QUEENB

Rained out

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:03:23 +0000

Just got back from a miserable day in Barrie. It was a grey rainy day before we started out and it never really got much better. We went up to belatedly celebrate hubby’s birthday which was June 5th with his family and his sister’s friends. One of the friends brought her 3 daughters along and with our niece who is generally moody they were all miserable by the time we arrived. They had gone up early to make sure we got a shelter, and had been there like 3 hours before we got there. On the way up we stopped to get burgers for everyone as instructed by hubby’s mom. When we arrived she said that she only told him to bring our own food, but he swore that twice she said that we should bring the burgers. That pissed us both off because we wouldn’t have stopped and spent money we didn’t need to otherwise.

We did use the Baby Buzz patch on baby D and between the super smelly patch and hubby and I swatting away the pesky skeeters, I don’t think the baby got any bites at all. Wish I were as lucky. About 10 minutes after I arrived I got a bit bite on my forehead. That I am aware of, I got 3 on my hands (including one right beside the nail on my pinky finger), 1 on my forehead, 3 on my ankle and tons on the backs of my thighs. Talk about itchy!!!

Eventually after we ate the rain stopped so we went on a little walk around the park to view the animals. We saw an albino raccoon, a bear, wolves, foxes and various raptors. It was so sad though, the poor wolves were just running around in circles and obviously had been for some time since the ground under them was all sunken in. I was told that all these animals had been rescue animals, but I wonder if any of them would’ve chosen death over this captivity. Poor animals.

I was hoping to be home by eight since it’s my first day back at work tomorrow, but as usual I couldn’t pry him away from everyone and it was after 21:30 by the time we got home. I’m surprised I’m even writing this – I should be in bed! So I’m off to hopefully get a good night sleep before tomorrow.

Gearing up

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:52:28 +0000

Yes, I’m gearing up for the end of the year (school year) madness. Even though I’m not back at work yet, I still have a bunch of stuff to do. Like tomorrow night is my school’s grad. Even though I haven’t been there for over a year, I promised the students that I would be back to announce the grads as they walk across the stage. This has always been my thing, and I really enjoy doing it. Besides they always seem to have a problem finding someone who can say some of the names. For instance Sathananthalingam is just the last name of one of our students. Her first name is still 12 characters long. I don’t seem to have much difficulty in saying these names so I’m always called upon when there’s a long name like that to pronounce. Then on Thursday is our end of the year staff breakfast. Even though I went last year, I think I’m going to beg off this year. I don’t really want to sit through all the goodbyes of staff I don’t really care about or know. Besides I anticipate it being difficult keeping a little guy who is *almost* walking still for like 4 hours. It’ll probably be more trouble than it’s worth and frankly I don’t care that much.
My mum was down for a couple of days and we had a really nice visit. This was the first time she stayed for more than one night. We decided the last time she was here that it didn’t make much sense to just stay for one night because it was all so rushed. We really didn’t do much. We managed to get out for a long walk and admire other people’s front gardens. It gave me all sorts of ideas for mine. And we had my brother and his wife over for dinner Saturday night. They left around 21:00 and my mum, dad, hubby and I stayed up till 23:00 talking about baby D and his birth. Even though it wasn’t that long ago (14 months) there were a couple things I had actually forgotten. I love reminiscing! Yesterday we went to church together and then came home and finally hung up some pictures I’ve been meaning to get on my walls. I will still have to get some more pictures as I have a humongous wall in my family room that could use some lovin’.
This time next Monday I will be at work. I am trying desperately not to think about it for fear that I will lose my mind. It’s only for 2 weeks; 9 days in fact so I’m sure I can do that. The worst will be when baby D goes into daycare and it’s a full time arrangement. If hubby was staying home with baby D the whole time as we had planned I probably wouldn’t be as nervous, but my Dad will be watching him for 3 days. I’m sure it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but he’s old-school German and tends to have his own way of doing things and criticizing mine. I guess I’m just afraid that he’ll be letting baby D scream himself to sleep or feeding him large chunks of stuff that he might choke on or possibly being too rough on him. I’ll just have to keep thinking happy thoughts that everything will go fine or I’m going to make myself sick thinking about it.

Back in the saddle

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:49:20 +0000

I’ve been away a lot longer than I ever expected. As previously mentioned my computer has been extremely sluggish and I’ve sort of been avoiding it altogether lately. Strangely enough, without doing anything to it, it appears to be acting much better today.
Not a whole lot going on in my life at the moment. GM turned 14 months yesterday and has 2½ teeth on the bottom and almost a full tooth up top. He’s still not quite walking on his own, but he’s certainly trying. I’m starting to get a bit worried about his communication skills – or lack thereof. Besides babbling ‘dada’ he really doesn’t communicate. I’m really not sure that this is normal, but he’ll be getting his next set of shots in the second week of July so I’ll be sure to talk to the doctor about it.

