Seismic Twitch

We’re in the middle of a spring heat wave. The past several days have been hot and muggy. We’ve had some thunder move through, but not a whole lot of rain. In fact, we’re having a record breaking dry spring. Happily Bran put the air conditioner in the dining room window, so with fans blowing air around, the house is nice and comfortable. Work is semi-so on the main floor. The upper floors aren’t air conditioned and are dreadfully hot. Happily I don’t have to spend much time there.

Bran got me the electric wok we looked at the other week. It was the only one in town…at least the only one we could find. The only store we didn’t go to was Wal-Mart and we refuse to shop there because of their sexist and unfair labour practises. Anyway, I haven’t tried it out yet. I haven’t even taken it out of the box. Working and sleeping have prevented that.

Dad called on Friday to ask about coming up to visit. If he’s going to come up it’ll be either tomorrow or Friday. Why if, you ask? The older male sibling is now living with Dad. He’s the one who molested me when I was a kid and he’s not been welcome in my life for several years now. Dad was going to come up with him. I told Dad that that brother wasn’t welcome in my home. I stood my ground. I’m sure there’s going to be further discussion about it with Dad not understanding (or more to the point, choosing to not understand because it’s not his point of view therefore I’m being petty and punitive). It will be short conversation though. This isn’t something that’s up for debate, nor is it an elastic boundary. If the brother wants to drive Dad up, that’s fine. He’ll have to find something else to do for the day until Dad is ready to go home. It might mean that Dad won’t come up and visit. I guess we’ll see.

My co-worker has started a Facebook movement to have Facebook – International Day of the Honey Bee declared. Right now he’s working on the city council of Saskatoon. He’ll be going to the next council meeting next Monday (I think it’s Monday night) with signatures on a petition he’s been getting people to pass around to have May 29, 2010 declared the first annual “Day of the Honey Bee”. This is to raise awareness of the decline of the honey bee populations around the world. Did you know that 1/3 of the food you eat is on your plate because of the actions of honey bees pollinating flowers? Well, it’s true. Anyway, if you live in Saskatoon, you can sign his petition on Saturday at the Farmers’ Market on 19th Street and Avenue A (I think he’ll be wearing his bee-keeper suit). You can also show your support by attending the council meeting and joining his Facebook group. You can contact him through that group if you can offer help, advise or other such things.

We’re doing more paring down of things in the house. I shall be selling my rattan egg chair with stand. I’ve been hanging on to it since before we got married. I don’t sit in it at all, I just look at it. Since that is the case then it’s time for it to go. Bran is giving the fish tank and stuff to his GF. He doesn’t have the energy needed to take care of it. That is going to clear out a fair bit of space in the dining room. That might even mean that we could put a table into that room and have sit down meals, a space for me to sew and the like…speaking of which. I have a couple of pairs of scrubs that I’m going to turn into Capri pants and a pair of Bran’s pants that need hemming. I should get them done soon. That way he’ll have something to wear to job interviews.

Speaking of jobs. I’m thinking of taking the place of one of my co-workers when he goes back to school. He’ll be out of town so can’t work his full time job. The nice thing about being in grad school is that my classes are complete and all I have to do is the research and writing. That I can do while working. The only snag would be student loans because of the increase in income. I’m sure that things will work out though. They always do, whether it’s the way I want them to or not is up for debate.

I saw a video last night that made me move even closer to becoming vegan. My co-worker was watching an oriental show (could’ve been Chinese, Korean or another country in Asia) where the animals being cooked were slaughtered just before being cooked or were cooked live. One was a snake that had its head cut off, was skinned and gutted and chopped up so quickly that the muscles were still in spasming on the plate. Another was a fish that was taken from a tank and deep fried (the head was being held by the cook above the boiling oil) and then plated with sauce. The fish was still alive as evidence by the gills attempting to get oxygen. Yeah. That makes tofu seem a whole lot less pale.

On that note, that’s about it from the great not-White North. It’s time to start thinking about having something to eat. Boy wants to go out to the Great Buffet. He is craving things like coconut buns. Whether we do that is up for debate right now.

Actually, I’m a fantastic aunt, but that’s not the point. My oldest niece had a baby girl by c-section yesterday evening. They named her Rose Sophia (Sophia being my middle name, my grandmother’s name – and they didn’t know that)…

Anyway, I got the call from my brother. He didn’t know that Boy was a section birth as well so he was asking what he could do to help the family out while my niece recovers from the surgery. I suggested that since her hubby has a job that will keep him busy and with a new baby he’ll be busy doing that too. So things like shopping, shovelling sidewalks, vacuuming will likely fall by the wayside. Helping with that would be of enormous help to the new parents. So that’s what he’s going to volunteer to do.

