Buns, more buns and toilet paper

I baked buns yesterday for the first time. They aren't perfect but they tasted pretty good. They didn't rise as much as I would have liked. They sort of look like sliders.

The recipe was too big, so next time I'll cut it in half.

I don't mind when Gord goes shopping, but man how much toilet paper do we need? Did you notice how neatly he put it away? Or perhaps we are supposed to do our business when we come in the front door. Wipe and go!

To my friends of Katerina

Some of you who read this blog ... I should say most of you that read this blog know that our dear friend Katerina has cancer and is dying. She is so young only in her 30's...so much ahead of her, yet her life is being cut short.



She has always been the most strongest person I know, life has thrown her a lot of curves and she has always knocked them back over the fence. This time that didn't happen. She is accepting her fate..with the humour she always had when she was well.



I can't seem to wrap my head around this yet. Kat quit blogging a few years ago, and has gone to facebook, but she was probably the best blogger ever. She pulled no punches, and said it like it was supposed to be said. OMG...remember the PMS days. I've never had PMS but she described so artfully, and so clearly that it just made your vagina hurt just reading it.



She had a way about her...funny, charming, dead on mean if you crossed her, articulate, smart, caring, lonely, ..... a cross between it all. I had the privilege of meeting her in person two summers ago at my house in Winnipeg. I could never figure out why she would like me...I was twice her age, even older than her mom. But that never bothered her; she was only interested in sparring with me and having fun. We had a lot of phone conversations over the years...and you know...I never once felt like I was talking to a younger person...like my niece... we just clicked. She saw the assehole in me...and I saw hers... haaaa. We laughed so much...and that was...and still is what Kat is about..the laughter. I'm sure there was not only laughter in her life, I know there was the dark side. But we all have that. She did what she had to do. To survive.

So, to my old buddies...Mary Lou and Brenda...who have been with her since the beginning... ( and yes we are way older than her) she loved calling us "raisins".... what a bitch!

Balonie...smiling...remembering.....And Kat I hope you get a place in "hospise"... or is that hosspiss..nevermind...never been too good with the spelling.

I will post this on facebook for her...

balonie....mit da sad face.

Wow

You would have thought I would be posting everyday now that I am retired. Nope. I'm a painting machine. I have been painting Gord's shop...for 3 days now. I'm dirty, tired, and feel parts of my body I have never felt before. I have climbed three different ladders in various stages of this project.... all them are wobbly. I am only a 1/4 way through and then have to get a second coat on it.

The prep time make me want to puke. Taping, brushing the edges of the ceilings and baseboards....before you actually get to PAINT. I'm a little crazy, I like to see some results...quickly. But you know... I love it. It is so different than sitting at a desk and someone else making your decisions for you. Everyday when I come in...I assess what I have to do and go and do it. I never thought I had that in me. I actually take the time to figure it out. Life has always been so stressful, that I couldn't take time to do a proper job of anything....now I have been given an opportunity ... to do it at my pace.. I'm..."all yes."

We own the building I am working in and it has been great to finally meet some of our tenants. I have the outside door propped open all the time because I'm hot.....yes I am! .. and this seems like some kind of invitation for them to come and see what is happening in Gord's shop. Yesterday while I was crawling on the floor trying to put masking tape on the baseboards, the tenant next door dropped in. She was facing my ass. But apparently she didn't care and scared the crap out of me when I heard her voice. I jumped up and hit my head on my the bottom of my ladder that was next to me. I am working is such a small space. There is no room for error. Gord has grouped all his crap in the middle of the room, thinking I was I about 95 pounds and our ladders were about 6 inches wide. It's interesting. But by jove I will get this job done.

You know the best part of painting is....that there is no TV..no Internet...a little talk radio...and you and your paint brush. Time to think clearly, time to make small decisions on where to proceed, but so very calming.

I may not be very good at it....but I love going to work everyday.

Plus it is nice when all the tenants walk in and talk...and talk...every one has a story about their business and the ups and downs of it.

Balonie....taking care of business

Been working like a dog.

Gord is renovating his shop. Today was the day we were going to take out the old ass carpet. Well let me tell you....the guy that laid it down had glue in his brains. It was only a small area around his desk, but it was glued to the cement so tight we have spent 2 days trying to remove it , and let me tell you there is NO easy way of taking glued carpet off a cement floor. We fought the good fight today. We took turns holding an ice scraper under the carpet while the other hit it with a sledge hammer. Or the back of an axe when the that didn't work too well.

