I'm So Lucky!

Look what was given to me by Quirkyloon and Etta Rose, they're such sweet girls to think of me! :)

And guess what, this one from Quirky has no strings attatched, I don't pass it on, Yayyyyyy! Only the Zombie-rific Quirky who designed the award gets to hand it out to people she finds to be Zombie worthy, and I'm one of them, I feel so special now :D

Oh yeah, you're probably wondering what this ever so lovely award looks like, aren't you!?! Well here it is, feast your eyes on this puppy!

Etta thought I deserved this Sage Award for being a good follower of her blog, now how sweet is that!?!

Her rules? I can give it out to however many followers I want to! Now that makes picking hard as an award isn't too special if you give it to all your followers, but who do you leave out? Hmmmm this is a conundrum, I think I'll have to take some time thinking about this! After all, all my followers are special, they all add a little something whenever they comment!

How Hard Can It Be?

A few months ago I had bought a 2 kg box of Ready-Cut Macaroni. At some point I opened the box up to cook up a batch of homemade mac and cheese. Fine, no problem there. A couple of days later, Silv decides that he's hungry for some mac and cheese, so he goes to get out the box of macaroni. Well heaven forbid that the guy would actually open the box from the opened end! He had to flip the box upside down and open up the sealed end! Surpringly there wasn't a mess from it, but rest assured there sure as hell was the next time I went to cook up some macaroni! Jezis F'n H Christ, macaroni everywhere! Thats when I found out that Silv had opened the box after I had, oh the insanity of it. 

So, I went upstairs and got my glue gun and re-glued the box's bottom end back together. Problem solved, right!?! Wrong! 2 days later, he thinks I must have gone and gotten a new box or something because he opens it from the freshly sealed bottom end again! I told him, and told him, and done did tell him again that he was to pour the macaroni from the top of the box! But could he listen? Nooooo, of course he couldn't. This time though, I came home to a mess of raw macaroni all over my counter. The bloody bum couldn't even be bothered to clean up his mess!

No, I was not dumb enough to re-glue the box for a second time. I just decided then and there to take a plastic container and put the macaroni into it. I'm just glad he was able to understand that the lid on that container had an easy opening pouring spout, because god forbid what would happen if he were to cut it open!

At some point during this whole macaroni fiasco, he had needed some saran wrap to put something away. I had a new box, bad mistake! Instead of opening it the way it's supposed to be opened, he opened the small end and slid the whole roll out! Then he had the gall to ask me where the cutter on the box was hiding and how the hell was he supposed to be able to use it!?! Oh the shame of having a genius in the house who can't open a box correctly to save his life!

Anyway, what got me remembering that, was yesterday I bought a new box of aluminum foil. Silv needed some for the supper he was making, but because the box was still sealed shut, he brought it to me! Yes, he must have learned something from the above episodes, because instead of opening the box the wrong way, he actually brought it to me to open. What a relief! So once again, I gave him a lesson in the proper ettiquette of box opening. Perhaps he learned something, perhaps not, but at least he's learned that if he can't figure it out, he better bring it to the Woman Who Knows ;)

More Flowers

I'm sure you're all getting sick of my pictures of my flower beds, but too bad, I love my flowers and I'm going to share them with you in the only way I can :P. Just kidding, I really hope you enjoy these as much as I do. I just have one question, have any of you ever seen a Hen-'n'-Chick that grows tall like this? I never have, these have never done this before and I'm curious to find out why this one's doing it now. I have quite a few of them lining the front of this particular garden, and it's just the one with the one young that's growing in this manner, really interesting I must say!

I call this a Brocolli plant because that's what it reminds me of, but I really don't know it's proper name. Around the first frost in fall, the little green buds on the top of each branch will turn a lovely crimson. It's name is something like Autumn Sunset or some such, but my memory doesn't serve me too well unfortunately!

Thank You Minka!

