I'm the only one who finds me funny.

An email exchange at work:

EngineerGuy: I've spoken to QEGuy about the issue, he's going push it via the QE council.

MsHedda: I like how they call it the "council". Very Middle Earth.

Then I sit alone in my cube laughing my ass off, imagining the QE Council meeting, the geeks-in-cloaks sitting around an oaken table, with staffs and satchels and whatnot, looking very grave.

"The elders of The Council have spoken. The JMS Messaging bug SHALL NOT PASS!"

I don't get a reply from EngineerGuy.

At least I know my humour gets at least one person through her day.

Goblin-y Goodness

I've made progress on the GG. It's starting to look like a garment that I might one day be able to actually wear in public. It appears to be the right size, and McPie gives it a preliminary score of Hot Factor=5, so I guess I'm on the right track.

Here's the back.

You may notice, there on the backs of my arms, the souvenir I picked up on our Sunday run. I'm not usually so foolish - it's been years since I was part of the "first sunburn of the year" club. It wasn't a total disaster - I did manage to get some SPF on my face and shoulders before we bolted from the house to meet our run buddies, water bottles in one hand, half-finished coffees in the other...

In which we succumb to the stereotyping

Out for dinner last night, McPie told me about how a friend of ours wasn't able to come over last weekend because he had dinner plans with his girlfriend, her ex-husband, and HIS new boyfriend. We remarked at the similarity of that situation to McPie's. (Spouse announces sudden homosexuality, couple splits, remains amicable.)

I joked: "It's rampant, the gayness."

McPie, pointing a finger: "Don't you go gay on me!"

"Don't YOU go gay on ME, Mr. Ganache."

"That's it! It's fudge from here on in!"

Pretty things

The prezzies never end. I wanna turn 32 more often.
I received yet another package in the mail yesterday: check out the pretty things! Trixie is trying to make a woman out of me. Inside one of the lovely bags their was fun-yet-practical lip gloss and in the other some must have knitting gadgets - row counter, stitch makers, yarn needles (the black one). I transfered my goods from their respective ziplock bags immediately. Everything fits! The bags are sturdy! And pretty.

A new couch, a new car - these accoutrements have nothing on having a real makeup case, and a real knitting notions case. NOW I'm a grown up.

Can't write, busy knitting

Which cliché shall I invoke? Practice makes perfect? Third time's a charm? If at first you don't succeed...?

I won't post a picture because it looks the same as the previous iterations. I've now restarted the Green Gable three times (now affectionately called the Green Goblin. Thanks G. Get your own blog!), although I've cast on about six times. I'd gotten as far as joining the body under the arms and tried it on. It fit. Yay! But the flaws were glaring. Boo! So I channeled my Guru, and gave it the yank.

Then, I spent the entire afternoon of my birthday sitting on the couch with Constance, knitting and watching The Return of the King. Oh, relaxing bliss! Now, I'm well into lacy goodness, and it's going well.

On the truffle front, I didn't get any until today, but they were HOMEMADE (with the ganache leftover from my beautiful chocolate birthday cake). Yum.



(It took a lot of effort just then to refrain from raving about the McPie's kitchen prowess. That's right, he fixes stuff, he gives foot massages, and he MAKES TRUFFLES.)

(Oops.)

Dear 10th floor kitchen nazi

I GET IT, OKAY?

I get that it's not cool to leave dishes in the sink. But I have one bowl, I use it for oatmeal every day, and it NEEDS TO SOAK for at least seven consecutive minutes in the sink or I can't get it clean. And if you keep taking it out of the sink before it's soaked, I will keep putting it back in the sink until I can get the oatmeal off without having to scratch for 5 minutes with my fingernails. (I don't get how it's better to have a dirty bowl with disgusting dried oatmeal crusties sitting on the side of the sink.) Please, just let me soak the damn thing for a couple of hours, and then I will remove it from the kitchen altogether.

****

Update on Canada's Universal Medicare situation:

Although a bit dog-eared, apparently it still exists. My Ontario doctor does accept Quebec healthcards. And the folks at the Régie du French Medical Stuff are very nice; they explained everything very clearly, and didn't make me join the FLQ or even speak French.

But the process will take weeks, and I will have to pay cash if I want to get a referral for physiotherapy in time for get me fixed for Frisbee season... Luckily, my injury stops hurting once I get warmed up. I'm certain that's a good sign.

****

Birthdays apparently roam in packs.

January and April are the big birthday months in my circle. In January, there's Trixie and her fella, and the Taller Funner Sister. Today, I woke my Mom out of a deep slumber to wish her a happy 57. It's also Vicki's big day today. Hi Vicki! Sorry about the coworker singing. I'da warned you, but Lori's eyes and ears are everywhere...

And since this is all about me, I'll point out that exactly 32 years ago today, Mom spent her birthday as big as a whale and about to head to the hospital so they could "cut the f***er out!" (F***er=moi. I was late, as usual. And also stubborn.)

Turns out that Leonardo da Vinci shares his special day with someone really important and also self-absorbed. My plans for Sunday involves champagne and chocolate truffles. And enjoying family time (and birthday cake? There'll be cake right? In addition to the truffles?) And possibly even getting out of bed. But I'll play that one by ear.

****

Green Gable - no progress. None. I've been busy with the Constant Princess. The constantly boring me out of my skull, I can't wait to get this book club meeting over with so I can chuck her out the window Princess.

Admittedly

"Doom" might be a little melodramatic for health card woes. But still, it IS a fair-sized pain in the arse.

The doom is upon us

McPie and I often joke about going to hell, and how it won't be so bad because we'll be together, and won't the handbasket be cozy?

But after visiting the Régie de l'assurance maladie Quebec web site today, I think I may have already moved to the Seventh Circle of HullHell.

