Pasta Productions, Good and Not So Good

Day 30 of 30

Well, I feel somewhat recovered now and able to write to you. Able to write day 30 of the 30 day NoBloPoMo challenge. So, I will tell you about Pasta Productions which was held on Friday evening.

Pasta Productions was born one day at Rev. Dale & Hannah's home. I went there for a song rehearsal with Hannah and was a bit surprised to see Dale there as he was usually at work at that time of day. It turned out that Hannah had asked him to be there when she told me that I could no longer be the Congregational Song Leader at our Centre because people had been complaining that my signing wasn't good enough. They had pretty much come up with this idea to give me something else when they took that away from me... kind of like a consolation prize is what I felt at the time, and yet I was also excited about the possibilities. The idea of having a pasta dinner followed by some entertainment was put forward and I liked the idea. I later came up with the idea to call it Pasta Productions.

I have never been any part of such a production, never mind having put one on before, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into... but jumped in with both feet. Not a surprise if you know me.

Parts of it were near disaster, and parts of it compensated to make for a very good night... for the most part.

I am told now, in a 'debriefing' this afternoon, that I should have been there first thing in the morning. I didn't know that so didn't go in until about 4pm when others were supposed to be arriving too... and I was the only one there. I don't know what I was supposed to be doing all day there by myself since they also tell me I'm not supposed to do the work, just over see it, but okay. I had arranged a fellow (volunteer) to set up tables and chairs and he didn't show, so I had to do that myself... heavy work I hadn't planned to be doing. I didn't have a clue how to set up tables in this room in such a way as to seat 50 people... I just did my best, which I'm told now wasn't done very well and apparently Rev. Dale has a better way of doing it (so why wasn't I told this on Friday when he was there and left me alone to do this job?) The gal, Dale's daughter, that I had understood would be there to cook the spaghetti didn't show until 5:45, 15 minutes before dinner was to be served, today she said she wasn't down to do the spaghetti. Okay.... She did bring a great vegetarian spaghetti sauce and lots of Caesar Salad and garlic bread. It was my understanding that the food was to be donated, as when I said something about bringing in receipts for food, Dale said 'no', that it all had to be donated... now his daughter brought in a receipt for the groceries she bought and he submitted it as expenses for the event. I am getting a bit tired of having 2 sets of 'rules' now that his daughter is around. But I digress.

The woman I had set up to be the Kitchen Coordinator or whatever you'd call that, didn't do any thing and in the end didn't show up.... so I had to do a lot extra and a few other people stepped in and helped a lot. If not for them there would have been no dinner at all. Not enough pots were there, etc etc. Linda had said she'd bring the Alfredo Sauce and the Sound System, and was going to do a belly dance with a friend of hers on the drums. Due to snow, Linda was not able to make it. Apparently she phoned Dale and let him know... ya, you guessed it... it was well into the evening before I heard him tell someone else that she'd called and due to the roads had to turn back. I had planned to be the greeter, welcoming people as I took their tickets and gave them their programs... and as I was still flying around doing other jobs people were showing up and I wasn't even dressed for the evening and did no greeting or ticket taking.

So that is the near disaster part of it over.

Dinner was served around 6:30. Half an hour late, but served none the less. No one seemed to really mind, or at least once they got eating, lol. Everyone was able to eat a nice big meal without the Alfredo Sauce and I'm sure even with a bit more appetite by then. Everyone filed up to a table where they were served the spaghetti & sauce of their choice, meat or vegetarian, got their garlic bread and salad, and went back to their tables. By 6:55 everyone was sitting down eating, except me. I grabbed a plate of food and went to the closest seat to the front, though I had to ask my friend Bev to change seats with me in order for me to get this one and be accessable to the stage.

My plans had been dinner served at 6pm, everyone would be finished eating by the time the show started at 7pm. Well, the show must go on, so I started it at 7 anyway, so everything would be back on schedule. I had written out the basics of what I would say to introduce people as I was the MC for the evening, the names of songs they were doing, stuff like that. It was on my computer and when I went to get it off to print it out, because I had forgotten to print it out ahead of time, my laptop had a dead battery and I had forgotten the cord at home. YIKES. I had to 'wing it'. Remember I said Linda was bringing the sound system? And that she had to turn back due to bad roads? Ya... I told everyone about this and asked them to be really quiet as most of the performers aren't as loud as I am, lol.

The evenings entertainment was fabulous!! It really was the 'crowning glory' and what saved the evening. 5 year old Gracie was so cute sitting at the grand piano as she did a very good job of playing "Jolly Old St. Nickolus". All of Hannah's piano students did very well. There were a couple people that read stuff they had written that was really great!! One was about saying goodbye to a much loved dear friend who was dead... and the last line revealed that it's a cigarette rather than a person. Hilarious!! We had some VERY talented musicians that performed. One fellow thought he had said to put him on the list of performers, but he hadn't so wasn't on the program... oh well, I put him on... and another guy too. Hey, Linda wasn't there so there was a opening... and not the first change of the evening, lol. Well, Jim 'rocked the house', he was really incredible! I wasn't the only one that thought so either, Hannah immediately booked him to play at the service today, and again today he wowwed us. I had tears in my eyes today with the beautiful Christmas song he sang. "Back in the day" I knew a musician that I loved to go listen to and often did just that, he was called Buggly. Well, a guy that comes to our Centre had booked himself to sing a song with his friend William backing him up on guitar, and booked William to do a couple songs too. I was totally blown away when Buggly walked in and turned out to be William! It was awesome hearing him play again after all these years.

