I recently signed up on a website named 750 Words. The idea is to write 750 words a day. For some people this can be a personal journal or an exercise in writing. I've been using it a few days in a row now and have found it very satisfying.  It also gives you some feedback when you're done - like how many minutes it took, your total word score for the day, how many minutes it took you to write your days text, and how many words you type a minute. My current average is 38 words a minute!  Because of this excellent exercise, you may be seeing more blog entries from me as a direct result of getting stuff out of my head and onto 'paper'.  While what you type on the site remains private (unless you choose to share it), you can also export your writing so you have your own personal copy of it.  This will be great for just getting into the habit of writing regularly and also sharing some of my writing with you. What follows are excerpts of what I wrote Saturday morning.

                  NOTE - some of the links and videos below are NOT SUITABLE if you're easily offended or at work!!

.............

Here are a few videos representing the acts that we saw.  As above, they contain language and may offend so don't watch if you're at work, church or just can't cope with use of the F word or gross stuff.  You've been warned!!

Axis of Awesome:

Ronnie Johns Half Hour:

(Warning - Not Suitable for wankers or people at work)

Ronnie Johns Half Hour (Chopper Job Interview):

(Warning - Not Suitable for wankers or people at work)

And to end on a cute note, here's a couple LOL Cats that made me laugh this week:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Apparently having family and family pics on Facebook brings out the best in me in terms of writing about memories.  As I wrote 2 rather long comments / wall posts or whatever they're called this morning, I reckon I should share them here in my blog.  If you are reading this on Facebook you may want to skip the rest because you probably already read the same stuff elsewhere. 

First up, my neice, who was adopted and only found her birth mother (my sister) a few years back met her grandmother the week that my mom passed away. This morning I read Facebook and she sweetly asked: "Auntie Gaelyne tell me what my grandma Jean was like. you said under one of her pics that she was fun. please tell me more" ...  How could I resist that request?  So this is what I wrote this morning...

She was the best Mom. She really was. Always managing to cleverly teach us about things even as adults by example. I found this especially when I was a young mother and had no clue. She'd just step right in and distract the acting up kiddo and in no time any tantrum, bad feelings, etc had disappeared.

She was fair and honest - if she told even the littlest white lie she'd feel guilty. She was in hospital once when I snuck up to see her (was only 12) and the nurse said that kids had to be 13 or 14 to visit. She told the nurse I was that age and then felt guilty about it for the rest of the visit. She'd try to always do the same or similar for each of us kids. Like on Christmas she'd try hard to make sure everyone had the same amount of stuff or for Grand kids if she did for one, she'd try to do the same or similar for each of the others. I suspect we were each her 'favourites'. :-)

Grandma Jean's favourite things to do included rummage sales, bargains, fishing, travelling in their RV and visiting us kids. She'd save things in boxes for us and then either give them to us when we came to her place or bring them to us when she visited. Stuff she'd found at rummage sales or stuff like Readers Digest magazines she'd finished. Grandpa Bill worked for Dow, so she had a discount card for their store and would stock up on ziplock bags, saran wrap, etc for us. One year she gave each of us a big box of that stuff for Christmas. It was great!

But most of all, she was fun. We could laugh together and there were times that Aunt Pam, Grandma and I would be near tears from laughing so hard - usually from something silly she said wrong or some mild misunderstanding of what she meant and then we'd be in stitches.

Oh, and she had a lead foot in the car. I was always reminding her what the speed limit was. LOL.

I hope this gives you just a tiny glimpse what Grandma Jean was like - I sure miss her heaps. Feel free to ask me anything - I love writing and reminiscing about just about anything! :-)

Pics of my Mom can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/flitterg/sets/72157603408669474/

Then later in the day my dear brother uploaded a couple more old pics - including one that nearly brought tears to my eyes - my cat, Tommy. I have missed that old cat.  I had him from the time I was 11 or 12 until he died when I was 23.  So I ended up writing a bit about him too...

