I WIN!

Look what I won on the radio.
Aren't they purty?
It's the bestest summer solstice bouquet I ever had
I like saturdays...

Plateaus

It seems I have hit a plateau.
Although I'm more fit and muscular than I've ever been and don't step on the scale anymore as a rule (I'm trying to be all about how I feel and not numbers), I thought I'd step on the scale this morning out of curiousity...and lo and behold, after much fitness, shape improvement and months of working and learning to run 5Km 3 times a week I am still 134.

Still.

It goes without saying, I'd like to lose another 5-10 pounds, just to get rid of the last bits of wiggly jiggle, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. It seems like I've come this far, why not do a bit more and finish it all up. And yet I don't want to get weird about it.
It is annoying tho. Maybe this is where I am to be and should leave it alone. I refuse to count calories or obsess over what I eat or what I exercise (other than to be sure I actually do it).
I enjoy running now 3 or 4 times a week for about 45 minutes. I'm trying to work yoga or some other muscle toning thing in there on a few of the other days too. And I'm eating well and healthier than I ever have. What else can a woman do I ask?
I can't live on skinless chicken breasts and broccoli all my life to maintain a goal weight...that's just not living :)
I like to EAT!
It's funny how the farther we progress the more we expect of ourselves.
I should just be happy I suppose.
See?
This is EXACTLY why I stopped using the scale in the first place...

Zombie f*ckers unite for proper ratings

Hmmm...apparently a riotous use of the words d*mn and f*ck can still keep you in the General category...altho come to think of it, I do bleep with ***'s a lot. Even so, apparently I'd better watch using words like death (once) and zombie (4 times) - as they matter in the ratings system.
Nah. On second thought, I'll go the more colourful route and try again later to see where I'm at...

Humph.
I thought I'd at *least* be PG.

Off topic, I still recall when my Mom thought movie ratings were G for good, PG for pretty good and R for Rude.
:)

Hmmmm....um....

Fucking A!

***whoooosh!***

Heh...there.

Much better. I redid it now and apparently using that *and* zombie together in a weblog post makes me now officially PG.
Aaahh.
I knew I had it in me...

Mojito

God I love saying that word...
Mo-HEE-TOE
*grin*
Hate the drink, but love the word.

It's fun to say...like spelunking or gorganzola.

Having a good day areally. This morning I was out running and the sun came out from behind a cloud and shone through the mist coming off the river and Pioneer Skies started on the iPod and the world was briefly and completely perfect in every way.
It was like when Fry had his 100th cup of coffee...the world stopped time just a bit to say hello and wish me goodness.

Once I got to work it all fell apart of course, but I'm in such a damn fine mood I really don't care.
Cheers!
Have a good day. Go home and have a mojito.
Me?
Margarita...lime...yum...and not a moment too soon.

I knew it...

What color is your soul painted? Yellow Your soul is painted the color yellow, which embodies the characteristics of joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, gold, hope, liberalism, sociability, friendship, death, courage, intellect, confidence, communication, travel, movement, attraction, persuasion, and charm. Yellow is the color of the element Air, and symbolizes the sun, grain, and the power of thought. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

The chipmunk of suspense

Just another reason why Shirley Bassey is awesome...

She's got wellies with sparkles on them!
*I* want some...
Oh yeah - THAT is how you do things...

NAAAAA na na na na NA na naaaa NA na NA NA na na naaaaaa...

I am enamoured on Katamari Damacy on PS2

Alarming kingly package,vomiting rainbows and all...
Even the music is stuck in my head.
Who thought it'd be so addictive making a giant ball of stuff??

PS - Champion and his G strings were fabulous in concert last night...if they ever come your way go see them.

Festival fever

Over lunch, I was just looking over the line up for this year's Glastonbury Festival happening this weekend...man I wish I lived in the UK sometimes...
WHY?
I could go see Bjork, Superfurry Animals, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Uberzone, Coldcuts, Sasha, Adam F, The Go! Team, The New Prnographers, Wombat, Bright Eyes, T-Bone, Neds Atomic Dustbin, Shpongle, Krafty Kuts...and other things that sound interesting, like the Hot Potato Synchopators, Senor Chainsaw...and fireshows. In the past they've had Coldplay and Moby...

*sigh*
Now I'm really looking forward to Shambhala - I need some outdoor music in me...you'd think I'd be topped up byt The Dandy warhols, Simon Fosford and the Police, but no....I need MORE!

