Long weekend

Oh, Yay, it is Friday :-)

It is also a long weekend, Monday is New Brunswick Day. The calendar says ‘Civic Holiday’ or ‘Bank Holiday’, because each Provence calls it something different. Unfortunately for me, I have to work Monday because I work for an American company. The only holidays I get off that are shared by my Canadian friends and family are Labour Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Which leaves me working everything else: Easter Monday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Remembrance Day, Thanksgiving and Boxing Day, while everyone else sits at home or heads to the beach. On the other hand, I get July 4^th off and American Thanksgiving, so while everyone else works, I am free. And the stores are open, bonus!

Even though I work Monday, I can still take part in any festivities they have running. Usually there is a giant Flea Market Uptown, and some activities on the boardwalk for the kids. I do not have to be at work until 2PM, which means all day to take a poke around to see the festivities.

Tomorrow we are heading out camping. It is supposed to rain. Actually, it is supposed to pour in Saint John, but we are going to Moncton where it is only supposed to rain a bit. And I am told Fundy National Park, where we are going, has its own weather patterns. Here’s hoping, I want my S’mores!!

Happy Friday!

Music

Is it right to sing along with the hold music if you are at work? I work in an office; I have my own little half cubicle.  I am in a call centre, so there are a half dozen people on each side of me, and more behind and in front of me. We receive calls from stores in the US, and sometimes they have to put us on hold while they run for a serial number etc. So as I type this, I am on hold listening to Unwritten by Natasha Beddingfield (sp?). It is a song I enjoy singing along to…and I am having a hard time holding back! I am sure my coworkers would be impressed if I start singing (especially since I cannot carry a tune).

Although I mostly prefer Country music, I will listen to just about anything. I have a memory for lyrics, I just have to listen to a song a few times and I can sing along. I love music; I can’t imagine a world without it. If I am upset, I like to blast my music and sing or dance the frustrations away. It especially helps in traffic; a busy street or parking lot with crazy drivers stresses me out.

I usually get random songs stuck in my head, too. This afternoon I had ‘all my loving’ by The Beatles stuck in there. I sometimes have a hard time falling asleep at night because I am humming along to some music.

Music makes the world go round. And it makes being on hold less boring :-)

Detours & Shopping, blah.

I am going camping this weekend, so this morning I ran over to the West side to get the groceries and  borrow a cooler from my parents; Mom had sent it in with dad this morning when he went to work. I got halfway down Fairville Boulevard and I see a big detour sign. Boo. So, up one of the side streets I went to Manawagonish (pronounced Man-o-wog-an-ish) Road, there are several streets connecting the two. I figured it would be easiest to drop back down the last one, at Purdy’s corner, since it is about 2 car lengths from Dad’s work and would be easiest. Well, didn’t I get up to the lights and that road was closed to! So I had to go even further out of my way, all the way down Manawagonish to the end, and backtrack up Fairville. Boo, I hate construction. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, it is 10 AM and I have to make several other stops and be home by Noon to get everything away and get ready for work.

After picking up the cooler, I ran to the dollar store to get some ice packs and an extra flashlight. I was also looking for marshmallow sticks, but I could not find them. I get up to the register and the girl working said their debit machines were down. Usually I do not carry cash, but this morning I found 45 dollars under my keyboard that I had stuck there over the weekend. I am glad I brought it with me!

After the Dollar store was the Bulk Barn, marshmallows, graham crackers, and a few ingredients for a recipe I want to try. And I was lucky, most of the things I needed were on sale!

My last stop was supposed to be the grocery store. They had a sign stating their debit machines were down to. After the first two stores, I am down to 25 dollars. I automatically cut my list in half, I can get the ‘house’ stuff another day, I just need to get the camping stuff today. Bacon, pop, juice, bread, cheese and some chocolate. With more luck, my total came to 24 dollars and change.  

Since it was only 11, I figured I would have time to stop at the Pharmacy and get some more conditioner. Of course, I could not find the brand I wanted, but found another that will hopefully work as well. I was in and out of there, so I decided to pop over to Zellers to try and find the marshmallow sticks. I found some nice bamboo ones for cheap, all the summer stuff is on sale; they were also putting up the Back to School displays, it seems to appear earlier every year. While I was in there, I found a nice shirt I can wear to work for only 10 dollars, so I picked that up as well. There was a huge bra sale, so I tried on a dozen, but nothing fit right. Boo. I was getting cranky and realized it was because I was hungry, so I checked the time and saw it was noon already! Yikes! Time flies in the dressing rooms!  So, I cashed out, spun through the drive through for a Happy Meal and ate lunch on my way home.

Where I encountered more construction, boo. But no detours, thankfully.

So that was my adventuresome morning, and now I am sitting at work, waiting for the weekend.

