More home improvement.

So, no, I am not sitting around watching soaps and eating bon-bons. I am actually accomplishing some things.

Like new tile in the entry way. I actually bought these at the dollar store.


And finally a defense against the raccoons. If you can't beat 'em, lock the fuckers out!



This cost me exactly zero dollars. Made it from an old headboard and the shelf from the closet.

I am Eva Vila.

* SIGH *

I can't win.

Here I am, trying to get things done while I am off work. Clear out The Boy's room, move in the exercise equipment. Clean the house, get the H1N1 shot....

Wait. I can't get the shot. I had a printout of all the clinics so I had planned to get mine today. Then last night they change the schedule to only include those at high risk. Now I can't get it unless I am either pregnant, under 5 or a member of the First Nations. (Not sure what makes that last group high risk, but whatever.)

Apparently there was a big snaffoo with the vaccine. In July they delayed making it til August so they could finish making the regular flu vaccine. Then they stopped production of the regular adjuvanted version of the H1N1 vaccine so they could clear out the lab to make a non-adjuvanted version of the vaccine for pregnant women. See, they can't make more than one kind at a time in the same lab. That means they only made 6 million shots before shutting down for the prego's.

There are, 33,212,696 people in Canada (well at least until some of those prego's pop) and they tell us they will have enough for everyone before Christmas. I am no rocket scientist, but I don't think the math holds up.

Problem is, it would be just my luck to get the swine flu. I can't win the lottery but I could totally get a pig disease.

Keeping busy?

So, The Boy moved out the other day and I have three weeks to kill. Naturally I have dug up the old home movies and have been editing.

Pre-Mason cuteness. The nephews and niece. (some of them anyway)




Random Mason cuteness.



More Mason cuteness.

21 days

So I am sitting taking calls on Thursday. Call after call after call. The company bought out a bunch of other little companies, layed off the workers and so we are slammed with calls. They say you can only take one at a time, don't stress it. But its the mood of the customer after waiting for an hour to get to you that ... well... gets to you.

Anyway, I am just finishing a call when I sit back and WHAM! I feel like I am falling, backwards. Hard and fast. The freakiest thing I have ever experienced. Sort of like the feeling you get in a really fast elevator only more so.

At first I just thought, "Whoa!" but when it didn't stop, I started to get really freaked out. What if I pass out? Who would find me, and would they find me in time?

I throw the headset off and stagger into The Boy's room waking him, "What the hell, Mom?"

"Oh, I thought I should come in here in case I pass out, you can call 911. Or at least keep the cat from eating my face."

It lasted about 3 or 4 minutes but for the next three days I did not feel right. A few hours after I went up to the drug store and had my blood pressure checked. 179 over 99, not good. The next day it was only down to 154 over 96.

No, I did not go to the emergency room. I know, shut up!

Finally on Sunday when I still was feeling weird, I call the 'walk-in' clinic to see when they open. "Ya, we are done registering for the day."

WTF? "What does that mean?"

"We are done registering for the day, it is very busy." So, basically, don't bother 'walking in' cuz no one will see you.

What the hell kind of walk in clinic is that? I was not aware that you could pre-register. And if you can pre-register, why not make an appointment with your own fucking doctor? Mine was on vacation til Monday or I wouldn't be contemplating the walk-in clinic.

She is just lucky I didn't 'walk in' cuz at that point I would have gone postal.

So, there I am, feeling weird and as luck would have it, not a thing to eat or drink in the house. Bunnie suggests going for groceries but I am scared to drive, cuz I feel so weird. So she offers to take me. "Would you mind? Just in case I take a nose dive, you can position me in a less humiliating position til the EMT's get there." HA! Probably not the best idea I have had all week. But I will leave that story for another day.

Finally, on Monday, my doctor is back. I spend all morning in between each call trying to get through to her. When I finally do, the only appointment she has is 7:15 at night. Now I work 10-2 and 7-11, so I have to split the second half of my split shift so I can make the appointment. I work from 5-7 and plan to go back on after seeing the doctor from 9-11.

