so...i've discovered....

that if you need to type your password into the password field more than twice...before you get it right....you really shouldn't write anything ... LOL

so, no writing tonight.

just visual.

i hope you enjoy.

check out the frickin ears on this one!!

that would be the...."the full moon arising"

okay, just look at the cloud colour...amazing!

flower shot..

another flower shot ..very cool....

can you get any more awesome?

*** edit *** apparently some of you were thinking that I couldn't type my password in correctly due to perhaps, oh, let's say, over consumption of grape or hops.... truth be told, my brain wasn't getting the message to the fingers correctly. eg... sending out an email same evening to the entire PAC advising of the meeting date... and typing in two different dates... miscommunication between the circuits that transport messages between point a and point b. it happens. quit bugging me about it.

House Arrest - Oh Noooooo!!!!

For the first time ever, in almost 16 years, I had a parent call me and complain about my son. I’m not saying which son, but I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to figure it out.

And while I am going to tell you the story, first I’m going to do some bragging. Every single time my boys have been over at someone else’s house, I’ve heard nothing but good things about them. How they’re so polite and helpful and respectful. How they’re just a pleasure to have around. And how they’re welcome back, anytime! And when you hear this kind of stuff, you wonder if they’re talking about your kid, the same one who isn’t like that at home.

But all that changed this weekend.

It would appear that a trampoline cannot handle three kids bouncing on it. All three of them bouncing at different times, trying to send one of the others up so high that they could probably do a somersault over the safety netting. Bouncing so much that there was constant stress on the springs and the legs. Bouncing so hard that the springs give way and the legs buckle.

And when this happens, the trampoline is considered broken.

Then the parent calls to complain about your kid. And you’re speechless. Because you’ve never been put in this position before, so of course you don’t know what to say. All kinds of things go through your head, like, “Are you talking about my son?” “Are you calling the right parent?” “My son did this? This is so out of character for him” and so on and so on. And the conversation ends with the parent telling you that your son is no longer welcome back to their home. And you still don’t know what to say.


Because this has never happened to you before!

And then you have to have the “talking to” with the boy. Try and get to the bottom of what happened, why? where were your brains? did you not think that something like this might happen? and on it goes. You know, the "respecting other people's thing" angle, the "it's not your's to break" angle.... And then, you make your kid phone the parent and apologize for their behaviour and explain just what happened, from their perspective.

And you just know that this is the hardest thing in the world for your kid to get through.

And you smile.

And then you realize that punishment for his actions will result in some type of house arrest for the next week or so and you realize that this could be the hardest thing in the world for you to get through.


And you're no longer smiling.

However, having the parent of the broken trampoline call you later that night and thank you for having your son phone to apologize for breaking his stuff, and pointing out that the other kid involved in this fiasco hasn’t bothered to call and do the same, nor has his own kid even said sorry, well, that sort of makes up for the tough time you’ll be having while your kid is house bound.


Oh, and by the way, mine is now welcome back.

That's twice now

They say that bad things usually happen in 3's. And if that's the case and is really true, I am sooo going to be continuing in my paranoid state until the third one comes along.

And then I will relax.

You may remember my story a while back of how I came so very close to having what I considered would've been a horrific car accident. It was last winter and by the time the truck behind me came to a stop, it was right up at my door. I could've reached out and touched the headlights. I'm certain I would've been killed. Crushed between him and the guy in front of me.

Now, you need to know that I am a good driver. You're probably thinking that I'm not, but I am. I have the full load of merits, I've never been in an accident (unless you count that one time back when I was 18 and rear-ended someone at a stop sign because I was busy changing the radio station and thought my foot was pushing harder on the brake than it really was. It was never reported by her, or me, so it doesn't count), I've only received one speeding ticket and one running a red light ticket. I'm a good driver. A very good driver.

Coming home on Friday from the full time thing I do five days a week, it was a lovely, beautiful, sunny day. It was very warm and people were happy, it was the end of the day, end of the week, the weather was great, it was smiles and happy faces all around.

Now, I'd say close your eyes and imagine this, but then you wouldn't be able to read, so you're going to have to multi task now. Read and Imagine. Both at the same time.

