Random Physical Search?!

I flew from Edmonton to Calgary to Saskatoon two weeks ago. Very unobtrusive flight plan. I was going to Prince Albert. I made sure I wore no unecessary metal objects, even took off my watch through the security screening. But, I expected to ring as usual, regardless of what I wear. Up go my arms as I head towards the beeper crew, but what's this? I get the "you're okay, move along" wave!! Hurray!!

My elation was short lived however, as another crew member siddled up beside me, asked to see my boarding pass then informed me that if it was alright with me I'd been randomly selected for a physical search... HUH?!?!... my heart stopped, my butt clenched, and I'm sure all my capilaries shrunk two sizes, while my legs trid to decide their plan of action. What exactly am I supposed to say, "no thanks, it's not alright, I don't want to be searched. Hey wait, give me back my boarding pass, I have a plane to catch!" As she walks away to get security. Instead, I mumbled, "oh," and she waited with me to get my bags.

We retrieved my bags and headed over to a clearing by a table. We put my stuff on the table, secured my boarding pass so it wouldn't get lost. She had me face the table so I could watch my things; I suppose I'm still responsible for preventing my belongings from being tampered with by a corrupt security crew member. So she tells me that she's going to pat me down, and if anything hurts let her know... should I really tell her? Or will it arouse suspicion and cause her to do an extra thorough search? I say, "My left breast hurts can you be careful?" Then she turns left and right obviously trying to figure out which is my left. Thankfully she was gentle, however, very thorough... My concern is that she did not wear gloves and she touched my shoes. I tried to tell her that I just came from a bottle depot, but she didn't seem to understand. I didn't see any sink.

Well, as a princess, my dream of being the centre of attention was fulfilled, though not as expected, as everyone passing through security had to stop and stare, smile, shake their heads, collect their belongings-children-spouses and redress themselves while quickly, yet unobtrusively, scurrying away from the security centre, lest they be subjected to the same treatment as I.

=)

Skeletons in Your Closet?

So I was highly motivated or perhaps driven by an insatiable urge to organize this past weekend. (As you can see, even at 18 months I had a keen sense of organization; me with science fiction, sewing notions and some unidentifiable objects all grouped into one suitcase.)

I'm in the process of incorporating another person into the house and we need storage space. So off to the farm I went to pick up this closet organizer I had when I moved off-campus for my one semester of independence.

I arrived at my sister's mowed her lawn, played a game with Miki on the deck, dropped part of the game between the deck boards, took the deck board off, retrieved the card, killed the battery on her drill, got my mom to get my dad's drill, finished putting the deck back together, and had a picnic. Very productive day, but no where close to getting the closet. Next I went shopping with my mom and sister, by which I mean I fell asleep in the backseat of the car while my mom and sister went shopping. =)

Finally we arrived at the farm, where my mom and I had to negotiate who should decide what we were to do, both of us insisting the other should make the decision. Finally we compromised and decided I could decide Saturday and my mom would decide Sunday. =)

We found the closet, washed it and loaded it into my car... minus the hardware... we knew this to be a potential risk. Who separates the hardware from the boards?!? Who!?! We prayed it would turn up in the search, but alas, no hardware. =( And thus I am left to guess what type of harware I need... on to the mission to find hardware. First stop Walmart. (success... now when I get back to Edmonton I'll see if I acquired the right stuff; it's a bit like a treasure hunt)

Anyways, back to the skeletons. After loading up the closet I felt compelled to go through some of the boxes in the shed. My friend Kathryn, and my new roommate Sarah, inspired me to depackratify. =)

So opened up 8 boxes in total I think. To my displeasure, however, I encountered some unpleasant, but not unexpected surprises. Unfortunately someone left the shed door open and farm mice seem to have a keen sense for detecting open doors. Needless to say, many of the boxes showed signs of mouse habitation, thankfully many of the boxes were also free of these signs. =)

I found my wonderful polyester dress that I wore in college, my mom wore before me, and her aunt wore before her, and so on and so forth. I was heartbroken a couple of years ago when I thought I had inadvertently donated it to goodwill. Our joyous reunion was much appreciated by my mom, though my dad seemed somewhat confounded.