Finally I gave up and told Gord there has to be an easier way. So I filled up a few buckets of hot water an poured it over the rug and let it set for a bit. It didn't take more than 15 minutes when we could start get the backing of the rug to absorb the water thus making it much easier to remove. I had another thought, as we were doing this, but old bullhead wouldn't take my advise, I was going to go home and get some Fleesy that I throw in the washing machine...which makes fabric soft... I thought for sure that that would work. The hot water and a heat gun we used worked, but by gum I think Fleesy would have worked wonders given about 1/2 an hour to make the fibres relax.

We worked for three hours...he did most of the bitching and the real grunt work, and I looked for solutions plus did a lot of grunt work. Why do men always argue with you when you give them your point of view? Or a solution? Frankly I am getting tired of that. Be that what it may, I will be painting the shop next week. And yes, the company (he and his brother own the property) will be paying me....me big fucking bucks. I have decided I'm starting tomorrow...which is a holiday in Canada...so that would make it stat holiday that I should be paid for if I'm working for the boys. I'm thinking 18.00 bucks an hour. Plus expenses...driving to Home Depot getting the paint...and flirting with the paint guy. I was over there last week checking out prices....and he didn't seem like a guy who would make me shovel out hardened carpet or make me hit stuff with an axe.

When I go there on Tuesday, I will be looking very pretty. I will have removed all the grime from my feet and face by then. I also will be very verry blonde.. I'm doing my make over tomorrow. I'll be ready for him. And that will probably be his day off.

Yeah....I am the most unluckiest person alive.

Hope y'all like the new look.....it suits me I think. It will be a keeper for awhile....me and Bob doing a dance.

Oh hi internet

Will someone please come over here and tell my husband to quit coming home 1,345 times a day. IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING!...He forgets his service call book on the counter, he forgets his sunglasses, he forgets his keys to the shop, he forgets to get the hell out of here before 11:00 AM.... and then he is back home for lunch by 12:00. Mercy me. I wonder what he did while I was at work. Well not really, he was driving back in forth to the house picking up shit he forgot. And just made it back for lunch.

Then in the morning he has a list of things I should look into. Find a bill for this, find a bill for that......go find it yourself ....you did just fine without me before. This morning when he was ordering me around, and said ...hey you are retired and now you have time to do this. I replied, I am retired, but apparently I just got a new boss! He stuttered for a moment...and started to laugh... Point made. And if I have to make that point again, he will be sitting on it. God forbid he retires EVER. It's obvious we need our space.

We are in a heat wave right now...which is unusual for May and it's making me cranky....You just can't come off a cold winter without rain in spring and into a heat wave. Normally Mother Nature will give us a period of grace taking us from the cold to warmer temperatures. I find it uncomfortable. I need the transition. Many of my trees have suffered from this as well. Their buds never developed and didn't have enough moisture to survive.

I hope we don't have a summer of high temps. I can't stand the heat and I don't want to spend my first summer of freedom sitting in the house with the AC going.

I might have to rent a cottage at the lake. Gord can come a visit on the weekends.

What is it?

About these new TV's that are as big as a barn? I have finally adjusted to watching it without moving my head from side to side. Then when you want to watch a movie.....they cut the top and the bottom off....and you only get to watch the center. Well fuck I want my money back. If I want to watch a movie, I want to watch it from the top to the bottom. Call me old fashioned but it makes me really mad. What a waste of space.

Talk about a waste of space. Me. Two weeks into retirement and I don't know what I'm doing. I'm wandering around with my feet up my ass. It took some time, but I got both of them up there somehow. Everyone tells me that this will be an adjustment time your life...and I want to tell them to shut the hell up. I don't want to knit, I don't want to volunteer, and I don't want to sit around and watch TV. I want to be doing something useful. So, I got myself a painting gig..... so next week I will be painting offices. And yes, I will get paid. I will come home sweaty and dirty and know that the day was worth living. It's just a small job, but maybe I can get some more work if I do a good job. The best part is that it isn't office work, now I can start to use the muscles I never used before. I am so happy. Plus I love painting. There is nothing more relaxing than being in a space...without anyone around ... and painting.... and have your fav tunes, or downloaded books on your MP3 player.

Best part of it all is you can now choose what and when you want to do stuff. It makes ALL the difference.

Balonie....taking the time to paint a picture.

Let's move on.

I made a nest for Penny in the garden. You can't really tell from the picture that it was fairly high. She loves nothing more than a whole pile of old leaves and branches to tuck into. And it didn't take more than a day before she laid some dog eggs. A brown one and a green one. We named them brownie and greenie. Here she is trying to crack brownie open to see if there is a puppy in there.


Soon, she became very broodie.... do you you see the hate in her eyes.....and popped out another greenie. Ahhhh twins... I think she was still trying to sit on brownie.

She waited for days....with much dismay.....and no greenie egg pups cracked open. They sat in the nest and taunted her. She waited and waited.

Then one day, she had enough and ate them. I know...it was cruel but she was at her wit's end.

What's a girl gotta do?

