Seismic Twitch

First off. this keyboard is taking some getting used to. I mean I like it and all, but I’m not used to the action and finding the root keys has proven to be interesting.

I’m better now, thanks. It’s been a long time since I’d had a bout of IBS and I’m not used to the discomfort and other “issues” that tend to arise. I left work early and rested on the couch. I went to bed fairly soon after that though. Because it was so early I ended up waking up at the unholy hour of 2 am. Of course, having had a lovely nap and feeling much better I stayed awake for a while. I went back to bed at 10 for a sleep before work.

It’s been ugly hot here. Yesterday we got up to 37 (98.6 F for all my American friends). Up until now this summer had been downright balmy. I guess we’re in the dog days of summer now. Today was somewhat cooler which made the house somewhat cooler, but we’re still very dependent on the air conditioner. The bedrooms have been quite warm and with us not wanting to open the window very wide we haven’t gotten much of a breeze. This hot weather is just plain evil.

Tomorrow is my last work day of the week. It will also be my 6th workday in a row. Up to now I’d only worked 4 in a row with a day or two off in between. After tomorrow I’m off for 5 whole days. I’m looking forward to the time off.

Bran got a new table to try out for our computers. It’s from Junk (they call it Jysk, but what do they know) and styled after those hospital tables that you can eat off and such. Instead of having a compartment to store things under the larger section, it tilts, allowing you to have your laptop at a slant The smaller side bit holds the mouse and whatever other things you put on a table (which in my case is a considerable amount of junk and pennies. He’s going to the store to get me one tomorrow (or get himself one because I’d rather not have to set it up. I guess we’ll see how things go.

Its been an interesting time at work. We’ve got two new guys there. I swear, one of them is just out of kindergarten. He looks so young to be in the federal system. Shit, he came back for supper on one of those smallish bikes that kids ride. With his shorts, his long shirt, his hat on backwards, I swear, he was just born yesterday! He makes me feel very old. I hope he manages to succeed. It’d suck if he got sent back.

We lost two today as well. One reached his warrant expiry date and was free to walk out of the building at 0001. I think he stayed for cake though. The other went back into treatment. The loss of a daughter had proven to be too much and the choice was made to get back into a more controlled and supportive environment to prevent a back slide to drug use. I have to say kudos for knowing what was needed and how to get it.

Now I’m tired. I haven’t been sleeping very well because of the heat. Now that it’s cooled down some I hope I can get more sleep.

Ta-Ra

I’m not feeling well and I came home early from work.

Yep, one of my favourite things. Food! I stole this from a friend who chooses to keep her blog private.



The Omnivore’s Hundred is a list of foods the gastronomic Andrew Wheeler thinks everyone should try at least once in their lives.

The rules of the meme:
1. Bold those you have tried
2. strike through those you wouldn’t eat on a bet.
3. Italicize any item you’ll never eat again.
4. Asterisk any items you’d be interested in trying but have not yet.

