Mmm, booze for brekkie...

merry christmas...


(ya, I know, bad sound...)

Brrrrr... wtf?

It's snowing again. We've had snow all week. It's very abnormal and I love it (except my hydro bill is going to be scary as it's bloody cold too).

More photos! These taken a few days ago when it was not snowing. Obviously.

Laid on!?

Yesterday, I met with a couple of people from a local nonprofit. I had volunteered my social research skills to them because it would be nice to use them for 'good' and I like this organization and want to help (win, win situation)... and they called my bluff! Haha....

I had a couple ceiling-staring nights prior to this meeting because I could not come up with any great ideas to propose to them. I started to dread the meeting because I felt like I'd fail their expectations and just felt like a dough head for not being able to think up anything. I very nearly cancelled but kicked my ass out the door.

The meeting was great! They have oodles of interesting ideas and they need a lot of stuff figured out. And, for me, it's all very interesting because I understand the need for this research from very personal experiences. They weren't expecting me to have any ideas at all and were very pleased with the ideas that I had actually come up with.

Oh, and they offered me job. Crikey! Just as people all around me are getting laid off in the big business world, I get offered a part-time (perfect!) job in the non-profit sector.

I am definitely considering their offer.

Chicken earlobes...

When I started this blog I had no idea I'd be typing about chicken earlobes but there you go.

I got to googling and chickens do indeed have earlobes. It's a patch of skin on the side of their heads... see?



I was going to post a photo of my friend Jayne's chickens to show their earlobes but all the pics also feature Jayne's lovely husband 'G' doing a sort of wonderful 'Jane Goodall of the henhouse' impression... I'm guessing he might want to retain his privacy. haha! But I found another pic... this is a chook with white earlobes and so will likely lay white eggs. See the white patch?




OK... now I'm going to go listen for sirens to remind myself that I'm living in an urban environment.

Eggscellent! (sorry)

I bought some eggs the other day. Normally I peak into the package to check for broken ones but I was rushed and I didn't and I didn't even think about them until about to make food.... WOW! Are they not a beautiful sight? Seriously, I was really struck by them. They look polished!





I did a quick google of 'eggs' to find something interesting and found the following:

White shelled eggs are produced by hens with white feathers and ear lobes. Brown shelled eggs are produced by hens with red feathers and red ear lobes.

Chickens have earlobes?! Do they really? Jayne, my friend in windy Scotland has chickens. I will bug her now for photographic evidence... haha!

Snow!

Some photos of Sunday's weather.

One of my favourite hiding spots...

has the best sounding pebbles! I went there a few days ago plugged into my new hearing aids and wow! it sounded great! Yippy! I love being a cyborg!

Ironically, the animated gif below of the pebbles has no sound!

The pebbles are also simply very pretty. I think so, anyway.

More of that '101 in 1001'...

Ok.

I made the list. It was more difficult to do than I thought it would be! Here it is and in no order of importance:

(completed items will be highlighted in purplypink)

101 in 1001

1. write up this 101 in 1001 list

book lernin’
2. decide whether or not to do an MA
3. look into the non-profit course via Mount Royal distant learning (not offered anymore)
4. take an evening course (or whatever) on something I know nothing about
5. read ten ‘classic’ novels (that I haven’t already) (3/10)

fiends & fambly
6. maintain my far-off friendships
7. expand my social circle locally; make a couple more good friends here
8. be more open with my friends that I want to be closer to
9. help my mom with her ‘fortwo’ smartcar purchase
10. go on a trip with my mom – Hawaii? Grand Canyon? Vegas? Tofino? Her choice? - she decided to go with a sister to Hawaii...
11. go out for lunch more with fambly
12. work on my family tree research more

financial
13. sell the Ontario house
14. get out of debt
15. read that ‘income tax for dummies’ book
16. read three stock trading books (1/3)
17. buy an investment property in Victoria
18. prepare a will
19. turn the day trading into some more legit
20. find more ethical investment ideas
21. come up with five business ideas (0/5)

home
22. learn to make three different Vietnamese dishes: bun cha (noodles/greens/spring rolls), goi cuon (summer rolls) and bun bo hue (spicey noodley soupy)
23. take juggling up a notch; four balls!
24. learn how to maintain Rusty, my lovely car
25. paint my condo
26. get rid of the ginourmous laser printer
27. get rid of the ginourmous desk
28. throw new curtains up
29. learn about devices that I can use to help me hear the teevee without pissing off neighbours with the volume too high
30. fix the lighting in my condo
31. get/rent/steal a carpet cleaner
32. get a new mattress

relationship
33. find a man on this planet who can put up with me
34. and make him feel entirely fortunate that he can
35. decide whether or not to have a sprog
36. if yes, how… adoption, borrow, purchase, steal or actually drop one

vanity & materialistic desires
37. get a breast reduction (maybe) … and maybe eye work, a tummy tuck, lipo on my knees, nuke that leg vein, head transplant, personality injections etc… ha, ha.
38. keep on enjoying my wrinkles
39. a ‘lightening blue metalic’, manual, MINI Cooper S Convertible with all the splashy options … vroom, vroom!
40. have a really great wool coat custom made for me
41. get teeth whitened… but not freakishly white!

