Scattered

One of the things my Dr did for me yesterday, was to change one of my prescriptions. I was on a very mild anti-depressant, it is fairly common to prescribe these to Breast cancer survivors. I didn't think I needed it, but, I would give it a try. Well, I certainly never felt like I was depressed, but I did notice a change. I am not as much of a cranky bitch and don't even get the occasional "woe is me" bouts. In fact, I am damned near perky! This is what they are changing...the new one has been found to help with the hot flashes - Odin knows I need help with those! My pharmacist, told me that these new ones work a bit differently, on the whatchamacallit, and to take them in the morning as they might cause sleeplessness. Great, I have such luck in that area already.

So I took one this morning, with 1/2 of the old one...yes, I have to taper off the old, while tapering onto the new. I really hope it was just an off day for me, one of those scattered days that you really don't get a lot accomplished, but it feels as if you have been running at 10,000 rpm, while in neutral. So, I had started thinking about a post for today, then I got distracted. Then I started to think about another post for today...this is what you are getting - me rambling on, but, at least I gave you sentences. Shit I hope this settles down otherwise I don't think I will be wanting to take these - I'll be a perky whirling dervish!

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A friend made me go out walking with her in the cold Monday night and these are a couple of the photos I took along the way. As it was cold and I didn't have the tripod, they are a bit blurry, but they are the best of the shots.


House across from the complex, that did such a good job a Halloween.


Next block over, they filled the yard and fence and trees, too bad it is so blurry, those are nutcrackers with lights in them on the fence posts.


Love the colour of the blue tree, but the inadvertent streak off in the top right corner - looks like a UFO.


Have a good day all!

Well, so much for that

I was composing a post in my head yesterday morning - never a good place for me to store much of anything. It started something like: woke up late, whine, whine, cold waiting for the bus, whine, whine.

Then, while I was on the bus, I was reading posts on my phone and read about fellow blogger Travis Erwin's tragedy on Sunday. It puts things into perspective. It didn't relieve me of the cranky mood I woke up in, but, it did remind me that my troubles are not all that large.

Of course, later when I got home and was reading more blogs (my battery died) I find out my sister has been sick for days! (and yes, after I typed that, I got up and put my phone on the charger)

So much for whining yesterday!

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Today is a new day :)

So this month is the month for all the tests to make sure I am still in the land of the living and cancer free. I have to make an appointment to get my blood drawn and my tatas squished. I have to make an appointment to get a pretty new sleeve for my arm, to keep the swelling down.
I also get to go and have the worst test done - the one where they shove a camera up your colon.

That was part of why I was cranky yesterday. I had the appointment for my physical. The Dr's office, when they phoned to give me the appointment, told me 09.00. I bust my butt to get there, only to have the girl at the front desk tell me the appt is for 09.20 - wtf! Then she hands me a sheaf of papers and asks me to fill them out. It is a medical history form! Hello? I've been coming to this office for 5 years! What is the purpose of this?

As I said, I was cranky, so I underlined all of the typos and spelling mistakes and erroneous words. They want me to "enlist" all of the drugs I am on... in what? the Navy? After I did this I realized that my Dr. (who is German) may have been the one that wrote up the form, but still, his staff should have caught it!

So, I asked my Dr what was the purpose of the form..."well, you may have had a surgery, or seen another Dr and been put on a prescription that isn't in our files"... and if I hadn't told you about them, then I would be a complete idiot, thank you!

So, I need to make phone calls and set up more appts today. I will make a post at the end of the month and let you all know how things are going. Well, before then if I hear anything.

I'll post about other stuff in the meantime. I'm going to try to post more often. But, then again the road to hell - you know.

Have a good day all!

Things change.

It has been a good number of years since I have had Christmas with a blood relative. Probably the last one was with the younger of my older brothers in 2001. He is now in Mexico, a little far to travel for a week. The oldest brother is in Ottawa, again, a fair distance to travel. My sister is about a five hour drive (in winter) north of me and she has all of her husbands family in the area they live in. I have my urban family that I spend Christmas with. It fluctuates a bit each year, but the core of it stays pretty much the same.

Except this year. None of us likes hot turkey, so we cooked up a breast in order to have cold sandwiches for boxing day - it came out a bit dry. My friends decided that I should do the cooking this year - you would think they would know better by now! We had elk roast, the recipe sounded interesting, but it came out tough and had no flavour. The scalloped potatoes (that I have successfully made before) were just short of a disaster, but at least the roast and the potatoes were ready at the same time. Something I rarely manage. I even screwed up the salad - yes, I did! I can blame some of the disaster on it not being my kitchen, but alas, not all of it.

One of the traditions that slipped this year was the tree...we have a decorating party the last Sunday before Christmas and get the house all set up and the tree decorated. Not this year, we brought the tree in from the cold and the branches were still upright, so we didn't get it decorated until Tuesday. Whatever, we had decided not to stress about anything this year. This, in turn led us to discussing how things change no matter how much you want them to stay the same.

Click to enlarge

This is how the tree wound up looking, I like the way the lights reflect on the ceiling and floor.

Close up of the Angel.

More reflected lights.

One of the biggest traditions smashed for me, was opening gifts on Christmas morning. My urban family opens them Christmas Eve - after midnight, but still! The kid in me protests!