Venison
*Nettle tea
Huevos rancheros (unless they mean testicles from castrated calves, then no.)
*Steak tartare
*Crocodile
Black pudding
Cheese fondue
*Carp (though I do have some reservation about this one because they’re bottom feeders and bottom feeders tend to taste like the bottom of wherever they’re living.)
Borscht (It’s just soup – in North American it means a specific kind of soup. Either way, I’ve had both defined types – beet and cabbage)
Baba ghanoush (I love this stuff!)
Calamari
Pho
PB&J sandwich
Aloo gobi (A friend had me to eat at her place a lot. I was introduced to the most yummy East Indian cooking ever! Her mom cooked stuff that I could eat. When her husband wanted heat there was hot chili ground up or pepper chutneys. I never knew what that yummy stuff was called though.)
Hot dog from a street cart
*Epoisses
*Black truffle
Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
Steamed pork buns
Pistachio ice cream
Heirloom tomatoes
Fresh wild berries (I used to pick them when I was a little kid.)
*Foie gras (Just one, to see if it’s any better than liverwurst. If not, then I’ll probably never eat it again.)
Rice and beans
Brawn, or head cheese (My parents would get a 1/2 pig every year from the butcher. It came with 1/2 the head so Mom made head cheese – I make it with hock instead.)
Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (I’m not that much into self immolation.)
Dulce de leche (I’ve made it as a creme inside to homemade chocolates. It’s very yummy. You just boil an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for about 10 minutes or so. The sugars caramelize wonderfully. You have to wait until the can cools down before opening because that stuff is like napalm when it’s hot.)
Oysters (Smoked and dried then smoked but not fresh.)
Baklava (Well made this stuff is to die for…seriously.)
Bagna cauda
Wasabi peas (Only because the entire concept frightens me.)
Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (Well, not in a sour dough bowl, but I’ve had both Manhattan and New England styles)
Salted lassi
Sauerkraut (With Mom’s maiden name being Weisbeck, yes, I’ve had sauerkraut.)
Root beer float
Cognac with a fat cigar (Cognac, but not with the cigar – I would’ve turned green)
Clotted cream tea
Vodka jelly (and gin jelly – four flavours/colours to match the colours of the directions – can’t have a decent pagan get together without jelly shots.)
Gumbo
Oxtail (Mom would make oxtail soup. At the time it was a very cheap way of making a beef soup.)
Curried goat
Whole insects (Yes, I know that they’re packed full of protein, but still, no way!)
Phaal
Goat’s milk
Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (I hate the taste of whisky.)
Fugu (I make it a habit to not eat food that can kill me in minute quantities.)
Chicken tikka masala
*Eel
*Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
*Sea urchin
*Prickly pear
Umeboshi
*Abalone
Paneer
McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
Spaetzle
Dirty gin martini
Beer above 8% (I’m allergic to hops.)
Poutine (Geez, you can’t live in Canada and not have had some restaurant’s poutine – well, you could…I guess.)
Carob chips
*S’mores
Sweetbreads
Kaolin (It’s dirt! People voluntarily eat dirt when there’s other food around?)
*Currywurst
Durian (A fruit that’s banned on the airlines of the country where it’s most popular – Indonesia – because of its smell doesn’t make me want to eat go near it.)
Frogs’ legs (I don’t care how good they might taste, I just can’t eat my amphibious friends.)
*Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake (Sweet doughy deep fried? You bet!)
Haggis Another food derived from organs. (Mom would make stuffed beef heart once in a while and sandwiches from tongue boiled with spices. I’ve not had either since I left home.)
*Fried plantain
Chitterlings, or andouillette (Mom never never made “chitlins” but she did use pork gut for sausages.)
Gazpacho
Caviar and blini (It’s the first time I ever threw up because I was so repulsed by a food. I like blinis though.)
Louche absinthe
*Gjetost, or brunost
Roadkill (I’d rather leave it for the crows, ravens, and magpies.)
Baijiu
Hostess Fruit Pie
Snail – escargots, in brioche. (I’ve even had them without the brioche.)
Lapsang souchong
Bellini
Tom yum (Just recently in fact, at a wonderful restaurant that we’ll be eating at a whole lot more often.)
Eggs Benedict
Pocky (I’m not that big a fan of candy to bother.)
*Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant (I’d do it, just to find out what things a 3 Michelin star restaurant would have.)
Kobe beef (If it gets more massages than I do then I won’t eat it just out of sheer resentment.)
Hare (Actually it was rabbit, but they’re essentially the same things.)
Goulash (My mom would make it from leftover beef. It was vile. If you don’t name a stew like dish “goulash” chances are I’ll try it.)
Flowers candied rose petals, broccoli, artichokes, marigolds, and other flowers. (Nasturtiums make very tasty additions to salads)
Horse (For the same reason I won’t eat frog legs.)
*Criollo chocolate
Spam
*Soft shell crab
Rose harissa
*Catfish
Mole poblano
Bagel and lox
Lobster Thermidor
Polenta
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
*Snake

Feel free to cut and paste this one. What would your answers be? Of course, I know the vegetarians I know wouldn’t do the meat stuff, but there’s other stuff.

