Monday Morning Blu - u - u - ues ...

I went to a party on Friday.  It was a sad party ... a good-bye to two special friends who are moving away.  Consequently, I've been thinking about friends I've lost track of over the years, and feeling a bit blue.

It's going to be a blue day ...

My new best friend

So I have a new best friend. 

After considerable deliberation -- over a year's worth of careful thought, actually! -- I had arrived at a list of necessary qualities one's BF should have.  Armed with that list, I set out deliberately last week to find her. 

So what qualities would YOU look for if YOU were shopping for a new BF?  I had decided appearances wouldn't be everything ... but I wouldn't mind if she was ... well ... INTERESTING.  I had also decided that practicality and sensibility wouldn't be everything ... although anyone elevated to BF status HAD TO BE strong enough to be leaned on when really needed.  Finally, I had decided that a sense of humor ... even a bit of quirkiness ... was a definate asset.  AND I FOUND EXACTLY WHO I WAS LOOKING FOR!

Her name is Maide.

That's Irish Gaelic for "stick".  Of course, Maide is not just a stick ... she's my new BF!  My balance is not getting any better, and I'm tired of falling.  Isn't she a beauty?

I found her at our biggest local Christmas craft fair.  I also bought myself some lovely natural beeswax candles ...

They smell SO delicious!  (Okay, the glass of wine smelled ... er ... tasted pretty good too!)

DO NOT read this book by candlelight ...

... and it's probably best not to read it late at night or while you're alone either!  SPOOKY!  (Dean Koontz is very descriptive.)

mrs slocombe's pussy

Yes, ANOTHER post this week from me! I'm trying to post more frequently. We'll see how long it lasts ...


So a friend who also works in a small downtown office suggested we both stop at a local pub for a drink or two after work yesterday, but I was concerned about Miss Boots waiting for her dinner. After the digestive problems she exhibited the first couple of weeks with me, I've been pretty careful about serving her meals on schedule. So without a great deal of thought, I replied ...



... well, I'm not going to tell you what unexpectedly came out of my mouth!



Let's just say I might have watched that great British comedy Are You Being Served a few too many times in my past! My friend obviously had not. The look on his face was priceless! (If YOU didn't watch Are You Being Served either ... look up mrs slocombe's pussy on google or youtube!)


Since this is a bit of a naughty post this morning, I feel it only appropriate to share that spring is slowly springing here and I'm experiencing urges. Almost unbearable URGES! So instead of stopping at the pub on the way home yesterday, I visited a different kind of outlet. Then I could hardly wait to get home and enjoy ...
... a tall cold glass of milk! I don't crave milk very often ... actually, I normally despise the stuff ... and cow's milk gives me a nasty tummy ache. Fortunately, goat milk is okay ... and quite palatable with added chocolate. Maybe I need to take an extra calcium tablet a day at times like this?


Miss Boots was feeling a bit naughty yesterday too:

"I sampulz hu-mom lip balm, kay?"

I looked back two minutes later, and she had the lip balm tube down on the dining room chair AND OPENED!

It's zero degrees and very foggy outside this morning. Yuck. It's also 7:35 am, so I'd better finish my tea and get ready for work. Have a good day, y'all!

cushion covers, dragonflies, and my friend Sally

A while back, I blogged about my sudden obsession with RED in my living room. While puttering about home today, I sewed up some new cushion covers from a couple of pieces of RED fabric I found at our local "Stuffmart" (I like that name ... can't remember whose blog I "borrowed" it from, but THANKS!). The living room transformation isn't quite complete yet, but here's some pix of the work in progress.

Here's the BEFORE of two of my living room cushions:

And here's one more BEFORE:This cushion cover is made from an old teeshirt. My friend Sally and I bought matching teeshirts somewhere in the downtown Eastside of Vancouver back when we were new students at Douglas College. We both had waitressing experience and laughed about "being discovered" for our amazing individual talents ... it was a sunny day and we were both feeling pretty good about ourselves.

