Hockey!

Hockey is back and I am so happy to have it back! There was a pay for view game on last night against Edmonton. It was the last exhibition game of the year for the Canucks and our season starts on the 5th and I think it's against Pheonix. That makes me really happy as Gretzky is now coaching Pheonix so that will make them my team to cheer for after the Canucks. :)

We went to Josh's and watched the game on his projection tv. The game was great and the Canucks kicked ass. The Sedin twins and Anson Carter are going to make a great line. Our goaltending may be a problem again this year but I have high hopes.

I sat there at Josh's last night and looked around at the apartment and tried to imagine Al and I and the animals all living there (along with Ryan for awhile) and as much as I like the idea of all new everything I just can't see us all living there. We have pretty much decided that because of the dogs we will probably look for a small house with a yard. We talked to Sheilagh last night and told her we were probably moving and what we had been doing to the house as far as the laminate floors and the painting etc and she said that she and Brian had been talking about it since the night before and decided to pay for any repairs we had made. This will definitely come in handy with the move along with our damage deposit that has been accumulating interest all this time. We have made quite a few improvements to the house and yard including adding another bedroom and a new deck but Sheilagh has been watching the papers and saw that Don had sold and how much he was asking and she told Al that when we move she'll put the house up for sale. Don sold for $300,000 and these are old houses from the 50's on city lots. People are interested in the lots, not the houses. I'll be taking all my garden plants and digging up cuttings of stuff too big to move. Most of the trees I've bought I've kept in containers so they will be easy to move and it will give us a head start on any place we buy.

I was home Monday and Tuesday last week just feeling really crappy. On Wednesday I went to work and everyone else at work was sick too. Just sort of a fluey type of intestinal disorder with a headache. Thank heavens the headache has gone away for the most part. I was very worried it was here to stay. Hot flashes and nausea are still the norm but with the cooler weather it helps in the hot flash department except at night. I am so thrilled for Martin to have reached undectable. After three bouts of treatment he and Carol must be in 7th heaven. I pray he manages to stay that way after treatment stops. Everyone on the board seems to be doing ok with treatment right now and that is very good news. Lots of new people starting treatment. I wonder what it will take to crack this virus for everyone. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason for why some do not respond at all to treatment, some respond immediately like I did and then as soon as treatment stops the virus rears it's ugly head again. I noticed they are now referring to Geno type 4, 5 and 6 now as well. I hope they find something to stomp the ugly little bugger into the ground for everyone and make it stay there! As Paulo says "Kill the Virus"!!

We had torrential rains on Thursday and some of our pumps at work failed and the yard started to flood. Stewart (who is also sick) waded waist deep into two different ponds to retrieve pumps and at one point he almost electrocuted himself. I have blackmail pictures too :) He eventually had to strip down and change into Jude's sweatpants and fuzzy jacket to go home. I took pics :) and no I won't share. Stewart would definitley kill me if he ever managed to stumble onto this page! Last year at this time when the rains started, we were still in a trailer in the yard and the office we are in now was used for storage and the guys lunch room. It flooded knee deep a couple of times and I have pictures of the guys sitting in there in the middle of the flood having coffee at the table with the water swishing around their legs and stuff floating around them.

Then we decided we wanted to reclaim the building to use as an office and Khushwinder and Stewart and Gary worked on fixing the drainage and the berms around the office to stop future flooding. Thursday was our first big test to see if the water stayed out of the building. I had a minor fit as the water started to come up in the yard and I unplugged my computer and lifted it up onto my desk. Khush and Stew both assured Jude and I it would not come into the office so on Friday morning I plugged everything back in and so far so good. The guys got the pumps working and the water level in the yard went down immediately. Spend the last two days of work in gumboots though. We are still having to use outhouses at work and they were on the other side of the yard. With the yard being ankle deep we needed our boots. On Friday morning Khushwinder moved the outhouses right outside the barn for us. Much better arrangement for winter. We are still working on getting a bathroom working before it gets too cold. Nothing like heading outside in the middle of winter and planting your bare backside on an ice cold toilet seat!

Haven't seen Dave and Allie and Christina for a few weeks. I was thinking last night if we move to Chilliwack (another 20 - 30 minutes out into the valley) we will hardly see anyone. Ryan if he comes with us but even Josh won't make the drive out very often. For Dave and Allie it will be at least an hour drive to come out. Al works in Chilliwack and I work in Langley and we live half way between in Abbotsford. We are trying to stay between Langley and Chilliwack but realistically the pricing is better the farther out into the valley you go so with us wanting a house rather than a townhouse or condo we will probably find the best deals in Chilliwack or surrounding area. For me that will mean an extra 20 minutes to my commute each day but it will make it much easier for Al. The only problem that I can foresee is the winters. Between Chilliwack and Abbotsford is Sumas Prairie and the wind whistles through the valley across the prairie and if there is any snow it can make for whiteout conditions. If this is the case then they close the road. Now depending on where I am when the road closes can make for an interesting day at work. Jude and I have discussed alot of this anyway with me starting treatment in January we are already getting set up so I can work at home if necessary. We can even have the phone calls rerouted to me at home and nobody would really know the difference. Just get it forwarded to my cell and there we are. I have computer and 24/7 cable internet, instant messenger so Jude and I can communicate and I can do my work from home. I have no idea what the doctor will decide for treatment and I have no idea how I will react to it so it's all just a big waiting game at the moment.

Well I have stuff to do around the house and should boogy on. Oh! The tree at the top is called a Spindle Tree (Euonymus europaeus) They are in flower in the field right now and the colour is outstanding! The hot pink flowers open up and inside is an orange berry. I'm not sure how many pictures the blog will hold but am going to include some of what we have been doing at work the last little while.

This is Avtar, Khushwinder's dad, who works with us. We have a series of ponds at work and Khushwinder has been working to get streams and waterfalls running between them all. This is the deck/picnic table that Khush built over the lower pond. He has water pumped up and into the floor of the deck and then out the end and down into a small waterfall. Jude and I and the guys sit here on the nice days and have our lunch. It is still a work in progress but so far so good. The water runs through the floor of the deck and you can see it moving under your feet. It is very peaceful and helps cut the traffic sound in the background.

Next are Jude and Khushwinder sitting on a rock beside another section of pond and stream. The office with the green roof is behind them. Jude has been working on this piece of property for many for different people but this is the first time she has been running the show. She has a vision of how she wants the place to look and Khush can see what she is describing and he makes it come alive. We are all a good team and all of us love the farm.

I remembered I still had some pictures up of the floods from last year. http://members.shaw.ca/donnellypictures/floods.htm and just for good measure I may as well add the ice storm pictures. These were taken at home, not work. http://members.shaw.ca/donnellypictures/

Well I'm off to actually get something done around here.

Moving? Maybe......

This last week has been pretty good. Two days out of five at work everyone was out on big tree relocation jobs so it was just Avtar and I at work all day. Avtar has been out in the fields so I've just shut the gates at work and got alot of work done on the computer. It is a bit unnerving at work when you are a female and appear to be alone here. With Avtar way out in the fields it makes us very vulnerable. Twice people phoned from outside the gates (both women) and I went and let them in but other than that I just ignored anyone out there. I was there alone one day last spring and we had a sales rep come in and I walked out and met him in the yard. He is a little guy and really I could have bopped him one and could have held my own I think but he was one of those guys that as he handed me the paperwork he held my hand too long and tried to stroke my palm. Totally gave me the creeps and really he shot himself in the foot because now we won't deal with him at all. What do these slimy little men thing they are going to accomplish with this sort of behaviour? Jude and I have a system now and we do have walkie talkies and cell phones to call the guys in if we need them, but what we usually do if we are alone in the office area and the guys are all out in the field and some guy that makes us nervous comes into the office, we say "Oh sorry, one sec" and we open up the door to the back and yell, "Gary, sorry be right with you" and then turn back and continue on with them.

I've been updating our mailing list from the tradeshow and getting our current availability lists either emailed out or mailed to the Garden Centres and Landscapers. I've also been out in the fields myself taking pictures of the trees and getting them ready to add to the webpage. The fall colours are just starting on some of the trees and some look like it's still summer. This picture at the top is of a dogwood. It is called a Cornus kousa Chinensis and the fruit is edible although I don't like it at all. And the other is of some Acer platanoides leaves. A type of Maple. The red is just starting and it is so pretty.

We've had a few calls from the show already. Mostly for the tree relocation. On Tuesday the guys and Jude were off doing a job for one of the local area City parks and had 4 large trees to move. Jude said when they got there one guy was onsite waiting for them, pretty quick he was on his cell phone and calling other other city workers to come watch. By the time they were done calling each other there were 30 guys on site in orange vests! One of the trees they moved was a beautiful Japanese Maple and they moved it in front of the park board office that was totally bare of trees. As Stew was moving it into place all the girls were hanging out the windows cheering and clapping! It is pretty impressive to see these huge trees just picked up and moved across the street and put into place. By the time we leave the trees look like they have always been in that place. I got a call at the office from a guy saying he was watching our truck move a tree and could I please send it round to his house when we were done there so we could move a tree for him. I told him Jude would come out next week and have a look at what he wants done.

