January 2006

I did get one right answer yesterday... so your playing for one ballot for Midas.... All it takes to win is one one ballot! I put a cute picture on my home page this morning.... It showed up in an email earlier this week... Tara googled Bay of Fundy Tourist attractions and came up with my business card... think she attached it to the picture of the gallery from my web site! No plans for the weekend... doubt if I will even leave the island... I might get to spend another couple of hours trying to fill out college applications on line for my son... Why do I get to do this???? Good question! The answer of course is the applications have to be accompanied by a credit card number... Yesterday I finally finished one.... guess I took too long though as it came back and told me my session had expired... not sure why it couldn't have told me that when it expired... It didn't have to wait until I finished!!!!

Jan 27 The top came down the Ship's gangway with so much momentum that it looked like it might take off and Fly towards the wooden platform beside the train station.....

It was pointed out to me that I should have included a Haggis recipe yesterday,,, since it was too late to order the canned Haggis.... So here is your very own Haggis recipe... Yum Yum! (Yes I have tried it... Haggis not this recipe!)

Haggis 1 sheep's paunch, heart, lung and liver of sheep, salt, white pepper, hotredpepper(cayennepreferred), 1 pound beef suet, 1/8 tsp. nutmeg (or less to taste), 2 onions, chopped, 6 oz. oatmeal, toasted, 3/4 pint beef stock Clean the paunch thoroughly and then turn it inside out.
Boil the lung, liver and heart until tender. While you are doing this, put the windpipe over the edge of the pot, draining into another receptacle. Chop the meat extremely fine; grate the liver. Mix the meats with the spices, onions, suet and oatmeal. Mix in the stock and then stuff into the paunch. NOTE: the oatmeal will enlarge as it absorbs the liquid, so leave extra room. Sew the paunch up and then prick it with a needle. Boil in water for 3 hours. To reheat, wrap in foil and bake in the over for around 2 hours; since it paunch could break, this will save the filling!

MMMM mmmm enough.... and this is prepared for festive occasions! (Oh by the way Bowland is Irish...(i'm sure the Irish wouldn't lower themselves to eat that Tripe!... That's for all my Campbell connections...)

It's sunny here now much cooler and very windy....

Jan 26 The top came down the Ship's gangway with so much momentum that it looked like it might take off and Fly !

My mother informs me that the date on my home page hasn't changed recently... well I changed it but maybe I forgot to hit the save button after I changed it or it's out of date because I forgot to save it last week and since I always just add one to the current date.... (Actually I guess it was the date on this page that was wrong... I had two Jan 23... Maybe I fugured if we repeated Monday Canadian's would come to their senses and vote for the good guys the second time round!) My hair is all gone... guess I will have to model something so you can all see the new me.... I look like I'm about 10 if you ignore the wrinkles! Sunny today but suppose to cool off... I have a whole bunch of really pretty hearts lying around that I will stick on my home page hopefully later today... Almost no red hearts... My favorite are dark sage green with raised topaz stringers.... The topaz flashes as the hearts turn....(too bad it won't show up in the scan!) I had way to much email this morning... I tried to down load it in SJ yesterday with my new 'high' speed connection but everytime I tried the computer rebooted..... Think it is the email virus scanner that appeared since the last time I was there that is mucking everything up.... Guess who spent the night there last week! My mother also pointed out to me that it was Robby Burns day so anyone who couldn't find their Haggis here's your link!!! http://www.darachweb.com/food/images/haggisSirl.jpg

Jan 25 The top came down the gangway with so much momentum that it looked like it might take off and Fly !

For anyone who didn't get the last answer it was FLY, thought it was most appropriate to continue on a fly theme..... Off to the big city today, but first I'm getting my hair cut.... Someone decided that she didn't like her hair last week and it would look better with bangs.... WRONG so now I'm getting it all cut off and I'll start over... Woke up at 6 am to some load crashing noises... the ice laundry was fallin off the house! I noticed yesterday that the ice on the roof had slid down and was hanging over the edge about 12 -16 inches looked like a bunch of little white hand towels... Well they started falling off at 6 am! G got up and prowled the house.. I said it was just ice falling off the roof... last winter we just had snow it it much better mannered when it leaves the roof! Got an email this morning from Japan... I got a little box that popped up that informed me that if I wanted to read the message properly I needed to install a Japanese Character set... a lot of good that would do me! Off eat breakfast then get my hair chopped!

