I love my house. It's a great house. Needs a little love here and there, but it's a great house.

Unfortunately, it needs a little more tender loving cash than usual. Apparently, the chimneys aren't so usable right now. And really haven't been since I bought the house. Nothing to be done now except get it fixed. So, a little trip to my bank and some internet investigations later and it may not be as bad as I originally thought.

Things to have other people do to my house:
~ replace the furnace
~ replace the fireplace
(or replace the chimneys)
~ get eavestroughs
~ replace the front step
~ possibly paint or replace the siding on the house

I'm sure my SaskEnergy house inspections will lengthen that current list, but that's a short wait for a week and a half and possibly some furnace shopping later.

My car is finally dying too, but I'm going to see how long it'll last while I really drive it into the ground. We'll just let SKYBOY live the rest of its days to the fullest without being hooked up to diagnostic machines and in surgery.

I like the word gallivanting. It makes me happier than traveling for work makes me. Don't get me wrong, I love a good trip (business or otherwise), but being away from home for the majority of three weeks is a bit much. And thus, I am happy to be home.

Some notable things that I encountered while away were
~ getting caught up on sleep
~ having a mediocre steak at a upscale steakhouse and then stealing the napkin
~ hearing about a colleague getting his nipples pierced
~ reading Cheruby's screenplay
~ learning about a new product offering at work and being brought in at the ground level
~ getting a new title and job level at work without having to take on extra responsibilities
~ losing sleep
~ running on caffiene
~ getting to meet some of my new staff for the first time
~ coming home

I don't even remember the weekend I was at home in between trips. Wait! I do remember something - spending time with AJ. That was particularly awesome. He helped me surprise Cheruby by bringing by his birthday presents while Cheruby was picking me up at the airport on Friday night. Thanks!

I opened my heart and a little girl ran out
She laughed and giggled, daring me to catch her
Dancing and spinning with a daisy in her hands
She knew I wouldn't be able to play with her long

As my thoughts drifted from the joy of being with her
And the fear of losing her started to creep in
She knew she had to return
To my heart to wait for me to let her out again

Not very poetic, but it was beautiful to me to see her playing with such pure happiness and love. She had long, dark curly hair that looked almost wild. I don't remember whether there were small flowers in her hair, but they wouldn't have been out of place. Her simple white dress was playful in the tiny details and helped show her innocence. I don't think she ever stops smiling, even when she is closed up in my heart for the wrong reasons.

June 5, 2003 3:12 PM

Notice: Porcupines are eating your hair!

Recent studies have proved that hair loss is not due to genetics at all. Instead, dream clinics showed video footage that shows rat-sized porcupines gnawing on the hair of sleeping people. Normally that wouldn't be a problem because the hair would grow back, but these particular creatures have a chemical they secrete via their claws that inhibits hair growth. Scientists are advising everyone to get stuffed octopus as these seem to be the only thing these small rodents are afraid of.

June 12, 2003 4:26 PM

Imprinting tentacle motifs on metal with a toothbrush is hard work.

Yesturday, octopus fans worldwide were fully supportive of Weetbra of Southern Saskatchewan when he set out to break the record of smallest octopus etching ever. in order to accomplish this grandiose feat he made use of toothbrush bristles! His canvas? Aluminum of course! Being watched by a team of observors for the last nine years, his efforts finally came to a halt today with great fanfare. When asked why he did it he responded that all his life he was in awe of the stupidity of people who were devoted to idiotic things, and he had to show them all what true devotion to a worthwhile cause was. I think we can all agree that he has proved his point. Amazing man. I really think he is going to be awarded a Noble Prize this year - if there is any justice in the world.

There are a few things I've been meaning to mention.

1. Thank you, Owen, for introducing me to papadums. The healthy equivalent to chips.

2. I can't remember anymore. All the bits of my brain have fallen out somewhere along the way this week.

I leave again on Tuesday night for Toronto this time. I will get to have supper with some of my staff and be enjoying every moment of it. I'll be around another time this summer as well and actually make a trip out there specifically to go check in on them. It'll be good and I'll be driving in Toronto. No problem, right?