We are also working on a big 3 day job moving trees around a private girls school as they are doing some reno work. Stew walked all over the site with the head gardener and they want to hire us to come in on a twice yearly contract to take care of the trees. Sounds good to us.

Ryan will be moving home in the next few weeks and is planning on staying for approx. 6 months. So we are having to include him in our plans. We are a bit bummed with our living situation at the moment. We have been renting this house for the last 12 years and we are quite happy with the house and yard itself and have worked towards making the backyard as private as possible. We fenced the yard because of the dogs and have planted quite a few trees and vines and built onto the deck this last spring. Well in the last couple of months two homes, one behind us and one across the street and up a house or two, have been sold and the houses torn down and huge monster houses built on the lots. Both are still in the process of being built and now our next door neighbour has sold as well. His buyer has decided to rent the place out for a few months and then to tear it down and build a big house. When they do this they totally clear the lot of all trees and shrubbery as well. We have decided to start looking to move. We could probably buy a place like Josh's that is brand new but we have the problem of our dogs. Two big dogs and a cat and two adults in an apartment condo just does not sound good to me. Keesha is 11 years old now and Kody is 7 so they are part of the family! If we move to an apartment without a yard that means we will have to walk the dogs at least twice a day. Kody can be such a dickhead on the leash and he barks at any other dog he sees that he doesn't make walking him fun. Keesha fights the leash and acts like a sled dog and puts her chest into it and pulls. Great! just about rips my arm out at the socket! Yes yes I know bitch and whine, bitch and whine. Well we'll see what happens.

I've not been feeling too bad. Just tired as always, bad mornings spent fighting nausea but once I get moving it levels out. I am going to leave the Hep B shots til after treatment as well. I am covered for Hep A and the chances of me getting B are slight. But I will get it done eventually. Lots of liver pressure and burning in the area but I just ignore that. I haven't been for any bloodwork for awhile now and I'll have to make a doctor appointment with my family doctor and get the paperwork for the blood. It's been a few months now so I should have it done. I've been getting a bit of a headache now and again as well and that is something I've never really had to deal with much and hope it doesn't start now. Got enough to deal with without a constant headache.

Well we declared this weekend a rest weekend for both of us and so far we are enjoying it alot. We turned off our phones and have hunkered down and spent the day yesterday watching movies and eating junk food. We did go out for a walk in the sunshine and discussed where we want to live and what we want to live in. We'll be hashing this back and forth for weeks I'm sure, but the bottom line at the moment is as much as we might be ready for an apartment, we have to worry about the dogs and Ryan. Much to think about specially with me wanting to start treatment in January.

Unsheduled day off!

Remember that gorgeous white hibiscus I had up here? Well this is the same type but in red. You can see it's size by the pretty little daisy types that were a normal daisy size. Isn't it gorgeous? This is one of the pictures I took at the trade show. It was a good show and well attended and we met lots of potential customers and suppliers. A lot of the cities and parks boards stopped by and got our current availability lists. Well worth going but it made for very long days. On Tuesday we had to leave work at 7:15am to make it down and set up before the public was allowed in and we didn't get home til 8pm and then had to do it all again on Wednesday except we had to take down our booth and didn't get home til 9pm. Needless to say I was exhausted by the time it was all over. Yesterday we spent the day trying to get re-organized and took care of all the calls and emails that came in while we were gone. We gave up on the idea of retagging until Monday.

Last night was our girls night and we couldn't cancel as we had already cancelled on Lynnie a few times already. By the time we got there we were both just a big heap of tiredness but after relaxing and eating the good meal that her husband Al provided for us, we felt so much better and very relaxed and sleepy. Lynnie dyed my hair for me (skunk line was showing!!) and I helped her figure out why her webspace wouldn't upload (too full, but they never give that error message..grrrr) and answered some of her questions re tables and merging and splitting cells. Then I helped Jude write out some flash cards for the arborist plant ID course she is taking. We are going to have a few sets around work and flash them at each other as we go by and it will help all of us with not only the latin and common names of trees but the pronunciation of them as well. Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (Yellow Cedar) or Metasequoia glypostroboides (Dawn Redwood) doesn't just roll off the tongue without some help from each other. Jude decided we needed a paid day off and so today is it! I am enjoying it still sitting here in my jammies in front of my computer. Al even phoned me from work and insisted that I do nothing today except sit and play on the computer or read a bood or whatever as long as it's not housework. What a sweet sweet considerate man he is. :)

Ryan (youngest son, 26 years) stopped in. I don't remember whether I mentioned it or not (and am too lazy to go back and look) but he quit his job as a cook, which is all he has ever done, and got a job working for a stucco company. He's been with them 3 weeks now and is liking it. He is getting tanned and healthy looking and bulking up a bit. He spent so long being a cook and working in bars and grills that he hardly ever saw the light of day. Most of the work is at night and then they hang out afterwards and go home to bed in the early hours of the morning and then sleep most of the day away and do it all over again. I like this job for him much better and am very glad to see him looking so much better. He is even talking about quitting smoking. He asked if he could move home again.

Huge big sighs!!!!!!!!!!! But we aren't surprised really and it won't be forever. It will give him a chance to get his money in order and pay off his bills and save some money. I told him if he moves home though he must buy his own computer as I will not share well on a regular basis. It's ok when he is here for dinner each night and sits on my comp for an hour or so and then heads home, but if he is living here he will start to monopolize it and then I will get very cranky! He agreed he would get his own computer. We have a router already and we are set with the cable company to have two or three comps hooked up, so all he needs to do is buy one and Al can get him a good deal through work so ........ he best do it!

I phoned my doctor's office to see when the flu shots will be available and they said closer to the middle of October so I'll phone back in 3 weeks or so and see where they are at. There was talk on the news after the shortage last year that only the elderly or those with chronic illness would get the shots this year but according to the doctors office Al can still get his so I want to be there as soon as the flu clinic starts and make sure Al gets his before they start rationing them if they do this year. I've been getting mine every year for about the last 5 years after mydoc started nagging me to come in. I haven't had a bad case of flu since. It took me a year or two to convince Al to go but after a really bad bout he started going as well and hasn't had the flu since. I also have to make an appointment and go in and get a prescription for the Hep B vaccine before I start treatment again. Might as well get it done now. A new guy on the board called Canadian Dude. I asked if he was being treated at VGH but I guess he didn't see the post. Lots of people just starting treatment. I hope it goes well for them. I used to feel isolated and alone with this but now seeing these people on the board and getting to know their online persona's it makes me sad and angry and it makes me really hate what this disease does to us all. I feel bad for the Brits too with the system they have to deal with. It is better in Canada at least for now. God only knows how this will go when the thousand still undiagnosed start to show up. I would hate to think that the all mighty dollar will start to mean more than peoples lives here as it does in other countries.

Fall

Well fall is here and we are getting ready for the big show next week. We are still getting last minute stuff ready. I've been working on a picture loop that we'll have running on the laptop while we are there. So far it's running about once every 14 minutes and I have a lot more pictures to go through. I take pictures almost every day at work and we have a picture diary of our first two years. Jude takes just as many as I do so between us we have thousands of farm pictures. I take a lot for the webpage and we want eventually to be able to use our own pictures for our catalogs.

At the end of last week a guy showed up in the office one morning and said he was from one of our local tv stations and they were going to be filming for a new half hour tv show on our street on Tuesday and could they rent our back area behind the barn to park 5 or 6 big trucks? So long story short, we agreed and they said they would show up early on Tuesday morning. I got there just after 7 AM and there was already 10 or so big trucks and vans and cars parked all over the front of our yard and a big truck out back and they were setting up a food area for the cast and crew. The street at the each end was blocked with a police car and pilons with half a single lane to get through once you cleared with the police. At one point I wandered out to see what was going on and take some pictures and the girl in the orange vest came up and asked me if we were open. I said Yes we are! and she says, "Hmm I better go and let that policeman know that....." But the morning was interesting and they left as quickly as they had arrived by just after noon.

I talked to David this morning and they are coming out on Saturday for dinner. Josh and Ryan are both going to be here as well so it will be really nice. Dave and Allie are going to Vernon for a few days next week to visit a friend. They are both on holidays for a couple of weeks so I'm glad they are getting the chance to get away. Christina went camping last weekend with Allie's sister and her new husband Christian. They got married a few weeks ago and Christina was a flower girl. She looked so sweet!

I'm looking forward to the fall. I love the smells of fall and the changing of the leaves. I can't wait to get some pictures of the fall colours at work. I need them for the webpage as well so it's nice, part of my job is to wander through the nursery and fields and look for beautiful trees to take pictures of! What could be better? When we get back from the show we are going to close the gates and take inventory and re-tag all the trees. They have grown considerably over the spring and summer and need to have their prices adjusted to reflect it. It will be a busy few days as I've still the new tags to get printed and I can't do that until I have a new price and a count of how many I need. But first we need to get through the show.