Long story short...my doctor wants me off the phones. She wanted 2 months, I agreed to 3 weeks. She writes the note and I am back home by 9. My manager works days so he wasn't available to talk to and since I had no experience with short term disability, I get on the phone to finish my shift.

We actually go out of queue at 9:30 so I am chatting on messenger with a Tier2 support person, as I am telling her about my day she says..."CALL ME!"

"What date is on that note?"

"Uh, today's."

"Uh, get off the phones. Now!"

Apparently, if I were to drop dead and they found a note from my doctor saying I was not supposed to be working, The Boy would be set for life after the lawyers got through with them. Who knew?

So, there you have it. I am off work for 3 weeks and I am not sure what I am going to do with myself. Well, when I am not having stress tests and sonograms on my heart and being drained of blood from some vampire at the hospital not to mention the insurance paperwork. All these things (and more) are in my immediate future.

Bandits!

I put the compost bag on the deck for The Boy to take down to the bin, then forgot to tell him.



These guys were on top of it though.

Now that....is determination.

A teenaged girl smuggled in a flip-knife in her vagina. She set off the metal detector, but told security the scanner was simply picking up a body piercing.

If only she had applied that much determination to her education.

There otta be a 12 step program.

I feel trapped by FaceBook. I don't do anything else but check my status and the status of others, look at their photos and videos and play farming games.

I intermittently download and watch tv programs but it seems that I don't even bother to check email anymore or blog for that matter.

I know people that don't use Facebook, have never had Facebook....I know it can be done. But who wants to be the one person who is out of the loop?

I need help.

Happy Monday, Everyone.

Too funny!

I know, I'm sick...but its funny.

What is up with that?

I download a lot of TV, since I don't pay for cable.

Right now there are plenty of new shows and pilot episodes of new series' out there. Yet I have resisted downloading Eastwick.



I just realized why, its because I assumed it was Canadian. Maybe because Paul Gross is doing the Nickleson role, I guess I assume it is going to be low budget or just plain crap.

Does that make me a snob?

I can't seem to win today.

Was having problems getting a new ringtone for my phone. So I broke down and used the old 'contact us' feature at Telus.



Tell me, am I missing something?

I love this president!

And the award for biggest A-Hole on the planet goes to...

What the hell is wrong with Kanye West? Who brought this asshole up? If I was his mother I would have dragged his ass off the stage by his ear. This sweet, country singing teenager wins her first VMA award and this douchebag, grabs the mike from her and basically says that she robbed Beyonce. That it was Beyonce who truly had the best video and should have won. And Beyonce puts on her best WTF smile. She was mortified.

It wasn't easy finding the video for this it was even taken off the Associated Press website. I am not sure who they are trying to protect, Taylor from the embarrassment, the producers of the VMA's or the asshole, Kanye. I have to see this so I am downloading it from Mininova.

But this is what I could find.



People were shocked! I mean really, this kid is completely classless. It was all over Twitter, as it was happening. Katy Perry Twittered: FUCK U KANYE. IT'S LIKE U STEPPED 0N A KITTEN.

And the Classy Chick award goes to?... Beyonce. When she was accepting her award she brought Taylor back on stage so she could finish her acceptance speech. Very classy.

(couldn't find a video for that either)

I heard that Kanye was supposed to perform after this but was cut last minute. I can't confirm that until I see the program but I can't imagine him getting anything but boo'ed after that load of crap he pulled.

Update:

Okay, so I watched the whole thing. Yup, KW, still an A-hole. But what was most disturbing was Lady Gaga.

Chick is not wound right.

Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Steven Seagal: Lawman - A&E TV

Should I be worried?

So the doomsday crap begins. Apparently on December 21, 2012 its lights out for the earth.

Okay, so you believe it. Then what? Can you stop it? Haven't seen one person come up with at suggestion. Can you survive it? Not that anyone is saying. So here is the question.

Who the fuck cares?

If you can't stop it or survive it, why bother worrying about it? You will only work yourself up into a frenzy for no good reason. If it is true, you wasted the two good years you had left and if its not true you have wasted two years fretting over it. Quite possibly working yourself into a state that causes small children to give you a wide birth. Might as well get yourself a couple dozen cats to keep you company in your old age cuz everyone else already thinks your nutts.