…should be a weekend off. However, I was stupid enough to agree to be on-call. I got a call on Friday night because one of the men wasn’t in at curfew. The weekend news had him out on pass but the board didn’t. I told her to call the counsellor since he was the one the particular gent had spoken to about it. Then tonight, I got a call just as we pulled up to Future Shop to see about a rice cooker/vegetable steamer and a game for Boy. There was no one to work the graveyard shift because the regular staff was ill and couldn’t come in at midnight. I was lucky. The woman who worked graveyards this weekend agreed to work the shift, but she needed to get some sleep. I filled in the 4 hour shift and she came on at midnight.

This is what happens when there are no casual staff AT ALL!. I am so unimpressed. I shall be talking to the boss on Tuesday about this.

I very much need Bran to get a job. I’ll be in a much better bargaining position when that happens.

Anyway, after I got off work Bran told me that he and Boy had gone to SuperStore after they dropped me off. Apparently that store is open 24 hrs during the holiday time. So we went there and got a vegetable steamer and a rice cooker (separate beasts) and a bunch of LED indoor/outdoor lights. I’m going to have my cheer lights (red and white in the livingroom)! One set, the one going up in the bedroom, change colour from white to blue. All we need now are those 3M hang up things that can be removed easily. I’m so looking forward to having my cheer lights up and running.

I made a wonderful supper. For several years we’d done a vegetarian feast to welcome back the sun on the beginning of its journey to summer. However, since being diagnosed with diabetes, many of the dishes simply can’t be done. So, out went the couscous salad and roasted vegetable pie and in came Bran’s choice. I told him to buy something he wanted to have as an entree centre. It was his choice since he was the one going out and getting it.

He brought home a 17 pound turkey. So that’s what I cooked today, along with butternut squash, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes (for Boy and I). Bran made the gravy (it rocked!). I didn’t do a fancy-schmancy rub like I’ve done in the past, just salt and pepper. I also didn’t stuff the bird. It still took nearly 5 hours to roast. It was a spectacular meal. While I was out reluctantly working, Bran put the bones and stuff into a pot and is now making stock. Some of it is going to be made into a nice curry squash and cauliflower soup.

So now I’m home. I’m somewhat less grumpy than I was a little while ago (while I was pouting at work). Boy is having a large mug of tea (extra-large A&W root beer mug), Bran just turned out the overhead living room lights (I really don’t like them at all, but he has this weird attachment to them which I’m hoping will be broken with the advent of the cheer lights) and I’m contemplating a turkey sandwich.

Joyous Yule to all my friends who celebrate it. Happy really early Monday morning to those who don’t. I truly am a lucky woman.

Ta-Ra

Let’s see…when did I last do an entry that resembled complete…well, going back a month is just too long, so I’m just going to wing it.

I’m nearly done with school. Tomorrow I’m going in to school to work on my Aboriginal Law and Women final. It shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve got lots of notes and I figured I’d deal with things according to the syllabus. That way I’ll be sure to cover most of the materials and also still be able to have a good focus. My focus is going to be self-identity and definition. That should be good enough. It’s the kind of final where the prof is going to get different directions from different people instead of stock answers from everyone.

After this class comes the term project for Methods using quantitative data from the GSS (General Social Survey) cycle 18 (victimization). That one is due on the 18th. I should be able to do fairly well. I need to review what is required for the project itself, including any literature reviews (which should be really short because of it being methods, not theory), then I have to go through all the processes of statistical analysis that we did through the year, which reminds me, I have to take my SPSS workbook with me. Hopefully that’ll help me. I’ll be trying to get that done ASAP because I’m wanting to get the photos of my jewelry done and online before I go back to concentrating on school. I hold out no promises though. Stats are not mu forte.

The term paper was hell on wheels. Really, I’m very relieved that I got the research done, but that month or so I spent at the beginning of term being all i-can’t-get-used-to-being-back-in-school. I spent far too much time procrastinating and far too little doing the readings I needed to get done. So during the Christmas break I’m going to be reading ahead for the classes I have, finding the text book for the Criminology class I’ll be taking, and working on the literature review for my Theory class. However, that doesn’t start until tomorrow.

