Seismic Twitch

That’s the situation I’m in right now. I’m working day shifts this week and that means that sleep is all wonky. My normal pattern is to not sleep well on Sunday night (in this case it was Monday because it was a long weekend for us Cannucks), then by Thursday I have my sleep pattern sussed out to be able to survive through Friday. However, after hitting bed around 9:30 tonight, I woke up at midnight to Bran coughing and having to pee like crazy. I got up and then couldn’t get back to sleep.

It’s now nearly 4 am and I have to be up for work at 8.

I’ve been watching “Deadly Women” episodes on You Tube. It’s a good way of spending time.

I made a discovery. It appears that the videos that are displayed on my Android tablet are very different, or lacking, from the computer display. I’ve found some on each of the formats that aren’t on the other. I can’t figure it out. I’ve been spending all night watching videos that I can’t find on the tablet. It’s the same channel.

I’ve been having to wear the splint on my left arm again. My tendonitis has gotten bad again. It hurts to turn my wrist, so things like turning keys (like I have to do to open doors at work) is very painful. The worst part is that it’s been very hot, and extremely humid so wearing the splint is really uncomfortable. But it’s better than taking a ton of ibuprofen all day long.

Dang. I have a mosquito bite. I’d hoped to avoid that this year despite the heavy and frequent rainfall. Speaking of which, I looked at a paper not long after the start of the spring thaw, the headline said that it was supposed to be a dry summer. That’s not been the case. We’ve had some very violent storms which include hail, heavy winds and tornadoes. The tornadoes have all avoided populated areas. The most damage done has been to farm yards. There have been some very impressive photos of cluster tornadoes.

I’m going to try and sleep again. I have three hours (if I don’t get up until 7 am) to try and get in a nap. I know that I’ll feel like shit after, but I if I don’t I’ll have huge issues staying awake at work in the afternoon…and morning.

We’ve had a spate of very interesting weather up here lately. We’ve had some wonderful, nature-smashing storms with thunder, lightning, hail, driving rain, wild wind and tornadoes. Yesterday we lost power for 8 hours because of branches blown down from trees. And it wasn’t just our house/neighbourhood. It was all over the city. Anywhere there were large, mature trees, there were blown down branches and downed power lines. There were also damaged cars and buildings. Tornadoes were sighted north and west of the city so we were on a tornado watch for most of yesterday.

I’m doing cross stitch. I’ve made a present for a co-worker who is pregnant and due in October. I have to find three little frames for the a,b,c I stitched up for her nursery. I’m now working on the horoscope signs of Bran, Boy and myself to frame up and put up in our living room.

Work is going well. I’ve been allowed access to the CSC information site. This means that I can access information about the men and women referred to the Reporting Centre. We have to have that information because if an offender is going to spend time in the Centre we have to know what we might have to watch out for. This also gives me access to a secure email system so I can easily communicate with parole officers. On Tuesday I’ll be inputting the month end reports for our residents.

I’ve become very attached to You Tube. I’ve been watching all kinds of true crime shows. Many of the shows I’d never seen before. One channel that is featured prominently in this genre is Investigation Discovery. I don’t know where that channel originates. I’d like to think that if I got cable again that I could get it from the USA. What makes me doubt that is that is that the announcers always have an English accent. That’s not the norm on American networks. Right now, as I type, I’m watching “World’s Wildest Police Videos” hosted by former Sheriff John Binnel (sp).

I got a haircut a couple of weeks ago. It had grown out to the point of nearly being able to be tied back. In order to keep it out of my face I had to wear a headband. I liked it, but it was hard to keep off the nape of my neck. This meant that the coming summer was going to be a whole lot warmer then I like. So I got it all cut off…well, not all, but it’s darned short.

Bran’s truck cost us a whole shit pile of money. We thought he was having transmission issues (which would have been okay because that’s covered on a 3 year warranty from our purchase last year). The repair guys said that it was probably the tires and alignment. The said tires were dangerously worn. So we replaced them. If you buy a vehicle, I recommend a car or small SUV that takes regular tires. They’re a whole lot less expensive. I’m not sure, but I think the issues we thought were the transmission have been resolved…at least for now.

That’s about it for now. I have to start looking for clothes for work.