Glad this is a short week. I work best on a 4 day week. I'm confused again about what is going on with me and whether or not the hot flashes have anything to do with the Hep C or not. With the hot flashes going away during the 48 weeks I was on treatment and then gradually coming back after treatment that it seemed to me it was somehow connected. Now I just don't know. I know the doctor calls me post menopausal and I have no other menopause symptoms but maybe the hot flashes can hang on after the rest. Why they left during treatment I have no idea. I'm tired but getting through my days. Today I did alot of walking at work as Stew and I crisscrossed the field doing grading so tonight I am very tired.

All I can do is try to stay positive, take care of myself as best I can, which I do. I probably drink too much coffee and diet pop and not enough water but I've done it since I was a teenager and it's hard to break the habit. I don't drink and haven't for years so that helps too. I am always very careful about any drug I want to take. When my back went out, I went to the pharmacist and asked him which one I could take with a liver disease and he checked his books and came back and said I shouldn't take any of them so I didn't. I hate taking pills so for the most part I take nothing at all. I get exercise in the form of walking which Al and I do usually on the weekends. We both do a fair amount of walking at work too. And seek treatment. I am also doing that.

After being a ChemoAngel for 6 weeks if you haven't heard from your buddy (most people don't hear from their buddies directly) you can sign on to the site and request an update on your buddy. They are required to check in once a month. I just heard back and my buddy is half way through his treatment and doing ok. I was very happy to hear that. I'd love to see him not need a chemo angel anymore because he is finished treatment and cured and getting on with life. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

The months slip away

I've just come from the Hep C forum and then Ron's blog. In one of the posts Kerry Grace says she feels like the voice of doom and I know exactly what she means. I have things I could comment on in Ron's blog today but I feel like I would sound like a voice of doom so I don't make any comment at all. It is weird. Do I make a comment from my own experience if it is only going to increase the anxiety of the blogger or person in question? I just don't see the point in doing that. So I'll say nothing at all.

Well except for the anemia. Every person is different but I do know the anemia will totally tear you down mentally, emotionally and physically. The anemia is caused from the ribavirin and I had anemia so bad that when I was off the ribavirin and I started to feel so much better that I convinced myself that the whole source of my sickness and side effects was the ribavirin. I am now wondering how much that I put down to the ribavirin was actually caused by the interferon.

Martin's posting to the forum of the article about 80 % of us going on to get cirrhosis again spurs me on to getting back on treatment. I am going to make my appointment for the middle of December and have my prescription in hand for the first of January and get going on this again. As I said to Al though last night, by the time I get back to the doctor he may have a whole new plan in mind. Each time I see him the treatment he suggests is different from the last time I saw him so you never know. He is a heptologist who specializes in Hepatitis and Liver diseases so I do trust him and I like him very much. I just feel some days he is so busy and it's so long between visits that each time he sees me I'm like a whole new patient and we have to review it all again and he seems to come to different conclusions and treatment plans each time. Makes me worry a bit but I do trust his judgment and his knowledge so we'll see what he suggests when I go in December.

I am nervous though. I am going to have to be very diligent about making sure I get enough water. I know for a fact I didn't drink enough water and I'm sure the drugs built up in my system and that's part of why I got so sick. I have a very hard time with water as it gives me heartburn. Plus as I feel sicker I have a tendency to shut down and stop eating and drinking. If nausea is thrown into the mix then I don't eat and I can barely force myself to sip a liquid and was literally going a full day and not managing to get down an 8 ounce bottle of water. I simply cannot afford to get so that I can't function. It is too easy to slide lower and lower when you have just given up on functioning and decide to just ride it out in pajamas except for doctor or blood test days. I am hoping work will keep me focused on other things and keep me going.

I also fear the brain fog. Some days are bad enough now for memory but on treatment it was very very bad. I couldn't focus enough to read anything of any length and if someone asked me to do something or told me something I responded and then it just totally left my mind. When it would come up again or somehow my memory was jogged I would be totally shocked at how easily I had forgotten!

A better week

I went to Janis's Hep C page and reread all the symptoms for Hep C and it made me feel better. My husband thinks I shouldn't read it and that it will just get me bummed out. I had to explain to him that the opposite was true. When I am feeling really crappy and it carry's on for more than a few days I start to get depressed and anxious. I start to think things are suddenly progressing quickly or something else is going on. By reading it over and realizing AGAIN that the symptoms come and go, and everything I was feeling last week was a symptom of Hepatitis C. Therefore in the ebb and flow of the disease there are good weeks and bad weeks. Knowing that next week I will probably feel lots better and the symptoms will recede for awhile makes me feel better.

So! What's new this week. Physically I am still a bit out of sorts and tired but not as tired as last week and mostly the swollen feeling is going away. I've been drinking more water and cutting down of fast food and it certainly helps. Heartburn is bad and I get tired of complaining about hot flashes (they never change except for the year I was on treatment when they went away completely). It's been cooler this week so that helps too. All else is liveable and not worth complaining about :)

Work is busy and we are getting ready for the CanWest Show which is our big trade show of the year. We take some trees and set up a display in our booth that we hope will draw people (landscapers, cities and parks, contractors) to our tree farm. It will be Judy, Stewart, Khushwinder and I at the show so we can pair up and have a look at what the rest of the show has to offer. We all have our areas of interest. Stew and Khush are more into the different types of dirt and pots whereas Jude and I are into the lawn and garden ornaments and the new varieties of plants and flowers. It's two days of fun and socializing with others in the industry, and a ton of business gets done and many contacts are made.

Friday we were up to Stewarts for our company picnic for the day. He is caretaking a house on the ocean that has a private dock and a rowboat with an motor. The main floor of the house is rented out and the owner is in Mexico. They are thinking of staying in Mexico another year and if so Stew and Kathy would stay out at there caretaking. It is just outside the boundary of Belcarra Park. The bay is called Bedwell Bay and they are across from Deep Cove which is on the North Vancouver side. It was a beautiful day with hot sunshine all day. Winai, one of the guys that works with us, is from Thailand and he took charge of the boat and took Jude and I on a two hour sightseeing tour of Bedwell Bay and out into and up Indian Arm. It was so nice and the scenery was gorgeous. Rugged rocks interspersed in the first strip of land along the water with summer cottages that were only by boat access. Winai said he felt like he was back in Thailand. He was in heaven out there on the water and running the boat like he did back home for the tourists. He was laughing because that was how he was treating Jude and I. One of us would point out a cool rock or gnarly looking tree to the others and Winai would manoeuver the boat over to it and stop it so we could see and then he'd move along again. He was just one big smile most of the afternoon.

Stew had all the crab traps set and baited with fish heads and he and Kriss (Jude's daughter) and Winai brought them up and down all afternoon and hauled in crabs for dinner. Half were too small or female and were thrown back in, the rest were dinner. We also had steak on the barbeque, salads, veggies and dip, fruit and dip, cheesecake, buns, chips and dips. It was all very good and very nice. We had a great day and got home around 10pm.

Saturday we were at my brothers for a barbeque for my Mom's 74th birthday. She had a nice day but got weepy on a few occasions as she thought about Pat. My stepdad died last November at 80 years old and Mom misses him very much. All this year has been a year of firsts without her husband and it hurts. In her gift bag of things Al and I got for her I included a bookmark that had an Irish prayer on it and she had a little cry but it was my way of including him in her day and although she had a bit of a weep she was happy he was there in some way and that we had remembered him and brought him to the party.

My sister in law is the worlds best cook. Since she has retired she's gotten into cake making. She started making beautiful cakes for family and word spread quickly and friends and friends of friends started calling and now she is making quite a few. She made this cake for Mom's birthday. The leaves are made of white and dark chocolate and she paints the chocolate on the leaves and then when they dry she peels the leaves away. The balls are actually chocolate dipped strawberries. It was soooooo good! Dave and Allie and Christina had gone to the PNE for the day and Ryan got busy doing something so just Josh came with us. We had a nice evening and were home fairly early.

I've been watching the horror that has unfolded in the southern States in the aftermath of Katrina. I cannot even begin to image what it must be like to live through something so horrific. Bodies floating in the streets. Looting is out of control. Thank God the various National Guard units will start making order tomorrow by the sounds of it if they can get in to where they are needed most. Vancouver offered our Urban Search and Rescue and they were called to come tonight. They were ready and getting a police escort to get them to the airport and out on the fasted plane there. They were needed in Louisiana and that is where they are headed. I am very afraid that when all is said and done the death toll will be in the thousands.

Well I am tired tonight and am heading to bed with a book and a nice cup of tea.

Bad week :(

I'm stuggling this week. I'm not sure why. I had sorta planned to spend the majority of my week off having quiet time and resting alot. Somehow that didn't seem to happen or if it did, there just maybe wasn't enough quiet time. Maybe just being back at work is tiring after being off even though this is a four day week. Today is our company picnic up at Stewarts and Al is off running some errands so I am sitting here quietly trying to get it together.

