Knights of the Round Table - Star Trek TOS

I just don't quite know what to say about this one...

hrmmm....

You scored as XIII: Death. Death is probably the most well known Tarot card - and also the most misunderstood. Most Tarot novices would consider Death to be a bad card, especially given its connection with the number thirteen. In fact this card rarely indicates literal death.Without "death" there can be no change, only eventual stagnation. The "death" of the child allows for the "birth" of the adult. This change is not always easy. The appearance of Death in a Tarot reading can indicate pain and short term loss, however it also represents hope for a new future. XIII: Death 94% III - The Empress 88% XIX: The Sun 81% II - The High Priestess 75% XVI: The Tower 75% VI: The Lovers 69% I - Magician 69% VIII - Strength 69% XI: Justice 63% 0 - The Fool 56% IV - The Emperor 50% XV: The Devil 13% X - Wheel of Fortune 6% Which Major Arcana Tarot Card Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Quiz came from Karistan's blog, and overall, I can't really disagree with it. I promise more photos soon from our trip home.

Well... I managed it!

I made Bloger choke. It posted all 10 photos on Friday, and then wouldn't even let me log in yesterday!
So... today I'm only going to post 5 photos at a time and see how that goes


Saturday morning (Canada Day) we went to see Brian's grandma. She's a wonderful spunky 94 now, so we make sure we go see her every time we're anywhere near home. We spent a couple of hours just talking with her and relaxing.

Then we went to see the parade. Apparently Cambridge has one of the largest ones in Ontario. (According to the radio, anyways.) We were lucky enough to get a seat right at the very start of the parade. We could look down Bishop St where they were marshalling everyone, and see them start out on the route. It was a hot, hot day, and the parade itself was over an hour long. We had fresh cold water from Brian's dad's Pharmacy (diagonally across the intersection from us), and lots of sunscreen. Other than a really horrible incident with an asshole and his dog, it was a great time. I haven't been to the parade like that in years, and I really enjoyed just relaxing like that and talking with the people sitting around us. I took three million photos of the parade, so I'll probably put them up on my proper website. Okay, so that's a slight exageration, but only slight! I even managed to shoot some fairly cool video of the funky shriner cars! Not bad for playing with a new camera.


This young man stood at perfect attention for well over 30 minutes waiting to lead off the parade. He stood so tall and strong and unmoving. It really made me feel proud.



These two girls were sitting beside us, and mom and dad said I could post this photo of them enjoying the parade. They had a blast, especially when they were handing out free freezees! Did I mention it was hot?


The flyby was really neat. Especially since they actually came by four times!


These poor young men spent several sweltering hours in authentic WWI uniforms to go with the equipment. Authentic, wool uniforms! I sure hope they had a cooler hiding in there with cold water for them.

More photos to come, probably tomorrow!

Lets See if I can make Blogger Choke

By uploading too many photos!


This was absolutely a sign of the times for us. It took us about an hour of crawling along to *get* to the sign...



Did I mention we had some rain to deal with in the drive?


But it was better for us than for the flooded areas we drove through. Here you can see the flood waters almost completely up the on-ramp at one of the really pretty park/rest areas on our drive. Scary!


John's Birthday cake, with candles help from Madison.



Yummy! Fresh toes!



Attack of the Kiss Monster!


Happiness is... sitting on the kitchen floor in mom's lap with a cookie for each hand!


A Pegamoose, just for JenJen.


A photo of MillRace Park, where Brian proposed to me all those years ago. Next month will be our 11th wedding anniversary!

Vacation Update!

Your Pirate Name Is...

Black Princess of the Reine

What's Your Pirate Name?

Yep, Brian and I went to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie today. We thoroughly enjoyed it, and I didn't have great expectations, so that's saying something. Unlike poor Karistan, we didn't have to deal with a bunch of irritating teenagers misbehaving. Only one person with a T-Mobile phone (gotta love that distinctive ring...) who got roundly yelled at by the person they were with!