Jan 24 The Horse & Deer gallop past the paper lying beside the Tent on the Black Sand which sparkles in the morning May

sun, while the dragon leans on the Bar admiring his Button collection!

Final two words are in blue... will start a new game tomorrow!

Yes I voted yesterday and no I didn't vote for the party that now has a minority government...but if I did my math right the balance of power is held by a radical talk show host from Quebec! Could be an interesting couple of years... and no I don't think this government will last 4 years!

Started snowing here yesterday afternoon, looks like we might have a couple of inches but it's sunny today... Most of the night the snow slid off the roof sounded like we were being bombarded... Made hearts with gold leaf floating (that was the theory..) in them yesterday see if any of them survived! Or if I have any pairs... One colour hearts I can make pairs of... but as soon as I start adding things forget it... should make my earrings with one big heart with a tiny xtal and one little heart with a huge xtal... so that the mismatch looks intentional! I got 8 bunnies out of the kiln yesterday morning and I'm sure I only put two in....

Jan 23 The Horse & Deer gallop past the paper lying beside the Tent on the Black Sand which sparkles in the morning May sun, while the dragon leans on the Bar admiring his Button collection!

Today is election day in Canada... My opinion of this election,... a gross waste of Tax Payer's dollars... I don't think it really matters which 'crook' is governing... and the last set being a minority governement probably was more honest than most! Yes I will vote... but will my vote count, no ... In the Canadian system if you don't win you don't count.....Enough on politics! Need to go check my Kiln and see if Bunnies really do Multiply If you leave two together!

Jan 22 The Horse & Deer gallop past the paper lying beside the Tent on the Black Sand which sparkles in the morning May sun, while the dragon leans on the Bar admiring his button collection!

Got a couple more right answers yesterday....Most creative wrong answer so far is Pub Signs... I said I'd accept it if he sent me pictures of the signs!... Our power went out again last night at 9:30 went out then came back on again just long enough to get the DVD back to the spot where it had quit the first time! I was muttering that we should be finding flashlights etc... not restarting the movie! When it went out again... it didn't come back on again until 8:20 this morning!

Yesterday I made a bunch of little bunny head beads.... Emmy has found a new way to entertain himself... he sits on the deck railing and trys to kill his tail which is hanging down the outside of the railing...Sort of wraps himself round the railing like a pretzel batting at the fat grey string.... I figure he will ultimately fall off because he's a bit of a clutz! G saw a mouse run across the floor last night... Will have to get Duddies onto him.... Emmy would just think it was some sort of atomated toy! We changed the light fixture in the kitchen earlier this week and there was a mouse hole under the flourescent fixture... G doesn't think the mouse came from there... The one inch hole in the kitchen ceiling is a nice decorating feature though.....

Jan 21 The Horse & Deer gallop past the paper lying beside the Tent on the Black Sand which sparkles in the morning May sun, while the dragon leans on the Bar admiring his button collection!

Still only one right answer, well one person sent me two answers last night, one of which was right and I have someone else that is really close.... Still warm out here but it is suppose to cool off and snow.... Just after I finished my update yesterday I did my morning cat stretch and something in my neck popped OWEEEEE... According to my DH I lay on the floor break dancing for the next 5..10 minutes... sweet man! Actually it seems much better today... the nerve obviously has gotten out of the way of the wayward disc! May have to spend an hour checking out the jets in the new Jacuzzi tub again today though... I did manage to make beads and walk to the store yesterday after lunch though!