44% Zombie proof

According to this quiz, in the coming zombie apocolypse, I am 44% zombie proof.
Given my chilhood fear of zombies...I figure I have a fighting chance.
At least now I could run away from them...

Now If only I could get windows installed in the house that protected against wind, rain, hail and the undead...

Poliltical intrigue on the prairies

I'm impressed with our provincial premier. He isn't much to look at, but I've heard him speak on a number of occasions, often to a hostile crowd. He is charismatic, eloquent, polite and won't back down from hecklers or having to explain tough choices. You get the impression he just tries to do what he feels is best for a province that doesn't have a lot of people, but has many problems. Although I support the NDP in the province, I haven't agreed with everything he's done, but after the previous week, I definitely think he's a cool guy.
Why?
Weeeeeell...before the yearly budget the Federal government promised Saskatchewan a 800,000 transfer payment every year for 5 years...in writing...so we believed them. Now, after the yearly budget we were informed that we only get a one time payment of 400,000 and NOTHING ELSE. Why? Well the government stated that they never promised to pay us the transfer payments (they did...in writing and in Parliament) and that they're honoring the spirit of the deal by giving us something (a hearty wtf?). They've done the same thing to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. A conservative MP from Newfoundland has resigned and gone independent over this. It's a big deal that the federal government is trying to force through.
The promise was a bold faced lie and our government is trying to back out of a deal to provinces that have earned this money through their output of non-renewable natural resources and changing the terms of agreement to only involve renewable resources. This is no small splitting of hairs...Long term budgets were built on these promises. Leaders and provinces were lied to and we were truly screwed over. ..and apparently our bonehead of a Prime Minister feels that he can make these changes arbitrarily and that we, as voters and citizens will just shut our pieholes and watch Canadian Idol and drink beer and it will go away.
AND, oddly enough, it appears that our province is going to take the government to court over this. They are not trying to bully the government, but Mr. Calvert wants to hold the government accountable for this. Even if we don't get the payments returned to us, I believe this is a huge move in making public figures, particularly elected officials, accountable for what they say and promise to us little peoples. Sometimes things change and we need to suck it up, but to lie, change a deal, deny promises were made and withhold funding promised to a province that they have earned by being productive and contributory to this great country of ours is wrong. Running a country is not like big business...there's more to it and they must be held accountable to not make promises not indended to be kept.
I for one may send Mr. Calvert a cake in the mail. With edible ball bearings and everything.

A bit of rain

So...it rained a bit on sunday and monday eh?
I AM happy to say tho that my basement is bone dry...good to know all that work last summer paid off!

Warning: fruity post ahead

An ongoing discussion and point of musing in my mind over the past few days has been the comparisons of the ideas of prayer VS wishing VS positive thinking VS spells etc...
Having grown up in a well balanced and relatively sane/normal religious family, I understand the concepts of faith, prayer and the idea of trying to be a good person and praying for strengh and guidance. And my agnostic friends see such things as a crutch, but I wonder if something fills the needs in your soul and help you find direction, is that a bad thing? I don't want to go on a tirade about the endless problems I see in organised religion, especially with myself not sure where I stand with any/all of my beliefs and such at the moment...I'm on another thought train entirely right now.

You see, a friend of mine is a Wiccan. She's not fruity or new agey...she's a logical intelligent scientist with strong opinions, so I give her credit for having thought through things. And she doesn't have a strict belief thingy per se, but she does like the idea of being in touch with who you are, what you and those around you need and trying to live in a way that doesn't harm the world you live in. She also believes in the idea of spell casting...but not as an "I have the magic power to do this" concept. It's more of an attitude similar to prayer or meditation...and the more I think of it, the more I'm inclined to nod and say "go for it". After all, taking conscious actions to focus your thoughts and wishes on a particular thing (in this case the safety and well being of a family member in a time of stress) in the form of a ritual - is that anything different than a fervent prayer or keeping someone "in your thoughts"? Could it not accomplish the same thing? If you're declaring a thought or intention to the world out there...even if it only accomplishes nothing other than to make you feel better, is that a bad thing?

Now I must be clear and say that I balk at and have come to hate ideas like "The Secret" where you just have to want something badly enough and concentrate on it and it will come to you, cure you, etc. The idea of this kind where if it doesn't happen to you you just aren't trying hard enough/don't want it bad enough/aren't ready for it yet is the exact same issues I have with organised religion when it comes to guilt and false hope. When I see "the Secret" in the hands of patients in the cancer centre here I want to rip it out of their hands...but I suppose they need something to focus their mind on...and better positivity than despair. It's just the wrong way to go about it if you ask me. I firmly believe in spreading goodness and hope and the power of positivity, but false hope? That is just sinister.

