I need to check my email more often ?? hahaha ..Sorry

(no idea if these are true, but they're fun)

Embarrassing medical exams :)

1. A man comes into the ER and yells . . .'

My wife's  going to have her baby in the cab.'

I grabbed my stuff, rushed out to the cab, lifted the lady's 
dress and began to take off her underwear.

Suddenly I noticed that there were several cabs - - - 
and I was in the wrong one.

Submitted by Dr. Mark MacDonald,
San Francisco
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. At the beginning of my shift

I placed a stethoscope on an elderly

and slightly deaf female patient's anterior chest wall.

'Big breaths,'. . .  I instructed. 
'Yes, they used to be,'. . .replied the patient..  

Submitted by Dr. Richard Byrnes, 
Seattle ,  WA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. One day I had to be the bearer of bad 
news when I told a wife that her husband had 
died of a massive myocardial infarct.

Not more than five minutes later, I heard her 
reporting to the rest of the family that he had 
died of a 'massive internal fart.'

Submitted by Dr. Susan Steinberg
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. During a patient's two week follow-up
appointment with his cardiologist, he informed 
me, his doctor, that he was having trouble with 
one of his medications.

' Which one ?'. . . I asked. 'The patch....

The Nurse told me to put on a new one every six hours
and now I'm running out of places to put it!'

I had him quickly undress and discovered what I hoped 
I wouldn't see.

Yes, the man had over fifty patches on his body!

Now, the instructions include removal of 
the old  patch before applying a new one.

Submitted by Dr. Rebecca St. Clair, 
Norfolk ,  VA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. While acquainting myself with a new elderly patient,
 I asked, 'How long have you been bedridden?'

After a look of complete confusion she answered . . .

' Why, not for about twenty years - when  my husband was alive.'

Submitted by Dr. Steven Swanson- 
Corvallis ,  OR
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. I was performing rounds at the 
hospital one morning and while checking 
up on a man I asked .. . .' So how's your 
breakfast this morning?' ' It's very good 
except for the Kentucky Jelly. I can't seem 
to get used to the taste.'. . . Bob replied.

I then asked to see the jelly and Bob produced 
a foil packet labeled 'KY Jelly.'

Submitted by Dr. Leonard Kransdorf, 
Detroit  ,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. A nurse was on duty in the Emergency Room 
when a young woman with purple hair styled 
into a punk rocker Mohawk, sporting  a variety 
of tattoos, and wearing strange clothing, 
entered . . . It  was quickly determined that 
the patient had acute appendicitis, so she was 
scheduled for immediate surgery.. When she 
was completely disrobed on the operating 
table, the staff noticed that her pubic hair had 
been dyed green and above it there was a 
tattoo that read . . .' Keep off the grass.'

Once the surgery was completed, the surgeon 
wrote a short note on the patient's dressing, 
which said 'Sorry . . . had to  mow the lawn..'

Submitted by RN no name
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     

AND FINALLY!! ! . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .

8. As a new, young MD doing his residency in  OB.

I was quite embarrassed when performing female 
pelvic exams.... To cover my embarrassment 
I had unconsciously formed a habit of whistling softly.

The middle-aged lady upon whom I was performing
this exam suddenly burst out laughing

and further embarrassing me.

I looked up from my work and sheepishly said.  . .
' I'm sorry. Was I tickling you?' 
She replied with tears running down 
her cheeks from laughing so hard . . .

' No doctor  but the song you were whistling was . . .
' I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wiener.' '

     Dr. wouldn't submit his name...

Ode to Forgetfulness

got it in an email, hadta share ... do you relate ? hahaha

It's easy to spot Orion's Belt in the night sky .... it's holding up Orion's Pants ;-)

A Sunday afternoon :)

Billy is the type of kid that as hard as I try to keep a secret, he seems to know what it is anyways. He could also be outside playing, and without wearing a watch, if there is something on tv he wants to watch, he will come inside at just the right moment. Sometimes, it's really spooky the way he does that. Very intune with us and himself? The first couple times we tried to surprise him with something, when he was younger, his dad and I thought that maybe he had over heard us talking. So we started being careful of when we talked about some things. When he was outside playing or if he was bowling, we went outside to talk about 'it'. Whatever way it happened, he couldn't be within ear shot at all. He had to be totally elsewhere or we did.

I was never sure if he hoped for what he got for his birthday or for Christmas, or this 'thing' he possesses had something to do with it. But the odd time, he seemed to know. Even if you put a box inside another box to sort of disguise what it might be. He knew anyways.

Today was no different.

I never said a word about the parade I was going to take him to today. Not one word. I heard about it on the radio in the car the other day. Checked the towns website today to find what the parade route was while he was in the shower. About ten to one, all I said to him was "we're going to go out in the car shortly. Make sure you wear a sweater."

So what does he do ?

He signs Santa Claus. (the motion of a man running his hand down his beard)

geeeeeeezzzzzzzzzz Before we even get out the door ? So not fair but I should have known he would 'know'.

