Question Of The Day

Fur.

All the money in the world couldn't change my disgust and contempt for this industry.

How about you?

Chuckles and Chortles

And we're back... Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had an awesome weekend. Do people still use the word awesome? Or am I outdated? And do I really care? I don't think I do.

What have you been up to? What's new in your world? Do you have anything interesting to share? Nothing on my end. This morning my mind is drawing a blank. So I'll get right to the funny stuff because we can all use a laugh these days!

Have a great day!

This Week

Happy Friday, everyone! How have you all fared this week? I hope it’s been a good one for you. We’ve been relatively quiet around here but that’s okay. Sometimes we need that. The most amazing man in the world particularly needed it since he’s been working on getting over a bad cold for the past couple of weeks. Hmm...bad cold. Why do I always say that? Is there ever a good cold? Anyhow, he’s doing much better now.

This week I made an amazing yellow split pea soup. For those who are curious about it, click here. Of course I made changes to the recipe because I always make changes to recipes. In this one, I omitted the diced ham and cooked the soup on the stove top instead of in the slow cooker. I don’t have anything against slow cookers (in fact I love the one I have), but the big batch of soup wouldn’t have fit in mine.

Not too long ago, we had our provincial elections. A few days ago we had our municipal elections. And next year we’ll have our federal elections. And you know what I’m sick and tired of? I’m sick and tired of politicians bashing their opponent while not presenting a platform for me to look at. And I cannot stand the way they speak out of both sides of their mouth; talking a lot but actually saying nothing. Mudslinging isn’t going to get my vote and neither is saying what they won’t do or what existing policies they plan to retract. Giving me a detailed list of their platform and telling me how they plan to accomplish what’s on it might. That’s if I even like the platform, which better include some type of action on climate change, by the way. And I don't want to see or hear any fearmongering or divisiveness or attacks on the media!

In any case, at least the candidate I voted for in our small city got elected. One local paper wrote that she is “The first woman and person of colour to be elected to the office.” Big step here since it’s always been white men as mayors. I looked up the history of this area and had to wear sunglasses to view the photographs because of how white the entire Municipal Council was for a very, very, very long time.

Since I’m in a complaining mood, you know what else I’m sick and tired of? Stuff like this:

A high school acquaintance that I’m connected to on Facebook shared it this week (why am I still connected to people like this on social media?). My eyes rolled so far to the back of my head that I almost fell off my chair. Yeah, here we go again with all this nonsense about Christmas being attacked. Give me a flippin’ break. We drown in Christmas stuff every year. Everywhere I turn, BAM, a reminder of Christmas. Starting from September. I think the person who wrote this should spend more time working on improving his/her spelling/grammer than on whether or not Christmas is banned or attacked or minimized.

It's only going to get worse as we get closer to the holidays. *sigh*

Okay, enough ranting for the day.

Do you schedule your posts? I used to. Now I just fly by the seat of my pants and share whatever comes to mind. I hope you’ve been enjoying the things that my disturbed active mind comes up with.

And with that I will sign off and wish you all a wonderful weekend!

Question Of The Day

There are a few but I'll confess the first one that came to mind:

I have a terrible habit of pick-pick-picking at  the skin around my nails. I don't do it all the time and I don't do it at a level that causes significant damage to my skin, but I do it enough for it to be considered a bad and even annoying habit that would be nice to break.

Your turn!

Chuckles and Chortles

Happy Monday. How's everyone doing? Did you all have a nice weekend? What did you do? Where did you go? Who did you see? Answer any or all or none of these questions!

Yesterday I met up with my older daughter in Vaudreuil, a small city about 40 minutes away from my home and 20 minutes away from hers. We had a wonderful time and caught up on news. She is an amazing young woman and I am incredibly proud of her. I'm already looking forward to our next meetup!

Now let's get to the funny stuff, shall we?

Have a good one!