It's Cheruby's birthday next weekend. I'm totally looking forward to going camping with him and his dad and uncle.

Oh, I remember!

2. Thank you to Furlak for Blue Moon City that finally found its way to me through Bne's emotional mom.

3. Thanks to my brother for the First Season of Fraggle Rock. It's AWESOME!!

Congratulations to Cheruby for finishing his screenplay and submitting it to people to review and possible get money. He did that today. If you see him around, tell him that he done good. He spent some time screaming into pillows today.

This weekend, there's company in from Edmonton although not the usual large crowd what with it being the Father's Day weekend. Slarpcon is missing out.

Let's start with the fact that I loved the homemade red wine, a French Merlot. I didn't try the white.

The first course was the roast suckling pig on a bed of jellyfish. Never had jellyfish? Well, let me save you the trouble. Chewy, rubbery and crunchy all at the same time with very little actual flavour except the sesame oil in which it was cooked. The skin of the pig was very crunchy.

Course two was my favourite of the evening if you don't include the sweets. It was a birdsnest made from deep fried grated potatoes bits on a bed of lettuce with lemon slices and marishino cherries for garnish. Inside the birdsnest was scallops, shrimp, squid with mixed vegetables of carrots, celery, snow peas, and mushrooms. I didn't have the shrimp or the squid, but the scallops were yummy as were the veggies I ate which excluded the mushrooms. There was some sort of sauce of course, but I can't really describe the taste.

Shrimp balls with crab claws came next. The crab claw was good, but I didn't care for the texture of the shrimp ball. It was about as big as a squished baseball. I think there were either noodles or coconut bits deep fried on the outside of the ball.

The fourth course was the shark fin soup. It had crab meat and shark fin in it, but tasted mostly like the sauce on the birdsnest.

Somewhere in those first four courses, cognac was served and we discussed how much our friend, the bride, looked like Lucy Lui.

Next came the fried crispy noodles with chopped up lobster bits with cream sauce on top. I had a lobster claw and some noodles. Not being a big fan of lobster, it was okay, but others were loving it. The lobsters' beady eyes were looking at me funny.

I will be trying to forget course six for a long time. There was a gelatinous, bland seafood of some sort which we learned later on was sea cucumber. Very large mushroom caps and sliced mushroom caps that looked like meat slices were the other main parts of the dish. Thank goodness for the delicious baby bok choy in this dish otherwise I'm not sure I would have made it through. Well, that and the whole glass of wine I downed with this dish.

It was about now in the evening that the head table guests at the wedding came around to every table to thank us for coming. Lucy Lui had changed a course or so before this into her red dress from her white dress. I had some time to let my tummy settle after those mushrooms. Bleargh.

The seventh course was an almost whole (no head or feet) roasted chicken chopped up into bits. I had some breast. There were a few people at the table who'd had very little to eat to this point. There were also some tasty styrofoam chips that were white and pink that came with the chicken. I have no idea what they really were and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.

A whole pickerel was next on the chopping block. It's beady eyes were also staring at me and were definitely worse than the lobster beady eyes. Funny, rolly-poll fish heads just occurred to me now. Anyway, the fish was alright, just seemed to greasy to be good.

Course nine was seafood fried rice with shrimp and scallop bits. Familiar and therefore a favourite at the table as well.

The tenth course was the final real food course before dessert. Noodles with small mushrooms slices. This dish tasted like sesame too.

Next came cookies which were very sweet. Well, one was very sweet and yummy and the other was covered in sesame seeds and was a bit cake-like and less sweet.

Lastly, cake was our twelfth course. It wasn't the real wedding cake as there wasn't enough to go around, but the CostCo slab cake was treat enough after the evening of uncertain food adventures. The real wedding cake would have been far better. Three layers with the top layer being marble chocolate and vanilla cake with chocolate filling, middle layer being chocolate cake with vanilla filling and bottom layer being vanilla cake with raspberry filling.

