Darcy the Dragon

When the kids were small, they had me play, over and over again, the song Darcy the Dragon by Roger Whittaker. I had a small pewter dragon that would 'skip' to the song. I couldn't find it for the longest time on YouTube, but it's there!! It's there!! And then, just by chance, I just did a search on it... and came up with this site.

I am soooooooo happy!!!! :-))

solvitur ambulando

Been awhile, I know!! Can I say I've been busy?? LOL

We had our xmas party last night, and jeez, it was freakin cold!! Dave, the dear man, went next door to Denny's and got me hot chocolates, which were then 'refreshed' with a wee dram of irish cream. That did the trick!!

But why I am writing... They were doing "Terms of Service" presentations. Knew I was getting something, because I've done 10 years so far. Harvey did my speech, and actually brought tears to my eyes. In other words, he did well...
:-)

What blew me away was altho they had done other awards, when it came to be my turn... the whole freaking room with everybody from every office started cheering and clapping loudly. I mean EVERYBODY!! (altho, to be truthful, there may have been a few NOT making noise!) And seriously, I'm not saying that to blow my own horn, I saying it because I was totally blown away by the overwhelming 'loudness' of it all!!! LOL Those poor new students that haven't started yet, were probably looking around to see what all the hoopla was all about!! And it was just little ole me!! WOW!! What a feeling I'm still carrying with me this morning!! Kinda like Sally Fields, when she said "they like me, they really like me!"

Okay, back to the "solvitur ambulando"...
The girls that were buying the terms of service awards had been asking me about amber, where the best place to buy it was, etc. When I received my 'present', and opened it at the table, here was this small, not even 3/4 of an inch pendant on a chain. The front of it had a design... and the back of it had 'solvitur ambulando'. The design has 4 corners blocks and a center block with lines running from each one. Kinda hard to describe it. Looked like, pushing it, a medicine wheel? Okay, so I was disappointed... no amber. :-( And what the hell is inscribed on the back? What is that, the designer's name???

We left right away, as soon as the VERY loud entertainment began, came home, turned up the heat, got my warm fuzzies on, then it was sleepy time.

This morning (I know, make a short story long!), went on the pc, and plugged in the words 'solvitur ambulando'.... translates into "solved by walking". Okay, things are looking up, now it sorta/kinda fits...

And then I came across this site, which in short form says:
Many people picture a hedge maze when they hear the word "labyrinth" but labyrinths used for contemplation are two-dimensional designs that were found on the floors of medieval cathedrals.
“Labyrinths are not mazes and are not intended to trick you,” said Matthew Gabriele, assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and coordinator of Medieval & Renaissance Studies. “Most follow a simple path in which you don't have to make any choices at all.”
“Labyrinths provide the opportunity to walk in meditation or contemplation and they can help to discern life decisions or aid in physical and psychological healing,” said Gabriele.
A quotation ascribed to Saint Augustine, “solvitur ambulando,” portends to the strength of this exercise. The translation: “It is solved by walking.”

Okay, the design on the front of the pendant could conceivably be a labyrinth... "solved by walking". Now I'm not disappointed, actually am thinking the girls did a pretty good job of picking out my term of service gift!! Now I'm thinking it's pretty cool.... once I figured it out!!! LOL Think I'll keep it.... and be grateful that they found something that fits with me!! They must have tripped over it, quite by accident. Can hardly wait to hear the story behind how they found it!!

Cool, eh?

May 30, 2009
Don't ask me how, but I tripped over this site about labyrinths.. and THIS is the design on my necklace. For the life of me I couldn't find it back then, but suddenly (?), here it is!! Just staring off the page at me!!
"Our Reims™ Cathedral Replica™ labyrinth faithfully replicates the original medieval design built in the French cathedral Notre Dame de Reims, Northeast of Paris. ... Built sometime between 1287 and 1311 of white and black marble, the Reims™ labyrinth was created during the height of the medieval labyrinth building period in the thirteenth century. "
How cool is that????!!!

Blue Man Group

Wow! It's been sooooo long since I've been here, time to rectify that!!

