it's raining

it's pouring
the lightning gods are roaring ...
the wind whips up,
the temps go down
and everything's fresh in the morning ;)

heatin' up

ahhh the prairie heat is back, and with the leftovers from the previous week of rain it's Georgia muggy and promises of thunderstorms in the evening. fine with me. Have fan, don't care.

trying to get my to do list ta done. mostly the stuff for other people is all happening now if only I could motivate myself to do my own stuff.

it's been pretty quiet round the homestead except for when Sethkin spent the night, but you're not likely to find quiet around an 8 year old boy unless he's crashed where he stopped. busy as the ever ready bunny and going through a cheeky defiant period at the same time. glad I'm just the grandma;)

got the plans for the kitchen done - have to go over them with Brian and hopefully in August or September I'll have cupboards and a new sink. who hoo!

One last bridal shower, 2 birthdays in the next week and 5 more weddings to go till Aug 1/09. oh yeah!

HUGE excited for Anarchy's nuptuals and the camping afterwards. I might even have my window fixed before I go.

and the theme from grease just popped into my head .... no worries

It's June and it's beautiful and I'm at work.

Whatever - I'll be off in a few hours.

I've been busy as a whirling dervish for days , maybe weeks now, but the major projects are accomplished, the planning just about done and now it's just a matter of waiting for the dates to roll around. caming camping camping.

I have the most wonderful group lady friends, they are absolute dolls !

neighbour hoods

strangers with loose dog.
Daughter asks them to remove it from her yard, leash it.

Result - a punch in the face by a total stranger in her own freaking yard.

Police have caught the perp.

(perp. hahahahahah so that show about the police station from the 70s maybey with Barney in it)

3 weeks later

busy busy busy. I've even had a few 24=hours of no PC.

Ckeaned out my closet and took all the blankets etc for drycleaning

fertilized plants and put on watering schedule that I am attempting to maintain.

Care tuned up, 2 new tires and 3 days in Swan River with the cousins, my dotter and the grands - it was great.

Crazy at work but I am now sort of caught up.

Finished seth's dinosaur pics.

burned pics from Swan for everyone and out the last disk in the mail friday.

FINALLY submitted everything for my first passport.

Am still working on plans for kitchen reno but Rochelle is going to each me the tinwork and her dad knows a guy for the tin.

The wedding project is almost done. Underskirt needs last hem, and the tunic needs a body in it before I put it all together. Ahead of schedule. Then I can stuff together for camping.

sunday

and it was! Thank you oh hundred little gods for letting Ra come out to play! I basked for several hours and my solar cells seem to finally be replete. That does not however mean that I would not sincerely appreciate regular play dates.

Life

like gravity,
sucks.

I do so love it when I'm pity tripping.

Going to bed now and hopefully the new day will be better.

pocket buddha has directed me to randomly tag myself - nice trick that
The rules of this meme are as follows:
- Respond to and rework the meme.
- Answer the questions on your own blog.
- Replace one question and add one question.
- Tag 8 people
abigail road,
la diva,
smyrish,
saviabella,
Mrs.Mogul,
citizen,
bramsole,
Catherinette

What are your current obsessions?
Abigail's wedding dress, the kitchen renos and travel.

Which item from your wardrobe do you wear the most often?
My 2 favorite bras, my cushy blue wool socks, my mephistos and my Elton John hoody - though I did pick up this fabulous yellow blouse that looks like shantung silk which will soon become a fave I'm sure.

What's for dinner?
food. probably something healthy. blech !!

What is your greatest fear at the moment?
That my kitchen won't get done this summer

What are you listening to?
about 6 other conversations and the hum of my fan which is usually loud enough to drown those people out. Apparently my hearing is extra acute today.

If you were a god/goddess what would you be?
Hmmmm, perhaps Innana or maybe Mahadevi.

What are your favourite holiday spots?
All the places I haven't gone yet and Swan River Manitoba

What are you reading right now?
Beyond the Dragon's Mouth by Shiva Naipaul.

What are four words that describe you?
four is not enough.

What is your guilty pleasure?
pedicures and kentucky fried chicken ... I know!

What is one thing you could never live without?
I dig the music device, but if all else fails I can at least hum a happy tune. I need people - or some way to communicate with people, other than the ones already in residence.

What is your favourite spring thing to do?
Walk in freshly cut grass in barefeet to the deck and sit in the glorious sun with my friends and enjoy a pint or 2.

Where are you planning to travel next?
Swan River for my twin Aunties 65th birthday. Party at the legion with the whole damn town ;)

What is the best thing you ate or drank lately?
roasted turkey & fresh tomatoe sandwich on ancient grains bread.