Other highlights of the evening were applause at the bride's eyebrows being waxed (she's really not a girly-girl) and the blind-folded groom going after the garter with chopsticks.

Thanks for being such a great date, neuba.

The next three weeks are booked. This Wednesday, I'm going to Edmonton and working from our office there for a few days. Then on Saturday, I get to go to a traditional Chinese wedding with Neuba and I'm very excited. I come home on Sunday, just so that I can leave again on Tuesday night to go to Winnipeg for work for Wednesday and Thursday. Then I get a whole 5 days at home before going to Toronto the next Tuesday night until Friday which was supposed to be a vacation day. Phew! I'm tired just reading all that.

Of course, all this travel is because I'm going to be working on an exciting project at work. I'm a little nervous because I haven't worked on a project like this before and I have other stuff on the go that's just as important, but not as high profile. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

The weekend after I return from Toronto, Cheruby and I are going camping and then the weekend after that is the July long weekend. And then I think life is a little more settled in July, but it might not be by the time I get there. Except that I have plans and an appointment to see a psychic on July 12th with Ril and cenobyte.

All these plans, or the vast majority, got planned today. And I also solidified my vacation plans for August where I'm going to go pick up my niece and nephew from Calgary on the long weekend, then have my mom and dad come get them from Saskatoon. Then have my brother and sister-in-law come get them the next weekend where they will possibly come camping with us or just join us or something. Anyway, the dates for those plans were confirmed today too.

And I'm already dreaming of going to San Francisco this fall.

We went over to Cheruby's mom's this afternoon because she has a pool and it was hot and I like swimming. We also ate her food. Life is good. My busy schedule today is:

• swimming while the sun is out


• nap


• attend Rilla, Em, and Deb's smashing party

Sometimes, it's hard to imagine things being better. But then, I get all needy and want all my cool friends to live close by and none of us ever have to work, we can all just hang out, play games, nap, sleep in, and eat nachoes. Then our hobbies would rule our lives. How cool would that be?

Honestly, I get a certain amount of self esteem from being paid to do a job so that probably wouldn't be ideal for me. Unless, of course, I could constantly being doing nice things for other people who said, "Thanks, you're awesome," a lot. Then I might be able to dig it long term. Or maybe, I could travel like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and join the United Nations. Maybe that would be good to do, but then I'd miss out on the constant party my friends were having. That would never do. Maybe I could just convince them all to come with me and then we'd do a lot more good and make a bigger difference.

And maybe, just knowing my friends are happy is good enough. Yeah, that's enough. Well, that and naps.

Apparently, it takes almost 2 hours to flip through over 800 tarot decks. I was inspired by AJ's recent reading for Ril as well as a conversation I was having with her. I told her that I wasn't sure if I wanted a tarot deck. Maybe I'm reluctant because I don't want to tempt myself in believing in it too much. They are a guidance tool, a way to help you look at a situation differently. I don't want it to be true. Cheruby's first reading for me was about us and I didn't like what it had to say - everything long term was icky. I haven't wanted anything to do with them since then. I couldn't think of way to interpret the cards that wasn't bad.

Cheruby and I were in Witch's Brew last weekend where we perused the tarot. I picked up a few decks and then pointed to one and said, "That one." I knew it immediately from my last review of tarot decks from the website in March, but there were WAY less decks then. It certainly didn't take me 2 hours to review them and discuss the options with Cheruby.

In this last review, I had to set my criteria of what I would and wouldn't like so that it was easier to identify. I don't like ones that use non-traditional names for the cards. That cuts out a lot of them. Oddly enough, I don't like ones with animals as the main characters. I don't like ones where the cards have named characters like the Legend: Arthurian Tarot deck. That one would have made it except for the naming thing. It bugged me too much. And there was one erotic deck that I quite liked as well.

Having said all that, I will never buy a tarot deck for myself. The superstition exists that a tarot deck should be bought for you by someone else. And yes, it is just that, a superstition. However, if I'm going to have a tarot deck, I might as well follow the superstitions. Maybe I'd like one afterall. All the ones I like are on My Wish List.