Okay, so I owe a huge update. Photos are coming (and will likely be a separate post). We just got back from vacation! We went home over the combined long Canada Day/Independance Day weekend. Just a short visit, but good to see family none the same. Here's the short version: Saw Superman Returns Wednesday night after work. Loved it! Left work after lunch on Thursday to start our drive. Had a LOT of problems with traffic/construction delays. Finally made it to Syracuse in about 9 hours (with good luck, it only takes five). Got up in the morning and drove the rest of the way. There was a birthday party for my brother on Friday and we spent most of the evening with my family. Went and (mostly) installed the air conditioner at Bonnie's so we wouldn't melt! (Unlike some of Madison's paintings!) Saturday morning I got up early and went down to the Farmer's Market and surprised Brian with a wonderful breakfast of fresh
fruits and vegetables, followed by a nice long morning visit with Brian's grandma. We watched the parade on Saturday and had dinner with my brother and Kim, followed up with fireworks. Sunday morning we drove to Drumbo to see Tony & Angela's new place, made a quick Costco stop for chocolate, followed by going to Elizabeth and Morley's for the afternoon, a great BBQ, and fun evening. Brian went to breakfast with his mom on Monday morning while I got the stuff picked up and packed up. We stopped at my parents on the way out of town and got to say a quick hello to my Uncle Rob as he had arrived for his holidays. Bonnie and Madison arrived back from camping as well, and I got attacked by the kiss monster before we hit the road! We made it back to Syracuse on Monday night, hit our favourite restaurant for dinner, and finally got to bed at a decent hour. Drove back the rest of the way on Tuesday, and arrived in time for a late dinner. We decided not to go out for more fireworks as we were both tired and looking forward to a night in our own bed! Wednesday was spent doing laundry and running errands. Joe and Jen came over for dinner and a movie (and thanks for looking after Percy). They brought Cheaper by the Dozen 2, and we all enjoyed it!
Thursday morning we got up and headed out for Connecticut for Connecticon. On the way, we made an incredible discovery... a Tim Hortons! We had to hop off the highway and make a stop. Brian got coffee and we both got donuts, and grabbed TimBits. Brian liked the coffee, but we both found the donuts a big disappointment. But, we did find a Timmys! Next stop was a cool little museum where they found a full set of hundreds of dinosaur tracks in the rocks. Just a little stop of an hour or so, but it was really neat! We arrived at the hotel in late afternoon, and decided to try a neat sounding restaurant in downtown Hartford. Then we discovered how horrible the directions were and managed not to get totally lost and eventually find the restaurant. Dinner was *great*! Friday morning the con started, and, well, it was a con! Connecticon is a large SciFi/Gaming/Anime convention. Lots of ... "interesting" costumes, and lots of teenagers. The gaming went really well, and I had a blast running the intros for most of the weekend. We got several books, and a whole lot of minis. Drove back Sunday night and arrived home just before midnight.

Bzzz Bzzzz

So, as you can tell, we're as busy as ever. Hosting was fun Friday and Saturday nights, Monday night Jess came over, Tuesday David came over, Wednesday (tonight) is Stitch'n'Bitch, Thursday is the official "David's last night out" dinner and Friday night is date night. ... Ummm... I'm *not* seeing a lot of time for me to go work out there! I've gotten a little slack lately, and my lack of progress on the weight loss is showing it. I'm not eating as well as I should either. Why do I have no willpower right now? Things should calm down next week, but then will be ramping back up again for the holiday weekend. We're currently planning on coming home, arriving on June 30th, leaving July 3rd. BUT... I may have to cancel that due to some work stuff. Ugh! Sooo, we may not be going home after all, and there's nothing like trying to plan a last minute cross-border trip with no idea if it's actually going to happen! If it's the case that we don't go home, we plan on maybe taking a couple of days off to go to Conneticut before the convention the following weekend. I think I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation!

What happens when a gamer is leaving for California...

You throw a party!


Eric brought the beer! And it's Molson's even!


Since we are gamers afterall, this is David, demonstrating displacement/blur!


Sad, sad gamers... it's inevitable, at some point, we all end up watching something on the computer!

Stitching Photos

My current main project, "Flosstitute"


My next focus project, Phoenix


My most recent big finish, Queen Anne's Lace, and a photo of the back of QAL as one of the recent SBQ's was to show the back of your work. I guess because I'm such a "logical" stitcher, my backs tend to be very neat.

Photos from my garden

My Alyssum (sp?), grown from seed even!


My Double Impatiens plant. Not grown from seen as they are propagation prohibited here! (And I'd love to know why...)



And a beautiful flowering bush that grows in our complex that I'd love to know the name of if anyone knows.

Vacation Plans ???

So... we’re thinking about going home to Canada for the July 1st (Canada Day)/ July 4th (Independence Day) holiday. I get a five day weekend, and we’ve got no specific plans for it. Other than to relax. Summer’s an incredibly busy time for me at work. Apparently the FDA doesn’t believe in summer vacations =P . We’d REALLY like to get to meet our new nephew. And I’d really like to go home and see BJ. She’s got a rough patch coming up. Is anyone else actually going to be around that weekend?


