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. ;)

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.

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

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.

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!

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 :)

"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*

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.

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!"

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)

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!

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?

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...

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.

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...

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.

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)

Appropriate lunch time conversation...

This may or may not be appropriate lunch time conversation, but our server prompted the discussion so I just had to share it... she was a girl of indeterminate age, full of bubbles and sunshine of the overly helpful variety... like the kind that would wash and dry your car for you while asking how your day went and intently listening to your response.

Which started it all off...

A: I just hate servers from all those places like Montanna's, and Eastside Marios and, and that other place... Where they're so overly friendly like *girly voice* "Hi my name's <> and I want to be your new best friend for today!"

A: You know where they write their name upside-down on the paper-roll table cloth? That's great Freddie, I don't care if you can write your name upside-down... with crayon even, I'm still not going to use it. But congratulations on conquering the crayon, now how can I trust you'll even get my order right... are you sure you can use that pen? Or would you like a crayon?

A: Oooh and don't even get me started, when they show up and crouch down on one knee... and they're all in your personal space, like they're your best friend?!?! Just makes me want to say "Eff you!" and walk out!

A: It's like they've been given a bubbles and sunshine shot or something...

Me: More like sunshine up their... umm... their... damn what's that called?

A: Haha yeah like a sunshine enema, that's it! It's like they've all been given a sunshine enema!?!?

Subway, don't let the mustard get fresh with the cheese

So the lady in front of me at Subway just asked the sandwich-artist "she'll get your veggies for you" girl to put the mayo down first... because she doesn't like it when the mustard touches the cheese. Seriously. WTF?!?! *throws hands up*

My nephew has that problem with things not touching on his plate. But he's eight. And it doesn't extend to the condiments *inside* a sandwich.

I must say I was impressed when she just smiled and nodded and attempted to make sure that the mustard was *only* on top of the mayo... they must get all kinds of weird requests in relation to how to make sandwiches.

Everyday ordinary

I find myself pausing and trying to absorb all of the things around me, the temperature, the way the wind caresses my skin but most of all the smells, and sounds of summer. I've heard that when you spend time out at sea you can smell land when you get back. Just thinking about being surrounded by all that ocean, I want memories of things other than just food to miss.

This weekend I was up in Revelstoke with a family who has accepted me as part of their own. They are nothing like the family I grew up in, but they have filled in a portion of my life that would otherwise have remained empty. I've learned many things from them, most of them I'm not even sure I can explain as they are things that must be experienced...

The feeling of being in the middle of organized chaos, the day to day soap opera of life... Kids running around, fighting, getting into things, learning, reading, and looking up to you. Problems with jobs, with friends, with boyfriends and money. The knowledge that there will always be something in life to worry about, and that its relative. There will always be something at the top of that list, but its the same for everyone else.

I've learned that talking about your problems doesn't always fix them, but sometimes it makes you feel better... and at very least sometimes it makes someone else feel better. That no matter what is going on, no matter how long you're away for things change and carry on without you.

This weekend I was woken up by a wet-willy, and instead of being angry it made me smile. Why you might ask? Because it reminded me of a little blond-haired boy who used to wake me up by plugging my nose, and convulse in giggles when I woke up in a minor panic and surprised him. *Every* time.

The thing is little kids, are only little for a little while. They aren't waking you up just to drive you crazy... They're waking you up because they miss you while you're sleeping. Because they are excited to *do* things with you again *smiles* So before I set off on my voyage of a lifetime, I'll treasure the memory of a wet-willy wakeup because he'll be older, and may have outgrown it when I pass this way again. He might not have either, but one never knows.

*blink* *blink*

Just looked at the bottom of my coffee cup for the third time. It's still empty. Obviously this is an indication that I need more coffee.

I'M NOT YELLING!

Buahahaha I'm listening to my boss "yell" as in talk sternly to one of our users... a guy from S&M (Sales and Marketing... nearly died the first time I heard that abbreviation) who is the slowest talker I know... I have almost said a couple times "Now, think about what you're going to say, and then say it" like I used to with my little brother. When he was 5. He used to get so excited he just couldn't get the words out.

*grumbling*

I know this is something little, something most people probably don't even notice let alone give a second thought to... but. When you borrow the spare chair in my office, put it back where you found it when you're done.

I mean really, do you honestly think that I needed something else to trip over *directly* behind me? Besides, if you are trying to hinder my escape from zombies that wont work. It might get you an up close and personal interview with a pointy object though, at least until they ban those from working environments.

-10 Acheivement awards for irritating me on Friday. I'm going for lunch now... mmmm lunch.

Love can't be explained, merely felt with the heart

"The distance between two hearts is not an obstacle... rather a beautiful reminder of just how strong true love can be..."

So then I was thinking...

How much love can one heart hold?
It can't, that's why you have to continually give as much love as you can to those around you.

Preventative stripper measures

I maintain this weight, to stay off the pole. ~Large t-shirt

Sainthood

There should be a Joxer religious medal and it should be worn for all the peeps that can't land the babe.

Joxer - the patron saint of "not even if you were the last person on earth".
~Gova

The quilt of our lives

"My body's the needle, my soul is the thread" ~Hank

*phew*

I think I almost just sneezed my pharynx out. Don't worry I'm okay.

A little birdie told me...

"It's time for you to get up lazybones!"

