FUN MONDAY

Rotten Correspondent tells me that Robin at Pensieve is our Fun Monday hostess this week and this is what she's asking us to write about -





"Regardless of what motivated me to choose this for a theme, next week please share words that inspire and motivate you--brief or bloviatory, silly or serious, from great world leaders to last night's Comedy Central...from a Hallmark greeting card to your favorite book. Choose one, choose many; let the quotes stand on their own or tell where you first read or heard them and how they affected you. There's a lot of leeway with how this topic can be handled."

So here goes:

One of my favourites and one that I always preached to my teenagers:

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”

No idea where it comes from but I love the sentiment, unfortunately not one I have ever been any good at implementing!

Another saying I have spouted regularly to my kids over the year, in response to endless whines of “ that’s not fair, so and so’s mum says he/she is allowed to (insert any number of dangerous/risky activities)”…… is:

“Get over it, life’s not fair!”

Happy Monday!

S.O.S.

I am confessing to all my blogging buddies. Some of you savvy people have cool hit counters and I'm sure a lot of them are off the scale because you are all great. But my confession here today is that I am responsible for a good many of them each and every day, just checking to see if you have updated - what a sad life I lead eh? So if some clever person (Carolyn? The Man?...someone?) could tell me how to do that update thingy whereby I am notified when you have updated, that would be great. As an aside, we should probably all monitor if your hit count drops radically and how many more hours open up in my day! :)

Earth Hour 2008

I hope you are all ready and going to do your bit. If you have been living under a rock, cities around are participating by turning off all lights etc. for one hour at 8p.m. tonight.
Well I am ready, I have the playing cards, candles and wine at the ready. I do try to be green in everyday life, wash laundry in cold water, don't use my dryer if at all possible, changed all my light bulbs, and, when there is no snow on the ground, I compost. I am even trying to be more conscious (?) of where my groceries are coming from, which is hard when you love bananas and live in Canada!
I saw an article on TV where a couple had been doing the "one hundred mile diet" whereby they did not eat anything that was not produced or grown within 100 miles of where they lived. That would mean no coffee, no tea, no olive oil ....the list, as you can imagine is endless. Unfortunately I am not quite that committed but when in the store I will select the apples (or whatever) that were grown in Ontario rather than USA, trying to vote with my choices in a way. I'm sure Fortinos are paying attention, right !?
I am always shocked at other people's carelessness, or is it bloodymindedness! Our neighbours are absolutely dreadful about having air conditioning on day and night all summer, even when they are gone for the weekend, every weekend at the cottage!! Last year they were gone for two weeks and the a/c was on the entire time. That's my rant for the day!!

Incognito or Invisible?

Once again another blogger Rotten Correspondent has been my inspiration for today's post. RC is celebrating her bloggaversary this week by looking back at why she started blogging etc. As I have said before I started just because I found a couple to read because they were living in France and, as you must all be aware by now, that's what I want to do and the sooner the better.

It started with a few anonymous comments here and there and then I became braver and launched my blog. I say brave.... it is still anonymous of course. I hide behind my nom de plume (!) because strangely I feel braver that way. A couple of times I have almost let the cat out of the bag to friends and family but stopped myself just in time.

Usually I nearly let slip because I just want to share all the fabulous blogs I have found, the great sense of humour, the wonderful, compelling writing....but then they might find me....and basically I am just not ready for that yet.

It is a bit of a strange feeling to have this big secret, because unlike a diary or journal, I am actually putting all this stuff, quite boring stuff sometimes (maybe always) out there for anyone else to read should they happen upon my blog but not telling those nearest and dearest to me. I wonder how long I will be able to keep it up, as I have never been particularly good at secrets.

If you knew how long it took me to get the black shadow to pose........ yes I know I need a life, hobby....what?

Thank You All So Much!

Just a quick post to say thank to all my commentors (!) for their good wishes. Sixteen comments, (OK I know I was responsible for some) but it was still very heartwarming to get so many. Especially after I had been whining to Carolyn over at Laughing alone in the dark at my lack of comments. I know it's like being in high school but it made my day. Thanks again. Come again. Welcome. Whatever applies, keep commenting!!

More than Half Way?