I had planned to do the humorous speech I'd done in Toastmasters and won the Humorous Speech Contest with, then was to perform it at the Area TM contest, then left the club I was with, etc etc etc.... but with all that was happening I was really not feeling I could do a proper job of it (and that was before the evening started), so I decided to share some of my poetry instead, and I'm sure glad I did. I half read/half recited 3 of the poems I have written, and they were all very well received, especially the one I wrote for my 51st birthday about aging. I had to keep stopping and waiting for them to stop laughing so I could continue. I figure that when you share your pain, it's your friends that laugh... well, I must have lots of friends. Ya.

By the time the evening was over and people were leaving, they all had smiles on their faces and had obviously had a great evening. Chris, a friend at the centre who is a wonderful musician, told me that night "do you realize what you did? Without you this wouldn't have happened!" It felt totally awesome!!

I had gotten to a point of feeling rather unsupported and unappreciated and had been feeling that once it was over, at our next Board Meeting I would tell them I was stepping down from 'extras' and would just be doing my basic duties as i was just feeling too overwhelmed and tired, too much on my plate. After the evening was over, I was flying high and ready, after a couple days rest, to start on the next one, implimenting changes to improve over this first one!! After the 'debriefing' today, I'm not so sure I do want to do another one. I am glad I raised, after expenses, at least $360 (exact amount not yet figured out) for the Centre, not a huge amount, but a good amount that will go to helping the Centre pay rent etc., however, I am feeling again like I am not being appreciated as much as I could be, not as supported as I could be.

During the 'debriefing', I was told, amoung other things, that I have to be there early on the morning of an event and stay the entire day and evening until it's all done and cleaned up. Wow, so a very long day. I also was told I have to find way more volunteers, I know that but where and how when people don't step up when I ask them to? And Dale said I shouldn't be the MC, that I have to over see everyone doing everything... so I said "okay then, I don't want to do any more of them." Then they backtracked... I can still be the MC since I'm so good at it, but yadda yadda yadda....

Will I do another one? I don't know just now. Maybe, but I just don't know for now. First I have to get over the disappointments of this one. Hannah wasn't there this afternoon, so Dale gave me a letter she wrote, apparently when she was "burned out". I have chosen not to read it as I'm sure it's full of critisism that I don't want to hear. I am working hard at feeling good about me and what I do... have gotten enough 'feedback' about the short comings, along with some feedback about things being good. I'm working real hard on holding tight to the 'good, positive' feedback that made me feel happy.

daily GOOD

Day 29

I am a believer in nonviolence and I say that no peace or tranquility will descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence is practiced, because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people. There is advantage only in construction. I want to tell you categorically I will not support anybody in destruction. --Abdul Ghaffar (Badshah) Khan

Fact of the Day:
Little known in the West is a figure named Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who argued that religiously justified violence was "not God's religion." Known as Badshah Khan to his followers, the devoutly Muslim leader was called "The Frontier Gandhi" and built an Islamic parallel to Gandhi's violence-eschewing ideals of compassion for one's enemies and peaceful resistance to oppression as a means of overcoming it. [ more ]

Be The Change:
Let your thoughts, words and actions all be re-focused toward non-violence today.

FABULOUS

Pasta Productions was FABULOUS!!!

I will tell you about it tomorrow..... okay, later today if you're going by the official time here . Tonight I am going to bed early. It was a wonderful day, and it was a tiring day. I plan to sleep late then come 'visit' some of you as well as do some writing here. Aaaannnddd, get some house work done too. I have just 1 little week to clean this place up while Dan is in Arizona, then when he gets back and recovers from the shock of seeing my place cleaned up, he will start the job of installing my new laminate floors.

daily GOOD

Day 28

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention... A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.

-- Rachel Naomi Remen --

Inspiration of the Day:
One of the largest oral history projects of its kind, the non-profit, Story Corps, has over the years enabled tens of thousands of everyday people to record the life stories of family and friends, because they believe that everybody's story matters and every life counts. This year, the organization has declared November 28, 2008 the first annual National Day of Listening -- and everyone's invited to participate by starting a simple but powerful new holiday tradition: Set aside one hour today to record a conversation with someone important to you. [ more ]

Be The Change:
Follow StoryCorps's guidelines here to interview someone -- an older relative, a friend, a teacher, or a familiar face from the neighborhood. [ more ]

Thursday November 27, 2008 is now history

Day 27

Well, boys and girls, here we are again... another day gone. History, folks.

Dan came by today. He hasn't been working the last while, so I see a lot more of him than usual. This has it's good and not so good points, haha, however, I will focus on the good. He has been moving bags of pellets to where they are easier for me to get to... from the pallet to the steps. Today he stacked 10 bags on the top of the steps for me, and put one bag into the stove. He's going away to Arizona for just over a week, so stacked up enough for me to have easy access to them while he's gone. I like that!!

I did a bit of practice on my humorous speech for Pasta Productions, but with Dan here I can't do that kind of thing. Then I got a bad headache and had to go lay down, so he left. I napped. I felt better afterwards, but then it was time to go to town. I took my saddle & sawhorse to the Centre for my 'act' tomorrow evening, and did 2 practices there. I also did a bit of shopping for me and some for Pasta Productions. At the Centre, I also printed out the programs for Pasta Productions. Hannah volunteered to take them home and fold them for me, and I accepted that offer.

