Musings on a Small Life

I just want to wish my mom, Judy, a very happy birthday. I hope you have a wonder-full day...and if you win big at the casino, remember I still have $$$$ debt to pay off. Hahahahaha! Lots of love and Light and (((hugs))) from me and the grandkitties too.  xxxooo

...without this home's inflatable decorations, just around the corner from me, and then the nativity scene in the green space on Avenue Road. I think I take a snapshot of both every year. The house actually has lights all around the frame and windows, so it looks quite festive in dim light. The snowman is a new addition, I think. I don't remember it being there last year.  Amazingly, the "baby Jesus" still is there; normally someone (probably a kid or kids) steals the doll.  On our street, only three townhouses have lights--and mine is one of them. Used to be that if I didn't put lights up, I was the exception. Now it's the other way around. Not sure why, maybe just a general shift in population to those who celebrate other holidays, not Christmas. Or an aging population that doesn't bother. Or "snowbirds," the retirees who head south for the winter. Perhaps a combination of all three. The week was okay, nothing untoward, other than an ice-...

Because 3 ounces of rye in the evening equals very disturbing dreams about death. Not mine, that of someone in dreamland who looked like a childhood friend but had a different name. Time of death: To be 10AM. With the person just slowly becoming transparent, fading away. Ugh. No. More. Rye. At. Night. Other than that, life's fine. The usual. Counting down the days till (a) the Solstice and (b) our holiday break. That would be 7 and 10 respectively. I'm dreaming, not of a white Christmas (that's a given this year), but of afternoon naps. Without accompanying dreams of death. In the meantime, I'm amusing myself by playing around in Picnik, the on-line photo-editing site. No, not in lieu of doing real work. In addition to.  :-P I hope everyone's staying warm and cosy and snuggled up this week. Here it's been down around -18 or -20C with the windchill for the past couple of days. Have I said I love my long johns? Have I said I'd like to fast forwar...

How can someone like me, with no family here and no obligations, still be running around like a mad woman every Saturday? I took an early bus (7:20AM) up to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things (they're open 24/7 now, till Christmas, though that makes little difference to anyone who relies on public transit--lol). Then popped over to Zellers and then to PetSmart (lucked in on a sale on ProPlan, which is about the only canned food Derry will eat). Had several heavy bags that I lugged home (including 11 pounds of pet-safe driveway de-icer, for the impending 15 to 25 mm of freezing rain tomorrow). Oh, my aching shoulders! That was my weight workout, never mind pumping iron at a gym. Okay, so it probably wasn't more than 20 pounds altogether, but it felt like 50! Yeah, yeah, I'm out of shape, I know. Once I had everything home and in the house, I headed out again for round 2 and finally made it home by 12:30PM, to do all the house work and laundry. How exciting! Actually, while...

My (former) co-worker's hubby showed up at 7:30AM with his truck, we filled it up, he drove to the waste management depot, the truck weighed 2500 kilos going in, weighed 2410 kilos going out. $28 and change to drop 200 pounds. Now wouldn't it be nice if some of us could shed our own pounds so easily? Drive or walk up, take off 30 pounds, pay the fee and leave. I'd go for that. Snapshot from last December, 2009. Because of course I haven't anything new!

Nico was on my doorstep when I got home today, but by chance or universal design, the roommate with whom I had spoken a couple of weeks ago also was just arriving. So I asked her if she would come and take Nico inside and she did right away, said Jenn (the condo owner's name is Jennifer) had brought him in before. That must have been Saturday afternoon through Sunday evening, since Nico was gone for that time. I told the girl that I've been lying awake at 2AM and worrying about him and that I was relieved he'd be indoors tonight. She told Nico, as she was heading into the house, that if he'd just stay in the basement, the dog wouldn't bother him. So it is the dog he's trying to escape from. I took a packet of Whiskas and a can of Fancy Feast over, knocked on the door but she didn't answer. So I put both in a bag with a note that it was for Nico's supper/breakfast, to tempt him to stay inside where it was warm, left the bag hanging over the door knob...

Nico turned up Monday AM, was there at 4:15AM waiting for his canned food, but didn't get to eat any because the feral ate 2 packages of Whiskas (their "meat" and gravy), a full bowl of dry and another half a can of Fancy Feast I put out (for Nico). He (Nico) did get to eat canned yesterday afternoon when I got home, as the feral wasn't around then. Sometimes he comes in the afternoons too, but usually just the mornings. I think that grey and white cat might have been abandoned and now is semi-feral, perhaps not a true feral. He certainly won't let me get too close, but his hunger overrides almost everything else. He scarfed down all the wet I put out this morning, too, so Nico got none. There's only so much food I can put out and the grey/white guy seems to have limitless stomach capacity. Nico is using the shelter, but I'm concerned about the wind coming at him, when it blows from the southwest. Trying to figure out what to do about him; I'm ver...

