Countdown begins

Well with less than a month to go I guess I should start doing some thinking & planning for my trip. I'm taking a milk run to Oslo for my cousins' reunion (søskenbarn-treffet in Norwegian) on September 1st. Since I was planning to go to New York this spring, and had already booked my Aeroplan flight before hearing about the Norway thing, I'm combining both holidays. But it means I'm spending the day of Aug 28th flying from Kelowna-Toronto-New York (arriving around 10 pm) and then turning around and flying out to Oslo at 8:15 the next night. I arrive in Oslo nearly 48 hours after leaving home!!

But then I have a week in Norway, flying back to New York on the 6th (the day after my birthday) until the 12th...no way was I flying on September 11th! I'm sure I will have a great time and I'm looking forward to seeing all my cousins again. But maybe once I turn the calendar to August it will all seem a bit more 'real'!

Canine-less in Kelowna

I did go to the SPCA at lunch on Friday, visited the dogs. Buddy is cute but he's definitely a border collie through and through and he's also pretty young, and very focused. Obviously too much work for this family! Many other cute dogs, including Humie (pronounced 'who me') who is lovely but can climb 6 foot high chain link fences. Furry (formerly advertised as 'Fury') is a shepherd/lab cross who I've been kind of interested in for awhile and Friday I actually got to meet her briefly while she was on her way back to her kennel. Mike, the kennel guy, thought she might be a good match for us - she's a pretty low maintenance dog. So today I got Greg to go the SPCA with me and had another look at her. But you know, it was the same impression that I got the very first time I saw her: she just seems to be in her own little world. You call her name - she ignores you, she doesn't come over to the door when you approach (virtually all the other dogs do) and just seemed kind of zoned out. So I declined the invitation to visit in the quiet room with her. Maybe I'm foolish but I think there has to be a spark there right off the bat. So I'm okay with that. I will continue to look.

Stayed up till 1:00 last night reading Harry Potter! Very tired today but it was a great read. I can't say anything else obviously but I liked it a lot and didn't cry too too much. So then it was Holly's turn and I'm shocked that she's not that interested in reading it asap. We left her home today so she could read (she starts a 2-week day camp tomorrow) but she only made it through about 70 pages before moving on to something else. However I read a couple of chapters aloud to her just now and she enjoyed it so we may have to do it that way. That's all right, I kind of wanted to re-read it immediately anyway!

Doggie Anxiety

OK I was just cruising through the SPCA website as I do every couple of days and - gasp - today the last dog on the list is a young male border collie named Buddy. No photo at the moment but the description sounds very nice. I practically have heart palpitations! I know Greg really doesn't want another dog; too much work is his opinion which is very valid. Holly couldn't care less, she's a cat person. And the idea of having to walk a dog twice a day in 35+ temperatures doesn't appeal to me either. But still... I get an hour & a half for lunch tomorrow so I may take a drive to the SPCA. See if they know if Buddy likes cats...

Modern Times

 

Greg brought home a new laptop a few days ago for me to try out but after 24 hours I've decided to stick with old faithful here (a Toshiba). The new one was very shiny, had a 17" monitor but I like this one better.

Then I thought I would like to be able to get pictures off my cell phone & onto my laptop. The guy in the Rogers store said emailing them was the best way. I just found some bare bones instructions and it seems you can only send them right after you take them. I couldn't find any way to get pictures currently stored on the phone to email...too bad, there were a few Artistry pictures on there I would have like to see in bigger than 1x1 format! Anyway I took this one of Greg and thought it came out not too bad for so few pixels.

And today (thinking I would actually scrapbook something) I printed some pictures directly off my memory card in the printer. That was impressively easy! But have I done anything with them? Nooooooo!

My Precious

A while back I had my status on Facebook as "relieved". This is the story behind it.

