Bunch of Stuff

Great Day!

2009-05-31T21:51:00.002-04:00

I got to meet Starshine and skye today. We had brunch in downtown Toronto. True to form, I drove in and found the general area right away, but ended up passing by the actual restaurant 3 times - once because it was right on the corner with a big huge multicoloured sign, so obviously I didn't see it. The next time, I saw it too late and had to turn around. Then I missed a parking spot right on the road next to it and had to park in a lot. Good grief.

Skye is as pretty in person as her pics suggest. Starshine has a lovely soft English (of course!) accent. I wish I'd let him speak more, just to hear him talk. :-) I get excited. I talk. *embarrassed shrug*

We talked about the other place and Facebook and life in general, just like the old friends we've become.

I'll be back in the morning to add on to this, but right now it's time for bed.

Aw, Come On!

2009-05-25T13:48:00.004-04:00

DH's bike got stolen this morning. He went out for a ride, stopped at a store and when he came out, some loser had cut the chain right off. Bastard.

Edit to add: and now there is smoke wafting out of the hood of my car. It's probably the coolant again. Yippee.

Various

2009-05-24T23:55:00.004-04:00

Criminal Minds

I don't like this show anymore. There were a couple episodes I found a bit too much for me. However, DH likes the crime drama shows, so... We just finished watching an episode that seemed to be loosely based on a real-life case in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia where a pig farmer killed female prostitutes and drug addicts and disposed of their remains in the pig pen, where they were mostly consumed by the pigs. In the episode, they found 89 pairs of bloody shoes, which had belonged to the victims, who were both male and female. This reminds me of another odd case in BC where shoes with feet in them have been washing up on the coast. I found this episode disturbing. I'm not too sure why, since I watched an entire season of Dexter and loved every minute.

Canadian Politics

Feel free to skip this bit.

The Conservatives have been running attack ads on Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff for a couple weeks now. Actually, it's the same ad over and over on every damned channel. CBC had their panel discussing it the other day. The ads say that Ignatieff is "just visiting" Canada and that he has claimed England and the US as his own. As a result, we can't trust him to stick around and get the job done, whatever the job may be. Is there an election soon or something? Could the minority government that so recently had its wrist slapped not have found a better use for however much money this cost? I do think that questioning a politician's long-term intentions is legitimate, but this reeks of muck-raking. And there doesn't seem to be much muck to rake if they're stuck with quotes from 4 years ago. At that time, Paul Martin was still Liberal leader, and the PM at that. Also, Conservative attack ads are always personal. They don't talk about other agendas, they talk about people: Stéphane Dion, Gilles Duceppe and now Michael Ignatieff. In fact, I remember provincial Conservative ads slamming Dalton McGinty years ago. So the big Conservative tactic is "Their leader sucks, so vote for us," which is getting kind of old, I think.

Soccer

DS will have his first soccer practice tomorrow. DH has been impressing on me the importance of being on time. It's becoming offensive that he has so little regard for my ability to be at places on time. On Saturday, we went to meet the coach and get DS's uniform. DS and a couple of the other kids were kicking a ball around and DS took one right in the face. His nose bled all over his new uniform. :-( He wouldn't cry until we got into the car, but he was obviously hurt. It didn't scare him off, though. He says now he knows what to do if he ever sees a ball heading towards his face: he will go "like this!" And then he shows you how he'll duck and avoid, because you can't use your hands in soccer. He's so cute.

New Job

2009-05-17T23:32:00.003-04:00

I have a new job. Well, it's not so new anymore, I guess. I've been there maybe a month. I am the Volunteer Coordinator (part-time) at the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. This has largely involved sending out mass emails to people who might be interested in builds and sorting through a stack of applications. I got the job mostly for my computer skills, but it's the people skills I'm using. My interview process is apparently really easy: "You want to work here for free? You're in!" I try not to make any permanent schedule changes until I know someone wants to stay with us. I can usually count on the kids doing community service to show up, at least. For everyone's information: in Ontario, high school students have to do 40 hours community service in order to graduate. So those kids usually stay. The co-op students are reliable too. We have this one kid - I don't know what we're going to do without him when he's gone. He's just fantastic.