Ta-Ra

From the latest CBC News:

Border guards to turn away church group aiming to picket bus victim’s funeral Last Updated: Friday, August 8, 2008 | 9:09 AM CT CBC News Canadian border guards are under orders to prevent members of a fundamentalist American church from crossing into Canada to protest at the funeral Saturday of a Winnipeg man brutally killed on a Greyhound bus last week. Westboro Baptist Church, a controversial Kansas-based sect, intends to picket the funeral of 22-year-old Tim McLean to tell Canadians his slaying on July 30 was God’s response to Canadian policies enabling abortion, homosexuality and adultery. “God is punishing Canada for passing laws against WBC — by exposing Canadians as cannibals and highway decapitaters,” the church says in a news release on its website, which refers to McLean as “The Headless Canadian.” Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day’s office sent an alert to border patrol to “look out” for people with signs and pamphlets consistent with the messages that the church promotes and to keep them out of the country, Winnipeg MP Pat Martin told CBC News on Friday. “Entering Canada by a U.S. citizen isn’t an absolute right, and if you’re coming here only to disrupt the social order and to promote what we consider to be bordering on hate crimes or hate language, they shouldn’t come into Canada,” Martin said. “We’re not going to allow these people to compound the tragedy of the McLean family loss, and Canadians simply won’t tolerate these lunatics disrupting what should be a respectful service.” Freedom of speech is not absolute, Martin said. “Your freedom to swing your arm in the air ends when it touches the end of my nose,” he said. “What these people were going to do was hurtful, harmful and disruptive to the peace, order and good government that we guarantee to our citizens, so they have no place in this country.” A counter-protest against the church’s picket plans was launched on the social networking site Facebook on Thursday. More than 500 people have since joined the group; postings indicate they plan to form a “human wall” around the family to shield them from the church protest, if it takes place. The Westboro Baptist Church and its founder, Pastor Fred Phelps, gained infamy by protesting gay-pride rallies and the funerals of people who have died from AIDS-related illnesses. In recent years, church members have also picketed the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming the deaths are also God’s punishment for the country’s tolerance for homosexuality.

I may despise Harper and nearly all of what he represents, but his government has managed to show a remarkable amount of sense and sensitivity around this whole issue.

The space on my jaw where the tooth used to be hurts, but it’s not the same kind of chronic then acute pain I had when I’d eat while the tooth was there. The nice thing about this pain is that 1. I know it’ll go away 2. the ibuprofen is pretty effective and 3. so long as I’m careful when I drink (not too hot and not sucking on a straw) it doesn’t hurt to drink cold liquids. Yay! It won’t be long and the gum will heal (despite the tooth breaking up it wasn’t a difficult extraction and the entire tooth is gone) nicely and I’ll get used to no tooth being there. I might even get a denture or something to replace it.

Thanks to everyone for your well wishes.

I should be going to bed soon. But first I’m going to read my daily comics and then eat my chicken rolls from last night’s supper…because, you know, I can.

Today I called the university because I was told that ‘prerogative’ was spelt wrong on my diploma. I got the poor woman there all bent out of shape with worry only to find out that it was spelt correctly, Boy didn’t know that. He thought it was spelt the way it was generally pronounced as per-ogative. Anyway, it all worked out in the end.

I called my doctor because the abscess appears to be growing. While the tooth itself isn’t as sore as it was and I can chew for a limited time, my gum is swollen and very sore. In fact, the gum is the source of all my chewing pain because inevitably food will come into contact with the gum and that definitely does hurt…a lot! That’s the part that’s swollen.