Everyone is talking about the Mayans...if they were so fucking brilliant, where are they now? Oh....but their calendar ends on December 21, 2012. Dude...they are extinct....at some point there was no one left to update the calendar. As far as I can figure, they chiseled everything in stone....time consuming, surprising they made it to 2012. Just a thought.

In case you are interested here is the beginning of a six part 'documentary' on the 2012 thing. Myself, I couldn't get past part 2.

Possibly because I am a big fan of Red Green.

But I am a huge fan of 'There I Fixed It'.

I don't care how much you protest...you have all done something like this in your lifetime. You remember the milk crate end tables in your first apartment?



I have actually done this. Recently.

It's Canada, eh?

Looks like the money might be talking here.

Sydney River McDonald's Murders - Muise ready to be sprung

From Wikipedia:

Darren Muise is said to have invested an inheritance heavily in the tech industry during the mid to late 1990s, generating millions of dollars in profits from stocks such as BlackBerry maker Research in Motion.

Oh, I am sure this had absolutely nothing to do with getting him over 200 day passes over the years.

This asshole brutally murders and then cools his heels in jail (albeit with some day passes so he can fuck his girlfriend and take in a movie) while he becomes a millionaire.

Good thing he murdered those people and went to jail, otherwise he may have blown all that inheritance money on crack.

Poor choice of words?

Been seeing this commercial for about a month...



...and I seriously thought they were saying 'nut sack'.

Three Days Off.

And what to do?

Well I can't go visit my sister because, frankly, I think she is off her gourd. Long story, and I don't know if I can tell it because it still makes no sense to me.

Anyway.

After work on Tuesday (which happened to be 1:30am, so technically Wed)I went to Sonny's to pick up something for Nurse Darling. I know, I am a crazy party animal/social butterfly. Thought I would share this with ya. He has this little gem under glass at his home.




And yes, they are dead rodents playing cards.

Then I went to Kimmy's on Wednesday to bum some smokes since payday is not til Thursday and she fed me!





Lobster pasta. YUM! (Plus she always gives me the leftovers, so there is some in the fridge right now but not for long)

Then I went completely wild today and went to the grocery store. I know, I am out of control!

Thought I might pick up some watermelon since the weather is so hot and miserable.



Think again....six bucks for six peices of watermelon that were not even the size of your palm.

A week ago, you could buy a whole watermelon for five bucks.

I think its a scam myself.

Sprucing up the old girl.

Finally getting off my ass and getting the car in shape.

Sonny The Geek did the body work on the car. I helped, I did so! Shut up! Every venture requires management, supervision and quality control.

Course, someone, and I am not naming any names (Boy) was messing with the cell phone camera and the resolution was screwed up so the pictures are small.

Anyway, Sonny did a great job. Got rid of the rust spots. I got myself new hubcaps and I think she looks better. Of course, once you put new paint on the parts you fixed, then you start seeing all the scratches on all the rest of it. That is when you debate wether to grab a couple extra cans of paint and do the whole thing. (Does that make me a redneck?)

Here are a few before and after shots.








So, the boy waxed it for me today.



But couldn't resist giving his a wipe down too.




I think she looks pretty good. I also have a chrome pin-stripe that I will put down the center of 'er.



After that I should be able to find her in the parking lot at the mall, don't you think? Right now I look like an Alzheimer's patient in the parking lot.

UPDATE:

Couldn't wait to do the pin-stripe. It's subtle, but I like it.

And how was your week?

I seem to have turned into a lump.

Nothing interests me, nothing pissing me off. Nothing worth ranting about, or rather, things pissing me off so much that I have been reduced to just a guttural moan on the subject.

What is there to say? The world is going to shit, or has already gone. The crap on TV isn't worth watching, the news is just a sponsor biased regurgitation of what everyone else is broadcasting.

Do they even keep records of what they were spewing last week, last month? Ten minutes ago? Just because he is dead, now you no longer think he is a pedophile? Or does it matter now that the king is dead, lets not bring up the dirty laundry, its in such bad taste. Give me a break.

