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 |  Am I supposed to write? |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Documenting the trials and tribulations of sharing my writing. I know it will be a grand adventure. I'm sure I'll get a sore butt from the bumps along the way, but they are just part of the ride. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
Looking for some holiday cheer? Pop on over to:
Daily prizes! If I guestimated, I'd say the average number of daily entries is 28. You've got to like those odds. SouthernDiva   first made me aware of the forum. THREE wins later, I'm trying to help spread the word.Don't think about it, just go there.      I'm snowed in today, with more snow on the way. Apparently bugzy is baaaccck!! heard I was jealous of her winterstorm so sent a pissed off Mother Nature my way. As I write this, it is snowing horizontally. I can't say I mind, on a day I have no plans to do anything. To drive in this crap would be a bitch. The beautiful looking snow is covering a hazardous layer of ice. Another fabulous reason to stay inside and watch football.I'll want for nothing. I had friends over last night and now have a fridge full of awesome leftovers. Whenever five women get together, it's about the food. Of course we had enough to feed 10. We say we'll prepare less food the following year. Yeah, right. Each year there is always a dish which stands out above the rest; not always for good reasons. The 2007 winner is Mrs. M's Pumkin Dump Cake. It comes from the same recipe book as Kitty Litter Cake, assume what you want. To wash down the chicken wings and homemade mac 'n cheese, I now have a wide selection of libations in the house. Something cold? Something warm? I think I have a bit of everything. Like I said, it's a good day to be snowed in. And to think, there are still five days until the first day of winter. |
| I like this expression. I stole it from a local radio station trying to be politically correct. They probably stole it from somewhere else. However it came to be, it doesn't matter. It's a cool word and so far, no one has complained it's offensive. Retailers and the commercial establishment want us to believe it is "the most, wonderful time of the year". While it is that for many, it is also lonely and stressful for many more. Guilt settles into the soul of those who feel they don't measure up to the holiday standard. Not enough money, no family and ample opportunity to partake in liquid celebrations is a hazardous combination. I'm not trying to bring down those of you who are full of Merry feelings from head to toe. I'm trying to pick up my friends and acquaintances who are feeling down this time of year. Some are short on cash; others have no family close by. A few are dealing with the ghosts of holidays past. To those people I send good thoughts and big hugs. Those of you overflowing with the holiday spirit.... SPREAD IT AROUND. I'm not looking for any changes in the world, not yet anyways. Focus on your little part of the earth. Eventually, all our little parts will begin touching and we'll see big change. No one can get through life alone!! Give yourself a holiday gift and lend an open ear and helping hand to someone you know. I bet if you look around, with an open heart, you'd be surprised at the number of people who would be happy to get a genuine hug for the holidays. Here's a BIG HUG for all of you. I hope you pass it on.  |
| Yes, I've probably used the same title before but it's Sunday. It's all about football. It has been since I was 10. Yes, I've been a fan for a lot of years. It's not my fault though. My friend's parents had a football party every Sunday. In the beginning, it was all about the food. Her folks always welcomed us, better playing in the house than outside where we were out of sight. There were only a couple of rules: 1) No cheering for the San Francisco Forty-Niners 2) No cheering for the Dallas Cowboys 3) No turning the stations of any of the four TVs. As we got older, 4) No sneaking booze. was added. It only took a few weeks for us to get excited about the games. Somebody always included us in the football pools and the 0-100 boards. We won money once and immediately became fans of the weekly gridiron battles. She was a Dallas fan and I was a 49er fan. I started breaking rules at a young age.  As I grew up and she and I grew apart, I have never stopped watching football. My passion for the game has grown, along with my gambling on the games. Don't worry, I know my limit. I started with the 0-100 square board and moved on to football pools. The Ontario government was kind enough to introduce Proline, legal sports gambling. Fantasy football was a fabulous creation and now the internet has really made the running / participation of several leagues possible. Damn, I love this game.This is the first week of my cash fantasy football league play-offs. I won the Points Championship which gets me the entry fee to next year's league. Now I play for the hardware and pride. The downside is with each win, my position in next year's draft drops. Hmmm, i'll take the trophy and the lousy draft pick. In the cash pools, four of us tied for most right after the first half of the season. The prize money, combined with one week's win, more than covers the cost of playing next year. This year's entry fee was paid for with last year's winnings. After week 14 bets were placed today, my Proline account is up around $14.00. It's a good year. I am not ignoring IMs or the phone, well, yes I am but don't take it personally. Today is all about football. I don't want to talk about Christmas or work or anything else. If you've known me during a football season, you know this. Please don't get pissy with me because I want to watch football and do nothing else.   It appears I only find time to blog when I'm ticked. Excuse the rant but some RL people are truly pissing me off. I had to get this off my chest. Thanks for listening, gang. |
| Do you know how to ask a question? I'm not referring to the intonation of the sentence or the punctuation at the end of the sentence. Do you know how to make a question meaningful? Do you get the information you were seeking or a different story all together? Politicians have mastered the useless question. "Do you want safer schools for our children?" Duh! The question has been designed in a way to illicit the desired answer of yes. There is no other possible response. If you ask a question to which you already know the answer, why ask the question? "Would you support a 1 % tax increase to cover the cost of new safety measures in our schools? "Would you support the closing of military bases in order to make our schools safer?" These questions give the poser answers and allows the responder to qualify the answer. With these questions, the answer reveals the sacrifices the individual is willing to make, to make the schools safer. Politicians can't get anything right. Do you like the answers you get to the questions you ask? Nothing kills a conversation faster than asking, or being asked, yes or no questions. Especially in cases where the answer is obvious. Questions which are too vague can have the same effect. Have you ever noticed few people have an elegant answer to How are you? Do you truly want to hear about their blistered feet? The morning bout of diarrhea? The fact green vegatables seem to be making them a fart machine? If you want to get to know somebody better, ask brilliant questions. ** Rant over. Now go to the corner and think about it. ** |
| Ahem, that title sounds a tad rude. For anyone who'd like to take a peek, I posted a few pictures my from camping trips and my more recent jaunt to Las Vegas.