Summer went by sooooo very quickly. Had a wonderful vacation to Manitoba, of all places! Visited family in Brandon, had a quick lunch with an aunt of mine in Portage, visited friends just north of Winnipeg (had to drive into Winnipeg so that I could take pictures of Portage & Main!), then east to Riding Mountain (Clear Lake), where I actually got back into a kayak (been about 12 or 13 years since I did that!), visted with family again there, then home again. I documented it all on Facebook. Which has been taking alot of my time lately! LOL But what a great place to put ALL my photos, so much easier there than here!

Anyway, went to see Blue Man Group. OMG!! Worth the $57 ticket, would highly recommend people to pay more and get closer. I know we will if they come back this way again! I've seen them on tv, but nothing like being there in person! See if you can check out these couple of vids from Youtube:
Blue Man Group #2 we saw them perform this!
I Feel Love And this one too, but our singer was better! LOL

They went for a solid almost 2 hours. Man, did I have to pee!! But you didn't want to leave and miss something, that's how good they are!!

Anyway, just wanted to rave about these guys, so...
TTFN

1st day of trip East

Here's the family Motorhome. It's a '79 Dodge, but it's been thoroughly gone thru, and we should be on the road to MB.

Dave & his girls - Gracie and me!

Oops! We haven't even gotten as far as Taber, and the MH was making strange noises. Suddenly Dave has no power steering nor BRAKES!! He coasted us to the shoulder of the hwy, and opened this compartment. Not a pretty sight or smell!! The belt (or what's left of the belt!) was actually the a/c belt. And what caused the problems was the power steering belt being off it's pulley. Which was caused by the a/c belt flopping around. Which, it turns out, the actual pulley was broken. (see pics below!)

So Dave called one of the guys he works with, and Trevor came out to help put the damned belt back on so that we could drive the MH back to town. Nice view of Trev, eh? Sorry, couldn't resist!

This is our hero, right side up!

And here's the belt and pulley and the broken pulley!

So we got back home, about an hour and a 1/2 from when we left. Dave is now out running around to see if he can find another pulley for the a/c.

But get this - This is actually the 2nd thing that happened. On Saturday morning, just after 9 a.m., I was leaning sideways on the couch. I coughed. And *SNAP* went my back. Jeez!! Sunday it was better, and today is a wee bit better.

Crap! Hope there isn't a No. 3 ahead for us!!

Been too long!

Egads! Been waaaaay too long! It's just that it's been so VERY busy, and so VERY hot, and really, it's just "life" happening, so not much to write about.

However, I had to write about this one!! Took my Gracie girl to the vet yesterday. She's 3 now. And with the heat we've been having, neither she nor I have really been doing any exercising. So everything is all good with her. Shots are now updated. Even had her checked for Heartworm (why is it the blood test comes back in 5 minutes at the vet, but for humans it takes 3 days? Things that make you go "Hmmmm....")

Anyway, she was SOOOOOO well behaved!!! She embarrassed me last year, acting like a spoiled child. But this year, she acted like a lady. Sat on the scale thingy they have when I told her to, AND stayed sitting there! Hot damn!

But get this, and this was why I HAD to write.... she weighs in at 48 kg. When you translate that into poundage... she weighs in at 105.6 POUNDS!!! 105.6 POUNDS!! Good Lord! And not overweight either. And once the weather smartens up, and we get walking again, she may get even heavier - 'cause muscle weighs more than fat. So I figure, if I lose my extra 10 pounds, there won't be much difference in our weight!! LOL

Egads! Been waaaaay too long!

Colin update

Well, since I dropped off Colin on the side of the road last Saturday, I hadn't heard a thing all week from him!! I even emailed his friend in Vancouver to see if she had heard from him - nadda. AHA! But when I got home from work/plant shopping last night, the answering machine was flashing. Whew, when I checked it, it was Colin leaving a message...
"Hey Cynthia, it's Colin. Just calling to say I'm okay and all that kind of jazz. And I'll talk to you later, okay? Bye, bye."

Well, he's alive, that's a good thing! And he sounded "okay", and that's a good thing! And he hasn't written me out of his life, that's a really good thing! So maybe, if I can keep the lines of communication open... crossing my fingers!
TTFN

My WIsh - Rascal Flats

I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow,

And each road leads you where you want to go,

And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,

I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.

