Resolving Timeline Issues

Or more accurately: Wii!

Zellers got a shipment of Wiis and they were on sale today. For Christmas my parents gave us some “mad money” to get whatever we wanted, so long as it was frivolous. I think a Wii falls into that category. So I trucked up to Zellers when they opened and the guy in front of me (with his two kids) told me that he’d been to another large mall yesterday, with 7 stores that advertised it and they were SOLD OUT WITHIN A COUPLE OF HOURS.

So if you want a Wii, get thee to a Zellers.

I bought the Wii, with Big Brain Academy, and an extra controller that came with 5 games.

So tonight Darren will be unpacking and installing the Wii on our main TV (yes, we have more than one).  It should be interesting, particularly as we plan to get the WiiFit when it becomes available here on the 21st.

I am hoping my parents will try it out when they get here tonight.

Agenda for today:

1. Buy Wii
2. Ogle Wii box
3. Tidy
4. Ogle Wii box some more
5. Take bottles back
6. Laundry
7. Ogle Wii box. Wonder if I should try to hook it up myself.
8. Look at back of TV that has 50 million inputs.
9. Tidy up bathroom.
10. Decide not to install Wii.
11. Gaze forlornly at Wii box.
12. Go for haircut at 1:30.
13. Wonder when parents will arrive.
14. Gaze eagerly at wii box.
15. Contemplate buying a bbq too.

Agenda for tomorrow:

1. Dad’s birthday
2. Finish laundry
3. Be lazy
4. Play with Wii

Agenda for Sunday

1. Go for Sunshine’s wedding at 11:30 to set up reception area
2. Watch ceremony
3. Go to bar supplied at reception
4. Play with Wii

I have to give props to pole-dancers. Really. That shit is HARD. My calves and abs are killing me today. And its fun. A lot of fun. To the point that I’m thinking of finding a class to attend regularly.

In other news, I never made it to Rona yesterday to get the starting stuff for my herb garden. I’d had a glass or five too many of wine the night before and was feeling rather poorly. So when it was time to get ready for pole dancing, I decided to alleviate my suffering with a glass of hair of the dog instead. And then the focus needed for the pole dancing and the spontaneous sweating really made my aching head go away.

So this morning, I am running to Rona to get that stuff. I thought I might try a few vegetables too - some radishes and carrots. Which means I need pots, soil (which I also need for my silly jade plant which no matter how much neglect I lavish on it, it does not die), gravel for drainage, and some sort of nutrient solution.

Oh and seeds and seedlings and shit.

After I suck back a third cup of coffee. Because what is the weekend for if its not to drink too much coffee?

*No, I am not growing potatoes. I just needed a vegetable that begins with a “p” - I don’t even really like potatoes unless they’re deep fried.

First, and most importantly, Sunday is Mother’s day! Call your mother!

Speaking of mothers, did you read this article about the Tim Horton’s that fired a woman for giving away a TimBit to a fussing child because her mother was having a bad day? Enough other people have written about the injustice of it and generally how Tim’s treats its employees. I’m actually more interested in the ROB article, and one line in specific, down at the bottom.

Now, Tim’s often gives away free TimBits (and really, what part of the Tim is the bit?) to people and animals. I know, because I was zipping through a drive-through in Buttfucknowhere, BC, and the cashier tried to give me a timbit for the cat who was along for the ride. Seriously. Even after I told her the cat prefers mushrooms to pastry (really). This line in the ROB article caught my eye:

The Timbits given to pets, Ms. Mitchell added, are usually “day-old and recycled.”

Now, dear reader, tell me: WTF is a recycled TimBit?

That sounds just as yummy as the Tater Tot Casserole recipe from the Duggar family. Speaking of the Duggars, the wife is currently cooking number 18. 6 weeks along, apparently. :mumbles something about clown cars:

And for your hours of entertainment, you can play this game on the discovery channel site. Guess the Duggar kids’ names.

Well, enough with the current events.

This weekend I have little planned, aside from Sunshine’s Stag (where we get a pole dancing lesson and I am not allowed to take pictures), and calling my mother tomorrow.

I do, however, have plans to start an herb garden once I get off my butt and run to Rona. Pictures forthcoming.

After my somewhat snivelly post yesterday, and a shower where I wept copious amounts of crocodile tears in a fit of feeling sorry for myself, I got off my ass and did things. I can’t change current circumstances, but things are looking up.

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So its May. Suddenly. Unfortunately, here on the wet coast, it feels more like November. Its cold, wet and rainy.

I have been grouchy, angry and generally unpleasant lately, for a variety of reasons, many of them work-related. Which, as we all know is one of the unbloggable topics. I am prone to spontaneous tears (like right now).

The short of it: I Am Tired. I need a vacation but cannot take one right now due to commitments.

So when Mary P. posted about the Second Annual Book Binge, I thought about it and thought “Nah.” It was one of those “Nah. Why bother?” nahs as well - which was sort of scary, since a good book will always be one of the great loves of my life.

And then I realized that a book binge might be just the ticket. So here it is:

  Click the graphic below to find out about the Book Binge:

 I’m currently part way through a fairly decent, escapist book, and have two more new books to get through. One of them is World Without End, by Ken Follet. No, you can’t borrow it yet. There’s already a lineup: me, mom, and one of the coworkers.

And I can take a vacation in my head.

Blog is moved over to a new server now - it should run a bit faster and just generally work a bit better. The new version of wordpress seemed to clog the old one a bit. Oh and the blogroll is updated a bit. Like adding Huckdoll to it. Among other things. Go there to see.

Moving the blog also seems to have cleared up some other issues - like mybloglog actually links to it. Technorati, not so much and they seem pretty slow about doing a manual activation.