Jan 20 The Horse & Deer gallop past the paper lying beside the Tent on the Black Sand which sparkles in the morning May sun.... Yes I have one correct answer... and G informs me that Deer don't gallop...picky picky!!!! But keep guessing.... There was only one ferry running yesterday morning when I tried to escape... but I only waited 55 minutes... (Luckily it was sunny so I didn't have to run the engine... since I was rather low on gas!) I have waited almost 3 hours on each end on some occasions.... One of the things I was looking for in Calais was a package of small bubble wrap envelopes, think they are about 8*6 maybe a bit bigger... so far I'm recycling ones people send me... where do you buy them... All the ones that I'm getting are coming from the US... Gas is $2.59 / gallon in Calais and $103.9/litre (canuck bucks) in NB the $103.9 works out to $4.90 / gallon in US funds!!!! Yes I bought gas yesterday!

A distant relative of my fathers contacted him a couple of days ago... The common ancestor is I think a great/great/great grandfather and was born in 1814.... (so does that make him a third cousin once removed?)

Jan 19 The Horse & Deer gallop along the Black Sand which sparkles in the morning May sun.... I have an answer that is really close but NOT QUITE RIGHT! We lost our power at 5:30 last night just as I was thinking about super... the barbecue wasn't an option it wouldn't have lit... the winds were horrendous and the rain was coming down in buckets.... Sunny today but much cooler still above freezing though! Lights came on at 11... considered making super then... but decided staying in bed made more sense! However I should get brownie points for yesterday afternoon.. I spent threee hours in the dungeon working on my window comission... Now that it's started... I can probably motivate myself to work down there occasionally! When it rains here there is a nice river flowing though my dungeon... pre sump pump ... ie the first winter Stuart and I were here we had water 8 - 10 inches deep down there which we bailed into the shower.... so much for all my card board boxes.....

Off to Calais today, actually I'm off to St Stephen... Calais is just cheap gas!

Jan 18 The Horse gallops along the Black Sand which sparkles in the morning May sun.... No right answers yet.... Warmed up over night and got windy... freezing rain is forcast we're above freezing but the mainland probably isn't... Made another Puffin yesterday... yes my flock is increasing! Not much else exciting is happening....

Jan 17 Last weeks Multibon answer was GLASS.. much too easy since two people got it right with two clues! Forgot to post that yesterday...

The BLACK SAND sparkles in the morning sun.....

OK maybe that was slimy... you actually had two words yesterday, but the 'phrase' needed both words to make sense... The sun is out again here and the sun is sparkling on our black shale intertidal zone.... The temp may make it up to freezing and maybe our mailbox will thaw out... we have a community mailbox... the fronts are covered with 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice... they aren't opening... may not open until we've had two or three days above zero... I WANT MY MAIL!!!!! Made a few more ice cubes yesterday... and one puffin.... I've run out of short bits of clear glass... so will have to temporarily suspend Ice production! Checked out a site with this summers fashion trend colours this morning... teals, mustard yellow and Eggplant....The teal works with my available glass colours the others....also a lot of pastels.. I can do those!... Not sure how many people can continually afford to buy jewellery in this years colours.... Unless they make it themselves!

Jan 16.... New Multibon this will run until Sunday or longer if I don't have a correct answer!

The BLACK sand sparkles in the morning sun.....
Todays' guesses all get a ballot after today you have to be right.....

It's SNOWING here today and really windy ... what happened to spring? Yesterday I got called to breakfast and never got around to finishing the Rant.... Curling was fun.... Once or twice a year is enough fun for me though! G who was the skip commented that the only broom I was on was the one I rode from one end of the ice to the other.... (When you throw your rock you are suppose to aim for the skips broom if the rock goes were it was suppose to you were on the broom... otherwise......) I won a wind shirt as a door prize... bit large but that just means I can stuff more clothes underneath it! G got a really classy windshield scrapper and brush... with a padded handle no less!!!! Driving got really interesting coming home yesterday... the rain turned into sleet with ice on the highway... of course I had my thongs on still... left overs from Saturdays +15 (59 F).. had to pick my way through the slush in the grocery store parking lot! (I wear sandles any day it is above freezing as long as the snow isn't too deep!) Got home yesterday and discovered that Duddley had spent the day /night in the house... the lid of Em's kitten food was off so he didn't even starve! Em discovered Duddies outdoor bowl when he got turfed at 4 am.. after he stuck his paw in my mouth! To keep Em quiet in the truck coming home I fed him french fries..... Actually it was his idea to eat my fries not mine it was just easier to give him bits of my fries that have him climb into my mouth after the entire fry! He thought they ran out way to soon!