Saturday 9: Happy Father’s Day Eve

1. How long since you have been with your dad? He lives in the basement, so … yesterday.
2. How many siblings share your dad? one younger brother
3. Will you see your dad tomorrow? definitely, we’re going to my brother’s for a BBQ
4. Do you give him gifts on Fatherâ€™s Day? usually, but he never really wants anything
5. Have you ever had a tough time in your relationship with your father? absolutely. we’ve been through a lot of tough roads, but are finally starting to see more eye to eye
6. What was the last thing that you did with your dad? we went out for dinner Tuesday night
7. Growing up, was your dad tough on you? yup, he was the disciplinarian
8. Are you close to your father? yes, I would say so
9. How long since you have spoke to him? a couple of hours

Till Debt Do Us Part

Mon, 12 May 2008 23:57:46 +0000

This morning started uber-early as we had to drive across the city to get some papers signed. We have been having some pretty serious debt problems that we were getting worked out through an agency which removed all the interest off the credit cards, but we found an even better deal. The new deal got our debts down to like a third of what they were and the payments are insanely easy compared to what we were paying each month. If all goes well we will officially be out of debt in a year and half at the latest. Yahoo! Finally.

I have to say it’s really irritating though when I have to get myself up, dressed, do my hair, get my son up, nurse him, get him dressed, feed him, get the diaper bag ready, get all the papers together that we needed to take and somehow, hubby having a coffee, showering and getting dressed makes us late. They say women take forever to get ready? Not in this household!

On the way back from the financial planners’ we stopped to check out the garden centre at the local grocery store. I’ve been chomping at the bit to get a move on so I convinced hubby that we needed to go somewhere. We wandered around and found some really nice plants, but I wanted to see other places too to see if we were getting a good deal or not. I figured that there was probably markup on these plants (coming from a grocery store) that there might not be at a nursery. So we then went to nursery up the street from our place. They had different plants around the same price as we’d already seen. I still want to check out Wal-Mart and see what kind of prices they have in comparison. I’ll probably end up getting my plants from a couple of different places. My Mum is coming over on Wednesday, so I’ve asked the seasoned gardener to assist me with my plant choices.

Garden aspirations

Sat, 10 May 2008 21:38:18 +0000

I finally managed to get my butt back out for a walk. It’s been a while now (maybe 2 weeks) since I last walked. I was all gungho there for a bit, but lately I’ve just been making excuses. In my defense it has been raining for a couple of days and it’s been cool (not like I didn’t get out when it was snowing), so I easily talked myself out of it. So while I was out with my little guy I made a point of checking out people’s gardens. Though we’ve done some work already, our house really needs a lot more help. I got to thinking about all the jobs I’d like to do around here. Some of which I’d love to have done before my Dad gets back from Germany. Our lawn needs some serious lovin’ as it is sad and patchy. We have already added grass seed to it and it seems to be growing, but I had always envisioned baby D walking or crawling through the beautiful lush green backyard. It is hardly that at the moment. I feel like I may turn into Hank Hill (of King of the Hill) with his obsession for his lawn. I nearly shrieked when I saw the dandelions popping up out back. Much work to be done. Also this place is in desperate need of plants. Unfortunately since we just moved in in October we have no real idea of what plants are already planted. My Dad left us $80.00 to buy plants and we have 2 big black urns, 6 window boxes and a few different sized pots that need filling. As well I want to get a couple of hanging baskets for around the garage. The other thing I’ve been wanting to do is plant a tree for baby D and to commemorate our new home. I’ve got to do some research on that one though. We already have a whole bunch of trees and I just want something relatively small. Part of the problem in the backyard is that the tree roots are sprouting through the lawn. Maybe tomorrow, depending on what hubby has planned we’ll get out to a garden centre and check things out.

StumbleWorthy List

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:42:36 +0000

–START COPYING HERE–

Here are the rules:

1. Copy from “START COPYING HERE” to “STOP COPYING HERE”.
2. Add your site(s) to the list. Just be sure to post the “StumbleWorthy List” at each site you add.
3. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE. I will add you to the master list.
4. Come back and copy the master list back to your site, often. This will allow the new comers to achieve equal benefit as the late comers do.
5. Register in StumbleUpon and install the toolbar.
6. Go to the sites found on the list and give them a thumb up (I like it!).
7. Add me as your friend in StumbleUpon: Blanne.

Note: Your url will be deleted in the Master List if you do not comply to the given rules.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THE LIST. OR CLICK HERE TO GET A BANNER THAT YOU CAN PUT ON YOUR BLOG. THE MORE PARTICIPANTS, THE GREATER INCREASE IN TRAFFIC!

