Airport Hangar

I didn't think it was possible but then I am very often surprised at work. The Airport Hangar was back today.

This time around they asked me to take off the arrow and put a new arrow pointing to the area between building 19 and 20 and gave me a sentence to replace Hangar #6. Now, this is probably my fault, but when I get stuff to post I assume it's finished, complete, spell checked, and the final-final-final version of something. It rarely is, and I don't think people sense the frustration they create -- it's not just fixing something, it's posting the same thing twice. It's as much work to post it in the first place as it is to replace it with a fix.

When I sent back to them I got a note back, "Just a minor change "airport" spelling and since you are going into the document if you could just move the arrow a little bit closer to Aiport Road that would be great."

I checked back, since I always cut & paste and sure enough the original email said "77 Airpot Road" AIRPOT?? What in the world is an Airpot?

Never one to let someone's mistakes go un-pointed out I wrote back "Ha ha, I just copied 'Airpot' from your email."

Nice going, Moran.

You Post, I Thank Yee

For something I posted for 2 people I got one "Thaaaanks!!!!!!" and one "Thanks from me also as well."

Free Soup Day

In the subway Maple Leaf Foods was giving away "Free Fresh Soup! Fresh Free Soup!" So I took some home. I like to think of it this way: if it's for free, it's for me! Turns out: It was not for me.

Pouring it out into a bowl at home, if you can call tumbling out in a jelly-like lump "pouring", it seemed really thick. Really thick. Like gravy. Lumpy jelly-like clear gravy. Lumps of meat, lumps of veggies in it. Should be good, I thought, since I love gravy.

Well, it didn't taste like meat. It didn't taste like veggies. It didn't taste like gravy. It tasted like yuck. Checked the label -- it's low sodium soup, which means instead of adding less salt, they add more chemicals that don't taste like salt. Everything just tasted like chemicals, coated in goo, thick-gravy-like goo.

I fear they might go out of business with this soup making venture.

Environmentalist

I've converted my Dad. On the bus ride home he called me to find out where and what make & model number my reel push mower is and brought one home. My cousin is working on her boyfriend, my brother likes it, my uncle grudingly decided it wasn't bad, my neighbour borrowed mine when hers quit, my parents neighbours hauled it over the fence to give it a try, and Diana's going to make her husband come over to try it out... pretty soon everyone I know is going to have a push mower.

I'm going to balance out the good I've brought into this world by getting everyone to convert to a push mower by buying a big, bad, gas-guzzling snowblower this year.

Elmer Fudd

On the radio this morning they were taking calls from people who'd gone camping on the weekend and got stuck in snow. (Around Calgary and Grande Prairie apparently they got snow this weekend) So this woman calls in and she sounded like Elmer Fudd...

She: so my fwiends said we should go camping around Gwande Pwaiwie and it would be gweat and I dinnt think that sounded gweat but they were like "let's just go! it'll be fun" so we went and woke up in the middle of the night it sounded like thwack thwack thwack on the tents and it was hail!
3 Morning Hosts in chorus: HAIL??
She: yes it was hailing! in Gwande Pwaiwie! it wasn't gweat at all! It was howwible!!

Crazy neighbour

Early on a long weekend Monday morning is not the best time to be mowing your lawn. Your neighbours will look out their windows and think things about you. I, for example, thought "what in the world is she doing??" This is because my neighbour was mowing the wrong lawn early on a long weekend Monday morning. When I talked to her later in the day she mentioned that it looked like Robin had gone away for the weekend and she wanted the exercise.

Best part: his lawn didn't particularly look like it needed to be mowed.

A whole new world

Gardening. It's harder than it looks. I'm ready to strangle dandelions, I speak abusingly to quack grass and despise ugly thistles.

Today in Canadian Tire a woman was knelt down looking at small gardening tools as I pushed past her to get a bottle of Killex. I cannot seem to get rid of quack grass and dandelions in the lawn manually, it grows faster than I can dig it up. As I was examining the various brands of toxic chemicals that promise to leave behind a lush lawn while annihilating weeds, her husband encouraged her to get up so they could get going and move to the next aisle.

"I would get up," she replied "...if I could. But I can't." He laughed and gave her a hand up and when she caught my eye she sheepishly giggled.

"Too much gardening?" I asked.
"Yep."
Full of empathy I agreed, "me too."

Just Dandy

This long weekend, as with all long weekends in Alberta, is forecast for rain, rain, more rain, and possibly snow.

I have a dandelion problem, so I don't really care. At least I won't have to spend the entire weekend digging them up, it's just too wet outside!

facebook

Two months ago facebook was fun and cool. Now it's not. Between the elementary school bully repeatedly asking me for coffee or a bbq and my friend from junior high poking me incessantly I get no peace, no peace at all!! It's no fun anymore.

There are people I want to be friends with, and then there are people who add me because they know of me... like the boss who made my first real job hell on earth, the kid who knows my BFF in Aylmer Ontairo but not me, the bully I bit on the hand in elementary when he and his rowdies tried to pull apart my friend by the arms, the girl who didn't have any friends in high school, all these people I left behind for a reason! No I do NOT want to be your friend!!!

I HATE IT!

With every new website launched there are some pains. Our new site launch has gone fairly smoothly with the exception of IT. Every day I hate them more. Officially we're routed through the Help Desk for "help", but they are no help at all...

Finger pointing, name calling, yelling, tattling, cursing. Multiple times daily.

Things are still not resolved.