But I've had a couple people that I thought would be reliable just randomly not show up. Which has happened to me with breakfast at the school, too. We use proper dishes now and we make toast every day, so we need 4 people to be there in the morning. We have all our volunteers from the JK-3 holding school AND the volunteers from the 4-8 holding school to draw on. It was chaotic when we all just showed up whenever, so I wrote a schedule. Luckily, no-one seems to mind that I did that. I have no desire to be in charge of anything, but if we'd continued on as we were, we'd have been bleeding volunteers and I just can't come in every day.

Right, so the point is that one of our people has been not showing up. It bugs me because she has my phone number and just lives down the street. I'd hate to have to go all hardass on her, but hey - I gotta know if you're coming in. If not, I can find someone else. Or, actually, I've asked people to trade rather than get me to find someone. I'm not in charge.

But here's the thing - now that I've looked into some of the resources for Volunteer Coordinators that we have at work, I'm thinking I could do some stuff at the school. We need people to do all kinds of things. There are only so many regular, reliable people to work with, and now I'm not free Monday - Thursday between 9 and 1, which is inconvenient for things like class trips (I had to turn down a field trip last week) and head checks. We really need to put out a Call for Volunteers. Maybe if we had application forms at the front office... It's weird - I bet if I made people fill out forms, they'd love to come in and help, but just ask them to show up and they won't. It would all be so easy with proper organisation...

Make me stop.

A Conversation

2009-04-30T15:44:00.003-04:00

"We're going to have chicken for dinner, I think. I just chopped up that pineapple last night, so I'm going to make a salsa with this hot sauce I picked up. "

"There's no more pineapple. "

"Huh? I just chopped it up last night. "

"Yeah, and you said I could have some. So I did. "

"I didn't get any of it. It was a whole pineapple. "

*shrug* "You said I could have it. "

"I didn't expect you to eat the whole thing. "

*shrug*

Rats.

2009-03-26T16:56:00.002-04:00

DS's karate classes at the Y may be cancelled due to low enrollment. He was really looking forward to the Spring session because he was supposed to do his grading for his orange belt. *sigh* At least he'll still get his soccer in the summer, but that won't start until June. Or was it late May? I can't remember.

Rambling

2009-03-24T15:53:00.002-04:00

First off, Middle Sister emailed me to tell me that no-one thinks Youngest Sister actually tried to kill herself and that it was a plea for attention, as I thought. I saw Mom today at the open house for our new school and we didn't talk about it. DH and I will be heading out to visit Dad and YS tomorrow when the kids are in school. Dad has requested I not mention this to the kids. I won't, for now, but the time will come that I will.

The school's open house was great. I'm told that the paper will be there tomorrow for the kids' first day at the new school. Other Volunteer Mom told me so I wouldn't show up in my PJs or something and be embarrassed. She's so funny. She brought her mom to the open house too. The kids are excited. The rooms are so bright. They seem so much bigger with the desks, etc. in. It's so odd how rooms look bigger with the furniture in.

I have done not only my regular Tuesday cleaning, but also either vacuumed or swept and mopped every floor in the house. I am proud.

Dinner will be noodles and sauce and cheese (rotini with spaghetti sauce.)

I Can't Post Anything Else...

2009-03-22T13:39:00.003-04:00

...until I post about this: my youngest sister slashed her wrists on Friday night. But first, she texted her ex-boyfriend, who called 911. There is so much wrong with this, I can't even begin to express it. I spent some time being sad and shocked, but mostly I'm pissed off. Which is why I can't talk to her. I'll say something like: "What the fuck did you think you were doing?" Because it really looks to me like she was trying to stick it to the ex. Make him feel sad or scared or lonely or whatever. She's totally delusional about it too. Can't figure out why our stepmother might be upset.

Also: the hospital sent her home the next day. WTF? So she spent some time with her BFF and then went to Dad's for dinner. Middle sister was there, too. Middle sister says she had a deal with Youngest Sister to call her if she ever had these kinds of thoughts. Apparently, the thoughts just sort of came up and she acted on them. Nothing really to preface it.