Life at work is proving to be interesting. I discovered some news recently that will affect my working there. However, I’m going to leave that for about a month or so, then I’ll take care of it. This way any news I received is filtered through time. It will also give more time to have more influence in what I need to do. I’ll let you know whether it’s successful. If not, you’ll know because I’ll be (voluntarily, of course) unemployed. At that point it will most definitely be their loss, because I’m great.

Life at home is ok. Bran’s not been feeling well. We haven’t gotten the Jeep fully assessed as to how much the damage will be. That is on the books for tomorrow after Boy and I go to school. Thus far, though, it doesn’t look promising. I really would rather not have to deal with a totalled vehicle, especially if they undervalue it.

Boy is doing well. He got his head shaved by Bran on Monday night. I didn’t see him until this afternoon when he got home so it was a bit of a surprise to see all his emo type hair gone. Oh well, this means that his forehead won’t have hair piled on it keeping in all the oils and stuff exacerbating any acne he might get.

Our upstairs neighbour is being annoying. We work very hard to be good neighbours, but she’s got a thing about sound. We aren’t really that noisy, the television is sometimes loud because of movies and Boy sometimes has his music on a bit too loud, but a phone call works. Last night she rang the doorbell and bitched at Bran about the tv being too loud. I watched the end of the show and just turned it off. I’m waiting for the time when there is no electronics playing and she comes storming down and I can bitch her out about stomping around the house like the Hulk on a bad day. I swear, she doesn’t weight more than 110 pounds but there have been times when I thought she was going to come through the floor.

We’ve got all kinds of toys around the hosue for kitty. Last night I discovered one hanging from the dining room entrance. It’s a kind of skunk looking thing on an elastic that clips to the frame of doors to dangle. You’ve seen the top of the kitty tower. I don’t know as though she goes in the bottom parts, but she’ likes to nap there and look out the window. Bran showed me one of the kitty treats he got. It’s a glucosamine and chondroitin supplement for kitties. She’s going to have healthy joints.

Bran’s Yule present arrived yesterday. Now that he’s seen it, you can too. It’s a t-shirt with Reiko’s first crush from the comic Contemplating Reiko. The logo for Tainted Ink is a fairy puking into an ink bottle. I love it! He loved the t-shirt. Now all I have to do is figure out what in heaven’s name to do for Boy.

I heard from my sister about her visit with Dad. He was going to come up this past weekend but because the weather was so unstable he changed his mind. Anyway, he shut her down. I’m thinking that if I get to see Dad sometime soon maybe I’ll broach the subject to him as well. I’ve had a whole lot more practise arguing with men than she has. I mean, I have arguments daily.

Supper’s on, so I’m going to eat now. That’s pretty much all I can think of anyway.

Ta-Ra

Really, she does. Well, she’s not right now, but she was earlier. Yes, there’s a story to that and I’ll tell you but I have something to do before that.

Bran was rather testy yesterday. You see, we went out to pick up some clumping cat litter at Costco and then pick up some lunch. I was hoping to be back within two hours so that I could continue on with my essay (yes, it’s done, as usual it’s shit, but I don’t know what is expected from me in grad school and this is a way of finding out) and the midterm for my theory class. It didn’t turn out that way. But none of that is germane to what I’m writing about.

On the way to another store to get a cat food bin we had a bit of a tiff. Bran thought I was being too verbose. I thought I wasn’t, I thought I was making sure that I was being all nice and making sure that I was being clear. Talk about cross purposes. We knew that Bran wasn’t having the best of days because he’d forgotten to take his pain meds. Though I thought I wasn’t in rough shape, in retrospect I was stressed about the school work I had waiting for me. Of course you know where this is doing, right? Yes, there were some frayed feelings. Boy was stressed because he’s not used us being quite that picky at each other. Anyway, all was unfluffed when we got out of the car in the parking lot of PetLand and we had a family hug. Isn’t it amazing what problems hugs can solve? We never did find a pet food bin there but we did find a nice curry comb thing for DD.

On the way home we picked up some supper (KFC) and I continued to plug away at the essay. I worked until 5 am and then got up at 9 to continue working. Dad phoned at about 10 (he was planning on coming up sometime this weekend – weather permitting – but the roads around his city were icy and he didn’t want to contend with that so he cancelled) to let me know he wasn’t coming up. When I found that out I realized that I had some extra time to play with. I didn’t have to prepare for his visit interrupting my homework. Three guesses what I did. If any of those guesses involve me continuing to work on the essay or exam you’re wrong. I went back to bed to get some more sleep so that I could write coherent sentences. I eventually got up at 2.

