Finally got a light sprinkle on Friday and it has not gone away, so I guess this is it until March. Also, it is not that cold considering the month it almost is. Just back when the girls were in grade school I remember winters starting in mid October with thick snow and very cold temps that lasted until the end of April and I was wondering if anyone had noticed if it got hotter in the States over the last decade? I know our summers are a lot hotter.

There is a mine in Dawson that found a glacier running east to west, which is odd. They also found a fossil of a sequoa tree. Yes, that is a giant redwood tree, which grow now in the more southern parts of America. Oh and a mammoth was there, too. Going into the frozen north, the most northly settlement is Anuvik. All the infrastructure there, (that is sewer pipes, gas lines, etc), is above ground for a very good reason. Anuvik is built on an ancient swamp, as they found out, after burying the first set of infrastructure and having the whole town sink when the permafrost melted. This was a hot place once and has the fossilized flora to substantiate this.

Thuban, in the constellation of Draco used to be the Pole star, back when the Pharohs walked the Earth. Right now, it is Polaris, in the constellation Ursa Minor. The Earth's axis does change over the years and I wonder if this is more to do with global warming than exhaust emissions, or farting cows. In another three thousand years, we will have a new Pole Star, Gamma Cephei. Will the swamps under Anuvik become swamps once more, and will the long dormant seeds of the giant redwood trees flourish once more in Canada? I guess someone will have to invent a time machine for any of us to find out as we will all be dust by then.

The cabinets are done and I have mostly everything loaded back in. I also found my camara with the before shots. Oh do these ever look good. I will take some interim shots when I have tidied up a tad. The kitchen is still a disaster zone.

Funny thing, I was asking about what to use to clean the wood and he said just soap and water as they are factory finished and do not need oil soap. I have that and mentioned I only use it for the old stuff and then he asked if that is what I used on the clock. Wanted to see the thing close up and was facinated when I rotated the pictures on the dial.

I should explain that it is a family piece I happened to snag when my aunt was going into sheltered accomodation, which didn't have the ceiling heights to accomodate it. The clock was left to my cousin for his lifetime and then it was to come to me, but he didn't like antiques so said I could have it right then. Oh yeah. It is a longcase clock circa 1800 in mahogany with inlaid veneers and a painted dial. There is a revolving bit on the top that shows a picture of the old tall ships on one part and on the other has a picture of a lady in a Regency highwaisted long dress. Separating these are two stylized moons. That part once had a mechanizm to make it rotate according to the phase of the moons, but it doesn't anymore. I can never remember it doing that.

The guy was facinated by something 200 years old in beautiful condition. He just couldn't get his head around the age and was mega blown away when he saw the lady in her old style clothes. Obviously the guy is a carpenter and just had to touch the wood. He was amazed that the glass over the face is the original with the original gunk sticking it in place.

I sort of tend to forget the age as it has been around for as long as I can remember. I also tend to forget the oldest pieces on the Prairies are around 100 years because of the difficulty of moving them on waggons where the roads were dirt tracks. Vancouver and Toronto have old pieces, but not the Prairies. Having someone totally wowed brings it all crashing home.

Of course, I have my dad's old pieces in my living room now. There is a mahogany Georgian beurau, cica 1810 and a blanket chest from 1650. Those were the only pieces I had shipped. I happen to like antiques. The clock is a cut above these, no question.

Not my kitchen, although it is almost put together. The guy is coming back on Monday to finish up. Most of it is function and I can load most of my stuff back. Oh, that will be good.

Done my pruning on my edits. Yeah. I just finished the last sweep at sentence level and I think it is a lot sharper now. I have no idea what the final word count is, I haven't added it up as yet, but words were cut, useless bits were excised and all the fluff is gone. I am now free to move on to something else. Well, almost. I still have to work on the my synopsis and my query letter. But the bulk is done. Does happy dance.