Each vacation was an adventure. I don't think I could pick a favourite. From simplicity to luxury, I love it all. The physical removal of myself from my routine surrounding is the treat. Ever wonder what kind of friend you are? You should pop over to Rebecca Laffar-Smith  and read her blog entry for today. Click the link and have some fun.
Please send good vibes to Willie Parker and Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm 22 points behind in my fantasy football game but I have these two gentlemen to play tonight. My apologies but I got nothin' else. |
| With most of my work projects completed, I briefly revisited the idea of tackling Nano again. Do I need to tell you the idea was short lived? I did feel excited about writing though. Then it happened, idea overload. This began as a blog titled Bath vs Shower but became boring rather quickly. My mind began to fill with renovation ideas for the bathroom and spread throughout the house. The blog window closed, decorating software opened. Once I had the remodel planned, I was more inspired to write. The rant was towards those fools out there who forget there AT LEAST two sides to every story. Remember back to grade school science and one of Newton's laws of something or other; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. One of the many lessons you learn in school that you will use throughout your life. This is where I wondered why I didn't pursue any scientific endeavours. Math is not my favourite subject but I am more curious than George himself. I love to ask why and how and what. Questions are important. People don't ask questions with meaning. We pose them in a way to get a favourable, or at least predictable, answer. Asking questions is an artform. Who thinks about their questions anymore? Who thinks about their words anymore? Our lives have become acronyms because it's all about the IM and emoticon. What's the opposite of evolving? I think our language is evolving in reverse. We are slowing returning to a language resembling the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians. And how did they build those pyramids? What else did they know? How much more evolved would we be if the library of Alexandria had not been lost? I'm curious about the past we'll never know. There is an expression that says "history is written by the winners". Cliche but true. The vast amount of knowledge we will never know exists, is mind blowing. To think, experts believe most of us only ever tap a small percentage of our brain potential. I hope we learn to use enough of the gray matter we save ourselves and our planet. Our poor planet. Mother Nature has been a safe topic of conversation amongst strangers for years. Today, talking about the weather is political and it is actually possible to offend people. Call it global warming or the greenhouse effect; I call it greed. We are taking treasure from the earth and filling the holes with crap. You can't tell me this is a good thing. I'm pretty enviro friendly. I have the funky bulbs in almost all my lamps, including the porch lights. I recycle; I have brown bins and red bins and blue bins. I won't give up my long, hot showers. I love them and need them and they are important to my mental health. ** too distracted by whining - burnt my pizza ** Food gives me such great comfort. I know it's girl thing. Carbs are my weakness. Rice, pasta and potatoes. You can't screw up a potato. It's the perfect food. Chocolate is okay but a spud is a little piece of heaven. Whipped, mashed or smashed; baked once or baked twice; curlie fries, wedgies and the classic McD's because everything is good when deep fried. Another disturbing sign of our times... governments legislating the foods we eat. I'm thrilled to know we have resovled the pesky issues of crime and poverty. Educate, don't dictate!! Stupid government. There is a great line in the movie Men in Black, "A person is smart, people are stupid." Sometimes I believe democracy is no more than mob rules. Ugh, campaign commercials. 2008 will be a double whammie with both US and Canadian elections. At least we'll get to say good- bye to two very bad men. Why didn't I follow-up on my poli-sci minor? I'd be a fantastic lobbyist, a not so good politician. Damn, should have gone to law school. I should write the LSATs for the hell of it. * * deep breath * * And that's only 2 minutes of the chaos. Stay tuned for further signs of insanity. |
| In a nutshell, I'm abandoning my Nano efforts this year. I'm going to to align myself with bugzy is baaaccck!! and will cheer the rest of you on. Too many late nights and early mornings are wreaking havoc with the rest of my life. I've looked for the pause button but apparently the rest of the world won't wait while I take a month off. While I'm disappointed, I am also relieved. November will come again and I will beat Nano to the ground. In the meantime, I count on fellow enthusiasts to rise to the challenge and get their words on paper. I know you folks can do it. You only need to believe in yourselves as much as I do. Remember me when you are all rich and famous and published authors. |