Sally was certainly a colourful person ... probably packed in more colourful adventures than I ever did, and I like to think I've done pretty good on that score. Sally had a penchant for bikers and bad men as well as musicians. A very short time before I met her, she had been a down and out gutter drunk, and remained pretty rough around the edges. Despite those rough edges, she had a generous and loving spirit, and an infectious sense of humour. Besides, she LOVED Johnny Cash and Stevie Nicks music ... how can anyone who loves Johnny Cash and Stevie Nicks music be all bad?

Oh, and here's the AFTER look for the above three cushions:Sally was a natural story teller. One of my favourite Sally stories is how she quit drinking. Apparently one day she scraped together enough money to buy a case of beer ... a BIG deal considering she had drank the likes of Lysol and God only knows what else ... and on her way to buy said case of beer she noticed a blender in some shop window. Yes, a kitchen blender. Your plain ordinary kitchen blender. She had no idea what one would do with a kitchen blender, but noticed its price tag was exactly the same as a case of beer. Somehow, in her thirsty addled mind, she equated a blender with sobriety and stability and a home ... all the things she lacked at that moment. So she bought the blender instead of the beer, and that was the beginning of her recovery. She kept the blender in its box, never used, because it reminded her of that moment and her decision to sober up.

Just before I moved away from Vancouver, Sally moved into a really nice little bachelor unit in a downtown Co-op. It was her first "real" home in many many years, and she was SO proud of it. Her first purchase was a coffee maker ... even though she was strictly a tea drinker herself ... and she LOVED to put the coffee on for her small group of friends. Oh, I didn't explain that bit, did I? Sally had more than her share of mental health problems, including paranoia, and didn't make or keep friends easily. For some reason I posed no threat and I considered myself very blessed to be her friend.

Here's another BEFORE shot of two of my living room cushions:And here's the AFTER:Sally would love these! She was fascinated by dragonflies. When she moved into the Co-op, I bought a wood picture frame and painted it glossy black, then painted multi-coloured dragonflies all over it and used it to frame a bulletin board. She was thrilled with it, and hung it over her little kitchen table on the most prominent wall.

Sadly, Sally didn't have long to enjoy her new home. All those years of hard living took their toll, and she died of pancreatic cancer shortly after I moved away.

Every so often I feel Sally nearby ... like today while recovering my living room cushions. I wish she could really pop over for a cuppa and a look at my "new" RED living room cushions.

Vacation

I had one. A vacation. Well ... a MINI vacation. Can't call it a REAL vacation if it's less than 10 days, right? Right. My dictionary defines a vacation as "a scheduled time of rest and relaxation from work", and except for it being too hot to sleep really well, I was definately resting and relaxing away from work!

In a couple of very short days, I managed to:

--gobble down my favourite Me 'N Ed's pizza (the "Gangster" ... whole wheat crust ... extra jalapenos ... YUM!) in the company of good friends, as well as enjoy the company of one special 4-legged furry friend! (If you're one of the good 2-legged human friends I didn't manage to call or see ... sorry! ... next trip, I promise!)

-Catch one Sunday service at a Church that feels like "home" ... and enjoy a piece of birthday cake with a special choir member!

-Travel in a manner unheard of here in PG!

-and feast my eyes on the mountains! I was raised in a valley. I miss mountains. I miss mountains a lot! I DREAM about these mountains ...

-check out at least one "old stomping ground" (which is ... sadly ... closed now)!

-and go shoe shopping! (Ronsonstocks ... $25! What a deal!)

I even managed all this relatively cheaply as I was able to take advantage of a WestJet seat sale ... $69 each way. Of course, the ACTUAL price was more than twice that amount thanks to the fuel surcharge and airport improvement levies and whatnots.

Sadly, it was all too short, and now it's back to work. I think I should do this vacation thing more often!