And if one door opens to another door closed,

I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,

If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,

But more than anything, more than anything,

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,

Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,

You never need to carry more than you can hold,

And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,

I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,

Yeah, this, is my wish.

I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,

All the ones who love you, in the place you left,

I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,

And you help somebody every chance you get,

Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,

And you always give more than you take.

But more than anything, yeah, and more than anything,

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,

Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,

You never need to carry more than you can hold,

And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,

I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,

Yeah, this, is my wish.

This is my wish

I hope you know somebody loves you

May all your dreams stay big

Again, wish you could hear the song, but suffice it to say, the lyrics are great - I think I may have to go buy this CD!!

My "new" van!!

Dave & I have been looking at getting me a van. Well, Dave more than I. He called me on Tuesday night, before he left work, like he always does. (Do I need or want anything on his way home?) Anyway, he phones me 5 minutes later, telling me to get ready, he's picking me up to see 3 vans!! One was a Chev, another a Dodge, and a Ford. All around the same price. But dollar for dollar, the Ford came out ahead. Less kilometers, and pretty much fully loaded. The only drawback? It's freaking CANDY APPLE RED!!! OMG!! RED!!!!



It's FREAKIN RED!!! (oh ya, I said that already!) But at least it has a gray interior. And it handles very nicely on the highway, and in town. So I've gone from a white 1992 Grand Prix, to a very bright red 2001 Ford Windstar. But at least I can load my camping gear in the back, or even sleep in it if I have to. (Which I did numerous times in my Ford Areostar) Great for the kids, the dog, for grocery shopping, for road trips. And I'm sure it will grow on me.... LOL
TTFN
ps - the stupid wide exhaust is now gone, that was kinda dumb looking!!

Paddy's Grad!!

This is Paddy & me when we first got into town. At his Dad's GF's house, which we aren't allowed to go into. Go figure. So we had to do our greetings and give him his gifts outside. I'm sure the neighbors thought that a bit strange!! LOL (Oh, and it SNOWED the day before - they even had a snow day from school! So there may be pics of snow on the ground - 5 months after Christmas!)

I ended up taking back Paddy's camera, the Sony, because they don't use a generic memory card, it HAS to be Sony's. Got this one instead (I also took Chris' back, because the darling bought himself a camera before he went to Kelowna on the May long weekend!) The new one is a Canon - you can't go wrong with that brand!!
So here is Patrick opening his Grad gift - he opened it from the back side, and he was thinking maybe it was something to do with computers... had him confused until he turned it over, and MAN, HE LOVES IT!!! Oooeeeee!!! I did good, yup, yup, yup!! :-)
So good that I even got a BIG squishy hug out of the deal!!
This is Patrick & one of his buddies - David.
And his friends, David, Adam, Patrick, Jeff.

This was Patrick at the dinner, doing the Prominade. I'm not even sure if he knew these girls!! LOL Of course, being a mom, I had to stop them as they were winding their way among the tables and take a picture of my baby with a girl on either arm!!

Then I got the girls to each kiss him on the cheek. Poor kid! I think I may have embarrassed him. But that's MY job!! (and I do it well, if I do say so myself!) But the girls were up for it, as you can see by the photo. Good on them!!

And Chris came to the dinner too! I'm really glad he did!! (it did take some talking him into, but he came!)

And the last shot - a picture of my two sons. All growed up. Where did the time go??

TTFN

Almost Grad time!

I know you can't see it clearly, but on the back of Paddy's dog tag it says:
I'm proud
of you
Love, Mom
Grad
2007
and the front says:
P
A
T
R
I
C
K
in a special font. And it lines up better than what I have done! All nicely in an angle across the front.

As for the cameras - spoke to Chris last Thursday before he headed off to Kelowna for the long weekend with his buds. Damned child! He bought himself a camera for the trip!! Well, there goes his grad gift!! I told him what I had bought for him and his brother, turns out if you buy a Sony camera, you have to buy Sony memory cards. Sheesh. He told me I could take his back, and I could consider it a gift for Mother's Day (which, by the way, my kids DIDN'T forget about!)