None of my email addies have any clue as to gender. This is very deliberate, to avoid unwanted spaming. Nevertheless, I have just received a proposition from some chick suggesting we get cosy.

Needless to say, it went into my delete bin. What is with these guys? I don't trawl sex sites so why am I targeted? My interests are strictly writing. Since this 'offer' came via yahoo, I can only conclude it is part of their spamming scheme to make users pay for spam free free services.

Disgusted.

I had to get a bit creative today. The guy was in what was once my kitchen and will be again in due course. I have daughter #2 coming for supper at 4:30 before she goes on to her next job.

Solution. Throw ground beef into crockpot along with an onion I peeled and sliced in my livingroom and a packet of stew mix for aforesaid slow cooker, which is now on the landing, where it will not get in the guy's way.

Potatoes go on after the guy goes home, which is fortunately early. He did start at eight so that is no big deal. Dh whines that I am boiling when we don't have a cooker hood at the moment. Suck it up, princess. And who has three helpings when I am done? Right, right and right.

I still have a functioning dishwasher, which is an enormous plus, being as how I don't have a sink anymore. I had to rinse the potatoes in the downstairs washroom. Oh joy, oh bliss. I also had to pour off the excess water from them, once they were cooked, into the downstairs toilet. Now you don't get to see that every day.

I think I will be semi-functional by Monday. I hope I can load my kitchen back where it belongs then. I should have the hardware on my new cabinets so I can actually open them without using a spoon handle. What I didn't realize is that granite needs really flat surfaces, which are going into place, so I don't need to bring in any of the old crud. Yeah!

Sometime, in the next few day, we are going into the city to buy a new sink fawcet we will need before the stone guys come to measure up on Tuesday. I want stainless steel, that is a given.

In the meantime, I have found my slowcook recipe book and I will need to use that. Yes, I still have a functioning stove, but it is going to be a limited useage. I also have a rice cooker that steams veggies. Everything will come together in its own due time. I can do this.

The nice man is busy putting my kitchen together. Oh yeah! I love the color we picked. It is light maple and I can see some of them put together already. I will take pickys when he has finished.

I won't get the granite for another three weeks, but I don't care, it will be almost done. Does happy dance.

My kitchen is now in small pieces out in the backyard. It did not come willingly, deciding to cling to the walls with fierce tenacity. I am wiped.

This morning started with the emptying of all stuffs from all cupboards and stacking it elsewhere, then we started trying to dismantle. The doors came off easy enough, but the rest did not, so the dh got his big hammer and bashed, and he got his skill saw and cut. I took the bits away to stack in the backyard. Cleaning needs to happen, but that will wait until tomorrow. We had to go into the city to pay the other half as the new kitchen is coming tomorrow, in bits. It will be assembled the day after that and then the granite people are coming to measure next Tuesday. After that, it is a three week wait before it is all done.

I will have surfaces, once the cabinets get assembled as we saved some of the old countertops. Actually, I could probably manage with just the kitchen table rather than bring any of the old stuff back in.

So zero done today on the writing front and now I am so tired I can barely think straight.

I just received a very hype email informing me of this wonderful new service, for only a small extra charge to be seated by the emergency doors or the bulkhead. Might I point out that it was possible to book these seats for no extra charge previously?

What is more, persons sitting near the emergency doors need to be of sufficient physical strength to open the aforesaid in the event of an actual emergency. Imagine that? What now is going to happen is anyone, however feeble, can sit there, thus endangering everyone else in an emergency. Way to go, Air Canada.

I have such overwhelming confidence in this carrier that I now pack three changes of underwear, two changes of clothes, my toiletries, my meds, my camera, my laptop and anything else I can't bear to lose in my carry-on bag, having had luggage lost on numerous occasions. In addition to this, I will also bring with me sandwiches and salads, so that I do not starve in transit, because the quality of gristle and glup has reached an all time low in their meals on board. I also bring dvds to play on my laptop so that I will not suffer when their inflight entertainment system goes down.