When was the last time you were tipsy?
Sometime around the end of March, though I wish I was right now.

What is your favourite ever film?
The LOTR trilogy but I wish Tom Bombadil was in there somewhere .. Oh and Dangerous Liasons

What is the biggest life lesson you've learned from your kids?
Pick your fights on your ground.

What song can't you get out of your head?
w w workin' at the carwash - hmmm hmm hmhmh hmmm workin' as a car wash er..wowowowowo

What book do you know you should read but refuse to?
Actually I just did. I read Catcher in the Rye and was so nonplussed. and all.

What is your physical abnormality/abnormal physical ability?
My olfactory and hearing senses are extremely sensitive - though that might just be the undiagnosed ADD ;)

Hey you

What are you looking at?

Could you move your head just a little to the left please?










gotcha!

my lovely devi

My 8 year old grandotter wrote this in 10 minutes for my dotter when she got in a wee bit o'trouble the other day: original spelling

To: My favorit Mommy in the WORLD

You made me swim like a fish,
I love you more than barries,
And very often I wish,
That we could be married.

You’re my favorit mom in the world,
And I Love you for who you are,
I wish I could fly up into space,
And bring you back a star.

Love: Devi

I gots me tickets!!!!

ridin' on

what a GREAT weekend! GIST

1. 3 uninterrupted days to spend with my dad, to chat and talk money, politics, city planning, how fast snow melts, which is better strawberry or raspberry, tree reforestation, rates of orchard growth, basic mechanics, a lesson in computer familiarity, the vagaries of a good cup of coffee, what to do with a million bucks and a plethora of other topics.
2. Watching Shall We Dance with my dad because that's what HE wanted to watch. No wonder I love ballroom so much.
3. Cooking for someone who REALLY appreciates it and watching them stuff themselves sleepy.
4. Taking the Gator out for the first spring tour.
5. Baked ham with my family for easter supper. Funny that we eat ham when Jesus was a jew and they aren't allowed to eat pork. Maybe that's why we eat ham.... hmmm

everything's relative

The jawline is relatively normal.
I'm relatively caught up at work.
I'm spending easter weekend between the relatives.
I'll be relatively happy if I get tickets to AC freaking DC for my son (who was too young in 1988)myself and perhaps the grandson.
Dakar is relatively clean.
My niece Tray is relatively safe - she's in Roma - and felt the earthquake. Thank the 100 little gods for blog updates.
And I am relatively tired of relativity.

a new week

So here's to hoping that the last few weeks were the end of the body's traitorous acquisitions of various virii.

Work's not too behind, I made this killer homemade coconut cream pie with hand toasted coconut... mmmmmm. Low fat - no added sugar(splenda) and mostly milk so it's even good for you ;) I was however forced to remember that I smashed to smithereens, my mom's deep dish glass pie pan in December, and have yet to replace it. So I used my round enamel roaster, worked great and even has a lid that doesn't interfere with the whipped cream.

Off to MJ on Thursday to stay with my dad for a few days while his wife is out of town and then back for easter with the grands. Mandy is cooking the ham for Sunday. A nice little family gathering.

However, between the family diversions I do intend to take Saturday nite off and visit my friends I haven't seen in what seems like forever and pop down to the pub as well. mmmm Guinness, I missed you too.

the vinyl vault: first 10

I was catching up on some blogs the other day and Abigail has a new meme which I need to borrow: 25 top albums that shaped your life - couldn't resist.
The rules are:
Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you and how they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions, etc. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. No being cool, which albums have you actually listened to thousands of times? Please note that some of these are single songs since it was all about the 45s when I started buying vinyl ;)

1. In 1966 My best friend Cora Lynn and I used to karoke Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Were Made For Walking" on our front steps. They were brick and built so there were 2 arms to use as separate stages. With the song came the knowledge that I am not a carpet.

2. In grade school Halfbreed by Cher: reflected how I din't really fit in anyone's expectations because mine were already so vastly different. Her version of the Long and Winding Road became my theme for ever time we moved (every 2 years - dad was a banker)

3. Donny Osmond's singles - They were probably compliled on a best of album somewhere but these songs made me and my girlfriends sing in grades 4 and 5. One Bad Apple (which my dad occasionally called me), YoYo (which I used to dance to at the bus stop when I was delivering papers at 6:30 am. the first time the ticket clerk was scandalized but after that she just smiled and occasionally nodded her head, and Puppy Love (my first boy girl dance with Steven)

4. Michael Jackson's Ben - except for me it was my cat Snooper.

5. Harmony by Three Dog Night - One, Old Fashioned Love Song, & Black and White. I started to play it in 1973, My mantras in grade 6, I was 12? and they explained Me, Me & Love, and Me & the World. First Album I ever purchased in fact.

