Some more pics of Peter, who didn't pick a peck of pickled peppers...

Here's some more pics of my beautiful nephew... i saw him again tonight, i even got to babysit and he was so good. He isn't too interested in eating yet... takes a lot of encouragement to get him going, certainly doesn't take after Aunt Danielle that way! But he's super cute and i love him to bits... he smells so good and is so soft and sweet. I think i'll get used to this aunt thing really quickly!

He's here

He's here at last

My nephew

My sister and brother-in-law's son

My parent's grandson

He arrived right on time... smart boy!

I love him to pieces already, he's got my heart

wrapped around his little fingers...
I love this feeling!!

Admiral Nelson has died... again...

Alas and alack, the Admiral is gone!!!

Lord Horatio Nelson was a captain so great

He led in fierce battle and none could equate.

He fired his cannons and primed his guns

And defeated the French, the Spanish and Huns.

He was the great hero of sea battles all

A victor in life who stood not very tall.

Yet sadly today i must here declare

Horatio is dead, oh grief and despair!

He jumped o'er the side of his glassbottomed ship

And laid in the dust at the end of that trip

He languished and gaped as his time ran through

And pondered his decision, "oh what did i do?"

Why did i leap, up out of my bowl?

Why did I leave that water so cold?"

One simple statement, a life changing rule

Jumping out of a fishbowl sure isn't cool!!!

R.I.P Horatio

It's 3:10 am

Well, it's 3:10 am and i am awake, whilst the rest of the world slumbers in peaceful sleep, a state to which i hope to attain in approximately 4 hours and 45 minutes. Not that i'm counting, cause i'm not, but i thought i would just mention that in passing. I am sitting here, surrounded by the low murmurs of conversation of my co-workers, the hum of the noisy med room fridge and the lure of a box of Smarties which are doing their best to coax me to eat them, and not the healthy choice of my apple in my lunchbag in the fridge down the hall. Hmmm... i wonder which food will win? Knowing my choices lately, it will be the Smarties far and away the winners. Sad really. I have been knowing in my head that i need to do something about my weight, and i know that no one else can do it for me and i love to blame everything else but myself for that problem, but there are no good excuses in the end, are there? I know i have to say no to the goodies and extra servings and unhealthy food, but i know also that over the last two weeks, being on permanent nights and living in a very unrealistic world, that food which is quick and convenient is the type of sustenance which wins my approval.... a quick bun, a piece of leftover pizza, cookies.... aarrrgghhh, sometimes, i wish i would just betake myself off to a retreat in the woods somewhere, go on a starvation diet and see what happens.... i'd probably find a way to make cookies out of pine bark or grass or something like that.... though creativity is definitely not my strong point at all.... sometimes i despair of ever doing anything meaningful in my life... i work, i eat(too much), i sleep (too much also sometimes, last week between nights i was so totally dysfunctional that i wasn't fit to be around decent human beings) and procrastinate with the best of them. Yep, that's probably one of my worst faults, procrastination... putting off today what can be done tomorrow or the day after and covering up my putting off habits with a multitude of cleverly crafted excuses to make others believe i'm better than i am.... oh boy, i had probably better stop soon but sometimes i just feel i need to release all the pent-up frustrations inside me before i boil over, burst or decide to head for the hills in a desparate attempt to avoid all responsibility and such....

A fishy encounter

Once upon a time, in a far off land, there lived a fish. His name was Harry and he was a very Betaful fish who had a long swirly tail, carnelian red and sea blue scales, and fancy fins to boot. He was quite the handsome fellow and was a little on the arrogant side. He lived in a purple plastic bowl, a 2005 model with all the latest technological upgrades, MP3 player, GPS (guppy positioning system) and central vac. He was quite happy in his little underwater abode, though occasionally he did have to avoid the feathers that his messy neighbours, the Para Keets, threw into his bowl. Tank goodness for central vac.
So this was Harry's life, get up in the morning, brush his teeth, swim laps around the bowl for a couple of hours until his muscles were warmed up, chase the food kernels which magically appeared each morning at the top of his bowl, have a nap to digest lunch, more laps in the afternoon, in the opposite direction of course, some leaps of joy and then top it all off with dinner and an evening session building his bubble nest. Such a full and complete life...

