Maledicent Monday

maledicent ~ cursing; addicted to speaking evil

Well, I made it home again from my retreat, but it was a near thing. There was a tiny bit of snow on the drive up; day two it rained; day three there was extreme wind (with the chance of us losing power; and day four we had snow added to the wind. One of the major highways was closed both ways due to accidents, but fortunately it was not the route I’d planned on taking. However, driving conditions were abysmal on the route I did take and I only narrowly missed getting caught up in delays by two other accidents along the way.

Obviously I made it home, but it was not without a price. The sinus cold I’d been fighting off before the retreat got its hooks in my head and chest and turned into the mother of all colds/flus. This kind of sent all my determination and good intentions packing last week and other than popping cold pills and babysitting (granddaughter also had a major cold so we were quite the pair) I didn’t do much of anything.

Did you know the only difference between a cold and the flu is that the flu comes with a fever? All this years I thought the flu was a stomach virus, but apparently a stomach virus is just that, not the flu. Someone forgot to send me a memo when that changed. Just like I never got the memo that instead of coughing/sneezing into your hand you’re supposed to sneeze into the crook of your elbow. Just suddenly one day everyone was doing it that way and I’m like, “what are you doing?”

The retreat itself was a lot of fun and I got a lot of writing done, although mostly short stuff from the workshop prompts. There were 15 of us in a big old manor house that overlooked Lake Simcoe. It was kind of interesting watching the frozen lake fill up with ice fisherman during the day, and then the lights from the snow mobiles when night started to fall.

The house is owned and administered to by a group of nuns, which accounted for its well stocked library of religious tomes and the insanely narrow, hard beds we had to sleep on. Being a house, not a hotel, we had to provide our own food and we were divided into groups to make lunches and suppers. There were a handful of food sensitivities in the group, and one vegetarian, and only one meal that had meat – a lunch that consisted of soup and sandwich fixings. You should have seen how fast that meat disappeared!

It was a good group – from a young screen writer to a research doctor writing her memoir. There were a couple of others writing life-based stories, a couple writing non-fiction, a few writing fiction, and the rest just writing.

All in all, I’d do it again. Maybe not in winter though. And next time I definitely want a room of my own. :-)

Meconology Monday

meconology ~ study of or treatise concerning opium

You know, this being Canada and all, you’d think we’d be used to the extremes in temperature, wouldn’t you? Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but this weekend sure took me by surprise. We went, literally overnight, from stupidly hot and humid to really cold and dreary.

To give you an idea of how much the temperature changed…Friday the hubby went swimming in the pool and the temperature of the water was 78F (roughly 25.5C). Sunday morning I checked the water and it was 65F (about 18.3C). Friday we were wondering why the air conditioner wasn't working better, Saturday we used no a/c, not even the fan, and were forced to shut the deck door because of the cold.

However, if I’m going to complain about anything to do with the weather it’ll be that despite the cooler temperatures we’re still not getting any sun. Saturday it tried, and as I was feeding the cats shortly after 6 a.m. I couldn’t help notice how pretty the dawning light in the sky was. So I picked up my camera and headed down to this point in our neighbourhood that juts out into the lake to take pictures of the sunrise.

So apparently, we live in some weird curvature of the earth where you can’t get a good picture of either the sunset or the sunrise. Last time I tried to get a picture of the sunset I went down to the lake but west was a little further north than was good for taking pictures. In that case, you’d think the sunrise would be a little further south, meaning over the lake, but as you can see it was not. Next time I’ll have to leave a little earlier and go down to that point you see sticking out even further than the one I was on.

I’ll get that sunrise picture yet!

Magadis Monday

magadis ~ ancient bridged stringed instrument

Woot! We have snow! Not really enough to build a snowman yet, much to the grandbaby’s dismay, but enough that she could help shovel her driveway.

And just so you know, those are my earmuffs the little monkey is wearing. :-D

It’s been a long time since I’ve played in the snow, and I have to admit to a certain reluctance to getting out there with her, but we had fun chasing the dog around the back yard and shoveling off the deck (which pretty much amounted to me shoveling and her sitting on the bottom step so I could shovel the snow on top of her). She even got me to make a snow angel with her. And no, there’s no pictures of that because I didn’t want to risk taking my phone out into the snow. LOL

And then, of course, the temperature took a nose dive and it was far too cold to play outside. Despite the sun shining brightly, it was too cold to do much of anything outside. During the two days of arctic chill I happened to go to the post office ... um ... three times, and the first time I couldn’t help but notice the steam coming off the lake in the rising sun and cursed the fact I didn’t have my phone with me to take a picture of it.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I worked in an office that overlooked Lake Ontario. Needless to say, the view was amazing, but no more so than at sunrise on a cold winter’s morning. With the chunks of ice floating in the water and the steam rising, it looked like an alien landscape. And I always told myself I was going to take a picture of it. But I never did.

Fast forward to the present where during my second trip to the post office I took a moment and went down to the beach with my phone. Between the brightness of the sun, the darkness of my glasses (I have transition lenses), and the bitter cold, I had no clue whether I was focused or not. My hands were so cold (couldn’t operate the phone with my gloves on) that I had to soak them in hot water when I got home to get them to work again. But I think it was worth it.

This weekend was only slightly warmer, but I found it very hard to resist accompanying the daughter, her hubby, and the grandbaby to the Primrose Donkey Sanctuary to visit the donkeys and sing Christmas carols.

While it was a nice idea in theory, in reality it was really crowded, people were pushy and rude, and did I mention it was freaking cold?