This is what’s been happening since I last posted:
• I lived with the drain in until today (so, 4 weeks). The site had ceased to drain off much fluid and the drain was beginning to cause more irritation so it was removed this afternoon. I can now sleep on my right side but I have a towel on the bed because the drain site will leak fluid until it heals over.
• I was freed to drive again today as well. Bran has been very sweet about driving me around to various places. He’s now free to not.
• Bran fell the week before my surgery. It wasn’t until I was home and his wrist continued to bother him that he went into his own doctor and discovered that his wrist was, in fact, broken. He was sent to one of the hospital clinics for a brace. The techs there put him in a cast. The cast should be coming off in a couple of weeks.
• November 11, 2011 was my 10 year anniversary of blogging. That’s right, ten years ago on that day I opened my Diary-X account. About a month or so later I opened it up to other readers and then began reading the blogs of other people. VUBoOQ‘s blog was the first blog of another person I read. He was Enviroboi back then.
• We got snow. A lot of it is gone because of a recent thaw. I had a slip and fall earlier in the week on an icy patch (since been deiced with a vengeance). Luckily I didn’t hurt by belly at all, just a sore ankle and left wrist.
• I had my nails done (gel) and though was generally pleased, I was specifically unhappy so I won’t be going back to the place I’d gotten them done. It’s been weird having long nails and I had to get used to them. I still hit the wrong keys a lot.
• Boy has become unhappy at work. There was a change of supervisors and the current one is an asshole. Actually, he’s the one that Bran called an asshole and got a few days off because of it.
• Bran began working on creating my hobby/work space. I posted a couple of starting photographs on my Tumblr if you want to see what the beginning looks like. I’ll post regular updates as we progress on making a workable space. It’s where all my hobby stuff is, theoretically at least, supposed to be stored.
• I got a light box so I can trace photos and make embroidery/beading patterns. Using it has been fun. It gives me the illusion of being artistic without actually having any talent.
• I haven’t lost any weight since coming out of hospital. That’s to be expected though. My activity level is significantly lower than it was before I went in. I shall be joining Bran 3X/week at the Saskatoon Field House for his exercise in the Cardiac Program offered there. I can join him for $25 a month and we’ll be walking or cycling. I figure I can support him and have motivation to get my ass moving for an extended time.
• I continue to go into work to do the administrative work for the program I work. It gets me out of the house and forces me to be somewhat social. It also enables me to see my boss live up to his commitment of wearing a fake mustache for Movember. He can’t grow his own mustache to save his butt, so he said that for every $200 raised he’s wear a fake for a week. Needless to say I was the first one to donate. Yes, I’m evil and he knows it.
• Bran, Boy and I continue to take care of our chinchillas. I’m hoping they did tonight. I went to bed to have a nap with Bran and then asked if I could stay in bed when the alarm went off to go pick up Boy and do the cage. Bran said it was ok so that’s what I did. When I got up 1/2 hour ago Boy had already gone to bed and Bran was also in bed.

Thank you to all for your well wishes during my recovery. Having support really does help.

It’s Thursday in what is turning out to be an extremely long week. Tuesday night was hell on wheels. It was like the instant I sat down something else needed doing or someone else needed help. It was nuts. I’m pretty sure that, at work, most other people’s days were like that. The replacement cook is settling in ok. She had an extremely steep learning curve since the cook was concentrating on getting the big supper done and was of little help in terms of telling her locum a lot of valuable information. She’s doing well though and my co-worker and I are making sure that stats are kept up. I find her to be somewhat…irritating, but she’s only there for another week (sadly, next week I’m on days and have to be around her for nearly the whole of my shift). She likes to have company when she has coffee and I usually don’t have time or simply don’t want to.

Bran was out helping a friend with car stuff when he phoned home. He asked if I wanted to do dim sum with a friend on Sunday to celebrate our two birthdays. What? I’m going to say no? Hell no, I said yes! We’ll also be ordering for left overs as well. I really disliked going there and not having supper provided as well. It’s the one big carb feast that I’m willing to go whole hog on (yes, that’s a reference to me being a pig).