Hmmmm...
I don't know if this all makes a lot of sense...it's a spewed out mish mash of what has been rolling around in my head the past few days...Why? Well, there was a sudden death in the extended family (didn't know them personally but still a surprise) and it got me thinking about this while wondering about people dealing with their grief in their own ways.
What do you out there think about all this? Is the method better than intent? If you're not blindly hoping in falsehood, can a little positive thinking go a long way?
I'm interested to hear your thoughts, as mine are all over the map at the moment...

Father's Day

This is my Dad...he can fix anything, and has a heart as big as the moon and as warm as bathwater.
(FYI-He's not normally fondling grapes in the vineyard - this is my latest wine label...)

Happy Father's day Dad.
Luv ya!

My own personal cheering squad

I found a picture of what I saw near the finish line on Sunday's race day...:)

J, Simon, Curtis, his son Noah, some guy (??) and Jackie.

Thanks guys - you made my day....

At last...

It's friday.
:)

This flickr spell tool is nifty...

Checkmate my good man

I got to hang out with my brother last night, which is always fun. My brother and I have always been close, and it's been great since he moved back into town, as I get to see him more often. We're both pretty busy, but for Christmas I gave him "Muffins of the Month" - essentially I'll bring him a dozen fresh baked muffins of his choice every month and then we'll hang out for the evening. He's happy as he gets muffins, and I'm guaranteed to get to visit with him at least once a month, which doesn't sound like much, but is definitely a good thing as it's hard to find a time we're both free to get together.

Last night after diddling around and playing with his new electric guitar that he got himself for his birthday (he's an aspiring blues guitarist) we got it into our heads to play a game of chess and realised neither of us could remember how to anymore...a lot of the moves and rules were very foggy, so Internet to the rescue! We found a site for teaching kids how to play chess and after reading up on it, although we both felt a little silly, we're both back in the game with castling and an passant skills a plenty. My brother was kissed on the butt by the Good Games Fairy when he was born and usually beats everyone at everything, so I was quite pleased when we ended our first game on a draw with both of us only having our kings left.

Next time however I will be victorious...

Some questions I found that make me sound smart

Yet another meme...stolen from Pacian and Diddums

*Your most marked characteristic?
Optimism. I've been teased that I could find something good about anything. Oh…and I’m ridiculously clumsy.

* The quality you most like in a man?
Honesty, wit, intelligence.... and happy eyes

* The quality you most like in a woman?
Sincerity, creativity and individuality

* What do you most value in your friends?
That they choose to share their lives with me and put up with my annoying ways

* What is your principle defect?
That I often assume people won’t like me and am a bit of hermit/shy in social situations as a result

* What is your favourite occupation?
napping, reading, eating, walking in the woods…OK and if I'm honest, nookie too. They all tie for top spot.

* What is your dream of happiness?
Everyone being content with what they have, and noone having to be lonely

* What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
To be lonely

* What would you like to be?
More conversational and social.

* In what country would you like to live?
I like where I am, but anywhere in England or Ireland would be nice too.

What is your favourite colour?
Yellow or blue. Depends on my mood…I bet you can guess which goes with which :)

* What is your favourite flower?
The gerbera. Such vibrant colours.

* What is your favourite bird?
Penguins

* Who are your favourite prose writers?
Nick Hornby, Chuck Palahniuk…only ones that pop into my head at the moment.


* Who are your favourite poets?
A few on the top of my head…Charles Baudelaire, Voltaire, EE Cummings, Robert Browning, the odd Shakespeare Sonnet and although I’m not a huge fan of W. Yeats, one of my favorite poems (He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven) is his:
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

* Who are your favourite heroes of fiction?
Here's a few off the top of my head, Vanyel (Mercedes Lackey Valdemar Series), Thomas Veil (Nowhere Man), Number 6 (The Prisoner), James Bond, Aragorn and Gandalf (Lord of the Rings), Han Solo, Dumbledore, Arthur Dent (could you call him a hero?)

* Who are your favourite heroines of fiction?
Eowyn (The Lord of the Rings), Jane Eyre, Red Sonja, Brynna the weapons master (Mercedes Lackey Valdemar series)...you know...it's harder to think of heriones at the moment...I wonder why?


