The Rogers' - Welcome to our neighbourhood

uncooperative starts with u

2012-01-26T23:19:00.002-05:00

One of James' dictation words for this week was 'uncooperative'. He kept getting it wrong when we were practicing by writing an "i" at the start of the word. So this morning I told him "Uncooperative starts with u". To which I snickered because uncooperative really does sometimes start with him :)

A colleague's son died this week- only 19 years old. Very sad :(

beetles

2012-01-25T22:50:00.002-05:00

In an apocryphal story, a colleague once turned to the great British geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, and said, "Tell me, Mr. Haldane, knowing what you do about nature, what can you tell me about God?" Haldane replied, "He has an inordinate fondness for beetles."

This term Wednesdays are my longest days. I was up especially early this morning (5am) as I had to run some errands before work. Then had 4 workshops, 1 mental health commission meeting and 4 hours working at the registrar teaching the scheduling software. It is going amazingly well and we have loaded all the classes into the scheduler. Still lots of work to do before we can schedule but it is looking good!

Closed

2012-01-24T21:33:00.002-05:00

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
~G.K. Chesterton

The deal finally closed on the old house and ze new people have moved in! This is a good thing, but it feels odd for the house not to be a part of me anymore.

Today was a way off kilter day. Tomorrow is Wednesday which is my busiest day of the week. My goal for tomorrow is to eat lunch! Baby steps :)

James' team won the championship in the Humber tournament. I will have to post a pic of him with his trophy soon!

upcoming

2012-01-22T20:24:00.002-05:00

Maybe I was not clear that the fence below was my fence! It seems to be mostly intact, just will have to strengthen the posts. That will have to wait until spring though.

Monday is always one of my busy days. Tomorrow is looking extra busy! I have meetings starting at 7:30 so I need to leave the house by 7am.

I have been working a lot on the weekend to get the exam stuff ready - I'm going to help the new admin person learn the ropes.

I went by the old house today- the sold sign and the lockbox are gone. Utilities are still on. Ready to move in! I left a note for the new people with details about the house. I still have to get all the keys to the lawyer.

And the walls come down

2012-01-19T22:48:00.005-05:00

The massive wind blew the fence down.

The closing date for the old house has changed to Jan 24th.

An old buddy of mine from school passed away on Monday

And Marlene wins the extra 10 point prize!

elsbeth blender

2012-01-18T22:44:00.002-05:00

Monday is my busiest day, but Wed is the close second. I was pleased with what I accomplished today, except I didn't make it to the JDUC.

I did get the Week 1 grades in and help students and update lots of things in Moodle and reply to lots of email as well as there were a couple of meetings in there. At 3:45 Tim called me from his 1.3 million dollar meeting and wondered when I was leaving. I suggested leaving at 4:30 would be good. He assured me that he would leave his meeting by 4. He strolled into the office at 4:30 and we worked on the 'Patent Office' that we are running for his project. It took us about an hour to set up the structure and shell in Moodle. I hope he's loaded the forms as I get to open the Patent office at 8:30 tomorrow morning. (I checked and he had loaded the important one)
The project is about moving 'valuable liquid' from point A to B with certain constraints. Tim decided that I could be a protester who doesn't want the company moving the valuable liquid.
He picked my name to be "Elsbeth Blender" which is a take off from a character in a book- 10 bonus point to whomever can guess who!

wind in the willows

2012-01-17T22:40:00.002-05:00

Hope the willows survive!

It is super windy. Tonight is recycling night but I didn't put mine out for fear of it blowing away. Well, actually, I did put it out but then took it right back in!

Hope not too much damage is done tonight and that we keep power!

Brendan posted this link in FB The landlord threatened to sue for defamation if the details came out in the social media. But if the details that were released were true (and not simply something someone made up to hurt someone else) is it defamation or telling the truth?

Last night I went to sleep at 11:30 ish. I use my cell phone as my alarm clock so it is nearby when I sleep. at about 12:10 it made a noise and I noticed a call went straight to voicemail. Now, normally if someone calls and leaves a voicemail I can see a log of the call on my phone and on my phone's website. But at 12:10 it went straight to voicemail without a trace. Now, how I normally deal with voicemail is I just call the number back. I never listen to my voicemail. I don't even remember the password to get the messages. So, ya, that was weird!

Monday is my super busiest day. Yesterday I didn't start getting through my email until 4:20. and I am scheduled to only work until 4:30. I did make it through all my email though by the end of the day though!

Small goal right now- make it through my email. Goal tomorrow to go by the JDUC as Tim's farmer's market should have a stall there!

Flatjacks

2012-01-15T16:08:00.008-05:00

Sold baby!

James' fort from yesterday. He asked to be 'buried' again today.

James loves his 'soft pants'!

I took these photos in sequence on my camera and was amused that they both have pine trees poking out the top.

Leftover chocolate letter amusement

A while ago, I picked up 'Flatjacks' at Loblaws. They are chicken snacks -like chicken nuggets but you put them in the toaster. James was leery at first as he has never had chicken snacks from the toaster (nor have I!) but they turned out to be quite good. James says "Love them- buy them again!". Success in trying something new! Now moving on to vegetables...

-21 and counting

2012-01-15T09:35:00.002-05:00

Well, it was -21 when I woke up, -20 now. It was so cold at night that James who normally only sleeps with his NHL blankie because he is such a HOT sleeper got up at 6am to cuddle with me. I normally sleep with 2 comforters as I'm a pretty cold sleeper! He got right back to sleep. I was up from 4am off and on so I'm not sure what bits I was sleeping. My dreams were pretty busy so I'm probably more tired now :)

I hope my camera still works in the cold. I'm planning on taking some pics today!

crickets

2012-01-14T21:27:00.002-05:00

I was playing around with my cell phone a month or so ago and I changed the tone that it makes when I get a text. Today I was working on the computer as I had to send a couple of messages to students and I heard a sound that sounded like crickets. Puzzled, I checked the cell phone and I found a message from my cell phone company telling me I needed to top up my account. My cell phone sounds like crickets now. I don't get a lot of text messages so it took a long time to test this new sound! I think I'll keep it- it reminds me of summer.

The weather certainly is NOT like summer and I'm not too keen on it. But certain 9 year olds love it! While I was shoveling snow, he was building a snow fort. Then he sat right where I was shoveling snow TO and let me cover him with snow so that most of his body except his arms and head were buried. He thought this was great fun! I'm still not convinced it looked anything like fun to me! I'm ready for summer already. As Marlene said, I'm ready to delete the weather from my friend's list!

3am, ice crashing down

2012-01-13T22:01:00.002-05:00

The world was coated in ice yesterday. The temperature rose in the night. At 3am, I woke up as the ice was melting and falling in giant chunks of the house. I checked the weather- it said 3 degrees. When I got up around 7am it had fallen to 2 degrees. Now it is -7 and the weather has plum tired me out!

I started my day today by going to my old job to manage things there.
Then I went back to my real job. Had a class in the morning to deal with and then did lots of things to prepare for next week. I still have lots to do but I think I'm on track! I was very pleased by the end of the day to have gotten through the weeks' email! That was a major accomplishment. There was so much that went on this week!

I sent the documents to my lawyer that she requested for the house sale. She requested my utility bill- not sure if that means she is cancelling it or if I have to? I'll have to find out. I should go over to the old house tomorrow or Sunday just to photograph the sold sign!

Need to sleep now- thanx weather!

house sold!

2012-01-12T20:14:00.001-05:00

The old house is sold- closing next Friday!

I'll have to recommend to the new owner that he check out the Rustle store as he doesn't have any furniture!

Emails from before the grave

2012-01-10T21:13:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is going to be sooo long. I have classes all day. So it would seem Wednesday is going to be a full day all term. 9:30-11:30, 12:30-2:30, 3:30-5:30 and 6:30-8:30. So, yes, all day. And I need to finish a Moodle site set up by 12:30. The rest of the day I'll probably try to haul through my email in between being in the classes.

I also need to remember to call the futon place. They said they would deliver the mattress last week but I haven't heard from them.

Last night I watched some of the Bachelor (not all because my friend Clara called). I found a pretty hilarious recap.

During my unpacking on the weekend, I found some emails that I had printed in 2000. They were from my friend who died in a bad car accident in 1999. I am pretty pleased that I printed them as I don't have access to that email account anymore and I'm glad I didn't lose these. I totally did not remember them as I haven't looked at them in 10 years!

My favorite line:

my life is NOT a vacation...it just has a .."no-over working" style

In response to my concern of him traveling to Israel for New Years:

I have heard! It is kinda worrying. I hope nothing like that happens while I am there. I'll try to be careful.

He never made it to Israel. He never made it to New Years.

James' new years resolution

2012-01-09T23:42:00.003-05:00

Today James poured me a glass of juice when I said I wanted a drink.
Normally it is me pouring him juice so I was surprised.
He then told me that his new year's resolution was "to be nicer to me".
Which is nice and all, but makes me wonder what they talked about at school today as he hasn't mentioned new years resolutions before today.
Not that I'm knocking it!
I LIKE his resolution! (not that I had noticed him being un-nice, but I like that he's doing extra!)