A few weeks ago I was home sick and thought since I was home feeling crappy I would fill in an extended health care claim form. I was searching for a particular receipt and couldn't find it. Looked all over the house with no success. But I did find an old Costco receipt in the bedroom (specifically from December 23, 2000). The last thing on the receipt was 'diamond earrings $200'. WTF?! I never got no diamond earrings... so I'm laying (or is that lying, I always get those mixed up) on the couch feeling like crap and fretting. Greg bought diamond earrings and they weren't for me?! oh dear. This goes on for awhile. Then I have this sudden flash of memory, opening a pair of heart-shaped earrings with a little diamond chip on them and him saying 'they're real diamonds'. oh right, I remember now... go look in the jewelry drawer. No such earrings to be found. Oh shit. Because...

A few weeks prior to that I'd received an email from a librarian who was organizing a fundraiser for the SLAIS Alumni (UBC's library school) - donate your old unwanted jewelry to be sold to raise funds for the school. Boy I got really into that and went through all my jewelry and packed up a huge bag of stuff that I hadn't worn in years. Including apparently one pair of what turned out to be very expensive diamond earrings. Now you have to understand that my husband does not buy expensive gifts...ever. Except for this one Christmas 7 years ago.

So (did I tell you this was going to be long?) I had taken this bag of jewelry to BCLA with me in April to donate. But by this time I can't remember exactly what it was in aid of or who had organized it. I made a couple of phone calls, nobody seems to know much about it. I go through my old inbox and find the original email, write back to her. No response. Turns out she's on vacation. So I write to another librarian I know at VPL to see if she happens to know anything. Yes the jewelry was actually sold at BCLA, Corinne's away but she'll check with her when she gets back.

Meanwhile I've ransacked the house several times over, looking everywhere I can think of, old purses, makeup bags, etc etc. Weeks go by, Corinne is back from vacation so I write again. She doesn't remember any such earrings but will check at home. Another couple of days go by and I write again, thinking I will put out an appeal to the listserv & find whoever bought them. But then the next day she emails me, she found them!! In the bottom of a box at work. They meet the description, hallelujah! (This is when I became relieved...) I'm going to Vancouver in a few days so will meet her to pick them up.

Thursday Holly and I trundle down to VPL, meet Corinne & she pulls out this little bubble-wrapped package and gives it to me. I open it, look at at them and go...

I don't think that's them.

Seriously - how many pairs of earrings like that would you expect to find at this thing? But these just don't seem to be quite the way I remember them. However, we decide what the heck, I'm taking them. I will take them to my jeweler friend & inquire as to their value and then just put the whole episode out of my mind. Greg would never know anyway (and he doesn't read my blog!) and it makes a good story. But it just goes to show that expensive gifts are wasted on me after all and I should quit my whining when birthdays come along...

I'm baaack

Well that may be the longest I've been away from a computer in quite some time! 250 junk mails in 6 days - wow!

Holly and left for Vancouver last Wednesday night. We stayed four nights in Steveston at our favourite B&B, which won't be in business for much longer so I'm glad we went. Thursday we headed downtown and went to VPL, where I had a couple of people to see. Then we took the Skytrain out to Burnaby for Holly to shop at the Crystal Mall under the Hilton Hotel in Metrotown, home of all things Asian & anime. She picked herself up some Naruto stuff and then we went back downtown for awhile before heading back to Richmond. That bus ride was the only time it rained while we were there which was amazing.

Friday was R&R - we did next to nothing, wandered around Steveston & generally were lazy. Got to watch all the TV shows we don't get to watch at home (heavy on CSI & What Not to Wear).

Saturday morning my friend Marjory came out and we went out for breakfast to the Steveston Hotel. She then drove us into Vancouver to A-M's place. We went down to Granville Island for the afternoon, spent too much money at I'm Impressed, and watched some very funny (but very long) street theatre.

Canada Day we left Steveston (and did not go to the parade, shame shame) for A-M's place. Wandered South Granville a bit and went to see Pirates of the Caribbean which was better than I expected.