I went to my Camera Club meeting this evening. It's an old club that folded and is in process of being reborn. We had a lot of people come out tonight. As membership person, it was a lot of work taking peoples memberships. They all flogged in at once during a short break in the meeting, wanting to do their memberships. They fill out a form, bring it to me, I give them a recipt for thier money and a membership card. Sounds simple, but with everyone coming at you at the same time from every direction... well, I guess I should have told them to line up. Noreen helped me for which I was grateful. She filled in membership cards while I wrote out recipts and we both took money. We signed up 20 or more people.

As I was leaving the meeting, I got a text message from Wendy. After texting back and forth a bit I phoned her so I could drive home, haha. I can't/won't text and drive at the same time. That is dangerous!! However, I don't see why so many people say talking on the cell is so dangerous while driving. Maybe because I've got a Bluetooth, so can just plug that into my ear and talk hands free. I've seen people driving and turning to talk to the people in the seat beside them, and much worse, turning to talk to the people in the seat behind them. One time, a friend and I were in a car with her landlord driving, his wife in the passenger seat and us in the back seat. As we drove through a blinding snow storm he kept up 90% of a conversation, and kept turning to look at/talk to not only his wife beside him, but Wanda & I in the seat behind him. I don't scare easily, nor does Wanda, hey, the day before when the wheel fell off her truck and we slid down the road in it, we were not bothered by it... but I tell you, we were both scared that night with the landlord. Come to think of it, he'd borrowed or rented the truck from the landlord. Anyway, I think if the law is going to ban talking on the cell phone while you drive, I think it should ban talking to passengers in your car too.

So, I'm off to do what I have to do so I can get to bed. I need to get to bed. Tomorrow is a very big day for me. I'll take my computer along so I can do some more work I need to do, and I will keep up my NoBloPoMo posting, even if only a small post. Just know I will not be posting a lot for a day or two... haha.

I'll catch you all up as I recover from this very busy week.

Oh, by the way.... I had a cordless mouse I bought for this laptop, but I hadn't used it for a long time, so the other day Dan & I traded cordless mice... and I like this one a lot more. I've been using the built in mouse, but I really like using this one much better. It's great. Also, a few day s ago I told you about the 2 (4 gig) memory cards I got on sale for $20 (ya, 2 for $20) and they didn't work in my camera or my Palm PDA. Well, Dan had a couple 2 gig cards that would work for me and he can use the 4 gigs, so we traded my 2 -4 gigs for his 2 -2 gig cards. Not as bad a deal as it sounds since to buy a 2 gig is $15 each and up. Now I see that Canadian Tire flyer has 2 gig cards on sale this week for $9 each, haha. I'll buy one of those for Mom, though I was going to give her my 2 -256 meg cards. She has a new digital camera and needs a bigger card than what came with it. For an 8 mega pixel camera 256 megs isn't a lot, but for an 85 year old woman who is used to a film camera, it will seem like you can take pics forever with this. Even if it only holds 50 pictures (and I'm not sure how many a 256 meg would hold, but think it would be between 50 and 75 photos), that would seem like a lot when you're used to a roll of film holding .... ummmm, I forget now, it's been so long since I shot with film, haha... is it 36 pics per roll?? Something like that.

I think I've passed from 'talking' to babbling... I think it's time for bed, haha.

Night all.

Wednesday November 26

Day 26

Today I was able to take it a bit easier. Okay, so I shouldn't have, but I did anyways, haha. I could have given time to doing my homework for tonight's class, but I didn't. I did some work on practicing my presentation for Pasta Productions, the first time I've practiced it at all since I preformed it at Toastmasters back in September, and I have to perform it on Friday evening. I really need to put more time into it before then. Actually, tomorrow I'm meeting with Hannah who is going to be my audience, so I want to work on it a bunch more before that too. Anyway, enough about what I am going to do tomorrow.... this is about what I did today, lol.

I had company drop in for a while which was nice.

I had a nap which was very nice.

I went to town and shopped at the new Dollar Store. I simply have to take the time to go there again and look around some more. There is so much in that store that it will take awhile to get through all the isles and look at all the 'stuff'. It's a pretty fabulous store. Anyway, as well as a few little things for me, I got 6 plastic table clothes to use for Pasta Productions on Friday night... $1 each. I may have to go back and get a few more, not sure how many we will need yet.

At the Centre I printed out the sheets for the Sunday Programs, and cut them to size, but didn't get them assembled into their folders yet. I also printed out 30 membership forms, getting ready for the kick off of our Membership Drive. I presented an idea for this at our Board Meeting last Sunday and it was very enthusiastically accepted. We'll offer prizes to those who renew their memberships and people who become a member for the first time. Most are happy to renew or sign up anyway, but this time every year we like to do something to get the memberships done before the AGM which will be in late Feb or early March this year. Anyway, the forms need to be folded into 3, brochure style, and I got that all done. However, I forgot to print and fold the programs for Pasta Productions. Will have to do that tomorrow.

The rest of the evening was spent in class. As always a great class, though I found it very tiring tonight. I guess just because I have to think so much during them, haha. It is a deep subject that is not real easy to study and does take work. It's well worth it.

Now I'm blogging, haha, as if you couldn't tell that.

I wish all my neighbors to the south a most happy Thanksgiving!!! In the USA, Thanksgiving is held in November, where as it's held in October here in Canada. I'm not sure why.... maybe the pilgrims came here first before they headed down into the US. LOL.

Free For All

Day 26

At a 600-acre farm in Platteville, Colorado, an astonishing 40,000 people from around the USA turned up this weekend ready to partake in the ancient practice of gleaning – the act of collecting leftover crops from farm fields following the harvest.

Joe and Chris Miller, the farm owners, had invited people from neighbouring communities to come and take home the remaining potatoes, leeks and carrots on their land - expecting between 5,000 to 10,000 people to show up.