So last Saturday, back to Future Shop I went. Returned Chris's camera, and exchanged Patricks for a Canon. It was a bit more money, but turned out to be exactly what I had paid for Chris's watch 3 yrs ago. Altho, I had also bought Patrick the dog tag - he needed something engraved to mark the occasion!! LOL
So today I have taken off from work, getting ready for the big trip. Going to head up to Calgary tonight when Dave gets off work, and stay at D&D's place. Did you hear that Calgary (and north) is getting LOTS of snow today?????!!!! Then Friday, we only have the last hour and a half to travel to get to RD. Which should give us time to see Paddy before his ceremony! Chris has to work until 5, so once we've done the daytime grad stuff, guess we'll go settle into a hotel. Somewhere. Cheap. Which is something else I have to do today - BOOK A CHEAP ROOM!!

Chris did offer us to stay at his place, there is another single bed there, and he said that I could sleep on the floor, since I don't mind doing that! LOL I thanked him nicely, and politely declined. Okay, so I laughed out loud, and told him thanks, but no thanks!!

Then the dinner. If it is anything like it was 3 years ago, it will be soooooo much fun. NOT!! Their father sat on one side of the round table with his other family, and me and the kids and Dave sat on the other side. Not much conversation between sides. ~shudder~ Oh well, this will be the last time we will be forced to sit together, so I'll grit my teeth and suck it up.

After that, Patrick will be hanging with his buds, I'm sure. So we can beat a hasty retreat, maybe do something with Chris, or not. After all, it will be a Friday nite, so I'm sure he'll have plans with his buds too.

Hopefully we'll be able to hook up with the boys on Saturday morning, hang out for awhile, then back to Calgary for supper to have 'real' visit with D&D. That way they won't feel that we just used them for the bed only on Thursday nite!
LOL

And I may have to bring Gracie with us too, but only as far as Calgary. Deb is willing to look after her until we get back. But that's another story, for another time.

Until later....

gazebos

http://terraefinis.org/gw16/index.html

This is one of many pics of medieval "tents" from this Gulf Wars website that my friend Shari shared with me. Not so crazy about the "picture" on the side of it, but..... I found the one below, new, at a store, which looks pretty much the same thing to me - I know, it's hard to tell, but it DOES have the striped arms also, so I'm thinking the one above was like the one below. Make sense?




The one directly above this writing is the latest one I bought. The first ones I bought, 9x9, has a TON of poles, haven't had a chance to set them up yet, but I'm thinking its gonna be ALOT of work!! But the 10x10 Pop-up Gazebo that I bought yesterday is soooooo simple to take down - which we had to do at the store, 'cause it was the only one left!!! So I'm thinking it will be even easier to put up!!

My plan is to decorate these gazebos up - first I will have to take them out of the box and set up at least one - to see how possible it will be to add "walls", maybe scalloped edges around the top edges. Summertime project, out in the back yard! I can just see them on my front yard, hiding "modern" tents my sons or other guests could use. And I'm thinking that they would be great to take camping too!! Either for a kitchen area, or to put my own tent under!! When I bought the first ones in the middle of April, I meant to get two green ones. As I'm putting them in my car, I see that I have one green striped one, and one blue striped one. Crap!! Thought about taking the one back in, but it was cold and blustery. And the darn things aren't that lightweight either! So I made a snap decision to keep them both, just decorate them individually, instead of the same.

http://terraefinis.org/gw16/gw16-Pages/Image213.html

A Catch-up of sorts!!

My oh my...
Well, I survived (barely) another tax season. I really, seriously, don't have any idea how on earth I am going to survive another 16 or so, until I retire!! Seriously!!!

So some catch up is in order....

* Let's see, I missed my aunt & uncle's 60th wedding anniversay (on the Island) on the Easter weekend. Just the wrong time of year for me to take off!! :-( Turns out, Colin ended up having acute pancreatitis hit him, hard, on the Thursday before Good Friday. I took him to the ER, we had no idea at the time what was causing him to double up with the pain. So that's where I spent a good amount of time that weekend. But by Tuesday, he was home, took the rest of the week off from work, and has been fine ever since!! Not a nice thing to suffer thru!!! They really don't know the "why" of why it happened, but the doctor said it wasn't my cooking!! Whew!!

But one thing about it, he certainly got his complete physical (more or less). And yes, his past drinking probably played a part in it, but the good news is that his tox screen came back CLEAN!!! Our mom had her first attack last year (hers was to do with her gall bladder), I sure as hell hope it ISN'T hereditary!!

