Too Much Time Being Wasted

Tired of the Shoe Thing

I'm tired of the over-used thing about women and shoes. I don't care much about shoes. I have a pair for summer and a pair for winter. When one wears out I buy more. I don't drop everything for a shoe sale. I don't think shoe shopping is a great way to spend an afternoon. Seems there has been a thing in the media about how much women love shoes.

I think it began with Caroline in the City (or whatever that show was called) where her men friends created a cartoon about women never having enough shoes. OK, ha ha ha. It didn't make sense to me cause I don't know any women like that. But, sure, I'll go along with it.

Since then I keep seeing more of the shoe thing. It seems to be growing and gaining momentum. Enough already. Not all women have a shoe fetish. I expect it's only a very few in fact.

Doodle Week: Favourite Animal

Doodle Week - Cats are one of my favourite animals. I'd also pick dragons, though they aren't domesticated yet. ;)

Photo Challenge Meme

Photo Challenge Meme - Find a photo from your archives or directories or however you sort them out. Look for "directory #6 in my photo-directory and photo #6" or just kind of pick one if you are like me and don't have them organized in any real way.

Vector Drawing Tips Link

Vector Drawing Tips - I need to start figuring out how to use the graphic software I have had for years. Kind of typical of me that I am looking at the latest version of Paint Shop Pro, now part of Corel instead of Jasc, yet I have not done more than use it for a screen capture a couple of times. I really need to get to work on it rather than just upgrade the software. Why do I so often do this sort of thing? I have a stack of books about CSS and HTML and web design in general yet I have only read one of them and not even totally finished that one.

Doodle Week: Doodle Bouquet

Doodle Week

Dragon ASCII Art

Your One Day of Self Indulgence?

Win some M&M's from A Quad Mom Named Suz Tell her about your day of indulgence. What would you do if you could do anything and everything in the world, your one day of self indulgence?

This is my day of indulgence:

My day would start with a handsome and charming chauffeur coming to my door very early in the morning. I'd direct him to several places where there are abandoned farmhouses in the area. I'd take all the photos I could, until I was too cold to do any more and the light was fading. In between there would be stops for coffee and a nice lunch somewhere in some little town. I'd have a book to read over lunch, or chat up the chauffeur if he could carry a conversation. At the end of the day, when it was too dark for photos I'd go to the big bookstore for a latte and a book shopping. Then the chauffeur drives me to a nice motel so I can have a hot shower with delicious smelling body soap and shampoo. I spend the night reading snuggled up in bed. The beach is there in the morning, so even though my day is over I can zip out for an early morning of beach combing and sandcastle building before I have to get back to the real world and regular scheduled life.

I would have added more to that if I had thought about it first. Like shopping at the Body Shop for the most luxurious scented shampoo and soap for my shower at the motel. I really like showering at night, when the house is quiet and no one else is awake. It's so quiet and I feel at peace for at least awhile.

You can also try for the M&Ms at Michelle Woo's blog.

What makes you melt?

I wrote:

My nephew’s real laugh. He’s 13 now, the start of so many changes and so much growing up. Though I haven’t had children of my own he is like my own son. I’ve helped raise him through my sister’s divorce and my own. He is a lovely boy turning into a young man and his laughs don’t come so easily as they did when he was a little boy. They are a treasure now and I melt when I think of all that has been and all that is yet ahead of him. I’m so glad to be someone he counts on and so glad to still be someone who can make him laugh and feel better when things are not always so easy in his life.

Romance for your Birth Order

From IVillage, Birth Order Compatibility.

Like all firstborns, you enjoy taking charge. The nice thing about having younger brothers and sisters is that you work well with both men and women. You excel in leadership roles both on the job and socially. Your friends look up to you for direction, and boy, do you love to give it! Sometimes they think you’re a little too bossy, so try to let them have some say in what you’re going to do. When it comes to men, you love creative guys who can think outside the box. Your best match is a lastborn, especially if he has older sisters. Middleborns with older siblings close in age are also good matches because they’ll have the kind of fun-loving personality you need to balance your rather conservative, dominant, strict temperament. Firstborn guys pose more of a challenge because they’ll want to take control themselves, but you can make even these relationships succeed by working side by side with them on various projects, such as buying a house, planning a vacation or setting up a business. You have the same birth order as Oprah Winfrey. Your best celebrity love match is Johnny Depp.

