My solar panels need recharging, where are my shorts?!?

I just caught myself driving with the window rolled down because it's the first sunny day we've had in months... okay slight exaggeration, but that's certainly what it *feels* like.

I only noticed because my hands were getting a little chilly... It's 2°Cout, but it feels so amazingly wonderful! (46°F)

And the winner of the cutest Granny evarrrrrrr!!

See! Look how cute she is *beaming*

My  Granny is amazing. She is 98 and a half and broke her hip just a couple of weeks ago, tripping over a pillow while making her bed. Hey Mom I found a good reason not to make my bed! She's up and walking on it already, seemingly faster than she was before she broke it, which is a great sign!

"All they do is come in and stick me with needles" she said. but she passed it off with a *tough cowboy sniff* "It doesn't bother me any though."

Less than a week into rehab she's done with the place and ready to go home. Patience is not one of her virtues, and I'm pretty sure that's why it isn't one of mine either. She basically summed up the rehab exercises with... "They're so simple, all you have to do is move your leg back and forth. I can do all that." and I'm not exactly sure who Granny was referring to, but it made me laugh out loud when she muttered "There are so many dumb people"


During our she told us so many stories some we had heard, and some we were just hearing for the first time. It is absolutely incredible the things that she has experienced in her time here...

Stories of the first radio, Granny highland dancing to a program and her brother coming home and turning it off. Their first company phone in their home... their phone number was 771-J, and her best friend Muriel was 771-W. It was so cute when I asked how they put the letters in, she looked really confused for a second, until I remembered that things used to go through a central switchboard operator and her puzzled look just melted away into a solid confident yep, that's how we used to do it.

Granny has always told me to make good memories in my life, and to save them up for when I get old. But nothing drove that sentiment home as when she said "I see a lot of faces here that don't look like they have good memories.... I have a lifetime of good memories" It always makes me smile to hear her say that ;)

The thing that touched me the most though, talking about all the things she remembered, was when she said "Your Mom and Dad getting married..." and gazing internally into her memories, as her voice trailed off she whispered "I remember all of that"

Baked apple win

Ahhhh the not so magic step is that you gotta bake the apples while *covered* with tinfoil!

Love...

Love is a hand made cup of coffee ;)

Thanks Dan for you creative coffee making skills, in the absence of a coffee maker.

<3 you!

What are you going to do with all of your picks?

Make them into rearrangeable useable art!

Just Pick something and Punch it!

Such a cool idea and a great way to stop using your credit card after Christmas too!

It has totally changed the way Ilook at all my cards now too.... for their potential guitar pick designs :p

Thanks Shazam!!! I love it :)

I'll rise, but I refuse to shine...

Nothing like starting your morning running around the building to do a minor network configuration change... it's kinda like a poke in the eye with a stick to get'cha going ;)

Give options a and b I'll take option c, the frozen boot please.

The Grinch's small heart grew three sizes that day!

Such a cool re-use for old burnt out light bulbs! I absolutely love how these turned out :)

How did you get so good at that?!?

Some people are just 'born-naturals'... they make something look relatively easy and graceful the first time they do it...

The rest of us were just too stubborn to quit.

We kept picking (haha pun intended ;) away at it slowly but surely... here and there learning little things that worked for us.

I fall into the second category for attempting to learn how to play guitar. I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to practicing, nor do I know exactly what it is I need to practice. But it feels like every few months or so I have an "Ah-HA!" moment where something clicks, and my playing becomes a little bit smoother, or a little clearer... or ACTUALLY STARTS TO SOUND LIKE THE SONG I'M TRYING TO LEARN!!!

*grins* that's all for now ;)

If only he had legs...

He could run away from those darn crackers!

Mmmmm cheeseball, this is a creative festive take on an old secret family recipe (not my family, but one that adopted me) :)

I spy with my leeetle eye...

The silhouette of... I think it's an owl!

I was out walking with a friend of mine near dusk, when I spotted this little guy camped out and presumably waiting for dinner to run by.

It was soooo cool!!! We just stood there checking him out and he didn't go anywhere. I think he was probably so cute, because he was just a little bit bigger than the length of my hand... you know, that whole eyeball to head ratio.