Once, I had the luck to be bumped to first class because they had snarled up so badly on a connecting flight. Oh was that ever night and day. Real, edible food was served on plates, with metal utensils, not the plastic trays of inedible and gristly glup I would not recycle through a pig's allimentary canal. Yes, I do expect that first class passengers must receive a bang for their buck, but do the rest of the flying customers have to be subjected to a swill even a pig would baulk at eating?

Yes, I am venting. Long hauls are expensive and hard on the system. Why do these have to be endurance and temper exercises? Why do I have to dread this form of transportation? Yes, I did reply to this hype marketing thing and I expressed my concerns. This was probably not a wise move as I now expect I will be allocated a seat right next to the washrooms when I fly next year. I shall, of course, be taking some form of air freshener in my carry-on. Unless I can find another carrier, which I would take in a heartbeat. How sad is that?

By some fluke, I did manage to watch Amazing Race, which occured 30 minutes after the scheduled slot. Fortunately, I did not switch off the tv, so I noticed when it suddenly popped into life, no thanks to you.

Is it that you recruit people to your company on the basis of zero logic and a lack of English comprehension? This would explain the multiple program glitches that are ongoing. And while we are on the subject of sudden changes, what happened to V? I did not get to see the second episode.

Might I remind you that the purpose of a channel guide is to assist people to select the programes they desire to watch? If the guide bears no relation to what your are going to broadcast, then why have it?

The only reason you still provide my tv cable is because it is hooked up to my hi-speed internet, which is a joke, only I am not laughing. My loyalty to your company has sunk so low that I currently expect to emerge in China, who probably have a better internet service, anyway. I am also seriously unimpressed with your 'creative truth' explainations as to why my internet service is extremely sketchy. Blaming my router seems to be the 'in thing' with providers to excuse their own software problems. Check the last conversation after a failure.

Me: I have no internet. Can you fix this please.

You: Have you got a router?

Me: Yes, but there is nothing wrong with my router.

You: Unplug your router and wait ten seconds.

Me: Thinking thoughts of mayhem and doing it anyway to no avail.

You: Your router has failed. You need to get a new router.

Me: It is new, as in two days old.

You: Then your pc needs to be replaced. Do your other machines work?

Me: I have a new tower, which is not connecting, and neither is my new laptop. This was not a problem yesterday. The problem is at your end.

You: It must be a connection at your end. We will send a service tech out to you next week.

Me: (Going into sickly sweet mode.) Would you be so good as to redirect my call to your accounts department so that I may obtain a rebate on the days of service I will miss?

You: Manages to lose my call and, by some incredible, unforeseen miracle, get my internet connection running approximately ten minutes later.

Now I do realize that your system is ten years old and must have major glitches. I know this because your roll round frequently fails and I can see your mouse on my tv, trying to fix it. The system details are also being broadcast to all your victims at this time, in full technicolor. Perhaps you should consider upgrading? Now there would be an idea.

No love,
E.

I don't watch much of the utter crud you pipe to me, but there are about seven hours of programing I do watch. One of these programs is the Amazing Race, on Sundays, at MT 6:00pm, and it is on your roll round menu, which I am looking at.

When I go to the correct channel, the same one it was on last week, et al, I see some dreary program on chicken embryos. What, might I ask, has this got to do with the Amazing Race? Oh, and now I see some old foreign dudes going down a swamp in some god-forsaken hot place, which also has nothing in common with the Amazing Race, or even chicken embryos.

Flicking back to the roll round, I see you still have Amazing Race advertised for this channel in this time slot. Is it that you are so hopelessly incompetant that you dig programs out of a hat, at random, in the vague hope that no one will notice, or care?

No love,
E.

