Relief

My Income tax is done
My Income tax is done
Hi Ho the Dario..,
My Income tax is done. "


It's filed, its sent
and now I wait
To see if they
will seal my fate.

I get a refund
I like that a lot
But will they find
something I forgot.

What a difference a day can make

A couple of days ago I was so excited with knowing that in about 40 days we would be wandering the small alleys and streets that make up the Khan al-Khalili bazaar in the heart of Cairo's Islamic Quarter. We would be experiencing the sights and smells and sounds of this bustling 600 year old market, haggling with very aggressive sellers to get the best price for the papyrus sheets, the jewellery and the cartouches.

But that all changed yesterday with the bomb that went off in this market killing tourists.

We were originally to be on the Feb 15th cruise and that group were at the bazaar yesterday. I wait to hear what they experienced and if any of them had been there at the 6:30 pm hour.My excitement has now changed to concern but not fear. I know that tourists will always be targets in the middle east and if one does not travel due to fear, we would never go anywhere but our own safe living room. Right now we just need to be aware, we need to be knowledgeable and we need to not let fear ruin our trip. If the bombings heighten and are not just an isolated incident we will have to make some decisions but today I hope we get to experience the excitement of Khan al-Khalili bazaar and to do it with out fear.

You have come so far.......

Each of you has grown over 7 inches and has gained 10 pounds.

You have learned how to talk English, to understand almost everything you hear, to sing, dance, make a snowman,

paint, throw balls and shoot pucks.

You have learned how to love pretty clothes,

and to love lots and lots of new foods. You have learned how to tease, run, blame the other, and to even maybe like cats.

But since coming home from Haiti, most of all, you have managed to learn to love all of us your new forever family and to give wonderful kisses and hugs, and to trust so freely.

You have crawled into our hearts and bedded down forever.

Happy One Year Homecoming M and A......

we all love you THIS much!!

Johnny

We have had the pleasure of getting to know Johnny Rene these last couple of weeks. He has been staying with our daughter Karen and getting to experience a Canadian winter for the first time.

He is from Haiti and was the one who opened his home to our daughter when she moved there a year ago to be with her children. The first week in Haiti, Karen and her friend (another nurse who also was in the Haitian adoption nightmare), lived in his home along with his mother and sisters, while these two brave women helped out in the Holy Angels Hospice where he works, each with their children around their ankles. This is a hospice for terminally and chronically ill orphans who will never be adopted. He is very happy guy and always has a big smile on his face. How wonderful that these children have him to care for them. He also was so good in driving Karen and her friend from place to place in Haiti, and helping them communicate with those in authority to try to speed up the children's passports. Haiti is a county where the temperature seldom goes below 30 degrees. It was awesome to watch him see his first snow, to wear a touque and to ride a snowmobile across a frozen lake.

He still can not figure out how they can fish through a hole in the lake.....

He leaves this winter wonderland (yes I am seeing it through different eyes) on Saturday, which also just happens to be the one year anniversary of M and A coming home. Can it really be a whole year......how could this year have gone so fast while the 2 years before they got home, seemed to last a lifetime.

Happy Valentine's Day

Up until the 1500's, the word Valentine, meant the person whose name was picked from a box to be chosen as your sweetheart.

Then around 1533, it meant the folded piece of paper with the sweethearts name on it.

By 1610 it became the gift given to this special someone, and by 1824, it then became a poem, letter or verse to that special someone.
and today, one might get any where from nothing, to the garbage taken out with out asking, to a quick slap on the butt along with a Happy Valentine's day honey, to chocolates and roses; but ask any wife/mother what is the best gift and she will say..."Take me out for supper."

Paraskavedekatriaphobia

Today is Friday the 13th.......If you have a great fear of what this day may bring..you have paraskavedekatriaphobia. So go back to bed, hide in the closet, ignore the day and tomorrow you will feel much better.

Where did this fear start...............

****In Christian belief it started with the Last Supper, Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table.

****On October 13, 1307, a day so infamous that Friday the 13th would become a synonym for ill fortune, King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a pre-dawn raid that left several thousand in chains, charged with heresy, blasphemy, and homosexual practices. None of these charges was ever proven, but seven years later many had suffered excruciating tortures and died under torture or were executed by burning at the stake.

****At a Norse feast, it was believed that is there were 13th dinner places, one of the 13 would die within the next 12 months, so often a 14th would be hired at the last minute,
It is so feared that.....

Many tall buildings do not have a 13th floor
Some airport terminals do not have gates numbered 13.
Many wouldn't think of setting a wedding on the date.

What is it about the 'devil's dozen' that poses such evil portent

What if I win the super 7 tonight or if I buy a 6/49 ticket today and win tomorrow ..is Friday 13th still unlucky

Festor comes a calling

Are you the mate for me....

Looking for Love:

**SMCF NS ND SM

We are available and waiting for love.

Are you the one

we have been waiting for.

We love to travel, purr and hunt.

We would like a long term relationship

but if not a casual fling would be ok too.

