Someone had a bad Monday morning

I was walking into work and an ambulance went flying by me on Johnson. I headed south and the ambulance went north but its sirens went quiet shortly after. I guessed there was a car accident at Princess and Division and went on my way. As I walked in to work, I could hear more sirens. When I got in I saw Ayman had posted a picture of a car who drove into a building. (this isn't Ayman's photo but another I found later)

The driver said that the brakes had failed- police are testing the car.

Day 3 of the robin sitting on the nest.

Work was busy- I didn't make it through my email or all the things I hoped to do.

I did walk downtown and do some grocery shopping. A very nice day, just a bit of a chill.

when wanting to bury things doesn't work

I read this news story about Atari burying the ET game (that didn't work all that well) in a landfill in 1983.
Atari picked a landfill to bury it that had a guard. But people got past the guard.
So they decided to put a layer of concrete over it.
And now they are digging it up again.
For a game that didn't work too well this is an interesting story- is it really worth all the effort?
Makes me relate this to life as often we spend time and energy on things that don't matter at all!

Questions from the audience

At Rustle, one must be careful in asking questions, because you will get lots of answers. Today Sam said he had some rhetorical questions and some questions for discussion. Basically, all the questions became questions for discussion.

As an example, what I think Sam was trying to get to was something related to this scripture:
Mark 12:30-31

New International Version (NIV)

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.”

or

John 13:35

New King James Version (NKJV)

35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

But this is what actually happened:
Sam: Should we be seen as friendly?
Gloria: Not too friendly!

If there was a transcript of the whole service it would be very interesting. And there were lots of new people there, which made things extra fun.

I'm making pizza tonight. I like homemade pizza WAY more than store bought ones but James always complains and prefers Dominoes.

To end- a cute video of a guy with meercats.

Goodbye picnic

Today is a Kingston "Giveaway day" so in the spirit of that I put out the old picnic table that we never use that generally is just in my way when I mow the lawn. I also put up a free note on kijiji. Within a few hours it was gone! I hope it is enjoyed by the new owners.
James and I walked to the library this morning and we saw a number of other items for giveaway. James thought this was a really useful idea for poor people. I'm always interested in how he thinks!

Robin

The robin built this nest a couple of weeks ago, but after that I saw no activity so I thought it was abandoned. This morning there was someone sitting on it!

mulcair

Thomas Mulcair was in Kingston today. As he is one of James' favorite political figures I picked him up early from school and we went to the 4pm lecture at Queen's. As we were walking down, James had second thoughts. He said he didn't want to go, that he wanted to go home. I tried to understand why he didn't want to go, but he couldn't tell me. I finally convinced him just to go for a bit and then leave if he wanted to. It was certainly a struggle to get him there but once he was there, he had a good time. When I asked him afterwards why he was so apprehensive- was it that he was worried about the unknown? He said yes.
What helped was that when we arrived one of my course TAs Brendan was there. Brendan has lots of experience with Science Quest and so is really great with kids so James warmed up to him right away. James wanted to sit beside Brendan at the lecture. Then Graham came and sat with us and we had a whole APSC 100 row!
The first bit of introductions and awards, I thought James was getting ready to bolt but as soon as Mulcair started, James enjoyed it. Mulcair didn't talk for too long- it was just right.

I need to go to bed now so I can get up early to go shopping- assuming I can get there through the construction!

Vanilla scent

I have found out recently that I appear to be allergic to vanilla scent. Not vanilla the liquid, just the scent in other things. Yesterday my allergy triggered in the morning and I found that little things that normally didn't bother me would re-trigger me again. My allergies aren't bad though- just itchy, watery eyes. I was pretty tired at the end of the day so maybe there is that. Or maybe I do too much!

I was setting up a meeting with Eric yesterday and I let him know my availability and he said - you are pretty busy for someone whose term has ended. Yes, welcome to my life! Today I have meetings until 12:30 and then I'll try to get some work done!

Day 1

Katie posted this picture of Archer and Nan. So nice.


Tulips starting to come up.

Today was the first day I could wear my spring coat. (A warm spring coat though!) I realized that my 2 pairs of walking shoes were are work so I decided to try to break in my new shoes. Earth Spirit shoes from Walmart. For the most part comfortable but as with breaking in any new shoes I have blisters! I won't be able to wear them for a bit as the blisters have to work through.

We had a baptism service at Church. Next time the tarp will be remembered.
The baptisees were very happy so it was a good service!

Rustle had omelettes for lunch. Al made me a very good omelette with green peppers and cheese. Sarah was very pleased that I was eating. It was good- thanks Al!

