Musings on a Small Life

Just a few random musings for the day. . . . I woke in a good mood, have been humming "Deck the Halls" all day. Must have been the vodka I had yesterday. Heh. Too rainy to walk to work, but I had a fabulous walk home, just about a power walk. Okay, I hurt now. LOL. Glutes and feet. Could go for a massage by a registered therapist, though I imagine it would be painful. Guess I'll settle for more vodka and my heating pad. :-D By the way, I finally managed to get rid of that $5 I found yesterday. The Salvation Army kettle at the LCBO was being staffed by two people this afternoon, so I swung past and dropped in the bill. Whew. Done. I'm in the midst of holiday cards to a number of participants on a couple of cat groups. Fortunately there aren't too many, about 16, so mailing costs are doable. Okay, well, I don't pay for postage most of the time anyway, thanks to Mom's hubby. Thanks, H.! A couple of members are overseas, one in the UK and one in Israel, but m...

Okay, I have many, as anyone who knows me is aware. :-P But really, I'm just too much of a Ms. Goody Two Shoes. Seriously. You'll understand why as you keep reading. I had another busy day. . . Mercifully slept until almost 4:30AM for a change, left the house at 6:55AM and walked the 5.1kms to Wal-Mart. It the same distance to work, but it feels farther and it does take me slightly longer. Maybe because it's partly uphill and that slows me down a bit, being out of shape. Anyway, I went back for a couple of small items I had forgotten yesterday. Then I bused to the Centre near my neighbourhood and popped into Loblaws for a few items I had overlooked yesterday as well. As I was exiting the grocery store, I saw a $5 bill on the ground. Someone going in must have just dropped it. I hesitated, picked it up, and rather than think, like most people (I assume), "Hey, $5 for me; cool!" I thought, "Oh, no, what if that was someone's last $5? What if they really ne...

Busy, tiring. :-) My paycheque went into the bank--that is, my balance showed the paycheque amount, but the deposit didn't show up. I'm not sure why the account balance indicated that nice amount (included our retro pay), but when I looked on line I'm in overdraft. Well, it'll all come out right on Monday, which is the next business day anyway. So, given that the pay was in my account...sort of...I took the 6:45AM bus up to Chapters/Starbucks, got an Earl Grey chai (wouldn't have one again) and an oatmeal raisin cookie. Then caught the next bus, 15 minutes later, up to Wal-Mart. Yeah, okay, I know it's holiday shopping time. But I still wasn't expecting so many cars in the parking lot at 7:35AM. Good grief! The store didn't seem overly crowded, though. Mind you, it's a mega Wal-Mart, so it's a pretty darned big store. No need to go into detail about all my purchases--it was time to stock up on a number of items, so I left the store $225 poorer. ...

You know, there's nothing on TV at 3 o'clock in the morning. Reruns of "Frasier" on FOX. An endless loop on the Weather Channel and on CTV Newsnet. Usually some tasteless programming on the Slice network (formerly Life) that I quickly by-pass. I know this because I've been awake and up at 3AM every morning this week, except for today, where I was awake at 2AM and finally gave up trying to fall back asleep, crawled out of bed at 3:30. There is a townhouse across the parking lot from me that usually has its bedroom lights on (bright, blinding lights) at 3AM, though. Maybe someone else who can't sleep. If so, they have my sympathies. Really, there's not much to do at 3AM when you live in a townhouse unit and don't want to disturb the neighbours. Laundry. No vacuuming. Ab crunches and stretching, playing with the cats. I'm ready to head back to bed just as it's time to leave the house at 6:00. Let me tell you, a little botox wouldn't be remiss ...

There is a thing in me that dreamed of trees, A quiet house, some green and modest acres A little way from every troubling town, A little way from factories, schools, laments. I would have time, I thought, and time to spare, With only streams and birds for company, To build out of my life a few wild stanzas. And then it came to me, that so was death, A little way away from everywhere. There is a thing in me still dreams of trees. But let it go. Homesick for moderation, Half the world's artists shrink or fall away. If any find solution, let him tell it. Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation Where, as the times implore our true involvement, The blades of every crisis point the way. I would it were not so, but so it is. Who ever made music of a mild day? –Mary Oliver http://www.gratefulness.org/poetry/dream_of_trees.htm Photo courtesy of the free MS Clipart Gallery

Nicki had his two-week check-up, post dental-surgery, this afternoon. Update is on my Fuzzy Tales site, here . I took the entire afternoon off (why not?) and had a fabulous walk home in the sunshine, for a total of 8kms of walking today. Definitely feel better for having done that! Tomorrow should be a "normal" day, then I'm in training all day on Wednesday, and for an hour on Thursday morning. Then, mercifully, it'll be Friday. Please, Paycheque Gods, let our $ go in our accounts on Saturday morning!