Attack of the prancing girls

2012-01-08T23:04:00.002-05:00

The funniest bit of the night was when we had finished our main meeting and were breaking off into the subgroup meetings.
One of the instructors, who is an older gentleman (this fact is only given for context) took his group into the room across the hall.
Well, at least his group left.
He came back within a minute asking if I had a key to another room.
No problem.
I can open another room.
Then he had to tell me why.
There were girls in their underwear prancing in his room.
They said they had booked the room. (they had not- the only reason the building was open was for our meeting)
They were not *actually* in their underwear- they looked like a dance group wearing workout wear.
The instructor said to me "What was I supposed to say to them? Get dressed and go home?"
I found the whole thing rather amusing :)

over the top

2012-01-08T14:24:00.002-05:00

deep breath!
this week is a big one as the students return tomorrow.

I cut my foot pretty badly a couple of days ago and have been bandaging it up pretty well for walking (which I do a lot!) but today I just wore regular socks with out the extra padding and seemed fine. So healing it is.

Tomorrow the real estate agent should let me know if the old house is sold.

The home phone appears to have kicked the bucket. Do people still sell land line phones? lol.

I'm going in to work soon as I have to do a lot of photocopying and run some interviews before our meeting this evening.

flashback

2012-01-07T21:39:00.002-05:00

Today I spent a good chunk of the day working as I had to get the project groups ready.

I did happen to glance at the obit section (which I don't do often) and saw that it looks like Gail's son aged 33 died suddenly a couple of days ago. I know her as she is a proctor, so from my exam time. Now it's just my guess that it is her, I don't know for sure, so I don't quite know what to do. If I send a card and it's not her, that would be bad!

I went thought a couple of bags from the basement and found some old emails that I had printed. They were sent a couple of weeks before my friend was killed in a car accident in 1999. Very sad.

I forgot to write about the Bachelor. I forgot it was going to be on on Monday until I read Marlene's FB. So I caught the last hour. Nat, Karrie, are you watching this time?
A while back the show started at 9pm but they tried to dial things back and make it more family oriented to get a start time of 8pm. However, this bachelor looks like the series should be back in the 9pm time slot. In the clip for the upcoming weeks it shows Ben going skinnydipping with one of his bevy of ladies. (with black privacy bars) Chris host indicated in his column that Ben is very comfortable in his own skin. I guess to explain why Ben did that in a sugar coated way. It's one thing to be comfortable in your skin. It's another to take everything off on national tv!

Smart

2012-01-06T22:24:00.002-05:00

Today was especially crazy as it was the last business day to prepare for the term that begins on Monday.
I only had one goal for today and that was to make the project groups.
This goal was not accomplished! I will have to complete it on the weekend.
We are working on Sunday anyway with a TA meeting and interviews.

In the news there was a story about Casey Anthony releasing a video on youtube or something. Either she is not very smart to reveal her new 'look' or she has a very warped perception of what people think of her.

The Star today showed a fast food place that sells Darth Vader burgers.

Whew

2012-01-05T22:34:00.002-05:00

No foul play suspected Apparently, they have released the location of the article that I posted about yesterday. Good to hear the neighbourhood is not foul :)

James was pleased to find Judge Judy on one of our 1000 channels (he knows how much I like it). So we chillaxed and watched it. Apparently, it was being offered on a Seattle station because the Seattle news came on right after and their top story was like it was out of a book or a movie. There was a policeman who the force suspected was having some issues with narcotics so they had an undercover officer give him some drugs to process because they wanted to see if he would but he didn't - he pocketed them. So they followed him after work and arrested him. Took him to jail, offered his support for substance problems, etc. Drove him home. Then he drove to a park and killed himself. So very sad.

The marks in at least one of the courses I work on was released today. I could tell when from the increase blip in my emails.

We had a meeting this afternoon as we are getting set to roll out another session of the course and I thought it was amusing that I have to be the "bad guy" to have them make a decision about what project they are going to do next week. It was all "Aphra needs a decision" which amuses me because really it's not me, the decision just has to be made period. But is there needs to be a face to the decision, then that will be me!

Group making tomorrow. Fun!

possible

2012-01-04T21:48:00.003-05:00

This article is about something a block away. I was amused that the article talked about a "possible death". You would think either there was a death, or there was not. There tends not to be a lot of grey area there. Bob is now probably going to make fun of the neighbourhood I moved to. This sort of thing never happened in Bob's neighbourhood!

Duncan is sleeping over tonight and the boys have been giggling and reading books for about an hour. They are pretty silly together. I hope they sleep well tonight!
They especially liked "It's a book".

My inbox at work exploded today. We had to make a lot of decisions today and we had some challenges with that. My head was spinning a bit, but I think we made it through.

The cold wasn't too bad during the day- we'll see how the night goes!

broken?

2012-01-04T07:50:00.001-05:00

I managed to get to sleep around midnight only to be woken at 1am by my own coughing. Has the cold broken? I slathered on an extra thick layer of Vicks and had a cough drop and slept through the rest of the night. Hope I'm not too shattered today :)

marks are in

2012-01-03T22:45:00.002-05:00

All of the marks from the courses I worked on last term are now in (though not approved yet) so now I can turn my eyes on the upcoming term.

I tried to lie low today to try to survive as best I can until I'm feeling better but still had lots to do. I did ok today but I'm taking how I feel day by day.

This is an interesting survey article from October.

I ordered pizza online today from pizza pizza- first time ever! They have a deal going on for the first 12 days of the year, if you order online you get 12% off. Sweet.

If you ever want a good laugh, take a look at James when he drinks orange crush. He always pretends to be so freaked out by the bubbles and he holds it in his mouth and makes funny faces. I always try and make him laugh while he does this, just for fun. There's always some spillage on this quest.

Worse

2012-01-02T20:41:00.002-05:00

The chest cold seems to have gotten worse today and I'm feeling "killed to death" lol.
I hope a good rest tonight will put be back on my feet for tomorrow. I'm mainly worried about the effect of walking in to work. Hopefully, I will be ok if I get a good sleep.

I ended up working a lot today as the grades are due in tomorrow.
James had a friend over so that worked out.
I made the roast beef and James scarfed it down like he does chicken. He may complain about chicken and roast beef but he seems to eat them well! This was my first roast from John's deli and it was an excellent one. I am currently loving buying my meat from there.

Day 1

2012-01-01T18:33:00.003-05:00

James (after I told him we were having chicken for dinner tonight): Why do we have to eat chicken so often? We eat it 3 times a week! Me: Because it is one of the only meals you will eat. BUT tomorrow I'm making roast beef. James: (disgruntled) That's the same as chicken! (I can't win :)

Rustle this morning was very good- a solid grounding for the new year. Good to see everyone again.

I worked on more unpacking in the afternoon- I found napkins celebrating the year 2000! I was amused.

I also have lots of 1/2 used cans of paint (both interior and exterior) if anyone has any small projects to do :)

Jordin posted this link on Facebook and reminded me how much I like this song. Thanks Jordin!

I have to clean tonight. I am trying to balance the unpacking and the cleaning!

Tomorrow I have the day off but I have lots to do to prepare for work on Tuesday!

previously unreleased pictures from 2011

2012-01-01T10:07:00.007-05:00

Oma and Grandad opening the presents that James made:

James brought a star wars book home from the library and took a picture of each page. Likely that would be copyright infringement but most of the pictures are not very good, so I don't think any harm was done.

James took this self portait- he can have a facebook page now. lol. (He doesn't want one in case you were wondering)

I am still in pretty rough shape with my cold but I'm going to Rustle anyway. I just won't breathe on anyone. I'm wearing the new sweater my parents game me for Christmas with a black shirt underneath because Rustle is always cold. Not that we don't have a heating system there, it just underutilized (from my perspective, not Als :)

New Year's at Kim's church was good. We sang (though me not so much thanks to the cold), prayer and the pastor had an 18 page sermon. He didn't make it all the way though :) It was good though- it sounded like he had a similar 2011 to mine. We thanked God for the difficult year, that it would bring growth in us. At the end we prayed again, which was good. I was an outsider in that I don't attend there regularly- I thought it might be uncomfortable at the end as I would be intruding a bit on their 'family' time but it wasn't like that at all. They aren't an overly demonstrative church in terms of outward affection. I always find this odd as they are rather demonstrative in other ways. I think maybe there being so many scandals in the world has burned them a bit.
It is comfortable for me as they don't push my comfort zone, but it is always good to have your comfort zone expanded.

After the late night, I tried to convince Kim not to get up at 5am. The girl needs more sleep!

Goodbye 2011...

2011-12-31T11:56:00.002-05:00

...I won't be missing you!

Quite a lot happened in 2011. A lot that I wouldn't want to re-live!

Here's to 2012 being a lot better!

My voice is pretty much gone thanks to the progression of the cold :(

Outside is quite icy thanks to the freezing rain last night. The main roads seem good and main sidewalks are ok and where you see snow isn't too bad, but where it looks like ordinary sidewalk may just be ice!

I have to get some groceries for tonight but am just waiting for the real estate agent to come with the new offer.

Prayer for 2012. May Your will be done. May our hearts soften to You. May we grow ever deeper in love with You. May we love what You love and hate what You hate.

offers

2011-12-30T21:58:00.003-05:00

There were 2 offers on the old house today. I guess it's the after-Christmas let's buy a house sort of time? Except they were both way below what houses in the neighbourhood are going for so the long suffering real estate lady had to nix both of them. But she just called me to say that one of them is going to try to raise their offer. They apparently are moving to kingston from out west and are only here a couple of days before going back to get ready to move so either there will be a deal soon or not.

I had been emailing with my claim insurance agent from the flood and we worked out a deal for the futon replacement. It should be delivered next week.