* Who are your favourite composers?
Beethoven, Handel, John Williams, William Orbit

* Who are your favourite painters/photographers?
Gustav Klimt. Salvador Dali.
Photography – I think sometimes people just have the gift. My friends Trent and Dave are great examples…I enjoy any and all photos of snippits of real life and colors/images that most people wouldn’t think to photograph. It's the little things...

* Who are your heroes in real life?
Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, David Suzuki, my Dad

* Who are your favourite heroines of history?
Joan of Arc, Marie Curie, Queen Victoria, Florence Nightengale...to name a few

* What are your favourite names?
Names that inspire… that just happen to represent to me a spark of personality and are fun to pronounce, like Telulah, Penelope, Maxwell, Gwenyvere

* What is it you most dislike?
Selfishness, insensitivity and the inability to dream or see beyond the obvious

* What natural gift would you most like to possess?
Confidence and social grace

* How would you like to die?
Um…I took a quiz that said I’d die while making love…that seemed an OK way to go, although I doubt my husband would prefer that. I’d say as an old woman, contented and ready to shuffle off my mortal coil – preferably in my sleep.

* What is your present state of mind?
Happy and optimistic

* What is your motto?
Tied between “Life is Beautiful” and “"voro caseus" which literally translates to "to eat cheese greedily”

Three cubed meme

Diddums tagged me with this meme. The rules are simple. There are 9 questions (32), each of which has 3 answers, to give a total of 27, or 33. The whole point is that the questions are somewhere between eclectic, banal and downright bizarre, so that you can answer completely truthfully without actually giving much away. Just put down the first three answers that come to mind if you can’t work out the “most appropriate” three.

Objects Within One Metre Of You

1. A photo of my husband and our 2 cats
2. An alarm clock shaped like an anime penguin that tells me the time on the hour
3. A large steaming cup of coffee that will soon be mine...

First Names of People You Sat Next To At School

1. Tabitha
2. Colin
3. Chris

TV Programmes You Won’t Watch

1. Andromeda (painfully bad sci-fi)
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Any reality show (I'd rather go and do it myself)

Favourite Trivial Pursuit Categories

Me likes the Trivial Pursuit...
1. Science and Nature
2. Theatre and Film (From the 1990's Edition)
3. "Characters and Costumes" (from the "Star Wars Trivial Pursuit Game")

Superpowers You’d Like To Have

1. I want to be able to fly
2. Chameleon powers so I can sneak about as the ultimate ninja
3. X-ray vision (I'd be such a good scientist)

Newspapers, Magazines or Periodicals Read Regularly

1. The Scientist
2. The Onion
3. Planet S magazine

Songs You Dislike

1. "Loving You" by that horrible squeaky "la la la la la" woman...
2. "Lovely Lady Lumps" (it's pathetic)
3. "I'll build a bridge" by Burl Ives (My Dad used to play it over and over in the car when I was little....I cannot stand it anymore)

Blog Posts of Your Own That You’d Recommend.

For the fact that I enjoyed writing them and doing the things I talked about in them...and there's pictures too...oooh. I can't make the links to them work this morning for some reason so if you really want to read them, go to the months in question and track them down...
1. Do or do not do be do be do (Nov '05)
2. Shambaladeda (Aug '06)
3. What's in a name (May '06)

People You’d Like To See Answer These Same Stupid Questions

1. Magnus
2. Pete
3. Anyone else who feels the need to answer these questions and just can't help themselves

40 minutes and 20 seconds

Yup, that's how long it took me to run 5 Km...and I only walked 2 minutes. The rest was all run - can you believe it? Slow and steady was my plan and it worked...I did it!

It was amazing. I had little Slip the iPod giving me tunes to run to and at the finish line - J and some friends surprised me with signs and loud crazy cheering - It was wonderful. After I finished we stayed and cheered on some others we knew doing the 10 KM run...it was a lot of fun. There were people of all ages and families participating in the walk/run events. There was a sense of fun and community and I really enjoyed it. I wasn't absolutely axhausted after and I'm really amazed at just how far I ran. I guess I can do things when I put myu mind to it...:) I'm quite happy with how it all went.
J tried to take pictures but they're kind of blurry, although there's apparently some shots of me warming up and of us cheering on our friends in the paper today, so I'm going to try and hunt it down to see it.

All that AND we went out for breakfast after.
Nifty.