For Doodle Week: Doodle with a Quote

Doodle Week

Catching Up for Doodle Week, January.

For Doodle Week 

Looking and Flying

Things are getting to a normal sort of keel again. The sinking of the ship is on the backburner and I'm feeling like I can cope again. 

I met the new tenant today. He is still scruffy looking but seems at least an average sort of guy. The doorknob on the back door broke while he was moving in and he replaced it. I take that as a good sign. Shows respect for our home and taking responsibility. There should be a door on the joined area this coming weekend. He mentioned that too, saying it was nice to have some privacy rather than having to be friendly all the time. It is nice to be able to not be friendly when you choose to.

I did notice an odd thing. The window blinds on the back bay window are all missing their sticks that let you turn the venetian blinds open or closed. I know they were all there before, I know I opened and closed those blinds before Christmas several times. So where are they now? Weird, why would anyone remove all three of them? 

The downstairs guy had Rogers installed. Made me feel concern for our nice new electrical panel. The electrician had nothing good to say about Rogers and their installations. I will be glad to be rid of them for myself at least. Hope the install they did today hasn't mucked all the work up. They had all my services off for most of an hour during the install for downstairs. No notice or apologies and did not even let me know it was all back on before they left, they just left and said nothing at all to me. Not very good. 

I am catching up on Doodle Week. Don't know how to get more interest in that. It has been winding down for sure. I will figure out something now that I have most of my difficulties fixed up. Will be glad to have something pleasant and creative to put some focus into. 

I drew the above picture while thinking about nothing in particular. After I thought it was interesting that I came up with that. If you think about it, you can take it two ways. One, to look where you are going, the basic plan. Two, it does hurt to crash into something you could have seen ahead. It made sense to me at the time, when I first had the thought. I think something is lost in translation now. :) 

The Down the Drain Circle of the Days of Our Lives

I feel like I'm made of broken glass. I don't know how I will keep my patience babysitting for a weekend. I just will, somehow. Though one of my sister's daughters just seems to rub me the wrong way and she's only six. So you can't really do much about it.

Today the repair person was out for the washer from Sears. It's going to be another week without a clothes washer. He is bringing a part out next week. I have a garbage bag halfway full of very wet and heavy laundry which got wet but not washed. I will lug it around to my sister's house and was it there. At least I'm saving water, bringing most of it with me. See how green you can be when you really put your mind to it!

The new tenant is moving into the new basement apartment tomorrow. I don't know how that will be. I only saw him for a few seconds once. My first impression was that he was a scruffy looking young guy. There is no door to keep him from coming upstairs into the rest of the house. Why is it that my brother who enjoys pulling cons and talking about ways to take advantage of the system is so shockingly trusting when it comes to something like this? If you meet someone once and they don't try to kill you off or something that means you can trust them with everything you own. I just don't see it that way. If I wake up and some guy I don't know is standing over my bed watching me sleep I will not be polite about telling him to vacate the premises.

Also, we now have the basement empty of everything we had stored down there. One small room which has the water heater has some storage. My brother has gone bananas though and tried to get everything out of there too. So my bedroom is now full to the rafters with as much as I could save from him. I don't want everything in the garage or thrown out, thanks anyway. I did tell him/ remind him that we do still have the water heater room and can put some things in there. So some of it went back down there again. Mostly some antique furniture and a little of the Christmas stuff. My Xmas tree however is in a well ripped up box and shucked into the garage where I know mice will be nesting in it. I will be so eager to put that tree up again, NOT.

My bedroom light seems to have gone out. I won't even mention it to him cause he will just start yelling at me again.

He still wants to put all my yarn in that basement room where I won't be able to use any of it cause the plan is to only store stuff down there that we don't use often. So that the basement can be left for the tenant. But, if he keeps putting everything I own down there I will be going down there often or just giving up on everything, which I feel really close to doing at this point. I know it is just being stressed out, feeling trapped and being told what to do. Things I have never liked or tolerated well. Usually I just stay quiet and choose my battles. But when it is forced on me for months and months and years... I am getting a bit crazy at this point. I feel like I don't actually have a place anywhere. I really want a place of my own, where I can live. I think I will just go nuts the way things always keep going.

Probably there are people in the world who wouldn't be bothered by any of this and wonder what my problem is. But that isn't me.