Grab hot chocolate and off we go. Took a few minutes to find a parking spot as everybody else in the county had the same idea of going early and finding a parking spot. Lock up the car and we start walking to downtown Collingwood.

Was only there a couple minutes, sipping our hot chocolates, finally convincing Billy to put on his gloves and toque when his friend Paddy came up and signed 'hi'.

Cooool. Hi Paddy. And there's mom and dad right behind him. Billy bowls with Paddy Sunday afternoons (cancelled today because of the parade) and Paddy's dad always picks up Billy and drops him back off. And this family has had Billy over for dinners, parties, and sleep overs many times too.

We all moved off the corner Billy and I were standing on, hoping for a spot where the wind wouldn't whistle through us. No such luck though. Seems the wind was howling all the way down that street, leaving us nowhere else to go as that was the parade route. The bands and walkers in the parade were walking into the wind, so that must have been rough for them. It would have been a nice day, -1c low 30's F, if it wasn't for that wind. Instead, it felt a lot colder.

Paddy doesn't talk and wears hearing aids, so he and his parents are pretty fluent in sign language. Paddy's hands are flying as each float goes by, so I picked up a couple new signs. One being fire truck :D

The parade had been passing by with assorted trucks hauling trailers decorated with trees, fake snow and kids, local high school band, gymnasts etc etc .. you know how it goes. I did feel bad for the two bagpipe bands wearing their kilts. Bare legs and that wind? brrrrrr. And me being me (weird? lol), I had hoped they thought to put on warm shorts under their kilts at least. No leotards or anything for them. Hardy bunch of people you could say, when everybody else was bundled up in their snowsuits etc.

The parade had being going on for about forty minutes when Paddy's mom, Roseanne, asked if I thought Billy would like to go home with them, have dinner, stay over, and she'll take the two boys to the life skills program tomorrow as she is off work tomorrow.

Awwww that's real sweet of you. I don't have a change of clothes or anything for Billy with me. She says that's ok as Billy and Paddy are about the same height and size, if I was okay if Billy wore something of Paddy's.

So, after Santa finally went by at the fifty minute mark of the parade, I asked Billy what he thought of going with Paddy to his house .... big smile out of Billy ... sleep over ........ still smiling ... and Paddy's mom would take him to life skills tomorrow.  The kid never quit smiling ! He might love his mom but .............. hahahahaha

Needless to say, I left the parade by myself, walked to where I parked the car and came home to an empty place after a couple quick stops.

Which I didn't mind in the least. It's awesome that Billy has Paddy for a friend. They get along so well. And Paddy's parents have truly taken Billy into their home and their hearts. Which I will always be very thankful for.

Are we confused a bit or ? Knows I am.

Soph1951 on YouTube

I think this lady is pretty cool. Found her by accident on YouTube one day looking for something else. Soph's page on YouTube says she is genetically hearing impaired, so I'm not sure if she actually hears the words and music, but she does a great job interpreting some songs for the deaf community.

Her first video was this January past and over the months, she looks like she has gotten a lot more comfortable signing in video's. A few songs I watched has her smiling, an eye brow lift, a bit of twinkle in her eye lol.

I'm not fluent as she is, so has been a challenge at times keeping up with her. I've learned a few new ones watching the video's, which I pass on to Billy. Just a matter of keep on doing signs to remember them.

Of course, some signs in her songs are done for dramatic effect, depending on the song. For instance, in one, she signs 'dark' for night but it worked well with the song. Signing 'night' wouldn't have been the same lol

She has so many over there, it was hard to pick out just a few, but I present you with just a few .... for now. No guarantees I won't post more of her videos *wink* lol


If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot


Lady In Red by Chris DeBurgh



Don't Stop Believin' by Journey




Tears In Heaven by Eric Clapton



Cool Change by Little River Band

Metallica - Nothing Else Matters

From the Black Album



[HETFIELD/ULRICH/HAMMET]

So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
And nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters

Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
But I know

So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
And nothing else matters

Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
But I know

I never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
And nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters

Never cared for what they say
Never cared for games they play
Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know
And I know

So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No nothing else matters

(video by 19ghostdragon89 on YouTube)

Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody

I don't say it often, but the odd time when I come across someone mentioning how many languages they speak or which ones, I might come out with something like ...

I speak two languages. One fluently, one not so much but I can't do it here.

Sounds odd doesn't it? One might think there are special characters etc that one needs for that language. I don't know. Nobody really asked what language it is or why can't I do it here.

The reason for that is, I can't type it out. Kind of like someone being able to speak a language but not being able to read it. I'm sure most of us would do quite well speaking english as we start off quite young having the english language spoken to us. But what if we didn't go to school ? Part of school is understanding what you are reading. How many two and three year olds do you know that can speak english but hand them a book and they might have a problem recognizing the words they say. Right?

But that's not my case for the language I am not fluent in. Partly because it wasn't a real big necessity for me to be fluent in it, even though it would have helped another to be more fluent in it. But then we ran into a problem that not everybody ... friends and family .... knows the language and didn't take the initiative to really know more than half a dozen words. In my case, I didn't practice it enough either. Or rather, didn't keep going with it.