Anyway, I managed to get in to see her (two miracles! with her) and she confirmed – as I always knew – that the tooth was abscessed. She prescribed 4 more days of the antibiotics which will get me to the dentist appointment and then the dentist can decide what the next course of action will be.

I waited a while at the doctors’ office until Bran did some errands and came back to get me. I was quite surprised, not only was the doctor available and on time, Bran was much quicker than I’d anticipated. We went to A&W and got burgers (and fries for me) for lunch. I was about 1/2 way through my lunch when my gum started protesting with more vigour than I liked but I made it through and took two ibuprofen at the end of it. The discomfort means that it’s soup for supper though. Dang.

One of the errands was to return the pants I bought at Addition Elle. Those were the pants that the zipper wouldn’t stay up. Today I wore the white pants/capris if you roll up the bottom as they had done. They had a slight stretch to them which I’m not used to in denim but was nice to have in the pants. I wish they weren’t hip type pants though. Those are the ones that fall down at my funny belly shape. They also pull down my underwear. Otherwise they’re one of the very most comfortable pants I’ve stuck my butt into.

After we got home from the doctors’ office and before we started lunch our mail arrived. Amazon managed to surprise me and the last two books of my regular order were here. Now I own Dykes and other Carbon Based Life Forms to Watch Out For and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home – A Family Tragicomic, the graphic memoir of her life. It’s one of the books I’ll be reading over the weekend. Since I work graveyards I won’t have the guys to keep me occupied so I’ll be taking beads, crosswords, books and a few DVDs in case I need to have visual stimulation to stay awake. Those things and some of their double leaded coffee I should make it through the night ok.

Then I have one or two days off and work my regular shifts. I’d have more days off, but I’m trading days from the end of the week to the beginning so that I can go to a wedding next weekend. It’s an overnight trip so I need both Friday and Saturday off. It’s the weirdest thing, I’ve not needed a mental health day or a sick day since beginning working there. Sure I have a few more days off, and my shifts have been varied enough to keep from becoming bored which leads to me being stressed about being fired.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to call the university Grad Studies people and find out what it is that they need as proof that I’ve completed my degree. Speaking of which, I had the darnedest dream today about that. I dreamt that I went back to Tamara’s House to visit. Not only did I see my former supervisor there, but also one of the staff who no longer works there. The only certainty is that I’d see the three people in my dream who access the drop-in centre. I’m not counting the guy since it’s an organization for women. Weird. I think the dream was related to my thinking about them and a plaque I want to create for the drop-in.

I laid down and had a nap for the afternoon. I didn’t get enough sleep because Boy decided to come and chat to Bran this morning. I have no idea what it was about, but I do know that it woke me enough that I had to get out of bed to pee and that woke me up too much to go back to sleep. That started a relatively busy day for me which I’d already written about.

Of course, all that triggers my thoughts wondering when my bifocals are going to be ready. I’m thinking that they’re somewhat over due for being on my face.

It’s murder and mayhem night for me so I’ll be watching the programs, seeing if they are already recorded; then when they’re repeated, I’ll be recording any that I don’t think I have. Since we haven’t found my MS Office Suite I can’t read any of my spread sheets that were saved in Excel. I remember putting them in a binder, but the binder I used now holds my recorded video collection. Something…hmm…I wonder if I’m right? I’m not. Darn. I thought I remembered putting them in Bran’s bedside table drawers. They’re not there. They’re somewhere in the house. I jsut ish that I could remember where.

That’s about it from my life on the flat lands of Canada. Pudding and soup for supper…yum?

Ta-Ra

When I got home from work tonight there were 6 comments awaiting approval. They’re the reason that I have approval in the first place. Every single comment was spam. Nertz.

My mouth is hurting a fair bit. My gum and jaw are quite swollen up with the abscess going on. The antibiotics may be having some effect, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s for good or ill. I’m very glad that I’m going to the dentist on Thursday. Maybe she can give me or do something to make it feel better until I can get the root canals done.