Approaching one of a few railway crossing's I encounter on my drive, I notice that the lights are flashing, telling us that there's a train coming. The guy in the right lane, in a big blue van, one of those older ones that doesn't have windows and is probably being used to haul tools and stuff around (I say this because SG's brother has one and in my mind, all big blue vans without windows are hauling tools of the trade around in them) puts on his brakes. And so do I. A quick glance in the rear view shows me that the car behind me however isn't stopping. Not even slowing down. I take my foot off the brake and move ahead a bit, while sorta moving out of the way to the left. I have room, probably 15 feet before I'd be too close to the tracks. I look at the train tracks and can't see how far away the train is because the big blue van without windows is in the way and then I hear tires screeching and I look in the rear view again and the car behind me is right there, is going to hit me and hit me hard! I move forward more, streering the Cav a little more to the left and the car behind is still coming. I notice the big blue van cranks it to the right and moves up and I crank it to the left and move up and now, I can't move up any more... because I will be sitting on the train tracks.

And then I waited, for what seemed like hours but was really only probably a millisecond, for the car behind me to hit me. I think I even had my eyes closed and was bracing myself for it. "Here it comes, here it comes" I'm thinking. But it didn't. When I opened my eyes and looked in the mirror and out the window, I saw that the car behind me had managed to stop right between me and the big blue van. And the front end of the car was right at the front door of my car.

I looked up and there's the train. About 2 1/2 inches from the front end of my car. Seriously, I was that close.

Now, I'm not a traffic accident inspector and don't even pretend to be one, but I do know that if she (yes, it was a she who nearly took me and my car out) had hit me at even the reduced speed she was doing while slamming on her brakes in an attempt to not hit me, the impact would've been enough to push me on to the railway tracks, right in front of the oncoming train. Not only would the rear end of my car be crushed, I would've been to.

So, that's two now. Two that were too close for comfort. Two that I really wish had never happened. Two that will keep me on guard for a very, very long time. Two that have made me not a very trusting person when it comes to others navigating their vehicles down the highways and biways.

The guy in the big blue van, thank you for being aware and being smart.

The girl driving the car behind me, I don't know what you were doing that took your attention off of projecting your vehicle down the roadway at what was probably too fast of a speed given the traffic volumes and what not, but next time, maybe you shouldn't be doing it...?

I think I'm going to start taking the bus. I feel it might be safer.

*** Edit ***
I've received a few emails telling me that they were somewhat pissed that there wasn't any random this week....uhmm... hello?? I could've possibly and potentially been in a life ending accident... Honestly, do you really think I have anything random bouncing between the ears right now??? Shit...

It will however return next week, you know, barring any traffic issues. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Whoops, My Bad

So, like, if you've come back to read last night's post and are saying to yourself "WTF? I know it was here last night??", yeah, it's gone.

My rambling editorial, which I thought was stellar, and not particularly well written, well, it had to be deleted.

Not that you need an explanation, I'm gonna be nice and give you one.

I have some stuff going on in the background known as my "real life" and it was oh so kindly pointed out to me that maybe, just maybe, I may want to tone the blog thing down a bit for the next little while. Subject lines like "eat chocolate. have sex."...well....can be attention grabbers and I don't want to be attracting that kind of attention right now, at this point in my life, with what's going on.

So...hopefully once I'm through these events in my life, once I'm done jumping through hoops, I'll be able to return back to regular posting. But for now, it's all sunshine and rainbows people.

Sorry....

Early Morning Night Owl

I've been up since 3:19 am.

And while you all know how much I enjoy my early morning time to myself, when the whole house is still asleep and no one is talking to me, or calling me, or asking me to do or get something, this is just ridiculous.

But, it also happens when you lay down for a little "nap" at 8:30 and well, just stay napping. Hot time Saturday night in this house I'll tell ya!

So, y'all are no doubt wondering what I've been doing with myself. Well, I did try to go back to sleep. But THAT didn't happen. I gave some thought about sandblasting the bathroom, but that would wake everybody up. And then there was the supper dishes that didn't get done whilst I was off in dream land, but again, that might wake people up. Who am I kidding? They're immune to the sound of housework being done so I probably could've done it all without them hearing a damn thing and they would wake up to sparkling clean. Not a pleasure I've ever been afforded however, and I don't think I should start something I may not want to keep up with!