We managed to get pretty much all of our shopping done this weekend, and my spare time this week will be used for Christmas baking. I might have a recycled poem for you on Friday, but Monday being Christmas you’ll be lucky if I remember to post some videos, let alone write a post. LOL

So I'll take the opportunity now to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Monocarpic Monday

monocarpic ~ producing fruit only once

I think the above picture pretty much sums up why Mother Nature and I are no longer on speaking terms. I don't think the duck is all that happy with her either.

While we didn't get the massive snowstorm the weatherman was warning us to expect yesterday it was still pretty darn cold and we did get some snow last night. And he may be promising warmer temperatures and sunshine towards the end of the week, but I'll believe it when I see it. Just like those storms in the winter we never got. In fact, I'm pretty sure we've had more snow this spring than we did all winter.

Surprisingly, I'm keeping up with my blogging for the Blogging From A to Z Challenge, but boy am I glad we have Sundays off - I needed the break. I am behind on my blog reading for the challenge though. By my calculations, I should have visited almost 700 blogs by now and at last count I was just over 400. What surprises me is the number of blogs I've gone to where the blogger appears to have forgotten they signed up for the challenge.

I'm still having problems with the commenting - usually the WordPress blogs. Some days I'm able to comment, but most days it lets me go through the process and my comment just doesn't appear. And yes, I admit I don't comment on every blog I visit. Sometimes the post just doesn't appeal to me, and quite honestly commenting is really time-consuming, which makes it all the more frustrating when I make the effort and my comment doesn't show up.

In any case, I've found a lot of great blogs and the best ones I've bookmarked so I can return to them later. If you'd like to follow my progress, check out my other blog, My Writing Journal.

Last Monday, in a plan designed to save us some money, the hubby and I had our phone switched over to our cable service, where we already had our internet and television. And while we were at it, we got a TiVo receiver and changed our channel package. It was a good move ... in theory.

First, the installation process. Our living room is at one end of the house, my office is at the other. I need internet access in my office, so that's where the modem was, along with a router so my lap top and printer could connect wirelessly. I knew the phone would need a modem of its own, but since that was the end of the house where the cable came in, I figured it would be no big deal.

What no one told me was that that TiVo needed internet access too. And the installer couldn't figure out how we got our internet cable from one end of the house to the other in our mostly finished basement. So ... he installed the combination router and modem in the living room. Not only do I have to buy a wireless adapter for my desktop computer, I could no longer use my own router, which meant I lost the connection to my wireless printer. *sigh*

And let's talk television. Before he left, the installer showed me how to access the TiVo with the remote, and then referred me to some on-line videos that would show me how it worked. And then I tried to watch TV, specifically, the Space Channel. We were supposed to have basic cable and then 40 channels of our choosing. What we had was basic cable. One phone call and two hours later, I had the channel situation straightened out. Or so I thought.

The next night we discovered another channel was missing from our lineup. This only took about 45 minutes to fix. Then last night we discovered yet another channel missing, so I spent the next hour selecting every channel above basic cable, one by one, to see which ones we were getting and which ones we were not. We were getting 8 channels we didn't ask for and were missing two we did ask for. Unfortunately, by the time I had the chance to call to bitch at complain, it was too late. I'll have to do that later today.

Meanwhile, I was able to get the wireless connection to the printer going again, but for some reason it's printing everything twice. And it takes the signal forever to get to it. Now the printer is physically plugged into the desktop computer, so maybe once I get the wireless adapter for it the printer will behave. Or maybe I have to get a signal booster.

All I know is, this all better be worth it in the end.

Mehari Monday

mehari ~ camel used for racing

You know what the best thing is about the election for Canada's new Prime Minister today? It means an end to the endless phone calls, knocks on the door, and over abundance of commercials of people all trying to me how I should vote. At one point I felt like telling the last earnest young man who interrupted my work day that I'd vote for the first candidate who'd stop sending people to harass me.

And you can't even get away from it by watching the American channels on the television. Our cable company runs the feed off the Canadian channels whenever possible, which means if a program is on both the Canadian and American channels, they fix it so you're watching the Canadian one, which means you're getting the Canadian commercials.

The weather has turned cold and the leaves have started to change their colour, finally. Don't blink or you might miss it. I have the feeling before we know it we're going to be looking at naked trees out there.

And, of course, this is the time of year when you need a jacket with a thermostat so the warmth it provides can be adjusted throughout the day. My jean jacket or heavy hoodie are all right for day time, but this morning I broke out the winter jacket to go to the gym. I also went out and started the car before feeding the cats. It didn't impress them much, but it was nice not to have to scrape the frost off the car.

Yesterday was frosty too, but since I didn't have to go anywhere I didn't have to deal with it, the hubby did. And I must confess, I probably felt a little more smug than I should have at the thought that he had to deal with the frost on the car for a change. ;-)

I was able to cut apple mountain in half yesterday - I've only got two bags and a small basket of apples left to deal with. I started with apple/oatmeal pancakes. I normally make pancakes from scratch and I adapted my recipe to include both oatmeal and apples. Man were they good (if I do say so myself)! With the leftover batter (hubby doesn't eat anything apple) I made a bunch of little ones for the granddaughter and she really liked them too.

On Saturday, one of the ladies at my gym was talking about these caramel apple tarts she made, and they sounded so easy that I got some tart tins and gave it a try. The two I sampled tasted so good that I broke down and made an oatmeal pie crust and made half a dozen pot pie size caramel apple tarts, as well as a pie. That was a lot of peeling and chopping (as my back was telling me), but it was worth it.

I still don't have any apple muffins made yet, nor can I find my meat pie tins I bought to make single serving apple crisps. And I still have raspberries in the fridge that have to be used up. And the hubby mentioned he wouldn't be offended if I made him a cookie or two. ;-)

Good thing this is a great time of year for baking, eh?