HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Arnold is in Lethbridge, so we had to put the Happy New Year Hat on Crystal. We waited until she was drooling quite a bit, on the girl's lap which meant that she was deliriously relaxed and that it was safe momentarily, and that we could quite possibly get the hat on without getting maimed. AND WE DID! But you can probably tell from the look on her face that she is less than amused. Having said that, I will admit to you quietly, very very quietly, that I have a photo of me wearing the very same hat, but you will never see it in public, nor will you see it in anything even resembling public. So, Happy New Year from the cat. No matter what the look on her face tells you.

Thank You Poobahs!!!

It arrived! My blog candy from the Opus girls arrived today! It's so awesome! I've been home 1/2 hour and I've already opened it and played with it and I can guarantee, I'll have my first LO using the treats, done before 2010 hits! the heck with making supper tonight.
This is after I sent a very sad email to Rosemary saying (with a tear in my eye) that I had given up and accepted it had somehow gotten lost in the mail or something. Almost 4 weeks to get from Maryland to Canada. Where is Maryland anyways???? Timbuktoo?
Anyhoo, it all came in this sweet felt (I LOVE felt) bag and I feel as though Christmas arrived all over again.
So Rosemary, please disregard my weepy email and thank you thank you thank you both!
I hope we all have a safe, warm New Year's Eve tonight!

But I'm still eating....

I'll miss Christmas when it's gone.

Almost time to diet....

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Linux

I have a laptop. It has Linux on it. This makes me very happy. I spent a few nights trying to download some anti-virus software (unsuccessfully) until I learned that Linux doesn't need anti-virus software BECAUSE IT DOESN'T GET VIRUSES!!!!!
What a concept. I can take it with me on trips, and connect to the Internet so that I can still blog and check my email. I cannot however do much else. THIS WILL NOT STOP ME! I can get "Linux for Dummies" from the library.
And it will never steal Word from me. Hah!

OK, I know

I posted this pic of the little pink girls tobogganing b'fore. But now it's in a LO and I just think it's so girly and so pretty! Well, I guess girly and pretty are kind of one and the same.
On a different note, has anyone else had their version of WORD (as in the Microsoft Netherworld) totally disappear from their computer? Where did it go? Why can't I do any more word processing? What is it about my life that has made Bill Gates et al feel the need to make it their mission to screw me over???? I'm not kidding folks, it's gone. I looked everywhere for it. Gone. and that is not the only thing. I can no longer open Power Point slide shows, Excel documents, god, if I look down my damn underwear is probably missing too!
And yes, I've restarted the mother ship. It hasn't helped.
I know I've mentioned this in earlier posts, but I really really really hate Microsoft. No, hate is such a strong word. I DESPISE them. And I felt that way before they took my Word.
My word! She IS upset, isn't she?

Back to work tomorrow

But what a wonderful day I've had! I told myself I WILL complete the scrapbook pages from our summer vacation before I go to Palm Springs on the 22nd. That doesn't give me much time, really, but I can do it if I don't eat or sleep or use the bathroom. I can do it.
Along those lines, I have scrapbooked all day. It's after nine and I just now made supper and ate. I've gotten a lot done, and my back is seizing up from standing for 18 hours, but I'm happy! I was procrastinating last night by doing some digital LO's and this is one of them. I really like it. That's the house next door to the house where I work. Winter is pretty, when it's not obscenely cold. More often than not, it IS obscenely cold, so I'll take anything I can get that's above zero. Even if it isn't pretty.

Recipe Box

I made a recipe box for the girl for Christmas. In it are recipes from my Grandma (her Great-Grandma), my Mom (her Grandma) and me (her Mom :-)) I chose recipes that I loved as a little girl and those that she loved as a little girl. It took some time, my fingers are getting kind of arthritic, so the writing took over a week. but I hope it will be the beginning for her of treasured recipes that she can pass on to her children.

Arnold gets into the Christmas Spirit

Yes, that is a cat. Not a happy cat, but a cat, nonetheless. Makes you kind of feel all warm and fuzzy, doesn't it? First, Arnold, tried to open the wrapped gifts, by stripping the paper off with his evil little claws. Then he thought he could hide from the yelling humans, by sticking his head between a few gifts, even though his butt was left out in the open. "If I can't see you, you can't see me!" meow, meow.
We got him back though. Go ahead, which is your favorite, the elf or the reindeer with the droopy antlers? You decide. I've made my choice. It's the picture I have in my mind of his striped bright orange behind, with it's twitching bright orange tail, sticking out from a couple of parcels. Smart cat, that Arnold.