One day, his bowl was somehow transported over a great distance to the great inner Sea. Harry got a sinking feeling, was he about to meet his end? or would this experience be a draining one? He didn't know what to expect, and was pondering this distressing thought when out of the corner of his little fishy eye, he cast upon a most strange and perplexing sight. There through two layers of glass and plastic swam a mysterious figure. Who was this intruder? This challenger? Harry wasn't sure.

He swam up to the side of his bowl, shook his tail a little and puffed out his cheeks to make himself look more impressive than he already knew he looked. To his frustration, the stranger copied him. This stranger, this new kid in town was seemingly mocking him. Harry was more than a little annoyed now. He swam up and down furiously along the side of his bowl, puffing his entire body up and swishing his magnificent tail to and fro. The stranger, whose tail was nowhere near as fancy as Harry's aped him. Harry wasn't sure what to do now... this fellow seemed to have quite an attitude and Harry was sure not liking it.
Horatio, as the other fish's name happened to be, was also in a quandry... what was he supposed to do? He kept imitating the stranger in the purple bowl, being just a young fish, he hadn't learned the ropes of beta battles! Having been named after the famous captain, Lord Horatio Nelson of the British Fleet, he had an important naval tradition to maintain. He postured and swirled, spun and whirled, all the while keeping one eye on this fishy challenger. You never could trust a slippery character like that. As the two tanks were eventually pulled apart by higher forces, the two challengers were forced to break off their male displays of emotion and strength and prepare in their separate places of residence for another battle on another day, when one of them would be sure to be the winner!

Oops... sorry, the author has come up with a temporary blank as to the moral and ending of this story, hmmm... not sure what to say, all of a sudden, my brain has hit a brick wall and cannot wrap it's cells around the concept of an ending for the story, i was simply inspired by these two characters in their bowls this morning as i cleaned house and thought i should share a portion of their lives with everyone, but sadly and alas, i haven't been able to finish it. I invite my readers to give me suggestions on how to resolve this situation.

Someelse's cool pics

The wild expanses surrounding Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland, England

Wheat fields and storm in England

Sycamore Gap, Northern England I just thought i'd share a few cool images which i had on my computer. I do wish that i was more of a handy person with a camera and could pull off shots like these. But i suppose that's why someone else has those talents, to allow them to shine and others to simply appreciate their skill and eye for a great shot! Kinda like in life right? We all have different positions in life, guided to them by our Heavenly Father and placed there so that they could be used. Birth order, rank, age, sex, education and experience are all factors that shape us and mold us to be who we are, individuals, unique, special to God, to be used and loved by Him.

Malibu blues

Yep, here's the star of this story of sadness and squeaks. My little Malibu, lovingly christened "Prunelope" by my youngest sibling, has been causing me some grief and stress over the last few days. It seems that the car has taken it into it's computer programmed brain that i am too heavy and has decided to start me on a weight loss program of guilt and annoyance. Over the past few days, it has steadily but stealthily increased the amount of pestering that it was doing.

First a little squeak under the seat, barely audible to the inefficient human ear, but most likely most readily audible by the average house mutt. Then steadily increasing the decibels of the squeak. At first, i had much difficulty determining from where the noise was proceeding but after much bouncing up and down on the seat at stoplights (much to the amusement of my fellow drivers!) and peering under the dashboard at most inconvenient times, i figured out that it was indeed the seat. What a cheeky little vehicle! I even had my dad test things out but of course as soon as he settled into the seat, the car shut right up. I kinda feel that it's like a tease, possibly doing its best to cause insanity, occuring only when i'm alone and there's no one to audibly witness the problem and then hiding under the bushes when anyone is near to hear it.