Jan 15 Greetings from my lap top... I'm on hi speed... it's so neat to have almost instant gratification when you click on something.... Final word for this week... Making T RANSPARENT BEADS that SHATTERED can drive you to DRINKING from your OPAQUE SLIPPER..... You still get one ballot if you send me the correct answer today.....Raining this morning guess our heat wave is almost over... suppose to have snow tomorrow...

Jan 14 Making BEADS that SHATTERED can drive you to DRINKING from your OPAQUE SLIPPER..... It almost 9 degrees (48) here this morning... spring in January... Oh well we never got spring at all last year..... Midas has replaced Hamish on my site... Can't promise that he will turn everything he touches to GOLD but his ice cube is covered with most of a sheet of gold leaf.... He's hoping to move somewhere warm and tropical.... We're off to SJ over night today, a curling party... the emphasis on party not curling Two years ago when we went you got points for everything but where the rocks ended up in the rings.... G is a somewhat serious curler so I think he figures this is somewhat beneath him! But that reminds me need to clean the bottoms of whatever booties I'm wearing on the ice tonight... Ice caretakers don't like rocks.. (the sharp little ones that stick in the botom of shoes kind of rocks anyway....!)

Jan 13 Making BEADS can drive you to DRINKING from your OPAQUE SLIPPER..... Must be Friday the 13th my HTML editor won't work! It was clear over night so there is frost everywhere... but I think it is suppose to stay warm for a couple of days but get windy and rainy for the weekend! We discovered just how much of a pig Em is yesterday.... Last week we stuffed his worm pills into him with a pair of long nosed pliers.... not fun... yesterday we threw them in his food bowl.... Food for me, oh thank you ... GONE! Now I have had other cats that could pick crushed pills out of soft food.... Duddly will not eat pills unless they are stuffed into him... however if he thought he was stealing Em's food.... Now there's an idea! Midas the second still doesn't exist so will Photograph "Midas" today.... and his Gold throne! Hopefully he will appear on this page ..."LIKE MAGIC" later today...

Jan 12 Making BEADS can drive you to DRINKING from your SLIPPER..... Actually two people got the right answer yesterday so all correct answers are now only worth one ballot... I will start a new game on Monday morning (but I will post a few more clues....) It's pouring rain here... no snow, there is ice in some parking lots though..... I took my unloved laptop (I bought it so I would have a computer in Sakatchewan when I was there for the summers....) into Saint John yesterday and bought a wifi card so now can play on line hi speed on evenings that I'm in Saint John... I find the laptop hard to type on though as the key board is set so far back! The birthday gift... did work it was in two boxes and the inside box was just loose in the outside box! Had musical cats last night... one went out at midnight... the other one came in then and yelled until he got his second bowl of food.... then howled for a couple of minutes just because he could.... then G started snoring so loudly that the windows were rattling... actually it was probably the bed frame as I think some of the bolts need to be tightened! Duddley went out again at 3:30 actually he wanted breakfast then... even though supper had been 3 hours earlier.... He got pitched into the rain for his efforts! I am making beads today!

Jan 11 Today's word ... Making BEADS can drive you to DRINKING .... Doubt if I can keep adding the words into a sentance all week...Got Stuart's gift yesterday so we're off to Saint John today to take him out for dinner and deliver it... Doesn't sound like it's very well packed as it's smashing around in the box... I thought being electronics it shouldn't rattle! Midas's ice cube is definitely a keeper... however think I will make Midas the second... He actually says it's his ice cube though since he slept with it all night in the kiln.... Yesterday was a lovely sunny day, and there is snow on the mainland... we have none at all today.... not sure about tomorrow... No beads will be made today either.... I have some pictures of hearts that will be posted tomorrow!

Jan 10 HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY TO STUART.......