Admiral Hestorb's mom has her own blog, Ramblingon , and a couple of days ago she posted an easy, tasty chicken and red potato recipe . Well, I'm here to tell you it's yummy! Delicious! And you all know how I loathe cooking, so anything easy and tasty gets high marks in my books. So here's the recipe: Roasted Chicken with Red Potatoes 2 tsp paprika 1  1/2 tsp crushed rosemary leaves (I had to use dry, couldn't find fresh) 1 tsp minced garlic (dry is okay too) 1/2 tsp black pepper 2 TBSP olive oil 1 tsp salt 6 bone-in, skinless chicken thighs (mine didn't have bones and it was fine; I'm sure you could use chicken legs too) 1  1/2 pounds red potatoes, cut into small cubes/chunks Toss all the ingredients into a large bowl and coat the meat and potatoes with the spices. Arrange in a flat layer in a large, oiled pan (you can line the pan with foil and spray the foil with cooking spray -- I used a little cooking brush to brush on regular olive o...

I emailed the Katnip Lounge's mom last night to ask if she thought a jigsaw would do the trick, and she seemed to think so. I had forgotten I have one, stored away in my garage. So a short time ago I brought it, and the tote, into my basement, shut the cats upstairs, and cut out a little opening. Plastic isn't so easy to cut through, though. I had to punch a few holes in it first, so the jigsaw blade could get through. I'm sure I've ruined my blade, but those are easily replaceable and it's been several years since I last used it anyway. It's crude, of course, but here's the finished project. Oh, and I did take some sandpaper and sand around the opening, to get rid of any loose or sharp bits. Here's the shelter, done -- at least as best as I can do it. Had to cut down some of the inner padding to fit the new configuration, but that was easy.  Derry checks it out.  Now out and on the step beside my door. Ironically, I haven't seen Nico since y...

I was a woman on a mission today, to find something to make Nico, the neighbour's cat, a more weather-proof shelter. (He's the one that won't go inside because he's afraid of the dog, I think. The declawed cat who has been outside since March. The one she doesn't make any effort to care for. The sweetie with big green eyes and soft, rumbling purr.) I had an empty Rubbermaid tote, and had the little round "house" Nico's been taking shelter in for the past few month (my cats don't use it so I put it outside for him). What I don't have is a lot of space on my step. Anyway, I went to Home Depot today and here's what I came up with. You'll see I need to finish it off and I need something that will cut through the plastic of the tote -- what will do that? Suggestions? Picked up some styrofoam -- $10. A sheet of it is $4, more than I needed, but they won't cut it for you, so of course I couldn't take an 8 or 10-foot piece of th...

On the way to work today, I stopped in at the nearest grocery store, about a kilometre from the office. Picked up a few things, and then as the cashier was ringing my items through, I suddenly felt like practicing a random act of kindness. Told the cashier I would pay for the item the woman behind me had, just 2 litres of chocolate milk. Surprised the heck out of the young woman with the milk--and everyone else. It surprised me a bit too, as that's the first time I've paid for someone else's purchase, though of course not the first "random act of kindness" I've given. Every now and then I've read about someone doing that, usually in a coffee shop line up, and thought, why not? It was only a few dollars anyway (couldn't pay for a big order, that's not in my budget), but it didn't seem to matter to the young woman that it was a small gesture, she was quite appreciative. That's not why I did it; it just felt right in the moment. And people...

I popped into a Tim Horton's (poor man's coffee/doughnut shop) on the way to work this morning, to get breakfast to go. The customer behind me, who also was getting breakfast, looked rather like my first (and only other boss) in this city, but I wasn't quite sure. I kept glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, still not certain. It had been almost a decade, after all. But as I was collecting my food and turning to leave, I said, "You look like D. L.," at which point he actually noticed me and said, "Kim!" I expressed surprise he remembered my name, even more surprise that he recalled my last name immediately. He looks the same, really, hair a bit thinner, but essentially the same. I'm not sure he would think the same of me, though he did comment that my hair colour was different. (I wasn't highlighting it 14 years ago.) I laughed and said I had to cover the white strands now. So we chatted for just a few minutes and I went on my way, rat...

