Thursday, April 27, 2006

The Yearly Grope

I had my yearly physical today. I hate getting nekkid for the doc.

I have another meetup I'm going to in Seattle. Wheee! I'm becoming such a social bunny. It'll be at the same place with some of the same people. There seems to be a lot coming up from Portland and one or two from San Francisco. It's looking like it's gonna be a pretty big group. Eli is also going this time. I hope he lets me get back online after this.

Mum's going to Lawn Guyland to visit with Bro#2 and his fiancee. That might seem odd as she's going to Vegas to see them married at the end of May, but this was set up months ago. Anyway, she's pretty stoked to be able to see more of the East Coast. So, she'll be out of town while we're in Seattle but she's letting us crash at her place. She's rather relieved in a way because we'll be able to watch her kitties for a couple days.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

I've Been Sorted

i'm in gryffindor!

be sorted @ nimbo.net

In other news, Eli got back Saturday afternoon. Missed the ol' bugger. The only problem is that he brought back a nasty cold. Not really his fault, our movie going pal was at the DPR as well and he gave Eli his cold. And, of course, Eli has given me his cold. They're both bastards.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Canadian Humour, eh?

Reasons to live in Canada:

BRITISH COLUMBIA
1. Vancouver: 1.5 million people and two bridges.
2. Your $400,000 Vancouver home is just 5 hours from downtown.
3. You can throw a rock and hit three Starbucks locations.
4. There's always some sort of deforestation protest going on.
5. Weed

ALBERTA
1. Big rock between you and B.C.
2. Ottawa who?
3. Tax is 7% instead of approximately 200% as it is for the rest of the country.
4. You can exploit almost any natural resource you can think of.
5. You live in the only province that could actually afford to be its own country.
6. The Americans below you are all in anti-government militia groups.

SASKATCHEWAN
1. You never run out of wheat.
2. Your province is really easy to draw.
3. You can watch the dog run away from home for hours.
4. People will assume you live on a farm.

MANITOBA
1. You wake up one morning to find that you suddenly have beachfront property.
2. Hundreds of huge, horribly frigid lakes.
3. Nothing compares to a wicked Winnipeg winter.
4. You can be an Easterner or a Westerner depending on your mood.
5. You can pass the time watching trucks and barns float by.

ONTARIO
1. You live in the centre of the universe.
2. Your $400,000 Toronto home is actually a dump.
3. You and you alone decide who will win the federal election.
4. The only province with hard-core American-style crime.

QUEBEC
1. Racism is socially acceptable
2. You can take bets with your friends on which English neighbour will move out next.
3. Other provinces basically bribe you to stay in Canada.
4. You can blame all your problems on the "Anglo *#!%!"

NEW BRUNSWICK
1. One way or another, the government gets 98% of your income.
2. You're poor, but not as poor as the Newfies.
3. No one ever blames anything on New Brunswick
4. Everybody has a grandfather who runs a lighthouse.

NOVA SCOTIA
1. Everyone can play the fiddle. The ones who can't, think they can.
2. You can pretend to have Scottish heritage as an excuse to get drunk and wear a kilt.
3. You are the only reason Anne Murray makes money.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
1. Even though more people live on Vancouver Island, you still got the big, new bridge.
2. You can walk across the province in half an hour.
3. You can drive across the province in two minutes.
4. Everyone has been an extra on "Road to Avonlea."
5. This is where all those tiny, red potatoes come from.
6. You can confuse ships by turning your porch lights on and off at night.

NEWFOUNDLAND
1. If Quebec separates, you will float off to sea.
2. If you do something stupid, you have a built-in excuse.
3. The workday is about two hours long.
4. It is socially acceptable to wear your hip waders to your wedding.

It's funny because it's true!

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Money as Art

You gotta look here (archives). These art pieces are made with money. Yeah, really.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

All By Myself

Don't wanna be all by myself...

Eli is out of town for a few days. He's gone with 13 other cow-orkers to Toronto for an emergency data retrieval program-thingie (aka: DPR). It's a drill to see if they can recover all the data for the company in 72 hours, get them up and running, blah blah blah. I would guess most big companies do something of the sort. InsCo does it twice a year. This is the first year they're doing it in Toronto (it used to be done in New Jersey) and we can thank Homeland Security for that. InsCo has had the nerve to decline to make available the personal info of it's customers. Yes, the U.S. government has made that a condition of holding these DPR things in the U.S. Anyway, Eli will be back late Saturday. *sob*

Finally bought lotsa flowers for my pots. Got all those planted this weekend, cleaned up the deck, put out it's tchotchkes (little lanterns, a couple birdhouses, a couple whirly-gigs, wind chimes, etc.) It looks nice if I do say so myself. The only disappointment was there weren't any tomato plants to be had. I have to be out tomorrow so I'll make a stop at a real nursery and see if I can rustle up one.

Speaking of tomorrow - it'll be my second WW meeting. Can't wait to see if I've lost weight. There'll be more about that over here in a few minutes.

Speaking of duckies (not that I was), I've seen two hatches so far. They're sooooo cute!

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Calvin or Hobbes?

A Bit Of Both
You are 60% Calvin and 40% Hobbes
Calvin & Hobbes, like a scruffy yin and yang, are in perfect balance within you. Like Calvin, you're weird, a bit insecure, and can be a trouble-maker. But like Hobbes, you're down to earth and sensitive. It's a risk to say it here, after just a ten question test, but I'll bet you're smarter than most. Both Calvin and Hobbes are crafty, clever characters, and any one made from equal parts of each is a force to be reckoned with.

The Calvin Or Hobbes Test written by gwendolynbooks

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Four Day Weekend

One of the pluses, which are legion, of living is Canada is the amount of holidays there are. Eli is off tomorrow and Monday due to the Easter holiday. Yay Canada!

Fun stuff this weekend: shopping for plants! It'll be nice to get them going and to pull out all my deck decor. And I can't wait for more yummy home-grown tomatoes. I don't know what else is on the agenda for the weekend, but having Eli home for four days in a row is pretty cool in my book.

Oh, and a happy Passover and Easter to thems who participate!

[updated]

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Cat Gack

I love AskMe and this thread is a wonderful example.

[ Warning: It's funny as hell, but you'll want to put down whatever you're eating. ]

Keep Your Kitties Safe

Bird flu is supposed to get here (North America) in a few months which is yet one more reason to keep your cats indoors. Two of the RV parks we lived at previously were fairly near poultry farms. A couple years ago millions of birds in the Fraser Valley had to be put to death. And where we are now there is the duck pond I've mentioned. There are lots of resident ducks (Mallards) and there were migrating Wood Ducks this year. I hope this isn't going to be as bad as predicted.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Talking Cats

I saw these videos and just had to share.

Both Oliver and Abigail do the same thing as the cat in the second video, but only when watching crows. Other birds don't seem to trigger it. I have weird cats.

[ updated ]