I am not saying I think he was a pedophile, no one knows for sure. But I certainly don't think he was the second coming of Christ either. But give the media another week, the rest of the world will.

So, what have I been doing? Pretty much trying to ignore everything, in the hopes that it will just go away.

No such luck.

MJ 1958 - 2009

I don't know about you but I found it tacky.

Now I only caught the last half of it, but dark glasses at a funeral? Is this normal? Seemed like half those people were wearing those glasses to hide the fact that their tears were fake.

I know what you are thinking.....BITCH! I don't pretend to be anything else but to me it was like, his life was a circus side show and they carried it on into his funeral.

Say what ya want about the freaky'ness that was his life, he was one super talented dude.

Now it is over, maybe the poor man can rest in peace.

Happy Birthday, Canada!

Some favorite Canadian content.













Have a good one.

Gadget Queen.

Got a new cell phone today.

The Boy stepped on his so he has been using mine. I decided today to get myself one. Yes, I know he has a job and could buy his own cell phone. No its not the same as buying one for him. No, it's not, shut up!

This one has slide out QWERTY keyboard, much faster to text. It has a 2MP camera with video and an MP3 player.

It also has a few cool features. If you are taking a still picture and are afraid you might miss the 'look' or something. You can set it to take from 4 to 16 shots, one after another without pressing the shutter. It's like a fashion shoot.



It also has pre-loaded frames for some extra fun'ness.

LOL!

Just .... hahahaha.

Good Grief!

Anyone else surprised it took this long for someone to take a shot at Parez Hilton?

Oh ya, and he was of course so traumatized by the whole incident that he immediately phoned the police?



Uh ok, right after he Twitter'd it. Ya, that's exactly the way it should be handled, you are bleeding, forget 911, Twitter it.

When I first read this, I thought they said Paris Hilton but that would not have changed the first line of this post either.

Is it just me?

Is it just me, or does this creep anyone else out?

It's getting old.

Sure, its funny to hear about but when you live with it, it gets old really fast.

The Boy is stomping all over my last nerve with this car.

-He goes out every single day and vacuums it. Every day.

-We don't have a hose so he takes two buckets outside with him. One with soapy water and the other with clear water and washes it. Oh, and a t-shirt... to dry it. (No, it is not a Porsche or a Ferrari.)

-He doesn't like the condition of the driveway (mud puddles, rutts etc.) so he parks it on the lawn. He has no idea why that would upset me. Aside from the fact it kills the grass, it is just so Trailor Park Boys.

Now he wants me to take it to the garage because one of the tires has the writing facing in instead of out like the other three. I kid you not.

Maybe he is afraid someone will start humming the 'one of these things' song when he drives up. That would be humiliating.

Did he really think it through?

I used the exact words he has used on me over and over and over.

"Can I use your car while you are at work?"

Seems a pretty reasonable request, right? After all, you don't use it, it just sits in the parking lot/driveway whatever. And I never said no to him so I wasn't really expecting and answer. It was more of a statement as I started putting on my shoes and coat.

Apparently not as reasonable a request to him. "Uh, no."

I froze, but didn't skip a beat, "Fine." and he left.

I really didn't want to leave the house today, but there is not much toilet paper left and not much for him to eat or drink. No worries. I will hide what is left of the toilet paper for myself and he can eat newspaper for all I care.

I figure a week of saying no to his every request, no matter how small will get the point across.

I might just do laundry today, but not his.

For fuck sake!

Did I really need to know that Quai Chan Caine dabbled in transvestite role playing?

I think not.

Nothing is fucking sacred anymore, who the hell needed to report that, whose fuckin business was it anyway?

Fuck, do I have to have someone filter my internet feed now?

Give me a break.

Whoever came up with this little tidbit, needs to get a life.

Are the American tax payers paying this guys salary? If they are they should be completely outraged.



One little thing from eight years ago. Taken out of context and now this idiot Tancredo is calling her a member of the Latino KKK. Unreal. Can you say 'attention whore?' Someone desperately needs to be on tv.

