Great Big World Out There

oooh, pretty

I just switched to the new version of typepad.  I like how it looks, but I am not sure where anything is jsut yet.

Looks a lot like vista.

I need to stop playing farm town.  I need to do some laundry.  I have weeds to get rid of in the garden. I  need to engage a landscaping company to plant some grass.  I need to finish cleaning out my closet.  I have a pile of things in my car that should not be in my car.  My car needs to be washed.  I have a pile of things in a dresser that should not be in the dresser anymore.  

oooh, pretty

suppose I called you up tonight

I spent my day requesting something that I am sure will not be granted.  I could be irritated by that or just be glad the shitty job is over with so the denial of my request can start as quickly as possible.  I'd rather just get the shit jobs over with so I can go do something interesting and exciting.  Except.  I didn't have anything on my list of things to do that was dreadfully exciting.  

I'm working on the rejigging of some tables for publication.  I wish I'd had this table idea sooner, let me tell you.  Would have saved me some paper for my thesis, at least.  Certainly not any sanity, since they take a bit more effort than the other way I did them. 

***

What else did I do today?  Hmm.  I made fajitas for supper.  I went to work late so I stayed late to make up for my tardiness.  Tardy is such an odd word, I don't really like it.  Tomorrow a bunch of people are moving out of our office space since their space has been renovated.  It should be loud, noisy and generally disruptive. Theree will be cake though, so all is not lost.  

***

I've had a headache for 3 days.  I wish it would go away. I'm out of things to say now.  So I will go to bed and read my book.  

title: I told you so, carrrie underwood

Rainy days and weedy weekends

I cleared the potato patch this weekend.  It was covered in thick nasty weeds.  Weeds that could be chopped up and used as kindling if they weren't covered in thousands or millions of wee little seeds.  I hate those weeds for two reasons - they look like hell and my skin reacts to them big time.  The reaction doesn't last long - at least not once I've scrubbed thoroughly. I did a fairly decent job of weeding 

***

I am utterly addicted to Farm Town on facebook.  So help me.  It's much easier to be a fake farmer than a real one.  Internet chat makes me crazy - teenagers can't or won't spell correctly.  Demand to be hired (so you earn points and coins and such) or yell at everyone.  I don't hire them on principle, dammit.  If they are really annoying I just add them to my blocked list and I never see them again.  Lovely, that.

***

I thought I'd lost a cheque I received last week.  It was sitting between my passenger door and the passenger seat.  Guess I don't open that door very often.  No passengers, either.  Huh.  

***

Now I have the football game on.  All is well.  We've gotten an interception so far, a rather festive one as interceptions go.  Yesterday I made pulled pork but I didn't cook it long enough.  Next time I think I'll use a different cut of pork. I shall have pulled pork for supper tonight.  Lunch tomorrow.  Whoo. 

***

I haven't got much to say.  I've been farting around on the computer most of the weekend, interspersed with bouts of weeding - real weeds as above or the accumulated crap of life.  I have too many books, too many clothes and I am on a mission to get rid of as much as I can.  No one needs this much stuff.  You just don't.  Proof I don't need more crap - I went to Walmart this morning and didn't buy a thing.  NOTHING.  I had a list of things I needed but they didn't have any of the things I wanted in stock.  Imagine that.  I saw things I might normally have bought - realized I didn't need new shoes (I don't wear most of what I have), a water bottle (I have glasses to drink from), chenille throws (all fixed in the throw department).  

This is good.  I will save money AND have less crap.  I think all that til debt do us part I've been watching has been rubbing off.  My debt is totally under control - and what I have left is mostly student loans.  It'll all be paid off by this time next year.  Go me!

mmm

I bought corn for supper.  Now it feels like summer - I love the smell of corn cooking.  Add in a fresh grilled cheeseburger and some pasta salad and voila - excellent dinner. 

***

I can't think of anything to say.  I'm tired.  I started playing a stupid farming game on facebook.  I'm really only writing right now because I am waiting for my grapes to be ready for harvest - it'll take another half hour for that. Writing nonsensical blather - what a great idea!  How convenient that I am good at blathering on about nothing. 

I did spend some time today blathering on about a new research project.  I hope it gets funded because it could be interesting. 

