Restructuring and Rebuilding. A Review.

I am off work this week. And it's gonna be HOT and HUMID all week long. I have a bunch of errands to run this week - dog to the vet, passport renewal, RJ wants to see an exhibit at the Art Gallery, moving some stuff around, more picture hanging - drilling holes in walls, etc. It's going to be a good week.

We went to the beach yesterday. It was a perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky and a little cooler than the city.

I started to read the second Larson book - not sure I am going to read it - I really don't like that violent suspense filled tension and creepy stuff. Much prefer a good murder police procedural.

Did I mention I made strawberry jam last weekend? I haven't made jam in years because we were always going to camp when strawberries were at their peak. I was downtown in the Market last weekend and there were some really luscious Quebec berries so I bought a large flat and made about 12 quarts of jam. Already gave away two. It's sweet but oh so yummy. We've been eating strawberry shortcake all week too.



I got through the wedding anniversary date. I completely forgot until two days later. I guess that's progress. I also didn't remember the day XSU left. I still get angry about that day, but it's tempered quite a bit now. I do tell the story whenever I can, particularly to people who know the XSU, petty I suspect but it's therapy.

CBC Radio has been playing an excellent excellent documentary series about divorce. Five hours all together in thirty minute shows. And this is public readio folks - no commercials. It discussed everything from initial break up, adultery, feelings and emotions, the immigrant experience ( oy!) children of divorce, and more. It was very informative. They can't put it into a podcast because of the music they used (not good thinking, but that's a quibble) The series is called ASUNDER. I highly recommend listening. ( for some reason again Blogger isn't highlighting the word ASUNDER the link is embedded - go for it) There are a variety of experiences, kids and adult children talk about their parents break up, the tumultuous variety of emotions, and some serious bad behavior was worth it. There will be something in this series for anyone who has gone through this. I was able to relate to some segments quite well, and some moments that made me think, thank goodness my experience wasn't *that* bad! There are some really wacky, nasty people out there. Makes my idea of revenge or vengeance look like amateur hour.

It appears I am restruturing not too badly.

It's been a few days......

It's been a few days eh? I've just been off doing other things, and/or allowing the child to use my laptop. Which I should not do. Since she started using my laptop I seem to have this bizarre redirect virus which takes every link and sends it to some cheap hack site. NOT impressed. Must clean that up.

So, tried to hang more curtains and pictures and created humonguous holes in my wall. Don't know why it snafu'd like that. Must have been the bragging I did.

Next DIY lesson - patching drywall! Very fine sandpaper is my friend. So is a good shop vac to pick up all the dry wall dust, What a mess! I see films of dry wall dust in close proximity to every hole I drilled and patched.

So the FB friends all know - I seem to have won this award from my university alumni association. I'll be going to pick it up and the Rebel wants to come with me. Hmmm hanging out with my librarian buddies has never been her cup of tea but it would appear she wants to be there. Okay. She can come. My sister in law has invited us to stay at her place. Apparently she likes me better than she likes her brother, the XSU. The only thing I have to say about that is BWA HA HA HA .

Ten days vacation starting tomorrow. August 27th. Wedding anniversary date. Would have been 27 years. WhatEver. I'll be fine. Moving right along. No grand plans for the time off. ( see above paragraph re: dry wall dust) My DIY projects are just moving right along.

NASCAR is in Montreal on Sunday. It's REALLY tempting to drive down for the day, park the car, hop the subway and get to the track. I am developing a NASCAR fixation. A serious one. Need to save my pennies and get myself to Daytona, Indianapolis, AND Taladaga and Watkins Glen again, of course.

Just finished the first Steig Larsson book, ready for book two now. Don't expect to see me here til that one's done.

Tool Time - How hard can it be? (thanks Mag Ruffman)

How hard can it be to use a drill if you've never used one before? It's yet another one of those things that as a separated, independent woman with no SU around, I have to educate myself.

I need to hang curtains and I need to mount the curtain rods before the curtains will hang. I've never done this before so I watched about four Youtube videos to figure out what I needed to do. Doesn't seem too difficult except for the part about using a drill. I have never used one before. Can't be too tough, can it?

I found a drill in the garage. I think it must belong to Rebel's BF. It doesn't look like anything the XSU would use. Not very heavy. Kinda girly even.

Okay. No power supply attached to it. Must be one of the cordless variety. Yep.... there's the charger right next to it.

Hmmmm nothing fits into the charger. I can't figure out how to charge the darn thing. I went to the Internet and found the Makita website and found a diagram of the drill to figure out how to get to the charger and battery. Okay..... looks like this little plate at the bottom of the drill comes off. Screw driver, I need a screw driver to unscrew the plate to get the batter out to charge it.

Yep, that works. Plate comes off, battery comes out - into the charger.

In the meantime, I went into the dining room and marked the wall next to the windows where I wanted to put the curtain rods. That was step two on most of the videos I watched. Step one was to figure out if I had studs behind the wall or just the gyprock.