My heart is heavy

My best friend in the world (hippychick) is going through some tough times. More for her two children than for her, but none the less. Their father killed his lover and took his own life. In a love triangle, in my old small town where I grew up in. He had remarried and had a child who is now 8 years old. Hippychick and him had been divorced for at least 30 years.

It is sad, it is so unreal....he was always a cheater....but how could he do this to his family who were the best people in town......how could he do this? Janis's children are devastated...even though they didn't have him as "real" dad for most their lives.....they still loved him. I introduced Hippy Chick to him way back when...and he knocked her up.....and look what happened. I was her bridesmaid...... she didn't really want to marry him.. I remember she was crying before the wedding and said she had so much more planned for her life. But it was the 60's. You marry the guy that knocks you up, and make him pancakes in the morning.

Fate....can be fatal. There is much more to this story, but I will keep it private.

My heart goes out to Hippy Chick, who can't really be part of her children's grieving process because she can't be part of her children's dad's family as much as she would like. She is still a very good friend to them and they love her, but since he remarried years ago...it makes it awkward. Janis and his wife had become become very good friends over the years. She and her former mother in law( who is 93) ...are like mother and daughter...but when shit comes to shove...she is not part of the family...at this time...only the kids. I know it kills her. I hate that.

So, my heart is heavy. Who would ever think I would be looking at that part of my life again.

I just dribbled some wine in my keyboard...it's getting harder and harder to type..or maybe it's a tear or so.

Where do I begin?

We had the back 40 done today. They cleaned it all up except for the broken branches from the trees...which pissed me off a bit, but later on I realized that was not in our contract. Okay. I can do that.

These guy use high powered leaf blowers to get the job done. In our front yard that faces the street, we had already taken most of the leaves off in fall, but they did a small clean up beside the house today, and must have blown some leaves on our neighbours lawn..........well I heard about those 14 leaves when she came to my house to present me with a gift for looking after her house for three months this winter when they were in California. She never even said thank you. They have been home for a month. She told me to phone the company we used to come and clean up her front yard. Yes.

As she was standing at my door, she commented that ...boy they really did a bad job because look at this mess. (on my front steps) Well, NO...that mess is continuous with our trees in spring. I didn't say anything, because I guess her trees don't make a mess in spring...and unlike me...she sweeps it up every ten seconds. Then she has the nerve to say that she hopes our new house won't be build before they take their next vacation next year! Well lady...you used and abused us enough....that will never ever happen again. And you can take that to the bank. I never get mad, but today I could have spit on her.

So tonight I went out there with a Safeway bag and a small rake and took away offending 14 leaves. This will be the end of our relationship Whatever...I spoke to our other neighbours outside for awhile and heard all about what she was doing to them....yikes....I may have to go back to work.....or leave the country...or move to our new house...any which way...I'm packing my bags. I was so hurt by the way she uses us...and what she is doing to our wonderful neighbours.


Three months of keeping house for this: It's a grim piece of plastic made in China. She could have included a bottle of wine...don't you think? Huh ?

Balonie...is going to blow some smoke up a few asses around here. Now that's she's got a few minutes of time.

Day 3

It's been interesting around here. First the waterbed sprung another leak on day #1...and at 7:00 AM in the morning I might add. So we finally put that old piece of plastic to rest and I bought a air bed to get us through until we buy new furniture for our new house. Well, fortheloveofmike...... do you think we could blow that sucker up? ... All Gord's good air compressors are stored in our garage because he is renovating his shop. We looked for them but they were hidden with all his junk. So, he remembered one he bought years ago that was in the basement. Apparently this one was meant to blow up a balloon. It's big and scary, but it couldn't blow a fart if it had to. Finally we found the instructions yesterday and it said to recharge it for 18 hours.....well okay then, why was I trying to blow air in it for every ten minutes and it died. Jeez.



Long and short, still sleeping on the sofa. I kinda liked the sofa last night, I'm starting to make it my own. I love the way the light comes in the living room in the mornings. I have the whole sofa to myself...it's a really wide one once I take the back cushions off the back...and I can stretch out.



Today on day 3 of retirement I went out. I did not clean like I have been doing for two days because my head was still telling me.....get that shit done...before you have to go back to work!



I had a low tire on my truck and took it into WalMart to be fixed. Originally I thought it would only take an hour or so to get it done, but once I got there they said 2.5 hours. First of all I was ticked off....but then .... holy shit...I don't have anything else to do....so I told them to take their time while I perused WalMart and the MALL. I haven't been in this mall for about 3 years ... and it's a big one.



