WOE IS WITTLE ME ON SATURDAY

OUCH!!!

I SHOULD BE IN THE HOSPITAL!!!

Oh boy this getting older and weaker is really more then a pain in the butt!! I bet I have all your attention now, and when I tell you what my problem is and my self diagnosis, you will be ready to kick me in the behind for being such a baby! But I want my MOMMY!!!!

When I bring home groceries or whatever in those heavy plastic bags (more reason to now use cloth bags), instead of getting the folding grocery cart to carry them to the 7Th floor, old mighty mouse that I am, has to carry every one of those bags hanging from my hands, mostly the weight on my finger joints, while I go through two doors from the parking garage to the building, stand there and wait for the elevator (which is always on the top floor, so I have to wait), meanwhile still struggling painfully with the bags, thinking..."just a little longer and I'm there!". Then if I'm lucky and not have to wait for people to get on and stop at different floors, I'm now at the door to our place, still hanging on for all my might and saying..."I'm almost there!", manage to open the door, and rush to the kitchen for the last big heave up and onto the counter!!

Whew!!!Let me tell you folks....don't do that!!!

My injury, and why I should be in the hospital is...now mind you, this is self-diagnosis, but I think I have finger tendinitis!! Mind you it could be arthitis, but I don't think so!! Carrying all that weight on those little tendons is quite a strain on them and this chickie isn't getting any younger and can't take much strain on the old body anywhere, anymore!

I think a splint may help to keep it from moving so much. It's mostly the ring finger on my right hand that hurts, and every now and then get excruciating pain up the finger joint. I remember that is the finger that I noticed hurting the most after carrying all that weight. So, I've been taking Advil and feeling sorry for myself.

But isn't it true that when something on your body hurts, the WHOLE body hurts! Which brings me back to "WOE IS ME!!

While looking for a picture for tendonitis, I found this interesting little thing about finger pain and thought I'd throw it in, for lack of anything else to write about.

Here is a standard diagram of a computer keyboard, color-coded by which finger is recommended for which key in standard touch typing.

The purpose of this page( this is copied )is to document my experience with repetitive strain injury (RSI) in a tendon of my right pinky finger. My case was due primarily to keyboard typing, although it may have been exacerbated by bicycling and yard work. I would suppose that many people have had this problem without a complete diagnosis or an optimal treatment plan. Both the cause and the proper treatment of pinky RSI differ in important ways from "standard" keyboard RSI.

(There is actually more than one common touch-typing scheme and I don't mean to imply that this is the main standard. They all suffer from the problem that I will describe.) The diagram shows an obvious problem with the standard: The right pinky is used for 16 keys, and the left pinky for 10 keys, while every other finger is used for at most 8 keys. This may not matter much for typing text in English. However, a lot of computer typing these days is nothing like English.

Well, I thought it was kinda interesting!!! It's also a reason for a short blog and why I missed yesterdays!!

See you tomorrow, if the Good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise!!! Anyone remember who closed their TV show with that saying??

TIME TO POP THE CORK AND CELEBRATE...I'VE REACHED OVER 1000+ VISITS TO MY BLOG THIS PAST WEEK!!

Who would have thought that I would have kept at it, writing and sharing thoughts and stories and just plain old nonsense with those interested enough and kind enough to come along with me to the 1000+ mark! It was mid January 08, when for the fun of it and to entertain myself, I began to write the blog. Thanks to those faithful readers who kept coming back and to those wonderful people who left comments on the guestbook. Very appreciated!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

So, because of you, I'll keep hopefully entertaining you with my ramblings and other things!

Yesterday morning, we drove to Dianne and Bill's home in Surrey and with them we headed south to the USA to shop in Bellingham, about 70 miles from here. Now, when we go anyplace with Bill and Dianne, we always have a great time, have many giggles and enjoy each other's company.