Yesterday I had to work for a couple of hours - well, my apprentice did most of it. Then they found poo in the pool so we cut that bit short. Seriously, one tiny little turd that no one noticed for at least an hour and then they superchlorinated the entire pool (because the turd was there for an hour) and shut the pool down.

Bet you want to go out to your public POOl now, don’tcha? Don’t worry, the superchlorination takes care of everything. Really. Trust me. I did this for 15 years

Not here. Over there on the right. I made a new page.

It is 7:19 a.m. Thus far today, I have

• had three cups of coffee
• called in sick to work
• taken Darren to the train
• put the dishwasher on
• had a bowl of Cheerios

Seriously, folks, this is more than I usually get done in an entire day. Except for the coffee.

I have contracted some sort of Creeping Crud, which is knocking me out. I feel okay, but tired so long as I’m sitting down, but when I get up my head spins and my vision starts getting black around the edges so I sit down again. The dizziness passes eventually, but the feeling like I’m going to fall over is just not cool. So I think a day of bad daytime television is in order to get rid of this fuzzy-headedness.

And its now later because I am easily distracted today. Like when I was outside talking to Darren and a squirrel ran by. The conversation then turned to how the new neighbour’s cat has been wandering around and we have no more rats running by (we live across the road from the river, so its normal to have rats scurrying around).

In other news, today is Earth Day. I plan to support it by only going to the Post Office to pick up the books I ordered.

Oh and this; something to think about when it comes to retirement:

Retirement Planning

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.00.

With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of the original $1000.00.

With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.

If you had purchased $1000 of Delta Air Lines stock you would have $49.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer/wine
one year ago, drank all the beer/wine, then turned in the cans/bottles for the aluminium recycling REFUND, you would have had $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to Drink heavily and recycle.

Yes, mundanity is a word. I just used it.

My life has been rather mundane lately, or at least it seems so. Over the last three weeks, I’ve had one day off. ONE DAY. And I’m looking forward to having this weekend and next weekend off (and sort of hoping that the NLS I agreed to teach in May doesn’t run because I am FRIED).

At some point over the last week and a half (or maybe its longer than that), I received the BYO bags I won it the BlogHers ACT February contest. And I lurve them. My only complaint is that the drawstring on them tends to come loose in my reusable shopping bags. I fixed this by wrapping the string around the neck and that seems to hold it. And they came in really handy at the veggie market when I discovered they were out of the brown paper bags I usually put mushrooms in. I’ve had the mushrooms in it for a few days and they look just as robust as they did when I bought them a few days ago.

I have also been quite tired lately. The getting up when the alarm goes off at half-past-dark is wearing thin. Followed by at least an hour’s commute to work and back again at the end of the day makes for some VERY VERY VERY long days. Although The Tired has been good - I am sleeping through the night rather than waking up at 2am, 4am, etc. however briefly.

The alarm screaming in my ear when I’m at the deepest part of sleep is not cool, however.

And the reasons for the tiredness are probably multiple. I went off birth control (and I will spare you the stories of the stuff coming from my nether regions after over a decade on the pill), and I’m wondering if The Tired isn’t something to do with my body adjusting. I have been going to the gym at lunch. I am lucky enough to get to combine all of my breaks and use the hour and 20 minutes to get some exercise. I went 4 times last week (plus 4 hours in the pool on the weekend) and three times this week. It would have been more but I tweaked my knee on Sunday when performing, uhm…ACTIVITIES and it was feeling none too good by Tuesday so I took the day off, and stretched the crap out of it on Wednesday. It feels much better now.

Yesterday, I left work early in order to meet the airconditioner guy who was supposed to show up between 1 and 4. He came by at 5. But the air conditioner is now clean and works. We won’t roast this summer. But for now, we don’t need it. Its fucking cold out. They’re calling for SNOW. In April. In VANCOUVER.

I am so ready for spring and some warm weather. So ready.

So ready in fact, I finally did something that I’ve been talking about for years. Every time I go in to see my optometrist, he tells me I’m a good candidate for corrective laser eye surgery. And my benefits now cover part of it. On May 9, I have a consult with one of the top laser surgeons in Vancouver, who comes highly recommended by my optometrist, the general public and one of the bigwigs at work who had her eyes fixed by him years ago when the technology was still new. I am hoping to get my eyes fixed over the summer.

And now, since its the first weekend I’ve had off in three weeks, I have things to do. I’ve decided to organize my house, one section at a time and the kitchen is the first up.

I’m accidentally greener as of today. My bank is carbon-neutral.

At at this point I’m going to risk incurring the wrath of the internets with what I’ll say next: I am unconvinced about global warming.

*crickets*

That’s not to say I don’t believe it can happen or does happen. I sit in that group of people who question everything, and I think its really dangerous for people to believe something without questioning it - its the job of science and philosophy to continually question our beliefs.

Global warming is a possibility. We know we have an impact on the environment and we also know that the earth goes through warming and cooling trends, and it has since way before the human race came around.

Which brings me to my next point: what do we know? Well, I can tell you that in my childhood, I remember deep blue skies. Now the skies are lighter blue. I don’t know if that’s just memory, or if its actually happened and what caused it.

I remember hummingbirds - and I see very few now.

I remember seeing the geese flying south in the winter - and now they stick around for most of the winter.

I remember swimming in the ocean - and now I don’t because I don’t want to come out glowing.

I’m not saying we don’t have an impact on our environment. I believe that we should do what we can to minimize that impact. Whether that’s switching from plastic or paper bags to reusable bags, taking transit, or simply getting a more fuel-efficient car - whatever you can do, do it.

And remember to question what we know.