Thursday, August 09, 2018

Mama’s musings

Sometime when Mama chuckles and says things, she reminds me of Yoda. Like when he mutters words of wisdom under his breath  nodding and smiling to himself.

Except she does it in a thick Filipina accent, and it's not under her breath... I'm pretty sure the neigbours can hear her!

Hehehe 
I'm going to watch TV... 
and then fall asleep..
And then the TV will be watching me!
Hehehe

It's uncannily eerie just how true that statement could be these days Mama 
--
The story of my life http://scubajunk.blogspot.com

Samantha Vincent
Samantha Vincent on about.me
 

Friday, July 20, 2018

Girls be trippin’

It was with some amazement, despite waking up at 4:45 and leaving by 5:30, that we made the first sailing... especially after we were warned at the ticket booth that we might get bumped to the 10:50.

My Kim also noted that it's a good thing we didn't call it "Girls gone wild" as we missed the 9:26 pm phone call.

So we find ourselves sitting in the sun outside our adorable little rental cottage it's only 9am, and we've got the whole day ahead of us!


--
The story of my life http://scubajunk.blogspot.com

Samantha Vincent
Samantha Vincent on about.me
 

Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Getting "Cultured"

Yesterday the Ninja and I were given the opportunity to attend the LACMA 3D: Double Vision exhibit opening on behalf of my Aunt whose University had contributed some pieces from their collection to the exhibit.

We had no idea what to expect and so erred on the side of business casual.  I have been slowly building up my work clothes attire and was able to pull out an appropriate 3D-ish looking top, but the Ninja was in need of something and so purchased a super cute flowing black and silver number for the event.

Ten. Ten minutes before our "leave at 4:30 by the latest" she discovered that some nincompoop had failed to remove the security tag from the shirt she was planning to wear.

Awoogah! A-WOOH-GAH!!! Emergency. Emergency, this is not a drill.

One look at that face and I knew, that contrary to both of her valid solutions (cutting it out or wearing something else) I had to try my very best to fix it.

I scampered downstairs, grabbed all of the supplies I thought I might need... hammer, screwdriver, towel, zip-lock, smaller towel... and ran back upstairs.  Also keep in mind that it is HOT... hot enough that I haven't put my dress pants on yet.

"Are you sure this is a good idea" she asks?

?!*?! Ha! Of course I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but we're going to at least *try* it.

While I set about wrapping the garment in the large towel so as to expose as little as possible to the potential (likely?) ink explosion it occurred to me that I should probably remove my own shirt as well... at the same time the Ninja started reading me excerpts from the internet detailing 7 different ways to attempt removing said security devices... with the eye rolling disclaimer that they should never be used for shop-lifting.

I'm not sure that I believed all of them, some of them sounded like an entry for a competition "Hit it with a hammer" I mean sure it might work, but you probably won't quite get the results you were looking for...

Nonetheless, the first suggestion was to use an elastic band to help lever the pin out. This sounded the least likely to break/trip the internal ink pack so I scrambled back downstairs to obtain some rubber bands.

One broken elastic band later, and other instructions involving a screw driver and I'm attempting it but only because the hammer claw doesn't fit when *snick* ... it's a small sound, but enough to catch my breath in my throat. I slowly turn the device over to see if it's leaking, as the bottom half falls off in my hands dropping the antenna(?) out with it.

What the... ?

As I poke and prod, still leery that there's still a hidden inkwell around the pin the damn thing falls apart in my hands and leaves only the pointy bit of the pin poking through the material.

Dun-dun-DAH-dum!!!!! *trumpets*

I got it *beaming* its only 4:34... and I didn't even wreck anything. The moments of urgency, and the moments of hot uncomfortableness wither to insignificance in the thankful gaze of my best friend.

Fixed. In a very satisfactory manner. I am most pleased with myself *buffs nails*

The rest of the evening was fantastic! It turned out that the opening meant that us as invited guests had the opportunity to view the exhibit *before* it was opened to the public which was SUPER COOL!

Since we had eaten beforehand and didn't know any of the fancy people to schmooze with we were able to duck into the small 30 person only theatre ahead of the crowd and see the entire loop of 3D use in movies from the 50's through current day.  It was amazing! It also gave us a huge list of movies that we want to watch which brought up the "where to get old movies now that there aren't movie rental places" conundrum... Nevermind, it looks like we can rent them on Amazon!


I was also able to find the University of Manitoba's contribution of seance photos which are really bizarre and interesting. Having read about them before I knew they were odd but that did not prepare me for seeing them up close, they truly are remarkable. Whether they are an advanced trick of film processing (for the time), or truly otherworldly remains a mystery but they are indeed something to behold up close and personal.




