So I'm lying in bed this morning, and I'm the perfect temperature, like when you can't feel the blankets or anything. And I'm trying without much success to convince myself that it's time to get up.

Next thing I know a little birdie lands on the roof of the trailer, bounce-hops over to my skylight window... looks down at me, taps on it a couple times and then just flies away!

It was so cool, and for some reason so much easier to get up after that ;o)

Harassment charge in the making

Apparently when you have an ear infection...

"I emptied it the other night" sounds a lot like "I love you, I wanna spend the night"

On conquering ones self

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell. ~Buddha

Chocoliscious

I just had a piece of chocolate cake at break, I'm sure the cosmic directions read:

"When consumed, apply directly to waist with a spatula"

Because no matter how good it tastes, I know it will be joining the rest of my wayward body chubb. I'm not concerned right now though, it was that good.

I'm up, what more do you want?

"The trouble with being up is there's all that potential for things to go downhill"

Owwwsa!

I've been sanding down the gunwales on my canoe, because I didn't finish them properly so they got icky black fuzzy moldy ick on them. Worse than some of the stuff growing in the fridge! Anyways I've been trying to get them re-varnished before we leave, and I overdid it a little... I have a HUGE blister on my thumb! Perhaps I exaggerate a little, but still, it hurtses us *pouts*

So at the age of 27 I have learned, that burning feeling when you're sanding means your finger is disconnecting cell tissue.

Early morning glow balls

These are a couple I shot on the way to work this morning, wasn't up in time to catch the early morning dew... but still kinda neat

Awooga! Awooga!

Not only did *both* of my alarms go off (the first is a warm up the second is the Get UP!), I also made a decision of questionable judgment to finish the cool dream I was having. I was flying, well in the initial stages of flying. Which is cool in and of itself, but doubly so because I usually only have dreams like that in the house I grew up in. It was a balanced arm flap, that gradually you would lift up enough to balance-coast your way around with additional flaps gaining you an even better birds eye view.

Finally the town council reached a decision and pulled the alarm, everyone rushed to arm their battle stations and launched into a well oiled routine established in University. A large shot of adrenalin was shunted into my blood stream, I shot up like a puppet, did an impressively coordinated dive roll out of bed... uncoordinately hit the door handle, council checked the time and did a mental status report: Not dressed, haven't eaten, need to pee, no time to waste.

With my mind still fuzzy, and reeling from the feeling of flying, council took over... calling for a body-wide state of "the fireman". First order of business get dressed, then eat, pee at work. The adrenalin was still circulating, with the effect that not all body parts responded as quickly as others. We tried to remove the door handle again with my hip, before everything kicked into high gear.

In a manner of minutes, with running around included I was dressed, wearing a hat, had applied deodorant and had hoovered a bowl of cereal, grabbed my keys and was diving into my car in a modern day biathlon. The second leg was Nascar, on an open-to-the-public winding back country road, complete with daisy-pickin' hills, gravel, blind corners and large oncoming trucks who thought they were bigger than they actually were.

I dodged and weaved, chewed through potholes and ate gravel for breakfast... sliding into work just under the wire, in time for my pit crew to take over and for me to saunter into work, grab a steaming hot cup of motor oil, and start my day as though nothing had happened.

Caution: All stunts were performed by an untrained professional, who does not recommend you try this at home.

The Fit was not harmed during the Nascar portion of this production, however some of the big truck drivers may need to check their pants. The town council will reconvene at 10am after everyone has had a chance to regroup following the emergency this morning.

No rest for the wicked

Started my morning reading Forecasting Methods and Applications, I know it sounds riveting!

But don't you fret, my day was quickly interrupted and devolved into a minor first aid scrape, where the paperwork took longer than dressing it... and I was irritated because I couldn't find anything in the first aid room.

Finishing that I was promptly interrupted with an SSL issue. Our certificate expired today, as in it should have been renewed yesterday. *Arg* I can't even yell at anyone other than myself ;o)

To add to the jumbo-gumbo cluster I am trying to nail down dates to visit people, and fly to Kelowna at a decent hour for Dad to pick me up, taking into account that we've got to haul the boat before we leave.

What in a timely manner, actually means.

That's how we do things around here; as quickly as we can, so we can do them again.
~Supervisor

Do you believe in magic?

I was driving home the other night, and every single one of these larger than life dandylion things were lit up seemingly from within. I was magical, as if the fairies were having a party and using these as the lighting.

I'm still shocked that this picture turned out.

Hello? Can you please tell us how to get to the tundra?

So I drive past this field to and from work nearly every day... okay honestly? Probably every single day. They just finished doing whatever it's called when you bale all the hay together, and I just thought that the way they stacked it looked so cool. They almost look lost, like they are trying to find their way home.

OOoooh sparkly!

If something is blue, chances are it's my favorite colour evar! This weekend my Aunt did my nails and omg I love them, I mean how can you not? Check it out in all its sparkly glory:

Heeey yoouuu guuuyyyss! Part Friday.

Woke up to a text message, groaned and replied... yes I need to be picked up, I'm somewhere on 17th Ave sleeping in the MoHo, no I'm not sure what the address is, you'll call when you're closer? K sounds good. *click*

*groan*

It's approximately 8am, my body is in the process of doing a damage assessment to see if anything's broken, and cautiously checking the status of the digestive system.