Anyways we looked him up in the bird book, and I think he's a Boreal Owl :) Anybody have any other ideas?

What inside a snow globe might be like

I just about needed a jackhammer to get into my car this morning. It actually took some serious effort to get my windows scraped off, only to find that I had frost on the inside as well...

Oh goody...

Note to self: Turn off the air when scraping on the inside, or it will snow all over you.

The laws of light have been bent a little...

I was flipping through some pictures I took and haven't sorted through yet (yes including the roadtrip ones) and I found this one that I took at the beginning of October... I have no idea what caused the sky to look like this, but I thought it was pretty awesome!

Pass on the torch

I want to tell you about the coolest thing that just happened. For the second time in recent memory I talked to someone who said they had been inspired by my spontaneity.  How cool is that?!?

"You were actually my inspiration for this trip - we got a tip about a smokin' deal from a friend who invited us to come and  we just went for it. I thought about you and your St Louis trip, and thought Carpe Diem!"

I *thumbs chest* inspired two different individuals to let go... and do something just because they *wanted* to. When was the last time you did something totally crazy? Not because it needed to be done, or because you should do it... but just did it because it makes you happy?

*smiles*

It reminded me of a quote that I read the other day, by Marianne Williamson, although often misquoted as Nelson Mandella

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I am still in awe, that the effect of choices and decisions in my life have rippled so far and impacted others.

I want to burn so hot and so bright that I light everyone around me on fire, and they find their consuming passion and burn burn burn all the way through their lives.

The Roadtrip - July 17th - Leg III - Part A

 Random Stop

The Fit... posing with Faith

Apparently this (point of interest?) was dedicated to some train that went off the tracks, and dropped a passenger car 80' into a huge snowbank... don't worry though, nobody died. I guess it was *the* incident that prompted them to find a better way through the pass though.

So we followed the little trail that went between the signs thinking it maybe went to somewhere you could see the tracks or the steep grade of the tracks... but instead just kind of ended, and that's where Faith got her first bug bite.

... and then we got distracted...

Ooooh look at this big rock!

...and found this trail that went to this cool little creek that ended up being perfect for dipping our hot little piggy toes in!

It could've been worse...

Recently Awhile ago, a friend said to me after we returned from the lake without any fishies... "You guys must be the worst fishermen in Canada"... Well this is the tale about how we caught something... and still came home empty handed! ;)

My buddy had been bragging about all the fishies they'd caught on Swan the day before, and that they were just *nailing* them with the purple docks... a half an hour later I was skeptical, and had no sooner finished voicing my skepticism when *BAM* he gets a fish!

I kid you not, it happens like this all the time with us.

He reels it in, and it's probably a 2 lb'er... not huge by any standard, but still a fish.  He looked at it, then offered it to me for dinner, finally he gets it off the hook and leaving it in the net I put it back in the water to rinse off all the slimy bits.  The poor fish lies in the water upside down, noooot lookin' so good.

So I get him back in the boat, and I'm trying to find something to bean him with... when Eddie picks him up and says "Man I hate doing this..." and goes to smack him on the side of the boat...

Time slowed down, and I watched... powerless to change the course of my dinner as it slides out of his hands, taps the side of the boat... and *sploosh* the fish that 10 seconds before looked dead, does a quick *flip* *flip* with his entire body and tail... and is gone.


We looked at each other for a shocked second of silence and then *roared* laughing! I mean really, what else are you gonna do?!?

Just think though, somewhere tonight there's a fishy swimming around with a headache and no recollection of what happened, wondering what kind of bender he was on ;)

But really, I can't complain too much... you know what they say about a bad day fishing? Well, even if you don't... just look at this sunset...

The eincy weincy spider... that interupted my motivation

So I was cleaning out my closet the other day, because I had been thinking for awhile that there were things I hadn't used in it in probably over a year... and truth be told, I haven't seen my portable bike tire pump in awhile *sheepish look*

Stuff was coming out of that little closet at an amazing rate... and promptly expanding to fill my living room.  I was doing great! I got all the way to the very bottom of the closet, pulled out the last thing on the floor, when out struts Mr. Shinybutt looking like he's out for a Sunday stroll, dressed in his weekend best...

