The Sugar Blues and my new do

This is too funny. It caught my eye on Yahoo and I had to watch it and of course put it on here. The ending is a little surprising too. I now present:
COOKIE SINGS THE BLUES



Enjoy this sad song (poor little guy). Today I went downtown to run a few errands and it started to rain quite a bit. I was glad I had a hood on my coat to keep me dry, except when I went into stores I'm sure I looked like a little veclempt (that word goes back to an SNL skit years ago with Mike Myers).

Well Monday night I got my haircut. I met this parent two years ago when I worked with a special needs girl and she told me about this woman who cuts her hair. I've been going to her ever since and this is a photo in thermal special effects. Picture is taken using Photo Booth (they have a different effects) which I find addicting.

Toodles,

S. says Peace Out to all those in blogger land

PC Computer Spells Disaster...

My page has a new look and I've been experimenting with backgrounds. I'm sure it will change again in the future.

New free computer equals lots of problems. So my sister brings home this PC computer from her work (it's old, a Panasonic PanasSync SL70i, photo above except ours is beige) since she got a new one. I thought I would plug it in and then add an ethernet cable to my router and it would all work fine. Not the case, my sister and I sit and try to configure it all different ways and get tired. I call our local service provider and I'm on the phone with the guy for about 20 minutes. He isn't sure what is wrong by recommends we unplug and plug back in the router and the DSL/Cable modem (well I had done that but not in the order my router states). I do that and also go through all the steps my router recommends by plugging cords in a certain order. I do this not once but several times, reboot the PC and still no internet. Exasperated I call the internet guy again and hope he can help me out. After what seems like an eternity (think it was an hour or more) he thinks it's a router problem and the PC isn't recognizing the router, (well the router has been repaired so I'm praying that isn't the case). I explain this was a government computer and that it is LAN configured and then was configured for the university she works at. My idea is we configure the IP and Subnet Mask etc., but he isn't sure. Finally he comes to the conclusion it is the network card (this is something I could not have figured out myself). So he takes me through the steps of deleting it all and then mentions that if this doesn't work I may have to install the driver. He asks if I have a PC card disk thingy. I sound clueless and he says it is a disk the size my thumb and if I don't have one I will have to get the driver from my iMac online and then burn it on my Mac and then install on the PC (well I'm wondering where I even look for this thing online but figure I'll grill him with more questions if it comes to that).

I reboot the PC after what seems like the millionth time and guess what the internet finally works. Yippee Yi Yo Cotton Eyed Joe. So that was my adventure for today. Now I am PCized. Now we just have to figure out how to configure out e-mail with this computer. Hopefully that will be easier to figure out.

S. is out

Excitement on our street and new covered couch...

One night I went for a walk to get some groceries and the snow had fallen that day and I decided to snap a shot of our house. I managed to get the moon by accident but it looks cool, you can't really see the house that well. It was a tad chilly out too.
Over a week ago we had Rooter Router come and clean our drains out. That whole saga still continues as they were able to clean 3 out of 5 drains. They have to come back in the Spring along with the waterproof guy to do the rest of the work on the drains and to get the crack fixed and jackhammer the sidewalk in front of our house. So until then we are on watch whenever it rains really bad (like torrential).
The big excitement this past week in our neighbourhood is the neighbour two doors down from us has to have their pavement dug out. The city had to bring their trucks and there was these huge floodlights on our street since it was at night. This picture is a tad blurry but you can see the two men there and their huge truck along with the floodlight. One of our neighbours thought a movie was being made on our street (oh if only). It was loud and noisy but we kept checking out the window to see what was going on. The next day I saw they dug around the drainpipe. The drainpipe was all clogged with roots and the city came since that drain belonged to the city.
Now onto the good stuff. So we had two of these couches and had been wanting to re-upholster them but had never done it before. My sister's friend told her it wasn't that hard and she was convinced it wouldn't be that hard. It helps my mom sews really well too. So any who we decided to get new foam and fabric and make these cute couches look great. We have two of them to do but this is a picture of the first one before it was done. It partially has material pulled off as we started ripping it off.

This is the after photo 2 weeks later. It was a detailed process of gingerly pulling away the fabric as the pattern had to be re-traced for the new one and then the cushions had to be made with a zipper in each and then it all go re-covered. What a big job it was and there is still another one to be done.

Well that's all for now folks. I think Porky Pig says that line at the end of their cartoon. It sticks in my brain.

Toodles,

S.

The big water leak of 2007!