* Also missed Dave's aunt & uncle's 50th wedding anniversay, in Manitoba. Tax Time again, there is NO way I can take any time off at that time of year! Go figure, eh? But... we have been promising for YEARS to go out & visit them, this will be the summer that it is finally going to happen!! Dave may even get his wish and we'll take the motorhome!! I know, I know!! Me? not camping???? Sheesh, I must be getting old!!

* Been working on collecting "things" for the Medieval Feast next August. I've found some cool funky things for it. I'll post pics another time. But I'm learning how to make chemise's and tunics. Actually, I copied the outline of a simple chemise that I had bought from a new friend of mine, who is in the SCA in the States. She and I hit it off, but that's another story!! I even managed to sew the sleeves to the chemise in WRONG side in (or is that "out"?) Boy, was that a DUH moment on my part!! My Home Ec. teacher would have been sooooo ashamed of me!! But gee, guess that's what happens when you only take a semester & a half of Home Ec! Then it was off to INDUSTRIAL ARTS!! Now THAT was fun!!!

* The wildlife is baaaaaaaack!! I have pictures of snakes, and flowers, and birds. Gracie kind of lost out as I was attempting to survive our tax season. But we're getting back on track with our walks once again! Another thing to be posted... later!!

* Oh, and get this!! Most years I do the MS Super Cities Walk. Didn't last year, and tons of people were asking me where my pledge sheets were. So this year, I put out my pledge sheet at my desk at work, and by time the walk happened on April 28th, I had managed to raise $1,950. I went in to the office on the Tuesday after the walk (May 1st), found out how close I was to the $2,000 mark, phoned Dave at work, and the darling man donated that last $50 so that I can honestly say: "I RAISED $2,000 TO HELP CURE MS!!!" How about them apples!! LOL

* It's Patrick's Grad coming up on the 25th. I was racking my brain trying really hard to come up with something to give him as a Grad present!! I had given Chris a really nice dress watch, engraved, 3 years ago when it was his grad. Patrick informed me at the time "Ewww, I don't want one of those when I graduate". Turns out when I spoke to Chris this week - he's not even sure where the watch is!! ~big sigh~ Well, there went $300, down the drain! They use their cell phones to tell what time it is!!

As I was speaking to Chris, he "hinted" that he would like a digital camera for his grad, cause he had broke his last one. To tell you the truth, I really hadn't thought about his grad. But yep, he is done his 3 years of college, and even tho he won't be attending his "convocation" ceremonies, he is technically a graduate. Jeez, what kind of mom am I??????

Okay, I had already been playing with the idea of getting Paddy a camera. Had been keeping flyer ads on the table, doing research. Not exactly something they can keep for a lifetime, but it will be used. Went shopping finally on Saturday morning, after Gracie & I did our river walk. I started with finding a jewelry store in town that had advertised "steel" jewelry. I figured Patrick couldn't wreck STEEL!! I ended up getting him a dog tag, then took it over to the engraver's to be made pretty. Okay, one part is done.

It's camera time.... checked out one store. Okay, not there, even tho that is where Dave got me my Kodak Easy Share. Over to Future Shop - I can say that here, because I've had really good service with these guys!! (the tv I had bought for Dave on xmas eve died on us, and we had no problem having the store replace it!!) And they had a ton of cameras to choose from. Altho, I can honestly say it was a good thing I had some experience with digital cameras, otherwise the guy would have sold me more stuff!! LOL

I ended up buying these two Sony cameras - one in black, and one in silver. Sony 7.2MP Digital Camera (DSCW55). They both have internal memory, Paddy will just have to get his own memory card. Or I may give him my old one that you can put about 80 pics on (128 MB) 'cause I had bought a 2 GB one for $42 - holds like 1265 photos - for grad & vacation time. Chris has his own memory card, from when he had a camera. Which he dropped when the zoom lens was out, and it broke, hence the "request" for a digital camera. LOL What's nice about this gift - IF they also get one from their father, this IS Future Shop, there is LOTS of other goodies that can get in place of.

Okay, think that is it for now!! Whew!