At least I have a nice coffee again. I was using a generic French Vanilla from the PC grocery store. It used to be ok, it's not ok any more. I won't buy it again. Even the Second Cup coffee doesn't seem as good as it used to be. Maybe it's just me and the broken glass feeling which seems to be sinking into every cell of my body. I hope coffee starts to taste good again when some of this is over.

I caught up most of the bills, had payments on everything but Rogers. I cancelled Rogers cause the Internet is like high speed dial up. I tested it out and I really can read a few pages of a book while I wait for each site or page of a site to load. Why would anyone pay $150 a month for Rogers service? They really messed up the phone too. The cable seemed ok but I can't find the channels I want to watch. With Bell I was able to set favourites and search through only those channels. Made it much easier. I'm glad I will be starting again with Bell next month.

I hope I am home for Doodle Week, staring on Monday. I don't want to see that die off. Been hard to feel creative or anything. But I don't want to give up on it.

By Monday most of the stuff will be done. Sears will fix the clothes washer. The apartment will be rented and whatever will be will be with that. Graham, my brother, won't be coming out here almost everyday complaining about everything I do or think or dare to say. I even have Rogers handled, for now, I think. I explained that I'm not employed and paying Rogers isn't a priority. After all, what does it matter if you have Internet and cable if your power has been cut off. Stupid big company bastards.

I do want to find a job. Well, not really. I really don't want to be listening to anyone else wining or making rules any more. But I do want a pay cheque to spend on bills and the odd latte. I could really start doing work for that BOTW site. I want to, I just can't seem to settle in and stick with it. It doesn't help that my room is so full of clutter right now and I'm wondering what else my brother decided to throw away.

Anyway, I don't know when they are coming but they should be coming soon to pick me up for another round of babysitting. Just two days of sleeping on the broken couch and then I will be back here. Makes you have a whole new appreciation for your own bed, no matter what else is going on in your life your bed is always there, waiting for you to snuggle in.

Coffee Night in Barrie

Took these photos a few nights ago when I was out for a coffee in Barrie. Was kind of pretty but frigidly cold! I liked the flower the barista made on my latte too.

Smiley Tie

Took a picture of a tie I bought and gave to Zack. Not sure if he will ever wear it but he said it was ok.

Grrl Explorers on Flickr

Female Urban Explorers -

Urban Explorers tend to be men...which is no bad thing for us girl explorers ;) but being such a rare breed, it's always nice to meet other girls interested in UE. This group is a place for UE girls to get together to talk about our explores and experiences and a place to share our images. Let's celebrate the fact that we are female Urban Explorers....and proud of it!

FUSE - Female Urban and Street Exploration

...interesting artifacts found on the street that have been abandoned or unused for quite sometime, parts of a building that has lots of character, or urban exploration in general (the inside of an abandoned building, house, etc).

Why females only? The art of UrbEx is male dominated. I wanted it to be known that women are out there UrbEx'ing too.

Do it for the grrls!

The Window Seat of my Dreams

hang out
Originally uploaded by gingerslamsven

I really like that window and window seat. I want one just like it but with pillows or cushions on the seats. I could haul over my computer desk too and write in the sunshine, even now in the middle of the winter. The bitter coldest day wouldn't seem so bad then. :)

Why Online Dating Just isn't Going to Work for Me.

You'd have to know me quite well to understand my title for this post. But, I will laugh each time I see it. :)

Neverending Renovation Madness

Waiting At the Bus Stop While Freezing

All those warm cars going by while I waited for the bus. I kept thinking how nice it would be to have a warm car. Why do they never ask if you'd like a ride? On those really frigid days when your eyes water and the water freezes onto your face, why do so many cars just drive on by. I was so cold on Friday that even a ride just to the next bus stop down the street would have been a help. Just a few minutes to defrost.