I couldn't find my level. That darn thing was everywhere - whenever I didn't need it there it was in front of me, and of course, when I finally need it - coulnd't find it anywhere. Luckily, I had this teeny tiny level that I got at a conference - it's only aobut 10 cms. long but it did the job. Slowly, but I got the lines I needed.

Back to the drill. How do I get the drill bit to stay inside the drilling thingamajiggy? Doesn't snap in. There doesn't seem to be a way to pop it in. Now WHAT? Back to YouTube. Thank goodness for You Tube. I found a video that shows how to pop a drill bit in. Okay... try and turn that round part. Oh wow! It works! Cool!

Okay... drill bit in. Give it a shot.... this. baby. has. no. power. none. Figures, since it belongs to Rebel's BF. Weak. It works *just enough.* Not well, but it will get the job done. Probably just as well, as I will no doubt make a mess of the wall if I try and use some Tim-Taylor-Tool-Time-More-Power kinda drill.

It's now or never. Popped that drill into the wall. Made a hole. Popped one of those plastic anchor thingys into the wall, popped the screw back in, did it a second time and LOOK AT THAT!

It worked! Now, gotta do it all over again. BEvERage.... I *need* a BEvERage.

side remark - I now understand why men need BEvERages with their drills. Although it's probably NOT safe to drink and drill, I had to do it. Besides, it was a Bud Light - left over from the NASCAR race - barely a real BEvERage.

OKAY Round 2! One more side to put up there. Wow, did this one in half the time I did the first one. Learning curve achieved. Drill sucks. I need MORE POWER!

Ironed the curtains. Hung them up. Next window. Do it all again. I want my own drill.

Bacon and fire fighters

I nearly burned my house down today. All it took was five pieces of bacon in the corelle glass skillet on my stove. Blondie, get the soon to be fire fighter. He'll love this story.

I stayed home from work today and decided to make myself a big breakfast. I took the bacon out, put it in the pan, turned the stove on and went looking for the eggs, bread, cheese and stuff. Now I *thought* I had turned the stove down and went upstairs to doing something - as if I can remember what now. I took a few minutes longer than I should have and then remembered - OH! coffee will be perking, bacon will be sizzling.

Sizzling?!?! It was so smoky in my kitchen I could barely see! And it happend just.like.that!
So... I picked the skillet up off the element. DUMB ass move that was. It wasn't hot so I didn't burn any skin off this time! NO fire. Just a whole lot of smoke. Luckily I have the brand new exhaust system over the stove and turned that baby up on high so the smoke was directed up out of the kitchen at that point.

I took the baking soda out of the cupboard where I keep it for stove fires - yeah... I've done this before but never with grease... and dumped about a quarter of a box of soda all over the blackened bacon to see if the smoke would dissipate. It did. I am smart enough to know - no water! The two new fans in the bathrooms seemed to help as well.

By this point the smoke is clearing so I took the skillet outside and left it on the the little table I have out there. I had to open the windows to clear the rest of the smoke, so my nice cool house heated and humidified up in under twenty minutes. It's took the following 4-5 hours to cool the place down again.

At this point you may well ask "Smoke alarm?" Oh yes. There is one right in the kitchen. I had taken the battery out one evening when my house guest was here a couple of weeks ago. Something I had cooked in my oven - I think it was the Shephards Pie must have over flowed the pan and there was grease at the bottom of my oven causing the smoke detector to go off every time I opened the oven door, ( more smoky burned food) until once again, I quelled it with baking soda. I had forgotten to put the battery back. I know, I know, I know.

I was seriously impressed with all the smoke. And how quickly it hit and rose up to the ceiling. I could see how it could have gone really bad if I had left it any longer. I have a guardian angel looking after me. It still smells a bit in here.

On the other hand, hunky fire fighters might have arrived to save the scene and resue things. On the other hand my scrapbooks could have been ruined and I would have cried for weeks.

I'll try and think of other ways to meet the hunky firefighters. And there wasn't any bacon left for round two either.

Wordless Wednesday

NASCAR WRAP UP

I had a GREAT time in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. My goodness it's pretty down there. And the race track at Watkins Glen is surrounded by the rolling hills and lakes and some amazing wine country. The weather was perfect. Okay..... a little hot, but I plastered on the SPF 60 and didn't even turn the slightest shade of red at all.

Both races - one Saturday and one Sunday were great fun and exciting. A couple of crashes - a bunch of caution flags. Even with my not so great little Canon camera I got some good images and even video. If you're my friend on FB - turn the volume up on your speakers and you'll get an idea of how loud it is when those cars zoom zoom by. I am so hooked. I am ready to go to Montreal - for the race at the end of August. Really. That's an easy day trip too. I am going to check out the ticket prices as soon as I finish this blog entry.

I had half a mind to call RJ while at the track - she's down in Nova Scotia now with her dad - I wanted to tell her to put the phone to her dad's ear as the cars thundered by around the straight away, but figured - why rub it in. XSU would only tell me one of a couple of things: 1- what a waste of my money, and/or 2 - he'd rather watch the race on tv than live. Seriously.