We had a big laugh at Bill as we approached the border and moved up even with the border guard. Bill had all our passports in his hand and the guards only question what, "What we're we doing?", Bill got all motor mouth and started to explain to the guard who we all were. "That's my wife Dianne in the backseat and this is Tom, my brother in law and that's my sister in law....well, kind of sister in law, she's married to my brother in law. His wife used to be my sister, but now he's married to Linda" The border guard looked at him stunned and said, "I don't want to know all THAT!!" Handed back our passports and told us to have a good day. We pulled away from the border laughing uproariously!! Tom got thinking about it again today and burst our laughing and giggling about it.

It went something like that....didn't it Dianne?

First stop was a grocery store to check out their prices on turkeys. Didn't buy anything there! Then we went shopping at a mall, and I bought myself a new coat, a 3/4 length, more dressy coat, then my old jacket. Onward to lunch, at a place called Billy McHale's, where we had a big deep friend onion blossom for starters(shared by the four of us)...mmmmm good and straight to the arteries!!!

Then we ate our lunch and headed to WalMart, where we browsed, and bought a few little bargains, then off again to Safeway, where Dianne bought a huge, huge turkey for $5.00. FIVE DOLLARS!!! CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT!! I think they we're about & 26 cents a pound, and then you get more off with a Safeway card.

I said to Tom today, we should have brought back a couple of turkeys for his kids Christmas dinner, but it just never occurred to us at the time....sorry guys, if you read this!!!! We goofed!

We will be eating our Christmas and New Years dinner in South America someplace!

Then we headed back home, all tired and happy, having enjoyed another great day with fantastic company! Going back into Canada at the border was much uneventful then heading to the USA.

Today, I was awake and up by 5am. Our new chairs where to arrive today!!! I was in a cleaning mood and going through drawers and closets and throwing out junk we never use. We have a haul to take to the Thrift Shop tomorrow.

We got our chairs all fixed into where we wanted them, then we had to make a trip to the Library, before we had to mortgage the condo to pay our fine on one book! Naughty us!!

Onward ho, to the grocery store to pick up a few things. One of those being a mid-size box of Cheerios's. When the clerk was ringing it in, I thought she had made a mistake when the box cost $8.26!!!! I asked if she'd made a mistake, but nope...that was the price!! I know groceries have gone up, but I wasn't paying that for a box of "fill". We'll have porridge for our cereal from now on. Cheaper and better for us!!! However.....I did get a really good price on 75% off on Halloween left-over, little chocolate bars!! Now, that's really healthy eh?? I think it was $4.50 for a box of 70 of the sweet little things!!!

So, here we sit in our comfy, loving-looking recliner chairs. They are bigger then our other chairs but seem to take up less room as we can move them back further against the wall, and get rid of the foot stools. We like them!!

So, it's Survivor night, and we'll sit in comfy coziness as we watch it.

See ya later!!

Thanks again

WHY WE HAVE PETS????

WHY WE HAVE PETS IS A GOOD QUESTION AT TIMES.....EH??

Today, I had an email from my sister back
in Ontario, and even though, I do have sympathy for her dilemma, I couldn't help laughing all the way through her letter.
She is so good at writing and does it with such humour that I just had to share this with you.
TJ, was our little Maltese that we gave her, because living on the 7th floor was not the best living situation for the dog or for us. She also has three cats!! She loves animals, or at least she did!!! Have a read of her letter!! I've blocked out phone number for safety reasons. The title of her email was:


A Glitch In The Universe!

I've been experiencing one of those days. TJ's been keeping me active...and busy...and the cats are keeping up to her.

Took her out for her pee and poo before I went to the gym...had a million things to do this morning and didn't get there till 1pm. She went out by herself twice this morning...so I figured she had done her poo...she was waiting at the door to go out and hightailed it off to the grass....but I guess she didn't go. But she did pee for me before I left.

I forgot my lock at home when I went to the gym...had to lock everything in the car and run out in the cold after my workout with only my wet gym clothes on.

I stopped to get groceries on my way back. Came in the door and lo and behold...there were trails of poo all over the carpet on the landing. 'UhOh' was my reaction. She met me at the door of course...barking and twirling and happy to see me. THEN...I looked at her hind end.

