More Fun with George

I recently acquired a 1/6 scale George Lucas head on Ebay. It is so well done, I'm very pleased with it. Now I have to find a body. Somehow I doubt that Dragon or BBI produce middle aged men bodies, so I suppose I'll have to use a generic body. The hard part will be finding a 1/6 scale plaid shirt.

Here is a link to the auction. I have no idea how long it will stay up. Eventually I'll post a pic of my completed George.

Conflicting Progress

As I mentioned earlier, I had some Cherry Coke this weekend and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. The thing is, I loved Cherry Coke, it was my fave carbonated beverage. It's kind of sad that it no longer tastes the way it once did. Then again, I can see that my cold turkey strategy is working, which is a good thing.

It also seems to be working with bacon. I don't usually buy bacon because I've been known to cook and eat the entire packet myself. Selena has been bugging me for bacon lately so we had some. It tasted wonderful but the next day I felt as though I had grease oozing out of my pores. Yuck!

So now, I'm onto coffee. I've come to the conclusion that what I like about coffee is the hazelnut flavoured International Delight petroleum product that I put in (along with an obscene amount of sugar). So when my current creamer runs out, I am not replacing it. Hopefully that will help reduce my caffiene intake.

At Last - Peace & Quiet

Finally, a few Child Free Days! I do love my kids but the two of them together picking at each other all day drive me nuts. \\sigh\\ So, Thursday, Mum babysat while Niko and I ventured up to Nanaimo. We were going to see a movie but nothing really appealed so we had a rare shopping trip. I say rare because neither of really like to shop. First we hit Value Village where I picked up a hard cover copy of Margaret Frazer's The Reeve's Tale (I borrowed it from the library and quite enjoyed it), a few much needed bowls and plates, some upholstery material for my kitchen chairs (a lovely green and cream plaid), and some very old (60's probably) coasters with pics of Scotland on.

We also went to Jysk and got some shelving. I'm always vaguely disappointed with Jysk, things always look great in the flyers and not so great in the store. Oh, well. We also had to go to Curious Comics where I saw several things I might want to buy eventually (like Neil Gaiman Sandman graphic novels - that's another post altogher) but don't quite want to buy just yet. There is a tiny food court in that mall, so we had lunch - Niko had sushi and I had some awesome salad rolls. I must remember to warm my peanut sauce next time I make salad rolls at home - yummy.

The last stop of the day was yet another mall where Niko exchanged some games and we wandered Toys R Us. Very disappointing selection. We finished at Chapters because my ex gave me an Evil Empire gift card for my birthday. I got The Art of Medieval Hunting - the hound and the hawk by John Cummins. It looks very interesting.

Thursday evening Selena's friend arrived from Victoria to stay a few nights. Which means Friday was a write off - spent most of it supervising kids in the pool. Although, Mum did take the girls to Bright Angel Park for a few hours and I had time to follow up with the bidders in the NCGL auction. I ran 3 online auctions and we have raised about $600 Usd, that will go toward the group's vet bills.

Saturday was fairly quiet except for a little journey to Cobble Hill to do a home visit for NCGL. Niko came with me to navigate and for moral support. It went very well, the people were very nice and are going to be a great greyhound home.

We were planning to stop at the farmers market on our way home and almost didn't. On the way through town heading out we were astounded by huge crowds. There are never crowds in Duncan, everyone passes through on their way to Somewhere Else. Turns out it's a Summer Festival - 25th annual or something like that. It was less crowded on the way home so we did stop, but not for long, it was hotter than Hell (my poor malfunctioning radiator had just about had it by the time we got home).
While in town, I did find the Playmobile Romany Family I've been wanting (complete with dancing bear) for half price, and finally found some rice paper at the only Asian shop in town (it's kind of a one store Chinatown).

Speaking of hotter than Hell, my new drink of choice has become freezie slushies - I run a couple of freezies, some juice or iced tea and a shot of Southern Comfort through the food processor. Mmmmmm. Cool, refreshing, and not carbonated. Speaking of carbonation - Superstore now has Cherry Coke in 2 liter bottles. Bizarre. Of course, I bought one. I'm both relieved and disappointed that I didn't like it as much as I thought would.