I jumped up, and ran and grabbed my blue plastic spider catching cup... and *plop* just like that, limited his strolling area.

Then I began to wonder what kind of spider he was... was he a black widow? I mean he was pretty shiny with a super big butt...  I dashed into the kitchen and took down the oldest of creepy-crawly catcher and observation chambers...

The Mason jar.

I lifted up the cup, to find that Mr. Shinybutt had gone from Sunday stroll to angry monster-truck rally smash-to-pass... and he was coming for me!!! EEEeeep!!! I *clunked* the Mason jar down, and took a breath while he did a great Nascar impression around the inside rim of the jar...

Then I carefully slid a piece of thick paper underneath and flipped both it and the jar over... Now *usually* when you do this particular maneuver, the spider falls to the bottom of the jar... but nooooo not Mr. Shinybutt *he* continued to do his breakneck speed loser laps upside-down!!!

Now I knew that he couldn't bite through the paper, but just thinking about that gave me the heebie-jeebies... I mean, all that was between my finger and his fangs was a single. piece. of. paper.

I fixed that little problem though...

I then spent the rest of the evening lying on the floor with a flashlight, tapping the paper and the jar trying to see the underside of Mr. Shinybutt to no avail...

Needless to say, that was the end of me accomplishing anything productive for the rest of the evening :p

Slowly. Going. Crazy. Am. I.

I recently had an unfortunate encounter with a website, actually it was with the phone system... but it started with the website. As far as I'm concerned, this should be valid grounds for taking the person responsible out back and beating them to death with a wet noodle, or possibly a dry sock... the sock would take longer.

1) First I read through most of the website
2) Enough of it to get thoroughly confused and admit that I was lost
3) I then admitted defeat, and located the contact phone number... being careful to select the "General Information" line rather than the "Emergency" I also wrote down the office hours.
4) I then woke up early to call during said office hours... Painstakingly listening carefully and following the prompts that best suited my particular situation... only to end up with an automated message that said "for more information, please go to http://..."

I understand where the rage of a thousand suns is born

My first question, is why bother listing a phone number... and secondly why the #$%^! did you bother posting office hours if the entire @$&*% thing is automated?!?!?!

Seriously.

A good day to ride

It was hard to believe it was the first day of December, and that I was up and ready to go relatively early... the weather was perfect, it felt like an early spring day.  Cool, but no frost... with the sun shining through gently warming everything.

I could feel the stiffness of unused muscles shaking the dust off, the wind on my face... and that feeling of being completely and absolutely free. I put on a burst of speed with reckless abandon, tearing down the street like a kid seeing how fast they can go down the hill without even considering how tired they're going to be after... or how they're going to stop.

It felt amazing.

With my wisdom of the ages I avoided the loose gravel, and started to slow down long before I hit stop signs and sharp corners... but I *did* hit every puddle I found *grins*

Absolutely nothing of note, or story-worthy happened... it was just a good day to ride :)

The moment when you realize... it might be too secure

Who's awesome?!?! Oh that's right...

I am!!!

Guess who found an *old* copy of the full Oracle 10g client install files, which are no longer available on the Oracle site... for love nor money?

Yep, that's right *buffs fingernails* I did!

Man I love the internets... and Google, and I thank whatever Gods may be for long-forgotten ftp folders with the files I need sitting in them, just waiting for someone to find them *grins*

If you're nerdy, then on the Internet you're not 404

We are doing a huge server upgrade this weekend which will affect access to our Secure Customer Portal. We dutifully informed our Customer Service team it would be offline, and in order to inform their customers they issued a memo to all of the Reps. By some strange coincidence it was Rep Memo #404.

Everyone in IT got the joke, but the humor of it all was lost on them completely...

Playing within the laws of physics

Isn't it interesting that the self-brewing cup of coffee that I couldn't get a single drop more out of this morning due to air lock, managed to leak all over the inside of my purse this afternoon?

I thought so too...

I'm a very lucky girl :)

No hurricane warning, no earthquakes, no tsunamis and last I checked chance of tornado... is slim to none.

*deep breath*

Kind of makes everything else in my life pale in comparison...

Boys and girls...

