With the current sports fury around here (Edmonton in the Stanley Cup finals, and the World Cup on right now) I found this great explanation of offside for women. For the first time in my sports challenged life I actually understand what offside means! For all you sports challenged individuals out there, here goes...
You're in a shoe shop, second in the queue for the till. Behind the shop assistant on the till is a pair of shoes which you have seen and which you must have.
The female shopper in front of you has seen them also and is eyeing them with desire. Both of you have forgotten your purses. It would be rude to push in front of the first woman if you had no money to pay for the shoes.
The shop assistant remains at the till waiting. Your friend is trying on another pair of shoes at the back of the shop and sees your dilemma.
She prepares to throw her purse to you.
If she does so, you can catch the purse, then walk round the other shopper and buy the shoes! At a pinch she could throw the purse ahead of the other shopper and "whilst it is in flight" you could nip around the other shopper, catch the purse and buy the shoes!
BUT, you must always remember that until the purse has "actually been thrown", it would be plain wrong for you to be in front of the other shopper and you would be OFFSIDE!
SIMPLE!
Monday, June 19, 2006
Papadums and Little Bears
I'm baaaaack.
Didja miss me?
I had a nice relaxing weekend up at the lake. The new and improved cabin is not much bigger, but the ceiling is higher and Dad put in tonnes of windows so it seems huge. There's also a new couch...really nice. A step up from our usual garage sale stuff for sure. It's nice to see my Dad doing something for himself - he's always doing stuff for other people.
It rained all friday and saturday so I had a leisurely time helping my Mom. With her heart, she has to take it easier than before (and she hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet), but I helped her pace herself and hang up all the pictures back on the walls all over the cabin (and YES we measured first...every man who came over on saturday to the cabin that afternoon said "looks good, are you sure it's straight -did you measure to be sure?"...grrr. Yes women can do these things too!). Mom and Dad had a bunch of their friends over for a barbecue saturday night so I helped out Mom again and then relaxed drinking wine by the fire and smelling pipe tobacco. Dad's taken up the pipe again and I love the smell of pipe smoke. J got to be all manly and help out my Dad lay some laminate floor at a friend's cabin for part of the day so he was kept busy in the rain too. There was many a scotch and cigar to be had at the end of the day. Pretty good life I figure - retirement seems like a sweet deal.
The sun even came out sunday so J and I could take a 2 hour hike around and then sit and drink beer and talk with my Dad and his friends while they took a pipe break from working.
One of the amusing things from the trip is one of Dad's friends (the one with the cabin that J was helping at) has remarried recently to a really cool lady he met in BC. She's lived mostly in Victoria and Vancouver so she's pretty outspoken and "modern" as my Mom would say. She brought papadums to supper saturday night - I like this lady already. Add to that her being a vegetarian who likes irish ale and all the old farts at the lake are amused - she said it is funny how many people have "stopped by" for no reason just to get a glimpse of Ray's "odd" new wife. I think she's awesome and sure makes it more interesting for me up there as a break from the slow pace of most of my parent's friends.
I never thought I'd be eating papadums and chutney on the deck at the lake.
Yummy.
Didja miss me?
I had a nice relaxing weekend up at the lake. The new and improved cabin is not much bigger, but the ceiling is higher and Dad put in tonnes of windows so it seems huge. There's also a new couch...really nice. A step up from our usual garage sale stuff for sure. It's nice to see my Dad doing something for himself - he's always doing stuff for other people.
It rained all friday and saturday so I had a leisurely time helping my Mom. With her heart, she has to take it easier than before (and she hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet), but I helped her pace herself and hang up all the pictures back on the walls all over the cabin (and YES we measured first...every man who came over on saturday to the cabin that afternoon said "looks good, are you sure it's straight -did you measure to be sure?"...grrr. Yes women can do these things too!). Mom and Dad had a bunch of their friends over for a barbecue saturday night so I helped out Mom again and then relaxed drinking wine by the fire and smelling pipe tobacco. Dad's taken up the pipe again and I love the smell of pipe smoke. J got to be all manly and help out my Dad lay some laminate floor at a friend's cabin for part of the day so he was kept busy in the rain too. There was many a scotch and cigar to be had at the end of the day. Pretty good life I figure - retirement seems like a sweet deal.
The sun even came out sunday so J and I could take a 2 hour hike around and then sit and drink beer and talk with my Dad and his friends while they took a pipe break from working.