James' hockey team tied their first game in the causeway classic tournament 1-1 (james was player of the game!) and the second they lost 2-1. The coach got frustrated with how they were playing (not up to their usual snuff) so he switched up ALL their positions. The forwards played defence and vice versa. The next game they won 9-4 against on of the top teams. The coach kept the same strategy in their last game but they lost 11-6.

I also did some shopping to try to be prepared for the weekend.

I found James' goggles when unpacking which made him want to take a bath. (he uses the goggles to see underwater) I jumped on this in hopes that his enthusiasm for hygiene will grow.

AJ came over in the afternoon and he and James played Wii.

I made homemade pizza for dinner. I prefer it to ordering but James prefers Domino's pizza to mine!

Then I took James to Duncan's where they had a playdate and went to see the Frontenacs. He just got home.

I did some work and watched "Christmas with a capital C"
I tried to get some rest to fight this cold.

Tomorrow Kim is coming over around 8pm (when she finishes work) and then we are going to her Church at 10pm for their New Years Eve service.
James wants tacos for a new year's eve meal. When I was a kid we had fondue. What are you having for your New Year's meal?

logic

2011-12-30T09:01:00.003-05:00

James got up at 2am because he thought I was calling him. Obedient but no. Then he got up at 6:30 because he thought he was ready to get up. He was not.

BUT today I wanted to write about this article that I thought was missing some logical pieces. The homeowner was not happy because he was having a party and the cars were ticketed on the 'no parking on the street in the winter night" bylaw. I see a few flaws in the thinking here. He seems to imply that the people parking on the street were consuming alcohol, so isn't it safer for them to leave their cars than drive home? Yes, but not on the street! If they knew they would be consuming alcohol maybe they should not drive to the party? Just a thought.
He claimed that he was taking a nap so that he could drive the other party goers (who had been drinking) home. So obviously the cars were going to be left overnight. The police are not obligated to knock on every door before they give a ticket! Would you really want them doing this if they come by at 4am? I'd say the ticket was worth the sleep.

I guess I'm jaded because I have so many students who want the rules bent for them. Dudes, a rule is a rule, just because there is no snow that needs to be plowed doesn't mean it's not a rule. And in fact it is probably better to do the ticketing now and get people in the habit of not parking on the road that when you are in the midst of a storm and the police may be out attending other issues caused by the storm and not have time to ticket to clear the way for the snow plow.

My neighbour on Nelson st was particularly interested in keeping the street clear for the plow (mainly if there was a car parked infront of his house the plow would leave a giant pile for him- just the mechanics of how it worked). So he would investigate all people parked on our street- the police never had to ticket on our street!

My rant for the day :)
I seem to have developed James' cold :(

determination fail

2011-12-29T20:31:00.002-05:00

Despite my determination to have a productive day, I would sat that was pretty much a fail. With the lack of sleep and I've got a touch of James' cold I was sluggish at best. I had a nap while he was at a hockey game. His team is doing quite poorly. James said the coach didn't know what to say after the game. I guess that's a measure of how bad it was? James won player of the game though, so he wasn't doing too bad!

I have arranged with the insurance company to get a new futon mattress (finally) as it was ruined in the flood in July. So I'll order that tomorrow.

I'm also trying to plan out the meals for this weekend so I won't be caught off guard by the closed stores.

The real estate agent hasn't called so I'm assuming the people who made the low offer on the house have given up.

Thank you Jesus for helping us to look outside ourselves, for community healing and growth.

Bad night

2011-12-29T09:14:00.002-05:00

For some reason I had a hard time falling asleep last night. I probably fell asleep about 12:30 and then I woke up at 3:30. I tried to analyze WHY I was awake but couldn't come up with anything obvious. And then I couldn't get back to sleep until about 5:30 and then I had lots of REM dreams, so not rested. My eyes are very sore this morning but I will still try to be as productive as I can today! Maybe this is my body's reaction to not working like crazy -it's an addiction :)

I read this interesting article this morning. Interesting that it really highlights that Kingston's sidewalk infrastructure is a bit bizarre!

on and off

2011-12-28T22:43:00.003-05:00

I have an on-again-off-again relationship with Scotiabank accounts. Their account strategy does not compare to the free services offered at pc financial or ing bank but they do have the advantage of having tellers. They will sometimes offer me a decent account and I open it but then they change the account and I close it. My credit card is also with Scotiabank. When I recently tranferred my money from my scotiabank account to pay my scotiabank visa bill, I was charged $1.25. I thought that was a bit much to move money within their own system. So I went in and closed the account. (They gave me the $1.25 back too!) But Scotiabank and I are 'off' right now!

There was an offer on the old house but not a good offer and I don't think anything will come of it. They haven't even seen the new paint job yet! (They saw the house quite a while ago but didn't put the offer in until now)

My hair was getting really longs so I got a number of inches chopped off it.

James is in a tournament tomorrow! He's got a bit of a cold this week. He was doing a bit better today. We'll see how he is after hours of hockey playing!

I pray for families missing loved ones- help heal the hurt inside.

Progress

2011-12-27T22:59:00.002-05:00

Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules— and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.
The Sirens of Titan- Kurt Vonnegut

I woke at 6am, rather pleased that I hadn't been awoken at 4am. At 6:30am, my cell phone alarm went off. It took me a while to hunt it down and switch it off. James did not stir. He's a deep sleeper.
Since I was up, I decided to check out a CBS mystery type show- 48 hours- i think? Anyway I watched a bit. When I see these shows I always wish I could read them instead of watch then. And to my surprise CBS does provide a text version, it is just not easily accessible.

I unpacked a number of boxes in the basement. Still lots to sort through.

I started to read "Sing you home" by Jodi Picoult. Each chapter is from a different character's perspective and I would have to read a couple of pages in to figure out WHO it was that was talking. I not have noticed that the person the chapter is from is listed as the title of the chapter. Duh.

So, I am taking it a little bit easy :)

For those in unimaginably difficult circumstances - show them You love them.

complicated

2011-12-26T22:11:00.003-05:00

HTML colour quiz

you are springgreen
#00FF7F

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days.

Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right.

Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

My brother says my blog wears him out. Wears me out too. lol.

I finished the book "A complicated kindness" today. It's written from a 16 year old girl's viewpoint. Easily complicated but there is more. She lives in a mennonite community that is driven by fear. The kindness apparently comes from abandoning people? In that they leave so the others can be free. Nobody ever stays to work it out.

structures

2011-12-26T17:59:00.002-05:00

I got a 1/2 dozen boxes unpacked and the laundry room cleaned up!

I found this article in the Star quite interesting.
Not so much the bit about catching the guy, but the last paragraph that stated:

Local police in Veracruz have become so corrupt that on Wednesday the government decided to dissolve the entire police force in the state’s largest city, also known as Veracruz, and sent the Navy in to patrol. Some 800 police officers and 300 administrative employees were laid off.

That is some level of corruption where you get to the point where you say that you need to scrap it all and start over! I give whomever made that decision a gold star- that can't have been an easy decision to make and he probably needs a lot of protection now- taking a stand against corruption can be dangerous!

Funny little world

2011-12-26T10:11:00.004-05:00

James got up at 4am. Probably he was cold. He doesn't always use all his covers and sometimes is too squirmy to keep them on.
As I was going back to sleep I had a few notes of a song in my head.
When I got up at 6:30 I had a bit of the tune but no words but after my shower I remembered the words "funny little world". And so I found the song in my head.
I had watched it a couple of days ago. I was introduced to Alexander Rybak music when he won the Eurovision contest with "FairyTale"

It was pretty icy this morning as the rain had frozen over. I did make it successfully to Loblaws and back. We had run out of milk, juice, and veggies (and meat but I don't get that at Loblaws) over the holiday. Poor planning on my part!

AJ is over now to play until 1:30.

May Your song continuously play in our hearts.

Tricked me!

2011-12-25T15:56:00.004-05:00

James got up at 6:30am. I hope Christmas hasn't ruined his sleep cycle.

I had intended to order pizza today but really everything appears to be closed! Some pizza pizzas are open but not in kingston. 3 are open in St. Catharines! Not fair!

I took this quiz. Apparently I am quite good at telling a serial killer from a program language inventor by their picture alone :)

I also took a dissociative affect diagnostic . The test doesn't make a lot of sense, but it seemed to have a relatively reasonable result:

Thoughtful to the extreme, you are often obsessed with perfection and the rules governing your own personal interests. Your world is black and white. You love to work within a logical system, such as language, computer programming, or mathematics. Manipulating a system that can be completely understood is a distinct pleasure to you, because of your confidence in the underlying veracity of your belief system. Because of your appreciation for logic and order, those who speak or think in a sloppy manner are apt to generate more than their share of wrath. Although very amiable, you are not drawn to friendships out of a sense of personal need. You are just as happy by yourself with a good book or puzzle. Because you are so involved with thought, you will on occasion have difficulty dealing with the day-to-day problems of a normal life. Taking out the trash, doing the dishes, these are often left until the last possible moment, if at all.

If you take either of the tests, post your results here!

So I've had leftover chicken with rice and cantaloupe for dinner. Lots of options for dessert thanks to all the Christmas gifts!
Hoping to head to Loblaws at 7am tomorrow!

Let us rest in your love tonight.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-24T22:00:00.002-05:00

James was so excited last night he was up late singing Christmas carols (in French) as he went to sleep.
He got up at 6:30am and did the "Christmas dance", then he climbed in bed with me and fell back asleep until just before 8am.
By the time he got up and ready for the day Oma and Gadda were here. We had a great time opening presents, trying out the Star diner, playing soccer, building an AT AT walker and eating Darbar. Hard to believe it was all one day! Very grateful for them coming to visit!