When an estimated 11,000 vehicles converged on the farm, 37 miles north of Denver, Chris said, 'Overwhelmed' is putting it mildly... People obviously need food’.

The couple decided to open their fields to those suffering hardship and as a thank you to customers after being informed of raids in local churches where food was being stolen.

The farm visitors were so numerous and did such a thorough job of cleaning up the leftover vegetables on the Saturday, that the second day of gleaning had to be cancelled.

The age-old practice of gleaning is also featured in Agnès Varda’s film The Gleaners and I (2000), focusing on the many aspects of gleaning and people who practice this tradition in order to survive.

Source

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. --J. R. R. Tolkien


Be The Change:
Gleaning is an ancient practice of giving away leftover crops from farmers fields. Learn more about it. [ more ]

Tuesday, November 25th

Day 25

So, would it surprise you if I said I had a busy day? Haha. I bet not, at least, not if you visit here very often.

Today I phoned all the people on the Toastmaster schedule for tonight, reminding them of the rolls they would fill at the meeting this evening. I also created a schedule to print out, take along and photo copy it before the meeting. My printer is really frustrating me. It prints well enough, but the paper feed doesn't work right, so it keeps just crumpling the paper rather than feeding it into and through the printer. Keep trying and eventually you usually succeed, but it takes a lot of sheets of paper to get one printed, and a lot of time. I think I better get myself a new printer one time fairly soon. I also had to print out a couple other sheets to take along.

I had been too busy to actually 'plant' Kashi, my late rat, so had kept him cold until I finally managed to get him into the Pet Cemetery this morning. Call it a wake, lol. He is there with some very good company. 1st there was Smoothedge, a wonderful cat, hit on the highway I live beside. 2nd was Smoothedge's true love, and mine. D-O-G was a much loved dog who I got at age 7 weeks, we were rarely apart in our time together. She, at age 11 1/2, was hit on the highway too. Two months later, I got Bronx, an 18 month old Rottweiler who was just a great dog. He broke the chain he was tied with while I was at work and ended up on the highway too. Next, Shadow. He was Smoothedge's son, born April 28, 1991, in this house while I sat with my beloved cat and kept her company. He died of kidney failure March 6, 2008, just short of his 17th birthday. Now, Kashi. I don't know much about this little rat other than he was previously owned by a woman & her 2 daughters, they advertised for a new home for him over the internet. I got him & his cage free. I don't know how old he was or what could have made him die so suddenly.

I drove to Mom's and spent some time with her. We ordered 2 for 1 lasagnia and I went to pick it up. It was good, and we've had a lot better. Left overs are in my fridge, haha. For desert we had bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm.

From there, off to Toastmasters for the evening. I was both the Chair, for the first half of the meeting, and the Toastmaster for the second half. It was a wonderful meeting, and I paid my membership dues.

After I got home I sat here with my computer and did up the programs for Sunday at the Okanagan Centre for Spiritual Living. I will be printing them out and assembling them tomorrow afternoon. I also included a sheet of information on prizes we're offering for the Membership Drive from now until the end of February when we have our AGM.

I feel like I did something else that I'm forgetting about. It could be that Dan came over on his way into town. I gave him some money and had him pick up a 2 pack of 4 gig SD memory cards, on sale for $2o. Unfortunately, it turns out that they won't work in my digital camera or my Palm PDA. These both take SD cards, but these 4 gigs are the 'new' SD... SD-CH or something like that, I forget and I'm not going running for them to see just now, haha. I was going to use these and give my 256 meg SD memory cards to Mom for her camera. They would be plenty big enough for what Mom will do, one would be plenty for her. So now I will return the 4 gigs and get a 2 gig card for the camera and give one 256 meg to Mom.

Oh ya, I downloaded Adobe for my PDA so I can now read e-books on it. Ya, if you like reading very small letters. They're big enough I can read them, but just. Then of course I put some e-books onto my PDA just to see how it all works. I look forward to having time to read them, haha.

Have you ever done any online trading? I never have though I wonder how many do.

Now, I'm going to feed some critters and head to bed, right after I finish blogging here and go do some on Reba's Run.


Oh ya, there's only 1 month until Christmas.... haha.

November 24th

Day 24

I did get a lot done today, but not anywhere near my entire 'To Do List'. No surprise. It was a very long list.

What I did get done was good stuff.

- NOYFSS: I had to contact this government agency to arrange to "adopt a family" for Christmas. They will get back to me soon with a list of families and I will choose one so the Centre for Spiritual Living can again collect food and gifts for this family in need. I did this last year and did try to give to job to someone else this year, but no one volunteered. At yesterdays board meeting they said "never mind, let it go this year" and I said "no. I will do it again myself rather than let it go." I really enjoyed it last year and it's not really a hard job, it's just that I already have too much on my plate. Eileen from NOYFSS did email me some great info to share with people about this and 2 other programs they have going.

- Create a Program for Pasta Productions, using the names etc from my notes as to who is performing that night, and what they are performing. On the programs I didn't say a lot, kept them brief and saved lots of info for my introductions.

- MC Script: I typed up what I'm going to say as I MC Pasta Productions.

- Phoned 3 places that sell memory cards for digital cameras. Mom recently was given a digital and needs a memory card for it. The smallest they sell now is 2G. I have a 512 megga byte and it holds about 200 pictures, so no way does Mom need a 2 gig, but that's what she's going to get.

- Anyone on the list to perform for Pasta Productions, who I haven't talked to in the last couple days, had to be phoned today, so did that too.