In another box, I was happy to see my missing Mountain View Water Treatment Plant vest that I had misplaced. Only to be horrified seconds later by the gigantuous holes eaten from it by those pesky mice. =( Needless to say, that garment was burned. We had a wonderful bonfire that night.

Now what do you suppose the next box held in surprise? You're right! Curled up under a fold of blanket was the skeleton of a long ago perished mouse. =( Of course I called my mom over to inspect it and we spent many a second discussing the effectiveness of mouse poison and how doors should just be kept shut in the first place. =)

Safety

Great news!! The police patrol my neighbourhood with dogs, helicopters and cruisers with flashing lights! =) In fact they spent an hour on the corner of my block tonight. I saw the flashing lights outside my window, but couldn't see them immediately. Then my roommate Jen came home and we all rushed outside! It was a like a personal community light show. We didn't get to pet the dog, but we did get to see it race.

Oh the brilliance of leaving our homes wide open while some hunted man, fleeing certain punishment, is roaming, seeking shelter. Where's my shotgun? ... =) Oh right, under my pillow (Just joking - it was too uncomfortable. I mean I can't handle a pea under my mattress, how can I handle a shotgun?)

I'm relieved to remember that our back door was left open today unattended... wait, my address isn't visible is it? Oh wait, my place looks identical to all the other suburbs in the city =)

On the brighter side, my second roommate is great! Her name is Sarah and she quite effectively evicted my office/craft room, which has since been relegated to boxes in my bedroom and basement. =) This weekend, I am heading to the farm in search of a solution. I remember in my early university life, I lived off-campus for 3.5 months - that's right, one semester. =) Anyways, I had a storage closet and I know that the boards are at the farm... well hopefully the hardware is too. We're putting it in the basement to help turn it from storage to recroom. Wish us luck.

The picture at the top is Liatris punctata. Beautiful flower photo taken north of Pincher Creek, Alberta, 2002.

Birthday

What a joy! This birthday I am spending at NAIT taking a web server for windows course. I know, I know, you can hardly contain your excitement at my luck and wish you could spend every second hanging onto the professor's drone with me. Fear not, I will gladly re-enact the weekend to Bach's Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor with an oboe accompanyment. Tickets are limited so please sign up now.

But it will be good for me to sit in a class. I am signed up for 3 esri gis courses and have yet to start them after 6 weeks. There are just so many other things to do. This class starts in 1 minute!! I'd best get prepared. I'm thirsty and my lips are chapped - how will I ever concentrate with such irritants?

And in reality, I will be celebrating my birthday on a number of occasions so I shouldn't complain. Wednesday we had cake at work =) Saturday I'll have a bbq, cake and a movie with a couple of friends. May 11th we're having a girl's pizza, movie and pool party!! I think it will be very exciting.

But birthdays are a very good excuse to get together! What other day can you justify eating so much cake without any guilt.

Ha Ha! And thanks to Nik and Jim I have some wonderful princess pink duct tape!!

Dating

I think dating may be an art form. Either that or a cruel form of self-inflicted punishment . I have mentally and emotionally evolved over the last two years that I've been attempting to date. Yes, it has been drastic enough to be evolutionary. It's hard to gauge success as there is an amazingly large learning aspect that has to count for something!! I still remain happily single, busy with all things unfortunately not conducive to dating. Mild glitch, I'm working on it.

In the beginning... I was alone... (Surprisingly I still am. ha! ha!) I mean, I was reluctant... well perhaps extremely reluctant to sacrifice my hobbies and activities to go on a date. Now, I can't say I am any more willing to make a sacrifice, BUT I do leave more nights open to the possibility of dating. And then it all collapses and I am booked solid for two weeks straight. =)

I was brave enough to invite a beau to a few events with friends... Nothing like a night with friends to (a) reveal my true, yet seemingly outrageous date expectations, (b) bring to my attention all the flaws of a date and (c) reveal my actual comfort level with my date. But you know, it's okay to meet a nice guy and get to know each other; it doesn't always have to work out. Perhaps next time.