~StumbleWorthy List~
1. Hit-or-Miss 2. Mommy’s Little Corner 3.Unpredictable Life 4. The Journey 5. Sigh 6. Say Cheese 7. Make Every Day Your Lucky Day 8. Blessed Sanctuary 9. Hailey’s Beats and Bits 10. Photo Hook 11. A Sweet Taste Of Life 12. Nyumix’s Blog 13. Juliana’s Site 14. Juliana’s Lair 15. Juliana’s World 16. My Library 17. Fun.Fierce.Fab 18. When Silence Speaks 19. Etc Atbp 20. Mariuca – Wishing On A Falling Star 21. Dance of Motherhood 22. Emila’s Illustrated Blog 23. The Other Side of Emila 24. Mariuca’s Perfume Gallery 25. Read my Mind 26. Picturing of Life 27. Spirit of Bonoriau 28. My Careless Whispers 29. Coffee Cup Princess 30. betterthanEzraH 31. Just Another Day 32. Lifepassedby 33. Simple Life 34. A Housewife’s Journal 35. Life Together Starts 36. Scrap For Dollars 37. Jesie Blog Journey 38. My Drift 39. Pinay Mommy Online 40. Thesserie 41. Mirage as Usual 42. Photography on the Move 43. KitchenMaus 44. Vienna Daily 45. Days Of Our Life 46. QueenB 47. GreenBucks 48. My Bug Life 49. Filipino in Canada 50. Artsy Creatures 51. Click Here to Forward 52. Day by day 53. Breather 54. Ramblings of the Phat 55. Zubli Zainordin A Total Blog 56. Maiylah’s Snippets 57. My Wanderings 58. Picture Clusters 59. Crissy’s Haven 60. Roxiticus Desperate Housewives 61. Day Break 62. Pheandy’s Blog 63. Perpustakaan 64. The Cat/Dog Log 65. Living Well 66. Art by Anima 67. MOMEMO 68. Keithsreview 69. YOUR BLOG/SITE HERE!

–STOP COPYING HERE–

More speed please

Thu, 08 May 2008 06:20:59 +0000

I’ve been cursing and swearing at my computer lately. It’s been running more and more sluggish and it’s driving me crazy! I’ve become somewhat complacent with the slowness because I’m not prepared to do a clean install. I’m the type of person that likes to do things all by themselves without anyone’s help. That has also gotten me into trouble in the past. I really should look for a computer repair service to do the work for me instead of me guessing what’s causing the slowdowns. I managed to move the paging file onto an external drive to try to free up some system resources, but I feel like I’m just grasping at straws. If I took my computer in or even had someone come out and look at it for that matter, maybe I’d finally see some speed again.

Playstationed

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:45:12 +0000

Hubbyâ€™s birthday isnâ€™t until June 5, but since I always try to get him something really great I tend to start early on the gift. Heâ€™s been going on and on about getting a PS3, but frankly we just canâ€™t afford it. I mean, first of all we used to have a Super Nintendo and the original Playstation. Where are they now? Exactly. We eventually got sick of them and they (I believe) are currently sitting out in the garage waiting for a yard sale. Then looking at the cost of the system and then the games on top of thatâ€¦not bloody likely. I figured the only reason he even wants a system is to play Gran Turismo again. Youâ€™d think that when he drives for a living that he wouldnâ€™t want to play games that involve driving. Like I donâ€™t think it would be much fun to play a game that involved answering phones or typing. Just me though.

So I checked out ebay and found an auction that had 23 games, 3 controllers, 2 guitars plus the PS2 with a high bid of $280.00. I tried to see if it was a good deal by checking the cost of the new system with the important games that hubby wouldâ€™ve wanted from the 23: Gran Turismo 4, Grand Theft Auto (x4), Guitar Hero II, III and Encore: Rocks the 80â€™s. I couldnâ€™t even find all the games for sale, but suffice to say that the system, GT4, GHIII plus 2 guitars was already over $300.00. So I put in a big of $300.00 max and won the auction for $290.00.

Since the guy listed that shipping would be from Toronto I asked if I could pick it up instead of paying the $30.00 for shipping. Unfortunately Toronto is a big city and he was clear on the other side of it from me. He offered to take $10.00 off if Iâ€™d still make the trip, which I did. That was Monday. When I got home I hinted that I had a really great gift for him and maybe he wanted it early. After all it was exactly 1 month to the day before his actual birthday. (Iâ€™m so horrible) I just couldnâ€™t wait to give it to him. Besides he has Mondays off and we werenâ€™t doing anything that afternoon. I couldnâ€™t seem to convince him to totally give in, but he heâ€™d think about it and maybe the following day I could give it to him. He was started complaining that he was feeling dizzy by dinnertime and ended up staying home from work yesterday.