I have a rather big birthday this year, scarily big, a sickeningly high number, I think I can safely say that I am now more than half way to you know where!!
To mark the occasion I am off to France for a week, meeting up with GWE in Paris and driving down to our house not far from Limoges.
I am beginning to get very excited, we have pinned down an artisan to replace the roof and install dormers to make the attic and barn, eventually, habitable. Apparently the builder will start mid-April and as we are there mid-April, it might be presumed that we will see work commence. I know, I know, everything I have read and heard tells me this is very wishful thinking, but I can’t help being optimistic, it’s my nature. Funds have been wired, contracts signed. (This doesn’t make a bit of difference I hear you all muttering under your breath – well keep quiet please, leave me in blissful ignorance!! :)
Visions of wood burning stoves, hot water heaters and plug-in kitchens dance in my head. (Anyone who knows where I can get any of the above items on the cheap, pass it along).
I have emailed friends and family in the U.K. to let them know where we will be and inviting anyone to pop over (I haven’t heard a peep out of anyone so they must all be planning a birthday surprise…….the surprise being that no-one will remember….Duh!!)
Can you see how subtle I am?
One result is that a cousin of GWE’s will be in France that week. We spent my 18th birthday with J and her boyfriend shopping in Richmond. We haven’t seen each other in years, primarily because we live usually anywhere but the U.K. However, the family grapevine has been at work and she also has a property in France, not even an hour away from ours….in the whole of France!! (Over more towards where Debra (Us In France) and Breezy (BreezyBreakBlog) are situated.). So we will get together to compare notes, she is much further down the road of renovation than us….which isn’t saying much, but I looking forward to seeing their place. So four weeks today I will be waking up in France, not in the house but close by.

A Cheesy Classic

I have to update the answer to #25 in my previous blog, when did I last cry.  It was as I read the post of January 7th "Doing the Dairylea" over at Missing You Already!  Crying with laughter.  Check it out !  Sorry my laptop is not cooperating and won't allow me to put in the links but the link to her blog is in my list on the left.  It certainly made my Saturday.

A lazy Saturday morning post

Well believe it or not it is 10.15 am and I am still in my dressing gown, having spent several hours just browsing and commenting all over the place, I found this one over at Missing You Already so here goes:

1.  What is your occupation? Real Estate Agent (a nice friendly unpushy one, honest!)

2.  What colour are your socks right now? No socks, still in my slippers

3.  What are you listening to right now?  Law & Order - multi-tasking or if we are talking music I have a Cat Empire CD in the car

4.  What was the last thing you ate?  A banana

5.  Can you drive a stick shift?  Duh! yes!

6.  If you were a crayon what colour would you be? I would be one of those ones that is several colours - so cool!

7.  Last person you spoke to on the phone?  Ed the painter

8.  Do you like the person who sent this to you? Well I pinched it from MYA but so glad I found her and liking her a lot!

9.  Favourite drink?  Red wine

10. What is your favourite sport to watch? Rugby

11.  Have you ever died your hair?  Is the pope a catholic?!

12.  Pets?  One large dopey black lab

13.  Favourite food? Salad nicoise (is that how you spell) but only in France 

14.  Last movie you watched?  Gone with the Wind 

15. Favourite day of the year?  Any day when I am off somewhere exciting

16.  What do you do to vent anger?  Swear like a trooper

17.  What was your favourite toy as a child?  Barbie (sad eh?)

18.  What is your favourite, fall or spring?  Spring but it is too short here in Canada

19.  Hugs or kisses?  Kisses

20.  What kind of pie?  Rhubarb 

21.  Do you want your friends to email you back?  of course!

22.  Who is most likely to respond?  my favourite friends

23.  Who is least likely to respond?  dunno

24.  Living arrangements? On a different continent from my hubby, with my 15yr old son and dog yearning to be in France

25.  When was the last time you cried?  Watching some sad movie this week sometime

26.  What is on the floor of your closet?  Boots, shoes, bags, coat hangers, discarded clothes (and it is not a big closet!)