Poo...no...SHIT all over her!!! I dropped the bags of groceries and picked her up, holding her away from me...and brought her to the sink to fix the problem.The smell was sickening! I had to pull it out of her tail and away from her bum before I could even consider washing it off!!
Even had to cut some out....(gagging the whole time). Anyway...got that done...after several washes and rinses....telling her that it was ok...that it sometimes happens to the best of us...wasn't her fault.

Ahh...almost forgot to tell you about the bleach stain I now have on my blue top...had to Javex the sink...(against ecoli bacteria!!!) and some splashed up on me while I was cleaning the whole area. No matter...it's an exercise top...not one of my good ones.

Then...to tackle the carpets. Every carpet on this floor had a trail of poo where she had tried to get it off. I was using the dregs of several bottles of carpet cleaner...which was trying my patience by
that point...was getting more air than spray....Desi was meowing at the top of his lungs to get outside....and I had to answer a freaking cell phone call from one of those automated messages to tell me I had just won a free trip to the Bahamas...yeah right.

Was just finishing up the carpet by the front door and going into the kitchen when I realised...TJ was in the hallway gulping down mouthfuls of shredded ham. She had broken into the grocery bags that I had dropped when I saw the mess and had ripped open the bag of ham...Black Forest...$12.90/kg. MONSTER DOG....little sneak. My good will had evaporated and I was no longer feeling quite so understanding. I let a yell out of me that scared her to the couch. Don't worry...she only shivered for a moment or two. She was back at my heels looking for more when I was re-wrapping and putting everything away...and fighting off Purple who was trying to climb into the fridge. He recognized the whiffs of Black Forest and figured he should have some too. There's are several very good reasons I have pets...aren't there?

I was afraid to go upstairs to check out the condition of the carpets there...but there was only the initial poo at the top of the stairs...easy to clean up.

She didn't have a good weekend at Mark's while I was away on my USA shopping trip with Linda. Mark says she's terrified of him...would only come out of her cage when Caroline was there and shivered uncontrollably whenever he talked to her or picked her up. She peed on his carpet several times and wouldn't eat anything but cheese (huh...maybe that was her poo problem?) I think I've lost a future dog-sitter.

Got a call from a woman today who wanted to order a tealight holder from me that she saw at the Craft show. She had been trying to get hold of me for a long time. She went on the Kijiji site that I told her about (where I have my candles advertised) and realised that the phone number I have on my business cards has two numbers transposed. x0x 0x0x...instead of 0x0 0x0x!!!! I wonder how many other people have tried to re-order out of ALL the cards I've put into the things they've bought??? Good lord.

Anyway...I'm now having a coffee laced with Kahlua (that I got for $10.00 a bottle in the States...cool eh?) I'm now headed for the tub. Going to make candles tonight and EVERYTHING is going to go well. Today was just a 'glitch in the Universe' as one of my students, Harlan, once gave me as the reason his Math math book was lost underneath his bed for a week. My glitch is over and is back on track from this point on!

How was your day? No glitches I hope.
Love you both (and...I still love the monster dog too).
Sam xoxooxo

THE MONSTER DOG

REMEMBRANCE DAY

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

IN FLANDERS FIELD

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead.

Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

in Flanders Fields.-

John McCrae

Inspiration for the Poem
On 2 May, 1915, in the second week of fighting during the Second Battle of Ypres Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was killed by a German artillery shell. He was a friend of the Canadian military doctor Major John McCrae. It is believed that John began the draft for his famous poem 'In Flanders Fields' that evening.
Inspiration for The Poppy Umbrella
On Armistice Day in Ieper (Ypres) the idea for The Poppy Umbrella was inspired by the powerful image of poppies growing amongst the soldiers' graves in John McCrae's poem.

My Maternal Grandmother had 5 sons, Fred, Sam, Alf, Jack, and Jim who went off to WW II. My father also served overseas in the Armed Forces. Luckily all came home alive, except for Jack, who was seriously injured when hit by shrapnel. My father took a sniper bullet in the arm, but wouldn't talk about it to us, and was very embarrassed when I asked him to show my little playmates his scar on his arm, one day, long ago. At times, Dad would tell us some stories of the horrors of war, but for the most part, tried his best to forget those terrible times. I can still remember overhearing his stories to his friends, about the planes dropping bombs, that for years, as a child, I was terrified whenever I heard planes overhead.

