Squished Finger

Haven't been blogging regularly again, eh?  Shame on you! 

What?

Oh ... I haven't been blogging regularly lately?

You're right.  Shame on me!

But I have an excuse ... I squished my right index finger with the heavy new bear-proof garbage dumpster lid outside my apartment building.  Do you know how hard it is to type without using your right index finger???  Take my word for it ... cuz I truly don't recommend squishing your finger with a dumpster lid!!! ... it's really challenging.  And worse than that ... I can't knit or crochet with the danged thing all battered and sticking straight out!

'Pre-squish', I was busy crocheting bunnies ...

... with floppy ears and fluffy tails.

Then I devoted a weekend to finishing these socks.
(A strange woman on the city bus handed me a
plastic bag one morning and said 'here, finish these
and you can have them, needle and all'.  She had
already knit one entire sock and was past the heel
on the second sock ... I guess she decided
knitting socks was not for her (to my benefit)!

Socks finished, and more bunnies to go, I foolishly decided to do a quick lick of housework and take the garbage out.  That's when I discovered the heavy new bear-proof garbage dumpster lid.

Le sigh dramatique.

Oh well ... last year about this time, Wildlife officials had to destroy a (hungry) young bear who kept 'shopping' at our dumpster, and that was very sad.  Better me with a squished finger than a dead bear!

So ... without THAT outlet, I had to find new ways to satisfy my creative urges.

I participated in a day-long roundtable with folks from
all over our province who are involved in front-line
care services for seniors ... it was held in the BEAUTIFUL
Administration building at our local university ...

... in the University Senate Chambers. 
I've never been beyond the carved Senate Chambers

doors before.

 

I read THIS book.

And I tried a couple of recipes ...

salad type things.

Yummy!

But I'm not impressed with the author's suggestions

to SNEAK beans into brownies and spaghetti ...

some foods just don't need extra beans!

However ... if you are interested in sneaking beans

into other (regular non-bean) foods, then

I recommend this book to read.





I read THIS book.
Fascinating yet disturbing.
I highly recommend it.

I am now reading THIS book.
I'm not very far into it, so will reserve judgment for now.


Getting a little tired of reading here, so ...


I got all gussied up
and had me an evening out.
NOTE TO SELF:  those red patent leather high heels HURT!
QUESTION TO SELF:  how did that happen?  Used to love
wearing them!

 

Another NOTE TO SELF:  do NOT take eyes off cat
when wearing dangly earrings with feathers in them!

 Meanwhile ...

"It was not me who put those nose prints
all over the bathroom mirror.
It was definately not me!
I do not get up on the bathroom counter
and talk to myself in the mirror.
No, I definately do not!
I am innocent!
See ... don't I look innocent?
DON'T I???"

Since this is such a boring post, here are some random thoughts that I have written down in a small notebook that I carry with me on the city bus.  You may or may not chuckle at some of them ...

1. Alarm clocks are self-inflicted torture.




2. Always leave a spare pair of boots at the office.



3. As a rule, people who use the express lane at the grocery store can’t count.



4. Bears like apples even when the apples are in a sturdy box in the carport.



5. Beetle-killed wood is really beautiful.



6. Brainstorming is best done with pen and paper.



7. Bugs bite.



8. Bus shelters were not designed by bus shelter users.



9. Chocolate is indeed an essential food group.



10. City transit buses are only good for the next connecting bus and bus drivers tell each other who is transferring.



11. City transit buses never run on statutory holidays / after 9 pm.



12. “Company dinner” with hunting friends does not mean moose meat will be on the menu.



13. Crows are humorous.



14. Don’t tell me your personal life story ... I don’t want to know!



15. Downtown PG stinks.



16. Downtown PGers care.



17. Every student should wait tables to learn people skills.



18. Everyone came from somewhere else.



19. Everyone in my building listens to CBC Radio.



20. Fabricland is only 0.1 hours away.



21. Formal wear is always optional at formal events.



22. I don’t “get” jogging.



23. I have come to terms with my roots.



24. I like nice pens.



25. Internet users outside the downtown core have dial-up service.



26. It’s a dry cold up here.



27. It’s not unusual to see people wearing sandals and winter jackets at the same time here in PG.



28. Local transit schedulers are not church-goers.



29. Lower BC Mainlanders have no idea about life beyond Hope BC.



30. Moose are much bigger than you think.



31. New underwear is too frequently an overlooked pleasure.



32. News is always bad news.



33. Northern BCers are very generous.



34. Northern BCers are very resourceful / creative.



35. Northern rivers are REALLY cold all summer long.



36. October is definitely too early to put up Christmas lights.



37. Offer free food and they shall come.



38. PGers leave everything to the last minute.



39. Shouldn’t the Tim Hortons Drive Thru sign say Tim Horton’s Drive Thru?



40. Summers may be short up here, but oh! The incredible gardens!



41. The same people who ask businesses to display their event posters in store front windows should return AFTER said event to take down their posters.