I’ve been enjoying my tablet a lot. The on/off switch is stupid though and I think the machine will have to go back. It turns off easily enough, but turning the damned thing on is a bit troublesome. That’s a problem and with a mechanical issue like a button it generally doesn’t get better, it gets worse. So after Bran finds the bill of sale I’m going to reset to factory defaults and we’ll exchange it for a new one. It’s also possible that it’s designed to not be easy to turn on to prevent accidental power usage. Maybe I’m just sensitive because of all the issues I had with my desktop when I first got it, and the notebook being a dud (the alternate monitor connection not working, the touch pad not turning off, etc), my old laptop sounding like a jet engine with bronchitis…you get the idea. I’ve just been experimenting and found that this is indeed the case. You have to press the on button for an extended period. So it looks like it’s not a dud after all. Maybe.

Last night one of the parole officers was in the building seeing his guys. One guy and his wife come by then (he’s a former resident). Last night they brought their 18 month old girl. What a cutie she is! She’s very imperious and demanding and doesn’t speak adult yet. So everything she says is baby-babble. You should see the look of utter contempt she gets when you don’t understand what she’s saying, very impressive indeed. Anyway, I downloaded an app called “Colourbaby” onto my tablet. It’s not the most convenient app because it’s hard to exit and stuff, but she adored it…for as long as an 18 month old baby has the attention span to adore something. It presents as a blank, black screen until you touch it. Wherever you touch the screen bright rainbow colours appear (like when you’d colour black over other colours and then use a pencil to scrape off the black crayon revealing the bright colours beneath). Not only that, but it would play musical notes as long as your finger is in contact with the screen. Sorry iPad users, it’s only available for Android right now. Her mom tried to find it for her iPhone and it wasn’t there. Oh, and I found a menu button that allows the parent to control more things including exiting the program. This prevents the baby (and it is for babies) from exiting accidentally and getting into other, more sensitive apps.

We’re going to the zoo again this weekend. I’m hoping it doesn’t snow. That would put a damper on things.

Bran read to me: “In Bakersfield CA it is illegal to have sex with the devil…without a condom.” So remember that next time you’re planning on seducing the one who has been promoted from mere cast out underling to comparable nemesis of the “great bearded white man in the sky” (said on the National Film Board video Goddess Remembered but I can’t remember the name of the woman who said it…Shakina Mountainwater or something like that).

Anyway, here’s a photo of one of the animals at the zoo:

I don’t know what was different from the two entries I made before. The only thing was that I divided it in half. Nothing was changed except for a little bit of editing to make it more current and it published. Yet together it wouldn’t publish. Weird.

The soup was delicious. I could have added a bit more curry to it, but then the taste of the squash would have been overpowered. I was also going to put in sliced red pepper, but I forgot. It would have made a nice addition. Perhaps when I put my lunch together tomorrow I’ll slice up some pepper and plonk it in and it can reheat with the soup for my supper tomorrow. For those of you who eat legumes, some chick peas or lentils would go well. Rice would also be good with the soup.

Today it got to 30 C outside. I didn’t go out and I’m quite content with that whole concept.

It’s not midnight yet here, therefore it’s still Saturday. I’m trying to keep up with blogging even if I have little to say.

I’m getting a vase from VUBOQ! I’m so excited! VUBOQ has made lots of pottery and I’ve not gotten a piece. Today he said he was giving away some of his misshapen pieces and I asked for the brown vase, and I’m getting it. Hurrah!

Today Bran and I went out for a few groceries (baby bok choy and granny smith apples) and pet food. Dutchess, being the lovely kitty she is, continues to need food on a daily basis. As such we had mostly run out of her favourite Science Diet mature indoor cat, hairball formula. The other pet food we got was for the chinchillas. They were out of pellets and had no timothy hay. So we got them and a couple of treats. We got two different kinds of pellet packs. One was just the timothy hay pellets, the other had bits and pieces of other things like corn, dried peas, pine cone, fruit bits and such like. Their food smells like potpourri. I got a bag of timothy hay as well. They are now well fed little rodents.

I’m thinking of bringing home the two babies (well, they’re not really babies anymore) because the cage is a bit crowded. That way Bran can advertise them for sale and not have to worry whether I’m at work, whether I have time while I’m at work to attend to anyone who wants to buy them, etc. They will also be handled more and therefore become more socialized.