I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and no-one had illusions shattered or traditions broken beyond repair.

I also wish you all the best in the new year.

Edit: It seems (and to me too when I read it again) that I am whining. That is not how it was meant to sound. I had a wonderful Christmas in spite of the little things that went wrong and we all had a good laugh about dinner. I am very grateful to have my urban family.

It's Here!

The photo book! I just got a call that it has arrived at the store so I must rush out and go get it, but I thought I would let you all know. The manager is giving it to me for free and a little something besides.

When I get back I'll let you all know what that is!

I am so happy!


Edit: (yes it takes that long to get there and back by bus on Christmas eve)

It looks good! I would swear that I ordered the darker red, but I don't care at this point. They gave it to me for free and then gave me a $50.00 gift card! That is worth more than what I would have paid for the book! For as much shopping as I do there, I think that was fair. I have a photo or two that I would like to see printed large, so I will probably still go back to them, they do a good job - when they get it done. I just won't do anything at Christmas again.

Everyone have a Merry Christmas, or Hanukkah or whatever you celebrate.

WWC: Naughty & Nice

The words for today's Weekly Word Challenge are Naughty & Nice. Goes well with the season don't you think?

I am going to start with NICE:

This is a plexi ball of Christmas lights that my friend hangs in her entrance during the hols. I think it is very NICE.



She also has rope lights in red & green which are NICE, but the green string didn't photo as NICEly as the red.



These are the blanket lights she has in the back yard on her blue spruce and they look very NICE too.


This is my Christmas tree this year. It is NICE and simple. The shot however was a bit off, so I blurred it some more and played with the colours.


This turned out much more NICEly and is an accurate colour representation.


Now for NAUGHTY.


I ordered a photo book from London Drugs (big drug chain here in western Canada that sells everything along with drugs) on Nov 18th with several of the photos I have taken since I got my new camera. You can order this on-line and it is supposed to arrive in two weeks. On Dec 02, I asked at the store where it was and the young girl at the counter actually took the time to find my order at the developing store and explained that they had a delay in receiving supplies but that it would be printed next and I should have it at the beginning of next week. When I went in on Dec 16th to ask, the girl at the desk called the other store and was given a song & dance routine to pass on to me "we can't find your order without your confirmation number" - funny, the last girl had no problem and they don't send conf #'s until the order is finished. But, she was more than willing to let me handle the problem myself and give me the phone number to the store that does the developing....I told her no, I will speak to a manager now! and I remained very calm and the manager assured me she would find out the problem and call me tomorrow. Which she did....the manager at the lab had told her it was done, but appears to have vanished into the ether, so he would print another and it would be to their store by Friday. I got a phone call on Thursday....They will ship it out on Friday, but it won't be at our store until Monday, or I could go and pick it up at the other store. Today.......yet another manager.....well, no they are not in fact printed in the city, they are printed in B.C. (our west coast province) and it is going to be shipped tomorrow morning and will arrive on Wednesday. CHRISTMAS FUCKING EVE! Sorry, for yelling, but that is how I feel.

So, in one sense of the word NAUGHTY, I have nothing - quite literally.

In another interpretation, I was very NAUGHTY to tell them it had to be shipped out of the city as a gift. It is staying right here, it is still a gift though.

They are very NAUGHTY not to have let me know there was a delay in the first place and in not keeping better track of what is going on. Although, I think I will get a NICE discount on the price for all the hassle.



Well, that is that. The WWC is hosted by Tink over at Pickled Beef, drop over and she will give you the scoop on how to join us in our adventures.


Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festivus, Kwanzaa, Solstice or whatever your winter celebration, may you filled with peace and contentment.



P.S. May that be the last time I am sappy this year ;)

MTM: Bright Nights

I mentioned when I started doing the MTM posts that Edmonton is Festival City. Well, this is the only winter festival that I enjoy!

This event has been raising funds for charities and food for the Edmonton Food Bank for eleven years now. In the last few years they have been working towards being more energy efficient too and are claiming this season to be a "carbon-neutral event"!


“In our continued pursuit of environmental sustainability, we are pleased to have made so many strides with BrightNights,” says Chamber President and CEO Martin Salloum. “We are excited that this year we are not only bigger and brighter, but also greener.”






Alas, this year we have not managed to attend ourselves, the best night to go is the opening night. That is the night they allow you to walk through the park and they only allow city buses into the park. Or at least that is how they had it the one year we made it on the first night. The rest of the time it is open, you are driving your car through the park. Admittedly that is usually much warmer in this neck of the woods, but if you happen to be the one doing the driving your attention gets split and then you just get frustrated.

This year they have put some of these wonderful displays up in Churchill Square downtown and our Legislature grounds are always very prettily decorated. I might get a chance to get out a get some photos later this week.

Yes, I am still photo-less on my computer, so many thanks to the contributors above.

Have a good day all.

MTM is hosted by Travis Erwin.

EDIT: top three photos by: Douglas Dollars, bottom photo by: Susanne & Stefan Herz

Sorry I didn't get this in earlier, I am at work and actually had to do something!

Just a quick link

I would like you all to pop over to Mizfit and comment. For every comment she gets by Christmas Eve, she is donating a dime to a local womens shelter. Lets make her dig deep shall we?