Cousin Katie got engaged today!

Prayer today for the servicemen and women overseas that they may have a merry Christmas and for children everywhere that they may feel the joy, peace and love of the season.

Empty or full?

2011-12-23T18:11:00.002-05:00

As I left work today Division St. was deserted! Princess St. was chok-a-bloc full.
I hope my parents travelled ok to Couburg.
I was emailing one of my instructors who was driving to London today and he was telling me how crazy busy it was on the 401.

Because we are celebrating with my family tomorrow, I hadn't thought about what to eat on the 25th! Maybe ordering pizza will be in the cards. I wonder if Dominos is open on the 25th? Hmm. I checked their website and it doesn't look like they are. Pizza pizza may be though. James actually wants tacos for Christmas dinner and if I pick up some ground beef and veggies tomorrow I could do that too- so any options!

And wow- a week off from work! Which is good- except our marks are not in yet. They are done, just not in. My boss had said he wanted them in this week but not everything works out the way you plan I guess!

Lots to do- a number of friends have lost loved ones recently. December seems to be a bad month for this.

For those hurting and sad at this time of year, I pray that You fill them up with Your love, peace and joy. May they be everchanged by the knowledge of Your love for them.

Wire

2011-12-22T21:56:00.005-05:00

Well my goals for today were not met. A bit depressing. Still a lot to do tomorrow!

I had planned on having the marks all calculated for my boss to review, but they aren't done. He's not in tomorrow so we'll have to go over them via email. Submission tomorrow is not looking so good. If they aren't submitted it is likely I'll be working over the Christmas break.

Also the timetabling problem is not resolved. We are trying to contact the instructor for the course that we need to change the time of. He is probably on vacation.(very rightly so!)
The problem is so bad it will likely take me the first week before classes start to clean up at the rate things are going!
Plus I have my regular duties.
I'll do my best tomorrow- will likely have to escalate this situation.

James is VERY excited about his grandparents coming on Saturday. He keeps asking me what time they are coming. He is soooo excited!!!!!

Today I pray for families with hurt parts. There may be sickness or loss or sadness. Help families grow through this season and feel Your arms of love around them. And for safety as well for those who are traveling.

brink

2011-12-21T22:34:00.002-05:00

I'm totally on the brink of exhaustion as there are only 2 more workdays and I still have so much to do!

Today I dropped James at school, then went by SDM because I needed a phone card for my phone. Then scurried in to work for a meeting with one of the departments doing the course that I work on next term. It was a very good meeting and I think this department may be one of the best in running it. Looking forward to their plans. One interesting thing that Mike told us (hopefully I'm remembering it right) about was a survey that was done that looked at many factors that affected a person's writing ability and the single most important correlation was the number of books in the house while growing up.
Hopefully, this influences James eventually!

I came out of the meeting to find that my computer was no longer working. So I cleaned off my desk while I waited for them to fix it. This put me a bit behind of my agenda of work to do. But my desk is in much better shape!

Then we had another meeting that also went pretty well.
Before this meeting I had a student come in whose core courses were in conflict. I tried to fix it, but I couldn't. After the meeting I checked his classmates' schedules and sure enough, they were all loaded in conflict. So I called timetabling and they were going on holiday but may come in tomorrow to try to solve this.

I was going to go in early tomorrow but I wasn't planning on staying up so late!
Hopefully tomorrow will be more efficient!

For those on the edge in this season. Help them find the way home.

tricked myself!

2011-12-20T22:56:00.002-05:00

haha I said to myself I'm going to write my blog before I write the report that was needed for tomorrow. But I got started on the report and couldn't stop! So now I'm too tired. that'll teach me :)

Today I pray for truth. That You would help our eyes and ears to open to see and hear You. That the business of the season would not detract from you but instead lead to You.

post 2012

2011-12-19T22:53:00.003-05:00

This is post #2012. Tomorrow will be post post 2013. lol.

Today was still very busy. I'm working on trying to wrap the marks up. We wanted to get the marks in this week but I'm not sure that is going to happen. Too many factors working against me!

This evening I got a surprising email. I keep thinking things couldn't get more surprising, but they do! My boss is working to rectify the situation though.

I read this story in the Star and thought about bullies.

Lord forgive me that I am so self sufficient
so easily satisfied
so full of self
Create in me an empathy with the poor that I may be truly understand
Create in me a poverty of spirit which reaches out to you for more...

(Rob Frost)

painted beige

2011-12-18T15:17:00.006-05:00

The old house was painted beige. The real estate agent said it would sell better. I hope she is right! I hope the people who buy it don't say "I sure wish the front room was painted fiery orange!"

Unpacking

2011-12-17T22:07:00.005-05:00

I finally had a day that I wasn't working at one of my many jobs and got some unpacking done!
AFTER

BEFORE

I had breakfast with Sandy. It was so good to see her again!
I had her drop me off at Giant Tiger so I could pick up some juice.
Then I did general cleaning for most of the morning.
I did pop down to campus at lunchtime to pick something up and stopped by Shoppers on the way home- they had quite a few useful sales for me!
I made pizza for dinner. AJ came over. I resumed unpacking and cleaning and now the front room is now looking good.
James and AJ were having a play battle with LEGO men and I heard James say: It's a battle between innocent people with guns and the separatists. "Innocent people with guns"?
The boys had a good time with each other and I was happy to get work done. They did help me briefly but it didn't last long!
Tomorrow James has to be ready to go to hockey at 7am so I'd better hit the hay!

Today's prayer is for R. - for healing in his lungs and returning health. Help him and his family as they go through this difficult time.

Whoever said nothing was impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.

2011-12-16T20:43:00.002-05:00

I thought things would get quieter after classes finished, but I haven't had any downtime yet really.
On Monday I have an exam to run. I need to finish getting the marks together for another course and finish all the paperwork for hiring the TAs for next term.

I had lunch with Bobbi today though, which was a nice break.

Melissa told me that the job that I left in July was now posted, so it was interesting to read what I would have been doing if I had not left! (They had not made a job description in the time I was in the job (which was not long!)

We had an interesting and difficult meeting that took up most of the morning today.

In the afternoon I tried to catch up on email! It takes a long time!

The old house was painted this week- I'll have to take some pics!

Very tired now.

I pray for peace on the roads. That people would take their time and drive safely. That people would make good decisions about their ability to drive.

school open house

2011-12-15T22:35:00.002-05:00

James' school had an open house for parents to check out the classrooms and there was a Christmas concert.
We took a pass on the concert.
James showed me his school work and how he programs his Lego BOT. He enjoyed that!

I picked up the new car today- it will take some time to get used to the blind spots but I think it's a good little car.

I pray for the schools, the teachers and the children as they prepare for the holidays. Give them rest and Peace.

not enough hours in the day

2011-12-14T23:22:00.002-05:00

Well, except to make a Jib jab of James:
Jib jab

The day flew by. Lots of meetings.

Got a drive with Bonnie and we almost got hit about 5 times. A lot of people don't really pay attention to what they are doing when driving! I get to bring the new car home tomorrow. I hope people are careful around me!

I have been working on making sure the marks are finalized in my one course and getting ready for the exam tomorrow for my other course.

Prayer today is for young people. Help them understand and learn how to grow. Help their hearts to be open to You.

Busted

2011-12-13T21:24:00.002-05:00

I often hear James listening to the Phineas and Ferb song "Busted" and I thought it was appropriate theme music for today. I had some students give me a reason why they could not write the exam. I needed some documentation from them and they were not very forthcoming so I called another one of their instructors and found that a different story had been given. Not too smart to give different stories to different people. I suspect they thought we wouldn't talk but they were wrong! Busted!

I had to go for a blood test today. The place that I used to go had 2 rooms and you were taken care of very well. Obviously, this doesn't work for high volume needs, so it was closed down and today was my first go to one of the assembly line type blood testing facilities. You had to take a number when you arrived and they checked you in by number. Then they call you by name and assign you to a cubicle. I was assigned to "cubicle" #1. Which actually was a room - the other 4 "cubicles" were actually cubicles. So I went to the room and set down my backpack and my coat and contemplated where to sit. There was a stool, but that looked like it was for the health care worker. There was an examination table, but it looked used. And there was an uncomfortable looking chair with blood drawing supplies all around it. I stood for a while, then decided that the chair would be the lesser of the 3 evils, so I perched on the edge of the chair. Probably too conscious of all the germs around with no hand sanitizer in sight.
Perching on the chair allowed me full view of the corridor with the other cubicles. I could hear other people's names being called and see them troop to their cubicles. Only once was a cubicle still full when the next name was called.
No privacy on the assembly line.
I read the sign on the wall. It clearly indicated that you needed to apply pressure to the place where they removed the blood for 3 minutes. After someone finally arrived and drew my blood (which she did very well and effectively, I may add), I put pressure on the wound for only maybe 30 seconds before they told me I was good to go. And go I went with no adverse effects.

My real estate agent now thinks that the old house should be painted to sell it. She's got a guy who will paint all walls and ceilings and cupboards for $1200, paint included. You can say goodbye to the funky orange front room and say hello to beige!

Today I pray for health and care in this country. That Your grace and mercy would be with the sick and the hurting. Help the health care workers not be so overburdened that they forget the human component of their work.

2011-12-12T23:06:00.001-05:00

When I left home, Mom said "Don't forget to write." I thought, "That's unlikely. After all, it's a fairly basic skill."