I'm so tired and the hot flash's are so debilitating this week that I just want to scream sometimes or cry. They bring on waves of nausea to go with the heat and such a feeling of weakness that I have to sit and let it pass. My liver area seems to be a bit....hmmm well I guess enlarged or swollen. I can feel pressure and a bit of tenderness so again I think I am not drinking enough water. Last night coming home on the freeway there was some kind of something ahead that had us all alternating between crawling along and sitting and waiting. I have no air conditioning in my car and the heat just invaded and brought on hot flash after hot flash. By the time I got home I was beat red and Lynne and Dianne were here waiting for me. Al looked concerned as soon as he saw me as did the girls, so god only knows how I looked! I am weepy too for some reason. Mornings are ugly. It takes at least an hour to be able to feel well enough to function. I just feel cruddy. Hopefully it is just a low spot and all will be better tomorrow or next week. I feel like I need to be completely alone by myself with my computer and my books and swing and just spend a few days vegetating. But that is not going to happen.

Tomorrow we have a barbeque at my brothers house for my Mom's birthday. She's 74. Most of my kids are coming I think so I'll get to see the baby. But Sunday I am doing nothing!..........well after the housework is all done and I'm ready for next week I'm doing nothing. Not a very cheerful entry today I'm afraid. Maybe tomorrow...........

Back to work

Two days back at work and it seems like I never had a holiday! It was good to see everyone and get back into the swing of things. This gorgeous flower is called a Blue River ll Hibiscus. They are almost the last of the Hibiscus to bloom and the flower on this one is huge. They are supposed to get to 10" across and this one is pretty close. It's the first flower to open on the plant so I am anxious to see what it will look like when the whole plant is covered in these flowers.


On Friday we are closed for the day and we're having a company picnic at Stewart's place at Belcarra. He is right on the ocean there with a dock and boat. Families are included so it should be a lot of fun. Fresh crab, Al is in heaven. :)

Friday last week we went to Capilano Suspension Bridge and the Treetop Adventure in North Vancouver. We've been wanting to go for awhile as we hadn't been in years. We decided to go on Friday and it was really impressive. The bridge is huge "Originally built in 1889, today's bridge is the fourth bridge at this location, 450 feet across and 230 feet above Capilano River and is, without a doubt, the world's greatest suspension footbridge!" (from the webpage). It sways and bounces as you walk across. Long way down too. Then on the other side and up a walkway is the Treetop Adventure. That was very cool. They have built a walkway like a suspension bridge high up in the trees. They are using a collar system that doesn't harm the trees at all. "An innovative compression system safely secures each tree’s observation platform using only 20 pounds of force per square inch, approximately the amount of pressure exerted by pressing your thumb firmly on a tabletop. Combined with custom-engineered steel cables and a commitment to routine inspections and adjustments, this system does not damage the Douglas fir trees in any way" - again from the website.

A few pictures from there.











There were lots of people on there so it was really moving. A couple of years ago a lady here in BC took her two kids over the bridge and "somehow" managed to drop the baby off the bridge. The little girl was down's syndrome and the mom was in a custody fight with the dad for the kids. She fell a long way down and her fall was cushioned by the trees. When rescue personnel got down there the baby was awake and crying with scrapes and bruises. How she lived is beyond me. The mom was charged and and in court said it was an accident and she tripped and the baby fell. The court believed her and she is free.













It was quite a long walk going over the bridge both ways, around the treetop adventure and then walking the lower trails. Took us a couple of hours with many rests. The walkways are wooden and very nice with many benches along the way. From there we went to Stanley Park.

Very tired tonight, long day catching up on me. I'll finish this tomorrow.

A good holiday

It's Saturday and my week's holiday is almost finished. We got done what we wanted for the most part and took a few day trips that were very enjoyable.

Saturday started with us going and getting Al a good crochet game. Josh came over and we played extreme crochet all over the back yard. At times I was laughing so hard I couldn't see to shoot the ball. The neighbours I'm sure think we are insane.

Sunday started with a mini-crisis for my mom. We were planning on a quiet weekend with a trip to the flea market on Sunday morning. We were getting all set when the phone rings and it's my mother with a burst hot water tank. She lives in a 5 level co-op townhouse in Richmond. When she got up and went downstairs to let the cats out, her floor mats were floating around the bottom level.

She phoned me in a panic and also my brother. He lives in New Westminster which is about 10 minutes away and we live an hour and a half away but we got there within 20 minutes from each other. He phoned me while we were both on the road and chatted for a sec and I told him not to let mom do anything til we all got there and figured out what needed to be done. Does he listen to me??? NO!!!! I had talked to mom on the phone while on the way there and she told me that the co-op president had been around and told her to do whatever was necessary such as bringing in a reclamation company and a plumber. So much easier.

We get there and my brother is gone. Mom says, "Oh he phoned the reclamation company back and told them not to come. He said it would be easy to clean up and he went to rent a shop vac and a big blower heater fan." My poor brother arrives back with said equipment to be met by a sister with a face on her like a meat axe (as my grandma always used to say) and I'm going "WHY!??!" "Why would you do that?" The water had covered her whole bottom floor and seeped under the walls on both sides to leak into the units on either side of her. The washer and dryer were sitting in all the water and needed to be moved, her crawl space was down there and she uses it as a storage area, the washer and dryer needed to be moved out and both my brother and my husband have really bad backs.

He took one look at me and says "What? No problem I can take it back and call them back." So he did. He comes back and we asked him if they charged him to take the stuff back and he said it was only $10. We asked what he told them and he said he told them his crazy sister had decendend on him like the hounds of hell and berated and bullied him into taking it back! They felt so sorry for him they did with a small restocking fee. LOL It pays to be the older sister on occasion. As it turned out the reclamation guy was a flood and water damage specialist and he had some meter thingy that he checked all the walls with and he said the wall was wet for 6 inches up all the way around and if they had not dried it properly it would have been moldy with that black mold in six months. So they cleaned it all up and got her a new hot water tank and got it installed for her. All was good again.

Seeing as how we were in Richmond anyway we decided to make a day of it and head into Steveston. The seagull at the top of the page was sitting on a piling waiting for a fish handout. Steveston is a small community right on the water of the Fraser River and the fishing boats come in there. On the weekend you can walk down to the docks and buy fish right out of the boats. Lots to see and always something going on down there in the Summer time. We had a really nice day and it seemed we walked for miles.

Monday was a rest day and then on Tuesday we went and picked up our granddaughter and took her for the day. Took her to see my Mom and had some lunch and she was very good. She didn't play shy at all and even gave Great Grandma a kiss and a big hug. Then we headed to Stanley Park. The park is beautiful and has a wide variety of attractions. We were going to take her to the aquarium but when we got there she heard the train whistle and wanted to ride the train, which we did.

She loved that! From there we headed to the Farm animal Petting Zoo. She liked all the animals but really was not much interested in touching them. They had a good selection of goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, chickens, ponies and guinea pigs along with some snakes in cages and some turtles. This little rooster was crowing and had her crowing with him at one point. Very pretty and silky looking little guy. She looked at everthing and commented on most of it.

From there it was the playground with Grandpa following her around like a shadow. You just can't be too safe these days. We don't take our eyes off her for a second while she is in our care. Then we wandered down the park towards the water park. She suddenly realized where she was and starts stripping off her clothes as she's walking and she's talking a mile a minute at the same time. "Oh look! It's the water park!! Well I have to have a shower because..........well just look at me..................I have sand on me" and she's handing me her t-shirt. She cracks me up and I love listening to what she has to say. She sings and points things out in the car as we travel along too. Grandpa and I took turns following her around the water park for an hour. She loves other kids and tries to join any group of kids she comes across. No shyness at all. She just goes right up and joins in the conversation and whatever it is they are doing. At one point she was running away from me and I was talking her picture and I got such a jolt of deja vu. She looked exactly like David (her dad) at that age. Her blonde curls falling down her back. Man o man, that was over 30 years ago.

She was getting tired so we put her in the car and headed to White Rock. It gave her time to have a nice nap in the car on the way and when we got there it was getting on to dinner time. We let her play on the beach for awhile and then we went to a beach side restaurant for fish and chips. Then home to her parents and we headed home to collapse in a heap of well earned tiredness. She is like a little perpetual motion machine and never stops moving. I am so worried about anything happening to her that I can't relax and am moving constantly myself. She exhausts me totally but she is so beautiful and fun to be with. Grandchildren are the best!

Wednesday was a quiet, around the house, type day. We needed to rest or at least I did. It rained overnight finally and was a bit cooler and I went and had a nice nap on the porch swing in the afternoon. There is just something decadent about napping on a swing in the middle of a weekday afternoon.