So it occurred to me recently, that one of the differences between lunch out with "the guys" and lunch out with my girlfriends... is that when something like *this* won-ton malfunction happens:

Girlfriends will hand you their own napkin provided it's still relatively clean, and/or any other napkin within reach... while another one waves down the waitress and has her bring a cloth...

Guys? Well if you're lucky, they wont point and laugh... and you might get a helpful between-mouthful "there's a stack of napkins over there" *nod-point*

I guess that's one way to tell you fit in ;)

Should've used the chop sticks...

There's a reason you shouldn't try to cut won-tons in half with a spoon, and now I know what it is...

But my cover story, *pauses listening* is that I have an inner ear infection and its messing with my balance and my aim ;)

Wait what?!?

Another spin around the sun...

I had the best birthday evaaaar!!! yesterday. So many people sent me birthday wishes, I feel so loved :)

and I walked in the door to no Internet, except there was internet on the bypass machine... so that meant the Internet coming into the building was okay :p

But for reals, I love problem solving even when it's a system I don't fully know... because it means you have to trust your instincts. You have to extrapolate the basics that you *do* know.

... you have to think.

I would just like to say, that I have the most wonderful friends in the entire world. I can't even begin to tell you how happy it made me to receive flowers at work on my birthday *grins* ... and yes some of it is that it had the rumor mill working overtime ;)

The best part though, is that I'm still grinning from ear to ear this morning... and I am so not a morning person ;)

Falling into winter

Love the reds and other brilliant colours of fall, because it's like the spectacular grand finale before settling in for a long quiet hibernation slumber...

Sabotaged!

So much for eating healthier, someone just dropped these off because "they're too salty" but sooooooo good :p

Looks pretty good...

As long as you don't ask how close we're shooting from ;)

Okay so the big holes are the Marlin 30-30 and the little holes are the .22

So much for having a University degree

Maybe it's because I've never worked in a grocery store... or any kind of retail for that matter... or maybe it's because I ignore as much as I can when I'm shopping in big box stores...

I find the amount of advertising overwhelms my senses making me numb to everything, and that the most painless way to get through it all has been to narrow the amount of sensory input I process down to colours, aisle signs and my shopping list.

To the outside world I probably look like a zombie, it helps me blend in ;)

But today in self checkout I must have looked like an intelligent zombie because the guy overseeing checkouts taught me that I can just enter the number on the sticker rather than look up vegetable (even though it's technically a fruit) ... not organic, sure maybe mixed vegetables... um I think it looks most like *this* tomato!

So *that's* what that sticker's for! Huh who knew? This definitely falls into the category of stuff they just don't teach anywhere ;)

Jarvis, engage autopilot

Aaaaand this is why you shouldn't text while flying, there was a zig to this zag behind us but I couldn't fit it all in the picture :p

I'll never make it as an old person...

I usually sleep through the night, or I sleepwalk to the washroom... I'm not really sure which, but in any case last night I woke up at least three times. Waking up in the middle of the night, soooo doesn't work for me getting a good [night's|nights]? sleep...

*plonk*

My brain struggles reconcile the sound of something falling into the middle of a pond, with the fact that it knows I'm waking up in my two bedroom basement suite.

The final tug into the waking world comes from the semi-coherent thought that only thing that could possibly make any sense at all, is that I may knocked over my water bottle...

Groggily I roll over and realize it was my phone that I knocked off the bed... *squints* That means my alarm went off at least once (because I don't actually sleep with my phone)...

I scoop it up and poke it into wakefulness, peering at it with one eye still squeezed shut, making no attempt to hide the protest against the glow bathing my face.

Simultaneously an alarm goes off in my head as a medical dosage of adrenalin is shot into my bloodstream while the numbers 7:26 burn themselves into my grey matter.

At the very latest I should have left for work one minute ago...

*curses*

I'm not particularly proud to say that I did the fireman this morning... except that not only did I get up, dressed and out the door in five minutes, I also remembered to put on deodorant.

You're welcome.

SssssssUPER SAM!!!

Shhhh it's supposed to be a secret, but I think I just did something amazing and I'm pretty sure it's because I'm wearing a lucky shirt ;)

Winter is coming...

Nothing wakes you up from the lazy slumber of summer quite like a frosty poke in the eye.