Have I ever told you about the gastronomic proclivities of our precious feline? No? Maybe? Yes? Which ever the answer you’re going to read about them again. This kitty isn’t really a real cat. Sure, she purrs, she meows, she uses the litter box, and is extremely adept at getting underfoot, but she has profound differences that separate her from the realm of average housecatdom. She doesn’t jump on counters in the kitchen. She doesn’t jump up there unless she feels that she’s not getting enough petting from the person standing at the counter. She doesn’t jump up to sniff or eat at food sitting on the counter, no matter what that food might be. She can sit on your lap while you eat and she will ignore what you’re eating no matter what it is (with one notable exception and I’ll get to that). She doesn’t like people food much at all. She doesn’t eat tuna, salmon, cod, haddock, or pollock, chicken, beef, or pork and has no interest in the gravies of said meats or sauces of said fish. She also doesn’t eat soft cat food. She might lick up some of the gel, but that’s about it. She does, however adore her kibble and meows most aggrievedly should she be able to see the shiny silver of the bottom of her dish. She also doesn’t drink milk or attempt to drink milk out of glasses that might be within her reach.

She likes her water fountain and I suspect it’s because her water is double filtered (Britta filter on the tap and the fountain also filters the water). Yes, we spoil her, but we also live in an old neighbourhood where the equally old water pipes still have lead solder. The lead might not have a huge affect on humans but on a creature as little as a cat we take the additional precautions. The fountain was recommended by the vet because she was slightly dehydrated. The fountain encourages cats to eat. I think it’s because it’s more like a toilet than a water dish.

Oh, the people food we discovered she loves? Yeah, genuine-real-fake-crab-flavoured pollock…and beef jerky (discovered that the other night). She will be very annoying if I’m sitting and noshing down on some krab. So I give her little bits. The beef jerky is, I think, a reaction to the zippered plastic bag it comes in. Her glucoasmine and condroitin treats also come in a zippered plastic bag. As hideous as those treats smell (and it’s hard to wash that smell off your hands) she adores them. Being an older cat it’s a good idea to feed some to her on a daily basis. Apparently they are flavoured, salmon and something else, but they smell the same to me…gross.

The plexi-glass seems to be doing the job of keeping in most of the chinchilla poop. One of the guys likes them and takes videos of them. On Monday evening I’m going to be putting their bath in and he’ll be able to video them zooming around in the rose bowl. It’s quite a site to see.

Today’s menu was breakfast lightly curried vegetables, scrambled eggs and bacon. I sauteed up some onions and garlic then added some curry paste to the pot. When the curry paste dissolved and the onions and garlic were translucent I added red pepper slices and baby bok choy (cut in half) and let the whole thing steam together while I fried the bacon and scrambled the eggs. Curry and eggs go together so well.

Supper wasn’t until late into the evening (night, if you like) because I had an afternoon nap and wasn’t awake again until after 8 pm. Bran and Boy had gone out earlier and picked up some chicken thighs. We were going to have grilled chicken kabobs with sate sauce but because I was sleeping it didn’t happen. Instead I fried the chicken in butter with some herbs and spices, baked up some sweet potato fries and made a huge, kick-ass salad. We didn’t eat until about 10. I had the coffee that I made and was going to have with breakfast. It was tres yummy.

We’ve been getting incredibly hot weather lately. For the past several days it’s been over 30C (86F). Thursday we broke a previously set high set in 1981 of 33.6C (92.48F). Body temperature in Celsius is 37. Today it was 31 and there was very little wind. That’s a rare thing in Saskatchewan. There are no mountains or trees to act as wind breaks, just wide open spaces. When Bran and I went out at about 1:30 or so this afternoon the leaves on the trees were completely still. Happily the weather is cooling down to more seasonable temperatures for the next while. Sometime this month we’re going to have a lovely day of fall (the day all the leaves are coloured and still on the trees) and then the wind will come and all the leaves will be bald the next day. We don’t tend to get a long, lingering, colourful fall. The longest I remember seeing is about 3 days, then fwump! All the leaves were on the ground becoming so much dust that makes me sneeze. Anyway, this is the long explanation to why we have the a/c on and why I have 3 fans blowing directly on me.