Remember when you really needed a passport because your trip to Europe was coming up more quickly than you realized, and you still procrastinated getting in the application because it was just so damn complicated? Go here to get pictures, go there to get forms, find someone to sign stuff, wait in line at another place...

Well, let me tell you, getting Health Card in Quebec is WORSE. You have to CALL to REQUEST that they send you an application form. (Who has to use the phone for application forms any more? Forms should be on the INTERNET. I'm getting a sales rep from Adobe to call the Quebec Ministry of Health, stat!) You have to get your own damn picture (signed by a notary of course), MAIL IN ORIGINALS of your documents (birth cert, passport, etc)... and then god knows what because I stopped reading after that.

And then, I read this "When travelling or when outside Québec temporarily, persons holding a valid Health Insurance Card can receive healthcare services covered by the Québec Health Insurance Plan. However, in most cases, the Régie de l'assurance maladie reimburses only part of the cost."

My doctor is in Ontario! What can this mean? In addition to the taxes I have to pay (why oh why did I fess up to moving to HellHull in October? I've never had to fork over before in my LIFE! I contribute to RRSPs! and now three months of honesty is gonna cost me MUCHO DINERO) I'm not completely sure that my regular check-ups will be covered.

(All that that uppercase formatting? Yes, I'm yelling.)

A gallery of news

Because I'm being daily chewed up and spit out at work, my free time - though a premium - is generally being spent these days lying goggle-eyed and speechless on the couch. But there's a lot going on! I'll let pictures do the talking, proverbially verbose as they are.

First, we have a new family member.
This sweet thing arrived early on a Friday morning, with my chewing my fingernails nervously because my mother hired "regular" movers rather than real piano movers. It all worked out, and now we all have a new toy. In fact, the children were at first respectful and impressed, and then simply bored. Me, I've only had a little time to play around, but am looking forward to having her tuned later this week. She's been mine for 25 years, but I haven't had her (or used her) for a dozen or more. The coze factor of our living room has been upped (not to mention the clutter factor.)

Green Gable progress. It's been slow but steady. I'm most of the way into section C, but I have flaws. Two major flaws. There is a hole - seriously, like a buttonhole - on one of the sleeves. Eep. and one of my shoulder seams is wonky - I think I added only one stitch at a marker at some point. I've adjusted so that I'm working with the right number of stitches... But The effect is bad: it's like the stitches after the errors are scurrying to regroup into the correct formation. I'll do a bit more so I can check the sizing, then I'll start again to correct the flaw - either confident of the sizing, or adjusting accordingly. I've made more progress on the knitting than the reading of the book I'm supposed to doing for the book club meeting I'm hosting this coming Friday. Again, eep.


On the knitting front - I organized "the box" on the weekend. Up til then, I'd just chucked all knitting-related paraphernalia into a box... It was chaos, and only a matter of time before the invasion of the bugs. So, I ziplocked the hell out of it, and finally went through the box of needles my Baba had given me. I have 18 4.5mm double-pointed needles. And I have no idea where all the yarn came from.

And, a mystery package arrived in the mail today. A book. I recognized it right away, and guessed where it may have come from. This is a first edition (paperback in Canada) of Alice Munro's first book of short stories. More importantly, it's the same edition of the first Alice Munro book I ever owned and read. I received it when I was no older than 13, and I read it many times... but lent it to someone, and never saw it again. It turns out that my mom hunted down another (used) copy and sent it to me for my birthday. (She had given the original gift - for Christmas all those years ago.) Also, it turns out it was her first Internet purchase. A gift that lets her grow in modernity and experience, while taking me back to my roots. I'm looking forward to sharing the stories with Sweetie McPie - we've been talking about reading AM together, and this would be a neat place to start.

Ok, so maybe I'm not so good at letting the pictures do the talking.

I shall not be bested

I'm gaining on the Green Gable. The tale so far is an epic one, but zenfully devoid (so far) of fist shaking, teeth-gnashing, or tears. I'm not sure how I've managed that, given the pits I've fallen into headfirst so far.

The beginning: I started yesterday afternoon. Because I wasn't getting gauge (too many stitches, to the inch - the opposite of Trixie's problem) combined with the weird issues on GG sizing, I spent a good hour on the math before even casting on.

At last, I determined the number I needed to cast on, how many increases I would need, etc. Happily, the backward loop cast-on is super quick (I didn't even need to learn it, since it was my rookie method back in the day)... It's pretty tricky to knit from, so the first row takes a long time.

(Skip to after supper - the troops have been deployed, I have the house to myself.) After at least an hour and a half later, I've got a good 10 rounds in (take a long time when you've started with 114 stitches and are adding 8 every other round!) and the lace part and shoulder seams are looking really good. As in, it seems like I'm doing it right. BUT, I'm started to think that this thing is gonna be huge. Because it looks like I'm getting 5 stitches to the inch - which is correct gauge. I pause to think. I consider calling Trixie. Instead, I check to see if she's posted on her blog. Sure enough, she's also having GG issues. I call, we hash.

Long story truncated: I decided to keep going despite knowing that my GG is flawed - I can try it on eventually and then determine exactly WHAT the problem is.

But an hour later, pondering the notion that I actually have gauge now... I frogged and started again - this time following the pattern as written, for a size larger than I think I should take. I'll try using one less increase in the bust so it doesn't gape, and...well, that is the plan, and I'll see how it goes.

Strangely, through all this flux, I'm managing a certain calmness, a certainty that this is all part of the necessary process - that the attempts are not preventing me from knitting, but are intrinsic to the knitting. (Apparently, I'm attempting to channel the guru knitting. Also, really wanting to finish one real project in my life.)

So by midnight, I'd managed to cast on again, and knit about 5 rounds. Seems like a more normal size. But now my lace is looking a bit odd...