Moving in a Blizzard

A word to the wise: If at all possible, avoid moving in a blizzard.

The tale begins on Friday night. I had to wait around to meet the realtor to get the keys, which took forever with the weather and traffic (left the city 4 hours later than planned). That was the day I got STUCK. I was stuck for a solid half hour in the middle of an intersection. Hundreds of people were watching me. They went around me, parked around me, got stuck around me, and kept me from moving. By the time I had been there for 20 minutes, I was nothing but a ball of RAGE. I was screaming, shrieking, bawling, and generally making no sense. Finally, a wonderful woman walked up past thirty or so cars and asked me if I wanted help. She then loudly called everyone around us something I won't repeat now that I am calm and guilted some people in to helping, and then hugged me while I tried to pull myself together and while the other people got me unstuck in short order. The good news is that all the FURY warmed me up quite nicely- my feet had gotten wet first thing in the morning and had been cold all day, but after that, even my toes were toasty.

Then I went to the farm and we defrosted the freezer and found 17 chickens under the beef we didn't realize we had. :) They were left over from butchering, so we don't need to buy a chicken for Christmas anymore.

Saturday. Our house was not bad, but several of our helpers spent hours shovelling out of their driveways/crescents and couldn't make it. However, we still had lots of help. We got the U-Haul loaded super fast and headed for the city, slowly and carefully. We had time for a liesurely lunch, got all our vehichles unstuck from the parking lot, headed for the condo, got all our vehichles unstuck and parked, and started unloading. We had even more help arrive their. We had one group moving stuff from the truck to the lobby and into the elevator. One person operated the elevator. Several people carted everything down the hall to the condo. Mom held open the door and directed where things went inside the condo. It was a smooth operation, and went really quickly. we then returned the U-Haul, visited my dad, and got some groceries. All told throughout the day, the U-Haul got stuck 3 times and I got stuck 6 times. Other people got stuck a bunch too. Turning corners was so much fun, cuz you could just swing the back end around on the snow- driving was pretty much controlling your skidding. I then helped my mom unpack for a few hours before going home. We discovered the dishwasher was remarkably loud and no longer mocked rules about the hours in which you could run your dishwasher.

Sunday. This was the day the cold arrived. We all went to church. Laura and I went and bought cat carriers and new kitty litter containers and stuff. We had lunch at the church, dropped Laura off at work, and showed my dad the new place. He still thinks it's too much money. He seemed to like it, though I think he was mainly sad about leaving the farm. He enjoyed watching my mom and I unpack. We took him back to the nursing home in time for supper. We had supper. We unpacked for a few more hours. Things are really falling into place.

Monday (Today). Mom went out to the farm and got the cats and took them to the vet for their checkup. These cats don't like each other, but their claws have been trimmed, and they are going to share the condo. We are hoping that they will eventually get used to each other. Mom will likely keep unpacking tonight- it is fun.

Tuesday. Furniture delivery! Laura be at the condo all day to help unpack and accept the furniture if it doesn't come in the morning. New TV, TV stand, reclining loveseat and chair, coffee table, 3 bookshelves, several lamps, futon....

Wednesday. Mom's gonna buy herself a computer.

Thursday. Normal day. Likely unpacking.

Friday. Shaw arrives! Cable, Internet, Telephone all hooked up! Buzzer to front door working!

And that is the week of moving and settling in.

A month

It's been a month since I have posted. It has been incredibly busy, and lots of major life changes have happened. Big stuff makes me feel I should write, but it is honestly the nonsensical stuff that is the most fun to read.

In the last month:

• My Grandpa was in a car crash and passed away. That prompted me to make a spur of the moment trip to Victoria. There were two funerals, my family made it to the Victoria one and not the Saskatchewan one.
• On the way back from Victoria, there were five Debenhams on a single plane at the same time, which I think is some kind of record.
• I saw the end of a rainbow. No pot of gold.
• Went to a Halloween party as... something... and played Dance Dance Revolution.
• We sold the farm.
• We bought a condo. Takeover date in two weeks. (Yipes! Two weeks!?!?!)
• I drove to Spokane and back by myself. Went to church camp, and it was wonderfully relaxing.
• I cleaned my apartment totally clean. It is now dirty again.
• I bought and had marathons of How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory.
• I barely touched my schoolwork. I am now trying to pick it up again.
• I realized something I didn't want to know. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
• Bought a bunch of suits from Ricki's including one super-awesome suit, which I am wearing right now.

Boo Costco!

Today Diana Gabaldon was in Edmonton for a book signing. She was in Costco, and I put it in my dayplanner ages ago.

Unfortunately, I lack a Costco membership, and you can't use Costco without one. I had thought one could look around in the store before buying a membership and assumed this would not be a problem. Nope! Apparently Costco members are supposed to buy their $55 memberships sight unseen.