Oh, I left out a trip that Bran and Boy did last night to take advantage of the 20X the points at Shoppers Drug Mart. They went to get our supplements. Bran brought home a little extra for me. He tucked it in his hood. He bought it with the accumulated points and a bit of extra cash.

I am now the proud owner of a Fuji Finepix Z20fd digital camera. I have the blue one. He made sure of that. He’s such a sweetie. Not only does it take photos it also takes video. All I have to do is figure out how to use it.

Anyway, the essay and the exam are done. The kitty got some cat nip into herself and was found sleeping in the basket we have the grapefruit in. He also picked up a short kitty tower (I know, oxymoron) for her to rest in. Right now she’s napping on the top of it, laying across the stick that has the frilly toy on the end of it. She’s weird. That means she fits right in our family.

Now it’s time to upload the software and owner’s manual for my new little toy onto my computer and learn how to do the settings and how to use it. I figure that on Wednesday I’ll do my final exam for my Aboriginal Women and Law class and then I’ll start taking photos of the jewelry. By Saturday I’ll be loading them into my computer while I’m at work. Do please cross your toes, right?

That’s what I did today.

Bran was feeling quite tired and didn’t want to drive me to work. I was ok with that. I mean, I don’t care much for driving, but it’s only a few blocks to work. So that’s what I did. I parked the truck and then went in. At about 7 pm I went out to move the truck to the front of the building (people’s cars have been broken into in the back parking lot – not a happy thing). I started the truck and began backing out, being very careful to miss the pole and the dumpster near it…and backed into another pole that was happily hidden in my blind spot. I mean, it was the real blind spot. The one that you can’t see, the mirrors can’t see because the body of the truck was the same width of the pole. Yeah, that blind spot.

So, you might have remembered me talking about how Boy, in his first attempt backing out of our driveway scratched the back door and window on the bolt of the garbage bin. Then Bran backed into the self-same bin but put a dent and broke the cover of driver’s side rear light. Tonight I took out the side bumper (Jeeps have rear bumpers divided into three with a centre bumper and two side bumpers and the entire rear light except one bulb. At least I wasn’t totally unlit on that side on my way home, but the signal doesn’t work. Yeah.

Next time I drove to work I’m going to do what Bran recommended today. I’m going to bite the bullet and pay the cost of the meters in front of work for a couple of hours before 6 and avoid those danged poles in the back.

Of course, this was cause for much amusement at work, especially since I brought the bumper in from outside and had it sitting on the desk. The guys were curious about the bumper on the desk and got the entire story. They’d laugh. I’d ruefully laugh. My co-worker would laugh uproariously. Good times were had by all…well, except me.

Bran took the news with more equanimity than I figured on. At least he hadn’t already had the repair work done before I did this. I just made the whole thing worth while. Damn.

Other than that, I don’t have a term paper due on Monday, it was always due the Monday after. That’s ok. I thought it was due this coming Monday and would have had it done for then, but then the prof gave an extension because she’s been ill and not been able to see people so she gave the undergrads an extension. So, indirectly I got an extension even though I didn’t. If that makes any sense at all.

It’s snowing out. The police have been really busy down in the area of town where I work. They were seen whizzing off in one direction or another with their lights flashing and sometimes the sirens blaring. In one instance they (and the fire department and paramedics) attended to a truck-cyclist collision on the corner across the street from work. Being as this is a fairly heavy snow and it’s actually hanging out on the roads making them somewhat slick, it’s going to be a busy night for emergency workers in general. It all leaves me feeling very happy I’m home sitting on my comfortable couch with my ubiquitous fan blowing on me.

The December work schedule was out today. Despite saying that I wasn’t wanting and wouldn’t work the weekend of the 20th and 21st I was scheduled. Not only was I scheduled, I was scheduled for graveyards. Duh! Anyway, I also found out that the counsellor was the one who worked out he schedule so I left him a note asking him to change the schedule. I work graveyards over the 24th, 25th and 26th. That works out nicely for me. It gives those people for whom those holidays are important their family time and gives me at least one day of stat pay. I’m not sure if Boxing Day is a stat or not.

That’s about it. I’m greatly relieved that the damage wasn’t more considerable than it was. I’m pissed that it happened at all. I mean, you really have to watch out for those poles. They leap out from the strangest places.