***

I left the BBQ on!  Shit.  I will go turn it off now -running would not make a difference because it has been blasting away for a long time.

Sometimes I am an idiot.

action is better than inaction

I am going to do a good deed this afternoon.  My cousin wants to sell her house, and being newly widowed and all, needs some help.  She sent out a facebook plea and at first I was all, "That's Sunday.  I laze about and read a book on Sunday.  Waaaah."

Then I got over myself and told I could come and help.  So go me.  I have also enlisted the aid of my brother.  I hope we can get her house ready to sell.  She needs to be in a new place, the memories are killing her.

***

I have an odd feeling in my left eye.  It feels - more there than normal.  This is unpleasant, because that's what happened when I had pinkeye a few months ago.  I so don't have time or energy for pinkeye.  Of course, I have angry sinuses, a wee twinge in my throat and a stuffy nose. 

Joy.

***

I went to church this morning.  Nothing exciting about that declaration, since I go every week.  This week was a little different.  I go to the early service when I am not playing at the late service.  I walked in this morning to a mournful groan of a hymn with no piano.  No organ.  I considered, briefly, walking back out of the church.  I knew I would end up playing. 

I have developed some wicked sight reading abilities in the past few years, but I had a tune this morning that was unfamiliar with a really odd setting.  Had I seen it before I opened the hymnal this morning, expectant congregation waiting patiently behind me, I would definitely have practiced this song with some vigor.  It wasn't hard - not hard at all - but it had some syncopated rhythmns and the accompaniment was fancier than normal.  The tune was weird, too.  Not ugly, just weird.  Lots of leaping about, which is fine if you have a strong leader.  I was not a strong leader this morning.  One look at that sucker and I knew I was one-noting my way through that hymn. 

Thankfully the rest of the songs were all familar and I sailed through them.  So I went to church this morning and made $30 by being the accidental organist.  Heh.  (I don't do the playing for the money, heavens no, but it is nice.  It usually goes right back to the church or some charity anyway). 

***

I am off to the bottle depot now.  I have a plethora of bottles, a veritable plethora indeed.  They won't all fit in my car thanks to the piles of milk jugs I have to get rid of.  I think the government was on the right track by making milk jugs refundable - the better to keep our landfills clean and all that - but damn, those suckers take up a lot of room.  I know we could crush them, but somehow we never seem to do that.  I wonder why? 

***

Well, I and my goopy eye are off to make some money at the bottle depot.  I hope it isn't crazy busy.

discovery channel

I kind of love the Discovery channel.  I learn something almost every time I turn it on - whether I want to or not.  I've got a tivo'd episode of how it's made on right now that's all about making records.  That's a cool process, if an antiquated.  Makes me wish I still had a record player to play all my old records on.

Sigh.  I bet I could go buy one if I were inclined.  I just don't want to pay more than $5, which doesn't seem a likely price.  Besides a crappy garage sale purchase.  I don't like garage sales.  Not my thing.

What I do like is a glass of cold milk.  Mmmmm.  Milk.  I'm heading off to the football game later this afternoon and I shall have a cold glass of beer.  Mmmm. Beer.  I always get a fancy beer at these games and I am always disappointed.  I kind of think some their beer has gone skunky from sitting too long - most people get the cheaper Canadian stuff.  Sigh.

It's a lovely day outside.  28 degrees so I mowed the lawn and cut down the ugly weeds in my garden.  I'm watering trees too, come to think of it.  I was going to move the hose before I went to town to get some cash for the football game tonight but sadly forgot.  Sigh.  I'd go do that now but I am writing, as you can tell.

Ehh, not like I was saying anything interesting anyway. 

a migraine a day at work, rest and play

I actually finished the first step of a task I started working on only a week ago.  I am rather pleased with myself since I would like to get my involvement in this task over with as soon as possible.  It involves contracts for large amounts of money and I strongly suspect that it will take way longer than I would like. 