I'm a little slow with it as I have to stop and think about it sometimes, while Billy rattles off the alphabet lickety-split and I have to get him to do it again but slow down. Sometimes he comes out with words he learned at school and that leads to a bit of guessing game until I can figure it out. Books to teach me this language is ok but what I really needed was a live example to help me and what do you know, I found a software program that is helping. Still not fluent and don't know that I'll ever be, but even if it's enough to understand Billy when he's trying to 'tell' me something.

So there I was, looking for the next song on my 'fav song' list on youtube and I found a very interesting video and I thought 'why not?'.  While I was watching this video, I did a fair bit, but I definitely stumbled in spots. Something like singing out loud to a song when you don't know all the words lol And no, I'm not including the lyrics here, like in my other fav song blogs :)

The woman is soph1951 on YouTube.

Pink Floyd - Learning To Fly

(Album - Momentary Lapse of Reason)

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction is holding me fast,
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky
Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone
A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try

Can't keep my eyes from the circling sky
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, A state of bliss

Can't keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

Eagles - Hole In The World

Don Henley's intro to the song (spoken) ...

It's great to be down under.

Wanna do one for you now. This is a song we wrote a few years back.
In the summer of uhhh well it was in August of 2001, we had just completed a very gratifying tour of Russia and of Europe .. Western Europe and we were scheduled to go into the recording studio on September 11th and start working on our album. Needless to say we didn't go into the studio that day or for many days thereafter. But that evening we started writing this song.

Features the Eagles five part harmony. This is called Hole In The World


[Chorus:]
There's a hole in the world tonight.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

They say that anger is just a love disappointed.
They say that love is just a state of mind,
But all this fighting over who will be anointed.
Oh how can people be so blind

[Chorus:]
There's a hole in the world tonight.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

Oh they tell me there's a place over yonder,
Cool water running through the burning sand,
Until we learn to love one another
we will never reach the promise land.

[Chorus:]
There's a hole in the world tonight.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.

[Repeat chorus: (no music)]

[Repeat chorus: 4x's (fade out)]

Enigma - Silent Warrior

Long ago, for many years
White men came in the name of GOD
They took their land, they took their lives
A new age has just begun
They lost their GODS, they lost their smile
they cried for help for the last time.
Liberty was turning into chains
But all the white men said
That's the cross of changes
In the name of GOD - The fight for gold
These were the changes.
Tell me - is it right - In the name of GOD
These kind of changes ?
They tried to fight for liberty
Without a chance in hell, they gave up.
White men won in the name of GOD
With the cross as alibi
There's no GOD who ever tried
To change the world in this way.
For the ones who abuse His name
There'll be no chance to escape
On judgement day
In the name of GOD - The fight for gold
These were the changes.
Tell me - Is it right - In the name of GOD
These kind of changes ?
Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why
The white men said:
That's the cross of changes ?
Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why,
In the name of GOD
These kind of changes.

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.

Rachel Carson

My Sandstone

here I am
in my shower
the hot water stinging
but I'm frozen in time
I cannot move
for you have come
to me
again
I bow my head
at your presence
I am powerless
at your arrival
the tears break free
from their boundaries
not even a swipe
they roll off my face
to mingle with the water
at my feet
why do you come now?
I didn't want to see you
today
I was having a good day
lots of sunshine
happy smiles
but now it's dark
you got in the way
you pelt me
with thoughts
and images
I don't want to see
or hear them
I close my eyes
drawing a black curtain
across
before you
but it does not help
you invade my soul
even with the doors
and windows
locked
you manage to get in
just when I least expect it
my light fades
into the background
was it even there?
or was it just
an illusion
you hiding in the shadows
teasing me
making me believe
I might be free of you
for even a day
you crush me
you try
to break me
I try to fight you
look everywhere
but at you
I don't want you here
not now
or even tomorrow
but I know you'll come
you're never far away
but for what purpose
to torment me so
I can't fight you
I find it's
impossible
I can only sit
wait you out
ride the roller coaster
you throw me on
I don't want to know
your darkness
I don't like
what you make me feel
the emptiness
the loneliness
questioning things
pondering myself
it is pure torture
to me
that you are here
I try to hide you
when others are near
but I fail
I cannot deny you
as hard as I might
you're just one big cloud
of darkness and misery
I try to find
a hidden message
within your presence
but I come up with nothin'
no rhyme or reason
why you taunt me so
laughing
at my misery
I beg of you
to go away
never to return
leave me in peace
you are a curse
to me
my blue sandstone

© Patti
wolvesandrainbows.multiply.com

We're Moving! (well no, not me lol)

Multiply is moving their datacenter and hopefully the transition will go as smoothly and painless as possible :)

http://multiply.multiply.com/journal/item/423

Announcement by Peter (CEO) on the Staff Blog today ....

