What? Me? Worry?

I was talking to my folks last night and my Mum is going into the hospital for a few days starting today so she can undergo observation for her heart. She was having some coughing and weak spells the past few weeks and they want to observe her heart and make sure she's getting what she needs, medication and treatment wise, and that nothing new has developed. My Mum has initial congestive heart failure and has had a heart flutter for many years. She has a valve that doesn't entierly function, so she's been on blood thinners for that too. The last few years she has had to take much greater care of her medication and herself as her heart has really weakened a lot.
I admit I'm a bit freaked. I can't help it. I don't want to equate this to how her Mum (my grandma) started down this slope a few years before she passed away of heart failure from the same kind of thing. I can't stop wondering if Mum's heart is just starting to wear out like Grandma's did towards the end. Stupid, I know. But, my Mum is 75. I forget sometimes. It all probably means she needs her medication adjusted and was doing too much again. My mum doesn't really know the meaning of "slow down" so I can see her fidgeting her way to exhaustion. She just can't do as much as she used to and I know it frustrates her. It took her a while to learn to keep a slower pace. She has a very good doctor, so I know she is in good hands. If they weren't 3 hours away I'd stop in and visit her...
My Dad didn't sound overly worried, so I'm trying not to be. I know he would have said something if he felt it was serious. He's good that way. At any rate, they are still both coming up after to visit before Christmas. Dad will help me with the kitchen (Mum said she will "supervise"!) so that will be delayed by about a week. No biggie. My Mom was actually apologising for putting off the visit from this! Silly woman. I told her to let the doctors take care of her and I'd see her in a week.

I heart my Mum.

Everything's not lost

....Don't you let it drag you down
Cause if you ever feel neglected
If you think that all is lost
I'll be counting up my demons,
Hoping everythings' not lost.
Aaaaah yeah.
You know that everythings not lost...
Come on. You know that everythings not lost.


This song always cheers me up...I can't sing along to it without developing a huge grin on my face by the end.
It's a great day...friday. Finally. I'm looking forward to a nice weekend full of naps, and going to see the pro group of my tribal school perform tonight at the festival of trees. I think it will finally get me into the holiday swing. That and some eggnog pancakes tomorrow will do nicely.
Yea...that will do nicely.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone :)

If you give it away...

So here's a neurotic and odd question for you:
In the midst of relocating the majority our books upstairs, I have come to discover that we have an inordinate amount of copies of the bible for 2 people...they were gifts, keepsakes, etc. I can see keeping one that is a family heirloom... as sentimental. But here is the thing: would any of you find it creepy or wrong to give away a bunch of bibles? I'm not about to throw them out or anything (I could not bring myself to throw out ANY book quite honestly), and I'm definitely not on an evangelism quest....but so help me I feel guilty at putting them in the box of "to go" books.
I mean really...how many can a person need? Even if I were in a mood to want to sit down and read it...you only would need one. Some would argue that that would be one too many.
Would it be proper to give them to a church? Why am I even feeling guilty about this in the first place?
It's just an odd situation to be in. I'm just trying to purge books while I move them about the house. Admittedly I haven't had the heart to toss much more than a small box of books, made up mostly of misguided gifts and used store grabs from over the years. Both J and I are horrid at purging. It's harder than I thought....the extra things will likely go to the Salvation Army thrift shop...which kind of makes the whole bible giveaway thing a bit more fitting. Or not...it's just odd. Giving away books is tough. And, really, it's just a book.

So, um...Free bible anyone? I've got a few cookbooks, a Danielle Steele novel and some outdated software training manuals I could throw in to sweeten the deal...?

The fact that this even bothers me bothers me.
It's just all around wierd...

Back into that groove...

This morning was day 2 of get my butt out of bed and work out in the mornings. It's been long enough and I am well (months...heh...*cough*) healed from my knee injury in the summer so I have no excuse not to, other than that my bed is really comfy and I like to sleep :). These things are still true, but I need this. With winter comes the stuck inside never see the sun blahs and workouts go a long way to help fight this. I also have a bit of a sneaky thing...I'm trying to organise the part of the basement where the elliptical is (we started moving it upstairs ages ago and then stopped...it's chaos). I can't ignore it if I'm down there all the time. I've already attacked it a bit last night and it looks a lot better...
Plus, I'm trying to organise my time schedules as next year will be far more busy, and I want to make sure I've got my exercise put in my daily schedule as a part of that. I'm even looking at trying to do meal planning to cut the stress. I too quickly put myself aside when I get busy. This is one way to make sure I put my needs up there with the rest of things in life. I know I deal with stress better when I workout too, so this can only be a good thing.
I can't really say getting up at 5:15 is a good thing, but the way I feel afterwards definitely is.I've got the odd random muscle aches that show me I've pushed myself a bit yesterday,and today I got howled at by t a cat on the bookshelf as I worked out on the elliptical. I'm even eating breakfast.
I know. Crazy.
I've been trying to find kick-ass music I haven't heard in ages to get me motivated while I workout. This morning was Ganga Giri - an electronic group that uses digitally modified didgeridoo. I saw them live last summer at Shambhala...and their music is great. It's my workout track of the week. I couldn't find a video, but because the Internet is so great, here's a clip from that actual show.


Hope you all have a fantastic day. I have another nail biting adrenaline pumped day full of data entry ahead of me.
Woo.