But eventually it was outed and i decided to teach old Prunelope a lesson and take her into the dealership to have them work on her. Hah, you think you can outwit and outthink your driver? Think again, you, you,... car! Anyways, there i am at the mechanics desk this morning, outlining my problems to the poor fellow behind the counter, who is probably already thinking "oh great, another girl who thinks she can diagnose problems that we go to mechanics school for for fourteen years and she wants to tell us the car is squeaky? Give me a break, i've got to go for my morning break and can't wait to tell the guys about the live one i talked to this morning! Yep, she came in with a list as long as her arm of squeaks and wierd noises,

half of which have no basis in reality!"

Anyhow, i did manage to explain myself to the guy and he duly wrote down my "problems" and then i left old Prunelope to his mercy. It apparently takes the entire garage staff a whole day together to figure out the squeak problem. It wasn't until late this afternoon that the fellow from the garage finally called me back and admitted that they hadn't really heard any of the other noises i had complained about (it's running rough, it whines when i use the gas) and now for sure they think i'm hearing things. And they used WD40 under the seat - something even i could have come up with. Oh well, so far so good, no squeaks have reared their silly decibular heads at me. Mercifully, the car is still under a blanket warranty so my little squeakie friend did not cost me any money... today! Ach, the joys of owning a vehicle!

p.s. as i tried to leave the parking lots with the mechanic fellow so he could hear the noise i was talking about, Prunelope protested with a beep. Brilliant me, i tugged my seatbelt on and i attempted to proceed. With little success, the persistent beeping was actually due to the parking break being engaged... so much for showing off my girly prowess with this vehicle. Humiliated, i sunk down in my seat and did my best not to make any more overt mistakes. Oh well, we have to provide amusement for other people sometimes too eh???

Okay this is what it is..

Brobdingnagian \brob-ding-NAG-ee-uhn\, adjective:Of extraordinary size; gigantic; enormous.
Brobdingnagian is from Brobdingnag, a country of giants in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.
So the next time you decide to go to the big sale at the mall, you can thoroughly impress your fellow humans by the usage of such a word in your sentence. "Bye honey! I'm heading off to the brobdingnagian sale at the mall. I hope to find lots of deals there." or "I just hit a brobdingnagian bump on the road and wrecked my vehicle's suspension and wheel bearings" (if you can figure out first of all which parts of the car that actually is... i certainly can't... i just show up at the mechanic with a typically girlish expression and state that there is a "funny rattle" on the passenger side of the car. Or, please examine the squeak on the driver's seat, which only seems to appear when i have myself in that position, and it doesn't seem to squeak for anyone else and i'm beginning to develop a bit of a complex that my car might possibly be telling me that i'm overweight, the cheeky thing. I'm sure i'll have lots of fun explaining this to the mechanic on thursday. Arrghhh.. the trails of having such expert hearing... good for eavesdropping on parental conversations when you are 12 through the heating vents, not so useful when you are attempting to drive in peace and are constantly reminded by an annoying little squeak just under my seat.

Ever have one of these days???

Have you ever had one of these days? Where you can't seem to even remember to put one foot in front of the other (making walking extremely difficult!) When you flood the laundry tubs? When you flood the bathroom floor while cleaning the tub? When you get stuck in traffic in front of a crazy head-banging fellow whom you are sure that any minute now will bang into the rear-end of your nice car? When you spill everything possible? When you are sure that everything is just out to get you? Well, i hope you make it through those days safely and in good spirits and know that there are more of us out there who can sympathize most dramatically!

For all you philologists out there

Okay, due to a request from an unknown acquaintance of mine, and due to the fact that i love words and sharing their meanings, obscure or not, with the general population who abide around me, i am going to give "word of the day/week" another go....

So here is your wordly challenge for the sharpening of your brain cells and the expansion of your gray matter...

brobdingnagian

So put your thinking caps on, pull out the dictionaries (well, leave them on the shelf for a little while to allow your brains to have some exercise) and see what you come up with for this little beauty. And soon, once the meaning is revealed, you too will be able to go up to your friend and say "brobdingnagian is so good!" or "i feel so brobdingnagian today." or "that is such a brobdingnagian thing to say..."

