All you need is love
The 64-year-old died after dousing his 71-year-old ex-wife with gas on Sunday in a violent domestic dispute in Pincourt, west of Montreal.
Failing love, gasoline and a match works. Yikes.
Everyone (well, if your Canadian anyway) heard about Bishop Henry's letter to the Prime Minister but I doubt a lot of folks had an opportunity to read Rev. Peter Short's letter (Moderator for the United Church of Canada) and I think it's worth giving it a little more air time because it reminds us that Bishop Henry doesn't speak for all Christians. I suppose this letter didn't get the media blitz because it doesn't have the shock value that Bishop Henry can lend to the discussion.
You can read it here, I came across it because I've recently been reading a political blog called The Upper Canadian, which is an excellent read if you enjoy Canadian politics. (The guy doesn't know me from a hole in the wall but he's an excellent writer and worth me doling out the praise to my 5 readers).
There are several paragraphs in this letter that I connected with, but I particularly liked this one:
Further, I understand value to be created by God, not by ancient custom nor by current fashion nor by general approval. God does not love because human creatures have value. Rather, it is in loving human creatures that God gives them value. Value is a gift -- not a rule, not a partisan lever, and certainly not a weapon. It is wrong to invoke the love of God in order that one person's "values" might diminish another's value. Those who claim that homosexual people threaten to dismantle the value of heterosexual marriage would do well to remember that if anyone destroys marriage, it is married people, not gays and lesbians.
Since it appears that a lot of people are concerned that by legalizing same-sex marriage we weaken the traditional definition of marriage. My knee jerk reaction to this is "what the fuck?". It did get me thinking what exactly is the definition of marriage? Dictionary.com has a whole page of various definitions, one of them being the legal union of a man and a woman.
My marriage to Steve is more than a simple legal union, so I didn't really identify with that defintion. I did, however, identify with this one - "a close union" because that's what it is to me. Steve and I were essentially a married couple before we threw a party and wore pretty clothes and being married hasn't changed our relationship one iota. My parents aren't "legally" married but they've lived together in an intimate relationship for years and I've considered them "my parents" for a long time now and not "my mother and her live-in boyfriend". In my mind, that is marriage.
I suppose I should have mentioned that Steve and I are once again a proud Aunt and Uncle. Steve's oldest sister gave birth to a healthy baby boy last night, Justin eh, something-or-other. I already forget his middle name, and I didn't ask any of the other necessary questions either, although I can tell you I lost the baby pool. When you're on niece/nephew number 10 and your friends are popping them out like it's a contagious disease, it really is the baby pools that hold your interest.
A week ago I typed up an entry waxing poetic on my sleeping woes. I meant to post it, and then life got in the way as it tends to do. Damn that life business. In that same amount of time, Steve took my woes to heart and has miraculous managed to train our dog out of waking up in the middle of the night to create a rukus for attention and pee breaks and destroy a perfectly good night sleep for yours truly. I don't know how Steve did it, but now Vegas sleeps through the night and the only thing that I can possibly blame for my sleep issues are the cats so the entire post is now out-of-date and my husband has moved into the "Hero" category.
Although my sleep has improved significanly, I still get a rather crummy night sleep. So I'm looking for some sleeping tips and tricks. We've decided that at this late stage in the game we really can't kick the cats out (Entropy has been sleeping with me for 10 years, it just seems cruel) and to be fair, when my sister was here we didn't allow them in as they prefer to cuddle up with her anyway and my sleep still wasn't stellar. Any suggestions you have, I'm all ears.
Another inquiry: I have to cut my hair, it's so long and unruly that even putting it up is annoying because it's too heavy and pulls on the elastic or clip. I want to keep it longish though, say shoulder length, but if you see a cute style that would work with my round, chubby face send 'em my way!
*warning this is the really girly-girl stuff*
And while I'm asking for suggestions, anyone out there ever use an at-home body wax kit? I tried a small patch of skin last night to see how I would react. Women who wax on a regular basis are made of a hardier stuff than I. I was too chicken to rip off the strip after I put it on so I had to enlist the help of Steve who was a little too eager to cause me pain, if you ask me. Anyway, I tried a patch on my thigh and at first it developed some red bumps (Steve said "those are your pores, relax" funny how guys can relax when the only beauty torture they have to endure is shaving their face and lately Steve isn't even doing THAT. hmph). Today the bumps are gone, thank god, but the spot is very, very red. What is suppose to happen after you've waxed your legs? I put on the oil they provided, but is there something else that will reduce the redness faster? Tips and tricks? Is the redness even normal?