*dozing off*

*phone rings* Ok you're on 17th Ave already... It's down the hill, nope don't see you yet... oh yeah, there you are!



We had two great games, I believe we mercy'd both teams... it was a good way to start the ball weekend, get to know where everyone plays and settle in a little. The bit of a break in between was nice too.

That afternoon consisted of jello shots and a team get together at our coach's, where we played volleyball?!?! Because ball all weekend just wasn't going to be enough ;) I made some wicked hot jalapeno poppers, even thought I tested the peppers and put in less than I usually do they were still hot enough to burn you a new arsehole!

The misshap of the night occurred when a beer went down, our hostess was icing her knee so I offered to grab the dust pan. Downstairs under the stairs by the kitty litter. No problem, I can do that, no no no, you stay and ice your knee... Yeah, stood up too fast under the stairs, and proved beyond scientific doubt that I am taller than the space under there. Cracked 'er pretty good, riigggght on top of the bump from last night. *shrugs* what are you gonna do?!?!

Migrated up to the beer gardens, and it was awesome! The bands were wicked, there weren't too many people, just enough for a mosh pit in front of the stage. I'd like to take this moment to thank the three monstrously tall guys who we somehow managed to tuck in behind... I'm pretty sure you kept us safe from the horde all night.

Just as the beer garden crowds were starting to dwindle I decided I was starving, as is wont to happen from time to time ;) There was no pizza to be had, but a perogie stand caught my eye... Babba's Perogies. By the Gods they were the best perogies in the entire world! Having learned how to share in Brownies I was quickly everyone's new best friend.

Now the cool thing they do for the weekend is have free buses running from the beer gardens all over town to prevent drunken idiots from attempting to drive. Great idea! Having a bus driver brake-gas-break-gas-brake-gas an entirely full bus of illegally intoxicated individuals? Noooooo good! We jumped off early, I mean we've walked home from down town a few times before so really, we're close enough.

The thing we didn't realize right away was that we were a block over. Now you wouldn't think that one block would make a lick of difference when you're taking two steps forward and one step back...

But. We usually walk (hike) up suicide hill, so named because it's steeper than the back of your head, and back in the day you could drive up *and* down this narrow street, always running the risk of hooligans launching themselves off of it on the way down and landing on you! Well being over by one block we were on a gentler incline, not so bad one might think... think again! It took *FOORREEEEVVVER* we had to stop for a rest on someone's front lawn! I'm not even kidding you, we never stop for a break on suicide, you look at it go "Holy crap" put your head down and start hiking up the stairs and before you know it you're at the top. Way. More. Bettar.

Crashed out, woke up not feeling too bad, incredible! Sorry but you'll have to wait for the Saturday installment of this weekends episodes ;)

Quote of the past weekend

Don't fake drunk when you're wasted!

Luckily for me I can learn from other people's mistakes too ;)

Hey yoouuuuu guuuyyys! Part Thursday

I just had the awesomest longest weekend evar! I'm not even kidding, I'm so excited about it I keep accidentally hitting the Caps-Lock key and SPONTANEOUSLY YELLING. Ooops sorry about that, told you it was out of control over here! I'm going to have to break this up a bit, I'll try to do it by nightish, and not make you wait too long. Especially since I don't want to forget to tell you about everything awesome!

But seriously it was a fantastic Funtastic weekend. Our team, The Goonies *cue Hey yoooou guuuyys* won the competitive A division of the entire tournament! *Happy dance* there is some ridiculous number of divisions, like A for Awesome through H for Here for the Beer, and somewhere around 150 teams from all over the place.

I had so much fun, that the nights blend together as do the unidentified bruises, aches and pains. The festivities started Thursday night after work... and well, didn't really finish until around hmmm 8pm Sunday night. I'll try to spare you the gory details, and not talk too much about one of our ball players who once stood naked in a creek... Ha. Who am I kidding the story has puke, poop, and the words "How bad could it be?" in it. But that will have to wait for tomorrow night.

Anywhoo Thursday night started out kinda lame, I put laundry on. Super lame. I mean it's a big weekend right? Why haven't I started it sooner huh? Well I got nothing for you... But then I got the call that my favoritest ball girl evar (FBGE) was in town! I made all haste and headed on over to naked boys' house to suck back a couple of beers, meet the new guys on the team, and make fun of the new guy for wearing baseball pants - don't you worry I was envious of them by the end of the weekend... okay my skinned shin was. Anyways trucked 'er up to the beer gardens, and proceeded to bond with my team, catch up and generally dance around and carry on. The two highlights of the night were:

a) attempting to jump through a hulu-hoop while it was spinning around someone's arm, earning myself a goose bump on my noggin', but since I'm not a quitter I tried it again... yeah, I know, slow learner is what you're thinking... in any case I did not make it through, but don't you worry I'm going to keep at it until I get the timing right, or get brain damage. Maybe I can get some free beers NEXT funtastic.