One of the amusing things from the trip is one of Dad's friends (the one with the cabin that J was helping at) has remarried recently to a really cool lady he met in BC. She's lived mostly in Victoria and Vancouver so she's pretty outspoken and "modern" as my Mom would say. She brought papadums to supper saturday night - I like this lady already. Add to that her being a vegetarian who likes irish ale and all the old farts at the lake are amused - she said it is funny how many people have "stopped by" for no reason just to get a glimpse of Ray's "odd" new wife. I think she's awesome and sure makes it more interesting for me up there as a break from the slow pace of most of my parent's friends.
I never thought I'd be eating papadums and chutney on the deck at the lake.
Yummy.
Friday, June 16, 2006
The universe exploded 'cause of one man's lie
Mm Hmmm, Sha la....
Got U2 on the brain this morning after my morning walk. I must say that a good soundtrack for a brisk walk by a river on a foggy morning is Achtung Baby. I've been on a U2 kick lately, listening to all of their albums that I have around (even the Passengers CD, which was a favorite of mine for study music in university) and after a week I still can't decide if Zooropa, Achtung Baby or Pop are still my favorite U2 album...although Johnny Cash might swing things to his side in the end.
It is strange how may U2 songs are linked to significant memories of mine...Zooropa is linked to a wonderful New Year's morning a few years ago when I awoke with the realisation that I was engaged, One was the song playing on the airplane channel when I flew over to Ireland, Achtung Baby reminds me of my summer in Vancouver, Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car brings back many a Mr. Macphisto-like singing fest in my car while commuting to a summer job, Lemon reminds me of summer afternoons spent goofing around with my brother and seeing the Pop concert is linked to so many songs and memories...but I digress.
Sorry I can't hang around. I have a bunch to do today and then I'm taking off early with J to go up to the lake and visit my parents for the weekend. I can't wait. Dad's fixed up the place and just maybe we'll be llucky and it's not raining up there. Hope you all out there have a nice weekend!
I gotta go...
Yeah I'm running out of change
There's a lot of things, if I could, I'd rearrange
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Karma chameleon
"Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म from the root kṛ, "to do", [meaning deed] meaning action, effect, destiny) is a term that comprises the entire cycle of cause and effect. Karma is a sum of all that an individual has done, is currently doing and will do. The effects of all deeds actively create present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life, and the pain in others."
OK...
If there were ever an example of karma it was what has happened over the past day or so.
I returned the iPod to the nice girl who lost it and made her happy, doing the right thing.
Today on the way home my tire went flat and as I started to walk my bike home a nice couple stopped and said "flat tire? we can help" and proceeded to take off my wheel, change out the tube and pump it back up for me. AND a bike officer stopped by during this to be sure everything was OK.
I have seen both sides of just doing the right thing, and it IS indeed a good thing.
There is hope for the word...
OK...
If there were ever an example of karma it was what has happened over the past day or so.
I returned the iPod to the nice girl who lost it and made her happy, doing the right thing.
Today on the way home my tire went flat and as I started to walk my bike home a nice couple stopped and said "flat tire? we can help" and proceeded to take off my wheel, change out the tube and pump it back up for me. AND a bike officer stopped by during this to be sure everything was OK.
I have seen both sides of just doing the right thing, and it IS indeed a good thing.
There is hope for the word...
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Indeedly do
It was employee appreciation picnic today - basically we get to dress casual and have a longer lunch hour, and have lunch outside on the campus greens - $2 for a burger, drink and rice krispie square - not too shabby really. When I was getting my food I noticed an iPod nano in a case in the grass. I tried to see if anyone around knew whose it was (I checked the color and playlists so the person would have to give me a bit of info to claim it). I am totally amazed that a few people I asked tried to convince me it was theirs (not very well either...one of them didn't acually know what it was - it just looked expensive to him I guess...). Then later, when I left info with campus security to post vague info and my number to call to claim it, a few losers actually CALLED me to try and claim it...seeing as they couldn't describe anything specific about it or where it where it went missing I told them to try again later (the fact that they didn't really argue was what totally convinced me they were scummy)The girl who did actually lose it was ecstatic and could tell me all manner of wierd things about it, I am sure I got the right person. So I get to return it to her tomorrow...apparently she's a campus groundskeeper and listens to it all the time at work to stay sane. She was so happy. It was great. I like to think doing nice things just adds to the happiness out there and it'll spread it's gooey goodness all about her too.
It got me thinking tho- how many people would just have kept it or tried to sell it? Based on the number of people with enough balls to try and claim it from me, I imagine it's a pretty high number. I just know how crappy I'd feel if I lost my iPod, plus there's no way I could use or sell something I knew was stolen...the guilt would eat me up. I suppose if noone tried to claim it after a couple of month's I'd give it to my nephew or something, as I have one and he wants one. No need to be greedy. I don't know if I could even sell it if I did desperately need the money. It's just plain wrong to me.