Love thy neighbours

I've decided to document neighbourhood stories as someone keeps providing me with ample amusement.

On Sunday evening I got home about 5 pm and decided to weed the front lawn. Shortly thereafter the flyer guy dropped off flyers and things in everyone's mailbox. At 7 the neighbour sent her oldest child (age 15) over with her friend (who was visiting) with a plastic bag. They knocked on the door and started putting the flyers into the bag. When the guy across the street eventually opened the door he was disheveled, in sweats and looked like he'd been greatly enjoying a Sunday afternoon nap... they attempted to explain that they'd been sent by the kid's mother who figured he'd gone out of town and SHE who was standing in her kitchen yelled out the window across the street at him: "WE'RE JUST WORRIED ABOUT YOU ROBIN!" The kids handed him the plastic bag and ran home.

Wow. Just wow.

I guess I'd better take in my mail within minutes of it being delivered...

Deep Purple Pain

I went down to calgary with a guy on Sunday to check out a doors and windows show room... I wanted to throw myself from the vehicle. I have never heard of Deep Purple before. This was invitation enough to listen to a few of around 100 CDs that he has of the band which was formed in 1972, a full five years before I was born. (Oddly enough I was loudly complaining about that I don't know Deep Purple in Tim Horton's this morning and the guy in front of me was as offended as Roland was.) He likes to collect this group in particular because of their wide range of musical ability. From classical inspired rock to screaming yelling rock. Rock, rock, rock. I listened to more than enough classical rock for a lifetime. (I have little patience for screaming music.) In particular he was excited to tell me about the history of a song he asked me to pay special attention to the lyrics... which I couldn't understand in the least. He was envious of english people's ability to understand the "text" of the song without having to translate it. That is, if we would be able to hear the words over the screaming and squealing!

Mower

It's weird having a house -- I'm outside doing yard stuff for hours on end. It's kind of fun. I bought a reel lawn mower -- i.e. no power. It's the most genius idea I've thought of ... last year someone at work sent me a link to one that was really expensive and ships from the States and I made fun of her. She's into organics and composting etc. Except she will never get around to it because she's too lazy. The more I thought about it's not only a good idea because running a gas mower for an hour is like driving 40 cars for an hour, or that North Americans spill as much gas as the Exxon Valdez every year trying to fill their mowers... it also is a good idea for allergies. I'd have to hide in my room and close the windows when my dad would mow the lawn. I figured it was because it was blowing grass and grass dust and grass seed through a bag that is never ever cleaned ever. And I was right! Mowing the lawn with a push mower is fun, good exercise and doesn't set off my allergies. My dad was dead set against it, but then he tried it last night while we were waiting for a backup to finish and he had fun. He went home and told everybody about it and offered to buy my brother one!

Have your neighbours cake and eat it too

In a bizarre turn of events, I was invited for birthday cake at the neighbours. The kid is 15 and I'm sure had no idea that I was invited. I was also invited to part take of their swimming pool once they have it set up. And also was quizzed about my boyfriends. Many boys have been coming and going out of my house, some might be my brother or cousins, but clearly not all.

It's sort of inevitable that people look out their windows. It's even forgivable that they notice what's going on, and laudable that they'd keep an eye on your place if they know you're not home. They count on me to do the same for them. It's ok. I get it. And since both our driveways are 1 foot apart and our front doors face each other it's even easier to watch the neighbours. It is weird however to have neighbours that comment on it and quiz you about your comings and goings. I have a "mothering" neighbour, even more motherly than my condo neighbour.

On Saturday morning, for example, she was out bright and early at the fence separating our driveways to let me know that her son had been looking out the kitchen window when I had gotten into my male friends car the night before and alerted the whole family that I had a boyfriend. Yay for Maria! When we returned with take-out only half an hour later she was delighted when my "boyfriend" drove up on the driveway. In an act of goofiness he'd driven all the way up the long drive and parked in front of the garage, so the entire family was alerted again that I was back with my "boyfriend" and he was parking in the garage. Of course this was just a fishing expedition to find out if it was really my boyfriend or not.

Then she invited me to have birthday cake with their family that evening, it was the firstborn's birthday. I thanked her for the invite but as I was going out I would not be home. That was ok with her; they'd save it for Sunday then, or any day I could make it. Weird. So Sunday night in between hosting my own friends and going out I took an hour out to meet the neighbours. I'd noticed their yard is in want of some TLC and their fence and gate could use some sprucing up -- there is a tiny section at the back of the yard that is gated off with what looks like farm fence; I wondered if they had a goat. They have a broken down tree house, 13 hockey sticks sitting in a pail near the back door, 3 garbage bins, an old gas oven in their garage, too much patio furniture, an old trailer, and hardly any grass. Their house wasn't much different. Furniture that even my grandparents had reupholstered and house plants and stacks of sports equipment... it was an eclectic mix of stuff. All of it old, most of it junk. In fact, they not only have 3 dogs that ALL look the same but are different sized and coloured (but one is a poodle and the others are some other sorts of mutts) they also have 2 cats and some hamsters and gerbils and lizards.

Anyway, I'm sure the 15 year old and her friends were mortified that the neighbour lady was invited over for her birthday -- but what could I do? It's like going over Niagra Falls with a bucket. I brought the kid something small and signed a little card over which the mother exclaimed delightedly and the daughter dismissed. No matter, I enjoyed their cake and listened to the never ending flood of info about all the neighbours and ended up learning a great deal about them too. Nice people, messy, but really nice.