A couple of weeks ago Minka from Stirring My Thoughts ran a competition to see if we could guess where the grade 9 class was going for it's final school outing. I won it! Hurray, I hardly ever win anything! *doing a happy dance now*

The prize for this competition was none other than a postcard from the very place they went! It finally arrived yesterday, and I got not one, but two lovely cards! The first card has "Many greetings from a very nice trip" written on the back, and let me tell you, she has very neat handwriting! The second card has "After that nice e-mail and all that learning, I figure you deserve two postcards. Sending you sunshine from over here :)"

Thank you Minka, they are really lovely! And guess what!?! It's been raining here all spring, and with the arrival of the postcards came some nice sunshine! So you really did send me some sun too, that was a very special extra prize for guessing where you were going! Thank you so much Minka, these cards mean a lot to me :)

Yep, they went to Venice or Venezia Italy, just a few short hours from home! I'm so jealous because they got to watch actual glass blowing! She's got some great pics in her blog about the trip, so go and check them out!

Tell Me Your Most Romantic Moment!

A couple of years back the local radio station was doing a show on Valentines Day about “People’s Most Romantic Moments”. The listening audience was invited to call in with what they considered to be romantic experiences they’ve had. The show was going as expected with the usual romantic dinners, getting flowers, etc., and one man even called in to tell how he had planned a weekend getaway for him and his wife on their anniversary. 

And then Tina phoned in! I don’t know if I’ll be able to do her accent justice, but I will do my best. Just read the following conversation phonetically and with a nasal twang type sound and all should be well. I must say though, that it will be incredibly hard for me to intentionally spell things so incorrectly! 

“Oowh Naythan, my name is Teena, and I have to tell you abowt my most romantic day! Last week mi boyfrand, well mi fiancé nyow, did thee most vonderful thang!” *Giggle* “Youh see I help him ouwt in thee piggy bern sometimes, tayking care of the wee piglyets, don’t ya know, and, and, and, suddenlee I hear-d him call fowr me to come help him with the sow’s he was washing down. So, so, so I went to whayre he waz and, and, and asked what he needed help with.” *Giggle* 

“Go on Tina, what was it that your fiancé needed help with?” asked Nathan.

“Wyall Naythan, whan I got to the sow wash ayreah he opened the dowar, and you woodn’t believe whyat I saw!” *giggle*

“What was it you saw, Tina?”

“Oowh Naythan, I saw fieve piggy’s and written on theyar backs was ‘Teena, will you mayrry me?’ Oowh Naythan, it was so spyeacial! I looked over at my boyfrand, and that’s whan he gawt down on one knee and, and, and he hyeld owt a ring!” *giggle*

“Wow Tina, you mean to say that he knelt down, right there in all the pig manure and everything and proposed to you?"

“Yeahs Naythan, he did! Iy’m so happy, Iy’m going to gyet myarried! Iysn’t it romantic?”

“Yes Tina, that’s very romantic, I’m really happy for you!”

Throughout this whole conversation, you could hear Nathan in the background trying very hard not to laugh! I know had I been the D.J. I wouldn’t have been able to do it! It may have been rude, but I would have busted a gut with the way this woman was gushing over being proposed to in a pig barn of all places! I can just imagine the honeymoon now, imagine it along with me, would you?

Here’s Tina and Hubby out on a stroll down towards Trash Creek where they’re camping for the weekend. He has a beer in one hand and his fishing pole in the other. Meanwhile Tina is walking along slightly behind him and off to one side carrying a cooler with more beer and the fishing bait. That’s when they get to the fishing hole and meet up with all of Hubby’s friends and their wives and/or girlfriends. Ahhh the perfect honeymoon getaway!

Do you think they had this pic or one like it for their wedding invite? I wonder too if they had the 5 sow's at their wedding, after all, they did play an important roll at the engagement :D

Manitoba vs Maine

Ok, Deb from Debbie Does Drivel loves Maine and proves it by posting why she does every week. This week it's because of Maine's desert. Well, do I have news for you, not only does she mention that they've got a desert, we here in Manitoba do as well, but she also mentions the lakes and islands. I'm pretty sure Manitoba, being bigger than Maine, has more lakes and islands though. She also points out that Maine has a coast, well guess what, so does Manitoba!

To be honest, Manitoba has a coulple of deserts, one which isn't open to the public due to the fact that it's full of live artillery from the army base in Shiloh and is used for the bases target practice area. The other is the Spirit Sands desert by Carberry and is located in Spruce Woods Provincial Park. This desert is complete with sand dunes and measures in at 4 square kilometers, roughly 1500 acres, give or take a few. What's Maine's, 47 acres?