THE WINNER OF HAMISH McPUFF IS FIONA FROM ENGLAND..... (And the fact that it is cheaper for me to mail a parcel to England than any where in North America has nothing to do with her winning!) However don't despair Midas is currently cooling his heels in my kiln with the rest of yesterdays BEADS and should have his mug shot posted soon! Yesterday... well the snow turned to rain, so I hoped in my car to go get Stuart's gift got as far as St George and came home... what was rain and above freeaing here was wet snow on ice on the mainland.... It's sunny today.... I need to go pick up my tree ornaments that I won at The Festival of Trees in St Andrews too.... OK so I bid on a whole bunch of trees in 2004 and didn't win anything, I only bid on one this year... You don't get the trees here just the ornaments and a tote box to hold them.

New multibon today.. there will be 6 words posted, one a day .... that all have one thing in common the word I am looking for can be either a noun or an adjective... If you send me your answer today and it's right you get 7 ballots (A one ballot bonus for getting it right with only one word BEADS) after two clues a right answer will get you 5 ballots.... Actually anyone who sends me an answer today no matter how ridiculous will get a ballot!

Last weeks answers were desert, weather (got this one a lot...) temperature, English (won't accept that again... however it is right!) , winter, Eyeore....????, would have accepted SPRING... wishful thinking on my part maybe.... Most people said weather which is the obvious answer..... This weeks should be pretty EASY!

Jan 9 Last day to get your vote in for Hamish however his cousin Midas the Feb 10 draw will be equally cute.... Snowing today, so I'll stay home and hibernate.... Will start a new multibon tomorrow... If you get the right answer from the first word you get 6 ballots..... will have to figure out the words today!

Jan 8 Yesterday actually became sunny by noon... so I went for a ferry ride... I decided I couldn't live another minute without a dustmop... used to own one... new ones are cheap plastic things .... cost way too much... but my floor is now dust free? G suggested I should do the walls too....! I think he should use the great outdoors for sawing up his lumber too..... not my bedroom! The bed has now been moved upstairs... 22 months after he/we started raising the roof... Still no tiles on the tub or fixtures in the bathroom and the only furniture is the bed... but the saw is gone (moved into the guest room....) ! I watched Jaws on TV last night .... wasn't nearly as much of the background Shark is coming music as I remembered maybe that's in the sequel... I remember going to that movie in the theatre in 75 or 76 when it was first released, not sure if I've seen it since! I found the mentality of the mayor the interesting part of that movie... cover up the danger at all costs to avoid disrupting the tourism dollars.... Maybe the NB government would like to adopt that attitude and get us a backup ferry for the summer...... and a year round connection to Campobello or East Port....

Must be icey out this morning poor Duddies fell on his face when he went shooting out the door hissing and spluttering at the Evil EM....

Jan 7 Light snow falling here today... another gloomy weekend.... Haven't done anything interesting in the last couple of days, walked to the store yesterday... to buy the paper with the TV guide in it so I know that I don't even have to turn on the TV... there really is nothing on! Watched the movie GOLD last night it was (a DVD) based on the Wilbur Smith book of the same name, by Wilbur Smith standards it is a very short book, think the book was better, may have to read it again to see where they screwed up in the movie! Got my replacement parts for my fountain pen bead pens yesterday... haven't tried to put one together yet but think they will look much better! Both the cap and the rod are much shorter need to make somemore beads so that I can assemble them (no I don't have ANY beads in this house!)...

Jan 6 Went to bed last night with big fluffy snow flakes falling and woke up to rain and a cat desperately pawing at the glass door.... Em gets up on his back legs and paws at the door.. gets going fast enough that he almost gets a squeaky blackboard noise... looks really cute.... (nice noise to sleep too....) Said cat went out at 3am.... Duddley didn't come in last night so I figured EM would sleep in... wrong, Duddley usually goes out about 5:30 guess Emmy hides under the bed until Unkie Duddies leaves.... then he becomes a pest! With no Unkie Duddies to keep him in line he can become a pest much earlier!

Jan 5 I have a few answers to multibond game.... I should point out that correct answers on Tuesday may not work all week as more words are added, but they are judged the day they come in! Today is gloomy think it might snow...... I am still answering questions on Qwyzzle... on a Yahoo site this showed up this morning.... sorry can't resist

I have a friend who wants to start Qwyzzle, but doesn't see anything on
the home page but the starry sky..... Could it be because she is working on an Apple?