Note: Dear reader, you should probably take a pee break here... I know I sure needed one.

b) My favoritest ball girl evar, had seen some dude who we will now refer to as The Ass, who was dissin' her current boyfriend of forever (BOF) and had said something along the lines of "diss diss diss, we would totally have been a power couple" WTF is a power couple??? I interrupt this to ask you only because neither of us has *any* idea. Anyways, pardon the A.D.D.D.D.D. each time we saw The Ass, she had a little bit of an I'm super frustrated angry "Grrrrr" moment. Well unluckily for him, he was wandering unsuspecting through the beer gardens talking on his cell phone when she pointed him out whist on our way to the watering hole again... Seeing her displeasure I said "Dude, do you want me to take him out?" Now my FBGE, knows that I'm not joking... as at the tourney where we met I tackled some guy who gave me a 7 out of 10 after I did a front hand spring hammered... she lit up like a fat kid in a candy store and says, "That would be great!"

*Hold my beer*. I ran across the entire beer gardens, now dear reader I'd like you to keep in mind that he's like 3 feet taller than me, I went for his knees, rugby tackle style. There was a moment of *squish* before my momentum carried him forward enough to bite it. Got up, inhaled my breath, re-inflated my chest, shook his hand and said "Thanks man!" and walked off leaving him more than slightly confused. Now, in the common affliction I have, known somewhere in France as staircase-wit I realize now that I *should* have said: "YOU KNOW WHY! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT'S FOR!!!" But alas I did not. My FBGE, loved it none the less. And I was greeted with, my drink and an omg-that-was-so-awesome-he-totally-ate-dirt! and *smiles* bright enough to out-do most high class chandeliers!

Anyways that night ended off with an injury count of two, goose-egg and slightly crushed upper right ribs, complements of The Ass. The squish was so worth it!

We had some minor shenanagins finding somewhere to stay, the BOF curled up on the side of the driveway in a sleeping bag asking in a semi-conscious voice for a pillow, but it all ended well with us staying in the awesomest couple's Motorhome affectionately known as The MoHo.

Well, the BOF crawled up into the over-the-cab space, I crawled into the other sleeping bag at the washroom end and grabbed a stuffed penguin to sleep on... my FBGE went to crawl in with her BOF, well here's the dialog that followed...

BOF: "Hey, there's no room up here! You're not gonna fit!"

FBGE: "Are you f*cking kidding me??!!?"

Me: "Dude, there's tonnes of room down here. You're more than welcome to come crawl in if you want"

FBGE: "Seriously? What do you mean I'm not going to fit?!?! You calling me fat? Jerk."

BFF: "It's too small! Go sleep in the other sleeping bag"

At this point she stormed down, "Harumphed", crawled in with me and said "Fine. But I get to be big spoon!" This started the spark-plug giggles, which fired into full blown tired giggles *s* For the next half hour or so, in drunk-time, I savoured the awesomeness of hanging out with someone I admire, and giggling uncontrollably about nothing in particular, namely sleeping on a penguin. Each little giggle setting off a whole new Nascar race of more giggles. It was one of those moments, like when you were 8 years old... I know, think waaaayy back. When you were hanging out with your best friend in the summer time playing, smiling, and laughing, and its as though everything in the world is exactly as it should be.

Best. Pickup line. Ever.

Via text message:

I'm a bra le reader

Sound it out... it will come to you ;)

So there.

Apparently the theme of the week is cool Grandmas. I was talking to another friend of mine whose Aunt had just passed away and she was asking her Grandma if she was going to attend the memorial.

Grandma said something about it being too hot out, to which my friend said welcome to the 21st century Grandma, most new cars have air conditioning and most buildings have air conditioning... Soooo... you'd be hot for however long it takes you to walk between the two...

To which Grandma replied

"Well why should I go? It's not like she's going to go to mine!"

*licks finger* point indeed. How do you counter logic like that I ask you?!?! You don't. The moral of the story is don't argue with Grandma, she wins. Every time.

Cool Grannies

In a conversation with a friend:
I srsly have the weirdest family on Earth. That's why we have the nickname the Griswolds. hehe. I pointed this fact out to my grandma last night and without missing a beat she said

"well it's a good thing we're weird cause otherwise you wouldn't fit in."

HA! That caught us all off guard. Gotta love cool grannies.

Weeeeeee are the chaaaaaaampions!

That's right We. Are. THE. Champions!

So this last weekend, that we just had, was playoffs for my co-ed ball team. It was epic! My team beat a lower level team on Friday, without me as I was breaking in the newly restored from fire cowboy bar Outlaws, very important business.

In any case, we had to play the Irish a formidable team we had been neck and neck with all season. In case you are wondering they are also damn good drinkers, and bring their own motor home to games just to keep the beer cold. I kid you not!

Well collectively, as a team... we shat the bed and lost to the Irish. Thus sealing our fate to take the long way back to the playoff round. This also got Randy two decent belly slaps, he'd bet one the night before over a bottle of tequila but earned the second one when he flinched. We played and won 3 more games on Sat. including a 5 inning hum-dinger against a team (the Outlaws) that had been drunk when we played the Irish at noon... (coincidence? I think not) whose pitcher managed to get tossed from the game for um harassing the umpire. This being his first game back from a three game suspension. They were already playing with an auto-out and the ump wouldn't allow a second substitution. They were a little upset. Understandably.

The last game we played on Sat was ridiculous, we won by 3 runs... everyone was so played out that we were playing at 1/4 ass, which proved to be just enough. We managed to keep the boys from our team from kicking the assholedness out of a new player who "didn't know any better" than to attempt a shoulder drop or a lifted elbow rather than a slide when attempting to get to a base. It was a little tense as he only tried it on the girls. The consensus was learn how to slide, or go play 'F' ball whatever that is... I'm guessing mens ball where you can do dirty shit like that, but chances are you'll get it back too. Besides we all have day jobs, this isn't pro ball. We all dragged our ibuprofen, sore feet and shoulders home for much eating and sleeping.