Monday we went down to A-M's pool and the sun actually came out! Later in the afternoon James & Richard picked us up and we went out for dinner and to the Casa di Gelato for dessert. Fantastic ice cream!

Afterwards we went back to their place and watched an Eddie Izzard DVD called "Dress to Kill". OMG we laughed & laughed...in fact I did actually laugh so hard I spit red wine on myself (and am hoping it'll come out of my shorts!)

Then this morning we flew back to Kelowna. So there you have it - it was fairly low-key but we had fun.

A-M and I had fun while she was here - got her onto Facebook although she hasn't actually done anything with it yet (have you???). Tons of shopping, a little bit of scrapping, and only a couple of glasses of wine. Where did the time go? (By the way there was no wine involved in this photo!)

I've been trying lately to get in shape & lose some weight - going for walks in the morning (with my new MP3 player!) and watching what I eat (lots & lots of salads) and I am feeling better. My goal is to lose 10 pounds before I go on my trip at the end of August. It's a pretty meager goal & should be entirely do-able don't you think? And if I could lose 20 that would be even better.

Unfortunately I guess it's the cotton or whatever in the air, but now I've started to get headaches again - this seems to happen a couple of times a year but lasts for ages. Sinusy kinds of headaches. I've tried Reactine & Claritin but they just make me dopey. Sudafed doesn't make me dopey but doesn't work that well either. Bought some cool allergy mist at Saje the other day which is lovely though. So anyway I had a headache all day yesterday and it came back in the night so I'm still sitting here in bed, finished my chai & should really get up & moving. No walk today...

Book club tonight - I kind of feel like I'm going to be apologizing for this book tonight. I have a feeling a lot of people aren't going to be too impressed. But hey that's what book club's for right? Force you to read what you wouldn't normally look at. (No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. It's being made into a movie by the Coen brothers and McCarthy just won the Pulitzer for The Road. And was just on Oprah for only the 3rd interview of his very long career!)

Holly and I are off to Vancouver in 2 weeks, taking a long Canada Day weekend. Also going over to Victoria for the day at least and see the Titanic exhibit at the Museum. I'm not sure what else we'll be doing, I'm sure I'll have to suffer through Science World yet again.

where have all the bloggers gone

Well it seems everyone's deserting their blogs and spending all their time on Facebook instead. I blame my addiction on Vivian - when she invited me on there a couple of months ago I said, no no I'm not interested, let's just stick to email. But of course at the time I had to register to see what she had written to me. So then one of Greg's nephews found me, we chatted, and the next thing I know I'm addicted. (so addicted I didn't realize I'd already posted about this!)

In other digital news, Askaway wasn't half bad today. Still busy busy but not so bad that I had to send out calls for help. The kids were all polite and there were even a few interesting questions. One really funny one, there was a class I guess who were doing an air band, and this group was being Diana Ross & the Supremes. This one kids wanted info on them which I sent, then s/he suddenly said 'oh I remember they turned into the Temptations and 2 of them were shot'. Riiiiiggghhtt. Sorry kid I think you've gotten confused there.

Speaking of music, Holly has an English assignment where she has to find a song, bring a recording of it and the lyrics to class & discuss the poetic devices in it. She's doing Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire".

No picture-taking, no scrapping, but I did go for a walk this morning. Going to try to get back into that routine. Otherwise things are pretty boring. Think I'll go to bed early...

This 'n That

Found this odd article, must remember for my NY trip which is definitely going to include shoe-shopping.

So this Facebook business is just too weird, I notice most of us in a certain circle are spending all our time on Facebook and none at all on a certain message board. I REALLY didn't want to get into the whole Facebook thing but that's not exactly working out and I've been impressed to find all manner of people - relatives, co-workers etc. I'm not sure how long I'll stick with it but it is fun.

Holly and I collided with each other last night and I think I broke my toe, or close to it anyway. Good thing it's sandal season! We were walking her friend Sam home at the time and we ended up staying at their house for a couple of hours and it was quite a bizarre evening. First time I've met Sam's mom...

