How do you solve a problem like the Captain?

You restore your computer to its original factory settings and start from scratch.

No singing nuns or dancing through the Swiss Alps though, sorry. I know you're all very disappointed. Trust me though, while I might be able to shake my money maker, you don't want me to attempt to carry a tune.

Remember ALL the computer problems I was having? The blue screen of death, freezing up, shutting down for no reason? Problem after problem after problem? Well, as I mentioned, I ended up becoming so frustrated that I reset my computer to it's factory settings losing EVERYTHING. I then had to spend a week downloading all the updates which had come out since my computer was born, all my extra programs, finding my favourites and saving them once again. Sure it was a lot of hassel and I'm sure I'm still missing something important but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. However, it seems that all of my problems have been solved! Ok, not all my problems but the computer-related ones at least. My computer hasn't "crashed" since the reboot and my canary yellow Dell laptop has been functioning at relatively peak performance! Sigh. Why didn't someone suggest this sooner so I could have avoided all the stress?

NOTE: Picture from Madddy's flickr photostream

Christmas is taking shape

Nothing special - I don't have a Christmas tree up yet, a wreath on the door or even the lights up. Ok, that last one is a lie. The lights have been up (although not plugged in) for a couple of weeks. No, I'm taking presents. The Admiral will be getting a gift card for our local cinema for her birthday, the week before the holiday. Then for Christmas, I've got her a Toronto Maple Leafs t-shirt (she's going to love it), I'm 2/3 of the way through her homemade mittens, a copy of Ken Burns' documentary on baseball, some fabulous dark chocolate (purchased closer to Christmas), a candle and holder, and a couple of crossword puzzle books (she loves them). I think that's it. Oh and I made her a "gift certificate" for a walking partner on the weekends and I'm going to take a nice pic of myself in front of the tree once it's up and frame it for her. She's always complaining how she doesn't have pictures of me (I hate getting my picture taken!!!). Hopefully it'll turn out and I can give a framed copy to my dad as well.

Big Brother's offspring are going to get the DVD of UP or Ice Age, or possibly both and a couple of bath bombs from Lush. I finally figured out what to get the Sister in law...she loves Lush so I'm going to either give her a gift card or buy her something small. Considering the cost of items there, she'll likely get the gift card. Big Brother is going to get a copy of Alien Apocalypse. Whew. And that's the end of it.

Except for the cats. Shhhh...don't tell them but they're going to get tuna and catnip. Really the only two things they care about anyways.

Dear god, no wonder the holidays are stressful. Are you prepared yet? Just over a month away...

Oh those vegetarians...

...they're a brilliant group. Must come from eating all those veggies.

Photo courtesy of j.woof's flickr photostream

Mother Nature, You Confuse Me

Today is one of those days where I just don't understand. Today is one of those days where I'm about to say something I never thought I would. Today is one of those days where I sympathize with the weather man/woman. Yes, that's right, you heard me. Enjoy it while it lasts because chances are, tomorrow I'll be complaining about the weather forecasters once again.

When I returned to my desk after lunch today, I glanced down at the Weather Network icon on my computer screen and almost had a heart attack when I saw it reading a whopping +17C. No, that is not a typo. Edmonton nearly reached 20 degrees. On November 17. Not Edmonton, Kentucky; Edmonton, Alberta. The Great White North. WTF? Wait, it gets more interesting. Jasper National Park, a mere 3.5-4 hours to the west of us got whalloped over the past few days with a tonne of snow. Granted, the park is in the Rockies so the elevation adds to the amount of snow and lower temperatures but holy smokes. It's practically summer here in the capital and a few hundred kilometres away its practically white-out conditions.

Someday, I'm sure it'll get cold here and we'll get snow too. Sigh. In the meantime, I just have to dream.

NOTE: Picture from macleong's flickr stream.

Alas, Poor Eskimos...

Sigh.

The Edmonton Eskimos' 2009 season is over. It was a good game, 24-21, better than I expected to be honest. Not as exciting as the final minutes of regulation in the Hamilton-BC game but it was a good way to end the season. Time to start looking forward now to next season. However, I now have a dilemma. The eastern conference choice for me in the next round is easy: Montreal. I cannot cheer for BC (sorry Lions fans) but what do I do with my own western conference? Calgary and Saskatchewan? That's like asking which is better: cake or pie. I just don't know who to cheer for. Whichever team wins, I'll be rooting for them to beat Montreal who will, I don't doubt (famous last words), make it to the Grey Cup. In the meantime, I have to spend next weekend stressing over each play. Arrrggggh.