Laying it on thick at lunch, I asked him if he wanted a piece of cake for dessert. He said he did, so I asked if he wanted â€œbirthday cakeâ€. He laughed and said â€˜fineâ€™. So I got the candle in the piece of cake and sang Happy Birthday for effect. When I got home on Monday with all the stuff I had it stashed downstairs at my Dadâ€™s since heâ€™s out of the country at the moment, so we agreed that he would change GM and Iâ€™d get the gift ready. I made him close his eyes when he got downstairs and I had the games fanned out across the floor and was holding the guitar. When he opened his eyes it took him a minute to figure out what he was looking at and then he asked â€˜you got me a PS3?â€™. â€œNope sorry, just a PS2â€³. At which point he realized how many games there were and he was shocked.

So we played Guitar Hero III a bit downstairs while trying to keep one eye on GM who was loving crawling around new surroundings. Then we managed to get the very heavy tv (which my Dad gave us since he bought an HDTV, but hadnâ€™t bothered to move yet) up 2 levels to our bedroom, where I got everything rearranged and hooked up. Weâ€™ve managed to spend an exorbitant amount of time playing games over the last 2 days (yes he called in â€™sickâ€™ again today).

I finally joined PayPerPost!

Tue, 06 May 2008 04:29:14 +0000

I have been eyeing PayPerPost for quite some time now. I’ve seen a few online friends who write blog ads and manage to get paid for it. So I figure, why not me too? Since I just extended my maternity leave, that means zero dollarinos coming in for me at the moment. If I can make a couple bucks by simply writing in my blog all the better for me. I’m not looking to quit my job or anything, but it would be nice to buy GM some new summer clothes and no doubt another pair of shoes. I’m not really sure why I waited so long to join. I guess maybe I thought the program would be difficult or something. So far it seems to be anything but. Probably the hardest thing is snagging those great offers before someone else gets them. Now all I need to do is work on my pageranking. Maybe getting the traffic and pageranking up will be the hardest part of this endeavour. If anyone has any suggestions on how to boost these 2 areas I’m certainly all ears. In the meantime, I guess I’ll do a little digging on that subject myself. Well, wish me luck. Certainly any extra cash coming in right now would be fantastic.

On the mend

Sat, 03 May 2008 02:15:09 +0000

It was a horribly yucky grey, cold, rainy day today. I don’t know where my brain’s been at lately, but my days are all messed up. I was sitting down to breakfast this morning looking out at the nasty weather thinking “at least I don’t have to go outside today…”. Of course today is Friday, so I have to get the recycling to the curb. DOH! Plus I had to get some yard waste out too. When we moved into the house we inherited a huge mess of branches dumped on the other side of the fence. I think we’re probably better off renting a chipper or something to get rid of them instead of following the city rule of only putting out 3 bundles per week. Especially since after all the lugging from the backyard, they weren’t even picked up! grrr
Finally baby D’s conjunctivitis has almost cleared up. The day after his birthday (April 13th) when I took him into the doctor for his yearly check-up I noticed that he was getting a cold. Hubby was really worried because my Mum had been at baby D’s birthday with serious laryngitis which she got while on a trip to Egypt. He was afraid that she’d maybe given him something exotic. We did mention it to the doctor and he thought it was probably just coincidental. After a week of a fairly bad cough, he started to get a goopy eye. I swabbed at it with a warm, wet facecloth and hoped that it would clear itself up since the eye drops I had from the last time had expired. I had finally had enough and made him a quick appointment on Friday the 25th. Unfortunately his usual doctor wasn’t in, so I had to see his colleague. She seems nice enough, but said that she wouldn’t prescribe drops. I ended up getting oral antibiotics, which the pharmacist was surprised to see I was supposed to administer 4 times a day. She thought that was pretty taxing for an infant and I soon began to agree with her. Luckily baby D liked the medication, but I found his eye getting worse instead of better. It was starting to look like he got punched in the face. The skin under his eye was red and raw. By Monday I called the office again and explained that on Sunday when he woke up he couldn’t even open his eye – poor baby! I asked to have the same drops I had had before re-prescribed. I was very happy to hear that I didn’t have to come back in to be seen or get the script as I live about 20-30 minutes from the office. They called in the prescription and I managed to get the drops after my family dinner Monday night. At the dinner my brother callously asked if I had rubbed my son’s eye in raw chicken. So tactful. But his eye did look terrible. So happily now it’s almost gone, which is great since it’s a serious struggle getting the drops into his eyes. I’ve been trying to sneak them in while he’s nursing, but he’s on to me now.