PS: My favourite new phrase "evidence getter-ridder-ofers"
(Mobile shredding machines)

Lots of news and little time to type...

So excuse the extreme disjointedness...

We got our visa paperwork! Wohoo! We can once again prove we're here legally, at least until May of 2009. This is a huge relief. My HR rep. still managed to screw up more things related to it, but I don't need to post those details here... MURP!!!

My neice Madison has just been recommended for and accepted into a very prestigious and advanced gymnastics training program. Bonnie (my sis) says she's just loving every minute of it and thriving. Go Madison!

My BIL James just won a prestigious award! Go James! There's more info at his blog (in the links)

Hello. My name is Heather, and I have a problem. I drove 250 miles (total) on Saturday so I could go play DnD. That I could eventually play here, in my own home. (There's a lot more to it than that, but I haven't time to explain it all right now...). And followed it up with a 12 hour "Special" on Sunday at Joey's.

The college has accepted Brian's application, but wants more info (like transcripts) before making a final decision. Awesome!

I've walked 295 miles so far this year! (And need to update the tickers at the top, I know. Maybe if I get more time!)

I have to go to Inwood again tomorrow. {Sarcasm on...} Oh, yeah, wohoo... An extra 90 miles of Long Island driving... {Sarcasm off}

Finally know Tom and Theresa's wedding date, so we'll be in the Ottawa area around Sept. 9th. Would love to meet up with folks up there. Jane, that deffinately means you!

And my MIL finally go her Mother's Day card. Gotta love the postal system!

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

Well, Brian finally did it. He applied to go back to college today. Wohoo! I'm really excited and proud of him. It's a very scary thing to him, but it should be really good for both of us. Because of his previous degree he won't have to take a full load in any semester, so that should make the adjustment a little easier. Presuming he's accepted (and no, we don't know when we'll find out) he'll have 7 hours/week in the first semester. The program is apparently fairly competitive, so he'll probably have to do at least an in person interview. Wish us luck!

Breaking the rules on dinner conversation topics...

Admiral Pooper Scooper, on his blog (click the title) said;
"This is Jesus’ teaching as I understand it: to love and treat others as myself; that in the eyes of God we are all equal; and not to fault others until I am myself faultless. He tells me to do the best I can, and it is really hard sometimes, but I try to spread this “good news”, this Gospel, by my words, deeds, and actions—by example, rather than by big mouth."

Hear, hear! For me, my faith is an intensely personal and private thing. I wasn't raised in any one particular branch of the Christian faith, but to attempt to embody the best aspects of many. Values like compassion, honesty, love and charity should be universal. I don't profess to have a full or complete knowledge of most of the world's religions, and am interested in learning more abut many of them. But from what I do know, these seem to be central values to all.

I have seen some incredible hyprocrasy in my life from people professing they are only doing what their religion calls for them to do. I have been blessed to know some incredible people, doing absolutely what their religion's beliefs call for, with more compassion, love and duty than you can imagine, and seen them excoriated by members of their own church.

To the hypocrites, I hope you find you way to being a happy, loving person, capable of being the person you believe yourself to be. To the good, I say the world needs more like you, and I try to live up to the example you have set.

I Love a Long Weekend!

I decided I liked the following concept: Work 4 days, have 4 days off, work 3 days, have 3 days off. What's not to like? So I took last Friday off to combine with the Memorial Day long weekend here in the US. I've got a three day work week and then my first summer hours Friday off this coming Friday. I feel like such a slacker. And I love it!

Friday was mostly spent lazing around our place and relaxing. Picked up movie tickets in the afternoon and did a little shopping, but that's about it. We went with John, Jen and David to see X-Men 3 at a late show (10:30pm, so I'm getting old, but that's late for me!). It was fun, but not a "great movie". Just a fun action picture. Nothing special, but not horrible. Didn't get home and to bed until after 1:30. Ugh. I'm so not up for late nights anymore. Might have something to do with being up at 6:30am now for work. :)