So, at the risk of being a little too smug, I feel like I've been good today. I was thinking about leaving a message for the world earlier...I suppose this will be it.
It feels good to do the right thing.
It got me thinking tho- how many people would just have kept it or tried to sell it? Based on the number of people with enough balls to try and claim it from me, I imagine it's a pretty high number. I just know how crappy I'd feel if I lost my iPod, plus there's no way I could use or sell something I knew was stolen...the guilt would eat me up. I suppose if noone tried to claim it after a couple of month's I'd give it to my nephew or something, as I have one and he wants one. No need to be greedy. I don't know if I could even sell it if I did desperately need the money. It's just plain wrong to me.
So, at the risk of being a little too smug, I feel like I've been good today. I was thinking about leaving a message for the world earlier...I suppose this will be it.
It feels good to do the right thing.
With fingernails that shine like justice
I feel like a zillion bucks this morning.
This morning instead of plodding away on the eliptical trainer in the basement I grabbed my shoes and the iPod and went out on the riverpaths and jogged..well OK mostly I walked really fast. But it was amazing. The sun had just come up and there was a breeze and everything is lush and green from the weeks of rain we've had and the river was shiny with all the pelicans having breakfast at the weir. There were a lot of smiling walkers and joggers out. I always say how lucky I am to live where I do, right by miles of trees and riverside paths and I can't believe I've never taken a morning exercise stint outside before.
This will definitely be happening again.
On a totally different topic, I was researching nutrition and portion sizing yesterday (something I have no real concept of, I just eat til I'm full...and sometimes that's a lot!) and I found these 2 links at the Portion Distortion site. They have 2 links to quizzes and images about how portion sizes have changed over the past 20 years...holy crap. No wonder that the recent CBC study found that about 1/4 of Canada is overweight. How could we not be? Fewer and fewer people can even afford to eat healthily and when they do, they eat too much...
Craziness.
All this talk about food has made me hungry. It's my break so I'm going to go and have a coffee and one of my marvelous homemade muffins...which are just the right portion size thank you very much!
This morning instead of plodding away on the eliptical trainer in the basement I grabbed my shoes and the iPod and went out on the riverpaths and jogged..well OK mostly I walked really fast. But it was amazing. The sun had just come up and there was a breeze and everything is lush and green from the weeks of rain we've had and the river was shiny with all the pelicans having breakfast at the weir. There were a lot of smiling walkers and joggers out. I always say how lucky I am to live where I do, right by miles of trees and riverside paths and I can't believe I've never taken a morning exercise stint outside before.
This will definitely be happening again.
On a totally different topic, I was researching nutrition and portion sizing yesterday (something I have no real concept of, I just eat til I'm full...and sometimes that's a lot!) and I found these 2 links at the Portion Distortion site. They have 2 links to quizzes and images about how portion sizes have changed over the past 20 years...holy crap. No wonder that the recent CBC study found that about 1/4 of Canada is overweight. How could we not be? Fewer and fewer people can even afford to eat healthily and when they do, they eat too much...
Craziness.
All this talk about food has made me hungry. It's my break so I'm going to go and have a coffee and one of my marvelous homemade muffins...which are just the right portion size thank you very much!
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
I've got my tin foil hat on standby
The world is trying to talk to me.
A few days ago I was sitting alone and saw a message written on the wall in black marker that said “You are beautiful”
Yesterday there was a big red sticker on the locker next to mine that said “smile”.
This morning as I walked to my lab, there was a scribble on a hall chalkboard that said “You choose to be happy – so have a happy day”
Neat.
I think I’m gonna leave a message for someone else to find…
A few days ago I was sitting alone and saw a message written on the wall in black marker that said “You are beautiful”
Yesterday there was a big red sticker on the locker next to mine that said “smile”.
This morning as I walked to my lab, there was a scribble on a hall chalkboard that said “You choose to be happy – so have a happy day”
Neat.
I think I’m gonna leave a message for someone else to find…
Monday, June 12, 2006
Quote of the day
"Is writing that america is the geo-political equivalent of a mercury drinking mad hatter a political statement?"
~Moby
~Moby
And another thing...
Slow day...since I have nothing really exciting to say, and zero creative juices, but a many minutes to spare, here's a bit of useless info about my life right at this very moment:
Current attire: Jeans, orange v-neck shirt, silver specs, superstar runners
Current mood: Grumpy and out of breath. I forgot my purse at home so I had to bike home and back at lunch.