This Week

The weekend returns and here we are again! Happy Friday, everyone. What have you been up to this week? I can’t say it’s been a super busy week for me because it really hasn’t. But I don’t apologize for that. However, it will be a busy day starting with this morning in the kitchen where I’ll be making mini apple pies. Not only will we enjoy a delicious treat, the house will smell wonderful, too.

So...being that today is a busy one, I’ll rush through this post and share whatever comes to mind, starting with this:

This is our 8-year-old cat, Mocha, sitting on the table where I do photography. Every time I turn on the lamps, she slips right in. I think she’s there for the heat, which never really happens since the light bulbs are fluorescents. But she tries anyway because she’s...um...very optimistic. I’ll leave it at that.


Here are a couple of shots of our recently painted deck. Taken from indoors. Because I wasn’t going to go out early in the cold morning just to take pictures of this. I love you all but not that much. Plus, the only reason I really want to share pictures is to brag about our hard work because it was brutal and almost killed us. And I want some sympathy. And a pat on the back for a “job well done”. *snort*

I will also share some old artwork for those who enjoy art:

And finally, here is something quirky in our home:

This skeleton sits on our furniture year round. We named him Mr. Bones and he’s been with us since Halloween 2004 or 2005. Isn't he a handsome devil? For years I bought clothing in thrift shops and dressed him up in different outfits. Now he’s decided he wants to live ‘au naturel’, a.k.a ‘nekkid’. Hey, don’t judge. We all have our own weird habits. Like at Jenn’s place. Just click here to read all about it. At least we're not like those people. *snort*


And I think that's more than enough for today. Have a wonderful weekend, blogging pals!

Question Of The Day

Figure skating! Oh my flippin' gosh how I love the idea of being a pro at this. I'd be dancing on ice and having a great time with it. Gymnastics is a close second.

Your turn!

Chuckles and Chortles

Monday rolls in and here we are gathering together for another round of chuckling and chortling. But before I share some funny stuff with you, I have one question: how was your weekend? I hope it was a good one. Our Saturday involved painting our deck, which was neglected for years. Like the rest of the house. We've been chipping away at a long list of work that needs to be done since we moved here last year and so far the deck has been the most brutal. What a job! It took us all afternoon and left us with aching muscles in places we didn't even know muscles existed. I worked on the top and the most amazing man in the world worked on the bottom. I didn't take photos this weekend but here's an old one of what we worked on. Our deck is now the same colour as our neighbour's to the left: a beautiful and bold red. Eventually I'll share before and after photos of all our work. I keep saying that but I will get to it!

Yesterday included a lot of muscle aches and pains and strains, and so we did absolutely nothing!

And now, let's get to the funny stuff.

Have a good one!

This Week

Happy Friday, everyone! How are you all doing? What’s new in your part of the world? What have you been up to? What’s going on? Go ahead and tell me all about it in the comments below.

This week it’s been all about cleaning for me. I’ve dusted and scrubbed and vacuumed until the place shines. Today I will finish cleaning up our home and it’ll be perfect until the cats fill it up with tumbleweeds made of fur. And love. I give it about 3 or 4 days.

I’ve also started putting together items for donation. My quest to streamline our home and live as much of a minimalist life as possible continues. And I find that the less there is around me, the happier I am. Plus, cleaning up is so much easier when there’s less to clean around.

Drawing. Yes, I continue to do that, as well. Not as much as I’d like to but that may change now that the colder months are coming up. I find that I put more effort into it when I’m a hostage in my home on those brutally cold days. I haven’t photographed my most recent drawings but here are some older ones.

I’m going to end this post by sharing this image:

Some of you will recognize this young man, some won’t. His name is Matthew Shepard and today marks 20 years since his tragic death. On October 6, 1998, Matthew, a university student, was lured by two men from a bar in Wyoming and driven to a remote location where he was brutally beaten, tortured, tied to a fence and left for dead simply because he was gay. He clung to life for 18 hours in freezing conditions until he was discovered by a passing cyclist. He died in the hospital on October 12.