- Charged my cell phone

- Read some Toastmaster stuff I wanted to read before tomorrow night's meeting.

- a few other misc. things, including laid down for a rest and did a bit of homework for my Wednesday night class before I fell asleep.

Now I'm blogging... and going to go to bed any minute now. Oh ya, I clipped one of DW's wings today so she can't fly around the house like she has been. I had her in a towel and couldn't find the other wing, haha... also she was fighting and biting, so at least I got one of the wings and she can't fly with only one wing. The feathers will grow back, and I'll have to cut them again... maybe I'll get both wings next time. I didn't want to do it because I didn't want her to hate me, but it seems like we're okay. I believe she's safer when she can't fly around and get into things that could hurt her or make her sick. She won't have to be kept in her cage all the time now, can again be let out to climb around on the outside and sit on top, play with the wood branch I gave here, stuff like that.

Light Mail

Day 24

Daily Inspiration:  Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light. ~Helen Keller

Today’s Affirmation: I discover the fruits of my faith; peace, joy and Love.

Today's Contemplation: The world, my world and the whole world is healed in the healing of my heart. As my faith restores the shattered pieces of my perceptions I am healed and with me the whole world.

Light Mail is put out by Rev. Dale Jukes of the Okanagan Centre For Spiritual Living.

zzzzZZZZZzzzzZZzz

Day 23

Tonight I am so tired, have been most of the day. It was a very long board meeting today after the service. It was good and productive, yet very tiring. I will write more tomorrow. For tonight, I will just share some quotes with you.

Do I love you because you're beautiful,
Or are you beautiful because I love you?

~Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Cinderella



Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.

~Paul Boese


The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.

~Eric Hoffer, Reflections On The Human Condition



A warless world will come as men develop warless hearts.

~Charles Wesley Burns

New Floor Coverings

Day 22

I had a fun day today.... expensive, yet fun, hahaha.

Those of you that are 'regulars' here know that I am a late to bed girl, and thus I sleep late in the mornings. Well, last night I went to bed just after 2am, and I got up about 6am. Why? Well, let's start from the start.

When I get the paper, which isn't all that often, it's always full of flyers... some I read and some I don't bother with. I got Wednesday's paper this week and for some very odd reason I browsed the Home Depot flyer. I found some very interesting things in there, haha.

1- a Ryobi tool set. Cordless drill, 5 1/2" circular saw, hand vacuum, and flashlight, as well as a battery and charger, 18 volt. All this for $69.00!!! Dan said that normally one of these tools cost about that much, he has some of them and really likes his little circular saw.

2- laminate flooring... 69 cents per square foot!!

Being such a good sale and on for one day only I wanted to make sure I wasn't too late. With some stores they advertise these really great deals and you get there and they were long since sold out... they just bring in 2 or 3, just enough to be able to say they have them on this great sale so you'll go in there, then they're sold but oh well, you'll likely buy something else that's more money then. I don't like that, and wasn't sure with this. As it turned out, there were loads of both the things I wanted. I got to the store about 6:45, it opens at 7am. There were already other cars in the parking lot, people waiting for the doors to open, and when they started to get out and head for the doors, so did I. I got there just as a man did and he was a gentleman, so let me go first. Yup, I was the first one through those doors when they opened!!! Others saw the stack of tools before I did, so I didn't get the first box, but I did get a box and there were lots left. Then I headed down to the flooring department and they had stacks and stacks of the laminate and more in the back by the sound of it.

I bought this place in September 1990, and moved in the start of October. The carpet was pretty much new... light peach with darker specks in it. It looked pretty for a while, but that was 18 years ago... 2 large dogs ago, several cats ago, lots of spills ago. The carpet is dirty and stained in several places. The lino in the rest of the mobile home is the original lino, and this mobile is a 1974, so the lino is not only out dated, but damaged in many places. When I moved in it was already patched in a few places in the kitchen, very possibly done in the factory as I don't see a previous owner being able to match the lino to patch some in to a damaged spot. Over the years, the seams of the repairs have become very peeled and damaged. So, what I'm saying here is...

for 18 years I've wanted new floor coverings in this home of mine!

The fall of 1997, I had an addition built on to my home. There was already an 8'x20' addition, one big room, on the one side/end of the mobile, and I had a 10'x32' addition put on the same side.

This is an attempt to draw my home in MS Paint. Not great, but will give an idea, haha. I hope you can tell what is meant to show windows and doors. This drawing is not to scale. The Walk-in Closet and Storage room are the original addition, was one big room until the renos in '97. The Laundry room was the 2nd Bedroom, but I took the washer/dryer out of the Bathroom & put them in there when I had the new addition built. The 2nd Bedroom & Loom Room are the new addition, built in '97. The 2nd Bedroom became the Computer Room and now, that I have a laptop and no longer the desktop, the big computer desk, my antique desk & filing cabinet, etc., are still in there and it's kind of a "not used right now room". Mewsic spends a lot of time in there, sleeps on my computer chair... her safe place from Reba.

At first, I was going to get 400 sq.ft. to do the Living room, Kitchen & Hall, then I was thinking about the large opening between the Living Room & Loom Room and how that new addition needs floor coverings that it's never had in the 11 years it's been there... it really should match between these two rooms, so I'd get 600 sq.ft. Then when actually there, looking at the guy loading it onto a dolly for me, I said, "make that 720 sq.ft. I'm going to do that other room too." Hahaha... now I have enough laminate flooring to do the Living Room, Kitchen, Hall, Loom Room and what we will for the fun of it call the 2nd bedroom. I already tiled the Bathroom floor a few years back, so these are the really important rooms to do the flooring in. The Laundry, Master Bedroom and "old addition" will have to wait.