I have written almost no letters this year. I don't think I've even unpacked my address book. Somehow, I have to pull myself together if I'm going to get any Christmas cards out!

"Grant, O Lord, that I may be free
from greed and selfishness.
Remind me that the best things in life are free.
Love, laughter, caring and sharing." Sacred space

review

2011-12-11T21:56:00.002-05:00

I finished my copycheck data for the first year students. Tomorrow afternoon I need to write the report.

This story in the Toronto Star was a sad one. One family shattered by the actions of another.

For families with hurts and wounds, I pray that You wrap them in your love.

Guess who arrived in town?

2011-12-10T19:33:00.005-05:00

Better than Santa!

She arrived in Kingston today. Still being processed. I have an appointment to pick her up on Thursday.

I was not able to post yesterday as my computer was tied up with a MASSIVE project. In the past we have had an IT guy run the copycheck on the first year lab files. This year I was charged with downloading the copycheck exe file and running it myself. I really love doing this sort of stuff and I knew it would tie things up for a while as the number of checks it needs to do turned out to be over 3 million. It checked each of the new files against each other as well as checking them against our archive. And the funny thing was that I ran it all on a memory stick. I had all the files and the program on one stick and the results ran onto the same stick. I have about 30 potential cases, probably 10 really good cases that they will be able to go ahead with. Even though the computer did the checking, I'm pretty tired. I guess I had to do all the interpretation!

For truth and justice, we ask to hear Your voice.

second guess

2011-12-08T22:41:00.002-05:00

The "incident" last week has had a very strong effect on me. I'm second guessing myself. Wondering what I missed. Wondering what I could have noted that I didn't.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on setting up the copycheck. Never done that before but I like working with new technology so we'll have to hope that works out :)

Today I pray for teachers and the learning environment. That our children would grow up to know truth and wisdom.

Fallout

2011-12-07T22:05:00.002-05:00

We are still experiencing fallout from the incident last week. Something like that damages so much on so many levels.

I think I slept better last night. I was more functional today. Maybe it was the weight of exams being listed off my shoulders. Who knows?

Today was very busy in the office. I'm trying to keep better track of what I do, but really, it's all pretty much a blur.

I pray for peace and wisdom in making decisions this week. May You be present in our actions and choices.

Exams start tomorrow- post 2000

2011-12-06T23:30:00.002-05:00

Exams start tomorrow- not that this has anything to do with me, but I was out late at the exam office helping them run reports.

This is also post #2000. Time for a party, right Michelle?

I am beat, so I will pray for the exam session and head to bed!
I pray for Your mercy and grace in this exam session. That students would have peace. That proctors would be wise. That You would help the process to go smoothly. We commit this to You.

Focus

2011-12-05T21:26:00.004-05:00

Today was really quite a difficult day. I worked very late yesterday on the course survey which made today even more difficult because I was pretty tired!

I will focus on the bright spot that my boss and I manage to have a chuckle over every few days and we did again today. My dad and brother might appreciate this technique. For our course the lectures were 'mandatory'. There was no textbook, so really to do all your learning you had to come to class. Despite (or maybe as a revolt because) the lectures being mandatory in one particular section the turnout was quite low. The departmental instructor BRILLIANTLY managed to assign tasks to the missing groups and made them present it the following week. Lots of fun. That is a good memory!

The other bright spot occurred when one of the instructors that I work with came by and said he had dropped off his exam at the exam office and he saw how much they miss me. He said the lady ahead of him had a complicated exam to drop off and kept telling them that I always understood how it was to be done. So he brought back the report that they missed me.

Hopefully, I'll be in a better mood to write tomorrow.

I pray for Your help in navigating difficult relationships. For bringing peace to difficult situations. For showering the world in Your love.

James' project on Kootenay

2011-12-04T20:24:00.003-05:00

James' project on Kootenay in BC. He has to do a presentation on it tomorrow as well!

a certain love

2011-12-04T14:33:00.004-05:00

Al + Shari are super special people and Rustle is very blessed to have them as pastors. Shari's musical gift is very obvious (I think) but Al also has a gift(though very different). I always look forward to him singing.
Today he sang "A Certain Love" by the Lost dogs.
Then Mady sang "Forever Reign" by Hillsong. A beautiful song- I had not heard it before.
The service was very good today. I love to spend time at Rustle.

This reminds me of something Bill said to me on Friday when I was at the Registrar- he asked what it would cost to get me back to work at the Registrar. As if me leaving was about money. Money really had nothing to do with it.

Today I stumbled upon a website having to do with personalities. I didn't have to do the test as I know right off that I am an INTJ. I think James is an ISTJ- very close to me anyway. I bet my mom has an idea of that one. (For more about the different personality types click here)
Anyway this particular page had a list of INTJ strengths and weaknesses which I thought described me pretty well:
INTJ Strengths

Not threatened by conflict or criticism
Usually self-confident
Take their relationships and commitments seriously
Generally extremely intelligent and capable
Able to leave a relationship which should be ended, although they may dwell on it in their minds for awhile afterwards
Interested in "optimizing" their relationships
Good listeners

INTJ Weaknesses

Not naturally in tune with others feelings; may be insensitive at times
May tend to respond to conflict with logic and reason, rather than the desired emotional support
Not naturally good at expressing feelings and affections
Tendency to believe that they're always right
Tendency to be unwilling or unable to accept blame
Their constant quest to improve everything may be taxing on relationships
Tend to hold back part of themselves

The last point is what I committed to myself on my birthday to try to overcome. I do hold back a lot, but overcoming this when you have a pattern of behavior for 40 years is very difficult. I have a lot of work to do in this!

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment in the morning, then have interviews for candidates for TA positions for next term in the afternoon. Tuesday our student services team has a retreat in the morning. Then in the afternoon I have to go to the Registrar to run one last report for them before exams begin. So these next 2 days will be busy again. Somehow I also have to find the time to build the end of year survey for the course. Am thinking there need to be a few more hours in the day :)

Melon yogurt

2011-12-04T08:22:00.004-05:00

I eat yogurt for breakfast every morning. It is pretty much the only thing that agrees with me that early. But I was getting bored of always getting vanilla or strawberry or raspberry (my usual favorites) so I decided to try Melon yogurt. The only variety that they had was the "fat free sweetened by splenda" but I thought- I'll try something different.
Had I been shopping with Jordin, I am sure she would have set me straight before I made this purchase but alas, I was on my own. The yogurt was edible, though it was a bit hard to taste the "melon" flavour. Melon is a pretty delicate flavour to try to copy. Obviously, I also did not get my morning fat intake, so I am baking double chocolate chip cookies. (thanks to the Concrete toboggan team for the dough) I think that will resolve my morning issues.

I'm going by the old house on the way to Rustle to finish scrubbing the fridge.

It has turned out to be a rather nice day today. I'm liking the weather for December so far!
Today, I think of those who don't have enough to eat. Who would be blessed to have different types of yogurt to chose from! I pray that their physical hunger will be filled so they can investigate their spiritual hunger and draw closer to You.

Unpack

2011-12-03T21:51:00.002-05:00

James is feeling better today. He wasn't well enough to skate in his game today. The team won without him anyway. But he should be well enough to skate in the game tomorrow. He really, really wants to skate again!

I got through most of the essays that I needed to remark this weekend- only one more to go!

I also got through unpacking about 1/2 of the front room, so that is good. But I'm really tired- it was hard work! The real estate agent held an open house at the old house today but she hasn't let me know how it went yet. Hopefully, it gathered some interest.

I ran into Robert at Giant Tiger today when I popped over to pick up some flour as I was making pizza crust. I love that it is so close. And love the area because of the old houses. It was a good neighbourhood move. But my insurance company says I need to install a sewer backflow valve within 6 months or they won't insure me any more thanks to the flood a few months ago.
Anyway, back to Robert. He was picking out videos for Peter's birthday. I'm sure Peter will be quite happy with them. So, he talked to me for a few minutes. I asked if they were having a party for Peter and he said a small one. Then the guy who was in front of me in line (who smelled strongly of alcohol) started talking about how he would like a party for his birthday. And what he wanted for the meal and the cake. So, Giant Tiger is never dull!

Prayer and then sleep!
Today I pray for the lonely and the hurting in this holiday season. It can be a very hard season for people. Give hope to the hopeless and love to the loveless. Help them to know that You are always with them.

Last day of class

2011-12-02T19:24:00.002-05:00

What? Where did the term go? It all went by so quickly!

Last night was pretty bad. James was up coughing most of the night.
I think I was up from 2-5:30. My boss emailed me at 4:22. He had a bad night too. He joked today that he figured he could probably just have called me.

I still powered though the day without stopping once. I started at the Registrar. Then ran back to my office as we were giving some interviews. Ran back to the Registrar. Ran back to my office for a meeting. Ran back to the Registrar. FINALLY got all the reports done. I don't think I even stopped to use the washroom!
I am trying to analyze how I feel about spending time at the Registrar. I forget how crazy it is. In a way I enjoyed the crazy pace but it is very tiring. I saw so many faces from my past in one day. It was bittersweet. I remember how much I loved working there and how the circumstances of another person's decisions transpired against me. But it all worked out for the best, I suppose. I think being an introvert makes it take longer to settle in?

I would feel good about the last day of class but I have some essays to remark and a pretty large survey to build in Moodle.