Ta-Ra

In a speech from the then Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in support of Bill C-38 (The Civil Marriage Act) in the House of Commons on February 16, 2005 (click on the link for the entire speech):

I rise today in support of Bill C-38, the Civil Marriage Act. I rise in support of a Canada in which liberties are safeguarded, rights are protected and the people of this land are treated as equals under the law.

…

This bill protects minority rights. This bill affirms the Charter guarantee of religious freedom. It is that straightforward, Mr. Speaker, and it is that important.

…

First, some have claimed that, once this bill becomes law, religious freedoms will be less than fully protected. This is demonstrably untrue. As it pertains to marriage, the government’s legislation affirms the Charter guarantee: that religious officials are free to perform such ceremonies in accordance with the beliefs of their faith.

…

The second argument ventured by opponents of the bill is that government ought to hold a national referendum on this issue. I reject this – not out of a disregard for the view of the people, but because it offends the very purpose of the Charter.

The Charter was enshrined to ensure that the rights of minorities are not subjected, are never subjected, to the will of the majority. The rights of Canadians who belong to a minority group must always be protected by virtue of their status as citizens, regardless of their numbers. These rights must never be left vulnerable to the impulses of the majority.

We embrace freedom and equality in theory, Mr. Speaker. We must also embrace them in fact.

…

Third, some have counseled the government to extend to gays and lesbians the right to “civil union.” This would give same-sex couples many of the rights of a wedded couple, but their relationships would not legally be considered marriage. In other words, they would be equal, but not quite as equal as the rest of Canadians.

Put simply, we must always remember that “separate but equal” is not equal. What’s more, those who call for the establishment of civil unions fail to understand that the Government of Canada does not have the constitutional jurisdiction to do so. Only the provinces have that. Only the provinces could define such a regime – and they could define it in 10 different ways, and some jurisdictions might not bother to define it at all. There would be uncertainty. There would be confusion. There would certainly not be equality.

…

Fourth, some are urging the government to respond to the decisions of the courts by getting out of the marriage business altogether. That would mean no more civil weddings for any couples.

It is worth noting that this idea was rejected by the major religions themselves when their representatives appeared before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in 2003. Moreover, it would be an extreme and counterproductive response for the government to deny civil marriage to opposite-sex couples simply so it can keep it from same-sex couples. To do so would simply be to replace one form of discrimination with another.

…

Finally, Mr. Speaker, there are some who oppose this legislation who would have the government use the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights to override the courts and reinstate the traditional definition of marriage. And really, this is the fundamental issue here.

Understand that in seven provinces and one territory, the lawful union of two people of the same sex in civil marriage is already the law of the land. The debate here today is not about whether to change the definition of marriage – it’s been changed. The debate comes down to whether we should override a right that is now in place. The debate comes down to the Charter, the protection of minority rights, and whether the federal government should invoke the notwithstanding clause.

I know that some think we should use the clause. For example, some religious leaders feel this way. I respect their candor in publicly recognizing that because same-sex marriage is already legal in most of the country, the only way – the only way – to again make civil marriage the exclusive domain of opposite-sex couples is to use the notwithstanding clause.

…

The notwithstanding clause is part of the Charter of Rights. But there’s a reason that no prime minister has ever used it. For a prime minister to use the powers of his office to explicitly deny rather than affirm a right enshrined under the Charter would serve as a signal to all minorities that no longer can they look to the nation’s leader and to the nation’s Constitution for protection, for security, for the guarantee of their freedoms. We would risk becoming a country in which the defence of rights is weighed, calculated and debated based on electoral or other considerations.

That would set us back decades as a nation. It would be wrong for the minorities of this country. It would be wrong for Canada.

The Charter is a living document, the heartbeat of our Constitution. It is also a proclamation. It declares that as Canadians, we live under a progressive and inclusive set of fundamental beliefs about the value of the individual. It declares that we all are lessened when any one of us is denied a fundamental right.

We cannot exalt the Charter as a fundamental aspect of our national character and then use the notwithstanding clause to reject the protections that it would extend. Our rights must be eternal, not subject to political whim.

To those who value the Charter yet oppose the protection of rights for same-sex couples, I ask you: If a prime minister and a national government are willing to take away the rights of one group, what is to say they will stop at that? If the Charter is not there today to protect the rights of one minority, then how can we as a nation of minorities ever hope, ever believe, ever trust that it will be there to protect us tomorrow?

