Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of July 2007. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Mon, July 2, 2007 (9:45am) Slow nights at work are kinda nice - if only as a break from the constant rush of a busy medical clinic - and yesterday was Canada Day, which meant people were out having fun instead of being sick. It was slow enough that the Doctor on staff came out to see what was wrong. "No patients? What are we supposed to do with no patients? Isn't anyone sick tonight?" He paused, perhaps to see if we would miraculously pull patients out of our pockets, or maybe just for dramatic effect. "Well, if there's no patients, we might as well eat samosas!" So I got sent on a samosa run, to the little Indian deli up the street. We celebrated Canada Day by eating samosas and drinking chai (at least, until a few more patients trickled into the clinic). Not bad, eh? |
| Tues, July 3, 2007 (11:25am) It's complicated. I'll explain later. ...Oh wait, it is later. Yeah. Life's been complicated. I've been reluctant to post about this, because it's a "family matter" and not the sort of thing you post to the whole wide world, but at this point, a few of our friends already know what's been going on, so I figure I can post a quick summary. Shades' Dad is very ill. He ended up in the Emergency ward (in Calgary) a week ago, and was released from the hospital needing 24 hour care. He stayed with family in Calgary a couple days and then came home to Edmonton, where we (meaning 'family up here', not just us exclusively) have been providing the assistance he needs. He's stable right now, but this is a long-term problem, and it may get worse before it gets better. In the meantime, we've been re-arranging our schedules to help him, and fixing things up so he can now be at home without 24-hour supervision (he's got a TeleCare bracelet with a button to press in case of emergencies, and people are still checking on him every day.) We're trying to get things like home care set up, and cleaning, and sooner or later he'll need to move out of his house and into someplace which offers assisted living. So I've been on the phone a lot looking into senior's housing options in Edmonton. (And if you think the housing market here is insane, you should look into the retirement market. Oy.) So if I'm a bit distracted, or don't respond to your email, or am impossible to get a hold of, that's why. Thank you very much for the understanding which people have given us so far, and for the offers of assistance, or leads on good seniors' lodges, and all the rest. It helps. Also, just to give people a heads-up, it looks like there will be no Friday Gaming here this week. Shades and I are planning to skip town (just for a day) and spend some time together. We hope to be back in time for April's wedding party. Seeya then! |
| Fri, July 6, 2007 (9:45am) When we hosted our Canada Day barbeque, Shades peeled the avacados for the salad. Unfortunately, he got a small spot of green on his shirt, and was concerned that it might stain. So he tossed it down to the laundry with a warning that it should be pre-treated. Since I was in the laundry room the next day, I got the Shout and sprayed it, rubbed it, scrubbed it, and left it to dry. Yesterday, Shades was doing laundry and found the shirt. He held it up to check the stain (or lack thereof) and saw that it had been dealt with. And then, in true Buffy-style, he held the shirt aloft and sang, And that is why I love him. |
| Tue, July 31, 2007 (11:00am) If I'd had access to my weblog, here's some of the stufff I would have posted about, this month: July 8 Went to the Quad Cabin with Verdandi, to finish up some work which Shades and I didn't get done when we'd gone out there earlier. It's looking good. I got one wall of the living area decorated with half-timbering, and I framed a window. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. July 10 Potty Training. The bane of child-rearing. We have embarked upon this distasteful endeavour for the (hopefully) final time. For anyone who knows how much I just love potty training, you should know why I am likely to be irritable for the next couple months. Or years. July 12 Out to the cabin again, this time with all the kids, and the incalculable assistance of my Mom. We're going to give them a chance to sleep overnight before bringing them to the cabin during Quad War, just so they can get used to the place again, and we can see if there's anything important which we need to fix before Quad. Like... um... another bed. We don't have room to sleep the whole family in the bedroom, now that Jase has outgrown the Pack'n'Play. Hm. Must get Shades to build a new child-size bed. July 13 Shades and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. Interesting. Not one of the best, but it does a decent job of turning one of Rowlings most complicated plots into something vaguely coherent. And I do like teenage Snape. He's so Emo! July 20-23 Gone camping with the family at Greenwater provincial park, in Saskatchewan. Please note that this timeframe includes July 21st - the release date for the last Harry Potter book. But we were in the middle of nowhere. No Bookstores for miles. No Harry Potter book for me. And so everyone had to listen to me whine for 3 days that I could be reading a book right now, but no - I was stuck miles from civilization, being forced to enjoy the sun, and sand, and relax at the beach, instead of reading Harry Potter. July 24 Back home. First outing of the day: the local Chapters. Where they have SOLD OUT of the new Harry Potter book! AARRRRGGG! At least, they're sold out of the regular Hardcover. They do still have a limited edition fancy cover, gold edged pages, includes-JKRowling's-signature-reproduced-in-gold-ink-on-the-cover version for $80.00 But it's this version, or spend half a day driving around a very hot city in a very hot van full of very cranky children, looking for a place which hasn't sold out. (Every place over-ordered. Every place was still sold out.) I bought it. July 26, 1:00am-ish Finish reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Can't wait for the movie of this book to come out. It's gonna be shiny! I'd almost swear that JKR was writing this book with the screenplay in mind. Very dramatic. Very visual. And, of course, Snape rocks. As always. July 27 After weeks of Potty Training, Jasen has an accident-free day! Yay! This is by no means the end of the potty training, but it's a fabulous landmark. July 28 Successfully hosted Mom&Dad's 40th Anniversary party. Yay! Congrats on 40 years, Mom and Dad! July 29 Fun work at the Medical Clinic: Parents bring in their child complaining of hearing trouble and pain in the ears. Parents suspect ear infection. Doctor suspects wax build-up in the ears, and sets me to syringing them out. I discover: Popcorn kernals! Recommend against insertion of Popcorn in ears for the future. July 30 Go to Costco. Buy a 500 GB MyBook to use for backing up my computer's memory (plan to do it using the Mac drive in 'Target' mode) so we can repair, or scrub and re-install, the OS and make the Mac-mini boot again. My trio of Lone Gunmen (Hi Fox/Maskwa/Rei!) arrive in the evening with a spare MacBook Pro to see what we can do for my Mac. July 31, 1:45am-ish Mac seems to be functioning properply again! Yay!!! |
| Tue, July 31, 2007 (11:50am) I have a functional computer again! (And there was much rejoicing!) YAY!!!! After nearly a month without a computer (my Mac locked up during some process on July 7th, and when we power-cycled it, it refused to boot again) we have managed to make it go. It was a bloody annoying month, I'd like to say. The PC makes a fine games machine (good graphics card, fast processor, etc) but it had no email client installed, and no software for updating web pages, and no current anti-virus protection (which means I wasn't paying bills online, or watching our bank balance as I normally would) and it didn't have my favorite solitaire games so I was missing some of my normal stress release. I was bitchy. But now all is well again. I can bitch (online, even!) about lots of non-computer-related things! Like my broken kitchen faucet, or stupid FSCD workers, or the joys of Potty Training (grr). But I won't. I will, instead, update my weblog to let people know I am alive and well, and then take my kids to the mall for lunch, and see if I can make Connor's Ion Kids bracelet work properly before Quad War. This entry has been brought to you courtesy of 3 cool friends, whom I shall christen 'the Lone Gunmen', who volunteered their evening to come over to my place and help fix the Mac. Thank you very much, guys! I hope it wasn't too arduous being forced to watch Transformers with Shades while waiting for the Mac's memory to back-up to the MyBook. The things you suffer in the Line of Duty! |