I have a telegram sent to Dad from Mom on the day I was born. It would be two years before he saw me for the first time. My brothers, had their world upset, by this man who was around all the time now. An adjustment for everyone.

This is an old postcard, found in the old memory box. The poem is very beautiful

WHEN THE EBB TIDE FLOWS

Out with the tide at the dawn of day, under the morning star,

Gaily the sailor boy steamed away over the deep afar.

Mother dear, cried the sailor lad

Don't be lonely at home or sad.

Through wild the storm and wide the foam

One above will guide me home

My uncle Jack, was my hero! Hit in the head with shrapnel, he was paralyzed down his right side, had no use of his right arm which was his dominate arm, came home with no speech, yet he rose above all his injury's and pain, and all he'd lost and began to make a new life, using his left arm. Uncle Jack had a beautiful garden that he worked on with one arm, he took up oil painting and could paint beautiful scenery, he built a beautiful bookcase along a whole wall in his dining room. He could do everything, except tie his shoes,and that was my job and what a honour it was! He had a fantastic sense of humour and was always laughing and taking us kids on hikes in the hills around Owen Sound. He was a wonderful man! I admired and loved him as all my Uncles, Grandfather and Father who served in the war. I have a few pages, but not the whole letter that my Uncle Jack had written to his Mother, and I'll add a few lines of it here.

"They made us all go to the shelter in the basement. I went to the station entrance and and watched. It's quite the thing to see Mom. there were big fires away in the distance. Planes were flying high above and the guns were firing. A lot of shrapnel was coming down. I could hear it hitting against buildings. We've had quite few raids. They only last a couple of hours or so. While we were on the scheme(not sure if this is the word as it's a faded piece of letter), and a raid was on, one of the chaps who was sleeping in his tent, an incendiary bomb came down right through his tent and burned his hand and also fractured it. He's in the same ward now, as I'm in."

Such horror it must of been!!!

This is my mother and father in his kilt. He was a Sargent in the Princess Patricia Infantry and spent time in France, England, Germany and all those horrible places of war, back then.

Dad was still very sick and had recurring bouts of the effects of malaria for a long time.Just a few pictures and stories to tell you about. We all have many of memories of those stories, either told to us, or memories of those who lived through such a terrible time.

I can't forget my own husband, who lied about his age and joined up to serve when he was 15. He's also my hero, and also doesn't like to talk about those times. "It's in the past" he says.

My big question is "WHY DON'T WE LEARN FROM THE PAST AND END THIS KILLING AND DYING AND HATING....WHY DON'T WE LEARN!!!"

To all who served and are now serving to keep us free and keep us safe.....Thank You!

For a beautiful version of Amazing Grace, please click on this link or past it into your browser.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrnB4FZ-yc&feature=email

TOO TIRED TO BLOG

This getting older is a big pain in the .....whole dang body!!! Everything hurts today. Must be from all those laugh muscles I used at the Giggle Dam on Saturday night, plus the late hour I got home. Whatever it is, I'm beat tonight, so this will be a shorter blog!

I have bad knees, especially my left knee, and going up and down stairs or inclines or declines of any kind is painful. So, yesterday, I'm browsing the Internet and look up "pain in knees". Included with all the information was a bunch of exercises that will give strength to the muscles in the knee, so last night, laying in bed, I did the exercises starting with the right knee.....no problem, was careful to not overdue it. Then I started with the very painful left knee. I heard a large CRACK and ohhhhh, the pain!! Did I break my knee?? When the pain subsided, I stood up and all seemed okay, but when I woke this morning, and got out of bed, another large CRACK...but it seemed okay. Then I took a step....Ohhhh, kill me now, I thought!!! After a bit of hobbling around, the pain left and it's just ached all day! So much for those exercises.

Lately, I've these cramps in my hands that come and go....what's that all about? I'm wondering what onset of whatever disease is about to descend on me. Do I now have arthritis?? Yee Gads....I'm falling apart!!