No reasonable person after reading the entire text (in context)would surmise that she is a bigot or a racist. Get a life Tancredo.

I wonder when he watches himself on tv, does he see how ridiculous he sounds? Did he know he was siding with Rush Limbaugh on a race issue? Hello pot, meet kettle.

Twilight

After all the hooplah over this movie I expected more. I was disappointed.

This is certainly no Harry Potter. I just wasn't feelin' it. The chemistry between the leads was, in my opinion, limp.

Bottom line, that was two hours of my life that I will never get back.

Wish me luck.

After a week of hacking up a lung every morning and using a puffer every night so I can breathe in my sleep, I have decided to give Champix a go again.

It did work before, took away the addiction but not the habit. Problem was, I tried it in the winter and I couldn't even get out of my own way. At least now I can leave the house if I want, even if it is just to sit outside on the deck.

Add to that the expense of smoking, I really can't afford to smoke any longer.

We will see how it goes this time.

Wish me luck.

Retro

A visit to Rads always has some bit of retro and it got me thinking of my favorites when I was a teenager.

Donny, from 1972, I remember putting this on over and over while babysitting.



Rod Stewart



Meatloaf




Bay City Rollers, 1975 (ya, I sewed plaid patches on my jeans)



Frank Zappa



Sean Cassidy (remember the Hardy Boys?)



Queen





Supertramp





Steve Miller Band


Cheap Trick



Cheech and Chong (couldn't find my favorite, which is 'Beaners')



I could go on, but I think we can all deduce that I am indeed old.

First Impressions

Name's Bond, James Bond.

Got a new toy today.



Can't tell you where I got it. Well, I could, but then I would have to kill you.



Say hello to my little friend.



This little beauty is a video surveillance device. Hopefully, I will not have to try and describe the idiocy that I encounter on a daily basis.

With luck I will have it live on tape.

I am a friend of Bill.

I believe my crazy addiction faze has run its course.

I don't usually succumb to those sorts of all-consuming activities. Well not since my 36hour HTML coding marathon. I was surfing the net, way back when, and thought I should try this HTML shit. I bought a book and sat at the keyboard for almost 36 hours straight, I think I napped a couple times but it was like as soon as I got to sleep my mind would work out the problem I was having spacing the tables correctly and I would snap awake and have to go right back to the computer.

I guess it happens at the beginning of anything interesting for me. I can't seem to find a happy medium. When the FarmTown thing started winding down, meaning I had the biggest farm I was ever gonna have and more money than I could spend, I started looking at other things that I could do to fill the time between harvests. I dabbled in YoVille and BarnBuddies, but I think I am over it now.

So, what has been happening around me while I was single-mindedly tending to my fake life online?

Well, The Boy got a car, you knew that. But he has yet to move back with his father. Don't get me wrong, I love The Boy, but I was living the life while he was gone. My house was never more dirty than I made it. There was no obstacle course on the way to anywhere (ie: towels, socks, clothes, shoes). There was always something to drink when I opened the fridge and I was never surprised with an empty carton of ice cream.

While he was gone for that year, my power bills were cut in half and now I know why. The washer and dryer have never stopped since he walked back in. He takes two showers a day and has to make sure the bathroom is full of steam (nice and warm) before he even steps foot in it.

He never says where he is going or where he has been and forgets to say 'luv ya' now when we part company. He won't take the garbage out or clean a dish or even just pick up after himself. He goes to school when he feels like it and takes a fit if you say anything about it. And he lies! I am not sure why, but he lies about everything, stupid things that don't even make any sense to lie about. It's almost pathological.

I have figured it out, seems that the person he is living with is the person he shits on.

I fixed his wagon as far as school is concerned. If he misses one more day this year, I will have his father cancel the insurance on his car. No exceptions!

So, I am just waiting for TBF to get his shit together and get his house built so the boy can move back. Hopefully I will not be wiped out financially by then.

Coming down off the high.

My farm is so big now that I can't see the whole thing in one frame. There is no where to go now, can't expand any more so nothing really to look forward to.

I have a wicked headache, but I thing the addiction has passed.