Happy searching!

It's no yolk...

It has recently come to my attention that there are botannical delights yet to be explored by my inquisitive mind. But my mind is one more fact the richer after having seen these plants in person. I believed it to be a hoax at first, owing to the uncommon appearance of what seemed to be an egg glued to a plant in someone's garden. However, when i visited the cultivator and saw it for myshellf, i had no more doubts. It is called an Easter Egg plant... grows up to 12 fruits during its blooming time and they turn yellowish when they are ready. I personally think that God has a pretty good sense of humor!

Me

A life half-lived

A mind spinning

Life hurtles by

At an astonishing pace

And sometimes I sit

dazed by the events of the day

And what i haven't managed to get accomplished

I wonder how everyone else copes with this

Am i alone?

Have i lost the ability to cope?

Is my inner planning gene defective?

I have to slow down

Take a minute to breathe

Inhale

Exhale

Pause

Think

Smile

Laugh

Pray

Read

Sing

Sit

Be

A Portrait in Time... a.k.a. the Framed Effect

On the recent occasion of my having attained to the 3rd decade of my life, the 30th anniversary of my birth, the 10,950th day of my life (if i have the math correct, it's entirely possible that i don't since math was never my forte in school - i usually try to block out memories of math class since they usually involved dizziness, frustration, tears occasionally and many, many blank looks as my poor math instructors tried valiently to stuff the illogical facts into the all-too-small math section of my brain. My poor father can attest to that fact, perhaps that's why he looks so fierce on the picture below!), there was a gathering at the parental abode on the Mother street. There were gathered all manner of guests and their shoes and there a merry olde (doesn't that word look infinitely better with an "e" on the end of it?) time was had by the invitees. There was cake and goodies aplenty and i thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening with my nearest and dearest ones. I love you all!!!! I thought i would share a few select images for the amusement of my reading public. Most of these shots are of my immediate family, who would have less propensity to sue me for improperly representing them as would certain other guests of the evening, who showed quite eagerly their ability to "get into the picture" well! I shall refrain from posting said pictures, but never fear, they shall rear their ugly heads at some point in our future relationship! I give you the Mussches!!!

The pater familias - "so you want to date my daughter?" (no wonder i'm still single!!!)

The fatherly figure once again, with his feline compatriot! The motherly figure - does she look "gilty?"

"We are waiting for the $30 you said you would pay us to pose..."
Trying to get the picture focused is a difficult thing apparently!

My two youngest sisters... looking charming as usual
Grandma, a real "purl"
And Junior decided to get framed as well, perhaps he or she is a juvenile delinquent!

Just for fun... these girls are mature!

Just because this picture makes me laugh everytime i see it! I love you, Dad!

Drip, drip, drop little September showers...

Here comes the rain again... yeah! Who knew we would be saying things like that? Anyways, the rains have come again (i sound like a tribal leader on one of those old movies) and the land is just soaking it up. I think it might be a birthday present for my friend and former boss Jeff Tigchelaar who is celebrating his birthday today - on this day last year, he was gingerly pulling 46 balloons out of his tractor seat where they had been stored the night before!! heehee! And it is also my Mom's birthday. I am going there shortly to congratulate her and give her a big hug. I love her so much!
I also would like to mention my Grandmother. She is currently visiting from B.C. and is 84. She started experiencing T.I.A.s or mini-strokes this weekend and has been hospitalized and has gone through tests and examinations to figure out the cause of these occurences. No answers have been found yet, hopefully soon, but if you could keep her in your prayers, that would be appreciated. We hope she'll come home soon but only time and the doctors will tell. So that's why this is a very thoroughly uncreative post... no ability to think witily at all.
So i'll include a little joke i was told yesterday... (i can't call it lame cause people might object!
How do you get a giraffe into a fridge?
Open the door and push him in.
How do you get an elephant into the fridge?
Open the door, take the giraffe out and push him in.
The king of the jungle, the lion, called a meeting of all the jungle beasts. One creature was missing... Who was it?
The elephant, he was still in the fridge.
How do you tell there's been an elephant in the fridge?
There's footprints all over the butter...
I probably wrote it wrong and please correct me if i have... i had to include it cause it was so silly! Enjoy!