So that's all I can think about. And I don't want to because it pisses me off.

Idiots

2009-03-09T15:56:00.002-04:00

We are moving an entire school back from two buildings to one. I wasn't involved the first time, though I did help with some unpacking and rearranging at one of our current buildings. Our last day at Building S (Grades 4-8) is tomorrow and the last day at Building G (JK-3) is Wednesday. I have mostly volunteered at G. Today, the movers came for some stuff and also moved a great lot of boxes from the supply room to our breakfast room to be stored so that there would be enough space to pack up the rest of the suppy room. They seemed upset. We wondered why.

Seems the students from the local community college, who are studying to be Child and Youth Workers were in on Friday because they had to be for their hours, or whatever. Friday was a PA day, so no kids. They packed the supply room. They didn't properly assemble the boxes. They chose really large boxes, which they either overfilled or didn't fill enough. Several heavy boxes were stacked on top of boxes with not much in them. Every box was outrageously overtaped, as if the person making the boxes knew that you can't just dog-ear the bottoms of boxes, but did it anyway and hoped the tape would keep it from falling apart. Which it didn't.

I have spent the afternoon re-packing boxes.

Cool Old Stuff

2009-03-08T12:12:00.003-04:00

When my grandmother died, my cousin and I divided her recipe collection between us. It was mostly newspaper and magazine clippings. To tell the truth, I never really looked too carefully at them until last weekend. I was bored and out of reading material. Among the recipes were Nana's famous chili sauce (my cousin has a copy, but it's cool to have the one in Nan's handwriting), the peanut butter bar things that I love (good grief, and it's so easy too) and Nana's old high school Home Ec textbook. It was clearly typed up and bound by the school board at the time. It doesn't have a year on it, but since Nan was 19 when she married in 1934 and this is a Senior text, I think we can safely assume it was in use in 1932 or so. Cool!

There are sections on sewing, cooking for invalids (gelatines, and lots of 'em!) and "Housewifery" (*snort*). But my favourite part was the Time Table for Cooking for Vegetables in Water, (who knew macaroni was a veggie?) which I will type out here for my own amusement. FTR, I roast or steam veggies. They are never mushy.

Asparagus...........20-30 minutes
Beans, String......45 minutes - 1 hour
Beans, lima..........1 hour or more
Beets, old.............3 - 4 hours
Beets, young.......30 - 45 minutes
Cabbage...............45 - 60 minutes
Carrots.................35 - 45 minutes
Cauliflower...........20 - 30 minutes
Celery...................30 - 40 minutes
Corn, green (?!)...10 - 15 minutes
Macaroni...............30 - 45 minutes
Onions...................45 - 60 minutes
Parsnips................30 - 60 minutes
Peas, green...........30 - 45 minutes
Potatoes................25 - 30 minutes
Rice........................20 - 30 minutes
Spinach..................30 - 45 minutes
Tomatoes..............30 - 60 minutes
Turnips.................45 - 60 minutes

No wonder I didn't like to eat my veggies, except when they were covered in Cheez Whiz. They were all mush. My SIL still cooks her corn forfreakingever and it's gross.

Even still, I am not making fun of the text at all. Its tone is quite serious and I think it does a fairly good job of explaining some things from the very beginning. For example, the section on using starch includes a couple experiments: see what happens when you mix starch into boiling water; see what happens when you mix starch into cold water. Good stuff.

Top Ten Things I Learned at Our Meeting This Morning

2009-02-24T14:13:00.003-05:00

Background:

I and 4 other parents at my kid's school are concerned about our behaviour students, who often roam the halls, or, in 3 cases in particular, pitch enormous screaming hissy fits that include throwing chairs within their classrooms and then heading down to the supply room to chuck stuff around. One child has repeatedly hit a teacher. His brother had to be physically restrained on Friday because he had gotten too close to the big paper cutter. Another child, not related, closed down the second floor of the school and got library and computers cancelled for some classes.