I got the first of my book order today. The four “Post Secret” books came. It was quite exciting. Then I took a look at the order status of the other three books I ordered. That was when I discovered that Amazon was going to ship my Beschdel books in October along with the book I preordered. That’s nuts! So I sent them a howler letting them know how underwhelmed I was with that whole concept. I mean, they have the books in stock and they’re not going to ship until October? To hell with that. The complaint had some effect. They’re going to be shipping my books sometime next week. The week after next. I guess that’s better than October. However, I don’t have any answer as to why it’s going to take them two weeks to get to sending them. I was thinking that their stupidity and delays made it necessary for me to wait out a delivery to Amazon. Christine, I checked with half.com and they didn’t have the books there.

Work went well today. One of the residents is in hospital right now for surgery. One of the guys got stopped by a cop on his way home. The cop claimed it was because the guy was jay-walking, however no one gets stopped for that unless it’s an egregious example, like crossing College Drive in rush hour. The cop was part of the break and enter team and claimed not to know the guy. Of course he did. He didn’t ticket the guy, but he followed him home. That’s nuts. The guy isn’t going to be jay-walking anymore, that’s certain. We all had a rueful laugh over that and, though amused, you could tell that the guy was pissed off as well. To be honest, I don’t blame him either. The rest are as usual.

Because of my mouth problems at supper time I was only able to eat cheese, some soft tomato, salsa and sour cream, a few tater tots and some taco flavoured ground beef. Even of that I couldn’t eat much because of my jaw. I tell you, this mouth thing sucks. So after work, Bran and I headed to Shoppers and got some clam chowder. The sad thing is that it even hurt to eat the potatoes in the soup.

Bran got me a case for my Sansa player. I’m glad of that. I hate the idea of dropping the player and since this attaches to a pack it should be just fine.

My columbines are beginning to bloom. They’re both “white” according to the description we had on the tags last summer when we got them. They’re actually more of a creamy colour. The box flower plants are growing well too, but my daisy types didn’t make it through the winter. I’m thinking of moving some of the flowers at the side that aren’t doing especially well into the front garden and letting them be there. It’s a better place for them anyway.

That’s about it from here. I could whine more about my mouth, but there’s no point in that.

Ta-Ra

“All by myself…”