A-M's coming up in a couple of weeks so I'm looking forward to that, she hasn't been here for quite awhile. We'll try to cram in as much stuff as we can while she's here and hope that the weather is good.

Well time to try to wake up Holly again. Greg I'll leave alone, he didn't come to bed till nearly 5 a.m.

One word answers

One Word.

Thanks Heather for the tag.

One word answers only... no explanations.

Yourself: discombobulated
Your Partner: different
Your Hair: uncombed
Your Mother: dead
Your Father: dead
Your Favorite Item: laptop
Your Dream Last Night: Facebook (yes really - oops I cheated)
Your Favorite Drink: cosmo
Your Dream Car: hybrid
Dream Home: nice
The Room You Are In: scrap
Your Fear: sickness
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: happy
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: Monique
You're Not: thin
One of Your Wish List Items: flooring
The Last Thing You Did: peed
You Are Wearing: pjs
Your Favorite Weather: Fall
Your Favorite Book: interesting
Last Thing You Ate: banana
Your Life: ok
Your Mood: ennui
Your Best Friend: A-M
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: toe
Your Car: Accord
What Are You Doing At The Moment: computer
Relationship Status: married
What Is On Your TV: nothing
What Is The Weather Like: cloudy
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: yesterday
This is a new game of tag. Let me know your one word answers.

Scattergories

I saw this on somebody else's blog and thought it looked like fun:

SCATTEGORIES:
The rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following...They MUST be real places, names, things...NOTHING made up!

Your Name: Fern

Famous Singer: Frank Sinatra
4-letter word: gee hard one... f^&*
Street: French St (where my grandparents used to live in Vancouver)
Color: fuchsia
Gifts/Presents: flowers
Vehicle: Fiat
Things In Souvenir Shop: flags
Boy Name: Fred
Girl Name: Fiona
Movie Title: Free Willy
Drink: Frappucino
Occupation: Flamenco dancer
Flower: forget-me-not
Celebrity: Fergie
Magazine: Flair
US City: Ft Lauderdale
Pro Sports Team: Flames
Fruit: fig
Reason For Being Late For Work: feeling forgetful
Something You Throw Away: flattened flies
Things You Shout: See #2
Cartoon Character: Fred Flintstone

Holy cow that was hard!

when the going gets tough...

Thanks everybody for the kind words about Ruby. She has woken me up 2 nights barking since she's been gone but I'm starting to feel better. Not better enough to stop at the SPCA to donate our leftover dog food though. My poor MIL was very sad when I had to tell her about Ruby; the two of us were standing in the back garden crying away. As she said, sometimes they adopt you before you've decided to adopt them.

Anyway as the saying goes...

the tough go shopping. This week I bought myself the All My Memories cropping tote in green & black and then today I was thrilled to find new crocs!



Mine are black although I was thrilled to find that Sport Check actually had them in my size in pale pink & off-white as well. hmmm decisions decisions! Practicality won out.

Saying Goodbye to Ruby

Ruby took a turn for the worse over the weekend (well partly because she got into the garbage) so I ended up taking her to the hospital yesterday. That did her no good whatsoever, she was in so much pain after that she could hardly walk at all and just lay right inside the front door the rest of the day till Greg carried her upstairs. Today she went back for x-rays and it turns out she's got massive deterioration of her right hip. Looking at the x-ray it seemed to me that her leg wasn't even connected to the rest of her body. Not fixable, amputation at her age not recommended, and the pain medication just doesn't do the trick. So she'll be having steak and whatever else she wants for supper tonight and then Diane is coming over to do the deed. Oddly though she is much better today and made her way up the back steps by herself.

Diane came over after 8:00 (our vet). I think she felt just as bad as we did, if not worse. She said it was bone cancer; the other vet hadn't actually given a reason for it but Diane knew it had spread like crazy in a very short time.