Black and White: The Dress Tests

Your Little Black Dress Says You're Quirky

You are lively and outgoing. You are naturally friendly. You enjoy meeting new people and making new connections. Your style is whimsical and unique. You're good at putting together interesting outfits. If you were a shoe, you would be: High heeled boots

The Little Black Dress Test

Your Dress Says You're Classically Stylish

Your Personal Style: Modern and simple. You like clothes to accentuate who you are, not overwhelm you. Your Ideal Wedding: A small ceremony at an old church with a beautiful flower garden Your Philosophy on Marriage: You can have a deep commitment without marriage. It's only a piece of paper. Your Perfect Marriage: Simply loving each other a little more every day

The Wedding Dress Test

Chore Wars

Chore Wars - Get XP for doing your housework in this online RPG. I didn't try it yet cause I'm not at home and besides, I really do dislike housework. I'd make really slow progress in a game like this. I do like the idea. I just need those male slaves to whip along so I can play the game while they work. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.

Keep Your Enthusiasm

"Courage is the ability to go from one failure to another without losing your enthusiasm."

I don't know who this quote came from but I found it today in a book on my nephew's desk. One of those 'educational' books his Mother buys which he actually does read. (More than I would have when I was 13 and my Mom bought me a 'helpful/ educational' book). The book is, "10 Minute Life Lessons for Kids" by Jamie Miller.

At the back of the book all the quotes are listed in a summary. Here are a few others I picked out.

If you can not do great things, do small things in a great way.

You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a seed.

Sometimes you Keep your Spirits up with a Sharp Pointy Stick

I'm hoping tomorrow will bring the start of better things. Though I shouldn't become pessimistic and not enjoy the good things just because I feel down about the un-good things.

Most of this week I will be at my sister's house in Newmarket. Mainly because she and her daughters are away visiting our Mother in Florida for the week and I didn't like to leave my nephew, Zack, alone so much time. His Dad is here and I know would do his best. But, they now have two businesses to run and there isn't any way he could handle all that by himself for a week and keep Zack company. So here I am. I'm also down to a few last dollars and they are turning the power off on the house for the neverending story of renovations. I hope all the fish and such which I have in the freezer will be ok. I bought it when the oven/ stove was still functional. Who would expect they could break that? It was brand new. Anyway, I'm tired of problems and not having an oven or laundry washing or money.

I'm reading a new book from the second hand store. It's by Gena Showalter. About people running a business to catch cheating husbands and wives. Basically they have staff who dress up like easy pickings and send them out to tempt the cheating spouses. I think it's a bit silly. Most men (and some women) are likely to take up that kind of offer if they actually get a chance. In reality they aren't likely to get a young woman who looks like a porn star unless they have something she wants. But, the women who catch the cheaters are only checking up on them cause the wives or girlfriends have cause to be suspicious. So, most likely, they are screw ups, literally.

I don't understand why married people cheat. I guess too many get married for stupid reasons and then can't be bothered to care about or respect the person they are married to. I only seriously considered sex with someone else while I was married for the short time when I wanted to have kids and the husband decided he didn't. In that case it wasn' t about the sex or finding someone new and exciting or any of that BS. I just really wanted at least one kid of my own. Now, here I am, 44 and single and it's not likely to happen. I'm divorced so I could screw around until I turn up pregnant. But, that's not me. First, I just don't want such casual sex. I'd like him to at least know who I am and have some real care and respect for me as a woman versus a plastic blow up doll. Second, being a single parent just isn't all that appealing. I have seen how important it is for kids to have two parents.

Anyway, that's the chatter for tonight. I am so crazy tired. If I'm not doing something and just sit down I start to fall asleep right away. Maybe it is the stress. If I stop to think I do feel pretty upset. The key is to just not stop and think. Much more fun to daydream instead. It's funny how many times I have caught a Keanu Reeves movie on lately too. Funny in a weird way almost. Don't think I'm being foolish about not thinking about the reality. It's just that thinking about it just to stress yourself out isn't going to be of much help. I think about it when I have something real I can do and plan.

Maybe the cheque will hit my bank tonight or tomorrow and I can start paying the bills. One of them has begun to phone this week. If I can pay off a good chunk of it I won't have to call them back. That would be nice.

What kind of Winter Hat are you?

This came from Teena on her Facebook.

You Are a Ski Cap

You are a comfortable, low maintenance, and even practical person. You use fashion to look good, and you don't stray too far from the mainstream. You are friendly and accepting. You don't really judge other people for their fashion choices. You enjoy clothes and accessories as much as the next person, but you're not superficial about it!

What Winter Hat Are You?

Drawing Girls, Not Eye-less Mutants

 

I found two women who draw stick figure girls for illustrating cards and such. Laura Kelly and Kyla May.  I tried a few in their styles. Only I couldn't draw them without the eyes. I know it should look like the hair is covering their eyes. But with mine I just kept seeing them as eye-less mutants.

