Thanks for not Giving me a headache Day.

I've never really understood the history of the Canadian Thanksgiving. It's actually pretty complicated compared to the American deal. But the polite Canadian in me has always deemed it a good idea to be thankful in general, so, what the hell. I can be thankful. Especially since it involves eating really good food, and plentiful amounts of it. So, once a year, I am thankful that I get to stuff my face with really good crap, clog my arteries, bind up my heart valves, and add a good solid ten pounds to my pink-cheeked chilly autumn ass.

For most of my adult life I have been really into the whole theme of it all. I've decorated the table with the pretty squash and dried leaves and shafts of wheat, made a Cornucopia, cooked all the food, baked everything from scratch, cleaned, decorated, cooked, baked, cleaned...after a few days of preparation I was always so exhausted I was just thankful for the energy to to crawl to the table and shovel it all in. Usually took me weeks to recuperate.

I've decided it's time to become wiser, since older is inevitable. Wiser means realizing that the way I've always done things might not have been the most efficient way to go about it all. Wiser means learning from past foolishness, and improving upon my methods. Wiser means delegating responsibility.

So. This year I intend to significantly lighten my work load. Con someone else (my hubby, the Beast) into cooking the turkey. Con yet another (my brother-in-law) into baking all the pies, and con a few others (my children) into tidying the house.

For my part, I will to my very best to show up looking rested, content, and very, very thankful.

Go team... >:]

Weekend Update.

Yay, our new heating system was installed on Monday. I like it. I like it a LOT. I especially like the ability to crank the temp to hellish heights in the bathroom when it's showertime. Toast-ay! And with the new-and-improved plumbing, now there will be no more shivering naked in the too-big bathtub under the 9 foot ceiling in the cold, cold bathroom while the dripdripdrip of water from the prehistoric plumbing system dampens your left foot..nay. No more!!
Now there is water pressure, and heat, and toastiness! No more waiting til spring for a bath while you slowly but surely turn into CroMagnon man (woman) huddled in an icy cave with the skins of dead animals bundled around you and the stink and stench of your own armpits making you want to crawl outside and commit harikiri (ok, seppuku, for you purists) with a three foot icicle.
Finally! We are civilized! It feels so good :P AND I can use my LUSH products right through the winter!

Now to painting. I've begun the front bedroom window. Took one day to scrape, sand and prepare it, and another to paint it. Just fancy enough to keep the wood safe for the winter. Next summer I plan to completely strip, refinish and restore the original wood. That's gonna be some fun, huh Bambi. I hope the weather holds, because I hope to get the livingroom window done next week, same thing, but it might take a bit longer, it has suffered much more weather damage due to its northern exposure. More scraping, sanding, and swearing to come.

*rubbing hands together gleefully* Things are proceeding exactly as planned. Muhaha.

Well. Except for the annoying early morning Heebies I get at three frikkin am, when I wake up in the pitch darkness filled with anxiety, wondering what Incredibly Important Thing I'm forgetting that's gonna show up and bite me on the ass with its dirty yellow fangs. This happens, apparently, as people get older...I can only imagine the Heebies I'm gonna suffer by the time I'm 60, geez. I am sure the upgrade kit for Heebies comes complete with only the best and most advanced, mind-alteringly fearsome Heebie characters ever created in this dimension.

For some reason, the Giant Purple Snorklewacker just popped into my mind. So I went and did a quick Google to find a pic to stash here, but lo and behold...none (okay, one really bad copy, barely legible and not even worth a rightclick). No snorklewackers exist on the Net, unless you are willing to pay for the book, that is. Which, by the way, I already own. In fact, I am the proud possessor of just about every Bloom County comic book compendium ever published. Not that they're doing me any good downstairs in a dusty box. Aren't exactly helping me out online, are they.

Now, I'm down with the whole protected copyright thing, but really. Has the Snorklewacker been dragged out of Binkley's anxiety closet and forced to work as a thug for the Opus and Co. mob? Seriously. I think it's a mighty big bit of suspicious that no illicit websites exist with the Snorklewacker in his full, copyright infringe-ed glory. What is the Internet world coming to when writers and artists can protect their work and keep the likes of me from thievery? Is it not my Dog given right as a First World citizen to break Internet laws? I feel so affronted! Why I might just have to sit myself down in the nearest dandelion patch and have myself a good, old brokenhearted cry.

I miss Bloom County. I might as well haul my collection out of cobwebs and go read 'em in the dandelion patch. The rest of you are just gonna have to imaginate the Snorklewacker lurking behind me with a club and a big shit-eating grin.

Blah blah blah.