Although Multiply serves people from around the world, due to the way the internet works, all of our computers are physically located in a datacenter in New Jersey, USA, and have been for the last six years.  We're excited to announce that we're going to be bringing our operation down to Miami, closer to where our technical team is.  This should make things easier for us to manage, and also allow us to respond more quickly whenever there is a problem that requires our attention.  Importantly, this will also provide us more space to grow as more and more people continue to use Multiply; something that we're very grateful of.

Moving a datacenter the size of Multiply's is never an easy task, so there's a lot of work to do on our side.  Our goal for the move is to have as little impact to your user experience as possible.  So while I can't promise that you won't notice anything over the next few weeks, I can promise that our entire technical team is working overtime to make sure it's as little as possible.

So what does this mean to you? Over the next few weeks as we prepare for the move, the site might feel a little slow.  This is a temporary situation until we bring all of our hardware on-line in Miami.  Once we have it all up and running, Multiply will be faster than it's ever been before.  And that is something we're really excited about.

We'll keep you informed as we work through this move, and ask for your patience while we make Multiply better and better for you.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Beethoven/Requiem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ZqVdEEu8A
Beethoven with a twist ?

Johnny Cash Hurt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clq01TXQR0s
(Post repeated as Johnny singing this song is so powerful to me, and very touching)

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liars chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep my self
I would find a way

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (Radio Edit / Single Version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrzr4R3LpsQ&feature=PlayList&p=60DC475EC72EA1D0&index=0
love I get so lost, sometimes
days pass and this emptiness fills my heart
when I want to run away
I drive off in my car
but whichever way I go
I come back to the place you are

all my instincts, they return
the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

In your eyes
the light the heat
(In your eyes)
I am complete
(In your eyes)
the resolution
(In your eyes)
of all the fruitless searches
(In your eyes)
Oh I want to be that
In your eyes
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes

love, I don't like to see so much pain
so much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away
I get so tired of working so hard for our survival
I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

and all my instincts, they return
and the grand facade, so soon will burn
without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

In your eyes
The light the heat
(In your eyes)
I am complete
(In your eyes)
the resolution
(In your eyes)
of all the fruitless searches
(In your eyes)
ohhh I want to be that
(In your eyes)
I want to touch the light
the heat I see in your eyes

Accepting all I've done and said
I want to stand and stare again
to where there is nothing left
Remains there in your eyes
Whatever comes and goes
ohhh It's in your eyes
In your eyes
In your eyes
In your eyes
In your eyes

Thinking about doing something different

When I was over at Yahoo! 360, the one thing I had done was 'blog' lyrics to some of my favorite songs. It's the lyrics that catch me, and when you add just the right music ... well, all is good within Lace's world. When I came to Multiply in October of 2007, I brought them over with me. Copy and pasted them. Of course, the pictures didn't transfer over well, so I had to redo that part.

Lyrics

I posted about 10 or so music videos here at multiply since I came, either in the video section or blog. Some with the lyrics, some without. Some because the song touched me. A tribute to the Canadian Snowbirds is one. A couple funny ones. And one to help a friend feel better. A couple don't work anymore as the embedding was disabled upon request by the Record Label, which is understandable as there are ways to save the videos, but it's too bad that I can't share the music itself too. Plus it was handy for me to go through them and listen to them again lol.

Anyways, what I'm thinking of doing, is doing a tagged content box of links to a YouTube video. Not the way I would prefer to do it, but the first song I grabbed is 'disabled upon request'. I'll put the lyrics to the song in the post and leave it up to you if you follow the link through to hear what and how the song touched me and stayed with me.

The first song I am posting is Level 42's Something About You. The local news program was over on tv about 6:30, and as there was about a half hour to kill before the televised game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Detroit Red Wings, Billy put on one of the satellite music channels and Level 42's song came up. Of course, in amongst a discussion with a friend on Multiply, I had to get up and dance in my living room to the song. And in doing so, I decided to find the video on You Tube so I could hear it again later and that was when the idea hit me to put a link to the song and post the lyrics here. You know I'm not much of a blogger. I'm more a hit and miss/spur of the moment thing lol. But music I can do :D

Level 42 - Something About You: Stereo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zamqe602AU4
How, how can it be
That a love carved out of caring
Fashioned by fate
Could suffer so hard
From the games played once too often
But making mistakes
Is a part of life's imperfections
Born of the years
Is it so wrong
To be human after all

Drawn into the stream
Of undefined illusion
Those diamond dreams
They can't disguise the truth

That there is something about you, baby, so right
I wouldn't be here without you, baby, tonight

If ever our love was concealed
No one can say that we didn't feel
A million things and a perfect dream of life
Gone, fragile but free
We remain tender together
If not so in love
It's not so wrong
We're only human after all

These changing years
They add to your confusion
Oh and you need to hear
The time that told the truth

Because there is something about you, baby, so right
I couldn't live without you, baby, tonight

Because there's something about you, yea-eah
I couldn't live without you, baby, tonight

***************************

Level 42
is a popular British funk and pop band which was formed in 1980. The members all came from the Isle of Wight and had played in bands together when they were teenagers. Boon (guitar player) and Phil Gould (drum player), brothers who together along with another drummer, Mark King, formed Level 42. They recruited Mike Lindup (keyboard player). The band still needed a bass player so King agreed to learn

Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.