6. Alice Cooper - School's Out. Bought the album while attending catholic school and wearing the first pair of hot pants. Pink jersey with monet style flowers in yeoow and orange. Crazy Hot.

7. John Denver Rocky Mountain High - back when I still liked country music, grade 7, and totally misunderstood what he meant by rocky mountain high ;)

8. April Wine : the album with Oowatanite on it. Cow Bell. C'mon quit wastin' time!!!!

9. Elton John's Good Bye Yellow Brick Road - what can say? Perfect for an angst ridden antisocial 13 year old.

10. Heart - any album - Strong women can be anything they choose.... baracuda!

5 days later

well I'm somewhat better but still exhausted. Antibiotics are starting to help the bronchitis but the quietude is getting to me. Too much time to think. Regrets and memories popping out of nowhere.

At the beginning of grade 2, about the same age my grandson is now, I had an affinity for the limitless sky and I talked to the moon. I made my first visit to the Winnipeg planetarium that autumn, just before my birthday and it was a REALLY BIG DEAL. Over a hundred students, though it seemed like thousands, filed into the amphitheater, voices hushed, punctuated with the occasional childish squeal. Directed to our seats, we climbed into them as anticipation throbbed like a second heartbeat.

The lights dimmed, words poured out of the void and my seat tilted back as an evening sky dimmed to royal, then deepest blue shading to obsidian. My breath caught and the first nano brightness appeared in the northern sky. Like pinpricks through LiteBrite, stars were born and coalesced into the milky way spinning across my own personal universe, so close I could have reached out and caught one in my hand.

Old Sol flaring alive with heat, the realization that the sun really was a star illuminating a newborn landscape in my imagination. The planets, no longer two dimensional pictures in the Reader's Digest World Atlas but spinning nonchalantly through the night sky, immense and heavy, the colours surreal. First love happened then and there, I never wanted to leave.

The questions that trip engendered are some of the same questions I am still asking myself 40 years later. The awe and wonder of the magnitude of the universe beats in my heart still.

The next summer,1969, I was 7 1/2, Apollo 11 landed on the moon and humankind took its first steps on a different planet. Utterly mesmerized by the foggy images on our black and white television, I ached to be an astronaut walking on Mars and fly through the rings of Saturn.

Anything was possible to me then. No matter that my teachers told me I couldn't, my mom told me I could be anything I wanted to be, and that the others who nay sayed me would forever limit themselves by their own unbelief.

The sheer gloriousness of believing that I would someday walk among the stars was my shield against the drudgery and angst of everyday life. Childish as it was, I could go there and hide from all the ugliness of reality.

But time passes and glories dim. Failures intrude and living pushes those dreams into the nooks and crannies reserved for ancient history. Until one night while camping, lying in a field with the endless sky above you, the artesian well of hidden joy springs forth and lifts your heart on a magic carpet ride through the milkyway, just a hand's breadth away.

Another reason to always remain 8 years old.

I love spring

The flue 3 weeks ago, snow mould, and too much time around furry animals equals hack hack gurgle spit cough, unscratchable itch, 3 hours sucking up a variety of other unknown virii at the clinic, and no freaking sleep.

I love spring.

ready in fifteen -

Toss the cordless across the room, convoy arrival in,

15 minutes: Quicksort the closet: work, social, out, formal, alternate season and or size.
Parameters: Season? (woe betide those in this situation at change of season when everything is fair game) Where? When? Who? Party or pints? What did I wear there last?

Spring+pub+Satevening+crew&Oldfriend(fair missed)+blujeans whitehodievest= Blk jeans RB Penguin tee jacket

11 minutes: personal hygiene

7 minutes: Mineral particulate clings to horsehair, the gentle sweep grants release to settle into crannied nooks transforming reality to delusion. Tortuous steel teeth force kinks into place of natural arcs. Sticks of wax and unknown oily bits redefining planes and curves, provoking false perceptions, and inviting alternate possibilities.

*** howling in silent glee as I reread that last ;)

2 minutes: dressed, shod, and wrapped,(wriggle pull tuck) purse/phone/cash/maybe camera.

A touch of scent, she locks her door from the inside.

The phone rings, right on time.

tip toe

through the tulips,
in the garden,
taht is where I'll be .....

ROTFL - then I get this vision of my sister and myself with 30 pounds of caked mud up our legs trying to clear dad's raspberry garden ... beautiful.

stupid gardens.

happy birthday Murray

It is hard to believe you are 26 today and yet so easy to see. I love you. I am proud of who you are whatever you may think. You are so very talented and generous. I am looking forward to supper. Huge dk hugs.