4:43 Ramblings...

Hmmm... finally done the housework and buzzing around frantically trying to get the housework done in as little time as possible to economize on time and to get the more tedious jobs done asap. I managed to get the windows outside washed - kinda a fun job... but i am a chicken with heights and doing work so it is a bonus that we are in the basement - no ladders for me! It's kinda lonely outside though - Carina had noticed a little kitten hanging out under our neighbour's old car which has no life in it anymore, and she was worried about it making it through the winter. Always the animal lover and concerned for their wellbeing (not that i am not, but however, i just don't seem to notice these things - it's kinda like that "thinking" thing that Mom does - she actually has the problem where she wakes up at unearthly hours of the morning unable to return back to the blissful land of unconsciousness due to the vast amount of thoughts that traipse around her head and cause such mayhem that there is no rest any more for her... hmmm... i think my poor alarm clock would certainly love it if i could think a little bit more and hit him a little bit less - you'd actually think (heehee) that the alarm clock would begin a programme of subtle hinting and subliminal messages to me - trying to invade my mind as i slept and fill it with all sorts of complicated thoughts - but alas for him, he has not yet perfected the art of penetrating my mind's keen defences - even my teachers didn't manage to get too far in that department!)

Anyways, back to our story!!!!

Carina began feeding the little feline, and believe me, he/she (we weren't really sure what gender the kitten was, never did really good at that science thing) was super skinny. You could see his little hip bones and ribs... he probably subsisted on catching grasshoppers and flies and little critters of that sort - cause when he spied our birds outside, he was meowing away and knew exactly what was on his menu - wings! Anyways, after about a week or two of bribery, and trying each day to inch closer to him - we finally succeeded early this week to get "Hobo" to come and sit next to us, even to let us pet him/her a little bit! A little victory. With a bit more patience and kitten kibble, we were able to pick Hobo up and he/she became quite affectionate. Now the question was what to do with him/her? Sydney was having no part of a young whippersnapper horning in on his domain and growled loudly to let us know that. So our place was out. The SPCA. Well, a good option but a sad one... who knows if he would be chosen out of the myriad of little kittens there, he is cute with beautiful black and white markings and is very affectionate, but there's lots of cute ones there - everytime i go there just to look, my heart ends up leaving pieces behind with these sad faced little critters.

So option three, did we know anyone who would find a place in their heart for Hobo? Sure enough, the first people we talked to were willing to open up their barn to our little friend and bonus, they even already have two little friends for him/her. So one final lure of food, and Hobo was safely ensconced in a cat carrier, albeit meowing pitifully, and was transported to the new abode about ten minutes away. So all's well that ends well...

Hmmm. enough rambling for now, i suppose i should probably go and start some supper... what shall we have? I am at odds about that. Possibly the easy option of chicken on a bun... sounds good to me, with some salad. I guess i'm just not energetic enough to make some fantastic culinary dish. I also thought about bami but wasn't sure what meat to put with it... and then pizza, but that's not healthy, and then nothing at all, and that wasn't an option either according to my stomach. So it remains to be seen what sort of creative juices will flow or has the stash completely dried up?? Stay tuned for further details...

Port Burwell Days

What a fly chick!

Scribbling in the sand

Aaah.. the waves on the shore and Prince Charming in sail boat!

Sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the days!

Our wonderful colourful fire!

Last weekend, my friends led me on a merry chase as they planned an amazing weekend away! I love them all so much. Months ago already i was told to leave this weekend along, i wasn't allowed to book any shifts and i knew something was up. It turned out to be camping at Port Burwell and it was so fun! There was a lot of a certain element - rain, but it wasn't enough to dampen our spirits and we carried on until Sunday morning at 9 when we decided that was enough and packed up in the rain! But there were wonderful memories made and i thought i would post a few pics now and try to emend this later and make it that much more of a story.