The rest of the exhibit was really cool, with some displays that prompted the Ninja to whisper back  "I don't get it... am I missing something?" to which I replied with a small chuckle "No, this would be 'Art' "












Saturday, June 23, 2018

Avast me hearties!!!

Haul yer anchors you scurvy sea-dogs, we sail with the tide!!

Starting the morning with a pirate run is better than a poke in eye with a rusty dagger arrrr!




The dog lasted from the parked car to about the start line... about a block :p


Success!!! Now where be the nearest place we can get some grub?!? Mah belly is gonna eat me!!!


--
The story of my life http://scubajunk.blogspot.com

Samantha Vincent
Samantha Vincent on about.me
 

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

"Quit while you're ahead" they say...

There are expressions that are as much a part of the language as the words it is made of, and yet we do not appreciate them for the wisdom they contain until we fully understand them... at which point it's too late.

I had an incredibly productive weekend, I got a veritable $#!-tonne of stuff done upstairs but the feeling of accomplishment was negated in the space between thoughts. That moment when you get the sinking feeling that something is most likely about to go horribly wrong, when I dropped... *inhale*... and exploded *sigh* one of those stupid twisty cfl lightbulbs at the very top of the stairs *rolls eyes* of course it was at the top of the stairs.

Theeennnn I dropped the LED light bulb I was replacing it with... and killed that one as well (it didn't break... it just doesn't work now! - go figure)

So the price for trying to do *justonemorething* before bed was at least a half an hour of clean up, and a dark tarnish on the previously glowing golden accomplishment of having replaced the bathroom light fixture, moved the bathroom light fixture into the walk in closet, finishing painting the walk in closet, removing all carpet from said walk in closet AND the final remaining piece from my sports closet which was no small task as both closets had to be completely emptied first... and then I put everything back before anyone got home!

*sigh*







Wednesday, June 06, 2018

Butterfly babies!

So we're trying our hand at raising Monarch butterflies, it's been a long arc to get here bits and pieces slowly falling into place.  The winding trail you painstakingly discover while picking your way up the mountain that looks perfectly obvious when you look back.

A number of years ago we saw an incredible Monarch migration film in the IMAX in the Royal Victoria museum called "Flight of the Butterflies", the footage is incredible!


Then we ended up accidentally raising Giant Swallowtails when they chose our tiny Calamansi bush as a host and likely would have decimated it had we not rescued it (and them) lol.

Then we started kicking around the idea of having a butterfly garden which finally became a reality when we got around to planting the front planter box, and decided to help boost the monarch population.

It's been super cool don't get me wrong - but these guys are hard! They're idiots, they wander all over the place,  get stuck, and they're way harder to keep track of despite being fricken yellow! They fall off of leaves... one batch of them got sick from one of the new plants and oozed and died, and apparently there's a parasite you have to watch out for :(  The giant swallowtails were sooooo much easier and more efficient, they basically stake out a leaf, start at the tip of it and work their way back until they're done.  These guys nibble here and there, sometimes chewing on the stem of the leaf before they venture out and eat half of it, and then the leaf falls off because they sabotaged themselves. Idiots...

We we starting to think they were pretty boring until we discovered that they don't like the sound of my voice... and that their angry caterpillar face looked like this! As you can see we have angry teenage caterpillars lol


Saturday, May 12, 2018

Really?!


Since when is raw flour dangerous to consume?!

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

A quiet night out

A case of vertigo, a case of laryngitis, and a case of congested hearing make for quiet dinner companions... especially if you're the one with the congested hearing.
 

Tuesday, March 06, 2018

Before and after

We've been looking for shelves for the bathroom, and finally found some that were *almost* perfect... so we fixed them :p
Check out the before and afters!

Sunday, March 04, 2018

Duuuude! Life stories of a shopping cart

Carter: You guys are never going to believe what happened to me!!!

I'm originally from Pico, I used to work at the Harbour Freight there, but I wanted to see more of the world so one night I left with this guy. He seemed nice enough, but then he just wandered off and left me in a back alley! I was so scared, I didn't know what to do, so I tried to hide... I'm not even sure how many days I hid for.

Then the next thing I know, I'm being cartnapped! This guy was so strong, he just picked me up and put me in the back of his truck, it all happened so quickly! Well it turned out his girlfriend had spotted me and he was *rescuing* me, he took me home with him, and gave me my own space in the driveway.

