Mousseline Monday

mousseline ~ very fine glassware

Thursday was a really good day for me last week. First of all, I scored a couple of extra shirts at Tai Chi. When you sign up you get a plain, navy blue shirt with the Taoist Tai Chi logo on it and it’s pretty boring. Even more so when you’re surrounded by people who’ve been doing it for years and they have a variety of “pretty” shirts.

It used to be you could just buy more shirts, but because the Taoist Tai Chi is a charitable organization and the tax laws have since changed, you can’t do that any more. At least not in Canada. If you want a new shirt you pretty much have to go to Florida to buy one.

However, one of the other newbies and I were whining begging asking one of the instructors about new shirts and she just happened to come into possession of several gently used shirts and offered them to us. They weren’t exactly my colours (I took a pale green one and a bright orange one) but beggars can’t be choosers. Squeaky wheel gets the grease! Or in my case the shirt.

The other notable event on Thursday was my poetry reading. One thing I discovered with selecting (and rejecting) poems for the reading is that I have a lot of poetry. I really need to start doing something with it.

The reading went well; I stuck with forms, which is what I do best. And I ended with my favourite form, the parody, just to leave ‘em laughing. Several people came up to me to make positive comments, and the guest poet even told me he’d never heard of several of the forms I used. Go me!

The only other excitement for the week was the trip hubby and I made to Costco on Wednesday. This also included a trip to Chapters where he spent more money than I did (a LOT more) and a quick trip through the mall. We finished it off with dinner at the Keg, using the gift card the grand baby gave us for Christmas.

It’s just a thrill a minute around here, I tell you what. :-D

Miniaceous Monday

miniaceous ~ colour of reddish lead

I’m still waiting for the super cold, super snowy winter the weatherman promised in the fall. We’ve had a couple of really cold days (like Friday when we had extreme cold warnings in effect), but they usually warm right up again the next day. And while Newfoundland has been hit hard with the snow this year apparently they prefer to keep it all to themselves. We haven’t even had enough for a proper snow day.

*sigh*

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been going to Tai Chi twice a week and I’m finally starting to feel if not like I almost know what I’m doing, then at least less klutzy as I go about it. For the most part it’s a friendly group to be part of, and during one of the breaks I was talking to a couple of ladies about stitchery crafts and next thing I know they invited me to check out their group.

I don’t usually do all that great in new, social situations, but I sucked it up and went to their next meeting. I have to say, I’m glad I did. If I thought the Tai Chi group was friendly, they have nothing on the stitchery group. And talented! Boy howdy those ladies have mad stitching skills.

They were also pretty chatty, and through the course of the morning as they talked about the various other groups they were part of made me realize how insular I’ve become. I didn’t even know most of these other groups existed!

That’s not to say I’m going to run out and join them all, but I will be joining this one. They only meet twice a month and it’ll be a fun way to while away the time. For sure it’s revived my interest in my crafts. I’m not sure when or why I got away from them, but it’ll be nice to use up some of those supplies just gathering dust.

This week I’ve also got a poetry reading to prepare for. I spent Sunday morning struggling over a bio to send the MC. I wish her luck. Compared to most of the other poets who’ve done readings, I’m pretty boring – I’ve lived in the same place all my life and haven’t really done a whole lot. No awards or recognition, just piles of unpublished poems.

Maculose Monday

maculose ~ spotted

You know how some people binge watch a series on Netflix? Well I kind of did the same thing during my unintended absence, only with me it was binge reading. And when I say binge reading, I mean it. I did very little except read since my last blog post.

I bought myself a book late in the fall to save as my reward for completing the National Novel Writing challenge in November. While I did complete the challenge, I didn’t really have a lot of time to read, seeing as how Christmas was looming over me. But after the Christmas madness was over, I pretty much sat down and did nothing but read my new book.

Then I decided I didn’t want the story to end, so I started reading the entire series from the beginning. All thirty of them. It was the Lynsay Sands Argeneau series, in case anyone is curious. And then I started in on several of the Nora Roberts trilogies, most of which I had to buy first. Indigo/Chapters loves me right now. :-)

So . . . what brought on this bout of reading madness? Might have been burn out from the holidays, might have been a symptom of my annual New Year’s depression, might have been my way of escaping the world. Probably a bit of all three. To be honest, I’m not going to worry about it too much seeing as it seems to be passing now.

In any case, that is my explanation for my rather lengthy absence.

Needless to say, the world kept spinning but it was pretty much spinning without me, so I really don’t have much more to say. I’ve go to Tai Chi twice a week, grocery shop once a week, and make family dinner on Sundays. For a brief time I thought about getting a companion cat for Dante (my remaining cat), but I talked myself out of it. Probably for the best.

I don’t really see anything new or exciting on the horizon, so the blog posts may be a little spotty still. I’ve been doing this blog for 12 years now. Could it be I’m finally running out of things to say?

Merdivorous Monday

merdivorous ~ dung-eating

Well, the holiday is finally, officially over. We had the last family get together on Saturday, and yesterday I took the tree down. The decorations have been put away; all that’s left are the cookies.