I can guarantee you that our coast has something that Maine doesn't as well. And that is bragging rights to having the largest Polar Bear population in the world! Yes, Deb, we do get tons of tourists all over the province, thankfully not in this town too often, but in a lot of other areas :D 

How about views like this? Have you ever seen anything so beautiful over the water in your neck of the woods?

What else was there Deb loved so well in her most recent post on Maine? Oh yes, lakes and islands, let's see how Manitoba's compare, shall we? :D Manitoba is known as "The Land of the 100 000 Lakes" with Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake Winnipeg being the largest. Did you know, that if you take the island of Britain and deposit it into Lake Winnipeg, it would still be an island? Bet ya didn't did ya, unless of course you've already been to Deb's blog and seen my comment there!?! ;) In total, our lakes cover 101 593 square kilometers of land surface. Hm, interesting, googling lakes in Maine, I found that there are 2 200 lakes there, not much of a dint in Manitoba's lakes, and I'm fairly sure that means they don't cover as much of an area either!

To Quote Deb, "You thought Maine was dull and boring? Pffft! We have mountains, forests, potatoes, blueberries, lobsters, the coast, hundreds of lighthouses, thousands of moose, a bazillion islands and even our own stinkin' desert. So there."

Mountains, does Riding Mountain National Park count, if so, then check!

Forests, oh yeah, check, check and check that again (my pro pic was taken in one of the forests which also happens to be Silv's yard)!

Potatoes, um, we even have an event here called Manitoba Potato Days, yep, that's a check all right!

Blueberries, yep got those too, and even better, their cousin the Saskatoon, so check that!

Lobster, last time I looked, there were some live lobster available at the local grocery, so check that as well!

Coast, check that, already explained that one!

Lighthouses, yep got those as well, granted they've been replaced by skeletal structures, but I like the one I found a pic of best! 

Thousands of Moose, probably closer to hundreds of thousands, so yep check that one as well!

 But are Maine Moose trained to haul logs? Now there's a question! 

A bazillion islands, well 2 200 lakes probably doesn't have as many as Manitoba's 100 000 lakes do, so yep, check that!

And a desert, beat Maine out on that as well with not one, but at least 2 deserts!

So Deb, what's Maine got that Manitoba doesn't? Bet you don't have the Manitoba Maple tree there!

*Note, none of these pics were taken by me, all are compliments of google search! Oh yes, and thanks for the blogging fodder Deb :D*

Got Patients?

Ok, so it’s been a while since I’ve seen a doctor. Quite a long time for me in fact, but that’s by the by and has no real bearing on this post. This particular post is in fact about looking for a new doctor. 

I called the clinic here in town and asked about getting a new doc. I also asked who, if any, were taking on new patients. I was told 3 are currently taking on new patients, 2 of which are female, 1 a male. The receptionist then asked me if I preferred male or female, and I said female. So far so good, and perfectly normal. 

The receptionist then asked me if I had any patients. Hmmm, I’m thinkin’ I need a new doc, that would make me a patient, doctor’s have patients, patients don’t have patients. Instead of smartassing her about that though, I decided to ask what exactly she meant by my having patients. Her reply, “You need to have patients for this one doctor that’s available, but not so much for the other one.” No clarification on why I need patients yet, but I remained polite and asked why I would need patients in order to see the one doctor? Finally clarification, it seems that this particular doctor is very thorough and not prone to paying attention to the clock, therefore, I would need patience, not patients, pronunciation is so important :D. Well, that’s nothing new for me, I’m used to doctor’s thinking that a patients time is meaningless where as theirs is incredibly valuable. So, I made an appointment with her. Yep, I chose to take an appointment with a doctor who’s almost guaranteed to make me wait anywhere from half an hour to 2 hours after my actual allotted time scheduled. 

You may be right, I may be crazy
But it just may be a lunatic you're looking for
Turn out the light, don't try to save me
You may be wrong for all I know, but you may be right

Sorry, I got a little carried away! As I was saying, you may be right, I may be crazy, but damn-it, I want a doc who will be thorough and not rush me through an appointment with less than half the info needed to make an informed decision in regards to my health care. That to me is very important, granted, not wasting my time is as well, I just hope she is all she’s cracked up to be, but only time will tell!

And yes, I know you've all been sitting there and practicing the difference between the sounds of patients and patience!