We wrote a letter to the board and gave a heads up to our VP, who heads up our JK - 3 school until we get to our new building. She called in the principal, who has her office as the 4 - 8 holding school to speak with us before we send any letter. We had sort of hoped they would help us focus our efforts and perhaps help us advocate for more behaviour classes or psychatrists or something.

So, on to the list:

10. We can't discuss individual students.

9. It's hard to talk about generalities, since each student is different.

8. What happened last year isn't relevant.

7. This year is better than last year.

6. The cumulative effect of this on our kids and specifically on the kids in the same class as our behviour kids is irrelevant.

5. We only had 2 extreme behaviour moments this year, not the 5 I have personally logged since February 3.

4. Locking our kids into their own classrooms so that they miss recess is a good thing.

3. There's just no reason to ever let parents know when any kid has had a meltdown that requires kids to be shut into their classrooms for their own safety.

2. It'll all be better when we get to the new building.

1. We shouldn't be worrying our pretty little heads.

In Loving Memory

2009-02-19T09:35:00.002-05:00

One year ago, we lost our SurveySez. She fought cancer long and hard. Her sense of humour was fun and light and silly. I miss her. Sending good thoughts to her husband and daughters.

Rest in peace, Brenda.

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukkah

2008-12-24T15:48:00.004-05:00

It's been so busy. I like being busy. There's still a fair bit to accomplish before tomorrow: the Wii needs to be wrapped and the controllers charged. I have a couple presents to wrap for Dad's tomorrow. Dinner will be ham, which should be cooked shortly. We took it out of the freezer yesterday, but it was still pretty frozen when we got up to put out the garbage this morning, so we stuck it in the oven on low right then. 10 more degrees and it will be cooked. I think the kids will be having noodles and sauce and cheese, as we call it. I have to hide the Christmas Eve presents while the kids are in the bath or shower. I still haven't figured out how to phrase the clues. They're getting a bit old to just be hiding them in their rooms, but I wouldn't want it to be too difficult. The vacuuming is done, but since we were out tobogganing this afternoon, I'm only just getting the laundry done so that everyone can have sheets that smell of fabric softener for Christmas Eve.

Well, this rambled.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

*smooches*

Life in General

2008-12-12T13:19:00.002-05:00

DD's birthday party was on Saturday. We went bowling and then came back here for cake. It was fun. My dad and my sister joined us at the bowling alley.
I ordered a hamper from Christco in January. It came Monday. I was out. I left a note on the door that they should call my cell phone #, which I wrote on the back of the note. I put a little arrow to indicate that the note should be turned over. Someone thought this meant that they should just leave the boxes next to my house. So they did. I was displeased.
DS got in trouble last week for threatening a girl who lives on our street. He doesn't like her, he says, because of that time in October when she pulled down her pants and waved her butt at him. He found that rude and has been getting her back for it ever since. Both his teacher and I told him that he didn't have to be her friend, but he couldn't actively be bullying her. So he's been making an effort. He really has. Yesterday, after cleaning up his own workspace, he went around to all (even M) his classmates and helped them clean up too. Without being told. Today, he was invited to the Principal's Lunch for kids who demonstrated the character trait being focussed on this month. I forget what that is. Caring, I think.
I didn't have to go to DS's school to bring him lunch today, but I accomplished nothing of any value.
The Canadian political thread is making me mad. I should stop going there.
My feet are cold.
I swear that as soon as I finish this entry, I'm going for a run and to use the weight machine. I stopped exercising last week when I got some kind of bug that made me feel weak and fuzzy. I couldn't get up the stairs without wheezing. Anyway, that's been gone for a while now, so it's time to get up off my ass.
Is "ass" a swear word? DD insists that it is and keeps telling me not to swear at her. I have been using the word "ass" to refer to the part of her that needs to get up off the couch and do what I asked. She doesn't seem to hear me, otherwise.

Why Am I Not in Bed?

