Just a quickie. I'm off to bed. Day 4 of work was ok. I'm getting into the groove again and I enjoy the organization and the follow up and writing letters and solving problems. Maybe it won't turn out to be a mickey mouse job after all...we'll see.

Had the rest of my teeth done this morning and the dentist. They feel so good, I never want to eat again after they are done.  I also got some special whitening toothpaste and when I go next week to get the fillings done we're going to discuss options for straightening my front teeth.

Oh yes...the good news of the day! I got two cheques from Chubb.  So...I've paid a stack of bills and hopefully will be in the black for a few weeks :)

Niters.

A friend sent this to me and I just had to share!

THE CURTAIN RODS

She spent the first day packing her belongings into boxes, crates, and suitcases.
On the second day, she had the movers come and collect her things.
On the third day, she sat down for the last time at their beautiful dining room table by candlelight, put on some soft background music, and feasted on a pound of shrimp, a jar of caviar, and a bottle of Chardonnay.

When she had finished, she went into each and every room and stuffed half-eaten shrimp shells dipped in caviar into the hollow of all of the curtain rods.

She then cleaned up the kitchen and left.
When the husband returned with his new girlfriend, all was bliss for the first few days. Then, slowly, the house began to smell. They tried everything: cleaning, mopping, and airing the place out. Vents were checked for dead rodents, carpets were steam cleaned, and air fresheners were hung everywhere!

Exterminators were brought in to set off gas canisters, during which they had to move out for a few days, and in the end they even paid to replace the expensive wool carpeting. Nothing worked.

People stopped coming over to visit
Repairmen refused to work in the house.
The maid quit.

Finally, they could not take the stench any longer and decided to move.

A month later, even though they had cut their price in half, they could not find a buyer for their stinky house. Word got out, and, eventually, even the local realtors refused to return their calls.

Finally, they had to borrow a huge sum of money from the bank to purchase a new place.  The ex-wife called the man and asked how things were going. He told her the saga of the rotting house. She listened politely and said that she missed her old home terribly and would be willing to reduce her divorce settlement in exchange for getting the house back.

Knowing his ex-wife had no idea how bad the smell was, he agreed on a price that was about 1/10th of what the house had been worth, but only if she were to sign the papers that very day. She agreed, and, within the hour, his lawyers delivered the paperwork. A week later, the man and his girlfriend stood smiling as they watched the Moving company pack everything to take to their new home,including the curtain rods.

I just love a happy ending, don't you?

This Friday Iain's middle school is having a "dance" - these are grades 6-8 so...I guess ages 11-13 ish. He said tonight he wanted to go and would we buy him a "nice shirt" to wear. He needed some new jeans anyway so off we went to the mall and he picked out a blue striped shirt. It is striped dark blue, light blue and grey. When he put it on...oh my gosh....there was a handsome young MAN in front of me. He is now taller than I am...so I think he's about 5'2" and over this past summer he lost all of his "baby fat" so he is very lean looking with long legs and what's left of his summer tan and his sun bleached blonde hair. In this shirt, his eyes just popped - they are already quite a bright blue but the shirt just made them more so. I will post a pic on Friday.

We also took him to get his ear pierced as well. This was a big surprise to him because he's been asking since he was about 7 and we kept telling him he had to wait til he was 13. A few weeks ago he asked again and I said we could talk about it around Christmas time (he'd be 12 1/2 then). He didn't like it, but he was happier than having to wait almost a whole year. Well, tonight I thought it would be a nice surprise for him. Apparently I picked the wrong day because they also got their hep shots at school today and he wasn't too impressed with getting stung twice in one day!!! Although, he finally did say he wanted it done and he chose his earring and was quite brave. Something to make him even more grown up.

I just can't get over where the years have gone.

Check this out: 6 months to 12 years

Saw my doctor today. She is furious with the insurance company. She spent most of our session ranting about them...but it is good to know I am not (completely) crazy and that she agrees with me about them being completely unreasonable.  I am going to try and work full time this week and see how it goes. I know it will just take some time getting used to getting up, dressed, make up etc and out the door so early again.