(pictures are of the corner where it all began, the board that was pulled away, the room where it all took place, the big crack in the wall, the second spot with only the hole visible here,big plastic boards we used to try and shield the rain, foam cushions to mop up the water that was pooling infront of the house, tarps that were put up to deflect the rain outwards, I missed photos of me scooping up the water into buckets and dumping it further away from the house (the neighbours had fun watching me though), rugs cut up in bags, and that sums it up)

























































In my earlier post I talk about my lovely birthday. Well there were other things going on that week as well so here is the saga of it all...Well it all started on January 1st (New Years Day)...after watching all my organizational shows and talking with our neighbour who was cleaning our her things (okay her house is so beautiful, she is a talented lady who does all kinds of amazing thing with furniture and paint, her style is modern country) I decided to purge some of my things that I'd be hanging onto for far too long. So I go downstairs and my sister and I are cleaning our junk and my mom is on the elliptical machine. We are so into cleaning stuff out and my sister has her tea cup nearby with hot tea. All of the suddent she notices a circle of wetness below her and mom and I assume she dropped her tea. She says no her tea has not spilled and I just tell her to forget about it and move on. She bends down and feels it is wet and then takes an exacto knife and cuts into the rug (okay we panicked and the carpet is one we don't like that much and was here when we bought the house). Well folks there is water underneath and as she tears away more and more of the rug it is wet all over.

We call our neighbour Mike over to help us out and he isolates the leak to a corner that is near the outside wall and pulls back the wall (it's panelling so easy to pull away) and then there is a part where the pink insulation stops and you see just the cement of the outside wall. Lo and behold there is big crack that goes down to the ground. Meanwhile my sister is moving stuff out of the room at the speed of sound and I can hardly keep up and we don't want the leak to get to anything. So like half the room is cleared out and overflowing all over the place and it's all my stuff.

Last week-end (well January 4,5,6th to be exact) was harrowing with rain coming in buckets. Friday night we were up until 10p.m. mopping constantly. It rained all afternoon really heavy and we had to keep mopping constantly. You cannot let up or it will start to flood the room. The rain was supposed to go until midnight which we were ready for. Caron and mom put up tarps but they did nothing. Think I told you I had to keep bailing buckets of water trying to delay it coming into the basement. We had some repsite Saturday during the day I think (it is all a blur) and then the news said it would rain again but no time. We all pulled an all nighter and it started at midnight and went straight until 8a.m (it was very heavy from 2-8) and we had to mop constantly to keep the water at bay. It seeps in through the crack and then we found another crack next to it and that was leaking only slightly. My sister had to keep going outside as the rain was about 2 inches high and she kept sweeping it with a broom away from the house to avoid me mopping so much inside. It did help somewhat but I had to keep an eye on it. She made a shield out of plastic to brush a lot of water away. Friday night and Saturday night I was very frightened that the whole downstairs would flood and so tired. I've never prayed so much in my life. Our neighbours did check on us the ones that found our leak.

The neighbours to the left of us 2 doors down had it really bad. Their whole basement flooded with water and our neighbours went over with shop vacs to pick it all up. They are a couple that are 85. We were stunned to see their lights out Saturday night when we pulled the all nighter and found out they went to sleep. Well you can't sleep when you have a leak of any sort. The problem is their drains don't work so it pours in the back. They should have stayed up to contain the water. Everyone thinks we are fine but that is only because 3 of us are at it constantly mopping or brushing it away from the house. Finally at 8am Sunday morning it died down. Normal rain we can handle but not went it comes down in sheets that's when the problem starts. Caron and I took a nap early Sunday morning while my mom stayed up. I've never felt so helpless before and worried. It was supposed to be constant rain from Saturday straight until Tuesday and I didn't know how we would all stay up that long. We had planned to do shifts for sleep. It is these times I wish we had a man in the house. Thankfully it did not rain Sunday night so we could all sleep but I can hear it if it gets bad as I sleep right by the window where it pours in sheets. My sister is away from the room where it gets loud if it pours. It is supposed to rain January 7th and 8th but didn't.

This past Wednesday the waterproof guy came to check it out. He was referred by a friend of ours who owns a few places in Victoria and is from our old church. He was also on the news last night. He will come and use a jack hammer to go beneath the payment infront of our house and will waterproof it so we never need to worry. Wednesday morning we had someone come clean our drains. Thank the Lord we called last week as they are so booked up and we got a cancelation. They are supposed to be done every 5 years and we didn't know so they haven't been done in the 11 years we have been here. No one on this street has gotten it done so we didn't know. We think the problem is our eaves troughs are broken, the weeping tiles aren't holding, the drain is possibly clogged, and we have two foundational cracks in our foundation (yep we found another one when we were mopping our heads off last Saturday night).

The neighbour two to the right of us also had flooding bad and they had their drains snaked on Friday night and thought they were fine. They went to sleep Saturday night and got up to a flood (we were the only smart ones to stay awake) so our neighbours have been helping them rip up carpets. We saw our neighbours with buckets bailing the people two to the left of us. The street opposite us all seem to be fine. Our neighbour to our left said it happened to him 10 years ago and he got it repaired. The ones to the left of us with the flood brought us Chinese food which was so nice. My mom went over to hug the woman (Verna, they are the ones in their 80's) and said we were all there for her. The neighbours have been so wonderful. We knew where our leak was so were able to control it. Last Sunday morning we all woke up drained (since we pulled the all nighter the night before). So many people have been over to check out the leak and also we had friends drop by yesterday and we were so tired.