Yes, we've all seen this before, I've probably posted it before too, but it's good. #14 is my personal favourite. And hey, it's Monday, most of us need a chuckle for the day! Words for Women to Live By 1. Aspire to be Barbie - the bitch has everything. 2. If the shoe fits - buy them in every color. 3. Take life with a pinch of salt... a wedge of lime, and a shot of tequila. 4. In need of a support group? - Cocktail hour with the girls! 5. Go on the 30 day diet. (I'm on it and so far I've lost 15 days). 6. When life gets you down - just put on your big girl panties and deal with it. 7. Let your greatest fear be that there is no PMS and this is just your personality. 8. I know I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here. 9. Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself. 10. Don't get your knickers in a knot; it solves nothing and makes you walk funny. 11. When life gives you lemons turn it into lemonade then mix it with vodka. 12. ...

I have this baking in the oven right now, but didn't think to pick up any whipped cream or ice cream. Well, I'm sure it has enough calories all on its own. Ha. BTW, I copied the recipe from one of the many blogs I follow, can't remember whose. Pumpkin Dump Cake 1 (29-0z) can pumpkin puree 3 eggs 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar 1 (12-0z) can evaporated milk 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp salt 1 (18.5-oz) package spice cake mix 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans 1/2 cup melted butter Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x13 inch pan. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, brown and white sugar, and milk. Stir in spices and salt. Pour into pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over the pumpkin filling. Sprinkle the top with the pecans and drizzle the melted butter over everything. Bake 50-60 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool and serve with whipped cream or ice cream. Bet it's yummy. I'll know in...

I didn't sleep well last night, thanks mostly to Nicki making a ruckus, but at one point early this morning I remember waking up--barely conscious--and thinking, What is that noise? Turns out that noise was me --snoring away loud enough to rattle the windows, I'm sure. Grandma (Dad's mom) and I could have had a snoring competition. I guess I come by it quite naturally! :-D So, to wake up and get myself moving, I'm posting a few pics of Rutger Hauer from the mid-1980s movie Ladyhawke . Plus another publicity shot, probably also taken around the same time, as he's in his mid-60s now, close to my parents' ages, and looking very craggy. Still, for sheer fantasy, you can't beat a gorgeous, buff man astride a horse, IMO. *SIGH* I'm awake now!

No one should be allowed to turn their Christmas lights on in November. Mid-November, really. It's not even the first Sunday in Advent, for crying out loud. This is just wrong, wrong, wrong . Forgive the crappy snapshot, but you get the idea.

I shouldn't watch the news. At all. This morning, the news (rerun from last night) reported that 198 people have now died in Canada from H1N1. Of course, more people die from other strains of influenza every winter, but what's feeding the frenzy is that otherwise healthy people, with no underlying medical conditions, are felled in short order by the virus (45% of the deaths). The latest two being a 40-year old woman (somewhere in Quebec, maybe) and a 38-year old Carleton University professor. Of course, 198 people out of about 33 million is 0.0006%. An incredibly small percentage of the population. But that news report got me wound up this morning, worrying about the fur kids if something untimely should happen to me. One of my co-workers will take the cats, at least temporarily, until the right homes can be found for them. She is the only person I fully trust to take care of them properly with regard to nutrition, vet care, and so on. Thank you, D! And because my dad is the be...

I was lying in bed at 4AM today, so not wanting to get up, and thinking that I'm never satisfied with my life. Or not for long, at least. When I'm at work I want to be home or at least outside of the cube farm. When I'm home I want to be at work away from the demands of the cats (and trust me, they are demanding, as only another cat slave can possibly understand). When I have company I want them to go home. When I'm alone I want company. When I'm stuck in my routine, as I usually am 99% of the time, I want a change. When I have a change in my routine (granted, it's usually something terribly stressful), I want my "normal" routine back. What is wrong with me?!? Oh, sure, I know it's the human condition to always want more, want what you don't have, etc., but surely many or most people are content with their lives on a daily basis, if not happy? Is it just me who has asked, from the time she was quite young, "Is this it? Is this all there i...

...I'm not out at all. I had all kinds of ideas about what I could do today, where I could go. (It was supposed to be sunny, after all.) But have I made it out of the house? Nooooo . Instead, I started hemming two pairs of pants ("only" had them for 6 months), then had to hem a pair I got the other weekend at Value Village, and re-hem a pair I got last year that still were far too long. By the time I had all four pairs done, and the laundry and vacuuming completed, it was after 10AM. By that time of the morning, my day's half over and you can't get me out of my sweat pants. Nicki's not been feeling well today. I gave him a small handful of Temptation treats yesterday mid-afternoon, because they are soft on the inside. Well, around 1:30 this morning, he jumped off my bed and proceeded to barf up the entire contents of his stomach. Trust me on this one, that green colour (from the treats) is never going to come out of my beige carpet. Ugh and yuck and gross. It ...