The wee grasshopper has returned to the cold and bleak that is Calgary (or, at least, I like to believe it to be cold and bleak now that I've moved west). She was wonderful enough not to leave without first updating my little piece of internet since I'm not savvy enough to figure these things out on my own. To my credit, I did try. And then I promptly gave up, I have to do computer related crap all day at work, I'm not keen to do it after hours.
It was a fun weekend! Victoria was oodles of fun, and then we bought a pound and a quarter of fudge because there was sign that declared "fresh fudge" and then there was a sale... dude, a pound and a quarter of fudge is A LOT of fudge. No one needs that much fudge!
I showed her my house, and we walked down to the creek (aka river), which was an adventure because it's basically wild back there. We drove to Bamfield, also an adventure and not a whole lot to do in Bamfield if we're being honest but we did have lunch at the head of the West Coast Trail and analysed animal prints in the sand that we thought were bear prints and turned out to be dog prints. We're idiots. Plus, we spent quality time with Grandma which resulted in three free meals. Are we not incredibly spoiled? One of those meals was the Robbie Burn's dinner which I thought was pretty interesting. Haggis doesn't look nearly as digusting as it sounds, and there was a good band and we got to watch people try to Scottish circle dance (I think it's called circle dancing) and a cute little old lady asked Steve to dance and he said no. In his defence, he didn't understand that she was asking him to dance.
I think I have some shots of the husband and sister on my film camera, so if I remember I'll post them once they're developed.
My lil' sister is flying in tonight for a little sister-weekend-lovin'. I'm meeting her at the airport, then we're spending the night in downtown Victoria to play tourist for Friday. We're going to have Afternoon Tea at The Empress. We're too uppity for words. hee!
We're being British on Friday, and Scottish on Saturday and attending a Robbie Burns dinner in Qualicum Beach with Steve and Grandma. We celebrated Robbie at our wedding (Steve's sister read a poem during the ceremony) and now we're going to eat food in his honour, and pipe in the Haggis (Haggis? Gross.) and listen to celtic music. Gotta love celtic music!
Sunday we were toying with the idea of going to Bamfield on the west coast to watch the waves roll in for a while. Just hang out, get wet, and see some pretty scenary which the island has much of. We'll probably just chill out on Monday, maybe do a little shopping around town, that sort of thing.
I'm excited to see the sister! Fun, fun!
are scanned and uploaded to our wedding site, if you want to see them, send me an email at ambernATcanadaDOTcom and I'll send you the url!
I'm driving back to the office from the gym, stop at a stop sign, then hit the gas. Steve's coffee cup (half full) launches itself from the cup holder, does a rather spectacular flip, and lands on the seat beside me.
If it was a athlete in the coffee olympics it would have scored Gold, I swear it.
Unfortunately this isn't the coffee olympics and I currently smell of butter rum coffee, and the truck like a coffee house. Of course Steve also does the shameful thing of adding milk to his coffee (why? coffee and tea should remain milk-free in my opinion) meaning that in a day or two the truck will smell the sweet smell of sour milk and dog (as it perpetually smells like dog). Mmmm... tasty!
Amber: I've noticed lately that I'm really starting to age in my face.
Steve: You're 30, it's all downhill from here.
Amber: gee thanks, that's nice.
Steve: Seriously, you stop growing at 30.
Amber: You mean I could have been getting taller throughout my 20s?! What the hell, I was robbed!
Steve: No, at 30 you stop creating new cells, everything just slowly ages from now on.
Amber: That's the most depressing thing I've ever heard.
When Steve and I first moved into the new house I set up our phone. Nothing special about that, I signed up via their online sign-up form, and voila! The day of our move, our phone was hooked up.
Fast forward to last week. We still haven't received a bill and I'm thinking I'll call Telus and inquire. Then, Telus called me before I had a chance and asked me if I had time to chat. I told him he had to make it speedy as the O.C. had just started (yes, I watch the O.C. - we all have our guilty addictions). He laughed. We discussed my service and he asked me if I had any concerns. I said I do, I haven't received a bill and I'd like to have one. He assured me it's in the mail and told me the damage. He inquired how I felt about my long distance coverage. I told him I have no feelings about it, as I haven't received a bill to even KNOW what the coverage is at this present time and I don't spend a lot of time memorizing what I signed up for.