In enormously exciting news - I have 4 of 5 committee members agreeing to sign off on my thesis - once I finish the last revisions they've suggested.  One to go, and then I am done.  If I could submit the thing on Monday I wouldn't have to pay any more tuition.  I shall dive into the thing tomorrow morning and not climb out until I have finished the revisions.  Then to finish formatting to send it off to the grad studies faculty and whatever else is required for that.  I've gotten copyright permission for most of the figures I am including in the thesis, I've requested permission for the others and need to send an email to the final group of people tomorrow. 

I cannot wait for that whole mess to be done.  I want to publish the papers and start working on something else.  Some old stuff and some new stuff would be nice.  I am not hurting for things to do.  I will probably have to start writing a full-fledged grant for a funding agency next week.  I've never done one of the full grant writing things before.  I've only done little bitty letters of intent that limit the characters you may put into any area.  It becomes a game of being clear while being utterly concise.  A good exercise, actually.  It is far too easy to hide behind an excess of words.  I'm doing that right now I think. 

So.  If I get the revisions done tomorrow I shall take Friday off in celebration.  Allows me to get the final touches done on Monday and submit the thesis of doom. 

Or not.  Maybe my headache won't have left by then.  I woke up with this bastard, and while I've hit it with a lot of advil I can still feel it roaming around the edges of my consciousness.  I should go to bed but I want to do some decluttering before I do that.  I can't really work in my office.  That is stupid and wrong.  Argghhhh! Phone ringing.  I haven't had a phone in this office for about a year.  That is even more stupid and annoying.  I need to make someone fix that. 

malls

Southgate mall in Edmonton recently expanded.  They moved their food court, added a bunch of fancy pants stores and renamed their information desk the concierge (lame).  I've been there a couple times since the grand opening, always at lunchtime and I've wanted to try some of the new food court places.

Along with the rest of the people populating the mall at lunchtime.  So I've yet to try something new.  No thai food, no indian food, no greek food.  Instead I had subway, the same sandwich I always get at subway.  Made the way they always make it.  Sometimes having things the same is comforting.  Especially when everything around it is changing like mad.

***

I had an interesting conversation today.  I had a couple interesting conversations today.  The upshot of one was a decision made for uphosltery fabrics.  The other has me doing something I said I'd never do.  If you say you don't want to do something, that you won't do something, but you are continually told that you would be a really good candidate to do that something, at some point you have to say.  Hmmm.  Maybe someone is trying to tell me something?

I have been so blessed in my life it isn't funny.  I have been in the right place at the right time often enough to be spooky.  For it not to be just chance. 

***

In other news, my back has a new hot spot.  Mid-back has been kind of painful all day.  This morning I couldn't move.  I just said nonononononononono, and eventually it went away.  After I stood painfully stooped over the bathroom sink to brush my teeth.  After finding a new way to turn on the water without bending. 

Good times, I tell you.  I'd already slept in so I was in a bit of a hurry.  Not being able to move really speeded things up. 

***

I have several mini projects on the go, one of which I need to get sent off this week.  Another needs a phone conversation with someone I can't get on the phone.  Another is a project I don't really want to work on.  Another is one that will probably get denied. 

All good stuff.  I should work on something that is lovely and perfect, but alas, that does not exist. 

I even get lost in the song

I cut the grass today.  I should have moved some chairs and the drainspouts and mowed more, but I was too damn tired to manage it. 

I got my hair done, and by the time it was finished I was ready to go home and go back to bed.  I managed some grocery shopping but that was it. 

***

I like that Nike golf commercial for the str8-fit golf club.  It has such a soothing rhythm.  Predictable, but that can be soothing.

***

My car is full of junk.  I need to clean it.   I've needed to clean it for weeks.  I have not done this.  My closet is past due for a clear-out.  I have not done that.  I have an inordinate number of summer shirts that I desperately need to do something about.  I have to finish revisions to my thesis  and hand it in, once everyone has read it that requested that honour.   2 down, 3 to go.  I'm not above bribery.  I bought the committee donuts the day of the defense.  That's just how I roll.  (They all knew I was kidding  with the bribery thing.  At least I think they did.)

***

My face feels heavy and tired so I am going to bed.  I looked at myself in the mirror at the hairdresser this morning and thought - dang.  I am pale.  Freaky pale.  FREAKY.  Goes along with the freaky tirednesss.  I must get my blood tests done this week. 

title: lost, anouk