Monday, July 31, 2006

Leanna's Saturday Soiree

We had a really nice weekend.

It didn't start off great, but it certainly ended well. I spent the majority of Friday pulling out what little hair I have left... trying to reinstall windows on my animation computer. Darrell had to do a late shoot, so I ended up still here at 9:30... still installing no less. The computer kept crashing and coming up with errors, and then I finally figured out that it was overheating. I finally got everything going, but had to redo it this morning.


Saturday we went over to Kingston Penn for Cristi's BBQ/camp out. It was a really good time. We brought the dogs and our neighbour Sylvia followed us over. She brought her dog as well, but he is a little more high maintenance and can't really be left to his own devises without wandering off, so she didn't end up staying. Elton and Tiff had a great time playing in the pong with Destiny's golden retriever Russell (it was his birthday and there was even cake.) When Chad and Nancy arrived they brought Bailey (chocolate lab) who also joined in the fun. We actually had the full array of retreivers when you think of it, a Black, yellow and Chocolate lab as well as a golden retriever.

A couple of times early in the party Mother nature opened up and went torrential on us, but then it cleared up and we had a perfect evening. Everyone brought salads and Cristi BBQ'd Hotdogs and Hamburgers. I made a huge potatoe salad and got quite a few compliments on it, which is pretty cool since I don't even like potatoe salad. A lot of people showed up and if I tried to list them all I'd miss someone so I won't. We threw frisbees for the dogs, sat around the fire and sang a few songs, there were water noodle wars in the pool, and a little frog jumped up Chad's pantleg and made him squeal like a little girl.... it was a really really good time. We had come prepared to camp, but around 2:30am decided to go home instead. We decided it would be too much hassle to set up the tent in the dark and weren't too keen on sharing it with two soaking wet dogs.

Sunday we got to some housecleaning that we've been putting off and did a little yard work. brain and Helen popped over in the evening and we watched a few episodes of Absolutely fabulous.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Friday Feast June 28, 2006

Appetizer
What's the funniest dream you can remember having?
I don't know that it's funny but, lately I've been having the same sort of dream really often. It involves being abducted by aliens (or someone from the future... it varies)And they use advanced science to clone my body and regrow it then transfer me into it. They stop the growth process at 26 instead of letting it catch up to 35 and of course there aren't all the scars and complications that came from battling cancer twice in one lifetime. I'm not sure if it's a dream or just wishful thinking.... here's hoping it's a premonition

Soup
If you were a dog, what breed would you be, and why?
I'd be a labradour Retreiver... duh. First clue.... I have two of them. Labs are the pants down the best dog breed going. They are smart, gentle, patient, extremely cuddly, and they're large enough and have a serious enough sounding bark that you'd think twice about entering uninvited.

Salad
Continue this sentence: "I get confused when..."
I get confused when I see a country of almost completely defencless innocent civilians having brutal destructive force rain down on them in response to a kidnapping by a small militant group. Yet the world "superpower" condones and encourages the Agressive Country while the rest of the free world calls for an immediate ceasefire. That confuses me

Main Course
Name two things that need to be done, but you are procrastinating in completing.
I desperately need to do a thorough cleaning on the house.
We also have to get to the molding inthe bedroom... We have all the wood, there just hasn't been a string of nice enough days to pull all the tools up into the driveway and plane it all.

Dessert
When was the last time you tried something new, and what was it?
Wednesday... Helen's Chaocolate cake with half a bottle of Triplesec.... it was definitely something new... and it was awsome.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Thursday

That's about all I can say about today so far... it's Thursday. AT least the sun is out and it looks like a nice day. Hopefully it holds until after work and doesn't change to fog by then. I am having to reformatt my animation computer thanks to a windows security update that screwed everything up. I always have the windows updater turned off.. always, but my virus scanner found vulnerabilities and asked if I wanted to update... and completely not thinking like a total moron I pressed ok... I knew it was a mistake the minute I pressed the button, but hindsight and all. I think it was kind of coming close to it's best by date anyway. Windows seems to have a best by date for all it's installations... it seems to run great for about six months and then things start acting all squirely, and inevitably you have to wipe everything out and start over.