I just got a rejection on Seventh Child. Ok, no problemo. I will need to take another look at this short and then send it out to another venue I have found. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Life twists are strange. The dh is doing a post grad course in nano technology and because this is Oxford Uni, it is different. There are a lot of group sessions and set problems for the guys to thrash through. One of the recent topics was the subject of using nano tech for attaching prosthetic limbs to combat soldiers, who had been wounded. The extrapolation was that the limbs might walk the unconscious soldier out of danger zone. Yes, this is all very much Six Million Dollar Man. He was required to argue against the proprsition in this exercise.

My WIP happens to have a protag equipped with a prosthetic arm that is a stronger version of the real thing with the same sensitivity. I had put a great deal of thought into this and realized you can't just attach a metal arm, covered with a skin-type covering, without other essential adjustments, like augmenting the skeletal structure of the surrounding bones so the darn thing doesn't fly off when fast rotated. There also needs to be a bonding between nerve endings and electronics so the brain can relay the movement directives.

We consequently had a very deep and meaningful discussion on a subject that might not be quite so sci fi as it was. Has anyone else noticed how science seems to follow sci fi? Frex, H.G.Wells First Man in the Moon and the subsequent landings on the rock. Frex, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, where people are cloned, genes are altered and subliminal instruction is given. Interesting, aye?

It is also totally cool to have my own personal encyclopedia sitting next to me on the couch.

I spent today going over the early chapters on a sentence level and managed to cut 800 words between 1-4. I just now need to get rid of another 9,200 and I will have a decent word count. I would like another 5,000 off, but I don't think that is going to happen as I am getting down to the stuff I really can't nix. Gone is all fluff and non essential text. Yeah.

I also guess I will be huddled in a comforter, reading on Monday afternoon as I got a phone call from the electric company informing me I would be cut off between 1 and 4 pm due to a grid maintenace upgrading. Approximately quarter of the town is going to be without power for the afternoon. And heat, since the gas furnaces will not function without the electric switch, which won't have any juice. I note, the informations was delivered via a recorded message. Do I detect a little streak of yellow, here?

I have to admit I am starting to get a tad excited. Things are coming together for my new kitchen. Ok, howl with laughter, because I am the first the admit I hate cooking. I also hate living with outdated crud.

Putting this into perspective, the house was a new build in 93 and had everything one might expect from a penny pinching builder. So, I have nasty white cabinets, equipped with a wood tone, (and I seriously doubt it has anything tree-related in the product), sort-of indent handles. The surfaces were melamine in a sort of light gray color that is increasingly difficult to bring up to a clean finish. The floor was a nasty lino tile effect in a light cream, again, suffering from wear. Ok, so I went ass about face and had the floors done first. I just couldn't bear them any longer. Last year, we got this dude in to do hardwood floor in the living room and cream ceramic tile in the kitchen and entrance-way. Wonderful, but then it showed up how shabby everything else was.

Today the electrician came to close off two powerpoints. Where these were positioned was under a telephone table that contributed nothing to the design and usefulness of the kitchen and also above, where the microwave shelf was at such a high level that it presented a real risk to health and welfare. The microwave sits on a corner of one of the waist-level units, where it is safe and I can reach it. Where this mess was will be a new cupboard unit that will be around seven feet high and will be much needed storage.

We have ordered, after a certain degree of difference of opinion resulting in a compromise, maple cabinets with granite countertops of a dark color with brown and shiny bits. In addition to my extra cupboards, the dh gets to have a unit built around his beer fridge that has a granite top. Oh yeah. This is going to be smart and upmarket and we are both going to love it to bits. Yes, we are thoroughly agreed on this. We even agreed on the hardware for the cabinets.

The D-day is later this month for the cabinet installation, and then the stone guy gets to come out to do his measurements for the granite. This will invovle slumming it a tad, while waiting for the surfaces to arrive. Am I bothered by this? The hell, no.

And I am still ecstatically enjoying my princess and pea bed. I am not cold at nights and nor do I wake up with backache, since the thing molds itself to my needs. The dh is also sleeping like a babe and is much more rested.