Current music: "Comfort Eagle" by Cake
Current annoyance: That when I really honestly give it a good try to be all out sloshed for the first time in years I get nothing more than a bit of a buzz. I suppose I should be grateful tho - I was up all perky taking J for breakfast at Smitty's the morning after my sister-in-law's stagette and I think I was the only woman not feeling like death warmed over the next day. I do bowl better after a few beer though.
Current thing: Getting up the nerve to call a painter to paint our living room. I have the money, just not the nerve to commit to getting it done. Not sure why, but it's getting silly.
Current Song in my head: Symphony in C by Cake
Current video in player: The Christmas episode of Dr. Who
Current DVD in player: sis Feet Under Season 2 Disc 2.
Current refreshment: mmmmmmm....cccoooffffffeeeeee.
Current worry: Can we afford what we have to do over the summer with all the family wedding and holiday stuff going on? I never live on credit and I hate spending all our savings. It wierds me out...I refuse to live beyond our means. I think we're nearly the only people we know who try and be this way.
Current thought: Just what does it take to make someone happy? Can it be people? Things? Is true you can't get your happiness from anywhere else but inside of you? And if you've lost it, how do you find it again?
Songs that make me happy:
-"Short Skirt and a Long Jacket" by Cake
-"Receptacle for the Respectable" by Super Furry Animals
-"Go" by Moby
Things that make me happy:
-Looking about at my tidy living room
-Glancing over at J and realizing yet again that he doesn't have any glasses on
-Discovering new delicious food. I made mango syrup with french toast yesterday. Woot.
Three things I'm thankful for:
-Sunshine peeking through the endless clouds and rain FINALLY!
-My iPod...it makes cleaning so much better when I've got my own private concert to listen to while I'm doing it.
-My bike...I can really cruise on that thing if I have to! Made it home and back in 25 minutes!
And so, there you have it. My current state in a nutshell.
Heavy on the nuts.
Bubye.
Current attire: Jeans, orange v-neck shirt, silver specs, superstar runners
Current mood: Grumpy and out of breath. I forgot my purse at home so I had to bike home and back at lunch.
Current music: "Comfort Eagle" by Cake
Current annoyance: That when I really honestly give it a good try to be all out sloshed for the first time in years I get nothing more than a bit of a buzz. I suppose I should be grateful tho - I was up all perky taking J for breakfast at Smitty's the morning after my sister-in-law's stagette and I think I was the only woman not feeling like death warmed over the next day. I do bowl better after a few beer though.
Current thing: Getting up the nerve to call a painter to paint our living room. I have the money, just not the nerve to commit to getting it done. Not sure why, but it's getting silly.
Current Song in my head: Symphony in C by Cake
Current video in player: The Christmas episode of Dr. Who
Current DVD in player: sis Feet Under Season 2 Disc 2.
Current refreshment: mmmmmmm....cccoooffffffeeeeee.
Current worry: Can we afford what we have to do over the summer with all the family wedding and holiday stuff going on? I never live on credit and I hate spending all our savings. It wierds me out...I refuse to live beyond our means. I think we're nearly the only people we know who try and be this way.
Current thought: Just what does it take to make someone happy? Can it be people? Things? Is true you can't get your happiness from anywhere else but inside of you? And if you've lost it, how do you find it again?
Songs that make me happy:
-"Short Skirt and a Long Jacket" by Cake
-"Receptacle for the Respectable" by Super Furry Animals
-"Go" by Moby
Things that make me happy:
-Looking about at my tidy living room
-Glancing over at J and realizing yet again that he doesn't have any glasses on
-Discovering new delicious food. I made mango syrup with french toast yesterday. Woot.
Three things I'm thankful for:
-Sunshine peeking through the endless clouds and rain FINALLY!
-My iPod...it makes cleaning so much better when I've got my own private concert to listen to while I'm doing it.
-My bike...I can really cruise on that thing if I have to! Made it home and back in 25 minutes!
And so, there you have it. My current state in a nutshell.
Heavy on the nuts.
Bubye.
Mysteries and revelations
If I could have any mystery revealed to me...
It would be how to make those I love happy. Not a fake, cosmetic happy, but a contented, OK with themselves and OK with life sort of happy. To find what they really need and help them achieve it.
Life is too short and, for the most part, too good to spend it unhappy.
Smell the roses while you can...
As for one mystery I'd rather not know: when I and those I love will leave this world.
Just another Sunday Scribbling...
It would be how to make those I love happy. Not a fake, cosmetic happy, but a contented, OK with themselves and OK with life sort of happy. To find what they really need and help them achieve it.
Life is too short and, for the most part, too good to spend it unhappy.
Smell the roses while you can...
As for one mystery I'd rather not know: when I and those I love will leave this world.
Just another Sunday Scribbling...
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