However, after meeting a wonderful young man with whom I have tons in common, one would think I should snap him up. I guess I just haven't figured things out yet. My one friend told me that I should watch out or I'll get bad dating karma... but I think you have to meet and date different people to meet the right one sometimes, and it's not like I'm being mean, I don't think. I know some philosophers say we are inherently evil, but after years of councelling I thought I had become a nicer person. =)

Perhaps I am too romantic at heart, but every princess deserves her knight. Oh right, in Shrek the princess needs to be rescued... why the heck did I become so self sufficient?? Oh right, I got tired of waiting for prince charming. =) I love myself!!

Well, I just made rice krispies squares so perhaps I'll eat lots of them to make me feel better about dating... or perhaps I'll eat lots just because I really like them. =) You're right, it's the latter, cause I don't really feel bad about dating today.

Building

You'll notice from my picture that I was interested in building at a young age.

Well I have good news! The basement is just about done. After working at home for the last four days I realized my heightened stress level was due to lack of physical activity. I haven't played hockey in 5 weeks due to an unfortunate collision which resulted in a severe strain to my rotator cuff and a series of micro-tears to the tendons at the front of my shoulder. *oh sigh* After a series of intensive physio-chiro-massage treatments I am feeling almost new. The rotator cuff is not causing me any pain but the tendons can still be excruciating at times. I finally went back to hockey last night and had a wonderful time. Yes, my shoulder is sore today, but hopefully some ice and vitamin I will cure that. And I feel great today!!! Life is great - mad? frustrated? annoyed? What are those?? *ha ha*

Natalie and Fawn you'll be relieved to know that any homicidal thoughts have passed and I am very happy with the contractors... well I have yet to really see the finished product because I can't go downstairs for 24 hours when the cement dries... only 5 hours to go. And to boot, I have a new electrical outlet in the basement... granted I'm pretty sure it didn't have a permit, so I'll get it inspected before I close up the walls, but that's still months, or perhaps years away =)

I have to say, the electrician that came was very young and I'll admit I thought he should have had a supervisor. Granted he did hook up the wires right, but his tool pouch had only a fraction of the items he really needed, he didn't have a 2x4 to attach the electical outlet box to the metal framing, he forgot a vapor pocket for the exterior wall outlet, he took the screws out of my metal framing then wondered why the framing was loose, didn't want to cut the vapor barrier which would have made his job a ton easier cause he didn't have a knife or tape, couldn't run the wire right so the basement contractors did it for him and the drill bits he brought didn't match his screws so he had to use the basement contractors tools... I may have popped a critical artery during this process. Thankfully by 10 am Monday morning the basement should be done.

And now on with my day, I hear that taxes are due at the end of April and I need to gather all that up. I know I can hear the envy in your thoughts.

TTFN

The Mackenzie

So over a year ago I moved into my first home; the Mackenzie it is named. I love it... or so I still think. (Nice grey color to match the grey winter sky - I specifically asked for winter grey sky siding).

I have since learned lots about houses, from personal experience or watching Holmes on Homes or DIY Disaster on HGTV. In the winter my house has drafts... I see them building houses nearby and only putting Tyvek around windows, not all the way around the house, but condos are completely wrapped in Tyvek. Hmm... I bet the heat efficiency of my house would be better if my house was wrapped. There are a number of these little issues, like proper /complete insulation, sealing vapour barrier, and others that I'm sure would have improved the heat efficiency of my home. However, I hear my house was "built to code." Oh how I love that phrase. Yes there is a problem, but it doesn't really excede code so we won't fix it. Ha ha!

Not to worry, I'm turning into a bit of a handywoman myself; it was actually a necesity because of my tendancy towards perfectionism. =) But I really have no desire to tear down the ceilings to improve the insulation in the garage and my bathroom, nor do I want to take off the siding to add Tyvek. It's not really that bad, but it could be better. I am thankful that I found one deficiency as it is called that exceeded tolerance, cause I have no desire to fix it either. My basement is 2 inches higher in the centre than the edges... so they are going to fix it. Now we have some differences of opinion regarding what they should do to fix it. But do I have the courage and smarts to stand up and say I disagree... I'm not sure. They were supposed to be here early this morning or so I thought... at 9 I finally called... they arrived at 10 then left to pick up some supplies... they should be back by noon I think... to start work I hope... I'm questioning why I took today off from work.