Last night was nice. I went over to the Bond's for dinner. Chad and Nancey and Bertis were there also. Darrell was suposed to come, but couldn't because he had a bunch of work thrust upon him at the last minute. Helen made a fantastic meal and a really great chocolate cake with about half a bottle of triple sec in it. I even felt a bit of a buzz near the end of my piece.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

It's only Tuesday?

We had a really nice weekend despite the terrible weather. At times like this I wish I was back in BC.... They're having a heat wave, I would gladly trade them all this rain and fog. You know you're having too much rain, when even the plants in your flower beds are drooping and starting to look wilted.

Friday we dropped out to Brain and Helen's after work, for a few drinks. Bertis was there as well of course.

Saturday was a relaxing day. I managed to sray a couple of my trees. All the rain has made it impossible and the caterpillars are everywhere. They've almost completely devastated my Pear tree. My first round of sraying did very little as there wasn't a dry enough period for it to have any effect. The spray was basically washed away almost as soon as it was on.

Sunday we took a drive out to Upham to look at hotubs. We aren't getting one in the imediate future mind you, but with a pruchase like that you need to start looking around and finding out what you need etc long before. It's not the kind of thing you just pop into Home depot and decide you want one day, or at least it shouldn't be. Our plans right now are to pour a concrete pad in the back where we intend to build our lower deck, and seeing as this is eventually where we want to put a hottub, we figured we should go shop around and find out if there was anything specific we needed to do as far as the concrete pad goes. The tub probably won't be in the budget until next spring at the earliest.

Monday was work as usual. On the way home I noticed a bunch of Teens from Quispamsis out on the side of the highway by the dolan road Irving with their Brandon Banners and plaques, urgin everyone to vote for him on Canadian Idol. I've only ever watched a couple episodes of that show in the past... I ahve no patience or tolerance for the episodes in the beginning with the awful auditions etc, but don't mind tuning in near the end when all the dead weight has been sifted through. I descided to turn it on last night and see if Brandon was all he's cracked up to be. OMG what an awful show! I turned it off halfway through, all I heard were very flat, toneless, mediochore at best singers, and the judges would gush at them about how wonderful them were after every performance... it was pitiful. I felt like I was watching a Junior Highschool talent show or something like that. I can't believe that's the best they could find from across the country. Maybe it's time to reevaluate the age restriction and let some older people with a little more vocal experience into the contest. It was just bloody painful listening to it, and I won't be doing it again.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Steady as she goes.

We have been plugging away at work and home. There's not a lot that's going on of any note though.

The weekend was nice. We went to Bertis' place on Friday for Brian's Birthday celebration. We spent the evening sitting out on the front porch, and had burgers and an amazing cake Bertis made. It was a beautiful night and he has a great view of the river. As alway we had alot of laughs and more than a couple martinis (although I only had a couple beer early in the evening as I was driving).

Saturday we got the final trellis put up on our flower boxes, and I moved my Clematis over to it. It is just a tiny starter plant and has an entire 8x4 foot trellis to fill so it may take awhile. I was going to move the wysteria over as well and leave the first trellis for the Kiwi vines, but it just seems so ideally situated at the corner of the house soaking up both morning and afternoon sun that I left it there. Hopefully it doesn't have to fight too hard for space with the kiwi... at any rate I'll cut back anyone who steps out of line hahaha. If the wysteria survives the winter, I'll get another one next spring for the bottom trellis, but they're too expensive to experiment with so I'm sticking to just the one for now.

We seemed to be really busy over the weekend working around the yard etc, but we didn't do anything big. Just lots of little maintenance type thing... mowing the grass, weeding, pruning trees.. that kind of thing. Of course we made a trip to the lake so the dogs could go for a swim (that kind of goes without saying since the lake is a five minute walk from the house).

I've been neglecting my house plants lately, but they don't seem to mind. House plants actually thrive on a little neglect from time to time. My cocoa tree is going crazy with all the heat and humidity... it has tonnes of new growth and blooms on it... I even had to cut a couple branches back to keep it out of the shower curtain (I am trying to encourage it to grow up as compared to out). I still haven't figured out how to get cuttings that will actually root from it yet. Sticking them in water doesn't work, rooting powder and soil don't seem to do the trick either. I tried slicing into the branch, adding rooting powder and some moist soil and then wrapping it with cling wrap while it was still attached to the tree, but I think I may have done it wrong. If any Horticulturists out there have any suggestions I would much appreciate it.

