Category: Miscellaneous

While I don’t usually like cold weather, it dropped below freezing here in Lethbridge last night too. It was really great for the weeding though – all my weeds just died overnight! Anna’s next-door neighbour had a particularly bad dandelion problem – they had dandelions but no grass. Now they have a front yard full of dead dandelions. It almost looks like really well groomed grass through the morning mist. They must be especially happy.

Anna and I both had a great time in Medicine Hat. Albeit there was a little more cake shared than I would have liked at Solange’s party I’m quickly recovering. Oops, my supper is ready so I’ll finish this post a bit later.

Update: Well I never remembered to come back to this post for a couple years, but now that I’ve noticed it, I’ll just add what happened at the party. Anna and her siblings smeared cake into the unsuspecting faces of both Gary and I. I have changed a lot and it seems like no big deal now, but it really ticked me off at the time.

(From the Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2003)

Relying on the assumption that people love freebies and can’t read foreign languages, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies arrested 10 wanted people by luring them to Big Bear to receive a free pair of hiking boots made by “Stockdum Scelestus” — meant to be a mix of German and Latin meaning “utterly stupid criminal.”

Update: Link removed because the L.A. Times moved it to their archive where they charge $3.95 to read it – even though you could go to the Library and read it for free.

I finally got a new lawnmower and I must say I’m really pleased. 6.25 horsepower and boy it mows like crazy! When I was out working on the yard my neighbour, Steve, came by to compliment me by telling me that in the short time I lived here I had already done more work keeping the place in shape than the six guys living there before me did in two years! I really haven’t done much but I guess something is better than nothing.

A couple of nights ago, I heard on the news that some lawyer in California was trying to get Oreo Cookies banned in California because they are too unhealthy (They contain Trans-fattie goodness badness). It looks like he’s given up. Thank goodness – nevertheless does what he say make you less likely to enjoy the tempting treat of Oreo Cookies?

Most of the ants died after only one application of the diametrious earth. It did rain the next day so maybe that is why they didn’t all die. I put some more on the last anthill where there seemed to be some survivors. Jeff’s recomendation: If you have ant problems then diametrious earth is the way to go.

Update: The Diametrious Earth didn’t work. I ended up using Green Cross and THAT worked.

It didn’t really work. There are still a few ant hills in the front lawn. After awhile I just gave up trying to get rid of them.

Dad visited me today and now he’s gone. I was supposed to fix his computer but it seemed to be working fine when he brought it here, so I don’t know what the problem was or is, but I suspect he will still not have his internet working when he gets home. Something with either his ISP or the router. Hopefully I’ll be able to help them over the phone.

Anyway while he was here, he took Anna-Maria and me to Pizza Hut for all you can eat pizza! He also made me a nice loaf of bread in the bread-maker. I guess the problem I was having with it had to do with substituting butter for shortening. He substituted some vegetable oil because I don’t have margerine or crisco and it seems to have made a really nice loaf. I love fresh bread.

I hope you had a happy birthday Gary, and I hope you are enjoying your vacation in BC.

Anna and I bought Pizza and had a good time eating it while watching an old video that Scott had laying around, “Cocktail”. Well I was pretty confident that after talking so sternly to Jason (the 18 year old roommate) about eating and drinking my food that the pizza would be okay in the fridge. All I can say is – at least he didn’t eat the whole thing. Anyway he still hasn’t paid the rent for this month (just half and only today did I get that much) and so I still haven’t told him that I’m kicking him out. I figure I’d better at least collect the rent so that I do indeed get paid. I suppose I could always take it out of his damage deposit – just so long as he doesn’t wreck anything before he’s gone. Speaking of wrecking things – now you may think I’m overreacting, but someone (probably Jason because he’s the only one around and the only one that would do this) anyway someone took a permanent marker and drew a small line about 1 cm on the front of my computer. Why would someone do this? Why would anyone think that the front of a computer is a place to draw a small black line? I spent the last 10 minutes scrubbing at it and now it’s barely noticeable. I’m glad I discovered it today and not a few weeks from now when it had really set in. The thing is now, I don’t even want to talk to him about it because for one, I am sick of making him feel bad, number two I don’t even know if he did it and I don’t want to constantly be accusing the guy of all these nitpicky things and yet I feel violated by him all of the time. I guess it’s time I put the computer in my own room and said – sorry Jason, you can use the Pentium 130 if you need to check your email. Well now that I have vented all my frustration I feel like I should finish my laundry, go upstairs, and make something to eat.

P.S. Happy Birthday Gary (I know it’s tomorrow but I don’t want to take the chance and forget to post)

The other night when I was in Medicine Hat with Anna, I spent about 15 or 20 minutes playing the original Nintendo Entertainment System with her brother Josh. It brought back a flood of memories about stomping on the evil mushroom kingdom turtles, and searching for the Triforce or even for Zelda herself not to mention the endless possibilites of Excitebike where you could design your own levels! Anyway it just so turns out that today I discovered a webpage dedicated to the 1st issue of Nintendo power. I really had to laugh about this:

From the page:

“Ah, the famous ‘1-Up Trick’ from Super Mario Brothers, something with which I had a success rate of .0007% in accomplishing. It’s not that I didn’t know how to do it – the information was right there in front of me. Still, for whatever reason, I could never seem to pull it off. I’d get that first Koopa turtle out of the way, and when the fabled second Koopa made his trek down the brick mountain, I’d always [screw] up and somehow kill Mario. You know the music that played whenever Mario lost one of his lives? Well, and I swear this is true – it got to the point where that music would play as soon as I got up to that second turtle. The game became so confident that I was gonna die again that it’d roll out with the theme prematurely just to spite and shame me.

I really hated that stupid Koopa turtle. The second one, I mean. The first one was just doing his job. The second one was mean to me.”

I came home from Medicine Hat this afternoon and the house seemed to be in good shape, nothing broken – the oven wasn’t left on, and the lights were all out. Nobody was home and things seemed good. I went to teach swimming lessons and when I got back I noticed a strong scent of my cologne in my room. I hadn’t used any of it for a while now so I was suspicious. It seems that someone had spilt it sometime after I left and before I got back. I decided then that maybe it’s time for Jason to move out. Not only was he stealing from me but he was in my room stealing from me – and he knows that he is NEVER allowed to go in my room. I’ll give him until the end of the month. Now in the mean time I’ve got to find more roommates.