The Enemy Returns

Friday night I had a not so great sleep. Nothing major, still ended up with approx. 7 hours of snooze time. However, Nubi has been overly affectionate lately and I was awoken a number of times by furry, purry headbutts. Fastforward a few hours to lunchtime yesterday when I decided to have a sandwich. Mmmm, sandwich. I had a desire for both mayo and mustard which doesn't happen all that often in our house. I took both condiments out of the refrigerator and placed them on the counter. Hmmm. Is that mayo still good, I wondered? Opened up the jar...smelled okay...for mayo. Slapped it on the sandwich, added the ingredients and chowed down. Yeah, not the best idea. As I was eating it, I realized that it wasn't quite right but couldn't tell if it was the mayo, the salami, the choice of cheese or a combination of any of the above. It was the mayo.

I spent the rest of Saturday lying in bed feeling as though I was going to woof my cookies, drinking gingerale (Canada Dry - made with REAL ginger according to their new marketing campaign), and eating tomato soup with crackers (crumbled into the soup - sorry WC). While I did not actually get sick, I felt pretty rotten. The soup helped, or perhaps it was the gingerale; either way bedtime came around 8:30 and sure enough, Nubi was right there looking for love in all the wrong places (no...not like that...don't be gross). When you throw in a rambunctious Rocky who was bound and determined to get into my closed closet on more than one occasion, I didn't sleep well.

At 2 a.m., I woke up with a pain in my back, right between the shoulder blades. Glancing over, I found a sleeping cat curled up in a perfect circle right in the centre of my bed. Great. No wonder my back was sore. I probably ended up on my back because I wasn't able to roll around. Damn kitty. When I got out of bed to have a quick wee, I began getting a pain just below my ribcage. Oh Fuck, I thought. Not again. "Oh yes", my innards chuckled gleefully, "again!" For the next 4 hours, I sat up watching CNN, curled up with my heating pan and downing ultra strength Tums like they're Purdy's Peanut Butter Daisies. It's now almost nine in the morning and the pain has mostly gone away. Still pressure in the middle of my torso but if I tried to go to sleep, chances are I'd be able to now.

No word from my doctor on the results of my ultrasound. I'm guessing that means there was nothing on the ultrasound pics but as he said, that doesn't mean there's nothing there. If it is acid reflux, I thank whatever gods there might be that I don't get his reaction from tomatoes. I'd have to give up at that point.

Sexual Discrimination Alive and Well in Cananda

In amongst my news clips this morning about Obama's trip to Asia, NASA saying that they did indeed find water on the moon, and word that a group of alleged terrorists being held in Guantanamo are going to be moved to New York to stand trial (yeah, that's a good way to ensure a fair trial...don't get me started), I found this story about the Olympics. Now, there are aspects about the Olympics that I'm not thrilled about, most notably the most recent summer games taking place in China, but this isn't what I'm going to talk about today. Nope, it's the fact that sexual discrimination is alive and well here in my own backyard.

A group of American and Canadian female ski jumpers have been trying to get the Vancouver Olympic Committee to include their sport in the 2010 winter olympic games. They took their case to court and I'm sad to report that the British Columbia Court of Appeal has denied them the opportunity.

"In that ruling, Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon said that while it was discriminatory to exclude the women's event, Vancouver's Olympic organizing committee (VANOC) could not be held responsible."

While I agree that ultimately the International Olympic Committee, the IOC, should be the ones to make the final decision, there would have been greater pressure on the IOC if Vancouver officials had chosen to include the sport, even as a demonstration sport, in the upcoming winter games. Now, the women have to sit on the sidelines and watch as male skiers are allowed to compete and win medals and glory in their sport. The case made by the female athletes included the argument that VANOC is subject to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees gender equality. Well, it seems that the olympics don't fall within the charter's parameters, I guess.

Oh, want to know why the women's ski jumping hasn't been sanctioned by the IOC?