And the answer is....

Drum roll please... tatatatatatata.....
The answer is not a place to buy subs and not an African rice dish
but meaning "perplexing or puzzling 'how extremely quisquous!' you declare as you pore over the chessboard"
Hmm, the interest that was generated by this word has been encouraging to me as a blogger and so i'll post another poser for you all to ponder...
What is a "ha-ha"?
I'll wait with bated breath for any worthwhile suggestions...
Happy solving!

And the word of the day is...

quisquous

Yep... and you have to guess what it is...

I'll post the answer in a few days!

An Unbeelievable Epic Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, in a far-away land, in the Kingdom of Glove, there was a story. An epic story to be sure. A tale of far-off places, daring sword fights, magic spells and a prince in disguise... wait a minute, that's the story of Beauty and the Beast... Okay, start again... A tale of battle, of bravery and of bees. Bees?? What's that you say? Yep, bees. Beelieve it or not! Okay, tell me all about it.
The brave knight who lived in the Kingdom of Glove lived in a wonderful castle... it had an Upstairs and a Downstairs, and in the Downstairs level, there lived two fair maidens. Their names were Drusilla and Anastasia... wait, wait, wait... nope that's Cinderella! Okay, their names were Darina and Canielle.

These maidens toiled each day at their respective jobs, having yet to be swept off their dainty feet by Prince Charming One and Two, who apparently were off slaying dragons in outer Mongolia and had no time for such romantic pursuits as seeking their One True Love. Be that as it may, these maidens went to college, got their education and now were a vital part of the local workforce, seeking to mingle with the commoners and do what they could to further the educational and health status of their community.

(we pause now for a commercial break. We bring you a word from our sponsors. Use Dove Soup, oops, Soap, it leaves your skin feeling feathery soft. And now back to our gripping story! - all voiced in a very enthusiastic commentatorish voice)

Now one day, the fair maidens noticed that the local population of the apian variety seemed to be especially present right outside their portal. They noticed it so much that in fact they were scared for their lives as the monster bees seemed to be aggressive and delighted in chasing them hither and yon, forcing them to assume very unladylike postures as they dove into their chariots and conveyed themselves away to their places of employment. They discussed the dilemma over a cold coffee that evening and decided that they would seek the protection of the brave knight who dwelt in the Upstairs. Darina and Canielle pleaded with the brave knight to rescue them from this winged terror. He naturally did what any noble knight who has taken the handy dandy training course would do... as per Chapter 78, page 459, he carefully removed from his toolkit the weapon of choice to deal with these beests! He would make his hero, Red Green, proud. A strip of duct tape soon covered the dwelling holes of the waspish little creatures. Hah! The enemy was conquered!

But alas and alack, when Canielle and Darina emerged from their dwelling early the next morn, they were again confronted by swarms of slightly enraged little critters who had spent the knight hours gnawing away at the tape and had now full access to their homes again. The maidens again were forced to race to their chariots, robes flying and luscious locks trailing behind them as they went. "Oh brave knight, please defend us!" they pleaded. The knight, seeing that his initial plan had a few flaws, decided to head for his chemical weapon arsenal. He planned his Raid carefully! He donned his gas mask and sang in a droning but cheerful tone as he sprayed his winged foes. "The danger was now over, to be sure!" he assured his Downstairs dwellers.

But once more, as the sun rose over the hills and dales, unbeelievably, there came a loud humming and buzzing noise! The apian mob had once again taken to the skies, perhaps now chemically and genetically modified, but ready for war. Their ranks were drone up, their queen was at the ready and the nest was yet to come! So one more time, the giant's head began to nod, the giant's eyes began to close and the giant began to... Wait, wait, you are the worst story teller in the history of story telling... the situation amongst story tellers is getting very Grimm, i tell you! That's from Jack in the Beanstalk... or is it and the Beanstalk... i seem to recall it being read as "in" when i was younger, but my memory is no longer what it used to be... Anyways, i digress... back to our hero.

