Tuesday, January 30, 2007

POOR HAND

For any of you aware of the love between Newfoundland and Labradorians and a good game of cards, this will not be an uplifting story. Since I arrived home a week ago, 'tis been a wee bit starmy. Starmy enough to cancel flights, close schools (such as the university) and cancel the city bus line. You know, a bit blustery. And what do you do when it’s blustery (besides knit)? You play cards!

Two of my family’s favourite card games are Queen’s and School (my husband and I love Euchre too which is somewhat like 120’s which we also play at our house sometimes). Therefore, Mudder and Fadder and I have had three games of Queen’s and Mudder and I had one game of School since I’ve been home. I’m almost ashamed to admit it but it appears that I’m losing my card playing touch.

In the fall of 1993, I lived with my grandparents in Gander Bay while I completed my first social work placement at Social Services in Gander. During that 3 and a half month stay, my grandmother – the ultimate card shark – and I played an innumerable number of card games. Seeing as I was staying for so long, Kathleen (my grandmother) and I decided to have a School tournament. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away in May of 2005. However, it is because she is not longer with us that I can now share this story. I won the School tournament. No question about it, I absolutely smoked her! When it came to School that fall, I was unbeatable. Naturally, I was sworn to secrecy so can only now talk about it. Kathleen had a certain reputation to uphold, you see. It is also interesting to note that we also quickly switched from School to Queen’s where she was having better luck beating me that fall.

Kathleen would not be proud of me right now. In the three games of Queen’s we’ve played here this week, I’ve lost all of them. Badly. Very badly! In the game of School Mudder and I played last night, we did have a good close game but I still lost. Obviously the time has come for my husband to retire from the Canadian Forces so I can move back home and re-hone (is that a word?) my card playing skills. Excuse me, I have to go somewhere and curl up in the fetal position until I’m feeling less vulnerable….

Monday, January 29, 2007

I'M MAD!

When I tried to publish Renee's comments (thanks, Renee!), Blogger forced me to switch to the 'NEW' blogger against my will! Hmpf! I'm not sure how I feel about this lack of control! I'm going to be playing with this new system to see what I think so please bear with me.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

BIG NEWS FROM NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR!

Big News Number One:

Renee is going to be so jealous! She might have in-laws visiting from Newfoundland and Labrador but I decided to GO to Newfoundland and Labrador instead of entertaining company. Ah. The familiar sounds of home. Dad with the compressor running in the garage doing God knows what, Mudder puttering around at the family tree(geneology), little Gicker (my nickname for my little sister) hanging out in the living room until she has to go to work and Dali the dog whining at the door to get in or out.

I got in on Tuesday and it was a good thing I did. Yesterday was a very blustery day indeed. Everything in St. John’s was closed down – even the university. I attended Memorial for six years (long story resulting in one completed and only a few more credits required for another completed undergraduate degree) and it only closed down for weather two or three times that I remember. So, that’s how stormy it was here yesterday. In fact, we’re still waiting for the plow to come in and plow Mudder and Fadder’s driveway! Dad was out yesterday and shoveled quite a bit – including being up on a ladder pulling the heavy, wet snow off the roof. Dad really needs a seat belt for such activities (to say the man is accident prone would be like saying fish like swimming in a little bit of water) but didn’t need an ambulance service at the end, for which we are grateful.

I’m home for two and a half weeks. I came home on Aeroplan points so ended up flying from Montreal instead of Ottawa and saved myself 10, 000 points for my next trip in the process. DH dropped me off at the train station in Ottawa on Tuesday morning and, I must say, the whole process was rather painless. I had a two hour stopover in Halifax where my friend L was kind enough to deliver sushi (vegetarian for me – you will find out why in the next section as I love fish sushi!) for supper and a chat before I had to go through security again –very nice! Our relationship over the past several years has been restricted to airport visits so I’m always thankful when L can get away from her busy schedule and fit me in.

Big News Number Two:

One of the reasons I wanted to visit Mudder and Fadder and the rest of the family and assorted friends right now is because I wanted to fly before I got too big. Yes, Elizabeth guessed it, we are expected our first baby on June 27th. I’m into month five now and we’re feeling a little bit more comfortable telling people, thus the ‘coming out of the closet’ on my blog! We’ve had problems in the past so this secret has only been in the open over the past couple of weeks. We didn’t want to jinx anything and had some test results that we wanted back before we made the big announcement. Therefore, I'm counting on all of you knitting mothers out there in the blogosphere to offer all kinds of helpful advice! I know I can count on you! It may be a busy summer if we also end up moving however, I'm not going to worry about that until March when the Canadian Forces cuts their 'posting messages' (CF term for the letter we get telling us the next place we will call 'home').