Thursday and Josh has been bugging us all week to go geocaching with him. He is our Mr. Technology. Any kind of electronic gadgetry and he is right there and knows what it's about. He has a gps system in his lap top computer and he went out and bought a hand held little thing to use for Geocaching. It is like a treasure hunt with these global positioning things. We found one that was short and nice and close to home to try it out. The idea is you follow the route they have layed out and it takes you to a treasure cache. You take the treasure and leave a new one for the next group to find or you take nothing and leave it intact for the next group. The one we took was here http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=beabeea7-7cb2-443a-9d3e-b21345008491 and the instructions said

If you are approaching the first location from the west on the freeway, be sure you take the exit that is about 700 metres from the location. If you are coming from the east, you will have to exit a couple kilometres down the road and backtrack on the parallel road. You will find a large parking lot. Look for a sign at the north end. On the sign you will see 2 dates (years). The next clue is found by filling in the coordinates as follows:N49 03._ _ _ (the first date minus 1540) W122 10._ _ _ (the second date minus 1160)Travel (walk) to this location and go underneath that object. You will find a total of six numbers that are 3 inches tall (in a group of 4 and a group of 2)... The cache is located by filling in the coordinates as follows:N49 03._ _ _ (the first 3 numbers plus 125) W 122 10._ _ _ (the last 3 numbers minus 39)Go to the cache from there. Even though the cache seems very close, you should travel carefully to it..... (Crossing freeways on foot is very dangerous.. be safe and drive it please)Please be sure to cover the cache well when you are done.

We had fun but we didn't find the cache. But next time we will be better prepared and know what to expect. It could be a fun hobby and Al and I can borrow the hand held device and do it ourselves if we are so inclined. You never know.........

Well that takes us to Thursday. This whole week I kept thinking about how being home from work and resting lots I should not be feeling tired so much but of course I am just as tired as always. I have also realized that I don't do stress well. I had noticed that stress seems to affect me badly but then something that Ron Metcalf said in his blog suddenly made me really think about it. Both times that Dr. Chan has sent me off to see Dr. Erb and get an opinion on what's going on, I have been under a lot of stress and my liver has shown bad enough symptoms to send me off to the doctor again. I know I don't do stress well and have always felt like a big woosy. But if I can just mentally put it down to a Hep C symptom I don't feel so bad. :) Overall I have been doing well except for the hot flashes both during the day and at night. I also have no stamina on walks but have found if I can just sit and rest for a few minutes and then continue on it works for me.

Well this has dragged on into a book and I'm not finished yet! More later. :)

Four more sleeps.....

One more week of work and then I'm on a week of holidays. I'm looking forward to a few days of doing nothing except what I want to do. Al has two weeks, the first with me and then he has another week that he plans on spending just puttering around the house. We are great putterers. We think we'll make great retired people! We are homebodies who like to putter at home and take the occasional day trip someplace.

It was a hot and busy week at work. On Wednesday, Jude and Lynne and I had our beach day at White Rock. It was glorious, the sun was hot, the breeze was wonderful and we just thouroughly enjoyed laying there for a few hours. We had fish and chips for dinner and by the time we got back to Jude's for craft night we were all too tired to do anything. We sat and chit chatted for awhile and then headed home.

I seem to be very tired these days and am really looking forward to a week off. I'm having a hard time sleeping properly and my nights are very disjointed. I'm up and down and turning this way and that. I disturb Al's sleep too. A couple of nights I got up and moved to the porch swing with a blanket and laid out there and dozed for awhile til I'd suddenly wake up again feeling damp so I'd get up and go back to bed.

This last weekend was fairly peaceful and we got a lot of little things done. The weather has been hot so we have only been walking a few times lately. We'll catch up with that again in the fall when it's a bit cooler. We've talked briefly about getting our bikes checked out and road worthy and taking them for a ride but have only got as far as thinking it might be fun. Maybe on our week off we'll do it.

August already!

It's August already and the summer is half over! We didn't make the beach on Thursday, that has been moved to this coming Wednesday instead. The week at work was very hot and quiet. Can't move trees in the heat, it will probably kill them. We do most of our tree relocation in the cooler weather unless necessary. People are pretty much done planting their gardens as well so I have been working on the website and getting pictures to trees.

Friday night Al and I went out for Pizza and then to a movie. We run into problems with movies because we like different styles of movie. I hate slapstick and Al is not into "chick flicks" so we usually end up with a comedy or an adventure. This time it was a toss up between War of the Worlds and Sky High. We ended up at War of the Worlds and it was pretty good. Good special effects, not much in the way of a story line but that's ok. We went and saw Josh's new apartment between dinner and the movie and it's looking great! He has the projection screen adjusted the way he wants it and can get the biggest setting on his projector tv. The only problem is that if the room is light it fades out the picture so he has blackout curtains on order and that will take care of the problem. He needs them anyway because he works nights and sleeps days so it will help in that department as well.

Saturday was a full day. We left home by 10AM and headed in to Vancouver. We are so funny. We have decided we get into ruts with things and refuse to deviate. So we decided to look at maybe a different place to watch the fireworks from. We headed to the west end. Drove aimlessly around there for awhile. Then we thought ok! Stanley Park is the place to be. So we headed into the park and around to the side with the fireworks and found a spot to park and paid for all day parking. Then we wandered about for a bit and tried to see where we would have to sit to see well and decided with the amount of people arriving during the day and evening the space would be very crowded so we finally just went "Oh to hell with it lets go back to last years good spot" So we gave away our all day parking pass and headed over to the other side of the harbour and right down to last years spot.

We got a great spot under the Burrard Bridge on the edge of Vanier Park and it only cost us $4 to park from 9AM to 11PM. From there we left all our stuff in the car and took one backpack and walked the seawall to Granville Market under the Granville Street Bridge. There are some really beautiful apartments along there. Must cost a fortune to live in them! We parked just on the other side of this bridge. The walkway extends all around the waterfront.

Once we got to Granville Island we wandered around and looked at some of the little shops (very expensive) and then into the market which is a huge warehouse type building that the front of is big sliding glass panels that open out onto a dock at the back along the water. There are benches and wide walking areas, places to sit out and eat or feed the seagulls. The little ferries run back and forth and the channel is fairly narrow so you are looking across the water and boats to the apartments on the other side. Inside the market are tons of little stalls that sell all types of food. Breads, cheeses, pasta, meat, fresh fish, veggies and fast food that you can then take outside to sit in the sun and eat. We bought picnic food; fruit, meat, cheese and bread and then I had a major major hot flash that damn near knocked me out. I was seeing stars and getting lightheaded and the sweat was running down my body. I said to Al, "I have to sit" He didn't even ask questions, just steared me to an exit and out to a bench. I sat in the shade for awhile (luckily beside a busker with a very nice voice) and he went and got us cold drinks. We sat and rested and enjoyed the people. Then we started meandering back towards the car and Vanier Park.

We got back and got out our chairs and books and picnic basket and had ourselves a very nice lunch and read and rested for an hour. Vanier Park has the Vancouver Museum, Archives, Planetarium and Maritime Museum all on the same site right on Kits Point.

The walkway going in the opposite direction from the bridge takes you down into Kitsilano Beach which is where I grew up. Spent many summer days hanging out at Kits Beach. In the 60's when we had the hippy days, Kits Beach was just down the road from 4th Ave which was the hippy stroll in those days. Like Haight Ashbury in CA, in Vancouver it was West 4th. I lived on 1st and Cypress and went to Kitsilano High. I was just on the young end of hippies and was still under parental control for the most part so didn't actually get into the best most fun part of hippydom but I did have alot of fun back then. My mom called me a hippy and that made me happy.

I really wanted to be a hippy and live the nomad lifestyle. By the time I started running away from home alot of the hippies had gone home and only the real druggy type hardcores were left and I really wasn't into that. I just wanted to be part of the whole "Make Love not War" "Flower Power" lifestyle hanging at the beach and sleeping 10 or 15 to an apartment all smoking some pot and having fun in the summertime going to the summer Be-in at Stanley Park, dancing and smoking when it was warm and fun. Not the reality. I got the tag end of it and some fun though. :)

Anyway we walked down into Kits and I took Al up into the old neighbourhood hangouts and down to Henry Hudson Elementary. We wandered around and peered in all the windows. It's one of the old red brick, three story schools dating back to probably the 30's or before. When I went there the basement's were split into the boys basement and the girls basement with the janitor's room in between and we weren't allowed on each others sides. I don't know if it's still that way or not. It sure brought back memories standing there looking in the window of rooms I ran around in back in 1960. The school looks exactly the same even on the outside with the playing field outside.

From there we headed back to the beach and got out our blanket and food basket and chairs and laid under a willow tree by a pond behind the planetarium and spent the rest of the evening there. We had a clear view of the sky over English Bay. We ate and played cards, read our books and in my case had a nice nap. We watched the ducks with tiny babies still swimming around the pond. The sky clouded up a bit but it stayed warm with a warm breeze blowing in off the water. It was heaven. The fireworks were excellent and Sweden was last years winner and they were again very good. We are thinking of going back next Saturday for the finale. We hung around afterwards. Took our stuff back to the car and then crossed the path to the water's edge and watched all the boats coming back in. The police helicopter flew overhead with a searchlight going over the crowd and the boats. Thousands of people. We heard on the news the next day that there were 62 liquor seizures, several fights and numerous drunk arrests but we saw none of that at all where we were. I think really the families come to the Vanier Park side of the water and the young partiers go to the West End/Stanley Park side. Also in Vancouver it was Gay Pride week this week and Sunday was the big Gay Pride Parade. The city and the West End were busy and full and lots of fun this weekend. We didn't get home til 1AM

Yesterday we were home most of the day doing various household chores and fix up's and sorting and changing rooms about kind of day. Worked on the bedroom and moved the room around. When Josh had his big entertainment centre in our livingroom we moved our much smaller one into our bedroom. It has the stereo and a tv and dvd in it and one of our shaw boxes. So we have left it there and Al got the stero hooked up and all the cords sorted out and zapstrapped together. Much nicer and neater. Then we were out to friends for dinner and cards.