My responsibility as Prime Minister, my duty to Canada and to Canadians, is to defend the Charter in its entirety. Not to pick and choose the rights that our laws shall protect and those that are to be ignored. Not to decree those who shall be equal and those who shall not. My duty is to protect the Charter, as some in this House will not.

Let us never forget that one of the reasons that Canada is such a vibrant nation, so diverse, so rich in the many cultures and races of the world, is that immigrants who come here – as was the case with the ancestors of many of us in this chamber – feel free and are free to practice their religion, follow their faith, live as they want to live. No homogenous system of beliefs is imposed on them.

When we as a nation protect minority rights, we are protecting our multicultural nature. We are reinforcing the Canada we value. We are saying, proudly and unflinchingly, that defending rights – not just those that happen to apply to us, not just that everyone approves of, but all fundamental rights – is at the very soul of what it means to be a Canadian.

…

Today, we rightly see discrimination based on sexual orientation as arbitrary, inappropriate and unfair. Looking back, we can hardly believe that such rights were ever a matter for debate. It is my hope that we will ultimately see the current debate in a similar light; realizing that nothing has been lost or sacrificed by the majority in extending full rights to the minority.

…

There are few nations whose citizens cannot look to Canada and see their own reflection. For generations, men and women and families from the four corners of the globe have made the decision to chose Canada to be their home. Many have come here seeking freedom—of thought, religion and belief. Seeking the freedom simply to be.

The people of Canada have worked hard to build a country that opens its doors to include all, regardless of their differences; a country that respects all, regardless of their differences; a country that demands equality for all, regardless of their differences.

If we do not step forward, then we step back. If we do not protect a right, then we deny it. Mr. Speaker, together as a nation, together as Canadians: Let us step forward.

How can human beings deny to other human beings the right to love each other in a legally recognized bond? How can anyone justify such hatred? The truth is that same-sex marriage doesn’t destroy families, it creates them. They may not be man/woman/kids, but then that scenario has never been the norm, even when it was touted as the ideal.

There…that’s my final word on the issue. You are, of course, welcome to leave your comments. All I ask is that you have the guts to be able to stand up beside your words and be identified. There are few people more cowardly than those who lack the conviction to stand by their words.

I was going to get up early and get to the university to do some homework. I set my alarm and everything. I forgot, however, to enable the alarm. I woke up at 3 pm when Bran came in to wake me. I also woke up with a very nasty sinus headache. It’s still hanging out in the periphery of my sinuses, though it’s not as severe as it had been. I’d lost the study time I’d wanted to use to prepare my presentation in Theory (which takes more formal notes that I’d used on the Aboriginal Women and Canadian Law class.

I did spend a lot of very productive time last night at work reading peer reviewed articles for my annotated bibliography. Of that I’m glad. That’s what I’ll be working on this evening as well. Bran and Boy are off picking up prescriptions and giving Boy some more driving practise. Then they’re going to KFC to pick up soem popcorn chicken for me to eat. I’ve got a craving.

My sister will be in town tomorrow afternoon. This means that I can get to the university, read the remaining chapter for my Theory class presentation and prepare the basics of my notes. I have to prepare something resembling base notes for the class to have as well. I should also read the third chapter that is being prepared for presentation by a classmate. I might be able to find some other things to note and present on peripherally.

That’s it. I’m going to start reading the articles again to find ones that I shall be creating the annotated bibliography. I wish my Word program would work normally. I’m having issues with the buttons. Oh, speaking of having issues. The problem with my arrow buttons only occurs in Firefox. This means that the latest update they did is what is screwing around with that, not the computer functioning itself. That’s a relief.

Ta-Ra

That’s when you know you have a really bad fast food habit and that an intervention should happen as soon as possible.

It was a long day at work. I managed to get one chapter for Theory read. Then I gave up and called Bran to get him to bring my laptop to work so that I could spend the day playing Bejeweled 2. At 4:15 one of the guys I supervise came by to report. This meant that I had only 15 minutes until I had to start getting supper ready.

Tonight’s supper was hot dogs, fried onions, pork and beans, raw vegetables and leftover, nuked fried potatoes. I thought that the beans and hot dogs (with buns and condiments) wouldn’t be very popular. I mean, really. However, not counting on that I made two dozen wieners. I figured that for certain there’d be many wieners left over. There were none. In fact, I barely had enough to put together a couple of dogs for a guy who was working. One guy was going to buy a hamburger but changed his mind and came home for supper instead. Weirdo.