William James

Testing something here ... ignore the quirky wolf :)

Danette said to do it !! (snagged from Cal)

Danette said to do it!! Leave ONE WORD (in the comment section) that you think best describes me. It can be only one word. No more. Then copy and paste this on YOUR page so I may leave my one word about you.

(Ok. I'm curious .. good or bad haha)

It is written that when icicles drip on the mulch bed, the wise man hides his peanut butter.

'Timothy Cone' in Lawrence Sanders book Timothy's Game, while musing the sudden increase in a pre-packaged Chinese food stock prices.

This is when ours is ....

This weekend is our Thanksgiving Weekend. Always the second Saturday in October and we always have the Monday off.

It will be the first one for me and the kid. I had invited Fang to join us for dinner today, but he had to be at work for 4, so I said come for lunch. They changed his hours and he had to start at noon instead.

And no, I'm not doing the turkey thing with all the goodies and trimmings. I love turkey, but to get one small enough so the kid and I aren't feasting on turkey leftovers for the next two weeks .......... lol Having a roast beast instead, and even then it didn't go as planned. I wanted to try slow roasting it and see what happens, how much better it really is. Got some advice that if I wasn't going to sear it first, to put the temp at 350 for 20 minutes then knock it down to 200. The roast I got is a little bigger than what I usually get as I anticipated a third person being here but oh well, I like roast beef sandwiches the next day too. The kid and I made a cake and I thought "perfect .. when the cake comes out, the roast can go in". Twenty minutes later, I turned the heat down to 200. Thought I'd give it a peek at the two hour mark and see how it was doing.

And the idiot thing was done !!! I like the roast a little browner inside than just medium, but not too much, but at the two hour mark, the thing was more than a little more than medium. grrrrrrrrrr

And I had just made toasted tomato sandwiches for the kid and me to hold us over until dinner.

Now what do I do ?

Of course, I turned the oven off. The potatoes were ready to get thrown into the roasting pan for the last hour. The carrots were ready to throw into the steamer. Got what I needed to make gravy (which only happens when I do a roast) The only thing I can think of to salvage a roast beef dinner is to put a bit more water into the roasting pan to heat up the roast later and hope it doesn't end up too well done.

Good intentions gone bad. If I had known the roast would have cooked that fast, I wouldn't have made sandwiches lol  Somehow, I think the slow cooker will be put in use tomorrow.

Funny thing happened yesterday. The kid and I had gone grocery shopping and stopped at Walmart to get him a new pair of shoes as he had a blow out with his other pair. He never ever got the hang of laces and doesn't do velcro straps tight enough, so we have to get him the slip on kind and with ankle support. Hard to find here and when you do find them, they're expensive to be buying a pair every two months or so (he's hard on his shoes), except for what the Walmart here sells. He doesn't need a lot of ankle support, but more than what cheapy shoes offer.

Anyways, we live in a small town, if you can call it that ... population 3500, and it is surrounded by farmland on all four sides. And is the type of town where people know everybody (unless you're me lol). People here have known each other for years and have celebrated the kids growing up, getting married, etc. Of course, there's the usual gossip stuff happening. My landlady starts yapping, assuming I know who she's talking about. lol I politely make my escape as soon as I can without be downright rude to her. Not into gossip myself.

But this town doesn't see too much, if any, of some of the stuff you might see elsewhere.

Stayner has a two lane highway enter from one end of it and exit from another end, so there are a lot of small businesses along the main drag, trying to entice the tourist traffic (we get a lot of traffic go through town) to stop and shop.

The kid and I were passing through the main drag on a mission to hit the coffee shop to grab a coffee to take home and enjoy once the groceries got put away.

And I saw my very very first 'couple' walking down the main drag, holding hands.

I never saw this 'couple' when I lived in Toronto or Barrie (pop 130,000). Just timing I guess. I don't know.

I know, you're thinking "so?"

Welllllllllll this 'couple' were both men !

Now I don't have an opinion about it, one way or the other. I might not understand it, but to each their own. I won't condemn them for it.

But I started to chuckle when I saw them. My very first gay couple holding hands. And my first thought was "that should set a few tongues wagging about town"

I was close to passing this couple walking on the sidewalk in the direction I had just come from, when I saw people popping out of the stores they had just passed and looking in their direction !! And when two or more popped out of the store, you just know they were making comments. The looks on their faces were priceless, and I laughed more. I looked for them after I got the coffee, but they had either dipped inside a store or climbed into a car and left, as I didn't see them.