.. Just showed him to Rod and said I loved him more than I loved him, my kids or anyone else in my life (which probably isn't quite true, but close). This cat just accepted me and loved me even while going through all that teenage angsty stuff.

...

Tommy disappeared for about a week when he was a kitten. One day on my way out the door to go to school, there he was, on the porch. He'd been hit by a car and dragged himself home, somehow. My sister and brother organised to get him to the vet, and bless them they decided to pay the costs of getting him fixed up (he had a broken both his hip and his leg). They couldn't 'put him down' because they knew he was my cat, and I wasn't there to make the decision, but really that's a decision I couldn't have made myself anyway because I wouldn't have had the money to pay for his surgery either. From then on, he'd sit with his leg out as that was the only comfortable position for him.

He survived my weird teen years, a few years with my brother when my family moved into a new home, and then came back to me later when I had my own place. He then survived my first born as a youngster, but had to be put to sleep while I pregnant for me second son. That was a hard hard time for me, but he was old, and he was in pain.

When my brother taught his young pup Sommer how to shake paws, he inadvertently taught Tommy, who was very selective about who he'd shake hands with (like only me). I remember telling my husband about this ability then seeing his jaw drop to the floor as Tommy and I proved it to him. :-)

Tommy James Nuisance, the Legend!

 

 

 

 If you are reading this on another site besides Gaelyne.com, my personal blog can be found here: http://gaelyne.com/content/random-experiments-ii-blog

Audette is here!

I have a new Granddaughter!  My first and ONLY Granddaughter at that!  Her name is Audette Irean Gaelyne Andersen (yes she has my name as one of her middle names), and she was born on 15 January 2010 at 10:25am. She weighed 7lbs, 2oz and is the cutest baby girl EVER.  Biased? ME?  Nah! 

In the first photo is Audette of course.

The next photo is my son Terrance, his son Ricky, and his newborn daughter Audette.  What a beautiful piccy. I love how Ricky is checking out his little sister!

New Keyboard

Definitely not on the same scale as the news of my granddaughter, I have a new keyboard...

What's odd is I remember writing about how thrilled I was to stumble into a great deal on the keyboard of my dreams and how ordering it was the highlight of my day, but it's certainly not in my blog so I wonder where I wrote about it?

Last week Catch of the Day just happened to have the Logitech diNovo keyboard on sale at about 1/3 of it's original cost so I snapped one up for myself. Not long after I bought my laptop I'd researched keyboards for my regular PC as I loved the soft keys on my laptop and wanted the same for my computer. One of the ones I saw was recommended a lot was the diNovo but the price tag was over what I'd be willing to spend (about $175 - OUCH!). So when I saw it on sale for $50, I jumped. Well, it arrived today and I'm using it to write this blog. It is so quiet. It's nice not having to hear the keys as I write. Now if I could only get Rod to use a quieter keyboard... I can hear him typing in the office all the way from the bedroom.  Not only is this quiet, it's also got a nice feel to the keys (like a texture), and it's wireless.  So now both my keyboard and mouse have no wires. Joy!  

The real surprise for me was that I plugged in the USB thingy for it and fully expected I'd have to reboot my computer at least, but no need - my Ubuntu Karmic Koala system recognised the new USB keyboard and that was it. Even the media keys and calculator keys worked first go with it.  I did have to do some extra bits to get my music player's main keys to work with the media keys but that's not something related to the keyboard - it wasn't working with my previous keyboard either. This is because I prefer to use Amarok for music, which is KDE based while my actual window manager is Gnome. However, I got that sorted out tonight too.