It was wonderful there, he had lots of cats and stopped to say "Hi" and check how I was doing every day. They even invited me to celebrate Christmas with their friends! His girlfriend was amazing and helped me get all decked out and they even let me help deliver their presents! The look on their friends' faces when they opened the door was priceless *grins*

That whole evening was so much fun!


The next morning I woke up in the middle of the living room wondering what else I had done, but it turned out nothing embarrassing, I was so relieved. They let me stay with them for awhile, their back yard was beautiful and they had all sorts of plants and flowers and humming birds but truth be told I was kind of at loose ends. I missed helping people look for everything they needed and carrying it out to their cars for them.

I think they were a little sad to see me go, but one night they discreetly loaded me up and brought me to this new location... their car wasn't as comfortable, and I had to lie down so I'm not really sure where we went but I know it wasn't far. They promised to come visit one in awhile.




I'll never forget my new best friends, their hospitality, the car rides, and the wonderful adventures I shared with them... but I think I'm ready to settle down here, at least for a bit ;)

Thank you!

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Ball!

This makes me wish it were ball season... ok that isn't entirely accurate, it is *always* ball season in California, our team just missed the registration deadline :p
But this makes me wanna go play!

Monday, February 26, 2018

Enough to do!

Clearly we didn't already have enough to do before my roommate's family descends in two weeks... because the handle on the toilet broke in such a way that it can't be fixed with duct tape and zip ties (we tried)

We were however able to fix it with one of those "most commonly broken party of the toilet" kits today - thanks Home Depot! AND the toilet handle matches the rest of the hardware now *grins*

While it really wasn't broken for very long, it's incredibly satisfying to be able to flush again with a handle we fixed ourselves.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Sometimes it gets cold in California...

See!

Well, I've definitely acclimated, there's a light layer of frost and I had to put on a toque and my down vest this morning :p


Sure was pretty on my walk home when it was all melting though :)

Saturday, February 17, 2018

No, bigger!

I did something kind of incredible yesterday's yesterday now.

It may not sound like much, but I mounted a projector screen *through* a drop ceiling all. by. myself.

*beaming*

I'm still a little gobsmacked at how incredibly lucky I got on more than one occasion.

Seriously. Gobsmacked.

I didn't break either of the ceiling tiles, the reinforcement piece I put above the ceiling tile miraculously fit (which was amazing because I totally "ished" it and I couldn't figure out another way to do it if it didn't work)

Then holding the rolled up screen aloft in both hands I was able to climb the ladder... as it dawned on me... now what?

How the hell am I going to get the loops over the hooks before my arms and my legs poop out?!?

It was one of those shrug you've made it this far you might as well just try it moments. I started with the left side, raised it up to the hook, used the hook to flip the loop up -was mildly surprised when it stayed- then held my breath while the stars aligned, and in one fluid motion put the loop over the hook like I'd done it a million times.

Holy crap that actually worked?!?!

Boohyah!

After that the other was so easy it isn't even worth talking about. I'm tired and sore, I've used muscles I forgot I had but it was totally worth it :)

Now to move the projector back to fit the bigger screen...

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Fish!

So you're probably going to laugh, but I have a deep seated childhood fear of fish. I'm always afraid that it's going to taste awful, the way it did when my Mom made me sit at the table staring at the same one for three nights in a row until Dad finally took pity on me and composted it.

I had been hesitant to try it because it smelled like fish, and my few years of experience said it would probably taste the way it smelled. So Mom had told me to put lemon juice on it because that would make it taste better... so I doused it liberally.

Needless to say now that I'm wiser, I'm pretty sure that  the reason it tasted awful was because the lemon juice had gone bad...

Anyways, despite knowing that fish is actually really good when it's done right leftover fish still makes me squirm... The thing is, my best friend's Mom just moved in with us, and she's Filipino, and she cooks fish.

Happy Valentine's

Thanks Pinterest, totally nailed it!

Friday, February 09, 2018

Paraphrased from the internets

"Not all heros wear capes, although some wear them backwards and call it an apron"

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Maintenance gas check... Check!

Sure fire way to get the gas inspection lady to show up - make a dribbly pulled pork sandwich, take a couple bites and get drippings all over your hands... Presto! She'll show up, the dogs will bark, there will be chaos.

Watched her check the vent operation with the smoke from a match, I know it's probably *the* single best way to do it, but it's only slightly concerning lighting matches around gas lines that you're checking... I guess that's why she's a trained professional ;)

Turns out that based on the connector used on the hot water tank it's probably as old as the house (early 50's!) and being a two piece brass connector is no longer deemed "safe" so it needs to be swapped out for a new shiny-er stainless steel model. 

I must admit though I'm a little confused as to why this passed the "health and safety inspection" we had to get before we bought the place?

