Category Archives: William

William

Leftovers

Well that was a lovely Thanksgiving Holiday, don’t you think?

We left Thursday morning, at 8, because I was paranoid about the border. In fact, I did not sleep a wink that night. I tried and tried, but at 5 am, I gave up and took a shower. From then on, I paid close attention to the border cams. My goal was to avoid any holiday traffic. We had one car in front of us, that’s it. I don’t know if it got worse later. I do know it probably sucked on Black Friday. I read somewhere that Canadian shoppers start hitting the border about 3 am to make it to the stores down in Seattle that open at 5 am. I bet the border is a mess.

Came home Sunday night. It’s bitter-sweet for me. I am a person who really does not like to spend too much time away from home. I can’t think of a time I was not happy to arrive home from a trip. I like to be surrounded by my stuff. My tv, my couch, my kittens, my bed. But I like the way I feel when I am down there.

I like being close to my family, especially right now. And I love that every day I had something I wanted to do or somewhere I wanted to go. There were people there who wanted to spend time with me. I am surrounded by familiar things that I’ve known for the past 21 years. Things work the way I expect. Like Dr Pepper at am/pm and hulu.com. (I think Wil would like to live in the States simply for hulu.com.)

I feel more alive and vibrant down there. More, for lack of a better word, liked. I guess 19 years in one city will do that for you.

Nonetheless, the kittens were ecstatic to see us. (Pru has been following me every where I go, since we got home.) My bed is the most comfortable bed in the world and it’s good to be home.

American Things, besides our Thanksgiving, that Wil got to see:

  1. Downtown Seattle at night, decorated for Christmas.
  2. West Seattle
  3. Bellevue Square Mall, especially Macy’s.
  4. PF Chang’s for lunch.
  5. Ruby’s Diner for lunch.
  6. Beer for sale at the grocery store.
  7. “The Road” at a matinée price of $8.
  8. My family and friends, although technically Louise is Scottish.
  9. Restoration Hardware
  10. My uncle singing Christmas carols in the fake snow at Pacific Place with his Barbershop Quartet.

He did not go to Target with me.

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Canada, Immigration, William

A truly thankful Thanksgiving

I just got a call from a nice lady in the immigration offices in Alberta. We’ll call her Jane. Because for some reason, I don’t want to use her real name. She had some questions that Wil and I need to clear up for her, by writing a short paragraph of explaination and faxing it to her. Easy peasy.

Jane is a very nice lady, I think she liked me. She spent several minutes talking to me about my application and what the next steps will be. She told me to go ahead and fax her an application for a work permit! I was thrilled to hear that because months of unemployment for Wil, and years for me, have taken a toll. Of course, I don’t know how helpful it will be in today’s economy. I suppose it depends on what I am willing to do. What I am NOT willing to do is phone support. Neither is Wil, for that matter.

To make matters better, I talked to her about traveling across the border and she told me that I could travel across the border as long as Wil was with me. My application came from within Canada because it is a hardship to be away from my husband. He supports me. This fact makes it risky to cross into the states without him. How much of a hardship could it be if I left the country without him. But if I am with him…

This means as soon as we get Wil’s passport, we will be able to go to the States. And, as long as any working schedules allow, we can go home for American Thanksgiving. I wouldn’t think this would make me cry, but all of the sudden I found myself crying. Wil is not home right now, which is probably for the best, because I am sure he wouldn’t know quite what to do with me in this state.

Someone is processing my application! Soon, I may be able to work! I will, most likely be home for Christmas! ( to quote a famous song)

I do not know how long it will take to get my approval letter. (at that point I take it to the local immigration office and apply for my card.) I am just so thrilled to have this news. These steps to take.

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Sims 3, William

What is up with my head today?

I am ecstatic with the extra 9 GBs I got back after installing Snow Leopard. But I think it might have messed up my sims. To be honest, I can barely run that program as it is. I have some sims living in a beautiful house I downloaded that takes 1 min and 47 secs to redraw every time you leave the house and come back in, or go into design mode. That ain’t right. I had to up grade my computer to play the Sims 2, so I suppose I really need to upgrade it for the Sims 3. And by upgrade I mean get a new one because it’s not like I can upgrade the graphics card in it or anything. It’s a laptop.