Spencer, our downstairs neighbour, decided to start his usual Saturday morning pounding musicfest at 6:55am. On a SATURDAY!! I just can't comprehend this. As a result, I was up for the day, and then tired for the rest of it. Jen had lived her whole life here on Long Island without going to Roosevelt Fields Mall. This is the largest mall here on LI (which is saying something), and not something that we could allow to continue! Laurie and I took Jen and fixed this on Saturday morning. We had a blast with a girls day out shopping. I came home in the early afternoon with the intention of having a quick nap before the rest of the day, but David was already there and he and Brian were watching a movie, so I joined in on that. We were having a BBQ later in the day, and ended up with John, Jen, Laurie, Eric and David there (and I have a real feeling I've forgotten someone). John was nice enough to bring his Nintendo DS with him for me to try, and all four of the games that have me drooling. You'd think the boy has an idea what I like! I'm sold, but I'll wait until the new DS Lite comes out in June. This was all as prelude to the main plan for the night. Bonnie, I hope you're sitting down… Your big sister went out to a bar! Yes! Shocking, but true! For the first time since before I got married! More than 10 years ago! Poor John couldn't come with us though, he's still only 20 for a few more months. It was so odd when I realized that was why he wasn't coming with us all. Between the drinking age being higher here, and John being mature for his age, we just don't think of it. Jen is friends with a band that was playing at a local bar (starting at 11pm, ouch) and we all went as a group and had fun. The band was pretty good, the place was bouncing and we all had a good time. David, Brian and I left at about 2:30 and it was still going strong. Apparently, last call here is 3:45am! I so could NOT handle trying to make it for that… But we had a lot of fun! I hereby voluntarily join the old-foogies club.

Sunday we slept in until about 10am, followed by a trip to IKEA to replace the cushion on our Poang chair. We've talked about getting a new one for a while, and having a full glass of soda spilled on it Saturday night was the final nail. We've washed the cover on the old one and are holding onto it for now. Not much else accomplished beyond that. I had intended to do a bunch of stitching since we've bought several new DVD's lately, but knew I was waayyy too tired to try to stitch on Flosstitute. I'd end up spending longer unstitching what I'd done!

Monday (Memorial Day) we had planned to go to the park again for a picnic. Mother Nature just didn't want to co-operate with us. It was almost 90 degrees out, plus humidity. And this park is known for the local tick population. I picked on up last time we were there and didn't find it until the next day. Ugh! So, I'm not willing to go there unless I'm in full pants etc. We waited until about 5pm to go for our picnic, and had fun. Spent some time just enjoying the light on the waves and watching the water. David came over after and we watched one of my favourite movies from the 80's "Real Genius". I LOVE that movie. Mmmm… popcorn is calling me….

Snow!!!!!!!!

Happy Victoria Day to my Canadian readers. Victoria Day usually marks the first long weekend of summer. It's when you get the garden planted, fire up the BBQ, and open up the cottage if you're lucky enough.

I miss Sudbury very much. I know this. There are aspects I don't miss, and this is true of anywhere I've lived. But one of the things I generally miss is the winters. Not the extremes (like -105F/-75C windchills!), but the general snow and winter time and the fun involved. I love cross-country skiing (when my knees will allow) and skating. But some things I just don't miss.

Like the fact they had snow yesterday....
Welcome to summer in Sudbury!

Camera buying time

Okay, so I've finally decided that I do need to buy a new digital camera.  The one I have is more than three years old, and has been pretty good to me.  It's just got a low maximum resolution, and can't take video with sound.  So, I'm going to ask you, my blog readers, which cameras have you had and liked or disliked and why.  Even if it's an older camera, it's good to know how a brand is in general.  I'm looking for something of at least 5 MP, movie mode with sound (preferably Quicktime since I love my mac) and it has to have a close-up (macro?) mode.
Thoughts?  Suggestions? Input please!

Drool, drool, lust

MacBook Haiku

I want one, in black.
Evil Apple geniuses,
I can't afford it.

Big Weekend!

DERICKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, Joe managed to pull one over on us. Derick had come back for Chris & Colleen's wedding last weekend, and was sticking around until tomorrow. So Joe set it up for Derick to come game with us on Saturday as a surprise. Derick moved to California in January needing a change. It was a big step for him and is clearly proving to have been the right one. He's the great tough-guy with an absolute heart of gold. I miss him. It was great to see him. I need to email him more often! We took a group "we miss you" photo a couple of weekends back that I've been meaning to get everyone to sign to email him. We even had a bottle of his Sunkist standing in as him in the photo. Maybe I'll post it here.

So, for the rest of the weekend, it went something like this:

Thursday night we saw Brad Sherwood and Colin Mochrie perform. If you've ever seen the TV show "Whose line is it anyways?", they're two of the regulars. It was at the North Fork Theater in Westbury, which is a surprisingly TINY theatre in the round. We had an absolute blast. My cheeks were still hurting through most of Friday at work. If they're coming to a theatre near you, I highly recommend it. It didn't hurt that we had great seats either! I'll go through my photos at some point soon and post any that turned out well. Yep, I've got my camera back, all fixed and (seemingly) working well.