2008-12-05T01:46:00.003-05:00

It's really late. *points at timestamp* and I have so much to do tomorrow:

1. 8:30 teacher meeting with DS's teacher.
2. 9:15 teacher meeting with DD's teacher.
3. Get DS's hair cut or we'll have to start calling him Cousin It.
4. Take DD to the dollar store to get craft supplies for her birthday party on Saturday.
5. Bake 6" 2-layer vanilla cake.
6. Cook pudding.
7. Bake 10" 2-layer chocolate cake.
8. Assemble both cakes, with pudding between the layers. Cheat on the vanilla one because it is small and use a pudding cup.
9. Put at least a crumb coat on both cakes.
10. Start pre-making the gazillion stupid roses DD wants on her 2-tiered, 2-flavour birthday cake.
11. Tidy up the living/dining room and stash all the stuff in the basement that we were going to take to the dump.
12. Mail Christmas cards.

Now when will there be time in all that to jump DH? *sigh*

I should really get to bed. G'night.

My Hero

2008-12-02T13:24:00.003-05:00

In the last couple weeks, DH has:

- helped me settle on a plan for DD's birthday party.
- given DS a firm talking-to and some coping strategies in response to some recent behavioural issues at school.
- taken my car to the shop and dealt with the mechanics. ($400, ugh.)
- made good suggestions that helped me with planning the next hectic month.
- HELPED!

I was feeling overwhelmed and he helped. Now I feel better.

Testing 1-2-3

2008-11-28T22:45:00.002-05:00

The clerical/administrative tests went surprisingly well. Apparently, the world has extemely low standards, which I consistently meet. Woo!

My test scores were quite high in knowledge of Word (92%), Outlook (96%) , Excel (87%) and Powerpoint (82%). There were at least 3 questions that I found the answers for while answering other questions, but you can't go back on the test. Though my interviewer was very happy, I honestly don't consider this exceptional . Shouldn't that be a minimum for someone who makes a living as an admin? My WPM in typing was so abysmal that I'm not even going to admit what it was, except to say that it was under 40. Yeah, that bad. On the plus side, my accuracy was 97%. My accuracy in data entry was 100% for both alphanumeric and straight numeric, but my speed was slightly below average on the first and only slightly above average on the second. Luckily accuracy trumps speed.

But the fun part was language skills and math. Having majored in Linguistics, I am always interested to know what questions will be asked. I expect a certain amount of "their/they're/there", for example. There was an "it's/its" questions and one where the answer was "him and me", which made me think for a moment. Then there were the basic math word problems and some "find the next two numbers in the following sequence". Those were calming.

Then there was a personality test. One segment asked me to rate on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) how much I felt the given words applied to me. I was going to give a neutral score to "precise". But then I thought, well, I am precise sometimes, when the situation calls for it. Sometimes you can let things slide. I wonder what they mean by "precise", exactly. So since I was trying to precisely determine what the test meant by "precise" in order to answer the question as accurately as possible, I marked myself at 5.

More Work for Me

2008-11-26T15:49:00.005-05:00

Not Getting Paid

I am now secretary of the Parent Council, in addition to my position as a co-ordinator for the Breakfast Program. Other Volunteer Mom is the other co-ordinator and also Madam Co-Chair of Parent Council. She tells me to shut up when I call her that.

So I typed up the minutes of the council meeting on Monday night and the attendance. Everything is nicely lined up, formatted and bulletted, as necessary to fit into my vision. I think I would really like to work with Boo one day. Every time she writes about getting little details right it just makes me all swoony.

Getting Paid

The temp agency that sends me out to do serving/catering has asked if I can come in tomorrow to do the clerical tests so they can expand the number and type of jobs they send me out on. I'm pretty flattered. I've only worked 2 shifts, but for the same people, who like me very much. So I kind of wondered if the agency just wants to get as much work out of me as they can, or if two good reports are enough to make them want to send me out more because I make them look good or something. I'm having trouble being cynical about this, but I hate to be optimistic. DH's company's stock is down to 0.45. If it stays under a dollar for too long, they'll get de-listed. Christmas is coming and our bank account is just about where it always is.

Monster Trucks

2008-11-22T20:01:00.015-05:00

OK, that was fun. I didn't want to go, but it was fun. I figured if I was going to be stuck watching motorsports for 2 hours, I might as well enjoy myself, but I didn't really have to work at it. We went to the Pit Party, where you can take pictures of yourself with the trucks and say hi to the drivers.