The reno in 1997 included:
- build the 10x32 addition, split in two
- put a wall in 8x20 "old" addition, about 1/3 of the way, creating Walk-in closet & Storage room.
- new ceiling in "old" addition
- cut hole in Master Bedroom wall, turning old window into doorway to Walk-in.
- cut hole in Hall wall, turning window into door into 2nd Bedroom
- cut large hole in Living room wall, making doorway into new addition. This room was my "Office" at the time, where I had my computer and such. There was a Natural Gas Fireplace put in there, too.
- the 'new' addition is a step down from the mobile
- all windows in mobile removed and replaced with vinyls, some sliders
- sliding glass pation door removed and a 'real' door put in (original front door had been taken out previously and the glass doors put in. I didn't like that)
- covered pation (rotted) taken off and carport put in its place
- big metal roof built over entire place, including a 4' overhang past the 'new' addition, where I put #1. Dan says this is the front door, though I've always thought of it as the back door, haha.

3 or 4 years ago now, I bought a good used pellet stove. With Dan's help and hiring a Gas Fitter to undo the gas lines, I took out the Natural Gas Fireplace that just was not working well enough to use, and drywalled/painted the walls it had been built in to. Then I tiled and area for the pellet stove to sit on, and Dan helped me install the stove. Then I had a guy come out to inspect it for insurance purposes. By the time all was done, it cost me around $1600.00, but I think it was well worth it. Oh, also I got Dan to cut a door in the wall between the 2nd Bedroom and "Office" (now Loom Room). This allows the heat from the stove to circulate better through the house as well as making it a more 'useable' room.

Now... after 18 years I finally get new floor covering. YES!!

Various Quotes

Forgiveness:

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.

-- Josh Billings--


Gratitude:

The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.

-- William James --


Love:

Love -- giving and receiving from the heart -- involves ... peace ...

-- Richard Carlson --


Peace:

Let us love the world to peace.

-- Quoted in The Angels' Little Instruction Book by Eileen Elias Freeman, 1994 --

A Fabulous Day

I had a fabulous day today.

Sharon, a friend from my former Toastmasters club, took me for lunch and I really enjoyed it so much. Yes, the food, but more than that, the company. The time flew by so fast it was incredible. Nell, Sharon's cousin and another friend from the old TM club, joined us for coffee as soon as she had a chance and that was also totally enjoyable. I really SO enjoyed it.

After lunch I went to pick up a package that was waiting for me. Yesterday I got a notice in my mail that there was a package for me and I couldn't think of what in the world it would be. Duh! Haha. It was the earrings I've been waiting for! On October 16, I was playing online and ended up at a jewelery auction place that has really great jewelery for really cheap, and... well, I got caught up in bidding and bought 4 pair of earrings. I bid on 3 pair, then decided to get 2 of the one kind, one for me and a matching one for Mom for Christmas.

Nice Earrings With 1.31ctw Precious Stones - Genuine Diamonds and Topazes Made in 925 Sterling silver Length 15mm (This is the pair I got 2 of)


Wonderful Hoops Earrings With 1.80ctw Genuine Topazes in White Gold


High Quality Hoops Earrings With 0.60ctw Genuine Tanzanites Beautifully Crafted in 14K White Gold Length 14mm

As I was leaving the store, the earrings I was wearing came out of the ears and the Tanzanites went in, haha. I've never had such expensive, high grade earrings in my life!!! And I didn't even pay a lot for them. I am trilled.

Reba & I then went to the dog park for a walk. Not a really long one, but an okay one. It was rather chilly and I had stuff to do, so had to make it only a 1x walk (1 time around the park).

I had, unfortunately, left the house without my tape recorder, and I use it every Wednesday evening at class. I like to tape class rather than trying to take notes. I like to listen to what Rev. Dale is saying rather than trying to remember what he said as I scribble it down... then rarely if ever go back and read the scribbles. So, I made a quick trip home to get that and looked for the chargers for my cell phone and PDA... couldn't find the chargers, though did find them after getting home from class tonight.

I went back into town and filled the gas tank on my truck. Gas prices have come down a lot and that is so wonderful!! It doesn't hurt anywhere near so much to fill up now as it did a month or so ago.

Next I went to the Centre for Spiritual Living where I did the computer work on Sunday's programs, printed them out, cut the sheets in half, printed out lables for donation envelopes... all is ready now to assemble them, which I will do with Rosey's help on Friday. I got all that done with about 15 minutes to class time. I got a cup of tea then went into the sanctuary and got ready for class. Class was great as usual. It is so very interesting to study this stuff. Not easy, but very interesting, haha. Judge Thomas Troward had a way of writing that most of us today have a challenge understanding, and maybe even in his day it was hard to understand, and in the last 100 years the way we talk has changed a lot, haha. Anyway, it is well worth the work to study this stuff... life changing. Class is 7:00 - 9:30, and it is not unusual for us to run a little over time, and running 1/2 hour overtime like we did tonight, though not common, is also not unheard of.

And now I'm home... content in my chair as I type this with my animals all around me and my pellet stove burning, warming my home on a cold night. Browsing the flyers from from the news paper, I discovered a One Day Sale with 8mm laminate flooring for 69 cents per square foot. WOW, I gotta go get some. I've been saving, haha. I want to do all my floors, but for now will have to settle for doing just the living room... or maybe, just maybe, I might be able to stretch to the kitchen too as it is a small room. I'll measure, haha. Also, a great tool set at the same sale... cordless 18V combo kit with drill, 5 1/2" circular saw, vacuum (little hand held one) and flashlight. I love tools like these and have been wanting a circular saw for a long time. This is a smaller one than I had in mind, but.... This set is only $69!!! I think my credit card is starting to get nervous, and my savings mattress too, lol.