The Pelicans are back!! Here's a kinda funny ditty about them:

"A wonderful bird is the pelican. His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak, Food enough for a week, But I'm damned if I can see how the helican." was written by Dixon Lanier Merritt in 1910.

deb's weekend here

Deb came down this weekend, and us girls played dress up. We were just fooling, so nothing is fitting EXACTLY. Just having fun, and getting ideas!!

My poor kid again!

I spoke to P yesterday, trying to find out if he is going to come down here for Easter weekend. It sounds like he may! (has to take the bus tho)

But in the course of the conversation, it comes out that he is royally PISSED at his dad! See, for the last year, he's been promising the boys that he was going to buy this condo for just the two boys to live in. They actually should have been in it by now, except that in the beginning stages it had burned down. Anyway, I got to see the cement basement last Sept. when I was there, and the finished ones from the outside. The kids were so excited about getting into this place. It was to be a 2 bedroom 2 storey end unit. They had picked out which bedroom would be theirs. They were pretty thrilled about living together once again, and yet being on their own.

As for myself...
I had a feeling there was something up with this whole set up. Wouldn't it make more sense to build something that was close to the College for when P goes, not closer to their Dad's work? Little alarm bells were going off for me, and hindsight being what it is, I'm wishing now that I had given the kids some kind of a mini heads up of the possibility of their dad leaving his GF, and living there also.

Well, I was correct. Now I guess they are going to finish the basement, so that will be Chris's space. Then Patrick gets the "other" bedroom, NOT the one that he had his heart set on, 'cause gee, guess who is going to be moving in with them. He was RIPPED about this new turn of events!! Man, is their father ever hanging himself with all of this!!

I like to pride myself with not cutting their father down in front of them. If anything, I try to show them things from his point of view. I try to be the mediator, even tho he has no idea I do that for him. Guess secretly, I'm hugging the knowledge to myself that I'm a better person than he is. LOL So old habits are still there - and I'm trying to explain to Patrick that his father has always done things that way. That that is just the way his dad is.

Called Deb R and told her what had occured. Which I had mentioned to her eons ago. Not really a surprise to either of us. Go figure, eh? And to quote her - "Things like this just reaffirms WHY we are WHERE we are." Good on Deb for always finding the right way to put things! :-)

TTFN

Bad singing!

I chuckled so much when I read this, I just had to put it here to share!

From Annie's Mailbox:
Dear Annie: I smiled when I read the letter from "Pittsburgher with a Dilemma", who asked what could be done about their caring and inspiring rabbi who happens to have an awful singing voice. You made some good suggestions.
Our wonderful parish priest also sings enthusiastically and terribly (into a lapel microphone) at every Mass he officiates. Someone must have mentioned how off-key his singing was, because one Sunday he apologized for any ears he was hurting. He then declared he certainly wasn't going to quit singing at Mass. He said, "God gave me this voice, and I am paying him back!" -- Montanan with No Dilemma

Cracked me up to no end!! Isn't that hilarious??? I'm going to have to remember that line the next time someone complains about MY singing voice!! :-))))

Okay, just freaky....

So the wedding. Tentatively booked for August 2, 2008. I'm thinking around suppertime. Still playing with that idea of calling that Alastair MacLean fella, that Marriage Commissioner person that I saw listed. You know, to pre-book for next summer. 'Cause his name works. LOL

And the last few weeks, we've had one of our clients have some sort of dealings with this man. I even looked him up on the net, to get a look see at him. But kept putting off calling him.

Today, a fella by the name of Scott is here to see one of our partners. He wasn't in a hurry to see the partner, 'cause he was still waiting to for someone else to join him, and then they would BOTH see the partner. Well, damned if it wasn't ALASTAIR MAC LEAN!!! Can you believe it???? I mean, what are the chances of him coming here!!

So I asked the guy, are you the 'Alastair MacLean' that performs marriages? Yep, that's him!! Altho, he usually only does the overflow when everyone else is booked up. So we began to talk about what I was looking for. I even had the sample invite that I'm thinking of using here at my desk!! LOL

Well, the fella has even done handfasting ceremonies. Not exactly what I was looking for - a little too much pomp and ceremony for me, altho, I DID check it out!! LOL And he's worn his kilt to perform weddings! He sounded like he was on board!