She's been a great dog. We would have had her 3 months on Thursday.

spring has sprung

Well, warm and sunny skies - it's about time! I hope it isn't just a temporary thing. I'm off work next week, not being in New York, but instead just staying home and thanking God on Tuesday that I'm not on Askaway!! It's really starting to look like it's not just our imagination and self-pity that makes us think our Tuesday morning shift is busier than anyone else's. This past week there were 3 of us on and we had about 12 people waiting and each had at least 2 questions. Same time next day I spy in and find only 2 people on duty and only 1 question, nobody waiting! What's with that??

I went to the NSD retreat last Saturday and ended up having a good time although I wasn't sure I was up to it. And I even got 4 pages done! I'm hoping that while I'm off I'll do some more as well as clean up the house somewhat. There's always that elusive garage sale on the horizon.

Greg wiped his computer clean and started fresh, however he didn't reinstall the drivers for either the printer or the scanner so I'm powerless till I find the discs (so far no luck with that). You can tell who's the one who actually uses them - it ain't him, or they'd be installed!

Well guess it's time to get ready for work. Have a wonderful weekend, and Happy Mother's Day!

Aha - we did 6 weird things in February. I knew it all seemed familiar.

So, a few things going on with me lately. I've been grumpy as hell for one, no scrapping or wanting to think about it or talk to anybody or anything. Hormones...sigh the joys of perimenopause. Don't worry kids you'll be there soon enough. I was happy to be able to read 2 books last weekend though, haven't done that in ages.

I just changed my travel plans for the summer. After having booked a trip to New York for next week (months ago) I learned more recently that my cousins are planning a family reunion in Norway on September 1st. The last one was in '98 so of course I do want to go. But I was overwhelmed with all the decision making... that's a long way to go for a one-day party! And I just wasn't in the mood to spend any time in Scandinavia - been there done that. So yesterday I got the bright idea to postpone NYC till August, fly through there on my way to Oslo and spend a few days on my way back. So that's my new plan. I feel immensely relieved plus it's going to be so much less expensive. Although Aeroplan does charge $55 a pop for each change I make :(

We have security cameras up in the library now, it's great fun to pose in front of them while everyone else is gathered around the monitor - we figure we might put on some skits during closed hours. But things have been much calmer there lately which is a great relief. Askaway is as insane as ever, but it's some consolation to know that every participating librarian in the province has to deal with those damn Surrey kids, no matter when their shift is.

So now that I'm not {as} grumpy anymore, I signed up at the last minute for the retreat this Saturday. I hope to have a good - and possibly productive - time!

tagged

Well thanks Kelli for the tag. I'm supposed to post 7 random things about myself...

1. I woke up one morning in my teens and had a sudden (& permanent) aversion to the smell of bacon - I'm only now getting so I can stand the smell of it again.

2. I have an awesomely tidy & organized scraproom!

3. When I was about 39 I learned I had a half-brother in Norway...so much for being an only child!

4. My great-grandmother was really choked when she couldn't get on the same ship to Canada as her friend did: Titanic.

5. I went to elementary school with another girl named Fern. We were in the same grade, looked similar (fat, short blonde hair, glasses) and the little kids thought we were twins.

6. I am, like many others, an avid reader, excellent speller and love to add up numbers.

7. I do not know 7 people to challenge with this! All my blogging buddies are taken and nobody else reads my blog! or if they do, they don't leave any comments...

And haven't we done this before?? I have a real deja vu feeling about this whole thing.

Well it's been awhile hasn't it? Many things to talk about.

1. I have been Life Simplified! It's amazing what a difference Cheryl & Dawn made to my scraproom. We got rid of a lot of junk and then it was just rearranging what I had. No 'before' pictures here but a few 'after' ones that I just took now.










I have such organized closets & cupboards now! Isn't it lovely?