I would have paid the bill right there and then, except, well, I don't know what my account number is or the special little Telus PIN number that is on the top portion of the bill. Since it was "on it's way" I decided to wait for it (what other choice did I have, anyway?).
Fast-forward to Tuesday, our phone is not working. I add it up to snow on the lines, snow has been blamed for everything else, why not the phone line? Today I finally got around to making an online repair request with Telus. Their email response? My line has been temporarily disconnected! Fuckers!
So I had to call their stupid service department, listen to their creepy phone system (have you ever called Telus? It's CREEPY. You talk to the automated system instead of punching in numbers. There is nothing like trying to tell a machine your problems, it's just not the same. I'd rather just press a number on the keypad, thanks). I've been on-hold for about 25 minutes. Currently I'm being forced to listen to Shaina Twain and it's making me feel a little murderous.
Before anyone gets smart and tells me I could get my account number if I log into Telus and then just pay the bill, you CAN'T log into Telus without that damn 4-digit PIN number that's ON YOUR BILL. I don't have a god-damn bill.
I feel ridiculous admitting this, but I'm actually sad that Jen and Brad are officially separated. If only I didn't just get married, I could be available for when Brad sweeps into town and falls madly in love with me.
Right. Failing that, I do hope they get back together. I wanted them to be the next Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson.
I've been doing a phenomenal job procrastinating from work all day; I wonder how long I can keep this up. I've pretty much exhausted all light reading available to me on the interweb so unless I start some heavy-duty reading I think I'm going to be forced to do some real work. meh.
Did I mention Steve and I bought a fancy coffee-maker? No. Well...let me tell you about it! It's very cool, you can make just a cup of coffee or two cups or a whole carafe and it comes with the travel mugs! I've been diligently setting the automatic timer every night so we can coffee-to-go every morning. We're uber-yuppies. We both plug our cell phones in when we get in the car, drink out of our sleek stainless steel travel mugs and are really just too cool for words (I didn't pay $100 for it, Sears is a rip-off!).
(And no, I don't really want to marry Brad Pitt, I love my husband and he's pretty damn cute himself. If he wanted to be a superstar I have no doubt he could be a superstar. But then he'd probably dump me for some Angelina or something and that would be bad).
There really wasn't any Weapons of Mass Destruction - the US has given up the search.
Not very comforting to all the families who had to endure the loss of family members, air raids and other unpleasant things associated with the war, nevermind the dangerous situation that currently exists in Iraq.
The car was pulled out of the driveway last night so we're free! Free to sleep in and come to work late and drive to the post office! It's fab-u-lous.
In the excitement of being able to leave the house last night, we did just that. We first took the dog out to the mall (part of his training routine) where he did very well and didn't bark at a soul, and then he was treated with a run on the beach (well, the snow really) where he acted like a complete crazy dog. An exercised dog is a very pleasant dog indeed, and he's been a complete angel ever since his little walk. Poor pooch hated being stranded as much as we did.
I enjoy having my routine back. I must be getting old as I'm beginning to find change irritating.
In other exciting news, I've been accepted into the Diploma Program in the Restoration of Natural Systems. I'm not entirely sure when I get to actually attend courses, but I've been accepted! Hopefully this course will open some doors for me on the island.
fuck, now they're saying it's going to snow this afternoon and to expect another inch of the white stuff.
meh.
I'm in a seriously sour mood. Our truck is still stuck, and we (Steve & I) spent half an hour yesterday attempting to get the thing to move to no avail. It's really stuck now. To add to that annoyance I have an evil headache that doesn't seem to be letting up. Even going to bed at 9:00 last night didn't work.
Since it's stuck we have no choice but to car pool. I hate car-pooling. I was even hesistant to car pool with Steve when I first moved out here and I simply adore Steve so being forced to car pool with anyone else beyond Steve makes me grumpy. I couldn't even car pool with one of my closest friends in University I'm that hard to get along with ;).