Friday – didn't do anything special. Felt like I was coming down with an ear infection all day and pretty much just lazed on the couch for the evening. I have a feeling I'm forgetting something, so if I remember it, I'll add it.

Saturday – Got up out of bed to a phone call from my Dr's about my blood work. Something's definitely up with my WBC's. Would I please come in sometime this week so we can repeat the test. Decide since I've got the nurse on the phone to ask if there's any chance I can get in this morning as I'm coming down with an ear infection. She checks. Answer: "Get here ASAP and we'll fit you in somewhere. Be prepared for a wait though". I'm perfectly okay with this, and thrilled to not have to wait until Tuesday to see her (she closes Mondays since she's open Saturdays). Hurriedly get dressed, skip the shower, brush my teeth and hair and run out the door, apologizing to Brian that now he'll have to do my share of the cleaning for the "new gamer" coming later. I figure if I make a good first impression, they're more likely to forgive and forget when we don't get the cleaning done. I get to the Dr.'s and there's not a soul in the waiting room. Pretty much right in, see the Dr. and then out. Confirms ear infection, gives me antibiotics just in case given the WBC issues. (She generally is against the overprescription of antibiotics, and that's something I really appreciate. I'm really limited to what ones I can take due to allergies and don't want to risk developing some type of resistant bug. That'd be all I need!) As I'm leaving the waiting room is completely full. Not an empty seat, and several people standing. I'm very glad I didn't take my time in heading over there…
Gaming with Derick (and Helen, Andy, Jen, Joe, Jay, Jess, John, Brian, Rob and probably a few more people I've forgotten and left out). Had fun playing at an APL 10 mod that wasn't insanely hard. Will have to find Steve Hess at a con sometime and thank him. And then kill him for all the bad puns in it… But I wouldn't expect anything less from him.

Sunday – Mother's Day – Our local Lego store is closing and everything was 50% off, so we *had* to go and check it out. Did fairly well and only spent $60. And a lot of that was stocking up on gifts for the nieces for upcoming occasions. The store was just starting to get slammed as we left. We called our moms. I deliberately wanted to wait to call mom at lunch time since I knew from Bonnie and John they were going to do the family brunch thing. Called Brian's mom, but got the machine. Tried Elizabeth's place, same thing. I had won tickets to the Long Island Ducks game (baseball) from work for the day, so off we went. We were enjoying the game, but it was cold (50F/10C) to be sitting outside, even dressed in layers. When it started to sprinkle, we decided that going home and being warm and dry was probably the better decision. Walked in the door and check for messages in case Brian's mom had called back. Nope. We hadn't even been in long enough for Brian to get his shoes off when the phone rings. He just looks at me. "The surveillance is starting again I see". Had a nice chat with Janet, and even let Brian talk to her too! Didn't do much for the rest of the day but try to get warm and try to survive being sick.

This bug is really knocking me for a loop. Ear/sinus infection, and moving on to my chest today. I didn't get much sleep last night, and spent most of it propped up in my stitching chair trying not to hock up a lung. I'm surviving work today well-medicated, but wouldn't trust myself to be doing anything involving thought processes. I even (rightly) decided there was no way I should be driving like this, so Brian's on chauffeur duty again. He's being really good to me right now, and I appreciate it. That's all, no stitching to report as, as Brian put it "If I offered you a penny for your thoughts, would I get two cents back?"

Ten Unusual things about me

1.  I have a house husband who spoils me absolutely rotten.
2.  I speak English, some French and German, and a little Italian and Spanish.
3.  I am a physicist, but I started university in Mining Engineering.
4.  I married my high school sweetheart.
5.  I've had brain surgery that didn't leave a single exterior scar (including the scalp, which wasn't cut - no shaved head for me!).  Other than the IV that is...
6.  I've broken more bones than many professional football players.  And I don't play sports.
7.  I'm near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the left.  Learning to drive was "fun"!
8.  I only have (had) three wisdom teeth.
9.  I have left my home country with nothing more than what was in my suitcase.  By bus.  At midnight.  (Although Brian did eventually join me and our stuff came shortly thereafter... but it sounds exotic!)
10. I have seven tattoos.  None of them are regularly covered by clothing, and yet I can count on my fingers the number of people that have seen them.


Shamelessly stolen from BlindWandering's blog

Overheard on the radio traffic report:

"...there's an accident just past Exit Blah-blah in the left lane. Also in the left lane just past the accident is an upright fridge. I'd recommend avoiding Route Blabbity, unless, of course, you need a drink."