What a wonderful experience...

Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet eating her crunchy granola

Goooooood morning.
I'm just recovering from a wonderful day and preparing for another.
J and I left home yesterday morning and went to Regina to see Simon Fosford in the evening and then came back afterwards in the wee hours. It was a little drive (~2 hours) back to the city we fell in love in and spent the day reminiscing and enjoying the day. We found our old haunts and walked around Wascana Lake in the city - a beautiful place to be. There are all sorts of new bridges and paths to follow that weren't there before since they did some work on the lake a few years ago. It's about a 4.5 Km all the way around, past the legislature and the memories were coming back like it was yesterday. Then we had some yummy Thai food and went to hear one of the best psytrance DJs in the world play a live mixed set in the University performance room. We got there a bit early and I wandered around my old campus for a while before the show...man. It's amazing how a campus can change in just 7 years. New buildings and people, but it was like coming home for me. I spent my childhood in a tiny town a half hour or so outside of Regina, so it is one of the places I know better than anywhere else. And I spent my university years, where I really found who I was and what I wanted with life in the fair city of Regina...it will always have a soft spot in my heart.
There were changes here and there of course, but mostly good. Some favorite eating places are now gone and the coffee shop I used to manage while in school was closed for renovations, but there were wonderful new things, like the old family owned grocery store across from where I used to live is now a family owned organic grocery store (with yummy fruit smoothies)...I wish it had been there when I was! The old gazebo in Wascana park where we were trapped in a huge thunderstorm and were sure the wrold was ending was still there. The old tree that's been trimmed back as it died in the memorial park down town is still there (I always thought of if as a giant stalk of asparagus and have memories of writing odd poems about it - "Enlighten us asparagus." "Asparagus doth frighten us"...)) A local artist has made giant metal ants that are now crawling all over it...my little asparagus is a work of art now. It's neat to know someone liked it like I did...

It's funny odd little things you remember.
I remember falling in love with J there. We wandered past where we first held hands in a pile of fall leaves, where we'd walk for hours talking about nothing and everything. Just like over 10 years ago when we met...we wandered and talked. It was a great day.

And now - well I just finished a big bowl of pumpkin flax granola from the organic store across from my old home, and I'm going to try and nap and read the day away, and try and rest and stretch up my slightly stiffened legs for mym arathon tomorrow.
Meep.
If anyone is around Saskatoon, come to Griffith's stadium ~10 AM. I'll just be finishing up my mini marathon. Whether I can run the entire way or I have to walk/run it to finish, just doing this is a huge personal goal foe me and I'm very excited. Pop by and we'll go out for breakfast afterwards...my treat.

TOONS!

Seriously you guys...Check out the newest Homestarrunner cartoon.
Then check the emails...the toons...the answering machine messages.
I love these guys...

Music. Response. Music triggers some kind of response

I'm currently putting together 50 minutes of music for my marathon sunday morning...I want it to be happy energetic mixes of goodness. There'll definitely be some Chemical Brothers, Orb and Lemon Jelly involved, but I thought I'd ask the world wide webatron - anyone have a song that makes them move? Songs that make you move, dance or jump around?
Cuz I could add it to my list...cuz (hee hee) I'm running 5K on sunday. And it could kind of be like you were running wth me...or maybe at least in my ears...or sort of through the chambers of my brain... yeah yeah...it'll be a telekinetic experiment.

And we could have cake after...Anyone?

Stop the world I want to get off

Why is it after a holiday I'm more tired than when I left??

I'm so very busy and so very tired.
Some day I'll post a reasonable post.
Until then...talk amongst yourselves

I for one welcome our new alien overlords

Through a long detailed discussion with my friend's 4 year old son I have learned the following things about aliens:

1) they are white, with blue eyes and multicolored noses, that change color if the weather is nice or if they are in a good mood.
2) they travel in space ships that have wings and can roam around the world on kite strings.
3) The aliens have space pets - only dogs. The dogs are polka dotted with purple spots and they can talk, but only if you have a special earpiece to understand them. The space dogs have their own mini space ships with wings that make bubbly sounds.
4)There are no space cows or space chickens, but there are definitely space penguins and crocodiles. They live in floating icebergs and zoos that the aliens made for them when the earth melted all their icebergs.
5) The aliens like to come and listen to music. So if you want to see them, play your music loud with the windows open...and they might come and visit

I feel ever so much smarter knowing all these things.

I'll definitely impress the Police tonight when I see them.