| Taking my contact lenses out of my dry, burning eyes is one of the first 5 things I do as soon as I arrive home. I don't like wearing the lenses to job sites because my eyes are so sensitive but my parent's dog chewed half of my glasses. They are now held together by some creative wire work held together with a 2" finishing nail. I doubt the look will catch on so I'm reluctant to wear them in public. Until the new glasses arrive, it's my contacts whenever I leave the house. Anyways, when I get home, I want those annoying little pieces of rubber out of my eyes. But you've got to know as soon as they are out of my eyes, I can't see anything. I've been wearing glasses since grade 4 and back then they were pop bottle bottom glasses. When I buy glasses I pay the extra money to make the lenses as thin as possible and still they hang out way past the frame. But I ramble... Because I'm so blind, I ALWAYS leave my glasses in one of three spots. When you rely on corrective lenses as much I as I do, this is very important. Nothing funnier than a blind woman looking for her glasses. This is why I ALWAYS leave my glasses in one of three spots. You're pretty smart, you can see where this is going, right? I get home from work today, take out the contacts and, as you expected, could not find my glasses. Since I know where they are supposed to be, I begin to curse the cats. I'm also a bit worried about the condition of the glasses since my fuzzy friends must have knocked them on the floor. I find a flashlight and begin the search. An hour later I am still cursing the cats and looking for my glasses. I take a break from the search and listen to the TV for a bit. In my mind I'm retracing my steps of my morning routine. I can see myself putting them on the vanity, between the taps and the wall; the same spot I always put them each time I put in my contacts. This image is preventing me from seeing the glasses anywhere else. I decide to call my mom and have a chat with her. The hope is I'll stop thinking so hard and I will remember what stupid thing I did with my glasses. My mom and I visit; actually talk about 20 minutes. We catch up on a variety of topics, most related to her granddaughter. I'm saying goodbye and whine a bit about how my evening is going to be unproductive. MOM: You sound down, dear. Is there something I can do? ME: Sure, tell me where my glasses are. MOM: On the higher shelf above your toilet. They looked fragile and I thought the kitties would never find them there. ME: The kitties? You worried about the kitties? And what were you doing in my house? MOM: I was shopping with Patty and we needed to stop for a pee. We were close to your house. ME: And while you were on the can you thought to yourself, Self, how can I torture my daughter? MOM: Why would you say that? ME: YOU HID MY GLASSES!! MOM: Milo was on the counter and I saw your glasses there and they look so delicate and I worried Milo would knock them on the floor and I decided to do you a favour. MOM: A favour? You're kidding. And how often do you use my house as a pit stop? For some time now I've been thinking I'm either losing my mind or my house is haunted. The conversation with my mother explained so much. Without even trying, she tortures me while truly believing she's helping. The locksmith comes Friday. |
| I confess I was disappointed that I couldn't participate in the Nano kick-off. November 1 was scheduled to be a very busy day but I took comfort in the fact I could start on Friday and write all weekend. Being the Queen of Procrastination, I had a need to check out the progress of my Nano writing buddies before I got down to business. OMG! Congrats to you all for your success on Day 1!! bugzy is baaaccck!! , The Literary Penguin , Anyea , Lala , ljkam, David McClain and tirzahlaughs are all off to the races with fabulous word counts. Keep going guys. Thanks for being my motivation and inspiration. I'll catch up to you at the finish line.I want to thank ♥~HermyKitteh~♥ , G.A. Blythe and Mindy for waiting for me before they started to post their big numbers. I'm here now guys.... get writing. |
| Apparently, pretending I haven't been tagged is not working. I believe I will continue to be tagged until I post my list. You folks have worn me down; I surrender. * waves white flag * Eight things about me... 1. Although I am female, my genetic coding got screwed up and I despise shopping. 2. I'm never sure how to spell words with double consonants. 3. I don't encourage the concept of "favourites". If you focus your energy on only one thing, you miss the beauty of so many others. 4. I am a night owl. I am NOT a morning person. 5. Decaffeinated coffee and non-alcoholic beer / wine piss me off. What's the point? 6. I'm a fan of simple things. KISS  7. Any food can be made better by adding bacon and cheese. 8. I will NOT be tagging anybody else. Thank-you all for giving me a blog topic today. I love no-brainers. |
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