Met Mel and Shell for dinner at The Longhorn.  We had fun...we always do. They told me about this thing in the IKEA catalogue that I had no idea about. If you are in Canada and have the 2007 IKEA catalogue, look inside the front flap at the dog...what do you see?  If you don't have it, let me know and I will try and scan it for you. Apparently, "everyone" knows about this except me.....

Anyway after dinner me and Mel went to Dairy Queen and then my favourite Goodwill at Islington and Dundas and I spent about $17 on books - I know...I am a bookslut...but proud of it ;)  I got some good finds and am able to fulfill a few bookwishes as well as having some stuff for trades and relays (if I decide to become more active).

Louis was back today and I have to admit, I did feel alot better with him there, I also accomplished quite alot and did some follow ups as well as played with a new Microsoft Program called...oh I forget now...damn...but it sets up forms for you...and also I redid my filing system for the complaints so I feel semi organized.

Not much else to report on. I'm going to bed and to read for a bit.  Tomorrow is Day 3!

BookCrossing
Chapters

This must be one of the first books I ever registered on BookCrossing and I am just now getting around to reading it.  It was worth the wait.

This takes place in Toronto and starts off with the point blank shooting death of a big name Hollywood director in town for the Toronto Film Festival (not bad timing huh?) and the disappearance of his devoted teenage daughter, Carrie.

The "hero", Ellis Portal, is a former judge(now down on his luck due to an assault charge and drug/alcohol addiction) who is roped by the police into helping them find Carrie.  Involved in the plot are small time drug dealers, homeless people and wives for sale.

I really enjoyed this and will look for the other two in the series. Ellis Portal is an interesting and very human character.  As well,  I always enjoy novels set in Toronto as I can see where the author is writing about.  This novel takes place in the seedier parts of Toronto and the Don Valley Ravine.

You might wonder what those two things (in my title) have to do with each other. Plenty!  Today my insurance company told me that "there is nothing wrong with me" and will not pay my claim. Further to that, they are investigating my previous claim as it "looks funny". Thankfully, my doctor said she would call them and straighten it all out for me. I hope she was able to.

On a bright note - I did get my interim supervisor to sign off on my payroll and I have been promised I will have a cheque on Friday. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for me, otherwise wave to me as you drive by Yonge/Bloor - I'll be the short one sitting on the corner in a cardboard box for four.

All that aside, today was not too bad. I did get to spend some time talking to someone on MSN that I haven't really talked to in a long time and it was fun chatting with him, when he chooses to, he can be quite funny and entertaining. I haven't seen that side of him much lately.

I have still not decided what to do about school. I keep putting the decision off.

I have a doctor's appt. tomorrow afternoon and then I am meeting Mel and Shell (they are like the Bobbsey twins!) for an early dinner, which will be a break and a nice time I am sure.

Fall is definitely here. More wind and rain tonight and definitely cooler temps.  My gas bill for Sept was $27 - I wonder what it will be for Oct-Feb?

Liam goes to the chiropractor again tomorrow and we will find out about his orthotic shoes and when he will get them.  he is definitely limping more to the right than ever before. I hope this can help him.

Another weekend gone by with nothing really productive accomplished. I seem to be making a habit of this.

Just finished dinner, I made stew - I love stew. This is the perfect day for stew, a cold, blustery, rainy Fall day.  Having said that, Fall is my favourite season and some of the leaves are already turning.  Soon it will be red and gold everywhere. The only problem is that Fall seems so short now and we seem to go right in to Winter.

I played on the bookrelay site a little tonight - well actually, I went in on one of Shelley's turns yesterday and then today checked out some reverse wishlist relays. I like those because I pick who I am sending to and control the postage issue as well as get rid of books I know I have handy.  So I am sending one book to lauraloo29 and one to CdnBlueRose.

I have several on lauraloo29's wishlist so I will toss them all in there and she will get a nice surprise RABCK of about 5 books I think, all on her wishlist...and I pass along 5 books all in one shot.  My attempts to lighten my shelves is not really working so I am going to have start giving them away faster than I accumulate.