Drawing the Girls

The Plight of the Baby Dust Bunnies

No one protests the killing of dust bunnies. Not even the baby dust bunnies. Why is that?

How many times have I heard about baby seals in the news yet never a thing about baby dust bunnies. Does that really seem ok to you? What is so wrong with our culture that the killing of baby dust bunnies has become so common place as to be socially acceptable?

Poor little creatures have almost no defense. The most they can do is try to outrun the vacuum, the feather dusters and dust clothes. No one seems to pity the fragile little baby dust bunnies. Our civilization should feel ashamed!

Gamer Dragon

A to Zed

Using one word for each letter of the alphabet, make a list of the words you most associate with yourself or that you feel best describe you. From Bev on Facebook.

A - Artistic
B - Bonfire
C - Canadian
D - Dragon
E - Elemental
F - Frozen
G - Graphics
H - Hello
I - Independent
J - Jigsaw
K - Kilter
L - Lemon
M - Mystery
N - Nephew
O - Obsessive
P - Pagan
Q - Quiet
R - Romance
S - Sagittarius
T - Tease
U - Unscheduled
V - Vanilla
W - Writing
X - Xylophone
Y - Yellow
Z - Zed

Gallery by Leigh Young

Awhile ago I posted a drawing I found of a chubby pin babe, drawn by Leigh Young. At that time I couldn't find anything else but link rot. Today I was given an active link to her drawings in a comment on my original post. Thanks Papa Kringle. Have a look at Leigh's gallery.

The buttons above are for sale on her site. I didn't want to copy any of her full drawings but thought the buttons were ok to promote as an example of what she can do.

Polished Stones

The most beautiful stones have been tossed by the wind and washed by the water and polished to brilliance by life's strongest storm.

Barrie Snow Day

Don't Even Look at it the Wrong Way!

I don't know what happened this morning but my computer was deceased for a few hours. It made a clicking noise and could not load up anything, did not get to Windows (far from it). I thought it was a hard drive failure. Which was really not good cause it's been awhile since I backed up all my photos, drawings and writing and other bits of stuff I fool myself that I can not do without.

I tried a couple of times, no luck. I used my "women and children first" disk and hoped I would at least still have a functional computer at the end of it, knew I would lose all the data. But that did not work either. So, sad at heart and feeling like someone who only phones people when I need something... I called my sister to see if her husband was out in Barrie today. They have a second business here in my town. But he wasn't. She did say that he could rebuild/ repair my hard drive so all was not lost. But, she agreed with me that it was unlikely I would still have photos and the rest intact.

So, I came back here and thinking to be prepared, I shut it all down and then pulled it out and tipped it over (gently) so I could read that tightly-typed sticker with the serial number for my Acer Aspire PC and the other sticker with the Windows register number. I wrote them all down, making sure to write clearly so I didn't have a B instead of an 8 anywhere. Then I put the computer back in it's regular spot.

I thought I could give it one more try just to see if maybe it might change it's mind about the whole dead as a doornail thing. It Did!!!! I couldn't believe it. I was not expecting anything but more of that clicking noise. But Windows came right up as if nothing had happened. I checked for my files and they are all here. But, it was running really slow when I tried to copy files onto a second disk so I could back them up and then delete them from the hard drive. I still don't trust it to not be dead again if I shut it down. So I am spending countless hours trying to back everything up from more than a year of photos and so on. I usually do it a lot more often but not having a real CD to install Windows Vista again has kept me from going through with my routine back up and reformat of the hard drive. I've missed it. Nice to start with a completely fresh PC again. Knowing there isn't any junk on it at all. :)

Anyway, I will be doing this backing up for days I think. Wish I could find a better way to do it. A lot of photos of my sisters kids which I am sending to her in zip files and then deleting from here. If I get all those done I might be able to save the rest of the stuff which is just mine onto one CD. I can't find my DVDs though I should have 2 packages of them, one not even opened yet. I'm not Ms. Organized though so they will turn up someday when I don't need them at all. Of course.

Happy New Year. This is an interesting start to mine. Could be seen as a good thing. It will seem a lot more to the good once I get it all done.

Late for December Doodle Week

Doodle Week