This ball marathon on Sat. put us in the dubious playoff position vs. the Irish where we had to beat them twice. Yes that's right, the team we were neck and neck with... as in we win one they win one... we had to beat twice in a row. There was some drinking, and some praying to the baseball gods.

I'll cut to the chase, two tight games, of phenomenal ball were played. Good times were had by all, there were no major injuries, and we were all still friends afterwards... but somehow we beat the Irish. Twice. Yep I'm still pointing that out, I don't think you realize how HUGE that is! Twicceeee. Listen to the sound that makes, just at the 'ice' part... ohhhh yeah!

Waiting for the league to order in our guaranteed to fit winnings... guaranteed to fit and someone only ordered/sent large and extra large?!?! I'd just like to point out that ummm 95% of the women who play ball are in fairly decent shape by todays standards, and in any case still aren't a mens large or extra large. Sheesh.

Soundtrack of my life...

Merry Go Round - Terri Clark... the delicate balance of juggling eggs in the air, giving the proper amount of attention simultaneously to each one in order to keep them all air born, unfortunately it turns into a big bucket of yuck if you lose track of one. single. egg.

Particularly:

Ride like the wind
smile like a child
land with both feet on the ground
the trick is to know when to let go...
of the merry go round.

Seriously?

Actual Windows Event Manager Error Description:
The master browser has received a server announcement from the computer STUPIDSERVER that believes that it is the master browser for the domain on transport BunchOfGarbageAndNumbers. The master browser is stopping or an election is being forced.

I particularly enjoy the bit about an election being forced, it sure makes it sound like the servers are electing themselves. What next? We'll probably be voted off the island as a danger to ourselves. Yep pretty sure that isn't too far off.

Back to my crazy ball game last night...

So I got a decent hit out between right field and right center... go burning round first, and on my way to second I'm getting the "Go third, no wait! Stay at two, go three..." obviously a little confusion Wink So keeping an eye on the ball I round two, they overthrow but either the short stop or the third baseman came up with it, as I'm stopping (there isn't enough time to get to three)

I caught my right toe, and managed the most ungraceful bail/faceplant evar! Now I'm a little concerned because now they're definitely gonna throw it back to two... I look and second is too far away to do the crawling scramble and touch the bag, I haul myself up and launch myself head first in the general direction of the bag, somehow the ball didn't get there before me, in fact the second baseman doesn't have the ball... looking around I realize that the ball is out in right field!

Scrambling up again, I start haulin' the mail to third... I can see my base coach giving the slide signal, third is getting ready for the throw, and the pitcher from the other team is right beside me yellin' "SLIDE!" I go for the Superman slide, wind up on third base, safe. and rest my chin on the bag.

They're only little but I managed to scrape my right knee, left and right elbows and I have a little bit of road rash on my belly of all places lol, that and I had to strip down outside last night as I had so much dirt in my sliding shorts! But seriously sooo much fun!

You will know where I stand

I believe that the ideas in a TV show can change the world if we let them.

I believe that something you have to work for, is that much more satisfying when you actually accomplish it.

I believe we can live together, if everyone would just stop and listen to each other for once.

I believe in the wonder of every day life.

I believe you should pass on kindness, you never know when someone else is running a little low.

I believe we should be gentle with Mother Earth.

I believe that just because someone will pay you for something, does not give you the right to sell it.

I believe there are many things our ancestors have tried to teach us, that we haven't learned yet.

I believe in the magic of storytelling.

I believe that all things are in balance, just because we haven't figured out the scale doesn't cause it to cease to exist.

Star light, star bright...

I wish you love. Love to give, love to receive and love to heal all that has come before.

Philosophication

Today I discovered Project Gutenberg. Okay it was yesterday, but today I realized how incredible it is. *nerd alert* In one seemingly small line of code on the command prompt I invoked a recursive download. I feel like I'm downloading the Internet, and that if I'm not careful my laptop will spontaneously break the laws of physics and melt into a black hole consuming the Universe in its wake!

Although I've been feverishly checking the space constraints on my laptop I've downloaded thousands upon thousands of titles in little over 2GB... with 42GB still left to go, I should be okay. I am a little nervous though as the last posted space estimate for downloading the entire project puts it at 15GB in 2004.

It should be okay, I'll just keep an eye on it. Right? Right?!!? *chews fingers down to first knuckle*

I've been randomly flipping through folders of items that have already been downloaded and I'm excited at the prospect of being able to do it when I will have a chance to read the contents. Its like the first tentative tastes of a meal the cook has not yet declared fit for consumption, that makes your mouth water and your stomach demand more.

This project only has books that are in the public domain, so basically all the classics, Jules Vern, Mark Twain, Shakespear... endless biographies of philosophers long dead. And yet these literary works that I was not spoon fed the puree in school, or forced to dissect into the smallest most basic building block excite me. They hold wonders unread, thoughts I've yet to think, and new perspectives on old ideas that directly relate to problems we still face today. They say that history repeats itself, but how can it not... we take leaps of faith in a direction already tried and expect something different to happen.