Bran and Boy are putting together a computer desk for Boy. It’s constituent parts are rather shoddily put together (quality isn’t one of Staples’s fortes). Already Bran is having to reinforce some of the pieces so that they don’t come apart. Bran is noticing that the angles of their brace is wrong. The return policy of Staples is that the item be returned in sale-able condition and yet they engineer the item in such a way that it is extremely easy to break while under construction. So yeah, when Bran’s done with it the desk will be stable and strong, but certainly not because Staples did anything useful other than cut the wood pieces and supply some of the hardware. They’ve had some conflict around it, but that appears I thought that most of that stemmed from them not having eaten since afternoon’s breakfast. Happily it’s not me putting it together. I’m not sure my back could take that.

I downloaded a pile more free books again today from ePub Books I have to wonder when I’m going to have time to read all the books I’ve gotten. I’m still stuck in The Three Musketeers and there are at least piece more books in the series. I am so much enjoying my little Kobo. I think being able to read has also contributed to my wanting to write again. So many things suffered from the demands of school. I’m finally getting back to some of my loves.

Time to retreat to the bedroom and crack my Kobo to continue the consumption of a classic in literature.

Since it’s been a while since my late post I thought I’d use bullets to update you on my life as it is right now (and has been for the past couple of weeks):

• Remember how proud I was that I put together the Ikea dresser and chiffonier? Maybe I forgot to post about it, but I did do that and I was proud of my l337 skillz with the screw driver and whatchamacallit key thing. I got a sore wrist from doing that. The reward of feeling good about putting together the furniture was superseded by the growing discomfort in my right wrist. Gradually I was unable to do much because any twisting of my wrist brought sharp pangs in my wrist. So off I went to the doctor. I was worried that I suddenly developed arthritis in that joint. The good thing is that it wasn’t arthritis. The bad thing is that I’d created tendinitis in my wrist. I was told that I should up my intake of ibuprofen (which would also necessitate a new and stronger anti-acid medication) and/or get a wrist splint. The splint thing is to keep the wrist from twisting, thus allowing the tendons to rest and ergo the swelling to reduce. I chose the splint alone. It will take my wrist longer to heal, but I won’t have to take stronger medications. It’s a semi-win-win situation.
• Work is a bit screwy at the moment. We’re still waiting on the security clearance for the staff who is going to take the full time night position. This means that we have some issues with filling her spot until she’s able to be trained and get working. We also lost one of the part-time staff. She got her degree and has started working at a job she’s enjoying very much. So we’ve been down for her time as well. Today is my weekend. While I grant that I had all day yesterday after I finished my overnight shift training a new staff, I had to recover from a week of overnights to shift my sleep pattern so that I can work 2 evening shifts and then move my body to day shifts for the remainder of the week. Yeah.
• The house is still for sale. There have been three or four tours through, once last Tuesday while I slept the day away. Bran asked them to be quiet since I was on overnight shift and would be sleeping. I didn’t hear them at all and didn’t wake until about 5 pm. Yay!
• I still like my Ute and like driving it.
• The weather was hot for a while. It was not only hot, but it was wickedly humid. Stepping outside of the house, work or my Ute was like stepping into a bowl of hot soup. I drank so much water and yet was hardly going to the bathroom because I was sweating it all away. Work was hard. The upper floors aren’t air conditioned so doing room and building checks were torture. Happily for staff we get to spend at least part of our day in air conditioned comfort. Many of our residents work in construction so they didn’t get a break except when they were on main floor./li>
• We got one of those portable air conditioners and it’s installed in the living room. It truly has been a saving grace for us. We have three desk top computers in the living room and the conditioner has kept the space livable. Too bad the cool air doesn’t reach the bedrooms (even with fans encouraging it on its way). We’re now getting more livable temperatures. We do expect Monday to be hot again, but nothing like it had been and it’s only for one day. I can survive that.
• My fancy light-up keyboard, the one I was so happy to have, was incompatible with my computer. That made me sad. It stopped the computer from completing the start-up routine. I don’t know how it did it though. We took the computer in and they confirmed that everything was working right. Bran brought it home and started plugging in things to see what was holding up production. It turned out to be my favourite peripheral. Damn. I’m using Bran’s cordless keyboard now. It’s smaller than my light-up keyboard and I can remove it from the drawer without worrying about cords, but it’s not the same.