So now I'm off to enjoy the last few hours of my peace & quiet. Maybe I'll take a dip in the pool . . .

Hmm

I guess more research was in order before my Recognition Factor post. Niko has kindly pointed out that David L. Lander was not in Willow. Ooops. So not only did I get his name wrong, I put him in the wrong movie. Now I have to watch the movie again to see if the guy who is in the it actually looks like Squiggy.

Learn Something New

I've decided I should stop being so grumpy and start trying to learn one new thing everyday. So for today I learned that a "butty" is a sandwich. I kind of suspected that's what it was. Onslow on Keeping Up Appearances is always asking for a bacon butty, but then I read a book where a character when off for a chip butty. I admit I had to wonder why anyone would want a chip (I know - chips = large bits of fried potato or french fries, not chips = crisps or potato chips) sandwich. Gross. Apparently it's widely eaten in the UK with tomato sauce. Must be an aquired taste. Lots of interesting definitions at The Best of British - The American's Guide to Speaking British. Most of these I already knew, what with all those British ancestors, but there were a few new ones.

Here We Go Again

Yes, more Chronicles of the UnHinged! Yesterday the kids went to get pool accessories out of the shed and the door fell off completely. \\Sigh\\ I measured all the extra doors cluttering up our greenhouse and they are either too narrow or too long. Looks like we'll be taking the too long one and chopping it off.

On the plus side, the pool is up and filled for the summer. Our stepdad built a box to level the ground and managed to get the pool almost in the right spot. Yes, sarcasm. The man is doing nothing but annoying the crap out of me lately. The only time he gets off his ass to do anything is if it will make Niko and I look bad as a result. Our yard, our pool, for my kids, but he did all the work. Uh-huh. Whatever.

Ryan did finally get a birthday email from Dad. He was "busy". Whatever.

The Recognition Factor

Well, I not entirely sure for an actor you can be too recognizable, but maybe too identified with one part. We went to see the newest Harry Potter last weekend and right in the middle of the scene where Harry is greeting his friends, along comes Mr Weasley to warn Harry. No problem, except the guy who plays Mr Weasley has a recognition factor with me - I almost say it out loud - "Petersen!" I just looked him up, his name is Mark Williams and I now remember I've almost "Petersen!"-ed during The Borrowers, Gormenghast, and the last Harry Potter, as well.

For the moderately less geeky out there, a similar reaction occured to most of the audience during a showing of Willow. The brownies appear and immediately half the theatre said it out loud, "Squiggy!" Poor David Landers, he will always be "Squiggy."

The recognition factor can make watching films fun or annoying depending on how strong the reaction. For me, most actors get a small "oh, that's so and so" (like Dawn French as the fat lady in Harry Potter) but sometimes a previous role really sticks and no matter what they do, it pops into my head full blast disturbing the flow of the movie. You'll note I haven't mentioned where Mark Williams appeared as "Petersen!", that's because I figure if you don't know you aren't quite geeky enough to be reading this. Or you are at least geeky enough to know where to find out. \\wink\\

The Last Birthday

that I need to worry about until December happened on Thursday!! Well, my ex has a birthday in August but I think the kids can handle that one. Ryan turned 15 on Thursday. So, of course, he milked it for all it was worth, meaning extra computer time and no chores. I think he was happy with what he got - mostly Lego, some Warhammer glue and paint, and some expensive chocs. We also went out to dinner at one of the few ethnic food joints in this town - it serves Vietnamese and Japanese (mostly sushi). Bizarre, but actually it was kind of neat to be able to have a salad roll and gyoza in the same meal. Then we all shared a sushi combo plate. Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream since I had forgotten to bake Ry's cake (bad Mum!). So far, no birthday email for Ry from Dad though. Big surprise there. Well, as Nero Wolfe says," Pfui."