It's hard to believe, given it's almost mid-November, that anything is still in bloom, but here are a couple of snapshots taken yesterday, on my way home after work. We certainly had a crappy spring, summer, and early fall, weather-wise, but I'll take these mild November temps as long as possible.

A few weeks ago, maybe longer, I was listening to CBC Radio 2 in the evening and they were doing their program on "ear worms." Songs that get stuck in your head and that you can't get rid of. Listeners had been invited to email or call in their "ear worms" and the hosts played them, along with their own. One, which has been stuck in my head ever since and which I woke up with this morning, is ABBA's Chiquitita. Honestly, I can't stand it. I don't want to listen to old ABBA songs, let alone have one stuck in my head for weeks. A few days ago I was in a grocery store and one of the songs from the animated movie Beauty and the Beast was playing. So that started to go through my mind as well and I've been alternating since. One day I'll wake up with that, the next with Chiquitita. It's driving me crazy! What the radio hosts failed to impart was how to expunge the damn songs from one's brain. Any tips? I listen to jazz at work all day, yo...

Boy, did I have a meltdown, as my co-worker would put it, on Tuesday and then Wednesday morning. Post-Nicki surgery stress, compounded by PMS. Sheesh. I have such "great" life coping skills -- not. LOL! He's doing fine, as far as I can tell. Eating canned, going outside, playing. He's better than me! I still have a lingering tension headache (which had morphed into a migraine Tuesday evening/overnight) and am wondering if I ever am going to feel good again. Seems I haven't felt energetic and just plain good since I passed 40...some years ago. I remember the young doctor (resident) asking me, last month at my check-up, if I was happy. I looked at her (she's 26) and said I didn't know anyone in my age group who was happy. We're all bogged down with life/family/work/financial stress. Was I that naive when I was her age? Oh, yeah, you bet I was. I even was that naive well into my 30s. "To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements...

Worse than either I or the vet was expecting. The update is on my Fuzzy Tales site. At least he's home recovering now; I picked him up just after 6PM yesterday. And, amazingly, the dentist didn't charge me any more than the estimate, in spite of the fact that he ended up removing 8 (!) teeth, not just 4 incisors.

1. Stopping at Starbucks for a short, non-fat chai and a double chocolate chunk cookie. That's just wrong on so many levels: money, calories, sugar content. 2. Going to Value Village because I'm desperate for clothes to wear that I don't feel like a stuffed sausage in or, alternatively, are hanging off me like a potato sack and look like they've had a few owners before me. Which they have, of course. But I did walk up to Starbucks anyway, did get a chai and a cookie, and did catch the bus from there to Value Village. I blame the Value Village run on having watched reruns of "Renovate My Wardrobe" this morning, at 5AM. Most of my pants are too tight because I'm so fat, and most of my few winter tops are pilled to death and stretched out of shape. Not suitable for the office. Spending money on clothes is the last thing I needed to do right now, with tomorrow's big vet bill, but I can't express to you how miserable I feel every single day in my clothe...

Not up to much today--went out early this AM to run a banking errand, thought I'd do a few other things, but I really needed to come home and go to bed. This nasty cold is sitting in my ears and chest, so I'm still not very energetic. Anyway, the best I can do for today is a pumpkin loaf recipe I've just made, have baking even as I type: Pumpkin Loaf 1 ¼ cups Brown sugar ½ cup Cooking oil 1 2/3 cups Cooked or canned pumpkin 2 Eggs 2 ½ cups All purpose flour 3 tsp Baking powder ½ tsp each Salt, ginger, & ground cloves 1 ¼ tsp cinnamon Beat together 1 cup sugar, oil, pumpkin & eggs. In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, cloves, and 1 tsp cinnamon. Combine pumpkin mixture with dry ingredients just enough to moisten all ingredients. Spoon into 2 lightly greased loaf pans. Mix remaining ¼ cup brown sugar and ¼ tsp cinnamon. Sprinkle over unbaked loaves. Bake in preheated 350 F oven for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool slightly...

Since I've been (a) sick and (b) otherwise occupied this week, I've not had a chance to take any November pictures yet. So here are a few from last November, early to mid-month. The two sunset pics were snapped through my bedroom window.

The few people who read this blog already know that I've been walloped by a cold this week, that I missed Monday from work (sick), half a day on Tuesday and half a day Wednesday as personal time off for appointments. And everyone also knows that both Annie and Nicki have been in to the vet, Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. If anyone actually makes it to this blog (can't fathom why or how!) and wants the story on cat health and vet bill$, you can read my updates on my Fuzzy Tales site. Believe me, the $tory is ongoing. I had three whiny posts up here, which I've deleted, because, well, I was venting at the time and no one else needs to read those entries. And if I don't whine, I really don't have anything to write. Not now, not with the way this week has gone. The best I can do is look forward to Friday and to the weekend, and hope for more energy--and good weather--for some picture-taking, if the spirit moves me.