Off to try and convince Mudder that we need to go for a walk on the track. Mudder and Fadder are spitting distance from both the track (Trans Canada Trail) and Conception Bay (the waves are splitting the rocks down there right now - I listen to them to put me to sleep at night) so we have great access for walks right along the water. Yeah me!

Friday, January 12, 2007

DOWN THE LITERARY PATH

Wow, two posts in two days. I’m on a roll! Soon to be stopped by going home this evening and facing the reality that is my house. I still have Christmas to say ‘good-bye’ to. Eek!

I was thinking ‘what, exactly, did I do over the holidays?’ as I’m usually involved in many crafty pursuits which was not the case this year. Instead, I realized that I have enjoyed a LOT of reading and thought I’d share my list. I was lucky this year in that I enjoyed all of the books I read. I am an avid reader but, in my ripe old age, have given myself permission not to finish a book if I’m genuinely not enjoying it:

Marley and Me by John Grogan – do not read this book if you get migraines from laughing and crying like I did (yes, I got the migraine too)! An excellent read for any animal lovers out there – make sure you have a box of tissues handy as I cried from laughing so hard at the beginning of the book and then was in tears again at the end of the book. Thanks for the loan, C!

Labyrinth by Kate Mosse – Thanks to my mother-in-law, I was able to borrow this book for a great read. If you like theories about the Holy Grail, secret societies and strong women, you will like this book!

The Birth House by Ami McKay – A wonderful Christmas present from my parents (I grew up in a home where Christmas really isn’t Christmas unless you receive a couple of great books – thanks Mudder and Fadder!) and another strongly female character driven read. It involves women and midwifery using homeopathic remedies and is set in Nova Scotia. This book is about one woman who fought against a ‘testosterone dominated medical’ system as well as lived in a society where women were ‘seen and not heard’.

What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage – Hmm. There is definitely a female theme running through my list this year. Another excellent, and fast, read. The first person character is a young black woman who is HIV positive and who decides to leave the big city and go home to visit for a little while, en route to a new beginning in another city. I really enjoyed this one too – thanks for the borrow, ML!

Hide and Seek by Ian Rankin - I also enjoyed one of the Inspector Rebus books by Ian Rankin over the holidays. I really enjoy this mystery series and, if you like mysteries, this may be a series for you!

And...

The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence - This is a book written for, probably, 9 - 12 year olds. I love children's authors and hope to write my own children's book someday so am always in the market for a new children's book. This is an interesting read for children interested in ships and mysterious happenings. It is a dark plot and I wouldn't recommend it to a child who is easily frightened. However, I did enjoy it. It's the first of a triology.

I’ve only included the books that I started and finished over the holidays for this list. I do have a couple of more books started (I usually have several on the go and read whichever one I’m in the mood for at that particular point in time. Call it ‘changing the channel’) but have not yet finished so they did not make today's cut. And, yes, I am a fast reader.

If you're interested, maybe I'll create another list like this in the future. TTFN!

Thursday, January 11, 2007

GREETINGS FROM KINGSTON!

Hello, my friendly bloggers! I know. It seems as though I’ve dropped out of the blogosphere. I’ve been busy enjoying everyone else’s blogs (Renee’s, Elizabeth’s, Kate’s and Samantha’s to name a few) but been sadly neglecting my own. This is partially due to the fact that I have no interesting knitterly photographs. None. Zip. Nadda.

I have been blessed to have DH home for holidays for two weeks – he just went back to work on Tuesday. When we weren’t visiting or Christmas/New Years carousing with friends, DH has been working away in our basement. We (that’s the royal ‘we’ – DH has done all of the work down there with some help from friends and that list doesn’t include help from the friend he married) have been trying to get the basement renovated for many years. The light at the end of the tunnel is near. I will have pictures of the wondrous event…when I get back to Kanata. I am, you see, gallivanting around Kingston for a week with a friend of mine so can’t post pictures as I left my digital camera at home. Bad Patty!

So far, we’ve visited Wool-Tyme in Kingston and many, many downtown shops. Visiting Kingston wouldn’t be complete without lunch at Pan Chancho’s so we did that yesterday (hurrah for carrot, lemon and thyme soup and hummus sandwiches!). I’m hoping we will go again… I have no idea what we’re doing today but can’t help but look forward to what will likely be another exciting afternoon.

And, how about knitterly progress? Again: none, zip, nadda. I have only knit a couple of rows since the New Year started. I have been concentrating on trying to complete WIP’s in the cross stitch format. Therefore, 2007 may see some other than knitterly projects on this blog as my cross stitch WIP’s have developed into quite the nasty pile. You wouldn’t believe the attitude from that side of the house! Nothing but complaints about ‘crossing to the other side’ and how using ‘one needle instead of two’ is superior. I’ve just got to whip some of these projects into completion submission!

Wish me luck…