Merry Christmas!!!

Yes, we did it! We made it through Christmas and are now in a turkey-induced semi-comatose state.What a yummy dinner we had! And then went for a walk along the river. The only downer was that we found a deer with a broken leg, so we went to the police station to see if they would let a wildlife officer know. But the officer said, he would go and deal with it. That would never happen is the city-they're too busy dealing with home invasions and armed robberies. Nice, this small town thing.

Christmas Eve

I'm at the girl's drinking hot chocloate and watching TV. We had a wonderful dinner at a Greek restaurant that served Butter Chicken (?!) and then drove around and looked at some Xmas lights. It was nice. WALMART IS CLOSED!!!! Gasp! The world must have come to an end when I wasn't looking.
Having said that, A very Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Bad Blogger!

Ok, that didn't work so well. I actually went downstairs and made coffee for the morning while my picture uploaded. But it did, so it's all good, right? I'm going to bed at a reasonable hour, so that I don't sleep in until noon. The girl is making kraft dinner for lunch when I arrive. At my request. No way I'm going to be late for that! Good night.

two more sleeps

and I'm getting excited! Tomorrow I drive to Lethbridge to spend Christmas with my kid. One of her roommate's family is at the house and after I talk to the Mom about who is making what for Christmas supper, we'll go to the grocery store and get some food. Munchies too, for movie-watching tomorrow Eve, while we wait for Santa to arrive.
I am almost as excited about being off work for five, count em five, days as I am about going to see the girl. Maybe even more. Nah, they're about even.
Blogger is having a brain fart tonight, it won't let me upload a picture. Guess I'll do this in two posts.

three more sleeps

I ate chocolate for breakfast. That's what we do at Christmas, we get chocolates and candies and cookies as gifts and there they are on the desk. It's brutal, brutal, I tell ya! I don't know how they expect me to get any work done when I'm bouncing off the walls all morning and then nodding off at my desk right after that. It's sadistic. One of the PO's gave us a box of oranges (she explained for those who don't eat chocolate) and I said, Oh, I don't think there are any of THOSE here. We gave the oranges to the men. Really, we're saving them from a life of chocolate-indused debaucharie. We're very thoughtful, don't you think?

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Florida

I was behind a car from Florida today. Their license plate had an orange on it and I could swear I heard it screaming "Make it Stop!!!". About the snow of course. I wondered what the people inside it were thinking. Were they thinking "Oh, this is so pretty!" or were they thinking "OMG, what if I hit a patch of ice?" or maybe they were simply fighting, the husband saying "I TOLD you we should have gone to Arizona, but NO you had to see your mother!"
Welcome to Calgary, Florida.

Christmas Baking

I've been going through my mother's recipies too, for a reason I can't say out loud until after Christmas morning ;-))and remembering how much baking she would do each holiday season. She would make divinity, brown sugar fudge, and shortbread (of course) which she would make with her hands, mixing everything together so carefully using her fingers.
Most special of all, she would make these caramels to die for and my brother and I would have to cut little pieces of saran wrap and wrap them all individually. We would eat more than we wrapped, and bicker while we did it. Bicker, that's what we did best. I miss him. and those caramels. I made some Lemongrass and Sea Salt caramels this year, but I suspect Mom's old candy thermometer has gone to the candy shop in the sky-it turned into toffee, instead of caramels. But it tastes pretty good!

thinking of my Mom

I've been missing my Mom for the past few days. It's been a couple of years since she passed on, but for some reason, she's in my thoughts right now more than usual.
I made a tree of branches with her earrings as decorations, and when I opened her jewelry box, I smelled her scent. Maybe that's what's up. At any rate, these photos are of a couple of ornaments from my childhood (so very long ago). I've lots of memories, decorating the tree and my brother and I arguing about how the tinsel should go on-he would throw handfuls of it and I would laboriously hang them one by one. Let's see, who is healthier...him, I think!

