scrawlings & scratchings, murmurings and mumblings

Appreciation
Family & friends who takes care of me & occasionally spoil me rotten.

Me
Other than needing to get back on the fitness bandwagon, I’m pretty much ok with me right now. Yes there are financial issues & work stuff I need to sort out (see below) but me, personal life, I’m ok with where I’m at. I have an amazing set of friends to spend time with and my sister is living with me so I don’t even have to leave home if I want to talk to another human bean! I’m not missing the whole having a man in my life thing & everything that goes along with that… even the heavy lifting problem has been solved now there’s two of us in the house. I’m not ruling anything out but it would have to be something pretty spectacular… as they say, “What sucks about knowing love at first sight exists? Knowing that love at first sight exists.”

Family
I currently have my sister as my roommate because her husband of just over 2 years decided to write her a letter & leave it, along with his wedding ring, for her to find when she got home from school one day back in October.

Animals
With my sister moving in the animal count has gone up by two, her cat Tucker (devil in a tuxedo) and her dog Diesel who is a Maltese Shih Tzu cross & is smaller than any of the cats. Trouble is, the extra cat has upset the already unstable pecking order & is causing chaos, makes our lives interesting in a Chinese proverb kind of way. Diesel is actually the easier of the two, he rarely gets too close to the cats & backs off when warned. Merlin loves him & tries to snuggle when he’s on a lap, much to D’s distress.
Ariel slimmed down over the summer as they weren’t on free choice hay. I’ve started feeding her a high protein feed when I ride as the winter hay was a late cut & low in protein. Hoping to build up some muscle before spring but that’ll depend on how much the weather cooperates. At least she’s sound (touch wood) unlike this time last year. SHE’S SO FLUFFY!

Home
Is much fuller now that Naomi has moved in, what with an extra person, two animals, most of her stuff & a car, all of which needed room made for them. We’ve pretty much got ourselves sorted out, although there’s some stuff that’s being stored in odd places until I can get the basement sorted out (see projects).

Reading/Watching/Listening
The Waters Rising – I started reading an e-book from the library not realizing it was the third in a serious. I’d read the first & initially thought maybe it was the second but there was too much missing. Sure enough, a whole book’s worth, luckily the library had a hardcopy of the second one.
Once Upon a time. I’ve seen the first two seasons but Naomi’s just finished up the first. I’m watching the odd show as she works her way up to what I haven’t seen.
Whatever’s on my phone, Naomi gave me the new Floyd album for Christmas so that needs some listening to.

Eagerly Awaiting
The possibility of Veronica coming up to visit before Naomi starts her internship in June , down near Boise, Idaho. Seeing Mum & Dad in May when they come up for Naomi’s graduation from vet school… the Dr. will be in the house.

SCA/Hobbies
I’m just playing the game as & when I feel like it, picking & choosing the events to go to. I mainly go to visit with friends, see the people I wouldn’t otherwise get to see. Every so often I get the urge to find out all the stuff about all the things but I’m not all that good at doing the research, I tend to get side tracked by life… seems to be true about my hobbies in general. During the week my evenings are either taken up by riding (2-3 days) or by household stuff… the days I’m not riding I should really be working out but haven’t been. At the weekends, most of one day is usually taken up down at the barn & the other with all the chores I didn’t get to during the week. During the summer there’s puttering around in the garden, in the winter there’s decluttering, sorting & projects like the basement.
Well that came out a bit more whiney than intended.

Projects
Naomi & I are doing some sister bonding time while being crafty… anyone who knows us knows that this may end in tears but time will tell. The project is to turn a composite picture frame into a jewellery hanging device. She saw pictures on Pinterest & we both decided that if they turned out they would be a good way to store jewelry in such a way that we can see what we have & therefore maybe wear more/different pieces more often. Michael’s was raided, designs have been pondered & now construction needs to take place. A trip to Lee Valley will need to be made for finishing touches & we hope to do that on Thursday evening. I’ll post pictures when I’m done, if it turns out!
The main project for the winter is to sort the basement out. Right now it’s completely undeveloped & the cats have free run of everything. This makes storing anything, not in totes, problematic as the cats will sleep on almost anything & I don’t want everything covered in cats hair plus they have a tendency to knock over stuff. Also it means I can’t leave anything out in my work area, tools, materials, projects, etc. can’t be left out between times I’m able to work on things, so things never get started. While I don’t want to develop the basement I would like to separate out two areas, one for storage & one as a workshop. So the plan is to finish the floor with something I can paint on, won’t scratch easily & is easy to clean then put up some walls… I may be calling for help when I get to the wall part!

Work
Still doing the same ole thing… I’ve been doing the same thing for 7 years not & I’d really like to move into something new. I don’t see much in the way of technical opportunities in house. I started putting out feelers back before the oil price dropped. Had an interview before Christmas & I’m still waiting to hear back, last message was that I was still in the running so we’ll see. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are told no hiring for now though. One advantage of staying where I am, it’s stable while we go through a downturn, disadvantage is the pay. Things have been tight financially for a while… Naomi comes with all the benefits of a roommate minus the rent, she’s a student & while I know she’d like to help out, I know she can’t afford to & needs to save the pennies for when she’s working away from town

Thinking On
What I want & where I want to go.
Part of me wants to stay put, find a new job, maybe take some more schooling.
Part of me wants to move to the acreage I found near Rimbey, it has an indoor arena & stalls & everything I needs for Ariel. It has 15.5 acres where I could set up gardens & orchards & bees & maybe that in the ground greenhouse. But that would mean finding a job nearby, easier said than done right now & my bosses boss said no to me moving to RD… & I know how much work an acreage is, I barely have time for my hobbies now.