All in all it was a pretty lowkey relaxing kind of weekend.

Monday was back to work... still working on changes to my animation (really starting to lose interest in the project too which means it's time to finish it and get it gone). I've got another big animation just waiting for me to finish this one, and I'm itching to get to it.. plus I'm also working on a commercial for Rogers TV listing that involves some animation (just waiting for a final script). Busy Busy Busy. Darrell and Mike are booked solid with stuff as well, so it's heads down and full steam ahead for the next while.

After work Darrell and I popped over to the west side for dinner at Romanos. As always the food was great.. he had the Spagetti and Meatballs, and I had the Lasagne... it was a really nice treat.

Monday, July 10, 2006

The Sun finally the sun

What an awsome weekend. It was up near 30 degrees everyday and the sun was shining.
Friday started out not so good... working with a hang over is never fun. The work day ended not so good too... we drove home via our regular route, but got onto the highway at the Crown street onramp and found ourselves Bumper to bumper all the way to Rothesay Rd... with nowhere to get off in between. It was rediculous, and took nearly 30 minutes to drive that short distance. Then without any seeming reason whatsoever the traffic just started moving normally again. No Construction or signs of an accident or anything. I felt ripped off really... if I'm going to be bumper to bumper for that length of time, at the end of it I expect to see a reason why..... but there was nothing. For all anyone knows there could've been two cars driving 10 km per hour side by side on the highway just for the shits and giggles of it all. Of course once you do get going again you inevitably have those assholes who start weaving from lane to lane and tailgating everyone they think isn't going fast enough... because they are trying to make up the time they lost. (Which is never going to happen) With traffic that tightly packed they are a huge hazzard. If I were to win a lottery I'd be a dangerous person.... I'd go out and buy myself an old old car.. one of those old steel tanks like an old chyrsler or something and put some heavy duty reinforced bumpers on it.... then god help the asshole that tailgates me in their little peice of alluminum crap cause I'd just slam on the brakes and it would be their fault for not following at a safe distance.

Anyway onto other things. We, of course, spent the entire weekend working in the yard. Although it wasn't heavy duty work like we've been doing. I got my fruit trees sprayed, did a little gardening, Stained some trellis, Darrell pressure washed the side of the house, moved his wood pile, spread some gardening soil into the holes in the new lawn and put out more lawn seed. Just simple chores basically. We popped out to Brunswick Nurseries and got a nice little Sumac tree, and took the dogs to the lake. All in all a pretty relaxing weekend.

I also had a first this weekend.. I saw my first firefly. Seriously.. I've never actually seen one before. Darrell was talking about all the fireflies he saw across the street the night before and I said I'd never seen one so he went right out and caught one. I don't think there are fireflies in the interior of BC where I was raised... so that's probably how I've lived this long without seeing them. Of course I could be wrong... they might be there... I just never saw them.

Friday, July 07, 2006

End of a Long Week

The week after a long weekend always seems so long for some reason. This one was particularly long all things considered.

I attended the visitation for Jamie on Wednesday evening along with Bertis and Brian and Helen. I've never actually been to one before so I didn't know exactly what to do. There were lots of pictures of Jamie all around the room mounted on big poster paper and in various albums, and then there was ther recieving line where you talked to the family and got to kneel by the coffin to say your last goodbyes. I never know what to say to someone in that instance.... I'm sorry seems really hollow... so I basically made light conversation about how I knew him and gave Kizzy a big hug. There were a lot of people there and the line was quite long so we didn't stay long after going through.

Thursday morning I rushed through a quick ad for Rogers and then attended the funeral. I've never been to Catholic service of any kind before that I can recall, so I really didn't know what to expect... and there seems to be a lot of user knowledge involved in Catholic services. I have nothing to compare it to, but was told by a few people that by Catholic standards it was a fairly modern and light service. The Padre said some very nice things about Jamie, and Bob and Stephen both did readings. All the Poll bearers came in wearing bright Hawaiian shirts and I teared up when I saw them... I think most people did. I didn't get to know Jamie as well as I would have liked to in the short time I knew him, but I know there will be a noticable void in the places he once occupied. No cast party is ever going to be the same and neither will any production. He was definitely a one of a kind original.