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That’s what I was today. I worked my very first all-by-myself shift. Of course, it was made much easier by the fact that most of the men were out at work. It’s interesting. One of the complaints that I’ve heard from televised shows about post-release men is that it is hard for them to get employment. However, there is only one person who isn’t working and that’s because he’s 70. Now perhaps the jobs aren’t the best in the world, most of them are labourers, however, there’s not one of them complaining about the work and most of them actually like their work. They’re glad to be working for decent wages instead of the paltry stipend that the prison pays.
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So today involved several trips up and down stairs as I checked the building security and did a head count. At lunch I had to see who was in to make sure that anyone who had to be in for lunch was actually there. Speaking of lunch, it was delicious. I had a sub sandwich and then I had some of yesterday’s leftover homemade cream of mushroom soup. You know a soup is good when there is more mushroom than “broth”. It was absolutely delicious.
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Greg, I’m enjoying the Harry Potter books enormously. I’m over half way through the second book now. Thanks to work even. There’s a lot of down time at work and I have to spend most of my time at the front desk because of the security cameras. It’s all the more important when there are women staying there because they have to be let into their area by front desk people buzzing them in (like at an apartment when you buzz someone in). This means that there is a lot of time where I just sit. So I’ve been reading. I’m quite enjoying not just the books, but also the fact that the books have nothing to do with peer reviews or homework. I figure that sometime in August I’ll get down my theory text and go through that again so that I’m not walking totally ignorant when I get back to school this fall.
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I got the official “congratulations, you have graduated” letter from the College of Arts and Science. I’m officially and alumnus. What a concept! I am actually an alumnus! Talk about a step into the twilight zone. The letter asks me to send comments to the department or to the college about my experience, what I think could be improved and what was good. They request that I keep them updated as to my current address so that they can contact me because I “can continue to have a profound impact on our College by participating in a variety of events…” etc. etc. etc. (said with Yul Brenner’s accent when he was in The King and I. They also want me to volunteer. Of that I’m of mixed minds. I like volunteering because it helps organizations that would otherwise not be able to afford staff to do programs. However, it also takes a job away from someone who needs it. The government (especially the Nazis that are in power right now) are more than happy to have the service sector run by volunteers rather than having to fund anything that does any good. Assholes
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But I’m not bitter.
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Hey! I got my first pay check. It’s not a whole lot, but it’s enough to open a bank account with. I don’t know if they’ll put a hold on the cheque for a bit though. It’s possible. Bran is going to call the other bank and find out where the bonds are. We’re most underwhelmed with them.
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That’s about it for now. Tomorrow I’m going to get back to doing dishes (I nearly caught up the last time) and fold laundry. I might even get to folding the laundry tonight. It depends on how my elbows do. Right now, because of doing the laundry yesterday, carrying the baskets downstairs and pulling the wet laundry out of the washer (you’d be surprised how difficult that is with sore elbows) they’re quite strained and uncomfortable. I can’t straighten my left arm because of it and that’s what will make folding more difficult. Extending my arms to fold shirts and such hurts. (Yes, I want cheese with my whine and no, I don’t need a waaaaambulance.)
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The tulips at the side are more up. One is blooming. It’s a rather pretty sunshine yellow. The other is going to be either purple or red. I’m thinking of moving them from where they are to the front garden and moving the irises that are in the front garden temporarily into where the tulips are.
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Something other than the yarrow is coming up where the landlady planted stuff. I don’t know what they are, but they are something that aren’t dandelions. The lilies, the big huge tiger lilies are also sprouting. The vines, I think they’re called clematis, but I could be wrong. Either way, they’re vines and they grow up the wall. I think that they should all be cut down like one of the smaller ones was last year. They’re rather rangy and gangley with leaves sprouting only at the top and the bottoms looking dead. There is also a grape vine at the back where the tulips and lilies are. They grow up the wall outside the kitchen. The peonies still haven’t sprouted out of the ground. I have hopes they didn’t survive the winter.
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I wish we could just win the lottery (hey, we can get tickets tomorrow unless the bank puts a hold on my cheque). Then we could buy this place and I could get rid of the stupid plants I don’t want (Can you say peony? Sure, I knew you could.), rip out all the stupid ground cover cloth, fix up the place as a single family house, build a garage and fence in the back yard so there would be a place we could store out bikes and be reasonably certain they wouldn’t get stolen. I could have all the kinds of plants I want and none that I don’t want. I’d have raised beds for veggies and for flowers and grow heat loving plants like peppers and tomatoes next to the garage where they’d get shelter from cold winds and reflected heat.
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Yeah, I have ambitions for a garden. Someday. Right?
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Ta-Ra
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Pronounced as Arte Johnson did on Laugh In. For those of you too young to remember, look it up. For those of us old enough to remember, yay!