A Nerve Root Block

In other news, last Friday I had an appt with the rhuematologist at the Repat. We had a good discussion and next Monday I'll be having something called a 'Nerve Root Sleeve Block' done on my left S1 in my spine, which should make a difference for the sciatica I've been dealing with.  The worst that can happen, I'm told, is that it won't work. I asked how this is different from the other that I had in November and it's a totally different approach. The injection I had in November was in the facet of the joint rather than the nerve sleeve which is the most affected area. It's not a permanent fix but should allow time for things to settle down with it.  Generally during the day I'm doing OK with it, but if I walk any distance, it's quite painful and of course sleeping and staying asleep have been an issue for months now with this - it's no way to start the day, that's for sure. Anyway, I'll have this done and hopefully it will help a lot. If not well, at least it's been tried. 

One of the problems for me (and the rhuematologist) is that it's hard to discern what pain I'm having from bursitis in both hips versus the sciatica.

My brother's on Facebook!

My brother Steve has signed up on Facebook - he's been uploading family photos which is so awesome. Many he's shared I have either never seen or haven't seen in many many years.  My oldest sis is also on FB, and hopefully my two other siblings will join too. It'd be really nice to be able to share stuff so easily.

Yesterday I tackled the patio... but not the whole thing, just the area where we hang out. It's a big patio - almost the length of our house. There's no way I can do the whole thing at once. But a section at a time - yeah I can do that.

Rod got a bit miffed when I listed off things I need him to do but eventually - and without any further prodding - got with the program. I think he must have felt guilty - because he did about 10 other honey-do's I hadn't asked for - well, not this week anyway. LOL.

I have a 'Flip It' dry/wet vac that made all the difference for mopping the tiles. As it vacs up the water into a filter, I wasn't just smooshing wet dirt/mud everywhere.

Today I wanted to share something that happened when I was waking up this morning. 
First of all I should mention that I am starting to be back on the mend with the sciatica and bursitis nonsense I've been dealing with since last August. I'm trying hard not to over-do however as it just takes way too long to recover all over again. So I've been steadily adding more to my day physically but at the same time keeping the reigns in. I know my limits.
Over the last several months, I've been trying to get more positive in the way I look at things. For example, there was a time when how I woke up would colour the rest of my day. But it's also smaller things like trying not to be as critical of myself and others - not that I often voice my criticisms, but I sure can think them! While out shopping today I managed to be in line at the grocery store behind someone who clearly wasn't thinking of the most efficient, easiest way to put her groceries on the black belt. While I was standing there, shifting the weight between my legs because standing for any length of time isn't comfortable, I was mentally criticising her method of emptying her cart and I wasn't being very charitable. 'Brain dead' came to mind. When I realised I was doing this I tried to change my attitude and realised the lady really was brain dead - not because of being dumb or anything, she looked exhausted and probably was pretty much running on auto-pilot. Instead of the annoyance I had been feeling, I felt a bit of compassion for her. We exchanged glances, I smiled at her, she smiled. Had I not changed my perception of things would I have smiled? I don't know, but it felt better to give her a break, if only mentally, than to tally up all the dumb things I thought she was doing.
Back to getting out of bed this morning.  My first 30 minutes or so in the morning are painful. This isn't a complaint, it's just a fact I pretty much need to learn to live with. Between the arthritis and sciatica, I tend to wake up very stiff and in pain. Once I get moving around, and after I've had a sip or two of hot coffee, certain regular body functions take place and after that I no longer have pressure against the nerves in my spine. Everything improves after that.
If I let how I feel when I first get out of bed colour my attitude for the rest of the day, I'm going to be the most miserable cranky lady you've ever met. At some point along the way I must have been working on this in the background of life because it's not like I've given it a great deal of thought.  I just really need to be clear with myself that it gets better, that this isn't how I'll feel all day - it's only temporary.
So, this morning as I'm sitting on the edge of the bed putting my socks and slippers on, it hurts and I'm reminding myself that this will pass... when my brain decided to have an imagination (unusual before my first coffee). I imagined a friendly voice - similar to maybe a stewardess on a plane making an announcement. "Welcome to your day. The pain you are experiencing is only temporary and will ease soon. We apologise for the inconvenience. If you could please keep the moaning to a minimum it would be appreciated, else you'll wake the healthy." (My husband was sound asleep behind me, snoring at the time).  Wake the healthy?  I nearly giggled aloud. For the record, I don't moan once I'm awake. I think I might as I'm waking up though as generally I wake up from moving just the wrong way and it hurts. But really, 'keep the moaning to the minimum so I don't wake the healthy' - How funny is that?
Who knows, maybe the imaginary friendly voice-over start to my day could become a regular thing.  As long as she's funny and on the positive side I'm fine with it.  If I have any more of these, I'll be sure to share them.