Going to read for a bit, then hot bath and bed. Tomorrow is a workday and Louis will be back.  Wish me luck.

I did very little today. I ended up sleeping in til almost 12. I was supposed to take Louisa to Costco to get contacts and also to pick up a new phone for Den...of course I did neither.

I did meet Shell at Williams in Oakville, then we went for an early dinner at Kelsey's and then on to her house...oh yes...we did stop at Costco on the way to her house just to look at books. We only bought one each. That is pretty good for us .

I bought The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy. It has the movie cover and I have to admit although I've heard about this before, it was the ads for the movie that really made me want to read the novel.

I also picked up The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards from Shell, it's a bookcrossing book. Mount TBR is not getting smaller.

Then we hung out at her house while I ripped some CDs and tried to connect to her wireless connection (unsuccessfully!) and we watched old game shows on The Gameshow Network. We play along and yell out answers and laugh alot. It's such a silly channel. We get so caught up in it!

Well now I'm going to read for a bit, then head to bed. One day of the weekend down, one to go!

I think the height of decadence and luxury must be the ability to slide into a bed with freshlylaundered sheets in the middle of the day with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book.  Luckily for me, I was able to do that today. Still fighting this sinus infection, I was tired but not really sleepy and decided my bed looked like the most comfortable place in the house.  Of course I was right :) I love my bed.

Reading for a while, the warm milk and chocolate and the slight breeze coming through the window lulled me into dreamless sleep for a few hours which I needed badly.

I haven't slept well in weeks and am not sure why. I wake up feeling drugged or hung over and I have the strangest dreams. Last night I had a dream that may have been a memory or triggered by a memory, but why it would come back now after so many years is beyond me. It was also mixed up in the way dreams mix up present and the past.  We were celebrating Christmas, Iain and Liam were there, my mom, Lisa and Louisa (Lou was a baby though) and we were waiting for my dad to show up.  He came so late that Christmas dinner was ruined, of course my mom was in tears and furious and threw all the dinner into the garbage - which was a terrible waste as many Christmases just throwing enough money together to get a turkey, potatoes and carrots was a trial.  It was very odd. That's all I remember about it.

Well I've had a fine two days, battling viruses (or is that virii, I'm never sure) on my laptop.  Rogers suspended my service because a virus on my computer tried to connect to their server...or something like that. I don't understand computer stuff. Anyway..all clear now, I think.

Went to Dr. Spring today and got some drugs for the sinus infection I've been fighting, so I hope I will start to feel better tomorrow. I can just imagine B's reaction to me being off the two days this week. 

What else have I been up to? Not alot, slowly working my way through An Instance of the Fingerpost.  I enjoyed the second part more than the first, and now the third is a bit draggy again, so it will be interesting to see how it all turns out in the end.

On Oct 1, we're having a meet up in Buffalo that I am looking forward to.  It will be so much fun to see everyone and just to have a day away. I have 14 vacation days to use before the end of the year so I may take the Monday after in case we are back late.

Off to do some more laundry. Wanna help?

I think I finally got the pay thing straightened out with Manulife and work..keep your fingers and toes crossed for me, I'll update you next week when I (hopefully) get paid.

I've been sleeping on and off all day with this sinus headache. I just keep taking sinus meds and they knock me out - no pain :)  Actually it is a little better right now and I just had some ice cream which soothed my throat.

I haven't read in days, maybe I'll try for a bit tonight. The book I'm reading is very interesting.

We sort of set up Iain's computer tonight, but we can't find the wireless adapter, it looks like a little blue memory stick...it has to be in a box somewhere. I like this idea because I can control how much time he spends on line by his access to the key.

Normally I spend Tuesday with Melissa but I am not sure if she will want to see me if I'm sick, and I am not sure I am up to going out.

For blogs previous to this, if you're on my friends list, you can see them at

http://360.yahoo.com/vincenzawall

I'll slowly add the entries here over time, by the appropriate dates.