As far as 2020 goes, so far I’m not impressed. Not only did the holiday drag out far too long, but on Friday we had to say farewell to another one of our furbabies. Last year around this time it was our oldest cat, Taz, this year it was his son Romulus (Romi for short).

Romi was our basement cat. He liked to sleep in the basement and the last few years he only came up for meals and the occasional nap in the sun. He was large, but sweet natured and the least trouble of any cat we know.

He was the reason we have short bookcases along the upstairs railing. The railing in the upstairs hallway is open, looking down onto the stairs and landing. When the boys were kittens they used to like to play in the upstairs hallway and jump up on the railing to wrestle. One day, while wrestling with his brother, Romi fell off the railing onto the stairs, breaking his palate – I didn’t even know a cat could do that.

It wasn’t a serious injury (according to the vet we rushed him to) and it healed on its own, but that’s when I bought the bookcases. I couldn’t keep those darned kittens off the railing, but I could at least give them something a little more solid besides the railing to play on.

Romi was sweet, and quiet, and sixteen years old. His health had been declining steadily over the last year or so and when he started refusing food we knew something wasn’t right. Unfortunately, he had a lot more wrong with him than a lack of appetite and the kindest thing we could do was to let him go.

We’ll miss you Romi, especially your brother Date who’s been wandering around the house looking for you.

R.I.P. my old friend. Say hi to your mommy Panda, your daddy Taz, your brother Julius, and your sister Josie when you cross the rainbow bridge.

Happy New Year!

happy ~ delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing

Normally this is where I’d be sharing thoughts on the past year, or at the very least be figuring out the game plan for the year ahead, however I haven’t had time to think about either. This has been like the holiday that never ends.

First of all, I don’t know about you, but Christmas felt particularly un-Christmasy this year. The tree was up and decorated, the shopping was done, the cookies were baked, but there just seemed to be something missing. Could it have been . . . snow?

We had a teaser of snow the weekend before Christmas, but that Monday it warmed right up and by the end of the day it was gone. And it has stayed warm and overcast ever since – sometimes rainy, sometimes windy, but always grey and dismal. Great White North my Aunt Fanny!

And having the holidays fall in the middle of the week threw me right off too. My days got all muddled up. Plus between us leaving town for visits and people coming to town for visits Christmas has been spread out right through this coming weekend.

That being said, Christmas wasn’t all bad. There was lots of good food and lots of good company. And did I mention the cookies? I may have had a wider variety of cookies than the daughter, but she beats me hands down in the decorating department.

Two standout presents from the hubby were a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (one of my all time favourites). I got the mixer before Christmas and I gotta tell you, I don’t know how I ever lived without one. It’s amazing! If you do a lot of baking (like I used to), don’t wait, go get one now!

Yesterday was another busy day, so we rang in the New Year with pizza and a marathon of Lost in Space (the new season is out on Netflix). Do we know how to party or what? LOL

Today was a little quieter, and I’m still playing catch-up. My office is almost to the point where I can use the vacuum in it, but I’m not quite there yet. The tree is still up, I don’t have a new calendar or a new journal, but I’m hoping by Monday things will be back to normal.

Maybe I’ll even have some goals for the year ahead.

Merry Christmas

I’ve been very lax in the Christmas music department, haven’t I?

What can I say, these last few days have been insanely busy.

For your listening enjoyment I’m offering a mixed selection of humorous and serious Christmas videos. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. See you next year!

Mandylion Monday

mandylion ~ loose outer garment worn over armour

Well, I got the tree up finally. :-D

Okay, so it doesn’t have any lights or decorations or anything, but I’ll get to it. Eventually.

I plan to at least get the lights on it later today, but I’ll probably wait until the grandbaby can help with the decorations. And then all that’s left is the wrapping and baking.

Yes, that’s right. We’ve pretty much got our Christmas shopping finished. We still have a couple of gift cards to pick up, and a couple of little things to add to a gift basket, and that’s it. Woot!

I even have my out of town presents in the mail – some on Friday and some today. It’s like a Christmas miracle.

Actually, what would really constitute a Christmas miracle is snow. There is snow all around us, but in our little bubble it’s been just warm enough that we’ve been getting rain. Saturday it poured rain here, and all the way on our drive to Belleville for the final round of shopping.

When we came out of the mall it was trying really hard to snow, but it was still a little too warm (and wet) for that. However, when we came out of Walmart it was seriously snowing, and sticking too. So instead of going out to dinner in Belleville we decided to head straight home. It was a pretty hairy drive home, let me tell you. And the closer we got, the wetter the snow got until right before our exit when it turned to rain.

I’m starting to feel cheated in the snow department this year.

Normally I only take the week between Christmas and New Years off from blogging, but as I said, I still have the baking to do and I’ve only got 9 days to do it. Plus it would be nice to maybe relax a little too.

So this is the last actual post you’re getting here until the New Year. But don’t worry, I’ll still post the occasion Christmas music video, because that’s just the way I roll. LOL

Happy Holidays, and I’ll see you in 2020.