This morning I am sitting here tired but feeling good. We did a lot over the weekend and we've been really enjoying it just being the two of us. We love having the house to ourselves and running our own schedules with no worries about anyone else but the dogs and cat. We still see the boys often and Josh drops in several times a week but he never stays long. He is loving his place and it's looking really good. He's a good housekeeper at his house :)

A few bouts with nausea this week along with this problem with the heat. It is very hard to manage if I need to be outside for some reason. Hats and sunglasses help as does lots of water but it does not stop the continuous hot flashes. They are so intense it's hard to explain to people. I go bright red and am instantly covered in sweat. I can see Jude and Stewart get worried looking. It must look like I am getting ready to have my head explode or something. Stewart generally tries to order me back into a building (I mostly ignore him unless I am seeing stars and feeling faint) and Jude starts fanning me with whatever she has in her hands. We must look quite the sight as we go about our day. This morning I am listening to Rob Thomas's new disk over and over. I love his voice. My My My is a great song. Norah Jones is good this morning too. Very soft and quiet today. Rest day.

A day at the beach

Beautiful hot sunny weather here in BC right now. We've had some gorgeous days at work with a bit of a breeze and lots of sunshine. The eagles are back. They showed up the other day again sitting in the top of the Eagle Tree. I love to hear them up there. They are really beautiful birds seen up close.

We used to walk the dogs at a small local manmade lake with a walk around the top of it. This is a picture of the Lake and you can see it has some big trees. One day we pulled into the parking lot and we were just in time to see an eagle drop down onto the water. It seemed to be fluttering a bit there, long enough for me to wonder if there was something wrong with it when it lifted up with a duck dangling from it's talons. It was pretty amazing to see it close up. We took the dogs and continued on our walk and as we got to the other side of the lake the dogs were ahead of us a bit and as we got up to them the eagle that we hadn't even noticed lifted up out of the tree right in front of us still with long strands of meat hanging from it's feet.

Another time I saw an eagle in action was one of our girls days and we'd headed to the beach at White Rock and with the tide half way in we walked out into the water where it was warm coming in over the sand. We were just standing there enjoying the sun and the breeze and the saltwater smell when we saw an eagle go after a seagull that was floating in the water. A man and his dog were out there and the seagull was so desperate he was swimming towards them and trying to hide behind them but the eagle worked at it and got him and off he flew as everyone on the beach stood mesmerized by this whole thing. It was all over in a few minutes. It was kind of awful to watch but at the same time the eagle has to eat too. So do it's babies. Nature

And speaking of White Rock, tomorrow is girls night and this week and we going to head to the beach and bake for a few hours. We go every year at least once to just lay on the beach. This year we haven't managed to make it there yet and Lynnie goes back to work in August so we think tomorrow might be our only chance this year. We are getting off work at 2:30 these days cause the guys are starting really early to beat the heat. So Lynnie is meeting us at work and off we go. Half an hour to the beach! Then back to Jude's for dinner and then we are calling it an early night. Jude and her husband are heading out camping Friday and she needs to get the camper packed and everything ready. They have 4 grandchildren so they are picking them all up and heading out for the weekend. They are 10, 5, 5, and 3 so she will have her hands full.

It is a long weekend here to celebrate BC Day. And it's also right in the middle of the Celebration of Light fireworks competition here in Vancouver. We went last year and it was fun. There are hundreds of thousands of people that go and watch from all the waterfront around Vancouver's inner harbour. We go to a spot we picked out last year and pay for all day parking and park early in the day. We are going back to the same spot on Saturday. The fireworks that night are from Sweden. Where we park we will be within walking distance of Granville Island and we'll probably walk down there and get the makings of a picnic for dinner which we can stow in the cooler and leave in the car. They have a cool little ferry system that we bought tickets for last year and travelled on all of them and it was fun. This year we are thinking of getting all day ride passes for the regular transit system and that will allow us to travel all of the bus, sky train and sea bus routes around Vancouver all day. We can go where ever we end up and just make a day of it. Then back to the park and dinner and the fireworks. Then comes the 2 hour traffic jam to get out of there. This year we are just going to have a nap in the car for an hour or two and then when it thins out we'll head on home. Much easier on the nerves and the gas instead of idling in a huge lineup.

I'm tired but doing great. No pain in the liver area at all, no pressure or fullness in that area either right now. All seems to be going along quite well. When I am feeling good I start to second guess myself and think.......do I really want to start treatment again and know i'm probably going to feel crappy. Then I remember what Dr. Erb said and I think yes I do want to do this and see if I tolerate it better this time with only the short period of ribarviran. Six of one, half a dozen of another, back and forth I go. Easier to just forget about it for now and just enjoy my days.

Sophie

Meet Sophie! My friends Lynne and Al just got a new puppy. She is a harlequin Great Dane and she's 8 weeks old. They also have an old female dane that is 9 years old now and Great Danes don't seem to live as long as other dogs. So they wanted to get a new puppy before Babe was gone.

Thursday night was girls night and this week Jude and I had to go to Mission, BC to see about a job. Another car through a hedge. Lynne is on holidays right now so she met us and when we were done with the job viewing we headed up to Westminster Abbey. It is a Monastary of Benadictine Monks and a Highschool for boys interested in the seminary.

It is so beautiful up there and is open to the public to walk the grounds during the day. There are private out of bounds areas but for the most part you can wander around and walk the paths. The Abbey is stained glass all the way around. It has 64 stained glass windows totaling over 7000 sq ft. It is incredible inside. A pool that runs and as you sit in the silence the sound of the tinkling water with the light streaming through the windows it is a holy experience in itself no matter what your religious beliefs.

If you follow the path up you eventually come to a lookout way up overlooking the valley with the Fraser River running through. Really incredible view. We sat up there and enjoyed the peace and coolness and quietness for awhile and then wandered back down and sat in a shady spot and had a picnic. It was really a great way to let the stress of the day go.

When we were done we headed down to Lynne's for our craft night and to meet baby Sophie. We usually do scrapbooking or card making but lately we have been into beading. Man I am getting old! My eyesight has deteriorated to the point that even with magnifying eyeglasses on I was basically just blindly stabbing the tiny beads at the line and hoping they would hit the right spot. Lots of fun though and it's just nice to get out one night a week and chit chat with the girls.

The week at work flew by with both busy days and days where I could just concentrate on getting more of the pictures of trees onto the pages. All of our Hydrangeas and Butterfly Bushes (Buddleia) are blooming right now and if I don't get them on the page shortly after they are taken then they disappear into the groups of pictures and then I can't remember which bloom went with which. The Hibiscus are just starting to bloom now. Next week I should be able to get them up. Khushwinder has been working on the pond area and we are hoping to have an upper pond that runs and falls down into the lower. Khush has only been working on it for two days and it's coming great. He thinks he can have water running for us by Monday. If so I'll get a picture.

Al has finished Harry Potter and is waiting for me to finish so we can discuss it. Josh came home from camping on Tuesday and came for dinner. I knew I would be busy on Wednesday night and Thursday night and that Al would be done by Friday when I wanted to finish it so I sent him home with his copy. He was very happy to get it. I didn't want to rush through the last bit. I wanted to take my time and save it til I could sit and finish it without being bugged by anyone or falling asleep. When I am done here that is where I am heading. To finish the last hundred pages or so of Harry Potter.

Feeling pretty good this week. The heat gets to me and triggers hot flashes but I am so used to them that unless I am out too long I can function quite well. The office itself is cool and has fans running. I'm going to end this with a series of pictures that were emailed to me from a friend of a friend. They were taken in Chief Lake BC near Prince Rupert. They speak for themselves. :)

The flu?

Sometimes I think we get so used to feeling crappy all the time that when we get something else like the flu we don't know enough to just lie down and rest and get it over with. I, at least, keep thinking it is Hepatitis related and therefore not much you can do but motor on. I've been fighting nausea since Thursday and extreme tiredness and I'm starting to think it's the flu. But for the last 3 or 4 days I have been fighting through it and motoring on after a rest to settle the stomach. Today I am giving in and staying home and just doing nothing but read and rest.

Saturday morning we were up early and I knew the bookstore was opening early because of the Harry rush so we waited and went up around 10. There was no lineup and the ladies were looking lonely. Another lady and daughter arrived while we were getting our book and I was asking if they had been busy and she said not really. I said I had waited til I thought it would be quieter to pick it up. The other lady and daughter had done the same. But we both got our copies and clutched them to our chests and went rushing off to read.