A Close Call

for the H-man. Poor little Harold the mouse was almost et by a cat this morning. We've being keeping his cage in the bathroom until I finish an elaborate cat free set up for his cage in the living room. Since Ryan arrived for the summer he's constantly forgetting to shut the loo door and a cat got in this morning (that was almost inevitable seeing as there are 3 resident felines). I didn't hear a thing so it must have happened at 0'dark thirty when I took Cuinn out to pee (it actually was light out due to it being summer and all, but that doesn't mean it wasn't dark). I only noticed the soon to be carnage because I also had to pee before going back to bed, no way I'm staying concious at 0530! Anyway, the cage was all over the floor in bits and Harold was on the floor just about to be snacked on by sneaky little Allegra-cat. I shooed her out and grabbed the H-man, luckily he was happy to sit on my shoulder while I reassembled his abode. I found his water bottle in the toilet bowl (yeachh) with the lid down, and the room is pretty much end to end rodent bedding. Sigh. Of course, neither of my equally not morning people children heard a thing.

Pass Me Some Scissors

so I can cut through some red tape. Arghh! I hate bureaucracy! I've gotten accepted into cooking school, so seeing as I am currently unemployed and getting EI (or temporarily on the dole, as it were). I thought I would see if I can get some government "retraining" funding in additional to my student loan. Well, I called the place who authorizes these things and I need to go to an orientation session. Fine, when can I do that? Wednesday morning, great! Ooohh, not so fast, I have to have a "return to work action plan" that states I need retraining. Okay, where do I get that? A different organization - agency B. Okay, I phone them, leave voicemail, wait all day, they finally return my call after 5pm. I guess they are busy. Now, I can't get an appointment to go over the "action plan" until Thursday. Fine, it's not like I'm doing anything else. Oh, wait, I need to go fill out some forms first, so can I drop in tomorrow? It takes a few days to review the forms and they don't have appointments on Fridays so I'll have to wait until next week to see a worker. As long as I can see a worker by Tuesday, I should be able to make it to an orientation session on next Wednesday.

Yikes! So basically I have to drop in to agency B, fill out forms, they send off those forms to EI to see if I am eligible to go back and fill out more forms (said "action plan"), and on the basis of that I may get a referral to agency A to fill out more forms to see if I am eligible for training assistance and the filling out of yet more forms. I think the idea behind this is to have potential candidates for funding give up from frustration. The bizarre thing is - agency A sends their paperwork to the same EI/HRDC place as agency B yet it takes two government contracted agencies and God knows how many forms to sort this out. Sheesh.

And to balance out my rant, something cute, Harold the mouse explores the bathroom:

Domestic Diva Me

Not! Although I did have a spurt of domesticity today and made soup. Actual home made soup! I haven't done that for ages, years even. It's chicken with rice and Selena has pronounced it "delicious." Not bad praise from a kid raised on the canned stuff, I guess that means I get to make it again. I also dusted off the breadmaker and made a couple of small loaves. I think I overdid the flour a bit but they still smell good.

Now I just have to finish Clean Sweep-ing my living room and I might feel like I've accomplished something.

Happy Birthday to Me!

A few days late to wish myself a Happy Birthday. Oh well. It turned out to be a busy weekend. I spent Thursday evening and Friday morning getting an online auction running for my greyhound group and Friday afternoon notifying bidders from the last auction, then finding out postage. Saturday was spent at various Free Comic Book Day venues. Sunday was mostly a day of rest, then off to my aunt's for her housewarming/an uncle's retirement/my Gramma's birthday party. It's a good thing we'll be home for a bit, the dogs were a bit put out about being left alone almost all weekend.

Saturday I came home with 10 free comics and a LotR Farimir figure (gotta love birthday money). We had nice dinner of potato salad and cold cuts, with cheesecake for dessert. The perfect end to a day spent in Mum's non-air conditioned car (note to self - get radiator fixed in your own car, you know, the one with the air conditioning!). Present wise I got an email from my Dad (woo hoo - insert sarcasm here - I guess I should be happy he remembered), a nice combo drill/sander/jigsaw set from Mum, a funky medieval themed cushion and a really cool book on the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) from my sister. The book has a slipcover and everything! Selena gave me a nice picture frame she made at school and Ryan "forgot" (at least he isn't still running around telling people I'm a year older than I am).