** Single multi colored female

Non smoker

Non drinker

Sometime mouser

I think I will start a Cat Dating Service (CDS)

I have to think of a way to try to alleviate some of the stray cat problem here at the lake. My friend whose blog is listed on the right under http://cornerofcatsmind.blogspot.com/ has had a similar problem all winter. The only difference is that she has named hers, taken pictures of hers ,and even seems to like hers.
So I am thinking I will print off some of those pictures and attach them inside the heated cat house on my deck....( of course with a google map as well showing her street in SC, using little kitty icons to mark her doorstep.)
If they are smitten by any of them, I would even offer to drive them for their first date.
My hope is that they would make a friendship and decide that city life is better and move there to raise their next brood.
The ones here are so inbred they all look a like ( kind of like my carpet I had in the 1970's....brown orange gold black), and a little new blood would be welcomed.
I have been unsuccessful in getting a picture of them as they are quite shy, which would make a good match for C's cats in SC as hers seem to be very out going and love having their pictures taken....(old story - opposites attract.)
I of course would offer to send a bag or two of cat food to help them set up a new home.
But seriously; please if you have a cat, have it spayed or neutered. If you do not want the cat do not just drop it somewhere hoping it will find a home. Take it to the SPCA or pay to have it euthanized as cats are a domesticated animal and do not deserve to fend for them selves in the wild.

New Bread Maker

I chose to buy a bread maker as I thought
this was one way to stop a bit of the preservatives
that are being ingested by us.
We do not eat much bread any more
(as we strive to eat healthier),
so I knew I would not have to use it that often.
Right now a loaf lasts for about 2- 3 weeks.
I cut it in quarters and freeze it that way,
and it is always fresh if we need it.
Things I need to watch out for...
1.Warm bread smells and looks better than it may be....
2. 3 Tbls of powdered milk does not mean 3 Tbls of salt.

Really salty bread even makes one eat less bread ....
Oh yes it was awful!

Waiting at Lake Pelletier

Do you ever feel that your life is made up of a lot of "Waitings"?

We wait for the light to change, we wait for children to come home, we wait for the weekend, we wait in the grocery line, we wait to find out if we got a job we applied for, we wait at the doctors office, we wait in the bank line, we wait for our kids to be toilet trained, we wait for supper to cook and it goes on and on and on......

Westster Dictionary's meaning of waiting is.." remaining inactive in one place while expecting something to happen; to look forward expectantly; to be ready and available.

When February arrives in Saskatchewan it brings lots of waitings for many of us.....

These are some of them for me today....


Waiting for the hills to turn green again so this picture can look a bit like the picture at the top of this blog

Waiting for Fester the Pheasant to turn and look at me so I can get his full profile.

Waiting for the trees to begin to leaf out and turn green again and drop their sticky sap on our deck and car..(did I actually say that???)

Waiting for the ice to melt on the road so I can quit walking like I am 90 years old, with knees bent and stick in hand, and trying to keep up to his highness while we do our daily walks.


Waiting for the 8 - 10 wild cats to leave and move on to greener pastures and give me back my deck. It is a long story of kids domesticating wild kittens last summer, then leaving in late August and we becoming the recipients of hungry eyes peering at us. We even borrowed an insulated dog house with 150 watts of lights to keep them warm when it was minus 35 and have so far gone through 6 -10K bags of cat food plus leftovers, and canned cat food. I really hoped that natue would take its course and other starving animals would do what nature intended but that did not happen and soon I am sure there will be more kittens. We have even paid $100 to take some of the tame ones to the SPCA .

Waiting for the ice fisherman to get off my lake and go back home. I really don't hate the ice fisherman, actually don't even know any of them, but it just seems awfully foolish to me to sit in a little shack with a stove in it for hours on end and maybe catch little fish that are too small to eat and too hard to clean, when they can go to Safeway and get much better stuff. Oh I know, they all socialize out there and solve all the world problems.... but do they really need to clutter up my view.

And I wait for warm weather, so my family can return to their cottage and two little munchkins can walk down to see Grandma and help her water her flowers again, and come July my other grandchildren can come from Winnipeg to enjoy the freedom of lake life where things are much simpler than life in the city.

But right now I will sit and stare my seed catalogues with all the great pictures of beautiful flowers and dream of spring and my tulips peeking through the warm soil while I wait for my bread to cook and I can at least smell and sniff it as I eat my cottage cheese and V-8 juice..

Motivation

How can I become better at remembering to take my own cloth bags in to the store with me, to get my groceries. Oh I am really good at buying these bags, I even have organic cotton produce bags, so what is the problem? I want to do it, I must do it, I know we all need to do it, but unless I tie them to my hip before I leave home, they often do not make it into the store with me.

Things I must remember:
1. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they break down into small toxic bits contaminating our soil and water.
2. Each year, approx. 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That is 1 million per minute. Can I actually change that???
3. Even if I stop using the plastic shopping bags, how does one stop using zip lock, bread bags, and cling wrap?
4. Some countries are outlawing plastic bags, or charging higher prices to use them, why not Canada?
5. I should try to remember, what the cities and waterways looked like in Haiti, when I was there. They were choking with refuse and mainly plastic bags and plastic bottles. (picture)

Inspiration

I have been busy over the last few days reading blogs of friends and their friends and have been inspired to get back to routine blogging. My anemic blog certainly needs a face lift and I am in the process of trying to learn how to do that without copying too much from those I admire. I really thought that I would only use this blog as a travel journal but I now know it can be more than that if I try a little harder. I need to learn how to take better pictures as well, ones that are more vibrant and interesting. Oh dear there is so much to learn, so much to accomplish, so much to try and so little time to do it all. As I am in the autumn of my life, I hope there is a very long long winter ahead to do the fun things in life. OK time to get up and do it and quit just talking about it.