I've lived here for ten years, and can't say I know anybody other than the two drivers I work with that live here, the landlord and his wife, and one of my neighbours in the building enough to say hi and have a bit of a chin wag with. Well, mostly her, but sometimes her husband too. I never really felt at home here, but it was a place to live in when we lost the house and had to find someplace quick. Took two months before we moved in, but that was quick lol

But I am thankful that it happened. Kind of a blessing in disguise. The kid had turned 14 the previous year, so he had no choice to go into the life skills programs the high schools had. When we lived in the house in Barrie, the school he would have gone to had moved their life skills program to another school as they were doing some major renovations, so he ended up in a program where he was one of 30 odd kids. The reports home each day said he wasn't applying himself, wouldn't interact without being basically forced to interact, and even then, he held himself back and not totally get involved. He would stand on the sidelines in gym unless cajoled into participating. Etc. Now that really didn't sound like my kid. Yes, he was a bit bashful and didn't initiate interactions due to his inability to talk. But not participate in gym ? Definitely not like him at all.

So while we were at a loss on what to do, we lost the house in January and moved in here in late March. He had missed school during that time as it's hard to keep him going when you're either staying with one set of parents almost two hours north or another set an hour north. So when we got here, then I started the process. Would it make sense to travel 40 minutes one way to keep him at this school or just wait until September? Turns out, the high school in Stayner here had a life skills program as well. We went to check it out one day in April, met the teacher and the assistants. Not many kids were present that day, so I inquired about where the other kids were. The teacher says "this is all we have enrolled." I registered him on the spot and he was only one of ten kids !! He was still a bit bashful, but we both knew one girl in the class from when he went to elementary school in that program in Barrie. So that helped him settle in. By the time he graduated from the life skills program after he turned 21, he wasn't as bashful anymore, was using a voice output device with skill, and had matured enough and became comfortable enough with himself to initiate interactions with others. No doubt in my mind that if we hadn't lost the house and he had stayed in the program with so many other kids, he wouldn't have grown much.

Took me a while to be truly Thankful we lost the house and forgive Fang for his role in it, but I do. I realized that just today. If we hadn't and he hadn't done what he did, we wouldn't have found Stayner and this program.

Now the kid is in a life skills program just up the road for adults like him needing something more than spending 24/7 in front of the tv. And he continues to grow.

The dog has got more fun out of Man than Man has got out of the dog, for the clearly demonstrable reason that Man is the more laughable of the two animals.

~ James Thurber

Harper sings a Beatles tune

I love this video. Steven Harper's wife is on the board of the National Arts Center, located in our capital Ottawa, and had asked her husband if he would perform at a recent Gala. The guy isn't a bad singer and I thought it was awesome he did this. Think he surprised a few people, really. I can think of a few past prime ministers and current party leaders that wouldn't be caught showing their fun and human side lol

Oh, for those that don't know, Steven Harper is our Prime Minister. The head guy here in Canada, much like the U.S. President is the head guy south of me. And please, I don't really want to get into whether the Prez is the head guy or not down there hahahaha

Pic Challenge #2

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it ................

Type and submit the first thing that pops into your head :)

Dear Abby

I clipped this out of a local newspaper in October of 1992. Billy was only eight years old, soon to be nine the following February. I wouldn't say I was still struggling with the child he was so much anymore, but there were times I had a hard time understanding it. Especially knowing by the time I saw this clipping, that he would be my only child.

We had gotten the keys for a house the previous May and spent weekends moving stuff up to the house while Billy finished his year at school and I finished off my last year driving a school bus for that particular company, as the commute of an hour and a half one way didn't make it worth the trip for a part time job.  I don't remember ever subscribing to the daily newspaper in the area where we had moved to. Maybe just the Sunday paper because of the magazines, the retail flyers, and the tv guide they printed up themselves. Either the Saturday or Sunday paper. Don't remember now which one.

But out of the paper this particular time, came a Dear Abby column that I clipped and stuck to my fridge with magnets. And when I moved, it moved with me. Until it so badly discolored over the passing of years, I took it down and put it away. I had thought to blog it before, but think I could remember where I put it ? No. It wasn't until I was spring cleaning in a big way recently and going through every little scrap of paper, every little piece of this and that, that I found it again.

So, with full credit going to Dear Abby herself and Emily Pearl Kingsley, I repeat it here for you.

Dear Abby

Give thanks for children

Dear Readers:
October has traditionally been Down Syndrome Awareness Month, and has been so declared by the U.S. Congress.

Because I have so often heard from parents or grandparents of babies born with various disabilities, I offer the following, which has become a favorite:

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by Emily Pearl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this ...

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. Michaelangelo's David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some  handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!" you say, "What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and diseases. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that  you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

It just hit me

I had finished with the rugrats Thursday, for the day, walked home from where I park my bus, and told my son that I was going to take a few minutes before I started dinner. Sat down at my laptop and checked out the goings on at MPland.

Leaving my laptop lid open and the browser still going, I walked into the kitchen. Fiddled around a few minutes making dinner (as Billy picked the menu and he wanted Sloppy Joe's), walked back to the laptop and I was looking at a dark grey screen.

That's weird. It's not supposed to go into hibernation with the lid up.

Move the mouse. Nothing happened.

Pushed the space bar. Nothing happened.

Leaned over so my left ear was closer to the laptop and I didn't hear anything.

This is weird.

Ok. I hate to do it, but I pushed the button to turn it off. I'll just reboot it.

It's starts up.