Maybe just maybe by standing on the literary works of giants, I can expand upon those thoughts and think something that nobody has ever thought before. Wish me luck, its apt to be a long journey.

A quarter for your thoughts

It doesn't matter how long it's been, some people can call you up out of the blue... and just have no idea that they've made your entire day ;)

Granny's are beautiful

I'd just like to start this post with "I have the coolest Granny ever." Full stop. My Granny is 96 years old this year, and we managed to make it up for my middle brothers convocation and a visit the weekend after her birthday.

Yeah she's getting old, and as far as she's concerned nothing works the way it used to, but she's still all there. She's reached the point where she's a little more puffy, especially when she gets excited to see you. She can't quite hear as well as she used to... definitely noticeable when one hearing aid is broken. And she's hit that timeless age, where she looks like Granny. But she still has a twinkle in her blue eyes, that goes with the knowledge that not everything you tell her is exactly how it is *s*.

She concluded our visit with at least a hug and a couple kisses from everyone, as she can never have too many so she "saves them for later" *melting stone heart*. But she caught me for an extra hug on the way out (twist my rubber arm) and said "You'll always be my little west coast girl".

Don't worry Granny, I always will ;)

Grrr

Arguing about the asinine details of doing something that will have no positive results, when no matter what you say will not be taken into account, and you will probably end up doing it anyway. Arguments like that usually end in "Fine".

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

"Fine" when used by a woman rarely means what you think it means, it definitely does not mean "You win" and is in fact roughly translated to "Do whatever you want, but the decision and outcome are now your responsibility." often this means "I told you so" will be heard in the not too distant future.

This is what he said...

User: "How's it going?" he asked, his visage filled with shame.

User: "If I didn't know better, I'd say that you took down the wiki!" she replied full of rage.

User: Yeah. That's about all my creativity right there.

User: I tried to attach a pdf and use the {viewpdf} macro and the whole wiki seems kaput now.

User: *small* please help */small*

Mighty tech goddess (me): Ah but the mighty tech goddess had forseen the crash of the wiki and thusly had created it in the image of the phoenix, that it might restore itself upon its death, invoking ancient service properties, rising from its ashes and again give access to the collective wisdom of the people, cradling that wisdom that they might be smarter than the sum of their brains and go forth and conquer the wild elements of nature, so that man might live in a controlled environment and be happy.

Working on the boat, I'm sure there's a better way

So in a recent whirlwind trip to the Island I was helping my Dad work on some things on his new boat. And like an ex-mistress, we don't talk about 'The Other Boat' anymore.

In the few days I was there, we got a tonne of stuff done it was pretty cool! We ran wiring for the radio. Stowed spare parts in the bottom of the coffin berth, which is literally a bed area you slide into, going into it the other way to access the locker though is a little claustrophobic. The locker in the bowels of that berth is the length of my arm and then some. Hypothetically we only put parts you shouldn't need very often in there, but I would place money that they will be needed when Marimba is doing the jig.

We, or I should say I drilled holes through the hull for D-rings to secure the dinghy, and the bolts to bolt down the emergency life raft. I am unsure whether that was because I can see the end of the drill bit or just because Dad had been putting off being the one to make holes in the hull... I'm leaning toward the latter, I'm sure it will be my fault if those ever leak...

We drilled holes and ran the cable for the Radar... twice. Okay we only drilled once, but true to form we ran the cable, Dad went to plug it in and went crap... I need the other end! He graciously offered to crawl in under the nav station, but I honestly don't think his hand would fit behind the water thing that the hole is tucked in behind...

Half way through the rest of the directions, it started raining... not really hard but big monster drops of rain. So we moved the Radar top into the covered companionway, however the only position that would work for me to support the unwieldy thing had my butt crack directly under the drip line of the dodger.

"Awesomesauce" and I say that as sarcastically as possible.

All it all it wasn't too bad, we got it all together whilst only getting moderately wet by 'Wet Coast' standards. I'm pretty sure by drier country standards we were drowned though. We attempted to mount the Radar only to discover that despite its streamlined shape it made a great sail, and by the Gods that was right when the wind picked up. In any case it was time we took a break for lunch and we managed to convince my little brother to come help with mounting the Radar.

Previous to taking on a third person to help with the mounting we came up with numerous brilliant two person ideas involving everything from using a topping lift attached to a winch, to using one of the yard-arms, to lashing me to the top of the arch... looking back it was so much easier just having that third person!

After congratulating ourselves on not dropping anything in the chuck, and retrieving the bold I managed to juggle drop through the crack in the dock onto the floaty bit underneath... We tackled the bilge pump *ominous music cue*. We had the pieces of tubing, we measured the pieces, hacked them to size and then convinced them that they really wanted to fit onto the necessary elbow joints... okay they almost convinced us they didn't want to fit but then we brought in the boiling water torture and they conceded.

Now picture this, there isn't a lot of room on a boat, especially under the cock-pit where the engine is... so there's my Dad, a middle aged guy who's managed to stuff himself into the starboard space alongside the engine, my little brother who has climbed into the relatively spacious port locker alongside the engine and myself in the companionway having removed the galley ladder. Basically we make up a triangle around the engine and are attempting to stuff said rubber tubing with two, count them one. two. right angled elbows through a space that made those elbows claustrophobic.