But since I updated to Snow Leopard, I’ve been seeing this.

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freakhead02.jpg

I don’t know WHAT is wrong with her hair. I think it has started falling out due the RADIATION THAT IS COMING OFF THAT FACE! Seriously.

Those two sims are actually the sims I created of Wil and I. I created one that is supposed to look like me, but doesn’t, to use as my avatar on my sims page. I went ahead and gave myself a husband named Wil while I was at it. It supposed to look like him. It has his penchant for cammy cargo pants. He is: genius, computer whiz, artistic, flirty. I am: bookworm, artistic, good sense of humor and friendly. We are both couch potatoes. He wants to build robots and I want to be an author. 

I turned down the shadow detail and it seems to have helped. Here we are reading books in our starter home.

reading on couch 2.jpg

And here we are cuddling. Awwwww….

cuddle on couch.jpg

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Canada, Immigration, William

Liar Liar Pants

Last week, we kept getting phone calls from “Private Caller”, with no number displayed. They were very persistent. Both Wil and I are … hesitant to answer the phone when we don’t know who it is. I have had too many years of scary bad credit. And both of us too much time spent doing phone technical support to ever trust that any phone call is not going to come with a time consuming request. Plus, we were busy. Playing World of Warcraft. 

After the 10th call that day, I answered the phone. Recently, I had been victim to Roger’s willingness to give out my home number to one of the “authorized” retail partners. They called and called and called. We ignored them. (I would pick up the phone and say “Hello-two-three” and hang up. A trick I learned dealing with afore mentioned horrible credit. If you don’t answer in 3 seconds, chances are I don’t want to talk to you. ) Finally requested to be removed from these lists. So when a woman I didn’t know asked for me, some kind of paranoid instinct kicked in and I said I wasn’t home. I don’t know why. I tried to take a message, and that’s when she said she was calling from the CIC. Canadian Immigration. 
I freaked out. What was I supposed to do now? Backtrack and admit I lied and that I was home. Explain to her about the near harassment level of sales pitches we’ve been getting because of our wireless contracts? Hope she thought it was funny. I couldn’t admit to Immigration that I had lied to them, even in such a benign manner, and it was totally innocent and benign, albeit extremely paranoid! So I carried on. She said she would call Jodi’s representative, I said I would tell Jodi they called and hung up. Then I ran in to the room and woke Wil up from his nap to tell him that I LIED TO IMMIGRATION and that was going to hell and no way were they gonna let a liar in to the country. Because lies are the first step to terrorism, right? 
Turns out my lawyer had made a few mistakes on the form and they just needed some corrections. But it means they are, at last, processing my application. 
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blogging, Sims 3, William, WoW

Ugh… Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you!

I have been playing too much World of Warcraft. Way way way too much. Like, all day sometimes. I’m not the only one in this house. 

So we have a new rule. For three hours, after we are up AND dressed (it’s not always necessary to get dressed when one is playing WoW all day.) we have to do all the things we need to do, that WoW is keeping is us from doing. Now, for the most part, I have been doing pretty well on keeping the house neat. Until the last couple of days, dishes were done at least once a day. Bed has been made every day, except the day before yesterday. Floors and couch vacuumed of kitten hair, bathroom clean and littler box scooped. But it’s starting to slip.
Today is the first day of the new rule, which is in effect Monday thru Friday. The goals are different for each of us. I do not, yet, need to look for a job. However, I have lost touch with almost all my friends. That makes me lonely. So while chatting and emailing and such are on my list of things to work on, they really are not on Wil’s. He doesn’t have this problem. 
These are the things I plan to work on, in my 3 hours:
  • Housework
  • Blogging
  • Blog redesign
  • Reading and commenting on other bolgs
  • Facebook, chatting and email to stay in touch with friends and family
  • Writing in general
  • Meal planning

Anything that is not WoW. Watching tv and playing with iPhone are not allowed either. I’ve been chatting with Fee for a while. My fingers are tired. 