It's another Odds & Ends entry.  This time links to articles I found of interest.....

Hey did I mention I bought myself a cordless mouse?   Oh man, it is brilliant.  It is so nice not to fight with a cord and the scroll button is quiet - no more feeling like Rod can hear me every time I'm scrolling down a web page!

Today I bought 3 butternut pumpkins to cook up for pumpkin pie. These are my favourite as they really do have the right flavour without being too 'stringy'.  I also bought a pack of six aluminium pie tins so I can give pies to a few friends of mine who've been hinting they'd really like some pumpkin pie again. And as one doesn't go without the other, I bought enough cans of Reddi Whip (the closest I have to Cool Whip) to go with the pies. No good giving a pumpkin pie as a gift if it doesn't have the whipped cream to go with it. Heavens, no. So tonight I'll get a couple of the pumpkins cooked and make up my baking mix for it and then do the actual baking tomorrow. The pies will then go into the freezer until Thursday (or till I see my friends). I also found that freezing the pies makes the spices become stronger.  Oh, and frozen pumpkin pie?  OMG it's so wonderful on a hot day. Better than ice cream even. :-)

My recipes are still on the sidebar to your left.  Hmm, I guess that means I haven't added a heck of a lot of recipes in the last year. Ah well. Just the best.  :-)

Article by US News & World Report: Acceptance of Chronic Illness Helps People Move On

Hmm, there may be something to that, along with other things, in the last several months I've come to the realisation that I can be happy now. I can be happy regardless of any circumstance. Sure not all things in my life are pleasant, but why wait to be happy?  I'm not sure which came first though - acceptance or the decision not to be unhappy. :-)  Either way, it works for me.

Some of the Strangest Google Earth Sightings

I found this fascinating. Hope you enjoy it too.

17 cool magnet tricks

This just feeds my inner geek.  My fav? Reading how to make 'LED Throwies'.  Sounds like fun and wish I could make a bunch for my daughter's wedding - she's getting married at / in a planetarium next year.

Food.com

Looking for a recipe?  Don't feel like Googling?  This site searches almost all of the biggest cooking/recipe type sites all at once for you and even helps when looking for specific types of recipes or diet needs.

I have a whole bunch of various links and things to share with you that have been collecting in my Evernote 'blog' notebook, so I'll be adding a few in every day (or every time I post a blog) until I get the lot cleared.  Most have been from my RSS feeds.

I noticed that I managed to put in two of my favourite LOL Cats twice in the 'Interesting Links' section over the course of a few weeks.  And silly enough, one of them was about spotting the kitten with ADD.  That'd be me. She of very poor memory and attention span. :-)

Life is good. I'm feeling a little better and getting on with stuff. I survived the 8 (or was it 9?) day heatwave. November heatwaves are RARE. Normally the spring weather is just lovely - not too hot or too cold. Still, I got through all of it without any rashes on my face from sweat and eczema, and I also had a lot less sinus/allergy issues so I did well. I actually coped with the heat better than Rod did. However, when we had the one 43c (110f) day on Thursday it stayed hot way past sundown and Friday I was useless. That one day really did knock the wind right out of my sails.  Much better on that front today though.

Anyway, the good stuff is down below in the 'Interesting Links' section.  (If you're reading this via RSS feed you'll need to come to blog entry on my website to view the pics and links).

Enjoy!