James got all dressed up to watch one of the tryout games (with shoes newly acquired from Rustle) and I realized his dress pants were too small. The kid keeps growing.

On Friday Tom Mulcair is coming to Queen's. James is very excited. I'm going to pick him up from school about 15 minutes early but I think going to a Tom Mulcair talk makes up for the lost schooling!

Planning on making muffins tonight.

motivate

Sam found this video of motivational quotes put together:

“Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.”
Will Smith.

Tomorrow is the last day of exams for my students. I have a make-up exam to run in the morning and lots to clean up to prepare for next week. I'll sleep now so I can get up early tomorrow.

Phone call

James trying to call his friend Nolan on the phone:
James: Hello
Nolan's mom: Hello, who is this?
James: James
Nolan's mom: James who?
James hangs up on her.
James to me: it was a wrong number
Me: that was Nolan's mom! She just didn't know who you were.
James tries again with a different approach:
James: Hello could I speak to Nolan please?
Nolan's mom: Is that why you called last time?
(I'm laughing so hard at this point)
James: Yes. Now my mom's laughing.
Nolan's mom: I'll get Nolan.

solstice

I think the solstice is the longest day, so I would call today the solstice. I ran all day during the showcase and then had to settle down to tackle my email so it was a 13 hour day. My feet are pretty sore as well! I managed to skip both lunch and dinner and functioned on adrenaline!
Tomorrow my day is booked up but I have to get some important things done so hopefully I will be efficient enough not to have to stay too late.
Hoping to order Darbar tomorrow as a reward!

I was thinking spring might have come back during my long day that felt like a week but no, still cold. I did enjoy it while it was here though! I saw this on FB:

on the trailing edge of exhaustion

Today was long and frenzied getting ready for the showcase tomorrow as well as dealing with a bunch of other things to wrap up the year. Tomorrow will be even longer but then things will start to get better. I'll be out of the house at 7am!

Frenzy

My day today was a frenzy of activity with preparation for the showcase and lots of people stopping by to see me. I was supposed to order the pizza for the meeting we had around lunch time but just could not get the time to do it, so Corrine did it for me. I expect tomorrow will be worse as all the last minute things for the showcase plus a number of emergency things to deal with not related to the showcase. I am looking forward to the showcase and enjoying hearing about the projects the students have done this term.

In memory of the Boston bombings I leave you with this picture posted by a news site during the lockdown of a police officer who got milk for a family with a baby. Sweet.

The water came back and Day 2 of spring

Expecting fall next week. With a -8 in the forecast for the upcoming week I couldn't bring myself to put away my winter jacket. It was pretty hot to wear it today though.
I have a distrust of spring now!

I do love these little guys though


The water returned at 11:30pm. It was surprisingly louder than I thought it would be. Can't miss that.

I woke up bright and early this morning and cleaned both bathrooms now that I had water!

Step 2 in spring cleaning was James' hockey corner in the basement. It was a terrible mess. Was he raised by wolves? Sometimes I wonder.

Water shut off

When I woke up this morning there was a utilities truck at the corner of park and college. They are doing heaps of construction around here so I didn't think too much of it. Princess St. is shut down from Concession to Victoria so a lot of cars come down Park to avoid it. When I went out later in the day I saw that Park was down to one lane. And I thought that was odd to have construction on two parallel streets, but it is construction season so it is what it is.
Around dinner time, there was another utilities truck at park and college looking more urgent.
I didn't think too much of it then either. But when I didn't have water in the house anymore I took a look at the utilities twitter and they said they were replacing a broken valve at Princess/ Concession and that water may be out in the area. Hopefully they fix it soon as Step 2 is being held up due to no water!

pic.twitter.com/OPRgBsJ428

I managed to do 4 loads of laundry before the water went off (and almost everything dried in the sun!) so I have plenty to fold. Then I guess I'll vacuum!

The poor utilities people are look like they have to deal with a number of agitated people. But there is no sense getting upset over things you can't control.

Edited to add- Utilities have said the water will be back on at 3am.

After the update on Utilities someone mentioned that this was unacceptable as there was no notice. I'm sure they didn't PLAN on it breaking. Not sure how you can give notice for that anyway. Guess I shouldn't be waiting around for it!

Step 1

For the first step in my spring cleaning I took on James' room. I thought this step would take a lot less time but it took all afternoon. I don't include a "before" picture but it was pretty much a disaster. He had a friend over for a sleepover last week and they played some sort of game that involved throwing things all over the room (and not cleaning it up, of course). I cleaned everything in the room. Walls, floors, everything! I'm pretty filthy now, so I'll have to change before step 2.