Of course, when the Sims 3 comes out in 3 weeks, the Rule might have to go to hell. 
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William

Greetings from sunny Edmonton Alberta

In the spirit of total disclosure, I started this post, and wrote that title, when we were still in Edmonton. We got home late last night. 

A few weeks after Wil was laid off, we went out and bought him a new suit. Originally, we looked for a dark grey, but the suit we found is actually black. We bought two colored shirts and I got to pick out a pretty tie. He looks very handsome in the whole get up. I told him that now he was ready not only for interviews, but for fancy parties, special occasions, weddings and, god forbid, funerals. 
We are in Edmonton for the second funeral of the month. What is up with that? Poor Wil has had a hell of a month, emotionally. It’s the first time he’s lost someone so close to him, let alone two. Enough is a enough, really. I don’t understand why the fates, should there be such a thing, have to focus on the funeral part of my unfortunate comment. Where are the fancy parties, special occasions and weddings. And interviews, most of all, where are the interviews?
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Canada, movies and tv, William

Oh god! Oh god! Bobbies! We are NOT watching this. I’m sorry about the boobies.

One of my favorite things about Canada is their attitude towards adult content on tv. Basically, after 10 pm, it’s your responsibility to make sure your kid doesn’t hear the F word or see bare breasts. There is a content warning after each commercial break, warning you about content, but that’s it. I love that. We are so prudish in the States. (See J. Jackson’s Nipple v. The United Priggish States of Football Watching America for further evidence.)

But the truth is, I’m not a parent. I don’t have to worry about anything. Until Wil’s daughter comes to visit. Wil and I are not used to thinking about the content of what we watch. To be honest, every single tv show on Canada seems to have a content warning of some kind after the commercial break. You become sort of immune to them. Several times this week, we were caught off guard. I wanted to watch a show about a housewife with multiple personality disorder, as naturally a person like myself would, but on the “previously” scenes there were bare boobies and people having the tv sex. Oops.

We were looking forward to watching tv simulcast of Will Ferrell’s broadway show “Your Welcome, America: A Final Night With George W. Bush” on HBO for weeks. It was on Saturday, at 8 pm. So the three of us were sitting on the couch, watching it together. HOW WERE WE SUPPOSED TO KNOW HE WOULD SHOW A PICTURE OF A PENIS???? I mean… COME ON! It’s not our fault.

If it were my kid, I wouldn’t care. By age 11, we probably already would have spoken of, and looked at pictures of, penises. For educational purposes. But I have no idea what her mother’s take on it is. I have no grasp of how mature she is about these things. The last thing I would want to do is treat a kid like an young adult before her time. For reals. That makes me sad. Other people’s kids are mine fields, you know what I mean?

I know for sure she does not know the definition of the word “muff.” Thanks for saying it 14 times in a row, Mr. Ferrell.*

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blogging, Cooking and food, William, work

Must have meat.

The hiatus was unintentional. I have reasons. Maybe we’ll discuss them later. And I feel extremely rusty now. I think I will baby step back.

1. The old lady in front of me at the store today smelled of beans and franks. Also, I’m pretty sure there was a guy in bulk foods who had recently pooped his pants. I have the nose of a dog.

2. Does anyone have a really good lasagna recipe? I want to learn to make lasagna. Feel free to share. Must have meat.

3. I didn’t mention this earlier, but Wil was laid off at the end of January. We knew it was coming. He’s looking for a job. Please give him one if you have one free. Must be fun and pay lots of money.

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William

WoWee

You shouldn’t worry about it too much. Yes, I’ve started playing World of Warcraft again, but I expect that it will only last a month. Two tops. Number one, it will never be as fresh as it was the first time. Although, after a year of not playing, it’s pretty fresh at this point. I am enjoying myself, and enjoying playing with Wil. And secondly, and most importantly, the Sims 3 comes out this year. Sometime in the February/March time frame. The Sims will always be my drug of choice.

When the Lich King came out, Wil expressed an interest in playing again. He still has lots of friends who play. So for Christmas, I got him the expansion pack and two months time. Once he started it up however, I heard the music, something in me stirred. It called to me. It wasn’t hard to convince me to play.