Jurassic Attack
(back right)

Maniac
(far left)

soon-to-be-squished cars
(front, right)

The Show

Upon arriving, I am pleased to see that our seats in the second level are pretty good. We have our earplugs, which is good, because it's going to be LOUD.

First up, the Monster Truck wheelie "contest". These are judged, in that 3 people hold up score cards and the announcer guy tells you what they add up to and therefore who is in the lead. They start with the driver who appears to be least good at it, and work their way up to the driver who is apparently best at it. Big pop from the audience.

Batman

Then we have "quad" races. Or should I say quad "races". 2 teams race around on ATV's, 2 guys per team. The archenemy team, 2 guys wearing black shirts) wins. NO! Not Toronto! We hate Toronto! And then the team leader guy says "Ha ha, we sure stuck it to them!" We are sad. Now that the trucks are warmed up, it's time for them to race over the squished cars.

Gravedigger
(farthest)

Aftershock
(nearest)

Then there is another quad race with 4 different guys, where we learn that Julian Somethingorother is OurTown's hero driver guy. He was not in the first race. Miraculously, he wins! Oh, who will win the tie-breaker race? Which team will be the champion?

Intermission

In the Freestyle Motorcross "contest", 3 motorcycle riders go up a ramp and do tricks in the air. The guy in blue takes the first run and hits the opposite ramp too hard, goes right into the barrier and over. He is OK. They couldn't have planned that. The tricks are pretty good, but blue guy has the best moves. White shirt guy does little more than fly over the ground, red shirt guy is in between. We are told to applaud for the guy we like best. Red shirt guy? YAY! Blue shirt guy? YYYYYAAAAAYYYY!!!!! White shirt guy? Yay. So blue guy wins. Bye, guys. Wait, what's this? White shirt guy pulls out some spirit and does a backflip off the ramp! Thanks, OurTown, he says. He couldn't have done it without us. If I'd known they were taking turns being the guy who gets the most applause, I'd have played along, but I don't like people to feel left out. Which is why I had cheered for white shirt. Heh.

It is the final quad race. Oh, the drama. Our hero guy who won before is there, so are all the other 7 guys. They drive around. With one lap to go, our hero guy is behind, but look! The two Toronto team guys have bumped into each other at the wall just in time for OurHero to get some air off a jump and take the checkered flag! Woo! The guy next to me snorts. "Oh, that wasn't fake," he says. I laugh. "The kids don't care." He is there with his sons and their sons. One of the grandsons has fallen asleep on his dad's lap. Dad shrugs at me. The noise is deafening, so I nod and smile.

The Grand Finale is the monster truck freestyle, where the 5 trucks come out, do wheelies and jumps and doughnuts for a minute each. There is supposed to be a 60-second limit, but Gravedigger goes for way longer than that and (go figure) wins. Thanks, OurTown! You've been great!

*****

It occurred to me that this is a travelling roadshow not unlike the old circuses. I read Water for Elephants this summer, after everyone else did. I've also seen documentaries on circuses and performers' lives. And it reminded me a bit of that. They have it all worked out who's going to win on which nights, who the stars are and who are the supporting acts.

Anyway, the kids loved it. They each got a freaking $10 pennant to hang in their rooms. That counts as a Christmas present, dammit. $10. Holy crap. They want to go back next year.

You Can't Go Home Again

2008-11-21T15:38:00.004-05:00

I was feeling a bit off last week. No doubt it was related to my hormones. So, for whatever reason, I went to visit my old school. A bit of history: I went to a private Christian school. Our church had begun as one of those 1-room deals, with a basement hall and that's it. Later, an addition was built to include a new chapel. The entire addition was built around a (very small, turns out - thought it was bigger) courtyard with a maple tree. Anyway, not long after I graduated, the school moved to a larger facility and the church moved to a newly constructed building. Our old building was sold to a retirement home. The school has since detached itself from the church and been renamed. I peeked at its home page just now and it didn't even have our school Bible verse anywhere on it. "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favour with God and man." The crest was nowhere in evidence. I wonder if they still have the desk I drilled a hole in with my compass in Grade 7. Even the new church has been renamed.