So I did what everybody would do. I got on the internet. And I'll tell you, the transmission speeds are much quicker in the middle of the night on this dial up gig I got going here! And I did research that I've been wanting to do for some time now. Well, not really, but I did have a few questions that I needed answered. Actually, I just surfed aimlessly about and whenever something popped into my head I entered it into a google search and away I went.

Found out the lack of Northern Lights this summer is due to very little solar activity. Turns out that when there are storms on the sun, explosions happen and this interferes with the magnetic field of the earth and as such, causes the Aurora Borealis to dazzle us with its light show. And I bet you thought it was the spirits fighting, didn't you?

Discovered what looks to be an awesome recipe for pumpkin muffins. Which won't do me any good this year as the pumpkin plants didn't put forth one single pumpkin that I could use. The honeydews had a couple, but somehow, I don't think honeydew muffins would be very good.

Continued in my pursuit to try and have a better understanding of U.S. politics. Yeah, uhmm, no. There's some things that I just can't wrap my head around.

Been thinking about watching the NFL this year and did some reading on that. I'm still on the fence in this regard. There's just too many teams and the game takes too long to play and the amount of money these guys make is insane and well, I think I'll just stick with my own football league.

Got re-acquainted with this. I had forgotten about this and how good it makes me feel. It's a little more commercialized now but hey, everybody's gotta make a buck somehow. The photos are wonderful.

I did give some thought to going back to bed, but with two cups of tea in me, the brain activity has started and well, now I just can't.

Besides that, a quick video that I want to see from the Food Network has finally "buffered" itself in and I may be able to watch it in its entirety without getting upset with the computer and wanting to pick it up and toss it out the window.

Friday Randomness

WEATHER
The people in my house are asking me to turn the geo-thermal unit to heat. I am standing firm in my decision that they should just put on a hoodie. Try living in Mommy's body for a day boys!

94.3 CURVE FM
They've messed with one of my radio stations again (just for the drive in...my afternoons are spent further up the dial)...but it might end up being okay. A little alternative, a little indy, not so much Rhianna or repeats...they ARE overplaying that new Pink song however...you know the one that sounds like an Irish jig?

FRUIT FLIES
Why is it you only see them in the fall, after you start bringing in the vegetables? It's not even fruit for crying out loud! And why are they attracted to my wine glass? They're FRUIT flies, not wine flies (once grapes get turned into wine, they're no longer considered fruit just in case you didn't know).

GARDEN
Will be cleaned out sooner than ever before. Didn't give forth much at all due to the lousy weather. And....it will be scaled back quite a bit next year. Pickling jars for sale, anyone?

GRASSHOPPERS
Are not very nice. And they're really not nice when they decide to jump up and end up landing on you....underneath your skirt....on your body! THANK GOD!!! no one was around when the skirt found its way to the grass....or to hear my girlie screams!

It's the weekend, enjoy!

Survived Another One

Summer that is.

Well, actually, I should say having the kid’s home from school for two months.

I didn’t mind getting up a little bit earlier yesterday as #2 headed back to grade 8. Or today for that matter as #1 headed to grade 11 (can you believe that…grade 11???) I really didn’t. As a matter of fact, I was awake before the alarm went off.

I was checking backpacks and making lunches and making sure wardrobe choices were available (like they ever wear what I think they should wear!!) and doing it all with a smile on my face and with a slightly lighter step! Almost a hop and a skip if you will.

And I’ll tell you, the difference between them being in school and not being is school is amazing.

The phone hardly rang at the office yesterday and today (well, I mean it rang, but the calls for me were substantially fewer) and it’s been two days and I still have two bars on my cell phone’s battery meter.

Yesterday, the kitchen looked like only a “mini-tornado” tore through it as #1 was the only one home. This is in comparison to the downright disaster I’ve been walking into for the last two months. I mean, really…I didn't think there wasn’t enough food in the house to have that many dirty dishes!! #1’s finally getting the “you can use the same glass twice you know” that’s been repeated and repeated for years now.

Today, if the sun had been shining, I’m sure the glare off the clean counters would’ve blinded me! And this is just the beginning…by this time next week, they’ll be so tired and brain exhausted, they won’t have the energy to fight and argue and do all that stuff that makes me absolutely crazy…

The best part…this will continue for the next fifteen weeks. That’s right, fifteen weeks until Christmas break.

The not so good part….I’m fairly certain it will be here before I know it.