them and find something as precious amongst those pages as the warmth of a campfire on a winters night.

Thank you for giving me things to think about that were so much more inspiring than Hollywood makeup, hairdos and the latest breakups.  Thank you for helping me decide who I wanted to be on the inside, and why that was more important than what I looked like... especially during my gawkward discomboobulated stage that still rears it's vile armored head from time to time.

But above all, thank you for running away with me and bringing me back when it was time, with a little more understanding than when I left. You were a very special lady, and I'm honored to have read your thoughts ;)

See what happened when Quebec tried to separate?!?!


Friday, December 02, 2011

Legos!

There were only a few 'optional' pieces left over ;)