I'll never forget when I was doing the divorce busting thing and working in the private sector. I managed to score some Canadiens tickets at the old Forum. This was big. Getting seats in the Forum is always next to impossible. But I got them.We took the girls and went to Montreal for the weekend after he said at least once he didn't want to go. I think Lily was on stand by for that one. I owe her a trip now I guess. Lily? Montreal at the end of August if you're not on a bike killing yourself on some trail run??? Rather than accepting the tickets and enjoying the weekend, he made sure to tell me more than once that watching the game on tv was better. What else can you do with someone like that EXCEPT leave.

All in all a good time was had by all at *The Glen.* There was even some shopping involved at the local Target store along the way home in Ithaca. Jets were in training in the next town over, so I gather American foot ball season will be starting soon. The town was all over that stuff. Meanwhile we up here in the north are about half way through football season and I am trying to score tickets to the Grey Cup game. ( yeah that should be easy)

AS we were driving home - about 4 hours or so away, I got a call from Rebel wondering when I'd get home. She was at the hospital for some annual tests and didn't have money or bus tickets to get home and of course the car her father gave her was being driven by the loser BF. AND he couldn't pick her up either because he didn't have money to pay for his cell. ANd because all her friends are total losers and she is the only one with a vehicle and license none of her friends could help her. I was really enjoying how adult she claims to be yet I get a call at least every second or third day looking for me to save her. I bite my tongue and say NOTHING about her bf or her lack for foresight. NOT saving her much any longer. NOT my problem at all.

Now... Blondie - don't forget to take a parka and boots. You're heading to Alaska. You'll need that protection from the horse and deer flies and mosquitos! And night eye mask. The sun is constant. Don't foget the shades.

On my way to NASCAR!

Go ahead - make my day - or someone else's

Something is going on with FireFox and google on this laptop of mine. Note to self - don't let the little Rebel Junior use this thing any time again. Every time I try to get into Blogger I get bounced to other websites and I get google analytics showing up in the URL bar.
She who is technically challenged on a good day is *totally* frustrated. Can you hear the whine -
"I JUST want to post an entry on my blog. WHAT is the problem?!?!? " whine over. Where's the wine! So I switched to IE and we'll see how well this goes.

I am not really scurrying but I am loping along putting away laundry, sweeping up and running a few errands before leaving for the mini vacay to the Finger Lakes region of New York for the big race weekend.

The girls are still convinced there is a man involved. I have not dissuaded them. chuckle chuckle. ( do people still chuckle instead of LOLing?)

I have someone staying with the dog. A young woman who works for me. She brought her boyfriend over last night. OY! She's got her masters degree (of course in my line a requirement) and is 25 years old, maybe 26. Her parents are younger than me. Her bf - 21 years old. OMG!!! He's younger than Rebel, by a year!!! He grew up locally and I wonder if my daughter knows him or any of his friends. Interesting dynamics with the two of them. Young woman was so totally bossy, and almost answering questions when I directed to him. They've been dating a year now, and she seems smitten, but watching from where I sit, I'd love to talk to his parents. She's quite a spitfire and very independent. I've had to temper her a little at work, but she's doing a great job and will continue to get better. As for the BF... who knows. another chuckle. OKAY people - I need an icon for a chuckle.

Ran into a guy at work yesterday who later sent me a facebook message : "good to see you yesterday Marie, I've never seen you so excited and happy looking. Enjoy your NASCAR holiday!" Now I see this guy at meetings or in the halls once in awhile, we have those usualy work type conversations and that's about it. I've supported some of his teams but not a great deal of stuff. But what a nice way to end my day yesterday.

Send someone a nice note today - it will make their day.

It's a twofer!

I've missed the Sunday snippets and a few other posts lately. It's been a grad school reunion week this week.

Had a friend visiting over the weekend. I've known him for thirty years. We went to grad school together. Had a great visit with him as we joined another friend who lives out in the country. Just before him, another friend from grad school was visiting from New Zealand. A couple of other girls arrived from Toronto and we had a wonderful dinner - what a great time. We always manage to pick up where we left off the last time we got together. These girls have been there for me. I would pitch in for any of them any time!

Rebel keeps coming around looking for something. She called me on the weekend asking me to give her some money for gas. I told her to come and get it, as I was busy and wasn't going to deliver. She claims she didn't even have enough money to get herself to my place. I told her too bad so sad, I was busy and wasn't going to run on demand. That felt good.

I really hope she is keeping track of this stuff. That boyfriend of hers doesn't seem to be much support. But I know this already. Can't do much about it.

I need to buy a small step ladder. I can't reach the light in the ceiling going down to my basement. I tried standing on a chair but could barely reach the lamp shade to remove it. ARGH. I am sure a little ladder will come in handy. But I'd rather spend money on something else. Anything else.

I have someone staying at the house looking after the dog while I am gone to the races. It's one of my young employees at work. Guess I am going to really have to get to work to tidy things up. Hate to think she'd yak about state of my affairs. LOL.. That Marie, great at her job, wonderful with people, but oy! clutter, dust bunnies and bad food in the fridge. ( with all due respect to the bad food, it does make it to the green bin on garbage day!)

Thought I'd get this done before midnight. But apparently not. So this is a twofer. Here's Wordless Wednesday right here... under this line.