But..... it's too early to book him, AND, he kinda made a face when I said it was the August LOOOOONG weekend. Altho, he was happy to hear how small it would be - guess he still works full time too. ~big sigh~

BUT... he did give me his number to call him! I'm thinking that he may just be the one to hitch us!! The gods certainly seemed to be pushing me that direction. "If Mohamed won't come to the mountain then the mountain will just have to come to Mohamed." What kind of "coincidence" was that?!!! A sign!! A sign!! LOL

Spring is REALLY here!!

Watching the blue jays out of my LR windown this morning, zipping & bopping around - and what do I see? A ROBIN!! Wait, TWO ROBINS!!

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!

Patrick's wrecked car March 10

My poor kid!! He went on a little road trip up to Devon with a friend. On their way back by Leduc, he crashed into a guardrail. Spun back and hit it again. THANK GOODNESS there wasn't anyone in the other lane. THANK GOODNESS the people behind him where back far enough to not be involved in the accident. THANK THE POWERS THAT BE that he and his friend WEREN'T hurt!!!!! The people behind him called 9-1-1, the cops and EMT guys came. I guess there has been numerous accidents right there before his! Jeez!! Think maybe there should be something done about it????? And some accidents weren't so lucky - there has been roll overs and even fatalities!!! The EMT guys were surprised that P's air bags didn't even deploy. But he said he wasn't speeding, doing about 112 km/hr.

He couldn't reach his dad on his cell phone, so he & his friend ended up taking a taxi to RD. At a cost of $140!!!! 'Cause the cops towed the car right into Leduc, right away. Before he had a chance to do anything else with it. And of course, he's young, and it was his first accident, and he didn't know what kind of things to do. Poor kid!

Then the quote came in to repair it. About $6600. It's a 2002 Saturn. P's dad then wants to see if Dave could repair it cheaper. So Dave & Dwight went thru the quote that was faxed down here - the best they could do would be $4500. With Dave doing the labour @ n/c. And paint at cost. We faxed the info back up to RD, and then P's dad figured we could break down the cost by 3 - he'd pay 1/3, Patrick would pay 1/3, and I would pay 1/3. Thank goodness for Patrick, who TOLD his dad that "Mom doesn't have that kind of money!". He was rather disgusted with his dad, I think. See, give the man enough rope, and he WILL hang himself!! I WISH I could help Patrick out!! ~big sigh~

So the poor kid is hoofing it for now. Lots of walking. Sucks to 18 and have no wheels. Wait, I was 18 once, and had no wheels!! LOL I'm still very grateful that it was only his car that got wrecked!!

Forot to tell you - MYSTERY flowers!!

While Dave & I were out for lunch on Friday, one of the girls from my work called me, to tell me these flowers had arrived for me at my work. Almost a week later, I STILL haven't a clue who sent them to me!! LOL Guess we'll put this file into the Unsolved Mysteries File....

Spring has Sprung!

WooHoo!!! Spring is on it's way!! How do I know this? My daffodils are coming up, and when I sat outside on the back doorstep today on my smoke break, the ants are out!! Okay, so the ants aren't so great, but the DAFFODILS are!!!

Larimar

Deb R sent me my belated Christmas gifts and my early birthday gift!

This is a 3D stained glass dragonfly and lily - absolutely stunning. Not so much in the picture, MUCH better in person!!

It just had to go with my bamboo, kinda fits there. There is normally more "stuff" on this table, but it got packed away at Christmas, and has not been found since! LOL

And this is my birthday present from her! The stone is called LARIMAR, which is the national stone of the Dominican Republic. Again, the pics don't do it justice, but it is such an amazing colour!

And then, of course, I had to go check out the energy associated with this stone!

Larimar: Known as Pectolite, this is a stone for business if customers are in need. It releases chains in a material world. It enhances healing, peace and clarity, bringing inner wisdom and physical manifestation.

She bought it for me when she was on vacation there - she just got back a couple of weeks ago. Lucky girl! :-)

Speaking of vacations, tonight, we go to the River of Dreams party thru our radio station. Out of the 107 qualifiers in attendance, one will when a trip to Hawaii. EVERYONE will go home with a prize, which is very nice. 'Cause I've gone to these things, and most of the time, the only one to win anything is the trip winner. :-(

I'm kinda hoping for a guitar from Scott's Music - Paddy's Grad is coming up in May, and I want to get him something he'll keep forever. I got Chris a REALLY nice expensive engraved dress watch for his Grad 3 yrs ago, but Paddy has already told me "no way", not for him. MEN!! But a REALLY nice guitar might be good. :-) Maybe get an engraved brass plate and put it on it. That would be kinda sweet.