After the service Kizzy had a big BBQ back at their house. It was the kind of celebration Jamie would have really appreciated, except nothing accidentally caught fire. There was lots and lots of food and drink, and singing and reminicing. It was a really good time and I stayed way too late and drank way too much.... so work this morning is not such a good time.

I remember the last BBQ at their place... last Canada Day, when Jamie was trying to get the Fire in the pit going and ended up lighting the gas can on fire... and it was also the day he proposed to Kizzy. It's so unfair they didn't have more time together. I've always believed that everything happens for a reason, but when someone dies so young it's hard to think what that reason could be.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Jamie

I just visited Dre's Blog to see how her weekend was and got very sad news. I don't even know what to say... so I won't say anything except I'll really miss you Jamie.

I just copied and pasted this from Dre's Site

Jamie

After a courageous battle with cancer, the death of James "Jamie" Harold Williams Jr., of Saint John, beloved husband of Kizzy Kaye, occurred on Monday, July 3, 2006 at the Saint John Regional Hospital. Born in Montreal, PQ on June 3, 1961, he was the son of James H. "Sonny" and Helene (Comeau) Williams of Saint John.

Resting at BrenanĂ­s Select Community Funeral Home, 111 Paradise Row, Saint John (634-7424), with visiting on Tuesday, July 4, 2006 from 7-9 pm and Wednesday, July 5, 2006 from 2-4 and 7-9 PM. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Pius X Church, Somerset Street, on Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 11:00 AM, followed by cremation. In lieu of flowers remembrances may be made to a charity of the donorĂ­s choice.

Further details: www.brenansfh.com

Canada Day long Weekend

The sun managed to poke out a few time this weekend and we made the most of every moment. All the Rain was really starting to wear me out.

Friday after work we headed out to the old neighborhood, to George and Lorretta's, for Shauna's Graduation Dinner. They had a big chinese feast, enough to feed about 45 people... so they will be eating chinese food for some time. It was fun to see everyone... we haven't been out there for a few weeks.

Saturday was Canada Day and Bertis' Birthday celebration at Brian & Helen's. Bertis' birthday was Friday, but he wanted to run the Marathon or 10 k or something like that on Canada Day, so we postponed celebrating until Saturday. For the most part it was quite a nice day, then the rain came and spoiled our plans to have a bonfire and Smores. Brian managed to BBQ some burgers just before the rain started and ended up finishing them in the downpour. We did Chocolate Fondu with Pineapple and Strawberries, and had a pretty awsome Birthday Cake that Brian ordered. Brian is the official cake picker outer since he has done such a good job on both my birthday and now Bertis'. We also had lots of appletinnis. Good times.

Sunday I was feeling a little hung over. It was raining all day which didn't help the way I felt any. I ended up coming into work to get the last things in place on my animation and start it rendering. It's such a long project that it's a 39 hour Render and as I type, on Tuesday Morning, there is still three hours to go.

Monday was Gorgeous! One of the nicest days of the summer so far. After so much miserable weather, when the sun does peek out, you feel like you have to take full advantage of it so you end up working your ass off. At least we do anyway. I did the laundry and dried it on the clothes line. (I will let the clothes pile up in the summer if the weather isn't good enough to use the clothes line... I absolutely will not waste the money or power to run the dryer when the sun and wind are out there and absolutely free.) It blows my mind to see ads in Ontario asking people to restrict their airconditioner use and conserve power so there isn't another massive outage like last year, yet at the same time in Darrell's Parents neighbourhood in Barrie there is a bylaw against clothes lines. You can't have a clothes line in your own yard... that you mortgaged and pay taxes on.. even though they want you conserve energy... bullshit if you ask me.
Anyway.... when we were building our flower boxes I accidentally bought one can of stain that was opaque in stead of semi tranparent like the rest, so I hualed it out and stained the front steps. Darrell changed the front brakes on my car, we filled the last of the boxes with soil and plants, and basically soaked up the sun. Hopefully soon, we will have a weekend with nice weather all around, and nothing to do but sit on the deck and enjoy it.