I'm sorry, I don't follow sportsball

I swear...if one more person asks me if I watched the game yesterday I will kill them. :)
There is something in Saskatchewan about *having* to like the provincial football team, the Roughriders, with a crazy sort of love. People wear watermelons on their heads. It's a crazy level of pride for a team that, more often than not, loses spectacularly most years. This year has been a good year and yesterday, apparently, we won the western championships which means we will be in the Grey Cup. And that the province has permission to go nutbar over football for the next week until the Grey Cup is over on sunday.
*sigh*
Here's to a week of green and white stuff everywhere and rider flags hanging from every visible free surface. God forbid we win the cup!
Don't get me wrong - I don't hate football or our team, it's just the insane and manic insistence from everyone I meet that I must love them or I am somehow mentally deficient that gets to me after a while. I just don't care one way or the other...perhaps I should. By the end of the week I may be sucked into it. We'll see.
It's more contageous than swine flu...:)

Green is the colour...football is the game...

Geo 1 Leaves 0

I'm finally done the damn leaves.
I am truly amazed that the neighborhood was not treated to random outbursts of me screaming obscenities like a pirate as I did the front yard. I was doing OK until my iPod ran out of juice about an hour in...then I was rather...um...cranky :)
Ever tried to rake a yard full of gravel and vines? The vines are randomly sprayed all over in a big thick mesh...the only way to get leaves is to lift them, shake them so the leaves fall through and then shove the rake under and try and collect them as best you can, hoisting the vines in the air and raking around to drag them to the edge without totally wrenching your back to bits. Yeah, you can imagine how much fun I had. I dread it every year. The back yard is a picnic in comparison. It took 4 hours to do the front and I'm delirious to be done. That makes a grand total of 17 bags of leaves. Whew.
Luckily, as it was such a nice day, I was distracted from pirate lunacy by the occasional neighbor out for a walk or wandering dog/cat or flock of geese overhead. The best distraction was about half way through when some girl guides came down the road with a parent on a bottle drive. I chatted with the Dad a bit while the girls hit up the neighbors and he made me laugh right when I needed to. I ran in and gave them a whole bag full of cans and bottles (I don't have to go to the smelly recycle place - woo!) and while I was inside gathering them up the nice kids put all the leaves I had raked so far into bags. How nice is that?
SO yeah - I still have a whole day ahead of me. I am not sure if I want to head for the pool for public swim to soak my aching back in the hot pool or just go get a gift for my niece's 1st birthday. The pool is right near the mall, so I think I'll grab a bag and walk over and see what I feel like when I get there. I feel rather frivolous spending $8 just to soak in the hot tub for a half an hour...but still...I could soak in a hot tub for a half an hour...
Hmmmm....
Gotta go before my back seizes up.
Later taters.

Under a pile of leaves

I'm just putting off the leaves really.
It's just after 9AM on saturday...last night I did the back yard (8 giant bags of leaves) and today, since it might rain I really need t get to the rest of the yard.
Thing is, I really and truly hate raking the leaves. BUT if I don't, in the spring I'll be a sick little asthmatic wheezer from leafy mold and they will be even harder to pick up, as they'll turn to dust...I suppose I'm blessed to still be able to do this on November 21. Usually by now we're in a winter wonderland, but our initial snow came and went and it's been unseasonably warm...ish. It's about +5. Very strange.
In my hunt for interesting (and avoid leaves) I've come across this: an Iranian protest poster, here, at the ever lovely Annie Atkin's Tumbler. I love the colours and the image inspires me, even tho I don't quite know what it's about...The thought of 8 or 9 more bags of leaves interspersed with vines that I'll have to fight and lift and pull all round to get at the leafy bits is keeping me hare all warm in my PJs with a cup of coffee and a cat. BUT I should get to it. We have lots of trees...and lots of leaves. Nothing for it really...
Somehow J has always managed to get out of the leaves part of the yard. Sneaky...
AFTER that I have lots else to do inside. Whenever J goes away for the weekend I usually go crazy catching up on chores. I've still got a whole lot to do, but if I'm good, it's a belated birthday dinner and santa claus parade tomorrow. I didn't go with him as I have lots to do...and really - 4 weekends in a row away is just too much. I need my bed and my home and my cats...ans there's a month worth of chores to catch up on!
It will be odd having a christmas parade with no snow. Warmer, yes, but odd. I'll be going with my J's sis and their little one. I'm not sure if their girl Zoe (who is 1) will know what's up yet, but she and I will enjoy the parade for her...sis-in-law has said having a child is wonderful as you get to do all the childish things you love with no guilt, and watch your child enjoy them for the first time, just as much as you do. Sounds great to me. I just act like a child whenever I please. I suppose that makes me eccentric...:)
If I can get my act together I may wander and find Zo-Zo her birthday gift...AFTER the leaves.
*sigh*
Anyone want to rake my front yard?

Daily Squee

Hee hee.
Daily dose of cuteness, without the bad grammar.

Oh how I like!

Mash it up. ooh ooh...mash it up.

I stumbled up on this lovely website, where Ray Dunlavey has made a number of mash ups of comics and films. My favourite of the lot:
I love the mashups, mostly because there is even a Bloom County Mashup...and Peanuts + XMen. I love Bloom County...expecially Opus.
Tee hee.

This headache is brought to you by the letters G and R and R and R...

The only thing more fun than writing a rushed project proposal (17 pages with references. Ahem.) is having to redit and spellcheck it because Word crashed. Again.
Woo.
I can't help but be excited though. If it all goes well I have some exciting news to share very soon. Hold onto your bowlers my peeps. It's cool, x factor 5.

Now that my screaming and gnashing of teeth (and editing) are complete I'm off to lalaland. Me and my pillow, we're going places...:)

Chemical Brothers ft Richard Ashcroft - The Test

Not much to say today...this song has been in my head all morning. It's an old favourite of mine.
Listened to this CD driving home late on the highway on sunday...and I felt quite nearly perfect :) Great way to end a great weekend. Driving fast down the highway listening to great music...makes the drive go by in a blink of an eye. Great weekend - good friends, Star Wars party and all the goodness that goes with it.

Have a great day!