As you might imagine those elbows, well maybe they were a little miffed at being forced to permanently hang out with the rubber tubing, or maybe they just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but in any case they fought tooth and nail not to fit where we wanted them to go. We ended up with Dad stuffing, my little brother using a hammer and chunk of wood to 'coax' the elbow through and myself with the handle of a scrub brush attempting to direct the wayward end away from anything it could take purchase on to prevent further movement. As soon as it was within reach I had to pull... slowly, one hammer thwack at a time my end lined up and over the pump we were attaching it to, and that ladies and gentlemen is probably the hard way of getting the tubing on the bilge pump!

Best wishes when a babe is born

Hope you quickly learn the harmony for the new rhythm in your life ;) ~S

A good day to play ball...

So despite a zombie level of 12 on the 10 point scale, and weather conditions that had not improved since yesterday... ie: sprinkles interspersed with showers... and even after my coffee and tomato breakfast sandwich with bacon on it I was still not prepared to play ball, let alone enjoy myself. Muscles protested repeated use, ibuprofen better known as I-be-brokens and Gatorade were not kicking in nearly fast enough for my liking. Despite layers that would have made an Eskimo jealous...

Despite all of that, getting out on the ball field, the wind on my face, the crack of the bat, the thrill of the chase... tracking the ball, diving, and coming up with that same ball quickly turned my day around.

Playing a team I used to play on, I forgot we were using the smaller ball for girls (meaning they can hit it significantly further than the rest of the season when we all play with the big balls) ran in thinking the ball was going to stall, realized it sure wasn't and made a jump worthy of sponsorship by Air Jordan shoes and somehow snagged the ball! This was followed shortly by a short pop fly, still pumped from my previous catch... running stride for stride with the guy playing right center, realizing he wasn't going to catch it in the air and busting out the reckless abandon and going for it. In that moment there was no other fielder, for that split second there was only the ball and my glove. The seconds that slowed down came crashing back into reality in a fraction of the time, mashed into a dive roll only to come up with the ball facing the outfield fence. I know that my team members on the bench heard how excited I was, I'm fairly confident that everyone else on the diamonds that afternoon heard it too... even if they had no idea what all the shouting was about.

Same team, one of the fastest guys on the team, a guy I would proudly play field with any day decided to play me short. A taunt of sorts. Now usually that gets into my head, and the only thing I want to do is crush the ball... and for no conceivable reason today was not one of those days where that happened. I crushed the ball! I'm told it wasn't far off the warning track. *smug grin* Stick that in your pipe and smoke it! That's right, you just got burned by a girl... in fact you got uuber burned, like a BBQ I can still smell yah!

Another team we played I ended up in the position of not running into a great situation at 2nd base. It did not look good at all! I slid, got hung up on the short stops feet somehow and was *maybe* a toe width away from second. Miraculously he dropped the ball, and I had mere seconds to stretch every muscle in my body around him and wherever I was hung up on to get to that bag... I'm still not sure how I did it, but man did it feel good!

Although the weather only marginally cooperated, and everything was wet, the beer was certainly cold. At the end of the day sometimes all you can say is "It was a good day to play ball"

Things that make my day

When a complete stranger smiles back, and "Thank you sir" when I held the door open at Timmy's ;)

More than a little busy...

So I've been absent the semi-weekly update of laughter and good times here, and it isn't for lack of them in my life that I would share with you... but simply too much going on at the same time. I realize this is a common thread in my life, and it falls under the ridiculous first world dilemma category, but still it is a mess of my own making nonetheless...

I'm in the middle of working a full time job and attempting to pass a Level 2 OFA First Aid course with flying colours. Only because if you pass with flying colours you get a free t-shirt. Damn that University instinct. I'm not sure if I'll ever get rid of that, I mean seriously. I will eat cold pizza at 7am in the morning, even if I'm full... just because it's free. Wish me luck, I'm gonna need it... maybe wish my hypothetical patients luck, they might need it more ;o)

Wanna go ride bikes?

I was thinking however of a story I once read, where Ancient Gods continued to exist as long as someone, somewhere, still believed in their existence. Y'know there's some little part of me that knows the show Xena is over, and even though it lives on in our hearts and memories... still wants to see Xena and Gab together because I'm afraid I'll forget, or afraid it was just like a dream that I will wake up and it never happened, or that if I forget, all the things that were real about that show will cease to exist.

Casual hallway conversation

On comparing a file system merge to mating a hippo with a rhino...

We may both be big,
We may both be from Africa.
But we aren't even in the same genus.
And I ain't goin' anywhere near his *oop*

The way of the warrior

It really got me thinking when Gabrielle first started following the way of love with Eli, and even though she was taking a different path, she still felt that she was supposed to be with Xena... as all rivers run to the sea, and I just thought it was so cool that although Gabrielle had essentially rejected Xena's way of living so to speak, Xena made the commitment that she would fight for Gabrielle. It was the line "Lucky you don't need to" - basically you've got me, I'll always be here for you.

Then the roles were reversed, when Xena went in to rescue them from Caesars soldiers... and was all Gabrielle needs me to be the best warrior I can be. After they were captured, and talking in their cell, and Xena is apologizing for making Gabrielle turn from her way, she says "Xena, I had a choice, I could choose love, or I could watch my best friend die, I chose friendship" She says it with such certainty and such a calm aura around her, its as if it was the only thing in the world that mattered.