Weekend part 2

Oh, what a weekend! I didn’t even have time to write, I was constantly on the go!

Saturday, K and I went to see the Buskers. We watched one show, but wanted to go home after I told him I hadn’t any money for the rides. So, we went back home and spent the afternoon in the backyard kicking a ball around. We made dinner for his Mommy and then went back to the Buskers in the evening. His Mommy had the change, so she took him on a ride and then we watched two more shows. One was the East Cost Lumberjack show, they did cutting competitions, a log rolling demonstration, and they raced up huge poles that resembled trunks of trees deep in the forest.

Sunday, I went for a drive. We just bopped along, stopped for dinner and then a bit later, ice cream, and later still, coffee. Then we came home and watched a couple movies. It was such a relaxing day; I got to see a lot of scenic farmland, and got a whiff of some very stinky cows :-)

Now, I am counting the days down to next weekend, we are going camping! It has been a long time since I have gone camping, and I can’t wait! The weather man is calling for rain Saturday, but usually it changes ten times between Monday and Saturday, fingers crossed for sun!!

Happy Monday!

Weekend!

What can I write about today? I am excited for tomorrow! Last night was the first day of Buskers on the Boardwalk. It is an annual festival where Buskers descend on Uptown Saint John for four days of fun! I am planning on taking K to some of the shows tomorrow afternoon, then we are going to go home and cook dinner for some guests, and after dinner all of us will go back Uptown to take in a few other shows.

I have gone to the Buskers shows every year for the last four. Usually at least one day it gets rained out. This year, it was last night. It had been foggy all day, and then suddenly it got cloudy, yet very bright, and the skies opened up. The rain literally came down in sheets for about fifteen minutes at about nine o’clock last night.  We could hear low thunder and an hour later when I was driving home from work, I could still see lightening out over the Bay of Fundy.  It was kind of eerie.

So, it is almost the weekend, and here’s hoping it is going to be a good one! Actually, I am going to be sure it is a good one!! 

Fog

The fog rolls thick in Saint John, usually in the evenings so it is nice and cool to sleep. This morning, it did not burn off. So, it has been a cool and foggy day. It is nice after a few hot ones, but hopefully it does not stick around for too long.

Outside the city it is most likely beautiful. Coming back into the city from Grand Bay, you can usually see a dome of fog over the West side.

It is supposed to storm tonight, oodles of rain. After a few hot days, the rain will be a nice change. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny again, and it is supposed to continue all weekend. I can’t wait, I am taking my little man K to the Busker’s Festival!  

Peas

So today I went to Google to find something to write about, and I saw this picture.

The first thing I said was ‘cool’, because it is. I love peas, they are my favorite vegetable. But, I am picky in my peas. I like fresh or frozen, but not canned. I know canned veggies are supposed to be ‘picked at their peak of freshness’ blah etc, but I think they taste funny.

Last summer, I tried to plant peas in a pot on my windowsill in my apartment. I got a plant about 2 feet tall and about 5 pods. I was very impressed with myself. I also tried leaf lettuce, carrots and radishes. The carrots and radishes only grew to about the size of a bean sprout; but I got about 4 harvests out of the lettuce. Not enough for a full salad, but enough to stack onto a burger!

Back to the Google Doodle, it is actually honoring ‘The Father of Modern Genetics’ Gregor Mendel, who did genetic experiments on peas. Although he was criticized at the time, his work is now popular among geneticists. Today marks what would have been his 189^th birthday, so Google has posted this doodle in his honor.

Happy Birthday, let’s eat peas!

COPYRIGHT 2011 T.K.Alexzander.

“You’re nothing short of my everything” – Ralph Block

“You’re nothing short of my everything” – Ralph Block

I started this blog to have a spot for my writing, but guess what? I only seem to have a Winter muse. I can usually write a lot in the Winter; but Spring and Summer comes along, and bang! My muse goes on vacation. I wish I could go to. So today I decided to just start writing. Journaling, babbling, call it what you will, I decided to just start writing.

So step one was I needed inspiration. Sometimes when I am bored, I will go to Google and type in random letters, just to see what the auto complete has to say. Today, I started with Q, and the first thing that came up was ‘quotes’.  I clicked on Images and got a massive amount of results, so I just started scrolling through them. Finally I found the above quote, and I decided this was the one I wanted to write about today.

My everything is a little man named K. He is my nephew and he turned 5 about three months ago. He is the cutest little boy on the planet; and yes I know I am a bit biased, but I have about a dozen people who back up my opinion! Someday, my everything will expand to hopefully include a husband and children of my own, but for now K holds my heart in his little hands.

So starting today, I am going to write a bit each day. About my day, about my little man K, about the world around me in beautiful Saint John. Hey, maybe my muse will come back!

See ya around!

COPYRIGHT July 2011 T.K. Alexzander.