I didn't turn it off, so why is it starting up?

I wait.

And I get a DOS screen.

????

It has four lines of stuff on it, and for the life of me, I couldn't tell you now what those other three lines said, but the fourth one says

Operating system not found.

What the hell does that mean?

So I repeat the process of turning it off by pushing the button and restarting it three more times, getting the same result.

Operating system not found.

CRAP !!!

Call my computer geek lady, Diana, leave a message. She calls me back a couple minutes later. I tell her what it did and what it's saying. She's thinking the video card has gone on it. Make arrangements that I call her when I get back from my errand Friday morning to make sure she's still home.

I get to her place Friday morning about 11ish and she goes to work.

Turns out it was the hard drive that died !!!

So she finds me a used one that a customer had left with her when they upgraded their laptop hard drive. She goes through the motions of adding an anti-virus program, she's going to put MS Office on it (cuz I use it a lot), and a couple other things. But she keeps running into this problem where it doesn't want to finish loading. So knowing I had to leave at one point to get the kids from school, she sends me home with instructions about 2.

I fiddled with that thing Friday night and Saturday morning and I was thisclose to throwing the stupid thing out the window.

I was getting this error message that the software that I was trying to download was not 'tested and signed by Microsoft'.

Get onto my sons computer, onto the web, and check that out. Found a site that tells me how to get rid of that notice.

Go back to my laptop and do what the website said. I got that error again. Check to make sure the changes stuck. Yep. Rebooted. Tried to download again. Got the error again. Checked the settings. Rebooted. Turned off. Check.

And yes, I'm an idiot because I try things several times before I accept defeat lol.

Called Diana ... sorry to bother you on a Saturday .......... tell her what it's doing and this idiot error thing that the settings seem to be ignoring.

I know own an expensive solitaire game. I couldn't download my anti-virus program to even consider downloading my internet software to hook up to the internet, or anything.

She's going to talk to her people (she's self employed and one of the guys she hired opened up his own store front, but will still work for her from time to time) to see if she can find me a GOOD used harddrive, as cheap as she can find one, for me.

So my laptop is taking a well deserved break for a few days or so.

I'm in the kitchen this morning, making a cup of tea (cuz that's how I start my day) when

IT HIT ME

I had taken all the pictures and music off the harddrive and put it on an external harddrive for storage, keeping the extra room on the laptop.

I had gone through the files and software programs and deleted stuff I wasn't using or didn't need anymore just the previous week.

BUT

All the links to tutorials and snippets out of those tutorials, links to specific webpages ......... all the theme codes I had made myself and used previously since I first landed here - almost two years worth - (with full intentions of going through them and updating them per 4.0 and applying what I now know since I made the first ones) .... all the theme codes where I made up a page for someone specific or the codes for those I was helping tweak their pages were sitting in a folder on my desktop. 

GONE

I had a lot of information in that folder.

The bowling paper work loss is no big deal.

Software can be re-downloaded.

But all that stuff in that folder for MPland ?? When it hit me what I had lost, I just stood there.

My tea got strong because I didn't take the tea bag out soon enough.  But I eventually did when I got over the shock and made a cup.

And even though it's going to take some time and I won't have those theme codes back the way they were, I can take my new-found knowledge and make them better than they were. Grab the links and snippets to the tutorials and put them in a tagged content blog box.

Talk about learning things the hard way. Think I would have learned my lesson when the hard drive to the tower that Fang has now crashed. I still have that hard drive here. Just in case someone ever figures out a way to get into it and get the information out of a broken hd.

And yep. I have the hd to my laptop. Just in case.

:)

What Beatles song are you ? (Thanks Cal)

You Are "Good Day Sunshine"

You are optimistic, cheery, and open hearted. You believe every day is a new start. You could have the worst night of your life, and you'd still wake up with a smile on your face. You are able to appreciate life's sweetest moments, and time often stands still for you. You are a truly joyful person. Your life is full of life, laughter, and sunshine.

What Beatles Song Are You?

Blogthings: Waste Time at Work!

*shrugs* part too

I don't remember a whole lot of stuff as a youngster. Just bits and pieces and usually something that happened that really stood out.

I don't remember the olive thing and I don't remember the beer thing.

I would have been five, almost six, when I started school and it would have been grade one that I went into. I don't know if we just didn't have kindergarten in Ontario, let alone Canada, or if it was just the area/school board where we lived but going into grade one was my first introduction into the school system.

Before we moved to the house we lived in when I started school, we lived in a house not too far away from that one, maybe for a year or two. Don't know. Don't remember.

All I remember of that house was the five of us coming home one night. It was dark but don't think it was very late. Don't remember where we had come from either.

Dad was driving. He pulls into the driveway and we all pile out of the car. It was a two door car. I climb out on mom's side.

Everybody is finally out when I remembered I forgot something in the car (and no, I don't remember what it was exactly but I remember having forgotten something and wanting to get it)

I'm sure I said 'I forgot [something]' and put my hand on the door jam with the intention of getting back into the backseat to get 'it'.