2. BCLA. I was away the end of last week at the annual BC Library Association Conference in Burnaby, got to stay 2 nights at the Hilton Metrotown. The conference was quite good, especially the Askaway session (picture dozens & dozens of librarians sitting around complaining about schoolkids in Surrey!). I met up with my old friend Marjory and talked with a couple of other old friends from library school. Then I spent Friday & Saturday nights with A-M in Vancouver. On Saturday we had a great day - wandered up Main Street, went to Ruby Dog's Art House and bought some stuff from Lazarworks which has opened up some space at the front of Ruby Dog's. Then we had a fabulous dinner at Vij's. What a fantastic place, incredible food & ambience. I'll definitely go again. Crazy - A-M lives just a couple of blocks away and she'd never been either.

3. Speak of Ruby Dog - my Ruby dog is not really any better although she's been on anti-inflammatories for a couple of weeks. She hobbles up & down the stairs, no walks, and now she's started pooping etc in the house. I just feel terrible about it! Guess I'm glad we never did replace the carpet after Layla died. I guess I'll need to call the vet again, maybe we should get a second opinion.

That's it for now folks!

What does Your Name Mean? (thanks to Tara)

What Fern Means

F is for Fancy E is for Extreme R is for Rich N is for Natural

http://www.blogthings.com/whatdoesyournamemeanquiz/">What Does Your Name Mean?

OK I'm waiting for the rich thing to kick in. And would that be Extremely Rich? I am waiting...

How do you spell relief?

I've been fretting all week about Ruby. A week ago Saturday I took her over to Westbank with me and she met Cheryl, who noticed that when Ruby got out of the car she was holding her back leg up. Well it's gotten progressively worse in the 10 days or so since and so today the vet came and took Ruby in for x-rays.

The good news is - no signs of anything broken, torn ligaments, cancer, etc. And although Ruby was whining & yelping considerably when Diane was here and examining her, she was much better at the hospital. So - pulled muscle perhaps? She'll be coming home later this afternoon with some doggie pain-killers and we'll see what happens. I guess a party at the dog park is not happening in her near future after all.

Other than that we had a good and busy Easter weekend. On Thursday night I got home to find Greg, Holly & Ruby in the backyard at our little homemade fire pit. They were roasting corn dogs and generally having a bacchanalian good time.

On Friday my cousin Nita came over - she lives in Robson - and we had a great visit and lunch out at Manteo. Saturday we had our annual Easter Egg hunt, which was low-key and impromptu this year. Very little in the way of eggs - it was so warm out that the chocolate was melting right away and we hadn't coloured any real eggs. (Read it and weep you Haligonians!) The neighbours were over for awhile in the afternoon and then we went to their place for dinner. Sunday was at Greg's mom's and we still have leftovers! Holly and I went out and did a bit of shopping on Monday and that's the end of the weekend.

Holly was asking me the wedding questions in this month's Simple Scrapbooks. After nearly 14 years I had a hard time remembering the answers, that's for sure. But since I haven't finished the album yet, they'll still come in handy. Seeing how these pictures turned out, it does remind me that some people used to think that Greg and I were brother and sister...

That's what I call customer service

When we were in Bellingham last week we went to a most wonderful scrapbook store - Treasury of Memories. We spent a fortune. One of the things I was going to buy was some of the cute little journaling cards put out by Fontwerks. But somehow (perhaps in the excitement of seeing all the transparencies at the checkout) I didn't get them. When I was going through my stash I couldn't find them and thought maybe I'd lost them, or left them behind or something. And then I couldn't find my bill. So I emailed them and asked if they could check if I had purchased them. They said they'd look into it. In the meantime I found my bill, and lo & behold, no FW cards. boo hoo. I let them know they weren't on the bill.

Anyway today in the mail I got a card from Treasury of Memories with 4 FW journaling cards and a little note saying they were sorry I hadn't gotten them and they hoped this would tide me over till the next time I could get to the store.

Am I ever impressed!!!