Anyway, I went to the retirement home and they let me look around. It's a nice place, but it didn't stir any memories. The only thing that's the same is the shape of the chapel (now the dining hall) and the courtyard with the maple tree. No gym, no pastor's office, no baptistry, no door to the platform where the pulpit was, no SK room/meeting room where the ladies used to hold showers. It's all gone. The tree we used as a fort was still there, though. Way at the back of the parking lot/playground.

So the nurses there told me that my old SK teacher was at another facility. She was the pastor's wife. I drove past there today. Then I drove back to see if I could say hi. She was in a deep sleep, though, and the one nurse explained that even if they could wake her, it might be difficult to get her to understand who I was. I am going to dig up an old SK class picture and send a copy in a Christmas card. Maybe one of the daughters will see it when they visit. The older one taught JK and organised the musical every year. I think Mrs. S was close to retirement when I was 5, so I shouldn't be surprised that she's in her 90's now.

Surprisingly, all of this left me feeling pretty good. I should thank all the nurses who looked so interested to hear that the one home had been a school, not just a church and the others who wanted to hear about Mrs. S as a teacher. I guess they have a lot of practice dealing with people who want to reminisce. :-)

Congrats, USA

2008-11-20T15:12:00.001-05:00

Another draft I didn't post. I think there was going to be more to it. From 12:06 am, November 6, 2008:

How nice that there will be a change in administration in the States. Discussing the US election with my cousin on Tuesday, we agreed that McCain would have been a far better choice in 2000 than the reprehensible and immoral GW Bush. May history hold him accountable for his bloody and illegal war. I don't think the American image has been so badly tarnished by any other president in recent history.

Had I been eligible to vote in the States back in 2000, I might have chosen McCain over Gore, who I have never really liked. Unfortunately, all things change, and the McCain that I liked so much 8 years ago is but a shadow of his former self.

Mr. Obama brings a whole feel of freshness that is so welcome. In one of the political threads, someone derided his choice of using so much money to run ads in all 50 states. The rationale was that it was a waste to use so much money in states that weren't important. That got me to thinking. If I were American, I think I would prefer to vote for someone who considered me important even if I didn't live in a battleground state or bellweather state or whatever. I do not think that Republican concerns about sharp turns to the left and socialism are founded, but it is kind of fun to watch them squirm. It's also nice that our Democrats have been so conciliatory, considering the goading and nyah nyahing they suffered through in 2004.

I am appalled at the ballot initiatives that keep popping up. No-one should be allowed to decide for someone else who they can make their life with. Good grief.

Two Shifts So Far

2008-11-19T16:02:00.002-05:00

That's all I've worked, and for the same caterer at the Art Gallery. It's kind of nice to tell people I work at the Art Gallery. I feel all ritzy and such. I must say the first shift was a baptism by fire. I don't think I've ever had a first shift that wasn't. I was early, luckily and started right away. The owner/chef had asked two companies to send a total of 10 servers. We had 5. Then 2 of them said that their company had told them only to stay until 10:00. Except that's an hour before the buffet was to go out and we hadn't been able to get out on the floor since quarter after nine because of the speeches. They were convinced to stay until 10:30. They said they had cleared the tables, but they had only cleared their own tables, so since I had been asked to do something else during that half hour, I ended up doing my own tables and those of the two other servers, one who also left early The other, who has a fair bit of seniority, was in charge of getting out the 11:00 buffet. I was there until 2:45. Holy crap.

Lessons learned: People are selfish. Be fast, fast, fast. Don't assume help will come just because you would give it yourself. Get gel insoles for shoes. Don't tell your husband a time when you should be done or he will sit in the parking lot with the kids from midnight to 1 am and then blame you because he didn't leave earlier. People love Scottish eggs. People don't like gaspacho. If there's nothing to do, it might not be wise to look for something to do. Maybe you're supposed to be standing there waiting.