So, on the to do list is just the acquiring of a plumber and the choosing of a new faucet. This is getting so close, I can taste it. I shall take before and after pictures this time around.

So what makes a great MC for you? Is it a guy that starts out weak and develops or a guy that is all together there? Is it the plot that puts a young and inexperiance guy into an horrendous mess, or must it always be a strong guy with loads of battle skills?

On that note, what drives the best book? Is it the characters, or the plot? Does a multi-thread plot hold more interest than a single objective? Would you ever expect to sympatise with the antag?

I have five chapters left to edit and I already know I am in for a lot of pruning. I did start cutting down works from chapter 20 onwards, but this is not where I put the fluff. I am scoring between 60 and 20 words eliminated from each one. Grumble.

I shall have to go attack the front end again and see what fluff I have in there that can be cut. My goal is 95k and I currently sit at 110k with the five chapters left. Ouch. Ok, I know there are scenes that don't contribute much and they must go next. I was really hoping to do this with one pass. Wishful thinking.

In other news, Frank the cat might have gotten whiplash. He was in a comatose state after his dinner when I played a recording of a friend's pet starling. I think it might have taken less than a second for his head to snap upright. He then charged over to join us so that he could guard the bad laptop against any birds flying out.

I do wish he didn't need to be like this, but I guess it is in his nature. For a very lazy animal, the only time I have seen him leap four feet vertically in the air from a zero stand point was when a bird landed on our bird feeder when he was underneath. He missed by a claw's width.

What bugs me is that he doesn't like the taste of avian. He will turn up his nose at any bird flavored cat food and certainly does not like any turkey bits at xmas. So if it isn't a preferred menu item, then why bust a gut to catch it?

Frank the cat does like fish. A lot. We once bought one of the kids an aquarium with tropical fish. The wretched animal could not be trusted alone in that room as he developed serious fishing skills, once he had worked out how to get the top off. Empty tank and a cat with wet legs he was trying to lick dry gave a huge clue as to the culprit.

The God Emperor of Spam Central has discerned that I was not opening my spam for propecia, (I am not bald), viagra, (I don't have the pipework), and Bank of Nigeria scams, (the first one was funny, but they all have the same format, so became boring). Consternation was to be had in the vast halls of Irritation and Aggravation. Emergency meetings were held by the Board of Invasive Infiltration and a decision was made to switch the flavor of my spam to something more fitting to the type of person I might be, considering I am not interested in hair products, erectile disfunction problems, or giving my money away.

Must have been tough as my yahoo email address does not give any indication as to gender, or age, or status. So the order came down from the great God Emperor to send to my spambox the following:

1. Acai/Colon cleanse, because there must be something below the waist that they can target.

And for when I am nice and cleaned out down below I have:

2. Senior Dating messages because something below the waist must be functional, if I don't need viagara.

And for when I have secured the senior person for a partner, or a date:

3. HBO satellite discount offers in order to sit down in front of the tv I watch for maybe seven hours a week, with an old person I did not wish to meet, sitting between me and my dh.

And let us not forget the money I wouldn't give to the Bank of Nigeria scam.

4. Offers to buy my timeshare at a very reasonable price. Well, I think I might be tempted with this one,just to go along the road a little way, as I don't own such a thing and never will. Vacationing in the same place every year would drive both of us nuts. It would be kinda nice to bite the biter, though. Sigh, I must refrain, or I will be spammed even more, for having been stupid enough to actually open one of these. Grins.

I am revised up to chapter 15 and my word count is at 53,000approx. There are 35 chapters. Oh boy, do I have a problem. Must cut, must cut.

What makes one person like another enough to wish to socialize and to care what happens to that person? I have been pondering on that lately and also the degree of friendship certain personality types can offer.

What makes a person likable? Are there degrees of likability to factor in? I guess so, from personal experience. And it also depends on a person's circumstance and relevance.