Friday Fill-ins on Saturday

I stayed out until after midnight last nights taking photographs of Xmas lights. I drove by a skating rink and there was a hockey game on, thought Wow I really want to photograph that! But the gas tank "empty!" warning light was on and had been for some time. So I wanted to get gas first. Then I got trapped in a convoy of snow plows. By the time I got back, the players had left. Maybe I'll have to go back.I meant to do the Friday Fill-In, but was too tired when I got home, so here is my Saturday Fill-In:
1. No, we will not cook your Christmas turkey for you. It's time you learnt how. 2. I can sit and watch you work, at the old kitchen table. 3. I watched the steam rising from the hot cup of coffee and thought I should have had you do this last year. 4. If I really think about it, I know it's going to be OK. 5. I'll take a nap while you set the table. 5. It all looks delicious at least from my point of view. 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to photographing Xmas lights (which I did), tomorrow my plans include a drive to the Res, and Sunday, I want to go to the Sing-Along Messiah Concert.

Christmas ATC's

Just a quick post for tonight. I made this LO for my office, to make it "Christmasy"
We have decorated, there's a big tree in the dining room, and someone threw a massive red bow on the plant in the bathroom. Come to think of it, someone took that off this morning, probably because we had real people coming in for a meeting, as opposed to us staff, who are challenged in so many ways. :-) I hung Xmas lights around my office window (althought they look like they were hung by a couple of drunken elves). I just felt it needed something else. So, ho ho ho.

Summer is back

Hah! I was going to try not to comment on the weather but I just can't do it. It's above zero and I've just been sitting out on the back porch with only a hoodie on. Well, and pants. I am so happy. Dance, dance, dance. The rest of the evening I've spent working on a digital Christmas album I'm putting together, based on Jessica Sprague's Holidays in Hand class. I've taken the photos based on her prompts and will transfer all of her carefully chosen quotes to my pages, but I've done 31 digital pages, with digital Christmas elements in bright non-traditonal colours. I can't help myself, I can never just follow directions. I SHOULD be doing other Christmas-related secret stuff, but I didn't. I did freeze the leftover roast ham and sweet potato-cheese casserole from yesterday's party and made ham stock for lentils and pea soup. That's the plan tomorrow night, making food. I'll have to stay away from the computer. We'll see.
If I can.

Maybe I should call this my weather complaint blog

I'm not complaining today, the weather is balmy, about 10 below. That's how I could go out taking pics, Had to wait till skin would not freeze in a few seconds, as it's a ways to walk to the bird sanctuary. Very peaceful though. I saw a deer walking across the ice. Nice.
The temperature has increased 31 dgrees in the last 24-hours in Lethbridge. Only up 17 here. But hey 17 is 17. Maybe I can not wear my fleece hoodie under my full length winter coat. This is exciting. Everyone's mood has lifted.

I'm going to sleep without socks tonight. If that doesn't tell you I'm a rebel, you're just not paying attention.

It's warmed up

to the point that I could go out shooting at the Bird Sanctuary today. With my camera, not a gun. I like ducks. I like everything about them. Look at all these ducks! And look at the one coming in for a landing in the midst of them. They don't even move out of the way. They don't blink. It's like "Yeah, hey, watch the suit, Whatever, hi Bob"

I'm OK now

Alright, after a good night's sleep with the furnace cranked way up, I'm back in the Xmas mood. I'm done with my hissy fit. This one, at least. I have been trying all morning to convince myself to go outside to the store for some ingredients for a Potluck I'm going to tomorrow night. I have a ham to cook today, for another potluck on Tuesday, but I need a few things. Racking my brain as to what is in the freezer and if I can get away with picking up some store-bought something-or-other tomorrow before work. Naah, that would be wrong. I suppose I'd better get dressed. Expect me to be crabby when I return. :-)

It is so friggin cold!!!!

OK, minus 36. That's just Stupid Cold. And speaking of stupid, I went Xmas shopping AT THE MALLS today. I must have lost my mind. I never go Christmas shopping in December. But I did today. Go ahead, ask me how far away I had to park and ask me if my jeans froze to my legs as I trudged towards my destination! Yes, they did! note to self. Do not leave your hat in the truck. Nor your gloves.
It was the kind of day that makes you want to park in the handicapped parking stall by the door and walk in some way that will make people think you deserve to park there. I WANTED to do that. But I didn't. Honest.
Stupid, stupid cold.
At any rate, that's the reason for the picture. Even though it wasn't especially hot when we were in Cuba, this photo makes me feel warm. And that's what it's all about today. Must feel warm. No matter what.