I got home and settled down on the couch in my computer room (it was raining so no porch swing) and stayed there for several hours reading. All of a sudden Josh arrives and is mad. He has just been up to Safeway to grab some food for camping and there at the service counter were copies of Harry for $19.99 after Josh had prepaid at the book store to the tune of $29.99. He was all for taking it back and buying his copy at Safeway. But after huffing about it for awhile he gave it back to me and headed out for camping. Late in the afternoon the skies cleared and Al and I went out for a walk and he was wanting to know if the book was good and I was wanting to discuss various aspects of it with him so I made him stop at Safeway on the way home and I went in and got him a copy as well. Home again and we did a bit of housework and had a light dinner and then both settled down with our books. We are both about half way through and are really enjoying this installment. I was reading this morning about JK Rowling and how hard it was going to be for her to stop writing Harry books but I think it will be a lot harder on us loyal Harry fans.

Yesterday I woke up feeling much the same and fought back several bouts of nausea (Al is one of those types that if he feels sick he goes and throws up and is done with it. I on the other hand fight it and will do almost anything to avoid throwing up) and started out with a fairly quiet morning. Then for some unknown reason I was feeling guilty sitting doing nothing and decided to work on my computer room for awhile. Al had other plans of little things he wanted to accomplish around the house and yard. I quickly came to the conclusion that the only way to procede was to get Al to move the work table (attached to the wall) to the wall I now wanted it on and then I could slowly go about putting things where I wanted them and getting myself re-organized.

I always preface these ideas to Al with the comment "Hey babe, I've been thinking" and he hates that! He says whenever I say that it means work for him and he is usually right lol He had put the table where it was now and when he went to move it he had attached it to the wall so well the first time that he had a hell of a time getting it taken down. After several sheared screws, much foul language, several reproachful looks and a big scratch on his tummy he managed to get the table moved to where I wanted it. I spent the rest of the day alternating between bouts of nausea (time to sit and read my book for awhile and do some deep breathing) and getting a bit of energy and guilt attacks, I worked on getting the room set up the way I want it. Al filled holes and whatnot but I wouldn't let him paint right now. I just wanted to get things put away and in some kind of order.

I was worrying that I would recieve my Card Angel assignment and not be ready to go with worktable in order and all my card making supplies at handy reach. And really it couldn't have worked out better because when I sat down at my computer last night there was my Angel assignment! I have been given a teenage boy here in Canada that is suffereing from cancer and going through chemo. So today I start by getting a card and an introduction letter off to him and his family. You are given the chance to turn down your patient but I think a teenage boy is right up my ally. He is into video games and rap music like most teen boys.

When my boys were home they got me playing Nintendo and Super Nintendo and all the various video games and then onto computer games. When Rogue Spear came out Josh got me playing it and took me onto Mplayer and left me there telling me briefly how it worked to join games etc. I have been playing with and talking to the same group of online players now for 5 years. A good portion of them are teen boys but there are also women and men who played RS and joined the leagues ( I was in ROD - Revelations of Death!!) and got to know one another. We have a forum we all still go to and I am an admin on that board. RS and Mplayer died and the kids have moved on to other games and GameSpy but we all still come back to the board and stay in touch with each other. It should give me some insight as to what my new buddy is interested in and after watching the boys chat on the board for all these years I feel fairly comfortable taking on a teen boy.

My two best online friends are both male. John is from Scotland and has been over to Iraq as a reserve a couple of years ago. He phoned me from over there and has called me from Scotland a few times to chat. I know all about his family and his mom and dad and bothers and nieces and nephews. He is in his 30's and has met a nice girl and is getting married this year. My other buddy is a university student in Connecticut who had a liver transplant 5 years ago. We have our livers in common and speak often. He is doing very well and going into his senior year this year. He was only 17 when he had his transplant. I think my association with both of these guys and having 3 sons should help me considerabley with my teen patient.

The flower at the top of the page is something that came up at work but I have no idea what it is. Jude bought a bunch of bags of bulbs last year and they sat around and then one of the girls we had at work for a short time potted them all up for her but threw away the bag and tags so we have no idea what they are. We grew them just for ourselves so it's no big deal but it would still be nice to know what it is. It is certainly gorgeous!

Well I am off to phone in sick to work and go back to bed with my book for awhile. If this is flu well then I'll give the old bod a rest and hope it gets over it and if it's the Hepatitis well then I probably need a day of rest anyhow!

Long week already!

Well this week caught up with me early and I was trying to fall asleep at my desk at work yesterday by 2 in the afternoon. It was awful fighting to keep my eyes open and not nod off. I finally got my camera out and went outside and took some pictures of the new plants in bloom. I try to keep up with all the new developments on the trees and take pictures of the various happenings so I can add them to the webpage for work. Our goal is to have pictures of all the trees in all the seasons so people can get a good judge of what that tree will look like in their garden.

I walked down to get the mail and then back to a couple of more customers and then home. We had an early dinner but I was almost too tired to eat. By 8 I just said screw it and went to bed. I was asleep before 9 and slept through except for a few night sweat wakeups but even those didn't get me out of bed last night. I woke at 5 and here I am. Grumpy and out of sorts still. Although it does take me an hour or two in the mornings to get moving these days. Usually by the time I have to leave for work I am feeling better. I've made coffee, fed the cat, and given the dogs their treats. Now everyone has wandered off and will leave me alone for awhile.

Josh and Corinna are heading out camping for the weekend and Josh has a pre-paid copy of Harry Potter to be picked up on Saturday morning. I have the receipt!!! Therefore I get to pick it up from the store and that automatically makes me the first person to get to read it. Then it goes to Josh, because after all it is his book, and then Al has dibs on it. My weekend, which is supposed to be hot hot hot, is going to be spent layed out on the swing on the back deck with Harry Potter and an endless supply of cold drinks ranging from Iced Caps from Timmy's to diet Coke and Pepsi to water.

I just checked my email and this picture was there from my daughter in law along with this comment.

"Looks can be deceiving ...................... This sweet little girl said to me yesterday (upon hearing the words "bedtime") "Mommy, I do not love you. I am running away to Uncle Josh's new house." Got that Uncle Josh? She's coming, so you better stock the candy because she apparently doesn't do bedtime. You got the 4 billion inch projector TV just in time!"

Well that just made my day! Feeling better already. Nothing like a sweet picture or two of my baby girl to start the day out right. :)

Flag girl continued......

Thought I would add a few pictures of the job yesterday just because I find it so interesting and thought someone else might as well.

This would be me flagging down the end of the road.








The Takeuchi digging the old tree stumps out.














The guys getting ready to unload and place the new trees.











This last picture is me in front of the finished job.

Flag girl

Today was the day Jude and I were acting as the flag girls on the job we had to replace the big trees in the hedge. I was pretty nervous about it and had visions of a huge traffic nightmare. Jude and Stew went yesterday and got us all the correct equipment including hardhats, orange vests, stop/slow signs, pilons, men working signs and walkie talkies we already had. We had to have the Takeuchi with the tree spade taken to the job site by a transport company and the trees we had taken over on a crane truck that was then available to lift the trees into the holes. These trees are approx 20' tall and way to heavy for a person to handle alone with the rootball and everything.

We all got there at approximately the same time and the guys were getting Jude and I set up on either ends of the area and as we were heading up to the top area to put the caution sign and set some pilons a car came screaming around the corner really fast with the guys waving him to slow down which he did and moved over but Stew says to Jude and I, "if some guy like that seems to be coming at you too fast and not looking like he's going to stop just dive into the ditch" !!! I am now looking at the rock and prickly ditch thinking well geez!!

They got us set up at either end and we had our walkie talkies and within a few minutes we had it worked out and then it was fun. Most people were very nice and smiled or waved on the way through and nobody gave me the finger! The job went well in we were out of there within a few hours with a happy guy with a fixed hedge. We got back to the office and a couple showed up that had come over from the island to look at some of our boxed specimens of japanese maples. A car had gone over the lawn and mowed down their 50 year old Weeping Cutleaf Japanese Maples. They had searched on the internet and found us and phoned last week. Today they were over and our trees were the only ones that they had been able to find that were as old and as big as the ones they lost. They want them both. So we'll see if they actually do come and get them. Together they are worth over $5500.

Even though we were having fun I came home exhausted after work today and did basically nothing but sit and visit with Al and sit on my computer. I need some quiet days with a book and my porch swing I think. Although the weather has been crappy lately. Already in July we have had more rain than we usually get for all of July. Terrible night last night too. Maybe worried a bit about flagging but I woke up over and over with night sweats and restlessness. I got up a few times and went and stood on the porch for a bit in the cool air. But I try not to open my eyes too wide. I try just go there and stand a bit and then head back to bed and try to get comfortable and doze off again. Poor Al, I think some nights I drive him crazy. He makes me laugh though. With me being so hot at night I push my covers off and pull them back on over and over and he tries to get out from under the pile I've pushed on him and on and on......he says if we video taped ourselves sleeping and then played it in fast forward it would look like a pizza maker spinning dough with our blankets being the dough and up there flying in circles some nights. We have literally some mornings wakened up with our blankets, which were at our feet at bedtime, now at our heads. Plus we have a fan running and if it's really hot a fan on each side of the bed. We could damn near fly a kite in there some nights. And still I wake up with hot flashes or night sweats or whatever. It's tiring because your sleep ends up so interupted. Oh well enough whining.