When I lost my job at the beginning of the year I had expected fall-off of local fairweather friends. There is a natural backing away reaction, in case this person has transmogrified into Typhoid Mary and the cooties are catching. So off they scuttled, in their droves. I was more surprised when I gave up all my volunteer work for the town, and people I have known and worked alongside for many years started backing off. The last one standing blew me off out shopping yesterday. I waved and she looked right through me.

It sort of got me to thinking, and yes, I am well beyond being hurt. The prickles started bristling into existences the moment I saw the lay of the land. I am quite armor-plated, now. Anyhow, why was I friendable and am now a pariah? I think it goes deeper than the Typhoid Mary factor. There is a sense of embarrassment of not knowing what to say to an unfortunate person and I think, more than that, there is now a lack of things in common. Did I mention I was a people watcher?

If one goes back, the first friendships are made as children with those of a similar age and gender and geographical location. Moving on into teens, it is the boy or girl groups, bent on getting together with their notion of cute. Now that is the party scene, the road trips and the rock concerts. Next is the relationship phase, and this may, or may not involve mixing with other couples in a similar phase. Follow this with the parent/married people/longterm partner phase and there is a different set of friends related to social activities such as sports, dancing, camping, kid things, etc.

The point here is that as each phase begins, another fades away. Typically, people will only remain friends with people from their childhood if they don't move away from their birth town and have a hobby they are both committed to in a big way.

The parent phase, which is horrendously competitive and back stabbing, is all about little Jane, or Johnny being better, and I don't think a parent is being truthful if they don't own up to having these thoughts at some stage.

There is one unique group I have left out, here. There aren't that many writers to form a sub-category, and writers are very different and special people, anyhow. This group does not typically live in the same geographic location and is willing to give large chunks of time to help fellow writers. Of course, writing is the thing in common and that will never go away.

In my ivory tower phase, I find my remaining friends are exclusively writers, who opinions I value and who I care about a lot. And yes, the guys have outside interests from writing and those are wonderful glimpses into their lives. They are all intelligent, empathic and fascinating individuals. Some of my friends I have met in person and some I have spoken to on the phone. Maybe I will get to go to some of the cons and meet even more. This would be nice, but it is for the future.

Going back to the fairweather friends, whose lives are probably not nearly as busy as the average writer, I wonder if it is a lack of sensitivity/empathy that makes a person just ditch another for the aforesaid reason? Of course, I can see where argues come into play and how they can wreck friendships, and also jealousies. So I guess I was dropped because I was perceived and pre-judged as potential boring as I lost most of what I had in common. Ok, that works for me.

The problem now, is that without the friendship angle to put the breaks on such notions, I might, accidentally, write a character sketch of some of these people. It wouldn't be the least malicious and they most certainly don't have sufficient strength of character to be more than disposable spear carriers with certain quirky behavior traits and ... oh dear.

I am reminded once more of why I should not be buying anything from Wally's World. Yes, that place again. The dh just used the toaster oven we bought there a few weeks ago. It is stainless steel and not too fancy and, of course, it was cheap. For a reason, which I have just found out, before our house burned down.

R has a habit of not putting things away when he uses them. He will just put them on the nearest convenient surface, which happened to be the toaster oven in this case. What he put on it was sliced mushrooms in a styrofoam container, covered with saranwrap. When I got down to the kitchen I found the oven still on, although he had finished, and also the mushroom container about two seconds away from bursting into flames. It was smoking and sagging. I could have fried an egg in seconds on the top of that toaster oven.

What a nice safe small appliance this would be for anyone with young children. Is one supposed to put one's offspring in straightjackets, so they don't harm themselves on what should be insulated and safe? Of course, I might be missing the point entirely here. Could a certain box store be considering branching out into the funeral parlour division? First kill one of your customers and then ....?

Up until then, I was having a very pleasant morning working on revisions while listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Now I think I will have to go dig out some darker music. Possibly something by Camille Saint-Sans.