I got stopped at the entrance, and ushered into the membership line. I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about paying $55 for a signature, so my friend that I was with went to see what kind of security they had at the checkouts. Security seemed lax (and there was probably an easy couple thousand people in the store- no exageration) so we decided to go for it. We made it through the store, found the book signing, spotted Diana Gabaldon, and found our spot at the back of a line with an easy 300 people in it.

Just then, an awkward looking 16 or 17 year old in a Costco uniform came up. He told us that his manager told him to come tell us that we had to be members, and he either had to escort us to the front of the membership line or to the exit. The poor kid looked so embarressed!

I quickly decided the $55 wasn't worth it and left. I laughed so hard- mainly cuz the kid was embarressed to have to enforce Costco's stupid rules.

And I have decided that I am officially anti-Costco. I cannot believe they are THAT successful when they won't even let anyone in the store before they buy a membership. For example, a book signing is a good opportunity to get people in the store that would never normally go and get them to realize the awesomeness of their store. By limiting it to members, they did not expand their consumer base at all.

And this is why I say boo Costco.

High Expectations

I typically (actually never) talk about politics on here, but I am getting annoyed at all the insults and whining that is neither productive nor insightful on the internet. You probably won't like what I have to say, and that's okay. Freedom of speech lets us both say what we want. Feel free to comment, but be warned that if your comments are insulting in nature, I will delete them (cuz insults annoy me and this is MY space. Should you want to insult me, do so on your own space)- feel free to disagree with me, but do so respectfully.

The internet has been flooded with a lot of talk about President Obama. I guess I should preface this by saying that I am not American, I am Canadian, so I am seeing the situation from the outside looking in.

A year ago, when Obama was campaigning for presidency, he made a lot of promises about change: Ending the war in Iraq, promoting greater diplomacy with other nations, universal health care, lessening the dependance on oil, and economic stimulus. There was a lot of talk about a time of change, and people bought it- he won the presidential election.

There were high expectations when Obama won the election- almost like Obama was a savior or a revolutionary. Many Americans expected the president to turn the economy around, to end the war in Iraq, and provide some kind of better life for them. Expectations were so high that no human being could have actually met those types of expectations.

And even though I didn't think he would be able to meet those promises, he has been steadily working away at them. He has been fufilling his campaign promises- something that is more rare than it should be amungst politicians.

But the expectations the public had burdened him with were so high that the naysayers soon came out. I have many Republican friends from the States, and I am increasingly annoyed by the amount of Anti-Obama stuff comes up on their Facebook statuses and posts. Too much change. Democrats say he isn't doing enough- the economy hasn't yet fully recovered.

Well guess what people? You should have seen it coming. For those who say there is too much change- Obama has not done anything that he didn't promise the American people while campaigning. To those who say he isn't doing enough- you are majorly oversimplifying the complex factors working here and need to give it time. Obama is a man, not a miracle worker.

And for all you complainers that didn't vote- do you think you honestly have the moral right to complain without voting? I know you have a legal right to complain, so I'll put up with your views, the same as you'll put up with mine (yay for freedom of speech), but maybe this experience will teach you to go to the polls.

I am a firm believer in voting- in recent years there have been many many many elections where I live (not exagerating at all) at a federal, provincal, and municipal level. And I have voted. Even though I am tired of elections, I vote to have my voice heard. If I don't vote, I've silenced myself on the day when my voice actually means something- so why would I waste time talking politics where the impact is slight- when I haven't used my voice when the impact is large?

And lets all have realistic expectations of Obama.

After mulling it over... Another Echo in the Bone review

I have been spending much of my time reading other people's reviews of Echo in the Bone and while I can understand people's contentions, I heartily disagree with them. I have mulled over the book and am now ready to give a more in depth review of the book, rather than just my initial reaction to the plot points.

Personally, I loved it.

I definately wish the book had gone on for longer so that some of the stories had been wrapped up, but that is small potatoes. I mean, sure right away I thought the world would end if I didn't find out what happens next, but in a couple years the next book will come out and then we will know. What all of the readers have to remember is that these books are not stories about a single problem or life event that got resolved- these books are a story about a life and a family. In real life, problems are not all wrapped up at the end 900 pages of writing. I look of the Outlander books as a continuing story that keeps going. Sure, we are frustrated for a short time because we are left with a lot of burning questions, but for one, we will gain distance from the story even before the next book comes out, and for second, when the series is eventually done we will be able to put down this book, and pick up the next. What's a short wait in the whole scheme of things if it leaves us with a better story?

Some people are frustrated because we see less of Claire and Jamie in this book. I think it is great that we have expanded whose views we are seeing things. We see so much more of the story and see it through so many viewpoints. I think it makes for a richer story. William is now an awesome three dimensional character instead of just a flat character. Why would we complain about having more well rounded characters that change? We are getting more, not less.