I remember this heartrending incident very well. I was a young mom at the time with a six-year-old first grader and a one-year-old baby, and the very thought of what this young man’s mother must be going through made my heart ache. Fast forward to the 20th anniversary of his passing and my younger daughter is now 21, the same age that this young man was when he was robbed of his future. Matthew just wanted to find his way in the world and make it a better place - just like my own children - and it was ruthlessly stolen from him by two men filled with hate.

I was discussing this horrific killing with my husband last night while we were out for coffee and telling him that most people don’t realize how much violence and discrimination the LGBTQ community has suffered, continues to suffer and will continue to suffer until we replace hate with understanding, tolerance, compassion and love.



Rest in peace, Matthew.

Have a good weekend!

Question Of The Day

Phoenix, Griffin, Pegasus, Medusa, sphinxes, fairies, vampires, mermaids, werewolves, unicorns...where does one begin? There are so many interesting ones to choose from.

But for me it would have to be dragons. I am very fascinated by them and have been for a very long time. I even have a few ceramic ones scattered around our home that I painted myself. And by far, my favourite is the one in the image below, which has been around since 2003. It has moved three times with us, twice to different cities, and has never – thankfully! – suffered any damage in the process. It is my largest piece and stands at about 31 inches tall.

Definitely dragons for me. Now how about you?

Chuckles and Chortles

Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and I hope all my Canadian blogging pals are enjoying (or already enjoyed) a nice Thanksgiving. We didn't do anything particularly special this year but we did drive to Montreal to visit some friends last night. As always, we had a terrific time.

Today I'm keeping it short because there is a big pot of applesauce waiting to be cooked, so I'm off to do that. But before I leave you, here's some funny stuff to get you chuckling and chortling. Enjoy and have a wonderful day ahead!

This Week

Happy Friday Saturday, blogging friends! Here we are again... How is everyone? What have you been up to this week? Do you have anything you’d like to share? Please do so in the comments. I enjoy hearing from you.

I started this post yesterday and struggled to finish it. Every time I worked on it, I was distracted by something else that needed to get done. For example, yesterday morning I realized that I haven't updated my resume in a long time and ended up spending most of the morning doing just that.

Speaking of resumes...

A couple of days ago we attended the job fair. There was a huge turnout from the locals, and there were a lot of companies and organizations that had set up booths. We walked around and spoke to a few individuals but nothing really caught my interest aside from some volunteer positions. I’ll just apply for some part time work in places that interest me at some point. I’m also considering adding a little more volunteer time in my week until something I want comes along. Onward and upward...
The news... There is a lot going on lately and I do have opinions, some of them quite strong. But I won’t be sharing any of that this week on this blog. I do comment on some of your more serious posts and that’s enough for now. I’m trying to lay low, live in the moment and not get caught up in all the drama. Because the overload of dramatic news is exhausting. I do have just one thing to say, though: We must continue to fight the good fight.

Moving along...

I’ve been slowly doing some clothes shopping. Very slowly. Many of my longtime blogging pals may remember that I cannot stand shopping for clothes and that I only do it when it’s absolutely vital. Well I’ve reached that stage and have no choice but to go out there and do this dreaded shopping. I cannot stand having to take piles of clothing into dressing rooms and try on one piece after another only to realize that a) I don’t like anything and b) nothing fits right. And then go back out to put together another pile to start this dreaded process all over again. By the time I’m done, I’m frustrated, overheating and my hair is one static mess. And the majority of the time, I don't even buy anything. I’d clone myself just to have another me go out and do this. Do you like shopping for clothes?

So the food bank. It’s been three weeks since I started volunteering there and I am really enjoying it. I’ve met some wonderful people of all ages and backgrounds and situations. I’ve been chatting away while I assist since most of them enjoy talking, especially about people they love and things they enjoy doing. I’m reminded each week to count my blessings. And this weekend even more so, since it’s Thanksgiving weekend in Canada.

I think I’ll wrap it up right here and wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!