So, it took me 6 days, over the holidays, mind you, to take my level 47 Knight Elf Hunter, Tangwen, up to level 55, so I would be eligible to create one of the new heroic class Death Knights. I decided to go Drenai with her, just to be different. Her name is Torwynn, and she rides a fast horse. I’ve specced her Unholy. Which may, or may not, mean anything to you. This was my goal, to get to 55, and create Death Knights with Wil, so we could go into the Outland to quest, an area I’ve never been big enough to enter. We haven’t had a chance to quest there, too much going on, but today is Wil’s Friday, so I imagine we’ll get some playing in this weekend.

I just don’t want you to worry. Yes, I am playing it again. And, yes, I was slightly obsessed with getting my hunter up to 55. Since I’ve reached this goal, I think I can find a balance between WoW and reading and commenting on blogs again. (Now my new goal is too earn enough gold to buy my Hunter an epic mount. I think they are about 900 gold.)

What you should really worry about is what happens when the Sims 3 comes out. Oh. My. God. I’m salivating just thinking about it.

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blogging, Canada, evildeb, William

Measure my booty.

The Greater Vancouver Region has a very strong Blogging/ Social Media community, which is great. I didn’t know of such a community in Seattle. In fact, I never knew any other bloggers in Seattle, sadly. I’m listed on a uberlist of bloggers in Seattle*, that’s as close as I came to knowing other bloggers. So even though I considered myself a Seattle blogger, of course, I have never really considered myself a Community Blogger. I blog about myself. So I’m very impressed with the community here in the GVR.

The other day, I was mentioning to Wil that our friends, Airdre and Kerry Anne, won Favorite Audio/ Video Podcast for their excellent beauty podcast, Lipgloss and Laptops, in the Best of 604. Very well deserved. He asked me why I didn’t win an award. Which is sweet, don’t you think? In addition to not really being heavily involved of this community, it’s quite simple. This is not my blog’s heyday.

Oh, it’s true. I know it. You may or may not know it. Blogs, like everything, have and ebb and flow. I think that once I quit my job, my blog started to ebb. Or maybe it’s flowing. I’m not sure. Either one. Man, you should have caught me sometime in 2004 or 2005. I was rocking the blogging.

I’m ok with this. It’s understandable really. If my life were one of those Family Circus cartoons, where they show what Billy or Jeffy did all day, everywhere they went, it would show little Jodi footprints running from my apartment, to the Safeway half a block away. And back. Occasionally, you’d see little feet running further down the block to the bank or London Drugs. But your chances of blog fodder decrease greatly if you never leave a 3 block radius.

Nonetheless, I did recently win two nice awards. One from Captain Dumbass of Us and Them, who lives here in the Greater Vancouver Region.

Booty

Hee! He said “booty.” One day, Captian Dumbass and I will run into each other when we are both wearing our Bad Monkey shirts. I certainly hope we aren’t compelled to fling poo.

And another from a former coworker, although I didn’t know him at the time, Good Father.

Measures Up

It’s too bad he wasn’t blogging back in the days when I was at my POE. (And we didn’t know each other) We could have had Blogging Lunches. Booked a conference room on the 2nd floor, right next to Central Services, with it’s free soda and candy jar. Remember that kid, the mail guy, who one time dyed those kick ass flames into his hair? His name escapes me, because I’m horrible with names. It starts with a “D.” He’s worked there about 20 years by now, I figure. I hope he’s still there. And the last big formal Christmas party we had, right before the dot com bust? We had different international themed rooms for the dinners. Oh man, I got DErunk that year. I did it for Evildeb. She was pregnant with AlmostCertainlyGoingToEndUpEvilMaggie, and was sad she could not “party.”

Anyhoo, I like these awards. They are übercomments from two readers saying “I like you. Or at least your blog.” And that’s all the reward I really need. ** I know that one day my blog will cease to ebb and start to flow again.

* I suppose I should remove myself, but I’m not gonna. I still consider myself a Seattle blogger. I’m just… North of Seattle, is all. Very very north.

** ok, I suppose all awards are really saying that.

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