new tricks
42. learn to play one song on the piano
43. figure out ‘streamer’ thing (hearing aids/mobile/blue tooth thingy)
44. do the BCRPA theory course and exam
45. get certified in first aid and CPR
46. do the BCRPA ‘WT’ speciality module certification
47. get my PT certification
48. get certified in the ‘3rd Age Module’
49. learn to use my camera: f-stop, aperture and what not
50. learn to drive a manual car
51. take a defensive driver course
52. learn some conversational sign language
53. learn Japanese
54. learn Spanish

health
55. lose the rest of the grief/difficult/duvet diving year weight
56. get my aerobic fitness back
57. be able to squat 150 lbs
58. be able to deadlift 175 lbs
59. be able to bench press 125 lbs
60. be able to do 50 real pushups in arow
61. be able to do 5 pull-ups in a row
62. reconnect with Dr Perrera or find new doctor
63. get yearly physical… as much as I hate that
64. read up about mammograms and decide whether or not to get one
65. get teeth cleaned at least once a year
66. get that sensitive tooth sorted
67. have an appointment with a naturopathic physician

contribution
68. volunteer at Island Deaf & Hard of Hearing Centre
69. contribute in some way to the above using my skills (social research, cultural sensitivity)
70. find something else that clicks with me and contribute
71. renew my various charitable donation thingies

travel
72. go on a road trip down the Oregon coast
73. go on a road trip around the Island
74. visit Peru
75. visit Japan
76. visit Eastern Europe
77. visit NYC

personal growth
78. read ‘Beyond Fear’ by Dorothy Rowe - wonderful book!
79. keep seeing my lovely headshrink once in a while
80. consider some massage therapy
81. put some thoughts on paper
82. practice strategies for hard of hearing communication

creativity
83. finish my flower explosion painting
84. take three how to paint courses (0/3)
85. paint ten more paintings (0/10)
86. take three pottery courses (0/3)
87. make some beads and pendants with clay
88. make three mosaics (0/3)
89. create ten pieces of jewelry (0/10)
90. make my ‘litter’ documentary
91. print ten photos I’ve taken or will take and frame them (0/10)
92. make myself a shirt, a skirt and a pair trousers
93. sew myself up something special

experiences
94. see an opera
95. try SCUBA diving – a beginners course
96. take up kayaking in the ocean… where sea monsters will attack and pull me under!
97. drive a race car or my car on a race track
98. take a trip in a helicopter
99. after this xmas… all gifts will be not be purchases (too late this year!)
100. go to an auction and buy something neato
101. re-consider, re-write and re-start this list when 70 items are completed

In front of a potato, we are all equal...

I was doing my normal morning ritual; a big mug of black coffee and reading the news on the Beeb's website. As usual, it's the odd story that hooks my attention... Khalil Semhat, a farmer in Lebanon, has dug up a 25 pound potato. Biggest potato, ever. Story here.




Just when I think it can't get more interesting, it does. Did you know that it is the 'International Year of the Potato'? I didn't either and it gets even more interesting...

Reading through the potato website, I have learned quite a bit about the importance of the potato in the global human food chain. For intance, I had no idea that China was biggest potato producer; more than 20 percent of the global harvest! I associate the potato with the Americas and just assumed, wrongly, that they were the top producers.

But it gets even better! This is the best bit! On the potato website is an area about what potatoes mean to people: a source of income, an object of genetic research, a plant with varieties that require conservation and, wonderfully, the common interest of the 'Slovenian Society for Sautéed Potato and Onions'. Who knew!

Here's a quote from Stanislav Menard, the president of that Society:

"One of the basic rules of our association is that members should get together to prepare a meal of sautéed potato and onions at least once a month. In 90 minutes, over a frypan, you rediscover the importance of sharing time with your friends and enjoying a meal together, two things that are being lost in our fast food culture. The other rule is that no one should talk politics - in front of a potato, we are all equal."

I love it.

101 in 1001

While surfing some blogs, I came across this idea of '101 in 1001' which is described as completing 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

I like it. I'm doing it. It starts now. I will make a list.

... I'll need to think and figure a bit first though...

No Fucking You at Ogden Point

I walk along Dallas Road and 'the breakwater' at Ogden Point almost daily (see post below). I usually take my camera and here was Tuesday's favourite photo. It's the most elegant 'fuck you' I think I've even seen.



The following photo was Wednesday's favourite (those are 'wet paint' signs):



There will be no fucking at Ogden Point!

Ok. Post number two...

I'm going to attempt to embed something from YouTube. Here goes...




Ta-dah! It worked!

The clip is a slideshow I made a couple of weeks ago after I went for a walk with my camera on a beautiful day.

You can see other creations I made here. I'm just learning!

Here is the beginning.

Hello...

This is where my blog starts.

It will reflect things that are going on in my life so I'm not sure what it will be about yet.

I hope it turns out to be interesting!