***
Anyway, I discovered something. Since my move my stats have fallen. I don’t know why that should be. Sure I would get the odd hit from people going through the “next” thing on the dashboard header, but most of them came from people looking for such things and the 100 question meme or their DJ names. That isn’t happening right now. I don’t mind though. I prefer to think of those who are sticking with me after my move as discriminating readers of superior taste.
***
Work is still very interesting. I’ve learnt a great deal in the past couple of weeks. Mostly what I’ve learnt is that I’d like to run a facility such as the half-way house after I finish my Masters degree. Of course,the difference is that I’d like to pay the staff decent wages for what they’re doing. I mean, right now, I could earn as much or more by working at 7-11 or McDonald’s. When you consider the difference in responsibility, that’s pretty damned pathetic. I’d also have more programs in the facility itself for the residents to take advantage of if they wanted to including literacy, assertiveness training, trigger recognition and more. I would also ensure that staff had access to regular professional training opportunities to increase their own skills.
***
There have been many events in the past few days. I’m not able to talk about specifics, but one gent is currently learning an important lesson about personal responsibility, honesty and yoga mats. Of course, he’s not learning it. Having already heard from a 3rd party, he’s busy trying to divest such uncomfortable things as integrity and is attempting to blame everyone and anything else for his predicament. Tough.
***
One of the residents was released from day parole as of midnight. Because of CSC’s stickling onto rules, he had to return at 11, be at the house for an hour and then he could leave. He spent as little time as possible at the house anyway. Now, however, he doesn’t have a curfew, doesn’t have his room looked at several times a day, doesn’t have to report in to anyone other than his P.O. and doesn’t have to think about living with a number of men he doesn’t like or associate with. I’m sure he’s much happier now.
***
It rained tonight. I’m not sure if it’s still raining, but it was when Bran came to pick me up from work. I was clever enough to phone him and request that he bring me a pair of socks and my sneakers so that I could have warm, dry feet for the walk home. I’m so clever.
***
I have to remember to find the recipe for lemon upside-down cake for the woman who does the cooking at work. She’s always looking for new recipes. I don’t think that this one would be enjoyed by the people who stay there though. I know they’d like the cake, but the lemon part, because it’s tart, might not go over quite so well.
***
One of the things I’ve noticed is that many of the men don’t eat vegetables. I mean, none at all. Yesterday carrots were the veg of the day. Were they eaten? Not by many. There were tons leftover that will make their way into a soup this week. Salad is mostly eaten by staff, though there is one man who likes his salads. So tonight I was threatening to sing a song I’d made up called “Keep Your Colon Happy”. That didn’t go over very well.
***
I never thought I’d be grateful to bingo for my safety. At one time the street the house is on used to be a stroll for drug dealers, prostitutes and other nefarious characters (including the johns). Now there is a bingo hall across the street and so traffic has greatly increased. At least once an hour there is a huge influx of cars as people come and go from the games and taxis pick people up and drop them off. This means that there are far too many people around for the old business to be conducted. Who would’ve thought that bingo could clean up an area? I surely wouldn’t. It doesn’t hurt that the old hotel/bar that used to be across the street is now closed down. This means that the number of highly intoxicated people has been greatly reduced. Thus my walks to and from work are very uneventful.
***
When I got home Bran and Boy had been working on tidying the house. All that because I had folded the laundry that was clean. The toque/mitt tub has been put away for the summer. So that mess is out of the way. The room is now tidy enough that I can see where my murder and mayhem disc box is. Now I can put the First 48 and Crime 360 discs where they belong.
***
I need to find my little backpack purse thing. I have to carry around a day timer now so that I can know when I’m working. I won’t be able to take the schedule from work and I’ll need to write the next schedule into a book to put on the magnetic calendar that keeps the family updated on when I’m working. Speaking of scheduling. I’m picking up 3 extra shifts in the next two weeks.
***
Two people are quitting and one person is going to casual only so it’s possible that I’ll be able to pick up a whole lot more shifts during the summer. I hope so. It’ll mean more money for me. I could even do it in the school year so long as it works with school. I mean, I don’t have to be watching everyone all the time. I can do homework when I’m not doing building and room checks, doing breath tests for booze and writing up necessary notes in the log book. This evening, while things were quiet, I finished the first Harry Potter book.
***
Tomorrow I go on my very first “community assessment” with the parole officer who’s in charge of the Enhanced program. I’ll be able to see how things are done from a parole point of view and also be able to chat with the gent in charge to find out what he wants me to talk about with the men, a more clear idea of what I should be doing, what his expectations of the program are and such like. One of the guys is taking full advantage of the program. The other two can hardly wait until their warrant expiry date is up and CSC is no longer in their lives. I suspect that at least one of those two will end up in the Pen again. Actually, I think it’s probable that both will, though I have hopes for one. The other…well…as sad as it is to admit, he’ll probably be back there before the end of summer. I hope he proves me wrong.
***
You know, it’s weird to be talking about this stuff like I know what I’m doing. I mean, I generally know what I’m doing and such, but still, it’s weird. Four years ago I never thought I’d be where I am right now. Actually, I can’t remember where I thought I’d be right now. I do know that it wasn’t here. That reminds me…I have to find the books on counselling that Bran had from when he was in 4th year psych. It’ll come in handy.
***
That’s about it. I should go to bed so that I can be up and human for work tomorrow. I hope everyone in North America who reads this is having a good sleep (it’s 3:20 here) and those in other places are having a pleasant time at whatever time they’re at.
***
Ta-Ra
***