I am grateful... and I have much to be grateful for!!

Tuesday, November 18th

Day 18

The date will tell you this is being posted on November 19, but to me, it's still the 18 as I have not gone to bed yet, haha. Today was a great day. I spent the morning at home puttering with stuff, then drove to the town north of here and dumped a truck load of garbage at their land fill. I do what I can to recycle, reuse, reduce, give away, and all that stuff to keep things out of the landfills, but lets face it, some things just gotta go there. I don't bother with having my garbage picked up at the end of my driveway because there's just not enough of it to warrant paying what they charge. It's just better, and cheaper, for me to take it myself. It only cost me $3 to dump this load today. Gas of course counts in too, but in this case I was on my way past there anyway, so it was barely out of my way and the gas would have been minimal.

I went to the town north of that town, haha, where my Mom lives. She's 85 and not been feeling too good the last while, inflamed joints caused her a great deal of pain and the meds she was put on helped a lot with that, but between them and a cold, she's not been her usual self the last while. It was very nice to visit with her today. While I was there I cleaned out her food storage closet, took everything out and washed the shelves, then washed the can tops as I put them all back, arranging them as I did so. She really appreciated it, and I came away with some goodies from that closet, haha. One of the things she sent home with me is an ashtray (even though I don't smoke) that her mother gave to Mom & Dad (Granny passed on when I was pretty young, I believe it was 1964), so it's a great treasure if you ask me. It has a dog laying on it. I'll take a photo of it to post for you... real soon.

Mom & I went uptown and did some grocery shopping so she will have what she needs in the house for the next several days, and we took a bit of a drive around. We both really enjoyed it and Mom felt a bit better for having gotten out for awhile. Back at her home we cooked and ate a wonderful dinner.

I left Mom's about 7pm and drove back to that town where I dumped the garbage, and went to Toastmasters. I evaluated a speech that was very well done. I left the meeting a bit earlier than the rest so they could vote on whether or not to accept me as their newest member (done in all Toastmaster clubs). I later received an email welcoming me to the club. YES!!

After I got home I got a call from one of my neighbors. They are having a company come tomorrow to trim down their walnut tree, and due to where it is, they need to park the big truck in my driveway and work from there, so she called to ask permission for this. Of course I said yes. We had a very nice chat until her phone battery died, haha. They lived in their house before I moved here, and I've been here for 18 years now, and we've had a good relationship all these years.

DW, my parrot, has been in her cage all day. I used to let her out all the time, but lately.... well, if you follow this blog you know she's taken to eating wall paper and flying over to visit the chinchillas. Tonight I discovered she's also ruined a good basket that I liked a lot. I had let her out when I got home, but she wasn't out for long when I found her chewing on the basket and saw that she'd obviously worked at this job a lot before too. After several bad bites (or from her point of view, good bites), she flew back to the top of her cage and I used her bath dish to get her back into the cage and lock the door. I really love this bird and hate to lock her up, but see this is going to have to be done and freedom with be occational rather than the normal state it has been up until now. I'll take pics of some of her 'work' for you, but not tonight, haha.

Well, enough for now. I have much to do, then off to bed. Yup, it's been a good day.

The Creator

Quilly left me a message to one of my posts yesterday, and included a link to a post she'd written earlier this year, a beautiful story of her relationship with God, and how He saved her life one day. It is well worth going to have a read (after you finish here, of course). It reminded me of a couple things.

One being my friend Bev who goes to the Okanagan Centre for Spiritual Living, my Spiritual Centre, and is currently taking the same class I am taking on The Edenbourgh Lectures by Thomas Troward. One day Bev was driving her truck and I'm not sure what exactly happened except that she was out of control and about to go over a large bank. She said "Oh My God!" and suddenly, for no apparent reason, the truck shifted around and instead of rolling sideways down the back, it went backwards and simply slid down with no damage to either the truck or Bev. She felt the presence of God there with her, taking care of her.

The other thing is a mini poster type thing my Dad once gave me, many years ago. I don't even know where it got to, but I remember it well. It said:

I Know I'm Okay
Cuz God Don't Make No Junk

If you think you are "unworthy", or "unlovable" (as I thought for way too many years), or anything less than perfect, whole and complete, think about that. All that is, is made by God... the ONE CREATIVE FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE, and that includes you! God would not make anything less than perfect.

I send you love!
I send you Peace!

Peaceful Thoughts, etc.

Day 17

Yesterday, I posted a photo of my new-old telephone bench after I washed it and set it into place. That photo showed the old cushions that so need to be replaced. This photo is what the same bench looked like part way through today. It now has my answering machine on it too, so not a lot different. I put a cushion down, then covered all with this small blanket, added the phone book, the phone (handsfree cordless), a little stuffy bear, cat treats. Then, the cat (Mewsic) added herself. I just had to show you this, haha. I guess one could say this is a picture of PEACE.

I was having a lot of problems getting up out of my armchair... very painful, so I got my friend Dan to build a riser for me to put the chair on. It is about 4" high and helps me a lot. There is, however, a drawback to this. Today I was watching my parrot, DW, visiting one of my chinchillas, Charlie, through the wires of his cage. It was really cute and I decided to 'go for my camera'. After nearly breaking 2 or 3 toes on this riser, I got the camera and by then of course DW and Charlie had moved from their previous 'too cute' pose. This chair swivels and rocks and if I have it swivelled back to the front the riser doesn't stick out like that. (Note to self: be sure to swivel chair to front and save toes.)