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Newsflash! Invisible Shoes Invented and We're Sufficiently Freaked

Newsflash! Invisible Shoes Invented and We're Sufficiently Freaked

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No Go

Well, we met up to drive to the prison and the consensus was it would be too dangerous to go. Good decision, as I drove home down the Deerfoot, it became a white-out. No fun, no fun at all. Having gotten up at 5:30AM to make this trip, I'm about ready to go back to bed. But NO! The shopper in me reigns supreme this morning, I'm going to go back out and pick up some Christmas gifts before the stores get busy. I don't have far to go, and the route has no open areas, so it'll be clear (she says with a laugh). At any rate, I'm outta here now.

Do I care?

about Tiger Woods? No. Not even a little bit. This guy is the new flavour of the month for the CNN talking heads and I am sick of it. Don't we have more important things to talk about? I guess not.
So here's some food for thought. I wear a wig sometimes. And I left my wig cap at the wigoptomist Is that a word? If not, it should be. But I wanted to wear my wig and needed a wig cap, so I pulled a pair of (unwashed) panti-hose out of my dresser amd cut the legs off. I put the remainder of them on my head, thinking it would work. They were too loose (even though they were control top). Plus they smelled like feet. (Better then butt, I guess) The point of this story? Well, it's that I've discovered my head is much smaller than my butt. I think I knew that, but it was driven home to me as I looked in the bathroom mirror in a cloud of shiny nude-coloured threads and eau-de-feet and cursed myself for forgetting the damn thing in the first place.

And now for the Friday Fill-In:
1. Good times: These days, getting home without rear-ending someone or sliding into a ditch. 2. I love, love, love my home. 3. Sleigh bells ring in my mind as I hum carols all day long. 5. Once more my cat is asking me if I could PLEASE turn the heat up????????? 6. Will this damn snow never end? &. And as for the weekend, tonight I am looking forward to hitting the open road with a good friend, tomorrow my plans include driving up north to Drumheller for a workshop, assuming the roads are passable, and Sunday, I want to stay home and not set foot outside, because it's going to be minus 26.
HOWEVER, it was minus 51 the other day in Lethbridge, where my daughter lives. She and her housemates have 5 vehicles and not one of them started, even though they were plugged in. So who am I to complain?

EEHAW!!!

Winter arrived this weekend with a vengeance. Fortunately, I've taken four days in a row off work and therefore didn't need to leave the house in the thick of it. I went out on Saturday, and had no problem, but that's only because I have a 4x4. Without it, I would have turned around and stayed home. I understand it was 31 degrees below zero last night. OUCH. The bad news is that 5 homes burnt down on the weekend, as the firetrucks couldn't get to them. and apparently, EMS workers were leaving their ambulances and hiking to their patients. Not good, not good at all. I'm going out again soon, need to mail some parcels. I'm not worried, except about the other drivers. The ones who have bald summer tires and snowflakes-for-brains. That was me once, so I know whereof I speak.
Let's see, how many hats should I wear? How many coats? Do I wear runners or boots? AH, glorious winter in the great white north! By the way, that bus? and those cars? They were submerged shortly after this photo was taken.

So I have a question

What I want to know is, when did I turn into my mother? Was I napping that day? Was I out somewhere? Or was I just not paying attention? My mother would not let us make popcorn in her microwave oven (in 2008) because she was afraid her apartment would catch on fire. Right. I used to shake my head. But NOW, I am about as terrorized by technology as she was by microwaves. (Did I mention that when I went to Disneyland when I was 6, they were introducing people to these new fangled microwave ovens and everyone was just AWED by them?) This picture is of me muttering about why the heck is my shutter release not working on my camera FLASH!!!!! Geesh.
My daughter gave me a digital photo frame for Christmas last year. I just got the photos onto it last week. I took it to work, but couldn't figure out how to hang it. I had to ask the maintenance guy. The tire pressure light has been on in my truck for eons. I've checked the pressure, it's fine. I just ignore the light. Why can my computer never recognize me when I try to sign onto my own blog and why does it send a newsletter that I have been receiving for three years to my junk mailbox every day, even though I have told it over and over that it is not junk? Yet every website I have ever visited or even thought about visiting knows my bra size?
Uncle. I give up. I'm going to make some popcorn. In the microwave.