Apparently the first of October was the proverbial changing of the guards, and it's winter now.

Talk nerdy to me

My new hand mic and car charger *Arrrrr*ived, I've used both now, and I love them, they are everything I ever dreamed ;)

The little things

I could see a BC Parks Ranger checking out my canoe as I was leaving the store, she was just hopping into her truck as I climbed into my car... I looked over and she gave me the biggest smile with a thumbs up, then pointed up at the roof and a mouthed "I love it!!!"

*beaming*

That totally just made my day!! :D

Sent... While running around ;)

I'm bringin' s'thexy back...

*srjrjrjeeeeech* Wait what?!?

I jus'tht got back from the dentisst, and I'm half frothzen.

This'th totally s'thucks!!! My tongue keeps trying to crawl out of my mouth :p

Uhg this'th ith s'tho not s'thexy.

*wipes drool*

I am s'tho not impressed right now.

Just before the "Bye for now"

"You look after yourself. And always look after your feet, you only get one set."
~Granny

Hmmm maybe not so much...

I was going to go canoing and fissin' after work... buuuut this looks like the kind of day to curl up with a good book.

A thought I was thinking...

They say that there's an exception to every rule. So are you going to follow the rule, or become the exception?

;)

Sent... While running around ;)

Name 10 chocolate bars - the industrial version

I say this imparting as much sarcasm as possible into the word...

Awesome.

The low frequency pounding hum of the dirt packer outside is making my eyeballs shake... I am desperately hoping it doesn't hit a resonant frequency and make them explode.

Right now that's the only thing that could irritate me more.

The only coherent thought I have right now is how much this reminds me of the pounding thrum of the ferry... I'm ready to go home now, I can't think under these conditions... Here solve this complicated algebra equation while we drip water on your forehead!!

Aaaahhhhh!!

Sent... While running around ;)

Of course it fits on The Fit!

Even if it almost hangs off of *both* ends ;)

From darkness comes the morning

Ember in a flower!

IPE halftime performance

This lady was amazing! Turn your speakers down, the audio sucks... I was standing on the announcers speaker, but I'm not going to apologize, because I'm not really *that* sorry about it ;)

She used to be a trick rider, but still everything she's doing is without a bridle, she does have a dark coloured ropey looking thing... but it's basically no hands!

I love the brief period of time when the ...

I love the brief period of time when the darkness gracefully gives way before the coming day... All the more precious knowing that soon I will be coming and going in a darkness that is not needed to cloak my actions.

*sigh* George R. R. Martin is right... Winter is coming. 

Ninja like instincts

Because my reflexes certainly haven't kicked in yet...

Hah! My fridge peed last night, and I *almost* stepped in it, like we're talking avoided it at the last second. Like I skimmed the surface... but somehow didn't even get my sock wet.

Booyah! I can see now why super Heros don't have to drink coffee :D

Sent... While running around ;)

Dude!!!

So I thought Ed was joking when he said he'd have to put me back where the cowboys're changing... *zoning out*

..oops, pardon me while I wipe the drool off my face... but there were some very hot cowboys at the IPE this year ;)

But no, seriously I was between the buckin' chutes and the gate where they let all the cows and bulls and broncs *out* of the arena!!! I got to stand on one of the huge speakers they were announcing the show with, it was AMAZEBALLS!!!!

While I was disappointed that for how close I was I couldn't get better pictures... I got a few with a really neat effect, but please don't ask me to duplicate it just yet...

"Lets dance"

"Leathers 'n legs"

"Head down ass up"

This cowboy had a very good ride ;)

Do it because you love it

"Make me look awesome!"

"Whoa that's enough awesome!"

How many cowboys does it take to saddle up hmmmmm?

"You spin me 'round 'n 'round"

For Mom

My first twin Okanagan cherries of the season ;)

July 16th - Flashback

It has been brought to my attention that I missed a bit...

As we were leaving Multnomah Falls, we had one of our addddddd moments and went wading... Following this little creek just around the bend we found a little patch of tranquility less than a stones throw away from all the chaos and confusion.

*inhale* the gently shaded summer breeze... and let the crisp clear stream carry your worries away *exhale*