42. Thongs are great but you might experience chilly butt cheeks.



43. Trucks rule in city intersections.



44. Via Rail trains give me itchy feet.



45. Waiters always ask how your meal is when your mouth is full.



46. We have Dollar Giant, Dollar Store, Dollarama ... but their merchandise costs $1.25, $1.50, $2 ...



47. Wearing gloves is not eccentric.



48. White Zinfandel is great wine.



49. Why do they put gravy on your meat instead of on your mashed potatoes?



50. You can always talk about the weather.

 
So until next time, cheers from
LD with the squished finger.

First day of spring

What a week this has been! It began here ...

... with myself and one of our board members making a presentation about our non-profit organization to a group of individuals interested in forming a similar organization in their community. No, the ground was NOT that bare of snow while we were there! That area of our province generally has LOTS of snow. The mountain pass between here and there can be quite the adventure, so we decided to leave the driving to ...

... which was a good thing, except for our sore butts from sitting for so long! The rest of my week was very BUSY. Every time I take a couple of days out of the office, I swear it takes me twice that time to get caught up again. I still wasn't feeling quite caught up by Friday afternoon, so decided to go in today (Saturday) to finish a few things. Besides, someone needed to check on the fish. Remember when I told y'all about our inter-office custody battle over Rocco, the (MY) Betta following our office renos?Rocco is residing in my office (where he belongs). In order to "smooth the waters" ... so to speak ... we invested in another fish tank for our reception area. Let me take this opportunity to introduce y'all to ...

... Flash theBetta and a few of his little Neon Flashers. Okay, that didn't sound so good ... his Neon Flashettes? Hmm. I'll have to think about that one some more! Flash is very small compared to Rocco, but I'm sure he'll grow ... especially with all our loving staff members lavishing attention and food on him! Oh, if you look in the hole in that rock (left side of the pic), you can see the suspicious eyeball of Sucky the Pleco peeking out. Flash spent his entire first day in our office "flaring" at Sucky ... "I'm big and dangerous and don't you dare come out from under that rock!" ... it was quite amusing.

On my way to my office today, I just HAPPENED to get off the bus a couple of stops earlier than I usually do, and so just HAPPENED to walk past my local quilt shop. (It was TOTALLY a spontaneous coincidence ... HONEST!) While there, I found a couple of fabrics to go with my bear prints ...

... one is an indigo / black geometric print, and the other a small floral dark red print. Now I just have to figure out which one will look best as the bear PAWS and bear CLAWS in the actual quilt blocks. Of course, I just HAPPENED to notice a maple leaf print ...

... that goes with my third chunk of bear print fabric. I've decided this bear print isn't going to be part of my bear paw quilt. And that's okay, because I noticed this ...

... tote pattern in a magazine, and immediately imagined it with that particular bear print. Oh, and I also picked up a piece of this fabric today ...

... a zany medieval map complete with castles and knights. I intend to make myself a zany apron out of this. I love zany aprons, and my usual supply of zany aprons has become sadly diminished.

Did y'all think I rushed home from the office and began apron sewing / tote building / bear paw quilting? I did not. I'm very particular about prewashing (thus preshrinking) fabrics before I start sewing, and I'm not allowing myself to prewash the bear paw quilt fabrics until I finish up other projects currently on the go. So did I finish any of those projects today? I did not. I sewed wacky wabbits instead.

Seemed like a fitting Saturday afternoon project for this time of year. This one is made from Easter print fabric. I made several flannel wabbits too, and they're really cuddly soft. Tomorrow I must dig through craft bins to find suitable ribbon for big floppy bows for all these wabbits.

What a nice day it was today! It was actually warm enough for me to go out in a fleece jacket. I'm SO tired of bundling into layers and layers of heavy clothes and putting on extra socks and heavy boots. My feet need to get NEKKID! BRING ON THE SANDALS! STRUT THOSE TOOTSIES!! Still too much snow and ice around for sandals though. This is my driveway:

Most sidewalks around the city still look like this:

As you can see, the snow banks are still pretty high, and will take more than one sunny day to melt away. The most well-travelled streets are bare ...

... but storm drains are still frozen, so by this afternoon, there were a lot of small oceans like this:

Of course, small oceans freeze into large skating rinks over night! Another reason to stick with the winter boots for a while yet. Is it spring in your part of the world???