A couple of my friends are suffering the loss of loved ones this week so this prayer is for them and others in the same position.
For those who lost loved ones this week Lord, hold them close to Your heart.
For those who received bad news, hold them close to Your heart.
For those who are hurting, hold them close to Your heart.
I pray for peace and wholeness and healing. May you keep us ever closer to You.

December!

2011-12-01T19:20:00.003-05:00

It is hard to believe that it is already December. I heard James coughing when he woke up in the morning so I went to his room. He was lying down and looking at me when suddenly this smile crept onto his face. I could tell he was up to something. He suddenly sprung out of bed to grab his advent calender. He loves the advent calenders so much. It is funny to bring him such happiness for $2 at Giant Tiger. I did luck out though- it was early in November that I found the hockey ones there and I never saw them there again. I got him the 2 different hockey ones they had there - one for the morning and one for the evening. The chocolates are so tiny, but he loves it so that is good!

His cold has moved into his throat and he is not a happy camper. I made pasta for dinner because hard things hurt him to eat.

Today was incredibly busy. We started the morning with PHYS presentations. Always a place in my heart there as that was where I did my degree. And I gave up my 'real' office for the 'stability' of the Registrar. That's pretty ironic, isn't it? My brother will let me know if that's the correct use of the word 'irony'? lol.

I had been kicking this idea for a couple of weeks for December to write a prayer a day. As a way for me to write more regularly (at the time I was thinking this was things were so busy I wasn't able to write regularly and I really miss it when I don't write. I'm a writer at heart!) I also thought it was a good way to celebrate the advent season because I don't do much else. Hopefully, it will get me more in the mood for the season?

Jesus, we wait and watch for you in this season. Help us to see with your eyes and feel with your heart. Help soften the hearts of the people of the city that they would see that in our human experience we don't have all the answers. Help wash away the anger and fill hearts with your peace.

stained

2011-11-30T21:04:00.002-05:00

The events of yesterday have left a bad taste in my mouth with regards to work. Normally, I love, love, love what I do but I just couldn't get my heart in it today. The anger that was spewed is like a nasty film resting over everything. I hope it washes off!

Tomorrow I have most of the rest of the presentations for the week so I expect things to get better after that. Things are already a bit better as I have time to write and to read again. It has been such a long time thanks to the extra work from the Registrar and the Physics essay course that I'm marking. My weakness would be taking on too much.

James has lost his voice. Not a happy camper - but a quiet one!

Anyway a bit of my reading today covered an article from the Star about a guy who was a hero. He was on the run from the law but took the time to rescue a suicidal teen as well as a police officer who stepped in to help her. This act of goodness led to him being arrested. But his conscience is clear. He saw the opportunity to do good and he could not turn away. He can never forget that.

The other article I read was by Rachel Held Evans. It reminded me of Rustle Church. She talks about when the cool and uncool mix and how sometimes that can be awkward and messy, but if the underlying structure of it all is love, it really can work.

My mother commented after the last post to me that she wouldn't have guessed that I would like a black sweater dress. But really, this particular dress is so comfortable, it's really nice to wear. I wore it with grey leggings so the effect wasn't too black!

I need to sleep now as I'll be up in the morning for the presentations at 8:30am. I need to be at Stirling (Hi Melissa!) at 8:15 to get things set up and I have to stop by the Registrar on the way. I was at the Registrar helping out during my lunch today. I ran some reports for them and helped fix stuff online. Bill was there and he told me sadly as he sat with empty clips awaiting exams that it wasn't like this when I was there. That I was always one step ahead. But it will all work out in the end. They'll be just in time, which is second best to one step ahead.

speechless

2011-11-29T19:08:00.005-05:00

I've had so many titles for today's post that I finally ended with "speechless" because I am.
I am really surprised at how a small problem has snowballed. A couple of days ago at work I got an email with a tone that was accusational but I though it was resolved, as I noted in the previous post. But it apparently was not resolved! Despite all our hard work to resolve it, apparently we misunderstood what it was that they wanted. I'm still not completely clear as to what is needed. HOWEVER, it is unacceptable to send someone over to YELL at us. Is that really professional? Are we grown adults who can talk out a problem? Wow. I am completely speechless over the uncalled for incident. I had an inkling something was going wrong. My boss had a meeting until 2:30 and I had a meeting that was to start at 2:30. I saw my boss walk by the room I was in so I darted out to warn him of the impending problem, but I was too late. There was yelling and swearing. Not acceptable to do this to another human being. For any reason. Especially the rather minor (in my opinion) that it was about.
There is way too much anger in the world, I think. And all for what really?

The coat my parents bought me for my birthday arrived today. It is long and warm so going to be great for the winter. I also got James another NHL sheet set as they were on sale. And a couple of weeks ago I got a charcoal colour sweater dress that I LOVE because it is so comfortable- today I got the black colour version of it as it was half price too. I love online shopping when the shipping is free! (Sears has free shipping until the 21st of Dec!)

This morning I went early to the old house before work and cleaned the bathroom, so I've sorted that out- much easier to sort out than work problems. James has gone to bed early as he is fighting a cold. I'll do some laundry and dishes and then I will head to bed too!

When things don't make sense

2011-11-28T20:18:00.002-05:00

A very long day at work today. Lots of presentations. 1 small internal sort of dispute had me spending some time at the registrar in the time in between student presentations. But I think it's all sorted now, so that is good.

As I mentioned yesterday, there was a showing that left a mess (I assume accidental) in the bathroom of the old house. So I told the real estate agent and said I would take care of it but being so busy at work today I would not be able to get to it until Tuesday. Well, of COURSE they had a showing today. I didn't read the email until AFTER the showing and then they emailed me that it was a good showing and they wanted to see it again first thing in the morning. So bizarre! I guess they weren't looking closely at the bathroom? Now I can't decide if I should clean it or not as things seem to go better with a dirty bathroom. lol.

James had first first BBQ chip today. He hated it! His face was quite funny. "What was THAT?" was his comment.

out of the ashes

2011-11-27T21:12:00.002-05:00

The first day of advent.
I had to pick up a few things from Loblaws around 9am- it was already very busy.

Walking home I was passing by an apartment building when I heard a bang and I could see one of the windows vibrate. It must have been a door slamming very hard. A few seconds later Mr. Angry-Pants exited the building. He was carrying a backpack that was still open so he was obviously leaving in a hurry. He put the back pack in his truck, got in and peeled out of the parking lot, leaving lots of his tire behind on the ground. I'm glad I was not driving on the road with Mr. Angry-Pants today.

Then I headed over to the old house and did some trimming of the rose bushes. I went inside and found that the last viewing had left quite a mess in the bathroom. I didn't have time to clean it up before I left for Rustle. Ewww.

At Rustle, Al introduced Advent as the season of reflection. Apparently, he raided the mirror factory to do this.

I stopped at Shoppers on the way home and found a Phineas and Ferb DS game that James did not have on sale so I snapped that up!

Today I thought about 2 friends of mine who have just come through some very bad and difficult times and are now in much better places than they were even a few months ago. I see them as having risen out of the ashes and am so glad. Hoping they enjoy the phoenix flight!

This evening my email exploded as we have presentations starting tomorrow at 8:30am and of course all manner of things need dealing with. A lot of the instruction team has been online too. That's what is great about the course- everyone is very committed! I have a couple more essays (for yet another course) to review and then I will head to bed. Up at 5:30am to get in early to prepare for the presentations tomorrow!

spiders

2011-11-26T23:29:00.002-05:00

While this video LOOKS like an educational video on spiders, the foul language at the end tells you that is it not.

James' team played well at the Napanee tournament but they were playing against guys a level up and so they lost a lot. But the couch thought that developmentally the tournament was very good for them.

James has a big project to work on tomorrow- I think he is building the rocky mountains.

Zombie

2011-11-24T19:53:00.002-05:00

Created by Oatmeal

This week has been very busy as we prepare for final presentations next week. I booked a vacation day tomorrow but I have a bunch of meetings and will spend some time at the registrar sorting out some issues there.

James has a big hockey tournament tomorrow in Napanee- we are still trying to sort out a ride to get him there! It is only 8pm but I am sooo ready for bed. I hope we get the ride sorted out soon!

Bands

2011-11-20T18:54:00.002-05:00

Well, James liked the parts of the parade he saw, but he only stayed about 20 minutes before he wanted to go home. He's not much of a parade guy. His favorite part of the parade was the sheep being herded by the sheepdogs. He could have watched that all day!

I took Friday off from App Sci and worked at the registrar instead. I think the bulk of the reporting work that I am doing for them now is done. Just a bit more next weekend- then the new exam administrator starts Nov 28!

The Queen's Bands made the news on Friday as they managed to get banned by the administration for distributing 'degrading' material. As I haven't seen the material, I can't assess whether the punishment is correct or not. It seems pretty hard core! But odd that noone was checking in and noone listened to their lyrics for how long? They will have to politically- correct themselves quickly!
They put such a lot of work into the technical aspect that is, I guess washed down the tubes.
Interesting too that they made the front cover of the recent Alumni review in a positive light. Ironic?

Santa Claus parade

2011-11-18T10:43:00.002-05:00

For the first time in his young life, James is eager to attend the Santa Claus parade. He believes his friend Duncan will be on the Santa Claus float! We'll see about that. Nice that this year it will be so close to our house- not far to go!

All fall down

2011-11-17T21:38:00.002-05:00

The essays are all marked and back to the students. Nothing left but the griping :)

The house deal fell apart today so it is back to square one. Come Dec 4 the options are to take it off the market or to rent it.

Very tired from all the marking and busy work. Need to sleep now!