Seriously. Nothing has changed. Well. Maybe a few lil things. Got more work done in yonder basement, new windows were installed yesterday. Nice! Got some wicked storage racks in place (heavy duty Gorilla racks, fresh outta Costco) and my prized possessions are now nicely stacked, racked, and organized. Beauty. T'is a sight to behold.

Also, more housework dang went and got all accomplished, windows washed, draperies cleaned for winter. Haven't conquered any closets yet, though. Geeze, people, gimme a break here. New heating system to be installed next week. Thankfully it's still warm outside.

Another car show next week, and an art show I'm gonna miss this weekend cuz I gotta work *grumble* and...AND...a Botheration that I cannot even rant about cuz this is relatively public place and really, people, some things simply must remain private. So just back off, back off I say, stop harassin' me already. Stop that! Iz mah bidness! Leemeealoooooan. Grr. Grrr!

Anyways. I bought a new reef tank, so I can upgrade my current reef tank and have fun setting it up. It's double the size, which will give me more flexibility. Next week, hopefully. Funfun! Well, if you can call wet, slippery floors, dripping t-shirt, salty palms...throw in some sand, a margarita and a cabana boy and I'm all set :P

Speaking of wet, I did my usual gazillion laps in the pool this morning. I love swimming. Problem is I tend to hit the zone and forget to breathe above the surface...maybe the chlorine in my lungs will wipe out any festering viral germs incubating in my lung tissue so I don't suffer a recurrence of last springs nastyass, sinus-rupturing cold..ack. *shudder*

Speaking of hitting the zone, last Saurday night I went to my high school reunion. Had an absolute blast, of course, because the people I went to school with are a bunch of crazy wicked wingnuts. Pics will most likely follow, as soon as someone sends me some :P I promise to only show the pics where folks still got their clothes on and were doing mostly legal stuff.. Plus, I scored a birthday cake! It was way totally cool. Thanks, guys! :)

Speaking of my birthday, I also scored a new screen for my computer, a new sound system, a wailin' new hands-free headset for my cell phone, a really lovely bracelet, some unmentionables, some edibles, more things unmentionable, and some stuff you really don't want to be bored hearing about.

Til we meet again.

Time Flies. Better Than Horse Flies.

Wow, it's been weeks since I last scribbled, err, typed something inane in this little post-it box, eh? My last post was about Lush, and I just got home from yet another visit there. Well, at least I'm predictable :P

I went to the annual tattoo convention last weekend. Always a trip, the artists seem to get better every year. And I am always looking for artistic inspiration. For some reason, inspiration is hard to come by for me these days. *head scritch* Perhaps because I have so many things going on at once which I can barely concentrate on. Which proves to me yet again how our lives are far too, TOO frikkin complicated.

October 4th is the Classic Car Show. Nirvana. One can always find artistic inspiration in the clean, crisp lines of a classic, collectible thoroughbred automobile. Which, by the way, I haven't even posted pics of from the last car show I went to see in St. Catherine's at the end of August. I have been so remiss. Here. A pic or two. Three :P







If you want to see more, you can whine at me by leaving me a message at the bottom of this post. Or I can just add a few more. Just circumvent the whole whinyass message when it's late and I'm irritated and don't feel like reducing, thing :P





Sayonara.

Cleansed Of All My Sins.

Well, maybe not quite :) But my body is cleaner than ever, and boy, do I stink pretty...

A month ago I won a contest being given by a store in one of the hundreds of shopping centers orbiting my house. Great store, actually, called Lush. The first time I walked in, the onslaught of scentsation just about knocked me over. And the colors...riotous, bright, retina-scalding color that makes your head swivel and bounce like a bobblehead doll. Color everywhere. I was immediately in love with the store, and am now completely addicted to their products. Just the thought of going on a Lush shopping spree makes me vibrate like a lead guitarist on speed.

And it's practically criminal the way they market their wares. Color, scent, pushing the all-organic, natural, green, hand-made beauty products in a myriad of colors and shapes and viscosities...plus everything you could want or need under one roof.

Anyways, the contest consisted of a model city built entirely out of soap, and the person who could guess the weight of the entire thing would win it all. Having already spent a goodly portion of my disposable income in this store, I accurately gauged how much it weighed just by multiplying the weight of the smaller bars and doing the math. I also managed to figure out the value of that much soap, and was pretty damn happy when I won it all :) :) :)






One of the buildings in the city was made of a large piece of black soap. I think it's called Coalface, but I'm not sure. Anyways, when lathered, it becomes a nice seaweed green. I handed a stick of it to my hubby in the shower and laughed my ass off when he turned green and starting calling himself the Incredible Hulk :P

Anyone interested in natural soaps with smelly-fresh sniffyness, click on this logo and find a store near you. Or order online.




Just my way to say Thank You, Lush, for making me stink pretty. :)