Sir Knight, the Beerave One, decided that all the stops would be pulled out and the buttons be pushed in and there would be "blood tonight!" (that's for all loyal PB fans out there!) He had his squire clad him in his best armour, readied his flint and steeled himself for action. (imaging epic movie score music of the John Williams variety playing in the background, causing the audience's inner psyche to be ready for the conflict!) "Brave maidens, open that door and wasp my back for me!" The maidens, quaking with fear, did as they were told and watched as the battle was joined! The brave knight lit his weapon of choice, a "Burn-a-Bee" propane torch and showed everyone that he was all he was cracked up to bee! He feinted and dodged, he spun and twirled, he was a blazing spark in the darkness of the swarm of wasps. The maidens feared for his very life, but at last, in a fiery conflagration, the brave knight succeeded in his quest to conquer the wasps. Emerging with smoke smudges on his noble face, he rocked a little on his feet as he murmured his battle cry, "I am now Lord of the Bees!" (no literary licence was taken with that utterance... our knight lost his licence somewhere on the battlefields of the south and so cannot be held responsible for any offense caused by assuming that title!)

So the lovely maidens of the Kingdom of Glove, Darina and Canielle, were freed from their torment and anguish by the brave Knight of the Blowtorch! Freedom had been returned to their cozy nest and they lived happily ever after.

The End

p.s. applications for prince charming are still available at http://www.princapply.ca/

And the word of the day is...

I recently was party to a slight roadtrip to the eastern regions of the St. Catherines area... betaking ourselves to a major book selling establishment, known as the Book Depot. Whilst perusing the shelves laden with books on every subject under the sun (or so it seemed), i came across a book sure to be a classic in my bathroom literature section. It was ingeniously titled "The Superior Person's Book of Words" and is filled with many not so superior drawings to illustrate the topics in the book. It was brought to my attention by my younger sibling who obviously realized that i am amongst that category of humans (just kidding of course!). I have reached a state of ataraxia whilst i sit upon my couch perusing the little volume. But the word i have chosen with which to increase your vocabulary this fine day is : dactylogram - sounds like a really fancy mathematical term for one of those graphs such as sine, cosine, and tangent that i was supposed to learn all about in math class in highschool but alas and alack, i spent more of my time either daydreaming, staring off into the woods beyond the school hoping to be miraculously transported out of my academic environment and away from the instruments of torture, or waiting for the bell to ring signalling the end of yet another class filled with complete unknowingness. But dactylogram is actually defined as a ... fingerprint! The book is quoted as saying "a casual reference to your having been invited by the authorities to let them have your dactylograms may give the listener the impression that you are a distinguished applied mathematician who is called in by the government from time to time in a consultative capacity." Heehee... enjoy spreading your dactylograms all over the place today! and don't put any on my car windows!

3:31 ramblings

Here i sit on the couch, at 3:31 in the afternoon, indulging in a lekker cold coffee... the drink of choice this summer and marvelling at the wonderful breeze coming wafting through my window. I am so thankful this day for friends who listen to me... for my family, for the many blessings that lay around me, sometimes unappreciated or unacknowledged. I got to cuddle with a little 3 day old baby in the nursery yesterday afternoon and just enjoyed getting a snuggle in there. Looking at the little cute button nose, the fine baby hair, the pudgy little fingers, the squinting eyes, and i wondered where will this child be in 10 years, 20 years? There's so much potential locked up inside each of us... and i have to remember that. I tend too often to get down on myself and what i can and can't do in life, but i have to be more open to suggestions. So here's to the future, to discovering hidden talents and nurturing ones that already exist.

Do you know...