Answer: You need a computer. It will not run on fruit!

Ok now that I have succesfully PO'd my family back to my rant! Spent yesterday in SJ checking out the New Home Depot store along with every other person in a few hundred mile radius! We also went to Kent as there was no one there so really good customer service! I won a big box of Candy from Suzifitz beads which showed up yesterday, most of which I have never heard of! It was a game she was playing on her site I'm not sure if it was a stupid award for not having heard of most of the Candy or if it was a random draw....Might stick it in my car for emergency ferry lineup rations! (it was mailed on Dec 17 in California actually since Dec 17 they have only deliverd mail 9 times so the parcel was actually FASTER than normal!) Speaking of ferries..... Yesterday getting off of the ferry G was first in the line so was signaled to get off, tried to start his truck, not much happened, tried again... the ferry guy came over and G rolled the window down...... Ferry guy, "I think your truck is already running...." I managed to keep a straight face until we were off the ferry! Today I will make beads!

Jan 4 Eastport forcast shows sun but the clouds look pretty thick here.... You might have noticed that I now have a bunch of red words in my rant.... It is my version of Tribon only this is Multibon! You need to send me an email telling me what the words have in common, if I agree with your answer you get a ballot in Hamishes ballot box, I will list all acceptable answers every Tuesday, but I will reply to all emails.... If you think your answer is right you can send it to me every day... however there will be more than one acceptable answer, get creative....(G my backup judge doesn't think you should be allowed to send the same word in more than once...., however will accept cases of smoked salmon etc... as bribes....) We're off to Saint John today.... For the record...my ice cube bounced and is just fine... (Hamish will be replaced with Midas the Puffin....for Feb's draw)

Jan 3 Forcast says no snow in the forcast..... I screwed up NB kids get another week off, Gord started curling last night so I just assumed that the kids went back to school too..... He won, (actually they won since curling really is a team sport)... I did something yesterday that I've never managed to do before.... I burned through a 3/32 mandrel (3mm) that takes alot of heat.... I was trying to flatten the bottom of an ice cube with some copper foil fish and didn't want to heat the foil fish and burn him out too so .... anyway the flaming ice cube bounced four feet to my ceramic tile floor before it got grabbed with something and stuffed into the kiln.... Not sure if ice cubes bounce or not... time will tell!

Jan 2 Warm with small snowflakes floating down.... Think kids go back to school here today! Hope everyone had a good holiday! When your self employed one day is the same as the next... it's sort of what's a holiday, what's a day off.....?

Continued cleaning up beads etc yesterday, I'm sure I'll never be able to find anything now! I've been asked by a couple of people if we got our lobsters New Years Eve... we got lobsters, they actually belonged to someone else but the theory was that an other order was suppose to come in soon,.... so ours were taken out of an order that hadn't been picked up yet, I would have preordered when I phoned if she had told me I needed too! Gord was there within 30 minutes of me phoning..... Duddley loves lobster, think Emmy does to but he seems to be doing quite well on cat food 9 pounds (4.1 kg) in 6 months.... He lets out the most plantive little squeeks if he thinks he's hungry..... Must have been starving as a kitten ...

Need to go check yesterdays beads and see if they look as nice cold as they did hot....

JANUARY 1 2006 !!! This is the first time that I've got to/had to change the year on my site, I'm rapidly approaching my first anniversary...

Look what I found this morning, on my kitchen table..... Poor Jack The Snowman the NewYears party must have got out of hand in the kitchen...

You can see the big red lipstick smack on his tummy, guess he was so excited by whomever kissed him at midnight that he melted into a melon bicone..... The prognosis for recovery is not favorable! Hope the rest of my snowmen stay away from the anonymous Hotlips!

The movie of choice last night was Double Jeopardy (Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd) We both thought it was quite good! Problem was it ended at 11.... But we hung in til midnight! Gord is hooked on Soduko... he set up a game board on Excel on his computer..... I like my paper when I erase an entire board .... I can still see my previous answer....When I asked him this morning if he was ever going to anything ever again other than play Soduko he said he was going to waste as much time on Soduko as I wasted on Qwyzzle.... I only played that after supper! Not all day every day....