• Today I did a manual update of my WordPress. It drives me crazy that I can’t get an automatic update to work. It wouldn’t be so bad if it would work just once, or if it would stop telling me the update failed and I should attempt it again. I mean, it’s updated. That should disappear. I guess next time (by my calculations that should be sometime later this week) they come out with another update, if I don’t try to do the automatic update, maybe that message will disappear.
• Along with the update I upped my security with a plugin called Secure WordPress and will hopefully reduce the spam making it into my spam filter with SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam that will work along with Askimet. I doubt I get enough traffic to attract anyone who could hack into my blog, but hey, it can’t hurt, right?
• We haven’t gone to see the last Harry Potter movie. I haven’t seen part 1 of it yet so we can’t until I do. Well, it’s also possible that I won’t see it in the theatre considering my rather profound dislike of crowds and people in general. I might just wait until it comes out on video and then watch the entire series. I am rather sad that the story is ending and has ended in the books. They were fun reads and the movies were fun to watch. It’s a good thing I like repeats or else it would be more tragic.
• We haven’t managed to get our spit together to get out of town for a picnic and photo session yet. We had wanted to do so a week or two back (on a Sunday) but the weather was less than cooperative and insisted on raining. While all of our DSLRs are water resistant, they are not water proof. We are also limited in the number of lenses that are water resistant as well. This means no rainy day photos outside. I tried to get pics of the kitty, but she wouldn’t be still enough to get any decent shots. She’s rather camera shy with me.
• I went out and was social on Wednesday. That was the day we went out for “drinks” (mine was ginger ale since I had to work later that night) to say farewell to the staff I spoke about earlier who got a job she enjoys. We all sat around and munched on snackies, drank our drinks and talked shop in a way we can’t at work. It was quite a bit of fun. I gave her (the staff who was leaving) a ride home afterwards. When I got home (round about 10) Bran was beginning to get worried since I don’t usually stay away from home that long.
• Bran got a surprise in the mail this month. It came on a day when he was feeling grumpy and out of sorts. Some time before the lock-out of Canada Post workers I’d ordered the latest Dominic Deegan book. Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire is one of Bran’s favourite on-line comics. We have the other books the artist/writer/creator, Mookie, has published. When I saw the new book was out I ordered it for Bran and didn’t tell him. So when it came I just handed him the envelope and told him it was his. It cheered him up a lot. That made me happy.
• I want Dairy Queen. Specifically I want a Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard with cheese cake. Failing that a small or medium cone will suffice.
• If it weren’t for the fact that I’d end up with a sore back I would be hiding away from the world today. There are a lot of things I could be doing, but I have no wish to leave the house, let alone bed. But since I would get a sore back/hips/ribs if I laid in bed as long as I’d like I’ll make do and embed myself into my spot on the couch.
• I have two sore knuckles. They are somewhat bruised from the splint. They ram into the splint when I try to do things the splint is designed to prevent the motion of doing…like working with a mouse. I tried using Bran’s tablet. It worked like a track pad on a laptop but was larger. It worked fairly well, too. The problem I had with it was that my finger tips would dry out and the tablet wouldn’t be able to “feel” what I was doing. I felt like I was slowly polishing my finger prints off. So now when I have to do a large amount of mouse work (like playing minesweeper) or when I have to type a lot, I take the splint off. I still can’t mouse for long periods of time, but it’s getting better.
• I finally have my Rosetta Stone French lessons. I might have mentioned them before, I can’t remember and a quick scan of my previous entries doesn’t reveal anything of note. I decided some time ago to increase my ability in Canada’s other official language. Since buying all the lessons from Rosetta Stone is as cheap as taking a single semester class of basic French at university, I decided on the one I can do at my leisure. I should probably go to one of those teacher stores and pick up books and such to teach myself the grammar and such. Oh, and a becherel would probably be useful too. I’m sure I spelt it wrong, but a becherel is a book containing conjugations of various verbs. I can’t use the discs at work but I could do the work in written French. Being semi- or fully- bilingual would mean that getting a job with the feds would be much easier. So far I’ve learned things like: he drinks, she drinks, they drink, she reads, he reads, they read, he wears pants, she wears a skirt, he buys a hat and she buys a dress. Thrilling, yes? My biggest challenge still appears to be the “eu” sound. Dad spent a significant amount of time trying to help me get the sound of those two letters correct when I was in high school. I think, if I recall correctly, I managed to get it right enough times he was satisfied. I could be wrong. It’s equally possible that he simply ceded defeat in the face of my anglophone accent.
• Boy hasn’t shaved for a while. I can tell because he’s got sideburns with a tacky and sparse beard. I still grow a better moustache than he does despite it his protestations to the contrary.