Just as mom slammed the car door closed.

Yep. My hand was in the way.

And yep, I howled big time !!

Mom and dad scramble to get the car door open quick.

Get it open and check my hand.

Lost a few layers of skin but didn't break any bones.

But the nail on my middle finger was gone. Of course things looked really bad with all the blood and it wasn't until my hand got cleaned up when the damage was found to be not that bad. And the nail would grow back, the skin would heal up without leaving a mark.

And I hadn't started school yet, so I was five or younger when it happened and I remember it as if it happened yesterday.

The house we lived in when I started school, we moved away from during that school year when I was in grade one. Mom would have to drive me into that town to catch the bus to that school to finish off my year.

I loved grade one. I didn't understand that this girl Jane was my cousin. She was just a girl and I didn't like her much. My teacher was really cool and yes, I wish I could remember her name. I have a class picture here with her in the picture, but her name wasn't put on the back. But there was this cute blonde hair boy that I liked. I didn't chase him around the school because he was mean and nasty and I wanted to hit him. Nope. He was just really cute and I liked him. lol And my teacher was trying to be real patient with me when it came to chasing him. I missed out on some recesses :( I missed the school when we moved and I started going to a different one for grade two.

It was one night at this new house when we came home from being somewhere. I would have been six or seven.

It was dark out, but not late.

Dad's driving.

We all pile out of the car when dad pulled into the driveway and turned the car off.

I forgot something in the backseat and wanted to get it.

Hand on the door jam.

Mom slams the car door closed.

I howled.

Same hand.

Same nail lost.

And no, I didn't do that trick a third time. If I forgot something after that, I waited until mom closed the car door first, then just opened the car door to get it.

*shrugs*

When I was young, oh around nine thereabouts, I remember hearing a story of something that happened when I was two. Now, I don't remember this time at all, so I'm going by what I was told and I heard the same story when it was told to my parents friends.

The family was sitting around the dinner table at my grandparents at Christmas, and I mean my parents (my baby brother would have been held or sleeping somewhere), grandma, grandpa, and being that my parents were only nineteen when I was born my dad's four brothers would be teenagers of various ages, my dad's Aunt Flo, with me in the high chair.

As some dinners go, either a special occasion or an every day thing, there were green olives in a dish on the table and the family seemed to love those things. You know the kind .. the smaller green ones in a jar with a red pimento piece stuck in the hole where the pit came out?

Dinner was winding down and there were a couple olives still left in the dish and someone thought they would give me a green olive to try and I let them pop it into my mouth.

One bite.

And I spit it out just as fast and not in a lady like fashion either. I didn't spit it out into my hand for removal. I just spit it out.

Ptoooey !!

It bounced off the tray of the high chair and onto the floor beside me.

I leaned over to look at it and said 'Oh Shit'

(honest, they said I was only two years old lol)

Well? I can only imagine the shocked look on some faces at the table. I was told my teenaged uncles thought it was hilarious (probably more because it's a cuss word and we don't say stuff like that at the table more than me saying it). Aunt Flo thought it was so funny that she had tears running down her face and couldn't stop laughing for a bit. Of course she would get the whole concept of it. This adorable-innocent-blonde curly haired-blue eyed angel of a two year old kid (lol) saying that when it wouldn't be part of her normal vocabulary IF she hadn't heard her dad say it a time or two, but to use it at the right time too hahaha.

It was probably Aunt Flo that told me the first time. And being that dad has this wacky sense of humour, it might have been him that gave me the olive to see what I would do with it too lol. Of course I wouldn't put it past a teenaged boy either but if not for the fact that the young ones always got put near their parents in the high chair, it would have been dad. My mom is too straight-laced to think of doing something like that for a reaction.

And no, to this day, I still don't like green olives. Offer me a black olive and I'll eat it though lol

Now skip ahead a few months. Again, I don't remember this as I was only two, but I was told about it.

Not sure if it was ever clear on when exactly is happened (spring, summer?) but mom had gone out to do some shopping or to work at a convenience store, leaving me and my brother in the care of dad.

Dad's friend stopped by.

They had a couple beers while they were chatting.

Beer case on the floor with some empty bottles in it. It was a beer case that was already in the house.

An adorable two year old playing close by. Her brother in his crib sleeping.

She's taking note that daddy and his friend are drinking this stuff. Take it out of the fridge, drink it, then put the bottle in the beer case.

hmmmmmm

She takes one of the empty bottles and tips it up, getting the last couple drops left behind in the bottom.

hmmmmmm

Put it back and grab another empty bottle.

hmmmmmm

Repeat the process until the empty bottles have barely a drop left in them.

Dad and his friend didn't get drunk that day. They didn't even feel a buzz.

But a certain two year old did  !!!! hahahaha

Doesn't take much beer to get a two year old feeling a good buzz.

Of course, mom came home, found her daughter standing on her head on the couch, flying, and was thoroughly p'off with dad and his friend left kinda quick.

lol

And no. I'm not much of a beer drinker. Got to be one of those real hot summer days and I actually have to crave it to drink it.

lol