At the end of a crazy shift... coming up to 6:45 pm and my brain still spinning with all the myriad tasks to be accomplished in a mere 15 minutes to allow me to miraculously disappear to my home on time, my patient's iv started to act up. It was my own fault really since i had hung his medication and it came out of the fridge and was therefore condensating and kinda bubbly... causing the pump to constantly blare out it's warning of "air in line" to the horror and dismay of my poor ears. Anyways, i decided that my patient was mature enough to try and fix his own pump (i've had a fellow who used to change the rate on the pump and i'd walk back in the room and his pump was supposed to be running at 150 ml/hour and he would slow it to 75 ml/hour, claiming his vein hurt - stinker!!). So it was "fred, you know what?".. And so, Fred turned to me and said "nope, but i heard he's a nice guy!". I will readily admit it took a few minutes to add it all up and come up with a good reply, i was sniggering so much. I know it all sounds very silly and small, but it sure made me laugh at the end of a long crazy day! Thanks a lot "fred" for cheering one sad little nursie up!

it's 4:55 am...

Hi all... it's been eons since i last posted anything on this virtual space... with the simple reason that not too much really super exciting has been happening in my life... just the ordinary run-of-the-mill stuff which doesn't make for good copy on the blog. But here i am, at 4:55 am... sitting haphazardly on the edge of my chair to keep myself awake, having survived a crazy beginning of the shift which involved me running around like a chicken with her head choppped off... and several off-key renditions of popular romantic and children's songs sung to relieve stress. I do like my work... i like my patients, i like the families (most of the time!) but i don't enjoy the politics of things... i realize more and more, that whatever job you have that involves working with people, will necessarily have politics stemming out of it... but i wish it wasn't such a problem. I realize that nursing is not unique in this aspect of things, but seemingly, cooping 6 or 7 women (usually, we don't have any guys working on our floor - maybe they're scared of us!!) up on an outdated hospital ward causes some interesting results when their personalities clash and merge like tectonic plates in an earthquake prone zone... perhaps we oughta post "seismic eruption potentials" on the ward each morning so you would know if you have to wear your hard hat and miner light when you started your shift!!
boy, oh, boy, these posts in the early morning do devolve into such inane scribblings... i long deeply for something wonderfully eloquent to say but alas, the words escape my scrabbling tongue and brain and wander off to lodge somewhere in neverland, far from my grasp. Ach, well, enough craziness for now... someday, my faithful readers, there will come a post with such depth, such insight that you will be blown away, but for now, you must dwell a little longer in the land of literary mediocrity.

Grundy Lake Memories

Hi there... i'm pretty much exhausted from two long and hard days at work, but i thought i would quickly post a few pics from our recent sojourn into the Ontario wilderness a.k.a. Grundy Lake. Carina, Lauren, Amanda and I travelled up on Thursday evening and spent the weekend with my parental units perusing the pines, breathing the brisk (yep, read it and weep, brisk... not muggy, not clammy, but even that wonderful word brisk!!) air, feeding the fires and living with the loons.... I love Grundy!!!

Enjoying some breakfast family time

On the way to the beach or on the way home???

Some Russian spies at the Trading Post??

Watching the sun set over the lake

A frog and a sunset... oh so eloquent i am tonight...

6 a.m. Canoeing into the sunrise... what an amazing morning!

Storms coming!!

Cool breezes stir

Lifting the moist heavy air and providing relief

to the weary sticky populace

Skies threaten

Skies darken

Clouds gather

The air smells fresher

The flies bite, anxious about what is to come

Anticipation builds

When will it break?

Lighting plays in the sky

Jagged lines of energy, streaking a dark canvas

Thunder grumbles, rumbles, growls

Longing to be given full voice

Free rein to let loose with awesome power

How much power is in a storm?

Power to astonish,

amaze,

harm,

even renew.

Kleine Vanderdeen

What are little boys made of?

Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails.

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and everything nice.

Hmm... not sure i believe all that mumbo jumbo! These are a few pics of my nephew or niece a growin' away in his/her mom's tummy!! I am so looking forward to meeting this little person

Wondering who he or she is. Will they like peanut butter (a family trait), funny rocks, cool clouds, reading books of any type or sort, going camping, hanging out together?

I can't wait to cuddle with this little one and make sure that he or she (i wish there was a better way to write that) knows that there is so much love surrounding him or her.

Praise God that He creates new life and nurtures it in the mother's womb, He weaves us together and makes us who we are in the secret places!!