Next I hear beeping upstairs and figure it's one of her measurement devices, then it cuts to "Fire! Fire! Fire!" and I realize it's our smoke alarm, followed shortly by her hollering down "Don't worry, that's normal" *chuckles* turns out it doesn't bother her any as it's all in a day's work even though the sound of it drives me crazy she assured me it was fine and to just open some windows... I did, and retreated downstairs.

Official voice: *self important throat clearing* Thank you, thank you, thank you... this concludes our test. I would like to express my appreciation to the responsiveness of our neighbours for checking that we were home and knew our smoke detectors were going off. I sincerely appreciate your concern and the haste with which you checked to make sure everything was okay.

More dog chaos.

Should I be concerned that her sniffer sounds like she's flying a model airplane?  Yep, I'm pretty sure that means something is leaking... good thing I shut that one off after we moved in!

Of course she's in a different truck and doesn't have all her parts, so she had to get the connector delivered. Naturally my department meeting started 10 mins ago, and he showed up immediately *after* I was asked to speak *rolls eyes*

I had to go on mute so I could yell at the dogs to stop barking - seems pretty hypocritical of me, yelling at them, for barking... but still.

Oh, right and to top it all off? *while* I was on my conference call, the street sweeper came by. I had a minor heart attack because there's a $50 ticket you if you're parked on the street, and I had completely forgotten to mention it. I watched in horror as the street sweeper went around both trucks, and the enforcement car slowed down in front of the second truck... still on the phone knowing that there wasn't enough time to run and get them to move their vehicles...  I dashed back to my computer and discovered that thankfully they don't ticket professionals like the phone or gas company unless it becomes a habit in front of your house. *sigh of relief*

Nonetheless adventures aside, I can finally check this off the list! Everything has been electronically sniffed, tightened, fixed and cleared for use save the heater downstairs in the living where we might actually use it... (figures) That one needs to be professionally cleaned. Other than that she showed me how to light the pilot lights on our super old gas heaters, and the gas fireplace and I now have some level of confidence that in doing so I'm not going to blow the house up.

You have no idea how stoked I am to finally be able to have a fire in the livingroom while it's still winter here!

It’s a little damp out this morning

Took this when I realized that even my eyebrows were misty!

Saturday, February 03, 2018

Eeeeep!

This is what happens when you take a waffle recipe, turn it into a family favorite pancake recipe, then attempt to use it experimentally in a new waffle maker, after having helped make pancakes for so many years!

Rewards

Yesterday morning I was rewarded for hauling myself out of bed early with a beautiful sunrise, birdsong, and this... I've always had a thing for dandelion fluff :)

Thursday, February 01, 2018

If websites were burgers

Fantastic explanation of net neutrality brought to you by the letters B and K, the colours red, yellow and blue and why you should care.


Pay particular attention to the part about corporate thinking they can sell more chicken, it's subtle but it's one of the concepts at the heart of why repealing net neutrality isn't in the best interests of the consumer.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Exercise is good for you

I think I've come to the conclusion that there really is no "good" time to start working out again...

So I really need to just suck it up and start, which is what makes Nike's tag line so damn perfect.  It's short and sweet and gets right to the core of the matter... no ifs ands or buts, just *do* it.

Uhhhng.

Monday, January 29, 2018

Your name is mud...

I gave the dog rice because her tummy wasn't feeling well, and this is what happened... I know this mess is better than the "other" mess... but really?!? C'mon!

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

Try something new

It was time for an adventure, so I took the train into town rather than fight traffic and spend $35 on parking...

It was gritty as I'd expected, some parts smelled better, some parts smelled worse... but the worse was on par with Vancouver so nothing entirely new

An unexpected highlight was two grubby little kids unceremoniously plopping down next to me, the little guy had bonked his head on the way in and his sister was successfully distracting him into beautiful belly giggles, he kept glancing at me shyly sideways and smiling and it was adorable.

I think the funniest part was the big dude who stepped up behind me and asked in a conspirital manner "who made your being" or something like that and when I asked "what's that?" He asked "how does the sea taste" I dryly answered spectacular... and before I'd finished my scrunched up skeptical face he was *gone.

Without further ado I managed to make it on the correct train home, I feel slightly nauseous from the pulsing stop and go which this head congestion didn't help with AT ALL, and I feel like I should probably bathe in hand sanatizer, but I think overall my adventure was a success.

I made it downtown in time to pick up my passport, the train isn't quite as scary as it was before, and I had some alone time, and was able to step back and look at things and reevaluate just how lucky I've been with the choices I've made thus far.