Since I nearly broke my poor wee toes to get the photo of Charlie & DW, I ended up taking this instead. DW had moved around to the back to visit with Charlie who had moved up higher in his cage and to the back. Charlie sleeps in this black tube, some kind of PVC. DW seems to really love spending time near the chinchillas and Charlie is her favorite, though she also visits Daisy & Shari who share a cage. I've not seen her visit Cherry or Smudge though.

If a parrot and a chinchilla can become friends, why can't humans find a way to become friendly? I truly believe to the depth of my soul that my spiritual beliefs are right, and yet, I still accept and love other people who have different religious beliefs then I do. Why do so many other people wage war based on religious beliefs? We have, in this world, Christians killing Christians in the name of religion... killing each other in the name of Christ!! What would Jesus do? Not that I am sure. There is One God, we all worship that one God whether we call that Infinite, Creative Spirit by the word God, Jahovah, Allah, Christ, or any other name. Some call this "Energy" He, some call it She, and some even call it It... and it doesn't matter what we call the Creator because it all still boils down to the same thing.... There is One God, One Life, One Power & Presence. Each and every one of us is created by and of God. When you hate someone, you are hating God. When you are killing someone you are killing a creation of God.

When you love someone you love God. When you love yourself, you love God. When you love God, you are at Peace.

I wish you all Peace!!

Peace Quotes

Day 16

“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.”

-- Peace Pilgrim --



“Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do, Something you are, And something you give away.”

-- Robert Fulghum --



“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi --

A Good (& Peace Full) Day

Day 16

Today was a good one, if you don't count the weather, haha.

I got a call from a lady that comes to my Spiritual Centre, which helped me to wake up (good thing). She wasn't going to be at the service this morning, so called to reserve 4 tickets for Pasta Productions. After chatting with her for a bit I got up and ready then left with Reba in the back of the truck, as usual.

I was the Presider (sort of like an MC) for the service at my Spiritual Centre. This is a job I very much enjoy, standing up in front of the congregation to share the announcements for the day as well as introduce the people doing various jobs, and read the "Thought for the Day"... stuff like that. "They" say that public speaking is one of the top 3 fears in the world, and yet I love it. Some days I do have some nervousness, but rarely and not a lot even when I do. It was a great service, followed by social time. Andree brought some really great pumpkin pies to share with us.

After everyone else left, I stayed and did some work on Pasta Productions. I printed out more tickets and cut them from the sheets of 8, numbered all of them, put away the money from the ticket sales so far, put reserved tickets into envelopes with names of who they are for... that type of thing. Oh, also printed out the posters I designed so we can put them up around town.

I went to two different places to pick up things from Freecycle. One is a telephone bench, the other a 4 drawer storage thing on wheels. Then up to the Dog Park for a walk with Reba. That's when I realized I'd forgotten to take my jacket today, and my gloves. It was rather chilly and most people were bundled up in big jackets and scarves/gloves, and there I was wearing a cotton t-shirt type top with a vest over it, what I wore to the Centre today. With it sprinkling rain, a bit windy, and that cool, I just went once around the park.

While walking, I was texting with my friend Wendy whos estranged husband and still good friend just died on Thursday. I convinced her to come out for coffee with me at Tim Horton's. We had a good, fairly long visit. I think it did her good to get out. I'm trying to be as supportive as possible. My ex-husband died of a brain anurism at age 44, about 9 1/2 years ago now, and over 20 years after we split up. I was surprised at how much grief I had to go through after so many years. I've also had several other people in my life pass away, so I know what grief is and hope that can make what Wendy is going through at least a little easier. She has been with Gord since she was 19, and is somewhere around 60 now.

I phoned Mom on my cell on the way home and had a nice chat with her. She's not been feeling well and still isn't, but it sounds like she's getting at least a little better. With her being 85 years of age it's a bit scary to have her get sick. I got home as we talked and come in the house. When we hung up I went out to the truck and brought in the telephone bench and the storage thing. The storage thing was filthy, so I washed it all really well and washed the phone bench too. The phone bench needs its cushions replaces because one is flattened from use, otherwise it's in good shape.

After resting my back a bit I went into the loom room and vacuumed all the rolls of weaving thread that were covered in dust (my pellet stove is in that room and gets rather dusty). Once they were all vacuumed I put them into the drawers of the storage thing, along with tools for weaving.

It's good to have all that done. Now I'm watching Desperate Housewives and about to watch Brother And Sisters, my Sunday night shows, haha.

A Spiritual Mind Treatment (Prayer) for Peace

Day 15

There is One infinite and creative power in the Universe, I call it God, Spirit, First Cause. It is the alpha and the omega. It is Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence, all that is. I know it is One with me now. As I relax into this awareness I am filled with a powerful awareness of my Oneness with all life, everywhere. This awareness awakens my senses and moves me into action. Today I choose peace in my life. Today I live peace in my life. Today I am peace in all that I do and all that I am. I am love, acceptance and light. This new reality is fully alive and working now. I am the peace seen and felt in the world. In an awakened state of power and potential I see peace everywhere I look and I am grateful. Grateful for unity, grateful for awakening, grateful for peace on earth today - NOW. It is done. And so it is.

Peace and Blessings,

Rev. Barbara Schreiner-Trudel

Spiritual Director

Centre for Spiritual Living, Toronto