27.  Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending this to?  I not sending it except..... out into the bloggersphere

28.  The friend you have known the shortest amount of time that you are sending this to? See 27.

29.  Favourite smell?  Lavender in bloom

30.  What inspires you?  Other people

31.   What are you afraid of?  Losing my health, or one of my family losing their health

32.  Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?  Cheese

33. Favourite car?  Jaguar XJS

34.  Favourite cat breed?  the friendly loving kind not the phsycho kind!

35.  Number of keys on your key ring?  Always too many as far as hubby is concerned but actually three

36.  How many years at your current job?  less than one

37.  Favourite day of the week?  Days when I can be in my garden

38.  How many provinces have you lived in?  In Canada - two

39.  How many countries have you been to?  Lots but lots to go - lived in U.S. Canada Israel Germany and of course U.K.

Feel free to help yourself, if you are feeling lazy like me.

Fancy a Giggle? Part II

Thanks Carolyn over at Laughing alone in the dark. Carolyn sent me instructions to embed my YouTube videos and I wanted to practice, so hope you enjoy it. It bears watching more than once!

And another of my all time favourites, I'm on a roll.

What a Wonderful World!

Stinking Billy 's post of yesterday got me thinking about the world of blogging. It is a truly wonderful world. When you meet someone in the blogging world, due to a lot of people's anonymity, you don't know whether they are male or female, black, white or green, no religious symbols usually in evidence. In fact we have usually stumbled across them purely because of something they wrote, a wonderful way with words, a sense of humour, a witty comment left in someone's Inbox tempts us to find out more. In fact on some of the blogs I visit, it took me a while to work out whether they were male or female. It really did not matter. I liked their style. They left me laughing (that is what draws me most often) or their slant on their world or the world in general piqued my interest. But would I have connected with these people in the real physical world? That's the interesting question, geography aside, would I have thought, because of some oblique visual signal, that any one of them might not be "my kind of person". Let's be honest, this happens, maybe on a very subconscious level, but it does happen. How often have you met someone, and been pleasantly surprised that you did get along, they were your kind of person, but something in the first meeting had prompted you to think otherwise. I have a friend, a friend of many, many years now, she lives way over in California, and we still keep in touch via email, Christmas cards and the rarest of telephone calls, but if ever we were in the same place in the world for a minute, would be back on that old footing. However, when I first met J, she looked like a Barbie doll, blonde curls, the tiniest of mini skirts, she looked fabulous, and well, I don't! I have to admit my first impression was that we were not going to be best buddies, but we ended up standing next to each other at a party, chatted away a mile a minute, got drunk together, and the rest is history. But I have always remembered the baggage in my head at the time. To me that is one of the joys of blogging, it crosses all barriers. Keep it up.

Fancy a Giggle

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

OK maybe I am a horrible person but this really made me laugh. Hope you enjoy it.  Wish I knew how to have that lovely YouTube screen like everyone else but you know me - so click on the link or cut and paste if you fancy a giggle.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

Today it is - after we received 50 - yes 50cm - of snow in the 24 hours from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon!  Biggest snow storm of the winter so far.  Needless to say we did not do much - apart from peer out the windows saying "OMG look at that bloody snow - its going sideways!" and similar constructive comments.  Our neighbour has a snowblower and loves to use it - just rubbing our noses in it we reckon!! - but he was out there twice yesterday - can you tell!  As I was taking the photo he was getting ready to fire it up again and so I suppose I should show willing and get out there with my shovel.  I do have an open house this afternoon so will have to venture out eventually.  At least the sun is shining today.  What is strange to me is that places like Calgary at the foot of the Rockies in Alberta where I would expect there to be snow, don't have a snowflake. I just saw a report on the news this morning and I thought it was old report from the summer, but no they don't have an iota of the white stuff.  Apparently, they are running out of gas too - what is the world coming to?

Enough Already!!!

Snow that is. I know I live in Canada but I've had enough. A storm last Friday, a storm yesterday and a storm coming through this weekend. Everybody you meet says "Well 20th March ..first day of Spring!" but of course with global warming that means sod all!!!

All I am getting is a lot of experience in shovelling the damn stuff - can you tell I am sick of it?

The only compensation is that I tick that off as my exercise for the day.

My sidewalk isn't quite this long, but sometimes it feels it.

OK that's my moan/rant of the day, onwards and upwards......