Yesterday, Tom came home with a present for me! Thoughtful of him eh? What I got as a package of those bands you put over your nose to stop snoring!!! Apparently, I snore so bad, that I sound like a chainsaw, and he checks every morning around the bed for piles of sawdust! He's been poking me to wake up, and I grunt, roll over and continue with my melodic sound! He's so tired during the day, from being awake half the night and finally decided these bands may save a marriage!! Apparently they worked 3/4 of the night, until it came lose and I tore it off, turned over and went back to sleep. The snoring started, and Tom got up and came around to look at me to see if the experiment failed and saw my little patch on the floor. So, tonight, I'll plaster it down well, put my earplugs in my ears, so I don't hear him snoring (he does it lightly...I AM THE CHAMPION!) and see if we sleep the night away undisturbed!

Oh the trials and tribulations!!!

We spend a very enjoyable day, having lunch with Belle and Ken, at The Gilnetter Pub in Port Coquitlam. They had a fantastic menu and apparently a "to die for buffet on Sundays" The food was delicious and the company great!!

Then, off Tom and I went to Brentwood Mall where I poked around looking for new jeans. Man, if I was in a good mood all day, trying on jeans destroyed every bit of happiness in me!!! And what did I do after I struggled into nearly every pair and type and brand of jeans in the store......ate an ice cream cone!!!!

My old ones looked like this....they must have shrunk eh? Yeah, I needed a larger size!! I'm not a happy person!!

Well, this was to be a short blog, and it's ending now. Off for my lonely bath, without old Batman and to read my book in silence, except for the little bubbles that rise to the surface now and then!!! Man do I spill my guts on here!!!!

Nighty night!!

RED HATTERS AT THE GIGGLE DAM

THE REGAL RAMBLERS GOES OUT TO PLAY AND GIGGLE AND LAUGH AT THE GIGGLE DAM

My goodness, I was out until 1 am this morning!!! I haven't done that in a long, long time!

The Ladies, donned their red hats and went out to play last night and what a fun night it was. We went to a dinner/theatre in Port Coquitlam, BC. It was a high energy musical comedy adventure, complete with skits, satire, parodies, impersonations and naughty bits!

We look like a sad group here, but this was when we just arrived and before the fun began!

Below: Is a hilarious skit from Braveheart. (the whole theme for tonight's entertainment was set in the Medieval times.)

See the plaid material on the table, it's a girl with her legs stuck out and arms up that they pretended was bagpipes. Hard to imagine, but it was funny!

A fun waiter

Watch out Patricia, Pat and Reta, he's not just wanting to stick his sword in you!!! (his words, not mine!)

Below, is the guy captured in chains, and at this skit, I laughed so hard, I could hardly catch my breath!!! Terribly funny!!

Below: Two Queens, and Mary Antoinette, who kept her candy bars and cotton candy in her hair piece!

These three maidens where wanting a man, sang a dirty little ditty and went into the audience to see what they could find!!

Below: This is Leonardo Da Vinci, who was about to paint Mona Lisa. He came out with the funniest lines and how she kept her face in the painted mode must have been painful. The painter left, and out crawled a fellow from under her full skirt!!! Whatever he was doing there, will never make me look at the painting of Mona Lisa again, without a chuckle!

And laughter filled the room and went on and on!!! This was a very funny show!!

We had some Elvis and Billy Idol and Rod Stuart that we admired for their impersonations that were great, also a real hoot with their antics!

Sherry, from another Red Hat chapter got a mauling from Billy Idol!

Catharine, one of the Regal Ramblers, ended up in Elvis's arms, much to the surprise of the rest of us. There is so much humour and ad libbing in this show, that the players are a good or better then Saturday Night Live!! We got a good laugh over the comments on Catharine's hat looking like a condom! She replied, "well, she wanted us to be safe!" hahahahah

I don't know who was enjoying the little feels more, Elvis or Catharine!!! But things where getting HOT on stage!!!

The wonderful fun night ended with a rousting song about being Canadian! Complete with Canadian patriotism.

Reta waving her flag and hating to see the fun end!

I took around 200 pictures and this is just a sampling. Thanks to Queen Barbara for arranging a fun filled evening!!!