A-M

2011-11-12T20:51:00.002-05:00

I have marked A-M in the essays. That's 88/143. I am missing 7 class members from my list as the system says I have 150 in the class. Where are they? Is it another system trick?
I need to postpone my birthday until I have more time!

James has taken up dancing (or air guitar) to Phineas and Ferb songs. He doesn't like to be watched. I don't watch him but think it's quite sweet :)

Delays

2011-11-09T22:23:00.002-05:00

My schedule for tomorrow is packed from 10am to 8:30pm with meetings.

The print deadlines for the registrar are out so I have until the 14th until I am next needed there. I have lots of essays to mark so the time is good.

The conditions on buying the house have been extended to Nov 17th as a piece of paper from the govt is needed for the buyer's bank to be happy. The new proposed closing date is Nov 25.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-11-07T22:51:00.002-05:00

Happy Anniversary to my parents!

James was wired for sound tonight doing his homework. So after we were done I told him he had to stay in his room (it was almost bedtime). He played his DS for a bit and then he spent time reading his Phineas and Ferb book. Yes, READING!!! I let him stay up late as I was so pleased!

Purchase

2011-11-06T21:02:00.002-05:00

Decided on a car- Hyundai Accent (again) but newer model. In bronze. Have to wait for it though.

I ordered James' school pictures- normally in these pictures, his expression is a bit funny, but this year it turned out quite well. Hopefully it looks as good in the 'real' pictures.

Did everyone remember to set the clocks back? Kim and I talked about it yesterday and I made the switch but somewhere inbetween here and her new home in Harrowsmith she forgot. She called me early this morning from her Church parking lot as she had arrived an hour early. I laughed at her, as any good friend should.

Today was very long but very productive. I woke up at 4, got up at 6. James went to hockey. I went to work. Got the surname splits done. Then I went to the old house and packed up as much as I could and moved it to the driveway. Then Kim showed up and we loaded it all in her truck and unloaded it at the new house. That should be the last load! Finally. The neighbour across the road was making fun of how long it took me to move. Still a couple of days before we know if the deal has gone through.

Now I need to sleep- my eyes and my body are so tired!

lot going on

2011-11-02T22:33:00.002-04:00

I have 2 really big jobs to finish (only big because I haven't much time for them.

It looks like our house sold today with a closing date of Nov 15 so I have to get the rest of what remains there moved soon. It's still conditional until Tuesday.

Looking at buying a car. Not having an easy time with the decision.

I found these funny writings though:

He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.

Halloween shopping

2011-10-31T22:11:00.002-04:00

Annette and I did some quick grocery shopping this evening while the boys were out for Halloween. Funny, but there were actually quite a few people shopping there. The Halloween candy goes on sale tomorrow- will have to make some plans to see if there are some good deals. James did come home with quite a load though. You can never stock up too much!

I have lots of essays to mark right now and I'm going to be doing the surname splits for the registrar as they are still short of people right now. So lots of work to do, as always!

chase

2011-10-31T17:54:00.002-04:00

There was an article in the Star today about a guy who stole a truck at 4am and the police captured him around 1:30pm.

They say the police chase lasted more than 5 hours so it would seem it took them a while to locate him after the truck was stolen and that the truck was full of gas.
Now if I were driving for 5 hours, I could drive from St. Catharines to Kingston. But this guy stole the truck at a Niagara truck stop (probably not too far from St. Catharines?) and he only made it to Burlington. If you are going to take the police on a long chase at least go somewhere!

I don't know why he didn't pull over, did he think they would just go away?

And when he didn't pull over did they have to get every squad car on it? Like 40 squad cars are more helpful than say 10. Reminded me of the Robert DeNiro movie "Midnight Run".

Car shopping

2011-10-29T14:05:00.002-04:00

I keep saying that the next week will get better. So far, this hasn't developed, but there's always next week.

This week, the students did project presentations so that tied me up for many hours. Interesting though.

I went to Loblaws first thing today and then to Hyundai. Apparently Hyundai sells quite well- they were very busy.

There are a couple of options at Hyundai.
There is a used 2008 (black) Accent- same car as the one that was written off but with 65,000 km on it.
Or the 2012 version is nice.

The other thing I am looking into is the Nissan Versa.

Best friends

2011-10-23T21:36:00.002-04:00

This video is so cute- about an elephant who made friends with a dog. Sweet.

James had hockey practice this morning, then after Church we went out to visit a friend in the country and look at a vehicle for sale. I'll put in an offer tomorrow, I think. But very sad to loose the car that I liked so much. Ah, well, it's just stuff anyway, right?

Midterm

2011-10-22T15:04:00.003-04:00

Last night we ran the engineering econ midterm. It all went super smoothly, I was pleased. We did have to call security before the event as we had concerns about a student but it all went ok in the end.

Next week the class does their presentations. This is the culmination of the 1/2 term project. They'll do another project in the next 6 weeks.
I THINK my life gets easier after this first project is done as the departments are supposed to carry the second project (as a pose to the faculty office) so we'll see how that goes. (If it really is true)

Trying to make a decision about a car. The insurance company has paid out and wants the rental back.

Sometimes people need to think

2011-10-20T22:38:00.000-04:00

Chocolate chip cookie cereal

2011-10-15T19:39:00.002-04:00

Weeell, that was a very long week. I was working late most days.
Then I finally got home last night and I found out the exam schedule in PS is defaulting to the Winter 2012 session (where there is no exam schedule) and noone can see the Fall 2011 one. Good thing it was posted in 2 locations. Until the bugs come out, I think they will probably have to post both.

Today I went to Loblaws early in the morning (7:30am). I prefer shopping when it is quiet.

Bobbi and Robert came by about 9:30 and took James and I out to look at cars. We looked at Hyundai. They had 2012 ones for sale that seemed fine but probably about $19,000. They had a couple of used 2011 ones for $15,000 - only black or silver though.
Then we went to Kia. They had a 2011 "Forte" that was about $20,000 that was quite nice. They had some used ones 2010 versions that were about $10,000- this is probably closer to what we will be getting from the insurance company. I liked them too, but Bobbi said there was no much leg room at the back. I hadn't looked at the back- I tended to look at the front! But she is right- that is a consideration to look at. I will do some more looking online now I have more of idea of what is out there.

Then we went to Costco. We ran into Sarah and Carolyn, which was nice as they know Bobbi and Robert too. James' best discovery of the day at Costco was cereal in the shape of chocolate chip cookies. He was over the moon with this!

When we got home I did lots of laundry and dishes as they had been piling up as I had been neglecting them due to work! Still have lots more to do.

I ordered a Perry the Platypus hat from the States as James wants to be Perry for Halloween. I don't know if it will arrive in time, but it's a nice hat for winter even if it doesn't make it. If anyone knows where to find a platypus costume, let me know!
Bobbi said there was a Halloween store set up in the Kingston Center so I may try that!

Thanksgiving

2011-10-10T19:34:00.002-04:00

Last night wasn't too great, but we managed to sleep in until 8am, which was good. I went to Loblaws to pick up a few things. Beautiful weather.

Murray came over to see if he could fix the dishwasher. He couldn't.
The fridge has some issues too. He was going to go to an appliance parts store to see if he could figure out the problems. Very kind. Very thankful.

Worked on James' unending homework. Why can't he spell 'stamp'?

Went over to the old house and cut down more vegetation for the brush pickup next week.

Made pizza.

Surfed the net instead of cleaning the bathroom. Should do that now.

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.
Joss Whedon

Special Day

2011-10-09T20:19:00.002-04:00

This morning, James had a hockey practice at 8am. This meant that he woke up at 5am- telling me he wanted to be prepared for his practice!

I watched an interesting video called 180 (http://www.180movie.com/) It's American so has more of a political tone than I would have liked but I thought it was an interesting angle to take on some difficult topics.

I walked to Rustle as the car is still in the shop. I took a detour due to all the construction. This meant that I walked past the "Church of the Good Shepherd". When I walked by, they were signing and their door was open so it sounded like the song was coming from the apartment building opposite. Reverberation.

During the Rustle service, Sam, Joanne and Al had done up a special prayer based on Psalm 23. The Shepherd's Psalm. Noticing a Shepherd theme here.

After the service we had a special turkey meal. I think the people were well fed!

Then I went to the old house and did some yard work. Lots more to do still. Maybe I'll head over at some point tomorrow as well.

Came home and made leftovers for dinner. AJ came over after. When the two of them get up to mischief it is so easy to tell as they have very guilty looks! I guess it will get harder to tell as they get older.

I am so ready to sleep now and it's not 9pm yet!

Dishwasher

2011-10-08T19:28:00.002-04:00

The new house came with a very expensive dishwasher. normally I don't use a dishwasher, but this week I got behind on the dished and decided to try it out. Of course, it didn't work! The water wouldn't drain out.

This morning started with laundry, then James and I walked to Loblaws and got groceries. James had hockey practice after that. Then I went to Giant Tiger and picked up some floor mats for the side and back doors. There was also lots of laundry and dish washing during the day!

Yesterday James had a select team hockey practice and one of the other players managed to get a concussion in one of the drills. On Thursday, Don Cherry was talking about how he thought hits were fine and showed lots of videos that really turned my stomach, but he thought they were acceptable. I'd prefer to see non contact hockey :)

It was a beautiful day today and the forecast is for more good days. Tomorrow is the Rustle 5th anniversary celebration. Looking forward to that!

Puff

2011-10-03T19:59:00.002-04:00

Today, things at work were as busy as always but I managed to leave at about closing time which is a good sign!