Last Saturday night my sister kept checking the back drain and didn't tell us at the time but it was up to the top and she was worried. I would have been if I had known. My sister went to work this past Monday and heard horror stories about people all over. Downtown got hit bad and everyone is traumatized. It is exhausting experience. I just kept thinking of Katrina and what they must have gone through with losing their homes.

So the latest news is we had 5 drains and all were clogged but now 3 are clear. The drain cleaners will come back in a month of so and clean the other two which involves more digging I think. The waterproof guy comes Monday to seal the inside and then comes in a couple months to do the outside since it involves digging as well. After the inside wall gets fixed Monday we are thinking we will paint the concrete in our rec room (that makes it warmer our friend told us) and then we may do linoleum or just leave it painted with a middle area rug as we have gym equipment in there. It's been fun times for the last few weeks (okay sarcasm there) but it could of been worse and nothing got damaged except the old rug in that room. When the drain people came to clean the drains they said we had an inch and a half clearance in the back drain and then it would have flooded the downstairs completely. God is good and our praying definitely worked. That freaked me out when I heard that.

S. is finally out :)

My Birthday meal and my new iMac!

It was my birthday last Thursday and I was treated like a princess starting with breakfast in bed and a nice tea. I watched "Neat" and "Mission Organization" while I relaxed and ate.
For my dinner I wanted seafood so my mom and sister made me a lovely seafood melody (I love crab and any type of seafood really) It was so hard to decide on a cake since I like so many different kinds. It boiled down to: pecan pie, a chocolate torte, pineapple upside down cake and then I saw this one which was a German Chocolate cake with a coconut flake icing which looked yummy. I wanted something gooey and sweet so this was delicious. After dinner I opened my gifts and overall had a lovely day.




For Christmas my dad treated us to a new iMac intel computer. Right now my sister and I fight over her PowerbookPC G4 but really she never gets on it as I'm always on there and she is always asking me to get off. So now that we have a desktop one I can be on that one and she can have her laptop back finally. We have an older iMac but it doesn't have the latest operating system so it is limiting in it's internet use. It's great for word processing though so my mom usually uses that one.

Needless to say I've been glued to this thing since it came home and have been trying to learn all the new things it can do. It has this cool thing called PhoneBooth where you can take pictures of yourself in all these different ways. This is one done in Comic mode or you take these distorted ones which are neat. Just having a camera on here is a nice feature.

Also my sister got me a subscription to "Macworld" magazine which I'm so excited about. Up until now I've been getting them at the library. Everytime I pick one of these up I learn something new and techno saavy.

Toodles,

S.

Christmas cheer and Happy New Year!

In my earlier post I talked about how it didn't feel like Christmas this year, but I still had a great one. We had one of the best turkey's I've had in ages and the stuffing my sister made was to die for (it had rice and turkey sausage in it). For once I didn't overeat as I wanted to make room for dessert. We had something a little different this year...mincemeat pie that had a mousse like consistency and it was a nice compliment to the meal (pictured above). Every year we put up our wee little tree by the window so people outside can get a glimpse inside our world. The story of how I got this tree is interesting. A few years back while walking up to our local mall I saw this exact tree in someone's window. This couple lived a street over from me and the man was always outside his house sweeping up and tidying his garden (which was always meticulous) and planting cool flowers in the street pots outside his house. So one day I asked him about the tree and he mentioned his daughter made them. Right then and there I ordered this one (pictured above) and got it a few days later. It's been a part of our Christmas tradition ever since. This couple moved away a few years ago so I'm quite happy I got it when I did. I've since studied it to death and last year tried to make one and was almost successful (I have all the lights and garland but it turns out you have to have the exact size hangers) but I'll have to tackle it another time.


New Years was a lovely relaxed affair and we had Chinese food which included chicken balls and spring rolls and of course I watched all the New Years eve festivities on TV: Dick Clark/Ryan Seacrest's ball drop (saw Christina Aguilera sing one of her new songs), the city TV one(Keisha Chante was one of their guests and looked cold), the big one in Ottawa which had "Foreigner" perform (they were really good but it was pouring rain but people were still celebrating), saw a peek of the space needle show and also the one on Fox. I like to flip around in case one gets boring, but my favourite has always been watching the ball drop in Times Square. One year I hope to be there in person to see it drop. We watched "Nurse Betty" with Renee Zellweiger, it's an old flick. It would have been really good without the Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock bit where they kept arguing and swearing. It had some cute moments in it.

For New Years Day we had a Thai meal with jumbo shrimp, with a lemongrass infusion on a bed of noodles. Oh it was good. We watched "Supersize Me" right after that as it was on TV and I don't think I ever want to eat at McDonald's again. It was very educational and informative and I learned a lot about fast food.

So I want to say to everyone in blogger land. HAPPY NEW YEAR FILLED WITH ENDLESS POSSIBILIIES!

Welcome to 2007! S. out