"The IOC voted in 2006 not to include women's ski jumping at the Games, saying the sport had not met the required technical criteria."

Um...yeah...

Finally - The Weekend

Oh wow. The day off in the middle of the week? Bad idea. It made Thursday and Friday seem to last forever. Days off should be Fridays only. Any other day just makes the rest of the work week loooooong. It probably hasn't helped that I haven't slept very well this week resulting in bedtimes usually between 7 and 8 pm each night.

No big plans this weekend except for plenty of knitting - must finish the Admiral's new mitts before Christmas - and of course the football games on Sunday. On Saturday, we're meeting up with Big Brother and the offspring in Churchill square for the city's official Christmas tree lighting ceremony. We'll have to bundle up though; it's only supposed to reach a high of 2C tomorrow with some fairly brisk winds. Definately mitten weather.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Don't do anything too crazy.

Update

Training is going relatively well. I haven’t been super-diligent with my knee stretches but I have done the walking each and every day it’s told me I need to do it. And I’m doing the full time it’s asking for. Not difficult when it tells you to walk for … get this … 15 minutes. I could probably have skipped the 5K walk training program altogether since I can walk a 5K already. However, it gets me into the habit of walking on my training days, even if it’s only for a short time. I’d like to start doing my Sunday longer walks outside and perhaps even start some hill training now rather than wait until it’s icy and I slide down the hill rather than walk.

Other than that, not a whole to report. Take it easy.

Remembering Cecily

Today is Rememberance Day here in Canada. I didn't take in any of the ceremonies this year, in person or on television. Instead I chose a few quiet moments to myself to reflect on my family. Thoughts of my Grandad and my father but mostly my Grandmother this year. While searching for something completely unrelated, I came across a folder of photocopied items my Aunt had sent to me last year or the year before. Inside the folder were letters, newspaper articles and other items written by or about my grandmother, Cecily Eardley-Wilmot, while she served in the Canadian Women's Army Corps. (May 1942 - July 1945).

I'm not going to go into detail about her service or what she was like. You can read some of it here and here. I loved reading her letters and was particularly taken by a lengthy letter she wrote home on July 19, 1944. At the time, she was stationed in London as a driver. In early July, both she and her friend "Cubby" were given leave for the weekend so they decided to bike to Canterbury. Yes, they were crazy and didn't realize how far it was (my research says approx 100km). Heading out early Saturday morning, they finally made it around 8PM and were lucky enough to find rooms in the Canadian Y.M.C.A. under the watchful eye of a "Mrs. Findley" who was kind enough to provide the two women with breakfast in bed on Sunday morning: bacon, fried tomatoes, toast, marmalade and tea (sounds familiar...). A nice change to the stale bread and "meat paste" that they had brought along (apparently someone in my grandmother's family had sent it to Cecily in one of her care packages).

The highlight of their trip for my grandmother was the their visit to the cathedral. She had visited a number of other "famous places" and been very disappointed but was in complete awe from the moment she arrived. I don't blame her, the cathedral is beautiful. Her description of the interior and of the service she and Cubby attended covered 3 full pages. I only wish that I had read this particular letter before I headed to England back in March.

Their adventures continued as they hurried onto a train in order to make it back to London that evening. On board the crowded train were R.A.F. servicemen, a bride and groom cuddling in a corner, a colonel from Cubby's home town, sailors failing asleep standing against the wall, and a young woman who fainted. When one of the servicemen helped her come to and told her to put her head between her knees, she thought he was being fresh and stormed off into one of the other cars. At one of the stops, one of the sailors who got on got his thumb caught in the door. They eventually freed him but the door wouldn't close properly for the rest of the ride and ended up flying open at one point while they were at full speed!

Arriving back in London, Cubby and Cecily got off the train at an early stop in order to free themselves from the cramped conditions in the car (and to get away from a "brat" sitting beside them). According to her letter, they biked the remaining ten miles and stopped off at the Knights of Columbus for "cokes and chocolate cake with nuts on".

While I'm sure that her life in London during the war was not as fun and carefree as this particular weekend but it's nice to read her words and realize that she even in the smallest things (such as cokes and cake, or a weekend jaunt with her best friend), she was able to escape even if for only a brief while the horrors of war.

I miss her.