One more birthday to go this month - Ryan turns 15 on Thursday - then I don't have any more present buying until December. 15!! Egads, does that make me feel ancient. Not only that, I found out on Sunday he is now officially taller than me. Damn, that's what I get for being "a little short on one end" . . .

Channeling Peter Walsh

There I was attempting to perform my own personal Clean Sweep in the laundry room when this male voice with an Australian accent said "Look at the dust on that. When was the last time you used it?" I looked at the box in my hand Teach Yourself Hindi. "Um, I meant to use it," say I quietly. "When?," demands the pushy Aussie, "Seriously, how long have you had it?." I mumble, "about 10 years . . . "
This goes on until I finally decide, with Peter's help, that I really don't need to keep this book and tape set, that I probably never will get around to learning learning Hindi. I guess that means the dust covered set of Teach Yourself Urdu has to go too. At least I actually used that one a few times. Yes, Peter it was over 10 years ago and no Peter, I haven't used it since. Sigh.
Funny how every time I go to clean or clear clutter (I have a lot of that) I hear Peter Walsh's voice as clearly as if he was in the room with me. It's actually been very helpful and I have gotten rid of a lot more junk that I would have held onto for various unworthy reasons. Thank you Peter!
I noticed on his website that his company does complete organizing for moves, even down to the packing and unpacking if you need it. I think I'll save up and call them for my next move, at least that way I won't be having an imaginary conversation with Peter . . .

Follow Ups

Let's see, where to begin?

• Unhinged Redux - I managed to fix the door to the house with those mother huge screws, then a few days later the door to our shed decided to follow suit. Sigh. It is now mostly unhinged, just hanging on at the top. This time the hinges ripped off the door, which basically means a new door.


• Weight loss - so far I've mostly kicked the Coke habit but now drink up to 4 or 5 cups of coffee a day. I haven't actually weighed myself so I don't know if I've lost any or not. Probably not. I'll get back on that after my birthday.


• Library book writer - I'd kind of forgotton about that rant until 2 days ago, after my last trip to the library and I got yet another defaced book. Grrr... I'm really going to write that letter to the editor this time.


• Culinary Arts - I have been accepted into the program! It starts at the end of August. Woo-hoo! I'm very excited about the propect of playing with food and hopefully getting paid to do it at the end of this course.


• George Lucas crush - I didn't mean to imply it was a totally horrible thing to have a crush on Mr Lucas. After all he is a pop culture icon and I am a pop culture geek. I've added some photos that explain it all - to me anyway.

My birthday is on Saturday, the same day as Free Comic Book Day. How cool is that? My sister, the kids, and I will be going to Victoria to "do" the comic shops, then hit the one up here on the way home. I wonder if they'll let me have more than 3 comics b/c it's my birthday?

I just took the Which Firefly Character Are You? test and found I am Jayne. Hmmm... I rather hoped I be Zoe, Gina Torres rocks!

Reading Material:
I've been reading a lot since we started using the library up here. I'm mostly into medieval mysteries right now - PC Doherty aka Paul Harding aka Michael Clynes, Alan Gordon, and Michael Jecks mostly. These guys put Ellis Peters to shame, although is because of Brother Cadfael that I looked for more. I'm also on an MC Beaton feeding frenzy, her Hamish McBeth and Agatha Raisin books are like candy - fun, easy to read and with a good plot. Just to keep on my toes I've got some non fiction as well - "Storm from the East", the companion book to the PBS series on the Mongol Hordes. I've also got 2 on gypies - "Gypsies of the World" and "Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies". I've had to renew already b/c these guys are heavy and not meant for bedtime reading. For bedtime reading I just reread the only 2 Red Dwarf books I have. I want to reread Hitchhikers as well but I can't find it.

On a totally differenct subject - our father actually remembered (almost) all our birthdays this year! Looks like Niko and I aren't getting a gift though, just email. Niko had to email Dad and remind him about Selena's birthday, then he sent her an email and a gift certificate to Bolen Books.

This puppy has ended up a bit longer than I planned, I guess I'd better blog more often . . .