I am still working on transitioning in my new job- I still get surprise meetings sprung on me because I didn't get the email!

I'm glad that I can read HTML as someof the moodle posting stuff I do at work I can't figure out how to do things, I just convert over to the HTML and do it that way. It feels so natural to me.

I went to Loblaws today to pick up a couple of things and found that everything was now in Halloween colours. Halloween jubes in yellow, orange and black. Would be great but I don't like the yellow and orange!

I've been listening to "Puff the Magic Dragon". This drives James a bit bonky. I don't know what he has against Puff!

This kid singing in a contest is good too.

Eyeballs

2011-10-02T19:38:00.002-04:00

I finished the project I was working on and now my eyeballs are very tired! I'm going to go to bed early.

I posted this on FB- Items only sold in a Chinese Walmart

Monday is always a busy day in the office, we'll see what tomorrow holds.

James has taken a liking to "Phineas and Ferb" cartoons and watches them on Youtube.

Scam

2011-10-02T06:38:00.002-04:00

I received an email purportedly from the queens IT Director telling me the great things that would happen if I click the link (not to a Queen's website, to a scamsite).
I wonder if Dave can sue the scammers for using his name in their email (if they catch them).

Our car got hit by - someone either didn't stop for a stop sign or stopped by didn't look hard enough to see us. When Clara (who is from TO) was visiting me I noticed that she stopped at all intersections even if she didn't have a stop. When I asked her why she said that in TO you never know if people are going to actually stop. (though Clara's stopping where there are no stops could present another hazard altogether!) The girl who hit us was from TO (living in Kingston for school) so maybe there is something to that. She seemed like a very nice girl. James was very freaked out at first, but he did like getting to see the policemen!
In one year, 2 insurance calls. Sigh.

But they finished the basement on Friday!
Lots to do.

Relief

2011-09-25T23:04:00.002-04:00

Things have gotten busier than usual.
I've taken on an extra project and so I will be very busy for another week.
The basement is coming along. It now has flooring! I think it will be finished this week as well.

Karen was telling James about Bob's plan (which he did not end up doing) to walk to Ottawa on the Rideau trail. And after she explained the idea to James, she asked what he thought of it. I THINK what she wanted to know was what he thought about hiking and sleeping on the trail. What he said was "It would be a relief for you". This cracked both Karen and I up no end. It is interesting how he thinks of how the action people take can affect other people.

It's late and I've been up since 4am, so I must sleep now!

old tyme

2011-09-17T19:14:00.006-04:00

James had a lot of fun chopping down the dead or growing-in-the-wrong-place trees:

I bought an "Old Tyme Ginger Beer" for old tyme's sake:) I had an upset stomach one day and drank it and it (surprisingly) made it feel a lot better. Who would have thought? It's pretty strong stuff.

James LOVES Alex:

The basement is looking a lot better. It has walls that are very nicely painted. And not by me! In another couple of weeks, I should have a basement and can start to unpack!
I have been listening to "Your Hands" by JJ Heller.

Dancing on thin ice

2011-09-13T19:42:00.003-04:00

Hmm. I have been extraordinarily busy. I mean even for me. And so not even time to blog!
I worked all weekend getting ready for the APSC course launch. It went really, really well. The students are having a blast with the course and being really creative. Success!
I also worked on the launch of the PHYS course that I help with every year. Normally at the start of the year we do nothing. How exciting. But this year is the first year we are using Moodle. And so there is a lot more work required at start-up. I think this will pay off down the road though as it should enhance the learning experience greatly.
My days are wild with students coming in all the time, issues that we find and on and on. I really like it though - suits me to a T. Lots of delicate situations between different groups- it's all about balancing everything and hoping it doesn't come crashing down :)

Here's James' funny from today:
James: I wish Star Wars was in 4D. (pause) Do you know what the 4th dimension is?
Me: Time.
James: Odour.
(But of course.)

Relative insanity

2011-09-08T20:59:00.002-04:00

Sanity really is relative, isn't it? lol.

My work has ramped into high gear- working 10-12 hours a day to help get the course on the road. Tomorrow I have to get all the TAs confirmed and the request in to add them to the course website. Then I need to make the project groups. Then send them to the TAs and instructors. Also to let all the TAs know about the TA meeting on Monday.

Sorry, my brain is full of work. There's not much left for the rest.

Julian came over and looked at the sewer grate as I would like to put a one way valve on it so the basement issue doesn't happen again. He said that the pipe was under the house so the lawn would need to be dug up in order to put the valve in. He thought it would be worth it, though maybe he didn't take a good look at the pine tree in the front yard that probably has huge roots! I'll have to research it some more.

The electrician is coming on the weekend.

My eyes really hurt now and I still have to wash the dishes and iron!

On the market

2011-09-07T18:23:00.003-04:00

The sign was delivered yesterday!

My work is very busy. It is hard to peel myself away and not think about it!

James is in full hockey preparation mode. 2 hours last night. An hour in Napanee tonight. 1.5 hours tomorrow.

A cute video of chimps experiencing the outside world for the first time. Facing new things is like this- stare at it to try to figure it out, then dive in and try it!

Happiness

2011-09-06T20:44:00.001-04:00

When he got home "The first day of school was AWESOME!"
Apparently a spider crawled up his teachers leg and his classroom has a smartboard. Bliss for a 9 year old boy!

Saddest. Photo. Ever.

2011-09-06T19:33:00.002-04:00

"I don't want to go back to school, the summer was sooo good"

Labour Day

2011-09-05T09:26:00.002-04:00

My mother's comment on the previous post was that today is Labour day and won't shoppers be closed?
I checked the Shoppers site before I posted and it indicated that the one by the Kingston Center was open at 9am and the one at Princess and Division opened at 8am.
I did check the ones in St. Catharines and they are CLOSED.
I guess Kingston caters more to moving in students than St. Catharines does.
In case anyone cares the sign on the Loblaws at the Kingston Center said that today they are open from 7am. (I think maybe to 11pm?)
Hello students!

Car alarm wake up at 3:46am

2011-09-05T05:06:00.002-04:00

Someone's car alarm went off at 3:46am this morning and so I got up pretty early!
It was raining when I woke up but seems to have stopped now.
Today's must-do list starts with cleaning the bathroom.
Shoppers opens at 9am (the one by the Kingston Center) so I planned to go by there on the way to the old house to pick up my bicycle. I hope to get in a bit more packing and cleaning time as well.
This week T/W/T James has hockey every evening. Pre-season hockey school and 3 on 3 training. Sometimes both at the same time :)

Discoveries by James

2011-09-04T21:44:00.002-04:00

I discovered this book in the Rustle bookshelf and James read it at Church the other week. In a moment of brilliant self awareness, when I asked him who the grumpy kangaroo reminded him of, he pointed at himself. Now whenever to pulls into a bit of grumpiness, I ask him who the grumpy kangaroo is.
The book is quite interesting as bad and good things happen to the kangaroo and the kangaroo reacts to the situation. It is really quite tiresome as the kangaroo has emotions going on all the time. It wears you out to read the book. Hope James caught that ;0

James has also discovered Monty Python. He particularly likes the "Black Knight Fight"

And then

2011-09-04T19:36:00.007-04:00

Work has been so busy that I can't remember much from the work week, just that I was busy!
Yesterday, James had hockey in the morning and I read a bit of Maeve Binchy's "Heart and Soul" that I may have purchased a few years ago but never got around to reading. It was nice to take a break.
I had to do some work yesterday - curriculum for a correspondence course I am involved with and scheduling make up times for orientation day activities.
Around dinner time I packed up the mower and went over to the old house. Did I mention it is on the market? http://www.remax-oa.com/on/kingston-real-estate/458-nelson-st-king_11606561/ or http://www.realtykingston.com/viewlisting.php?id=371622
I had almost finished the front lawn- I wanted to make sure it was mowed down before the sign went up- when a realtor came up for a showing. My real estate agent hadn't told me about. They asked me a few questions but I skedaddled off as soon as the front lawn was done. I didn't quite know what to do as you aren't supposed to be there during a showing but they had already seen me so I thought the damage was already done? I went for a walk and stopped at Sarah and Paul's and saw all the great stuff they have done to their house. Then I wandered back but I could see they were still at the house looking at the exterior so I walked another block and then they were gone. Then I mowed the back lawn and packed some more stuff up and headed off again.

Kim has had some hiccups with her move. They got all their stuff out of their old place by Sept 1 as they needed to but their phone isn't working now (It WAS hooked up ok but maybe a storm took out their phone line or something because it's not working now). Her washer isn't working. Her freezer blew a plug out and then when they moved it from the garage into the house something in it broke and they had to drive their frozen food into Kim's freezer at work. So, moving is hard work. She's pretty stressed. She came to visit her birds today. They were so happy to see her! She spoke at a meeting in a nursing home today. She's a pretty busy lady!

New

2011-09-01T22:31:00.014-04:00

SIDE DOOR
BEFORE

AFTER

KITCHEN WINDOW
BEFORE

AFTER

FRONT DOOR
BEFORE

AFTER

These beautiful doors and window were put in by Downton Windows and Doors (http://www.downtonwindows.com/). Stop by if you want to see their beautifullness close up. But don't ask to see the basement, that's still a disaster. No word as to when the insurance company will start to put it together.

Work is insanely busy, but I like it like that.

I wanted to post the pics to wish my Dad a happy birthday. My mother gets flowers, he gets doors. Nice. Relish it! lol.