I phoned Bran near to the time he’d be coming to get me. I wanted to go to Dairy Queen and get a Skor Blizzard. I’d had such a day that I wanted that. That’s when I found out that we had a visitor and she’d be coming along. I got a medium Blizzard and she got a burger. After I’d eaten about 1/2 or so of the treat I gave it to her for dessert. I’d had enough.

We decided to go out to Sutherland (formerly a small town on the outskirts of town, now incorporated into the city) to see what prices were being charged at Cree Way gas. They’re $0.02 cheaper than anywhere else in town. I’m not sure that going all the way across town makes sense but if we’re in Sutherland anyway, getting gas there makes sense. Speaking of gas, it’s been steadily decreasing in price. Not long ago it was $1.46 per litre. Now it’s at $1.14 most places (except Cree Way where it’s $1.12). Maybe it’ll go back down below $1.00.

I’m in our bedroom now. Bran and Tali wanted to watch a movie and I’m not really in the mood. I’ve got my music playing (Annie Lennox at the moment – the player’s on random), the fan blowing air about (but the window isn’t open) and I’m getting pleasantly sleepy. Dang, I forgot to get my pills. Hmm…some fell to the ground. I wonder if that’s a night time dose or ibuprofen. Yay! It was my night time dose sans the ibuprofen I take nightly.

That’s about it now. I’m going to push the mattress over to where it belongs and then read other people’s blogs.

Ta-Ra

Tonight was Thanksgiving supper at work (for those who aren’t Canadian, Thanksgiving is this weekend up here in the Great White North). There was punch and warm apple cider, turkey, dressing, two salads, mashed potatoes, gravy, buns (heh, buns!), turnips (I didn’t take any), cooked carrots and pies, lots of pies. Bran and Boy came along with me. Staff was there along with some of their family as well as the residents and their guests. There were around 50 people in the dining room. It was really quite warm.

Just before we left I met with one of my supervisors. It was about a case plan I’d done up for one of the residents. When we do case files for a new resident much of the information is cut and pasted into a file of a resident who had similar charges and has similar needs areas. The stuff of the former resident is cut out and replaced with the information of the new resident. You can see where this is going, right? Yeah, I forgot to delete some of the older resident information and it was a bit of a boo-boo. The resident was, of course, somewhat upset about this. Though it was my mistake, it was only the second case plan I’d done and the bosses didn’t proof it well enough before giving it to the resident. I was learning, they were supposed to catch my boo-boos. Of course I’ll be more careful in the future, but they’re also going to be much more careful in their editing as well.

Then I met with the cook and she asked if I was ok doing a brunch on Monday. I told her that I had no problem with it. I’m sure that I can rope one of the guys to help me out. I need someone who is taller than I am because I need someone who can reach the back of the grill and not get spattered by stuff being cooked. There won’t be leftovers cooked that evening, so there’ll probably be either pizza or Chinese food ordered in from the slush fund.

Now we’re home and it’s murder and mayhem night. Despite my nap earlier, I have a feeling (actually, it’s really my tummy that has the feeling) that tonight isn’t going to be a late night. I want to go into the university tomorrow morning and work there. I want to download peer reviewed articles and other references for my research for the three classes I’m taking.

I took my loan forms into administration to get them processed. It took a little longer because first they found out that I wasn’t registered for spring/summer sessions. I didn’t know I could. Of course, even if I could I wouldn’t have known which classes to register for. Because my loan forms were late getting to me there was a hold on my account which meant I couldn’t register for more classes. That hold had to come off, so it was off to another part of the Admin Building to get that done. Then I registered for one class (it’s the class that is reserved for defending one’s thesis – it’s not a class, but has to be registered for until one does finish one’s thesis or project). Once that was done the woman who was helping me forced the records to update. That took about 10 minutes to get done. That combined my tuition to three terms (fall, winter, spring and summer) to match my student loan to the actual registration. Then it was off to the post depot in Place Riel to get the forms finalized. Now that it’s all done, sometime in the next two weeks I’ll be getting a healthy deposit of money into the bank account to distribute in a monthly budget along with the province’s loan portion which is mailed out each month. With that, my work pay and child tax credit we should do pretty well.

That’s about it. Nothing else exciting happened today. Tomorrow I’ll be at the university and hopefully will get a lot of work done.

Ta-Ra