Finally when I recently watched the episode Chakram, when Xena doesn't remember anything of her former self, or that she is a living legend of a warrior... and Gabrielle gets her sais, and says to Eli that she'll do whatever it takes to protect Xena. They've come full circle, and yet they never left, their love for one another is constant throughout.

I guess love really is the strongest word, stronger even than courage.

The transition between winter and summer

I had a great ball game last night, the rest of the team didn't but that's to be expected. It's a new team and despite our great first game of the season everyone is still getting a feel for everyone else and figuring out where to play together. Wow that last sentence sounds a lot like a team grope, I assure you it isn't - we save those for injuries ;)

I batted 1000, got home a couple times and Mr. Thatisnotmyshoe and I showed off a little in field in that we've been playing together long enough that I can call the ball in mid air, tuck my elbows in while he's thinking skinny and somehow manage not to run into each other. Oh right, and catch the ball of course!

It's that time again when the smell of fresh cut grass and the warm breeze caressing your skin just after sundown makes it a magical time of year. That moment in time between sundown and actual darkness stretched out on my drive home, lighting everything seemingly from within and lingered. It was beautiful, and all the more so following the crisp arctic front.

It's not a dumb question

I just find your lack of faith, that I am aware what is going on in my server discouraging.

Balance

I am the friend you can act goofy with
I am your person you can phone at 3am
I'll say I wasn't sleeping, even if I was
I already know you called because its important
because you needed someone to talk to
even if you haven't admitted it to yourself
it doesn't matter what you need help with
I will be the balance to all that have grown up
and I will be the best friend I can be
when that is what you need most in all the world.

Ye old(er) English

There's something to said about the way people used to speak and convey ideas, a romanticism that has been lost in the slang, and bad grammar...

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Silence

Silence can be broken, duct tape lasts forever...

Apologies

I am fully aware that I have my cranky pants on today. But by involving me in idiotic discussions, you are delaying the removal of the cranky pants.

“Treat everyone the same until you find out they're an idiot.” ~Lucy Lawless

Nose blowing advice...

From a good friend of mine, and I quote...

Blow it like a man! ~S

A Keeper

Someone who keeps your memories, and your secrets.

Your person.

Boo-yah!

Another tax deadline approaches

All Income claimed
Even when it meant filing as a small business
All RRSP and Mutual funds entered appropriately
All tax forms filed and submitted on time
Another year successfully survived,
with a little help from Mom.

And thanks to the persons responsible for this ordeal,
all chicken cannons loaded and ready to fire.

Shot:

Shredded paper - the initial attempts to file taxes using the manual method, before giving up and using a program to file them online
Keyboard keys - from all the keyboards broken while attempting to fill out taxes online
Human hair - pulled out during intense periods of frustration
Blood, sweat and tears - saved up from working so hard to generate income, only to have to pay for it twice
Fake KD - what we'll be eating
Ketchup - only thing we can afford to go with the fake KD

B to the fricken 'er

The temperature of my trailer is registering at fricken freezing! I'm so programming in my foul weather gear right now ;o)

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing" ~Norse Proverb

Exploring

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

~T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

On biking to work

It's not the getting here that's the hard part, it's the ride home.

Rock your socks off

Change the things that matter to you now, cause you never know when you won't be able to do anything anymore. I'm thankful for every day that I put socks on in the morning. ~Doofus

Too much

You're doing too much, when you have to tell yourself that you're not going to work tomorrow so that you have time to catch up on everything you need to do in order to fall asleep... only to wake up and go to work anyways.

Self, please slow down... or catch up

Faith

Is believing that what you do is making a difference in this world, sometimes you have no idea whether it is working or not, but you know that it has to be better than doing nothing.

I'm drowning in the sunshine...

The sun is streaming in my window at work and falling on the desk where I'm writing *smiles*

Moments

It takes the smallest of gestures, the briefest of moments to make someones day... the secret is that you may never know which moment.

Within

This way I spend my day
is not where I want to be
The time spent here feels wasted
not forward towards my destiny

There are so many options in this world
New things to see and do
So many opportunities to learn
things that are brand new

I want to do! Try everything
Leave nothing left undone
In this world of day to day
Who is it that has won?

We all have choices that we make
every single day
The one thing we control for sure
our reactions along the way

So if you don't like where you are
or who you've come to be
Pause and keep that worth keeping
redesign yourself its free

We can reinvent ourselves
every second of every day
The only thing preventing us
are the excuses that we make

Experience changes our perception
the way we look at life
But we still choose how we react
to suffering pain and strife

Stop and listen to your spirit
Only you can set it free
When I look within myself
The only one there is me

When you find your soulmate
you'll know it when its true
When you look within yourself
your spirit will now hold two

Get outta my way

Everything is impossible, until someone does it for the first time. ~S

Dear Cosmos,

Whoever is sucking the energy out of me... can you please ask them to reduce the volume of suck to a manageable level? I promise I'll last much longer as a renewable energy source. Thanks.

Why driving and talking on your cell phone is illegal...

It bloody well should be, I just bought whole goats milk instead of skim normal moo-juice because I was trying to grocery shop and talk to my Mom.

So thanks Mom for confirming that it was a good price to buy tomatoes... next time I'll ask about milk too...

*le sigh* I guess it doesn't taste that bad though, being raised on powdered milk and all...