After all... the guys at work had given me a gift card for some new American Company that had just set up shop here...Bed Dead Bodies and Work Them. I checked the whole entire mall and couldn't find this shop. Later I checked my card and found out it was called....Bath & Body Works. Sometimes I get confused with these Linen companies ..bed and bath and that kind of shit. So yeah, I found the shop. A very small one located in the mall...with about 15 sale's reps with headphones on asking me what I was looking for. People you have to realize I have been living in a bubble for the last 14 years...and they pissed me off. I told them I would ask them as soon as I knew what the hell they were selling. They left me alone after that. But there were so many people in there it was almost impossible to smell it all.



You see, we in Winnipeg live approximately 150 miles from Grand Forks North Dakota....and our people would flock to Grand Forks for their products...plus other stuff we can't get in Canada. And in my opinion....people must have too much money if they want to buy BODY products....just take a fucking bath. Get over it. It was crazy. But that's the way the world waggles.

So this will be my indulgence. Maybe it will be a good thing. The scents are not over powering ... as in this will give you a headache. Most perfumes almost make me drop dead on the spot. And I only spent half of the card value because I had a coupon that the company gave me, plus they had a store promotion going on. I can buy more if I want. So, who knows maybe you can get the old people smell off an old chick.

I checked out the food courts in the Mall. Yep, full of ole people having a late lunch...and By George they looked like they were having a good time. I bought an ice cream cone and sat in one of the benches and watched. The Mall is bizarre, doesn't anyone work? It was 3:00 PM! People are buying crap all over the place. Maybe they only work nights?

Plus, as I was walking back to WalMart to pick up my truck I met a friend of mine that I worked with at a radio station about 15 years ago. We live in the same area of town, and meet up occasionally. She is retired now and we got to talking and we might might meet up in the food court for lunch...or a 2.00 dollar movie. Just what ole farts do.

Balonie....making a mole hill out a mountain.

Just settling in...........

Friday was a hectic day. Between our Grand Opening and my umm retirement it was busy. I'm glad Gord, Hippy Chick, niece Tammy and SIL Sheila could attend. There were tons of people there. We had three barbeque's set up and they were pumping out the burgers, smokies & hot dogs. It was really good. The company presented me with a gorgeous patio set for our deck. But, I don't think it will fit. So, I will save that for our new house. The guys all chipped in and gave me gift certificates for Future shop for Bath and Body Works. Apparently I didn't smell good enough at work.

Funny story. One Thursday...for some reason I woke up early..that never happens. And I got up and let the dog out, looked at the clock (without my glasses on) ...and did the old WTF I'm going to be late dance. Jumped in the shower, pulled on my hoodie and my jeans and flew out of the house. While I was driving to work I noticed that there wasn't much traffic for this time of morning (do you see where I'm going)? When I got to work ( I live only about 5 minutes away) ... I parked my truck and glanced over to the radio and saw the time..7:30 AM...I go to work at 8:30AM! Son of a bitch. I sat there for a moment, then backed up and went home. Gord was still in bed when I left. So, when my alarm rang at 7:30 and it didn't stop ringing, he got pissed off and turned it off. He lay there for awhile and realized there was no movement in the house, and got up. He looked for me in the house ...and then looked outside and saw my truck was gone...so he called my work and asked if I was there. One of the guys said they had seen me pull up and left.... haaaaaaa haaa. So when I got home.. I had some serious "splaining" to do ....geez. I didn't think this shit was getting to me...but I guess it was. I had another cup of coffee at home and went back to work later on.

It's going to be interesting now that I am home in the mornings. Because Gord rarely starts work before 10:00 AM. Call him semi retired ... he starts work when he damn well wants. We don't have any staff, so it's all cool. He is going to be totally annoyed with me taking up the bedspace in the mornings that he used to call his own. You should see the bed when I get home from work, you would think 4,560 thousands of elephants plundered it. He really likes all the covers all to himself.

I already started stuff.....I rearranged the living room yesterday, dusted and watered all the plants that were wilting. On Monday my office will get a face lift. Too much junk. I need some space.

So this is my busy list for now:

... Get up, have coffee...go on the deck with dog and throw ball...and drink coffee.
...Think about how to learn to knit
...Wave neighbours off to work
...Try to remove bird shit from the deck with my shoes
...Survey things that might need to be done
...At this point I would should say "take a nap"....but I don't do naps.
...Make lunch
... Eat lunch
... Take a dump...read the paper (multi tasking is still part of my life I'm not willing to give up)
... Watch All My Children...don't hate me....it's always been on between 12:00 and 1:00 when I come home for lunch...so I'm not giving that up while I'm still so weak.
...Plan to scan 5,678 pictures from family albums on the computer.
...Plan supper, go to the store and buy something totally different.
...Watch the clock because I am so used to doing shit by the clock it's going to take a 2x4 to the old noggin to make me stop it.

Other than that, it's weird.


Balonie...looking at life from the other side.