I don't know what it is. I suppose it's getting used to other people's idiosyncracies (like heating the interior of their vehicle to near Carribbean temperatures), the inability to run any sort of errand at all so we're out of milk and other life neccessities and I feel like I really, truly can't ask to stop at a grocery store, not even for 5 minutes, or go to the post office to get the rent cheque from my tenant, or simply not being able to go the gym. Whatever the cause, I'm pissy about the entire situation. The weather Gods can bite me.
And the god-damn snow isn't melting, instead it's getting icier because we're in the island equivalent of a cold snap (-11 C/12 F, I know that's not cold at all, but it is for us).
Steve's so pissed off with his truck he spent his evening researching vehicles. He's pissed off he didn't buy a 4x4 7 years ago when he bought his truck. Persoanlly I don't think he should beat himself up over it, he probably didn't have the money for a 4x4 at the time, and figured he'd upgrade eventually and then ended up keeping his little truck instead because in most situations, the truck is quite handy. Who know we'd be living in the boonies with no decent road access and then suddenly have 18" of snow dumped on our heads? Lesson learned.
There is now a foot and a half of snow, but thankfully the power came back on. I think the quick fix in the power situation is a direct result in living in an area with the title of "Estates". Other parts of the island were out of power for almost two days! They should really throw up a sign and claim their area is an estate too!
Since the entire island is blanketed in a tonne of snow what can you do but go skiing? So we drove out to Mount Washington, rented some cross country skis and very quickly realized just how out of shape we truly are. Still, it was beautiful and quiet in that kind of quiet that only exists when the world is blanketing with an awful lot of snow.
The downside to all this snow is, unfortunately, that all our vehicles are stuck. We had a friend in a 4x4 pick us up and take us skiing, and he's picking us up tomorrow to take us to work. Not having a mode of transportation when you live in the boonies really makes you feel isolated. So I defragged my hard drive which hadn't been done for three years. These are very exciting times.
When the power goes out you're not just without power. You're without heat. You're without water. You're pretty much screwed.
You see, the house is heated with electric heaters (no natural gas lines out here, my friends). Thankfully, we have a wood stove, so we wouldn't turn into icicles. We hopped out of bed in a hurry to get the hot water before it got cold. We turned on the tap and nothing. What? But why? Because there are no water lines out here either! Our water is pumped into our house via an well at the back of the house. A well that is serviced by, you guessed it, an electric pump.
How on earth did people exist before electricity?!
We drove into work and showered here. Thank god for companies who have the good sense to install bathrooms with showers!
All complaining aside, it's breath-takingly beautiful out there. The island basically comes to a slow crawl when it snows, the snow is piled on the evergreens like a perfect winter pictures, and the beach just looked spectacular when we drove past it this morning. And contrary to what the islanders think, it really isn't that cold.
So, because I'm a follower more than a leader, thought I'd put up an Old Year - New Year post. Besides, I have nothing else to post about.
2004 In Review
The New Year started out with a bang, or rather, a marriage proposal on the other side of the world. I said yes. Then I promptly turned 30, which was not nearly as horrifying as I imagined notably because the pain was eased by spending obscene amounts of money on spa-going in the Rocky Mountains. All birthdays should be so luxurious. We met Vegas and life as we know it will never, ever be the same. Then the year slipped through my fingers as we made the decision to head to the blue waters of the west coast and spent the months leading up to the move organizing our house (read: finish the renovations* in a mad panic), packing our belongings and driving ourselves to the beach. Once on the beach we spent the last part of the year buying our dream house** with a creek trickling through our backyard and flying back to Alberta preparing for a wedding. We got hitched, learned that being married is no different than living in sin except now we have pretty pictures of ourselves and could justify spending more money on a first-class hotel room right on the ocean, that was simply spectacular, and call it a honeymoon. Christmas was spent eating more than is normal, with Christmas day being “just the two of us” and our furry family. Bring on 2005***.
The Resolutions of 2004
The Start of 2005
New Year 2005 started out with a moan, as we attended a free concert held by the city which turned into a “made for TV” performance and not so much entertain the live crowd standing around making it look fun when in reality it was lame. I’m in debt and it appears I spent too much money in December. Here’s hoping this isn’t foreshadowing of the year to come.
The Resolutions of 2005
* pictures (there are three) are of the house after renovations
** this is the back of the house and the fenced in portion of the yard. We actually own that much land behind this photo as well, that's where the creek is.
*** these pictures are just to make Fearthainn jealous. That's the picture postcard weather I was bragging about ;).