I believe that’s it. I sit and wonder what else there is to say, and frankly, there’s nothing.

Today is the last day of the May long weekend. For us, it’s Victoria Day. Most people will have planted their gardens this weekend (or perhaps the weekend before this) because the risk of frost is nice and low. Those who don’t have gardens might have gone out of town for the first camp-out of the year, or to the various city, regional, provincial or federal parks for a picnic. Today we went to Beaver Creek Conservation Area to walk around and take photographs.

Bran, me and a friend went out this afternoon. She wanted to get out of town and I wanted to take photos. I didn’t particularly want to go out to do so, but it seemed stupid to give up an opportunity like this. It’s cold outside today. If it had been this temperature in late February or early March I would have gloried in the clement weather. Today I just got cold. Despite the Scotch mist, the wind and the cold temperatures it was a pleasant time.

There are several trails a person can take. The area is only open from 9-5 on weekdays (the hours on the weekend vary) and we didn’t get there until nearly 3. This meant that we wouldn’t have time to do one of the longer walks. In fact, being open so little time it’s a wonder they have any trails that take much time. We took the yellow trail. I took a fair number of photographs. I wish that I could photograph the smells. I love the smell of a forest (even a bush forest such as this). It was more aromatic thanks to the damp earth. Sometimes it was quite fragrant with the blooming of fruit trees (berry trees) and the heady aroma of sweet grass when we were out of the valley on the flat prairie.

Because the day was so overcast the light was, what is called in photography lingo, flat. This means that there is little contrast in dark, light, and varying shades. I’ll be working on editing up some photos that I took to look more vibrant. I used the flash to take some photos of some bracket fungus growing on a fallen tree. I’m curious to know what that’ll look like.

We trouped around there for a little over and hour before we all went back to the truck and headed back to town. Beaver Creek is about 10 or 15 minutes south of town, just north of the White Cap Dakota First Nation (where Dakota Dunes Casino is).

Then we went for sushi for supper. We were going to go to Szechuan Kitchen, but Bran decided that sushi was ok because he could get sushimi. So that’s what we did. Before we had anything to eat I saw something crawling on his bunnyhug (hoody to anyone who doesn’t live in Saskatchewan). I used my serviette to get it off him and showed it to him. It was as I suspected. He collected a tick. Luckily it wasn’t attached to him. I smooshed it in the napkin and wrung the napkin and thought that was the last of it. Then I decided to peek. It was not only still alive, it was fully intact ready to crawl out of the paper. I smooshed it up again, wrung it again and sent it outside when Bran went to get a hanky out of the truck a bit later on. Then I got all paranoid about whether I’d picked one up. Happily it doesn’t appear that I did. I forgot about tick season.

After supper we went to Shoppers on the West side to check out Bran’s point-and-shoot camera battery. It stopped working in the camera so he wanted to see if it was the camera or the battery that died. Yeah, it was the camera. He’s going to hunt up the warranty to see if there’s something he can do to get a replacement or something. I got a new pair of reading glasses. I’m tired of the ones I have being all scratched up and permanently smeared. I can’t figure out why they don’t ever come properly clean. That’s the last time I spend that much on a pair of reading glasses though. The way to go is the cheap way by picking up a pair at the drug store for $35 or so. I also picked a couple of DVDs. Sadly, one of them I already have. I hoped that I would be getting a new Scooby Doo. I wasn’t . I already have the one I bought so back it goes. I did get Groundhog Day.

I went shooting last night too. One of the things I captured was the video of the fish in the entry before this one. Fish are so weird.

I wish I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow. Except for being sick and in pain for 3.5 of the 5 days I’ve been home it’s been quite relaxing. I slept when I wanted, got up when I needed, got flowers (gonna have to do that more often since they look so darned pretty), and took lots and lots of photographs. I have lots to edit.

Check out my photostream at Flickr. I have a thing in the sidebar that’ll take you there.

It’s official. You know why? Because I heard thunder today! Loud, rumbling thunder!

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