Personally I can't believe that people are frustrated with the surgury and other healing scenes- people, it was in ALL the previous books!!! Personally, that is some of my favorite parts of the series! The same thing goes for the details about the armies- it was in all the previous books! This is what Jamie and Claire are good at, what they do, what their purpose is- she is a healer, he is a 'bloody man.' They are both trying to change the world for the better. Focusing on la-la-la we love each other doesn't move the story along- focusing on we-love-each-other-while-we-support-each-other-on-our-life's-work- THAT is the story of a marriage, moves the story along, and makes it real.

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

OK I am warning you now- this is an amateur's version of a book review. SPOILERS ABOUND. If you do not want to know what happens, STOP READING NOW.



*

*

*

Stop reading

*

*

*



OK, I have only read the book once, halfway through the night, and the book is no longer with me and I am tired. I will complete my review using characters.

• Young Ian- I am so happy for him!!! I had begun to wonder if Ian was destined to remain alone, lost in his own head, mellowing in regrets. I was glad to see him go back to face Emily and to be able to put aside his regret for the disapointments of his hopes that he had had with Emily. Him going back to Scotland to visit also helped him reconcile the different pieces of himself- he had never said goodbye to his family or country, had not had a choice, and was gone from it before he knew it had happened. Rachel and Ian are seemingly such opposites- Ian having lived his life by violence, and Rachel having avoided violence. Ian is definately one of the characters to have gone through the most radical change through the course of the series- from the happy-go-lucky youth to the violent brooding man tinged by grief and now hopefully he will be able to reconcile the two sides of his personna more. I am continually shocked that I don't find more people talking about Ian.


• Rachel's brother- I am so happy that there is now someone that Claire can pass her medical knowledge along to- he was so accepting and even ecstatic about the ether- he accepts what Claire says, because he sees the results. After it was revealed that he had fallen for Dora, and she was converting, I understood why he had been so understanding of Rachel's confusion.


• Lord John- The political intruge in the books went way up once we got inside of Lord John's head! As William found out, Lord John has lots of connections and he isn't afraid to make use of them. At the moment we left Lord John though, his connections aren't doing him much good- he is about to tell Jamie that he married Claire when he was presumed dead- understandable for Claire's safety- and then ahem?? That is going to be one long and tense horseback ride ahead of them.


• Fergus and Marsaili and family- For all that we don't see too much of them in this book, their influence was profound. First of all, Fergus fighting off the attempted kidnappers- so funny and such a difference from the person he was in the 6th book, when Fergus was battling depression and didn't belive in himself. It would also be interesting to know more about what the final straw was that made them move to Philidelphia (better for their descendants though for during the Civil War). The kids seem to be remarkably resourceful- carrying messages between home and Fergus when he was in hiding, and Henri-Christianson's little performance was so cute. Marsaili's devotion as a mother was obvious in this book- as well as the children's devotion to their brother- staying awake at all times to keep him breathing. Wow. Of course, that also served as a plot device to have Jamie and Claire cross the Atlantic seperately.


• William- I was glad to see the friendship that developed between Ian and William before William knew of their kinship. I laughed when Ian told the Indians they were kin, and William was all 'whew they won't bother me now' when it was actually truth. I was so surprised that William still carried the rosary under his shirt. William's reaction to the truth was quite volitile, but then he has the Fraser temperment where a volitile reaction can be expected. I have high hopes that in the next book William will be able to come to peace with all of his parents. Additionally, I hope he didn't fall for Rachel too hard.


• Ian and Jenny- Poor Ian. I am happy though that Jenny finally left and decided to travel- if she had never been 20 miles from home before, she sure is now.


• Jamie and Claire- The whole commandeering a ship thing? Awesome!! The whole mucking around with the army? Not-so-awesome, though of course, thats where the story was. For people who had built up so much at Fraser's Ridge, they borrowed a bed through the entire book. I'd hate to think what a chiropractor would have to say about the states of their backs! I was so disraught when Claire's marriage to Lord John was no longer platonic... I really hope they can patch that up quickly! I wish that they had been able to be together and have those issues worked out when the book ended. They are feeling their age, and the whole getting-spectacles thing was awesome, and they are pretty consistant together. Stable, no- always moving- but consistant- yes.


• Roger, Brianna, Jemmy, Mandy- OH. MY. GOSH. How COULD we be left hanging like that?????????? This kept me awake for hours after finishing the book. William showing up- fine- what to do with him, but fine. Jemmy getting kidnapped to the past by a random dude in town? Not fine. Roger going to the past with William to rescue Jemmy? Made sense. Random dude from town showing up, evidently not in the past? NOT FINE!!!! Jemmy in the train, heading for the time warp when the portal was open in the middle of the mountain? HORRIBLE!!!! So at the moment- it is all up to Brianna- she has to rescue her children from random man from town and Jemmy from the time-warp; then she has to figure out how to reunite with Roger- whole family go to past? Just her go to the past and leave the children in someone's care? You can't send messages to the past without going there yourself!!! And this is where the book is left off? I can't wait three more years to find out what happens!!!