Kim called last night to say she had an accident with a horse. This time while trying to get the halter off him. He got spooked and ran when her arm was in front of his face and it dislocated her shoulder. Of course, it was a day when she was alone at the farm so she had to manage to get herself up (as she had fallen down) and into the house to make her call for help. This happened a couple of weeks ago and the shoulder is not so good still. She has difficulty with dextrous tasks like pulling her pants on. She can still do things like cleaning out horse stalls. I told her to wear dresses instead but she felt that was not practical.

Finally

About a month late, but better late than never!

Spring cleaning today in honour of the weather.

Preparation for the big course showcase goes on. (Students present their projects) It is like planning a wedding that I have invited 700 of my closest friends to. Lots to do before Wednesday!

When technology conspires

I didn't finish a report I had hoped to at work so I sent it to myself at home to work on. I downloaded it, saving it often. Finished the file, saved it, closed it (because my email requires the file to be closed before it can be attached), tried to attach it to my email and it was GONE. So I was like, no problem I'll just open Excel and look in the recent documents and find out where I saved it. It's not in the recent documents. At that point I knew something was really wrong. The last thing saved is always in recent documents. I checked the "Downloads" folder as that is where files used to default to if I forgot to save them in another folder. I did a search because I knew the title of the file but the search turned up nothing.

So I go and watch survivor and figure I will try again later. There's a power failure halfway through. So now I can't watch survivor and if there was anything recoverable I figured it would be gone.

But I was wrong. I went through all the steps of the download and found my file in some hidden unsearchable folder. Glad of that, but still weird as my computer hadn't done that to me before!

Re-stigmata

Last April the "stigmata" on my hands re-surfaced (it's not really stigmata, it is some kind of skin condition) and again as it is April it has surfaced again. I wonder if it is related to my allergies or to spring in general.

It is still cold outside but I raked the front lawn (the bits that didn't have snow at least) as the pine tree dropped a huge amount of small branches and pine cones in the winter. The trees took a beating this year. As I walked by Regi today I saw that the trees that they have out in front when you look up you can see the open wood breaks near the top of the trees. The trees are pretty solid so the trunk and lower areas didn't suffer much damage but the new growth areas did. We are always most vulnerable in our new growth areas. They are open wounds, it looks like.

The battle for spring continues

I still can't get through the back gate because of the snow, but there is grass and a robin!

Today I went to Loblaws in the morning to pick up some supplies. I have to alter my route because of all the construction even though it is only a few blocks away. For a while Palace Road was closed and now Regent St. is closed. If it is not one direction I am blocked in, it is another.

After that I went to the Library to pick up another book in the series for James. The online site said the book was in but I looked all over and couldn't find it. I asked the library lady in the area and she looked and couldn't find it either so she sent me to have a hold put on it to another lady. When that lady looked it up for me and she was about to put the hold on, she said she would just check one more place and she went and found it. Apparently she had just done a display on animals and as the book series is about cats, she had used the book in her display! So it all worked out in the end.

I also went by Canadian Tire as one of the lights in the hall burned out. I found out those lights are "floodlights"! Who has indoor floodlights, really now? I also got another silicone pan for baking muffins as my old ones are falling apart. I make muffins pretty frequently!

I focused today on cleaning the upstairs. Tomorrow I'll focus downstairs!

Advice

As a disclaimer because sometimes people misinterpret when I am joking as something serious, this was supposed to be funny.

We had a photo booth at work today. With candy (not in the picture). My advice.


I am thinking that my "cold" is actually allergies. Though I'm not quite sure to what. But it makes sense considering my lack of improvement.

Louie called me on my cell phone today when I was still at work. I think it is funny that James is giving my cell phone # out to HIS friends now.

allergy testing

I don't know if you can see it in the picture (and the picture was taken after the worst of the reaction) but James had a strong reaction to "G" (Grass). Last time he took the test he reacted strongly to peanut, but no reaction this time so the peanut allergy may have dissipated. He'll go back to the hospital to try peanuts on their turf (just to be sure).

4/4/14 here we come!

Signs

Some signs of spring:
Canada geese migrating
A woodpecker spotted in Victoria Park
More sun
I switched from my heavy winter boots to my light winter boots
Some sprouts in the front garden

Some signs that spring is not here:
Snow on the ground
Hockey boards still up in Victoria Park
Still wearing winter coat, hat and mitts
Can't reach the back garden for snow.

Better than Nova Scotia at least!
We have a weather warning for tomorrow. Freezing rain. We'll see how this plays out.

Surprise

The British peeps posted this pics of Aunt Gill on the television show "The Chase"- she's so famous now!

April Fool was fun. I like fun fools.