I’ve been working hard on my site and I screwed up one thing. I have no idea how to get in and fix it because I can’t find where it would be in the template.

You know what I did? I forgot to put a at the end of a graphic link. That’s all. Just that. Instead of having the little “edit” notation at the end of my widget there’s nothing. I can’t edit it to add it in. If I move the widget (it’s the flag at the bottom of my sidebar) to have anything above it, the name of the next widgets become links (because of the missing /a) to the graphic.

Piss on a stick and whirl it around!

My tooth wasn’t getting better and the pain was getting steadily worse. Last night I think I managed to score only about 5 hours sleep because I kept getting woken by the pain. Ibuprofen wasn’t working very well, only cutting the pain for about 2 hours. I was taking Bran’s codeine and heavy duty NSAID. Needless to say, this was a huge problem.

So Bran and I headed off to back to the doctor’s office. We had a bit of a long wait. While we waited for the walk-in patient, on-call doctor Bran read the newspaper and I leaned against him and semi-dozed. He gave me some of his pain pills earlier and the codeine left me feeling sleepy. Eventually I was called in to see the doctor.

His name was McDonald. He was a very swarthy McDonald. Anyway, after we got the talk of not being able to afford the dentist, I gave him a rundown of the events as they happened with my tooth and told him what the other doctor had prescribed. This new guy looked into my mouth and poked at my tooth. At the second poke he struck pain dirt and left me with a throbbing mouth. It also confirmed for him that it was an abscessed tooth and would need some extra effort.

He then prescribed a much stronger antibiotic called clindamycin. He also prescribed some Tylenol 3s for me to take through the day (of course with it having codeine, I’ll probably end up napping some) and twice a day I take a slightly smaller dose of the same stuff Bran was giving me of his called diclofenac. Hopefully this will control my pain well enough to make my life a little easier and the antibiotics will get rid of the infection.

After Bran went to the drug store for me and I headed home. When I got there I started cutting up onions and garlic to make a curry. I gathered together the canned potatoes (really, they’re cheap enough, why do they supply them canned here? Weird.), tomatoes and the tomato soup that was left. I also cut up green peppers that were needing to be used and sauteed them with the onions and garlic and grated ginger. Then I added the spices, tomato, water, tomato soup, chicken soup mix, cut up the potatoes and lentils. I let that all cook together. Bran made rice (the microwave just beeped). I just added the cut up spinach that needed to be used. We’ll be eating in about 5 minutes or so after the water in the rice bowl is absorbed.

I hope the drugs work. I’m sick of hurting.

I saw plants sprouting! I don’t know what they are, but they are distinctly planted type plants and not “weeds”. While I was out, I wore only a sweater and carried my coat. It made for a handy warm pad to hold to my face. My face doesn’t like cool right now.

So now I’m watching Autopsy on the Documentary Channel and will be reading blogs soon. One that I’m reading the archives of is the Pioneer Woman. She’s a very popular blogger and periodically runs contests for excellent prices so check out her “Confessions” blog. She’s not only interesting, but she’s a talented writer and photographer. So, if you have time on your hands and want to read, go read her blog.

That’s about it.

Ta-Ra