Day of Grace: Day... Randomness

1. Stores who put out books a week early by accident. I love you .
2. Hair long enough to make good ponytails.
3. Good report and meeting at nursing home.
4. Being able to have the car tonight and for the rest of the weekend.
5. Having a full day at work tomorrow with the ever mysterious retreat that has been planned for us.

How much longer?

I am at work.

At work, I have a caseload as well as some projects.

Both projects have meetings next week for which I am fully prepared, and cannot do anymore on until after the meetings.

The caseload is really quiet. The person I took over for has been off intake for a while. The rest of the people either: a) don't need me and won't call me OR I am awaiting other people to finish their tasks.

As such, I am bored.

The sleepiness is a different story. I stayed up late last night reading until 3:30 and then I could not sleep until 5ish. My alarm was for eight. I think I am gettting old. I used to be able to do this no problem and now my eyes are crossed and I see double. Hopefully that is due to my sitting in front of a computer, mind and body not being excersised.

Was supposed to be on FB but it is going here

Can you fill this out without lying? Be HONEST, now!

To do this, copy this entire message, then go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, delete my answers, and type yours. Easy peasy!
Next, tag 8 people (in the right hand corner of the app). Click publish (at the bottom). Have fun! :)

1. What was the last thing you put in your mouth? Dilly bar from DQ

2. Where was your profile picture taken? My blogger one was taken in Winnipeg 2 years ago

3. Can you play Guitar Hero? not very well- I prefer Rockband

4. Name someone who made you laugh today? Did I laugh??? Oh yes I did at the staff meeting.

5. How late did you stay up last night and why? 10ish? I was tired

6. If you could move somewhere else, would you? not immediately, but depending on where it was and the reason for moving, it would be considered

7. Ever been kissed under fireworks?no

8. Which of your friends lives closest to you? I live with Laura

9. Do you believe ex's can be friends? It depends on how serious they were

10. How do you feel about Dr Pepper?yucky

11. When was the last time you cried really hard?I don't know if it was really hard, but I cried yesterday

12. Who took your profile picture? Angela

13. Who was the last person you took a picture of?Darryl.

14. Was yesterday better than today?hmmm....

15. Can you live a day without TV?yes, but I would miss it before long.

16. Are you upset about anything?yes

17. Do you think relationships are ever really worth it?of course!!!

18. Are you a bad influence? usually not

19. Night out or night in?out. I need socialization

.20. What items could you not go without during the day?cell, food

.21. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?dad

22. What does the last text message in your inbox say?it has a phone number

23. How do you feel about your life right now?tired but hopeful

24. Do you hate any one?Nope

25. If we were to look in your facebook in box, what would we find? no juicy gossip

26. Say you were given a drug test right now, would you pass?well of course, thank goodness!!

27. Has anyone ever called you perfect before?yes but they didn't really know me

28. What song is stuck in your head? too tired for that"

29. Someone knocks on your window at 2:00 a.m., who do you want it to be?No matter who I want it to be, it would be a creeper standing on a ladder, so no.

30. Wanna have grandkids before you’re 50? no,cuz either my kids will be teen parents or I wll hae babies really soon

31. Name something you have to do tomorrow?work, visit my dad. day gone

32. Do you think too much or too little? too much

33. Do you smile a lot?yes

Packing

There is a definate drawback to flying to Spokane rather than driving.

Luggage restrictions!

I bought a new luggage set last weekend and thought "there's a ton of room in this!" Well, I am in the middle of packing and starting to panic.

In the luggage set I have completely filled up the main part- only the outside pockets are left. So far I have packed a couple of board games, two towels, my miniture iron, and all my clothes.

I still have to pack:

• All of my shoes
• All of my shower stuff, lotions, and the rest of the stuff that is in bottles.
• My makeup and hair stuff.
• My laptop.
• My purse with all of its stuff.
• My purple pillow that I sleep with (for my crooked arm. Otherwise it keeps hovering in midair.)
• Bible, pen, paper.
• A can of Tim Hortons coffee grounds, some ketchup chips, and some Smarties.

Okay breathe. I can do this. The shower and makeup stuff will all fit in the outside pockets (that stuff isn't allowed on the carry-on). I am allowed one piece of carry-on, plus one personal item (laptop or purse). My laptop carrier has a bunch of outside pockets, so I can put all my purse stuff and Bible in there. That means the carry-on will have all my shoes (I guess my boots will have to stay at home. Oh well, it is supposed to be hot.), the purple pillow, and the Canadian food.

What size is may carry-on??? 10X17X24 inches. Okay. I will go start measuring my bags.