Sustainability Soup ...

Mona came by on Friday, bearing yummy juice and Indian food, good stories and laughs. Yay!

Ernie was here for his birthday sleep-over this weekend. We had a lurvly time and wore both of us out.

I got movie passes in the mail from the Smart car people 'cuz The Pink Panther has a Smart car in it. How cool is that? And Hughes has a new Smart car fuel discount of 5.8 cents per litre (about 21.95 cents per US gallon).

Robert has a Sustainability Sunday thing going on and we're all invited to join in.

Like so many, I shred some documents before recycling them. I was at a loss when I found out last winter that shredded paper gums up the works over at our recycling plant. I let the papers pile up while I looked for a solution. It might have come to me sooner if the people who did my yard for me this spring hadn't tried to move my composter to trim around it. They did an amazing job of picking up every single speck of everything that spilled out all over the lawn. I might've been annoyed if I hadn't been laughing so hard. In the end, it took me 'til nearly halfway through the summer to run out of brown matter to balance the green matter in the freshly started composter. I shredded all my papers and mixed them with water, a bucketful at a time, and poured the soup into the composter. Happy compost, happy machines at the recycling plant, happy me.

I tripped over the nasty cold/flu thing folx have had this winter and it stuck this time. There is much tea and honey. There is also avoiding of people who can't help fussing. I know they mean well. Really, I do. And I appreciate it and feel like hell that while I'm saying "thank you" all I really want to do is say "fuck off" and slam a door. I'm really not that crabby when sick ... except when fussed. The APs an' Mona get it, bless 'em.

Epona is officially broken in, so now she can go on road trips. Yay!

I'm waiting to hear from Nina about house sitting while I'm gone to visit the APs in CA in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to the trip. When I get back, Patty and the girls will be coming in from B.C. to visit. I'm very much looking forward to that, too. After that, there ought to be some sort of gainful employment thoughts happening, I guess.

Stuff and Nonsense ...

Daylight:

Length of day: 10:17
Hours of dark: 12:30ish
Sunrise: 7:40 am
Sunset: 5:57 pm
Start of twilight: 7:05 am
End of twilight: 6:32 pm

Current weather: Overcast, light snow showers. -2°C (28°F), windchill -5°C (23°F), wind NNW 8 km/h (5 mph.)

Forecast:

Today.. Flurries. Wind N 20 km/h. High -2°C.
Tonight.. Cloudy. Periods of light snow beginning late this evening. Amount 2 cm. Wind N 20 km/h becoming light this evening. Low -11°C.
Wednesday.. Periods of light snow ending in the morning then cloudy with sunny periods. Wind becoming NW 30 km/h becoming light in the morning. High -5°C.
Thursday.. Periods of snow. Low -16°C. High -8°C.
Friday.. A mix of sun and cloud. Low -18°C. High -13°C.
Saturday.. Sunny. Low -20°C. High -5°C.
Normals for the period.. Low -16°C. High -4°C.

Change from $20 ...

I did the dishes and baked a ladybug-shaped carrot cake and did the litter boxes and had a shower and had lunch and ran errands and came home and did the dishes again and baked another ladybug-shaped carrot cake and made icing and had dinner and did the dishes again, today. The cool part is the errands part. I washed the car, filled the tank from just under half, and picked up enough coconut for two cups in each cake and some left over ... and came away with change from a twenty.

Great Reception ...

Cassandra showed me a great way to put on a jacket today, and then Rose showed me a great way to put on gloves. "Auntie Mary had a good idea. First you make a twist," says she, showing me a fist, "then you put it in the glove and go PFOO!" says she, opening up her fist and not getting the fingers into the glove's fingers. But she was paying attention to what she was doing (instead of off on some mission, while someone else tries to cram her hand into the glove) and got them straightened out soon enough. We had a grand visit at Mary and Robin's, with haircuts and playing, and yacking, and preparing and sharing of food (we feast well), and computer teching by Pete, and visiting the cats and chickens (like cats, chickens are soft, except for the sharp bits) and horses, and going for a walk along the frozen creek. Along the way to the creek, Rose showed me rabbit eggs that had baby mice in them (they looked for all the world like rocks ... good thing she was along to enlighten me).

Before I went to Mona and Pete's, I stopped for groceries. There was a relatively new, sparkly-clean pick-up in the parking lot with a rather tall step ladder standing open in the box. It was tied with those ratchet-type webbing straps and had an old-style TV antenna attached to the top. There was also an older sedan with a pentastar hood ornament to which had been duct taped a canadian flag on a stick. There was an Alberta flag on the antenna, flying at half mast.

Fall And Holding ...

It was seven degrees yesterday. I saw four Harleys (granted, three of them were together, but still!) out and about. I'm beginning to wonder if we're going to get winter at all this year.

Brandon and I haven't been very good at our dinnerandamovieTuesdays, but managed one on Wednesday this week. We watched XXX and Lord of War. The latter was far better than the former, but XXX does have a good storyline, some neat blinkies (unfortunately, mostly used up in the intro), and a high cheese factor. Lord of War was good and I was blown away by the CGI in the intro.

Rafe is in town for a few days before heading back south, so we hung out and geeked and ordered Chinese and watched some Farscape on Thursday.

I went for second breakfast with Barbara, Anailese and Corbin yesterday. That little Corbin was dealt a crumby hand and still manages an incredibly infectious smile and laugh. Anailese is growing like a weed. Her face changes weekly, almost daily sometimes. She's speaking in full sentences and bossy ones at that!

I'm crabby about having a head full of goo. I keep getting one day where I feel good, then back to sinuses and fever and ick. And I'm sick of running into piles and shelves full of Billy's stuff, so I'm bagging it up to cart off to Goodwill. If I get ambitious, I'll make a Goodwill run and wash the car on the way home, but I'm not feeling terribly ambitious at the moment. I'm also doing laundry and other housework today, and trying out the green pie not-recipe. I'm going to bake a cake for Anailese's birthday party, next weekend, and I want to try out the ladybug pan Barbara got, as well as try out colouring the icing with beet powder and cocoa, so I'll do a trial run today.

I'm off to Mona and Pete's tomorrow, then Mona, Pete, Rose, Cassandra and I are off to Mary and Robin's for the afternoon. I'll take the green pie and cake out there for snacks.

Epona has just over 1400 km. now. Another 100 and she'll be done her breaking-in period. I'm feeling a Nelson run coming up.

Stuff and Nonsense ...

Daylight:

Length of day: 9:10
Hours of dark: 13:40ish
Sunrise: 8:14 am
Sunset: 5:24 pm
Start of twilight: 7:36 am
End of twilight: 6:01 pm

Current weather: Mostly Cloudy. -1°C (33°F), windchill -4°C (24°F), humidity 64%, wind SE 14.4 km/h (9 mph.), barometer 29.25 in. Hg

Forecast:

Today.. Cloudy. 60% chance of flurries early this afternoon and of rain showers this afternoon. Wind SE 20 km/h becoming light this afternoon. High 4°C.
Tonight.. Cloudy. Low -7°C.
Sunday.. Cloudy becoming sunny with cloudy periods in the afternoon. Wind becoming NW 30 km/h gusting to 50 km/h late in the morning. High -5°C.
Monday.. Sunny. Low -11°C. High -4°C.
Tuesday.. Sunny. Low -11°C. High 1°C.
Wednesday.. Sunny. Windy. Low -3°C. High 4°C.
Normals for the period.. Low -18°C. High -6°C.