Who knew 300 was the maximum number of blogs Google will allow you to follow? Now how do I get around that one, without un-following kitties and people? If someone knows, do please leave a comment! I'm pleased to say that I got the gifts being mailed out all wrapped up on Sunday, no whiskey needed. (All but one, actually.) Mailed them this morning, plus the three items from Derry's auction, to the tune of $71 and change. Don't fall over. The mailing cost of the individual items was reasonable, not more than $15 each, but it was the fuel surcharges or whathaveyou, the HST (harmonized sales tax) and so on. Good thing I do this only once a year. I'm also pleased to say that another big work project has (I hope) come to a close. I've done what I need to (I hope) and it should be fine (I hope). There's a lot of "hope" -- and crossed fingers  -- here! So things are winding down; hurrah! Our work luncheon will be on the 10th. One of my co-workers unexpe...

If you want to be amazed and awed, Google Mark Vincent, 2009 winner of "Australia's Got Talent." My mom sent me a link yesterday to a site with all the videos from the program, his initial performance, follow up performance, other appearances. Unfortunately, I didn't keep it, but you can find his final song for the show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBSATKqZZb4 I'm sure he's old news to many, but I'd never heard of him before. What an amazing tenor voice. And by the way, he was 15 when he competed and won last year. He's now releasing his third album and you can see/hear a video of him performing Funiculi Funicula at his web site: http://www.markvincent.com.au/ For inspiration of the Handel's Hallelujah Chorus kind, I'm passing along a link that Cat of Cat's Cats posted on her blog today: A flash Mob at Seaway Mall in Welland, Ontario by the Niagara Chorus at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE The  Hallelujah Ch...

I was going to write today about the journey toward compassion, but I got totally derailed by a small incident at work. Very small. My boss went into two of my co-workers' offices, in turn, and closed the door. I heard him say, before he closed the first door, that he had to ask everyone this. So, because of the difficult economic times and on-going work uncertainty, my mind leaped ahead to the thought that he was telling us we have to cut-back and asking if we would work part-time. Or that he was saying something about his leaving/retiring/whathaveyou. But he didn't come to me. Not then, not later. And my heart rate accelerated, my adrenaline kicked in, and I was imagining the worst scenarios: My job was being cut back and he was bracing himself to tell me, I would be escorted from the building immediately and somehow have to gather all my personal stuff, I'd have to move to the east or west coast and live with a parent....Typical Kim paranoia and panic. Finally ...

...to piss me off faster than you can blink. Seriously. Last night I wrapped up the three items I had offered in Derry's auction, to mail out either this weekend or after I get paid on the 30th. The items weren't the only things going in the packages (just a small something else), and each package entailed two large bubble-envelopes to ensure sufficient padding ('cause it's not like I have boxes), copious amounts of packing tape and much running up and down the stairs to get things I had forgotten. During this process, Nicki was constantly "helping," to the point that I had to put the scissors down for fear of going berserk (kidding...sort of), Annie was hissing at the boys, and Derry was scratching at my couch, the little shit. As if I don't have enough kitty scratchers and condos around the house. I ended up yelling at all of them in turn, and trust me, I do not have dulcet tones when riled up. The packages are ready to go, but I qualify for the ...

Because except for a few work-related emails and some photocopying, I've been completely unproductive today, work-wise. Very productive, blog-wise, at least in terms of getting up-to-date on blogs that I follow and leaving comments. Even scheduling a Tuesday Fuzzy Tales post. Not quite as lucky trying to find a Christmassy-looking photo that I've taken, for a holiday header on this blog. Wasn't happy with what I tried yesterday, would like something with seasonal greenery. Do I have anything like that, a pic that can be sufficiently cropped and still look half-decent? Nope. Should I learn to PhotoShop? Maybe! Will I?  Not likely! So I have forty more unproductive minutes at the office before I'm done for the day. Twenty-three more working days till our Christmas break. Not that I'm counting. I'll try to make most of those more productive than today, which shouldn't be too hard. Here's hoping everyone is doing better than I am, work-wise, on this...

My all-time favourite Christmas movie is Chevy Chase's Christmas Vacation . I love the movie, still laugh like a fool every year when I haul out the DVD and watch it, no matter that I've seen it countless times. But my own outdoor holiday decor is a far cry from that of Clark Griswald. Four paltry strands of lights around my shrub, a wreath on the door and some garland and bows on the little railing. No worries that I'll blow the power to the entire neighbourhood.