Second shift: much smoother. Discovered a to-do list. Did stuff. Got brownie points. Of 6 servers, 4 were quick and efficient. Remembered where stuff was. Learned: the chef yells at you if she thinks you can take it. I look forward to being yelled at. Gel insoles were a good idea.

Could have worked tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday, but I have no-one to watch the kids tonight/Thursday and Saturday is the Monster Trucks. Think of me this Saturday, Saturday, Saturday!!!! Hopefully, I will figure out how to post ensmallened pics by then.

In My Neighbourhood

2008-11-19T15:08:00.002-05:00

A draft I didn't post in September, for some reason:

Junkie neighbour's creepy dad has had 2 strokes in the last week and is in hospital. This means that junkie neighbour is occasionally not there when junkie buddy drops by. I feel badly for the mother, a nice lady who sometimes gives me plates of baklava or spanikopita, or tips on growing roses. She used to be out in her garden all the time, but not so much in the last couple years. I wish she would start weeding and pruning again. She really enjoyed it and found it relaxing.

The whole neighbourhood has been watching me scrape the paint off the front porch. Honestly. Who knew I was so interesting? In any event, I have given up. The instructions on the new porch finish stuff says that if the paint is really on there, just scuff it up some and wash it with concrete cleaner. Done and done. DH and I will slop on the Stone Effects tomorrow. We'll be less trailer trashy within 24 hours. No, I do not have access to a pressure washer. Yes, I did use a sander attachment on an electric drill.

MommaCat horks loudly under our bed twice a week, at the least. If it was a proper hairball, I could find and remove it, but it's just liquid. I'm not moving the bed to sop up a wet spot every other day. However, now I know that the carpet under the bed is probably all crusty where I can't reach.

The kids start school on Tuesday. I can't wait. DH has the day off. We'll be bringing DS a lunch and having a picnic at the school. I don't think it's a good idea to bring him home for lunch like I did with DD in Grade 1 until the pattern of going to school mornings and afternoons is established. Some mornings he doesn't like to go to school and puts up a fight. He's always fine when he gets there.

Bitter

2008-11-19T14:28:00.005-05:00

Li has lied to me about needing a lunch. Ja eats his at first recess and says he didn't have one. Ky does the same. An, Er and Ni want crackers and cheese every day. Er says her mom doesn't allow her to eat apples, so I need to give her something better. $2.29 gets you 6 bagels. Toasted with a bit of butter = good breakfast or lunch for 6 days, cheaper than that Timmy's you've got every day, mom. Ev is 6 and had to walk to school by himself because his mom has a bad back. Ju wants to know where the school gets the free apples because fruit's getting expensive and she needs it for the kids. But she smokes. So fuck her. I'd quit smoking before I let my kids go hungry. To So's mom: Don't send your kid to school crawling with lice for two. freaking. years. Can you say CAS? Speaking of them, Ra's dad burnt him with a cigarette. I hate that bastard so bad. I feel bad for the kids and try to find sympathy for the parents, but the parents make crap choices and the kids are playing me because they like granola bars.

My neighbours think that the magnolia in the back yard is the cause of the leak in their 100-year old basement. Idiots. Everybody's basement around here leaks. I think the reason my eavestroughs are clogged is that the shingles from their roof are blowing into them. So if they're going to chop a branch off my tree and drop it in my yard, I'm going to put every. single. one. of those damned shingles on their back porch. The stack's at 12 so far. How long until they notice?

I Should Be Writing this Stuff Down

2008-11-06T00:06:00.002-05:00

November 09, 2008

DD just finished brushing out her hair. She came in here, where I was prepping some stuff for the TAR boards. "Lookit my hair!" she said, lifting her arm. She'd shoved the hair from her brush under her pit so she looked like that German chick who sang 99 Red Balloons. Ew.

My kids are so freaking weird.

******

DS farted as I was putting him to bed.

"Cause Daddy's not here, I have to make the farts. And it smells."

I typed this up on October 29, 2008 and then never posted. I have a lot of drafts. I'm glad I have them, but wonder why I didn't post at the time.