So I'll let you know tomorrow what I've won!

The owl has been just a "chirping", even last night, just after 9 p.m., he must have gone on for close to an hour. When I took Gracie for a walk thru the green strip around 6, there wasn't a sign of him. But 3 hrs later, he's baaaaack. If we can hear him that well (it almost sounds like he's on our roof!), I hate to think how loud it would be for the people whose house antenae he perches on! LOL I still think there is a pair of them, too much "chatter" for just one.

It started snowing again yesterday. First is snows, then almost totally melts. Then snows again, then totally melts. Last night when I took Gracie thru the green strip, man, was it slippery in places. Fresh snow on top of ice. Ya, this is fun! NOT!!

Oh, and you HAVE to read this email from a friend:

You just about got a weird call from me Friday evening.

Friday night got home just before 6p, and by the time I changed and grabbed the dogs, it was too late to take them to Peenaquim - too dark (plus the whole porcupine issue). So, I stayed up top and drove past the entrance to Peenaquim and stayed on the gravel road and parked on the road just before it heads down into that Alexander Wilderness Park. We walked back toward the city, and then turned off at the power station onto the Coalbanks Trail which heads east toward that new housing development (Legacy Ridge). Got to the end of the path and turned around to head back to the car. Was almost back to the road when I saw a coyote come up out of the coulee and cross the road only a hundred metres or so away. Luckily I saw it before the dogs did, so I was able to grab them. I had one leash w/ me so put that onto Clara and grabbed Bud's collar. By this time, they'd seen the coyote and were at full alert. I was about to start again when I see two more coyotes come up this same route. They stopped for a minute because a truck came along, but then saw me and just stood there looking. Soon a third coyote joined them. Well, it was either stand there or start heading for the car, which was still about 10 minutes away. I got to the road and walked very briskly back to the car, hanging onto the kids the whole time for dear life while all they wanted to do was be free to investigate these other "dogs". THESE THREE COYOTES PACED ME ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE CAR. They stayed a couple hundred feet to my left and just kept walking the same pace we were all the way back to the car. To say I was a little freaked is an understatement.

If I had no dogs with me, I wouldn't have been bothered at all as coyotes rarely bother humans, but I knew if the kids got away from me, I'd have big trouble on my hands.

Got back to the car and to further add to my being freaked out, the truck that had passed by earlier had parked near my car (it was very dark by this time). Hopefully they were just there to enjoy a joint. Got into the car and locked the doors quickly. Drew a few deep breaths and drove to the grocery store to pick up a few things. While I was in the store, the adrenaline rush that had sustained my since the coyotes appeared drained out, and my legs went wobbly. Good thing I had the grocery cart to hang onto.

Yikes!

I thought later (after I got home and very quickly downed a beer) that I should have stayed put as soon as I saw the coyotes and called you to see if you could come and "deliver" us back to my car. I know - I'm a wuss. :-)

K.

Poor Girl! The reference to the porcupines....

Kids are fine. They had their first (and hopefully last) run-in w/ a porcupine Saturday evening down at Peenaquim. I was parked in the parking lot, but because the footing on the trail was still icy, I was walking south down the road toward Softball Valley. I was just past the entrance to the shooting range and the two were off in the grass snooping around when Bud started to bark. I couldn't see them and I called and called and yelled and called. Pretty soon they came back into sight, both shaking their heads so I figured it was either porcupine or skunk. My vet is on the west-side, but the Uplands Clinic was the on-call clinic that night, so they went there for quill removal. Got those out (14 for Clara, 28 for Bud) and on the way home, the anaesthesia had a further effect on Clara because she had a huge bowel movement on the backseat. Luckily, I had sheets on the seat. Ah, the joys of dog ownership...

She cracks me up. I want you to understand - I am laughing WITH her, NOT at her!! :-)

WOW. I did rather go on and on (and on and on), didn't I?

Okay, really need to go now!
TT