My friend sent me this link. It is very cool.

THE BIRTH OF A HUMMINGBIRD

Be sure to click on NEXT PAGE at the bottom of eachpage; there are 5 pages in all. A lady found a hummingbird nest and got pictures all the way from the egg to leaving the nest. Took 24 days from birth to flight. Because you'll probably never in your lifetime see this again, enjoy; and please share. Click on this link:

http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/

I meant to ad that I had a bit of a giggle over the weekend. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and have read all the books more than once. I didn't get into them until about book 4 and I have taken to reading the series again before each new book comes out to get myself back up to speed. Anyway we are waiting anxiously for the new book to come out and last weekend it was on our news over here that one of the stores in Vancouver that got the books in prep for the selling date wasn't paying attention and sold some 12 or so books early. Then they freaked out and are offering to give the holders of the new books an autographed copy of something by j k rowling if they return them. They have even gone to court getting a court order to have the books returned (although they don't know who they sold most of them to) and an order barring any of the buyers from disclosing the plot. Can't wait!!!

Busy, busy!

We have had a very busy week! By the end of last weekend we had the livingroom and dining room and hallway just about finished. We didn't have any pictures up yet or base boards down but we were almost done.

On Monday night our friends from the Okanagan called and they were riding their motorcycle down and over to the Sunshine Coast and they were planning on stopping and spending the night. Soooooooo that meant scrambling around and trying to clean up all the mess and get it looking half decent.

The pictures show the before and after of the floor and the paint and they also show I haven't painted the door or the trim yet. But that will come. Our company had arrived by the time I got home from work on Tuesday and it was great to see them. Sue and I have been friends for over 30 years.

The only problem with the visit is that by the time I got home they had been here for a few hours and had been drinking for a few hours as well. It makes it hard to visit with people when they are half cut and you don't drink.


Still all in all it was a nice visit and they stayed overnight and left the next morning. They were heading home on Friday morning early so they didn't stop as we were both at work. They are planning on coming down again closer to the end of the month and staying for a few days and that will be nicer. They are doing well and seem happy.

Wednesday night we decided to have a quiet night to rest after our busy weekend and our company so we didn't do much except clean up and do the dishes as the following night was my turn to have the girls in for craft night.

Thursday the girls were here and then it was Friday! We are back to a Monday to Friday week at work and closed on the weekends so I am liking that better than working on Saturdays although I did enjoy having my Mondays to myself :) Oh yes! On Wednesday morning on my way to work, which is about 20 minutes down the freeway towards Vancouver in Langley, my car started to chug and lose power. I made it off the freeway and headed towards work hoping I could get to work before it died. I made it one long country block away! I was very lucky. Called Jude at work and she called the guys and they all met me on the corner and the guys towed me in. They jumped it at work and then figured out it was my alternator. Long story short I ended up taking home the truck from work and the guys fixed my car the next day. Nice to work for a place that helps out like that.

Our plan for this weekend was to relax and rest and then get back to it next weekend but Al wanted to get the floor finished in the hallway, which he did. Then we decided to get the rest of the stuff we needed to finish up the computer room and bathroom as well. We had got one extra box of laminate so we took that back and got the base board we needed to finish up there. We also had to run around and do grocery shopping and then this morning we decided to go to the swap meet. So we haven't accomplished our restfull weekend but we did get a lot of other stuff accomplished.

I have been feeling pretty good considering how busy we've been. Very tired right now but I think anyone would be tired with all the running around we have been doing. This coming week sounds like it could be pretty busy as well. On Tuesday we have a big job to do and Jude and I are going along as flag girls. We have to replace part of a 25' tall cedar hedge that a car drove through and took out at least 5 of the cedars. We have to use a crane truck to do the job of both transporting and placing the trees and the road is fairly narrow with an "s" curve on it so Jude and I will be flagging at either end. This should be an experience! Stewart is giving us a crash course on Monday and we are going out to get the proper gear.

Well this is kinda boring but I am awfully tired and am planning on a quiet evening with a book!

Half way!

I'm half way through my 4 days off and we are half way through re-doing the livingroom. We started with the dark wall that we were doing in that Deep Garnet. Who knew it would take 4 coats and 2 gallons of paint to get the colour done properly? It took us all one day to do the Garnet. One full wall and a strip all around the ceiling that extends into the hallway and becomes the ceiling. Then yesterday we started the other walls and they took one coat and most of the day to finish. By dinner time last night we were ready to pull out half the carpeting and start laying the floor.

By the time Al figured out how to go about laying it out and I had read the instructions and we made our little end pieces for blocking it was getting on. We read that it goes in the direction of the light source so Al started on the far wall and ran down the wall to the end and then when you get to the end, you probably need to cut the last board to make it fit. You then use that piece you cut off to go to the top of the next row and this is how you stagger the boards to give them a nice natural look. Well by the time we had it all figured out and laid the first row down and reached the end we had arrived at the piece that needs to be cut off but also needs to have the heat vent cut out of the middle of it. It was going onto 10 pm by then and the neighbours would not have been impressed if we had powered up the saw and started cutting wood out on the back porch so we called it a night.

Here we are now at 8:30 on Sunday morning and Al dying to get going and start cutting stuff. We've been awake since 5:30 so the day is well on for us. He's gathering all his bits and pieces of stuff and is getting set. We were able to use the underlay that was already down under the carpet which was nice. Al was trying to save me a big piece of the carpet to put into the computer room but honestly I hate that carpet so much I just never want to have to look at it again. It's been here for all eleven years we've been in this house.

We had been here nearly a year when we got Keesha, the husky cross female we have. She was a good puppy for the most part but for some unknown reason when she was about 7 months old, we went out one day and left her home and she dug a hole in the carpet right through and down to the underlay. We were not happy when we got home and she got a very stern talking to with much finger shaking and "Bad Girl!!!" and she hung her head and was very apologetic. The next time we went out and left her alone she did the same thing but this time she grabbed the corner of the area she had managed to get through and ripped it all along for about 5 feet and then grabbed the underlay and pulled it out as well. This time she got a spanking and was banished outside for a few hours while we patched the carpet back together and moved furniture around to hide the ripped spot. She never touched the carpet again or did anything like that but for all this time we have moved the furniture around to hide the ripped carpet!

It's been early nights for me. The first night painting that Garnet wall, Al stayed up til 1AM to get it all done and so it could dry overnight so we could get on with the rest. I on the otherhand was passing out on the couch by 9:00 and Al woke me up and sent me off to bed. Right now he's headed off to Rona and Tim Horton's and I'm still sitting here at my computer having a lazy start to the day. I do have plans for the day though. Al doesn't need my help with laying the floor so I am working on what is now my office/hobby room!

The plan was that when Josh left and got his huge computer desk out of here that Al would move his desk in. Well with all the shuffling of stuff he has come to the conclusion that he'll take Josh's bedroom for his office/storage area and I can have this room as a combination office/hobbyroom and sitting area. The tv that was in here is now in the livingroom and we still have a tv in the bedroom. I don't think I will miss a tv in here. I'm usually on my computer or working on crafts (scrapbooking, card making, beading) and listening to music on my computer so if I really need to see something on the tv I can go in the other room.

I have a nice comfy old loveseat in here too and lots of shelving. I just need to get organized and lay the room out differently. We haven't got the paint for in here yet but I plan on some nice greens. The loveseat is green floral so that works too. I have a door for a worktable and a couple of freestanding units. I would like to be able to have a place for everything and everything in it's place so that it leaves the workspace clear most of the time. I always seem to end up with most of the work area covered with stuff that has no real home so that when I want to use the area I have a major cleanup to use it. So my work is cut out for me today.

I was talking to Allie on Friday and she mentioned they may be out to Abbotsford today to visit and to go over and have a look at Josh's new place. Al has to go at 10 and help Josh and Ryan pick up a couch for Josh that's at Viz's place. Josh has hurt his back in the move and Ryan was supposed to come and help move the couch yesterday before work (he starts at 4pm) and he slept in and didn't show up so Josh was all pissed off at him. Today is what I heard last so we'll see how that goes. Al's back is not good either so I hope he doesn't hurt himself. He just wants to get on with getting the floor done.

Well I'm off to get going on this room. I'll try and post some pictures when we are done. We had Live8 on for part of the day yesterday. Also heard they found Shasta Groene! Poor little girl. No sign of her brother so that doesn't bode well. I hear we have a baby missing in Ontario as well. Some days you have to wonder what is wrong with our world, it seems to get worse and worse and I cannot believe that Karla Homolka gets out tomorrow. Twelve years went by pretty damn fast.